The Pause

… on blogging about things of substance is due to J’accuse concentrating on its 4th anniversary celebrations come the 10th of March. A new blog site is in store and we are working on it nights. I feel a bit like someone with a mechanical hobby or those guys who build model churches out of matchsticks. Hopefully this part is soon over and I can get down to limiting my blogging hours to actually writing new stuff.

The new blog site can now be visited for a test drive and reactions. Please feel free to submit comments on that site or on this one – any feedback is appreciated. I am not a whizzkid when it comes to web design so NO I did not design it from scratch. I have tweaked / am tweaking a template obtained from www.elegantthemes.com (against payment of course). On the other hand this last version did take six hours to finish… so I guess it is within everyone’s reach! (To start you need a webhost, read up a bit about ftp and all that jazz, then find a good template, install wordpress on your host and then bob’s your uncle (almost).

Test drive the new j’accuse here.

J’accuse’s European Campaign

All over the world they’re voting

It’s kicked off and we do not even have a proper slogan yet. I’m sorely tempted to do a nationalist and steal mine off some foreign campaign that has already been tried and tested. Or I could come up with something so kitsch that it has to stick out. Of course there is always the option of adapting Zefrank’s old adage all over again. Whatever we choose the campaign is here and now and J’accuse readers will be spoilt for choice and luckier than they have ever been before. Why luckier? Because thanks to j’accuse you can follow the campaign on three fronts – all of which are as independent minded and uncensored as an underground pirate radio of the early nineties.

J’accuse itself

First of all there is the self-reverential site par excellence. J’accuse - la verité si je mens - brings you 4 years of blogging experience and tongue-in cheek entertainment. It is time to spread the word and tell friends and friends of friends the good news. It is the Pauline year after all and that does not mean that some obscure babe named Pauline gets special attention but rather that the Catholic Apostolic Church is celebrating the doings of Saul of Tarsus a.k.a Paul. His was the mission to spread the word with the Gentiles. Yours it should be to spread the word among the uninitiated to get a reader (it’s free) and add J’accuse and the many others populating the Maltese blogosphere with their deep thoughts and arrogant conclusions. So yes. Number one is good old J’accuse – vetting the EP candidates so you don’t have to.

The Malta Chronicle

Second in line is the site that feeds off anything electoral. This year the Chronicle is taking shape to be a lovely vehicle in which the Maltese side of the EP campaign is examined. There’s all sorts of writers and frankly we are hoping for there to be more. Once again word of mouth is essential. The more readers and diverse opinions will appear on TMC the more interesting the read. This is not a profitable organisation so set aside your suspiucion of some underhand monies passing through. The Fausto’s, Mark’s and Vlad’s of this world are writing with passion and passion is what TMC is about ultimately. There you go. Number two is The Malta Chronicle – the pygmy elephant votes.

Th!nkaboutit

Lastly and thirdly (but not leastly) there is the European dimension of the independent thinkers campaign. The Th!nkaboutit blogging competition launches today and you will find opinions by a great diversity of bloggers ranging from the eurosceptic to the eurotepid (at least that’s my first impression). Thanks to the involvement of people with more savvy on the national rather than the eurocrat process this promises to be a more interesting read for those who cannot stomach the horsetrading in Council, Parliament and Commission. There’s an added bonus of course… since the Eurovision is miles away you get your chance to vote for your favourite posts (vote from one to five). Of course I am not telling you to get there in droves and vote for the J’accuse contributions unless you really feel they deserve it. To be quite honest the idea of participating is such an exchange is a prize in itself… corny as it may sound. I may not be De Coubertin but hey… I am enough of a discussion freak to think that way. So yes… do head to Th!nkabout it blog where over 70 authors will test your patience with their perspective on the European Campaign. Use your vote wisely and enjoy the trip… because it is a trip!

www.jacquesrenezammit.com/jaccuse

… is being test driven as you read. Never was so much time wasted in the creation of a feeble header. Comments on that site will be greatly appreciated. I hoped to officially launch it on the 10th of March in keeping with the J’accuse anniversary tradition (this x.iii is J’accuse’s 4th anniversary). Speaking of anniversaries, Sandro Vella just pointed out that J’accuse on Indy turns one on the 2nd March. Time flies and we’re still having fun.

This has been a j’accuse round up… updating your google reader/other reader so you don’t have to!

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Diaries of a Visiting Expat (2)

Been to panto yesterday. The MADC one actually because now you have to specify which one it is. I was never really a panto kind of person but having been roped into acting in one some years back (don’t ask) I tend to follow the developments with a mild enthusiasm. The Christmas Pantomime is part of the anglo-saxon staple diet of Things to Do At Christmas Time. The package includes spoof of the elders, fun and entertainment for the kids and a good excuse for men to wear tights, don makeup and wear lipstick. That just about sums it up. It’s a bit of festive fun that is mostly harmless.

There is nothing wrong however in expecting a panto to have a script that, while allowing for the normal suspension of belief that is required for any kind of theatrical performance, is consistent and has some form of story line that is thread through. There as something missing in this year’s MADC Panto. Granted it lacked whatever “gravitas” the Manoel could give it but still… too many characters seemed to have been banged in at the last moment. Too many self-referential lines, and way too many paranoid jibes at the newly discovered competition. 

It’s ok to poke fun at Masquerade or whatever other company is busy climbing beanstalks but if you nag ne time too many then the audience will get the same feeling as an uncomfortable onlooker who finds himself bang in the middle of a family feud. I promise I am doing my best not to gripe but, to put it in the words of the Dame, I asked myself: “Myself.. are there not too many jokes that have fallen flat? Myself… are they not milking the kinky-sex innuendos one time too many?” As Lorna would say, I myself think that the whole business  lost the tempo one time too many. 

The danger of writing a panto script that centres around a Magnificent Dame like Montanaro is that there is the huge risk that the Dame can steal the show leaving everyone in the shadows. In this case it even got worse, because for long periods there was no show to steal barring some good individual performances. One could not help wondering whether Montanaro would be better off having a one man Christmas stand up show thus avoiding all the bother of having to force some kind of storyline that mixes up red blood cells, Einsteins, Super Mario characters and Turks and Knights. 

Just in case you were wondering we are being too negative, we did find that the songs were well performed and that when the tempo was just right we got the illusion of being at the Christmas panto and not at the obligatory performance of a miffed theatrical troupe that cannot get over not being at the Manoel. Otherwise it all risked going haywire and the worst part of it would be the kid’s worst nightmare… that some Evil concoction has stolen the best part of Christmas…

The chip on your shoulder…? It’s behind you!!!

Closet Santa

Fausto has had an idea. He came up with an allegation. He has thrown it in this direction and notwithstanding any denial from our part he has gone on to milk it. Why? Because it pays. It pays to try and distract from the “apologista” label that seems to have stuck with Thermidor notwithstanding its revamp (which is cool).

What’s it about? Fausto is trying to label J’accuseas a “closet santista” simply because Fausto has decided that J’accuse approves in any way of Sant’s tabling of a list of Air Malta passengers in parliament. Answering this allegation would be a waste of time especially since here at J’accuse we have repeated time and time again that we do not condone ANY violation of citizen’s privacy. Whether it comes from PN or PL it’s still a violation. It still sucks.

What is Fausto’s interest? Well, in a very PN spin fashion we are being asked to ignore the current ruckus regarding PBO and his customer care demands. He drags out Sant and his list as though that would make PBO’s request ok. Funny indeed.

U hallina Faust. PL, PN…. J’accuse is clear – they are wrong. The citizen’s Data must be protected. No amount of labelling and defending one party or another in the PLPN omelette will improve the situation.

All systems are down

This is an operational announcement. No Internet access is currently available. Moderation is limited as is posting. Service will be resumed asap.

This is a blog saving moment brought to you by an iPhone. I just added the last sentence to piss off a friend of mine who is jealous of this wonderful piece of machinery.

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