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Today's Corriere della Sera, ran a short article about a recent discovery of an early 1960s documentary produced by Florida State University in which Jim Morrison appears as an 18 year old applying to study at the said university. The short video shows a docile-looking Jim Morrison acting the part of a disappointed student who has just received a refusal notice from FSU. The unsigned article rightly observes how different Morrison looks in this documentary to the usual Jim cult-pix we are so accustomed to seeing. In a short interview given to Corriere, the famous Italian music critic Mario Luzzato Fegiz, spoke about how pre-Doors Morrison looked 'just like one of us'. Actually I thought Morrison looked like a perfect nerd.

Like many other Maltese generation-xers I came across The Doors when I was twelve or so through Carlo Massarini's Mister Fantasy series, aired on Rai Uno in the early eighties. For many Sunday evenings I followed the series more devoutly than the Sunday Mass, looking forward mostly to the final minutes of the programme which, for many of its episodes closed with some Doors video clip. It was thanks to Mister Fantasy that I first heard (and watched) "Light My Fire" and "Riders on the Storm". To be honest, though, I never grew into a big Doors fan, preferring back then the politically charged Pink Floyd (which I also got to know thanks to Mister Fantasy) and Zep's blues tunes. In fact, when I went to Pere Lachaise cemetry one extremely hot morning in June 2001, I did not visit Jim's grave - which draws large crowds on a daily basis - preferring instead to visit those of Michel Petrucciani and - obviously - Fryderyk Chopin, both a stone's throw away from Jim's.

I'm sure my very old friend Toni, who is in Malta for a two week visit, would take a look at this Morrison video. I remember lending him a Doors cassette when we were class mates. In his most recent post Toni expressed a certain concern that Malta hasn't changed since he was here last. I'm not surprised by this. There has been so much hype about the dawn of a new era that returning migrants would have sky high expectations. Well, I don't know what these expectations could be like. What I was very surprised with was Toni's reply to one of the comments posted on his blog which urged him to spend some time at San Blas munching on a ftira and enjoying the peasants looking him up and down while strolling towards the bay. The reply contradicts the post. But then again, this is symptomatic I think: on the one hand we expect this country to change and become modern (?), while on the other we are still in love with the romantic depiction of the island and her inhabitants, very much in the style of some Dun Karm poem about sexy, chubby female peasants.

It's like watching Jim Morrison looking like a nerd while expecting to see him looking at you, bare chested like some Classic Greek demi-god.

The recent proliferation of Maltese blogs is an interesting social and intellectual phenomenon. While some of these blogs are merely diary-like posts fulfilling the owners' narcissitic and exhibitionist needs, others are creating a discourse which is not yet to be found anywhere in the local print. It seems that writing a blog gives one the freedom that the Maltese print is still denying to citizens who, for different reasons, have distanced themselves from mainstream journalism and intellectual engagement. Salvu Balzan's commentary on last Sunday's edition of Malta Today, gives a clear cut picture of the poor and non-democratic state of affairs in Maltese media. In his article, Published and Be Damned, the ex-Alternattiva Demokratika activist argues that the content which makes it to print in Maltese newspapers is tightly controlled and censored by their owners, namely the mighty Parties, the less mighty Catholic Church and a bunch of filthy rich businessmen and powerful families. Disassociating oneself from these powermongers means inhibiting oneself from expressing views in the public sphere.

A number of blogs, particularly those owned by Mark Vella, Toni Sant and Robert Micallef, even if on varying degrees, are committed alternatives to what Maltese journalists are feeding the public. This new, emerging chattering class, seems to have promulgated a no-confidence vote in Maltese print, and have seeked new pastures, which presumably defy the red felt-pen of some hidden censor ready to file reports and send them to court once the 'borders' are crossed.

It is also very interesting to note that a good number of these weblogs are written by Maltese emigrees. Mark Vella is based in Strasbourg, Toni Sant in the UK, and there are others, like Pierre Mejlaq and a certain gybejxi in Brussels, and Sharon Spiteri currently studying in Scotland. What imbues these Maltese emigrees to write weblogs loaded with comments about the country they left? Perhaps they are carried by a sense of freedom and detachment, making it easier for them to look at what they left behind, the way James Joyce was when he wrote Dubliners in some shabby room far away from his native country.

Those Maltese bloggers who like Mark Vella and myself have opted to post their logs in Maltese are carrying the phenomenon a step further. Except for Malta Today, there is no serious, engaging newspaper or journal in Malta. But Malta Today is an English weekly. Reading Mark Vella's blog, as I have already commented elsewhere gives me a kick not only because of its content but also because of the way language is used. Xifer blog, is the only space on the net where one can truly enjoy reading something in Maltese. There is nothing else in Cyberspace, except a horrendous 'news' portal - maltarightnow.com - owned by the Nationalists, which is full of apologia, propaganda and spelling mistakes.

Malta needs a critical, biting newspaper which offers an alternative to the mainstream print. Or at least some kind of portal which overtly aims to shake the status quo tightly held by those in power. Which reminds me that once upon a time there were newspapers written in Maltese that ....