Pics 1-4 are by Perkin Warbeck
pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3
Pic 4
“RABAT
by
Perkin Warbeck
Rabat is a compact city on a hill in the middle of Malta. Its very name indicates the Arabic roots of the Malti language: it means ‘suburb’. The city it share the hill-top with is ‘Mdina’ which means ‘city’.
Malti is the only Semitic language written in the Latin script.
Malti is overwhelmingly Catholic and unlike a particular Northern European country is not shy about doing a spot of spiritual spoofing from the rooftops during its weatherproof summer.
(The unnamed and unamable Northern European country is aloof in a way peculiar to societies with a particular fetish for, erm, a burden of proof).
All villages and towns in Malta celebreate their local saint with a festival and emblazon the streets, buildings, steps, squares, alleyways and lanes accordingly in an extravaganza of devout decoration. Chief among them being the mock-marble wooden plinths upon which are perched the the iconography of sainthood and holiness. .
(Pics 1, 2 and 3).
The dates on the facade of the parish church in Rabat (AD 67-2017) relate to the enduring legacy of St. Paul who was shipwrecked off the coast of Malta on his watery road from Damascus to Rome.
Pic 4 is a bust of one who was (almost) more associated with the Godfather than with God.
(This snap is a sop to the A-list Atheists for which Malta would otherwise be on the A-list to Avoid, and whose touching belief that the A for Afterlife is but a ficiton is unshakeable to the point of martyrdom).
Joseph Calleia (for the bust is of he!) was a Maltese actor who made it big in such Hollywood film noirs as the Oscar Welles’s classic ‘Touch of Evil’ though not, oddly enough, in John Huston’s ‘The Maltese Falcon’.
The bust stands outisde the house in Rabat where he was born; and the same house now houses a bank, BOV (Bank of Valletta) which spornsored the bust but which has not gone bust in doing so.
Joseph Calleia is fondly remembered as playing the role of Dean Martin’s pop in ‘The Caddy’ as he also plays the button accordeon in the pop song which features in the movie: ‘That’s Amore’. Indeed, this musical interlude is commemorated in the bust as the Mediterranean moon, without fail, hits his eye like a big pizza pie on a nightly basis, going forward.
Which Harry Warren/ Johnny Brooks classic of indelible delight was pipped at the post for the Oscar Song of 1953 by ‘A Secret Life’ as sung by Doris Day ( of the UDA, not ) in ‘Calamity Jane’.
After a long and fruitful life as a Hollywood baddy Joseph Calleia of ‘The Caddy’ fame returned to Malta for his retirement. In 1972 he received a telegram from F.Ford Coppola inquiring if he would be interested in playing the role of Don Corleone in the upcoming movie of ‘The Godfather’.
Ill health, alas, knocked that opportunity on the head; and so, super sub Marlon Brando got the crooked finger to come off the bench.”
Pics 5-9 are by Antrim Lens
Pic 5
Pic 6
Pic 7
Pic 8
Pic 9
Pic 10
Pic 11
“First photo is of a Long-eared owl that nests at my place and over last weekend I noticed it wasn’t about, so I went over to the nest site and found what was left of it: Pics 6 + 7. Pic 8 is a cat at the same spot and on closer inspection I notice the nest was damaged and the three chicks were gone, my money’s on the cat being the killer as foxes can’t climb trees. If your followers have cats could they make sure to put a bell on the cat as this may have saved these owls. Photos 9, 10, 11 are of my local barn owl which never comes out whilst it’s still bright so can never get a good photo of it. I spent 2.5 hours watching this pair of Barn owls going off hunting and returning every 15 minutes or so to feed their young. Life and death all in a few photos.”
Thank you for the pics. I look forward to them every week, as i am not lucky enough to be able to see anything in the wild like this and damn that puddycat.
Glad you like them, Stephen, and I had a word with the cat owner tonight and he has promised to put a bell on the cat.