Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1457526
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 6 MARCH 2022 8 ALMANAC My essentials SIMONE SPITERI 38, writer, theatre-maker I am a playwright, performer and director and obtained my degree in Theatre Studies in 2004 after which I came back and set up the Dù Theatre. I have performed, directed and written original pieces of work that have been performed internationally. I have also published several books for young people and is in the process of writing a new fiction series for early older pre-teen children 1 2 4 5 1. Podcast 3 2. Film/TV 3. Internet 4. Music 5. Place I'VE rediscovered an old love for watching films during the past months. So, there are a lot! 99 Francs based on the French novel by Beigbed- er and Adam McKay's Vice (but anything McKay real- ly) are two. Marriages be- tween whip-smart writing and stylised and interesting visual languages are what usually attract me to films and both do that. I'm about to watch Julia Ducournau's Titane, which already had me hooked through its trail- er and what I've read about it so I'm expecting it to be a mind-blowing experience. THIS might be surprising, but my students introduced me to Tik-Tok during a par- ticular project I was work- ing on with them a while ago. And what started off as a resistant, hesitant, strict- ly research-only endeavour turned out to be a deep dive into observing what makes humans tick … no pun in- tended, (or not) and how the fabric of who we are and how we communicate is chang- ing and evolving. I still have no idea how to use it to cre- ate stuff myself and have no interest in doing so, but as a writer I've found it to be the most diverse of anthropolog- ical melting pots. I'm fasci- nated and horrified by it in equal measure. AT the moment I'm stuck on the soundtrack of Sor- rentino's La Grande Bellezza which, as a film, grew on me slowly as opposed to having had an immediate impact. The music, however, resonat- ed with me because it ranges from the ethereal a cappel- la pieces which have been lately punctuating a lot of my writing time, to dance-y Raffaella Carra numbers that remind me of my childhood growing up exposed exclu- sively to Italian media. It's a soundtrack that elicits a lot of nostalgia for me. I'M a traveller and the pan- demic has really hit me hard in that respect. So, I've done a lot of daydreaming about places I've been to or want to go to in the past two years. My dream is to own a motorhome and just set off and wander to my heart's content. There are few places I'd say no to. I also love Malta and Gozo too, de- spite the complex relationship I have with my home country, and as much as I love eclec- tic New York, balmy Greek beaches, chaotic North Afri- can cities or languid French dinners with friends to name a few, I also love the gold- en walls of Valletta at sun- set on spring days or driving through the Gozitan country- side in winter. I write all day so, sadly, the last thing I want to look at the end of the day is more printed words. Thankfully, I've become a podcast and audiobook junk- ie in recent years so at least I feel like that's a happy compro- mise that pleases my old book- worm self. At the moment I'm listening to an interesting BBC documentary podcast called The Coming Storm detailing a very long-winded and com- plex rabbit hole that led to the January 6th uprising at the US Capitol while the last book I listened to was Matt Haig's The Midnight Library.