Blogs

This post has been preserved for archive purposes. Most links on the page should work but some have been removed since they led to pages which have subsequently been removed.

WHAT'S NEW ON AMERICYMRU 1 JUNE 2010

EVENTS

North American Festival of Wales featuring the 79th Welsh National Gymanfa Ganu - Portland, Oregon, USA Don't miss this opportunity for fellowship and Welsh culture in Portland! Our daytime programming will feature four days of interesting and informative seminars, workshops, concerts & much more. An Interview with Eirian Owen , Musical Director of the Cor Godre'r Aran who will be appearing at NAFOW 2010 can be found here. More info and registration here. SDSoGSL's Annual Picnic St David's Society of Greater St. Louis (SDSoGSL) - Annual Picnic. At The Small Riverside Shelter at Pere Marquette State Park - look for Welsh Flags. Gwyl Corris Festival Festival of Music and Cask Ales. Live music with Welsh bands, choirs, soloists, folk groups and much more featuring the wonderful Dragon Strings.

NEWS/BLOGS

Summer Madness - Part 2 $50 Ad Spot For A Whole Year "As a follow up to our recent sell out offer of spaces in our homepage rotating ad banner we are offering a new deal on spots in the right hand column on AC. If you wish to advertise or sponsor the Left Coast Eisteddfod on this site we are offering a 125x125 ad on the Americymru home page in the right hand column for just $50 for a year.".... continued The Portland Lovespoon Is Almost Complete "Well, I think I am just about done. I had a good day yesterday and managed to get most of my part seen to. There might be a couple of... " continued Remembering Campbell's Steamers The Bristol Channel has always been a unique place.The Channel is both wide and spacious compared to other British seaports. It breathes clean unfettered air but takes the full fury of the south- westerlies rolling in from the Atlantic." .... continued An Interview With Mared Lenny of Swci Boscawen "AmeriCymru: Can you explain to our readers what the name 'Swci Boscawen' means? Mared: Swci means tame lamb in welsh.Something rather cutesy.Boscawen is a wild flower and also a place in Cornwall.I thought they sounded nice together and the name just stuck." continued Status Updates or - 'I cut My Toenails Today ' "The recent outbreak of of deliberate and calculated drollery in status updates on AmeriCymru is much to be welcomed. We only wish more people would get in on the act. Since the status updates feature was added a while back, a few members have made use of it but many more have yet to discover its point and purpose." continued

GROUPS

Cymru Crafts Do you do traditional Welsh crafts, or just put a Welsh spin on what you do? Care to share designs, show off your work, or ask for tips? Then join your fellow Cymru-loving crafters here!" Roman Wales "A group for anyone interested in the Roman period of Welsh history.." Llymerics "grow - one Llymeric at a time.Limericks, reportedly had their origin in Ireland and owe most of their poularity to an Englishman. Now it is time for you sons and daughters of Welsh bards to compose some 'Welsh-flavored' Lymerics'." Daicw "The rules of the ancient art of Daiku are similar to, although simpler than, Japanese haiku: .."

Many South-Walians do not speak Welsh. Many of them wish they did. Ever since the introduction of bi-lingual road and public utility signs in Wales it has been easier to acquire a basic vocabulary. Most people, Welsh speakers or not, are aware that an "ysbyty" is a hospital and an "ysgol" is a school. It is also a fact that many of this site's members ( myself included ) are Welsh learners and we would like to make things a little easier for them.

Starting today, we are going to translate the site into Welsh. This will be done bit by bit over a fairly extended period. Some areas will possibly be left in English, due to space considerations, but we want to work toward a fully bilingual site. We are inviting members to consider translating words or phrases and emailing them to us for inclusion in our new language file.

We made a start in the Quickstart box at the top of the right hand column. As you can see "Friends/Cyfeillion" and "Invite/Gwadd" now appear in Welsh and English. As we proceed more bilingual links and instructions will appear throughout the site.

So......if you have a little time to spare please consider sending us a translation or two to help move things along. Pick a phrase....any phrase, translate it and send your translation to americymru@gmail.com.

Welsh-English / English-Welsh On-line Dictionary

Road trip through Wales: Tintern Abbey, Town of Books, Dylan Thomas

Wales: Looking for a Christmas present that is thoughtful and unusual? Over 1.75 million Americans are of Welsh ancestry and you can help friends or family unlock their past with a gift voucher from Welsh Family History specialist Where Youre From. It can be used to research a family tree or for more unusual projects such as publishing the family history or bespoke vacations.

In these uncertain times increasing number of people are taking an interest in their family roots. Welsh genealogy has its own challenges including the fact everyone seemed to share the same names such as David Davies or Evan Jones! Also Wales has its own language the oldest living language in Europe and although its now used alongside English, back in the 18th and early 19th century it was the sole language of rural Wales.

Based in Wales, Where Youre From specialises in helping Americans of Welsh extraction research their roots. The service is knowledgeable and friendly and you can even pay for the vouchers by credit card in $US dollars. More information online @ www.where-youre-from.com

+44 845 3937539+44 7816 873465 www.where-youre-from.com

from: http://failblog.org/2008/10/20/bank-fail/

Read the WalesOnline article here:- $10m deal puts singer Katherine in record books Katherine sings Bryan Adams and makes it sound like Verdi:-

ISSUED BY WelshArtNow publishing.WelshArtNow - ISSN 977-1757 56900-3

"We are pleased to announce the publication of issue 1 of WelshArtNow (WAN). WAN is the new quarterly art magazine that discusses art with a Welsh connection. Wales can now claim to have its own dedicated art magazine. WAN is A4 sized and contains 48 pages, printed in full colour on high quality art paper. WAN will ride on the crest of positive change and the sense of optimism that defines modern Wales; there would not seem a better time to launch a new and dynamic cultural arts magazine. Welsh art, now has its own platform and can take centre stage. A wide range of art is featured, ranging from cartoons to gallery art; there will even be an art centre fold each issue! As far as we are concerned its all art and is interesting in its own way. It would seem to make perfect sense to feature different types of art side by side. Although about now the magazine is interested in the rich and varied history of Wales and its people. Apart from talking about art the magazine will feature lots of original art specific to a magazine format (think of it as a gallery within a magazine)

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WAN is a friendly lively read, our ambition is to open up art to a much wider range of people. We believe that the key to this is quite simply the need to talk about art. WAN is a talk shop for art; many voices expressing a range of opinions. Traditionally art magazines are seen as being hard going/ inaccessible, intended only for those already familiar with the discourse of art. Why should it be that way? We would like to see people talking about art in the same way as they might of a TV program or a piece of music.

So in summary an art magazine containing a good varied mix of art that is concerned with the here and now and is delivered with a bit of kick. The magazine has already generated an enormous amount of interest here in Wales and is already stocked in over 30 outlets and growing. This week is our grand launch, this Wednesday we will be in conversation with Nicola Hayward Thomas of BBC radio details of this broad cast will be published on our website at www.welshartnow.co.uk . WAN is pleased to announce that Borders Bookshops will be a supplier of the magazine. So out with the old and in with new- WAN - a new bold experiment in arts publishing."

For further details contactJackie Allmaneditor@welshartnow.co.uk01633 675029

(19th October 2008 Half time tag rugby game during Cardiff Blues v Gloucester Heineken Cup Match. Attendance 25,500+)"Coming from a small community in Mid Wales, the Builth Wells Under 8's had much to take in on their trip to Cardiff last week, but no matter how long these boys play the game, I doubt they will ever forget playing in front of the biggest ever Cardiff home crowd under the closed roof in our magnificent Millennium Stadium.The result was largely immaterial, losing by a single score touched down by a Builth player loaned to Llandaff to even up playing numbers, will just be a footnote, the experience of walking down that most famous of tunnels, will I'm sure live with these formative players forever. Well done Builth Under 8's, and well done Cardiff Blues for giving us the opportunity, we all hope many more teams right across our region will get to experience this fabulous day!"Richard Arnold proud Dad, and Coach of Builth Under 8's.

Bryan Sykes, founder of Oxford Ancestors is also author of The Seven Daughters of Eve , on branches of mitochondrial DNA in Europe and Adam's Curse: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Destiny , on his studies of the Y chromosome in European men.

In Blood of the Isles ( Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland in the US and Canada), Dr. Sykes examines the Y chromosomes and mitochondrial DNA of Britain. Some of the incredible findings he discusses in this book include:

• the genetic makeup of Britain and Ireland included mainly DNA that has been there since sometime during the Mesolithic period, and which predates the appearance of western European Celts by about 10,000 years;
• the Picts were not genetically a separate people from the other peoples of Britain;
• Anglo-Saxons and Normans made a contribution of less than a quarter of the DNA of Britain, that it is mostly DNA that has been there since the Mesolithic period, mainly from Iberia (today Spain and Portugal).

This book was a pleasure to read, both the descriptions of the modern-day hunt for DNA and Dr. Sykes' discussion of where it came from. He tells you about the worlds people lived in, their day-to-day activities, their history, their artifacts and living spaces, the changes in their surroundings as Britain changed. The book also describes the changing views of "race" and culture in Britain, including the rise of the Saxon ideal, the disparagement of what was perceived as "the Celt" and the rise of anti-Celtic racism during the Victorian era.

I recommend this book to anyone, I really liked it. It was easy to read and very entertaining and presents the subject of DNA and genetics in a way that seemed easy to understand and puts it into workable context in life.

This is up on a feature page but I wanted to blog it into the feed to bring it to people's attention because I think it's a really cool idea:here's the interview ; Nia's press release: ;and her youtube channel , all Welsh all the time.