Blogs
From David Western's Portland Eisteddfod Lovespoon Blog "Well, when the spoon arrived in the mail, my husband and I were on our way out. So, naturally, my husband said, "Well? let's open it up!" So, we carefully cut tape and removed layers and layers of bubble wrap, to arrive at this lovely spoon. I held it in my hands, and we both admired Dave's carving for a few minutes, and then we went on our way, only a little behind schedule. 
"...... MORE
"Llanddewi Brefi is renowned for the miracles of St David and has been portrayed infamously on the Little Britain television series. But it also has another claim to fame. Rather surprisingly, this small village in west Wales was the centre of the world LSD drug trade in the 1970s. In a new book by Lyn Ebenezer, he discloses who was making and taking the drug in the area and how the polices so-called Operation Julie managed to bust the largest drug ring in the world in 1977.
The author, who was a journalist on the Welsh newspaper Y Cymro at the time, tells how Llanddewi Brefi became a desired destination for pop-stars such as the Rolling Stones, Jimmy Hendrix and Eric Clapton. Theyd been invited to the village by local resident David Litvinoff in the 1960s. The author recalls, It is pretty certain that Bob Dylan stayed at Litvinoffs house for six weeks during the summer of 1969, just after hed been at the Isle of Wight pop festival. Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones admitted that hed been to Llanddewi Brefi too and that whilst staying there hed used every illegal drug in existence and some which werent in existence!
However, the Operation Julie book deals mainly with the famous police raid which brought to a juddering halt the enormous drug network, which had produced pure LSD worth millions of pounds in rural Wales. In March 1977, the police arrested dozens of people and found six million tabs of LSD the largest stash of illegal drugs ever found. More than 800 police officers took part in the operation and 120 people were arrested in total. LSD tabs with a street-value of 100 million were discovered. This was the largest police case of its kind and brought Llanddewi Brefi, Tregaron and Carno to world attention overnight.
Operation Julie includes a great deal of new information never published before and records recent interviews conducted with some of those who were involved. And as a local journalist in situ at the time, Lyn Ebenezer gives his own first-hand account and his insight into the affair. In his introduction to the book, he recollects:
Those arrested were said to have been responsible for 90 per cent of the LSD produced in Britain and 60 per cent worldwide. That is the official line. It will become evident, however, that truth and fiction are still inextricably mixed over 30 years later. But the facts, incredible as they are, seem to outweigh the fiction. Here I include both The story of Operation Julie is, if you believe the official spin, the story of an ideal that went wrong, greed and audacious enterprise on one side and of diligent, selfless and determined police work on the other. But it is also a story of political infighting and lasting bitterness. Stories abound of undiscovered stashes of LSD and hidden fortunes. There are tales of tip-offs by disgruntled police officers and even a royal connection
There remain many unanswered questions. There are, for instance, accusations that statistics were deliberately massaged in order to strengthen the case for a national drugs squad. And if chemist Richard Kemp had produced LSD worth 2.5 million during his seven years of production, as was alleged, why was it that only 11,000 of his money was ever discovered?
Were the dangers of LSD exaggerated? Much was made of Kemps ability to produce the purest LSD in history. Surely, if it was the purest, was it not also the safest? After all, the dangers of LSD lie in its impurities. In fact, despite lurid newspaper accounts of the dangers of acid, no evidence whatever was produced to prove that Kemps LSD caused any deaths.
There are accusations that some officers, the operations commander Dick Lee in particular, leaked doctored information to the press, especially to the red tops, as a means of strengthening the case for the formation of a national drugs squad. Papers like the Daily Mirror and the Daily Express in particular, following the sentencing, were laughably sensational. It is no coincidence that the only two books immediately published on Operation Julie appeared with the cooperation of those very newspapers. Dick Lees book Operation Julie (W H Allen, 1978) was co-written by Colin Pratt of the Express while Busted by Martyn Pritchard and Ed Laxton (1978), riddled with police and underworld parlance, was published by Mirror Books. Was it a coincidence that the journalist who first alerted me to the swoop was a Daily Express reporter?
I have included a chapter on a fascinating character who appeared in Llanddewi Brefi seemingly out of nowhere at the end of the sixties. David Litvinoff was not directly involved with the Julie story, but was very much a part of the drugs scene. He attracted many pop stars including the Stones, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and possibly Bob Dylan to his house. Albeit unaware of the fact, he was the harbinger of the influx of free spirits to the area
My motive in writing this book is not to be judgemental. Largely it is, rather, a story of how a quiet area of mid Wales was changed completely by incomers that embraced a different culture and way of life. Yet many of those involved in the LSD conspiracy were accepted by the local community. Had they not been embraced or at least tolerated their illegal venture would never have lasted so long. It is still difficult to find anyone in the Tregaron and Llanddewi Brefi area that will condemn them. In fact, they are regarded as likeable rouges, much like the areas own Robin Hood, the sixteenth-century robber and folk-hero Twm Shn Cati.
So, even though this book follows the main events of Operation Julie, it is a revised overview. It is also the story of rural communities that were changed completely, and remain completely changed. LSD may not have changed the world, as its proponents had hoped it would, but it did, albeit inadvertently, change forever a rural way of life.
The book is published by Y Lolfa on 26 August 2010 and is available on their website www.ylolfa.com at 9.95.
Operation Julie photos by Raymond Daniel attached here ( PDF ) Operation Julie - Adran Lluniau indd.pdf
Well.....Flewwellin is a dirivitive of Llewellyn, & have traced our family back to Westchester County, New York, to Thomas Llewellyn - to about 1635. Numerous family related genealogist's have not been able to discover how he crossed "The Pond," & arrived in NY.
I am currently checking out Welsh pirates, hoping to locate a connection there - to no avail. What's funny, is that I dressed as a pirate at a few conventions that I attended.
My Dad & I have spent our lifetimes collecting family information, memorabilia, & photographs. Suddenly, after I retired, I realized that we had taken over 12,000 photos, but Dad had already finished 35 photo albums. During 2007, I established "The Flewwellin Family History & Genealogical Library. It presently consists of over 300 sleeved albums, 70 photo albums with captions, over 100 books, videos, cassettes, movies, CD's, DVD's, plus 4 trunks of memorabilia. In February 2008, I loaded a rented cargo van, & drove it all to the home of my eldest son in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.
My Dad & I both wrote about our lives, both of which have been quite interesting. We were both extremely similar in many ways. Dad was a world class sprinter, & beat Olympic champion Jesse Owens in the 100-yard dash two out of three times. I wasn't that good, but my high school team were Florida State Champs in track & field. Dad worked for Sun Oil Company, & I worked for Standard Oil Co. Dad joined the U. S. Navy during WWII, & worked in the Fleet Post Office in New York City. I worked in the Railroad Post Office out of Jacksonville, Florida, sorting mail on mailcars. Dad had 6 wives! I only married two!
Being Quaker's, we assume that our "Olde Tommy Llewellyn" left Wales during the persecution of Quaker's during the 1600's. Many years after WWII, I asked my Dad why he joined the Navy - especially being a Quaker? He retorted, "I just got mad as Hell!" Thus, we called him "The Fighting Quaker!"
My family did have a few Quaker's who fought in other wars. The Revolutionary War was fought across family farms in New York, and General George Washington was recorded as being seen riding across a Flewelling farm in Westchester County. Most of our Quaker's headed for Canada, so were not involved in this war, but they did lose much of their land and other assets. My part of the family stayed, and it is believed that we changed the spelling of our name to Flewwellin - to differentiate us from those who became Canadian's.
We had a veteran named Sylvester, who fought with the U. S. Navy during the Civil War.
Terrible tempers appear to prevail in our family, which periodically tend to rise above common sense, but also usually scares the Hell out of the people within range of our rage. I can vouch for my father, myself, and my three sons, who have all shouted and cursed through three generations. I also have pursued it in print, and have published several rather strong editorial's over the years. In one editorial, I chewed out nine federal agencies, which gave cause for my present nickname of "Mean Dean." It became a fun nickname, as everyone across the country would phone me asking for "Mean Dean" - including Congressmen and Senators. This was probably due to my predisposition of including lots of humor into my publications, including giving nicknames to others. During numerous national conventions, delegates would arrive calling each other by these nicknames, so we all enjoyed the camaraderie.
My first attempt at writing involved a neighborhood newsletter at age ten - named the "Penrose Pamphlet." This featured interesting news about residents on this street.
Throughout the next 62 years, I have been motivated to write numerous "Letter's To The Editor," mostly in local newspapers, plus national publications.
During a stint as a West Palm Beach, Florida postal clerk, I edited "The Windy Postal Beat," the local union newsletter of "The Fighting 749th." I had a strong tendency to disagree with several of the mandates by management, which eventually led to charges brought against me - resulting in termination. However, my high work ethic was above reproach, and was eventually reinstated with back pay. This happened a second time, with the same results. However, the third time I was terminated, I was going through a divorce - thus my normal determination was not the best and lost my career. So career, wife, and four kids were lost in the same week. C'est la vie!
I had already been working part-time for Brink's, Inc., which entailed working with security efforts on armored cars, and in the office. Thus, I simply went to a full-time status.
My new girlfriend was the editor of the West Palm Beach newsletter for "Parent's Without Partners," so we worked together on this publication. And when we took a break - it was really spectacular!
I moved to Orlando, Florida, and met a totally blind woman, who introduced me to the Mid-Florida Council of the Blind. I became the editor of their newsletter, which I named "The Mid-Florida Mumbles." I later learned that "Mumbles" was also a seaside tourist resort, just outside of Swansea, in Glamorganshire. Derived from the French word meaning breasts, which are also a high attraction for the males in my family.
At the state convention for the Florida Council of the Blind, a speaker announced that I was a sighted person who could also think like the blind, which led to their request for me to edit their statewide publication - "The White Cane Bulletin."
Subsequently, I attended a national convention of the American Council of the Blind, and met a totally blind woman who was a board member of the Randolph-Sheppard Vendors of America. She was the manager of a federal building cafeteria in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and one of the 4,000 plus "Blind Businessmen & Businesswomen Building A Better America." We eventually married, and I moved to Aberdeen. Then RSVA asked me to become the editor of their national publication - "The Vendorscope" - which lasted 18 years.
I joined the Lions Club, who also asked me to become their editor. Aberdeen being "The Hub City," which was the hub for train traffic in that area, motivated me to name the publication - "The Hub City Hullaballoo." This was a fun publication which everyone enjoyed, including the whole club gathering to put the newsletter together for mailing.
Meanwhile, the South Dakota Council of the Blind asked me to edit their statewide newsletter - "Visually Handicapped Views" (now "As Eye See It")
Top awards were won by all publications, with the exception of "The Penrose Pamphlet" & "Visually Handicapped Views."
Meanwhile, my father and I collected and saved a lot of family information, photos, and memorabilia. I moved from South Dakota to Grand Isle, Louisiana with 55 large boxes of "stuff," plus four trunks of memorabilia. Being retired now, it took me 5 years to sort, and insert this into sleeves, then into 300+ albums. Dad and I took over 12,000 photos, and he filled up 35 photo albums, and I finished up 35 more - including captions. This is still an ongoing project!
Hi
Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ceri Shaw and together with my partner Gaabriel Becket I run the AmeriCymru website which is a networking site for the Welsh, Welsh Americans and Cymruphiles all over the world. We also organise an annual event in Portland , Oregon called the Left Coast Eisteddfod. This year we have arranged a major presence at Wordstock ( October 7th-10th 2010 ) which is the US NorthWest's equivalent to the Hay on Wye festival in Wales. The estimated attendance is between 15 and 20 thousand and we have a featured panel discussion ( Welsh Identity in Literature: From Dylan Thomas to Doctor Who ), several workshops and a booth at the event. The festival is in part sponsored by Powell's who are the second largest online distributor of books ( second only to Amazon.com ) and whose physical bookstore in Portland takes up an entire city block. Our goal at this event is to stimulate interest in, and attempt to establish Anglo-Welsh literature as a distinct and marketable niche with the US reading public. Here are a few links to further information about the event and our role in it:-
http://americymru.ning.com/profiles/blogs/wales-at-wordstock
http://www.welshicons.org.uk/news/literature/you-cant-keep-a-welshman-down-wales-at-wordstock/
We operate in the US as a 501c3 ( registered charity ) and as such we raise funds to promote Wales and Welsh culture in the States. As you can see from the above link to the WelshIcons site we recently missed out on $20,000 worth of funding by a mere 32 votes in the Chase Manhattan Community Giving contest on Facebook. We are proceeding with our plans despite this and will be flying over a number of authors for this event and featuring local authors of Welsh heritage or with an interest in Wales. Next year we plan to do likewise and hopefully in larger numbers.
At the moment we have a problem which we believe is also something of an opportunity. Shipping books in quantity from the UK or via US distributors is incredibly expensive. Also it is frequently the case that US distributors do not have the titles we would like. We are appealing to recipients of this email to consider whether they have copies of their works that they would be willing to mail for display and sale at our booth at Wordstock. We are not expecting large quantities, just a book or two will make all the difference. We will gladly send you the full purchase price of any books sold unless you wish to donate your work in which case the money will be used to defray other expenses ( airfares, accommodation etc ). I should stress that we cannot refund the cost of postage. I appreciate that this is an unusual request but these are hard times and we want to avoid a situation where we have a booth at a major literary event full of people all hungry to buy books and nothing on it except a few AmeriCymru tshirts.
Above all ,this is a major opportunity to promote Wales and Welsh culture in the US and we are appealing to you to help us make it a huge success. For our part we pledge to continue with his work until such time as Wales is very firmly on the literary map here in the States.
For further information please email Ceri Shaw at americymru@gmail.com
For anyone interested, there's a report on Lleucu Meinir's protest against the police's "tokenism" toward the Welsh language. The URL is so long that I suggest you go to www.walesonline.co.uk and do a site search under Lleucu Meinir. This will give you the report.
Gaynor
I'm floggin' my new blog called The Culture Mulcher. The first one is about techno rage. It's called:
"Having A Mel Gibson-Sized Techno Tantrum? Use The Correct Terminology!
It's at:
http://blogs.forbes.com/craigsilver/
No Welsh correlation, except that my mother was a Welsh-American (Glenyce Jones) and it's about words, being an orgy of neologisms.
The Authors
Check the Wordstock blog here daily for posts by our featured authors. Find details of featured authors in the slideshow above .
The Panel Discussion
Featuring - Harrison Solow, Chris Keil and Niall Griffiths.
From 'Mr Vogel' by Lloyd Jones - When was Wales? Wales has never been, it has always been. he rambled on to his next victim, Myrddin the schizophrenic, who fortunately) was asleep. Ill tell you something for nothing. he said, true Wales is never more than a field away, and true Wales is always a field away, like Rhiannons horse in the Mabinogi. Got it?
We asked our panelists to respond to the followowing question:- How do you think Welsh writers, writing in English, contribute to establishing a distinct Welsh cultural identitiy. Do you think there's anything unique about the Welsh experience or about Anglo-Welsh literature in this regard? Here are their responses:-
Niall Griffiths - "Difficult to answer briefly .Let's just say that the less power London has, in every realm, the better for the UK and Europe and indeed humanity as a whole. Wales is bi-lingual, and gloriously so; being able to mediate the world through two languages is very beneficial and enriching."
Harrison Solow - "There is everything unique about the Welsh experience. I have said in various interviews about my writing about Wales that "no word equals its referent, and that the meaning of what is approximated in words lies in the shadow of them in a different realm altogether." I believe "there is a meaning in any experience described within a book, that cannot possibly be in the book." Nowhere have I seen this belief personified, indeed, living, except in Wales: The Welsh have survived as a nation chiefly by cunning and reserve...they play for time, they fence, they scout out the situation, but they do not commit themselves. Those sweet smiles are sweet, but they are well under control. It is performance that greets you, polished and long practiced, played on a deceptively cosy stage set with brass pokers by the fire... as Jan Morris says in her book A Matter of Wales. This is a mystical nation and the daily life of y Cymry remains a mystery to outsiders, some of it even to fellow Welshmen who do not speak Welsh and whose intrinsic and amorphous content is shaped by what is considered by some to be an alien form: English. My significant encounters in Wales have been with the Welsh speaking Welsh, whose intermittent appearance behind those smiles have both an I-Thou magnetism and a faint but discernable invitation; whose bland and wordless gazes bespeak the language of a somehow recognizable teulu (family) that sent me hypnotically to the Welsh Department of The University of Wales to embark on a journey of another kind: the lifelong acquisition of an ancient, bardic tongue. But when I won the Pushcart Prize for Literature for writing about Wales, even those Welsh speakers celebrated the notion that it is possible to write about Wales in English. I'm not so sure that one can write Wales without Welsh. But one can write about it. Wales is a state of mind, or rather a state of heart. It is the scent of lanolin in the air the hum of small cities in the loam beneath the oaks, the conviction of Celtic blood. It is an endless and sirenic song - as far from English sensibility as it is from German or Cherokee. Sometimes I think that any story about Wales should be told outside the written word. It is only because I cannot sing or paint that I write and what I write is a word-performance. It is eisteddfod."
The Workshops
The Writing Life: A Serious Pursuit of Self Definition - Harrison Solow ( OCC room B118 Saturday 9th Oct 9-10.15 am )
What is inspiring to one writer is debilitating to another. In this seminar, each of us will determine what the writing life means for us and thus propel ourselves further into it. Students will be given practical, personal advice and reference material to take away.
Writing Dialogue in the Novel - Chris Keil ( OCC room B119 Sunday 10th Oct 1.30- 2.45 )
The workshop contains lecture, discussion, examples and participation in writing, on technical characteristics of dialogue in order to intensify mood, compress/express social/emotional connections etc
STOP PRESS: Author Lorin Morgan Richards will be joining us at our booth at Wordstock where he will be selling and autographing copies of his works throughout Saturday and Sunday.
...
Twin Town is a 1997 black comedy film made and set in Swansea, south Wales. The film was co-written by Paul Durden and Kevin Allen and is the most successful Welsh film ever made in commercial terms. It has enjoyed enormous success both inside and outside Wales and occasioned a fair degree of controversy. In this interview Paul Durden speaks to Americymru about the film and shares his outspoken views on contemporary Welsh politics. For a selection of clips from ''Twin Town'' go HERE .
.
...
Paul: Twin Town on it’s day could be set in any Town in the U K. It’s just a universal tale of vengeance, just a story of how two dysfunctional lads come to terms with there families murders by the police and how they deal with it the only way they know how. Personally I feel the Lewis Twins subconsciously identified with the feelings and aspirations of a lot of Republican families in Northern Ireland who were being beaten up and murdered in there own homes by the British Army.
Americymru: How did it feel to see the completed film the first time?
Paul: To be perfectly honest, and I’m usually not. Without a shadow of a doubt. In a Nutshell, Absolutely, Stunningly, Passionately, Outstandingly, F***ing Brilliant.
Americymru: We read that there is a sequel to ''Twin Town'' currently in preparation. Care to tell us any more about that? How far advanced is the project?
Paul: Ask me this time next year. If any of us still exist then?
Americymru: You co-wrote "Twin Town" with Kevin Allen - Have you worked together on any other projects?
Paul: Me and Kevin go way back, a long way back, in the past we had collaborated on a few unsuccessful projects that never came to any real fruition. Our relationship is far more social than a work based friendship, it has more to do with hanging out together, binge drinking, showing off, and arguing about things that we both have major hang-ups about.
Americymru: It has been said that ''Twin Town'' is a movie about the Welsh ''underclass''. Do you think that is a fair description and how do you feel about the term ''underclass''?
Paul: Underclass is a word that does not strike any bells with me. If you mean poor, only this week research has revealed that over the last 40 years in the UK the rich/poor pide has widened. What hope is there of any social change and progress by us putting our faith and aspirations in politicians, all the evidence seems to prove that they can only feather there own more than comfortable nests. What a load of greedy self centred privileged bastards. But that is just my personal opinion.
Americymru: Liberal Democrat MP David Alton described ''Twin Town'' as - "sordid and squalid, plunging new depths of depravity". How do you respond to such ''criticism''?
Paul: For once in this creeps pathetic little life I think he is being fairly honest. The Liberal tradition in the UK is one of longer chains and bigger cages for us the masses, in the old days Liberals were federalists and free thinkers. Now they will do anything and pull any strokes just to get a mere smell of political power. I piss on there power hungry lust. As my farther once told me. Liberals are just an organized bunch of don’t knows.
Americymru: Do you think that historically Wales has been fairly or accurately represented in film?
Paul: How Green was my Valley, was made in Hollywood, and it must be set in the only place in the world where they can have a coal pit/mine resting on the top of a hill. All coal mines to my knowledge are to be found in valleys. I do like the Paul Robison film “This Proud Valley” which was made in Wales, before the USA government prevented him from leavening the Land of the Free because of his political leanings. Also the Peter Sellers, Mai Zeterling film “Only Two Can Play” set in Swansea, made in 1962. Written by Kingsly Amis. On a more modern note anything by Karl Francis, the little Devil.
Americymru: You have, from time to time, been an outspoken critic of the political status quo in Wales. What if anything do you think the Senedd has acheived for the people of Wales?
Paul: Sweet F*** All……For once in our lives we got rid of all the Tory MPs, Then what happens the Welsh Assembly bring in proportional representation, and bring them all back in. What a laugh. Then to cap it all they change there name to Government, what a f***ing palaver. But what really summed it all for me was when Rodri Morgan our leader went to the Queen mothers funeral. What for, was he Kowtowing or what, pray inform me, pleases.
Americymru: What is your writing process? How would you typically go about writing a script?
Paul: Have a few beers, roll a few joints, take a few Quaaludes “ Gorilla Biscuits”, put the kids to bed, watch the Big Labowski on DVD. The go for it……..to be continued.
Americymru: Are you involved in any other writing projects at the moment?
Paul: Yes thank you, nice of you to ask.
Americymru: Any final message for the members and readers of Americymru?
Paul: Yes, make damd bloody shure that your President gets the health care bill through Congress. It could change the whole face of the USA and how it is seen by the rest of the world. Good Luck, and try to cut back on the hunting….
Americymru: How''s your vindaloo?
