Blogs
Rain. That's what's up in South Wales today. Or maybe I should say that's what's down.
We get a lot of rain in Wales but even for us this June has been bad. In the past June or even May has been 'summer' but this year we're stillwaitingfor that big yellow ball to appear in the sky for longer than one day.
But we're Welsh so we carry on. The jokes - the same as always - continue to flood our conversations and we smile stoically as we paddle across the grass. And we talk longingly and lovingly of the summer of 76. 'Duw, it was hotback then, bach.'
I shut down my woodshop and sculpture studio a few years ago, preserving my shekels for the rent. Since then I have dreamed of regaining a real studio. A proper place to work is a necessity, not a luxury. A dedicated space, a "room of one's own" encourages the dual alternating needs of daydreaming and discipline that any creative endeavor requires. Perhaps a few years will see a new shed in the backyard, big enough to paint, print, draw etc. and daydream of course. At present I'm painting in a corner of the basement, dark, cold and cement, but it's something. Here are some small paintings.
There was a blog recently about buying a Owain Glyndwr flag.I couldn't find a link or address about who to contact to purchase this.Does anyone know.? Les Jenkins.
Well, despite the floods and occassional heavy rain- we've been getting some AWESOME days paragliding in here is South West Wales and Pembrokeshire. Some cracking days at Rhossili,. were my friend Cookie and I flew my ex students entire family in a day. Check oput the video- funniest sound effects of the year from Steph !! looking forward to a gradually awakening, less wet than so far, glorious Welsh Summer!! 
Paragliding at Rhossili with both terrified and happy passengers from the Cardigan and Cardiff area's!!
And we flew with an Eagle the other day, both at Rhossil and Bryncaws. Our friend has a Steppe Eagle that is trained to fly with Paragliders. Flew through my fairly recently qualified students lines- that gave him a moment!!
If you like the video please share and encourage others to do so to help publicise the beauty of the is area of Wales and help the tourist trade! thanks everyone !
Dathlu Achlysur Buddugoliaeth Brwydr Bryn Glâs...Celebrating the occasion of the Battle of Bryn Glas, Pilleth, Cymru 22 June 1402
By Sian Ifan2, 2012-06-22
Diwrnod arall i ddathlu - i chwifio baner Glyndr gyda balchder ac yn uchel! ac i godi gwydriad!...i nod achlysur Buddugoliaeth Brwydr Bryn Gls (22 o Fehefin 1402. Gweler y ddolen gyswllt isod am mwy o wybodaeth parthed y frwydr.
Another Day for Celebration and to fly the Glyndr flag high and proud and to raise a glass...or two! to remember The Cymric victory of the Battle of Bryn Gls. 22 June 1402. See link below for full details of this battle: http://brwydrauglyndwr.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/site-of-battle-of-bryn-glas-22-mehefin.html
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Many of you will have already noticed that we have reorganised the AmeriCymru homepage today. Why? Read on 
We have decided that the front page should contain 3 'hot spots'. We believe that this will facilitate easier navigation AND show at a glance how members posts/photos etc are doing on the site.
1. Current This is of course the Activity Feed and we encourage members to use it for any purpose which does not directly contradict site rules . For more on this please see the following post:- Status Updates or - 'I Cut My Toenails Today'
2. Popular In this section we will rotate ( randomly ) the Top Content, Top Member , Top Discussion , Top Photo , Top Video and Top Blogpost displays. Check back frequently if you want to see all the rankings. This will allow us to display the most popular content items prominently on the front page and indeed, on every page, on the site. A content item becomes 'popular' for four reasons:- number of hits, number of comments and number of 'Likes' and 'Shares'. Since this display is in the right hand column content will be widely seen on the net since every page we promote will contain prominent links to it.
3. Featured In this section we will highlight content which we believe to be particularly important, interesting or amusing. Although this section has to be updated manually we will be happy to receive suggestions or recommendations for inclusion. Anything in the 'Featured' or 'Popular' displays is likely to be featured heavily on other social networks,Twitter, FB, G+ and all the usual suspects.
We believe this is an improvement on the previous rather haphazard arrangements. Over to you dear reader....any thoughts?
INTERNATIONAL EISTEDDFOD GIVE LOCAL ARTISTS A VOICE IN LLANFEST
Sunday 8 July 2012
12.00pm-19.00pm
A fantastic line up of local music and dance from local groups will be the highlight of the final afternoon on the Llangollen International Eisteddfod field. For the first time ever the International Festival will showcase the best of what North East Wales has to offer in a festival within a festival. Amongst others, there will be a chance to see:
- Ysgol Dinas Bran Community Wind Band - is a community project and currently has 60 members aged 10 -21+ mostly from Ysgol Dinas Bran. The Band has won several awards and and have a very diverse repertoire from Holst to Lady Gaga.
- Subtheme- are an energetic 5 piece live outfit playing a blend of funk, house and disco.
- Out By Sunday a winning act of Wrexhams Busking Competition 2011, Out By Sunday have a weekly residency at The Queen Hotel in Chester and are commonly known for regularly busking within Chester City.
- Harriet Earis is one of the best Celtic harpists Wales can offer. She has already given harp recitals around the world with tours across America, Germany, Canada, Holland, France, Belgium and Ireland.
- Future Perfect - are an exciting North Wales based electronica duo, bringing together techno dance beats & bass-lines to create a sound thats uniquely theirs.
- Bethan Morgan - a Llangollen girl, has developed a growing audience since moving to her new home in Birmingham, her voice being compared to P.J. Harvey.
- The New Foos - a 5 piece covers band, based in North Wales playing songs from the likes of Queen, Lady GaGa, 10.CC and Stereohonics.
- Urban Fusion - is a brand of Street, Hip-hop and Break Dance group for all ages and have performed with celebrities, appeared in music videos and danced throughout the world with Celebs such as, XFactor's Olly Murs, Peter Andre, Akon, DJ's Dave Pierce and Tim Westwood.
- Llangollen Operatic Societys Travelling Troupe - Formed in July 2010, Llangollen Operatic Societys Travelling Troupe is a group of around 15 experienced, amateur performers who, along with their Musical Director, Elen Mair Roberts, aim to bring a slice of the theatrical to your event!
LlanFEST organiser Barrie Roberts said, Representatives from across the world descend on Llangollen for one week every year showcasing the best talent they have to offer. We felt that establishing LlanFEST was the best way to give the rest of the world a taste of our local talent. With only a 5 admission fee, two Bars and Food Outlets, visitors to the International Eisteddfod on the Sunday will be able to enjoy a variety of bands, performers and dancers in a fitting finale to the field events.
MAE'N MEHEFIN 21 - DYDD DIWRNOD CORONI GLYNDR - DYDD SENEDD Y POBL - DYDD SOFRANIAETH Y CYMRY...AMSER I DDATHLU A CHODI GWYDR...DEU DDAU!
ITS 21 JUNE - GLYNDR'S CORONATION DAY AND PARLIAMENT AND CYMRIC SOVEREIGNTY DAY...TIME TO CELEBRATE AND TO RAISE A GLASS...OR TWO.
For Further information browse through blog archives of: http://cenedl.blogspot.co.uk/
Reproduced From the AC Blog - An Interview With Eirian Jones, Author of 'The Welsh Lady From Canaan'
By Ceri Shaw, 2012-06-20
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Author Eirian Jones with Bronwen Hall, the great-niece of Margaret Jones, the Welsh Lady from Canaan. Also in the photograph are Bronwens children, David and Susan. They are looking at the Australian diary of Margaret Jones which is kept at the John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland in Brisbane.
AmeriCymru: Hi Eirian and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. When did you first become aware of Margaret Jones and what made you decide to record her life and adventures?
I was browsing through the Cydymaith i Lenyddiaeth Cymru [Companion to Welsh Literature] one day looking for some information about poets born in Ceredigion, when I came across a couple of paragraphs about this Margaret Jones who had written a few books, but, more interestingly, had lived in Paris, Jerusalem, Morocco and travelled around the United States before spending the last ten years of her life in Australia. Shed done all this in the second half of the nineteenth century which I thought was remarkable. A few months later I visited Margarets home village of Rhosllannerchrugog in north-east Wales and went into the library to see if they had any more information about her. Theyd never heard of her! So that was it I was hooked by her life story and wanted to find out more. Since Im also an author and love travelling, I had quite an affinity with the story of Margaret Jones.
AmeriCymru: Margaret was an exceptionally lucky and above all courageous woman. What in particular strikes you about her bravery and dedication?
She was extraordinarily brave and courageous at a time when women were only expected to raise a family and werent supposed to do much else. Margaret was born in 1842, in poor and unfortunate circumstances and she only received three weeks of formal schooling. There were no ambitious female role models to follow in her home village of Rhos, so her expectations in life must have been pretty low. But, her lucky break in taking a position as a maid with a family in Llangollen and then being asked to work as a maid for another member of the same family in Birmingham (a missionary with the London Jews Society) opened up wonderful opportunities for global travel to her. Margaret was evidently an outgoing personality from her upbringing in Rhos. When she lived in Paris and Jerusalem she could have just worked as a maid and kept herself very much to herself. But no, she wanted to fully experience living in these places: she learnt the languages, visited the important sites and related all her findings back to her parents in letters. In Jerusalem she told her parents about cholera outbreaks, plagues of locusts descending on the city, death threats to Christians from the Sultan etc. And in Jerusalem also, her time was particularly difficult personally, because she suffered from a badly twisted knee. Shed hoped to stay in Jerusalem for ten years, and it was only after being hospitalized due to the condition of her knee that she was persuaded to return home to Wales to receive treatment. So she showed particularly brave and dedicated attributes to her character at this time.
AmeriCymru: In Part IV ('The Length And Breadth of Wales') of the book we are treated to a fascinating account of the chapel lecture circuit in late 19th century Wales.. How much prejudice existed against women lecturers and how difficult was it for them to gain acceptance?
It was very difficult. According to the vast majority of people in those days a womans place was in the home and certainly not speaking publically from the pulpit! To some extent Margaret agreed with this, but she also argued that she had a very good reason to travel the land lecturing from pulpits about Canaan, because she was trying to raise money for the Palestine Missionary Fund so that enlightened information could be given to the people living there. Some commentators in newspapers and magazines were very rude about the handful of travelling female lecturers, saying that the world had come to an end when they saw a female lecturer in the pulpit, or that these ladies didnt belong to one gender or the other! These commentators were largely ignored and, to be honest, these lady lecturers were so very popular (in particular with female audiences), that it was a case of men being envious of their success rather than anything else.
AmeriCymru: Again in Part IV we are introduced to another female lecturer, Cranogwen. Can you tell us a little more about her?
Cranogwen was a fascinating lady too, and spent time travelling around the United States also. She was raised in the old county of Cardiganshire and during her lifetime she was a sea captain, a poet, a musician, a preacher, a temperance movement leader, a school mistress and the editor of a Welsh womens magazine. Shed been sent away by her mother at the age of fifteen to learn to be a seamstress. She hated the work so much that she ran away to sea, and enjoyed life as a sailor for two years. In time she would gain her master of the seas certificate. At 21 years of age, she decided to live on dry land for a while. She took charge of the school in her local village, Pontgarreg, near Llangrannog. She was headmistress for six years, before succumbing to itchy feet once more. She was a promising public speaker, and so she joined the expanding popular lecture circuit and started visiting chapels around Wales. She travelled the land for three years, lecturing and preaching on subjects such as Wales, her religion and education, Money and Time, The Home, Things that go wrong and the female Welsh hymnist Ann Griffiths. Cranogwen became more and more well known the length and breadth of the country, and one rather envious poet quipped that she was the two sovereign, difficult Goddess. Cranogwen was paid two sovereigns for each of her lectures. It seems that the male poet wished to ridicule her popularity. She was yet to turn 30 years of age. And to celebrate that birthday, she went on a voyage to the United States in 1869. There she spent several months lecturing to Welsh audiences in states bordering New York City. She then ventured west to the Rocky Mountains. This was not an easy journey to undertake; it would have been even more fraught for a foreign single lady travelling on her own.
AmeriCymru: There is some speculation in the book about the reasons for Margaret's failure to record her experiences in America in the mid 1880s. Any further thoughts on that?
It saddens me a great deal that I havent been able to find more information about Margarets two-year stay in the United States. Several papers record her arrival in New York City in 1883 and the fact she spoke at several Welsh chapels in the city before moving on to Utica. But after that initial piece of information, theres nothing recorded in newspapers at all. For a lady who wrote so many letters and kept a detailed diary, its very strange that there is no more information about her time in the US. It makes me then wonder if her trip to the US actually lasted as long as two years. After all, she was largely on her own there; she didnt have any constant company with her and if she was moving from place to place, it could have been quite lonely for this gregarious lady. Perhaps, after a few months, she decided to go home.
AmeriCymru: Is it possible to obtain copies of Margaret's books?
I used copies held at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth during my research. Margarets two books Llythyrau Cymraes o Wlad Canaan and Morocco ar hyn a welais yno are both digitalized as Google eBooks.
AmeriCymru: What's next for Eirian Jones?
In conjunction with Blaenpennal History Society Im writing and editing a bilingual book about the history of Mynydd Bach in the old county of Cardiganshire (where I was raised) and hopefully this will be published either late this year or early 2013. The book may be of interest to Welsh descendants who live in the Gallia and Jackson areas of Ohio, as nearly three-quarters of the residents of Mynydd Bach emigrated to Ohio in the 1860s.
Author Eirian Jones at the grave of Margaret Jones, The Welsh Lady from Canaan, in Ipswich, Queensland.
Interview by Ceri Shaw
Conformist releases his new album ‘Paid To Fake It physically on Monday the 6th of August
By Ceri Shaw, 2012-06-20
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Conformist releases his new album Paid To Fake It physically on Monday the 6thof August it's available to download via all good digital outlets now. This follows on from the well-received single; the crunchy dynamics of Savages Go Modern, which resulted in a BBC, live session and extensive coverage.
28-year-old Michael Simmons is the man behind Conformist, hailing originally from the picturesque village of Dale in Pembrokeshire. Michael's musical inspiration quickened with a move to Cardiff's beckoning City lights. Conformist expertly manipulates and reassembles intricate ultra modernistic layers of sounds, sampling from cable TV shows, shopping channels, talk shows, pornos, the dregs of TV, hacking, editing to extreme levels of complexity, cutting and pasting together a complex patch work quilt of filthy noise the soundtrack to the cities seedy post-apocalyptic consumer obsessed underbelly!
Paid to Fake It is an extraordinary album of post-modern dexterity. From opener and first single the crunchy 808 dance rhythms of Savages Go Modern , through Ladybug Ladybug thats bewildering use of cut up menacing apocalyptic samples ( Everybodys Dead) are driven by thudding beats, post punk guitars and futuristic off the wall Art of Noise -esque soundboard hits. To the deconstructed dub step and movie quotes of menacing album track Post Death Sales Spike to the nightmarish arcade sounds of Mr Grosse and Mr Playfair, Conformist presents you with his enthralling but dizzy rush of ideas and noises . Conformists glum swatches of electronic sound offer a neat line in humour too, morally bereft and cutting to the punch line, exposing clich and avoiding it. Thus his work is built for the dance floor as much as it is for thought provoking head moving headphone sessions in the dead of night.
In the past Conformist has gained airplay on Steve Lamacq's on R1 and Adam Walton's Radio Wales show and earned the praise of local tome The Miniature Music Press and the influential Careless Talk Costs Lives magazine.Whisperin and Hollderin called his work ' audacious and brilliant' while the Daily Post hadn't heard anything this weird since 'Aphex Twin' .
Conformist is also the driving force behind Cardiff's newest audio production facility, Smash Mastering , offering mastering, mixing and acclaimed remixes. See his work on local boys Kutosis ' track 'Islands' and Bury Me in LA 's 'Young Lust Seekers' these served as a taster for his recent single 'Savages Go Modern' and the astounding full long player Paid To Fake It out this August!
