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I had a drink or two, but then decided not to have any more alcohol, even though everyone else around me was knocking it back and having a great time. I explained to everyone that I didnt feel too good and I was going back to my villa. I left the bar, made my way home alone and as soon as I arrived at the villa I went straight to bed, feeling really weird"
Friday, 12 November - Waterstones Carmarthen 1.00-2.00pm
Saturday, 13 November - WH Smith Cardiff 12.00-1.00pm
Friday, 19 November - WH Smith Neath 12.00-2.00pm
Saturday, 20 November - Waterstones Swansea 12.00-2.00pm
Saturday, 27th November - Browning Books, Blaenavon 12.00-2.00pm
The 2011 North American Festival of Wales will be held in Cleveland, Ohio, September 1 4 at The Crowne Plaza Hotel, right downtown, near the Lakefront. It is a great location, within walking distance of several museums, the Cleveland Browns Stadium, and the pier where you can get boat tours.
The Grand Concert will feature the male voice choir Hogiar Ddwylan, from the Menai Strait area, North Wales. They have won many first prizes at the National Eisteddfodau. Their Director, Ilid Anne Jones, will also conduct both sessions of The National Gymanfa Ganu. The soloist at the Banquet will be Megan Morris, a native of Ohio, who has won the David G. Morris Memorial Award in both 2005 and 2009. She went on to place second in the mezzo soprano category at the National Eisteddfod in Wales in 2006 and 2010.
Rooms at The Crowne Plaza are available at the special reduced rate of $115 per night for a single or double room when you use the code WNGGA. Call 216-771-7600 to reserve your room. Reduced parking rates will also be available for those who drive.
Details about tours, seminars and other activities will come later.
Barbara M. Jones
Local Venue Co-Chair for 2011
The mid to late 19th Century saw a massive increase in emigration from Europe to the United States. Sometimes it was for religious reasons like the Mormons or to escape political persecution as in Russia and Eastern Europe. More often however it was simply a desire to seek your fortune and a new life in the exciting expanding economy of the new world. Often these dreams ended in disillusionment and sadness. For others by dint of ambition and hard work, they achieved their goals and ended up with great success and a life style they might have not achieved had they stayed in Europe. Wales provided its share of ambitious emigrants, and there are many stories of Welsh men and women who did extremely well in their new homeland. One such story that involved a family from Carmarthenshire is that of Jane Rees and her brothers, Thomas, Charles, and James. They came from a well-known Lower St Clears family, several of whom were burgesses and involved in the towns affairs. Their grandfather John and father David were builders and cabinetmakers.
Jane was first to emigrate in 1869 leaving to marry a man called Jeremiah Reeves. Jeremiah was a native of Dorset whom she had met whilst he was studying the trade of boiler making and structural iron working in Wales. Jeremiah had emigrated to Pennsylvania two years earlier in 1867, and had already had found work there. On Janes arrival they were married and set up house together. Four years later in 1873, by dint of hard work, Jeremiah and his brother Jabez who had also emigrated managed to start their own boiler works at a town called Niles in the next door state of Ohio. Their success in this encouraged them nine years later to sell their business and take over the operations of the much bigger, but ailing Dover Rolling Mills in the same state in 1883. They renamed the company The Reeves Iron Company with Jeremiah as its head and Jabez as plant superintendent. Again by dint of hard work and business acumen, they had become by 1896 one of the largest employers in that part of Ohio, employing nearly a thousand workers.
By the turn of the century they were so prosperous that Jeremiah and his son Samuel sold the mills to a subsidiary of U.S. Steel. Samuel formed a new company and called it the Reeves Manufacturing Company, which again produced steel and other metal products. Unfortunately Samuel died tragically soon afterwards, and Jeremiah had to come out of retirement to resume control of the company. The new company continued to prosper, building four new mills in 1912, and then branching out into banking, transport and the hotel industries. By now Jeremiah and Jane were extremely wealthy and besides their splendid Dover residence they had a winter home in Palm Springs Florida. Jeremiah died there in 1920 and Jane died there in 1926.
Undoubtedly the success of their sister and brother in law encouraged Janes brothers James, Charles and Thomas to make the same journey across the Atlantic. James and his wife Amelia arrived in Dover in 1892 time of the plants sale to U.S.Steel, its General Superintendent. James following the family tradition was a skilled builder and cabinetmaker having trained in Liverpool and London, and when the plant was sold he used this experience to remodel the beautiful and large mansion, which had been bought by his sister and brother in law.
This splendid house is now known as the J.E.Reeves Victorian Home and Carriage House Museum and was donated by Jane and Jeremiahs last surviving daughter Agnes to the Dover Historical Society. The society was fortunate also to inherit the original furnishings and heirlooms belonging to the house. The society has been able to restore the house accurately and show visitors how the house looked in 1900, when the Reeves family were at the height of their prosperity. I am indebted to Mrs Patti Feller of Dover Ohio U.S.A. Mrs Feller is the Great Grand Daughter of Jane Reess brother Thomas. Mrs Feller is now a guide for visitors to the Reeves home and is able to explain its connections to Wales. It is now 140 years since Jane Rees left St. Clears. Mrs Fellers visit in 2009 has maintained a link with St Clears that has now survived for four generations. Mrs Feller hopes that her grandsons visit will ensure it is carried on for further generations. 27th October is the 96th anniversary of the birth of Dylan Thomas.
As part of the Dylan Down the Ups celebrations we are having a 'gathering' at his birthplace - 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Uplands, Swansea - tonight.
Lots of people reading Dylan's work, some food, some wine.
Do you have a favourite Dylan poem or story - we'd loved to hear it.
A new warts-and-all biography tells the full story of Tom Jones' amazing career: his innumerable affairs, his friendship with Elvis, and his brush with Charles Manson. It decscribes how he hit the heights, outselling Frank SInatra at the Copacabana night club, New York and the 5,000 bedroom keys that got thrown at him at Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas. However there were many lows as Tom Jones continually reinvented himself from young rock-and-roller in Pontypridd to sixties hip-swiveller to seventies cabaret king, and then, under the strict direction of his own son Mark, to mature rocker and born again gospel singer with the recently released Praise and Blame .
Now 70 years of age, Tom Jones says, "I'll still be belting out tunes when they're trying to nail me down." The biography also highlights Tom's attachment to his Welsh roots and to his wife and childhood sweetheart, Linda Trenchard -- which is, according to the author, "the craziest thing of all in the rascal's ultra-crazy life."
Author Aubrey Malone, says: "Tom is a flawed icon but an irresistible one, going up the down staircase, refusing to stay down for long. His huge belief in himself as The Voice made this the thing people would always remember when the knicker-throwing stopped."
Aubrey Malone has also published biographies of Ernest Hemingway, Charles Bukowski and Brendan Behan. This biography, Still Rockin' , sells for 6.95 and is published by Y Lolfa at www.ylolfa.com .
I am actually really glad I had the chance to show my top 12 as every one of those had great potential in terms of describing their own particular 'sense of place'. The 6 semi finalists took this sense one step closer and each one moved me very distinctly about places I've never even seen.
These final three all create a strong sense of place, mood and geographic identity, to me at least. Above that they are also just wonderful simple compositions and are photographically strong even if not technically perfect. These images made me wonder, made me smile and made me reminisce. I am genuinely pleased with the choice and on showing my poet wife Carol, she agreed entirely with my decision making me feel even happier
In third place for it's moody evening atmosphere, the dusk street lights and the view over the houses in the street opposite, like an illustration from Under Milk Wood, lies "In My Room" by Diana Manzanilla
http://americymru.ning.com/group/leftcoasteisteddfod2010visualimagecompetition/forum/topics/in-my-room
So that's all folks, it took a LOT longer to assess your entries than I thought it would but I can assure you of my seriousness in deliberation. I wish there had been hundreds more entries but the examples here would have held their own anyway
Dymuniadau Gorau iawn i gyd
Glyn Davies
A highly acclaimed writer and academic, whose memoirs recall scenes from a varied and exciting life in many countries, will again find himself in a politically delicate situation when he takes his new book to the Istanbul Book Fair.
"Just The Mention Of Your Name" wins 'Suggested Artist' placement in the USA 'Song Of The Year'. When a song receives a lot of positive responses the Suggested Artist placement is given. Song of the Year receives entries from all over the world and only the top songwriters receive a Suggested Artist placement in the so ngwriting competition.
WINNER IS 'I AM WALES' . RUNNER UP GORLLEWN CYMRU .
It was a difficult task to differentiate between the final two. Extremely difficult. Both had many positives and a few negatives. I thought that it was story line that added the feather on the scales to push the balance to I AM WALES. There were no moving images in either of these finalists submissions. That was a pity as to my mind a video IS 'moving images' or an amalgam of stills and vids. One thing for sure is that both submitters are passionate Welsh people and have succeded in laying down a seduction to showcase the country.
I AM WALES.
A lot of work went into this presentation. The amount of stills put into this one video left me breathless and frankly did not aid my appreciation of the subject, Wales. The changes were simply to fast. I appreciate that the video maker wanted to showcase many of the sites of Wales but the viewer would find it difficult to concentrate. BUT in saying that the whole 'concept' I thought was wonderful and I especially enjoyed the story line. The music was dramatic which increased the power of the stills. It was also nice to see varying subjects, people, places, cultures etc.,
GORLLEWIN CYMRU.
Many extremely evocative and unusual photographic stills made this video enjoyable. The presentation gave the viewer time to take in the actual pictures before moving onto the next. I know that the video maker presented his favourite piece of music from Brittany. I am aware of course of the links between Brittany and Wales. (Same National Anthem etc., ) One thing that actually made me pull back from the enjoyment of the photos was half way through. It appeared as if a Scottish Pipe Band took over and virtually played to the end. I asked a couple of people to watch the video and both commented on the 'Scottish' music over a Welsh video. Perhaps it's a bit churlish to major on the pipe music as the actual presentation was first class. I've watched it a number of times and thoroughly enjoyed the montage of photographs.
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