Blogs
UK Athletics president Lynn Davies has welcomed the decision to host the first action of the 2012 Olympic Games at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.
The women's football tournament is set to start two days before the opening ceremony on 27 July.
See video and full story here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympic_games/london_2012/9397444.stm
Expose' of Swansea Film Festival
Swansea Film Festival is coming under attack from all quarters - and quite rightly so - Check out the comments left on the Youtube Video "Looking For An Audience"
Ninety years after a Caernarfon blacksmith forged the ironwork for the coffin of the Unknown Warrior, his grandson has produced a replica.
 The body of the soldier was carried from Boulogne on 9 November 1920 |
I unexpectedly had to make the drive to Knoxville, Tennessee, from our home in Madison, Wisconsin, to attend a funeral. I left about 6 a.m. Friday, as the funeral was at 230 p.m. Sat. and I can't drive the whole way any more without stopping for the night--and making lots of stretch stops along the way. It's about 750 miles each way.
Because I have made this trip many times over the years, I am always looking for something different to see.do. I didn't have much time, but since I was stopping somewhere in Kentucky Fri. night, I had some leeway.
I have finally wised up and instead of driving south on I-39 to I-88 to I-80 (which skirts, but doesn't entirely miss Chicago) I have been going I-39 south to I-55 to I-74, which is what I did Friday. No traffic, no construction, and only one toll. When I entered Indiana, one of the first exits I came to said "Newport" and knowing that Newport, and not Milford, was the most common town on the Welsh Place Names in the US list, and knowing I had not been to this particular Newport, I turned off. (So, yes, Swansea Jack, it was for the points!) Being mapless, I was not sure how far it was (17 miles) or exactly how best to proceed after I took my photo, so I just figured if I went south far enough I'd come to I-70 and could get to I-65 that way. So that is what I did. (BTW--I included my little green dragon in most of the photos to prove I was actually at these places. I think someone else is using a red dragon in much the same way, so I decided to go green. He is NOT a squirrel!!)
NEWPORT, INDIANA Post Office
Once on I-70, I had another pleasant surprise, when I saw a sign for Chataeu Thomas Winery--and remembered the Chicago Tafia extolling the Thomas Family Winery somewhere in Indiana, so I turned off, thinking this may be the place. It wasn't, but it was owned by Dr. Thomas, the father of the man who owns the Thomas Family Winery. We had a nice chat, I bought some cheese curds and a monogrammed wine stopper for a gift, and he drew me a map to his son's place. Now, THAT was out of my way, but in the general direction--not so much out of my way, as along slower, windier roads than the Interstate.
Above and below: Chateau Thomas Winery
I ended up i Madison, IN, and found the winery, which was more pub-like than the sophisticated Chateau Thomas. I met Steve Thomas, prop., and sampled both the Gales Hard Cider and the scrumpy--I preferred the hard cider--the scrumpy was too fruity for my taste. I bought 3 bottles of hard cider and 2 packs of Walkers shortbread. And took photos. Steve gave me directions to I-64, which involved staying on Hwy 421 all the way and being sure to make all the turns 421 did, while avoiding cavorting dogs in the road. Very windy and narrow, and a speed limit of 55 with semi trucks, too. Certainly kept me alert. Also it was getting dark. I was glad to hit the interstate and stopped in Lexington for the night. I was also glad it was warm, as there was ample evidence of icy conditions earlier in the month. (BTW--it was minus 2F when I left Madison and in the 40s by time I hit Indiana. On the way home, it got close to 60!)
Three photos from Thomas Family Winery, Madison, Indiana--Gales Hard Cider, named after Steve's grandfather; tasting the hard cider; and the ladies' loo--decked out for Valentines Day.
I arrived in Knoxville at 9:30 Sat. a.m., in time to view the body at the funeral home and go pick up a non-driving cousin, go to lunch and make it to the graveside services at the country church. Later, several of the family went for a late dinner and then enjoyed one of the bottles of hard cider until about 1 a.m.
I left Knoxville about 9 a.m. Sun., made it as far as Indianapolis (passing Walesboro on I-65 on the way). also stopped in Seymour, IN, for lunch--no Welsh connection that I could discern, but it is the home of John Cougar Mellencamp, in case someone has need of that bit of trivia. They also have a decent Mexican restaurant--based on the chicken fajitas and Dos Equis beer I had for lunch. My only problem was the waitstaff would speak Spanish to me (I have a Spanish minor,) but I would answer in Welsh: Como estas? Da iawn. Etc.
Walesboro, Indiana Exit
To keep me awake on these long road trips, I always travel with sufficient coffee (seen in Indiana--either I-74 or I-70):
So, yes, this is how I travel and how my road trips lead to fabulous discoveries--see my previous blog post about Definitive Madog and the Mandan Indians Proof, if you don't believe me.
I've also found a beagle, Gracie, on a Kentucky backroad:
and a kitten, MiKi, in the middle of traffic in Michigan:
Both Gracie and MiKi are 1000 times healthier and more gorgeous in their photos than when I found them!
Stay tuned for my next road trip--probably in March-April.
An Interview With Meilir Tomos, Welsh Singer Songwriter - Bourbon, Gravel and Cat Litter Trays
By Ceri Shaw, 2011-02-14
AmeriCymru: Hi Meilir, many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. Lets start with what's new. You have a release due on Feb 21st entitled - 'Cellar Songs' . I know that a great many of our readers will be eager to hear more about this .
Meilir: Cellar Songs is my latest release and my second Ep that will eventually be part of a three Ep collection. It is a record of six songs, recorded over 4 days with producer Charlie Francis. Some of the songs were close to making it on to my first release Bydd Wych but were not quite ready in time. I think this has ended up being the way it should have been, I am still very proud of Bydd Wych as a piece of musical work but I think I have made some progressions as a writer & performer with Cellar Songs. It sounds like a Meilir record if you will, but it is also different from Bydd Wych, after all there is no point making the same record again. I think the new Ep Cellar Songs is a unique record in today's music environment because I am not trying to follow any musical trend. I am just making music because it's what I love to do. Creating songs with meaning and feeling.
AmeriCymru: Can you explain the significance of the title?
Meilir: I have a small cellar or basement studio at my home were I write most of my music, all of the songs that make up Cellar Songs were composed in this room so this is how the title came to be.
AmeriCymru: I am referring to your profile on AmeriCymru here. Why owls and why Tequila and Bourbon?
Meilir: I have been fond of owls since I can remember, as well as birds in general and all things nature, this resulted in small owl ornaments becoming a regular gift, i now have hundreds of them. The booze goes like this, when I was 16 my family moved to a small pub in North Wales, and as I was at a curious age it was obvious that the first time my parents left me home alone I was going to experiment with the vast amount of alcohol to hand. I stated with the obvious... at the pumps with the lager and bitter and was amazed at the horrid taste, this is not a poor reflection on the pub I just did not like the taste, I also doubt many do. With Bourbon there was a different story I love it and this is my drink of choice, if anyone ever wants to buy me a drink this would be a good place to start. I was introduced to Tequila at Glastonbury Festival by a good friend who plays in a band called Mother of Six, this drink is one of my weaknesses. Having said all this on occasion I can be persuaded to flirt with other drinks.
AmeriCymru: Your song 'Bydd Wych' is a firm favorite with many AmeriCymru members. Care to tell us more about it? How it came to be written?
Meilir: Bydd Wych (Be Great or Be as Good as you can) is a song that came into existence over a long time and in different ways. I first became aware of the saying Bydd Wych after a long conversation with a good friend of mine who is the singer with Mother of Six. It was him who told me of the saying & how it was maybe used before old battles by the Welsh as a last rally of the troops before engaging in battle. At the time I was writing my debut Ep and thought that it would make a good title for the Ep. Over time I wanted the opening song to be a song called Bydd Wych, I had a song that was a folk song played on the guitar with the lyrics that make up the chorus as the song is today but the song was not right, it needed to have more of an impact and be more unique. I found a thumb piano at Glastonbury festival, and when I returned home there was one pattern that I kept playing on the thumb piano and the song was written quite quickly from then on around this pattern.
AmeriCymru: I have to ask...how did you hit upon the idea of using a cat litter tray filled with gravel for percussion on this track?
Meilir: I am always looking for ways to make thinks interesting for myself & the audience. I am very interested in creating sounds from sources that might not be as conventional as people expect. The gravel idea is something I had in my mind for a long time before I managed to experiment with it. I eventually realized that I could get my hands on some gravel from an ex place of employment, lets just say that it was in abundance under my feet during cigarette breaks, I would amuse myself by making rhythmic patterns on the gravel whilst wishing I didn't have to go back to work. I filled a bag full of gravel one day and took it home, to my surprise the results were amazing the sounds that you can make work very well. But I must admit there have been more failed experiments that successes but I love the idea of using such organic earthy elements to the music.
AmeriCymru: Can you tell us a little more about 'Less Wrong'? What inspired it?
Meilir: Less Wrong comes in two parts, to be honest with you I always wondered how songs that were in two parts came to be before I wrote a two part song myself. The song was split into two parts when I had two songs developing from the same original idea. I don't like to elaborate to much on the meaning of songs that I write as they are mostly very personal & I do attempt to be a little obscure with some lyrics. I suppose that the inspiration for Less Wrong comes from different perspectives of hope & faith in part 1 & how this can go wrong in part 2.
I would not want to say more than that really or I think I would be giving far to much away. I like it when a listener can create their own narrative and imagery to a piece of music, I don't like it when everything is to obvious.
AmeriCymru: Where can our readers go to get your music online?
Meilir: To stay updated on whats going on here is facebook.com/meilir.tomos & myspace.com/meilirmusic . I sometimes post musical ideas & treats at soundcloud.com/meilirmusic You can purchase Bydd Wych at iTunes as physical copies are sold out and listen to it on Spotify. Cellar Songs will be available from spillersrecords.com & you can have it sent to America from here!!!
AmeriCymru: What's next for Meilir Tomos?
Meilir: I will be performing lots of live shows... I am planning a small tour of chapels and churches to promote the release of Cellar Songs information on this will be released soon and I will be performing at a few select festivals over the summer. I am writing material for the third Ep that I hope will be ready for release by November of this year. I have recently had my music used for a film Masterpiece by young Welsh filmmaker Andrew C. Tanner, I would love to get involved in more films. scoring music is something I am going to look into doing more. So it's more of the same but hopefully to a wider audience, It's not an easy climate for independent creative musicians but I love what I do and would not change it for anything.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?
Meilir: Order your copy of Cellar Songs from spillersrecords.com from Monday 21st February... there it is the hard sell, thank you in advance if you do get a copy. With any luck I might get the chance to come and play over in America some time soon see you then...
Bydd Wych
The Final Punchline, Satellite Magazine and the IMDb
As the weeks go by we're gaining momentum on the project and starting to get some decent publicity. Our first press article was featured in the February edition of Los Ange les magazine Satellite - "transmitting the worlds of fashion, design and culture". You can read it online here:
http://satellite-mag.com/Satellite/TheFinalPunchline.html
On Friday the the film was accepted to the IMDb; the entry is now live with more details being added in the coming weeks. Check it out here and please hit the all-important Facebook like button:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1837680
With more articles and publicity lined up for the next few weeks you should see mention of the film online and when you're out and about! In the meantime our crowdfunding campaign is still ongoing at:
http://www.indiegogo.com/punchline
Please visit the page, hit the Facebook like button, share with your friends, leave supportive comments, and if you'd like to support the project donate whatever you can in return for rewards!
More news soon...
Anyone who wants to see or more importantly download and circulate a copy can find it here:-
http://www.yesforwales.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/YES-Vote-Newsletter.pdf
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It was built up as a formidable quest for the Taff. The haggis hordes were to add us to their plate of succulent delights.'Tweren'tto be though as the sons of Cymru, cockles aflow,ran amok in the first half. Scotland didn't have a clue even when Wales were reduced to 13 men.
The second half was a very quiet affair where even the commentators started to pick their teeth. Thoughts of pints were in everyones mind 30 minutes before no side was called. And so it was a 24 - 6 victory to Wales.
Meanwhile the Saxon dealt a tremendous blow to the Azzurri. A proposed spaghetti feast turned into a boiled beef and carrot trouncing that could makeMichelangelo paint bugger on the Sistine chapel ceiling.
The press have eyed up the Grand Slam in this Royal Wedding year already. There's the small matter of getting past The Dublin Bay Prawns 15, Haggis untied and frogs legs before that can happen.
An Interview with Gwenno Dafydd - Welsh Actress, Singer, Writer and Broadcaster
By Ceri Shaw, 2011-02-13
In the run up to this years Saint David's Day Parade AmeriCymru spoke to Gwenno Dafydd Welsh Actress, Singer, Writer and Broadcaster and former Partnership Consultant and Representative at NSDDP. Gwenno also co- wrote the official Saint David's Day song Cenwch y Clychau i Dewi'.
AmeriCymru: Hi Gwenno and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. You have been involved in the organization of the Annual St. David's Day Parade for some years now. Care to explain for our readers how you became involved in this project?
Gwenno: I wasn't in the very first National Saint David's Day Parade (NSDDP) in 2004 which was quite a small event of a couple of hundred attendees and little publicity. I did hear about it afterwards and decided as a very patriotic Welsh woman that I had to be there the next year, which I was.
AmeriCymru: You also wrote the official St David's Day Parade song 'Cenwch y Clychau i Dewi'. Care to tell us a little more about the song and in particular where readers can go to hear it online or purchase sheet music?
Gwenno: In the 2005 NSDDP I was taking part and ringing one of the six bells (reproductions) of Saint David's bells that had been made for the occasion and suddenly, as we were just approaching Cardiff Castle at the top end of Queen Street, I felt as if Id been struck by a bolt of lightning (literally!!!) I just had this feeling that I had to create a song, an anthem that could be sung by children, adults, brass bands and choirs.
I got really excited about this idea but didnt say anything to anyone. I just went away and wrote a verse and a chorus in both Welsh and English and took it to my song-writing partner at the time, Heulwen Thomas, a peripatetic violin teacher and told her what I had in mind. She wrote the music, I took it to the NSDDP Committee and in the 2006 Parade we performed the song in front of the National Museum of Wales at the end of the Parade.
The NSDDP Committee were delighted with the response we had with the song and asked if it could be sung the following year. They were trying to find ways of engaging schools and children in the parade and as I had worked as a supply teacher for fifteen years and also did a lot of Directing Theatre in Education, they invited me on the Committee as the Voluntary Schools Liaison Officer and since 2006 I have been responsible for engaging the schools and their pupils.
I have also been a professional broadcaster and performer for the last thirty years and I saw a way of using the song which I had co-written, as a way of levering a lot of publicity in the media which it did. When the children came on board was the year the parade grew phenomenally from a few hundred to well over 1,500. This growth meant that we had to ask for help from Cardiff City Council and the National Assembly for Wales as we were all volunteers. And it was all becoming too much for us as volunteers to organise.
In November 2009 I resigned from the NSDDP Committee as I was finding that the work to promote, lobby for additional funding, engaging interest and organising was taking over my own self-employed life so much so that I wasnt able to earn a living.
However, last year I was approached by Cardiff City Council and employed to bring the children on board. There were at least 900 schoolchildren present and probably another 600 including parents and friends. I also presented the Council with a very comprehensive report which would enable them to organise the childrens participation from now on from within their own Education Department.
Here are details and photographs of some of these events. You can also hear the youtube of me singing the song which I recorded as part of the Songs of our Nation project last year. www.gwennodafydd.co.uk/4html
The song made history by being the very first Welsh medium song to be sold as a download from a website and it was launched by World famous singer Bryn Terfel and Tim Rhys Evans Choir Master of Only Men Aloud, award winning choir. There are four versions of the song available piano and voice, SATB, (Mixed Voice Choir) male voice and female voice. http://www.ylolfa.com/dangos.php?ISBN=9781847711342
AmeriCymru: You were also involved with the design of the 'Pembrokeshire Banner'. Can you tell us more?
Gwenno: Whilst I was still on the NSDDP Committee we were looking for ways to engage more people and one of our members had seen that the Saint Patricks Day Parade in Birmingham had a big focus on County participation. Another of the Committee had talked about getting the old Colliery Lodge Banners involved so I came up with an idea of having County Banners for every Welsh County so that people could walk behind their County Banner every Saint Davids Day and even if they didnt come to Cardiff for the NSDDP there would be something that would link them to the Mother parade in Cardiff. The banner is based on the words and images of some of the lyrics ain the song and also symbols of Saint Davids Cathedral. It seems fitting that the first County Banner should come from Pembrokeshire, spiritual home of our Nations Patron Saint and also where I grew up. The full story about the banner and beautiful and inspiring images can be found here: http://www.fishguardartssociety.org.uk/ThePembrokeshireBanner.html
The Banner is now permanently on display in Saint Davids Cathedral and was blessed by The Right Reverend Wyn Evans, Bishop of Saint Davids in a Homecoming Ceremony attended by Fishguard Choir, Goodwick Brass Band, Civil Dignitaries, the makers and their friends and families last February.
Although the National Saint Davids Day Parade happens in Cardiff every year, the only thing that is really mobile about the parade is the song and banners which can be re-created anywhere in the world by schools, Welsh ex-patriot groups, choirs and chapels.
I was recently invited to become an Ambassador for Cardiff in recognition of all the voluntary work I have done in developing Saint Davids Day Celebrations in Wales and further afield. I would like to develop this role long term to becoming the Saint Davids Day Ambassador for Wales working towards developing world-wide celebrations of our Nations Patron Saint, Dewi Sant.
AmeriCymru: Do you think March 1st should be, or ever will be , a national holiday in Wales?
Gwenno: Back in the sixties all Welsh schools had a half day for Saint Davids Day with the Eisteddfod in the morning and the afternoon free. I think this would be a good compromise so that people would be able to go along to the Parade in the afternoon.
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| Image by Ben Bore (Rhys) / Rhys Wynne License CC Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 |
AmeriCymru: OK...prediction time. How many people are going to turn out for the parade this year and what's the weather going to be like?
Gwenno: No idea how many people will be there this year. I do hope it will be successful as a huge amount of peoples hard work has gone into it over the last few years and it would be very sad for those efforts to have been wasted. I am no longer involved in the practical organisation as it was just too time consuming and I gave several years service during which time it grew from a few hundred to many many thousands so I feel I have made my contribution on one level. I will continue to develop my own projects including the two Facebook groups I have set up and am focusing my efforts on developing the idea of encouraging and inspiring others in Wales and world-wide to become really proactive about their Saint David's Day celebrations.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Gwenno: Yes use the two Facebook groups I have set up Celebrate Saint Davids Day and National Saint Davids Day Parade to let others know how you intend to celebrate Saint Davids Day. Get a copy of the song and sing it, make a banner either based on the Pembrokeshire Banner or on your own design, lets grow these celebrations world-wide and make all those who came originally from this tiny little speck of a Nation realise that it is a very special place and we need to make a big noise about it. Come here on holiday, go and visit the Pembrokeshire Banner in Saint Davids Cathedral and remind yourself what a privilege it was for you to have Welsh blood coursing through your veins.
