Blogs
We are replacing our usual weekly broadcast message with a special appeal this week. Most of our readers will know about our ambitious plans for a Left Coast Eisteddfod in Portland Oregon in August 2009. In order to make this event as big a success as possible and a true showcase for the musical and artistic talent which Wales and the Welsh American community possesses in abundance, we are asking for your help in promoting the event.
The following ideas will only take up a moment of your time and will produce enormously beneficial results. Please consider helping us if you can.
1. If you are a blogger please link to the following page from your blog and we will reciprocate:- http://americymru.blogspot.com/2008/11/left-coast-eisteddfod-starts-here-short.html . If you are registered with Entrecard please drop on us ( once again we will reciprocate )
2. If you are a member of any other social networking or bookmarking sites ( MySpace , Facebook , Stumbleupon , Delicious , Digg , ,Twitter ,etc ) please consider linking to the short story url or favoriting it on your profile:- http://americymru.blogspot.com/2008/11/left-coast-eisteddfod-starts-here-short.html
3. We would also invite you to consider joining Mixx and the "Wales: The Welsh Mixx" group and voting us up on that site. Mixx can be found here:- Mixx.
4. Feel free to use any other means at your disposal to help us publicize this event. If you have any novel ideas or suggestions please post in the comments below.
We have many more exciting plans for the Eisteddfod which will be announced in due course. If anyone has any suggestions or comments or queries please append them to this post. In answer to a few issues already raised via email...YES multiple entries are permitted in both language categories and YES we will be exploring the possibilities of publishing an anthology of the beat entries with one of the various online publishing companies. It will probably be available in both downloadable and hardcopy editions. Watch this space for further developments and announcements.
Left Coast Eistedfod Page On Americymru Ning Left Coast Eisteddfod Short Story Page on Americymru Blogspot Left Coast Eisteddfod Short Story Submission Group on Americymru Ning Diolch!The Left Coast Eisteddfod ( Portland, Oregon 2009 ) Starts Here - Short Story Competition - Win $100!
By Ceri Shaw, 2008-11-28
Regular readers of this site will no doubt have heard about our ambitious plans for a "Left Coast Eisteddfod" in Portland Oregon next year ( 2009 ). Today we would like to announce that we are not waiting until next year to get the ball rolling. We are launching the first of the Eisteddfod competitions online! Others will follow.
The short story competition which starts today is basically a "write in response " exercise. Below you will see a series of photographs. Most of these shots were taken in Wales but they are not particularly iconic and your response need not make reference to Wales in any way, shape or form. You may submit your entry in either Welsh or English. The two language categories will be judged separately and there will be a prize for each. Basically you will need to write a short story between 1000 and 3000 words in length on any ONE of these photographs and submit it in accordance with the rules for site members or non-site members outlined below. Accompanying graphics are not permitted. There is a US100 dollars (approximately 50GBP ) prize for the winners in both categories. The final submission date is July 31st 2009 and the winners will be announced at the Eisteddfod ( August 2009 ). The judges have yet to be selected and a further announcement will be made soon. The judges decisions will, of course, be final. The winners will also be entitled to free admission to some Eisteddfod events. Runners-up prizes will be announced later.
The winner and his/her work will also be featured on this site on what we hope will be a heavily trafficked page.
How To Submit Your Story
Members
1. Simply join the Eisteddfod Short Story Group and post your story (and any links) as a separate discussion in the group forum ( see "Lorem Ipsum" example on the page).. If you wish to include a link to your website or blog please do so but remember you must link back to us.
2. Post your story on your website or blog and post a link to the relevant url as a separate discussion in the group forum ( see "Lorem Ipsum" example on the page).. Once again you will need to link back to us.
Non Members
1. Post your submission on your blog and email us with the url ( americymru@gmail.com ). We will include it on the Group page . We would appreciate a link to this page or to the blog home page.
2. Email your submission to us and we will post it on the Group page and credit you as author. ( in this case mutual linking is an option but not required )
By Huw Davies of Hendy Productions 
By Tam Ryan of Wales DVD 
By Ian Price of Treorchy.net 
By Ian Price of Treorchy.net Terry Mostyn on MySpace
You were brought up in a musical family. Can you describe your early musical influences? I'm still waiting LOL ... being able to write, sing and perform is the big break in my opinion, I get to mingle with the crowd and when someone says " I like a certain song, it makes it all worth while.
You played in a great many bands in the 60's and 70's. Care to tell us about them?
The late 60's thru the 80's rock and roll was the thing to do, traditional music fell off as the loss of elders in the family caused people to stray apart. Bands came and went as did styles of music,Yes , Kansas, Jethro Tull, Beatles, Deep Purple, Zepp all where the whirl and I enjoyed covering these bands but the second I hear pipes or some old traditional tune I"m back at "The Table". Funny how it all comes back to full Circle.
At what point in your career did you decide that your ambition was to become a singer-songwriter?
At a very early age I was writing trying to tell stories, but how I hated English class. I wrote a song in my mid-teens that's on my Circles CD { Remembering, } I forgot about the song till my son Patrick heard it on a terrible cassette tape. I was in my Tull era then and it does have that blend to it.
How important are traditional and contemporary Celtic influences in your music?
For the last 15 years or so I've gone back to more of a folk rock feel to my writing and music. I love the old songs there the stones I walk on to write today.
What inspired the title of "Circles"?
I was playing and writing in a rock band trying to be Celtic and was going nowhere. I started going to Celtic concerts, festivals and realized I should go back to my roots, I like where I am now, it works for me. My Circle!
Who do you like to listen to?
That's a good question: Tull, The McKrells, Dougie, Flogging Molly, Hair of the Dog, The Elders, Donal , I could go on for a bit and yes even opera. An uncle always listened to it and turned me on to some great singers, couldn't understand a damn thing but the power in the vocals blew me away. I saw Mike Bolton sing opera on TV he was great from rock to opera .....whoa!
Where would you most like to perform?
Carnegie Hall , anywhere in Wales, maybe in Mostyn, I played in Ireland last April did a pub gig in Dingle, sat in between sets with Kevin McKrell of the McKrells at Clifton Station,Galway and the Hotel D in Dreagha, my mom's a Brennan there from Galway, so that was pretty special to me.
Any plans to visit the West Coast?
Yes, I 'd love to play at the 2009 Left Coast Eisteddfod in August .
Is there any particular song or performance or piece of art that you're most proud of?
Yes," Way Of The World " the words to this song came very easy, it tells of world problems and an easy solution This song is close to my heart and I have an acoustic version I play live that might go on my second CD even thought my 1st cd has a big production style to it of the song, we'll see.
Do you have any particular musical or artistic goals or creations that you really want to achieve in your life?
Waking up and playing music everyday is my goal, there were some good players and singers I knew that have passed before there time, to me each day is another blessing.
What's next for you?
To record my next CD with my youngest son Patrick at his new studio in Pittsburgh Pa Mostyn Studios He'll engineer... we'll both produce, we worked together on my 1st CD and I enjoyed it . Being told cut let's take that over or "You can do that better, Dad" kinda makes me think back to how many times I've told him that (100's ). We work well together and I look forward to working with him. We might even take in a hockey game and a few pints.
Iechyd Da!!!
After his autobiography became the bests selling book in Wales last Christmas, Chris Needs is now publishing a second book this time about his comic creation: The Jenkinssssss: Waless First Family , and aims for similar success. The hilarious escapades of the Jenkinsssss are written through the diaries of the familys matriarch, our Gladys, and will be published this week.Thursday 4 December 12.30-1.30 WH Smiths Merthyr Tydfil
Friday 5 December 11.30-12.30 WH Smiths Llanelli
Friday 5 December 2.00-3.00 Waterstones Carmarthen
Wednesday 10 December 12.00-12.45 WH Smiths Swansea
Wednesday 10 December 2.00-3.00 WH Smiths Neath
Thursday 11 December 12.00-1.00 WH Smiths Bridgend
Thursday 11 December 2.00-3.00 Waterstones Cardiff
Monday 15 December 1.00-2.00 Borders Cardiff
Wednesday 17 December 12.00-2.00 WH Smiths Pontypridd
Thursday 18 December 12.00-1.00 WH Smiths Caerphilly
Thursday 18 December 2.00-3.00 Waterstones Newport
Friday 19 December 12.00-1.00 Borders Fforestfach
Friday 19 December 2.00-3.00 Waterstones Swansea
Monday 22 December 1.00-3.00 Borders Llantrisant
Tuesday 23 December 11.00-1.00 Waterstones Abergavenny
Tuesday 23 December 2.00-3.00 WH Smiths Cwmbran
After a rather frustrating 'down time' due to a computer virus, I've got my photo file back and can resume spoon blog entries!
I've now glued a photocopy of the spoon design to the wood and have roughed out the overall shape of the spoon with a scroll saw. Unfortunately, you can't see much yet as all the good stuff is hidden under a layer of paper. But for me, I can see the wood left behind and I have a good idea of what awaits me when I start carving! When I flip the piece over, the proportions seem right and I am confident that the various vagaries of the wood grain will line up where I want them.
The second picture is a close-up showing an old dowel which must have linked the panel this spoon was cut from to another in bygone days. The dowel won't be seen when viewing the final product from straight-on but it will be visible on the side view. I have decided not to bother trying to remove it and repatching it with a walnut plug though. This old dowel's inclusion in the spoon won't do any harm structurally or visually, but it will lend some quirky charm and will be a good talking point! After all, how many people have a dowel which is potentially a hundred and fifty years old in their lovespoon!!
