Royalist or republican, we all like a nice long weekend. And it's better when there's plenty of things to do. Allow us:

This Saturday, Howl Griff will be playing a gig for charity; on Monday, we release our latest single Bluebirds.

SATURDAY GIG FOR A KIDS' CHARITY

Saturday's gig is at Streatham's White Lion run by Music 4 Children, a charity dedicated to helping vulnerable kids world-wide. A lovely big ol' Victorian building on the Streatham High Road, The White Lion offers an enclosed beer garden and even accommodation. There are three bands on (including one from Italy!) and we're headlining. Entrance fee is via a charitable donation.

White Lion website: http://www.whitelion.org.uk/
White Lion's Google Maps page (directions, transport etc): http://tinyurl.com/3swlfkj

LAUREN LAVERNE LOVES OUR NEW SINGLE

On Monday we release Bluebirds, from the album The Hum. The single has already been played several times on radio stations from California's renowned KCRW to BBC 6 music whose Lauren Laverne called it "lush from a new band we love".

A driving Krautrock arrangement opens up into a typical harmony-laden melodic HG construction, with lyrics inspired by recording The Hum a goal-kick from Cardiff City's Ninian Park during the home side's FA Cup clash against Arsenal, as we explained to the South Wales Echo in a recent interview.

Bluebirds video (and many others): http://www.youtube.com/HowlGriff
South Wales Echo: http://tinyurl.com/63hm9tk
BUY IT ON iTUNES!: http://tinyurl.com/iTunesHowlGriff

AND IN SUMMER

Further ahead, we're very glad to confirm our first festival booking of the summer - at Buckinghamshire's Penn Festival on July 9/10. Among the other acts performing will be Dodgy, The Farm, Snap and Doctor and the Medics tickets are 29 for the day, 53 for the weekend with discounts for teenagers and families and under-12s free.

See the link below for more details on Penn - and keep in touch for more news about festivals this summer.

http://www.pennfestival.com/

That's it for now - hope to see you Saturday

--
HOWL GRIFF
Website: http://www.HowlGriff.com
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/HowlGriff
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/HowlGriff
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/HowlGriff
Twitter: http://twitter.com/HowlGriff
Merchandise: http://howlgriffshop.spreadshirt.net

We are: Hywel Griffiths, Nick Moore,
Gary Parkinson, Steve Kennedy and you

A number of people have expressed consternation and exasperation with the 'Top Blogger' algorithm. And I believe they have a point. Over the last two months it has become clear that the algorithm which ranks blogs on the site, only rewards posters for the number of comments on their posts and fails to take account of other significant factors. Consequently from now on, we will be awarding 10 points in each of the following categories to complement the rankings provided by the algorithm.

1. Quality - We will award ten points to the post or poster we think attains the highest quality standards each month.

2. Quantity - Ten points will be awarded to the most active blogger on the site OR to the person who contributes the most substantial posts. There is no objection to 'snippeting' or to short posts which are links to offsite articles or resources BUT this will allow us to recognise more consequential and significant posts.

3. Popularity - Based on perusal of the log files and taking into consideration Facebook 'likes', Tweets etc, we will award ten points to the post or poster who drives most traffic to the site each month.

The new adjudication system will be implemented for the first time this month ( January 2011 ). Hopefully it will constitute an improvement on the previous arrangement. If anyone has any ideas for making Top Blogger fairer, livelier or more interesting please let us know in the comment box below.

Following the success of his radio and television series Wales most popular weatherman is back with More Weatherman Walks a second book of his favourite tramps around Wales.

Derek says, After the first book, lots of people wrote to say that they bought it and pledged to do every walk in the book and it would be great if lots of people did that again. Ive done them all and thoroughly enjoyed them. Remember, if I can do it so can you!

The twelve routes are suitable for the general walker, and each one has been chosen for a particular month of the year. As Derek explains: The aim of the book is to get you walking through the year and to enjoy the different seasons. He hopes the book will inspire you at home to want to get out and about and explore our wonderful country.

This reasonably-priced book includes stunning colour photographs, maps and comprehensive directions to accompany each walk. They are all introduced by Derek and an experienced local guide, and feature background information on social history, heritage, wildlife and topography by the BBCs Julian Carey. There are also details of walking festivals throughout Wales.

Derek Brockway was born in Barry, South Wales and has been passionately interested in the weather ever since he was a young boy. A qualified meteorologist, he has been employed by the Met Office for over 20 years and became the main weather forecaster for BBC Wales in 1997. He now presents a number of radio and television programmes, including Dereks Welsh Weather and Weatherman Walking, which had one of the highest viewing figures in Wales. His autobiography, Whatever the Weather, was published in 2007, and his leisure activities include walking, squash, skiing and learning Welsh.

More Weatherman Walks is published by Y Lolfa and is now available in bookshops around Wales for 8.95.

Excellent video of the Aberystwyth Cycle Festival, Constitution Hill Downhill MTB. More about the event, held between May 24th and 26th this year can be be found on the Aber Cycle Festival website.

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For anyone who is not aware of this 'cult' TV show here is what the Wiki has to say about it:-

Lost Girl is a Canadian supernatural crime drama television series that premiered on Showcase on September 12, 2010. The series was created by Michelle Lovretta, and is produced by Prodigy Pictures, in association with Shaw Media . It follows the life of a succubus named Bo , played by Anna Silk , as she learns to control her abilities, helps those in need, and discovers the truth about her origins. Following good ratings and positive reviews, it was renewed for its second season two months after its premiere, ^{[ 4 ]} and for its third season in December 2011. ^{[ 5 ]}

In Australia, Lost Girl premiered on Sci Fi Australia on July 14, 2011. ^{[ 6 ]} In the United Kingdom, it premiered on Syfy (United Kingdom) on September 1, 2011. ^{[ 7 ]} In the United States, it premiered on Syfy on January 16, 2012. ^{[ 3 ] [ 8 ]}

And the Welsh connection? The actor ( Paul Amos ) who plays the none too charming 'Vex' is from Pencoed near Bridgend. Here is what wiki has to say about him:-

Paul Amos as Vex: A Mesmer. He can control people's actions against their will. Vex is of the dark Fae and "friends" with the Morrgan. He played a pivotal role against the Garuda where he used his powers to delay the Garuda in using Trick's blood to change the Blood Laws. He has a childish personality and uses his powers to amuse himself in such ways.

If you haven't caught up with the show yet you can find 35 episodes on Netflix but be aware that for all its frivolity it is very much an adult themed series. If you thrilled to 'True Blood' you will love 'Lost Girl' and it is after all:- "the highest-rated Canadian scripted series premiere of all time on Showcase".

Here is Paul Amos' IMDB entry : - Paul Amos on IMDB

Below is an excerpt from a recent announcement by our platform provider. We are looking for ways to utilize this on AmeriCymru. I have had discussions with Gaabriel, Swansea Jack, Brett Hull and others and between us we have so far failed to come up with a concrete idea for adopting this interesting new functionality. That's not to say we haven't had a few bright ideas but nothing as yet that we want to commit to. So...dear readers and members, we are turning this over to you. How might we adapt this for use in this community? Remember that this could be used as a basis for all sorts of competitions, rankings etc etc. I have also investigated a user points system which could be used in conjunction with it and I suppose "the possibilities are only limited by the power of our imaginations". Well.....maybe that's a bit over the top, but I'm sure you know what I mean

Anyhoo if you have a bright idea please don't be reticent...drop a communique in comments below and lets see if we can do something with this....Diolch

The excerpt beginneth:-

"Categories
Create up to 50 categories and assign members to them. All of your members will begin in the default category, called Members. You can create and edit new categories via the Member Categories tab in the Member Management section. A couple of important limitations to note up front: the default category can't be edited, and members can only belong to one category at a time.

Listings
When you create a category, you have an option to create a listing page exclusively for the members in that category, and you can create listing pages for up to 5 10 categories. When you do this, a new submenu item for the category will appear in the submenu items for Member pages. You can choose the text for the submenu listing, so that you can pluralize or customize it. This is a great way to highlight specific members on the network.

Image and Text Badges
Each category that you create can also have an optional image or text badge that gets added as an overlay on a member's profile picture. Whether you create badges of honor or badges of shame, this is an excellent way to identify admins, reward special members, or just make it easy for visitors to identify different types of members. Text badges are based on the category name, and can be placed at the top or bottom of the profile picture. You can set the text color, background color, and the background opacity for each badge.

Images badges can be positioned in one of the four quadrants of a member's profile picture. We've included 22 badges to get you started, and you can upload and manage up to 50 of your own custom badges.

Text and Image badges will appear in most places in your network, but not everywhere. Right now they won't appear in Chat and in a couple of other places, like the profile images on sign in and sign up pages.

CSS Tricks
Designers and Network Creators who are comfortable with CSS will be pleased to know that each created category is associated with a CSS class that we're adding to the #xg_themebody div in profile pages. This means you can create CSS styles that will be applied to the profile pages of members in a category. This will let you do things like adjust the background or color scheme of every member of your network who's in a specific category.

Messaging
Once you've assigned your members to categories, you can use new functionality in the Broadcast Message feature to send a broadcast message to just those members. Choose any category you've created and proceed from there. The current broadcast message includes a subheader with the words "A Message to all members of Network Name". Now that you can target individual categories for messages, that text is no longer accurate, so we'll be removing it with this release. If you like that message and want to retain it, you can add it in manually like this:
<h3>A Message to all members of Network Name</h3>"

From the UK Telegraph:-

"Ajdabiya's inhabitants had been arming themselves with what they could. Some had guns but others came with machetes, axes, hammers, and in one instance a barbecue skewer. "We have come here to defend Ajdabiya," said Mohamed Abdrurrazeg, who grew up in Swansea. "It doesn't matter that I don't have a gun, because some of my friends do. I will just stand here with my people and die with my people."

Read more here:- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8357934/Libya-rebels-in-desperate-battle-to-hold-ground.html

Time to intervene?