Gaabriel Becket


 

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Matthew Rhys, a native of Cardiff now living in Los Angeles, has appeared in more than 30 roles for film and television, including "The House of America," "The Edge of Love," and the television drama "Brothers and Sisters."


In 1885, a group of Welsh settlers in Chubut, Argentina set out to explore the Andes and found and settled Cwm Hyfryd, "Pleasant Valley". They were members of the largest Welsh settlement in South America, founded twenty years earlier by the passengers of the Mimosa .


Actor and author Matthew Rhys joined a group of the descendants of the original Cwm Hyfryd expedition to recreate their accomplishment, on horseback as they did themselves. Rhys has published a beautiful book of his photographs and commentary on this experience: Patagonia: Croesi'r Paith/Crossing the Plain , a photographic memoir of this journey by horse through the Patagonian landscape and some of its Welsh history.

Although formatted as a beautiful coffee-table style book, Patagonia is about equal parts text and photographs, mainly black and white. It's presented in English and Welsh, including an introduction in those languages and Spanish. Rhys has included some background history of Welsh immigration to Argentina and the story of the original journey, including a few wonderful historic photos of those early settlers and the Argentina of their time. Instead of a linear description of the trip, chapters focus on Rhys' companions and elements of his experience, with titles like "Lunch," about the routine of easting, resting and riding and "Knives," which gives some insight into the arrangement of the trip. Rhys describes the following encounter:


"A number of farmers, and their wives and children, came out to greet us. One old gentleman gestured toward me inviting me to slow down. He ventured something in Spanish, and I gave him my customary response:
"'Perdon, no hablo catellano, seor.'
"'Wyt ti'n siarad Cymraeg, fachgen?' ('Do you speak Welsh?') was his answer."


The photographs are excellent. Sometimes humorous, sometimes heroically panoramic. Sometimes warm and small and precise little narratives themselves of people and things.

Patagonia was a comfortable pleasure to read. Picture and narrative together subtly built a sense of place and people, of Rhys' experience, the things he saw and the men who accompanied him, the marks on the land the original settlers left and the effect all this had at the end of the trail. The people, the landscape and customs are brought vividly and splendidly to life and conjure the desire to enjoy an asado in the Andes with these wonderful people, in this beautiful place.

Patagonia is published by Gomer Press and is available through Amazon.com
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Anyone know who this is? Great pic, Ddraig Goch very visible! I'm assuming it's someone from the Arizona Welsh Society but whoever it is, nice pullover, dude!


More signs - some of them crass and tacky, some boring, many clever and very funny - here:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-100-best-signs-at-the-rally-to-restore-sanity
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So Ceri's started his "top blogger" competition and had me make some graphics for it, little sheep for No. 1, No, 2 and No. 3 spots and they're in the network gifts. I was thinking I could make whatever custom gifts people want so if you think of some things we should have in our gifts, let me know. At first we were thinking of red kites but we weren't sure that would be recognizable, so I did sheep with respectively gold, silver and bronze crowns..
sheep icon number one sheep sheep icon number three
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The Left Coast Eisteddfod prose and poetry event this year will be streamed live on AmeriCymru by the able technical expertise of Gerald Lewis of Ty Bach Productions. Ty Bach will also produce a DVD that can be purchased after the event for anyone who'd like to have it.

Spots are available for graphic ads to be aired during the broadcast and ad space will also be available on the DVD and a few spots in the program for the event. Your ad, your company, your logo, your product could be broadcast during this year's event. You never know where it might end up or who might see it.

Anyone interested in having an ad in the broadcast, the DVD or the program, please contact us at americymru@gmail.com or speak to Ceri.

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Saturday at NAFOW, Day Three


By gaabi, 2010-09-05
Ceri and I have been having a great time meeting people, seeing people and selling books by Welsh authors at NAFOW. A lot of people want books and it's been great fun talking about them.

Today the Great Plains Welsh Heritage Project table was absolutely surrounded by Rhys Bowen fans crowding in to get her to sign a pile of her books provided by local Portland mystery book store, Murder By The Book . Despite being right across from them, I couldn't see her at all, there were so many people.



Authors Lyn and Sharon Clarke also brought books to sell and Lyn was very generous and gave Ceri and I a copy of Gringo Revolutionary , the hard-to-find biography of Caryl ap Rhys, who invaded Tijuana flying the red flag during the Mexican Revolution, a very interesting guy and I'm sure a very interesting story. Thank you again, Lyn, we deeply appreciate it!



Last year's David Western Lovespoon winner Howard Evans very kindly and generously brought the 2009 spoon to NAFOW with him from Montana to show it off and help sell a lot of tickets for this year's spoon drawing. Good luck to everyone, David is doing this year's spoon with artist Laura Jenkins-Gorun and it is completely amazing!


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Today at NAFOW


By gaabi, 2010-09-04
It's the second day of the 2010 North American Festival of Wales and Ceri and I are sitting at the AmeriCymru table in the Welsh Marketplace. They've set up a tea room with never-ending hot tea and bakestones or Welsh cakes and I've drafted my oldest son to help out there, working being good for the development of teen character.Last night harpist Bronn Journey and soprano Katherine Journey gave a concert in the evening, following the opening ceremonies. Today there are Welsh language seminars, film showings and other events - see the NAFOW calendar for their schedule.Our table is across from the Great Plains Welsh Heritage Project , in Wymore, Nebraska, which operates the Great Plains Welsh Heritage Centre , an interpretive center of the history of Welsh communities in the midwest with film room, exhibits, a Welsh garden and a complete collection of Y Drych, the American Welsh language newspaper published since the 1800s and is the oldest ethnic newspaper in the United States.In addition to memberships and translations of Y Drych, today they're selling copies of the second edition of Hanes Cymru America . The author, Rev. R. D. Thomas, visited and chronicled US Welsh communities in 1872, recording their locations, the names of their inhabitants, descriptions of their communities. This edition was translated to English by Martha and Phillips Davies and is an amazing resource for anyone doing research on Welsh history in the USA. Author Peter Griffiths brought copies of his novel, Tongue Tied , and spent the day at his table meeting and talking to people in the market with his wife, Yvonne.Peter's interview with AmeriCymru can be found here . Painter Gwenllian Baldock is exhibiting and selling absolutely gorgeous gutta paintings on silk and some smaller pieces on silk scarves and prints.Tonight is the Cr Godre'r Aran concert and more tomorrow.
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Bryn Seion Gymanfa Ganu today!


By gaabi, 2010-06-27

I am sadly stuck home today with two sick small children so it's only the life online for me!
Today the incomparable Mr. John Good leads the Gymanfa Ganu at Bryn Seion Church in Beavercreek and I'm extremely sorry to miss this. If you haven't seen John perform, he's incredible! He does a Welsh language poetry seminar that's really amazing.

Ceri and I and three kids have gone to Bryn Seion the last three years and I've loved it, it's a lovely day in the beautiful woods with a bunch of people enjoying singing together. If you have a chance to go and experience it, please do, it's a lot of fun, a beautiful site of Welsh-American history and good fellowship.

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If you're on Facebook and you haven't already voted for us in the Chase Community Giving grant competition, please do!

http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/263243673-meriwether-lewis-memorial-eisteddfod-foundation

You have ten votes a day to bestow. We're trying our rear ends off to make it into third place, where 200 charities will each receive a $20,000 grant from Chase Manhattan bank. There are also many very worthy charities - like the Arms Wide Open children's cancer foundation that deserve first or second place - we're just asking for help to make one of those third place spots! This costs you nothing, it's just a vote!

If you have voted, for some other charities too, and after a few votes, you earn a gift vote - you send this to someone else who's voted for MLMEF and they can cast a SECOND vote for MLMEF - please ask them to do so! If you need any help figuring this out, Ceri and I will be on Facebook flat out for the day and can help you.

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