Wye's Worsted Wool Pulled Over Our Eyes: Welsh Woodstock, Washington's (newest) War, and Iraq Withdrawal (Dim gobaith caneri gyda Bush)

Sir Michael Rose said the Iraq war cannot be won . . .
[Pictured above: Sir Michael Rose live from Hay-on-Wye, Wales.]

Bore da i chi! This has all the makings of another great novel (or perhaps my next motion picture screenplay, if I can only beat Gore Vidal to the punch): Welsh Woodstock, Washington's (newest) War, and Iraq Withdrawal (Dim gobaith caneri gyda Bush!)

A British military leader is saying the war in Iraq is lost, and he's using the platform of the Mid Wales Hay Literary Festival (what Bill Clinton called the 'Woodstock of the Mind') as his bullypulpit.

Once again international attention is upon Wales, which raises the question, 'Is Wales the centre of the Universe, and does the River Wye mark the great divide that separates Washington from Baghdad?' (just kidding, well, sort of).

So in the Welsh 'court' we have a British warrior announcing the war is lost and that we need to withdraw (Dim gobaith caneri gyda Bush), while in Washington's moral wasteland we have Bush announcing the troops will stay for 50 years -- high drama & political intrigue? Shakespeare's King Lear comes to mind . . .

To read more please see 'Ex-Army chief seeks Iraq withdrawal':

Guardian Hay Festival

And for the REAL TRUTH about what Bush & Blair have planned in Iraq:

50 More Years in Iraq?
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, May 31, 2007; 12:52 PM

The White House, long irritated by the frequent use of Vietnam as a metaphor for Iraq, embraced its own analogy yesterday: South Korea.

There's an undeniable attraction to holding up America's military presence in South Korea as a model for Iraq: Our soldiers stationed there aren't dying in large numbers every month.

But in other ways, the analogy is troubling. And flawed. And dangerous. And telling.

It's troubling because American troops have been in South Korea for more than 50 years -- while polls show the American public wants them out of Iraq within a year.

It's flawed because in South Korea, unlike Iraq, there's something concrete to defend (the border with North Korea); and because Iraq, unlike South Korea, happens to be in a state of violent civil war.

Read 50 More Years in Iraq?

Read 50 More Years in Iraq?

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

Visiting Smithsonian Fellow Surveys Welsh Cultural Resources; Folklorist in Residence

Pictured above:The Castle at Twilight, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

(Photos can be purchased from Scott L. Robertson Photography)

A Curator from the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage will be spending the autumn term as a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Glamorgan’s new ATRiuM Cardiff campus, which opens this year.

Folklorist Dr Betty Belanus will be in residence at the Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations to complete a survey of resources from past and current projects in cultural research and representation done on Wales which she has been working on with the collaboration of specialists in Wales over the past two years.

Dr Belanus said, “I am looking forward to having this very appropriate base at a research centre at the University of Glamorgan. Housed in the new Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries, it should be a good place to learn more about the range of work done by the media, universities, industry, museums, heritage organizations and community groups throughout Wales in recent years.

“I hope that in exchange I can share some of my experience in planning large cultural events with colleagues and students at Glamorgan and around the country.”

The research project supports a planned programme on Welsh culture for the 2009 Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., and a period of active fieldwork and consultative planning visits around Wales will begin with her extended stay. During this time she will have a chance to build on work developed over several years with a University of Glamorgan based collaborator, Dr. Teri Brewer, as well as colleagues in several other Welsh universities and the National Museum of Wales.

The Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations will host a special symposium on issues in the representation of Welsh identity abroad in November 2007 to coincide with the formal opening of the University’s new Cardiff campus. This symposium will be closely linked to work for the planned festival project and will be led by Centre Director Dr. David Barlow, with Dr. Belanus and Dr. Brewer.

Centre Director Dr. David Barlow said, “I am delighted that the Smithsonian will be working so closely with the Centre. Dr Belanus has a wealth of experience which will make this a very rewarding joint project.”

Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival, which celebrates its 41st year this summer, presents the culture of different countries and regions of the world together with programmes from different American states and regions in a 10 day period on the National Mall in Washington D.C. This event typically attracts more than two million visitors each year.

Glamorgan postgraduate student Aparna Sharma was recently awarded an internship developed in collaboration between the University of Glamorgan and the Smithsonian.

Sharma, who recently completed her PhD, is a documentary filmmaker and journalist with a particular interest in the visual representation of minority cultures and national and cultural identities. She is working with Dr. Belanus on Welsh materials and festival planning processes at the Smithsonian and in Library of Congress this spring.

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

"One day, you'll win the Ohio Welsh Eisteddfod!" my Grandma shouted.

Pictured to the right, Salvation Army Cadet Wilma Jean Poorman Woods, the 'Heralds' class of 1947.

As the third day of January snow silently fell on the grey steel mill stacks in the valley below our wood-frame house in Youngstown, Ohio, out of my bedside transistor radio roared the rock band, Three Dog Night singing, ‘Joy to the World, All the boys and girls!’

It was 1971. I was a pimply and awkward adolescent with a high IQ and thick, industrial-strength geek glasses. Can you say ‘bully-target?’

My mother, the stern, under-nourished Salvation Army Officer, showed up at PTA meetings in a red cape and heels, looking like a character out of Guys and Dolls.

My older brother traded in his uniform and trumpet for leadership of the ghetto gang, the same year I decided it was safer in my family and neighbourhood to stay ‘in the closet’ for a few more years.

My plan was simple: I would wear nothing but hippie ‘Earth Shoes’ and blue jeans and get a macho, racing bike, to prove I was not a piano-playing, slide rule pushing gay-boy freak. I dropped subtle hints to my Mom, who was scrubbing floors by day and going to college by night, when she wasn’t leading prayer meetings.

The wintry day had arrived, my 12th birthday — I was sure I would get my bike. My Mom lead me into the tattered but immaculate, lace-covered living room, where my Welsh Grandma sat, next to the matriarchal sewing machine and family Bibles, to unveil my gift.

What’s this? Not an athletic, pump me up and make me butch bike? There, beside Grandma’s cane sat the Polish neighbour lady, Mrs. Szlowkowsky, sipping my Mom’s strong coffee, while smiling and extending her hand.

My church lady Mom and Mrs. Szlowkowsky waved their pasty white hands, like angels guarding the Biblical Arc of the Covenant, over a large, scratched case with broken brass snaps.

Barely breathing, I popped the snaps and caught a vivid vision of my inevitable years of coming persecution: A refurbished, 12-Bass ‘Festival’ Accordion.

The smell of musty billows and mouldy leather made me choke.

“Mrs. Szlowkowsky has agreed to give you lessons, if you agree to help her clean the choir loft at Saint Stanislaw’s Catholic Church on the corner of our street, once a week,” my mother said.

Mrs. Szlowkowsky smiled and offered me a plate of sliced walnut ‘placek’ (Polish coffee cake).

“It’s a ‘festival’ accordion; you’ll like that!” my Grandma said, as I thought to myself, “Whatever ‘festival’ means . . .”

"One day, you'll win the Ohio Welsh Eisteddfod!" my Grandma shouted.

“Thank you, Mrs. Szlowkowsky,” I heard myself saying, as I drifted away, not knowing this quirky, portable polka-playing keyboard was about to doom me to an adult life suspended somewhere between John Candy’s Rustbelt humour and Liberace’s Las Vegas tastes.

And since I mentioned ‘Candy’, have I told how I once knew this girl . . .

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

Singled-handedly Arizonan Raises Worldwide Welsh Visability

Everyone is talking about how successful Carwyn Edwards has been, raising the visibility of the Welsh worldwide!

Have you read the latest newsletter from Carwyn?

'Latest News from Wales and All over the world!'

From the most recent newsletter, Carwyn refers North American Welsh folks to learn more about the Welsh elections and the Welsh Assembly Government:

Wales election, Thursday 3 May 2007

Carwyn's news article is read by 1000s, and appears in many blogs and portals on the worldwide web, including the Celtic Cafe and All Things Welsh

Celtic Cafe

All Things Welsh

If you are a member of the Welsh Diaspora, Welsh-descended, Welsh Ex-Pat, of Welsh Ancestry, or interested in Welsh and Celtic genealogy, heritage studies and modern Welsh culture in Wales and around the globe, then contact Carwyn to learn more:

Carwyn Edwards carwynedwards993@hotmail.com
1109 E Del Rio Street
Gilbert, Arizona 85296 USA

Welsh League of Arizona

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2007 Mark Leslie Woods

BBC Documentary on Ohio Welsh Diaspora premiers April 13 in the states

Oak Hill, Ohio. A British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) documentary that features southern Ohio in its discussion on the Welsh migration to America will be shown in Oak Hill on Friday, April 13.

The documentary has been shown in Wales already, and features the University of Rio Grande/Rio Grande Community College and its Madog Center for Welsh Studies, along with several area residents.

Jeanne Jindra, assistant director of the Madog Center, explained that the film will be shown beginning at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 13 at the Welsh-American Heritage Museum in Oak Hill.

"It's fabulous,” Jindra said about the film. The documentary provides a fascinating look at the Welsh migration to southern Ohio, and features interviews with area residents Bob Evans and Mildred Bangert. During the time the filmmakers were at Rio Grande working on the film, by coincidence the Madog Center was holding its Faculty Fellowship Presentation, which focused on the Welsh migration to southern Ohio.

For related information, read about the Welsh in Youngstown, Ohio:

The Welsh in Youngstown, Ohio -- (also the birthplace of Marc Miami)

To read the entire article, please see:

BBC Documentary on Ohio Welsh

For more information on the film or on the Friday, April 13 event, call Jindra at the (University of Rio Grande) Madog Center at 1-800-282-7201. For additional information on the Madog Center, as well as information on the wide variety of academic and professional programs offered by Rio Grande, log onto

Madog Center for Welsh Studies

[Wales]
[Welsh]
[Celtic]
[Cymru]