Remembering Bendigeidfran our gorgeous Crow from 2009 - our 4th Braque de Weimar is named after him - Bran, is Welsh crow or raven. Taliesin - our 3rd - meets Bran in the picture!
May 2021 A.D. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE: COMMUNIST CHINA & ZIONIST ISRAEL? In August 2018, Gay McDougall, a US representative at the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, said that the committee had received many credible reports that ONE MILLION ethnic (MUSLIM) Uyghurs in CHINA have been held in "re-education camps." By now China has now built nearly 400 internment camps in Xinjiang region, with construction on dozens continuing over the last two years, even as Chinese authorities said their “re-education” system was winding down, an Australian think tank has found. Many are near industrial parks; there have been widespread reports that inmates at some internment camps have been used as forced labour. “Camps are also often co-located with factory complexes, which can suggest the nature of a facility and highlight the direct pipeline between arbitrary detention in Xinjiang and forced labour,” the report said. Beijing insists there are NO HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES in the region. Chinese authorities initially denied the existence of internment camps, then later described them as vocational training and re-education programmes that aim to alleviate poverty and counter terrorism threats. Palestine: in 2006 Hamas won the democratic elections in Gaza. Since 2007 ISRAEL – supported by EGYPT - started the blockade of Gaza by land, air and sea. TWO MILLION (about half of whom are under 18 years old), mostly MUSLIMS, with a minority of Christians, have therefore been suffering and dying long before the Israeli airstrikes began blowing up their homes and neighbourhoods. Dying from the lack of medicine, polluted water, the lack of electricity and the dilapidated infrastructure. International human rights groups are now precise and decisive in their depiction of Israel’s racist regime, including Israel’s own human rights group, B’tselem. Why does the USA and UK governments not speak out against Israel’s system of racial discrimination and apartheid? Why does the Western - ‘Christian world’ – treat this tiny strip of land (25 miles long and on average 6 miles wide, with two thirds of the population of Wales living there) and its inhabitants, with such contempt? Why? Why? Why? I have been to the ‘West Bank. I have experienced the arrogance of an Israeli ‘Settler’ and his Uzi submachine gun, in Israel ‘proper.’ A lasting memory on the sea of Galilee! I’ve never been to Gaza. Let Chris Hedges (American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Presbyterian minister) sum it up: I know the crimes of the occupation. I have witnessed the carnage: 1 the food shortages caused by the Israeli blockade, 2 the stifling overcrowding, 3 the contaminated water, 4 the lack of health services, 5 the near-constant electrical outages due to the Israeli targeting of power plants, 6 the crippling poverty, 7 the endemic unemployment, 8 the fear and the despair. By the way, Israel does not ‘occupy’ Gaza – it only ‘CONTROLS’ it from the outside! China and Israel and their Muslims! Can you tell me if there is a difference?
In a note dating from 1870-71, Nietzsche referred to his own philosophy as “inverting Platonism [umgedrehter Platonismus] : the further away from true being, the more pure, beautiful, better it is” (KSA 7, 7 [156], 199). At an early stage in his career Nietzsche saw his philosophic mission as anti-Platonic ...
1971 – 2021 … FOR HALF-A-CENTURY I HAVE WATCHED THE WESTERN DEMOCRACIES STAND BY AND DO NOTHING … EXCEPT SPEW FORTH MEANINGLESS PIOUS PLATITUDES, OFTEN IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS … SHAME ON OUR LEADERS. SHAME ON YOU ALL. AS FOR CHURCH LEADERS? THEY’VE LOST THEIR VOICES!
MORE IMPOTANT MATTERS 'OCCUPY' OUR POLITICAL LEADERS THAN THE ILLEGAL OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE BY A BRUTAL ISRAELI REGIME. WE NEED 'PEACE WITH JUSTICE' FOR ALL PEOPLES BUT THE PALESTINIANS MUST BE MADE TO SUFFER FOR SOMETHING THEY HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH. SHAME ON THE LEADERS OF THE SUPPOSEDLY ENLIGHTENED GLOBAL DEMOCRACIES. SHAME ON YOU ALL.
I’ve been musing these last few weeks about Covid19. Masks. 'Social ‘this and social that.’ Politics. Health. Daily briefings: Do this and Don’t do that. Etc. Etc. But I’ve been musing especially about Masks! The masks which have become a fashion statement as well as a good earner for some! Masks which have come to define so many of us. Masks which have already become a sort of secular version of the hijab, for both men and women. All this got me thinking about the funny community comedy theatre of C16th Europe: ‘Commedia dell’arte.’ We need a new version of this theatrical tradition for 2021. One for amateurs of all ages to join in with – with the help and support of as many professional actors as possible. This kind of theatre broke-down all kinds of social distancing by bringing people of all backgrounds together. It highlighted the importance of ‘the street’ or the community in people’s lives. It celebrated life. It celebrated humour. We urgently need this kind of ‘Comedy’ as a powerful creative tool for a national catharsis. To this end I am asking creative children and grown-ups to join me in launching a new N.H S. A National Healing through Humour Strategy. I’m inviting health-professionals, business people, actors, writers, religious leaders and politicians to support this initiative. Together we can make sure that a Mask of Apathy doesn’t become an integral part of national life. Individuals and families, communities, schools, streets, youth groups, etc, produce your own over-the-top characters and masks. Adapt existing masks or better still make them from paper mache: funny ones, honest ones, sad ones, happy ones and scary ones. Let masks help you tell your own Covid19 story. Let masks help you get back to your own ‘normality.’ This is also an ideal opportunity for many to develop the creative skills they might only use in private, as well as involving existing Arts & Crafts people in their own wider community. Your mask may be an original creation. Scary! Then again, it might be based on a TV, film or mythical character that has empowered you at this time in your life. It may be based on your favourite – or not so favourite – politician. It might be based on your own grotesque monster. Scary! Teachers and healers, story-tellers and artists are ideally placed to help and encourage all age-groups to deal positively with their own ‘demons’ – and believe me, there’s plenty of those around at the moment. I’m suggesting three stages for our post C19 national catharsis: 1. Making the masks. Communities can even arrange competitions in order to help celebrate some of the masks it has created. 2. Performing the masks and their narrative on street corners, shopping centres, places of worship, make-shift theatres if none are available etc. This is when an army of actors – professional and amateur – can get involved with groups to help them with their performances. Remember, many actors are healers, both individual and communal. And some actors also need our communal support at this time. 3 A ‘Bonfire of Masks’ festival at the end of the year, when individuals, groups and communities can finally let-go of their C19 selves and watch them literally go-up-in-smoke. (A small percentage of masks can be set-aside and preserved in community archives, schools etc, as a record of a challenging time in our history). In the original ‘Commedia dell arte,’ only women actors were allowed to perform without masks. Only they were allowed to show their own beautiful faces. While many of the original Italian ‘Comedy’ masks were truly grotesque, we appear to have made the act of covering our beautiful faces into something equally grotesque. Our infants, children and young people deserve better. Many of the original ‘Comedy’ actors wore masks in order to deceive and manipulate. We need masks – albeit on a temporary basis - to let honesty and humour back into our lives. Mass masks to help us let-go of our inner monsters. The late Italian actor, Dario Fo, once said; “With comedy I can search for the profound.” With a ‘National Humour Strategy’ we can search for, and discover, once more, the profundity of every human face. The beauty of the original face with which everyone of us was born. Please. Help me in setting-up a new N.H.S. And let’s get it done asap … A much-needed National Healing through Humour Strategy (NHHS). Geraint ap Iorwerth
One night, Matt innocently tried to break up a fight and ended up an homicide. Now, nine years later, he's trying to start from scratch with Olivia, his wife. A shocking call from Olivia's phone while she's on a business trip unsettles Matt, and he will start a frenetic race to discover the truth. His innocence will be questioned again, this time by Lorena, a police inspector investigating a suicide case.
A twisty novel/story with many layers and characters who have very complex lives - 'It is a true thriller with plenty of action and guns (well, it is set in America), vulnerable women who end up as strippers in seedy clubs and some dodgy police officers - although we don't know which of them are to be trusted.' (An Amazon reviewer ... I couldn't have put it better myself!
Eight Harlan Coben books have been transformed into 'movies:' The Innocent. The Woods. The Stranger. Safe. The Five. Just One Look. No Second Chance. Tell No One.
Although screened at Sundance film festival in 2018, very timely for 2021. A great performance and the cinematography was ideal for the Court Room setting. Harrowing at times, but well worth our Saturday night main movie slot. Good to see Jeffrey Wright whom I liked in Boardwalk Empire - was it 2010! I'm not a fan of Westworld, although I did try! JW also plays agent Felix Leiter in the James Bond franchise. I must admit though, my favourite actor for the latter was Jack Lord (d.1998) .
When I was a boy … by Holderlin When I was a boy Often a god would save me From the shouts and blows of men; I played safely and well With the flowers of the fields And the winds of heaven Played with me. As you make happy The hearts of plants When they extend to you Their delicate tendrils, So you make my heart happy, Father Sun, and like Endymion I was your favorite, Holy Moon! All true and neighborly gods! If only you knew How much I loved you then! True, at that time, I didn’t Know your names, and you Never bothered to name me, like men Who only pretend to know one another. Yet I know you better Than I’ve ever known anyone, I understood the silence of the upper air, But I’ve never understood the words of men. I was raised by the sounds Of the rustling grove And learned to love Among the flowers. I grew up in the arms of the gods.
The incessant beating of the drum, the pleasant melodies that carry the ecstatic visionary into the realms of the unconscious, reveal a world that is eternally becoming, where everything gleams in new colours, and speaks to us in new signs and characters., and, sometimes, in new myths.
Watch a New Director’s Cut of Prince’s Blistering "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" Guitar Solo (2004) https://www.openculture.com/2021/05/watch-a-new-directors-cut-of-princes-blistering-while-my-guitar-gently-weeps-guitar-solo-2004.html via @openculture
Prince & The Revolution - Kiss (Official Music Video) https://youtu.be/H9tEvfIsDyo via @YouTube
Prince & The New Power Generation - Cream (Official Music Video) https://youtu.be/rrbFQEcpJ3A via @YouTube
Denise Katrina Matthews (Vanity). Both Vanity and Prince dies in 2017, both aged 57.
The Fugitive Stag 