SHETLAND SAGA: A SOOTHMOOTHER'S STORY

 

This is my first book -JUST PUBLISHED! It’s sat on my shelf since 2008 waiting for its moment.With encouragement from friends and help from Dave Lewis of  publishandprint it’s now available to download. I would welcome your feedback either directly or through Amazon reviews. Please feel free to circulate or forward this email to your friends and networks.

‘In 2004, Janet and Ieuan Rhys Daniel left their marital home of twenty-five years in South Wales to live and work in the Shetland Isles. This is the story of their experience and explores themes of attachment, relationships, connection, remoteness and belonging.’

A paperback version will be available this autumn.

Shetland Saga: A Soothmoother's Story by Janet Teal Daniel ​  Learn more   Connect with us © 2011 Amazon EU Sàrl, 5 Rue Plaetis, L-2338 Luxembourg, Registered in Luxembourg, RCS No. B101818, Share Capital: 37500, Commercial No. 104408 Please note that this message was sent to the following e-mail address: counsellingcardiff@gmail.com Janet Daniel (counsellingcardiff@gmail.com) requested that we send this e-mail. If you have questions about Amazon.co.uk, please visit our Help Department.

AMY: A documentary film

This latest documentary about the great jazz/blues singer/songwriter, Amy Winehouse, is directed by Asif Kapadia and currently on general release. It has had mixed reviews. I saw it last night.
 It felt apt as today, July 23rd, is the fourth anniversary of Amy's death, although it feels like a lot longer the world has been without her. She died of a heart attack brought on by alcohol poisoning.
  The film expresses Amy's fear, from the outset her career takes off and even before, that she would not be able to cope with the consequences of becoming famous. There were those who stood by her through her drunken, drug fuelled episodes, such as her two long-standing school friends and her first manager.What the film shows is that some of those close to her and who loved her also became part of a music industry machine in whose interests she became  their product. 
   Amy's brilliance, originality and superlative voice, like much great art came out of the pain of a difficult childhood, stormy adolescence, love and loss of love; her father and mother separated when she was 9years old, the very time before puberty when a child needs to feel secure. Then a stormy adolescence, when she started to develop bulimia and later relationships that were intense, wonderful and destructive.  She was vulnerable and particularly so in her relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil, later to become her husband and who introduced her to crack cocaine and heroin.
    Although some of those close to her tried to help her go to rehab when things started to go wrong, her desire for her father's approval and advice, which was that she didn't need to,( so she said, No, No, No!), prevented her from getting help at an early stage. She did later get help and got off drugs but couldn't give up the bottle.
   She didn't want to go on her final tour but her agents would not listen. Too much money at stake. Her only way of getting her voice heard eventually was self-sabotage, getting pissed on stage in Belgrade, unable to sing and booed off by her fans. This was the saddest image to me of a vulnerable, beautiful and talented young woman, who just wanted to write her songs and make music.

150

"Wales' two national theatre companies - National Theatre Wales and Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru - team up for the very first time, with one of the country's leading artists, Marc Rees, and broadcaster S4C to create ​a visual and storytelling feast.

Performed in English, Welsh and Spanish, {150} will bring to life key moments in the story of the 150 Welsh men, women and children who settled in Patagonia in 1865, and the lives of their descendants today.

This multi-platform production, combining live performance in Wales with a specially commissioned film from Patagonia, will be staged in the Royal Opera House stores near Aberdare - a vast building not normally open to the public, close to the homes of many of the original settlers.' (NTW publicity)

 

       We were not in a good mood arriving just in time as signposting was inadequate if you were coming through Abercomboi.  We gathered with others as the show started from outside the 'theatre.'

       This production is very ambitious and all credit to the NTW in continuing to look for unusual and dramatic settings for their productions of an epic nature. Last year's production of Mametz set in the Usk countryside and woods resembling the battlefields in France, was absolutely superb. All of our emotions and senses were brought into play.

       150 is in another dramatic setting; the stores of the Royal Opera House, dark, eerie and huge. The lighting and staging effects are amazing. However, without a script writer, the production is a series of dramatic fragments, it lacks cohesion and is difficult to follow. I had no sensory experience of the scale or the hardship of the pampas, apart from the scattering and pouring of oats and being told it was hard. I had little emotional engagement with the historical characters or their struggle.  This is mainly demonstrated by a few key incidents in the history of the Welsh colony that are repeated in different ways through dance, music, oration and sketches by school pupils.

         Interjected in the history is a video telling the contemporary story of a young Patagonian woman who has journeyed to Wales, worked in Pobol y Cwm, the Welsh language soap, and returned to Patagonia, confused about her identity and where she belongs. This works quite well as we have a character who we get to know and see her struggle mirroring in reverse the struggle of the early Welsh migrants.

       I came away disappointed. It would have worked so much better with a script pulling it together and staged in a place where our senses are invoked of the pampas, the bravery and courage of the pioneers, in a place perhaps such as the nearby scrubland of Hirwaun.

       Tickets available today, the last day from www.wmc.org.uk

MERCHANTS OF DOUBT

 I went to see this film, Merchants of Doubt at the Watershed in Bristol last night. It's being shown as part of the Bristol Festival of Ideas. Based on the book of the same name co-written with Erik M. Conway in 2010 by Naomi Oreskes, professor of the History of Science and an affiliate professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. She analysed nearly 1000 scientific journals to directly assess the magnitude of scientific consensus around anthropogenic climate change. Naomi was at the film to answer questions afterwards.
In the blurb it says,
" The US scientific community has long led the world in research on public health, environmental science and other issues affecting the quality of life. Their scientists have produced landmark studies on the dangers of DDT, tobacco smoke, acid rain, and global warming. But at the same time, a small yet potent subset of this community leads the world in vehement denial of these dangers....'

    The film maker Robert Kenner shows us the games and strategies played by the PR consultants who work for companies in the oil and gas industry and who use dirty tactics to discredit scientific claims. In the so-called 'interest of balance' these views get disproportionate air time on TV and Radio.  The sad irony is that the impact of man made carbon emissions on the arctic and climate change means that the melting ice cap makes it easier and cheaper for these companies to explore new oil and gas fields.    
     When asked by a young woman where can we find hope in the situation, Naomi replied that some hope lies with China, who are starting to address the issue of climate change because of the considerable political impact that pollution in the big cities has on the health of the inhabitants and voters.  She also cited pockets of good practice in British Columbia. New technology such as carbon capture is really important, as is carbon taxing, and even the Pope through his forthcoming encyclical message may have Catholic deniers moving to the moral high ground.
    Merchants of Doubt is not on general release but look out for it at arts centres and festivals. It's probably one of the most important films about the deniers of climate change v scientific evidence since Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.

THE LOOK OF SILENCE

Last night I saw Oppenheimer's new film The Look of Silence. It's a disturbing documentary about a brother's search for the truth in 1965/6 Indonesia, when over a million so-called communists were massacred in sadistic killings during an army coup led by General Suharto. Adi is an opthalmologist and uses the offer of eye tests and new glasses to ask questions of the perpetrators, who seem to relish the retelling of their crimes without remorse. In fact, the drinking of human blood is celebrated as a cause for their longevity and strength. Interspersed are scenes with Adi's very old parents. His father blind and demented. His mother, washing and caring for him, sad and still grieving for her son murdered fifty years ago. 
        We constantly come back to the surreal image of a toothless perpetrator wearing the clunky glasses used to determine his prescription. The symbolism of sight-or lack of it- is used throughout, right to the end credits, where some of the film makers are listed as anonymous.  No doubt because many of the men interviewed are still in power in their communities. I was a young volunteer in Jakarta a couple of years later and so the film has particular resonance for me. Currently on general release I highly recommend The Look of Silence  to you.

BLACKBIRD

 

You woke me.

Your voice sharp

with vibrant zest,

an alarm call

from the top of the apple tree

urging me to get up

and celebrate the spirit

of this post-rain morning.

Sun-rays like fingers

open the eyes

of your sleepy babies 

in their ivy nest.

We are waiting for breakfast,

and still you sing and trill on.

 

JTD, April 27,2015

CLOWNING ABOUT

I've always enjoyed clowning about and have been known to be especially wild after a few drinks. How refreshing then to be wild without the alcohol. Holly Stoppit was brought up in the circus and for the past 15 years has been entertaining people, running workshops and groups in the art of clown. She is also a drama therapist and understands the earthquake potential of releasing our inner clown.
If you want a weekend of madness and mayhem, fun and frolic, creativity and connectedness and be in a pair of very safe hands,
see https://www.facebook.com/hollystoppitworkshops

skindancing

Last week I attended the launch of Susan Richardson's new collection of poetry, skindancing (Cinnamon Press, 2015)  at the Waterloo Tearooms in the Wyndham Arcade  Cardiff.

   'skindancing is themed around human-animal metamorphosis and our dys/functional relationship with the wild/our animal selves. Its sources of inspiration include shapeshifting tales from a number of different cultures, from Inuit to Celtic, Native American to Norse, as well as Susan's ongoing engagement with shamanic journeying. As with Susan's previous collection, Where the Air is Rarefied, it features illustrations by visual artist Pat Gregory, who also created the mesmerising cover.'
     Susan was my creative writing tutor for several years and helped me write my book Soothmoother's saga. She is a brilliant performer and her poetry is poignant, funny, bawdy, surreal,  moving and quite unique; to use just a few describing words. The intricate and clever pencil drawings by Pat Gregory contain Susan's world within the framework of Celtic knots and patterns.

The Exhibition of poems and images goes on until Monday 1st of June.

Then it transfers to Waterloo Tea, Stanwell Road, Penarth and will be on until Thursday 2nd of July 2015.  

 On Tuesday 16th of June Susan is reading and performing her work in Penarth. If you want to be entertained and hear poetry from a mistress of the craft -Don't miss it!*
For further info: see www.susanrichardsonwriter.co.uk/poet/skindancing
A3 prints of Pat's drawings can be had for a mere £15 for black and white and £20 for a coloured front cover print. They can be ordered from patj-gregory@gmail.com

*Waterloo Tea has a lovely selection of teas served in ceramic pots and delicious cakes are very good too.

WRITERS IN THE PARK SIZZLES

Writers in the Park, the group I set up in January this year has taken on a life of its own. We finished for the summer last month and members are keen to encourage each other to go on writing. Members have set up a closed Facebook page. One member is sharing a 5minute writing exercise each day on it which is getting some to write and others to think about writing.
        Today we went on a Writers walk along the River Taff. The subject was a Fungi Foray and one of the members Jane, who has some knowledge in this area lead us to look closely in patches of rotting wood for shrivelled jews' ears and other fungi. She showed us part of the old Glamorgan Canal and inspired us to think about its industrial history-the horses that pulled the barges of coal coming down from Merthyr and questions as to who carved the building stones, how many men did it take to lift them, why are there three arches in the wall, was it a house, an engine room, a store house. What was life like for the working classes who built the means for landowners to become rich?
      Lyn took photos of unfurling ferns, patches of violets, primroses, and a selfie of us on  a grate over the Radyr Weir (was afraid we might be writers in the water). Then as Jane left us suddenly a turquoise kingfisher darted along the river, not once but twice. I hadn't seen one since just after my hip operation nearly four years ago.
     'In Arthurian legend the Fisher King, or the Wounded King, is the latest in a long line charged with keeping the Holy Grail. Versions of his story vary widely, but he is always wounded in the legs or groin and incapable of moving on his own. In the Fisher King legends, he becomes impotent and unable to perform his task himself, and he also becomes unable to father or support a next generation to carry on after his death. His kingdom suffers as he does, his impotence affecting the fertility of the land and reducing it to a barren wasteland. All he is able to do is fish in the river near his castle, Corbenic, and wait for someone who might be able to heal him. Healing involves the expectation of the use of magic. Knights travel from many lands to heal the Fisher King, but only the chosen can accomplish the feat. This is Percival in earlier stories; in later versions, he is joined by Galahad and Bors.'  (Wikipaedia)   As Barbara said afterwards it was a perfect gift  to end our stroll.
     Next week for the summer months and without my input, Writers in the Park becomes Writers in the Pub as the writers take on more initiative and organise themselves to meet weekly at a sizzlers' pub for breakfast, chatting and (supposedly!) writing. They are also providing a mutual support network encouraging each other and friendships are blossoming. I'm a proud Mum!
    

THE IMAGE AS A BURDEN -MARLENE DUMAS

'Marlene Dumas is one of the most prominent painters working today. Her intense, psychologically charged works explore themes of sexuality, love, death and shame, often referencing art history, popular culture, politics and current affairs.
     ‘Secondhand images’, she has said, ‘can generate first-hand emotions.’ Dumas never paints directly from life, instead choosing to use pre-existing images for her source material. Her subjects are drawn from both public and personal references and include her daughter and herself, as well as recognisable faces such as Amy Winehouse, Naomi Campbell, Princess Diana, even Osama bin Laden. The results are often intimate and at times controversial, where politics become erotic and portraits become political. She plays with the imagination of her viewers, their preconceptions and fears. She cherishes the potency and physicality of painting and what it brings to the image.
    Born in 1953 in Cape Town, South Africa, Dumas moved to the Netherlands in 1976, where she came to prominence in the mid-1980s. This large-scale survey is the most significant exhibition of her work ever to be held in Europe, charting her career from early works, through seminal paintings to new works on paper.' ( Abbreviated and adapted from Tate Modern catalogue)

        I didn't know Marlene Dumas' work, but now exposed to it some of her paintings and images are incised in my psyche. Using colour to create mood and psychological impact, some are very disturbing, such as the child in The Painter, whose hands could have been dipped in human blood not paint. I loved the sad jazz note of Amy Winehouse's portrait so much I bought a print. If you don't know her work, this is another MUST SEE

Marlene Dumas: The Image as Burden

Tate Modern: Exhibition

5 February – 10 May 2015

Adult £16.00 (without donation £14.50)
Concession £14.00 (without donation £12.70)
Help Tate by including the voluntary donation to enable Gift Aid
No booking fees with this exhibition
Under 12s go free (up to four per parent or guardian). Family tickets available by telephone or in the gallery.
Learn more about Dumas through related events

Please note: This exhibition includes some works with explicit content. Please contact us for further information.