Archive for 2015
Buster Keaton and Samuel Beckett
Buster Keaton, the twentieth century’s greatest comic, and Samuel Beckett, its most naked and unillusioned writer, once collaborated on a short silent film, based on Beckett’s only film script. I hadn’t realised this till yesterday. Or maybe I did know at one time, but forgot long ago – a common enough Beckettian condition. It was […]
Atalanta
For International Women’s Day, here’s a Greek woman of formidable talent and power. Since 1935 she’s lived in Swansea, in the collection of the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery. She’s hidden away from public view at the moment while the Gallery’s home is being modernised. She was absent from the big Christopher Williams exhibition curated by […]
Mr Gulliver’s voyage to the island of Lilliput
On Wednesday 25 February the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee invited two bankers from HSBC, Douglas Flint, Group Chairman, and Stuart Gulliver, Group Chief Executive, to give evidence about alleged wrongdoings by their bank. You can read everything they said in response to questions from the MPs on the Parliament website. It won’t take […]
Shani Rhys James
Who is Shani Rhys James? That seems to me to be the central question underlying all of her paintings. Many of the very best of them are gathered together in Distillation, a big retrospective of her works in Oriel Gregynog at the National Library of Wales. This is quite simply an overwhelming exhibition. It’s remarkable […]
Wales Coast Path, day 18: Llanrhidian to Loughor
Llanrhidian: a cold, clear, sunny morning. We park the car opposite the church and the ‘Welcome to Gower Inn’. Both are closed, but C. and I can welcome J. to Gower without the help of beer or devotion, and the three of us set off eastwards along the lane at the bottom of the village, […]
Y broblem o’r cyfoethogion eithafol
Fersiwn o gyflwyniad i aelodau Undeb Myfyrwyr Prifysgol Aberystwyth ar 11 Chwefror 2015. Dyma dri chwestiwn ichi: A oes ots os ydy nifer fach iawn o bobl mewn cymdeithas yn ennill llawer, llawer mwy na’r gweddill ohonom? Ydy’r sefyllfa hon yn ffaith naturiol yn ein heconomi, ac felly does dim modd ei newid? Os oes […]
Books and their readers defend Cardiff libraries
This afternoon hundreds of people from Cardiff and some from beyond came together outside the Central Library in The Hayes to protest against Cardiff Council’s decision to close six of its libraries and further diminish the Central Library. Many speakers, including writers like writers like Gwyneth Lewis, Jo Mazelis, Fran Rhydderch and Labi Siffre, emphasised […]
Wales Coast Path, day 21: Kidwelly to Ferryside
Early February, a glum cold morning. Like three dormice at the mouth of their hole, twitching their whiskers and sniffing the winter air, we emerge from our car on the edge of Kidwelly for a modest early year ramble. C. wears industrial strength gloves, J. a woolly hat advertising an Irish stout. It’s not half […]
Cardiff Central Library: defend it or lose it!
1 What has been lost “It’s hard not to feel utterly despondent at the current plight of public libraries. Along with the NHS and the BBC, our libraries are some of the few truly remarkable British institutions left. So often absolutely ordinary in appearance, a good library should offer escape routes down the most extraordinary […]
Cardiff libraries: a Council dispossesses its people
Cardiff is a thriving place. Big new developments are announced almost monthly. Recent ones include the new BBC Cymru Wales building near the station, the electrification of the Valleys railway lines and the massive Embankment complex. But while the Council pours resources into stimulating and supporting commercial growth, it leaves some of its basic public […]