Finally, something happened in my village. Well, actually it happened in Newport and Cardiff, but they're just an hour down the road from me so it's close enough.
It is of course no secret that the 2014 NATO summit was held at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport a week and a half ago over the course of two days. In that time all sorts of things happened. Even before the summit began, mile after mile of metal fencing, now called the "Ring of Steel", was put up around the Celtic Manor and stretched back all the way to Cardiff Castle. Security and police forces were drafted in across the UK to ensure that the first serving US President to visit Wales had a safe and pleasant trip. Sixty six world leaders turned up for the summit, along with the biggest show of military might Wales has seen in a long while.
I wasn't aware that NATO was coming to Wales until I heard about it on the news. I saw the Ring of Steel when I went past the Celtic Manor on my way to Edinburgh, and by the time I returned the security presence was being felt across Newport. Shortly before the summit was due to start, I had a close encounter with US security forces when an Osprey V22 flew over my house. It was probably searching for potential assassins or bombs and the like, but it was a clear indicator that the US Air Force has never visited South Wales before.
Thursday arrived, and so too did Barack Obama with David Cameron and the rest of NATO. Quite what Obama made of Wales wasn't initially clear, but when he visited Mount Pleasant Primary School in Rogerstone he greeted the children by saying "bore da". I never thought I'd see the day. Then the summit began in earnest, with items on the agenda including the fighting in Ukraine, the crisis in Iraq and various other things. On the Friday evening it was over, and the world leaders all went home again.
Now what was I doing during all of this you might ask? Well, I'm ashamed to admit that I slept through the flypast of the Red Arrows and military aircraft on the Friday morning. I did however manage to go and see HMS Duncan and the other ships docked in Roath Basin in Cardiff Bay. Although they weren't the biggest ships in the world, HMS Duncan reached the height of some of the nearby apartment buildings. The fencing and the constant police presence added to the feeling that something extremely important was occurring in the Welsh capital.
Whether the NATO summit will have any lasting benefits for Wales remains to be seen. Certainly Obama seemed impressed by the Welsh people, and it looked like the other world leaders were too. Then there was the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, announcing to the world on the lawn of the Celtic Manor that a ceasefire had been reached in Ukraine. It gave the impression that the summit had actually achieved something, although fighting is currently continuing in the country.
It would be tempting to discuss the issues faced by NATO, such as the situation in Iraq, the fighting in Syria, and the conflict in Ukraine. It would also be tempting to examine how effective NATO has been in achieving its aims. While from my point of view, NATO appears to be making ground on these problems, the situations they are faced with are far too complex for simple military action to set right. I say this, but then I wouldn't know what the correct answer to these challenges would be. I'll leave those questions to the political commentators.
So, there we are. Something finally happened in South Wales, and it just happened to be NATO who decided to drop in. I doubt I'll have a lot to talk about following this, but expect a poem or two in the next few days.
Sunday 14 September 2014
Friday 5 September 2014
Return from Edinburgh
It's been two weeks since I returned from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and now that I've had some time to reflect I feel I ought to share my verdict of it.
First off, I must say that it was insane; that is, in the best possible way. It's one thing reading that there's three thousand or more shows going on, but it's another to be on the Royal Mile when everybody's out and flyering as if there's a flyer shortage. Literally every taste is catered for; comedy, theatre, spoken word, cabaret, the list is comprehensively endless. The shows I saw were certainly indicative of the variety on display.
One such show, Janis Joplin: Full Tilt was a musical detailing in the space of an hour the life and death of the famous singer. It blended some of Joplin's hits together with acted segments and archived recordings of Joplin to produce a fantastic show with no fault in the musical department. Especially impressive was how Angela Darcy's voice was identical to Joplin's, so that it was almost impossible to spot the difference. I didn't know anything about Janis Joplin before, so this show actually proved educational for me. For that alone, I think it was brilliant.
Kevin P. Gilday is the Man Who Loved Beer was a completely different affair. This was the first time I'd seen spoken word in action outside university, and my verdict is somewhat conflicted. It detailed Gilday's relationship with beer and the effects it had on his everyday life. Compared to what I've seen of spoken word in the past, it was skilfully done and Gilday's Glaswegian tones definitely added to it. However, I feel that most spoken word artists tend to use the same pace and tone of delivery when reciting their poems. Gilday was no exception, although in this case I think it was suited to the material.
The other show I ended up seeing was a performance by Out of the Blue. This a-cappella group is made up of Oxford undergraduates, and appeared on that TV talent contest that everybody seems to love back in 2011. They performed a selection of songs, including their cover of a Shakira song that went viral, and they were better singers than I was expecting. They even managed a bit of improvisation with a member of the audience during a couple of songs. The hilarious enthusiasm with which they carried the performance made them an act worth seeing twice - which unfortunately I didn't.
To say that these shows represent the tip of the iceberg is devaluing icebergs. The whole of Edinburgh is packed to the brim with shows during the Fringe, each one of them vying for an audience and a review or two. Some have questioned the quality of the Fringe in recent years, but if the shows I saw are anything to go by, then the question of quality is somewhat irrelevant. The Fringe is designed to enable artists to try new things, and all of these shows were great in their own right.
I must also mention my visits to a few other places in Edinburgh. I took a tour of HMY Britannia, which is hardly your average cruise ship. I had expected the Britannia to be fifteen hundred tons of wealth on water, but it was much less ostentatious than that. It reminded me of my grandmother's house, albeit with narwhal tusks and whale ribs in the main dining room. The overall feel was of a ship designed to act as a floating country house, which was apparently the Queen's original intention.
The other place I visited was Edinburgh Zoo. The zoo is famous for its giant pandas, but I didn't see them because the female, Tian Tian, was pregnant and the enclosure had been closed as a result. I did see several other animals though, including a pair of jaguars roaring at each other, rhinos enjoying their lunch and penguins sunbathing just before a thunderstorm arrived. The zoo seems good enough, with decent and spacious enclosures for the animals to run around in. However , judging by the way one of the jaguars was calling for food, and the bare pen the tigers sleep in, it still has some small room for improvement.
When I look back on my visit to Edinburgh, the city seems like one of the better places I've visited; that's to say it's one of the few places I've visited in recent years. The place is brimming with culture, vibrancy and warmth, and nowhere is this more apparent than during the Fringe. I highly recommend that if you must go to one of the Edinburgh festivals, surely it must be this one.
First off, I must say that it was insane; that is, in the best possible way. It's one thing reading that there's three thousand or more shows going on, but it's another to be on the Royal Mile when everybody's out and flyering as if there's a flyer shortage. Literally every taste is catered for; comedy, theatre, spoken word, cabaret, the list is comprehensively endless. The shows I saw were certainly indicative of the variety on display.
One such show, Janis Joplin: Full Tilt was a musical detailing in the space of an hour the life and death of the famous singer. It blended some of Joplin's hits together with acted segments and archived recordings of Joplin to produce a fantastic show with no fault in the musical department. Especially impressive was how Angela Darcy's voice was identical to Joplin's, so that it was almost impossible to spot the difference. I didn't know anything about Janis Joplin before, so this show actually proved educational for me. For that alone, I think it was brilliant.
Kevin P. Gilday is the Man Who Loved Beer was a completely different affair. This was the first time I'd seen spoken word in action outside university, and my verdict is somewhat conflicted. It detailed Gilday's relationship with beer and the effects it had on his everyday life. Compared to what I've seen of spoken word in the past, it was skilfully done and Gilday's Glaswegian tones definitely added to it. However, I feel that most spoken word artists tend to use the same pace and tone of delivery when reciting their poems. Gilday was no exception, although in this case I think it was suited to the material.
The other show I ended up seeing was a performance by Out of the Blue. This a-cappella group is made up of Oxford undergraduates, and appeared on that TV talent contest that everybody seems to love back in 2011. They performed a selection of songs, including their cover of a Shakira song that went viral, and they were better singers than I was expecting. They even managed a bit of improvisation with a member of the audience during a couple of songs. The hilarious enthusiasm with which they carried the performance made them an act worth seeing twice - which unfortunately I didn't.
To say that these shows represent the tip of the iceberg is devaluing icebergs. The whole of Edinburgh is packed to the brim with shows during the Fringe, each one of them vying for an audience and a review or two. Some have questioned the quality of the Fringe in recent years, but if the shows I saw are anything to go by, then the question of quality is somewhat irrelevant. The Fringe is designed to enable artists to try new things, and all of these shows were great in their own right.
I must also mention my visits to a few other places in Edinburgh. I took a tour of HMY Britannia, which is hardly your average cruise ship. I had expected the Britannia to be fifteen hundred tons of wealth on water, but it was much less ostentatious than that. It reminded me of my grandmother's house, albeit with narwhal tusks and whale ribs in the main dining room. The overall feel was of a ship designed to act as a floating country house, which was apparently the Queen's original intention.
The other place I visited was Edinburgh Zoo. The zoo is famous for its giant pandas, but I didn't see them because the female, Tian Tian, was pregnant and the enclosure had been closed as a result. I did see several other animals though, including a pair of jaguars roaring at each other, rhinos enjoying their lunch and penguins sunbathing just before a thunderstorm arrived. The zoo seems good enough, with decent and spacious enclosures for the animals to run around in. However , judging by the way one of the jaguars was calling for food, and the bare pen the tigers sleep in, it still has some small room for improvement.
When I look back on my visit to Edinburgh, the city seems like one of the better places I've visited; that's to say it's one of the few places I've visited in recent years. The place is brimming with culture, vibrancy and warmth, and nowhere is this more apparent than during the Fringe. I highly recommend that if you must go to one of the Edinburgh festivals, surely it must be this one.
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