Beach Ices at Praa Sands
Ice meeting the sand at the base of the low cliff behind Praa Sands Beach, West Cornwall. 6th January 2009....
Icicles at Trewellard Bottoms
Water seeping through a wall is turned to icicles, ate Trewellard Bottoms, where Geevor Mine meets the sea....
Winter Sunset at Levant
A late afternoon scene, at Levant Mine, West Cornwall. 7th January 2009....
Winter at Levant
The old electricity generator building, at Levant Mine, West Cornwall, during the recent cold snap. 7th Jnauary 2009....
BLAST! opened in the Tolmen Centre Constantine and played to 2 sell ourt crowds.
The shows went well and the response was great from the audiences on both nights.
The Tolmen centre is a jewel of a Village hall and I hope it continues to serve it's community for years to come.
It's off to Dorset, Somerset and Devon to do some flag waving for a couple of weeks.
Once again, many thanks to all of you who contributed to my questions, much of the spirit of your replies can be found in the final piece, we really are very grateful. Thank You.
Jack33
P.S. I'm serious Joe, tell me when you can come and I will book you 2 tickets, paid for from my own pocket. If you hate the show we will say no more but if you like it you can buy me a beer. Deal?
Im sorry but i read the synopsis of the content of this show and i found it patronizing to say the least. How many of the folk who went to the show actually caught on to the fact that this was in some way trying to highlight the very real problems faced by the indigenous people of Cornwall, or how many of them just went for a bit of a laugh at the stupid yokels night out?.
I would be interested to hear some of the thoughts that came out of the show?
I understand your worries about the content of the show.
The copy from the flier is just a teaser to get people in through the door. I cannot write a true synopsis as such as the show is sort of difficult to pin down into a short paragraph.
All I can say is that it is designed to be a show for community village halls, specifically those in Cornwall, if we poke fun at 'Yokels' then we would be poking fun at ourselves and our audiences as many of the village halls have a loyal local following.
The show is a piece of theatre and we need to entertain, beyond that it is also irreverant, mischievous, playful and packed with the sort of information that the pages of Cornwall24 has identified as missing from our education system here in Cornwall.
Speaking as someone who has seen the infamous 'Kernowman' more often that anybody should (twice) we were all keen to keep away from the sort of patronizing/bordering on racism humour that (I think) you are concerned about.
It has been written by a Cornishman for Cornish people, if an audience wanted to see Yokel baiting they would be dissapointed.
The show lasts for about an hour and half so there is not time to cover everything and please everybody but regular readers and debaters of Cornwall24 would find much familiar material, material that we are taking out into the community in a way that other theatre companies from Cornwall have done in the past (though it has been a while since the days of Cornish Agit-prop theatre)and we hope other media will in the future.
All I can encourage you to do is come and see the show, make your own mind up and then tell everyone what you think about it on this forum if you want.
If you hate it that is fine but make an informed decision, don't base it on the fluff from the flier. Let me know when you are coming and if I am there you can tell me what you thought in person, I'd be happy to chat after a show.
You would be most welcome
Jack33
P.S. Very sorry, my offer to Joe still stands but I can't keep giving away tickets to everyone who is worried about content, after all we have to make a living...
Singing Trelawny at The Cornish Pirates game
Seeing zennor moor , the best place in the world (equal to bodhmen )
The Cornish Flag Flying , that really gets me.
Going "up north" and explaining that i am cornish not english.Also going up north and COMPLAINING ABOUT THE STATE OF THEIR CORNISH PASTIES
Hates
COUNCIL HOUSES THAT HOUSE ALOAD OF CRIMINALS THAT DESTROY OUR TOWN
ENGLISH FLAG FLYING , THAT ALSO REALLY GETS ME , I JUST WANT TO RIP THEM DOWN , ESPECCIALLY WHEN
A) A CORNISH FLAG IS NOT FLYING
B) A CORNISH FLAG WAS THERE BEFORE AND NOW REPLACED.
ALSO WHEN ENGLSIH GO AROUND INSULTING CORNISH PEOPLE , HISTORY , LAND , CULTURE AND LANGUAGE
MY WORST , PET HATE IS THE ****** ENGLISH DROP LITTER AND DESTROY MY MOTHER LAND
Allow me to justify a few of those hates
Council Houses :
Our villiage is a small one 3 miles from the nearest town , near the zennor moor.It was a nice villiage , everyone knew eachother , it was a typical cornish mining villiage
But a few years ago , they bought some fields and built about 100 terraced council houses.
I am not saying everyone who lives in a council house is bad.BUT the troubles began when they had children , most of them were just layabouts , who drank ,smoke and did nothing.The children aka my generation have completly destroyed the villiage , there is graffiti all over the place , litter everywhere , they bully those who stand up for the cornish like me (they are ALL from London/Manchester/Birmingham and constantly pick on the peaceful cornish borns of the villiage , aka me (and only me all the others moved out of their way)and they also bully me because i do not join them.I ABSOLOUTLY DETEST THEM,AND THE BUILDINGS THEY LIVE IN!!
I know this is as close to spam as you can get but the Kowethas kindly translated some of our text for us and I wanted to thank them publically
Included is an image from the show, a remarkably sedate moment as Trevor relates the beginnings of the 1497 uprising
GWARNYANS! - Nos Tardhek yn-mes!
Diskwedhyans Kernewek, Gwariys gans tri Gesyer gokki!
Lywys gans Mike Shepherd.
Devisys ha gwariys gans Carl Grose, Craig Johnson ha Kirsty Woodward.
Trevor Suggs, Diyskynnyas ewn a Wov Kernewek, AnGof, yw dhe benn y stag. Kevys re beu y aver. Ytho, Trevor ha kesdhrewydh ha Mordardher fyllys Palores a dhiberth war hyns a weythres ewn. Gans dons an gwariellow-ayr treth, Kanow Mor bywek, Gaver vyghan, Ladhva a nebes Tesennow goedhgennin ha gwiryow didheurek a-dro dhe Geow Kernewek. Yma'n Gwari ma ow tos dhe Hel yn dha ogas gans sywyansow Apokalyptek!
Gwiw rag pubonan!
Gwra disputya genen mar pleg dervynnans fordh-entra a neb eghenn pan erghydh dha dokynyow.
In fairness Jack you are right i am drawing a few unfair conclusions to this show without actually seeing it for myself. Maybe i am being abit reactionary..its just i get really annoyed at the way Cornishness gets celebrated these days as if we are a bunch of simpletons. I draw your attention to such crap as doc martin etc etc. Anyway i will endeavour to see it
BLAST is a week away from the end of the tour and is pretty much sold out from here on in.
Your last chance to see a show about Cornish Suicide Bombers is about to pass
It seems only fair to include my 3 thing that I am proud of and that Float my boat.
My three things that make me proud:
1
Those Cornish hedges in West Penwith, I know you may laugh but they have been there since before the wheel was invented, that means this bit of the world has the longest unbroken history of civilisation in the world: it's like the philosophers axe, it does not matter whether they were Celts, beaker people, Irish Kerns, Angles, Vikings, Cornish, English or Poles, for 6000 years the farmers have been taking their cows and pigs in and out of those fields. They may not look like the hanging gardens of Babylon or the Forbidden City but they are far more important to me. They predated and have outlasted the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Mayans, the Aztecs and the British Empire, they were old when Christ walked the earth.
Just so people could keep cows, it is unbelievable.
2
Whatever that was in the skipper's voice when he turned the Penlee lifeboat round and went back in for the last time. I'm filling up just thinking about it. must have something to do with a culture of seamanship and an understanding that this was the only thing to do, there was no other way, this is what was right, just like breathing is right. There was no doubt. I hear bits of it in voices across Cornwall and in the line: ...here's 20 thousand Cornishmen will know the reason why'. To me it's about Cornwall understanding what is right and wrong and living it's life like that. It is like a fundamental belief that there is truth and transgressors of that truth should give account of themselves.
Reading this back I have made something beautiful sound like a right wing manifesto, it is not meant to, it is about family, community and the product of generations of working and family life solidifying into a truth about how we should all look after each other.
3
The blue seas, the cliffs, the lush valleys, the bleak moorland, the secret villages tucked away, the way the land can change in half a mile from an extreme of fertile greenery to a blasted granite wasteland. I feel alive when I am here and empty when I am not.
My three things that get my goat:
1
Being told that tourism is our saviour industry. Selling cheap imported shit to tourists, cleaning up the remains of their half eaten frozen burgers, formica surfaced theme parks with acres of ice cream stained tarmac dotted with dirty nappies, minimum wage jobs working for petty control freaks who stay in place through mild bullying and 'yes man' business politics, having to put up with the same mindless jokes from a parade of mindless tourists who left their brains somewhere in Dudley, having to point them to invisible toilets that happen to have the word TOILET written on the side in florecent letters ten feet tall, the stench of rancid suntan cream on burned flesh, tiny airless crib rooms with no windows, the two and a half mile an hour self imposed speed limit the public adopt on all public roads that extends to the ambling pedestrian crawl along the middle of pavements at all hour of the day. I could go on...
2
Being told "You'll never.." This really pisses me off. It started when I used to do community events and was told "you'll never ever get the Council to agree/people to turn up/local businesses to support/press to take an interest/commitment to do it a second year" and now extends into most of my dealings with officialdom in Cornwall.
Usually told this by fat red faced councillors in a conversation that is not actually a conversation but more like dodging paving slabs of ‘fact’ being thrown at you and feels like being dragged under a very slow moving steam roller.
Often these people have nothing to do with the subject being discussed but feel they have a right to comment.
The reason they are on this list is because they should know better and are supposed to be working for us, not against us.
3
The roads. The layout of, the maintenance of, the strategy for, the seasonal use of, the general use of, the aesthetic of, the wet weather use of, the snow strategy for and the general crappness of the Council's consideration of roads in Cornwall. I'll settle on the A30 if you need specifics.
Very good Jack33 , i agree with all of those.
The good and the Bad.
Tourism - i hate it , you pretty much covered it all in your explnation , i have to point out that we have farming and fishing and mining we have to all these english (and even pro-anglo cornish in some cases !!!) , but due to
a)low dairy & crop prices
b)Mines? why are they closed? Theres still 90 odd % still left , what are you waiting for , lets get mining.
c) Fishing quotas , what a silly invention , we dont have enough quotas to get the fish to become big.
all of these mean that the economies are restricted
Sometimes , it can feel the world vs Kernow when im talking , everyone is so anti-cornat(is that the correct word?) especcially those from up north.
They know what theyve been told by the press and not the real facts.
And they are reluctant to believe the truth aka kernow is not england.
Roads - i hate roads , and cars to be honest , im too green to like cars , i prefer the old horse and carriage stuff , No CO2 emmisions , no roaring of cars all day long.
But , we dont need this mass of tarmac , theres TOO much tarmac , Yes , there should be roads , but only ones that are NEEDED
Sometimes , things in nations history get your blood going , in a positive way , like the lifecrews who have lost their lives in aid to save others. Like the Cornish , threatening to rebel for Trelawny. So many things , the cornish are strong in heart i believe. Know what is right and wrong and dont stand for any of the wrong . You go down the streets of our villiages and there are cornish who will greet you in the street with a hello and a freindly smile. But then theres the city folk , who you smile at and greet and they stare at you as if you are a seagull speaking to them. I hate that.... i hate people coming down and
-Being racist towards our culture , langauge, traditions and customs (this i have experienced alot at school , brummies , scousers , mancurians , londoners coming down and being outrageously racist towards me and my fellow cornish
Rise in county's road death toll
The number of people who have died on Cornwall's roads rises in the last year to 35, police say.
Film con man ordered to pay £100K
The man who swindled almost £2m in a film studio scam is ordered to forfeit £100,000 by a judge.
Triplets survive against the odds
A woman from Cornwall who gave birth to triplets 14 weeks early describes their survival as a "miracle".
Call for inquiry into fire centre
Fire chiefs demand a public inquiry into the delayed opening of the regional fire control centre.
Prison sentence for benefit cheat
A man who admitted swindling more than £51,000 in benefits over a six-year period is jailed for 18 months.
Divers face trial over shipwreck
Three Cornish divers accused of plundering a shipwreck off the coast of Spain are to be tried in a Spanish court.
‘NO’ TO NUCLEAR WASTE IN CORNWALL - MPs
Proposals to bring nuclear waste to Cornwall have been described as ‘absurd and irresponsible’ by Cornish MPs.
Route Partnership Plan for Penzance unnecessary
Their plan having been rejected by the public in the final exhibition in Septmber with 90% against the Route Partnership have decided to try again in mid January after a mailout and poster campaign.The Chamber of Commerce has been at the forefront of this campaign.
)
all the others moved out of their way)and they also bully me because i do not join them.I ABSOLOUTLY DETEST THEM,AND THE BUILDINGS THEY LIVE IN!!
Phil Vickory leading out the Enlish Rugby Team.