PO Box 765, Rapid City SD 57709 BlackHillsCelticEvents.org Info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org Volume _ Issue _ Month 2006 Serving the Celtic Communities of: Wales, Isle of Man, Cornwall (England), Glacia (Spain), Brittany (France), Scotland and Ireland You may contribute news and photos by email to Info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org 7:00 p.m. Board Meeting Nov 16 7:00 p.m. General membership Meeting, TREA Building, Rapid City PROGRAM: Jim Byrne’s trip to Ireleand Dec 7 7:00 p.m. Board Meeting Dec 21 7:00 p.m. General membership Meeting, TREA Building, Rapid City PROGRAM: Election & Hogmanay Plans Dec 29 Hogmanay Party: 1011 West Boulevard (Pat & Gary Hamilton’s) *TREA = The Retired Enlisted Association building, 1981 East Centre Street, Rapid City Hogmanay Last month I suggested that Hogmanay is a highlight event for SIS. I know that I always look forward to it. This year we will hold it on Friday, December 29, 2006. Why not have it on New Year’s Eve? The consensus at the October membership meeting was that since most people have other New Years Eve traditions, we would like to have Hogmanay on another night. This is not new to SIS. We usually pick another evening so that we can have more members attend. Pat and I are offering our home for the party. Please plan to attend and bring a guest or two. This is a great mixer for our members. It is a chance to visit without a lot of formality. The food is potluck, the entertainment is spontaneous and the atmosphere is warm. Pat and I hope to see you there! A word on the Celtic Festival The 2006 Gathering of the Clans was realized with the help of the Black Hills Scottish Athletes, Celts of America, String Thaw and several individuals from Rapid City, Hot Springs, Custer and Sturgis. We have been asked by this group to share management of the festival. At our last SIS membership meeting we passed a resolution in support of forming a separate organization to administrate the annual Celtic festival. Our resolution calls for satisfactory language in the by-laws of the new organization to protect SIS’s interests. Provisions should include keeping the event Celtic, our rights to representation on the festival board, priority for vendor sites and “ownership” of the festival if this third party organization were to dissolve. For the first time in the history of the Sturgis-Rapid City festival experience, the Gathering of the Clans actually made money. The funds are finally available to consider this move. This may not be an easy change for some SIS members. SIS has been connected to this event since its inception. Our organization has “owned” the festival since it moved to Rapid City in 2003. We have had control over virtually all aspects of the festival. What does SIS lose by giving up control of this event? We give up excusive control of the of planning and management decisions. We give up the potential for the income that a successful festival could bring. We give up the right to call it the Scottish and Irish Society’s festival. What does SIS gain by giving up control of this event? SIS would no longer carry the full financial risk. We would we share a very large responsibility with our wider Celtic community listed above. In doing so we would have the help of that community, just as we did for this year’s festival. The management of the festival would benefit through the input and the skills of persons from other organizations. By giving them a share of the “ownership” of the festival we widen our circle of friends in the community. All of us in the Black Hills Celtic community benefit. I, for one, am in favor of this change. Gary Hamilton Courtesy of Janice Murraine You missed a fantastic party !  Great food  (hot wing style chicken chunks, ham, corned beef & cabbage Irish stew , beautiful cakes and more), good people and  marvelous presentations by Sally, Matt and Paul. Darren piped for us. The jack-o-lanterns  carvers (Jan, Sabrina, Matt , Christine, Lise) really outdid themselves. We had shamrocks, Celtic knots, owl masks 3-D ghosts, ravens, aliens and more. We put a jack-o-lantern each table, and 7 large ones for the stage and piano.   Robert carved a 30-pound pumpkin of Greenman and a Phoenix rising from the ashes pumpkin. It was a lot of work but well worth it from the reaction of the guests. Pam and Ray went all out on the decorations for the pub. Both Clubs generated  lots of interest. We had pub patrons  that belonged to neither club  generously contribute  to  both our pot luck and the COA  bar tab. (Sorry I don’t have any photos to share. If anyone has any – pass ‘em along and I’ll put in the next newsletter!) We had fun at our October meeting at Knight’s house. Sally, the “Halloween Queen”, treated us to some audible and tasty Celtic treats! We will need to take a poll at the next general meeting to see if anyone had excellent dreams that came true after taking home the ‘dream stones’ to put under our pillows! Sally is sharing some Celtic Halloween Lore for our October meeting at her house. She also made a presentation at the Samhaim at Dublin Square. AND what’s Halloween, without a few spooks?!?!? JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!! Catalogs and Websites for your Celtic Buying Pleasure…. Besides learning of Celtic Halloween Folklore at October’s meeting, member shared Catalogs and Websites where they have had good luck purchasing Celtic gifts, clothing, etc. Below is a list of catalogs and/or websites that members have had good luck with. There was some discussion about the possibility of putting up this information on our website too. Be sure to bring up your desires at a future meeting. Please share any catalogs or websites that you’ve had good success with so we can share with our members! Dream Shoes (Bald Mountain): http://www.DreamShoes.com/ They have great sandals and shoes for both men and women. Pyramid Collection: http://www.PyramidCollection.com/ Clothing, jewelry, goblets (mail-order catalog available) Creative Irish Gifts: www.ShopIrish.com Clothing, trinkets, jewelry, caps, mugs (mail-order catalog available) Cashs of Ireland: www.cashs.com Dishes, glassware, clothing (mail-order catalog available) Shannon: www.ShopShannon.com Clothing, trinkets, glasses (mail-order catalog available) Sofi’s Stitches: http://www.sofisstitches.com/ Medieval and renaissance clothing Gael Song: http://www.gaelsong.com/ (mail-order catalog available) Celtic Croft: www.kilts-n-stuff.com Kilts, clothing, jewelry, etc (mail-order catalog available) The Celtic Shop: http://CelticShopDunedin.com This is our old friend Coleen Coble’s web site. Check out her wide assortment. Your Input Needed This newsletter would be far more interesting with your input: news, events, culture, history, photos, new Celtic businesses, anything. Submit your articles in MS Word doc and photos in jpg format. E-mail to info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org . The Associated Press By BEN McCONVILLE (Thanks to Mark Roland for submitting) EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) - A revolution is afoot at one of Scotland's most venerable kilt-makers: Among traditional tartans there are hip versions in denim, camouflage, leather and, for the adventurous, see-through pink plastic. Howie Nicholsby has dressed celebrities like Madonna and British pop sensation Robbie Williams, as well as local hipsters who wear his creations to Edinburgh's trendiest bars and nightclubs. Amid the bustle of his basement workshop on Edinburgh's medieval Royal Mile, Nicholsby pauses to explain his philosophy. "I'm not so much a designer as a radical evolutionist," he said. "I've taken the kilt back to its origins, to its roots and made it an everyday piece of clothing." Only one man stands in the 28-year-old's path to world domination in the line of hip kilts: his father Geoffrey, who heads the family business, Geoffrey (Tailor). Nicholsby explains his father's reaction to his first fashion kilt and doublet jacket, in silver snakeskin pattern PVC, which he hand-stitched 10 years ago. "He hated it and my mum, Morna, was not impressed either," recalls the designer. "Both of them thought, 'There is nothing in this.' They saw no sales in it. I was just 18 years old and made it for a family wedding." "Well, I'm still doing it today," he said. "I sometimes wish I'd kept it separate from the family business. I want to roll this out with shops in New York, Tokyo, Sydney and other hip cities, but I get vetoed by my dad." That first kilt now hangs in Nicholsby's office. In the shop there are row upon row of extravagantly designed kilts and jackets, from blue camouflage and orange silk to more conservative outfits in pinstripe and gray tweed. Nicholsby's next innovation was to make his kilts more comfortable. His epiphany came while climbing Masada in Israel. "I was wearing my camouflage kilt up the hill and I became incredibly hot and I felt sick," said Nicholsby. "Traditionally kilts are worn high on the waist in a military style, but it was just too much. So I pushed it down to my hips. When I got down the hill I just raised the hem and the hipster kilt was born." Geoffrey (Tailor) employs more than 50 people, including 40 tailors and seamstresses who work in a mill in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle. Off-the-rack prices start at $450 for a denim kilt, with the custom range going up to $2,500 for a black leather number complete with a thunderbolt kilt pin - as worn by film star Vin Diesel at the MTV Europe music awards in 2003. Nicholsby - who calls his side of the family business 21st Century Kilts - is leading by example. "I've not worn trousers on a regular basis for more than seven years. I wear a kilt every day, from a casual black woolen one to pinstripe for more formal events. I do have a pair of tracksuit bottoms for doing things around the house like painting." In a land that is fiercely protective of tradition, tampering with the kilt can ruffle feathers. When Nicholsby dressed Jack McConnell, Scotland's first minister, in a pinstripe kilt for Tartan Week in New York in 2003, the Scottish press and the lawmaker's political opponents condemned the outfit. "This was just another example of Mr. McConnell trying to make himself look Scottish and failing to look or sound authentic," sniffed Scottish National Party spokeswoman Jennifer Dempsie. "Some traditionalists find it hard to accept what I'm doing here," Nicholsby admits. "If I meet someone dressed head to toe in tartan kilt and tweeds, then I do often get comments.' "It's taken quite an effort to make the kilt cool again," he said. "Even in the early 1980s there weren't many young Scotsmen who were prepared to wear a kilt even for a formal occasion. Now that's all changed and we are enjoying a renaissance." Followers of Nicholsby's fashions are to be found in bars such as the Opal Lounge - once a regular haunt of Prince William. "I can walk into this bar in a suit and no one would notice," said TV anchor Phil MacHugh, wearing one of Nicholsby's camouflage kilts. "When I come in dressed in my kilt, especially the camouflage one, people are all over me." Nicholsby has been making inroads in the family business. In 2002, one in 20 garments sold by Geoffrey (Tailor) was a modern design and by 2005 this figure had risen to seven in 20. "I believe it will be 50/50 in sales soon," he said. Geoffrey Nicholsby's family business has been at the forefront of kilt innovation since it was established in 1971 and he has also had his fair share of glamor, dressing Sean Connery, Mel Gibson, Charlton Heston and Bo Derek. "It's not fair to say I don't like Howie's designs," he said. "I like them, especially the pinstripes, camouflage and the grays. It's just that Howie gets very excited by them, and I have to remind him that we do traditional kilts too." "Mind you some of them are a bit over the top," he said. "I don't know who'd wear the pink see-through one." We welcome any Scottish or Irish trivia from any member. Please submit your thoughts to Info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org or contact Pat Hamilton, newsletter editor. Are you hungry? An bhfuil ocras ort (On will uck-russ urt) (This should be a handy come the holiday season!) Paul Smith and Men of Worth: We reported on this ‘rumor’ in last month’s newsletter and here’s proof of the trio (or here’s proof of some good PhotoShop work!). Go Paul! Geneaology The genealogy association meets every 3rd Friday of each month at the Canyon Lake Senior Citizen’s Club. Contact Nila Boone if you have any questions. The Sons of Norway host dancing lessons at the Canyon Lake Senior Citizens’ Center each Monday evening at 6:30. We’re learning some Norwegian dances and are preparing to learn some Celtic dances. Call John or Nancy Burke if you’re interested in attending as their summer schedule may vary a bit. Not available. MEETING CALLED TO ORDER at 1915 by Gary Hamilton. TREASURER’S REPORT: there was a handout OLD BUSINESS: Plaque for Midge Schmidt is near completion. Samhain social at Dublin Square was a success and fun for everyone. Officer nominations: Bill Knight reported he will do a mass email to members as well as make phone calls as a reminder of upcoming elections. Hogmanay will be December 29. Gary offered his house but will ask members to vote on at next meeting. NEW BUSINESS: Burns Dinner: Gary and Bill will chair Bridget Medbury trip: Gary was approached by student, Bridget who has an opportunity to go to Ireland. She asked if there was any way that SIS could help with funding. Gary proposed that Bridget be offered the chance for fund raisers, raffles, etc at SIS events. John Burke made a motion that if Bridget would come to the next SIS meeting and give a presentation that $100 be given to her by SIS for her trip. Seconded by Jim Byrnes. Separate Festival organization: Statement of intent to have the Festival as a separate organization. Goals are to: 1. Keep it Celtic. 2. Revert ownership back to SIS up dissolution of the organization. 3. It will have it own corporate board. 4. Composition and qualifications of festival board. 5. Rights to vendor sites. STANDING BUSINESS: Newsletter due by 11/9. Next board meeting will be at John Burke’s. November program will be by Jim Byrnes about his trip to Ireland. Meeting adjourned at 2045. Sally Knight, secretary. President Gary Hamilton, info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org Vice President Bill Knight Secretary Sally Knight Treasurer Carole Conrad Board Members Aliyah Sanders, Kerry Smith, Jim Byrne, James Marrs, John Burke Membership Sally Knight Web Site Gary & Pat Hamilton Newsletter Pat Hamilton, info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org If you would like to contribute an article or story, list an event, submit a photo, etc. to the newsletter, please email the item to me by the 5th of each month. C:\Documents and Settings\Gary\My Documents\SIS\NEWSLETTER\Newsletter TEMPLATE.doc 1