
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Nice Ad for Armagnac

Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Beret Knitting Machines - Old and New

![]() Beret Knitting Machine |
Product Description
This machine is a pioneer design in our domestic market, can replace similar imported machinery. In using this machine, it improves the labor efficiency, reduce the production cost, specific in knitting beret, worker hat, summer hat, jacquard hat.This machine is using the new design cams, using fine materials, and equipped the new design of pattern programming system. Once inputting the program correctly, then it will complete the transformation of the pattern within a few minutes. Easy operation.
Monday, February 8, 2010
The Life of Shepherd Pascal Berger

A beautiful picture of a shepherds life in France is sketched on these pages by shepherd Pascal Berger (translation in English here).

Saturday, February 6, 2010
La Poste and the Beret

From top to bottom: Postman 1961-1977, Post woman 1960's, Unknown period, Postman 1978-1988 and last a beret of an army postman. 
Friday, February 5, 2010
Canadian Comrades with Boinas


Thursday, February 4, 2010
A Béret Basque in Denim?
Hope and André Malraux


After the war, Malraux become a strong supporter of de Gaulle, minister in various Gaullist governments, a prolific writer and an outspoken anti-communist.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Libertarias & Mujeres Libres

One of the great movies on the Spanish Civil War, is Libertarias:

It is 1936, and the Spanish Civil War has just begun. María (Ariadna Gil), a young nun, is forced to leave the convent after the arrival of the revolutionary troops in Barcelona. She takes refuge in a bordello, where the women are being "drafted" for the "Free Women" organization under the leadership of Pilar (Ana Belén). A crippled medium called Floren (Victoria Abril) joins them, and the odd platoon takes off for Zaragoza, a bloody battlefield.
Libertarias, the most spectacular film epic ever made in Spain, is a project which had been in gestation by its filmmaker for almost two decades. Anchoring his narrative on a group of women who fought in the Spanish Civil War, Aranda has gathered an extraordinary female cast who do great honor to their fascinating characters: Ana Belén as Pilar portrays the pure feminist warrior, passionate and fiery; Loles León as Charo is the hooker with the heart of gold; Ariadna Gil is María, the Holy Innocent. Miguel Bosé is a former priest, in total moral upheaval. And finally, the unmatchable Victoria Abril takes over the film as the psychic who can foretell the future.

Aranda recreates with his special brand of realism, not only the physical details of the war -- the Zaragoza scenes are marvelous recreations of battle -- but also the defeated political ideals.
An overwhelming climax crowns this ambitious production, in which Vicente Aranda achieves a glorious epic poem about war and the role that women can, and should, play in such an event.

The full movie (of just over 2 hours) can be viewed here, more on Mujeres Libres here.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
The NZ Series #13 - The 1974 Commonwealth Games

Monday, February 1, 2010
Luis Quintanilla

Starting out as a Cubist under the influence of his friend, Juan Gris, Quintanilla eventually became a prominent Spanish draftsman and muralist. Though he would have far preferred to be left alone to paint in peace without engaging in politics he was eventually drawn into the tumultuous affairs of his times. In 1931 he and Juan Negrin, the Premier of the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War, put the flag of the Republic up on the Royal Palace in Madrid ensuring that the revolution which ousted the king would remain bloodless. In October of 1934 Quintanilla started a prison term lasting eight months, four days, and three hours for hosting, in his studio, the revolutionary committee of the October revolt. As has happened on other occasions when a prominent artist has found himself in jail, the world's intellectual community rallied to his aid. Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos circulated the petitions and organized the protests in the United States, Andre Malraux in France, and Lady Margo Asquith, wife of the former Prime Minister, performed the same service in Britain. And a show of his Madrid street scene etchings took place at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York with a catalog by Hemingway and Dos Passos. This show introduced him to the United States.
When the Spanish Civil War started in July, 1936, Quintanilla helped lead the attack on the Montana Barracks which saved Madrid for the government. He was made the commander of the barracks at the start of the war and led men in action on the streets of Madrid, Toledo, and in the Guadarrama Mountains. In the spring of 1937 he was removed from these and other duties by Juan Negrin and commissioned to do a set of drawings of the war.
These were shown first in 1938 at the Barcelona Ritz and then in the Museum of Modern Art in New York with a catalog by Hemingway. With the fall of the Spanish Republic in 1939 he was forced into an exile which lasted more than 37 years, living first in New York and then in Paris. A year following the death of Spain's dictator, General Francisco Franco, Quintanilla returned to Madrid where he spent the remaining two years of his life. He died at the age of 85.Saturday, January 30, 2010
The NZ Series # 12 - Fishermen in Ohariu Bay

Friday, January 29, 2010
Superdupont
Superdupont is a French comic created in 1972 as a parody of both Superman and French national attitudes (or, rather, their caricatural perception outside and inside France).

Superdupont is the son of the unknown soldier buried under the Arc de Triomphe. He is very patriotic, sometimes chauvinist, and empowered by superpowers that help him to defend his country against a secret organization called '"Anti-France", a sectist and terrorist organization that wants
to destroy France.
"Anti-France" was originally a pejorative term used by the nationalist intellectual Charles Maurras.
Anti-France agents are all foreigners (non-French) and thus speak the fictional language "Anti-Français", a mishmash of English, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and German. This movement is intended to
ridicule the paranoia of certain French people who consider the foreign and unfamiliar as a threat against France.

The physical appearance of Superdupont is a superhero version of a caricatural Frenchman (specially, as seen by the Anglophone world): he wears a beret Basque, a striped jersey, charentaises, a
baguette under the arm, a tricolour belt held by a safety pin, and a long blue cape. He also supports economic patriotism, as he smokes Gauloises cigarettes, he drinks red wine, he eats French cheese and refuses to be painted using China ink.
Like Superman, Superdupont is able to fly but seems less superpowered than
Superman. By luck Superdupont is a master in the savate also known as boxe française ("French boxing"), which gives some superiority over his opponents.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Recipes for Life from Naples, Florida


Wednesday, January 27, 2010
The NZ Series # 11 - Surf Life Saving and the Maranui


Arguably one of the best cafe's in Wellington was the Maranui Surf and Life Saving Club in Lyall Bay - until it was gutted by fire last August.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Aupa Etxebeste!

Patricio Etxebeste runs a beret factory; he is one of the village "notables" and is a candidate in the forthcoming elections for mayor.His business isn't going well, the banks won't loan him any more money, his credit cards are blocked and his planned summer holidays in Marbella are impractical. How can he save face and prevent the entire village from finding out about the situation he's in?

Sunday, January 24, 2010
The Cotton Espinosa Berets from Argentina
These Basque berets in cotton are rapidly becoming my favorite headgear this summer!

$ 27.50 USD
Jack "Yakov" Werber


Saturday, January 23, 2010
A Librarian Free-Speech Protest against the Provisions of the U.S. Patriot Act


The Latin motto translates as "We know what you read, and we're not saying."
And, of course, what better headgear for a Radical Militant Librarian than a beret?
Friday, January 22, 2010
Ramón J. Sender

Ramón J. Sender, was an Aragonese Spanish novelist, essayist and journalist.
best known for the development of the Obama campaign logo.Thursday, January 21, 2010
Beach Life in Rivesaltes (1939-1942)



Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Police

the Dutch Military Police, who caused me lots of trouble and misery as a drafted soldier some 30 years ago...



Tuesday, January 19, 2010
South Pacific Berets - Stock Update
With the 3.5 week holidays closure behind us, South Pacific Berets is very well stocked again.
. Fantastic berets with satin lining in a 30 cm / 12" diameter; soft 100% merino wool, easy to shape and suitable for all climates.


Military Berets




A fascinating collection, although frankly, I don't know just how much I like the look of some of these berets...
Monday, January 18, 2010
Mythbusters


Sunday, January 17, 2010
The Beret Project is Back!





Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Holidays!


Tuesday, December 22, 2009
The Beret-Baguette Ride


Monday, December 21, 2009
The Basque Children of 1937

The destruction of Guernica, which inspired Pablo Picasso to paint his masterpiece of the same name, also brought nearly 4.000 children to Britain as refugees from the Spanish Civil War. Public opinion was outraged by the bombing of Guernica, the first ever saturation bombing of a civilian population. The Basque government appealed to foreign nations to give temporary asylum to the children, but the British government adhered to its policy of non- intervention.


The Duchess of Atholl, President of the National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief, took up the campaign to urge the government to accept the Basque children and finally, permission was reluctantly granted. However, the government refused to be responsible financially for the children, saying that this would violate the non-intervention pact. It demanded that the newly formed Basque Children’s Committee guarantee 10/- per week for the care and education of each child.

The children left for Britain on the steamship the Habana on 21st May 1937. Each child had been given a cardboard hexagonal disk to pin on his clothes with an identification number and the words Expedición a Inglaterra printed on it. The ship, supposed to carry around 800 passengers, carried 3840 children, 80 teachers, 120 helpers, 15 catholic priests and 2 doctors. The children were crammed into the boat. The steamer arrived at Southampton on 23rd May and the children were sent in busloads to a camp at North Stoneham in Eastleigh that had been set up in three fields. The setting up of the camp in less than two weeks was the result of a remarkable effort by the whole community.
Much more information on the Basque Children can be found here.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Spanish Slave Labourers and French Concentration Camps
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Saturday, December 19, 2009
Basque-American teenagers need to learn it is cool to be Basque

When teenagers from Chino, from Reno, from San Francisco.., when they come to Boise and they see five hundred other teenagers with 'txapelas' (Basque berets) and see it is cool to wear a txapela dancing to Ene Bada, or dancing to Basque rock music, they would be like... oh, this is not something of my parents or my grandparents," Gloria Totoricagüena, a prominent researcher in the field of the Basque Diaspora explains in an exclusive interview for eitb.com in Boise.


