Thursday, January 31, 2013

William Michael Connolley

William Michael Connolley (1964) is a British software engineer, writer, and blogger on climatology. Until December 2007 he was Senior Scientific Officer in the Physical Sciences Division in the Antarctic Climate and the Earth System project at the British Antarctic Survey, where he worked as a climate modeller. After this he became a software engineer for Cambridge Silicon Radio.
Connolley received national press attention over several years for his involvement in editing Wikipedia articles relating to climate change. Connolley was a member of the RealClimate website until 2007 and now operates a website and blog that discuss climate issues. He has also been active in local politics as a member of the Green Party.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Jack Kerouac


Jean-Louis "Jack" Kerouac (1922 –1969) was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation.
Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic spirituality, jazz, promiscuity, Buddhism, drugs, poverty, and travel. Kerouac became an underground celebrity and, with other beats, a progenitor of the hippie movement, although he remained antagonistic toward some of its politically radical elements.
reading at the Seven Arts Cafe in New York, 1959
In 1969, at age 47, Kerouac died from internal bleeding due to long-standing abuse of alcohol. Since his death Kerouac's literary prestige has grown and several previously unseen works have been published. All of his books are in print today, among them: On the Road, Doctor Sax, The Dharma Bums, Mexico City Blues, The Subterraneans, Desolation Angels, Visions of Cody, The Sea is My Brother, and Big Sur.

Monday, January 28, 2013

Günter Grass


Günter Wilhelm Grass (born 16 October 1927) is a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is widely regarded as Germany's most famous living writer.
Grass was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). In 1945, he came to West Germany as a homeless refugee, though in his fiction he frequently returns to the Danzig of his childhood.
Grass is best known for his first novel, The Tin Drum (1959), a key text in European magic realism, and the first part of his Danzig Trilogy, which also includes Cat and Mouse and Dog Years. His works are frequently considered to have a left-wing political dimension and Grass has been an active supporter of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). 
The Tin Drum was adapted into a film, which won both the 1979 Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The Swedish Academy, upon awarding him the Nobel Prize in Literature, noted him as a writer "whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history".
On 4 April 2012, Grass's poem "What Must Be Said" ("Was gesagt werden muss") was published in several European newspapers. In the poem, Grass expresses his concern about the hypocrisy of German military support (the delivery of a submarine) for an Israel that might use such equipment to launch nuclear warheads against Iran, which "could wipe out the Iranian people" (das...iranische Volk auslöschen könnte). And he hoped that many will demand "that the governments of both Iran and Israel allow an international authority free and open inspection of the nuclear potential and capability of both." In response, Israel declared him persona non grata in Israel.
On 26 April 2012, he wrote a poem criticizing European policy for the treatment of Greece in the European sovereign-debt crisis. In the poem, called "Europe's Disgrace", Grass accuses Europe of condemning Greece into poverty, a country "whose mind conceived, Europe."

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Annie Clark - St. Vincent


Annie Erin Clark (1982), better known by her stage name St. Vincent, is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She began her music career as a member of The Polyphonic Spree and was also part of Sufjan Stevens' touring band before forming her own band in 2006.
Her debut album was Marry Me, and was followed by Actor (2009). Her third album, Strange Mercy, was released on September 13, 2011. September 2012, she released a collaborative album with David Byrne titled Love This Giant.
Clark appeared on the film soundtrack of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2.
Clark's music has been noted for its wide array of instruments and arrangements, as well as its polysemous lyrics, which have been described as teetering between "happiness and madness". In response to this, Clark has said, "I like when things come out of nowhere and blindside you a little bit. I think any person who gets panic attacks or has an anxiety disorder can understand how things can all of a sudden turn very quickly. I think I'm sublimating that into the music."

Friday, January 25, 2013

Captain Sensible


Captain Sensible (born Raymond Burns, 1954) is a singer, songwriter, guitarist (and sometimes bassist) who grew up in Croydon, England, and co-founded the punk rock band The Damned in 1976. After leaving the band, he reinvented himself as an alternative pop singer with a less punk image. His signature headwear is a red beret.
Originally a member of the Johnny Moped band, Sensible joined The Damned in 1976 on the suggestion of his work colleague Rat Scabies, the band's drummer, filling a number of positions during his tenure (including bassist, lead guitarist and keyboardist), and eventually becoming the band's main songwriter following the departure of Brian James.
Sensible's first solo release came in 1978 with the single "Jet Boy, Jet Girl", recorded while The Damned were on hiatus. 
Captain Sensible is also a member of supergroup Dead Men Walking.
In September 2006, he formed a political party known as the Blah! Party. "Politics is dead," he said in a statement. "The British public aren't voting because the parties are totally ignoring their opinions. At the moment, the only real method of mass protest against this is by not voting, which is why voting figures continue to fall.
"But we believe that voting is an important part of the democratic process, and we want the Blah! Party to be the party of protest; a channel through which the people of the U.K. can vent their dissatisfaction at nonsensical everyday things, and protest against the government and the current crop of political parties."

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Johnny Winter

What could be a better re-start of The Beret Project after the holidays than a post on Johnny Winter? With beret, of course, or a txapeldun, really.
John Dawson "Johnny" Winter III (born February 23, 1944) is an American blues guitarist, singer, and producer. Best known for his late 1960s and 1970s high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances.

Both Johnny and his brother, who were born with albinism, began performing at an early age. When he was ten years old, Winter appeared on a local children's show, playing ukelele and singing Everly Brothers songs with his brother.
Johnny Winter has recorded several Grammy-nominated blues albums and continues to tour extensively. In 1988, he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and in 2003, he was ranked 74th in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Holidays - Fini

At Franz Josef Glacier, with oldest daughter Marshida
Yes, the holidays are over and they were good, very good! 
Observing the Remarkables (mountains) in Queenstown, with 3 more Kolthoff's
3300 km's in 3 weeks time, travelling the full of New Zealand's South Island. Penguins, seals and sea-lions, rain-forest and the high mountains of the Southern Alps, vintage railways into the middle of nowhere and glaciers at sea level, temperatures anything between 3oC and 36oC.
The Taieri Gorge Railway, into Central Otago
For visual evidence, herewith some self-indulgent pictures. The beret for these weeks was principally the much appreciated all-climate  'Limited Edition', occasionally changed for a Tolosa Tupida
Looking for albatrosses, seals and sea-lions off the Dunedin Coast
But, what's new from the beret front? well, some extremely interesting news coming (soon, very soon) from French manufacturer Laulhere (previously Beatex) - the most innovative news in the beret world since 1876. More later...
And also, many more berets from Argentinean manufacturer Bonigor (Buenos Aires); Espinosas in an even larger variety of diameters and colours (Camel, Maroon, Aubergine, Brown) 
and two new additions to the Tolosa Tupida range: Camel and Loden. 

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Monday, January 21, 2013

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Friday, January 18, 2013

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Monday, January 14, 2013

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Friday, January 11, 2013

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Monday, January 7, 2013

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Friday, January 4, 2013

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Tuesday, January 1, 2013