The Beret Man on Holidays in Marlborough or, the Craziness of Copy Right Laws

Even though the article is about me and my family, copyright laws prohibit me posting my own picture on this blog, unless I pay the newspaper $75.-. 

You'll have to click on the link. It's a strange world we live in, with all these protected property rights and people seeing money making possibilities everywhere...

Oh well, it's all for a good cause, the wider spreading of Basque berets in New Zealand...

Nice Ad for Armagnac

An interesting ad for Armagnac :

"The region where Armagnac is produced.

Surprisingly, the geographic boundaries have the shape of a giant fig leaf."

Beret Knitting Machines - Old and New

I found this antique machine on a web site about knitting. It used latch needles on a flat bed to produce berets.

The shape of the beret was controlled by a shaping drum that runs along the length of the machine. The berets were placed on wooden boards to provide a final shape. The machine was manufactured in Troyes, a major centre for the French knitting industry.

Meanwhile, this is what's available now on the market - made in China:

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.

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).

Pictures like these make it hard not to romanticize the shepherds life, but having had my own flock(of stubborn Wiltshires, in my case), I know better.

And of course, a real shepherd wears a wool beret, a nice circle.

La Poste and the Beret

Where else but in France would postmen (and women) wear a beret?

Over the years, the Postie's berets (and badges) have changed quite a bit and thanks to Anne-Cécile Celimon, assistant-curator of the beautiful Musee de la Poste in Paris, I got a nice overview of the various models. From top to bottom: Postman 1961-1977, Post woman 1960's, Unknown period, Postman 1978-1988 and last a beret of an army postman.

Canadian Comrades with Boinas

National Monument to the "Mac Paps" in Ottawa

Over the last 10, 15 years, we have seen a lot of commemorations in honour of the International Brigaders, who fought in Spain against Franco, Hitler and Mussolini.

Why it had to take so many decades to get to the insight that some acknowledgment of their tribute to anti-fascism was appropriate, I don't know. Much too late for many, of course, but still in time to be attended by a few surviving veterans.

Here are pictures of Maurice Constant and Arne Knudsen, members of the Canadian MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion of the International Brigades, during the unveiling of the Mac Pap Monument on 20 October, 2001 in Ottawa.

A Béret Basque in Denim?

Yes, you could ask yourself what the world has come to when even the Béret Basque can't escape the look of faded denim blue jeans, but actually, this is a very true Basque beret, made by 5th generation Basque beret manufacturer Bonigor in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

A one size fits all beret, fine-knitted in 100% cotton with a satin lining and embroidered Tolosa Tupida label - this beret looks great and offers, with it's generous 31cm diameter, excellent protection from the sun.

Only for a limited time, South Pacific Berets sells these berets through this blog @ $ 29.95

Hope and André Malraux

L'Espoir (French: "The Hope") is a 1937 novel by André Malraux about the Spanish Civil War. It was translated into English and published during 1938 as "Man's Hope". The story was later adapted as a movie (considered a masterpiece by many critics) produced by Edouard Corniglion-Molinier.

During the 1930s, Malraux was active in the anti-Fascist Popular Front in France. At the beginning of the Spanish Civil War he joined the Republican forces, serving in, and helping to organize, their small air force. His squadron, called "Espana", became something of a legend after his claims of nearly annihilating part of the Nationalist army at Medellín. Malraux and his pilots were very well paid for their services to Republican Spain... According to Curtis Cate, his biographer, he was slightly wounded twice during efforts to stop the Falangists' takeover of Madrid, but Hugh Tomas denies this. He also toured the United States, raising funds for the Spanish Republicans.

After the war, Malraux become a strong supporter of de Gaulle, minister in various Gaullist governments, a prolific writer and an outspoken anti-communist.

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.

The NZ Series #13 - The 1974 Commonwealth Games

The 1974 British Commonwealth Games were held in Christchurch from 24 January-2 February 1974. The Games were officially named "the friendly games". There were 1,276 competitors and 372 officials, according to the official history, and public attendance was excellent. The main venue was the QEII Park, purpose built for this event and one of the most modern in the world when finished.

The "Official Xth Commonwealth Game Pop Song" was "Join Together", by Steve Allen and the NZ Maori Trust.

More significant, these Games were the first large international athletic event after the murder of the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The Athletes Village, the Student accommodation of Canterbury University, was temporarily fenced in and guarded for the duration of the games. Only official vehicles and persons were allowed into sensitive areas around the venues and all was guared and protected by people wearing these berets:

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.

Text by his son, Paul Quintanilla. Pictures, from top to bottom: Sidney Franklin by L.Q., Largo Caballero by L.Q. and a bust of L.Q. by Emiliano Barral

The NZ Series # 12 - Fishermen in Ohariu Bay

This photograph was taken on the 1st of January 1905 at the beach of Makara, Ohariu Bay, by Harold Hislop.

Boats are pulled up to the shingle (note the multiple boulder anchors!) and men are busy looking after their gear or chatting among each other. A flat cap, a captains cap, but I also spot four berets, which makes me think these are probably immigrants from the Mediterranean countries.

Makara is a locality located at the western edge of Wellington, a good 30 minute winding drive over the passes from either Johnsonville or Karori. A beautiful stretch of rough coast and, except for the occasional hot day, pretty much deserted by people; a small community, a cafe that's closed most days of the week, sheep roaming around the deserted concrete defense structures of WWII Fort Opau and, only recently, the faraway drone of huge windmills generating electricity.

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.

Recipes for Life from Naples, Florida

Fifth-grader Josh Ellis, 11, donning a red beret reserved for the reading of the "Recipes for Life Book" his class published at Pelican Marsh Elementary School, in Naples, Florida.

For the fifth straight year, Julie Bolock's fifth grade class has created a book of recipes for events in the students lives.

Fifth-grader Bella Meyer prepares to read her "Recipe for How to Maintain a Gum Collection" with the help of teacher Julie Bolock.

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.

No better place to watch the planes come and go on nearby Wellington Airport, the surfers riding in on the waves right in front of you, or the children and loving couples on the beach, while sitting in your bay window overlooking the beach behind a well made long black.

Originally, it was just what it says, a Surf and Life Savers Club, offering voluntary surf life saving services to the community. Since 1911 the Maranui Surf Life Saving Club has been actively training surf life savers and providing surf life saving patrols at Maranui and other Wellington City beaches.

The word Maranui was used by Maori when they found sea and sand in abundance. Its Maori meaning is “long sands”. At the turn of the 20th century the whole of the sandy isthmus between Evans Bay and Lyall Bay was known as Maranui.

The objective of the Maranui Cafe is to get the community involved in the club as community members who will provide a source of active members for life saving services, administrators, coaches, team managers, sponsors and supporters for the club.

For me, the Maranui brought up sweet memories of the squatters cafe's in Amsterdam during the 70's and 80's - the people, the decor and art work, the atmosphere, the would-be artists and drop-outs wearing berets... I sincerely hope the building and the cafe will be restored to it's old glory.

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?

The makers of this debut film, who are already well known for their shorts, have dared to make fun of the most common clichés about the Basques in this farce full of gags, which is the first full-length fictional film shot entirely in Basque

(but the DVD has sub-titles in Spanish,

Catalan and English).

The Cotton Espinosa Berets from Argentina

These Basque berets in cotton are rapidly becoming my favorite headgear this summer!

Light, breathable cotton, unlined in a 28cm diameter with the Espinosa label.

Available in a range of colours (have a look at the South Pacific Berets web site) or order your black Espinosa right here!

Jack "Yakov" Werber

Surviving boys leave Buchenwald, accompanied by American soldiers and directed by elements of the camp underground who watch over them, including Polish Jews Yakov Werber and Eli Grinbaum (right with beret).

The son of a Polish furrier, Werber was sent to the Nazi slave labor camp at Buchenwald during World War II. He was a barracks clerk and heard from a new arrival that the Nazis had killed his wife and his 3-year-old daughter. He felt he had nothing to live for, until a short time later when a trainload of 2,000 new prisoners arrived -- including many young boys. Thoughts of his wife and daughter "drove me in my obsession to save children," he said later. Rather than let the boys be shipped off to death camps, he was able to hide most of the boys in the barracks he was responsible for. It was August 1944, and many of the guards knew the end of the war was near. They kept quiet about the scheme when they found out and, fearing war crimes trials told him, "Remember that I did this for you." More than 700 of the children survived. Werber knew the odds: he himself had arrived at the camp with around 3,200 other men; only he and 10 others of that group survived the camp.After the war Werber emigrated to the United States, where he started a manufacturing business. He died in New York on November 18 from a heart attack at 92.

Two young child survivors on board the SS Mataroa display their tattooed arms.