Wood-carved berets

These pictures of well carved Spanish peasantry come from this web site. Nice work, by Cangas del Narcea artist/carver hobbyist Julio, and exposed at all fairs in this oldest municipality in the Asturias. 

Basket weaving, tending the oxcart, playing music... and never without a txapela, of course. 

Peace in the Middle East!

Checking the stats of this web site, I found the following picture: the Israeli and Iranian flags happily next to each other. How often have you seen that?

And is there a better way to celebrate this new found peace than by showing some relevant pictures of berets? Well, both countries have a pretty poor beret-rating actually, unless you look at the over-representation of berets in their armies. 

David Ben Gurion with Ariel Sharon at the front. DBG was told to wear a beret, as not to attract attention from the enemy because of his white hair.

A veteran of the Iran-Iraqi war in anticipation of a speech by the late Ayatollah Khomeini. 

Bike Series #1 - The Wall of Death

Bicycles and motorbikes are so intertwined with the beret that I might as well start a series of Bikes & Berets. The first reference to bikes comes from fellow beret-enthusiast Ron Greer:

"I wear my beret year round. It's great in the rain, shades my head in the summer and I used to wear it as my bike hat; until the city mandated helmets. Darn!"

I couldn't agree more! Luckily, there are still many countries where one can wear a beret while cycling around without having to keep an eye out for the cops. Not New Zealand, but my native Holland , for example (but that's for a later post). 
A beret on a motorbike may be pushing it a bit far, but still, it wasn't that unusual (and these days, is there any headgear easier to take along in your pocket than a beret while wearing a helmet?).

One group of bikers who adopted the beret were the riders on the Wall of Death. The Wall of Death or motordrome is a carnival sideshow featuring a drum- or barrel-shaped wooden cylinder, ranging from 20 to 36-feet in diameter, in which stunt motorcyclists ride and carry out tricks. Derived directly from US motorcycle boardtrack (motordrome) racing in the early 1900s, the very first carnival motordrome appeared at Coney Island amusement park (New York) in 1911. The following year portable tracks began to appear on traveling carnivals and in 1915, the first "silodromes" with perpendicular walls were seen. These motordromes with perfectly straight walls were soon dubbed the "Wall of Death". This carnival attraction became a staple in the US outdoor entertainment industry with the phenomenon reaching its zenith in the 1930s with more than 100 motordromes on traveling shows and in amusement parks. In 2004, six or seven of these motorcycle shows were still touring the US. The first known Wall of Death in the UK appeared in 1929 at Southend, "Tornado Smith" (and his lion) being one of the star attractions..

 

  

Italian Grandfathers and the Montejurra Incidents

A few days ago, I read an interesting post on the Fedora Lounge:


"...my grandfather lived for a period of his life in Paris (in the '20s-'30s of the past century...)

well, he wore a beret...
but not only he wear it; he (as one of his friends taught him to do) used to walk with the beret in his hand, while hiding a gun inside the beret...

you know, petty crimes and stuff. Real story."

Just now, researching post-Franco activism, I came upon this article and photograph on a Belgian web site (in Dutch, sorry). It instantly reminded me of the grandfather mentioned above, just an association of the mind really, as they've got nothing to do with each other and this being far from petty crimes, of course. It's the handgun, the Italian connection.., interesting enough to share.


The article translate more or less as follows:
José Luis Marín García Verde, "el hombre de la dina gabardine", the man in the raincoat, keeps his gun at the ready, planning to shoot he Carlist Aniano Jimenez Santos. In the photo are visible his cousin Sixto de Borbón and Hermenegildo García Llorente. The man with a walking stick in the right hand is the "ultra" Augusto Cauchi, follower of Stefano de Chiae, leader of the Italian fascist group "Ordine Nuovo" (New Order).

Supporters of the Carlist pretender, Carlos Hugo, complaining after the massacre took place. Estella, May 9, 1976.

Día de los Muertos and other Skulls and Bones

I have always been fascinated by the 'Day of the Dead' and, though this Mexican festival is in some ways related to Spain, it's got little to do with boinas, unfortunately.

More than 500 years ago, when the Spanish Conquistadors landed in what is now Mexico, they encountered natives practicing a ritual that seemed to mock death. It was a ritual the indigenous people had been practicing at least 3,000 years. A ritual the Spaniards would try unsuccessfully to eradicate. These days the ritual is known as Día de los Muertos.

I was delighted to find a nice link between Día de los Muertos and berets, thanks to this school-web site.

Researching further, there are a few more skeletons and skulls to be found with a beret, but the field is dominated by pretty awful Green Beret-themed badges and slogans

(it would be nice to have a search engine that filtered out all Green berets!).

China Bank Guizhou Branch's Beret

This ad is from the "China Bank Guizhou Branch", saying that "any high interest rates savings account" (the yellow characters top left) "aren't guaranteed/protected by any laws or regulations" (top left big red characters).
Scary thought but at least prospective customers are warned about risks when depositing funds (many thanks to you, Terence, for your assistance!).

I do wonder what the symbolism of the beret is here...

Macedonian Berets in Iran

Every now and than, when searching for interesting things on berets, I stumble upon a real gem, like this picture here:

Unfortunately, the accompanying text is in Persian (and I am not a master in that language; when travelling through Iran, shortly after the Islamic Revolution, the only textbook I could find was one published by BP for their oil expatriates, translating orders and complaints to and about servants...). From the instant Google translation, I understand these statues to be of Macedonian origin, left behind in Persia after Alexander the Great went through.
On a site about Macedonian civilization, I found this comment: I can't understand what they are but it says they are certainly Macedonians [not Greeks] because they have worn hats which are similar to French berets! Archaeologist have found several of them in the temples of Athen Hipia. 
Interesting comment, but questionable as there is little evidence of berets in France around that time (the anti-Greek feeling may have more to do with the author bing Macedonian, I guess...).


This is the original text in Farsi: 

توضيح مربوط به عكس1: مسجدسليمان ـ پرسشگاه بزرگ ـ اسواران مقدوني و سواركاران مقدوني كه الهه‌اي با خود دارند.

if anyone has a better translation - please let me know!

Dreadlocks, Rastafarians and the Beret

The wearing of dreadlocks is very closely associated with the Rastafarian movement, though not universal among, or exclusive to, its adherents. Rastas maintain that locks are supported by Leviticus 21:5 ("They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in the flesh.") and the Nazirite vow in Numbers 6:5 ("All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the Lord, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.").

It has often been suggested (e.g., Campbell 1985) that the first Rasta locks were copied from Kenya in 1953, when images of the independence struggle of the feared mau mau insurgents, who grew their "dreaded locks" while hiding in the mountains, appeared in newsreels and other publications that reached Jamaica. However, a more recent study by Barry Chevannes has traced the first Hairlocked Rastas to a subgroup first appearing in 1949, known as Youth Black Faith.

Rastafari associate dreadlocks with a spiritual journey that one takes in the process of locking their hair (growing hairlocks). It is taught that patience is the key to growing locks, a journey of the mind, soul and spirituality. Its spiritual pattern is aligned with the Rastafari movement. The way to form natural dreadlocks is to allow hair to grow in its natural pattern, without cutting, combing or brushing, but simply to wash it with pure water.

For the Rastas the razor, the scissors and the comb are the three Babylonian or Roman inventions. So close is the association between dreadlocks and Rastafari, that the two are sometimes used synonymously. In reggae music, a follower of Rastafari may be referred to simply as a "hairlocks", "dreadlocks" or "natty (natural) dread", whilst those non-believers who cut their hair are referred to as baldheads.

And, of course, what better headgear to cover and protect your dreadlocks than a beret? Not so much the traditional Beret Basque (although a good sized txapela would do it), but more the large knitted variety in red, yellow, green and black. 

Another Japanese Cartoonist: Ryuichi Yokoyama

Ryuichi Yokoyama is best known as a cartoonist, but he has worked in a wide variety of media all his life. 

In addition to all the cartoons he created, he's an accomplished painter, essayist and sculptor. Ryuichi Yokoyama's most famous strip, 'Fuku Chan', was hugely popular and ran from 1938 to 1971, for a record-setting 5,534 editions. Other Yokoyama creations of note are 'The Beggar King', 'Peko-chan' and 'Densuke' in the 1940s, and 'Yuki' and 'Hyaku Baka'in the 1960s. Ryuichi Yokoyama is beloved and celebrated all over Japan, but probably nowhere more than in his hometown, Kochi City.

Japanese cartoonist Ryuichi Yokoyama and a group of top cartoonists from Japan arrive at the Los Angeles International Airport, May 11, 1967. Yokoyama wears a suit with boutonierre, beret and tinted eyeglasses.

Jimmy Mirikitani

"Make art not war" is Jimmy Mirikitani's motto. This 85-year-old Japanese American artist was born in Sacramento and raised in Hiroshima, but by 2001 he is living on the streets of New York. 

Jimmy Mirikitani survived the trauma of WWII internment camps, Hiroshima and homelessness by creating art. But when 9/11 threatens his life on the New York City streets and a local filmmaker brings him to her home, the two embark on a journey to confront Jimmy’s painful past.

The Cats of Mirikitani is the cinematographic result of Mirikitani's encounter with documentary maker Linda Hattendorf.

Beretman Cartoon

A bit different from most beret-comics, with super heroes under green and red berets, is this Beretman. 

Not the best advertisement for berets, maybe, but he does deserve his place on The Beret Project.

Censorship on The Beret Project

A faithful follower of The Beret Project  questioned me on censorship of this site; he had posted a comment which wasn't published until I had approved it (moderated it, as Blogger.com calls it), a day or so later. 
Fair comment, but let me assure you: all relevant posts are published! 
It is amazing though how many comments don't get my Big Brother approval: from Latin American ladies wishing to have a naughty chat with the readers of this blog to racist comments directed to the President of the United States, via words of nationalist or ethnic supremacy and the advertising of quick money loans or lawyers looking for people to relieve their clients of a couple of million worth of $$ (interesting that last one, yes, but there may be a catch somewhere...).

Well, I have got nothing against Latin American ladies (some of them are among my best friends, actually) and it is a nice feeling to not having to worry about the politics of an American president for a change. 
I am not against money (or relieving the very rich from some of their assets to benefit less fortunate people), but altogether, I'm quite happy with what I have. 
What I mean to say is that I like to keep The Beret Project a Beret Project, really - a blog on everything beret - including politics, sex and money where it is relevant!

Comments welcome...

Osamu Tezuka

Dr. Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989) was a Japanese graphic novel author, or manga artist and very well known for wearing his Basque beret. 

Tezuka first started to work in the comics industry at the age of seventeen, drawing a comic strip for a newspaper; a year later he published his first full-length manga book,Shintakarajima, "New Treasure Island", based on a story by Shichima Sakai.Tezuka’s works had tremendous impact on Japanese culture, literature and film, especially during the post-war period. 

His work focused on the themes of the progress, technology, environmentalism, tolerance, and reincarnation, and his messages of hope and calls for greater social responsibility have made him one of the most respected cultural figures of 20th century Japan. 

In America, Tezuka’s best known creation is the world-renowned children’s series Astro Boy, but in his lifetime he drew more than 150,000 pages of manga, touching on every style and genre, writing for every age-group from young children to mature audiences, and single-handedly creating the majority of the genres and character-types we see in manga and anime today.
Distinct themes for which Tezuka is best known:

• Prejudice and intolerance, and whether it is possible for two races to coexist in peace.
• War, its psychological causes and effects on individuals and societies.
• Transformation and the appeal of unleashing bestial and evil portions of the psyche.
• Environmentalism and the balance between man and nature.
• Science and Medicine, their purposes and limitations.
• Reincarnation and the cycles of life and death and the rise and fall of civilizations.
• Buddhism and where it succeeds and fails to satisfy the human need for spiritual guidance.

And, Tezuka was always happy to portray himself, in- and outside his stories, with his Basque beret. 

Sun Washed Tolosa Tupida's

Not more than a few weeks ago, I posted an ad for South Pacific Berets' latest addition: the "faded denim Basque beret". I never imagined these berets to be so popular!

I now found out that the correct term is "sun-washed"; as if the wearer of this beret has been wearing it for many months under the blistering sun on the Argentinean campo. And yes, they are beautiful berets; nicely lined with satin and with the embroidered Tolosa Tupida label sewed on. 

 


South Pacific Berets expanded the range of these sunwashed berets with maroon and green coloured models and, if ordered directly from this blog, these berets go for $29.50!

 













Denim Blue

The Beret and the U. S. of A.

My rough estimate is that only 3.8% of the pictures on The Beret Project originate in the United States, the same country where the vast majority of visitors of this blog come from, according to web stats 43.4% (not to mention most customers of South Pacific Berets). 
With such a discrepancy, there must be something wrong here...

I tried to correct this imbalance, but strangely, what I found are, apart from the occasional academic or artist, mostly pictures of berets, not the actual headgear worn on top of one's head, or, even worse, base ball caps with berets on it!  

Even more worrying: most of them openly claim not to be the wearers, but to be the proud mother or baby of a beret wearer! And, of course, it's mostly related to the military or anti-revolutionary. It is a fascinating country...

But, as always, I am happy to hear your suggestions!

Markets

Although spotting a beret in the 
wild in France is

becoming harder this century, one can still find them in good numbers on the weekly markets, where vendors stay true to tradition.

I fail to understand why markets never took off in the US and Australia/New Zealand, apart from the odd Farmers Market...

Paolo Villaggio, or Accountant Ugo Fantozzi

Paolo Villaggio is an Italian actor, writer, director and comedian, especially famous for his grotesque irony and satire.

Villagio's books were translated and officially distributed in the countries behind the Iron Curtain, garnering very positive reviews and an impressive number of copies sold. The first book even received the Gogol Prize in Moscow. 
Ironically, while the governments of the East Bloc countries saw the satire of the ills of Capitalism in the books, the readers identified their plight with Fantozzi's, feeling victimized by authoritarian, faceless societies. 


Villagio has an impressive C.V. in books, films, theatre and television productions, but only with Fantozzi, directed by Luciano Salce in 1975, did he rise to film stardom.

Being a worker's man, Villagio was a faithful wearer of the Basque beret. 


Thanks, Massimo!