The German Series #9 - Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. 

Dresden has a long history as the capital and royal residence for the Electors and Kings of Saxony, who for centuries furnished the city with cultural and artistic splendour. The city was known as the Jewel Box, because of its baroque and rococo city centre. 

Eleven square kilometres of the city centre was completely destroyed by the controversial allied aerial bombing towards the end of World War II. Who hasn't read Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five? The impact of the bombing and 40 years of urban development during the East German socialist era have considerably changed the face of the city. 

Some restoration work has helped to reconstruct parts of the historic inner city, including the Katholische Hofkirche, the Semper Oper and the Dresdner Frauenkirche. Since the German reunification in 1990, Dresden has regained importance as one of the cultural, educational, political and economic centres of Germany.

Some restoration started early on, though. These photographs are all from the late 1940's; all sculptors wearing a Basque beret.

Occitania

Occitania, also called the "lo País d'Òc", ("the Oc Country"), is the region in southern Europe where Occitan was historically the main language spoken, and where it is sometimes still used, for the most part as a second language. This cultural area roughly encompasses the southern half of France, as well as Monaco and smaller parts of Italy (Occitan Valleys, Guardia Piemontese) and Spain (Aran Valley). Occitania has been recognized as a linguistic and cultural concept since the Middle Ages, but has never been a legal nor a political entity under this name, although the territory was united in Roman times as the Septem Provinciæ and the early Middle Ages (Aquitanica or the Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse) before the French conquest started in the early 1200s.

Currently about a half million people out of 16 million in the area have a proficient knowledge of Occitan, although the languages more usually spoken in the area are French, Italian, Catalan and Spanish. Since 2006, the Occitan language has been an official language of Catalonia, which includes the Aran Valley where Occitan had gained official status in 1990.

Written texts in Occitan appeared in the 10th century: it was used at once in legal then literary, scientific and religious texts. The spoken dialects of Occitan are centuries older and appeared as soon as the 8th century, at least, revealed in toponyms or in Occitanized words left in Latin manuscripts, for instance.

Embroidered beret 

From 1881 onwards, children who spoke Occitan at school were punished in accordance with minister Jules Ferry's recommendations. That led to a deprecation of the language known as la vergonha (the shaming): the whole fourteen million inhabitants of the area spoke Occitan in 1914, but French gained the upper hand during the 20th century. The situation got worse with the media excluding the use of the langue d'oc. In spite of that decline, the Occitan language is still alive and trying to gain fresh impetus.

"Speak French - be Clean", written across the wall of a Southern French school 

(reminds me of NZ teachers, stick in hand, enforcing English on Maori pupils in the 1930's-1960's...)

Berets with the embroidered Occitan cross can be ordered at the Musee du Beret; click here. 

The India Series #5 - Unknown General with Grand Moustache

I found this photograph of a general in the Indian Army and thought it was a great picture, but on it's own, not enough for a post, really. Looking a bit further, it showed that there are many beret wearing soldiers with fantastic mustaches in India!

Like these soldiers of a Grenadiers Regiment, who grow their mustaches specifically for special ceremonial occasions:

Or this para-military guard with a Western tourist, both sporting size-able specimens:

Beretboys

In my search for yesterday's "Japanese Beret-Boy" I came across a number of them (beret-boys), but none from Japan.

Like this 1904 postcard from France;

Or this double-portrait by Paul O'Toole;

This undated photograph by Seydou Keïta in Mali;

This collage called :Beret boy", by Naddsy;

A beret clad baby-boy or

Haitian boy Woodley Elysee, donning an IDF (Israel Defence Forces) beret upon his arrival on January 28, 2010 in Azur, near Tel Aviv, Israel. The six-year-old, whose family survived the recent earthquake, was born with fatal multiple heart defects and currently has a life expectancy of about four more years. He was brought back to Israel by the returning IDF aid mission and the Israeli humanitarian organization SACH for life-saving open heart surgery.

Basco Roma

Out of nowhere, it seems, the Basco Roma became an instant hit with beret enthusiasts around the world. South Pacific Berets has shipped these Popular Italian Workers Berets across the globe over the past two weeks; from Australia to Germany, from Canada to Norway and another dozen countries or so more. 

New stock is on it's way, but unfortunately, I can't continue the low price of $39.50 (including international postage and handling). The record high NZ$ (versus the low US$) and increased duties and shipping costs mean an increase of almost 20%.

The good side is that I have every size and colour still in stock and will keep the price low till the end of this week. If a specific size/colour runs out, you'll get your basco send from the new stock in another two weeks (at the discounted price).

I won't raise the price of any other berets as yet, but it seems unavoidable with the ordering of new stock over the next few weeks and months...

Made in Japan

These pictures I found on a Japanese web site a few months back and saved them as "beret-boy Japan". Now I have no idea where they came from and what they are, really. Is it a plastic doll after an animation movie? Some sort of fetish item? And what does the red beret signify?

Any help from Japanese visitors would be much appreciated!

Leo and Vladimir Ilya Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy, or Count Lyev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828 – 1910), was a Russian writer. His literary masterpieces War and Peace and Anna Karenina represent, in their scope, breadth and vivid depiction of 19th-century Russian life and attitudes, the peak of realist fiction.

Tolstoy's further talents as essayist, dramatist, and educational reformer made him the most influential member of the aristocratic Tolstoy family. His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Many consider Tolstoy to have been one of the world's greatest novelists. 

Although a wearer of interesting skull caps and beret-like hats, I don't believe Tolstoy ever wore a Basque beret, living before the coming of age of the Basque beret really, but fitting all the affiliations of the beret of course. 

His grandson Vladimir Ilya did (as well as a beard very similar to his grandfather's). 

Leo Tolstoy`s grandchildren (left to right): Vladimir Ilya and Sergei, 1 May 1965 , photo by N. Granov

Jeff "Skunk" Baxter

Jeff "Skunk" Baxter (born December 13, 1948 in Washington, D.C.) is an American guitarist, known for his stints in the rock bands Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers during the 1970s. Baxter fell into his second profession almost by accident, he has been working as a defense consultant and chairs a Congressional Advisory Board on missile defense. "We thought turntables were for playing records until rappers began to use them as instruments, and we thought airplanes were for carrying passengers until terrorists realized they could be used as missiles," Baxter has said. "My big thing is to look at existing technologies and try to see other ways they can be used, which happens in music all the time and happens to be what terrorists are incredibly good at." 

He served as a national spokesman for Americans for Missile Defense, a coalition of organizations devoted to the issue.

In April 2005, he joined the NASA Exploration Systems Advisory Committee (ESAC). Baxter is listed as Senior Thinker and Raconteur at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition and a Senior Fellow and Member of the Board of Regents at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. 

The Czech Series #1 - Vaclav Philips

The Czech series #1? No, I have written before about Czech berets (here, here and here), not realizing what a wealth of information there is on berets (or "radiovka's") from the Czech Republic and, previously, Czechoslovakia. 

The problem is to find the treasure (and not having any understanding of the Czech language doesn't help). I'll start the series with these two pictures of Vaclav Philips and really, that's all the information I have on these pictures, apart that they come from the Ostrava region.

They are not just old and vague pictures though; I think they show very well the atmosphere of living in rural Czechoslovakia before the Velvet Revolution of 1989.  I feel lucky to have visited Czechoslovakia a number of times during the 1980's and got a feel for the atmosphere, the people's resilience, the craziness and paranoia of the powers in place and the many great people I met along the way. These two photographs remind me of one very cold night, spent in a cottage without heating and electricity near Mlada Boleslav.

Edward Moran

Edward Moran (1829, Bolton, Lancashire, England – 1901, New York City) was an American artist.

He emigrated with his family to America at the age of 15, and subsequently settled in Philadelphia, where after having followed his fathers trade of weaver, he became a pupil of James Hamilton and Paul Weber. In 1862 he became a pupil of the Royal Academy in London; he established a studio in New York in 1872, and for many years after 1877 lived in Paris. He was a painter of marine subjects and examples of his work such as “Devil’s Crag; Island of Grand Manan” are in many prominent collections. Among his canvases are 13 historical paintings, intended to illustrate the marine history of America from the time of Leif Ericsson to the return of Admiral Dewey's fleet from the Philippines in 1899.

His sons Edward Percy and Leon, and his brothers Peter and Thomas Moran (member of Hayden Geological Survey of 1871), as well as his nephew Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, also became prominent American artists.

The NZ Series #17 - Ralph Hotere

Hone Papita Raukura "Ralph" Hotere (1931) is a New Zealand artist of Māori descent (Te Aupōuri iwi). He was born in Mitimiti, Northland and he is widely regarded as one of New Zealand's most important living artists.

Ralp Hotere was educated at Hato Petera College and Auckland Teachers' College, before moving to Dunedin in 1952 to specialise in art. 

After a spell in the Bay of Islands as an arts advisor for the Education Department, Ralph was awarded a New Zealand Art Societies Fellowship to study in London at the Central School of Art in 1961. His time in England proved to be pivotal to his development as an artist. With the art world caught in a wave of general upheaval, which witnessed the advent of Pop Art and, subsequently, Op Art, Hotere found himself both influenced by the new movements and, as an outsider from New Zealand, at enough of a critical distance from what was new andtrendy in British art to develop his own distinctive style. 

Returning to New Zealand in 1965, he began to focus exclusively on his artistic career. Before being awarded the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship and moving to Dunedin permanently in 1969, Ralph had two important solo exhibitions in Auckland: Sangro Paintings and Human Rights (1965) and Black Paintings(1968). 

During the same period he also struck up a relationship with the New Zealand literary world, publishing four drawings in Landfall 78 and designing the cover for Landfall 84, which was to come to full fruition in subsequent years in collaborative works with New Zealand poets.

In 1979, he used his friend Hone Tuwhare's well-known poem Rain to produce Three Banners with Poem, for the Hocken Library. The public appeal of this, and similar works is tremendous: the 1997 exhibition paying tribute to such collaborations, Out the Black Window, opened at the City Gallery in Wellington to an impressive 1200 visitors on the first day.

In 1994 Ralph received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Otago and in 2006 was awarded Te Taumata Award by Te Waka Toi recognising outstanding leadership and service to Māori arts. 

Ralph lives in Port Chalmers, Dunedin.

Gas Station Attendants and Berets

When was the last time your car was filled up by a gas station attendant? And if you were so lucky, was it a guy dressed in a well ironed uniform with a flat cap or beret?

I've never seen them in real life, but yes, they did exist. And, with berets, in the United States! 

As far as I can trace it back, only Mobil used berets for their gas attendant's uniforms, in black and white. 

The Txistu

The txistu or chistu is a kind of fipple flute that became a symbol for the Basque folk revival. The name may stem from the general Basque word ziztu "to whistle". This three-hole pipe can be played with one hand, leaving the other one free to play a percussion instrument.

Evidence of the txistu first mentioned as such goes back to 1864. Yet it is apparent that it was used earlier, although it is not easy to establish when it started out; actually, it is impossible to do so, the txistu being the result of an evolution of the upright flutes widespread as early as the Late Middle Ages, when minstrels scattered all over the Iberian Peninsula brought in instruments that locals, noblemen first and common people later took on and developed.

At different stages of the three-hole flute's history reeds and metal mouthpieces were applied for a better sound. While some claim that it is closely related to the early link of the Basques to iron and the forging industry, others suggest that the embedding of such pieces began in the industrial revolution of the 19^th century.

The Association of Txistularies in the Basque Country was formed in 1927 to promote txistularis. The organization has continued its activities to the present, except for an interruption during the Francisco Franco dictatorship (and believe me, even I still get abusive comments from the dictator's supporters who are unhappy about my blog...). 

Atelier du Piment Espelette

Anything pepper with a Basque flavour to it can be found at the Atelier du Piment Espelette, even berets with the embroidered logo of the company.

Obama Supporter John Fry

French journalist Charlotte Parlotte captured Indiana born, Missouri resident Obama supporter John Fry in a beautiful series of photographs.

Ironically, Fry's father was a member of the Klu Klux Clan. When asked what his father would think of seeing his son to vote for a black candidate, he replied: "My father died in 1963. He no longer has a say."

Why he will vote for Obama? "Because this is the first president who really excites me, it speaks for itself. It matters; I am tired of seeing the ugliness in politicians."

June