The Czech series #2 - The Expo 58

Expo 58, also known as the Brussels World’s Fair, Brusselse Wereldtentoonstelling or Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Bruxelles, was held from 17 April to 19 October 1958. It was the first major World's Fair after World War II.

Czechoslovakia was very well presented at the fair with their beautiful Tatra limousines and, of course, the then famous Fezco / TONAK berets. 

The Czechoslovak pavilion was visited by 6 million people and was officially awarded the best pavilion of the Expo 58.

Bettie Page

Bettie Page (1923 – 2008) was an American model who became famous in the 1950s for her fetish modeling and pin-up photos. She has often been called the "Queen of Pinups". Her look, including her jet black hair, blue eyes and trademark bangs, has influenced many artists.

She was "Miss January 1955", one of the earliest Playmates of the Month for Playboy magazine. "I think that she was a remarkable lady, an iconic figure in pop culture who influenced sexuality, taste in fashion, someone who had a tremendous impact on our society," Playboy founder Hugh Hefner told the Associated Press.

n 1959, she converted to born-again Christianity, and later worked for Billy Graham. Her later life was marked by depression, violent mood swings and several years in a state psychiatric hospital. After years of obscurity, she experienced a resurgence of popularity in the 1980s.

The India Series #7 - Kankana Basu's "Remembering Dilip"

Kankana Basu's poem "Remembering Dilip":

Why do you wear berets?

I ask

(Audacity goes down well

With the poet

I'm told,

Especially

When it comes

From women)

Is it to hide

A balding plate

Cheat the calendar

Or charge

A flagging libido?

There are berets and berets

You inform sternly

I own four of them

All black

With different rim sizes

That beret

In the profile picture

That you admire

So deeply

Is an extension

Of me

A Basque beret

From France

I retire

Chastised

Those hooded eyes

Ever smiling

That never hinted

At the abyss

Of pain

Those feisty emails

That never let on

That the end was

A whisper away

The profile picture

Still leers

Under

The rakish black beret

Digital eternity

Longer and stronger

Than bodily

Death

We stand

At the terminus

Of desolation

Watching

Goldsmiths of words

Depart

Marathi poet dead

Scream the headlines

In every language

If we ever meet

In the Facebook

Beyond

Time and space

(And I'm sure we will)

One again

I shall ask

Why do you wear berets?

The India Series #6 - Dilip Chitre

Dilip Purushottam Chitre (1938 – 2009) was one of the foremost Indian writers, poets, critics, painters and filmmakers to emerge in the post Independence India. Apart from being a very important bilingual writer, writing in Marathi and English, he was also a painter and filmmaker.

Chitre published his first collection of poems in 1960. He was one of the earliest and the most important influences behind the famous "Little Magazine Movement" of the sixties in Marathi. He started Shabda with Arun Kolatkar and Ramesh Samarth. In 1975, he was awarded a visiting fellowship by the International Writing Programme of the University of Iowa in the United States. He has worked as a director of the Indian Poetry Library, archive, and translation centre at Bharat Bhavan, a multi arts foundation in Bhopal and Chitre also convened a world poetry festival in New Delhi followed by an international symposium of poets in Bhopal.

In 1969 Chitre held his first one-man-show of oil paintings in Bombay.

His professional film career started in 1969 and Chitre has since made one feature film, about a dozen documentaries, several short films and about twenty video documentary features. He wrote the scripts of most of his films as well as directed or co-directed them. He also scored the music for some of them.

Chitre passed away at his Pune residence in the wee hours on Thursday 10 December, 2009.

Régiment des Chasseurs Ardennais

Another military regiment on The Beret Project and for a good reason: as one of only two military units worldwide, the Régiment des Chasseurs Ardennais wear a Basque beret, so with a txortena (or "wick"). 
These berets come in two versions; the economic standard one for soldiers and the luxurious French made Vrai Basque, in the typical green colour of the regiment, with fine lining, embroidered label and leather headband.

The origin of the elite Regiment Chasseurs Ardennais goes back to the necessity to create a corps to guard the eastern border of Belgium from a German attack. On the 10th of march 1933 king Albert the 1st decides to change the name of Regiment 10e de ligne to Régiment des Chasseurs Ardennais (Hunters of the Ardennes), giving the regiment the emblem of the Ardennes (a wild boars head) to wear on their typical green Basque berets.

Photograph ©Guillaume Wautriche

At the beginning of WWII the Division of Chasseurs Ardennais count 35.000 men who get involved in some of the fiercest fighting on Belgian ground. 

These days the Chasseurs's main task is the protection of Belgian sovereignty and participation in peace keeping- and enforcement tasks around the world.

Mobilisation in Houyet, 1939

A web site full loaded with interesting material (in French) and pictures is the site of the Fraternelle C. A. 

Allan Houser

Allan Capron Houser (1914 - 1994) was a Chiricahua Apache sculptor from Oklahoma. He was one of the most renowned Native American painters and modernist sculptors of the 20th century.

Houser's work can be found at the United Nations building in New York City, at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. and in other public buildings throughout the U.S. capital.

Born in 1914 to Sam and Blossom Haozous on the family farm in Apache, Oklahoma near Fort Sill, Native American artist Allan Houser was the first member of his family from the Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache tribe born outside of captivity since Geronimo’s 1886 surrender and the tribe's imprisonment by the U.S. government. The tribe had been led in battle by the legendary spiritual leader Geronimo, who would later rely on his grandnephew Sam Haozous, Allan’s father, to serve as his translator.

In 1934 Houser  went to the Santa Fe Indian School, where he excelled in painting, and learned other media. By the late 1930's he was awarded commissions to paint murals, some in Washington DC. In 1939, he married Anna Marie and raised five children. In 1948 he was commissioned to do a major marble piece at the Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas.

In 1962 he moved to Santa Fe to teach sculpture at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Over the next 13 years, he became known for his sculptures in wood, stone and bronze. Retiring in 1975, he devoted the rest of his life to his art. Although concentrating on sculpture, he never gave up his passion to draw and paint. Allan Houser died in 1994. 

According to his family, Allan wore his beret when his photo was being taken and his cowboy hat when he was working.

Krav Maga

Krav Maga was developed in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s by Imi Lichtenfeld, also known as Imi Sde-Or (Sde-Or–”Light Field”–a calque of his surname into Hebrew). He first taught his fighting system in Bratislava in order to help protect the local Jewish community from the Nazi militia. Upon arriving in the British Mandate of Palestine, Lichtenfeld began teaching Kapap to the Haganah, the Jewish underground army. With the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Lichtenfeld became the Chief Instructor of Physical Fitness and Krav Maga at the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) School of Combat Fitness. He served in the IDF for 15 years, during which time he continued to develop and refine his hand-to-hand combat method. In 1964 he left the military though continued to supervise the instruction of Krav Maga in both military and law-enforcement contexts, and in addition, worked indefatigably to refine, improve and adapt Krav Maga to meet civilian needs.

In 1978, Lichtenfeld founded the non-profit Israeli Krav Maga Association with several senior instructors. 

Chinua Achebe

Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe (b. 16 November 1930), popularly known as  Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. He is best known for his first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart (1958), which is the most widely read book in modern African literature.

Achebe writes his novels in English and has defended the use of English, a "language of colonizers", in African literature. In 1975, his lecture An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" became the focus of controversy, for its criticism of Joseph Conrad as "a bloody racist".

When the region of Biafra broke away from Nigeria in 1967, Achebe became a devoted supporter of Biafran independence and served as ambassador for the people of the new nation.

When the Nigerian government retook the region in 1970, he involved himself in political parties but soon resigned due to frustration over the corruption and elitism he witnessed. He lived in the United States for several years in the 1970s, and returned to the U.S. in 1990 after a car accident left him partially disabled.

Achebe's novels focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect of Christian influences, and the clash of values during and after the colonial era. His style relies heavily on the Igbo oral tradition, and combines straightforward narration with representations of folk stories, proverbs, and oratory. He has also published a number of short stories, children's books, and essay collections. He is currently the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University in Providence, RI, United States.

New Berets

Two new colours in the Boina Tolosa Tupida en Algodon range:

Grey mélange 

and the Salmon mélange:

Both made on special order and available in very small numbers.  

Vladimir Komarov

Vladimir Mikhaylovich Komarov (1927 – 1967) was a Soviet test pilot-engineer and cosmonaut in the first Soviet cosmonaut intake in 1960. 
Komarov was selected to command the first Soviet multi-man Voskhod 1 mission which heralded a number technical innovations in the space race. He was subsequently chosen for the rigorous task of commanding Soyuz 1 as part of the Soviet Union's bid to reach the moon. His flight on Soyuz 1 made him the first Soviet cosmonaut to travel into space more than once, and the first human to die during a space mission, when the Soyuz module crashed after re-entry on 24 April 1967.

Gagarin (left) and Komarov out hunting

Read this fascinating article on NPR about the last minutes of Komrov's life, crying in rage, "cursing the people who had put him inside a botched spaceship."

Thanks, Matt M.

The Return of the Italians

Not to everyone's delight, judging by the comments on previous posts on the Basco Roma (here and here), but I certainly am happy to announce that the shelves at South Pacific Berets are well filled again with these fantastic berets!

I still can't believe how much anti_Italianism there is among the very people who have a strong liking for the beret - to me still a symbol of progressiveness, solidarity, of, oh well, I guess of something like the three principles of the French Revolution.

Anyway, take it from a very seasoned beret wearer that, as 'light and easy to wear berets' go, you won't find find any better than these!
Again, available in sizes 57 - 60, in black and the traditional dark navy blue.  

Meet Roy Blumenthal

Meet South African beret enthusiast Roy Blumenthal.

Ka huna masseur, writer/director/producer of media content, poetry slammer, stand-up poet, stand-up comic, visual facilitator... and a pretty entertaining blogger - with a scraggy beret never far from his content.

Badges #2

Some interesting antique French (colonial) beret badges:

Gendarmerie Afrique Senegal

groupement des commandos de choc (commando group of shock)

3rd Zouave Regiment

Commando No.4

Commando No.5

Char kway teow Seller Soon Suan Choo and her Red Txapela

A most interesting article in The Malaysian Star, from Georgetown (Penang):

GEORGE TOWN: A boycott campaign has been launched in cyberspace against a famous char koay teow seller in Lorong Selamat here, for allegedly berating an elderly woman for commenting that her food was too expensive. The seller, Soon Suan Choo, 63, famous for her oversized red beret, however brushed it aside, deeming it as a mischievious act from a dissatisfied customer. A caricature of the hawker telling the old lady that “people like you can’t afford” is being widely circulated via e-mail. The incident is alleged to have occurred on Aug 30, 2010.

The person behind the caricature has urged the public to boycott the char koay teow seller. “No one should be subjected to such treatment,” the person said. Soon admitted that the incident did occur. Although her picture was used in the caricature, she claimed the person who uttered the words was her sister. “My sister only said that the old lady can choose not to eat if she thinks the food is expensive. “She meant no harm.  Further-more, the remark was not uttered directly to the elderly woman,” she said. Soon said the person who launched the campaign was merely trying to find fault with her and her sister. “He can do whatever he likes. The caricature has not affected my business at all,” she said. Soon, who has been selling char koay teow for 41 years and only moved into the coffee-shop three years ago, said she has no plan to take legal action against anyone. “Sometimes it is very hard to please all customers, especially when we are busy,” she said.

I say, bless this woman for her promotional work on txapela's in South-West Asia. 

The Death of Antoine Barbia

The man with the white shirt next to the first cow is Antoine Barbia, from Spain.

It was on 1 July, 1944 the wedding day of Leo Peyroutet, that he was killed by the Germans, in front of Bonnemason in Aubertin (which carries a plaque to commemorate Barber).

Antoine Barbier died because he was deaf. The poor man had escaped the Civil war in Spain and found himself in another war in his new country.

Digging up potatoes with Bordenave-Perry, they were confronted by the Germans who thought guerrillas were active in the area and told everyone to lie down. Antoine Barbia heard nothing - and was shot.