Michael Steven Harper

Michael Steven Harper (1938) is an American poet from Brooklyn, who was the Poet Laureate of Rhode Island from 1988 to 1993. 

He has published ten books of poetry, two of which - Dear John, Dear Coltrane (1970) and Images of Kin (1977) - have been nominated for the National Book Award. A great deal of his poetry is influenced by jazz and history. 

Many of his poems have been included as important examples of African-American literature and jazz poetry in various anthologies. 

Harper often writes about his wife, Shirley (commonly referred to as "Shirl"), their children, and their ancestors, as well as friends and various black historical and cultural figures.

Elizabeth Alexander and Michael Harper underneath a line of poetry

Al Roker

Albert Lincoln "Al" Roker, Jr. (1954) is an American television weather presenter, actor and book author. 

He is best known as being the weather anchor on NBC's Today. He began co-hosting his morning show, Wake Up with Al, on The Weather Channel, in 2009. 

Roker also appears occasionally on NBC Nightly News. He holds an expired American Meteorological Society Television Seal, #238. 

Writing with Dick Lochte, Roker began a series of murder mysteries in 2009 that feature Billy Blessing, a celebrity chef turned amateur detective. The second book in the series, The Midnight Show Murders (2010), was nominated for a 2011 Nero Award.

Hogan's Heroes & Robert Clary

Hogan's Heroes is an American television sitcom set in a German prisoner of war (POW) camp during World War II. It ran for 168 episodes from September 17, 1965, to July 4, 1971. 

Bob Crane starred as Colonel Robert E. Hogan, co-ordinating an international crew of Allied prisoners running a Special Operations group from the camp. Werner Klemperer played Colonel Wilhelm Klink, the incompetent commandant of the camp, and John Banner was the inept sergeant-of-the-guard, Hans Schultz.

But beret-wise, it was Corporal Louis LeBeau (Robert Clary) who stole the show. Free French Air Force Corporal Louis LeBeau is a Master Chef who is passionate about his cooking and a notoriously patriotic Frenchman.

Robert Clary is a French Jew who was in the Nazi concentration camps Ottmuth and Buchenwald. After Hogan's Heroes went off the air, Clary maintained close ties to fellow Hogan's Heroes cast members Werner Klemperer and John Banner, who also had their lives affected by the Holocaust. He also spent years touring Canada and the United States, speaking about the Holocaust. He is a painter, painting from photographs he takes on his travels.

Clary wrote a memoir, From the Holocaust to Hogan's Heroes: The Autobiography of Robert Clary in 2001.

Scott Wojahn

 is a composer, producer, arranger and singer-songwriter. He is one half of Wojahn Bros Music in Santa Monica, California, a boutique music production company specializing in commercials and television. 

Since 1990, WBM has created award winning original and branded music for some of the most recognizable national and global companies, from Ford to AT&T and American Idol, working with artists including Vince Gill, Buddy Guy and Shawn Colvin. Scott lives, writes and performs around Los Angeles.

Max Jacob

Max Jacob (1876 – 1944) was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic.

After spending his childhood in Quimper, Brittany, France, he enrolled in the Paris Colonial School, which he left in 1897 for an artistic career. He was one of the first friends Pablo Picasso made in Paris. They met in the summer of 1901, and it was Jacob who helped the young artist learn French. Later, on the Boulevard Voltaire, he shared a room with Picasso, who remained a lifelong friend. He would become close friends with Jean Cocteau, Jean Hugo, Christopher Wood and Amedeo Modigliani, who painted his portrait in 1916. He also befriended and encouraged the artist Romanin, otherwise known as French politician and future Resistance leader Jean Moulin. Moulin's famous nom de guerre Max is presumed to be selected in honor of Jacob.

Jacob, who had Jewish origins, claimed to have had a vision of Christ in 1909 and converted to Catholicism.

Max Jacob was arrested on 24 February 1944 by the Gestapo, and interned at Orléans prison. Jacob's brother Gaston had been arrested in January, 1944, deported to Auschwitz concentration camp, and gassed upon arrival with his sister Myrthe-Lea. Following his incarceration at Orléans, Max was then transferred to Drancy internment camp from where he was to be transported in the next convoy to Auschwitz in Germany. However, said to be suffering from bronchial pneumonia, Max Jacob died in the infirmary of Le Cité de la Muette, a former housing block which served as the internment camp known as Drancy on 5 March.

Blue Bop: Great Goatees And Blazing Berets

Blue Bop: Great Goatees And Blazing Berets includes tracks by Kenny Clarke, Gerry Mulligan, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk/Milt Jackson, Bud Powell, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Howard McGheeMiles Davis and Sonny Stitt.

The Goodies, con Txapela

The Goodies are a trio of British comedians: Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, and Bill Oddie. They wrote and performed in their eponymous surreal comedy showduring the 1970s and early 1980s combining sketches and situation comedy.

Artist Alex Castro

Alex Castro is an artist who paints in a unique, fresh and masterful style. His most recent paintings are a reflection of spiritual and esoteric themes using a combination of realism and new age symbolism that harmonize the body, mind and spirit.

Castro has mastered various art mediums. He has dedicated many years studying the old masters’ techniques; at the Brooklyn Museum’s Art School and also under the famous artist Sidney Dickerson at the Arts Students League in New York.

Alex has exhibited in numerous one-man shows as well as group shows at the Black History Museum, Bank Street College, Studio Museum of Harlem, the Salmagundi Club and the New York Illustrator’s Club.
Alex Castro has illustrated a children’s book entitled, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., A Story for Children. His famous black and white portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been published nationally in the US.

In addition, Alex has been painting miniatures for collectors, internationally. He has developed his own style of painting miniatures and has introduced a new system of concepts and techniques that incorporate the use of an airbrush, among various tools. He is well known for the soft buttery skin effects that give his figures a realistic appearance and museum-like quality.
Currently Alex is the founder Director for the Tallapoosa Academy of Fine Arts in Tallapoosa GA, USA.

Ernest J. Gaines

Beret role-model Ernest J. Gaines was among the fifth generation of his sharecropper family to be born on a plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. This became the setting and premise for many of his later works. He was the eldest of 12 children, raised by his aunt, who was crippled and had to crawl to get around the house. Although born generations after the end of slavery, Gaines grew up impoverished, living in old slave quarters on the plantation.

Gaines' first years of school took place in the plantation church. When the children were not picking cotton in the fields, a visiting teacher came for five to six months of the year to provide basic education. Gaines then spent three years at St. Augustine School, a Catholic school for African Americans in New Roads, Louisiana. Schooling for African-American children did not continue beyond the eighth grade, during this time in Point Coupee Parish.

When he was 15 years old, Gaines moved to Vallejo, California, to join his mother and stepfather, who had left Louisiana during World War II. His first novel was written at age 17, while babysitting his youngest brother, Michael. According to one account, he wrapped it in brown paper, tied it with string, and sent it to a New York publisher, who rejected it. Gaines burned the manuscript, but later rewrote it to become his first published novel, Catherine Carmier.

In 1956, Gaines published his first short story, The Turtles, in a college magazine at San Francisco State University (SFSU). The next year he earned a degree in literature from SFSU. After spending two years in the Army, he won a writing fellowship to Stanford University.

Since 1984, Gaines has spent the first half of every year in San Francisco and the second half in Lafayette, where he teaches a creative writing workshop every autumn at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

In 1996, Gaines spent a full semester as a visiting professor at the University of Rennes in France, where he taught the first creative writing class ever offered in the French university system.

As of November 2013, Gaines lives on Louisiana Highway 1 in Oscar, Louisiana, where he and his wife built a home on part of the old plantation where he grew up. He had the church he grew up with moved to his property.

More Nipples and Berets

Following yesterday's post on berets and nipples, I am glad to inform you these are not strictly for babies. A Japanese company makes this lovely fashion accessory for humans of any age. Unfortunately, not stocked at South Pacific Berets.  

And for those who actually want to cover their own nipples with multi-coloured berets or fezzes, there is hope too.

Berets, Babies and Nipples

I am not sure, but had my mother provided me with such a beret, 51 years ago, I may not have ended up a bonetaire with a private collection of well over 100 berets.

No, I didn't dress my children with one either, but I will look out for one - just in case I'll ever have grandchildren. 

The New Berets by Le Béret Français

Yes, they're in!! The new berets by Le Béret Français. 

Personally, I am most pleased with the eco-berets made of recycled materials - the ultimate summer beret! Now in a large range of colours. 

Le Béret Français developed these fantastic Eco-berets out of recycled materials: wool, synthetics, cotton and silk. 

They named it the Béret de Printemps ("Spring Beret"), perfect summer and warm weather wear; super light and extremely soft to the touch (thanks to a high silk content). So light, you'd easily forget you're wearing a beret! 

I have to admit, when I first saw these berets, I had my doubts (too light, too soft, too little substance...). Now I'm hooked! After a few days of seriously warm weather, I can't think of anything better to wear than these berets. Highly recommended!

 

But also new are the Bérets Patriotand Irlande. Similar to the tri-couleur, the Patriot shows the colours of the French flag (or the British, US, Australian, NZ and many other countries for that matter), but on a more subtle grey base. Absolutely unique, in both the manufacturing process and appearance. Beautiful berets with a festive touch!

 

No red-white-blue for the Irish; they have their own three-colour beret.

Vegan Berets

The Israeli Defence Force introduces synthetic berets for vegans. 

Maj. Dimitri Romnatzov: "A few years ago we began receiving requests from some male and female soldiers saying that due to their vegan beliefs, they could not use a beret made with animal by-products."

The Israel Defense Forces now issues special synthetic berets for vegan soldiers.

"A vegan beret is a beret made of synthetic materials, none of which are animal products," head of the IDF's Clothing and Footwear unit" Maj. Dimitri Romnatzov said.

"The standard beret is made of 100 percent wool. In 2012 the army began providing black vegan-friendly berets, though starting in 2014 soldiers who declare themselves to be vegan will be able to receive green synthetic berets. Thus far a few hundred such berets have been issued.

RCASC Berets

The Royal Canadian Army Service Corps (RCASC) was an administrative and transport corps of the Canadian Army.

The RCASC was established, by General Order No. 141, as the Canadian Army Service Corps (CASC), on November 1, 1901. The CASC was modelled directly off the British Army Service Corps to provide all transportation and supply services to the Army.

When the Army, Royal Canadian Navy, and Royal Canadian Air Force were merged in 1968 to form the Canadian Forces, the administrative Corps of the Army were deactivated and merged with their Naval and Air Force counterparts to form the Canadian Forces' personnel branches.

In 1952 the khaki beret was replaced by a dark blue beret which had different coloured "half moon"cloth backing. The RCASC had a yellow backing. Strangely, these berets were unpopular with the troops. In a couple of years, the coloured backings were removed and replaced by smaller cloth backings in the shape of the cap badge.  

Edward Herzbaum

Self portrait in uniform with beret done with a brown ink wash created by 25 year old Edward Herzbaum in 1946. Edward was a soldier in the 2nd Polish Corps, who participated in the four month long Battle of Monte Cassino in Italy from January - May 1944. The Allies bombed the circa 1349 abbey in February and the resulting ruins provided protected defensive positions for German troops. The 2nd Polish Corps led the mountain assault in the May 1944 victory, the fourth battle by Allied forces since January to break through German defenses. Edward, 19, left Lodz, Poland, shortly after Germany occupied the country in September 1939. He went to stay with family in Soviet controlled Lvov. In June 1940, Edward was arrested by Soviet security police and exiled to a forced labor camp. Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. Edward was released as part of an amnesty granted to Polish forced laborers. He headed south to join the Polish Army of the East, known as Anders Army, a volunteer unit formed by General Anders per agreement with Stalin. In August 1942, the unit left Soviet territory and became the 2nd Polish Corps in the British Army. In February 1944, they deployed to join the 8th British Army in the Italian Campaign. They fought their way north and were in Italy in May 1945 when the war ended. Edward learned that his mother had died in the Lodz Ghetto in 1943. He resumed the study of architecture in Rome until the British decided to allow Polish Corps veterans to emigrate to England in October 1946. He then worked for two years with the Polish Resettlement Corps and completed his architectural degree.   

Revere La Noue and the Blue Devils

I am grateful to my friend Wayne, for finding the information in this post; an interesting history of Duke University combined with the Chasseurs Alpins.

Much of the information comes from this web site, of which I quote here liberally:

The original Blue Devils were an elite French military unit that fought in the Black Forest and Alps in WWI. Notorious for their resourceful fighting style, the Chasseurs Alpins were dubbed “Blau Tuefel” by their German enemies, Diables Bleus in French or Blue Devils. Their innovative tactics, unrelenting courage, and distinctive attire became legendary in France and ultimately in the United States. In efforts to help Uncle Sam sell war bonds, veteran Blue Devils crossed the Atlantic. Vast crowds cheered as the French Soldiers paraded through New York, Chicago, and the White House. The major newspapers recounted their war stories bullet by bullet. Duke students were looking for a mascot with dark blue color as stories of the Chasseurs Alpins made their way from the Alps to Durham, North Carolina. Although it was not immediately accepted, Duke University officially embraced the Blue Devil nickname in mid 1920’s.

The Artistic Process:

"I have spent almost five years putting this project together, researching, studying, sketching, drawing, drafting, painting, repainting and printmaking, but in some ways it’s been building for decades."

"In 1986, at age 10, I spent a year living in France when my parents were on sabbatical in Alsace, a strategic focal point and recruiting area for the Blue Devils. In 1996, I spent a year in the Loire Valley studying French politics, military history and art. During that time, I was also able to jump on a train and visit the work of the great French painters from the WWI era. In 2010, I studied landscape painting in the South of France not far from the Pyrenees, another recruiting and training territory for the Blue Devils. In 2012, I moved my studio and exhibition space to Main Street in Durham, North Carolina, less than a mile from Duke’s campus (another Blue Devil training center)."

"Inspired by French impressionism, figurative drawing and the gothic architecture of Duke’s campus, The Original Blue Devils, Alpine Gothic is a collection of artwork that reflects a time of great valor in military history, the distinguished Duke tradition and an artistic synthesis for me."

Revere La Noue discusses the artistic process involved in creating The Original Blue Devils, Alpine Gothic a series of original paintings and limited edition prints.

And to stay in style, this week on SPECIAL at South Pacific Berets, a nice variety of Foulards Tartes Alpins!

Andria Hautamaki's Gauchos

These beautiful photographs from Chile are by Andria Hautamaki.

From her web site: "I like people. I like places. I like capturing the essence of both. My photography is a work in progress, reflecting parts of the world I have loved and given myself over to".

More from the series Ranching between Ice and Sky here.