La Vie de Bohème

La Vie de Bohème is a 1992 film directed by Aki Kaurismäki. The screenplay for the film was loosely based on Henri Murger's influential novel Scènes de la Vie de Bohème which has spawned several on-screen adaptations as well as plays and operas, the most notable one being Giacomo Puccini's La bohème.

The film tells the story of three struggling artists, trying to make passable livings in Paris despite knock backs and tragedies.

The film was a critical success earning several awards.

Le Havre (2011) is a follow-up movie to La vie de Bohème having many of the same actors 19 years older.

Pepper & Salt berets

Yep, after six years of continuous research for daily blog-posts on berets, one comes up with some interesting finds. 

Salt and Pepper Shakers, for example. Yes, with berets.

Interestingly, apart from the 1940's set from France (top photo), all others are berets worn by animals. 

PUNK

The punk subculture, which centres on punk rock music, includes a diverse array of ideologies, fashions and forms of expression, including visual art, dance, literature and film. The subculture is largely characterized by anti-establishment views and the promotion of individual freedom. The punk subculture emerged in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States in the mid-1970s. In the late 1970s, the subculture began to diversify, which led to the proliferation of factions such as new wave, 2 Tone, pop punk, hardcore punk, no wave, street punk and Oi!. Hardcore punk, street punk and Oi! sought to do away with the frivolities introduced in the later years of the original punk movement.

The punk subculture is centered on a loud, aggressive genre of rock music called punk rock. It is usually played by small bands consisting of a vocalist, one or two electric guitarists, an electric bassist and a drummer.

Although punks are frequently categorised as having left-wing or progressive views, punk politics cover the entire political spectrum. Punk-related ideologies are mostly concerned with individual freedom and anti-establishment views. Common punk viewpoints include anti-authoritarianism, a DIY ethic, non-conformity, direct action and not selling out.

Many punks have a highly theatrical[clarification needed][citation needed] use of clothing, hairstyles, cosmetics, tattoos, jewellery and body modification. Early punk fashion adapted everyday objects for aesthetic effect, such as T-shirts, leather jackets (which are often decorated with painted band logos, pins and buttons, and metal studs or spikes), and footwear such as Converse sneakers, skate shoes, brothel creepers, or Dr. Martens boots. Hardcore punk fans adopted a dressed-down style of T-shirts, jeans, combat boots or sneakers and crewcut-style haircuts. Women in the hardcore scene typically wore army pants, band T-shirts, and hooded sweatshirts.

One of the biggest parts of punk was creating explicitly outward identities of sexuality. Everything that was normally supposed to be hidden was brought to the front, both literally and figuratively.

And yes, berets too!

Camille Pissarro

Camille Pissarro (1830 –1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Pissarro studied from great forerunners, including Gustave Courbet and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. He later studied and worked alongside Georges Seurat and Paul Signac when he took on the Neo-Impressionist style at the age of 54.

In 1873 he helped establish a collective society of fifteen aspiring artists, becoming the "pivotal" figure in holding the group together and encouraging the other members. Art historian John Rewald called Pissarro the "dean of the Impressionist painters", not only because he was the oldest of the group, but also "by virtue of his wisdom and his balanced, kind, and warmhearted personality". Cézanne said "he was a father for me. A man to consult and a little like the good Lord," and he was also one of Gauguin's masters. Renoir referred to his work as "revolutionary", through his artistic portrayals of the "common man", as Pissarro insisted on painting individuals in natural settings without "artifice or grandeur".

Pissarro is the only artist to have shown his work at all eight Paris Impressionist exhibitions, from 1874 to 1886. He "acted as a father figure not only to the Impressionists" but to all four of the major Post-Impressionists, including Georges Seurat, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin.

Marlene Liddle, Haida Cedar Bark Weaver

MarleneLiddle was born on Haida Gwaii, BC, Canada.  She is Haida of the Yahgulanaas Clan, Raven moiety, descendent from a long line of renowned Haida artists and carvers.

Yellow Cedar Bark twined Beret

She started her apprenticeship with the gathering and preparation of cedar bark in 2000 and in the summer of 2008 her mentor and Master Weaver Christine Carty offered to teach her how to weave.  Marlene worked with Christine Carty for an entire year. 

Drawing inspiration from researching into other styles and techniques, Marlene began to branch off into a more contemporary style of weaving, including hats that incorporate twilling and (New Zealand) Maori patterns. 

Marlene uses traditional materials of Red and Yellow Cedar, but also combines with steel, brass and copper.  Marlene was a recipient of the BC Creative Achievement Award First Nations' Art for her cedar weaving.

Nile Rogers

Nile Gregory Rodgers (1952) is a multiple Grammy award winning American musician, producer, composer, arranger, and guitarist. He is the lead guitarist and co-founding member with Bernard Edwards of the band Chic, which has been active since 1976.

Rodgers was born in New York City. He began his career as a session guitarist in New York, touring with the Sesame Street band in his teens led by Joe Raposo, and then working in the house band at Harlem’s world famous Apollo Theater, playing behind Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Maxine Brown, Aretha Franklin, Ben E. King, Betty Wright, Earl Lewis and the Channels, Parliament Funkadelic, and many other legendary R&B artists.

In his teens Rodgers was a member of the Harlem chapter of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. He remains friendly with numerous former Panthers, including Professor Jamal Joseph.

Although he recorded three solo albums during the 1980s and 1990s, and one as part of the short-lived group Outloud, Rodgers has found more success in collaboration as producer and performer with many artists including Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Duran Duran, Madonna, INXS and more recently, Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams, Avicii, Disclosure and Sam Smith.

Nile Rogers is one fantastic role model for beret wearers - hardly ever going without a beret and in all colours imaginable. 

Luis Hidalgo - Escultor

Luis Hidalgo is a self-taught sculptor with well over thirty years experience. 

He portrays characters, images and objects in a realistic way. All his creations begin with a study of the chosen theme from which the process of three-dimensional realization of the piece begins. 

The main material on which it is performed is mud or clay, sometimes combined with other materials if the dimensions or characteristics of the item so require. After this first stage, he makes a mold from which the final model is obtained; it can be cast in different materials depending on usage or location that will have the sculpture: polyurethane resins and derivatives, ceramic paste, plaster, etc.

Ramón Valcarce Vega

Ramón Valcarce Vega was born in a wealthy Coruñesa family in 1935. He studies Law at the University of Santiago de Compostela, but although his character was very outgoing, his intense inner life leads him to join the seminary. Shortly after, he travels to Rome to study Theology at the Gregorian University. In Italy finds himself and also sees the reality of his own country, under dictator Franco. In 1967 he returned to Galicia in order to work as a priest and to work on the construction of a better world.

On his return, Moncho Valcarce decides not rejoin the Seminary of Santiago de Compostela, where education is not impartial and considered archaic and reactionary submissive.

As a priest, Moncho turns the house of God into a people's house . The introduction of mass participation and the use of Galician liturgical language are some of his radical innovations. In addition, the rectory where he lives is the last refuge of some of the fighters against Franco and constitutes, on the other hand, a place where many young people can express themselves freely.

The atypical cleric decides to collaborate with the Communist Party. Moncho becomes an active participant in the Union Labrego Galician and later in AN-PG (National Assembly-Galician Popular) and thge BN-PG (Block-National Popular Galician.

Moncho Valcarce became particularly known for his participation in the Encrobas conflict. In Encrobas, thanks to a decree signed in 1972 by General Franco , the company Lignite Meirama wanted access to the lands of the peasants in exchange for a ridiculously low compensation. In the course of demonstrations and clashes with the Guardia Civil, Moncho Valcarce is arrested on February 15 of 1977.

He died of cancer in Coruña to 57 years old. In his book Revolucionario e místico/Diario íntimo da doenza final  (Revolutionary and mystic / diary of final illness), he reflects on his life as an activist.

The Black berets of the Battalion of Death

The Battalion of Death (Battalion Malatesta) was an Italian anarchist unit during the Spanish Civil War.

The battalion was formed by a few hundred Italian anarchist exiles in France.  It was organized and funded by Diego Abad de Santillan and commanded by the Italian Camillo Berneri.

Late March 1937, the battalion made ​​its debut parading through the Paseo de Gracia and the Plaza Catalunya in Barcelona wearing their smart uniforms and brandishing the slogan "without God nor master". It made quite an impression on the audience, partly due to the resemblance with Italian fascist units’ uniforms.

They wore black turtleneck jerseys, olive-green uniforms with ammunition belts and a black beret with a skull and a dagger badge. The battalion consisted of both men and women. 

Hugo Chavez - the Musical

The hour-long show, presented by Venezuela's National Dance Company, blends classic and contemporary choreography and draws on a range of music including Venezuelan folk melodies, African rhythms and symphonic scores. Performers use simple dances to depict Chavez's childhood in a humble house with a mud floor, and his days roaming the streets selling homemade papaya sweets known as spiders. 

The ballet, entitled "From Spider-Seller to Liberator," shows him shelving his dream of being a major league baseball pitcher to join the army at age 17. Then the audience sees a disillusioned Chavez dancing against the background of the country's 1989 riots, in which several hundred people died in the streets. At a climactic moment, Chavez storms the Venezuelan political stage like a hurricane in 1992, leading a failed coup attempt. Chavez was imprisoned, but not before scoring a few precious moments of airtime in which he grabbed the nation's attention, telling followers he had failed "for now". The ballet is debuting on the 22nd anniversary of the failed coup.

Six years after being sent to prison, Chavez came to power and remained at the helm of the country until he died of cancer in 2013. The ballet ends with Chavez converted into a disembodied force of justice and socialism.

On the street outside the theater, passersby were unsurprised that the late leader has gotten another commemoration.

"Chavez has become mythic, whether you like it or not," said 23-year-old student Carlos Lozada. "He'll be here as long as the Chavistas remain in power."

Great News from Spain!

A massive shipment from Spain has just arrived!

Finally, the ‘Super Lujo’s’ in 244mm and 290mm are back in stock. But much better, some completely new models too!

The Boinas Exposición Soleil and Pirineos are Boinas Elósegui's berets with peak, similar to the French bérets casquette, yet distinctly different from their French brothers. The Exposición Soleil is a traditional beret with and added small peak, available in black and chocolate brown. The Exposición Soleil is a one-size model that easily stretches and adjusts to the individual wearer’s head size and shape.

The Exposición Pirineo is similar to the casquette; a true beret Basque with a peak pulled out under steam from the surplus material of the beret. A top quality beret (or boina) that is available in black and navy in two sizes (Mediana = size 55-58; Grande = 58-61).

Then there is the ‘Boina Elósegui Exposición Año 1858’, the follow-up of the ‘150 Años Edición Limitada’. The last was a limited edition indeed and is now out of production (there are a small number left in stock still, true collector items!), but Boinas Elósegui decided to bring out a similar beret in quality in an “unlimited edition”. All information can be found here.

The best thing of all, these berets are considerably cheaper!

Handmade by the oldest and only surviving Basque beret manufacturer in Tolosa (Gipuzkoa).

Leon Felipe

Felipe was born in Tábara, Zamora. His father was a notary public, and consequently very well off. His family comes from Santander. Later on, Felipe would study pharmacy and start a business as a pharmacist, mostly to please his father. However, literature was stronger and he joined up with an itinerant theater troupe. As a result, he was charged with fraud, due to the bankruptcy caused by his abandonment of business, and spent two years in jail. When he re-gained freedom, he started writing  literary reviews and later on his first books were published. He is one of the best contemporary poets of Spanish literature, and scholars have counted him among the generation of year 27.

He fought in the Spanish Civil War for the Spanish Republican Army against the Nationalist faction. In 1938 he left Spain and began a voluntary exile in Mexico, where he died.

His poetry touched upon the difficult Spanish situation and the feeling that history would repeat itself for the worst. His use of reiteration or repetition and the use of the verse in the biblical fashion brought him close to the works of Walt Whitman with a biblical and Hebrew flavor (Antología rota, 1947). His poetry also has characteristics of the Modernismo and the Vanguardismo movements (Drop a star, 1933). His poetry lacks rhyme.

He lived the last years of his life in Mexico, where he became a central character of the post war Spanish exiles. There he met actress and singer Sara Montiel, for whom he felt a great attraction. He died in Mexico City on 17 September 1968.

Seven of Felipe's poems were found in a notebook that Che Guevara was carrying when he was captured by the Bolivian Army and the CIA.