Riek de Raat

Hendrika Geertruida (Riek) Milikowski-de Raat (1918) is a Dutch painter who was born in a working-class family in the Amsterdam Jordaan neighbourhood. She attended a training course in 1936 at the Institute for Applied Arts in Amsterdam and then at the New Art School, with Jan Havermans also in Amsterdam. This training, founded in 1933 by artist Paul Citroen, was strongly anti-fascist and inspired by the Bauhaus in Germany. In the Second World War she was active in the resistance.

De Raat was married in 1947 to sociologist Herman Milikowski, who died in 1989. Their son, born in 1947, is the photographer and graphic artist Efraim Milikowski. Her first marriage was with the resistance fighter Antoon Winterink, who was executed in Belgium by the Germans after he was arrested for illegal acts.

Herman Milikowski 

In 1953 she became a member of the Leiden painting and drawing society Ars Aemula Naturae and took classes at the Vrije Academie and at the Academy for Visual Arts in The Hague, where Paul Citroen was one of the most important teachers.

Since 2011 she lives in the Rosa Spier House in Laren. where many notable Dutch artists live out their final years.

Curcuma, Mustard & Yellow

Not to everyone's liking (strangely), but I am a great fan of berets in yellow shades; the Auloronesa in curcuma the for most, but also the Czech Classic and Le Béret Français berets in mustard.

A bit bolder still are the bright yellow berets under the Hispano Basque label. Stunning!

 

Berets & Musical Instruments

Carmelo Anthony

Carmelo Kyam Anthony (1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Anthony attended Towson Catholic High School and Oak Hill Academy before playing college basketball at Syracuse. In Anthony's freshman season, he led the Orangemen to their first and only National Championship and was named the NCAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

Since entering the NBA, Anthony has been named an All-Star ten times and an All-NBA Team member six times.

Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant  getting fitted for the Olympics

Anthony has been a member of the USA Olympic basketball team a record four times, winning a bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and gold medals at the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Summer Olympics. He is the United States Olympic men's national basketball team all-time leading scorer, leader in rebounds and games played.

Anthony has recently advocated various social justice causes. He is also being criticized by South Bronx community activists for aligning himself with Mott Haven developer Keith Rubenstein's efforts to build luxury apartment buildings in the neighbourhood, which could lead to gentrification.

John Yewell

From the website of John Yewell: "I was born in the six-room Santa Clara Valley Hospital in Santa Paula, California. It's now an old folks home, so maybe I'll go out through the same door I came in". 

"I grew up as a simple southern California surfer boy ten miles down the road in Ventura".

"Who knows when, or where, or why the need to write things down will first strike. I'd been going to the mountains since I was eight. But in the summer of 1971, when I was 17, something special happened. My cousin and I crossed the Sierra east to west over some pretty rugged, mostly trackless, terrain. It was then I first experienced how vital a sense of place was to me. When I returned, I started writing stories".

India's Ladycops

Hundreds of women's police stations have been set up across India to combat domestic abuse and sexual violence, following the Delhi rape case in December 2012.

Parmila Dalal is second-in-command at the women's police station in Sonipat, in the northern state of Haryana. Every day she must deal with the cases the public bring to her.

Some days she works as a typical police officer, investigating crimes or managing matters of public order. But much of Parmila's time is spent mediating in family disputes, in which she acts more as a counsellor or social worker.

She encounters family members at war over such contentious matters as caste, dowry payment and relations with abusive in-laws. The Al Jazeera documentary “India's Ladycops” reveals how women's lives are changing in India today, and how they often struggle to reconcile the conflicting demands made upon them.

The Spiders

The Spiders (German: Die Spinnen) is a German silent serial adventure film written and directed by Fritz Lang. It was released in two parts in 1919 and 1920. Two more parts were originally planned but never made. It was believed to be a lost film, but has been rediscovered and restored.

Part 1. Der goldene See ("The Golden Lake"):

In San Francisco, well-known sportsman, adventurer and traveller Kay Hoog announces to his club that he has found a message in a bottle with a map drawn by a Harvard professor who has gone missing. The message tells of a lost Incan civilization that possesses an immense treasure. Hoog starts an expedition to find the treasure, while the crime syndicate "Die Spinnen" sends out a rival expedition led by the beautiful but dangerous Lio Sha. 

At the Golden Lake, Hoog saves the Inca priestess Naela and falls in love with her. He takes her home with him after discovering a mysterious clue about a diamond ship. Back in San Francisco, Lio Sha declares her love for Hoog but he rejects her in favour of Naela. Lio Sha has Naela murdered and Kay Hoog swears revenge.

Part 2. Das Brillantenschiff ("The Diamond Ship"):

The search is on for a Buddha-head shaped diamond that has special powers. Carried in the hands of 'a princess' it will bestow the power to rule Asia. In San Francisco, Hoog discovers a hidden city underneath Chinatown but he is found out and taken prisoner. Eventually the hunt brings Kay Hoog to England, where the Spiders kidnap Ellen, daughter of diamond king Terry whom they suspect of owning the stone. When Kay Hoog arrives on the scene, he and Terry discover (with the help of an ancient log book) that Terry's pirate ancestor concealed a map in a painting. 

Hoog follows the map to the Falkland Islands to find the diamond, but Fourfinger-John, who has spied on Terry and Hoog, manages to inform the Spiders by carrier pigeon. Lio Sha and her henchmen catch up with Hoog in the cave where the pirate treasure is hidden and take him prisoner. However, poisonous fumes from a volcano enter the cave and all the criminals die. Only Kay Hoog manages to escape with the stone. Back in England, he works with the police and Terry to free Ellen from the clutches of the Spiders' hypnotist master.

The New Cotton Aotearoa Berets!

For those boineros living in the northern hemisphere, it may be welcome news to learn of the new cotton berets under the Boneteria Aotearoa label.

The agreement I have with the manufacturers of the berets made under my own label, is not to disclose who the manufacturer is. However, some experienced cotton beret wearers may feel they have seen similar berets before under another label...

The Aotearoa Berets in Cotton are of the same excellent quality as the wool models under the same label. Approximately 30.5cm in diameter, these berets come in a range of 6 colours; summer beret wear par excellence @ $46.00.

3 MINUTE SNAP FASHION

One of the amazing video's one can come across when researching 'berets' on the web:

Toronto Busker Andrei Denga

They are Russian musicians, middle-aged and older, who play for thousands every day. But who knows their names? Who even lifts weary heads to see them?

The pairing of their instruments, violin and accordion, may be unusual in Canada, but they go together like flashing eyes and a rose in the teeth. But who notices?

Not the morning commuters charging between the GO station and the TTC subway at Union, immune to the waltzes, the polkas and folk songs, the Bach and the Mozart. Their heads are down, and mentally they are already at their desks, fretting about spreadsheets and bottom lines.

Andrei Denga, 53, is celebrating 20 years as a subway musician this year. He started his musical training as a 7-year old in St. Petersburg. Alexander Popov, 70, is an accordion player who toured the world as an accompanist for a Ukrainian choir and a ballet company.

Their audience is huge. In a single hour during peak time, 19,400 GO passengers cross the breezeway into Union Station to get on the subway. The TTC has some 150,000 passengers in and out of Union Station daily.

Peter Mielniczek

Peter Mielniczek works in Theatre, Circus, Art Galleries and Street Theatre. His Art practice is mainly in Film, Installation and Painting. He performs around the world.

The show is a 45-minute series of fiasco, visual comedy, broken plates and a nail biting finale. Peter Mielniczek is known around the world for his individual and very funny brand of physical comedy and being a contemporary clown.

"Stupid, non-sensical, indulgent, pathetic and insulting to the intelligence. I loved it." according to the Wellington based Capital Times, N.Z.

Brother Blue

Hugh Morgan Hill, (1921-2009) who performed as Brother Blue was an African American educator, storyteller, actor, musician, street performer and living icon in Boston, in Cambridge, at Harvard University, MIT, and in the global oral storytelling community. 

After serving as First Lieutenant from 1943 to 1946 in the segregated United States Army in World War II and being honourably discharged, he received a BA from Harvard College in 1948 (cum laude in Social Relations), was accepted into the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) before transferring to receive a MFA from the Yale School of Drama and a Ph.D. (Divinity with pastoral sacred storytelling) from the Union Institute, having delivered his doctoral presentation at Boston's Deer Island Prison, accompanied by a 25-piece jazz orchestra, with a video recording for his dissertation committee's further consideration. 

While performing frequently at U.S. National Storytelling Festivals and flown abroad by organizations and patrons from England to Russia and the Bahamas, Brother Blue regularly performed on the streets around Cambridge, most notably in Harvard Square. He was the Official Storyteller of Boston and of Cambridge by resolutions of both city councils, a most unusual honour.

Black Honey

Black Honey is a high-octane indie rock band led by Izzy Baxter, a vocalist with a coaxing delivery often compared to Lana Del Rey.

The band was formed in Brighton, England with guitarist Chris Ostler, bass player Tommy Taylor, drummer Tom Dewhurst, and Baxter, who also plays guitar. The quartet created a buzz with a series of singles released on an eponymous debut EP in late 2014 by Duly Noted Records. That led to touring opportunities across the U.K. in 2015, soon followed by dates in Continental Europe and airtime on BBC Radio 1.

In the meantime, the group released more catchy, stand-alone singles including the surf guitar-tinged "Madonna" and "Corrine." A much-anticipated second EP, Headspin, arrived in the spring of 2016.

The Damned

The Damned are an English rock band formed in London in 1976 by lead vocalist Dave Vanian, guitarist Brian James, bassist (and later guitarist) Captain Sensible, and drummer Rat Scabies.

They were the first punk rock band from the United Kingdom to release a single, "New Rose" (1976), release an album, Damned Damned Damned (1977), and tour the United States. They have nine singles that charted on the UK Singles Chart Top 40.

The band briefly broke up after Music for Pleasure (1977), but they quickly reformed without Brian James and released Machine Gun Etiquette (1979). In the 1980s they released four studio albums.

The Damned again reformed for a tour in 1991. In 1995, they released a new album, Not of This Earth, which was Scabies's last with the band. This was followed by Grave Disorder (2001), and their most recent album, So, Who's Paranoid? (2008).

The band is well known for being one of the first gothic rock bands and a major influence on the goth subculture with lead singer Dave Vanian's vampire themed costume and dark lyrics being major influences.

The Damned influenced future hardcore punk bands with their fast-paced, energetic playing style and attitude. Along with the Sex Pistols and the Clash, they helped to spearhead the punk movement in the United Kingdom. They are sometimes referred to as British punk's "band of firsts," having made accomplishments mentioned previously, as well as other "firsts" like the first punk band to break up and come back.

LRH

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (1911 –1986), often referred to by his initials LRH, was an American author and the founder of the Church of Scientology. 

After establishing a career as a writer, becoming best known for his science fiction and fantasy stories, he developed a system called Dianetics which was first expounded in book form in May 1950. He subsequently developed his ideas into a wide-ranging set of doctrines and practices as part of a new religious movement that he called Scientology. His writings became the guiding texts for the Church of Scientology and a number of affiliated organizations that address such diverse topics as business administration, literacy and drug rehabilitation. The Church's dissemination of these materials led to Hubbard being listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most translated and published author in the world.