The Beret Project: April 2015

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Abuelos

Three great photographs from a Spanish series on Abuelos (Grandfathers).

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Boinas Exposición Hombres!

Brand new and first time available: Boinas Exposición Hombres!

The Exposición Hombres is Boinas Elósegui's basic 'every day wear' beret in a large range of colours. Made of Australian virgin merino wool, fitted with the new Elósegui Año 1858 satin lining, its own 'Hombres' label and brass Elósegui pin, these 28cm diameter headband-less berets are a staple for every boinero and beret aficionado!

Sculptor Milton Hebald

Milton Elting Hebald (1917 – 2015) was a sculptor who specialized in figurative bronze works. Twenty-three of his works are displayed in public in New York City, including the statues of Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest in front of the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. His major work is a 220-foot (67 m), 12-piece "Zodiac Screen", then the largest sculpture in the world, commissioned by Pan-American Airlines for its terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Hebald studied at several New York art schools, starting at the age of ten. He has been a guest lecturer and teacher at many academic institutions.

Hebald had his first one-man show at the age of 20, in New York City. He is currently exclusively represented by the Pushkin Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

After living near his granddaughter and great-granddaughter in Los Angeles, and continuing to sculpt in Terra Cotta and draw, Milton Hebald died on January 5, 2015 at the age of 97, in West Hollywood, California.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Ferdie E.

Paul Robert Ferdinand (Ferdi) Elsas (1942 – 2009) was a Dutch criminal, responsible for the kidnapping and murder of AH supermarket-chain director Gerrit Jan Heijn.

This was likely the most prominent criminal affair in contemporary Dutch history. I sure remember the non-stop media attention and speculation – a very “un-Dutch” event in that sleepy country in the late 1980’s.

Heijn was kidnapped Sept. 9, 1988 and shot through the head the same day. His body was buried in a forest in the eastern Netherlands. It became the longest-running kidnap case in Dutch criminal history. The tycoon's family had paid the kidnappers a $4 million ransom in a bid to win his release. After the $4 million in diamonds and cash was paid in November, nothing was heard from the kidnapped businessman or his abductors. Heijn, who was 56 when he died, was vice president of Ahold, which owns the Netherlands' largest chain of supermarkets as well as the Giant Food and Bi-Lo stores in the United States.

On Oct. 14, after Heijn's relatives had demanded a sign of life from the kidnap victim, the abductors mailed what appeared to be his little finger. At the time, it could not be established whether Heijn had been alive or dead when the finger was cut from his hand. Stymied by the silence maintained by the abductors after the ransom drop, police staged a massive media blitz late December, when the authorities showed the scant evidence available in a nationally televised news conference.

That event triggered a flow of about 12,000 tips, which have been checked by the 40-strong detective force permanently assigned to the case (the majority of tips coming from clairvoyants).

Ferdi E. was an engineer, troubled by unemployment and debts.

Ferdie E. received a 20 year prison sentence and was released in 2001. He died in a traffic accident, hit by a digger while on his bicycle. What is new to me, is that Ferdi E. (in Dutch media, there is great name protection for criminals) was a consistent beret wearer. Not only that, he seemed to share my liking for Bordeaux berets!

Monday, April 27, 2015

Johnny Depp in 'Yoga Hosers'

Yoga Hosers is an upcoming American comedy horror film written and directed by Kevin Smith. The film is a spin-off of Smith's 2014 horror film Tusk. The film stars Johnny Depp alongside his daughter Lily-Rose Depp and Smith's daughter Harley Quinn Smith. The film is the second in Smith's True North trilogy.

The film centers on 15-year-old yoga nuts Colleen Collette and Colleen McKenzie, who have an after-school job at a Manitoba convenience store called Eh-2-Zed. When an ancient evil rises from beneath Canada’s crust and releases an army of monsters as they threaten their big invitation to a senior party, the Colleens join forces with a legendary man-hunter from Montreal named Guy Lapointe (Johnny Depp).