Niko Etxart

Niko Etxart is a Basque singer-songwriter and musician born in 1953 in Altzürükü, Soule, Basque Country. He's widely reputed in the Basque area for being a forerunner of Basque rock and bridging the gap between Basque old tradition and modern music trends.

When he was two years old, his parents moved to Paris. However, unlike many others, he received the Basque language and culture as a child, in particular through the Basque centre in Paris. When he left school in 1972, his only wish was to be a singer. By this year he founded a group named Tinka with two other friends.

In the late 1990s and the 2000s, he has taken up composing traditional pastorals, as well as staging traditional vocal songs along with his father Dominika and Robert Larrandaburu. When performing with instrumental background, he's supported by the band Hapa-Hapa (Zuberoan Basque for 'panting'). Among his most abiding hits are Euskal Rock'n Roll, Baga biga klik, Tumatxa, Eperra (traditional).

The video is a compilation by Basque TV, including some good beret shots.

Beñat Achiary

Beñat Achiary (born in Saint-Palais, Pyrénées-Atlantiques) is a Basque vocal improviser who lives in southern France.

Achiary finds inspiration in the Basque language and in poetry from all backgrounds to create the texts of his songs. In  concert he works with many musicians from jazz to traditional and contemporary music.

Achiary is the artistic director of the jazz festival Errobiko Festibala of Itxassou.

Clément Serveau

Henri Clément Serveau (1886 – 1972) was a French painter, designer, engraver and illustrator. 

Clément-Serveau produced works in a realist manner early on, but soon became interested in the new movements. He was influenced by his friend Louis Marcoussis and experimented with Cubism, utilising geometric patterns to give the illusion of form and space. 

Later in his career he turned toward abstraction with a post-cubist stance. 

He designed banknotes for the Banque de France and went on to produced large mural's and participating in numerous French and international exhibitions.

Thanks, Jean-Claude

Chaplains with Beret

Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister, such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, imam or lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, school, police department, fire department, university, or private chapel.

French, World War I

Though originally the word "chaplain" referred to representatives of the Christian faith, it is now also applied to people of other religions or philosophical traditions–such as the case of chaplains serving with military forces.

French, Foreign Legion

Military chaplains provide pastoral, spiritual and emotional support for service personnel, including the conduct of religious services at sea, on bases or in the field. Military chaplains have a long history; the first English military-oriented chaplains, for instance, were priests on board proto-naval vessels during the 8th century. 

French, Chasseurs Alpin (left)

Land-based chaplains appeared during the reign of King Edward I. The current form of military chaplain dates from the era of the First World War.

Belgium, Chasseurs Ardennais

Chaplains are nominated, appointed, or commissioned in different ways in different countries. A military chaplain can be an army-trained soldier with additional theological training or an ordained person nominated to the army by religious authorities.

Though the Geneva Conventions does not state whether chaplains may bear arms, they specify (Protocol I, June 8, 1977, Art 43.2) that chaplains are noncombatants.

Jewish, South Africa

Best Vehicles to Accompany a Beret

Citroën DS 23 Convertible 

 Citroën C15 Traction Avant

 Citroën C15 (in the Basque Country!)

 Citroën Mehari

 Citroën Mehari

Citroën HY

Citroën C8 Béarnaise

The Beret-Spy Strikes Again!

Some Dutch Boineros/as. Apart from the first and last picture, all by my brother Emile, the Beret Spy.

Pierre Mac Orlan

Pierre Mac Orlan, sometimes written MacOrlan (born Pierre Dumarchey, 1882 –  1970), was a French novelist and songwriter.

His novel Quai des Brumes was the source for Marcel Carné's 1938 film of the same name, starring Jean Gabin. He was also a prolific writer of chansons, many of which were recorded and popularized by French singers such as Juliette Gréco, Monique Morelli, Catherine Sauvage, and Germaine Montero.

Born in Péronne, Somme, in northern France, Mac Orlan lived in Rouen and Paris as a young man, working at a variety of jobs and learning to play the accordion. In his twenties, he travelled widely in Europe, before returning to Paris and becoming a noted figure in Bohemian art circles.

He fought in the war against Germany until wounded in 1916, after which he worked as a war correspondent. In later years he earned a living as a writer in Saint Cyr-sur-Morin, outside Paris. In the late 1920s he became an influential critic of film and photography.

Using his real name, Pierre Dumarchey, and various pseudonyms, he was for several years a writer of pornographic novels, which depicted flagellation and sado-masochism. He used the Dumarchey name to upset an uncle of his who had made his life hard.

Smoke

 Buying "smokes"

Serious smoke

Lighting up

"Smoko", New Zealand slang for a pauze in work

Sexy (?) smoke

Cuban smoke

Harry Mickson & Florence Cestac

Florence Cestac (1949) is a French comic books author and bookseller.

In 1972, after handing in some illustrations to various newspapers, she starts the Futuropolis bookstore with her ​​husband Stephen Robial, which later became the Editions Futuropolis.

As an author, she contributes to numerous magazines. Her main character though, is a beret wearing detective parody named Harry Mickson.

Florence Cestac received the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême in 2000 and in 2014, she received the Grand Prize Saint-Michel for her work.

Princes, Kings and Berets

King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden attending to some archaeological excavations while he spends his summer holidays in the small village called Civitella Cesi. Blera, October 1957.

King Juan Carlos of Spain.

The Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII.

Charles, Prince of Wales with younger colleagues.

King Albert of Belgium, accompanied by 2 Italian mountain guides in the Dolomites. 

Rita Ora

Rita Sahatçiu Ora (born Rita Sahatçiu; 1990) is a British singer and actress. Ora was born in Pristina, Kosovo to Albanian parents; her catholic mother is a psychiatrist, her muslim father an economist and a pub owner. Her debut studio album, Ora, released in 2012, debuted at number one in the United Kingdom. The album contained the UK number-one singles, "R.I.P." and "How We Do (Party)". After reaching the peak position as a featured act on DJ Fresh's "Hot Right Now", Ora became the artist with the most number-one singles on the UK Singles Chart in 2012, with three consecutive singles reaching the top position.

Ora is of Albanian ethnicity and speaks Albanian. Asked about her religion, Ora stated: "I believe in God and I’m of Muslim culture, but my parents never forced me. Above all, they raised me with the idea that I could make my own choices and have my own beliefs." She considers herself a feminist.

Ora performed at the Chime for Change charity concert, which raised funds and awareness for girls' and women's issues around the world. On 7 May 2014, Ora headlined the third annual “Gabrielle’s Gala” fundraiser at Old Billingsgate Market, London, with proceeds going to Cancer Research UK.

Klaus Ehrler

Klaus Ehrler (1930 - 2005) was a German historian and peace activist.

Ehrler came from an educated middle class, Christian family in Leipzig. His father was a teacher; his mother came from a family of teachers. His childhood was in the period of National Socialism. Still a schoolboy, he already practiced in passive resistance. When having to perform military type sports at school, he would appear with a bandaged forearm and was allowed to sit and watch. In field exercises in the forest, would loose contact with the troops and occasionally returned prematurely. The squad leader was not pleased with this unpatriotic behaviour and in the summer of 1942, Klaus and a friend were disgraced before the whole team. From his Evakuierungsort Nossen (place of evacuation named Nossen) Klaus Ehler witnessed Dresden burn.

http://southpacificberets.com/usa---hoodlums.php

After the liberation of Germany from Nazism, he worked as a roofer helper before finishing school and taking up university studies. As a student in the 1950s he was active against the rearmament and against the nuclear policy of the Adenauer-Government and soon belonged to the inner circle of the student opposition.

http://southpacificberets.com/usa---hoodlums.php

In an obituary upon his death Dieter wrote:

"Ehrler played a key role at the UN (Cooperation Democratic NGOs). As a historian in Germany having to deal with professional disqualification [because of his political stance], he remained incorruptible in matters of peace."

Ehrler was married and lived in the eastern part of Berlin since 1995.