Voicing the Moment

This book presents contributions of leading scholars to the field of orally improvised poetry.

It includes, on the one hand, essays on Hispanic and extra-Hispanic improvised poetry and, on the other, essays in which leading practitioners of bertsolaritza study their own poetic art and its techniques. Among other traditions, the Slavic gulsari (John Miles Foley), the Canarian punto cubano (Mazimiano Trapero), Mediterranean and Near Eastern improvisation (Samuel G. Armistead), Medieval Spanish written debates (John Zemke), Asturian deep song (James Fernandez), Cantabrian trovas (William A. Christian), Arabic invective (James T. Monroe), as well as the oral context of Garcia Lorca's Romance sonambulo (Wilfredo de Rafols) are examined. 

On the Basque tradition of the art of bertsolaritza, Antonio Zavala, Gorka Aulestia, Linda White, Kepa Fernandez, Joxe Mallea-Olaetxe, Joseba Zulaika, Joxerra Garzia, Jon Sarasua, and Andoni Egana discuss its various aspects, techniques, and theories. Israel J. Katz concludes the volume with a study of the bertso music. The result is a balanced combination of diverse perspectives that constitute a significant addition to the growing body of scholarship concerning orally improvised poetry.

Walking Ships

O Father Dear

         do ships at sea

have legs way down below?

Of course they do,

                Little goosie, you!

                For how else could they go?

Penny "Lapsang" Rimbaud

Jeremy John Ratter (born 8 June 1943), better known as Penny "Lapsang" Rimbaud, is a writer, poet, philosopher, painter, musician and activist. He was a member of the performance art groups EXIT and Ceres Confusion, and in 1972 was co-founder of the Stonehenge Free Festival, together with Phil Russell aka Wally Hope. 

In 1977, alongside Steve Ignorant, he co-founded the seminal anarchist punk band Crass, who disbanded in 1984. Up until 2000 he devoted himself almost entirely to writing, returning to the public platform in 2001 as a performance poet working alongside Australian saxophonist Louise Elliott and a wide variety of jazz musicians under the umbrella of Penny Rimbaud's Last Amendment.

Canada’s National Memorial at Vimy Ridge

Unveiling of Canada’s National Memorial at Vimy Ridge, July 26, 1936.

Close-up of Mrs. C.S. Woods of Winnipeg, Manitoba, mother of twelve sons who served in the war, five of whom were killed. She represented the Silver Star Mothers of Canada at the Ceremony.

Serigraf Ball

A football is a clever assembly of pentagons and hexagons that must be combined to form a harmonious and colorful design. Simon Mutscher and Louis-Bernard Guillizzoni, two young friends from Nantes, became ball designers and launched their brand: Serigraf Ball. The two are complementary: Simon is a rugby fan, Louis-Bernard, a football fan.

Fashionable in NYC

Aprons

An apron is a garment that is worn over other clothing and covers mainly the front of the body.

It may have several different purposes and is today perhaps most known as a functional accessory that layers over one's outfit to protect one's clothes and skin from incidental stains and marks.

However, the apron may also be worn as a purely decorative garment, for hygienic reasons and to protect from dangers such as excessive heat. An apron often gains sentimental value overtime because one who wears an apron wears it often, if not always, while doing the work.

The routine of putting an apron on before doing one’s work can even begin to feel slightly ceremonial, in the sense that it prepares them mentally and physically for the task at hand.

As a top layer that covers the front body, the apron is also worn as a uniform, adornment, ceremonial garb or fashion statement. Apron styles adapt to the tastes of the times to suite the values and jobs of the current culture. They can be practical, fashionable, sentimental and even depicting berets!

Blood Berets

They say that when even the corporate armies aren't enough, you call on the elite. You call on the Blood Berets. They've seen it all; the swamps, the sand, the arctic wastes. But there was something about the jungle.... 

The deafening quiet, made more so by the thick foliage overhead, pressed upon the berets as they methodically worked their way through the jungle. Other than the occasional cautious 'blip' by the scanner, the berets were nothing more than camouflaged whispers. 

Then it all broke loose. Horrendous beast-screams ripped through the air as the scanners went wild. Undead legion troops burst through the growth and attacked with inhuman rage. Weapons hummed into action and rapid-fire bursts leveled jungle and enemy alike as the first of many ferocious fire-fights began. The Blood Berets had arrived.

Blood Berets is a game of skirmish fighting between an elite squad of the Imperial or Bauhaus Corporation and an undead force of Legionnaires and Nepharite Overlords of the Dark Legion from Mutant Chronicles universe. 

Green Beret Trading Cards

“Men of the Green Berets” were trading cards, included with packs of bubble-gum, dedicated entirely to the men of the U. S. Army special forces known as the Green Berets.

The cards were issued in 1966 and feature various black-and-white scenes related to the business of being a ‘Green Beret’.

The reverse of each card features part of a colorful illustration intended as a piece of a larger display of a Green Beret in action.

Tarot

The tarot is a pack of playing cards, used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play games such as Italian tarocchini and French tarot. In the late 18th century, it began to be used for divination in the form of tarotology and cartomancy.

The word tarot and German Tarock derive from the Italian tarocchi, the origin of which is uncertain but taroch was used as a synonym for foolishness in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

The earliest evidence of a tarot deck used for cartomancy comes from an anonymous manuscript from around 1750 which documents rudimentary divinatory meanings for the cards of the Tarocco Bolognese. The popularization of esoteric tarot started with Antoine Court and Jean-Baptiste Alliette (Etteilla) in Paris during the 1780s, using the Tarot of Marseilles. After French tarot players abandoned the Marseilles tarot in favor of the Tarot Nouveau around 1900, the Marseilles pattern is now used mostly by cartomancers.

Etteilla was the first to issue a tarot deck specifically designed for occult purposes around 1789. In keeping with the misplaced belief that such cards were derived from the Book of Thoth, Etteilla's tarot contained themes related to ancient Egypt.

New Old Beret Labels

It is quite amazing, how, after all these years of collecting and searching for pictures of vintage beret labels, there are always more... 

Here the latest additions:

Liebig Chasseurs Alpins Cards

Liebig's Extract of Meat Company was the producer of LEMCO brand Liebig's Extract of Meat and the originator of Oxo meat extracts and Oxo beef stock cubes. It was named after Baron Justus von Liebig, the 19th-century German organic chemist who developed and promoted a method for industrial production of beef extract.

Colorful calendars and trading cards were also marketed to popularize the product. Liebig produced many illustrated advertising products: table cards, menu cards, children's games, free trading card sets, calendars, posters, poster stamps, paper and other toys. 

The French Mountain Infantry, or Chasseurs Alpins, were a favourite subject.

In 1872, they began to include sets of trading cards featuring stories, historical titbits, geographic titbits, and so on. Many famous artists were contacted to design those series of cards, which were first produced using true lithography, then litho chromo, chromolithography, and finally offset printing. 

The cards remain popular with collectors and are often collected in albums.

Karel van Veen

Dutch artist Karel van Veen (Rotterdam 1898-1988) did not seek fame or recognition.

Portrait of Adolf Eduard Boddaert (1881-1960), ca. 1939

He went his own way, painted in his own way and withdrew from the fashionable art movements of his time. Critics acknowledged his virtuosity, but could not place him well.

Asked about his position in art, he answered: 'I paint things as they are'.

Carlos Montefusco

Carlos Montefusco (1964) was born in Crucesita, Avellaneda, in the Province of Buenos Aires.

Since he can remember, Carlos has been drawing. The characters of his works all find their basis in rural Argentina, especially the gaucho culture.

An admirer of north American painters Russell and Remington, he followed the traditional Argentinian folklore painters such as Rugendas, Quirós, Molina Campos and Marenco. 

It is the culture and landscape of rural Argentina, especially that of the gauchos, with a fair sense of humor thrown into the mix.

The 1953 North Sea Flood

The 1953 North Sea flood was a major flood caused by a heavy storm that occurred on the night of Saturday, 31 January 1953 and morning of Sunday, 1 February 1953. The floods struck the Netherlands, Belgium, England and Scotland.

A combination of a high spring tide and a severe European windstorm over the North Sea caused a storm tide; the combination of wind, high tide, and low pressure led to a water level of more than 5.6 metres (18.4 ft) above mean sea level in some locations. The flood and waves overwhelmed sea defences and caused extensive flooding. The Netherlands, a country with 20% of its territory below mean sea level and 50% less than 1 metre (3.3 ft) above sea level and which relies heavily on sea defences, was worst affected, recording 1,836 deaths and widespread property damage. Most of the casualties occurred in the southern province of Zeeland. In England, 307 people were killed in the counties of Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. Nineteen were killed in Scotland. Twenty-eight people were killed in West Flanders, Belgium.

In addition, more than 230 deaths occurred on water craft along Northern European coasts as well as on ships in deeper waters of the North Sea. The ferry MV Princess Victoria was lost at sea in the North Channel east of Belfast with 133 fatalities, and many fishing trawlers sank.

Realising that such infrequent events could recur, the Netherlands particularly, and the United Kingdom carried out major studies on strengthening of coastal defences. The Netherlands developed the Delta Works, an extensive system of dams and storm surge barriers.