Larry Vuckovich

Larry Vuckovich (1936) is an American jazz pianist from Yugoslavia.

Born in Kotor, a small Montenegrin coastal town in the former Yugoslavia, the pianist was classically trained as a child but was also drawn to the jazz he heard on Armed Forces Radio and Voice of America during World War II and the Communist regime that followed. After the war, Tito's communists took his home, including the family piano, and imprisoned his father and brother. Jazz came to symbolize freedom. In 1951, when he was 14, his family was granted political asylum in the United States, arriving in San Francisco.

Vuckovich worked with Philly Joe Jones in San Francisco at the Keystone Korner, where he was a resident pianist for five years. Later he worked for five years in New York City, where he performed at the Village Vanguard, Blue Note Jazz Club, Bradley's Zinno, West End, and others.

He returned to San Francisco for a long-term engagement from 1990 to 1997 as house pianist and music director of Club 36 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. He presented several West Coast Jazz Festival performances and served as music director of the Napa Valley Jazz Festival for six years.

Larry Vuckovich Day, December 8, was proclaimed in San Francisco on his birthday. Vuckovich received a B.A. in music at San Francisco State University, where he studied classical piano.

Aitor Inarra

Aitor Inarra (Anton Inarra) and Santiago Cabrera speaking about Hemingway and Gellhorn with Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen.

Gerald Hirigoyen

Born in Bayonne and raised in Biarritz, Gerald Hirigoyen moved to Paris to study pastry before coming to San Francisco to cook in classic French restaurants. He opened modern French bistros like Fringale and Pastis, prior to his marquee Piperade in 2002.

Along the way, Hirigoyen has become one of the most celebrated chefs in San Francisco, with accolades from the James Beard Foundation, Food & Wine, and The Chronicle, among many others.

Shimon Schwarzschild

Shimon Schwarzschild (1925 –2021) was a German-born American environmental activist. His work contributed to the establishment of a nature preserve in Assisi, Italy.

Schwarzschild's publications include a 1983 article in Audubon Magazine that first called international attention to the destruction of the birds of Assisi by hunting.

In 2020, Schwarzschild was finishing a film project called "Transcending Terror" about his relationship with the German town in which he grew up, Wertheim. He described the film as a documentary on "Loss, Opportunity and Redemption".

He died in New York on November 10, 2021, at the age of 95.

Louis Earl "Lou" Hartman

Louis Earl "Lou" Hartman began his radio career in Chicago in the 1930s, writing comedy sketches for NBC Blue Network. Mr. Hartman was best known as the radio personality Jim Grady on "This Is San Francisco," which he hosted from 1950-57. As part of the show, Mr. Hartman would compose narratives and walk around San Francisco, interviewing people about their lives or drawing attention to hole-in-the-wall restaurants, unique parks or lesser-known lookout spots.

Active in the civil rights and labour movements, Mr. Hartman was subpoenaed and brought before the House Committee on Un-American Activities during its San Francisco hearings in June 1957.

He was accused of potentially endangering the public because of his political beliefs and convicted of contempt of Congress when he refused to comply with the committee's questioning, saying it violated his First Amendment rights. As a result, Mr. Hartman was blacklisted by CBS and never returned to radio. In June 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his conviction, ruling that the committee did not have probable cause to subpoena him.

Lou and his wife Blanche Hartman

In the 1980s, Mr. Hartman was ordained a Zen priest, and he and his wife moved to the San Francisco Zen Center.

Mr. Hartman died at 95 in 2011.

Mark Pritchard

Mark Pritchard is a San Francisco writer and occasional activist. He's also a former songwriter, dancer, and performance artist.

Mark Pritchard is known for his complex, and uncompromisingly graphic explorations of sexual taboos—from incest and drugs to S/M and sex among youth. Too Beautiful, Pritchard's first collection, quickly became a cult favourite when it was first published, praised by erotica greats like Patrick Califia.

Larry Schmidt

Larry Schmidt was a third generation Californian, born in Berkeley on what he fondly calls “The coattails of The Golden Age of Marionettes”. Marionettes were Larry’s passion, and he produced some of the finest examples for his yearly Halloween show “Driveway Follies”.

Larry received a B F A in fine art from The California College of the Arts in Oakland, made costumes for the Oakland Ballet, and joined the San Francisco Puppet Guild. As a young man he studied Indonesian mask dance from Suzanne Suwanda, performed with Leonard Pitt, and then began building marionettes for a production of Stravinsky’s Firebird. In 2007, he first presented “Driveway Follies”, an alternative “site-specific”, as well as “calendar specific” marionette show in the driveway of his Oakland family triplex. The roof of his garages also featured a “Halloween Haunt” that was populated with animatronic Halloween “dark ride” creations that Larry had designed and sculpted himself.

Larry is survived by his many puppets and life partner and inspiration Carl Linkhart.

Momotarō

Momotarō ("Peach Boy") is a popular hero of Japanese folklore. 

Momotarō was born from a giant peach, which was found floating down a river by an old, childless woman who was washing clothes there. The woman and her husband discovered the child when they tried to open the peach to eat it. The child explained that he had been bestowed by the gods to be their son. The couple named him Momotarō, from momo (peach) and tarō (eldest son in the family). When he was just five years old, he was able to cut a big tree with just an old knife.

When he matured into adolescence, Momotarō left his parents to fight a band of Oni (demons or ogres) who marauded over their land, by seeking them out in the distant island where they dwelled (a place called Onigashima or "Demon Island"). En route, Momotarō met and befriended a talking dog, monkey and pheasant, who agreed to help him in his quest in exchange for a portion of his rations (kibi dango or "millet dumplings"). At the island, Momotarō and his animal friends penetrated the demons' fort and beat the band of demons into surrendering. Momotarō and his new friends returned home with the demons' plundered treasure and the demon chief as a captive.

 

Beret Fashion Behind the Iron Curtain

It wasn’t all grey and drab behind the Iron Curtain. In the 1960s Western fashion slowly crept through (or under) the borders – all illegal, of course.

In 1965, the Moscow House of Fashion welcomed a budding fashion designer, Vyacheslav Zaitsev, who largely defined the late Soviet and perestroika trends of bright, fashionable clothing. He was interested in foreign fashion trends and tried to adapt them to the domestic market in his own original style.

Bright colours, rigid geometric silhouettes and miniskirts (which were, after all, much more modest than their Western originals).

Hand-knitted items made from bright yarn are becoming extremely popular: jackets, skirts, dresses, shawls and even trouser suits.

And as berets go, this one pictured here is also for Western standards pretty extravagant.

Portraits in Colour

 

Paul Kruse

A 1968 photograph of North Texas State University Library Science professor Paul Kruse standing outside holding books and folders. Trees and an unidentified building are visible in the background.

Beret Portraits

 

Portraits

 

Raymond Trembath

Raymond Trembath grew up in a military family, he was 6 when he decided to join the army.

He signed up in 1973 and left in 1986 to do some solo travel around Africa and the US. By that time a friend who'd served in the French Foreign Legion had already "planted a seed", Ray says, and in 1989 he enlisted with the Legion for a five-year stint. "Off I went, adventuring."

At that time, about five New Zealanders were signing up every year, he says, "generally for the adventure", but new recruits were most often Portuguese and English. With the legion, Ray was a member of the elite parachute regiment and served in Chad, Somalia, Ethiopia and Rwanda.

After leaving the French Foreign Legion in 1994, Ray did construction work in Auckland for five years.

Then at an ANZAC service in 2000, he ran into a fellow army officer who told him he was taking soldiers to Timor.

Two years later, Ray rejoined the army as a corporal, eventually serving in Timor and PNG.

When he was diagnosed with cancer aged 60, Ray decided to call it a day on his army career.

"I thought that's me, I'm out of here, eh? I'm gonna have a vacation." He died in July, 2016.

Raoul Baligand

Raoul Baligand (1913 –1981) was a Belgian politician and member of the Belgian Resistance during the Second World War. 

Following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Baligand travelled to Spain and enlisted in the International Brigades in October 1936. He was assigned to the Franco-Belgian André Marty Battalion. In June 1937, he was wounded in action near Huesca. He was wounded a second time in Caspe. By the end of his service in Spain, he held the rank of captain. Baligand returned to Belgium from Spain on November 28, 1938.

Baligand was mobilized by the Belgian Army when Belgium was invaded by Nazi Germany in May 1940. On August 4, 1940, Baligand married Berthe Verkerk, a communist activist from Antwerp. Both Baligand and Verkerk were active members of the underground press, writing for the publications Clarté and Partisan.

In June 1941 Baligand began to conduct armed resistance operations alongside several Belgian veterans of the Spanish Civil War. He coordinated many sabotage missions, including the theft of hundreds of kilograms of explosives from the Bois du Cazier mine.

By the end of the Second World War, Baligand was the commander of all Partisans Armés operations in western Wallonia.

From 1943 to 1951 he would serve on the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belgium.

 

Alexander Khimushin

More on Alexander Khimushin (see yesterday's post):

Alexander Khimushin is an adventurer, ethno-photographer, and global citizen who has captivated audiences worldwide with his epic photo project, The World in Faces. With a nomadic spirit and a deep yearning for adventure, Alexander has spent the last 15 years of his life traversing the globe, visiting a staggering 98 countries and immersing himself in the diverse Indigenous cultures he encounters.

“One of my grandfathers was Ukrainian from Kyrgyzstan, while the other was Russian from Bessarabia. I was born in Yakutia, the coldest region of Siberia, a remote part of the USSR, a country that no longer exists. When the USSR collapsed, we became part of Russia, although Yakutia and its people are like aliens from another planet compared to Moscow and its inhabitants. Later in my life, I moved to Australia and now based in Thailand. However, I have always felt a strong connection to my Siberian roots. So, who am I then? Being a citizen of the world is something I have always been fascinated by”

Lesing and Elmira: A Lifelong Journey of Friendship and Art

A 're-post" from "The World in Faces" by Alexander Khimushin:

Today, I found myself in the enchanting remote town of Berd, nestled in the mountains of Tavush Province of Armenia—a place I had never heard of until yesterday. I'm fortunate to be a guest of an extraordinary couple, Lesing (85) and Elmira (85) Agakaryan, who have welcomed me with open arms. As we sip on a delightful cup of freshly brewed coffee, I can't help but admire their vibrant jackets, knitted by Elmira in the 1970s using traditional Armenian patterns—a craft she has cherished all her life.

Once upon a time, Elmira’s family hailed from Berd, where an old family house stood abandoned for years after they moved to the capital, Yerevan. Little did Elmira know that she would one day return to restore that family treasure. Meanwhile, in Yerevan, Elmira's older brother, Wilhelm Matevosyan, became a celebrated Armenian author and art critic. At that time, Elmira was still a schoolgirl.

Lesing fondly reminisces, “We met in high school. I played the tar—a traditional string instrument—in the school band, while Elmira dazzled as a member of the dance troupe. She was breathtaking, and I fell in love the moment I saw her. We've been together ever since.” Over the years, Lesing earned a PhD in physiology and lectured at a university, while Elmira pursued a career in economics. Although their professional paths didn’t lead them into the art world, they were close friends with Wilhelm, who profoundly influenced Lesing's artistic journey. “One day, Wilhelm brought me a sketchbook and urged me to paint again. That rekindled my passion for art at the age of 50, and I’ve been painting for the last 35 years,” he shares. Elmira adds, “My creative path for decades has been traditional embroidery and knitwear, but sadly I had to stop last year due to eyesight issues.”

“After our dear brother and friend Wilhelm passed away, we made a life-changing decision to leave our full-time jobs in Yerevan,” Elmira explains. “We sold everything and returned to Berd, restoring my family home and establishing a free art school for local children. For the past 25 years, we've been living in Berd and running this school, nurturing many young talents. Currently, we have eight students aged 11 to 16.”

I was genuinely amazed to discover such a well-equipped, modern, and sunlit art school in this small and remote Armenian town. Thank you, Lesing and Elmira, for your selflessness and dedication to empowering local children! 

We spent a wonderful day together. As I wrapped up my visit, I couldn't help but ask one last question: After so many years together, what’s the secret to your enduring partnership?

Lesing and Elmira replied, “True friendship. They say men and women can't be friends, but we disagree. It's about two souls connecting. She’s a human being, and he's a human being. We always support each other—that’s what we call real friendship.”

Volker Lohrmann

Entomologist Volker Lohrmann ( 1981) studied biology in Mainz and Berlin. 

From 2006 to 2007 he worked as a scientific volunteer at the “Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe” and from 2007-2010 he did his doctorate scholarship at the “Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes” (German National Academic Foundation). 

Research and field trips, among others, in Arizona, Florida and London. 2011-2014, research assistant at the University of Potsdam, the Museum für Naturkunde (Museum of Natural History) Berlin and the Max-Planck Institute in Bremen. 2012-2014 member of the taxonomy work group of the Leopoldina and Head of the entomology subject area at the Übersee-Museum Bremen since 2013.

Lou Jean

Fourth generation of cow and fighting bull breeder, Lou Jean opened the doors of his bull farm to speak to us about Gascon identity.

James

 

🎻Fionn and Jonathan Angus

Father and son, Fionn and Jonathan Angus, established a social enterprise called Fionnathan Productions which works to create a more inclusive, welcoming and equal society.

Fionn, who has Down Syndrome, has been playing the fiddle for 20 years, and works to ensure the talents of those with disabilities are celebrated. 

As part of this year's festival, TradFest has teamed up with Ablefest, Ireland's largest inclusive music festival, to increase accessibility and make sure everyone has a space on the stage.

Michael Mulcahy

Michael Mulcahy (1952) is an Irish expressionist painter who lives and works in Paris, but returns frequently to Ireland. 

Michael Mulcahy was educated at the Crawford Municipal School of Art in Cork and the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. He has travelled extensively, particularly in north and west Africa where he has lived and worked in the local community.

The Douglas Hyde Gallery in Dublin held a major exhibition of his work in 1994. He has at least one child, a girl, and now resides in Wexford where he opened a working gallery.

Paddy Mayne

Lieutenant Colonel Robert Blair Mayne (1915 –1955), best known as Paddy Mayne or familiarly as Blair, was a British Army officer from Newtownards. He was an amateur boxing champion, qualified as a solicitor and was capped for Ireland and the British and Irish Lions at rugby union before becoming a founding member of the Special Air Service (SAS).

Serving with distinction during the Second World War, Mayne became one of the British Army's most highly decorated officers. He was controversially denied the Victoria Cross, a decoration which King George VI remarked "so strangely eluded him".

Mayne participated in many night raids deep behind enemy lines in the deserts of Egypt and Libya, where the SAS wrought havoc by destroying many enemy aircraft on the ground. Mayne pioneered the use of military jeeps to conduct surprise hit-and-run raids, particularly on Axis airfields. It was claimed that he had personally destroyed up to 100 aircraft.

After the war, Mayne returned to Newtownards first practising as a solicitor and then becoming Secretary to the Law Society of Northern Ireland. He suffered severe back pain which prevented him even watching rugby as a spectator. He seldom talked about his wartime exploits.

The Guardia di Finanza

The Guardia di Finanza is an Italian law enforcement agency under the authority of the minister of economy and finance. It is a militarized police force, forming a part of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, not the Ministry of Defence.

Obsolete 1980s model

Guardia di Finanza is essentially responsible for dealing with financial crime and smuggling; it has also evolved into Italy's primary agency for suppressing the illegal drug trade. It maintains over 600 boats and ships and more than 100 aircraft to serve in its mission of patrolling Italy's territorial waters. It also has the role of border police and customs duties at Italian airports.

The origins of the Guardia di Finanza date back to 5 October 1774, when the "Light Troops Legion" (Legione truppe leggere) was set up under the King of Sardinia, Victor Amadeus III. This was the first example in Italy of a special corps established and organized for financial surveillance duties along the borders, as well as for military defence.

Members of the Guardia di Finanza wear small diameter green berets.