Howard Schroeder

Howard S. Schroeder was born in the Bronx in 1910.  He was stationed at Fort Miles in Lewes, Delaware during World War II.  He and his wife Marian stayed in Lewes after the war, raising six children while Howard built his formidable reputation as an artist and art teacher.

Schroeder’s “Self-portrait with Beret”

He was best known, during his 84 years, for portraits of Delaware's waterfront, small towns, marshes and farms. They're scenes that you won't always find today, because, in his words, of all the "growth, progress and cement: hundreds of thousands of acres of cement."

Keri Hilson

Keri Lynn Hilson (1982) is an American R&B recording artist and songwriter. Born and raised in Decatur, Georgia, Hilson began her music career as a songwriter, penning tracks for several artists in the mid-2000s as part of the five-person production and songwriting team, The Clutch. In 2006, she signed a recording contract with Timbaland's record label, Mosley Music.

In 2009, Hilson released her debut studio album, In a Perfect World..., which debuted at number four on the Billboard 200, and spawned the hit singles "Knock You Down" and "Turnin Me On". 

As a prominent guest vocalist in both the R&B and hip hop genres, Hilson has featured on several singles by other artists, including "The Way I Are" with Timbaland and "Superhuman" with Chris Brown. In 2010, she released her second studio album, No Boys Allowed, which spawned the hit single "Pretty Girl Rock".

Beret Toss

French chefs participate in a traditional French beret toss in the Meatpacking District in New York on Thursday, February 18, 2010. 

Hosted by D'Artagnan Foods, an importer of gourmet French foods, to celebrate their 25th anniversary, chefs from Gascony in France and from French restaurants in New York tossed their berets in the good natured contest. The beret toss is a tradition in the Gascony village of Saint-Mont. D'Artagnan Foods is a purveyor of gourmet foods and supplies many of the top chefs in the United States.

French visitors, Francophiles and others sample French fare at a traditional French beret toss.

Reese Palley

Meet Reese Palley, 90n year old peddler of ideas.

Author, adventurer, art dealer,  rescuer of Ukrainian Torah's, circumnavigator of the world among many other interesting stories. 

The red beret is a present from his wife, Marilyn: "My wife, one of the strongest women in the world, is terrified of losing track of me. She bought the red beret and said, Thou shalt wear it, so she can find me in a crowd."

Sally Jane's Silk Mill Pictures

I found these pictures on the web site of Sally Jane, SallyJaneVintage. 

The location is an old silk mill, in a tiny Pennsylvania town where not much remains.

"It was built in 1907 and served as a silk mill for 50 years. Raw silk was brought here, washed, dyed and spun into silk thread. In 1957 the mill closed (and this is the best part) the doors were shut and everything was left exactly where it was! Nothing in the building has been touched or removed (except for the occasional unfortunate vandal) in over 5o years. It was like walking into a time capsule!"

"Not only was all of the machinery in place but there were still ladies' shoes in the lockers, evidence of lunches had on picnic tables, handwritten payroll records (minimum was was $.20 an hour!) and piles of raw silk waiting to be spun into thread. There were still calenders hanging in nearly every room, each turned to January 1957."

Roberto Santoro

Jorge Roberto Santoro ( Buenos Aires , Argentina , April 17 of 1939 - detained-disappeared in 1977 ) was an Argentine poet.

Roberto Santoro was the son of factory workers. He had several jobs to make ends meet: painter, street vendor, market stallholder, typographer and teacher in an industrial school, however, his contribution lies in poetry. He founded and directed  El Barrilete, a literary magazine.

Roberto Santoro, Alberto Costa, Rafael Vásquez y Enrique Courau

Santoro always assumed a militant political attitude. In the 1960's he joined the Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT). The social political intentionality is a constant in his work.
Jorge Roberto Santoro was abducted by state terrorists on June 1, 1977; taken from his  work: the National Technical Education School No. 25 "First Lieutenant of Artillery Fray Luis Beltran".

Summer?

While this may not sound so exciting to you readers up in the northern hemisphere, moving rapidly towards summer, down here in windy Wellington we are enjoying some of the best sunny, windstill days of the year! 

I guess you'd call it Indian Summer, except for the NZ native trees that stay green year long; clear blue skies, bright light, clear views of the Marlborough Sounds and the Kaikouras across Cook Strait and the sheer enjoyment of finally wearing one of the best summer berets around: the Basco Bianco. 

Two Historic Boinas Elósegui Ads

 1914

1915

Alfonso Sastre

Alfonso Sastre (born February 20, 1926 in Madrid) is a Spanish playwright, essayist, and critic associated with the Generation of '36 movement. He was an outspoken critic of censorship during the reign of General Francisco Franco. His most noteworthy plays include Death Squad (1953), The Gag (1954), Death Thrust (1960), and Tragicomedy of the Gypsy Celestina (1984).

Alfonso Sastre was born into a typical middle-class family. He had three siblings (Aurora, Ana and Jose), and received a Catholic upbringing. He survived hunger and bombing during the Spanish Civil War and later received a degree from the Institute Cardinal Cisneros of Madrid. In 1943 he began a career as an aeronautical engineer, which he abandoned after fifteen days. By the end of the 1940s, he began producing existentialist works, either alone or with others in the "New Art" movement.

Nora Cortinas, Eva Forest, Alfonso Sastre, Abel Prieto, Stella Calloni 2006

In 1950 he signed, along with Jose M. de Quinto, the Theater of Social Agitation Manifesto (TAS), and vehemently defended, through books and newspapers, the use of theater as a means of social agitation. In 1953 he completed his studies and had his first success in the theater, Escuadra Hacia la Muerte, roughly translated as Death Squad. It premiered on March 18, 1953, and was performed by the University Popular Theater (TPU). The play took place during the Third World War and dealt with a squad of five soldiers and their corporal, sent on a suicide mission as punishment for past transgressions. The play was censored by Franco's regime after its third performance. 

On September 17, 1954, the play La Mordaza (The Gag) premiered, dealing with themes of dictatorship and repression. That same year he wrote the revolutionary drama Tierra Roja (Red Earth), which was never allowed to be presented as it dealt with the subject of exploitation. Sastre continued to write plays such as La Sangre de Dios, Ana Kleiber (The Blood of God, Ana Kleiber) and Guillermo Tell tiene los ojos tristes (William Tell Has Sad Eyes) in 1955. In 1959 he wrote En la red (In the Net) and La Cornada (The Thrust). In 1990 he wrote ¿Dónde estás, Ulalume, dónde estás 

The Dutch Series #10 - Joris Ivens

Instead of writing myself, I have copied a short biography of Joris Ivens (from www.ivens.nl). There is simply too much interesting material to fit in one (or two, there...) posts.

Roman Karmen, Ernest Hemingway, Joris Ivens. Spain 1936

1898  George Henri Anton Ivens was born 18 November at the Van Berchenstraat in Nijmegen. He was the second son of photographic equipment dealer Cees Ivens and his wife Dora Muskens 
1911 Made a juvenile film about Indians and a farmer`s family, titled De Wigwam, taken at Heideparkseweg and Kwakkenberg in Nijmegen 
1911-`17  Pupil of the municipal Dutch High School at Kronenburgsingel in Nijmegen
1917-`19 Training as officer mounted field artillery 
1919-`21 Studies economy at Higher Commercial College in Rotterdam, becomes student president 
1921-`24  Studies photographic technique in Berlin, apprenticeship in several photographic laboratories, befriends Dutch poet Hendrik Marsman 
1924-`33 Works in the Amsterdam branch of the CAPI-photo shop of his father`s; private filming of Ivens family at Sun- en Moonhouse 
1927  Co-founder of FILM LIGA, begins taking first film experiments 
1928  His short film De Brug (The Brigde) made Joris Ivens the pioneer of Dutch film art and attracts international attention 
1928-`31 Makes form and movement studies such as Rain and the first artistic sound film of Holland: Philips Radio (Industrial Symphony) 
1932-`34 Makes controversial social films at time of depression such as Nieuwe Gronden (New Earth, about impoldering the Zuiderzee) and Borinage, after which he leaves Holland and goes to Russia 

Borinage, 1933

1936-`45 Settles in the U.S.A. and makes anti-fascist films such as Spanish Earth in Spain together with Ernest Hemingway and the The 400 Million in China;
collaborates in Canada and U.S.A. (a.o. for the USA War Department) in films about the war against Japan and Germany 

1946 Resigns as film-commissioner in Indonesia for the Dutch government, in solidarity with the new-born Indonesian Republic and makes Indonesia Calling, a film pro Indonesian independance. Because of these events the Dutch government declares him `persona non grata` 
1947-`57 Stays in Eastern Europe, forced because his Dutch passport has been confiscated, and makes some trade union films such as Lied der Ströme (Song of the Rivers) in colaboration with a.o. Brecht and Sjostakovic 
1955 Is awarded the World Peace Prize 
1957 Settles in Paris and wins a Golden Palm in Cannes and the Golden Gate Award in San Francisco with La Seine a rencontre Paris
1957-`65 Films in France, China, Italy, Cuba, Mali, and Chile the recovery of land, but also makes lyrical films such as Pour le Mistral and ...A Valparaiso 
1964 First festive reception in Amsterdam in favour of a careful restoration of the split with his fatherland 
1967 Is awarded the International Lenin Prize for Science and Culture in Moscow 
1969 Dutch Minister Klomp assigns the making of a film about Holland to Ivens 
1965-`70 Devotes himself to the liberation of Vietnam and makes several films against the American war of aggression 

Ernest Hemingway (far right) with John Dos Passos (far left), Joris Ivens (back to camera), and Sidney Franklin in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War

1971-`77 Large film project about the cultural revolution, shown at the basis of Chinese society How Yu Kong Moved the Mountains. This film is shown in many countries a.o. on Dutch television, and is bought by MoMA (Museum of Modern Art, New York) 
1978 Is awarded an honorary doctorate of the Royal College of Art in London 
1980-`88 Large film project about the history of Florence (not realised) and in China about the wind Une Histoire de Vent 

Ernest Hemingway and Joris Ivens with their ambushed car (Spain,1937) photo John Fernhout

1984 Is made Commander of the "Legion d`Honeur", presented by president Mitterand 
1985 Is awarded the Golden Calf - Dutch Film Prize", presented by minister Brinkman; is made Grand Officer of the Republic of Italy and is presented with the golden medal "For merits for the Beautiful Arts" by the Spanish king Juan Carlos 
1987 Is awarded the Che Guevarra Prize in Cuba 

Joris Ivens and Anneke van der Feer

1988 Is awarded the "Golden Lion" for his complete oeuvre at the Venice Fim Festival; is made honorary citizen of Nijmegen 
1989 Is decorated with a Knighthood in the Order of the Dutch Lion; dies in Paris on June 28

Janet Jackson

As the baby of pop music's best-known family, Janet Jackson could have spent her career in the shadow of her eight siblings, particularly brother Michael. Instead, with the help of some savvy creative and professional advisers outside the family, Janet established herself as the preeminent pop-funk diva of the late 1980s and early 1990s. And, as far as I know, she's the only sibling regularly wearing a beret!

Janet Jackson onstage with her brothers Marlon, Tito, Jackie and Randy on September 4, 2008 in LA.

Following the release of Dream Street, Jackson decided to separate her business affairs from her family. She later commented, "I just wanted to get out of the house, get out from under my father, which was one of the most difficult things that I had to do, telling him that I didn't want to work with him again." 

Having sold over 100 million records, she is ranked as one of the best-selling artists in the history of contemporary music.

Peaked Berets - Now at South Pacific Berets!

Remember August 8th post on Dutch painter and COBRA co-founder Corneille and his peaked berets?

I am very proud to have finally sourced these berets! Made of 100% pure wool, black in a one size fit all, available at South pacific Berets @ $43.50 (international postage & handling included!). Better still, I am working on a range of custom made peaked berets, hopefully available later this year. 

Don't think this is a kind of Greek Fisherman's cap (or "John Lennon Hat"), or "newsboy cap", or one of all those other caps that are commonly named "berets". A beret is made of one piece of knitted material, closed in a circular shape with the end of the closing thread sticking out in the middle. A peaked beret is just that, with the peak added on!

Bernie Dexter

Another model in the Bettie Page category is Bernie Dexter, very much a BP look-a-like. 

At 18, she won the Miss Teen San Diego County and initially pursued a career in acting and modelling. She trained at cosmetology school, first working for Make-up Art Cosmetics and then working freelance on photoshoots. It was on one of these shoots, in 2002, that Dexter was photographed herself. She entered the photographs in the Viva Las Vegas pin-up contest and got such good feedback that she decided to concentrate on being a pin-up model.

German tabloid Bild dubbed Dexter "the queen of pin-ups" ("die Königin des Pin-ups") and compared her to Dita Von Teese (see yesterday's post).

In March 2011 Bernie Dexter was announced as the face of True Corset.

Dexter has been the subject of paintings by Olivia De Berardinis. 

Dita Von Teese

Dita Von Teese (born Heather Renée Sweet, 1972) is an American burlesque dancer, model, costume designer, author and actress.

Von Teese is well known for her fascination with 1940s cinema and classic retro style, bearing resemblance to Bettie Page. She was classically trained as a ballet dancer from an early age, and danced solo at age thirteen for a local ballet company. Though she originally wanted to be a ballerina, Von Teese states that "By 15, I was as good as I’d ever be." 

As a teenager, Von Teese's mother took her to buy her first bra, made from plain white cotton, and gave her a plastic egg containing a pair of wrinkly, flesh-colored tights. Von Teese says she was disappointed as she had been hoping to receive beautiful lacy garments and stockings, of the type she had glimpsed in her father's Playboy magazines. This fueled her passion for lingerie. She worked in a lingerie store as a salesgirl when she was fifteen, and has been fond of wearing elaborate lingerie such as corsets and basques with fully fashioned stockings ever since.

Berets and Dandruff

Dandruff (Latin: Pityriasis simplex capillitii) is the shedding of dead skin cells from the scalp. As it is normal for skin cells to die and flake off, a small amount of flaking is normal and common; about 487,000 cells/cm2 get released normally after detergent treatment. 

Some people, however, either chronically or as a result of certain triggers, experience an unusually large amount of flaking, up to 800,000 cells/cm2, which can also be accompanied by redness and irritation. Most cases of dandruff can be easily treated with specialized shampoos.

 Dandruff is a common scalp disorder affecting almost half of the population at the pre-pubertal age and of any sex and ethnicity. In some cultures dandruff is considered aesthetically displeasing. It often causes itching. It has been well established that keratinocytes play a key role in the expression and generation of immunological reactions during dandruff formation. The severity of dandruff may fluctuate with season as it often worsens in winter.

Those affected by dandruff find that it can cause social or self-esteem problems. Treatment may be important for both physiological and psychological reasons.

Research by the US Army (of all places), found that a weekly dose of 5ml alcohol based zinc solution, sprayed on the inside of the beret cures dandruff in 87% of all cases within 30 days. The combination of wool's natural breath-ability, zinc, lanolin and the natural oils present in wool have been trialed over a 3 year period and are now released by the US Army Dept. of Scientific Field Research. 

More to Laugh from the Balkans

The grotesque and absurd in Romania didn't just occur during the 1950's (see post 28 March). Some fine (and sad) examples can be found in the 30's and 40's; what, and in all those years until Ceausescu's fall also, yes. 

And these days there is Radu Ştefan Mazăre, Mayor of Black Sea port Constanţa. Mazăre founded the Telegraf newspaper, the local Neptun TV channel and was a shareholder of the Conpress Holding. He joined the Democratic Party (PD) and was elected to the Romanian Chamber of Deputies in 1996. He later resigned due to "differences between electoral promises and the realities of government".

He is considered one of the top 300 richest people in Romania, controls a sizable chunk of the Romanian media and is known for having his name written on every project where the municipality was involved, such as on every bus of the public transportation system of Constanţa.

A controversial event took place in July 2009 when, during a fashion show, Radu Mazăre participated in the show wearing a Nazi Wehrmacht uniform, together with his son, who was also wearing Nazi uniform. He explained that he "always liked this uniform, and admired the rigorous organization of the German army". According to Mazare, "I checked it before I put it on; the swastika was very small and I didn't see it". Two days later he issued a public apology to Jewish organisations, declaring that by wearing the uniform he wanted to pay homage to Claus von Stauffenberg, a leading member of the failed plot to kill Adolf Hitler during World War II.

Mazăre (and his followers) have a liking for red berets. Funny?