Peter Tosh

Franschoek

Franschhoek ("French Corner", (Dutch spelling before 1947 Franschen Hoek) is a small town in the Western Cape Province and one of the oldest towns of the Republic of South Africa. It is about 75 kilometres from Cape Town and has a population of 15,353. Since 2000 it has been incorporated into Stellenbosch.

Once a sleepy country retreat, the village began experiencing a boom since the 1990s. The ideal summer weather, snowy peaks in winter and proximity to Cape Town have turned Franschhoek into one of South Africa's most sought after residential addresses.

Franschhoek is notable for having some of the top restaurants in the country within its quiet borders. This fact, together with the strong wine culture, and pristine natural and architectural beauty has made Franschhoek into what many describe as the "food and wine capital" of South Africa. The city hosts one of the TOP 50 restaurants in the world, according to the "S.Pellegrino world's 50 best restaurants"-ranking and a famous Belgian Pâtisserie for Belgian pralines.

Franschhoek's week-end festival for Bastille Day has been celebrated for the last 15 years, with the proverbial berets and typical activities of daily French life as wine barrel rolling and moustache face painting.

Italians!

Just in, at South Pacific Berets, not even photographed yet, let alone listed:
Basco Roma's in dark brown and anthracite grey - a first one ever! I can't help but feeling a little proud about these custom made berets from Italy (had to take a few out for myself, of course...).

I do have pictures of the, also new, Basco Francia in navy, making all the Francia's now available through South Pacific Berets (black, navy, grey & brown) and more berets in the Basco Pura Lana range: camel, chestnut brown and marbled green.

 
Last, I ordered two samples of the famous Borsalino beret, fantastic berets with beautiful finishing and a soft lambs leather headband. 


Unfortunately, with all added import, GST and shipping costs, these are to expensive to stock - I have one listed now in the One-Offs section at SPB in size 59 @ $52.50. See pictures below.

All the berets mentioned will get listed at the web site over the next 2 days.

The NZ Series #23 - Tariana Turia and the Maori Party

Tariana Turia (born 8 April 1944) is a New Zealand politician. She gained considerable prominence during the foreshore and seabed controversy, and eventually broke with her party as a result. She resigned from parliament, and successfully contested a by-election in her former electorate as a candidate of the newly formed Māori Party.

Turia was born in 1944 to an American (probably Native American) father and Māori mother. Her Māori roots are Whanganui, Ngati Apa, Nga Rauru, and Tuwharetoa iwi.

The pictures shown here were made yesterday, wearing a beret with the Tino Rangatiratanga (Maori flag) badge, while being interviewed over the fall-out with prime minister John Key over asset sales. Who knows, it may help bring down this National Party government. 

Luis Cernuda

The son of a military man, Luis Cernuda received a strict education as a child, and then studied law at the University of Seville, where he met the poet and literature professor Pedro Salinas. In 1928, after his mother died, Cernuda left his hometown, with which he had all his life an intense love-hate relationship. He briefly moved to Madrid, where he quickly became part of the literary scene. However, his detached, timid and morose character, his search of perfection frequently made him lose friendships and popularity.

His mentor and former professor Salinas arranged for him to take a lectureship for a year at the University of Toulouse. From June 1929 until 1937 Cernuda lived in Madrid and participated actively in the literary and cultural scene of the Spanish capital. Cernuda collaborated with many organisations working to support a more liberal and tolerant Spain. He participated in the Second Congress of Anti-Fascist Intellectuals in Valencia.

A leftist and homosexual like his friend Federico Garca Lorca, Cernuda also belonged to what is known in Spain as the Generation of '27. His first surrealistic books of poems benefited from the freedom Spanish society enjoyed under the Second Republic (1931–1936). Tragically, this freedom would disappear under Franco's dictatorship (1939–1975). In 1938, during the Spanish civil war (1936–1939), Cernuda, like thousands of other Republican Spaniards, felt forced into exile.

With Rafael Alberti and Pablo Neruda

During the Spanish Civil War a friend secured him a position as teacher in Cranleigh School, where he taught Spanish Language and literature. After World War II another friend got him a lectureship in Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA, where he would spend some years. Later on, moved by his sentimental relationships, he would move to Mexico, where he died.

Winter Break - the End

Yes, my winter break is over - back in Wellington, where it's a cold but beautiful winter-sunny day (without wind!). Life could be worse... 
And on my return many new berets on the doorstep; more coloured cotton Plato Grandes from Argentina, small diameter Elosegui berets, grey and brown coloured Basco Roma's (a first! Roma's have never been manufactured in anything but black and navy before)... they will all be listed on South Pacific Berets over the next few days.

One new addition I'd like to share here already is the French made béret NIEBLA, a 9 pouces (256mm) diameter beret in Blancq-Olibets 528 quality. A great small diameter beret with a beautiful embroidered label. Listed on The Beret project now @ $60.00 (in sizes 56 - 59).

Back in stock are the Tartes, or the extra ordinary large berets of the Chasseurs Alpins, now available in size 58 - 61.
And finally, back in stock: the béret Vrai Basque, one of the oldest beret labels continuously in use (and at a reduced price of $65.00).

Meanwhile, my béret du jour over the past 10 days was the Franco-German Basque beret, a beret with headband, that doesn't feel like it has one. Highly recommended! Seen here on top of my head against the background of Mount Ruapehu. 

One nice encounter on Auckland's waterfront, was this gentleman, sleeping deeply under the winter sun, his Basque beret adding to his comfort:

Winter Break #10

The late Saddam Hussain on a billboard at the Al Hakum Bio-weapons production complex

Winter Break #9

Norma Shearer

Winter Break #8

Gregory Peck

Winter Break #7

Cognac Jacquet

Winter Break #6

Traffic Sign, Budapest (Hungary)

Winter Break #5

Kiss under a red Beret

Winter Break #4

Gathering strawberries, early 20th Century

Winter Break #3

Winter Break #2

Ethiopia 1980, Derg

Winter Break

Yes, while most readers of this blog will be puffing and sweating under the northern hemisphere's sun, The Beret Project will shut shop for a good week to escape the worst of the Wellington winter.

Just interesting pictures for the next 8 or 9 days, while I'll find inspiration for more posts on Waiheke Island.

As for South Pacific Berets: all orders will be shipped first thing on the morning after my return, 10 or 11 July!

St Pée sur Nivelle

Jerzy Ficowski

Jerzy Ficowski (1924 - 2006) was a Polish poet, writer and translator (from Yiddish, Russian, Romani and Hungarian).

 During the German occupation of Poland in World War II, Ficowski who lived in Włochy near Warsaw was a member of the Polish resistance. He was a member of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK), was imprisoned in the infamous Pawiak and took part in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. His codename was Wrak and he fought in Mokotów region.

After the war, Ficowski studied philosophy and sociology at Warsaw University. There he published his first volume of poetry, Ołowiani żołnierze (The Tin Soldiers, 1948). This volume reflected the Stalinist atmosphere of the early postwar Poland, in which heroes of the Armia Krajowa Warsaw Uprising were treated with suspicion at best, arrested and executed at worst, together with the sense of a new city arising on the ashes of the old.

 From 1948 to 1950 Ficowski travelled with Polish Gypsies and came to write several volumes on or inspired by the Roma way of life, including Amulety i defilacje (Amulets and Definitions, 1960) and Cyganie na polskich drogach (Gypsies on the Polish Roads, 1965). He was the member of the Gypsy Lore Society and translated the poems of Bronisława Wajs (Papusza).

Roma prisoners sitting in an open space in the Bełżec camp, July 1940. Photo Jerzy Ficowski

Ficowski translated the poems of Federico García Lorca, and he was also a known specialist of Jewish folklore and Jewish poetry, becoming an editor of the Jewish poem anthology Rodzynki z migdałami (Raisins with Almonds, 1964).

 After he signed the letter of 59 in 1975, all of Ficowski's works had been banned in Poland. However, his prose and poems were translated widely in the West and the emergence of Solidarity in the 1980s brought his works back to Poland's bookshelves. He was active in the opposition movement, and was a member of the Workers' Defence Committee (Komitet Obrony Robotników, KOR) and later the Committee for Social Self-defence KOR.

Veteran of the Cold War

I didn't know it, until a few hours ago, but I am a Veteran. A veteran of the Cold War. 

A group of Dutch ex-soldiers (professional and drafted) have formed this organisation KOVOM (Cold War Veterans); they drink tea together, hold memorials and give each other medals.

To get a medal though, one has to be a (paid) member for 2 years and then pay 25 euros for your medal - I don't think I'll ever get to wear one, despite my 14 months of military service during the worst of the Cold War.

There is a lot of opposition from the "real" veterans against the whole thing, their participation at memorials, marches, etc. and yes, there is something sad about having to buy your own medal. A lot of berets though, among the Cold War Veterans. 

Yiddishkeit: Elazar Benyoëtz

Elazar Benyoëtz was born in 1937 as the son of Austrian Jews in Wiener Neustadt (Austria), moved to Palestine before the outbreak of WWII and eventually grew up in Israel.

In 1959 he took the exams to become a rabbi and, in 1964 moved to Berlin where he lived until 1968, where he created 1964 the Bibliographia Judaica. 

Benyoëtz wrote his first volume of poetry in Hebrew, his essays and "Aphorismenbände" (since 1969) almost exclusively in the German language. His works received many prices: the Adelbert of Chamisso price in 1988, the Order of Merit in 1997 and in 2002 the Joseph Breitbach Price of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz.

The name "Ben yo etz" means "Son of the Councellor".

The German Series #23 - Otto Strasser

Yes, there are German beret-wearers on the "wrong side" as well. Otto Johann Maximilian Strasser (1897 – 1974) was a German politician and member of the National Socialist German Workers Party. Otto Strasser, together with his brother Gregor Strasser, was a leading member of the party's left-wing faction, and broke from the party due to disputes with the ‘Hitlerite’ faction. He formed the Black Front, a group intended to split the Nazi Party and take it from the grasp of Hitler. This group also functioned during his exile and World War II as a secret opposition group.

Strasser lived in exile in Austria, Chechoslovakia, Switzerland, France and during WWII via Portugal and Bermuda, managed to get to Canada (becoming the infamous "Prisoner of Ottawa").

 Otto Strasser returns to Germany, 1955. By Joe Gromelski

As an influential and uncondemned former Nazi Party member still faithful to many doctrines of National Socialism, he was prevented from returning to West Germany after the war, first by the Allied powers and then by the West German government.

He was allowed to return to Germany in 1955 by a ruling of the Federal Administrative Court and regained his citizenship settling in Munich. He attempted to create his own, new, "nationalist and socialist"-oriented party in 1956, the German Social Union (often called a successor to the 1949-1952 forbidden Socialist Reich Party of Germany), but it was unable to attract support. For the rest of his life, Strasser continued to call for and propagate neo-Nazism until his death in Munich in 1974.

Renée Adorée

Renée Adorée (1898 – 1933) was a French actress who had appeared in Hollywood silent movies during the 1920s.

Born Jeanne de la Fonte in Lille, she was the daughter of circus artists and by age five was performing with her parents. In her teens, she began acting in minor stage productions and toured Europe with her troupe. She was performing in Russia when World War I broke out and fled to London.

 From London she went to New York City, where she continued to work in the theatre until the opportunity arose to work in the motion picture business.

In 1920, given the exotic name Renée Adorée (French for "reborn" and "adored," both in the feminine form) by the studio, she appeared in her first motion picture.

 Renée Adorée in "The Pagan"

In The Mating Call a 1928 film produced by Howard Hughes, Adorée had a very brief nude skinny-dipping scene that caused a significant commotion at the time, but I also found this "much worse" picture of her in the semi nude.

 By the end of 1930, Adorée had appeared in forty-five films, the last four of them talkies. That year she was diagnosed with tuberculosis, Adorée lived only a few years longer.

Adorée died there, a few days after her 35th birthday, on October 5, 1933 in Tujunga, California.