Not Everyone Understands - We Do

A brand new video clip by Boinas Elósegui, at the show of San Marcial (Fiestas de Irún).The theme: No todos lo entienden - Nosotros si"(Not everyone understands - We do) I find very fitting.

Beautiful display of (red) berets!

Thank you, Gonzalo

Cherry Point Vineyard

On the south east side of Vancouver Island is a pastoral setting of rolling green fertile hills surrounded by rugged mountains and majestic softwood rainforests. The Cowichan’s long, Mediterranean like growing season and mild maritime winters make it the most important agricultural area on Vancouver Island and British Columbia’s newest wine-growing region.

The vineyard at Cherry Point was established in 1990 and since wine-growing was still new on Vancouver Island they planted the vineyard with several grape varieties, for nobody really knew which grapes suited the island’s soil and climate. 

The vineyard is planted on a glacial moraine, a gravel and stony hill rich in minerals on top of the surrounding clay countryside. White round stones that lay exposed under the vines retain and reflect the sun’s heat and help to ripen the fruit long after the sun sets. The grapevines thrive in the gravel and sandy soil, an open soil they can get their roots down deep into, searching for water and nutrients. A large pond nearby catches the winter rain as it runs down the vineyard’s sloping hill and the mineral enriched water is judiciously irrigated back onto the vines when they need it in the summer.

Today the 24-acre vineyard is the second largest on Vancouver Island and consists of grapevines that flourish in Cherry Point’s microclimate. Ten main varieties and eight limited varieties are planted including Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Auxerrois, Pinot Noir, Agria, Ortega, Seigerrebe and Castel. Blackberry bushes surround the vineyard and the pests are few, for the leaf-hoppers favour blackberries over grapes.

The vineyard is owned by Xavier and Maria Bonilla. He is a Colombian-born agricultural economist who, with his trademark black beret, makes the archetypical French or Spanish vigneron. 

Le Laboureur

Its the brand of clothing I love: good old fashioned workman's stuff; heavy corduroy pants, wool jackets and heavy duty canvas shirts.

Of course, the name Le Laboureur means the 'ploughman', which explains a lot about the clothing.

Hard to find, even in France, but there are a few shops that also sell over the internet. 

Edward Goldenberg Robinson

Edward Goldenberg Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg, 1893 – 1973) was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo.

Other memorable roles include insurance investigator Barton Keyes in the film noir Double Indemnity, Dathan (adversary of Moses) in The Ten Commandments, and his final performance as Sol Roth in the science-fiction story Soylent Green. Robinson made a total of 101 films in his 50-year career.

In noticeable contrast to many of his onscreen characters, Robinson was a sensitive, softly-spoken and cultured man, who spoke seven languages. Remaining a liberal Democrat despite his difficulties with HUAC, he attended the 1960 Democratic Convention in Los Angeles, California.

Robinson died in 1973, and is buried in a crypt in the family mausoleum at Beth-El Cemetery in the Ridgewood area of the borough of Queens in New York City.

Pussy Riot Member Detained in Russia for Protest Over ‘Sadistic’ Prison Law

Maybe not that interesting as far as berets go, but a subject close to my heart: Russia under V. Putin, 2 days ago. 

Tolokonnikova and fellow activist Katya Nenasheva appeared in Moscow’s Bolotnaya Square, a flashpoint for opposition protests in 2012. Both arrived wearing prison uniforms and proceeded to sew the words “Prison Camp Russia” across a Russian flag, imitating the menial labor Tolokonnikova performed during her two year stint in a Russian prison camp. 
Tolokonnikova said in an interview with TIME that the demonstration was meant to protest what she termed a “sadistic” new law that would expand the punitive measures prison guards could take against convicts, including electroshock weapons.

Russian authorities have defended the law as a clarification of when force can be used to prevent extreme cases of disobedience, such as prison riots, but protesters argue that it would lead to wider abuses, particularly against female convicts.
“Women in prisons, they are in a very vulnerable position, because conditions of their labor and of their living in most cases is worse than conditions in male prisons,” Tolokonnikova said.

Police descended on the two activists and pushed them into a waiting police van. “At first, they didn’t tell us why we had been arrested,” Tolokonnikova said. “They just told us that they’re not supposed to sew in the middle of the street.” They continued sewing in the police station, finishing their work before they were released without charges. “So we can say our action now is finished,” she said. “All we had wanted to do was done.”

Edwin Dickinson

Edwin Dickinson (1891–1978) was an American painter and draftsman known for his psychologically charged self-portraits and landscapes. His art, always grounded in realism, shows connections to symbolism and surrealism.

Dickinson was born and raised in upstate New York, in the Finger Lakes area; His family moved to Buffalo in 1897. Dickinson had youthful ambitions for a career in the Navy, but he failed the Navy entrance exam twice (though he later served as a radio operator during World War I). Both of these themes from his early life would feature in his later work.

Self portrait 1954

His mature work can be roughly divided into two categories. The first consists of portraits, still lifes and landscapes executed quickly, often at a single sitting (the artist referred to these as premiere coups), and the second is comprised of compositions of symbolic and enigmatic character, often large in size and very complex, which sometimes took many years to complete. While his palette tended towards monochrome, his landscapes painted from observation are notable for their strong evocation of light, which is usually hazy but sometimes brilliant.

 Edwin Dickinson, Ross Moffett and Karl Knaths on the steps of the Art Association, 1967. Photographer: George Yater

Karl Barth

Karl Barth ( 1886 –1968) was a Swiss Reformed theologian who is often regarded as the greatest Protestant theologian of the twentieth century. His influence expanded well beyond the academic realm to mainstream culture, leading him to be featured on the cover of Time on April 20, 1962.

Beginning with his experience as a pastor, Barth rejected his training in the predominant liberal theology typical of 19th-century European Protestantism. He also rejected more conservative forms of Christianity. Instead he embarked on a new theological path initially called dialectical theology due to its stress on the paradoxical nature of divine truth (e.g., God's relationship to humanity embodies both grace and judgment). Many critics have referred to Barth as the father of neo-orthodoxy[5] — a term that Barth emphatically rejected. A more accurate description of his work might be "a theology of the Word." Barth's work had a profound impact on twentieth century theology and figures such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer — who like Barth became a leader in the Confessing Church — Thomas Torrance, Reinhold Niebuhr, Jacques Ellul, Stanley Hauerwas, Jürgen Moltmann, and novelists such as John Updike and Miklós Szentkuthy.

Barth's unease with the dominant theology which characterized Europe led him to become a leader in the Confessing Church in Germany, which actively opposed Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. In particular, Barth and other members of the movement vigorously attempted to prevent the Nazis from taking over the existing church and establishing a state church controlled by the regime. This culminated in Barth's authorship of the Barmen Declaration, which fiercely criticized Christians who supported the Nazis.

Karl Knaths

Karl Knaths was an American artist whose personal approach to the Cubist aesthetic led him to create paintings which, while abstract, contained readily identifiable subjects.

In addition to the Cubist painters, his work shows influence by Paul Cézanne, Wassily Kandinsky, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Paul Klee, Stuart Davis, and Agnes Weinrich. It is nonetheless, in use of heavy line, rendering of depth, disciplined treatment of color, and architecture of planes, distinctly his own.

Throughout his career Knaths drew inspiration from the natural environment in which he lived. The images he made of his everyday world include many still lifes and room interiors as well as outdoor paintings of local fishermen and clam diggers, wild and domesticated animals, and Cape Cod marine life. His choice of subjects was generally consistent while his treatment of them varied in degree of abstraction.

Wikipedia tells us: “Balding in middle life, he wore a beret most of the time”.

Måns Zelmerlöw - Heroes

"Heroes" is a song by Swedish singer Måns Zelmerlöw. It was released on 28 February 2015 as a digital download in Sweden. The song was written and composed by Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad, Joy Deb and Linnea Deb. On 14 March, the song won the Melodifestivalen 2015 and represented Sweden, and won, in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in Vienna, Austria. It is the lead single for Zelmerlöw's sixth studio album Perfectly Damaged.

Frankly, to me it is a mystery how this song could win any contest, but alas… It does show a lot of berets, and that’s worth something!

Olympic Swimming 1952 Helsinki, Jean Boiteux

Olympic Swimming 1952 Helsinki, Men's 400 Freestyle. Close up of France's Jean Boiteux and USA's Ford Konno battling it out for the lead. Boiteux wins and his very proud father jumps in the pool to hug and congratulate his son, fully dressed and wearing his beret!

Armand Charlet

Armand Charlet (1900 –1975) was a French mountaineer and mountain guide.

Charlet was amongst the most celebrated mountaineers and guides of his era. Alain de Chatellus regarded him as the "undisputed leader and lighthouse of his generation". 

Claire Engel commented,

"[He was] head and shoulders above anyone else. His name has been associated for almost fifty years with the toughest climbs in the range of Mont Blanc. All those who have been with him in the mountains have been struck by his impresssive, almost tragic face, his intelligence and culture, and above all by his speed and poise when climbing,"

and Wilfrid Noyce stated that "It was amusing to note how Armand's pre-eminence was recognized by the other guides and hut-keepers. His word was law."

He made 3,000 ascents and guided over 1,200 friends and clients – of whom a third were women. He specialised in ascents of the Aiguille Verte in the Mont Blanc massif, which he climbed 100 times by fourteen different routes, including seven first ascents.

He taught at ENSA, the French national school of ski and alpinism for many years and had a great influence on several generations of high-mountain guides. He was technical director of the school for twelve years from 1945.

He featured in many of the first mountain films, a genre that developed after the First World War. He was the central character in À l'assaut des aiguilles du Diable (Marcel Ichac, 1942), a mountain film that Engel rates as "little short of a masterpiece".

Portrait by Jean-Claude Pertuzé 

During the Second World War, Charlet used his mountaineering skills in assisting people to cross the frontier, in defiance of the Germans.

Graf Robert Bachinger

When the old Hanomag tractor chugs on the cobbles of the main road, the driver with the flowing white beard raises his hand in greeting. A familiar sight for the citizens of  Fuggerstadt.

It is local nobleman Robert Bachinger, a dropout who has been living for decades in two old circus caravans on a field in front of the outdoor swimming pool and who collects metal in all variations to use in his artworks and installations. "Quite something has come together," says the 57-year-old and laughs. A selection of his work was on display in the Weißenhorner museum (in 2013).

When he's not making works of art from scrap, he takes up his acoustic guitar, sings and writes his own lyrics.

Robert Bachingers pig Truffel.

Dan Lenard

Hailing from Buffalo, New York, Dan Lenard has been a radio personality, a high school Media and Social Studies teacher, and currently is a freelance producer and professional voice artist.
Dan specializes in e-learning and audio book narration. He also has become a recognized industry expert and consultant in home studio set–up and problem solving, specifically for voice over artists new to the industry, or experienced, but with little or no self-recording experience.
He is Co-Host of the popular weekly live webcast of East-West Audio Body Shop with George Whittam, which talks about home voice-over studios, presents guests from the voice over industry and other industry news.

His philosophy? Keep it simple!

Graffiti

Graffiti... No matter where you are in this world, it is unlikely you'll see the day go by without encountering graffiti. And some are definitely true pieces of art too.

Not many places though where berets feature prominently in street art. Here some pictures of graffiti I found on my trip in the south of France. Even at the airport of Toulouse!

Le Béret Français - Army Fashion

Some serious wearers of Le Béret Français berets. This is the crew of a Tigre attack helicopter of the French Armed Forces.

Pictured are three Mode models (with red cabilliou), one Classic and the unmistakable Tri-couleur.

Thanks, Pascal

Women's Cycling in 1926

One Sunday in May, 1926, at the beach boulevard in Scheveningen (the Netherlands), a small group of women participated in the first bicycle race for women in the country.

No small feat, in this conservative and religious country at the time; women were meant to be sitting in church on Sunday morning and definitely not participate in such a male activity as cycling!

So, ahead of the Second Large Field Course (men only, of course) there was the ladies match; ladies in long black skirts, cycling on standard heavy duty road bikes.
The second picture is of a similar race in France, 1925 - in France races like these for women were very common. Interestingly, both Dutch and French women wear berets.

Baqueira Beret, Spain

And for those boineros who prefer Spain to Hungary, there is a place called Beret there too!

Baqueira Beret is located in the Aran Valley in the Pyrenees in the province Lleida. Much of the region of the Aran Valley and Àneu Valley is made up of over 50 small rural populations, each one with stone and wood houses and ancient Romanesque churches. The resort was founded 60 years ago on the initiative of the local authorities in the Aran Valley.  

Baqueira Beret is at an altitude of 1500 m with lifts going up to 2500 m. The ski resort extends into 4 Valleys, one of these named Beret. The combined skiing area is 108 km. Baqueira Beret also offers 7 km of cross-country. The ski season lasts from December to April.

Beret, Hungary

Imagine that, being a beret aficionado, living in a town (well, village) called Beret! Well, you can in Hungary.

Beret is a ​​678 ha village in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County in northeastern Hungary. As of 2008 it had a population of 287. The town's population is made up of Roma (57%) and people of Hungarian origin (43%). 

No evidence of beret wearers though, in Beret. 

Hesteyade de Bigorre

The Hesteyade de Bigorre is the festival of Pyrenean song and tale, since 1978.

Bastien Miqueu envisioned the return of the singing tradition of mountain countries Béarn and Bigorre.It is part of a geo-cultural area; typically Béarn and Bigorre, but stretching outside these borders as well.

The concept of reliving this singing is to develop this multi-voiced practice in compliance with the social, aesthetic and structural codes that have its origins in the traditional Pyrenean society.

Needless to say, berets are well represented during the festival, and on the arty posters too!