Gregory Rabassa

Gregory Rabassa, a translator of worldwide influence and esteem who helped introduce Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Julio Cortazar and other Latin American authors to millions of English-language readers, has died two days ago on 13 June.

A longtime professor at Queens College, Rabassa died Monday at a hospice in Branford, Connecticut. He was 94 and died after a brief illness. 

Rabassa was an essential gateway to the 1960s Latin American "boom," when such authors as Garcia Marquez, Cortazar and Mario Vargas Llosa became widely known internationally. He worked on the novel that helped start the boom, Cortazar's "Hopscotch," for which Rabassa won a National Book Award for translation. He also worked on the novel which defined the boom, Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude," a monument of 20th century literature. 

Garcia Marquez often praised Rabassa, saying he regarded the translation of "Solitude" as a work of art in its own right.

For me personally it rakes up memories of my father who was a translator too and a wearer of a Bordeaux coloured military style beret...

Thank you, Marc

Gentes de Mar en Cantabria

These pictures were send to me by a friend from Cantabria, Spain. They come from a book on Cantabrian fishermen ("Gentes de Mar en Cantabria") and, not surprising, all wear a Basque beret. 

Thank you, Chus

Vintage Hungarian Motorbikes (with Berets)

Széchenyi Island (Farm Museum) on the bridge. Right is a type 88E New Hudson, left a British AJS motorcycle, 1930 

AJS British Motorbike, 1930

AJS (AJ Stevens & Co. Ltd) British-made motorcycle with sidecar, 1932

Csepel (Hungarian) motorbike, 1959

Motorcycle license exams, 1968

Statues with Beret

In a world where beret wearers are close to extinct, it is fascinating (and hopeful) to see how many statues are actually fitted with a beret. Here a small selection from around the globe:

Bernardo Razquin

He was born in 1906 and died 84 years later: Bernardo Razquin. Several generations of Mendozans (and from neighboring provinces) remember him for his knowledge of meteorology. Without high school, his education was the mountain, the birds and the plants.

His knowledge of meteorology, cold morning frosts and the heat of the day, with minimum and maximum included, were his forte. His name was also closely linked to mountain climbing. He capped twice the summit of Aconcagua and participated in dozens of expeditions to the "roof of America" ​​and in recent years was pleased to plant hundreds of trees in different places of Mendoza. One was in the current bus terminal, where he spent his childhood. 

His body was buried in the cemetery of the Capital, but years later it was taken to the heights so loved. He shares the place with other climbers, next to Route 7, Puente del Inca. 

Germaine Krull

Germaine Luise Krull (1897 –1985) was a photographer, political activist, and hotel owner. Her nationality has been categorized as German, French, and Dutch, but she spent years in Brazil, Republic of the Congo, Thailand, and India. Described as "an especially outspoken example" of a group of early 20th-century female photographers who "could lead lives free from convention", she is best known for photographically-illustrated books such as her 1928 portfolio Métal.

In World War II, she became disenchanted with the Vichy France government, and sought to join the Free French Forces in Africa. Due to her Dutch passport (from a convenience marriage with Dutch cineaste Joris Ivens) and her need to obtain proper visas, her journey to Africa went via a year in Brazil (1941–1942) where she photographed the city of Ouro Preto. Between 1942 and 1944 she was in Brazzaville in French Equatorial Africa, after which she spent several months in Algiers and then returned to France.

Devant les grands magasins, by Germaine Krull (1929)

After World War II, she travelled to Southeast Asia as a war correspondent, but by 1946 had become a co-owner of the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand

After retiring from the hotel business in 1966, she briefly lived near Paris, then moved to Northern India and converted to the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. After a stroke, she moved to a nursing home in Wetzlar, Germany, where she died in 1985.

Dziga Vertov

David Abelevich Kaufman (1896 –1954), also known as Denis Kaufman or his pseudonym Dziga Vertov or Vertof was a Soviet pioneer documentary film and newsreel director, as well as a cinema theorist. His filming practices and theories influenced the cinéma vérité style of documentary movie-making and the Dziga Vertov Group, a radical film-making cooperative which was active in the 1960s.

Dziga Vertov (director) with brother Mikhail Kaufman (cameraman)

In the 2012 Sight & Sound poll, critics voted Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera (1929) the 8th best film ever made.

Vertov's brother Boris Kaufman was a noted cinematographer who worked much later for directors such as Elia Kazan and Sidney Lumet in America. (He won an Oscar for his work on On the Waterfront.) His other brother, Mikhail Kaufman, worked as Vertov's cinematographer until he became a documentarian in his own right. In September 1929, Vertov married his long-time collaborator Elizaveta Svilova.

Beret Label Evolution

Some French beret labels have been used for many generations and are still available; Pedrito and L'Aiglon are some good examples.

However, the labels didn't stay the same, but were modernized over time. 

'Taking the Pedrito label for example, we first see some minor changes to the face of 'little Pedro', making him look a bit fuller, the neck a little shorter. The latest version is typical of our times: 'branding' (the name Laulhere and 'made in France' prominently on the much more stylized label, without the romantic background that was popular in the 1950's.

The l'Aiglon label saw less drastic changes; it used to be a label under the Laulhere ELO range and this was visible on the label. The latest version is "cleaner" and again, has the 'made in France' added. As the l'Aiglon label is not in production anymore (only in small quantities reinstated for South Pacific Berets), there is no update with the name Laulhere added to the label.

Both berets can still be found under the Laulhere heading here.

Depopulation

Many rural areas across the globe face problems with depopulation; the younger people moving to the cities, while the old people stay in the villages with no one to take over after they leave this life.

The Spanish country side faces enormous problems with this phenomenon, affecting infrastructure, education, employment, etc. Many villages in the Spanish Pyrenees are completely deserted. And although it makes for perfect ecotourism to explore these abandoned villages (a personal favourite, as per these pictures), it is of course a disaster.  

In an attempt to fight depopulation and turn the process, the Council of Teruel started a campaign focussed specifically at higher educated women, to remain in the rural area by offering incentives and facilitate living. 

The accompanying festival was appropriately named Boina Fest, as with depopulation we also see a reducing number of boineros!

Eddie Izzard Campaigning for EU

Eddie Izzard, who embarked on a 31-city tour to persuade young people to vote is hugely pro-Europe, although he has said he wouldn't quite say he "loved the EU". Speaking to Andrew Marr, he said the most important thing is that the young cast their vote today. He said the EU has given him huge opportunities to travel and experience new things - and those things could be at risk in the event of Brexit.
"I'm a British European. I'm proud of being British. I'm proud of being European," he says.

Circus Maladolli

I found it hard to find detailed information on Cincinnatus Maladolli, an illustrious equestrian and circus owner, but what I did find is shared here.

Born in 1869, heir of a wealthy banking family, he set up his own circus.
He was a generous men, looking well after his staff of artists and workers (paying them in cash promptly every Friday afternoon) and helping other circuses in the region.

On his farm he had a huge number of animals that attracted masses of village children.

'Professor Maladolli' died at 99 years and his last wish was to have the hoofprint of his favourite horse on his grave.

The New SPECIAL!

When not wearing an Auloronesa, you'll usually see me wearing a Czech beret - among the most comfortable every-day-wear berets I can think of.

The Czech Classics and Tartan 11.5" are a line of berets that are specifically and exclusively made for South Pacific Berets by long time manufacturer FEZCO/TONAK in Nový Jičín, in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. 

The aim was to develop berets that are classic in looks, very comfortable to wear, fitted with the traditional Czech tartan lining and at a competitive price. The result is a line of 29cm plateau berets in five colours that meet these parameters perfectly. Available in a good range of colours (the shades of navy-blue and winter-green are again specifically developed for South Pacific Berets).

On SPECIAL,only this week, or as long as the stock lasts, with a 20% discount at $28.80 and $39.40!

Letters Bookshop in Thunder Bay

Letters Bookshop is hidden away inside a nondescript, boarded up building on Simpson Street in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The owner, Nick Drumbolis, has spent a lifetime acquiring and carefully curating a massive collection of literature — from classics to curiosities.

He estimates he has roughly 50,000 titles filling multiple rooms — everything from Canadian literature, to obscure medical texts, to rare editions and hand-printed books by little-known authors. But the greatest emphasis is on "esoteric" literature, and poetry.

"This is the greatest concentration of poetry in Canadian history, certainly in terms of the book trade," said Drumbolis.

Drumbolis opened Letters Bookshop in Toronto in 1982, with the intention of selling rare books, while nurturing the poetry scene. "I was trying to make the rare books pay for the poetry," he said. 

He ran the store in Toronto for several decades, until rising rents pushed him out. So he packed up his thousands of books, loaded a truck to the brim, and returned to his hometown of Thunder Bay, where he was able to find an affordable space large enough to house his collection. He wears a black Basque beret with Euskal Herria (Basque Country) embroidered on the side.

Factory Workers

Berets are one of the most egalitarian hats, worn equally by the wealthy and powerful and the workers, the homeless and the unemployed. But most of all it was a favourite for factory workers, as it protected the hair and had no peak that would get in the way of machinery.

Russian worker in a factory for tanks during WWII

Russian factory worker during WWII

Glass factory, 1955

Factory worker in France, date and location unknown

Ukraine, City of Donesk, factory worker, 1988

Cuba, Worker at a cigar factory, 1994