Ocho apellidos vascos (Eight Basque Surnames)

Ocho apellidos vascos (Eight Basque Surnames), known as Spanish Affair in English, is a 2014 Spanish comedy film directed by Emilio Martínez-Lázaro.

It premiered in Spain on March 14, 2014. Six weeks after its release, it became the second biggest box office hit ever in Spain, behind Avatar.

Rafa (Dani Rovira) has never left his native Seville, Andalucía, until he meets a Basque girl named Amaia (Clara Lago), who resists his seduction techniques.

Against his friends' advice, he follows her to Euskadi (Basque Country) after she stays the night in his house and forgets her purse. 

A series of misunderstandings forces Rafa to impersonate a full-blooded Basque with eight surnames (Gabilondo, Urdangarín, Zubizarreta, Arguiñano from the father and Igartiburu, Erentxun, Otegi and Clemente from the mother) and he gets more and more entangled in that character in order to get his way.

Xavier Albó

Xavier Albó Corrons (1934) is a Jesuit priest, linguist, and anthropologist, with expertise in the indigenous peoples and rural populations of Bolivia.

He was born in La Garriga, in Catalonia, Spain, and joined the Society of Jesus in 1951. In 1952, he moved to Bolivia and later became a naturalized citizen of the country. He was decorated with the Order of the Condor of the Andes, the highest civilian honor of the Bolivian state, on April 6, 2016.

Albó co-founded the Center for Research and Promotion of Farmers (Centro de Investigación y Promoción del Campesinado, CIPCA) in 1971. He served as its first director through 1976.

Isidro Lángara Galarraga

Isidro Lángara Galarraga (1912—1992) was a Spanish (Basque) football striker. He played 12 times for Spain, scoring 17 goals.

On 7th December 1930, Isidro Lángara made his debut for Real Oviedo. He netted a couple of goals, the first ones of a long tally to come.

On 24th April 1932 Real Oviedo’s Buenavista Stadium was officially opened with a match between Spain and Yugoslavia. Isidro Lángara played for the first time ever for the Spanish national team and managed to score. For three seasons in a row he was La Liga’s top-scorer, until the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 came in between him and the opposition’s goal.

In 1937, amidst the chaos of the Spanish conflict, a Basque national side was teamed up. They were a squad whose main aim was to raise some funds for the Basque government by playing friendly matches around Europe and America. Once Bilbao was taken over by Nationalist forces, the Basque side settled down in Mexico, where they took part in the 1938-1939 Liga Mayor under the name of Club Deportivo Euskadi and finished as runners-up in the title race.

Meanwhile, in Spain the Order of 19th December 1939 established that all sportsmen who had fought on the Republican side or had left Spain from 18th July 1936 on would be suspended for six years if they did not return to Spain in less than two months. As a result, in 1946 Lángara came back to Spain and Real Oviedo could count on its most renowned player again.

Buena Vista & Le Béret Français

Buena Vista & Le Béret Français; two beret companies at opposite sides of the world, have come up with a very similar innovation for berets: dual- or bi-colour. 

The men behind Japanese fashion brand Buena Vista are Keiji Ishizuka and Tomonori Okazaki, former professional soccer players and now living in Barcelona, Spain. Two toned pieces were always a trademark of Buena Vista and the brand developed top quality berets in two colours in close cooperation with Boinas Elosegui.

These berets are made exclusively for Buena Vista and available through a number of web sites (like here and here); not cheap, but some of the most beautiful berets you'll ever see.
I am very privileged, receiving 3 for my own use (again, many thanks Tomo!).

Meanwhile, Le Béret Français has developed it's own unique method of manufacturing bi-colour berets. Their 'Anarchiste' in the traditional black&red of the Spanish anarchist movements of the 1930's has been available for a good while.

The range has now expanded with more models in (Pyreneen grown) wool in a good variety of colour combinations.

Now there are also the fantastic recycled Eco Berets Printemps.

Pine Ridge and Wounded Knee

Much in the world news today, the Native Americans of Pine Ridge, due to the highly controversial pipeline the US Government seems to allow to be laid across their land.

Not the first controversy involving the US Govt versus the Oglala Sioux. No berets involved in the Massacre of Wounded Knee, but many Native Americans adopted the revolutionary beret during the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee. 

Dennis Banks (1937), a Native American leader, teacher, lecturer, activist and author, being the most prominent boinero during the standoff. 

Les Bidochon (2)

More on Les Bidochon, giving an insight in the making of these animations.

Quinsy Gario and Zwarte Piet

In another month, it’s the Dutch festival of Sinterklaas again. Sinterklaas is a mythical figure with legendary, historical and folkloric origins based on Saint Nicholas.

Zwarte Piet (in English Black Pete), is the companion of Saint Nicholas in the folklore of the Low Countries. The character first appeared in his current form in an 1850 book by Jan Schenkman and is commonly depicted as a blackamoor. Traditionally Zwarte Piet is said to be black because he is a Moor from Spain. Those portraying Zwarte Piet typically put on blackface make-up and colourful Renaissance attire, in addition to curly wigs, red lipstick and earrings. In recent years, the character has become the subject of controversy, especially in the Netherlands.

Quinsy Gario (1984) is an activist in the movement against Zwarte Piet, as well as a performance artist. He was born in (the Dutch colonies of) Curaçao and raised in St Maarten before moving to the Netherlands.

Quinsy Gario with beret

Gario created the Zwarte Piet is Racisme project (Black Pete is Racism). In 2011 he was arrested for public disturbance at the traditional annual Sinterklaas festival where he was protesting against the use of Zwarte Piet. He appeared on a national television talk show in 2013 to make his case which was part of a series of events in October that The Economist says "polarised cultural life and dragging in celebrities, politicians, and even the UN" and "changed Zwarte Piet". For many, even if a year ago Zwarte Piet was not a symbol of Dutch racism, he certainly is now.

Good on you, Quinsy!

Les Bidochon

Les Bidochon is a series of French comic strips created by Christian Binet. 

The characters of the saga appear for the 1st time as secondary characters in the magazine Fluide glacial, in 1977, before becoming  full-fledged heroes the following year.

The current series was published from 1979 in Fluide glacial. It makes a satirical portrait of Robert and Raymonde Bidochon, a French couple ruled by today’s consumer society.

The series is entirely in black and white, except for the cover. In the first album the author is especially minimalist; tired of drawing, he simply notes the name of the object to be represented.

Robert Eugene Louis Bidochon is the hero; Lazy, angry, cowardly, vain and narrow (according to his father). Raymonde Jeanne Martine Bidochon (born Galopin ) is the heroine. She is the thinking person of the couple.

Les Chants de l'Almanach

Les Chants de l'Almanach is a CD of traditional fishermen’s songs and tunes from Bretagne (Brittany/Breizh).

The Breton sailors had a large repertoire of songs to sing and hum, while away at sea or at the pub ashore. Some songs typically dealt with the dangers of alcoholism, other songs themes were bravery, brotherhood, education of youth, the homeland, the conquest of the bride, etc.

From 1899 to 1914, some two hundred songs were published. The Gâs of Almanac, an experienced and passionate group of fifteen singers, under the musical direction of Jean-Claude Quéro, sing a repertoire of 30 of these songs on this CD.

Cateto

The word Cateto means a person from the back country in Spanish; from the small towns and villages. All "catetos" share a lack of culture, are religious and work in the fields. If you don’t want to be punched by one, best to always speak positively of a cateto's town or village, always emphasize how much you like it and how beautiful it is.

For a Cateto the best woman to marry is the one who doesn't have a job, is good in the kitchen and wants to stay at home with the kids all day. 

A Catetoa is quite similar to American rednecks, hicks and bumpkins (but without fire-arms!).

A "gañan" is the grandpa of a "catetos" familie. All "catetos" wear tight wool pants, no matter what temperature or weather. The beret is another typical mark for them.

The cateto is also known as: Paleto or Pueblerino.

Léonce Joseph Perret: Le Béret

Léonce Joseph Perret (1880 –1935) was a prolific and innovative French film actor, director and producer. He also worked as a stage actor and director. Often described as avant-garde for his unorthodox directing methods, Léonce Perret introduced innovative camera, lighting and film scoring techniques to French cinema.

Léonce Perret began his career as a relatively undistinguished stage actor. He was recruited to the film industry by the Gaumont Film Company. His numerous short films gained significant accolade in French cinematography. Until his emigration to the United States in 1917, he was a fixture of the Gaumont Film Company. On American soil, he produced several popular films, the most notable being Lest We Forget (N'oublions jamais) in 1918.

Le Béret is a silent film French directed by Léonce Perret and released in 1912.

Auguste Louis Lepère (1849-1918)

Auguste Louis Lepère was born in Paris (1849), the son of the sculptor François Lepère. Auguste Lepère was taught wood engraving by the English wood engraver Burn Smeeton, to whom he was apprenticed at the age of 13. It was Félix Bracquemond who in 1889 encouraged him to take up etching; Lepère's first 11 etchings were exhibited the following year at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Lepère took a purist's approach to etching, believing that an etcher should be able to achieve his effects entirely through the etching needle; he rarely used aquatint.

Guy Chapouillié aka Monsieur Béret

Guy Chapouillié was born in 1942 in Casteljaloux (Gascogne) where the love for both rugby and the cinema was kindled at an early age.

After high school he studied agriculture and specialized at the National School of Dairy Industry in Aurillac, after which he entered the Conservatoire Libre du Cinéma in Paris.

He became the founder of the Higher Audiovisual School at the University of Toulouse in 1979 and was director until 2010.

He wrote several books, the latest being about Marcel Pagnol, an inventor of filmmaking. He is currently Professor Emeritus and filmmaker.

More interesting for us, however, is Guy Chapouillié's nickname Monsieur Béret. He is the man behind Les films du béret.

Dudley Sutton (Tinker Dill)

Dudley Sutton (1933) is an English actor. Dudley was educated at boarding school in Lifton in Devon. He served in the RAF as a mechanic before enrolling in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, (RADA) from which he was later expelled for responding to rock and roll.

He became known after playing a gay biker in The Leather Boys (1964), a role which showed his potential for eccentric screen personae. On stage, he played the title role in the first production of Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane (1963). 

Sutton has appeared in many films during his career, including Rotten to the Core (1965), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976), Fellini's Casanova (1976), Edward II (1991), and The Football Factory (2004).

Among his many television appearances are his roles as Tinker Dill in Lovejoy (1986 & 1991 - 94) – whose friendship with Lovejoy and expertise in the antique trade was the backbone of the show.

In 2003, Sutton found inspiration from the Internet "where apparently people say that every time you masturbate God kills a kitten". From that statement, Sutton developed a comic piece about "a young man's emotions and feelings, from the moment he's a baby tugging at his cock onwards." 

Fred Koller

Fred Koller (born March 5, 1950 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American singer-songwriter. He has been active in the music business since 1973. Fred currently lives and works in Nashville with his wife Trish and their cat Buddy.

Koller has written over 300 songs which have been recorded. He was awarded the BMI Millionaire Performance Award for both Angel Eyes and She Came From Fort Worth. Koller also won BMI Awards for This Dream's On Me, Goin' Gone, Life As We Knew It and Will It Be Love By Morning. 

He is the former Vice President of The Nashville Songwriters Association International. Koller has taught for Songwriters Guild of America and was a staff instructor for both the Kerrville Folk Festival and the Augusta Heritage Festival.

Jean de la Fontaine

From wrongs of wicked men we draw
Excuses for our own:--
Such is the universal law.
Would you have mercy shown,
Let yours be clearly known.

A fowler's mirror served to snare
The little tenants of the air.
A lark there saw her pretty face,
And was approaching to the place.
A hawk, that sailed on high
Like vapour in the sky,
Came down, as still as infant's breath,
On her who sang so near her death.
She thus escaped the fowler's steel,
The hawk's malignant claws to feel.
While in his cruel way,
The pirate pluck'd his prey,
Upon himself the net was sprung.
'O fowler,' pray'd he in the hawkish tongue,
'Release me in thy clemency!
I never did a wrong to thee.'
The man replied, ''Tis true;
And did the lark to you?'

The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep is a 1946 film noir directed by Howard Hawks, the first film version of Raymond Chandler's 1939 novel of the same name.

The movie stars Humphrey Bogart as private detective Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as Vivian Rutledge in a story about the "process of a criminal investigation, not its results."

The Big Sleep is known for its convoluted plot. During filming, allegedly neither the director nor the screenwriters knew whether chauffeur Owen Taylor was murdered or had killed himself. They sent a cable to Chandler, who told a friend in a later letter: "They sent me a wire ... asking me, and dammit I didn't know either".

In 1997, the U.S. Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," and added it to the National Film Registry.

Serge Gainsbourg and Lovers

Serge Gainsbourg (born Lucien Ginsburg; 1928 –1991) was a French singer, songwriter, pianist, film composer, poet, painter, screenwriter, writer, actor, and director.

Regarded as one of the most important figures in French popular music, he was renowned for his often provocative and scandalous releases, as well as his diverse artistic output, which embodied genres ranging from jazz, mambo, world, chanson, pop and yé-yé, to rock and roll, progressive rock, reggae, electronic, disco, new wave, and funk. Gainsbourg's varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize although his legacy has been firmly established and he is often regarded as one of the world's most influential popular musicians.

His lyrical work incorporated a vast amount of clever word play to hoodwink the listener, often for humorous, provocative, satirical or subversive reasons. Through the course of his career, Gainsbourg wrote over 550 songs, which have been covered more than a thousand times by a wide range of artists.

Since his death, Gainsbourg's music has reached legendary stature in France. He has also gained a cult following in the English-speaking world, with numerous artists influenced by his arrangements.

Interestingly, not only himself, but also former partners Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin are avid boineras.

The Caudillo at Boinas Elósegui

I found the photographs below on an auction site; not the kind of photos I like to associate with one of my favourite beret manufacturers, but at the same time, who knows what the people at Boinas Elósegui really thought of the visit of Generalissimo Franco to their factory at the time...

The date of the visit is unknown to me, but looking at Franco, I guess it must have been during the 1950's.

Of course, Boinas Elósegui is based in the heartlands of the Basque Country where Franco's popularity was very low. 

First it was the Republican Army and the International Brigades that they supplied with berets, but it didn't take long before Franco conquered Tolosa and production changed to the Fascists.

Interesting photos though.