Joe Loizzo

Joseph (Joe) Loizzo, M.D., Ph.D., is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and Columbia-trained Buddhist scholar.

Loizzo has over thirty years’ experience studying the beneficial effects of meditation on healing and learning. He is is Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry in Integrative Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he researches and teaches mind/body health. 

He has taught science and religion, the scientific study of religious experience, and the Indo-Tibetan mind sciences at Columbia University, where he currently is adjunct Assistant Professor of Religion at the Columbia Center for Buddhist Studies.

1963: A Good Year For Berets!

Blacksmith grinding down a horseshoe, Didsbury, Manchester.  1963

Galicia, Spain, 1963

Elizabeth bridge construction, Budapest, 1963

Men playing cards on the street. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt. Paris, 1963.

French Peasants Collecting Grapes, Life magazine, 1963

To Die In Madrid, a 1963 documentary

1962: A Good Year For Berets!

W. Eugene Smith, Hitachi, Japan, 1962

Carlos Saura: Luis Bunuel, Toledo, Spain, 1962

Children in the Kabylie region, Algeria, 1962

Bakery delivery trucks, Paris, 1962

Young students, Hungary, 1962

German foresters, 1962

Castelao

Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao (1886 –1950), commonly known as Castelao, was a Spanish politician, writer, painter and doctor.

He is one of the fathers of Galician nationalism, promoting Galician identity and culture, and was one of the main names behind the cultural movement Xeración Nós.

In 1908 he obtained his degree in Medicine from the University of Santiago de Compostela. He passed his doctorate in Madrid in 1909, where he began to gain some popularity as a caricaturist and cartoon artist. In fact, Rodríguez Castelao often admitted he only studied medicine to please the wishes of his father. He rarely practiced medicine professionally despite having the credentials for it.

He eventually settled down in Rianxo, where he joined the political movement Acción Gallega ("Galician Action"). As a caricaturist, Rodríguez Castelao focussed on the everyday in a humorous way, although after experiencing the Spanish Civil War, he turned to using his art to denounce the cruelties of Fascism in a collection of paintings. His paintings would also depict casual moments of Galician life and culture.

In 1938, he was sent by the Spanish government to the Soviet Union, the United States and Cuba, in order to obtain support for the Republic. From New York City he cruised to Buenos Aires, where in 1941 he performed for the first time the play Os vellos non deben de namorarse, Castelao's contribution to Galician theatre.

Castelao died on 7 January 1950 in Buenos Aires. The Argentine Senate and the City of Buenos Aires erected monuments to honour him. Since then, most of his work has been translated and published into other languages. In 1984, Castelao's remains were brought back to Galicia and he was buried at the Panteón de Galegos Ilustres ("Pantheon of Illustrious Galicians"), Bonaval, in the capital city of Santiago de Compostela.

Thanks Victor.

Michael Peter Ancher

Michael Peter Ancher (1849 – 1927) was a Danish realist artist. He is remembered above all for his paintings of fishermen and other scenes from the Danish fishing community in Skagen.

Michael Peter Ancher was born at Rutsker on the island of Bornholm. The son of a local merchant, he attended school in Rønne but was unable to complete his secondary education as his father ran into financial difficulties, forcing him to fend for himself. In 1865, he found work as an apprentice clerk at Kalø Manor in eastern Jutland. The following year, he met the painters Theodor Philipsen and Vilhelm Groth who came to the area to paint. Impressed with his own early work, they encouraged him to take up painting as a profession.

In 1871, he started at the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen. Although he spent some time at the academy, he left in 1875 without graduating.

One of his student companions was Karl Madsen who invited him to travel to Skagen, a small fishing village in the far north of Jutland where the Baltic and North Sea converge. From the mid-1870s, he and Madsen became key members of a group of artists who congregated there each summer, known as the Skagen Painters.

In 1880 Ancher married fellow painter and Skagen native Anna Brøndum, whose father owned the Brøndums Hotel. In the first years of their marriage, the couple had a home and studio in the "Garden House", which is now in Skagens Museum's garden.

Chaim Goldberg of Vladivostok

Chaim Goldberg, who was the world’s oldest living Jew, passed away on Sunday night at the age of 106 from complications of the coronavirus. He was a resident of Vladivostok, a city in eastern Russia.

Goldberg was also one of the oldest living veterans of the Second World War, having driven a tank in the Russian army and fought against the Nazis.

In recent years, Goldberg participated in a number of events in the Chabad synagogue in Vladivostok, organized by the city’s rabbi, Chabad emissary Harav Shimon Varakin.

Gracias, Alejandro

The NEW WEEKLY CORONA VIRUS ARGENTINE SPECIAL!

In these dire times of quarantine, isolation and lockdowns one not only needs a good Reality Shield, but also some good economic gain - berets at a discount of at least 45% for example.

At South Pacific Berets we are pretty much on hold at present. New Zealand being in lock-down and NZ Post having stopped services for the time being, we have looked mainly at taking stock and working on the storage and website. 

Doing the stock take, it was a pleasant surprise to find some larger numbers of some berets than expected - all on SPECIAL this week. 

The only catch is that the standard target delivery times have to be forgotten, as postal services around the globe struggle with deliveries at present. 

Your purchase will arrive, but no guarantee as to when.

One week only, over 45% off with prices as low as $22.75, as long as stock lasts!

Love is in the Bin by Banksy

Love is in the Bin is a 2018 art intervention by Banksy at Sotheby's London, with an unexpected self-destruction of his 2006 painting of Girl with Balloon immediately after it was sold at auction for a record £1,042,000. According to Sotheby's, it is "the first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction." The painting is on permanent loan to the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart since March 2019.

The painting is an adaptation of Banksy's 2002 mural Girl with Balloon, rare as a unique work rather than a print. It was given by him to a friend shortly after the "Barely Legal" exhibition in 2006. Banksy has said he prepared the self-destruct mechanism at this time in case the work was ever put up for auction.

Sotheby's London sold the painting at auction on 5 October 2018, at an artist-record price of £1,042,000 (then equivalent to US$1,366,672 or €1,184,360). Within seconds of the gavel drop, the canvas began sliding out of the bottom of the frame and shredding itself to the audible sound of a siren and the surprise exclamations of attendees. The work was housed in a deep frame and was plugged in to facilitate built-in electrical lights, which powered the hidden paper shredder as well. Sotheby's said they had no foreknowledge of the mechanism.

After the shredding, there was a negotiation with the buyer to confirm the sale, and on 11 October it was agreed that the sale would go through at the original price. The work was renamed by Banksy's representatives from Girl with Balloon to Love is in the Bin. Market watchers speculated that the self-destruction would increase the artwork's value. Sotheby's released a statement that called it "the first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction".

Gilbert Busseret

Gilbert Busseret nicknamed “Le Papy” for everyone who knew him, was born on 6 May, 1919, and died 98 years after.

He was called up for military service in northern France at the age of 19, then taken prisoner a year later on the Russian-Polish border. He was detained there for 5 years.

In 1947, he moved to Savigny, a village he never left. He worked there as a farmer-winegrower.

He was the oldest co-operator in the Saint-Gengoux-le-National winegrowers' cellar. He liked to go there regularly to chat with the team. He worked in the vineyard till the end, his inseparable beret screwed on his head, with his dog Gipsy as a passenger.

Despite the death of his wife in 2010, he stayed at home until his last breath, surrounded by his children, Roger and Évelyne.

Paco Ayala

Paco Ayala was a photojournalist and poet, who worked for national, provincial and various international agencies.

Ayala was born in Píñar and studied technical architecture. His passion for poetry has led him to be among the most followed poets in social networks internationally, having been interviewed by many radio stations, for which he was a regular contributor. He defined himself as 'photopoet'.

He belonged to the Andalusian Journalists' Union since its inception. In recent years, he worked as a photographer for the Aliar Publishing House, which he had founded, and published the book "Verses of passion".

Gabriel Celaya

Gabriel Celaya was a poet who became a leader of literary protest against the right-wing dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco.

Celaya was born in 1911 in the Basque town of Hernani. He worked as an industrial engineer in his family business before publishing his first book of poems, “La Marea del Silencio” (“Tide of Silence”), in 1935.

Originally known for his lyric poetry, Celaya gained fame as a leader of protest poets in the 1950s and 1960s. His essays on poets and poetry also strongly influenced younger poets, especially his key work “Exploracion de la Poesia” (“An Exploration of Poetry”) in 1964. His most widely known poem, “Poetry is a Weapon Loaded with the Future,” served as a rallying call and inspiration for other poets.

Celaya published more than 50 books, including “Tentativas” (“Attempts”) in 1947, “Las Cartas Boca Arriba” (“The Cards Upside Down”) in 1951 and “Las Resistencias del Diamante” (“The Resistance of Diamonds”) in 1958.

Celaya’s hospitalization in February, 1990, led to a national controversy when it was learned he was uninsured and would not be able to cover medical expenses. A storm of criticism about the inadequacies of national health insurance led the Culture Ministry to pay his bills and provide him with a $20,000 grant.

Thanks Bill

Green Berets

Uniform with Beret $5.00!

1989: Another Great Year for Berets!

Lev Kopelev, 1989

Viktor Suslin in 1989.

Gdansk, Poland. 1989

Bulgarian refugees in Kapikule. Improvised barber shop in transit camp. By John Vink

French Actor Paul Preboist, 1989