Roberto Sierra

Roberto Sierra (1953) is a Puerto Rican composer of contemporary classical music. 

Sierra was born in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. He studied composition in Europe, notably with György Ligeti in Hamburg (1979–1982), Germany. After his two-act opera El mensajero de plata, to a libretto by Myrna Casas, had premiered at the Interamerican Festival in San Juan on 9 October 1986, Sierra came to prominence in 1987 when his first major orchestral composition, Júbilo, was performed at Carnegie Hall by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. (Júbilo had been premiered in Puerto Rico in 1985 by the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra conducted by Zdeněk Mácal; it was also performed in 1986 by the same forces conducted by Akira Endo.) For more than three decades his works have been part of the repertoire of many of the leading orchestras, ensembles and festivals in the USA and Europe. His Fandangos was performed at the opening night of the 2002 Proms, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and televised throughout Europe.

Sierra is a retired professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he taught composition.

Carei Thomas' career got its start in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he took piano lessons and was influenced by the culturally diverse Hill District.

Carei's family moved to Chicago during his teenage years. While in high school, he formed a doo-wop group and continued expanding his artistry through an interest in spontaneous vocal composition. In 1959, Carei met Gregory "Duke" Hall who was staying on Chicago's West Side where Carei lived.  

Carei Thomas, Todd Harper, guest Brian Roessler and Paul Cantrell shown at the 2012 Studio Z performance

In the late 1960's, Carei sat-in on piano with Dexter Gordon and Art Taylor in Paris and in 1972, Carei moved to Minneapolis and briefly studied composition at the University of Minnesota. He then began developing several controlled improvisational concepts he called "Brief Realities".

In the 1980's, Carei worked on other evolutions of controlled improvisations, became interested in the healing aspects of sound and color, and in having his artform be more than a performer/spectator one with "down to earth" functionality. In the 1990's, Carei added to his work the "smoke and mirrors" of acoustical and electronic music considerations, which he called Phononomalies. He liked developing these tonal fabrics (sound designs) to use them as a canvas accommodating the collaborative endeavors of poetry, spoken work, dance, video, visual artforms, theatre, etc. along with their closest friend ... Silence. 

In 1993, Carei became seriously ill with Guillain-Barré Syndrome and was hospitalized and in physical rehabilitation until 1995. However, he continued to create and has adapted his hands to produce chords much like the ones before he was paralyzed.  

Great News for Billy Childish Fans!

Great News for Billy Childish fans!

I have 31 numbered prints of Billy's woodcut 'The Zouave', after Vincent van Gogh.

As long as the stock lasts, one for each Billy Childish beret purchase.

Ahmet Adnan Saygun

Ahmet Adnan Saygun (1907 –1991) was a Turkish composer, musicologist and writer on music.

One of a group of composers known as the Turkish Five who pioneered western classical music in Turkey, his works show a mastery of Western musical practice, while also incorporating traditional Turkish folk songs and culture. When alluding to folk elements he tends to spotlight one note of the scale and weave a melody around it, based on a Turkish mode. 

His extensive output includes five symphonies, five operas, two piano concertos, concertos for violin, viola and cello, and a wide range of chamber and choral works.

The Times called him "the grand old man of Turkish music, who was to his country what Jean Sibelius is to Finland, what Manuel de Falla is to Spain, and what Béla Bartók is to Hungary". Saygun was growing up in Turkey when he witnessed radical changes in his country’s politics and culture as the reforms of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had replaced the Ottoman Empire—which had ruled for nearly 600 years—with a new secular republic based on Western models and traditions. As Atatürk had created a new cultural identity for his people and newly founded nation, Saygun found his role in developing what Atatürk had begun.

Saygun in his youth, wearing a fez

Sade

Helen Folasade Adu,(1959), known professionally as Sade Adu or simply Sade, is a Nigerian-born English singer-songwriter, composer, arranger, and record producer.

With members Paul S. Denman, Andrew Hale, and Stuart Matthewman, she gained worldwide fame as the lead vocalist of the English band Sade. Following the release of the band’s debut album (Diamond Life, 1984) they went on to release a string of multi-platinum selling albums The band were ranked at number 50 on VH1’s list of the “100 greatest artists of all time”

Le Petit Béret

Petit Béret is the 1st château in the world dedicated to alcohol-free living.

Le Petit Béret was born from a singular ambition: to bring the world's finest vineyards to all types of customers, through the power of 100% natural, organic and alcohol-free beverages. After 5 years of R&D, they came up with a true technological revolution: a completely alcohol-free alternative to be shared and enjoyed by all.

Beer too...

Dominique Laporte is nothing short of a worldwide reference in terms of oenology: in the past, he was the sommelier for several iconic luxury hotels, including Hotel Meurice in Paris and London's Connaught Hotel, not to mention the Great Eastern Hotel where he worked alongside Gordon Ramsay. In 2013, he joined Le Petit Béret's team to create a number of cuvée and aromatic blends. In the process, he shined a light on the refined flavours of grape varieties such as Syrah, Sauvignon and Grenache Cinsault.

Hand-in-hand with top French laboratories such as INRA and CTCPA, Dominique developed a positively unique natural formula. This innovative technical process brilliantly highlights what the grapes, and nature itself, have to offer: no alcohol, dealcoholisation, fermentation, preservatives neither sulphites are involved. All that's left is the blissfull experience of southern French vineyards.

From the collection of Bendigo Military Museum

A Royal Australian Navy beret in cotton, made by the Commonwealth Government Clothing Factory, from some time after WWII.

The beret is made of stiff woven cotton with strong thread lines going in one direction. It’s tag reads: “CGCF, Size 7 3/8, RAN, Made in Australia”. 

Carla Laemmle

Rebekah Isabelle Laemmle (1909 –2014), known professionally as Carla Laemmle, was an American actress and dancer, and the niece of Universal Pictures studio founder Carl Laemmle.

As an actress/dancer, she is known primarily for her roles in The Phantom of the Opera (1925) and Dracula (1931). At the time of her death, she was one of the last surviving actors of the silent film era, with her career spanning nearly 90 years, also with one of the longest gaps.

 

Vintage Cars & Berets

Opel 4-14 PS

Ford Eifel Cabriolet

 

Lancia Dilambda Berlina

Cycling

 

Eva Marzone

Boinera Eva Marzone (aka Eva Ollearo) was nicknamed “the Birusa” (in Piedmontese “fast” and “audacious”) not only because in the ’20s and’ 30s a woman driving a motorcycle is an unusual sight, but because she participated successfully in competitions.

Eva was born in Piverone in 1906 and as an adolescent, left for Paraguay as a nanny. Back in Italy she married Neftàli Ollearo, a motorbike manufacturer since 1921.

She participates in hill climbs and races, achieving good results. When the motorcycle industry suffers during the recession, she works as a civilian at the “Amione” military barracks in Turin, where she continues to deal with means of transport.

Eva Marzone was a woman who knew how to conquer the typically “male” roles, anticipating the times and interpreting at best her commitment in the commercial sector.

Calmos

Calmos is a 1976 French film directed by Bertrand Blier. A comedy that explores the battle of the sexes, often explicitly, it satirises both the rise of feminism in France and traditional attitudes of Frenchmen.

Certainly from a very different period (and not vegetarian friendly…)

159° Régiment d’Infanterie Alpine

The 159th, the famous "Snow Regiment" marked the history of the city of Briançon for over a century.

The "159th Alpine Infantry Regiment" (its official name) was dissolved in 1994 and its memory is recalled each year by the association of former members of the 159th and its historical group who organize the "Edelweiss Festival".

Edelweiss, the rare flower growing in the high mountains, was the badge of this regiment evolving at altitude.

Buffalo Nichols

After years of watching white artists and fans dominate a genre pioneered by Black people, artists like Buffalo Nichols are trying to bring the music they love back to its roots.

Nichols is unapologetically blunt when he discusses the way the music he loves has become disconnected from its cultural roots. Nichols is rattled by what the traditional blues scene has become.

“So much damage has already been done that getting somebody under 35 to even consider listening to the blues is such a struggle,” he says. “From where I’m sitting, there’s a lot of great potential, but the potential is limited by the old guard, all the older white guys who have been doing it. They’ve ruined it for everybody else. And they’re still there and they’re still taking up way too much space, and they’re still making terrible music.”

Citroën B2 (and Kégresse)

The Citroën B2 is the second model produced by Citroën. It is therefore the second European car to have been constructed according to modern mass production technologies. It was produced at André Citroën's factory in central Paris between May 1921 and July 1926.

The car was manufactured, just five minutes from the Eiffel Tower, in the 15th arrondissement of central Paris at the famous factory in the Quai de Javel (subsequently renamed Quai André-Citroën), which by 1925 was producing at the rate of 200 cars per day, applying techniques then known as "Taylorism" which André Citroën had studied personally and in depth during a visit to Dearborn that he had undertaken during the war in order to master the techniques being applied by Henry Ford for the production of the Model T.

Advertised fuel consumption of 8 litres per 100 km converts into a remarkable 26 MPG (using US gallons) or more than 31 MPG (British gallons). The car quickly gained a reputation for robustness and economy.

The Half-track cars that gained much media coverage by crossing the Sahara Desert in 1922 were based on the Citroën B2. André Citroën knew the value of publicity, and this was, unsurprisingly, the first crossing of the Sahara by this method.

In 1924 Poland bought 135 complete chassis of the B2 with Kégresse track (known as Citroën-Kegresse B2 10CV). Some were converted to all-terrain lorries while 90 were converted to Samochód pancerny wz. 28 armoured cars.

The Truffle Hunters

The Truffle Hunters is a 2020 documentary film directed and produced by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw.

Deep in the forests of Piedmont, Italy, a handful of men, seventy or eighty years young, hunt for the rare and expensive white Alba truffle—which to date has resisted all of modern science's efforts at cultivation. They're guided by a secret culture and training passed down through generations, as well as by the noses of their cherished and expertly trained dogs.

They live a simpler, slower way of life, in harmony with their loyal animals and their picture-perfect land, seemingly straight out of a fairy tale. They're untethered to cell phone screens or the Internet, opting instead to make their food and drink by hand and prioritizing in-person connections and community.

The demand for white truffles increases year after year, even as the supply decreases. As a result of climate change, deforestation, and the lack of young people taking up the mantle, the truffle hunters' secrets are more coveted than ever. However, as it soon becomes clear, these ageing men may just hold something much more valuable than even this prized delicacy: the secret to a rich and meaningful life.

Thanks Emile

Sam Hoevens

Sander Wilhelmus (Sam) Hoevens (1905 - 1934 ) was a Dutch cyclist .

Like his contemporary Klaas van Nek Jr., Hoevens specialized in pursuits and pair races; he supplemented that with the sprint.

In September 1934, while traveling by car from a competition in Leeuwarden to a competition in South Holland, together with fellow racers Klaas van Nek Jr., Flip Reijnders (24) and their masseur Ridel, the car had to cross the tracks of the Alkmaar - Schagen Tram Line. Van Nek, as driver, did not hear or see the tram coming. After the collision, the tram dragged the car for approximately 70 meters. Police officers who patrolled the scene immediately noted that three of the four people involved had died, the car a complete wreck.

Every Scrap of Paper Helps Victory

Peggy Chester - Cover of Woman's Illustrated Magazine, incorporating Eve's Own - photography by Nancy Sandys Walker 1944.