My new stamps arrived! These Bugs Bunny stamps are pretty cool.
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The Benefit of an Attempted Ban: Just purchased
I just received a new order of postcards yesterday. I ordered a bunch of these cards–which I otherwise wouldn’t have known about or sought out–thanks to a story I read about an attempt to prevent the image from being circulated.
Thanks to CBLDF and our coalition partners, the online marketplace Redbubble has reinstated a cartoon by Pulitzer Prize–winning editorial cartoonist Nick Anderson that was previously removed because of a meritless complaint by the Trump re-election campaign. CBLDF applauds Redbubble for reinstating the cartoon, and urges them to reject any other attempts by political campaigns to suppress protected speech.
And so, an attempt to restrict protected speech, to hide humorous commentary, has in fact resulted in greater exposure for the work, and more profit for the creator.
I also come across (and purchase) a lot of great books in similar circumstances. Do you ever read banned books?
Ghibli Edition: Received from China, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Serbia, and the U.S.
Not too many cards today, but all with the common theme of featuring Miyazaki Hayao’s characters from Studio Ghibli films. Still unearthing older unlogged (unblogged?) cards; most of these arrrived in 2017-2018, but there is one from this month! These were all received through Postcrossing Forum tags.
Let’s go with my favorite two first! The one on the left is from Japan, and the sender writes, “do you know Totoro? Totoro is character of Ghibli series – Japanese animation movie. This character is very loved in Japan. Totoro’s goods are sold a lot. This is nengajo postcard. In Japan we sent (as a greeting) postcard to celebrate New Year.”
The second card was from Serbia, and the sender tells me the first Studio Ghibli film they saw was Princess Mononoke, and the most recent was Grave of the Fireflies.
Next two cards have great images from My Neighbor Totoro; the top card came to me from Japan, and the bottom one from China.
The two poster-style cards side-by-side here are from Russia & the Netherlands, and both of the senders told me they were about to go see Disney “live-action” remakes: “Lion King,” and “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil,” respectively.
The last two cards move away from Totoro, to the less-cute side of Ghibli (I’m definitely a fan of the more-cute side of Ghibli). Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind came from Japan, and Princess Mononoke came from right here in the U.S.
What do you like the best today? Before you answer, check out all of the stamps, stickers, & washi tape! Lots of cool little things to enjoy.
(oh, that was a very nice otter sticker)
“Lots” of Old Postcards (Strolling Character Edition)
A few posts back, I shared several old Disney cards I’d snapped up for my Postcrossing stash via online auctions. There were a lot more where that came from, so here is part 2! This time, the focus is (at least mostly) on the costumed characters wandering the parks. You can tell these shots span some number of years, based on the work Mickey is continually having done!
Do you have any favorites here? I think that Dumbo at the bottom is interesting, and of course I always like Baloo, but I think in this batch, my fave is astronaut Mickey & Goofy standing in front of Space Mountain!
Animals, Illustrated: Received from Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, and the U.S.
As I continue to slowly declutter, I continue to come across previously-unlogged postcards. Today we have cards from 2018-today, from regular Postcrossing, Postcrossing Forum, and Postcard United.
Let’s start with my favorite, which I love because I love sea otters. It is only in seeing the scan here that I noticed there is a crab on their faces! So now, the sender’s message makes so much more sense: “This card makes me think of happy memories chasing crabs around the tide pools at Half Moon Bay, back when I was a kid.”
I also love this shiba inu, and the delicious dumplings next to the bear. Both cards are from Taiwan.
These funny hungry cats, who did not scan so well, are also from Taiwan, and the rabbit came from Japan, from a friend who was traveling on business.
Chicken shopkeeper and the village of cats are both from China…
The two red dogs come from Germany, from a Postcrosser who says she bought the postcard “at a Warhol exhibition which cost us a fortune because we parked our car where we shouldn’t have left it.”
The beautiful sea turtle above is from Malaysia; and the playful animals and the penguin below are from Taiwan and Hong Kong, respectively.
I really like the plants and birds on this card from a Postcard United user in South Korea. She writes that “the lotus painting on this postcard means happiness and flourishing.” The postcard next to it–the civilized tiger–is from another Postcard Uniter, but in China.
Finally, zebra and sailfish are both from the U.S., and are both from the “Animal Box” postcard set which I also purchased for my postcarding purposes. These two illustrations (zebra by Katharine Barnwell, and sailfish by Happy Menocal) are lovely, but the entire box is not made up of this high quality. There are some cards that are downright scrawls, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to send them out without first gluing collages on top. I think I’ve mentioned before on the blog that I finally noticed that the person who draw those pictures is the same person who is credited with editing the collection. That’s one way to get your work out there: shove it in with all of the better artists’ work.
Time for the stamps — there are some old U.S. stamps down at the bottom, and I always love the tropical fruit stamps from Taiwan. Do you have any favorites?
Disney Afternoon (or whenever you are reading this): Received from Austria, China, Finland, Japan, & the U.S.
At least one of the cards in today’s batch is from 2020! I mostly see 2018, though. Some great Disney cards to share this time, and I really like the art style on this first pair.
Donald came to me from Austria, and Mickey & Minnie from Finland. A whole lot of good Disney cards do seem to come from Finland, including Scrooge McDuck’s money bin here.
Another pair of Donald cards; the left is from Japan, and the right from Finland.
Disney parks cards! Both of these are from the U.S.
Also from the U.S. is this card with Walt and friends riding a little train; that was a staff greeting card from the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. The Tokyo Disney card is from, yes, Japan.
Two more postcards to go–Aladdin is from China, and Beauty & the Beast is from the U.S.
Stamp & sticker time:
Spamming My Own Page
One thing about my postcards-for-mailing stash: it’s mostly made up of cards I would enjoy receiving. I just received this order for my Postcrossing stash. This is the kind of Spam I don’t mind.
Food & Travel Edition: Received from China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, & Taiwan
15 cards to share this time! Food & travel–but really mostly food you might encounter while you travel! I love this. These cards date back as far as 2017–still decluttering–and mostly came my way through Postcrossing Forum, but also from regular Postcrossing and Postcard United (do you use that service, too?).
The xiao long bao basket came, as you can see, from Taiwan. The sender wrote:
“Mini steamed dumplings (Xiao Long Bao) is one of the most famous food in Taiwan.
DIN TAI FUNG is the most famous chain stores and I think it has also some stores
in California! Have you ever tried it before?”
Yes. I have tried the Din Tai Fung XLB in San Jose, California; Bangkok, Thailand; and Taipei, Taiwan. I also stopped by the DTF in Los Angeles–but only to buy a mug with their cool dumpling folks on it!
There’s more xlb on these cards, so let’s serve it up now:
The card came from China, and the sender will have us know that this one is “…not xiao long bao. It calls guan tang bao. It’s a famous snack in Jiang province. Although I don’t know the difference between them yet. Lol.”
The card next to that is also from China, and I’m told the food is Xiazhi noodle, a dish traditionally eaten to celebrate the coming of summer, because “it can bring you cool feelings!”
Back to Taiwan for two cards showing a whole lot of food (including one last look at soup dumps for this time around:
I really like this night market snack card. My trip to Taiwan was quite recent, and I can tell you: the night markets were not crowded. Now, this is nice in that I really don’t enjoy crowds (I’ve been in crowded, touristy night markets, where I’ve had to put my arms down at my sides and just scootch along, tightly in the slow wave of humanity); but it was very much not nice, because most of the food was not freshly-prepared, as it would have to be were there a constant line.
A lovely produce market painting, also from Taiwan…
…and a delicious map of China. The sender writes, “do you know where in China you can eat food from all over the country? You can find food from every corner of China in universities. Because students may go far away to attend a university, so the restaurants should meet everyone’s taste on the campus.”
That’s funny; I think all of the colleges here in the U.S. have Pizza Hut.
And from Indonesia, a delicious, simple, Indonesian recipe! Indonesian restaurants are a rare find where I live. Now, here are a couple of great food photos from China:
Also from China, what seems to be a visual lesson in how to make jianbing:
The Hong Kong egg tart postcard came from Hong Kong.
Two cards to go! The card on the left is fron Singapore, and the sender wrote nothing at all about all of this food, choosing to tell me all about her 3 recent, expensive, trips to the dentist.
The card on the right is from Hong Kong, printed from a photo taken by the sender, who writes “noodle soup is a Asian staple food.”
…and, here are all of the stamps. Lots of nice ones, and one of my favorites is on the very bottom row, right in the middle. It’s a “Kitchenware Street” card from HK, and it was on the back of the card I ended with. Do you have any favorite cards or stamps this time?
Travel Edition: Received from China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Tibet, and the U.S.
More Postcrossing incomings from way back in 2018 that I just rediscovered! What can I say: if this time is good for anything, it’s decluttering.
Love this beautiful card from Hong Kong:
More HK:
Next to are from China: Jing’an Temple, and Cha Ya Mountain.
Next up we have a card from Tibet, & one from the U.S.
That Hawaii card came from a Postcrosser in Colorado. She wrote:
“I took a trip to New Zealand with a six-day stopover in Hawaii on the way back. These vintage-type poster art cards were some of my favorites that I bought while there.”
On to Taiwan:
It’s Koinga Shrine in Tainan, and the sender wrote, “This was the first temple built in the Japanese colonial period.” I was recently in the area, and saw firsthand the colonial influence that lasts to this day in some of the local architecture and food.
Speaking of places I recently visited, here’s an image of Singapore, on a card printed from a shot taken by the Postcrosser who sent me this. I took a photo of this statue (Mauro Perucchetti’s “Jelly Baby Family,” in front of the Plaza Singapura Mall) myself, just several weeks ago. The card’s sender is from Bellevue, Washington–a place I have yet to visit. Yes, I’ve been to Seattle; what do you think I am, uncultured?
And speaking of so close and yet so far, when I visited Bangkok, Thailand, I never made the journey to the floating market, as much I would have loved to have seen it. The sender is from Malaysia, and she writes of having been there, “the river was crowded with boats. I had the the boat noodle and it taste great!”
Yum. Boat noodles: that’s something you almost never see at Thai restaurants in the U.S. Next post, I should go with the theme of FOOD and travel…
Oh, I almost posted this without the STAMPS! I didn’t scan the stamps last time around because doing so is so much work, but there are so many beautiful stamps on this batch. I love the ones on the back of the Hawaii card. Do you have any favorite cards or stamps this time?
Snoopy Dog-Dog Edition
Catching up? NEVER. But here are another few postcards I’ve received (cough-cough, over the course of a few years, cough-cough) as I take a few moments here & there to do some decluttering. All Snoopy cards this time! Probably all from Japan. Or also Finland. We’ll see as we go, but Peanuts postcards are a rarity in the U.S.
Oh, I’d say this is my favorite of the lot! Surfing Snoopy came to me from Japan, mailed in June, 2018.
Temple-photographer Snoopy is pretty awesome, too! Sent from Japan in January, 2018. And I always love receiving cartoony nengajo (New Year postcards)! That one is from–can you guess? And sent to me in March, 2018. Hmm, I wonder if ALL of these cards have been laying in repose since 2018…
Two more… another cooool Snoopy nengajo, obviously from Japan, but it was sent to me blank in an envelope–so I can only guess as to the year. This is a HALLMARK card. What’s up with that? All the Peanuts greeting cards Hallmark sells here in the U.S.–but ZERO postcards!
Snoopy and Snoopy with a Mustache (yeah, I know) are also from Japan, dunno the year, as the whole card was one of at least 3 mailed together and used as note paper. Awesome to receive and read, way back whenever, but poor right at this moment for forensics!
Down to the last two. Let’s talk about “Rock on Snoopy” first: Japan, 2018
Last card, then, is the blue one. No date information. It came to me from a post pal in, you guessed it…
The Snail Mail 