Tag Archives: postal

Personal Musings, Post'd (cards + letters)

Nengajyo / New Year’s Card 2022 – Adapters Ahoy!

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Sharp peekers maybe caught the preview in “Post’d: New Years “nengajyo” in process” and now fresh from various post office trips with stamping goodtimes comes our best wishes to you for a pleasing 2022 in the form of a card from Tsuchida Cottage featuring us in ‘The Linda Lindas” shirts and swag. Note the details.

You may be shocked that I did not *accidentally on purpose* steal the post box/pen holder but I did use the stamps at the post office to decorate the postcards because, that’s what the stamps are for – specifically featuring the coming year’s zodiac sign, the tiger. Yep, cute tigers coming on your New Year’s cards.

130 out to foreign address and around the same in process to domestic Japan (with different back and includes Japan Post special “raffle” cards) as of this writing Dec. 27 (hurry hurry printers!)

I hope one of them is for you. I’m doing my best.

Fondly from Dave, Ryoko and Ichiro

PS On the back is a poem by me (naturally) with a few sentiments about adapting to situations and using the unexpected to reinvent as well as expressing empathy. 

All the Time

Reinvent
Re-create
Replenish, even Rejuvenate or Rejoice

Adapters plant seeds 
and watch the trees tell time, 
over decades

There’s no hurry
We’re here forever
Go slow 
We’ve got all the time for you
Records, flowers and paints
Fresh coffee with a view

If you’ve had a hard year
We’re here with our ears

Pack your steamer trunk and be ready for queen tides, we’ll spark the woodstove

Ramble forth, possibly fret, maybe cry but 
know – even without *believing* – light is here as needed
	Always fondly.

By Dave Olson, Tsuchida, Okayama
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Post'd (cards + letters)

Post’d: stamps, parcels & kind helper

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Postage stamps of postboxes, from Japan and France. ¥70 is just right for international postcards.

Meta + Diplomacy.I bought them all including the example ones.

Also some classic Japanese kimono ukiyo-e designs (possibly noticed in earlier dispatch) for the stash at home.

Grateful that the kind lady at the little local (Shinogoze) post office indulges me covering the box with $30 worth of hand-picked stamps ++ added some inky stamps on standby special for New Year’s cards.

In this case, she hand-cancelled and covered the stamps with extra tape as the package was a little bit non-adhesive.

As for shipping packages, due to lack of planes and congested shipping channels, getting stuff to Canada tough. Small packets only, 2kg & 90cm WHD max. No parcels, no surface/sea/SAL :( #denied

The bottom box is repacked into two smaller boxes, the top one is huge slabs of vinyl weighing in at 2.2 kg and can’t be broken out so it will wait for safer passage

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Post'd (cards + letters)

Post’d: inky card with details & musings

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original photos by C.A. and collag’d by dvo

There are many reasons I love to send postcards and letters: the first of course is to just let people know I am thinking about them, followed closely by the meditative enjoyment of assembling paper, image and decoration just exactly right, but also enjoy seeing my creations reflected back across in another medium, weeks – or sometimes months – after I drop it in the box.

In this case, the recipient is a photographer who primarily shoots humming and other birds (and who’s lovely cards are elsewhere in this archive) and also takes wonderful close-up snaps of the details of my artifacts, in this case noticing the stamps – both ornamental and philadelphic – and the fuchsia ink scrawled with a quill.

To continue the recursive cycle, I’ve smashed four of her photos together in a little collage to zoom back from Japan to Vancouver once again, with evidence.

Ergo: A collage of close up details from a postcard sent from provincial Japan to West End Vancouver showing a beautiful franked stamp featuring illustration of a lady in kimono, an ink stamp unofficially commemorating Vancouver international airport established 1970, another ink stamp imitating an Immigration stamp from Narita airport and excerpt of a scribble in fuchsia ink possibly saying “happy birthday“ with a bit of another ink stamp probably saying “Postcard“.

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Japan Life/Travel, Post'd (cards + letters)

Dossiers of Kerouac in Kobe (& me in Okayama) to global beats

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Finally going to sneak up to Kobe just before the end of the Jack Kerouac exhibit (aug 3/4/5).

This one went to a dude in Scarborough

Was hoping things would be chiller and I would be healthier and could bounce up to Kyoto for a couple of days while generally absent in overseas tourists but it just doesn’t seem to ever lineup… Seems every time I leave the house, I “crash“ again #mecfs #digression

Anyhow, this is a little round up of dossiers I’ve mailed out to various Kerouac/beat enthusiast, collectors, archivists and generally-kind folks so that professor Matt Theado & colleagues work is amplified to other corners of other continents.

This to a collector and architect in Germany

Of course I love it when folks send me “static montage“ snapshots of the dossiers. As you will notice, along with the Jack Kerouac stuff, also added in different combinations Of my paintings, postcards, various snapshots, occasional goat farm brochures or museum catalogs and as usual, resplendent with stamps, both inky and postal.

Seen here is last year is canceled catalog and this year‘s phoenix

Shared here in slightly obstificated versions to pretend I’m protecting anyone’s privacy or whatever I don’t know.

Look at that, he already has it framed next to some other lovely pieces

If you don’t know what I’m talking about when I say “Kerouac in Kobe“ or variations thereof, the short version is: this year, like everything else, it’s complicated 🙂

Here is a stash which went to a painter in eastern USA (included some postcards of paintings)

Was scheduled for last year with the original s/croll and a bunch of workshops (including mine) and ancillary exhibits but, due to quarantine etc., the “keeper of the scroll” (cool job!) couldn’t come… so this year it’s a painstakingly reproduced digital version of the scroll + there was a symposium a couple of weeks back and a nice collection of books and artifacts and typewriters in display.

Bringing it all back home to the goat farm as a reminder that there’s more information elsewhere in this archive

Loads more about elsewhere in this archive >> worth checking it out and giving them some support if you’re in the area. Runs until August 8.

Anyhow, today is father-in-law‘s birthday and think I’m gonna wear my new Fluevog shoes in celebration and we’ll eat curry & new secret hideout. Big moves all around. Ha ha

Oh and that painter I mentioned above also received one of my paintings from a numbered print run of “Gravelly Beach no. 4, Sakura“ I’ve now shared around the world

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Post'd (cards + letters), Shoebox

Postal wormholes to elsewhere #haiku 

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Bend paper to find
Shortest distance between points
Or apply a stamp

{for Amber}

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Personal Musings, Post'd (cards + letters)

Diary: postal, piano, fever etc

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Mailed:

  • 23 postcards {mostly #DaveO50 #PersonalArchaeology series}
  • Two thick dossiers (one foreign, one domestic)
  • Bonanza of Paralympic sports stamps
  • Plus, voting packet (Thurston County)

Also: piano moved, laundry started, Ichiro has a fever, Pokémon stamps acquired for a special packet, next step is the tatami mats getting re-wrapped.

Clarification about Pokéman: putting a packet together of Pokémon (and other Japanese cuteness) for a friend’s 13-year-old grandchild dealing with some heavy medical situation and facing eight months of chemotherapy. He loves Pokémon. So: (eager to help) put a message out to the local foreigners FB group for advice and trying to understand what makes a Pokémon card exciting (is it opening of the new packs or getting a super collectible card etc.?) And while I was at the post office, I noticed the Pokémon stamps so I bought a sheet to add to the packet. They’re here somewhere, I’ll snap a photo…

Wife studying for tree doctors certification level-up.

End of dispatch, more laundry to fold.

Hat was ¥642

Re: hat & workclothes >>

Related Annotations:

Japanese workwear stores are awsum & cheap > fun to explore // my arborist wife lets me tag along for kei-truck trips & i get a whole outfit (plus big hat, belt & cooling shirt) for like 4000¥!

Tabi (toe/sock-boots) are great & cheap to replace &/or have a few pair in rotation.

Baggy trousers keep ya cool (actually) & act like “cat whiskers” when on scaffolds to know how much space you have.

PS Sent requisite messages about baseball All-Star game and Tokyo Olympic conundrums (Note to self: post that radio interview you did)

Ohtani at MLB home run derby

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Daveo Dispatches, Japan Cottage Musings, Post'd (cards + letters)

Time Travelers in a New Year ~ Japan Cottage Musings

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Quickly before running a bath, Dave – regaining equilibrium – discusses creation of a slightly-delayed but very-pleasurable project, ergo: “Time Travelers“ handmade cards including outfits, printing techniques and paper choices, fire hazards, inky & postal stamps, and fingerprints.

Plus riffs about carrying on in strange times, wonderful events, fountain pens and puppets. And expressing gratitude to friends who sent cards and letters, often reciprocated by Hokusai woodblock prints and/or “cheap and cheerful” time traveler cards.

++

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Japan Cottage Musings

Books by Post – Japan Cottage Musings

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+ Books by Post / Japan Cottage Musings catch-up riff +

Wearing stolen hotel pyjamas, Dave riffs about: Larry Harper’s “70” variety collection, various Richard Brautigan items (Rick Lupert’s Van Nuys Tokyo Express, William Hjortsberg’s Jubilee Hitchhiker, and “the world’s mightiest hat” gift from Marty and Willis), then onwards to the legendary Joan Anderson letter from Neal Cassady to Jack Kerouac, and Jack Micheline’s poems and ephemera… also riffs about analog and digital creative symbiosis and and namechecks Douglas Coupland and others… plus importantly, Ichiro bathtime, Ryoko’s chainsaws, and the usual postcards. Yowza.

Fondly from Tsuchida Cottage, Okayama, Japan.

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Post'd (cards + letters)

Post’d: usual dossiers of art, poetry and ephemera (and tea)

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The usual, ergo:

dossiers of art, poetry and ephemera

scrapbooks of same(ish)

piles to Post offices.

Also tea.

PS I enjoy this sort of activity on many levels for sure, i.e.: find playing with scissors and glue and pens very pleasant and, like the thought of spreading a little bit of goodness to various places around the world and, going to the post office gives me a little manageable errand.

I have a hard time getting “out and about” and really have to minimize screen time so this allows me to communicate and create and keep my brain active.

In these dossiers, i included prints of my paintings, bits of poetry, various insta snapshots, and letters on expired aerograms etc.

Enjoy the goodness / (of course) my address is available and you can sign up for Postal Club. I hope you hang on your fridge or put in a shoebox. 

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Shoebox

Poem: post office closed (again)

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Poem: post office closed (again)

Post office closed
(again)
You’ll need another
day to know
you are loved
by a lost poet
without a watch

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Personal Musings

Diary: Tie dyes for Ichiro + Deadhead treats from Brother/Uncle Dan

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{Catching up with…} Leading up to Ichiro’s birth, another wonderful package arrived – this one from brother Dan (with postal assist by brother Bob) containing an assortment of handmade treats and other related goods.

Most noteworthy were a variety of tie-dye t-shirts including one for papa (hello!), mama and the forthcoming-at-the-time baby in our “family tartan“ which he also made for various brothers and nieces and nephews. Will make a splendid family photo one day. 

In the meantime, here’s two of us, and the tie-dyes on standby for little Ichi-Stan.

Also in the mix there’s a few gifts of soccer scarves for some friends Dan met during his last visit and, a variety of Grateful Dead socks for us and the notable Deadhead/goat farmer Mac.

Ichiro being extra special got an additional tie-dye which, paired with his various bibs and hats would be extra cool.

Thanks brother/in-law-uncle Dan for being so thoughtful and we’ll soon I’ll put on our tie-dyes for a photo with the young nephew.

Note: Dan learned his tie-dye trade, well perfected it anyway, from Lance who along with Leslie were proprietors of Aaron’s Tie-Dyes for many years. Dan and I were able to assist – in my case, purely as a “road trip logistical assistant”, and indeed, it was the tie-dye is that introduced me to Lance and his cohorts other then-new ISP (OlyWa.net) in a totally life-changing coincidence of asking for change for laundry machine.

 

 

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Post'd (cards + letters)

Ichiro: Telegram, rec’d

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Why yes, we do accept telegrams here at Tsuchida cottage / No Time Machine required. #io

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