Yup, i ramble on about items arrived by post and think you should hang out (i’ll make tea)
Opening a big santa sack of recent items by post including aerogrammes/ aerograms, passports, international driver’s licenses, documents, hotel letterhead, records (namechecking recent interview on Rice Field Records), postcards, etc from Nepal, Monaco, East German DDR, probably i dunno… Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, United Nations, others i don’t quite understand.
Also mail from Ukraine which allows mention of intrepid postal workers delivering despite war and displacement, + blabbity blah about guest coming to visit, feeling discombobulated after #MECFS “crash mode” – that’s it except the parts i forgot. Argh prob a ramble about the “passport forgery project” {recalling i riffed about taking “intimate documents” and adding life to them}
Bonus: Rice Field Records Interview
{this should and will be a separate bonus post but in the meanwhile…}
It’s March, and I’m so tired. But I was tired and February too so I guess nothing’s changed :) but hey, April is going to be a beauty
This is not a postcard, it’s a cassette tape but hey, it might be traveling from Cartagena to the Carolinas or maybe just to Japan ++ there is a minor chance that the typed liner notes don’t match the actual contents (i started this project before holidays and ended up with a bunch of scattered sheets of different tracklists so I hope I matched the right one up)
Went out for medical treatment today (seitai), had a lovely chat with 2 elder ladies also waiting in tatami mat room clinic, also scribbled some postcards.
Wife and kiddo went for lunch and afterwards, we all went to the park. I sat on the bench.
Now resting in bed.
Noting postcards are mostly for folks who are having a rough time with health challenges themselves. I know how much it means to me when I get a note in the post wormhole so I try to always remember to share a piece of magic paper with a specific thrifty sticker on it with others
I think postal mail c/should be made as though they were generational artifacts. This is not required, just a thought I like to think.
So much fun dropping off letters with the kiddo. Chance to talk about where the letters/cards are going, who the recipient is, and why you’re sending. Geography, communications, empathy, friendship… All in one lesson <3
[Update} Gosh, craziest dreams last night… So vivid and all over the place.
Hit up seitai again and holy smokes… That fccked up vertebrae (lumbar number two) is finally starting to move after a couple years of working around it and today my entire nervous system is buzzing with electricity. Going from my left second toe tracing lines up through my shoulder blade into the back of my skull
Completely wild, I’m trying to lay still but feel like I got jumper cables attached
Just needed to tell someone in case I levitate and float up to outer space
I guess thoughts of passing of a friend combined with seitai treatment, changing of seasons, + medications all cooked up a perfect stew of mental chaos (plus lingering anxiety of leaving in Japan for a trip)
Scenes in Cartegena & Carolinas, various cargo transport airplanes, clues hidden in a smuggled menus, hitchhiking in Spain & meeting up with a band who were partying hard before doing a show at 4 AM at a festival a long way away. Nothing I haven’t done before but still… collaged
Ergo: *finally* getting some L2 nerve compression released after decades of doctors saying “oh it’s nothing, here’s some painkillers” Neural synapses reconnecting is a completely psychedelic & exhausting experience. However i am unable to explain this to my doctor (esp in Japanese)
A picture of the cottage and the tool shed and carport snapped to explain where the solar panels will go but for now… it’s just a picture of the cottage, the tool shed and the car port
Other dis-intermediated maybe semi-related but probably not notes:
Indeed, we’re not “standing on the shoulders of giants” were “leaning against normal sized humans” - like *us* who have just done other things similar before us… Reminds me of cultures passing from shiitake log to shiitake log as they’re leaned up against each other in the woods
(life in Japan is a constant barrage of “wait what? Seriously, they can do that?”)
Just on this day we’d gone to a park with an octopus slide, a medical treatment in a tatami room, a 7-11 for ¥900 lunch/world tour of food, stopped at a bakery that looked like was airdropped in from provincial France… while listening to Wes Anderson’s Isle of dogs soundtrack.
Today saw an oddly placed ramen & gyoza vending machine. no idea how it works nor why *here*
From the van window. We called the van Agnes. Shall I post a zoomed in shot? OK.No, I do not know how this works and I would investigate but the placement is very strange and inconvenient. So we go on
Just remixing some passports from Romania and Albania.
Ambient views and vibes of making a series of 4 very different postcards ~ fiddling with stamps (postal and inky), various pens, scissors, glue and other crafts odds and ends in kura barn in provincial Japan
Stamps and items from: Gibraltar, Malaysia, Diego Garcia, Nepal, Palau, Tuvalu, Japan, Tahiti, Antigua, Sri Lanka, India, BOIT, Newfoundland, CCCP, Canada, UK, & featuring Fredrick Varley, Ichiro Olson, Baden-Powell, Capilano suspension bridge, rabbits and many other notable details and destinations.
No chit-chat or narration, just hanging out.while listening to Bill Janovitz’s great album Walt Whitman Mall (used w/o clearence) on vinyl with admiration.
Some countries still don’t have air mail connections with Japan at this time, so, sending a letter envelope by surface post… Wonder how long it will take to find its destination? Hope this envelope has it sea legs.
Avast ye envelope
All together dispatches today went to Sri Lanka, India, and the usual, Japan, USA and Canada.
In front of a wood stove, Dave stashes cards from the “string of honour” into archival book while recounting tales of the wonderful folks who sent greeting cards and letters to Tsuchida Cottage.
Very grateful for your friendship and lovely correspondence.
Along with banter about:
* having several scrapbooks on-the-go at all times
* special collections and on-going correspondence
* topsy turvy start to the year
* “lap projects” like mending and scrapbooking
* thoughts about last year (lots of paperwork!)
* theme for this year (letting go)
and usual digressions, meanderings and anecdotes (i.e. hanging stereo speakers and maybe something about solar panels). Oh, there is a Dymo LabelMaker in action.
Very grateful for your friendship and lovely correspondence.
Meanwhile I’m trying to tidy up the room a little bit so here are albums of postcards/greeting cards etc., duly annotated by Dymo label.
PS if I’ve missed sharing your card I probably shared under separate cover / somewhere else, or will do another time (thinking of you Astrid in Germany who’s art is already hanging up).
A well decorated special new year dropbox at a post office on a quest with my buddy Mac
“Good news” is over 300 pieces of postal mail dispatched the last 4-5 weeks. Mostly postcards but also bunch of special packets (some were far overdue) + typed (poorly) a few long letters – still a few more on my list and then have to pause / slow down for a while.
One of the batches, heading out internationally with some fantastic (specially ordered) 70¥ stamps, celebrating an anniversary of Japan and France, postal relations, along with air mail seals (and a CD received from a friend in Fukushima)
The “proofs” from the festive card from this year / yes, less analogue than usual and yes, some clipart, but still, rather awesome
The new year stamp station at the local post officeOn a drive to visit an arborist colleague, in another town, spotted a couple post boxes from the car, and just couldn’t resist myself since we were at a red light, seemed like fate
As the cards rolled in, they were pinned to the string of honor, now there are too many to fit, but since these were snapped, here are a few that started us off… so many more, thanks to everyone, eventually more documentation, probably
Just for fun – and to remind myself that I repeat myself – here are similar snaps from previous years. It’s all the same except entirely different, except for the parts are the same.There was a lot of red ink, stamping, because well of course we have our own “year of the rabbit” stamps, so wore out the previous red ink pad (which I really really liked) and ordered a new one, yeah it’s really the big timeHave acquired at least a dozen free calendars and placed each appropriately throughout the house, and in this case, in the kura (to be clear, there’s also one in the carport/workshop)Of course, this dude was helping out with the stampingAlong with the “usual” high volume of standard New Year’s cards, were a few special dossiers, sent to folks needing a little spark, due to being shut, ins, hospitalized, suffering, loss, or otherwise did something very special. an opportunity to share some of my little arts and crafts to maybe inspire others.Though our dear rabbit Maru-chan is featured on the new year card – because of course it is “year of the rabbit” – sadly, my design skills squished him in and he was often covered by a stamp required for postal delivery. I attempted to apologize and explain the situation – he just wants to sit by the fire. I think we’ll both be all right.
A very special packet to a very special human, who, possibly vaguely knows I exist due to a meeting in 1997, mailed to the Shasta, bioregion with admiration and affectionThank you to all our wonderful correspondents, both sending and receiving is a pleasure
The next “big project” is getting ready for a trip #BCInvasion in April/May. Focus is “family, friends, parks, and gardens” 1st time for my darlings, and I’m a little intimidated to deal with lack of public toilets, tax/tips and other social connections, but will get through it. And yes, of course I’ve made a Google doc plan and “poster art”.
New Year day in Japan is better than Christmas for postal mail enthusiasts when a big stack of cards arrives with a “thud” – complete with “magic numbers” which you look up in the newspaper to see if you won some prize, {one time I won stamps}
PS about 885 million of these special New Year’s cards are delivered on New Year’s Day – yes, that many, yes by postal workers working on New Year’s Day
Postal worker zipping around on special bike, delivering items to the Munetade shrine
PPS we sent about 250 and so much thanks to all the folks who sent festive cards to us – Will be savored, inventoried archived, scrapbook’d and thanked.
A meandering rundown from the kura barn about New Year routines, foods and rituals in Japan, plus usual gabba gabba about postcards, lucky numbers and postal obsessions… but this time featuring various hats and even more personal translucency, unnecessary archaeology, remarks about improving the campsite, being a good hubbo and papa, health situation, life admin tasks, blank sheets, re-caps of projects: poems, pods, vids, trips – and various anecdotes about wonderful pals, probably you ya beauty.
Very important annotations
Special hellos to friends in places where I left pieces of my heart – important for a rambling type with out that “regular hometown” vibe.
various beloved correspondence, mostly post cards, cards and whatnot, taped and glued with affection, maybe from you
Hangout in the Kura barn while i light sage, spin Ornette Coleman and fill up an accordion-style scrapbook with postcards and other postal treats using various sticky corners, washi tape, double-sided tape, envelopes and odds and ends. No chit-chat (not even my lovely beard), just ambient craft session.
Grab a chair if you want some company or otherwise have a notion.
Assembling Jack Kerouac ephemera dossiers and stamping postcards, scribbling letters while chatting, grouching about misplacing things and listening to REM’s “Fables of the Reconstruction.”
many items, carefully curated, into envelopes (with splendid stamps of course)
Hang out, no big deal.
PS Wanna get some artifacts for your archive and amusement? Be sure to watch the “Kerouac in Kobe” video to the end.
Bonus from Simon Warner, author of “text, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll” and writer/curator of highly recommended “Rock and the Beat Generation” newsletter, who says:
Thank you, Dave Olson, for sharing such a great selection of Kerouac in Kobe 2020/2021 exhibition artefacts: what a wonderful gathering of programmes and images, text, recordings and postcards!
Look out for an interview at Rock and the Beat Generation with the Canadian bodhisattva of Japanese Beat very soon
Simon Warner shares the assortment of Kerouac in Kobe artefacts / which arrived to UK in about a week from Japan, hooray for postal services!
Went back-and-forth to the post office to send out a bunch of “Kerouac in Kobe“ ephemera dossiers and a few poetry books – decorated with splendid stamps of course – but wow, wiped out just from the wander. Have a hospital day tomorrow so better rest #MECFSpic.twitter.com/bKtEcnP2ER
You must be logged in to post a comment.