FBF: I Wish I Was Still There

In the last month I've been transcribing the journal I kept while traveling around the world from January 2017 to June 2018. It's been amazing to relive the journey, especially since big travel is not on the horizon for .... a while. I am fascinated by what I chose to record, and so grateful that I took the time to do this (although I know this will turn to frustration later in the trip when I'm pretty sure my journaling became a lot more infrequent).  

I also sent postcards, of course! I brought some along to get started, but naturally the big draw was sending cards from wherever we were.

First postcard sent from the road 1/29/2017 - to my ma

I even participated in LetterMo in 2017, and I was thrilled to see that I took some photos of the writing before sending them off - although more often than not, it was just a close up to get artist credit for the image and I can't see the whole text. So frustrating!

"Afatista em Alfama" Toni Frissell, 1946

Sent to a college friend in Colorado:

"3 February, 2017

Hey Chica! 

We were in Lisboa last week and walked around Alfama often, but have not yet seen any Fado. It seems primarily for tourists, and locals consider it old peoples' music. I'd still like to go, but it's also $$$. we are in Porto now, staying in an Airbnb that is a 3-room hostel. The other guests here DO NOT leave the apartment and rarely leave their room. It's weird. They leave tomorrow and we hope that no one else shows up. Tonight we went to a couchsurfing meetup that was very fun, although it's been so long I've been anywhere people can smoke inside it was hard to bear after a while. Rain continues to follow us everywhere. xoxo"

Narrator: She never did see any Fado.

I have to laugh at the sweet summer child I was at the beginning of this trip, because by the end I absolutely could have been the weirdo who never left their room in some of our stops. Also, get used to the indoor smoking, kid. RIP clean lungs.

Postage from around the world is also very cool:

Very inexpensive international postage!

I gave LetterMo a good try that year - which was mostly easy because we were based in either Lisbon or Porto the whole month. My correspondence after that became sketchy - there were plenty of places that I didn't have the time to figure out the post office situation, but also our schedule could be erratic and it was hard to be disciplined. Now I have a whole box of postcards from countries I've visited to join the huge stack that I inherited from my grandmother and her travels.

Stay tuned for more trip correspondence as well as more recent ones.

My Pandemic Project (aka What Is Time)

You know how the whole world turned upside down in 2020, and people were suddenly home a lot, and suddenly everyone was into PROJECTS, like windowbox gardening [fun fact: stick a heel of romaine in a bowl of water and you get new lettuce], sewing masks, and making bread [oh god, the sourdough revolution!]? I'm no exception, and I bounced back and forth between jigsaw puzzles, learning to cook Mexican food, streaming all 4 seasons of The Crown, and doing children's art kits. And occasionally writing postcards!

But one side effect of the pandemic has been that my focus is even more erratic than ever and finishing anything is a challenge. I had great big grand ideas about restarting this blog (and maybe even finally starting my travel blog). Especially when one of those art kits ignited a new passion for collage that meant I spent a lot of this year's LetterMo creating individual postcards for folks.

I didn't do that. And as the year wore on, I became less and less capable of doing anything for longer than a hot minute. I even started this post last night and gave up because it was harrrrrd. But I have a little time right now and am trying to use it to rediscover joy or at least some semblance of good habits, so here we go. 

Step 1: something I've been meaning to do for forever, basically: Change The Name. I created this blog on a fluke years ago and didn't understand naming. But "Wish You Were Here" is so ubiquitous that literally no one can find this blog unless they have a direct link. Even I thought I'd lost it until I found my Blogger dashboard! I also always wanted to have some sort of connection to my travel identity, Artful Stumble. Thus: let me introduce Artful Scribble. Still postcards, still correspondence, still random. Maybe a little more recent than digging into notes from the '80s. Or not!

Step 2: oh god, is there going to be a Step 2? I suppose this would be posting at least semi-regularly. The good news is that I've sent a bunch of postcards and even received a few. And there are lots of stories about our collective non-travel in the last 18 months to be told. Can I dig deep and find some stick-to-it-iveness? Hopefully yes....but I'm also learning to not be so hard on myself because we are all doing the best we can, even when our best is kinda fine-minus. 

To get things rolling - I sent this postcard a few days ago:

Artist: Barbara Earl Thomas 

My cousin and his wife were in town and we met for lunch, and then headed over to the Seattle Art Museum for a Monet exhibit, which was fine - but I was more interested in the other exhibit by local Seattle artist Barbara Earl Thomas. Her cut-paper portraits are beautiful and compelling but I was blown away by the full room installation. I may have to go back, because I could sit in that room for hours and still find something new. Unfortunately, installations are less postcard-friendly, so I picked up a few of the other amazing images.

tiny detail of the unbelievable excellence that awaits you

 "The Geography of Innocence" runs through January 2, 2022. 

See you.....soon?

 

Weekend Postbox

I've said time and time again that the point of LetterMo for me is in the sending, not the receiving, but I would be a dirty lying rat if I said I didn't enjoy the abundance of mail I receive during the month as well. I've gotten a lot of great postcards, and don't want to wait until the end of the month to show them off.

Cary Grant, 1958, photo by Milton H. Greene

Um, wow. I don't even swing that way but that's a compelling stare there, mister. Swoon. They don't make 'em like that anymore. Ok, George Clooney approaches that Old Hollywood style of glamour, now that he's older, but I can't think of anyone else.

Sent by a friend before she took off on an amazing adventure - we are now getting more immediate updates from Myanmar when there's a wifi connection.

Illustration from The Macmillan ALICE by Sir John Tenniel

From the back:

"You seem very clever at explaining words Sir," said Alice. "Would you kindly tell me the meaning of the poem called 'Jabberwocky'?"

Can I just say that it's taken me FOUR YEARS to notice that this blog has a quote box feature? I am a master of observation.

Robert Ellis, Motorway/City 1969

A postcard from the road! Tilly was on a business trip in New Zealand (jealous!) and sent this cool card. Check out that cute stamp! On the picture side, even! I thought maybe that's how they roll at the NZ Post Office, but apparently Tilly was just being cheeky. She's kind of a rule-breaker.

The sender is a professional photographer, and this is a picture of a nest from her yard, marred slightly by the mighty machinery of the USPS.

Buffalo @ Yellowstone National Park, Dawn Taylor

Another dear college friend, one with whom I managed to stay in contact for most of the intervening years, with a few absences along the way. 2015 was a rough year for Dawn: she was diagnosed with a brain tumor (which she's named Bob), and as a result has had her life thrown a bit upside-down. She started blogging as a way to document and share her journey, and this postcard includes the URL for her site, so I asked for permission to post it here. Her frankness, courage and humor make this blog a compelling read, even if you don't know her, or know anyone who is living with something most of us will (hopefully) never have to face.

Brain Tumor Life blog

Kate Newby, Don't act all scared like before (Louise), 2009

Another postcard from Tilly - one that includes an honest-to-god "Wish you were here"! At least I think so - I've always been pretty adept at deciphering handwriting, but Tilly's is probably the most cryptic I've encountered in all my born days.

I'm going to miss seeing New Zealand pop up in my blog stats - it was a sweet reminder that someone out there was looking for me. I asked Tilly to just pop back there every so often to click my blog link, but she demurred. I can't imagine why.

Ketchup, or the art of catching up

Here I was, feeling so fine with my LetterMo postcard method down, my several new recipients, and my pile of waiting postcards to send - and it's a week later and what have I done? For whatever reason, the long Presidents Day weekend throws a wrench into my rhythm. I managed to get through it without missing a day, but barely. I may have just gotten through today on a technicality, in fact.


Sent Feb 11:

After my grandmother's service last month, my mom gave me some more postcards from her travels with my grandfather after he retired - this is one of my favorites from that bunch. I'm sorry I'm not able to ask her about these trips anymore, but I love to sort through them and imagine what she saw in them. The sheer volume of postcards I just inherited is impressive. Collecting them seems to be hereditary.

It's worth noting that all of these postcards are probably from the '60s and maybe the '70s. Instagram just can't fully recreate the look and feel of photos from that era, no matter how many filters they give you.

Sent Feb 12:

News broke last week that the Art Institute of Chicago has created a room fashioned after Vincent Van Gogh's iconic "The Bedroom" painting, to be rented through Airbnb for a paltry $10 a night (good luck getting a booking). Do you have any idea how much I would love to stay there? Dang! As a reminder of life's cruelty and why I can't have nice things, I sent out this postcard instead, from a book of postcards I got at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 2011.

Sent Feb 13:

This is as close to celebrating Valentine's Day as I get.

Bonus! Sent Feb 16:

ok, I'm not totally heartless! I included this gorgeous PaperMilk postcard in with an overdue present to one of my favorite couples. It wasn't my official postcard of the day, but I was grooving on that leftover romantic spirit.

For reals sent Feb 16:

Last August, I tried sending a postcard to SEV, an old friend I'd lost touch with. As I suspected, the address I had was outdated, and the postcard never received. But she signed up to get a postcard as part of this year's Lettermo! I selected this postcard for her, because it comes from a Frida Kahlo collection I've had since college, and there was a date inscribed on the other side, as if I had started writing but thought better of it. Based on the date (January 1994), it's quite possible that I had intended to send this to SEV all along. Circle of life, or something...

Sent Feb 17:

Claes Oldenberg, Pastry Case I, 1961-2

Oh, yesterday I was in such a hurry in the morning, and I didn't have the luxury of going in late - so I used the ace up my sleeve and grabbed this postcard, slapped a stamp on it, and wrote a postcard to my mom at lunch (because she's one of the few people whose address I know by heart anymore).

Sent Feb 18:

I was in even worse trouble today - Tilly just got back from a long trip last night after a long international sojourn, so I was out of sorts this morning and even more rushed than yesterday. I took a stamped postcard AND my address book and tried to write a postcard during the day, and I just wasn't feeling it. I realized too late that today's postcard needed to go to a different person, but I had already started writing on the one with someone else's name. This left me in a bind - should I break my self-imposed rule about using the postcards on hand, or risk missing a day altogether?

I ended up coming home and finding a fresh (but not new! I already had it, honest!) postcard for today's recipient, and dropped it in the postbox just now. The mail got picked up hours ago, but I can truthfully say I wrote and mailed this today, so I'm calling it good.

I wonder how many years will pass before I find that first postcard again and decide to finish it?

Punto Medio

Somehow it's the middle of the month already. The last two weeks have flown by, and I've done a much better job of posting mail than blog posting. Maybe it's time for a check in - how'm I doing on my goals?

• Send at least one postcard every day: done! Writing postcards in the morning has helped the process feel more authentic, somehow. There was one morning where I was in danger of leaving the house without a postcard in hand, but I made myself stop to write one and went to work late. Priorities!!
• A new recipient each day: also not a problem, although there are days when I'm tempted to sent postcards to everyone who responded, right that second, and I want to make sure I'm not scrambling for things to say and people to say them to on Day 29. Rest assured, if you told me you wanted a postcard this month, it's coming.
• Send 5 for reals letters: oh geez. I knew this would be the hardest part, and it is. I did start a letter last week and, as often happens with letters, when I look back at what I've written I think it's dumb and want to start over. I think this is the true reason I prefer postcards - scribble something, pop it in the mail, done. No second guessing. But I've got a 3-day weekend ahead of me and plan to get at least 2 letters out the door by Tuesday morning.
• Birthday cards, etc don't count: Dang.
• Only use postcards on hand: I ducked into my favorite local bookstore last week and managed to escape with NO POSTCARDS whatsoever. It was painful. It did look at several, though. No promises come March 1.

Sent Feb 8:

Balthus - The Living Room, 1942

This does remind me a bit of the living room of my youth. I frequently read on a little rug in front of the fireplace, and there was usually a cat nearby. We even had a piano! And, while I don't think it was as true back in our formal living room in the '70s, my mom often falls asleep on the couch in her own living room now. Heh.

Also sent Feb 8:

A friend from the dance/performance community said that her daughter would love a postcard - I wasn't sure what to send, as I would see the child a lot in rehearsals, but not since then, so who knows if she remembers me. But My Awesome Sister got me a set of postcards from "Secret Garden", the adult coloring book that everyone was going batshit for at the end of 2015. So I sent one that was mostly blank, so the recipient could color it in herself.

Here's one that I colored and sent to Tilly back in January:

I'm an arteeest!

Sent Feb 9:

The first week in February I focused on people that I already correspond with, and this week have been trying to include those who signed up. This is just a fun image I got somewhere, some time ago. And this was the first recipient to let me know she received it (thanks!).

Sent Feb 10:

Louise Bourgeois, Untitled (from Ode á Ma Mère) 1995

My pal Dang Ramona has a fascination with spiders and frequently posts beautiful photos of them on her facebook page (to the horror of the arachnid-averse, I suppose). This postcard came in a packet from the Museum of Modern Art that a friend of a friend gave to Tilly - as soon as I saw it, I knew its eventual destination.

Speaking of mail, I should get writing to make the Saturday post...

Weekend Roundup

I know it's not the weekend anymore, but let's pretend I posted this yesterday, shall we?

I got my first mail of the month - not a postcard, but a nifty letter featuring Domo-kun. A highlight of watching the NHK Trophy figure skating competition every fall is seeing all the little Domos in the "kiss and cry" area where skaters await their scores after competing.

As you can see, this is one of those envelopes-and-letters-in-one, and I had a hard time opening it without tearing the edges. It's been a while, what can I say?

Mailed Feb 5:

Édouard Boubat, We Prefer Life 1968

Here's a great image that was almost wasted - I started writing to someone using this postcard way back in 2012, but only got about a sentence in. I kept this great image, though, so I decided to continue the correspondence and send it anyway this year. No big.

This is a map of the world created in the 1540s, I think. I've been reading a lot of historical adventure/exploration books lately, and it just amazes me how people made maps of the globe before all the major land masses were known. I mean, there are definitely some errors here - the USA was not connected to Russia and China 500 years ago, and I don't see Australia on here at all - but it's pretty amazing how close this gets, all things considered.

Sent to my niece, who is about to spend a semester abroad.

It was weird to not mail anything yesterday. Of course, I was going to get started on the letters portion of my month and didn't. I'm such a procrastinator.

The Wedge

I used to be a person who slept well. Almost too well. Morningtime was this mythical Atlantis that other people told tall tales about and I was content to peer at the edges from a fuzzy distance.

Now? I wake up at 7:30am, with or without alarm. Many mornings (such as this one) I wake with a start long before the clock screams at me, and there's no sinking back into slumber. I am aided in this by a certain orange cat I call The Wedge, whose only true happiness is to lie on top of me and purr REALLY LOUDLY right into my ear. His refusal to be dislodged would be impressive if it didn't make me so cranky.

None of this has to do with postcards, other than I'm up earlier than I'd like and thus writing.

Almost a week down!

Sent Feb 2:

I am helpless when it comes to PaperMilk postcards. If I see 'em, I buy 'em. Aside from the groovy images, the postcards have a neat matte finish and appealing design on the business side. I'm a sucker, I know. But I'll need to avoid the stores that stock them if I'm going to stay in compliance with Rule #5.

Sent Feb 3:

Paul Gaugin, Still Life with Apples, a Pear and a Ceramic Portal Jug (1889)

Ground Rules

This is my fourth year participating in the Month of Letters Postcards challenge, so the basic premise - send something in the mail every day in February with mail service - I've pretty much got down. There is inevitably one hiccup, but overall I always manage to send out as much mail as I planned. How, then, to make this year different?

Part of me chafes at the notion of having to constantly expand/improve (is this just a terribly American thing? We never seem to allow things to just be. Maybe I'm just cranky over having recently submitted my annual performance goals at work). But I also love a challenge and (annoyingly) thrive under structure. Last year I had some fancy notions of doing more, but they were just vague ideas so of course I didn't pay any attention until it was close to the end and too late to make them happen. With the idea of public accountability in mind, here are my 2016 Month of Postcards goals:

• Send at least 1 postcard every day there is mail (easy).
• Each day must have a new recipient. When I first started, this wasn't realistic, but it's totally doable at this point. I confess that by the end of the month I sometimes am feeling lazy, and it can be easier to dash something quick off to someone who already received a postcard (and thus might not mind a half-assed piece of correspondence) than to come up with something interesting for a new person. Also - last year I got mail back during the month, and wanted to keep engaging with those folks. Under this rule I can still send mail to previous recipients, I just have to do it in addition to sending a postcard to a new person.
• 5 for reals letters. This is my challenge goal - last year I wanted to include letters but the month escaped me. I may not hit the targeted 5, but having this looming over my head should help me carve out space to write.
• Birthday and other event cards and thank yous don't count. Dang. 
• Use only the postcards on hand. This should be a no-brainer, considering that I've got enough postcards in my house to send every day of the year (at least), but I have a really hard time getting out of certain stores without at least a couple tucked into my bag. I keep expecting Tilly to stage an intervention. 

Maybe this will help, maybe I'll come back in March and laugh at my foolishness.

To kick off the month, here is the February 1 postcard - the only one I bought in Barcelona last month that wasn't mailed from Spain (and subsequently lost en route):

This is a sketch by Josep Maria Subirachs, an example of the style he and his team used for the Passion façade of the Sagrada Familia. which is the one thing everyone absolutely must-see in Barcelona. It's breathtaking, and amazingly still under construction. There wasn't a ton of difference between my last visit and this one, but it's the one tourist destination that I would visit each time I came to the city.

bonus photo of the interior of the Sagrada Familia

Until next time...

Stop Holding My Breath

So much for the end of year - again. You'd think that I'd have lots to post about, since I'm a fan of sending holiday cards, but this year was, in the words of my grandmother, a "clutter-f".

I sent far fewer cards this year, in part because I took a trip in the middle of the month. I spent 5 days in Barcelona, a city I'd visited before, to watch the Grand Prix Final of figure skating. Yes, I traveled to Europe for less than a week to sit in an ice rink. That's what I do. I did get some exploring done, however, and I was so proud of myself for writing and mailing postcards while I was there. I made sure that the stamps I got were for international mailing, and consulted my travel book (and the maintenance guy at my hostel) to find a proper post box. I was already envisioning the post I would write once they were received.

Well, it's been 6 weeks, and I'm ready to admit defeat. No one has received any postcards from me from Spain, despite my best efforts. I was holding on to the outside hope that mail from Europe is just sloooooow, but I'm pretty sure the postcards from Beijing only took about 2 weeks. Sigh.

Here are the postcards that people would have received, had any arrived in the US:

This is the pier at the end of La Rambla, a bustling tourist destination. In 2011, I stayed in this area (mistake!), and spent way too much time in the mall on water in the modern photo, because they had free wifi and very few other places did. I was relieved to find that wifi is now plentiful in Barcelona. The smaller tower in the back is the start of a cable car up to the Parc de Montjuïc.

Posing the postcard on my Barcelona travel guide is a nice touch, no?

Another sight that I visited in 2011 but not on this trip - Antoni Gaudí's beautiful Parc Güell. If only all urban public spaces were so gorgeously designed!

Dance History

I've been in a correspondence rut lately, focusing more on reading than writing. Maybe it's the change of seasons, or being back home after such an adventure, but I just haven't had much to say. But it's Thursday, so why not take a trip in ye olde time machine for a spell...

August 1993:

Photo by Barbara Morgan

As always, [sic]....

"Hey woman,

Sorry it's taken me so long to write you - I've beem thinkin about ^you quite a - but I hope ^your dancin dancin. You sound like you have a crazy schedule - I'll send you my address when I get it. I'll be staying in a graduate housing type of deal. I haven't danced in a long time I'm getting pretty nervous. I don't remember how to do this school thing. I want to make this good. I want to learn my brains out. 

I'm leaving here the 16th and probably be in Mass around the 25th. I'm going to try to get an E-MAIL account so we can communicate - Take care

Love ya - T"

This was the summer before my final year in college, from a friend who had graduated some years before but had come back to my school to teach and generally be awesome the previous year. She was on her way to Smith College to get her MFA in Dance. I can so relate to those nerves about school and that thirst for learning, although I'm pretty sure that "a long time" back then meant something like 6 weeks. Nowadays I sometimes go months between classes - and trust me, even when it's been weeks, it might as well be 6 months. Aging bodies are cruel!

As with many school friends, we drifted apart after a few years. She did come visit me in Seattle after her graduate program, and through the magic of social media I know she's still choreographing and dancing (yay!).

The most telling part of this postcard is the final sentence - this was back when email was accessible primarily through schools (and was still being called Electronic Mail or "e-mail"!), and everyone was so excited about this new, instant way to communicate with people. "Instant" being relative, of course - at my college, at least, few people had their own computers or access to a modem on their own, so we'd find excuses all day long to drop by the mail room or the library to use one of the 3 or 4 terminals. But the (electronic) writing was on the wall. It's no coincidence that my archive of postcards dries up about two years after this.
 
You can see the tape marks on this postcard - it was clearly well loved. The photo is from legendary modern dance pioneer Martha Graham's work Celebration, taken in 1937. I love the simplicity of the action in this picture, as well as the costumes and those gorgeously pointed (but not over-stretched) feet.

Beijing (revisited)

I've been across the world and back since my last post. My sweetie and I spent a madcap week in Beijing, China, taking in as much history (and delicious food) as we could manage in 7 days. I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to come back to this blog, but it's probably a combination of not wanting to admit the trip is really in the past, and being a bit frustrated with myself for not getting my travel blog off the ground.

My first view of China after a long flight

I took several postcards with me, as always, as a backup. Ideally, I prefer to get postcards from the place that I'm visiting, but sometimes I am too busy experiencing a place to search out postcards. I did manage to find some decent postcard packets early on (although I found better individual postcards on our last day that will have to go out later). We spent our days walking walking walking and returned to our rented room utterly spent, and I was focused on trying to write down what we'd done and seen in my journal, soak up some internet to let friends and family know we hadn't dropped off the edge of the world, and then we would spend time with our amazing hosts in the evenings. This made it surprisingly hard to carve out a few minutes to write postcards - my facebook posts were basically what I would say anyway, so what was the point? Exactly the mindset I'm trying to combat, great.

Exploring the hutong alleyways

 
I did manage to write two postcards (to people who are not on facebook) midweek, which led to the next challenge: getting them stamped and in the mail before we left the country. I asked our host about mailing postcards, and he said it was really expensive and not really worth it. I didn't care about that, since it was only two, but he didn't offer up information about how or where to go. So I carried these two postcards with me the rest of the week on the off chance we saw a post office - although admittedly our daily adventures were so vast, and Beijing is so huge and a little overwhelming, that I wasn't really looking that hard.

Our favorite street food vendors, making pork belly sandwiches

 On Sunday, our final day, I was kicking myself for having missed out AGAIN on mailing postcards from the road. I thought about leaving some money with our host and asking him to mail them, but he'd really gone above and beyond for us already - and that would be kind of cheating, wouldn't it? We headed out for our final day of exploring, taking a bus to the 798 Art District and wandering through graffiti-lined alleyways, art galleries, and boutiques (finding gifts for home and better postcards), willing our trip to extend just a little longer. When we got off the bus back in our neighborhood, I spotted something that had the words "post" and "bank" in the title and it was open. On a SUNDAY. I yelled out "Post Office!!!", alarming my girlfriend who had no idea I was even looking for one, and made a beeline for it.

Art + tourism in the 798 District

Inside, there was a handful of customers and a few postal workers, none of whom seemed in a hurry to wait on us. I should point out that we were staying well out of the main part of the city, and most locals we encountered spoke little-to-no english. But this was a pretty simple transaction, after all. It cost ¥4.50 to mail each postcard, which seemed spendy (but worth it) in the moment, but it's actually less than 75 cents in USD, less than it costs to send an international postcard here.

Obligatory Great Wall photo.

The rest of the day I was high on having finally succeeded in mailing a postcard from the road. Thank goodness for communist work schedules.

Hastily taken cell phone photos of the postcards mailed:

Both of these show parts of the Forbidden City, which is probably 10 times larger than we anticipated. Missing: the thousands of people visiting at the same time we were there. The day we visited the Forbidden City was probably my least favorite - the walled former palace itself is undeniably impressive, but the air quality was quite bad that day and we just didn't set ourselves up well for the crowds or the level of walking that this site requires. It felt like a slog rather than an adventure. By the time we got through the Forbidden City we were far too wiped out to see Jingshan Park just across the exit, which would have been a good way to balance out the tourist saturation of the preceding hours. I'm glad we went, but I would structure that whole day differently based on what I know now.

Post from China can take a few weeks, as it all gets inspected before leaving the country. I was surprised less than 3 weeks after we returned to get this in my mailbox:

I was so focused on getting my postcards mailed that I didn't notice my girlfriend in the background, madly scribbling away. I knew she'd sent something too but was not expecting one to show up at our door. Nice! It reminds me that I've been wanting to try mailing myself a postcard a day from the road as a way to remember my trip. Considering how hard it is for me to get any postcards sent from the road, however, this may be beyond my capabilities.

Bon Voyage!

I'm off on a big adventure this afternoon, which means I'm up reeeeeeeally early packing and cleaning. I've got a bunch of postcards to take with me, although my track record of sending mail while I'm still abroad isn't great.

Last month was so busy I didn't send many postcards. I did get a nice response from one of the recipients, who put this up on Facebook with the following message:

"I got mail and I love it when I do! Thanks so much. I miss you.
Thanks for sending me hugs..."

A lot of the people I send postcards to don't say anything about it - which isn't necessary anyway, but who knows if it's something they enjoy or just toss. One friend demurred, saying she's got too many postcards already (not all from me!). The point of writing certainly isn't to annoy or antagonize anyone, so I'd rather know if anyone doesn't want them (although who doesn't like mail???), but it sure is better to know when a postcard has brightened someone's day.

I sent some of the promotional materials from my show last month to my mom:

The performances didn't have traditional posters or programs. These are the two sides of tickets we handed out to attendees of the night market in the City of Redmond, giving them passage to a staged meditation labyrinth in a nearby heron rookery.

This is the postcard for the shows, featuring images related to the second one. The photo was from a previous event, and isn't someone in our cast, but I got to be a clock.


My other postcard from the last few weeks went to My Awesome Sister:

I didn't take notes about this postcard, except it came from my grandmother's collection and is from Turkey.

Back to packing! Ta....

Showtime!

I've been largely MIA this month, due to a heavy rehearsal schedule for two shows. Tonight is the first of those shows, so here are some performance-related postcards:

This was my first post-college professional dance gig, a 20ish minute piece with live music that was part of an amazing dance festival in Vancouver, BC. We left Seattle early in the morning and I slept funny in the car, causing my back to go out. My memories of the performance aren't great - it was a matter of being able to do the work at all, not how well I could do it - but the group I was performing with was great fun and we managed to get up to all sorts of mischief. There's a BnB in Vancouver that probably still has my name on a 'banned' list.

There weren't any printed programs for the shows, so I grabbed a few of these postcards. I recall sending one to a college girlfriend and she later asked which one in the photo was me. Er...

Promo picture for the whole festival, not our group!

A year later, I had formed a dance collective with some of the dancers from the previous show. Our first production was in October 1997. On our opening night, another dancer gave everyone postcards for good luck (a nice performance tradition that I think has faded away).

Gold Crown Gas Queen, 1957

"You've done it! You 4'8", 91 pound dynamo. You are SO money, you don't even know how money you are. But beware, as the only reason that man put you on that stand was so he could look up your cape!

Have a super run + see ya in MAUI! Merde...."

Rest assured, I am neither 4'8" nor 91 pounds, but that's a reference to one of the dance pieces, in which I portrayed a gymnast preparing for the Olympics. I even had a cape! Not as nice as this one, though. Nice 1990s pop cultural reference to the film Swingers, too.

Now to get ready for tonight....

Four for Me, One for You

Time to show off some great postcards I've gotten this summer! Scanning has gotten more complicated in my house, so I've been pretty bad about keeping up. To be fair, the scanning process was kind of ridiculous already, but now space and electrical outlets are at a premium, so I need to set aside some quality time to scan them in batches.

This one I got way back in the spring, but it is so fabulous that I had to post it. It's a Peep, of course - but it's really a postcard of a Peep that was squished and scanned. By David Byrne of all people. Which kinda makes sense if you look at it - so simple, yet a little creepy.

A great postcard to Tilly and me from friends we got to see in July. It's an advertisement for liquor, but it's a cute image.

A handpainted postcard! Gah, I had a set of blank postcards for creating one's own and I think it went away with the Great Purge in the spring because I hadn't done anything with it yet. I totally loved getting this.

This one showed up just last week. Kind of a dark card for a relentlessly sunny summer, but I like it.




I did manage to get one postcard of my own out the door this week:

Titouan Lamazon - Heiata, égérie de la perle de Tahiti

Is this a black and white image with a slash of color down the middle? Or a color painting that didn't get finished at the edges?



I also got a packet of MOMA postcards given to me by a friend, so it looks like I'm going to have to block some time out for another scanning party pretty soon.