E42: Postcardist News Network

This is Frank Roche for the Postcardist News Network reporting today’s postcard news.

Today’s top stories:

Tired of the post office shredding your postcards? Now you can pay for the privilege with Hello from Banksy, a postcard that has to be shred to be read.

The Super Bowl of U.S postcard shows opens November 16 and 17 at the York International Postcard Expo in York, Pennsylvania.

 It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…at least in North Pole, Alaska, where you can get a special cancellation for your holiday postcards.

And where else can you get an original by some of the world’s leading artists? The auction for Art on a Postcard is where.

Plus…more. Postcard books I read in October. And more. Stay tuned.

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Welcome to Episode 42 of The Postcardist Podcast. After our terrific storytelling episode last week on the Halloween Episode, I thought I’d try a little something just for fun. There’s a lot of postcard news out there…

 

Here we go….

 

Hear that? It’s the sound of Bansky’s Girl with Balloon being shredded right after the gavel fell at a Sotheby’s, where the framed drawing sold for over one million dollars. As soon as the purchase was final, a Banksy confederate activated a switch that made the drawing slide down through the frame and get sliced into a hundred strips.

 

Now…you can get a postcard inspired by that fine art prank. Designer Lesha Limnov created a postcard for the Rijksmuseum called Hello from Bansky. It looks like a miniature, framed piece of art. But pull at a tab on the bottom, and the precut postcard comes out in shreds.

As you slice the postcard to ribbons, what’s left behind is a small, secret message, filled out by the postcard’s sender. Their concept: Destroy the masterpiece and leave your message inside the postcard. 

Cost is $10 on the Shuba site…alas, they’re out of stock, but I’m first in line to get the collection.

 

Next up on the Postcardist News Network is the York International Postcard Expo on November 16 and 17.

Recognized as the largest antique postcard show in the country, the show will feature dealers from more than 30 different states and Europe and new dealers have been added this year bringing such specialties as Art Nouveau, Real Photo, Russian, Holiday cards and U.S. and foreign views.

Visitors can look forward to viewing millions of postcards. Postcards of every artist, country and topic from any era can be found at the York Fairgrounds Postcard Show. For more than 25 years Mary Martin Ltd. has hosted its annual postcard show held at the York Expo Center in York, Pennsylvania.

Plus, I’ll be there. With a microphone. Talking to dealers and collectors and the who’s who in postcarding. Maybe I’ll get a special cachet or two.

 

Our third story is about the North Pole. Or more specifically, the US. Post Office at North Pole, Alaska. They’re already gearing up for the holiday season with their special Letters from Santa postmark. How this affects us in the postcard community is this: there’s a special North Pole Holiday cancellation you can get in the United States if you send postcards to the location.

According to the USPS postal bulletin,  Customers wanting a special holiday postmark need to do the following (and I’m paraphrasing for the Postcardists): 

1. Personalize your postcard, seal it in an envelope and print addresses on the postcards.
2. Place a postage stamp on each postcard.
3. Mail all addressed postcards together in a larger envelope to

NORTH POLE HOLIDAY CANCELLATION

POSTMASTER

4141 POSTMARK DR

ANCHORAGE AK 99530-9998

Myself, I’m going to send a bundle of Christmas postcards with great stamps and address them to people on my list. And I’m going to ask them to place the North Pole postmark on the cards, then drop them in the don’t-overspray bin…and there you. Go. The last day the USPS recommends sending cards or letters is December 8.

 

Also..for postcardists in the U.S there are a number of special cancellations in certain cities such as REINDEER STATION in Rudolph, Ohio and Santa Claus Station in Santa Claus, Indiana.

Also, those of you who like sprayed on cancellations should know the USPS will apply a Happy Holidays cancellation with Santa in his sleigh from Saturday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Jan. 4. If it’s anything like the Thinking of You cancellation, it might be hard to discern.

 

 

Our final story on the Postcardist News Network is about the secret auction, Art on a Postcard, that runs now through November 15. Art on a Postcard presents a unique chance to own a mini masterpiece by an artist who would normally be well out of most people's reach. Certainly mine.

The auction features some of the most collectable and interesting contemporary artists practicing today, such as Marina Abramović, Humphrey Ocean, Rob and Nick Carter, Martin Yeoman, Vanessa Jackson, and Maria Kreyn.

Here’s the catch: But you'll never know who you're bidding for, as all of the work is anonymous until after the sale. You can get involved online at www.artonapostcard.com. Simply browse through the different works on display and choose your favourites to bid. Whoever bids the most, wins. The auction ends at midday on November 15, 2018.

Art on a Postcard raises money for The Hepatitis C Trust, so it's all for a good cause.

 

That’s the news.

 

Finally, this month I read a bunch of postcard books I’d like to recommend. The include:

 

Atget: Postcards from a Lost Paris by Benjamin Weiss

The Postcard Age: Postcards from the Era of World Wars (The Leonard A. Lauder Postcard Archive) by Jozefacka, Klich, Kreinik and Weiss

Paper Jewels from the Raj by Omar Khan

Postcards from the Boys by Ringo Starr. There’s a reason I mention this one I’ll get into soon.

 

Meanwhile, there are a couple extra bits of postcard news. Variety announced that Jeffrey Dean Morgan, star of AMC’s series “The Walking Dead,” and Connie Nielsen have signed on for the Janusz Kaminski-directed thriller “The Postcard Killings.”

 

The two will co-star in the film adapted from James Patterson and Liza Marklund’s bestseller. The film follows a New York detective whose life is thrown into turmoil when he learns that his daughter and son-in-law have been brutally murdered in London. As he digs into the case, similar crimes are reported across Europe with each killing accompanied by a postcard sent to a local journalist.

And last, proving that postcards make connections…a piece of happy news. Hello Clarksville-The Neighborhood Postcard project, kicks off at the Downtown Commons on November 6 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public.

Participants will create handcrafted postcards with positive messages that will be mailed to random people in the community. Each postcard is a small piece of art to be shared with a neighbor 

And that’s the Postcardist News Network for the week of November 5, 2018. Next week, we have Evan Kalish of Postlandia. Evan has visited and photographed more then 9200 post offices across all 50 states in the United States…we’ll hear about those adventures…and much more. Evan is a real expert on postmarks.

That’s a wrap. Please subscribe to the show. It really makes a difference to get our message out.  

Keep sending postcards. And thanks for listening