For my penpals and blog commentators [Little drop #6]

     Since we were taking about Japanese sakura, I got the postcard from Wuhan University with sakura bloom from dear Lulu, lovelylulu [who's also my active commentator! <3]. Let me quote her comment: This one is 'a similar card of the college I attended - Wuhan University - which is also famous for our sakura, for when the Japanese occupied Wuhan after 1938 in WW2 they made Wuhan University into their military hospital and grew many Sakura trees there - and after 1970s the two countries has resumed diplomatic relations the prime minister of Japan at the time, Kakuei Tanaka, gave us new Sakura trees as gifts and symbol of friendship. Now it is considered most famous and beautiful sight in Spring amongst all sights of Chinese universities.' You can see also one of the features of many Chinese postcards from famous places - there is a strong preference of having cute illustration instead of photo or realistic watercolour, which is typical for Russian postcards. In my opinion it gives additional dimension to the sight - a feeling rather than exact view, and when I search for photos of Wuhan University cherry blossom photos, the perception of photos is brighter because it was affected by artistic view.

both received from lovelylulu, China (direct swap)

     Another postcard from Lulu I picked from one of the first we swapped [along with real-life Mulan postcards about which I write some time later], and also plants-related - we thought we were swapping for lychee, but it appeared the fruits on the cards are Myrica rubra, also known as Chinese bayberry/strawberry. I've never seen that fruit before! As always Chinese stamps are one of the best - Wuhan sakura postcard had a pair of bird flock related ones [flamingo and other large ones - cranes? UPD: they are Hebei province wild duck and geese, the stamps are from joint issue with Spain, Spanish stamps specify the places: Hengshui Lake (China) and Laguna de Fuente de Piedra, Antequera (Spain)] and special stamp issued for 120 years Anniversary of Wuhan University, which is not shown [just for the sake of neater layout of the pictures in the post, here is an article about the stamp], and the not-lychee-one had Lychee and apricot stamps.

stamps, both received from lovelylulu, China (direct swap)

     And another of my active blog commentators is Boris, travelbat, and here are couple of exceptional industrial landscape cards from him. Left one is a photo of industrial landscape of Sterlitamak, photo by V. Vonog, N. Marochkin, printed in 2006, and on the back name of the photos is in three languages - Russian, Bashkir, and English. Sterlitamak is where the famous soda is made, unusual name of the city is a combination of two words - name of the river Sterli and Bashkir word for river mouth - 'tamak'. Right postcard is an amazing industrial landscape sent from Kazakhstan - the set of postcards 'Ships of desert' was dedicated to 60 years of first human flight in space, 2021, - the painting is called 'Morning city', oil on canvas, 2015. The text on the back says: 'Romantic image of childhood city of the artist, which is missed when you are on travel, and when after vacation on the 'Big Land', train returns you on early morning to familiar station Tyura-Tam, familiar landscape of Baikonur bring you a feeling of warmth and joy in your heart...'. Postcard doesn't say which cosmonaut drew the painting, but I assume it's Alexey Leonov, and then the city of the childhood is Kemerovo, capital of Kuznetsk Basin.

both received from travelbat, Russia (direct swap)

The Big Bang Theory

     I read a classification of sitcoms on reddit once. Someone pretentious made a Venn/Euler diagram with four types: sitcoms about smart people for smart people [in original picture on reddit it was Nova, which I never saw], sitcoms about dumb people for smart people [like It's always sunny in Philadelphia or Arrested Development], sitcoms about smart people for dumb people [TBBT], and sitcoms about dumb people for dumb people [Two and a half men]. I know that some geeks, nerds and scientists were offended by depiction of the culture in TBBT [on reddit discussion they preferred Community in that sense], and I also saw neurodivergent people's opinion that Sheldon is not shown with respect, and I dropped watching the series around 3rd season because of beforementioned reasons. In any way as many of people of my generation 'Friends' was THE core sitcom of 1990s-2000s to start with and to learn English, and in 2010s equivalents were 'How I Met Your Mother' and 'TBBT'. So when I started to perceive it that way and not like show made for geeks, it started to be less cringe to watch, and I decided to watch all seasons again, since show was ended anyway.

 
received from mondschein, Russia (direct swap)

     Actually, I did enjoy the last two seasons of TBBT the most when all characters started to have families and children, except weird Russophobic stereotypical hate speeches of Chuck Lorre in the end of some episodes, so-called vanity cards [interesting how already in 2019 the Western society was getting prepared for thinking certain things about Russia and Russians], which looked bizarre and unprovoked at the time, but now understandable. All TBBT postcards in my collection was generously provided by Lera, mondschein <3

both received from mondschein, Russia (direct swap)

Weird postcards: Ad cards from sovasovinay

     Before AI-generated postcards advertisement [or just ad] postcards were the most hated in postcrossing - if you see how often they were mentioned in 'please do not send' lists. Which was always confusing to me, adcards if they are not filled with just text usually have outstanding photographers and illustrators - they are hired to present the goods/service in the best possible way, while average illustrated printed postcard are from amateur illustrators, because they are cheaper for webshops [and then many webshops went even to cheaper option - AI], and average photo postcard is from photostock.

received from sovasovinay, Russia (direct swap)

     All three ad postcards were sent blank in the envelope, and sadly I didn't scan the backsides, so the subject of advertisement in some cases is a guess. Top one is most confusing - could it be an advertisement of something for outdoors? At least girl wearing bright jackets in the swamps is something weird and artsy xD Bottom left advertises tattoo artist Slava Starkov from Mannheim, Germany, who specializes in the intricate and traditional Japanese tattoo style [starkov.tattoo]. Last one shows Iggy Pop on Reebok advertisement, 2000, - for special PopCalssic shoes design, text on card says: "...brand - is a series of stories, connected with same vision", and seems almost that the card is not for advertising Reebok but for advertising the Art studio which made the ad campaign, art-director: John Hegarty, copyrighter: Ty Montague, director: Bert Stern.

both received from sovasovinay, Russia (direct swap)

Japanese cherry blossom [sakura]

     And now for something completely different - scrolled to the earliest of drafts - cherry blossom! Never on the wishlist but getting cherry blossom from Japan [and somehow from Taiwan too, seems historically they are connected in a way of cherry blossoms at least] is same as getting Eiffel Tower from France or Kremlin/Red Square from Russia. Left card has rephrase from my profile 'Every postcard is a blessing through thousands miles' written in Chinese, card is designed and printed by Ethos. Right one shows Wuling Farm in Taiwan, 200 hectares with cherry blossoms, one of the best place to watch their bloom there.

left - TW-2237677, from melodyfromtaiwan, Taiwan; right - received from hahawen, Taiwan (direct swap)

     Left postcard was received blank in an envelope of 10 cards, because sender got confused with the round robin name [thought in 10x10 participants means 10 cards are sent, after I received them I treated as an unexpected gift and sent 10 blanks in the envelope back too]. Second card is printed in Japan by Art Print Japan, copyright by perming / PIXTA, with some foil elements on the card, which are hard to show with scanned image [scanner makes them too dark, same for the stamp on the back of the magenta's card]. And last postcard shows that if postcard of any topic exist, there is a variety with cats [rule #1 of postcards xD], photo is by Yoshizawa Naho / Aflo, 'Cherry blossoms. Cat', printed by Pin Up Co., Japan.

left - received from SueLing, Taiwan (10x10RR#67); center - received from cixo, Japan (direct swap); right - received from magenta, Japan (Fast favorites tag)

     In Moscow there are also Japanese cherry blossoms in Botanical garden, of course not that many as in Japan or Taiwan - climate is different. Every spring when those sakura trees are in bloom there are a lot of visitors to take photos, but funny that in the parallel alleys there are plenty of slightly different cherry trees, like Nanking cherry, which bloom non less beautiful but are less famous, while photos with them on the background would look identical to ones with sakura trees.

left - backside of postcard, received from cixo, Japan (direct swap), also decorated with sakura stickers; right - backside of postcard, received from magenta, Japan (Fast favorites tag)

     To be honest I'd love to finish all the drafts which are there already! Not that it looks remotely possible, 900+ means almost three years of posts every day, but frankly most of what I uploaded by now - my postcrossing experience from 2011 till 2020-ish is nothing compared to amazing cards I received after 2020 when new postcrosing forum started, that's why sometimes I interrupt the older drafts with newer cards, like little drops and such.

Weird space-related postcards [part #4 - All those stars for you]

     Last one from the series of post has cute illustration of the starry night and children holding each others hands with beautiful wizard on the backside. Illustration is by Maria Andreeva [sadly, link to personal gallery site of the artist doesn't work anymore and I failed to find her by name or nickname, lots of time passed from 2013, when postcards was received!], printed by small shop which has a social network link on the back, but page there only shows physical address, so it might have been real shop even, pretty unique! Backside says 'And we are counting stars and they are countless...' and apparently it's not a wizard but an astrologer [in Russian the word is written  as 'star-counter']. Second card is Jetoy cats, I never had them in the wishlist, and they were one of crazy popular collections/wishlist items in the first half of 2010s, one of the dissappeared fades, stopped showing up for years now [I search for a bit and found mentioning in reddit discussion that Jetoy Choo Choo brand doesn't exist anymore in South Korea, because allegedly owner got in trouble with some tax evasion thing]. I had some cards received of them but have never appeared in the blog [except the use of Jetoy stickers on backside decorations]. The cards were received within big swap along with Wolf Erlbruch and Disney/Pixar ants postcards.

left - received from Kot, Russia (R5b, direct swap) and drawing from the backside (center); right - received from lalapalooooza, Russia (direct swap)

     Interesting that first postcard was part of sort of experiment with swaps in Russian livejournal community back then in 2013 - a try of having a swap [or round robin, because I see more scans with 'R5b' in the name of the file, but I really don't remember what I meant xD] with drawings on the back. I think I've always had a longing for both making and receiving handmades and decorated backsides, and on official forum I didn't find the corresponding tags and round robin, or maybe they appeared only with renewed official community, who knows.

Weird space-related postcards [part #3 - The most incredible for you]

     Only 9 years later let me finish series of posts about space-related cards which are not what you expect along with 'space' wish [part #1, part #2] - and here are two Belarusian cards, well, second one is not exactly space-related, but belongs to the same series about interesting couple. I think it's sort of stereotypical couple usually shown humourously - scrawny funny husband who is scared of his tall stout angry wife, but on those cards the stereotype is shown with kindness and love. Both cards have text on Belarusian, which reads: 'for you even the most incredible' on the left one [the picture is probably refers to the saying when someone is so in love that he 'can get the star from the sky'] and 'the mistress of the house is the best treasure' on the right one.

both received from ja_zniczka, Belarus (direct swap)

The fruits of Taiwan

     Max, hahawen, was one of my first penpals [high school geography teacher, also later he married, sent me card from Maldives - rare country! - and stopped postcrossing to concentrate on family life], he sent me fun banana-Taiwan card and I suggested to continue swap in the hurray message. I think because of slight misunderstanding he thought first I want exactly similar fruit cards, so I have three total xD Other two travelled way better then first one and arrived in pristine condition because were sent in the plastic sleeve - nowadays I see and use them myself a lot, to protect maxicards or handmades, - but back then in 2011 - 2012 in the beginning of postcrossing it was weird practice, felt like someone bought it in the shop and dropped to postal box immediately. Later we swapped tea/chocolate and small gifts - I still have a small lion-like little god statuette [Wind Lion God], which suppose to bring nice weather.

all received from hahawen, Taiwan (left and center from direct swap, and right is TW-453925)

     UPD: As Boris, travelbat, noted in comments - the scanned cards are upside down if you compare with the island's map, it's not meant to be done of disrespect or anything - they were scanned that way and I didn't think of rotating them before posting, so it's purely accidental.

Perks of memory loss [part #17 - Rowboats]

     I have only one emotion towards the postcards with rowboats - why do I have so many? Okay, okay, some of them here are motor boat and yachts and fishing vessels, but still - probably mostly received under transport wish during my first years of postcrossing [some fit the current 'harbour'-wish too]. To be fair now I like marine vessels the most under the transport category, but specifically - icebreakers and scientific ships [and a little bit of submarines and war ships, also a Vikings' boat - I wouldn't complain about xD]. Also it might be when one looks at all received cards from 2011 to 2019-ish to find similar ones to post about there are many on some topics in any case ^___^

     Initially I picked this post from drafts to finish all the Maltese postcards, but appeared it was in the #memory_loss tag, one thing led to another and some other posts tagged as memory loss also already in the publishing queue/published in the blog - that category as far as I remember was created in an effort to write about nice but not exceptional postcards which I was happy to receive but they usually not memorized - so if I receive exactly same postcard second time, it will feel brand new to me.

     First postcard was one of many in series of swaps with Monikucha, Ireland [her cards already appeared in the sheep, redheads, and Titanic posts] - showing traditional boats, in evening light, Roundstone, Connemara, photo by Liam Blake. Second one shows a 'Luzzu' fishing boat [Luzzu is not the boat's name - it's traditional type of Maltese boats] and the town of Senglea in Grand Harbour, Malta. Third one didn't have any data for the photo source.

left - received from Monikucha, Ireland (direct swap); center - received from sunnymalta, Malta (direct swap); right - PL-557161, from werciarad, Poland

     Top left one didn't save the sender name or nickname, but at least I found the scanned backside, so I can give the info for photographer and publisher. It is from famous German postcard books by Villa Arte, Admos Media publisher, 'Postcardbook: Rügen - Island of Rügen, Bay of Greifswalder near Wreechen', photo by Klaus Ender [www.klaus-ender.de]. Top center shows Cheng Kung Stone Umbrellas - along the Northern coast of Cheng Kung town, Taitung county, a one-kilometer slender cape sticks northeastwards out into the sea. The cape is famous for its umbrella-shaped rocks, which have been eroded by seas for numerous years. Right top I found the name of the artist by image search [sadly, card is from 2012 - 2013 when I didn't scan all the backsides and finding it in the boxes is nearly impossible - did work for Irish card though because I knew which box to look in] - it's local artist of Hong Kong, Shen Ping, who often paints Hong Kong's harbour and cityscapes. Bottom left shows Dodu Port in summer, photo by Kim Soo Hyun. Bottom center postcard shows Hvide Sande [=White Sands], small Danish town, photo by Trojaborgs Forlag. And last one shows boats somewhere in Danshui, Taiwan.

left - DE-2724592, from <account closed>, Germany; center - TW-832936, from a40237, Taiwan; right - received from linker, Hong Kong (direct swap)

left - KR-201767, from Clumsyguy, South Korea; center - DE-8558213, from Grakallo, Germany; right - received from Yi-Ting, Taiwan (SurpriseRR#56)

Black and white photography in mushroom envelope [post received 2024.02.08 - part#7]

     Another envelope with two nice black and white photographical postcards, arrived on that day, was from Steek. Both postcards are from Taschen postcards' books: first one from "Chaplin" set, photo from Archive of Art and History, Berlin, - from 1936 Chaplin's film "Modern Times". Second one shows 'Exercises of the American gymnasts' from movie 'Olympia' (1938) [from same Taschen book: Leni Riefenstahl Five Lives, printed in Köln, 2000]. On the back Steek answers my superpower, cat, natural disaster questions and confesses her 'useless' collection: boxes of all sizes, from tea to chewing gum [I actually have the same for Scandic candies boxes - and they feed on that collection urge, issuing different collections and collaborating with museums and even Russian Post].

both received from Steek, Germany (direct swap)

     The origin of that swap was pretty usual - from 'Show us your handmade postcards and Mail Art' topic on official forum, I asked for it being mesmerized by original decoration technique of Steek [and also of course I had industrial cards for her to suggest] - the adorable mushrooms cutouts from book/magazine pages. And they were not only on the backside, but also on the envelope - both sides - and inside she attached some book pages for me to try the technique!

backside (top left) and other little things from the envelope (top right), received from Steek, Germany (direct swap); front (bottom left) and back (bottom right) of envelope, received from Steek, Germany (direct swap)

     I was inspired by those mushrooms obviously - and it appeared it's as fun to make them as they are fun to look at! So in next mashup handmade I used them and couple other ideas to make a cross-stitch Super Mario postcard [I'm not very good in cross stitching but making simple small ones is rather fast and relaxing].

handmade, which I sent to creaturesUnderTheSun, where I used both inspiration from Steek and from Kaya1973 [the background]

Spacesuits and crab stand [Little drop #5]

     Let me continue with little drops [from same date, 2021.01.31]! First card was received for my birthday - Lera, mondschein, organized it - swapped with someone for the card from my favourites. The text on the back says: 'Dummies in space suits used to test weightlessness. National Geographic, August 1955 From The Night Sky: Fifty Postcard, 2018' printed by Princeton Architectural Press. Second one is also from my favourites, which was noticed by Sigiriya and she graciously sent it to me - the street scene from Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco - it seems to show Cresci Bros. Crab Stand Parisian Flavor in the 1970s, also searching for it shows that the stand was closed in 2020 due to covid quarantines and never reopened again [along with many-many historical sights] =( Stamps from both postcards were amazing too - magic-themed ones from Sigiriya and space-related ones, including the Europa 2009 [theme was Astronomy as far as I remember], from Irina.
     Sigiriya writes that before moving to USA she never saw so many wild animals in nature and just on the streets. Racoons are getting in the garbage [trash panda!] and they are not scared of humans at all. They come at you in very provocative way [=gopnik way] and standing on hind legs, so you almost hear 'Do you have a spare change? No?! What if I find it?' [Lena is parody quoting the common provocative dialog starter of gopniks when they want to mag someone but by their street credo, passerby needs to 'offend' them first]. 

left - received from Irina, Germany (HB2021 organized by mondschein); right - received from Sigiriya, USA (direct swap)

     Interesting, that I have something to say about animals close to the city. Commonly by Russian immigrants to Europe and USA seeing many wild animals in the city and close is presented as something positive ecology-wise. While in fact it's the opposite - normally wild animals prefer to avoid humans in any way possible, if you don't see animals in your country near cities it means there is enough space and food in the forest. Examples of what I saw in Europe animals-wise - deer near highways in Germany, lots [seen in Russian roads a lot too, even in my city we have young elks confused on the roads sometimes], a rabbit in the small lawn in the middle of heavy-traffic [...], family of foxes coming every night to suburban neighborhood in Oxford searching for garbage and food left by nice people [because the last patch of the forest was replaced by golf field]. I see some animals in my neighborhood but only because it's on the side of the city bordering by large forest area, they rarely go deeper to the city residential areas: squirrels, hamsters, mice, foxes, hares, wolves, elks and so on. During industrial development in Russia government was prone to placing heavy industry centered [that usually hurt ecology of the cities where it was creating the bad reputation for ecology here] but then roads' system was very minimal compared to common land development in the Europe with very dense road's network, and it appears that for ecosystem having heavy spot contamination can be sometimes better than minimal but wide-spread contamination. Basically all small roads even gravel ones cut forest animals' habitat in areas which can't support them anymore, and it's seems in the news it's far often wild animals from Russia, boars and wolves, trespassing to Europe than otherwise [except the case of Norwegian farm reindeer sent to feed moss on Russian territory in 2023].

top - stamps of postcard, received from Sigiriya, USA (direct swap); bottom - stamps of postcard, received from Irina, Germany (HB2021 organized by mondschein)

Museum postcards [Little drop #4]

     I really liked the idea of writing about just random, not connected cards received close to each other or just out of impulse - little drop posts, but it was hanging empty with just title '[Little drop #4]' forever because I didn't pick the next stone to step onto. And I thought - let's figure out up until when I uploaded received cards before starting organizing them, and next 'little drop' would be card right after that if it haven't been on blog yet. I remember that I uploaded all somewhere in 2020, but then it seems I kept uploading new ones during 2020 - 2021 and stopped somewhere during that year. I sorted my 2021 received folder on computer by modified date, and started to scroll from December card back checking on the way whether cards were uploaded yet in drafts - seems very early in a year after Finnish envelope [don't ask - posts are planned obviously!] after January 26th, 2021 the postcards were not uploaded to blog drafts in bulk to sort, just sporadically.

left - received from Maren_84, Germany (Eyes closed tag); right - received from janewt, USA (direct swap, HBPP)

     And those two cards were it! First one was written in simple Dutch, and seems it's a postcard from 2019 exhibition in Morgner Archiv, Chemnitz [www.morgnerarchiv.de] dedicated to artist Paul Thesing [he has wiki pages only in French and German] (12 April 1882 6 December 1954). Text on the back of postcard is partly covered by stickers and stamps, I could read: "Politische Zeichnung zwischen Kaiserreich... [=Political drawing between empire...]" and "Demo... 01.05. - 17.07.2019 [Exhibition dates]". Second one is from fun initiative I had in 2020 for swaps - hamburger penpals, I had quite a bit of nice connections there, some are still with me as more regular penpals, and some just naturally declined due to mine or penpal free time. The card is from Corning Museum of Glass, sender writes that she doesn't care about glass sugar bowls but she does love the Corning Museum - 'it's a very cool mix of history, art, and science'. Postcard text on the back says - "Sugar Bowl with Cover, about 1851 - 1857, Joseph Stouvenel and Company, Blank manufactured by Brooklyn Fine Glass company, Corning Museum of Glass, 2016.4.5, purchased with the assistance of the Karl and Anna Koepke Endowment Fund".

Special places in Moscow [post received 2024.02.08 - part#6]

     First one is the Monument 'The Worker and the Collective Farm [Kolkhoz] Woman', Moscow, photo by Maria Grishina, from photo competition 'Cities of Russia'. The monument is prime example of socialist realism, made by prominent sculptor and painter Vera Mukhina in 1937 for World's Fair in Paris. Second card is of my favourite metro station - Mayakovskaya [I wrote about it before], Lera writes that now station is used at nights, from 2:00 to 4:00, for weddings, with vintage metro trains and all. Lera says it's not very romantic place, photos look nice though. Also it's basically for free [of course you need register for the slot, which might be tricky] - you pay same fee as for registration of marriage in any other official place, only extra cost are regular weddings costs, like decoration, photographer etc.

both received from mondschein, Russia (direct swap)

     And the last special place in Moscow - is Tsoi wall, Arbat street, Moscow, graffiti covered dedicated to beloved musician [similar to Lennon Wall in Prague]. To be honest I'm not a fan of Viktor Tsoi and his music. He was the voice of New Wave and Perestroika in 1980s in USSR, lived fast, died young, and still has millions of fans around the world. For me he's an embodiment of 'yard' music - when drunk group of teenagers are having a party on the playground in your apartment block's yard and there is one there with rusty guitar only knowing one accord, he will sing and play Tsoi's songs. I don't deny his significance for the culture though, he was more like an event, a shaman, rather then a musician; for me personally his voice is annoying so all tributes by other singers sound better. Analyzing reddit discussions of foreign Tsoi's fans one can say Tsoi is Russian Jim Morrison [and Kino is Russian the Doors] referring to significance not the music style.

received from mondschein, Russia (direct swap)