a weblog of whereabouts & interests, since 2010
I checked in at the Yodobashi Camera store in Akihabara today.
(No, I have not bought a new camera yet).
The store is a giant department store for all things technology, office, home appliances, home decor, toys & games, entertainment, and even more.
Happy Saturday.
I found this mural of ladies in their summer dresses at the corner of Denny Way and Nineteenth Avenue.
(I did not see the name of the artist.)
My ‘South Africa 1961-1995’ stamp collection is nearly complete.
Another ‘acquisition’ from a seller from Great Britain made it into my mailbox today, with these stamps on the outside envelope.
Issued 2002, Sept. 24. Printed as a minisheet w. two phosphor bands, perf. 14 ½ x 14
MS2315 1613 (1st) multi-colored, Planetary nebula in Aquila, Seyfert 2 galaxy in Pegasus, Planetary Nebula in Norma, Seyfert 2 galaxy in Circinus
[Source: Stanley Gibbons Collect British Stamps 2016]
From a set of 10 stamps
Issued 2010, Feb. 25. Printed w. “all-over” phosphor, perf. 14 ½
3029 2224 (1st) multi-colored, Edward Jenner (pioneer of smallpox vaccination)
3032 2227 (1st) multi-colored, Joseph Lister (antiseptic surgery)
3034 2229 (1st) multi-colored, Dorothy Hodgkin (crystallography)
[Source: Stanley Gibbons Collect British Stamps 2016]
Issued 2010, May 6. Printed w. “All-over” phosphor, perf. 14½
3068 2262 (1st) multi-colored, 1924 British Empire Exhibition 1½ d Brown Stamp
3068 2263 (1st) multi-colored, 1924 British Empire Exhibition 1 d Scarlet Stamp
[Source: Stanley Gibbons Collect British Stamps 2016]
The stamps I had ordered from a seller in New York City, arrived in the mail. The sender put beautiful stamps from yesteryears on the envelope for me.
Might he have picked the 1934 violet stamp with Mt. Rainier on just for me, because I am in Washington State?
I’d like to think so 😉
Check out the cute glass art on the cement chair in the little garden at Stevens Elementary School.
I see a lion up at the top, and a rhinoceros on the left, of course.
Would that be a lanky-legged hippopotamus on the right?
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads.
It is Father’s Day in South Africa and more than 100 other countries as well.
In Australia, Father’s Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of September.
In 2021, the President of Russia established Father’s Day as falling on the third Sunday of October.
It’s a cool and rainy weekend here in the Emerald City (64°F / 18°C)— a good day to go for a Starbucks coffee, or for a beer.
These pictures are all from inside the National Neon Sign Museum in the former Elks Building in the heart of The Dalles downtown historic district.
The museum narrates the evolution of the electric sign, from pre-electric and gold leaf signage to the invention and widespread use of neon signs.
It houses one of the largest collections of neon storefront signs in the world.
Yes, neon signage has been in decline the last few decades, but many cities are now concerned with preserving and restoring their antique neon signs.
Fun fact— Argon is much more versatile than neon for creating colors, and some 75% of ‘neon’ signs actually has argon in the tubes and not neon. ‘Neon’ is the name that stuck for all signs that use either neon or argon.
Pictures:
That’s David Benko himself in one of the pictures, telling us about the history of neon signs. He established the museum in 2018, and is the curator— with a lifelong passion for collecting neon signs.
The museum has displays that show inventors and their experimentation with electricity in the 1700s and 1800s, the discovery of the noble gases argon (1894) and neon (1898) and a model of the patent for the first neon sign tubes that were created in 1910 by French engineer and inventor Georges Claude (the third picture).
By the end of the Roaring ’20s, most American cities were electrified. Illuminated streets and storefronts lured people into the streets at night time. The commercialization of neon signs took off in the 1930s after the Great Depression.
Two envelopes arrived yesterday, with the latest acquisitions I had made for my stamp collection inside.
The sellers did me the favor of pasting lots of beautiful stamps on the outside of the envelopes.
150th Anniversary of Spanish Stamps (from a set of 11)
Issued 2000, Oct.8, , Perf. 13 (round stamp), 13½x14, Photolith.
3067 A1073 Multi-colored 200p €1.20 Invention of the antenna and radio
3063 A1073 Multi-colored 200p €1.20 Signature of Miguel Induráin, cyclist
Traditional Sports and Games
Issued 2008, Perf. 13½x14, Photolith.
Miniature Sheet of Martial Arts, 3 stamps & 3 labels
3577 A1469 Multi-colored, €0.43 Stick fighting (palo canario)
3577 A1469 Multi-colored, €0.43 Wrestling (lucha leonesa)
3577 A1469 Multi-colored, €0.43 Wrestling (lucha canaria)
150th Anniversary of International Red Cross
Issued 2013, Oct.28, Perf. 12¾, Photolith.
3939 A1722 €0.90 Red and white
Tapestries of Sports Scenes Taken from Painting
Issued 2009, Jul.6, Perf. 12¾, Photolith.
3657 A1519 Multi-colored, €0.78, By Francisco de Goya (El Juego de Pelota a Pala)
Women’s Dresses by Paco Rabane
Issued 2013, Sept.12, Perf. 13×12¾, Photolith.
3926 A1715 Multi-colored, €0.52, See-through dress of red diamonds
3926 A1715 Multi-colored, €0.52, Dress made of large golden disks
[Information from Scott 2017 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue]
The 40th IHF World Hospital Congress
2016, Oct.31, Perf. 14
2496 Multicolored, Intnl. Small Letter, Minisheet (75mm x 75mm)
The Many Faces of Nelson Mandela
Issued 2001, Nov.26, No watermark, Perf. 13¾, Designer Alf Kumalo
1481 Multicolored, Airmail Postcard Rate (R2.10), Nelson Mandela
1477 Multicolored, Airmail Postcard Rate (R2.10), Nelson Mandela
Wildlife— The Big 5
Issued 2001, Apr.25, No watermark, Perf. 14
1386 Multicolored, Airmail Postcard Rate (R1.90), Cape Buffalo (Syncerus caffer), Imperforated Right
1385 Multicolored, Airmail Postcard Rate (R1.90), Leopard (Panthera pardus)
Fauna and Flora— Fish
Issued 2000, Nov. 1, No watermark, Perf. 14½x14¾, Designer Chris van Rooyen
1335 Multicolored, 60c, Powder-blue surgeonfish (Acanthurus leucosternon)
1334 Multicolored, 50c, Coral rock cod (Cephalopholis miniatus)
African Nations Football Championship, South Africa
Issued 1996, Jan. 10, No watermark, Perf. 14¼ x 14, Design Marc de Jong
1027 Multicolored, Standard Postage (60c), Goalkeeper w. Africa map outline
[Information from stampworld.com]
My seller in Denmark sends me my stamps in envelopes decked out with beautiful stamps from yesteryear.
The descriptions are from the Scott 2012 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol 2 Countries C-F.
Small State Seal, Engraved, Perf. 13
Issued 1972-1978
502 A55 4.5 Krone, Olive
Protected Animals, Engraved, Perf. 13
Issued 1975, Oct. 23
583 A174 130 Øre, Avocets
WASHINGTON— A celebrity photographer won a copyright case over Andy Warhol’s use of a picture she shot of Prince for a magazine, in a Thursday Supreme Court decision narrowing the “fair use” rights of artists and writers to build upon existing works to create something new.
– Jess Bravin reporting for the Wall Street Journal
The US Supreme Court ruled today by 7-2 that Andy Warhol’s 1981 artwork of Prince (using a photo) infringed on the photographer’s copyright. The majority argued that Warhol’s print was merely a derivative of the photo and not transformative. Oh.
‘This might have been the white and blue Alaska Air plane that I saw overhead in the sky today’, I thought as I saw this picture in the Seattle Times.
Three of the amigos had beers at the Elysian Capitol Hill Brewery.
On the way there, on 14th Avenue, I saw this vintage poster in a shop window.
Karl-Marx-Allee is a monumental socialist boulevard built by East Germany (the ‘Deutsche Demokratische Republik’) between 1952 and 1960 in Berlin’s Friedrichshain and Mitte neighborhoods.
Life is short, art is long.
— John Ringling
Maybe I should extend my stay in Berlin so that I can photograph every single U-bahn station.
Three new stations were added just in the last year or so to the U5: Unter den Linden, Rotes Rathaus and Museuminsel.
Here is a selection of my pictures for today. Some of them are from locations on or near the U4 subway line.
All right— how about a smattering of vintage stamps from the United States, courtesy of a seller in Houston, Texas?
Amazingly, he used a stamp from 1934 on the envelope!
(Pro tip: Click on the picture. It’s fun to look at stamps with a magnifying glass).
1970 (21 Nov.) 350th Anniversary of Landing of Pilgrim Fathers in America
#1416 837 6c Multicoloured
1934 (8 Oct.) National Parks Year
#748 245 10c Grey, Mount Le Conte, Great Smoky Mountains
2001 (3 Aug.) Pre-sorted First Class Card Coil Stamp. Self-adhesive gum. Imperf x p11½
#3991 2590 (15c) Multicoloured, Woody Wagon
1973 (28 Sept.) American Revolution Bicentennial. Colonial Communications.
#1484 903 8c Multicoloured, Drummer
[Source: Stanley Gibbons stamp catalogue 2005, Part 22, United States]
The stamps I had bought from a seller in Great Britain arrived in the mail today.
I looked up the stamps on the envelope in the Stanley Gibbons catalogue. (It definitely seems like some stamp sellers have reams and reams of unused stamps from many years ago).
The black ink line across the stamps is the cancellation mark.
Aw. What’s up with that? I would like a proper cancellation mark showing the sending location and the date!
1991 Scientific Achievements
(5 Mar.) Phosphorised paper
1549 991 Gloster Whittle E28/39 Aircraft over East Anglia (50th Anniversary of First Flight of Sir Frank Whittle’s Jet Engine, 37p multicoloured
2006 ‘Smilers’ Occasions
(17 Oct.) Booklet stamps (2nd series) Self-adhesive. Two phosphor bands. Die-cut perf 15×14.
2675 1932 Balloons (Ivan Chermayeff), (1st) multicoloured
2001 Regional Issue Northern Ireland
(6 Mar.) Printed in lithography by Walsall, two phosphor bands. Perf 15×14 w. one elliptical hole in each side
NI190 N7 Aerial view of patchwork fields, (1st) black, new blue and greenish yellow
A little side benefit from buying stamps from sellers all over the world is that the senders sometimes paste whole sheets of stamps onto the envelope, instead of using a dreaded computer-generated black-and-white ‘stamp’ .
Why would the seller use these stamps from 30, 40 years ago, though?
He had an oversupply of stock?
Greetings Stamps. ‘Smiles’ Set of 10
1991 (26 Mar.) Two phosphor bands. Perf 15×14
1550-1559 (1st) multicoloured
British Anniversaries.
1971 (25 Aug.) Two phosphor bands
891 5p multicoloured Faraday Building, Southampton University
British Trees (2nd Issue)
1974 (27 Feb.) ‘All-over’ phosphor
949 10p multicoloured Horse Chestnut
‘Occasions’ Greetings Stamps
2003 (4 Feb.) Two phosphor bands, Perf 14½x14
2337 (1st) lemon and new blue ‘Gold star, See me, Playtime’
2338 (1st) red and deep ultramarine ‘I♥U, XXXX, S.W.A.L.K.*’
*XXXX is a beer and Sealed With A Loving Kiss, a World-War II postal acronym
2339 (1st) purple and bright yellow-green ‘Angel, Poppet, Little terror’
2340 (1st) bright yellow-green and red ‘Yes, No, Maybe’
2341 (1st) deep ultramarine and lemon ‘Oops! Sorry, Will try harder’
2342 (1st) new blue and purple ‘I did it! You did it! We did it!’
[From the 2011 ‘Collect British Stamps’ Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue]
The blank stamp album pages that I had ordered from Denmark, landed on the porch on Saturday, and I tried them out today.
The first two pictures below are my existing, preprinted pages and pockets, from German company Leuchtturm. They run from 1961 through 1981. The pages from 1982 onwards are now out of print. I scoured Ebay and the internet, but could not find a used set.
So I am trying out Leuchtturm’s blank pocketed pages, to stand in for the years starting in 1982. I printed ‘South Africa — Suid-Afrika’ and the year on paper strips that go into the top of the page. It looks OK. Maybe I need cream-colored paper to print on— or is that being too persnickety?
