We Hardly Knew Ye: Postage Stamp of the Week

I figure it's always best to bow out while you're still on top. I believe that time has come.

Postage Stamp of the Week™ has been simply going through the motions these last few months, as it's been harder and harder to find a stamp each week that's worthy of the honor. Sure, I'll probably come across some cool stamps in the future and I'll be glad to share 'em, but as a regular weekly feature, PSOTW™ is no longer. Frankly, it's been dead for a while now.

However! Watch this space for a new, even cooler weekly feature, debuting this Friday...

And I'm also working on another fun feature--here's a NSWF teaser:


Finally, with no connection to anything in particular, here's a kickass video for a kickass song:

Estampilla de la Semana: HemisFair '68

I'll get to this week's stamp in a sec.

This morning I visited South Congress Avenue and Mount Bonnell before rolling beyond the Austin city limits on down to San Antone. My first stop was lunch at Earl Abel's, a decent strip-mall coffee shop where I sat next to a table of nuns (sadly though, its original home was razed just last year). My waiter asked me if I was heading downtown to party and warned me about the crowds and police, but assuring me "the cops are on your side, know what I mean?" I was confused, until he explained that the massive annual Fiesta is happening this weekend; I inferred the-cops-on-my-side comment meant they're racist. So I decided to steer clear of downtown, and thus my afternoon sightseeing plans were thwarted (though I did get to see the world's largest shitkickers).

Tonight I went to the local minor league ballgame, where the visiting Midlands RockHounds beat the San Antonio Missions 1-0 before a crowd of 4,792. Kazuhito Tadano ruled on the mound, but the night's real stars were the mascots. Representing the Missions: Ballapeño and Henry the Puffy Taco ('Peño strikes a pose here while hoisting the Whataburger flag; no comment on the "puffy taco"). If that wasn't enough, between innings the crowd was entertained by the traveling ZOOperstars, who were either totally brilliant or completely fucked. Ken Girrafey Jr. and Harry Canary danced in unison to Pink's "Get the Party Started," and Monkey Mantle and Nolan Rhino led the crowd on "Y.M.C.A." Cow Ripken Jr. and Mackerel Jordan also appeared. I was disappointed not to see Ichiroach and Clammy Sosa.

So, the estampilla de la semana: San Antonio hosted HemisFair '68, a world's fair commemorated by this week's stamp. Hopefully I'll have more to tie in with this tomorrow... Vaya con dios.
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Postage Stamp of the Week: Darth Maul

Darth Maul was by far the most awesome part of the recent Star Wars prequel trilogy. That's not saying a whole lot; still, he was cooly, enigmatically evil, speaking little but looking and acting like a total fucking badass. Unfortunately, he was killed off way too soon, by the saber of a rat-tailed Obi-Wan Kenobi in Episode I: The Phantom Menace, the only movie in which he appeared.

Mr. Maul's stamp was unveiled Wednesday as part of the USPS's 15-stamp Star Wars pane. This stamp is too weirdly purplish, and I find the whole set kinda weesh, but I'll probably buy a sheet anyway -- after they become available on May 25 -- and stick 'em on my electric bills.

BWT, I spotted one of those R2-D2 mailboxes a couple days ago on the south side of NE Pacific Street, just outside of the UW Medical Center. I have a bad feeling about this.
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Postage Stamp of the Week: Giraffe

I'm kinda pressed for time right now; I'll write more about this commemorative giraffe later...

It's now later, Monday night, March 26: When I was a kid my favorite animal was the Giraffa camelopardalis, probably after seeing one at the Woodland Park Zoo. These days I still like giraffes, as well as dogs and cats and goldfish and lemurs, pretty much anything other than rats and snakes. That's it.
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Postage Stamp of the Week: Harry Houdini

This past week I finished reading the Michael Chabon novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, which was pretty killer. Josef Kavalier and Sam Clay are teenage cousins who create the Escapist, a comic-book superhero inspired by the subject of this week's stamp, Harry Houdini.

Houdini started out as a late-19th century magician, doing card tricks and a vanishing act, and in the early 20th century he specialized in daring feats of escape, freeing himself from handcuffs and chains and straitjackets, often while dangling upside-down and submerged in water. A sort of Evel Knievel of his day, Houdini makes douchewad David Blaine look like a total amateur.

Reading about Kavalier's magic prowess brought to mind my own short-lived career as a magician. As a kid I had this store-bought starter kit, which I probably got from my Grandpa Jennings (he was into kooky stuff like that). It came in a cardboard box, about the size of a large board game, and contained playing cards, plastic beads, a little fake plastic thumb, a velvet baggie with rings in it and some other stuff. I'd do my routine when elderly relatives visited, setting up my gear on a card table and wearing this Dracula cape that my godmother sewed me for Halloween (it was black, with shiny red lining). However, the only trick I actually remember performing was pouring a glass of milk into a rolled-up newspaper, making the milk disappear... Also, I regularly watched this Sunday-night TV show in which Bill Bixby introduced various magic acts, before ABC replaced it with The Muppet Show.

Besides appearing on this 2002 stamp (which is actually pretty dull), Houdini inspired the title of this kickass Melvins album.
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Postage Stamp of the Week: Giant Space Cat

Here we have our first international Postage Stamp of the Week, issued by the Comoro Islands in 1992. Meet Felix, a cat the French shot into space in 1963. I love the look on his face, as if he's happily reminiscing about his space adventure, despite the electrodes still implanted in his brain. And the little rocket in the foreground makes it seem like Felix's head is two hundred feet tall.
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Postage Stamp of the Week: America's Libraries

Did I mention my intent to eventually visit every public library in King County?

It wasn't anything I set out to do, until I started plundering various area libraries for iPod-worthy CDs, and at a certain point realized there were only a few that I hadn't been to. So far I've visited Seattle's Central Library (natch) and 19 of the 22 Seattle branches presently open (four other branches are closed for expansion or renovation). Besides the two Renton Libraries (both of which I've visited), the other 43 libraries in the county are operated by the King County Library System (counting 'em up now, I'm surprised to find that I've been to only 15 of those -- apparently there are more than I first thought).

Besides finding plenty of cool stuff to check out (why buy a book when you can go to the library?), it's fun to compare 'n' contrast 'em all, often seeing places around the area that I wouldn't otherwise visit. In recent months Eliza and I have made a few Sunday outings to various outlying libraries, though we make a point to visit just as many unique thrift stores along the way.

My favorite library, however, is the 81-year-old Suzzallo Library on the UW campus. I've spent countless hours over the last couple decades in its cathedral-like reading room, um, you know, reading, as well as writing, studying, solving crosswords, looking at the Internet, and occasionally sleeping. I still try to spend at least an evening or two there each month.

Anyway, this stamp's from '82. Knock yourself out.
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Postage Stamp of the Week: Alfred Hitchcock

Good eeeevening.

Or good morning, good afternoon, or good whenever you happen to be reading this. I don't care.

I tossed out Alfred Hitchcock -- subject of this 1998 stamp -- as my favorite director when asked for one during my video store job interview. It's not like he's my far-and-away all-time favorite, but I can't think of any other director who's made more movies that I truly dig. F'rinstance, Rear Window has long been one of my absolute all-time, ten-star faves, and it became that much more dear to me when Eliza and I saw it on our first date.

Hitchcock never won an Oscar™, but maybe on Sunday, Scorsese finally will. I've seen all of this year's Best Picture™ nominees, save for The Queen. If it wins, I'll feel obligated to see that one too. (God help us all if Little Miss Shitpants wins.) I've made a point of seeing every Best Picture™ released during my lifetime, from 1969's Midnight Cowboy onward (I have no plans to see 1968's Oliver!). Overall I've seen 61 of the 78 movies to win Best Picture™ thus far. The only Hitchcock-directed film to receive the award was 1940's Rebecca, which, ironically, didn't do much for me.

No Best Picture™ nominations went to my original Movies of the Year! Movies of the Year!™, nor to this amended list:

1. Borat: Culural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
2. Wordplay
3. Jackass Number Two
4. Half Nelson
5. An Inconvenient Truth
6. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
7. Little Children
8. Friends with Money
9. loudQUIETloud: A Film About the Pixies
10. United 93

If it ain't Scottish, it's crap.™
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Postage Stamp of the Week: Batman

This 2006 specimen, featuring Bob Kane's 1940 cover of Batman #1, is part of this larger DC Comics Super Heroes pane.

Why Batman? Why now? Well, not only is Batman my favorite superhero (particularly the Adam West variety), but he's also the cover star of the current Postal Service Guide to U.S. Stamps. The book, which arrived in my mail this week, features color illustrations of every goddamn U.S. of A. stamp issued from 1847 through 2006. Unfortunately, the stamps aren't all actual size, and they don't all reproduce that well. Worst of all, the thing is held together with cheap-ass comb binding!

I still love its historic, pop-culture thoroughness, much like I dig this book, and this one. I'll certainly enjoy browsing through it in search of more cool stamps to highlight here.

Tune in next Friday -- same Postage Stamp of the Week-time, same Postage Stamp of the Week-channel.
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Postage Stamp of the Week: Jury Duty

"I saw this stamp a few weeks ago when I was checking out the 2007 commemorative stamps. Thought you’d enjoy what I think is the lamest stamp ever."

Wow! With feedback like that, how can I not help but pander to my readers?

Anyhow, yes, this stamp is indeed Lame City. Its uninspired design looks like a horrible mashup of the PBS and Girl Scouts logos, with a dull "rainbow" of multicultural silhouettes. Of course, since jury duty is something most everyone finds tedious and boring, it's fitting that its corresponding stamp conjures the same feelings... But why only twelve people? Don't alternates deserve commemoration too?

Speaking of jury duty, a few weeks ago I dutifully reported to the King County Courthouse because of a summons I received in December. I'd previously spent two weeks on jury duty for a 2002 trial, and didn't expect to be called back so soon. Unfortunately, I didn't read the summons as closely as I should have. It was delivered to the proper address -- mine -- but not 'til I got to the courthouse at an ungodly hour did I realize the name on the summons was some guy I never heard of. So I felt like a total doucheball, but I was plenty happy to be excused.

Stay tuned for next week's installment of "Postage Stamp of the Week."
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Postage Stamp of the Week: George Halas

Welcome to my blog's latest feature, Postage Stamp of the Week™ (inspired by that killer crossword stamp below). The US Postal Service has issued enough stamps in the last 160 years to keep this thing afloat for awhile, so let's get right to it, shall we?

George Halas, depicted on this 1997 stamp, coached the Chicago Bears for 40 years -- including six NFL titles -- and to this day his Bears pay tribute by wearing his initials on their sleeves.

So, Bears v. Colts, Super Bowl XLI. At this time last year I was pooping my pants over the Seahawks's Super Bowl debut, in a cool old city with my favorite band playing halftime. However, I'm fairly indifferent about this year's game. Ever since the Colts left Baltimore, I haven't been able to take the India-no-place team too seriously. Meanwhile, the Bears clobbered my 'Hawks 37-6 earlier this year on national primetime TV, and then knocked them out of the playoffs in a 27-24 overtime game a couple weeks back. Still, the ol-skoo Bears are my sentimental favorite, but I won't be paying much attention.

Anyway, read more about the legendary George Halas here.
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