I called the future. And from what Jessica Davis (@JessDoesDIY) tells me, the future is bright. At least how it is 18 hours in the future. You see, I called Jessica in New Zealand from my house in the northeast U.S. We talked about how she got involved in postcards and letter writing early (peep that picture below of young Jess); her involvement in Postcards from the Edge; and The Snail’s Mail, the new postcard store she created. And we talked about the future.

Postcards connect people. And they connected me to Jess halfway across the world. How far away is your farthest penpal? And how close is the closest?

The postcard from the campground

The mountain where Jess’s husband walks the dog each night.

Jess Does DIY…and that includes with curlers when she was a little girl.

Get The Postcardist Podcast for free: Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher | TuneIn

We’re at Episode 50. Oh, oh, we’re halfway there…oh, oh, livin’ on a prayer. Or at least a postcard. In this episode, I talk about a postcard auction I’m watching; talk some more about penpals and joy; and then talk about ideas. Yep, I’m asking you for ideas. Who should be on the show? What do you want to hear? I’m crowdsourcing ideas. And you can write me on postcardist@gmail.com.

Fifty down. And fifty more to go until we’re at a century. So far, so good.

Mentions:

Tom Hanks

Sara McNally, the Snail Mail Superstar

Mark Routh of Mark’s Postcard Chat

Shannon McCormick of Take a Hike Podcast

Magda Wojcicka of Stamp and Away

Gitti of Gitti’s Collection

Fire walk with me. No, wait, that’s something different. How about take a hike with me and Shannon McCormick, the creator and host of the highly acclaimed Take a Hike Podcast. But we didn’t talk about hiking. We talked about odd and provocative postcards, the Postcardist Short Story Experiment, and creating connections with postcards.

You can find Shannon here:

Take a Hike on Apple Podcasts

Take a Hike on Instagram

Take a Hike on Facebook

This show features a discussion with Matt Roche about the 2018 season of The Postcardist Podcast. We talk about the 1967 Postcard Short Story Experiment and then talk over the 47 shows of 2018 and what’s coming up in 2019.

It’s been a terrific year at The Postcardist Podcast. Thank you to my many guests and to the cadre of dedicated listeners. You’re the best.

My postcard story starts with writing to my grandmother when I was young. Now I’m introducing postcarding to my grandsons. On this special Christmas show, I interview Jackson and Jameson about postcards. And they make me smile. Merry Christmas.

Jax at the mic

Jax does the mic test with ABC 123

Jamo with his Grinch sweater

Jamo writing a postcard

Ashli Ahrens creates connections with postcards, both as a postcard dealer and as a collector. And host Frank Roche was fortunate to talk to Ashli about how she started collecting postcards; her transition into being a postcard dealer; and how she creates positive ripples in the postcard world.

You can find Ashli on Instagram as @mailboxmemories

Her physical shop can be found in Little Rock, Arkansas, at South Main Creative.

And on her personal Instagram site as @ashcanandwill.

And you can check out The Postcardist Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. And at ThePostcardist.com

Ashli talks about her family’s holiday tradition of using vintage postcards as displays

Host Frank Roche is back…and with a bit of binaural recording. This is a show that covers cancellations at Recluse, Wyoming and North Pole, Alaska; and talks about the crazy coincidence of the John Lennon first day of issue delivery.

Plus, Frank talks about postcard short stories. And asks for a lot of audience feedback. Email is postcardist@gmail.com.

When the Son of a Son of a Postcardist steps in, it’s the Postcardist’s turn in the interview chair. In this episode Stephen Roche (actually the Son of Postcardist, but we were going with the Jimmy Buffet reference) interviews host Frank Roche about these topics:

• York Postcard Expo
• Pinup postcards
• Cataloging postcard collections
• Beginner postcard collecting
• Postcardist vintage
• Collecting Pokemon cards
• The value of a collection over time
• Lenticular postcards
• Writing a short story on postcards

This week, host Frank Roche interviews Evan Kalish of Postlandia. Evan has visited and photographed more than 9,200 United States post offices in all 50 states. Frank and Evan talk about the origin of the project, collecting postmarks, and how to get postcards through the mail system in the best condition possible.

Topics discussed:

Postlandia

Post Mark Collectors Club

Where to get Evan’s post office calendar

Lee Friedlander

Crazy Horse Memorial

Recluse, Wyoming

York International Postcard Expo

Art on a Postcard

How to win a chance to get the prize of Evan’s 2019 post office calendar. One, like my Instagram post from November 12, 2018 featuring a post office Evan sent me. leave a comment tagging one other person you think might like the show. Then, on Wednesday I’ll take all the names that are in the comments, mix them up in a hat, and draw the winner….I’l show that in an Instagram story.

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.

******

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