Postcard Madness

Blogging here from Perlick's couch in NYC; I'm heading out to lunch with him and Probe in just a bit. Yay wireless! My sister has no connection--she actually checks email from the public library. Somebody needs to tell her that nowadays that's on a par with having a party line for your telephone connection.

Well, I ran out of time this year to send out a full set of holiday cards—I managed to get a bunch out by December 23rd, but I had to triage a bunch of people (e.g., the ones I saw/am seeing in person over the holidays). But if you’re one of them, don’t despair! I’m sending you a cool postcard from New York City instead!

Partially for my own records, I wanted to write down something about these postcards. I wandered into the Barnes & Noble near Lincoln Center, and they had a rack of postcards that are Not the Standard Shots (i.e., here’s the Brooklyn Bridge, here’s the Empire State Building, here’s the Statue of Liberty). Instead, they are unusual and artful shots that are still distinctly New York locations. For instance, the one on the lower left is a shot of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge lit up at night—how neat is that? The Verrazano is awesome; it was the longest bridge in the world from 1964 until 1981 (took over from the Golden Gate when it was built). It is the one that runs between Staten Island and Brooklyn; it has a really clean 1950/60’s Modern design, a lot like the Whitestone Bridge. And I think the postcard on the top left (clouds over the Manhattan Bridge) looks almost like a Magritte painting (although the bridge tower needs a bowler hat floating above it or something). To give mad props where they are due, these cards are by Konstantino Hatzisarros/Psaris Productions.

I have sent out 77 postcards this year. Yup, I keep track. And I bet that level of anal retention is hardly a surprise for most of you. Apologies if I am bursting any recipient’s “I am a beautiful and unique snowflake” fantasy—-I send out a lot of friggin’ postcards (mostly because I travel too much). Anyway, I’m short of my annual record of 80 (back from 2003: let’s see if I can fire off four more by Saturday!

[Edit: 4 more postcards!]