Anyone who knows my brother knows he is involved in many things so it is only fitting that he should combine his interests into a variety show in Berkeley tomorrow night! Here’s a great article in the East Bay Express all about it. Wish we could be there!

Many apologies to our Spanish readers, but I had no idea Spain has had a king for the last 35 years (needless to say I feel pretty ignorant!). Apparently Juan Carlos I took over after Franco died in 1975 and has been head of state ever since. Much like Queen Elizabeth, I guess his royal visage requires no identification so I had to figure out that he graced these stamps from my box by first coming across some more recent ones. These are from much earlier on in his tenure and I like the profile and monochromatic nature. I’m drawn more to the font and design on the left, but they’re both strikingly modern for a monarch.

1981 (left), 1985 (right) Spain

The Japanese are masters of all things illustrated and postage stamps are no exception. I had a hard time finding information about these (which look a little weird blown-up as part of their appeal, besides all the detail and great colors, is that they’re rather petite), but I will guess they’re from the ’80s since they come from the box.

1980-4 Japan (this at least seems to be part of this set)

If, like me, you didn’t grow up in Australia, these books might be new to you too! This set of Australian stamps issued in 1985 and designed by Peter Leuver focused on classic children’s books. Looks like I only received 4 out of the 5 (missing “Snugglepot and Cuddlepie” written by May Gibbs).

“Blinky Bill” (written by Dorothy Wall, published in 1933)

“Elves and Fairies” (written by Annie Rentoul & illustrated by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, published in 1916)

“Ginger Meggs” (a comic book character created by James Charles Bancks in 1921)

“The Magic Pudding” (written & illustrated by Norman Lindsay, published 1918)

Here’s a little stamp love in honor of Valentine’s Day…

1982 USA

This one’s not from the shoebox and the design isn’t as good, but it’s a nice sentiment.

1991 USA

And here are some roses, to be cliche, but it turns out that New Zealand has issued some cool rose stamps (at least before 2001), including the rest from this series.

originally issued 1975 New Zealand (not sure when mine are from)

And lastly here’s a heart stamp which is a little odd since it’s for International Youth Year (a United Nations program in 1985), especially compared to the ones from other countries. I guess back then neon and denim equaled youth. Oh, Canada.

1985 Canada

I’ve always had a casual love of stamps and just came across a shoebox of mostly used stamps that I must have hoarded in the 80′s (the collage of Swatch watches, images from Rolling Stone, and the stars of “Sixteen Candles” on the outside is a bit of a giveaway). Here’s a peek inside:

Anyhow, there are a lot of cool stamps swimming around in there and I thought it would be fun to share some in an alliterative feature. There are tons of cool botanical stamps, landscape stamps, historical figure stamps, cultural stamps, and way more Christmas stamps than I could have imagined, and I will get to some of  those in coming weeks, but I thought I’d start off with this one:

This British stamp caught my eye because of Beeton’s Book of Household Management. I’d never heard of it until we recently saw Masterpiece Theater’s “The Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton” (she was the Martha Stewart of her time and a publisher with her husband). I was confused by the rest of the stamp though, as I didn’t think Mrs. Beeton ever looked that fancy. It turns out this stamp is one of four from 1987 commemorating the 150th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s accession. So that’s the Queen, Prince Albert, and the Great Eastern along with Mrs. Beeton’s book, which clearly left its mark as a great accomplishment of the Victorian Age.

The Vegan Month of Food is in full swing and even though we’re not blogging for it this year, we are super stoked to be supporting this amazing project with some prizes! To enter today’s drawing, check out this post and comment. Go MoFo!

To mark the occasion of the Film Diary being back in-print, we thought it would be fun to start a regular blog post talking about some of the movies we watch, since our love of movies is what got me started on the idea of making a film journal in the first place. I’m no professional when it comes to talking about film and I get annoyed when reviews give away too many plot points (I don’t even like reading the Netflix summaries), so I won’t get into the movies too much, but just put in a plug for the ones I really enjoyed.

I picked up the Criterion release of Ugetsu at the library because I had heard of it, but didn’t know anything about it besides that it sounded familiar as something we should see (turns out it was on the list of top 100 films that we’ve been trying to get through). I didn’t make the connection that we had been watching a couple earlier films by the same director,  Kenji Mizoguchi. All the same, the movie just sat there in the pile, feeling a little bit like homework. You know those movies that you should watch, but are never in the mood for, but it turns out Ugetsu is his masterpiece and it really is a pretty stunning work. When it comes to Japanese directors as household names, he doesn’t seem to be too well-known, and while I don’t agree with Godard’s assessment of him as “quite simply one of the greatest of filmmakers,” I do think that Ugetsu and Sisters of the Gion are worth watching for his storytelling and composition, the acting, and unusual material.

We’re super excited to have volume 5 of the LO Annual Planner in-stock and ready to share with you! Here’s a little tour…

For Volume 5, we wanted to feature type as art so Dan hand-drew over 18 sets of type for a variety of characters. He also drew all the linework and details so there’s no mistaking this for your run-of-the-mill planner.

We’ve included handy mini calendars for the next three years and a quick reference page for all your important appointments, travel, and events.

Use the personal info page to consolidate all your medical, travel, car/bike details, and reminders for all your plethora of different user names and passwords. There’s also a page for important addresses, a back-up phone list page for ease of use with your landline or in case you lose your cell phone, and a page to keep track of birthdays and gifts so you don’t end up giving someone the same thing twice.

Make a note of all the books, movies, music, and websites you want to check out on these specialized list pages so you don’t forget about them later.

There are 12 dateless month layouts so you get a quick overview of what’s coming up this month and in the months ahead. There’s plenty of room to write in each day plus a notes column for monthly to-dos and things to remember.

And to top it all off, there are 54 dateless weeks with plenty of room for you to plan and record your week. Each day has a dotted column to the left that you can use for appointment times or checking off your daily to-dos. There’s a large area for notes for the week and another gridded column that you can use for weekly to-dos and keeping track of things like expenses. We think it’s our best weekly layout yet!

It all comes printed with soy-based inks on 100% PCW recycled paper by our friends at 1984 Printing in Oakland to make this a great new addition to our planner family!

Congrats to the Portland Zine Symposium on their 10th anniversary! Check out all the activities this weekend at PSU including two panels with John Porcellino!