Happy Blue Monday! (meme). Happy Valentine suggestion: "From Estonia, with love!" My instagr.am photo of my postcard with the heart-shaped, cool blue Lake Väikejärv (?), Viljandi County, Estonia [don't make me specify Europe, for you :) ]

instagr.am

Idea 1 for maxicard Vaikejarv:

Idea 2 for maxicard Vaikejarv:

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Happy Blue Monday! (meme)

Please visit:  http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

(Part 2) Edward Maya feat. Vika Jigulina - Desert Rain ( Official Video ). Also, Sunday Stamps! (meme) - I feature a philatelic stamp with a CIMPOI (Romanian bagpipes), whose haunting sounds will thrill you in this videoclip!

Please explore: http://www.edwardmaya.com

See the other videoclips on YouTube.com about Edward Maya , Vika Jigulina, and other versions featuring Mia Martina or Alicia.[more to come - at least one from every country in the world, I wish! :) ]

See again the worldwide sensation videoclip "Stereo Love"!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy2nBvtkgyE&hd=1

Y'all You all have heard the sounds of Scottish bagpipes before.

But I bet you have never heard the sounds of Romanian bagpipes!

If you listen (loudly!) to this videoclip music and you DON'T just love the CIMPOI, then...what the hell is wrong with you? oh, well! :D :D :D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cimpoi

I have already posted this separately, on Facebook:

To properly enjoy the "progressive house" music of Edward Maya, you better turn up (way up) the volume of your speakers! 

Feel the rhythm, the good vibrations, the haunting melodic line, the exquisite mastery of the Romanian bagpipes (not Scottish) inspired from the virtuoso Ion Laceanu.

[UPDATE: Somebody said that the CIMPOI (Romanian bagpipes) segment from Desert Rain song is inspired from Dumitru Zamfira, also a cimpoi master like Ion Laceanu.] 

But the best musical instrument in the world is a great human voice! 

Nonetheless, welcome to discover the Romanian bagpipes!

The stamp that I bring today to the spotlight of Sunday Stamps meme features a CIMPOI [English pronounciation: chim-poy], which is an old, traditional musical instrument - Romanian Bagpipes.
I placed that stamp at the top of this image; for your viewing pleasure, I scanned it in hi-res 300 dpi, so click on it, then click again to zoom in:

One of the greatest merits of stamp collecting/ philately is that it triggers your appetite for learning, researching and enriching your general culture.

What the heck means ROMINA, on the stamps? - you might ask as you sit there, in your neck-of-the-woods. :) :)

"Communist Romania, previously the Kingdom of Romania, was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc. The dominant role of the Romanian Communist Party was enshrined in its successive constitutions between the proclamation of the republic in late 1947 and the Romanian Revolution, resulting in the death of Nicolae Ceauşescu on 25 December 1989. Officially, the country was called the Romanian People's Republic (Romanian: Republica Populară Romînă; RPR) from 1947 to 1965, and the Socialist Republic of Romania (Republica Socialistă România; RSR) from 1965 to 1989. Today, Romania is a unitary parliamentary republic and a member of the European Union."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republica_Popular%C4%83_Rom%C3%AEn%C4%83

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Happy Sunday Stamps!

Please visit http://viridianpostcard.blogspot.com/

Happy Pink Saturday (meme)! [Part 1] Pretty in pink (or any other color): Vika Jigulina, who sings in Edward Maya's "Stereo Love" (Best International Song nominee). The haunting accordion sounds and rhythm...

Pretty in pink: "The Roseate Spoonbill (Ajaja ajaja), sometimes separated in the monotypic genus (Ajaja) is a gregarious wading bird of the ibis and spoonbill family, Threskiornithidae. It is a resident breeder in South America mostly east of the Andes, and in coastal regions of the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, and the Gulf Coast of the United States.^[1][2]"

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roseate_spoonbill}

^{Please visit "Pretty in pink"/ "Show us your pink" [objects, that is :)] meme here:}

^{http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/}

"I'll spread my wings/ And I'll learn how to fly"...to international success...

Now, who else is pretty in pink (or any other color)?

Vika Jigulina, for example.

Look at her dress at the top of this page:

http://mayavinrecords.com/vika-jigulina

Have you heard the beautiful, haunting, ("progressive house"-category) song "Stereo Love"?

Watch the videoclips from the above link! :)

The rhythm, the voices, the images...and the accordion virtuoso's supreme timing and instrumental skills. 

World-class! :)

Also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereo_Love

Stereo Love, the new hymn/hit song of dance clubs, etc. from around the world! :)

Another videoclip (that I like, too), with a cover version an official remix of Stereo Love, sung by Mia Martina:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mia_Martina

Another version, beautifully sung by Alicia, in Spanish:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfd96rck28A

There's also a Portuguese version by DJ Osman, "image-intensive".

I expect that every country will come up with at least one version - why the hell not?

I am curious to see the exotic versions from Vatican City, Holy Mount Athos, Greenland, Saudi Arabia, French Polynesia...:)

Happy Postcard Friday (meme)! Read from BBC: 'Day of departure' rally in Egypt. Also, a visual metaphor for Day of Departure: philatelic souvenir (dorincard) about a "Frog" clinging to power, or so he thinks, ob(li)viously...

Read the whole article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12362826

Once upon the time, there was a Dictator clinging to power, or so he thought, ob(li)viously...

...but the power shifted recently to a greater force...

The moral: you better figure out in due time when your Day of Departure has come - then let go!  Or else...

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Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

Please visit: http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/

Guest Heart Thursday meme: "Your heart has AIS, my heart has AIZ" - Where's the heart? Maximum card with Star Wars, from USA

Another very interesting blog, hosted by Clytie, is http://clytie-randomhearts.blogspot.com/

Guest Heart Thursday #43

Welcome to Guest Heart Thursday -
A place to share YOUR heart!

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My entry:

 "Your heart has AIS, my heart has AIZ" - Where's the heart in this image?  [Not a NASA-level riddle]

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Groundhog, Woodchuck, Land-beaver or Whistlepig (Marmota monax) - maximum cards/ maxicards/ dorincards/ MCs from USA

"The groundhog (Marmota monax), also known as a woodchuck, or in some areas as a land-beaver, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. Other marmots, such as the yellow-bellied and hoary marmots, live in rocky and mountainous areas, but the woodchuck is a lowland creature. It is widely distributed in North America and common in the northeastern and central United States. Groundhogs are found as far north as Alaska, with their habitat extending southeast to Alabama.<sup>[2]"


"</sup>The groundhog is the largest sciurid in its geographical range, typically measuring 40 to 65 cm (16 to 26 in) long (including a 15 cm (6 in) tail) and weighing 2 to 4 kg (4 to 9 lb). In areas with fewer natural predators and large amounts of alfalfa, groundhogs can grow to 80 cm (30 in) and 14 kg (31 lb)."
^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog}


"Groundhog Day is a holiday celebrated on February 2 in the United States and Canada. According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter will soon end. If it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and winter will continue for six more weeks.^[1]"
"the National Climatic Data Center reportedly has stated that the overall prediction accuracy rate is around 39%.^{[25]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_day}

I created this maxicard although I knew that the postmark will not be very visible.  I wanted to leave the text unobscured, and I hoped that the ink of the postmark will be good enough.  Hoping is free - anybody can do it.  Anyway, you can see the postmark on the backside, below.

The FDOI (First Day of Issue) postmark was applied by USPS (United States Postal Service) in Toronto, Canada.  

Is Canada [officially] part of USA?  :) 

No, but it was during CAPEX (Canada Philatelic Exposition/Exhibition) and USPS decided to have there the FDOI postmarking event for that great, beautiful 50 stamp-series.

"Desired Desire" - Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, sometimes known as Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam. I received today my first maximum card from Belgium, showing his house.

Erasmus lived in this house, too - in Anderlecht, Belgium.

Thank you, my friend Johan Ockerman (Belgium)! http://johanpostcards.blogspot.com/ .

Somebody in Belgium made a smart decision to apply the same pictorial postmark on the envelope, outside the stamp. That way, we have a perfectly clear image of the postmark, which is not possible from where the postmark met the stamp.

"Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (October 28,^[1] 1466 – July 12, 1536), sometimes known as Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist and a Catholic priest and theologian. His scholarly name Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus comprises the following three elements: the Latin noun desiderium ("longing" or "desire"; the name being a genuine Late Latin name); the Greek adjective ἐράσμιος (erásmios) meaning "desired", and, in the form Erasmus, also the name of a St. Erasmus of Formiae; and the Latinized adjectival form for the city of Rotterdam (Roterodamus = "of Rotterdam").

Erasmus was a classical scholar who wrote in a "pure" Latin style and enjoyed the sobriquet "Prince of the Humanists." He has been called "the crowning glory of the Christian humanists."^[2] Using humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament. These raised questions that would be influential in the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation. He also wrote The Praise of Folly, Handbook of a Christian Knight, On Civility in Children, Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style, Julius Exclusus, and many other works.

Erasmus lived through the Reformation period and he consistently criticized some contemporary popular Christian beliefs. In relation to clerical abuses in the Church, Erasmus remained committed to reforming the Church from within. 
He also held to Catholic doctrines such as that of free will, which some Protestant Reformers rejected in favor of the doctrine of predestination. 
His middle road approach disappointed and even angered many Protestants, such as Martin Luther [DORIN'S NOTE: not Martin Luther King Jr. - http://www.zazzle.com/c_am_sayin_postage-172331084925934503?rf=238693463283865848 ], as well as conservative Catholics.
He died in Basel in 1536 and was buried in the formerly Catholic cathedral there, recently converted to a Reformed church.^[3]"

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus}

Part 2 Fox news: Outfoxing the Cold War - The Arctic Fox (Alopex lagopus), maximum cards/ maxicards/ dorincards from USA and Romania

See my previous post for more images and info. :)