Top 30 Stamp Collecting Blogs, according to the Guide to Art Schools website

"Top Five

1. The Stamp Collecting Round-Up: We personally feel that this is the best blog to follow regularly about stamp collection, particularly for people who are just beginning to demonstrate their affection for the hobby. The posts on this blog run through news affecting the entire community. It features writing specific to the stamp scene in America, but does not at all ignore the international stamp collecting body. Blogger Don Schilling, a retired U.S. Colonel, sets an excellent example of how stamp collection is great for a society.
   • Why We Love It: This blog is best for beginners in stamp collection but offers a trove of advice and fun-to-read features for stamp stalwarts.
   • Favorite Post: Postal Employees After-Hours
2. Dorincard: Blogger Dorin C is a stamp and postcard fanatic, and luckily he's more than pleased to write prolifically and charmingly about his obsession. He has a particular bent for stamps with wild mammals on them, but his blog demonstrates an affinity for stamps of all forms and backgrounds, as long as they offer a special narrative that's worth sharing with his readers.
   • Why We Love It: A picture-laden blog that bursts with the passion of its head writer for meaningful stamps.
   • Favorite Post: http://dorincard.blogspot.com/2011/01/floating-anniversary-of-drmartin-luther.html"

Source: http://www.guidetoartschools.com/library/best-stamp-collecting-blogs#ixzz1DbZZsh7h

GuideToArtSchools.com

Top Stamp Collecting Blogs

BBC: 'The birds and the bees'. 'Quiz: The surprises of animal sex'. Be my Valentine, in the (other) animal(s) world. To the heart, thru the body (language). Guest Heart Thursday meme. Black heart on the giant panda cub Tai Shan.

Guest Heart Thursday #44

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

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

My entry for the Guest Heart Thursday meme http://clytie-randomhearts.blogspot.com/ : the black heart on a hind leg of the giant panda cub Tai Shan, in the postcard AND ALSO in the stamp!!!.  See, I made it easy for you, not to waste too much time searching throughout the image...:)

The postmark is more visible here, on a different postcard:

The front side of the above postcard is this:

Please read this from BBC (viewer/reader discretion advised, although 'Naturalia non sunt turpia' = 'What is natural is not shameful'): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12409270 Take the quiz.

Also: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/sexual-nature/index.html

"Adult £8, Child and concessions £4, Family £21

Free to Members, Patrons and children aged 3 and under.

This exhibition contains frank information and imagery about sex."

Child and concessions? If you make your child a concession/compromise, they charge you for the concession, too? [must be another word meaning...]

"The exhibition gallery is adorned with sepia and black-and-white images depicting animals in sexual congress like this one".

Sexual congress? Aah, so that's  why so many politicians from around the world make certain...trans(con)gressions.

"Some of these displays may raise eyebrows."

What is that accordion song played like once an hour on canned music stations like HOT 99.5 FM (USA)? It's "Stereo Love", the longest charting song in the history of European top Hot 100, accumulating 52 weeks. Sung by Edward Maya ( Ilie Eduard Marian, Romania) and Vika Jigulina (Victoria Corneva, Russia/Romania)

The mastermind, Edward Maya: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Maya
Featuring Vika Jigulina: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vika_Jigulina

The basic refrain of the song was inspired, and eventually settled from the copyright standpoint, from "Bayatılar"  "an Azerbaijani 1989 composition by Eldar Mansurov." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayat%C4%B1lar

I like very much Edward Maya & Co, but "truth be told":
I would have emailed and snail-mailed a Registered Mail letter with Signature Confirmation to the Azerbaijan Composers Union about my unsuccessful attempts to contact Mr.Mansurov, the Azeri composer, about the copyright for the song. 
Even post it online, in a dated blog, or something.


If no answer, THEN and ONLY THEN I would have gone ahead with releasing "Stereo Love", in the idea that eventually the matter will be solved properly.
But at least I have written and dated proof that I have exhausted all the chances I could think of to contact Mr.Mansurov in due time.


Same thing for whoever the CIMPOI (Romanian bagpipes) virtuoso from Romania (Ion Laceanu? Dumitru Zamfira?) is the inspiration for "Desert Rain", which I also like very much.

Warning! Watch "Stereo Love" once, and it will become like an itch on your brain - you'll want to hear it again...and again...and again...:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-Z3YrHJ1sU

While we are at it, why don't you "beat your American music station/channel to the punch" and watch/listen the new videoclip "Desert Rain" - get a haunting taste of the CIMPOI, The Romanian bagpipes!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY49R8nz01Q

You agree, right, that some songs are not just songs - they are a symbol of good times, when you were (maybe) in a dance club or something, and the whole crowd, including you, were dancing, clapping, feeling good and worry-free, at least for some precious few moments...

Placeholder: I have to dig up from somewhere in the house some stamps and postcard with ACCORDION, as if you can't just google or wikipedia yourself and see what's all the fuss...:)

This image shows just one of the many types of accordions, and not necessarily the one used for this song.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PianoAccordeon.jpg

Read more about accordions here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accordion

UPDATE 13 FEB 2011: my postcard showing a group of accordion enthusiasts from the Netherlands.

I have a superb, fabulous, magnificent collection of accordions on stamps - but it consists of...only these two stamps: