Seven maximum card variants that I created with the 84 cents stamp showing the Gates of the Valley, Yosemite National Park. The FDOI (First Day of Issue cancellation, non-pictorial, with killer bars) is from St.Louis, MO, but I would have preferred a pictorial postmark from a nearby post office

Which is your favorite, of these 7 maxicards, and why?

I like the whole set, since the 7 MCs contribute their own perspective on the subject.

A set of maximum card variants is always more interesting than any single one, for me.

http://www.usps.com/communications/news/stamps/2005/sr05_056.htm

"Yosemite National Park ( /joʊˈsɛmɪtiː/ yoh-sem-it-ee) is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in east central California, United States. 

The park covers an area of 761,268 acres (3,080.74 km²)^[2] and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain.^[4] 

Over 3.7 million people visit Yosemite each year:^[3] most spend their time in the seven square miles (18 km²) of Yosemite Valley.^[5] 

Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its spectacular granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, Giant Sequoia groves, and biological diversity.^[5] 

Almost 95% of the park is designated wilderness.^[6] 

Although not the first designated national park, Yosemite was central to the development of the national park idea, largely owing to the work of people like Galen Clark and John Muir.^[7]"

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

Take THAT, Manneken Pis! :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:O%27Shaughnessy_Dam.jpg

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

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Happy Blue Monday! (meme)

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

Billboard Awards: Top Dance Song: Edward Maya & Vika Jigulina -- "Stereo Love". Bravo! :) http://dorincard.blogspot.com/search?q=maya. Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Eminem Top 2011 Billboard Music Awards | Billboard.com

Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Eminem Top 2011 Billboard Music Awards | Billboard.com

"SONG AWARDS:

Top Hot 100 Song:

Taio Cruz -- "Dynamite"

Top Digital Song:

Taio Cruz -- "Dynamite"

Top Radio Song:

Bruno Mars -- "Just The Way You Are"

Top Streaming Song (Audio):

Nelly -- "Just A Dream"

Top Streaming Song (Video):

Justin Bieber Feat. Ludacris -- "Baby"

Top Pop Song:

Taio Cruz -- "Dynamite"

Top R&B Song:

Usher Feat. will.i.am -- "OMG"

Top Rap Song:

Eminem Feat. Rihanna -- "Love The Way You Lie"

Top Country Song:

Lady Antebellum -- "Need You Now"

Top Rock Song:

Train -- "Hey, Soul Sister"

Top Alternative Song:

Neon Trees -- "Animal"

Top Latin Song:

Shakira Feat. Freshleyground -- "Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)"

Top Dance Song:

Edward Maya & Vika Jigulina -- "Stereo Love"

[See again the worldwide sensation videoclip "Stereo Love"!

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

Top Christian Song:

Chris Tomlin -- "Our God""

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So, Billboard Awards: Top Dance Song:

Edward Maya & Vika Jigulina -- "Stereo Love". 

Bravo! :)

http://dorincard.blogspot.com/search?q=maya

Next, I want to see the song "Desert Rain" being awarded the Top Dance award! :)

I want to re-post this, by popular demand:

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/

Where in the world are these GARGOYLES? This is a verification question, not a fact-finding question. I already know the answer, for some reason. :)

"In architecture, a gargoyle is a carved stone grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building. 

Preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls is important because running water erodes the mortar between the stone blocks.^[1]

Architects often used multiple gargoyles on buildings to divide the flow of rainwater off the roof to minimize the potential damage from a rainstorm. 

A trough is cut in the back of the gargoyle and rainwater typically exits through the open mouth. 

Gargoyles are usually an elongated fantastic animal because the length of the gargoyle determines how far water is thrown from the wall. 

When Gothic flying buttresses were used, aqueducts were sometimes cut into the buttress to divert water over the aisle walls."

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