pop culture

New Zealand wins the Battle of Rock

| The Punk Philatelist

We’ve seen rock legends on stamps.

USA 1993 Legends of American Music Elvis Presly 29c stamp

We’ve seen classic rock album covers.

UK 2010 Classic Album Covers The Clash London Calling 1st stamp

You might have spotted some Classic Rock Posters at this very website.

Australia, 2006, Australian Rock Posters

Ireland’s Great Irish Songs issue from earlier this year had its share of rockers.

Canada wants you to know that it rocks.

Sweden doesn’t rock. It Roxette.

And then… there’s New Zealand.

Here’s New Zealand bringing us its Rock Legends.

…Geddit?

Take a closer look.

The Kiwis have trolled us all with an issue devoted to iconic rock formations, presented in the form of a rock poster sheetlet.

The subject rockers – sorry, rocks – are breathtaking, and could have formed a perfectly straight nature-themed issue. In fact, divorced from the sheetlet, the stamps DO look quite straight and dignified. The only clue to the fun that’s been had along the way is the metalesque insignia in the corner.

For those in the front row, the sheetlet produces a few more sniggers:

None of this detracts from the beautiful photos featured on the stamps. My favourite is probably Elephant Rock. Sad to read while researching this piece that Elephant Rock’s trunk has joint the pantheon of Rock Legend appendages in the sky. Or, more to the point, in the ocean.

New Zealand 2019 Rock Legends Elephant Rock $1.30 stamp

It seems somewhat unfair that, by wasting its Rock Legends issue on a dumb pun, New Zealand has once again chosen to deny Dave Dobbyn the glory he deserves. But apart from that, well played, New Zealand Post.

Rock on, bro.

What do you think of the Kiwis rocking the boat like this? Sign up and drop a comment below, or get involved over at my socials! I’m on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! Subscribe to my RSS feed and never miss a post!

© Philatelic product images remain the copyright of issuing postal administrations and successor authorities

Fondue is big this year

| The Punk Philatelist

Switzerland 2018 Fondue CHF1 fondue caquelonSo I look away for one moment and suddenly everyone is putting fondue on their stamps. And by ‘everyone’ I mean mostly Switzerland, but also Jersey.

Switzerland can be forgiven. Fondue as a mainstream dish is a surprisingly recent development in cuisine, but it’s theirs, and it’s a thing of national pride. Back in the 1930s, sitting around dipping stale bread into a pot of melted cheese must have been a fun way to pass a cold Alpine evening while discussing in four languages how the nearby rise of fascism left you feeling completely neutral. Continue reading →

The 12 Stamps of Christmas

| The Punk Philatelist

UPDATE! I’ve added a couple of reader’s nominations to the bottom of the list! Read on…

It’s the 12th day of Christmas. The Christmas tree withers in the corner, unwatered for days. The batteries on the toys have expired. The gurgling remnants of Christmas lunch are in a fight to the death with New Year’s resolutions. So it’s the perfect time for me to give you my 12 Stamps of Christmas! After all, I am your true love.

As mail revenues continue to plummet, for the postal administrations of Christendom, Christmas offers one last chance to hear the bells jingling on their cash registers. (Do you know how many Christmas cards I got in the mail this year? None. That’s a first. It might be that I’ve been crossed off multiple lists. But I choose to blame The Pace of Change.)

So which countries brought their festive philatelic A-game in 2018? These are my favourites of the stamps that crossed my radar. Continue reading →

A big, BIG issue

| The Punk Philatelist

Australia 2018 Silo Art $1 Brim Guido van Helten stamp
Brim, Victoria
Artist: Guido van Helten

One of my favourite Aussie issues of recent times was 2017’s Street Art – vibrant, modern, urban and startlingly different from the usual stamp fodder. Not surprisingly, those stunning works were a big hit on my Instagram page. They’re very like-able.

I’m a month late with this update but I still wanted to say how much I loved seeing Australia Post continue the theme with May’s Silo Art issue. Silo art is the rural equivalent of street art, except that it’s painted on grain silos, and it is, as a rule, fucking ENORMOUS. Continue reading →

Love this retro Jersey

| The Punk Philatelist

Jersey 2017 Popular Culture: The 1960s - moon landing, language, leisure stamps Jersey is one of those funny little islands in the English Channel that are closer to France, and part of the UK, but get to put out their own stamps.

Jersey 2017 Popular Culture: The 1960s 63p music stampInterestingly, this practice began during the Nazi occupation of those islands, when they were cut off from the mother country. This is just one of the reasons why nerds who are into postal history find them so delectable. (If you think you might be one of those nerds, you should check out the Channel Islands Specialists’ Society.)

I’m not one of those nerds, but I do like how these islands churn out pretty stamps, because, let’s face it, what else have they got going on? I mean apart from tax avoidance schemes.

Jersey 2017 Popular Culture: The 1960s 73p fashion stampRecently Jersey jumped on the retro stamp bandwagon with a 1960s Popular Culture issue.

I love the Hendrix-inspired psychedelic guitar player with his groovy vibes and his remarkable fused fingers on his strumming hand.

The models (or are they just ’60s housewives?) on the fashion stamp take me back to a childhood spent rifling through Grandma’s sewing pattern magazines.

And it eludes me why more stamp administrations don’t honour the cheese and pineapple stick on their postal stamps. Continue reading →

Printer is gumming: UK issues Game of Thrones stamps

| The Punk Philatelist

UK 2018 Game of Thrones 1st Iron Throne stampHappy New Year, readers! Hoping your year is as bloody awesome as the pun in my headline.

2018 has kicked off with the news that on January 23, the UK’s Royal Mail is releasing no less than 15 stamps commemorating “the significant British contribution” to the production of the TV series Game of Thrones.

Here’s the Royal Mail’s justification for jumping on the GoT band-dragon:

The Game of Thrones production involves a very significant British contribution. Principal filming of the series is at Titanic Studios in Belfast, at the Linen Hill Film Studio in Banbridge and on location elsewhere in Northern Ireland, with additional filming in Scotland and European locations including Malta, Croatia, Iceland, Morocco and Spain.
Additionally, the acclaimed cast is predominantly British and Irish, and British expertise is to the fore in many areas of the production, including award-winning costume design and prosthetic special effects.

And here’s what they might as well have written:

Game of Thrones is huge and we are out to make a shipload of coin.

UK 2018 Game of Thrones 1st Daenerys Targaryen stampUK 2018 Game of Thrones 1st Cersei Lannister stampUK 2018 Game of Thrones 1st Tyrion Lannister stampUK 2018 Game of Thrones 1st Jon Snow stamp

Continue reading →

10 postage stamps that will whisk you back to your childhood

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UK 2017 Classic Toys 1st Stickle Bricks stamp(…Or someone’s childhood. Someone British.)

Ever been suddenly reminded of something that was once an everyday part of your life, but somewhere along the way, it wasn’t anymore, and you think, ‘I haven’t thought of that in YEARS!’?

For me, it was last Tuesday, when this stamp crossed my radar. First reaction: “STICKLE BRICKS!” These joyfully-colored, spiky, plastic building blocks were a regular feature of the bedroom floor in my childhood home. But indeed, I hadn’t thought of them in years.

Second reaction: “I didn’t know they were called Stickle Bricks. How about that.”

And then came the question. What the fuck are Stickle Bricks doing on a postage stamp? I had to know more. Continue reading →