March 7, 2011 – Nag Champa

All the technology in the world, and we still don’t have odorama for computers. If only you could scratch and sniff today’s piece through your computer screen.

Incense can be very polarizing — there are people who just hate it and then there are those who burn it all the time. Like so many things, the key word is moderation. Nag Champa is my perennial favorite. I also will always associate with my late friend Fred down in Joshua Tree.

I grew up with incense. Mom even sold it in her hippie shop back in Buffalo. Of course, I didn’t quite understand that the main purpose of incense, back then, was to cover the smell of marijuana. But I was pretty young when I got the clue. We had tenants on the third floor who burned loads of incense. They made a big show of saying they burned the incense because my great grandmother cooked too much turnip. It was ridiculous. My great grandmother came over every Monday because my mom worked late. She would always be waiting for us when we got home from school and she also cooked dinner. After the incense incident, we had a lot of things like turnip and cabbage on Mondays. Grandma N wasn’t going to be told that her cooking was stinky.

As for nag champa — Last year, a friend had to go do some work at the studio of famous, local musician. I asked him, “What was it like?” He said, “The place “smelled like nag champa.”

February 18, 2011 – Airmail

Yesterday I went to the post office to send something via airmail. In 2011 that seems almost quaint. But I do like to keep sending fun things via the mail. It was an appropriate thing to do yesterday. It was the 100th Anniversary of the first airmail letters, officially being sent by plane. On February 17, 1911 the letters made the trip from Santa Rosa to Petaluma. On February 18 (probably about the same time allowing for the international date line), the first letters were sent via air for a short distance in India. A century later, it’s obvious that airmail is towards the end of its life — in particular the airmailed letter.

Before 1911, correspondence was also sent via hot air balloon and courier pigeon. There was a brief time when you could send mail via zeppelin. If it were possible to send my mail via zeppelin, I’d run straight to the post office with a pile of letters.

When I was a kid I collected stamps. None of the stamps are of great value. I have a box of old commemoratives I bought at the post office. They have actually lost value when you adjust for inflation, but as they haven’t been cancelled, you can still use them. More of the stamps are beginning to turn up in my art. I also have those random foreign stamps on envelopes that people would give to a kid who collected stamps. My grandmother was a department store buyer in Buffalo. She would receive these small, hand sewn canvas packets from India with samples. I still have a few of those. Considering India’s role in airmail, it seems appropriate to dissect one for today’s piece.