Earlier this month, I received a box, stuffed with baseball goodness from Julie of the A Cracked Bat: Baseball Cards and a Hot Dog blog. This is the second time she has wowed me with SUPER SHINEYbaseball cards that celebrate Chicago's place in MLB. Baseball bloggers are the best!
I won't be posting images of all the cards Julie sent, but I've set a few aside to share here. There are several awesome chrome cards in the mix, both Topps and Bowman. There are even a few new Ernie Banks beauties, but the first card I'm going to share is a 2011 Topps 60 material relic. I have developed a strong fondness for relic and memorabilia cards. In fact, 'Textiles & Timber' is the descriptive title of a new project that I am working on. This project and the awesome mooc (Antiquities Trafficking and Art Crime) I am currently taking are the reasons my blog has been relatively silent of late. I had intended to not write about this card here at Now and Zen, but to reserve it for the project. However, when A Cracked Bat sends a relic card of Tyler Colvin, one must include it in a blog write-up. Back in 2010, Tyler Colvin had a projectile shard from a broken bat puncture his lung while running to home plate. It was a rather horrific injury, and although it put an end to Colvin's late season play, he recovered and was able play a few more years in MLB. Odds are that this material relic is from Colvin's fateful 2010 season. The Cubs were away and wearing their blue jerseys when Colvin took the hit to his chest, so this relic is not from the jersey he was wearing that day. Check it out.-
A Shattered Bat Memory from A Cracked Bat
The early Diamond Kings art cards don't do anything for me, although they now possess a retro vibe that I enjoy, but the recent Diamond Kings art cards are fabulous in my book. Here are some of the new ones Julie included that loaded box.
Showing a little love to the White Sox.
And some Cubs.
I have only a few Hendricks cards, but I'd say this Diamond Kings card is my favorite Hendricks.
This next card is a Legendary Cut, and it is gorgeous! Billy Williams, very nice!
Billy's scan doesn't show it, but that is gold foil over black marble, Upper Deck nailed classic majesty with this design.
Next up, some Bowman Platinum cards. These are my first cards from this brand, and boy are they sweet!
Julie found room to fit this Addison Russell Triple Thread into the mix. Cards that stand on end- brilliant!
Of course this Russell card is another example of a card whose glory refuses to come to life on a scanner.
I'm going to divide the spoils between two posts, but I want to fit three more cards into this first post. Up next are the Tristar Obak cards. I had neither heard of them, nor noticed them before these three cards arrived. Now and Zen LIKES these cards! They are deliciously quirky! When awesome people like Julie randomly send cards to me, I relish finding new cards to add to my want list. In general, I go into The Trading Card Database, add the new cards to my collection, then add all of the missing Cubs cards to my want list. This Obak set is the first set that I've added every missing card in the set to my want list. Gotta Catch 'Em All!
Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities in the World's Museums .com
Original Recording of Week 1 Live Chat:
Peru
Huaquero -A person who clandestinely excavates at archaeological sites for the purpose of obtaining marketable antiquities. The term is derived from the Quechua word ‘huaca’ (also ‘wak’a’).
Huaca - Prior to the Spanish Conquest, a ‘huaca’ was anything that was sacred, with an emphasis on sacred places. Depending on the context, use of the term ‘huaca’ in modern times can imply that there is still a sacred quality to these sites and objects.
Today the term is most often ascribed to archaeological sites.
Huaco - Usually means an ancient ceramic pot.
Huaquear - verb, to illicitly dig at or loot an archaeological site.
Easter Week - Traditionally when huaqueros rob the ancient tombs of Peru’s north coast.
There is a North Coast legend that during Easter Week artefacts rise to the ground's surface, becoming easy to find and one barely has to dig for them. Some sources claim that Good Friday is the preferred day for looting because ‘God is dead and doesn’t watch‘. Other sources claim that looting starts on Maundy Thursday when any outstanding curses that protect an archaeological site are lifted. Some believe that prior to the Spanish Conquest, occupants of archaeological sites are non-Christian ‘Gentiles’ who, in a sort of raising of the dead sense, cluster near the surface only during Easter Week so that they may be found by Christians.
Archaeologist Walter Alva believes that this traditional Easter looting has no foundation in pre-Conquest cultural tradition, but was introduced by the Spanish and used as a means to rob graves.
Huaquero Mythology - Looting lore is filled with curses, spirits, riches, and legend. These beliefs became a cultural norm where all locals know of these stories.
Below, are the lyrics of ‘Huaquero Viejo’ to which people dance the Marinera NorteƱa, the national dance of Peru:
Cambodian Heritage Statues stolen by Khmer Rouge - The Returns
Keeling Attendants (x2) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York -returned2013
Pandava Christie’s Auction House -returned2014
Bhima Norton Simon Museum, California -returned2014
Duryodhana Sotheby’s Auction House -returned2014
Hanuman Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio -returned2015
Rama Denver Art Museum -returned2016
Janus Figure: Leonardo Patterson
An antiquities legend in an 'intrinsically lawless' field - LA Times
Antiquities Dealer Leonardo Patterson Faces New Criminal Charges - NY Times
Infamous Antiquities Dealer Convicted of Smuggling and Forgery - Artnet
The page is over four years old, so some of you may already be familiar with The Bobblehead Project at the CBS Sports website, I found this fantasy bobblehead site only yesterday. These bobbleheads crack me up! I'm sure many of these bobblehead events were not funny at the time that they happened, but they are most certainly funny now. Love the Cubs bobblehead!
I have a few more baseball related gifts from Zipper to share with you. Today I will post the 'squealers'!
There were some Ernie Banks cards picked off of eBay for the purpose tickling my collecting fancy. Zip is a good shot, and indeed my fancy has been tickled! Let's check the rest of my birthday loot.
A pair of Mr. Cub minis
The coloring of this next card gives it the feel of having captured one brief but very real moment in time.
Nice.
Ernie receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2013.
The list of baseball players who have received the Presidential Medal of Freedom-
Joe DiMaggio 1977 by Gerald Ford
Jackie Robinson 1984 by Ronald Reagan, posthumously
Ted Williams 1991 by George H.W. Bush
Hank Aaron 2002 by George W. Bush
Roberto Clemente 2003 by George W. Bush, posthumously
Frank Robinson 2005 by George W. Bush
Buck O'Neil 2006 by George W. Bush
Stan Musial 2011 by Barack Obama
Ernie Banks 2013 by Barack Obama
Yogi Berra 2015 by Barack Obama, posthumously
Willie Mays 2015 by Barack Obama
Vin Scully 2016 by Barack Obama
My first Allen & Ginter for 2017, Banks foil.
All of those cards are new to my collection, and Ernie makes me smile every time I see him relishing his time in baseball heaven. Now imagine the SQUEAL this next card illicited from me!
Terrible photo, I know. I'm not sure there's a way to improve the quality of pics taken with a Fire tablet. I wanted to use the image at the Trading Card Database, but their card has a really faded auto, which means it doesn't look much like mine. Of course as autos go, there are always slight differences to be found with the graphology, so to keep the auto legit to my copy we'll be sticking with this fuzzy Doe photo.I love this card!
I was then presented with my first collectable balls! Ernie and Ozzie! What a day!
Falling down the south side of 50 isn't so bad when one is sharing that time with some one who is flat out awesome! It was a wonderful day! Thank you all for reading Now and Zen. Being a part of our niche in the blogosphere has been an uplifting experience. You guys are tops!
Howdy y'all! A very happy birthday was had by yours truly. There are postcards, stamps, trading cards and baseballs to post about. All good stuff!
As I write this post, I am watching the last Cubs game I'll see this year, unless they make it to the World Series. After the game, I think I will pull out the Halloween decorations and dress the apartment.
Zip has really outdone herself with her selection of birthday gifts this year! Let's take a look at some of the cool additions to my collections. First up are the postcards. A complete set of the 2000 USPS pre-stamped Legends of Baseball postal cards. These are gorgeous! Oddly enough, this set is not found in the Trading Card Database.
In 1988 Grenada issued a 9-sheet set of 81 Major League Baseball postage stamps. There were several PC hits for both Zip and I. Ernie Banks and Ozzie Smith being at the top of the lists. I do not have good images of the stamps so I'll forgo pics for now, except to make note of the Reds' Rose stamp.
A Pete Rose stamp had been printed on the original yellow sheet of stamps, but because he was uber naughty, authorities in the USA requested that the Rose stamp be removed. In compliance, Grenada replaced Rose's stamp with this non-stamp, which is what is found on my yellow sheet.
I will share more baseball goodies in my next post. Thanks for reading!
Tony at Wrigley Roster Jenga got me to thinking about what ONE baseball card I would want more than any other card, if I could have any card to add to my collection.
So here is my answer to the ONE card question.
Without a doubt, the answer for me is Ernie Banks' rookie card. Isn't this a beauty?!
Time for another pizza post! This one is a little bit different.
...howling...
I had a sweetheart of a dog many years a ago. She was a brilliant black lab with a sense of humor and she would crack a grin if you told her a joke. She was a perfect dog, and in her lifetime she had done only two no-nos. Her first moment was when I returned home and saw these rather large circular spots on the living room carpet that looked wet. When I got into the kitchen I found a large tub of Country Crock on the floor. The tub was empty. Completely empty! She had eaten a rather full tub of Country Crock, and apparently barfed it up several times in various places throughout the house. This was referred to as 'the butter incident'. She got a stern talking to about stealing the butter, and from that moment on, every time someone would look at her and say 'butter', she'd drop her head and turn away. š« Priceless.
Her second uh-oh moment was a couple years later. To cut to the chase with this story... I let my guard down, and she stole the pizza! Not a slice of pizza. No, no. She stole the whole pizza! She did not puke it up, and I'm pretty sure she was smiling when she saw the look on my face as I was realizing what had happened to the pizza. š« Priceless.
Today's pizza post pics are brought to you from the depths of Google Images.
