Chicago Philatelic Exhibition and Chicagopex 2015 Youth Booth

Chicago Philatelic Exhibition

FREE Stamps for Kids Booth open for business at Chicagopex 2015. Forget the snow, come join the fun!

Posted by Andrew Oleksiuk on Sunday, November 22, 2015

3D Painting with Soul

Far more interesting to me on most days is my identity as an avatar, not in any way represented in the video below. Graphics tools make graphic realism, but there is much more to the soul of an avatar that realistic detail. Regardless, it interesting to see what is out there for painting these days. This is a product ad for Substance Painter.

Lecture on Postal History of Chicago's Northwest Side

Friday, October 16
1:00 p.m.
Postal History of Chicago’s Northwest Side
Andrew Oleksiuk, Chicago Philatelic Society

Andrew will demonstrate how to track local history through the founding of post offices by focusing on early Jefferson Township,its founding, and its ties to Chicago via the development of the railroads. Learn how the study of neighborhood post offices enhances our understanding of neighborhoods from the early days of Chicago through the Chicago Fire, the annexations of 1893, the twentieth century, and today.

Suggested Donation $5

Mather's
7134 W. Higgins Avenue, Chicago, IL 60656
Please register by Oct 9
(773) 774.4804 matherlifewaysinyourneighborhood.com

What's the difference between postal history and philately, you ask?

Postal history and philately can each be thought of as subsets of one another, depending on how you define them. Philately in general is stamp collecting and everything associated with it: acquisition, research, exhibiting of stamps and stamp-related items. Philately can be technical (stamp issue variations, formats) or topical (who or what is commemorated?). One definition of postal history is mailed envelopes, or "covers", and other objects sent through the mail. People collect postal history because of the information imparted by the objects often tell a story quite beyond the stamps: mailing date and location, where and how it traveled, etc. Collecting postal history is a natural extension of philately. The other way of thinking about it is postal history as the general subject, in the more literal definition of the phrase - everything about the history of the post office. In this sense, philately or stamp collecting is a subset of postal history. Stamps issued by a country is but one part of what a postal service does. The rates, routes, markings, and other postal objects and ephemera are the other related subjects of study here.

Photo: one page from my 116-page collection/exhibit of Ukraine postal history, showing a postcard with a Russian empire stamp and a Black Sea transit marking from Odessa to Batum. This mail was posted at the port or on the ship.

WBEZ's Curious City

In May, I was interviewed for WBEZ's Curious City program in my capacity as secretary of the Illinois Postal History Society. The program was about Chicago's municipal street renumbering system of 1909.

http://www.wbez.org/series/curious-city/unsung-hero-urban-planning-who-made-it-easy-get-around-chicago-112061

Stamps for Kids engages Chicago youth at Millennium Park

In its tenth consecutive year, Stamps for Kids engaged Chicago youth with stamp collecting fun on Sunday, May 31st. This years stamp giveaway was held at the Chicago Gospel Music Festival in Millennium Park. Stamps for Kids has traditionally been held at Taste of Chicago on Chicago's lakefront Grant Park. After the merger of MOSE, the Mayor's Office of Special Events, Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) invited Stamps for Kids to participate in the Chicago Gospel Music Festival in the past several years. In 2014 "Gospel Fest" was held in Ellis Park in the Bronzeville neighborhood. Stamps for Kids has also been active at Chicago Philatelic Society's Chicagopex postage stamp show, held each November.

On Sunday, Stamps for Kids braved the unforgiving Chicago spring. As a result, attendance at the event suffered. High winds and a 45 degree start, and cold rain the previous day affected expected numbers at Chicago Gospel Music Festival. However, the Kids Activity Zone was busy through much of the day, giving parents a welcome respite from the grueling weather and kids something to do at Chicago's downtown lakefront Millennium Park. The colorful Stamps for Kids area of the Kids Activity Zone tent, festooned with oversize stamp images of the USA and international postage was often filled with excited Chicago school children, eager to have their summer activities begin.

Chicago youth received stamps from donations of the stamp stock currently available. Among them, stamps from Egypt, Iran, South Africa, San Marino, Algeria, Morocco, Guinea, Niger, Austria, England, Costa Rica, Honduras, USA, Australia, Belgium, New Zealand, Italy, Romania, Ukraine, Mexico, Poland, Thailand, China, Japan, and many others. Stamp subjects included kings and queens, princes and princesses, dinosaurs, sports, bugs, birds, flowers, butterflies, presidents, planes, trains, automobiles, scenic landscapes, famous inventors, and art. Children of all ages and happy moms and dads were able to handpick favorite selections from the thousands of stamps available in the Stamps for Kids booth.

Sense-Net Media News

I think I'll put up a quick post here, so much going on.

I was on a panel with Sabrina Raaf and Mirella Shannon for Jason Geistweidt's Interdisciplinary Arts class. Loads of fun reviewing grant proposals. Some really interesting work.

I was interviewed for Chicago Public Radio's Curious City program in regards to Chicago postal history and the municipal renumbering system of 1909. Will be aired later in the month. I'll link the podcast version here.

I am putting together several grant proposals - wish me luck.

Stamps for Kids will happen on Sunday May 31, 2015 at Chicago Gospel Music Festival. Looking for people willing to man the booth and also looking for funding.

Clash of the Americas: Champions League Final

Many soccer fans in Chicago are faced with this quandary: who to root for in the CONCACAF Champions League? There are more Mexicans in Chicagoland than in many other cities in North America. The Mexican National Museum of Art is in Chicago. Not all Mexicans or Mexican-Americans are fans of soccer, or futbol, but much of the Spanish speaking world it is _the_ game, the only game that matters. Chicagoans, too, are passionate about their soccer. There are fans of English Premier League, Bundesliga, and Barcelona FC to name a few blockbuster soccer entities, as well as the local favorites, former U.S. Major League Soccer champions, Chicago Fire. Watching the FIFA World Cup from Brazil last year was a feast of entertainment as European, African, Middle Eastern, Asia-Oceanic, and American passions erupted. I watched the US Men's National Team on giant screens at the watch parties in Chicago's lakefront Grant Park. A smaller regional contest, the CONCACAF Champions League final, a tournament of North and Central American professional clubs, will be played April 22 and April 29, 2015, at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City and Olympic Stadium, Montreal, Canada, respectively, between Canadian team Montreal Impact who play in the US-based Major League Soccer and Mexico City's Club America of LigaMX.

This tournament final, played in two matches a week apart, may present a fan dilemma for some Chicagoans. Who to root for? Folks often have second favorite teams and leagues. It's common to root for your home team. Entry to CONCACAF Champions league means you're a winner. In international matches your club affiliation is second only to your country as in the phrase "for club and country." So when you've exhausted your allegiance to your club, and your country, who should you root for: your team franchise's corporate league? The odd thing is, Montreal did not win a MLS championship, they won a separate Canadian Championship to enter the tournament. They did not enter the tournament by winning the US Open Cup, the MLS Cup of the Supporter's Shield. As far as I'm concerned, they're representing Canada, not MLS, from a competitive standpoint.

On the heels of the USA 2-0 MEX exhibition game last week, the growing rivalry between these countries of the subject of soccer, and the upcoming CONCACAF Gold Cup, MLS expansion in NYC and Orlando, soccer fever in Chicago and the USA has been heating up. Montreal Impact have had a rivalry with Chicago and Chicago Fire fans going back to - wait for it - two years ago - when Chicago Fire former star and coach, Frank Klopas, recently left Chicago Fire for Montreal Impact, along with former Chicago Fire defender Bakary Soumare and midfielder Dilly Duka. Chicago Fire fans do like checking in with old teammates and certainly many would like to see Klopas and company do well. Klopas took his style with him to Montreal and hasn't hesitated to stir some controversy while coming in dead last in MLS standings in 2014. Soccer is an international sport and questions of allegiance are often tested by relationships of distance, family ties, even war. I've lived on this continent long enough to know not to subscribe to the fan police who tell folks how to be a fan or who to root for. If you like Club America, LigaMX or Mexico, and are also a fan of American soccer and MLS, I absolutely think you have solid reason to root for Club America over Montreal Impact in the CCL final. It's like my grandmother, a Ukrainian immigrant, used to say, "Up to you".

Postal History of Chicago's Northwest Side

Image credit: Leonard Piszkiewicz, Chicago Postal Markings and Postal History, James E. Lee Publishing, 2006.

Irving Park Road PD&C (Processing and Distribution Center) hand stamp and machine cancels, from the author's personal collection.

Map of the Township of Jefferson, 1861, not yet part of Chicago. Encyclopedia of Chicago. www.chicagohistory.org

I'll be giving a talk entitled "Postal History of Chicago's Northwest Side: its history, neighborhoods, and post offices" at a regular meeting of the Chicago Philatelic Society. Its free and open to the public.

Thursday, April 16. 7:00pm
Harold Washington Library Center
400 S State St, Chicago, IL 60605
3rd Floor (room in the back toward the elevators)

Part 1: Defining Chicago’s Northwest Side, Early Post Offices
Part 2: Growth of Chicago and Suburbs after the Chicago Fire, 1871
Part 3: Peculiar Postal Places on Chicago’s Northwest side

Abstract
As Chicago's early communications infrastructure grew along with its explosive population, United States post offices handled customers' social media and business needs. A system of marine, road, rail and eventually air transportation routes utilized by United States Post Office Department (USPOD, later USPS) facilitated the certainty, security and celerity of the mails. This presentation will discuss the postal history and historiography of Chicago’s Northwest side. The study of neighborhood post offices enhances understanding of neighborhood placenames from the early days of Chicago, the Chicago Fire of 1871, the annexations of 1893, throughout the 20th century and today.

keywords: Jefferson Park, Irving Park, Dunning, Montclare, Norwood Park, Cragin, Wicker Park, Humboldt Park, O’Hare Airport, Northwestern Railroad, Dickinson's Tavern, Portage Park