AD Magazine is the official magazine of The National Society for Education in Art and Design (NSEAD).

This month, issue 2 is out and my REAL wall makes an appearance, complete with a pic by me of Elena browsing some postcards!

The write up is by a student on the course and is about the mailart project I helped run in my university for the Art and Design secondary PGCE.

You can read more about the project here

(Apologies for the scan quality, I'll try and get hold of a better one, this was sent to me by email and is horrible)

In a recent photoshoot for the Sunday Times, me and Elena tried desperately to slip in a few postcards, which were heartlessly cropped out.

I have just done a quick bit of photoshopping before this was worthy of appearing on the site, so here is that front page header thumbnail, complete with some postcards sent to Elena.

I've edited the main article a little just putting in the locations of the cards, in case you were wondering

my REAL wall - Subversive postcard plant fails to materialise in national press, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

So we failed to get any postcards in to the national press this time. Oh well, the year is still young...

my REAL wall - January 18, 2010 - Anthony and Elena appear in the Sunday Times, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

Only 2 weeks into 2010 and already my REAL wall has hit the national big time press...but not for what you think!

On Friday, I got a call from my mortgage advisor telling me that the Sunday Times had been in touch with him. They wanted to interview a young couple who had recently taken out a mortgage, and so he thought of me and Elena, and gave me a call.

The paper arranged for a photographer to be around in an hour and interviewed me on the phone as to why I chose the mortgage I did and next thing you know, me and Elena were on the front page of the Sunday Times money section!

I could hardly believe my eyes on Sunday, when I picked up the paper and saw our thumbnail on the front page in the top left hand corner, the very first thing you see when you turn to the money pages, and all my friends have remarked how little sense it makes that I, who care not a jot about the stuff, should be there looking like some money guru! As Jason says "...it just doesn't compute"

Amusingly, the paper reported my name as Anthony Hoang, the second time that my name has been spelt wrong in the papers. And yes everyone I know has ripped the piss out me for that already, so feel free to add yours below...

For REAL wall fans, me and Elena tried our very hardest to get your mail in.

The picture on the front page, which is also featured on the online version of the story was taken with the official REAL wall as the white background. The photographer was looking for a white background and said "Could you take those postcards down and we'll take the picture over there"

D'oh!

Inside the paper, on page 4 me and Elena are pictured on the stairs. After clearing the place up a little, Elena slyly draped Okadascat's knitted banner across the top of a table in front of us, and I set up a postcard from Richard Canard at our feet on the staircase.

Desperately we tried to maneuvre ourselves so that the photographer would take a pic of a postcard, but to no avail. Shucks. Maybe next time.

If any of you are going to appear in the press, please write to me and tell me and I'll send you some postcards to try to sneak in under the photographers radar. REAL subversion of the press is one of this years challenges!

my REAL wall today features what I hope to be the last of the post sent to Goldhawk Road. Still nothing has come through to the PO Box address yet at the new house, so the competition for first through the door is still very much on.

As usual, you can find out more about the postcards by clicking through to the flickr page and hovering over the picture, where you will find full annotations!

Regular readers know about how my REAL wall recently fell foul of local council restrictions on business waste disposal.

In what may well be the final chapter to this long running saga, local magazine Westside have covered the story for the second month with a quote from a Hammersmith and Fulham council official.

Again, the magazine have reported the story in a humour-free, irony-free way, no quotes from me and none of your protest post, which is a massive disappointment, especially as I had taken the story to them almost fully written, including scans of your postcards and I was on the phone to them giving them priceless quotes.

They called and asked for my response and I said "I look forward to seeing some post from the council on my wall soon" but nothing at all from me.

A wasted story opportunity.

Westside Magazine December 2009, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

This months press coverage is in a local magazine called Westside

The write-up is on page 10, under a headline about the local library running out of books.

I have to confess I don't particularly like this write-up. I wrote a full write-up of the incident and they've pretty much left out the facts and written up a pretty poor, humourless article. There's no mention of my REAL wall, the headline screams that the council have actually levied the fine, which they haven't and the picture is a generic pic not one that I sent. I'm most miffed that your protest mail hasn't made it into print anywhere too, which is a real shame.

Oh well, any publicity is better than nothing I guess, and I've finally got some time to get your protest post to the council this weekend, so watch this space.

As regular follwers of my REAL wall already know, we had a little trouble from the council recently, who are convinced that this bit of international postcard fun is a business.

I thought I'd send them a little message courtesy of the people at Nokia, who filmed me yesterday at Tower Bridge for their next viral advertising campaign, and I thought I would use the opportunity to make a small announcement to the council and to thank all my super fans from around the world who have sent post for my REAL wall.

Here's what me and Elena saw when we turned up at Tower Bridge for the filming of the Nokia advert yesterday at about 4pm.

A 50ft screen shaped like an arrow was hanging from a crane advertising Nokia maps.

I was scheduled to have the message

"Thanks to all the people who have sent post to my REAL wall. The council will never get us!"

The filming started later than expected and the light was not great by the time the shooting started, and the message had been edited so that by the time it went out it lost a lot, so consider this an insider gag to fans of my REAL wall.

The final message read

"To all the postcard senders"



"From around the world" (We missed that one - the message wasn't up very long and I was busy being filmed)

"You are all fantastic!"



"The council will never stop us!"



"by Andy Hoang"



I was a little miffed that the words "my REAL wall" were unceremoniously dropped (it was too late to do much about it at the time) and the filming took place so late with such poor light I don't hold much hope of it being screened, but I will be sending the pics to some local papers to make sure that the pen-pushing jobsworth who sent me the demand letter gets the message...

my REAL wall - 12 October 2009 - Good Times, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

In the top left hand corner of the REAL wall is this weeks copy of The Hammersmith and Kensington Times, featuring my REAL wall on page 3, and the latest post that has come in from you all.

my REAL wall in the local paper, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

We made it into the paper! This screenshot comes from the online edition of this weeks Hammersmith and Kensington Times, where my REAL wall, yours truly and your postcards are the prominent headline on page 3.

Thanks for all your outstanding contributions and a new REAL wall featuring the paper to follow soon!

UPDATE - The online version of this story was the top story on the website for nearly a week. See the full online text here

my REAL wall - 06 October 2009 - News preview, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

Last night a photographer came over from the Hammersmith and Kensington Times local newspaper to take a shot of me and my REAL wall for a story that should be running in this weeks paper.

This came about after Postmuse suggested that I write to a newspaper about the councils ludicrous demand letter.

I sent the paper a brief story outline on Friday and on Monday the editor called me and said that they had a story and he would be sending his photographer round to my house in the evening, so I thought I'd dig out some of the cards that I've received and put them on the wall.

The photographer came over at 7:30, took a couple of shots and left. Here's a preview of what will be in the paper, minus me so you can see the wall in all it's glory with your postcards from past and present.

If you spot yours why not click through to the flickr site and add a note to claim it!