This weekend, local DJ Chris Thinn is having a show at the Magic Pony Gallery -- but this one's got nothing to do with music.

Entitled, "The Postcard Project", the exhibit will showcase an immense collection of unique postcards, collected via good ol' snail mail, from folks all over the globe.

Doing a little Q&A with Chris, we travel back to 2002 when all the madness began...

Q: The obvious question: where did this project come from and what inspired you to put out a call for postcards... of all things...

A: In the summer of 2002 I was working night-shift in a beer factory, saving money for school. Working night-shift, you don't see anyone. You sleep during the day, and never see your friends. I went 4 months without seeing anyone, let alone the sun... so I was getting a bit depressed, and thought I should cheer myself up. So I came up with this idea as a scheme to get mail. Because everyone loves getting mail.

Q: How did you get the word out -- and so far across the world?

A: I used to do a lot of zines and had a lot of contact with interesting people around the world. So I designed a little flyer and started by sending a few copies to each of my zine pals. They in-turn sent copies of the flyers to their contacts. And it just seemed to keep mushrooming. I've since received crazy-hand-made-one-of-a-kind postcards from designers, illustrators, photographers, graffiti artists, cartoonists, zine makers, punks, knitters, silk-screeners and others from around the world.

Q: Just how many responses did you get?

A: The collection is somewhere between 300 and 400 postcards, from places as far off as Japan, Korea, South Africa, Sri Lanka, all over Europe, South America, the US and Canada.

Q: That's incredible. What is the most interesting or bizarre card you received? Any other notable mentions?

A: Probably this one postcard that came in the form of a block of wood with a giant plastic bumble-bee nailed to the front. There's another that was engraved into a neon-orange slab of plastic. Another was completely knit from 100% wool. I'm amazed that some of these things made it through the postal system!

Upon seeing Chris' collection, my excitement over getting random magazines or CD's in the mail (the best I can expect) is forever ruined... I long for my own giant plastic bumble-bee now.

But alas, I can settle for gawking over this collection -- and so can you -- ALL weekend. The show runs from Thursday to Sunday, with the opening party/reception this Friday from 7-11pm.

Magic Pony Gallery, 785 Queen St W., 2nd Floor