This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
Volume one. Good.
Hello, and welcome to episode 82 of the erasable podcast. Today we're checking in on the latest bevy of quarterly releases. Though we're puzzled, we only sorta know who Guy Clark is, why that novel only cost a dime, or why that Baron Fig notebook is unfinished. But never fear, we'll be uncovering the truth soon about them. Joining me are the two real volume ones in my heart, Johnny and Tim. Hey, guys,
well done.
Thank you.
You nailed it.
Both volumes of my heart are very warm.
You guys are much less fugly than the Blackwing Volume 1.
Man, we are gonna have an argument on this, po.
You know what, Johnny? Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
You ding ding your foot.
Ding, ding ding. Did you say ding ding your foot? Damn.
Yeah, your foot has been ding dinged.
We're PG rated. All right. Really, really bad mom jokes. That's later.
Yeah, we'll see what we can do then. So, yeah, we're mostly good today. Just going to talk about the quarterly releases. We also. One thing I didn't mention that we didn't know is what the heck write pads is waiting for. Come on, guys. Did you tell them? Didn't you tell them, Johnny, that we have to talk about it? Since we're recording today, he's gonna have
to wait like did. Yeah, I don't know if I'm allowed to say they scrapped their idea and went with something different.
Did they have Guy Clark, too?
No.
Like, what are the chances?
Way off that, but yeah, this one's. It's really pretty. I saw a mockup of the COVID Yeah, and for once, I'm gonna spoil this. Chris's trolling on Instagram is actually related to the edition.
Oh, good. That's not. That's not spoiling. I don't know what that W is Anyway, the hashtag was, like, pigtown. I don't know what that is.
Well, that's just where the binder is.
Okay, gotcha. All right, so anyhow, before we get into all of that, Tim, why don't you talk. Tell us about your tools of the trade.
All right, I am, first of all, riding with a Mitsubishi 9852. Ew. That's the 9852 from Mitsubishi. That is recycled. Recycled in the same way that the Ticonderoga Renew is. So it's made with, like, the leftover sections of the. The slats. And then they mash them together to make a pencil out of the remainder, which I. I ordered a few of them from CW and really love. Them and then ended up ordering a whole dozen just because I wanted.
Yeah, that one.
Great.
Yeah, A lot of those Japanese pencils have really pretty boxes, but that one especially is really sweet.
Yeah, absolutely.
See, Brad, we do talk about the Mitsubishi 9800.
Yeah, it's a. Does he say we don't.
What was that conversation that he and Les had on Twitter? He was like, he doesn't hear too much pencil chatter about one of the. Or is it the tombows? I don't remember. I wasn't following it too closely.
I wasn't paying attention.
I never listened to things that guy says.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's a. I've always. I love the 9852, but I've had my eye on this one for probably like over a year. Like well over a year because of just the natural finish and all that. And I finally did it and it's a awesome looking pencil. It's a natural pencil with green imprint. The feral is like a light purple. And then it's kind of hard to tell when I'm looking at the eraser. I can't tell if it's black or if it's actually a dark purple as well. I think it's a dark purple. It's really, really good looking pencil. And it's sharpened with my Pollux, which your trick, Andy, is working like a charm that you learned from. I forget who you learned it was.
Yeah. Micah. Micah Thomas.
There you go. Yeah. Micah, thank you. Awesome. It works great.
Did we talk about that on air? I can't remember.
I don't remember. I don't think so.
Cool. I'll make sure to talk about it. Yeah, I'll talk about in freshpoints.
Okay, Sounds good. Yeah. So using that. And I am writing. I've been busting out the legal pads a lot more lately because I've been working on some longer writing projects. And I just am in a renaissance of legal pads. I just love them. They're fantastic. And I've been working on some short story writing. And then also my students are writing. Do you remember that segment, this I Believe on npr? And it was like the old radio show. So my freshmen are writing this I believe essay in class. And so I told him I'd write one along with them. And so I was using legal pads to draft out my ideas and just love it. So I'm writing in an Amazon Basics legal pad with the 9852ew.
You can write with them in the bedroom, on your desk, in the office, in the classroom.
Forgot about that. That was fantastic.
Upside down in the shower.
That was the best. I want to go back to that episode and, like, figure out what that. Like, where that was. Well, that was the selfie with this one, wasn't it?
Yeah.
Okay, I'm gonna find it. And then at some random point in the episode today, I'm just gonna start reading those. So get ready. Get ready.
It's good radio, folks.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's what I'm writing with, what I'm writing on. And I am drinking a little Benchmark whiskey to help with my cold just a little bit. And I am consuming. I've got a few things here. First is a podcast. Last time I was talking about the Beatles and how I'm like, a lot of people into the Beatles, but. And I was, like, obsessed when I was a kid for a really long time. The last couple years. Hadn't listened to a lot and then have just dove back in. And it's like, all I've been listening to for a while. But I found this podcast that's really great. It's called Screw It, We're Just Going to Talk about the Beatles. And it's a. They started it right after the inauguration, so it was like a. They just said we were all, you know, mad about the election and all this, and we just decided, you know, forget it. We're gonna make this podcast. We're just gonna talk about the Beatles. So it's been going on just since then, but they go through all the albums with, like, a panel, a revolving panel of people, and they talk about all the episodes, and they have all these little subjects they talk about once they finish the episodes. I think they did two seasons, and they're getting ready for a third. Third. So pretty cool podcast. It's. It's fun. It's definitely. Beatles, you know, are timeless and ageless. Like, you can't. Like, any age can listen to them and enjoy them. The podcast, not so much. So don't listen to it with your kids, because these are. Yeah, they don't. They don't keep the language pg.
There's not typewriter bills there.
No, absolutely not. But they are. But it's. It's really entertaining because they're all friends that work and perform in the Los Angeles improv scene. So they. Of course, they're just hilarious with each other, and they have really good rapport, and their conversations are super entertaining. So listening to that. I'm also listening to a new album by Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys. He has a new, new album called Waiting on A Song, which I really recommend. It's a, it's an awesome album and actually a friend of a friend is the engineer on the album and has become Dan Arbock's like right hand man. And so you got the album. Can see him on the back of it and everything. It's pretty cool. But it is, it's nothing like the Black Keys. You know, Black Keys are pretty heavy. This is more produced and happier and it's just a really cool album. It's a perfect end of summer album, I'd say. And lastly, I was went and watched the documentary called May It Last, which Jane and I, my wife Jane and I went to see it a couple weeks ago and it was made by Judd Apatow and it's about the band the Avett Brothers. Johnny, if you're familiar with the Avett Brothers. Yeah. So they, we've been big fans of them for a long time and then we found out this and just like couldn't believe it was real. And then they announced that it was going to be. Yeah. Judd Apatow was directing it. Co directing it. And it was going to be playing in theaters for one night only and weirdly enough Johnson City picked it up. So we had it here. So we got a babysitter, went and saw it and it was just an outstanding documentary. It was about the recording of their last album called True Sadness and goes through some talking about the relationship of the two brothers and things that have happened in the lives of the different members over the last few years. And it was just a really well made documentary and it's going to be. It was only playing for one night but it's going to be on HBO I think starting in January. Like they're going to, it's. It's made for HBO and then it'll come out on DVD and streaming or whatever after that.
Yeah.
So but keep an eye out for it. Even if you're not a fan of the Brothers, it's still just a really good music documentary about a band and following them through the recording of an album and it might just get you as well. It's really powerful, really good documentary. So. But that's me. So how about you, Johnny?
So we were talking about this before, but Tim has a clone on the Masterpiece Show. Poldark, the guy that plays Dwight the doctor, reminds me of Tim. I mean, you know, wearing 18th century clothing and no beard.
I'm looking this up right now.
But just as handsome.
Right.
I put under Tim's consuming. I put a link to a good picture.
Okay.
Dwight Ennis.
Yeah.
So we tried to watch Poldark like, a year ago, but the first half of the first episode is just, like, really, really bad. Like, every single way the show can be bad, but people whose opinions that I respect like it a lot. So the last straw was when our friend June Thomas said something about being excited about Poldark. I was like, okay, I'm gonna watch it. So we're halfway through season two, which is the latest one. I think season three comes this week.
Johnny, I am honored that you think I'm as handsome as this fellow right here.
I said that when it came out. I was like, he looks familiar. I'm like, that looks like Tim.
Oh, well, thank you. I'm just going to start giving people this picture instead of my own picture. Put that as your got to find
one of them wearing modern clothing.
I don't think I want to. I think that'll just get worse for me.
Just need to gray his hair a little bit. I think
he's got my blue eyes, though, so I can.
Yeah. So if you guys haven't seen that show, it's, like, super good. Especially the. The first season, if you're a Downton Abbey fan, you keep waiting for someone to, like, die, but no one just drops dead. So that's good spoilers. Yeah. Oh, that happens later. So Charlotte and I raced through Harry Potter three. We had a bet. She won three, so I have to draw her picture.
Wait, what was the bet?
So we had a bet about Harry Potter 2 who had finished first. And, you know, I've already read them, so I can just lie and say I finished it, so I won. So the third one was like, you know, let's just, you know, we'll read them. She won't put the book down. You know, I'm busy. I don't have time to read that much. And I had to keep reminding her when she got ahead of me. Charlotte, I've already read these. Like, you were still crapping your pants when I read these books, which she thought was funny. But anyway, she beat me by day, so I owe her a picture. So Charlotte, who's only 7, is now in book four, and I have a quizzer. She really gets everything Surprising. She even gets a lot of the pronunciations right, like, awesome. And there's all this cool new music coming out. There's a new U2 coming out coming out. U2 album on the December 1st, if you're a YouTube fan. And Marilyn Manson has new album coming out. I'm a big Marilyn Manson fan. Sorry, Lights. And if you guys are Arcade Fire fans, the new Arcade Fire album actually came out like a month or two ago. It's really, really good. Yeah, I think I might have mentioned it on here before.
The new national album is really good, too.
I haven't heard that. Sorry. I'm, like, really behind on everything. They put it. Last time I was getting a tattoo, we played that at the end. It's like, what is this? New Arcade Fire suite? So, yeah. Are you guys Marilyn Manson fans or am I all alone enjoying the aging Manson?
Enjoying the aging Manson is a pretty amazing phrase, but I am not a fan. But not like, I just. I don't think I've ever listened to an entire song.
So he's mellowing out. Or rather, like, now he writes songs that are Marilyn Manson songs instead of songs by Marilyn Manson. That makes any sense. Like now when you listen to U2, you're like, yeah, this is YouTube playing U2.
YouTube covering YouTube. They're like their own tribute band.
Can you listen to it on YouTube? Watch it on YouTube?
YouTube. On YouTube playing YouTube.
Yeah, YouTube has a new single out that's not bad. But it's sounds like YouTube playing YouTube.
Maybe they can just automatically put it on my iPhone for me.
There's probably, like an Apple app for that.
Yeah.
Working on it. Yeah. So I am writing with. I'll beat Andy to it. Of Blackwing Volume 1 and a field notes, Campfire edition. The middle one, the nighttime one.
Nice.
I'm writing in the dime novel.
That's not what the doc says.
You're right. I'm writing with my Lisa Frank unicorn diary. How could I be so unobservant of what I'm writing in?
Have you hacked into my camera on my computer?
Yeah, I'm watching it right now.
I'd like to hear the sparkles. I can hear it sparkling on your side, Andy.
It's a very rare notebook.
Well, so, yes, I guess we've already covered what I'm writing with and in paper in these unicorn. These Lisa Frank books aren't that great.
You know, if you use one of those unicorn diaries, you will only have half a life.
So I. I have to admit that I have watched season three of Fuller House, which I'm assuming that you wrote. You've all finished.
I got the advanced copy.
Yeah, you did. I figured.
But also on LaserDisc a few weeks ago.
Yeah, on LaserDisc.
On.
I did watch the first two episodes of the New Star Trek show, Star Trek Discovery. And I just absolutely love it. I think that they did a real good job of sort of like modernizing, like modernizing the classic Star Trek but for like, but not like treating the audience like it's dumb. Like, I feel like the new Star Trek movies like Star Trek beyond and like, you know, all of those things just are just basically an action movie. They don't have a lot of the same like message of exploration and tolerance and like diversity that Star Trek has traditionally had. And this one still captured like the fast paced, kind of like suspense driven thing, but not to the extent of Star Trek beyond. And it also, like, it's just super intelligent. So. So far so good. We're only two episodes in. It was really great. So I'm really. Yeah.
Have you watched the Orville yet?
Not yet. I, I keep meaning to. I think I'm gonna wait to binge watch that when Katie's out of town because it's not something I think she'll be super into.
I, I do want to see that.
Yeah.
Yeah. I accidentally found myself watching the first episode like I just had. It's one of the rare moments that I've watched something on tv like as it was actually on, you know. Yeah. But it was actually pretty funny. I kind of, kind of enjoyed it. So. Yeah, it was that first episode. I watched maybe half of the first episode and I was enjoying it and then I had to do something else. But yeah, yeah, we'll talk about that later.
I definitely want to watch that. It's amazing to me how it's like a parody, but it has like amazing looking production values.
Oh yeah, it really is. It really does. Yeah.
Yeah. It's like Starship Troopers, it kind of looks like. And then beyond that there's a podcast, so radiotopia, who makes 99% invisible, and I think the West Wing Weekly, a couple others, the Illusionist, they just started doing a new, a new thing called Showcase where they basically will showcase for let's say like six weeks, ten weeks. A show that like would make a good podcast, but they don't want to like make a whole full production of it. So their first, their first period showcase, I guess is a six part series called Ways of Hearing. And the. A guy named Damon Krakowski, who do you know who. Galaxy 500. Is that, that band?
I don't.
Okay. It's a band, I think for the 90s. I actually haven't, haven't heard of them before, before Ways of hearing. But Galaxy 500 is. Or the the lead singer from Galaxy 500, Damon Krakowski, hosts this, and he talks about music, and he breaks it down into a lot of interesting concepts that audio and music have. So he talks about time, like how, you know, time and music isn't necessarily the same as, like, relative time. He talks about, like, money, the, like, the finance of music. He talks about signal versus noise. He just breaks it down really well and he takes these very, like, abstract concepts and explains it and plays it really well. And the last one, in noise, he talks about, like, you know, digital audio versus very analog audio. Kind of like, you know, a wall of sound, like Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys always kind of did. It's just really fascinating. So, Tim, I think this is something you'd like as somebody who appreciates music.
Yeah, I think I will check it out for sure.
Johnny.
This project would maybe make a pencil podcast. Six episodes. That's all we'll give it.
Yeah, that's what they would think, at least. Little do they know that we're already 82 episod episodes in.
We have literally hundreds of hours of recording time.
Yeah. So, yeah, that is. That is what I've been consuming lately. So, yeah, we should. We should slide into fresh points.
Slide.
Slide into fresh points. Kind of keep them separate. Keep them separate from kind of the. The quarterly additions, which we'll get into a little bit more in detail.
Yeah, I kept typing that under fresh points. I'm like, oh, oh, no, no, no.
Do you want us to start. Do you want to start us off with the fresh points?
Yeah, I just got really. Just one I was going to bring up, which I'm really excited about, which is a new. One of the new releases from Baron Fig.
Yeah.
That they've been so, like, generous with and sent us was the two things. They're both under the name Mastermind, but they have the Mastermind desk pad and then the Mastermind weakpad, which are 2. Have new ideas of theirs that I. When. I'll totally admit that when I found out about them, when they announced they were coming out, I kind of. I don't know, she had like a. Yeah, okay. Kind of response to it. Like, I guess. Guess that's the next thing that makes sense or. Or understood enough that I was just like, okay, sure, I'll. I'm not going to be too negative about this, but in use at school especially, they've both turned out to be extremely useful. So the concept is that the Mastermind is a. Just a desk pad, like it is. It's. I mean, it's almost like a legal pad in how it's designed and how it functions. I mean it's just glued at the top or even more like a, I want to say sticky notes, but they don't actually have glue on them. But you know, like the little slips of paper that have. They're just glued, held together at the top by a bit of glue. You can just tear off the paper and throw it away. But it's a 12 by 8 and I think so you can use it vertical or horizontal or portrait or landscape, whatever. And it is dot grid. And you get 35 sheets per desk pad. And so the intention of it, as far as I understand is that you can just set it on your desk and leave it there. So anytime, like throughout the day, if you just have something you need to jot down, if you have a list you need to make really fast, if you need to like lay out some goals for the week, or if you need to write down a phone number, I mean it's just kind of like an all purpose pad to just be on your desk. And I put it on my desk at school and I use it every single day and I really love it. You get two in a pack, so it's 35 sheets per. You get two and 12 by eight. Sounds big, I think if you hear that number. But on a normal desk, it really doesn't take up that much room. And you can kind of tuck it up, up and away. Or like I said, you can turn it portrait style and just be long, like right along the edge of your desk and fit it into a spot that you don't typically use a lot. And I found it extremely useful. I've worked through maybe six, six sheets of it just at school. And I'll usually draw like a vertical line and mark off the right side of the page, maybe about three inches of it. And I usually do it landscape style, but I'll mark off that three inches. And that's where my to do list for the day goes. And I'll just add to that as I go. Yeah, so I have this to do list going where I can cross things out or whatever. And then the whole left side is just kind of a free form, free for all. Like wherever I need to jot something down, I jot it down. If there's a certain task that I need to make a list for, then I can box it off or circle it or kind of organize things as I go. And it reminds me a lot of sketchnoting.
Yeah, I've been Using mine a lot? Yeah, I've been using mine a lot for similar things.
Yeah, I think it'd be really useful, like as a sketchnoting pad, like, just. Because with the dot grid's great for it. And then you can just kind of improvise your organization and things end up making a lot more sense that way rather than. And I've been using a write notepads reporter for kind of the same stuff, but it's really easy for me to run through a whole page. And so this is just kind of a cool way to just have one sheet of paper for the day. It's like, that's today's sheet, you know, and then at the end of the day, everything's. You can transfer over whatever you want, tear it off, drop in the recycling bin and move on, which is really handy. The other one is the Mastermind week planner. And it is one week of a planner, a calendar, whatever, that's 11 inches by 3 inches, 18 sheets per pack, and it comes with three packs. And these are. These are just 9 bucks. And so you can just put this on your desk and kind of map out your week from there. Which, you know, I, being a teacher, I think the implications for me are, like, super obvious as far as lesson planning. But I think obviously anybody who's working has, like a week that they're looking forward and they're trying to figure out, like, what needs to happen in the next five days before I get to the weekend. But I am in a. As a teacher, I'm in. I have a lot of control over my next five days where I don't have, like, anything. I have to meet any sort of, like, bosses saying, like, this needs to be done today. Take care of this. So I can. I can sit down and I can just map the week out and be like, okay, we need to do this, this, this, this, this is this. Yeah, let's see how we can do. And same thing. It's just glued at the top. You can tear. You just peel it off, throw it in the recycling bin at the end of the week. And I've been using that for the last two weeks, and it's been super helpful. I love it. Like, I'll definitely order more of those and have those just to. Because lesson planning for teachers can be really simple and you can just be like, here's what I'm going to do and stick to it. But most of the time you've got to kind of roll with it. And so it's good to have like a map and then you can change it as you go. And anyways, just, it's, it's. It's been really, really useful. And I think it's, it's just a. For some reason can't remember right now, but I think it's just blank. It doesn't have any sort of grid or doc grid behind it. It's just blank. But it separates it into Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. And there's a little box at the bottom. It says Saturday and Sunday. Yeah, those are back ordered right now.
But I like those a lot. I think that like, I wish that they had a little bit more space for the weekends. And I guess that doesn't necessarily make sense for like teachers or lesson planning. But that's the point that Tina Koyama always makes in the group is like when she sees those, she's like people, people schedule up their weekends too.
Yeah, that makes sense to me. But I do see it as something that stays on your desk at work. Like, you know, here's the things that are happening at work and the weekend. I don't know, it just doesn't seem to. I just don't seem to think about that as much in the same way. Like I may jot down like major things that are happening over the weekend or maybe, I mean, maybe it could even be used to say like, here are the work things I need to take care of this weekend. I just seems to live in that realm. I don't really make it like a personal planner because I got other things for that.
Yeah,
but that's me. That's all I've got. I just want to talk about those because I think Baron figure out they're. They're a stationary, you know, whatever you call it. Empire seems like a strong word, but they're just kind of spreading into everything they've got.
Their reach is wide.
Yeah. And it's, but it's, it's, it's. It's wide and narrow at the same time. They've got a lot within this, this world and they're all. I just can't, just really a fanboy. Can't get away from it. I just love it.
Fan man, Fan Fan Man Mr.
Fan Man I'm a man boy fan man boy. Yeah, yeah, that's me. What about you, Johnny?
So I don't have a lot, but one is very cool. So I was having a sort of crappy set of weeks and I came home to a box from CW Pencils. That wasn't an order. I had just gotten an order a day or two before. And when I opened it up, it was a wrapped box from our friend Lenore. So I rant about wanting blackwing MMX pencils a lot on this podcast, which probably annoys people, but she called up the pencil store and Alex stamped MMX on a box of the black Blackwing pencils. So I have the only MMX pencils that exist that we know of. Oh, wait. Well, they do the stamping, so they could probably confirm they're the only ones. So I'm very happy about this. And usually my children get a lot of my pencils, but despite the fact that Charlotte was macking on them, I actually hid them. Like, no, these are daddy's pencils.
No, back up.
Then the new black wings came, and then, you know, he's looking at those and like, look, just step off.
That's awesome.
Yeah, so many thanks to Lenore. That was, like, super awesome. I sat there in my living room, like, laughing by myself for a long time. Like, this is the funniest damn thing in the world. Like, I really hope she's cool with me sharing this because it was so funny. And then she said it was cool.
So.
Yeah.
Yeah. And on the very other end of the spectrum, the dollar spot at Target has been freaking exploding with pencils lately. I don't know if you guys go to Target quite as often as I do, which is quite often, but they have some, you know, those new dipped pencils and some with very nice lacquer of the everyday of the days of the week. And they're in this really pretty foil script. They're really pretty.
So I go pretty often. But I've been convinced now with all the things that people have mentioned as being at the dollar bins, is that our target has just like a really, really crappy dollar section. Like, they never have this stuff.
Oh, I have like three or four
targets to pick from too. But yeah, if there's something you see that you online that you want, let me know. I'm sure I could probably find like, five of them. It'll cost five bucks.
All right.
And my last fresh point is that you. If you ever wonder if someone is doing their fingernails or my son's fingernails and they have a Q tip with nail polish remover and they lay it on top of some of your black wings, what will happen?
The paint comes off.
It just ate through. It was like. Oh, man.
Wow.
Wait, say that again. What happened?
Yeah, it just sort of like, melted the pencil. It was gross.
Wait, I missed the first part. What did you do?
Oh, it was. I didn't do it. Oh, it wasn't me. There was a Q tip of fingernail polish remover that someone in my household laid on top of some of my black wings. I was very upset.
When you say it milk through just the. Just the paint. Right? Like, not the.
Yeah, but it wasn't like a straight line. It was like a faded line.
Yeah.
All of my neighbors learned a lot of new words that day. Yeah. If you. If you got the typewriter bell ready, I could give you a preview later.
Oh, Henry.
Yeah, that's my. My black wing sandwich of a set of fresh points.
I did forget to mention that there. It does remind me, though, that I did. I. I stained my deck a couple weeks ago and I used some deck stain to stain a cedar point number one.
Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah, the stain pretty well. Yeah, it's pretty cool. The stain we used on our deck was a natural cedar stain, so it's like a similar scene anyways. It just basically, like, intensified. So.
So does it still smell like cedar? The pencil does still smell like the wood, or does it smell like stain?
You still smell the wood. I didn't put a ton. Like, I didn't do, like, level, you know, I didn't layer it or anything. So it's. I didn't want to put it so much that it would, like, leave a nasty residue on my hands.
Sweet.
Yeah.
Nice. Well, you know, Johnny has a. Has a black wing sandwich. I'm actually going to talk real quick about one of the other lesser known pencil sandwiches made by Palomino. I'm just gonna talk about. Screw it. We're gonna talk about sandwiches in this podcast.
Screw it. We're just gonna talk about sandwiches.
So where were you guys during the great golden bear run of 2017?
I was watching it, figuring, nah, that's not legit, and also remembering that I don't like golden bears that much.
Ooh, sorry. It's good thing. Good thing you didn't drop nail polish remover on a whoop hex, or else that would have just eaten through the entire thing.
All right, well, Fleet, we're gonna have it out tonight
as usual these days I was like, three days behind. I was like, wait, what's going on? Golden bears? And, like, people were already, like, getting him in the mail. I was like, oh, cool.
Yeah, so this was interesting. Something happened. And so I guess backstory Palomino sells golden bears and a few other things on Amazon through, like, Amazon sellers as well as on their e commerce platform. But somehow and nobody who doesn't work at blackwing, I'm sure, knows why, but they reduced the price of a gross of black wings to $0.42
plus.
Plus, like $8 shipping and handling. So that. So in total, yeah, you could buy a 144 Golden Bears for $9. And sure enough, there were lots of people who took advantage of that for, like, the brief time it was up. And if I.
If I would have seen it, I definitely would have tried. Yeah, I use. I give those to my students, like, every day. Like, they love them and I just, like, dish them out. I've still got a good bit left from the last gross that I ordered. Another. Yeah, I guess.
Like, what. What are they? 30 bucks full price. Like, that's not too bad for 12 dozen pencils.
And it was.
So at some point, Nick Seisei from pencils.com jumped in the thread and was like. Was like, wow, guys, this. This is amazing. You kind of like, you know, cleaned us out. And, like, we don't know what exactly happened, but they're priced back up to normal. But we're still going to honor all of those of you, like, the orders from those of you who. Who got it. So he made a mention. Yeah, he made a mention to, like, hey, why don't you consider donating some of these pencils to classrooms in need? And yeah, that was. That was really good. And I think a bunch of people are doing it, but he put, My
address is 91 1. My students would love them.
Yeah, no, that's. They totally should. Yeah, it was. It was pretty good.
It was.
Nick posted a picture of, like, how. How many orders kind of like went in for that. And it was just interesting to see the impact that our group has. Like, you know, somebody just post it there, and it just goes. Goes viral pretty quickly.
So berserk.
Sorry, pencils.com if our group made you go broke, I'm sure.
Well, our group also buys a lot of black wings.
That's true. That's true. And that's, like, lots of markups. So. Yeah, it's cool. It was fun. I missed out on it because I was on California time and didn't see that. But I also probably should talk about announcement we kind of made this weekend. We're accepting submissions for Plumbago issue three, which is going to be released sometime, I'm thinking late December, early January. And it is a fiction about poetry issue. So if you are a writer of any kind, consider writing some, or if you have it already, some pencil or stationary themed Fiction or poetry. It doesn't have to be like, you know, fully on that theme. I would just be good if it like played in there somehow. Yeah, we have. We have a couple ideas that came through the. Came through email already, so it's starting off strong.
Sweet.
Tim, do you have an idea for us or is that something I should talk to you about later?
No, I was just. I had an idea for a short story which I don't have to get into the subject matter because it's not really like stationary related but it's like in the way that these story itself will be full of stationary porn basically.
Nice.
I was wondering if that's a direction you can go.
Oh yeah, stationary porn is always a direction.
It's. It is a story that's like. Involves a lot of hands on stationary stuff where it's not like the point of the story but it's just like as you read you're gonna be like oh yeah. Oh yeah. That's the kind of thing I was thinking of.
Awesome.
So what's the language reading?
I don't know. I don't know how to typewriter. Bail out a written word, Johnny.
No. So I have an entire notebook of R rated plus. Limerick is about pencils and notebooks.
R rated plus.
I think that we can make this a PG13 R rated zine.
Some of them are illustrated.
Oh boy.
In color.
Yeah. No, I think what rhymes with Wolpex, Johnny?
Oh, a whole lot of stuff.
Orange.
So you think I'm kidding? I'll send you a picture of the notebook. It's a large moleskin. It's big.
No, I'd definitely be down for that. That would be amazing.
Speaking of moleskin, did you see that they're at Sam's Club now?
No, they were last year. The callets.
No, it's like the big ones now.
No, sh. I don't have a Sam. I mean no.
Crap.
I do not have a Sam's Club membership.
If you're interested in submitting. I actually just registered a domain for $4. Go to Plumbago XYZ and drop me an email with your idea and we'll talk about it. I wanted to mention. Oh yeah. So a couple weeks ago I went to Denver. Katie and I both went and there's a conference there that every year me and Michael Metz, who is another pencil fan and member of the group, we co present a workshop. It's about interface writing for software. And while we were in Denver, we met up with Julie, fan of episode 80 fame. Do you remember Julie, who was our field reporter in the Staples.
Yes, yes.
So, yeah, she was great. Met her and her boyfriend and we went out to dinner and had a kind of impromptu pencil swap. I do have to mention that Julie thinks that I'm like, a pencil imposter because I thought we were just having dinner and having, like, a light gift exchange. So I did not bring my giant bag of pencils to rifle through and trade. Julie came prepared with, like, a curated dozen, and Michael had his, like, giant, like, pencil bag full of his pencils.
So you're a fake pencil user, Andy?
I'm a fake pencil geek because she mentioned in the chat. But no, it was fun. So we had a good dinner and we chatted about pencils. She had some markers that I played with. They were cool.
That's awesome.
Yeah. So, yay, Julie. And it looks like in the chat, Tim, if you're interested, she's going to Tennessee, so if she's anywhere around, you should.
Yeah, yeah, let me know. I get to see John from the group. Is going to be here in a couple weeks. John Pattinson.
Oh, nice.
So, gonna get together.
That's cool.
Yeah, it was actually funny. I had a friend of mine, he's coming to speak at the college I went to, actually. And he asked someone at the college, he's like, hey, do you by chance know Tim Wasem? And actually the person's like, yeah, I talked to him yesterday. So, yeah, so to meet up and have a beer. So I'm really excited about that. It'll be my first Tennessee pencil meetup is going to be that one. So, yeah,
Last but not least. Yeah. That the thing we mentioned before, the Pollux tricks, I don't think we did. I cannot remember if we mentioned this in the last podcast and if we did. Okay. So it was when I was at the stationary or the San Francisco pen show and at my little pencil table. Micah Thomas, who is in the group, she's super cool. She came over, we were sitting there. I had my Pollux with me that we could all try out. And I was mentioning how I've always found it to be a little finicky. And I think that's something we've all discussed before. And Micah said what she does is she will, you know, sharpen a little bit. Like give it a couple turns and then take it out and then put it back in and do a couple more turns and take it out and just kind of do it in phases. And for some reason it seems to work better. So I tried it. I took My time I just like, you know, took the pencil out and blew it off and put it back in and it was. It was great. It worked really well. And so Tim, you said that you tried it and worked well for you too.
Yeah, it works really well most of the time. There are certain pencils, like I forget the name of them already, but those, the golden. What were they called? Golden Sword or whatever.
High class. Golden Sword.
High class. Those ones like really soft, really soft pencils like that. It just the. It just falls apart. Like the graphite falls apart but with black wings. And these. The Mitsubishi I was talking about, like it works great.
Yeah.
So. But with real soft pencils it just. It still just falls apart. Which maybe would happen anyways. I don't know.
Yeah, so that's cool. That was a good trick. If you have a Pollux and it's kind of finicky for you. I was comparing it to like driving like a Ferrari or something like that. Even though I've never driven a Ferrari. They're like really nice and really expensive but super finicky. Like I probably would just crash it if I tried.
Yeah.
Johnny. Hey, would you like to read us a poem?
Nope.
If you guys are not in the live chat, you're missing out on some R rated pencil poetry.
That some was an R rated. Okay. Yeah, I guess the drug reference is R rated.
Well, I live in California where it's semi legal, so. Yeah.
Yeah. No one says spliff on the east coast either.
We say hella doobie over here.
Hella doobie.
We call it Shooby Doobie.
Called it that.
Shooby doobie.
In Baltimore we call it smoking that. All right,
Johnny, you are in a mood today.
Sorry.
That's all right. All right, so that's it for fresh points for me. Should we jump into the main topic?
You can watch your mouth.
Yeah, I'll see what I can do. All right, so let's jump into our main topic which is pretty simply, we're going to discuss the new Baron Fig, the new Blackwing and the new time novel, the Field notes. Time novel. So let's. Let's start off with that one. They introduced this last week, last Tuesday, maybe Monday. Tuesday. One of those days.
One of the days.
One of the days. I don't understand days anymore. And yeah, it's. It's really nice. It is about a paperback novel size and it is a tribute to the. The Beadle B E A D L E dime novel from like the late 1800s. And it's just kind of like the original sort of like low brow pulp fiction paperback that kind of, kind of started that off. So it's a brand new size. It is. I'm trying to look for the, the dimensions here. Yeah, they're four and a quarter by six and a half. It's right between the memo book and the like notebook sizes of French, of. Excuse me, of field notes. So. Yeah, Johnny, you, you have one of these, you've been using them for a while. What do you think of this thing?
So I like these books a lot. So they're the way the pages work. There are three signatures and then they are glued to the COVID So I was sort of suspicious regarding the durability. So I've been sort of, you know, trying to bust the crap out of them and they're not coming apart, so that's good.
Yeah.
And I like the size a lot. I like the design a lot. The design's gorgeous and the paper is very nice.
I, that paper is, is really interesting because I don't know, it's, it's like really thick. I don't know, it's. I'm trying to describe it. Like it's really thick and plush and they say it's like the, like the thickest they've made yet. But for me it's like almost a little too thick. Like it is toothy enough to take pencil. Mike Hagen says it's a little bit smudgy, which I tend to agree with. Yeah. But I, yeah, the paper just seems a little bit too thick for like what I would expect out of it. And maybe it's because I'm expecting like, like kind of a cheap, like, like pulp kind of a thing.
But is it, how does it compare to like write notepads paper and their notebooks. Theirs is.
It's not as smooth as right notepads and it's not ivory, but it's not white, it's not very bright. Yeah, that makes any sense. It's like halfway between white and like moleskine paper.
What do you guys think about how they're blank pages but they're like sequential, like they're numbered pages.
I like that very much.
Yeah, that looks really awesome to me. I'm excited about that.
Ana Reinert from the well appointed desk friend of the show has like lined paper inserts that you can download through her blog. And she actually made a special one for the dime novel edition. So if you want like a, like a line guide to put behind it, if you go to. Well, we'll have a link in the show notes. But if you go to her website and click on. I think it's probably called like ruling guides.
I should actually.
Yeah. Guide sheets at the top navigation and then just kind of navigate over at the very bottom to the field notes dime novel size. You can download those and print them. However, I have found I have a bunch of sticky notes that are four by six and they have lines on them. And if you just stick one of those behind this, it works perfectly. Yeah, those are some of my favorite field post it note sizes. So works great.
I'm finding that I can use a lot of pencils on this paper that I have trouble using on regular field notes because the paper's very smooth. Like the wopex. Looks like a normal pencil on this paper.
Yeah.
Black wings. Like Hagens. Mr. Hagen's right. They're like a mess. But what do you find works really well on like the standard. I guess now it's £60 field notes paper.
I usually use just like a. Like to me a 2B pencil works pretty well on that. Like it's not. It's not as nice and toothy as like, you know, Baron fig paper standard paper is. But it works just fine for me.
I've been harder, I think like with field nose paper. Typically I've been. It's like the longer we've done this, it's kind of interesting. Like when we started this podcast to begin, like I was discovering the to be kind of pocket and then Johnny, you would say things about like the B castell 9000s and things like that and be like, oh, that's I can't do it. It's too scratchy or whatever. But for some reason over like the last two years, I've gotten like harder and harder with my preferences. I still love the like the 602.2B ish kind of feel. But with field notes I like to carry like a mono f or something that just holds a point forever and just there's something really satisfying about that. I don't know.
Yeah.
Yeah. How about you, Jenny?
Yeah, I like when they mix up the paper like this so that, you know, as soon as I picked it up I tried a black wing and I was like, oh, I'm gonna hit my, you know, harder pencil spectrum for this notebook.
Yeah, yeah. I'm just, I'm just really. I think my very favorite thing about it is the size. Like I do like the COVID and sort of like the intricacy of the like the letterpress. My. The edition that I have opened so far is Is one of the ones where the like imprint is slightly misaligned from the debossing. So it just.
Yeah, the one I'm using is like that.
Yeah. And apparently there's quite a few like that.
Okay.
But like it's so exact. It's so exact. Not good. Very bad.
It's one like a little bit off that topic, like a little bit of a tangent. But yeah. One thing I have to say is that compared to the last few editions, I feel like Field Notes nailed the, the film like that goes with it. Did you watch the video?
Oh man, I completely forgot about that video. Yes, I were watching.
They interviewed the quality.
Yeah. And they like, just like the quality of it just seemed to like go like way up from. Some of the last few have been a little. Seemed a little lazy or something. I don't know. But, but this one was.
I know the Utility One interviewed this
librarian about like the. Which one?
The Utility One utility film where Brian
just got things thrown at his head.
Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's good. But this one just seems like. I don't know, it's just like the professionalism or just like the level of. This is a really cool video and they're in the archives, which maybe I'm just biased because I worked in the archives at a library for like all through college. But I just love like the way they handle it, the way they shot it and the close up shots of these classic dime novels is really. I thought it was really cool.
Yeah.
Yeah. I love the, the pressing, the. The printing on the. The binding, the Made in the usa. That's pretty cool. That looks cool. Little, Little detail.
Yeah. A couple people got their. Like the binding was just sort of like scratched. Like the lettering was scratched off and it was underneath the plastic wrap. So you knew that it didn't happen during mailing, it happening during the production process at some point. So hopefully Field Notes will be a peach and replace that. I'm sure they will. But.
Yeah.
Yeah. So I'm a, I'm a big fan. I love, love the size. Like that's just so good to me. Yeah. So that is the Field Notes dime novel. Anything else we should mention with that?
Oh, the obvious thing. I was really hoping the subscriber extra was going to be some sort of dime novel.
Oh yeah.
I mean the pin is cool, but this is like, I don't know, making a pencil about pencils but you don't get the pencil.
That's true. Yeah, that would be funny. Yeah, it's. It's it's also like, I don't know. Yeah, it would have been good if there was some sort of like storytelling element to it or. I do love the picture, like the pressing of like the printing press in the front, like in the front cover. Yeah, it's a really gorgeous, intricate, intricate thing.
Yeah, I think they really nailed this one. Yeah, big time.
Yeah.
Even the, the number of pages is perfect.
Yeah. Cool. Let's talk about the Baron fig unfinish. Do you.
That is so clever that it's not unfinished.
Yeah, it's a stunt finish.
Like oh, this is awesome.
So this is another sort of more experimental one kind of along the lines of the askew where all of the pages in this like all the spreads in this have a like light non photocopy blue unfinished illustration. So one has like the wheel of a Ferris wheel without the stand. One of them has like a horse with no head. There's lots and lots and lots of other ones in there.
Some pages have two.
Yeah, some pages have two. They're kind of placed randomly throughout the page and the purpose, the point is to sort of just go through and doodle and kind of fill it in. Yeah, it's really, really interesting. It's not something that's in my particular wheelhouse. Like I don't have a lot of like use case for something like this, but I'm willing to give it a try. And I don't want to like you know, name drop here but the, the designer who they worked with, Koi Vin who collaborated with them on it is a co worker of mine. He works at Adobe. We've had a couple show off. Yeah, we've met a couple times. He has a fun blog called subtraction.com which is about like design and tech. We, we both geek out over like vintage Apple. Well vintage like old Apple computers, like Apple Newtons if you remember those. Like just weird and fun and yeah, he completely caught me by surprise. I had no idea that he did this until I got the announcement from Baron Fake and I was like, oh my God, Koi Vin. So yeah, I showed this around the Office today and everybody thought it was really cool. So what's neat is that it's kind of a two way collaboration. Joey is going to be on a panel during Adobe Max which is like the big Adobe Design conference next month. He's going to be at a panel about design entrepreneurs that Coy is moderating. So that's really cool.
That's awesome. Yeah, this super interesting fact for you but the color of this notebook is the exact color of the hallway right behind me right now. Yeah. So that was fun. But I think I like this a lot in like kind of the same way that I liked the askew, which at first glance is like pretty. I, I say this, I'm being. I, I can't think of a better, like more careful word, but like, never mind, it's all right. But it's like at first glance it seems useless.
Yeah.
Where you're like, oh gosh, this seems like more work to use than to not use. But for the type of people that are shopping with Baron Fig or that are like regular customers of Baron Fig, I mean, if you have this notebook in your hands, if you're subscribing to their confidants, then you are open to whatever. Right. You have to like be open to it. So for me, like, I think it takes on a meaning or it takes on a use case. Like for you, if you're open to finding one, you know, like, if you're open to finding one, then you'll find one for me. I'm at a point in my life with writing where I'm. I told you I was like working on some short stories, but my time that I have available, like on a day to day basis kind of like I'll get like long periods of time here and there is pretty short. And one thing that I love about this is that on days when I am just wall to wall with kids or with school stuff or whatever, it is that if I set aside 10 minutes in a day, I can pick this thing up, open it up, see the image and just like do a character sketch or just do like a scene sketch or a setting, like describing a setting. Or I can write, I'm talking prose, like write around it and just kind of create something that just springs out of that that I wasn't planning on writing. And it's a really cool way for me to kind of get out of the craziness that's going on right now and div into a little writing prompt, you know, And I think that's really cool and I think that's how I'll. I'll use it. I'll probably. What I'll probably do with this for me is I'll take it to work and I'll put it on my desk at work. And then when I have those moments where I'm on my planning period or the kids are reading something and I've got like 10 minutes that I can spare and I'm just like feeling the like creative urge to just sit down and do something. I can pick this up, open up to a page and say, you know, like, okay, there's the picture of half of a bell. What can I do with this? And just take it anywhere I can go with it, which would be, who knows? Or I see a birdcage or half a fish. I don't know, I just, I'm excited to take it, take it in that direction. Just kind of roll with the punches.
Yeah, so that's a good idea.
I love it. So like little like vignettes or character sketches or things and I think it's really cool and the color is beautiful on the front.
Yeah, yeah. I know a lot of designers who use Baron Fig products. Like, I, like, I still don't see as many designers carrying Baron Fig confenants as much as I see like Moleskine or something similar to that. But, but like, I would say I probably see more designers carrying them than the writers. And a lot of times they will doodle or you know, do something visual while they're listening or while they're trying to like think about something. Just because I think that unlike me, they think a lot more visually. I think I tend to think in words a lot more. So if I'm doodling, I'm probably just like writing like words and sentences and like something else. So yeah, I think that this is perfect for that kind of use case and I'm definitely going to give it a try. One thing that I think is kind of weird though is so that blue inside is supposed to be non photocopy blue, sort of like a marking pencil. And ah. So if you're, if you're doodling around that picture and then you photocopy it, the picture doesn't show up. Like the illustration, not, not the part that you did, but the part that was already in there. So that's kind of weird.
It's fine with me. I mean, I photocopy things like once a year, so I'm not really. But yeah, I get what you're saying. Like, but that, that makes me even like real. That makes me think like you saying that like helps me by what I was talking about earlier. Now I'm like, I should just write right over the image. I was imagining writing around it, but I had forgotten about that, that you can just kind of write through it and if you ever did need to scan it or do something like, I guess scan wouldn't be the same. Right?
But yeah, I see what you mean though.
But yeah, it's like, yeah, I. Photocopying is. It almost feels funny that they would have pointed that out about photocopying, because I'm like, okay, it's not that common for people to photocopy out of a notebook or something.
Coy's old. He probably still photocopies. I don't know. I'm sure he doesn't listen to this, so I feel confident in saying that. Anything else we should mention before we move on to the big topic?
I feel like we just need to underscore how perfect the color is.
Yeah, I do love the. The color. And I love. I love the little inscription at the bottom of the front.
Have fun.
Have fun. Yeah.
Yeah. That's fantastic.
This thing is exactly the color of Thomas the Train.
I wish all of my notebooks had my.
Henry kind of lost it.
Yeah, the bottom.
Yeah. Cool. All right, guys. Sorry.
Go ahead, Tim, One more thing. One thing we haven't talked about, though. I have to bring this up. Is the Baron Fig planner.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. I'm sitting here looking at it.
The Baron Fig planner.
Yeah. Yeah. So while we're on Baron Fig, we should stop and talk about this for Just for a second.
Sure.
Have you all used the previous planners?
So Frankie had one in 2016, but I did not. But it held up really well, and she, like, beats the hell out of her planners.
Yeah.
So. But it stopped staying close after, like, three days, so I don't know if that'll be different this time.
Well, how would that be different than the confidant? Because I've never had that happen with a confidant.
Yeah, I've never had that happen either. So I don't know what it was. I built, like, a. An elastic strap for it and would put that on there, and it still would stay open. So this year, she bought a Shinola, which is an oddly formatted little piece of crap that costs too much money.
Take that, Detroit.
You should go back to Bear and fish. Yeah, yeah.
It's funny.
We went. We walked into the Shinola store in Boston, and I walked right back out. And, like, no, no, I'm pretty pumped
up about this one. I mean, I'm not a big planner user, and I feel bad that I'm, like, blanking on this right now. But we were. We got some from. Who was that that sent us the. The pack of things? And there was the planner. The last one we got Andy Talarico.
Andy from Baron Fig?
No, no, before Baron. Not Marin Fig. The one that came with all those, like, funky erasers and stuff. What was that?
Oh, Kickerland from Laura Kelner.
Yes. Oh gosh, duh. So I've been using their planner for the last, you know, since we have that. I mean, I'm still using it. I have it at school and I use it for stuff and I like that a lot. But there's something about the Baron Fig planner which, which we're going to get into the subject of the color gray pretty soon, I'm guessing. But I love the all gray, like the two tone gray of the COVID It's almost like the color of the, the confidant, what do they call that? The, the maker confidant or whatever with the light gray pad. But even when you get into the, the daily pages, it is just, I can't imagine a year long planner that is simpler than this one. And I mean that in like the best way possible. They don't try to do anything fancy. They don't try to include anything that's just like a flourish or whatever. It's just you have two page spread. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Yeah, it's just, I think it'll be really useful.
Super reductive.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. They don't try to like include some sort of like note taking section. Like when I, when I have a planner, I have enough notebooks around. Like I have pocket notebooks and I have, you know, I'm carrying around like a little moleskin, like hardback notebook and then I probably have a bigger notebook that I'll do jotting down notes and like when I have a planner, I want it to just be a planner. Yeah, I guess this is the point I'm making. So I like that it's just days of the week. Move on, you know, there's the month. So I, whenever we get a planner sent to us, it's always really exciting because I'm ready to use it and try to be a little more organized than I am ever before in my life, which is never really organized. But it also kind of sucks because you're like, no, I have to wait till January to start using this, but come January I will definitely start using this Baron Fig. Yeah, Seriously, I sound like they're like, when I talk about Baron Fig, it sounds like they're paying me money under the table or something to gush over them, but they're, they're not.
We should disclose that they have a very generous like what do you say, like blogger outreach program and we all, oh definitely. Yeah, we all get copies of what it, whatever it is they're about to sell, which is so far. Been a lot of stuff. Like, I get a lot of packages.
Yeah, a lot. And it's so generous. And their stuff has been so good. I just, like, love it. It makes you so happy. When I get a package in the mail from them, it just, like, lights me up. At the end of the school day, I'll come home, like, you know, worn down from having, like, freshmen barely paying attention to me on a bad day or something. I'm like, oh, gosh. Then I walk home and I find. Find this. And then I get excited. So I just. I want to bring that up because we hadn't talked about it. We got it, like, right before the last episode, and we didn't have time to talk about it last time, and.
Yeah, that's a good point.
They really. They're just doing good work all over the place, so. Way to go, Baron Fake.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Also, it has the perfect amount of note pages in it. I always find, like, the Moleskins have, like, three. I'm like, I take more than three in a year.
Yeah, there's a ton. The dot grid pages in the back you're talking about. Yeah, there's like, 20, right? I mean, it's.
I think more than that. It's at least like, a third full of note pages. It's awesome.
Yeah, it's fantastic. Yeah.
So the black wing's not divisive. Right.
All right, so good night, everybody. It's been good talking to you.
Johnny, can you tell us what you think is the ugly part of this
black wing, the ugliest part of this black thing is the theme that I don't give a crap about.
But okay, so back.
I like the rest of it.
Quick context. I think that probably everybody listening is by now, I would think, maybe aware of what the Blackwing is, but it is volume one, and that's, like, a pretty big number. Pretty big, like, number to use in a black wing. And so we were all like, oh, the Pacific coast highway. Like, Highway 1 in California. Or maybe it's like mile marker one in the Florida Keys, which is where Hemingway lives, or something else. Like, what could it be? Maybe it stands to the first century of Kelsey being around. No, it is an album from legendary country music raconteur Guy Clark, who I. I have to admit, I don't. I don't know who he is. I'm not, like, a huge, huge, like, country music buff, but I had maybe heard his name, but he never struck me, like, struck me as being super like, influential. And I wonder if he's more like. And this is. I know nothing, so please don't send me email about this. I don't know if he's, like, influential to people who are influential in country music, and that might very well be the case. But I just, like, just. That didn't connect with me a lot. So.
Yeah, yeah, I. I'm pretty, like, in the last six or seven years, I've gotten fairly plugged into, like, the country music scene as far as, like, the real country, not, like the commercial stuff, but, like, gotten, like, pretty familiar with it.
Yeah.
And Guy Clark was like, not even. Not on my radar, huh? Yeah. Which is, like, kind of interesting. This was like, oh, I guess this is somebody I should look into. But at the same time, it's like, musical references before. What do we have? Like, Bob Dylan. So, like, jumping from Bob Dylan to Guy Clark was like, oh, okay. You know, like, you've got a limited number of editions of this. And to reference, Guy Clark was kind of a little out of left field. I might have liked to see a. I don't know, like a Hank Williams edition or something. Somebody who is. Or a Johnny Cash or. I don't know. I don't know. But. So Guy Clark was a little random to me. I mean, I appreciate that they were going for some. Something a little out of the norm.
It seems like a Taylor Swift edition would have been perfect.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And it comes instead of the box. It's delivered to you in a, like, gearbox that, like, she was apparently carried out of her house in. Do you see that?
Yeah, I think. I think so.
Yeah.
So. All right, so should somebody want to take a stab at describing this, or should I just the.
I love this pencil.
So.
See, you hate it. Don't you do it.
Let's give it a good. I'll give it a very objective description. It is. It is a round pencil. It is the first round blackwing.
It is.
It has something they're calling. What are they calling it? A gray wash. Is that what they say?
Yep.
Basically, it is a, like, thin lacquer of paint that's very, like, satiny and matte, except it's slightly translucent, so you can see the wood grain underneath it. Silver feral has a silver imprint, and it has, like, a dark blue eraser that's kind of like denim colored, and it's a little bit like. It's like a dusty dark blue, and then it has a pearl core in it. So I. We said this in the group, and there was quite Quite a. Like, a chat thread that. That, like, sprung up after, to me, looks like the color of, like, taupe old lady orthopedic shoes.
Yeah.
Like, my grandmother had shoes that were.
I guess I missed this. But what is the significance of the coloring?
I. The only thing, like, in my head, I have this, like, image of, like, whitewashed picket fences that feels kind of like Southern, but that's also. I don't.
So they didn't say anything. Like, they didn't say anything about the color.
I don't think.
Choice.
Johnny, do you. Do you have any insight there?
I know that the. The eraser is a reference to some sort of shirt, but I have no idea why they made it gray, aside from the fact that it's beautiful.
In Johnny's review.
There, I said it.
Which Johnny's review was the. Was the first review of this thing on the Internet, even before pencils.com officially announced it. I'll just reference this. Johnny's review said it kind of reminded him of a flannel shirt, and I totally agree.
Yeah, it's. It's a super cuddly and autumnal pencil.
Yeah.
I mean. Yeah. I mean, I'm excited about it. I don't.
I.
Our house is painted, like, six different shades of gray throughout it. Like, that's. I like the color gray, and I was excited about it. I've also. This kind of, like, throws back to earlier episodes where I just really love round pencils as well. This goes back to, like, when I. I used to talk about Ticonderoga Laddies all the time.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
I like a good rod pencil, and they're not. They're actually kind of rare now, which is weird. As far as new ones, or you
get one less pencil.
Yeah, I'll take it. I'll take it, but. And the only one I actually haven't dived into is somehow I haven't gone for the Palomino. Makes those round pencils I haven't gotten, which. Yeah, I think you get 10 instead of the imagine ones. Yeah. Haven't tried those. But I love her. I love a good round pencil. I mean, I used to talk about it. I used to say that, you know, as far as rotating the pencil to keep the point, it just gave you, like, a longer amount of time, like, because you could rotate less each time instead of. I like it. And I'll definitely, you know, I'll order some. I didn't. I'm. I'm not a subscriber at this point, and I feel good about that. Because there. There have been times where I'm like, I don't need another dozen pencils right now. I don't need another 25 worth of pencils right now. So. But this is one that I probably will order a set of. But I dig a lot of things about it. Color scheme as well, I do have to say.
So Johnny and I disagree on the aesthetics. I think it's ugly, but I totally
think you said that really fast to gloss over it.
I really think it's ugly, but I don't. Johnny. To mail me, like, a dead squirrel or something, or I guess it's Baltimore. Just like a. Like a finger.
I'd be like, a whole person.
Yeah. I got a big package in the mail today,
but I love the way it feels. I love, like, it's like. I love the roundness. I really think that that, like, gray wash feels really great. Kind of feels like a little bit like. It reminds me of the Atoya pencils, how they feel like those roundy toy pencils.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
So, yeah, it's. It's. Yeah, it feels really great. And then I've been hearing a lot of people talk about how, you know, there. There seems to be, like, a slight difference between the graphite that's in this and, like, the graphite that's in the pearl. And I wonder if part of it is, like, the way that you are feeling that graphite as it goes onto paper is going to be different because you have. You're feeling it through a round pencil rather than through a hex pencil. And I wonder if that makes.
I would guess that's the case. I mean, I would not doubt that.
Yeah. Yeah. I have heard some, like. And I think Johnny has this point that there's maybe some performance issues, too.
What do you mean? With the pearl core or compared?
Compared to the pearl core.
So Mr. Hagens thinks that it's different. So. Yeah, my pearls are all, like, from when they first came out, and I can't really tell if they're different.
Okay. Yeah.
But I think it's exactly the same as the one in the 725. I think it just feels like a Blackwing MMX that smears more. Yeah, it's less smooth, but, I mean, it's growing on me.
Yeah. Like a wart.
Like a big, ugly wart on your hand, right?
Yeah.
Yeah. I mean. So did you guys watch the video?
Yeah. So, yeah, that video. The video was interesting. It was. You know, it had footage from before he died. He died last year from an upcoming documentary. About him.
And.
Yeah, I don't know. Like, I guess it gave me some good insight as to why the pencil was around and that it had that. That quote by him about how some things. Things are. Sometimes things aren't straight, they're just kind of round. I should actually rewind and look at the actual quote here which says he's a sleepy John who waits till he knows what he knows, then he'll tell you. Straight or slightly bent if it fits. Some things are slightly round, which is in the liner notes from old Number One, which. Which is pretty good. And I have. I have no idea if this has any bearing to the decision to make it. Excuse me, that color, but that cigar or cigarette or whatever that is that he's holding in the video is kind
of the same color spring roll that he's smoking right now. Yeah,
whatever it is that he's smoking. I don't know what's in the tiny
little spring roll that he's smoking. Yeah, yeah.
So who knows if that has anything to do with it. But I think that's a really kind of like, interesting, you know, quote. I don't know if it was. They decided to make a round one and they sort of like backwards engineered it to fit with that.
I kind of doubt it. I kind of feel like they.
They mentioned somewhere.
Good.
Yeah, okay. They mentioned somewhere that he liked round pencils.
Okay.
Okay.
Well, yeah, but they could have maybe put that in the video. Well, again, so the video, him playing
some music with the video. Again, like, the video was not taken by Blackwing. Right. Like the video was done for a documentary. Like we mentioned that. So I guess they just were working with what they had. They might not have given them the entire movie to pick from or whatever. But
yeah, it could be very well that Blackwing emailed them and asked for two minutes and that's what they got.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. And, yeah, who knows? So, and I'm guessing I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt that I bet, like they were given what they were given and they're like, okay, let's use this and let's make something out of it. And they must have had some connection to him. Maybe somebody loved his music or, you know, with their. Their label.
Their.
Their music label they made with the Willie T. Taylor album. Maybe like he has some sort of connection. They found out about it. I don't know. But. But I think that the. I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that the design of this pencil was based on that clip. And just like Andy said, like his cigar, because you can see through it and you can see the bits of tobacco inside. And, like, tobacco did the gray tobacco. Yeah, Tobacco was visible, so that's why they did the, like, slightly translucent.
Yeah.
Finish or whatever. Yeah, I don't know.
Yeah, it was. It provided, like. It was a weird video. It wasn't as weird, in my opinion, as the 205 video, but I guess it gave some good context.
Well, they made that one.
Yeah. Wasn't as. Wasn't as weird as the 205 either.
But that's true. That is true. I don't know.
These pencils are not even in the same ballpark.
I. I just bite you. I don't know how to feel about them because, like, I do love the way it feels. Why can't. Why couldn't we just have had a natural, natural round pencil?
Because that's going to be the standard edition.
They incorporate round, natural round, extra firm core, silver ferrule, pink eraser. Yeah. Boom.
Yeah.
And then the world explodes. Because that's like the perfect pencil. Yeah.
And all of the rest of my pencils are on ebay. And then I buy a second car.
Okay, guys, I was thinking maybe we could do a little, like, lightning round with, like, the senior superlatives of these. These editions. Anything we should finish up talking about with this. This volume before we do that?
I don't think so.
So one. One thing I would mention is that. That there have only been three Blackwing volumes in the autumn, and each one has been super autumnal. And, like, do you want to remind
us what the other ones are?
So the 211, which was natural and is a lot of folks favorite. And then last year, Dorothea Lange. Last year was the 344, which was burgundy in red with the 602 core. That one was super awesome.
Yeah.
These are also the only two that I've ever bought more than my subscription from or of. Yeah. I think if you divorce it from the theme and just look at it as a seasonal pencil. It's so nice. So perfect.
Yeah, I agree.
Or at least beautiful. If not perfect. What the hell was that?
Johnny's gonna cut me. I was just gagging. It's no big deal.
You're gonna gag when I'm done with you, California boy. You come down here to Baltimore talking like that, see what happens.
All right. Lightning round, guys. All right, I'm gonna ask you some questions, and you have to answer as quickly as you can. Don't give. Don't give your reasoning. So 1812. Yes. So out of these three, Russia. I. I wish. I wish that we had the right notepads to, like, just even it out. Make a nice fourth one. But you missed your chance, Roth. Sorry about that. No. So, Tim, best theme.
I'll go with the Baron Fig Unfinish.
Johnny Dime Novel. I'm gonna say dime novel too. All right. Best execution of that theme, Tim.
Dime Novel.
Johnny Dime Novel and Dime Novel.
Yeah.
All right. Most functional. Tim.
I'm gonna go back to Unfinish just to be weird.
No, it's all right, Johnny.
Yeah.
Ty Dime Novel and Blackwing one.
I'm gonna actually go with Blackwing one because. Well, I'm not gonna give a reason why.
Best.
Best aesthetics, Tim.
Blackwing or. Sorry. No, I take that back. Baron Fig Unfinish. That's my favorite.
Johnny.
Blackwing1.
And I'm gonna go with the Baron Fig.
Yeah. All right, Nice.
I had a note in here just because I was like. So me and Topher and Mike Hagen have sort of like a. Like a running conversation on. On imessage just for the hell of it, because both of them like to talk and I like to talk, and we were just talking about the differences between like. Like the different companies and how they treat the themes of the editions. And I think this is something we've talked about here before too, but this can probably be a short discussion if we wanted to get into it. But I feel like. I feel like Baron Fig is sort of like on a. Like on a continuum. Baron Fig is like the most abstract themed.
They're abstract, but they're also. At the same time, they're, like, kind of conservative with it. They don't stuff it down your throat. Like, they'll. They'll have kind of a weird theme, but they won't make it like. Like.
That's a good point.
For instance, the unfinished. Could have been. Those images could have been much more. They could have been bigger and, like.
Yeah.
More to deal with, but they just. They're kind of minor. I mean, they're like the size of a silver dollar, just like right in the middle of your pages as opposed to half the page that you could fill in or whatever.
Yeah, so. So Baron Fig has that very, like, loose theme. You know, field notes. Field notes has field notes. Always has a theme, but it's like, more tied to the actual execution of the product. Like, you know, this is. This is dime novel themes. So they're gonna make their books look like a dime novel or this is reporter Themed. So they're gonna make reporters notebooks. Like they. They always seemed a little. And I guess that's not always the truth because like, Black Ice is just like a weird name and those books look nothing like Black Ice. But I don't know, maybe they're just better at like executing their theme.
Yeah. I feel like they take an inspiration and then, you know, like Black Ice and then they just like jump away from that right into the aesthetics of the notebook.
Yeah.
Like Snow Blind.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Check it out. It's wintry.
Yeah.
That might be because Field Notes has the most resources at hand to do like something crazy and it's easier.
Like you can manipulate all the different features of a notebook. I feel like probably to a much greater extent than you can like say with a pencil. Probably.
Sure. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. But I think it's a lot more of a risk to do it with a pencil.
Yeah. I think somebody. I don't know who wrote this in the notes, but somebody. Oh, Johnny, that was you. Blackwing lays it on thickly.
So I think you're right that they approach it differently and that Blackwing is like this, this pencil has a theme.
Yeah.
So I have to slap you across
the face with it.
Yeah. It takes me a week to get out of that theme and just look at the pencil. And then Field Notes has an inspiration behind their releases. And Baron Fig. It's more just like a loose concept.
Yeah.
Like, hey, work, play.
And. And like it's interesting because like the Blackwing, I guess it's less of a theme and more of like a tribute. Like they, they say that too. Like this is a tribute to Dorothy Lange or this is a tribute to the Gold Rush or whatever. So maybe, maybe it. For it to be a little bit more like concrete. But what's interesting is like. Right. Notepads has pretty specific themes as well. Like they had like an Edgar Allan Poe one and they've had a. Like, like a tele. They had like an Alexander Graham Bell one. But it doesn't. It doesn't feel like so heavy handed as Field notes or Blackwing. I mean.
Yeah. Yeah. And even the kindred spirit was just like, hey, Summer.
That's true. Yeah.
Yeah. I feel like Field Notes has the most specific and the most like they. They corner themselves into something really like, particular in a good way.
Yeah.
Like dime novel versus Henry David Thoreau. Like. Yeah, Henry David Thoreau. You could take it in a million different directions. Dime novel. You're gonna be like pretty limited into the directions you can Go. And they did like, the. The clear, like, visual element of it, which I feel like Field Notes basically gives them so, like, the fact that they. They do it the way they do it will give them an endless number of themes that they could do for the rest of time.
Yeah.
You know, because, like, they're so specific. Whereas if you're trying to hit on big names or big events or big things as themes, you might feel a little more limited, where you're going to come out with one bureau and be like, well, that was kind of random. Whereas I know this seems kind of counterintuitive, but with Field Notes, they're so specific that it's like, whoa. Wow. I wouldn't have expected that. That's cool.
Yeah.
And then every time it kind of feels the same way as opposed to, wow. Of course, like, they would do a Hemingway or they would do a Picasso edition, because those are going to limit the future a lot.
And certainly Field notes has the most practice with. With this. Like, they've been around. They've been doing this for a lot longer. So I don't know, like, who. I don't know if, like, Field Notes to me, just, like, executes on that theme better or they choose their themes better or both, you know?
Both.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And. And then, of course, like, Baron Fig, like, you know, the Askew and the Unfinished make a lot of sense, but some of them, like the Metamorphosis makes zero sense in the context of the actual output. Right. Like the actual notebook. It was basically just sort of like their marketing rhetoric.
Sort of like the names of a car. It's like, hey, this car is called the Flex. Like, okay, I like this car. I don't really.
So does it grow? Yeah, yeah, I think that's totally true, but I think Baron Fig will go for the avant garde, for the sake of avant garde. Sometimes just to be like, yeah, this would be nuts. Let's do it. And then it makes. Which gives you. Again, gives you kind of endless possibilities for what you're going to do, but then makes it. It also has the potential of seeing or seeming more random.
Yeah.
You're like, okay, you just chose a random color to go with this, you know.
Yeah.
But there. But at least bear and pick. It has it on their side that they kind of always make it beautiful, even if it is random. Yeah.
The theme. Cool. All right. Anything else we should discuss before we button it up?
I mean, does anybody want any hints about where. Right. Notepads is.
Are you actually going to give hints or are you Just going to say something.
Well, I'm going to give you my PayPal address.
You heard it here first, folks.
You can. Whoever doesn't like volume one, you can send me your volume ones for every four. I will give you one hint. My address is in the show notes.
Johnny's corrupt. He's a bad eight.
You send me, I will give you
a drain the swamp. Drain the erasable swamp.
Oh, I made this joke. Then you have to send me some money for Chris and John when they, you know, come after me and I believe town. Yeah, all of my pencils might fit in the back of a Subaru.
I don't know.
Put the seats down. No family. Just me and my pencil's taking a run. See ya.
You're gonna, you're gonna wake up with a disembodied feral at your bed.
Every time I run out of bed, I run out of money. I pull out a couple two elevens. I'm hungry.
Give me food.
So trading 211 stubs for burritos.
How about a freebie, Johnny?
I would trade a 211 full 211 for a fully made burrito right now. If anybody has one.
Well, I hope Chris doesn't hunt me down for this. I will give you a good hint. That's true. Field notes stepped out of their usual frame of where their themes come from and write notepad and sort of people. Some people suggested that that dime novel had sort of a right notepads like flavor because of the period. So the right notepads doesn't feel anything like a field notes but it's not from the time period they usually visit.
So diamond pads.
It's not like a space shuttle or anything, but.
Okay, I'm. I'm gonna guess. Guesstimate.
It is a Paul Revere,
the 1812 Overture.
Oh man, they had to do something. Fort McHenry, our big middle finger to the British. Sorry.
It's gonna be, I think knowing Chris, it's gonna be a Boston Red Sox edition. So.
So he did post an Instagram of a. Of a quarter of a red circle.
Yeah.
And I guessed that it looks like the, the Leica logo, like the camera, but also maybe the Japanese flag.
That's a good guess.
Yeah.
Also looks a little bit like a Japanese flag too. Yeah. So that's what I'm going with.
They'll get some good pencils this time from Mitsubishi.
Yes. Oh yeah.
Really good pencils.
That'd be good.
All right, that's the hold up. That's the hold up.
All right, let's button this up, guys.
Yeah.
Tim, where can people find you out on the Internet?
I am on Instagram @timothywassom and I am on Twitter @timwassom. And I am rarely on the Facebook group. All right. Which makes me sad. I wish I was on there more, but I just, like, never make it over there.
Maybe if you spent less time with your family, you could do it.
Deal.
I saw that picture of you, like, out playing by a babbling brook with Henry. So why don't you just cut that out? Stop doing that.
Yeah, okay.
Never again be like, henry, I love you.
You have a computer in your pocket. You could do Facebook and the baby.
Yeah, it's like, henry, I love you, but I really have to spend more time with Facebook.
Let me finish this comment, son.
This is gonna be a good one. It's gonna get tons of likes.
Wait, just wait. Dad, dad, look at this.
Okay, now throw.
Okay, Johnny, how about you?
So you can occasionally find me on Twitter, Pensolution, and these days, more often on pencil revolution.com nicer.
And I am on woodclinch.com where you can find me and sometimes other people, like Harry C. Marks, who wrote a guest review on my blog about the Time novel. So you can find that there. You can also get at me at a Wealthley, A W, E, L, F L E, or the same thing on Instagram. And this has been the Erasable podcast. We just recorded episode 82. You can find the show notes for that at erasable US 82. And you can find us, except for some. Except for Tim most of the time on the Facebook group. 2000 plus members. Facebook.com groups erasable. We have amazing pencil discussion photos, link sharing, resources, questions answered, everything happening 24 hours a day. There was recently an Australian pencil discussion thread happening in the middle of the night.
So. Okay, okay, I get it. I should be on there more often. Jeez.
You get it?
You vaped Easy, easy. On a weekly basis. I devote myself to paying more attention. Then you'll notice me. Get on there once in a while, once a week, and like, like 15 different posts and be like, oh, this is great. And then like a week passes by and I'm like, what you.
What you should do, Tim, is drop in, find like a. A thread where there's like an argument happening. Drop something super incendiary and then just hop out.
Like, drop a bomb and then just, like, pass out. You're like, just.
Yeah. And there goes Tim. So facebook.com group erasable. It's a lot of fun. A lot of time. You can also go to facebook.com erasablepodcast for our page, which is sort of the Era Erasable official mouthpiece of Facebook. We're on Twitter and Instagram @erasablepodcast. You can find us on itunes. You can find us at the Google Play Podcast store. Really, anywhere where you get your fine handcrafted podcasts. And we will see you in a couple weeks.
Bye bye.
Afrida Zain.
The intro music for the Erasable Podcast is graciously provided by this Mountain, a collaborative folk rock band from Johnson City, Tennessee. You can check out their music at www.vismountainaind.com. If I could just count the time this has happened before.
Oh, I said.