This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
Is that a new Blackwing?
I'm riding with a friggin wopex, people.
Oh my God.
Hello and welcome to episode 99. One episode away from three digits of the erasable podcast.
We got 99 problems and a pencil ain't one.
Yeah, I was wondering if that was going to show up before we hit the big 100. We're here to talk about some of the latest releases from Field Notes and from Black Wings as well as other interesting pencil items. I'm on hosting duties tonight. I'm Andy Welfle and joining me are my 99 problems, Johnny Gamber and Tim Wasem. Hey guys.
Hey, Andy.
So, yeah, we have something exciting, exciting plan for you for episode 100. So I think we'll, we'll keep this pretty short and light so we can kind of get concentrating on that. So yeah, let's jump right in. Johnny, what are you consuming and what are you writing with for the tools of the. For your tools of the trade.
Awesome.
So I am by myself rewatching season one of the Handmaid's Tale because I read the book recently and I can't remember what happened in the book and what happened in the show before I start season two. Yeah, but it's slow going because you won't watch it because you know, the world we live in, it's hard to watch it. I mean, so I don't know, maybe my white male privilege makes me able to watch it, but for all this years of Catholic school. But yeah, I'm pushing through.
It's so interesting because season two goes off book. Right. Like it's kind of new territory for it. Which, like, yeah, it's so crazy to me to think about, like, what are they going to do? Like, like, how are they going to take this out to like its logical conclusion? Just, just read the news. They can find a way.
So then I just started Future man, which is also on Hulu, recommended by a friend, which is completely the opposite kind of show. Just ridiculous, like horrible language, blowing things up type thing.
Yeah.
Have you guys seen Future Man?
Uh, nope.
I mean, it's really dumb, but in a funny way I think Seth Rogen is one of the creators, so.
Right.
Yeah, yeah, it's a good.
Really, really dumb, but really good. That's.
Yeah, I just watched something heavy. I'm gonna watch this now before I go to bed, so I don't have nightmares. So.
Yeah.
And I haven't read anything interesting lately. So we're planning for a trip, so that's blank. And now I look Ignorant. So moving on. I am writing with of course, the Blackwing 10003, but none of the new notebooks are actually in anyone's hands yet. So I'm using a regular field notes graph paper book and remembering why field notes are such nice books. It's really awesome.
Did you say 10003?
Did I?
Yes, you did. Is there a limited edition I didn't even know about?
You guys didn't get the super special one? The new fancy five sided black wig? The penta pencil.
Yeah, the penta.
How about you, Tim?
I am so excited. I'm so excited to try one of those. I don't have mine yet. We'll get to that later. But I have been consuming. I picked two things to talk about. First is I finally got around to starting the show the Good Place. Do you guys watch this?
I have not. But I've heard so many amazing things about it.
It's fantastic. It's. I'm like, I've watched. I watched the first seven episodes or something on Netflix on season one. And then Jane ran out of town and then my mom came in town to stay with me and the kids for the week. She's on a work trip. She came to visit and it's like, hey, have you heard of the show? And she said no. And so I just started it over and we've watched the first six episodes again and I enjoyed it just as much the second time. It's so fantastic. But it's.
I don't know.
And I always forget the name of. Is it Kristen Bell? Is that her name?
I think so.
I think so, yeah.
Ted Danson, I believe, is who you're thinking of.
No. Yeah, sorry, I pronounced Ted Danson wrong.
Kristen Bell and Ted Danson do look a lot alike.
They do. So, yeah, it's about heaven or some form of heaven of what the actual real deal is. There's a good place and a bad place and Kristen Bell goes up and she spends the whole episode finding out about this paradise that was designed just for her and her community members. And then you find out that there's been some kind of mistaken identity and she's not supposed to be there, which is just an amazing premise. But it's. It's an awesome show. Really enjoying it. It's making me. It's my ultimate judge of how good a comedy is, is that when I watch it with Jane, if she laughs out loud, then it's like the funniest thing we've watched in a long time because she doesn't she's not. Even if she thinks something funny, she doesn't usually laugh out loud. But with the show, she. She like cackles. So we've been having fun with that. And as far as reading, I just started this today, but I do this thing in the summer because I have so much relatively more time on my hands. I'm watching the kids full time, but I'm not teaching. And I end up reading like seven books at a time where I'm like jumping from one to the other and it gets a little annoying. And so I finally got to the point where I kind of dropped them and was like, I'm going to pick something that, that I'm going to blow through just to make myself feel like I'm accomplishing some reading this summer rather than reading like one third of seven books. And my choice that even surprised me is the short story collection no Middle Name by Lee Child, which is the. I've talked about Lee Child before. I had read Never Go Back, but this is his collection of short stories like the Jack Reacher short stories and that just like checked all my boxes. Like Jack Reacher sounds good. Something exciting because I'm doing writing. I'm working on short stories right now and I'm really enjoying that I'm doing accomplishing things. But I wanted to read something that was not similar to what I'm writing. I wanted to get out of my comfort zone, not only so that I don't end up copying off of people that are similar to me, but also so that something very different can influence writing in an interesting way. And so I landed on Lee Child and then short stories was perfect and so forth or I'm really enjoying it. It's a. It's a cool collection. So no Middle Name by Lee Child. And I am writing with. I'm writing with Warfare on.
Tim, what are all those symbols that you put in your. In your document?
Oh, that's. I was just spelling out the pencil that I'm using. I'm using a vomiface. Blackwing riding with a friggin wopex, people.
Oh my God. Co host.
Oh gosh, no. But I give you. Yeah. So I'm writing with a wopex. I'm writing with a 2B Wopex. And the reason I am writing with it is because I had. Johnny, you had sent me one of these because I've been wanting to try it and I lost it for like a year and a half. I could not find it anywhere. And today I was looking for something else and Then stumbled across it and I was like, oh my gosh, there it is. Here we go. And I. And I took it with me to Henrietta. Dentist appointment. So I was sitting in the waiting room while he was back there and was writing with it. And there you go. I spent about 30 minutes writing with the Wopex today. And one thing I realized about the Wopex, Johnny, one of my. That I've never. I don't think I've ever vocalized before. But a freshly sharpened Wopex, especially the 2B, I'm only speaking about the 2B. Feels really good. You know, it's nice and heavy. It puts down a good line. But once the point has worn down, I hate it. I don't know if that makes sense. Like, you know, like some pencils.
Are you sure that all the chemicals that you unleashed when you were sharpening it didn't just seep into your skin and give you a high?
I could have been just stoned out of my mind when I was writing with it.
But it's like taking a hit of acid.
Yeah,
but that's what. Yeah, it's like, you know, certain pencils, there are some pencils like the Staedtler Norika, you know, the 2014 one. Especially like when it wears down and it gets stubby. I even like, like it more. You know, I like writing, like turning it around and writing on the soft edges, almost like using a marker or like a Sharpie or something. And I just love it. But with this one, once it dulls down the point, I hate it. And then I have to sharpen it again. So anyways, but it's using that. And I'm writing in a red graph field notes, ambition. Love that edition, which is one of my all time favorite that I. When it came out, I remember trading people to get more of just this one. Yeah, the red one. Because I love that I'm obsessed with deep dark reds, you know, red colors of notebooks and pencils and even fountain pen inks and stuff. Like, I just love it.
So I'm wearing a burgundy shirt for you right now.
You what?
I'm wearing a burgundy shirt for you right now.
Oh, thank you.
It's out of season. It's very autumnal.
Yeah, thank you. I have some. Gladys.
I'm wearing clothes.
I actually appreciate that.
My underwear.
I only. Yeah, I only mentioned my shirt. Just to, just to clarify, like, Daniel
Tiger, where's your pants? Daniel?
Like, get dressed. I'm like, get dressed. Where's the rest of your clothes?
Put your pants On Tiger. Okay. Andy, how about you?
I can't beat that.
I'm excited for this one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I sort of understood, like, I like Michael Chavin a lot. I think we've talked about him. I don't think I like him nearly as much as you do, Tim, but I actually like. We talked about Summerland. I know that's not your favorite Michael Chapin book, is it?
This is the part where I admit that that's the. That until I haven't read Telegraph Avenue. I read like a quarter of it and Summerland. I got halfway through and then stopped reading because I got to the end of a summer break.
Oh, yeah.
And never got back to it. And so now I just want to start it over. But it's. I loved
strikes me as I started reading it that this is like, I feel like he wrote this with, like, you in his head. Like, he listened to future episodes of the Erasable podcast and we're like, okay, this guy loves good writing and baseball. And I'm just going to write this, like, fantasy, like, fairy tale novel that just like, celebrates baseball in, like, all of its forms.
Yeah, it's like, it's. Well and honestly for me. It's like I, I've talked before about how I don't like fantasy most of the time, you know, but, like, if there's anything that's going to draw me into fantasy.
Yeah.
It's baseball.
Yeah. So. And so.
Yeah, I can't wait to start again.
Yeah. So I'm, I, I started reading this Summerland on the plane. I spent the last week and a few days in the Midwest. I went to Chicago for a few days and then I went back to Indiana. And I've had this for a long time sitting in my Kindle, but for some reason I just never picked it up. And for some reason it just struck me. This is. Seems like the perfect time.
It's summer.
I'm going back to a much more summery place than, like, San Francisco right now. So I started reading it. And yeah, I, There are some baseball references that go over my head, but I understand the basics and I understand. I love the little, like, fantasy land that they set up. I like the premise of.
Oh, yeah.
I love the metric, the tree, the branches.
Yeah, it's beautiful.
So, so it's. And then really like his intro in the front of the book, he basically wrote, like, this is what made me just realize it was kind of tailor made for you. It was. He was basically saying he, he. He loves, like, Michael Chabon loves baseball. And he loves, like fantasy and he, he loves. He, he really wishes there was a story that celebrated both that he could read to his kids. But he, that story doesn't exist. So he was like, well, I guess I have to write this story. So it's a little bit like this isn't. This isn't a Harry Potter novel. Like Harry Potter like, novel, but it has certain Harry Potter ish elements. In fact, he talks a little bit about Harry Potter in the intro because
it's not like that new. Right. It's like 2005 or something.
Yeah.
When did it come out?
It's early 2000s. And he, I think he was, it was before, like the movies started getting like, like really, really popular, but after the novels have already started, like, just taking off. So he, I mean, the way that, the way that Harry Potter, like, incorporates Quidditch into a lot of it, like this, this celebrates actual, actual sports. Like baseball.
Real.
Yeah. And so I'm enjoying it a lot. There's. There's like. Yeah, some stuff. I don't quite get that that is mostly baseball related, but I'm really enjoying it. And I'm usually a big sci fi over fantasy fan, but this one is just like the right amount of fantasy.
So send me some screenshots and I'll give you a tutorial per.
Can you baseball explain it to me?
Yeah, well. Well, actually baseball explain it to you.
Yeah. So then.
Yeah, so I'll fan splain it to you.
I appreciate that. What you don't understand about the Giants is
so.
Yeah. Reading that. I haven't actually been watching much TV at all, but only because I haven't been around TVs too much. I've been kind of away. Away from my house. And so as I kind of settle back into it also in a couple weeks, Katie is leaving for a week to like, for a work trip. And so I'll be by myself, which means I'm going to watch a lot of things that Katie doesn't want to watch. So it's usually things like BoJack Horseman or Rick and Morty or Star Trek or something.
Yeah.
So we'll see what happens. Next time I come back to you
with this, it's going to be. Going to get crazy.
Right.
All right.
I feel like our next episode is going to be like three and a half hours long.
Oh, yeah. All tools of the trade.
Just throw that away.
And so I'm. Yeah. And I'm writing with a coffee stir onto my cup, which, you know, makes sense. No, that is what Johnny wrote into my.
Use what you got.
It's what I'm doing. I am also writing with a Blackwing 1004 one more than Johnny's. No, the new Blackwing, which we're going to talk about in a bit. And I'm actually writing in my Baron fig confidant metamorphosis, which I just happen to have in front of me because I'm at work right now. All right, let's move on to freshpoints. Johnny, do you want to start us off with that?
So in social media today, was it Musgrave has a new logo and announced they're going to start shaking stuff up. So, yeah, I have no idea what that means, but it's awesome. They're going to get like a real website now or something.
I just want to. I know that the. The Hoolens who lands Hoolens are in charge of Musgrave and this is. I don't know if they listen to our podcast. I don't know if they. They know we exist. But we would like you to come on to our podcast and talk to us about Musgrave.
That would be so awesome.
So that would be amazing. Get in touch. Erasable us. Yeah. Sorry, Johnny, to interrupt.
Oh, no, not at all.
Yeah, so, I mean, I guess that's not really that much of a push point. It's just like, hey, that's out there. Yeah, that's interesting. I mean, the logo looks really cool. Surprised that it's so different than what I would think a new Musgrave logo would look like. That makes sense.
Yeah. Can you explain it a little bit?
Well, it's a diamond sort of on its side with an M in
kind of looks like the Eberhard Faber logo with the star with the diamond around it. Right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's got a blue background and the sort of image itself is red. So I don't know if it's just what, the way they drew it or a mock up or if they're actually gonna have some sort of, like, company colors. Yeah, they're interesting colors.
As hip and cool is that little logo is it makes me. No, I'm actually about to say something very positive. I am super curious if they're gonna, like, redo things in, like, a bigger way and even have like a competitor for Blackwing volumes or something, you know, like where they're gonna start. Where they're gonna start making cool pencils, you know, again, not just like where they're gonna allow themselves to leave the world of just mass producing pencils. For, you know, whatever people running for county commissioner.
Just for example.
Yeah, just for example. Just off the top of my head. Um. Yeah. I don't know. Just thought. Just thought about that. Just think. I think it might be cool if they end up kind of rebranding, but also upgrading and doing what they do, but also kind of stepping up and doing more, like, cedar stuff. I just. I mean, I hate to, like, snowball and like, a snowball of positivity, but if they started making, like, nice cedar pencils in America again.
Yeah, it would be. That would be an interesting move because they private label for so many other brands out there. Like. Like, if they were. If they started, like, competing with some of black Wings, other. I guess Palomino's other brands, Golden Bear and Palomino and Prospector, all that, like, that would be super weird because they already make those. Like, they're pencils.com.
but. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, the more they can kind of.
Yeah, they can do their own thing, though. And it's not like an attack. It's just like.
Absolutely.
Putting some more good pencils out there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Plus, they haven't factory. They could literally do anything.
Mm.
Yeah.
Interesting.
I hope it announces something out there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, Musgrave, if you. If you're listening, come on the show and tell us what you're gonna do, please.
So, yeah, we've seen Henry, the guy that runs it. He's been on TV and stuff a lot, and he looks like a fun guy to hang out with.
Yeah.
Or have a coffee or a beer.
He and Caroline were by far my favorite people on that thing. That pencil documentary.
Like, yes, he.
I mean, he was just there. He was talking about how, like, pencils got started being made from, like, cedar fences and, like, Appalachia and, like, the Southwest or Southeast. And Caroline talked about, like, selling pencils in her shop, and then there was just like, like, douchebag agency people talking about how it represents the perfect, you know, example of creativity or whatever. Sorry if that guy listens to the show, but yeah, a lot of that
film could have been about a Sharpie.
Yeah, right.
Yeah.
Anti technology rants.
Yeah. Yeah.
So speaking of black wings and custom pencils, we've talked before that Blackwing is doing custom pencils, but the minimum order is 1000 and you can't resell them. So John Morris and our group took the giant task upon himself to put this together. So if you're in our Facebook group, you probably already know there are going to be pencils that say the erasable podcast pencil community on them. And there I think he's working with them to put the order in.
Yeah.
So that's awesome.
Did you guys sign up Morris?
Yes.
That is an amazing task that he's taking on himself. Yeah.
Every time I say anything, pretty awesome. I should thank him for this.
I, I applaud John for the, for the effort and for doing that for sure. Like, I, like, we, we. I think we talked amongst ourselves about it a little bit and we, we didn't really want to do like. Like, we've never made custom erasable podcast pencils just because I think that the expectations people would have of our custom pencils would be way higher than just slapping our name on like a Musgrave or even a Blackwing. Really. Like, if we did, like, erasable pencils, like, we would so want to have, like, just control every aspect of the design and the production and we just can't order in that kind of a quantity.
I don't think we had talked about that years ago, doing like a Kickstarter and trying to like, design something, but it's just, it's an unbelievably huge task to take on.
So one day. Yeah. So kudos to you. To you, John, if you want to take part in this. Well, first go join the community so you can, so you can do that. But then seek out John Morris's post. I think maybe I'll pin it to the top or something and just fill out the order form. I think right now he's looking at. You can get a dozen. Correct me if I'm wrong, it's a dozen pearls and a dozen 602s. Is that what we're looking at?
No. So they all have the pearl core and they do gloss black and gloss white. So he talked them into splitting it so it would be a box of white and a box of black.
Cool. And so. So I believe it's those. A box of black, box of white with the erasable podcast community on the side of it for like 50 some dollars, including shipping.
Right.
It's 56 about shipping.
Okay. I have my facts all wrong.
550. Yeah, well, I, I screwed up my order and forgot the shipping.
Yeah, I'll. I'll go ahead and. I'll go ahead and put a link to his post in the show notes. And then if you're in the, if you're in the group, it should go right to it. If you, if you're not in the group, I don't know what you're going to do. Because it's for the. It's for that community. Yeah.
So, I mean, can people still sign up? I forgot.
Good question.
Because I was really busy running to sign up.
Yeah.
But I mean, if not, maybe it might happen again.
Yeah.
So that's cool. And maybe next time they'll have a little more options, which would be even cooler. So I'm off to Boston next week for a whole week with all three of my children. So that'll be interesting. I may or may not be here for episode 100, but anyway, so I get to meet up with Dee and Les from the RSVP podcast and Melissa, who's a member of our Facebook group. So that'll be super fun. I'm really excited for that.
Yeah. What are you going to do? Just drink coffee?
So, last year. Well, last year we met at the tea shop, and then we descended on Bobsleigh and Black Ink, which was fun. So. And I heard a rumor that the people who made Bob Slate's signature notebooks, including the Mount Tom, no longer make notebooks.
Oh, no.
So I don't know if they found another supplier or what, but I'm afraid to ask. I'll just wait till I get there and see.
Bummer.
But, yeah, hopefully there'll be good news from Bob Slate next time we chat. And so the only other fresh point I have is that Blackwing had a contest on their Instagram story to find the two prime numbers that you multiply together to get 10,001. And apparently you actually won a prize. I got a message that they're going to send something, which is cool.
Yeah.
So they were 73 and 137, and you put them together. That's also a palindrome. Just like 10,001. Oh, man, I missed that part. I was like, oh, 73. That's easy. That's one of theirs.
And 7 and 3 added together equals 10.
I've been messaging them on their Instagram over and over again, like, when's volume 137? So if they do that one day, I want credit.
Yeah. Yeah.
Cool. So that's all I've got. How about you, Mr. Tim?
Well, first thing, this is brief, but if you haven't, those of you who are writers, who would, no matter what you write, if you haven't used Scrivener. Scrivener is an awesome app. I think it's come up before on. On the podcast. But Scrivener finally, in the last year, came out with an iOS app that I've been using this week. Working on some short stories in there. And I really love it. It's really. It's pretty simple. But it syncs with Dropbox and then you can sync with your desktop version of Scrivener. It's pricey.
Yeah, yeah.
As Scrivener is. But it's. It is. But, like, when you think about it, if you are the type of person who takes writing seriously enough to get a program that does it right? I mean, $20 is not a ton of money. Same thing. Like, I mean, if you were a design. I mean, if you're doing design or something and you spend thousands of dollars on Photoshop design program. Yeah. Adobe products.
Yeah.
Just for example, you know, like that. That's, you know, whatever. If you're a runner, you're going to spend $160 on a really nice pair of running shoes or whatever. I don't know. So it's not really in the grand scheme of things that much. And it gives you so much flexibility with moving things around and splitting up chapters and writing them in separate documents and being able to shuffle the order and then compile them all together when you're done. It's pretty awesome. I actually, last night was writing in bed. I just couldn't fall asleep because I had this idea for another short story and started writing. And next thing I knew, 30 minutes later, I had almost 600 words down in the Scrivener app. And what I've kind of learned about my writing process over the last few weeks of doing more writing is that when I sit down to write at my little desk, I have to start by hand. I start by hand in a notebook, kind of get the creative juices flowing. I'll write with a pencil for a while, for a few pages, and then once I feel like things are really rolling and I need to speed up because I don't have six hours straight to work on stuff, then I switch to Scrivener on my laptop or whatever and keep writing. And that's been working really well for me. So if you haven't checked out the app, you should.
Speaking of Scrivener, so I was just listening to the latest RSVP podcast featuring our friends Les and D and Lenore. And Les was on with a special with Harry Marks as her guest. Did you two listen to this?
I did. Yeah. That was a great episode.
I mean, Harry does so many amazing things that I had no idea that he's done a series of short Scrivener tutorials.
Oh, yes, scrivener in 60 seconds.
Yeah, I. I think that's awesome. He's. He, like, has his. He dips his toe into a lot of pools.
It's a perfect premise. Scrivener. 60 seconds is one of those things where. And he explains this on the podcast, but, like, I totally agreed with him that you go to look up something on, like, how to do it. It's like looking up a recipe online, and you're like, I want to know how to make, you know, whatever, spinach, artichoke dip or something. And then you look it up, and then you find a blog that has a recipe, and there's like 7,000 words that lead up to the actual recipe. At the bottom, you're like, I don't want to know what your kids said after school when they came home. Like, I just need this recipe. I'm cooking it right now. I'm cooking it right now. It's like, you go. You look up these scrivener things, and they spend six minutes describing to you what scrivener is. Like. I know what that is. I just want to know how to do the thing. And that's what he's doing. So I think it's great.
Yeah.
So good call pointing that out.
Besides. Besides that. It's such a good episode anyway, so I'll put a link in, show notes to that episode of rsvp.
Yeah, absolutely. I am going to get into some acetone adventures in the next few days. I have had a good friend, Jason, sending us some. Or sending me some tutorials on how to do this and, like, all of his secrets, because he sent some really cool ones that I mentioned the other day or the other episode. Really cool hack wings that have the lacquer stripped. And so I'm gonna. I bought some acetone the other day. I'm gonna start messing around with that. And I've got a pool of pencils I'm gonna start with, which he pointed out, which makes total sense that since you're using sandpaper in the process, that a round pencil works better because you're gonna sand off some of the hex when you use a hex pencil. So. But the first pencil I'm gonna do, which I feel like is a fun throwback to the early, early, early, early days. First days of our podcast is I'm gonna start with a Ticonderoga lady, which was like, my first. Oh, man, that was like, my first pet pencil.
Yeah.
I guess before I found the Palomino hp, I guess was the next one.
But you're gonna Melt your fingertips off.
It's worth it. Worth it. So I'm gonna start, start with a Laddie and also a Spangle. I'm gonna do those. And then I, I even thought about doing a. I think I'm gonna do a Golden Bear Jumbo. I was gonna do a the Right Notepads jumbo, but those are, you know, so rare that I don't want to ruin any. And they're so pretty, the awesome print on it. So I'm gonna do those three. So I'm gonna do a spangle, a Golden Bear jumbo, and then a Laddie.
Nice.
And yeah, I posted something the other day that I was just gonna mention here. And I, I, it feels a little weird doing this, but I'm trying to. For my own personal classroom, as a teacher, we're given certain funds to use, but it's small. Not by the fault of our school, but just by the fault of the system, the small pool of money. Some years it's like $150 to use for supplies for my classroom for the year, which is not very much. And I really am just dying to build our classroom library. I would love to just buy a bunch of books, you know, use books, or even through this, what I'm about to say, through websites, just to buy some novels, just to give, like, create a book flood on my students just so they have. When they come into my classroom, it's not the library, but they can come in and there's just going to be a ton of books that are good books, not just the same old crappy books that have been sitting around for 60 years in classrooms that nobody's touched in 20 years. And so I created. It was a while ago, but I'm kind of revamping it now or just putting it out there. I created an Adopt a Classroom account to raise money for my classroom specifically. And if you feel willing, I would absolutely appreciate it. And I've had several listeners to the podcast already give very generous donations, which just blew my mind just to get those from them. I mean, Larry and Kathy and Joe and these people that have donated just really means a lot to me. I think a lot of it's $5. Even if it's a little, it just really helps.
So, yeah, I think a lot of non American listeners and even some American listeners don't realize that just how underfunded the public school system is and how, yeah, like, teachers don't have a lot of the, like, like they buy a lot of the supplies they need out of their own Pockets. So I think, yeah, every.
Yeah, every week I think, yeah, go on.
I'm sorry.
Yeah, you're absolutely right. It's sad. I think we spend more on education than most other countries. But the money that's spent on education doesn't go to the actual teachers. It goes to the stuff surrounding it. So, like I said, I've had years where I got $150, and that's what I had to buy books for my room, to buy pencils, to buy paper, to buy even materials to teach with and to buy memberships to. Like, this year, I had to use half of my money to buy a membership to the National Council of Teachers of English because I wanted to get their publication. I wanted to be a part of that community and be able to go to their conference and stuff like that. So if you're able, we'll put the link in the show notes. But to donate, even if it's a couple bucks, five bucks, whatever, or more if you feel willing. But it's just. It's super helpful to get things that should be provided. But by no fault of my own school, no fault of most of people in education, it's just. It's. It gets hard. So it just would really be helpful.
Yeah.
And I'm going to make a brief little announcement here on the podcast, but we're. We're approaching episode 100, and it actually is going to function as a. Or act as a kind of a turning point for me as well. I am working on a new project that I'm super excited about. I've been excited about it for many months, and I'll go into more detail about it later. I'm not going to talk about a lot now, but I've been really drawn towards doing this. And as a result of that, I've decided that I think I'm going to step back for a little while. Just a little while. With Eraseable. Um. I could never leave completely. That would, like, shatter my soul. Yeah, that would shatter my insides if I did that. Um, but I am starting a podcast and a second podcast with my good friend Jason, who lives here in town with me, and with John Pattison, who's a member of the group and listener to the podcast and good friend. And we are starting a podcast dedicated to Wendell Berry, who's an author I've talked about here before, but an author who's really meant a ton in all three of our lives. And so we're putting together a podcast. It's called the Membership. The Membership. A Wendell Berry Podcast. Is the title of it. Actually, tomorrow night we're recording kind of a practice episode where we're just going to talk about stuff and see where it goes and see. And just get used to talking with one another. That's not going to be necessarily a thing that we're going to release, but just to kind of get moving. And we'll be doing a couple seasons, a year of that. So as a result, I think Sometime after episode 100, 101, somewhere around there, I'm going to be just stepping back for a little while so that I can focus on getting that off to the strongest. And I'm going to miss doing this every minute as I'm doing the other, because this has just been. I can't. 100 is a staggering number and just blows my mind that I. When we started this thing, I couldn't imagine doing more than like, 17.
Yeah.
I was like, we've got a good life.
What is there to talk about?
We've got a good 17 episodes in US. But now here we are, we're like running long on episode 99, which is a beautiful thing. So, yes, once that gets rolling, things get moving and things get acclimated in that project, which really just means a lot to me. He's a writer who affects me as a person. He writes essays, he writes poetry, he writes novels that really have shaped who I am. And it feels like a project that I'm very drawn to doing. It just means a lot to me. And so I'm going to be working on that. And then once that gets moving, then I'll be entering back into the fold here. Maybe not every single episode, but definitely on a semi regular basis and as regular as possible.
And Johnny and I are going to try to bring some interesting voices in to not replace Tim, because, Tim, you are irreplaceable.
But just to like Fran Drescher. Is that what you mean by interesting voices?
Yes, I think that Fran Drescher is available.
Okay.
I hear that Roseanne is available. Maybe we'll get Roseanne, the lady who
played Janice on Friends.
Yes. Come on, Andy. Wow,
that was amazing.
So, yeah, Tim, Godspeed on that. And I'm sure it won't be as good as this podcast. No, I'm just kidding. It sounds amazing. I can't wait to listen to it. And yeah, we're not going to miss you because we're still going to be texting you every day.
Please. I actually had, like, anxiety about telling you guys when I decided to do this because, like, what if they Cut me out of the message thread. What if they stop texting me?
How do you know we haven't. Cool.
Yeah, so that's happening. And I'm very excited, very passionate about this, and I'm very grateful to you guys for being understanding of that until I get things kind of situated where I can be doing both.
Yeah, we'll fully have links to that podcast once there are links to provide for it.
Yeah, I think it's our website. If I. And I'm trying to remember it, it's membershippod.com is the name of the website. So it's under construction. So if you go there, there's not gonna be anything. But the Membership is what the people in these novels call their community of people that live in this town. So the podcast is called the Membership, a Wendell Berry podcast that we've got a lot of cool plans, a lot of cool interviews that we're. We're working on. So in very. We're going to work our way through a lot of his work, so A lot of his writing. Yeah. So that is it for me. All right, Andy, how about you?
Well, biggest main announcement I think I just want to make real quickly is that since we recorded last pre orders are now available for Plumbago 4. So we think we have all the content we need. We're just kind of like, Harry and I are kind of editing and getting through it. Please pay buy a pre order to help us kind of pre fund the print run everything we need to actually, like, get it out the door. And to you, it would be so greatly appreciated. And it guarantees you availability of this, of this issue. So we'll make sure not to print less than we have demand for upfront. So we're going to keep this going on until we actually start shipping the. The zine, which I'm hoping will happen the first or second week of July. I have a lot of folding and stapling and cutting to do. I actually still have a lot of layout to do too, but it's going to be awesome. So get that done. And to do that, go to Plumbago xyz or if you just go to our website, Erasable Us, and click on Shop, it should be there. And along with that, if you were holding out and waiting for the digital edition of issue three that is now available for purchase, it's half the price of a paper issue, which is $5. So if you want that fiction and poetry issue in PDF form, you can now buy that on the website. But we still also have paper copies Available too. So that is there last thing I'll mention. These second two notes I think are very complimentary. Two amazing things happened last week. A, I went to Chicago to go to Field Notes to check out feel. I didn't go to Chicago specifically for that reason, but while I was there I really wanted to check out the Field Notes store office hq. And while I was there, I hung out with Mike Hagen, our friend and. And colleague from Lead Fast. So he's awesome. It was super fun to hang out with him. We hit up the Field Notes hq. We, we hung out with Brian Bedell and Jim Kudal. That was really cool. He did not give us a peek at the, the, the new field notes edition they just announced, which is a bummer, but I completely understand. Like, he didn't, he didn't let us go back in and see the shipping and packing area. And they even had, they even had paper like over the window of that door. So there's no way you could see back there. Yeah, but it was, that's awesome. Yeah, it was fun. Jim Kudal, super cool. Brian's really great. We just had a good, a good chat. He did tell, he did. He did tell me that there are a bunch of special editions that they've made for other brands that are floating around, floating out there in the world that has never been discovered on, in the Field Nuts group. He gave me a hint to some of them that I'm going to keep to myself. But yeah, I think that's, that's really cool that there's just so many like additions out there that the Field Nuts don't know about. And then Mike Hagen was great. We, we started off there and we, we had breakfast. We went to Field Notes. We went to Greer Chicago. Are you, are either of you familiar with this?
Yeah, I've ordered stuff from them before.
It's, it's kind of like if CW Pencils sold other products besides pencils. It's like a little boutique gift shop. But everything is very, very much like in line with selling pencils. They have vintage, vintage Abrahad Faber pencils. They had a bunch of like fat school pencils from like the mid century through the 80s. Like they have that big thick Dixon one. I picked up a few that Tim and Johnny I'm gonna send to you in case you've, in case you don't have it.
Yeah, thanks, dude.
Yeah, they're. It's a cool store. Didn't meet the owner, but I, I think that she's in our group. So I'm Gonna reach out and say hi, but it's a. That's a really cool store. So, yeah, that was my trip to Chicago. Besides that, we ate at some really good restaurants and had a really good time.
Sweet.
Yeah. So, yeah, we should get into the main topics. It's probably be pretty short today. We have just a couple things to mention. We're still waiting on our friend Chris Roth and the Write Notepads edition, which are due out anytime. But I just thought it would be cool if we talked about a couple of these things. I think we may actually beat the pen addict in talking about three missions, but I could be wrong about that because they sure do get those episodes out fast
machine.
Yeah. First, maybe let's talk a little bit about the newest Blackwing edition. It's volume 10001 and we alluded to it a little bit. But would anybody like to sort of like talk about the premise of it and where they got this number and the concept for the pencil? Do you want to. Do you want to hit that up, Johnny or Tim?
I only barely understand it.
Okay.
I can.
I mean, yeah, Tim, go for it.
I can do a passing job at it. But yeah. Blackwing1001 is based on the Kenken puzzles, which is in the New York Times is the only other everyday puzzle besides the crossword, right? I believe so.
Yeah.
Understood that correctly. Yeah. So it is a. It's a puzzle that's kind of along the lines. I just did a little bit of research very recently. That is because I've never done it myself and now I want to try it. But it's very similar to a Sudoku, but kind of with an add an element. It's like a three dimensional Sudoku where you still are trying to create where each line, each row and column has numbers, one through whatever. It can go from four all the way up to nine. And. But on top of that, the numbers have a sort of equation that goes with them to help you figure out which one goes there. So it's like, at least in my head, it depends on how you think about it, that it could either help you more than Sudoku, that Sudoku is more just kind of like make a bunch of guesses in this one, if you're good at math, that you can do it quicker. You know, I don't know if that makes sense because you've got these clues. But again, I haven't done it and I want to. So I will figure it out. But. But these. The. The Kenken puzzle was designed by, I believe it was a Japanese. Japanese teacher who created this to help his students in math class to as like a little game to help them practice their math skills. And they. Yes, the 10,001, but you know, the 10,001 is expressed in Japanese script or Japanese figures, which is super cool. And the color. And I don't have them in front of me. I ordered mine. Mine don't get here until Thursday, actually, so I'll get them in a couple days.
But I will say that the color looks way better in person than it does in photographs. Yeah, it's like a red stain.
Yeah. Gosh, I'm so excited. I'll say that I am more excited to get these. I haven't been excited to get an edition like this since probably the 530, I think, was the last one that I was this excited just to try, because it, like. But the look of it, I think the 530 was mostly the black band around the feral that I was so excited about is the same 602core, which made me excited. But then we had the 205, which I was not excited about really, at all. The jade edition, the 73, has become, like, my favorite edition, but when it came out, I was kind of like, oh, cool, all right. You know, fine. I wasn't, like, really pumped up about it. And then since then, we've had the one, which I was excited that it was round, but also I just wasn't. That's about where it stopped. Yeah. And I don't know, just. Yeah, just since then, I haven't been. Haven't been wowed and haven't been, like, really anticipating one. Because before that, we had. I mean, gosh, the first run of them, especially the. I feel like the. The best run, in my opinion, was the 24. And sorry to say this in front of you guys, but 24 into the 56, just because of the Joe DiMaggio connection. 2024 into 56 into 344 into 530 was an amazing run of four editions that I really loved. And then since then, there's been some that I've enjoyed, but not any that I anticipated as much. So I think this is a. Because I'm eager to see them, and I'm eager. And I'm really eager to feel the texture of it. I'd like to hear you guys talk about the texture of the. Of the pencil. If it still feels. Does it feel like a 211 kind of, or does it have more of a grit to it?
I would say, Johnny, it's Would you agree it's a. It feels a little bit more lacquered to me. To me, it feels lacquered. Like the palomino HBs feel lacquered.
Okay.
I don't know if it feels that thick or maybe it's just in your head because you can see the wood grain. I feel like I can feel it, but now I'm sitting here, I'm stroking the pencil and I do not feel it.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Do that on your own time, Johnny.
But whatever they put on here is definitely a lot thinner room. You know, it's thinner than, you know, several coats of colored lacquer.
It's also hard and hard. It's also hard to tell because I don't know if Tim, if you mentioned this, but what's. What the big, big distinguisher in this pencil is, is that it's a five sided pencil. It's a pentagonal instead of hexagonal.
I didn't mention that.
Yeah.
Pencil.
Yeah. So as, as you mentioned, it has bigger sides. Um, each side is a little bit like longer, but it's a. They're at sharper angles. So some people have not found a grip that they like. I think if you have smaller hands, it's a little bit better to grip, but it's. I think that that probably affects the way it feels because you're getting like a broader surface when you, when you're, when you're pitting your pencil. But yeah, I, I think it looks gorgeous. Yeah.
Yeah.
I think this is their sharpest print job ever.
Yeah.
So good.
Yeah. Which is.
So when I first saw them, I wanted a pink eraser, but I think that would have been wrong. This is good.
Yeah.
It's black, right? Yep. I'm just looking at the pictures because, I mean, I have it in front of me, but yeah, it's a beautiful, beautiful pencil. I think it's just like really, it's simple but also interesting, which is a good, good balance form.
So to me, this is one of those pencils that when somebody who's not into pencils or specifically into black wings will see it, you know, it won't be like, like weird, like the volume one. Like, like that's a weird looking pencil. Like, this will be a beautiful, weird looking pencil. This will be a, like very classic looking, like, ooh, look at that pencil. Kind of like divorced from its like special meanings. So.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Do you guys have the. Having them in hand when you have them, do you have the itch to say like, buy another box? Are they that good for you or are you just enjoying them as is and just think you're good?
I think I will buy another box and I. There's only been maybe like three additions that I've. I've done that with.
Yeah.
It says a lot.
Yeah.
I'm gonna probably get another box at Bob's Slate next week.
Yeah.
If they have them or I want to wind up going back multiple times and buying enough singles that I've got another box.
Yeah.
Which is fine.
It has the. It has the 602core, which I think fits it really nicely because it's not super soft, but it's not like. Because the grip is a little weird on it. Like, I like how it lays down a. Like a. Like enough ink or ink. Watch your dirty mouth. Wellfully. Get the F off. It's been a long day. It lays down enough lead where I think. Yeah.
It.
Like, it's not super firm but it's not super soft. So to me, I always think the 602 is more of a. More of an actual balanced core rather than the pearl.
Yeah. For me.
But yeah. Yeah. I'm a. I'm a big fan of this and I think the execution was super good and I love that it was completely out of left field for most people. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'd never heard of Kenken before.
I have a feeling that I will be wanting another box of these, but I'm going to wait until I actually get them in hand. Just because of that pentagonal shape that I'm mostly concerned about. Just because I. I'm such a. Yeah. I don't know. I feel is like 70% of it for me, like with how I'm like how it feels while I'm holding it. You know, like, there are some. I've used some really like renowned fancy fountain pens or in stuff that like everybody loves and they loved for 50 years. And then I use it. I'm like this little thing. This tiny little thing about it drives me crazy and I can't do it. I can't hold it or I can't use it. So yeah, I'm gonna wait until I get them and then. But I. But just by. Based on looks, I want. I feel like I'm. My hoarding instinct is gonna. My hoarding impulse is gonna kick in. Yeah.
Johnny is a self professed fat finger person. How do you feel about the grip?
So when I use it, it's not like a round pencil or a triangular pencil where you're like, you know, I'm not using a hex pencil. Every once in a while, you're like, something's weird about this. It's not painful. It's just kind of weird.
Mm.
So I found it a little distracting, but I think I hold my pencil sort of right, you know, quote unquote. So that could have something to do with it.
Okay, I. Okay, that's interesting. I'm there. And now I totally forgot what I was gonna say. Crap.
No worries.
You can edit that out. I had something very profound I was gonna say, and then I just left you.
Yep.
Left me.
Anything more to say about this before we move on to the three missions?
No.
No. Oh, we didn't mention the subscriber extra, which was.
Oh, yeah.
Some Ken Ken puzzles printed on nice paper. That was cool.
I'm probably never gonna do those because just the. Just thinking about all that math makes my head hurts.
So. Nope. I don't know how many times in a school year I will say the sentence, not a math guy, or the fragment, not a math guy in class where I'll say, I'll make a fool of myself by being like, yeah, whatever. It'd be like, that's 20 days away. I'm like, what? That's four weeks. And they'll be like, my students will look at me like, what? I'm like, not a math guy. I'm sorry. No, I meant almost three weeks. Almost three weeks.
Yeah. Cool.
So.
Yeah.
So excited to get these.
Absolutely. Yeah. So the next. The next thing, and the last thing we'll mention here today is the new field notes, which we are recording on a Tuesday. It was announced yesterday, Monday, and it is called Three Missions. And I'll. I'll just start off by saying it. Some people were complaining that it is space themed.
Space Force Edition.
Space Force Edition. It. It's. It's celebrating the. The three, like, programs to the Moon, the Mercury, the Gemini, and the Apollo programs. They have. I have. I don't. None of us have this in hand yet, Johnny. You're getting yours tomorrow. I'm getting mine on.
Yeah, yeah.
On Friday. But they look. Yeah, they look very similar, kind of in execution to America the Beautiful. They both. They all look kind of half toned, but I don't know. I won't know that until I see it.
And just even like that, they're a graphic print.
Yeah. On the COVID Yes, A graphic print on the COVID Yeah. And people are complaining, like, ah, we've had Night sky. We've had lunacy. They're all space themed, this one.
So what? Yeah.
First of all, space is awesome.
Secondly, space is the best. People come on.
To me, this, this is less space and more like nostalgia Americana only because like it's kind of celebrating this like this really amazing space program that we used to have, you know, the middle of last century that has gone by the wayside. So in fact it comes with a subscriber extra which is similar to America Beautiful. It comes with a water transfer decal that's perfect for your laptop that says let's go back to the moon with a picture of an astronaut.
And so next year is the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. So I don't know why they did it this year.
This year? Yeah. Who knows?
Were they afraid they wouldn't be around next year?
Yeah.
Like I hope this isn't like prescient or something. Yeah.
So it's an anniversary.
Yeah.
So I say every year. I'm just kidding.
So I'm excited about the insides. They're using. They're using a white graph paper with a very light gray graph on it. It's a full graph. Yeah, but it's music to my ears. Yeah, but it's very light, I think. Johnny, are you the one who mentioned that it sounds like maybe they were listening to people complaining about the very heavy reticle graph in the last edition.
Well, I wondered if the phrase very lightly lined wasn't a kind of like.
Yeah.
To people like me who complained about it. But I'm just glad they're not screwing with the paper.
Yeah.
So no matter what, you know what you're getting.
Yeah.
They're just differently colored and really cool.
Yeah.
And so the extra. It's not a subscriber extra, but every pack comes with punch outs for the capsules that astronauts return to earth in.
Yeah.
Which is so freaking.
They're really super cool. Yeah, that was super cool.
So, yeah, it's. It's a gorgeous addition. I think we all probably can't talk much about it because we don't have it in hand, but soon I just realized that the Mercury Atlas 6 mission to the moon, that is like the most, in my opinion, the best looking cover happened to my birthday, but just 21 years before I was born, which is really cool.
So I'm sure that there's a design term for this, but on several of the covers the image goes over top of the field notes logo, which looks so cool.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Do you guys know what that's called? It's got to have a name.
It reminds me a Lot of, you know, like Time magazine or something when the like, cutout of the person kind of like goes over the masthead. And this is kind of that same thing. I would just call it like a, like an overlay or whatever, but it really makes it pop, I think. Yeah.
I have not bought a pack of field or pack of like limited edition field notes in a while actually. It's been like a year, I think, since I bought like a, A new edition. There's some that I've gotten really close, like coastal. I got really close and then the reticle just made me run. But I'm gonna buy this one like 100% and I'm gonna. And actually our. We have this barber shop downtown, Johnson City now that sells field notes. And I don't know why, but they sell it for. Any Regular edition is 9 bucks and any special edition. Special edition is 11.
So don't tell the world this. You should hoard that to yourself.
Yeah, they don't have a website, so I'm safe. But so I'm going to. As soon as they get them in, I'm going to go and buy a couple packs of these. Because I grew up, my dad and I, like one of our, like, early bonds, we had like a few things that we bonded on early. It was the Three Stooges, David Letterman and the space program. Those are the things that we like. I remember staying up late watching David Letterman with my dad. I remember like watching Three Stooges and I remember going on trips to like, Cape Canaveral and going to, to Houston and seeing the museums there and.
Yeah.
And so. And I was, I was obsessed with the movie Apollo 13 when I was a kid. Like, I, I was fascinated by this whole world. I still have like, models of them that I had built when I was a kid. So I, I was tickled when I saw this. Absolutely tickled. So I'm going to pick up a few of these for sure.
Yeah, yeah. It's, it's. As I mentioned on the last episode with Larry Grimaldi, America the Beautiful was the, the, the edition that made me sort of like take notice of the colors editions. And to see that they were like, there were so many interesting printing things they could do with it because it's a celebration really of just like different printing methods. And this to me is such a. Just like a callback to the America the Beautiful. And in fact, when we were in, when Mike, Mike Hagen and I were in the Field Notes hq, we were talking to Jim Kudal and he goes like, We. I didn't even ask him for a spoiler, but I told him my story about how much I loved America the Beautiful and he was like, I think that you're going to like this new edition then.
Yeah.
So that, that very graphical cover is just one of my favorites.
So I think my favorite is the one with the Saturn V pod covering up the part of the E and the S. I think that's my. My favorite. It's hard to not pick the one with the. The launch. You know, the.
Yeah.
Is it the Mercury launch with the flames coming out the bottom? And that's really amazing. But then something about that middle one and it's like asymmetry. Like asymmetry that I just. Oh, God, I love.
Yeah.
So.
Yep. So good job. Field notes.
This is.
I'm. I'm interested. I can't remember any of the other complaints that I've seen people have with it. Just other than, like, it's space themed and we've already had two space themed ones, so other than that, I don't. I don't know what the complaint is, but I'm.
Get a job, people.
Yeah.
Well, they weren't really space themed. They were things. This is the only one where anyone goes anywhere.
Yeah.
And weirdly, I did not think about it as much as a. And this is gonna sound really strange, but just as a space themed one, as like a. Like a. It almost seemed like patriotic in a way. It was like, this is like a milestone. It wasn't just about like the moon or stars. It was the. This is this amazing thing we did.
Well, there's. There's literally.
We should pay attention to.
There's literally an astronaut saluting the American flag on one of them. Yeah.
On the side. Which would normally turn me off immediately, but this time did not. I was just like, wow, this is cool.
Yeah.
So I don't. I. I think it's really cool.
It fits right in with field notes. Kind of like overall brand and sort of like nostalgic look at America's history. So. Yeah. Cool. All right, guys. Anything else we should mention about that before we button it up?
No, I don't think so.
I think so. We didn't mention. This is very minor. But we didn't mention it as graph, did we? A little bit.
We just mentioned that it's.
I just know we talked about it being lighter lines, but it's a light gray graph which, like, in my head, it's like the perfect graph.
Yeah.
I'm very excited about that.
It kind of does What, What I think a reticle, a good reticle grid should do, which is like, provide a lot of guidance but then just like step out of the way.
Yeah.
And so that light. Light gray, that extremely light gray, as they say. Yeah, I'm looking forward to trying it and seeing if it does that.
Yeah, yeah, digging it. Cool.
All right, well, thank you all for joining us. We will be back with a special episode, hopefully in about two weeks for episode 100. I think you are gonna like what we have to put together. And then, then we kicked him out. And finally the sweet release of Death
Dead, Dead Weight on the end of this podcast.
So, yeah, Tim, where can people find you on the Internet?
And find me on Twitter @TimWassom. You can find me on Instagram TimothyWasom and soon you can find me at. At Membership pod on both of those things.
Awesome. And Johnny, how about you?
I am@pencerevolution.com and on Instagram and Twitter at Pensolution. How about you, sir? Andy.
Andy, I am. Can you say my name again in that Janice voice from Friends?
I don't know if I could do it on command.
Andy. Nope, I'll just have to.
Andy Bing. R in your first name. Andrew Bing.
Andrew Bing. I am on the Internet@woodclinch.com or Facebook or Instagram as Awilflly. My first initial, my last name. And this is the erasable podcast. Episode 99 show. Notes and audio can be found at erasable us99. Find our Facebook group where you can find an order form for custom erasable community pencils@facebook.com groups erasable. Our official mouthpiece on Facebook, of course, is the page Erasable Podcast. We're on Twitter and Instagram as raceablepodcast. Please give us a review if you like the show. Rate us, Review us and other. Find stationery podcasts that helps us be found more easily by others looking for a podcast and helps us grow. We'd love that. So thank you for joining us and we will see you again with episode 100.
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@www.thismountainband.com.
gaze captures me with wonder. I can taste the days below half summer if I could just count the times this has happened before.