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Transcript
I don't really collect anything. Aside from pencils. I collect children.
Hello, and welcome to episode 105 of the erasable Podcast. It's that time of year again. School is back in session. Teaching sweaters are coming out of storage, if indeed you live in a place where you need a sweater. Pumpkin spice is a phrase uttered with either disgust or excitement. And our favorite stationery brands are releasing their fall releases. Tonight we're going to take a look at the latest offerings from Field Notes and Black Wings and a few other exciting things. And joining me tonight, of course, is my favorite autumnal co host, Johnny Gamber. Hey, Johnny.
Hey, Andy.
I mean, you're my only co host for this episode.
You're making me sound old.
You're in the autumn of your year.
Over the hill, way past the solstice.
Yeah, he's almost to the equinox. Guys, it's about time. So, yeah, we're going to just keep it short and sweet. We have a really exciting episode next week. So if you have to choose between listening to this or to that, I don't know why you would have to, but please, Please choose episode 106. Do we, do we talk about why? Why we're excited for it? Johnny? I guess we are in the fresh points, right?
Yeah, I think, I think we. We mentioned it last week, didn't we?
A little bit, yeah.
I think it's so exciting. Yay.
All right, so let's talk about tools of the trade. What are you up to? What are you consuming and writing with?
So I just, I never read the book, A Very Long Engagement, despite enjoying the film. So I picked up the book recently and then read the book and then watched the film again, which was really good. Have you seen the film?
No, I haven't.
So it has a lot of the same cast members as Amelie and the same director.
Oh, nice.
The film is about a young woman after World War I who is trying to find her fiance who was sent into no Man's Land for self mutilation. And you know, he's dead, but he's not dead. So the whole story is her searching for what happened to those five men that they pushed into no Man's Land as their punishment. Sounds really good.
Sounds cheery.
The movie was a little less depressing than the book because Jean Pierre Jeannette's movies aren't depressing, but I mean, they're both super good and they have the same ending. It's not like one is a happy ending and one is a sad ending. They have identical endings.
Which is good. Yeah.
But yeah, it's a quick read and a really good film if you can find it. I don't think it's streaming anywhere right now. I was trying to start the God of Small Things and I kind of can't get into it. So my brother just sent me a book about. I think it's called the Final Season, about a National Park Service ranger who got lost. Sounds like my kind of book. Yeah, that's where, that's where I'm headed now. And I'm also. I'm gonna be right behind you on the TV shows. Yeah, I'll let you talk about those. So I'm writing with a Blackwing 33 and a third. And in honor of NASA's announcement today that we're going back to the moon and to Mars, I'm using field notes. Three missions.
Which one?
Which one am I using? Mercury.
Okay, cool. I think that one's my favorite of the three. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I got to see that capsule this summer at the Kennedy Museum.
Yeah, I need to go to the Kennedy Museum. I love the Air and Space Museum. Like both the one at Dulles and the one that's on the mall. But yeah. All right, well, I am. How about you? Yeah, I am writing. Well, I guess I'm consuming first. Something that we just talked about yesterday. Season three of the Girls of Corfu, which we have talked about here before, is back. It starts off as like such a good show. It just like if you want a movie that like a TV show that like makes you feel happy without feeling guilty about it being like, you know, the Bachelor or something like that, this is it. It's kind of like a madcap British drama about like a post war family that moved to the Greek island of Corfu. And. And it's just about them trying to fit in and you know, they have like, all of the characters are eccentric in one way or another. And the beginning of season three is no different. Like, it's just such a good show. Yeah. I won't spoil any of the, like, what happens in it, but it's pretty fun. Katie and I just got done watching the first season of Forever. Johnny, have you seen this show? Now it is, I would call it a comedy. It's not like funny haha, but it's funny. Like ah, like it's hard to describe. It's. It's Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen, two like seasoned like SNL actors who are just really fantastic. And they play a married couple and really, I cannot say anything More because there's some like, twists and turns in like, like a fun way. So it's a really low commitment. It's like eight episodes of half an hour each. So just four hours of television. So go for it if you can. It's on Amazon Prime Video if you watch that. I also, we. We started. You. You saw man in the High Castle, right, Johnny? Yeah, yeah. We're sort of like halfway through the first season, so just casually just jumped into it recently. It's pretty good. But also just like, man, it's a bummer.
Season two, like really picked up.
Okay.
I binged that one by myself at night. Yeah, Frankie's not a fan.
Yeah, it's funny. So I live in San Francisco, which is where like, you know, half of the show takes place in like, you know, Japan occupied San Francisco. And darn if it isn't like such a beautiful looking city when like evil Japanese powers run it. Yeah. Anyhow, it's. Yeah, it's a great show. And then finally. Have you ever read Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut, Johnny?
No.
It is striking out tonight. Yeah. Kurt Vonnegut is. I mean, everybody knows Kurt Vonnegut. This is one of his shorter and I think like later novels. It's set in like modern ish time, I think. So like, I think that maybe means like the 80s. And it has just a really interesting narrator. And I'm not. I'm only like halfway through, so I don't even know exactly where this is going to lead. But the narrator is speaking to us from 1 million years in the future.
A million years in the future.
A million years in the future. And it seems like it's kind of like an omniscient narrator. Like it's sort of like knows everything that's going through everybody's head and it's just. It's just a really interesting voice, especially for Kurt Vonnegut. So I'm enjoying it.
That's interesting.
Yeah. All right. And I'm writing also, like Johnny, I'm writing with a Blackwing 33.33333333. But I am writing on a Baron Fig index card.
Oh, nice.
Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to talk about some fresh points?
Absolutely. So I think we both have the new non seasonal release from Field Notes. The ROMS edition.
Yeah.
From Dieter Rams.
Dita Roms.
Yeah. So it's a companion to a film which is viewing around the country and of course is not coming to Baltimore. I think it's coming to Philly. Okay, Totally be a good date. Night. Because it's by the art museum, just not far from the train station.
But anyway, so it's by the guys who made the Helvetica documentary and like Objectified and all that stuff, right?
Yep.
Yeah.
So I misread the website, which mentioned it having light green or light light gray dot graph paper, which made it sound like the paper was gray. Yeah, paper is not gray. It's the usual paper with dot grid that's in light gray, which is really, really nice. Especially after some of the weird formats they've done lately, like Coastal, you could barely write in.
Yeah.
Yeah. Did you open yours yet? Sweet cover.
I haven't opened it, like reading it, and then somebody in the group mentioned that it kind of feels like the drink Local editions. Is that right?
Yeah, a little. A little less rubbery.
Okay.
But yeah, matte, very nice.
I got it in. But yeah, I haven't. I haven't opened it yet. It also, I love the kind of like off. It's like white on. Off white, right.
Like the COVID It's like gray on gray.
Okay. Yeah. Like a really, really light gray, though.
Yeah. I mean, aside from the little orange accent on the back, this could just look like a grayscale photograph.
Nice.
Pretty cool. And on the back, they have the principles of good design, which is cool. And they're all the same, so it's not like if you use one that's the only one like it. All three notebook the same. And the white staples are a really nice touch.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. The white staples, it looks like they blend perfectly with the COVID color.
Yeah. Really, really well designed.
Yeah.
Very fitting.
Hey, Johnny, I forgot to send this to you, but do you know what other note field notes I've gotten a hold of? What? The new XOXO ones.
Oh, you did? Awesome.
I did. A friend of mine went crazy.
Colors.
Yeah. A friend of mine went to XOXO and there was a. There was a table with notebooks sitting at like, just a big stack of the field notes. And she grabbed like three of them. And then later she saw the sign that was sitting on the other side of the T saying just take one per person. And she's like, oops. But she knew that I was specifically into field notes, so she grabbed some for me. Oh, cool.
Yeah, I hope they'll be up soon. Yeah, they've done that the last three times they made them, I think.
I think so. After the. After they realized what. What sort of demand people have for them, I think that they made extras and then just sold them. Because they could. Yeah.
Yeah. Those ones from. Was it 2016? There were the black, orange, and pink on that. Really nice stock. Those were super nice. Yeah.
Yep. I like those a lot.
I use those really quickly.
Yeah.
And then Charlotte stole my other pack. Charlotte. So it goes.
Mm.
See, they have three kids. Your nice stationery will never get wasted. It's great. Never waste black wings. Kids like them. Yay. So also, this is related to our next episode, so in case you missed it, our next episode is going to feature Henry Hulan from Musgrave Pencil.
Yes.
He will be podcasting from Musgrave, which we're so freaking excited about. And I think his son might be on too. So we have their new publicity person, Nicole Bank. She's going to go from Nashville, Tennessee, all the way out to Shelbyville, Kentucky, to make this happen.
Shelbyville, Tennessee.
Oh, what did I say?
You said Nashville, Kentucky, didn't.
Yeah, I'm sorry. I used to drive through that when I lived out there.
Yeah, I. I mean, I'll. I'll say this when we talk to Nicole, but, like, as far as, like, the marketing and the visibility of Musgrave in, like, an effort to just sort of, like, engage with, like, us and kind of our audience is amazing and makes me so glad she's there. Like, she's. She's doing in such a good sort of, like, genuine way instead of just like, getting all weird and Instagram me about it, if you know what I mean. Yeah, yeah.
Like stalking people on Instagram and commenting stuff like, I like your account.
Come follow our hashtag. Yeah, yeah.
And that the stuff they're putting up is, like, really cool. It's not just filler. And speaking of really cool stuff. So you can buy a Musgrave T shirt now and not just a Musgrave T shirt. You can pick from five different T shirts.
Well, we talked about a couple of them last time. Right. Like, we talked about the test scoring 100, which was exciting.
Now they have the Seris, the Harvest, and the freaking Bugle, which is probably my favorite Musgrave pencil. Yeah, I'm really happy about this.
I hope they keep going with it. I really want a choo choo pencil.
Oh, that would be incredible.
Honestly, I also really like. I don't like using it very much, but I like the look and just the name of the news. The News Pencil. That would be really exciting. That would be a cool T shirt they do have. Did you see that they have sampler packs that they're selling too?
Yes, that's.
See I've always, like, wanted some kind of a sampler pack there. Like, you know, once Black Wing start did well, pencils.com started making, like, a sampler pack. I was so excited. Yeah. Yeah. I'm really. I love sampler packs, so I'm glad that. That Musgrave's doing it.
Yeah. They really got the colors right.
Yeah.
If they look like this in real life, the color they got for the Bugle is really spot on.
Yeah.
For the T shirt, actually, I was. Yeah, I was going to order one last night, and then Rosie woke up and I forgot to hit checkout. And then I got an email from them saying, finish your order. So I'm going to go finish my order. I would like to wear that when we podcast. That would be a good video podcast.
That would.
So I don't know how negative. We don't usually get very negative on this podcast unless we're joking about how ugly the test scoring 100 is. Sorry, just kidding. But there was a big article out this week about Ticonderoga, which I still love your fresh points. I'm sorry.
Oh, no, it's quite all right.
This would be a good lead in, because this is my last one.
Yeah.
So it turns out that. Well, we all know that Ticonderoga moved their. Move their production out of the United States to Mexico and China not long after they were acquired by Fila, which is an Italian company, But it turns out they get a bunch of money from the government as if they're a domestic company, but they're not a domestic company.
Yeah, I'll just. Real quick. I'll just maybe read. I'll read this paragraph here in the article. It's in the Washington Post. The company has collected nearly 5 million in federal funding aimed at victims of foreign trade abuse since 2005 and has requested millions more according to Customs and Border Protection. And the fact that it has a Georgia distribution center has allowed Dickson to successfully petition the US government to impose a 114.9% tariff on Chinese competitors, more than doubling the cost for some other pencil makers. But even as a. Even as it has received these protections, its status as a US Firm is unclear. It has shed hundreds of jobs, and a key U.S. agency removed Dixon's designation as a domestic manufacturer because it made so few pencils in its Georgia plant. Which makes me wonder, what pencils is it making in the U.S. like, anything now?
I don't think so. Nothing I'm aware of.
Yeah, I.
Unless it's like, do they do their promo pencils There, like, get them stamped there. They say they're made there, but they're not.
Well, and I wonder about that. Like, you know, when we had, if you remember the first time we had Charles Berlsheimer on, we were talking a little bit about, like, you know what, because pencils are such a globalized thing, like, what makes it a. You know what, how do you choose what the country of origin is? And he had a word that I cannot recall right now. But it's essentially like if there's a significant, like, modification to something to turn it into the thing that it is. So, like, whatever you, whatever the process is that you take, like, you know, a wooden plank and a core of graphite and whatever you do to turn it into a pencil, like, that's kind of where the country of origin is. But I don't think if they just stamp a promo pencil that turns it into a pencil.
Right. Like, I don't know, unless it changed the product. Like, now it's not a back to school product. Now it's promotional.
Yeah. And maybe, maybe it's not even a Ticonderoga pencil. Maybe it's like a Dixon or just one of their plain Dixons or like a Laddie or whatever.
Yeah. The whole thing feels icky. Yeah, it's already kind of icky because they're. Their boxes always mentioned American cedar, or if they were not cedar, American premium wood. And like, I feel like throwing the big. The word American on there obviously is going to mislead people.
Yeah.
They see American wood, they're going to assume it's an American pencil, which is not an unfair assumption.
Right.
Maybe. Especially because they were always such a super American company. Then I remembered in like 2005 when they were on that old show in the History Channel that was called like, Made in America or something, it was hosted by Cliff Clavin. And they did that show knowing that they were going to close that factory. That was really scummy at the time. And I was like, well, you know, whatever. Businesses change. I don't know anything about economics, but I don't know. Adding it all up feels sticky and gross. I'm sorry that I just bought a whole crap ton of their pencils and cedar because they're moving away from it because of the shorter stuff. I've just been snapping them up.
Yeah.
Oops. School.
I mean, big, big pencil. I mean, big pencil is like big anything.
Right?
Like, you got conglomerations that are, you know, moving where things are cheaper. Like, it's, it's about the bottom line for a lot of, a lot of big companies. Yeah.
Yeah. Every time something comes out about this company, it's sad.
Yeah.
Now they're not made in America anymore.
Sad. Yeah.
Now also they suck. Sad. Now that they're not, they don't suck anymore. Now you're like, oh, well, misleading.
As soon as they stop with the green stripes and the ferrule, then I'll know. I'll be done. Cool. Well, let me tell you about something that is very small scale and is not a globalized company. And that is Plumbago magazine, which is exciting.
Yay.
I guess first I should have asked, are you done with Ticonderoga, Johnny?
Oh, yeah.
Okay. I didn't want to. I just realized that I just led into that and didn't, didn't ask off your list. No worries. So today we emailed out our email newsletter subscribers to sort of announce the theme of issue five. And instead of sort of a genre theme like we did for three and four, you know, three was about fiction and poetry and four was about like memoir and creative nonfiction. We're going to go for more of a topic based issue rather than a genre based issue. And we're going to talk about collecting and collections. So we're calling the collector's edition. And really like, you know, in our, in our circle of stationary users, collector has kind of taken on like a little bit of a bad meaning. Like, oh, if you're somebody who just, you know, collects black wings, you're not actually using them, you're just like hoarding them. Right?
Yeah, good point.
And you know, it can certainly be abused if you're, if you're getting it. If you're just buying all of them to just try to resell them later, like you're leaving less supply for people who genuinely want to use it. But really I kind of want to challenge the assumption that a collector is a bad thing. And you know, we want to, I mean, have. Just talk to people about their collections, hear people's thoughts about their collections or collecting. And not, not just about pencils and paper and stationery and stuff, but also like other weird things or interesting things that you collect. Like my mother has a bunch of little collections. She collects beach glass and she collects vintage board games. She collects old seed packets and old plate, like the Blue Willow pattern of plates. And she collects a lot of things. And yeah, I'm just, I'm just really interesting to interested to see what everybody has to say about that. So somebody's thinking about submitting a Comic about comic book collecting. Somebody else is going to take a picture of their collection just kind of like laid out really well and. And node. I'm. Yeah, I'm looking forward to see what people people have. So if you. You have until December 1st to. To would like you to please. If you have an idea, pitch the idea sooner because our friend Harry Marks is back as the editor of this issue and he. He's going to be working closely with everybody to just kind of like make sure the content is nice and tight and it's just really well edited and everything like feels like it's very cohesive with the theme of the overall issue. So the earlier you get that in the more time we will have to make it amazing. And this is something that's due to be out on in January, so. Plumb bugga 5. Yay. Do you have any ideas, Johnny?
I don't really collect anything aside from pencils. I mean, I collect children.
Homemade collection.
I don't hoard them though.
Yeah, that's good. You're not Angelina Jolie.
Yeah,
No. So, yeah, I'm excited. It's. It's going to be. I mean I've said this about every issue, but this is going to be a really good issue. I guess I should mention I didn't put this on the list, but if I can brag a little bit about my. About Plumbago. We won an award.
You won an award.
Plumbago won an award. It was your work. It was a by pro. Excuse me, Broken Pencil magazine, which is a magazine about zines. They're based in Canada, but they distribute in the US and the UK and Europe. They hold a annual zine awards contest. And I submitted issue two and issue three and issue three, the fiction poetry issue one in the category of best micro literary zine, which is really cool. I'm still trying to figure out what that means. I think we get like a little cash prize, which I sort of want to invest back in the capital of what we do for issue five. And I think you get like we get a little trophy. But I'm really excited. And we had like, you know, 30 contributors to that. So it's thanks to all of you who contributed. This is an amazing, amazing zine and I'm glad that we won an award for it. Like, who knew that magazine, a zine about pencils would be so, so good? So, yeah, I'm excited about this.
Congratulations.
Thank you. Yeah, it's. It's a lot of fun. Not the only San Francisco zine that won an award. The other one is about, like bi and gay culture and it has, it features a. A close up of an extremely hairy chest on the COVID And that won best overall zine. So that's pretty cool.
I posed for that one.
That was you? Yeah. In fact, they had to give you a little bit of a shave in order to.
Yeah, trimmed it up a little bit.
Right.
The camera had to back up really far.
Take out the cornrows.
Yeah.
And last fresh point I'll mention before we start talking about the main topic. I got to hang with our very good friend Dr. Hans Noodleman last week, which is really cool. I mean, you get to see him all the time in New York.
Right?
Like, maybe all the time.
Dr. Hans in a while. Haven't been up a lot lately. Yeah, yeah, I was having all these babies.
Yeah, let's drag them all to New York. No, he was. Yeah, he was in town for some meetings and yeah, he. We just had lunch and we walked over to the. The Pinterest headquarters has a public cafe. Interesting note. So the Pinterest cafe was designed by Susan Kerr, who is the person who designed the original Apple icons, like back in the 80s. And she's, I mean, super iconic. No pun intended, actually. Pun intended. But like, her work is very cool and clear and she designs. I think she either works at Pinterest or she's like associated with Pinterest somehow. And she, she does a lot of work for their icons, but she also like styled this cafe and it's really. I mean, therefore it's really beautiful. So if you're in San Francisco in the soma area and you get a chance, go have a. Go have a latte at Pinterest. They also have really good cookies. So. Yeah, so, yeah, we had a. We had a really good chat. Dr. Hans is a really interesting guy.
He's nicest. Yeah, I miss him.
Yeah, I like him a lot. So, yeah, that was. That's about all I have in my, My Fresh points. Should we go. Go talk about some of the fall releases that we've seen so far? Yeah, you know what? We don't have the, on this list that we should at least talk a little bit about are the CW pencils. CW pencil box.
Oh, I didn't even think of that.
Yeah, put that on there.
I'm sorry. Because I, I never remember to order it.
No worries. Did you. You may. I don't know, maybe we should hold off for another Fresh points because I, I ordered it, but I've. I've the only One I've really used is the baseball pencil in there. So I'm definitely not like prepared to talk about it. Really. Okay, yeah, yeah, let's put a pin in that. Yeah. So should we chat a little bit about the field notes endpapers release that just came out? Yeah. Do you want to kind of give us an intro of what it is and where it came from? Johnny?
So the name references the marbled papers that were in old books in the end pages. So they did that in the pages. But what's most striking about the book is that it's the same width of regular field notes, but it's taller. And then it has the same binding method as the dime novel, which is cool. But then it has a different paper, which is confusing, I think.
Yeah, it's definitely different. I'm trying to like, I don't have a dime novel and like with me, so I don't. It's hard to compare, but it's definitely less toothy than the dime novel, right?
I think it's way more toothy. Oh, this is the same paper they put in the utility, which was really nice, but it's like writing on sandpaper if using pencils. So it was cool because then you get to pull out your German pencils and your Woepex. But I like when field notes and blackwing go together style wise. But this way, you really don't want to use that black wing on this paper at all. You write like a word and you'll have to sharpen it. It'll smear everywhere.
Yeah, I saw you mention this in the notes. I also agree, it's really weird, the, you know, half blank, half line format.
Yeah. I mean that made sense in the arts and sciences books.
Yeah, I guess, like, I just don't quite know the, like, the reason. I don't think they really explained why it's half, half and half ruled. Like, I guess, I guess maybe for like scrapbooking, like one side is for like sketching and one side is for, for like note taking. But like that the format that it's in, it's because it's sort of like the. What's the Moleskine books you like the one that kind of shaped like a checkbook. Chapters. Is that what it's called?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
It's kind of shaped like that, right? Like it's, it's. It's the same width as the regular pocket notebook, but it's maybe like an inch and a half or two inches taller. Yeah.
I mean the binding's cool. If it's like the dime novel, it'd be really durable.
Yeah. It's also, it's also very stiff, like, I guess. I guess like the dime novel. The dime novel is pretty stiff too. But it was pretty easy to just sort of like, you know, crack that spine a little bit. This one feels a little harder to crack. Yeah. And I.
The colors are so beautiful.
Oh, yeah. So good. I love the. I really like the reproductions of the marbling on the inside. I think they did a really good quality job with that.
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah. I wish. And I understand why they couldn't. I wish it was actually hand marbled, but we are not paying $30 per notebook for this, so I understand why they're not. Yeah.
And they market these as journals, not memo books.
Oh, that's true. Yeah.
They call them 68 page journals.
Yeah.
Maybe they're like commonplace books.
That's a good point. Especially if you were going to sketch or have like, like little photos or something kind of published in there. Like Larry, Larry Grimaldi style.
Yeah, that's a good idea.
Yeah. But yeah, the, the two, the two colors, that really deep green and that really deep blue are pretty great. Yeah.
Have they ever done a dark green book before? I mean, probably some fur was sort of like olive.
Yeah. And like the Shenandoah stuff was like. There was one that was like. It was pretty vivid. It was definitely not this deep. Deep, deep green. Like, this is like a deep hunter's green. Yeah.
And it's beautiful. I'm surprised they have never touched this color before.
Yeah. Yeah. French paper company 100 pound cover weight, timber green and night shift blue with a tinted varnish. And then it's debossed. The tinted varnish. That's interesting. Yeah. Just reading the specifications on the website
and the stamping on the spine is.
Yeah.
Really sweet touch.
I really like that they did a good job. Like, like I have been noticing lately I've been getting some damaged corners. One of my packs had some. Some corners that were kind of like, you know, banged up, but I guess that's kind of the new normal for field notes lately.
Oh, yeah, mine are too.
Yeah. But yeah, I love the concept, of course, like, you know, whenever something breaks from the typical format, everybody just kind of like flies off the handle about it. There's been no shortage of that, but
I've been avoiding looking at any of that stuff.
Yeah. And as they say, this is indeed their 40th design of the, of the, the quarterly editions, so.
Wow.
Yeah. 10th anniversary.
Oh, man.
Yeah.
Wow.
They, they have a nice little thing about how they about just like hand marbling their video shows kind of like the, the marbling process and I just, I just love watching those things.
Yeah. Watching them shaking the ink and then swirling them. Yeah, I want to play with that stuff.
Yeah. I love marble and marble paper.
I wonder if they make, you know, like a craft kit for that. That would be pretty cool.
There's a. Around here, I'm sure in Baltimore there's something similar, but there's some like print shops that will do like, you know, marble paper night, like a workshop that you can sign up for and take.
Oh, that would be awesome.
Yeah, it's. It's definitely an art form. Like I bet if I tried it, like I'm gonna make some really funny looking marbles before I actually like hit on the one that I, that I want. But.
Yeah, so. And they didn't do a, a release related subscriber extra. But if you're a subscriber, you got the 201915 month workstation calendar.
Oh, yeah.
Yep. That was a nice touch.
That was a nice touch. I appreciated that. Yeah. We're moving. My office is moving buildings pretty soon, so I think that I will make sure there's a little spot right by my workstation for that. Yeah, that was cool. I also got. Did you get another pack of those 10th anniversary field notes, like the three different kinds throughout the years?
Oh, I got them in the summer when my subscription was new.
Okay.
Yep.
This is where. This is when I renew my subscriptions. So yeah, I got them with this one.
Yeah. It's surprising. They throw them in.
Yeah.
Again, that's cool.
Probably have a bunch of them.
They must have. Yeah. So they must have made a lot of those.
Yeah. So, yeah, I'm a fan of these field notes. I don't have like a specific practical use case of how it will fit into my life. Except maybe like it seems like a really good list notebook.
Yeah.
But yeah, I'm. I'm just sort of like artistically and, and as a, as a, like conceptually, I think it's really great. I'm a big fan of those.
Yeah, they're so pretty. They're very, I don't know, scholastic looking. These look like they belong in a library.
Exactly. Yeah.
Yeah, Charlotte's gonna want these. She likes to draw. These would be good for like a travel journal too.
That's, that's a good point.
Pasting things and drawing.
Yeah, that's a really good point.
Just don't, don't try to Use a Black Wing in there. Gone.
Yeah. Maybe an extra, extra firm. Yeah.
See, maybe we'll get a new Black Wing core. Like the nail. It'll be the nail, just the Nail Edition. The Black Wing. Nine like nine. Nine inch nails. And it'd be like the darkest one. You won't even be able to see it, it's so dark and you'll never have to sharpen it, but if you sit on it, you will die.
Well, should we use that as a segue to talk about the new Blackwing Edition? Yeah, yeah.
Want to talk about theme?
Yeah. So right away when there was a teaser, I'm thinking that the teaser came out before we recorded our last episode with Lenore. Right? Is that right?
Oh, I don't remember.
I think it came out maybe that day.
I thought they were going to play a trick and it wasn't going to be anything.
Me too. Yeah. So you know what they usually do is they. A week before they announce it, they release an Instagram picture of the model, the model number, like the volume number. And then it's against like a blurred background, which almost always is blurred to such a degree that it's just meaningless. Like there's no way you can sort of like pull out what the meaning is. This time around. They did not do that. It was very clearly a close up of like a record, like a, like a vinyl record face. And. And so they said, yeah, the volume is volume 33 and a third, which I think we talked about last time. And so it's like, yeah, it seems pretty clear they're talking about a record or vinyl. And everybody's like, oh no, they're not. It's going to be like they're going to take it and they're going to turn it. Like it's going to be a twist. No, no, it was not. It was about a record final. And it's. That's great. Like totally fine with me. They don't need to get like super, you know, crafty and sly every time. Right?
Yeah.
So, yeah, so that the pencil as it was released is completely black. It uses a matte black ferrule similar to the one from the 16.2 black eraser. It has a very matte black finish on the body that's similar to. Would you say this is really close to the MMX body or would you say it's more, more matte than that?
I think it's exactly the same paint because it's what I thought.
Yeah, which is fine. That's. Yeah, that's cool. Great point.
That's the only thing that's the same.
Yeah. So they. They sticked in the middle. They stamped Blackwing Palomino, Black Wing 33 and a third. And then what's interesting is down toward the. The end, there are several little grooves in it that are shinier, so they kind of look like the tracks on a record. So conceptually, I mean, there are a lot of people nitpicking about records and how well this sort of, like, matches that design. I don't think at all it needs to match design. I just think it needs to, like, honor it in some creative way. And I think it does that, right?
Yeah.
Yeah. To me, it feels like that. But it does seem like that if they wanted to be more like, you know, honoring the record, it would be a little bit shinier. Totally fine that it's not. That was, you know.
Well, I liked your idea of making it textured like the 73.
Yeah.
Like, all the way down. That would have been really, really cool.
Yeah.
Probably really hard.
Yeah.
But really cool.
Yeah. I think both of ours arrived and some other people in the group talked about it too. The ferrules were all kind of, like, scratched up when they arrived.
Yeah. Mine are pretty rock tumbler looking.
Yeah. And I think part of it is just like they. The way it was packaged in the box was such that, like, it was metal kind of like scraping against metal, which never, never bodes well. Like, even the thickest, like, anodization scratches pretty easily.
Like that. Yeah. I usually get a couple that are like that.
Yeah. But it's. Yeah. And it used the pearl core. Any. Any. Any interesting, like, things of note about this pencil, Johnny, for you.
So I think that because they're so black, you could see everything that was wrong with the pencil. Like where the. The wood and the ferrule meet. If it's not perfect, you know, you can see. I mean, I don't care, but people might be bothered by it.
Yeah.
Because if, you know, if you subscribe, I think you forget how much they cost because you already paid for them a long time ago. So now they're free. Yeah. Like, hey, pencils kick ass. But like, these pencils are like, freaking metal with the. Because it's matte and because it's kind of scratched up, but it's still black.
Yeah.
Like, there's just something so, like death metal about these pencils. I really, like. I wish they'd had the MX MMX core.
Yeah. Just to match the blackness. Yeah.
I wish they didn't have the rings because they just sharpen off and mine are coming off for me touching them anyway.
Yeah, they kind of. I mean, if you're looking for something that a lot of people liked about the. The 24, about the Steinbeck pencils is that they were so just like, black and minimalist. I think that this would even be more minimalist than that if not for those rings.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the. The stamping on this one, I don't know if it's a result of the matte paint being the background or the new logo or just they did it better. But the stamping is really clear. But still black on black. Yeah. The 24 was kind of hard to see.
I was. I was wondering how they would treat the. Like the. The 33 and a third. Like, the 1/3 fraction is so small in detail. That was like, are we gonna be able to see that clearly on the barrel? Answer is yes. Yes, you can. However they. They stamp, that is really. Yeah, they do a really good job.
Yeah. And, I mean, I want to change the eraser on principle. Like, oh, the pencil's too black. But, like, nothing else is gonna look good in this pencil. It looks.
Yeah.
Really sweet. Like, once you sharpen it past those rings, this pencil is really, really pretty pencil.
Yeah.
Very Halloweeny.
Yeah. For any hack wingers out there. Unfortunately, the. There's no real good new element to this pencil that you can throw in the mix. Like, it's the same feral as the 16.2 black eraser, all that stuff.
But
I guess. I guess unfortunately or fortunately, because if you really like that matte black ferrule, you now have, you know, twice the number of pencils that you can pull it from.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, and so we didn't talk about the subscriber extra.
Oh, that's true. Yeah.
Yeah.
It was a. Like a little bottle of vinyl pellets, enough so that you could, you know, you could turn that into a record. So if you had a record press, like, go for it. It's pretty. It's pretty cool. What do you. What did you think about it?
So the last couple ones were just stuff they printed out.
Yeah.
I mean, that's kind of cool, but, like, this is really cool. I really like it. I don't give a hoot about records, but, like, I have a really good friend who likes records, so I think he'd enjoy it.
Yeah, I gave.
I thought it was this cool effort.
Yeah. My friend who gave me that XOXO field notes, I gave her that bottle of record pellets because she's really, really into vinyl. So she was like, I was going to subscribe just so I could get that subscriber extra. I was like, you can just have mine. Save yourself $100.
This is at least the fourth or third time in a row where the packing material in the box matches the pencil. Yeah, that was really, really thought was cool.
Yeah, my.
I thought it was just a fluke when they did it for the 54.
My cat loves. Loves those things. He just.
Did they have colored poop after that?
No, he. Luckily he managed just to get like, just one strand of it. But yeah, he'll stop at nothing to, like, eat those things.
Which one had the blue one? Was that the CW box?
Yeah, that was the CW box.
They.
I think there's a Usually yellow. Just sort of that CW pencil yellow. But yeah, it was bright blue this time. Which.
Man.
We need to get. Figure out when we can get Tim back on to talk about the baseball pencils with him.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't get any of those yet. I keep forgetting to order them.
Yeah, they were out of stock for a very short time, but then I think they just, you know, needed to get another shipment in, so they. They're back in. It looks like that red foil stamp is kind of like running a little bit, like when you get some heat and some friction on it from your hands, but, you know. Yeah, whatever. That's true. Yeah.
602 used to do that, the first generation. They came right off.
Oh, that's right. Yeah. It didn't like. It just kind of, like, flaked off, though. Right? Like, it didn't. It didn't actually, like, smear. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It just went away. Yeah. I thought it was just because I have sweaty hands. So there's still something from. Right. Notepads coming out. Can't talk about, but that's something to look forward to.
Get on the ball, Chris.
I think the order has been pretty consistent for the last few releases. Field notes, then Blackwing, then right notepads.
Yeah.
And then a long time after that, story supply company, they've done a two in a row seasonal.
Oh, that's true.
They did that really cool summer one, which I forgot to order.
I saw that in person. Vito's partner. Shoot. What is his name? One of the story supply guys was at the San Francisco pen show and had a bunch of those with him.
Oh, cool.
Yeah, yeah. Any other black wings Blackwing things we should discuss?
I guess we could speculate on what the next core is going to be.
Let's See, Yeah, we're due for one soon, right? Like, we haven't had one since 73. Is that correct?
Yeah. That was really a winner of a pencil. I love that one.
Yeah. That color was so great. I was a big fan of that and I think you were talking about this. Maybe it was, Tim. Just about how, you know when you use an MMX core for the first time after a while away, it just. It's like, ah, just like, it's so smooth, it's so dark. You don't want to write a lot with it because it's going to get dull real quick. But like, it feels so nice.
They are satisfying in that you get the pencil pretty short, pretty quickly. Yeah, exactly like, goodbye.
I just plowed through that 250 pencil.
I think the pencil sharpener companies helped design that cord. We need to sell more blades.
Yeah. All right. So, yeah, we're gonna keep it pretty short and sweet. Is there anything else we should mention before we. Before we sign off?
Just stress that next episode is going to be so awesome.
Yeah.
And then there's a good chance it might run really long, which would be great.
Get some. Get some time back now. We'll add it back on to the end of the next episode.
Yeah. Get some coffee before you listen to that one.
Exactly. Yeah. Cool. Well, we'll button up then, I guess. Johnny, where can people find you on the Internet?
I'm on the Internet@pencil revolution.com and I'm on social media pencilution on Instagram and the Twitters.
The Twitters. I am@woodclinch.com and wealthly.com and you can find me on Facebook and Twitter. Excuse me, Instagram and Twitter at a Wealthley. This is the Erasable podcast and we are at on the web @erasable us. If you want to find show notes for this episode and a recording of the show, you can go to erasable US1 05. And we are also on social media. We have a big community on Facebook. Just a really amazing group, about 2400 people talking about pencils and stationery. There's facebook.com groups erasable and we are on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram raceablepodcast. So that's kind of the official, official voice of Erasable. So you can find us wherever you find your podcasts. Obviously, since you're listening to us now, if you're using listening to us on itunes or on overcast, we'd appreciate a recommend or a fav that just helps us become more dist. Discoverable by others. So thank you very much and we will see you next time when we will have the Musgrave people on. Everybody, have a good evening. 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.thismountainband.
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