This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
One, two. One, two, three, four. Noise, noise, Noise. Smoking. Hello and welcome to episode 110 of the erasable podcast. This episode is sponsored by Indefensive Paper making high quality notebooks sourced and manufactured in the US visit indefensive paper.com erasable to check them out and use coupon code erasable to save five bucks off your purchase. I'm Johnny Yamber on head elf duties tonight and I'm joined by my favorite toy maker, Andy Buffley. Hey, Andy.
Ho, ho, ho, ho.
And tonight, the hose is plural because we're joined by LedFest's own Mike Hagan, which makes us a tri time zone episode. Hey, Mikey, what up?
Hey, Mike, how's it going? Good. How are you?
I'm good, I'm good.
So can we call you Mikey?
I mean, you and the, like, one Albanian bar owner that I worked for.
We could do like a. Everybody send your pencils to Mr. Hagen. Like, he likes it.
I haven't heard that, you know, my whole life.
Okay, so tonight we're gonna give our best shot at helping you with, I guess, what's turning into last minute stationery and pencil holiday shopping. So, you know, everybody needs more pencils and notebooks, even us, my wife and having a lot. You know, we know what we're doing. We know what good gifts are because we've gotten good ones and we've gotten crappy ones. So before we solve all of your holiday issues for you and start getting the accolades we deserve, let's jump into tools of the trade. Do you want to go first, Mr. Mike, as our guest?
Sure. So I have been re watching Fear the Walking Dead. So my girlfriend Christine hasn't seen it. And so I was just like, oh, well, we'll just. I'll just watch it. And so we rewatched Walking Dead and then caught up to it. And now we're rewatching Fear. Or I'm rewatching and she's watching for the first time, Fear of the Walking Dead. So I really love those, like, zombie apocalypse shows. So been watching that. And then we just saw Bohemian Rhapsody in the theater.
How was that?
It was pretty good. I think they, like, glossed over the formation of the band pretty quickly and got right to the hey, we're really popular and stuff is happening. So anyway. But it's really good. And some of those music biopics, like, don't do enough music. Some of them do too much music. I think this one, like, has just, like, the perfect amount of music because in reality, you're going There to see like, you know, the lead actor try to, you know, oh, is he sound like him? Does he look like him when he performs? How is it? Blah, blah, blah. So, yeah, and he did a pretty good job.
Have you watched from Mr. Robot?
Mr. Robot? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I love that show.
I love it too. And I love that like, it's such a 180 character, like Freddie Mercury compared to his character, Mr. Robot. Right.
Yeah, exactly.
I need to see that movie.
Yeah, it's pretty good. It's pretty good. It's not like the best music, you know. It's not gonna win any Oscars, I don't think. It's not, you know, Ray or Walk the Line or anything like that. And then I've been reading this book called Run Studio Run by Eli Altman.
He.
He runs this naming studio. So it's like a. Instead of like, you know, design or whatever, they just basically name businesses.
Yeah.
And interesting. Yeah, he wrote a. He wrote another book that I read called don't call it that. And it's just all about like naming something, naming your business, you know, and like walks you through the process and like as you like fill out stuff and whatever, it's just like a section, an activity to. But then this one is all about like running a small studio, whether it's design or marketing or whatever. So I've been running the studio I work for now for about six months. So it was almost required reading. Yeah, I heard about it on a Kickstarter and I just like went ahead and like funded it and got it. And it's pretty good book.
That's cool.
Not. Not probably for, you know, it's like one of those like business books or whatever. So it's not like for, you know, light reading at the end of the night. And then I am writing with the Blackwing Volume 4, the sand in the Fingernails edition spoilers. And I'm writing on the write notepads steno pad.
Cool.
Nice.
Oh man, what have I been consuming lately? I've been reading really good book. It's an old, old sci fi novel written in 1969 by Ursula K. Le Guin called the Left Hand of Darkness. And it's. It's really interesting. It's a sci fi book. It's set on a. On a world where the people who live on it have no fixed gender. They kind of like live most of their life like gender neutral and only when it comes to be like, like time to procreate do they like adopt genders. And it's like, it has a really good plot, but then it also talks about.
Does.
Dives really deep into, like, what. What their society is like when there is no gender and like, how that. How that kind of affects people. And it's. It's interesting because, like, it is from, you know, the late 60s, early 70s, but it does have a lot of, like, just. Just kind of like modern. Modern feeling themes in it as, you know, people. People talk about, like, gender fluidity and people, like, discover more like. Like, you know, insights into gender. And Ursula Le Guin is really cool. So enjoying that book and trying to think if I'm listening to any new podcasts or TV shows. I guess we just started the season two of the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Oh, I need to watch that. I saw it came out. I binged the first season, like, in two days.
Yeah, it's really good. It's such a. Such a beautiful show. Like the late 50s. It's just so much color. And they have. They adopt. Only sometimes that. Do they adopt, like, that sort of like, speaking cadence that they had in. In Gilmore Girls because, you know, Amy Sherman Paladino's the right. The executive producer, so. So occasionally, like, that kind of slips in there. And it's really, really fun to watch. But it's a. It's a really good show. If you have Amazon prime video, you should definitely check it out. And I'm writing also with my Blackwing Volume 4, but I'm writing in another thing I'll talk about soon, which is the field notes. Clandestine notepad.
Sweet.
Yeah. How about you, Johnny?
So I finished National Novel Writing Month a little after we recorded last time, so my brain hurt. So I read Prozac Nation and Girl Interrupt it when I was finished, both of which are, you know, pretty quick reads. And then we binged the hell out of House of Cards season five because we binged it last year and forgot everything that happened. And then binge season six in, like, two days, which is not enough sleep, but yeah. Did you guys watch the conclusion of House of Cards?
Oh, yeah. Yep.
I actually kind of gave up on it. I don't know, maybe around season three or four. Can't remember.
Mike was the wiser man.
Yeah, I mean, like, the first half of the season was like, oh, my God. Then when I saw the conclusion, no, that's not over. They wouldn't do that. That's stupid. But then the credits came up, right? That's my review.
Yeah.
What did you think of it?
I don't know. Parts of it I really liked I, I liked a lot of the, like, the like plot driving things. Like, like, I guess, I guess we should sound the spoiler horn here. But like when she replaced all the cabinet members with like members of their staff who are all female, like, that was really interesting and just like how she ran the country was really interesting. But what I didn't like was that Frank Underwood was still so much part of the plot, plot and of the story, even though he wasn't like in there and part of it. So I don't know, it was. And yeah, the ending was like, come on, come on. But it was a very like Shakespearean, like, poetic ending, I guess.
Yeah, yeah. I was glad that Mr. Stamper was back for the whole season. He was always my favorite character on that show. I appreciate the loyalty
by the way, folks. That's what Johnny demands, that kind of loyalty out of his co host. So he's going to track me down. If ever I'd like skip out.
I'll leave a handwritten will leaving you everything, all my 2 11. Not that many, but still.
Me and Frankie are going to have like a big, like, feud.
She doesn't want them. I was like, you want a 211? Yeah. What? Who are you?
Every time she does that, just mail it to me.
Okay. She did take a volume one recently. She's like, I need a volume One. Like, boom, keep that one. And I guess that's all I've been consuming. But I am writing with a different blackwing, the 33.3, because it matches my right notepad's white covered kitty book that offended a lot of people. Sorry.
Oh, oh, oh, yeah, yeah.
But then it seemed that taking it down offended more people, so. Oh, really?
I didn't see that.
Yeah, you can't win these days.
It's like, okay, I totally missed this.
Baby. It's Cold Outside is offensive. Everybody complaining about it is offensive. Like, oh my God, what was the kitty book?
You have to tell me now.
So I don't like cats because I'm allergic to them and I drew an arrow through the kitty's head.
Oh, so you are the one that got in trouble. Not write notepads.
No.
Yeah, they had nothing to do with it.
They didn't put an error on it.
I thought you were talking about there was some like, controversy I missed.
No, I saw them later that day. They're like, yeah, we saw that on Instagram. Like, yeah, sorry. They were at a little local holiday event. That was cool. Check in with the fellas.
Oh, Johnny, did I tell You? I tried some Blackwing beer.
I saw it on Facebook. So how did you get it?
So a friend of mine moved from Baltimore to the Bay Area, and when he was, like, packing everything up and getting ready to go, he's a big, big beer fan. And I was like, hey, can you go? But, like, are you familiar with this beard? He's like, oh, yeah. It's one of my favorites. So he brought me a six pack.
That's awesome.
It's really good. I've never had a dark lager like that before. Like a kind of a smoky, like. Like smoky lager like that.
It was so good. I love that stuff. So that's actually brewed like a mile or two from here. A mile and a half. It's right by where we were the other day. There are a couple breweries down in the old mill. It's pretty cool. There was a home brewing store there called Dependency, which I think wins a prize for, like, best store name, but they moved.
Is it like a true smoked beer? Like a Roush beer or whatever?
No, they toast the malts to make it black, and it's got a nice toasty flavor.
It's more toasty than it is smoky, I think.
Okay.
Yeah. But it has just some, like. It kind of tastes a little like a. Like a stout and like something like that. But it's very. It's still very, like, light, like a lager is.
We're gonna have to drink some of this at the first ever erasable summit.
Yes.
The list, you know, because everybody lives on the west coast or the East Coast. That has to happen in the Midwest, right?
Yeah.
I think champagne is awesome.
Really good. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I agree.
So you guys want to jump into fresh points? Yeah, we'll make Mikey go first again.
Okay. Well, first for me, I happen to notice that today a couple things came out. I got the emails or whatever. So Word Word Notebooks is doing a buy two packs, get 30% off of any other item in the shop. So I thought that was, like, a pretty steep discount.
They've been killing it with the sales lately.
Yeah. And their packs are only, like, still 10 bucks, you know. So as everyone else creeps into the 1299, 1399, three packs, they're sitting still at 999 plus. And if you buy two, you get 30% off of anything else or any other items. So it's pretty nice. And then the Baron Fig gift guide came out today, which I clicked on it and was looking around. Nothing new, but they kind of Just like placed everything together a little bit to under 20 bucks, under 50 bucks, under 100 bucks, you know, like price wise. So kind of gives you a glimpse of their whole catalog, which was pretty nice because I had not seen a few of the things because I mean, I don't know if you know this, but I've been kind of like chilling back off of buying a bunch of stationary lately or writing on the blog or doing anything and so it was nice to like see like all the things that I kind of like I hadn't missed them, I saw them when they came out but like you know, just all in one place, kind of see what was still being put out there. So like, what do you think? Like, I really like those dateless planners. Yeah, the pocket planners. Those are really nice.
What do you think about all the pitch black stuff that they're doing?
I think that's awesome actually. Like, I don't understand why they haven't. They didn't do that earlier because that's like they should have done that. So those are my fresh points. Really. I. I mean obviously we're going to talk about a few other things down the list that you guys are going to talk about, but. And I am totally prepared to talk about. But those are my two excellent.
Me too. I'm extremely prepared to talk about that.
Yeah, you stole them from.
Because I'm a professional. Man. What should, should I talk about? I guess first I want to talk about. You know, I don't usually go for like a lot of the kind of like special branded field notes editions, but some brand that I've never heard of before called the James Brand. That's their website. The JamesBrand.com just released a pack of field notes that are really cool. They actually had a couple of them come out. There's one that has been kind of like stark white and black like stormtrooper colors that they sold with a fancy expensive pen that matched it. And that was like 80 bucks for the pen and for the pack. Wasn't really interested in that. But they released another pack that has a lot of interesting like colors in it. Has each three pack has three different colors. So it's called the James. Oh man, I should find it here on the website. The James Brand pack tucked away under the communication like section of their website, which I don't think makes much sense. They have a pack of field notes and there's a, there's a gray field notes and then there is a bright green field notes that which is in like notebook that's in their kind of brand color. And then there's a wood grain one. So it's not wood grain, like, you know, cherry wood or. Oh, like their roastery edition, the Starbucks roastery edition. But it's like a printed wood grain. It's a little bit darker, so it's super cool. The notebooks themselves are graph. Have like graph lines in them and the graph lines are green. Like, like they're kind of like brand green. Bright brand green color. And then the middle spread is bright green with a white graph, which is interesting.
Oh yeah, that's nice. I saw that. I'm looking at that on the website now. It's pretty. Pretty.
Yeah. Cool.
So I. That one, it was just like interesting enough. It really like sparked my interest and I. I bought a pack. Yeah, I'm. I'm interested to see. They call it Electric Moss, by the way, that green. We'll have a link in show notes so you can check this out for yourself.
But yeah, Monster. Monster Energy Green.
Yeah, Monster Energy. That's a good way to put it. Yeah, I just think it's really cool. I don't know a single thing about the James brand, except it seems like they have a lot of like knives and stuff, which is fine, whatever. Pocket knives. I'm not really. Yeah, kind of. They seem like they're kind of expensive pocket knives, but these are just 14 bucks. These field notes, they're really nice. Yeah. So I thought I'd mention that. Also, if you are not on the Plumbago magazine mailing list, I would join that pretty soon. As soon as this episode comes out, I'll have a link in show notes because I think we're going to start taking pre orders this weekend and we'll be releasing a picture of the COVID which is really cool. I'm not going to talk about right now and just give a preview of some of the stuff in this issue. So if you are planning on buying Plumbago, I would please encourage you to do a pre order because pre orders help me raise the capital to print the whole run and to assemble it and to basically pull it together so we can print a bunch and then continue to sell it. So I would definitely appreciate that. I should mention that these are not going to be out in time for Christmas. It'll probably be like mid January before they are assembled and shipped out. So sorry about that. But like, yeah, if you can please, please pre order. So we'll have a big announcement in the Facebook group and in the email and Twitter, so you'll see all of that stuff I also want to talk about. We held off talking about it in the last episode, even though it's been out for a while. The new Field Notes Clandestine Edition, which is really cool. I guess I should mention kind of like the conceit of this issue of this edition. It's coded, so it comes with a little decoder ring. Not like a ring you put on your finger, but like a. Like a little cipher wheel, they call it. So
how.
Like, there's. There's so many. What am I trying to say? There's so many things that are like. Like cryptograph related within it that I haven't really dug into all of the different mysteries you have to solve. Right.
Yeah. I mean, there's. There's like a worldwide scavenger hunt.
Yeah. Somebody. So they started. It's actually pretty clever. They made a little logo that says the Agents of Field F I E L D. And there's like a little. There's some messages on the field notes. And there's something kind of inside the spreads of the field notes. If you notice, there are like,
a
few of the dot grid dots, like, look different. And. And it has something to do with it. I have not even began to try to decipher this yet. And they also have a lot of really cool. Just little codes out there. They have the Alphabet and decimals and binary and Morse code and braille, semaphore and pigpen and the NATO version, which is Alpha, Bravo, Charlie. That kind of stuff. Go on. I'm sorry.
There's some UV stuff hidden in the
COVID Oh, oh, really? Okay.
Yeah. And the front cover, you can use an ultraviolet light to reveal some secret secret. So, you know, I'm sure I'm not the only one that went on Amazon and bought a pocket flashlight that's a UV light. But so they're marketed as, like, something for you to find, like dog pee and when you go to hotels to, like, look at stuff.
So I don't want to know. I don't want to know. Yeah, yeah.
If you shine it on, like, the wall behind your bathroom sink and see, like, all the toothpaste splatters, it looks like a crime scene.
Yeah. So it's. It's really interesting. It looks like that a lot of the field nuts have mobilized. There is a slack community for the agents of Field, which I think was started by the field nuts and not by field notes. Although I could be wrong on that. I just saw that they have. They were looking for people in various cities, including San Francisco, to Go do something tonight actually probably as we record. So I did not. But I think there's. They're trying to like mobilize and solve this larger mystery. So if you're not in the field nuts group, go join that. And then there is a PIN tweet that has a lot of the code solving like collaboration in it. So go check that out. I. I mostly just haven't had time to really dig into that, but I think it's really cool and I know a lot of people have like really gone deep on it. So it looks like field notes did their. Did their homework and making that happen. So the notebooks themselves are really great. It's a black edition. I think they'll always be successful when they do a black edition. And what's really cool is the. The two field notes notebooks behind the first one. Field notes is written out in code. So I'm assuming you can go and kind of calibrate your cipher wheel based on that, which is cool. Anything else we should mention with this notebook, Johnny?
So aside from all of the really above and beyond features, the notebooks are just freaking cool. It's dot grid with black paper.
Yeah.
And the stock is really nice. Just. I like that this time they did something really fun. But they're also just completely regular functional notebooks. You know, the usual paper you get, you're getting what you expect.
Yeah.
Which is good. You know, after the last one was not a regularly papered pocket notebook. It's nice that this one is.
Seems to be the theme, doesn't it that like at least one of them in the four in the subscription for the year is like oddly shaped now.
Yeah, yeah. Yep.
I mean the year pre previous was dime novel. The year previous to that was the reporter notebook. Whichever, Whatever.
Yeah.
These were collaborated with Mystery League out of Chicago which like basically does puzzle making and game making and stuff like that. So.
Yeah. Yeah.
I don't know.
I do not have time to put into even like researching other people's like what they've found. I don't even have time to worry about it. I like the books that look really great and that's the good thing about them. Like to do something odd like this, you have to make the book completely usable. Like standard almost. You know. And this is basically to me like a pitch black style. Like it's got dot grid and you know just like the black on black printing.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
It's really nice.
And that that cipher wheel is really cool. Like they.
Yeah, yeah.
I like it's huge.
Yeah, it's huge. But, like, I just can't imagine. Like, I have no idea how many color subscribers there are, but I assume they're. They're in the thousands. And just having been able to cut this out and assemble this thing, I'm sure was a huge undertaking. So, like, they. Yeah, it's. It's really great.
If you, like, kind of start to, like, look underneath it where the key part is, you know, when you, like, spin it and see if you, like, pull it underneath, I think there's a spot where it says, like, you'll be like, don't do this too much. You'll bend it in code, something to that effect. Like, it doesn't say that exactly. It's in code, but something to the effect like, hey, you're gonna bend this.
That is hilarious. Yeah, they. They do a good job of just, like. They're just really good at details, I think.
Yeah. And, like, little, like, fun surprises and stuff like that.
Yeah. So. Yeah. Johnny, do you want to talk about that link you just sent me? Sent us?
Yeah. So someone just posted that I should. Well, I'll order one before this comes out, But Draplin has, like, field notes, patches, and stuff like that that he only sells at his events. So In Baltimore, like, 2017, I got a patch. I think I picked up one for you guys. But now they have hats and patches and this, like, pin that I've, like, been stalking. Now you can buy them all on the website. Nice. So that lapel pin is $7.99, and that includes shipping, which I think is pretty good deal for a nice enamel pin. So, I mean, I sent the link to my wife with, oh, I like that pin. And then send it to you guys. Wink, wink. Hope you're still shopping.
Yeah.
Yeah. So they have the original field notes patch and then the two patches that he ended up putting on the hats, like the white patch and the black patch.
Yeah, I'm not collecting all of these things. I'm saying that publicly. So I don't do it.
I don't do anything. I need to do something with my patches. Like, I got this, and I got that. I have the whole series of the CW pencils patches.
Yeah, I do. I have a bunch of Draplin patches. Every time I go see him, like, when he's up in Chicago, I'll buy, like, one or two patches or whatever. I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm going to do something with them and have done nothing.
Yeah.
Absolutely nothing.
Do you all see Draplin's Big announcement. The other day, the thing he did for NASA. What?
No.
Oh, sending a. Posting a link in our. In our text. He designed for NASA a poster for the Voyager 2 spacecraft and. What?
That's awesome.
Yeah.
So this is.
This isn't even like, you know, the. The space shuttle one that he did? This is like, commissioned by. By NASA.
That's really cool.
So he's beautiful. He's eventually going to do some. Some, like, stickers and various elements, but. Yeah, it would look gorgeous sitting next to your. Next to a space shuttle poster.
You know what? That would be a good tattoo.
Oh, good call. Let's do another one. Johnny.
Tempted?
Yeah.
I do have a spot on my forearm I'm looking at, but you got
to save one for a pencil tattoo.
Yeah, I'm running out of room. I'm start moving on to my back soon. Yeah, seriously, that's good.
Bigger pencil back there.
Yeah, I just think you need a pencil right, like, right down in your lower back. Just sort of like you said.
Pencil, pencil.
You got to get a pencil.
Well, put pencil. Pencil on your leg.
All right.
In Russia, pencil writes with you.
So. Last thing I'll mention, I think is the latest field notes. Excuse me. No, not field notes. CW Pencils pencil box. They released that. The Cabin Fever edition. And yeah, it's just a nice, like, wintry. Wintry subscription thing. There's a lot of interesting stuff in here beyond their, like, 2019 patch, which they have. That's some really cool, like, little sticker set. They had a really. A couple really cool things, I thought. Which one was that? There is now a CW branded bridge pencil. So they worked with Musgrave to make.
Oh, yeah, those are pretty. Yeah, that red is. That red is really nice.
Yeah, it has the red and it has four little glyphs of the. I don't even. What you call them. Like the shapes on deck of cards. Right? Like the.
The suits.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they have those. They have a pencil that is made of pine, which is interesting. I gave it a smell, and it definitely smells like pine. Like, especially when you sharpen it.
Oh, yeah, And I tacked on one of those to my last order, but it's not for me. Yeah, crap. Should have been two. I'm sure. I'll do another one.
And they. They also did. Which I think is for our good friend Toffer who listens to the show. Maybe CW Pencils did a special Caran d' Ache Swisswood that does not have that smell. It's. It's lighter in color and it has says CW pencils right on it. And it smells like a regular pencil and not like.
Wait, is that the Scots pine pencil?
Yes. Yep.
Oh, I thought that's what you were talking about in the pencil box.
Oh, no. I guess. Okay, so I'm sorry, they have that. But then they also have this other one that's green and it says pine on it.
What is it shaped like? Is it one of those extruded ones that's like, got the cross section of a Christmas tree?
No, no, this is just a. Just a regular old brown pencil.
Interesting.
Yeah, yeah, but I didn't think the Scott's pine one really smelled much like a pine tree. Like, let me sniff it right into the microphone so you can all smell it. Like it's. I actually haven't sharpened it because it came pre sharpened, but maybe I should try sharpening it and see. Yeah. So I don't know. I still think, like, the CW pencil box subscriptions are. Are like, pretty pricey, but I think that they. I think the stuff you get in them is getting a lot more developed. Right. Like, they're working on this, and I know that this was kind of a. Like, they were kind of delayed on releasing this because they were waiting for a couple of these, like, limited edition things to come out. So I think it was worth the wait if you're still waiting on it. Oh, and they also had a koosh ball pencil holder, which was fun. Like a grass. Yeah.
Actually, I missed it this time because the credit card I had on file had expired. And then I just forgot to, like, update it, so. And then they're like, oh, we're gonna cancel this. I'm like, all right,
I guess I could probably do something else with that. $30.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Buy 15 bridge pencils.
Exactly. Yeah. Cool. So those are my fresh points. How about you, Johnny?
So picking up on field notes. Last Wednesday was Wednesday. And was it last year when they had a special edition of blue notebooks. It was called the this is Wednesday edition. And if you ordered anything on that Wednesday, you got a free two pack of these notebooks. But they did it at least twice, and they did it last week with green notebooks, which was pretty awesome. Yeah, I like, jumped right on the website and like, who can I buy some field notes for? But I didn't buy any for anyone else. I bought them for me. I've been a good boy. So I got. I got something for myself and I got those.
But I hadn't been chasing any of the special field notes whatsoever, you know, like, because that's an exercise in futility to get every single thing that's out there. And I finally realized that. But. So I hadn't bought any of the Dieter Rams ones, but I just. When these Wednesday green ones came out, I'm a sucker for green. I was just like, well, I'll just buy. That'll give me an excuse to buy the Rams ones because they're still out, so.
Yeah.
Did you open yours yet?
I haven't gotten them yet.
Oh. So I was using one the other day, and there was, I guess, like graphite residue on the table from when Henry and I were coloring. It got all over the notebook, and then when I tried to erase it, the gray came off. So it was like, now it's the crappiest looking field notes I've ever had.
The Rams.
Oh, really? Yeah, it, like, really came off. I mean, it look. It looks cool, but it doesn't look like the clean design that it used to look like.
I think that's really, like, symbolic of all of, like, RAM stuff. Like, it's. It's always made to be like, not get dirty right, like the moment, like, yeah, duder. RAM stuff gets dirty. It's just like. Looks like, like crap.
Yeah, it was like a graphite magnet.
Yeah.
But, you know, it held together. We filled it up. It was cool. I really liked the dot grid paper in that one.
Yeah.
I'm surprised I didn't get one because I backed the Kickstarter for that movie, that documentary that the Gary Hestwood did about Dider Rants. And it's like, man, you would think they would have given us some of those, but. All right, whatever.
Yeah, that's true.
I got a digital copy of the movie. That'll. That'll be. That is not. It was good, though. It's good. Yeah, it's good film.
There was a screening here, but I missed it. I'm gonna. I think we're gonna do it again somewhere.
Yeah, I thought.
I thought about going up to Chicago to see it, but I was just like, I'll just watch it on the.
Yeah.
On Vimeo.
And the closest it came here was Philly. Just not that close. Yeah, not with children.
Do you talk about the main event, Johnny?
Sure. Oh, man, I just had a brain fart. I want to. I don't want to say that it's four, but Blackwing Volume four came out.
Yeah.
So can you buy them anywhere besides Blackwing yet? Is it still hard to get? I don't think the pencil store has them yet.
I don't know. It usually takes a little while to ship out.
Yeah, I didn't see them on cw.
So these notebooks are a tribute to Mars exploration. So they're sort of like a Martian orange with a bronze ferrule, which is not really bronze, but it is really pretty. And cream eraser, which was a nice touch. And the cream imprint. But what's weird is that there's sand embedded in the finish. But, like, when. When I saw the description and they said sand textured, I thought it would be, like, a rough matte texture.
Yeah.
And it has the MMX core, so it's like, this is gonna be one of those ones. I want all of them that I can get. Like, I'll buy another one. I'll buy another one. But then when I got them in hand, like, it's cool, but I don't want, like, many boxes of these. I'm afraid of what it's gonna do to my sharpeners. So, I mean, they're awesome. What do you guys think?
Well, first, that. That feral, like. Yeah, they said bronze, and I'm trying to figure out what this color is. And it. To me, it looks like a little bit of gunmetal and a little bit of, like. Oh, what. What's that rainbow color that sometimes you get?
Oh, vermilion.
Yeah. Like, it looks. It's like a little bit purplish and
a little bit gunmetal, but definitely, like, vermilion and black. Had a baby.
Yeah, it's a. It's a little bit less purple than. There's a Tombow pencil that has a purple feral. I never remember the name. Model numbers.
Oh, 2558.
Yeah. Yeah, that's it. And it's, like, a little less purple than that, but, like, really close. Like, somebody in the group held up. Held those two things up side by side. But I like it a lot. I think immediately when I saw it, I thought of Jason Patterson, and I was like, oh, he'll be able to make something really cool out of this. Yeah.
I miss Jason.
Yeah. Yeah, he moved far away.
He lives close to Johnny.
He hasn't come to Baltimore yet. I have a big surprise for him when he comes. Well, it's not a surprise because he knows what it is, but he's got to come to Baltimore to get it.
You know, I never even noticed about the feral. Like, I just thought it was a silver feral because, like, until I looked at it closely, that's kind of what it looks like. I mean, it looks like. Like darker. A little bit darker, but you're right. It is not close to bronze at all.
Yeah.
Maybe in bright, bright light there's a little tinge, but yeah.
This orange is so perfect.
Yeah, the, the orange is really good. It's like that rusty. Yeah. Like matte orange.
It's almost like brown.
Yeah.
This almost looks like a light burnt umber chestnut brown. Yeah.
This would have been a good fall release. It would have been super autumnal.
Yeah. But yeah, that the sandblasted thing is weird because it's not. It seems like it's lately sand sprinkled.
Right.
Like it's not. There's not a lot of it, but there's not a little of it.
Yeah.
And it's not uniform, but it's not sparse enough.
Yeah. Somebody in the group mentioned like I wonder how like the sharpeners will blades will be able to handle this because like, I mean chances are it won't. You won't like get it right on the blade. But like I imagine you could really wreck up a sharpener with like. Is it sand? I don't know if it is actual sand.
Is it really sand? I. I feel like I have no idea. I don't know. I feel like they would probably put something that's like the hardness of graphite because I mean you're putting graphite on your sharpener.
Right.
All the time and like little, little bits of graphite would be this hard but obviously it would come off on your finger when you rubbed it off. Like I do. I've been using this pencil all week and. Or since I got it and I just fidget with it by picking the sand. But I wish it's all dark though. It's all like graphite colored. It looks like.
I wish Lenore was.
Maybe it's cold.
Cause I think graphite is softer than like silicon, which is what is saying. But I, I have no idea. I shouldn't, I shouldn't speak about that. But yeah, you're right. Like it's already made to sharpen minerals. So maybe.
Yeah, yeah. I mean I repeat that they're so damn pretty to look at but I'm surprised that they didn't start selling packs of cream colored erasers because usually when subscribers get. Or when. When the volumes has a new color eraser, subscribers will get an extra pack.
Is this eraser a different color than their white one?
They say it is. I don't have one handy to compare it to. Oh yes I do.
No, I don't. Crap. I do.
Fidget, fidget, fidget, fidget. Oh it doesn't Look.
Fascinating.
Very.
Barely. Barely.
Yeah.
Like, I can't see a difference at all.
To me, under my, like, bright desk lamp, the white, white eraser has like a little, tiny, tiny bluish tinge to it in this light. And the cream eraser has, like a tiny, you know, just like yellowish tinge to it. They're not that far, far, far off.
Yeah. Okay.
Crazy
cool.
I mean, that's, to my naked eye.
I don't know.
Yeah. Any other fresh.
I'm sitting here with a handful of black wings. So my only other fresh point. This is this. I was reminded of this by the episode title is what would you do if somebody that you like very much had gotten into the habit of buying overpriced crap? And, like, I mean, overpriced, it sucks and it's hard to get. Also,
I think one. I think one person's overpriced crap is another person's high end goods. Right?
Like, no, not Shinola. They. They suck. I don't think anybody likes those notebooks. Actually. I think they went out of production. I heard that whoever makes them stopped. But Frankie got a new planner and got it engraved or monogrammed. And it came in this, like, enormous box full of other stuff. It's like a purple notebook. Yeah. I don't know how to talk her into better planners. I tried. Like, hey, check this out. I got this one to review. It's free. You can have it. No, but she also turned down my offer of a 211 just for fun. Like, hey, it's fall. I went to 11. No. What are we. Married such a philistine.
Like I said, you can mail those to me anytime.
One day I'm going to get a bouquet of them and be like, Johnny.
Well, you know, John, sharpen them all. Johnny, if you. If you want to transition, you know, we can talk about a notebook that is very good quality.
Yep. So we are lucky enough to be sponsored by Indefensite paper for another three episodes, which is super awesome. So these are super high quality notebooks that are made in the United States that we talked about a few episodes ago in some detail, but we didn't talk about them in detail since then. So there are 200 pages of paper with a vellum finish. And you can get ruled or dotted pages, but one side is blank.
Yeah.
So do you want to talk about the binding?
Yeah. So super flexible binding, actually, when you first get it, it's so flexible that you're afraid it's not very strong. But then when you kind of like, you Know, I actually gave it a stress test and, like, you know, grabbed the front cover and just kind of waved it around a bit, and it was held fast. But it's has, like, an elastic. An elastic binding, which makes it really flexible, and there's no of that kind of initial stiffness when you first open it. And what's really great is it just lays flat immediately. Like, there's a lot of notebook companies that say that they lay flat. And this is. This is one of the best, one of the truest to that claim. So. Yeah, that binding is really great. Yeah.
Rosie got a hold of mine and was swinging it around by the COVID Oh, yeah. It didn't damage the book. It was fine. Yeah. Then she colored in it. That damaged the book, but. So they have three colorways, and they're really 8 by 6 inches. But the thing that amazes me about these notebooks is there's no cover overhang. I know that bothers some people with, like, moleskins and books like that.
It's just kind of chapped or chopped. Just like flesh altogether.
Yeah, it's perfect.
Yeah. Yeah, I like that a lot. I like the. The fabric brown kind of, like chipboard cover. To me, fabric brown notebooks are just some of my very favorite notebooks. I just love the, like, tactility of it. And they come in three different colors. You can get them in ember, which is actually. That would match the Blackwing 4 pretty well, I think. Ooh, put a pink eraser in that baby. It comes in an ember color with, like, a hot pink binding. You can get in a slate color with, like, a light blue binding. And you can get it in granite, like a very dark granite with a white binding, which is, yeah, really great colorways. And they are $32 for each. I think it looks like you can get them in ruled and you can get them in dotted, which is cool.
Yeah. And one thing I think we forgot to mention is that they come in a really cool box.
Yeah. Yeah.
Like, I appreciate really cool packaging like that. Yeah.
So Andy Pellet, the owner of Indefensive Paper, has been really generous, and he's offering erasable listeners a $5 discount off a purchase. So if you would to go check it out, go to indefensivepaper.com erasable to show that you heard about it through our podcast, or click on the link in the show notes to check out more about it. And if you purchase, use the offer code Erasable Erasable to save that $5. So please go at least check it out. Go check them out and show your support for the Notebooks and for our podcast.
Yep. Sweet.
So thank you so much to in defensive paper for supporting the erasable podcast. Yep.
And also, like, one of the best brand names ever. Yeah.
Yeah.
These look really nice.
Yeah. Cool.
I have unfortunately not been able to grab one, but I think with that offer code, I'll definitely be getting a nice gift for somebody. Or probably end up keeping it for myself, to be honest.
Okay, so what. What color are you gonna jump for?
If I was buying it as a gift, I would go with the. With a granite. So somewhat black and white.
Yeah.
If as this gift for the person I'm thinking of right now, but for myself, I would probably end up buying the slate.
Yeah, that's the one. Johnny and I both.
The gray with the. Yeah.
Yeah.
I really like the. The brown one. The ember.
Yeah.
I just don't know how I can use the kind of magenta colorway.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's really cool. How they just as a web design nerd kind of thing, there's the buttons on heart. Yeah.
I was wondering if you could see.
Yeah. It's the same color as the spine of the book. So if you go to the ember, everything is like magenta. Yeah.
I actually talked about that in the first episode that we talked about this because I was so charmed by that little detail.
Yeah, that is really cool. Except with the granite one, they have to use black, I guess, because you can't use a white button on a white background.
First rule of web design.
Right, Right.
You gotta be able to see it, folks.
Yeah.
These are nice. These are really nice. I'm looking forward to grabbing one.
So just to. Just to wrap that up, that is indefenseofpaper.com erasable. And if you want to purchase, you can save $5 off your purchase by using the offer code erasable. So thanks once again for sponsoring the erasable podcast. Cool. Do you want to try jump into our main topic? Do you all want to take a. Take a break before we do or jump right in?
I'm good if you guys are good. Okay.
Yeah, I'm good.
Golden, like Carl Molden.
All right, score.
I brought my water bottle tonight, like a smart person.
Your what? Bottle. Water.
His water. His water bottle.
Hp. I can bring a water bottle up in there. You got. You got real nice water in there.
I could have been online looking different, you know, new things that are coming out for research for this podcast episode tonight. But instead, I watched a ton of videos with people With Baltimore accents. Trying to like see if I could like grab one real quick and. And try to mess with you. But I failed. Miserable.
You got to put one of those videos in the show notes.
There's a few of them.
I'll grab the wire. Like they really it up on that.
No, no, no, no, no. And it basically news broadcast from Baltimore.
Oh yeah, you gotta check out Bob Turk. Look up Bob Turk. He's a meteorologist on channel 13. Like it's gonna rain. But he's got like the classy, educated, I don't smoke a lot Baltimore accent. It's gonna rain today. He pronounces the th. When he says bathroom, does he say hun? No, not really. So Henry wrote me a note where he wrote, this is Henry. Dude, you've been living in Baltimore too long.
All his life.
Daddy, I gotta go bathroom. Like bathroom. That's what I said. That's not what you said.
Hang on.
Yeah, so Johnny's a pretty good Johnny. What are we talking about today?
So we are going to talk about gifts, gifting. Gift shopping. I've been cutting back my coffee.
Professional co host, Professional podcast host right here.
No. So I'm gonna start over. So tonight for our special section and main topic, we are going to talk about gift giving for the holidays. So we're gonna go through some sections like, what do you buy someone who for some reason, weird reason, doesn't like pencils? What do you get for, you know, your favorite cat person? Not the right notepad sets that I've fixed. And hopefully if you listen to this and you've got anybody in your life who needs some stationary, you're hooked up. And if they don't like stationary, like what the hell do you hang out with them for? So without further ado, why don't we jump into best pencil set or best selection of pencils to give as a holiday gift.
Yeah, well, I'm glad I get to go first because this one's probably the best one of the bunch. The complete CW pencil enterprise set.
Wait, they sell that?
Yeah.
Yeah. So this is everything that they have made with like every exclusive product they've made with other awesome brands. So that, that notebook with the iron curtain press and the Futura pencil, the, the black kind of oh gosh Caran d' Ache pencil, the Musgrave bugle, the baseball scoring pencil, the editor that like kind of green and pink feral less Viarco pencil that has a ferrule painted on it, the eraser and then the pencil extender, all of those things in one box for 40 bucks. And the box is beautiful looking. It's black and it has a pencil yellow ribbon with the CW pencil logo on it. Yeah.
How can I not find this on the website?
Check his link in the show notes. Dude.
Crap.
Yeah.
Oh, geez.
Actually, I just was reading this instead of the Musgrave Bugle, they're actually going to put their new CW pencil bridge pencil in there.
Okay.
Oh, man.
It says, please note that the Musker Bugle in this set has been replaced with the CW pencil bridge pencil.
I've already ordered twice from them this season.
Time for me.
I'll save this one up so I don't make it a fourth and like, really embarrass myself.
Yeah. Yeah. That's a really cool one. I saw that announcement too and was trying to think about who I can get this for.
Yeah, this thing. I would probably get this for myself if I didn't have all those pencils.
Yeah, already. I think the amazing thing about CW pencils is just how many like, really good, deep partnerships they have. Like. Like getting so many custom elements out of Musgrave as they do. And. Yeah, it's just. Just really amazing. So they do such.
I really was floored by the fact that they got generals to work with the baseball scoring pencil.
Absolutely.
That thing is great. I mean, obviously there's a little. There's a few flaws with the lacquer and paint that smearing, but other than that. But like, it's the best round pencil out there right now. The eraser is soft and gorgeous and it's great. I love that pencil. I'm so happy that that pencil exists.
Yeah, it's really fun. Well, mine is. Mine is one that I think is really great. But unfortunately, if you are listening to this now, you will not be able to procure by this holiday season. And that is the. The pencil sampler of Indian pencils that Siraj Singh from the Curios sells. And just because it's like it comes in a big bin and they all kind of. Kind of come together and they're just. Just like so bright and cheerful and colorful. I think, Mike, the last time you were on, we talked about Indian pencils. Yeah, yeah. And so go listen to that episode if you haven't already. It's a really good. I think it'd be really good for a kid especially just because it all kind of comes together and it's really fun just to like look through, but because. Because of how far away it is and like the way you need to ship it like, you definitely won't get this by Christmas. So. So maybe for next Christmas or maybe for said kid's birthday, for example, Valentine's Day.
Yeah.
Yeah. How about you, Jenny?
So I'm going to go with what I actually bought, and that's Black Wings. Someone I know who likes Black wings didn't know that you could just get a dozen of them in a box. And the boxes are so pretty and they're easy to wrap. So I think a dozen Black Wings is a very good set of pencils to gift somebody with doubly so if somehow they would sell a box that was for each of the three main ones.
But they don't usually do that.
Yeah.
Yeah. Oh. So on to the next one. Sure. This would be. This would be a big gift. The best subscription service.
Yeah, I just stuck this in there, so I guess I should go first. So. So you all have time to, like, think about that. But for me, it was very much a cross between the field notes volumes. Excuse me, field notes, colors, and the Blackwing volumes. Just because they're the most established of the ones that at least I've used. And really, like, there's some great ones out there. Like, art snacks is really good. And there's. What's the scribe one?
Oh, it's called Scribe Delivery.
Scribe Delivery. Like that. That seems really good. But I. I think, I think between the black Blackwing volumes and the field notes, to me they display the most kind of like, creativity in the. The themes that they come up with. So. And out of those two of them, I think I get the most joy out of the Black Wings volumes. Like, there's been some that I have been like, a huge fan of, like the Jade and the. The one. Oh, shoot, what's it? The round one. But. But most of the time I'm a big fan. I like it a lot. So if you were wanting to buy somebody a hundred, $110 gift, like black Wings volumes is a good way to go. Quarterly pencil subscription.
My other gift that I was thinking about anyway is the CW pencil. Just a subscription box. You can get that and you, you know, that's. It's 30 bucks a quarter, but it's got a lot of different things. So if you were. If it was somebody that you knew is interested in stationary but didn't know where to get, like, all the different things, you know, like, because there's always some little thing like Washi tape or, you know, a weird, I don't know, paperclip, you know, just something cool that's in there. So if you have the money to spend and you don't want that for yourself, that would be something good to grab some somebody and you know, if they didn't like it or didn't use it, you don't have to pay in advance. You pay it as it comes. You could just cancel it anytime.
Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. I need to actually do a scribe delivery subscription. Sometimes I just have no clue what comes in those boxes.
Yeah, yeah, I know. I don't even think I've ever even looked at them.
Yeah. Johnny, what's your favorite subscription?
So I think that's really hard between blackwing and field notes. So I guess it depends on if the person that I was getting it for uses pens for some reason.
Yeah.
And then, you know, I would reevaluate why we're friends. But they might. No, I'm. So I want to say black wings, but probably go with field notes as a gift because everybody could use notebooks or, you know, you might have kids or coworkers or somebody that'd be like, hey, you want some notebooks?
Yeah.
But you know, some people don't appreciate a nice pencil. It's true. No, what's the big deal? Like, I have family members who I've tried to give black wings to, and they're like, no, thank you. I'm like, no, thank you.
What?
Yeah, I don't want anything in exchange here. But yeah, so I think I'll go with field notes as a gift.
Nice.
So best journal type notebook. So I didn't want to say hardcover because, you know, some journal type books are soft cover. Yeah, but you guys are copycats.
Mike, do you want to. Do you want to do the big reveal?
Yeah, I just. I just love the Baron Fig confidant. I've actually been using the plus size a lot, like every day. That's what I write all my work notes in. That's what sits next to my, you know, next to me on my desk. I just go through about two or three pages a day with just different sketches or whatever. And that is the one book that has never let me down. Really. I just always love that one. And the flagship size is perfect for, you know, on the go. And you can even get a pocket size one if you want. I never understood the pocket size with the hardcover, but yeah, to each their own, so. But yeah, that's. I think it's a perfect gift. And they've got a bunch of new colors now. They got the black now, you know, if you got somebody in your life that, you know, they like to wear everything black and carry everything black and everything in their life is black. The Baron Fig confidant now comes in black. So that's, that's my favorite hardcover or journal size notebook.
Yeah.
And I mean, same, same for me just for all of the reasons Mike Mike described. For me it's that flagship size all the way. Like, I really love the size. I really like the, the cloth cover as I've mentioned before and really like. Yeah, once they started expanding out of the, the gray color, I really got on board. Like, I love all their like limited edition colorways. I, I'm using, I'm kind of in the middle of using a Metamorphosis one, that pink one right now.
Nice.
Yeah, I just love, love those notebooks. One of my, probably one of my favorites. Just ever, ever since it came out, I've really been consistently, consistently using it and I, I know that they've been sort of like steadily improving it over time. So it's funny to look at like they've, they've been making like incremental changes on them, I feel like. But I have my Kickstarter, my original Kickstarter version and I have like a new one that I got and the quality is just so much different. Like it's interesting to kind of like compare those side by side. So it's still my, still my favorite thing that Baron Fig makes and definitely the thing that makes me most like. It's the thing I think of when I think about Baron figure. Yeah. How about you, Johnny?
So when I thought of this one, I was thinking of getting it for someone who already uses stationery and I figured they probably have had a Baron Fig confidant. So I'm gonna go with Blackwing slate notebook, which for folks that don't know, it's sort of like an A5 sized moleskin, but the spine is just exposed fabric and it has a loop for a pencil and it comes with one and, and the paper is like freaking amazing for pencil.
Yeah. I guess I should mention that if you are buying somebody a Baron Fig confidant as a gift, you should also get them a Leuchtturm pen loop in a matching color to go with it because.
Ooh.
Yeah.
So you know, we wouldn't be good stationary podcasters if we didn't include a section for the best pocket notebook set.
So for me as far as like gift wise, because Christmas and the holiday gift giving season comes right before the new year, I think that the pocket Dateless planner set from Baron Fig is actually another good pocket notebook to give for a gift because then people can start January 1st, New Year's resolutions. You know, that's when everybody starts with their planners.
Any.
Even though these are date list and you can start them on Christmas Day if you wanted to, most people are gonna wait and start until January 1st and start with a clean slate. And the set comes with four and they're all based off of the, the like seasons or whatever. All the covers are the seasons. So yeah, these things are really nice.
Yeah, their artwork was super good. Mm.
Yeah, it's like similar to what they had on the box for the Planner last year. Like the, the actual dated planner, like the confidant size dated planner they had last year. It kind of looks like the art from the box, but then they have four different colors. So the summer one is yellow and the winter one is blue and the fall one is kind of like fallish red and the spring one is like a minty green. So yeah, those are pretty nice. And it's 14 bucks. You get four of them. So yeah, they're pretty cool.
Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking about this. I know a couple, a couple kids, like, you know, preteen but older than like toddler kids who I think would get a big kick out of the like cryptography kind of like aspect of this clandestine notebook. So yeah, I'd check out the field notes clandestine that we just talked about for that just to like get a kid on board. Like, I kind of. I guess I want to read about like how this mystery unfolds. But it seems like a fun, a fun adventure that they can then use to just use as a notebook too. Yeah. What do you think, Johnny?
I'm going to go with something that you can't buy unless you find someone to trade. And that is the recent Write Notepads John Keats books. Because whatever the COVID material was was really stiff but also opened really, really easily. And they used a graph paper so you could turn them sideways. And they were like really, really, really good pocket notebooks. And of course Write notepads has really good paper. But if you can't get those, which you probably can't, I would go with field notes, pitch black pocket size set because the dual layers of fabric make it a really nice stiff platform for writing.
Oh yeah, everybody likes the black cover. Yeah. Yeah, those are nice. Yeah.
So how about we do best sharpener or other accessory.
So for mine, I, I've been using, I use this daily too. Is the Write notepads pencil pouch.
Awesome.
That thing is like a bank bag, basically.
Yeah. That's made by a bank bag company.
Yeah. And it's like thin, but it's not like you could fold it up and throw it in your pocket if it was empty if you wanted to, but it's thick. I actually don't even use it for pencils, to be honest. I use it for all the little wires and dongles and stuff that come along with your laptop and your bag. And it works perfectly for that too. So I originally did use it for pencils, but then I just realized I don't carry that many pencils with me every day in my bag because I'm just going from my home to my office and not really stopping along the way. So one or two pencils will get me there. So most of the pencils I used on a daily basis are my desk. So the pencil pouch became the dongle pouch. But it works perfectly for both things. It will definitely fit a full size unsharpened blackwing with a blackwing point guard on the end of it. So the thing is long and huge and, and, and perfect.
Gonna hold my tongue. I, I actually am going to take the best sharpener or other accessory and just break that out a little bit into a few of them. So. Best accessory. As I mentioned before, that like Leuche term pen loop is really great. And, and it's really tight elastic. So it will hold a pencil. It won't hold a bridge pencil, but it'll definitely hold a regular sized pencil pretty securely, like wherever you stick it to. So I always put it in the back cover of my confidants about a third of the way down, which seems to really work for it. I actually do it a third of the way down instead of in the middle because then it helps me remember which is the, like, which side is up.
That's a good choice.
Yeah. As far as sharpeners go, Like I'm. Especially if you're buying for a kid or buying for somebody who doesn't need to carry around a sharpener. Like I, I get so many compliments and people like, who like my classroom friendly sharpener. I have one at work just kind of like attached to my desk.
And which color do you have at work?
I have a blue one. Blue one at work.
Nice.
So I, I would recommend that it's inexpensive. It makes a really, really good point. It gets people thinking about like a good sharpener and it's like finicky enough where if somebody cares about the tooth marks in their Pencil. They will be interested in like wrapping a post it note around it, which I think is funny.
I was gonna ask you, do you have a stack of post it notes next to your pencil sharpener on your desk?
Well, I always do.
Is that where you keep your pencil, your post it notes?
I always do anyway. So. Yeah, like I always have some post it notes there anyway, so I usually just tear off a piece and I stick it to the side of the sharpener when I'm not using it so I can reuse it until it gets too.
How green are you, Andy?
How what?
How green of you, Andy?
Yes. Waste not. What? Not is what I always say.
That's right.
Yeah. And Mike mentioned the right notepads pencil pouch, which is really great. I also figured I would mention the Nocco pencil pouch which is an. Another really excellent, really good looking pencil pouch. Do either of you have this one?
I do not.
I keep forgetting about it.
Yeah, I do too.
It's, it's. I mean made by Nutco, so it's good quality. Brad. Brad Dowdy certified. It's. It's pencil colored. So it's like the saffron yellow bag with the zipper is pink and then the little like handle in the corner. Corner is gray. It's like dark gray. So it's, it's pencil. Pencil themed in its look. And it's also just a really, really good quality solid bag. So I. And it's, it's yellow and it hasn't gotten dirty yet.
What's the inside color of it? Because usually, you know, they have like a little like surprise. Like.
Oh.
The inside of it is like a completely different wacky color than the rest of the outside of the bag.
You know, this, this inside of it is just that same yellow cover.
Okay.
It's a, it's a really thick fabric. Yeah. I don't think it's double seamed and if it is, it's, it's really well attached to each other. But it's, it's super thick nylon and all of the graphite stains in the inside, you can't see it from the outside at all. So I like it a lot in the, the little Notco patch on the front has a little special like pencil on the bottom of it. So. So yeah, I'm a big fan of
this by the way. I was just on the Notco site looking at that and also saw their lookout, which is the three pin holster.
Oh yeah.
And they have a really awesome dark green. They call it olive and lime. That's if I Carried three pins with me. I would have that thing, because that thing looks awesome.
You could probably fit six pencils in there.
Yeah, you probably could.
Yeah.
Only it's only six inches long, though, so.
Yeah. To wear it down. Johnny, how about you for this category?
So I'm gonna add one I didn't write, and that is a set of the Blackwing point protectors, because. So I feel like at $10 a piece, it's, like, a little steep. But then all three for 20 bucks is not so bad. And they're really nice. And they also would make a really good companion if you bought someone a dozen black wings, so. Yeah, but. So I would. For sharpener. I guess it depends how much money you want to spend and how, like, into pencils someone is. So I would either go with the KUM masterpiece, because unlike the Pollux, it'll sharpen almost anything that fits in it, or the brass bullet keychain sharpener, because then every time someone uses their keys, they'll be reminded of how nice you are. And they're also, you know, they're only a couple bucks, so they. They also would pair well with a dozen black wings.
Now, Johnny, do you have one of those bullet keychain sharpeners?
Yeah, but mine is getting, like, so busted up that I have a really hard time changing the blade because the parts of brass around it have bent.
I keep telling you not to use that to beat people up.
It's ball.
Do you guys have them?
Yeah.
Yeah, I do have one, and I find that I don't actually use it at all. Yeah, I think it's cool to have on there, but, like, I don't use it because I always have, you know, like, usually I have, like, a Com standard or the KUM automatic long point. You know, the. The not masterpiece double hole. I usually have that one with me at any given time, so I don't know. I've never. I think I've only used it, like, three times, and. And I've had it for, like, probably two or three years.
Once a year, I've noticed that it eats blades because it gets a little corroded. They chip up.
Yeah.
But Frankie carries hers around. I think it's her main sharpener at work, and she's not at her desk, so her school is probably littered with pieces of cedar, which is a nice thought.
Pulled a Johnny Gamber the other day. I was at a coffee shop at that San Francisco stationary meetup, and I drank all my coffee and then started sharpening a pencil into the cup.
It smells Good together.
Yeah, it's true. Coffee and pencils.
Yeah. So next section is best gift for a pencil noob. Is noob offensive?
No.
Neophyte. Someone that don't know nothing about pencils.
So I put on my list the Blackwing starter set or the starting point set. So that is the. You get three pencils, you get the three point protectors and you get the black wing sharpener. All for the low, low price of I don't even know how much. I think it's like 20 something bucks. Start at $34.95 and you get six pencils. I'm sorry, not, not. Not three. So three point protectors, six pencils and the sharpener, all that combines, that's a pretty good deal, really.
Yeah, it is a good deal.
And you can get it in any way. So you, if you, you can buy it mixed up. So then you could get two pearls, two 60 2s, two MMXs, and then one each of the different point protectors, like the different colors. Or you can buy a pearl version which comes with the white sharpener and the gold protectors. Or you buy the 602 which comes with the standard sharpener. And then the MMX one comes with the. The standard or. Yeah, I think the standard sharpener as well. And then the black point protectors instead of the silver ones.
Those are cool.
Yeah, they're really nice.
I am just a big fan of sampler packs in general. Like I, I've said it here plenty times before. The pencils.com sampler of like Prospector and the Golden Bear and the Blackwing and like that they do is really great. Have the PAL HB in there. Musgraves new sampler pack is really fantastic. I have a couple of those that I ordered to give to people. Just one each of the. Oh man, what are they calling it? The Heritage line? The signature line? Like the. Yeah, there's just like several of their Musgrave pencils and then CW pencils did a really, really great curation. Like several different kinds of like samplers. There's. There's the baseball scoring sampler. There's the Note and notation 1. There's one for drawing and sketching. There's one for left handers. And all of them are like pretty inexpensive. So just kind of like depending on who you're buying a gift for. Like if you're buying a gift for a lefty, check out that CW pencils left hander set. If you're buying for something actually they might have sold out of it. Brad Dowdy did that pencil pack for people who like Pension. I haven't seen that one in a while. I don't see on their website right now. So they might be sold out. But if and when that comes back, check out that one. That's really great. And probably one that people would use a lot. Like, I feel like I'm forever trying to extol the virtues of pencils to people who are really into pens. Yeah. So sampler packs all the way. I'll put some links to some of my favorite in the show notes. But definitely, like, if you had to choose between any of these, check out that Musgrave one.
Cool.
I don't understand what you wrote, Johnny.
So what would I get for someone that doesn't know a lot about pencils? I would get them a clue. I guess I was thinking that was someone that doesn't use pencils. No. But that's not very nice. So what I would give someone who is new to pencils is a coupon for like five minutes in my closet and like a box. Like, just go in there, I won't stop you. And don't show me what you took because I might get upset and just leave. But I'll bury the two elevens out of reach or, I don't know, keister them or something.
You'll have mailed them all to me by that point
and my kids will find them, then they're gone. Yeah. So I guess it's the opposite of that. What would you get for a significant other?
So for me, my significant other, Christine, I actually just told her the other day about my, my blog and my, you know, like, little bit of stationary, you know, nerd dome. And she was like, what? So, you know, I just kind of let it slip because we've been dating for like maybe like three months now. So I was like, oh, I'm gonna be on this podcast on Tuesday. And so, yeah, I can't do anything or whatever. And she's like, okay. So I would get her this book again. Yeah, I'd get her this book and. And, you know, it would be a beautiful, perfect history to explain why. Why, you know, why I fell in love with pencils and, and what they're all about. And hopefully she would love me even more for it.
So it'll be the ultimate test. Like, she's like, okay, never mind. See ya.
Yeah, there's others. There's other reasons she's gonna say, nevermind, see ya. No, no, no, it's. I think that would be a perfect gift. Though, you know, I think that'd be a good one for somebody, you know, that you're trying to bring into your world.
Yeah. Then once they have that pencil perfect book, you should definitely get them several issues of Plumbago magazine so they can see, like, the community's, like, continued relationship with pencils and with stationery and be on top of that. So I probably wouldn't get my significant other a plumbago magazine because she's the one who has to deal with 500 copies of it in various states of, like, unassemblage in our living room.
She's seen those plenty.
She's up to here with plumbago magazines. No, I definitely think any of those gift packs, like sampler packs that we talked about, if your significant other is not involved in it. Mine is a huge fan of the color Purple. So usually whenever I come across purple notebooks or purple pencils, she's. She gets it somehow. So, yeah, for my particular significant other, like, I don't know if I have, like, a specific pencil y thing that I would. That I would get her.
Does she also like the Oprah Winfrey vehicle? The color Purple?
The color Purple. I think so. Yeah, I remember. Yeah, that came out.
You remember that came out.
It's my ringing endorsement for it. Johnny, what about you?
So, you know, I think if it's your special person, then you need to curate a pencil selection from at least two retailers, preferably three.
Yeah.
So I'm up to two for mine. So. No, I'm two. Maybe I'm at three. Yeah. So she doesn't listen to this, like, ever.
Nobody listens to this.
I got some. Wait, she might be in the next room. Fine. And candy pencils from Greer, because she really likes those. So. Yeah, they sell. I think they sell all of them or most of them. They were out of a couple and then some stuff from the pencil store, and I'm probably not finished, so. Yeah.
Yeah.
What did I say?
Curated pencil selection from at least two retailers.
Oh, no. I thought I said finding candy wrong. I'm sorry.
Oh, no, you said that.
Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, every once. Once in a while, I pick up a couple, too. They're pretty.
Yeah.
I don't understand why they don't sell them at the pencil store when they sell Viarko stuff. But I'm sure that there's a specific reason.
Are they made by Viarco?
Yeah. Yeah.
I didn't know that.
That's why the cores are all off center. Terrible. Yeah. So I guess as a good last question and we are definitely three people that have a lot of pencils and a lot of notebooks and a lot of accessories. But what gift do you want for the holidays?
And I assume that all the listeners are taking note of this.
Yeah. I mean think of all the joy we bring into your lives and money we make you spend. Yeah.
Mike, I love you.
I, you know what? If you don't ask, you're never gonna get it. I want the El Casco pencil sharpener. Yeah, I love that. I love the look of that point. I just can't pull the trigger on that much money. And you know, what is it, like 400 bucks? Something close to that, somewhere around that, depending on what the Euro's doing that given day.
What is it that David Rees said in his book? He was like, the El Casco sharpener is the second most expensive thing I own. And, and I own a house and a car.
I mean it is expensive. But you know, if, if someone were going to be super duper nice to me and pool all their money together and take out the second mortgage on their house and they wanted to buy me an El Casco sharpener, I would be indebted to them for life.
Yeah. Honestly, like that's an answer I could not compete with. I didn't not think of them on my own. But like, yeah, it's basically like, oh shoot. Best answer. I sure would like a Casco sharpener. Really though, I would love just an interesting, bright, vivid selection of vintage Eberhard Faber boxes and pencils. I just like, you know, like many people, I have a kind of a special like place in my heart for like old Eberhard Faber stuff. And I have a few already. Like I have some really cool like vintage boxes. I don't have any of the Blackwing ones because I don't have that kind of money. But. And also some old arborhard vapor pencils. So just a cool selection of that kind of stuff is something I would be really into as a gift. What do you think, Jenny?
So they make a version of the Kum wedge which is a container sharpener and they have like silver plated and gold plated. So the gold plated one because you know I need a really expensive like 50 pound blade sharpener.
Of course, of course.
But you know it, it's a comb sharpener so it take comb blades forever.
Yeah.
So it'd be house Dannable or so Blackwing has those desk sets and they have one that came out in, I think it came out in like 2010. It came out a Long time ago. And I was eyeing it up, but I didn't buy it. And now they have the piano box. So when I was finally like, you know what? I'm going to treat myself for one of these. Now they have two. And I can't pick. So, you know, I wish my wife listened to our podcast because if I can't pick, someone could pick for me. Or even better, both. I mean, they come with a lot of black wings. They're not a terrible deal.
Yeah.
But, yeah, expensive things for a desk that I don't have. That's what I want for the holidays. Yeah. So, you know, forward this to all of our significant others. Read the transcripts, hit them on social media.
I do not want Christine to buy me the El Casco pencil sharpener. We need to save our money.
Well, we're going to post our significant other's social media information at the very end. So do you guys want to talk about where to find you on the Internet, Mr. Mikey?
Sure. I am on Instagram Edfast. I have still. The site is still up leadfast.org I haven't posted anything, any new reviews or anything since probably around April, but I'm, I'm still, you know, at it, still thinking about it. So. And the site is still up. I do actually still. I still have a shop on site. So if you're looking for like some early write notepad stuff or. I think most of the field notes have been sold off. But I've been kind of dumping my collection not because I'm not into it anymore, but just because I'm literally sitting on a bunch of stuff that I'm never gonna use. And as new things keep coming out, I mean, I just can't use it all on collect. I'm not collecting anymore. So if other collectors are into it, they could, they could definitely buy some stuff on there if they wanted to. I'm on Twitter but never on twitter@ledfast.org so somebody has led fast already. So yeah, those are. And I'm still in the field. Nuts and erasable groups.
And what's your phone number?
And you can text me at. But if you need my address to send me the Elcasco, just Facebook message me. That's fine.
All right. How about you, Andy?
I am at also my blog that is not often updated woodclinch.com and you can get me on Twitter and Instagram as wellfley. And how about you, Johnny?
So I updated my blog recently, but it had been a while@pencil revolution.com and on social media ensolution and thanks again to our sponsor in defensive paper making high quality notebooks sourced and manufactured in the United States. Once again. Check out indefensivepaper.com erasable and use the coupon code Erasable to save a sweet five bucks off your purchase. We are the Erasable Podcast. You can find us on itunes, Google and when I figure out how to do it, Spotify and at erasable us. This is episode 110 which you'll find at erasable us 110. You can check out our Facebook group for like the one thing that's justifying Facebook existing anymore, which is facebook.comgroups erasable. Or you can search for the Erasable Podcast Pencil community. You can check out our official mouthpiece@facebook.com erasablepodcast and on Twitter and Instagram. We are at Erasable Podcast. Thank you and we'll be back in the new year with some more awesome stuff.
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.com.
gaze captures me with wonder. I can taste the days of a long past summer if I could just count the time this has happened before. Oh, I said.