This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
We should have a mumble track on this episode. Hey, everybody. Welcome to Raising Lines.
Welcome and hello to the Erasable Podcast. This is episode 122. For those of you keeping count like we are. I am hair doctor Johan Von Gamber ii, and I am joined by the right honorable Tim Timothy Lawson and his Royal Highness, Andrew Owelfley.
We are gentlemen.
How are you guys?
I lost that question. I was. I was. I was. I usually don't hear people who are lower than me as far as, you know, the social classes go. So I didn't understand.
And you didn't address me with my proper.
Yeah, I don't. Yeah. Did you just say you guys? Yeah. I don't respond to you guys.
The lowly professor, my Birkenstocks.
I don't understand the question, and I won't respond. As Lucille would say, no, I'm doing. I'm doing good. I'm. I am in my last week before school starts. Oh, man, it's. But it's a good week. We did, like, a staycation all week, so we took the kids to do just, like, fun stuff every day and didn't, like, let ourselves get bogged down in chores and all that junk, so. Oh, that's cool. Went to the water park a couple times. Went to the zoo. Yeah. Ate out more than we usually do. You know, stuff like that. And it's been. It's been great. Nice. Henry, like, went sort of, like, got past the hump and is now swimming, like, legit swimming on his own now, which is kind of blowing my mind.
So. That's. That's scary, though.
You're, like, terrifying. Yeah. Take me out to the middle of the. Like, we're in, like, an Olympic swimming pool. And he's like, take me out to the middle and then I'll swim back to the edge. I was like, okay, okay, Yeah, I take him. But he, like. And he does it. He gets there. I mean, by the end of it, he's like, whoo. He even, like, makes that sound. He goes. The first time he did it, he swam. He swam halfway across the pool, got to the end, he went, who? I'm going to sleep, like, 15 hours tonight.
So, you know, ranking the best blogs, podcasts, Instagrams, and photographers in our little world is hard enough. But if you want to pick just one instead of ranking them, that's a setup for torturing yourself. And that's what we're going to do tonight.
Yay.
Because we hate ourselves. But, yeah. So this week, we're doing superlatives. Of the stationary sphere.
Now I want to jump in and say, this was my. I thought of this idea as something I thought would be fun for an episode, But I did think of it not as an ultimate sort of superlatives, but, like, something we could do quarterly. Say, let's take a break, do an episode, and let's highlight some of our favorites recently. And then, like, you know, those can change just to, like, kind of give the love out to all these, like, crazy awesome accounts and stuff out there.
People are doing it really well. Yeah.
So what we're saying tonight is not just like. And the greatest ever, without question, is,
you know, oh, man, that's what I did.
As if we had. Yeah, well, start high and then never know.
Yeah. So, you know, we always talk about our friends, and most people are our friends, but some people we don't know that well, especially on.
Some people are our enemies. You know who you are.
Now we're gonna get hate mail from people that don't know that's a joke. All right.
Why can't you just get along?
Like, we wouldn't. We might not have a podcast if it wasn't for Brad.
Yeah.
Or at least nobody would know about it. We love. And Brad is also a very good hugger, which is never an insult from me, so.
Insult from anybody.
Yeah, I don't know. I know people that don't, like, the people are huggy.
Oh, okay. I was just imagining, like, somebody being like, yeah, he's a good hugger. Like, as if it was, like, an insult.
What a creep.
He's a good hugger. Yeah. What kind of guy is he? Oh, he's a good hugger.
He squeezed me so gently.
Squeeze me gently, Brad.
Yeah, so.
Or it hurts. They hug you so much that it hurts. Like, oh, gosh, he's a good hugger.
I like that.
Yeah.
I like when people mean it.
They pop your back. They hug you so hard. All right, sorry. Save that for the hugging podcast.
All right, so why don't we jump into our tools of the trade? What's your top thing you're consuming? Well, I'm.
I'm still reading that Neal Stephenson novel that I talked about last time. It's just very, very, very long, as Neal Stephenson novels are, but it's still really good. It's kind of, like, progressed. There's, like, basically two novels encapsulated into this one, and I've progressed to, like, the second part of the novel, which is actually part eight, book two. He has a lot of.
Jesus.
Yeah, he has a Lot of like breakdowns there. And then also Katie and I have been watching the latest season of Queer Eye, which is a very good show. Like, usually I don't watch a lot of those. I don't even know what to call it. It's not a reality competition show, but it's like a reality like makeover show. I just think, I just think they're very, very good. Like they, they're very respectful and sensitive and good about diversity and inclusion. It's just really interesting.
Yeah, it's not like making fun of people or not like calling people out for.
Yeah, it's such an. It's such an interesting thing because, like the first, the first iteration of the show, which was Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was like very much just like, you know, like making fun of like these men's style and classes as well as sprucing them up. But this one dives way deep into the psychology and the sort of personal self care and mental health and things like that as well. So it's just really good. You never see a remake being as good as the original. But Queer Eye compared to Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is just so good.
So was the first one. It's not the same group of guys, right?
No, no, no, this is a different group. Yeah. And they're just like all just really, really good. And yeah, I'm just repeating myself, but I like that. And I am. So I'm actually recording this podcast at a friend's apartment. I. They're out of town, so I've been going over to feed their cats and I just sort of realized that I came all the way over here without any sort of writing utensils. So I scrounged up a piece of loose leaf paper and a paper mate flare pen.
Ah, I love it.
What color flare pen? Black. Not anything like cotton candy colors.
Nope, just some of those are. Yeah. So I'm just sitting at their dining room table, just plugged in with. Of course I remember to bring my mic and my headphones and my computer, but not my notebook and pencil. So for me. So doing that. How about you, Tim? What are you consuming and writing with?
I have been reading and I think I mentioned this before, but when I started it and was like super excited about it and then put it down because school got in the way and so I just picked it up and now I've almost like to finish it. So I got like 40 pages into. Let's go so we can get back. I think that's the Jeff Tweedy memoir that he put out this. This. This past year. It's called. Yeah, let's Go so we can get back. I got it Right. But, yeah, so I started it and was, of course, super excited because I was a. Because I'm such a big Wilco fan. And I plowed through the first, like, 60 pages really quickly. And then life got crazy and I just got away from it. And so now I'm. I'm almost done. It's excellent stuff. And it's really. It's really unusual when it comes to sort of music, memoirs. As far as what I've read, because he has. I've never. I've literally never read a book. And actually, I guess this is. I have to qualify this because I know his voice so well, but, like, I can hear him saying everything in that book. Like, it just. He writes with such a clear voice. Like, it sounds exactly like him, like something. It sounds conversational and everything.
It's like Aaron Draplin's book. Like, that has a very clear Aaron Draplin voice.
Yeah. And it's. It's great. He gives all these cool insights into the band's past. And also, like, his songwriting process, which was really interesting to me because he talks about, like, writing these simple, basically folk songs, and then over the years, kind of learning how to put in chords that are, like, unexpected and, like, mathematically or whatever shouldn't work. And then he gets this progression, and then he records it with a full band and just does, like, a mumble track where he just, like, mumbles random sounds. That's what he does for every song. And then he goes back and listens to it over and over and over and over until he, like, fills in real words instead of the mumbles.
So we should have a mumble track on this episode. Hey, everybody. Welcome.
This is like a Chevy Chase thing or something. Yeah. Or the. Was that Three Amigos? Back to Three Amigos. So, yeah, I'm reading that very good, very good book. And a lot of. A lot of what I've been consuming in the last several days has been trade deadline, baseball stuff. So reading a lot of baseball stuff online, so that's really it. I haven't even been watching a whole lot. A friend gave me a movie called the lady in the Van. Have you guys ever seen this?
Oh, no, I saw the trailer to that.
Judi Dench Smith. Yeah. And so that's on the docket for tonight.
Awesome.
Later to watch that. So I'm really excited about that. It's about, like, a writer, and this Woman pulls up and just like starts living outside of his house. That's all I know.
Interesting.
Sounds good. But I am writing with a Blackwing Volume 4, which I bought in DC. I got two boxes of those on my trip to DC, which I was super excited to come across those. And I also was inspired by Caroline and in that last episode you guys did. And so that is the only pencil I've been using for like five days now. So I put everything else away. So I'm just trying to use one. My rule for myself is one pencil and then one stub that's in my bullet pencil. And that's all I'm. All I'm using for a little while, just to, like, simplify, which is always a good thing for me to do at the beginning of the school year. Just to, like, keep my head on straight so I'm not like getting distracted by stupid things, like unnecessary distraction. And I am writing. I've got two things here, actually. One of them I'm just going to talk about later, but the field notes I'm carrying is the Graduate Hotels field notes. I just finished my first National Parks edition, the Smoky Mountain one, and I cracked open the Graduate Hotels one that has all the books all over the front.
Oh, awesome.
The Mrs. Robinson edition.
Yeah, I love it, but that's me. So how about you, Johnny? Awesome.
So I'm going away next week. So I've been reading much. I just read a book called Hiking with Nietzsche by John Cag, who wrote American Philosophy, A Love Story, the last book that I read. And so that one he wrote as his first marriage was falling apart and he was falling into feelings with his current wife. And this one was with his current wife and his child. And they went to the Swiss Alps, sort of in Nietzsche's footsteps, and talked a lot about self overcoming. And it was still really memoir ish. But he's a really, really good writer, especially for someone with a doctorate in philosophy. The whole time I'm like, this is like a sequel to the other book. And at the end he's like, yeah, this is a companion book to American Philosophy, a love story. Like, okay, you should have put that at the beginning.
Where are you going, Johnny?
Sorry?
Where are you going?
Oh, I'm going to the beach. Ocean City.
Oh, nice.
Next week for lots and lots of relaxing and doing nothing and mini golf at some point. Yeah. And go Cardi. Sorry.
No, I was just. I just had said I really want to take Henry. We've never gone mini golfing with him because there's not one around us.
So yeah, my Henry has never done it and I tried to explain what it was and he's like staring at me. I'm like, you'll like it when you see it.
Trust me, kid.
Like, if you can pick the color of the ball, you'll be a happy little guy. And so I volunteered for an errand today to go to Walgreens because I know that Walgreens is carrying the new yellow Bic evolution extruded pencil that was disparaged in our group recently. So like I like extruded pencils for different things. So this is, you know, it's yellow. It's like those gray ones that came out last year. But it's almost exactly the same color as when I'm writing in, which is the field notes commemorative reprint butcher orange. So it's like, you know, a golden yellow pencil. Yeah, it matches well. And for the record, it works perfectly fine in the field notes. I mean There's a Blackwing Volume 10 and next to it in case I get pissed and snap the pencil in half. But I don't see that happening.
But you know, I don't think you can snap the pencil in halfway.
It'll just bend.
Yeah, don't dare me. It'll be a clean break. I mean they're flexible but not, not crazy flexible. They're put together well. The ferrules and all are very nice. They're.
Did you have that cool plastic ferrule like the big extra fundo?
No, these have a really nice looking metal feral like the gray. The gray and black evolutions that came out last year. But I love you Blackwing, but these are put on better than my volume 10s were at first. But now they weren't that big. I mean there was, you know, I'm sure if anyone follows any of the social media or blogs, there was a quality control card fluffle that some people thought was a big deal and some people thought wasn't a big deal. So I have two dozen of them here. So that's what I thought of it. So we have a lot of fresh points on deck. Do you want to get started, Tim?
Yeah, I'd be happy to. I am going to start by saying that most of my stationary brain has been devoted to field notes for the last several weeks. Sure has. Um, yeah, like I've been buying more field notes than ever than I ever have. I mean the. So in the last. So I got my national parks came in which I was excited about and that's. Which is, you know, Three packs of Field Notes. And then I saw the Graduate Hotels were still available on their. On the Field Notes website. And so I bought some of those. And then I was like, wait a second while I'm here. I didn't know three Missions was still available. Give me one of those because I never bought that. And then Field Notes went and announced finally the official release of the Wilco Field Notes which we've already talked about. I won't like get too far into that again, but we talked about it two episodes ago. But the Wilco Field Notes are now available on Wilco's website, I guess and also on Field Notes website. So I ordered those, they're coming on Saturday and I am unbelievably, I am extremely excited for those to come out and I'm trying to ask around to people who already have them in hand. And one thing I was trying to figure out is if this is going to be a one time like limited thing because it seems like it should be. And I was texting with you guys and we had, I think Andy, you had mentioned. Well, it says special special collaboration or something like that, which usually signals that it's limited edition. But it just, it really like kind of like Adam on Take Note had said like that it seems crazy that it would too limited because of how much went into it. Yeah, six, six different designers. That comes with the cardboard box that it comes in. I mean Wilco is the biggest Chicago
band and they probably, they probably made enough to like sell at merch tables and sell on their website and things like that.
Like it did say that they're gonna sell them at merch tables for like the next two tours or something like that.
Two tours?
Well, they said like the winter and fall like the fall and winter tours or something like that probably compared to
how much money they put into their T shirts. I bet this cost is not nothing.
Yeah. So gosh. So I'm. It seems kind of crazy that this would be limited or, or, or it should be around for a good long while. I think so. And I am, I'm seeing Wilco at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.
What?
That's awesome.
Yeah, in October. So I bought tickets to that. So if they are there on site, I will totally be buying another pack from Wilco like on site. So I'll get mine in hands in a couple days. And I am, yeah, just crazy excited about that. I did mention the Graduate Hotels and the. In the three missions and those are both like really unbelievable additions. It's kind of funny like, they're. They're very similar in that, like, you know, the photo cover, and I just. I don't know. I really got a kick out of them. And I'm. I'm keeping the. The model spaceship that, you know, that whole thing in my back pocket for when Henry needs to be distracted from, like, torturing its sister or whatever. So I've got that. I haven't done those yet, but I'm excited. So do you think either. Oh, God.
Did you get the Field Museum space set? They're sort of along the lines of three missions, but just like, different pictures of the Earth from space.
Please tell me it's sold out.
No, I think you could buy them on the website.
Okay.
They were. They were. They were cool. I. I did those before my three missions. Larry sent me a set last year.
Jeez.
But it's a good thing there are more that you like.
I'm sorry you're sold out.
Our. Our time together in, in. In D.C. should have taught you that. When. When I'm around you and you're saying
things, I'm going to buy.
Like, you were like. You gave me, like, the loosest sort of. Yeah, you should probably buy that. And I was like, yeah, you're right. All right, here we go. Just dropping money on it. So, um. Damn. Okay. Yeah. These are gorgeous. What? What? Come on.
All right.
I'm looking at them right now. I'm experiencing them live on the air. And these. These look fantastic. I love that. Super. The super close up one is amazing.
Did you get the Will Cofield notes also? Andy?
I'm on the check page right now.
I sent them to. I sent them to Frankie because my birthday is in four weeks, so it's like, hey.
And I'll admit, like, I like Wilco. I really don't care about Wilco that much, but they are just, like, beautiful. Like that Jeff Tweedy one, that Draplin did that, like, with the. I don't understand, like, all of the symbols. I'm sure they mean something about Jeff Tweedy, but, like, they're. They're really good looking.
It's inspiring me to listen to a lot more Wilco lately, which is a lot more mellow than what I usually listen to, so that's good.
I was trying to think of my favorite Wilco album, and I think probably, like, you know, I honestly like some of his, like, new stuff, the best. Like, the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was, like, super good, but besides that, I can think of a lot of Wilco songs, but I can't think of a lot of Wilco albums, if that makes sense.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love Sky Blue sky is, like, historically my favorite album, which is kind of a. Kind of a. I think, as far as, like, fans go, is not like, the obvious pick. I mean, that's. But I really love that album. And then Summertime. I can't help but listen to Summer Teeth, which just happens to be called Summer something. But it's their most kind of, like, sort of upbeat, kind of good driving music kind of stuff. And my kids love it. That's the one that I. I posted that picture of Lila, like, literally as I was. We're sitting at the. The Starbucks at Target, and I was ignoring my kids and ordering those field notes, the Wilco field notes, after you guys had sent them to me that released. And I, like, listened and, like, Lila was singing next to me and I was like, what is she singing? And I, like, noticed that she was singing a Wilco song that was like, blew my mind. But that's from Summer Teeth, the song ELT that we had been listening to on the way there. That's a really good album. I love it.
Yeah. Well, I'm now having a box being sent to me, so.
Good, good, good, good. All right.
Well, you know, you're getting something extra. The box is cool.
Yeah.
Durable.
It's useful somehow.
So. Yeah, so that was just all the. All the field notes is what I was going to bring up first. So many field notes. One quick thing is in the target dollar, whatever they call it. Like the. What do they call that dollar section. Yeah. But they have some cute name for it.
Something Spot.
Yeah, the one spot or the.
The dog. Spot the dog.
Anyways, but I was walking through there and got super excited because they were selling these little packs of blue books. Did you guys use blue books in college still? Yeah. So they're selling these and I was like. And they have this kind of. They're called My Little Blue Book. And I was like, oh, that's cool. But they're gonna have, like, kindergarten print on the inside. But it is definitely, like, somewhere in between college and wide ruled. Like, it's a. And there are these. They come in a pack of. I don't. I only have one in front of me, so I can't remember how many you get. I think I texted you guys. Did you see how many? Or did you remember what I said?
Oh, no, I don't remember what I said.
Okay, well, so it's. I want to say it's five in a pack for like, three bucks. And each of them has 16 pages. So it's a. It's a blue book. And on the front it has name, subject, grade, date, and then it says, my little blue book. What can you imagine? Which is, you know, sort of cheesy. But I just thought these were super cool. So. And so I got, like, three packs of them, kind of in the thought that I might use them for writing short stories.
Yeah.
So they're. They're eight sheets, 16 pages, and they're. They're pretty cool. So if you get over to a Target and that in the. Fill in the blank spot, whatever it's called, right when you. Right when you walk in the door. Yeah, Keep. Keep an eye out for them because they're. They're just cool little thing. And three bucks.
So that is a really good length.
Yeah, 16 pages. It's. Yeah, it's nice. And 16 pages ruled. And like, it's. Yeah, it's kind of perfect. I considered, very briefly buying tons of them and actually using them for my students, and I was like, I could just buy regular blue books for probably cheaper.
So.
So, yeah, got that. And then. So these last two go. Are very closely related. So I actually got to see Johnny.
I saw you too.
So we just. We were just passing by on the street. I was like, oh, hey, how's it going? Holy sh.
T. I know his voice.
And we just kept walking. Um, now I was in D.C. for a conference, teaching conference. And so it was. It was actually a reschedule. We're not going to get into all the details on this, but it was rescheduled on the fly from New Orleans to D.C. like, within 36 hours, which is so impressive.
Yeah.
Unbelievable. These people at XQ are like, it's a. The Jobs foundation for Education are just, like, absolutely. Just bonkers. I mean, I guess when you have a bottomless pit of money, you can be bonkers. But it was amazing. So I was in D.C. we had all these crazy things going with the conference, and then Johnny, being in Baltimore, was able to zip over and we got to hang out. We went to Jenny Blick, and we went to a cool bookstore. What was that bookstore called?
Second Story Books.
Second story books in D.C. so that was very cool to see Johnny. That was the second time I've seen Johnny in five years. Still working on number one with. With. With Andy. But it doesn't even feel right. It's been so long that it doesn't even feel right to say that I haven't, like, met you in person. You Know, like, when I say it out loud, it almost, like, feels wrong. Because your voice is, like, one of the most familiar voices, like, in my life because I've heard you. We've talked so much. I mean, I've talked by. By hour. I have talked to you more than, like, anyone that I, like, live with and, like, hang out with around Johnson City, you know, it's like, crazy. We're. We're in the. What are. We were in, like, 150 hour zone somewhere. We've probably talked, which is. Which is crazy. So. But yeah,
yeah, one day we'll all get together.
One day.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I wanna. I'm winning this summer. I've met Lenore. I got to hang out with Less and Dade, and I got to hang out with Tim again. So I am. I am having the greatest summer. I am living my best summer, meeting my best meat.
But, yeah, so we got. We got to hang out. We got some. Some coffee and breakfast sandwiches. Thank you, Johnny. He treated me to coffee and breakfast sandwich.
Oh, my pleasure.
Then we, when we went to Jenny Blick, we spent money, especially I spent money, and I bought one thing in particular that I wanted to bring up that I have been planning to buy for years, doing this podcast because I love Kaweco. I like their fountain pens and their rollerball pens that they make. They make those sport pens that kind of screw into each other, and when you unscrew them, you can, like, turn them around almost like a bullet pencil, basically. And I bought one of the Kaweco sketchups, which. Which is their clutch pencil.
Oh, yeah. There's like the really thick. What? Like thick lead ones?
Yeah, it's chunky. Yeah, the lead. Yeah. Is thick. It's. I don't know, 5 millimeters? I don't know, it's like huge. I don't know, metric, but it's. Wait, actually, it says on the side of the pencil. There you go. 5.6.
Did you get the brass one?
That is. Gosh, you had to bring that up. You had to bring that up, didn't you? My only regret is the color that I got, because I wish I got brass, but I got not. So they had. They had black, they had shiny silver and then, like a dull silver and then a brass. Did I already say brass?
No.
So black. Black, shiny, dull, and then silver and then the brass. So I wish I would have gotten the brass, but also, like, I remember talking about this on, like, the third episode of this podcast. My hands, like, destroy brass. Do you remember talking about this? Yeah.
I don't know.
Like, it, like, they, like, it changes color, like, very quickly. Like, I think you. Andy, you called them my costume hands.
Yeah, that's right.
But so maybe it. Maybe it was for the best, but it is. It is super cool. So it's. It's got this big chunk of. I think I ended up getting 5B lead, I think is what they.
Holy crap.
That was all they had. All they had there. And so it's. It's soft. I mean, kind of like MMX soft. And it comes. And so basically how the mechanism works is that you click the back of it and it opens up the mouth, like, at the collar. So, like, opens up like a mouth. You slide the lead in and then you let go, and then it tightens back up and holds onto the lead. And the sharpener is actually concealed within the. The part that you click on the back. So you unscrew that and there's a sharpener inside, which I will say is not. Like, I've never gotten it sharpened as well as it was when I first got it, like, when it first came in. So the sharpener doesn't work that great. But I'm sure I could use any sharpener I want and figure it out. So I'll keep playing around with that. But it's really fun to hold. And I've still got my. Cody Williams made me a. Like, a little pouch to put Kaweco stuff in. So I've been carrying around. It's got two. It can fit two things that slide in. So it's the sketchup pencil and then the rollerball sport that I've been carrying around in my pocket. And I'm very glad that I. That I bought that. While I was in DC. I also found a bunch of Blackwing volume fours. So I bought two more dozen of Blackwing volume 4s, because I. The more I use those, I just. Gosh. Gosh, I love them.
Yeah.
Yeah, Jenny bick had some volume 4s left too. I think they just weren't with the other Black Wings.
Yeah, I got it at some bookstore. It was called Politics. Politics and Pros. That was right by the venue where we had our event. But then we also. Yeah, we also saw them at Jenny Blick, which we noticed. It was kind of funny that at Jenny Blick. Is it Jenny Bick? Jenny Blick.
Bic.
Jenny Bic. They. The volume fours were cheaper than the volume 10s, so I'm wondering if they were 25 bucks upping their price for. For. For resellers or something. Like that. But. But yeah, so I got, got some of those, which I'm very happy about and I think I've been talking long enough now, so. Yeah. So how about you, Andy?
Well, I guess the biggest thing on my mind is that Plumbago 6 is getting, getting ready to be laid out eventually to go to print. So we've had good number of pre orders. It's gonna be a edition that's a lot like if Plumbaga 5, that's a little bit thinner, which I think gives me a little bit more room to do some, do some nice layout things to blow up some pictures and make them look really good. So yeah, Harry's almost done with editing and then I'm kind of getting ready to lay them out. So it's, it's gonna be a really good issue. So.
Awesome.
Yeah. Be really good.
Yeah.
Tim has a nice, has a nice. Would you call that memoir?
It's a weird. It's a weird. I was, I was going for something weird. It was, I was inspired by something else that I read. So it's like a. I was trying to tell the story because it's the, the travel edition. So I'm trying to tell a story of like a really formative road trip I went on with some friends after I graduated high school. And I tried to do it in kind of like a rapid fire imagery,
kind of on the road kind of a thing.
Yeah, just kind of like. But like super condensed or it's just like jumping from place to place. So yeah, it's definitely. It's all memoir, it's all true stuff, but it was just kind of like uber condensed down till it's like if Jack Kerouac got into flash fiction.
Nice. We paired Tim up with our friend Mike Hagan, who is a talented graphic designer who's illustrating something for this piece. So I can't wait to see what that is. All Mike will tell me is that it is intricate. So.
Yes, yes, I'm excited about that. Yeah, he is. He is playing along, that's all I'll say. So it's going to be. And there's going to be some. Yeah, it's going to be funny. So I think you'll enjoy it.
So. And actually for this issue, so we've done. Last time I talked about a 3,000 member giveaway. So congratulations to Chris Armstrong in, in Canada, who won the giveaway and everybody who. Johnny, your riddle was easier to guess than I thought it was going to be.
Michelle got it on the first one.
Yeah.
So like what Made it obvious how much you love them or how much I hate them.
I think some of those people just know our. You know, between us on social media and between us on the show, I think.
And also I will say that I listened to the episode with Caroline and, like, cats came up at, like, five different points throughout that episode. So that might have, like, you know, they might have showed our hand a little bit.
So the answer was Cats. And so we gave away one of every black wings selling pencil to Chris Armstrong. So congratulations, Chris, on that. And we actually started. I think this episode will come out by the time this contest ends, but we're doing a second giveaway which requires a little bit more skill. We're doing a limerick challenge. And so people have to write limericks about. Just about pencils or the group or us or something. And so that is what they're doing. There's some really good ones in there. I'm going to maybe read you some of Jay Newton's.
Oh, my God.
Here in a second. So good. So, yeah, really good. Really good limericks. We're ending the contest on Friday, and it's only in the group, so if anybody has just, like, any limericks they want to submit just for fun, like, please do. I've been in kind of a limerick writing frame of mind for a few days, so I'm going to read you Jay's. He wrote three of them, one for each of us.
So can I interject? Interject? Like, if we were going to do a superlative for funniest group member, that would definitely go to Jay. Like, even before this, like, some of the stuff that he puts in the group, I'm like, oh, my God. This guy's, like, really funny.
He's very funny. So our resident teacher called Wasam encourages his young minds to blossom. Rarely seen in our group. Does he need to recoup? Nope. He's watching the Cubs playing possum.
Love it.
There's Johnny's. There's a doctor named Johnny went walking, A diversion from analog talking, but with Poe and Thoreau and his three kids in tow. How he finds time for Kelly Bishop stalking, which is a pretty. Pretty deep cut.
That is a deep cut indeed. I love that.
And Millennial Andy switched cities and spoils adorable kitties. But between the lacroix and his. The analog toys, his accountant just shrugs with no pity. He says, as I just Impulse Buy a $30 pack of Field notes.
Yeah, that's. That's skill right there.
Yeah, Plenty of good ones in the group. There's.
Yeah.
So next fresh point. It kind of came out really, really suddenly and quickly. Blackwing introduced, like, a writing tablet, like a notepad. The name is kind of stupid. It's called the illegal pad. No offense, guys.
It's.
It's.
To be fair, they did use parentheses, so we can just call it Legal Pad.
I have just been calling it the Blackwing legal pad.
Yeah, I get where they're coming from. Like, it's not legal size. It's not. It's. Yeah, I think it's smaller. It's not yellow. It's basically their take on, you know, what a writing tablet would look like if it was made by Blackwing. And it really is, like, it has. It's a really good quality book. What do you guys think?
I think it, like, fits their whole whatever. Like, their line of products. Yeah, if it's what they do and it fits the kind of thing they make. I mean, it would have made zero sense for them to make a cheap legal pad. You know, like, if they, like, imagine. Because we can, like, sort of criticize it for being, like, a little on the expensive side, but also, like, if they had come out with, like, legal pads that you get, like, a pack of five and they're made with, like, really, like, crappy paper, we would basic. What in the hell is going on?
You know, people in the group are just like, no, thanks. That's $17 for two of them. I'm like, oh, that's expensive. But y' all pay $30 for a pack of a dozen pencils.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like, you're not, like, you can't. I mean, criticize of that, because we would have. If it would have came out on the other end and they would be like, oh, great. You guys are just giving us Amazon basics. Like Andy said, like, we would have been like, that's. Oh, great. And thanks for doing that. That's. That's super helpful. So it's. It's what they. It's. It's exactly what they would have done. So.
Yeah, I mean, the attention to detail is really, like, phenomenal.
I love them.
I love you. I'm sorry.
Use that, like, leatherette material to sort of, like, you go over the top and over the side so it looks. Just fits in with their, like, the slate perfectly and the.
Oh, what's the clutch and the summit?
You guys both have them on hand? Yeah, you got them. Mine are a little delayed, so Blackwing was kind enough to send us some review copies to check these out. So thank you to Blackwing for doing that. Mine are not here yet. So, like, there are some things I don't know about it. So could you guys, like, describe the legal pad? Like, I mean, as far as, like, what it looks like. Does it have paper, like, lined on both sides, stuff like that?
Sure, yeah, sure. I mean, imagine if you had like a, like a yellow target brand legal pad. The back, instead of being cardboard, is like super thick leatherette, which wraps around the top with Blackwing branding, which, like, it looks so good. And then the back's not lined, which is disappointing. But the lines on the front are perfectly spaced. And there's a really, really, really faint line going down the middle, but it's faint enough. You could really ignore it. And the tearaway. So I don't know what they're called.
The perforation.
Yeah, what's. What do you call the. Like, the points of contact and the perforation? Like, there aren't as many of them, but they're bigger. So it rips off really perfectly, but not like, by itself.
We need to coin a term for that.
Yeah, the connected space.
I don't know. The clench. Yes, the clench. I just think of, like, teeth that were, like, clenched together. Like, they're like.
You said it right, it looks like Blackwing made a legal pad.
The grin.
I mean, the only thing is that their notebooks, their other notebooks, they're really nice, but not really expensive. Like, the clutch is $2 more than field notes. And no offense to field notes. Like, the paper is, like, miles ahead of field notes.
Yeah.
And the slate is even not a very expensive book. So, like, I feel like, I don't know, 15 would have maybe hurt people's feelings less. That makes any sense. Instead of 18. I mean, you know, I'm not going to go out and buy, like, dozens of these. But yeah, like, like you said, andy, they match $30 pencils very well.
And I don't think that was ever the. Probably the. As far as like, marketing, that would have been the guess that people would have been buying tons and tons and tons of them. So, like, because like, when even like, as soon as I saw it, I was like, cool, that would be awesome for writing letters. Like, because I don't do that like, that often. Like, it would last forever if I got the first thing I did. Yeah, yeah, the pack. Like, if I had a pack of two of those, like, I would use it for letter writing and it would last me like, six months or whatever. I don't know. Like, and it's great. So. And I.
And I had what ruling did you all get? Okay. Yeah, me too. They. I was trying to figure out if they're. If it's college ruled or it's definitely not wide ruled, but it's closer to college, right?
Yeah, I think so. And on the front of each pad, not attached to it, but sort of like slid into where it looks like a sheet, there's a really heavy piece of cardstock that looks like the page, but protects the sheets in packaging, which I appreciate it, because usually when you get a LEGO pad, those first two pages are, like, not so usable all the time.
Yeah, Tim, I think I interrupted what you were going to say.
I was just going to bring up the kind of. To go back to the money side of things, like how much it costs. I was just going to say. And I had brought this up to you all before, but just if you think about this costing what it does and then compare it to, say, a Rhodia pad. If you compare it to that, it's not actually. I mean, it's. It's a good deal. I mean, it's a. It's a perfectly fine deal for what you're getting. I mean, you're getting nicer paper than a typical legal pad. And I mean, people are willing to pay a good amount of money for, you know, the larger size. Size rodeo pads. I mean, those can get up there. I mean, they're $10 for one the Johnny. You put one in the show notes, like, or in our. In our doc, that's. It's 80 sheets, which is a little bit bigger. And it has. I think Rhodia definitely wins as far as having that cover, because I loved having that to be able to flip that over to cover things up. But still, It's a. It's 10 bucks for an A sheet thing, so it's not too far off.
And the Rhodia pad's not as lap friendly. This thing is really stiff and heavy.
Yeah.
Black Wing. So they. They came in this box, and when. When I picked it up from the. The mail section downstairs, I'm like, what the hell is in this box? It's really heavy. It was just two notebooks. Like, you could, you know, rob a 7 11. One of these.
You could.
You could.
You could.
To beat the horse we beat last week. You could take out the forest with two of these.
Yeah.
Yeah. So one. One thing we've not done in 122 episodes is design our own stationary superhero. So maybe we need to, like, save that for an episode. But he could use these things as, like, Boomerangs to throw up people.
Coasters for his topo Chico coffee.
Like, blow darts with, like, wo. Pecks inside. Like, so they're poisoned when it hits them as well.
You could. You could do that with the eraser end and knock someone out. This thing's so heavy. Shatter some skulls.
Yeah. So. So I don't. I think. I think in my. My perspective overall, that the. The. I. I will not say it out loud. The legal pad. I'm not going to say the other thing, but the. The legal pad is for what it is, is a. Seems I'm going to get mine in hand tomorrow, but seems like a good deal.
Cool.
For what it is. And I written letters on it and things like that. So I think. I think it was, like, kind of a natural progression of what they've done so far and now what they're, like, moving into. Yeah.
And so my kids and I did the other. Go ahead.
I'll say Steinbeck.
The. We made a paper airplane of the paper because we live on the third floor. So that's the chest of paper. And it did very well.
Nice. Yeah, good point.
Yeah. We launched into traffic, but. So the only thing I would change is I would get rid of that name, because that's a politically loaded term these days. And also it doesn't make any sense. I don't think they need it. Like, it's already distinctive enough. They can just call it the Blackwing legal pad. And I would put lines on the back page because I wanted to use it because the paper is totally thick enough to use it back.
Yeah. Because it's not that radical of an idea to call it an illegal pad. I don't know. It just seems, like, kind of low.
It doesn't fit with the naming scheme of their other stuff, like the clutch and the Summit and things like that.
So I would call it the Tablet, because nobody makes anything called the tablet.
Yeah. And that's what they used to call them. Right. But back before we called them legal pads, they called them, like, a writing tablet. So.
Yep.
Just. Just. Yeah.
You know, we should.
Black Wing Tablet.
Yeah. It's called the illegal pad. We should shorten that. And just since we don't want to say illegal, we should just say I. We can call it the iPad.
Oh, funny, funny man.
We could get Beastie Boys and call it the Ill Pad.
So.
Yeah. Or the Gall Pad.
So speaking of things that Blackwing is doing, something that maybe doesn't fit quite as logically into the lineup is they're about to do a live Event. They have a. They have a. I don't even know. Is it a permanent space? They're calling it their loft space.
Yeah, I think it's permanent. Like in this sort of loft area.
Yeah, Like a store. It's above the store called Rough Trade NYC. And they're doing an event on August 10th, and they say they're going to be announcing the fall volumes pencil there, which is interesting because this is like coming two months before they would otherwise do that.
Yeah. I wonder, are they going to unveil it or are they also going to release it?
Yeah. Oh, yeah. So I would guess they wouldn't unveil something that they didn't have in stock. Like, this isn't a car. Right.
I don't know. I think they should do it. They should tease everybody line up.
So.
Good way to not sell out.
Yeah.
Because they sell out so quickly.
So I think that's really strange. It sounds cool. I mean, if I was in New York, I would. I would go, Johnny, you should go. I guess that's when you say you're getting back from vacation.
Yeah, I mean, I'm tempted. So I. I asked Nick at Blackwing if they're doing custom black wings, and, you know, I'm. I put them on the spot. He can't tell me. But if they do and anyone that listens to our podcast goes, I will totally make it worth your while. Hook me up. I mean, you can have one of my kids. You can't pick, though. Or, you know, as you can imagine, we've all got cool stuff for trade.
Yeah. So just.
Just saying.
So I can't wait to see how it goes. I'll definitely follow along on, you know, social media, but like. Yeah, yeah, that looks really interesting.
So, yeah, go just to meet them.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So that's my fresh points. How about you, Johnny?
So I only have two. One is I got to hang out with Tim, which I'm going to bring up again. So we. Tim mentioned that we went to a place called Jenny Bic, where I think we talked about this a few months ago because Charlotte wanted to go there for her birthday. They are sort of billed as like the journal store. So they do to journals what other people do to, like, wedding invitations, which are, you know, they're boring. How many times are you going to do that? So they do like custom moleskins, like super custom moleskins, like all kinds of really cool stuff. Um, and every time I've been there, everybody is really nice. Like, they keep the leads and the ink in this cool cabinet. Like, they are helpful, but they don't hover. Like, it's a really, really cool store. So if you're near Dupont Circle in Washington, you should totally go check it out. Because, I mean, Tim would back me up on this. I would. I could have stayed there all day. And not just because they had very good air conditioning and it was like 100 degrees.
Oh, my gosh. Yeah, so we, we had like, two places in a row that were, like, closed that we were planning on going. And so we were just like, well, let's just go ahead and go there. And it was like. It was unbelievably hot. Yeah. It literally was like 100 degrees already, and it was like 10 o' clock in the morning. But they had, they had everything. I mean, they had. Well, actually, the one thing Johnny, do you remember, like, the one thing they were missing that seemed kind of out of place was there were no, no field notes, which was, yeah, a little weird because they had everything else. Like, I mean, and no. Right.
Notepads, even though we're neighbors, sort of.
Yeah. And I, I. Yeah, I mean, it was. They had black wings, they had huge sections of colored pencils and cool, like, gel pens. They had everything that I would have wanted to find. I mean, they, they had moleskins. Johnny and I saw the, the Bob Dylan moleskins in person, which was cool. Yeah, I guess they have.
They have like, half a store of Leuchtturm, like, everything. Yeah, like, for sure. I want to go back.
Yeah.
But so I only have one other fresh point that I forgot about when we were at Boston and at Bob Slate. You guys have used LE pens from Marvi Uchida before. They have a new product called the La Pen Flex. That is, it's sort of, you know, it's aimed toward people that do hand lettering. But they look just like a lapen. They just have a different point. And the little, the little, like, button of plastic above the clip is clear instead of matching the barrel. And they have some new colors. They had a really cool, like, help me magenta the Charlotte got. And a navy blue, which I picked up, which was really cool. But they don't flex as much as a lot of brush pens. So they're actually. You can just write with them, which is pretty cool.
Is it about the same, like, thickness as, like, a sign pen?
The point is a little pointier. And, like, they don't. They don't flex as much as the sign pen brush?
Yeah.
So, like, you can just control them a Little better. Looks like. It seems like they'll be a little more durable, too.
I do love me a little pens, so.
Yeah, I mean, their ink's not waterproof, but, man, like, the colors they pick are really nice and saturated. And they have those cool new pastel ones that I keep looking at. Not buying for some reason.
Oriental blue, which is that's somewhat problematic term, is a really great color.
I think I got the brush in that one. Did I? Maybe they didn't have it, but they, you know, they're cool. They're cheap. Killing the planet with all that plastic. But yeah. So those are all the fresh points. Why don't we jump into stationary sphere superlatives. Really good comic book.
We should have like an awards show song or something.
Oh, man.
There you go.
Yeah, yeah, I'll play one on Mandarin. It'll be cheerful.
I'll text John Williams real quick.
Yeah, see. See what he's up to.
Okay. He's probably just playing Fortnite or something.
John Williams flossing.
So, as Tim mentioned, this is something we're going to do on a regular basis, so we're hoping this doesn't hurt feelings or inflate egos too much.
Like, keep in mind, this is really positive. It's just us kind of calling out things that have attention, like recently or we've been thinking about. So this isn't saying that you don't have an amazing thing that you're doing. This is just like something on top of mind. Right?
Yeah. I tried to go after stuff that's not as, like, you know, I don't know, not popular, but, yeah, less on everybody's lips. Does that make sense? So for best podcasts, we all wrote
erase, besides the erasable podcast.
So moving on. Next. Next.
Number, number. Our number two podcasts. Do you want. Do you want to go first, Tim?
The number two. Number two pencil podcast. Yeah,
Doo doo and pencils.
My. Jeez, we have little kids. My pick is the Take Note podcast. So I love this podcast. I can't wait. This is one that I regularly refresh and check to see if they've released one. And the thing that I like the most about Take Note is that there's so many pod. There's stationary podcasts and blogs and accounts and all this stuff. But the one thing that they do really well is that it's about how they use them. Not just about the thing, about the. About the product. So that's why I really like it. And of course, they, Ted and Adam have, like, known each other forever. And so they have, like, a really good kind of banter between the two of them. They're really comfortable together and they. Which is super entertaining. But I just like that the premise is not just, like, let's just talk about products. Let's talk about what we do with these things. So they don't do as much of the, like, reviewing things, which I like. I really like just hearing them kind of talk back and forth about, like, what do you have in your notebook? What did you write down this week? What was worth taking note. And then, of course, they get into, like, sort of tangential pencil and pen things along the way. So I just think it's super entertaining. I like them on Twitter. I like everything about it. So it's. That's best podcast for me at this point, like, right now is Take note.
Cool.
How about you, Andy?
Well, I'm of two minds. I was like, well, you know, one that I listen to regularly. And, like, arguably the one that, like, started this all is the Pen Addict. But of course, like, I can't imagine any of our listeners are not familiar with the Pen Addict, so I switched up. And of course, like, it's. That's the granddaddy of stationary podcasts. But I feel like I should probably
blogs and Instagram and Twitter accounts.
I figured I should mention something a little bit more. Still more artisanal. And that is the 1857 podcast, which is. It's such an interesting premise. And I just. I. Mea culpa. I did not believe they would still be going because they release pretty much weekly. And it's our friend TJ Cosgrove, who's been on the show before, and Stuart Lennon, who runs the British, like, the UK stationary shop Nero's Notes. And of course, he currently lives in Cyprus. And it's just the two of them talking about a topic, and it often revolves around something analog. Mostly they have a very expanded sort of like, Tools of the Trade section where they talk about what they're consuming, they talk about what they're reading, watching, listening to, et cetera. But it's just. I think the best thing about that is a. Like, I'm getting a different cultural perspective because TJ lives in Northern Ireland and Stuart is like, a very British person living in Europe. And so that's really great. But then also they have a really good chemistry. Like, I think I mentioned one of their episodes where they were talking about, like, you know, alcohol and how and what they're drinking. And I think Stuart was like, I enjoy a spot of brandy. And it's just this very, very British way. And TJ's like, oh, I like a shower beer. So they just have. They just have, like, a lot of differences, but in a. And they're. They're a bit different in age, too, so they have just different perspectives that are affected by that. But they. At the same time, they're. They get along really well, and they have just a really good chemistry. So I would recommend the 1857 podcast.
So, speaking of chemistry, I'm going to go with rsvp because rsvp. Yeah. They. Of all of the podcasts, they remind me of our podcast in that it seems like they really enjoy each other's company, which is cool. And also, like us, they've never. All three been in the same room, which is funny. And like, when we were in Boston and date and les talk, they just sound like old friends, which is. Which is cool. So I always feel like I'm spying on people who know each other really well at a coffee shop, like, leaning over, like, oh, these people are cool. What are they talking about? But yeah, and also, that's really the only podcast I listen to very regularly.
And they're like, yeah, I would say what if. What if when we meet in person, then, like, we record our next episode and we're, like, constantly bickering and then, like, things just fall apart.
Shut up.
It's like, you're always talking, You've always got something to say. Wealthy. Yeah. It's like suddenly we're just like, can't stand each other. Yeah.
Distance is what keeps us together.
You have to, like, go on hiatus, like the Beatles or something for a
while, and then Skype will tear us apart. So I don't know why I ordered these the way I did, but how about Best Pencil Blog?
Yeah. So, yeah, I went with kind of an unusual choice because it is not in English, but it is like, a blog that has a lot of cool pictures. It has a lot of historical pencil goodness, and that is lexicaliker.de so we've talked about them before. Yes, we've talked about this blog a lot. It's got a lot of cool, kind of, like, vintage images of marketing materials as well as old pencils, whereas, like, compilations of different, you know, like, where he'll bring together everything that fits within a certain category. The. The post that I'm looking at right now is actually about clutch pencils, kind of similar to what I was just talking about. And there are some really cool images of ones that actually held red on one Side and blue on the other. You know, it's kind of like a double clutch pencil and so really cool stuff from like AW Faber and things that we don't see. And this, this has been around forever. And Johnny, you probably have more to say about this one than I do because you've, you've known about it longer than. Far longer.
Yeah, Gunter is like just really generous with his time and pencils and his photographs are great. Yeah, I like, I aspire to those.
But gosh, you look at his, you go to his page and you go to the bottom of the like the first page you get to and you know how it shows like page one, page two, page three, page 194. It's a huge amount of content and the, you know, you can, you can get the Google Translate version or you can just enjoy these wonderful pictures which I feel like in the stationary world tells an awful lot of the story, you know, just seeing the things and you can tell when things are solid or not. So that's, that is my pick. How about you, Andy?
Well, mine is a relatively newcomer to the scene. It's maybe been around maybe what, like six, seven months? That's a little blog called the Pencil Revolution,
right? That one's a jerk.
No, he's the first, the first ever pencil blog as, as discussed and verified by Charles Berlsheimer himself.
So
yeah, it's a, it's, it's a blog by our friend Johnny Gamber, PhD. The air doctor Johnny Gamber. And honestly like the blue haired doctor. When I first, when I first like started like thinking about pencils and really like considering them, I stumbled across this blog and had a review of like this, this pencil that I was, I was using in my hands. So yeah, it's, it's still the one I read most often and like it's, it. I feel like you've adapted really well to the times like everybody is blogging across the board less. You know, pencil talk is like barely active anymore. Woodclinched is like super barely active. But yours is still really active. Yeah, he's the worst. But he, but, but Johnny, you, you sometimes just post like some Instagrams with a really short caption to show what's going on your family. So I think that's totally legit. And like, you know, not every post needs to be some like well thought out treatise on like a pencil review. So big, big fan of the pencil revolution. My comrades over, over there.
I don't want to follow that up. So if you don't Say woodclimps.
I'm going to be really mad.
I'm sorry. No, I was. I was steering clear of any of our intellectual property. When I made my list, I was
like, it's weekly pencil.
So, yeah, I'm picking the weekly pencil by our friend Dade because it's like their photography is great, the reviews are great and I don't know, there's just something about the way that Dade writes that resonates with me. Plus, I just really like, date. I think they're really cool. So that's my. My pick. And I don't have a lot of superlatives. Like, I probably should then. I want to be embarrassing because I don't know, we could cut this part.
I'm sorry.
I'm fucking this up. I'm tired.
Yeah.
So this episode is going to be a behemoth. Yeah. Oh, shit.
Yeah. It's 10 o'. Clock.
Yeah.
I don't know. Like, Data's just fucking cool as shit. So I gotta pick their blog. Like, Data's like just like awesome, brave, cool, good hugger. So. Okay, I'll go back into recording mode. Sorry. So my pick is the weekly pencil by our friend Dade, who is also a co host of the RSVP podcast. And this is just, you know, one of the very often updated pencil blogs with good photography, good reviews. Like, Dade actually uses everything, which I appreciate and like, I just really like date as a person. Very good hugger.
Dade and Les are both people who are super pragmatic and not at all like, I don't know what the. Right, like not pretentious.
Right.
Like they. They will use a like cheapy neon pencil from Target, like, and consider that as fully as they would like a really fancy Blackwing edition. So I. Yeah. That's one thing I like about. About the weekly pencil and it's comfortable shoes. Both.
Yeah. And Dade's taste is for like really colorful stuff, which I really appreciate because we are all blogging about like another gray pencil.
Yeah. Literally. Yeah. Whenever something neon comes out, someone tags them in their post.
Yeah. So we say non pencil blog, but I guess we mean non pencil stationary adjacent blog. So you want to jump in first,
Tim, you had a really good Tim. I love this.
Yeah, sure. I really enjoy the blog. Three staples, which is all dedicated to. To pocket notebooks. I think the photography is great. It's pretty simple and it's in what it's going for. And I just. Yeah. I mean, Andy, you appreciate it as well. Is there anything like, what would you. What would you Say about three pencils or three. Three staples. Three pencils. Is this plug.
I'm going to start a spin off podcast. Yeah, I was going to talk, I'll, I'll talk about this blogger a little bit later because they're under my best, one of my best favorite Instagrammers. But I like the blog. It's a well considered, well curated collection of pocket notebooks. And the blogger will do a lot
of
really cool stuff. Like, hey, here's all the additions that we've had that are solid colors and here are all the fall color editions and they just curate field notes together. Well in a way that makes me think like, oh yeah, I forgot about that one.
Yeah, I, I really like on the page on the blog@3staples.com There is a section that says my field notes. And if you go to it, Jenny lists like the top five editions in general, which is also just cool. I always love that. But then also she has a breakdown of like here's links to my reviews of every quarterly edition that I've seen, which is just like a really satisfying visual kind of like design thing. Like with all the additions listed on the left and the pictures of them on the right and then beyond that even giving. Because I, I mentioned why I like take notes so much as they talk about what they use them for and I always. That just is like, you know, pornography to me. Like hear people talk about like how they use their, their stationery and they say like she says yes, I use these every day and on her, on her blog and it says, here's what I do. I usually use only the right side and this is what I do with the left side. And here's the pens I like to use with them. And it's just, it's all, it's kept to a very, a really satisfying compression, you know, of what's covered. So really, really a big fan.
Jenny lives in San Francisco, but I've never met her.
Oh cool.
Do it. Have her. We should have her on the podcast. Yeah, that'd be awesome.
Why did I think she was British for some reason?
That would be awesome.
Maybe
I'm in another planet.
Oh, you know what? You're thinking of Jenny Mason.
Okay, there you go.
Yeah. Who had. I can't remember the name of her blog. Like it's really good. Also really good photography, but I don't know if she's very active anymore. So my favorite non pencil blog in this case is a stalwart of the community. One of my favorite people is the well appointed Desk, which is Ana Reinert's blog and who's been on the show before and bunch of people post there too. I know that Tina Koyama posts sometimes there. Does Vivian Wagner, does she post on there?
Not sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Ana has a really good selection of guest posters, but it's really good. Like it is about pencils, but it's also about pens and paper clips and stationery and just like style. It's one of the first kind of like stationary as like art objects. And I mean it's not to say she doesn't use them too, but like it's. She just has a really great, just like curation of stuff and she actually still does a really good like Friday link love, which is pretty rare to find nowadays on blogs.
I remember how tickled I was when my blog ended up on that at some point. Like it was a little thing, but those little gestures and like. And I remember reading it all the time and finding out about things that I was super grateful for finding out about. So yeah, yeah.
So yeah, she's. She's really great. So well appointed desk. Johnny, how about you?
I'm going to go with the 2011, maybe 2012 or 2013 field notes blog because I mean I understand they've. When they started out they were really small and fieldnotes brand.com was basically a blog and then links to the product pages and stuff like that. And now they sort of run a blog under Dispatches on the website but the old one was just like, you know, it looked like they made it with Blogger and they updated it really regularly and I was like constantly checking it. Even when Fieldnotes first came out and I wasn't a field notes user, I still enjoyed their website a lot. There was always, you know, some kind of cool project someone was doing or remember they did a thing when expedition came out where they explored the hunk of snow in their parking lot, which was really cool. And I found out about a couple books that I really enjoyed on that blog. So yeah, that, that, that definitely. And they never talked about pencils. That was okay.
That was one of the golden ages of blogging. Like especially in the stationary community. Like they, that was like about a year after Woodclinch started. And yeah, they did a really good job with that.
Yeah. So best blog photography. So I guess this could be pencil blog, non pencil blog. Just stationary adjacent blog somehow.
Yeah.
How about you, Tim?
Yeah, I would definitely pick Ed Jelly, who is not, definitely not a pencil person. Like he didn't talk about pencils. Mostly fountain Pens. But I've just always kind of admired his presentation of his blog and the pictures that he takes. I know he takes it really seriously, and he's one of those guys that has like, the, you know, sort of like, white box that he takes pictures of everything inside of to get, like, the perfect lighting and everything. So I think. I think Ed Jelly is really good at what he does. I also really appreciate the clicky post. I'll mention, too. I'll cheese too. Here.
Did you see what I just typed?
No. No. What'd you do? I just typed the Instagram. Well, that's Instagram.
Oh, no. Again, I'm sorry. No, I meant to put that in the best.
Sorry.
Sorry, dude. Yeah, so I've always been a big fan of Clickypost, and so, yeah, I would also mention those together. So, Andy, you can just kind of like, transition into yours and say something. But, yeah, we're definitely on the same page here.
I originally had three staples down because of just her really, really good photos. But, yeah, I think that clicky post as well. Like Mike Dudek, who's been on the show, I think you did a kind of a standalone interview with him, Tim, a few years ago. But he. He has those really macro shots that are really good. And he does. He. He just takes really good photos.
Yeah.
Yeah, definitely.
I'm really, like, salivating over his new retro 51 that the planets on it. Gosh. Well, he did that and then he did, like, he has a new version of it that's, like, actually, like, engraved into the metal rather than just being. That's around it. Oh, my gosh. It looks so. It's like 50 bucks. I don't think I'm gonna be able to pull it off, but, gosh, like, I was just, like, drooling over it. So. Yeah, very cool.
Yeah. Johnny, how about you?
I am gonna go with Michael Hagen from Leadfast. So the quality of Mike's photography is really good. And the fact that he does it all with a smartphone makes it even better. But Mike, like, takes the really obsessive photos of stuff that I want to see. And a pencil review. There have been some pencils I was really on the fence about and saw his photography and was like, oh, that's definitely worth the money. I'm going to get those. And yeah, I mean, it was. It was as reliable as texting Mike and asking him, which I have also done, because I don't trust his opinion. And I feel like his photography is a really good, good extension of an honest review. He's like here, look. Look how screwy this looks. That is some off centered lead and here's a really good photo of it. So. Yeah, definitely, Mr. Hagen.
Cool.
So how about that guy? We need to have one again soon. Yeah. Best pencil, Instagram.
My choice is definitely the black heart pencil, which is that like. Oh my gosh. It's just like unbelievable. I remember like finding it, stumbling across it on Instagram and being like, like just. I mean I know this, this phrase these days is like so overused but just mind blown. I was just like, what did I just stumble upon? Are you kidding me? Like that, that the pictures I was seeing and it's just like the, the way that they, they set up their shop and just the. Yeah. Just the aesthetics of this, of this, this blog and what they do is, is really impressive and like really makes me just desperate to see it in person.
Yeah.
Which is, I mean like crazy cool crank sharpeners. I'm like, I remember seeing one the other day of a. It was a crank sharpener, kind of like a classroom friendly sharpener, but it would looked like a train. Did you guys see that one?
Oh, Henry has one of those.
Jeez. It's like solid silver. Man, that thing was so cool again. But like whenever they do the little they used to do, it was always a pop up shop kind of thing. And the. It was, it was just kind of made me salivate. And then they would do these, these shots of just like stacks and stacks of boxes of pencils. Like pencil boxes. That really makes just as like tickles something in my brain that I, that I always enjoy. So that is like my 100% choice. I remember messaging them about coming on the podcast like we'd love to talk to you. And they're just like, we're flattered, but no thanks. Basically like we. And I think it was even mentioned like language barriers were an issue that they.
Where are they based?
It's Japan.
Okay.
I believe. Yeah.
So Tim, that sharpener you're talking about, you can buy it on Amazon. Henry has it really. It's really good sharpener. It makes a really long point and holds a lot of shavings.
That's cool. And I'm sorry, it was. It's actually Korea. I apologize. I was just looking. I actually just pulled it up now on my phone just to double check and it's in Seoul, Korea. So. But yeah, I check that out because it actually reminds me that I mentioned I meant to mention this in the freshpoints is that I bought Henry a crank sharpener at Target that I sent you guys a picture of.
Oh yeah.
It is a classroom friendly that's made of plastic that's like literally half the size and it attaches to like a desk just the exact same way. And it makes an awesome point. It's unbelievable. So like anybody, seriously, anybody near a Target, like go buy one because it's a crank sharpener that will put a point on it similar to that doll sharpener, you know, kind of like a, like a medium point. That's super, super nice. And so Henry was like thrilled to have his own finally because he always borrows mine and I always have to do it for him because I just waiting for him to dump pencil shavings all over the floor. But. But yeah. All right, so black heart pencil best. That's definitely my choice. How about you, Andy?
Well, I'm looking through my Instagram because I totally misspelled this one because there's. There's two very similar Instagram accounts. There's one called the Pencilum P I N C I L L U M which is very good. It's. It's a just a good like pencil related Instagram. But there's another one that is a storefront called the Pencil Area, which is actually what I meant.
Oh, okay.
And that is that. That pencil shop in Kenosha, Wisconsin, which I really want to go to sometimes. And it was kind of. I was having a tough choice between CW Pencils and the Pencil Area. And of course CW Pencils has couple hundred thousand Instagram followers. Like they're really good. They do some amazing knolling where they just kind of like lay things out. And I would totally, you know, choose CW Pencils for this. But I wanted to do something that was maybe you know, a little, a little more off the beaten path. And I think the pencil is a really good one. They have a lot of pictures of their shop and of like collections. They have like a vintage pencil sharpener collection, like novelty pencil sharpeners. That's really great. But they also just have some really interesting, just like shots of vintage advertising pencils or specifically pencils that have like an empty tube to put pills or rocks or something like that in. And so they just do really interesting little like curated collection of selections of things. So that is. That is the Pencil area. P I N C I L L A R I U M so another, another good group, another good person to have on the podcast. Someone sometime is the person who runs that, that shop.
Definitely.
Yeah.
What do you think?
So I'm going with Hack Wings by our friend Jason Patterson. It's at Hack Underscore Wings because he just uses the hell out of his pencils and like nothing is sacred. He's hack winged, you know, 80 year old black wings and super old, impossible to get pencils and like everything new, everything in between. And he does such a good job and like he posts a lot. So you know, if you need some pencil inspiration, like I'm going to check out what Jason's up to today.
I love how all of his pictures are always like out and about. Like you see lots of them where he's just like walking down the road and like just that's what I really appreciate. It's like out in the world using them every day, like everywhere that he's going.
Yeah, we'll forgive Jason for not coming to Baltimore yet, I guess.
How far away does he live?
Not that far now or two. But you know, I guess if you follow Twitter, you wouldn't want to come to Baltimore.
He probably just doesn't want to encounter rats, right?
Yeah. Yeah. And it's a.
It's a filthy, disgusting place.
Anyway, he's going to give people a thousand dollars to leave. Yeah. Yeah.
So what do we have next? We have Best non pencil Instagram.
Yeah.
So yeah, this is some really good ones. What about you, Tim?
This was an easy one for me. It's like definitely stationary world person, but not always pencils. But he does post pictures of pencils fairly often. Bits. Stefan Bruner, who's Swedish and he is, he calls his Instagram account his visual diary. And I've been following him for a long time and he's one of those people that I think recently I posted something where I was at this inflatable park and I was like, some people post pictures of themselves writing in the all. You know, I was like listing like these beautiful environments, like in front of a waterfall or whatever, like, you know, looking out onto a beautiful mountain range or something. But yet I'm sitting at a. An inflatable park with no windows. That's where I am. I was thinking of Stefan here because his posts are always like, he finds that he gets himself into these amazing places and he always posts pictures of, you know, it's like a book he's reading or his Bible or his journal with a beautiful fountain pen or some black wings and a cup of coffee. And it's just like I find myself seeing his posts and being like, that is the life that I want to live someday. Yeah, they're gorgeous. Really gorgeous. And he also Just seems to. Yeah. Just kind of have like a cool kind of pace of life and the way that he views things and. And prioritize. Prioritizes time to. To write or do whatever it is. And I always just. I love seeing people posting and writing and talking about writing in such a way that is not always publishing books. You know, people who are just very dedicated to their journals or people who are very dedic. Very dedicated to keeping a notebook in a way that is not for profit or something that's really, really satisfying. And I think his pictures are just gorgeous. So my. My pick is definitely at Stefan M. Bruner.
Minus is somebody. I don't know how anonymous she is trying to be on Instagram, so I will not mention her name, but she is Instagram handle is off making memories. And she's really great. She travels a lot for work and just spends a lot of time just traveling around. She was recently stayed at that TWA hotel at the JFK airport that we talked about a while ago. And she often will post pictures of her journaling on the airplane or sitting in some picturesque location writing. And she's just really, really active and just has a lot of like, good, good insights about traveling.
She.
I can tell she just loves traveling and she works in a job that kind of allows her to do that a lot. So that's really cool. And she actually was in San Francisco not that long ago and we met up and had coffee and. Yeah. So. So yeah, off making memories. You will see her.
Yeah, that's a. That's a good choice. Yeah, I really enjoy that one as well.
Yeah. Yep. Cool. And how about you, Johnny?
So I think this is high pressure. It's the last one, but so our friend Eric in Scotland, whose Instagram is at Ericssden, Eric with a K. So, you know, Eric posts a lot of like, cool shots and coffee shops of like, what he's actually writing with. Not just like staged photography, which is also cool. And also he's as obsessed with trains as Henry and I are. So Henry, like, Henry follows him on Instagram, which is funny. And every once in a while I'll send a picture, like, please show this to Henry. I'm like, oh, man, he's all over this. And yeah, Eric's. I think all three of these, like three people that use their stuff who are really, really enjoying like being alive and writing, which is awesome.
Yeah.
Because, you know, I don't know about you guys, I feel like I don't enjoy being alive or write enough. So this is good. Aspirational Instagramming to follow. So, yeah, so we'll button this up and then maybe. So what's the end of summer? Maybe the end of the fall, we'll do it again.
Yeah, sounds good.
Keep us sane during National Novel Writing Month.
Yeah.
So where can folks find you on the Internet, Tim?
You can find me on Twitter timwassom. And I'm on Instagram at Tim Wasem because I was feeling formal.
How about you, Andy?
Instagram and Twitter is Wealthley and website@woodclinch.com and Andy, WTF?
Awesome. So I am@pencil revolution.com and on social media at Pensolution, we are the Erasable podcast. You can find us on Instagram and Twitter, of course, at Erasable Podcast. On Facebook, you can find us@facebook.com erasablepodcast for our official mouthpiece page. And you can go to facebook.com groups erasable with no podcast on the end for our over 3,000 person strong, like worldwide pencil party. Like, I keep talking myself out of Facebook, but this is keeping me on there. Like it's like the last thread, but it's a. It's strong thread. It's like waxed dental floss thread. Yeah. So we will see you later this month on episode 123.
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