This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
Johnny, you can be cranberry sauce, canned, or fresh. Oh, come on.
I'm more of a canned, fat.
Canned. Yeah.
For real.
Hello and welcome to episode 129 of the erasable Podcast. This is Tim Wasem, and joining me are my two favorite Thanksgiving side dishes, and Andy Welfle and Johnny Gamber. Hey, guys.
Hello.
Hey. I thought that was your main dish.
That. That. That role is taken.
Sometimes the side dishes can be the spiciest. Tony
Sideways, really quickly.
I've always got a main dish and then, like, 15 side dishes. That's what Thanksgiving is all about. And that's life.
Oh, we're talking about Thanksgiving.
Yeah.
Food.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Never mind. I'm happy to be a side dish then.
Yeah. Your cranberry sauce.
I'm tart.
And I would be rolls. I guess that feels appropriate.
Yeah, I'm green casserole. Because either love me or you hate me, but everybody agrees I need to be there.
Who hates casserole?
Yeah, Some. Some people do.
Oh, man.
It's all about the. The sogginess to crunchy, crunchy factor for me. It's got to be. It's got to be on the crunchy side. Or I'm like, get out.
I'm just a little crunchy.
Yeah, just. Andy's just a little crunchy.
Just a little crunchy.
That's his. His hip hop name is Little Crunchy.
Little Crunchy.
All right, well, so tonight we have got all of the freshest points. We are going to be doing a fresh points episode with new releases from Field Notes and Blackwing. We've got a lot to talk about, including a super special announcement from us, a raceful podcast with a product that we're going to be releasing real soon. But before we sharpen up with those fresh points, let's check in with our tools of the trade and, Johnny, get us started.
Awesome. So my usual mix of fiction and nonfiction still applies. So I just read a book called Taking Charge of Adult adhd, which is like, it looks like a textbook. It's really big. So that was kind of unnerving and made me feel young. And I read. So a couple episodes ago, we talked about the Time Traveler's Wife and how the book was good, but the movie was not good. So I finally read the book to the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which is on Netflix. It was very different than the movie, but also very, very good. And the movie was very good.
I saw the movie. Embarrassingly, I saw the film, but I did not read the book.
Yeah, the book is all just letters, and they're quite a few characters that aren't in the movie, but it would have been really confusing.
Yeah, yeah.
I read the book and we both seen the movie and really enjoyed it. But Jane loved it.
Yeah. Yeah.
The casting choices were very good for the movie. And we just watched a movie the other night. Do you guys ever have, like, an actor where you'll watch anything they're in no matter how bad it looks?
Jude Law.
Yes, Jude Law.
Really?
Yeah.
I love Jude Law, so I feel that way about Ethan Hawke. So we watched Aggression on Amazon prime, which was, like, interesting, but I called the ending, like, five minutes in the movie, and I was like, no way. It's that obvious. But it was that obvious. But it was still enjoyable.
Are you freaked out about his. How his daughter looks like an exact, like, exact combination of him and Uma
Thurman, which she is Uma Thurman.
More. Yeah, you see? More Uma Thurman. Yeah, she, like, like, she has, like, the complexion of. Of Ethan. But yeah, I see what you mean.
Yeah. And yeah.
Oh, speaking of famous people's children, we also watched the King on Netflix, which was about Henry the Something number, which had the. The guy who played Elio and Call Me by youy Name. And one of the characters was played by Johnny Depp's daughter, who looks so much like him, it's really weird. I expect her to smoke a cigarette and start cussing.
Nice. Yeah.
So. And I am, as of today, writing with my Blackwing155 in a field notes group 11 notebook. Yeah, whichever one was on top of Copper.
Yep.
So, yeah, we'll talk more about both of those soon. How about you, Andy?
Lately, what have I. What have I done lately? So I don't usually talk about this in my. My fresh points, but I consumed a some VR games on the Oculus Quest this week. This weekend, I rented one for a week for my friend's birthday. We just went over and like, like, hung out with them and played VR games, which is really fun. VR has definitely come a long way since it's kind of like promise in the 90s. Remember how VR was, like, a real big thing in the 90s? Yeah, it's lots of fun. So we did that. And besides that, I am rereading the Watchmen comic. Katie and I are going to watch the series on hbo. I'm told that you don't need to read the comic in order to watch and enjoy the series, so I don't think Katie's going to do that. But I kind of wanted to just kind of, like, freshen up because it's been many years since I read it last. Have either of you ever read the Richmond comic?
No, I have not.
Okay. It's. It is sort of like. Man, what did I say? It's about. It's kind of a combination of, like, politics from the mid-80s and superheroes. They use superheroes to just sort of, like, you know, tell a story about society and politics and police and. Yeah, like, citizen privacy. It's. It's really good.
Oh, it's interesting.
Yeah.
It's not your typical kind of, like, superhero thing. They kind of use them as, like, a rhetorical device, I guess. So it's pretty good because the characters
in it are pretty, like, standalone, right? Like, they're not.
Yeah, there's Super.
Well known. Totally.
This isn't. And it's even kind of set apart from, like, you know, Batman and Superman. There's kind of like, maybe some Superman and Batman archetypes, but it's a completely not. Not a recurring universe. There's no Marvel or DC or anything. Anything like that. It's like this world where there's these, like, in the seven in the 40s, and then again in the 70s, there were these, like, kind of, like, strings of people who would, like, dress up and fight crimes. And there was this one guy who's a superhero, and he ended up working for the US Government, and he went overseas to, like, fight in Vietnam, and he committed all these war crimes, and he came back and kind of blurred the line between, like, you know, good and evil. He was, like, working for the government and, like, repressing protests and. But also. Yeah, he. It's a. It's a good sort of, like, you know, political message. Apparently. They made a terrible movie about it in the early 2000s, too, so doing that, and then I'm writing. I just pulled out today Cal Cedar Blackwing, which is a fantastic pencil.
Nice.
And I also have started the copper group 11 notebook. Tim, how about you?
Nice. I have been mostly Canadian for the last couple weeks. Yeah, that's. That's what I've realized. I've mostly been Canadian. I was really. I've been really into a book and really into two artists that I've been listening to. And then I sort of. I knew one of them was Canadian. I knew Alice Monroe, the. The Nobel laureate was Canadian. But. Yeah, the other two were Canadians as well. I guess one of them. I already talked about camp. Did I talk about that with you guys? C A M P. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. So no, that one's not Canadian. Bahamas. That was the one. The group, it's. It's like one guy, but they go by Bahamas and anyways, but listening to him and then listening to Leaf Volbeck, who I also just discovered all three, though they just mentioned, I just discovered in the last month or two. And Lee Fullbeck I actually saw recommended by Gregory Allen Isaacoff on Twitter. I don't know if they were touring together or something, but they clearly know each other. And so he recommended his new album called New Ways, which is if you guys are fans of Alabama Shakes, but that kind of like organ sound that they use and some of like the slower songs. Oh, yeah, it's like that, but like always kind of slower. Most of the songs are on the slower side. Kind of soulful, really stripped down. And he's got a few other albums that I'm not familiar with, but this new one called New Ways is really good and it's been really good writing music and good classroom music, and my kids can stand it. So it's just kind of a win, win, win, win, win. So I've been listening to it a lot and I've been reading a short story collection by Alice Munro called Dear Life, which I think is her. The last one she put out, the last one she released that I've had for five years or something. And I finally picked it up and I'm just real. I really was finally. I was really pushed over the edge finally. To read a. To read her by Ron Rash, who I've talked about many times, but that's one of his favorite. He says it's his favorite story writer. And I, of course, have like four or five Alice Monroe books that I've acquired over time, but have never just like went through a whole collection.
Yeah.
And they're. They're absolutely fantastic. But one interesting thing about them is that I've enjoyed them more. I don't usually say this because I listen to a lot of. I listen to a lot of audiobooks, but it's much better reading it on the page than listening to it. The readers are good, but there's something about reading on the page that makes it just much more powerful. The pacing seems better and I don't know, I've really, really been enjoying it. I'm about halfway through it, so. And I'm planning to probably get into her selected. Her like earlier selected stories after I finish this.
Yeah.
And the last thing is Jane and I just finished. We're behind on this but just finished season one of Jack Ryan on Amazon prime, which is the John Krasinski adaptation of the Tom Clancy.
Yeah.
Character. It's not. I don't think it's. I haven't read the book, so I don't know. But it's like his character, which I think I had mentioned it, like, way back when I had watched the first two episodes and then, like, got away from it, but just. Or just didn't finish it. And then Jane and I, in the last several days, just plowed through the last six episodes of season one. And it's awesome. It's. It's really fun, really exciting. It's, you know, it's got some of those tropes of mystery and stuff where he's like, figures everything out just at the right time. But. But the stakes are super high and the villains are interesting and it's. He's. He's going after this out of international terrorist who's planning a pretty gnarly biological attack. And, yeah, I really recommend it. But we're going to start season two this week, which came out like a month ago.
Is it hard to switch over to seeing John Krasinski as, like, an action hero?
For the first episode or two? I was waiting for him to, like, look into the camera and smirk, but not really. I mean, he's really good and he is like, really. I mean, he just looks like. He looks like a action star. I was like, holy cow.
All the previews are just like, I'm just a data analyst or whatever.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Which he is at the beginning. That's how it goes. I mean, he just kind of. But he's an ex Marine, so he kind of like finds his way back into it. But actually, I get a lot of people who tell me I look like John Krasinski and it's like. But the conversation always goes like, you look. You look so much like John Krasinski, except with, you know, a beard and gray hair and you're fatter. It's like, that's not how the conversation goes. But it's, like, funny being compared to someone like that. I'm like, yeah, I'm like John Krasinski, except more hair on my face. Gray hair. I'm bigger and I'm shorter. So. But yeah, we're really enjoying the show. It's really good. And I am writing also in a field, field notes Group 11, but I'm using the Silver Rebel. And I am writing with a Blackwing natural, which. Fantastic. My favorite standard Blackwing, I think at this point currently.
Cool.
All right, well, how about we just get into our fresh points? We've got a lot of them tonight and we've got a lot of really good ones. So Andy, get us started.
Yeah, well, first one is kind of a boring one, but probably necessary because I've heard a lot about it. But it's actually good for you non Apple users out there if you want to watch the morning show. So, Johnny, this is for you. See, I thought because Apple's usual thing last episode I said that it's only available on the Apple TV or an Apple like equipment. That is not true. If you want to pay Apple $5 a month and you have a Roku or one of various smart TVs, you can do that. So John, if you wanted to watch the morning show, you know, give Apple like 10 bucks and watch them all and cancel your subscription.
There's that Emily Dickinson one too, right?
Yeah, I heard about that one.
Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that one. There's this one with Jason Momoa where he plays like they live in this post apocalyptic society where everybody is just born blind. And I'm not quite sure what happens, but it seems like what happens is there's a child who's not blind and they're all sort of like, you're coming to like terms and figure out how. How that works.
So interesting.
Seems kind of interesting. There's. There's a Snoop. There's two different kids shows. There's one that's like made by the producers of Sesame street and there's another one that is like a Snoopy. Like a Snoopy show. Yeah. So Johnny, you have a Roku, right? Yeah. So it looks like you can get it if you wanted to.
Yay.
The kids were already very happy about Disney.
Oh yeah.
Like every other kid in the world is right now.
I bought two of my sisters and their families Disney subscriptions and I let one of my sisters like let me piggyback off her account. So we haven't watched much so far. But like, man, there are a lot of old good Disney movies on there
and a lot of the good cartoon shows.
Yeah. Simpsons. Yeah. Yep. Duckshaw.
Rescue Rangers.
Yeah.
Rescue Rangers.
So good.
Gargoyle.
Yeah.
So my second and final fresh point is I think the thing like I'm most excited about, which is so first, first we'll officially announce it here we are going to be at the Baltimore Washington International Pen show, the three of us in person. It is very exciting. We'll have more details on that in the future. But in order to raise the money that we need to do that. The you know, a couple thousand bucks or so. We are selling a product and that is a erasable ex Baron Fig Squire, which is very exciting. I kind of had a concept for like as I talked about before, I'm a little obsessed with the Baron fix Squires and I kind of had a really simple concept of like making a number two pencil looking Squire which was that it had a pink kind of twisty top and it had a yellow body kind of that yellow of the, of the bolt and then with like the little emblem on it said was like a little number, like a little number two pencil symbol. So pitch that to Joey and Andy and Adam and the Baron Fig gang. And they were like hell yeah. This is amazing. So we are selling it for just about two weeks, a little over two weeks. It ends on Friday the December 13th. Friday the 13th. If you go to erasable US shop squire you can buy it. Proceeds profits from that sale goes to like fund our trip to dc. And if you, if you buy it before the end of Black Friday which is next this coming Friday, so two days from now, we release on Wednesday, you can get five bucks off spoiler. If you are a patreon subscriber at $5 a month or more. What do you call a Patreon person? Is it a Patreon Patron?
A Patreon.
If you're a. Yeah. If you're, if you're an erasable patron, which we'll have more information to do that at the end of the show. At five dollars or more you'll get an extra five dollar off coupon. So that sixty dollars Squire is suddenly a fifty dollar Squire. So we, we have to sell. Full disclosure, we have to sell 100 of them. I hope we can do it. Please, please help us do that. Buy a couple. Yeah. Send it to. Send it to a friend. If you, if you're a hoarder. If you're a Squire hoarder collector like me. Buy one for yourself and buy one to give away in a couple years when it will be way more expensive.
We're. Yeah, it's. It's a really, really good looking design. Like I'm just smitten with that thing. I think like they do a really good job. And it's. We also, we all love. Just, just gonna say we love the irony of coming out with a pen before we came out with a pencil for sure. It just makes us happy. So, so it's. But it's. And I guess it might be the. The picture for this episode. So you might have actually been wondering what you're seeing in the episode cover art. Like what is that thing? What is that weird looking, you know, like what is that thing? It looks sort of like a Squire, but it's two colors which I guess it's. This is the first bi colored absolutely. Squire that's ever been made. So it's. Yeah. I can't wait. I just can't wait to get one of for myself.
Like, I can't wait to like have
one in my hand and use it because it is just a perfect job on it.
Yeah. So completely transparently, we will not have this in time for Christmas. The lead times on producing this thing is just too great. So we're hoping, we're hoping by end of January, early February ish. To get these out the door.
Valentine's Day.
Yeah.
Print out a picture of it and put it. Give it to them for Christmas and then just give it to them when it comes in.
There you go. Perfect. So a little, little bit more detail. It is classic Squire rollerball. That Schmidt refill. It's. We're gonna do a blue ink one because just kind of a tribute to our favorite. Kind of the podcast favorite pen, which is the bit crystal. We couldn't figure out. We couldn't figure out how to like personalize and make money off of an erasable podcast bit crystal. So Squires are second.
Stay tuned. We'll figure it out.
We'll figure it out.
We'll see how many pens we can make before we make one.
That one company that makes the anodized aluminum thing that uses the Bic.
Oh, the box.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. Think about that future.
This will be an R and D spring.
And the other thing which we are doing, which is really fun is as far as I can tell, this is going to be the first Squire that also has sort of like both companies on it. Baron Figure and Erasable. I guess their Baron Fig Fanatics one says Baron Fig Fanatics on it. But that's. Yeah, kind of like the kind of co branded kind of group.
But there's no X.
No X. Yeah, we got the X. So yeah, I'm super excited about this. Get your orders in before the end of Friday, December 13th. We need 100 to make this work. I feel like we can do well over 100, but who knows? I really. This is a grand experiment. So we'll see.
This will get us all together for the very first time.
Oh yeah, we'll get. We'll all get some matching tattoos. It'll be great.
Yes.
Buy a Squire. We'll all give you a hug at
the same time if you buy a Squire and come to the pen show. Group hug, if you would like a group hug. But then also if you want us to hand deliver your squire to you, we can make that happen.
Yeah, that's true.
Yeah.
All right. That is. That is it for my fresh points. Oh, by the way, I'll say that again. Erasable US Shop Squire or click the link in show notes.
Was there a special coupon code?
Yes, with the coupon. So the $5 off will be automatic for anyone until Black Friday. But if you are a Patreon person, I'm going to message you that coupon code via the Patreon platform. Gotcha.
Cool. Thanks.
Yay.
Cool.
Johnny, how about you? What? What do you have? Fresh pointing.
So, before we talk about new pencils, I'd like to say hello to AJ and the Walking Home gang. Charlotte's friend AJ walks home with us sometimes, and he likes to listen to our podcast while we're walking.
Hey, aj. Hey, aj.
I told him I would embarrass him. So Musgrave has some new stuff out which is, like, super exciting. They have the Harvest Pro, which is like my favorite Musgrave pencil, the Harvest, but in incense cedar. And it comes in a beautiful box, and I love it.
It's like the, you know, the AirPods Pro or the MacBook Pro or, you know, the Apple always has like a pro, high end, like, piece of electronics. This is the Pencil Pro.
And there's also a pencil called the Tennessee Red, which is made of Tennessee red cedar, I. E. Like Eastern red cedar. The pencil, the. The wood that, like, Thoreau made pencils out of that almost went extinct because everybody cut them all down to make pencils. So, like, part of that grand tradition, like, I don't. I can't think of any currently produced pencil that's made of that wood. And they also have made slide top cedar pencil boxes, which look just amazing.
Yeah, those are lovely.
I think you can buy them for one or two dozen of either the Harvest Pro or the Tennessee Red inside of them already. So, like, the interesting thing is the Tennessee Red and the harvest pro are $9 a dozen, which, you know, after paying for black wings, you're like, only nine bucks a dozen. These, like, gorgeous pencils, like, bring them on.
But compared to, like, compared to a lot of Musgrave products are still pretty. Pretty high end, right? Yeah.
And these, these, you know, these come In a box, which is not generally true. Currently with Musgrave, although I wonder if that'll change. That'll be great.
Yeah.
Like getting a box of Bugles would be pretty amazing.
Yeah.
And finally their last new pencil is called the Single Barrel, which is called
the single barrel 106.
Yeah. So, Tim, do you want to talk about this wood?
Yeah, I mean, I can. I was just, I was just fascinated by it. Like especially fascinated by the. Yeah. Where they found it, which Tennessee red cedar, as you just said, has been extinct by being over, you know, whatever. Overused. And so this wood that they used to make these pencils was found in a warehouse and it had been like these, the wood slats had basically been hanging out in a warehouse for 90 years.
Yeah.
Right. So they spent 90 years in there and kind of taking on all that age and they found it and realized, hey, we got all this red cedar, so we might as well make like kind of a one off special limited edition pencil. And I mean, it's gorgeous looking. I mean, so that's the single barrel 106. That's the part of the story that I am just really, really smitten with.
Yeah. Well, what I just think is amazing and so much fun is it's, it's named after and is an allusion to this podcast. So you all remember episode 106 where we had Henry. Henry Hewlin on and he, he. I think Johnny, they specifically said that they found this wood there on that podcast, Right?
Yeah, he talked a good bit about it.
Yeah. And I'm pretty sure, Johnny, you were the one who was like, was like, oh, yeah, you should make that a pencil. It can be a single barrel pencil.
Did I say that?
I think you did.
I'm gonna take credit for it.
Yeah, absolutely.
I'll say I did.
Yeah.
Yeah. So, yeah, that's, that's. We have a, we have a kind of commonality with the origin story for this pencil.
It's really special.
Which, by the way. Yeah, this pencil is quite a bit more expensive than a black wing.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean it's a, it's a show pencil, I think, and it's, it's in such limited quantities. So it's.
Yeah.
What is it? It's $10 for one or 18 for two. Is that what it was? Or so. Yeah, pretty expensive. But I mean, it's a really special object and it's also likely the last time in history that you'll be able to buy a. A pencil like of this vintage, you know, that's I mean, when you think about it, I mean, if you were buying a black wing that was made 90 years ago.
Yeah.
You'd be paying more than nine bucks for it. For the. I mean, for how much sort of time and age has gone into that thing.
So have you all sharpened yours up yet?
I can't bring myself to do it. My. It's too beautiful. I just. I love looking at it. And I've got it. I put it in my due deck stand and it's just like right there on my desk looking at it. So it's. It's kind of like a little totem of pencil greatness that I'm so. I have not got you.
Mine got lost in the mail.
Oh, no.
I keep forgetting about it.
So I did sharpen mine, and at first I was using my little brass bullet, but the wood is just kind of old and dry and hard, and I couldn't. It just, like splintered when I tried to do it. I just could not sharpen that up with that. So I stuck it in my classroom. Friendly. Because I was like, you know, a burger under will take care of this. And I sharpen it up and it's. It smells really interesting. Like, it smells old, right? Like, it's.
Because it is. Smells like.
Just like old wood. And it. It's pretty. The. The graphite is pretty light. I don't know. Um, I'd be interested to see what others who bought one and, like, actually tried it out. Um, but it definitely feels lighter than a number two. Number two. Even though that's what they say it is. Um, but it is. It is a gorgeous piece. That, like, kind of matte black cap on the end is just really lovely and.
Yeah.
Well, we'll get you a. Nicole, if you're listening, Johnny lost his. His. Well, he didn't lose it. It got lost in the mail. Yeah.
I figured it would show up eventually. Yeah, maybe.
Yeah.
Sad face.
It's. Well, you know, what happened? Well, yeah, we can talk about that later. Yeah. Musgrave's doing really good things, I think, you know, Nicole. Nothing but amazing things to say about Nicole, who's kind of like running their marketing and is dragging them into the Internet age. Yeah.
I mean, it's awesome that such an old company is doing just like, really not off the wall stuff. Just like you're doing red cedar pencils. That's so cool.
Yeah.
Like, I didn't believe it. I'm like, they're not making that a red cedar. I'm like, holy crap. Yeah. So so get some of these.
So I definitely need to get a hold of one of the Tennessee reds and kind of compare it, because see what, like, new modern Tennessee red cedar is compared to the vintage red cedar. See how that writes.
So my next rest point are pencils that did come in the mail today from my Blackwing Volume 155, which they just announced today. So we're not spoiling it or anything. So they put up a teaser last week, which everyone thought would be Bauhaus related. And I was like, no, they're not going to be that obvious. But they were that obvious. It is the Bauhaus pencil, but I think when they showed the hint, it was, you know, gray, and, you know, it would have been ugly, but the pencil is cream. So I'm looking at it here, right next to our pencil of the month, which I guess we'll talk about later, which is white, and it's, like, very noticeably cream. And, you know, it's a nod to Bauhaus and the idea that there's not a lot of difference between fine art and useful objects that, like, you know, you can make an attractive, artistic radio and stuff like that. Or in this case, a pencil.
Yeah.
So it's cream finished, and it has black, yellow, red, and blue sort of designs on it. And the stamping is black. And Frankie thinks it's clearer. I think it's larger than usual, but, like, the stamping is very good. And the.
The Palomino Blackwing 155 is. It seems bigger than usual.
Yeah. Especially Blackwing. And the number. I swear the pencil is fatter. She says it's not interesting. I don't own calipers. And the Feral is matte black, and they did a black clip, which, like, when I read it, I was like, why'd you bother? But now that I saw it, I'm like, yeah, that is. That's something. That's very nice.
Yeah.
And they stuck a yellow eraser. But if you're a subscriber, you get a free pack where you have red, yellow, blue, and one black. Or you can buy it for three bucks from Blackwing. They also made a $25 handkerchief in this sort of colorways, which I did not buy.
Handkerchiefs are, like, a big thing now. Like, there was one that came as the Autumn Trilogy. Extra draplin. Selling in a handkerchief.
Yeah, I mean, I. I have white handkerchiefs because I actually blow my nose on them and, like, clean up children's blood. So I'm gonna do that with a designer handkerchief.
Right?
Yeah.
And the other thing that's in this, they're calling it the Capsule. Sounds like something I should have heard of, but I've never heard of, is a set of point protectors in red, yellow, and blue. And on the end, instead of the Blackwing logo, there's a circle, a square, and a triangle. So, like, they're what, 22 bucks for three? I think their point protectors are, what, 10 or $11? That's. That's a good deal. And Nick said that he was pushing for this for the first time ever on release day, which won't do you any good if you're listening to this volume. Subscribers get free shipping, which is a nice touch. Really nice touch.
Yeah.
So I. I wasn't on the fence about getting my point protectors, but free shipping, like, boom, here they come. Hopefully soon, but.
Yeah.
So did you guys. You guys don't have these in hand yet because you're still at work today, Andy?
Yeah, mine is at home waiting for me. I. I hope it looks. So. This is purely a personal opinion, personal aesthetic preference. It. I don't care for the way it looks. It is. It's something about the cream and the colors. It looks very. I know it's Bauhaus. It looks very 90s to me.
Like, the cream and the yellow, I think, is my main.
Yeah.
Beef.
Yeah.
The yellow tick is, like, the smallest piece. The blue is really prominent picture I'm
looking at is the yellow eraser is what I was thinking of.
But I love the theme. I like just the history of the Bauhaus. And I like. I like that it's a MMX core. Yeah, I like. Yeah, like, I like all that, but just like, the. The sort of disparate shapes. Like, usually I don't like the ones that's, like, graphically printed on the. On the pencil, but so, like, I'm like. That's not, like, connecting with me, but also, like, it's probably fine. Right?
Like, it's.
I. I think it's just aesthetically not. Not for me, but I'll still. I still really like that it came out.
Yeah, I'll be. I'll definitely get a. Get a set of them. I don't have them in hand yet, and I haven't ordered them, but I definitely will. I have such fond memories of going. I went to the Bauhaus museum in Germany.
Oh, cool.
When I was. When I was in college and loved it. And I've been. It's funny that these came out because I was actually thinking about the. The Bauhaus chess set. Have you ever seen the Bauhaus chess set?
Huh?
Yeah, it's like one of my favorite things. I saw it at that museum. I was like, this is so cool. Like, I want to have one of these. And our school has a 3D printer, and so I think I'm going to 3D print my own Bauhaus chess set at the school if they'll let me, like, buy the materials or whatever. But yes, yeah, I agree that I like the, like, the premise and I like. I like the idea. I like that it's dedicated to a design. Yeah. What would you call that? A design discipline or method or whatever.
Yeah, like a philosophy, I guess.
Philosophy. Yeah. So I. Yeah, I enjoy that product
design with Bauhaus always. Just reminds me of. Do you remember when Michael Graves was like the big thing at Target? Oh, yeah, yeah. Just reminds me a lot of like, the Michael Graves kind of like modernist look.
Yeah. I didn't like them when I saw them online, so, you know, it was kind of thing where they came and I was like, well, you know, they're down at the mailbox. I'll get them when I get them. But when I opened them, I was more pleasantly surprised, like, in hand. They're very nice. The. I guess it's the roll on printing they've done a few times.
Yeah.
But it feels really good. It's got a nice matte feel to it. And I know people expressed some issues with the way the ferals were put on because there was a little, like, wood hair action and I just flicked it off with my thumbnail. So mine, you know, they look. They look cool. But, like, the colors work really well in person. They're a lot more. Maybe it's the cream background. They're not. They don't pop so much.
Yeah.
That makes any sense. It doesn't. So I showed it to Frankie and she said that it looks like a clown pencil, which, like, I don't agree with, but I can definitely see.
I totally see what she's talking about.
Yeah, I. I think if they'd made the colors brighter, definitely.
Yeah. Yeah.
But, yeah, I mean, it's not my favorite one of 2019, definitely. But like, this. This much more attractive than like, what was it, 1138 and the 205, those other roll ons. Plus it's. It's done better. Like, I found the seam on one, but I can't find the seam on the one I'm holding right now, so that's cool. And I did discover after 33 and a third came out and everybody's ferals were scratched up that if you kind of have a sweaty hand and you rub it, that comes off and they look fine.
That's good to know.
Yeah. If you have a sweaty hand, some
of the sweaty hand.
Did you talk about some of the interesting other little things that Blackwing has released? Like they're like.
Oh, yeah, they have a whole new rebranding situation going on.
So I think we had a discussion about this in the group and a few people, we think that it's like less of a rebrand and more of just like a writer brand. Like something that's like they might have for a little while. Just on some of their stuff, like almost like a design sub logo, whatever. Like they call it their emblem.
Emblem. That's interesting.
Yeah.
All I know is they made new pins and I really like them.
Yeah, I really like that they have some stickers. They have the same stick three pack, except in one pack they're like hand drawn looking. And in one pack they're like, like thick lines. And yeah, there's. There's this one sort of like dissection of a black wing pencil that's kind of like an exploded view. Yeah. If you look under their neat. Their sticker packs. Yeah, they look, they look really cool. Um, so I, I kind of want to get a set of those two.
And they, they, they put all their old T shirts up on like discontinuation sale.
Yeah.
So that's. But they're like, they're on a different page. Is that right? Something like that?
Yeah, Yeah, I think that's correct.
But these pins are really sharp.
Yeah.
No pun intended. No pin.
Yeah, I sent the link to a family member. Been like, hey, you want to know what to get me for Christmas? Getting off cheap. They're only 15 bucks.
Yeah.
All right, well, I got just two. One we've kind of alluded to, but the first one I want to mention is something I discovered on accident, but it's called Scribbler. Have you heard of this?
No.
Okay.
No, not before you mentioned it.
Okay. So Scribbler is they've got these subscription services for artists and stationary things like the art. Would they call it Art box? Was that the name of it?
Yes. Yeah.
Yeah.
Art snacks.
Art snacks. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I was thinking of. But so it's kind of like the same idea.
And I.
It's called Scribbler and it is an. A subscription package for writers. And so I like, I didn't subscribe to it or anything. I'm not like endorsing it, but it was just kind of an interesting idea. But it's, it's a little pricey. It's $30 a month unless you prepay. Then you get like a big discount, you know. But every one you get comes with an autographed new release novel, like something recent that's come out. A teaching essay from some best selling author, an inside look at the publishing process and an invitation to chat with publishing professionals. And you get like an invite to join. Invite to join their exclusive community. So it's kind of a cool idea at the same time like put a friggin pencil or something in there. Like give us something to work with, like a notebook, whatever. You're giving us four things to read. Like come on, give us something a little, you know, put some, you can put some fun stuff in there. Put some pencils, some. Anyways, it almost made me want to start my own just to like do a better job. But it's. I'm glad it exists. I mean but it's called Scribbler which.
Oh, okay. I see one that has a notebook. It also has a beer koozie.
Where are you seeing this?
It's the second one. It has a big tote bag that says right. That looks like those plastic bags that say thank you.
Did you. How did you even get to it?
It's on cratejoy.com.
oh, okay. So I'm on a different place but yeah, so I think yeah. Now that I'm going into a different section of their website. It does look like they do bring in. Yeah. Some tools like I see some, some you buy mini highlighters and some like some. What do you call them? Drink coasters and things like that. And some, some I see a little organizational tool that lets you like mark off what your goals are for the day with your writing and things like that. So okay, I take back my criticism because I haven't seen it, I haven't seen it in hand. I just didn't see that little like corner of the website. But also to be fair, I'm going by when you go to their website and you click on subscribe at the top, that's the description they give you. It just says those things that I told you as far as what you get. So yeah, so I don't know, it's worth. Worth checking out and the reason I found it and I may have. Actually I'm way more excited about this because I've got a new word that I'm going to be using probably on a daily basis is that I was reading the introduction to Alice Munro's Selected Stories collection, and she talked about writing a good bit, and she mentioned, like, something about the joy of just grabbing. I wish I had it in front of me, but, like, just picking up or going and grabbing a Scribbler and getting to work. I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, Scribbler. Like, I need to figure this out. So I'd never heard it used that way. I've heard scribbler almost as, like a derogatory term for writer. You know, like, he's just a scribbler.
Or even, like you have a set of crayons for kids and they call them scribblers or something.
Oh, that's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But. Yeah, but I did a little digging and found out that it is a Nova Scotian slang. It's really prevalent up there. And it's the word that they use for, like, inexpensive notebooks. Huh. Like exercise books that you would use in school. Just, like, cheap notebooks, I assume, like, for us, like a composition notebook. Something along those lines. Just these simple exercise lined books that you would use in school. And so they call them scribblers up there. And so I will for the rest of my life be referring to inexpensive notebooks as scribblers, because I think that's. It's great. And also, like, makes them sound less official, which makes me want to just scribble more.
That's a really good word for that.
Perfect.
Yeah.
What's the name of that general's pencil? It's green. Is it called the scribble or the scribe? Oh, it's called the Scribe. Just ignore me.
Oh, yeah.
So but it was called the Scribbler. That would have been cool. Like. No, she was just being really specific.
Yeah. So I don't know. I'm. So there's the Scribbler subscription service, But I'm way more excited about the new addition to our lexicon, like, to our erasable adding to the list.
Yeah, we need a list.
Scribblers. We had them somewhere. Yeah, we need to find that again. But, yeah, new addition to the glossary. The Scribbler, the Nova Scotian slang for a cheap notebook. And then the other fresh point I had for tonight, which we've alluded to a couple times, is the new field notes edition. So the new edition, if you haven't seen it yet, is called Group 11, which is named for the position of the elements, copper, silver, and gold on the periodic table. And so these are a great winter edition. Really sharp looking. They're all printed on a pretty heavy like. I mean like stiff. I think it's 120 pound cover.
Yeah.
Which is. Yeah. Just really good looking. And then each edition is stamped with those different elemental colors. So I think you guys are both using the copper one now. I'm using the silver one and then the gold one we're all avoiding so far. It's only the second gold can stay. Yeah, yeah.
Stay Golden Pony Boy. It's. It's the second edition to have that like kind of gilded edge like Ambition did, which I really love.
That was one of my all time favorites besides the calendar one. I just have like a stack of those somewhere. So good.
The.
What I loved is when you crack them open you just kind of like bend a little bit and there was just like a little sparkle of like the extra that flies off of it and so I love that sparkle.
Yeah.
I tried to get a. Get that on video like I did that when I opened this pack. But I could not make that show up. Show up on video.
Some ASMR stationary.
Oh yeah. Market for it.
Yeah. It was a nice touch that they matched the dots and the interior ink with the colors.
And the staples too.
Yeah, staples are matched with the gilding too.
Yeah.
And then did you guys get the subscriber extra, the desk calendar?
Yes, yes. I have it on my desk at work right now.
Man, that's so, so well done.
Yeah. It's such a. Yeah. It's really good detail. I know a couple people were saying there's some quality issues with like the corners being a little banged up and that. Totally. I get that. Like you don't. Especially with something as fragile as like gilding the edges of this, it's really hard because they have to gild it after they corner round it.
Yeah. I wonder if the gilding. Because apparently the gilding grinds them. I wonder if that's what happened.
Yeah. So it's. It's such a. Yeah. Lovely notebook. And they. It's what I like about it. It kind of follows the same tradition as things like Shenandoah and Ambition and Autumn Trilogy.
Really.
It's just very simple. Like it's. It's a simple execution on the theme and that's the kind of stuff I really like.
Yeah.
And it's beautifully wintry.
Yeah. I've talked about my, my evolution with the. My. My relationship with dot grid and I've. I've enjoyed this one. It's a little dark like the dot. You know it's. It's. It seems like a little bit darker. That might just be my imagination but I've just. Yeah, I've. I've really been digging these notebooks and I just can't get enough of the COVID Like the COVID kind of like. But I still love it. But like when you. When it sits it kind of like bends open and out, you know, like it sort of makes that sort of bird shape. Like simple drawings of a bird. Like kind of W or whatever. It's not bothering me too much but I just have noticed that, that it kind of won't stay shut. But also the thing I really like about that is it holds up really well in your pocket. So. Yeah, been like keeping it in my back pocket and it's. It's stood the. Stood the test for a few days already.
Did. Did you all read the blog post that just about the first name of this edition?
Yeah, that was really cool.
Yeah, I love that they're just super transparent about it because it was like a very common mistake. So originally this collection was going to be called the Elemental Collection which makes a lot more sense than Group 11 even though I like that reference. And they did not even realize this until later but there is a notebook company called Elemental Papers that make I guess like element themed. They have like a carbon notebook and oxygen and things like that. So they really didn't want to just for their own kind of brand protection and also Elemental out of respect for them, they really didn't want to go with that. So the notebooks themselves and they didn't find this out until after everything was printed. So the notebooks themselves say Elemental in it. They printed 37.5 thousand of these. These packs and they actually re reprinted the belly band so it wasn't super visible and standout.
So.
And as somebody pointed out they even like linked to Elemental Papers in the blog post which is pretty classy.
I. Yeah, yeah. I like group 11 better as well. It's. But I. Did you guys see the. The disclaimer they posted on Twitter or they posted on their website too?
Oh, some sciency thing.
Yeah, yeah. This. This really funny to claim disclaimer. That said by the way, there's a four. The group 11 includes a fourth element, Rowan genium. Its most stable isotope, rowingenium 281 is rarely synthesized and it decays via spontaneous vision in about 20 seconds which created insurmountable production hassles for a mid sized stationary manufacturer. Our apologies. That's like, really, really funny. It's like, like just imagining just that kind of like absurdist number of. Just. Just burst into flames every. Yeah. Just kind of like self destructs after 26 seconds. It's like, can't ship them fast enough. Sorry, guys. Those ones just stayed in the warehouse.
Yeah.
Yeah, so that was a. That was a nice touch. I love when they do those little things. Yeah, so. So, yeah, that was a. I think it's a. I think it's a great addition. I'm looking forward to using. Using them all this winter.
Yeah.
So.
Sure.
Cool. Yeah. Well, I think to. Before we wrap things up, we've introduced a new segment this month, and it is the Pencil of the Month, something we haven't done in a while. And so the. The pencil of the month we chose for this. This first installment is the CW Pencils baseball scoring pencil, which we chose because we were starting this towards the end of the baseball season as the World Series was happening. And so now here we are, we've been kind of playing around with it for a month.
Who. Who won the World Series?
The Washington Nationals.
Okay. Walgreens won.
Walgreens won.
Yeah.
Walgreens. Yeah. Yeah. So that was a. It was a good series. It was really. It was an entertaining one. No matter if they were stealing signs and cheating and all that stuff that's been going around on Twitter for a while. Which. The. Which all those stories about, like, the. Have you seen those videos about, like, the banging sound that they're making? The banging sound when. When there's a change upcoming? And all I can think of whenever I watch those videos is the song from the Doug movie, Banging on a trash can. Do you remember that? That's. That. That's all I. That's all that comes to mind. Banging on a trash can, strumming on a street light, whatever. However, the words to go. Or words go to that song and
put it in show notes.
Yeah, there you go. Just for everyone's edification. But yeah, so let's just. Yeah. So we've been playing around with it for a month because we. We talked about it when it first came out, but then it hasn't really come up since. So, Johnny, what have you. What. What are your. What's your input at this point with our. With our pencil of the month?
Okay, so I don't want to steal all of the opinions and like, say everything that's awesome about this pencil, but it's round, it's cedar, it's kind of fatter, it has a good core. And the eraser is usable. Like it's a great pencil, but when you touch it, the paint comes off onto your hands.
You get some red fingers.
Yeah. And it's, it's red paint. So you know you're gonna look down and be like, oh my God, I cut myself.
But I think they might have made it out of Rowan Genium or whatever that was called. Yeah.
So this was old. This is from when they first came out. I only have one, so I wonder if they might have fixed it by then. So I don't want to be like, oh, this pencil is going to bleed on your hand, but it's really fine.
But I feel like Caroline's either tweeted or instagrammed or something about it before. I feel like she, she's, she's talked about it.
Yeah, yeah. That's because I bought a, I bought a dozen when they first came out and I'm still, still, of course, working through that dozen. So I haven't bought any recently either because my mind do the same thing. Honestly, that doesn't bug me like at all. I just don't care about the red rubbing off. But I do. I mean, it is like pretty. I mean it's just like immediate. It's like. Yeah, yeah. Sort of self destruct. So like I, Yeah, they're black wing
priced, so like, you know, if our black wings did that, we'd be pissed.
That's true, that's true.
But like it's really, really a good pencil. Aside from that.
Yeah, yeah, it's. I think I disregard it just because I've been so thankful to have a new round pencil because I've been so obsessed with round pencils for, for a while. So I just. That, that helps me like look past it.
Yeah, it is. So it's. It's like the grade is, is a little bit darker. Right.
Like they.
According to the website, it says it's more like a number one or a B. Yeah. And I, I seem. That seemed pretty true to me. Did that seem right to you guys?
I wouldn't say 2B.
Yeah, I would do. I think it's. Yeah, I would too. I think, I think, I think so too. But it's. I noticed one thing about the core. It feels really nice and I like, I like writing with it. You do have to kind of sharpen a lot. But like the one thing that I noticed with this pencil is ghosting. I don't know if you guys have this. And I noticed it with this pencil. I don't know if it's Just like the weight at which I write or something, or because it's cursive, I don't know. But I noticed that it kind of ghosts onto the other page in my pocket notebook, like, when I've got it in my back pocket and I'm kind of like working, you know, working it through the day. So I did notice that doesn't make it, like, unusable, but I mean, it just kind of like, it seems to kind of rub off on the other side. And I'm. It's, you know, it's possible that I'm using one that's just a little. You know, maybe the, the graphite isn't as, like, tight or whatever, but.
Yeah. So Tim is our resident. As a resident baseball expert, why do you have any. Do you have any theories around why certain design choices were made for baseball scoring?
No. I mean. No.
Either being round or the darker grade or.
Yeah, with the grade. I mean, you definitely. You don't want it to be too light because there's sort of like a lot of. There's like. When you're doing baseball scoring, you've got kind of a lot of marks that are going into a small section. And so if they're too light, if you're writing like, with like a, you know, a nail pencil, it's just gonna. It's just not gonna pop off. But you want it to pop off the page so that, like, the grade makes total sense in that. In that. In that remark, in that regard that it's. It's a darker grade so that it really pops off the page. It has a really dark contrast with the. With the lines of the diamond and all that stuff. So that. That makes perfect sense. It's kind of. I mean, you also have to sharpen it more, which is harder. But also, baseball is a very contemplative game, and it's slow and you've got time to sharpen. So it's not like, true. Something to do fits. Yeah, it's something to like, either eat
a fifth hot dog or you can sharpen this pencil as the.
As the picture is warming up, you can sharpen your pencil. So that's. That's good. And as far as other design elements, I don't know. I think color wise, the red and white just as a very, like, stitches. National. Yeah, stitches on a baseball just kind of. It's the colors of our country, and it just seems. Seems to fit in that sense. The round. I think I got a feeling they just did that because they wanted to take a Chance to make a new round cedar pencil, like, because a lot of people want that. I don't think the roundness makes much sense, but I think the grade makes much sense. That sounds negative connotation, but it's not. Like, I don't think that's on purpose because of baseball, but I think the grade makes. Makes sense to me.
Do you have to erase a lot when you are baseball scoring?
I don't because I'm good at it. But I'm sure I used to do it in pen until I got back into pencils, but I. No, not really. I mean, it's pretty simple. You know, there's not. It's pretty rare that like a call, like a scoring call is overturned and you'd have to go back and change something. And I don't go into. So some people go into like a lot of detail when they're scoring a game where they'll keep track of like all the balls and strikes as they go, which is. I typically don't do that. So it's. It's pretty simple markings as far as just keeping up with where they are on the base paths and marking who made the out and stuff like that, which is, you know, I guess every once in a while you mess it up. You mess it up, but not doing a whole lot of racing. But I love the eraser on this pencil. It's like one of my. The ones I. Or maybe it's just the ones I have. But every. The two that I've worked through so far are. Yeah, it's really good. Supple pink eraser that works really well.
Nice.
Yeah.
Cool.
So could we take suggestions for our next pencil of the month on Twitter or something?
I think that's a great idea.
Yeah, that's a great point. So we'll will yet hit us up on Twitter at the information you see or Tim's going to read to you at the end of the episode and we'll announce our December pencil of the month in the next episode on 1:30.
Yeah, maybe we'll get some possibilities and you could do a poll on the Facebook group or something and have people pick what they want to be the one. Because I think that's. Isn't that what we used to do? I can't remember it's been so long, but I think that's a good way to go about it. Let everybody help us help us pick it out from some. From some choices. So. Yeah, well, I think let's. Let's wrap this thing up. So, like, those are Some, some pretty heavy hitting fresh points that we've had.
Yeah.
Today. So that's a good, that was a good talk. A lot, a lot of exciting stuff
just all kind of came at once.
Yeah. Yeah, that's true. That's true. And so before I even get into sort of our sign off stuff, just a reminder that we will be. You'll be soon you'll be seeing information about our collaboration with, with Baron Fig, the Baron Fig Erasable Squire, which is going to be coming out to help us raise some funds so that we can all get together and record a live show together in at the Baltimore pen show in 2020. So keep an eye out for that. There will be a Black Friday sale which will be automatic. So if you buy the pen between release and the end of Black Friday, you'll get an automatic $5 off. And then to our Patreon supporters you'll get if and you can subscribe to our Patreon right now and, and be included in this, this benefit. But you'll get a coupon code sent to you for an extra $5 off on, on this very cool bi colored release of the, of the Squire. So thanks in advance for anybody who, who is ordering this pen to support us and also just to support our buddies over at Baron Fig.
Yeah.
So yeah, let's, let's wrap things up by talking. I'll go and talk about Patreon. Patreon, if you haven't supported us yet, you can go to Erasable Us Patreon where we've got three different levels that you can support us at, which will include getting some notes from us and getting some Erasable swag throughout the year as well as special short episodes that we're recording. We recorded one tonight with Harry marks talking about NaNoWriMo which was a lot of fun. It's a really good episode. So if you're a supporter, you'll get access to that through Patreon. You can find us all online, of course, in many different ways. Andy, where can people find you?
I am at Andy WTF or @AWealthly on Twitter and Instagram.
How about you, Johnny?
I am@pencilrevolution.com and on Instagram and Twitter at Pensolution.
And I'm Tim Wasem. You can find me on Twitter at Tim Wasserman on Instagram. Timothywassum. You can find the podcast at Erasable just about everywhere you got at Erasable Podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Our Facebook groups are facebook.com groups raceable and our Facebook page is facebook.com raceball podcast. So please rate us and review us on itunes, recommend us on Overcast and everything like that. And we'd like to finish up by thanking our Patreon producers, people who are who are supporting us at the producer level. On Patreon. We've got Alex Brown, Alex Jonathan Brown, Bobby Lutzinger, Chris Jones, Chris Metzkus, David McDonald, David Tubman, Dade Scalardi, Hans Noodleman, Jason Dill, Jay Newton, John Bayman, Johnny Baker, Kathy Rogers, Kelton Wiens, Larry Grimaldi, Leslie Tosette, Mary Collis, Keith McCleary, Stuart Lennon, and Thomas Ekberg Anderson. So thank you.
Thank you, everybody.
Thank you so much for those supporting us at the the, at the producer level. So we appreciate you joining us for episode 129. And we will see you soon. On episode 130.
We'll turn it off.