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Transcript
All right.
Yeah. I'm whistling some Lizzo.
Feeling good as hell, team.
I'm feeling good as hell.
Yeah. Hello and welcome to episode 151 of the erasable podcast. I am Andy Welfle. I'm on hosting duties today and I'm joined this Monday evening. This is this mid October evening by Tim and Johnny. Hey, guys.
Hey, Andy.
Hey, Andy. What's going on?
Hey. Not much. It's mid October and we thought we would get a start on this spooky Halloween season by talking about some of our favorite Halloween themed stationery, pencils, notebooks, and then kind of expand that scope a little bit and talk about like books and movies and TV shows and things that we like that are spooky or Halloween based. So it's going to be a little bit of a free form discussion later. But I think that should be good since, you know, I don't know. I don't know how spooky. You know, we can like stationary is. Is sort of like intrinsically so.
No. Get ready.
Yeah.
Buckle up. I'm gonna bring the spooky.
This is my John Wick pencil. But before we do that, Tim, do you want to get us started with some tools of the trade?
Sure. So for consuming, we have just been enjoying the return of the great British baking, which we've been missing for a long time. And they have brought back with an NBA style bubble format, I guess where they've got everybody, like everybody had to like live on site for like couple weeks and like they brought their families and stuff and they just had to like stay there. They couldn't leave. But yeah, sounds like fun. Yeah.
Hopefully they set up cameras and they're just going to make like a real world style like they did.
That would be fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. But it's always. The first few episodes are always my favorite with the show because they're the people who get in there and just. And I'm not like laughing at them, but just the people who and just are like, they just completely bomb like, you know, like nothing works and it's just like so fascinating. It's like you made it past a lot of checkpoints to get to this point and that would really sucked to make it all the way there and then have that go so poorly. But also you're just like meeting all the people and everything. So we were just like, I think it's. There's only like three episodes out on Netflix, so we've enjoyed. Been enjoying that music. I've been kind of like listening to the same Stuff. Besides, there's a lot of good new music coming out this month. I talked about some of it last time, like, and I can't remember if I mentioned this one, but Tom Petty's Wildflowers. Did I talk about this last time? No, I don't think I did. But it's like, it's my favorite top Eddie album. It's probably one of my top five. And when he originally recorded it with Rick Rubin at Shangri La in California, he. It was supposed to be a double album. So they recorded like a two disc album and they took it to their, their recording company and they basically like, said, no, we think that's too risky at this, like, later stage of your career. You should just make it one album. And then like stripped it back to one disc. Which it was a great album. But he had been planning for years and years and years to release the full version, like, with everything. And then he passed away. And when he passed away, the plans for that got all, like, wrapped up in this legal crud with his family. And so it's finally coming out though, so this Friday, it's called Wildflowers and All the Rest. And so it has like the rest of the album and then. Or like the double. The full double disc version of it. And then also like homemade demos and some other extra kind of bonus feature things they never found. They searched and they searched, but they never found the original track listing that he had made for the double disc version, which is kind of a bummer because I was hoping to see what that would be, you know, like rearranged and all that, and see where some of these other songs that I'm so familiar with, like, Fall, where Tom Petty actually wanted them to be. But anyways. But one thing I have been listening to is they did release the homemade demo for the song Wildflowers, like the. The title track, and it's available everywhere and it's really good. I always love hearing those, like, homemade demos and the original versions back when it was just like getting an idea down on paper. So I always, I always love that. So that's, that's out there somewhere. And then as far as reading, I've been doing a lot of reading for school stuff, like just rereading some things. But I did pick up a book that I've been looking forward to for a long time, this poet, Maggie Smith, who I've found on Twitter just through like, mutual contacts. And I think she's had a few, like, sort of viral tweets. And so she has kind of a presence or viral poems that. So she has a, a pretty good presence on Twitter. But like a year ago she. Or time frame, I could be off. But like at least a year ago, it's a while back, she was going through a really difficult time in her life and she started this like practice to get herself out of this horrible time by tweeting basically like a affirmation to herself every day, like something to like encourage yourself. And then every one of them ended with the words keep moving. And so this past week she released a really beautiful book of like a sort of best of, of those little aphorisms and mini memoirs and stuff that she wrote. And it's wonderful. So awesome. It's a fantastic little book. Very encouraging. And yeah, I just, it just hit me like right when I needed to hear it. It's a lot of stuff about, you know, you know, imagining the life that you thought you'd have versus the life that you do have. And it's one of those where I can't like describe it too much or it's going to start sounding like super, like corny self helpy, but it's really not. And it's, it's written by a poet and so it's really. Everything's really beautifully written and even just the physical book is like one of the most gorgeous things I've ever seen. I don't know if. Did you guys have the physical copy of the. The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up?
Yeah.
You know how it's like it doesn't have like a dust jacket, it's just like the hardcover, like printed. It's printed much like that book, but it's a bigger size, kind of a squareish shape. It's wonderful. So I, I really love it and I've been really enjoying that. And I am writing with a Palomino HB and I am using, using my 70s windbreaker blue moleskin notebook that I talked about last time. Yeah. How about you, Johnny?
So we've been like binging tons of tv but like some of it I don't want to admit to watching. We watched the Fall, was it Britbox. They like took it back as they're like going through and taking all their shows away. It has the guy, what's his name, Jamie Dornan from 50 Shades of Gray who people said couldn't act. And like man, that is, that is very much the case. Sort of like at parts you're like, why is he in this freaking show? Like he could play a serial killer because he can't act and his face is blank all the time. But it's a three series show about a serial killer with a disappointing ending.
So sounds like he's right for the part then. Unless he's not the serial killer. He.
I mean, he is a serial killer, but you know, you know, from the start.
No.
No spoiler. But it's. Yeah, it's.
It's weird.
It's a lot of like cat and mouse and then. Yeah, then I'm gonna start giving spoilers. Okay, maybe.
Is that the one with Gillian Anderson? Yeah. Yep. She's so great.
Yeah, she was really good in it. She was freaking awesome. And the guy who was in Retribution, whose name I can't think of, with the very dark eyebrows and very lush beard, was in it. He's very good and stuff too. And I read Stolen Sharpie revolution in like 20 minutes because it has lots of pictures. But last time we had Ed Kemp on and we talked about zines, so I ordered that from his Etsy shop. And it's like super cool book. So if you're like even remotely interested in starting a zine, like, it's a good place to start because, you know, all the information that you might want is in one book. Like, what's a distro? What is a distro Jew? Why should you not start one? Because it's a lot of work. Blah, blah, blah. And I guess in another format, I've discovered a cool band. They were on NPR last weekend called Idols, all in capital letters. Not the Idols. That's a different band. They're a British band. Like British Don't Call Us Punk. Punk band. With a new album that's got really cool songs like Never Fight a Man With a Permission and one called Anxiety About Mental Health. It's like really freaking good music. I've been super enjoying it. I was tempted to make the October Playlist just their new album, but that would be unfair to people that don't like very loud music. So, yeah, that. That's all my consumptions. And I'm writing with a. This is a Sanford American that I stripped the paint off of because it was coming off. So it's one of the most fragrant pencils I've ever had. And it writes beautifully. And I'm using my Bellini Leuchtturm. It's like peachy orange. Not as autumnal as I'd hoped, but it's almost full, so that's good. How about you, Andy?
What about me? I think I talked last time about these. This show this British show that's on Peacock called Escape to the Chateau, about a British, British family who moves to France and renovates an old like, like 45 room chateau. And it's, it's, it's kind of like the season is like the sixth season, sorry, series is wrapping up and yeah, we're just kind of like getting to the, the end of what they have so far. So it's, it's a, it's really good. It's very relaxing. It has that same sort of like the vibes of the, the Bake off great British baking show.
Did you say sixth season?
Yeah, the sixth series. Yeah, yeah. And we're, we're coming up on like autumn 2019. So I know that like when Covid hits, I'm really going to be interested to see what they do because their whole thing is they're doing it for a, like they have a wedding space and they have like these like Airbnb like, like sweets and they're going to get to a point where they can't do that. So I hope that they were able to like, you know, we'll, I don't know, we'll see. We'll see if they have anything else that they're doing. But they, they do stuff like, you know, they get, they get bees and they start producing their own honey and they have a, they really want to produce truffles, you know, like mushroom truffles. And so they buy oak trees and seed the, the, the tree roots with like truffle spores. And then they have to change the ph balance of the, of the dirt because like, they only grow in a certain acidity level. So it's really, really interesting. Just, just kind of like they start from scratch, basically. Anyhow, almost done with that. I put down here that I've been watching the debates, but I don't know if that's anything we want to talk about because that's not something to be proud of.
Well, you and the fly.
Yeah.
Did you guys watch Saturday Night Live?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, it was a good one. That was a really good episode.
Yeah.
Bill Burr. Oh, man. Yeah, that's good. Overall, Jack White. But that, that, the vice presidential debate where he's like Vice President Pence. You get the first question. Well, thank you. The topic is coronavirus. Damn it.
Oh, it was.
Yeah, that was really well done.
It's been a minute since I've seen Jack White perform and that dude just rocks.
Wow. He does. Yeah. He's like, that's what you see him
and you're so good.
Rock and roll is still alive.
Yeah, apparently.
Because that was.
I can't look at him and not think of Johnny Depp playing Edward Scissorhands, like Willy Wonka or Edward Scissorhands or something.
Well, that was. I saw an amazing tweet where somebody had said that, you know, they had replaced Morgan Waller, wherever the hell his name is. That country guy who like was partying at a frat with no mask on. So they kicked him out and brought in Jack White and somebody said, you know, this is a perfect pick because he's got all the antibodies he needs since he died of typhoid fever in 1884. So wonderful.
It's wonderful.
He was like. It was like full on Hendrix mode, like the way he was playing. Yeah, it was pretty awesome.
Oh yeah. And that drummer was really good.
Yeah, that whole thing, the stand up drummer.
Yeah. So, yeah, watch the SNL spec. There's a, there's a show I've talked about here before called Last Tango and Halifax, which is this BBC BBC show. And they started, man, probably six years ago, but they've only managed to do like, like three seasons since then. And they're kind of like last season is, is happening right now. It's about, it's just a really sweet show about like an older couple who like meet later in life. They were like high school sweethearts and kind. How they're much different families, kind of merged together. Gets a little off the rails, but it's pretty good. Final TV show. I've mentioned watching a lot of TV I guess lately. Did we talk about this before? Star Trek, Lower decks?
I don't think so.
It is a new Star Trek animated series. What? You know, Star Trek, the animated series from the 70s was very much like a children's animated show of like, like Kirk and Spock and like you know, the, the original actors. But they started this the last year. No, earlier this year in the summer. And it is kind of like Star Trek meets Rick and Morty. It's a definitely like an adult cartoon show and it's pretty, pretty wacky, but it's, it's very sort of like self aware. Like it's, it's kind of like a comedy show for Star Trek fans. Like they have this whole thing about how they're in the holodeck and they're, they're trying to make a movie out of like the thing that they're doing, the holodeck. And so the, the movie version of what they're like what their holodeck program Is has like a whole bunch of lens flare and they talk about how they're in a movie just like the original, like J.J. abrams, like 2009, Star Trek.
So it was.
It was a joke for like 12 people. Yeah. And last thing I'll mention, there's a book series that I read a couple. It's just really just like trashy action adventure series. It's called the Invisible Library. It is by a woman named Genevieve Cogman. And it's kind of like it's a. This sort of like interdimensional library that collects books from like rare books from authors and various realities. And she's like a spy, but she's also a librarian. And it's just really not that great. But also really fun to read. Sometimes you just need to take your mind off things.
So you're rereading it?
No, I'm just reading it for the first time.
Oh, okay. Sorry, I thought you said you had read the whole series already. It's like.
Oh, no, that's a really great.
For jumping back into first seven books. Yeah, it was fine. So I'm going to start it over. Yeah, okay.
Yeah, it goes. It goes really fast and I mean, honestly, it feels. It feels like it would be good for like, you know, teens with a slightly more advanced reading level too. It has kind of that young adult kind of feel to it, even though it's not specifically young adult. Yeah. And then I am writing with. I picked up a 600 news by Musgrave recently for the first time in a long time. Yeah. So I've been using that in my. My lich term.
This thing's just like turn to powder is. You write.
I. I can't. I can't sharpen it in my black wing. Sharp in my blackwing.
No, it doesn't like that thing like milled sharpener.
No, it just cannot handle it. So I have to use it. My. My burr sharpener with it.
It's like chalk. It's like writing with chalk. It's not unpleasant. It's nice round.
It's like chalk from hell. It so black.
Ooh, spooky pencil right there. None more chalk from hell.
It's none more black. Yeah, yeah.
I mean I colored in a picture with it recently and I saw like figures moving within it like it was another dimension. It was crazy.
Vantablack the pencil.
The souls of the pencils that were consumed to create it.
The souls of the trees, of the
dinosaurs that created the carpets.
Souls of the dinosaurs.
Carbon.
Should we move on to our freshpoint section. Sure, Tim. I'm excited by your two fresh points here.
Well, speaking of Musgrave, on the subject of Musgrave. Yeah.
Here's two more.
I'll start with the pencils because, Andy, you so kindly sent me some. I got them with which you're going to be talking about the amazing new plumbago. So I'll leave that to you. But you sent some of these new. Shared your debate pencils with me. So Musgrave was commemorating the fact that Belmont University is hosting the third presidential debate if it happens. And so they made. They made a three pack of pencils. It's a red, white, and blue. So I'm not really sure why they picked those colors, but, I mean, it works. You know, they kind of go together, but. And it's got France.
I think they really like France.
France. That's it.
That's it.
Just fans of the Washington Bullets basketball team of the 80s and 90s. So, yeah, they're really, really good looking round pencils. And they have the. What I always call, like, the, like hard candy peppermint eraser. The. The red and white. I love that triangle. Yeah. So. And. And they're really good looking. They're good looking. They came in a cool little sleeve. I think it's a really, really good call on their part to do this, too, to commemorate something in a totally kind of neutral, purely. Kind of purely patriotic thing. So I. I love that they did this.
These are going to be some. Yeah, these are going to be collector's items if that thing doesn't happen.
Well, according to ebay, they're already collector's items.
Really?
Someone had a listing of two of the three for 50 bucks. I'm like, what'd you do with the other one?
They're still available on the website. Yeah, for $6, you can still buy them. Guys, come on.
I like that they didn't do, like, you know, hey, it's the election. Here's a red, white, and blue pencil. They're like, hey, this is a specific night that we got asked to do pencils for. So, you know, local pride and stuff. It was really cool.
Yeah. Yeah, I'm actually. I'm going to order, actually, Jason. So you guys are familiar with. From the membership now. Now with Covered in Dust, the membership podcast. But he went to Belmont, so I was going to order another set. He's a graduate of Belmont, grew up in the Nashville area, but yeah, very cool.
Has anybody sharpened these up yet? Do we know if it's just a stock? Kind of like Blank Musgrave or if it's based.
Oh, I don't know.
I have waited. I have not started yet. Just like I have neither. Yeah, it looks, I mean it was hard to tell looking at the bottom, but they look kind of cedarish. I mean they look kind of. I mean it didn't have that whatever like basswood look to it or something. So they look pretty nice. But by the price I would guess that they are. But I don't know.
They do have very well centered cores.
Yeah.
Yeah. So a good looking pencil for sure. And the other piece of Musgrave news on my head right now containing my giant melon is the Musgrave Ebbetsfield Flannels collaboration hat that was shipped out this past week. And so we all got ours. We've been super excited about this since then.
Mine doesn't come until Wednesday.
Oh, yours?
Oh no.
Gotcha. Sorry.
Apparently it's on the slow boat to San Francisco.
Yeah, yeah. I've been super pumped about this. I've talked about on the show before, but I'm a big fan of Ebbets Field Flannels. I've got a few of their hats and when that I, when, when we were tipped off on this, I just, I about started drooling. I mean like no joke, just kind of like I wanted. It was like Christmas. Like I wanted it to be tomorrow. It was so excited to get it. But yeah, mine came. It was the day we left for. We went on like a little micro trip for like 48 hours and, and it is really a good looking hat. Love the white, the white Musgrave logo really pops off the blue in the front and it's. This is not any fault of theirs because this is always a problem with me and hats. But I just have a big head. I just got a big head. So I am on the last button on the, the snapback back here and luckily, so I just like I'm wearing it no matter what pulled it on and luckily it's loosened up over the last couple days and so I'm, I've been enjoying it quite a bit keeping a pencil in it at all times. So.
Nice. Yeah, mine's a pencil, sorry, mine.
I am a second to last hole.
Yeah.
But my hair is very short right now.
Mine's kind of long. So maybe, maybe we'll balance out.
I feel you.
How does the, the pencil sleeve work? Is it like a little dangly thing, like, like the Leuchtturm like pen loop or is it a, like built into the hat?
It's built, yeah, it's built into the hat and it's, it's sewn in and it's, it's, it's more like pronounced like when you don't have a pencil in it. It's like more pronounced looking than I kind of expected it to be. So it's, it's not like as subtle, you know, but. Yeah. And it worked. It works pretty well. I will say one tip, at least in my experience is put the eraser in first and push it back because I've. When you push the point of the pencil through, I've had it like stab actually through the fabric like a sharpened pencil. It just breaks right through and it's so, so that works pretty well. But also there's a. You have to kind of be careful on the backside of it because the, the like little fold in the fabric that's sewn in on the back will sometimes kind of flap out when you push the pencil through, if that makes sense.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's sort of like the holes tapered, which makes a lot of sense.
Yeah. So. So it, I want. I have developed a technique of putting. Yeah. Put the eraser in first in the front and then kind of like twist it back and forth as you move it back and then it just kind of shimmies its way in real, real nice. So. But yeah, I'm wearing it now. I've been wearing it all day and
yesterday and they, it looks like it's still for sale. So if anybody missed out on the, the pre sale, it's, it's not cheap, it's 60 bucks.
Yeah, it's pretty, pretty on par with Ebbets Field hats. They're. But they're really, really high quality, really well made. I mean, it's one of those that. It's one of those things that you, you get in hand and you're like, oh, yeah, okay. I know why this is $59. Because I've my Tombow hat and I've got a couple Cubs hats that they've made that I've had for a long time and worn constantly. And they basically look like they did the first day that I got them. So. Yeah, really great. And they're. Yeah, they're available now. I think they had said that there'd be pre orders and then they'd have a limited stock of them once they showed up. So. Yeah, I don't know. Don't miss out on them. They're really, really sharp, really good looking.
Did you get the left handed option, Andy?
I did, I did. I. I ordered a left handed one and I ordered a right handed one for a friend of mine. But yeah, I love that they considered that.
Yeah, that is a great touch for sure. So, yeah, that's all I got.
Nice. How about you, Johnny?
Awesome. So I'm going to start off by talking about a pen that's sort of salient right now.
For the other podcast.
This isn't a fountain pen. This is like five pounds of brass with really, really cool engraving. The Baron Fig Liberty pen, which it supports vote.org but they didn't say like, by how much. So, like, I wonder if it's not all of it. And these were made in America, which is not something you usually see from pens at all. So, yeah, it's like squire. It's brass. It says Baron Fig Liberty and has E Pluribus Unum on the other side and a really cool torch logo. And like, I like the box that it comes in. Yeah. I don't want to sound like a jerk, but it kind of makes some of the early ones look like toys. Just like bright colors for the logo.
That one that looks like a freaking pencil.
Yeah. This is like a serious looking pen. It's really awesome. Definitely the best one they've made so far. Not counting erasable, I think. And yeah, like Andy said, it came. This one comes in a box instead of a tube, which is cool because I always drop the tubes. Like, you know, if the pen's heavy, the bottom falls out.
It's a case that can roll off your desk just like the pen can.
Oh, nice.
Yeah, this is a very, very. It's got like really tightly fitting foam inside of it that's very pleasant.
So.
Yeah.
Did you have yours, Andy?
I did. I filled up my ballot with mine. So I am exercising my, my liberty. Every time I see it, I. That this is, this is how much marketing jingles can get at you. Like, every time I see it in my head I go, liberty, Liberty, Liberty.
So my only criticism is that it would have been cool if they made it in copper like the Statue of Liberty.
Yeah.
And then let it turn green.
But I just put a big crack in it, like the Liberty.
Yeah, there you go.
I guess nobody would use it. And you know, this will get used because brass looks better when you use it. So that's exciting. I'm, I'm, I was very happy to get a free sample of that pen.
Yeah. Mine has not arrived yet, but I'm really excited to see it because I, I'm wondering how it's different from the other brass because they had the other brass. Squire.
I. I think it's just the engraving. I think it feels about as heavy as the key. Okay.
That's what I was curious.
Do you agree with that, Johnny? Do you think it's different?
So, I mean, I haven't held my key in a long time, so it just felt super heavy to me. But at least on mine, the engraving is, like, really in there. Like, this pen is not messing around. So it just felt super beefy in a good way.
It also does that thing that I don't like about brass pens is my fingers just smell like brass after I use it.
Yeah.
Like, I had to wash my hands after I filled up my ballot because I'm just like. It smelled like. Like metal.
So when I first read about brass and or the lead in brass pencil sharpeners, I came across this article that where home brewers have some sort of method where they can get that smell and taste out of brass so it doesn't corrupt their beer. And it was, like, pretty simple. I think they involved vinegar or something. Check it out. Maybe you could subject your pen to it.
Yeah.
Because they're pretty solid. It'd probably survive. Okay. Yeah, I bet that's a good experiment. Sweet. And my only other quick mention is that I started doing a zine that goes along with my blog. And, like, big props to Ed, who was super inspiring. Just like.
So we got so much like. Ed, if you're listening, we got so much positive feedback about the episode last week. Everybody really loved hearing about zines.
Yeah. I, like, started immediately, and, man, I had to go through, like, several different formats because I'm stupid and I can't work stuff. So it's just a very tiny little zine. But they're on Etsy and there's still some left, so I'll put the link in the show notes.
I think it's smaller than the. The small erasable Zena or Plumbago Zena, isn't it?
Oh, yeah.
It's super cute.
It's way smaller. Yeah, it's very tiny, but I printed on really heavy paper, so it doesn't feel flimsy. It feels really good. Yeah.
Yeah.
That's all my fish points.
Cool. My only fresh point is grab it here. Speaking of zines, is that at long last, at long, long last, we now have an issue of Plumbago.
Yay.
I think I mentioned this last time we had it printed at Write Notepads, which was pretty great. It was fun to just work with, work with Chris on that and, and his team. And it is. So it's. It's perfect bound. It like. If you. If you like the perfect bound. Right. Notepads. This should be really appealing visually to you because it is very familiar. It's 40 pages and we had, I think 18 contributors. We had a bunch of very short stories. Tim, your brother in law did a. Did a story in here.
He did like a little essay and a couple tiny poems.
Yeah, he talked about the. Like a manifesto about tiny poems and then adapted from a. From a unpublished dissertation. I was going to say. It's been so long since we've released this. Maybe it is published now.
No, I don't think so. Not, not like public leaving, you know, just in the like academic world, but.
Gotcha.
But yeah, yeah, he. So he. He shaved a little bit off of his gigantic dissertation to. And it. Great. A great. I love that little. I love that little essay that if you knew him in person, you're just like, this is John. He's very enthusiastic about this stuff.
Yeah, I think, Pam, we should have him on sometime talk about tiny poems and see how that.
That would be awesome.
There's so many interesting things to say about it. Yeah, I really wanted to run more of it, but like, I seriously like it would be the entire length of this book if we, if we didn't like just pick out a piece. But had that. We had some really great tiny illustrations by Tiffany Babb, who is a friend of the show. And like, like an illustration of a hairpin and an illustration of a piece of candy and a thumbtack and a pencil shavings. Yeah, lots and lots of great stuff our friend Toffer put together. Like, like he really. Or they really use index cards for a lot of things. And uh, they let us use some of their index cards for advice like self help for like helping oneself accomplish things and see, you know, accomplish a win or something like that. So we ran that in the back of the book. It's just really good. It turned out really well. I'm sorry that it took nine months to happen. But it's. It's out. It's available to for sale. We have a bunch of copies still. So when y' all are getting your zines. If you. If you're buying any Pencils of the month zines from. Excuse me. Pencil of the Week zines from Ed Plumbago is now for sale in his distro. So that's all I'll copy there. Yeah. And that is. That's it for me. Do you guys want to jump into our. Our main topic?
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. So tonight we're. We're looking into Halloween that's going to be unlike any other in that there are so many restrictions in place about trick or treating and large gatherings, whether if it's imposed by official channels or just through some general common sense. What are your kids. What are your kids doing for Halloween? Have they figured it out yet?
Oh, man.
We are, like, turning it into a, like, scavenger hunt, basically at our house.
So.
So we're doing. We're going to be like, hiding some things. We'll have some games to play. Grandparents are going to come over and hang out. Our church is doing a, like, trunk of, you know, trunk or treat kind of thing, you know, but it's like drive through, which is. It's. Our church will get like 1500 people coming to this. So it's like a really. They. We do it every year and, like, a lot of people from the community show up and it's a lot of fun. But so this year my mom's actually going be in town, so Jane and I are going to be in like a. A trunk. And then the kids are going to do the drive through, like, trick or treating with my mom. So. But at home, the actual night of, we're just gonna probably watch, you know, like a Curious George Halloween movie or something.
And I love that thing.
Do some. Yeah, do like a little scavenger hunt, treasure map kind of thing at the house.
Nice. Awesome. Yeah. How about you, Jenny? What are your kids doing?
I think my mom's having a Halloween party for my kids and one of my brother's kids, and that's it.
Nice.
So they'll do like, scavenger hunts and a pinata of some kind. Like, I want to make a pinata of my brother, but he doesn't like the idea.
So it's gonna be people beating him with a stick.
No, I mean, it's like in good fun. Like, I'll make one of you, Tom. I thought he'd. He'd say, I'll make one of you and we'd have two. But he didn't take the bait. But yeah, similar to Tim, just chilling. I mean, we.
We.
We read a lot of, like, Edgar Allan Poe and stuff like that. During this month, I read Henry the Casco Montiado. He was like. He only insulted him and he did that. Like, Henry, you don't know what he said, man, it could have been really bad. And, like, where he said it,
he was throwing shade. Henry he was throwing shade. Yeah.
Poor Henry. I think we're just doing absolutely nothing. Maybe we'll watch an episode of a Halloween episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Awesome.
While there's a lot of things that we're not going to be able to do, like we might during a regular Halloween, we're going to pull together just some media that we like to consume, some stuff we're reading and watching and listening to. Maybe also just kind of like, see, is there any interesting spooky stationary that we can use? So. Well, obviously, obviously we have the, you know, the. The news. The 600 news, which is made up of the ghosts of dinosaurs. Right.
So that's pretty old. Slash, ghosts of dinosaurs. Yeah.
Yeah. Anybody have any. Any stationary that you think of, like, when you. When you think Halloween or, you know, spookiness?
I have one pencil. The Ticonderoga quote unquote Black, from like 2004, 2005.
That's a really, really matte one.
Yeah, that thing, because it's matte, it sucks up all the light and it smells amazing and it's a really nice pencil, but it is sort of ghostly.
Yeah. Yeah, that's a good one.
The first thing that popped into my head was the Lenore pencil, which, of course is something that people, like, I can't find. But that's like a pretty perfect Halloween pencil with the black and the. The orange foil stamp. But I'm.
I'm telling you, Tim, we should have grabbed a handful.
Yeah, I was just thinking about Moses was like, what are you guys doing back here?
Nothing.
Rooting through the back stock and found like a whole box of them. It's like, oh, my God. Yeah. So that. That's the first thing that popped my head. The other thing that popped into my head is down at the bottom of the. The Google Docs. You guys gotta scroll down. Have you ever seen this?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Do you want to describe this, too?
Yes, I will describe it. So what we've got here is a. Is a cute little DIY project that you can do, which involves taking the head of a doll, stabbing one of the eyes out, and implanting a sharpener inside of the doll's head so that the shavings come out of the mouth.
Yeah, why not? Yeah.
And so I remember seeing this a long time ago. And so this is the first thing that popped into my head. But it's about. I think this is, like, gotta be the scariest possible stationary item of all time. I mean, I can't remember.
Pretty scary.
It's pretty Freaky. Especially the doll he chose with the, the penciled on eyebrows that are, you know. Yeah, but, but yeah, that's. That, that, that Lenore pencil and then the sort of like demon baby pencil sharpener face initially.
Demon baby pencil sharpener is the name of my new puck, man.
That's the name of my zine.
Or maybe the episode of this or maybe the name of this episode.
Who knows?
I always, honestly, I always think of the Rhodia pencil just because it's so classically orange and black and really like not in like a, like draplin's orange and black motifs are just not super Halloweening. I don't know if it's like the. Because he uses such an industrial orange, but like the rodeo orange is like pretty, pretty pumpkiny. Yeah.
I was thinking the. And I think I sent you guys a picture of this. This was years ago, but I really liked taking the Blackwing 24 and putting an orange eraser in it. I think we did like the Halloween.
Yeah.
For that one. But that was. That's really cool looking because that orange. That's a very Halloween orange and with an all black pencil was really a really cool option.
That's a good one. Yeah. I also really like. I mean, I just said that the Draplin orange is not very Halloweeny, but I also really like the. Oh, shoot. Is the Eek. The Eeek field notes?
Oh, yeah.
It's the Draplin Factory Floor edition that, that he released as sort of like an accompaniment of his book when that came out. And it's like really rich orange like pages and then like a black cover with like an orange foil stamp. It's pretty. And then it's called Eek too, so that's pretty spooky.
And there's a pencil that matches it too. Is there?
Oh, there is, yeah.
Gary sent me one.
I forgot about that. Yeah. Yeah. I think I have. I think I still have a single or two of those. Those around. Yeah. Any other stationary things that come to mind? I think. I think you're right, Tim. Like that the doll head pencil sharpener is really like, you know, the, the pinnacle.
Yeah.
I think Ravenswing from Field Notes and Lenore from Right Notepads. Those are pretty low hanging notebooks.
And there's.
And we're going to choose to avoid the, the just endless avalanche of just garbage pencils that have like ghosts and stuff on them because there's. Oh yeah, there's all that stuff.
Oh, yeah.
My house.
Yeah.
It's been two Halloweens since some monster Gave my kids each a bag of Halloween erasers. I've been finding them all over our house for two years.
Someone needs to egg that house.
There was seriously like 40, 40 of them in each of the bags. I was just like, wow. I remember getting home and be like, no, no, thank you.
I can't give them away fast enough.
Yeah. And they have been. They're everywhere. I mean, I find them. I found one today just, like, on the floor. Like, Theo was, like, sniffing it. I was like, it's a little like, don't eat that. Little, like, spider web eraser. I was like. And I take it every time I see it, grab it and throw it in the trash. Like, they don't even work.
Yeah.
And from Target. Yeah. They're floating around our place too.
Yeah.
And like, you. You try actually erasing with it and just like the whole thing just sort
of like, crumbles, just cracks in half.
It basically has, like, the consistency of, like, feta cheese.
Just leaves like a black smear across the page.
Yeah, yeah. Just comes right off. Want to move on to books? Anybody have any favorite, like, novels of full length books of that are spooky or fun?
Yeah.
Do you want to go first? Yeah, sure. I don't. I don't want to shank you.
Shank away.
Shank away.
It's a very Halloween verb.
I.
So the first one that pops in my head, which is maybe like an obvious choice, but it is legitimately one of the scariest books I've read was Coraline by Neil Gaiman.
Oh, yeah.
Because I had seen the movie, you know, whenever it came out before I even was like, into Neil Gaiman. And when I read the book, like, I found myself, like, legit kind of disturbed at certain points of it, like, with the way he. The descriptions of the sort of other world, parents. And it just. It was. I just had like, a very, like, visceral reaction to, like, being in this creepy alternate universe. Yeah, the movie makes it like, the
scene in the basement was really unnerving.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like, the movie makes it feel like a musical, you know, it's like all like, just like, dancing and singing and these musical numbers. Like. But the book is just like, just like dark and sad and like, the. The parents aren't as, like, goofy as they are in the movie. They're just like, actually kind of a bummer, you know? So that one came to mind immediately. And then another kind of obvious choice, but Stephen King coming to mind. And the. The novella the Mist. Have you read that one?
Is that Stephen King? I haven't read it. It. I get so confused because there's so many things like the mist. There's like the dome. Oh yeah.
Under the dome.
Yeah. But, yeah, I've. I haven't read the mist, but I. Yeah, it looks really good.
I think there's a couple like, sort of okay movie versions that were made or something. But it is a. It is a very disturbing book in like the sense that like, I tend not to be like, actually freaked out by things that seem like they could never happen. You know, like the, the scariest stuff is the stuff that like, you know, like where you take a normal situation and then you twist one thing to just make it that much more disturbing. Like just one thing's. One thing's off. But the mist is like totally unbelievable that something like this would happen. But there's just this like carnivorous mist that covers this little town and everybody's trying to figure out how to get like from place to place. You basically meet all these characters and then they all get stuck in separate locations dealing with this mist that's like taking over the town. And so it really turns into like, you know, the mist is freaky, but like the especially freaky part is like the humans like stuck together. So I don't know. I really like that. I like his. His. His novellas are some of my. My. That's my favorite thing of his to read. And he just put out a new collection of them recently. It's called like if It Bleeds or something like that, which I haven't read. I haven't read any of those yet, but I've got it. I just haven't. Haven't gotten to it yet. So the. That, that. That definitely comes to mind is just like a scary, scary book. And yeah, poems. I don't really have any. Nothing really comes to mind for, for. For a scary poem. But those are. Those are the three that really like stand out to me.
Yeah. Cool. Nice. How about you, Johnny?
For full length book? Definitely. House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. When did it come out? I guess it's about 20 years old now. Did you guys read that when it came out?
I feel like I did, but I don't remember anything about it, so I
didn't know his sister was the singer Po. And her second album called Haunted was sort of a companion to this book, which is cool. So I see if I remember. So it's. The format of the book is that it's a scholarly book by a guy who doesn't exist about a film called the Navidson Record that doesn't exist by a filmmaker who doesn't exist. And then it's sort of, I guess, narrated in a way by a character named Johnny who writes all over it. And like, the house has this weird feature where when you go in the closet, the closet's bigger than it should be. And then you go in, and now the closet is the size of a basement. And then the closet turns to another world and it changes and it's just so freaking creepy. But at the end, it's. It's a really good ending and it rewards good close reading, so I'll say that. And for a short story, I would go with the Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, even though it's kind of on the nose because, you know, the idea that something sense related would drive me nuts and make me do something crazy is sort of haunting.
And that's like a staggering story when you think about when it came out. You know, that's one of those where like, it's so kind of. Yeah, like, like you said on the nose, but like, we all read it when we're in high school or whatever and we're all familiar with it. But like, when you think about when it was written and when it came out, like, that probably would have been like a super terrifying story for people to.
Yeah, I mean, I find it horrifying. Like, you kill the guy for no
reason just because his eye looks weird you out.
And then as soon as you did it, you were like, oh, no. Oh no, they're going to find it. Like, it's creepy. And I'm going for on the nose even more for the raven. I feel like no one pays attention or not no one. Everyone pays attention to what a pretty poem it is and the lyrics and not like what horrifying story it is that, you know, you're like, oh, I'm really sad. I lost this lady. And a bird comes in and you're like, hey, are you here to distract me? No. Am I ever going to see her again? No. Like, is there any hope? No. Will you get the F off my door? No.
Like, God, it's. It's funny because like the. Sometimes the raven can feel really cliche, but the reason it's so cliche is because it's the one who standardize it.
Right?
Like, that's the. That's what everything else is like, based off of.
It's horrifying.
Yeah.
All I ever think of is the best team name. All I ever think of is the Simpsons episode. Yeah. That's all I ever think of, my brother. Yeah.
Never more, never more, never more. Which itself is kind of scary. Yeah, those are my book reading type things. How about you, Andy?
Nice. Oh boy. Couple that came to mind. So I don't usually like seek out scary Halloween horror horror things, but a few did come to mind. Speaking of Stephen King, one of the. Just my favorite novels. And I think we just talked about it, didn't we? 1122 63, which is. I. I feel like it's. It's scary sort of like on incident, right? Like it's. There's like this element of this like very time travel story that just like, you know you're messing with reality, the fabric of reality and things just sort of like fall apart. And then like all of these things in the universe happens to try to stop you from. From it, like resists you changing, changing the history. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's about a guy who discovers a portal to the 60s and he decides to try to stop the assassination of jfk. So to me the scariest part is just the idea that the universe is malevolently trying to stop you from doing something. And so all of these like really like gruesome things fall into place and like a big thing happens like on Halloween. It's. Yeah, it's a really, really good book. They made a pretty decent. We just talked about this last week or last time. Pretty decent Hulu series out of it too. Yeah, that's a really good one. Another one that's not like. Yeah, that's not really scary, but is a really good ghost story. Is. I've definitely talked about it on here before. It's called Her Feel Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, the author of the Time Traveler's Wife. And that is about, oh like a twin. Some twin sisters and one of them dies and becomes a ghost. And it's like a little bit about the mechanics of being ghosts from the ghost size and various others come through. And it just feels very like a modern kind of like Victorian story. A little bit of a love story. Just a really good. I don't think they've ever made that into a movie or a series, but I'm surprised because it feels very. The universe is very well hashed out. That's a good one. Have you. Have either of you ever read that? Read that book? No.
Yeah, It's a really good title though.
No, I haven't.
Yeah, it's a really Good title.
Yeah.
When you were talking, like, when I was looking at this document and kind of filling it out. Johnny. I was looking at the short stories and the essays and I immediately thought of. Have either of you remember a children's author named Bruce Coville? Johnny, you might be a little too old for it.
Damn.
Do you remember. Do you know who Bruce Coville is?
No, I have no idea.
Okay, There you go. Tim, do you know who Bruce Coville is?
I don't.
Okay, there's this. Oh, man, he was my favorite author when I was a kid, but he writes a lot of young adult slash adolescent, like, science fiction. And like, he had a whole series called My Teacher Ate My Homework, which is. No, aliens ate my Homework. And there's one called, like, My Teacher is an Alien. And lots of really, like. He does a lot of series from, like the, like the early to mid-90s. And he had this whole series of books about. It's called Bruce Coville's Book of Book of Monsters. And sometimes they were a little wacky. Like, sometimes they're about monsters, sometimes they're about ghosts. He had one about aliens. He had one about, like, nightmares. And the thing that just scared the pants off of me when I was a kid was the. There was. I think the Book of Nightmares had things written by other authors too. And somebody wrote a thing about Bloody Mary, which is, you know, if you're familiar with that, it's like the. The scary demon lady who crawls out of your mirror if you light candles and say her name three times. Like 13 times. I don't know if either of you had that myth going around.
Oh, yeah.
And Candyman.
Yeah. So. Oh, man. I. My friend and I read that one about. It's called through the Mirror by Ann Mazur in that book and who. It was, like, we just psyched ourselves up and we actually sat down and tried to summon Bloody Mary and we couldn't do it. We couldn't get all the way through based on that book. So, yeah, Bruce Coville is great. And that book has a God, like, as a 8 year old or whatever was so freaky. Yeah. And I honestly don't know if I have any spooky poems in mind. Like, the Raven is a really. Is a really good one for sure, but I can't think of any, like, spooky poems that, like, you know, I've thought about or processed.
Yeah.
TV and film.
Yes.
All right.
Yeah. What's your favorite. What's your favorite things to watch?
So I'm kind of like you were saying earlier, I am not one to like, gravitate towards scary viewing, like horror films. And I've been telling myself this since I was a kid. So it's probably just because I got scared at some point and just started saying this. But it always. I always say that it doesn't entertain me. Like, I just. I just don't feel entertained when I'm being frightened, you know, by. By something. It has to be a. There has to be something that draws me to it besides just the fact that it's scary. And so two recently that popped to mind immediately because I just love these movies and they also freaked me out was get out in a Quiet Place, which both kind of have a storyline that makes them compelling, besides just the fact that they're scary. And A Quiet Place is a little more like. Is a little simpler. But just the idea of like a movie where people can't speak, you know, like that, that intrigued me enough. And then John Krasinski who's like, you know, Emily Blunt, who are both awesome. So that, that drew me to that one, which I, I really, really enjoyed. And I get told constantly by the way that I look like John Krasinski and that I act like John Krasinski. I should say John Krasinski in the office. Not like, just like Jim in the office. People don't say John Krasinski. They say Jim in the office.
And then when they say that, looks toward the camera and just kind of shrug.
Sorry, you were breaking up a little bit, so I don't know what you said, so I'm pretending I was going to start laughing, but I don't know what you said.
I said every time somebody tells you that, you. You look at the camera and you just shrug.
Yeah, I kind of do. But like, like when I'm teaching, like, I'll look at somebody else in the room and just kind of like shrug and smile when somebody says something ridiculous.
But.
So A Quiet Place was great. I really had a good time watching that. And that was one that I remember. Like, I remember where I was when I watched it, and that's one that I'll want to watch again. But get out was just. I mean, it's so. I mean, I know everybody's been saying this for years, but that movie is terrifying and compelling for all the, like that it, that it addresses. And it's so well done. And Josh from the off or Josh from West Wing just, yeah, freaks me out. Yeah, but. But also like a kind of a. Not like a less conventional choice that came to mind was the movie Sunset Boulevard. Have you guys ever watched that?
No.
Like the. The musical?
No. Well, the like, old 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, where there's like, this like, silent film star, is like, refusing to believe that her career is coming to an end. And she, like, gets this young screenwriter that helps her, like, set up her movie comeback. But the screenwriter thinks he can like, manipulate her to be something that she's not, but he finds out that she's wrong and she's this like, agoraphobic kind of crazy person that. That like, kind of like fell into this world of like, a scary movie that it made me want to watch it again. I mean, it just sort of. Everything ends up leading into just like violence and madness and craziness. And so that. That is a, like a non traditional sort of horror film that I think is. Is worth rewatching. And I'm planning to do that sometime soon. And then as far as series didn't really have anything to offer except Treehouse of Horrors episodes of the Simpsons, which we referred to earlier. And I think. And if I remember right, on Disney plus, they have these like, playlists made, like Simpsons playlists. And I think you can just like, choose to watch all the Treehouse of Horrors and it, like, brings them together for you, which.
Oh, that's awesome.
I'm gonna. I'm gonna be hunting that down for sure. Yeah, that's all I got. How about you, Johnny?
So my favorite Halloween film is actually not scary at all. It's kind of silly by Tim Burton called Sleepy Hollow, which everybody turns out to. Seen you guys seen this like 50 times. Like I have.
As in, like the legend of.
No.
Yeah, like Ichabod Crane and all that stuff.
Yeah, it's not. I mean, it doesn't follow the. The short story very closely.
But you.
You haven't seen this?
I don't think I have.
I think it's on Netflix right now. It's awesome. They made it in 99. It had Christina Ricci when we all had crushes on her and Johnny Depp. Who else? Like, everybody was in it. The guy who played the emperor in Star wars was in it. Michael Gambon and Christopher Walken in his heyday. He plays the hessian with the sharpened teeth. But, like, you know, all the gore is pretty, like, over the top. Like, he traps in a tree and blood's flying everywhere. It's all kind of funny insofar as that could be funny. And Christopher Lee has, like, a cameo in the beginning as a judge. He's like Sleepy Hollow. Good. And a movie that actually is kind of scary is I am the pretty thing that lives in the house. I don't know how to say what it's about without giving it all away, but this lady who's taking care of an old lady in a house, and it's a weird house, and the acting is really good because most of it is just, you know, her reaction to things. And finally, Communion. Have you guys seen the movie or read the book by.
I have not.
Whitley Striver. Like, I used to have nightmares about this, like, every night when I was a teenager. Like, it just scared the hell out of me because the aliens come and get him out of Brooklyn. I was like, oh, my God, what are they, like, interdimensional? And. Oh, this is so creepy. Like, don't even look at the COVID It's.
I thought it was going to be like a. Like a Catholic horror movie. No, because it's called Communion.
What's a good Catholic horror movie?
I don't know.
The Keepers, the Exorcist.
Yeah, that's true.
And I'm gonna copy off Tim and say the Bob's Burgers Halloween episodes. Those are all really good. They. I like how they do a Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas episode every year. And I'm gonna go with the Haunting of Hill House, which wasn't like, scary scary. I mean, it was creepy, but it was so good. And then the next installment or not next installment, it's. It's like, oh, God, what's the word? Where it's a different. Different storyline and different characters every season, but they use the same actors. Called the Haunting of Bly Mansion. I think that looks equally awesome. And yeah, I mean, it's good if you watch it, you know, by yourself at night, as those things are.
Yeah, yeah.
How about you, Andy?
Yeah. So, like, like, Tim, I usually, like, would watch something if it is, like, really culturally, Culturally relevant or if there's something else that kind of like, gets me so kind of that, like, jump scare that a lot of horror films have or like the torture porn that, you know, like. Like Saw has or something like that. I'm just like. I just mostly try to avoid those. But. So, like, maybe 10ish years ago, a friend of mine organized a, like, Halloween, like, film fest in his house. And it was really good and it just really stuck with me. And we watched three films from, from like the 70s and 80s, the early 80s. One was called Don't Look Now. And has anybody read the book or watched the film?
I don't think I've even heard of it.
It's. It's a Daphne demouier story. And, like, who wrote Rebecca? And there was a movie they made out of Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland. There was a kind of gratuitous sex scene in it. And you see all of Donald Sutherland. It was. It was a little. It was a little hard to watch.
More than an animal house.
Yeah. So somebody said, you see Donald Sutherland. It was really good. It's about Donald.
Southern land.
Besides that. It's about a couple who loses a child, and they. They go to Venice to sort of get away from it. And there's this just like. I won't spoil it, but there's sort of this, like, really suspenseful chase scene around Venice. It's really good. We watched one called the. The Changeling, which is about a house that's. That's haunted, also about a dead child. This wasn't, like, specifically around dead children, but it was a really, really good sort of, like, haunted house story that the. From 1980. And then we watched Black Christmas, which was kind of the first ever slasher movie that was. It's from 1974. So it's like, really old and really kitschy. Marco Kidder's in it, but it's. It's.
I think.
I think it's the start of that trope that's like the call is coming from inside the house. So. Yeah, I just think about that movie fest a lot just because it had a lot of really interesting, just kind of like, old scary movies in it. Not like old, old, old, but just kind of like the start of, like, modern scary movies. As far as TV shows and series I watch, there's a couple really, really good, spooky TV shows. Like, spooky episodes from Doctor who. There's this one called Blink, if anybody. I don't think either of you are not Doctor who fans, right?
Yeah, there's so much. I don't know where to start.
So much. These are. These are actually really good standalone episodes because they don't really have a lot of, like, Doctor who lore in them. It's kind of about these. These beings called the Weeping Angels that they are. They're stuck as statues whenever you are looking at them, but the moment you look away, they. They can strike, and they're just really, really freaky. Um, but in just kind of one of those. Those good ways where they play.
I think.
Johnny, you said that Haunting of Hill House plays with, like, memory and sanity in really interesting ways. This plays a lot with Sort of like perception and observation, I guess. So how can something be scary if like. And we as the audience also never see these things move, but yet they're just terrifying. So, yeah, Blink is a really good episode. Definitely. Definitely. You can get a lot out of it if you've never seen Doctor who. And then also, do either of you remember a series from a children's show series from early 90s called Erie, Indiana? Yeah, yeah.
No, I don't.
It was this time I'm going to turn around you, Tim. You might be too young, but it was like this very specific age group and they only did it for like two seasons and it was set in this. This fictional small town in Indiana called Erie, Indiana. E, E, R, I, E. And there are a bunch of. It's kind of like kind of goosebumpsy. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, I didn't even mention goosebumps when it came to books I read a lot.
I didn't mention. Are you afraid of the dark?
Oh yeah, that's true.
Do you guys watch?
Are you all that stuff?
Yeah. Because Johnny, you might be too old for this. Are you afraid of the dark?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I had a young.
Two younger brothers.
Yeah, that's true.
There you go.
Yeah, that was really good. So yeah, Erie, Indiana had a lot of like interesting. Just interesting plots and it kind of Twilight Zoni, kind of, kind of. Are you afraid of the darky? Yeah, it was really good.
And then also it actually screwed up my ability to spell Lake Erie for.
Because it has two E's.
Yeah. For the first like 38 years of my life, I couldn't spell it right.
Yeah. Like Lake Erie is not spooky, eerie. It's a good point. And then finally like just one of the just like best kind of like scary TV shows out there I think ever is Stranger Things. They just capture like a. Without like. I mean they. They hit on the nostalgia note for like those kind of like old 80s movies and shows, but also like just are very novel and like really good at. In and of themselves as well. So. Love Stranger Things. The first two seasons came out like around Halloween. Ish. And it was just such a perfect thing to just kind of like watch in the dark, alone near Halloween.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. The first season was extra creepy.
Yeah.
Especially in the beginning. You're like, what is that thing? Why does it face look like a flower made of teeth?
So good. It does look like a flower made of tea.
Oh my God, you ruined flowers.
And finally listening. I don't know if I have anything at all to contribute to this, but I know Johnny and Tim, if I know you too, you have some good music for this. What do you think, Tim?
The main thing that came to mind, and this is like, I stand by this fully. This is the only thing I'll mention are the soundtracks made by Nick Cage and Warren Ellis, who Nick Cage of the Bad Seeds fame. They do incredible film soundtracks. And the two that pop into my mind immediately is the Road, which is a novel I could have talked about earlier by Cormac McCarthy. The film made. They did the soundtrack. And so their soundtracks are always. It's basically this sort of, like, dirge, kind of like slow kind of. Of swirling sound, but it's usually some combination of guitar, violin, and, like, an organ most of the time. And I. I listen to them. They definitely have some tracks that are just super eerie, but it's. It's also weirdly relaxing. So I'll listen to those while I write. I'll play them in class sometimes, like, just to, like, do something a little different. But they also did the soundtrack for the Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford with Brad.
That's such a good movie.
Yeah.
Yeah. Both of those soundtracks are just amazing. And the. But they're very simple. They can be very, kind of, like, soothing, but also, like, go dark real fast. And I think there's. I think there's a whole, like. As far as Halloween listening, I don't have anything I would listen to that's like, has words, you know? But there's lots of, like, soundtracks kind of come to mind as carrying a lot of, like. Of a, you know, a big, scary punch to him.
Yeah.
And then the news, I guess, would be the only other thing I would mention. Did I really? Oh, yeah, Yeah. I guess I could say Twitter, too.
Can I.
Could I put Twitter on here?
Oh, my God. Or the Rushland Ball Show.
Sorry.
Terrifying.
Yeah.
How about you? That's it for me, Johnny.
Yeah.
So I would put three albums first Tool, Undertow. I don't know. I don't remember why, but I remember when I first got it and I was 14, that some parts of it just freaked me out because there are all these weird hidden tracks, and some of them don't exist, and some are like 10 seconds long. And then it goes into that weird rant at the end about carrots on track 69.
I don't know about Carrots.
He plays a southern preacher who talks about the angel of the Lord came unto Me and talked about not letting the carrots get eaten by the rabbits because it's their holocaust. And it was weird. Yeah. So that one. And Antichrist Superstar by Marilyn Manson. Just because, like, hey, if you could turn horror movies into, like, sort of punky rock in the mid-90s, there you go. And you see, you see the COVID It's freaky. That was during his super weird phase. And last one, like, the darkest album I've ever heard is the Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails, which is, like, so dark, but not melodramatically dark, because, you know, Trent Mesner writes good stuff. He's a smart guy. And, you know, the title is called the Downward Spiral. It's so, you know, you've heard Hurt and Johnny Cash's cover. Anything with that song on it is pretty black. Holish.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I mean, that'll make you feel better about your life. Listen to that for a while. You're like, geez, this virtual school is not so bad.
Oh, man. One other thing that pops into my mind that is not scary in any way. Well, actually, it might be horrifying to some people because I'm going to mention the band Fish, which scares some people, but Fish makes me want to bring that up because they've got all these, like, you know, this crazy catalog of live recordings, and in 94, every time they've played on Halloween, they've done this tradition where they've covered an entire album. Basically, like, they go to Halloween as another band, and you can listen to a lot of them.
Brilliant.
Some of. Yeah, some of them were recorded or, like, officially released, but all of them are out there. But some of them you can buy, like, it, you know, Barnes and Noble or whatever. But they've done full, like, cover to cover, cover covers, cover to cover covers of, like, Quadrophenia by the who Remain In Light by Talking Heads Loaded by the Velvet Underground. They did Exile on Main street by the Rolling Stones. They did the White Album, they did the Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust. And they just learn an entire album, like, start to finish. And they do it in their own, like, very, like, fishy, kind of like, messy way. But they learn them so fast, you know, they'll spend, like, a couple weeks learning an entire album and then they'll perform the whole thing, like start to finish, which is pretty entertaining to hear them, like, basically just like, try to get through it. So I have to mention that, too, because I. I had some good times listening to their. It's like one of their official live recordings where they cover the two that Pop out to me are the Loaded by Velvet Underground and then the. The White Album to play the entire White Album, which is such a weird album to cover start to finish.
So, yeah. Yeah, it's ambitious. All right, guys. So, yeah, I don't know if we're releasing another episode before Halloween happens, so you'll have a good, good Halloween. And remember to vote if you don't. Should we?
Yeah. Don't make this world any scarier than it is. Make sure you vote.
That's the real All Hallows Eve.
Oh, yeah. Should we button this up?
Yeah, I've got packing to do. Moving to Scotland, getting out of here.
Gonna stay with Eric. Eric Lansko.
He said it before as a joke. One day I'm gonna show up at his door and be like, dude, I hope you weren't kidding because you've got really nice tasting coffee. Let's do it.
All right. Well, Johnny, where can people find you on the Internet?
You can find me@pencil Revolution.com on social media, Pensolution. And now you can buy my craft at, yeah, Etsy.com shop Pencil Revolution.
Nice. How about you, Tim?
You can find me on Twitter @timw. And I'm on Instagram @timothywassum.
Cool. And I am @andy. WTF? And on Instagram and Facebook. No, the other one. Twitter as at Awelfley. And this is the Erasable podcast. You can find this episode, episode 151. If you go to erasable us/151 to find show notes and a recording of this show, you can find us on Facebook and on Twitter and Instagram as erasablepodcast. You can come join our Facebook group, one of the friendliest bunches of people on the Internet@facebook.com groups erasable. And you can support us on Patreon. We rely on really dedicated listeners like you to help us generate a little bit of revenue to cover the cost of hosting fees and to keep us in pencils. So you can go to patreon.com erasable for that. And we just want to thank, before we go, a couple, just a few producer level Patreon supporters for their generous support. So thank you to Alex, Jonathan Brown, Alice Sara, Andrew Squish, Ann Sipe, Bob Ostwald, Bobby Lutzinger, Chris Jones, Chris Metzkus, Dave McDonald, Dave Tubman, Fourth Letter. Our friend Gary Varner, Dr. Hans Noodleman, Hunter McCain, Jacqueline Myers, James Dominguez, James Spears, Jason Dill, Jamelia, Joe Crace, John Bannon, Judy Molnar, KP Kathleen Rogers, Kelton Wiens, Leslie Tuzo, Mary Collis, Measure Twice, Michael d', Alosa, Michael Haggen, Millie Blackwell, OA Pryor, Random Thinks, Stuart Lennon, Tana Feliz, Terry Beth Ledbetter and Tyler Adarrett. So thank you so much to all of those amazing supporters. That's incredible support. So thank you all and we will talk to you soon. Do you like our podcast? Most people like our podcast, but if you like our podcast, David will turn it off.