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Transcript
I don't remember where Andy is. Hello and welcome to episode 168 of the erasable podcast. Tonight we are down one pencil podcaster and up one pen super podcaster. I'm Johnny Gamber with Tim Wasem. And Brad Dowdy of the Pen Addict is here tonight to tie up our trio while Andy is away for the week. Hey, guys.
Hello.
What's up, Johnny?
Thanks for joining us, Brad.
I have. I have big shoes to fill. Oh.
I'm sitting here with a TWSBI and a Sharpie wanting you to sign it, but I forgot that we can't do that over the Internet one day. Will you sign me, Brad?
Will you sign my twsbi?
You know, the last time we were all together was the last pen show I went to. But you know who gets to think about those things?
I was tempted to go to the DC one and then everyone was pulling out and like, yeah, no, yeah, it would have been fun.
I'm with you.
If it was in D.C. and not Virginia.
Yeah. And based on the stories you've been telling me, I don't know if they would. They would have had to kick you out like Sunday afternoon probably.
Maybe, if I made it that far. So I messaged you guys earlier this week like, hey, what do you want to talk about? And brabus, like zines and stationary. So we're going to talk about that tonight and ever since. Was it September when Ed Kemp was on episode 150, Ed Kemp being the author of Pencil of the Week, the first pencil zine. It seems like zines are blowing up among our little corner of the universe between people who create the stationary content, people who consume it. So later on we're going to talk about the connection between zines and stationery and the role that these self published gems play in the larger stationary community. But before that, why don't we do our tools of the trade and let our guest go first?
Oh boy, you actually caught me on a really great week. I did that on purpose for actually having to be able to fill in some of the questions you always ask every week. The consuming and the writing with. So I just finished two books, so is this the proper time to do my consuming? I just finished two books and started. Started another one which I'm. I love reading, but I tend to go in like these fits and starts kind of thing. So I'll go for like two or three months without finishing in a book and then I'll just like start to hammer out about four or five books in a row and Then stop again. I don't know why. I can't really explain that, but I just finished Full Spectrum, which is a book about color.
Cool.
And Adam Rogers, the author, he's worked for wired for 25 years, maybe. I've been online friends with him for well over a decade, and he sent me this book. And knowing, you know, how I think about color all the time and how color is created and, you know, recently how we can fight over which artists own color if y' all have followed the. The Vantablack saga, which I believe y' all have. Oh, yeah. And, yeah. So it kind of covers, like, all the way from the, you know, how color, you know, first came to be understood, the science behind it, and kind of the modern takes on it. So it was really, really good. I'm gonna do a. I sent Adam a Q A. We're gonna do an email. Email Q A. I'm publish on the blog because I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was really great.
That's really cool. That. That reminds me of something I wanted to talk to Andy about, but he's not here. And I'm going to ask him at some point. You know, he has this obsession with green, like his favorite color of ink, and he's got all these different samples that he's trying. And I actually learned the other day something about how green is the color that our eye can recognize the most variety in.
Yeah, there's. There is actually a whole section in the book about, you know, the colorblindness and which receptors are, like, the main receptors and how, you know, what's the. The. The main colors that they can see, you know, more so than. Than the others. That's, like a whole chapter in the book. So this. This book feels, like, way short. I mean, it's a big book, but, like, each chapter is taking this period in time, and, like, you have one chapter about, you know, okay, how does the eye actually see and perceive color? And is it, you know, physical? Is like, where does the brain play into that? And, like, that could be like, you know, an entire semester, like, college course, if not years, you know, in the one chapter. Very cool. So it was. It was really good. And I. I will probably read it again. I have a bunch of notes from that. So Adam definitely, definitely hooked me up with that and picked the right guy to read that book. Secondly, I just finished. I finished Full Spectrum like, a week and a half ago, and then I finished Subdivision, which is a fiction book by J. Robert Lennon, who y' all are probably familiar with. Oh yeah, I'm guessing.
I've been desperate for their podcast to come back. I love their podcast.
It's so unique, isn't it? Like, it's just kind of wild. And that's what this book is like. If any listeners have read any of J. Robert Lennon stuff like this, this book is. I think I've read maybe four or five of his novels. I don't know how many has he has. Probably twice that many.
Yeah, I think he has seven or eight books or something.
Yeah, this is easily the weirdest one. Like, oh, cool. By a pretty good margin. And I, I tweeted him, I said, okay, I finished and I don't even know what to say. And I think that's kind of the point. And his reply was something along the lines of, Brad, I could not have received a higher praise. Thank you.
Mission accomplished.
Yeah. And I was also, at the same time, I was like, damn it, tell me something about the. What did I just read? So, yeah, it's wild. I, like, I, I can't even do it justice. If anyone's interested in just kind of really. I don't even know how to describe it. It's not like sci fi or fantasy or, you know, like historical fiction. It's just like he tells these stories. There's oftentimes some, you know, some weirdness going on in these stories. And then he puts it, puts it together just wonderfully. I love his writing and I'll read anything that, that he puts out. So I, I really, really enjoyed that. So I needed to cleanse from the fiction and my brain being broken. I'm like, okay. So like I did full spectrum. I mostly read like non fiction stuff. So fiction is really like the outlier for me. So I went right back into nonfiction with a book I picked up a while ago based on a podcast I listened to. And the book is called We Are each Other's Harvest. And I just found the very interesting. It's in short, it's basically about African American farmers in the US after emancipation. How, you know, the difficulties that they had, the struggles they had, and then the growth that they had that was, you know, has ended up being all taken away from them, you know, around the turn of the 1900s. And, you know, the, the struggles that they've had and the comeback they're trying to lead, you know, on a like single farm by farm basis essentially. And I'm only about a quarter of the way through it. It's, it's, it's really good. Learning a lot. I, I really like to read books where I can, I can learn things like Full Spectrum and we are each other's harvest. So it's, it's great so far. I'm really digging it and you know, I'll probably finish that this week or so and then we'll see what we get into next.
Awesome.
All right. Writing with this is the question you're going to regret asking me, I should say, because I put in your show notes this long list of stuff. This is literally the kit that I write with on a day to day basis. I just told you all the things that I'm actually using right now. It starts off with my planner, which is a William Hanna planner and it's a disc bound system and it's the William Hannah's based in the UK and they make like this leather bound disc bound system where you can insert the pages, you know you have the hole punched type pages in there. And I use it for basically my daily planning. So I use a page per day format. It's got like the times listed on the left side of the page and then like an open space on the right side just for notes and things like that. Like you know, I was making notes about the podcast tonight on today's page, things like that. And on top of that I use just like a regular journal. Well, this journal's irregular in that it's like not basic at all. This is probably the most expensive journal I've ever bought. It's a Musubi journal from kind of like the Musubi Labs. I forget what Daryl calls this section of products that he sells, but it's like experimental fabrics or you know, just rare unique fabrics. And this is Japanese dyed indigo. It's called Iridescent indigo and it's an A5 journal. It's really, really pretty, it's really, really expensive and it's really, really nice. It uses bank paper, which is kind of my go to paper. I'm not a super Tomoe river paper person. I love Tomoe river. But I use things like pencils and rollerballs and gel pens and they just, they're not awesome on Tomoe river as much as I love it. So I use a more broader range paper with the bank paper and this, this notebook's just kind of perfect. Each week I grab my planner and I schedule up my week on Monday and always pick a pen to do like all my planning. This week it's the shown design Ultum fountain pen. And Ian Schoen sent me that a few weeks ago and I've Just been kind of smitten with it. It's this really unique MA material. I don't know if you're familiar with Ultum. I wasn't before a different brand, a different company made a. An ultim pin. But it's basically, it's like a medical grade plastic.
Interesting.
So it's designed to be, I guess it's got two main features. It's extremely durable, and for our purposes, it cleans out extremely well. Right. Your blood's not sticking in the pen, I guess, is the medical purpose.
But
as it turns out, it's really good for eyedropper your pen, because the ink you like, can't stain it really. And it just kind of washes out. And then on top of that, the barrel is really, really strong. So it's this cool material and it's lightweight. In, in the case of Ian's pen, like he can machine it down. It's. It's machined and the wall thickness is pretty thin. So it's actually, it's almost an ultra light pen that can just take a full beating and destruction and clean very well. So he engineered it to be like an easy eyedropper pen. It's got a bunch of O rings in it and you just fill up, fill up the barrel with ink and screw it back together and it sloshes around and you're good to go. So I filled it up with Pilot Oroshizuku Shinkai, which is my favorite blue black ink. And I, I just started using that today, so that's kind of my pen of the week. And I still use a billion other pens, but that's like my journaling planning pen for the week. So that goes in my, my notebook. And then I have a couple of other just kind of a side accessories I use around the planner. I use a highlighter called the Pilot Fit line, which we got a huge kick out of. And I don't know if either have y' all have seen something like this, but the highlighter, I was like, you, you open it up and it looks like a highlighter tip, but it has a notch around the top end of like the felt tip of like the chisel highlighter. And I was like, why is there a notch there? Well, it's, in theory, it's supposed to bend. And I'm like, why would you want a highlighter tip that could bend? And the best we could figure out is the idea is that if you're highlighting like a large textbook and the page curves, it'll manage the curve. Well, I Don't know that anyone's ever had that problem.
Or does it have somehow. Could it have something to do with highlighting like Japanese characters or something or.
Yeah, I don't know. At first I thought, well, maybe it's like for a ruler, like a weird type of ruler where it's just going to kind of like notch in there or something. But yeah, it was just, it was weird. And like that's the best we could come up with in like all the descriptions we read is like, why would you want this? So I just use it as a basic highlighter. I mean, it's like, man, these highlighters are fantastic. They're kind of like lighter pastely colors and you know, it's, it's actually two sided. It has like, like, you know, the sharper marker tip on the other side. But man, it's just a flat, great highlighter. I don't need the, the chisel tip to flex for anything, but it's just a pretty good highlighter and I use that on a. We've had a running conversation around rulers on the Panic podcast over the past month or two. So I've been exploring rulers and I have this little 15 centimeter brass travelers company ruler that, that stays with my planner. And like all of these things I just mentioned, like, this is like my little kit that every day I go to my desk and like, these are the things that are in it. You know, the notebooks don't change, but the pens do. And yeah, I just have fun putting this little kit together every week.
That's awesome. That's so organized
in theory. Yes.
I'm like, where's that pen?
And then you could do like at the end of your list, just do one of those little like in parentheses, like +100 or something for all the other pens that you use throughout the week for your.
I mean, I'm not gonna lie as I sit here and stare at this exact kit. I'll give you the count. Let's do it. See if I can do it real quick. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10. Like 23 other pens within reach.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's.
So that, that's normal. That's probably light.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, wow. Now I, I feel minimalist.
I don't like this order that Twisby. Johnny.
Yeah. I got a very philosophical question that we have not approached on the pentatic podcast yet. It just came in last week to the STPA hotline. Basically the question was, and not to totally derail everything, but go for it. The, the Question was, can you be a pin addict and also be a minimalist?
Sure, why not?
Oh, yeah, I think that's absolutely right.
Yeah. Like, long as you're particular about what you use and you're mindful about what you use, maybe even more so. I don't know.
I paused for a split second. Yeah, it's like. I paused for a split second and I was like, no, you can absolutely be a pen addict and be a minimalist.
They're like, dysfunctionally.
Those are like, you make.
Those are like the. The pen addicts who've reached nirvana. Like, the ones who are also a minimalist. You can be like, obsessed, but not just compulsively keep buying stuff that you'll, you know, maybe be able to use for a week and then won't touch for seven years or something. So that feels like the ultimate version of the pen of the pen addict is the person who's able to harness it.
That's the definite level up.
Or like, I really like bit crystals, but I like the French ones with the different colored cap. That's very pen addicty. Like the specific version of the cheap pen, which is still cheap if you, you know, know where to look.
Yeah, that's kind of like the perfect example of it. It's like, it's very specific, very particular.
Yeah. And totally worth it every time.
All 150 of them that you've got in your closet or. Totally.
Oh, yeah, sorry.
250.
Y' all aren't allowed to come to my house.
My fountain pens are in binders when they're empty, so they're out of the way. And I'm like, I don't have that many fountain pens. It fits in three binders. Like, really, really big binders.
Yeah, you gotta weigh them. Maybe that's why.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Waterman. Just a lot of brass. That's gonna be some.
Yeah.
Do you want to jump in, Mr. Tim?
Yes, absolutely. So I've been watching, finally getting to watch Ted Lasso Season 2, which been looking forward to watching, but had been holding off because of the Olympics, because that's kind of all I watched for like three weeks. So it's really good to see that mustache back in my life.
There's our title.
I love that show so much. I. I think I watched the first season three times total. I just kept watching it over and over again. So, yeah, it's. It's good if you haven't watched it. I'm reading. I just started a new novel, a Couple days ago called Hamnet. You guys heard of this? It's. It came out right at the beginning of 2020 and it's. It was a buzz book, I guess, or it was on a bunch of best of the year lists. And it's just an incredible story of timing because the novel is called A novel of the plague. It came out at the beginning of 2020 and it. First of all, before I explain what it is, it's a absolutely beautifully written book. She's the ultimate. Maggie o' Farrell is the writer and she writes. So it's like she's so good at taking her time. Like all of her descriptions, she just stops and spends as much time as she needs to describing what we need to know or what will make us feel like we're there without it feeling like Dickens novel where we're spending way too much time describing something or whatever. And yeah, it's just really beautifully written. And so the story Hamnet, which, when you hear Hamnet, you think Hamlet, right? Like from Shakespeare, his son Hamnet was a footnote to his story because he died when Hamnet died when he was 12 years old, I think it was. And so they always would say, like in Shakespeare biographies that I've read or documentaries and stuff, they say, oh, and Hamnet died when he was 12. And some think that that has some connection to Hamlet, which the premise of this novel is like, hey, academics who are saying there's no connection, you're a moron. Because first of all, in Tudor England, Hamlet and Hamnet were the same name because spelling was just improvised. Like they just kind of wing it, if you ever heard that. But if you look at Shakespeare's signatures that are on record, he spelled his name like six different ways.
Oh wow.
Spelled it with an X once, which I wish that one stuck.
I need to live in a world like that. I'm a really bad speller.
I would. That would be great for me.
See, I'm old fashioned.
So. So, so this is a novel about Hamnet, his son and like Shakespeare's away in London and it just tells the story of like who this kid was who's this little footnote in history. And it tells the story of him and his family coming across the plague. So it, this book caught on because all these people who are stuck at home ended up reading this book about 500 years ago. People being stuck home. It's a great book. I'm really enjoying it. And the last thing I've been listening to, I've talked about them on the show. Before, but this band, Mandolin Orange, which is kind of a folk duo, husband, wife, folk duo. And they changed their name.
Oh, really?
Yeah. Which is not something you see every day. But they changed their name to Watch House. And I remember when I first got into Mandolin Orange, I always told people when I was saying, like, their music is incredible. You need to listen to it. When I tell you the name of the band and I'm just going to tell you that it's probably some sort of like tongue in cheek inside joke that just got out of hand. That's like how I described it to people. I'm like, this band name, you're going to be like, what, Mandolin Orange. And maybe that was why, I don't know. But now they're called Watch House and they just came out with their first album as Watch House and the album is called Watch House and it's a. It's a delightful album. So I've been listening to it pretty much non stop for a few days. It came out last Friday.
Yeah.
Our musical tastes overlap pretty greatly and I haven't heard that. So I'm going to make sure I add that into my queue now because I. I want to make sure I catch up.
Yeah, it's really good. Really, really good. And all Mandolin Orange I love.
Yeah, deeply.
I will do it all the time. But Watch House is cool. The first song, I think I. I always like seasonally. I'll make a playlist. I just keep adding stuff to it that catches my ear in. The first song on that album, Wondrous Love, I think it's called. But that one just went straight to the playlist because it's got a really, really great sound. I love it. And I am writing with a. I've got a fountain pen out in honor of our guest. And it's also a twsbi, which I feel like is. The first big purchase that I made because of your podcast was a TWSBI580. But I've. Right now I've got a Twisby 580 ALR. What does the R stand for? Never figured out. But yeah, it's the A. So it's the Twisby 580 but with the. The metal parts. And I got the nickel one. Yeah.
I don't know if the R is because they do the ridges on the grip. That's the only thing I could think of my head.
I like those ridges, quality ridges. So I like dig the ridges. And I've got it inked up with Waterman Absolute Brown, which I got About a week ago.
How is that?
I think it's great. It's really great. I've got the medium nib and originally I had this, the fine nib in there, and I swapped it out just because it was. I wasn't getting enough. Enough juiciness like I like. And now that I got the medium in there, it's got a lot of fun shading and it makes me feel like I'm writing a, you know, a letter home from the Civil War battlegrounds of the south or something. It's got that kind of antiquey look. But yeah, I love this pen. And I've been using. I'm still, like, still working through my Leuchtron. I'm in one of those seasons of life where I'm just constantly starting new notebooks. So that's a problem. I need to figure out how to. How to reign that in because it's like things are scattered all over the place. Well, that's me. How about you, Johnny?
So I just got back from vacation and I haven't read a damn book in two or three weeks. So I kind of feel bad about that because you guys are reading good stuff. So I'm going to skip over that. I've seen the entire series, I think three times. But I started rewatching Endeavor again because it's possibly the greatest show on tv. You guys seen this before on Masterpiece?
I have not. I've heard of it, but I haven't seen it.
Oh, it's so good. It's, you know, the story of Inspector Morris as a young man in Oxford and he always has a moleskin and a Parker jotter, which is cool. So the Parker Jotters so close, so tied to his character, they'll leave it on a desk to highlight the fact that he's not there sometimes it's just really, really cool. I might have bought 10 Parker Jotters the first time I watched the show. Not joking, but yeah, it's good. There's a lot of good stationary porn in it. Unlike Grantchester, usually it's at least an attempt to replicate the old one. Like they had those Kerland quote unquote retro pens on Grantchester all the time. Like, dude, come on. Yeah, you could get like a Parker jar or something or a pencil. But so I have been reading behind the Scenes, which just came out and is one of my favorite zines in the whole world. Yeah, there's an interview with Ed and I in there. I'm not sure how much of the crap I was talking about Baltimore wound up in the final cut.
No, I need to get it.
It's the zine about zines and it's stocked full of content. I love it. Which issue was it? There was one issue where they talked about why you should get a copier. That was Ed's article. I had one in my cart on Amazon after reading that. But yeah, the other thing is I've been listening to the Cranberries a lot because my kids asked about Irish music and I was like, well, how about some Irish grunge? So we were digging that. Plus, it's a good time of year as the kids are about to go back to school to listen to somewhat depressing music from a band that broke up for depressing reasons. So, yes, they did. Yeah. I'm gonna move on really quickly to. So in honor of Tim, who sent me this pen and our, our guest host tonight, I have a Twisby go loaded up with diamine Oxford blue, which is a really nice color. And I'm writing in my bullet journal, my Rhodia. What do you call this one? The goal book. That's almost done. And these things are so nice and really durable. Really digging it. So we're going to jump into fresh points before we start talking about punk photocopied newspapers. You want to go for a spread?
Yeah. And I have one that I, I was so anxious to get this product and it's sort of pencil related. I mean, it's totally pencil related, but not in the wooden pencil realm. It is the Caran d' Ache Nespresso fix pencil. So I'm a huge Caran d' Ache fixed pencil fan. Right. It's just this, it's essentially like, it's like the Parker Jotter.
Right.
It's been around forever. It's a 2 millimeter core and you know, like a mechanical pencil barrel, but not really, I guess it's really their 849 ballpoint barrel, which is just this classic, you know, six sided design. Very standard looking, very official looking. And then they do some, you know, over the last, I don't know, lots of years, they've done some special editions and limited editions. That's when I kind of latched on to them. It's like, oh, look at these really cool colors and cool partnerships that they've done. And I couldn't believe how much I enjoyed that 2.0 millimeter core. Like, it was soft and dark, but it, it held up well and it traveled well and like I could take it anywhere and everywhere and use it. So what Caran Dash did Was, I don't know, several years ago, their popular 849ballpoint line. It's an aluminum barrel pen. And they worked with Nespresso, the. Like the. The one shot coffee maker and their little pods that they use. They got into the recycling business with them to make these pin barrels, right. For the 849 ballpoint pen. And they were pretty popular. They charged a premium, of course. I mean, Karen Dash is one of the most expensive, like, basic brands out there. And then you add anything premium and, you know they're going to get you. But I still love them. I still love them because I just love their designs. They're just so classic and so nice. So they finally came out with the Nespresso barrel, the recycled barrel, fixed pencil, and they sent me one. And it's this, you know, kind of rust orange. It's like, super my aesthetic. And it's shiny, it's aluminum, and, you know, it looks great. But the one thing I didn't know that they did was add coffee grounds to the traditional fixed pencil core. So. So the fixed pencil core, what, in The Nespresso has 25% coffee grounds in the mixture to make the 2.0 millimeter core?
No way.
So I could write with coffee.
You can if you want to write terribly.
I was waiting for that.
It is legitimate. It is legitimately bad. And like, Karen Dash is like a premium brand, and, like, they did such a good job, and then they took it, like, one step too far.
And, you know, the one thing jumped the shark.
Yeah, well, the one thing that I. I was a week too soon because apparently they also released the Swisswood with Nespresso, like, dipped in colors, like the. The colors that they're using, like the green and the red and the yellow, like, to, I guess mimic some of the. The Nespresso colors and use the same coffee ground core in those, and it's. It's equally as bad. And I'm sad. I'm sad because, you know, it just wasn't. If they would have just stuck with the barrel and the traditional fixed pencil core, which is legitimately one of my favorite, like, just writing utensils. I keep it on my desk all the time. This one. Not so good. Not so good. Guys. Don't. Don't drink your. Your pencil. You can't. I don't know, maybe this would be better if you could, like, reconstitute it into coffee somehow, right?
With it. Don't give me ideas.
So Johnny went from I can write with coffee to I can drink pencils
like, why are there so many holes in your arm? I'm just seeing if it works, man.
Yeah, it's actually like, it's just like really scratchy and light and it's. It's not enjoyable, so I'm sad.
That's disappointing. Geez, I kind of want to cry.
Yeah. So my, my freshpoint was a little bit of a bummer, but I thought, you know, you guys would. Would appreciate the pencilness of it.
Yeah, I want to see those wooden ones. I'm gonna check those out.
Yeah, they're the same. The. The dark Swisswood and they have different color dipped end caps. They're kind of shiny yellow, green, and red. And then the core is 25 coffee grounds instead of the regular swisswood core that I use.
I wonder how that affects the archivability because coffee's pretty acidic.
Yeah, that's a great point.
Oh, I don't want to think about it. This is making me cry.
Sorry.
Oh, man. Are those your. Your points?
Yes, that is. That is my point.
End on a depressing note. Like I did.
Sorry.
Oh, you have a writer's block trick.
I do.
I want to hear about.
And I'm very excited about sharing this with you. Okay. Just. Just bear with me here. I stumbled across this trick in the last two weeks and we'll see if it like lasts the, you know, the test of time. And this is going to sound like a humble brag, but sometimes I like, I get to a point when I've got a project that I really care about and that I want to make a lot of progress on. My handwriting looks too good sometimes. And so I see it on the page and I'm like, my handwriting looks fancier and better than what I'm making. Does that make sense?
I've never had that experience.
It just feels like it feels like my handwriting, which I work on that more than I work on my writing. So it's like my handwriting looks like amazing. And I read it. I'm like, this is just disgust. This is garbage. Whatever. And this doesn't always bug me, but it was bugging me that day because I was just like, I feel like such a fraud. I have good handwriting. I have nice pens, but I can't finish anything.
You do have great handwriting.
Yeah.
I mean, it's. If I switch to print, like non cursive, it looks like a like 10 year old who forgot that he's right handed. But so here's the trick. So I switched my computer and I just had this thought. This thought crossed my Mind. It's like, well, you know, sometimes like when I'm writing on a computer, I have a problem because it looks like a book, right? It's like, it looks too final or something. It's kind of the same problem, but just in text. Here's what I did. I was in Google Docs and I switched to 16 point comic sans. And I am not kidding. I've been so productive in the last two weeks because you cannot take yourself seriously writing in Comic Sans in a large font.
Oh, my God.
And it just, like, it just broke me free. It just blew my mind. And so I. You know, you get to the end of something, you just select all, switch it to Garamond or something fancy like that. And then you're. You're back to the real world. And then you feel like. Feel like the real deal. So I'm making buttons. I'll send you guys one. Because I told my students about this because they were. And a bunch of them have started doing it. It's like, can you switch your document to Comic Sans? And they're like, no. I'm like, trust me. Trust me. Switch to Comic Sans. There's. You can't take yourself seriously, and you will just write. And so it worked for a bunch of kids. So I'm making buttons. A teacher at my school is helping me. We have a button press, and we're making buttons that say, comic Sans doesn't believe in your writer's block. So. So that's my writer's block tip. I mean, it's. I promise you. Just, it's. It works.
In case I forget, I know this is jumping the gun, but you should totally magazine about that and obviously do it in that font in Comic Sans. Yeah, you do like a. A quarter sheet where there are three words on a page. I would. I would buy that and give it to all my friends who write.
Yeah, I could see it being like a rage writing thing. Just like, I hate this so much. And now I'm just like, I'm amped up and all the words are just gonna start flying.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's. That's fair. And it's. It's like that. Johnny, you were recently. You had written something about. And you. You mentioned Natalie Goldberg, and she had. In Writing down the Bones, she has a section where she talks about writing in notebooks and how she only uses, like, cartoon character spiral notebooks that she buys on sale at grocery stores, like, after back to school season because she can't take herself seriously. So she's Writing with this like Shaffer fountain pen that she loves, but she's using these junkie notebooks with like superheroes and football teams on the front just so that she doesn't take herself too seriously. It's kind of like. It's kind of like some version of that.
I like it.
Yeah.
So there you go.
Do you do like caps lock?
No. No. Oh man. That's some next level stuff, Johnny. I haven't done that yet.
Like in green.
Change the color.
No. Oh gosh. That's a great idea. Switch. Yeah, switch it to like, like fuchsia or something. Oh yeah.
That would hurt your eyes though.
Oh man.
Or my eyes.
There's some green that might be good. This is great. Thanks guys. This is.
See, this is fodder for your. Your Tim's writer's trick. Tim's writing trick. This ain't.
Yeah.
Number one.
They mess with like the coding so that the. Like the lines aren't even straight. They kind of wave.
Oh man.
Or something. It's just. Just a mess. Just make it look as terrible as possible.
I wonder if there's a plugin.
Finish the novel.
I wonder if there's a plug in for that. For Google Docs.
Oh, there's gotta be something.
I don't know.
So. That's me.
I love it.
That's me. So, Johnny, how about you? So I just saw the document.
I've been staring at it the whole time.
That's funny. I've been. I've been too zoned in on my. On dropping a knowledge bomb on you guys and I didn't even notice that you changed it to fresh or changed it to Comic Sans.
Related question. If you don't take yourself seriously, do you think this would work? I don't take myself seriously enough. And oh, I already laugh at myself the whole time I'm writing.
That's. That's. But that's why you're so productive, Johnny. That's why you put out 11 zines a week, is because you don't think about it and you just do it and they're great and. But me, it's just like I'm just gotta get my head up my butt too much and this I gotta. I gotta resort to the size 16 comic sans and then bring me back to Earth.
Okay. If you don't make a scene to
remind myself that I haven't finished anything. What?
If you don't do a zine about this, I'm gonna do it and put
your name on it.
Yeah. So I had a little piece in the Penzine about the Bic crystal, which I jumped the gun on because I didn't have the Bic Renew, which I think we talked about on this podcast. Not the secret ink one, that's the, the new BIC quote unquote crystal that's made of metal and refillable. So I found some. I don't know if it's in all areas, but around here we're like super Amazon town. You know, you can get stuff in like five minutes and they'll ship stuff from Amazon UK for free now, which is awesome. And that includes a two pack of the Bic Renew for like 20 bucks. One of each color, the blue and the black. And they come in a totally plastic free case that's cardboard with two extra refills. And they're so freaking cool. At first I didn't like the cap was plastic, but I realized that if it wasn't, it wouldn't work. So, yeah, if you like big crystals, get one of these, some guns because they're really cool and they have an eject button to pop the refill out, which I keep messing with constantly.
Yeah, I'm looking at the marketing on there and like it says refillable and like a huge, huge, huge print on there. And then under that it says rechargeable. Except that's probably like refillable in French. I'm like, how is this pen rechargeable? But it's just rechargeable. Probably for like refillable.
No, you, you hook it up to a coffee pot. It's rechargeable that way.
You feed it caran d' ache pencil cores.
Yeah, I, I don't know anywhere that has the refills yet, but you know, it comes with three. And you're not going to lose this like you would lose a regular crystal. So like, that's a lot of writing. You could easily bang out like a nanowrimo with two of those.
Yeah, these are cool. I'm gonna get these.
Yeah.
Or Comic Sans.
I'm gonna start writing in that all the time now. But yeah, I'm really excited about those. And also while I was at the beach, of course I had to check out a little back to school shopping. And the Bic crystals that they had at that particular Walmart come in cardboard instead of plastic casing.
I saw your picture. Yeah, that was cool.
Yeah, I would like the idea, but it's full of disposable plastic pens. So like, I mean, I appreciate the effort and they're cool. I like having stuff that comes in a box, which I'm not joking about. But they. They had done away with the pink and Andy's favorite green of the. The jumbo ones, and they replaced them with teal and sort of like a 90s pink. And now the old ones are back and the new ones are in there. So there's 10 colors now. And also at Walmart, I found a new product by Ticonderoga, that being my first try, right in neon. So Rosie's going into kindergarten and Rosie's got some of these. But they only had packs that were like a two pack of a rare green and yellow. But I just saw on Amazon they make packs of all the neon colors. So that's my new mission. But, yeah, did you guys ever get the.
When did they come out?
2019, when they redid the neons and they started making them in the Chinese factory. And they're like, like really, really nice pencils that just aren't made of cedar.
No, I hadn't tried them.
I remember those and I think I just bucked and forgot about them just because I could tell they weren't cedar because I was being a snob, but
I wish I would have tried them. Yeah, they. They sell like the dozen pack or 10 pack or whatever at Walmart. Henry got some, and they're the. On these, they make blue, which is great. And the eraser color matches the barrel. And the paint finish is like, really nice. Matte quality controls really good. It's like, ooh, really nice. I might have a stockpile of those. Moving on to our main top. So I think I mentioned before, after Ed was on Erasable, not that Erasable's taking credit for it, but if anything, definitely Ed deserves the credit for a sort of mania explosion of stationary zines. Headed, of course, by Pencil of the Week, which has been around since 2017. It's been a while for folks that don't know. Our friend Ed Kemp, who runs the word distribution, makes a zine where he writes out reviews of pencils that he uses all week by hand and then copies them when he has enough of them into a zine and puts them out. I guess maybe before we get into the details, we could run through and talk about what was our first exposure to zines in general. And, you know, what did you think when you saw one?
Yeah, came about, like, a lot of things in my life through music back in the late 80s, early 90s. I'm old, remember, we didn't have as much access to the digital world. You know, the Internet's. In its young years. And, you know, at that time, it's like, all I wanted to do was find interesting music. And, you know, whether I'm, you know, scouring like, import CD singles at Tower Records or whatever, you know, you get into as deep as you can into the. The bands and the. The. The sounds you're into. And then you read about, you know, you get. I was getting magazines, you know, like NME and Melody Maker and all these things. And eventually you keep digging. Once you. You find these bands that you really like, and you're like, oh, there's these zines. What are these little, small, tiny little publications that somehow would make it onto, like, the really obscure record store shelf in, like, the bottom right corner and like, what is this all about? And you pick some of these up and you're like, oh, well, if this, you know, zine is out here for, I don't know, whoever, may. Whichever band, maybe there's one out there for a band that I like. And I. At the time, I was really big into Morrissey. May he rest in peace. At least what he. He used to be. He's not dead. He's just. Dead.
I was gonna say. Wait, what?
He's just. He's just dead to me. I don't want to talk about it.
Yeah, moving on, moving on. I understand.
But, yeah, I was a huge Smiths and Morrissey fan, right? So, you know, back in then, this is like in Morrissey solo career days. Like, it's just like the fan base is ravenous, and you would get all of these people just writing these zines. And at the time, I could find them online, you know, even though the, you know, the Internet was barely chugging along. And, you know, it take me like a half an hour to connect on my modem to this brick of a laptop. And you could order like, hey, you know, this person's putting out this zine and it's $5 a month, and it comes out $4 four times a year. And I was like, dang, I'm in. And then you could hear stories of other people like yourself, right, Telling you about the things that you like. In this case, it was Morrissey or music, you know, and just having this individual connection from someone or with someone who liked the same things that you do, but who was just a regular person like you were, you know, they weren't writing for Rolling Stone or they weren't, you know, part of some big, you know, you know, big office, big journalistic endeavor is just like, you know, Sam in his Basement, you know, stealing photocopy time at the school and then selling it to you for like two bucks. Sounds like kind of like what Johnny does these days. And. Yeah, and it was just like fascinating. Like you could connect with these people, right? It was like, oh, these are my people. Like, they're just saying that they're like a super fan and they're just trying to, you know, give you their take on there. And then, you know, I'd find other bands that I like. I remember. So, like, I subscribed. I still have a bunch of my Smiths and Morrissey zines from that time period, so just like stashed away in a box. I've never thrown this away. And I'll go back and reference them sometimes and just because they were really extremely well done for the time. It was like shockingly good, you know, like glossy covers and things like that, you know, as they continue to grow. And then, you know, the more I got into it, you know, I. You would go to concerts and then like I went to a concert. One of my other favorite bands is called the Wedding Present. And like you could buy the zine from the lead singer at the merch table after the show. Like, that's just what you did. And I was like, oh, and by the way, will you autograph this? And it's like just this cool little piece of memorabilia that's like super tiny and super small, but like super special to the people who are really into it. And so that's kind of how it all started for me. Becoming aware of this phenomenon that's just kind of like one piece of fandom at the time, you know, is this really small personal piece of fandom in the music scene. And that's how I got into it. So of course I love seeing, you know, what's happening now in the stationary world. So how about y'?
All?
I know the first I. The first time I even came across the idea of zines was actually because of my brother in law who's a writer. And I've actually got it in my hand right here. He is a poet and he published. Had published a zine before that I had seen like around. Like my wife of course had a copy and her parents had a copy around. But I didn't even. The word zine hadn't even. Just wasn't something I was aware of until maybe. Well, when did this one come out? Because this is the first time I heard it called that. This was in 2013. So I just had been totally off my radar and Then John, his name is John Harkey and he came out with a little zine, a poetry zine called Mask Work. And I'll just send you a picture of it because it's actually really amazing. He got kind of recruited for this project. There was, they were calling it the, the Little Red Leaves textile series, but It's. Yeah. So little redleaves.com. i don't know if it's still there, but it's printed on this really nice paper. Unfortunately, it doesn't designate what kind of paper, but she. Basically the people that got recruited to do it were paired up with a textile artist and I guess he referred to as zine. He also called it a chat book. But it is stitched like the COVID is stitched with this really cool looking fabric and just has a very handmade look, but also feels oddly sturdy. I don't know, I'll send you a picture of it so you can see it. But that was the first time I really remember coming across it. And then once I was aware of them, I guess most of my awareness kind of stayed in the literary zine world because of Asheville, North Carolina. And we would go to Asheville and every bookstore in Asheville, there's three bookstores in Nashville. And all of them had a little setup where they, they had local artists, like local writers, zines for sale. And I bought a few of those over the years with short stories and poetry mostly. But yeah, that was, that was definitely my, my exposure. What about you, Johnny?
I was a summer camp counselor when I was in high school and my friend who was the swimming teacher brought one in and I think that might be the first one I saw. It was a little quarter sheet full of poetry and it was very, you know, punk aesthetic. And he was, he was one of those really cool people who may or may not have been as relaxed as he seemed, but would say stuff like TVAs they're just shoes or like carry around a fat little notebook and just pour poetry into it all day. I mean, I thought he was the coolest thing. And then when I saw this, I thought that was the coolest thing. Like, oh, you can just photocopy your poetry and people will read it. That's awesome. But I never made one. And yeah, they've always said this like, you know, I am not that cool mystique to them that I only let go of a couple months ago. I don't know if this list is complete, but do you want to run down the list of zines currently put out by Stationary folks that are also about stationery. Pencil of the week, of course, by Ed Kemp, being, so far as I know, the original one and still the best and coolest and the one I look forward to. Um, some weirdo writes one called Pencil Revolution. Um, there's use journaling from Les from rsvp, which I freaking love.
It's great.
Love it.
She does a really good job.
Yeah, like, the. Everything about that's perfect. The writing, the. The production. I'm super, super excited for the next one to come out. And then there's a new pen one by same weirdo called the Pen Post that it only has one issue so far. So why do you guys think that so many zinesters appear to be fond of stationery? Because, like, when I talk to people, they're like, oh, I freaking love pens. Or the person who runs Xerography Debt is a huge fountain pen fan. A lot of people just really think about it a lot. What do you guys think that's about?
I think a lot of it comes from the creative side of people who. The people that are making zines are the same people like you and I, who, if they saw a big crystal laying in the parking lot, would pick it up and go, hell, yeah. And that mentality translates into, like, maybe I'm stretching this a little too far. But it translates into, like, okay, I have this little bug inside of me that finds writing utensils a little bit, you know, maybe more than a little bit awesome. You know, like, so, you know, if I'm someone that is, like, that. That cares that much about, like, saving a pencil, they see laying in the grass, you know, they also probably deep down inside maybe have, like, you know, a desire to talk about those things a little more. You know, maybe. Maybe I'm. Like I said, maybe I'm overthinking it a little bit. But I think, like, there is a certain type of person who likes to nerd out on, like, super, super specific things. And, like, I could write. Don't ask me to do this, Johnny. I'm not going to do it. I could write. I could write an entire article about finding a Bic in a parking lot. Like, I just could, right? And there's. There's not a big audience for that, but the audience for that is, like, 100 coverage in the Venn diagram of the same person that would pick up a zine with a sketch of a big crystal on the COVID and go, yes, these are my people. So, like, that's kind of a little bit like the world we're living in now to where we can find all of these little niche hobbies and niche ideas and friends and new people just from these little creative tidbits of other people wanting to share little bits of their lives. And like, I just think zines are one of the kind of the most expressive ways to do it. Right. Like, I can write a pen review all day long, but expressing myself in a zine format, like, that's pretty cool. Like, that's, that's kind of like a next level thing. And so whenever I see it, you know, like from you or Les or Ed or anyone, like, I want to support that because, like, I super, super believe in that art form.
Yeah. I think the thing that came to mind for me on this question was that most people who are stationary minded, who just care about this kind of stuff, they tend to also be in the ballpark of people who like to, you know, read or like creative endeavors in general. And I think that one thing that we all do to a certain extent, I know I do a lot and Johnny and you and I have talked about this, but when you find out about a writer that you love, one of the first questions that people like us ask is, I wonder what they use. You know, like, I wonder. And so there's something about zines that is almost like you get to skip the middleman of the editor and the publisher. And so these people that you know who, you like their blogs, you like the things they create, you like the way they talk or the things they talk about. Suddenly you get this just straight line into. You see their handwriting or you see their what, what their mind would look like if you didn't have this barrier of, of technology in between you and them. If that makes sense.
Yeah, yeah.
And I think that's, I think that's a big part of it. It's just that we like to see things in their most, like, elemental format. We, most of us, if we, if somebody walked up and just said like, this is my notebook of random things, like lists and things that I use throughout the day, and if for some reason they were like, would you like to look at it? 99% of people in the world would be like, no. Why, why would I be like, absolutely. Let me see that. Let me see what kind of doodles you got in here. What are you doing? Like, what, what occupies your day and how do you find joy in using these things? That would definitely make sense to me. So I think it's just, it's like, yeah, it's like, it's like skipping the whole process of making things fussy and just getting to see things right at their. At their, like, elemental sort of core.
The sort of bible for zinesters is called Stolen Sharpie Revolution. Like, for me, what I liked about zines was the sort of cut and paste aesthetic. Even still, when I do one that involves a lot of computering, I don't enjoy making it quite as much. It's stressful because I don't know what I'm doing. And, you know, if you can get it to look good, you can get it to look perfect. If you're doing it by hand, like, whatever, you can read it. Copacetic.
That's. It's really interesting you mentioned that because we talked a while back when you were first getting into zines, and I had an idea for one and I started writing it and I wrote most of one issue using one of your early templates. Like the, the. The real small one. What was. What do you call that?
It's a. Oh, the single sheet one that you fold up. The mini zine.
Yes, that one, that one. And I was doing it all on the computer and I just got like, locked up. And I didn't know about Comic Sans then, so don't judge me on that. But. No, but seriously, I think part of it was. Now I'm kind of realizing as we talk about this is that, I mean, if I give this thing a go and if I try to do this, it's. It has to be handwritten for me or just like, I mean, just let it be totally on paper and not have to deal with a computer at all. And that might be something that helps me kind of unlock my. Myself.
Yeah, I was trying to do that, but my handwriting's not that good. Like, it's not working. Like, I don't know how Ed pumps his out like that.
But I was going to say with yours, Johnny, even though, okay, maybe it's typed instead of handwritten, the presentation is still more raw and dirty and not like super polished. Even though, like, it's polished for what you're doing. Right. But like, in the, in the grand scheme of the world, right, it's not like this glossy magazine. And I think that's what we appreciate so much, is that we get to see a part of. It's just a little bit more real. And, you know, it came from a, like a more direct place. Like, there was a direct path kind of like Tim was. Tim was talking. Like, it's more of a direct conversation with the creator and you know, sometimes that's messy and dirty and like, I don't think I would have it any other way.
So what role do you think that zines are playing? Sort of in the stationary community? For me it's just stressful because now I have this like set of expectations that I. And it sort of put me off blogging a lot. But a lot of other people are just like putting out more, which is awesome.
Well, it's funny you said that about blogging is because I think it's, it's, it's a different way to, you know, share your love for a certain topic. And as traditional as blogs have become in a more non traditional way, as the zine, like which used to be like super famous and super popular, you know, even, you know, not mainstream but just like way more accessible, you know, I know there's some zine shows now, but like you used to be able to go to a, you know, like a record show or just any type of like event and just have all these, you know, artistic zines or comic zines and people are just putting these together, just, you know, very, very simple terms. And then I think that the digital world kind of did away with that. And now just like everything else and while we see such a love for pens and pencils and analog tools and stationery, we're getting back into, oh, you know what, I don't have to do a blog to, to do something creative or to share what I like. I can do it zine and kind of put my, my stamp on the world that way. And I think that's a really cool way to go about it.
Yeah, it's, it's almost like zines are what we all wish blogs could be. Or, or like the zines are like the blog. Like a post apocalyptic blog. Yeah, I mean like, yeah, like if all of us who are interested in this stuff in these blogs and reading the Pen Addict and like if we went off grid, like if, you know, the world ended or something, we'd like hold out hope that Brad would be like printing this stuff on paper on like leaflets and be like handing it out on the street. Be like, hi tech C. You need to try a high tech C. You need to loot your local, you know, office max and find this. But yeah, just, yeah, it's like, I think, I think we all secretly would probably prefer if all of our favorite blogs just did this and then we got them in the mail and we could just look at them and hold them in our hands because it's the Whole idea of the analog interest or the analog hobby.
That reader, writer relationship goes both ways. You know, it's like the writer or the, the, the publisher, I'm sure, loves that just as much as us. Like the reader, you know, loves getting that insight. I'm sure the writer, it, it's a more direct, you know, way to, to have a discussion with people and, you know, as opposed to, you know, larger, larger, more official publications.
Yeah. And you know, zines don't have a comment section. So if somebody's going to respond, it's going to take. I'm right, they don't. Yeah.
Stamp or an email down vote.
When you send me a zine, I'm just gonna send you back a thumbs down picture or a thumbs up picture. One zone. Depending on which way you open the envelope, you'll be like, did he like it or did he not like it? I don't know.
I'm sure you guys had this, I mean, I've had this experience with your blogs, but sometimes people will just leave like this comments like, oh, this is stupid. Why did you bother to type that? But people don't do that with zines. Like, they're not going to bother. Zines are making analog stuff analog, which is cool. When I write one, I don't personally feel the need to post my detailed review of the Ticonderoga Whatever or the Tennessee Red like I would on a blog the way that Ed does his. It's not like, hey, here's this new pencil and why you should go buy it. It's like, I was using this pencil for a long time at work and this is what I think of it. I love that, like, wouldn't feel the same on a blog or even typed out.
Yeah, that's exactly what I'm thinking. It's funny how, like, that type of content wouldn't really translate to a blog. Like, for a blog I write a certain way. Can I, can I cuss on this podcast where you leave it out for a zine? I want to read more about your stupid. Like, that's just what I want to read about. Which you're not going to get in my blog. Right. And because it's, it's written in a certain tone and it would be weird if I just all of a sudden just like, like dropped like the zine format digitally. Like, I wouldn't like that. Like, it wouldn't work, but in this kind of, you know, printed xeroxy, you know, cut and paste type of publication. Man, just tell me about all that weird Stuff.
And let's go in the future because it seems like, you know, there's. There's a certain momentum to this. What do you guys want to see Regarding a zines and stationary?
Brad said, bring us your weird. That could be like, you know, there's your. That's. I feel like the, the zine gives people in our little world an opportunity to write about the things that they love that aren't like, SEO friendly or whatever.
Like.
So just the, the great thing is that it gives people opportunity to get as specific and particular and picky as they want. Like to, you know, I mean, Johnny, I got a.
You're.
You're always giving me zine assignments that I may or may not be able to fulfill, but yours is the, the French bit crystals. Like, you know, do a whole thing about that. Like, it's. Whatever your, whatever your thing is, whatever your brand of weird is. Like, you can, you can put it out there. And the great thing is that people just will come to it as they want it. So I think. I don't know, just more of them, period.
Yeah, I want to see. I want to see a washi tape zine and I want to see it in black and white just to mess with people because all that stuff's so colorful and like, you could write the descriptions of how cool the colors are, but all those, all the copies are going to just be in black and white.
That would be sick.
Yeah. So a couple months ago, I texted Brad and I was like, I want to make a penzine. Do you want to write the forward? And he's like, call me when you get a chance. I'm like, oh, crap, he's going to tell me he's doing one already. And then you weren't. And I was happy for a second, and then I was disappointed. Like, oh, I want Brad to be cuzine. I think that would be freaking awesome.
Now he called you and you. You had this whole, like, set up and then you got on the phone with him and he was like, no,
I'll see if I can.
Just hung up.
Yeah, no, I'll see if I can find you the image before. Before we get done. But when I decided to go work for myself and leave my day job and do the pen addict stuff for a living, I knew I was going to do a membership type of program, but I didn't know exactly what it would be. I didn't know it was going to be the newsletter that I published because the original idea for that was a zine. And I have this Little sketch that I drew out on what the zine was going to be. And it was going to be called Refill, which is what the membership newsletter is called now. And I'll try to find that and we'll. I'll get it to you so you can put it in the show notes. But my original idea for what I would offer members would be a zine. And that's how the newsletter itself got started. So not too late for you. And put it in there. Yeah, it's got a little, like a little layout and how I was going to fold it and you know, stuff like that.
So, yeah, I think if you show that. Show that to us, then you have to do it at least like one issue. See how it goes.
Yeah, I was gonna say, like, if I did that, maybe that could be like the annual.
That would be awesome.
Because I wouldn't be able to take away the weekly newsletter. Hey, I found it. I wouldn't be able to take away the weekly aspect of. Of what I do for the pentatic members now. But, you know, once a year, do a physical copy. Man, I can't believe I just said this on a recording.
Yep,
publish, publish, publish, publish.
So there I just put it in the note.
I would love to see somebody make a scene about, like, restoring vintage fountain pens that included, you know, diagrams and drawings.
Like.
Like, that would be so awesome. And it's so cool.
Pens are kind of untouched in the so far, so, I mean, besides Johnny years. But like, it's called Pencil Revolution and you just do the pen post. But like, more penzines would be great.
Yeah.
Or just like, oh, gosh, it'd be so funny. Just kind of like what Brad was saying. But if somebody did an ink sample zine that was again, all black and white where they just write. You write descriptions of the ink and try to, like, explain what it's.
I'm so.
What it looks like in the benefits. But it's all photocopy. That's what it should be about.
That's what zines are, man.
It's like, this is an issue of all red inks that I love. I was like, this one in the Japanese Noodlers Tiananmen. What do you think?
They do these huge, huge stationary magazines in the Japanese market. I don't know if you've ever seen them. And they're they're like, you know, like US$25. And they like, literally have like hundreds and hundreds of color swatches of inks. And it's just like, man, that's Crazy.
And how do you print them accurately?
I have no idea, but I bet they're totally accurate.
So I wanted to do a sort of like monthly zine or a monthly. Monthly ink with the Penzine and just have a little card inside that had like a sample. And then I realized that I don't hate myself that much because that would take so long. But. Yeah. Do you guys have anything to add or any more questions?
I don't know. I might be up for the. The. The ink of the month sample, though. I. We. We might can tag team that. We'll see.
That would be fun. We all have writing samples using the ink.
No, that's. That's a little too far, probably. I would just. I would just. It would just be like this constant text of me, like, cussing out Johnny. I can't believe I agreed to do this. Gentleman Red. This is the dumb, dumbest idea. Diamond Ox Blood.
Yeah. Yeah, that'd be great. It's just. You're basically just a. It's a new way to troll people. If you want to get off the Internet and still troll people, then just make a black and white zine about things that are colorful.
Yes, Zines. Just do them because they're fun.
Yeah. In the 90s, it was, like, expensive to do it because nobody was going to buy it if you made one, so you're just making copies. But now with Etsy, you can not lose money when you make zines, which is nice and even. Like. Like maybe be able to replace your printer when you kill it making scenes like I did. So I'm gonna button this one up and tell folks where we can find you on the Internet. Do you want to go first, Brad?
You can find me@penaddict.com. that's where you can go and find all the things that I'm into instead of listing out all of the randomness because there's. There's a lot, it seems.
Can you spell that, please? We're not familiar.
I have links to all the things. One of the. The newest fun things. Well, it's not new. I've been doing it for quite a while. Is I stream on Twitch and that's been a really, really enjoyable experience to get a bunch of stationary people live on Twitch to talk about pens and paper and inks and do a lot of shows and show and tells and some pen cleanings. So that's been really fun. You can find the link to that
on penatic.com you can find me on Twitter timwassom. And I'm on Instagram. Timothy you awesome.
I'm@pencilrevolution.com and on social media you can find us at Erasable Us. This is episode 168, so it would be erasable us168. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @erasablepodcast. And you can join our group, which is really awesome@facebook.com groups. Just erasable. These are our patrons from Patreon who are producers and make this all possible. David Johnson, Phil Munson, Nate Rybeck, Donnie Pierce, Bill Black, Miriam Bokout, Allison Zapita, Diana Oakley, Tom Keakley, Andre Torres, Kyle Paul Moorhead, Andrew Squish, Alisera, Jamelia, Stephen Fonsali, Aaron Willard, O.A. pryor, Karen Peabody, Millie Blackwell, Chris L. Hunter McCain, Bob Ostwald, Michael D', Alosa, Jocelyn Myers or Jacqueline Myers? I'm sorry. Tana Feliz, Ann Site Joe Krase, Measure Twice, Michael Hagan, Chris Metzkus, Bill Clow, Random Thinks Jason Dill, Dave McDonnell, Mary Collis, Alex Jonathan Brown, Andre Prevost, Kathleen Rogers, Bobby Letzinger, Fourth Letter Kelton Wiens, Scott Hayes, Hans Noodleman, Jay Newton, Dave Tudman, Chris Jones and Tom Wood. Thank you guys very much and we'll see you in two.
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