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Transcript
Here in Joe Biden's America, pencil companies rule the planet. Welcome to episode 173 of the erasable Podcast. I'm Andy Welfle, here with the co hosts for whom I am the most thankful, Tim Turkey Wasum and Johnny Cranberry Sauce. Gamber. Hey, guys.
Giblets. Giblets.
Turkey.
Johnny Giblets. Gamber.
Hey, Andy.
Hey, how are you?
Thanks for just calling me a turkey.
It was poorly improvised.
He called you a tofurkey. You're wholesome.
Yeah, yeah.
You're delicious.
Tofurkey. Tofurkey. Wasam.
No, tryptophan.
So today we are, as you may have surmised from the intro, we're going to talk about some of the things that we're most thankful for here in 2021. Before we do that, let's jump into tools of the trade. Tim, what are you consuming and writing with?
Well, I went to the theater a couple days ago for. I think it's the second time since all of the world broke. And I. Last one was James Bond and now we saw the French Dispatch too, which I had mentioned that you had seen. And we had been very excited to see the new Wes Anderson movie. Was convinced that we'd have to drive at least to Asheville, North Carolina, or something to see it. And then it showed up in Johnson City, Tennessee, so.
Yay.
And we ended up enjoyed a very empty theater with two other couples we didn't know who all just kind of enjoyed all the dry humor and weirdness together.
It seems like you should. You should all become friends just purely in the fact that you live in Johnson City and like Wes Anderson.
Yeah. And it was also this, like, funny thing, was like, the couple to our right and like, down the road, because we're all spread out because we're not weirdos. They were like mid-20s. Jane and I are in our mid-30s. And then the other people were like, you know, in their 50s. I was like, this. This could work. We need to turn this into a supper club or something. Yeah.
Wes Anderson separate club.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But, yeah, we had a great time. It was. I didn't. I. I knew very little. I didn't read anything about it before the. Before it. Which was kind of great. I didn't realize it was going to be sort of a book of short stories.
Yeah.
Or not really a short stories. A magazine.
Magazine of New York articles.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
I. I loved it, but I really wish that Elizabeth Moss would have been in it more like.
Yeah. That was so weird.
I know.
She had three lines and be. And be awesome for a scene and then she would just go away. Yeah, yeah, it was. That was. It was such an interesting format. We had. We had a really good time and it was the only thing I had heard about it, like review wise, is people who just said it was like a Wes Anderson movie on crack. Like it's just sort of steroided. Yeah, Wes Anderson, which is what it was. I mean, there's so much going on
that meme, like gif. Where there's something that's like vibrating and it says like such and such intensifies. I feel like it was just like Wes Anderson intensifies. Yes.
Yeah. This is like pure diluted. Yeah, pure undiluted Wes Anderson. And there's some of the stories I liked more than others. Like, it was interesting leaving. It was like there were a couple that stuck out that I was just like, oh, man, that was amazing. And then the other ones, I couldn't even remember what the story was. I was like, what was your favorite? What was the other one? Definitely the one about the painter.
Yeah, that was my favorite.
Moses Rosenthal. That was. That was my favorite. And then I also. I did. I. I'm just such a big Francis McDormand fan that I loved hers too. The little revolutionary Timothy Chalamet.
Yeah. Yep.
That was so good. Those two are my favorites.
I think mine was the Painter. And then I think my second favorite was probably the. Oh, the one where Edward Norton is like the. Like the. The thief or whatever. Like that holds the. The constable's son for ransom. Yeah, yeah.
See that one? I barely remembered. I need to see it again. I was just like. I feel like I was. You'd finish one section before you could finish processing that section.
Yeah.
A third one was.
We need a break.
5 minute break in between intermissions.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So that was. That was great. It was fun to see a movie of substance in the theater again. Haven't done that. Haven't done that. And you know, very much, you know, sorry, Paw Patrol, but I've been reading a new Tana. French or not new? Well, new to me. It's fairly new in general, but a ton of French novel called the Searcher, which is a mystery about a. It's like a Chicago. Retired Chicago police officer who's now divorced, moves to Ireland. Like, he buys this land and fixes up this little house and just some weird stuff starts happening in the town and he can't help himself, but. But sort of come. Sort of come out of retirement and Become a rogue cop in another land. So it's really good. She's a such a good writer. I've talked about her before, of course, but this one's very good and it's not connected to any of the Double and Murder Squad books that she wrote that series of. And lastly, new album that I've just been super excited about is the. The War on Drugs put out their newest album and it's called I Don't Live Here Anymore. It's a really good album. Adam Granducil, the main songwriter and guitar player, was just on Song Exploder, which is a really good. That was a really good episode. And he was also in. Oh well, there's a songwriting podcast I listen to called Soda Jerker on songwriting and he was just on that one. Which those interviews are awesome. So he's. I've. Yeah, I've talked about them before. I'm a big fan. But you should check out the. The new album. It's called I Don't Live Here Anymore. And I am writing with one of the new Blackwing collaborations. The Blackwing and Preservation Hall Pencil. Got those. And I'm writing in one of the Blackwing progress composition notebooks. The Woody got three notebooks.
Oh, cool.
That I just. Just busted into.
Are you going to talk about that more for fresh points or can we ask questions?
I'm gonna save it for fresh points. I'm. I learned that from Dan Brown on Masterclass. You should make people. You should plant a seed and then make them wait.
It's going to be the most powerful fresh points ever.
Chapter two. Chapter two.
Cool. So yeah, that's me and Johnny.
So I've been watching like way too much tv. So I'm only going to mention two things because it makes it seem like I watched less tv. There's a miniseries on Britbox called the Long Call that's by. Oh my God, not Ann Cleaves or. It's based on Ann Cleaves novel. She's the lady who created Shetland. So that was like super good.
Like the entire city of Shetland.
No, this the series. Oh, and Shetland season six is on Brit Box now. One. One episode a week. It's so good. And you guys catch Dopesick on.
No, I saw that though.
Open a pandemic.
No, it's. That's the one with what's his face, Michael Keaton.
The last one comes out this week. It's really, really good. And Peter Skarsgard plays Good guy, which I've never seen. But like the wigs in it are really, really unconvincing. Like, to the effect the point where I'm like, what? Like, you. You could afford Michael Keaton, but these
wigs, that's like Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons is like one star. Unconvincing wigs.
Yeah.
I mean, I know this gives away a plot for. But the. The movie Midnight Mass, the wigs were bad. And then you find out why. But in this one, I'm like, dude, no. Like, the guy's got rubber on his head. That's not like his real bald head. But anyway, it's really. It's very good. Some parts of it are really hard
to watch, of course.
And the. My kids and I like those Everyman Library Pocket Poets books. So we've been reading from the Poems of Gratitude, which is really good selection. Like, some of them are just, like, pretty good. Some of them are like, really, really, really. You picked a lot of very good poems and put them in a very good order. So that's definitely a good one. And there are three new albums out from bands I like Churches, Tory Amos and Idols that I've been listening to, but I didn't get to finish Idols yet. But the Churches and Tori Amos albums are both really good, especially if you liked Tori Amos from 0709 when she was playing with Jonathan Evans and Matt Chamberlain and doing a lot of stuff where it was just like her bass and drums and just. There's a lot more, you know, grooviness to this album than our last couple, so definitely cool. And I'm writing with an Eberhard Faber, American Naturals, which is, like, dirty from my hands. And the field notes sits on my windowsill with the pumpkin.
Nice.
Yeah.
How about you, Andy?
Who I am Katie and I just finished a short miniseries on Hulu that is done by. It's. It's one of those sort of like, social commentary on. On Food that David Chang did, which is interesting because he's done like, several series for Netflix. And then he. This feels very much kind of in that same vein, though he did it for. For Hulu, but it was very good. It's in his same kind of style where it's kind of documentary style, but he adds his own kind of like, snarky flair. And it's him and Chris Ying, his podcast co host, and then David Chow, who is that artist in LA who is like, he's friends with. And then just like goofing around talking about the history or the future of food. So they talk about, you know, what. What is a. What does a You know, a future look like where we have less farmland because of climate change and more protein needs. Like they talk about vertical farms, they talk about lab grown meat. They talk about just really interesting like the, the sort of the history and future of food delivery and what that means for restaurants. Like it's a really, really good just documentary like David Chang is. I mean he's a great cook. He's, he's a really good journalist. I enjoy his storytelling a lot. Just finished that. I just started reading a book that I've had on my list for ooh I guess since it came out about a year. It's called Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis. It's this. Oh, what is it? It's a, it's a science fiction novel. It's set in 2007. It's about like a government cover up of contact with aliens. And this woman, her dad is like a kind of like if. What's his name, the WikiLeaks guy.
Julian Assange.
Yeah, if. He's like Julian Assange but he's you know, leaking documents about aliens and his, his daughter is being sort of like followed by an alien. And it's, it's, it's really good. I'm. I'm told later it gets into some interesting like George W. Bush politics which is interesting. It, it takes place in, in 2007. So it's a really interesting time. Otherwise I'm just really interested to see how this goes because I'm, I'm told that yeah, it's going to kind of weave into this sort of like alternate history kind of a thing which is kind of cool. Other than that I feel like I've just been like unpacking and unpacking and unpacking and organizing and unpacking. So I got some really good recommendations and follow ups for the wall mounted shelves. So have a few leads to follow. Trying to figure that out.
So cool. That is.
That is me and I'm writing with Johnny's favorite pencil.
The.
And specifically just because it was right here that I grabbed. It's the Tombo 2558. Sorry for saying it. And my, my orange confidant. So smooth. So fresh and smooth,
man.
Yeah, I'm sorry. It's fine.
I still, I'm still mad about it.
Yeah.
Honestly not going to lie. Johnny rubs me the wrong way.
Tim and I like message each other weekly to figure out if we should just kick you out.
We made a Facebook group that's just like a support group for people who feel attacked by having yeah, had that pencil challenged.
Yeah, it's true.
Yeah.
Johnny's just dishing.
There's only two of us in it.
Everybody. Everybody attacks him on Wolpex. So this is just Johnny lashing out,
swinging back.
The Vopex is 100 times easier to sharpen than that.
Okay, I gotta go call my therapist. I gotta go call my therapist.
Goodbye.
I own every kind of pencil sharpener there is, except in El Casco. Oh, yeah, I tried them, I tested them. I'm going to quantify it.
How it feels to somebody if they had an Elcasco and you put a Wopex into it.
Oh, yeah.
You know what? I'm gonna get one and put it on YouTube. Okay. EBay.
EBay. Totally worth it. Throw some ads on that video. Maybe you'll be able to buy a replacement El Casco with the adsense.
Tim, do you want to jump into. Into your fresh points?
Yeah, sure. The first one's quick and it's just. I just thought it was funny, but I just was scrolling through some. Some different news stories and came across an article about Joe Biden's speech at. In Baltimore. So. Joe Biden.
Oh, last week.
Yeah, yeah. And there was just a little article that popped up that I just noticed that it had Joe Biden and pencil in the headline. So I was like, hey, look at that. Yeah, it was cool. But Joe Biden basically quoted with it. Well, not directly, but that eye pencil essay that we've talked about on here before, you know, the. About free market and global economy or whatever. So that was just kind of. I don't know, this is. It's a really random reference, but it was just kind of funny to see that headline. It's like Joe Biden pencil. Oh, yeah. So he apparently came out and said, whereas even products as simple as a pencil have to use wood from Brazil and graphite from India before it comes together at a factory in the United States to get a pencil. It sounds silly, but that's exactly how it happens. So that's funny. Man called pencils silly and. But also he. He said they. They're made in a factory in the United States. So that means that there's a pretty good chance that, you know, maybe he's heard of Musgrave or Cedar. Yeah. Or a general pencil, because that might be it. Yeah.
And that might be an indicator for a president's age.
Yeah. There's hundreds of pencil companies here in this country, in America.
You've ever heard of Mongos? Oh, gosh, I want to go live in his Reality where that's true, though.
Yeah, that would be nice.
Joe Biden's America believes in local pencil companies.
It's part of the infrastructure plan.
They're going to miss that commercial.
Here in Joe Biden's America, pencil companies rule the planet.
We need pencils and newspapers. More newspapers.
Joe Biden 2024. Ain't no Chinese pencils.
Taking Amtrak to Shelbyville.
Hop on the. Yeah, yeah, that's good looking.
Magnet train between D.C. and Shelbyville.
Yeah, that's random. But I just. That caught my eye today. That was funny. And the only other thing that I've got is just the. The pencil and notebook that I talked about earlier. The pencil is Blackwing's collaboration with the Preservation hall music venue in New Orleans. These, they caught my eye just because of the jazz and music kind of element of them, but they looked really good in the pictures too. I didn't fully take it. I think I had ordered them before realizing that they're basically a collage of like gold images, which I think if I would have saw piano keys on the side that they had in the picture, I might not have been as excited. But it's. It's okay.
It just looks.
Can look a little corny maybe. But I love the, the. The theme, you know, I love that they teamed up with Preservation hall, of all places. I just think that's really cool. And they do. They do look striking in person. The gold, you know, it doesn't rub off or anything. They're really well made. They did a good job on the. The word. I'm losing the. It's not embossing, is it. Is that how they put the letters on there?
Sometimes, yeah.
Stamping? Maybe, yeah.
Is it. Is it foil stamped or is it wrapped?
It is.
Or what do they call it, Johnny? The. Like the roll on. Yeah, the roll on.
Yeah, that's what it looks like. Because it's different than the sort of wrap. Yeah, whatever. This art, you know, the artwork on, it's different. It's a different shade. Yeah, yeah. No, it wasn't the only thing. The. I mean, this just happens, I guess. And this is probably going to happen more with them doing so many collaborations and just making more pencils. Is that the first one I grabbed. I sharpened it and the. The feral just pulled right off. There's zero glue inside of it. It just came right off.
So.
But I fixed it when I came home, so no big deal. But I haven't checked any other ones. I don't. But it seemed it was like comically easy it was like it all. It practically fell off. So.
So speaking of comical, I got up as pencil one time at the zoo in Washington that had like lions that looked just like that thing.
Yeah, yeah, I can see that.
Did they steal the design from the Baltimore Zoo?
No, this was in D.C. at the National Zoo. That pencil is not, not, not my taste. Doesn't look like a black wing.
Yeah, I. Like I said, I bought it purely based on the partnership in the. I mean, and just to have a sort of jazz themed pencil was exciting. And it's, It's a soft core too, which was another. I think if they would have. It would have. If it would have not been soft core, I might have like maybe hesitated a bit because it's just been a while since I've had a new soft one that I was excited about.
Hey, man, can I offer you a jazz pencil?
You want a jazz pencil? It's not like those pencils they give you in school. Yes.
Jazz cigarette you could write with.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm happy you're young.
No, it's. It's really okay. And it's one of those. It legitimately is one of those things where I'm like, it's kind of ugly, but I love it. So,
you know, if nobody felt that way, I wouldn't be married.
Kind of ugly, but I love it. All right. So that's. Yeah. So that's that. And I, Yeah. Enjoyed it. And I also got finally some of those. I got two of the Woody Guthrie notebooks. The. The progress notebooks that are made to look like. Oddly enough to sort of look like those notebooks I've talked about on the podcast that Hank Williams used kind of in the similar style. Same time. I mean, similar time period too. Yeah. So I don't know those. They're. They're nice. They weren't exactly what I was expecting them to be. I don't think I had it in my head that they were roughly a five size. They're. They look really good and the paper is nice and it's kind of cool to have a. A well made, like a really sturdily made. What am I, what am I trying to say? Composition book. Yeah. The only thing that's a little weird about it is that the COVID is bigger than the paper.
Oh.
So it like. So it like hangs over the paper maybe about a quarter of an inch on all three sides. Huh. Where it opens, which probably makes it look sharper, I'm guessing. But as soon as you put it in your backpack and it Makes a few rounds in your backpack. Those corners start kind of bending over, so. But it. I don't know, maybe it gives it a little. I'm sure this isn't on purpose, but maybe it'll give it a cool kind of beaten up look when the corners are all sort of bended around. But we'll see. I just finished off my songwriting notebook that I'd been using for a long time, which was just an old cheap composition notebook and I loved it. I have replaced it with the. The progress book and we'll see if that. See if it sticks. But I'd been meaning to try those out for a long time.
So. Speaking of really nice composition books, have you seen the Rodeo composition books?
No.
So they're on Amazon now, but Joe Crace has them in his shop. They're because of a composition book, but they're made by Rodeo with that amazing paper.
Whoa.
Like, mind blown. I have not had one yet, but less than.
Is that what they're called? The Rodeo composition notebook?
Yeah, you just put a link in the little dot. Okay.
I'm teased. You like, want some more?
Cool.
Ah, there. 13 bucks.
Rodeo prices.
Yeah, I think.
Yeah, Rhodey, but that's not too much more than a. Okay, cool.
I think they're cheaper at Joe Shop the gentleman stationer.
On my way. So that's all I've got. How about you, Johnny?
So I bailed on NaNoWriMo on the first day. So that sucks because my. My kids were on their fourth quarantine and it started that day.
It's like, isn't gonna happen.
Yeah.
So. And then Adam Webb from Take Note sent some delicious coffee and I was like. And I'm not even doing NaNoWriMo. I'm really sorry, but thank you. It's from somewhere in Oklahoma that I think his friends opened up. So it was delicious. It's all gone because, you know.
Yeah, it's good stuff. It's very good.
I chug the hell out of it.
That's like one of those coffees where you're like, I'm going to make a French press and I'm going to do it right. And I'm going to use like, way more coffee than I think I should because that's what they tell me to do on these hipster websites.
And.
And then it tastes so good.
Ah, so good.
I don't know, man. I contend if you weigh your coffee, that's science. That's not coffee. You don't like coffee.
Yeah. That's fair.
But so my. My other. I Guess point is, around the paper shortage, everyone keeps talking about like it's real. So it's still a secret. But the pencil revolution scene is going to have a letterpressed soon. And I couldn't get the paper I wanted like not available for February. So I had to pick a different color. And a lot of colors were out because it was American made paper. And the person who's doing it told me that they've been having a lot of trouble getting paper too. So because of that I have an enormous stack of paper like in my bedroom for making books out of because I'm scared it's gonna run out. But I feel like a king because I have.
Oh my God, that's gotta be like
$300 worth of really nice papers in there, which is a lot for one person. But yeah, I. I made 12 journals this weekend, so. Shameless plug of my Etsy shop. There will be journals in there by the time this episode is out.
Are they. Are they with that sort of like cork cover?
Oh, there will be some cork covered ones. A really nice fake leather that doesn't look like leather. Like it doesn't have that skin texture as like long stitched wrap. Notebooks. I might get up some of the Coptic stitch notebooks and stuff made from old library book covers, which is extra fun. Yeah, my hands are like destroyed book binding.
Yeah.
I had, I think I mentioned this already. I had to buy a different awl because this one is easier to control and I have. Don't ram it through my hand as much.
Well, that's, that's an important piece.
Yeah. Yesterday I just stopped stitching because I got myself with a needle and I was bleeding all over the table like coffee time. Yeah. But there is no blood on any of the notebooks that I'm aware of.
That's just extra. You could just sell that for more.
Yeah, I. Yeah, so far they're just dot, grid and blank. But yeah, it's. It's fun.
We'll see.
See if folks like them, they all have really, really good paper in them, which makes me happy. It's probably what's messing my hands up. But anyway, that's. Those are all my fresh points. How about you, sir?
First thing I was gonna mention. So Tim was talking about that Preservation hall collab and we're, you know, we talked last time about the. The Death Row records one and they've been, you know, on a roll with the collabs lately. There's one that is so gorgeous. That came out. It's a collab with A company in Taiwan and I don't know a thing about it. It's called eslite. It's Blackwing X Slate. And have you, have you guys seen this?
It.
No. So it looks like. Yeah, yeah, it looks like the body of a. The 33 and a third. So just matte black. And then they put the erasers from the. When they made the Blackwing eras with that to look like the old black wings with the. The black feral and the copper band. So good looking.
I.
If they weren't sort of like very hard to get and if I didn't have so many black wings, I would be all over this. But you can only buy them on this one website and everything's in a different language. And so yeah, people were just running it through Google Translate to buy some and shipping to the US is 40 bucks or something. But it's a. Yeah, they look, they look gorgeous. I check out the. The group. If anybody's in the Facebook group and you can kind of see people drooling over them and ordering some. If you're a. If you're in the Blackwing game for like the black black wings, this will definitely be up your alley.
Oh, I think I saw a picture of those in the group.
Yeah, they looked really good. Our friend Dade Bot went through and bought some and then he said that people were messaging them all over the place to try to try to get some of them. But yeah, I think if you with a little perseverance and a wide open pocketbook, you can, you can score some of your own. So. Yep, really cool looking. I also, I placed a Musgrave order not too long ago. I just wanted to check out a couple things. I ordered that really cool notebook that they did with Iron Curtain Press. Do you guys. I can't remember, do you. Do you guys have this? I think yeah, we. We're talking but it's very pretty. We were talking with the coal a little bit about it. It. It looks a lot like those, those. Oh, I can't remember the name of the company that made them, but they were. They're made in Tennessee at a. Just like a notebook factory. They're like a book binder and I can't. What is the name of it? Iron Curtain Press is in la. So these are made by Iron Curtain Press. They just look like those. These other notebooks that I'm thinking of. Yeah. But yeah, really, really great binding. It's a dot grid. It's a spiral binding dot grid ruling with like some margin at the top. Maybe like an Inch and a half, two inch margin at the top, which is cool. And just a really beautiful, bright, bright yellow with red stamping on it. Looks, looks really good. I know they have a pretty limited selection of those. So if you are interested in high end Musgrave bespoke products, you should, you should grab one.
Are they all.
I think so, yeah. All the pictures I've seen of it are, are yellow. And then the one that I, the one that I got is also yellow. But yeah, it looks really good. I also was morbidly curious about the box of factory second pencils that you can get because I just wanted to just know what they were like. So you can buy 144. Oh, let me find the product here. You can buy a gross of factory second pencils and there's a bunch of like school pencils and like best teacher ever pencils and I graduated the fourth grade pencils and things like that that are just like slightly misaligned or the stamping is off or something like that. And you can get 144 of them for 21 bucks. Yeah.
What?
So if you need, if you need a quantity of pencils, of nice pencils only maybe a little, a little flawed, check this out. And I have to say the box that they come in is worth the price. It is this really cute design on it. I'll have to send you a picture. It's not in the, the like Musgrave product page on their website, but yeah, it's very nice.
So they have a couple new things up there that I didn't know were there. On Musgrave's website they have a gift set and they also have the stickers which we saw and a waxed canvas pencil pouch that has like vintage Musgrave images on it.
Oh yeah, I see that.
That is very cool. Oh yeah.
Oh yeah. Oh, that pencil package. Yeah, they're so okay. That, that gift set has the, we talked about the, the sampler pack with that round package that looks really cool. It has that, it has the, that same notebook I was just talking about. And then yeah, it has this really gorgeous wax pouch that's. That's a 12 bucks for that pouch. Yeah.
Dang. Yeah, you're gonna have to be mine.
It's a good price. Cool. So yeah, kudos. I mean I know that these are produced by Musgrave. Like I'm sure that Nicole and Tim Dilger were involved somehow. So kudos. Kudos to all involved. Yeah, these are really great. One thing I was going to mention so we Recorded last. Late last week, our. An episode of Indelible, which is our Patreon only podcast about pens. And put that up on Patreon today for you to listen to it. And then the next day, I got a. A housewarming gift from my friend Michael. He got me a Twsbi Eco, like a demonstrator pen. And it came with this little wrench and this little tiny bottle of stuff, silicone grease. And I need somebody to tell me what this is for. The little wordless pictograms were not super helpful about why I would want to use them.
Yeah, I can tell you what those are for.
Okay. I would love to know.
Yeah, yeah. The. The. The wrench is for if you ever in a situation where you need to, like, clean the pen and that's how you like. When you unscrew the plunger, you'll notice this little gap opened up at the back below the. The part that you twist. And then you stick the wrench in there and twist it, and that'll help you detach it. And then the silicone grease, you actually put on the. The stick of the plunger, like, just a little bit, and it makes it just like, twist smoothly. You only have to do that. I've done it like three times ever.
Okay.
Years. So. Okay, there you go. The more, you know,
I saw it and I was like, this is really cool, but I like. I don't know why I wouldn't need to use this, but. Okay, that makes sense. That's a good. That's a good call. Yeah. So he got me this really gorgeous little. It's a kind of a seafoam greeny robin's egg, bluey Twisby, and then a really great bottle of Monteverde ink called Key Lime Pie. And it's part of a series of, like, dessert. And it just has this like, kind of light yellowy green, which is just really lovely. So thank you, Michael, for that. These are. These are cool. He also, in the same little box gave me. Did you guys see those dra. Those Aaron draplin slippers that he came out with some months ago?
He did a thing.
He did a collaboration with this company that makes slippers called Free Waters. And if you look up Jeffrey ddc, I think that they're. The slipper model is called Jeffrey. You can see his sort of, like, signature.
It's.
It's. It's like Carhartt brown and then bright like day glow orange, which is like such a draplin thing. And it's. Yeah. Just a nice Just a nice slipper.
Yeah.
Yeah. So, yeah, that is. That is it for me for freshpoints. Should we. Should we jump into our main topic? We are. So we're talking about. About gratitude. So. So this time last year, we joked that 2020 was the worst year ever. Little did we know about what was to come. Just a few months after 2021 started, you know, started off definitely on the right foot in January 6th. Then it just kept. Kept going. Cell phone democracy, the Delta variant, the closing of CW pencils, which just happened. But a lot of our perception of the year is just a matter of focus. Right. There's lots of, like, good. Good things that have happened there and things within it. So we, you know, this being kind of our. Our Thanksgiving episode, we thought we would talk a little bit about what we're grateful for in 2021. And since, honestly, since the. The pandemic began. Just began in general, so I don't really have a lot of structure to this, but I figured maybe we could just kind of, like, go around the room and talk a little bit about what we're grateful for and. And why as. As it relates to our lives in this podcast. Yeah, Tim.
Yeah, you guys,
let's get that out of the way. Yeah, let's get the tears out of the way.
Blurt it out first.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I never thought we'd still be making this podcast and that we would actually be friends that talk all the time. Not about the podcast. Like, we hardly ever actually talk about podcasts.
It's true.
So many other. So many other things that we talk about in our little encrypted signal chat that Johnny. Johnny made us use because apparently the government is after him.
Yeah, yeah. Tinfoil hats don't work anymore.
Johnny, do you want to start us off since you kicked it off?
Yeah.
So I'm very thankful for you guys. And I'm super thankful for fountain pens and the fact that spending money on them means that I spend less money on pencils, which take up a lot more room. So my closet's happy for that. If my wallet or bank account is definitely not. And I'm thankful for getting to make scenes and that enough people buy them that I can keep making them without, you know, driving my family broke. And when my printer blows up, I can buy a new printer, which is one of the things I love most about this year, because it sips ink. You just fill it up with a bottle and it's ready to rock for another, like, 7,000 pages. Last I checked. I've hit almost 50,000 pages on it since December. Wow.
Yeah, it's incredible.
So I love this thing.
Jeez.
It was like 300 bucks. It's like, not expensive. So. Yeah, I put a link in the show notes. If you need a printer, get Canon Mega T. Mega T. Yeah. I'm sure other things will. Will pop up, but. Yeah, those are random things I'm thankful for that are tangible in addition to, you know, democracy and leaves to change color.
Yeah. Yeah, those are fine.
Yeah, those are fine.
Tim, do you wanna. Do you wanna jump in?
Yeah. I'll start with my non. My non. Hobby slash stationary related one, which is I'm. I've become thankful in recent months for the place that I live. I make jokes about it sometimes for being, you know, place that it is, but also, like, it's just a beautiful place. So I just think I really. I'm thankful for living in a place that's. Is as pretty as the place that I am and having, you know, being within a short drive and a great walk from waterfalls and all sorts of things I'm thankful for.
Your area of Tennessee is just like, extremely gorgeous. I think that's kind of one of the first times I've ever seen that sort of like, environment driving. Driving through eastern Tennessee, like on my way to Florida, where my sister lives. Yeah. Just wow.
It's. It's wild. There. There are sections where I always joke that there are certain parts of east Tennessee where it's. You turn a corner and all of a sudden you're like, am I in Jurassic Park? This looks. Because it's like all these ro. Green. You just wait for like a diplodocus to lift its head above the trees or something.
Favorite. My favorite.
That's not tropical.
My favorite story about driving through that part of Tennessee is we. I guess it's maybe a little farther west, but like the Knoxville slash, like those lakes and mountains area. We. We stopped on a road trip at a Waffle House, and while sitting at this Waffle House, we could look out across the lake and the mountain and we saw another Waffle House.
Yep. That's on brand too. Yeah. Yeah. That's funny.
Yeah.
So that's. That's my mushy one. But. But I mean it. And the rest of them. I realize I wrote these down and accidentally wrote the title to a country song that I need to write, which is cheap notebook, soft pencils, and old guitar strings. The three things I listed, I was like, oh, man. Yeah. Or a show tune. Or a show tune. Yeah. So, yeah, this this year, my. As far as my. My usage of things, the things that I found the most consistent joy from were. Were like a soft pencil in a cheap notebook. I just, I. I've just grown to really love soft, like MMX style core pencils. I find them like gratifying and make me feel productive. And it's also nice and smooth. And I've gotten kind of back into fountain pens because you jokers and all this business with indelible. They're like. But at the same time. So I keep flocking back to when. When. When fountain pens get. When fountain pens get annoying because they're just not working or they feel sort of not right. Oh, this is just a little too scratchy. I need to sit here and fold this nib around and try to like, get it back in place. Then I go back to the soft pencils and they're always great. And I've just been writing. Just realized I've been working through this Leuchtturm notebook like all year. But. But I've burned through several just cheapo notebooks. I've started lots of nice notebooks, but just finding good composition notebooks. I found this one brand of composition notebooks and I bought five of them. It's just some generic brand. It's called Unison. I don't know who it's made by,
but I don't care.
But I accidentally bought four of them last year with graph paper inside of them. And I've used like three of these suckers just for like daily stuff and for morning pages kind of writing and for my. My songwriting notebooks. And they just are like, nice and bendy and the paper's nice and smooth. And you wouldn't believe that I've been using this one for seven months. Eight months. Because it just looks like it's in great shape. Just slap a bunch of stickers all over the COVID and enjoy it. Perfect. Yeah. And then. Yeah. And then lastly, I said old guitar strings just because I just been writing a lot of music and just playing guitar a lot more than I have in the last, I don't know, five, seven years. How old are my kids?
No.
Eight years. Eight years of my life all of a sudden. Just how old are you?
Oh, yeah.
I haven't done the thing I loved since you. No, that was. That was. That was a joke. I just have been doing it a lot more. And also I just recently come to a realization that I've come to a couple times before in my life. But it's just that I love the Sound of old acoustic guitar strings. Like they're all dead and down and you just. Everything sounds good and I love it. So. Yeah, that's what I'm grateful for. And I'm gonna work on that song. Cheap notebook, soft pencils and old guitar strings. It's like that. What's the song I'm thinking of? I'm not even gonna Google it because that's just gonna be. Be a bad thing. But there's. There's some country song. It made me.
Oh, it's like American flags and Bibles and just.
Yeah. Cut off old Je O. Old jeans, cold drinks and summer night. Something like that. Something like that.
But beer.
Yeah. Watery flavorless beer.
50 year lifespan expectancy.
That's my hometown right there.
You should do it. But just with Wes Anderson movies.
Yeah.
Oh, man.
How about you, Andy?
Well, and of course, in addition to, you know, the two of you specifically, I very much look forward to my. My weekly, sometimes bi weekly mail from Johnny with zines and notebooks and things in it. I think we definitely look forward to. To those which are really great. I feel like I have a.
It's like Christmas.
Yeah, it's like a lifetime friend subscription to, like, his output. I feel like I should be paying. I feel like $10 a month on Patreon or something.
Yeah. Like a subscription service or something.
Yeah.
Money is no good.
And honestly, following Tim on Spotify is really good too. I sometimes just have, you know, on the little. The little sidebar that tells you, like, what your friends are doing, I just like, oh, what's Tim listening to? And I click on it and then just listen along as well. So that's really good. You're an. You're an influencer.
Does it ever pop up and say Gangnam Style and you're like. It's like, oh, okay, My kids. The kids have gotten the Spotify. I get so mad when that happens. I like, they have their own Amazon music account. I'm like, I'm not sharing my Spotify with you monsters. But sometimes I'll, like, I'll put Spotify on Alexa. I'll say, alexa, play this on Spotify. And then they'll come in and add something or change the song and it stays on Spotify.
And I'm like, no, my algorithm.
You. My algorithm. Yeah.
I didn't know you could do this on Spotify. I feel like.
Listens to. It's. It's raining. I just, you know, I don't. I just. I just don't know anymore.
You have no idea how Many times I've heard that song.
I feel like. Yeah. Anyhow, Kim is a. Is a Spotify influencer. I'm grateful for that. Grateful for like just members of the community. I. Over the last six months, I feel like I've pulled back a lot from like really actively participating. I don't like, I haven't been tweeting as much. I haven't been in the Facebook group as much. I've just had so much stuff happening like at home and in career and just like stuff happening. So I haven't been as active. But I definitely appreciate hearing from and checking in with and staying in touch with, with the erasable community. And. And it's been amazing just during the pandemic to see how much of it has. People have like form little pods, right? Like I. What's his name? Man, my brain is not working. Today our zine friend, Ed Kemp. Ed has traveled all over the country and hung out with erasable people, which has been really amazing to see. I know that Michael Durbin and a bunch of people have been doing like zoom calls just, just zoom hangouts and Tina Koyama has been sketching them. It's just just really cool to see that, you know, there is a vitality to this community that is self sustaining. We don't have to. It's. Sometimes with communities it's like pulling teeth to keep people engaged and keep people like talking and posting and staying involved. And that is not the case with this community. It just, just keeps on going, which is amazing. So really, really thankful for that. I'm thankful that yeah, there's a place. There's a place that exists within our group, within the field notes, within rsvp. Just sort of like the extended cinematic universe of stationary, Stationary online, which is pretty cool. It's the ecu. The erasable cinematic universe. I don't. Oh no, I don't want to.
Yes.
I don't want to be the one ourselves to, you know, put our stamp on it. But we could just. We'll just claim it. It's fine.
It's fine. Well, so far we've got indelible, erasable and there's disposable. Disposable. And we've got those. Those are in our universe. We'll just claim those for now.
We joked about how we want to start a notebook podcast called the Terrible Podcast. T E A R A D L
E. No, it shouldn't be.
Yeah, dude, I have two composition books full of notes. Terrible.
I. I don't.
So thankful. Thankful for that. Hugely Thankful for CW Pencils and all that Caroline and crew have, have done for the community over the years. And just being open and lasting for as long as they did is just a feat of wonder and strength and shows the dedication to it. Because, you know, we've, we've said it on here so many times before, but it's absolutely true. You know, you. So many people walk in or expect that to be like a super twee, like hipster boutique of just, oh, they have some like pencils. They're probably overpriced and like the people don't, they don't. They don't really know anything about pencils. And that is, that is not true. CW Pencils was. There were wonks, right? Like they could tell you so much about pencils. They had such an interesting selection. They weren't overpriced. They were priced very well. And they were just such a figure not only in the community in the Lower east side, but also in our community in our, in the ecu. So I'm, I'm so sad that they are closed down, but I'm grateful for the seven sevenish years they were open that we got to spend with them. So I definitely made some last minute purchases and you know, I have all those patches and all the really cool stuff that they've, they've done. So huge, huge thanks to Caroline and, and Alex and Meredith and Caitlin and all the people we've known because of CW Pencils over the years. Yeah, I'm getting very sad and honestly, I mean to that same effect, you know, not co. Brad Dowdy's pencil case company or Pen case company. Like it's, it's sad that that's shut down. I see why, I know why he's done it. Like he wants to move on to other things and I'm sure that was just eating so much time and energy and money. So they're, they're. They both. I think he and Caroline both kind of like know, know when to call it in. Know when it's. It's over for them. And I, I know. I mean, Brad's not stopping anytime soon. Neither is Caroline. I assume she has something up her sleeve, but I can't wait to see what they all do next. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. Can I add one in there? Kind of like related is just. I was going to say I'm really thankful for the friendship that we've built up with the folks over at Muscari. Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
With the Delgars. They've been so good. Good to us. And fun to work with and fun to talk to. And so I'm just going to give them a. I think they deserve a big shout out as well as just being a kind of a, you know, the new. A new kind of exciting thing in the. It's in the. In our little world that. And they're doing such. Such.
It's amazing to watch legacy brands, like, get revitalized and then just sort of like hipsterized. Like, I think about, like, pbr, right. Pabst Blue Ribbon. I didn't care about it as a brand like before. I don't really care about it now. And it just kind of got weird and sort of like fake cachet put on it. But that has not happened to Musgrave. Like, this kind of like, old legacy
historic pencil company never will. Yeah.
Like, they, they have not just started putting, you know, their logos on weird, cheap crap. Right. Like, they, they're very thoughtful about, like, how they're revitalizing that brand, which is really cool. So, yeah, big kudos to that. Yeah. And last thing I'll mention here is just, I guess my big mushy one. I. It's hard to express how privileged and lucky I feel to have been able to purchase a house in San Francisco. That is a not easy feat. And I don't say that to toot my own horn, but it was. It's something that, you know, I. I've seen people sort of, like, try and fail. I've seen people. I myself was in a situation where it's like, there's no way this is ever going to happen. So I'm thankful for Katie and being on sort of the same page and us doing this and going through with it. I thought we were. I thought we'd still be sort of like, in limbo.
Right?
Like, looking for a place and. Yeah. And it has. I mean, we still have so much work to do and so much stuff to do, but it's, it's. It's great so far.
Yeah, we're super happy for you.
Real straight on your.
This is. This is a homeownership story that I'm. I feel like I'm learning about. I spent an hour yesterday manually draining the washer because it was not draining into the drain. And I couldn't figure out if it was the washer's problem or if it was the drains problem. So I, I think I diagnosed it. But in order to, like, get all that standing water out of the washer, I just had to. I watched some YouTube videos about LG washers and then I, I found this little, this little tube at the bottom of it. And I took my bucket that I bought at Lowe's just a few weeks ago.
Yes, yes.
Just leaned over and drained that for 20 minutes.
You're gonna have six of those buckets in a couple years and inexplicably one of them is going to be filled with dried cement and it's going to stay in your garage.
I don't make the rules. That's just what happens.
That's just what happens when you own a house. So, yeah, I didn't mix up any cement.
Where did this come from? So, yeah, that's, that's something that I'm also grateful for is just the sort of ability to do that in a place that has a lot of disparity in income and wealth. And I'm by no means a wealthy person, but I am definitely not like in a situation where I. Yeah. Couldn't, couldn't do this. So I feel lucky to be there.
We're super happy for you.
Thank you.
Yeah, we're planning a visit that you don't.
I, I have so I have so many beds. I have a king size bed, a queen size bed and a fold out couch. So.
Johnny, I'll take the king size.
Yeah, perfect. Any, Any other, any other thankfulness snippets we should know about?
I mean, I'm thankful that we haven't all done.
Seriously.
That's from COVID I'm thankful for that vaccine booster shot.
Yeah, absolutely.
And yeah, I mean I'm thankful for the instances where reason and science are winning. Like my kids go to a school that's got 1500 kids and like a handful of kids every week test positive. Sometimes none, sometimes one. That's pretty damn amazing.
Yeah, my kids just got their first dose of the vaccine.
Yeah.
Yeah. Like last week. They should have 5G by this coming week.
Um, you can use, you can use
them as a hotspot in their brain. Yeah, yeah, no, we're, but they got it.
We're, we're.
We feel really thankful for that too. They get their second dose in a couple weeks, so.
Nice.
Very happy.
All right, well, I would love to know in. So in the comments of this, of this episode on our website and then also in the group or anywhere you would like to say it. I would, I would love to know what you're thankful for. Our listeners and may it be podcast or may it be stationary or non stationary related. I think that's something we'd like to see. How are, how Are you all celebrating Thanksgiving? Are you going anywhere or gathering people to at your place, Tim?
We are keeping it small so it's just basically us and Jane's parents. And then later that weekend we're I think we're going to head to Asheville and hang out with my sister and her family.
Nice.
Yeah.
What are you doing, Johnny?
So I'm not committing to anything because you know, covet. But I will get together with some family and Frankie already bought the tofurkey and tofurkey ham and all of the delicious vegetarian things. So yeah, those will be eaten somewhere.
We're having a little friends giving. We have some, a couple, a couple pairs of friends who are in our little bubble and they're going to be coming over here. Typically we've gone over to our friend Lee and Steven's house but because we have a, a new place and we have a big dining room like we're gonna. We're gonna host. So Leah is a. Is vegan, gluten free and soy free. So no tofurkey.
Oh man.
Yeah. She's also just an amazing cook and there's so many really, really good dishes we can come up with.
Yeah.
Plus I think we'll also have turkey just.
Just because.
But yeah. Vegan. Vegan, gluten free pumpkin pie is.
Is.
Yeah. Yeah.
Sounds delicious.
Cool. Well should we. Should we wrap it up and. Yeah. Get back to. Get back to our evenings.
Let's do it.
Thanksgiving turkey Wasam. Do you want to. Where can people find you on the Internet?
You can find me at TurkeyWassum. I could probably get that. Yeah, I could probably. I got. I have a feeling that's available so just redirect it at least. But yes, you can find me @timwassom on Twitter and I'm on Instagram @timothywassom.
D How about you?
I'm on the Internet@pencilrevolution.com on social media Pen Solution and you can buy my beautiful notebooks@etsy.com shop I'm on the Internet
at Andy W. Andy WTF. And Twitter and Instagram is wilfley. And this is the Erasable podcast. You can find a link to our recordings and our back episodes and our show notes at Erasable Us. This episode is episode 173 which means it will be at erasable us173. Find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as erasablepodcast. And you can join our group which is one of the best places on the Internet@facebook.com groups. You can also find our Patreon account. We, we have a way for listeners to support us with a little bit of money every month that keeps us in pencils and keeps our website online and keeps the lights on. And we would like to thank some of our producer level patrons, people who have given $10 a month or more to the to the cause. I'll just read their names right now. It is Andrew Austin, Tara Whittle, Ida Umphurs, Andre Torres, Kyle Paul Moorhead, Alicera Jamelia. Our guest last time, Stephen Fansale, Aaron Willard, KP Millie Blackwell, Chris L. Hunter McCain, Michael Diallosa, Jacqueline Meyer, Tana Feliz, Ann Sipe, Joe Crace, Measure Twice, Michael Hagen, Chris Metzkus, Bill Clow, Random Thinks, Jason Dill, Dave McDonald, Mary Collis, Alex Jonathan Brown, Andre Prevost, Kathleen Rogers, Bobby Lutzinger, Fourth letter, Kelton Wiens. Almost there everybody. David Johnson, Phil Munson, Nathan Rabeck, Donnie Pierce, Scott Hayes, Hans Noodleman, Jay Newton, Dave Tubman, Chris Jones, John Wood, Bill Black, Miriam Burkout, Diana Oakley and Tom Keakley. Thank you so much to you all for your support and you can come support us yourself at erasil. Excuse me. Patreon.comeraser thank you very much and everybody have a very happy Thanksgiving. We'll see you in a couple weeks.
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