This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
I didn't kill my wife.
Get off my plane.
Hello, friends, and welcome to the erasable podcast, episode 182. I'm Andy Wel. I'm your host today. I'm here with my friends Johnny and Tim. Hey, guys. Hey.
Just like in the blink of an eye, we had 182.
Exactly. It is a blink.
It just feels like. It just. It was just like a Blink, Blink 182. You know, like Blink, Blink. And it's 182.
I just. Yeah. Rob Thomas over here.
It's Matchbox 20.
I get those confused all the time. Don't tell my wife.
I won't tell Rob Thomas either.
Okay. I appreciate it. Next time you talk to Rob. Yeah, man. Well, it's been a month and some change. It's been more than one blink. It's been more than 1182 blinks. In fact, we kind of had an unofficial, unannounced summer break. A lot of stuff going on, and I think we're ready to get back into it. So. One thing I should mention, due to some scheduling conflicts, our interview with Matthew Battles, who wrote Pelham's History of the Written Word, is on pause. We're going to try to, like, schedule him for an upcoming episode, but we realized we didn't want to just stop. We didn't want to slow down and just stop and wait for that. So we're going to press ahead and we'll let you know when we can get Matthew on the show.
Yeah, we hope. Hopefully it'll work out. Our schedules can sort of work together so that we can have him on and talk to him, but if not, we're still going to do our book club episode regardless, so hopefully it'll work out.
Yeah. So here we are where we wanted it. We thought it was important to get together and bring you the content you came here for. And. Yeah, let's. Let's jump into it. Tim, do you want to get us started with Tools of the Trade?
Yes, I do. So first off, most importantly is my favorite band, Wilco came out with a new album last Friday.
Yeah.
So they put out two really good singles over the last month and a half, and then they. And when they released it, they announced that they were putting out a double album, which they haven't done in a very long time. And it's called Cruel country. And these are what Wilco calls country songs. It is what you would call a Wilco song.
They're not.
It's not super country at all. They're the Being There album, if anybody's ever heard that, is more country than this. I get parts of it. But anyways, it is a very good album. It, if any. If you listen to Jeff Tweety's solo album, Love Is the King, which I talked about on here, it feels like a beefed up version of that because it's got the whole band of Wilco behind them. But it's like. It feels like a Wilco album that grew out of his book, how to Write One Song, because the songs are, you know, sort of simple. But like, the lyrics have like a really refreshing kind of first draft feel to him, like he's not being super precious with the lyrics, letting the song. And you can see he's writing a song a day pretty much as a songwriter. So you can kind of feel that energy in it. It is a great album. I really enjoy it. It's a little monotone at times, like where it seems like it's all kind of in the same register, but not necessarily in a bad way. I think it's a really good summer record. It's. It's kind of like a. Yeah, it's a little melancholy, but also it's just a fun record. It's got some good lines. And I watched a friend and I got together and watched the live stream of their festival, which is called Solid Sound, they do every other year in Massachusetts. And we watched the live stream of the first night and so we got to see them perform the entire show live like, or the entire album live, like start to finish. Oh, and then they did like a encore where they played like 10 more other songs. It was really good. So. Yeah, check it out. It's a great album. It's not even out on physical copies. Like you can't buy vinyl or CDs or anything yet. It's only streaming.
Did I tell you about a. I bought a vinyl album the other day.
No, what you get.
I got the new album by the Windows, which is a. Are you familiar with them?
No.
They are a punk band consisting of four, like teenage girls.
Yes, I do know. I. Yeah, they are. I think it was an NPR special I saw or like an NPR feature of them covering some song or something like that. I know you're talking about.
Yeah, nice. They're really great.
Very cool.
I just bought a first vinyl in a while today. I bought. I got a. I took the kids to our local used bookstore and used some of our trade in credit to stock up on a ton of weird but true books, which our kids like. Oh, yeah, we bought like six of them. And then I also bought a used vinyl of Buddy Holly's greatest hits.
Oh, cool.
Which I'm excited about, man.
When I was Henry's age, I was really into Ripley's Believe it or not books, which I think is probably very similar.
Oh, yeah, yeah. This one's like all facts. It's like just these true. I mean, it'll be something like this kind of dinosaur has over a thousand teeth in its mouth or something. Like, it's all just kind of fun fact stuff. They do have some that are more like blow your mind kind of gross stuff and. But they're good. When I. I remember it was always Guinness Book of World Records. When I was.
Yeah.
Age. Everybody in our school was like, fighting to get those out of the library.
Now everybody just has a phone.
Just the Internet, they just have.
They just follow uber facts on Twitter. They're like, yeah. Reading wise. I am currently reading something that I was not planning to read, but have been kind of surprised by. Pleasantly surprised by, which is the President is Missing by James Patterson and Bill Clinton.
Yes. I was wondering if that's what that is.
Exactly what that is.
They wrote.
I guess they wrote two. I didn't know they wrote two, but I was. I had seen it and had heard a surprisingly positive review from somebody who was like, it's actually like a good thriller or whatever. I was like, oh, yeah, whatever.
There's also. It's the President's daughter, right? Like, that's the other one that they wrote.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The President's daughter.
And then Hillary wrote a book with different president. Somebody else with Louise Penny.
Yeah, yeah, Louise Penny. Yeah, that's right. This is becoming a thing. James Patterson also did one with Dolly Parton that came out this year.
So basically writing like Colombo episodes with, like, special guests ripped from the headlines.
So. Yeah. So I was walking through our church and we. A library where like all the old people drop off the books they're done with. And it was on like, the display shelf. So I was like, walking and it's like on the right by the door. President is missing. I was like, ah, what the hell? And grabbed it. I shouldn't have said that in church. But I was like, what the hell? I grabbed it. But I started reading it at the beginning. Like, the first 50 pages kind of scratched my West Wing itch.
Yeah.
Because it was very like insider kind of politics. And I was like, oh, man, this is great. Because it's kind of like West Wing. Like, I'm enjoying this like, yay. And then all of a sudden, it, like, sort of turns into a Harrison Ford movie, you know, which is fine. Which is also cool. And so I've actually just really been enjoying it.
I didn't kill my wife.
Get off my plane. So that's been enjoyable. I've been enjoying that. So. And then watching Jane, and I just now started watching Grace and Frankie with. Yeah.
Just from the beginning.
From the beginning. We'd never seen it before. Yeah. And it is a lot of fun. Like, way more fun than I thought it would be. That first episode where they, like, what is it? Like, they do peyote with each other on the beach or something? Like. Like, on accident or something like that. That was amazing. So it was not at all as I was what I was expecting.
I love Lily Tomlin so much. And also Gene Fonda's just so good. And Sam Watterson and Michael, like, like, yeah, Martin Sheen. Like, it's such a good cast.
I think Lily Tomlin and. And Watterson take the award. Like, I just, like, I love those two characters the most, I think.
Yeah.
The Katie.
I've been watching the last season, and that's on Netflix right now, and, yeah, it's really good.
I was.
We were.
Jane and I were actually talking about the last episode or the. About Martin Sheen in that show, because at first I was like, I feel like he doesn't know how to play this part. Like, Right. Like, he doesn't. He seems so. Like, he seems so, like, stiff. And he's like this older gay man now. And then Jane was like, well, what if. That's the point? What if he's playing.
That's the part.
That's what? That's the part. And I was like, whoa, okay. He's doing an incredible job. He just flipped my opinion, you know? Yeah. So that's it. We're really liking it. And I am using a Blackwing 64, and I am using my Blackwing Slate Bullet Journal.
Nice.
So how about you, Johnny?
Sweet.
So, you know, I watch British TV every night, so I'm not gonna talk for a million years about every series I've watched since last time we recorded, because it's a lot. But there's one on Britbox that's an original called the Responder that has Martin Freeman as the lead as sort of this, like, I don't know, morally compromised policeman. And you find out later he had been demoted. And it's, like, really wild. It's bonkers. I think it's one of those shows where before they Finish airing season one. They booked season two because it's just really good. Get a free trial of Britbox just for that. It's totally worth it. And I was listening to Spotify and you know how they recommend things. They recommended a band called the Internet.
What do you mean?
I've never heard this band.
I hadn't either.
I'm sorry, I was interrupting you.
Interrupting you.
I texted my brother, I'm like, hey, I think you'd like this band. And he went off. Apparently he's a huge fan. He's, you know, open for 311 a bunch of times. Like, what? Where the hell have I been? But they're, you know, punk sky band. Like, they kind of sound like, no doubt if it didn't have a really irritating singer. And they were a little better at their instruments.
I'm sorry, are you telling me that Gwen Stefani is irritating?
She's a coach on the Voice like she is.
How dare you, sir? I'm sure she's fine when she's not at the front of that.
You know what? Johnny is bananas.
And you're actually. You're wrong.
She's not.
But good.
That man is bananas. Every time I hear that song, I'm like, is that how you spell it? I'm a poor speller. And so my last thing is I'm reading carsick John Waters Hitchhikes Across America, which I don't remember when it came out. It came out 2014ish. We used to have a stationery club at Atomic Books in Baltimore. And in the back they have a little sort of bottle bar. So we would go there because a few people didn't drink and they had some really interesting sodas. And I'm always up for caffeine. So one night John Waters was there signing this book and he needed a pen and everybody had fountain pens and of course I did. So I gave him a Bic bold, bit crystal bold. And apparently he really liked it. So he lives in my neighborhood and I see him pretty regularly. I saw him at the grocery store the other day, but I never fanboy. It was like, oh, give him a space. It's Monday at 7 o' clock in the morning. But in this book he writes two novellas called the Best that Could Happen and the Worst that Could Happen. And then what actually happened? And I didn't know he actually wrote the fictional stuff before he left for his trip. I guess maybe he thought he would die. There's a lot of anxiety in it. Like, oh, man, this isn't going well, but it was, like, really hilarious. And he has a new novel out, so I thought to pick that up called A Feel Bad Romance.
So.
And like, the way that he writes, if you imagine him saying it in his sort of Baltimore ish accent, it's just like, way funnier. Like, no, what a.
Is there an audiobook?
I bet there's an audiobook.
Do you think he reads it? Yes, that would be awesome if.
I don't know. So there's a bar in the neighborhood where I grew up, where apparently whenever Johnny Depp was in town, they would go there and drink. It was a thing. It's a crap hole that's not there anymore, but, yeah, I guess that's on topic today. I forget I said Johnny Depp.
He definitely does all of his own audiobooks, by the way. Most of his own audiobooks, it looks like.
Oh. And so in this book, you learn the secret of the mustache that I've always wondered, is it real or is it penciled on? And the answer is yes. Oh, he fills it in with pencil because it's, like, white.
Now, should we. Should we get him on to talk about that?
Oh, my God. So Atomic Books in Hamden, they actually get all of his fan mail there. So if you ever want to send him anything, that's where it goes.
Yeah.
And, yeah, we went there when you guys weren't.
Yeah, I remember that.
So it was fun.
It was a cool place.
Little. Yeah, they're really cool. And they mentioned the owner by name in the book.
Like, oh, my God.
Yeah.
Like, I've talked to him, but as near as famous I'm gonna get, you
know, he splits his time between Baltimore and San Francisco. I know some people who have, like, just run into on the bus.
Yeah, he lives. He slips somewhere in our neighborhood, but
definitely does not live in.
It's a secret. And I'm riding with. This is cool. A Parker 45 in navy blue, and it's filled with yellow ink. From now, they just go by Arbonne. They drop.
Oh, really? I didn't know that.
And we talked about this on indelible. Like, how could you write with yellow ink? You can. It's just you have to be careful what kind of paper you use. So I found a stock that really likes bright ink. And you can straight up write in yellow on it.
It's great.
And that pen is, you know, smooth, kind of wet, not too wet. It's really good mix. And I'm writing in a pride book that I made.
Nice, nice.
How about you, sir?
Well, I just last night finished a novel called the Cartographers. It's a. I guess it's like a kind of a magical realism mystery novel kind of all around the idea of map making. And it was a group of. What's happening among a group of cartographers? And it's. I ran across it an independent bookstore day, and I was, like, looking at it, and I was like, you know what? I'll read this. So my only criticism is I wish there was more sort of like, nerdiness about map making. I was like, there's definitely. That's an element that they don't really get into, like the kind of level of nitty gritty that I was hoping that they would get into. But it was a really fun. Just sort of like. I wouldn't even call it like sci fi, but like. Or fantasy. Just like kind of magical realism, just mystery. It's a lot of fun. We've watched some tv. We finished the last season of Atlanta, which is that. Did either of you see any seasons of that? It is a show that. Made by Donald Glover of community fame. And it's. It's. What is it? It started off about the story of, like, him as a young adult, like, in growing up in Atlanta. And he's kind of a rapper, and his cousin's a rapper, but his cousin makes it big. And this last season, really, like, he just sort of departed. He was like, you know what? I'm just going to make, like, what I want to make. And he has all these. There's a bunch of episodes that are almost like little short films, and they're all about, like, you know, being black in America or race relations. And there's this one episode in particular that's basically like this kind of what if a. Like, like this woman wins a federal lawsuit that, like, a man whose ancestors owned her ancestors has to, like, give her all this money. And it's about, like, what happens in America when, like, there's actual, like, reparations and, like, equalization of race. And it's like almost like a little. It wasn't like, scary like, like a Jordan Peele movie, but it was just had very much had that feeling just like almost like a black Twilight Zone. And it was really good. And the rest of the series, the season is just so good too. But it's a huge departure from, like, previous seasons. It was really good. And we're in. Just started. Do you remember I talked about this years ago, like two or three years ago when the first season was on. Does anybody Remember Gentleman Jack? Have we talked about this?
No. I've heard of There's a Whiskey cup.
Yeah. This is an HBO show. It's like co produced probably with the BBC. It's a British show and it's about this woman named Ann Lister who was in like 1830s, 1840s, like Halifax in New York. She was almost open lesbian. And it's kind of about how she like, you know, she's a very shrewd businesswoman and she's very like aggressive in business and people are just like, is she a man? Like they just didn't have like the word for this. And she's courting like it's based off her journals, which she was a real person. And season one was about just sort of like establishing that and about like how some like oil robber was trying to like steal oil from her estate and how she counteracted that and she started courting this woman who like moved in next door. And this, the season is just kind of getting to. It's just. They called her like in this. People called her Gentleman Jack in this very derogatory way because she, you know, she's a woman. Why is she acting like a man? That kind of a thing. Yeah, that's really good. And I am writing in my Baron Fig conference, I have that, the COVID that goes with it that looks like a Bible study cover. What is that, the Guardian Pro? Is that what it's called? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I like that one, like a lot. I went to. I'm actually calling in from the office today. I went in to have a couple meetings. I've been trying to break up my week and I've been going in maybe once a week. So I'm. I brought that to travel with in here and I'm writing with a black Taekondro that I found on my desk. And you know what?
It's not that. Is it the matte USA finish one or the matte finished usa?
It's not a USA one, it's a. It's the. Not as shiny as they are now. But is it the ones that were slightly matte, were they the ones from China?
Oh, I don't remember. Usually they were unsharpened. That's the only difference I remember.
Yeah, it's that one. It's not the USA one. It's more matte than the ones that they have now. But I think it's the one from China, which is interesting. Not bad. It's not bad. And that is it for me. Should we get into fresh points?
Let's rock.
Okay, let's see.
You are up.
So, first of all, I'll talk about personally. We've talked about bullet journaling so many times on this podcast, and I've talked aggressively against it.
So guess what?
Open to it. I've been open to it at times. I've tried it several times. And with the help of a recent diagnosis, I'm not gonna say too much about it, but I mean, I am diagnosed as an adult with adhd, which I. Has come out and just come out in a really interesting way because, I mean, I. I don't know, I just. It's not something I would have ever pegged myself for, but now it makes perfect sense. And now with that knowledge and with the treatment and stuff, I have retried bullet journaling, which John lovingly sent me a copy of the bullet journal book, which was super helpful. I started doing it and now I can't. It's been three weeks and I've done it every day and I can't live without it. It's been wild and really helpful. So it also just. The thing that I never like, fully embraced was just how customizable it was and how, like, fluid and it is and how you can kind of do with it whatever you want, which is really nice. Mine is not very pretty and is, you know, sloppy at times. But, I mean, I've kind of worked up my own system, like my own legend of markings for which is just like a combination of different ones that I saw on the Internet, basically. But it's working great for me. And yeah, it's cool. So I've been doing it. And another thing that just proves that I'm being treated for something that I need to be treated for. Long ago since I started bullet journaling to now, I am still using the same pen. Like, I have not lost. I have not lost this inkjoy gel pen. It's just a normal blue inkjoy gel, I'm just saying. But I'm like, fascinated by the fact that it's always there. Like, I don't leave it anywhere stupid. I don't just. It doesn't disappear. I don't give it away and forget about. But for. It's just kind of amazing. I'm not being like, stuck on it, but that pen is just always right there, man. And it's been great. It. It goes really well with the black wing slate I'm using. Makes a nice juicy line and I've just. Very satisfying. So I've stuck with it.
But so have you joined up. What do they call it? Bullet Journal University?
No, I have not. I don't know what that is.
So it's a thing on mighty networks where I don't know how to like they have a lot of like round tables and stuff and zoom meetings where like Ryder Carol's there and you can ask them questions and they do like a one where you get together and plan for the month, stuff like that. It's actually like not as boring.
I say it sounds terrible but I don't know, I may. But that's what I said about Bullet journaling. So maybe I'll try it out. But thank you Johnny for being so encouraging and helpful with that. It's been really helpful staying organized and getting stuff done and like learning how to like harness the like the good brain space that I have in a day.
Yeah, yeah.
So that's that. And the other thing I was going to bring up which is we'd like to say thank you to Baron Fig because they did send us review copies of the new guided journal, the new confidant guided journal which is called the draft which we wanted to. We all are. We have been looking forward to talking about. So they've done many of these guided journals before. We've talked about a lot of them before. I know. You know we talked about the Clear Habit journal, we talked about the Wander Dream Journal. I think we talked about the, the meditation one I think came up at some point of the bloom, but they just have a bunch of them. And this new one draft was a collaboration with Roxane Gay who is a well known Internet personality and writer. So she is known for the books like Hunger and it was a book of hers that was. I mean I know I own a copy, I have not read it yet, but I have a copy of that book also. The Bad feminist is another one that she's.
Yeah, that's a good one.
Well known for. So yeah, and so she collaborated with them and they created a notebook that I guess it's just like a go to notebook to write, to draft out a story and it gives you all the tools you need to draft out that story. So it has things like project planners, a space for storyboarding, it has some forms for how to kind of map out characters, like you know, essentials about characters, research sections and even a sort of scrivener.
But in a notebook.
Yeah, totally. That's a good way to put it. And there are even these, they use all these different icons to stand in for different things. Almost like its own little bullet Journal symbols to kind of, you know, tell you what to put where. And it also comes in a really cool color. So just talk about like the superficial part of it. Is it a. I don't know what you call that blue. Is it navy blue or is it like a. Yeah, cadet blue with an embossed like three pages stacked on top of each other at the front. It has the band, which I'm still waiting for them to put on the normal confidant.
I just don't understand why. What's the way, you know, I mean,
how many of these do we have to buy before you're gonna start putting the bands on the new ones? Like when you go to the new stock? Because I know it's there, so. And a pink ribbon also. I just have to say that I like the box. I think the box is a really cool design with the scribbles and the. And the editing symbols on it. I think that's. It was a good touch. And also has the same nice cadet blue. Thank you, Johnny. And the pink pearl colored everything else. So what do you got? What do you guys. What thoughts do you guys have about this guided journal?
I mean, for me, like, the trouble is, like, it's still very much one of those, like, guided kind of like structured content journals. And I think I just sort of fundamentally, like, can't follow them or I feel like I'm boxed in or something. I just like feel really weird about trying to like, follow that in earnest. But I like the concept a lot. I think it's like, if this is something that you want to do all out kind of by hand and you're not doing like a nanowrimo kind of a thing where you're just just starting the writing, like, this is a really good way to do it. I also think it's cool that it's like a collaboration with somebody like Roxane Gay. Like, she's a pretty big name for somebody like Baron Fig, right? Like, and they previously they did, if you remember, the SKU journal, which was the, like, the scribble one. It was one of the first sort of like concept journals that they made during their limited edition, like, year that was with. In collaboration with Debbie Millman, who's Roxane Gay's wife. So they, I think they have a lot of, like, they had some inroads, like, you know, to collaborate there. So I think this is a really interesting collab, especially for Baron Fig to do something like this. So I'm really interested in that aspect of it. I would Love to see, like, if she. I have no idea what her writing process is. She's very. I follow her on Twitter. But yeah, I have no, like, I don't really have a good peek into, like, kind of how she does it. And I'd be really interested to know if she actually follows this or how much this is like part of her brain.
So along the lines of what Andy's was saying about this being a guided book, one thing I like about it is that so much of the book isn't a guided book. Like almost the whole book is still blank. So you could just get tired of it and write.
Just use it like a regular notebook. Yeah, yeah.
Fan fiction about something.
It's almost like having a little section or something like that, like where you can just go to the workout ideas.
It's called the writing journal is just freaking cool. If I didn't know who Baron Fig was and I saw that it's a subtitle, I would have bought it.
Like, what?
Yeah, but andy, you mentioned NaNoWriMo. I could see this being like, super great to have in your hands during like October.
I was. I was wondering. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. For October. You can start planning, like your stuff in October in the like. Like in the front of this in the reference section. And then. Yeah, like, just like get right to the writing in November. Yeah. Kind of base with it. That's really. Baron Fig should do like a big push for this in October. That'd be really fun.
Yeah. I don't know if this is a secret. Harry said that he'd been trying to get them to do something with NaNoWriMo.
Yeah.
In the past. That would be a really great partnership. They could just make like a double thick confidant. Yeah.
Oh, that's a good idea. Or a double thick draft.
Yeah.
Double elastics, three page markers, a pocket.
But yeah, it's a cool. Yeah. I don't know if Joey actually listens to the show, but. Joey, would you just for the love of Pete, please put an elastic strap on? Just the regular confidants. We're all ready for it.
So would it be inappropriate if I offered my services to put elastics on your confidants?
I mean, you already do so much
for me in this and pocket. I just made a book for Frankie with both of them. As long as you don't mind that I have to tear some stuff out and then put it back in a way that you might not.
As I say, how do you put the. The elastic band on there?
Yeah, you Cut a hole in the back, take out the end papers and you dig a trench for the elastic and then like get it in there, glue it on the top and the bottom. Usually I put a piece of book binding maul on top and then put the end papers back and like it will not come out if you use good glue. Yeah.
That's all. It's that simple.
Now digging the little trench part is really fun. You get to play, you know, slice out little pieces of cardboard piece by piece. Very relaxing.
Cool.
Yeah. I didn't notice this one didn't have a pocket because I could swear that some of their guided books had pockets. Maybe I'm wrong.
I have to look at some of them. I don't actually know. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But I mean, I'm gonna repeat what Tim said. The color scheme on this is just yum, yum. Yeah.
I think some of that front matter stuff like the storyboarding and whatever is a little intimidating. They're like first glance. Andy. Maybe in the same. I don't know if that's related to like what. How you feel about the sort of guided stuff where it's like this is how you need to do things. But yeah, it's all like. I guess the way I feel about it is that it's all rudimentary. Enough stuff about writing.
Yeah.
You know, it's nothing wacky. There's no like prompts you have to answer. It's just kind of like it's definitely
not as prescriptive as like some of their other things like the coding journal which. Yeah. Just feels really weird.
Yeah. This one's like.
Yeah, some of them are boss.
Yeah. Yeah, you're right. This one is way less. So like it's just like here's some tools that you can use if you need them.
Yeah, yeah. It's just like this is. Here's you can work out. If you need to work out a character, try this. If you need to work out some scene, try this. But also it's like it doesn't take up that much of the book. Like Johnny said, there's just so many lined pages that even if you don't use any of that stuff, it's still just a cool looking notebook that you can work out a draft in.
Yeah, it's cool. So thank you, Baron Fig for. For those. Yeah. Sending those along.
Yeah. We were all super excited. I know. To get those in the. Oh yeah. And just know the connection to her and. Or just to a well known author. And also just the subject matter of that is Just kind of right up our alley to, like, want to check out and feel out.
Roxanne, if you want to come on the show and talk about your writing process, we are more than happy to have you.
So I've been going taking a stroll down blade sharpener lane lately, as I was doing. I mean, not research, but maybe practice for the pencil sharpening scene. And, like, I forgot just how delightful they are because lately I've gotten very utilitarian about my pencils. And I shove them into an electric pencil sharpener, and I don't even empty the damn thing until it's like, it won't close anymore and it's spilling out, which. Which makes me sound like a dirt ball. But it does smell good. But, yeah, like, taking a. Like a kum longpoint, the single hole wand, and, you know, just carving out some delicious pencil weapons with it and playing with their masterpiece. I just. I enjoyed jumping back into that, getting my hands all graphite.
Yeah.
Making a mess. But, yeah, it's. You know, for me, with pencils, like, the accessories and sharpening are part of the appeal. So, yeah, you know, a nice little brass sharpener was just such a nice little thing.
Oh, yeah.
As much as I love fountain pens, you know, you don't have any brass accessories to carry around.
I learned it from you, Johnny. I really love just like, sitting in a coffee shop and sharpening my. My pencil into, like, the. The coffee saucer or to an empty cup or something.
I stole that from heaven.
Well, I mean, I. I credit you for really making it mainstream. I.
That's so satisfying. Unless you accidentally get it in your coffee and don't realize it until you finish the coffee.
Not so.
Don't ask me.
I'm sure that hasn't actually happened to you.
Not lately.
Did you finish the coffee, though? Yes. You did.
Of course you did.
I didn't realize it was in there until I was. It was sort of in the dregs. The bottom. You'd think that pencil shavings would float. You would be incorrect. At least not in that copy. But yeah. So I have another scene out. That's the second sharpener one, and probably, I think, gonna be four of them. So, like, it's a nice, fun, deep dive into blade sharpeners, which, you know, speaks for itself.
So that's a sequel to Blade Runner. Yes, Blade Sharpeners.
It's. It's. But it's. It's an analog version of Blade, so it is real effing cool. Yeah. I also have the pen scene out, which is the Rainbow edition. Oh, I forgot to list these on Etsy so they're not actually out but they're here in a pile.
Sneak peek.
And yeah, they're out to subscribers but it's in full color. So I wrote an article about my favorite inks in all six colors of the, you know, traditional rainbow spectrum and then pink at the end because I like pink ink. So that was, it was fun to write but a real pain in the butt to lay out and print.
Yeah.
And the only other self promotion thing here is my damn pride journals that are made to order so I can do 10 of them in a day. But if you want one, like hurry and get one because I want to be able to. Let me know if you want one. The, the paper I was talking about earlier that you can use yellow ink with is what I put in those books and it's so nice. Like I, I'm a big fan of it.
What's the characteristic of a paper that works? Well, I don't know.
It's 28 pound white paper that's bright white but then not bright white and I don't know, whatever coating is on it soaks ink up but also boosts it as if it didn't soak it up. It's really weird. Like I played with it a lot and I don't know anything about chemistry or what they coat those papers with but it's very enjoyable. I feel like I shouldn't tell anybody what it is because it's not super expensive but it's nice.
Yeah.
And I'll stop advertising my ways.
Johnny has wares. Yeah. Any other fresh points, Johnny? No, I will advertise somebody else's wares. Um, we mentioned him earlier but our good friend of the show, Harry Marks has a new novel that came out I think yesterday as we record this and it is called the Library at the center of the Earth. I pre ordered it. It is a murder mystery jaunt through a library and like it feels a little Dan Brownie. I've not read it yet but just came out yesterday also just feels a little kind of like top secret. It has a lot of intrigue. So go check that out. I think it's pretty cheap. I think I paid like three bucks for it.
Yeah, I just, I, yeah, I bought it yesterday. Yeah, I think I got on kindle for like 299.
Yeah, so Harry's been killing it. He had the, you know his book the Prophet that came out sometime last year. Like I don't know how he does it but yeah, yeah, go. Go buy Harry's novels. It's on Amazon for Kindle, so I. I don't think you can get, like, a printed on demand version of it. At least not yet, but you can at least get that. So. Yep. Library at the center of the Earth by Harry Marks. Our friend Harry Marks. Go check that out. I wanted to mention I completely like. It came at a. It came at a weird time, and I did not properly follow up with you. And thank you for this, Johnny, but so pretty soon after we recorded last time was Independent Bookstore Day, and it was really fun. Katie and I went out to celebrate and it was such a great day. And then we came home and then all of a sudden our cat died just, like, really suddenly. And it was pretty. Pretty crushing and kind of, like, hard to process. And, you know, with any sudden death, let alone one that's like, you know, it's. He's just a cat, but he's a member of the family. Right? Like, I see him more often. I see most humans, but a little later in just a. Just a really, Just kind, fun way. Johnny sent me a journal that he made out of the COVID of a Cat who book. Which cat? The cat who did something. The cat who Came in from the Cold. The cat who is the Spy who Loved Me, or whatever. Like, just a series of murder mysteries by Lillian Jackson Braun that my mother and my grandmother just loved. Just like one of those, like, cozy mystery kind of originals. And Johnny, that was so considerate. And thank you so much for doing that. That's really fun. It's a really cool journal, too. Like, I was. At first, I was like, johnny, why did you send me this book? And then I opened it up, I was like, oh, no, he had a journal on it. This is really cool. So that would be. You should make a video of making a book into a journal. I think that'd be really cool. Yeah, that would be fun.
I should do that.
Yeah. Last thing I'll mention is something else really cool that kind of came and went. I had, like, learned a little bit about it beforehand in talking to Andrew Mecham from. At the book fair. That was in Richmond. But there's a collaboration that Blackwing did. It's one of those collabs with a company, the Blackwing X series. And they did one with Shepherd Fairy, with Obey Giant. And so it was Blackwing X Obey. And it was just a, you know, a regular old. It's a Blackwing with, like, some really cool colors and just a kind of a bright red Eraser. And honestly, like, I love it for the box. Like, the Blackwing illustration on the box is done and sort of like that. That Shepherd Fairey style. That looks so cool. It's really kind of like, clean lines and very, like, epic. It should be on, like, a campaign poster with Obama's face or something. It's really neat in that. They made a notebook too, that has, like a. Yeah, the notebook. Yeah, it has, like, a cool test pattern or something. So on the one side of the Blackwing, it says Blackwing Exo Bay, and the other side it says the future is unwritten. Did either of you get these?
I did not.
I got a set for Frankie for Wednesday.
They sold out pretty quickly. And I'm pretty sure, if I'm not mistaken, they are sold out again. Oh, well, correction. They still have the notebooks on blackwing.com. if you want the notebooks/11 Blackwing pencil, you can go there and get it. It looks like I'm cruising the website for Obey right now. It looks like they don't have it, but they did. They already did one restock, so maybe it'll happen again if you don't follow Blackwing on Instagram and you really, you know, want, like, this, like, you should really follow them. So. I don't know. There's been a lot of, like, collabs lately, and I've been kind of hesitant to really jump into one. There's that Grove made one that they just came out with. Do you guys see that?
Yeah.
Yeah, that's.
Did I.
Those are really cool. It's.
I think I missed that Grove made
is that company that makes, like, they kind of look like Dudek Block. Like. Like modern black.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
They made one. They have a spot to put in the. The one stage sharpener to just kind of hold it. And they have these really cool charcoal y, grayish black wings that they made for it. That's really cool. But, yeah, those are.
Those ones are.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. They look really great. So. So yeah, they have a lot of collabs that are just, like, not that interesting to me. But this is definitely a really cool one. The Obey collapse and the Grove made collapse for that. That matter. Kudos to Blackwing and to Shepherd Fairy for that kind of combo. That's really neat.
I wonder how they got hooked up. I wonder how that happened.
Oh, yeah, through their, you know, their good friend Banksy. I think the mutual friend just had, like. Just called Charles up one day and was like, hey.
And he had like a one of those, like, voice changers over his. Yes.
I'm sure their good friend, you know, third Jeff Tweedy, did, you know, contacted them and.
Yeah, probably. I want to tell you about something. Yeah.
I've ever heard in my life.
Oh, that's really good.
So, man, this has been too long. Let's not go another month.
No. Yeah, right.
I think it was.
I think it was very long, but also probably needed. I think everybody needed it for.
Yeah.
So I. Yeah, I definitely need it. I was. But it's been a week in. I went to Minneapolis for a week for my conference, and then I went to Indiana for a week to see my family. And it was nice not to have to, like, worry about, you know, producing this and getting that out during that time. But I did miss you guys.
Oh, yeah. Always.
Yeah.
Likewise. My. Oh, yeah. My Henry got Covid a second time during that time. No symptoms. No symptoms.
Oh, good.
Twice.
Two in a row.
No symptoms.
Lucky.
I somehow went to a conference, an indoor conference with 600 people. And then I went to Indiana, where, as you know, Covid does not exist. And I somehow. I literally tested every day, and I somehow escaped without it. I have no idea how, but I don't want to tempt fate like that again for a while, I don't think.
Yeah, my friend is a fireman, and with people coughing in his face, he never got it. And then he got it from his kid, like, two or three weeks.
Kids, man. Germ bags. Worse. I did get a cold from. From Katie's cousin's kid who came over. We hung out and had dinner together. And, yeah, he was definitely, like, wiping his nose on everything. And I'm pretty sure I got a cold from him. But not Covid.
Yeah, but nowadays you see someone with a cold, you're like, wait, don't sneeze. Oh, my God.
All right, should we button this up?
Sounds good.
All right, so this has been episode 182 of the erasable podcast. If you want to listen to recording, if you want to read show notes, get more information, go to erasable US182. You can read more about this. You can find. Oh, I should ask Tim. Where can people find you on the Internet?
You can find me on Instagram, TimothyWasom, and I'm on Twitter, Imwassum and Johnny.
How about you?
I'm@pencilrevolution.com on social media, Pencilucian. And you can buy my overpriced notebooks at Etsy.com shop Pencil Revolution.
They're very fairly priced for the amount of blood, sweat and tears that you put into it.
So I literally blood.
I want one of those notebooks so I can perform spirituals.
You might have one you might want to flip through.
He's gonna. He's gonna text you an incantation to say yes. When you open to a certain page,
you also include a lock of hair. No reason
you need Tim to read the incantation for you with his Barack Obama impersonation.
I have Newt and Bubble Toil. Anyhow, I'm Andy. I'm at Andy Welfle on Instagram @aw. Should I just do the rest of the closing matters?
All of the Patreon people,
If you want to engage more with our community, you can go to our Facebook group, which is facebook.comgroups erasable. If you want to follow Erasable on social media, we are on. We have a Facebook page, we have Twitter, we have Instagram at Erasable podcast and we have a Patreon. We. It takes, you know, time and work, although not this past month, to. To make this show and you can help kind of support us and keep that going. And that is@patreon.com and by the way, erasable is spelled without a second e. So it's eras. Common misspelling. People put an E at the end of erase. So I'd like to thank, before we close, our producer level patrons, the folks who Support us at $10 a month or more. Really great group here with some new names, which is awesome. We got Melissa Miller, we have DigitalTent Tech. We have Angie, Aaron Bollinger, Matthew Chavon, Andrew Austin, Tara Whittle, Ida Umpers, David Johnson, Phil Munson, Donnie Pierce, Bill Black, Ed Swift, Diana Oakley, Tom Keakley, Andre Torres, Paul Moorhead, William Modlin, John Cappellouti, Jamelia, Stephen Fansale, Aaron Willard, K.P. millie Blackwell, Bob Ostwald, Michael D', Alosa, Jacqueline R. Myers, Tana Feliz, Ann Sipe, Joe Crace, Measure Twice, Mike Hagen, Chris Metzkus, Studio Delger, Bill Clow, Random Thinks, Jason Dill, Dave McDonald, Mary Collis, Alex Jonathan Brown. Going in reverse alphabetical order this time. Andre Prevost, Kathleen Rogers, Bobby Lutzinger, Kelton Wiens, Scott Hayes, Dr. Hans Noodleman, Jay Newton, Chris Jones and John Wood. Thank you all so much for supporting Erasable. And we will be back in less than a month. Hopefully. Probably.
Definitely.
Definitely. We'll see y' all in two weeks. Do you like our podcast? Most people like our podcast, but if you like our podcast, David, we'll turn it off.