This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
And President Santos, you look like.
Hello, and welcome to episode 192 of the erasable Podcast. I am Andy Welfle on hosting duties today, and I am joined by my two favorite. I got nothing. My two favorite co hosts. Dude, Tim and Johnny. Hey, guys.
192 times. That's. That had to happen at some point.
Just. Do we just run out of ways? I was trying to think of, like, we're recording on the second to last day of January, so I was trying to think of some good, like. Like winter babies or. Yeah, I don't know. I got nothing.
You need to put. You need to put like a little needle scratch in, like, right before you say I have nothing, just be like, I've got nothing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's. Yeah, we're just talking about some of our favorite things today. We have some really cool new goodies from Musgrave that we're digging into. And yeah, just some of the other stuff kind of going in on. Going on in our lives. Tim, do you want to start us off with some tools of the trade?
Yeah, I'd love to.
Yeah.
So the first one I'll mentioned, which I think is the biggest deal to me, I've been waiting for this for a long time. Like, I knew it would come at some point. So Bob Dylan has this big, vast bootleg series that he puts out. And he's an artist that's known for. They're just being bootlegs of him out there everywhere. But he's also an artist that's known for recording 20 times as much as he needs for an album. And it's so. It's like all out there. So people are just like, what's out there? What do they have? You know? And so there's. There was a collection. I don't remember the number. I think it was number seven, like volume seven or something. But Telltale Signs is my favorite Dylan release ever. It's a. And it was sort of B sides and alternate takes from like, Time out of Mind and Love and Theft. Those kind of like late 90s, early 2000s albums into, like. Because there's an album called Modern Times, which was my first new Dylan album as like, a obsessive fan. It's like 2006, I think. So, like, when that one came out, it was the first one that I was just like, oh, my gosh. So now they put out, finally, it's a 60. I think it's 62 track.
Geez.
Wow.
Bootleg series on just the time out of Mind recording sessions, which was kind of his. He's had all these phases to his career, and that's the one from like 97 that, like, pushed him into the phase that he's in now and, like, the stuff that he's doing. So it's. I've talked to you guys about, like, my idea for writing about late stage careers of musicians and how I find those, like, so fascinating. And this is like, getting to listen to the Big Bang, like, in slow motion for his. His late stage career. It's so good. So it's got a lot of, like, alternate takes. And when Dylan does an alternate take, he's like, okay, let's do it. Let's do that one again. That one didn't feel right, but let's pick up the pace and I'm going to change the rhythm, you know, so it's like totally different. So it's like the song's almost like its own, like, new experience. And I love. I love it so much. Stephen Haydn, podcaster that I really love. He does, like, a indiecast and he has a new Dylan podcast that's called Never Ending Stories, but wrote the liner notes for the physical version. So I want to get that at some point. I don't think I'm going to get it on vinyl because it's 300 and I don't think I can handle flipping records that many times because it's like 10 vinyl records. Like, that just seems stupid. I did that. It wasn't this expensive. I actually kind of, like, kind of got away with something at Barnes and Noble. And I got the.
With Tell Everybody it was.
No, no, not like, I talked a guy into using a 50% coupon on something that he probably shouldn't have used. A 50 coupon. And I got the. The complete Tom Petty Wildflowers vinyl set. But I never listened to it because it's just too many. I just, you know, Anyways. But this collection is amazing. So I've been listening to it since last Friday when it came out pretty much exclusively. And I was also, just a few days ago, I was doing a deep clean in our room and I was just like, wanted to put something on the TV in there. And I forgot about. And this is going to connect my next one. I forgot about this series on hulu that's called McCartney 321. And it's. It's like six or seven episodes of just him on what I think is a stage or like a studio, but it's in black and white and it's Very, like, dimly lit. And it's just him and Rick Rubin talking about music.
Oh, cool.
And so they just talk. And then like, Paul sit down at the piano and say, oh, here's how I came up with this. And, oh, when people ask me about, like, how do I do this without reading music? And so he gives all these amazing insights. And Rick Rubin is just, like, always been. I've always been a fan of him, his podcasts and his producing. And so he just asks excellent questions.
Have you seen his new book?
And my next tool of the trade is the Creative Act, A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. Yeah, no, I got it on release day. I got it on audio. I pre ordered the audio and then picked up the physical book.
You know, I'm a sucker for clothbound book covers, and I haven't picked it up yet, but I've been eyeing it
at the bookstore, especially one that looks slightly inappropriate when you glance at it.
You're like, looks a little bit like a boob, but also a little bit like a record.
Yes, a little bit. Maybe that's intentional. I don't know.
Yeah. Wait, do they. Are records made to look like boobs?
I was thinking the other direction, but that's true. He was going for the double meaning now. Yeah, but I started reading that too. And I've got the audiobook, which he reads, and it's got, like, know, meditation bells ringing in between chapters and stuff.
What?
Yeah, he's a pretty spiritual dude. But it's such. It's so good. Just a book about creativity. Because the thing, if you ever hear interviews with him, like, he barely plays an instrument. He doesn't know how to use, like, a soundboard in a studio. But he's like, one of the biggest producers ever. And he basically is just so confident in his taste and his, like, ability to hear if something sounds good that people keep paying him to do all these gigantic, crazy projects. You know, I mean, he's worked with everyone, but it is definitely worth getting. It's. It's kind of like you remember talking about that several short sentences about writing book.
Yeah.
A long time ago. The Clint. I can't say his last name, but whatever his name, you know that book, like, you read it and you can kind of hop around wherever. Yeah, it has that kind of a feel where it's like, once you read through it, it's something you can just kind of open up for, like, inspiration.
Yeah. He also looked like he's just spent, like, you know, like decades in a check after bombing people through the mail or something.
Yeah, he's totally comfortable in who he is too. Yeah, but he. He lives or he. I don't know if he hasn't lived there, but he works in Shankri LA Studios, which is where the band recorded in the 70s and like, Bob Dylan recorded and now that's his studio. And like one of the recording booths for the vocals outside of the studio is a, like an RV that Bob Dylan had brought there and just like left it turned into like a. Like a reverb room. So, yeah, anyways, but yeah, so those three, they're kind of all mingled in together. Bob Dylan and Rick Rubin and Paul McCartney. But it's been. Been good. And I am writing with a Tennessee round that I have hack winged with a silver feral and a gray eraser.
Just looks so. Looks so good. Loving it.
Yeah, I did pencil king 1, 2 and that one I've been using. Just basically back and forth.
Very. Yeah.
So nice. How about you, Johnny?
I just finished season three of All Creatures Great and Small last night.
How was it? How was it? Don't give me spoilers, but the war
is a big topic in season three.
Oh, yeah.
So, yeah, we're on episode four of season one right now. So good.
Yeah, I love. Oh, I can't remember his real name, but the kid who was. Who plays the vet's little brother and then also was in Gerald. Yes, yes. Yeah, he's just so good.
He looks like a Rankin Bass character with that jaw.
Yeah, he's just a place, like, just such a. I don't know, just. Yeah, just his, like, kind of like philandering way and just like how he tries to get out of the. Things he's just so good at that
he has such a good, like, scheming look on his face.
Yeah, he's like.
Yeah, like, you see the wheels turning behind where he's like, what am I gonna do with this? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's the kind of guy you'd want to hang out with in real life but not be responsible for his actions in any way.
Right.
I didn't make him do it. I tried to talk him out of it. I haven't left. Yeah, there's, you know, it's a new season on pbs. There's a lot of good, good stuff.
Yeah.
I think the Same Day Season 3 of Miss Scarlet and the Duke came out, which is cool because season two just came out in, like, fall and that show is really good. But enough of tv, the Internet. I joined the handmade book club from Vintage Page Designs, which is. I don't know how you describe it. You pay money to be in a group and they do stuff. But I think I'm the youngest person there by like 20 years and one of, like one man. One man that I've seen in any of the meetings. So it's a little weird. I guess it reminds me of being in college, except that we're not all the same age.
This is really cool. I'm looking at their website now.
Yeah, it's. They. They only open memberships every once in a while, and from what I understand, they've been doing a lot more stuff lately, so it's kind of cool. They have weekly classes and stuff like that and a monthly challenge, which I didn't do for January yet, because. January. But there's time. There's tomorrow, so. But yeah, if you want to. I don't know if you make books already what the benefit is, because. I don't know, it's just a sense of community, I guess. So that part's cool. There's a private Facebook group. We know about those. And it's. It's cool. Everyone's very encouraging and there's a lot of like, hey, I don't like this official book binding crap. What else can I use? Which is fun because, you know, if you're not going to do a lot of classic leather binding, a lot of the rules are sort of out the window. Yeah. My other. I'll keep this to 3. Consumption is like several days or several hours a day of Minecraft with my children. Have you guys fallen down that rabbit hole yet?
I've. I've played Minecraft, but I have avoided spending much time in there because I feel like I could just take over my life.
Yep.
Yeah. I don't even have a kid, so,
Yeah, I. Yeah, I haven't played it a ton. I mean, Henry has played it. He's more in like a Pokemon world right now, so he hasn't been playing as much lately. But I do find it very. I love playing it. You know that song, I Just Need More Time? It's a Pokemon's world. I just need. I just need more time. That's like the title of my. That'd be a great title for a memoir when you're like 90.
I just need more time.
I just need more time. It's like the saddest memoir title of all time. That'd be a good one. Just more time, please.
40, 45. Like midlife.
Yeah. So. But I enjoyed a lot and Henry did. Gets like, we Played on Switch and so he gets some of the like add on packages where you can play like in Star wars worlds and stuff. Yeah, it's really fun.
Henry's got that. I don't like that one. So we have a world. We'll have to send you an invite for Henry. That's pretty fun.
Yeah, totally. We should do that.
I might have just built a mansion because what do you do at lunchtime?
It's a mansion. No biggie.
So I'm writing with something that I had in my pocket yesterday when we went to the Baltimore museum of Art where they don't allow pens, which is a bullet pencil stuffed with a stub of a Musgrave red. But the bullet pencil has a clip and no eraser.
Is it a vintage bullet pencil?
Yeah, and it's black and says compliments of Butch and Horace Balsarth. Sails aberdeen, Maryland. Telephone 84 on 4. 8 4.
Good old Butch and Butch and Horace.
I should look up what bazaarth are. B O U Z A R T H. But I thought it was the one that was monument sales. I like that one. For gravestones.
I've got one of those for the baseball hall of fame that's like. Has that clip, like, doesn't have the eraser. Just like real skinny. Does it have the real pointy tip on it?
Yeah, it's pretty pointy.
Yeah, those are cool.
It probably had a pin in it and I took it out, but yeah, that's all I've got. Oh, I'm writing in a Coptic stitch book that I made because I'm on a Coptic kick.
So how about you, Andy the Coptic kid. That's what I'm gonna call you. I am. I don't know. I've been watching a lot of TV movies, things lately. Got on a kick at some point a couple weeks ago where I basically, I just watched all of the Star wars shows. That's on Disney. Like I watched the first couple seasons of the Mandalorian and what are they? I think they just. I think they're on season three. So I watched.
Comes out March 1st.
Okay. So I guess I watched only part of the second season and then I watched the rest of that. Then I was like, oh, it looks like it overlaps with the Boba Fett show. So I watched all of that and then I watched Andor. And then I watched the Obi Wan Kenobi show. And I. I have to say, I mean, first. First of all, you know, I. I'm a. I'm a Star Trek guy, right? Like that's my, my main thing. But damn, like, Disney and Star wars are so good at storytelling. Like, man, they're. It's just so good. Like, the. Andor was an amazing show. I, I liked all of them, but I think Andor was my favorite of the, of those TV shows. I, I really like how it's like world building in the Star wars universe. They're getting away a little bit from just like, you know, the hero's journey or whatever into like talking about like, basically like the bureaucracy of the Empire, which is just amazing and just sort of like how kind of like capitalism run. Run amok, just like controls everything and led up to this. Right? Like, I think that was just really fascinating. Have, have you guys seen Andor?
No, it's the one I haven't seen yet.
Yeah, I watched the first couple episodes and haven't gotten back to it, but I fully plan on it.
It's. It's bleak, but it's very, very good. And there's. There's a couple episodes that revolve around this, like, prison colony. And it's, it's so good. It's so imaginative and it's. Yeah, it's just really good. So I really recommend Andor and I like. It's funny because I didn't realize. I kind of forgot that, you know, it just dubs tales into Rogue One. And out of all the Star wars movies, I think that Rogue One is my favorite. I just like that they're telling a slightly different story and that. But like, that leads right up into kind of like the main story and they just like, use different sort of like, approaches and storytelling methods and. Yeah, I'm, I'm just. I don't know. Andor was just, just really good. And the other ones were too. But I like that one.
Um, how about that fight scene in Obi Wan, though?
Oh, yeah, yeah, that was. Yeah. I. Obi Wan feels to me a lot like Star Picard does for Star Trek fans. It's like, it's like, hey, you know, you just want the same old four characters, right? Like here, here you go. But. But done in a very good way. Right? Like, it's. They do. It's a. Obi Wan feels a little bit like they're writing their own fan fiction. All that to say is I don't think that's bad. I think that they do a really, really good job of, of that. And the same way that sort of Star Trek Picard is about, like, getting all of your favorite Next Generation people
back, that's really true, though, because, like, they were like, so. Everyone was so over time, like, Star wars fans were like, the Inquisitors. The Inquisitors. When are we going to get to see the Inquisitors? And then all of a sudden, it was like, yeah, yeah.
All the Inquisitors you could want.
Yeah. I love the Flea cameo. That was pretty good.
Yeah.
Like, that's not. Oh, my God, it's Flea.
I love the. Yeah. Like, third sister and just her whole thing, like, she's, she's such a great character, such a good actor.
Yeah. And I thought they did a really good job in all the previews of not telling you what the show is actually going to be about.
Yeah.
Kept dropping all these things. Like, it's about Luke.
Yeah.
No, not even a little bit.
Yeah. I love that they got Jimmy. Jimmy Smith's back. But dudes looking old. I just, like, I don't believe that, you know, this is only a guy who's 10 years older and has a. Like, Jimmy Smith is getting up there and President Santos.
You look like. No, he still looks great. I just wanted to say that. Yeah, Yeah.
I mean, that's what, that's what the office will do to you. Right. Like, look at before and after pictures of Obama. President Santos is looking. Went on to become the, you know, the President of Elderan. So, you know, he went galactic. He went galactic. Yeah. Big fan of that. Yeah. I, I. And then I also, just because I hate myself, I. After watching all those, I went to watch the prequels 1, 2, and 3. So I, I just wanted to, like, yeah, wanted to catch back up and. Because I had seen them, like, since they were in theaters, but it's been a really long time. And so I. And you know, I'll admit it, like, Episode three is not that bad. Yeah, it's pretty good. They. The, the whole thing about Padme dying of a broken heart was kind of stupid. But, like, other than that, it was pretty good.
I hate you.
The dro. The Droid's just like. It's like, we're losing her. I don't understand why. Just like. Okay, okay. Droid. Anyhow, watched a bunch of Star wars stuff last night. I was talking to a friend who recommended Kiki's Delivery Service, which is one of those Studio Ghibli Japanese cartoon movies. Have either of you ever seen that?
No.
It's by the same people who wrote, like, My Neighbor Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle. Like, kind of like those Japanese. Not really. Like, I guess I don't know the difference between anime and like Japanese animated features. I think it's the same, but it's not super anime y But it's just these really beautiful movies that tell like a sweet story. And Kiki's delivery service is about a a young witch named Kiki. And in witch tradition, when you turn 13, you go off into the world to find your way and train. And she takes her little cat and on her broom and she finds this, this beautiful little coastal town and she starts a flying delivery service. And it's a little bit about like burnout. It's a little bit about like being alienated and making friends. It's just like this really sweet story if you just want some like really esthetically pleasing animation and just a nice kind of like low stakes story where you really feel like, you know, they're kind of like, you know, kind of like holding and protecting you. Like this is a really good movie for that. So I can definitely recommend that.
Reminded me of something funny that happened the other day. My work. You said anime. I work for a Catholic affiliate affiliated organization and so when we have these big, big calls, they'll have like a blessing at the end or something that they'll share, you know, as we're. As the big meeting is closing and at the end there's probably a hundred people on the call. And then all these people started putting amen in the chat at the end. Except for one person who accidentally got, I don't know, autocorrect typed in anime. It just made me like laugh out loud. I mean it was on camera so it's fine, but it just made me very happy. Amen. Amen. Amen. Anime.
Anime. Now you have to say that in church. Yeah. Can I get an anime?
Anime. Can I get an anime?
It's funny. And I am writing with my Musgrave duet pen which I'll talk a little bit more about in fresh in some of the final pages of my confidant, which I will talk more about in freshpoints. Speaking of which, Tim, do you want to start us off with with the FPS? Yeah, let's do it. Before I ever know, did you ever think about how fresh points and freshpoints and fountain pens have the same initials?
That was intentional, right?
Yeah. Yeah, that was a deep con from totally years before.
Sorry.
So one bit of like personal news I wanted to share this. I'm just excited about and I am going to like share out something about it at some point. But I'm this week I'm in the Tennessee Songwriters Week competition, which is like a local. It starts local and there's like regionals. It's almost like the Voice, but for Tennessee songwriters, like original songwriters. And then it ends up at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, which is kind of like a historic little venue. So I. Yeah, I'm really excited. So I play on Friday and I'm playing at the. The International Storytelling center, which is in Jonesboro, Tennessee. There's like this little theater. There's like 20 of us in that category that are playing and we play one song and then like a few get picked and then we play at the down home. If you get at the next round, which is another historic little venue that a bunch of sort of, you know, classic, especially country and kind of Americana acts have played over the years, I think. Pretty sure Johnny Cash played there at some point and a lot of those guys. So, yeah, I'm really excited. Let's just share that. So it's not really like, you know, it's analog related. I wrote it with a pencil. I'm playing an acoustic guitar. I might even play a harmonica. I don't know. We'll see.
Can we get you just like. I'll set up like Neil Young with just like the guitar. Like a harmonica set up with like the two microphones attached to the bottom of it.
Yeah, exactly. And then like one of those. What he also did that thing he would use where he would, like, blow into a tube. Those are called.
Yeah.
Where you'd play the guitar and you'd be like, making sounds with his mouth.
Yeah.
Jesus.
I know. Like a vocalizer or something.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. But anyways, but big news, like something we got sent to us, which we have to start out by saying a huge thank you to the folks at Musgrave. We were sent a. A bunch of goodies that we were going to talk about in freshpoints today. And so I'm just going to give, like, the quick rundown of them and then we can all just kind of jump in and give our thoughts. But they have some, like, really amazing new packaging that they're. They've come out with in sort of a, you know, streamlined, branded version of, you know, the things we used to talk about with these older pencil companies about how they either didn't have packaging, they came in a plastic bag or a rubber band, but now they have these handsome packages. So they sent us along with the brand new one, which we talked about, the Pencil King, which we talked about recently. We got that. And they Sent four other packages. The. The unigraph they are now. And I think. I don't think they were. Were they selling these as like a. A bundled one with all the different grades before?
Oh, I don't know.
I don't remember. I feel like they probably were, but.
But yeah.
Is new. So that. Yeah, they're selling the Unigraph 1200 drawing pencils and it goes from 6B to 6H. So you get like a sampling of all those and it comes in this really amazing. I call it like a forest green gold writing sleeve.
Yeah.
Got the choo choo, which is the delightful pencil yellow color. It reminds me of our confidant, our erasable confidant.
Oh, that's a good point. Yeah.
The Cub which comes in its sleeve is a. I feel like this is one of the greens you were going for, Andy, when we had our like, green conversations. This is a really nice green.
Like a more grassy, yellowy green, huh?
Yeah. And that comes with. Packaged with two different colors of the cub, which I've always been a big fan of. Those, like mini jumbos. Yeah, some. Some green ones and some blue ones. And then what I think we had talked about off Mike that we're all a fan of is the new packaging for the tot, which is a pencil that I haven't used very much. We have them around, my kids use them and I just haven't.
Yeah, I love the tot is just. It just feels so old timey to me because like, you know, they're untipped and they have kind of that like very kind of almost like sparkly pearlescent, like paint on it and. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've always just thought they were just really, just really cool looking.
They are. They're one of the like Musgraves time warp pencils that it does feel like it's from a. And a different age.
And if you're not. If people aren't familiar that the tot and the choo choo are jumbo and then the cub is like a. Like a semi jumbo or they call it a mini jumbo. Yeah. I also love on all these pencils, I guess with the tot doesn't have it, but the cub and the choo choo and the unigraph all have like these really great little like, like icon symbols on it. And the cub one, the cup one, kind of looks like. To me it looks like Wolverine from X Men.
That's funny.
Yeah. But yeah, they're just like, you know, these designs. I wouldn't be surprised if they're still using the same, like die stamp on these that they've been using since the beginning.
Should be. Yeah, they've got it.
Yeah, they're just still so old timey looking. It's really cool.
Yeah.
So that and that one I was going to. I alluded to before, but like, the Musgrave tot box is like. You remember when I. We had that conversation might have been on indelible, but I was talking about like the perfect ink color that I was looking for, and it was like the red Eminem red. This is like, maybe even more closer to like the perfect red color for me. It is like a maroon.
Yeah.
It's maybe like, it's like Musgrave or not Muscle oxblood has a little more like purple in it or something like that.
This looks like diamond writer's blood or.
Yeah, that's probably the closest that I
got garnet red from.
Yeah, I haven't tried that one, but yeah, that took. So that's the pencils that they sent us. Anybody else want to say anything about any of those?
No, I just. I think they're. Yeah, their. Their boxes are just. It's. You know, I've. Before when I've gotten these pencils, I've either bought them by the single or they've arrived in just like, you know, something with like a belly band and just like takes on a whole different, like, look of professionalism and coolness when they come in these kind of boxes. So, yeah, I know that's largely due to. To Studio Delgar and Nicole and Tim. So for sure.
So it reminds me of PBR from like, I don't know, 15 years ago. I'm dating myself. I don't know if you guys remember that Pabst got bought by another company that they raised, among other things. They did. They raised the price from, you know, $3 a six pack to whatever it costs now because it was so cheap, it just had the perception of being low quality. And I think Musgrave is definitely in a higher tier pencil than PBR is a beer. Although I do really love pbr. I feel like their packaging was just like, not doing them any justice. Now they have these new boxes and, you know, they raised the prices a little bit. Like, they're more expensive than Ticonderogas. They're, you know, a mile from being as expensive as black wings.
Yeah.
But like, the whole experience is so upscale suddenly. In a good way.
Yeah.
That it's delicious. And, you know, I always like a box for A pencil.
I like that. Just like the PBR in the best possible way. Like, they're the PBR pencils.
I love pbr. Oh, my God.
Yeah. Do you remember when I came to visit and we bought those PBR coffee drinks?
Yeah. We thought they were going to be beer coffee, but they were just booze coffee.
Yeah, it was.
I don't want to admit that I liked them a lot.
No, I did, too.
My brother always said that the drinking PBR was like drinking glue because of how it made his stomach feel after. Unless it's. That's. That's a category of beer that my friends and I refer to as baseball beer. And, yeah, it has to be, like, hot outside. You know, it has to be, like, the perfect kind of.
Yeah. My favorite of that kind is Tecate. Just like. Like cheap Mexican beer with a lime in it. Like, best sort of poolside hot. Hot weather beer.
Yeah. I'm a good Gen Xer, and I really hate IPAs. And what has happened to beer these days? Like, beer is sour and coffee is weak.
Yeah.
Damn Millennials ruined everything. But there's. There's always room in my life for some pbr. Then with some Guinness. Best of both.
Yeah.
Mix them.
So.
So do you want to talk about some of the other stuff in the package? Like those really bitching erasers?
Yeah. So, yeah, they came out a couple other things they sent to us.
We.
Yeah. Got some square or. Sorry, rectangular erasers. They come in this awesome little sleeve. It says everyone makes mistakes, which is delightful. I love that. And then also their sticker game we've talked about before, but it just continues to be awesome.
Yeah.
Got, I think, is the first one I've gotten of this, but the M with the pencil kind of woven through the. The letter that's on their hat that they have. That's, like, one of my favorites stickers ever, so I'm happy.
I. I love. Love this snake that is kind of intertwined around a pencil. Like, it's the staff of a politic. Like, it's just. That's going on somewhere where I can. Somewhere where I can put stickers next time. Stickers on something. Yeah, yeah.
So those are really amazing. So you need to check out, like, we've talked about it before, but if you haven't checked out their sticker stock, you should do that soon.
A lot of good tattoo ideas in those stickers.
Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. And the notebook. And then I'm gonna save the. The duet pens for next because I know, Andy, you were chomping at the bits. Talk about those. So they sent us a notebook and you know what's. Is there a. What's the name for the notebook? I should have, if I did my research.
It's just called the dot grid notebook.
Yeah. Doctor Notebook. So it's a large notebook, really handsome, kind of like charcoal cover with their kind of. What would you call it? It's like a. It's an infinity symbol, but it's a pencil that's kind of woven in around itself to make like almost like a figure eight.
Yeah.
And it's dot grid. The entire thing is perforated, which I really, really love for like this purpose because I'm not like, I'm usually. If I'm going to use a spiral notebook, it's not going to be like continuous to fill with something. But it's like a great place in my opinion to like or from. For my. Not my opinion. My like use case to pull this up, work on something on a sheet, tear it out and do something with it, you know.
So yeah, it's really like.
It is like a workplace or workspace notebook.
It's a nine by ten and a half dimensions.
Yeah.
Which is really interesting.
Yeah.
Like almost square, which is really cool. It's a really neat shape.
Yeah. Yeah. That's really cool. The paper really feels good too.
I like the little touch of having the. The little M. Their little logo on the bottom corner of every page. That's really.
Yeah.
Really nice.
Do we know who made this?
No.
Last time they did Iron Curtain press.
Yeah. I mean it has that same kind of spiral bound that Iron Curtain press does. I mean lots of people do it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they went back to them. But this is idea for sure.
Beast of a book.
Yeah.
So very cool notebook.
Yeah.
I'm excited to put it to use. Yeah. I just, I see it as like a really nice desktop like you keep on your desk. Do some work in there and kind of keep it there to like just be a. Yeah. Like a workspace. Because I even like it. This size is perfect for turning sideways and working like.
Oh yeah.
Like landscape style on a sheet of paper. Because I do a lot of just my like note taking method when I'm in meetings and stuff is usually kind of like visual. Like I'm not going to take notes on my computer. Usually I'll do my paper and I'll do bubble notes and I'll do like arrows pointing everywhere and it's a perfect sheet size for that.
I'm excited that's a good point.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then lastly, Andy, you want to talk about the duet pins? Yeah.
So I, I sort of fell in love with these pens the first time I ever just realized that they, they made them. I. I really want to find out. Maybe we can do an episode of that other podcast on our patreon about pens. Maybe we can interview somebody about the history of the duet. Because it's a weirdo. A penny. So it is a double sided ballpoint. One side is blue and one side is red. And they have like a, like they're like a, like a round wood barrel which just feels like you're holding a pencil. It's. It's very lightweight and it feels. When I say it feels cheap, I don't mean that it feels like badly made. It feels just like something that is just commonplace or like easy to get a hold of. Right. It just feels like, like a pbr, right? Like it's, it's very.
Feels ubiquitous. Like even though it's not something you see very often, just feels like it could be.
And what's, what's really interesting is the way that they indicate which side is red and which side is blue is. They have like bands of each color on each side. Like a, like a red and a blue foil stamped color. And then it says duets with a little tilde on it that is trend like transverse. So like when whatever you're holding like in your right hand, if you're holding the blue, the blue side is up and when you turn around, the red side is up. Just such a strange little pen. And people have asked me, I tweeted a little bit about it. People are asking me, like, how does it write? And I have to say, like, it doesn't write amazing, but it writes fine. And to me, the sort of like it's reliable. The novelty of it is what's interesting about it. Like it's just a. Such a odd little pen. So I'm going to talk in my fresh points a little bit about bit crystals, but I would say it's not as good as a bit crystal, but it is in, it is in the crystal camp.
I was on Instagram recently and saw this ad for some like overpriced invention that somebody came up with that it was for a. It was like a magnetic, especially like a pocket protector, but like that goes on your notebook that holds pens but then it's like magnetic. So you just like slap it on the COVID of a book you're reading so you can like carry around. It's Like a really strong magnet, so it, like, holds things, but it's like $40 for some reason, so I didn't.
Yeah.
Pursue any further, but I would love to have something like that. Maybe I've been meaning to get one of those, like, belly band, or not belly band, what they're called, but it's like a pencil pen sleeve that goes and has, like, a wrap around. Around the COVID You use them like a hardback book. And this would be an awesome thing to slide into that, you know, if you're. If you're marking up a book. This. Oh, yeah. Made for that. And also, like, you lose it, you know, whatever.
My. My notes in the last few days as I've been using this have just been very colorful because I've just sort of been alternating between blue and red, so. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder if we can. I'm gonna have to experiment with this and see if we can, like, take this out and put, like, a Bic refill in it, because it would be perfect if I could get some, like, Bic blue ink, like a medium tip blue ink.
You'd have to cut it off because it has such a short, short barrel. So you get messy.
But that's true.
You should definitely try it and let us know how it goes. The heck if you get all that oily ink all over you.
Yeah. Yeah. All right.
So that's. Yeah. So that's it. So thank you, Musgrave. That was, like, a really amazing treat. A wonderful afternoon. My kids gathered around as I was like, I have one of those. Like, I immediately gave my son a duet, and my daughter had her eye on some stickers. I was like, yeah, guys.
Yeah, I do.
All of us. We can all enjoy this together.
I do think so. So the duet came in just a regular old box with, like, a label slapped on it. Like, they could do some amazing things with the red and the blue. Sort of like interplay on some of the boxes that they've been making.
Yeah. And I bet they will. I bet it's like, I have a pretty.
They're working.
They're working on old stock, too. Probably on these. Not going to re box them.
Yeah.
So. Yeah. Yeah. So that's. That's it for that. So thank you, Musgrave. And Johnny, you want to go next?
Sure. So really quick. I sent out zines to my subscribers last week and forgot to list them on my website because I'm so freaking done with them. But the December zines are out, so if you're a subscriber, you should have them. And if not, let me know because the USPS has been acting a little funny around here lately. But I did an issue of my 12 favorite pencils, so I got like, very storytelling ish, which was fun after doing a lot of issues that had nothing to do with pencils for a while. So, yeah, they're in the shop. You can grab them because I made a ton of them and unrelated lately in my book, binding practice. You know, people recommend mechanical pencils because they're sharp, but if you use a mechanical pencil, the lead snaps all the time, which of course negates the sharpness. And also I don't always want to use those. So I've been gravitating toward pencils that'll keep a very long and strong point. And I'm wondering if you guys or listeners have any recommendations because I have very little experience with pencils that are harder than like, F.
Yeah, I mean, I mean, I personally don't really use many pencils harder than an hb. Like, I usually prefer like a. To be even. So I don't know. Like, I guess my favorite of the, like, relatively harder pencils are like some of the, the Statler ones. Like, they always tend to lean a little bit harder than like Japanese pencils. So, yeah, yeah, I've been hitting up
a lot of like, vintage number two and a half pencils back when people didn't want their pencils to be black, they wanted them to, you know, not dull every 10 seconds.
Yeah.
But, you know, I have a lot of vintage pencils and it's hard to want to use them sometimes or sharpen them.
Yeah, I've. Yeah, I fell in love with the, the F grade there for a while. So I. But I haven't ventured too far past that. I mean, yeah, I love my Tombow Monos in F, but I haven't ventured beyond on a regular basis. Beyond. Yeah, beyond that.
Yeah. I'm definitely going to check out these harder Musgraves in the unigraph line for sure, because also a sharp hex is delightful when you're throwing it around your desk and lose stuff a lot. But yeah, I'm. I have one of those. They had them at the pencil store. It's a Faber Castell Grip, but it's black. Like, the wood's black, the paint's black, the dots are black, the lead not so black, but very good for, you know, marking signatures and stuff. So, yeah, if I can drop us a comment, if you have suggestions, I would certainly appreciate it. And I only have One more fresh point, which is also advertising ish to say that I finally restocked my damn website. So I got a lot of messages from people like, I don't know how to buy stuff. Like, that's because there's nothing on there. Sorry, it's been a rough month. But, yeah, that's. That's all I've got. I want to hear about this big crystal hate.
Yeah. So January 25th. So five days ago, some guy named Chris Gross, G R O S S E, who is a. I don't know. He's like, he's a. His website says he's a sports marketer. He wrote a tweet that has seven different pens and they're labeled one through seven. He goes, okay, you can only write with one type of pen for the rest of your life. Which one are you picking? And I'll share. We'll. We'll have a link to this tweet in the. The show notes. But also I'm putting it in the doc so you guys can see it too. And so it's. He's comparing a Uniball vision, like one of the classic Uniball visions. A precise V5, a Sharpie S gel, a Uni Ball Vision elite, a pilot G2, a flare pen, and a bit crystal.
But they're also different.
Yeah. And he's just sort of putting them all together. And so that was immediately my reaction. It was like. Was like, oh, well, anything but this. Anything but number seven, which is the bit crystal. Like, that one's trash.
I'd say anything but number six.
Yeah.
Imagine writing with a flare for the rest of your life.
So, so my. My friend Michael Metz, somebody. Somebody in my community, like, like, engaged with it. And Michael said. Then they were like, oh, yeah, like, no bit crystal for me. And Michael basically tagged me and said, Wellfley is a number seven apologist. So I was like, sure, sure, I'm going to take. I'll take the bait. So I sort of replied with a big. A big tweet thread about it. And I was basically just like, I threw out some big facts, right? Like, I talked about how, you know, the design is iconic and unchanged in 72 years. And it's in the MoMA as like the permanent collection for iconic design. I said about how since 1950, there's. They made more than 100 billion of them. I talked about how, like, you know, they. The. The tolerances, they check every single tungsten carbide ball in there to make sure that they're within tolerance. I Talked about. There's an episode of the Illusionist podcast where they talk about that. And then I think it's also in the perfection of the paperclip where they talk about the marriage between the BIC and the Biro heirs and like how they brought the companies together, which I would absolutely watch a movie about that. That would be amazing.
There's a. There's a book about it called. I think it's called Ballpoint Pen.
Oh, I would read that. Yeah.
It's a history of Ladslow Bureau and whole science behind the whole thing. It's really interesting.
Yeah. And then I also linked to our. We did a preview of the Indelible podcast on this main feed just about like when we were talking about the bit crystal, of course I linked to the bitcrystal lovers group, which is the sort of like one of the runoff Facebook groups for our group, but talked about that. And then I also mentioned, I did the math. I looked up all of these pens and I basically took like one of the smallest packs you can get of it on Amazon and broke it down of cost per pen. And all of the pens that they talk about are more than a dollar each. Some of them are almost $2 each. The Precise and the Pilot G2 are like, like $1.80 per pen and the bitcrystal is like a quarter a pen. So all these other pens are like four to six times more than the bit crystal. And I know that we're talking about like, you know, less than, less than five bucks for each of these. So it probably doesn't matter a lot to a lot of people, but like, it's a. Makes a big difference. So it's like comparing like, hey, like, what do you like better? This, you know, Toyota Corolla or like a Lexus or maybe even not a Lexus, just like a Subaru. Right. Like. Like one of those is much cheaper than the other ones. So I. I don't know.
Stupid flare. I'm still stuck on the flare. You write with a flare. It feels like your pen is licking the paper. Like you're dragging the pen's tongue across the paper. Yeah, I can't stand it. Oh, my gosh.
I've never thought about it like that. But you're right, it is kind of licking the paper. I will never use a flare pit in the same way again.
I'm just never going to use one again.
Yeah, so I mean, this. This tweet got a lot of engagement. I. He'll. He'll never kind of like, see this. But I, I definitely had to have my. Have my tweet Splainey moment on this.
He had no idea what he had coming to him.
So if. If you all want to look at this, this episode, it's. It's basically it was just like a special preview of when we started doing Indelible and we'll have a link to the preview of our like that's in our main feed. And then also if you become a Patreon member and support us that way you can listen to all the Indelible episodes. I think we should do one about the duet Pen next. What do you think?
Yep. We've been talking about doing the multi pen. Like multicolor pen episodes. We can just incorporate it into that.
I'll talk to Nicole and see if there's any interesting story behind just the strange design decisions behind the Duets. So that'd be really fun. Yeah. So, yeah, that is. That's. That's the kind of like pen Pen. Twitter discourse. I tried to carry it over. I started. I think we've talked about it here before. I started Mastodon. If anybody has heard of Mastodon. I took an old. An old domain of that I own for dot grid. I own dotgr.id and I made a Mastodon instance on it. So if anybody knows what Mastodon is, it's like Twitter but it's sort of like open source and federated. So in the same way that like your email. All of our emails are different domains. Right. Like a lot of people have like Gmail or Yahoo or at Yahoo or at Gmail. Basically Mastodon takes that same sort of protocol and turns it into Twitter basically. So I can interact with people from other institutions, other instances. But we have like 20 members on our dot grid, including less and Harry Marks and Tougher and lots of friends of the shows. So come join Masson.
Last, fun fact, if you search yourself, I don't know if you ever seen this. Search yourself on Twitter and forget the first E in your handle. There's somebody who has that name. Just me like a. Well, flea without the first E. So it's just a W, L, F L E is this guy named. His name's Alexander Vola and. And then I just put in the chat there's somebody. At some point someone tried to send you a tweet but accidentally sent it to this guy because he left out the E as well. It was some post about Mitsubishi 9850s. I was like, yeah.
Huh.
I just thought. Found that very fascinating. Like that's not if Somebody would said, do you think there's an awl F L, E. I would have been like, absolutely not.
That's ridiculous. There's, there's. Interestingly, there's somebody named Andrew underscore Wealthley on Twitter. And he is, he works for the University of Manchester. He's like a climate change scientist. And I, I have zero idea who he is. Like, I assume we're related somehow, but I didn't realize that there were wealthies in the UK And I have, I have, I have no idea how we're related. So that's interesting. Yeah, I follow him, but he doesn't follow me.
A lot of wasams in Germany.
Interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah. And then finally the last thing I was going to mention is my last fresh point is I. I'm about to start in about. Blah, blah, blah, about to start a new notebook. And this will be the first time since the beginning of the pandemic that I haven't been using a confidant. I bought one of the hardback Leuch terms made with the 120gsm paper.
Decadent.
Yeah, I, I was in the mood. I just wanted something that just was really lux and nice and. Yeah, gonna see how. Gonna see how this goes, but it's real thick and heavy, just like a nice solid weight in my hand. I got the orange one. I think that'll be a nice kind of spring color. Gotta sticker it up here pretty soon with some of these sweet Musgrave stickers. Yeah. And also I think I mentioned on the show before, like about. Yeah, it was the year end thing about things that we're just loving. And I have a bunch of stickers from deep space 90s like, just like fan art of Star Trek Stu. I have the sticker of Mulder and Scully shining a flashlight into the sky in a forest and it's the Enterprise overhead, so I think that's definitely going on that cover too. So, yeah, that is. That's it for, for my fresh points.
I should probably get one of those at some point. Those notebooks look awesome and that is prime sticker territory too.
So it's a good call. They feel really nice. Anything else before we wrap it up?
I don't think so.
Well, guess we'll button up. This has been episode 192 of the erasable Podcast. You can find recording of this episode and show notes by going to erasable US122 or excuse me, 192 and then also find out more. You can shop our zines at Erasable Us Come join us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram at Erasable Podcast. And if you want to join the friendliest group on the Internet, we are on facebook@facebook.com groups. Erasable is our group that's about 4,000 members strong. Or you can come find a link to the Bitcrystal Lovers group from there as well. Please come and support us on Patreon if you like what you hear from us. That'll kind of keep the lights on and make sure to keep us in pencils. And that's@patreon.com erasable and I would like to thank our Patreon producers who subscribe at $10 a month or more. Those are Melissa Miller, DigitalTent Tech Angie Aaron Bollinger, Andrew Austin, Tara Whittle, Ida Umphers, David Johnson, Phil Munson, Donnie Pierce, Bill Black, Ed Swift, Tom Keakley, Andre Torres, Paul Moorhead, John Capilouti, Steven Fansale, Aaron Willard, Millie Blackwell, Michael d', Alosa, Tana Feliz, Ann Sipe, Joe Crace, Michael Hagen, Bill Clow, Mary Collins, Kathleen Rogers, Kelton Wiens, Hans Noodleman, Jay Newton, who has a new book of pottery that just came out, Chris Jones and John Wood. Thank you to all of our supporters and we will talk to you all in a few weeks. Do you like our podcast? Most people like our podcast, but if you like our podcast, maybe we'll turn it off.