This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
We're living in, you know, 2024. Johnny's living in 2424.
Numbers are irrelevant if you've had enough caffeine.
Hello, and welcome to episode 206 of the erasable podcast. Happy New Year, everyone. We are welcoming in 2024, first time as a group, excited to be back together, talking. We got some new stuff that's out recently, what we're looking forward to talking about. And just one mother in general. So I'd like to welcome my best New Year's resolution, Johnny and Andy.
Hello.
Keep these things this year.
Yeah. Not to mention, this is the 10th year that we've been doing this.
Now.
We haven't quite hit our anniversary yet, but.
Yeah.
Yeah,
my mind is blown.
Sorry about that. You could take out that pause right there.
Okay.
Weather related texts from Jay.
Oh, boy. Everything okay over there?
Yeah, just. Yeah. It's like the wind is like whipping trees all over the place. She's like, driving right now, just like,
oh, geez, Path Home.
This is the area where it's like there's lots of trees and so, like, trees can just fall into the road.
Yeah,
back into it. All right, well, let's just jump in today and talk about our tools of the trade in a minute, but let's start with Johnny. Go for it.
Awesome. So I just found this out yesterday, even though it came out a few months ago. But I've probably talked about the British band James on here before. You guys familiar with them? They had that one US hit single, like 30 years ago, I thought laid. Anyway, they put out an album where it's mostly their singer, but also the full band. And a few songs they did, I guess, sort of like a greatest hits with an orchestra. And the arrangements of the songs are all exactly like the original recordings, but a lot of them are slower. And it's like, really, really good. It's on. I'm pretty sure it's on all of the platforms. If you want to listen to something, like, really good, it's a good intro to them. And I think I mentioned I finished this book called how to Not Kill Yourself. It was sort of a memoir by a philosopher, so it had a good ending. And obviously he's still here because he wrote the book. But it sort of pushed me into a book that was on my list by a philosophy professor I like named John Kag. So he wrote a book called Six Souls, Healthy Minds, How William James Can Save youe Life. So it's about the philosophy of William James and its sort of current relevance and if you've read a lot of James, you know, he talks about how would you talk someone out of killing themselves? And there's even as an essay called his life worth living. And of course he was talking about himself, so he constructed his philosophy to save his own life. So know it's a good navigational tool for navigating the modern world. Especially nowadays when everybody makes so many of their decisions based on feelings.
Yeah.
And I just started another book speaking of feelings, called Feel something, make something, A guide to collaborating with your emotions. Who is. It's by Caitlin Metz, who is someone I follow on Instagram. So the book, it's got a very zeny feel and then it also includes a blank zine because one of the things that she promotes is doing some zening. So I didn't even know that when I got it. I just kind of want a recommendation.
I don't think I've ever heard Zen is a verb like that. Like zening.
I like that.
I don't know if I have. I'm taking credit.
You should. You heard it here first.
I look so now. Yeah, Zening.
Yeah, this. So the book includes stuff about like doing a body maps, mind maps and interesting. Not. I mean it's not very self helpy. It's more like creative coaching. Like, hey, you're feeling really crappy, why don't you make some art? Like the, the famous Neil Gaiman graduation speech. But this has a little more details about how I actually do it. And the drawings in it are really cool. Like really cool. There's. There are instructions for how to make mini zines stitched together zines. Super cool book. So, yeah, other than that, I've been like binging the crap out of PBS and Brickbox because it's winter. So you probably, you guys are probably starting the new All Creatures Great and Small season.
I am very far behind on that. I need to watch. I need to catch up on that. Oh, I don't think. Spoilers. I didn't even watch last season.
Do you have the TBS app?
I do, I do, yeah. I just need to get into it. Last year when it came out was just kind of hard to watch television that time. So I didn't. I just kind of like missed it and then lost momentum and then never went back and watched it. So it's been some, you know, pastoral Scottish countryside television. Like I never knew if, you know, Miss Molly's cow ever successfully gave birth. Spoiler.
Yes.
Who?
Thank God. Yes. That's a big CC cliffhanger.
It's such a nice, feel good show.
Yeah.
But, you know, they have a Christmas special, and in the US we don't get the show until a week after New Year's, so it's always disappointing.
Yeah.
Sad face. I mean, on the flip side, we have. I don't know, what do we have the British people don't have? I'd say democracy, but I'll stop.
I was gonna say. I don't know about that.
Yeah, that's. That's all I've got. How about you, Andy?
While speaking of Christmas specials, British Christmas specials, I watched the new Doctor who Christmas special over New Year. So I guess back up. One of the reasons for my very dulcet tones is after. After almost four years of avoiding it, I finally got Covid. I traveled a bit for. For Christmas and for New Year's, I. Over New Year's, I went skiing for the first time or kind of that week between Christmas and New Year's. And after I was done skiing, I just had, like, such bad body aches, like my shoulders and my ulnar nerve and my arms and my back just really aching. And I was like, oh, man, how am I so weak and fragile? That, like, beginner skiing just, like, just screwed me up in this way. And so I was just like, what is going on with me? And then I realized that it wasn't skiing that was giving me all these body aches. It was Covid. And didn't realize this until I got back to San Francisco, but had body aches turned into some congestion and a little bit of fever and all that stuff. But I'm on the mend. I'm testing negative, took exlovid. Great stuff. But, yeah, my voice is still. My voice is still very much down here. I'm going for the Tim Blossom sound. So
great.
Yeah. Thank you. So, Johnny, now you're just, you know, the only one.
You know, I think I always was
with that high voice. So I talk like this. Yeah, perfect. So for all that roundabout way to saying that, I had a lot of downtime just that first week after New Year's and watched the Doctor who Christmas special, and it is the first episode, first full episode with Nukuri Gatwa. I hope I'm saying his name correctly. Who, you know, other people who watch British television might remember Sex Education, which is that show that was on Netflix here in the US and he played Eric, who was the Nigerian British boy who was friends with the main character. And he's always been so. He's just high energy, just really charismatic. And as soon, a couple years ago as they, like when they mentioned that he would be the new Doctor, I was like, this is perfect. He's perfect as the new doctor. And I will say this is the first time. You know how they say, like when the President of the United States is younger than you, you know, you're old. I feel, I like, I feel like for me it's the Doctor. Like, this is the first time anybody who's played the Doctor has been younger than me. Like Matt Smith beat me by like a year. So now officially I'm old because Nakutigawa is younger than me. But he's very good.
The first time I had that feeling is I went to a. When I went to a sporting event and realized that all the jerseys they were selling were for people younger than me, it was like, yeah, I was like, maybe I'll get like a T shirt, like a player on it. For some reason it suddenly felt weird because I'm like, wait, a 22.
Oh no.
We're wearing a T shirt with a name of somebody who like was born when I was in middle school.
Yeah. Well, not only is it that Nikiti Gatwa is younger than me, he is a full nine years younger than me, so.
Well, he's young.
Yeah, he's 31 years old, born in 1992, playing a 1200 year old alien. But yeah, that was really good. It was very intentionally very campy. Like, I feel like Doctor who usually swings on the pendulum between like campy and just like really like dark and serious. And this definitely was like the campier side. Like it had goblins, like a goblin king sealing babies, trying to eat babies, you know, things like that. But like, in a funny way. Yeah, but it was. Yeah, it was great.
Harmless.
Yeah. Also I think I mentioned this last time, but I'm kind of in the middle of reading a series called the Three Body Problem, which is a written by CSUN Li, who is a author, a Chinese author. And I am in the middle of the second book called the Dark Forest, which is really good. Just recommend if you want, like a pretty, just meaty, chewy science fiction, speculative kind of series. This is great, basically about like mankind's first encounter with alien life. And it is, in some ways it's just very sort of like scientifically accurate. Like they're from a world four light years away, so their ships can travel at like a hundredth of the speed of light. So it takes them like 400 years to get here. And a little bit about kind of humanity's ramp up to getting ready to, you know, to meet this, meet these aliens and what kind of happens in that in this couple centuries. Yeah, the last thing I think I'll mention here is well this, I mean this is more of a. I don't know why I put it in tools trade because this is more of a fresh point. But I'll just mention anyway, go be doing some traveling. I can't remember if I mentioned this last time I got laid off from my job in December. Yeah, that was a weird, not pleasant experience. But luckily I got severance and I think I have a new job lined up which I can talk about later. But that wouldn't start until March. So I'm going to be taking a little time and next week I'm going to New York and then the week after that I'm going to Japan. So I'm really excited.
Finish.
Anybody has any recommendations for things to do in Japan? Like I'm going to go back and re listen to our episode with June Thomas. Hopefully some of those stores are still open. But if anybody remembers that episode, it was June Thomas who is a just writer and podcaster. She got paid by Conde Nast to go to a stationary tour of Japan. Pretty good gig and she had some just recommendations for stationary stores to hit up. So Tim, Johnny, if you guys need anything from Japan film may look for anything weird.
How did I ask them?
You were. Did you tell us you were going to Japan or is this did. I don't know did I extra it or something?
I think I thought I did, but maybe not. Yeah well guess what.
I'm going to have amnesia. Hey, that could be nurse found out before I did.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
Yeah. Going to be. I'm gonna spend a few days in Hokkaido which is way up north and then I'm going to spend a few days like about a week in Tokyo. So there's a few things I'm going to try to do. One of them is I. I really want to go to the Cup Noodles Museum. You can make your own. You can make. You can build your own personalized like instant ramen cup. Like they'll shrink wrap it for you and heat seal it and all that stuff. So what's.
That's really cool.
Yeah, I have some stuff like Tokyo Hands and the Itoya company but just some of those cool. I don't know just some of the neat looking just stationary shops that I've seen there. I really want to go to the traveler's shop but that is not that isn't I think that's in Kyoto. It's in Osaka. I can't remember. It's a little farther than where I'm going to be. But I keep in my head I think that Japan is just like pretty small country. But it's really not like it's you know, a very narrow strip of islands. But it's like as long as like the east coast of the US it's still a pretty big place. Yeah. I'll try to find some weird things and bring it back for you guys. That's it for me, Tim.
All right. So I have been watching All Creatures Fall. We can give that later.
It's.
I don't, I don't even want to give like my opinion on it, but I did start that. I've watched like the first. I think we watched the first three or four episodes. That's been fun. And these rhyme, which is also fun. I've also been watching the new season of Reacher. All Reachers Great and Gigantic.
All Reachers. Great smile.
All Reachers.
You know, what would it be?
All Reachers Violent and gigantic. So it's, you know, well documented as a guilty pleasure of buying the deck reacher books. This season is especially one of those like, you know like action mystery solving shows slash movies where you're like every episode and everything that happens in every episode would be national. Yeah, they're just like walking around, you know, like, oh, they killed 10 bikers that tried to jump them in a Waffle House parking lot. Like yeah, that would be on national news. Like everyone would would hear about that anyway. I bet you'd suspend belief worse. But Jane got me a book Christmas. I got a lot of really cool books for Christmas. Most of them not like whatever like read cover to cover kind of things. I got one about Johnny Mars guitar collection called Mark Guitars. It's like a table sized book. And I got the. There's a new book from the Bob Dylan center in Oklahoma that's like basically this gigantic brick that is just stuff from the archives.
Did it come with some custom black banks?
But Jane got me a novel called A History of Wild Things that she grabbed like knowing nothing about it. Just like it's book by a writer named Shea Ernst and it's very good. I'm really enjoying it. It's like a mystery. Like the main character is this guy who has this like family. There's like his family line. Lots of people have this deep intuition for like imagining what's happened, you know, based like they basically if they touch like an object Feeling of like a vision. Really good for like what happened. The person who owned this stuff. But anyways, he. It's like he's like a consultant called in from his first basement. And he gets called in swamp children's book writer. Like walks into the woods and never walks. Oh, wow. It's been good. Good. Whatever they call it. Upmarket fiction. Up fiction, whatever. Yeah. It's not total popcorn read, but also not reading John Franzen or something. Yeah, it's a nice middle ground. Enjoyable read music wise. My favorite thing, and this has happened in a while, but I found an album. I was listening to Sirius XM radio and Buddy Miller has a radio show on the outlaw country. Buddy Miller's like guitar player. He's played with Lucinda Williams and all these like big American, you know, Robert Plant, like his soloist. It's like one of my guitar heroes. And he mentioned this guy named Daniel Ashen, P A S H I A N. And he had this album he put out in 2022 called Night After Night. I just have been listening to it all things. So it's just right up my alley. I really love it. And I looked into who he was because he's an old. He's like. I think he like deep or somebody said it's unusual to find somebody who's kind of coming out with albums and is unknown, but it's 50 and still can get that stuff out there. I don't know if that makes any sense. Just you're like, how did he slip by? Like, how did I not notice? And I found out why, which is he'd done a lot of production and he actually was the one. He was one of the producers on Casey Musgrave's album when she won album of the year a few years.
Oh, nice.
He like co. He co. Wrote like seven of the songs. So that's. I think that's these days, kind of his main gig. I know he's done some work like. Like all these rants, but yeah, I just been listening to it all week and I am writing with a black wing. Palomino the Blue and still using my what term? Pocketbook.
Hardback. Nice.
All right, well, let's get into fresh points and we'll circle back with Johnny. So kind of new stuff, things that you've heard, anything you notice, get anything cool for Christmas, etc. Johnny, go for it.
So before I jump into Christmas and new stuff, I thought we could maybe talk about the Blackwing that we missed last episode really quickly because it came out a little late. Yeah, it says Blackwing Volume 2, a light and dark edition that's dedicated to quote art. So why don't you guys go first?
I will say this is a really nice feeling pencil. Like, I, I like the, you know, unlike some of the more graphic wraps that they like foil wraps that they do, this is maybe a little bit more, I think about the texture. Like, it's not quite as textured like as the, like the Tahoe pencil was, but it is very like soft touch pencil. Like, I think it feels pretty nice. So I am a. I'm a fan of the way that it feels also. I'm. I don't know. So this is their new, basically extra firm. I'm guessing this is probably more in line with like, Like a. Yeah, like somewhere around there.
Normal pencil.
Yeah, like a regular pencil. Kind of like it. I'm generally like their extra firm is like a 2B ish. And that's generally pretty good for me. I really like the way that feels. But this is nice. It definitely doesn't have that sort of signature buttery softness like darkness as the Blackwing does. But I imagine for a lot of people out there, this is probably pretty great. So hardness wise. So I'll be interested to see if and how this lead shows up like this core shows up in other pencils. And also they really need to work on their taxonomy because I, I think like having extra firm, firm, balanced and soft is probably not the greatest.
Nope.
Categorization out there. But, you know, that's kind of where they started and where they're going. So.
Yeah.
But I don't know. What did you guys think about this pencil?
Do you guys remember that thing from the old sketch comedy show In Loving Color where they had men on film and they would go.
Hated it.
Yeah. They picture me snapping and doing that.
Yeah. Yeah.
I. I think they put the core in it because this pencil's so damn ugly.
Yeah, they're like, you know, like I
was gonna buy it.
You don't like the electric giraffe finish, Johnny?
Well, I mean, it doesn't feel like a target pencil, but it looks like a target pencil.
Yeah. And somebody was very generous and said that it felt like. Or it looked like the Venus velvet crackled finish. And I was like, that's a very. It's a generous reading of that.
Yeah, that would be high praise. I don't see it.
Yeah.
But that, that would be really nice praise.
Like the upside down and stranger thing. Yeah, I just, I see those lying and my immediate thought is like, yeah,
yeah, go Ahead, Tim. I'm sorry.
So it's like I don't have one, you know, in. In hand. Like, I didn't buy any. Yeah. So I have to reserve and like, caveat. But I haven't used it. I think when I first saw it and I saw that it had like, the extra wear their 2x for or whatever. I was like, my. My immediate reaction was just, I'm sure some people like this, but I don't spend $30 on a dozen pencils to have it feel like the same poor is like a hard or run of the middle HP pencil, you know? Yeah. So I am curious, like, what you guys say. And just as far as, like, does it still. As far as, like, the quality of writing with it, is it still like a better writing experience? Like a mobile?
I mean.
Yeah.
Like, I would have to close my eyes to try to figure that out.
That's what I mean.
So it's sensory overload if you're looking at it.
Yeah. I. To me, it feels like just a. Maybe nicer than average, like, German pencil because it is, you know, still very. Just like. I think the wood is pretty good quality. Like I. That they use inside of it. I. I think that just hardness. It just doesn't have the kind of like, butteriness that even the regular extra firm lead does. So it just feels like a slightly heavier, like, fabric. Estelle. Oh, man, my brain is still not working. The one with the dots on it.
Oh, the grip 20 grips.
Yeah.
It's like, slightly heavier than that. I feel like the core feels to me about the same. So just it. It is losing that kind of butteriness of like that all. I think all the Black Wings had until now. Yeah.
What did you guys think of the
theme or whatever that I was just gonna. I was just gonna say that, like, I do, like, one thing that seems like it's totally fine with me in my head is if they're just like introducing it as like a volume.
Yeah.
For the purpose of them having, like, a standard, harder one. That's totally cool. That's fine. Whatever. But it just does seem like for the volumes where you're, like, getting these special. Just like. Yeah. That's not what I. That's not what I Come to Blackley. Some people will let it be all over it. But.
Yeah. Sort of like when Field notes did the.
Sorry.
Field Notes did that arts and sciences thing when it wasn't a pocket notebook anymore.
Yeah.
Except that was pretty.
Yeah. Yeah. So go ahead, Johnny. Sorry.
Oh, so the whole theme, the two, like, Light and dark and art. I had trouble wrapping my head around that. And also, like, why would you waste number two on something that doesn't actually involve the number two? Because in pencils, that's the number.
Oh, yeah, interesting.
Like reading the copy on the box, I'm like, did you guys not know you're supposed to italicize titles? Like, it was just really. It was. This one seemed rushed and I don't know, I don't want to say half assed, but it was not up to par with their usual presentation I did appreciate.
So, you know, this sort of like crackle theme comes from a quote by Leonard Cohen, which is, there is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. And so, like, once I read that, I was like, okay, I think I see where they're coming from. But it is just a very. There's got to be a balance. Right? Like sometimes when their themes are after like a very specific person or a very specific thing, like that can be kind of a weird execution. And then this is just really esoteric. Like, this is about how art brings about shifts in culture. Right. Like just broadly speaking. And so that's. That. That seems really just very broad. So. Yeah, it does feel like it kind of just went the other way.
Yeah.
And they could do like one called the Sky. Pretty broad topic.
Yeah.
But hopefully they would just make a blue pencil. That's pretty.
Yeah.
Not like it's some weird Iosphere, I think.
Yeah.
I love that quote, you know, about the letter going thing. I like that idea. Yeah, for sure. I think. But like when you say like it's, you know, about light and dark. You hear that? Oh. Or is that word. I mean, sort of. I guess. Yeah. It just kind of sends you down this rabbit hole, like, trying to figure it out. I almost would have rather done a Leonardo on it.
Yeah, that would have been cooler.
Yeah.
Or they could have done like the pencil very black and just had a little like white crack running down.
It
didn't Leonard Cohen.
It could be like the Blackwing one 8. I just googled it because I had to get the exact number. But apparently the song Hallelujah that he wrote originally had 108.
You wrote a. I know that word
before it was whittlebound. I think he worked on it for like years. It's considered that Cohen is reputed to have written around 80 to as many as 180 graphs. Wow. Hallelujah.
I mean, luckily those verses are very long, but still. Yeah, okay.
Yeah. I mean, I guess that there Would be a weird issue with rights since he's only recently deceased. That's why they haven't touched Hemingway.
If only he had chatgpt, he could write like 600 verses just like, at scale. Yeah.
All right, here's the first point. Yeah, Give me the last 3.0. Come on.
Editor writes back.
Shut up. Now I want to go to ChatGPT and say, Write AV more verses. Leonard Cohen's Hollywood.
You put that up for our Patreon supporters.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I don't mean I don't want to just like, sit here and black bash Blackwing. But this year I was really just. Yeah. Like I said, with the. The copy on the box, like, I don't know, it's. I felt rushed. Usually they do a good job, like, you know.
Yeah.
Using correct grammar and formatting.
Yeah.
So moving on, I got something else for Christmas that was very pretty this year, which is. I don't know how to pronounce their newer name, but the Narwhal Nautilus, which is a big fat fountain pen.
What is that? Navoller Naval.
So they're a Chinese pen company and they were called Narwhal and then they adopted. Is it the Norwegian or the Icelandic word for narwhal? Oh, does it make sense to me why they would do that? Maybe there was a legal issue.
I don't know.
I didn't really look into it.
But this is a gorgeous pen.
Yeah. Some of. I feel like half of their pens, the designs are just bleh. But this thing is ridiculous. It's Ebonite and it has three portal windows that you can see into it because it's saying, oh, my God, Piston fill. And it's just so pretty. The one that I have is called. I don't know how to pronounce it. Violet. So it's teal and like light purple swirls. It's so pretty. And the hardware is all purple plated. And evidently they did a Christmas one that so pretty. I'm number 14 on the waiting list in case they ever show up again. But they didn't make very many of them. But yeah, they've gotten a lot of good reviews for being consistent and good. And they make their own nibs instead of just putting the stock German ones in there. And when they're pretty, they also make this pen in some not basic colors because they're still that really cool Ebonite. And if you've ever written with an emonite pen, it feels really neat. This is like a really hard rubber and like super high polished, but yeah, I think. What do they run, like 180, but you won't really pay 180, which is really not bad for a nice piston film.
Yeah, yeah.
And my only other big thing was I ended up cutting that from my work surface.
And.
And you know, if you have one for a while, you don't want to get rid of it because you're attached to it. You're like, oh, I remember where that burn mark came from. But I finally, like, I really had to. I wasn't cutting right anymore, so I bought an enormous one, which is like such a good excuse to clean your desk.
Yeah.
I was going to ask Johnny, how many times have you bled on your cutting mat? Just like how much of your blood is just covering it?
This one so far, twice.
Okay, cool.
It's been there for a week and a half.
Black light.
Yeah. Yeah.
Rosie snuck up on me and I shoved a number 18 bookbinder's needle, like into the bone, my finger. Oh, terrace.
Oh, my gosh. Yeah.
Really hurt. Then I had band practice and I'm sitting there like, God, where are my calluses? Why aren't they working? Like, oh, yeah, but stab your calluses. Stab wound in my finger.
Yeah.
I appreciate any sort of excuse to just kind of go through stuff like literally have to clear the whole desk off and start over. So that was a nice experience. I had a non voluntary experience over the holiday where boxes of pencils and French notebooks in my closet fell over and I was forced to clean things up because I couldn't walk. When you get to pick and you're like, oh, this is a good day to do this, I'm going to clear everything off, clean up the coffee stains. So, yeah, I mean, it doesn't have to be a cutting mat. It could be like a lamp or Hancock radio. Yeah, what's up? And yeah, it's nice to participate in the new year in a positive way.
Yeah.
Yeah. So how about you, Andy?
I think the big thing that I, you know, got over the holidays was, you know, every year I don't participate a lot in it, but whenever Aaron Draplin does his Merchmas stuff, like 20, 25 Days of Merchmas, there's always some interesting things in there. And like, usually it's just like silly little fun things like, oh, here's a toothpick holder and here's a new design of a hat. I don't know. One of the things that he announced this year, which I was really excited about, was he Did a collab with tactile turn. And I have never had a tactile turn pen. I've had. Tim and I were talking about this beforehand. Like, I think we both had, like a Keras Customs bolt action pen, which are really nice. But I know some people who just love a tactile turn pen and just have never been one. For me, that was interesting enough to kind of justify the price. And this came along and I was like, heck, yeah. So grabbed one of these. It is the DDC X tactile turn DDC333. And it is a kind of beefy, just orange aluminum pen with a black clip and a black bolt. And it came with two refills that came with a point, I think.38 millimeter, like, orange refill. And I was expecting a lot of that orange. I was a little disappointed. I can't remember which refill it uses, but it's just kind of like a weak kind of watery orange, not befitting of the, you know, big orange DDC theme. But what it also came with is a 1 millimeter black refill. And it is just like, just shy of like a. A Sharpie or something. Like, it is a big beefy refill to go with this big beefy pen. So I've been using that and I'm really enjoying it. I'm definitely fidgeting with the, like, bolt action here. I don't know if you guys can hear that, but it's a good.
Makes me want to go dig mine up.
Yeah, it's a. That is. Yeah, they. I definitely, like, at one point I was. Had my pocket and I was kind of playing with it and it, you know, just. I got some ink on the inside of my pocket lining because I would extend the, you know, the caps. So, yeah, just really. I'm enjoying this pen. I'm trying to remember if they have.
Can you still order it?
No, it's sold out. They're gonna do another run, I think in a couple months. But. Yeah. And that being said, I know that we're all waiting. I don't know if you guys are excited for the next edition of Dead Prince, which Draplin's working on.
Oh, I didn't know that.
Yeah. So, you know, there was the Dead Prince, and then there was the Debtor Prince. And so, of course, this one is the Deadest Prince. I don't know. I'm. I don't know. I think I might be done with Dead Prince. We'll see. We'll see. You know, maybe I'LL give in to the hype and get some. But I don't know what's going to be after this, right? Are they going to have like Deaderist, Prince Undead? Yeah. Undead Print. Ooh, yeah. Dennis Deaderos, Deadester.
I don't know.
None more dead.
Even more dead. I like Undead Print. That sounds really fun. So, yeah, that's something that's maybe coming up soon that people in the Fieldnuts group have been kind of frothing at the mouth over.
Also, Tim.
So it's funny, after last episode when you talked about theory 11 playing cards, I remember just to put together show notes, I went to the Theory11 website and of course that means that it just follows me around on social media ads, like for a while after that. So got a lot of Theory 11 ads and I was just like, oh, it's fine, whatever. But then they were like, oh, well, how about some Star Trek Theory 11 playing cards? So, yeah, so. So it worked and I bought some of these Star Trek playing cards and they are gorgeous. They have like characters like they have. Do you know, Captain Kirk is like the king. I bought both the light design and the dark design because they're just like, hey, we have two variations and these are only what, like $11 or whatever. So I was like, fine, sure. So now I own two decks of cards now, which is two more decks of cards than I owned before. So went from zero to two. They also sent me. Yeah, they also sent me. Actually, I need. I should open one of these right now. These free things. It's like a single card. It's the 11 of spades. Did you get these, Tim?
Cool.
No.
Did you buy direct from them?
I did, yeah.
No, I just got them for other reasons.
Okay, okay. Well, you open it and it is a. It's a card that is the 11 of spades. And then you look on the back and it's a. Like has a fortune on here. So it says, luck is rare, but luck is real. This card gives you powers whenever it appears. Each holder is a victor of what here lies within. Scan the code below to reveal what you shall win. So it's really just like a. Like, I don't know what it is. I'll scan it later and see. But yeah, it's like when you like,
like when you have Pokemon cards and you get like. Yeah.
Think it'd be really funny though to mix in, you know, with the regular deck and all of a sudden, you know, somebody's like, 11 of spades, go fish.
So I. Yeah, one of my favorite features of etherealing cards is they always give you like one or two that are just the, like. That's not a card. It's just like the background on both sides, you know? Yeah. Those are like the best books. I say I have like a pile of them in a. In my little drawer.
Really good idea.
Yeah.
But these boxes.
Grateful Dead.
Oh, cool. That's really cool. Yeah. So like each card is just like meticulously designed. The jokers are like partially materialized, like people beaming out the. I'm trying to think here. Yeah. Like there's Kirk and Chekov and Sulu's on here. What's really interesting is they the sort of like double sided people. Like you know how like it's, you know, you can see like the king or the queen no matter which way it's facing. They use the like J. Abrams movies as one of the sides and then the original series as the other side. So I'm looking at like the queen of hearts is Uhura and on one side it's what's her name? Crap, man. This Covid brain fog stuff is real, by the way.
Yep.
Yeah. So yeah, yeah, that's just. Just a cool touch I think with them. So yeah, big fan of these. So I'll have to learn some card tricks now. The only other thing I was going to mention is there's a new notebook in town which is pretty cool. I don't know if you guys have ever seen any of the studio neat notebooks. They had one called a Pano book, which was kind of an oblong spiral bound book that is about the size of like a Mac Bluetooth keyboard. And it's just a very, just nice quality notebook for like fussy tech people basically. Well, they just released a new one. It's kind of their first hardcover Moleskine style notebook. It's called the Keep book. They have a line finish, which is nice because that's kind of my. I've been really into like ruled notebooks and just really nice looking. I ordered one just because you know, you know how I am with how we all are with notebooks.
We totally get it.
Yeah, yeah.
Some of them said what is. What do you think that you have so many notebooks. I know, but the person with closets full of things. Exactly.
Yeah. So I knew you guys would get it. So yeah, big fan of this. Big fan of the look of this notebook. It's kind of like leatherish. I don't think it's actually leather, but I'm looking here. Oh yeah. It's wrapped with a dark gray leatherette material that has a nice soft touch feel, has like a kind of a dark green ribbon. So yeah, I always. One of the things I like about these notebooks, about the studio, neat notebooks is they always come with a really nice slipcover. So yeah, if I end up using this, it's just fun to put that back in the slipcover when I'm done and just kind of archive it. That's about it for me. How about you, Tim? Yeah.
So I've got a new notebook as well to show you guys. So. And this is actually a fun kind of full circle thing. You'll remember the sausage lining black wing one that was dedicated to Guy Clark that I used to make fun of. And then I discovered his music and became, you know, obsessed with his music. And then now I'm like huge fan. It came with a patch. Stuff that works. Song title did.
Yeah.
And so I have a guy that I go to church with, this older guy, I go to church. But we got talking about music, plays guitar. We were dealing. We kind of found some common interest about music and also pencils and notebooks. He was interested and I got an email from him and he said I don't know if you've seen this yet or if you're interested or if you like Guy Clark. My ears perked up. But on Guy Part's website now they are selling notebook called the Stuff that Works Writing that is like a relic looking composition notebook that is supposed to look like the one that he and his wife Susanna.
It looks so old.
Yeah, yeah. So that they is what, like it's supposed to be modeled on. Yeah. This one that they used to use though. I guess they have like tons of house fill up with their lyrics as they were writing songs. So very cool notebook. I have one on order but I haven't gotten it in hand yet. But very cool. The COVID is so like I know I'm going to get it. The COVID is going to be printed. Of course I guess they didn't actually go through relicing a notebook but it's. They took a photograph of a. Of one of his original notebooks. I'm excited to see it.
I really want to know what, what it's based off. Like what did. What was that notebook that he used before? Yeah, because it's pretty cool. It has like that kind of like binders, tape like binding and it looks like a fabric notebook.
Yeah, like I think it's fabric. And I almost wondered if he had put the Tape on, you know, just, like, together or if that came with it. Johnny's the. Yeah, the notebook maker guy. So he might be able to tell just by glancing at it, but I wondered if that was like a band aid rather than a feature on the spine.
But, yeah, I think it's probably part of binding.
The look of it. Yeah. That'll be my new project after trying to find Hank Williams spine. Spiral notebook.
Oh, yeah.
Frontier.
Is there. Can you be. Are you, like, the, like, a notebook forensic detective? Like, is that a thing?
It is now.
Yeah. I think that's. I think that's your calling to.
I, like, yeah. Johnny will be like, I'll spend three weeks looking for, like, hey, I found it. Johnny's like, yeah, it's a French notebook that was made in.
We'll remake it.
Yeah, yeah.
Hey, that's a fun idea. So that. Yeah, I wanted to share that really cool notebook. The other thing is just to kind of circle back, though. Like, we kind of talked about it right as it was coming out, but Musgrave songwriter set is still out doing well, and I was just wanting to kind of see what you guys thought. I know you have Mint Hand now. I think you got them probably a few days after we had recorded last, so you guys had a chance to play around with those at all.
I do want to. I do want to just, like, talk about how funny it is that, like, the new, like, Musgrave is way darker and more buttery than the new Blackwing. Like, what kind of bizarre world. What kind of bizarre world do we live in when that's the case?
Yeah. Yeah, it's a 4B4, so, I mean. Yeah, that'll get the job done. Yeah, but it's.
Yeah.
We're, like, going to Musgrave. Yeah. For the buttery snoot writing.
I. So, yeah, since Tim kind of talked about it initially, we all got a dozen, and then it kind of came with one of their shorthand press notebooks that are. Is kind of branded in the same way. So I. Yeah, I think it's gorgeous. Like, I love the. The imprint. The sort of, like, songwriter font with the, like, little musical notes and the clef, and it's in, like, kind of
a bluish purplish foil. Looks really.
Yeah, it's Blorpel. Looks really blurple foil looks really good on that. Just like, the white barrel. It's interesting. Like, I don't know if I would have, like, made the choice to use a white barrel there, but I do think it looks very. Just sort of like, simple and nice. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. It's an off white.
The infrared clap.
Yeah. And it's. Everything else is kind of like the slipcover or the slip case for the pencils. And then the notebook two are all kind of that same kind of creamy color. So it does look nice.
But.
Yeah. It's just definitely not one that I probably would have gone after myself.
Yeah.
So I appreciate that they did not go for a blue eraser to tie in the foil because that would have been too much. The white looks so good. Yeah. But my. These are so nice that I missed cedar more than usual because they're like. They feel super premium, and, you know, usually super premium pencil is cedar. And I understand there's a really big problem getting cedar these days. So I certainly don't mean to fault Musgrave, because they don't need to do cedar to make nice pencils. They do fine with basswood.
Is this best? Yeah.
Or whatever it is.
Yeah. I liked how the. The box is really heavy because the cords are so thick.
Yeah.
And I picked it up, it's like, damn.
Yeah.
I actually. I don't always hide stuff for my kids, but these I did hide from,
like, these are mine. Daddy's gonna write some songs with this.
I don't know if they're gonna keep making these, so.
Yeah. Yeah.
I'm not sure.
I know. I know that the only way you can buy them right now is It's. Is a package book. Like, that's how they're. I mean, it's like.
And with.
When you look at the price, I mean, it's a really good deal for getting that notebook. It's like 25 bucks. I think when you get the notebook and the. So, like, that's the only way to buy them now. But at the same time, if they sold them separately, I imagine that notebook. Don't they play. Didn't they usually sell those for 15 or 20 for big notebooks? Like.
Yeah.
So you definitely. You're getting, like, a discount there. So maybe down the road, once they sell through the sets, they'll start separating them or just selling the pencils. I'm not really aware.
Well, Google has a link. You can add them to the cart. This just doesn't have pictures and it's not on the website, but Google found that they're like, 14 bucks.
The notebook.
The pencils assist, you can add to cart. Tim.
It works. Tim, can you remind me, just as a songwriter, how you would use the ruling in this notebook? Like, I get that there's, like, the little. The staff, like, at the top, but there's only sort of, like, I'm guessing, like, one line worth of staff on each page.
Yeah. So it's, like, for a melody, you know, it's not, like, the top line. It's. It's got six lines, which. The usual clef has five. But guitar.
That's right.
Like, if you write out guitar. You know, like, if you're writing out guitar lines, numbers. Like, this is where you, like, you. So you go, like on the third wine. For the third string. Fret on the third string, and you can kind of write out, like, a riff or a. Or you can even, like, write the chords as, like, a vertical line with, like, the numbers, like, 1, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1 going up. You know, it shows you where to put your finger, play a chord. Or you can, like, ignore one line. Or, like, if you're the kind of person who thinks an actual musical notation, that's really just for, like, little snippets. It's almost like, I almost, like, think that having that on top of a notebook is like having voice memos on your phone to, like, record a little melody that comes into your head. But you want to.
And then would you maybe like, just, you know, doodle some lyrics or something below it?
Like. Yeah, but that might let me write your lyrics. I've also just had fun using those. That top section sometimes just writing the title across it, but it just, like, have a big, full rectangle. Yeah. Put the title of the page. I love that.
That's cool.
On Instagram, Aaron Draplin himself left a comment that says, here's one vote for a big honkin raise given to the designer behind this Selleck. Good type moves here. Wow. Yeah, Caesar.
Yeah.
Yeah. Well done there. I'm not a huge fan of spiral notebooks usually, but these ones that Musgrave's been coming out with are so nice. I use the crap out of them.
Yeah, the short shorthand press is great. They. I've been to their shop in Los Angeles, and they have some cool ones, and I know people who just, like, live and die by the task pads that they do think CW pencils used to sell them for a while, which is cool.
Oh, I didn't realize they made so much stuff.
Yeah, yeah. Shorthand press they've done. They make those test pads that, like, I know that they sold them at CW for a while.
They.
I think that Caroline collaborated with them, and they did, like, some special colors just for cw, which was cool. And I'M pretty sure they're making all of those side bound spiral notebooks that Musgrave's been producing. So if ever if anybody here is in Southern California and wants to go to the shorthand press shop in Highland park, it's really cool.
Yeah, I appreciate the Musgrave is sticking with the US Production.
Yeah, yeah.
And I feel like they're really inexpensive for that, for them, you know, being made in the US out of such nice paper.
Yeah, yeah.
That whole set together kind of a deal. You're probably saving 10 bucks.
You could buy one dozen of black wigs.
Yeah, yeah. They just. Tim Dilger is just like so good at like carrying that branding through. Like, he starts with the pencil imprint as sort of like the main, like, sort of branding moment. And like, it's funny because that imprint, you know, it's small. It's been printed on the side of a round pencil. So you expect it to just like that's what that songwriter type looks like, but distorted because it's so small and imprinted on the side of a round pencil. But then he carries that up and through and like all of a sudden it like it looks the same but bigger on the, on the front of the box and then it just looks really big and really clear on the front of the notebook and it still looks that same way. And it takes talent to do that. Like, that's no easy feat. So huge kudos to just like really understanding that branding and like bringing that design up and through all these accessories for this pencil object.
So can I tell you guys what the 119 was? Did we talk about it? No, I don't think.
Oh, no.
Yeah, yeah.
So I got his goop on the 119. And that is for January 19th. Dolly Parton.
Wow, that's.
Oh, that's so cool.
Yeah, that's how 119 was. Really?
I love that. Yeah. Dolly Parton's birthday is coming up next week. Happy birthday, Dolly Parton.
Did you guys see this thing? They, they just came out with.
I'm sorry. Good.
Musgrave, the Handy Scribe cam shaped scribing pencil.
Oh, yeah.
I actually have no idea, like, what this is for, but I want them anyway.
So I remember Nicole telling us about Handy Scribe a few months ago, and I think we were just busy and full and like, weren't able to mention it. But like, it's cool that they partnered with Musgrave in some way. Like, I guess I don't really understand the relationship between these here, but yeah, it's like it's like a carpenter pencil, but different.
Yeah. Well, it's like a sort of like a triangular pencil. So like.
Yeah.
Like depending on which side you the pencil, it lets you get closer to the wall that you're drawing line against that make sure like the piece of wood you're drawing a line against. Cause you know if you.
Yeah.
Pencil right by the side of it, then your line is going to be quarter inch away where you need to be. So it's just kind of like where you can look at it and know the measurement. So depending on what side you're you flipped it to, you know how far away the line is going to be.
Yeah, I love that. Yes.
Yeah. These are awesome.
Yeah, I should grab a box of these. But I mean it's definitely like I. The use case for this is not something that is my use case really. But like at the same time it's still really neat. Like they say that it's cam shaped and I guess I don't quite know what that means. It looks like it's teardrop shaped to me. But I'm, I'm. I assume if I was more handy I would know what a cam was.
Yeah. I like in the notes on their website, those. I don't know if I've ever seen a pencil that said this. These do not fit in additional carpet sharpener. These are sharpened by hand. Like that's your only option.
Yeah.
Be careful when using and children sharp.
Yeah. I'll be interested to see. I wonder if they have a video up there and how they do this because like I am terrible at sharpening with a knife, let alone something where the core is so offset. So I definitely have no idea how
this would look particular way.
Yeah. Yeah. Cool.
Well, way to go. Mustard.
Yeah.
And you don't get one box for 12 bucks. You get two boxes because they come five in a box. So that seems like for something that's so bespoke, really cheap.
Yeah. Cool.
I'm getting these. I don't need them, but I want them.
Yeah.
Welcome to the erasable podcast. We don't need them, but we want them.
Our unofficial slogan. Yeah, the unofficial slogan of all podcasters.
Yes.
We don't need it. All right, well, you guys want to load this thing up?
Yeah, let's wrap it up.
Okay, cool. Well, thank you for listening. We'd like to thank our Patreon producer level supporters. Nathan Rebeck, Dana Morris, Liz Rotundo, Melissa Miller, Angie Aaron Bollinger, Elvin Piertes, Tara Whittle, Ida Umpurs, David Johnson, Bill Munson, Dottie Pierce, Valerie Grew, Tom Keakley, Andre Torres, Paul Moorhead, John Moody, Steven Franscali, Aaron Willard, Millie Blackwell, Michael d', Alosa, Tana Feliz and Sykes, Michael Hagan, Mary Collins, Kathleen Rogers, Hans Niegelman, Don Wood. Thank you for supporting us at producer level on Patreon. If you're interested in supporting us on Patreon, you can find us at patreon.com erasablepodcast and you can also find view on Facebook and on Instagram at the rareasable podcast or sorry, Twitter and Instagram at Erasable podcast.
Don't you mean X?
Sorry, yeah, let's say that out loud.
Yeah, I don't believe.
Okay. Anyways. Facebook.com raceballpodcast facebook.com groups so Johnny Andy, you want to people where to find you on the Internet.
Well, we lost Johnny. Not sure what happened to him.
You can't find Johnny on the Internet.
Yeah, Johnny is nowhere to be found.
I am at and removed from the Internet.
I'm at Andy wtf And I am selling some of my zines at Andy Supply. I don't know. I'll speak for Johnny. You can find him@pencil revolution.com. you can buy stuff on Etsy.com/. I can't say I don't actually know that, but you can find all this stuff at Pencil revolution.
Com.
Yeah, yeah, you'll find Revolution Press.
You can find them. Yeah, you'll find his stuff en solution on the sub.
Yes.
Where you can find him if he is ever allowed back on the Internet.
Yes.
So check us out on Patreon. You can find me online at timwasam, on Twitter and on Instagram at Awesome. So check us out on Patreon. Consider supporting us. Help us pay the bills. This podcast go and get extras such as our indelible podcast which is where we pens in our very thinly veiled altering goes. Also get other kind of fun goodies and extras. Sometimes you do videos of recordings and we might be posting a AI written song about pencils in the style of Holly that I just. I just generated.
You just never know.
Are you gonna. Are you gonna record it? Never know. It might. It might happen. Oh yeah, that's that. Definitely producer level for that one. Yeah.
Johnny, you're back.
I don't know what the happened. Yeah, I mean, what the vegeta.
What the heck? Yeah, we're still recording Johnny.
We just went ahead. Yeah. Yeah, we haven't done typewriter bill in a while.
Yeah, I'm disposable
on that note. Thank you for listening to episode 206 of the erasable Podcast. We'll talk to you soon.