This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
My P base is crackling.
There you go.
That is not appropriate to talk about on this podcast.
Tony, we can lube up that P base for you, Johnny.
Hello and welcome to episode 212 of the erasable podcast. After a few weeks of operating as a duo, we're back tonight as the terrific trio you know and love. So I'm Johnny Gamber, here with Tim Wasem and Andy Boffley.
Hey, guys. Hello.
I'm hugging you across the airwaves.
Yay.
Big hugs. Yeah.
I hope no one's looking in my
window and is back together.
So since it's been a while since the three of us were together and we're waiting for the summer releases from the likes of Field Notes and Blackwing, we thought we'd crank out an old fashioned Tools of the Trade and Fresh Points episode tonight. So without further ado. You want to go first, Andy?
Yeah, sure. I am watching the last season of Star Trek Discovery and the season has ended, but I have not yet completed it. So it's just a good old fashioned, like, you know, they have to solve a mystery, like a thing that the fate of the universe just hangs in the balance and the clues to put this thing together are scattered across several worlds and they have to solve riddles and meet people and do stuff. And it's just like, I just love a good, like, little caper like that. Like there was a really great old Doctor who episode from the 70s 80s, Tom Baker, Doctor who, where he had to put together the key to time. So they had like a bunch of episodes in that series where they did that. And this is kind of in that same kind of fashion. Just love that kind of thing. So, yeah, that is what I have been watching. I haven't watched a lot of TV lately, but I'm gonna be taking some airplane rides in the next couple months. So I want to watch. I want to finish that. I want to watch the new season of Doctor who, which is on right now. And I think, like, wasn't it literally today the acolyte came out the new Star Wars?
Oh, yeah, I think it was. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Because Henry, my Henry's birthday was yesterday. He was like, it's a birthday present to me.
Yeah. So, yeah, there's a lot of good sci fi that I am woefully behind on but kind of excited to watch.
And there's a Star wars animated series that came out within the last few weeks.
Oh, yeah, the Bad Seed or whatever it's called.
It's a Tales of the Empire, Tales of The Empire.
Yeah. Yeah, it's good. Yeah, we enjoyed that.
Yeah. I actually have never watched any of the animated Star Wars. Like, I. I don't know why. Like the. Oh, shoot. What's it called? The original one?
The Clone Wars.
The Clone Wars. Like, I can't remember. I think I just didn't have access to that when it came out. And so I got really lost when I watched because it was based on a lot of stuff that I'd never seen.
But yeah, it's really good. And bad batch. Clone wars and Bad Batch. Both of those are really good. I had never watched them until my son started watching them. And I've loved them.
Yeah, I should catch up on that.
I'm older than you guys, but they had ones in the 80s called droids and Ewoks. Oh, they were like cartoons and like, they were really cartoony. They were bad. I'm pretty sure that the Disney app picked them up.
Was it related to that, like, Star Wars Christmas special that they had?
I don't think so. I mean, it wasn't as good as those TV movies, was it? The Ewoks and the Ewoks Battle for Endor.
Yeah.
Or whatever it was called. Remember the one at Wilford Brimley? Noah. That was funny.
I was hoping he would be like the eldest Wookiee or something and.
Or like the eldest.
He's just like, oh, Houdini, diabetes.
Who did.
Yeah.
So I watched that. I am reading a. A book called. I just finished it. A book called Nuclear War. A scenario and. Wow, don't read this book. It is a extremely well researched hypothetical scenario in which just like the end of the world comes about by nuclear war. It talks a lot about, like, our weapons reserves and the science behind thermonuclear weapons and some political stuff about like, Russia and the US And North Korea and how the process of like, launching nuclear missiles happens. And. Yeah, it is basically about how, like, literally, like, you could bring an Armageddon within an hour given the right scenario or the wrong scenario. So it's fascinating and it's a good read, but it's also just scary as heck because, yeah, any moment it could happen.
Well, if what you were hoping for was that, I would immediately Google it when you said, don't read this. It works.
Yes, and I'm sure it worked for
some of our listeners too. You probably did the exact same thing who were like, now I've got to go. Like, I don't really choice, but just
so well researched and interesting and like, it's Just so much about like the deterrent strategy and basically like, you know, everything is hinging on there being like, you know, know this huge stockpile of weapons that will deter people from attacking each other because of kind of the mutually assured destruction. And what happens when that falls apart? There's like no recovery from that. So yeah, that was. I've, you know, I don't even know if I was alive when the Bay of Pig stuff.
I can't remember if that was the 60s.
Yeah, okay. Yeah. For some reason I was thinking the 80s, but yeah, I can't remember a time when there's been like a close call like that or oh, when like a Soviet officer got an alert that like there was nuclear bombs launching and it turned out to be like cloud formations and he was like, I don't think that's right. And so he just like said it was a, like a drill or like a misfire or something like that. And he basically single handedly saved everybody from like nuclear war. But yeah, really good, really interesting book. But yeah, if you don't want to be freaked out by potential, you know, end of the world at any minute.
I already reserved it from the library, so. And I have kind of that, that instinct to be like, well, if I read something like that, then I'm gonna feel real good about my life. You know, Like, I'm like, I'm doing fine.
You know, Live every day as it was your last. Because it could be just be like,
yeah, I, yeah, yesterday was hard because my kids were fussy. But yeah, check this out. Like this could happen.
It kind of describes in detail, like what happens to the human body. A, if you're just like instantly carbonized. B, if you are like fun fact, if you are standing on just in one of the outer rings, if you're standing on like asphalt, the road will instantly liquefy and suck you in and you'll get stuck inside liquefied asphalt road and probably burn a death there.
I'm just imagining you like reading a chapter and then being like, I'm going to play some animal crossing. Enough seamlessly transition from that to like, I need to pull some weeds on animal Crossing.
KK Concert rules.
Let's go check the shop and see what's for sale today.
Just started reading. Yeah, just started reading a much a book in a much different vein which is called Writers Playing Video Games. And it is kind of exactly what it sounds like. It's like various essayists and journalists and novelists and other authors of our day, like writing about something related to video games. So one person who is an Afghani immigrant was talking about playing Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2, and just being like, this is the weirdest thing, because, like, this insurgent that I just murdered in my video game kind of looks like me and somebody else talked about, like, watching a bunch of movies where, like, they follow that trope of, like, getting sucked into a video game. Like, there's, you know, so many of them. Yeah, just lots of really. Just good writing above a new games.
When you. When I first looked at the document for this, for today's episode, I thought that was all one book title. Like, in my head, it's like, nuclear war.
A scenario. Writers play theaters.
What is going on here?
Okay, yeah, enough of that. I just thought of, like, when I was just. Just reading about all this, like, you know, these safeguards and how this happens. I just think about war games. Anybody ever watch that old movie?
Oh, yeah.
How about a game of thermonuclear war? All right, that is it for what
you have on your field notes.
Yeah, See, so I've been. Jane and I have been watching the show Suits, which.
Oh, yeah.
With Meghan Markle, which I didn't know until, like, yeah, she showed up in the episode. But, like, we. We started the show. It was, like, on a recommendation of one of her friends. We started it, and we, like. I mean, kind of our sweet spot and watching stuff together is, like, political dramas and, like, law dramas. Like, I don't know. Just, like, we both are fascinated by, like, shows that have people who are, like, unrealistically good at their job. At least in our head, that's what we tell ourselves. Or who's, like, super focused. Like, I'll. I regularly on a Monday morning will get ready for work, and, like, if I'm, like, not feeling it, I'll be like, just pretend like you're on the West Wing.
Pretend like Aaron Sorkin is writing your life.
Pretend like you're one of those people, and that'll get you through the first two hours and you'll be fine. So watching that, and that's been good. We're like, two seasons in, but there and then. I just saw the other day there's, like, a new season coming out. Like, they brought it back on Netflix or something.
So interesting.
But we have, like, eight seasons to watch up until then. But it is great show. It's really good. It's really entertaining.
It's a very. Johnny, what did you say?
Oh, I'm sorry. It's a cornucopia when you start watching something and it's like, oh yeah, I have like 200 episodes to watch. Oh yeah.
Like, but when we first started it, I was a little worried that it was going to be like, I don't know, like cheesy in the way that like you watch, like, and no offense, like, I've watched this and I don't dislike it, but like Blue Bloods is for like cop shows or, you know, or just an over the top version. But it actually is like really well written and I don't know, I enjoy it. So.
Yeah.
Liking that. I just started reading Daisy Jones and the Six.
Oh, what's that?
Which is a novel. I gotta look up the writer's name because I don't have the book in front of me. A Taylor Jenkins Reid. So it's. It's like a. It's a novel about. It's historical fiction. So it takes place, I think in the 70s. Yeah, it takes place in the 70s. And it's talking about like, it has like the interviews that like lead up to this band's final show and like their breakup. And so it's written in kind of an interesting format. So you got like the interview format in there. And I'm reading this for a very specific purpose because I've had a lot of trouble for the last prob. Almost two years reading anything but like music memoirs and biographies and stuff like that.
I was going to say you've gone hard on, like.
Yeah, I just can't get out of it. Like, I have tried to get back because I mean, you guys know me. I've. I love fiction. I've read like literary fiction. I like crime fiction. I've read so much. But I've just gotten to this, like. So I was like, maybe if I read something like this, it'll trick me into getting back into like being able to finish a book of fiction. And I'm enjoying it a lot. So, yeah, highly recommend that. And then like kind of connected the music that I've been obsessed with lately. That is. It's connected to the show because this guy did the music for the show. Do you know Blake Mills? No. So he is like a session guitar player, slash, like super producer, kind of like low key super producer kind of guy. And he like, he produced the Alabama Shakes album that won the best album of the year. And he, he produced Bob Dylan's new album, but was listed on the, like his newest album. It was like two years ago, but was listed on the album as like an additional musician. Bob Dylan. Didn't even give him credit for it, which is kind of amazing. But he is probably one of the best guitar players on the planet, and I would highly recommend anyone and everyone going online and watching on YouTube the video of him playing a song called if I'm Unworthy, that he did, like, live for this Fender guitar session. It is really remarkable. Like, he's a really remarkable guitar player. And it's like, one of those things where you watch it and you're like, gosh, that was a good song. He's really soulful. He doesn't look like what I think he would look like. But if you watch it, like, as a guitar player, you realize that he is doing, like, one thing with his thumb. Like, he's basically playing the baseline with his thumb. He's picking in a totally different, like, rhythm with his other fingers, and he's, like, working the volume knob to, like, raise the volume up and lower it with his pinky. It's just like, one of those little things, like, when you look at. You're like, oh, my gosh. Like, that's. I would need three brains to be able to do what he's doing. But that song is incredible.
Something you can just, like, do with, like, training and practice. Or is that something where you just have to, like. Your brain literally has to be wired differently? Because I can't imagine something like.
I mean, he. Yeah, no, I mean, he is definitely. With practice, like, you can do that. And I've seen people, like, do covers, but it's still. It's like. It's one thing to do a cover versus, like, coming up with this kind of thing. Yeah, but he is. Yeah. So there's definitely, like, a technique side to it that's just really incredible. That. Yeah. Just kind of blows my mind. But I have heard him in interviews where he, like, plays that in an interview. Then he gets to the end of it, and he literally, like, tells the interviewer, like, that song's exhausting to play. Like, he has to play something where he doesn't have to do those kind of movements because it, like, wears his own hand out. But he's probably played the song a thousand times, you know? But the. The album that it comes from, because he's got, like, a lot of different styles of albums for his solo stuff, but the one that, if you want to check one out, it's called hi Ho H E I G H Space
H O hi H It's off to
work I go and it is an incredible album. Like, one of my favorite albums. I'VE heard in years. So.
Yeah, yeah.
So. And he did the music for the. The TV show version of Daisy and the Six or Daisy Jones and the Six, which I haven't watched yet, but I just hit heard when I was like doing my deep dive, my ADHD deep dive on him. Found out that he had done the music for that. And as far as what I've been writing with, I've been using only field notes recently. So I've been digging the field notes mostly the national parks editions. Right now I am using. Or no, sorry, not national parks editions. The. What are these ones? They're the. They're like the Midwest kind of farmland. Like they have like the farms on them. What are they called?
The winter ones? They were called like farmland.
Yeah, Heartland.
Heartland. There you go.
Yeah, the Heartland edition. I got those at my. My barber was selling those, so I got those and I've been using those exclusively. And then ever since our conversation about like when we did our anniversary episode and we were talking about Caroline and her like yellow eraser thing, I've been using, the only pencils I've been using have been hard pencils with the arrowhead eraser caps on them. And I'm just totally in love. So right now I'm using in front of me, I've got two Viking pencils with the arrowhead erasers that I've been using all the time.
Nice. I completely forgot to say what I was writing with an on. Are you done?
Please Wait, I am not finished yet.
Hold your horses.
Easy now. I'm done. You can go ahead.
Okay. No, I've been using my Jerry Garcia Blackwing 710 pencil and I'm still really loving. I'm working on my extremely distressed looking deadest print, the one with a lot of sneeze, as they say. It. It's a Golden Gate Bridge, which is interesting and maybe relevant to another piece of stationary which we'll talk about in FreshPoints.
So cool.
Johnny, how about you?
Awesome. So I am super behind on Bridgerton. So I'm watching season two, but you know, they're halfway through season three right now.
I only ever watched the first season. They changed a lot between seasons.
Right? Yeah, they. I didn't like it the first time I watched it. I thought it was stupid. And then the second time I realized that it, it is kind of stupid. But I enjoyed it. So I don't know, get out of the way of like. No, it's okay to watch it on tv. It is tv. But yeah, they. The lead from Season one did not come back for season two, but his character is mentioned. So he's not like dead or written out of the show. He just didn't want to do the show anymore. So I'm thinking like Dan Stevens on Downton Abbey. Like, do you not like being on a hit show? Like, okay, bye. Yeah. And so I usually stay up the latest in the family until like pre dawn hours. So I recently watched under the Bridge, which is on Hulu. It's. I don't know, how would you describe it, Andy? Like a story of.
It's a crime story, right?
Yeah. And it involves teens, like really young teens. So it's really alarming. I don't know, scary. The person who was murdered was 14 and my oldest child just turned 14. So like, oh my God, that's so young. That's a kid.
It takes place in Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, which is where I am going this weekend.
And buckle up Bridges
Too soon.
It was one of those shows where it was really good and a lot of the acting was good and I had never seen anyone in it before except for the lady who played Rena's mother. So maybe it'll launch some careers. That could be cool. I haven't been reading anything interesting except back issues of the Guild of Book Workers newsletter. So if you're a member of the Guild of Book Workers, every two months, I think you get a newsletter. But you know, it's more like a magazine full of articles about like paper marbling and someone who passed away and different binding methods and stuff. It's like serious deep dive. And I didn't realize that they had back issues dating back to the 90s online. So that's pretty awesome. And they're not behind any sort of paywall or login. So if you want to nerd out, man, you can follow the link in the show notes. So Andy mentioned field notes. So if you've been following them, they have sponsored a podcast by John Dickerson. Like that John Dickerson called Navel Gazing, where he sort of takes a line from a notebook and talks about the context in which he wrote it and what it meant, things like that. And then, you know, sort of waxes philosophical. So they just finished season one and it was nine episodes long and just so, so good. Yeah, they sort of ended the season, I guess, accidentally making a case for like why everybody should write. So yeah, that was super. And it's cool to hear John Dickerson say bullshit several times, but I noticed in later episodes he did not. So I wondered if someone Complained that they didn't like hearing John Dickerson say, I did. I enjoyed all his.
I. Yeah, no, I live for. At the end where he's like. Or as they don't say in Australia, those parts. Like, I was like, this is the best part of the episode. But I love the whole thing.
Yeah. Did you guys catch the whole season yet?
Listen to any of it yet?
So good.
Yeah, yeah. He said they're gonna at least do another season, so that's good. But, like, I mean, he talks about how big his box of notebooks is. He could do this as long as he wanted to, I assume, which is cool. And he talked a lot about how, you know, a lot of people wrote in and as Andy knows, he checks his email and, like, actually sees stuff. So that's really cool. They had a lot of people call in and talk about their own notebook use. And on the last episode, the person who called in, I recognized their voice because it's the lady who works at Bob Slate in Cambridge. She also mentioned that she works in a stationery store near Harvard Square, but. Oh, I know exactly which lady that is. So that was like, super cool. And so this is not related to Erasable, but I made a playlist that was supposed to be 50 songs long, but it's 48, wherein it starts with a song by the White Lies and ends with the song Terrible Lie by Nine Inch Nails. And in between, there are two songs by 24 bands. And the, you know, the connections between the two bands, there's some sort of, like, I don't connection. And a lot of it's obvious, a lot of it's not that obvious. So I sort of had a contest on my sub stack for, like, anyone who can guess them. Like, you know, we'll have a raffle and you get a free notebook made however you want it. So I haven't too busy to look at entries yet, so I'm just going to extend it. So if you're really bored or going on a road trip, you can check the link out in the show notes. And. Yeah, so I have been working my way through a Nautilus from Narwhal, the spring edition, which is this, like, beautiful green and yellow Ebonite that looks like someone took Andy's favorite green ink from Urban and split it into a spectrum and then marbled it.
Oh, yeah, that's lovely.
So I was gonna put that ink in it, but I just used it. So I put Robert Oster Fire and Ice in it. I don't know why, but the One that I have is a double broad. So it's like right in with a fountain pen Sharpie that's like gush tastic. But those things hold so much ink. It's like very satisfying, just like making me super happy.
Deposits ton of ink, tons of ink into your notebook. Just like a big old sharpie.
Yeah, it's weird because it's so smooth, but like, if, you know, worked it a little bit out of the sweet spot, it's the lesson. You're like, oh, wait, this is a pen, not a marker.
Today I learned when we were talking about this beforehand that narwhal pens and naval pens are the same because that's. What did you say, Johnny? That was the original. Like, yeah, they changed it.
It's the Icelandic word, but they're just saying it like narwhal. I don't know why, but because that's not how you pronounce it in Icelandic. I guess someone had posited that it was so they'd get better Google search results, which I guess makes total sense because narwhals are kind of cute. They had it, sort of had their day in the sun the last couple years. I mean, I think they're like, so creepy and awesome.
They're pride pens.
Yes, that's on my fresh points. We can dump it. It's fine. So the pen I'm talking about called the Nautilus is their. I think if they call it like the flagship pen, it's this big fat piston filling Ebonite pen and it has these cool little like, portal windows that make it, you know, make you think of a submarine. And they have another version called the Voyager, which is basically the same thing minus those ink windows. And it's, you know, almost as expensive. But usually they're resin, but they're just. It looks very incomplete. So they chose that for the pride one or one of the two. So it's kind of sad. But in pencil word, I've been using Venus number one and loving it to death. That is from our friend Tucker. And I have a Kimberly B. That has gotten super tiny this week because it's soft. And that little metal cap is really good for, like, you know, holding on your mouth when you're doing things with your hands and then take the pencil out to make a mark over and over again. It's like gotten very short from sticking in the electric pencil sharpener because when I'm lazy, I use that.
That reminds me, we just had a garage sale like this past weekend, which was like, great. But that was my first garage sale of experiencing, like, the outcome of being a pencil fanatic. And you would not believe how many bins from our garage I was finding rare pencils in. Like, it was. There was. I thought of it because one of them. I opened up this bin. I was like, going through all this crap, and there was like, oh, hey, there's a Kimberly F. In here. Like, I remember that. I got that. I found this when I was at this place. And it's like. And then I started and it just kept happening. I, like, collect. I had a whole new, like, collection of pencils that I just gathered from the. Johnny, are you familiar with the phrase doom box?
No.
This is an ADHD phrase that, like, when I first found out about it, I was. I felt a little attacked. But it's this where you just. This tendency, especially people with adhd, of just if some place is messy, you sweep it all into, like, a bin or like a box. Oh, I have a doom cart.
Johnny has a doom apartment. We have. I have.
I have a doom desk with a doom magazine organizer, a doom shelf, a doom IKEA cart, and a doom craft supply cart. That's the corner of my dining room.
Yeah. So going through and getting ready for this garage sale was just a process of going through doom boxes. Where I'd be like, why are. How did these things end up in the same place? Like, I have no idea. But it's because of that. But, yeah.
Anyways, sorry to interrupt, but when that happens, I just blame my kids. Like, I would never put that there. It must have been one of the kids. I wouldn't have spilled ink on that table and left it there. Clearly, the children were in my fountain pen ink. And then they put it away.
It is not me and his fault. It must be the children.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that's all I have. So you want. You guys want to jump into fresh points?
Yeah.
So you started talking about your first one. Yeah, Jump on that.
Yeah. I don't know. Weirdly, have quite a few fresh points. So this weekend I am going to Victoria in British Columbia, and my girlfriend's grandmother's 97th birthday is then. So we're gonna go. Go do that and going to spend a few days there. I'm going to spend a few days in Vancouver, and then the end of the week of next week, I'm going to spend a few days in Seattle. And some of it is I'm going to go into the kind of Microsoft mother campus, which is just huge and a big thing, but reached out to our friend of the show, Tina Koyama, and it's like, hey, I'm gonna be in Seattle. Want to grab a beer? And she was like, let's make a meetup. So not sure who all is coming, but I think Tina and Ali Sarah are going to be there. Our friend of the show and chief iconographer Alice. So yeah, if you are around and available in like around happy hour on Friday, June 14th and you live in the Seattle area, please come.
I'll.
If you're not in the Facebook group, either in the field Nuts or the Erasable group, which is where Tina has been kind of posting about it, reach out to me on other social media or email me@andyoodclinch.com for more information about how to come to that. So it's really not a whole lot. Look, it's going to be pretty unofficial, but be fun to hang out and see people I've never met before. I met Tina before Tina and I've met up in person, but I've never met Ali, who's pretty great. So gonna do that next week and then in August I'm gonna be able to do something that I have been wanting to do years but just never got the chance, which is I'm going to XOXO Fest, which I think a lot of our people know it as the impetus for some pretty cool custom field notes editions. Some of the first, like solid color pinks and purples were xoxo and they've later like had various like interesting artists design covers and do that. So lots of other things that are part of that like they have and it happens in Portland. They do people who design video games and people who make cool Internet things and musicians. It's like a little mini. Slightly weirder. Hopefully weirder south by Southwest. So this is their last one ever. And ironically the first one I am going to. So I'm going for the first time for the last time.
They haven't done a field note since 2019. Have they done the. The conference since then?
I think that was. Gosh, I thought they did one. Let me look at this. I saw it so fast.
But if it was like a Covid thing they did.
Yeah, the 2019 one was the last one.
Wow.
I was under the impression that was going to be their last one. But yeah, they're doing it this year for just for the heck of it. They're very thankfully so they're very Covid conscious and so it's a masked event. And I bet that they were just kind of like Waiting until they could figure out how to like, you know, do it safely for people who are, you know, immunocompromised and pretty color conscious. So. Yeah, so I'm excited. There's already was talking on like in the XOXO Slack and doing introductions and I was like, oh, I have a pencil podcast and this one was like, I'm going to wear a pen addict T shirt and you and Brad can have a swag off. So I told her I was going to bring her one of our musette bands.
Not safe for work.
I mean we would lose if we had a swag off with Brad Dowdy.
Yeah, that's for sure.
I don't know. You're both pretty tall.
Yeah, that's true.
I guess.
So, yeah, it's really looking forward to that. We'll see, you know, what comes of that. I also wanted to mention a couple other things. One, oh, something that I think somebody reached out about it on our Instagram, which I've been checking our private messages a little bit more. So there is a big auction that they're doing of a bunch of Stephen Sondheim's estate. So they're gonna have just, just huge collection and one of the things that they are auctioning off are Stephen Sondheim's black wings.
That is crazy.
I just posted a link in our show notes and there's one lot that is, that has just a bunch of black wings throughout the eras, including what I think is probably the original 2010 MMX Black Wings because they have the stripe on it and like the Palomino black wings, but also including some Faber Castell black wings and some like 80s favorite black wings and what I'm guessing are some like 60s or 70s black wings with the like stripey package and then a big old box of MMXs. And I'm pretty sure I was telling somebody in the Facebook group this, pretty sure. I worked at Blackwing when he ordered those because I remember the MMXS being pretty new and we got a got excited because an order came through from Stephen Sondheim just for like a large lot of those. So if he still has all of them.
Not a name you come across very often.
Yeah, if he still has a lot of those in there, probably he didn't care for them. But the other one. So that is one of the lots. And then the. The other lot is very old rare black wings. Three boxes of the ones from that are like before they went to the gray, they're like all black with the gold stripe and in Those like cornflower blue boxes that have. Yeah, so that's the one with the like the little clipper sailing ship on it. So Those are circa 1940s and 50s.
Do they publish like the final prices of things for stuff like this? I don't know.
Actually, I should dig around on that site. So they're estimating those three boxes of their 12. 12 pencils. Excuse me, two boxes with 12 pencils and one box with eight pencils. So 32 of those black wings altogether, they're estimating that's going to pull in 6. 600 to $800.
I mean, I was leading up to saying we need to like take bet, like make bets and should we try
to pull some money and see.
No, that's not going to happen. This definitely my guess would be much higher than that especially. Yeah, no, so I'm saying should the three of us, like make a bet and see who can get closest to what it actually goes for?
Oh, good call. Yeah.
Is it. Would you. Price is right rules closest to not going over $801. $900 million.
I. Oh, yeah, that'd be interesting. Well, you know, this is, you know, these are professional appraisers, but at the same time they have almost 300 different lots to try to price out. And I'd be willing to bet that like, you know, well, I'm, I think that they understand the value of black rings. I think that they don't quite see how those old black wings, especially those that were belong to Stephen Son, would be a big thing.
So people are gonna find it. I mean, if people find these ridiculous listings on ebay, like our people, we're gonna find, like our kind of people are gonna find this. And yeah, I put this more in
the range of like, you know, 2,500ish, right? Like, yeah.
I mean, you're showing your hand. Somebody who really likes them and has money is gonna just go ballistic and be like, I'm getting these no matter what.
Yeah, well, you know, our friend 3000
was like my minimum. I was thinking, like, I think it's gonna go well. They're gonna. The mmx.
Keep the mmx.
You feel don't need them to a school. They're great. I mean, I've got one right in front of you.
They're saying like, they're gonna be like, what's that? Yeah, I can't remember when this happens. Like, you can register to bid now, but I don't remember when, like the actual kind of like bidding has happened. June 18th. So yeah, I'm definitely kind of interested to see how that goes. But, yeah, I'm fascinated. I hope that we know the person who, you know, wins this bid. And I further hope that they will, like, maybe parcel out some of these, because I would 100 buy a single Blackwing that belonged to Stephen Sondheim. Like, yeah, I think that's really cool. Yeah. So anyhow, check out those links if you haven't seen it already. Last thing I'll mention is, speaking of Blackwing, just something cool they put, like. I don't often just kind of immediately get what their teasers are going to be. You know, Blackwing Palomino, Blackwing publishes before the volumes come out. They publish the number and then like, kind of a blurred background that has something to do with the theme. And they just, I think yesterday, maybe today published, like, on Instagram, blackwing746. And it's against this sort of like, orangey red background. And I, because I'm a giant nerd, I knew that, you know, the spires, the towers of the golden gate Bridge are 746ft tall. And so I'm pretty sure we're gonna get a Golden Gate Bridge Blackwing, which is really cool because the background is also kind of like an international orange, which is the color of the bridge.
So maybe it'll be like architect edition or engineer edition, like super hard graphite.
Yeah.
Forgive the dad joke, but I was gonna say I was wondering if it was like a Boeing edition and they just forgot one.
Yeah, there's just panels missing on the.
That was Boeing. They're like, damn it, we made a 746 instead of a 747. Oh, that's what happened.
Yeah.
Well, it's better that
the racer fell out when it's being mailed to you
somewhere over Nebraska.
Yeah.
Crap.
It almost gets to you. And then they have to turn around and deliver the package back to Stockton because
it falls out of the plane. No, that's how they deliver it to you. They save money that way. Yeah, it's like drop it into North Baltimore and hope for the best.
Yeah, we put it down.
Shifting by leaving one of the erasers out.
Exactly.
We're gonna.
Or maybe they're gonna send you like, 30 pencils, but they figured out how to squish them all into that single box.
Charge you twice as much and send you 24 half pencils.
Yeah. Oh, my God. Please don't collab with Boeing, guys. No, I just think that would be really cool. I love. I love the Golden Gate Bridge. And I have all those Golden Gate Bridge field notes, status prints. So I would love a pencil to accompany.
That'd be super cool. I'm looking forward to it.
Yeah, yeah, that is. That's my freshpoints. How about you, Tim?
Yeah, well, I sort of like already talked about the garage sale thing because I probably could have used that as a fresh point. But I did just find so much cool stationery in my garage. It was delightful. Found notebooks. I actually found one thing, and we've talked about it before, about how I'm like, not one to keep notebooks. Like, especially like pocket notebooks. Like, I'm not one to like keep them is because they're just filled with such random crap. But listening to, I was, you know, been listening to John Dickerson's podcast and going through the garage, I found probably 15 like used field notes out in the garage. And because of that podcast I was like, I gotta hold on to these and like look through them.
How big is your garage, Tim?
It's a two car garage, but like we. So we've got like all this stuff in there. But also when we moved into the house, both of our parents were like, hey, here's all the stuff that we never, that we kept that you never asked us to like. And so like our garage.
Oh yeah.
Filled up. And also the house that we moved into was my, my wife's grandfather's house. And so we had some like leftover of his, like things that were like in the house when we moved in. So there's just a bunch of stuff. So like. Yeah, but all of our stuff just kind of got pushed back into a corner. So. Yeah, but I found probably 15, like used field notes. So I'm looking forward to looking through those.
So what do you usually do with them?
I just don't think about it. Like, I don't put them in a special place. There have been. I've thrown some away, like where I'll flip through them and I'll be like, these are just like random to do lists and whatever. And I kind of, I mean, part of me regrets it now. Like, what? Listening to that podcast was like, there's probably some kind of like cool little artifacts in there. I probably still have 40 used field notes, like around, you know, just stuffed in here and there, but don't have like a good organizing. I'm just not like, I just haven't been like very like concerned with them.
Yeah, yeah.
But I found a lot of pencils and pens.
Oh yeah.
Right before the pandemic, I Started going through all mine and trying to like, get out nuggets that were worth keeping. And like, I don't know, there were like 200 and something of them. And I got way discouraged. And then the pandemic happened. I forgot about it. But, yeah, I have like a huge box of them. It's weird. Like, if someone found that, I'd probably be embarrassed a lot. It's a lot of like, you're talking yourself off a cliff in there. Just got dark. Sorry. All right.
But that was fun finding all those.
Yeah. John Dixon's talk about his pine box and the orange carpet.
That's which I feel like he could take anything from. I mean, some of that stuff he was picking out was like so obscure, but he turns it into like a 45 minute, like, audio essay, you know?
Yeah.
You just got a gift. When I've just opened up in front of me, it says quarter note analog delay. That's by itself, analog delay. And that has something to do with guitar pedals. But I. It's an old one and I don't know what I was going for. It was just like I had figured something out. Glad I did, because I have no idea what it. What I was going for there. But. Yeah, so we also went to. We went on a little vacation for the end of school year, for a few days to North Carolina, little town called Waynesville. Got a Airbnb and I went into a.
Got mauled by bears.
Yeah. Yeah, I forgot I told you guys about that. Yeah, there it was. Yeah. So we were. For context, for those who were listening, we were on our way in. We're like about to lose signal heading to this cabin. And I sent a message and was like, asked them a question. They said, oh, yeah, they answered my question. They're like, oh, by the way, there's been some bear activity in the area. So just. And I, you know, as I said back, I was like, what does that mean? Like, what, is there something special you need to do? And there's like, yeah, just, you know, keep an eye out when you're walking in from your car. Make sure you don't leave any food out. They're like, there's been a mom and two babies, like two cubs walking around and the male's wandering around all over the place, so he might come by at some point. And then I, I did send you all the. The picture, which is like the best part of the trip where I like, it's like, hey, guys, look, there's a skylight in our cabin. And there's a skylight in the ceiling that had just a gigantic like, I mean, like Jimi Hendrix size handprint on, on, on the skylight window from the outside. My daughter was the first one to notice it. She's like, what's that? I was like, oh my gosh. She's like, is there somebody up there? I was like, no, there's nobody. I hope not. Yeah, but while we were there, we went to an. A really incredible toy store. And we were in this toy store. We were walking around looking at all this cool stuff. They had tons of like kids, like art supplies, craft stuff. And then they're like, oh, there's a downstairs too. And like, I didn't know that. And they're like, there's a bookstore down there. And I thought by when they meant by what they meant by that was like it was going to be like a kids bookstore. But I went down and there was like a full blown awesome adult, just like normal sort of independent bookstore down there. And they had like 12 dozen of the new independent bookstores. Black wings. Oh, yeah, down there. So I grabbed some. So did you guys get these?
Yep, I got some.
Oh, I keep forgetting they come out.
They look like last year's but in blue. And I think that the pattern is a little bit different.
Yeah, I didn't get last year's, but I really love this kind of like navy blue, whatever you call this, like color. And, and it was in the firm graphite. And so I was like, oh, sure, yeah, we're on vacation. I got it. And they're great.
They're.
They feel awesome. And I'm really loving these. I've been using those like in between my. Yeah, my arrowhead eraser obsession of like, got Hyuni Fs and mono 100 Fs and mono Fs and like all these F pencil, like hard, smooth pencils with caps on them. But yeah, so I've really been enjoying those. They did a really good job. I really like that crisscross pattern.
Yeah, I don't know what you call
it, but it almost looks like a woven pattern because it's.
I think it's, I think it's wrapped like, I can kind of see a seam. But at the same time they did a really good job of it. So it doesn't break the pattern. And if that's the case and I. Yeah, I like these designs a lot. I think they go, you know, they're not really like bound by a theme usually with these. And I think that's kind of where they Shine.
Yeah, no, I totally agree. And, yeah, they did a really good job with them. And they feel they have a really good, kind of tacky texture to them.
Yeah.
Which I always appreciate. And, like, with these, which is just, like, feels like it has.
Yeah.
A little bit of grip to it. So I really like those. And the last time I'm going to talk about our garage sale is going to be right now, which is a book that I found that I thought was relevant to our podcast conversations and our history here. You guys familiar with Jimmy Neutron?
Yeah.
Yeah. Okay, so I have no idea how this got into the house, but it has a tag from our local used bookstore that we go to all the time. And at some point, I assume my son bought this and I didn't pick up on it because he probably bought this, like, you know, got it before we. We went down this rabbit hole. But this is a Jimmy Neutron book that is, like 50 pages long. It's like one of those, like, early reader books, and it's called Zine Scene. What?
A Jimmy Neutron zine book.
There's the. I just. I've been waiting to paste this into our document till we got here. But just look, you know, look in our document. There's a cover. Zine scene.
Huh?
Okay, so now for a reading.
What?
Some Zine scene. So this is from, like, page three, Girls, said Sheen. Go figure. Cindy's friend Libby handed Jimmy a paper when he reached the top of the school steps. Hey, Jimmy, whose inventions never work? She said, this is the first edition of Vortex View. Enjoy Vortex View, Jimmy said, What's that? It's a zine, replied Cindy Vortex as Jimmy and his friends entered the school. Zine is short for magazine. I know that, said Jimmy. Cindy gave a superior grin. You might be smart, Jimmy Nerdtron, but Libby and I are ace reporters. We're gonna print the scoop on Retroville kids every week. Scoop. Jimmy said, skimming the zine after Cindy and Libby left. Come on, who wants to read stupid stuff about, hey, that's me. There you go. There's a little sneak peek. But yeah. So the whole book revolves around this. Like this. Like these, like, battling zines. Vortex was it? I already forgot it. Vortex.
Cindy Vortex.
Yes, Cindy Vortex. I remember that. Vortex View. Vortex View goes up against Neutron News, these two zines, and they have these battling zines at their school that go up against each other trying to break the story or. And it was. I literally went to, like, the used bookstore and was getting ready to trade in a bunch of stuff that we didn't sell. And then I, like, I saw this on the top of the pile and I said, does that say zine? And picked it up. And I was like, oh, my gosh. So that one came back home with us.
When did that come out?
This came out. Very good question, Andrew. Let's see. 2004.
I feel like that's not quite. Like, that's kind of in a donut hole where it's just like the original zine scene was no longer around, and it doesn't seem like people have, like, got back into it. So that seems like that was probably a pretty obscure reference.
Right? Well, this is a first edition, so if you. If you all have any, you want to put in your bids. Either this or Sondheim's pencils.
Yes. Let's get a Doyle Auctions to, you know, work on this.
Yeah. So zine scene written by Bobby J.G. weiss and David Cody Weiss. So this is some co writing by a husband, wife duo, illustrated by Barry Goldberg, Scholastic Incorporated. There you go. That's going in the collection. That one's staying. Staying around.
His face on the COVID is quite something. It looks like he's just, like, kind of horrified by what he's seeing off to the side of the camera.
Yeah. I mean, it looks like a. You know, like the pictures that are taken of, like, celebrities who are in embarrassing situations, and they're like, what are you doing? Like, paparazzi pictures. There's this drone flying behind him that has a microphone that's, I assume, you know, is, like, asking him for, you know, answers to questions, whatever. So.
Yeah. Nice.
I can't top that, so I'm gonna. I'm gonna stop there.
Mind blow, Johnny. Follow that up.
Good luck. Gamber.
Yeah.
Where's your new Jimmy Neutron content?
If you dyed his hair black, he kind of looks like Ryder Carroll.
Excellent transition.
So, I don't know, are you guys members of bujo U? No. So there's this sort of, like, paid. I mean, it's only a couple bucks a month social media site that's like the official Bullet Journal online thing. And they have, like, you know, a lot of events every week, like, plan with us every for the month and all these other things. So a couple weeks ago, they had, like, a hot take. Like, we're doing it. We're doing a video, like, in an hour or something. Like, tune in. I'm like, what is this? So they tuned in, and writer Carol was showing off the new official Bullet Journal pocket edition. So they're. They're made by Leuchtturm like the other official editions. But these have, like, the regular Leuchturn paper, which is perfectly fine. And he designed them to be used vertically. So, like, the page numbers only number a spread. And like, they're all dot, grid. And they're weird, like, little subtle markings. Like, here's a third of the page, here's a quarter of the page. Like, it's a really weird balance between being so thoughtful and whatever the nice word for controlling is, and also making it not a prescriptive book.
Yeah.
So they're really cool. I've been using one because I filled up my bullet journal and I want to split bullet journaling and journaling back up. So this was sort of just a way to shake things up a little bit. They're like 20 bucks for a set of three. And they're not expensive. They each have their own sheet of stickers, which is pretty cool. And a pocket on the back that's not very useful. But, you know, they're sewn signatures. So the book is flexible and it won't bust. But, yeah, they're, like, really surprisingly nice. I think I was not the only person that ordered them within five minutes of the video starting. Like, oh, my God. So they only come in black, of course. Looking at.
Yeah. Like the shop page for it now. Yeah, those are really attractive. I love the tiny little, like, lightning bolt on the COVID which is pretty cool. But, yeah. Never really seen them. Yeah.
Like vertical like that.
Yeah. If they're a six. So if you open it, it's exactly an A five. So, like, it's like, wow. Apparently they spent years working on this. I'm like, yeah, I can believe it.
Yeah.
I mean, this is a compliment. They seem like the type. I appreciate that. And the. They come in sort of. It's like a double belly band, but it's all one piece. So it's basically like an odd box with the corners cut out. And when you open it up, it explains everything about bullet journaling. So there not like an insert. Like, that's just an extra piece of.
You do with the stickers that look like lightning bolts.
I just stick them on stuff. They're cool. Actually. I'm going to give them to Owen, my oldest, like, really into lightning bolts lately.
Oh, nice.
Like, you can put them on or whatever. So, yeah, they're. I mean, I guess they'll do newer colors. They do one of the. So there was the official bullet journal that came out, and they made a few colors in black. And then the latest one, they came out with black. And then every year they do another color. So I wonder if they'll do something like that. I think this coming year it's going to be some kind of yellow or something, but those are pretty fun releases. And I am also off somewhere where we hopefully have stationary meetup. I'll be off to Boston in two weeks. So our friend Les has a bunch of days off. So I know we're gonna hang. So maybe if some other folks are in the area, we could all go to the Muji store and then drink coffee. Oh, what a terrible day.
Yeah, Sounds awful.
Yeah. And it's like just the right time to go there before the tourists all show up for fourth of July. It's kind of empty. It's usually not hot yet. Not like here. What time is it? Yeah, we'll be probably going to Whole Foods for snacks this time. In two weeks. Our hotel's next to all foods, which I appreciate. And it's. You can see two Dunkin Donuts from the lobby and there is a Starbucks in the lobby. So this is thoughtful travel. Yeah. And so we talked about this for a second. My last fresh point is that Narwhal has this cool new stuff out and they put out some spring pens. And when they first came out, they did. Oh, what's that one? They did the original and whatever. Not the Voyager, whatever the one is, it has a very odd looking cap. And I was like, oh, I'm glad they didn't come out with a Nautilus. Now I don't have to buy one. And then at the end of spring they came out with another, and then also the Nautilus. So there's that. And then today they just announced their Pride editions, which they did last year, but it was ugly. So this year they did one that's a Voyager, which I think is an ugly pin, but the resin isn't ugly. But they did a Key west that's in like this white sparkly resin and all the hardware is rainbow. So I totally pre ordered one of those right away. They made this pen a couple years ago called the Key West. It's a piston filler, or not piston filler, I'm sorry, a cartridge filler. So all their pens are either vac filler or piston filler. So it kind of stood out and people were like, oh, you know, it doesn't fit with your brand. But now they're bringing back a special one, which I appreciate. And they're not very expensive, especially for how nice their pins are. It's like 51 bucks.
I've never had a normal pen.
They're nice because they, they all of their nibs are interchangeable. So like today I was paralyzed by, ah, what nib do I want? I'm like, well, I'll just get a medium. If I don't like it, I'll get another one later. Or switched off one of my other ones. They have like fine, medium, broad, double broad, and stub. And there are pretty on the thick side. They don't do an extra fine. They hold so much damn ink. I think that it would, you know, it would all dry up or eat through the metal and plastics. I don't know. Yeah, that's all I have for fresh points. We've been like super busy with like dance stuff and graduations and birthdays and stuff. So if you're the vibe sending type, Mr. My Henry just turned 11 yesterday. Sad face. He still holds my hand, though. He says he'll never stop, which I know isn't true, but I know he also believes it. He's a cutie. If you support us on Patreon, which you could find at patreon.com erasable@the Steinbeck stage level, then you're officially a producer and we get to read your names. So these are our current Patreon producers. John S. Alan Mack Tucker, Nathan Rayback, Dana Morris, Liz Rotundo, Jan Ringwald, Melissa Miller, Angie Aaron Bollinger, Ida Umphurst, David Johnson, Phil Munson, Donnie Pierce, Valerie Drew, Tom Keakley, Andre Torres, Paul Moorhead, William Modlin, John Capilouti.
Sorry.
Stephen Francelli, Aaron Willard, Millie Blackwell, Michael d', Alosa, Tana Feliz, Anne, Michael Hagan, Chris Metzkus, Mary Kalis, Kathleen Rogers, Hans Neuteman, and John Wood. Thanks so much and we'll see you soon.
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