This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
Don't walk into the wrong neighborhood in Los Angeles with the, you know, with the wrong bandana.
With my field notes bandana wrapped around my head.
Yeah. Be like, who are the Baron Fig gang? Hello and welcome to episode 214 of the Race Belt Podcast. I'm Andy Welfle on hosting duties this morning and I'm here as always with Tim Wasem and Johnny Gamber, my two co hosts in crime. Hey, guys. Not actual crime. Yeah, we haven't committed, as far as I know, no actual crime.
Nothing confirmed. Edit this part out, but the plan is on for Saturday.
Oh, good. Okay. Cool. Yeah, well, you know, you guys didn't hear nothing.
Jimmy's got the van.
Dibs on the gold medal. You guys can take the other two.
I want the. I'm taking the U.S. constitution. That's what I'm. What I'm going for.
You're not the one trying to get that. This presidential candidate wants that.
We're heading into the Smithsonian to steal the original Fisher space pen.
Oh, yes.
That's our next D and D campaign.
The lamest Nick Cage movie ever. Oh, yeah. So we're taking a break today from rooting for Team USA to check in with a midsummer episode about some new fun stuff and some updates and. Yeah, some, some. Just some stuff that we've acquired. So, yeah, so we're going to do some tools to trade and then just some fresh points this episode. So, Tim, do you want to lead us off with some tools of the trade?
Yeah. Well, like a lot of people been watching the Olympics. It's that special time every two years where you get super into sports that you haven't thought about in two years or four years. But I love the Olympics. I've always just like, I love it. We, Jane and I, we both love it. So we watch it like every single night we're turning it on. And every year you have like, sort of different favorites, you know, that you're like really looking forward to. And interestingly this year, like archery has been like, really fun to watch and it makes me want to get a bow and shoot in my backyard, like at target shooting. But. And skateboarding has become like one of my favorites. I just like watching these just like incredible 15 year old girls doing like the craziest tricks, you know, I mean, it's. It's so cool. So I love the skateboarding and diving has always been my favorite. So watching a lot of the platform diving just blows my mind. Yeah, I'm still waiting is one of
those things that just like looks as hard as I assume it is, like, oh, God. You know, some sports, you look at it and you're like, yeah, I could do that. When you just look at it and of course, no, you can't.
But what's.
It's like, oh, I can't do that. Can't do that.
That's how I was feeling about archery. I was like, I could get into that pretty quickly. And then they zoomed out and they showed, like, how far away the target is, first of all. But then also that the arrow doesn't, of course, because physics doesn't shoot straight at it shoots, like, up. So they have to, like, they arc it so it, like, rises, you know, and falls into the target.
Like, okay, never mind.
I can't do that. I. I still. I think I talked about this the last time they had the Olympics. And I know I'm not the only person to say this, but I just would love it if NBC would have, like, a little segment where they have, like, nobody average people try these events, you know, like, where they. They have, like, they give a bow to, like, some person who's like, never tried it before. Like, see how hard or thinks they can do it, you know, or have somebody not do, like, a high div. Just jump off and you can just like, hear. You hear them scream the entire way down where you're like, that's a long way. That is a really far. Or like. Yeah. I mean, some of them would be more dangerous. Like, you're not going to put somebody in, like, one of those kayaks on, like, rapids or whatever. But anyway, I still think that would be hilarious. Get, like, Snoop Dogg to do it or something.
Get some Flavor Flav and Snoop Dog up there.
Yeah. And really, besides the Olympics, only other thing I've been watching is, like, YouTube videos about guitar amps and, like, modeling about, like. Yeah. Capturing amps for, like, these little, like, AI. AI, you know, amp simulator things that I've gotten into partially out of just saving money so I don't have to buy 10amps. I can just have all of them. Yeah. Watching lots of those. Yeah. Safe space for sure.
Yeah.
Reading. I'm. I just finished the Bruce Springsteen book I think I'd mentioned that delivered me from Nowhere, which is about the making of the album Nebraska, which was excellent. Really, really love that book. And I think. I don't know if I mentioned this last time, but there is a movie that's, like, coming that's potentially going to be made about the making of Nebraska with Jeremy. Is it Jeremy Allen White from the Bear. Yeah, playing. Playing a young Bruce Springsteen, which would be super cool.
I see that. Yeah.
Yeah. And we were on vacation two weeks ago and so was picking a book for vacation and was super excited to see. I don't know how I had missed it, but in April, I think it was April. Ron Rash, one of my favorite novelists that I've talked about on here plenty of times before, came out with a new, new novel called the Caretaker, which is very, very good so far. I'm really, really enjoying that. He said in interviews it might be his last. But I mean, people say that stuff all the time. But I mean, he is in his 70s. He got. Got started kind of late. I think his first novel came out when he was like 42 or something like that. He had been teaching and writing short stories for a long time. But yeah, the Caretaker, it's. It's very good listening. Like, what I've been listening to. The. The number one on this list would be Johnny Blue Skies, who is a great name. Sturgel Simpson. Oh, he's. No, he's no longer recording under Sturgill Simpson. He's recording this name. It was just like a thing. I mean, he's a very. It's like, sounds like when you. At first glance, it feels like a sort of, like, artist being weird. Like, I want to go by a different name thing, but he's just like, very. He's very down to earth. And he just had gotten more popular than he ever expected and was just kind of saying. He had been saying it for years of like, I'm only going to record so many albums under Sturgill Simpson because he just, like, basically wanted his name back, like. Or he just had this feeling that he was just, like, sucked into this whole thing. And Johnny Blue Skies was a nickname that he had, apparently from some, like, bouncer at a bar he used to play at all the time. Used to call me. I have no idea why he called me that, but it stuck. But the new album is incredible. It is so good. And it's. It's kind of like a return to some of the less weird stuff. But also he's like, singing clearer. But there's an article. I'll try to find the link here, but there's a GQ profile about him that was done. Someone went to interview him because he basically disappeared for years after the last album. And he moved to. Moved to Thailand with his family and then moved to France, like, to Paris with his family, and just has been like, there's There's a hilarious Instagram account called where the F is Sturgill Simpson. And it's just, like, trying to figure out, like, what he's up to. But the. The GQ profile is awesome. It's a really good article. Just super interesting. And he talks about recording this album and how he did the guitar parts in so Cool in Abbey Road Studios in, like, the big room that the Beatles used. But it was literally, like, just him, a good. Like, an electric guitar and an amplifier in the middle of the room. Like the other band, like, the guys were elsewhere. But he, like, recorded those parts, you know, no gear pedals, whatever. It was just, like, guitar amp, loud singing, like, in this room. So it's pretty good. But the album, it's called that's Cool. I do not speak any French, and neither does Alexa because she says passage d Deser or something like that. I du desier. So it's like passage of desire in French. But that album is pretty awesome. I love it. I found this guy called Stephen Wilson Jr. Who was a songwriter in Nashville who put out his first album. He's a really interesting character. I'm still kind of learning about him, but he has. He put out his first album, which is a double album. It's called Son of Dad. He has a really interesting story. There was a CBS Sunday Morning profile on him last week that you could check out if you're interested. But he has a really unusual, like, really enigmatic stage presence. Really intense. Very cool. Very cool stuff.
Yeah.
And then the last thing I'll mention is my buddy Jason Hardy, who I do, who's in my band, we've got practice tomorrow. And he did the membership podcast with me when I was doing that. Oh, yeah. He started a podcast to basically encourage himself to get more music out there, because he's been writing a ton of songs with me for a long time, and he's written more than I have. And so he made a podcast. It's called Jason Hardy Songs. They're like. The episode is just, like, a short intro and then a demo of a song that he's written. And so, yeah, they're like three or four minutes long. He puts. He's put. He's putting it out, like, 12 every week for 12 weeks. Take a break and repeat. He's got, like, a Patreon just to help him start, like, getting his music out there and then getting his, like, recording set up up upgraded. But his songs are great. He's really talented, dude. So, yeah, just wanted to recommend that it's Good. You can just search Jason Hardy songs.
Did you put Pookie cast or is that something Johnny put?
That would be Johnny.
Okay, that was in our show notes. It says Jason Hardy songs, pookie cast. And I was like, I was gonna ask about the Pookie cast, but I was like, I bet. John, this is Johnny.
I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about. Hi, Po.
All right. And then. Yeah, as far as what I've been
using, also, he wrote he put black tar heroin here.
No, actually, I wasn't.
Okay.
No, that was. That was. Somebody was in the dock and I didn't know somebody would see.
I didn't. No, I don't know.
So the first item on my list is so. But what I've been using, I've been using the Jason Isbel field notes, which I talked about last time. They're. They continue to be really great. Really enjoying that. And I have been falling back in love once again with the 20, 23 eras. The, like, Van Dyke style eras. Really, really love that one. Yeah, so that's me. How about you, Johnny?
Nice.
Awesome. So all I watch is British TV and the Olympics. So this could be a really long list, but I'll cut it at three. Have you guys watched, like, Professor T? There's a Dutch version, a German version, a British version. There's another one, but the British version, the lead is played.
Sorry, is it Mr. T after he went back to college or.
No, Professor t. Oh, that's Dr. T.T.
he's a. He's a criminology professor and he helps the police, but he's also, like, suffering from a lot of trauma and he has some pretty bad ocd. And in the British version, he's played by Ben Miller, who's a comedian, but, like, the show has funny moments, but he's not playing it like that. But it's like so good that whenever a new season comes out, I watch the last one. Just, you know, why not? And I really like the cast. Although it looks like there's going to be a shake up for next year. No spoilers, but I cried at the end of the last episode. For real. And moving on quickly to another cast change, Grantchester, which is. Stop me if I'm repeating myself, this is about a church in the late 50s and then early 60s in Cambridge.
And I'm surprised you don't say like Goodchester or something like that.
Yeah, it's pronounced like sick car or something. Sorry, Brits. They. They they lost their lead a couple seasons in and now their lead vicar left again. So like the premise of the show is there's this country vicar who is really good friends with Jordy, the lead police guy, and he helps him solve cases. So they already once had to write a new guy in and somehow justify how they would become friends. And then they were super good friends. Like the vicar married his sister in law. They're like, you know, very huggy and like do everything together. And then he up and leaves so that a new guy comes in and like, how are they gonna make this guy like, looks like he's just like a vicar whore or something. It's like, has a thing for hanging out with priestie guys. But they made it work very well and gave a lot of the other cast members more to do this season, which is cool. But if you like a, you know, one of those cozy British murder type shows, that's it. And the last one on my list is Blue Lights, which is definitely not cozy. It's set in Belfast in the present day. So, you know, the police go out in full armor in armored vehicles with guns to like do everything. It's kind of cool. But my, my unionist heart does not like the loyalist stuff. So. Yeah. And moving on. So I embarrassed, I'm very embarrassed that it took me months to read the book I was reading because I was using it as a nap timer. So that book, I think I mentioned it before, the Transcendentalists and Their World by Robert Gross, was not about the transcendentalists at all. It was like a tiny bit about Emerson, a tiny bit about Thoreau, and they said a couple other names like the 700 page book. So like it was a reliable like read 10 pages of this and take a nap before dinner kind of thing. So I actually haven't been napping since it's been done, but that's out of the way. And I finally started the Library Thief, which I've had in my hands for like a month or two and read most of it already. It's really, really good.
I've heard about this book. It's about like book binders, right?
Yeah. Like, I've gotten a bunch of recommendations from people for it and it's like, it's cool. It's not my usual fare. Like, I don't know, I don't know if you'd classify it as mystery or a cozy book, but I haven't been reading enough fiction lately, so it's good to dive back in and you know, so it's it's about a book binder, and one of the jobs that she gets is rebinding or repairing this rich guy's library. So she spends all day in his library. So it's about books and libraries and the past, and it's really cool. And then yesterday, he pulls out, he opened his drawer of, quote, collectible fountain pens, but it's like, 1897. I don't know if they were collectible fountain pens, but if there were back then, I. I'd love to see those. But, yeah, that's really super awesome. I have, like, a whole pile of books that are backed up from the other thing. Taking me forever to read. But we mentioned Matthew Battles. We were going to do sort of a book club about Palimpsest. I picked up his book about libraries, which I'm excited to read to follow up on this. It's called Libraries and Unquiet History, something like that. That's sort of his claim to fame. And that the other day. Yeah, I'll let you know how it is. Or you can even borrow my copy. And I picked up a book by Mark Kurlansky of short fiction when I was in Boston last month, so I don't know what the hell that's gonna be like, but I love his writing, so that could be really cool. Yeah. So I've been listening to a lot of different stuff lately, including the Birthday Massacre a lot, which is making Spotify show me all this goth rock I never heard of. But, you know, if you're sitting there working with headphones on and, like, you're cooking, or in my case, you have glue all over your hands. You can't reach up and skip anything, so you just listen to more of it than you want to. I'm like, some of this is, like, pretty good. There's a lot of, like, really melodramatic lyrics about, like, the rain and blood and death and moods from people who are probably older than me. But. Yeah, but I've also gotten really into Cyndi Lauper again, and she's on a farewell tour. And I'm, like, trying to figure out if I know anybody in my real life who would like to go see Cyndi Lauper. Because I don't want to go by myself, because, you know, that's weird. It's weird for me. So if you live in Baltimore or Washington, let me see Cindy Lauper. Drop me a line.
There's nothing to do with her music, like, so I'm not making any sort of judgment on that, but I've Got. There's this guy I follow on YouTube, this. He's this really like sort of top tier session guitarist in Nashville. His name's Tom Bukovac and he's played on, you know, thousands and thousands of records. And he has this great YouTube channel, it's called Homeschooling that he started during the Pandemic. But it. A few episodes back, someone had asked him in his like, viewer questions like, who was the most difficult person you ever had to work with in the studio? And he's like, I don't like to talk about that, you know, like that kind of stuff. But, you know, if I did, I don't know, it might be something like. And he didn't say her name, but he just started playing the melody to one of her songs. Apparently she was just like a total pain in the ass to. To work with in the studio, which is like, I mean, you've been around for that long and you've had those many hits, like, of course you're gonna like have. You're gonna want things a certain way, so necessarily blame her and you're working with a bunch of like, strangers basically. But. But he was just like, was it
hard to understand her?
Maybe?
She's got that Brooklyn accent. No. Play a playa.
Huh? Impossible.
Yeah.
I feel like I've been listening to something else, but I don't know what it is. We started recording our practice sessions, so I've been listening to that. It's sort of like taking notes and then reviewing notes. Sometimes we'll tell you know what I'm talking about. You'll play a song and you're like, God, that was awesome. What did he do?
How did I do that?
How'd that go again? There's at least one case where we listen to something like, that was awesome. We played that one time and we would have forgotten it. It's cool. And our singer can, you know, improvise melodies and lyrics on the spot, which is really cool. And then it's impossible to remember that I just made him a handmade book for lyrics, so that might change.
Cool.
And so I've been on a fat pen kick lately. I just finished my Narwhal Nautilus from the. They're like the spring edition. That's mostly blue. Not blue, sorry, green and yellow. It's really grassy with gold trim. It's so pretty. But I got a double broad and didn't think it would last this long, but it just died this morning. And the darling of all of the YouTubers, the Jinhao 9019 Dadao. Like it's this fat, fat pen with this huge nib. I think it came out last year and then this year they added a few new colors, including jade yellow, which is not quite translucent. So I picked up that one with. They caught the heartbeat nib where the slit is cut in this weird zigzag pattern. Like a heart monitor.
Interesting.
I don't think it serves any purpose,
but you know, does it take longer to, to, you know, come down, like the ink to come out?
No, it flo mine. I got the medium and it flows like a hose and it comes with the converter is like enormous. And it screws into the pen. So like it holds a ton of ink. Mine puts down a lot of ink. I put diamine onyx black in it, which is like the blackest black, but
there's none more black.
Yep.
Not missing it's final tap reference, but
it pulls the light from the rest of your page into itself.
When the ink, it slows down, paper turns gray.
Black hole.
Yeah. When the ink goes down through the
slit, you hear, sorry, gets darker, the lights flicker.
There aren't a lot of, I don't want to use the French word. There aren't a lot of milieu's where you can talk about black inks being different as our current one, our present one. But it's really, really good black ink. I was really happy with it, glad I got the big bottle. And I've been trying to fill up this green notebook that I made myself, but I put too much paper in it. So it's taken a while. I mean, usually when I make stuff for my shop, I want people to get their money's worth. So, you know, put a lot of paper in it. I made one for myself. That way I'm like, damn. And to stop doing this. I'll make more sales if they don't take so long to fill up.
Yeah, let's go the field notes route.
Yeah, yeah. But that's all I got. How about you, Andy?
Gosh, what have I been up to? I just got back yesterday, yesterday evening from a little four night trip to Los Angeles. And so I feel like my. I'm just trying to figure out what, what it is I do here. So I'm still a little trying to figure that out. But last night we started watching the Olympics.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, when you, you leave for vacation for a while and then, you know, disrupt everything and you come back and like, okay, how do I, where do I work my life again?
Yeah, yeah,
yeah. So, yeah, just started watching some of the Olympics last night. Watched some volleyball. It was US Versus China, and China won. Yeah, it's. And then watch the. Have you. Have you seen the. The highlights on Peacock? It's basically Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson just, like, goofing around.
I've seen some of that. Yeah. Cool.
Yeah.
Have you seen the. Colin Jost covering the.
Yeah. Surfing.
Oh, gosh.
Yeah.
That was so funny.
Yeah, there's just. Just like he's standing, like, in a field because the surfing's happening in Tahiti instead of in France because, you know, surfing's not great, apparently in France. And he's just like, standing in a field with, like, some chickens behind him. Just like
my.
Oh, gosh. And one of. From the highlights. Did you see when Snoop Dogg did, like, the recap for. For the badminton? Oh, my gosh. It was so funny. He's like, he. They do it for like a full minute, and he's like, how about over there? Nope, sending it back to you. And he, like, goes. And he just, like, does the whole thing as they're hitting it back and forth like 25 times. It was so funny. I need to find the clip. I was trying to find it for Jane, but like, on Peacock, you have to, like, watch. Every time you fast forward, you have to watch it.
I love how Snoop Dogg's kind of new role in life is like. Do you remember in like, the 60s through the 80s, like, Paul Lind was like the actor that everybody got for their variety show or their comic. Like, it's like a British quiz show almost like just a. Just a personality. And that's Snoop Dogg and he's like. He's like the modern day Paul Lind.
I'm here for it.
It's pretty great. Yeah. So just kind of started. Started the Olympics. I'll probably watch that kind of on and the next. And. And like you, Tim, I just love that. Just the more kind of obscure the sport, the better. Like, like, archery is great. And yeah, I like the cyclocross, the like, bike riding inside, like, on those really, like, super curved walls. That's really fun.
See, they have breakdancing this year.
I did. That's gonna be. Yeah, that'll be interesting because. Because part of me, I'm just like, well, I feel like breakdancing is a performance art, not a sport. But then again, like, you know, figure skating is like, right in the Olympics. Right? So. And horse dancing. You know, we got dressage, so. Yeah, so I guess. I guess you're allowed to stay break dancing. So, yeah, doing that. I've actually been very bad at reading lately. But I started a book called the Ministry of Time, which is just a novel novel out there. That's a kind of a time travel novel. It's a, it's a, A future where, you know there is time travel, but you sort of like have to pull people into the present reality. And the British government pulled a bunch of people from like eras past and then that. This is about like, you know, somebody from, from like an Arctic expedition in the late. In the early 1800s, like being pulled into modern day London, which is pretty good. I love me a, you know, a nice time travel novel I wrote.
This is not accurate.
There you go. Listening. I, I think I went down, I think Spotify sent me down a YouTube, a YouTube Spotify rabbit hole. I was listening, as so many people are right now, to Chapel Roan, who's kind of the. Oh yeah, the Gen Z kind of indie pop musician right now. And that just gave me so many others. So I was listening to Remy Wolf and the beaches and Ke$ haz. A new song, the new album, which is She's Back, Billie Eilish. Like a lot of all the, all the Gen Z pop girlies I've been listening to. Sabrina Carpenter is like, is like a person now. Like, I remember when she was like in middle school and on that Boy Meets World remake, she was like the, the Sean of. Of Girl Meets World. Yeah. And then boy, I've been using. Been trying out. We'll talk about this a little bit later, but I've been trying out my, my new Travelers notebook that's a collab with Blackwing and then the Blackwing pencil that goes along with it. So been enjoying that. I have a bunch of. I think, well, in the freshpoints we're going to talk about some new. Some of the new Blackwing releases that have been really interesting. But yeah, been using, been using a lot of those. And let's see, have I been using any pens? I don't know. I've been pretty, pretty pencil focused the last few weeks. So that is me. Do you guys want to jump into some fresh points? Sure. Yeah. Tim. How about you, Timothy?
Sorry, I was raising my desk up like right as you asked that question, so I had it on mute because it was going. Sorry about that.
Okay.
Yeah, so I'll just jump into it. Let me kind of propping my mic
up a little better there.
Okay. Yeah. So the first thing I was gonna bring up was the, the new Blackwing eras that came out. So they continued with the theme of doing plays on. Well, basically non. Black wings. Right? Non. Like things that were called other things, like they did with the Van Dyke. So the. This one is based on
the.
Oh my gosh. I'm just microtomic. The microtomic. Yeah.
Yeah.
So a microtomic. And this is the first. So it's got that really nice kind of like navy blue color. Mine are on the way. I don't have mine in hand yet, but they look great. It's got the silver feral, which is always fun when that, when that shows up. And this is the first. Is it the first era? No, they have. They've had eras that have been the sort of extra hard, like the extra whatever, like extra fine. Fine. The 602 and then like the. The extra hard version. But this is a soft. So this one is. Uses the MMX core, which is exciting to see that one pop up on here. Do either of you have these in hand?
I do, I do. Yeah. They're. They're really nice. I. I was trying to think for some reason that feral looks like a different shape than the usual, but I'm comparing it to the other ones on my desk and it's the same shape. It's just a. Yeah, just that really nice silver that matches the. The foil imprint pretty well.
Oh, mine are across the room.
They. They nailed that color. That. Like that.
Yes.
Blue slash, gray slash. Greenish kind of like color from the microtomic.
So it's. I can't tell if this is a wrap or. I'm sorry, a roll on print or lacquer because it looks like there are lines, but.
Oh, interesting.
I can't tell. And honestly, I didn't look at it that long because I don't care that much. It's like color.
I don't know if I see any lines. I don't have the greatest light in here right now, but yeah, it looks like it's just a lacquer, but I could be wrong.
I'm based on it.
Yeah.
I feel like they box themselves in with this one because there were so many grades they could do. They could have just done like a spin off series of like a pack of those and different grades. I guess they could still do, but it would be repetitive.
Yeah, yeah, no, this is. You know, I. I really think that the best thing that Blackwing has done lately are the eras. And yeah, I think this is. This is no exception. I think that they're really, really good looking and just, you Know, as a pencil nerd, like, historic pencil nerds. It's fun to just kind of see their take on some of the old. The old stuff.
So are they well put together?
Like. Yeah, yeah. They're. They're. They're. The ferrule is, like, actually attached.
Yesterday I was sharpening one of my Jerry Garcia black wings, and I put it into the sharpener in the. I was holding it by the ferrule, which is probably not the best way, but it's just kind of short. And then I was like, what? This feels weird. And then I looked, and the pencil was just spinning like crazy. And I was holding the ferrule.
Yep, Yep. Start a fire from the friction right out.
It'll give you a cool end cap. Nice little character.
Yeah.
Yeah. They've done a good job not claiming, like, any sort of. I don't know. What's the word I'm looking for? It's not a lineage thing. Like, this is. This is an homage to these old.
No Stolen valor right here.
We're not claiming that we're making a new version of this. I appreciate it because, I mean, that would have been pretty easy to do.
What. What old Abrahad Faber pencil do they need to do next for Rarez? I'm thinking maybe a goal, a Noblet. Oh, a manga would be. Oh, no.
Plot would be cool too.
Yeah.
But that core is hard to get.
But they have to use the original poison. Poison core.
Yeah.
I'd say it's safe to say that they're not gonna do anything that they don't use the, like, standard Blackwing cores for.
Yeah.
Are there any others that had the
flat feral, the Fantastics, the microtonics, the
Palominos didn't, and they just added them?
Yeah, that's true.
I know at least one person was confused recently in my presence. They were, like, writing with it for a while. Like, wait, what's up with this feral? Oh, my God. I'm not related to them.
There is a. I found a. I actually didn't even know this existed. That they. They made a colored pencil. The Eberhard Faber color bright. Have you seen this before?
Yeah. I think they became the Kakali race. No. No, they didn't. I'm a liar. Sorry.
Okay, I have the. I have the brand name pencils.com page with all of the adjustable feral pencils on it. Just pulled that up and got some microtomics in here. There's. There's one called a cant roll. Have you ever heard of this one? Can't Roll K, A N T, hyphen,
R, O, L control. Which is a manual.
Yeah. Oh, I get it. Because it can't roll off the table.
I was gonna say, does it have a categorical or a categorical imperative going on? Like, sharpen your pencil. As if everyone would sharpen their pencil the same way as you and only for its own sake.
You're such a nerd.
Unlike us. Yeah.
Like me, who's extremely cool.
Okay. Quiet. Yeah.
What do you. How do you follow?
Okay. There was a Venus drawing pencil with a. With a elongated eraser.
Like, really?
The Venus American Pencil Company. Yeah.
They could do the velvet again. That would be really, really awesome. I love that pencil.
Yeah.
Is that classy blue band on the feral?
Yeah.
Black wing.
You're welcome. It is kind of. It's kind of like weird to have the discussion and be like, okay, so we know the formula. So it's probably going to be one of the. One of these.
Yep.
Like, or the era series just ends at some point when they're like, I don't want to do that.
No, we've run out. Run out.
Like, hey, here's this one pencil that was made for six months that no one's ever heard of except, like two people.
Yeah. And then they dropped people really handy.
Oh, my God, really good.
I always wonder about the eras. Like, I don't. I wonder how popular they are because I feel like they're. They're like, you know, for the pencil nerds. And there's not that many of us. Right. Blackwing has bigger aspirations to like, be more popular and produce more than just like, you know, the people who have heard of the erasable podcast. So, like, are they selling them more widely, do you think? Like, do people care about this?
Well, they sell out. I mean, the. The only one that hasn't sold out on their website. I think when I was looking at them the other day was the. The one with the arrow on the pharaoh. Which makes sense because they probably had to buy a crapload of them to have those made special, you know? But, yeah, I mean, it seems like they are. I mean, they're really good looking and they look. And then people like this sort of vintage looking things. Yeah. It'd be really cool if once they. Once they wrap the series, if they. I mean, I know they won't bring them back and sell them by the dozen again, but it'd be cool if they brought them back and sold them in like a mix pack, you know, or. And just have like those available where you can get like, one of each kind of thing.
Oh, yeah. That's kind of a neat idea. Yeah.
They should do that with the independent bookstore day ones.
Oh, yeah. Just to, like, through the years.
They're so undercover. Cool. The blue on the. This year's was just perfect.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nice.
So. Yeah, so that was cool. I can't wait for those to get in. I actually ordered one of those and one of the Golden Gate Bridge ones because I hadn't gotten those yet. So I got those two on their way.
I could have just sent you guys some samplers of each of those.
That's right. They look awesome. I know I would want to have them. So appreciate it, though.
Yeah.
Entering a year 10 in my sub.
Wow. What'd you just say?
I think this is. Yeah, this would be the 10th year of their subscriptions. No, let's keep chugging. It started in 2015.
Wow.
Huh.
That's nuts.
Yeah, I'm counting.
Yeah, you're right.
This summer is the start of the 10th year.
Spring 2015. I think you're right. Was the. Was the first one. It's so old.
Cool. Well, the only other thing I was gonna bring up is just that we've been doing tons of back to school shopping, which, you know, we've covered before, and there's nothing really new out there that I want to mention. But though I had a very pessimistic thought when we were shopping because of course, we had, you know, pencils are on the list. You're buying them for the teachers, and I am who I am. And so I'm like, I not buying the crappy ones. I'm gonna get something that's at least a little better and all. I mean, I was at Target, and you can get the USA Gold, you know, which is as far as I could tell, at least in the ones in the school section that you could buy in, like, decent quantity were the only ones made of cedar. And, like, what is it that's keeping them from going, like, crappy, you know?
Like, are they cedar again?
They. Yeah, I think so. I mean, I've got one right here.
Oh, awesome. The last couple years, they moved away from it with the shortage. I was afraid they wouldn't come back.
Yeah, I mean, actually, I don't have one right here. It's upstairs. That was a something else.
But, yeah.
So anyways, I got those. But I was like, what is keeping. Yeah, I don't know. Like, what is it that's motivating them to. It's almost like the inverse of the question About Blackwing and like, who's buying these things? But it's like, I don't know, maybe they just look different enough because they've got the natural thing going and people like that. I don't know. I was just like having this sort of like philosophical incentive.
Yeah.
Like think like thought process. As my kids were like asking me for like the most ridiculous looking breakable mechanical pencils and junkie erasers and stuff. And I'm like, no, no, no, leave me alone.
I'm thinking your kids are asking you after all you've done for them, they're asking for mechanical pencils?
Yeah, that's just, that was just one of them. I'm not gonna, not gonna name which one because. Yeah, I don't wanna.
One of mine does that too.
Yeah, it's definitely like a status thing at school where it's like, oh, you're. If you got. You gotta have like at least one cool mechanical pencil. He also, as we've discussed before, has like a smuggling ring of black wings. So he's. He made up some.
That's right. That's right.
Made up some ground there. But yeah, that's. That's it for me.
Nice. Johnny.
Johnny. Awesome.
So last week, Martin Rose, who's a listener and supporter, was coming through Baltimore with his family. They're California, so they're not here very often. And my oldest and I got to meet them for coffee and chilling and they're like the most delightful family ever.
Oh, yeah.
Such a nice morning. I was actually like in a good mood through the whole week, which is awesome.
I'm. I'm disappointed because he was in San Francisco for a concert and we were going to get coffee the next day, but he was. His son was not feeling great, so did not see them. So I'm jealous you got to hang out with Martin Rose.
Yeah, all so nice. We all know people in our lives where they're a spousal pair. One is less nice than the other one, but it's absolutely not the case. Like, I wish you guys lived here because I'd be up your house all the time.
Houses for sale across the street. So, yeah,
Jenny's come over to like. Howdy, neighbor. Can I borrow a pencil? Can I borrow a cup of ink,
Extra sharpener, blades?
My black wing feral came off. Tim, do you have another one? Oh. So we haven't talked about the new field notes yet.
Oh, yeah.
Whenever they, they come out late, it's always like, oh, what did they do in the summer of 2012? And they didn't come out till almost August, but they came with a book which is really cool. So this time they're called the Index Edition. So instead of three packs, they're two packs, but they're bigger and purpose driven, like one pack. I don't know if they call this the index books, but it almost function like a review book, but for anything, which is pretty cool. I mean, I don't know what I'm gonna do with them, but they look cool. And then there's a pack that has a ledger, which is just straight ledger paper, and then a date book. And I appreciate it. The, you know, the date book has blue foil stamping on the COVID blue staples, and the ink inside is blue and so on for the green and the red. And for subscribers, you got a case that holds them all, which might sound silly until you have it in your hands and realize pretty nice. Carefully it was made. And it's so cool. Like, I put it together right away and put mine in there. Yeah. Did you guys get yours?
Yeah, I got mine. Yeah. I don't know what I. It's. It's funny, like, one of the first kind of experiences with field notes that I've had was there was a guy I remember joining, like, probably 10, 12 years ago, the Field Nuts group, and there was a guy who made these little rubber stamps that you would go like, for reviewing, like beer or something like that. And. Oh, yeah. And I. I feel like this, this. Oh, what is it? The, the ledger book or not. Not the ledger book. The like review logbook. That's it. What they're calling. Just reminds me a lot of that because it's just for. It'd be perfect for like reviewing a beer or wine or coffee or something like that.
So.
Yeah, I'm not sure how I would fit this into my life, but I. I think it's cool. I really like the little. On the back. There's. There's like a little flap to just put some receipts or put some things in like a little pocket almost. And I wish that they would, you know, make more like that because I. Yeah, I think that's a great idea. Yeah. So I. I definitely would use the ledger. That kind of like ruling, I think is really good for like to do lists and stuff because.
Yeah, people really like that one.
Yeah, it reminds me a lot of the. The word notebooks. You know, they always had like a. Oh, yeah. Like the extra just like line over on the left.
So.
Yeah. Big fan of that. Yeah. I'm not quite sure how I would Use it yet. Or if this is something that's just going to go into the, go into the archive. But I, I know that people over on Field Nuts were not. Not super. Not super into it. That. Who cares what they think.
Yeah, I'm very intrigued by. In the, the product photo for the, for one of them on the side, there's like, it shows the little pocket and there's this little metal draplin, like, I don't know, whatever you call that like a little plaque, whatever.
Oh, I see that.
Yeah. It looks just like what, you know, what they put on. I mean, of course my brain. Yeah, it looks exactly like the little metal things that are put on amplifier, like real cloths to like mark what it is or. But it's, you know, it's clearly not used.
I was thinking of like a school locker.
Yeah. Yeah. Those things are cool.
When did they start selling that? I remember seeing those. And was it part of the merchmas stuff?
I can't remember.
Yeah, it's a. No, it's not a decal set. I'll find the link later and try it. But yeah, that, those, those are cool.
Yeah. I've done a couple custom books recently with this ledger paper. So like people use it for stuff and one person uses it for personal finance because they're old school and I love it.
Oh, wow. Like a ledger.
Ledger, yeah. What was the one traveling salesman that came with this before? Like I wanted to save them for something that I would need a ledger for, but I just used them as notebooks.
Yeah.
Because that one was amazing.
Yeah. But I do love the slip cover. I just want like, I want like 50 more of these just for all of my field notes. Yeah.
I mean, I guess you could take it apart and cover and copy the scoring lines.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Oh, I wonder if it wouldn't fit a three pack. Maybe they did that on purpose. Yeah, yeah. But I feel like they've been on a roll. Like I don't have a huge use for these, but I think they're really cool. It's been a long time since they made one where I'm just like, what is that? So I don't know how they keep coming up with fresh ideas.
Yeah.
Let alone pulling them off. Because with this one they designed three different notebooks.
Yeah.
That's really cool.
Yeah.
Yeah. So moving on. I taught my first in person bookbinding class.
Yeah. How'd that happen? It seemed like you had a full house. Yeah.
It was at the paper Herald, which was in Baltimore and they have A lot of cool events there. So I might have over prepared like I brought kits that were pre punched because we didn't really want people, you know, cutting themselves to make long stitch journals out of craft text with really good paper. And I took my summer intern, Owen and I think put him to work. Yeah, we might have been going too slow in the instruction and then people started going ahead. So then it was just running around the room helping people out. But it didn't take anybody two hours, which was probably good because it would have been. It's better to leave early than leave without it being finished.
Yeah.
But if you're in Baltimore, the Paper Herald is like such a delicious place. And of course we had Ashley like episode 178, I think.
Oh, that's right.
To talk about it. And like they, I just looked at their calendar. I don't know why I hadn't been paying attention. They have like a Baltimore pen club meetup with Evan from Inquisition who's like super nice. And I'm gonna do like a Galentine's day party. There's something there this weekend for stationary store day if you're not in D.C. at the pen show. So that's super fun and I would love to do that again. And finally, my last one is that my Youngest Child turned 8 on Best Deal day. And for the last couple years she always asks for a fountain pen and ink. So this year she wanted the Narwhal original plus in Lavina graphite, which is a vacuum fill pen. Like they're not that expensive. They're like 50 or 60 bucks, which is not that expensive for us. But for an 8 year old you're like, damn.
Oh yeah, that's quite a bit.
And she wanted to pick her own ink and spent a lot of time until she decided on Diamine Midnight hour from the first ink event calendar.
Man, that pen and that ink combo is very moody.
Yeah. She, she says, quote, I like dark colors.
Okay.
She said that wearing like a flower dress with rainbows.
Okay.
But I think, nice. It's like blue, black, like a hint of purple and some machine in it. Looks good. Yesterday she was doing her handwriting practice and her French ruled notebook and she unscrewed the back of the pen instead of the cap and launched ink into the cap and it's still stuck in my hands.
But I just, I just picture your, your apartment just like just ink splotches everywhere. I assume that's, that's correct. Right? Just.
Yeah.
So many ink splotches.
She got something on the table recently that I had to work very hard to get off. I don't know what it was. It's more like us. Like she woke up this morning with a heart that I drew on her hand yesterday. And it was on her arm, her other arm from the way she slept. That there was that diamond oxford. Black or onyx? Black. It really sticks around. But yeah, she's like really funny. All my kids have sort of touched fountain pens a little bit and she's the one that really keeps on it and she really wants to practice her handwriting in her little French ruled notebook, which is super cute. Of course. It's vintage French ruled notebook.
Of course.
So again, my. My favorite ebay seller that sold those, her grandmother I think had a stationary store and some of them, like the paper was. Wasn't remotely white anymore, but it was still so delicious with fountain pens. And she hasn't been listing them, so I don't know if she's out, but I have a lifetime supply. I'm shocked probably and then some. It's actually kind of a problem. Yeah, that's. That's enough of my rambling. How about you, Andy?
Couple, couple things. One is I think have you guys. Okay. I'm not usually like super into like the. The small kind of limited editions that Black Wings Blackwing does. And sometimes every once in a while they come out with just a really cool design that is just really cool. Really neat. This is. This is one of them. Have you seen the Blackwing X Robert Brighton pencils?
I saw them briefly when you shared the link and then I kind of forgot about it.
I'm going to need to send you guys some of these. They're there. It's not. It's not really like my style, but it just looks so cool. It's a. It's of course a wrap, but it is. It's like this purpley greeny marbled.
It.
It looks kind of like hand marbled and it has a purple eraser that matches that and then gold foil and a gold ferrule and it's a firm graphite. And I don't exactly. Well, I didn't know who Robert Brighton is, but he's an author and he writes books about sort of the Gilded Age. I think that there's like a lady detective agency or something set in the gilded Age. And you know, that's not my jam. But like it, it's. I'm. I'm sure it's pretty good, but this pencil definitely kind of looks kind of Victorian. Right? Or maybe what is The Gilded Age. It's like post Victorian. It's a. Yeah, it just, just, it looks like just a really cool, bright, vivid like you know, book end papers that are hand marbled and it goes really well with that. So I, I don't know, I went and picked up a, picked up a pack of these just because I, Yeah. Just was so intrigued by the way that looked. So kudos on Robert Brighton or whoever sort of like Robert branding expert is for just having such a neat kind of like vision and look about this. Yeah, I always wondered like with these kind of pencils how much collaboration the like vendor, like the, the buyer does with Blackwing to sort of like arrive at this, at this design. But yeah, this one was really kind of unique.
I wonder if it's like a tattoo artist. You can show up like make exactly this or like I kind of want this. What do you think?
Yeah, yeah, like here are your options, here's your flash. Yeah, but love that bright purple eraser. Like I'm not sure if we've seen that, that eraser quite yet. So I can't imagine that they, you know, came up with a custom color just for like a, you know, like a run like this. But yeah, I think that looks really neat. So big fan of that. Put a link in the show notes because you don't buy them on the field notes website or the field notes. The Blackwing website. You get it from like Robert Brighton's like author site. I think it cool. Yeah, it's pretty neat. Also wanted to mention, I went this weekend. Have you guys heard of High Tide? I went to their, their store in la, which was really cool. I was down in Los Angeles this weekend for my girlfriend's birthday and went into like downtown. There's a little like, I think they used to be some just like manufacturing buildings and they kind of gentrified them into little, little boutiques and shops and restaurants and stuff. And the High Tide store is there and it was really cool. It was, it was so much fun. It's just like very hip Japanese brands. Lots of, lots of stationery. The thing of note that I bought, which I think I don't think I've ever seen, I've never seen them in boxes, but it's the Mitsubishi 9000 made by Elaborate process pencils, just like in a box dozen. And I feel like whenever I've bought those before, they've just been in like little singles or, you know, singles from Mito or from Jetpens or something. And I like them well enough that I Was like, I'll just buy a box of those. So I just. Yeah, it just occurred to me that, yeah, I've never seen the 9,000s, like, in a box. Dozen. So picked up some of those. I picked up. They had a couple. Cool. Hear me messing around in my bag right now. They have some of those Penco pens. They have like, a. Like a nice permanent marker that's just skinny and orange called the Penco Permanent writer. It's a 0.5 millimeter. It's really. Yeah, just really nice and orangey, which I appreciate. So that was a really neat store. The last thing I was going to mention actually ties into that High tide stuff. I. They have a large selection of Travelers notebooks and accessories. And I recently picked up my very first ever Travelers thing, which is the Blackwing collab that they did. Have you guys. Have you guys seen much about this?
I saw the pictures you sent.
It looks super cool.
Yeah, it's like the COVID is a just like a kind of matte black leather cover, which I'm not usually a big leather guy, but I made an exception for this because it looks good. And then they. They have like, a foil stamp of a black wing pencil in the front. And then they put the Travelers logo, which is sort of that, like, gridded globe with. But they put the. The Blackwing logo in the middle. So it's. Blackwing collaborates with Travelers company And it comes with a notebook with this sort of, like blue, gray, like, particle board ish cover with, like, stamps of. Of a bunch of black wings on it. It's kind of blank pages on the inside. And there is a charm, a Blackwing charm, which I need to figure out how to. How to use. Like, what do I do with it? That's what I'm trying to figure out. I'm sure I can watch. I'm sure there's somebody on YouTube who has made a video about, like, how to attach these charms. And then it came with some. Some Blackwing pencils that kind of match that. That design on the front. So.
Yeah, with the point protector and.
Yeah, and that's right. And it comes with a point protector that looks like it's. I don't know if it's painted or if it's enameled or what, but it's. It's not anodized, and it's in that same. It's kind of a matte blue gray color that matches. Matches the notebook really well.
That thing was like Chef's Kiss with the logo on it. Eraser.
Yeah, that Looks really good. And so, yeah, the pencil itself, the. The lower, not even third, like, the lower 3/5 of it is matte black. And the top 3/5 of it, or 2/5 of it is like a three fifths. I don't know, is a natural, natural word. And then it has like that. That kind of bluish, grayish eraser that matches. It just. Yeah. Just looks really good. There's a lot I don't quite know about the traveler's notebooks. Like, I. I know that you can put more than one, like, insert in the COVID but I'm not sure how does anybody.
I can show you how to do that.
Okay. There's like. I know you can buy, like, special rubber bands to, like, do more.
Right.
Don't. Don't buy them. I have, like, rolls of that stuff.
Okay.
But the easiest way that I've seen to do it is to. You basically make a loop and put the loop around the notebook that's in there so that it's sort of being held in by that tension. And then on each side of the notebook now you'll have a string that you can put another notebook on. And you can put three in there really easily that way.
Okay.
Like, I've made some with three, and then you could put nine in them, which is like nine a lot. But I'm not judging what people are into.
Yeah. This one. This one is. It's pretty small. Like, it fits just one of them very well. But I. It's blank pages, and I really wanted some line pages. So actually, when I was at high tide yesterday, I bought. Or this weekend I bought. I bought a lined insert. So I'm going to try to figure out how to, like, get both of those in there.
If you want to send me the measurements, I can do whatever you want.
Okay. Thank you.
Yeah.
Oh, man. You should get into knockoff traveler stuff. You get so many.
I mean, I've done a couple as like, custom jobs. Yeah. I mean, nor that fun. Like, I'm not binding anything. I'm just sewing these pieces of craft decks together.
Yeah.
Well, I guess that's. That's. That can be its own fun.
Yeah. The people. People out here in the stationary meetup are. The San Francisco stationary meetup. There's a lot of people into traveler stuff, and they. They just go all out. Like, they make, like, spreads for their week and rubber stamps and stickers and just, Just everything. It's. It's amazing. But also, that's like a little bit more elaborate than I feel like I'm probably gonna get. But I do really like the size. It's like that taller traveler's notebook size, which is like a little bit bigger than a checkbook, which is. I'm sure people don't have no idea what a checkbook is nowadays.
Seven or eight by four.
Yeah, something like that. Yeah. So yeah, really enjoying that. I just really wanted some sort of a travelers ish thing. And it came and went from their website in like a couple days. I think they sold out. I'm sure they'll do another batch of them, but they sold out really quickly and I know that they have some reserved for the pen shows. So if you're going next month at the San Francisco pen show and I think they had them at the Pacific Pacific Northwest Pen show.
The DC one is this weekend, which is a huge one from what I'm.
Pick one up, line up. I'm sure people will be fighting over it.
Oh my God.
You're not even.
That would be an exciting fight Mark at all.
It's totally happen.
Yeah.
Good just to watch that. Yeah.
Take videos.
I'm actually going to miss. I'm a bummed. I'm going to miss the San Francisco pen show because I will be in Portland for XOXO Fest.
But that's a good reason to miss it though.
That is a bad reason to miss.
Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't. I wouldn't do it otherwise. Super fun. So cool. That is. That is it for me. Yeah. Any. Anything we missed, Anything else we want to talk about? You want to button this up?
I think.
I can't think of anything.
Yeah. Nice to talk to you. It's been a. It's been a minute. I feel like we've been on like this three week cadence. Like we just can't pull it together every two weeks. So we'll try. Try to try to get that done, but. Cool. Well, this has been episode 214 of the erasable podcast and you can find audio and show notes at erasable us. Excuse me, slash 214. And Tim, where can people find you on the Internet if they wanted to?
You could find me on Twitter timwassom. And I'm on Instagram timothywassum.
Nice. How about you, Johnny?
You could find me on the Internet@pencil revolution.com and on social media at Pensolution.
Pencilucian. And I am on. Oh, actually I just turned off Twitter for a little bit just to see what that's like. So can't find me on Twitter and Instagram. So maybe on Blue sky or Mastodon. You go to Andy, wtf? They have all that stuff.
I just said that totally out of like, just wrote, you know, just kind of a habit. I deleted Twitter from my phone like two months ago, so. Oh, wow, never mind. I haven't been on Twitter in forever, so I still use Instagram.
Yeah, yeah, no Twitter. Oh, man. Do not. Discourse on Twitter right now, especially leading up to the election, is not great.
So, yeah, it's a starter for me.
Let's see how long I can like and keep that off.
Yeah.
And we are Erasable Podcast again. Erasable Us is our website and you can find show notes at erasable us/114. Excuse me, 214. And we are on Facebook and I guess on Twitter and on threads and on Instagram at Erasable Podcast, all the things and. Yeah, and then we. Man, lost my train. Oh, group the group. If you want to come join some cool people, 4,000 people strong, come join our Erasable Facebook group. It's Erasable Us groups. Erasable. And we finally, we have a Patreon. So we keep the show running and keeps us kind of in pencils@patreon.you.com erasable. And we have a bunch of supporters at the producer level, people who give us $10 a month or more. 120. I think we have a discount. I think it's a hundred dollars a year. You get on this list, go check that out. And I'm going to thank some people just to kind of end the show. So thank you to John Schoder, to Ellen Mack Tucker, Nathan Rabeck, Dana Morris, Liz Rotundo, Melissa Miller, Angie Aaron Bollinger, Ida Umphurs, David Johnson, Phil Munson, Valerie Drew, Tom Keakley, Andre Torres, who I'm going to get to meet at xoxo. Paul Moorhead, William Modlin, John Cappellouti, Stephen Fonselli, Aaron Willard, Millie Blackwell, Michael d', Alosa, Tana Feliz, Ann Sipe, Michael Hagan, Chris Metzkis, Mary kalis, Kathleen Rogers, Dr. Hans Noodleman and John Wood. Thank you all so much for supporting the show and thank you, listeners, for listening. We'll catch you next time. Do you like our podcast? Most people like our podcast, but if you don't like our podcast, David will turn it off.