This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
Cool. Tim, when does your heart stop?
Like 1:15, 130. I think they probably stretch it to 130.
When does your heart stop?
Yeah, when does your heart stop? How much coffee have you had?
Hello and welcome to episode 219 of the erasable podcast. Big shout out to the region. Rats. Northwest Indiana. That was the area code of growing up. 219. So I was excited when I saw the. I saw. That was the episode number. So back to the 21 9. Still remember all my phone numbers.
It's funny. The 219 days, it's 219. I was in 26 0, which was once 219. And then also we're talking about Blackwing 574, which is one of the other Indiana zip codes or area codes. Yeah, it's a very Indiana area code day.
Andy and Donnie, how are you guys doing? Good.
Good. It's nice to see your face.
Yeah. See each other. Yeah. We're.
We're recording video on Zoom, so if you are a Patreon member, you can go and watch the zoom of this episode on Patreon. So if you're not, then you should just go sign up to be a Patreon member at, like, you know, $1 a month or whatever. And you should be able to see this.
Yeah. You can guess which one of us is naked.
It's not me. Yeah, not me, Tim.
Not it. From the waist down, we're talking.
That's true. I mean, we all waist down, of course.
Yeah.
This is a Zoom call after all.
Yeah. Cool. Today we're going to be doing some late autumn fresh points. We got some new releases that have come out and some just kind of fun things to talk about. But before we get that, the few tools of the trade and Johnny pretty much starts out.
So I. I don't think our political leanings on their show are a secret. So, you know, it's been a rough couple weeks, and I find myself, or actually Spotify keeps throwing angsty 90s rock music at me, even though I'll put on something way different. And then, you know, when it's finished or you're listening to, it'll start playing something. It'll be like, hey, you want to listen to Soundgarden?
Yeah, of course I do.
The world's falling apart. But by choice, I've been listening to a lot of a Scottish band called Arab Strap. Have you guys heard of these? They sort of went away and came back.
I heard of them from you last episode where we. The meaning of Arab Strap Yeah, I'm,
like, on a deep dive, like, over and over again. I think I've. I've memorized their latest album, which has an F word in it, so I won't say it, but so good. Like, his lyrics are just amazing. And it's. It makes me want to kind of drum machine, make some music. But I also been obsessed with, you know, the usual stuff. Birthday Massacre, the Cure. But for viewing. Did you guys see Gangs of London? It's on Netflix right now. So my dad let me watch First Blood when I was, like, five. So, like, violence in shows doesn't bother me, but this is the most violent
show I've ever seen in my life.
It's, like, completely crazy. Like, it opens where he sets someone on fire and lets them fall off a building. A large slow motion, and he's like, what choice did I have? I'm like, oh. So it's very, like, it's not for the faint of heart, but it's so good. Evidently, season three is going to come out at some point, but a lot of the acting is very good. It has the guy who played John in Peaky Blinders, which, if you haven't
watched, you should watch, but he actually
wasn't that good in it. He was good in that Holocaust movie that was on. Or Holocaust series that was on Disney plus and Hulu. One small light. Like, he was super good on that. And this one's kind of chewing it up a little bit. But also his brother is Andy's doppelganger. If you were, like, balding and, like, I don't know, 40 pounds heavier, especially.
What? Well, just wait. Just for another 10 years.
It was really freaky. I was like, oh, my God, It's Andy Frank is like, he. Yeah, that's creepy. I should have sent you.
Okay. What is the. What's the show called again?
It's called Gangs of London.
Gangs of London. And what's the guy's name?
I forgot what his name is. He's his brother.
Okay.
Been a couple weeks.
Yeah.
He has, like, big brown eyes, very dark hair. He's very tall.
Gonna look this guy up.
He's a good character, too.
Yeah.
And if you are a Britbox fan, you should watch the Tower, which just came out. Season three just also so damn good. And Gangs of London and the Tower both share an Irish actor who is also a Peaky Blinders, who is our friend Chris Roth's doppelganger. Oh, it's, like, really freaky. It's up in Deja Vu. And, you know you're sleep. You haven't been sleeping because the election. So what, Chris, we all have.
When you
said the tower, I was like. My brain, because it's. My brain took me on this, like, wild ride of, like, towers. Faulty towers. And like, it be funny. It was like a remake Fresh Prince, Bel Air. So. And I was gonna like.
It's like a gritty faulty tower remake.
Faulty towers.
It is gritty.
Like, lots of violence.
And like, have I, either of you seen faulty towers, like, recently? I feel like college.
Can't imagine.
Well, we all have a secret British doppelganger out there, apparently.
I don't. I need to find them.
I bet you do. You just haven't gotten deep enough into Brit box yet.
I don't know, man. They're only like 30 actors.
If he hasn't gotten beat them out from the brick button, nobody has because there's only 30 actors. There's only 75 actors in Britain, right?
Yeah.
And I've seen all of them. So my other guilty pleasure for I guess this counts as viewing is hiding in video games with my kids. And then we played Roots of Pacha, but we got like, we got. So far, it got boring. And then we got Graveyard Keeper, which is so creepy. It looks really fun. But as soon as we got that, a couple days later, Stardew Valley's update came out. So we've all been playing probably two or three hours of Stardew Valley every day parts since then.
You're just leaning into the cozy games.
Yeah, but, you know, with the update, there's a lot of new stuff. New festivals, new animals, new crops. I'm going after a different person for my marriage in this one than the last time.
So.
So, so to wrap it up, I've just been reading a lot of, like, book binding guides, including this really cool one on Japanese papercraft that also teaches you how to make, like, cool envelopes and stuff, but not origami. Like, what would I say? Like, useful things. And I just started a book by Mary Louise Kelly, who's from NPR's All Things Considered. She wrote a book about the kids getting ready to leave Khan. It goes so fast. The story, the Year of no do overs.
So but you're just like,
I bought it according to Amazon way over a year ago. And I have been like, not every morning would look at it. I'm like, not reading that. No, no.
Not ready for it.
Not ready for it.
The world's already, you know, falling apart right now. So I'm taking a break from laughing at Parts of the news to read this book.
Yeah.
And it's very good. She's, you know, she's a great writer, obviously. But yeah, it's one of those things where if you're going to read it before your kids leave so you can hug them, it's advised you can just try a lot and don't read it at night.
Yeah, yeah.
So I am. I'm not writing with or much lately. I'm not keeping notebooks like I should because I'm hiding in Starter Valley. But I just filled the Levenger True Writer select in Bordeaux, which is like big and it has a magnetic clip or a cap, which is cool. But it's not selling, so people must not like them with diamond oxblood in it. It's because the narwhal pen that you have is not working right. But if you guys can see this.
Oh yeah. That's a really satisfying click.
Yeah. I'm nice chugging through my yellow bullet journal and using my own little notebooks that are. If you look this up on Google, the. I mean, cross structure binding. It's really cool. I've been making out of old file folders from the US government. So they look really like old. Some from a spy movie.
Is it those, like that paper, I can't remember what it's called. Like not particle board. Like. Yeah, it has like kind of like just a really interesting kind of marbled pattern of fiber in it.
Some of them are old personnel folders that my dad used for our Boy scout troop like 35 years ago. So like they were little pieces of paper with people's names typed in a typewriter and glued on.
Yeah.
But those were brown and like this. It's really cool.
It's two and a half. Yeah.
Like, hey, everybody gets a nopo. But that's all I got going on. Yeah. Here. So how about you, Andy?
What about me? I've been reading a lot lately. I just finished a book that's been out for a few years that I just have. I kind of forgot about, then picked up again called the Terraformers by Annalee Newitz, who's one of my favorite writers. And it's about. It's a science fiction book and it's about a far flung future world where people are terraforming planets and there's like
where everybody lives on islands.
Yeah.
Have to like harvest fruit. Yeah.
And then sometimes.
Isn't that a part of Animal Frost?
And then. And then there's this raccoon that just
like fleeces you every month.
Yeah. Still, it's like, mob boss runs the chair.
Yeah. No, so it's. Yeah, just this far flung future book and it's a little bit about anti capitalism and it's a little bit about, like, urban planning and it's also a little bit about alien species, which is kind of fun. So. Yeah, been really. I finished that.
I also.
I didn't realize it was going to be such a quick read. Tim, on your recommendation, I read Psalm
for the Wild Bill. Yeah. What'd you think it was.
It was so good. It's one of those, like, it just makes you feel good to read it. Like, the idea that there is a future where, you know, capitalism isn't a thing. And like, if you just want to go off into the woods and like make tea and make people feel good for having tea, like, you can just do that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's such like an interesting kind of slow burn book where it doesn't move very fast, but like some pretty big things. I'm saying almost like the more you think about what's not in the book, the more interesting it gets where you're
like, it's like science fiction. My dinner with Andre. Because a lot of it is just the conversation between him and his robot and it's. Yeah. So I. I have the. The next. The second one that you just read kind of up on cue, so check that out. Yeah. So it went really fast. It must be a pretty short book. I got it on Kindle, so I can't see it.
It's like 125 pages, which is a little novella. Yeah. Little thing. Yeah, Both of them are.
And it's just.
It's like.
I think you said this already, but it's a future where, like, robots gain awareness and sentience and they're like, thanks, we're going to go off out of the factories and do our own thing. And what I really like about it, it isn't like the Matrix or the Terminator or something where there's a war. Then it's just like the humans are like, oh, cool, okay, well, good luck and have fun. And then they're just like, oh, yeah, like, what do we do? We probably shouldn't do that again. So it's like humans responding.
They actually fix stuff.
Yeah. Yeah. And I. There's something that feels.
Yeah.
Nice and reassuring about that. It's a very cozy read, I guess. Like, you know, you got cozy games, you got cozy reads. Felt like a good cozy read.
So that's a book that festered. Like, I just kept Thinking about it after I finished, I kept. Was like. Because it's like they do sort of fix things, but also they're still humans. Yeah. And so there's still like in the second one, like you interact with like a wider variety of people at the beginning. Like people are still kind of lazy. Yeah, missed the point.
You know, still humans.
But. But at least they've like. Yeah, they've. They sort of righted the ship a little bit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's some. Yeah. Really good ones in there. So with that, I'm also just started. This is really nerdy. It's another, like, small one, but it is a biography of a typeface about Comic Sans. So I'm going to read the history of Comic Sans.
That's amazing.
Which, you know, I've always. And the Internet really likes to kind of like crap on Comic Sans because it's like, you know, a lot of people use it just for, you know, they're like put it along with like some word clip art or whatever. Like, it's just not a very fancy typeface. But one thing.
Elementary school teacher typeface. Yeah.
Yeah. One thing I've learned is it's actually. It's really accessible for people with dyslexia because it's not symmetrical. Right. Like, it's easy to just pick out the P's and the Q's look different enough where like, there's like. It's easy to just grok them. So. So that's kind of cool. I'm going to read more about that when I get into it, but did every day.
I got an alarm clock for my wedding that has. That was in Comic Sans. The whole thing really. It like, wasn't. No, it was made by GE and all of the labeling on it was in Comic Sans. Oh, wow. It was alarm clock too.
When I worked for pencilthings.com, my first sort of like pencil blogging thing. Remember that website Pencil Things? And I ran their blog and he made these really nice custom Faber Castell perfect pencils. And they were really nice. They looked really nice. Except the pencil things logo was in Comic Sans on there. I just remember being like, come on. But, you know, maybe he was just, you know, trying to help people their dyslexia. So.
Yeah.
So gonna read that. What's really interesting seems like a nice follow up to the Notebook, which was, by the way, such a. We've gotten a lot of really good feedback about that episode. So if you all don't follow. Yeah. If you don't follow. Rollie, Elland, on Instagram. You should. It's notebookhistorian. He posts a lot of like funny things. Like he had a friend who got a Pentel mechanical pencil like label tattooed on his arm. And I posted that was pretty good. I've also. I've been watching on TV kind of a lot of anime lately. I was never really an anime kid, so I haven't watched much of it, like Japanese animation. My girlfriend is into anime though. And so we watched a live action movie of City Hunter which is an old anime from the 80s. It has very like, like 1980s like Tokyo vibes. It's kind of like John Wick if he was just like in Tokyo the whole time and was also like a little like weirdly juvenile horny. Which is weird. It's a weird kind of thing that they brought over. But yeah, it's. It was pretty good. There was some like kung fu and some interesting gunplay which is usually a little more violent than I like to get, but good story. And then also been watching this like it's a remake of an anime called Ranma ½. And it is about a kung fu guy who is studying in like the countryside of China. He's Japanese and he falls into a mysterious pool of water and all of a sudden whenever like it transforms him into a girl and he kind of like is like a man unless he gets doused with water in which he turns into a girl until he has hot water caught on him, in which case he goes back to a boy. Which is a weird. It's like just a weird kind of like gender bending. Especially for Japan, which is like very kind of like rigid there. They just like. And hijinks continue. And his father fell into a different pool and his father turns into a panda when he gets wet and turns back into a man. Yeah, same. So it's really goofy and fun and there's a lot of like that very kind of over the top like anime like acting. There's like, like kind of the. Yeah.
So I'm so glad we're on video today.
Yeah, you wouldn't have been able to see that if you're not on Patreon or Host.
So yeah.
And I am drinking. I'm actually drinking tea today. I've been trying to drink tea more lately. I've been for various reasons. I've had some anxiety and I've just. Coffee is a little much sometimes. So I've been drinking a really strong. It's a Portland breakfast tea that I got when I was in Portland from just a Cool. Like local tea place.
So is Stash in Portland?
I don't know.
I mean, they're like a big company,
but there's a lot of tea things in Portland. There's the one. This one. Is it Stephen Smith? Joseph Smith something? Smith. It's a man's name. Smith. And yeah, it's really good. They're based in Portland.
Yeah, lots of. I think of it as a coffee city.
I mean, lots of coffee in Portland too, but apparently lots of tea. Portlanders love their caffeine, so. And I'm writing with. I'm not going to show it yet. I'm going to give you a reveal later during the pressure points. But I'm writing with a Blackwing 574 in my Baron fig confidant, which, like, I don't think I've ever actually shown off this amazing cover that Johnny made me. It looks really good. It's.
It's awesome.
Yeah, it's that. What's the name of this, this paper? Johnny Craftex.
It's like a.
It's so durable and put. Erasable sticker. The Alice erasable sticker.
And yeah.
Just looks really good in here.
So. So Owen's embroidery has gotten so good. He could probably embroider you the erasable logo.
Ooh. Ooh, that sounds fun. I was wondering. Patreon gift.
That sounds awesome. I was also wondering, could we. Because when I saw it at first this is what I thought it was, what I thought I was seeing. Could we make an erase bowl logo brand? Well, we got a landing iron. Would it work on that surface? Like
catch fire?
He's probably blind to it. Yeah, but it's not very thick, so it doesn't hold very well.
We go some make embroidered patches and just like sew. Sew those on. Yeah, that would be cool.
Text. Is everything resistant?
Yeah.
Not fire.
Fire. Yeah. Text.
Um, I've also been loving the new. I think we talked about this last time. Or maybe I can't remember if we did the new field notes that have the little birds on it. Um, I love the feeling of this cover stock. It's really pebbly and. And nice.
So did you get the stickers with the sub pack?
Yes, yes, I did.
So I mean, I love the notebooks. When I got the stickers, I was like, giddy. I think these are so cute. I didn't realize that they were going to be so detailed and cut out.
Yeah, they're really good. So that is me. How about you, Tim?
Well, let's see. So then reading a book that actually, like, kind of feels like related in some way to Solemn for the Wild Build. Or maybe it was like a book that it's like a storyline that happened, I don't know, 50 years before that. Or maybe, I don't know, maybe it doesn't line up because there's not, like this much robot stuff. But it's like a. By Leif Anger, who wrote. He kind of is like. He wrote this book called Peace Like a River, which was. Got some attention. And then he started writing. He's like mystery novels that I can't find that I need to find out because I found out he was writing them with his brother. It's a series of mystery novels and the main character is a retired baseball player, a professional baseball player. And I was like, But I can't find them because they're out of print. They're all like, you know, I have to see if I can track down, like, a PDF or something. But he has a new, newer book out. She don't know. I don't know who it is, but it's called I Cheerfully Refuse. And it's a book about the main character's name is Rainy. And it's. It's like, not a not too distant future kind of story where, like, illiteracy has become, like, the norm and government is super big and powerful.
That's so sort of un. Unrealistic.
Yeah.
And so he just.
I don't want to spoil too much, but just like, sort of like tragedy strikes and he's, like, forced to escape. And so he ends up taking a boat across Lake Superior, this, like, old sailboat. And he just kind of, like, navigates through that area and he's, like, trying to find someone. And his writing is really beautiful. I'm trying not to be awake, but it's a really cool book. And it was recommended to me by my buddy Jason, because I had told him about a song idea I had. And it was like, one of the things in the song was like, there was like, a line about this side of Lake Ontario, and he's like, oh, there's a book about Lake Superior. Like, it's that Leaf Anger guy. Because he had told me about the other book, too. So reading that and really enjoying it. I'm not super far into it, but I've got it on my scribe and just started it a few days ago. I feel like the fiction bug is coming back. I've got, like. I hadn't read much fiction for, like, over a year. Well over a year, really. I think the Last fiction book that I just like, plowed through was when I read Tomorrow. That was a while ago.
Maybe you want a little escapism in this day and age.
Maybe something like that. So I've got like three going on at once. That's like, I think the one that's going to. I'm going to finish first. But I also started the new Ron Rash book, which I'll talk about another time. Came out with the new novel. And then I've got that second book from the robot series that you were just talking about. Well, so, yeah, so reading that I cheerfully refuse, which I love the title.
It's a good title.
Been watching a lot of Premier League Soccer for the first time ever, which has been. And because my son is just obsessed with soccer. And so I got pulled into rooting for MLS teams because it was like the season and I. There's a team in Nashville. And that was just fun down as a team.
As a baseball guy or is that making you sad? Or are you just happy that he's, like, into some kind of, like, sports that he can get into?
Okay. No, I. I love it. And he enjoys watching baseball, Cuba, soccer. He loves to play it. And I just. Indiana was just basketball. I never touched a soccer ball. Never. And so it finally went where I can, like, watch it, really enjoy it. And then we got to the end of the MLS season and it was like, kind of a bummer. And then realized that all of the Premier or a lot of the Premier League games were on Peacock. You can watch them on there. I was like, I'll watch one of those and turn it on. I was like, oh, that's what soccer looked like.
You guys are so good.
Oh my God. And so I had to pick a team which was based on almost zero logic, but I've adopted AFC Bournemouth born because they call. Their fans are called the Cherries. And I thought that was funny. And also it just reminded me of AFC Richmond. And I had to pick a team from the middle. Like, I can't pick a crappy team. I can't pick a good team. I'll pick somebody.
I was going to ask if Henry has watched Ted Lasso, but, like, it's not. Language is a little.
He's been asking, but we haven't. We haven't touched.
I've.
We've. He doesn't know since then. So like be a goldfish. We. We say that a lot. Well, told him that's from Ted Lasso. So been watching that and a couple things I've been Listening to they just reissued. I was having like a really crappy day like couple weeks ago.
So it was before maybe like Wednesday the slow.
Before that. I was just having like a probably day for like no reason in particular. It was just kind of in a funk. And I turned on Amazon Music and played something and it just like automatically played something after the song that I put on. And it was a Tom Petty song that I didn't recognize. Like I. It's a Tom Petty song. Like, why don't I know this? I love this song. So I started listening. Let's do it. I looked it up and it's an album called Long After Dark, which somehow I had just like skipped over for years and years had never really listened to. It has like you got lucky on it some of the big songs. But headlifts of the album. But they. And then they have. This is probably why the algorithm gave it to me is that it was just reissue like a deluxe version. Was just reissued by his estate. And it's a really cool collection. And then I'm still just obsessed with listening to Sturgill Simpson's new stuff. Like his live band is the greatest band I've ever heard in a live setting. Like, they're so cool. So I got a nugs.net description or subscription still just so that I can listen to all of their like every concert from this tour. I've been listening through them start to finish. This band is incredible. But yeah, that's me. And I've been using Blackwing Volume 4 again. Hold some of those Leaf guys out. Yeah, love that. And then I. When I was doing the. When we did the episode about. We were talking about the digital writing, I had re put some ink in my pilot Metropolitan that I hadn't used in probably a year. I have that color with the italic nib. And that was. I mean, I was reminded of why I used it so much when I was using pop pens a lot. Because it's like such like an idiot for a fountain. And I love the little refill.
And you get an attack nib.
They sell them now with the italic nib for them. I. You used to have to buy like the Plumix or whatever, the pilot Plumix and then like swap the nib over. But now you can buy them at the 1000. It's a great small medium. It's like a more fine italic, like the big Twsbi giant italic immediate.
So the difference between stub and italic is that one of them is sort of squared Off. And one of them has the corners of the point rounded, which is.
Which
italic I thought was the hard one. I thought I could be wrong because, I mean, my stub is definitely like. Like a stub nib tends to be, like, fatter, like, if you look at it from the side. But I could totally be wrong. But this is really fine.
I'm gonna Google it while we're on video.
Just, like, wait, hold the process.
All right, let's do. Let's talk about some new stuff. So.
Yeah, Johnny, why don't you go first?
Sure.
How's your Google?
You can't see that the Made in Baltimore store is in a. It's. So you guys are familiar with Baltimore's famous Inner Harbor. It might get, like, another disappointing news of the election is that it might get redeveloped and be a private thing and, like, disappear. Blah, blah, blah, blah. But now there's the Made in Baltimore store where they have, in addition to my stuff, like, all this awesome stuff from this.
Could you take us there? No, it wasn't there.
Okay.
It's. It. It's usually seasonal. And then lately they're just like. They have a lease at Harbor Place. So it's like a really big space. There's like, jewelry, food. There's some really cool tote bags I
want to pick up.
But, like, if you're anywhere near Baltimore, you should totally check it out because it's also right next to the German Christmas village, so you can get some spiced wine, walk over, get some lindkuchen. I don't know what that is.
Sarah, That's a German spiced cookie for Christmas.
Oh, yum.
It's lunchtime. Yeah. If you're, you know, in Kim City or the. On the east coast, it's definitely worth a trip. They have a lot of cool stuff there besides my notebooks. And a lot of notebooks besides my notebooks, including drama mama who was at the pen show. They do a lot of, like, laser cut wood covers, but, like, some of
them are really interesting.
They looked so awesome. And so I think I'm stealing this from Andy because he sent us a link yesterday for field notes, new dream journals, and I'm a sucker for dream journals. So it's a three pack that come in these three colors that are related to what is this company called?
East Fork, which is Asheville.
Yeah, it's a ceramics place in Asheville. And their three colors are in the pines, some kind of wine, and the big sky. So those are the three colors of notebooks, are the layouts inside.
Different. Like are they doing something like a guided journal like that or is it just still or.
I think they're just lines, but. Yeah, but they did a do like a double hit at the top. The two lines of matching, they match the COVID if that makes sense. And they say it's a blue mug, but they show a picture also of the other two colors. So I don't know what color is coming, but I'm seeing that they're sold out of the packs. So you can buy the notebooks or you can go to East Fork Pottery's website and buy the mugs, but it's not a cheap mug.
How much was. Was $55, I think for the mug and the. The three pack? Yeah.
So I mean, I don't own a lot of. Or any $40 coffee mugs, but I'm glad to get this one because it looks good and it's. It's a good cause. And you can also add $10 onto your purchased for the emergency fund for the employees of the company since, you know, unless you live under rock. You saw what happened in Asheville.
Yeah.
So, yeah. Okay. I'm looking at the website right now.
Field notes.
We'll sell you the notebooks.
Oh, just the notebooks?
Yeah, they're, you know, normal price, 15 bucks.
Yeah. Get a really nice month too.
Yeah.
You're a subscriber. You get 15% off, which I forgot about until I went to check out. Like, oh, this is sweet.
Yeah, yeah.
Good to remember that.
I was like frantically googling because I think this is. So do you remember the story? Yeah, it is. Oh my God, that's crazy. So East Fork. I didn't read the stuff about like East Fork, but do you know who it's owned by? Does it talk about that? So I don't know if you remember this, but last year we were at an apple orchard and I told that story about how there was this guy and we're like, why is it. Why these people are walking up to him like he's a celebrity. Like, like I don't understand. Like this. I don't recommend. He looked like he could be in like the Lumineers or something because of Asheville, but.
But I forget how I figured it.
Oh, I had overheard the conversation. They were talking about pottery and like, oh, we're big fans of yours or whatever. Look, the owner of it is the grandson of Henri Matisse.
Another reason. Yeah, Another reason to come to Baltimore. At the bma, they have their Matisse Center.
Uh huh. Interesting.
Most of his Very good paintings.
So he just went and made a pottery company.
Yeah. North Carolina. He said like he wanted to start somewhere where like his name. I read somewhere like somewhere where his name wouldn't like dictate people's like. Now I'm ruining that because I'm telling everybody who he did still like it. They didn't mention it or in information. But yeah, he said in China, Matisse, who's my wife's favorite painter. I have a painting of his back there. Not an original.
Oh, seriously?
I was gonna say that would be.
Yeah, you guys definitely come to Baltimore and see the cone collection.
Yeah, that'd be awesome.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, and this guy.
You can come too. Yeah, Tim and I are gonna meet up in Baltimore. Well, we'll maybe let you know if we have time. Thank you.
Let's show you. All right.
For a month.
Any other fresh points, Tony? Well, I guess the first thing I should talk about is. It's funny like, as we've been recording, Blackwing has announced. Has sent out the email announcing the Blackwing574 theme. But I actually got mine in the mail on Sunday and I was. Yeah, it doesn't usually happen. Even though I'm like pretty close to Stockton where they ship. I usually don't get my stuff until after it comes out. But we can talk about the 574 now. And I actually, I really like it. It's. So this is the Blackwing. So if you have. If you're a Patreon subscriber, you can see what I'm doing right now. But it is a. It's a pencil, it's a firm lead and it is kind of like a cream colored base and there's like an orange and a dark red like maybe diamond pattern. And it's really hard to see. I don't think that I. It'll show up on camera. But the diamond patterns are lined by like a very thin gold line. So. Looks really nice. It is, it is a wrap. I'm sorry, a roll on. And the seam. They have managed to make the seam though, so it like lines up with the edge. So this is the seam running right through. So it isn't like breaking a pattern or anything. Which is really nice. The theme is. It is the Native American art pencil. So 574 comes from. It's 570. 574 nations that use. Use it to assert agency and identity art. So 574 different like indigenous nations use art to assert agency entity. Not quite sure. Where that number comes from. It's interesting. Blackwing worked with the Caw, the Osage, and Lakota artist Chris Papan to design this pencil, which is really cool. Yeah. So it's really nice.
It is.
And then it has, like, a little red eraser on it. So I wouldn't say that this is, like, groundbreaking or anything, but I like the design. I like the story behind it. I think it's kind of well executed.
Jeff, did you sharpen that with the black wing sharpener?
Oh, I sure did.
I sharpened it with my little guy. I can't remember if I told you. I lost my black one. That was the original. So came out the silver one that. The one stage sharpener.
I bought that.
So that's actually one of my favorite sharpeners. I, you know, I like the masterpiece a lot, but. Oh, I don't think I showed you since we're on video here. When I went to Seattle and I met Alicera and everything, he let me play with his. With his Elcasco. And, man, I keep hitting my microphone. Look at this.
Look at that. Good point.
It's hard to see. It is. It's the El Casco. Long point is very tapered on the end. Gosh, it's so nice.
That's wild.
Yeah. This is a Blackwing 25 that. Oh, God. We have to talk about the Blackwing pencil cup. The 50 pencil cup.
For less money, you can buy a mug that is functional from.
You can drink coffee from it or for Pennsylvania anyhow. Yeah.
So freeze frothia on the ceiling
coffee.
I would never get sick of that. Inside dune.
Drink coffee. You can drink tea. You can drink Arabic milk coffee. You can drink roshto coffee, Kool Aid water. Yeah.
Yeah.
So that's the 574. I like it. It is. I think if I had to choose just based on aesthetics, my favorite volumes edition in the last year or so, I think I would still choose the Golden Gate bridge ones. Like, I think it just is just visually very stunning. It reminds me a lot of the Volume 4 Tim that you're using. But, like. Yeah, this one, I think looks a lot better than the.
Oh, I like that.
Yeah, I like that. This is the Frank Lloyd Wright one. And sorry, I should be talking because this is a pod. This is an audio podcast. Most people can't see this. I do like the stripes that they put on. Yeah. On this one, on the tranquil hydrite one.
But that red gets that, you know, that color I've talked about with fountain pen ink where I was like, always searching for the red M and M color that's like that. I like that red color on the side on that inside of the pencil. Yeah, that is really good.
It is, like, deep and yeah, it's hard to see, but that gold really, like, just kind of makes it look a little extra fun. So that is that I also wanted to mention, so something that has been picking up steam lately. You know, I'm a sucker for a niche social network, and I have actually been on bluesky for quite a while. I actually looked. I was the 475th user of Bluesky, which I think means that I signed up the first day. But since the election and since the owner of X has been so involved in national politics lately, there's been a lot of people leaving Twitter. Twitter X and bluesky has been a really interesting place to see them go to. So one of the things I really like about bluesky is it has these things called starter packs, and you can basically curate a list of people, maybe in a theme or something, and then share them with subscribers or share them with people. And you can sign up using it and basically you can batch follow people. So you can have sort of an instant network. So I made a starter pack for a bunch of, like, content design people out there. Thinking about putting together a starter pack of, like, stationary people, because both Anna and Brad are on there. I'm sure Mike Curley is there too. So if you are on bluesky and you're a listener to the show and somehow involved in stationery, like, let me know. I'd love to add you to a. To an analog stationary starter pack. It has really. It has early Twitter vibes. It has like 2012-2015 Twitter vibes, which is something I really like and I hope they can keep. They're doing a pretty good job of, like, moderation tools. They actually, there's a few really good ones where people will make like. So you can do starter packs, but you can also do these, like, packs of, like, people you can block. So let's say you wanted to block everybody who like, hashtag MAGA in their profile. For example, people put together, like, a list of that, and then you can just like, subscribe to that block list and block or mute everybody you see there. So it's really nice. Come on down to Blue Sky. Don't leave your.
Okay, I literally just made mine. I thought I had one already, but I didn't.
So I'll set up a. I'll set up an erasable podcast presence there. So I Guess we still have an erasable presence on Twitter. I log into it every once in a while just to see if people are talking about the book or whatever. But yeah, so that. That's fun. Come do that. Blue Sky's fun. I think there's. At one point they're gaining a million new subscribers a day. So, like, they're up to like 20, 21, 22 million now. So that's pretty good. Pretty good size.
It's been a while since, like, I mean, gosh, yeah. Remember the last social network that actually took off?
Yeah, yeah.
I.
And I feel like so, so much of it has been just like a secondary economy for when people are leaving Twitter in droves because of one reason or another. Main reason, meeting Elon Musk. But, like, I think Mastodon gained a little bit more steam doing that, but not much.
Right.
Like, Mastodon still kind of a niche
and a little bit hard to get
into, but Blue sky is like a piece of cake, like Twitter.
So
next I want to talk about something quick, I guess. Impulse purchase that I made on ebay, which I don't usually do, is something I've never seen before. I didn't know this exists, and maybe, Johnny, you've seen this, but I bought it's a little rundown. It's an old Eberhard Faber permapoint, and it is a mechanical twist pencil.
Oh, neat.
That has a black wing eraser. So it's. This isn't in great shape. Like, I need to find some way to like, get this, like, this feral. If you can see this feral is like a little bendy. But what you're looking at is probably like, it's that like, old timey plastic that's like, kind of yellowed and clear. I don't know. I can't remember what it's called. Acetate or melamine.
I can't remember.
There is a little, like, point that is twisty and it twists the inside, which, like, you know, you can put a lead core in there and then on the end, there's like the elongated blackwing ferrule with a little like, like a little black stripe. So I found out, interestingly, the Palomino blackwing erasers fit really well into it just perfectly. So, yeah, so this is a permapoint. I've never seen one. It was on ebay for, like, for like $40. And I just made an offer for like, hey, can I buy it from you for $25? They're like, yeah, sure. So they like, instantly accepted it. So I don't Know, I might like try to clean this up and reattach this eraser and find the right lead for that. But yeah, it's really nice. So. Been a minute since I bought an old pencil. Like that last thing I wanted to show. This is not really stationary related, but it's funny and. Hold on. I'm going to put you guys in suspense for just a minute and take off my headphones. Hold on.
Let's talk about him while he's not here. Andy is too tall.
This is. So I got an advent calendar.
Girl, can you hear me?
Okay? Yes, I got this advent calendar and just because I'm a sucker for like alcohol related advent calendars and it is Star Trek wines. And it is. There are 24. I did open one. I'm not going to be around much for like December. So I was, I started a little early. And you have like all of these holes, 24 holes. And in them there is. I'm just going to open a new one. You can open it up. And what I'm doing right now, by the way, I was holding up a huge box and it's really heavy. There are these like little six ounce bottles of wine and they have like this one has cork from Deep Space Nine on it and they're all like broadly themed. Like this is, it's a, it's a Pinot Noir from California and you can read a little bit about the character that you opened. It doesn't seem like there's really like anything to do with the character on the wine. And it's like it's fine wine. It's fine. And not. It's not fine wine, but it's okay wine. But yeah, I'm. I don't know why. I just like, I started getting ads for it on social networks and I was just like, okay, Star Trek, great wine, great Advent calendar, great. What's not to love? So I just bought it.
So.
Can I interrupt speaking of advent calendars?
Oh, you are. That is a blurry. Turn off your background blur and then if you are okay with that, you don't want to do. Is it the ink vent calendar?
Yeah.
Oh, out there.
It is. It's black this year.
Oh no. So keep meaning to do that. But I have not yet.
I think I feel like it went up. It was like 120 this year but you get 25. So on Christmas Day, since Santa doesn't come for grown ups, we get rank. So you get a whole bottle on that day instead of the little sample.
Do you get what like a nib that goes with it to like try it out or do you like. Is it just the ink bottles?
Just ink.
Okay.
But they're cute and they, you know, they all close tightly. They're all new and last year they put a couple scented in like scented ink, like bleeds a lot. But they did something called Chameleon so it was like shimmery and sheeny, but if you moved your head, it's changed colors.
Crazy.
It's new ways to get ink all over your hands. Yeah, but yeah, evidently there are a couple places are selling out already. So I don't know if they only sent, you know, a certain amount to stores or whatever, but get it.
Yeah.
Nice. That is Star Trek wine closed out for me. So what else is there to say?
I don't know if I'd believe you if you hadn't put them up to
look at the weirdest thing. This company, I think that they have like deals with wine companies and I think that they're probably all the same wines but they do several different like wine themed advent calendars and different themes. It reminds me of that playing card company that like has like Star Trek and Star wars and all the franchises that wine. So Tim, how about you?
Yeah, so the first thing I'm going to do. Yeah, so the first one is just like an idea I had and it was something that I like. You know, we always, we talked over the years about various like
and we
talked about a lot with brawling about the or with Roland about the handwritten manuscripts, you know, like handwriting and notebooks forever and like archives where you can look through handwritten things. And I was like looking through that stuff again recently and I think I actually it started because I went and I was trying to find those Hank Williams notebooks because the University of Alabama has these archives. I was like, oh, that'd be cool to like, I like go back and look at those. And I was looking at some other things and I think there was some Hemingway things that I stumbled across somewhere. I just realized this feel thing I have when I'm reading handwriting as opposed to when I'm reading words on a screen. Words and whatever. It was like it became this awesome mindfulness practice. I swear it makes me feel better to read other people's handwriting. I feel like this is one of those things that's like so obvious that it's a really stupid thing to say, but it's like, it's like one of those like super grounding things that makes you feel like more human. If I may like where you're like. Like, you're navigating people's handwriting and you're reading it, you're seeing something that people have touched.
You have to kind of get in their head sometimes because, like, if you are, you have to interpret their context. Like, if you're not sure if that's a G or a J or something. And maybe you have to, like, think a little bit about, like, what they were intending when they did that. So I can see it. You get in somebody's head a little bit.
Yeah.
And also, like, what they. I mean, it's different when you're, you know, you're reading a letter, somebody. Right. That's like, was for one person. And so, like, that's also just kind of fascinating. You're, like, reading it from a perspective of. Not, like, I'm going to publish a book, but you're reading it for a perspective of, like, we're talking to a close friend of mine, or I'm writing in my journal and I'm trying to figure something out. Like, that's. And there's something about, like, the headspace you get into. You're reading manuscripts that I just find, like, super, like, relaxing and, like, encouraging sometimes. You know, then you see some of the, like, you know, I. With song lyrics, all the stuff they cross out. You're like. You see somebody, like. I don't know. It's just like, it's turned into, like, a yet another sort of, like, digital world antidote for me, where it makes me feel just like. So I recommend it. There's any. Right. And there's so much out there now where it's, like, writers that you enjoy or you're really into Tolkien, or you're really into any other sort of, like, writer, especially older writers. Like, you're going to be able to find stuff, like, online, like, a good bit. Archives are getting digitized like crazy now.
It's an interesting kind of, like, paradox there, right? Like, you. The Internet has made it easier to, like, access that stuff, which you can use as an introduction, like an antidote to the Internet.
Things that I would literally never see. Yeah. Would never. I mean, I would. It would be like, a $2,000 plane flight and, you know, hotel room to see kind of stuff. Like. Yeah, that's good. That was one. It was just amusing. I wanted to share. An amusing musing that I wanted to share. And the other thing, which is kind of related, and I stumbled across it after our conversation last week or last time we recorded. We were talking about the scribe and talking about, like, handwriting recognition software and how, like, I, like, I can't use it because I write cursive and it's weird and it doesn't pick up anything. Well, I found this thing. Have you guys ever seen this Google Inc. Site?
Not until you posted the link.
I've never heard of this.
This was cool.
Yeah. So this is like, from the Google, like, development team.
Hmm.
And so there's this article that I ended up finding on the Silicon Review, which. Who knows what this is, but I.
Looks like a vape. It looks like a Google vape pen.
Yeah, it does. Yeah. So it says it's going to alter how we handle handwritten notes by seamlessly translating them to digital text. And you can find. I think it was on a different link I was on, but they can actually show. They actually show it working in, like, a video and it's actually like, shows it, like, analyzing, like, cursive handwriting and like, recreating it, which, like, was really mind blowing for being able to digitize stuff, but also I connect the dots, like, thinking about reading people's handwriting to, like, imagine how easy a technology like that could turn into, like, having your own thought, you know, like your own handwritten thought where you can, like, even if you're. Even if you have to email somebody, you could email them in your own handwritten prompt. Like, would be pretty amazing.
Yeah.
Like, and it just made me like, it is like, connect another dot. It like, takes you back to like the song for the Wild Built stuff where it's like, that seems like something you totally would do in that book. Like, the kind of thing they would have settled on. Like, oh, we figured out it better for us.
I love their little pieces of, like, editorial. And they're like. They talk about their hand computers and they're like, yeah. And, you know, he's only had to repair his hand computer five times because they're well made and they are made to last a lifetime, as it should be, which is like, you know, I think about how I buy a new iPhone every year. Like, it's like, oh, yeah.
Less life.
That's.
Yeah, that's my. My dreams of my E Ink phone that can do everything. That's good. I. But yeah, so, like, it's super interesting. I want to learn some more about it because, like, there's not a whole lot, but it's just started to leak it. Okay.
They're not producing this yet, right?
They're no development system development. Yeah. Because I couldn't. I was kind of surprised, like, that I couldn't find stuff on larger sort of tech websites. It was more like, I don't know, it's almost like they're trying to leak it out, like, here and there to just try to, like, get some exposure. But it's super interesting and, like, I want to know more about the actual, like, process of doing it. If it's just scan it and put it in, or do you have to use the little vape? If anybody here.
If anybody here works at Google and you want to connect us with the product manager for that and so we can interview them on our show, like, please help us make that connection.
Yeah, so that would be awesome. I'd love to see that. Because this. I mean, I could get behind something like this, especially if it's more so. If it was a technology that could be like, integrated boat things, like, to a scan. If it was some little, like. Yeah, little doohickey, this little gadget and this guy's holding in the picture and I have to, like, scan every line. That's a huge fan of the ass. I'm not gonna do it. Yeah, there's no way. I don't see myself having the patience to do that. But, like, just. Yeah, you got me thinking about AI using AI like, powered technology to recreate handwriting and also interpret handwriting. Super, super interesting.
That's interesting. Like, one. I feel like your freshpoints were just, like, totally opposite directions. You're like, there's something really slow and mindful and relaxing about, like, reading handwriting. And then you're like, let's use AI
to interpret and greet handwriting.
I closed the loop, though.
I was like, Tim is a man of many thoughts.
It was like, I like reading these handwritten. Handwritten things. But I also, like, what if I could email a guy in the. That would be awesome. Yeah, People can actually search it, you know? Oh, yeah, yeah, like, that would be awesome.
Nice.
But that's all I got. Cool. Those are my. Maybe my weirdest brush point. I was very excited. I was very excited about. All right. Anything else, you guys?
Yeah, it's nice. Nice to see you guys faces.
Yeah. For real.
Likewise.
Yeah. All right. Yeah, yeah. Just a reminder. This. We did do this on video and we've had some visuals we've been showing during this. So if you want to be able to watch and support us on Patreon for as little as. Yeah. A buck a month to have access to Patreon bonus features. Johnny's up in the game here on the visual department. Oh, I'll show you this. This is. I'm not going to tell them what it is. They'll have to see. There was an auction at my kids school and this is a. I got an autograph something but I'm not going to say from a very famous sports ball player from Baltimore that I'll have to. I'll tell you guys about it after we finish up recordings. But yeah, Johnny, this is some Baltimore royalty right here on this bay. On this baseball.
Johnny has disappeared off screen Typewriter Bill that word.
I gave it away
so.
But we do want to thank our Patreon producer level supporters especially thank you to everybody who supports our Patreon. These are our producer level patrons. We have John Schroeder, Ellen Max Tucker, Valerie Drew, Tom Keakley, Andre Torres, Paul Moorhead, William Modlin, John Cappellouti, Steven Franciscala, Frank Solley, Aaron Willard, Dana Morris, Liz Rotundo, Melissa Miller, Angie Millie Blackwell, Michael Guillosa, Hannah Paliz, Anne Michael Hagan, Chris Metzkus, Mary Collis, Kathleen Rogers, Aaron Bollinger, Ida Umpers, David Johnson, Bill Munson, Hans Noodleman and John Wood. Thank you.
Thank you.
Johnny.
Hold perfectly still. I'm capturing here. Do that again. I'm capturing our our album art the episode.
I don't have as much as he does but I smell shampoo.
This is. This is very.
Look, next time we'll have smells.
Man. My hair is also short and I can't do anything with it.
Smell O vision. Yeah. So thank you so much.
Yeah.
For listening to the The Northwest Indiana 219 edition of the Erasable podcast. You can follow us on Facebook and find us on Patreon. Go to Raceful Us Patreon to support us. So thanks for listening and we'll talk to you soon.
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