This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
I was surprised they had so many pencils. I'm like, you're in prison. You have like long, sharp pencil.
Yeah. You just. John Wick somebody with that.
It was before John Wick came out. That's their excuse.
True. Not with that attitude.
Hello, and welcome to episode 231 of the erasable Podcast. I. I am Tim and I am joined by my co host, Andy and Johnny, and we are here today. Hey, Johnny. Hey, Andy. How's it going?
Good. I like that. I feel like you were like. We are gathered here today.
We are gathered here to celebrate, discuss the fall releases and temperatures dropping below 85 degrees. Finally.
Finally.
Yeah, finally. Yes. We're going to be talking about some fresh points, talking about some new fall releases and. And some on video. Quote, quote, new.
New releases.
But, yeah. So it's good to see you guys. Good to not be sweating all day.
Yeah.
It's been a minute. What have you guys been up to? You guys are chatting about Nintendo Switch, you know.
Oh, yeah, yeah. That's dangerous. Have you. Johnny, you have the Mario Kart game. Have you played the new Donkey Kong game? Game?
No. One of the kids wants it.
It's. It's so fun. You can just smash anything, just everything in your path.
It's like Grand Theft Auto, but donkey.
Yeah, just donkey. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. Just everything is smashed through rocks and you collect these, like those gemstone bananas and. Yeah, it's fun.
I can't remember what to manage. Like four of them.
Let's. Let's do tools of the trade because, Johnny, I know you're gonna talk about.
Yeah.
Some of this kind of stuff. So. Yeah. Johnny, why don't you start us out? Jump in.
Sure.
I've been like, on too many screens lately because. No good reason, because Street.
Yeah.
We got the Switch too, finally. Because I couldn't find anyone to sell me four of them because I guess that's sketchy. So eventually Best Buy would sell me three. So I was. I bought three from Best Buy and one from, I don't know, Target or something. So, like, I could manage four shipments. So we. We've been playing a lot of Super Mario Kart World.
A lot. Do you have the little cameras? I guess you're all playing in the same room, but do you have a camera to play remote?
No, no, not yet. We have Super Mario Kart World Kills your battery so much. So we have like a charging hub at the dining room table. We can all sit there together and play in the dark at night. It's like really fun. But, you know, one. One more race. One more race. Suddenly the kids are going to bed at 10 or 11 on a weeknight. Yeah, I'm going to bed at like, three. That's not good. We just start, like, daytime playing.
There's a. There's a YouTube video I saw not that long ago where somebody just decided. So, Tim, in the new Super Mario Kart game, it's kind of an open world thing. You can just kind of drive wherever and there's like, traffic. There's like.
So you're saying it's like Grand Theft Auto, but it's Mario.
Yes.
See how many times I can make that reference to a game I haven'. Played since I was like, yeah, 16 years old, but. Sorry.
Yeah, yeah. No, and. And there's NPC traffic. And so somebody. Somebody followed one of the, like, the mushroom guy cars and, like, on a. In a YouTube video and basically just like, just watched them drive around the world and tried to, like, figure out the story behind it, like, where he was going. And eventually he just ended up in a parking lot and got out of the car and walked in somewhere and that was it. Yeah.
So he was getting creeped out.
Yeah, he's like, whoa, man.
Peeking through a window. Like, what are you. What's he doing? Is he still out there?
Yeah.
Yeah. So that's. That's a thing. There's a lot of, like, there are more chargers than usual floating around here. And my oldest and I started watching Orange's New Black because I don't know why he wanted to watch it. I'm like, well, you're 15 and a half. You can handle it. 15 and a half today, actually.
Yeah.
So far, like, he likes it. He's not, like, freaked out by nudity and bad words.
What's.
What's the whole thing?
Sorry, what season are you on?
Oh, we just started it. Since he's one, he's. He's a little weirded out by the, like, tribalism. Like, wait, go sit with that nice white lady.
What?
Yeah, that's problematic. But, yeah, that. That's cool. And I finally started listening to Grim and Mild's other podcast. Grim and Mild is the company founded by Aaron Menke, the guy who did
lure that so that our friend Harry Marks used to work on.
Yeah, I love hearing his name in the titles every time I do him.
Like, squee.
But they did. I remember how many seasons of a show that was, like, called Grim and Mild Presents, I think. So each season they did a different topic. And the one about History of Medicine was really cool. I think it was called Bedside Manor. They did an episode about bleeding, like intentionally bleeding somebody, and an episode about embalming, like, really, really interesting stuff. The only complaint is they were short, like, 20 minutes. But I think that show was no longer being made after the last season about the west, which was also really good.
Yeah, yeah, there's. I know that like. Like, Harry got laid off, I think. Oh.
Or no.
I can't remember what else happened, but he was working on the Cabinet of Curiosities, which I think was discontinued.
Maybe they did too many things, like, oh, the grim and mild universe. Jesus, how do you sleep? Because Aaron Minky's at least involved in everything, even if he doesn't do all the writing.
Yeah, that's.
That's a lot.
Yeah.
But, yeah, they're, you know, they're still out if you want to check them out. They have these really irritating ads that involve something. Grimm and Mild did that. They're just like, oh, my God. Usually I just sit there and not get up to skip ads, but that one, I have to.
Can we rewind Orange, the New Black, real quick? Sorry. Can we rewind to Orange is the New Black?
Yeah, yeah, of course.
So the last season, there's a. There's a Blackwing reference in there. Like one of the. The guards. I think it's the guy who has the, like, artificial leg. Like, he brings in, like, some pencils or something. And like the other guards are commenting, like, there are those. Those, like those $30 dozen pencils or whatever. He talks about it. And I. I found out about this well before the final season I was doing at the San Francisco pen show several years ago. I was like. Had a table that just had a bunch of pencils on it that people could go and try. Like, we did that for a couple years and somebody was sitting at the table playing with them. And she introduced herself to me and she's. She was a writer on Orange of the New Black. Like, she lives in la. She came up for the pen show and she was talking about how she put a. She put a Blackwing reference into the show. So that was. That was fun to see. Yeah. So when you get to the last season, don't tell Owen and just be like, just wait.
Yeah, yeah. He's not into black wings anymore. No.
Good reasons are so, so old school. They're so done.
And he's reached a stage as an artist where, like, the closest pencil is the right one. Yeah, that's cool. The only other thing is the writing with stuff.
Sorry.
I've worked my way through a CWPE natural baseball pencil. That's like hitting the Steinbeck stage. I forgot how like ridiculously nice those pencils are. Have we ever confirmed what the core is? It feels a lot like test scoring. 580 from Generals. I know generals make some confirmed it,
but we had our guesses.
Yeah, yeah, they're, you know, they're dark and it eats the point, but they're not smeary. So it's like, it's really satisfying to use them for crosswords because you're like, wow, this thing's getting really small. And I, I got a novel or, sorry, Narwhal Voyager in Cookies and Cream that came out last fall. I got it for my birthday in August and I spent a week trying to find the right dark brown ink for it until I remembered that it's black, not brown. So that was easy. I just put diamine onyx black in it, which is like the black hole of inks makes the whole room darker whenever you use it. But yeah, I think nobody bought it. So it's on like super sale. If you're interested in a cool like big resin fountain pen with black hardware. That's a piston filler.
Yep.
So those are all I got. How about you, Andy?
Nice. It's pretty light. I. I feel like my, my summer, my spring and summer has mostly been in like a string of like doing some conference talks and so I feel like most of my like non work and veg out time is like spent like working on that. So I'm excited to like have the rest of the year where I'm not doing that. I'm gonna try to like actually read something for fun.
I.
Let's see. I finished Star Trek Strange New World season three on the plane. I'm going to talk about my trip to New York and back here in a little bit, but that was pretty good. The writing this season is pretty bad. Still really good characters. The set design is amazing. They're slowly starting to add in characters that were in the original series. So like Scotty last season joined. Joined the crew and so they, they got.
Michael Chabon's not involved, is he?
I don't think so. I think he was just starting.
The writing's bad.
No, it's. This is just. They're trying to like. Yeah, they're trying to be very campy like the original series. And so it's definitely not as like serious as, as that Star Trek, but like this is. Yeah, so. So there's a Scotty now. And he's like an actual Scottish person instead of James Doohan, who is just like, had a terrible Scottish accent. So it's interesting to hear. Just like, you cannot take much more Captain, but it's like an actual Scottish person speaking. There's also, you know, the actor. What is her name? Carol Kane. She was in, like, Jimmy, Like Kimmy Schmidt. She was in lots of other stuff. She is in this. She plays this sort of like, mysterious person who's the chief engineer of the Enterprise. And speaking of accents, hers is weird and terrible. Like, we're gonna have to look up a video. I just don't know. I feel like somebody was like, Carol Kane, I need you to, like, pronounce this as weird and alien as you can. And it's. She's. I can't even. I can't even replicate it. It's like the best I can emulate is like a, like a Scottish Jamaican accent.
Is she an alien?
Yes, but she doesn't have any sort of alien. She. She's. She's supposed to be just the alien who's like thousands of years old and like, lived kind of on Earth and like for. For centuries. So. Sure, sure, it's. It's a little. It's a little rough, but it's still really fun and good. So. Yeah, I wish Michael Chabon would come work on this. Somebody called him and be like, hey, yeah, yeah.
I think he was petitioned together.
Yeah. And what else? I think most of the other stuff I'm talking about in freshpoints, but I am writing. I have my little Golden Gate bridge pencil blackwing, and I'm writing in a kind of old beat up. This is the latest of the dead prints. Oh, nice. Nice one. It's got so beat up and just like the spine is really weak that I put some like, like gaffer tape, like down, down the spine to reinforce a little bit. I was like, it looks really good like that. So. Yeah, kind of looks a little.
It came like that.
Yeah. So came out pretty well with a little. I got a cute little pigeon sticker that I got from the conference I was at. Very cute. So that is. That's me. How about you, Tim?
Yeah. So I finally got around to watching or starting. I didn't finish it yet. Season three of the Bear or season four, whatever. The newest season.
Yeah.
Is it four?
I haven't seen it.
I can't remember. But whatever the news, the. The latest season of the Bear, and I've been kind of putting it off because I love, love the Bear. I mean, I love the Chicago stuff, but it's just such a good but. And every season has been so different. You know, the first season was just like, people screaming dirty kitchen chaos. And then it's sort of like the next season has, like, a different vibe. The next one has a different vibe. And so I had gotten. Someone had, like, said one sentence just, like, innocently to me about the new season. A friend who we want. We both watch it, and he's like, this one's, like, more artsy or something. Something along those lines. And for whatever reason, in the back of my head, I was just like,
ah, I don't know.
Like, I don't want.
I want.
I don't want it to be that different, you know, or whatever. Like, I. And I think I just was, like, stalling. It's so damn good. It is so good. The new season, I love. There's an episode that just, like, straight up made me cry. Like, I don't remember last time I was watching a TV show and, like, actually had tears. Like, I was just like. That was so good. You know, it's this. It's in the new restaurant now, and. And also it's going out of the restaurant more, which has been fun. So, like, you're seeing Bear, like, Jeremy Allen White's character, like, actually go out and you, like, have a social life for, like, bits of time.
Yeah.
More than usual. So I don't know. It's really. It's really good. So I'm enjoying that.
I need to watch that. I've never seen it. I love Matty Matheson. Yeah. Yeah.
He's so good in that show.
He's an actor. That's. Yeah. Because he's not an actor, is he?
I mean, like. I mean, he is now the fine actor. Yeah. I mean, he's. Yeah. Because he's so good in that show from the start, he's just like, the guy who's, like, honorary member of the family, and they give him odd jobs around the restaurant to, like, pull down drywall and do, like, random stuff. And then he. He's so good. He makes me laugh every time he's on screen in the new season, he's, like, dressed in a suit and has his hair slicked back, but he still has, like, tattoos coming up out of his. His suit.
Do you ever watch any of his cooking shows on YouTube?
No, I haven't.
So I'm sure, you know, he's like, a professional chef. Right. Like, and he. Yeah. And so he is.
Which is amazing because he doesn't cook ever on the show.
Which is, I think, the joke, right? Yeah, yeah. He just makes like amazing. Just like horrible for you things, but delicious looking things.
My first encounter with him before the bear, like the first encounter I had with him and then the last encounter until the bear was him being on Hot Ones. And I was like, this guy's hilarious. Who is this guy? And so I looked into him a little bit, but didn't really, like, go too far. So, yeah, I was like, hey, it's the guy from Hot Ones. Which actually Jeremy Allen White was on Hot Ones recently. Yeah. Because he's got that Springsteen movie coming out, which.
That's right.
I am super excited about. I read that book that it's based
on between like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. I feel like they're making all the movies for you, Tim.
They are.
We need like they're doing. Yeah. Like a Jeff Tweety movie or something.
Yeah. John Prine movie.
Yeah, yeah.
That would be a funny one. But yeah, but yeah, that's. So I'm excited to see that. That comes out next Friday. I think I have been reading poetry. I had this thing happen where I like stumbled onto a poem and I don't. I stumbled onto a poem. Cheers. And I don't have the name in front of me. It's like a ritual to read something like that by William Stafford. And it came up somewhere. And then I was doing this thing for work, this really unfortunate kind of like meeting. We had to have to talk about some negative stuff. And they asked me to do like a reflection at the beginning, like to share a poem or something. And I was like, I found that poem. I was like, oh, this would be perfect. I was like, wait, that's the poem from before. So I ended up looking at the author, William Stafford. And I fallen in love with his poetry. And I bought. He has a collection. He has a ton of poetry out there. He has a new collection, his newest collection, he's dead. It's called Ask Me 100. It's like an essential poems. 100 essential poems by William Stafford. So I've been reading that and really loving it. And I highly recommend him. And then listening to who I've talked about before. The Tedeschi Trucks Band. Derek Trucks. Guitar player Susan Tedeschi is his wife and she's in the band as well.
And they're like names.
Yeah.
If your last name is Trucks, like, you don't have any other choice but to be like a country musician.
And when your uncle is named Butch Trucks and was in the Allman Brothers Band.
Okay.
Yeah. So that's. They kind of do this, like, blend of, like, blues, world music, jazz kind of thing. They're. They've been like my top five people I need to see live list for a long time. And I'm going tomorrow, so. Going to Charlotte tomorrow with my brother, and we're gonna see him. So. I've been listening to them a lot, so I can't recommend them enough. They're so good. One of the best bands in the world. And I am writing with this guy who I've talked about before my Lamy Ballpoint, which I put the Jet Stream refill in that we got a message about from a, From a listener. And it's fantastic. So I can't put. I can't stop using this pen. So that's the pen I've been using. And I've been using my. Yay Black Wing 746, which is. I got. Actually, I got it in New York City. It was like a. We went through. I think it was Strand. We were at Strand, and they had, like, a cup of singles. I mean, it wasn't Strand. It was somewhere else. They weren't breaking the rules. Um, but so I got. Got one of those. Cause I had not had that one yet, so.
And I love it.
It's my color, you know, it's that color I love. I should have. Should have got more.
It's a fun theme. Yeah.
So is love.
It is the measurement from the water to the top.
It's. It's that. Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know if it's from, like, the base of it in the ocean, like, under, underwater to the top, or if it's like, water to the top.
Because if it's the water, the water level's going up.
Yeah, I think it must. I think it must be from the water up because it's like. Like, that's a really, really deep part of the ocean. Like, that, like, kind of bridge. Like whales will come in under the Golden Gate to, like, roost. So it's very deep. So I, I, I, I, I don't know.
Maybe it's from, like, whatever the neutral point is of, like, like, where they set that at. I don't know.
Yeah, you're right. Like, in 10 years, we're gonna have to call it, like, the 735 or something.
Just keep scratching it out. Like, get a label maker. And there's just, like, a stack of labels on the side of the pencil. Like, just keeps piling them up on top.
That'll be a Black Wings era. They'll do like, this is back when it was this. This where the sea level was.
Revision. Yeah.
Yeah. All right.
Yeah. So that's. That's what I'm using. And I. I did pick up a. A pack of field notes, vintage, when I was in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, this past week. So enjoying those. I didn't. I forgot that they were perforated pages.
All of them. Oh, yeah.
So that was like. Which is cool, but, like, not usually my thing. I just get paranoid that they're gonna start falling out. But it's. It served its own purpose, you know, it's like. Yeah, now it's turned into, like. Right. Instead of, like, I have a little case of note cards on my desk, and so it kind of is filling that same need where I can just tear one of those out and write on it. Paper's really good, so I like it.
Yeah.
All right. You guys want to get into fresh points?
Sure.
Yeah. Johnny, why don't you go for it?
Sure. Well, speaking of field notes, they're. They're first was the first, like, crossover or sort of like intra company product was the 1 inch button done by a Busy Beaver button company in Chicago. And Busy beaver just turned 30. So field notes made a really cool addition, just featuring, like, three different books with different buttons all over it for their anniversary.
I love that holographic stamp. That, like. Yeah, field notes stamp. That looks really cool.
Yeah, I thought, like, I thought that looked pretty cool. And then I opened them, and that caught the light. I'm like, damn, that's really awesome and unnecessary, but super cool.
Unnecessary. Yeah.
And I mean, they could have made a stupid pin to go with it, but they gave you the original pin that. Where they were sort of celebrating, which I thought was awesome. But other than that, they're just regular field notes.
Just.
The covers are pretty thick.
Yeah.
And of course, they had the fall flowers edition, which is not showing up on the screen. These feature this new paper from Mohawk that I kind of want to get my hands on. That's this, like, gorgeous blue. And they used. What do they call it, a burlap finish on it. So it's sort of like linen. Like a linen finished paper, but it's a little less geometrically perfect. Some of the lines are a little wavy. They're, like, so freaking pretty. And I forgot what colors or which flowers they represent, but each one sort of like art decoy. Yeah, they're. I mean, these are the coolest fall edition they put out in a long time and I didn't think of until now. And if you're not on Patreon, you can't see this is that these are the regular field notes format. And on this one they put the label, the brand in the middle.
Yeah, it seems like they adjusted a little bit for each one, which is cool.
Yeah, it's just these were really thoughtfully done. Did you guys get your hands on some?
I have a. I have a pack that came with my subscription and I. I think I opened it and I was using it for some, just like travel journaling, but barely. I think I just have a couple pages in.
Did you get something?
No, I haven't. This vintage was the first pack of field notes I bought in a while. Maybe since the Jason Isbull ones, maybe I just haven't bought any in a while.
But yeah,
they're everywhere.
They have a nice smell. And the subscriber extra was a set of letterpress bookmarks that match each book in a little glassing envelope, which I thought was like, oh, why? Until I got them and I realized how much went into designing and cutting these, like, that was like really cool.
But they're also not very hearty. Like, I've already sort of like creased mine in a way so they don't sit in the. As a bookmark anymore.
Oh, you know what? I could laminate these to something thicker and then cut them out for you. I. I have stocked up on scalpels because of tariffs,
but yeah, talking about scalpels sounds terrifying.
No, wait, what was that?
Johnny has stocked up on scalpels because
it's stocking up on scalpels. I was just. I just wanted to double check before I put it down for the suggested show titles.
I'm very partial to Swan Morton, like the, the big British brand. And like, man, they're getting expensive and they're already pretty expensive. Yeah, but so satisfying. Yeah. And continuing the autumn thing, like, if I can do one second of self promotion in the summer, I made it a library edition of Thoreau's essay Resistance to Civil Government. That, like, went really fast. I don't have one and I just did one for autumnal tents, which was a lot harder because it's a couple times longer. But I still had to do it as a signal signature. So I messed up a lot of them, but now it's. They're good. So if you like autumn, check out the socials. They'll be out a couple of them.
Where can people. Where can people go to find your stuff, Johnny?
Oh, Pencil revolution dot com.
Figured if you're listening to this, you probably know that, but you never know.
I hope so. Yay. Big sale coming. And those are all my fresh points. Okay, I want to hear about your trip.
Yeah, yeah, mostly I was just going to talk about some stuff from my trip last week to New York City, which was really fun. It's funny, I stayed just around the block from Tim, where you saw Hadestown, so that is a lively part of town.
Yeah, it was fun. Yeah.
Yeah. I definitely like walking out of my hotel to get to the conference venue every day. I was just like, oh, God, there's so many people.
But I.
Conference conferences are great. Not really here to talk about that, but it was fun and interesting and I feel like the thing I did was fairly well received. But the fun thing was, is one of the days I was in the afternoon, I was like, I'm going to blow up the conference. I'm going to go to Brooklyn. So I got on the subway, went to Greenpoint, and went to Yoseka Stationary, which is so cool.
It.
It's a little. Little out there to get to. But yeah, it's a jet. Like kind of a Japanese American stationery store. It's. I'm trying to think of what I would compare them to maybe kind of like a Mido, like a less kind of crowded Mido or a Kinokuniya. But they. They have. They're really into planners. Like, all of the Hobonichi stuff they have. I bought Hobonichi weeks. I've never done a Hobonichi thing before.
Ah,
my list for this year.
Yeah, we'll see. We'll see what happens. But I, like, it starts in December and I'm. I don't know, I was not on board, and then I realized that not everybody uses it as like a planner. They use it as maybe like a little diary or just kind of a snapshot of what they're working on. Because each week has like a blank page on one side and like, kind of like the week. The week on the other side. And then there's like several pages in the back for writing or scrapbooking or something. And I'm just thinking, like, I think, like, I know enough people who just like, make these really beautiful, like, planner spreads. And just like, I don't know if I'm going to like, get super, super into that. But it's also really pretty, so I'm going to try it out. Um, it's been. Yeah, I hit the tail end of like, the old stock before they restock later this month. And so I just got like a plain. Plain black one. But if I'm really into it, maybe I'll buy a Tamagotchi one or something like in the. You know, in a couple months from there.
Oh, wait, so did you get a.
This.
They do like an academic year one sort of.
They. I've. I think they do an academic year one. I got the. The one that it's got. It's the January start one, except it actually starts in December.
So this coming December?
Yeah, yeah. So in a couple months. So I think JetPens has a pretty good stock of. Of most of them if, you know, if you can't go to a place like that. So while I was in Greenpoint, I was just kind of walking around. I was like, I need to get some coffee. And I was like, I'm in Brooklyn. I bet I can find a good coffee shop. So I did, but not until I just completely stumbled upon the old Aberhart Faber pencil factory. And I knew it was in Greenpoint. I didn't know where. It's not that big of a place. But I was walking by and I was like, that looks familiar. And I look up and there was those giant terracotta pencils and the sort of diamond with the star in the middle that was the Abrahd Faber logo. And I was just like, oh. So I immediately sent the two of you a picture of me at the building, but I'll put it in the show notes. It's. I can't remember if we've talked about that building before here. I definitely, back in the day wrote a wood clinched thing about it, and it had some interesting things that housed the first ever. Like, it housed the Kickstarter office when they first started. Mostly like artist loft now. But I was, like, trying to figure out how I can, like, get in and go, like, search around the basement and see if there's any old boxes full of black wings in there or something. Did not. Did not do that. Yeah, that was really fun. I went to the locavore. I went to Caroline's new shop. She was not there, but it was. It was cool. It was very cute. It was a much different vibe than CW pencils, which, you know, good GSM range. But I bought. I bought a little, like, pencil bag that said New York on it. And I also bought. It's her. Caroline's favorite brand of seltzer water. It's called Hal's. It's a New York brand. It is very good. Yeah, yeah.
I had some when I was in there. Like, I didn't know that was a thing. Like, I just like went down to get a seltzer water from our hotel and it was like the only option. I was like, oh, sure, it was great.
Yeah. And it's cheap. It's like a $40 for like a fairly big, like 16 ounce bottle. But that was good. And I also bought she because her shop sells things only made within a certain radius of like, New York. Right. And the other thing that I got that was really good, they were basically homemade fruit roll ups. Like, not homemade, but like they're packaged professionally, but essentially they're fruit roll ups, like fruit leather in different flavors. And I bought an eight pack that had one of each kind of flavor. So. So good. I. I was always a big fruit roll up fan as a kid. So like this adult, I think. I assume so.
Yeah. Probably the ones. Remember the ones where you like put them on your, like, hand and they would put like a tattoo when you think about it. Yeah. Or on your tongue. Like, you could like press it against something and it would.
Yeah.
I remember like friends at, like at lunch, like pushing it on their arm and then like eating it. Yeah.
So this one didn't come with any tattoos, but it was very good.
All right. Whatever.
I was. I was very, very excited. Caroline was not there, but I just chatting with the, like the woman behind the desk. And I gave her. I gave her a couple. I had a bunch of writing as designing pencils because I was at this conference and so I hear some pencils and she's like, oh, thank you. And just like, oh, this. Get this weirdo out of here. The only other thing I wanted to mention is. So I was. One of the things I wanted to do is I wanted to go do a. Just like a camera shop. I wanted to buy a film camera. And there's this shop called B and H Photo, which is kind of like this. I mean, they ship worldwide. Like, it's a big thing. They are run by Hasidic Jews. And last week was kind of the high holidays, like Yom Kippur and like the following holidays. So they were. They. And like two of the other big pencil shops, which are also run by like Hasidic Jews, were closed for the week. And I was like, what the heck? So did not go to the ones that I was looking for, but I did find this place on the Lower east side on Orchard street, actually. Really not far from where Cop Pencil used to be. But I bought a wish I had it with me, an old Nikon film camera, and it's about. About as old as I am. It's, like, from the early to mid-80s. And it is. Yeah, it's very nice. And it wasn't super expensive. It's like $250 with that for that in the lens, which I guess it's not a digital camera, so, like, who's buying film cameras anymore? The. It was. It was really fun. I had a really. Yeah, I've been playing with that here. I decided not to take any pictures in New York just because it was, like, trying to get film through tsa because you can't put it through the. Through the X ray. It's just a big pain in the butt, so. Oh. So you can get, like, these lead line bags for it, but then you have to, like, open it. And some TSA agents don't know, like, what to do about it, and. Yeah, it's kind of a big pain in the butt, so. Yep. Had a really good time in New York. Ready to go back. It was, like, still pretty hot there, but then it kind of rained. Tim's digging into something. Ooh, I see a. I haven't thought
about this in, like, a couple years. They have. This is my grand grandpa's camera. I don't even remember what it is, but I've got my grandpa's camera here. It's a Minolta.
Oh. Oh, that is handsome.
I've never tried to use it, but I remember him using it, and I remember playing with it when I was a kid.
Give that little thing on the right, like a little.
This thing?
Yeah. Push that back to wind it and then just, like, hit the shutter button. Just listen to what a satisfying clunk it makes.
Did you hear it?
I couldn't. It might have filtered that out.
Oh, now it's jammed. Using forever.
Yeah.
Or maybe I just don't know what the hell I'm doing. But anyways, anything that makes me want to dig in. And there's also. I also want. I've always wanted to dig into. There's a roll of film in here.
Oh, shoot. Yeah.
I don't know if it's, like, been used or not. Yeah.
Get that developed and see if there. If there's not a little bit of film that's poking out of the edge, the side of the canister, then it has not been used. Or has been used. Sorry. So the film's all wound up on the inside of it. It's.
Yeah. There's nothing sticking out.
Yep. That has some pictures on it, probably.
That's cool.
Yeah. Developing film is expensive. There's a website called thedarkroom.com where you can do it. And yeah, it was. I shot a roll of film, I sent it in. They processed the negatives, so scanned it, sent me scans. Oh, that's a nice lens. Sent me scans and then sent me the, like, prints and then the negatives back. It was $50. It's like. I think my mother used to go to Walgreens and get it developed for like. Like $6.
Yeah.
Yeah. Cool. So that was my trip to New York.
It's really fun.
Yeah, just. We'll see. I think we should do a future maybe. Maybe around December when the Hobonichi stuff starts. We can do like a planner episode or something and find somebody to come on and talk about that.
Yeah. Last time I ordered something from Pen Boutique, they sent me like, basically a mini catalog of like Hobonichi stuff. It's like.
Oh, yeah, yeah. I think it was. Honestly, I think it was Tyler in the pencil and paper store where I just started following them. Instagram. And they had like a big thing around Hobonichi and I know Yoseka had a big thing too, but they just. Because of imports and tariffs and stuff, they're shipment was delayed. And so they had this event with hundreds of people coming, but they had no planners. So they made it. They made it like a preview event so you could go and like look at everything and try it out. And it's very resourceful of them. But yeah, that was. That's it for me. How about you, Tim?
So first thing I wanted to bring up was that I've been. I was texting with Johnny and it's been a couple weeks and I need to get back to this. But I'm working with Johnny to make me a notebook. I am always like. I talk about guitar all the time, but it's always like, music is something I'm always like going to be working on, like for the rest of my life. And I came with an idea for a notebook to just continually be able to work on fretboard knowledge and like music theory stuff related to guitar, even if I don't have a guitar around. And so, yeah, so I'm really excited. Trying to, like, give Johnny some ideas. I need to, like, make the mock up, but to have a notebook with like blank on the left side and then the right side is going to have like two or three recreations of a fretboard so you can draw on it and kind of map out where patterns are, you can map out where, like, an idea could be. You know, even if you're, like, working on a song, you can work on the song on the left, and then on the fretboard, you can literally kind of, like, map out the possibilities of where you can go with it. So. Because I always think, like, I have trouble relying too much on being, like, an improviser and just kind of making up as I go. So to have, like, something where I can, like, force myself to actually think through a song and be like, well, these are the chords that are over here on this side. And then on this side, I can actually, like, think about, like, well, how can I approach the song on the prep board? That's really cool. I was. Yeah. Anyways, I. Johnny, I'm so glad you're up for it because I'm still super excited about it and I want to make something, because that's.
Yeah.
What?
Sorry, it's your mid-40s. Like, you'll come up with something great. Like, make a whole song. You'll go to bed and wake up, be like, no, yeah, yeah. I don't remember what key I was in.
Yeah, that's my phone. If you go through my. If you go through my phone, like, photos, like, if you just go on the photos app on my phone and just search guitar, there are probably 200 videos of me trying to, like, capture things on. But, like, it's, you know, which is nice. It's better than, like, an audio because you can actually see what you're doing, but just, like, to make it as, like, a little home base for, like, learning something, even if it's not my own, like, created thing. Just to, like. Yeah. I don't have to get into the minutiae of things you can work on on paper like that. But I've just never. It was, like, coming up with this idea for this notebook. Is it, like, unlocked how I can, like, work on guitar?
When you talk about exploring the possibilities, like, I don't know anything about guitar, but is it one of those things where you have to, like, know what you can, like, physically reach? You can't, like, do anything that's.
Oh, yeah. Far away.
Is that. What.
Is that one of the considerations? More like mapping out, like. So there's certain notes that go with certain chords. Right. So if you're trying to write a solo or you're trying to come up with a melody. So if you had multiple fretboards to, like, work on and just kind of doodle on if you know the chords are G, C and D. And you know that like, because of the feel of the song, you're going to want to hit on certain notes. You can just kind of map it out. Because usually what people do is they'll learn the whole scale, which is just all in order, like, and that's just like all the possibilities, like, but that's too many possibilities. So to be able to like, see it helps me a lot to be able to kind of like specialize it. And it's not like I'm gonna be looking at it while I'm playing, but it's just a way of processing and like learning a song. You're like, oh, yeah. I remember how I figured out that like that shape for the G chord and this other shape for the D chord are actually like really close together up in this section of the fretboard. So I can like focus on this area when I'm doing my solo. Because a lot of the notes are like really, you know, close together there.
Yeah, yeah.
And then, and then you can also like map it across the fretboard. So if you want to move anywhere else, you can still kind of like, you just start to notice patterns. You're like, oh, well, this same section right here of the fretboard is the same as it is like back here. Seven frets back and up a few string, you know, like, you can just kind of see like where your home bases are. So.
Yeah. Cool.
Yeah. So excited.
Can't wait to see that notebook.
Yeah, I'm still thinking about the size, so I'll get back to you, Johnny. But I love the idea of a specialized notebook that prevents me from having to download an app or something to do this. I just remember better if I'm able to scribble. And the only other thing I was going to bring up was the new. We're going to talk about the new Blackwing Eras. Was that announced yesterday?
I think so. I think it was. Yeah.
I think so.
It was, yeah.
Brand new throwback, far off old timey days.
Tell me you don't have any more ideas without telling me you don't have any more ideas. Which is not necessarily their fault because it's like there's only so many like sort of vintage, black wingy kind of pencils that they can go back to, right? But they've released the new Eras edition, which is the throwback to the original 2010 MMX as we called it back then.
It's like when you're.
What are you guys.
When you're in like an antique store and you see something from your childhood and you're just like, oh, that's a, that's an antique now. Or like.
Yeah.
Or yeah.
Or like when a fast food restaurant like changes back to a design from just like 10 years ago and you're
like, it's like, I remember that.
I sort of remember this.
Yeah.
Is it different? I think it's different, but it's not like you're like finally, you know, because it's, it's also. Yeah, it's just such an interesting choice because it's like a pencil that already exists. Just, it's like, oh, you remember this is the older version that you guys liked better.
Yeah, I, I mean, I get why they do it. Right. Like it's the 15th anniversary of, of releasing like them Cal Cedar entering sort of like the Black wing market. Right. Like that was their first ever kind of Black wing. And it's, it's interesting. I remember that really well because I, you know, worked there briefly right after that happened, which I can't believe it's been 15 years, but it was, yeah, just like such a, just such a thing. Like, people were so excited about that when it came out. I know I was, I. Johnny, I'm sure you got all the press releases and I think we both, it was
really out of the blue.
Yeah, yeah.
They're like, hey, made this new pencil. Will you try them?
Like. Oh, yeah, I think, I think what they should have done is for the throwback, called it the Pegasus, which was originally before they came up with Blackwing, before they acquired that name, they were going to call it the Pegasus and that would have been really cool. But I, I, I do, I, I want to get like one of these pencils to see do they have the little, like little subtle gold flecks like the first, the first run of the MMX's head.
I forgot about that.
Yeah. And it was, I know there were a couple other weird things. I think the stripe near the feral was like slightly broken or something like
that, but yeah, I don't see it. Yeah, I do notice that they have the little. Which they didn't have this in the original. Right. They have a little like the horse logo is like embossed into the back.
Yeah, yeah, no, that on the original, the original one had had foil on it. I think it was, I think it was foil stamped. And yeah, they're definitely using the new kind of branding for it, which like I get because it's, you know, a new Black wing.
But yeah, and they didn't Put that little soft. Like they also embossed soft into the barrel, which I think is a. Yeah, but so there's. It's. It is different. So that debunks my theory that, that they just had extra stock left over and were like, let's order some boxes.
Yeah.
So. Yeah, I don't. I guess they didn't do that.
Which I. I still have. Like, I don't know if I have a whole dozen, but I have like a bunch of those original ones and I still have that same box that they just get like black jewelry boxes, like a bracelet box and then put just a. Just a sticker on top. Like I still have that somewhere. So I don't know. Old, old, old stock.
It's. It's a weird mixture. Like seeing this as a weird mixture of like, like confusion, but also like, wait, they're throwing back to something I remember. Like. Oh, that's. Yeah, that feels uncomfortable. You know, like I just.
Like they do the like eras for the first eras that they did. Like eras. Errors, Errors.
Inception. Yeah, it's like it's an era within an era. Or they're just gonna start re releasing the volumes as eras or something. They'll do a tool like a 211 or something as an eras pencil.
They should do that. Just blow.
Yeah. Yeah.
I was using one of those yesterday.
Yeah.
One right here.
So. Yeah, so I don't know.
Yeah, whatever.
It's fine. It's a. It's $36 for something that's slightly different than the other ones. I like, I almost more just in like a business sense. I'm like, well, how much do they charge for just the regular matte ones now how I know the prices have all been steadily going up.
Yeah. I have no idea.
I don't know. Core pencils. Here we are. Because I'm curious now. So $34.
Okay. So I can't remember what the two
extra bucks for the.
Yeah. When they sold the MMX originally, what was the original retail price?
Like say 24.
Is it 20 okay.
Or 25 okay.
Yeah.
Not 30.
It was in there, I guess in 15 years, like only going in price like $10. Like given everything in the world now, like isn't too bad. But they also are bigger and have more sort of buying power and everything now.
So I don't know, better reach and stuff.
Yeah. Yeah. So it's. It's cool. I'm glad that they're sort of celebrating their own heritage. Like it's 15 years is a long time. They've had just a crap ton of new pencils in that time. I don't know.
They've kept a. A new pencil company open for 15 years. I mean that's like. Yeah, that's pretty impressive.
A couple other collabs have been like really, really good looking those this year. Their partnership with M Skin for the Sakura edition. Those were like stunning. But I don't need their.
Their festool ones are really good. They're like kind of have this green. Yeah. Green feral. They're. Yeah. They look really good. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
I do like and I like even with like the. The standard ones how they're starting to branch out the colors and stuff. I mean that was a. That was a really welcome thing. Like with the black. Yeah. How you can get it in red now and it's green, red and green and then the pearl comes in pink and blue like just that kind of stuff. I'm glad it's just kind of getting like to more and more options.
Yeah.
I just. I was. I was laughing a minute ago because I just. I had. I don't have it up right now. Well, you probably get it back. But anyways I had their website up and it was going through and saw the black wing shorts are still thing and it was just funny because it was 24 is the same price as like what a set of black wings used to be. Which just like. It's like they like cut the. So if we take the percentage of pencil that they've cut off.
Yeah.
Shouldn't they. They should be like 18
to wear
like athletic shorts or something.
Yeah. They have athletic wear now.
Yeah.
They did
yoga pants on their website.
Black wing G strings. That's next. Matt matte finished satin.
Start selling black wings that you can wear around for Halloween. Check out like bat wings.
My extra firm.
No, we're throwing some words around too close together between extra firm and G strings. Okay. Yeah. But that's all I've got. Just kind of like wanted to visit that we'll, you know, whatever. Some people I'm sure are super happy. Yeah.
Did they sell out?
Yes. Not yet.
Oh, must. Maybe they made a lot or.
No, I'm just kidding. They never will sell. Yeah. Cool. Anything else you guys want to chat about?
That's it. You guys good?
Likewise.
Yeah.
Such a scary time. It's nice to see some good faces.
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure. All right. Well thanks everybody for listening. As always, we like to remind people that we do have Patreon. We are on Patreon. So you can go to look up a race bowl podcast on Patreon or you can find it on our website at Erasable Us. You can also and this will be in the show notes, but there'll be a link to Patreon and there'll be a link to our Discord invite. If you want to join us on there. There is still the the Facebook group which is available at facebook.comgroups erasable and yeah, but look for the links in the show notes. We'd like to thank our Patreon producer level patrons. So if you donate $10 a month or more, you become a producer level patron. And so thank you to Andre Torres, Angie and Sipe, Chris Berry, Chris Metzkus, Dana Morris, David Johnson, Ellen Aaron Bollinger, Aaron Willard, Hans Noodleman, Ida Umphers, JAFX in the Midwest, John Capilouti, John Schroeder, John Wood, Kathleen Rogers, Liz Rotundo, Mary Collis, Melissa Miller, Michael Diallosa, Millie Blackwell, Paul Moorhead, Phil Munson, Reiko Henning, Stephen Francali, Tana Feliz, Tom Keakley and William Modlin. Thank you so much to our all of our patrons at any level. If you want to support us, you can find us on Patreon and we have extra content that's on there. Occasionally we send out something free or something included with certain levels of of support. Each year we've sent out bags, we've sent out hats. Was that part of it? Do we send out hats or.
No, just the buttons but we depends.
The pins. Yeah. I'm trying to think about over the years it's been so long. But yeah, so send out goodies occasionally. So we appreciate your support on Patreon and we will talk to you soon. On episode 300 and 232, I got ahead of myself. Two, three, two. Some symmetry. All right, thanks everybody.
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