The Pen Addict 268/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	268
Title:	Hot Breaking Footage
Release Date:	August 4th, 2017
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 268
Audio File:	Audio Episode 268
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 268
Length:	6161 min <br />1.017 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Pen Show

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM and live from the DC Pen Show, this is The Pen Addict episode 268. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet and Harry's. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined in my hotel room by Brad Downey.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, Brad Downey is my new name for The Pen Show. We'll talk about that in a little bit. It's a wonderful new name for me. And yes, we are coming live and direct from Myke Hurley's hotel room.

Myke Hurley: Yep, we've got a whole magical set up this time. We are holding on to microphones. We have cables running all over this room. We're somehow streaming live to some people that may or may not be listening. This is very different for us. This is almost reminiscent of Atlanta 1. 1. Yes. Because, so we're at the DC Pen Show, which of course we've been talking about for weeks, and the Pen Addict podcast is new to this show. And the show is, honestly, like, it's bigger than us, in a way that some other shows aren't. Right, that's fair. So we don't have the ability to have a room with a bunch of people in it. Yeah. And it's basically, I think, you know, we're going to talk a lot about the show, right? The episode is about the show. We're going to talk about the DC Pen Show. Um, because we're here. But it's like spending just a day, half a day in the show. The striking difference for me is how far removed this is from our community in so many ways. Mm-hmm. When I say, like, the show is bigger than us, it's like, the Pen Addict is not important to this show. Mm-hmm. Or like, at least, they don't believe it to be. You know, like, if you look at Atlanta, and year on year, like, I think our participation has helped that Pen Show grow. DC doesn't need that. No. Because it's the biggest in the US, maybe the biggest in the world.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And a lot of people who attend this show as a seller, this will be their only show of the year. It could be. It's definitely probably planning on being their biggest show of the year. Yep. So there are lots of, you know, there's lots of goings-on at this show. And this year especially, there's even more goings-on than usual. Yeah. But this, sitting in a room with Myke and talking, I get to look into his beautiful eyes while I'm talking to you fine folks. And watched his magical, it was choreography, Myke, setting up all the technical aspects to make this happen. I mean, you're like the Paula Abdul of podcasting. That is an incredible compliment to receive. So Myke was just like doing this dance, you know, with his laptop and the microphones and the cables and we're testing. And he's like, got it. I'm like, he was pretty happy. I'm pretty proud of myself right now. I'm not going to lie.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Because usually Stephen's here, like, he sets this up for me. I mean, okay, I will say that I had to seek some outside assistance just to make sure that I had all my connections correct. But like, I somehow have got this like, snakes mess of wires together and anyway, but we're working. Possibly the highlight of Myke's week so far. Oh, I'm so excited about getting this to work because like the live streams work and it's anyway. But yeah, this is nice for me because it feels like we're going back to our roots a little bit. Yeah. Like, you know, when we first started doing live shows and we didn't think that anybody would even want to be in the room, right? Right. That kind of feeling. And look, I mean, I think that I will want to try and do this show more in the future of the DC Penn show. And we said this and I mean it like, if we do it again, we're going to try and find a venue maybe away from the hotel where we can do a live show. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: More of an event for us. Yeah. As opposed, I mean, it's literally just Myke and I in this room. There's not another soul in this room. And it does bring back memories of like the very beginning.

Myke Hurley: And it's kind of cool. It's fun like that. And it's because I'll tell you right now, nothing's better for me than doing a live show in front of an audience. Like nothing will make you feel cooler than doing that. But this show is five years old, as I keep reminding people. It's nice to go back. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. This is definitely less nerve wracking with just the two of us in this room. Although I've never podcasted holding a microphone.

Myke Hurley: It is a different thing. Yeah. But yeah, you have to be a lot more conscious of what you're up to. We'll take some pictures of that and send them out later. But yeah. Well, and people that are back to the Kickstarter project. Yeah. We'll have a special vlog. There will be. And I've been shooting the vlog. We've been shooting video footage over the last day or so. So there will be. People will see how this whole set up came together.

Brad Dowdy: And we have some hot breaking footage that you recorded this morning. Yep. It was fire.

Myke Hurley: All right. So let's talk about this. Before we do this now, I want to talk about our notes, the way that we have our notes. So we are at a pen show right now. Right. So you can imagine the abundance of pen and paper around. My notes are on my Mac in Apple notes. Brad's notes are on the Marriott Hotel notepad in the room. He like came in and was like, do you have any paper? And he's like, oh, I'll just use this. And he just grabbed the Marriott stuff and just started making some notes whilst I was getting things set up. Yeah.

Nock Paper

Brad Dowdy: So we left Jeff early manning the table at Nock. And I brought all my Nock paper, but I used it for the testers at the table. So those are all my notebooks. So I was digging through my backpack before I came up here to record. Because I like to write a few notes, even if I have my laptop in front of me and have a whole show notes digitally down. I still like to write notes, scribble. I got to have my pen and paper with me. And I couldn't find anything in my hotel room because I had brought it all to the table and it's all still down there. So I came up to the room. I was like, you have any paper? And then I saw the Marriott pad, which consists all of two sheets of paper. Looks like quite nice paper though, I will say, for a ballpoint pen, which is what I'm using, which we'll talk about later too.

Myke Hurley: So I want to set the stage for the pen show. But before I do, I want to go back a little bit and talk about my journey to the pen show. Yeah. Because I went to New York and met with Tiffany Arment and we got the Amtrak. I'm pretty jealous of that, actually. Which was really nice. It was a really comfortable train. The seats are really big. We had a nice day, like just kind of... Zoom in our way down. And we got to Union Station in Washington, D.C. Because the pen show, it is called the D.C. pen show, but we are in Virginia right now. And it's always been that way. It's not just because of the hotel change. D.C., it was like a 25-minute lift from the station to here. It's better to call it the D.C. pen show, right? And from my understanding, from talking to you, the San Francisco pen show is the same. It's just like, what is the nearest, biggest city? Right. So we're just outside of D.C. We're in Falls Church, Virginia, in the Marriott Hotel. So we get out of Union Station and we're going to try and find out what road we're on. And we walk out the station and the Capitol building is right there. It's like right there. And I had no idea of the geography. Like, Tiff hasn't been here since she was a teenager, right? So she didn't really remember the layout of everything. And I have like a really heavy suitcase with me because I'm here. I'm in America for a month, right? And I'm full of equipment and stuff like that. But so like I'm dragging this case out onto the pavement and she's like, let's go take a walk. And I was like, no, come on, let's do it. So we spent like half an hour and I went to see the Capitol building, the Washington Monument. It's fantastic. I'm so happy that I got to see these things and just like to walk around some of D.C. And like, this is where stuff happens. And like, this is the center of this country. And I don't know, it was nice. And I'm really pleased that she convinced me to do that. Yeah. Because I don't know when I would have done it otherwise.

Brad Dowdy: I was excited when you told me that y'all did that. I was like, that's really cool. You know, even just seeing the buildings from afar and going, that's where the things happen.

Myke Hurley: So I've got some pictures of the Capitol building. And it's like, yeah. Like, and they're beautiful buildings, right? Right. So now I have these things that I've seen. So that was that. And then we drove down and we had last night and we're just hanging out. So, you know, everyone's just getting in on Thursday. And then. A lot of people in on Thursday. A lot of people. Right. Because I mean, so many people come and they're here for the whole weekend. Right. So you come on Thursday night and you stay all the way through. Right. It's like loads of people.

Brad Dowdy: Bar was packed full, completely full. And it's a big bar. It's not a small bar.

Myke Hurley: It's a great hotel. It's a good layout. Really good. I mean, again, I can't compare it to the last DC hotel. But like the bar is huge. The restaurant's huge. Like everything's like, it's great. There's nothing around here. But the hotel is perfectly fine. I got a root beer float when I entered the hotel, which is amazing.

Brad Dowdy: That was awesome. So they had like the, instead of like the wine and cheese happy hour at the hotel, they had a root beer float social. Yeah. Like the five o'clock, you know, hour, five to six o'clock hour. And Myke walked in. He's like, I'm here checking in. And I was like an hour ahead of Myke. And I start getting texts. It's like, I'm here. Okay. I've checked in. Oh my God. Root beer floats.

Myke Hurley: I've never had one before. And then I had two in an hour. Yeah. So I was flying. What's the verdict?

Brad Dowdy: What's the verdict? Great. Yeah. Pretty amazing.

Myke Hurley: Really loved it. Yeah. So then that kind of brings us to finding out a little bit about today. So again, I have very limited pen show experience, but just the general workings of the DC pen show seem very different to Atlanta, at least, where you don't set up the night before the show. The show begins. You set up in the daytime and technically the show doesn't start on Friday at all. People can come in. Like if you buy a whole weekend pass and a lot of people buy like a exhibitors pass, even though they're not exhibiting or something weird like that. Right. So they can come in on Friday. It's like a trade. Yeah. Traders pass.

Brad Dowdy: It's essentially the weekend pass. Yeah. They call it. It's a, you can use the same, same terms for what it is.

Myke Hurley: So technically. Technically, what that means is it's just people that are coming in to set up or people that are coming in for business reasons. Right. Because what should be happening on Friday is we're getting our tables set up and we're just doing that for Saturday and Sunday, which are the public open days where people come. Right. Where apparently it's incredibly busy. Right. But what that means is like there are people here, a lot of people here that are ready to buy stuff at the same time that me and you are waiting to go in to get our table set up. And that includes, you know, people like Van Ness, people like the Andersons, people like Franklin Kristoff, who have these incredibly elaborate areas to set up. So that's just how it is. Everyone knows that. But we, you know, I mean, but like, you know, it's like whatever. Like we found out about it last night. It's like it's frustrating. But whatever. We figure we'll get there at nine. We'll go in. And everyone just starts to get set up as soon as they can. Now, I don't want to spend too much time talking about this. Right. But like it was an absolute disaster.

Pen Show Logistics

Brad Dowdy: Myke's already lectured me like earlier this afternoon that I can't go off the rails on this because I just don't think it's I want to talk about it a little bit.

Myke Hurley: But like we could sit here and talk for half an hour about how frustrating the first couple of hours of this morning were. But it's not useful for anyone. But like I guess kind of the cliff notes were just we get there at nine. Everyone's waiting. There's these huge lines. There's vendors and people who want to go and buy some pens. And there is there is no organization at all. The organizers did a really bad job of trying to get people in. It seemed like and this is no exaggeration that the tables hadn't even been set by 9 a.m. this morning or assigned or assigned. No. And it also seemed that they had overbooked and they didn't have enough tables, which added to all of the problems. Right. Which meant they've had to open this like satellite room down the hallway. And it effectively meant that we were in line at eight. We got our table at like 11. Yeah. And we were for that whole time. We were just standing in various hallways. And people were walking up and down. And there were lots of vendors, especially the smaller vendors, who were getting really upset and angry because this is their livelihood. And there are people there that want to buy stuff. And all of their stuff is still in boxes. And it was a real disaster. It was the dictionary definition of a disaster. It was a pure disaster. Nothing was arranged properly. I mean, and the only reason, the only way that we got a table in the end is Brad had had enough. And he kind of went to the guy who was walking around with this list that the guy was refusing to share. And he just was like, tell me where my tables are. And you just kept making him turn the pages. And then we finally went set up ourselves.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, it takes a lot to wipe the smile off my face at a pen show. Yep. For the first couple hours of this lunacy, I was okay. I was like, there's nothing I can do. We're going to deal with it. It's going to be fine. Then it got to the point where there was really, after about two hours, there was really very minimal movement in improving the situation that we were in. And they were actually making things worse as they were going. It was just getting worse and worse. It was getting worse and worse. So, you know, I didn't show out or do anything. But I basically tailed the guy who had the master list.

Myke Hurley: They had the list. They had the list where they had everybody's numbers. But they just weren't sharing it with anyone. Right. Which it beggars belief to try and understand why they were doing it. It just doesn't make any sense. I don't think that a person of logic can understand the way in which this was being a site. It was just really, really weird. And I only want to talk about this because it's true. It happened. Yeah. Right. And it, you know.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, it's all over social media this morning. You'll see. I'm sure if you're listening to this now live, you've seen all the posts on Instagram this morning.

Myke Hurley: And because everyone that was here was just upset. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It affected every person in the building. And I felt really bad for the customers more than the vendors. Yep. Because they were told that at 9 o'clock they could start shopping. And you know what? As a vendor, at 9 o'clock you want to be ready to start taking people's money. People are there with money in their hand. We want to allow you to buy things from us. You know, it's a novel idea, right? Right. So everything about this was done incorrectly. I could, like Myke said, I could go, we get like a half hour discussion for me breaking down everything that was a failure. But just instead of me doing that, just understand that it was actually a total failure. There was no silver lining. And it's, you know, I finally got, I finally felt normal. Let's see, we got our table about 11. We set up and we were able to start selling things. It still took me a couple of hours to feel like myself. Like I feel like a normal person, you know, here to represent NOC and to sell things. It took a while. And my neck and shoulders are still like completely tight because I was so stressed this morning. Like it was, I've never seen anything like this. And I'm not, I'm way, way far from the most experienced person in this building. But I think that's a consensus. Even the most experienced people have never seen anything like this before.

Myke Hurley: Everyone that I've spoken to, people that have been doing these things for years across and like make a living, right? Like it's part of their business to go to every show they could possibly go to. And this just seemed really bad. People left.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Give me my money back. I am leaving.

Myke Hurley: I mean, you know, these are people that have decided they were carving out a weekend and were going to come and sell at this thing. And they were just, it was that bad that they were just, because it seemed like at certain points there was just no end in sight. Right. Right. Like it was just, how long is this going to take? It never got better. Yeah. At any point. But the day did get better, I think. It was, we had smiles from there on out. Yeah. We, but I wanted to just mention it because it's just, it was real and it happened and

Brad Dowdy: it needs to be discussed. But I guess we, I, I am the one that will beat the dead horse and Myke's right. We don't need to beat the dead horse just in, you know, an angsty kind of way. And it was a rough morning for everybody and hopefully we'll onwards and upwards from, from here on out. Right.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. And just to answer a question in the chat room, Cupcake Girl asked, was it vendors or customers that left? Yeah. There were vendors that decided that they just were just didn't want to be associated with the show anymore. Yep. So they, they just up and left. And if you're local. Yeah. I get it. Yeah. Don't, you know, just don't put yourself there.

Brad Dowdy: And customers left because they could not access the, essentially access the ballroom. Mm-hmm. And if they could, there was no one set up. Yep. For hours.

Myke Hurley: So it was kind of pointless.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So people who had short timeframes today had an expectation when they arrived and they failed to meet that. Yeah.

Harry's Products

Myke Hurley: But there was, there's a lot more going on today, but we should take a break. Yes. I want to take a moment to thank our friends over at Harry's for supporting this week's show. Harry's is all about a great shave at a fair price. And this is exactly why over 3 million people have switched to Harry's. Their founders, Jeff and Andy decided to create Harry's because they were fed up with overpriced razors and blades. So they bought a German factory with over 100 years of blade making experience to ensure the highest quality for their blades, which they sell at half the price of the leading five blade razor directly to you over the internet. And all of Harry's products are backed by a 100% quality guarantee. Now, me and Brad are not sharing a room this year. So like, I feel like at some point I'm just going to have to break in to just get a real sniff of your stuff. Come check out the counter. Of all of the amazing products.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. It's all there. All the Harry's products I travel with in the Harry's dop kit. Naturally. Which, um, that's my, that's my go-to travel bag for all my, my Harry's goods and all my other items. But yeah. And I will say I'm looking at his face right now. Brad looks really well kept. Yeah. Even at, even at this hour, you know, I, uh, my eyes might look a little bloodshot and saggy.

Myke Hurley: But my face tells a different story. Thanks to Harry's. Brad's got to look his best. You know, he's, he's the pan addict. You know, he's the Brad Downey. I'm nobody here. We haven't said what Brad Downey is about yet. We'll talk about that just after I finished talking about Harry's. Harry's is so confident. You're going to love their blades. They want to give you their trial set for free. You just need to cover shipping. The free trial set includes a weighted ergonomic razor handle, five precision engineered blades of a lubricating strip and trimmer blade. They're rich lathering shave gel and a travel blade cover as well. This is $13 of value for you to try out. Look, stop messing around. If you haven't got Harry's in your life yet, fix it. Go to harrys.com slash pan addict right now and get started with their free trial offer. You just need to cover shipping. Thank you so much to Harry's for their support of this show and Relay FM.

Brad Dowdy: So a quick anecdote about the, it relates to the disaster in just a more funny way. Last night, Lisa Van Es checked in and she was kind enough to go ahead and get an extra table for knock. She's like, you know, it's hard enough to get a table booked here. And Lisa gets actual responses from Bob, the show promoter, and I never get email replies. So it's like, yes, just give me my table. So she goes to pick up the packets you get when you check into the pin show normally. And it's got, you know, list of events and it's got your name badges in it. She came to me after she picked up her package. She said, I've only got two name badges. I gave him six names and I just have hers and mine. And she's like, you know, he asked me for this list of names. He, you know, prodded me saying, you know, asked me multiple times for, you know, to finally finalize the list and she ends up with just a badge for her and me and when she should have six of them. So she said, I think you have your own package over there as knock. So go check. And maybe the rest of them are in there. So I go check and get ours. And this is all Thursday night, way before any of this happened. None of this. I wouldn't be able to do any of this this morning. Yeah. They were letting people at least check in last night. So I go get mine and the lady says, go ahead and check that while you're here. Check the badges. I was like, yeah, that's kind of what I needed to do anyway. I pull out two badges and it's two random people I've never heard of in my life. So we're like, this is a place. We pretty much, this is expected. Like this is like you could, it was a 50, 50. It was probably like 90, 10 that this was going to happen. 50, 50 is a little too generous. So she's like, ooh, yeah, that's here. Just take these blank ones and fill them out. So this morning we see Lisa Van Ness and she's got my actual printed name badge. And it comes out Brad Downey. D-O-W-N-Y.

Myke Hurley: He's nice and soft.

Brad Dowdy: So I'm a big softie. Big softie. I'm more, I'm more, I'm more Charmin with the hee hee when you, when you poke me more. That was a little more Pillsbury. Doughboy, I guess that too. But the ridiculousness of that is we have to provide those things digitally to the show organizers, right? We're not calling over the phone and they're not taking down my name wrong, right? We're passing these things on in a digital fashion and they still can't get the names right. So that's kind of the weekend in a nutshell so far.

Myke Hurley: So now we have a new nickname for our soft and cuddly Mr. Downey.

Brad Dowdy: So Brad Downey is my official name this weekend. I don't know how long we're going to let that one go though.

Myke Hurley: So our table is in a weird place. Yes. But it's not as bad as we thought it was going to be, right? So there is... It's as close to as bad as it could be. It's on the edge. We are on the edge. Potentially. So literally we're on the edge. So there is a big ballroom and then a hallway that runs around the perimeter of the ballroom. We're not in the ballroom, which is probably, you know, that's central. We're like in the hallway, but in the very far left corner of the hallway that if you're literally in the ballroom, there's walls in front of our faces, like you can't see us. You have to go around. But the thing is, we're fine. We're next to Vanus. There's a bunch of other like really good vendors in that hallway, like Edison's there, Sailor's there. So people are walking through. I mean, we were worried when we were setting up, like, is anyone even going to find us? But they did. There's enough pool in that hallway to get them down to where we're at. So it's fine. It really is fine. Like, there's a whole other room where it would have been worse to be, which where the Canaleo Pen Company is. And they're just like blocking the hallway for everyone, right? Because everyone's just going in and just like checking out that thing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, because that room was an afterthought, right? So that room, when we're sitting in the cattle pen this morning, Bob is off somewhere because he shorted himself on tables and needs the hotel to open up an emergency ballroom for him. And this is not a ballroom set for a pen show. I don't know what it is. It's got two, it's like got a couple levels and stairs and walls and ramps. It's super odd. It's nothing you can explain, you know, without seeing a picture of it. And, you know, we could have been in there. I feel bad for the people in there. I don't think they're getting the traffic. Like, even though that's the first thing you see, you're not really going in there until you go get your registration, which is past that room. Yeah, yeah. So it was an afterthought, emergency, you know, kind of overflow.

Myke Hurley: So we are in, we're in not the best, but not the hardest place to be. Yeah. So, I mean, we're doing fine, right? Because as well, like people want to come and see the products anyway. Right. It's like we have that going for us. It's like people actually know Knock and they want to come knock. They want to come and see you. They want to come and see me. They want to come and see Jeff.

Brad Dowdy: So today we have that going for us. Tomorrow is where I'm concerned because a lot of the people that saw us today are here all weekend. They've seen us. I need new people to see us. Yeah. Right. That's where my consternation lies.

Myke Hurley: Just because there's like, so basically the hallway, there's like a bunch of open doors and it kind of funnels people into the hallway from the ballroom. So like, I think it will be fine. We'll see. Tomorrow is going to be in the pudding.

Show Success

Brad Dowdy: Tomorrow. Will be the day on which this entire show is judged.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Saturday is the really, really busy day. Typically at the, at the DC Penn show.

Brad Dowdy: If it's successful, a lot of the pain that happened today will be mitigated. Not all the way because it was avoidable. That was the biggest problem that most people had today.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: But if we, if tomorrow is successful business wise, then not all is forgiven, but you know, you're starting to heal a little bit because it was really bad yesterday. I don't know.

Myke Hurley: So like, you know, I felt tired yesterday. Today, you mean? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Wow. Yeah. We're still on today? It's still, it's still Friday, buddy. It's still Friday. It's been a long day. You know, I was frustrated and upset like everybody else was this morning, but it went for me, like it went away when I went and did my first lap of the show. Yeah. Because it is unbelievable.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So what do you think about this just from a show perspective? I know you've already said how big and crazy it is, but it's, it's different than, it's way different than your Atlanta experience, right?

Myke Hurley: Because there's so much to see. So like all of the vendors that I would want to see are here, plus a bunch that I don't, like Edison, right? Like they're here with a bunch of stuff, you know, like Brian's here, you know, they've up, they have like representatives from Sailor here. Yeah. Like, and then there are a bunch of small vendors, like independent people that we don't usually get to see that will make a trip here, you know, like Sean Design, which we're going to talk about in a bit. We've got to speak to Ian for a while. And so, you know, that was really, you know, so there are people that come out for this that don't usually, but then just like that big ballroom, there's a lot more vintage stuff, right? So, which doesn't necessarily float my boat as much, but the sheer amount of it makes it more interesting. Sure. I agree with that. Because, and plus the room in which the pens are in is a better room than the rooms in Atlanta. Sure. Because it's bigger, there's more space and the lighting's better. It's more of a spectacle. Yeah. And because the ballroom here, like the room, it's like really nice. Like it's just a beautiful room and it's huge. And I do really like the idea of like the way that it's really like one big room in and out a hallway as opposed to in Atlanta where it's like three rooms and connecting hallways. It just, it just feels a little bit harder to navigate. So, it, I just went and walked around and I was just like, wow. Like I was just like blown away by it and like just really excited because there were so many people and there's so many really interesting things and like stuff I've never seen before. And so, like just even though like I'm not going to buy an Edison pen this weekend, just the fact that they're here and like I walk by and just get hit by this wave of color, you You know, like, it is just, it's more exciting. It's more vibrant. There's more of a buzz than there is at Atlanta. You know, even though, like, Atlanta is always going to be my home show, right? Like, it's the one that I'm always going to feel the closest to. This is, like, it feels like a next level. It really does feel like a next level. And that is personified in just the people that come to attend the show. Like, it has a pull.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Well, the saving grace are the people, right? I mean, let's be perfectly honest.

Myke Hurley: And there are so many people here that...

Brad Dowdy: Even when we're in the midst of chaos this morning, you know, I can go and rest my head on Hugh and Carol's shoulders and we can commiserate. We had lots of hugs today. Right. We had lots of hugs today. You know, I can, you know, go and sit and, you know, share my frustrations with my friends. But then once we got everything settled in and everyone was kind of, you know, okay, now we're into normal pen show business. You know, we got to see people that we've only talked to online. We got to share stories. We got to give hugs. Got to see, you know, got to meet Aziza and Steven for the first time. I know.

Myke Hurley: I'm getting to meet so many people as well, right? That, like, people that maybe usually come to DC, like Michelle. Right. Right? And, like, so I'm getting to just to see all new people and see more of the people that I know as well. Right. And so that's... All in one place. And that's, you know, look, this is why we come to these things, right? Like, they have these great community events, these great social events. And I'm very excited for the bar tonight, right? Yeah. Where everyone's going to have their stuff. And bless Father Kyle. Right. On his one leg. Yeah. For, like, hobbling in. You know? It's brilliant to be able to spend time with these people. And I've already met a bunch of listeners that listen to our show. Yeah. And loads of other RealA FM shows as well. Right. And people that we didn't get to meet in Atlanta, which that really, you know, that makes it amazing for me. Yeah. Right. Like, you know, because I love to be able to meet people that enjoy the stuff that we do. Yeah. And that makes it so much fun. Yeah. If you put your mindset on that focus, it fixes everything. That's how I've been today, right? Like, it's just been, like, this spectacle that I've been walking around in. And I'm finding new things that I never would have thought to maybe consider purchasing before. And then there are all these amazing people. Right. So it's just, like, whatever. Right. We don't need to deal with the show organizers anymore and that silly decisions that they made because we're set now. Right. Right. So now it's just the rest. Right. So let's talk about purchases. Because I know I've made a few.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I mean, let's talk about Myke's purchases. That's really what we want to talk about. And he's more excited to talk about this than anything, I think, else on this show. This is why he didn't want me to ramble on about nonsense. And he's right. It's because we can talk about cool stuff.

canaleia Pen

Myke Hurley: Right. So, like, you know, we've been talking for, like, the last two weeks or so about the new canaleia pen. Mm-hmm. Right. Which is the Haleakala Silhouette, which is their new, like, yellow and gray and black and pink wonder piece. Right. And so I went, I took a beeline for them this morning, as I said I would. This afternoon.

Brad Dowdy: Probably by the time they were set up.

Myke Hurley: As soon as everyone was in and then they weren't ready. Right.

Brad Dowdy: Like, I wasn't the only person. Right. They were, like. As long as it took us to get a table, canaleia was after us.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, they were. And so, like, I wasn't the only one, though. Right. There were, like, loads of people just hovering around. And so then Tiff was there and she, because she was waiting to try and get one, too. So we decided to just go and take a bit of a stroll around and, like, just look at what else was available. And I came back maybe, like, 15 minutes later and the table was swarmed. You know, they have these beautiful wooden panels that they have the pen sitting in. Every single pen was in someone's hands. Right. Because everyone's just picking them up. Yeah. And they're, like, they have a bunch of different styles. And, you know, because of the way that these pens are made, they all look different. Right. Like, within each model, every single pen looks different. Right. Because of the way that Jonathan makes them. Jonathan was behind the table with them. Right. Because Jonathan Brooks is here. And so he's just come to the show, like, to see people and stuff like that. And he was just helping out this morning because it was madness there for them.

Myke Hurley: And so, like, everyone's looking around. I know what I'm going for. Right. Like, I'm dying for the hell yeah. Right. So there was a bunch there. And I'm standing next to Dandon. And we're, like, looking at them together. Right. Because we're both trying to decide, like, help each other. Like, which ones are we going to get? Yeah. And then Carol was getting out more of them for us. And I picked my one. Right. So I'm like, this is the one. This is the one. So I hand it to Carol. And then Jonathan takes it to put it in the bag. He's like, oh, this was the one that was photographed in Penworld. Which was funny for me in two ways. Right. One, that they were selling that one. Yeah. Two, Jonathan recognized it. And three, that was the one I picked out. Right.

Brad Dowdy: This is such a Myke story. It's not even funny. Like, when you told me that, I was like, only you. This would only happen to you.

Myke Hurley: I picked the best one. Right. I picked the most photogenic one. You picked the famous one. Uh-huh. Yeah. So then, yeah. But the way that I had to just leave it with them, I'm like, I'm going to come pick it up later. Right. Because I would have been waiting forever. Yeah. So that's purchase number one. That's the pen I had to leave with. You came for that pen. Yeah. Like, if I was coming for a purchase, right? It was that pen. Right. Like, I wanted it. I love it. I have a rose gold nib on it. It's stunning. It's no doubt. It's stunning. Some of the colors in this pen. It's like with all Canalea pens. You have to see them. You really have to see them. Like, you can buy them online and you're going to get a great pen. Yeah. But if you are able to go to a pen show that they are at, do that. Yeah. Because. Everyone's different. Every single one of them is different. And they let you choose. Right. Like, they will let you take a look at all of the ones that they have in that particular line. So you can pick the one that speaks to you the most. Because, you know, the way they are made, which are these incredibly beautifully complex ways in which whatever magic it is that Jonathan is doing to make the acrylics, he can't replicate it. No two pens look the same. It's just another thing about why I love these pens. Like, I just. Like, seriously, like, oh, man, I know Hugh's going to, like, just rugby tackle me when he hears this. But, like, they are, to me, like, the most exciting pen company right now. Like, I just. Whatever it is with the three of them working together. It's just wonderful. Yeah. It's wonderful.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It worked out perfectly. Like, I don't know that you could ask for anything better from what they're making right now. They're doing a wonderful job.

Myke Hurley: So, but that isn't all that I bought today. I obviously got a Retro 51. The new Tiki one.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, yeah. That's right.

Myke Hurley: Right. So that's came out since we recorded last. It's like, it's a bamboo Tiki style Retro 51. And it's really awesome. And I figured I, you know, it came out and I would wait until we got here. Right. Like, I'm just going to wait until we get here and see it. And I love it. I'm really, really happy with it.

Brad Dowdy: It's got a great feel to it. It's different than most of the ones that they make. If you ever used one of their bamboo ones, you know, World Wildlife Federation or some of the other ones that they've done. Not the big shot. That's too big. But they haven't done a regular bamboo release or a special bamboo release in, I don't know, ever. Maybe some point they have. But this one's really, really, this one came out great because it's not etched in, but it's essentially painted over bamboo and it's fantastic.

Myke Hurley: Because I, the panda one, the panda bamboo one is, it's in my top three. Yeah. So this one, I think, is going to eclipse it because it's got everything I like about it. The weight and the size. It's slightly bigger. It's not a big shot. It's like sits in between. And I don't know what that is. I mean, I'm assuming that there's something about like the structure of the pen. They have to make it a little bit thicker. Yeah. But it's beautiful. And my favorite design touch on it is that if it's like a tiki head, it's like a face and the clip runs down the nose. Yeah. And it's, this is like perfectly designed because anywhere else it would have ruined it. Right. But you have this like straight line that you can put the clip. Right. Again, like talk about.

Retro 51 Pens

Brad Dowdy: They continue to do that. Right. You know, the companies that are going to do that with, it's not even a question. Right. So you just know. And I think the, the metal parts are a brush copper. They are antique copper trim. Yeah. It sets, uh, sets it off really well. So. It really is. It's a fantastic, fantastic one.

Myke Hurley: It's limited. I don't know how many. I think it's like seven. It's in the nine something. Okay. It's like 900. Yeah. I thought it was like seven or something. Maybe like 950, something like that. Oh yeah. It's got to be because I have an 828. Right. So it's 950. Right. It's 950 of them. Uh, take a look at it online. Buy it if you like it. Right. Yeah. It'll be gone. Just like all of them. This one will go quick. So that's that. My other one was a real surprise for me. Um, I bought a shown design pen today. Yep. Now, listeners of the show will be well aware of the fact that in the past, I don't, I don't have a problem so much with the pen. Like the design, it just doesn't speak to me. Like the shown design pen is very just utilitarian, right? Like they have a bunch of different designs and people like them. Like Brad loves them because they're pocket pens, but it's not really a thing that I'm into. They take Fisher space pen refills, which are fine, but they're not my favorite refills. It's just never a pen that's really spoken to me because the aesthetics are not really about me. But we went at the table. I was walking around with Tiff and we got talking to Ian who runs shown design. It's all him.

Brad Dowdy: He's the owner. It's all him. It's his full-time job now. And he's a, he's a pretty awesome guy.

Myke Hurley: He, I, he was so passionate.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. His energy is infectious.

Myke Hurley: I'm just standing there talking. We're talking for like 20 minutes and I leave with one. Yeah. But it was slightly different. Right. So he had all of the standard fare, right? So like the stainless steel, the aluminum, the brass. Do they have a copper one?

Brad Dowdy: No copper, but I think there's a tight, might be a titanium.

Myke Hurley: It's the DLC coated. Yeah. Yeah. It's titanium and DLC coated, which is amazing. Yeah. And like, I'm looking at those and they're fine, but they're not for me because my tastes are very different now than what they were a couple of years ago. And I like my pens now to be big, bold and brash. Right. That's what I'm looking for. And he had these like two trays, which had been, they're like coated aluminum.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Anodized. Anodized. But not just like a standard solid color, like. Like. Crazy. Splats of paint. Yes. Splatters and.

Myke Hurley: These weird like psychedelic finishes. And he said that he was, he sells them in Japan, in retail stores in Japan, but not currently in the US. Yeah. And I think he's, from what he was saying today, it looks like he's trying to change it. And I bought this pen from him today, which is silver with like blood splattered all over it. Yeah. As Tiff referred to it, the Dexter pen. It's perfect. And it is unbelievable. Like. Just as like a thing I want because it looks so incredible. Yeah. And it was like the same price as the other ones. It was 70 bucks. Right. And it was like, I love it. And I got a red Fisher Space Pen refill on it. And I think it's fantastic. And this is like, this is it, right? Like it's not necessarily the design of the pen. It's like the whole aesthetic thing. Right. And just the plain aluminum barrels, they don't do it for me anymore. I want color. I want design, flair. And that combined with the fact that like he has a fantastic story that he was just telling me. Right. And he's genuinely like one of the most enthusiastic people about his products that I have ever met. Super knowledgeable, really nice guy. I was like, heck yeah, I'm going to buy one of your pens.

Brad Dowdy: So this is what pen shows are all about, right? You get to go and meet these people who care so much about what they do. And you hear them talk and you're like, I get it. Like this is all clicking to me why this happens now. Right. And you get to meet a guy like Ian who's so passionate about what he does and loves every single thing about it. Like he's going berserk over the Fisher Space Pen refills. Not even his pens. Like he's just like cares so much. He's got, it's like, I've got every color they make. Check out this burgundy one. Yep. You know, he's showing it. He's just getting them out. Oh, look at this brown one.

Myke Hurley: You know. Yeah, the silver one. I didn't know. Well, honestly, I didn't know anything of it in blue and black. Yeah. But it was silver ink in a Fisher Space Pen.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So he was like super jacked about that. So of course, I bought one too. Match. This was my one purchase of the day. We're calling mine the Lisa Frank edition. If you're not familiar with her work, she was big in the 80s and 90s with all of the, you know, glow in the dark, unicorny type stuff. Mine looks like a graffiti splatter of bright blue, pink, yellow, and orange. It is such a Brad pen. Like I could not turn this one away. I was like trying to break away from it and pick something else. Like he had this one tray he wasn't selling. Like this is my personal collection. These aren't for sale. And he said, except maybe this one, I think I've got some extras of because it was one of the Japan ones. And I was like, oh, that one's kind of nice. It was like red and gold. It was red and gold. And they were all smudged together. It was really interesting looking. Yeah. So it wasn't like as defined of a paint job. It was more, you know, like kind of smudged in together and it looked beautiful. But I couldn't get off. I couldn't get off from this model. And I'm pretty happy with it. I haven't put it down yet. I wrote the show notes for the show. And, you know, of course, fine blue. There's your space pen refill. As you would say, the canonical refill. And it's fantastic. I love this pen.

Brad Dowdy: I'm going to get a lot of use out of this. It's going to replace. I've been using just the solid black aluminum. And this one, way better.

Myke Hurley: These are really, really fun, like amazing designs. I was saying to him, it was like, dude, bring them to the US. Bring them international. Like these things need to come out of Japan. Like I'm sure they're doing great for you. But like these are amazing. Yeah. Like he has like a guy that he collaborates with to put these things together. I was like, this needs to be like a thing for you. Because I mean, some of this stuff, it's, you know, reminiscent of kind of layer from is I've never seen aluminum pens that look like this before. Or like I've just not seen treatment like this. So it's like it's really unique and special. Right. Which again, one of the great things about coming to a pen show. Right.

Brad Dowdy: You get to see these things. You get to see it in person and get to talk to the people who are involved in it. And it's fantastic. You know, I didn't have a shopping list coming here. Like there was nothing I had to have. I knew Ian was coming because he emailed me. I was actually surprised. It was just recently. I was like, oh, sweet. You know, I'll get to check out what you got. Because I've seen pictures on his Instagram of like some wild color stuff. So I knew I was going to pick one of those up regardless. But I haven't bought anything else. I do have something on my radar.

Myke Hurley: We'll talk. I don't want to know. You're going to tell me what it is in a minute. We're going to talk because we're going to talk in a second about what else is on our radar. Okay. But that's all you have, right? That's all you bought? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That's it. No ink. No, yeah, no other pens. No anything. I checked out some Franklin Kristoff stuff. I didn't buy anything. But yeah.

Myke Hurley: All right. Should we take our second break? Let's do it. By this point, people are probably just like really dying to buy new pens, right? So we've got to help them out with doing that if you're not at the show, right? There's an obvious place that you should be going to for your pen purchases. And that is the wonderful folk over at Pen Chalet. Look, Pen Chalet, they have all of the pens you're looking for. They have all the accessories you're looking for from your favorite brands. They have Kaweco. They have Monteverde, Pelican, Namiki, Pilot, Sailor. It doesn't matter what you're looking for. They probably got it. They're an authorized dealer of everything that they sell. They have great, very fast, reliable customer service. They do international shipping with great rates. They have free shipping on all those over $50 in the US. They have refills. They have converters. They have carrying cases. If you're ever going to go to a pen show, you should be going and get one of the big carrying cases before I am like I did. They're always doing great discounts and closeout specials. They have high quality pens, great prices, and a 100% satisfaction guarantee. It's the trifecta over at Pen Chalet. So you want to go to penchalet.com. That's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password penaddict to get an access to this week's special offer and the code you need to save 10% on anything at Pen Chalet. So you want to go there, you find some amazing pens, you get 10% off anything. But we have a special offer this week, which is, I think, really cool. So if you buy one of the new Anker Gray Sailor 1911 fountain pens in the large size. North American Limited Edition, by the way. Look at that. You get a D. Charles single pen case for free. All you need to do is you go and add both items to your cart. There'll be links in the show notes for them. And you enter a special promo code, which is D. Charles. Which is Charles. D-E-E-C-H-A-R-L-E-S. This will get you 10% off and the free case. All the information is on the page. This special offer ends on August 11th. So if you're hearing this, act fast. So this is the Anker Gray Sailor 1911, which is beautiful. And you get a free D. Charles pen case as well. Thank you so much to Pen Chalet for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Sailor Pen

Brad Dowdy: That's pretty great. A Limited Edition pen from Sailor with a discount and a free pen case. That's pretty strong. Don't go wrong with that.

Myke Hurley: Don't go wrong with that. So what do you have your eye on?

Brad Dowdy: There's always something. Like I go into this, right? I purposefully go in without the list so I can... I'm open to stumbling into things. And at a show this size, people are going to break out things they don't normally do. So my good friend, Jimmy Doluff of the Atlanta Pen Show, he had a pen on his table that caught my eye. I'm afraid it's going to be far out of my budget and price range, but I'm going to ask him anyway. He wasn't available when I was handling it to get the price. But it's a Sailor King of Pens, except it's red instead of black Arushi. And it has a silver clip, and that's just kind of me. Yeah, it's nice. I've been wanting that large size pen. You know, I like the large Sailors. You know, the black is kind of... I don't want to say it's common, because it's not. But the red's different. And I haven't seen it before. I don't know what nibs on it, because it's still in its original packaging. And we weren't going to break that packaging open without Jimmy's permission. It could have some nib that I don't want on it. It could be at a price I don't want. But I'm not done with that pen until I get all those things, because it's now stuck in my head. So it's pretty great. I did see over at Franklin Kristoff had new Jonathan Brooks material pens in a matte acrylic that were really nice.

Brad Dowdy: Those are very tempting. The colors look really cool. The feel looks really cool. It's in their Model 31, the new model, the larger size barrel. It's a unique look and feel. And, you know, with Jonathan... I haven't seen these, yeah. Yeah, I need to take you over there and look at those, because they're really, really cool. And they're the same price as their normal line of pens. And they did a really great job on these. The colors look fantastic. They're darker, muted colors, but they still have a lot of swirls in the material. And they came out great. So those are the kind of things on my radar. I'm thinking about an Edison Menlo draw filler, because you know I love the Menlo. I've got three of them on the table right now. Just like in our display cases, I have a bunch of my Menlos out there. And getting, trying the new draw filler interests me. I haven't committed to that. Good friend Joe Crace of the Gentleman Stationer got a really, really beautiful one. And that's kind of the one I want now, the material he has. And there wasn't another one. So I feel like I'm making a second... Like I would be buying my second choice, and it's kind of too expensive to buy your second choice. Yeah. Even though there's some really cool ones over there, there's a really dark green and lime green one. What does his look like? It's the Visconti London Fog material. So it's clear with the blue, various shades of blue swirls through it. Okay. Beautiful, stunning. And he showed me that one. I was like, it's hard for me to pick a different one than that one. And Brian's going to make some more of them later. So I may just keep my eyes peeled for that down the line. But there was another one that I liked over there that was dark green and lime green. That looked really nice. But it wasn't a demonstrator. Solid colors. But it was really sharp. So I might go back and stare at those a little bit longer. Because I really love the shape of the Menlo.

Myke Hurley: So for me, this is something that's on my list. I don't think I'm going to find anything that satisfies me. I'm just on the lookout for a limited edition Pro Gear, as I mentioned. Yeah. I haven't seen anything. Right. I mean, there are some, but there's not what I'm looking for.

Brad Dowdy: You're going to need some legit Japanese vendors to come over here. Yeah. And they didn't have time this year to make this trip.

Myke Hurley: Or I need to convince someone to sell me one. Which is also a possible thing, right? People look to sell their pens. And this is something that I've never done before, but I'm open to trying it. Like, I'm going to talk to people. And if people are willing to sell me a limited edition sailor that I like, like as a private sale, then I might do that. Right. Right. Because honestly, for me to get some of the ones that I maybe got my eye on, that might be the only way that I'm going to be able to do it. True. And that happens. Yeah. Which is totally fine. Which is totally fine, right? Like, this is... I've bear witness to trades last night at the bar, right? Right. It is a thing that occurs. And I think that's cool. That's like another cool thing. It's just not something that I've done before. I mean, I do have a Pilot M90 sitting right there that I'm buying from you. Yeah. But like, you know, just to like be in the bar and be like, yeah, I'll buy that from you. Right. Right. Like, it's cool, but I've just never done it. It's a feature of the show. Yeah. It's a great thing. And it's a way to get your hand on a pen that you wouldn't be able to get otherwise. Right. And I think just because of some of the ones that I've got my eye on, some of the ones that I'm interested in, these aren't really ones that people are buying unless they want them. So that's the way you get it. Right. Right. So that, you know, it's just someone's like, yeah, I don't use this so much. Sure. You know, I have a bunch now. I've got my eye on an Akaya. Like, I want to save up again. Like, you know, that's the kind of way that you get this stuff. Right. I really want one of those Caran D'Ache fountain pens.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. The new one. Yeah. Faceted model.

Myke Hurley: I'm struggling to find the refill size that I want. I also wanted to get one for Adina because I thought that she would really like it. And she does. But I can't find a medium nib anywhere. They're all fines and extra fines. So, you know, I'm just going to have to, I might just have to let that one go for now. For now. Yeah. But they'll be available. It's something. I was talking to Vaness. What do they run? They're in the 50-ish range? 59, 57, 59, something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they're really. It's a cool pen. It's beautiful. And there's amazing, vibrant colors. Yeah. Like these pinks and yellows and greens. Crandash does that very well. And so like, and they put the brand underneath the clip, which is such a classy, tasteful design choice. So yeah, I would like one. I'd actually like to get one for Adina as well. But both of us wouldn't want fine, are extra fines. And no rush either. Like that is going to be available. It's a standard. Yeah. So there's one other pen which I might be picking up this week.

Brad Dowdy: There's a lot of people excited about this and simultaneously mad. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: But it's not a definite that I actually am. Yes. So we're still working on that. Our good friend of the show, who I am heartbroken, is not here this week, Mr. Thomas Hall. You may remember from discussions past that me, you, and him, and a bunch of others went in together to buy some, what is the actual? Tobaldy rods. Tobaldy, but it's got a specific name. Tobaldy Imperio Soluloid rods. Yes. Beautiful blue, silver, like unbelievable.

Brad Dowdy: The depth of these things. You know it when you see it. You've seen these before if you've been to a pen show because it's such a famous material, yet it's hard to get.

Franklin Christophe Pens

Myke Hurley: So he collaborated with Franklin Christophe to make a very small run, which is all sold out, of either Pocket 20 or Model 20 pens, which are in like the dark gray body that have a finial made of the Tobaldy material. And there is a possibility that I, because of Thomas' help, because he's wonderful, might be able to pick up one of the pens that they've used for photography here. So it doesn't have to be shipped to me. But it's if they've got it, and if it's in the size that I want, and we need to look at it together. I'm going to talk to Scott or Franklin Christophe. But I just wanted to mention this because it's all for charity, but it's beautiful. And if you were lucky enough to get one of these, congratulations to you.

Brad Dowdy: But I have ordered one. They raised a lot of money for charity, which is like a lot. I don't have the number in front of me. Thomas has it on his page, I think. But it was, if I'm not mistaken, it was close to like 10 grand or something. It was something crazy. I was like, wow, that's awesome. $10,000. Yeah. So congratulations to Thomas and Franklin Christophe for being involved in something like this. Great job. And I know I can't wait for my pen. And if Myke does come up with this pen, Scott is unsure whether it made the trip. He's like, we talked to him tonight and he's like, it very well could be on my office desk.

Myke Hurley: He said it was the plan, but we'll see if it was an actuality. Yeah. So yeah, there we go. And before we wrap up today, we don't have any new products this time. You had some like weird, wonderful, magical colorways that have just been available at this show. Yeah, we did. But what you have had here is the prototypes of the seed line of cases. Yeah. So these are the A5, A6 and Traveler's notebook cases. Yeah. And they've been on the tables and people have been coming over and everyone's trying to buy them. But, you know, you're just showing them off. Yeah. And I just kind of wondered from your perspective how you feel some of the feedback has been for the case. Because that's why you have them here. Right. To show them off to get feedback. We're coming out later this year. Right. How's this? Have you achieved what you were looking for at least today with this?

Brad Dowdy: So it's important for us to do this. Right. We're a small company who has a group of loyal yet growing customer base. And we definitely believe in customer feedback and learning what our customers want. And we've been asked for this style of case probably since we started the business. Like at least three years, if not longer. Like I need a case for my notebook. I love your stuff. Make it. But it's taken so long because, you know, lots of things. It's a large project with lots of units required, which means lots of money. So it's taken us some time. And it also took us some time to get the design right. You know, we've been working on this since late last year. And we finally got it down to the exact case we want and the exact colors we want just in the past week or two. So I wanted to bring these cases to show to our customers and our fans and potential new customers and say this is what we have coming up. We haven't really done anything like this before, like a huge preview. But this is a case worthy of that because it's a bigger case. It's something people have wanted. It's in great sizes for what our customers use frequently. And I'll be perfectly honest with you. They're really cool.

Myke Hurley: They're amazing.

Brad Dowdy: Like this is... The colors are fantastic. We've talked about this before. Like we make things that we want to carry, right? I want... These are the things that I want to get made. And that's how this company started. And I want to carry my traveler's notebooks in this case. I want to carry my A5 book in this case. And we finally got it. And the feedback has been spectacular. I am very pleased with what everyone's saying about it. I'm very pleased that everyone is trying to steal them. If they're not trying to buy them, they're trying to steal them. And I'm just... I'm very pleased with the response to that product. Because it's a different product. Although it's something that fits perfectly with the product lineup as a whole. So hopefully by late September we'll have these. It's not a completely firm timeline. But that's a ballpark timeline. And we're trying... For all of you Hobonichi Techo fans... We're trying to get the small size first. Which is the A6 size. I know the Hobonichi Techo comes out on September 1st. I don't know if we'll have ours then. But it's going to be really, really close. And you don't need that calendar until 2018 anyway. So this is the case you've been asking us for. And we're finally able to deliver it. And we're obviously really excited about it. Because we wanted to give them out at the table. And show them to people. And let them play around with them. And see what they like. And give us some criticism on them. And some feedback. And it's been exactly what I wanted to hear. And it's been very positive.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, they look great, man. Thank you. I appreciate it. The best colorway is a purple and lilac. Yeah. Which is just fantastic. It looks so good. Yeah, they look great. I mean, I have my fingers crossed. And I'm very hopeful for it. I think it's going to be a great product. And I look forward to getting one. I'm going to get... I want the Traveler's notebook size. Which is never a notebook that I've never really used before. But it's the nice... For me, it's the case size that would work best for me.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And a lot of the hang-up with the Travelers is their traditional covers are just a flap of leather. Yeah. So there's no closure. So ours are zip all the way around.

Myke Hurley: And also, there's no pockets and stuff inside them. No pen slots, yeah. You know?

Brad Dowdy: So your stuff doesn't fall out. That's a notebook where things can fall out and get around. These are completely enclosed.

Myke Hurley: And they have a great pocket on the front as well. And that's a flat pocket on the front. Yep. So yeah. That's Friday, man. We've got two more days. God, wait. The real business kicks off over the next couple of days.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm in here. Myke's staring at me as I'm rubbing my neck. I'm like totally...

Myke Hurley: We're locked eyes right now as we realize what we're doing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. But today ended up being really good. Yeah. And it's because of the people. And I want to give a special shout-out to the Pay It Forward table. Yeah. Oscar, Denise, Crystal, who are doing that. They're doing just an awesome job with what they're trying to accomplish here. And hopefully we've been able to help them out some. Getting people to go over and see them. They're in the front room where Canalea Pins is. So go see them. Go see what they're doing. They have a lot of giveaway stuff over there. They got a knock case they came and picked up for me today. They're doing some giveaways for. So go see what they're doing. Get involved with the Pay It Forward table. It's a great service to the community. Definitely. And I'm just so excited and really proud of what they've put together.

Myke Hurley: Me too. It's brilliant. It's an amazing thing to see. Yep. And I'm happy that we've been able to give them a little leg up as well. It's great. Yep. All right. And that wraps it up for this week's episode. Two more days. Two more days. I'm excited. Yeah. Me too. Yeah. Me too. I'm really, really interested to see what tomorrow brings.

Brad Dowdy: I am too. Tomorrow, Saturday is going to determine what the commentary of the show will be.

Myke Hurley: Yep.

Brad Dowdy: How tomorrow plays out will determine a lot in the way the show is spoken about.

Myke Hurley: Yep. So you can look out for a full report of the two actual days of trading of the show, which are Saturday and Sunday. It's going to be on next week's episode, which will be on Wednesday as normal. If you want to find our show notes for this week, you can go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 268. If you want to follow us online, there's a couple of ways you can do that. Brad is at penaddict.com. Of course, knock.co. And he's dowdyism on Twitter, penaddict on Instagram. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E on social networks. Thanks to Harry's and Penn Chalet for their support. Most of all, thank you for listening. As always, I hope you've enjoyed this special on location episode. Until next time, Brad. Say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad Downey. Goodbye, Brad Downey.