The Pen Addict 528/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	528
Title:	10:12 AM
Release Date:	August 31st, 2022
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 528
Audio File:	Audio Episode 528
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 528
Length:	6060 min <br />1 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 528. Today's episode is brought to you by our friends at SaneBox. My name is Myke Hurley, and I'm joined by the San Francisco Pen Show, Brad Dowdy. What's up, Myke? I just figure maybe at this point you can just assume the entire identity of the show.

Brad: I mean, we're like on a six-week run or so, right?

Myke: So, like, you are now the San Francisco Pen Show. That is you. That is your entire being.

Brad: Well, I think the people who run the San Francisco Pen Show and probably the San Francisco Pen Show posse would probably have some disagreements with that statement.

San Francisco Pen Show

Myke: You can just walk in and run whatever you want. You're Brad Dowdy. You know what I mean? This is my show now.

Brad: Well, it did take over my life for the better part of a month, right? The San Francisco Pen Show, and we're not done yet because we actually had the show, Myke.

Myke: Yeah. I mean, looking at these notes today, we're really not done.

Brad: Yeah. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about the Pen Show today. It will be another probably full episode of Pen Show content, and I'll elaborate on what I'm going to try to do here in a minute. But it's also September, Myke, allegedly, right?

Myke: It's basically September. And around these parts, September means this is when we come together to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, because September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. For the fourth consecutive year, the Relay of Home community is rallying together again to support the life-saving mission of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, finding cures, saving children. This year, St. Jude celebrates 60 years of leading the way the world understands, treats, and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. The son of grateful immigrants, Danny Thomas, brought people together in support of the life-saving goal that St. Jude has, finding cures, saving children. With a focus on saving as many children as possible, St. Jude brought research and patient care under one roof and pioneered racial integration as the first fully integrated children's hospital in the southern United States. As it expands in scope and extends its life-saving mission to help more children around the world, St. Jude continues to stand as a beacon of hope for families everywhere. Childhood Cancer Awareness Month is an opportunity for us to come together in the fight against childhood cancer, because together we can make a big impact. And this year, there's a bunch of ways that you can make that impact and support the Relay.fm for St. Jude campaign. So as always, we invite you to make a donation. You can go to stjude.org slash Relay and you can donate. If you donate an individual gift of $60 or more, you'll get a digital bundle, which includes some wallpapers that we've made and a macOS screensaver, which is just absolutely absurd and incredible. That will come when the campaign ends. Donors who make an individual gift of $100 or more will receive this and a set of exclusive stickers as well. If you work for a company that has a matching gift program for donations, please check to see if your company does. If they do, fill out the form at stjude.org slash Relay and you can have that match credited towards the campaign. And new for this year, this is the big thing that we're doing this year, this is new. If you want to get more hands-on, you can start your own fundraising campaign to help us reach our goals. And so many Relay.fm listeners have done this already. And you can earn exclusive Relay.fm merchandise. So you go to stjude.org slash Relay and you can find out more about how you set up a fundraising campaign and you can go through the processes there. You can then share this campaign with your friends, your family, your co-workers and help us raise more money to defeat childhood cancer. Fundraisers who raise $1 or more will receive an exclusive St. Jude limited edition of the Relay.fm challenge coin. And if you raise $250 or more, you'll also receive a very unique desk mat, which features the cartoon heads of me and Stephen. If you remember last year, we stuck stickers all over our desks for the amount of money raised. Well, we've now turned that artwork into a desk mat that you can put on your own desk. And there's images there at stjude.org slash Relay. So please go there right now to donate and find out more about fundraising. Don't forget as well, September 16th, put it on your calendars. That is the fourth annual podcast-a-thon streaming live from St. Jude. Me and Stephen will be together for eight hours starting at 12 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time at twitch.tv slash Relay FM. And we'll be telling you a little bit more about that in the coming weeks. So once again, please go to stjude.org slash Relay to learn more and donate and let's cure childhood cancer together.

Brad: I know this is the highlight of all of us, highlight of our year at Relay. It's so cool, such a big deal, and such an awesome, awesome thing to do. And I know you and Stephen do so much for this and put in a lot of time and effort. So thank you for kicking us off, Myke. You're already underway online, you know, doing streams, doing all kinds of stuff. So it's going to be a good month, right?

Myke: Yep. And we're closing in on $30,000 so far.

Brad: Nice, nice, nice.

Myke: We're cooking.

Post-Pen Show Recovery

Brad: Very, very cool. I'm not cooking right now. I'm recovering. I'm recovering. I'm in the sink. I'm in the dishes. I'm waiting to be cleaned up because, boy, Myke, did I have a week in the awesomeness that is the San Francisco Pen Show 2022.

Brad: This is going to be a messy podcast, right? I'm going to be all over the place. Myke's just going to let me riff for a while and then maybe, like, you know, kind of, you know, get into organizing my thoughts here for a minute or ask some questions because I don't know where to start. I don't know where to end. I don't know what to talk about other than my experience. So what I want to do today, Myke, is try to capture some of that, at least for the first couple of days, right? It was, and I'll explain why. I specifically mean that as we go through the show, it'll become pretty apparent.

Brad: But yeah, it was...

Brad: Recency bias is true. It's a real thing. It's probably the best Pen Show experience I've had in a non, you know, Pen Addict event capacity, right? Like, at those... Anytime we do a Pen Addict podcast, those are always near and dear to my heart. Atlanta, San Francisco, wherever we've done them. But just from a Pen Show experience, it was the most fun I've had. It's been a long time coming, right? This is my first big travel trip in two and a half years. And I picked probably one of my favorite shows ever to go, and it delivered the goods, right? That's the short version. It was perfect. Like, it was great. So I knew something was up when I arrived on Thursday. So the San Francisco Pen Show officially ran from Friday to Sunday last week. But I showed up Thursday, which, you know, a lot of vendors do to get set up on Friday morning. And then some people who have their weekend passes, like myself, will come in Thursday night so they can get going Friday morning and just kind of spend the weekend. I don't ever recall seeing just the area around the show that busy on a Thursday night. And I don't mean vendors setting up. The vendors are there, right? Because they're going to get... A lot of them are going to get to work at 8 o'clock Friday morning because that's when weekend pass holder hours come in. But just the bar area, the hangouts, was like a normal Friday night at a show. It was noticeable, right? Like, it didn't feel normal. It was busy on a Thursday night. And I was like, oh, this is how it's going to be, isn't it? And it was, right? It was definitely like this leading indicator of what was about to happen at this show. And it held up through all the weekend. So it was telling to see that. It was interesting. It caught my eye, right, to go, huh, this is different. And we haven't even started yet. So that's kind of how the whole entire weekend ran, you know. So what I want to do is talk a lot about mostly Friday. And then I'll kind of ramble on a few other issues. Because Friday is where I got really, really busy in trying to check the list of all the things I wanted to do. So it was definitely my busiest day. It was the first day of the show. I was exhausted. And it was all because I was running around the show. So Friday was going to be paper day. All the paper things for Friday was my plan. Because we had, you know, Yamamoto Paper, Plotter, Misubi, just pretty much everything that I wanted to get to see that I don't normally get to see, you know, online or through regular retail outlets, things like that. So probably, I don't know, I guess I went into the show about 830 Friday. And went over to Yamamoto Paper, who is Taizo Yamamoto. And he had his family there working with him. Had three, at least two big tables of paper. He's done the paper tastings in the past, you know, all the fountain pen friendly papers, things like that. So I wanted to go over there, see what was new. Just, you know, say hey and catch up with Taizo for a minute. And see what new stuff they had. And they had a lot of, he kind of self-buined some notepads. So they had Tomoe River A5 notepads, Sanson Tomoe River notepads, Mitsubishi Bank Paper notepads. Well, not Mitsubishi Bank Paper notepads. Special Bank Paper notepads, which we'll talk more about a little bit later. So I picked up a few of those things, right, and got to hang out with Taizo. And then I got to check out his paper setup. And in the past, he's had the larger sheets in random sizes for the paper testing. This time, he did it really, really smartly. Where it was basically like a post-it size, almost like a three inch by three inch block of paper. And then just had tons of these blocks of paper. So I had a paper of 18 different varieties of paper on the table. And would have a sample set of that paper. So you could go, I literally went through and wrote on all 18 types of paper. And then kept track of my favorites. And you could pick five of those papers and make a little block. To make up your own little paper tasting of yourself. So that was cool. I did that separately from my first little run through the show there to see Taizo. So that was really cool. And I'll have a lot more on Yamamoto Paper as we go through this show. And you'll see why later. But I knew I had an appointment that morning. At 10, 10, 12 a.m. Myke, 10, 12. Yeah, not 10 o'clock, not 10, 30. 10, 12 a.m. I had an appointment with Plotter. To basically customize my cover for a Plotter. But it wasn't time yet, right? I went and saw Taizo. It was still probably only like 9 o'clock. So I went mingling around the show. And I saw my friends at Bungu Box. Karu and Bruce were here from Bungu Box. And boy, did they get me in trouble.

Brad: In more ways than one, Myke. In more ways than one. So they showed a bunch of... They obviously brought all their wonderful sailors. All their store exclusives. All their Maquiai Twisby Ecos. A bunch of ink. A bunch of new ink. To the show. And I bought something early Friday morning. That I wasn't accounting for, Myke. I bought the Cinderella slipper glass dip pen.

Myke: What is that? What are you talking about? So I put a link in the show notes. Oh, this thing. I've seen this thing. Yeah, okay. This is an object. Yeah. This is a... Do you know what this is, Brad?

Brad: Yeah.

Myke: This is a pen show purchase.

Brad: This... You could not be more correct.

Myke: Yeah. I would have never bought this online. You'd never buy this. You just wouldn't buy it. No. It's just like, why would I buy this? But when you see it at a pen show, you pick it up, you feel it, you maybe use it. You're like, oh yeah, I get it.

Brad: Yep. Yeah. And it was sitting there. It's so... One of the classic pen show rules is if you pick it up twice, you will buy it. You're in trouble.

Myke: Yeah, you're in trouble.

Brad: Yeah. I think I picked it up like five times, right? It just... The design of it, the style of it, the look of it just kept calling me.

Bungu Box Release Teasers

Brad: And, you know, talking to Kairu about it, talking to Bruce about it, and just looking at it, obviously holding it, and just going, God, this is great, isn't it? This is great. This is great. But, you know, it was just... I guess it was inevitable that I was going to come home with it or something like that, right? So, it was... It ended up with me. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet, right? I'm definitely going to use it. Am I going to keep it? Like, I got to think about these things. Like, I'm okay having a few purchases where I'm in the middle, right? That's what pen shows are for. Pen shows are not for wise decisions, right? They're for...

Myke: You wouldn't go, would you? You know what I mean? Yeah, no.

Brad: Don't go to a pen show if you think you're going to be smart about your buying. This was not a smart thing because, like, I didn't mentally allocate it for it. Like, I talk about how I don't use a budget or necessarily a shopping list, but I mentally account for extra things like this that I wasn't really planning on. I'll have a lot to say about this. I'm definitely going to review it and then I'm going to see how I continue to use it.

Brad: I have held this until right now and I've just sent you an image, Myke, and you are not allowed to say what this is, but I also found something else at Bungu Box. So, let me know when you receive. This image should be coming to you via Slack.

Myke: I mean, I'm looking at it as we speak.

Brad: Okay. Can you tell what it is without saying it out loud or guessing?

Brad: Do you know what one of my favorite pens of all time is?

Myke: Oh, get out of town.

Myke: How does this exist? Do you see it now?

Brad: Yeah. Do you see it now? Oh, I see it now. Yeah. Okay. I was asked not to talk about this, although Bungu Box did end up putting it on the table because there will be a pre-sale available September 1st. You should be paying attention to these things. If you follow alongside me as far as types of products that you like, you will want to check out Bungu Box on September 1st. And so, next week, since the pre-order will be live, Myke, next week we will go into detail on this. Okay? So, I had to drop that on you. I wasn't going to put this in the show notes.

Myke: This is very intriguing to me.

Brad: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot. Right? It is a lot going on. And I talked to Bruce and Cairo a lot about it. So, we will have more next week. Sorry to tease y'all like that. And there will be other pictures out there. There will be other people teasing it because it was publicly displayed for a while. I'm actually holding the box in one of my pictures on their Instagram feed. But I will not. I will honor their wishes for me not to mention it until it's live.

Myke: Question I have. And this won't give anything away. Will this only be available at Bungu Box?

Brad: Yes.

Myke: Okay.

Yamamoto Line Discussion

Brad: Yep. It's going to be essentially like one of their classic store releases. So, yeah. Yeah. So, again, I hate to tease y'all like that. But if you are in my category of brands you like, styles of pens you like, you will be wanting to pay attention to this. So, I apologize for having to tease you. But you won't have to wait very long. What? Two days? One day? Something like that. So, yeah. Whatever today is. So, yeah. That was cool. They were very excited to show that to me. So, yeah. It was great. All right. So, you know, I bought some other ink. We're going to talk about some of the inks I bought from them later. This is all at a later date. I have not finished unpacking yet, Myke, from all the stationary goods. You know, clothes are unpacked, sure. But I filled half of a suitcase with stationary goods on the return trip. And I've gone through about half of it so far. So, we'll have lots more to mix into future show episodes. So, when I was over at Yamamoto Paper in the morning, right across the aisle from them was Toyocraft. If you're new to the show and not familiar with Toyocraft, they make wonderful pen storage accessories out of Japan. I purchased a 100-pen box from them, you know, earlier this summer. And so, I was excited to see what they brought over to the San Francisco pen show, knowing like their type of goods. That's really, really tough for them to travel with. And they were still setting up when I was over at Yamamoto Paper. So, I went and did my other things and, you know, had my plotter appointment. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself. Almost had my plotter appointment. So, I went back over to Toyoka. They had finished setting up. And then there was now a queue, Myke. There was an orderly... Do you remember the Toronto pen show? The queues that we would see on the tables? Yeah, it was awesome. Yeah, it was awesome, right? They just happened to be in a location that allowed for that, right? Most other areas in the show, like a queue wouldn't have worked. But where they were at, there was about... I was about eight, number eight in the queue at the time. And I didn't realize it, but I was running against my time to... My 10-12 appointment to go to plotter. So, I'm sitting there watching things just flying off the table. You know, everyone in front of me is just like, you know, arms full of wonderful Toyoka craft goods. So, I get up to about three or four in the queue. Then I realize it's like 10-05. I was like, oh, this isn't going to happen. So, I leave the line, Myke, and run over to plotter.

Myke: Oh, you went to the Yamamoto line, left the Yamamoto line, went back to plotter. Okay.

Brad: Well, I left the Toyoka craft line. That's what I meant. I was on the Toyoka. Yeah.

Myke: Yeah, I said the wrong thing.

Brad: Yep. So, I went and got in the line. Like, oh, I'm good. Like, I'm going to check this stuff out. And it just like, never, I never got there. So, I left. I ditched.

Myke: I could not believe that... Was it you that posted? Or was it them that posted?

Brad: It was me that posted like the before and after. Yeah. It was legit, right? Like, they blew out. Like, I figured they were going to go on Friday, just, you know, get an early play fight back. But they did hold a little bit back for Saturday and Sunday, but most of the big stuff was gone. So, we'll get back to that because I got to meet the owner.

Myke: I will say, on that, I saw that. And I know you'll shrug this off, but I showed it at the end of the pictures. I was like, that's the Brad Doughty effect.

Brad: Not even remotely. No, because they've been to the show before. Do they always sell out like this, though? Well, let's just say I did find out they brought three times as much to this show as they did the last time they were there and sold it out even faster.

Myke: I think that you're not fully responsible. You are definitely partly responsible.

Brad: Yeah. Well, so I got to meet, I didn't write this down, but I believe it's Toru Yamazaki. So, Mr. Yamazaki was very, very nice in, you know, getting to meet him and talking for a minute and just wonderful and just, like, number one, exhausted from what happened the day before. I got to talk to him on Saturday. And two, just thankful for the community support as a whole for, like, coming to San Francisco and getting this type of reception. When you honestly, I mean, he should kind of know, but you don't know, right? You don't know. Like, these are not inexpensive goods, right? He couldn't bring everything.

Myke: It's a complicated thing to buy. You now have a big box. Like, if you traveled in, which a lot of people do, like, what do you do with that, you know?

Brad: Right. Like, there were people, like, I talked to Joe, our friend at the Gentleman Station, and he's like, I only brought a carry-on, so I didn't even bother, right? Because I knew there was not going to be room for me to carry anything back. So, yeah. Yeah.

Brad: Mr. Yamazaki was thrilled with just the reception of his products at the event. He was by himself. And, like, the next day when I got to talk to him, he was just glowing, right? You can see it in the picture. He's just like, he was thrilled with how everything went. And Bruce introduced me and helped translate, like, a few questions. And Bruce was just like a saint all weekend and helping me out with that. So, it was great. It was just a pure joy to see. I know he was very stressed on Friday trying to handle money conversions and payments and things like that, right? That was very tough on him, I know, because I was watching him. And he was like, whew, he's like, all right, deep breath time as he was, like, calculating prices. But it was a great event for them. So, I did circle back later and pick up a couple smaller items, which we may or may not get to in this episode. So, I went over to Plotter.

Show Layout and Experience

Brad: Let me talk about the layout real quick, the show layout. So, when you and I went, there was a main ballroom, which was – we're at the same hotel as you were at previously, Myke. So, there was a main ballroom. And then off that volume was a foyer, which had a lot of vendors in it as well. Then off of that foyer was a little kind of small room that held maybe another 15 or so tables. So, all of that was together. So, what happened this time, Myke, and it was probably like this last year, but I wasn't there to know for sure. I don't know if you recall, but there was a large – more towards the front of the hotel, there was a large wooden floor room where that was, like, the event space. They had the band there. They had their after-hours events there before. That is now part of the show floor, right? So, they've acquired even more space to fit more tables in. And they had kind of a single entrance point out by the elevators of the hotel to work you in through this foyer. And then the foyer – excuse me. Well, I'm mixing my terms. In through this first room, the wooden floor room. Then you work through that, brings you back to the foyer, which used to be the old entrance of the room. And then into the main ballroom. So, it was kind of a long, you know, kind of path to get through. And then it opens up wide into the big show. I thought it worked pretty well. It was interesting to see just, like, how many more tables were there since the last time I had been there. So, that was pretty cool. So, I enjoyed seeing that. So, Toyoka, Yamamoto Paper. They were in the main ballroom in the very far back right. And Bungu Box and Plotter were essentially back-to-back out in that open foyer area. So, went back to Plotter.

Brad: And it was time for me to build my notebook, Myke. Do you want me to get into this and tell you what I did and what that experience was like?

Myke: Let's take a break first. Okay. Okay. Because I don't understand how long this is going to be. Because I don't really know what customizing the plot or cover might be.

Brad: It's interesting. So, let's take a break, I think.

Myke: Okay, cool. This episode is brought to you by our friends at SaneBox. Inbox Zero is a thing of the past. We're also inundated of email now. It is no longer about responding to everything. It's about responding only to the important things. The messages that really matter. Honestly, that's kind of the point of the actual real point of Inbox Zero. But it's gotten twisted over time. Anyway, SaneBox is about bringing you back to that actual real idea. SaneBox gets your email in order by working on top of your existing setup. With no need to create a new email account or download a new app. SaneBox just makes your existing ones better. If you've ever met someone who's used SaneBox, you'll know that the initial SaneBox purge can be a very powerful thing. And after that initial clear-up, SaneBox then allows people to manage their daily emails more effectively from there. SaneBox has some really interesting features like the Sane Black Hole. This is where you can drag a message to this folder in your email app from people you never want to hear from again. And you never will. And it's even better than unsubscribing. Because sometimes when you click that unsubscribe link, they can put you on additional lists. Or I believe it confirms that you were there in the first place. And this causes the number of unwanted emails to go up instead of down. But if you drag them to the Sane Black Hole, you'll just never hear from that person ever again. There's also Sane Reminders, which can ping you if someone hasn't replied to your email by a certain date. So you just drag that email to that folder, or you click to move it to that folder, and you'll get alerted later on. Plus, you can snooze emails to SaneBox, which is a great way to defer or de-emphasize less urgent emails. Just get to them later. All of this works with any email client or phone, anywhere that you check your email. I have been a happy SaneBox customer for years now. Two of the ones that I use the most are the Sane Later and Sane News folders. So Sane Later, it's just basically SaneBox is looking at what's going on, what's coming into your email address, and it moves emails to the Sane Later folder that are identified as being like, you don't know this person, or this is something new, or maybe this is something that's not of urgency for you, so it keeps your inbox a little clearer. And then Sane News just collects up newsletters and email marketing and stuff like that, so you can peruse them when you want to, again, without cluttering up your inbox. With over 600 reviews on Trustpilot, glowing reviews from TechCrunch, Forbes, the New York Times, and emailers everywhere, you can rest assured that you will fall in love with email again. See how SaneBox can magically remove distractions from your inbox of a two-week free trial. Visit sanebox.com slash penaddict today to start your free trial and get a $25 credit. That's S-A-N-E-B-O-X dot com slash penaddict. Our thanks to SaneBox for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad: So before I dig back into the plotter, just to give everyone a heads up, I know I'm just kind of rambling through this as I do. Kimberly will have her Friday pen show review up, and you'll get to see some more pictures of the layout. I haven't posted a ton of pictures on Instagram, but you can follow the SFPenShow 2022 hashtag on Instagram. Kimberly's review will be up on Friday, and there'll be plenty of reviews. On the penaddict. Yep. So, you know, as I'm going through this, and you're not following me, it's understandable. We're following you. I'm still coming down from the high, Myke. So we're into contact high phase right now. So we're still winding it down a little bit. So while you were mentioning our good friends over at SaneBox, I mentioned to you a couple weeks ago that, oh, I need to get into that. So what I did while you were reading that wonderful ad, I opened up my plotter, Narrow, and wrote a note to, hey, go sign up for SaneBox. So this was my goal, making my appointment with plotter to build my cover. So plotter is a modular notebook system. We've talked about them since last year. They launched at the San Francisco Pen Show. So they've been around in the U.S. market for a year. They've been in Japan for almost five years now. And you can have different sizes of covers and then different sizes of inserts that go into your plotter. My original plotter was A5 size because that was just what I thought I wanted at the time. And it turns out I didn't really use it that much. Still don't use it that much.

Myke: You have a bunch of A5 notebooks already.

Brad: Yeah. Yeah. So I was like, let's get the thing that I know I like. I was like, oh, well, I already use other things for how I'm using this. So I wanted to, I've been thinking about getting a different plotter that would have a completely different use case. So what I wanted was a smaller pocketable one. So this is a smaller rectangular shape, smaller than a traveler's notebook size. I think everyone's familiar with that kind of A5 slim size of the traveler's notebook. This is shorter and narrower. So it's kind of like a Hobonichi Weeks, if people are familiar with that. So I was able to, in building, in customizing your plotter, you get to pick the cover and the hardware. Cover material, which is all leather right now. They are testing out some vegan stuff. So y'all should be happy about that. So if you're looking for a vegan option.

Myke: Right?

Brad: Yeah. Color and like texture, right? They have like four or five different textures of the leather or finishes, I guess you should say, like the leather. So, but my size that I wanted is, it's not uncommon, but I don't know that it's the most popular size. So there were only a few choices. So I purposefully got an early appointment to make sure I got one of the covers. And I got this nice brown leather cover. And they started offering silver hardware as opposed to the gold hardware, which looks fantastic on all these leathers. I chose like a silver hardware. So I got to meet the creative director who helped me pick out the cover and hardware and like wrote up my little ticket. And that was it for the customization. So the customization part is cover size, cover material and color, and then hardware. Right? So basically the externals of your plotter. That was the customization part. So then they give you a ticket and say, at my time to come back was 1245. And I just assumed, you know, anytime after 1245, this product would be ready for me to come pick up. But there'll be more on that later.

Brad: So once I did that, I then went down the plotter table and picked out the inserts I wanted for this notebook. So I was still thinking about the setup, but I picked up the to-do list. And I picked up just the general notebook, grid notebook pages. And I picked up like a calendar that starts in 2023, just because I was there. And then I'll eventually have this. So I'm very happy with the size, shape, construction, feel, usage of this, because this is really designed for me. My idea for this was this is what my just fleeting notes are going to happen in, happen and be able to track and log them. You know, hey, Myke's talking about SaneBox. I remembered that, hey, I needed to go check that out. So now that is a note in my to-do list. Just this real on-the-fly stuff. You know, yesterday I was shipping, you know, catching up on Pen Addict, Knock, and Spoke Design stuff. And I had some notes to send to Brian out of the Spoke inventory. So I just jotted those down until later. Like I want to, I always have trouble capturing those immediate thoughts and putting them somewhere. Instead of saying, hey, I need to email Brian and forgetting about it, I am putting down what I need to email him. So I have it when I actually have time to stop and email. So that was my idea for this narrow. What happened at the plotter, kind of like the Bungu Box thing, I was there. And it was so crowded at the plotter table. And I mean that in a positive way. There was a buzz and just a vibe on that between the plotter. And the same company that owns Plotter owns Traveler's Notebook. So they had like a kind of a big L-shaped three or four table setup. It was packed from beginning to end. It was maybe the single most busy table that I recall seeing at the entire show.

Myke: How were they offering this like cover customization thing? Did everybody have to book appointments? No.

Brad: No, you could just go and pick from their stock editions. So what happens...

Myke: No, but like the customization thing that you did. Yes. Did other people get to do that?

Brad: Oh, yeah. Yeah, tons. Right. Like they had open appointments.

Myke: Right, right.

Brad: But you also didn't have to. So the difference between the customization and the regular table is you could make configurations that were not stock.

Myke: Mm-hmm.

Brad: Right. So maybe my leather material wouldn't have come with silver hardware if I went to the website and order. So the stock configurations were all boxed up and ready for people to pick out. They could pick out their leather cover and their type and they would just get handed over a box, right? And then pick all the inserts to go with that. The one thing I saw there that turns out a bunch of people were really big fans of was one called the Mini 5. It is basically about the size of a wallet, but it has, you know, the little binding, little notebook accessories. I picked up one of those as well just to try and see, see what I think about it, see if it's going to be like a use case for me. I'm not sure that it is. I'm still thinking about that. And like I said, I haven't really had time to analyze everything at that level. But I did pick up two plotters. But one of them, the one that I went for is already in my rotation and, you know, doing exactly what I hoped to get from it. So, yeah, I was very, very good about that one. So, San Francisco is good for meeting up with a lot of people you haven't seen in, you know, you talk to online. Like for me, not necessarily from a business perspective, but from a friendship perspective, you get to meet a lot of people walking around that you talk to online and haven't met in a while. So, I got to see a lot of the vendors come over from Japan and the Asian markets you get to hang out with. And then you get some very brand new makers into the space, which is always exciting for me because a lot of times I've talked to them ahead of time. And there was a pen company, a maker called Skogsie Pens. It's Zach Skogsberg and his wife, Amy, who Zach has been in my Twitch streams for, I don't know, probably the past year. I might be underselling or overselling that time frame. I didn't actually look at it. But, you know, he's been around and he's always told me he's made pens. And, you know, at that point, I followed him on Instagram and, you know, the pens look fantastic, of course. And, you know, he's just like a solo maker, him and his wife, a family, family maker, if you will. And they had a table. He told me he was going to have a table. This was their first pen show. And they kind of got one of the best tables in the room. You literally were forced to pass their table in that wooden floor room to get into the main show. You had to pass their table. So they were one of the first people I saw when I walked in. So I got to talk to them, got to meet them. But then I moved on Friday because I had a bunch of other stuff like I had to get done on Friday morning. I was going to circle back. But the pens look great. Their setup look great. I took some pictures. They really put in the time and effort to make a really good booth. It was beautiful. And they were just super nice to finally meet in person. Loved talking with them and chatting. And by the end of the day, Saturday, they had sold a bunch of pens. And I was like excited. And then I, you know, at that point, I haven't bought anything from them. So came around to Sunday as I get ahead of myself a little bit. Excuse me, Saturday. I went in Saturday with the intent to see them first and get my own pen, which I did. And, you know, there was about half the amount of pens as the day before. And then by the time I checked in with them late Saturday, there was like two pens left on the table. It was like a Toyoka Craft situation. It was like everything is gone. I was so happy for them. So definitely, you know, we'll definitely want to give them a shout out. And we'll have a link in the show notes. Y'all can go check out the goods. And I will say, and Zach will probably yell at me for bringing them up. They're in the midst of a move. They were planning a move before and after this show and fit this pen show in between. So there may not be much inventory available for a minute, but definitely go give them a follow on Instagram. We'll have the notes in there. And I ended up with a micarta pen from them that I will be reviewing at a later date. And it's just fantastic. Well, black micarta pen, Myke. And it is really, really well done. It's really nice. So we'll check that out. But it was cool to see someone's first experience hopefully be so as positive as I assumed that it was. But it looked like they were pretty much glowing the whole time. So it felt good. Back to Friday. Okay. I got to spend time with the most awesome Daryl from Misubi, who is one of the great people in Stationery. I don't say that lightly. I love everything that Daryl not just makes, but that he stands for. And the way he runs his business and the way he manages everything and keeps everybody in the loop. He's just like, and he's just like an awesome hang, you know, just to chit chat with and, you know, shoot the Stationery with. He's just a wonderful, wonderful person. You like how I did that there? Yeah. I saved you, Myke. It was good. Shoot the Stationery. It was good. Yeah. I like that. I figured you might have buckled there a little bit. But, you know, I picked up a few Misubi goods, you know, as one does. That's another table that you just saw slowly.

Myke: On their website, like they're selling the new Sansan paper.

Brad: Yes. Yeah. So I picked up a couple of those. I picked up a lot of the new Sansan stuff between Daryl and Taizo at Yamamoto. So I'll definitely be doing some further tests. I'm intrigued.

Myke: Because as far as I'm remembering, you've just tested it. You haven't had a book with it in, right?

Brad: Correct. So I got loose sheets from Jacob in the fall, right after last year's Tokyo show. So that was like November-ish. I got loose sheets. So we'll see how this compares to that. Like, it's good. Like, it's just never going to be the old Tomoe. But, you know, it's certainly good enough to be its own product. So, yeah. It was really cool. So he had a bunch of that. And Taizo had a bunch of that stuff. So I, in turn, now have a bunch of that. Definitely multiple notebooks and notepads worth of that to test, to give away, to review, all that stuff. So my Friday involved three to four trips to my room to unload. Mostly paper goods. Mostly notebooks and everything that I picked up. Too heavy to carry around. So it was great. Like, Friday was just like really, really awesome. Like, I had a plan on Friday to hit up all of the people like at the top of my list that I wanted to see that I haven't seen in years or haven't, you know, picked up any of their new products in a while. And it worked out great. So it was awesome to go ahead and get that done. I really did the majority of my shopping on Friday. Because I know going into the weekend at the San Francisco Pen Show that Saturday, pretty much any pen show, Saturday is going to be the busiest day. And boy, let me tell you. Saturday, it was packed to the hilt in midday. Right? You know, early and late, it obviously wound down a little bit. It was as busy of aisles as I've seen. And San Francisco does a good job of spacing. Right? Like, you can, you know, be in front of tables and then still have a little bit of an aisle down each aisle. I'm talking about like in the main ballroom to get back and forth down the aisles. That was even like full for, you know, a few hours in the middle of the day. I'd never seen it so crowded. I've never seen, I've rarely seen a show that crowded. Maybe like if I could look back at like a peak DC pen show, maybe at the old hotel, maybe at the new when things were actually running smoothly for a minute. DC might be that full. But it was crazy. I know the show promoters were thrilled with the walk-ups and just like the gate, if you will, during the show. And Saturday bore that out for sure. It was pretty good. The funny thing was I didn't hear a ton of complaints. Right? Like, okay, yes, it got hot in the main room. And yes, sometimes you couldn't get in front of tables. But there wasn't a universal, you know, vibe that, oh, this has just gone downhill. Like, it's too much. It's too big. It's too crowded. But everyone was still having a good time. It was pretty interesting to see how busy it was. And yeah, it wasn't perfect, right? Just because of the crowds and temperatures. And maybe if you only had a few hours to spend, you know, you would be bumping elbows and backpacks, you know, for a little bit. But in general, yeah, like it just worked. So it was pretty good. And I think it was pretty good because of the way the exterior of the main ballroom flowed out into the foyer. The foyer had windows and doors to where there was light and fresh air getting in. So you could kind of move in and out of the main room in the foyer to just kind of take a break. You know, go take a break outside the hotel. Obviously, we had brilliant weather. So all you had to do is step outside for a minute and, you know, take a breather, relax for a second, then get back into it. It also helped that I had a middle-of-the-day class in there. So like during peak Saturday from 1230 to 2 o'clock, I was in a class, right? So that was accidentally smart by me. I didn't even consider that, right? I was just like, oh, this is the class I want to take. That's where we're going to do it. And that just happened in retrospect. Oh, that was a good move if I'm going to be there all day. Be off the show floor on purpose during the busiest times because I had plenty enough time around that to do whatever I need. So that class was the Yamamoto paper class. I'm going to do a full write-up on that class and post it somehow. I don't know if it will be members. I think I'm going to just post. I might write it up for members and then post it on the blog like a cross post. It's worth its own write-up just to explain how great that class was. And everyone that took it was thrilled with it and was just raving about it afterwards. Put it this way. The way this class was caused all of the students in the class to actually get together after class and discuss the class. That's pretty high praise in my book. Like we wanted to share our experiences in this class with each other about how interesting we found it.

Myke: This was the history of paper one? Was that it?

Brad: It was more, I wouldn't say history of paper, but an explanation of paper. So the short version is we took all of Taizo's paper samples, 18, and they would hand them out to the room one at a time. We would get our pens out, test those, test those pens on that paper while Taizo and Bruce explained each paper, the origin, why it is, how it is, the factories that make it, what's going on with the paper now, what was the history of the paper. It was fascinating. It was just a complete knockout of a class. So, yeah, it was great.

Brad: Before I did that class, though, on Sunday, excuse me, Saturday, I spent some time with the lovely CY from Tokyo Station, from Tokyo, England's podcast, and who had been traveling the U.S. grinding pens and selling pens and talking stationery and sharing his expertise with everyone. So I had hung out with him on Thursday night when I got in, went out to dinner with him, spent some time in the bar testing out all of his pens and all of his wild nib grinds. Myke, he is very happy at how much you enjoy your stacked nibs. He was very nervous about that.

Myke: Oh, and we spoke about it. I use them, like, multiple times a week I use these pens. They're always in my Sinclair.

Brad: Yep, that's exactly what I was telling him. So it was cool. He was very, very happy with that. But he's just great. He's super interesting. Has, you know, for a youngster, and I don't want to give him too much grief, you know, he's a young guy. He has a ton of experience, right? Like, he really knows what he's doing. He is a fountain of knowledge. While I was sitting with him while he was working on a pen I bought from him, people were coming up with, like, these random pens. Honestly, just, like, interrupting his work. You know, not knowing, right? They didn't know him or anything, but someone told him, this one specific case, someone said, go find this guy, show him the pen. The guy brings up the pen, CY looks at it. He goes, yes, it's this, this, and this from around this time. And the guy's, like, jaw dropped. And you would see that repeat several times throughout the weekend. It was pretty funny. So, he is just a wealth of knowledge. Really, really great guy. So, I spent a lot of time with CY over the entire weekend of the show, between dinners, between the podcast, which we'll talk about in a minute, the live show that we did. And from sitting in front of him as he ground a nib on a pen that I bought from him, which I'll mention in a minute. And then fixed a Sailor extra fine nib that I just really wanted working better and understanding what was wrong with it. So, he had emailed me or texted me, like, a week or two before the show said he's bringing me something to check out at the show. And even the Thursday night when I hung out with him, he wouldn't tell me what it was, wouldn't show it to me. And then he finally broke it out. And it was the Bungu Box 10th Anniversary Mandarin Orange Pen, the Maccabi. It's the short orange Sailor Pro Gear Mini, right? And it's the one with the orange rod and finial, like the little orange slice. It's very, very pretty, very orange, very, very, really cool, really cool pen. Like, right up my alley, right? But it got the CY treatment. He stacked the nib on the front of the nib, but did it in a way to where the nib size wouldn't overbe. It's going to overwhelm the body of the pen, right? Because stacked nibs can get big, right? And there is a balance to be had. You don't really want, like, a cinder block hanging off the front of your mini pen, right? So, he did it in this really, he might kill me for saying this, in this really artistic way. I'm modifying this nib to have just enough layering on the top of the nib to then put in a special grind. In this case, a cross concord grind, which has kind of like a pointy tip in the normal orientation. Then you flip it over and it's like the marker width. Probably something similar to one of those, one that you have. It's just fantastically done. It's beautiful. I love it. I ended up buying that from him. And I really, honestly, haven't put that pen down from all the things that I came home with the show, from the show with. I carried it the rest of the weekend. I had it inked up immediately. You know, I used it in my paper class to test all the papers. I used it at night in the bar. It's just, I've been really, really happy with that. And I'm not just saying that just to blow smoke and see why. But it's a really good, he knew what I wanted and just kind of delivered more than I even expected. So definitely not just meaning see why I was a highlight, but I got to get a pretty cool pen too. So it was really great. So jumping ahead a little bit because it kind of fits in. Saturday night, we did a live show that April from Penguins Creative, from Plotter, April and Kelly from Stationery Cafe. April, who has been on the podcast here. April, who originally hooked me up with Plotter. April, who runs the world. She is so impressive. I love her so much. She put together this last minute get together where myself, CY, April and Kelly from Stationery Cafe, and Drew, Drew Brown from Goulet Pen Company, did a panel. So I have a link in the show notes. April just put up the video on YouTube where y'all can go see it. You know, it's just iPhone shots. So just bear with it. But it's a good recap of our little event that was so much fun. It was just kind of on the fly. You know, April had some stock questions for all of us that we answered, took some questions from the crowd. And we just had a really, really fun time with that. Did a little meet and greet afterwards. So it was really fun. And they did a great job. So shout out to April for that. And we'll have a link in the show notes to check out that video yourself. So, all right. I know we're running long and I have a lot more in the notes. So what I want to do is just give a couple more shout outs. Then we can wrap it today, Myke. Okay. I don't know if we'll continue this next week because there's so much more to talk about. Maybe we'll talk about some of the things I bought more specifically next week. Because, again, I'm not even completely unpacked. I've been home for, you know, like 36 hours as we record this. So, yeah, I'm still running behind myself. But I want to give a shout out to Enigma Blanks. So this was something I saw on the Well Appointed desk before going to the show. There was a San Francisco Pens show collection that I talked about on the preview show last week. Where you had a Sean Newton pen. A Gina from Custom Nib Studio grind on the nib. Sean Newton blank. I mean, excuse me. Enigma blanks. Sean Newton barrel design. A Venta ink. Special paper. All of this packaged together as a kit. So I definitely picked that up. The Enigma Blanks family was super cool to hang out with and see at the show. They were great. They had a really good show, I think. And just a really fun, colorful table, as you can imagine, just by seeing the link to this. I got to see Angela from Inky Converters. Longtime friend who does wonderful stationery-themed artwork. So you get to see washi tapes, stamps, pens, buttons, stickers, and desk mats, Myke, which I had been eyeballing for a while. So I got the ink bottle desk mat, which I still, I'm looking at it in my suitcase right now. Still rolled up. I haven't made time to put it out on my desk yet. So that's really cool. I wanted to do that. And then I got to meet some new people from Flax Pen to Paper out of L.A. So this was their first outside of L.A. pen show. So I bought a really unique Montegrappa from them. Maybe we'll save that one until next week.

Myke: Okay.

Brad: And talk about what is up with this pen. Wow. Yeah, I want to put a link in the show notes because the material is wild and it's a new barrel shape for Montegrappa. And you know, I have over the past several years, Montegrappa has turned into one of my favorite brands just from a design perspective and a quality perspective and a usage perspective. So I was definitely picking up this pen. So I bought this pen. And then, you know, I had a bunch of nib grinds. The nib grinds might be worth a segment next week on their own, even if we're not going to, if I'm not going to continue down the path of full show recap, we might do a little nib grind segment. Because I ended up with like five or six nib grinds from a wide spectrum of nib artisans, which was great. And then we wound it down on Sunday. I had a class with Le Reyes to wrap the day on Sunday. Notes to self class, which was really inward looking and informative and learning about how we can use our stationary tools to improve our inner selves and our thoughts and our brains and give ourselves some peace. Had a fun Twitch streamers dinner on Sunday night. A lot of the stationary brew community was in town for the show. Job from Job's Planners and, you know, a bunch of other stationary brew streamers. I got to meet in person for the first time that, you know, it's a group I hang out with on Twitch a lot. So that was fun. And then, Myke, I wrapped it up Sunday night by working in the bar because I couldn't stand to sit in my hotel room. You've seen me right in the hotel room on Sunday nights to get out a member's newsletter. I couldn't stand it. That's how good this show was that all the way on Sunday night. I didn't want to be away from all the people that were still there. So there's some funny pictures of me in the bar. I'll share in my Instagram with Brad focusing working while everyone's having a good time in the bar. Brad's got his laptop out and is banging away at the newsletter. But I didn't want to be away from the crowd. And if that's not the best thing I can say about the show, I don't know what is, right? I just didn't want it to end. And, like, I'm refueled, refilled. It was just a great experience. I implore anyone to look at the pen show experience around them. You don't necessarily have to travel a long way to San Francisco. But the experience of a pen show is unique and one of a kind. And it is definitely worth the extra effort, worth the extra planning, worth the extra saving to do that from at least once in your life. So it's really, really great. I had a blast, if you couldn't tell, Myke.

Myke: How much of this do you think was the San Francisco pen show and how much of this was just you returning to a proper pen show and, like, going all in?

Brad: More the first.

Myke: Okay. It's just the perfect place to have this experience.

Brad: Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. With the vendors that they get. Yeah. With the way the people who run the show understand what the customers want, what the vendors want, and build the show around that. They make everything easy. It's way more what they do and what they are than me returning on a trip I haven't been. Because I got to go to the Atlanta pen show. So I got a pen show fix, right? I got the stuff in a room fix. It's just different in San Francisco. It's hard to explain. And that's on them, right? And I mean that in the positive way. It's what they do makes it special, not me getting out of the house across the country for the first time in years made it special. It's more of what they do makes it special.

Myke: All right. So we'll be talking about this a little bit more. I still feel like I want to dig more into what you actually acquired rather than the experience. Yeah. So I hope that we can get into some of that next time, too. We'll do that. And so you've been listening to the San Francisco pen show podcast. I hope you've enjoyed episode 400,000.

Brad: On this show alone.

Future Episodes Planning

Myke: That's what I mean. Just about the San Francisco pen show, you know. We're not done yet. We're not done yet. San Francisco pen show pen addict. You know, I got another show next week. Uh-huh. At least. Links and information and a bunch of fun stuff over at relay.fm slash pen addict slash 528. Don't forget to go to stju.org slash relay. We'll have some fun stuff. Pen addict related stuff coming later on in the month about that. But still go donate right now. Find out more about fundraising. All that fun stuff. Thanks to SaneBox for the support of this show. You can go to penaddict.com. You can go to spokedesign.com. Hey, one thing we didn't even talk about. Make sure you note this down for next time. It's how the Sinclair launch went. Oh. You know that big thing that you were a part of?

Brad: Kind of one of the main reasons I was there. Yeah. Remember that thing?

Myke: It's like your life's work. Do you remember that?

Brad: Yeah. It went exceedingly well. And we'll follow up next week.

Myke: Please. I would like to know some more about that.

Brad: Actually, we need to put a link in the show notes to that. Because they're still on the show special. The Sinclair are at Rickshaw. Put in a link. They're at a price point right now that they're not going to be in the future. So as a launch special. Okay. I'll put that in there.

Myke: Yeah. Look at you. You did something. You're supposed to do, I suppose.

Brad: Saving myself, Myke. I'm saving myself. That's what I'm doing.

Myke: Yeah. Sure you are.

Myke: So you can go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 528 for all of those links, including that one. You can go to penaddict on Instagram, twitch.tv slash penaddict is where you'll find Brad and Dowdy as I'm on Twitter. I am iMike. I am YKE. And we'll be back next week. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.