The Pen Addict 558/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	558
Title:	Gecko Like the Lizard
Release Date:	April 5th, 2023
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 558
Audio File:	Audio Episode 558
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 558
Length:	4949 min <br />0.817 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 558. Today's show is brought to you very kindly by our friends over at Pen Chalet. My name is Myke Hurley, and I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. How are you, Brad Dowdy?

Brad Dowdy: I'm good, Myke. Thanks for asking.

Myke Hurley: Oh, anytime, my friend. I know you love it, you know. I know that asking how you are is your love language, so I'm just obliging.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, it's strange how you put me into a panic attack for not asking me, like, a couple weeks ago, and now it's officially a thing that you're going to do.

Myke Hurley: I'm very aware of it now. I'm like, oh, what's that thing I got to say to him?

Vacation and balancing family time

Brad Dowdy: I was stunned, stunned. But I'm actually doing extremely well. I'm on vacation, Myke. This is a vacation edition of The Pen Addict podcast. So, as I want to do is we don't like to miss episodes, and when I have an easy trip where I'm driving and just staying with family, I can pick out an hour to record this show with you. And, like, this is a great one today because we have a lot to talk about.

Myke Hurley: Sure do, and I will speak on behalf of The Pen Addict audience, and thank you for your sacrifice of vacation time being here with us today. You're allowed time off.

Brad Dowdy: I am, I am, but, like, also I don't want to be with my family 24-7, so, like, it's a good...

Myke Hurley: We're doing you a favor.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, like, it's a fair trade here, I'm pretty sure.

Myke Hurley: And it's at this point that we realize Brad's family do not listen to the show. Yes, exactly. You know?

Brad Dowdy: Exactly, exactly. So, yeah, it's good. It's good.

Myke Hurley: The Pen Addict, for me, does actually feel like a safe space where I can say, like, anything about anyone I know and they'll never know.

Brad Dowdy: Right, isn't that the truth?

Myke Hurley: No one listens to the show in the rest of my life. I can just say anything.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, no one listens to the show, period. So, like, I mean, it's a podcast about pens. Who would listen to that?

Myke Hurley: You know that's not true.

Brad Dowdy: It's very not true. It's very not true. So, you ready to get into it this week? I have a few things that I want to get into, and then we'll do a little Atlanta Penn Show recap. How's that?

Myke Hurley: Love it.

Lamy Bracket Final discussion

Brad Dowdy: All right, we're going to, at some point, we're going to wrap up this Lamy Bracket Final, but we're down to the final matchup, Myke. And I figured it's still worth, you know, kind of covering this until we get to the end point. Because now it's interesting, right? We got to where we thought we'd be. We have the Lamy 2000 versus the Lamy Safari, like, as it should be. So, I want to know first, who do you have? Who are you voting for?

Myke Hurley: Okay, so that's an interesting question, right? Like, who do you have? Because I think I mentioned this in past episodes. I would vote 2,000, but I think Safari's going to win.

Brad Dowdy: Do you? I would vote 2,000 also. I'm not sure Safari will win. But if you think about it this way, this is something I was thinking about. This is that weird thing I think about. If Lamy could only have one product lineup, which would they choose, right? From a financial perspective, right? Do you, like you say, like you have to sell seven Savaris to make as much money as a Lamy 2000 or something like that, right? Mm-hmm. If you're Lamy, what would you pick, right, as your core pen? If you could only pick one between the 2,000 and Safari, and if you look at it from a financial perspective, like, what would you choose? Do you want one person to buy a 2,000, or do you want seven people to buy a Safari?

Myke Hurley: I think it's clear. I think Safari is the business. I think so. Because how many 2,000 models did I make? You know what I mean? Yeah. Oh, you've got, like, two colors, and every, like, five years, you might get one color for a week that's different? Right. You know, like, I feel like they would be going way harder with it if the 2,000 would look like it would edge out. You know what I mean? Like, if the 2,000 looked like, oh, if we just put a little bit more effort into this pen, we would sell way more of them. Like, I don't think, I think it's pretty clear that that's not an approach that Lamy have. And, like, if you think of, like, how well stocked the Safari is, like, I see Safaris everywhere. Like, if a store has a stationary section, they have Lamy Safaris in them.

Brad Dowdy: Right.

Myke Hurley: So, like, I just feel like just on pure scale, like, there's just no way the 2,000 would compete. And that's why I think the Safari will win, right? Because anyone that's going to put that vote in probably has one. And I don't think that's the case for the 2,000.

Brad Dowdy: The 2,000 is also an aspirational pin. So, some people might look at it that way if they were casting their vote. I'm still voting for the 2,000, right? I don't, I'm not convinced that the Safari is going to win, but it could. Like, I'm curious for all the reasons we just discussed. Right. And I think you're right that Lamy would choose the Safari because you have to have a gateway into your product line, right? Like, this is a universally loved pin that, you know, gets in way more people's hands than the 2,000 does. So, yeah. It's interesting. I'll see, they haven't really done a good job at, like, releasing the numbers or the votes or anything. It's all, like, in these Instagram polls and they're in different places. And, like, they just end up saying, hey, this is the winner. And it's like, eh, is it really, though? Like, I don't see the numbers there. So, I've created a Google form just for listeners of the show to vote on. And I'll post it on my socials later this week. Just a poll. I'm curious what the podcast listeners said. We'll put a link in the show notes. It's literally you just pick Lamy 2000 or Lamy Safari. You know, pick one of the two. And we'll do our results next week. So, you think the Safari is going to win Lamy's Instagram thing, right? Yeah. Okay. I'm going to stick with the 2,000. Even though we both picked the 2,000, you think the Safari is actually going to win. I'm going to stick with my 2,000 on there. So, we'll see. It's been a thing.

Myke Hurley: By the way, I also think the Safari will win our vote, too. Yeah. I think the Safari is just like the winner. Because as well. I agree. I agree. The thing that we say all the time. Like, there are a bunch of Lamy 2000 owners that do not like their pen because it doesn't work properly. Right? The 2,000 is a tricky beast. Yes. Right? Tricky beast. And so, like, you could own a Lamy 2000 and be like, I don't. This pen sucks. Why are they so excited about this pen all the time? Right? But, like, it's basically the nib, right? There are issues with the nib because of the way that it's built. Yeah. That it's got that kind of hood that goes all the way down and sometimes things can get misaligned in there or whatever and it just doesn't perform. So, yeah. But I love that pen. I think it is a masterpiece pen. It's nothing like it. Right. But it can be problematic. And also, some people just don't like that material, that Macrolon material. It is very unique.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It's very slick. It's very lightweight.

Myke Hurley: And it's got texture to it, too, which is a weird texture. It reminds me of, like, not carbon fiber, fiberglass. Fiberglass.

Brad Dowdy: It's literally fiberglass. That's what it is. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: That's what it is. But it's called, what do they call it? Macrolon?

Brad Dowdy: Macrolon. It's a form of fiberglass. Trade name. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So, it's odd.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: Don't breathe in the Lamy 2000.

Brad Dowdy: The Safari has its own oddness, too. I mean, some people don't like the grip, right? Yeah. And some people think the clip is atrocious. It's great. It's classic. But yeah, the clip's great.

Myke Hurley: I understand if somebody, I like the grip, but I could see how somebody wouldn't like the grip, right? Because it is- Absolutely. Forcing you. But the clip is, like, I would go out on a limb and say it's the best clip on a pen. Like, I would have to really think about that before I commit to it. But, like, I'm looking at all the other stuff on my desk, and none of these clips look as good as the Safari's clip.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. You're not going to get much pushback from me. I wouldn't go that far. I think it's the best clip on a ballpoint pen, right? Their ballpoint Safari uses the same clip, and that really suits it. But I think there's some- I mean, I do like some of the traditional fountain pen clips. Like, I like the basic Pilot or Namiki kind of tapered clip with the ball on the end. Like, it's just a classic type of clip. I get it, though. It's not as recognizable as the Safari clip, so-

Myke Hurley: Safari's fun. Yeah, it's fun.

Sailor pen colors and designs

Brad Dowdy: All right, Myke. I've already ruined this, because I'm sure you've seen the show notes. But if I told you that Sailor's coming out with a pen called Moonlight Over the Ocean, what color would you think that pen would be?

Myke Hurley: I would say maybe we've got some blue in there. Maybe we've got some pink, some dark tones, you know?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Maybe some purple. Maybe some shine.

Myke Hurley: I could see purple.

Brad Dowdy: What if we went with, like, dirt red and yellow?

Myke Hurley: Perfect.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, no, that's it.

Myke Hurley: Brown and yellow.

Brad Dowdy: Brown and yellow.

Myke Hurley: Moonlight over the ocean. I don't understand, man. Like, they put it next to an image, like, Canalea style, right? Yes. Like, in this post of, like, this is our inspiration. These colors aren't in it. Like, they're just not in the image. Like, I don't understand.

Myke Hurley: Like, there's also Kate's very well pointed out. That's the sun in the image.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: I don't know what's going on here.

Brad Dowdy: I have had so much fun with Sailor, like, the past month. Like, legitimate fun, because they're doing fun stuff, right? And I've given them props for doing, like, all the things, right? And I just love what they're doing. And even though it's, like, every few days there's a new pen. Like, this one turns me back into the dark side here, Myke. Like, I don't know what they're doing. I call this one the Sailor Baby Food in our show document, because that brown and the yellow just reminds me of, like, some kind of baby food put together. What it kind of looks like. Do you remember the Lion Friends where they did last year with the chicken? Or was it a duck? I can't remember. Yeah. And the bear. It looks like the parts. It looks like leftover parts from the Lion Friends. Yeah. And then to have the gall to call this color moonlight over the ocean, just because you have a picture of a sunrise or a sunset here that has maybe, like, some brownish yellow around the sun.

Myke Hurley: So, there's two images in this Instagram post. And they've got this thing called Mattershine. I don't know what that means.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. We're going to talk about that. I have that at a note.

Myke Hurley: The close-up, like, the body of the pen is more orange.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: And so, like, I'm wondering, like, is this just bad photos? Like, because if this was orange and yellow, then it's like, oh, I'd maybe get it a bit more. Like, they're focusing on the actual, again, it's not the moon. I think it's the sun in this image. But, like, that, like, yellow and orange color in the sky, right?

Brad Dowdy: Oh, wait. Here we go. Here we go. A full moon rises over the sea, and the bright yellow moonlight is reflected on the calming evening ocean waves.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that doesn't tell me anything. You know what I mean? That says nothing about this one.

Brad Dowdy: Whoever said, hey, check out this beautiful orange and yellow and brown moonrise. Yeah. I don't know what's happening here. Yeah, this is really weird. And this is a massive release, too. Do you know why? Why? Because they're making a king of pen out of it, right? Wow. So that's a large, the colors that get the broadest release get the king of pen, right? So, like, last year's holiday, right? The Christmas tea, or the, excuse me, you know which one I'm talking about. Boy, they had the orange, the figgy pudding and the tea one. Those had king of pens. Yeah. Like, this is probably one that looks better in person. But, like, everything that Saylor's saying about this is what's bothering me, more than what the pen looks like itself.

Myke Hurley: I'm gonna withhold a little bit of judgment on this. Completely fair. I think something's gone wrong, like, in this imagery. Because, like, I'm looking on Saylor's website, and there's, like, another close-up, and it's, like, the body is, like, really orange, not brown.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Okay.

Myke Hurley: So I don't, but, like, whenever they show the pen in full, it's brown looking. But the close-ups, it's, like, it's full-on orange. So, like, I don't, I can't work out what the color of this pen is supposed to actually be.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Yeah, that close-up does look very orange.

Myke Hurley: Very orange.

Brad Dowdy: Let's talk MetaShine for a minute, Myke. This is the first time I've seen it in this marketing document. So, like, in the Instagram image, they put it in the marketing document, which is a little bit weird. They have all the product codes and everything. Like, okay, that's a little bit much. So I started Googling MetaShine. Like, when did this come up? And it's been around for a few years. It's basically the pen barrel with the little bit of sparkle in there. It's very subtle. But you and I probably both have sailors that have MetaShine in it. It just wasn't a term that we knew. But it's kind of got that little shiny sparkle in it. You know how you can see almost, like, tiny glitter specks in there? But it's really, really subtle. And you kind of have to get it in the right light to see. That's what the MetaShine is. Okay. I was like, is this new? And then if you go look at some of the product marketing from no more than a year or two old, they started using that term for that shiny barrel aspect. So that's what that is. But that was a new term to me because they make it, like, pretty prominent in this one. And I can't call this pen Moonlight Over the Ocean. That just hurts my brain.

Myke Hurley: Like, that does not work. So the actual name of the product is Umi to Gecko?

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: Google Translate says it's a sea and gecko. I don't know what that – I don't think that's right. Sea and gecko. Like a gecko, like a lizard.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah.

Myke Hurley: That doesn't seem right. I don't know what's going on. This is really confusing. Yeah. I don't understand.

Brad Dowdy: So, yeah. I've been having fun, Sailor, right up until now. And now you're back on my list. So there we go.

Atlanta Pen Show experiences

Brad Dowdy: One thing I did before the Atlanta Pen Show last week before I went on vacation is I got to spend some time with Joost and Annabelle from Appleboom over there in the Netherlands. So we did kind of a two-part recording. We did the first kind of conversation. We did Appleboom Bites, which is a YouTube podcast that Joost does. And he brings in a different host for several episodes. So right now, this series of episodes, the host is Annabelle along with Joost. They've done it before where, you know, different people in the community, Stephen Brown and David Parker and some other people would host for several episodes and then they would bring on a guest. So Annabelle asked me to join them for episode number 23 of Appleboom Bites. And we just had a really good time talking pens. Like it's real chill. It's real fun. If you all haven't seen that, go check that out. I ramble on about pens as I want to do. And it was just fun. So it was really, really neat. Really neat to do. And then after we finished that recording, Joost does a little smaller series that's called the Pen Fan Series where he asked me three questions about fountain pens. And so there's a second video, like the first video is like 40, 50 minutes. The second video is like eight minutes. The Pen Fan Series where he asked me three questions about pens. Like how did I get into fountain pens? Does my partner know that how much I spend on fountain pens? And what would I tell other people about fountain pens? Things like that. So it was fun. It's really enjoyable to talk with Joost and Annabelle. And, you know, we all know each other reasonably well. We can have fun with each other and, you know, make some jokes, not take ourselves too seriously, which is the way I like to do these things. So it was great. Y'all definitely go check those out.

Myke Hurley: Awesome.

Myke Hurley: Did I just have them on YouTube?

Brad Dowdy: Yes. As far as you know? Okay. As far as I know. I kept meaning to go look and see if there was another one, but like a direct like RSS feed for audio only, but I didn't double check. So I think it's only YouTube as far as I know.

Myke Hurley: That's no criticism from me. I watch a bunch of podcasts on YouTube. Absolutely. I was just wondering.

Brad Dowdy: It is weird that people, I will say this is, you know, irregardless of this experience, but people that say, I have a podcast, check it out on YouTube. Those things like conflict in my head.

Myke Hurley: What is weird to me is when it is like, that is the only way. Right. Right. Like you can have a podcast and have it on YouTube, but then for it not to be available in like apps called podcasts is weird. Right. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. But that's a popular thing. Like the high minded, like an R podcast is only if it's an RSS. Like I'm not talking about that. Like I'm a bit tired of that. But like, right. If you make something and you call it a podcast, if you can't get it in like Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify podcast, like that's strange. Right. It's like saying I make YouTube videos and I put them on Vimeo.

Brad Dowdy: Right. Exactly. That's exactly right. So I just looked, I just like did a search on overcast and it doesn't come up. So, okay. So that means it probably doesn't have a feed out there unless it's like just directly onto Spotify.

Myke Hurley: Get it in there. Yeah. It's not easy. It's more work. Cause they, they obviously don't make an audio version of the show.

Brad Dowdy: Like all you do is talking to a microphone. How hard can it be?

Myke Hurley: That's a good point. I mean, these aren't complicated things to do, but it is adding to their production and maybe they just want to do it on YouTube because it brings more people to the YouTube channel, which is like a very valid thing to do.

Brad Dowdy: And they have done different YouTube series for years. So that is their space is YouTube. Like we, our space is podcast, right? Like audio. Their space has always been video on YouTube. Yoast, like I was, I did like my top three pins with them like years ago, right? They've always had YouTube, a YouTube presence. So yeah, that's their key.

Myke Hurley: This is like a thing for me. Like I kind of wished that everybody just said shows. Like I tend to call my podcast shows and like, cause that just makes more sense to me. They're shows. And I think it would be better if people that make YouTube podcasts also just, we'll just call them shows. And then however you get them, it's just like, that's the way you get them. It's like, I make a show and I've got a podcast version and a YouTube version. And it's like, this is just a show that I make. Or like, I don't know. And that just feels cleaner to me. Where like now podcasts also exist on YouTube and sometimes only on YouTube. And like, it's just like a weird thing that's happened. And I don't really know why. Cause podcast is a bad word anyway. So I don't know why it's now being used in places where it's funny. Very funny. None of this is slight on Apple boom. Like absolutely not all. This is just, we're just having a high minded conversation now.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's what we do. We're us high minded folk over here.

Myke Hurley: We're old school, man. We are. We are. There aren't many podcasts that have been going for 13 years. Which, oh my God, Brad, what is that next week?

Brad Dowdy: No, it's like 11 years or we're like 11 years. No, it was in February.

Myke Hurley: You know what's next week that I realized that I've always forget until it happens? April 10th is my podcasting anniversary, I think. Gotcha. Gotcha. I think I'll be having, this will be my 13th, I'm in my 13th year of producing podcasts. Yeah. That makes sense. Which is a truly horrible thought that like teenage, I'm in teenage years of doing this now.

Brad Dowdy: Oof. Yeah. Yeah. So we've crossed 11 for the pen addict. 11. That was in February. Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I started in, I think it was April 10th, 2010. I think. Gotcha. Wow.

Brad Dowdy: That's crazy.

Myke Hurley: My first episode of a show.

Brad Dowdy: Is this the show? Like, is this the show?

Myke Hurley: I don't know. Again, I feel like if you've been making a show for this long, there's just like inherent reminiscing. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And I'm on, I have vacation brain anyway, so this is a nice conversation. Like, I'm down with this.

Myke Hurley: But you know what we should do? What? Let's talk about Penn Chalet. Let's do it. Because talking about like the length of the show, how long we've been running, I don't even know how many years Penn Chalet have been a sponsor for now. But they take every other episode always. And like, we're super grateful to Ron and everybody over at Penn Chalet for their support of this show, but also for their support of you, the acquirer of Penn products. Because they have all of your favorite brands. They have fast and reliable customer service. And they are doing special deals on their products all the time, as well as adding new products. You can find new fountain pens, new mechanical pencils, new rollables, new carrying cases, new inks, new pen holders, refills. You've always got to go back to Penn Chalet and check it out. And there's also two great reasons that you as a pen addict listener should go to PennChalet.com. You'll get free shipping on orders of over $75 in the US. They have great shipping rates internationally. And they have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Oh wait, what about a third thing? As a pen addict listener, you can go to PennChalet.com, P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website and use the password Penn Addict to get a code that you need to save 10% on anything, on any time at Penn Chalet and to find a selection of deals just for listening to this show. What have we got, Brad?

Brad Dowdy: Ron set up some new, some things we don't normally see in here and some, a little bit of an outlier on a couple of these things that are worth pointing out. First up is the Y Studio, my Resolute wooden notepad stand and ballpoint pen. So it's this little, that's wild. So yeah, you know, I love Y Studio. They're one of my favorite brands, one of my favorite makers. And I've seen this in person. I, I, I, I have never acquired one, but it's like half off of what it normally is, but it's got this great, it looks like probably a little walnut stand, um, to write your notes on. It comes with these like preset cards and it's kind of like a little personal, little personal desk setup, but it's tiny. It's like pretty small, probably like a five size ish. I'm guessing I can't totally tell, but it's got some, it's got some great knit, great notes, great ideas, uh, behind it. And it's kind of got some prompts, you know, you can use to write with, and it's just kind of a cool thing. Secondly, I don't think I've ever seen a glass dip nib pen on the sale page before, but it looks like pen chalet has their own glass dip nib pen, or at least a collaboration. It's called the pen chalet Eldorado glass dip pen. And if you've ever wanted to test out a glass dip nib pen, this price, um, makes it into the no brainer purchase. It's almost like the add on purchase you need to get into your free shipping level. It's that inexpensive and it's something like a magic wand.

Myke Hurley: If that's your thing, you know, when you want to cause some spells, you could also use this.

Brad Dowdy: It looks like there's 10 different colors to choose from. And it's just kind of something fun that I use to test inks, to kind of splash ink around on the page, just kind of get an idea of certain inks. And for the price that it's at, it's kind of like, yeah, let's just add this on. And then kind of the third, since I'm, I'm keeping it, uh, keeping it weird on the, the non pen items here, the D Charles, uh, four by four pen cube. Um, it's a pretty cool desk desktop holder. It's also at a great price. And, you know, Myke and I have talked about different types of, you know, cubes or cups to hold products on your desk. And, um, this is a great, a great, uh, design and a really neat addition to, uh, to holding your pens on your desk. It's a really cool thing. So, and I haven't even hit the end of this page yet, Myke, like it's just, it's crazy. So, um, Ron has, has done another great job and I like the, the mixture of products that, uh, he set up for our pen attic listeners this week. It's really cool.

Myke Hurley: So that's penchalet.com P E N C H A L E T.com. Click the link at the top of the website. And it says podcasts. This is YouTube radio podcast. And hit the, uh, you hit that link and you put pen addict in as your special code to get all of these deals. That's penchalet.com and the password pen addict. Our thanks to penchalet for the support of this show and relay FM.

Brad Dowdy: All right. Before I get into my Atlanta pen show recap, I got to do a shout out of the week and it is at from Corolla on Instagram. So many of you may, may not be familiar with this account and I just met Corolla. Well met virtually met Corolla from hanging out in Twitch streams, right? So they're in my Twitch streams pretty frequently. And we always talk about pens and inks. And as it turns out, Myke, they have a stunning Instagram account. So this is very good.

Myke Hurley: Aesthetically pleasing.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So speaking of dip nib pens, if you want to know what you can do with dip nib pens, go follow this account and go follow, uh, from Corolla on Instagram, look through their artwork. Um, there's plenty of, uh, dip nib, uh, flower designs, just beautiful watercolors, beautiful fountain pen inks, beautiful journaling setups. Like I can't stop looking through this. So really glad to have met Corolla through the Twitch streams and love following them on the Instagram now. So, uh, that is, that is the shout out. I like that we can now shout out like other things besides blogs. We can shout out Instagram accounts and I'm super glad to do it. So there you go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Y'all go, y'all go check out this account because it is a just complete knockout. So there you go. Myke Atlanta pen show. It is. Well, okay. Well, let me make you more jealous right from the jump.

Myke Hurley: I know what you're going to tell me.

Brad Dowdy: So many people wanted you there.

Myke Hurley: Oh, no, that wasn't what I was going to hear. That makes me sad. I'm sad, but I'm actually sad to hear that.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I figured you might be so many people. Where's Myke? When's Myke coming back? Can we get Myke back here again? So I want you to know that. And I say that in all sincerity and because they were saying it in all sincerity. So we got to make it. We will make the Atlanta pen show happen for us, us too, again sometime soon.

Myke Hurley: I hope next year. I cannot commit to it right now. Sure. But I really hope. It is my plan that we'll be able to make a return to Atlanta in 2024.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And we've actually kind of started talking about this on the back channel. So that is at the forefront of our kind of next-day person.

Myke Hurley: In all honesty, I forgot. It was just like it was too late and it was like, oh, I did not plan this into my year at all. And it was just like it was. It just it's been I've gotten used to not thinking about it. Where for years, it was just always in my mind, right? It's like, oh, it's coming up. But it's coming up and it's like, oh, I can't do this. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I was trying to think how many times have we done it. I have to go back and look at the podcast. It's at least three. I'm trying to decide if it was four.

Myke Hurley: Because we did one without an audience. We've probably I think we did it four times.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Yeah, it's great. So everything's the same there at the show. Room's ready. You know that Jimmy's ready for us. What did you think I was going to say?

James Bond-themed pens

Myke Hurley: That you saw the James Bond pen.

Brad Dowdy: I saw three James Bond pens.

Myke Hurley: Three James Bond pens. Yes.

Brad Dowdy: So we had Ken Rowe there, the distributor of Montegrappa. They had a James Bond pen. And if I get okay. So just generally speaking, and you're not as dialed into these these shows as I am. Would you be able to tell me the other two vendors who had the James Bond pen without knowing who was at the show? Could you guess?

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Drum Ghouls. That's one. Ding, ding. And did Jimmy have it?

Brad Dowdy: Jimmy. You got it. That's exactly right. So yeah. So they all they all have the James Bond pen.

Myke Hurley: They just feel fitting to me. Like you. I feel like to have the James Bond pen, you need like a four deep table.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So they all do. They all do. So it was great. But yeah, I got to see the James Bond pen again. I got to see I got to watch Jimmy explain it, explain it to someone how it was working and how you filled the ink and all this stuff. It was pretty. It was kind of priceless. So.

General recap of the pen show

Brad Dowdy: All right. General recap of the show. It's obviously great. I really enjoy this show. I did my quick photo recap for members this past weekend before I went on vacation. And I just love looking through those pictures. And like I and I'm I'm straight up when I when I talk about the Atlanta pen show about how much I love it. But I also understand it's it's neither the biggest nor the best pen show. Right. Like I understand its place in the market, but that doesn't mean like I just have an outsized love for it because I've been going there for probably over a decade. Right. You know, minus a couple of COVID years. I think my first Atlanta pen show was 2012. Like this is my show. So I am obviously a little bit biased towards it, but it's just a very comfortable show. That's the word. Always come back to Atlanta. It's easy. It's not overwhelming. It's got everything there you need to see. It doesn't have too much or too big of a crowds. Right. Like it got packed for like maybe like an hour on Friday and then like for a few hours in the middle of the day on Saturday, like the aisles were jammed. But like you can really get around. You can make your way around the show. And it's a very comfortable show to go to. I think most of the vendors did well. You know, some, you know, it's always hit or miss. Right. Some will say it's slow. Some will say it's been great. And you just never know. But the best thing I could say is like the crowd looked pretty good, like a little slow on Friday, which you're going to get. And then I was just there on Saturday. I wasn't there on Sunday. Traditionally, I will say Atlanta Sunday is one of the slowest Sundays I've ever seen. And that's from working the show for several years. Atlanta Sundays are generally slow. I haven't heard if that was any different this year or not. So I got there Friday afternoon, just hung out, made the rounds, saw my friends, you know, just saw who was there at the show working, who was there at the show attending. Just kind of, you know, just taking it all in. That's kind of what I do now on Fridays. And just, you know, talking with Jonathan Brooks and Lisa Van Ness and, you know, Carrie Yeager and just all the people I always talk to at every show, even though I'd only seen most of them like three weeks ago in Baltimore. I still want to see them again because like these are my friends. I like hanging out with them. So as I'm browsing around the show, just checking it out, I run across Bert Ozer, who's always at the show. And instead of his usual like wall of refills that he brings for like standard pens and inks and things like that, he had a bunch of like binders on the table, binders full of pens, Myke, on the table. And one of them, I was like, oh, look, this looks like a bunch of vanishing points. And I got a closer look. And I was like, oh, my God, these are all decimos. And we have been talking about I've been on it for about probably a year saying how I wanted a pilot decimo. But I was going to hold out until I found my perfect pilot decimo. Right. Something unique, something, you know, not standard in the North American market because North American market gets short shrift in the decimo colors and style. And Japan has store releases and unique releases. And he had basically a collection of decimos where I literally had my choice of every decimo released in Japan in the last three, four or five years. Like there was, you know, regular price decimos. There were some expensive and rare decimos. And so I found one. I finally bought my decimo. So that was usually Friday afternoon. I'm not breaking out the credit card right when I get there. But this was finally one of those long term. Yeah, this is a long term list thing. And like they're unique enough that if there's a single one that you want, that's the only one available. There might be 50 of them there, but there's only one of them. One of each of those. Right. So I stared at it and looked at them all for probably 30 minutes trying to make a decision. But I bought kind of like a magenta purple one. They did. I don't know if you remember this, but probably.

Brad Dowdy: Three years ago, I didn't quite look at the release dates on these in Japan. They did a brushed metallic series where they did 20 different colors of decimos. And I know we talked about it on the podcast because I was yelling that we didn't get them in the US. Yep. So like once a quarter, they would release five colors. And they did that for an entire year, making a total of 20 colors in this decimo. And they're like a brushed metal barrel. I don't know that that set has like a specific name that you could Google, but it's like a brushed metal finish. They're all bright colors. There was 20 of them released in Japan. And the one I have is kind of a purpley magenta one. And it's really great. But they had literally every color there that I could choose from. And that's the one I ended up with. It was a good price. And I was so happy. Like I just carried that the rest of the show. I was like, yeah, I got my pen. And so that was kind of my one main purchase right out the gate on Friday, which rarely happens. But this is what we talk about when you go to pen shows. If you're not, if you're someone who goes to a lot of pen shows, you kind of have this mental list or this long term list to where you may not find something for quite some time. But you're at least aware of it. And you're kind of looking around. That way, you know, when you actually do find something, like it's cool to just go ahead and jump on something like that. Right. Like that's not going to be there. Maybe, you know, if, you know, I wait another day. So like that's when it's okay to just go ahead and buy something right off the jump when you don't think it's going to be there. And it's something you've really wanted, like myself for like a year. So that was cool. And then after that, I, of course, shared that I had found that. And I watched several other purchases happen on that. Yeah. Yeah. So you keep that to yourself on the front end till you get your business handled. And then you let it loose after that.

Myke Hurley: You're going to take care of yourself first. When it comes to pen shows, you're going to look off to number one.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So that was kind of my Friday. I bought that pen. And they all had medium nib units, which is kind of wide for what I would want in a Decimo, right? It's, you know, kind of a, the way I write with it, you know, it tends to be a little bit finer. So I went over, took it to Matthew Chen from Matthew's Nibworks, took it over to him, got a Kodachi grind on it, which is the new name for the mini Naginata togi grind. So I have a neat little grind on this pen. I've been using it ever since. Oh, and then I went and right after that, since I didn't bring any ink with me and these also fit cartridges, obviously pilot now has the Orochizuku cartridges. So I went over and bought a pack of the Shinkai Orochizuku cartridges, the number one pilot Orochizuku ink color that there is. So yeah, I got the full setup on my Decimo. That's how excited I was about it. So I got the pen that I wanted, went and got a nib grind and went and bought some overpriced ink cartridges just so I could carry this around with me the rest of the time. And it's sitting right here with me on vacation. So it's a great pen. And I'm very, very happy about that. So that was mostly my Friday afternoon at the show. I got there a little bit afternoon, one o'clock, the show closed at five. I just hung out with everybody, you know, chit chatting. And then Friday night at Atlanta is always the weekend pass holder and vendor cookout for the show that Jimmy puts on. Like if you buy a weekend pass or you're a vendor, he does a cookout outside in the pool area, you know, hamburgers, hot dogs. You know, all the sides and things like that. We had beautiful weather. There was a lot of people there for that cookout. It was literally packed for that, which is always great to see. I love I love people, you know, helping support the show and helping support Jimmy doing all that. So that was really cool. Cool to see. And then Friday night we hung out at the bar. The bar continues to get poor grades. Like you hope one year it's going to be a little bit better. But it's just not. It's just not. Like it's not a ton of seating area. Like I thought the service was very poor. The bartender was nice, but was very aloof. Like not really attentive to like people trying to order and stuff. It's just like a really slow and pokey. It's like whatever. Like it is what it is. Yeah. Like it's it's basically like an add on type of bar. It's like this really isn't a bar. That's a thing where like at Baltimore, like the bar is like a central point for the hotel. And it's like a big deal. And we're going to do things around that. This is like an afterthought type of situation. So it's fine. It is what it is. And we I mean, we didn't have any issues. It's just very lame in the grand scope of Penn Show Hotel bars and hangout areas. Right. It's it's towards the bottom, which it's unfortunate. But that's OK, Myke, because I woke up the next morning and walked over to the Waffle House. And that's all you really need. And that that that corrects any any failed bar experiments from the the previous night. It was pouring down rain Saturday morning. We had a storm blow through only for a couple hours and it was a beautiful day. So brave the rain, went over to the Waffle House, ate breakfast with Lisa Venice and had a great time doing that. And then I went shopping, went back to the show. Saturday for me is now shopping day. Right. So I go out there and I started looking at what I have been doing recently is I can get most any new release mainline pen that I want from any retailer at any time during the year. Right. So what I use these shows for is to check out the smaller makers, local makers, smaller makers, people that aren't necessarily making pens, you know, just other things. So I spent some time with Brad at Mythic Pens and hung out with him and talked about his pens. He had a new pen style that I purchased to review. It's a smaller. It's a smaller format pen. That's a new shape for him to make. I don't have the exact specifics here in the notes, but I'm going to be I bought that to review on the blog. Right. I actually bought two pens from Brad. Like I'm going to review that one and probably eventually give it away. And then I bought another pen for giveaway. That's what I like to do with the maker pens. I is I tend to buy them for review and sharing. Right. So I will talk about it during a review and then I'll usually give it away or give it away to pen addict members, different things like that. So I did the same thing with Brian at Iron Feather Creative, who makes some just stunningly beautiful pens. He's very well known for his engraving work and his kind of gosh, pardon me for like the wrong terms. And I don't want to say like jewel crafting work. It's that too. But he does a lot of casting. I think that's the word I'm looking for. He casts his own roll stops. Right. So the roll stops that you see on pens, these are like artwork. Like I bought one with in his own material that he poured, which he just started doing. And with this dragonfly silver, he like basically melts down like silver dollars and recasts into these shapes. And this is like a dragonfly on there. I haven't shared any pictures of these pens yet. So I'll have to put some up here in the next week on there. So like that's a product like I bought, but it's probably I want to review the pen and then we'll see what I do with it. You know, is it something I keep? Is it something I give away to members? Right. That's what I like to do with all the maker pens I got. I want to spread the love and, you know, talk about them and like, you know, kind of tax on to like Caroline doing the meet your maker posts every month. You know, some of these like Brad Owens from Mythic Pens was just last month's interview interviewee. So like I picked up a couple of pens from Brad and I'm going to review them, things like that. So that, hmm, are those the only pens I bought? I think that's the only pens I bought. So I bought the Decimo for me and then I've got three makers pens, two from Mythic Pens, one from Iron Feather Creative. And then everything else I think was ink and paper, which I said I was going to buy after the Baltimore show because I didn't since I was flying on that show. And it's harder to fly back with ink and paper. It just gets really heavy. Me being able to drive to Atlanta, I bought at least six bottles of ink, probably, mostly for review type stuff. And I bought several types of paper. I really like the Midori paper that I was seeing. Van S Pens had a bunch of new release Midori paper with some unique designs. I don't know the whole series of them, but there was like 10 different notebooks with all these kind of debossed patterns on the cover. I'll get some more information later on that. But, you know, I picked up a few of those to test out and give away. Like a lot of this stuff, a lot of my time is spent figuring out like what I can do for the blog. What looks, what's interesting, what's popular on the market right now. I bought some of the Sailor Yurameku inks, which are these dark kind of multi-shaded inks for review. I bought some new Wearing Old inks, which their inks have become very popular just for interesting characteristics and interesting ideas behind them. And great performance, right? They look great on the page too. So that was pretty much my show.

Myke Hurley: Are they doing any new colors, the Wearing Old?

Brad Dowdy: Are they ever? They're so hard to describe. So this latest Dracula ink that I got from them, like it's not really, like if I said Dracula ink, this isn't the color you would see. It's almost like a bright pinkish red with like a blue glitter. It's like Sailor Moonlight over the Ocean. I was like, well, that doesn't seem very Dracula-ish, but it's the color came out so well. That was the one that was flying off the shelf. The other one was Tasha Sabi Midori, which I bought as well. That was the popular ink at this show. That's been out for a little bit, but it's kind of a green, teal, blue, red sheen. It doesn't sound like when I say that. You're like, oh, yeah, a bunch of companies have that type of ink, but this one is the current popular one. So those are the types of things I buy at the show. Like what's the hot thing?

Brad Dowdy: And I buy it to try to like decipher that for myself. It's like, oh, is this really like as good as everyone's saying? Why is this so popular? You know, what are they doing, you know, to make these inks? So, and the third one is where the Sailor Yurameku inks, they're a darker ink and, you know, kind of have like a darkish black or gray base, but there'll be several different colors. Like one of them has kind of a purple tone. One has a blue tone. One has a green tone. And then when you write with them, they like kind of dry in different colors. They're really interesting looks on the page. So that's what I did here is I bought all the hot inks. And those were the, those are the ones that the, that people were saying, hey, these are the, these are the popular ones. And that like, that's the kind of stuff that I like to buy at the show just for future reviews, things like that. So that was kind of it, I think, as far as like the things I purchased, but it was really just like a good, good hangout. Got to meet some new people, some new vendors, got to see some, you know, some, some regulars that I haven't seen in a while hanging out the show. So I got dropped off a new Rickshaw Sinclair case and a new, new, new pattern that has just dropped out there on, on the interwebs. And it was available at the show. Yeah, it was available there. It just launched at the show. So, yeah, that was cool. And really just hanging out with people, seeing what people are up to, you know, getting to talk, you know, sit and talk with like my friends at Heinz Pens. Like they have so much going on and getting to talk with Jonathan Brooks, who has so much going on and getting to hang out with Mark Bacchus, the nib grinder. And he's got so much going on, like all this stuff they got going in the background that, you know, I'm not really, you know, at liberty to share. It's just like, there's a lot going on in this industry right now. And it's pretty cool, pretty cool to be a part of and witness all this stuff and go into a pen show. You get to see some of that stuff firsthand. So it was really good. It was really valuable show for me to go to just to learn so much, see so much, get to talk to so many people. Even though it was only like three weeks away from Baltimore, like if I did this every three weeks, I would get tired of it. But Atlanta and Baltimore, I get to talk to different people. And, you know, there was not that much overlap. You know, there's obviously some, but like I kind of did different things at each show and kind of had different focuses. And that's why like it's OK to me for me to go to Chicago in four weeks, too. Right. Like I'm going to do that and that'll be a little bit different. You know, I'm not going to go to every show. I'll probably take a big break until the summer, late summer before my next show, like three in a row. It's at that point. I'm like, OK, like I'm covered. I've kind of seen everything I need. I've bought everything I need to buy, things like that. That's just kind of my idea right now on shows. And then I'll wait to the summer, probably go to D.C. and go to like a really, really big pen show and see what kind of trouble I can get into there. But really happy with the Atlanta pen show. It's always a great event every year. And yeah, we got to get you back there soon. And they were the people want some Myke Hurley there and the ATL.

Myke Hurley: I want to come back. So I hope that we'll do it again. Better coming home. So I'll appreciate it. Yep. Because you got me jealous. Like I want to go to a pen show so bad.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, from the time I walked in the door, the questions about you started. Like, I mean, people knew you weren't coming, but they were still like asking. I was like, are you doing a thing with Myke at this one? I was like, no, not doing a thing with Myke at this one. You know, where's Myke? How's Myke been? You know, like you're really kind of like part of that show's lore. And people, you know, we get some of the same people coming to that show. Even that people traveling from, you know, around the country, even, you know, Canada. And, you know, in the past, we've had people coming from Europe. I had someone, you know, fly in who is like stationed, not stationed, but is working in Boston. But it's, you know, from Europe. And they say, well, I'm never going to be closer to going to the Atlanta pen show and seeing Brad than now. So I'm going to book a flight, come down for the weekend and hang on at the show. Like that's what this kind of show, this was showed up. This show is really good about that. It's a good space to just hang out with people, right? Because it's not too overwhelming. It's just the right size.

Myke Hurley: Well, hopefully next time. Yep. If you want to catch up with us in the meantime until next week's episode, go. If you want to find Brad's work, go to penaddict.com. He usually streams three times a week, but it's on vacation right now. But make sure you go and follow twitch.tv slash penaddict. Brad is penaddict on Instagram and he is at penaddict on mastodon.social. I am at imike on mike.social. You can find my products over at cortexbrand.com. You can go to relay.fm and look for some shows that we've got. I'm on many podcasts. If you want to find the show notes for this one, relay.fm slash penaddict slash 558. Thank you to Penn Chalet for the support of this episode. And of course, Brad, thank you for your reports on the road. Absolutely. Absolutely. And we'll be back next week. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.