Editing The Pen Addict 376/transcript (section)

== Backers Vlog ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Exactly, which is a limited but very special experience if you are so lucky as to get to have one of these. And Brad said to me, can I take your phone to take pictures, which is something that he does at every show. So Brad has to leave his phone with me so I can process credit card transactions because I'm looking after the knock table. So he takes my phone and usually would take pictures for the refill newsletter. But I said to him, great, can you also take some video for the vlog for me because I haven't really been able to shoot a bunch of the tables. And he's like, yeah, no problem. And so Brad comes back with a bunch of video, which is really great, but it was all portrait video, not vertical video as I would have needed for a vlog. Brad was in that sweet, sweet Instagram mindset.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I was actually, you know, I was in the Adina mindset. I was doing this for her. And did she ask for portrait video?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like what's the situation?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, no, no, no. I was doing the tour for her. The video was not my primary thought.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I was making sure that she had a good time and, you know, we had fun going all around the show and talking to friends and learning about things. And it just never crossed my mind even once. And I would have just assumed that I did it correctly. You know, just doing it just by nature. I do that and nope. And I didn't even realize till that night, I think, or even later when you didn't even look at the videos. It might even been days later. You might even been home or back in the hotel or something. And it was like, oh, no, I totally did. So like I couldn't make it up to you even.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And yeah, but it worked out fine because then I got to in the video, I got to build a little frame that I put around them that just says Brad cam. So everybody knew that it wasn't me that was responsible for the vertical video.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I really I laughed at that. It was funny. I if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?

'''Adina Hurley:''' But I can confirm Brad's attention was all focused on me. And he has been really nice to me to tell me to show me all of the products, tell me the stories behind them. And we had really good chats. So I'm sorry, Myke, for distracting Brad, really.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's not me. You have to apologize. Oh, and it is the thousands of people who backed the Kickstarter campaign with their real money to get that video.

'''Adina Hurley:''' Oh, dear. I apologize.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's all right. They got to look at a sticker head of myself to to make fun of me while I was doing it, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I also enjoyed the cut of me answering the pin question. Yeah. In Relay Feud. That was perfect. I just I just giggled and giggled. I just I don't know. That was such a fun, fun time.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, because we had the video, right, of the Relay FM Family Feud. And I figured that when I was showing like the stuff that I'd shot at the Family Feud event, like I was thinking to myself, oh, rather than just showing what I've shot, why don't I put a clip in of the actual video for people that don't really know what I was setting up at this event? And then I thought, well, why don't I actually just clip Brad's answer to the question that was made for Brad? So I did that and put that in there as well.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I still have nightmares about if I was the the leader for that question. I really do.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You would have said like Sailor or something.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, I would have said I probably would have gone with Retro 51. Right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' To be quite honest. Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I would have never heard the end of it. And rightfully so. And I'm just so thankful that we sat in the order that we did. And the question came up that it did.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because you would have 100% with that answer lost the answer for your team. Unless the person that you were answering against answered even worse. But that seems unlikely.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Right. 100% would have lost that. So I'm very grateful that I was not on the buzzer for that one.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Brad, what is the Moonman M2 transparent demonstrator?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Myke, let me tell you all about it. Actually, I'll let Jeff Abbott, who writes for The Pen Addict, tell all about you. Our review just went up as we recorded this podcast. And this is a pen I've heard about for probably two years now. At least a year and a half. So Baltimore in 2018.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I got to meet Frank Underwater, who writes a wonderful blog. We'll put a link in the show notes to that. And he brought me a bunch of pens. He writes a lot about Chinese pens. And this was one that he had found and brought to me. And it's just kind of a fascinating looking pen. Right. It's a kind of a not full length torpedo shaped clear, like crystal clear demonstrator fountain pen. And it's highly photogenic. And it's very high quality. And it works really well. And the nibs are awesome. And I say all this to tell you that it's $20. Like it's an inexpensive pen. And people have been wanting me to review it for, you know, ever since then. Frank's been wanting to give me one. And I finally got a hold of one. Well, I mean, I finally got one from Goldspot who sent it to me. And, again, like, you know, things get lost in the queue a little bit for reviews. And I, you know, asked Jeff to say, hey, can you take on this review for me? And he pretty much laughed at me at the end. Like when he submitted this review, he's like, I can't believe how much I enjoy this pen. And I did all of this without ever looking at the link to see how much it cost. And then it freaked out. So it's just one of those pens that you see it. Now you know what it is and you can recognize it. And it's kind of one of those pens who people should just have if they're like more of an advanced fountain pen user, right? This isn't your starter pen, even though it's $20 to purchase. You know, it's made to be eyedroppered. And that's kind of not your beginner experience that you want to give to somebody.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It comes with a pretty fancy looking pipette.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, yeah. It's like a little glass dropper that you use to fill it up with. And it's just kind of a fascinating pen because in our market, like the scope, and I don't mean like the U.S. market. I mean like in the pen addict market, like it just appeared, you know, out of nowhere, out of thin air. No one knew who this company was. And then boom, they make this cool pen that's $20 that looks great and functions great. And you can see all the ink sloshing around in there. It's just a good, fun pen that a lot of pen addicts enjoy. And I'm late to that bandwagon and I get it now. Like I can totally see it. I could see it just in the way Jeff was talking to me offline about it. Not even in his review, which he raved about it. But just the way he was talking to me about it behind the scenes. He's like, it's kind of like one of those things like I don't get it. Like I don't get how this happens and it's really good. And it's a good value. And yeah, I love it. He loves it. And I see why it's been so popular. And so many people have been wanting me to take a look at it. On top of that, I'm giving one away next week. So I got two of them.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Fancy. Yeah. I haven't tried one. I've just seen your, well, I've seen Jeff's images. Jeff's very nice images, actually. Jeff's very good at that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' He's speaking of which, I know I keep hijacking you, but I've asked him to work on a pen photography post for me because he does such a good job. And you want to learn from him? Yeah, no joke. We've talked about it before.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. What do you think I think about the looks of this pen? I think you love it. Except?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The band. Yes. Yeah. I mean, it's glaring. It was good that Jeff used a red ink because you don't see it as much. I don't know that if he did that on purpose.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's not the red that bothers me as much as the just...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The text.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Basic script Moon Man printed on the side. Sure. You know that kind of stuff bothers me. I always feel like if a company is going to put its branding on a pen, it has to be done tastefully and the branding has to actually look good. And that is not achieved with this. But it's only $20. So what are you going to do? Right? I'm not going to roast it like I would other pens like Cough Cough Visconti. But this is fine for a $20 pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And I get where you're coming from. And this one doesn't phase me. Would I prefer it not to be there? Sure. Yeah. But this one is fine by me. It vanishes in use. I don't notice it as much. And like Jeff says, it's the perfect platform to colorize and anodize and change the... It would be cool if you could even sell different barrel bands with it to match the color of the ink that you're using. It's a very simple thing. I don't mind it, but you're drawn to it immediately. I get it.