Editing The Pen Addict 557/transcript (section)

== Field Notes game introduction ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Let's play the field notes game, Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. So what do we got here?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You lead this off. You lead this off.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. So we have the spring 2023 quarterly edition. It is called Streetscapes. And this is a sketchbook two pack. They are four and three quarters by seven and a half inches. My brain cannot compute how big that is. Can you give me something for reference?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, less than A5, probably B6-ish. Okay. B6-ish. So, okay. Smaller than A5. Take Arts and Sciences was around five by seven. Okay. So I think it's something around there.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So big field notes size. Yep. They are sketchbooks, blank sketchbooks inside. They have a thicker paper. Mohawk, super fine, ultra white. But the key is the covers are white with black illustration of different streetscapes in the United States. The artwork is done by an artist called Steve McDonald. And he is well known. I don't know him personally, I don't think. But apparently he is well known in America for adult coloring books. And you will be able to, if you want to, color in the front pages of these notebooks. And field notes are selling a coloring pencil set from Blackwing on their website. So you want to know what I think you think? Yes. I think you love it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. And I think you like it. But don't love it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, okay. I'll say for me, it's a little more complicated than that. I think the idea is wonderful. This is a wonderful idea. I will question the timing. That's the top of my list.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So just that you keep going, but I do not love them. I like them. Okay. So continue.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think that the idea is sound, like doing sketchbooks is an interesting idea. Although I do always have pause, like for people that sign up for field notes, when they then get something that is abnormal, like I wouldn't want sketchbooks if I was a subscriber, right? Like that's not what I want. I would be subscribing for a pocket notebook or the occasional, like here's a bigger one, but it's still a notebook. Like a sketchbook, I wouldn't have any use for that. Like blank sketch paper. Like it's just, I don't have that in my life. And I like, I've liked the adult coloring idea. And I love the idea that this is a cover that's made of a material that you could color in on, but this feels like a good idea four years ago rather than now. And I'm like really intrigued to understand, which we wouldn't be able to understand of like what led them to this now? Maybe they just discovered this. I don't know. I don't know what the deal is.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like it's a great idea and it's a great concept. Great idea, yeah. We are in lockstep on our thoughts on this. Why now is my biggest curiosity. Um, this feels like a great store shelf edition, like a standard edition as opposed to a quarterly release. Um, just because it's like you mentioned, it's highly specific. Like what did I sign up for? I signed up for these pocket notebooks, which, you know, they've done a lot of different things in the past, right? And they've changed concepts and done different styles. Like I mentioned arts and sciences. One of my favorites. They've done end papers. They've done, um, what's the, uh, the reporter notebook. I forget the name of that bylines, bylines edition. So they've done all kinds of weird additions. They did the heavy duty covers. Like, like I, I appreciate the fact that they mix this in.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Me too. But I'll just say for me, I appreciate all of that, but they're still notebooks. Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This seems the least useful to me from the expectation of the field notes. Now individually, like if I saw this and I was into this, I'd be like, heck yeah, this is great. Like I like the size. I like the ability to be able to color the covers. Um, I would, if I got these, I would color the covers and then I'd probably like not use the insides that much just because that's not really a format that I use with blank pages. Um, but I get the idea of the sketch, uh, more of a sketch notebook and the streetscapes. Like this is like a six or seven out of 10 for me. Like I agree with you completely. It's not off the charts by any stretch. It's not bad. It's a good concept. It's super good.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well executed. But having it as the quarterly release and doing it in 2023, isn't like for context. So they link an article in the guardian about the artist from 2015. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So that's like the confusing part to me of like, I'm not really sure.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Right. This seems, this seems more of the, you know how they mix in some like special editions throughout the year, some like one-offs, like, like I just call them store shelf editions, you know, where they just pop them in. It's like, Hey, we're going to sell these now. Like this seems like one of those editions to me, Hey, we're going to sell this one now. It's a, it's a sketchbook. It's a adult coloring cover. We also sell these black wing color pencils, you know, that can go with it, stuff like that. So it's very much in the same vein as the, the Lamy Safari delights. Right. It's like, well, like we've been there and done that kind of thing and moved on a little bit. And as much as like adult coloring is still completely joyful experiences, it fell a little flat from a subscription perspective for me. But then I'm also the one where like the previous edition is like, Hey, we're going to make the most basic edition ever with basic colors and like colored grids. And I'm like, heck yeah, give me all of that. It's like the most simple thing ever. And you know, where I've just told Lamy to like, stop making all the simple things. So yeah, it's, there is a lot of context around all this stuff, but like it's, it's uniquely great. I really, really like it. I just don't think it fits for what I'm looking for, for a subscription edition, but it's cool looking. I would totally be down for coloring this, but yeah, we are, we are on the same page. Now, Myke, this sketchbook kind of leads me into my shout out of the week, which is writing at large. This is a blog that I've been following for a very long time. I look back at their archives. 2015 is when writing at large started and they do a lot of, so Nofar lives in Israel. So halfway around the world. So you get a different perspective and they do a lot of sketching, a lot of, you know, urban sketching, you know, different kinds of using different sketchnote products, using a lot of moleskines, which I link to a lot. But I don't know if you know that they recently reviewed the sidekick as well, but I didn't

'''Myke Hurley:''' know that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Just like a couple of weeks ago. So this is a, this is a long time.