Editing The Pen Addict 557/transcript

{{Infobox podcast transcript
| name            = The Pen Addict
| number          = 557
| title           = He's British So I Love Him
| date            = March 29th, 2023
| hosts           = [[Brad Dowdy]]<br>
[[Myke Hurley]]
| guests          = 
| link            = [https://www.relay.fm/penaddict/557 Episode 557]
| audiolink       = [https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thepenaddict/The_Pen_Addict_557.mp3 Audio Episode 557]
| length          = 49
}}

'''Myke Hurley:''' From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 557. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace. My name is Myke Hurley. I'm joined by Brad Dowdy. Hi, Brad. Hey, Myke Hurley. How are you today? I'm good, my friend. I am very good, thank you.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Good, good. I'm doing well as well. Not that you asked. I mean, you don't really care, but whatever. I'm just going to tell you that I'm doing well.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You've got to give me a second, you know what I mean?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I didn't give a breath in there to allow you to jump in. I just wanted to hammer you for no reason, no good reason whatsoever. I should probably save some of my angst for discussion later in the show, or maybe within this first topic. I don't know. But this is one of those episodes. This is lined up to be a classic Pen Addict episode. I'm very excited for this episode. First thing on the agenda, Myke, is we need to follow up on the Lamy bracket that we discussed a couple of weeks ago, right? You know, we talked about being bracket season. And Lamy launched a 16-pin bracket. Controversial. We went over the original bracket setup. We were on the same page on the setup is really off here. And they're down to the final four. And the layout of the bracket came to bear in one part of the bracket for sure. So I wanted to give an update on this final four because it's actually, it has a surprise. It has some not surprises. And it has one questionable product that could have been fixed if they set this bracket up correctly. So if you look at our show notes and want to follow along to what the bracket layout is, so what I'm saying, like the top left, you know what I'm looking at. So the top left of the final four is the Lamy Aeon. So it made it through. I would have picked the CP1, but this was far and away the weakest bracket. It had the Scala, the CP1, the Accent, and the Aeon. And this was far and away the weakest bracket, which just goes back to our previous, you know, conversations like, yeah, this is not really how brackets work, which we'll get to in a minute. So the Lamy Aeon made it through. I would have picked, I would have chosen the CP1 if those were my four choices to make it to the final four out of those. I don't know that you, do you even have any experience or any preference out of that bracket?

'''Myke Hurley:''' No, I have not used any of those. Like to me, I mean, that was one of my issues, one of my many issues, right? It's just like that whole corner is just like, who's using those? Like realistically in the overall, like what is Lamy selling? Like that can't be, that is their majority, you know? Yeah.



== CP1 pen sales and market performance ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like the CP1 has to be the best seller out of that section of the bracket, and it's still a pretty small seller. So below that, the Lamy Aeon is up against the Lamy 2000, which was going to be a clear winner in its bracket. It had to go up against the Dialog and then a couple of the ballpoints, the Zeevo and I forget the name of the other one. But like that was like easy. Like you could just go ahead and pin that in in permanent ink that the 2000 was going to make it. So that's the left side of the bracket in the final four. It's the Lamy Aeon versus the Lamy 2000. The 2000 is going to run away with that. Those votes aren't in yet, but like that's like not even a competition. In the upper right quadrant, we had the one I'm most excited to talk about and the Lamy Pico made it out of the bracket. And it should have, but I wasn't convinced that it was. But versus the pins that it was up against, you know my love for the Pico. I professed that when we first talked about this bracket layout, but it also had the Lamy Joy to go up against, which is a pretty popular pin. The Lamy Nex I didn't think was going to have a problem. And then I forget the name of the ballpoint in there was going to beat that. But yeah, the Pico is in the final four, which I am unduly excited about. It's challenger is the Lamy Safari. Yeah. And this was the part of the bracket that we had. And yeah, this is the part of the bracket we had no idea what was going to happen because they put the Lamy Studio versus the Lamy LX and the Lamy All-Star versus the Lamy Safari. And that's four top tier pins where the bracket with the Ion in it had four subpar pins in it, right? So some good pin had to lose out of this. Like the Lamy Studio should have been over there on the Ion side and the Safari All-Star LX and Vista should have fought out this bracket, right? And one of those would have won. So this, you think the Safari is just going to trounce the Pico and then trounce the 2000? I don't know about trounce.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't know if it's going to crush, but I think, I mean, I would have put a decent money on the Safari being the overall winner before any of this happened. Like, it just seems logical to me that it is.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, but then it could have lost in the first round.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean. Which was the whole problem with we have with the bracket.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yes. I mean, it could have, right? But I would have expected it would have beat the Aon Star. But yes, it could have lost out there. But yeah, I think the Safari is going to walk away with this. Like, it feels, it's their most popular pin. I feel like even people that have a Safari, sorry, have like a 2000 probably have and love a Safari. You know what I mean? It just feels like that's the most logical one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The Safari, yeah, the Safari is how they got to the 2000 in most cases. Yeah. Yeah. Right? Like, you, as you work through, like, your, your pin history and learning about things. And you probably had a Safari first and that got you into a lot of this stuff. So, you just have like a, a love for it. I think it's definitely going to beat, so it's the Pico versus the Safari and the Aon versus the 2000. The 2000 is an easy winner. The Safari is going to beat the Pico just because it's the Safari. And it may not even be particularly close. But I mean, I just have a, the Pico made it as far as it possibly could. Right? Like, it's never going to make the final. But I think it deserves, yeah, it deserves the spot where it's at. So, Safari versus 2000.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Which is the deserving final. Right? Like, I don't like how we got here. But I think this is the final as it should be. And as I said, for me personally, I would go 2000. But I think Safari is going to win it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think you're right. And I think I would still probably go Safari. But like, this is going to be close. Like, we will talk about this one more time when the final is. Not because we'll be surprised over who wins. But I want to see what the vote is. Like, what the percentage is. If it's close. Like, I think it's going to be like 55-45 Safari. Something like that. I'm guessing. But I don't know. I could be wrong. We'll see. We'll see. But it's, it's fun. I like talking about this. I mostly wanted to talk about this because I was pretty excited about the Pico. Everything else I thought was pretty much exactly how it should have been.



== Lando Norris and his potential pen preferences ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' If Lando Norris had a vote in this bracket, Myke, what do you think he would have voted for?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I reckon he's using a Safari in that image.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, we got a link. As listeners know, Myke and I are F1 fans. He's one of our favorite drivers. Well, I'll speak for myself. No, me too. But I think you're a Lando fan. He's British, so I love him. Yeah, Lando Norris drives for McLaren. Yeah. British. So, they're down in, they're down in Australia. And Lando put out an Instagram where he's, like, walking through the town. And he's going through, like, this, like, graffiti kind of, almost like an art installation. Right? There's just, like, a localized, like, graffiti thing. And, like, you know, I didn't see this and, like, I wouldn't have gotten all the way to the end of the photos in the Instagram feed. So, he's, like, looking at all this artwork, artwork, artwork, artwork. Then he's all of a sudden in a Lamy store writing. You know what he's using? What is it? You're saying Safari. It is a Safari. It's the Safari ballpoint. And that was one of the pens I wanted in. That's one of the pens I wanted in the bracket was the Safari ballpoint. Or, actually, his might be a little bit different. No, I think he has a Vista in his hand, actually, at the time. The Safari ballpoint's next to it. He's using a Vista. My apologies. So, again, the Vista should have been in the bracket as well. So, he's got pretty nice handwriting, I will say. Like, he did a signature on there, which you'll never see, like, a good quality signature. I'm sure that's not his autograph signature. But, hey, pretty good. It says, so someone's probably gone in there behind it. It says, Lando Norris. Hello, everyone. And then he has his wild signature, right? His number four signature, right? The, hey, let me hold the end of the Sharpie signature, the squiggle, which is awful. Like, could you read that as, if you had no context, can you get Lando Norris out of that squiggle? No, of course not. Absolutely not. The only chance is that there's a number four on there. You're like, oh, maybe, maybe. But, like, as far as I'm concerned, it could say, like, Cola, number four. Like, there's no idea on a signature.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Everyone can be like that guy who we're talking about. Your favorite.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So, yeah, I thought that was cool. Like, he's sitting there playing in the Lamy store. I wonder if he picked anything up. Or maybe, maybe, Zac Brown sent him on a recon for, like, the 48th sponsor to their car.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I see this as, I see this as kind of just like, follow a few drivers right now. They were just trying to stay awake. Yeah, exactly. Right? Like, they were flown halfway across the world and they got, like, work to do in a couple of days. They were all just, like, desperately trying to stay awake. So, he's just, like, roaming the streets and just, like, rumbling into a Lamy store. Like, why is he even there? You know what I mean? Like, I don't understand. Like, why is he in the Lamy store? He's just, like, killing time, you know?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yep. Gotta love it. But, yeah, he looks like he has good penmanship for a fountain pen. Looks like it was the Lamy Vista. So, yeah, good job, Lando. We already liked you. Now, we like you even more.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I enjoy some of the thirsty comments from pen stores and companies that we know. And I say, go for it. You know what I mean? They're all in there. Come to our store, you know? Just, you never know, right? Oh, I haven't read any of those. But, yeah, yeah, come on. Maybe you'll pop in. Let's go. I also enjoy Will Buxton saying, what did he say? Lamy pens are the business, he said. Nice. Thanks, Will.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Thanks, Will.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Thanks for your expertise in another area, Will.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You need to clip one to your short sleeve sweater this weekend. That would be great.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Or, like, in pure, we're just in pure drive to survive memes now. It's just like, pens are used to write with.

'''Myke Hurley:''' If you want to use the pen, you've got to uncap the pen.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Paul Will Buxton. I'm feeling fine.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' What a job he has. All right, and what a job I have right now to explain to our listenership that we have the official word on the Safari 2023 edition. We knew.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Can I just say, it is exactly what you said it was going to be. I cannot believe how closely you nailed this and how disappointed I am that you did.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, I nailed it because they released this on their press channel as a text document saying the name. In general, they didn't give the actual name of the lineup, but they said pastel colors. So, it was not me. It was, like, the speculation from their press release. Like, back in February, they did, like, a text, like, the PR newsroom type of thing. Oh, okay. When they did the Lilac and the Petrol All-Stars, right? This was included in there, but no one, there were no pictures at the time. No one was confirming it. No one really knew the proper names of them. But what we have here is the Safari 2023 D-Lights, Myke. These are pastel colors, light rose, aqua sky, and spring green. So, that's a green, a pink, and a light blue. The product names are all one word, which I was double-checking around the marketing around them. So, light rose is literally all smushed together. Light rose, aqua sky, spring green. They're all one word.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Spring green is the most unfortunate because you've got a double G.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. So, the groove is not in the heart with these, Myke. It is not good. Like my pun there, it is not good whatsoever.

'''Myke Hurley:''' These pastel colors are good and nice one time. Yes. They can't keep doing it. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They, in a vacuum, they're perfectly fine, right? Great colors, right? I really like the green. Like, it's kind of a neat color green. Lamy has done so many greens. Lamy needs a reboot in the limited edition Safaris and All-Stars. Like, the All-Stars came out great, but they were reused colors. I mean, let's be clear. I mean, they're so good. And those colors deserve to be in the aluminum barrels. But let's be perfectly clear. They spent five minutes figuring that out, right? And these pastels, like, I don't know how they sit there and justify another set of three pastel colors. When they've done a set of three pastel colors, then they did a separate set of three kind of more saturated colors. And it's just these constantly sets of three colors, three colors, and last year was two colors, strawberries and cream. Make me one really special pin in the All-Star and the Safari lineup. And I think you would sell, you know, maybe not 100% of the volume of three. Three releases for this set and two for the All-Star. But if you gave me one great Safari that you did something different with, and you gave me one great All-Star that you did something different with, I think you would do pretty close to the numbers of this. Because this just falls flat every year. Like, when you do this every year, the interest is just kind of, like, it just kind of kills all that interest, right? It just kind of dies. But, like, there's absolutely nothing wrong with these pens. They're beautiful pens. It's just not interesting based on what they've created in such recent time frames, right? So, I mean, the All-Stars are completely better than these. Like, the Team Safari is going to take the loss this year. But it's the whole product lineup idea. I think someone needs to sit down and rethink these limited editions of two of their most popular pin lines and try something different for a change. Like, surprise me. Like, 0% surprise in any of these releases this year, right? And that's what I'm looking for.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's a shame. Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But, you know, like I said, uniquely, you roll up, like, someone, you know, looking for a safari rolls up and sees this blue one. Man, it's going to be spectacular, right? Yeah. But as someone who follows this, like, you know, for a long time now, it's just like, come on. Like, we're just having the same party every year and, like, I'm tired of cupcakes. Like, can we do something different? Like, let's try pie or something. I don't know. Like, it's just, we are in, they are in a design rut as far as originality goes. And that's my issue for a company I obviously love, right? And I love it. So, yeah. So, anyway, they're uniquely great. I hope I get to see them this weekend at the Atlanta Pen Show. We're going to talk about that later. But, like, my expectations are really high for Lamy. So, when they don't meet it, I think it's fair to, like, have these discussions. So, all right, Myke. Next product. I am so excited about this. I can't even tell you. And we're going to have more on this because, and I'll tell you why in a minute.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I was so confused when I opened this Instagram post this morning and I thought something was broken. It took me a long time to work out what was going on.



== Platinum Super Black ink discussion ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. So, we have the Platinum Super Black ink. I don't know if that's the official name. We're going to talk about this in a second. So, Platinum, a little bit of context here. Platinum makes one of the most popular fountain pen inks in the world in Platinum Carbon Black. It is literally your S-tier black ink. It's your S-tier art ink. It's your S-tier fountain pen ink. It is so good. It is. It just, it gets almost all of the press for the type of ink it is for a pigmented black ink. Even Sailor has a nano black. The Platinum Carbon Black just, I think, just market share probably just trounces it. Like, I obviously don't know sales numbers. But just all you hear about recommendations is Platinum Carbon Black, Platinum Carbon Black. And those, that high praise is warranted, right? It is that good of an ink. It's a pigmented ink. It comes in bottles. It comes in cartridges. Platinum does, you know, brush pens and desk pens and all kinds of standard pens that this ink is used for. And it's just really, really popular, very highly recommended. So I got word at the Baltimore Pen Show that, hey, they're coming out with an even blacker Platinum Carbon Black. So I'm calling it the Platinum Blackest Black ink. Black plus plus. Yeah, black plus plus. We've talked about this with the Vantablack ideas and the Anish Kapoor versus Stuart Simple battles over the years. Because that's one of the things that I enjoy following. It's, those are whole stories. You can just go Google, Google Vantablack and you'll have, you know, a day's worth of articles to read. So Platinum's idea here is to make an even blacker ink than Platinum Carbon Black. So I want to read the translation just from the link we have in the show notes. Because this is all the information I have so far. So it says, Platinum Fountain Festival, 104 years of establishment, the darkest millennium ink, the birth of super black. Blackness is proved by numbers. The black ink you'll never see is finished.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. Remember, like, some of that sounds super suspect. But, like, this is a translation. All right. Yeah. Like, yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But they're, they're, like, going in on this ink. It's, like, this is the Vantablack of Fountain Pen inks is what they're going for here. Do you think?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like, I know that seems that way. But, like, if that's what you think they're doing?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, it's not technically possible, which is what we're going to get to right now. So, number one, so I had my good friend CY drop in Twitch yesterday, who is very dialed into the Japanese market, as people who've listened to the show know and who follow CY and his various podcasts. He had some information for me. And he's going to send me some more details on the tech specs for this. It is even more extreme to the point where I'm questioning what we're actually getting here and if we can actually use this. So, number one, it's going to be $55. Their traditional bottles are 50 milliliters for carbon black. I don't know if it's going to be the same milliliter size. I would hope so for $55. That's insanely expensive. What has caught CY off guard is the usage directions for this in that they are very particular about how you use this ink, what you use it in, and how you clean it. As to go so far, they want you to use, like, not tap water to clean it with and things like that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Bay State Blue 2.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The only thing I can get back to is, like, are they just putting India ink in a bottle, right, which you don't use in fountain pens because it will clog your pens. It's high maintenance. Like, it's not going to flow. It's not going to work.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That doesn't seem like a good idea.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So, is this supposed to be a dip ink only? So, that's what I'm curious about. So, CY is going to send me some more information. So, I'll follow up on this. But, as cool as I was hoping this was going to be, it sounds like it's really not going to be for writing much with, like, a standard fountain pen. You know, maybe you dedicate, like, a Platinum Preppy to put, like, a really extreme ink in it. But this sounds not only like the color is going to be off the charts for, like, Black is Black ink, that it's going to be just a cleaning and performance mess. Like, it's going to be very high maintenance. So, we'll see. We'll see. I had more high hopes of, like, Platinum Carbon Black 2 that I can just get in cartridges and go to town and feel comfortable putting in any pen, right? Because Carbon Black is the reason why it's so popular is not just because of how it works, but it's actually easy to clean. And you can leave it in pen for a month and clean it out very well. That does not sound at all like what we're getting here. So, it'll be out in May. Yeah, I'll be definitely testing it out, but we might be into just, like, dip pens, glass pens, things like that only with this. So, we'll see. I'm interested to see what they do with it, and I'm interested to get more information of this. So, it should be interesting, and I'll be anxious to see how it performs.

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== 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.



== Theme system journal and writing habits ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' It's been interesting for me, actually. Like I have with the theme system journal, I felt like a lot of people were writing about it, but I haven't really seen so many things with the sidekick notepad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Yep. So this was cool. So I really like the mixture of writing at writing at large because it can go from just some like real personal detail stuff to product reviews, like a moleskin review. It can go to, Hey, I'm taking this trip and here's all the sketch notes. It could be, I'm riding the bus today. Here's all the artwork I wrote. And I really, really love all the content. I love the perspective and I love no far for, for writing, writing at large.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm skimming this review now. Can I provide a correction? This is something when you said the full specs aren't stated on the page. They are, they're on the website. Like on the product page, there's a size box and it has the inches. You're just lying right now. I'm not lying. Lots of people have said this, right? So I'm not like throwing specific shade, but it's like, you know, Comp Bureau's clothing. So it can be complicated to make it clear, but there is a size box and it has the sizes in inches when I'm, which I'm not super happy about. I wish it was in centimeters, but I'm not going to be, I'm not going to ask them to change that. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Way to go. Way to go. So anyway, writing at large, long to eight years, eight years running. So keep it going no far. I appreciate all the work you do. All right, Myke, it is Wednesday as we record this on Friday. On Friday, I will be hopping in a car, driving North a couple of hours to the Atlanta pen show. It is one of my favorite shows to go to every year because it's one local ish to it has some of the most, I don't know, important moments to me in my growth as not just like a consumer of fountain pens and learning about fountain pens and learning about pen shows. But then we got to do things like launch knock there, right? Our first retail show for knock was there. Our first in-person podcast was there at with you and I, and we've done how many times there? Four, maybe? Something like that. Something like, yeah. Four in-person events where you fly from England over to Atlanta and we do a podcast. We're not doing that this year, so don't think I'm getting ready to tease that or test that. We would have told you a long time ago if that was happening. So yeah, this whole, this show holds a special place in my heart. I am looking forward to seeing all my friends in Atlanta. I'm looking forward to see Jimmy, who I actually see at other pen shows. I just saw him in Baltimore. He wanted to know if we were interested in doing a podcast. I said, no, we're good. We don't have the time this year. That was like three weeks ago. I was like, yeah, well, that's not going to work this year. But if we ever do it again, we would love to come back to Atlanta.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We will. It's very fun. We will do it again. I know we'll do it again. It's just about when.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, you know what works for Atlanta is the time of year for both of us. Yes. It's like generally in a great spot where there's not a lot going on in our other parts of our lives, right? Yeah. So it's traditionally been one of the easier travel shows. And like it's we've had a lot of international visitors come to the Atlanta pen show because of the hub that the Atlanta airport is like it's easy to get to. Even though it's a long trip, it's still like convenient. You're not often having to hop all over the world to get here. So the show's at the same hotel it's been in for, I don't know, more than a decade. One of the cool things that I like about this show is if you buy the weekend pass, the show promoter, Jimmy Doluff, puts on a cookout on the Friday night. It's not just for vendors. It's for attendees. You know, if you're a weekend pass holder, you get to go to this cookout. And I mean, what, there's usually like 100 people. Like he feeds a lot of people. He feeds a lot of people. And, you know, you hope the weather's good and you can sit outside and have some nice areas to sit out around the hotel pool and things like that. So it's fun. And then the show itself, like it's not quite as big as somewhere like Baltimore that I just came back from. And it's a little bit more broken up into like a large, medium, and small, like three rooms, large, medium, and small. But they're all like very connected. And so it's fun to walk around. It's fun to see some people that come to this show that don't get around to some of the other shows. It's a fun hang just there at the hotel until they kick us out too early from the bar, which is the long running joke at the Atlanta Pen Show. It has one of the best on-site restaurants in the Waffle House that is literally attached to the hotel, which is great. You just walk out the hotel door and walk into the Waffle House. It's kind of fantastic.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They have all the stuff across the street that, well, I mean, I don't know if it's still there. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So it used to be even worse for food, but now there's like a pizza place and a brew pub across the street. And there's a sushi place and now a Starbucks. So like it is kind of this area has kind of grown around the hotel. So I'm anxious to get up to it this year and spend some time. I'm going to go up Friday afternoon. So I'll be there after lunch Friday, hang out all Friday night. Just I'm going to kind of do the same thing I did in Baltimore where I just spend my Friday talking to people, hanging out. Then I will go Saturday. I'll wake up Saturday and I will hit the show hard. Like we'll be shopping, looking around at products, doing all of that stuff, you know, getting to to see what all the new products are out. See a lot of makers there, including some makers that just come to this show. Right. That don't necessarily get out to like San Francisco or Baltimore or St. Louis or things like that. So I'll spend a lot of that time Saturday, hang out Saturday night and then get up and head home Sunday morning. So that's a very easy thing for me to do. I have not sweated packing for this. It's like I will literally throw some clothes in a duffel bag and like go on Friday. Like there's nothing to worry about for the show. I'm extremely not anxious about this where Baltimore, like I get anxious about packing. I'm like, all right, I got to pack all my stuff because I'm flying and make sure I have my backpack set correctly and this and that. This I will just throw it in the back of my car and go. Like it does not matter. So I'm very excited for this. It is one of the more comfortable shows I go to. It's the right size, the right feel. Also have just like, like I said, the long term history with it. Like I'm comfortable going there because I've been there, you know, for 10 years probably at this point. Um, so yeah, like I don't have a shopping list per se, um, to, to check out. I always end up looking at some of the maker pens, right? You can't really have a shopping list. Like if I'm gonna go look at Brad from mythic pens who shout out just had, uh, his meet your maker article on the pen addict this week. If we can put that in the show notes, that would be great. So I'll get to hang out with Brad for a minute and see what he's up to and see some of the new things. Right. So I can't really make a shopping list other than, Hey, I know I'm going to go talk to Brad at mythic pens. Right. And then, you know, see what other makers are there, what they're making for the show. Um, you know, hopefully Ryan Kruzak is there. He wasn't in Baltimore. So he is someone I always get to see at the Atlanta pen show. So that'll be fun. And then get to, to hang out with the vendors that I've known forever, like, you know, Van S pens and drum goals and, and all of these people. So very excited next week. We will do a recap of the Atlanta pen show. See how it goes. I expect it to go extremely smooth because the show is not difficult, right? It is not difficult. Um, it's the right size, the right people, the right crowds, and just easy to get around. Um, easy to hang out at the hotel. So, yeah, I expect nothing but a good chill time at the Atlanta pen show. If you were there, don't hesitate to say hi to me. Like, uh, I'll, I'll be hanging out and just chilling. If you need help at the pen show, a lot of people came up to me in Baltimore, which I love and say, Hey, can you help me with this? And then we would go, we would go bounce around and I would help them figure out the things that they're trying to figure out. And I literally love doing that. That's my favorite thing to do at a show is helping other people out who have questions at the show. So don't hesitate. I'm the guy with the pointy hair. Um, you can find me. Uh, you probably know what I look like. So don't hesitate to interrupt me, ask, butt in. Um, and I, I will sign, uh, any autographs in a very neat and, uh,

'''Myke Hurley:''' I guess everybody else can sign something. And I want pictures, long lines.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think I signed two in Baltimore. So yeah, that's the over under this weekend too. So it's, I, I'm ready. I'm ready to go.



== Expected purchases for the Baltimore pen show ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' So, uh, I have a question for you expecting to, do you have any expected purchases for this? Or are you all like you covered from the stuff that you bought recently? Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's one of the things with Baltimore. I bought a lot of pens. I bought one pen for me and then I bought a bunch of other pens. So it's like for review and giveaway and it being only three weeks ago, like I'm still like in that zone. The things I didn't buy at Baltimore that are easier for me to buy in Atlanta because I'm driving are ink and paper. So I didn't even consider looking at inks in Baltimore really for myself or for like product reviews. I bought some for giveaway. So I'm going to see what inks are out there. I'm going to see if there's any new paper I need to test out. Like some of the bigger, bulkier stuff that I can just drive home. Um, that is on the list. Nothing in particular. I, in Baltimore, wearing wool was inks were still just such a hot item. I'm going to see like, okay, maybe there's some other wearing wool inks I need to pick out. Those have been very popular right now. Um, to review, I think I only have one sitting here that's kind of queued up for review. As far as pen products, I'm always on the lookout for a pilot decimo. And I am, I keep saying that over and over again because I'm not overly anxious to get one. I'm just looking for like a cool, like non-standard one. And that's really hard to find because pilot, as I mentioned in the Baltimore recap, they're not making any new decimos for release this year in the U S market. It's a very, it's probably one of their lower selling product lineups for some reason in this market, but it's still popular in Japan. So one of these days I might just break down and get a special edition over from Japan, but I'm always looking. There's always some smaller individual sellers there that you might run across something like that for. So that's what Saturday's for is to kind of give me the time to scope that out. So I still have a Scribo Piuma is the Scribo is the brand Piuma is the model to check out. It's a pretty expensive pen, but it comes with a stock extra, extra fine gold nib. And I love the shape and materials of them. I just haven't pulled the trigger online. I could have bought it many times over online. It's kind of a stock edition for them, but I'm kind of holding off. I just haven't really committed. I kind of want to see them in person because you can get them in these neat swirly materials. And a lot of times when you look at the swirl materials online, you never know what you get unless you pick it out yourself. So that's always a good thing to pin for a pin show. It's good. Yeah. I am very tempted by the Leonardo's that just released in the spaghetti resin, you know, that, um, the kind where the, the resins kind of like cut off, it's like almost kind of looks like a checkerboard pattern. So there's one called, uh, anemone, which has some unique colors. It's kind of like purple, orange, and brown. It's like colors. I wouldn't necessarily have put together myself, but that came out really, really good. Like, I don't necessarily need another Leonardo like personally, but that one's at least tempting because they look so good. And I like that, um, what they call the spaghetti resin, the way they, they started making those last year and some of their stock models, like the blue Hawaii and some of the other ones. So now they've made some other resins, um, that have kind of started to pop. And yeah, I, it's, that's one of those determinations, like that. Do I need it? Right. Am I buying this for me? Right. This is in the bigger picture of the pen attic 100. Like if I'm going to get down to 100 pens, like I'm really considering what I buy. And if I buy it, like I probably need to sell one of my other Leonardo's and I only have three, I have three Leonardo's right now. So we'll see. We'll see. So that's the, the context that I'm thinking about. I at least want to check these out and see how they, how they look in person, because I think the material and it is really good. And I'm just in love with the Leonardo shape and style really fits my aesthetic. So yeah, I'm looking for that. So I think that's the extent of the list. I obviously want to see the Lamy Delights safaris. Like I'm going to see them, you know, like I might buy some to give away. Like I don't need any of those for my own personal needs. But like one of the things I do at pen shows is I buy several things for review giveaway and stuff like that. So like Baltimore, what I came home with was 90 or 95% stuff for reviews and giveaways. And then I bought the one pen for myself, right? That's how Baltimore was. And I would expect Atlanta to be the same thing because I'm trying to manage like my own collections, right? Like I really, I'm trying to draw this line of why am I buying all this stuff? Like I want to have a real reason. Like if I'm buying this pen from me in my collection, well, it needs to fit in with what I already have. And is it going to replace something? And that's kind of how I'm thinking about it. Otherwise, am I, is this a good, is this a new product that is worth a new review? Like we review, I don't know, we've reviewed a ton of Leonardo's on the blog. So it's not really a review product for me, right? Is the way I look at it because it's the same pen. It's already something I think is like a 10 out of 10 pen design and comfort. It's just a new material. And there's, I, there's not many words I can spill on just the new material. As far as a review, I don't know that that's worthwhile. So that's, that's how my brain works around like new products and buying things these days is a lot of it's just for blog review and giveaway and deciding if I'm going to buy something specifically to fit into my library of pens that I'm trying to keep it 100 and probably failing hard at.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Keeping it 100. I like that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Keep keeping it Hanna.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But you're not doing that yet, are you? I am.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, no, no, but I'm, I'm in the low 100s and I have another batch here to sell. So I'm getting there. I'm getting there.

'''Myke Hurley:''' He's getting there. He's getting there. One day we'll do that 100.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We'll do it. We'll do it this year. Like I'm getting, like we'll do it probably this summer. Like I need to have another sale. So once I do this next sale, I'm going to be very ready to have that number solidified. Like, because I have to get under 100, right? Like I can't get to 100 right now because then it's full and that's not the goal. The goal is to have space. So I need it to be like 85, right? So I can go and, Hey, look at this Leonardo anemone, right? Anemone, anemone, anemone, anemone. So yeah, uh, it's, it's good. It's all good stuff. So we will, uh, yeah, I just need to do a little bit. I need to do another round of sales and then have a real, like a real refinement look at the Toyoka craft 100 box and what's in it and see what needs to stay in, make in hit our final form. If you will, if you will.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. Well, I'm very jealous of you and I hope that you'll have a great time.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'm sure people will ask about you. I will tell them that, uh, you hate them, which is why you didn't want to show up.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's very, you know what? That's very fair. Uh, if you want to find Brad, go to the Atlanta pen show, but otherwise go to twitch.tv slash pen addict. We're brashine three times a week. Go to pen addict.com and spoke design.com to check out Brad's writing and products. You can find Brad on mastodon. Social. He is at pen addict. He's a pen addict on Instagram as well. Uh, I am on mic. Social as at I Myke. You can find my podcast here at relay FM like this one, and also my products over at cortex brand.com. Thank you so much to Squarespace for their support of this week's episode, but most of all, thank you for listening until next time. Say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Bye.

[[Category:Podcast Transcripts]]
[[Category:The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript]]