Editing The Pen Addict 367/transcript (section)

== Listener Questions ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, this question from rich, I took a couple of listener questions will lead us, uh, in the perfect segue from that topic into the next. He asked, since you obtained your grail pen, the Montblanc Hitchcock psycho pen, do you have a new grail pen? So tell us about the Montblanc, um, that rich is referring to. And is there something now that you're looking for that will replace that?

'''David Parker:''' You know, I've mentioned it before and I'm a big Hitchcock fan and I talked about Hitchcock earlier and that not a lot of the, the Montblanc writers series and the great character series really speak to me that much. I think that some of them are cool, but there just wasn't one that I just had to have. And that, uh, since I am such a big Hitchcock buff, I really wanted the Hitchcock, but it was out of production. Um, I knew how much it costs, which was way more than I was ever going to spend on a pen. Uh, and you know, they, they weren't that easy to obtain. And so I had kind of, I wasn't necessarily looking for one. I had always said that was kind of my grail pen. And I even said that in a couple of videos before I, uh, you know, for, for a while, if someone would ask me, that's what I would say. Uh, and I, I just happened to luck into one. I, I had a, a mutual friend of ours, uh, uh, basically get me in touch with a, an overseas, uh, distributor for Montblanc, who's a legitimate dealer. It isn't like some guy selling out of the back of his truck or something like that. Um, but a legitimate dealer from another country that was selling them at a price that basically when they told me the price, I was like, if I'm ever going to buy one, is this because I am never going to find one for a better price. And while it was by far the most expensive pen I've bought, it was like, okay, if I'm ever going to do it, then this is now that I'm never going to do it at the real price. And, uh, and I haven't regretted it because it's, it's a beautiful pen. I love it. And it means a lot to me, not only just because of the pen itself, but just what it symbolizes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Is there a pen that's taken its place as the next grail pen or is that, is that the pinnacle? And it's like hard to compare like to that.

'''David Parker:''' I, you know, I don't have anything yet. I mean, I, uh, I'd like to get, I'd like to get eventually get my hands on an emperor. That's, that's something I'd like to eventually get, but I'm not necessarily obsessed over it or have, um, you know, eBay alerts set up. Right. Uh, though I will say I, I posted this on the Slack the other day. I, I was like, okay, I don't know why I left that eBay alert on for the Visconti blue ripple that I always wanted. And I don't know why, uh, I contacted the seller and, uh, asked him if he'd sell it for a lesser price than he posted. And I don't know why he said yes. Uh, and so I wasn't expecting today to buy myself an expensive pen, but I guess I have it showing up to me now. And that's the danger thing is that the dangerous thing is when you kind of eye them for a long time, uh, then eventually, you know, they have a way of finding themselves into the collection. So I have a Visconti blue ripple with the, uh, original gold nibs, uh, actually showing up tomorrow. So, uh, but I'm not, I don't necessarily have anything that I'm, um, uh, that I would consider my grail pen right now, but eventually I'll, I will, it just has to, it has to kind of come about naturally.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So when you're using your personal pens out of your personal collection, what ink and paper are you using the most? What are your, some of your favorite inks of what paper do you like to write?

'''David Parker:''' On a daily use, uh, I use, uh, Rhodia A4 pads, uh, as far as I, at work, that's what I, I use. Um, I, I kind of write my daily to-do lists and my notes at work. I take a different pen to me every day, uh, at work. Uh, if you follow me on Instagram, uh, you'll see I basically every morning I take a picture of my first thing in the morning. I log into my computer, I sit down and I take a picture of the pen that I brought to work and post. Nice. And so it's, for me, it's just creating content again. It's like, okay, if you want to be a content creator, what's something simple I could do? Okay. Well, I could take a picture of the pen I take to work every day with me. And it's at least something you're creating something. And so, yeah, every day, if you want to see how I rotate through my collection, then I, uh, I post a picture of my pen every day, but I, I usually mix up the inks and I mix, mix up the pens and kind of rotate through the whole collection. But I use those, uh, Rodia A4 pads. Uh, and then as far as like a notebook goes, I recently, uh, filled up a Hippo Noto. I completed it. Uh, usually that's what I would carry around with me every single day. Uh, and I would write my reviews in that. And I really liked that notebook. And what I've really started using now is a notebook by a woman in Spain who goes by the moniker of Gats BCN, who sells the most amazing handmade notebooks. Uh, I've reviewed a couple of them and I've started carrying a run around with me every single day. Um, and it's one of those things to where, you know, you almost don't want to ruin it just because it's so cool. But then I told myself, you know what? Uh, notebooks want to be used. That's what makes notebooks happy. It's not going to make them happy just to sit on the shelf. And so I decided, you know, I am going to use this notebook. It's like, you know, 500 pages or something like that, maybe like 450. And it is going to get beat up. Not that I'm rough on these things, but just literally going in and out of my bag and putting it into my, out of my bag a thousand times over the lifetime. It's going to get a lot of wear and tear, but I've decided, you know what? I'm going to use it because if it's just, if I put it on the shelf, then I'm never going to come up with the right time to use it. So I've been using that. It has some, uh, some interesting paper that I really wasn't familiar with. Uh, it's a 90 gram of Fedrigoni, Fedrigoni paper.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That's a new one.

'''David Parker:''' Um, which is really nice. Um, but, uh, in regard to inks, I have lots of favorites. I like to mix it up a bit. I would have to say my all time favorite ink is Orochizuku Konpeki. That's my, uh, that's my favorite. Um, but, but I have lots of favorites, uh, something that actually someone just sent me and I haven't even opened. Well, I haven't even opened the ink yet, but if you check out my Instagram that there was, uh, three oysters sent me, um, a box of ink that is the most amazing box. And I'll do my best to describe it, but, uh, we'll put a link in the notes to go check it out on the Instagram. But basically I open up this box and it's almost like a pop-up book. And all of a sudden there's some flying fish and this lady of the sea with tears. I, and I had to email them to find out the story of what is this? Cause you can't find it anywhere to purchase online. And I guess it was a Kickstarter that didn't go anywhere, uh, and had a very few backers. But, um, the fact that they sent it to me makes me feel like eventually it's going to become available somewhere. Uh, and there is a bottle of blue ink, but then also some additives so that you can mix it and that, you know, the more additive you add, then it changed the color of the blue and kind of makes it different shades. So I'm, uh, one, it's just the coolest ink box I've ever seen before. And two, then it's just kind of an interesting idea. So once I actually find out more information that I'll definitely do a review and kind of let folks know, because it's one of those things, as soon as you see it, you're going to be, okay, where can I buy this? And right now you can't.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I was that I was, you, you had to show me that video and I saw it. I was like, okay, I'm going to need this. It's like, I, it's, it's pretty wild and it's, it's really just like a pop-up book. So we'll put that link in, in the show notes for everyone to check out because you really should. I haven't, I haven't seen anything like that from any of our ink manufacturers and they're doing some pretty wild stuff recently, but, uh, this is a, this is a really, really good one. Yes. All right. I'm going to get you out of here on a very big question, um, because it's a very cool thing that you did. And this question comes in from Evan says, how did you come to interview Neil deGrasse Tyson? And for your channel, are there any other fountain pen using celebrities or just other celebrities that you hope to interview in the future? So tell us about how, uh, your interview, uh, with Neil deGrasse Tyson came about because he's a, a well-known fountain pen user and you got to spend some time and talk about his collection.

'''David Parker:''' Yeah. Uh, that I think it boils down to, like I mentioned many times is I just like to do things that are fun for my channel. And I thought, how fun would it be to go talk to Neil deGrasse Tyson? And, uh, you know, and how fun would that be for the community? Because if someone else's channel did that, then I'd watch that. And so I, I, I reached out and it's, sometimes it can be difficult to, to get a hold of, uh, of these folks. And so I had to, uh, figure out the best way to reach him or reach someone who could reach him. Uh, and, uh, I ended up actually working through his publisher because he was producing a new book. So it was kind of good timing because he was just about to start doing a lot of press for his new book that was coming out. And so he was kind of in press mode per se. And then also I think it probably interested him because it wasn't just like a normal interview where he talked about his book and his work and things like that. It was actually, okay, you get to talk about one of your passionate hobbies. And it was almost like no one had ever asked him about his hobbies before. And so it was, um, a lot of fun to do. I actually got to, um, go up to his office, uh, go up to the, uh, the, uh, Hayden planetarium there in New York. And, and we actually did the interview in his office and he was very kind and very generous with his time. And he, uh, even to the point where after, well, I will say after it was, uh, after a while he, he was going on and on and on, we were having a great conversation and it got to the point where I was trying to respect his time because he had a limited amount of time and, uh, his assistant came to the window, uh, and it was kind of behind, uh, Neil's back and he couldn't see her, but I saw her and she kind of had that look like he needs to be somewhere. And so I, I, if you watch the video near the end, I kind of, I try to wrap it up. I kind of say, Oh, why don't you just show me one more type of thing. And he pulls out a pen and says, Oh, okay, let me show you one more. And then he talks about that one and then, Oh, let me show you one more. Oh, let me show you one more. And so in my mind, I was kind of like, okay, buddy, this is on you. I tried. So, uh, it was a, it was a lot of fun, even to the point where we were done with the interview. I had to take pictures of his pen. So he actually ran off to a meeting and left me in his office with his pens. And, and so then I got to like, basically take a bunch of pictures of them and then just leave them on his desk. Uh, and it was, you know, obviously, you know, probably $20,000 in, in very, very exotic pens. Uh, and so it was just a lot of fun and that, um, there there's other folks out there that I would like to sit down with. I will say that I, um, I felt I was very, very close to speaking with someone very soon. And that, uh, just had a little bit of a kink to it, which was kind of, uh, painful, but I haven't given up hope yet. Uh, and that, uh, there, there's a number of folks that I'd like to talk to. Um, I've reached out to a number of folks. I have some very nice, uh, polite declines from some very famous people. Uh, because obviously it's okay. It's a YouTube channel and it's not for everybody, but, um, I, there are a few folks out there that I am actively working towards. I don't want to jinx it, but just, uh, know that I am working towards other things that, uh, I think the community would enjoy. Because as I said, if somebody else did it, I'd watch it in a heartbeat because I think it would be fascinating to hear what these folks have to say. So I'm going to see if I can do it.