This week's written snapshots.
compass
I used up the last of the Waterman blue my dad gave me years ago. My guess is that this ink is half a century old. The boy helped me fill the cartridge so there’s three generations in this pen.
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In my recent search for pens, I’ve tried up a bunch of cheap pens. It’s fun to explore each assemblage of plastic and steel.
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, if I could only pick two it would be the Pilot Kakuno and Pilot Parallel. The Kakuno with an extra fine nib is a tight writing instrument, and the Parallel is a unique tool that is creates an expressive line and suited for calligraphy.
If I could to create a second pairing, the Sailor Fude Nib Pen is a similarly wide pen that goes great with the Sailor Compass. At $30, its twice as expensive as the other pens, but the build quality is noticeably better than cheaper pens.
After graduating college, I treated myself to a Pelikan M600 which now sells for about half a grand. Even accounting for the piston mechanism (that has survived two decades of neglect) and the butter smooth gold nib, I don’t see how the M600 is $470 better than the Compass.
As with many things in this world, the first few bucks makes a huge difference in quality. After that, the extra dollars only temporarily mollifies the ravenous criticism of a connoisseur.
25 Nov 2023
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Post to Substack
This time last year, there was a magical moment on Post.news as people escaped the chaos of the recently acquired Twitter.
It was a wonderful holiday season as we enjoyed and explored each others’ art. I rediscovered my drawing hand, which had atrophied from decades of fear. They encouraged me to keep exploring poetry. Post freed me to make bad art, which might not sound special, but it’s eons ahead of doing nothing.
I’m not sure what went wrong (maybe their focus on news and opinion?) but the magic dissipated in the early months of the new year. I miss those folks, but most of them have also moved on, and I don’t have time to be online everywhere.
Fortunately Substack stepped in to fill the void. This community has been generous with encouragement and relentlessly inspiring with the endless publishing of amazing work. It’s a place to stretch and play.
When I joined Post last Thanksgiving, I took a photo of our freshly reinstalled Christmas tree to be the banner image of my user account (it’s still there). This morning, that tree is back up as we enter into another holiday season.
What will the new year bring? Who knows. Maybe I’ll actually bang out some good art. Whatever’s. I’ll settle for sharing more bad art. A second year of making would be an accomplishment in this topsy-turvy world.
In the meantime, thanks for the company; let’s hope this party lasts a bit longer.
24 Nov 2023
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Thanks for reading!
Justus