Your eyes are probably more tired now than they used to be, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you were listening more instead of watching or reading. I certainly am. Writing, the careful arrangement of words into sense, doesn’t come easy nowadays. My writing brain creaks like a forgotten rocking chair. I used to joke …
Fountain pens aren’t only about looks. Aside from a comfortable grip, heft, and length, what’s important for you to notice is way the nib and flow of ink interact with how your hand moves across the paper. With practice and attention in the beginning, you can end up with a pen so attuned to the …
Content is a commitment. It remains a challenge, year after year, to just be myself, and not to pander to the audience and the machine (sometimes, sadly, the same thing now). For many of us who went on Instagram to express our creativity then realized it was all too easy to manipulate that creativity for …
One of the painful privileges of a conquered people is to point out the blinders of conquerors, whose descendants usually live unaware of the ongoing commentary of history. Take comfort women. The Philippines, South Korea, and China still smart from a long-denied apology from the Japanese government for institutionalizing rape during the Second World …
Vampire epidemics, zombie apocalypses, werewolf plagues. They all begin with Patient Zero: the guy who keeps coughing in flight, the rat with bulging red eyes that falls asleep in a sack of rice and never wakes up again. Pen collections begin in the exact same way, minus the unquenchable desire to drink human blood. 💀 …
Raise your hand if you begrudge the five minutes it takes to pack clothes for a two-week trip, and then happily fritter away the next ten hours plotting which pens and journals to carry. I’ve never had a system, only the desire to a) not facepalm for forgetting a pen that would have been PERFECT …
With a ton of comparison reviews out there, and new iPhone and Pixel models coming out later in the year (notches for the holidays!), why this one? Most phone camera shootouts feature landscapes, portraits, and some kind of petal-power macro. Pen people want to know if the phone will take great pictures of nibs, ink …
“Oh yes, a lot of pen people work in technology.” “Really? So why do they use old pens?” “…Balance in the Force?” “Okaaaaay.” There are days it feels like I’m living from screen to screen. I answer several messages on your phone, check Instagram, hop to my laptop to clean up a few slides. Before …
I dedicate this pen re(cap) to everyone who can’t wait to write in their 2018 journals because 2017 was way too crazy in way too many ways. Japanese Admittedly perennial, with variations. Japanese makers delivered novel twists in familiar shapes. Pilot startled with its Custom Urushi with a no. 30 nib, and its Japan-only clear …
Social networks not only connect those who share interests, but those who can create together. Big brand and entertainment partnerships make the most commercial impact – think Sheaffer’s affordable Star Wars-themed pens, the more high-end Cross versions (I must admit that the Boba Fett fountain pen made me look twice), Montegrappa x Game of Thrones, …