Thomas Overfield

January 28, 2010

Niblets

I’m finally getting back to writing about pens, a topic I find interesting even if that may indicate a psychological abnormality. A number of things have been sitting around waiting to be introduced here but without a common theme to link them. If pressed I can say all the pens do happen to have good points, and I mean that literally.

First up is something cool due to its obscurity. The doo-dad maker Levenger sells a lot of fountain pens and sometimes contracts with manufacturers to make special editions for them. Somewhere around 10 years ago they had the Italian firm Omas make a nice medium sized piston filling fountain pen called the Articula. Not a big deal in itself but the hook with this pen was that it had a flexible nib. Of course a modern flexible nib is only semi-flexible in comparison to those from the days of yore and this is no exception. Nonetheless the nib is comfy to use and can be coaxed into an expressive mood. I’m not sure why this wasn’t a more popular pen considering all this.

P1110360-37 January 28, 2010 large 2 — Nibs in a row: Sheaffer, Parker, and Omas.

It’s hard to find a Parker Vacumatic with a nib that isn’t narrow but they exist and I had such in the form of disembodied Canadian made stub. Never wanting such a nifty nib to go to waste I put it on a circa 1940 standard size Vac I had recently purchased as part of a lot. Even more frightening was this Frankenpen was already equipped with the wrong filling unit in the form of an earlier lock down version instead of the proper aluminum speedline. The result is actually not scary but a nice writing mish-mash with lots of character.

The final pen is a Sheaffer’s Thin Model also equipped with a stub. A damaged barrel on the original required a replacement which turned out to be green creating an overall effect is a bit like a classic Pelikan (one of my favorite color combinations.) The modest stub nib writes smoothly and like the Parker discussed previously isn’t something you see every day.

P1110339-16 January 28, 2010 large 1 — Pens and Pooper. Thanks to Hazel for the pen wrap underneath. (click for closeup)

You have to have some paper to use a pen with and I got lucky enough to find something a few weeks ago both fun and environmentally sound. On a visit to Office Max I saw a few boxes of Terracycle recycled paper on closeout. What makes this cool is that we’re not talking paper made from post-consumer waste but made from some out of the ordinary items. The sample pack I have uses grass, banana peels and pachyderm excrement to make the sheets. Yes, you heard me: elephant poop.

All three papers are moderately rough in texture but very attractive with some unbleached elements appearing randomy. They are also very fountain pen friendly exhibiting no bleed or feathering. Sadly the reason I saw this was because it is no longer made and can’t be found at the chain anymore. However, if you search the web you will find other places that still market papers like this, even the poopy one.

And on that note I think it is a good time to end this post.

January 22, 2010

Tanked

I’m always happy that I have the Monday around my birthday off for Martin Luther King Day. Besides contemplating the message the great man put forth I like to try and get out of the house and do something with my free time. This year I decided to go and see something educational. There’s not much close to where I live for a day trip that I’ve not been to already. One place I’ve passed the sign for a number of times (without stopping) is a museum in nearby Danville, VA. It is certainly educational and unusual since it’s the AAF Tank Museum.

While not exactly of the martial inclination I do take an interest in history and enjoy looking at the machinery of the military. So much effort and ingenuity is put into the vast and varied equipment needed to supply, transport, and provide the means of aggression. There’s an amazing variety of this here but also as interesting is the presentation. This isn’t a national or state museum but a private concern and shows the quirkiness inherent in a labor of love which starts with the building. I assume it was once some industrial facility because it is a huge and labyrinthine place that with ever turn divulges something you may not have expected.

There are tanks and more tanks arrayed in rows in the giants halls from many different countries and periods of the 20^th century. The focus is on American equipment but hulking metal monsters from enemy and allies alike are sprinkled throughout. Some are surrounded by uniformed manikins and artificial terrain to create a bit of a surreal setting. This is certainly the quirky bit as it’s not very convincing and even a somewhat disturbing. It’s like seeing the wooden inhabitants of a department store window display come to the conclusion they’ve had enough and decide to arm.

There is a lot more than Tanks, however. Motorized gun carriages, half-tracks, armored scout cars, troop transports, motorcycles, mortars, field artillery, bombs, a helicopter, and even bicycles are spread about the place. A large missile for delivering a nuclear payload sits in a row near a min-sub. Quite a variety and every object has a description of its purpose and history.

After you’ve wandered the halls full of both restored and rusty denizens you enter a smaller area that seems to have possibly been the offices of the prior commercial tenant. This has to be one of the most confusing jumbles of halls and rooms I’ve even seen. The contents are just as remarkable as the rest of the place, however. Rooms of military optics, communication equipment, heavy and shoulder arms, memorabilia, and toys are found here. Oh, and what seems like countless uniformed manikins which makes me think this is where the ones by the tanks escaped from. The Hall of Generals has many representatives like this kitted out in their proper uniforms and I really mean a lot! There are also displays of non-general staff as well going back to examples of such things as Austro-Hungarian uniforms. Just to add some additional oddness to this mute army is a display of tiny children’s mock uniforms. Then there are the hats. Row after row of headgear from all eras is packed into glass display cases. Beautiful ornate Imperial helmets share space with cloth caps in the isles. Women’s service millinery is represented in one isle just in case you forget that they served as well.

It’s the unexpected surprises that pop up which can really make you scratch your head. In back of one area was a poorly done representation of the “Star Gate” from the eponymous movie and TV show. Not sure what that was about. Also, a giant battle theater for remote controlled tanks takes up a large chunk of floor space. Wandering alone most of the time in this wonderland made it all the more eerie. I’ve worked in manufacturing facilities and an alien feeling is created by seeing the displays where large and noisy factory equipment should be.

I both had fun and learned a great deal that I’ll never be able to use in a dinner conversation (unless I’m having dinner in a mess hall). Peruse the pictures below to help illustrate my comments above.

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January 20, 2010December 2, 2022

Ars Gratia Artless

Like so many people with not a trace of artistic ability I’m fascinated by the people who can visualize and create beautiful things. I have a friend who is an art collector and I envy her since she can surround herself with items which no amount of viewing will ever remove the wonder from. I don’t want it to sound like there is no creative work around where I sit since a great deal of pug art hangs on the walls (of course) as well as some fine items by artist friends. In the latter category I wanted to show a few new things that have landed here.

Rhona Carantes came to my attention when I saw some pen cases she created shown on a fountain pen user group. A trip to her site proved her to be a creative and talented woman whose canvas was leather. Working from a forest abode in the Philippine city of Baguio she hand tools a variety of items all of which are stunning. I commissioned a clock from her and when received was very impressed by its design and the workmanship exceeding my expectations. Afterwards I asked Rhona in passing if she could create something new for me: a pen box. Before I knew it the box was done which was notable since it was around the time a terrible typhoon hit the Baguio area. Considering the few rough ideas I had supplied the final product was impressive.

I might also mention that Rhona is a fascinating person to correspond with. Her twin daughters are not only artists as well but practitioners of a Filipino martial art called Kali. Connected to that is her work making sheaths for hand crafted locally made knives. It’s really hard to believe she is also a grandmother which leads me to think there is something in that forest which maintains youth.

The last thing I want to share was an unexpected birthday gift. I’ve blogged about the artist Chris Gryder before and one benefit of being his friend is that sometimes you are lucky enough to be surprised with some original art. He works in ceramics and I’m adding this wonderful new piece below to my small Gryder gallery.

January 12, 2010March 24, 2014

All Along the (Automatic) Watch Tower

Warning: No Writing Instrument Content at All.

My father is an odd man and there is probably a good chance I got my share of odd via his genes. He’s a mixture of intelligence, illogic, and ill-advised activities. Every once in a while that man slips in a surprise and this is such a story.

My progenitor has been comfortably retired for years and took up the hobby of ending (used as a verb). We’re all dying but he’s been much more proactive at recognizing that fact than most of us. Since his heart surgery over 10 years ago I’ve been privy to a parade of preparatory information regarding his imminent demise. Faustus dwelled less about his eventual end than my pater has over the last few years. Updates on finances, real holdings, and the disposition of possessions were always the second major topic of conversation among us.

The primary subject that was talked about was my father’s health which always hovered on the precipice of doom. I’m not saying he does not have legitimate problems which are important to monitor but when you add a dash of hypochondria (or a gallon) you wind up with a fixation that needs constant feeding. Eventually he developed what I call the “doctor cloud” around him in both locations he resided. Like gnats around a hippopotamus if he swished his tail a medical opinion would fall out of the sky.

In the last year or so this has changed for the better. After a pacemaker adjustment he felt fitter and really has started to shed his previous preoccupations. Now he seems to be thinking about enjoying life. Being my father this manifests itself in odd and unexpected ways which leads us from the background to the foreground of this tale.

A few months ago I got a call from him in which he told me he bought a watch. A normal person might have purchased a Seiko, or if they exhibited excessively bad taste and a need to impress, maybe a Rolex. My father does things on a level that you’d not think a man who often dresses like the homeless would and purchased an International Watch Company (IWC) Portuguese (that’s the model name and not point of origin) automatic (self-winding mechanical) watch in solid rose gold. I had a rough idea of how expensive this item was (it retails for somewhere over $14,000) and the report of his acquisition shocked me. Still, I was very glad he was doing something to make himself happy no matter what it might be. Like whipped cream on a pie the sweet topping of this event was that he got a good deal on the purchase which to my father is like chum to a shark.

Not all was sweetness and light I found out quickly. The stated reason he was getting this watch was so he could leave me something nice as a keepsake and when I say “leave” I mean the big check out. Personally I don’t really like to think about anyone I know not being around anymore, especially my father, but I appreciate that this meant something to him so I kept my mouth shut. While verbally mute my brain didn’t stop working and I found myself now thinking about this mechanism as the “death watch”. Morbid? Yes, but appropriate.

Even more joyous (um, sarcasm there) was the fact that this new watch was going to be shipped to my house in order to save my father New York State sales tax. “Tommy, take a look and wear it a bit to make sure it’s working OK” were the instructions. Thus one day I found a small box left at my door. I didn’t even have to sign for it which seemed to me like using an ice cream truck as an armored car: “Ting-a-ling-a-ling…robbery time…get your theft here…ting-a-ling-a-ling.” Upon opening the nondescript outer carton I found a fancy leather like box with a very large watch inside. Not only was its size ample but the weight of it was like wearing a midsized car on your wrist. After putting the watch on suddenly I was sporting one of the finest wrist Buicks that ever told time.

I wore the watch for a few days and it worked exemplarily well. Still there was a melancholy that came over me since every time I looked at it I thought “next you wear this booger you father will not be with us.” Not a very pleasant thought when all you want to know is how long till lunch.

After the initial check out I endeavored to send it off to its rightful owner. That proved to be a challenge in itself since insuring such a valuable item was not something every shipping company would do. Even external insurers informed me they did not provide coverage for jewelry although they’d be happy to insure an insanely expensive piece of electronics if I had it. UPS was the one shipper that would provide coverage for an option on one of my kidneys but first they had to open the box and inspect the item. Thanks, glad I took so much time to pack it well, Mr. UPS-Rip-It-Open-At-the-Counter-guy.

I’m sure you may have guessed I’m getting to some point where I can spread before you a lot of boring details as I often like to do. We’re almost there since a few weeks later another box arrived at my door with no warning. A quick look at the label led me to utter “not again” and opening the box up showed me another new watch inside. Later that night I called my father to complain about the lack of notice and inquire what drove him to this purchase. I was shocked when told that “This one is for you, Tommy. I thought you needed a new watch too and this was an incredible deal!” Certainly it was a nice gift and I did appreciate very much that he thought of me. Who I am going to leave it to upon my death is something I’m going to need to work on. For now, however, I’m going to wear and enjoy it.

The watch is an Ebel 1911 Automatic Chronograph (like a stop watch) Chronometer (certified to keep time to a high standard) in solid white gold (um, that’s gold which is not…er…gold colored) made for the company’s 90^th anniversary in 2001. This watch seemed to have sat around on the shelf for a long time before my deal sniffer father found it. 90 of these special editions were made of which this is number 28. I’m knowledgeable about watches and had an Ebel with a Zenith El Primero ebauche (you’ll learn what this means later) in the past but I knew little about their current offerings so I hit the ol’ internet for info.

Before I continue into the minutiae of this watch I need to define a couple terms about the origin of what’s inside a mechanical watch. Over the years many brands have bought their movements from another watch firm or a manufacturer that sells them uncased (which is known as an ebauche). That’s a French word that I don’t know the meaning of but I’m pretty sure that unlike croissant it has nothing to do with food. Sometimes the purchasing concern will spend time enhancing and decorating these mechanisms before putting them in their watches. Currently ETA, which is a subsidiary of the Swatch Group, is the major supplier of ebauches. Yes, this is the same Swatch that makes those cute watches but also is the largest Swiss watch company and owns brands such as Omega. So in a nutshell some brand like Tag Heuer doesn’t make what ticks in their pretty cases people have on their wrists.

If a timepiece manufacturer makes a proprietary movement in its own factory that’s termed “in-house”. This is the kind of thing watch fanciers love since it means that this is not an “off the shelf” item but one that is you can only find in the brand of watch you just plunked cash down for. Are these functionally better? Not necessarily since the mass produced ebauches are reliable and well-designed mechanisms. Still, there is a cachet to an in-house movement that the cost of design and production shouldered by the brand brings. Of course it can also be argued that high-end watches of this type have the best mechanisms since they were designed with a narrow focus and higher quality standards.

So, my father’s battleship watch has a very fancily engineered assembly of in-house parts that help justify that high cost and it is kind of the same thing with my new timepiece. Ebel was never considered in the very top tier of Swiss watch makers but they do say that their chronograph movement should be considered in-house. Whether this claim is true gets us into an issue of semantics. Ebel indeed does make the movement in question (some parts are obtained from suppliers) but the design was basically purchased in the early 90s from another business that specialized in such things. That company, Lemania, helped do some slight redesign on the mechanism and that is how the Ebel caliber 137 came into being. Later Lemania became the movement manufacturing arm of yet another high-end Swiss watch firm, Breguet. When they wanted to issue a new Chronograph in the mid-90s they dusted off the design we’re talking about and made a few more changes calling it the Breguet caliber 582. Are we following all this? I hope so since this is the simplified version of events.

Since the Ebel movement wasn’t really developed by them and shares major design features with the Breguet is it really “in-house”? Damned if I know. What I do know is that for the 90th anniversary they took some effort in making the movement prettier. Some of the screws were blued (a protective metal treatment) and additional damaskeening (decorative graining on the surface of the metal) was done to sharpen it up. The results are very attractive.

I’ve always found the design of the standard 1911 case (which is used here) nicely understated with its round edges and exposed screws hinting of mechanical things. What really makes this watch stand alone form more mundane offerings is the abalone shell (also known as mother-of-pearl) dial. The colors and luminance you see change with the direction of the light that hits it. This is an unusual material for a watch dial but very pretty.

Even if it was impulse driven this gift certainly was a good choice for me since I find the unusual intriguing. Certainly I was floored by such a surprise and appreciate the thought and love behind it however odd it may seem. Family dynamics, even in my case, never cease to amaze me.

January 3, 2010

Florida Textures

I just got back from several days near St. Petersburg, Florida. Escaping the bitter cold gripping us here was a joy and I dearly miss the moderate temperatures as I bundle up to face the cold winds. It was lovely to relax and during the stay I had a tweetup with Julie to spend some time talking about pens, people, and trying out each other’s selected specimens of inks and the tubes that you fill with such. The culmination was a lovely display of fireworks viewed after some Spanish tapas.

Florida is a bit foreign to me with its sand, surf, palm trees and retired folks in flowered shirts. One thing that I noticed was the different patterns and textures formed by what I saw around me. Sun shining through the slats of a beach chair or the rough surface of paths paved with crushed shells was unfamiliar but pleasant. I’m going to save you from reading a boring travelogue and share some of the many pictures I took while there. These are of the textures and surfaces I saw around me while being warm for once.

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December 25, 2009

Happy Holidays

The weekend before Christmas a storm struck the East Coast and SW Virginia was in the thick of it. It dumped the most snow in over 10 years on much of the area here. We went up to the house of some friends so if snow bound we could at least keep each other company. Two days later we got dug out enough to head back home.

I spent enough of my life in heavy winter snow to hate a white Christmas nowadays. To share the joy of a cold nose and wet feet with the rest of you I captured it in pictures.

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My Christmas was spent in the quiet of home for once. I received a wonderful surprise as some of my Filipino friends sent Christmas ornaments and other goodies from distant Metro Manila. Below is a picture of this year’s tree dressed up with those new duds.

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I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. I send hugs to all my friends close and distant and my best to those who I do not know.

December 18, 2009November 7, 2013

The Answer is Carbonite

However, the question is not about ink so I’ll leave it till the end.

C12

We all know carbon since it’s everywhere around us which makes sense since it’s the fourth most common chemical element in the universe. In fact you’re not seeing it right now in front of you since the atmosphere surrounding us contains carbon (apologies to those who live in a vacuum). Burn something and you’ll often find a black carbon residue which if you are making toast doesn’t taste very good. The smelly, thick smoke you see coming out of diesel cars and trucks is exhaust gas laden with microparticles of carbon. If you’ve drawn with charcoal you’ve actually drawn with carbon. While on the subject of making marks pencil “lead” is actually graphite mixed with clay and graphite is carbon.

Ink

Now that we segued into writing implements we can talk about the fun stuff in our pens: ink. Just about all fountain pen inks are dye based and these colorants are soluble in water resulting in a solution which has no solid bits in it. Is this bringing back any memories of high school chemistry yet? There are complex formulas about how to mix these dyes to make certain ink colors along with additives to promote the inks longevity and stability. This, however, is out of the scope of this post. Whew! I was worried there for a minute.

The other way to get color into a liquid is by adding a pigment. Despite the name there is nothing porcine about it. A common pigmented liquid is paint which gets its color from having little teensy tiny colored bits (the pigment) added to a carrier. Pigments remain in this heterogeneous fluid as solid particles that don’t dissolve which is known as a suspension (more high school chemistry I’m afraid). When pigmented fluids with a binder are used on a substrate like paper the particles get all tangled up in the fiber and stay put on the surface really well. But don’t run out and put an ink that is made like paint into your fountain pen just yet since those are a big no-no in these. The particulates tend to build up and clog the passages that ink travels through and soon your favorite pen is just a short stick with a pointy end.

After wading through all this I assume you are wondering what the point is. Well, what if you could have the positives of a pigment based ink without the negatives? Wouldn’t that be great? Our friend carbon can be refined into very, very tiny particles which theoretically shouldn’t clog a fountain pen and are very black. With that in mind both Sailor and Platinum in Japan have developed fountain pen safe fluid using this technology creating a new category of ink: carbon black.

Testing

Recently one of my favorite people was super nice (thanks Mia!!) and gave me both a bottle of the Platinum carbon black and a sample of the Sailor version of the same. I immediately wondered how they performed especially if compared to each other and a traditional dye based black ink. Since I like to answer obscure questions I did a few tests to determine the shades of grey among black inks.

As a control ink I chose J. Herbin’s Perle Noire black since it is rich, dark, and performed well for me. These attributes made it a good representative sample of dye based inks in this color. The paper I conducted just about all the tests on is my favorite and oft used Clairefontaine 90g gridline white pad.

Sheaffer Snorkel Pens — The pens used in the testing (L to R): Stub, Left Oblique, Right Oblique.

Deciding on what pens to have in this test was a bit harder. First I wanted them to be of the same construction with similar nibs. Next I didn’t think it would hurt to try a pen with a delicate filling and feed system to give the ink a fighting chance of causing some kind of havoc if so inclined. In the end I didn’t have three identical pens but I did have three that were greatly similar with wide, wet nibs that would allow the ink to boldly go onto the paper like no ink had gone before (forgive my lapse into Trek there). Sheaffer Snorkels were my test instruments sporting a stub, a right oblique, and left oblique nibs. An additional plus was that the Snorkel has a rather tricky ink delivery system which met my requirements on the second point. I’ve shown these pens in the image above. Don’t forget to click on this and all of the following ones to see them larger.

Writing

I filled the pens and it seemed to me that the carbon inks were a bit thinner. That impression is of course subjective but I can state that the flow quality was very good. All three inks wrote well and there was no way to tell which was which by feel. If you look past my lousy handwriting you’ll see that the two inks in question allowed me to form words and lines without any injury or unexpected explosions. Score one for them!

None of these inks had any bleedthrough on the Clairefontaine paper even though the pens were not stingy in their application of the dark liquids. Drying time was rather quicker for the carbon blacks than for the J. Herbin.

Color

Scanning in ink samples is never perfect but I think if you look closely you can see that the Sailor and Platinum lines I wrote (really scribbled) on the sample sheet are not as dark as the Perle Noire. I couldn’t see much difference between the two carbon inks and both seemed greyer in tone than blacks I used normally.

I did a swatch of the three subjects to get a better idea of depth of color. What is seen indeed supports my observation that the carbon black inks are not incredibly dark. To me it seems that the Platinum is darker than the Sailor but if so it’s a very small difference.

Sponge

One thing advertised about the pigmented carbon inks is that they are “permanent”. I always say nothing is permanent and I think a single match would make a mockery of writing fluids that claim. Barring that how does one determine this in normal circumstances? I can’t wait around for 10, 5, or even .001 years to see if time takes a toll and fades the written pages but I can subject them to a bit of torture.

In this test I took a piece of the sturdy Clairefontaine paper and wrote some line and text on it in the three inks. After a few hours of drying time I took a damp sponge and ran it across them all in one swipe. The results show that the carbon based inks are pretty good at resisting running. The winner was the Platinum ink but the Sailor certainly wasn’t bad.

Soak

As long as we’re doing the tests aquatic I decided to give the inks a real workout. In this case I wrote in each ink on the Clairefontaine paper and let them dry an hour before trying the traditional method for determining if a person is a witch. This page was put underwater for 15 minutes and agitated about every minute. When done the sheet was left to dry and you can once again see the lines that held up best were written with the carbon blacks.

Feathering

To conclude this exercise I drew three lines in each ink next to each other not only on my trusty Clairefontaine paper but also on a more absorbent piece of Doane 20lb. The latter paper is typical of what you find in most pads (minus the grid/line layout, of course) and while not ideal for fountain pens it’s good for this test. The results look to me like feathering is minimal on the carbon inks although the Platinum seems to show a bit more than the Sailor. The traditional J. Herbin ink feathers a good deal on the lower quality paper. You can also see the relative blackness of these inks in these samples and Perle Noire most certainly is darkest, like being in a locked closet, compared to the others which are only dark in a waning crescent moon at night way.

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So what?

What did we find out? The biggest negative is that Sailor and Platinum carbon black are not as dark as traditional dye based inks. However, this might be made up for by a number of strengths they show such as quick drying time, good permanence in moist conditions, and little feathering. At least they function like a normal ink in the pens I’ve used so I won’t be staying up at night with nightmares of clogged feeds in my head. One last item is that I found Platinum listing a pigment based blue ink on their website. I don’t know anything about it or where it can be bought but it is intriguing and I’d love to give it a try in the future.

The question that the title of this post refers to is: “What was Han Solo encased in for his delivery to Jabba the Hutt?” Was it worth the wait or did you skip down to look at this out of curiosity?

December 15, 2009

There Can Be Only One (Winner)

The not-so-gigantic ink giveaway is over and the winner has been decided. I’m not going to tell you till I go over how the choice was made. This is a blatant attempt to increase the anticipation and totally ignores the fact you can skip ahead a few lines and find out.

I went through the comments and removed my responses. In one case someone had two comments but the second one was more in keeping with my loose requirements so I removed the first. That gave me 29 people who entered and could win. I then went to a random number generator site and set the range from 1 to 29 and generated said random number. That number was 6. I wonder if I can be more verbose about this simple procedure?

Anyway, click on the scan at the left to enlarge it and see the order and names. The winner (and I know you’ve just skipped to this part to find out) was Pennednpapered. Congratulations (but not a big one since this is only a bottle of ink and not the lottery)!

I was really happy to see many people I don’t know enter and write a bit about ink. Thanks to everyone who took the time to come over here to try their luck. I liked this so much that maybe I’ll do this again in a month or so. I do have this bottle of Omas ink that I’m not fond of and never used beyond a test and…

December 8, 2009

Gigantic Ink Giveaway!!

Well, it’s not that big. In fact it’s only one bottle but if you get really close it looks quite large. In celebration (well, in something) of my second consecutive mention in the (5th) Carnival of Pen, Paper, and Pencil, hosted this time by Goldspot pens, I’m playing Santa and offering up some Montblanc Racing Green ink. I’ve heard the folks at the white snow-cap brand are discontinuing this ink so I grabbed a bottle on my trip to Art Brown in NYC. Now it’s your chance to own it (minus a tiny little bit I used for the sample).

The rules:

Post a comment telling me your favorite brand and color of ink below. In one week on 12/15/09 at 2pm EST I will use a random number generator and pick a winner. It’s that easy! I’ll contact the person via their email address with the happy news. I’ll ship this international too! Just keep in mind how slow the mail is to some countries, please. Oh, pen in picture is not included, nor is the pad for that matter.

Since literally tens of people read this blog your chances are pretty dang good! Get on it and I wish you luck!

December 6, 2009July 26, 2014

The Pentom of the Opera

A hasty trip by air and auto took me away last weekend. By my standards having a little over a week to plan a trip is hasty, especially if you are going to New York City. Two things presented themselves to make me consider such a trek: A father who seemed to be feeling better than ever and his new car.

My father has had a few years of ill health (and all the baggage being a wee bit of a hypochondriac can add to that) so when some medical tweaks suddenly made him regain some vigor I was impressed. Since my father is at his craziest when in high spirits his purchase of a Porsche was only modestly shocking. Certainly at his age he should do whatever makes him happy and I’m all for indiscriminate spending on fun things, after all look what I collect! These events were a sign that it was time to get my father out and about doing something fun and far away after such a long period of him protesting he couldn’t.

Even though the weekend after Thanksgiving was very close the free from work Friday made the time ideal for this road trip and I went about quickly (OK, I procrastinated) making plans for it. Soon I found myself flying into Buffalo, NY and taking the wheel to move on down the road for 7 hours into the heart of Manhattan. It wasn’t all bliss, though. The expensive SUV didn’t have an iPod aux jack even though the cheapest Kia comes with such gratis. A few hours of driving and I was looking (and looking and looking) for a decent book on CD at Cracker Barrel to fill time on the boring concrete ribbon of the interstate. Learning to use the complex interface for the rather misguided navigation system also tried my patience. It worked like the partially decommissioned HAL did in near the end of 2001 a space odyssey and I was surprised it didn’t start singing “Daisy” somewhere in New Jersey.

Miraculously we made it to our Midtown hotel only to find our room was not ready yet. Actually, It wasn’t ready for two hours which normally would have perturbed me if it wasn’t for the fact that I got comped free stuff every time I went to the desk to ask “ready yet?” In the end through judicious choice of a different receptionist every time I went up to put forth my inquiry I had accumulated 10 free breakfasts and 4 slips for drinks at the bar. That was 4 more breakfasts than we needed for our 3 day stay but they started being distributed en masse towards the end of my pilgrimage to bug them.

The goals for the weekend fell into two general categories: Things with my father and things without my father. The latter was intended to help me keep my sanity over this period. The former included eating and the opera which was the point for coming to the city and we certainly had a good deal of both.

The Opera was Il Trittico by Giacomo Puccini and I was astounded by the stage presentation and voices presented by the Metropolitan Opera. It was long but that was justified by the final of the three single act operas called Gianni Schicchi. This was a very funny comic opera that won the heart of this most ambivalent opera listener. My father loved it all and even made a friend in an old woman who I found him discussing Czechoslovakia with when I returned from intermission. Below are some images of the event for you to take a gander at. The sets and stagecraft utilized for this were incredible and even utilized some tricks of perception to make the stage seem deeper than in actuality. Yes, I did put a tie on for the event which I felt was appropriate even if I’m not sure I didn’t look a bit like a tourist.

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My father is a fine person but he has weird outbursts of angry old man at times. I’m pretty good at putting my hand over his mouth when this happens but my biggest challenge was to keep him from getting into trouble. In the end I am happy to say only 4 times did I cringe in either embarrassment or shock. At the opera he grumped at someone who got in front of him in the elevator which is par for the course. After the performance when cabs were scarce he wanted me to take proactive physical action to obtain a cab before others who had seniority. I will say here that he has some trouble walking and didn’t like standing around but I have two strikes against me in cab warfare: I’m polite and I’m rather small. Lastly, there was his outburst at a hostess at a German restaurant we ate at and how his inexplicable insertion of his hand in another person’s waiting food. I’m not even going to give details about that little incident.

Around all the other activities I did get to eat (and eat). One of my favorite restaurants is Les Halles whose executive chef once was Antony Bourdain. I go there for the boudin noir which in English has the less romantic name of blood sausage. Certainly not something you’ll find at the local IHOP but totally tasty if you can get beyond the ingredient in its name. Some giant German sausages at the Heidelberg, a prickly pear margarita at Dos Caminos, and some great Belgian beer at the BXL Café got worked into the trip as well. However, the only pictures of my general wanderings are of the environs of Rockefeller center. It was lovely as usual and the big tree was…well…big.

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So, that takes care of the boring part of this all. Now I can talk about one of my favorite topics: pens and friends. I made a beeline Saturday morning for Art Brown International Pen Store which is a great place if you are of the pen, stationary, and ink mindset. An enjoyable time for me is wandering and ogling the contents of such a place, as you can imagine. I was picking up a few presents and some other items when I came across bottles of the now discontinued Montblanc Racing Green ink. I bought a bottle since it was low priced and now seemingly rare. I’m only mentioning this since I think I’m going to give it away on this blog in the near future.

Sunday saw me off on my own to visit MOMA. I wanted to see the Tim Burton art exhibit being shown but found after getting my tickets that you were assigned to a time slot when they would let you see it. Of course that time was 3 or so hours later than the when I arrived so I never got to view it. Still, all was not lost as I got to see a really fabulous exhibit on the Bauhaus school in prewar Germany.

After my fill of Deutsch modernism I had a terrific lunch with Dominique James, a pen friend. He is one of the original members of the Fountain Pen Network-Philippines group which I’ve blogged about before. Since I’m a distant acquaintance of a couple FPN-P members I’ve known that he lived in NYC and thought I’d see if he might want to meet up. I’m always stunned that someone would be nice enough to spend their valuable time with me but he agreed. The lunch was very enjoyable with much talk about pens interspersed with some interesting information on the Philippines and cooking. I stayed longer than anticipated so I was off in a rush to my next appointment.

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Two people willing to see me in one day doesn’t come along too often so I hustled uptown to the Columbia University area. There another wonderful person who I knew from online interaction, but never met in person, waited. I, of course, was quite late to meet her and which got me off on the “now you look like a dimwit” foot. Mia was far nicer than I had a right to expect and my tardiness was overlooked. I got a highly enjoyable tour of the local neighborhood and a few places of sustenance. Food makes me docile and easily led so it was a good thing that I had great crepes for a pre-dinner snack followed by some wonderful croissants from a local French bakery. After the tour and picture taking I had an experience which reminded me of being on a childhood play date with a friend. We spread out pens, pads, and inks and spend time trying it all out. It ended way too soon as I had to go to dinner with my father who had spent a great deal of time watching football that day (yes, that’s my father). I left taking with me the two best tamales I ever had.

While on that neighborhood walking tour I did get to see a fascinating Church and fountain. The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is very imposing and creepily gothic. In the gardens next to it is both the oddest and most interesting fountains I’ve ever seen. The Peace Fountain has a depiction of the battle of good and evil which contains (among other things) a giant crab, the sun, and an Angel. Not sure how to fathom what kind of aquatic/solar/heavenly battle is going on but it’s dramatic. Even more surprising was the albino peacock that wandered behind a fence on the grounds. That was the last thing I expected to see in New York City.

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I think both my father and myself had a great trip to that little, sparsely populated island city. I’m hoping to get back again at least to check out more stationary stores and maybe catch another opera to try and stay awake during.