The Dark Wet Streets, ft. Zarlee W.

The last time I tried to do “vocals” for this song, I just improvised and it was such crap that I ended up decreasing the volume until you couldn’t really hear me. But I re-did it today, trying to be braver. There’s 3 tracks of me trying to harmonize with myself, set to a song I made in Studio One.

Because Fountain Pen Enthusiasts Really Are Very Enthusiastic!

You may have heard I am a fountain pen enthusiast, so I will now talk in ridiculous detail about my little collection.

Starting from the top left corner and continuing clockwise:

1. Noodler’s Ahab. I started my fountain pen journey with dip pens, and loved the idea of calligraphy, but hated actually dipping. It was a messy and slow affair, with constant interruptions to accommodate ink flow problems. Now, my actual goal was to write elegantly in my journal — so I wanted something that would make my handwriting prettier, but still be fairly simple and functional. Dip pens are none of these things and one cannot really travel around with them, meanwhile I keep a notebook with me everywhere I go. The Ahab was the first flex pen I heard about and was able to find in a store (since I don’t tend to shop online). It was exciting at first, but the actual flex, I’ve since learned, is a bit of a gimmick. You have to really *try* to make it flex and my writing looked clearly forced because of that. I did some significant modifications on the nib, grinding semi-circles into the sides with a little dremel, which improved the flex significantly. However, Noodler’s pens are on the cheaper end in terms of price and quality. I love them for tinkering but the Ahab is unusable in its current state because the threads have failed on every joint. I’d have to do some serious work to get it to function as a mere eyedropper now, and since it’s actually a bit too big for my hand anyway, I’ve left it for some future project.

2. Waterman’s Ideal #12. This is my favourite pen, indeed my Grail Pen, which I never dared to imagine I would obtain. It ended up being right around the corner at my local antique market for a very decent price, and required only the barest cleaning to remove some very old, once-blue ink. It wrote immediately upon inking. The pen is from about 1910-1915, so it is at least 100 years old; but, being an eyedropper, it is the most simple, reliable, and charming instrument. It has a 14k gold nib that is quite fine, very soft, and produces excellent line variation. It is both gorgeous and luxurious to write with and it is my daily-use pen.

3. Waterman’s SkyWriter (1930s) 14k gold nib and spoon feed, fitted in a Noodler’s Creaper body (because the SkyWriter body needs repair). Excellent medium nib with insane softness and line variation, and I think Waterman’s spoon feeds are ideal for keeping up with flex writing, so I was happy they fit so nicely in the Creaper.

4. Lamy Safari. Despite being endlessly recommended amongst fountain pen enthusiasts, this just isn’t my kind of pen. I like the style and the reliability of it, and it does live up to its reputation as a “workhorse”, but the “ergonomic” finger grip section does not seem to fit my mutant fingers, and thus it is terribly uncomfortable to use. Also, while being excellent as a fountain pen, it is “just a fountain pen” to me, since there is no flex happening at all. Very nice, but too ordinary for my taste!

5. The Conklin Duraflex (limited edition Sunstone). I adore this pen. In my limited experience, it has been the best modern flex pen I’ve tried. It has a MASSIVE nib designed for line variation and it works very, very well. It was a pleasant upgrade in quality from the Noodler’s Ahab and Creaper; the Conklin feels rather fancy and even if I don’t write with it a lot anymore, it is a treasured pen.

6. Franklin Covey that I bought at Staples. I do not recommend buying fountain pens at Staples (at least not here in Canada). My excuse is that it was my first-ever fountain pen purchase, and I knew NOTHING about fountain pens. I played with it a bit today to remind myself if it was any good, and I was surprised that I liked the springy nib and weighty body even better than the Lamy Safari. But I still would not recommend getting fountain pens from Staples.

7. This is a modified Noodler’s Creaper flex nib and ebonite feed fitted into a broken Waterman’s SkyWriter (1930s) body. In other words, a Frankenpen that I am in the process of bringing to life. I am one of those oddballs that really likes tinkering and playing with my pens.

8. Platinum Plaisir. A more “elegant” update to the popular Preppy. I bought this because I told the lovely owner of my local fountain pen store (and I am lucky to live around the corner from one of the best shops in Ontario) that I didn’t want a Preppy, and she knew my budget was tight. She handed me the Plaisir and when I tried it, I was surprised that it was actually a nice writing pen — I had been avoiding the Preppy because I thought it was too “cheap and cheerful”. It works great as an ordinary fountain pen. The aforementioned lovely store owner straight-out GAVE me a converter for this pen when I hesitated to buy the pen since I hate using cartridges. In fact I refuse to use cartridges!!! The converter is surprisingly good quality and my only issue with the pen is that ink gets trapped in the inner feed section, which is deliberately made to be visible, but it actually looks like some manufacturing default.