My Current First-Choice Ink: Best Bottle
When I was ramping up to do Lapsed Vigilance, one of the subjects for a fair amount of testing centered around what ink to use. During that time I found an ink that I not only used for the project, but has become my standard black for everyday dip pen use*: Best Bottle Sumi Ink. (This isn't a detailed review, just a commentary.) When I started practicing for Lapsed Vigilance, I went to my always-on-hand selection, Noodler's Black (I use fountain pens). It has reasonable flow and is a permanent ink. However, as I was practicing I discovered a trait that isn't an issue with fountain pens but is definitely one with calligraphy: on both bristol and illustration board it has a tendency to smear when you erase guidelines. Considering how many guidelines I was going to have to scrub off the final board, that was not something I could live with. Eventually my search ended with Best Bottle. It [...]
Muse Music
Creatives are often asked the same sorts of questions. Some are ephemeral, some are practical, some are environmental, and so forth. For me, perhaps one of the dodgiest is one of the most common: what do you listen to when you create? On a personal level, I tend to like quiet. I try to avoid loud spaces, especially if there is a strong bass or subsonic component (I don't hear subsonics, but I feel them in my body). I have never gone to a rock concert or symphony -- though I have gone to smaller venues on a handful of occasions. I've also had a lifelong difficulty in filtering background noise -- if there's a crowd or media going on, if I don't lipread, I'm not going to understand you. Amazingly, for someone in eir fifties, my hearing tests quite well (actually, it tests well for someone in eir twenties). I don't have a hearing problem, I have a sound-processing [...]
