My Writings. My Thoughts.
REVIEW – Retro51 Tornado Pen
// February 8th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Review
Life’s too short to carry an Ugly Pen.
-Retro 1951
Good writing tools are hard to come by, especially for the traveler. Many people swear by the Fisher Space Pen for it’s ability to write on almost anything, and in any direction, even upside down, thanks to a pressurized ink cartridge. I have two, so even I love that pen. Some people choose to write in a journal, and so go with a fountain pen because of it’s smooth writing and good looks. The traditional ball point pen is ubiquitous and reliable, but kind of boring. And rollerballs leave great lines but tend to dry a bit slowly, depending on the paper. It can really be a challenge to find the a great pen for your travel kit, one that melds great writing with a stylish look. Enter the Tornado from Retro 1951.
Retro 1951’s Tornado is a pen that combines style, comfort, and smoothness into one fine package.
photo courtesy Retro1951.com
STYLE – All of Retro 1951’s pens are styled in a slick 1950’s aesthetic. Reminiscent of appliances your parents and grandparents had in their kitchen, the stainless steel pen sports a skinny point that screws into a tapered cylinder body. Wider at the top of the pen, the a partially split pocket clip connects to the body by a ferrule that sports the words “Tornado by Retro 1951.” A knurled twist top end cap serves as the mechanism by which the ink cartridge is pushed from the body.
The Classic Laquer series comes in a variety of colors, ranging from stainless, black, and blue, to orange, kiwi, and peacock. The company also offers other collections, including crossword and sudoku pens, and a pen whose cylinder is made from bamboo.
Aside from the Tornado, Retro 1951 offers a wide assortment of pens, all with this similar styling, but with different cylinder designs. They offer a mini version, the Tornado Elite; a fountain pen; and even pencils.
WEIGHT – The Tornado is by no means a lightweight pen, by which I mean it will never compete with a Bic ballpoint. But the Tornado is a good competitor when compared to more heavyweight pens like those from Visconti (not only in weight, but in price as well, which I’ll get into later). The balance of the pen is a bit awkward at first, with most of the bulk of the pen residing at the top near the twist top end cap. The pen’s mechanism rides there, causing it to be a bit top heavy, but after a lot of writing with the pen, you come to appreciate the extra help in moving the pen across paper.
The Retro 1951 Tornado
INK – My only complaint about this rollerball pen is its standard ink cartridge. Many writers love rollerball for its portability and lack of leakage compared to a fountain pen, and it’s writability as compared to a ball point. I’m still unconvinced about rollerball’s writing ability, especially when I use it in my Moleskine notebook, which has fairly high quality paper in it. The ink tends to bleed into the paper, creating spiderwebs along the fibers. Standard gel ink cartridges (like the ones for Pilot’s G2 line) were were slow to dry and didn’t fit in the Tornado’s body. Fortunately, after speaking with a sales clerk at Paradise Pen, we came up with the idea of using a Visconti gel cartridge, which fit perfectly in the pen and writes wonderfully on the Moleskine paper.
OVERALL the pen is something that not everyone will love, but those who do will find it difficult to let go. The most surprising factor of the Retro 1951 Tornado is its price. Retailing for about $22 in most good pen stores, the Retro 51 Tornado is both stylish and affordable. Paired with a pocket Moleskine notebook, you feel transported to another, more nostalgic time, heading out on some travel adventure to the far reaches of the planet. Now that’s a pen you’ll want in your pocket.
GEAR: Energy Generating Backpack!
// February 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // Feature
photo courtesy treehugger.com
From what I understand, a backpack that has accessories that create energy as you hike is nothing new, solar panels being the main form of energy generation. But Treehugger wrote up a post about this pack, developed by UPENN biologist Lawrence Rome brings it to a new level. Using an external frame loaded with a spring mechanism, the pack uses the natural motion of the hiker to create wattage that can be stored, presumably in some kind of battery cell.
People are saying that because of the backpack’s spring loaded frame, the pack provides a much more comfortable ride, cushioning hard impacts, and maybe more importantly, making it easier to lift yourself up steep inclines or steps. The more weight in the pack, and the more vigorous your hike, the more energy you create. So all you gadget geeks can bring your GPS devices, flashlights, and *groan* yes, even cell phones, and have them all charged up on your trip. But please, for my sake…
TURN YOUR CELL PHONE OFF!
Winter Beer Roundup
// February 1st, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Food & Drink
Once again, I invited my friend Josh Christie, of the Brews and Books blog to write a Guest Post on Part Time Vagabond. Josh is a bookseller and beer afficionado, and blogs about two things he loves; you guessed it: brews and books. This week, Josh talks about his favorite Winter Beers.
It should come as no surprise that I am a winter person. I ski an ungodly number of days each year, I work for a snow sports industry nonprofit, and I initially went to college to study in a ski industry program. Hell, I’m probably one of the only people that gets seasonal affective disorder in the summer. My allegiance to the coldest part of the year is certainly not hindered by the phenomenal beer that’s only available when the weather goes cold and gray.
Winter beers are the dark, complex mirror image of summer brews. During the summer, most breweries put out beers that are easy to drink in hot weather – Kölsches, hefeweizens and smooth pale ales. During the winter months, brewers tend to let their dark sides run wild. Alcohol is usually dialed up to warm drinkers in the cold weather, and this is reflected in a heavy malt bill for most winter beers. Some breweries celebrate the winter by throwing in fruits, spices and other bizarre adjuncts.
Following Chris’ great introduction to the world of beer, I wanted to outline some of my favorite winter beers. Some truly capture the spirit of wintertime for me, while some are simply beers that are only available in the early part of the year. Whatever the reason is for these brews coming out during this part of the year, they are all definitely worth tracking down and trying.
Starting off with something local, Shipyard Brewing’s Prelude is a full-bodied English-style ale. Prelude has a full, nutty and slightly sweet flavor, and is just hoppy enough to have some balancing bitterness. The buttery Ringwood yeast flavor is a perfect complement to the beer.
Alaskan Brewing Company uses an ingredient in their winter brew that I’d like to see more breweries try – spruce! What better way to make a drinker think of the holidays than make the beer taste like a Christmas tree, right? The addition of Sitka spruce tips to Alaskan Winter Ale elevates an already tasty English Olde Ale to something truly special.
Not lots to say other than this is one of the best beers I’ve ever tried, regardless of the time of year. The imperial stout, a mix of crystal, chocolate, black and roasted barley malts, is aged for weeks on chunks of cocoa before being bottled and kegged. The end result is a complex beer, with dark fruit, coffee and molasses flavors on top of a solid chocolate backbone.
And now for something completely different! While Prelude, Sexual Chocolate and Alaskan Winter are fairly traditional styles for winter beers, Tröegs bucks c0nvention with a big, juicy Imperial Amber. One of my favorite beers for years, Nugget Nectar is incredibly hoppy, incredibly malty and 100% balanced. The beer is satisfing to all the senses, with a deep amber pour, an intoxicating citrus and pine hop nose, and an unbeatable taste.
Since I’m writing this post for Part Time Vagabond, it is only fitting to include an easily portable, environmentally friendly canned beer. Ten Fidy is not your father’s beer from a can. A dark, oily, viscous, mean little beer, Ten Fidy packs lots of alcohol and a serious bitter bite into a 12 oz can. This imperial stout has won more than a few awards from beer lovers around the world, and one sip will show you why.
Since I started drinking beer, Schneider Aventinus has been a staple in my fridge. Ramstein Winter Wheat from High Point Brewing is an American beer brewed in the same style, and a great brew in it’s own right. The recipe gives the beer a totally different flavor than any others on this list, with black current, clove, and apple coming to the fore. The alcohol is hidden really well, so I’d definitely recommend slowly sipping this 9.5% ABV beast on a cold winter night.
If you want strange ingredients, Dogfish Head is never a brewery to disappoint. In the Chicory Stout, you’ve got chicory, organic Mexican coffee, St. John’s Wort, and licorice root on top of more traditional hops and malts. The end result is an awesome and unique beer, an obsidian stout that pours with a bone white head, a creamy start and a dry finish.
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So, these are just a few (believe me, I could go on and on) of my favorite winter beers, a smattering of styles and flavors from around the country. What are yours?
VIDEO: New York City’s High Line Park
// January 27th, 2010 // No Comments » // Video
Watch more New York City videos at tripfilms.com
THE FIVE: Carbondale, Colorado
// January 25th, 2010 // No Comments » // The Five
This week, one of my lifelong friends contributed her latest adventure to The Five. Angela Paulone is an experienced teacher and writer (her blog is The Writer’s Corner) who — after leaving a highly stressful job last year — made the decision to completely change her life and move to Colorado. Angela and I pretty much grew up together; we come from a small city in Connecticut, where very few people ever make it out. It’s a family oriented place, and coming from very Italian families who had spent generations in the area, something always made us feel a bit trapped. Of our group of friends, only a few have managed to make a move out of state, and some of those ended up back home. But Angela has now made that huge move, and I wish her the best of luck, because it’s truly an adventure to be out on your own really making it for yourself. And how can you beat the mountains of Colorado? Here is Angela’s take on her first few weeks in Carbondale, Colorado.
What force propelled me here, in the middle of two mountain ranges, in the middle of cowboy country Colorado? The answer comes quickly: Connecticut, as much as I love it, has not offered the lifestyle I’ve been innately searching for my entire life.
The mountains I now live among are the gurus of my reconnection with nature. They are the spiritual directors of my faith journey. They are Mother Earth embracing me, calling me Home.
The sun winks at me, the dry air of this desert climate eases my aching joints and the stillness calms my East Coast nerves. My body is working harder to breath, circulate blood, burn calories and such, but my mind is relaxed with the help of the thin air at 6,620 feet.
As a teacher, I will live to live here, not live to work. My life will be who I am and what positive achievements my students reach not what reports I don’t do. Reality is among the ski slopes, the hiking trails and the horses.
Is this my future long-term residence? That answer is uncertain, but if Mt. Sopris and the red rock mountain of Carbondale have anything to do with it, I will heed their whispers and rebuild a new, active, healthier life within their bosom.
Roadcamp – A Social Media Roadtrip
// January 20th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // News
If you’ve read this blog enough, you should know by now that I love a good road trip. I love technology too; I’m a geek at heart. It should come as no surprise, then, that I am completely excited about a little project some of my friends have dreamed up. The good folks at Roadcamp.org are taking a trip from Montreal, Quebec to Austin, Texas on their way to the South by Southwest (SxSW) conference, holding workshops and get-togethers along the way. I had floated a similar idea with some of the participants a year ago or so, but I’m in no way taking credit for this project. In any case, Roadcamp is going to be a blast for all those involved.
From the Roadcamp.org website:
RoadCamp is going to be a tour bus packed of musicians, vloggers, bloggers, and developers that’s going to spend three days on the road travelling from Montreal to Austin to SXSW, the biggest music, film, and interactive festival we know of. Along the way, there will be Workshops and TweetUps and we’ll try to solve many of the problems facing many media industries today.
My sources tell me there’s some big news in the works, but since it’s still preliminary, I can’t say anything about it. If it happens, it’s going to be amazing. In any event, Roadcamp is the geek equivalent of a hippie roadtrip in a VW bus. But bigger. And wired. And less patchouli. Keep an eye out on the Roadcamp.org website and the @Roadcamp Twitter account for updates on the progress of the trip. This is going to be something to watch!
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