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In a previous post, sharp-eyed reader and fellow Blackwing enthusiast Adair mentioned that there is a Blackwing cameo in the film “Soylent Green”. I must admit that this film is just slightly before my time, and that my only contact with it came from the late great Phil Hartman and his parody on Saturday Night Live (“…soylent green is people!”) Nevertheless it wasn’t difficult to find the scene to which Adair was referring. On a side note, I’ve captured images from two films now, this one and All the President’s Men, and it is uncanny that in both instances the pencil is hardly ever very still, and when it is, the ferrule is usually showing the thin side. In other words, it’s hard to tell with certainty it’s a Blackwing. In this film there is a slight pause, but for the life of me it looks like the erasers are missing. Maybe that made them look all “future-y”.
“Take your paws of my Blackwings you damn dirty ape!”
Oh that’s right…different movie. Maybe it’s “You can have my Blackwings when you pry them from my cold, dead, hands!”
An interesting aside: there is a slight continuity error when the coverage switches to Edward G. Robinson. In the picture above the pencils are point-down. In the next frame, they are point-up:
Since the film is set in a dystopic future, my guess would be that the erasers are missing because they’ve probably either disintegrated through age, been used up already, or scavenged out of the pencils for use in something else.
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Yes, I like your your idea about this. Something like “…and though the scientists of the early 20th century arrogantly tested the limits of immortality, fossil-free fuels, and manageable erasers, they failed of their promise.” Logan’s Run for erasers!
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Since I always found Soylent Green to be better in concept than execution (the book Make Room! Make Room! was superior, I felt), I like your idea. Perhaps some leadheads somewhere could make a film based on your one–line premise?
On a different topic (but still Blackwing–related): I’ve been googling around for information on the CalCedar Blackwing since I read about it on your blog, but can’t seem to find anything about it. Has it been officially announced somewhere, or is it just chatter between hardened keepers of the Blackwing flame?
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Not only is it just chatter, but it’s in code as well. There’s talk of a secret handshake too, but I haven’t been going to the meetings lately.
Re: CalCedar — info comes in drips and drabs from either email queries or every once in a while Woodchuck—head of CalCedar—will drop some clues every now and again on blogs here and there. So were all a bit in the dark.
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The Cal Cedar Blackwing is surely the most anticipated event in the world of pencils…That sounds absurd, but he fact is, American writers and musicians want their best tool back! Stephen Sondheim is probably going nuts waiting for this pencil to appear…I certainly am…Patience, patience…
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I am glad all of you are so excited about the release of the Blackwing. Visit our Twitter (pencilscom) and Facebook (The Pencil Page) pages for constant updates on everything pencils! We should have our new pencils.com site launched no later than next weekend…hopefully mid-week though. Check out our Twitter, Facebook, and Blogger (pencilscom) pages for updates on future products… 😉
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Thanks for the update(s) Joey. We welcome any updates or news that you can provide!
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Oh! God! This makes me laugh like a Maniac. ” I suppose if I were a maniac, I’d track down the prop master for the film (or his descendants) to find out if the choice of pencil really mattered, or if they were just grabbed off of someone’s desk.”
Good Idea maybe somebody is friend of a friend … “(or his descendants)”…
This is funny
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Reading Joey’s comment, I feel, for the first time ever, like joining facebook and twitter…Do pass on any info on the new Blackwing.
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The Blackwing wasn’t the only Eberhard pencil to use that particular ferule. Some of the Microtomic’s (and probably others, I’m sure) used it.
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Yes, that’s been noted here and there in other posts.
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