I love my iPhone, even have a certain affection for my Moleskine, but there is no way I would have pulled out either to take notes of these craftspeople. Their work was direct and unpretentious, and Field Notes fit right in.

See more of John’s photos here, and catch him reading (live from Ghana via iChat) at the Field Tested Books events in Chicago (tonight, 7/22) and NYC (Monday 7/28).

We’re proud to announce a new retail location to our growing roster of “thriving businesses believing in Field Notes.”

We’re talking about Canton, Ohio, which is pretty-much known for its “Home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame,” which, for some amazing reason, has one hell of a logo even today. Love those thick lines, fellas. So the next time you are in Canton, and once you’ve checked out all the city has to offer, make sure you stop at Muggswigz to get a cup of delicious, energy-giving coffee and then stock up on some Field Notes for the next leg of your journey. Thank you, Canton.

We’ll be in soon to service the account and get some handshake. Much appreciated.

It’s obvious that FIELD NOTES are every bit as useful as a laptop computer or iPhone* at a fraction of the price, but did you know that we’ve bundled several great games into the package at no extra charge?

The first of these games is an action-packed racing simulator called “FIELD NOTES GRAND PRIX.” FNGP allows you to engage your favorite racers on any track you can dream up. For our example (above) we see a rematch of the epic 2006 MotoGP battle between Valentino “The Doctor” Rossi (red) and Nicky “The Kentucky Kid” Hayden (orange) at Laguna Seca. Rossi started out with an insane lead, but Nicky’s closing in on him with some intelligent cornering, this one’s going all the way to the podium.

The rules are simple but hard to explain, and many variables can be thrown in for variety. Graph Racers describes it well, and lists dozens of alternate rules, and Wikipedia’s entry for Racetrack (game) adds a little more detail on the math involved, be careful, you might learn something.

* International prepaid calling card sold separately.

Here’s the first of what we’d hope many “thought-provoking and inspiring” Public Service Announcements from Field Notes. From time to time we’ll be checking in to remind our customers about what makes us tick, from our core. Today we’re reminding everyone to “keep things simple.” Our world is made up of paper and staples, and more often than not, that’s all we need to keep everything above water and sailing along.

Thank you for believing in Field Notes. Stay tuned for “exciting developments in simple materials.”

If you take pride in your disorganized stream-of-conscious scribblings, fear not, FIELD NOTES will work just fine for you, too!

Chris Bowler at theweeklyreview.ca:

Think of these as a replacement for a Hipster PDA

and Robin at LitCentral uses FIELD NOTES to suggest a method for novelists and screenwriters to develop characters for fiction and films, and goes on to say:

Field Notes are a very durable notebook made for anyone who needs something handy and accessible to capture the abundant overflow of their brain droppings.

Thanks, Chris, Robin, and all the other folks who’ve given FIELD NOTES a try and took the time to write up an honest opinion. We’re thrilled to see how positive the feedback’s been. You can read loads more reviews via the links to your left (our right–we’re inside your monitor).

Wait, no, we’re supposed to be thanking America. Spread the love of FIELD NOTES, which just so happen to be made here in America, with our special offer: Drop four 3-packs of FIELD NOTES in the ol’ shopping cart, with coupon code FIRECRACKER and we’ll only charge you for three 3-packs. Offer valid through Sunday, July 6, 2008.

In the immortal words of Camper Van Beethoven:

Just be glad you live in America,
Just relax and be yourself.
‘Cause if you didn’t live here in America,
You’d probably live somewhere else.

(Shout out to Shelton Fireworks, where we would have totally bought hundreds of dollars worth of fireworks last Sunday afternoon, if they weren’t totally illegal in Illinois.)

Note: FIELD NOTES are not red/white/blue, we did that with computers.

A very well-traveled and eagle-eyed Mark Kohlman of Minneapolis, Minn., brought a little tidbit to our attention yesterday. It turns out we (kind of) made the pages of the amazing Good Magazine! The July/August issue that’s on the stands right now.

On Page 16 in the contributors section, up in the upper left corner, there’s a grainy shot of a bulletin board, and smack dab in the middle of that sucker is a Field Notes memo book. Check it out, right here.

Once the day was done and all the orders were shipped out, we raced up to the magazine rack to grab a copy, frantically flipping through the pages to get to our little moment.

And there it was. Tiny as hell, but nevertheless, right there for all to see. Much pride was felt.

We love Good Magazine, and are very proud to be in it, no matter how infinitesimal the showing.

Dan Ward just got his Airman Battle Uniform:

The new Air Force combat uniform pants have a little pocket on the outside of the calf area. I wasn’t quite sure what to put there, and then realized it’s the perfect size for a Field Notes memo book. I carry one around all the time. This isn’t an official federal endorsement, of course, but I think I’m allowed to say… it fits the pocket perfectly. Thanks!

We originally thought the bitmapped camouflage thing would get old fast, but we’re still loving it, and it complements our Dur-O-Tone cover nicely.

Dan, we thank you for the photo and kind words, we thank you for serving the U.S. of A., and we thank you for hopefully steering some big government contracts our way in the future. Bravo Zulu.