Yeah, sure – keychoppers are bad, but wouldja take a look at this?
I’m not really into Steampunk myself, but I enjoy watching steampunks parade around in their Victorian garb and brass fittings, and I appreciate the beauty of the aesthetic. Like the folks that make typewriter-key jewelry, steampunks have been known to keychop for their projects – but unlike most keychoppers, steampunks invariably build something amazing with […]
Random Typerati game notes…
Yet another reason that typewriters are awesome
There are so many reasons to keep a typewriter on your desk, but I think one of the best ones is that sometimes your loved ones will use it to leave you notes. MMMMMmmm… Warm fuzzies!
I need a typewriter pad…
*ADDENDUM* I attempted to make a typewriter pad out of 4 mouse pads, as I happen to have lots of these Secret Society Wars mousepads hanging around. Result: utter failure. Witness the hard shift to the left after just 3 lines of typing. The mouse pads didn’t move, but it appears the top surface isn’t […]
Einstein, meet Kennedy… and a plastic Collegiate
It is clearly a sign of obsession that I bought this nasty little thing. It’s not even remotely fit for the CTP and owning it breaks two of my cardinal rules of Typewriter Collecting in that it’s both plastic and unusable. The justification regarding the ribbon is valid, tho – I’d pay $8 for a […]
…to the Happy Home, with trees and flowers and chirping birds…
The Starlite Motel Diving Lady makes her last plunge…
Here’s a really good animated photo of the Starlite Motel Diving Lady. Be sure to hit the “animate” button. Part of the diving lady sign survives and is now mounted in the local mall to help raise money to renovate the historic sign. Several businesses have gotten together to help supply the labor necessary to […]
Taking Little Jake for a spin – 1933 Remington-Rand Remy Scout
Decided to take Little Jake out for a typecast. Sadly, his rubber hasn’t aged well, so he’s destined to stay in the glass display case until I can scrape up the cash to have his rubber bits recovered… Gah, I keep typing 1934, which was the date I got from TW-DB, but on my last […]
Why there were no typewriters on Discovery One
I’m feeling very random today, so today’s flurry of posts are everything I disjointedly typed on whatever was handy.
My First Bells
Um, yeah. That title is an obscure reference to a cassette-only release by the Minutemen in the early 80’s, so it’s probably more mysterious than meaningful to anyone other than me. :D That was a typecast I did yesterday on the Ollie 21 early in the day, then I got Ryan’s email saying the trade […]
The Troubling Case of the Midwest Mangler…
Dashed off in a fit of pique on “Moneypenny”, 1947 Royal Quiet De Luxe.
Taking a moment to bask in the warm fuzzies…
Unite For The Glorious Revolution! (a new Propaganda Poster)
Well, I just had to jump on the bandwagon, didn’t I? :D
Some press for the Arizona Typospherians (Typerati?)
All publicity is good publicity…
So hey – quick note: Sara got a call from a reporter for us to go meet him down at Mesa Typewriter Exchange at 4pm for an interview, possibly about Bill’s shop, but maybe something about the resurgence of interest in typewriting (elsewise, why talk to us rather than just Bill?) Hopefully I can catch […]
Practical Typewriter Collecting
Good evening, ladies and gents. Today’s sermon is for those who are newly inducted into the exciting world of collecting and admiring the writing machines of the past century. A bold journey awaits you, hidden on dusty shelves in thrift and antique stores, baking in the hot sun on rickety card tables at garage sales, […]
Drago, the 1920 Underwood #5
Speaking of new blogs being discovered, here’s one that’s a couple years old, but the guy has a lotta machines: John E. Simmons, who offers Underwood manuals online: Underwood Repair Manual (1920) Underwood Standard (1930 – #3, 4 and 5) He also offers a bunch more manuals and documentation.
1920 Underwood #5?
Ok, well, I *think* it’s a #5, but as the machine has a fairly thick coat of paint applied over the original labels and I know diddly jack about old Underwoods, it’s at best a semi-educated guess. I found this machine at a yard sale this morning, carriage frozen almost solid, tab key jammed into […]
Spreading the Word…
Adventures with Ollie 21
I’ve got the Olivetti 21 cleaned up and ready to trade/sell, and yesterday I dropped by Mesa Typewriter Exchange to see if Bill would swap me the old Hermes Ambassador that he has collecting dust on his back shelf for it. No dice on that one – as soon as we pulled the Hermes off […]
Olivetti 21 *NAKED*, and appeal for help from the Typosphere…
It may sound like I’m pushing typewriter porn, but this post is really just an appeal for help. You see, I took the cover off of this Studio 21 to clean a small bit of gunk off of the escapement that was causing the tabulator function to not be able to zippily move from one […]
Olivetti-Underwood Studio 21
It’s hard to believe my luck sometimes. After months and months of coming up dry on my thrift store runs, the past couple of weeks have been like Moses striking the stone and having a steady stream pour forth. Lately, I’ve been only hitting the most convenient Goodwill every three or four days – the […]
Phoenix Typewriter Round-Up and a Wedding…
What a whirlwind of a Saturday! I woke up Saturday morning with a burning desire to discover the true identity of the Clark Nova from “Naked Lunch”, for some utterly pointless reason – it had just been bothering me for weeks and I had to know. Well, OK. So I load up the film in […]
The Typewriters of Naked Lunch
There’s been some uncertainty about what typewriters were used in the movie “Naked Lunch” by David Cronenberg. I’ve remembered them as a Smith-Corona Super-5 body from the 50’s (Bill Lee’s Clark Nova), a 60’s Olivetti Lettera 22 (Tom Frost’s Martinelli) and an Oliver (Tom Frost’s Mujahideen arabic machine). Recently I got into a conversation over […]
Type-in and wedding tomorrow!
Time is a mover, she never slows down…
Letterhead of the Apocalypse
The First of March Twenty-Eleven
Typecast from the newly rediscovered Remmie Model 1, Whose name is now Kipling, and who sports a new ribbon.
1938 Remington-Rand Model 1
Is it possible to totally and completely forget that you own a particular typewriter? Apparently you can, if you bought it long enough ago and have enough others to occupy your attention. I totally forgot I owned this 1938 Remington-Rand Model 1, and just found it today whilst cleaning out a closet. It was a […]
Typewriters Under Glass…
Nifty! I found a place to display the typewriters from my collection which are not in my current typing rotation at home. The 9 machines that I was keeping stored at the office are now on display in the reception area. From top left to bottom right they are: “Blair” (Olympia Socialite), “Indy” (Tower Skyriter), […]
Promises, promises…
Wherein I show off some of my old handcrafted stationery and make vague promises to write real letters to more people. What looks like a sickly bluish color in this scan is actually metallic silver. It looks sort of trippy in real life.
1968 Olympia SM 9 Deluxe
Wow, it must be Olympia week at Goodwill! After my great find of the 1966 SM-9 yesterday, I hit up the other two Goodwill stores today, and lo and behold, I find another Oly SM-9, this time a 1968 model, for $9. Sadly, the case was missing, so I at first passed it up. Later, […]
Doris Day, the 1966 Olympia SM 9 De Luxe
Some strange force compelled me to stop by the local Goodwill store yesterday after work, a force that whispered insistently “There’ll be a nice, shiny black Voss waiting for you, i guarantee it!” (This voice has popped up regularly since I saw the pics of Duffy Moon’s beautiful Voss). Well, the voice lied, sorta. There […]
To Type, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth…
I was thinking up names for this blog and I think I have one I like. It’s the title of this post! It’s inspired, of course by the title of Jeff Cooper‘s “To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth“, which was one of his best books and required reading around the ranchito. I don’t […]
Einstein, the 1955 Smith-Corona Silent
Found at a Goodwill store many years ago for $10, this Silent served as my “loaner” typewriter for quite some time. I’d loan him out to certain friends as incentive to get them to write. Sometimes it works and I never see that typewriter again because the recipient falls in love with the machine and […]