The SF Bay Area type-in is a go

More about California Typewriter here.

Thanks to ZetiX and California Typewriter for the graphics!

"The Privacy of Typewriters"

The Privacy of Typewriters

by Les Murray

I am an old book troglodyte
one who composes on paper
and types up the result
as many times as need be.

The computer scares me,
its crashes and codes,
its links with spies and gunshot,
its text that looks pre-published

and perhaps has been.
I don’t know who is reading
what I write on a carriage
that doesn’t move or ding.

I trust the spoor of botch,
whiteouts where thought deepened,
wise freedom from Spell Check,
sheets to sell the National Library.

I fear the lore
of that baleful misstruck key
that fills a whiskered screen
with a writhe of child pornography

and the doors smashing in
and the cops handcuffing me
to a gristlier video culture
coralline in an ever colder sea. 

Source (shared by Bryan Sherwood)

San Francisco Bay Area Type-In on Friday, December 27

The Typosphere's own Richard Polt is arranging a post-Christmas type-in for those in or around the San Francisco Bay Area, on Friday, December 27. Details are slowly coming together via email. Currently we're discussing something in Berkeley-ish territories, though nothing is fixed yet regarding specific time or place. We haven't even managed a snazzy graphic yet -- anyone handy with that sort of thing?

There's a rumor that participants might be involved in another documentary, too. Heck, I might even spring for a haircut in a vague attempt to look respectable (but let's not get our hopes up.)

Richard has posted a not-so-secret note about it on his blog and on the Yahoo groups, too.

UPDATE: the type-in is at 2 pm on the 27th at California Typewriter.

Typewriter Factories Map

This isn't really that useful, but it's fun to see where our favorite typewriters were built. I've been working on this in Google Map Engine over the past few days and currently have 69 factories marked on the map across 5 continents. I've gathered my information mainly from Will Davis's Portable Typewriter Reference and Robert Messenger's oz.Typewriter. My current goal with this map is to mark the location of every typewriter factory that was producing any decent quantity of machines during the 20th century. I'm not counting factories where typewriters were assembled from parts made in another factory, like the British-built Remingtons. It's better to view it in Google Maps Engine.



There are three fields to each point on the map--manufacturer (and model if the manufacturer is not immediately recognizable), location, and year production began there. If you notice any errors or want to add more information to the map, I can add you as an editing user if you have a Google account. (contact: schreibstang at gmail dot com)

Trivia:

Northernmost: Facit (Åtvitaberg, Sweden)
Southernmost: Olivetti (Johannesburg, South Africa)

Question:

Was the Brazilian-made Hermes Baby built at the Olivetti's São Paulo factory?

Full version in Google Maps Engine

What Does the Rhino Say?

Another NaNoWriMo is in the box/bag/container of your choice and the Typewriter Brigade came out in force this year with typebars swinging. For the stats wonks in the room, here's NaNoWriMo 2013, by the numbers. Remember that the Brigade has an open-door policy to membership, mainly because the Rhino ate the door. If you so much as look at the topic, you're considered a Brigadier for the year.

All figures are as of December 6, 2013, as of my highly-scientific copy-and-paste of the forum text...

• Total novelists posting in the topic: 77
• Total "fans" posting (did not set up a novel): 8
• Total posts in the Brigade topic: 1,202
• Occurrences of the word "rhino" in the post bodies: 148
  
• Post count that used to break the forums: 250
• Total words written by Brigade novelists in 2013: 2,973,180
• Approximate number of double-spaced pages @ 250 words/page: 11,900
• Average number of words per Brigade novelist: 38,613
• Median number of words per Brigade novelist: 50,062
• Most words written in 2013 by a single Brigadier: 112,140
• Number of Brigadiers that exceeded 100,000 words in 2013: 3
• Total number of winners (met or exceeded 50,000 words): 46
• Narrowest win margin, in words: 0
• Percentage of Brigade winners: 59.74%

Personally, I think that last stat is a little wrong, since you're all winners in my book. Trying to squeeze the time and motivation to draft a novel in a month is challenge enough. Rocking it old school automatically wins you non-redeemable Bonus Points. In short:

Well done, Brigadiers! 

For more than a few of us in the 'sphere, the Brigade was the gateway drug to getting into typewriters and retrotech in general, and despite the cries of "hipster!" and the usual level of mockery and disbelief that Brigadiers had to face this year, I'd say we kicked some serious rhino hindquarters. Same time next year?

Jackalopes, mermaids, and typewriters

News story:

A new organization that aims to enchant Cincinnati youngsters with the power of the written word launched a fanciful fundraiser Dec. 1 with the help of local and national authors. ... WordPlay asked 20 authors “to contribute a previously unknown fact about a legendary animal,” such as a jackalope or a mermaid. “They have to write this fact on a physical object – a canvas, a bus ticket, a map – to create a unique work of art, with the authors expressing their creativity in a new way,” she explained. The objects will be sold at online auction, and all proceeds will go to WordPlay. ...

To make words a more tactile experience, WordPlay’s space features devices that most computer-age children have never seen: typewriters. ... “They actually fight over who’s going to get to use them. They think they’re the coolest thing ever. The experience at WordPlay makes writing cool, so to speak. It’s where the kids are learning that writing is not just an assignment; it’s a self-expression.”

***

The whole story is here, including a video in which WordPlay's director tells the story of the organization. As many typospherians know, I volunteer as WordPlay's typewriter guy, but it's much bigger than typewriters.

And here are the eBay auctions for this unique fundraiser.

Long live the Typosphere

The Busy Secretary is saluting us!

typewriter sighting

Stop me if you've heard this one.

SM-3 in a rerun of "Modern Family" originally aired last May.

Photo credit:  abc.com

The episode synopsis may be found here, and the writing bit is pretty good.

They even added a page of manuscript excerpts, as read on the show.

Typewriter collector appears on SNL horror trailer

WTF?

Full video here:


 

Philly's fifth type-in

"The typists followed [Mike McGettigan's] instructions to write a brief message and then keep hitting the carriage return until the white sheaf of paper, tied by ribbon to a balloon, lifted up into a bright blue sky."

Full story here.

PS: "The Typist" is just a few hundred dollars away from its target.

"The Typist" -- an indie film that needs our help

"It's about a young man who likes to type on an old-fashioned typewriter. But he's lonely. So he goes out on an adventure to look for people of his type..."

Filmmaker Abraham Heisler is looking to get his movie into festivals. You can support him on the Kickstarter-like site Pozible.

Thanks to Peter Eipers for drawing this to my attention.

Post Typewriter Repair Links Here

I'm going to go ahead and get started gathering information, as it is never too early to do so. We are definitely going to have to set up a day and time to run a Google Hangout, or set up a forum of some kind, to work out what to do after the information is gathered and set up in a primitive webpage. It's imperative to archive each submission as links and blogs aren't permanent, and I will be doing that as they are submitted. I also had some basic ideas for tagging the submissions by manufacturer, model, and repair type.

Scour your own blogs/sites for repairs! If each of us does a fraction of the work, it will be simpler for me (!) and progress faster. If you don't have much time to do so, just including the link will be fine. If you have more time, also include a little about the submission, as in this example:

http://phlsphthght.blogspot.com/2013/06/mystery-solved-frozen-facit-starring.html (plain text link)
Fixing frozen carriage and ribbon advance with a solvent (repair/adjustment description)
Facit TP2, Facit 1620 (if machine specific, manufacturer and models)

Outline for the Typewriter Repair Resource

There is a weakness to forming the project over blog posts, as Rob mentioned. It's not as easy to be collaborative here, but we'll try our best. It's a simple enough project.

Will pointed out that this is an attempt to preserve repair knowledge, which it is exactly. I just couldn't find the right words. We have a tremendous amount of information that is exponentially growing, but it lacks good organisation. When a body of knowledge grows quickly, without being consolidated, organised, and maintained, that knowledge has the potential to be lost!

One of the goals of the typosphere is to preserve not only typewriters, but all the knowledge that must accompany them. Why must we do this? Because these machines deserve it! They have lasted this long and will continue to fulfill their original purpose for decades. Try saying that about the MITS Altair 8800. Wait...that didn't really have any useful purpose other than to show that working microcomputers could be built by hobbyists. A better example would be the Apple II. If you were an Apple user in 1980, your computing needs were met with that product. Today an Apple II would be largely useless in fulfilling the computing needs a user demands (whether it was an excellent product or not).

There will be a time in the future when there is nobody left who has grown up around manual typewriters and learnt from the experts about repairing them. That legacy is already disappearing, but it is being replaced with something with the potential to become even greater. The majority of typewriter users now are enthusiasts, and also their own repairperson. Knowledge is freely shared amongst, as it should be.

The idea of a wiki has been brought up, originally last year by Shordzi, and now again. I was on a bit of a typosphere hiatus at the time, so I can't say from experience—but I can imagine that didn't take off because there was not a solid base of organised information from which to create the wiki, and there weren't enough people with the time or inclination to develop it. I'm not advocating re-starting that idea yet—rather, we should keep this as simple as possible. Once the pieces have been gathered together, then a wiki can naturally spring forth from that information base with all the focus on re-organising it into wiki format, rather than having to worry about information gathering.

Ted mentioned the Typewriter Database as a candidate to host and arrange the links. It would be best to get the information sorted separately first, in case the wiki idea is later pursued, saving him hours of work on the website that could be eclipsed within the fairly near future. If the wiki shows no signs of interest, then that might be considered!

There are two possible suggested ways of organising the repair information—by brand and model, or by repair type and subtype. Both have their merits. When I first conceived this project, the main types of repairs I had in mind were the common Olympia carriage problems and the frozen Facits—very machine-specific knowledge. Mike had in mind over-arching repairs like platen replacement and character alignment adjustment. These are less machine-specific operations that can be more easily applied to a wider range.

It would probably be best to arrange the repairs using both methods. Most repairs could be grouped by typewriter. A separate section could group them by repair type. There would be much overlap, but some of the links would be present in only one section. The actual format of the repair entries will include a short description of the problem, and how it is addressed, as well as the link.

I propose that as long as there are no other major suggestions, as it seems best to keep this as simple as possible to begin with, we should spread the word and individually link to our repairs in the comments. I'll wait a day or two for any further discussion, and then create another post to collect the repair links! 

One last thing. We need a better name than the long-winded "Centralised Typewriter Repair Resource", Something concise and meaningful. Of course we could just call the page "Repairing Typewriters".

Creating a Centralised Typewriter Repair Resource

Collectively, the typosphere has made great progress in solving many of the age- and repair-related complications plaguing our typewriters, finding out that major problems often have simple solutions. These fixes often are not specific to the one typewriter that has been fixed, but apply to all within that model range. It's about time we set up a way to keep these repairs organised by brand and model in a central location!

Imagine this: you've discovered a beautiful Olympia SM3 with a fantastic typeface, but it is plagued with a carriage problem that you don't know how to repair. Maybe you've seen someone post on it before and can't remember where or when. Perhaps somebody has solved this problem, but you just don't know about it. You could Google it, and you might find what you're after. Suddenly you remember! (How could you have ever forgotten?) You look up "Olympia SM" on the Typosphere's repair page and scroll to the "carriage" section.  After checking out the linked blog posts, an hour later your SM3 is functioning perfectly.

My first thought was to create a page on this blog, listing typewriters alphabetically by manufacturer, then chronologically by model. Underneath each section would be links to various helpful repair blog posts. (As well as a separate area for fixes that apply to multiple typewriters.) That is my suggestion. Let's hear yours!

After it is decided, I'll make another post where you can submit your own repair posts for inclusion. For now let's just focus on how to best host and arrange them.

—N Beland / Philosophothought

Typewriter Poetry's Internet Poem

Here's a creative idea that combines poetry (one line at a time), typewriters, and the internet: "a typewritten Internet Poem."

The typewriter poet is billimarie. Here she is, ready to work.

Find out more.

He's Back...

It's the Rhino-Signal! Brigadiers, assemble!

Typewriters vs. espionage: the trend grows

Full story here.

Notice that this website borrowed an image from one of our prominent typospherians!

Music / typing

Picking up on Sholes' original keyboard ....

.... researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics are trying out a piano keyboard as a text input device ...

... while Regina Spektor makes music on a typewriter.

Zeitgeist update

Beautiful image, huh?

It was created by Carsten Schmitt by typing on a film negative. Read more here.

In other news from around the typosphere, 96-year-old repairman Manson Whitlock passed away recently after a brief illness. He fixed typewriters for over 80 years. This modest but determined man earned himself a place in typewriter history and was honored with obituaries in the Washington Post and New York Times as well as the local New Haven Register. Thank you, Mr. Whitlock.

St. Louis typewriter project makes NPR news

A typewriter for the "What The Hell Is St. Louis Thinking?" project sits in the city's Central West End neighborhood. Poet Henry Goldkamp wants passers-by to stop and share their thoughts — without the luxury of a "delete" key.


I've mentioned the excellent project "What the Hell is St. Louis Thinking?" on this site before. Now it's getting national attention.

Read and hear the NPR story here.

Older story and video

Facebook site

Soboroff typewriter collection on display in Boston

A good chunk of Steve Soboroff's collection of typewriters owned by famous people is now on display at Northeastern University in Boston.

Stories:

Boston Magazine

Huffington Post

Project 88 update

From journalist Keith Sharon:

This is my column that appears in today's OC Register. It's behind a paywall, so I'm sending it in full to you. Please post on Typosphere, if you feel so inclined:

Last November, I bought an old typewriter on eBay with the intent to save the world one, old-timey letter at a time.

We text too much instead of talk. We tweet when we don’t have anything to say. We blurt instead of compose.

Much of this is fueled by the quickness and anonymity of the web.

I set out to start a resurrection of real communication with my Smith-Corona 88 Secretarial (circa 1950s). I called my typing efforts “Project 88,” taken from the number of different characters the old, gray 88 produces.

Then, right out of the gate, I blew it. I wrote letters to celebrities.

I’m still waiting for my first celebrity response.

When I first wrote about my experiences, on March 17, I proclaimed the death of letters. “If you want to be ignored by people you admire … type them a letter.”

Turns out I was admiring the wrong people.

I received my 500th old-fashioned, snail mailed letter on Aug. 16. Thank you Rob Bowker of Wallingford, England, for your nice letter in which you described the “Local fields, normally so tranquil and lying under birdsong, are growling to the thunder of combine harvesters …”

For those not opposed to a little math, that’s exactly 100 letters per month. In the newspaper business, where old-fashioned letters are dwindling faster than cassette tapes did, that’s an explosion.

When I started Project 88, I could have never guessed where it was going. First, it was an abject failure. Then it was a local success with letters pouring in from around Orange County; schools, senior centers, offices, jails, kitchen tables. Letters were written on dusty typewriters pulled from garages. They were written with fountain pens; No. 2 pencils.

Then it became a bigger success. I started writing a weekly column (it appears Tuesdays in the local section) called “Mail Bonding.” Get it? I’ve heard from a total of 15 states – so far. Many letters came from the “Typosphere,” an online community of really cool and eccentric letter writers. I got a letter from England. Then two from Australia. Now I’ve got about 70 pen pals around the world.

Then I had lunch with Laura and Catherine Stevens of Newport Beach.

That’s when I learned a new lesson about success.

•••

Laura Stevens, who is Catherine’s mom, was one of my first pen pals. She sent me a letter about her long-ago love affair with Hans, a late 1970s-era member of the Swedish rowing team. She shared the letter with her daughter, who had never known about her mother’s romantic past.

Catherine, 12, wrote to me with a No. 2 pencil, thanking me for helping to open a chapter of her mom’s life and asking if I could recommend a good typewriter. I wrote in a column that Catherine didn’t need to get a typewriter. She was doing just fine with her pencil.

Enter Robert O’Brien of Huntington Beach. He typed me a letter:

“In your column of June 4, you indicated that Ms. Catherine Stevens would like to acquire a typewriter. I think she will most likely get more use and enjoyment out of this machine than I will, so with your assistance I would like to give it to her.”

He said those typed words were his “final spin” on his Royal Safari portable typewriter.

So I passed his contact information over to the Stevens family.

Toting his big blue-boxed Royal, Robert met Laura, Catherine and her friend Olivia at Polly’s Pies in Huntington Beach. He brought the owner’s manual.

“I’ve seen typewriters before, but now I think they’re cool,” said Catherine, pink tints in her blonde hair.

Robert showed them how to use the old contraption. He said they had to use “substantially more effort” to push the keys than they were used to.

As her mom and Robert talked, Catherine started typing. When they looked at the page, it said:

“Can we get pie?”

It was Catherine’s first-ever typed sentence.

Catherine ordered chocolate cream.

When they got the typewriter home, Catherine proudly showed it to her 15-year-old sister, Lauren.

“She thinks I’m a loser,” Catherine said.

Laura doesn’t remember precisely when the idea came to her. Early this summer she suggested that her daughter type letters to people. Catherine thought it was a great idea. But who?

Laura quickly thought of Crown Cove, a senior living center in Corona del Mar. Laura’s great aunt, Margaret Byard, had been a resident at Crown Cove until she died in 2011. Laura remembers visiting there, and how many of the residents didn’t have much contact with the outside world.

The Crown Cove Pen Pal Project was born.

Laura contacted Jessilyn Gaujardo, the Crown Cove activities director, who oversees 75 residents. She was thrilled. And so were some of the residents.

“A lot of people don’t take time for people who are slower than a quick text,” Jessilyn said. “The residents didn’t believe that anyone wanted to communicate with them at first. It’s kind of sad.”

But Catherine and a couple of friends wrote letters introducing themselves and asking the elderly residents to write back. Jessilyn read the letters aloud to the 12 people who showed interested.

•••

On a recent Wednesday, Catherine got her first four letters from Crown Cove residents.

Wynn Griffith wrote: “We at Crown Cove really enjoyed hearing your letter from July thirteen. It was written very well and I enjoyed hearing from a twelve year old young lady!”

Catherine said the best part of receiving letters from the residents was when they talked about their own childhoods.

“This will give them a sense there is someone to talk to,” Catherine said.

Catherine plans to meet with an expanding group of friends to compose letters.

And the residents plan to make cards to send to Catherine and her friends.

“We’ll keep it going back and forth,” Jessilyn said.

Laura thinks the good feelings go both ways.

“Not only am I super proud of her, the most rewarding thing is that she’s having fun,” Laura said.

“You never know what is going to happen when you connect with people.”

MAIL ME A LETTER:

Project 88 began when I bought a 1950s era Smith-Corona 88 typewriter on eBay. Eighty-eight is the number of characters it produces. If you are so inspired, write to me. If you use a typewriter, great. If not, use a computer, a pen, a quill or a chisel and slate. The point is to communicate. Try to avoid angry topics (maintaining civility is the only way this will work), and I’ll try to write back.

My mailing address:

Keith Sharon

Orange County Register

625 N. Grand Ave.

Santa Ana, CA 92701

The Typing Pool

This kind of thing happening in my own neighborhood makes me happy.

Tom Hanks on typewriting

"I am well versed in the focus-stealing racket one can make with a vintage manual typewriter. I use a manual typewriter — and the United States Postal Service — almost every day."

Read Tom Hanks' full (great, funny, true) essay on the New York Times site.

"What the hell is St. Louis thinking?"

Story and video

Facebook site

Upcoming London type-ins

Thursday the 25th: meet at 2 pm at the exit of Shoreditch High Street tube station

Sunday the 28th: meet at noon at the main entrance of the Victoria & Albert Museum

Monday the 29th: meet at 1:30 pm at the Morgan Arms:
http://www.morganarmsbow.com/

All typewriter lovers are welcome -- you know what to bring!

I'll be at all three and will share photos on my blog.

Poster by Rob Bowker

"The Typewriter (In the 21st Century)" now on Hulu

The whole film is now available on Hulu (for US viewers):

Digital Detox in San Francisco: "Who's Excited!?"

Here's an upcoming event near and dear to the 'sphere: a "digital detox" on July 26

Analog Zone with typewriters? (Hmmm... wonder if they need some machines...)

RSVP if you're attending: looks like space is going fast. Now, who in the Typosphere is going to host one of these in their own hometown? Paging Professor Remington...

Contribute to an NPR story on old tech

NPR's Marketplace Tech Report is running a reader poll/story series on "Technology you refuse to give up." Let's chime in!

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/tech/tech-report-blog/tell-us-what%E2%80%99s-piece-old-technology-you-refuse-give

Postcards from the Typosphere -- deadline coming up!

The deadline for contributing to Rob Bowker's project Postcards from the Typosphere is midnight on June 28, UK time.

Don't know what the project is?

Read about it here:
http://typewriterheaven.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/post-cards-from-typosphere.html

Typewriter Day 2013

Egad! It's nearly Typewriter Day! One hundred forty-five years since Sholes was awarded a patent for this lovely drawing that morphed into the machines we know and love.



The date sneaks up on me each year, preceded by a nagging sensation that something important is happening in late June... but what could it be? Clearly this is a serious oversight on behalf of the calendar markers of the world. June 23, everyone -- that's this coming Sunday.

I know a certain Mad Professor of Typewriterology who has a collection of missives from about the 'sphere. In honor of the recent non-shocking revelations about government-run data harvesting and wireless eavesdropping, how about marking the day with a typed postcard or letter to the good doctor, or to your own favorite rabble-rouser?
 
Please document the occasion with a photo, video, podcast, engraving, crayon sketch, or some other bloggable means and we'll gather them up and post on the page here on the site, linking back to you.

Bonus Typosphere Points* will be awarded for incorporating one or more of the following elements into your work:

• Colorful ribbons or other means of tarting up the result.
• Cryptic messages, symbols or iconography. Double points if a government bureau actually intercepts and intercedes with your missive (and owns up to it.)
• The wearing of tinfoil headgear or other hilarious folk remedies for shaking off the mind-control rays of The Man. Triple points if you manage to attract black helicopters overhead with your typing.

No time to waste, everyone!

* No monetary value. No redemption. No shirt, no shoes, no service. No woman, no cry.

Nine Years Might Have Been an Exaggeration

Here's a review of of DVD release of The Typewriter in the 21st Century, the closest many humble Typospherians may ever come to our fifteen minute allotment of fame. In the interest of full disclosure, I think I overstated the lifespan of that laptop and under-estimated the age of the typewriters. Doing arithmetic on-camera is stressful!

<soapbox>

Given the recent stink about the U.S. government's warrantless snooping security-minded PRISM program, I don't think the 'sphere is above inviting those partial to privacy into our fold. Typewriters: good for marshaling your thoughts, documenting them, and keeping them out of the hands and eyes of Uncle Sam, too. A shame the story didn't break sooner, or Chris and Gary could have also played up the paranoia angle. I, for one, look outstanding in a tinfoil hat.

Evolution of the Typewriter?

Interesting article, with some machines I'd never seen before. Sadly truncated at the electric typewriter in 1935, though.
Evolution of the Typewriter in Pictures

Cincy Typing Challenge, July 20 & 25, 2013

Read all about the Cincy Typing Challenge happening in the Cincinnati Museum Center on July 20 (qualifying round) and July 25 (final round). "The Typewriter (In the 21st Century)" will be screened on the 20th.

(I lent my Rooy for the creation of this video and have helped organize the event, but I'll be in London during the challenge itself.)

"The Typewriter (In the 21st Century)" in San Francisco

"The Typewriter (In the 21st Century)" will screen at the San Francisco Public Library this Saturday (May 25) at 3 pm. Details here.

Meanwhile, here's a great interview with producer Gary Nicholson and other interesting people at the first L.A. Type-In:


 
SCVTV.com 7/2011 Out & About with Roger Martin: Type-In from SCVTV Santa Clarita on Vimeo.

UPDATE July 2013: The whole film is now available on Hulu (for US viewers):

"Mail Bonding" in Santa Ana, California

How many letter-writing projects have we started in the 'sphere? I know I've personally disappointed dozens of people with my intermittent correspondence habits. Yet there's no denying that the act of writing -- and receiving -- a hand-typed letter is special. Keith Sharon, a journalist for the Orange Country Register in southern California tried a little experiment of his own lately, sending out a passel of letters from an Smith-Corona 88 he'd won from eBay. His rate of return was just about as good as anyone who's tried to extract a letter from me:

Here are the Project 88 totals: I wrote 33 letters – about 85 pages total.

I got one response.

Ouch. Undaunted, Keith's trying again and would love to hear from you. His address is:

Keith Sharon
625 N. Grand Ave.
Santa Ana, CA 92701
USA

His original article is behind a paywall at the newspaper site, but he was kind enough to send it directly... by email. Those with sensitivities about the improper use of cooking sprays might want to look away! The full article follows below the jump.

NBC Nightly News Story About Typewriters

NBC Nightly News aired this video this evening. There are some familiar faces; mine notwithstanding.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This second video is an on-line extended footage extra featuring some kids from my classes. I also wax philosophical on the typewriter's past, present, and future.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Interview with Christopher Lockett on Typewriter movie

Here's an interview with Christopher Lockett in The Los Angeles Downtown News.

His film "The Typewriter (In the 21st Century)" starts a one-week run at the Downtown Independent theater in LA tomorrow.

In the interview I'm referred to as the guy who "runs the Typosphere." We know, of course, that the typosphere is gloriously anarchic — I disclaim any such authority.

But I do like the saying on one of the shirts created by artist Louise Marler, referred to in the interview: "Talk QWERTY to Me!"

Another Typewriter Repair Store

I never get tired of reading these articles. Here's one from The Record titled Typewriter shop keeps aging relics clicking. It seems rather common that most of the typewriter businesses added a computer and printer sales and service side.

I had a laugh when McLemore described a typewriter to someone who didn't know what one was. I've actually described is similarly to kids, minus the bit about the memory.

Typewriter brings $1,000,000

The Typewriter film screening in L.A. starting May 10

From Christopher Lockett:

The film is getting a short theatrical release here in LA at the Downtown Independent Theater. Very proud that the film is screening at that particular theater. It's got 222 stadium seats, sells craft beer and wine and is very indie friendly. This film is about as "indie" as cinema gets. This is remarkably good news to me - the odds of a sub- $10K independently produced, hour-long documentary getting any kind of theatrical release are never in the filmmaker's favor. We always figured the film would reach its audience online and on television. A theatrical release is literally unheard of for such a film. 

The link to the Facebook event page is below. It's a public event, so the page should be viewable even to people who aren't on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/events/452293724849389/

Download the press release here.

Help us celebrate the film’s theatrical run with a kickoff event at:

Downtown Independent Theater

251 S. Main St.

Los Angeles, CA 90012

213.617.1033

http://www.downtownindependent.com

Friday, May 10, 2013

Screenings @ 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Doors open for reception at 7 p.m.

Q&A with the filmmakers after the 8 p.m. screening.

$10 – advanced online ticket sales through theater website.

The event features typewriters once owned by Ernest Hemingway, Jack

London, Tennessee Williams, and Orson Welles – from the collection

of Steve Soboroff.

Louise Marler’s typerwriter-themed art, jewelry, and t-shirts will also

be on display and for sale. http://www.lamarler.com/

The film features 30+ interviews in 10 U.S. states with Pulitzer Prize and

National Book Award winning authors Robert Caro and David McCullough,

collectors, repairmen, artists, musicians, inventors, and bloggers from The

Typosphere - an online gathering place for typewriter enthusiasts.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

http://typewritermovie.com

Director Christopher Lockett: 323-252-3683

Producer Gary Nicholson: 310-654-3588

New York City type-in on April 21

For anyone who missed the announcement, Mike McGettigan is organizing a type-in in NYC on the 21st -- and big media will be there.

Get a poster here and RSVP in the comments.

Type-IN NYC

“A jam session

for manual typewriters

and the people who love them.”

@ Theatre 80 (Next to William Barnacle Tavern and

below Museum of the American Gangster)

80 St. Marks Place (Between 1st & 2nd Ave)

Subway: N,R to 8 St. NYU / 6 to Astor Place

- Speed typing showdown

- Snail mail letter session

- Q & A with typewriter experts

- Typewriter swap (Manuals Only)

Graciously hosted by Theatre 80 and William Barnacle Tavern

Free to all ages (Bring functioning manual typewriters -orstamped

envelope) For more info/updates: phillytyper.com

Sunday 4/21•1 to 4 pm

Dunk cookies and read poems with the typosphere

Here's a shout-out to typospherians Zac Burlingame (An *sshole With A Typewriter) and Sam Feller (Awkward Engineer), who are launching Kickstarter projects.

Zac is publishing a poetry chapbook and Sam has created The Ultimate in Cookie Dunking Technology. You can pledge as much or as little as you like to support their projects.