i dream lo-tech returns

Ton S. has revived his "I Dream Lo-Tech" blog. There are a few old posts on it, and he says he will be occasionally posting new material. He had to focus on academia for a couple of years but he is back in the typosphere!

https://dreamlo-tech.blogspot.com

Joe's ABQ Made The Headlines

Looks like Joe Van Cleave's First Annual ABQ made a long trip to a local Indiana newspaper. A co-worker of mine just handed me a cut-out article from the paper and I instantly recognized Joe's name. Here is the link to the online version.

It's always fun to read about typewriters and type-ins in the news!

7th Phoenix Type-In

Digitally detox at the 7th Phoenix Type-In at Changing Hand's First Draft in Phoenix on August 20th, from 1-4pm. There will be typewriters, good people, and excellent food and drink. All are welcome.

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.

Typewriters vs. espionage: the trend grows

Full story here.

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

Typewriter Movie Screenings

Gary Nicholson gave me the heads-up that the documentary The Typewriter (In the 21st Century) is getting U.S. screening dates settled. There's a new page on their web site listing dates and places and the promise of more news to come. Don't miss it!

More than a few Typospherical Celebrities were interviewed for the film -- as well as me. How does the insurgency address cinematic outings? Sit in the back row and type? Leave handmade leaflets on vacant seats? I imagine a gathering something like an "Occupy" protest, except the participants are more nattily dressed and have inky fingers and "boo" every time someone says the word "keychopper." (Boo!)

Venice Type-In: The Aftermath

Lots of write-ups and photos on the type-in held this past weekend in Venice, California. Looks like lots of sun and fun was to be had...

• Venice Type-In
  A Typewriter A Day Keeps the Doctor Away
• Venice Type-In...
  Streamlines DeLuxe
• The Venice Type-In and Plumeria: The Grand Debut of the Oliver No. 5 Print Type
  A Machine for the End of the World

Plus, some coverage in the LA Weekly blog:

While some of the folks featured [in the film] had an almost mockable naivete -- earnestly wondering why the typewriter went out of fashion -- others recognize them for what they are: really cool antiquated devices that combine nostalgia and literary functionality.

I'll let you decide which category yours truly falls under. (I'm hoping for geeky naivete, personally.)

---

Did you attend the type-in or the movie screening? Drop a note in the comments and let us know how it went.

21st Century Typewriter Repairs Made Easy

Just reading Scott's latest update on The Filthy Platen about getting a replacement part 3-D printed for a Remington. Folks, the future's here, no doubt about it. And I think there's a certain poetic beauty to using modern printing techniques to repair a classic printing machine.

Now, let's get Shapeways hooked up with the guys behind this video and we'll all be printing our own Remettes*


* Some assembly required

Post Your Typewriter Day Links Here

Hey everyone -- I should update the "Typewriter Day" page to reflect the 2012 events, and I'm far too busy/lazy to scrube through everyone's blogs. Can you please post a comment with the link or links to your celebrations/blog posts/acts of typewriter awesomeness?

As with any major holiday (ahem) the celebration didn't strictly have to take place on Saturday. Show-and-tell time, everyone!

Type Rider

Maybe well-timed, considering the recent movie trailer for On the Road, but Maya Stein is going to head out with a bike and a typewriter and a head full of poetry and trace a route that looks like it's going to come within shouting distance of many in the Typosphere.

She's got a Kickstarter page up about the project. Anyone out there in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, or Wisconsin? (That's a silly question: of course there are.)

Son of (Philly) Type-In, Dec 10th

I've been lax in the shameless promotion department, so just a reminder that there's another Philadelphia-area type-in this Saturday, December 10 at Bridgewater's Pub, starting at 1:00 PM. (I'd like to remind all attendees that the Typosphere Management has a particular soft spot for cheesesteak sandwiches with onions.)

If you go, take pictures! And if you've got a type-in planned for your neighborhood, just post a comment.

Sic Transit Typewriters.ch

If these don't make you smile, then I don't know what will. Good luck Georg, and watch out for uneven sidewalks!

Part I:


Part II:

Olympia (WA) NaNoWriMo typewrite-in

The Olympia typewrite-in is set for 11:00 am Sunday November 13, 2011 at Sizizis coffee house.

This coffee place doesn't seem to have a web presence so I have started your search for you instead.

I hope to see a typewriter platoon, but would settle for a squad.

The write-in captain down there is enthusiastic, saying "Wow! that sounds delightful! I'll totally be staying to soak up some of that twentieth-century goodness. Thanks for the heads up!"


I want to impress them - Old School.

Oct. 15 events

1. Collectors' meeting at Herman Price's home in West Virginia. Contact Herman at typewriter.museum@gmail.com.

2. "Tape 'n' Type" event in Philadelphia. Details here.

October Updates

Hello everyone: pretty quiet around here lately. A few news items of interest to the Typosphere in general:

• This story has gone around the Net a bit now, but some clever builder put together a beverage-mixing "typewriter" with a clever letter display. Not strictly a typewriter, but by the time you've sipped your way through THE QUICK BROWN FOX you won't be in any mood to nitpick.
• In the pretty-but-non-functional category, a typewriter made from LEGO.
• Bill Wahl at Mesa Typewriter Exchange got a nice writeup in a local blog. More shops could use writeups like this -- not condescending, just appreciative.
• The Typewriter Movie crew is still raising funds: they recently crossed the $5,000 mark on pledges. If you haven't thrown $10 their way, why not? I'd like to see Ryan Adney's class get the screen time, personally, taking typing to the next generation.
• There's a new flickr group available for hosting your typecasts, if anyone needs a free repository to archive their hard-wrought words.
• NaNoWriMo starts four weeks from today. Four weeks! That's the blink of an eye. Will you be joining the Typewriter Brigade as we charge off, leaving a trail of double-spaced terribleness in our wake?

Your Favorite Repair Shop?

Hi again, Typosphere. I know that Richard Polt has a repair-shop list (which I can't find at the moment, Richard?) I'm thinking about adding them with a special icon to our map page. If you have a favorite shop, please post their name and address in a comment and I'll include them in the map.

One Week Until "Typewriter Day"

Just a quick reminder to have a camera and typewriter on hand for next Thursday, June 23, to commemorate Typewriter Day in your part of the Typosphere. Here's the original post about it. Try to get shots or video of yourself (or others!) typing -- in public, at home, at the library, at work, wherever you may be, and upload them so they can be shared here. Show a little QWERTY love for Christopher Sholes.



Of course, he's not the only one with his hands in the works, so to speak. Have you been reading Robert Messenger's outstanding On This Day In Typewriter History series? He's weaving a fascinating web on his blog, with regular, fact-filled updates. Clear your calendar and start reading.

Your Monthly Update

• For the stats junkies: 2,969 pages viewed in the month of May, with most of the traffic coming to the roll-call post and originating from the U.S., though Japan is making a strong showing thanks to Matt Cidoni's radio interview. Typewriters on the radio, it's the new big thing.
• Also in traffic numbers: a strange one-day surge of traffic from Russia. My paranoid sysadmin senses tell me that this was some kind of potential spam attack or scrape, as no actual pages or posts were heavily hit (and I saw the same surge on clickthing.) Everyone make sure to compute safe.
  
• There was a type-in in Los Angeles on May 22: anyone have pics? Video? I found this article about it, but it's pretty light. Any LA typecasters out there?
• Perhaps she's too humble or sleepless to post here, but Cheryl at Strikethru is making noises about another edition of Silent Type... with a twist. Have you see the first two editions? They are excellent, despite my own contributions. You should check them out.
• Typewriter Day is just three weeks away. If you can, please consider filming yourself or others doing a little typing that day (hands-only is fine if you're modest.)
• Several new bloggers are showing up in the blogroll and on the map page. Please feel free to post any that you find, even as a comment to posts like this one. Membership in the Typosphere can be involuntary and unexpected...

Updated: Richard linked to the video from the LA event, but I missed it.

This Week in the Typosphere

• Our ranks are growing. Just since last week's update we've seen the number of UK-based members double... to two. April Foolishness aside, I know that I've added about six or seven entries to the blogroll and map this past week, many of which I've found by checking through the list of links on your own blogs. Did I miss someone? Go ahead and nominate them in a comment. If they're even tangentially typewriter-related, they're welcome in the fold and I'll add them.
• Speaking of the UK, there was a little chatter on the PTF about holding a type-in over there: why let us colonists have all the fun? Not a member? You should be. It's a Yahoo-based mailing list, free to join, but you need to request membership and prove that you're not a spambot by including something typewriter-related in your request (like "I am a fine upstanding member of the Typosphere and run a blog and can't stop combing eBay.") Things are still a little heated over there right now thanks to fallout from keychopping discussion that went sour (as they often do. There are no winners in an argument held on the Internet.) For a little perspective on 'choppers and some great mental imagery of the back room of a typewriter repair shop, follow the link on Strikethru to an interview of the repair wizards at Ace Typewriter in Washington.
  
• Did I mention that the second UK typecaster is insane? But in that mad-dogs-and-Englishmen sort of way. That's right: typecasting while running. Somehow, doing this in front of the Wii just doesn't seem as challenging. Since we had a spate of propaganda posters in blogs lately, you're all charged with making one out of typewrunner's photo, linked from this victorious post. That photo brings tears to my eyes. The good kind.
• We'd love those posters in the flickr "Anablogger Archives" group, by the way. Links to the group, the Yahoo lists, and other places of interest to the typosphere community are on the left, under the "Resources" header.
• The biggest news this week is that we were the news, at least for a day or two in the New York Times "Style" section. Congratulations all around for everyone who was interviewed (and to those who were eventually cut.) Sounds like Jess may be a convert. If we can rope her into the Typewriter Brigade, I think she'll be hooked for sure.
• Brigadiers! You know that Script Frenzy starts today, right? It's an automatic excuse for not editing your NaNoWriMo novel for another thirty days (like you needed one.)
• One last item for you statistics wonks: we turned a bit over 2,000 pages in our first month as a real trafficked blog, with a little uptick in daily pages to coincide with all of us mailing the NY Times article to our tolerant friends and family. The most traffic comes from the "typosphere.net" domain, so extra thanks to Ryan for setting that up and pointing it here. My own humble blog is second for driving traffic here (since I'm whoring the link everywhere) followed closely by Strikethru (since she has actual readers and is an interesting person.) "typosphere" is the search term used most to find us. Page views by country are:

1. United States: 1,811
2. United Kingdom: 113
3. Switzerland: 25
4. Australia: 22
5. Canada: 21
6. Sweden: 21
7. Netherlands: 18
8. Italy: 13
9. Germany: 11
10. Philippines: 8