The Typewriter Revolution blog

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Type-ins and more, June 23-24

There are several typewriter events happening on June 23 and 24:

1. QWERTY: The Second Annual Festival of Type and the Letter Arts will be held at the Greenville Drive-In on June 23-24th and features a return performance by the enigmatic rhythm and words ensemble, the Boston Typewriter Orchestra. The festival begins on World Typewriter Day Friday with a line-up including a special live performance by Brian Dewan and a 10th anniversary screening of Gary Hustwit’s documentary Helvetica. Boston Typewriter Orchestra takes the stage Saturday evening before screenings of Ink & Paper and Doug Nichol’s new documentary California Typewriter featuring Tom Hanks, John Mayer and Sam Shepard. Both evenings will host a gathering of typewriter poets, typewriter and letter art and a type-in hosted by Eric Molbach. Bring your typewriter or use one of the free typewriters provided on a first-come first-served basis. The Greenville Drive-In is located at 10700 Route 32 in Greenville NY 12083. More information here.

2. Type-in at Mission Pie in San Francisco, June 23, 3-7 pm.

3. Type-in at Oblation Papers in Portland, Oregon, June 24.

4. Type-in at Landmark Books in Traverse City, Michigan, June 24, 12-4 pm.

As for me, I'm going on vacation on the California coast.

Enjoy the beginning of summer!

Saturday, June 10, 2017

Seen but not bought

What? I exercised some restraint? Yes, believe it or not. The following items were at the Ohio Valley Antique Mall yesterday.

Olivetti Studio 44, $85.

Made in Italy. Dated to 1956.

What made it very tempting was this double gothic typeface:

("Gothic" today suggests Goths and heavy metal bands, but in traditional typography it refers to simple sans-serif typefaces.)

However, I already have a double-gothic machine (a noiseless portable), and this one would take some work to restore. I'm too busy.

Here's a cardboard box with lots of history and character. The serial number of the L. C. Smith that it once contained dates the box to around 1940.

A few more tempting typewriters:

Very clean Smith-Corona in an unusual color for $59:

Underwood DeLuxe Leader, $69:

Royal O, $69:

These were all good machines at fair prices—and yet I let them be. What self-control!

This morning I heard from another collector who passed through the same mall yesterday and picked up one of these:

It's a Campus Mark I made by Nippo in Japan. My fellow collector is staying a couple of miles from me, so we may get together today.

Yesterday I also got to meet collector Scott O., who was in town. And there will be another visitor next week. Viva the typosphere!

Another experience yesterday: I went to a show of Star Wars costumes and saw this 1975 "process plate" that shows that work on the original movie was very much non-digital, including typewritten notes and white-out.