Category Archives: Typewriters

September 4, 2014 · 3:33 pm

The End of Summer

Things end, like summer, and jobs. Summer’s not quite over, but it soon will be. The job, it’s over, for now they say…

Soon ducks will be heading off, but not this duck: I found it today in a thrift shop for $2. It’s nothing special but I’m always looking for one, it’s an item I collect for some reason unknown. No typewriters of late – except common ones like Smith Corona Classic 12’s.

This summer saw us back in the Canadian Rockies, a place dear to my heart. Once again we went to look at Lake Louise. Of course it never changes, or rather it changes at a glacial pace. This time I took a picture, but also took the time to do a small watercolour sketch. Note how realistic it is! Quiz: which is the sketch, and which one is the photograph?

If you ever have a chance to see this place, be sure to go for tea at one of the two teahouses that can be reached by hiking for several hours. Tea never tasted better.

From Russia, With Luck

No kidding, this is a mint condition Olympia Progress, Russian. Unfortunately I don’t type Russian, nor do I speak it, or understand it. But I will sell it to the Russians for a tidy sum, since they are now wisely going back to typing classified documents. That is about the only good thing that can be said about Russia these days. Who would have thought that Russia is part of the typewriter insurgency!

Photograph of Chief Russian Insurgent, purportedly typing a secret report. Picture taken with one of those “film” cameras and developed in coffee….

Hey Vlad, want to buy my typewriter? For you, hmmm, $1000, cash only please.

What can this mean? A secret message? Cryptic!

Heavily redacted secret message, obviously in code as well. Proof positive that they are using typewriters for their secret business!

4 Comments

Filed under Photography, Poetry, Technology, Thrift shop finds, Typewriters, Uncategorized

Tagged as olympia progress typewriter

April 20, 2014 · 9:40 pm

My Valiant Brother

No. 2 in a series of watercolour sketches.

Despite their being cheap and plentiful, these original Brother typewriters are still good value. I bought this ‘Valiant’ recently, simply for the name plate. They seem to have made endless versions of the same basic machine for reasons that escape me. I guess they were using scientific marketing to sell the same thing under different guise. Wasn’t it enough that it was cheap and well made?

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Filed under Painting, Thrift shop finds, Typewriters

Tagged as Brother typewriters, Valiant typewriter

February 25, 2014 · 8:30 pm

There Are Limits

How to Milk a Cow in the 21st Century

Too late for Valentine’s Day, but this card was found in a nifty shop here. This place has typewriters for rent, and while I was buying this card the clerk was instructing a young woman on how a manual typewriter works. I found this amusing, and astounding, that one would need to be instructed on how to use such a simple and familiar machine. Conclusion: I obviously have no idea of how uncommon a manual typewriter is to some people. Perhaps this person would also be unfamiliar with a rotary dial telephone? Don’t laugh! I can’t milk a cow, can you?

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Filed under Technology, Typewriters

Tagged as cow, milking, typewriter, valentine's day

January 30, 2014 · 11:17 am

I Want to Hold Your Handle

Olympia SF Italics 1963

5 Comments

Filed under Thrift shop finds, Typewriters

Tagged as 1963, old typewriters, olympia sf, the beatles

January 7, 2014 · 7:05 pm

From the 25 cent Pile

When the price of LP’s hits 25 cents I don’t mind wasting a quarter on a wild purchase. Thus I acquired an LP by Axel Stordahl, The Lure of the Blue Mediterranean, dating from 1959. Available on itunes now:

I really did get it for the jacket/sleeve/cover/inside pages. It’s one of those LP’s that was sold as a concept, complete with a rather long essay, and a photo spread across a substantial number of pages. It sort of reminded me of Magical Mystery Tour, but for my parents generation. Is it possible the Beatles saw this album and copied the idea?
Stordahl was Sinatra’s band leader in the late forties. To my pleasant surprise, the album is good. The orchestra is excellent, and the sings are interesting and varied. Much better than “elevator” music for sure. And, to top it all off, I discovered a reference to a typewriter inside. The author of the essay was a writer named Horace Sutton. It seem he traveled a lot, and carried with him a Hermes portable. That made it worth 25 cents, for sure.
As for the songs, well, they include Night in Tunisia. Dizzy Gillespie, what could be cooler?
Track list:
1. Majorca. Isle Of Love
2. Isle Of Capri (much better than Sinatra)
3. Tunis, Ports Of Call: Escales
4. Cyprus
5. Red Sails In The Sunset
6. Haifa
7. Autumn In Rome: From Ost By Alessandro Cicognini
8. Miserlou
9. Palermo, Ports Of Call: Escales
10. Off Shore
11. Riviera Pavanne
12. A Night In Tunisia

he carried a Hermes, and typed on planes

it seems he wasn’t enamored of the French

2 Comments

Filed under LP's, Thrift shop finds, Typewriters, Uncategorized

Tagged as axel stordahl, dizzy gillespie, hermes portable typewriter, magical mystery tour, mediterranean

December 21, 2013 · 7:01 pm

Winter – Day One

The Canadian Corona Standard

“National Typewriter Exchange Montreal”

I forgot to note that this one came from Montreal, my home town. The phone number is MA-2142.

Reminds me of a piano

Naturally it should have a red/black ribbon, no?

the following version in a new shell

I think these keys are the most beautiful typeface!

Remington Portable No 2

Remington 5

That’s the All-Black Typewriter Team!

Complaint department: today I saw a nice old Remette at the Salvation Army. Most frustrating that they had it up for auction. Unsporting I say, contrary to the very spirit of thrift shops what? Spoiling all the fun they are!

5 Comments

Filed under NaNoWriMo, Thrift shop finds, Typewriters

Tagged as corona, remington, Smith Corona, typewriters

November 17, 2013 · 10:26 pm

Nanowrimo

nanowrimo typing frenzy

Hardly any time to blog, November, Nanowrimo, madly writing novel on typewriters, using every typewriter I own with few exceptions, now convinced of superiority of Hermes Baby, surpassed only by Adler Tippa late model Dutch made types with so little effort, but still drawn to Hermes and Hermes clones such as Olivetti Tropical, Silver Seiko, all alike, how did those Japanese get away with this copy, don’t care, smells like cigarettes, noisy but works flawlessly typical Japanese machine no, again Hermes Baby, seafoam green, all plastic so what works great, must get back to typing now, see you in December, 30,000 words done, 20,000 more to go, story not even close to being finished what do I do, will have to keep going or else cut the plot short, not enough time..

3 Comments

Filed under Books and Short Stories, NaNoWriMo, Typewriters

Tagged as NaNoWriMo, typing a novel

September 5, 2013 · 9:56 pm