They say this is a cliche, but why is that? My friend Joe Van Cleave challenges you to prove otherwise in his series of typing videos, This is Joe’s Typing Assignment #5.
Port on a Port Wine Table
Port on a port wine table
A bistro by any other name
Wouldn’t be half as sweet
Have another slug of Dow’s Late Vintage
How sweet it is with tea biscuits
Irresistible as they are I sample each
Some more than once – I can’t help it
This evening should last longer
The sun sets on time every night
Nothing can stop it or the seasons
Time passes irrevocably
We exist in the present moment
Every taste of port and biscuit
Can last for an eternity or an instant
Solely dependent on savouring the moment
Pass the bottle
Filed under Philosophy, Poetry
Hail Ultraports!
Now this thing has to be the lightest typewriter I’ve ever come across! It was made in England and sold at Eaton’s as a Playfair Feather Touch. The only metal I saw on it were a few screws, and every other part was plastic, including the type slugs, which have 3 characters each. This you could carry on a backpacking trip, if only it was likely to work. It did seem to work from my testing, but the tiny ribbon, about 1/4″ wide, was not inked enough and was all twisted, so that was an assumption. They were asking a ridiculous price for it too, so I let someone else have it.
This great generosity was well rewarded soon after when I picked up two real typewriters in succession, both very similar to each other and for a good price.
First was this one:
Filed under Technology, Thrift shop finds, Typewriters
Understanding Literature Through Typing
I know, this has been done, but so what? I thought I would try it out. What I would really like is to get a grant to go to Venice and do it beside the Grande Canal, watching the occasional dead dog carcass float by. If anyone is interested I will frame my work for a reasonable sum.
Particulars:
typewriter: Royal Caravan (same name and brand as Bob used, but not strictly the same model, since I don’t own one of those)
subject: Like a Rolling Stone, by Bob Dylan NL (Nobel Laureate).
choice of subject matter: LARS has been voted to be the greatest song ever written, in the pop genre (modern era). Its author has been recognized for this too (see above).
the machine:
Filed under ecstatic typing, Music, Typewriters
Canada 150
What a great day, and more to come later! Canoe rides, hot dogs, ice cream, music, old cars, frogs, typewriters… It all began last night at the thrift store with a rare typewriter.
This is not one that gets much publicity in my experience, but wow, what a great machine! This is seriously up there with the modern hall of famers like the SM3, SC SS5, H3K, and what have you. I don’t know what to call it, any suggestions? TGE perhaps?
I even weighed it because it felt so light: 5kg, or exactly 11 lbs. The case is made of super thin cast aluminum or something, and the machine feels featherweight for one of its size. It has carriage shift, but it’s relatively light and speedy. The tab function is amazing, as it moves rather slowly, not with the usual sudden zip-thunk of most machines, even ultra good ones.
The platen is still soft! At first I thought it looked like one of the SM3 cases, but it’s made of lightweight plastic, and has a removable base plate. There were several minor issues; the whole innards were full of tiny white correction specks, which I brushed and vacuumed up for the most part. A soft round pointy paint brush did the trick. Then there was the poor paper feeding. I couldn’t see what was the matter, so I thought I’d fiddle with the platen to see how simple it was to remove and I could look at the pinch rolls. To my delight the platen comes off in 30 seconds flat, simply by unscrewing each end knob. Stuck to the surface of the pinch roll tray was the answer – an old sticky label that fell in there and adhered itself to some rolls. I cleaned it off and reassembled things to find that all works perfectly well again. Maybe some unfortunate PO had so much trouble with this they decided to give this away, but this is pure speculation. There are no repairmen left in this town though, so it’s strictly DIY here.
More pictures below, after this poem and a frog.
Here are a few more pics of the TW. I should mention the keyboard – I think it’s Dutch. But it is QWERTY! How lucky is that?
dead keys too
easy to write fiji
clamshell lid
dutch manual
Cafe Stop
a bike ride on the trail downtown
tall buildings and street people
coffee shops, pot shops, names like Heavenly Smoke
tattoo parlors full of posters
waiting rooms filled with customers
adorned, pierced, pre-decorated
jewels in orifices, eyebrows, nostrils
plentiful tourists consulting maps
riding pedicabs, human powered rickshaws
even a giant horse plodding
halfway there coffee with a view
extracting a pocket paint box
twelve colors in tiny squares
holes in the centres after many years
these colors have lasted long
since I gave this box to my mother
nigh on thirty years ago
she never used it but I have made many a sketch
blocks of paint with years left
at the rate I wash them down
hard to blend colors without making them dull
I use them straight, like whiskey
my sketches are so rough
a price paid for speed and simplicity
yet they improve when no longer compared to reality
for a sketch is distilled, yet murky
distinguished by what is missing
Once We Were Safe
I’ve been lucky this week, I found this at a thrift store for $5.
Gillette mod. 195 adjustable safety razor c. 1958
I had to celebrate this and the fact that 90 years earlier, today in 1868 Sholes received his typewriter patent! From my Scottish made Lettera 22, typed on Baron Erasable Bond 25% cotton content:
Here’s a close look at the adjuster ring, which has 9 settings. The blade pack was empty, but I appreciate that whoever donated this thought to include it with the razor. My Dad shaved with a similar Gillette razor and Wilkinson stainless razor blades, a major advancement in technology in 1962. Gillette knew how to make them but didn’t, because the blades lasted too long!
adjustment ring no. 1 setting
Filed under Poetry, Technology, Thrift shop finds, Typewriters
Eaton’s 703 Portable Phonograph
Eaton’s 703 portable phonograph
Last year I missed out on a wonderful old German portable phonograph I saw in a thrift shop but didn’t buy. See that post here.
When I saw this old suitcase phonograph the other day I grabbed it. It worked poorly at first but I was able to remove the stuck platter and clean off the old grease, lubricate it and get it going. It has a BSR automatic turntable which was very common, and there are many videos about fixing them. The amplifier, a mono unit with one vacuum tube, puts out a decent sound through a very small speaker. These units generally had ceramic phono cartridges which although not hi-fi were good enough for their purpose. Here is a video demonstration using one of my old LP’s with the Beatles classic No Reply, from Beatles 65, featuring evocative vocals by John Lennon. The sound, although poor by modern standards, is still thrilling and I even enjoyed the 60 cycle hum!
I have no idea who manufactured this unit, but it was sold by Eaton’s, and made in Canada. It could be an Electrohome, or perhaps RCA Victor.
Anyone have 16 rpm records?
The wiring is stereo but only two wires are connected to the amplifier, and the cartridge is mono too. It has a dual needle stylus type ST8, which is still available, and plays 78’s too.
Filed under LP's, Phonographs, Technology, Thrift shop finds
Plein Air Day
Sometimes we just stop doing things for no apparent reason. For the past year I didn’t do any painting. I can’t figure out why. However, today was the annual Plein Air Challenge here, sponsored by a local art store. I’ve done it the past few years and decided I’d take part again. Last night I put my kit together and this morning I went out and did a painting. I was rewarded with a beautiful day, and a very pleasant time spent closely observing a boat and the harbour. One hundred and thirty people came out, and it was great to see them all over downtown with sketchbooks and easels. There were no prizes for artwork this year, only door prizes selected at random. I didn’t win any but I felt like I’d won a lovely day enjoying myself. Maybe I’ll be back painting and sketching again before I know it.
Filed under Painting
Fastenephemera
Bostich B5
Yesterday I printed a 10 page manual for my guitar amp, downloaded of course since I didn’t have the original. I went to staple it together with my trusty VICTOR stapler, but that failed miserably. Later on I was passing the office junk aisle in a thrift shop (where else) and spotted this old stapler for $4. It looked rugged, my foremost criterion for a stapler, so I purchased it in the hope it would blasted through 10 pages like “butta”. It didn’t disappoint! I began to wonder how old it was. I was shocked to discover, through circuitous web searching, that the basic design dates from 1936!
One other reason to like this stapler is how well it matches old Smith Coronas, dull greyish crinkle paint and all.
Smith Corona Silent Super 1955 – script type
Here’s a US Patent drawing for the same stapler from 1939, filed 1937. This fellow Maynard filed a whole lot of patents, many for staplers, but lots of other stuff. It wouldn’t surprise me if he even designed a typewriter…
Here’s a side view of mine. Dig the background – a vintage George Shearing LP cover. The record itself was awful, but we generally like most of Shearing’s stuff.
The other old item I acquired yesterday was a pink depression glass plate, $2. Someone out there who knows more than I do says this is Federal Windsor button & cane design. Beats me, I like the colour!
pink depression glass plate
Last night I served myself a Peek Frean tea biscuit on this plate, with a beer. Both were delicious!
Filed under LP's, Staplers, Technology, Thrift shop finds, Typewriters
nathanguitars 