Olympia SF Italics 1963
Django Day 2014
January 23rd, 1910 – birthdate of Django Reinhardt
Here he is with his famous Selmer guitar. Here is my latest version of the same:
It has the same dimensions as the Selmer-Macaferri body, but I’ve modified the bracing of the top, just for fun. This top has an X-brace. The sound, however, is much like the trademark “quack” of the Selmer. Selmer did make some round soundholes like this one. They are rare, but since Selmer did make some, I am comfortable in believing that I’m not desecrating the design intent!
Nathan guitar #27
Filed under Guitars
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
Filed under LP's, Thrift shop finds, Typewriters, Uncategorized
Merry Happy Season
Gnomes or elves – what’s the difference?
Merry Christmas, & Happy New Year from Bienstock, Einstein & George!
Relaxing in an undisclosed location, after a strenuous month of gift wrapping at the North Pole.
Filed under Photography, Poetry
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!
Filed under NaNoWriMo, Thrift shop finds, Typewriters
The Lake in Winter
Perplexed Duck
The Lake in Winter
winter weather is here
the lake has a frozen crust
ducks stand around perplexed by solid water
they peck at the ice as if expecting food
they shuffle about like old people
wearing slipper socks on a slippery floor
but they don’t fall, and if they do
they have not far to go
we stood and watched them,
glowing in the brilliant sunlight
then started to walk away and they scattered suddenly
for no apparent reason but then two eagles cruised by
looking for ducks perhaps, or maybe not
surely it would have been so easy to swoop down and grab one
next a river otter hiding beneath the dock
where there was no ice
came out briefly chewing on something we couldn’t see
before it went back into hiding
now a hawk, a large red tail
harassed by crows it leaves its high perch
leisurely sails away, regal, nonplussed by its pursuers
it soon disappears like the otter, but into the sky
quite frozen we turn towards home now
when we find a skull hung from a branch by the path
a cow we assume, whence it came a mystery
no cows here for decades yet there it hangs
like a relic from the desert
we examine and leave it there
looking up we see the eagle swirling about
riding the updraft or merely the wind
it circles several times then heads away
towards a perch atop a tall tree,
coming to rest seemingly implacable
the master of all beneath its imperious gaze
it hardly bothers to see us as we walk by
no doubt it paid us no heed
though we looked up and admired it with looks that said
we hold you in awe and though we do not scatter when you come
we are grateful you deign not attack us
a natural fact of which we are secretly worried
lest it not be an infallible truth
Filed under Photography, Poetry, Uncategorized
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..
Filed under Books and Short Stories, NaNoWriMo, Typewriters
nathanguitars 