Typewriter performance art: The Boston Typewriter Orchestra and iwishtosay.org

Here is a video interview with the Boston Typewriter Orchestra, a currently touring* group who use typewriters to make rhythmic music/performance art. (This entails basically drumming on the keys; for this reason you may end up bidding against these guys in your next eBay auction, since as one member says, "we actually sort of end up destroying our typewriters as we go along.")

Here is their MySpace Page and here is a video of one of their performances.

I'm surprised I haven't heard of the BTO. After all, there aren't a ton of typewriter performance artists running around out there (although in a sense, the Boston Typewriter Orchestra is a little closer to typewriter-as-spectacle than typewriter-as-writing-machine ). That said, I am not a real performance art kind of gal. Anyone seen them perform?

Darren Wershler-Henry has already written a book-length academic treatise on the typewriter as symbol, sparing me the task here in this post, but I do think the Typewriter Orchestra is an interesting case study of the typewriter's post-millennial evolution: now functioning largely as a symbol and an objet d’art.

Update! Wjmorris pointed out iwishtosay.org in the comments section of this post (thanks!) which is a site about the political performance art of Sheryl Oring (featuring, of course, typewriters). Among other activities, she has just published a book detailing a project in which she typed up citizen's letters to the White House. I love this idea! What a great use of the typewriter to add a little theater (and therefore visibility) to political expression. Looking forward to spending more time on her site and learning about her work.

*Errata: see this post for correction.

Typewriter by Sonny Wong

I like this. Firstly because he chose an Iron and Wine song (or cover of a song, by the Postal Service), and I'm a fan of Iron and Wine's goat-bearded, melancholy sound. But that aside, I like the way that this reflects a sort of hipster reappropriation of typewriter nostalgia. I think that typewriters have a sort of romantic cache with kids who have never occasioned to use one for real, which is reassuring. That means that typewriters might have a future after all.

More blogging, more typecasting!

Awhile back (where is that post, again?) I mentioned I was searching for other typewriter bloggers and/or typecasters (as distinct from the number of typewriter research and gallery sites, of which there are many great examples in the link list at left). Recently I came across Rick Seifert's wonderful blog, Back Space Typewriters. Rick is a professor, journalist, and long-time typewriter collector who is lucky to live in Portland Oregon, home of Ace Typewriter, Blue Moon Camera, and currently, Rick's own exhibit at the University of Portland, A Celebration of the Typewriter. (Rick also runs The Red Electric, equally wonderful.) It's a must-read.

Also, Monda has spun a new, beautifully-designed typewriter blog, Fresh Ribbon, off of There's just no telling (which recently, as Duffy mentioned, has a terrific post about the death of the Polaroid). She's typecasting with (among other machines) a 1958 Tower President 12 with cursive type.

Little Flower Petals also has a section on typewriters, which I have really enjoyed. Elizabeth, can you tell me more about your blog? I'd love to see your complete typewriter collection.

Olivander's blog, Collapsing World, is typecasting now too! Check out his latest typecast about making a pinhole camera. One of my goals for strikethru is to increase my knowledge about low-tech/junkstore cameras, and start to post some photographs, and I'm likely to turn to Olivander for some details, since as I can't say often enough, I know absolutely nothing about cameras.

Don't forget: join the Strikethru Flickr pool now and post pictures of your collection. It's great fun to see people's machines and hear their stories of origin.

Post pictures of your typewriter collection!

I've had too many updates to the site lately! Who can keep up with this madness? I plan to cool it here for a day or two, but before I do that, I wanted to invite all Strikethru readers to publish pictures of their typewriters on the Strikethru typewriter collections group in Flickr.

I've heard about some of the models in everyone's collections, and I'm sure we'd all love to see them in living color.

Mine are all up there now! So join me, and post away!

Note: My user name in Flickr is tiny-dog. I was going to change this for the sake of this group, but things got all screwed up, and, bah, technology!

A Celebration of the Typewriter at the University of Portland

Unbelievably, when I was in Portland this month visiting Blue Moon, I did not have the time to visit A Celebration of the Typewriter, an exhibit at the University of Portland, even though it was a short bus ride away.

Definitely a huge regret! Someone also mentioned this exhibit today on the Portable Typewriter forum. If anyone goes, please tell me how it went.

Better blogging with manual typewriters

Just came across this post from Cerno that discusses blogging with manual typewriters. I like this post because it talks (with more clarity than I have done) about how typecasts contain first draft language, and in that sense are closer to the subconscious. I often find it difficult to post typecasts, because they are full of clumsy turns of phrase or overly-earnest sentiments that I've reflexively backspaced away for most of my writing life. As someone I once knew remarked, "why don't we just call revising removing instead."

Typecast: "Is typing in public an act of rebellion?"

<-- Before you continue, take the poll at left...


Today's post dedicated to my public typing companions, Enigmatic Zero (originator of title quote) and Baby Typer.

How to buy a manual typewriter, part 7: Blue Moon Camera and Machine

My first order of business at Blue Moon Camera and Machine of Portland, Oregon was to seek counsel about the proper use and loading of antique box cameras, a subject about which I could not possibly be more ignorant. I hope I can remember the fine demonstration provided by Zeb (a fellow who takes stunning photographs with simple pinhole cameras, incidentally).

I'm camera-challenged, it's true. Good thing Blue Moon also sells typewriters, so I didn't have to feel entirely out of my element.

Jake (the owner) and Audim were happy to show me around the Blue Moon typewriter collection (and had actually heard of this blog!), even bringing out a couple of rare models that I took a few (blasphemously digital) pictures of (click for full size images).

Lehrmittelschreibmaschine!


Described here as a "Lehrmittelschreibmaschine," or educational tool, the Bing No.2 comes in a small, spade-shaped case that looks like it belongs to a half-sized French horn.

It is a rather sexy, impractical typewriter, with aluminum keytops and a high-gloss finish. When I said it was fortunate that key choppers hadn't found this Bing first, Jake replied that there was a "special place in hell" for these omnipresent jewelry hawkers.

Armed and typing

Audim then hauled out an imposing anvil of a machine, the Torpedo 6, a typewriter once made, I am assuming from this Will Davis page, by Torpedo Buromaschinenwerke in West Germany. Jake pointed out the German shift keys: UM = SCHALTER! (Click the photo for a good look at this one.)

This page from The Typewriter: an Illustrated History, a reprinted book from 1924, vaguely suggests that Torpedo 6 was not yet made at the time the book was originally printed. This may be earth's only recorded information about this artifact of writing weaponry.

"Traveling typewriters are for moving around. Standard typewriters are for typing."

So advised Jake as I considered the three Hermes portables on display. If I didn't use a lousy Ikea laptop table known as "Dave" on which to do my typing (wrong on many levels, I agree), I might have gone for this Underwood 3 with a 14" carriage and all-caps Roman Gothic Billing font that looks like this:

.

The Underwood 3 is a rarer model than the classic No. 5; check out yet another comprehensive Will Davis page for Underwood historical details. As of this writing, I believe this Underwood 3 can still be yours; Jake says that Blue Moon's product inventory pages are updated every day.

Not that I needed another typewriter of course, since reaching my personal lifetime maximum of 5 some time ago, but I've long admired traveling typewriters, and Hermes are arguably considered to be the best. I'd never typed on one, and here was my chance.

Initially attracted to the 50's mint lozenge styling of the Rocket on the left, I was urged to compare the typing action between this typewriter and an earlier gray model, considered to be mechanically exceptional.

I'll point out here if it isn't already obvious that Blue Moon cares about helping you make a sound decision, and wants you to actually use the typewriter you purchase.

"It's not a $500 museum piece, and it's not a $30 peice of eBay junk; says Jake (I'm paraphrasing, he's really rather a quotable sort of person, which is demonstrated more properly in this piece from the Portland Tribune). At Blue Moon, the typewriters are all quite reasonably priced, and properly refurbished by Ace Typewriter (thanks again to Strikethru reader Bostian for these links-- sadly I did not have enough time to drop by Ace).

I have to say, I saw the light on the gray typewriter. It's snappy. You can type quite fast on it without weird mechanical hiccups, an issue with most of the other five I own. Plus, something about it just seemed... right.

I think you'll walk out with that same sort of feeling if you purchase a typewriter from Blue Moon.

Postscript

Wanted to add the note that Blue Moon will, for $55 and in two weeks, repair and refurbish your manual typewriter (take care to pack it correctly for shipment).

More notes:

Here are pictures from the visit.

A blog post about the recent reprieve of Ace Typewriter

Blue Moon Camera visit: Preview

In Portland at an industry conference, I managed to sneak out of one of the morning sessions today to make my way out to Blue Moon Camera and Machine in the St. Johns neighborhood. It will surprise no one that I violated my personal 5-typewriter limit by walking out with a charming and well-tuned Hermes Rocket (and my Agfa Ansco box camera properly loaded with 120 film). However, meeting the staff and seeing the shop was the best part of the visit- such fun. What a great place.

I'll post much more about it (with pictures of rare typewriters from the Blue Moon collection) when I am done learning about tag clouds, crowdsourcing, and other buzzwords of my professional vocation. Stay tuned.

Typewriter Man by Ian Frazier

Here is a fascinating, 11-year old article from The Atlantic Monthly about Martin Tytell, of Tytell Typewriter Company in lower Manhattan (which, inevitably, closed in 2001).

I have several things to say about the article, but while I am stapling my thoughts together in nonexistent scraps of time, I wanted to post the link to this article in case you haven't read it before.

Scriptfrenzy: Gentle(persons), start your typewriters

Just when you thought it was safe to write at a pace of under 3,000 words a day, a new writing challenge has been thrown down by the people of Nanowrimo.

Scriptfrenzy, happening this April (right, next month), is a challenge to write "a movie, play, graphic novel script, comic book script, or a collection of TV shows or shorts in 30 days."

I have never, not ever, written in any of these formats save for comic book scripts, to highly questionable result, as I demonstrated in a recent post. Calling this work "script writing" would be an act of creative writing itself.

That said, I might give this a shot. April is looking a little better for me than last November was.

What about you?

History of IBM electric typewriter

Anyone out there using an electric typewriter? I haven't since college, when I upgraded from my dad's old Smith-Corona Galaxie 12 to some slick electric number (manufacturer forgotten) with such unthinkably amazing features as auto-erase and same-line text correction. I remember it seemed like a miracle that had fallen from some holy plateau at the time, but in my current fit of retro romantic notion, seems crass and inauthentic.

Have I ever linked to this page, a visual history of IBM's electric models over the years? I recently saw a cast-off IBM Selectric in my employer's basement "reclaim" warehouse (a long, industrial-looking hallway dungeon under one of the company's zillion parking garages, full of washed up office equipment thrown overboard during thousands of office moves). It sat there on a shelf, its electrical cord wrapped around it like a chastened tail, its useful life apparently expired. Unless...

I had to walk away. It must have weighed at least 20 pounds. Come on, people! A Selectric! What was I going to do with a Selectric?