November 1st

I scanned leaves.

U.S. Office Machine Co.

I've mentioned before that this piece, written about U.S. Office Machine Co. in Los Angeles, is probably my favorite thing ever written about typewriters. Just the other day the LA Times posted this video about U.S. Office Machine Co. and the family of technicians who runs it.

Next time you are in L.A. with a busted typewriter, be sure to stop in.

Typewriter kismet, typecasting terms, plungers and snake oil

I noticed this kind of looks like two different typecasts, but no, it's the same one, just end that last sentence in red at "reasons." Somehow, a rogue "maybe" ended up in there.

La Vie Graphite, and the Classic Typewriter Page shoutout

La Vie Graphite is another member of the typosphere I just discovered, thanks to the comment. Really enjoying the use of pictures on this blog. They capture the aesthetic of the writing life.

More pictures, everyone! (If I wasn't such an abysmal photographer, I'd take my own advice.) I'd at least like to see some photographic documentation of the tribulations of Nanowrimo next month. Wondering if the The Typewriter Brigade Flickr group will be showing pictures of downed writers slumped over their Olympias?

Might I add that I just discovered that the famous Richard Polt of The Classic Typewriter Page has Typecasting as a new category on his links page (scroll down a bit). OMG! If you're a typecaster and you're not listed on it, drop him a line.

I think I can pencil you in

Meant to get a post up over the weekend about my increasing interest in the old school wooden pencil, furthered by a recent purchase of a pack of Dixon Tri-Conderoga #2's.

As Pencil Talk and Pencil Things are already well aware, the wooden pencil is a lovely thing. In a way, the waning favor of the pencil in everyday writing culture calls to mind the typewriter, in that there is a certain line of generational demarcation between those who remember the sound of a handcrank pencil sharpener inside of a grade school classroom during a rainy day study period, and those who do not.

The best writing tools require some type of maintenance in return for their labor. Fountain pens need their chamber of ink. Typewriters need a fresh ribbon. And wooden pencils require curling strips of wood and graphite dust to be sharpened away, and sometimes a prosthetic cap eraser applied in order to keep spelling out your intentions. If everything goes right, your pencil will end up as a humble stub, like Shel Silverstein's Giving Tree, having already sacrificed to your writing its graphite, rubber, and wood (a far more poetic demise than the typical bled-dry disposable fate of your workaday Bic).

The Tri-Conderogas are nice, with that peppery-wood smell, dark-satin finish, and de rigueur ergonomic design, to provide "the ultimate comfortable writing experience." I plan to stroll around in the pencil blogs referenced above for some other suggestions.

The UPPERCASE Journal

Here's a site I just discovered with a lot of wonderful content about typewriters: The UPPERCASE Journal. Head over there and check it out. I'm really enjoying it. It's in the Linx section at left, for future reference.

One amazing thing I found on the journal was a link to this Etsy seller, who makes incredible wooden facsimiles of typewriter keys, skeleton keys, obscure laboratory gadgets, and more.

Neocasting, webooks, dusty tomes

Welcome to the inagural Strikethru Neocast. Realizing right away that if I want to type on this thing slumped on the couch, bag-of-rice-like, I am going to need a lap-desk (does this defeat the purpose of my aversion to sitting at a desk?). But that trifle aside, one can definitely type above the speed limit on a Neo.

I already have great fondness for the thing, and I'll tell you why. It's a typewriter. It's not a keyboard or a low-tech PDA or word processor or any of these things I've heard it called in the Alphasmart forums (not that I'd be trolling the interwebz for random chatter about writing implements, of course). Yes, the Neo is a typewriter. If Hermes were cranking out typewriters today, they'd have a stylish Swiss version of the Neo at a premium price, I do not doubt.

Moving on, what sayeth the Luddosphere about this matter of the "webook"? If you haven't heard of it, it is a web site for writers that provides your RDA of modern social media C's: collaboration, crowdsourcing, collectivism, etc. In baser terms, it's being pitched as "American Idol for books." (Egads, does this mean scores of off-key writers in revealing outfits, battling for the distinction of being the most palatable choice as voted by 12 year olds with flip phones?)

The thought here is that this is the next wave of publishing: the internet has freed many a voice (too many a voice?) from the constraints of traditional press channels. Why shouldn't this same digi-force topple the stuffy cabal of New York publishing houses that all but eliminate one's chances of ever being published, unless you're Madonna or Ethan Hawke? Instead of sending your submissions off to papyrus landfills, argues Webook, you can subject your digi-screeds to the wisdom of the crowd, who may well decide you are the next David Sedaris, via rounds of mouse-click voteathons. This apparently leads to some sort of revenue model on which I am not clear; admittedly, I didn't do an academic study of the concept.

What I think is this: books are stubborn. They've resisted digification this long for a reason. It's all too easy for typecasting types to wax nostalgic about the power of tactile experience, but I think in the case of books, it's true not only for retro nutjob like ourselves. People sense that digital content is typically high-volume and low quality: content's version of the drive-thru meal. Picture Crime and Punishment self-published and digitally distributed in a vast virtual slush pile of hackneyed sci-fi fantasy epics and voted on by texting tweens. Kind of hard to imagine it ever rising to the level of a literary classic in such company. (And yet here it is today, redistributed in 1's and 0's, a download button away.)

But then: they said this too about the press, you recall. News blogs were written off as feral content just a few brief years ago. And look what happened. Where did you read your last opinion piece on the election? Me too. (I'd argue however that news is an immediate medium, well-suited to the flash-to-trash timecycle of web content, unlike say, the extended literary musings of 19th century Russian intellectuals.)

Perhaps this notion of digital devaluation is held only by those of us who remember writing school papers on a Smith-Corona, and it's time to unhitch our romantic feelings for dusty tomes from the substance of the message. Isn't there a well-worn platitude that says this very thing? Maybe literature's future is in fact destined for digital display. Amazon is banking on it.

Using an Alphasmart for Nano, I'm a PC, and other confessions

That was one of those typecasts that needed revising, but, well, I typed it, and I don't have any Wite-Out. Was it clear that the laptop I am bitching about is a Mac?

Forgot to add, isn't it soothing to ponder Nano technology (or lack thereof), or one's next typewriter acquisition, instead of thinking about the U.S. economy tanking like the SS Andrea Doria? Whenever I catch wind of the news, I just close my eyes and think about fountain pens.

So, I'm wanting to know which of you all are taking on the Nano beast this year. Am I the only scallywag who isn't typing mine?

The retrocomputing devolution

I think this matter of the AlphaSmart Neo has made me think that perhaps retrocomputing has a place in the multitude of subjects upon which this web site aimlessly expounds. Here is an article about the virtues of self-limiting tech (more buzz words!) that I found interesting, since a profound inability to resist distractions from writing is the primary (and ironic) reason that Strikethru came about.

To be perfectly clear, encyclopedic knowledge of retro computer systems like this is entirely my brother's domain; he has a vast collection of 20th century Ataris, Commodores, Apples, and many others that would cause eBay to tremble in fear (one hopes that some day, he will post his collection online, although I suspect he won't again find the sort of time for this endeavor within a human lifetime).

Rather than taking the lateral approach, I plan to test-pilot a single, ancient machine: I've asked him to loan out a retro computing device of his choice to the Strikethru cause, so that I may perform a limited case-study of retro-computing for the lazy 21st century hobby writer like myself.

Stay tuned.

Alphasmart Neo: blasphemy?

The other day it suddenly struck me, as whims often do, that I need an Alphasmart Neo in order to possibly manage Nanowrimo this year.

What! You say. Not on a typewriter? Are you mad? Now before the burning torches of the typewriter brigade head my way, let's get this straight: I love the typewriter. You know I love the typewriter! But it has one major drawback. No, I'm not going to cite its lack of digital output. Doesn't really bother me. The only limiting factor in my opinion of using a typewriter for extended bouts of daily typing is, you really can't do it lying down.

I'm lazy. I generally like to sit slumped over, like a large bag of rice, in couch-like seating environments. Compelled to sit up all day in a straight-backed chair at a standard desktop setup at work, I often have trouble convincing myself to do anything that requires sitting up at a work surface once I've clocked out for the day. This has driven me to the laptop more than a few times, in place of the typewriter. Unfortunately, as we all know, the laptop is a black hole of interweb white noise about McCain campaign twists, and thus, nothing gets accomplished except an ongoing sense of incredulity at the state of American politics.

Enter the Neo. It's a keyboard. And a tiny-a** screen. You write stuff. And that's it. You can write stuff slumped over on an L-shaped couch with a two year old playing dolls on your head. Not something you can readily accomplish with the beloved typewriter, loving as it does a hard, flat surface and a straight-backed typist. You can write stuff without the risk of inflammatory political blog posts being but a click away. What's not to like, except that it's kind of weird?

Nanowrimo has all kinds of links to forums and special deals and loaner-library options for the Neo, but these sub-links all appear to not be working at the moment, true to the typical October performance of the Nanowrimo site. Apparently Nanowrimo participants get a special deal on the Neo, twenty bucks off or something to that effect. Should I bite?

Except here's the problem: Alphasmart also makes the Dana. You can get e-mail on that thing. What's wrong with checking a little e-mail while you're writing every once in awhile? And what if you need to look up something on a primitive little Palm OS web browser? Dana's got you covered. So what's the problem here? I'm not sure yet-- I'll let you know after I read a few more articles about the upcoming VP debate.