Posts
Regional Assembly of Text letter-writing club
Typewriters and Things (Yelp reviews appear to be the only interweb reference to it. I'd like to change that!)
My field trip to Blue Moon Camera & Machine
Banning the Big Black Box
5 hours ago
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
You know, you kind of sound like my mom. She's been being irrational lately (mid-life crisis?) and wants to get an RV and drive all over the US this summer.
My response to that is to pull my hair out, and constantly type on my typewriter about how awful an idea this was and me wanting to kill myself.
Yeah, sorry, can't be of much help with our irrational typewriter trip, but uh...if you do go to New York, make sure to drop by PA and find Kline's Typewriter Repair. They don't have much, but they're fun to talk to (and really old). Oh, and then come find me, and I want a gift! lol
w/r/t your guilt in never visiting NY:
I, for one, watched plenty of sitcoms and movies set in NYC, enough so that I never have to visit there. It's sort of like auditing a course. It was bad enough on the small (and big) screen; I don't have to smell it up close and personal.
(don't fence me in)
Rad, there is no stopping the midlife crisis, sadly. It takes many forms: road trip, ill-advised vehicular purchase, attempting to trade up one's spouse or significant other, thinking you still have a shot at writing the great american novel (cough cough cough), hair plugs, facelifts.... None of it is pretty. Probably the road trip is the least heinous of the options for offspring to witness, so you might be getting off easy.
What a coincidence!
I'm days away from a hard-earned Boston sojourn.
Though I do go to the Boston Athenaeum about every 6 weeks(always including Bob Slate the Stationer's, and the Bromfield Pen Shop), this time I'll be visiting with Tom Furrier at Cambridge Typewriter. There's a big treasure in store, and I need to pick it up.
By the way, all the place I metion have web sites, and Boston is my recommendation for a writers' pilgrimage (complete with the accoutrement sources), if you're not able to get to Paris.
Funny, I was just thinking about Cambridge Typewriter yesterday. I have an Olivetti 21 that I need brought back to life, so after I get my tax return windfall I plan on making the trip to see Mr. Furrier for a resurrection, or more likely an exorcism.
The first time I went into that shop, I had to call my wife and tell her she may never see me again. Just the sight, smell and sounds of all those wonderful machines was a gift to the senses. I could poke around that shop all day. Definitely a pilgrimage worth the drive.
You forgot the midlife-crisis-manifest-as-junk-collecting. *double cough*
Paper pilgrimage? I just found out that my local Borders carries Rhodia notepads and books. I *might* be able to contain the paper lust into just going downtown for, say, a few hours.
Been to New York twice, and on one memorable trip, met Fabio. Shook hands with the man, even got a photo taken with him (long since lost) and a signed mouse pad for my fiance. Now tell me why I didn't include that on my 25, hmmm?
I woke up today with the thought that if none of my calligrapher friends are driving to Chicago (three-hour trip) for the opening at the Newberry Library of the annual Chicago Calligraphy Collective show, that I could try the bus again. It takes longer, but I could read, instead of driving. I am not rated for downtown Chicago traffic.
There's a Pearl art supply store only a few blocks away from the Newberry, and a nice Thai place for lunch. Like I need more art supplies, hah. There are a lot of other things in Chicago, yah.
I gots typewriters too. Fountain pens. (Quill pens, steel pens... you can write with anything, a popsicle stick works fine) Also carbon paper (some kinds are waxy enough to use as a resist like crayons with water media).
In March I am missing the annual convention of fanzine publishers in Seattle, which is a last bastion of paper-based zine production now that printing and postage costs have driven most to the internet. I have been known to publish one of the last mimeographed fanzines, although we didn't type the layout. Gots a mimeograph machine.
In June I am going to the annual international calligraphy conference in Minnesota. Lots of paper (like I need more paper! hah!) No typewriters. Although there was one in a sculpture in the faculty art show one year, that was producing unusual letters.
I found y'all through wikipedia and google. Just innocently looking up typewriter history, in case of Women's History Month...
Sigh...Vegas and the surrounding environs are lousy for any kind of retro culture. Sadly enough, this also means that we suffer from a dearth of stationery stores and their ilk.
Still, though, I may try to make a pilgrimage to Arizona to see if they have anything of note there...
Oh, and don't feel bad about the mid-life crisis thing. I think I have been having one since I was 25 or so.
Everyone should visit NYC at least once, if only to confirm that they haven't been missing anything.
One of these days, my schedule will coincide with the operating hours of Vale Typewriters in Minneapolis. Whenever I'm up in the Cities, I like to stop by Uncle Hugo's & Uncle Edgar's bookstores and stock up on reading material.
Someday, I hope to visit the Dietz typewriter collection at the Milwaukee Public Museum.
Post a Comment