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I dearly wish I could pin a button on every one of you beautiful people, but it just so happens that we have a lone victor in the Random Drawing for Prizes... Christina C! Chosen by the Random Number Generator (I really must come up with a more analog way of picking winners). Christina, please contact me via e-mail by June 25th (send me your mailing address). If I don't hear from you, the Random Number Generator will crank itself up for another calculation.
Thinking that if I happen across another set of buttons in the future, I may bust the package and have six winners of one button each. Just so things could go a little more like this.
Have you already seen this bit about the silly iPad typewriter hack?
Let it be known that fellow typecaster Frank DeFreitas of Antiquarian Holographica has started a new site, Typewriters Around the World, in which he is posting just that: letters from typewriters around the world. Time for you to represent! Get out your Smith-Corona and send him a letter for everyone to enjoy.
I encountered weirdness the other day upon a certain social networking web site, in which an artist known for creating reclining nudes out of typewriter parts penned a screed somewhat tilted in my direction, ascribing a number of unflattering characteristics to those who prefer their typewriters whole. I shant go into detail, but it repeated general themes seen in the comments of the Daily News item about Skye Ferrante being booted from the Writers Room in NYC: that people who use typewriters are terrible, terrible people indeed, pretentiously clattering away on their horrid anvils of the industrial age only as an affectation designed to irritate the clever and righteous masses of virtual iPhone keyboardists and ardent thumb-typers o'er the land.
Let us continue doing our part to irritate such persons well into the 21st century.
PS: Silent Type 2: Working on it. Oh! And Silent Type #1 is now available for purchase at the Microcosm Publishing Web site.
lighthouse lines
9 hours ago
11 comments:
Oprah remix = awsum
people hating on typewriters = not awsum
annoying said people while being deliciously pretentious and effortlessly indie (like everyone wants to be) = my life goal.
I WILL JOIN YOU!
Also, congrats Christina!
Oh yes we are terrible indeed, we with our methods of writing that require thought, care, and attention. With our terrible typewriters.
Terribly creative!
All the more reason to persevere!
I want to make sure I understand Mr. Mayer's proclamation, lest I be deemed a pretentious jackass too. I'm NOT allowed to use my typewriter to type a novel, but I AM allowed to use it to type poetry. Because... novels are a lesser art form, I guess? I'm also allowed to dismantle my typewriter and assemble it into a new form, because there's nothing pretentious and precious about that. Now, suppose I write poetry AND novels... do I need to switch writing tools depending on which project I'm working on? And what about a prose poem... is that a grey area? Or an essay? What about typewriter art? I'd also like instruction from Mr. Mayer on when I can use my film camera or ride my bicycle. His certitude on matters of art and culture is a rare and wondrous thing. His haircut too.
Anonymous, hee. JM's rules of engagement are complex indeed.
Unrelatedly, the winner has claimed her prize. Congratulations! Priessio! (that is not Italian for congratulations, but rather, my word verification term to post this comment)
I will repeat, for the Nth time, that when the power goes out, we typewriter users just shrug and go on working.
Watching the presidential speech about the gulf oil mess, I picked up on the usual cry for everyone to go green. What could be more green than a machine that uses no electricity, and can consume 100% recycled paper?
Also, my 1920s Corona is not destined for the landfill, unlike the iThing introduced last week and useless next week.
IMO, the "silly" iPad typewriter hack (which is not a hack at all) is awesome! Yes, it made for a funny demonstration because he was able to prop the iPad in the carriage as if it were a piece of paper. Zylkin's modified typewriters, however, are fully functional as traditional typewriters *and* can input directly into a computer as a keyboard. In other words, all of you NaNoWriMo people who dread the prospect of re-typing their typed draft or fret over accurate word counts, *this is the perfect solution*! You can produce a hard and electronic copy simultaneously.
I've already begun lobbying my financial manager for one for Christmas.
Ahh! it reminds me of an incident in my youth, when I attempted to gain the attention of the young person in the next apartment by typing loud and long at the desk against our shared wall. FWIW, a briefly successful courting tactic. I bet I still have the papers I was typing on, and of course the Olympia portable I used. Because unlike my computer keyboards which no longer even plug into anything... what they said.
To the 'artist' I would have this to say:
"I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"
I stumbled on this from an old edition of Cabinet, the art mag:
http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/8/keys.php
Here's a reply to the Reclining Nude Artist - get a life, man! Some people prefer to drive a stick, some prefer to ride a bike to work, and some prefer to use a typewriter over an iPad. Why do you care!?! You're supposedly an artist - you should know something about being an individual and following your muse. Hating on people because they still prefer a typewriter is just retarded. I look forward to annoying you indefinitely ;-)
A couple of comments:
1. If the "artist" is so hip, why is he working in physical media, such as typewriter parts? Why aren't his precious works expressed digitally, in pixels, since he has such contempt for things physical?
2. For people who look down upon typewriters, sniveling about how antiquated they are, I have one acronym for them: EMP. Ha!
and last but not least,
3. It's awesome that Silent Type I is on Microcosm!!
With a handshake,
--Joe
一棵樹除非在春天開了花，否則難望在秋天結果。....................................................................
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