Strikethru

The maker movement = the typosphere?

2012-01-29T19:41:00.000-08:00

Surely someone out there in the ever-growing typosphere has posted about the maker movement, and I'm just late to the party remarking on it here. Is the maker movement an answer to the question of whether you can earn money with a typewriter?

I've always faintly been aware of Make magazine, thinking it was just another source of information about the well-established D.I.Y movement (and therefore haven't showed it much interest, as I'm unlikely to ever find the time to can my own food or build a water purifier out of diodes and fishing nets) but Forbes describes it as people who "create, build, design, tinker, modify, hack, invent, or simply make something" from the intersection of analog and tech. Isn't this essentially Clickthing, among others of you who've modified cameras, typewriters, and other offline tools?

I've got my money on you guys to be the next big thing in the maker movement.

Mod iPad drawing: Dymo Label Buddy

2012-01-03T21:35:00.000-08:00

Here's my latest iPad drawing, based on a photograph of my plastic Dymo Label Buddy. (Don't you just love products named "buddy?" Say, the Truck 'n Buddy, or the Backspin Buddy.)

Don't let puppydog-sounding products like Label Buddy lead to to think Dymo a johnny-come-lately to the punch tape label market, no. For the Label Buddy is merely a wee descendant of the 60's era steel Dymo Mite, which could brain opponents with a single swing of your wrist (and possibly remove their heads at the same time, since it cut labels not with a serrated edge but with an open rusty blade).

I got rid of my Dymo Mite. You know what they say about having a weapon in the home, you just may use it on yourself by mistake. Label Buddy is more my speed.

Drawing typewriters with an iPad and Adobe Ideas

2012-01-01T22:54:00.001-08:00

Some of you out there in the typosphere are posessed of drawing skills; I'm not among you, to my sincere regret. Thankfully (oh, the irony) there is, these days, a digital crutch for every weakness (thank you, GPS) and now, with an iPad and Adobe Ideas, you too can draw a pretty good typewriter based on tracing over a photograph, and you won't even need to scan it when you're finished. The only hitch? Coming up with more money than God in order to buy one.

I have a feeling most typospherians would do the math on how many fountain pens a single iPad would be worth, and would then take a pass.

Pen & Platen by Mike Speegle and entrepreneurship in the typosphere

2011-12-14T17:13:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone out there in the typosphere is enjoying their Nanowrimo hangover, otherwise known as Christmas. Have been remiss in updates due to various factors, but just checking in to congratulate Mike Speegle on the publication of his book of short stories, Pen & Platen (cover designed by Typewriter Heaven's Rob Bowker? Do I have this detail correctly? Love that cover). Did you know that you can give Kindle books as gifts? And Pen & Platen is currently available for the outrageously affordable price of $1?

Now you know.

Mike Speegle is ahead of the curve here in terms of the way publishing works now; moping around the mailbox waiting for rejection letters is not the way it's done by forward-thinking writers. I just finished a class on managing your digital presence (otherwise known by the distasteful term "personal branding"), and realized that typospherians already do quite a bit of this, and well enough to have built a lively community around it. Speegle here has raised the bar by not just talking about writing, but using digital tools to get himself published, and I admire him for it.

Anyone else out there have a New Years goal of publishing, launching a business (applause also for Type-o-Matic's launch!) or otherwise turning their love for writing and writing tools into a creative enterprise? For my class in grad school I merely did some sprucing up of my resume-type web site, but still haven't thought my goals through like Bowker and Speegle (now, doesn't that sound like a law firm straight out of Harry Potter?)

In the New Year, I aspire to be more like these guys. What about you?

Leaving a typewriter behind

2011-10-31T14:14:00.000-07:00

350 lbs of deep &^%$ (or, the Great Petaluma Typewriter Haul)
The Underwood Standard Champion

Allow me to follow on this post by saying I've never regretted giving a typewriter away. It's almost always the right thing to do, especially if it's going to someone who doesn't already have a spare bedroom full of dusty typewriter cases lying about, and is new to the hobby. If the Underwood Standard Champion was this guy's first typewriter, I could just tell by the look in his eye, it won't be his last.

Anyway, I reason that leaving a 50 lb analog writing machine behind at a giant software corporation as a parting gesture imparts a certain je ne sais quoi.

Steve Jobs, 1955 - 2011

2011-10-06T10:40:00.001-07:00

Can you create income with a typewriter?

2011-09-08T03:19:00.000-07:00

In a fit of insomnia, I just read an interview with Jaron Lanier, author of You are Not a Gadget, who happens to be a personal hero of mine, in that he dares to question the trajectory of the internet and of technology toward the expectation that as individuals we freely produce information from which search aggregators profit, in the case of Google, and that technology can redefine us as consumers of paid-model content of a company's choosing simply by changing devices and paradigms, as Apple has done with the iPad:

"The Apple idea is that instead of the personal computer model where people own their own information, and everybody can be a creator as well as a consumer, we're moving towards this iPad, iPhone model where it's not as adequate for media creation as the real media creation tools, and even though you can become a seller over the network, you have to pass through Apple's gate to accept what you do, and your chances of doing well are very small, and it's not a person to person thing, it's a business through a hub, through Apple to others, and it doesn't create a middle class, it creates a new kind of upper class. ... Google has done something that might even be more destructive of the middle class, which is they've said, "Well, since Moore's law makes computation really cheap, let's just give away the computation, but keep the data." And that's a disaster."

By contrast, I think of the typewriter (of course). It is a device in which you define and create the content, without influence from Royal or Olympia. It provides no options to serve up advertisements or content of Royal's choosing, or shape in any way the kind of content you choose to consume and at what cost. It's only job is for you to create writing of your choice, completely outside of the connected network of online expectations about the life of information and its uses. There is no function inherently built into the device compelling you to share your work for free with a click to be monetized by Google search; we have to drag out middleman technology like scanners, cameras, and computers to make that possible, and even scans of typecasts evade the search engine's current requirement for digital text to parse. These things being the case, does the typewriter, by dint of its independence from this work-for-free system offer us the opportunity to profit from our work, in and of itself (and by means other than selling hardware on eBay, I mean, in the act of creating content itself)? Can you create wealth with a typewriter?

It would be revolutionary for one of us to show that it's possible. I'm curious to know what your wild theories are about this.Mine is this: there is a certain type of person out there who craves authentic experience, not just ideas but the tactile manifestation of authenticity: a hand-bound book, typed or hand-illustrated information, on paper. Not just nostalgics but people looking to engage their mind and creativity not with online groupthink or aggregated crowds but with the real work and ideas of individuals and artists. If the content and the quality of these publications is sufficiently high, the market may be there.

If you take zines as a case study of this kind of thinking, the problem of free reappears in the spectre of collectivism. Any group that functions mostly on the goodwill of people can tend toward this line of thinking, that profit is immoral and freedom is benevolence. (The typosphere itself functions on this sort of value system, in fact). The problem with this thinking is that people need to earn money, full stop. It has to come from somewhere. If it can't come from, as Lanier says, "the products of our hearts and minds," if the value of those things is agreed to be zero, except by large corporations that can mine it for advertising revenue, from where does the profit come for the creators? Are we not able to create a viable market between ourselves by agreement? Must we give our work away to the aggregators for profit, but insist that we exchange it between ourselves for nothing?

Putting this to the test, if you had only a typewriter to work with, how would you create an income with it? (Consider this a variant on a common technology interview question, in which one is prompted to come up with a monetization strategy for 1,000 ping pong balls on the spot).

What does handwriting have to do with Steve Jobs?

2011-09-05T20:37:00.000-07:00

Here's the Steve Jobs speech, and here's a post about the virtual type-in from The Right Reverend Theodore Munk, Manual Entry, Little Flower Petals, Writing Ball, Retro Tech Geneva, who'd I miss?? Hope you guys had fun.

In which the University of Washington renews my faith in bookstores

2011-08-19T21:34:00.000-07:00

This is all sharpeners. I mean, a whole *aisle* of just sharpeners. I didn't even capture the whole aisle in the photo.

Same, but erasers. Amazing.

Favorite typewriter presents

2011-08-14T23:11:00.000-07:00

I have a couple of friends who are artists, and on top of that very generous people who always make amazing handmade birthday gifts for friends and relatives. Today we had a thing for my birthday, for which they gave me the following card and present.

My crappy cell phone camera doesn't really demonstrate properly that this is 3-D and even the keys are punched out and angled upward:

This is about three feet wide and quite impressive to behold, each of the keys is actually a frame with a removable glass window for putting pictures, etc., although I'm likely to keep it just the way it is. They cut all the pieces by hand:

Wowza. What typewriter gifts have y'all gotten from people? For example, I know Duffy Moon's wife made him a typewriter cake once which I've just tried in vain to find online somewhere...

RIP, Borders books

2011-08-07T22:27:00.000-07:00

Seattle type-in: July 30

2011-07-30T22:28:00.000-07:00

I entirely neglected to mention many things about this outing, such as Elizabeth's collection of fountain pens (including this Lamy Safari that I have coveted for some time), and a couple of crude nicknames that somehow materialized (one based on something very dumb that I said, alas). Mike Speegle, welcome to Washington.

Whoops, one more addition, just learned that Adwoa was in virtual attendance before I even arrived. Sorry to have missed you! Also, we forgot to go to the Fremont antique mall, folks.

Oh man, now I have to update "my typewriters: a list" at left...

Tricked out typers: the gold rush is on

2011-07-18T08:25:00.000-07:00

Amendment to this post: note that it is not a critique or endorsement. It's an observation about marketing strategy. OK, with that said:

I'm going to officially declare (where are the officials to make this official?) that we've arrived at a tipping point in the sale of tricked out typers online with my recent discovery of Kasbah Mod (thanks to a colleague for the tip). "Now the Biggest Retailer of Ace-Quality Vintage Typewriters in New York City." (The biggest? To set itself apart from the crowded New York market for vintage refurbed typewriters?) Let's set discussion of prices aside (their prices seem pretty standard for refurbed typewriters aimed at non-collectors) and focus on the hot rod paint jobs (click through to page two for some notable examples, the site doesn't let one link to specific machines). Typewriters have been marketed as style pieces for some time, but I think New York is taking this to a new level at the moment (Brady & Kowalski is another example), and I'd be shocked if other businesses don't soon follow suit.

Perhaps the market has been goosed by Jessica Bruder's New York Times piece with which most typecastinistas are familiar, appearing as it did on the style page. Let me say this: although the typosphere has been painting 'writers for some time, note that New York has fired the starting gun on a general trend of bucks to be made from refurbished, repainted typewriters, marketed stylishly, and promoted on teh social medias to the young whippersnappers. Mind you, this is a different spin than sturdy machines for serious writers (which is how typewriter resellers have marketed them up to this turning point), and depends upon eye-catching paint jobs and gorgeous web sites (eBay won't do. Is there a web site, incidentally, that is uglier and more out-of-date looking than eBay?).

If you're handy with web design, a paint gun and three-in-one oil, I suggest you grab your gold pan and start sifting up big profits in your neck of the woods.

The analog renaissance?

2011-07-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

Richard Polt posted an interesting link to this article about the analog renaissance of communications media on typosphere.net, and I'm curious to know what people think - is this really a rebirth and revival, or just a symptom of Marshall McLuhan's theory that we're turning analog culture into art because we cling to a "rearview mirror view" of our world? Or there is a third option: does this article and others like it describe only a very few individuals or retailers, that journalists are falsely claiming is a mass-culture fad? (Or perhaps they are trying to instigate the creation thereof).

People have been fetishizing records ever since they fell from grace in the 80's or thereabouts. Etsy sellers have been hawking handmade books for years. Don't get me started on analog cameras (mostly because I know nothing about them, except that they remain popular with a large percentage of professional photographers). What claim does the current day have on being the renaissance moment of analog communications media? Is it just the typewriters? Really?

Pertaining to this question, I've been meaning to eventually expand the focus of this blog beyond the noble typewriting machine, and into the general pool of analog writing tools and techniques (mail art, books, pens & pencils, handwriting and drawing, sketchnoting, etc). I'll get there someday. In the interim, I wrote this blog post on sketchnoting for the University of Washington Flip the Media blog. Can't seem to get enough of that topic, although so far I have failed to convince anyone in my corporate work environment that sketchnoting is the perfect format for software documentation.

Sakura Gelly Roll pens

2011-07-03T16:43:00.000-07:00

Occurred to me just now as I ambled around the typosphere that it's high season for the type-in: they're happening every weekend, just about. Was going to warn those of you meeting up in bars not to drink and type, but I guess it worked out for Hemingway.

Typosphere, forecasted in 1969

2011-06-26T21:09:00.000-07:00

In grad school, I'm currently reading about the late communications theorist Marshall McLuhan, he of "the medium is the message" and other prescient quotations (one of my favorites: "The future of the book is the blurb." How did he know?).

McLuhan had our number, we typecasters, long before we even existed. In this interview from 1969, he explains exactly what drives us to type, scan, and post:

Most people... still cling to what I call the rearview-mirror view of their world. By this I mean to say that because of the invisibility of any environment during the period of its innovation, man is only consciously aware of the environment that has preceded it; in other words, an environment becomes fully visible only when it has been superseded by a new environment; thus we are always one step behind in our view of the world. Because we are benumbed by any new technology — which in turn creates a totally new environment — we tend to make the old environment more visible; we do so by turning it into an art form and by attaching ourselves to the objects and atmosphere that characterized it, just as we’ve done with jazz, and as we’re now doing with the garbage of the mechanical environment via pop art.

... and with typecasting. Touché.

Handwritten typefaces

2011-06-18T16:31:00.000-07:00

Mike Rohde does some cool stuff with handwritten fonts that I'd like to imitate. Problem is, my handwriting basically comes in a single flavor. Ever tried to change your handwriting? It's hard.

Somewhere in recent days I read online that our brain processes characters the same way it processes pictures, because they are pictures. So each character of the alphabet is a picture we learned how to draw, and if we want to change our handwriting, we have to learn how to draw each character another way.

(As an aside, I think I modeled my handwriting after my dad's. I used to love to see his notes on graph paper, where he used to map out new arrangements for the house or yard with his drafting pencils:)

Consider me deeply ignorant on the matter of typography, a subject that, for all I can tell, you need to be a professional designer to understand, although this site looks like a good start. All I know is, it would be cool to have typewritery handwriting. Don't you think?

Richard Polt has you covered if you want typewriter fonts for your computer, but here's my first try at handwriting a couple typewriter typefaces, which was about as easy as learning to draw some new stuff. (Not easy.)

The lower case letters g and a on the Lettera typeface in particular just seem like foreign characters to me, like something I might find in Kana Can Be Easy:

Does anyone handwrite g and a that way? I'm going to need tons of drawing practice before I get the hang of it.

You are an artist

2011-06-08T23:06:00.000-07:00

Collage: untitled (Mod Podge experiment)

2011-06-05T19:29:00.000-07:00

Until just now I thought Mod Podge was called Modge Podge, you know, like hodge podge. ANYway, it is a sort of crafter's varnish that you might paint over any manner of paper-y art things, like tacky collages. Behold:

Silent Type 3, and bonus wall collages

2011-06-01T21:19:00.000-07:00

It will be a small zine, smaller than the last one perhaps, dimension-wise, so there's going to be some serious restrictions about the content submissions. Got to think this one out more. Nothing happening yet, just thought I'd throw that traffic jam vision out there... but that said, who's in? Can I get a witness?

Here are some crappy photos (why don't I ever take pictures during the considerable part of the day where there is natural light in the room?) of two wall thingies in my office, one of them a cork board collage, and the other a shadow-box, of things typospherian. Surely some of you mail art types have something similar, yet vastly superior, to share.

Collage-casting

2011-05-29T22:46:00.001-07:00

Was fooling around with collage in the last day or so, as I am trying to make a banner for a personal/professional-type site (which is nowhere near complete, I feel compelled to mention. Making such a site was recommended by my graduate program, personal branding and all, oh boy. Please resist the urge to make a sarcastic remark...)

Back to the collage. Lately I've been interested in mixing art/ephemera and text, which I believe is known as art journaling. Probably there are a whole mess of people out there who art journal in blog form (must avoid browsing internet for this likely phenomenon and falling into 10-hour digital detour...)

This was more or less the idea I had for Silent Type 2, because generally I think, with the glut of content out there, that words need pictures to get noticed, but less cynically, that images enhance information. I've been doing loads of research on using visuals in information, and feel that hand-drawn art and ephemera in particular are compelling due to their rarity and personal meaning. Here is a mail artist I admire who does this kind of thing well.

Any further issues of Silent Type I might do, or other zines, would probably further look into this idea, although not anytime soon, oh heavens no.

I dare you to try collage in one of your typecasts.

PS, I totally love masking tape. It is my favorite art supply. What's yours?

A difficult thing

2011-05-28T00:49:00.000-07:00

As life is reliably imperfect at all times, I'm sure you're dealing with a Difficult Thing. DT's can range from petty to horrifying, hopelly more the former, but it's always something, even if you're the positive-thinking type (I'm not).

I'm tapping out this post on a smartphone in the dark while struggling, as I have every night for eight months, with insomnia and an often-waking baby. This makes most nights of sleep into a chewed-up couple of hours at best, resulting in a sub-optimal, itchy eyed waking life the rest of the time. I highly discourage others from repeating my experiments with sleep deprivation, should you so be tempted.

My thesis here is that, should you be dealing currently with a Difficult Thing, I'll take the night shift of worrying about it off your hands, since I'm up anyway.

What has this to do with typewriters, you ask? Not one small thing.

Snohomish Type-In 2: Pictures

2011-05-23T17:08:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Snohomish WA had its 2nd type-in at Uppercase Books. I took some video in response to a challenge somewhere out in the typosphere to videotape people typing, but didn't realize the challenge had to do with a specific date in June.

Anyhows, here are still pictures from the videos. I may never get around to editing/uploading the vids, but hoping this will do for now...

Type-in prize: sketchbook (and a side note about copic markers)

2011-05-15T22:02:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the Lambs of Snohomish, charming folks indeed, for another fun type-in today.

Since Little Flower Petals was not in attendance, I actually had a shot at the typing speed contest victory, prize of which you'll see below.

Uppercase books sells these altered-book notebooks, which I recommend as excellent sketchbooks because of the binder rings and hard backs (unless you feel that eviscerating old books in this way is tantamount to key chopping, which I don't, due to their overwhelming abundance).

I used my prize today to practice drawing with a few copic markers that I picked up on the advice of the visual designer Eva Lotta-Lamm in this excellent presentation on visual note taking, or graphic recording, which is something I've been posting about recently.

Copic markers have one end with a tapering, flexible tip, like a paintbrush, and the other end squared off, like a white board marker. They are good for adding drop-shadows and color accents to black and white drawings, and they are as expensive as hell. (Side note, the art shop where I bought mine told me they'd had $2k worth of the markers stolen earlier that week).

They are lots of fun for coloring in doodles and such, and price aside, I highly recommend them.

I sold my books (and a footnote about Blogger)

2011-05-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

The post above was kind of grumpy, I concede. Most of my posts these days seem to be veiled complaining about my overall lack of time.

But on to more interesting topics. OH, BLOGGER! Guess I was not a minute too soon in my thoughts about moving Blogger to Wordpress.

Portfolios, Wordpress, and web hosts, oh my! (and a windy history of my internet efforts)

2011-05-08T11:13:00.000-07:00

I've recently been chatting with Just Write about the techwriting industry, and thought I should finally take the advice I've been giving other people about career stuff for awhile: make a portfolio site. Someone in my grad program recently did a presentation about online portfolio creation that I recommend as a place to get started, should you ever consider this effort yourself (assuming it makes sense for the kind of work you do or want to do). Anyway, here's my site. There is nothing on it as of this writing, but it's up, and that's something.

Last night I tackled the installation of Wordpress on my web host, which I've always been a little intimidated by, but it wasn't so bad - a lot of hosts these days have "1-click install" that doesn't require you to edit any files or fool with FTP. Installing Wordpress has always seemed to me to be senselessly complicated, the sort of thing that requires trudging through forums to troubleshoot when something inevitably goes sideways, which is why I've used Blogger (which has the bonus feature of not requiring a web host), although tech snobs look down their noses at Blogger, and wouldn't be caught dead using a blogging platform that's actually easy to use.

Ironically as a techwriter I am not a fan of technology, just for the sake of complexity. Technical people, I say from some experience, often celebrate the mastery of needlessly complicated processes as a mark of their intelligence. Perhaps it is, but it's the needlessly complicated part that always gets me - software and web apps are often poorly designed and explained because they are created by people with no concept (or sympathy) for people who aren't technical for sport. I think I've had this chip on my shoulder about Wordpress, although I know it's supposed to be the mark of a "serious blogger."

Some of this is based on my feeling that over time, technology should get easier. I started posting junk online in the late 90's - frighteningly, it is still live. The Hall of Heads was a web site I created by coding plain HTML in a program called BBEdit (I learned HTML under duress at a job I had at the time) and learning some confusing junk about Javascript rollovers (see the heads in the left margin). Most of what I did is copy code from other sources and sit around editing it, not knowing what I was doing. Then I used Fetch, an FTP program with an awesome little running dog animation (still use it, because I like that dog!) to upload the files to my host. At the time, my host was a small local company run by a couple of dudes who actually sold Netscape navigator as boxed software in their storefront location. Oh dear.

All of this was somewhat confusing for me, but I made it work. This was in the days before blogging software existed at all, and I just edited and FTP'd each post by hand on tiny-dog (my second web site, which for the record lasted much longer and had a lot more content than Strikethru.net). After a long while I realized blogging software might work to my advantage, and somehow hacked my existing HTML template to include Blogger posts, all without a firm handle on exactly what I was doing.

So. When I decided to start Strikethru, I was pretty worn out. Just picking an existing Blogger template and fooling with that a little bit seemed all right with me (all the more time to spend on scanning typecasts). That was the official end of my tinkering with some of the more complex aspects of running a site, since tech gets easier over time. Right?

So you can imagine I was not amused by the general suggestion in the mid 2000's that, although Blogger offered a no-hassle and no-cost way to run a blog that you could even use with a custom domain, "serious" bloggers needed to move on to something more complex and time consuming. Sigh. I admit I have fallen for the hype nonetheless, and plan to use Wordpress for hosting my portfolio site. Do you have a portfolio site? Would you make one? Do you think writers need one? I've spent a bit of time at work trying to convince other writers that promoting oneself online is a necessity, and now it's time for me to walk the talk.

Whew, that was a long post. I bet you're not even reading anymore. I could say any old crazy ass thing at this point, and NO ONE WOULD KNOW...

On emotional honesty and art supplies

2011-05-05T22:42:00.000-07:00

Drawing books for overscheduled insomniacs with no particular drawing ability: a (very short) list

2011-05-03T21:31:00.000-07:00

Visual note-taking / graphic recording: redux

2011-04-24T22:45:00.001-07:00

I have remained interested in the topic of visual note-taking lately, and have been following the work of Sunni Brown, co-author of Gamestorming, who makes a living as a 'graphic recorder,' or someone who helps businesses visualize information with infographics. How cool would that job be?

She was part of a panel on visual note-taking alongside writer/poet/artist Austin Kleon (whom I posted about the other day) at South by Southwest Interactive this year, and in the panel they gave out these cool looking booklets on the concept of taking visual notes. Several pages from the booklet are shown in the slide deck (see the panel on visual note-taking link for the deck).

I was particularly inspired by Sunni's "6 fundamentals of visual note taking," so I took the time to transcribe her slide for me to refer to:

Taking these concepts, which she explains in the SXSW presentation, I did a quick sketch of something typewriter-related:

I realize I am unlikely to find myself employed as a graphic recorder anytime soon, but I think this concept overall is highly relevant to analog culture: it's visual, it's human, it's handmade, it's something digital culture and machines can't quite accomplish. It has a place in the analog blogosphere, even if that place is just right here in the backwaters of Strikethru.net. More to come.

Here is an interview with Sunni Brown that talks about the impact of visual learning.

Re-thinking Strikethru, and a footnote on the mists of time

2011-04-18T20:54:00.000-07:00

I just dug up Strikethru's inagural post, and realized actually that this blog is almost four years old. Zomg.

I think I failed to mention that I plan to keep rambling on in my Strikethru way per usual until or unless I come up with a brilliant idea, which, on four hours of sleep a day, could be awhile. If ever.

The original: Sotto Voce. Surely Collapsing World was typecasting back in the mists of time as well? At the very least, Olivander beats us all by many years in the collecting department (and in fact, probably none of us could truly call ourselves a collector compared to him, unless we were of course, the esteemed Richard Polt).

Ed Emberley: Make a World

2011-04-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

Recently I bought the Ed Emberley book Make a World (does anyone remember these from childhood? That is, if you're old? I do), and these are a few drawings I have done since getting the book. Going to re-write this post to enhance its awesomeness later today, but just wanted to get these posted for now. Note: if you have kids, you have to get one or more of his books.

Microsoft Museum's retrotech collection

2011-04-09T09:27:00.000-07:00

Was passing through the Microsoft Museum yesterday and took a few photos of their collection of retrotech with my crummy cell phone camera. To give you an idea of how the display actually looks, this person's Flickr photo captures it more effectively. The whole of the museum is devoted to big ol' Xbox Kinect game stations and Microsoft Surface stuff, and all manner of modern Microtech, but there is a corner when you first walk in devoted to the origins of tech, where you can even pose for a scary 1970's picture with the founders.

Note: A small favor. Should you be kind enough to leave a comment on the post, please don't trash the 'soft. I work there, and trust me, I've heard it all before ;-)

Jamie? Apica notebook going once, going twice...

2011-04-07T21:18:00.001-07:00

Here it is the end of the night again, so much to say and no time to post. Argh!

Haven't yet heard from Jamie, winner of the Apica notebook drawing. I will re-draw sometime this weekend if I don't hear back by tomorrow. If you're out there, let me know and I'll get that notebook in the mail!

How to steal like an artist

2011-04-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

The following pencast is about How To Steal Like An Artist (And 9 Other Things Nobody Told Me, written by Austin Kleon. Read it first. It's great. You'll thank me. My lousy post that follows is entirely optional reading.

Austin Kleon has a lovely blog with an entire category about visual note-taking. There's also a visual note-taking 101 presentation he and some other people gave at SXSW this year.

I've been talking about the Don Moyer book on this same topic recently and really recommend that as well. Much of his book is available online as a handout from a talk he gave last year at STC (click his name on that page for the handout), but I bought the entire Napkin Sketch Workbook in print and love it.

And the winner is...

2011-04-02T09:44:00.000-07:00

The winner of the Apica notebook, as selected by the random number generator, is...

Jamie! Congratulations!

E-mail me the address to send it to and it will be on its way. I've decided to award a second entrant another Apica notebook, and will re-draw in a week, so if you haven't added your name to the Apica post a few posts ago, go for it (or to this post, with your favorite notebook story). Enjoyed everyone's notebook stories, as for me, I am using and liking Myndology stuff lately (See the index at lower left for Myndology-related posts). Seems there remains a lot o love for the classic Moleskine out there.

In a way this drawing became April foolish in that I didn't announce the winner Friday as promised. Sorry about that, Friday sort of went off the rails for several reasons.

Note that this post was written in the least analog way possible, on the virtual keypad of a Windows 7 phone. Oh, the shame. I hereby hand over my typosphere membership card to the front desk.

Interview with Matt McCormack of Ace Typewriter

2011-03-31T15:50:00.001-07:00

Just found this interview from last October with Matt McCormack of Ace Typewriter in Portland, OR, done by WORK, which is an internet zine about, well, work.

Relatedly, if you haven't seen it yet, I made a random video of a visit to Ace a couple years back. Matt appears very briefly behind the counter in a couple frames.

Note: I feel compelled to mention my unauthorized use of the great song "Tomorrow, on the Runway" by the Innocence Mission in this clip.

Typewriter comic

2011-03-30T19:42:00.000-07:00

Here's the post where I talk about the drawing business books. It's an intriguing concept. I especially recommend the book by Don Moyer.

Random drawing for prizes: Apica notebook!

2011-03-26T15:45:00.000-07:00

So, you lost Magic Margin's drawing for Rhodia notebooks. Dammit!

Well, hold on just one minute, now. Don't go getting your knickers in a twist. Seems that Uwajimaya opened a new location 'round these parts, so you're in luck.

What? What does that have to do with notebooks, you ask? Well, Uwajimaya, an insanely great Asian grocery store, tends to carry imported stationery and whatnot (and even has a bookstore in its downtown Seattle location). I was ambling through the store's latest new location the other day, and found, in a display of Sumi-e painting supplies, various sizes of the highly-regarded Apica notebook.

Now, one doesn't tend to find Apica notebooks lying about any old where; I've only been able to buy them from eBay importers in the past. So I consider this a good thing.

One of the most appealing qualities of the Apica notebook, you will undoubtedly agree, is its cryptic cover phrase:

I grabbed two red ones of the 5" x 7"-ish size, and would like to share one with you. Leave a comment about your favorite notebook brand and I'll pick a winner this Friday, April 1st (not an April Fool's joke, I assure you).

Writing less, drawing more?

2011-03-20T14:45:00.000-07:00

Napkin Sketch Workbook Don Moyer
Back of the Napkin Dan Roam
Unfolding the Napkin Dan Roam
Visual Meetings David Sibbet

Seattle type-in: Saturday, March 19th

2011-03-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

Myndology disc punch: mail art notebook

2011-03-13T18:49:00.000-07:00

So I got myself a Myndology disc punch. A disc punch, if you were not aware, is a thingy that allows you to perforate paper so that you can place discs in the preforations and either create notebooks, or add random papers to existing ones.

Some of you Getting Things Done types have one of these from Rollabind/Circa, and use it to create fabulously organized and scheduled lives in notebooks with sober black covers. I, however, am a practitioner of another system called Starting Things, But Never Finishing Them. This consists of entertaining half-cooked ideas, getting out a bunch of paper supplies, making a big old mess, taking a coffee break, and then realizing, dozens of distractions later, that you have a bunch of stuff to clean up.

One such project included trying desperately to organize my letter writing stuff, after reading the following Clickthing post. Now, trying to live up to the inventions of Mike Clemens is a losing game, my friend. The man has a gift. But the fact remains that I have a disorganized snarl of paper that includes letters to which I would like to track and respond. What to do?

Enter the Myndology disc punch. I began madly punching letters and envelopes, and binding them with discs. I learned that anything covered in tape or made of thin vintage paper is a poor candidate for punching, but all other items are fair game. When finished, I grabbed two stray sheets from the teetering pile of school art projects generated by my older child, called them covers, and that was that.

I now have a bound book of letters to read through (although I'm not any closer to writing replies). Perhaps I will clean up this mess tomorrow...

Vintage office sticky notes, mail art, self pity

2011-03-08T21:42:00.000-08:00

Here's Cavallini's sticky notes, they have lots of other stuff, some typewriter-themed.

Know that I'm reading your blogs, and apologize for not commenting for the last week or two, I've been reading on a smartphone during middle-of-the-night baby monkeyshines, and have not yet mastered the art of thumb-typing in microscopic forms with a virtual keyboard while insanely sleep-deprived.

There was some other footnote I was going to add, but I totally forgot. Worst. Pencast. Ever. (Brought to you by Lamy Safari medium nib and Myndology ring-bound notebook)

Typewriter on Parks & Recreation

2011-02-27T20:21:00.000-08:00

I don't know how many of y'all watch Parks & Recreation (I do, it's a pretty good show), but there was a funny bit about an Underwood typewriter in a recent episode.

Underwood Standard Champion #4680705

2011-02-25T15:04:00.000-08:00

The term "thereabouts" in the above text doesn't make sense, on second read. But I guess you know what I meant?

Where are my manners, please see links to Olivander (Collapsing World), A Treatise on Pedestrianism, and Manual Entry under "The Typosphere" at left.

And hey, that's my dad. He's a swell guy.

The Great Petaluma Haul

I feel compelled to update this post with information from one Olivander, ubercollector, who has set me straight on what the heck this machine actually is. In his words:

The "11" indicates platen length, not the model #. The base unit is that of a No.6 (you can tell by the ribbon selector switch being set up on top of the front plate instead of facing out). Think of how Olivetti turned the Lettera 32 base machine into many, many different models.

The name on the space bar positively identifies the model name as Champion. I don't what was different about the Champion to separate it from the regular No.6. Maybe it was only marketing. I've seen them called Master, too, and they look the same to me.

So what you have is a Champion built around a No.6 chassis.

Thank you Olivander!

Name that typewriter: Viracocha, San Francisco

2011-02-21T20:41:00.000-08:00

Viracocha, on Valencia Street in San Francisco's Mission District, sells typewriters. I sent my envoy Scott over there to check out the offerings a week or two ago, and here's what he found.

Can you name that 'writer? No looking anything up. (For encyclopedic types, this will be a no-brainer). I'll add my lame remarks, this is where you'll see how little I actually know about typewriter model specifics, only really being familiar with the typewriters I own. This general ignorance is why I never make appearances among the sages on Yahoo's Portable Typewriter Forum.

Some kind of big ol' Olympia SG standard. I have never paid any attention to the standard models made by Olympia.

1950's Remington Quiet Riter. I want one!

An Underwood standard whaaat? It looks 1950's.

Royal Quiet de Luxe, 1950's.

A Royal KMS? KM-something? 50's? 60's? Man, I don't know thing one about standards.

What is this?? A Torpedo? Is this a German brand? I only know Torpedos as imposing antique standard type machines, didn't know they made any in the 60's or whenever this was made.

Voss... another German brand? If I had to pick one of these 'writers, I'd take this one. I don't know anything about Voss machines and have never seen one in the wild.

Smith-Corona clipper. Now I am on more familiar territory. 40's?

Some kind of early IBM electric typewriter. I know even less about electric typewriters than I do about standards.

What's that goofy long green lever on the right side? This is a quiet de luxe, right? It's kind of hard to tell from this picture.

_____

Oh my, that was disgraceful. Please tell me you can do better at identifying these machines.

My typewriters: a catalog

2011-02-16T11:44:00.001-08:00

The other day I noticed Clickthing had added a visual catalog of his typewriters. I can't believe I haven't done this before. I can't believe we ALL haven't done this before. And lastly, I can't believe how often I have the repetitive thought when reading all of your blogs: "I wonder what so and so's typewriter collection includes in its entirety?"

And so, here's all the typewriters I currently own (there's now a permanent link to this at left, as well). I plan to add a sample of the typefaces shortly (to the copy linked at left, that is).

Consider this an official challenge for you to follow in Clickthing's lead.

The Collection

I'm in a constant battle to reduce the number of typewriters I own, because let's face it, you can only store so many typewriters (unless you have a system, like one Olivander). That said, here is the latest roster, which totals 8. Soon I plan to add typeface samples to the image gallery as well.

Here is the story of how I came to acquire this Hermes Rocket at Acme Business Machines in Arkansas. This day I spent with my dad is one of my favorite memories. Thanks Monda. Rest in peace, Ed Cordon.

Found this Lettera 22 at Deluxe Junk in Seattle, a great antique shop that usually has a good selection of typewriters. It came with the manual and brushes and the whole bit, even a decomposing plastic typewriter cover. I had another identical Lettera prior to this one, which I gave to Olympiaman.

This cursive Olympia SF is from Cambridge Typewriter, by way of Speculator in Maine. (See the comments of the post to hear the story behind that). This typewriter has been my holy grail machine for some time, owing to my disappointment with my other cursive machine.

Here is a random post blathering about my Olympia SM-9. Everyone seems to have one. Here's a scan of the SM9 manual. This is by far my most mechanically superior typewriter, with a resurfaced platen, or perhaps a new one, I forget. I bought it from a refurb place online. The typing action is literally like a new typewriter.

Bought this Hermes Rocket at Blue Moon Camera and Machine in Portland, OR. It used to look like this. Then I spray-painted it pink. People ask about how I painted it, but I really didn't use any particular technique. Here is a post about it.

This is a really gorgeous typewriter, in person. All the details and writing on the back and whatnot is perfectly intact. It is a 1941 Royal Quiet De Luxe that I got at Deluxe Junk in Seattle, and I had it cleaned and tuned up at Ace Typewriter in Portland, OR.

This Underwood Champion 11 from 1937 is the only typewriter I've kept out of seven I got from a shuttered museum in Petaluma, CA. Here is a post about this dubious haul, and here is another. I still have done nothing with this typewriter; it remains in my garage.

Here is the cursed cursive Hermes 3000. Here is a post about it when it was new and I was not yet truly versed in its cursed ways. Thing is, it has a lovely typeface. Otherwise I would rehome it to the bottom of Lake Washington.

Cursive typewriter: the redemption

2011-02-14T22:42:00.000-08:00

Thank you Tom! It's no surprise that you had exactly the typewriter I needed.

Cambridge Typewriter
Mimeographin' at the IPRC
The curse of the cursive typewriter

This just in! Hear radio report on Snohomish type-in

2011-02-14T09:49:00.000-08:00

Here's a KIRO news article about the Snohomish type-in on Sunday (with a link to the radio segment, which you really must hear).

You'll hear the voices of the typosphere's own, including Little Flower Petals, A Treatise on Pedestrianism, Manual Entry, and of course, the event host, Snohomish Writer (and his wife, who also did tons of work for the event and is very kind).

Also, KIRO has posted photos.

Snohomish type-in: at which a world record is set

2011-02-12T17:15:00.001-08:00

Behold this photo, depicting a table in Snohomish's Upper Case Books around which is seated 5 members of the typosphere.

I hereby proclaim this to be the world record of typecasters seated in a single venue. (From left counterclockwise, are the respective bloggers from Strikethru, Manual Entry, A Treatise on Pedestrianism, Snohomish Writer, and Little Flower Petals.)

Several of us made the trek from random parts of Western Washington state for the occasion, and it was entirely worth the trip, as Justin (Snohomish Writer) and his wife did a great job of advertising the event and conducting fun raffles and typing contests, with prizes contributed by Uppercase Books. (I won this most excellent journal made from vintage bookcovers. Allow me to add that, regarding typing contests, Little Flower Petals is a scary-fast typist.)

Lest you think it was only us five die-hards in attendance, in fact a room full of perhaps 15 - 20 machines were kept busy during the entire event, with many curious local folks stopping in to type letters, compare typewriters, and test their typing speed while a photographer from the Everett Herald snapped photos of everyone at work.

As a bonus, the two Smith-Coronas I brought were successfully re-homed (the Galaxie with a lady who stopped in looking for one to buy to fill out forms. She said she missed the feel of a typewriter. Sold, free of charge!).

Thanks to Justin for a great event. Here's his post that contains all the links to the news stories about the event from KIRO radio and the Everett Herald.

Quora.com: A public record of retrotech?

2011-02-10T10:01:00.000-08:00

I've lately been fooling around with a web site called Quora.com, which is a trendy new social media question and answer portal (probably there are several ways to describe its functionality; that's as close as I can come). Here is a Time Magazine article about it, and another on Mashable.

Quora is complicated. It incorporates aspects of different social media platforms (voting answers up and down like Digg, followers and following like Twitter, the ability to edit others' entries like Wikipedia) and currently, in its early adoption phase, seems to favor social media hot shots who've brought a lot of acolytes with them onto the service. The nattering nabobs of interweb tech blogging are not sure whether it's The Next Big Thing or A Terrible Idea, and they're currently burning up the social media echo chamber with their bloviations on the topic.

As retrotechies, why should we care? Perhaps we shouldn't. All I know is this: Quora has a 'typewriter' category. I've populated the five or so questions that have been posted there with my answers, as part of my ongoing attempt to evangelize the typecasting movement. To quote Speculator:

"Like Tom Furrier says, "all it takes is a reminder." And that's just it. People see how practical and instantaneous and portably efficient typewriters are- combined with the charm of the mechanisms, and ideas are born- such that more folks go looking for their own typewriters."

I'd like to see all of us take opportunities, where they exist, to provide thorough, thoughtful information about typewriters and retrotech for this reason. The more typewriter users and fans we can create, the more hope there is for typewriter shops, ribbon manufacturing, snail mail, and typewriter social networks and events.

For some time, Wikipedia has had a definition of "typecasting" (I do not know the author, do you?) which is the only example I know of a reference to typecasting outside of the typosphere itself (although, recent stories in local newspapers about type-in events certainly qualify as such, now that I think about it). I'd like to see more. As a technical writer, I have long worked in organizations that think first to evangelize products within their own web sites, but the truth of the matter is, social media platforms are where people hang out. You have to bring the message to the platform if you want the word to get out.

And so, Quora provides one such opportunity to sign up, answer questions, and ask others, thereby building an official and high-quality external record of information about retrotech. I think it's worth considering as an act of "typostolate," a term coined by Speculator to describe the act of evangelizing retrotech.

New typecasting blog: Analog Dog

2011-02-10T07:47:00.000-08:00

Over the last year I have been in and out of the typosphere, and whenever I wasn't looking, great new typecasters seemed to pop up. I try to pride myself on having a comprehensive typosphere blogroll in "The Typosphere" section to the left of this blog, but sometimes blogs get missed. Today I just stumbled across Analog Dog in the blogroll of Magic Margin. Analog Dog has it all -- typecasts, gorgeous photographs, typewriter ponderings, even videos! (Been meaning to post about the general lack of videos in the 'sphere - I even bought a flip camera intending to do them myself and still haven't managed it).

I wonder which other typecast blogs I haven't found yet? Are there any I'm missing?

Typecast: the revolution

2011-02-09T09:34:00.000-08:00

Powell's announces layoffs

About the Typewriter Collector's Alliance on Facebook
News article about this weekend's Snohomish type-in

The curse of the cursive typewriter

2011-02-04T21:38:00.000-08:00

I own but one cursive machine: this Hermes 3000. Here is an example of its typeface. This typewriter, purchased from eBay several years back, puts the curse in cursive: it arrived with shattered platen knobs, which cause me to cut my fingers every time I try and advance the carriage. Whatever that mechanism is that causes the platen to either slide paper or click from one line to the next (techies, help me out here) never seems to stay put. Plus, it's a Hermes 3000, which is basically a mouse-colored anvil with very complicated tab stop mechanisms. It has not satisfied my dreams of owning a cursive typewriter even a little.

In its place, I dream of an ultra-portable script machine like Clickthing's Olympia SF. (Retro tech Geneva has one too). At times I rage at the fates for not placing a splendid machine such as this in my path.

Tell me about your cursive machine(s). I must know about life beyond the prison walls of my mouse-colored Swiss anvil. Such talk gives me hope that eventually, I will find the cursive machine of my destiny.

Vintage airmail stickers from Laughing Elephant

2011-02-02T12:33:00.000-08:00

A couple of years ago, I bought a packet of vintage airmail stickers from a Portland art supply store. There were 46 stickers total, and each one was a different design - no duplicates. They're great - I've been using them on letters and such, but I was down to just a few remaining, and so decided to hit the Laughing Elephant web site the other day to order another set.

Now, there's lots of cool stickers on the Laughing Elephant site; Monda would love these, for example. And gosh, some of you sci fi nerds would be crazy to pass up the world of tomorrow set. But! No vintage airmail labels to be found online. Surely some kind of administrative oversight.

I called the Laughing Elephant customer service line to ask how to order them, and was given the harsh news:

Discontinued!

Apparently for some time now! Aaaarg! My mind returned to the scene of the initial purchase, where there was a small bin of them by the register of that art store... I should have scooped up all that remained when I had the chance! Where is a world of tomorrow time machine when you need one?

Just then, the guy on the phone said that someone, on hearing of my despair (My exact words were, in fact, "noooooo!"), dug two remaining packs out of the warehouse... the last two.

THE LAST TWO!

However, if you suddenly find, like me, that you can't live without vintage airmail stickers, there is a very cool-looking handmade set on Etsy right now. Check out the plush typewriter while you are there.

The Pocket Square camera

2011-02-01T12:39:00.000-08:00

I just learned about the lo-fi Pocket Square camera ("Miniscule square-format photos and videos with analog edge") on the blog Miss Doxie (jump to point #4 where she provides a funny interpretation of the user's manual) and although it is $100 dollars more than I should be spending on thingamajigs at the moment, I am intrigued.

It's a super small digital camera with no viewfinder that takes square 6" x 6" photos and has lo-fi filters (yellow, 'noise,' and monochrome).

Thing is, probably even a cool camera like this would result in crummy photos if I was behind the lens, because of the following fact: I am a terrible photographer. If you lay your mitts on one though, I want to see the pictures.

Note: image shamelessly lifted from Photojojo web site for this post.

Type-in in Snohomish, Washington!

2011-02-01T10:30:00.000-08:00

The typosphere's own Snohomish Writer has coordinated a type-in to happen in Snohomish, WA. Here are the details!

Ryan of A Treatise on Pedestrianism also hosted a type-in at Seattle's Inner Chapters bookstore in January and plans to repeat the experience soon, check his blog for details.

This just in, Philadelphia is having another type-in in February! Also, Phoenix is having an event in March.

Mail art: you have to have a system

2011-01-27T23:13:00.000-08:00

I resolve: more mail art

2011-01-24T22:04:00.000-08:00

I have just been looking through Good Mail Day again, and reminding myself of the greatness of the mail art movement. One of my several random resolutions for 2011 is to become a better paper correspondent: a few you have sent me lovely letters and/or mail art pieces to which I am very gradually responding (if you've participated in Silent Type, you know that I don't work fast). I love those letters and I am working on responses, even if it is at a slug's pace. Tonight I worked on a few envelopes and mini-books, and hope to get some things to you soon.

To those of you currently writing to pen pals and/or sending typewritten mail and mail art, you're doing an important thing. I once dabbled in the hobby of card making, in which one aspires to make color-coordinated, well-designed cards from new and matching materials, and failed utterly. Here's why. Making cards in this way is not about communication. It's merely about visual design (at which I am abysmal). Mail art and letters are working on a different level. They are about remixing and re-use. They are about tactile and visual information. They say something much more compelling and complex than "You're invited" or "Congratulations." They make unique human statements entirely impossible to express with zeros and ones.

More mail art in 2011.

A former post about mail art...
And another...

Cowcast: Trespassing

2011-01-22T21:24:00.000-08:00

Only in the typosphere would someone start a cowcasting meme, and that person is Clickthing. If you poke around the typosphere, you will find others. Here's mine.

Oh, I realize brussels sprouts is spelled with an s on the end of brussels. But it just sounds wrong that way.

First glass of wine in 12 months: a typecast

2011-01-18T22:37:00.000-08:00

Silent Type #1 and #2 both available from Microcosm Publishing. Also! Silent Type #1 reviewed by One Minute Zine Review

2011-01-05T12:48:00.000-08:00

For those who have asked, both issues of Silent Type are now available for sale from Microcosm Publishing.

Purchase issue #1
Purchase issue #2

They were printed in limited quantities, so if you are interested, act now.

More about Silent Type

Check out this link I just found, in which Silent Type #1 is reviewed by DJ Frederick in his One Minute Zine Review series.

Rubber stamps: Typewriters, ephemera, etc.

2010-12-28T18:08:00.000-08:00

Stamp Companies

Blue Diamond Stamp Company
Hero Arts Stamps
Rubber Soul Stamps
River City Rubber Works
Art Impressions Rubber Stamps
A Muse Artstamps
JudiKins stamps
Paper Source
Invoke Arts
American Art Stamp

Help the Independent Publishing Resource Center and win zines and stickers!

2010-12-14T14:52:00.000-08:00

This holiday season (queue announcer voice), I would like to help out an organization that shares the values of the typosphere: Portland Oregon's Independent Publishing Resource Center.

The IPRC is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of independent print publishing projects, and is staffed and used by typewriter fans, comic book artists, writers, zinesters, mimeograph nerds, letterpress people, and any number of folks you'd want to be friends with. I made a video about the IPRC in graduate school last winter and attended a weekend-long print camp there in 2009 which was a great experience (see this brief video of Silent Type co-producer Brandon learning how to use a mimeograph machine there).

As the IPRC is a nonprofit organization, it relies on donations to stay afloat. Here's how you can help.

1) First, view the
IPRC Typing Kitty video (featuring a lovely green-keyed Royal Quiet De Luxe).

2) Decide that you are moved to donate $10 or $25.

3) Realize that Strikethru is offering a free copy of Silent Type #2 to $10 donors, and a free copy of both issues 1 and 2, plus 1 sheet of beautiful Royal typewriter stickers* (one sheet of 4 stickers) to $25 donors. Holy cow!

4) Donate securely via the Willamette Week give guide (the Willamette Week is a weekly newspaper in Portland, OR): Go to their 2010 Give Guide, Click Donate Now, under Arts enter $10 or $25 next to Independent Publishing Resource Center, click Next, etc.

5) Send me an email or a letter (letters are great) to inform me of your donation and give me the address to send the prize to. Please be honest!

6) Enjoy your prize and the moral satisfaction of knowing that you helped an organization that supports independent print publishing, and is home to a number of happy and well-used typewriters.

I am hoping to raise $100 for the IPRC (and plan to donate $25 myself in addition to that). If enough people donate and we reach the $100 mark (or we reach January 31st, 2011, whichever comes first), I will end the offer (because I only have so many copies of Silent Type-- you do realize it is now officially out of print?! See left for PDF copies of the zine if you want to take a look).

*the typewriter stickers are made by the talented Sarah Golden. Visit her Etsy store craftyFOLK, based in my home town of Sactomato, for these and other awesome typewriter-related crafts.

Silent Type availability: update

2010-12-13T10:44:00.000-08:00

Darn it, I am way overdue to post something actually typed. As it stands, my scanner is located in any of a dozen impassable piles of personal belongings due to recent home projects, and I have no idea which pile. Thus, no typecast today.

But, Silent Type #1, (of which there is a PDF at left) is now available again from Microcosm Publishing. (Update: the web site may say "out of stock" but try again in a few days-- the shipment of 30 new copies may still be in transit) If you'd like a copy, act now, because I may not be printing any more after this run, and they have about 30.

I am glad to announce that Microcosm will soon be offering Silent Type #2 as well (also available for free as a PDF at left)-- stand by for information about when. It should be within a few weeks.

From this point on, please purchase copies from Microcosm, as I will not be selling or giving them away directly. (If you have already asked, I will get in touch with you and/or may have already sent your copy).

For those who have asked, I am semi-officially retiring Silent Type, and don't plan to produce issue #3 or produce new print runs of existing issues after the remaining stock is gone. It's been very fun to put the zine out and my endless thanks go to those of you who have participated and/or shown interest in the project. Its surprising popularity is a testament to your talents-- I've had to print many more copies than I ever imagined due to everyone's enthusiasm, which goes to show you right there that neither typewriters nor print projects are on their deathbed at this time. There is definite interest in this kind of work in the zine community (and possibly beyond) and I encourage other typospherians to consider printing and publishing analog-themed or analog-created work-- your own, compilations, or whatever strikes your fancy. I'll be first in line to make a purchase.

Philadelphia Type-In: Saturday, December 18th

2010-12-08T20:34:00.000-08:00

If you live near Philadelphia, you know you're going to the first Philly type-in December 18th. Here are the details. Man, I wish I could go! It's a long way from Seattle, though...

Check out the new Cambridge Typewriter blog!

2010-11-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

Head on over to the Cambridge Typewriter web site to read Tom Furrier's blog -- you won't want to miss the musings of a real typewriter seller and repair technician.

Silent Type 2: In the mail

2010-10-24T21:53:00.001-07:00

If you contributed to Silent Type 2, your copy is on its way to you in the mail (provided I have your current address). Here are a few photos taken by co-editor Brandon of the ST2 production line (for which he deserves all the credit. Without his help, there would have been no ST2).

Hope you enjoy your copy. I will soon have information about how to get extra copies for those who want one.

Notes:

In the copies I have already sent out, a poem appears that should not have been included due to a miscommunication. It will be removed from subsequent printings. It is "During the War" by Ed Skoog. Apologies to Mr. Skoog for the error.
Since no printing is complete without a typographical error, please go to the credits page of your zine and draw a copyright symbol © just before "2010" in the line "All contents 2010" ... so, it should read "All contents © 2010..." I will write those in to any future copies I send out but the ones I just shipped off don't have it.

On making a zine: thoughts and logistics

2010-10-17T00:06:00.000-07:00

For those of you utterly uninterested in Silent Type and/or print zines, this is hopefully one of the last posts about this project, after which time we will turn to our regularly scheduled programming of topics such as "is it worth it to pay through the nose to have a typewriter refurbished?" Short answer: if you can afford it, absolutely.

Oh, and check out Retro Tech Geneva's post on the art and obligations of typewriter collecting. I think many of you will relate to the points raised. I sure do.

PS:
Best wishes to those of y'all readying for the annual writing marathon known as National Novel Writing Month.

Silent Type 2: They said it would never be finished. They were wrong.

2010-10-13T18:29:00.000-07:00

Eternal thanks to Brandon, who did the layout for ST's 1 and 2 in Adobe InDesign, a program I do not understand in the least.

Strikethru trainwreck

2010-09-24T20:44:00.001-07:00

Every blog trainwrecks at some point. Mine jumped the tracks earlier this year, somewhere near the intersection of work, grad school, parenthood, and pregnancy, which left me in a totally typewriter-free state of driving constantly around town to a series of meetings, classes, and appointments.

These facts being what they are, I have undertaken a Speeglesque challenge: to finish Silent Type 2 within the next three weeks. For after this time, my every earthly second will be spoken for around the clock for months.

Wish me luck.

Munk.org posts Hermes 3000 typewriter manual

2010-09-16T21:19:00.000-07:00

Munk.org has posted a high-quality scan of a Hermes 3000 manual along with some interesting thoughts about using typewriters. Great post, check it out.

People who take the time to scan and post manuals help a lot of other folks out, so if you have one lying around, get it online! I've only scanned two but have a few more I need to work on...

The interweb is dead

2010-08-19T21:33:00.001-07:00

In a recent Wired article, Chris Anderson (author of Free: The Future of a Radical Price) read the internet its last rites. Yes, the very web upon which you've squandered the last decade or more tracking eBay auctions for red Royal typewriters and checking your mail has apparently joined spirit duplicator machines and telegrams in the remainder bin of old media culture as the app model rises to prominence.

"This was all inevitable," Anderson shrugs. "It is the cycle of capitalism." This is the story of technology as it's always told: a chain of formats that individually dominate and then destruct. To use or champion anything but the latest version of the latest thing earns you censure and contempt. But you and I both know that reality doesn't work like this: books and bookstores are still here. Newspapers are still here. Typewriters, pens, and paper are still here. They've coexisted with the internet since 1990, and the internet will probably stick around too. Why? Because we want it to.

"Technologies die violent deaths less often than we think," writes Alexis Madrigal of the Atlantic Monthly. "We collectively choose the world that we want, not just as consumers, but as people who have and promote ideas." In a world where technological formats dominate and destruct, and make our choices for us, he writes that there would be "no use in trying to preserve the things about our lives that we love." But we do just that, which is why you can still read print books, and find a ribbon for your typewriter, and get a new set of woodcase pencils without much fuss. It's the way we want things. So I'd hold off on playing Amazing Grace on the bagpipes for the interweb. So long as you want it around, it's probably going to be here.

Pen review: Pilot Plumix fountain pen

2010-08-19T20:02:00.000-07:00

Today I am reviewing the Pilot Plumix, a $7-ish fountain pen intended for calligraphy. (Thanks to Jet Pens for giving me this pen to review).

Ok, so, after a third one of these pen reviews (in the review I called it my first, although it's the third one I've posted), it's clear that I lack the critical chops to be a true pen reviewer. See the links below this post for some examples of how to write a pen review. I will add to my comments below that I rather like the faded blue ink of this pen (picky dark-ink purists won't like it but it rather reminds me of old blue jeans), and use it every day at work. It combines the fun of writing with a fountain pen with some of the practicalities of cheap pens (it's not a crisis if you lose it) and the ink flows conservatively and does not bleed through paper (which is a common feature of nicer fountain pens. The cheap ones don't seem to do this, is it me?)

This review is rather helpful about what this pen is for and how to write with it. A recommended read. As a bonus, here is a critical review of the pen, complete with a creepy doll head.

Pen review: Platinum Preppy Fountain Pen

2010-08-15T16:56:00.000-07:00

Currently I'm reviewing some pens kindly sent to me by Jetpens.com for this purpose; my previous installment was about the Mitsubishi Uniball Signo gel pen, and today I'm reviewing the Platinum Preppy fountain pen.

Before now, my experience with fountain pens has been limited to the Lamy Safari and the Pelikan Pelikano. I'll say right off that the Platinum Preppy is far cheaper than both of these, and better than one of them.

As I've already established in my prior review, do check the Office Supply Geek for a more thorough and professional assessment of this pen. He's a pro. However, if you're just looking for bad pen drawings of pens, Strikethru's your (wo)man.

Pen review: Mitsubishi Uni-ball Signo DX

2010-08-10T20:36:00.000-07:00

There's something about pens. You know what I mean. Hunting for the perfect one is a game that never gets old. This is why it pleased me greatly when Jet Pens sent me a few to review on Strikethru. But why should I have all the fun? I am going to post the reviews one at a time, and then when I'm done, have a giveaway of a couple pens. 'Cause it's good to get pens in the mail.

I'm going to start out with the Uni-ball Signo DX. It's a micro-tipped gel pen that comes in a mess o'colors. But first let me stop right here if you're in the mood for a comprehensive review from a legitimate source, and point you Office Supply Geek. Because let's face it, my reviews are generally just excuses to write with pens. But that said, here's mine (I may have referred to this pen as a roller-ball in the scrawls below, when it is actually considered a gel pen. It may be both. Sadly I dropped out of Pen U before earning my PhD in pen taxonomy):

Silent Type II: no, it's not here yet

2010-07-25T21:32:00.001-07:00

What is Silent Type?
What is the Portland Zine Symposium?

Gucci typewriter tie

2010-07-24T20:01:00.000-07:00

If one of you typospheric gentlemen doesn't bid on the vintage Gucci typewriter tie for your next formalwear occasion, then I just don't know what.

Tell me about my typewriter. How much is it worth? How do I get it fixed? Where do I buy a typewriter ribbon?

2010-07-09T15:09:00.000-07:00

I get asked these questions a lot via e-mail, which exposes a fatal flaw in the overall Strikethru concept: I am not an expert on typewriters. I just like them a lot. However! There are people out there who can help you. You can find out how to contact them on the new Strikethru FAQ page.

Silent Type II production

2010-06-29T20:38:00.000-07:00

Finally finished cataloging and scanning all of the Silent Type II contributions, and have placed them into an InDesign file (thanks again to Brandon, unsung hero of Silent Type, without whom none of this would likely ever get done). There's still quite a bit of work to be done, since I need to create title pages, contents pages, credits pages, some collages, that sort of thing, but I am feeling encouraged that much of the content is already in a digital file. This can only mean one thing: it will get done.

I am impressed by the quality of the poems and especially the effort some people made to format/design the page their poem appears on-- these particular poems will make the finished product a joy to look through. (Also thanks to those folks who have sent me vintage letterhead and other items which will find their way into collages for the issue.) My sincere thanks to everyone who contributed a poem, and I want to apologize for the generally long time it takes to get the finished product out. You can trust me when I say, you will have a finished zine in your hands this summer.

Winners, silly typewriter hacks, haters, typewriters around the world, and Silent Type

2010-06-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

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.

Random drawing for prizes: Typewriter buttons!

2010-05-31T18:56:00.000-07:00

The buttons were designed by the talented Christina Siravo and are even more gorgeous in person. If you're the winner, be sure to thank Speculator for supplying the prize!

Letters & Journals Magazine website launch

2010-05-29T19:35:00.001-07:00

Letters & Journals magazine, scheduled to launch in print form next year, has unveiled a website that is both beautifully designed and full of in-depth content, which should tell you what to expect from the print version next year.

I am looking forward to subscribing (all the more these days I treasure the opportunity to read content offline) but the website is certainly the next best thing. If you're not already reading it, head over there for information about postcards, fan mail, travel journals, writing community and events, links to stationery and paper-related articles and resources, and all that sort of thing.

More about L&J:

Follow Letters & Journals on Twitter.

Sign up for the Letters & Journals online newsletter. If you're registered, you're eligible to win stationery-related prizes in periodic contests.

It's protest time: typewriter user kicked out of writer's colony in New York City

2010-05-20T08:28:00.000-07:00

The typosphere's own Speculator brought the following item to my attention this morning: The Writers Room, a Greenwich Village nonprofit that rents workspace to writers, has banned typewriter users from the premises, presumably because their once omnipresent sound offends the delicate ears of MacBook Air acolytes.

Writer and typewriter user Skye Ferrante was given the choice to switch to a laptop or end his membership with the Writers Room, and was quoted as saying "Some people like to listen to vinyl. Some people prefer to drive a stick shift. I just wish that there were some typists out there that would back me up, but I don't know any."

Typosphere! If that's not a call to action, what is? How I wish we could all pile into a bus and head straight to Greenwich Village with our Olympia SM9s and Royal Quiet De Luxes for a good old-fashioned type-in protest, which would be a damned site more fun than what most of us have planned for the afternoon, I'm going to guess. However, we're going to have to come to Skye Ferrante's aid another way. Letter writing campaign! Gentlepersons, start your carriage returns.

Silent type 2, Microcosm, Portland Zine Symposium

2010-05-14T22:10:00.000-07:00

I owe you an update on Silent Type II. For a few weeks in June (a time that falls mercifully between grad school quarters), I plan to finish up the scanning and assembly of the zine, with a hopeful mail-out date falling not too long after that. So no, your poems did not fall down a rathole, Silent Type just happens to be no different than any other literary journal that takes forever and a half to be produced.

Did I mention that Silent Type will shortly be distributed by the zine distributor Microcosm?

Speaking of Portland, I have this half-baked notion to take Silent Type to the Portland Zine Symposium this August (which is this year sporting a rather strange Space Invaders design theme) and just want to know: who's with me? Tell me at least one of you typecasters plans to show your face down there and represent the typosphere.

Keychop an iPad today

2010-05-04T21:06:00.001-07:00

It’s not just the journalists who are losing their livelihoods in the digital age. Saw this bit about New Zealand newsroom typers being hacked for bracelets. "This is the age of recycling and we will see more of this type of recycling and re-using outdated machinery and pieces as time goes on,” a jewelry maker is quoted as saying about the practice of removing keys for jewelry, known lovingly in the typosphere as keychopping. (So. Any of you want to volunteer to write the fair and balanced Wikipedia entry for this term?)

If you haven’t read it already, revisit the Collapsing World post from 2006 (how time flies) An open letter to key harvesters for a nice summary of how your typical typophile feels about stripping old writing machines for jewelry parts. Hint: they don’t like it. I don’t like it either, but I acknowledge this: outside of the rather small realm of analog admirers, typewriters are perceived as having no functional value. The digital era espouses that each new technology (e.g., the iPad) is a revolution that overthrows its predecessors (the laptop), which are thereafter only useful as symbols of backwards thinking and the dreaded act of growing old.

In fact, the typewriter, in the short backwards reach of technological history, has attained a status analogous to that of a Chinese dynasty, presiding over the written word for an unthinkable century, a statistic that laughs long and loud at the inevitably small months-long footprint of influence for which the iPad is destined. If any device is deserving to be worn in parts as an ironic statement about the ceaseless march toward cultural irrelevance, it is the iPad.

So stay ahead of the trends, and chop one today.

Borrandoque: una colección de gomas maravillosas

2010-04-22T20:38:00.000-07:00

Or something like that, my Spanish is terrible (but before I am cold in my grave, it will improve. This I vow). But this web site features a very impressive collection of pencil erasers that almost sends me into yet another irrational collecting fit.

Must stop inner 13 year old from clicking Purchase button at iTasho... or ogling the pages of Flickr's eraser group...

Surely some of you pencil and paper types share my fondness for erasers. Fess up.

The diarist, take II

2010-04-17T22:21:00.001-07:00

Have you ever heard of the Holmes and Rahe stress scale? Go on, take the test. Although I've avoided the dreaded top 5 thus far, my score these days comes out well over 300. It's coping mechanism time. So naturally, I turned to the timeless vice of paper junkies everywhere, and bought yet another blank journal.

Journal-keeping is a habit I ended at age 25, having struggled since that time to determine what is worth documenting about adult life. I know, that sounds a little dour. What I mean is, prior to the age of 25, I wrote in journals to (badly) contain a surplus of daily melodrama brought about by an itinerant, youth-y lifestyle of rotating rental homes, dead-end jobs, and boy trouble. Then suddenly I woke up one day with a full-time techwriting job and a fiancé, and Fiestaware dishes, and that kind of thing. In my case a merciful development; people with depression have no business being young. But what do you say in a journal about Fiestaware dishes, or cats, or commute times? Journals equal drama, it was the only equation I knew. So that was the end for journals and me, and the next (cough cough) years went undocumented, until now.

So I've got this little Ecosystem "lagoon" colored artist journal (that looks like this one) and a Mead-Scholastic pen case that does not strangely appear to be for sale anywhere on the interwebs (I bought mine at the great University of Washington bookstore). And I have, after an extended intermission, begun documenting my mental state on paper. I can't promise it's as entertaining as the daily antics of a train-wreck 20-something, but I find myself looking forward to that 5 minutes a day when I sit around drawing in the margins of a notebook page with Sharpies or woodcase pencils. You know, I've missed it, really. It's good to be back.

Silent Type II: Your poem is here

2010-04-07T19:55:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update, went to the P.O. box today and gathered up a bunch of Silent Type II submissions. Take a look at the spreadsheet, which should reflect the latest envelopes I have in hand, to make sure your submission arrived!

If you sent it out and it's not here, let me know.

Here is a link to the original call for submissions if you have no idea what I'm talkin about. The deadline has passed (but if you contacted me that your submission is on the way, I will wait for it.).

Oh yeah, you ask. You've sent me your poem. What's next? Well, in the next couple of weeks, I will read through all the poems and sort out questions about cover art, page order, layout, and all that sort of thing. If I have questions about your submission, I will contact you directly (so make sure I have your e-mail address). Once all of this is worked out, I will send out a tentative schedule for publication. I am thinking early summer. If your poem appears in ST2, you receive a free copy. If you want a copy and did not submit, this issue will have a cover price (this is not a for-profit endeavor, it is simply to recoup some shipping and material costs for the overall project).

As the author of a poem in ST2, you of course retain all rights to your own work, and are just giving me permission to publish it in ST2.

If you have any other questions, I can just add to this post with the answers. Looking forward to seeing this come together! Sorry it won't happen faster, I have an insane amount of work, school, and family related commitments going on at the moment.

You are not a Gadget

2010-03-24T21:16:00.001-07:00

A BAROP if you have not met one is a Big-Ass Roll of Paper which allows for endless typewriter rambling without page breaks. I recommend procuring one post-haste. They tend to be found rolling around eBay at reasonable prices.

Since it is Silent Type season, I would be remiss if I did not mention that I gathered up a large parcel of submissions from the PO box today (well, the husband picked them up actually, credit where credit is due) and the spreadsheet should be more or less up to date.

Do you still intend to contribute, but are worried you can't make the April 1st date? Please let me know. I'll see what I can work out. I am impressed though that, unlike with issue 1, I have critical mass before the deadline. Nice work, everyone.

PS: This post written with a Lettera 22.

Sign up sheet for Silent Type II

2010-03-20T09:56:00.000-07:00

Are you contributing (or have you contributed) a poem or photograph for Silent Type II? If so, please fill out the ST2 sign up sheet, so I have your proper name (or pen name if you must) and the title of your poem. (I have started it with a sample entry, just start yours on the next blank row.)

(Yes, by the way, I definitely want photographs or ephemera collage work in addition to poems).

When I receive your submission, I will mark "yes" in the "Received" column so you know your poem arrived safely (or in the case of Cajun Cleary, with a large bite taken out of it by postal machinery).

I do not check my post office box with great frequency, so expect a delay between when you send it and when the spreadsheet is marked "Received: yes."

BY THE WAY: the deadline for submissions is April 1st. Right, as in just a few days away. Do you intend to contribute? You're running out of time. Silent Type I was tons of fun, and turned out nicely if I do say so myself. You don't want to miss out on this! We need your poem! The time is now.

It's getting better all the time

2010-03-14T21:44:00.001-07:00

Although unfortunately not true, I thought perhaps that title would serve the dual purpose of getting a Beatles song stuck in my head, and permitting me to mention that I have been (and continue to be) unwell of late, which is why there have been few to no posts. Hoping for a return to healthier days (and more frequent posts) soon. Incidentally, how is your submission for Silent Type II coming along? See the link at left if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

The IPRC: What are you making?

2010-03-02T17:35:00.000-08:00

Have been working on a short film about Portland, OR's Independent Publishing Resource Center for my digital storytelling class in G-school, and heck, I am done (well, except for a few mistakes I'd fix if I wasn't half dead from stomach flu). As you may know, I am a fan of the IPRC, so this was a fun project. Let it be said that if you're a Portland resident and a creative type, and you don't have an IPRC membership, well then, yer crazy.

Awhile back, I rambled about how I'd like to see the typosphere document more things on video -- repair shops, DIY projects, what have ya. I know Clickthing has done a few, which I've enjoyed. Hope to see more of you out there making movies. If you had the time, camera, or what have you, what would you make a movie about?

Jesse Reklaw, incidentally, drew the typewriter logo at left on my Web site.

Silent Type #1 reviewed in Zine Word

2010-02-16T18:14:00.000-08:00

Zine World, A reader's guide to the underground press, has reviewed Silent Type #1 in Zine World issue #28.

If you are not familiar with Zine World, head on over to its site for some information about the publication. In their words: "Zine World is a source for reviews and information about zines, comics, self-published books, chapbooks, and other DIY stuff. Often called the best review zine being published in the U.S., Zine World is an extensive guide to zine culture."

After hearing such news as this, surely you're moved to contribute your typewritten poem to Silent Type II. Here's how. I am expecting your envelope in the mail.

Oh, right. And here's the review.

Not bad, typosphere! Sounds like we wouldn't be totally insane to do another issue to me. Congratulations to Dirk van Weelden for the special mention of his piece, Guitar - Typewriter.

Dymo label maker as retail therapy

2010-02-11T15:04:00.000-08:00

At heart, we typecasters like to shop. Oh, not for the latest clothes, or big-ass crystal display bowls for our dining room tables, but for office supplies and writing machines. Rows of Parker Jotters at Rite Aid, dusty old typewriter cases with undiscovered contents at Goodwill, stacks of spiral bound graph paper notebooks at the art supply shop, you're going to find a typecaster poking around that kind of stuff nine times out of ten.

Yesterday I had a rather lousy day in which I botched a presentation at school. I stood up there in front of the class, nervously revealing before a live and dubious audience that my final project was shaping up to be a train wreck. At one point I was asked a question by the instructor, a rather reasonable question at that, when my mind emptied of all thought. I could not think of one thing to say, and I just stood there. Not a good feeling, that. And so I did the only reasonable thing. I went to Rite Aid the next day and bought a Dymo Label Buddy.

Now you may ask, don't I already have one? And the answer is, yes, but. I come down firmly in the camp of non-retro punch-label makers, if I must choose sides. While the vintage metal Dymo Mite that I bought from eBay a few years back may have more retrotechnical cred, you will snap the tendons in your wrist trying to lift it, turn the wheel, and punch the letters, and its label cutting device could verily be used as a guillotine in an animal experimentation laboratory. Let us not forget the miles of gnarled tape you'll waste trying to get results from the thing, since the letters don't depress well, and the tape gets jammed into a sticky ball of typos faster than you can say *Dymo Mite*!

The Label Buddy, on the other hand, weighs mere ounces, loads tape quickly, and clicks out flawless labels with little effort. It's a clear improvement of technology, offering up the same retro results. Dymo corporation, I salute you for offering a low-priced, easy-to-use old school label maker in the year 2010. Can you redesign my brain so I don't flunk grad school?

It's true that I have yet to think of a way to salvage my grad school project (and ego), but at least I can punch out some labels to stick on it. And that kind of thing is all we typecasters really ask from life.

Oh, I almost forgot: there is such a thing as Dymo art! Here is a valentine for the #typosphere.

Typewriter pen pals, IPRC, #typosphere

2010-02-07T20:41:00.000-08:00

Wait-- I meant to say "returned," not "retirned." And I don't think there is an "e" in "roguish." For the record.

Clarification: The pen pal correspondence can be regular ol' typewritten or handwritten letters, mail art or zines not required (just a fun idea if you wanted to give it a try).

Are you on twitter? Let me know, I want to put you in my Twitter list: http://twitter.com/strikethru/typosphere.

Good Mail Day
A Treatise on Pedestrianism
My original visit to the IPRC
Twitter #typosphere

And the winner of the Knock Knock Personal Library Kit is...

2010-02-01T09:58:00.000-08:00

The winner of the Knock Knock Personal Library kit, as chosen by my lovely assistant, the Random Number Generator, is....

Lawfrog!

Lawfrog, e-mail me your address at strikethru (at) tiny-dog.com and I will send off your prize.

Congratulations!

Silent Type 2: Call for submissions

2010-01-28T22:11:00.000-08:00

Update: Note: If you are contributing, please sign up on the sign up sheet. ST2 is open for submissions of poems, collages of ephemera, and photographs. See below for details on page dimensions. Photos and collages can be resized if needed (although please submit them close to the target size where possible) but poems must match the stated dimensions below.

DEADLINE IS APRIL 1st, 2010!! Hurry!!!!!

Original post: I mentioned a few days back that we're cranking up the old Silent Type machine once again, for an all-poetry issue. If you happened to miss issue 1, there is a PDF in the left margin of the site <----- under the typewriter graphic thingy so do check it out (although the PDF lacks the lovely cover art taken by a few members of our very own typosphere). I am out of print copies, unfortunately.

Here is my blathering set of submission guidelines. Hope to see your poems in my P.O. box in the next 2 months. (That time goes by fast, so my advice would be fire up your pens and typewriters and start composing asap!) Remember, if you don't usually write poems, this is your chance to unleash your inner [insert favorite poet here. I'm partial to Gwendolyn Brooks myself. Who's yr favorite?].

My (late) entry in the Clickthing Crapcam Challenge

2010-01-24T15:11:00.000-08:00

Clickthing recently challenged typospherians and interested others to take to the streets with a low-fi digital camera, otherwise known as a crapcam, to gather quick photographic impressions of one's surroundings. The point of this exercise was to skip over the fetishistic focus on Just The Right Tools and focus instead on just getting the images with whatever sad excuse for a low-fi camera you might have lying around.

Today while at Pike Place market on a classic Seattle weather day (40 degrees and raining, but in a misty sort of fashion), I busted out my 5 year old, scratched-up candy-bar style Samsung phone, which features no internet capability and only the faintest excuse for a digital camera, and took a few pictures:

Silent Type issue 2: In the works

2010-01-18T22:29:00.000-08:00

There are still some details to work out, but consider this a rambling notice that ST season is about to begin anew.

--historical matter--

Here are all my posts tagged "Silent Type" (including today's post) if you want learn a bit about issue 1.

Drawing and product review: Knock Knock Personal Library Kit

2010-01-09T23:11:00.000-08:00

I was recently offered an opportunity to review and give away an item from Knock Knock, which is OK by me, since I've purchased the Pro and Con and Paper E-mail notepads in the past (I particularly enjoy the paper e-mail, which makes a certain throwback statement when taped to someone's monitor at work).

I chose to review the Knock Knock Personal Library Kit* because it looked kind of swell, and like something that would appeal to the typosphere, a crowd generally in favor of preserving the book in print form.

This Library Kit makes an interesting statement about a nuisance we have all taken for granted until now: that books exist, and as such can be loaned or lost. What precious book is forever lost from your collection, and who still has it? In the era of the ebook, losing an inscribed hardback copy of 100 Years of Solitude to a lost love or former friend becomes instead a tech support incident regarding data corruption or DRM.

Anyway, the product: well, here you see what it contains: 20 due date cards, 20 card pockets, a date stamp and ink pad, and small pencil, the kind you might find with a stack of scrap paper next to a library catalog computer these days.

The card envelope is nice and sturdy with a space to write your (that is, the book owner's) name, and affixes easily to the inside book cover with two peel-off adhesive strips. The card itself has lines for the book title and author on the front, followed by multiple lines for borrower information that continue onto the back. (If you ever use checkout card in your books, I strongly recommend using your typewriter to fill in the book title and author information, to channel some 20th century card catalog style).

The date stamp runs through the year 2020 (incidentally, is there anything as mournful as an old date stamp where the latest year passed long ago? I've come across one or two of those in my thrift store journeys, and they always make me feel a brief mortal chill). The ink pad is serviceable (not craft-store sturdy, but OK) and the short pencil is likely to get lost within the blink of a curious preschooler's eye, but anyway, the packaging serves as a tray that can hold the whole system, like a tiny Monopoly game, if you want to store it out of reach.

It's charming, for sure-- the cards look rather nice affixed within your favorite books, as a kind of rebuke to lazy borrowers (who are unlikely to return your tomes even with this reminder, the bastards that they are). You can find all manner of vintage or old-style library checkout cards and envelopes on eBay these days, but the modern red design of these works for me, standing out from the page a bit better than the old buff-colored classic designs. That said, if you don't loan out a lot of books, and a lot of books repeatedly, this card set would be nothing more than a novelty for you. Oh, I know you would like to fool around with the library kit, and see how a few card return envelopes look stuck to the inside of those certain volumes within your own library, but trust me, this is a practical item and should be used as such. Any librarian would agree.

If you ARE loaning out books, and can immediately think of at least 10 whose tenure in your collection might be potentially secured by this product, I strongly encourage you to put your name (and hopefully a story about a long-lost book) in the comments for this drawing-- I would love to send this right off to you.

Winner announced February 1!

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*I received a personal copy of this kit gratis, in addition to the one I am giving away, which will be mailed to the winner unopened. As possibly mentioned in the past, when I do product reviews or giveaways, I will disclose the origins of the product and whether I was asked to review it. If asked to review a product, I will do so if I am personally curious about or interested in the product, but still endeavor to give an honest review.