On Saturday morning, Brian came over bearing three typewriters in hard leather cases. He was giving one — his first, a manual — to his 12-year-old grandddaughter Georgie. He wanted me to choose which of the other two I wanted. He knew I’ve been looking for a portable, electric, in a hard case that I…
I’m getting to talk to old friends — and make new ones — in my job for UC Santa Cruz. Last Saturday, I had a fascinating phone call with Pamela Kleibrink-Thompson, who went to school there around the same time I did. She and I exchanged a volley of names, and it turns out that…
There aren’t very many places to buy holiday cards anymore, much less boxes of stationery. I love Papryus products … and buy them whenever I can. Now I love the chain even more, after seeing the picture of a typewriter in the window in Century City/Westfield Mall. We were walking around after dinner tonight —…
Chuck Larsen is a world traveler. He and his wife Shelby readily admit they’re running out of countries to go see. Their latest adventure was in Mongolia. Chuck, a skilled photographer, is wonderful about getting shots of typewriters from all over the world for me. This one he found in ULAAN BAATOR, MONGOLIA. He says,…
Click to see Typo Writer Stories video on YouTube LOUISE MARLER, my friend who’s a ‘typewriter artist’, is doing a series of video pieces about people who love their typewriters. She drafted me as her first candidate. She and her Director of Photography came to the house and tracked me as I talked, typed, and…
For the Gen-X’ers who have never seen a typewriter, let alone changed a ribbon, it can be a bit of a shock. I remember when Jamie had some girlfriends visiting from Rhode Island School of Design. They were headed out to a club — all dressed up in 5-inch heels and absurdly short skirts —…
Darlene got me a birthday present months ago, when she was visiting The Tenement Museum in New York. She said she spied it in a dark corner of the gift shop and swept in to buy it. It’s made of keyboard keys — we think from a computer, perhaps, like a Nexus/Lexis kind of thing…
My friend Jon Kamen told me his business partner Justin uses a portable typewriter when he travels. After I heard that, of course I needed to see it. So when I went to New York back in February — I made a trip to Justin & Jon’s offices — so I could ‘meet the machine’….
At the end of our party last week, I got into an animated conversation with Brian and Victoria. Brian, who’s a major executive now, shared how he got his first job as an administrative assistant because he knew how to type. (He also knew shorthand AND accounting, which helped.) I invited them into my inner…
Louise Marler, my favorite “typewriter artist”, came over today to start a documentary about why typewriters are important in this day and age. When she and DP Glen Golightly wanted me to type something for B-roll, I happily complied — and whipped out a note to Louise as they watched. It was sort of surreal….
