Well, it’s official… the Philadelphia Daily News dispatched videographer Sarah Glover to do a preview; wherein I try to explain the why of manual typing while hoping to keep the flake factor down! View the somewhat lifelike results here…
Thanks also to the good sport with the laptop a couple stools north of me.
And here’s the print story, in which the writer upgraded the prize somewhat shockingly…. we’ll talk about that later!
phillytyper 
Looks like you are getting some momentum going. Great job!
I am so happy to read about this. My uncle who works in a NY law firm tells me he still uses a typewriter which is set aside in a specific room away from the PCs/laptops. I have an electronic typewriter, i.e. word processor which everyone loves to borrow with a rectangular digital screen and an electric Olivetti. I would much rather have a manual which is very practical and mechanical. I am a person who’s more of the latter and not a techogeek. Granted, I try to keep up on the latest tech products out there and as much as I like the iPad, a typewriter is much more personable and the greatest novels in the world from the 20th century have been written on a typewriter as well as the great newspaper and magazine articles. Living in the San Francisco Bay Area where you have Silicon Valley to the south, the typewriter has become an anamoly and I am damn lucky if I can find a place in the Bay Area that has such a store that deals in typewriters or ribbons for the typewriters I do have, Office Depot and Staples, anyone? Having such a store would be like having an antiques/rarities shop. I still believe you need to have a typewriter along with your PC/laptop in your study/office. It’s become a great industrial office icon and a creative and improvising tool which is a great invention since the printing press…plus you don’t have the pain of e-viruses. Way to go, Philly!!
Caught the clip…congrats on putting this together. I blogged about your type in, Here
Just saw this — you guys might be interested in some of the “use a typewriter body to make a USB keyboard for your computer” sites. Some are purely functional — for those who like the feel of a mechanical typewriter — while others are more decorative. You can Google more, but here are a few examples (I’m not affiliated, just love the idea.)
http://www.usbtypewriter.com/
http://inventorspot.com/articles/apple_ipad_goes_steampunk_usb_typewriter
http://steampunkworkshop.com/keyboard.shtml
Enjoy!
I, too, would like to know where typewriters can get serviced in the SF Bay Area. I inherited a Royal typewriter that I’ve moved around with me for over 20 years and would like to display it and even work on it!
I loved learning about this from an item in the Seattle P-I newspaper. Just last week I received back from a local repair fellow my Smith-Corona Galaxie Twelve, which my parents bought me in high school the ’70s and I used through college (Widener) and up till I started grad school (Penn), including for the various gigs and internships I had in newspaper, radio, and other publishing. Then it was the computer age, for me starting in 1982.
I lugged that thing from Philly to Wisconsin (where I lived for 12 years), then to the Bay Area (three years), then to the Puget Sound rainforest. My writing tools are several Mac computers and one ancient Sony VAIO I pulled out of dumpster at a failed Bay Area dot com in 2000.
The problem is, every time we get a maritime wind/storm of 40-70 mph (which is often in winter), we lose power. Falling trees, limbs, car wrecks. This happened three times in about two weeks recently, while I was on deadline, and this was the last straw.
I’ve wanted Connie (named for Connie Mack) restored for a decade or more, so called around and found a local man. Got her back, started daily practice sessions, and what I’ve learned has been fascinating. About my ways of thinking, of writing, of forming ideas. About my ways of doing research. About the kinesic element of writing. Also, oddly enough, about how Google and all that is great…but not necessarily better than the classic reference works in my own library. (I have a story about that, involving the etymology of the word “divot.”)
A young anarchist friend (lots of those here) came by, saw the machine on my desk in the library, said, “WOAH, that’s HARD CORE.” Better be, I said, coz this old Philly punk/community radio geek used that typewriter for many a music review of The Clash, Cock Sparrer, The Dead Milkmen, etc., back in the day. Hard core indeed.
Hey, thanks for the tale… there was a Galaxy at the Type-IN yesterday. Weird fact: I played drum kit (also swapped around guitar/bass, etc) for the first edition Philly art-funkers The Stick Men, during their Hot Club days.