Category Archives: Analog Events
Typewriters meet Tech on April 29!
Philly Tech Week 2016 starts not with a bang, but with a beep, with the Dilworth ARCADE Party an evening bash for the digerati.
On Friday, April 29, the west side of Philadelphia’s City Hall will be jammed with coders, gamers, electronic musicians and more.
But WAIT–what’s that sound? That clickety, clack, ding! ?
LAST YEAR, WE HAD JUST TWO TYPEWRITERS AT THE ARCADE PARTY; they were a hit and we’ve been invited back to do a full-fledged Type-IN.
Yes, there will be a Type-IN at the Arcade, showing off the noisy mechanical roots of word processing to the youngest generation, digital natives for whom the typewriter has a completely different attraction.
Brian Kravitz (of Philly Typewriter) and Michael Ardith (of Hometown Business Machines) will be on hand with two rows full of manual typewriters, from vintage desk top machines to sleek Italian portables.
We’ll also have an IBM Selectric –arguably the peak of analog typewriting history–available to astonish those who’ve never seen a type-ball dance like a hummingbird pecking words onto paper.
We will have a Speed Competition, and other surprise activities for your type-writing pleasure. It’s free, of course–thanks to Messrs. Ardito and Kravitz, and Trophy Bikes , the semi-official stamp and paper sponsor of the Type-IN at Tech Week.
The ARCADE PARTY starts at 5 p.m.. We figure the Speed Competition (with chintzy prizes) will start at around 7:30 p.m. NOTE: spaces limited for the contest. Please sign up in advance when you arrive!
Tap, Tap, Tappin’ on Heaven’s Door
From today’s NYT: Bob Dylan typing in a room above the Cafe Espresso in Woodstock NY. PHOTO: Douglas Gilbert. Typewriters figured heavily in Dylan’s work; songs had to be typed out for copyright filings, Bob’s notes showed he often refined even “final” typed copies. What machine is BD using here, I wonder?
The Hero wields a Typewriter: See the Trailer!
Lots of heroic hunt n’ peck — on a Hermes Ambassador (I think), among others! TRUMBO — coming to theaters everywhere!
Filed under Analog Events, Hermes Ambassador, manual typewriter, screenwriting
Philly’s PRETZEL PARK Type-IN gets some media coverage
WHYY/Newsworks was nice enough to send a photog/reporter to cover last Saturdays clack-a-thon in the park. Have to laugh that the first photo is of me obviously chiding a young person: “Errrmph! Please type with just two fingers to avoid key jams–it’s like you’ve never used a manual typewriter before, really!”
Here’s the link to the Newsworks story.
And here are a few pics:
Young people encounter vintage typing machines…
Bryan Kruk always brings some lovely machines; here’s a pair of Olivetti ICOs — one in matte black and one in a glossy piano black. Bellissimo, Mr. K!
Ah, such a crisp design could only foster concision!
Let’s have a closer look at that OLIVETTI ICO, shall we? What’s really astonishing is that this machine types as beautifully as it looks! Thank you, men and women of Olivetti, S.A.
The Remington Agenda
At Lucky’s Last Chance in Manayunk; typing up the agenda for Saturday’s Type-IN! (Olivetti Lettera 32 fueled with vintage Anheuser-Busch letterhead. Tomorrow: gather up chintzy prizes for the Speed Contest, ha. 
Typewriters Clack Up The Crowd At Philly Tech Week Kick-Off Jam
OK, Chris Wink, one of the co-founders of Technically Philly (and featured in an earlier post here) , invited us to set up a Mini-Type-IN at the opening bash of Philly Tech Week. We trundled an Olivetti Lettera 22, an Olympia SM9, and several hundred sheets of bond paper into Dilworth Plaza next to City Hall. Surrounded by scores of tables packed with the latest circuitry, we were prepared to be mocked, or worse, ignored, by tech-centric millennials. Au Contraire, Claire!
We wore out our voicebox explaining the two machines; there was a line of thrilled first-time-typists (and a few nostalgists as well) waiting to get a clack at our machines from the opening bleep till closing (nearly 30 minutes over the limit). Parents boasted to their disbelieving kids, “I used to write actual homework assignments on one of those.” Satisfied neo-typists dashed off clutching the “hard copy” they’d stamped out with their force of their own little digits. We hope to see some of these fresh young faces at the Type-IN on May 16th in Manayunk! Thanks, Philly Tech Week, for letting some classic QWERTY operators hang out with the chipsters!
Filed under Analog Events, manual typewriter, Olivetti Lettera 22, Olympia SM9
SAVE THE DATE: May 16th Philly Type-IN (exclamation point)
Pretzel Park will catch the clack clique on May 16th.
Filed under Analog Events, manual typewriter
Tweens Take Over Philly Type-IN!
When you schedule a Type-IN and it turns out to be set right next to a big Pumpkin Fest for kids, you toss the program out the window and just keep loading paper into those machines and unsticking the occasional rugby scrum of type bars. These Tweens dug typing, and we went way over schedule. Michael Ardito of Hometown Business Machines helped with crowd control, brought a stack of his typewriters and gave out a lot of cards. He also answered some typewriter history and technology questions from the kids. Numerous parents had whispered Xmas present conversations, about which we can say no more, nudge, nudge, wink-wink!
This young man comes from a typewriter-equipped home; he set to and immediately began a chapter story.
This is about the fifth set of typers we had on the machines–and we had a blast. Thanks to one and all.
Here’s a group pic of tomorrow’s typists!
phillytyper 