Well, as is my usual way, I posted my first assignment too late to make the cut. If this was a marked paper, I would have again gotten a talking-to by the Prof. As it is, there is no grading, no judgement, so we can just look ahead to the next sunrise and start again.
Joe issued Typewriter Assignment #2 today, and you can read about it on his latest blog post.
The sheer variety of possibilities that one can write about in response to Joe's assignment is what excites me about the typewriter. Writing is fun, but writing on a TYPEWRITER! Whoo-eee, that changes things completely! To many, writing is writing is writing. But the sheer creative excitement I feel when a new thought, story or picture pops into my mind is amplified by the sensory and tactile pleasure at being able to execute it with ink ribbon, type-bar and paper. You SEE it when it hits the paper, and you have made a commitment, something that we as a society sometimes seem to have a problem with.
Alas.....
This assignment was planned and executed on a 1959 Olympia SM4, a nice clean unit I recently bought from Don Nathan, the guitar/typewriter chap out on the West coast whom I met during a recent trip to visit family. I ended up buying three Olympia's from him, this SM4 with beautiful rust/brown crinkle paint, a smooth white SM5 and a dull but solid 1969 grey keyed SM9. Thanks Don! (You can find the link to his eclectic blog on the right)
Anyhow, here is the SM4
And here is my assignment for submission. This time, its in EARLY!
Here for the original
One of the YouTube channels I follow is Joe Van Cleave. Joe posts a number of great videos on two of my favorite things, typewriters and office supplies (I know, its weird to some folks). Anyhow, Joe had a great idea a few weeks ago in which he is going to be posting assignments for people to use their typewriters and upload their typed work (the 'typecast') back to the net.
Joe's blog can be found HERE
I think this is a wonderful idea to create collaboration and involve more people and their typewriters in the digital medium we call the 'net.
I wrote this piece on my Olivetti Lettera DL, a rebel-without-a-cause looking biker typewriter that works very well and had a new ribbon.
So here I include my first typewriter assignment, #1. The work this week was to give life to the typewriter and how it found me. I was general in my approach and soon found that putting my thoughts on paper was going to turn into a short story vs the 1-page only that the rules called for. When I get going on a typewriter, its hard to keep it in a box.
You can refer to Joe's post on the assignment for the rules/guidelines.
