Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 6, 2020 20:18:05 GMT -8
California Typewriter
This 2016 documentary is about the small band of holdout typewriter enthusiasts (including Tom Hanks) and one of the last repair/sales shops to be found. It’s a small shop in Berkeley, California.
The documentary starts off promising to be a rich trip down memory lane. But it runs on too long with too much boring ideology about kicking the digital age, especially in the latter half.
But aspects of it are excellent. When you hear Hanks and a few writers (including David McCullough) waxing poetic on the tactile experience of the manual typewriter as opposed to a computer, you’ll know that they are onto something. One fellow there (a songwriter) notes that if you type something on a piece of paper, you have a tangible thing. And he says that, in theory, the files on your hard drive are forever. But, in practice, they are soon forgotten.
Hanks and others note that no one prints out an email from someone and frames it on their wall. But they showed a thank you note (Oscar Wilde) that a famous person typed to someone that someone else had collected and framed. The musician made a good remark as well about having typed lyrics to help prove authenticity.
David McCullough had an excellent comment as well speaking of the typewritten speeches and manuscripts of presidents and others which are marked up with corrections and changes. There is some history to be gained from reading these. You can see perhaps who wrote what. But in a vanilla text file in a computer, you have no idea who may have contributed what to a speech.
Someone also noted that in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame they have many exhibits of handwritten (or type written) lyrics from famous songs as the songs were being first imagined. And you can see where the authors changed things. In some cases, you can see how the song evolved as the artist worked it out.
Unfortunately, the various others who commented on the advantages of old technology engaged in way too much navel gazing. Plus, there was darn little history of the typewriter included. But there was some. And what was included was good. But for a documentary on typewriters, fewer musings from Berkeley libtards and more hard data would have been nice.
The other (and eventually overdone) aspect was that small shop in Berkeley called California Typewriter. You quickly come to admire their passion and dedication to an old craft. You’ll love the fact that they are saving and maintaining treasures from a golden age. But, again, they show damn little of actual repairs. It just keeps going over and over how neat the shop is. It is neat, but we got that in the first paragraph. Now show us more.
Still, it is an unusual documentary. And if you are a throwback as I am regarding technology, you’ll love it. They even noted that you can download Hanx Writer for iOS or Android. It’s a product (free, with in-app purchases) from Tom Hanks. I downloaded it and it’s fun to play around with.
Although littered with irrelevancies and libtard indulgences, there is enough excellent content (especially in the first half) that it is well worth watching.
This is a fairly recent documentary. And the main theme of the guys who owned the shop was that they were just barely getting by, but that they would hang in there. There is some suggestion near the end that when they finally started a web site and advertised on social media that they began to do much better. But when I called their number today in Berkeley (510-845-3780), the number is listed as no long in services.
They have a website but it doesn’t look as if it’s been updated for some time. If you use Google Maps and take a look at the street view, it still seems to be in business. Maybe they were just getting so many calls because of the documentary that the pulled the plug on the phone line. But the same situation seems to occur on Facebook. The information is old and there is a user posting there that says calls are not returned.
Perhaps Black Lives Matter or Antifa has disrupted their business. Or KFF. It would be interesting to see what’s going on. I was going to call and see if they had a workable typewriter for sale in the $200.00 range just to support them. If anyone has an idea for how to pursue this further, let me know. I’d love to find out if they are still in business.
This 2016 documentary is about the small band of holdout typewriter enthusiasts (including Tom Hanks) and one of the last repair/sales shops to be found. It’s a small shop in Berkeley, California.
The documentary starts off promising to be a rich trip down memory lane. But it runs on too long with too much boring ideology about kicking the digital age, especially in the latter half.
But aspects of it are excellent. When you hear Hanks and a few writers (including David McCullough) waxing poetic on the tactile experience of the manual typewriter as opposed to a computer, you’ll know that they are onto something. One fellow there (a songwriter) notes that if you type something on a piece of paper, you have a tangible thing. And he says that, in theory, the files on your hard drive are forever. But, in practice, they are soon forgotten.
Hanks and others note that no one prints out an email from someone and frames it on their wall. But they showed a thank you note (Oscar Wilde) that a famous person typed to someone that someone else had collected and framed. The musician made a good remark as well about having typed lyrics to help prove authenticity.
David McCullough had an excellent comment as well speaking of the typewritten speeches and manuscripts of presidents and others which are marked up with corrections and changes. There is some history to be gained from reading these. You can see perhaps who wrote what. But in a vanilla text file in a computer, you have no idea who may have contributed what to a speech.
Someone also noted that in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame they have many exhibits of handwritten (or type written) lyrics from famous songs as the songs were being first imagined. And you can see where the authors changed things. In some cases, you can see how the song evolved as the artist worked it out.
Unfortunately, the various others who commented on the advantages of old technology engaged in way too much navel gazing. Plus, there was darn little history of the typewriter included. But there was some. And what was included was good. But for a documentary on typewriters, fewer musings from Berkeley libtards and more hard data would have been nice.
The other (and eventually overdone) aspect was that small shop in Berkeley called California Typewriter. You quickly come to admire their passion and dedication to an old craft. You’ll love the fact that they are saving and maintaining treasures from a golden age. But, again, they show damn little of actual repairs. It just keeps going over and over how neat the shop is. It is neat, but we got that in the first paragraph. Now show us more.
Still, it is an unusual documentary. And if you are a throwback as I am regarding technology, you’ll love it. They even noted that you can download Hanx Writer for iOS or Android. It’s a product (free, with in-app purchases) from Tom Hanks. I downloaded it and it’s fun to play around with.
Although littered with irrelevancies and libtard indulgences, there is enough excellent content (especially in the first half) that it is well worth watching.
This is a fairly recent documentary. And the main theme of the guys who owned the shop was that they were just barely getting by, but that they would hang in there. There is some suggestion near the end that when they finally started a web site and advertised on social media that they began to do much better. But when I called their number today in Berkeley (510-845-3780), the number is listed as no long in services.
They have a website but it doesn’t look as if it’s been updated for some time. If you use Google Maps and take a look at the street view, it still seems to be in business. Maybe they were just getting so many calls because of the documentary that the pulled the plug on the phone line. But the same situation seems to occur on Facebook. The information is old and there is a user posting there that says calls are not returned.
Perhaps Black Lives Matter or Antifa has disrupted their business. Or KFF. It would be interesting to see what’s going on. I was going to call and see if they had a workable typewriter for sale in the $200.00 range just to support them. If anyone has an idea for how to pursue this further, let me know. I’d love to find out if they are still in business.
