Politics and typewriters in the halls of power.

 

Rob in front of the 'red zone'

.... Sometime in the 1980's.

The phone was hung up with a slam rather than a gentle hanging up. It was a 70's era wall-phone and the give in the plastic immediately bounced the handset back out of the cradle.

"Keating is a f***ing prat. He's more right-wing than f***ing Fraser was".

My mother had quite a way with words. The Keating that she was talking about was the then federal treasurer Paul Keating who she was lobbying for funding for disabled services. Before she developed Multiple Sclerosis my mother was ferociously passionate about politics and social justice, and a champion swearer. Both characteristics that she passed on to me, however that's a story for another blog entry.

After she developed MS, she was just the same, but a lot more focused. Comparing Keating to former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser was, for members of the Australian Labor Party like her, an extreme insult. Keating would eventually become Prime Minister of Australia and my mother's campaigning would one day be part of the foundation of what was to eventually become the 'National Disability Insurance Scheme'.

Later, my mother would proudly hang a letter of thanks from Keating (by then the prime minister of Australia) on the wall next to her recliner. As if to put Keating in his place, his letter was over-shadowed by another frame above his the contained a thank-you from Nelson Mandela.

My mother was ferocious when it came to politics. She was loaded to the hilt with insecurities (just like me), but in debate she could verbally rip people apart.

My sister and I were in training from a very early stage in the art of politics. My parent taught my primary school aged sister and myself how to campaign against a new rule the school had brought in that required kids to spend one lunch time a week cleaning up rubbish from the school yard. We petitioned the school with signatures from other students that had barely learned to write their name, and we'd brewed up unrest amongst the students. Soon something that started out as an exercise in learning about politics came dangerously close to having a real impact. The school attempted to ban the petition, but my sister and my 11 year old self asserted our civil liberties and soon parents were questioning the administration why their kids were being used as garbage collectors.

A school council meeting was organised, and my parents were summoned. My father was part of that council which made things interesting, and by the end of the evening certain provisions were offered in lieu of cessation of the petition. I got a lesson in the complexities of politics, and the school was able to go back to teaching kids how to care and be responsible for their environment.

And not forgetting THIS little type-in

Guzman y Gomez is a Mexican restaurant that is incredibly casual and relaxed, while the food is utterly amazing. The first shop opened up in Fortitude Valley a few years ago, and at the time it was placed nicely along the path I used to take from my old apartment in New Farm, to the hospital that Jane and I worked at.

Often Jane would work much later than myself, so I would often jump on my motorbike, spin by GYG and grab a bag with some burritos and stuff, and just rock up to Jane's office with a magnificent little portable dinner. I think it helped both of us keep our sanity during some pretty tough times.

I soon came to call it 'Mexican Crack' as it was almost addictive in its quality.

Those days are gone now. I miss living in New Farm, but then again GYG is now a fully-fledged chain restaurant and there's one about 10 minutes from where I currently live.

But Fortitude Valley, a district of Brisbane which is well known as the entertainment strip of the city - as well as for its very seedy past, always has a bit of romance to it that you won't find in some suburban shopping centre. And I felt it would be an interesting little spot to bust out with an impromptu type-in.

The benches at GYG are very conducive to having a few typewriters (along with food and alcohol) on them, and I just thought.... why not?

So Natalie an I popped into Ruby the Exxy and headed into the Valley to meet Steve Snow with a couple of my traveller machines that had excellent 'office in a case' covers.

We sat down, ate and talked. And eventually we busted out the typewriters and gave them a bit of a work-out. Oddly, it wasn't long till we attracted the attention of some kids at a table near by and we were soon enjoying the company of a very curious 8 year old girl, and an 11 year old boy.

It was lovely. I spend so much of my time at work just looking after sick children, that I found myself sitting back just enjoying the curiosity and enthusiasm of a couple of well ones for a change. There's something about curiosity that no matter how old you are, you always feel young when you indulge your own curiosity. 

It wasn't long before the two kids got their hands onto my typewriters - and then it was on for young and old as the kids found games that they could place with the two machines that they could both get into. While the boy was a proficient speller, the younger girl wasn't quite so good at forming sentences. But the young chap was happy for her to lead the play on the two typewriters, and it seemed incredibly civil. 

Every so often Natalie or Steve or even myself would wrestle control of one of the typewriters back, and we'd attempt to do some typing - maybe even writing a typecast. But before we could finish there would inevitably be some kind of demand made by our new audience, and we were soon back to playing games again. And it was fun! 

Natalie made a good stab at writing a children's story. A little while later the young girl asked me to write a story that involved 'A Shark and a Whale'. 

My very improvised 'Shark and a whale' story. (thanks Nat)

Natalie's Story. 

Yeah, my story seems like jumbled rubbish, but then again... That's what all the best kids stories do, right? 

Anyway. Another girl, a teenager from the same group soon came over, and she popped onto my Triumph Tippa and started writing something to a friend of hers. Photos of the letter still in the typewriter were taken, and facebooked - and soon she left with her copy of her secret tale in hand. And once again another piece of type-written love is out there in the community. 

We eventually packed the typewriters up and left the Valley. It was a lovely night, so Steve and I thought we'd show Natalie the view from Mt Coot-tha that looks across the city. 

An older photo of mine taken of the view at the top of the mountain. 

After that we ended up back at Steve Snow's place where we inspected some of the machines that he had stored up under his bed. Steve had a typewriter that belonged to a friend of his that had been filled with flood waters, and he had told them he'd have a look at getting it going. Steve was slightly optimistic about his prospects, but just wasn't sure what he'd be able to achieve. Of course, I get my claws onto it and without the assistance of anything other than a screw-driver I soon had the machine coming back to life. With a bit of a clean and a few tweaks I'd be confident that Steve would soon have another working Remington. 

I have never met a Remington so far that I haven't been able to fix. Maybe my Grandfather's somehow powering that through some kind of weird channeling across the universe, time and space. 

Naaah. 

I think Natalie was in love with Steve's Noiseless! 

So what can I say. A great night was had amongst friends and typewriter lovers and curious kids. It was lovely, and made for a great weekend. 

Ah. So my writerly love. 

Pt 7 - Of Submarines and Typewriters.

bing.............. bing........... bing..........

A hotel for kings and queens, surely! 

The sweet little display just inside Rob's front door. 

Feeeeeeeel the blick love.

A bit of Remington 2 love, while you're at it. 

A tired eyed yours truly, and the Standard folding with my name on it. (Robs blog)

Oh dear... look at those bags under my eyes. 

Ahhhhhh.... Next day.

Part of the display

Red! I see Red! And I see three typewriters I would LOVE to have. 

Rob fires up the Masspro, while Jane checks out the photos she had been taking. 

Rob giving Jasper his coveted (and genuinely rare) Nippo P-200

Now in Jasper's hands - where it may still do some literary damage. 

There's some interesting typewriters that I'll be posting about soon, that I picked up from Rob. Once again Rob, thanks for having us.

Brisbane Type-in 2014 March 9.

Just a quick reminder that the Brisbane Type-in is still going ahead. I've yet to settle on a venue, as the original site that I had booked informed me that a large party was going to take place in the room next door, and were likely to be 'very noisy', so I've canned that and I'm searching for a new venue.

Please, if you are interested in coming, mail me  to let me know.

I'll announce the new venue as soon as possible.

For the rest of you, set the date in your calendar. Natalie from NatsLapTaps is coming all the way from Darwin and I believe that Rob Messenger is still working on his plans. I'm busy trying to decide which of my machines to drag along! (as well as packing house, but that's a different matter...)

***EDIT*** Steve K of Writelephant will be there, as well as Steve Snow from the Impatient Typewriter Mechanic. And of course - John lavery, our long suffering technical adviser over at McTaggart's Workshop.
****

See you all soon.

And yes, both of those photos in the poster are mine, so don't fret about copyright.

January Newsflash

Hot off the press news from Platen HQ. 

New to the Junkyard....

Type-in, and type-in workshop news.  

A QWERTY Blick 8. Speaking of 8.....

One more thing...

Mmmmm diamonds. Made in 1922.  

So... do you type-in here often?

It was a glorious Sunday morning, but I was feeling in far from magnificent form. I crawled out of bed with aching muscles, and a rather sore head. I was very tired after the week's adjustment to my new (old) job.

I caught up with some of the activity from the Typosphere online, while listening to the congregation of the Samoan community church about half a block away as they belted out harmonies that instantly made me feel I was on a tropical island somewhere. I then cooked up a breakfast and got some typewriters ready.

Mr Pinky Beecroft was the first to be added to the pile. He's a pink Lettera 22 which I've been readying as a gift to 'Baroness'. My friend Mars had made a tentative gesture that she was interested in coming, so I picked out my Script Royalite 220 for her. I then rounded off my collection with my chrome Royal, which was going to be its debut outing.

I thought I could bluff my way past the tiredness. But after looking at both Robert's photos, and others taken by Ms Jane I realised that I probably didn't carry off 'tired' with the grace and elegance that I thought I had.

Not to worry.

I got to the Breakfast creek hotel at a time approaching about 1:30. Loaded with typewriters and other bits, I did a quick cursory look around the hotel to find the museum room - but didn't quite seem to find it. As it turned out, I had. My understanding was that we'd had the room booked for just us. But they had shuffled in a few extra plastic tables - which were filled by patrons of the pub having their lunch. Some of which turned out to be Rob Messenger, John and Margaret. (I hope I got that spelling correct)

The pub was mostly standing room only. It was the first cool but sunny day that we'd had for a month, and the hoteliers were scrambling to find enough space to put everyone in the massive complex. People were fighting (politely) over parking spots in the car park - not to mention every disabled parking spot had been filled by cars that were missing the requisite sticker.

There was a little anxiety at first about setting out our machines in what appeared to be a room of the bar. But by the time I had laid out my three machines, and a few other people had put theirs on the table, it was pretty obvious that we were dominating the room.

Other patrons around us started to look confused, and oddly anxious themselves as we set up our glistening writing machines on the table. But they soon relaxed, and in fact some of them even came over and tried a few of them out!

I helped John get a handful of his machines out from the back of his car, and as I did a lady drove past me and called my name. I turned around and was greeted by a smiling face. "I'm Kate"! she said.

Kate drove off to find a parking spot, while I carried in Johns Visigraph machine. I walked through the complex with this heavy but beautiful piece of machinery cradled in my arms, while people gazed at me in surprise as I passed them. The looks were priceless.

Before long Steve Snow turned up with a handful of machines. He carefully placed a Corona 3 and a Corona 4 on the table, before unzipping a mushroom Lettera 22 that was in excellent condition, which he sat next to Mr Pinky Beecroft.

Kate had a small case on wheels, which she extracted a lovely Royal Deluxe out of. The machine still clung to the dust of its many years, but was actually in much better condition than the difficult to clean crinkle paint let on. The machine felt snappy and tight, and would probably scrub up to be an amazing little machine. But in its current state it was a charming machine. I'd never quite seen one line it before.

At the other end of the bench John's astonishingly beautiful Royal 5 flatbed was ruling the roost. This machine is in amazing condition. ...and someone had just slotted in a piece of paper. I couldn't help myself. I had wanted to try one of these for a very long time, and I have to say - I wasn't disappointed.

Definitely the Queen Royal, flanked by the prince and princess. 

John's Visigraph was also attracting a lot of attention. I myself had never seen a machine setup so beautifully. It typed very well too - with the exception of the missing 'e' from the type-stub.

Between them say my Chrome Royal P. My chrome machine looked so small and insignificant between them. But its shiny looks made it an unmissable machine. The customised keys also attracted a lot of attention - but I'll tell you more about this machine at a later date. (i.e. when it is actually finished)

Mr Pinky Beecroft seemed to be the darling of the show to the women that wandered past. Most of the visitors that we had drop onto a chair and start typing, almost invariably gave Pinky a go. Sure - they also had a go at other machines, but Pinky was never  close to being lonely for most of the day. Which was odd... because he wasn't the best to type on.

Rino's Hermes 3000 was there too. The BMX tyre repair seemed to have worked beautifully on it. I'm even inclined to try it on a machine or two of my own now. Or at least, when I have the time. The keyboard was quite a surprise though, and Rino suggested that it was German. But I wasn't quite so sure. I'm going to have to do a bit more research on this.

The Royalite 220 surprised a lot of people, and I saw Rino giving it a go on several occasions. On the other hand, the Everest Mod 90 surprised me with its magnificent feel. I loved it! It was a great machine. However it sadly drew short of being perfect (in my opinion) with its awfully long arcing carriage lever.

A young blond lady sat down at Pinky, and asked if she could give him a go. "Sure"! We replied almost unanimously. The lady pressed down on a key and nothing seemed to happen, so I simply told her "Give that key a good hit. Don't be shy of it"!

And so she did, and she was off and writing.

Or at least until she asked "Where's the return key"?

People seemed to be largely enjoying themselves. I got to meet new people. They got to meet each other, and Steve got some great advice on how to fix his Smith Premier machine.

Rino and Kate were both very interesting to chat to. 

And I got a book! Rino left me with a copy of his "Song logic - essays in Music" - which a cursory look at gave me the feeling that it will intelligently accompany some of the themes introduced in Craig Schuftan's "Hey Nietzsche! Leave them kids alone" book that I'd read a little while ago. I'm looking forward to spending some time with it.

Meanwhile..... 

There was knitting..... 

* * *

We had a few people drop in from the outside bar, the inside bar, and the other bars - to take a look. Some of them were even brave enough to sit at the keyboards and give it a try. My initial anxiety about being in such an exposed area turned out to make the day all the more enjoyable.

Eventually we packed up our machines and headed home. I brought my car around along side Robert's in the quickly emptying car park, and transferred a few machines that Rob had picked up from Scienceworks into the boot of my car. A large family wandered by and a small army of heads turned. Pointing at and IBM Selectric a woman announced to her children "That's what we used for a computer when I was a kid". It must have been the Selectric, as I very much doubt it would have been the Remington 7 that I was holding between my arms at the time.

 We'd decided to make this an annual event, so those who missed out this year, all I can say is: don't be such a pussy, and come next year. Although, we're probably not going to have it in a pub next time.

Soon everyone had driven off into the sunset. Ms Jane and I returned inside and got ourselves a nice breakfast creek dinner,  and by the time I got home I was exhausted. I left home with 3 typewriters, and came back with 7. Carrying them up the stairs into my house almost proved my downfall - literally. But I was still too excited not to have a bit of a play with the Remington 7.

But that's another project for another day.