back to analogue?
Because money is very short at the moment my weekly breakfast in My Favourite Cafe, has turned into a weekly coffee in My Favourite Cafe. That’s fine, the coffee is very good and I can make myself something good to eat before I go out.
What’s sadder is that my post-weekly breakfast (or coffee) wander around town has been changed in a huge way due the closure of Woolworths. In my little town, Woolworths used to be a major stopping off point and the place to buy all manner of things (including the very dear to my heart, pens and post-it notes). Now it’s gone (along with all the jobs that it supported).
Now I’ve instigated a new routine. After my Saturday coffee I head, often with my friend N, for a look around the large secondhand furniture and bric-Ã -brac store run by the Salvation Army. The place holds an ever changing selection of treasures. Last week I found a video for 20p, this week I was drawling over a typewriter.
After year’s of using a computer I’ve forgotten how lovely a typewriter’s keys feel, how the amount of pressure used on the keys dictates the sharpness of the printed letter on the paper. I have a craving to go back to analogue, at least for some things. Indeed I suppose the quiet pace of my life at the moment could be described as rather analogue, at least in comparison to the often busy, multi-tasking world epitomised by most things digital…
The digital world has done away with a lot of the texture and sounds and smells of things. The smell of the ink and the ribbon is what I get when I think about typewriters (as well as the clack of the keys).
I wish there was a computer keyboard that smelled and felt like a typewriter.
Oh, Michael, that is a lovely drawing of a typewritter. Did you bring it home?
What color is it? I used to love the feel of the shift keys and how they lifted the whole carriage up to move the upper case letters into position to strike the ribbon and the page below. Of course the bell at the end of the line was another delight, letter keys hammering then the ding of the bell warning to push the return. I miss it but you have to get your fingers in shape to get those old manual typewriters to work. The downside is no erasing without a real eraser to clean off the ink or white out paint.
After all the effort that has gone into the development of modern sound equipment, I hear that those who know still prefer old vinyl records for the warmth of the sound. Maybe some forms of analogue technology are really worth keeping … or are will all becoming old foggies
can I put a big shout out for Holga cameras WITH PROPER FILM IN THEM and Super8 AGAIN WITH PROPER FILM IN THEM. The people who try and lay ‘film effects’ on in the post production process are probably the kind of people who try and pass shop bought cake as homemade… herrrumph
Agreed Stephen, I love the clack, clack too, though I seem to remember when I used a typewriter a lot at home in my teens my family were less enamoured!
I didn’t buy this one Frederick (it’s black btw), but I did find one very much like my first typewriter in a charity shop a few months ago that I did buy. I had plans to type some blog entries but I need to find a new ribbon somewhere…
Robyn, @creativevoyage, I’m conflicted when it comes to the analogue/digital debate. I love paper and pens, but use a graphics tablet too. I’m very fond of my my iPod but definitely vote for homemade cake!
I got sucked into a nostalgic reverie recently and bought a lovely red Olivetti Valentine at a Boot Sake for £3(http://www.flickr.com/photos/thetourist/46649640/)
:brought up all sorts of lovely imaginings of Swinging London and writing a novel in a 60s mews in Chelsea. Sadly the reality didn’t match up — looked fantastic but typing with it was ghastly: slow and sticky. Ashamed to say I sold it on EBay but I made a good profit and bought a new hard drive for my laptop. Analaogue Shmanalogue ;0)
@cusp, this did make me smile (I still am). I’m glad you found the Olivetti, enjoyed it for a while and then made enough from selling it to get yourself something shiny and digital.
It does look beautiful. I’m sure it would have been lovely to draw too (either with pen and ink or laptop and graphics tablet).
Very sad about Woolworths. It was always busy, too, in Aberystwyth.
I think I know your favourite cafe. It is also my favourite cafe in Aberystwyth.
I like going to Oxfam. Some people I know work there sometimes. I love Pollys, too – Mark, my partner, treated me with a lovely beetle brooch before Christmas which I am wearing – and must take a photo of.
I remember learning to type – not touch-type – on my mum’s typewriter in my home-village of Eichenberg. I remember my dad using it. Tip, tip, tip, tip….super drawing, Michael!
Kind regards – and no colds, Annette