Saturday, May 21, 2011

New (to me) Royal Portable

Actually, it looks as if it new. Beautiful paint and bright nickel accents makes this machine look very fancy. It's in absolutely pristine condition. This machine came with another Royal portable that I will post later. It also is in great shape.




What's amazing is that there is very little yellowing of the keys. As you can see above, they have stayed uniformly white. Wonderful machine. I think I'll expand this post a little later, but in the meantime I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

The HH in Advertising

If you've read once, you've read a thousand times that I love the Royal Standard HH. Apart from being the most amazing standard desktop machine, it was also the subject of some of Royal's most mid-century advertising. Each one is rife with the subtle sexism of the decade, but it makes them no less enjoyable. So, please enjoy this little gallery.

Pink typewriters improve office morale!

Romancing the Royal.


Is it a little troubling that I want one in each color?


Put an HH on the back of your Vespa and that'll be the end of you.


Tuesday, May 17, 2011

It'll Be A Blast!


Yesterday my email account had four RSVPs for the Typewriter Round-Up. So far it looks like we are on-track for almost twice as many as the last event!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Summer Typing

There is no holiday for the typewriter!
As the regular school year winds to a close, the Classroom Typewriter Project winds to a close too. I've started dusting typewriters, taking out ribbons, and packing up the typewriters in their cases. All of this work was going fine until I found out that I was hired for summer school. This means that the machines will get some use in the month of June.

Summer school in our district is credit-recovery, so the class will be filled with Juniors and Seniors who happened to fail the first semester of Junior English. Right now, I have 18 registered and that means we will be nearly 1:1 in terms of typewriters. With this kind of typewriter to student ratio I can start to really construct an idea of how low-performing students can benefit from using a typewriter in class.

There is a type of writing instruction called Writer's Workshop. The idea of this pedagogical approach is to give the students greater freedom in selecting the subjects for their own writing. Academic and creative writing are given equal weight. I think that this is how we will approach writing this summer, but I am going to add the typewriter twist. Workshop does contain a reading component, however when it comes to literature, we will keep it traditional.

The summer might be time off for some, but in my little classroom you will still hear the clack of typebars. I guess I better start unpacking those typewriters.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Blickcast I: Wherein the Author Hunts & Pecks

When you know where the keys are you can focus on the writing rather than where the letters are.


Isn't that question mark great?

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Phoenix's Typewriter Repairman Video

Bill Wahl, a local typewriter celebrity, was featured on a segment on Arizona Highways TV this Sunday evening. Take a look at the video embedded below.