California Typewriter Page #10

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- I'm not...

- You're not gettin' it yet?

- Look, are you?

Looks kinda somehow uneven.

That looks okay, that one maybe

should go on the other side.

- That's what

I'm thinkin', yeah,

that can go over there, yeah.

- Yeah, put that over there.

- [Richard] Typewriters are

a so called thing of the past

so people sometimes turn to them

in an attempt to

recapture the past.

- [Ken] How we

lookin', how we lookin'?

- I think it looks good,

I think it looks way better.

- It's a way to

travel back in time

to a previous period in history.

I've come to see typewriters

less as objects of nostalgia

than signs of a future,

signs of something

that's going to happen.

There's a slow movement afoot.

People realizing that

not everything has to be

completely efficient,

not everything has to be

goal oriented, but you can

enjoy the process itself.

You could compare typing to

the slow cooking movement,

the point is not to eat as

efficiently as possible,

the point is to take your time.

And efficiency is not

the paramount value,

the point is to enjoy

what you're doing.

- Afraid that you can

talk to your own friends,

but how do we take that

video calling experience

and really make it social?

In fact, you can only

video call with people

who've already accepted

your friend request.

- [Richard] Computers,

they're great tools,

but they're also seductive

and they take away

some of our power sometimes.

- It's gonna be

a one-click toggle

to change between these modes.

- [Richard] There's

a fine line between

having something help you and

having you be dependent on it.

- [Woman] We have

facial detection,

which actually tells

you if someone's home.

- [Woman] You have face alerts,

if someone walks

into the living room,

you can receive a face alert.

- I don't wanna find out

tomorrow what happened today.

I wanna find out within

seconds or microseconds,

if possible.

Social media allows

everyone to know everything

about everyone.

- We added a little

accelerometer inside the sensor,

you're actually

gonna get a vibration

to let you know to

stand up straight.

And it takes all

your data points,

and then the real secret

sauce is where our engineers

had made all the algorithms

that take all this data

and actually turn it into

insights and information.

- There'll be always those

people who are against it,

but I think for the most part,

people'll start to

come around to it.

- I was having this

rebellious moment,

this feeling of being

sick of the digital world,

how intrusive it is, how pesky

it is, how invasive it is.

And I went to my typewriter

and wrote down a manifesto.

(clicking)

(motivational music)

"We assert our right

to resist the Paradigm.

"To rebel against the

Information Regime.

"To escape the Data Stream.

"We strike a blow

for self-reliance,

privacy, coherence

"against dependency,

surveillance, and

disintegration.

"We affirm the written

word and written thought

"against multimedia,

multitasking, and the meme.

"We choose the real

over representation,

"the physical over the digital,

"the durable over

the unsustainable.

"The self sufficient

over the efficient."

(clicking)

(inspirational music)

(whirring)

After I wrote it, I put

it through the scanner

and shared it online.

Then I put a little

note on my blog saying,

Psst, visit this website

where you can find it

and people did.

They started copying it,

retyping it, sharing it.

Here's somebody who

translated it into Italian,

here's a translation

into Serbian.

Then in a few weeks, I started

getting postcards, letters

in my mailbox from the

insurgency around the world.

The revolution reached

the village of Graubunden,

located in the Southern

Valley, agent Neckerman Jr.

"Greetings from

the insurrection,

"we are pleased to inform

you that typewriters

"are now mandatory in every

tower and minaret east of Paris.

"Unfortunately it was

not a bloodless coup.

"Sometimes the unenlightened

must be shown the error

"of their wicked ways.

"We are confident that

every public building,

"and every hamlet,

village, and city,

"will soon resonate with the

glorious clatter of type bars

"falling upon paper.

"It is never too late

to experience the joys

"of our mechanical friends."

"Freedom must always be freedom

"for those who think

differently," Rosa Luxemburg.

"Comrade Polt, this month

I visited a foreign country

"where I hope to make

contact with a new cell

"of the insurgency, workers

of the Typosphere unite."

This one came in

recently from Alabama.

"This dispatch comes from

the province known among

"the cognoscente

as the Magic City.

"Natives here express

satisfaction at

the recent contact

"with the glorious

revolutionaries

"of the London Town Directorate

"and hold themselves

in readiness for

further instructions

"from the Politburo.

"Vive l'insurgencie."

Communique ends.

From Melbourne, Australia.

"Typewriter writers

of Melbourne, unite.

"Bring out your

weapons of writing

"and write in the

streets, in the parks,

"at the football.

"Write like every word matters.

"We watch our movement to

grow stronger every day.

"The revolution will

be typewritten."

(soft piano music)

- Sometimes I feel

homesick for a place

I can never really get back to.

My father died last June,

he was 86.

Eventually, the house

will have to be sold.

The house was the house

that people came to to play,

it was where my friends came,

it was the adventure playground.

I can see myself in

10, 15, 20 years,

walking along the river

and approaching my parents'

house from the valley.

I come down here and imagine

the pleasures of childhood

that were had here.

- [Herb] Want something

to drink, here?

- Yeah, lemonade, medium.

- Oh okay.

What's up?

- Right here good?

- [Herb] Yeah, that's fine.

(humming)

- [Ken] Herb decided not to

take the offer on the building.

He decided, well let's just

not give up hope yet on it,

let's see if we can

keep this thing going.

We realized we needed a website.

- The whole typewriter thing

seems to be a fad right now,

but I think it's more than that.

All these kids out there

wanting typewriters,

the only way they're

gonna see that is online.

(clacking)

(beep)

It seems funny that the only

way that California Typewriter

will be able to survive is

by embracing new technology.

Using social

networking in a website

just to tell people

that they exist.

Here it is, update.

- Okay.

- It's gonna say

update on your main,

it's way easier on the app.

They can manage their

promotion through the web.

I just took a great picture of

an Instagram post

that says something.

Yeah, they won't have

to wait for anybody

to come into their

store anymore.

Here I'm gonna say this

super clean, little beauty.

They can arrange repairs

and ship typewriters.

$440?

- [Carmen] Yeah, $440.

- [Jeremy] And they can stay

in that space, happy there,

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