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L.T. Hanlon

Category: Travel

Typewriters highlight museum exhibit

June 22, 2019June 22, 2019 L.T. Hanlon4 Comments
Photo of several people using some of the eight typewriters available for visitors to try out at the American Writers Museum in Chicago.
Test driving typewriters is a big attraction at Chicago’s American Writers Museum, which just opened its “Tools of the Trade” exhibit.

Oops! Never mind my comment below about the birthyear of Gwendolyn Brooks’ Hermes Rocket. I totally misread that as “1954.” It actually is from 1964 — and I wish I were of a similar vintage!

This photo of a typewritten page shows the following. Saturday, June 22, 2019, Chicago, USA. Smith-Corona Silent—Super; 1954; Pica. Museum exhibit is just my type. Thanks to my ex-boss Laura Strom, I got to accompany her to the preview of a new exhibit at Chicago's American Writers Museum called Tools of the Trade. It’s about typewriters mostly. In addition, visitors can test drive the actual models that  are featured in most of the displays. I especially enjoyed trying out an Olympia SG—1 and appreciated its snappy, powerful operation. Another outstanding model on view for testing was a Smith—Corona Super Sterling whose incredible response surprised me. As for the behind—glass typewriters once owned  by famous folks, the most amazing one was a 1902 Bar-Lock owned by Jack London. The thing looks like an Enigma machine — there are separate keys for upper- and lower-case letters. There's a 1926 Underwood 4-Bank once owned by Orson Welles that I found particularly interesting since its keys are so tiny that I can’t possibly imagine Orson managing to have plunged his sausage snappers onto them with any degree of accuracy. Other celebrity machines on view once were the prized possessions of Truman Capote, Gore Vidal, Ray Bradbury, and Mae West. My favorite celebrity typewriter was the Hermes Rocket owned by Gwendolyn Brooks — made in 1954  just like me! There’s also a 1939 Royal Portable DeLuxe owned by Jerry Siegel, co—creator of Superman. This exhibit is definitely worth seeing.

Museum display shows Gwendolyn Brooks' Hermes Rocket typewriter. The typewriter is streamlined and graceful, just like Brooks' writing.

Museum display shows Jack London's 1902 Bar-Lock typewriter. This machine bears little resemblence to later typewriters and has separate keys for uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as keys for numbers seemingly scattered at random. It could pass for a spy coding and decoding device.

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The rare gems of YouTube

June 4, 2019June 8, 2019 L.T. HanlonLeave a comment

James Stobie explains it all to you in one of his earliest videos.

This photo of a typewritten document contains the following text. Tuesday, June 4, 2019 Chicago, USA. He caught the westbound. There's a lot of stuff on YouTube that feels more like masturbation than mass communication. Yet amid the flotsam of influencers, conspiracy nuts, and downright idiots are the gems that shine so brightly you anxiously await every new video. One such gem was James Stobie, AKA Stobe the Hobo, who hopped freights across North America and posted videos of his exploits on YouTube. Unlike other trainhopping videos that seemed devoted to the hipster thrill of riding the rails, Stobie’s work came off like something Charles Kuralt might have done. Each video adventure of Stobe the Hobo included commentary about the towns he visited, the nature of life on the rails, and a musical soundtrack featuring Stobie himself on piano. Stobie died in November 2017 under circumstances still not entirely clear. He seems to have either fallen from a bridge or been struck by a train. Much of Stobie’s travels can be viewed on YouTube.

Above, Stobe the Hobo appears in a visually stunning video by RanOutOnARail.

James Stobie Obituary

Secret Society of Internet Hobos — James Stobie Page

Stobe the Hobo YouTube Archive

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Road trips and fine front yards

June 1, 2019June 1, 2019 L.T. Hanlon1 Comment

Dinah Shore wants you and your Chevy to take a road trip.

This photo is of a typewritten page of the following text. Saturday, June 1, 2019. Chicago, USA. Summer always smelled like turf builder. I've always felt that the first of June is the start of summer. Sure, summer begins astronomically on the 21st or 22nd or so. This year the seasons switch at 10:54 a.m. Friday, June 21, here in Chicago. A sure clue that summer had arrived when I was a kid came with the emotionally satisfying odor of Scotts Turf Builder blanketing our neighborhood. Even today I t m given to warm nostalgia when I detect that unmistakable odor. Just what makes that smell? The nitrogen? The phosphorous? The potassium? Who knows. Road trips and vacation also are a sure sign of summer, but our family didn't take many of those. In fact, we took only one: a weeklong summer vacation to the Four Corners area highlighted by a visit to Mesa Verde National Park. When I worked in Wyoming and commuted — I mean spent weekends in Colorado — I enjoyed treating the journey like a road trip. My favorite route took me from the Denver suburb of Wheat Ridge along Interstate 70 and then on past Glenwood Springs (or just before it, depending on your direction of travel) to where I—70 ended and returned to two—lane U.S. 6. I always liked this pre-interstate road; it played a big part in the early scenes of the original Vanishing Point. Interstate 70 is complete through Glenwood Canyon now and it is beautiful but it just isn't the same

 

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Deja-vu, Hollywood style!

May 1, 2019May 5, 2019 L.T. HanlonLeave a comment
Photo taken of a large sign for Musso & Frank Grill in Hollywood on a bright sunny day. The dark green sign features the restaurant's name in white cursive lettering.
Musso & Frank Grill is a Hollywood tradition. Writer and author Scott Holleran introduced me to this wonderful place. (Photo copyright © Leigh Hanlon)

The following text appears in this photo as typewritten characters. Wednesday, May 1, 2019. Chicago, USA. 1970s Olympia SM9. I've seen this place before. One of the neat things about watching movies and TV series shot in Los Angeles is that when you do visit the area there's a bizarre sense of deja-vu. I experienced one such moment while watching the Amazon series Bosch. During a scene with supporting cast members Amy Aquino and Troy Evans the pair dines at Hollywood's famed Musso & Frank Grill -- a place introduced to me by author and writer Scott Holleran. Scott recommended Musso & Frank's spaghetti with meat sauce, which he correctly described as having a classic supper-club taste. I loved it! But back to Bosch. Season 5 is a lot more of an upbeat police procedural than the previous seasons. Not that police work wasn't on display in 1-4, of course. This latest story arc just gelt more like the savvy offspring of The Rockford Files and Double Indemnity. We even get a cameo appearance by Jeri Ryan. How cool is that?

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