California Typewriter Page #3

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and I'm the first to crack

open this typewriter.

The only typewriter of

great historical note

that's missing

from my collection

is a Sholes and

Glidden typewriter.

The Sholes and

Glidden is the first

commercially

successful typewriter,

it appeared in 1874.

It's of the utmost

historical importance,

and after years of collecting,

it still eludes me.

(metal shifting)

(downtempo minimalist music)

(clinking)

(shuffling)

(clank)

- I feel like I'm just as

much a typewriter person

as anybody who actually likes

to see typewriters intact

it's just that I have a

different way of coming at it.

Some collectors,

typewriter enthusiasts,

don't like that I do this.

They get riled up as

if I'm going to destroy

thousands of typewriters and

that's not really the case.

Most of the ones

I take apart are

in pretty rough shape.

I don't really hack into

them, I'm pretty gentle

when I destroy them.

I'd always wanted to

take a typewriter apart

since I was 10 or 11.

My mom had an old

Underwood and I'd always

sit alongside of

it and hit the keys

and look at all the

machinery inside

and want to kind of be

in there and see it,

from the key getting

pushed to the

type bar hitting the platen.

Thought it was great.

Just couldn't get enough of it.

At the time, this

Queen video came out

with bits and pieces of

Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

That's kinda how the

typewriter looked to me,

it's like those little planes

flying through Metropolis.

When I looked inside, I

felt like I was flying

through the typewriter,

as if it were this

big city machine.

I've seen Metropolis more

times than I can count.

(grinding and rattling)

I moved to Oakland

three years ago

after living in the mountains

for almost 18 years.

I was living in the

woods, basically,

making what appeared

to be naked robots

out of machine parts.

And it didn't really go

over very well there.

I didn't know for

sure if it was good

or if it was worth looking at

or if it was worth

anybody's time.

So I had to come here to see.

(clanking)

A lot of it's my own compulsion,

my own need to make

art and be an artist.

When I first moved here,

I didn't really know anybody.

I was driving through

Berkeley one day

and I saw this sign with

a typewriter logo on it

that said California Typewriter

and I looked in the window.

Sure enough, there

were typewriters.

I'm always nervous to tell

people who like typewriters

about what I do, 'cause

some people don't like it.

But the Permillions

are super friendly and

they're like the first friends

I made when I got here.

- [Herb] Hey, hey,

what's up, Jer?

- Hey, Herb.

- [Ken] 15 that Jeremy, Herb?

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