Editing The Pen Addict 718/transcript (section)

== Exploring typewriters and their influence ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I want to dig into this typewriter thing a little bit more. I'm not going to be typewriter fluenced by either you or Anna. Like I'm, I'm pretty confident in that, but I'm compelled. And I have questions. Uh, and I have a shout out of the week that I need to make, which I almost forgot, which actually ties into this as well. So let me talk about, yeah, let me talk about our last sponsor of this week's episode. And that's our good friends over at Squarespace. So this episode of the pen addict is brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all in one website platform designed to help you stand out and succeed online. Whether you're just starting out or scaling your business, Squarespace gives you everything you need to claim your domain, showcase your offerings with a professional website, grow your brand and get paid all in one place. So I've been using Squarespace. It's gotta be 12 to 15 years by now. Um, it's super simple to use, uh, even for like an it guy like me, I can get in there and I can mess around and I can, you know, do all kinds of things, but they don't make it easy to where I don't have to, I don't have to go and modify very much to publish on Squarespace or even sell on Squarespace. So I have my shop tied into Squarespace. They make it easy to create, create products, create SKUs and anyone who's looking to, you know, have a presence online. Squarespace is a great place to be. So they have a great SEO tools, which is something I use just kind of passively because you don't really have to do a lot of that work to get noticed online. Squarespace does that for you. So no one wants to build a beautiful website for no one to see it. That's why every Squarespace website is optimized to be indexed with meta descriptions and auto generated site map and more. Some more people find your site through search engine results. Like for example, if I do a Uniball Zento signature review, I can put in a little made metadata. Have you seen my Zento signature? And now that's just going to get populated all over the internet, unfortunately for everyone. And one thing I do want to check out with them is they have this video management system. So anytime I've done any small links, like on YouTube, I've uploaded on YouTube video, I can just put the link over there, embedded into the post. Squarespace makes that real easy, but you can also upload your video content directly to Squarespace, organize your video library, and showcase your content on their own video pages. You can even sell access to your video library by adding a paywall, perfect for online courses, exclusive tutorials, and premium workshops. So if you're interested in what Squarespace has, head over to squarespace.com slash penaddict for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use the offer code penaddict to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com slash penaddict. Offer code penaddict to get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for the penaddict. So thanks to Squarespace for their support of this show and all of relay. All right, Derek, we got our shout out of the week. Shout out of the week. We, we didn't, we didn't coordinate that beforehand, but I thought you might chime in there, but I was going to, I had your back in case you didn't. So it was a, it was a duet. I think it was the first duet shout out of the week. Um, and, uh, that is paper blogging. Michelle Geffkin. I want you to talk about this. So I've been following paper blogging online for a while and Michelle does great posts that I love to share just about, uh, analog tools, journaling, and typewriters. So you, uh, I've had her on the show, uh, on your show recently. Why don't you just tell me a little bit about that episode?

'''Derek DeWeese:''' No. So when I was in Cincinnati, um, Michelle and her husband had driven there from Boston. They did a 900 mile each way drive because they were also purchasing some of Richard's typewriters. Cause one of the sticks was if you bought them, you had to pick them up in Cincinnati. And then he happened to have a type or a swap meet type thing, benefiting wordplay sensey. So that's where I first met Michelle and we were talking and then I was like, Oh, pins came up. She's like, Oh yeah. And then the pin at it came up. Cause you had shared her permission slip post, which was in refill. I think it was in missville.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So yeah, it's just one of the, one of the link posts I do. That was my Sunday link posts and I've followed her blog for years. So yeah.

'''Derek DeWeese:''' So in that came up in conversation and you know, she was telling me about what she writes and whatnot. Cause I wasn't familiar because I look at a lot of the refill and miss fill, but I don't click on all the links. Yeah. You know, and that's one of those. I went back and read it after the fact. I was like, Oh, this is great. So it, it ended up that towards the end of the day, I traded a pin I had made to Michelle for one of the typewriters she was selling. And then, you know, I got her card and I was like, Hey, I'd love to have an interview because her whole stick is more analog, less digital. And that's very much what my channel is coming to be fully about. You know, the last thing I do at the end of the day, working in it is I want to, I don't want to look at a screen. So if I'm, you know, and that's ironic considering I have a YouTube channel and whatnot, but a lot of that is done, you know, during like a lunch break or things like that, where I'm not doing it after work, but I interviewed Michelle and she had a really unique story, like backstory. And she lives right near Harbor, Harvard and near the Arboretum and has some upcoming publications. It was just a unique other subset. She was familiar with paper mouse. She knew who Kirk was. I was talking about a recent episode with the podcast. She's like, Oh yeah. Um, I think my daughter has a nib that Kirk ground. So it was just a neat, unique tie in, you know, and you never know in this whole stationery world who follows who, you know, like you said, you've been following her work for forever and it's just a, a whole site I wasn't familiar with. So now hopefully just spreading the word of another voice of analog for art, sketching typewriters. Cause she's also a big typewriter person. And obviously if she's driving 900 miles to pick some up, but it was just a unique way to add in, you know, cause the pin shows, I love pin shows. I love the community aspect. The typewriter community seems to have that same kind of vibe where I don't know these people, but we can talk about typewriters and most typewriter people. They're going to have a pin. They like a lot of them are fountain pen users. They're going to have the papers. It's a very common thing. So it might be a different primary medium, but we're all using the other mediums in some way,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' man. You just, I just got a question in my head and I haven't watched that episode yet. And I'm wondering about the different papers for typewriters and how big of a deal that is. That's gotta be a thing, right?

'''Derek DeWeese:''' So for me, having all these, a five, I like typing on a five, I have all these paper videos and whatnot. I have now a typewriter paper swatching in addition to my ink swatching. So with each typewriter, I'm typing on graffiti. Like I've been using graffiti. Oh, earful, subami note, um, canopus, um, Karina spark and multitude of others. But I type on them with each typewriter. So I can see the typeface. I can see how it reacts on that paper. And then it's kind of like a swatch book of typewriters. And then I just finished a product and I know we won't see on here, but I'll have a post on my website showing I've made literal swatch cards of the typefaces. And then I bought one of those little Canon IV printers. So the back of the color decks card has a picture of the typewriter and then the typeface, the age, the serial number, um, on the back. So that way I have a reference of, Oh, this person wanted to receive a letter. Well, they want it with a script typewriter. So let me type it. I need to type it with the Olympia that has this, the cursive font, you know, it's that kind of thing. So then I have a quick reference, but paper does make a thing and everybody has their own preferences. Some people like the a four, some people like the letter, some people like the smaller. It's kind of like with you or me, we're going to have papers. We might enjoy both using, but we're going to use them in different ways.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. I love that. I don't know why that popped into my head because we're so particular about all these things, right? Any little niche hobby that you get into like this, whether it be paper or typewriters or, you know, fountain pens, ink, there's all these little, like I get so much enjoy enjoyment from it because I'm just completely curious about all this. And like that literally just popped into my head. I was like, Oh, what kind of wonder what kind of paper and how the typewriter inks. Um, last question. I'll get you out of here on this. It's kind of a statement, um, question and I'm gonna let you fill in the blank. Okay. So a man with a typewriter walks into a bar. How does that story end?

'''Derek DeWeese:''' So this is something that happened recently because we had a bookstore open up in the greater Nashville area called the Raven book lounge, which is a bookstore with a bar.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm.

'''Derek DeWeese:''' So my wife had gone in there with some coworkers and they had some typewriters on display and they noticed her taking pictures of them and said, Hey, are you a typewriter person? She's like, no, but my husband is, I'll bring him back. So I was like, okay, they expect a typewriter. So I took one in and we sat at the bar and now one bartender has bought four fountain pens. They're shopping for typewriters. The other bartender, um, is curious about fountain pens and they've commissioned me to make a pen for the owner. So that's what happens. It's literally, cause it's not just typewriters. I've been at coffee shops before cause Beth and I'll go on some weekend days. Like let's, we've been to the gentleman station or let's go use our stuff. She might be working on book stuff. I might be getting caught up on journaling, but I've had people see me using fountain pens and come over and ask. Apparently I've got that approachable look, which I think would be different with the large beard, but they'll come up and say, Oh, a fountain pen. I haven't seen one of those. Cause that happened to somebody. And then they ended up going to Joe's shop and buying four or five pens and packs of paper. So it's out there. People see it and they're curious. So that's one thing people expect for people to come up and ask you questions. You have to be cool with that, you know, because we, you want to expand this hobby. You want other people to find out just like the social media doing it in person. Then that you can say, Oh, here, put a piece of paper and let them type something or here, use this pen, try writing with it. You know, it's, I might not give them a gold nib rare pen, but here use this Kaweco sport. It's going to be fine, you know, but it's, it's a fun way that kind of ties in. And the human interaction is something that I think we kind of lose with the online stationery world. And that's why pin shows and the community aspect is so important. You know, the tactile and being around people and actually having conversations in person really kind of makes this even more fun. And even for those of us who I would say at the core are not necessarily the most people person, but it's like a, you put on your stationery cloak and like, Oh, this is, these people are curious about something I know and I can help them. So it kind of is a, just a different way of approaching that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I love that. And I love, you know, sharing stationery and just answering questions. Someone, you know, sees me writing and they make a comment about my pen. I'm going to be like, have a seat. Do you want to try this? And let's go. And I think you're, you're the same way. And I love that approach. And I love having you on the episode today, Derek. Thank you so much. Is there anywhere or anything you need to shout out? I'll obviously have all the links to everything we talked about in the show. I've linked to your channel. Anything, anything else you need to mention?

'''Derek DeWeese:''' I would say the only other shout out I have is a thanks to Nick Pasquale. And I, I hate you, but I love you because selling me a lathe and putting me down to the making aspect of the pins has been a wonderful thing. Just getting hands on and tactile. Um, and you know, that's something I'm grateful for, for him to take the time for me to come to his shop and learn what I'm doing enough for me to go home and experiment and then respond to tech saying, okay, what did I screw up here? How do I fix this? Cause that's another part of this. That's fun. The making aspect. Um, and other than that, just the community, people who watch the content, I'm creating. I never thought that this was a thing I would do, but now I enjoy it or getting to, you know, be a guest on a show like this. It's just a different way of sharing things we're interested in to new people who might not know otherwise. Cause now there might be people who are listening to this for the first time going, wait, he does videos on writing with tiny, extra fine nibs. That might be something I'm interested in. And then they might see the links in there. Oh, you want the opposite? Go follow this channel or this channel. And then it's just another way to help out the other little guy. Um, cause somebody there, if you're creating content, it's going to be the right content for somebody. You just have to hope that they find it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's exactly right. Well put, well said. So thank you again for joining me again. I'm Brad. I run a pen blog and a pen podcast, this pen podcast called the pen addict. You can find all my links to everything I do over at pen addict.com. And I'll have all the links and show notes in this episode. Thank you to our sponsors this week, the St. Louis pen show, Enigma stationery and square space until next time. Say goodbye, Derek.

'''Derek DeWeese:''' Goodbye, Derek. Bye.

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[[Category:The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript]]