Over-stuffing an adorable pink scrap-journal with Lettraset letters and a mix of hidden messages, and a barrage of typewriters: Remington, Olivetti, Olympia, LC Smith, Underwood, etc. (if you’ve got a keen eye, please make a list for me :-)) & eager typists, plus curious ephemera, bits of artistic inspiration and an “Ancillary Dossier” of extra cards + to add/swap out blank pages.
Checkpoints and characters include (not in order):
- Beat Museum in North Beach, San Francisco
- Last Word books in Olympia, Washington
- British War Museum + Winston Churchill resplendent in a smoking robe, London, UK
- Motel lobby and Papery stationery shop in Victoria, Canada
- Hip Inn in Phitsanulok, Thailand
- Ceylon-era documenters in Fort Galle, plus another at a school in Dikwella, Sri Lanka
- My Swag:
- My daily drivers at: in Sanur & Nusa Ceningan, Bali, Indonesia; Okayama, Japan; Karapithiya, Sri Lanka; Pe ELL, WA, USA, & a “decoy” typewriter-like computer keyboard
- Me with stand-in model Jack Kerouac’s LC Smith on which he typed On The Road, in Kobe, Japan (ty MT)
- Generational Remington at Grammy’s in Langley BC
- Me in character as a “young archaeologist” in Orem high school, Utah 1988 yearbook, (with ascot) & peeking into a black suitcase of secrets in kura barn (ty T.Dub) + me w/ magic potion wizard smoke (ty again T.Dub), & with usual hat, spectacles & beard in an ink stamp by KT
Plus typists at work or their machines and other notables from my “art and inspiration” dossier:
{with hand-written credit to the photographer as possible, my pardon if I’ve missed your name, please let me know #BestIntentions):
- Allen Ginsberg in overalls
- Harlan Ellison looking tired
- Jack Kerouac with cats
- Neal Cassady’s written letter to JK
- William Burroughs with Joe Strummer and Kurt Cobain
- Courtney Barnett, along with her certificate for great sentences
- Ian Fleming’s gold-plated machine
- Jack London’s machine
- Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s in the Smithsonian
- Peter O’Toole on set of Lawrence of Arabia
- William Faulkner thinking Southern Gothic things
- Edward Abbey on a high peak fire lookout
- Lafcadio Hearn / Koizumi Yakumo with pipe in woodblock print
- Duke Ellington, blue in an ad
- Penelope Cruz in bed
- Jacqueline Kennedy reading Dharma Bums on Air Force 1 (while JFK eats clam chowder out of frame)
- Betty Gillies, pioneering aviator
- Amelia Earhart, aviator and fashionista
- Gary Snyder, Zen poet returning from climbing Mt Hood (Oregon, USA) ins spectacular outfit and ice axe at The Oregonian
Also:
- Remington Japanese kana typewriter in an ad
- Olivetti, crocheted (non-functional), thank you however made this beautiful creation
- Telegraph station at a museum in White Rock, BC
- Ledger-size Japanese typewriter at a secondhand store in Okayama
More:
- City Lights books, Café Vesuvio and JK alley with Robbie Robertson, Bob Dylan, Michael McClure hanging out (& me hanging out decades later in a puff of smoke)
- Vincent van Gogh’s funeral announcement (with train schedule)
- Titanic White Star Line menu (obviously not from the ship)
- Letters from Russia, notes from my epistolary literature project typed on the accompanying Underwood
- Swallow Brand typewriter ribbon can in Indonesia
- Scissors, mine, green handle, new 2023 (insert brand here) made in Tennessee, or is it Kentucky?
Go On:
- Letter from the Front, a pre-formatted postcard with checkboxes, World War II, European front
- “Map of the ocean” showing cardinal directions of emptiness
- Cafe Wha? and stairs down to The Gaslight (counterculture literary/music “basket houses” Greenwich Village, NYC)
- Shodo ink drawing of a Swiss-type multi-purpose tool knife
- Nick Bantock (noted artist and epistolary literature creator) envelope covered with stamps (addressed to me)
- Shodo ink mantra “Fck Stats, Make Art” on silver tray, by me (ty ML)
- Aerogrammes from Ethiopia, augmented with poetry + various ink stamps, photo corners, probably something from Nepal, various stacks of suitcases, and more typewriters that I can’t remember where they came (is it from you?)
Finishing Up:
- “Foreign Letters” postbox by an immigration office, somewhere during the Sri Lanka mistake (that *blue* though!) + three scripts
- A cute Shiba Inu dog all packed up and ready to go on an quest (cheers me up every time)
- Wonder Hotel: Rooms for Rent, Clean Quiet, Free Cable, Fridge, Secure
- Yumeji Takahisa pink cat washi tape
- Lettraset rub-on letters from my dear late Mother’s stash
- 419-1/2 Quebec City
- More postcards with semi-relevant but entirely-important postage stamps and secret messages (not for you)
- And a few snaps of the finished overstuffed book on verge of collapse to round out the montage
Music: Charles Lloyd, Sombrero Sam (pardon typo in video)
Created, crafted and photograph/filmed at Giggling Piglet Studio, April 2024
Sent to _________?.
Fondly, dvo
