Wednesday 22 February 2012

I Red A Lot Since Monday- What A Beautiful Ink This Is!




I do like the pattern on the body of this pen. Peter B., a collector friend of mine told me that this pattern was meant to resemble skyscrapers at night with some of their lights left on.
That is just too cool!

*That should have been Fountain Pen Network Forums.
I hate it when the scanners cuts off the bottom of the page.





While putting this post together, I find it hard to tell if these ink colours will come out true-to-life. The Diamine Crimson certainly looks on the screen the way it does in real life, but the Noodler's Red Rattler appears darker on my monitor than it really is. It's definitely a more vibrant red in real life.

Here's a pic of the Mentmore.



And here's a close-up of the great cobblestone pattern of the barrel.
In glorious W    I    D    E    S   C    R    E    E    N.


Actually, it wasn't Aurora Black, it was Waterman's Havana Brown. I think I'm a little tired right now. 'Night, all.

Saturday 18 February 2012

Our Burmese Cat- A Love Story OR Sleeping Beauty, Wrapped in Fur.






I thought she was laughing at something funny that I'd said, but no, she's just having another yawn and a stretch before settling down to another nap. And it's only three in the afternoon.




If you come over to our house, make sure you roll up your car windows. Missy loves a good parcel shelf.



My wife had put some soil into this glazed pot because she was gonna plant some herbs. Of course, Madam Fleabag had other ideas.




Of course, all this bird killing is bound to make you tired, so it's up into the wardrobe to catch a few "z's". On a nice soft velvety quilt. Dammit.

Late at night, around 9:oopm, we'll hear the tinkling of the bell on her collar and my wife will say in a mocking tone; "See? It's like having a pet reindeer."
"Yes. Quite."





What's left of the foot-stool. Sure, it looks a mess, but I'd rather she shreds this than the sofa. I'll have to get some thread and neaten it up.





Hassling me while I write this typecast. Almost a Hemingwayesque photo.
 But, back to the guy with the beer can story...


When my wife read this page, she said that she didn't just make a threat to throw a stone at his dog just for the sake of making a threat. It turns out that the guy had thrown one at my cat in an attempt to get her to make a run for it so that his dog would see her and give chase. I didn't see that because I was heading for the front door by this stage and he had already made his polite retort to my wife and kept walking by the time I got to the street. The moron.
Isn't there enough wrong with the world already without this type of crap occurring?
Anyhow, let us not dwell on beer-drinking idiots walking their dogs.



Looking this good takes a lot of rest and relaxation.



"I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. De Ville."

Thanks for reading, all!

Saturday 11 February 2012

Yes, Mr Furrier, Sometimes It Does Suck Getting Older. Typewriter-related Back Injuries- More Common Than You Think





Here's a mug-shot of their accomplice. 'Scuse the mess.


You would think that pulling two typewriters out of this boot would be fairly straight-forward, but no....
Actually, there's the answer! I should have been standing straight, not leaning forward. Too late now, I guess.




Don't be fooled. It's heavier than it looks, especially in its carry-case. Which I would swear is lead-lined. Then wrapped in steel.
And here's the other culprit.



These two worked as a team in order to lull me into thinking they were a coupla lightweights. They played me like the sap I was. But I'll know better, next time. They pull a stunt like this again, I'm gonna come out shooting.
But back to the Smith-Corona...



Thanks for reading, all! And Mr. Furrier, I hope your back is on the mend. Take care.


Oh yeah, that asterisk*


Here's an old Polaroid shot of my old car. It was a rare manual (stick-shift) model and, once I had the engine reconditioned, it drove like a dream. I contemplated getting the bodywork repaired, since it had some major rust in some structurally crucial places, but I had just proposed to my girlfriend and there was no way I'd be able to afford repairing this car and saving for a wedding.
So, I ran this picture through Photobucket to give it some old Hollywood soft-focus charm.


What can I say? I'm a romantic, despite the tough, cynical exterior.
Like the say, 'scratch a cynic, blah, blah, blah'.


Oh, one more thing-

***typecast on a circa 1946 Smith-Corona Sterling...which I think I'll call 'Gilda'. Makes perfect sense, why didn't I think of it earlier?***

Thanks again, all, and get well, Tom!

Monday 6 February 2012

Typecasting about 35mm Film Photography- A Renewed Interest
















Man, I just realised that I didn't typecast anything about the next camera, so it looks like I'll just have to write it up the new-fashioned way via laptop.

Anyway, I had gotten a mad bug for a vintage camera from the 1950s, for some reason. It might have had something to do with all those seasons of "Mad Men" that I watched back-to-back, or the last two watches that I had bought which have a strong retro look to them.
So, with this in mind, I hunted the 'bay for something classic from the mid-to-late Fifties up to circa 1964 and landed on this little beauty;


It's a Voigtlander Vitomatic I from around 1958, I think. I ran some film through it about six months ago, but I can't find the resulting photos for the life of me. A solid camera that's quite heavy for its compact size. I'll have to give it some serious usage sometime to see how it handles. Luckily, I got ahold of the instructions for this thing, which just may minimise any poor photography in future.



The detail on the lens rings is superb.




A part of my childhood. I saw this camera used at the beach and birthday parties. Shame that it doesn't work anymore, but then the 126 format film used in these is both difficult to find and expensive to process.

Here are the photos that turned out. Nice colours and the white borders really give them a vintage photo look. Too bad there's nothing in them worth capturing on film. Ahh, well...


Thanks for reading, all!