CALIFORNIA TYPEWRITER: EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN

I am a sucker for this kind of film. California Typewriter celebrates the durable, once-ubiquitous device that computers put out of business and the grass-roots spirit that drives people like Tom Hanks, John Mayer, and the late Sam Shepard to do their writing on these venerable machines. It also tells the parallel story of an Oakland, California typewriter repair shop and the uncertain future it faces, along with its resident fix-it genius, Herbert Permillion II. It’s one thing for someone like Hanks to collect vintage typewriters (he has 250) and extoll their virtues. It’s another for someone to eke out a living paying rent for a storefront that serves as home base for a man who knows typewriters inside out. Is there really a future for such…

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