Casey Rocks the Brother ML100

Y'all probably know this feller by the name of Casey Neistat. YouTube blogger. Co-star of MTV's The Neistat Brothers series. Skateboarder. Drone flier. Father. Husband. New Yorker. A self-made person. He's doing well enough that he probably doesn't need me promoting his videos. But I've linked his Valentine's Day video above, a love-letter to his wife Candice, because it was sweet. And it prominently featured a Brother ML100 electric typewriter.

I liked the sound of the staccato rhythm of his electric Brother through out the video. And as a typewriter collector, I also like the idea that, for Casey, he's not a fetishist or collector. For him, it appears that an electric typewriter is just a practical tool. Like all the other practical tools that adorn the walls of his studio. That's cool, and refreshing. If I wasn't such a typewriter nerd and collector, and didn't like manual typewriters so much, I too might be happy with just one machine, a modern-day electric daisywheel "wedge".

I don't want to over-analyse Casey's video too much, but I liked how the typewriter, a not-nearly-as-glamorous-machine-as-a-black-and-chrome-manual-from-the-1930s, was the perfect tool for writing a love letter, which he then folded and placed in an envelop. He could have - if he had a printer - word process the crap out of a love letter. Or pen it by hand with quill and bottled ink. Unless his penmanship, like mine, is sorely lacking. Typewriters were made for people like us.

Casey's video, I'm certain, will garner millions of views. And those millions of people will be witness to the eminent practicality, in 2018, of a typewriter in one's home, office or studio, a tool ready to do the work of printing directly to paper a brief document, like a love letter.