After returning from some mind numbing business meeting last night, I totally forgot about watching Mindfreak.

It’s possibly surprising that I fall into the “rising tide raises all boats” school and believe Criss is good for magic. Actually, given its moribund state, I don’t think anything could hurt. Criss doesn’t perform the type of magic I enjoy, but I’m certainly not in the target demographic.

I think there are over 400 posts on the Cafe’ about the Coin In Soda Can Trick and it hasn’t been released! Certainly he’s creating interest.

Since I missed the Coin In Soda Can performance, I was interested to see what was on the net about it. I now know:

1. It’s the obvious successor to Silver Shifter as the worst trick of all time and wouldn’t fool a newborn baby

OR

2. Criss was taught this by visitors from an advanced civilization and he used science unknown to our race to accomplish this miracle.

Which is it?

Take care………

I’m working on some longer things, but these are just random dumps for your consideration:

i/m in Blogland

• Blogs are kinda slow these days. Seems to be a sign of the times. I guess we’re all more concerned with paying for gas and heating our homes. Don’t worry, your crack Federal Government is on the case.
• Magician X continues to be the best writer with a currently active blog. He seems to have his hand in his pants a little too often for this old man, but I imagine he thinks I have my head up my ass too often for his taste. Obviously well educated and insightful. Frequently updated.
• Tim Ellis posts regularly and his blog is worth your consideration.
• MagicCentric must be spending his time trying to run down his lost kajonies after being neutered in the Haydn fiasco. I’m questioning whether he will ever come back. The last substantive post was on how to spell his name – and they say blogs are dull! His other blog – Atom something seems dead.
• I enjoy both Tom Frank’s blog and The Magic Whack, but neither offer an RSS feed, so I seldom see them. C’mon fellers – that’s just silly. Likewise Euan Bingham.
• Glenn Bishop tends to post in spurts, but it’s worth watching. He has some really good ideas.

I don’t understand Google

I’ve added Google AdWords to the site. Hey, if I can make a few pennies with little harm – that’s OK. AdWords supposedly reads the page and decides on what ads would be appropriate. On this page are ten articles. The Google spider persists in picking up on the couple of paragraphs regarding shoes for cross dressing men and putting ads for large size women’s shoes at the top.

One last Haydn comment

Whit Just Won’t Catch On

Unfortunately, I can’t exactly quote Hopalong Haydn here, because the Storm Troopers at Stalag Brooks deleted the entire thread about the 3 shell manuscript etc. etc. etc. etc………….

Somewhere in there Haydn AGAIN makes the mistake of saying he was reviled in the anonymous blogs for defending his friend Stephen F. Youell – he of the Bible citation email address – Sheesh!!! He must be a real holy man.

I don’t know why this is so damn difficult for him to absorb. He can perform unnatural acts with Youell 24/7 – buy billboards proclaiming how wonderful he is – name a star after him – whatever he wants. Please tell the world what a magnanimous, caring, misunderstood gentlemen he is. Feel free. I don’t give a fuck and neither does anybody else. That’s a fact. There’s actually real merit in defending a friend through thick and thin.

What is so damn irritating and unfair is Haydn virtually strutted around the Cafe, acting like some big time bad ass, knowing full well that anyone disagreeing with him would get sat on by Brooks’ ample ass. In short he was a bully. He deserves absolutely no quarter for any repurcussions arising from those actions. Absolutely none!

P.S. The article on the genesis of Whit’s name in the October Magic is worth a read.

Take care………

Drivel & Drool

Who are these people and why are they running my country?!

I guess I might as well admit it – I HATE GEORGE F. BUSH.

I’m a lifelong Republican – errrr, make that Conservative. Something G2 professes to be. Barry Goldwater must be twisting in his grave. In some respects I guess G2 is not particularly worse than many of his predecessors, but I expected more. In retrospect, that was naive. I had read his father’s lying lips as he was going to make provisions for our retirement and less reliance on Social Security – sound familiar? That lasted 1 year before he caved in and repealed the law. If you ever heard G1 talk about it, it wasn’t the fact that he broke a firm promise that bothered him, but that he made the promise in a way people remembered it.

Now I hear G2 tell us he never said imminent when talking about the Iraqi threat. That may well be true, but the clear thrust for going into Iraq was the present danger they represented. George!! Listen up!! The next time you want to play word games, make it about getting a blow job in the Oval Office and not bankrupting our country on a wild goose chase. Hell, they couldn’t even get one plane in the air. What a big time threat they were! And….. you have the balls to say you would not have changed a thing if you knew all of these facts. Maybe you are as dumb as some people portray you.

Now we’re asked to sacrifice due to the hurricanes and the energy issues. What about your fucking buddies in the oil industry! George, you’re nominally the President. You could do something!

Make no mistake – big corporations, the most corrupt institutions in the galaxy, own this administration and I fear they are striking the final blow to this formerly great country as we speak.

It is said by some, George, that you feel you are on a crusade. If that crusade was other than destroy this country, you have failed. Our future generations will pay for your malfeasance and sheer incompetence.

Nice legacy……..

Prepare for President Hillary!

I think I’m going to be ill – very ill.

This was in the Denny & Lee Newsletter yesterday. I think many of us know the answer and it’s ugly. For your consideration:

We just started our lecture schedule up again for the fall and I must say, I am very disappointed at the interest in lecturers. Below is a list of great lectures and it just seems that no one seems to care anymore. It is getting more and more difficult to get magicians away from their computers, plasma screens, DVD players, and instant magic downloads from unethical websites. Magic events are poorly attended, magic shops get no more visitors, and live lectures seem to be a thing of the past.

Below is the current schedule of lecturers coming up in the next three months. Our first one is coming up in three more days and currently we have only three people signed up for this Award Winner. This will most likely be your only chance to ever see him lecture. Oh well, the world is changing, and maybe I should learn to change also. I hope not.

Drivel & Drool

The Cafe’ continues to push the bar higher and higher when it comes to raw stupidity.

Bill Palmer started a thread regarding an eBay auction that he felt was misleading / overpriced. The thread is here. Personally, I think there are worse things on eBay, but that’s not the point.

The Cafe’ gestapo removed the link. What could possibly be the purpose? It seems they are personally out to disenfranchise one and all. Actually, I was surprised to see them step on one of the more visible names.

I’ll admit a prejudice against what magicians call illusions:

• Most guys dancing around, pointing, strutting and posing while someone else does the work just look ridiculous.
• Every performer that wants to add an illusion to his act so he can demand more money, seems to, invariably, go out and buy some rickety Super-X and proceeds to fool no one. The only audience interest is hoping the assistant doesn’t fall off as she sways back and forth like a Jack-In-The-Box.
• So often the acts look like they haven’t bothered to rehearse.
• I’m seldom fooled by the tricks, even though I’ve never studied illusions.

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a lecture by a 1st class illusionist and came away with a new appreciation for some of them:

• That stuff is heavy and hauling it around and setting up is a lot of work
• The magician doesn’t have to look like an escapee from The Pink Dildo
• Good props are very expensive, but the end product shows well. Very well.
• A good assistant is probably better trained than the magician. He exposed the Mismade Girl and the work that must be accomplished in a small space and in seconds is unbelievable.
• A good illusionists must spend a lot of time deciding what works for his act and not just buy a fancy colored box to prance around.

I could never be an illusionist. Actually, I could never afford it, but that aside, it’s just not me. I will, however, have a much greater appreciation for the performers the next time I see a good illusionist.

Drivel & Drool

I use Google as my home page. It’s fast, reliable and easily customizable.

One of the items I get is the “How To” Tip Of The Day. Some of the stuff is kinda helpful. Yesterday was a popular article on how to remove scratches from CDs. Be careful taking advice, as it is nothing more than a Wiki, which means any fool with a computer can offer advice.

Anyway, recently it had How To Perform The Balducci Levitation. The description was so-so, but I believe anyone could learn it from the description. You think magic isn’t popular? It’s had about 50,000 hits to date.

ehow.com is supported by Google ads. Basically, Google reads the page and then places appropriate ads on the right side. This ad on the Balducci page caught my eye:

Since the ads rotate with each access, you may or may not see this. Computer logic isn’t always perfect. Then again…….

Drivel & Drool

Another Report From Douche Bag Central……

Once again, an aristocratic, pompous ands unfair reply from the Cafe staffers (minor editing for readability):

———————————————————–

Honest question posed: I have a friend who wants to sign up to the Café. BUt he is using a free email from yahoo. He got a message stating that free emails are blocked on this forum.

Is there a reason for doing so? There are so many people using free emails such as yahoo or hotmail. WHy prevent them from entering the Café?

Another user chimes in: My youngest son wanted to join recently, as he is interested in magic. He was disheartened and I was shocked that he was not allowed in because he doesn’t have money to be able to afford an email account other than the free one.

Cafe developer with basic Cafe Fuck Off Answer: I can assure you there are very valid reasons for it, but I’m not going to explain them here.

Suffice to say if you ever run your own board of this size, you may eventually decide to do the very same thing, perhaps even for the very same reasons. Even if you didn’t, you’d clearly understand why it’s being done here.

Groveling user with every bone in his body wanting to suggest that developer perform unholy act with computer, but refrains due to Cafe policies: Gene, I don’t mean to be disrespectful, or even contrary, but I don’t think I’d ever block some one from coming on board on the basis of their being poor.

Case in point? My son.

———————————————————–

There’s no earthly reason for this approach except abuse. None. The answer wouldn’t have taken a minute. The real question here is does Brooks hire pompous, intolerable douche bags are does he train them in his own image?

If anyone reading this has this email problem, ask one of your computer savvy friends. It’s a very, very minor hurdle. There are hundreds of log ons available in the “underground”. Just hunt around.

Once again, we award the i/m Platinum Jackass to the Magic Cafe’ and its predicatable staff

Yesterday, the October Genii arrived. For those of us that have subscribed since the Bill Larsen days, the first instinct is to say “which year?”. Since Richard Kaufman has taken over, the publication schedule has been met with boring consistency. The magazine seems to be back on track, actually having magic in it, after going through a period when it had as much magic as the New Yorker. I look forward to its arrival every month.

Included in the poly bag was a demo DVD from L&L. Included on the DVD are over 20 performances from their DVD stable and two full explanations, Mike Close’s wonderful Dr. Strangetrick and the Larry Jennings’ self-worker Impossible. The choice of tricks to explain is excellent. I’ve always considered the Close version of Card Warp to be the best and Larry’s location trick is inexplicable.

The performances from prior DVDs, generally, are very good. A couple, like Flip’s rope trick, are painfully obvious to any but the most magically challenged.

In recent months I’ve begun to find the L&L DVDs tiresome on many fronts – the audience, the choice of performers and too little magic on too many DVDs. Also, they were advertising well in advance of actual shipment, with no indication that the product wasn’t actually ready.

The recent set, starring Joshua Jay, shows improvements in all of these areas. I hope it continues.

Drivel & Drool

The latest from Stalag Brooks

Sometimes I feel bad about beating up on the Cafe’, but then reality sets in and I know that what they do must be exposed.

Here’s a classic example, written by a long time user and genuinely helpful poster with close to 1,000 posts. You’ll never see it, as it was deleted within a couple of hours:

Isn’t that pathetic? Don’t let me hear any of that bull shit about it’s his site and he can do as he pleases. There’s right and there’s wrong and this is W-R-O-N-G.