I saw this quote attributed to Gustave Flaubert on my son’s wall recently –

Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work.

Take care………

Boy, I’m sure glad our government wrote that Anti-Spam Law

Am I just getting less tolerant or has the amount of SPAM precipitously risen recently?

I’m no programmer, but I believe I could write a SPAM filter that could catch these. (Actual emails that made it through my commercial filter):

• Lesbian sisters in hot scenes
• Gay Russian men in action
• Four lenders want to talk with you
• Canadian Pharmacy
• Mexican Pharmacy
• 18 Million Active Members – Real Sex – No Commitment

That’s this morning and these don’t include the ones that dropped the F-Bomb right in the Subject line! ….and with all this great advice, I’m still dirt poor – can’t get any women and my willy still hasn’t reached my knees. Oh well – maybe in the next life.

In a previous post, I mentioned that one of the few things I collect are bound magazines. I try to limit myself to hardbound collections, but in a couple of cases I’ve acquired soft bound when it’s necessary to complete a run. I’m no expert, but here’s what I’ve located thus far. The only thing I don’t have that I know is available are the volumes of Magick, published by Collectors Workshop, I believe. I would be interested to know if anybody knows of additional published items:

• Phoenix
• Jinx
• Richard’s Almanac
• Ibidem & Aziz
• Pallbearers Review
• Epilogue
• The Chronicles
• Apocalypse
• The Jinx
• Kabbala
• Hierophant
• Seance
• Swami / Mantra
• Syzgy
• The Magic Menu
• The Compleat Invocation
• Hugard’s Magic Monthly
• Stanyon’s Magic
• Pabular
• Pentagram

Whew! That’s quite a list. Just eye balling it, I would guess that it’s about five feet of books. Personally, I think you would be hard pressed to get more magic in any other five foot shelf.

The soft bound category would include The Yearbook Reader and The New Phoenix. Both worth having. We’ll look at some of these in greater detail in the coming weeks.

Take care………

These Fuckers Are Driving Me Crazy!!

At my age, it really doesn’t matter, but I worry for my kids. The mess that will be left in the wake of the GII regime will be of such monumental proportions, that I seriously question whether this country will ever recover.

Today, FoMoCo announced the elimination of another 30,000 jobs. The kind of jobs that have driven our economy and were a center point in the rapidly evaporating American Dream. Of course, our government had a comment:

Reacting to news of the job cuts, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said: “Anytime someone loses a job we’re concerned about it, we’re concerned about the community.”

However, McClellan said overall the economy “is going strong.”

Thats right Scott, you ignorant bastard. The economy is great if you want to flip hamburgers or work in your garden. It’s great for illegal immigrants, people, like you, sucking on the public teat and those government protected classes. For the rest of us, it’s in the shitter. Pure and simple. May you all roast in the pits of hell.

This administration has turned the country over to the most corrupt entities in history, the American corporation. Meanwhile, George plays guns. What a fucking disaster.

From my perspective, one of the good guys in magic was / is Brad Burt. I assume Brad’s shop was one of the casualties of the Internet onslaught. His teaching tapes were known for their usefulness and quality.

Anyway, Brad’s been sending out a periodic news letter and recently has been dealing with subjects such as practice and fear in performing. They’re not long, but the advice is excellent. The newsletter is a way of hawking his DVDs, which, I believe, are reissues of his tapes. Probably a good investment.

Brad hasn’t quite grasped this Internet stuff and his web designer should be whipped, but he’s not alone there. I couldn’t find a way to sign up for his newsletter, but his email address is bradburtmagic@yahoo.com and I would assume a brief note would put you on the list.

Take care………

Two New Destinations

I see two of our most active bloggers have hopped into the forum operation business.

Glenn Bishop has started Experts At The Card Table and Steve Pellegrino has opened The Mentalist Sanctum. I wish them both the best.

I think they’ve both made mistakes that will hurt them, especially in the beginning. Number one, and I’ve seen this over and over – too damn many categories. When you don’t have a lot of members, spreading the few among 20 categories, or so,  is a great way to dilute the discussions into total  atrophy. I think Glenn, for instance, would be better off starting with 2 categories – routines and sleights, for example. As the forum gained momentum, categories could be added, as needed. I know Haydn has a bajillion topics at his forum, but his name is a draw and I think even there posts are declining.

Steve, also, has too many categories, but he has made a much more serious mistake, in my opinion. The Mentalist Sanctum has 2 levels of membership – basically, the blessed and the unwashed. Those in category one are by invitation only, as I understand it. The rest of us will be standing in line, behind the ropes, hoping to get a glimpse of the chosen few. One thing the Round Mound of Pomposity did right at the Cafe was creating a second level of membership after 50 posts. After the 50th post you could go behind the curtain and see all the super secret shit that was going on. Never mind that it was worthless, it creates a stir and a desire to participate. The only way to get on the inside at The Mentalist Sanctum is to sit on the bar stool and hope Steve notices our legs….. Not me!

Anyway, Glenn and Steve – I wish you the best and remember how many successful forums I’ve started when reading my suggestions.