Busy Week

This is going to be an extremely busy week.  Today is my daughters first day of school (more on this later), I'm teaching a new class at work on a different schedule than normal.  Birthdays for families and friends this week.  Things are changing in my world, and it's good.

Lets talk a little magic.  I'm still working my way through the book.  I'm getting a little frustrated with it.  I'm not a setup guy, and the books is full of them.  I prefer to not have to prepare my decks with anything let alone setups.  If the effect is worth it, I'll totally I'll will totally do it.  I don't believe my silly preferences are more important than an amazing effect.  That being the case, I'm not currently seeing anything that warrants having to locate and setup 10 cards.  I most definitely don't have the pocket space to pocket more than a deck or two, so having multiple decks setup to get an effect is just not my style. 

I'm patiently waiting for something other than cards to come up in the book.  Don't take me the wrong way, I love card tricks.  I just think effects could be spread out in the book a little more.  A few card tricks, and few coins, more cards, something different.  As it stands right now I'm just a little bored. 

I'm not blaming the author, just feeling the need to spread out a little bit. 

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Posted in Magic Monday

Toaster

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Posted in Wordless Wednesday

Kostya Kimlat Okito Box Rotine

This week Kostya Kimlat, an excellent, and innovative magician from Orlando, released his Okito Box routine.  Well I just had to have it.  It wold be hard for me to pass on any okito box work at this point.  It's a very simple routine, but I think I may get a lot of mileage out of it.  It's a great reason to get my Craig Ousterling okito box all dinged up.

I also want to point out that recently Kostya fooled Penn and Teller on Fool Us.  Now as much as I would love to share with you the new Okito Box routine, I think you would be better served watching Kostya piss off Penn on national TV.  I have put the video below.

You may be thinking that since I have purchased a new routine that I have not been giving The close-up Magic of Aldo Colombini the attention it deserves.  Well, you are wrong.  I'm still working my way through.  I have worked my way through another 15 effects or so.  I'll be honest, it is taking me much longer to get through the book than I had originally planned.  Many of the effects are short, I really want to learn each one before I move on to the next.

I feel like I am building a relationship with Aldo as I work through his book.  I can't say that I love every routine I have worked through, but I can say that I wish I had met Aldo before he passed.  There was a lot to learn from him. 

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Posted in Aldo Colombini, Magic Monday, Okito Box, Penn & Teller: Fool Us

Pyramid

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Posted in Wordless Wednesday

Learning to Draw

At work I put together lots of flip charts for different lessons. I have been trying to make the charts as interesting as possible with little drawing etc... The down side is that I really don't know what I'm doing when I making those horrible stick figures,and googly eyes. It was mentioned to me that one of my lessons may be filmed, and that I should step up my charts a bit. Well, I started to freak out a little bit.

To help resolve the problem I started looking up how to draw a few things on YouTube. In the process of finding what I was looking for, I stumbled across a channel that was the right style I wanted to look like, and were pretty simple to duplicate. I watched a few videos and while practicing the doodles I noticed that the Artist had an eBook and a learn to draw website. I took a look and it was being done through Patreon.  Think kickstarter, but monthly.  The guy was asking only a few dollars a month to gain access to all of his learn to draw videos.

It seemed like a no brainer.  I signed up.  I may end up sharing some of my learning process here. 

Please check out Shoo Rayner and his art school.  I dig it, you might too.  The lessons are great, but if you just want check out the free stuff, you can see it on Draw Stuff Real Easy.

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Posted in drawing, Shoo Rayner

The close-up Magic of Aldo Colombini (Part 2)

 Let me take a moment to explain what little plan I have for reading magic books, or watching videos.

First I go through and just become familiar with the book.  I determine what type of effects/moves/essays are in it.  I then read through the entire book, one trick, move, essay at a time.  I put little notes on things as I read through them.  After I read an effect/move, I actually work through the effect.  I'm not talking performance ready here.  I'm just trying to get an idea if it's an effect I like, or if it fits my style or not.  If its an effect that is worth putting more time into, I'll notate it and get back to it later.  This way I get to go through the entire book, rather than getting stuck on one trick and never finishing the book.  Moves, and essays get the same treatment, the only difference being that I'm guaranteed to go back to the moves and essays.  The essays are usually full of great information, and moves usually get studied even if I don't currently have a reason to learn it.  You never know when you are going to need something.  Either way I take a few notes and move on.
   
Now that you have an idea about what is going on when I'm going through a book, DVD, or whatever, I can get back to whats going on with The close-up Magic of Aldo Colombini.

I mentioned last week that there are 60 effects in this book.  There is just no way I am going to be able to give that many effects the attention I need to give them in a week.  I have worked through the first 15 effects of the book.  My favorites so far are Follow This, Ranka-Chank, Back to the Future, and Can't Play Your Game.

I'll keep going and see how far I can get this week.  I'll get through the entire book as soon as I can and give it a proper review.

Thanks for reading!
~Me

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Posted in Aldo Colombini, Magic Monday

THE H8FUL EIGHT

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Posted in things i'm looking forward to

First Lego Project

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Posted in Elizabeth, Lego, Wordless Wednesday

The close-up Magic of Aldo Colombini

Happy Magic Monday! I have decided to work my way through The Close-Up Magic of Aldo Colombini. I picked up this book because it contains an Okito Box routine, and I happen to be a fan of coin boxes. Having not seen Aldo's routine before, I decided to pick it up.

For some reason the book has been sitting on the shelf since I purchased it last year, and has not been read yet. It's not like me to let a perfectly good magic book sit unattended, so its time to dig in.

There are 60 effects in this book, and after some browsing around it looks like the book contains mostly card effects, but includes a mix of coins, rubber bands, cups, rope, and coin boxes. Since I am a fan of all of these things it should be a fun read.

I'm going to move through this at my own pace. I might gt through the entire thing in a week, it might take a month. Either way I'll let you know what I think.

See you on the other side,

Me

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Posted in Aldo Colombini, Magic Monday, Okito Box

Me at Random..My Reset Post

Wow, it has been a really long time since I posted anything on this blog. I think it is time to bring it back! I have tried blogs on a few different subjects. Each one fitting a different hobby, or life event of mine. The problem with what I have done in the past, is that I tried to keep things separate. A little of this over here, and a little of that over there. All of those things are part of me and there is no reason to keep them apart. This is the blog I started with ages ago, and I feel it's appropriate to come back to it, rather than starting another one from scratch. I have ideas in my ahead about keeping a schedule of certain types of posts and content. I know I will change my mind a million times before I even get through 2 or 3 posts so....I reserve the right to change my mind about whatever, whenever. At this point, I think just starting again is far better than having an overly detailed plan about what to do, and when to do it. I tend to go through phases with the things I like. I'll be really focused on one thing for a while, and then a few days, weeks, months, years later I'll be really focused on a different one. Once I discover something I really like I tend to stay with it. You may notice I don't talk about something for a while. Just know that if I'm not talking about it, that it does not mean I'm not doing it anymore. It just means my thoughts are occupied with something else. I'm sure I'll get back to it sooner or later. Some of the things you can expect to read about are Music, Magic, My Family, Pens/Wood turning, Wine, and anything else I feel like chatting about. I'm excited, and looking forward to blogging again.

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Posted in Reset