All bets are off

Changes, everywhere changes. Every minute of every hour of every day; a baby is born, someone dies and magical things are occurring everywhere. What a mind boggling time to be a magician.

Ok, I’ll admit it, I’m a pod cast junkie. . . there I said it [weeping into my hanky]. I subscribe to about 20 pod casts and update my ipod daily, having enough programing to make drive times/hikes etc. more productive. I listen to the Creative Screen Writing Pod cast a very interesting show. Q & A’s and interviews with current screenwriters after a screening of their movie. I enjoyed the one with Chris Nolan screenwriter for the Prestige and Batman Begins. Giving me my daily dose of delusion. I’m beginning to understand the components of what makes a good story. What techniques are used, how characters are developed and plots progressed. I guess, I’ll have to actually start writing something. Give it a deadline and bang it out. Any ideas? No really. . . this could be a fun exercise, you give me the title and I’ll write a page on it. I’m writing daily trying to form a new habit.

My mind swerves, through fleeting thoughts, like a drunk on a slick street. Life is a collage, of humanity. Pain and pleasure collide, smashing like meteors. Fireworks and strangeness, hip hop music and low rider cars. Not sure why you would want to do that to a new VW Bug, but you see all sorts of things. Like people who stand out in a crowd of millions and grab your attention and make you ask, “What’s up with this guy”

Criss Angel has tapped the vibe of television viewers and is on the TV a lot. He’s in heavy rotation baby, and living LARGE in Las Vegas.

Another ground breaker is Marco Tempest. If you haven’t seen his video pod cast, a series of camera phone videos that are puzzling and very magical. A fresh and interesting approach to use the internet to create an audience for your work. FUCKING BRILLIANT! As I said, an exciting time to be a magician.

Magicians are quick to blame this or that for the rapidly diminishing attention span. It’s TV or the internet, or people not going to theater. Who cares what it is. Play the cards your dealt. That’s what Criss Angel and Marco Tempest are doing, forging new ground in a rapidly changing marketplace. And a fickle marketplace it is, the public is an uncertain entity. What they dig today, they might not tomorrow, so the pressure is on to continue to pursue excellence and innovation.

Where is our art going? I guess that’s really up to us. There has never been a better time to be alive. . . despite a lot of real nonsense. Another pod cast I have been enjoying is the magic interviews on Sleight Club with Chris Wilcox. Nice interviews with Harry Risern Mike Close, Richard Osterlind and more. Great stuff for traffic jams (of which there are many here in LA).