Links for 1-July-2011

• From Aaron Jones:
  - Stupid Magic Stories #1: You cut my THUMB!
  - Stupid Magic Stories #2:  What language is this supposed to be in?
   
• From Browser's Den of Magic:
  - Magic Show at Magic Club:  Saturday-July 2  including four customers, including Ariel Frailich!
   
• From the Magic Newswire:
  - Vernon fools Houdini - The Daily (The Daily article is Hand of Fate - Card trick that stumped the great harry Houdini)
  - Natural Magick photo essay
  - Vodavil photo essay
   
• From Evelyn Matlin at Perfect Magic:
  - This is just a regular deck of cards!
  - Magic for beginners and children's magic
   
• From Ryan Pilling at Playing Big:
  - The sum total of your choices
  - Define yourself
  - Walking a mile in his shoes
  - 5 rules for choosing music for your magic show
  - Royalties and legally using music in your show 
   
• From Sharing Wonder:
  - Luminato and My Magic Hands
  - Natural Magick
  - Vodavil
  - Magical Medicine
   
• From Shawn Farquhar:
  - June 7 Vlog on YouTube
   
• From Andrew Musgrave at Ye Olde Magick Blogge:
  - in June, Andrew spent time talking about character.  Here's the post that started it.
  - Andrew's starting on a Pet Peeves month for July -- can't wait!
   
• Lecleric Show episodes on YouTube (I haven't been able to keep up with viewing, but here are links to the last month's videos):
  151. The Shout Out Video - Day 151 of 365
  152. Amazing Telekinesis! - Day 152 of 365
  153. Bending the Real - Day 153 of 365
  154. Crazy Spray Paint Magic Trick - Day 154
  155. Magical Perrier Bottle - Day 155 of 365
  156. The Floating DVD - Day 156 of 365
  157. Rubber Band Finds Card - DAY 157 of 365
  158. Impossible Card Trick on live TV - DAY 158
  159. CHEO Telethon Magic - DAY 159 of 365
  160. Balls from Mouth - Day 160 of 365
  161. Ekaterina - Day 161 of 365
  162. Vincent C: The Badboy of Magic - Day 162 of 365
  163. Magic in your hand! - Day 163 of 365
  164. Easy and Amazing Card trick Explained! - Day 164 of 365
  165. Controlling a girl's thoughts - Day 165 of 365 
  166. Vanishing Cards - Day 166 of 365
  167. Mr. Prege - Day 167 of 365
  168. Disappearing Water - Day 168 of 365
  169. Cwiss Angel - Day 169 of 365
  170. Rocky Raccoon: Freaking people out on the streets! - Day 170 of 365
  171. NEW: SCR Magic Trick!!
  172. The Acrobatic Matchbox - DAY 172
  173. David Stone 'THE TOOL' Revealed!
  174. iPhone Memory Lane - Day 174 of 365
  175. Funky Floating Furniture - Day 175
  176. Coin Penetration - Day 176 of 365
  177. June Day Off - Day 177 of 365
  178. Kid Assaults Magician - DAY 178 of 365
  179. Insane Mental Calculations!
  180. Shoe Drinking - Day 180 of 365
  181. Floating Light - Day 181 of 365

Links for 31-May-2011

• From Jay Sankey:
  - Differences between bending and performing magic 
• From Magicana:
  - A quick overview of the MCW, "whew!"
  - Rememberi ng Challenge Week Magic Camp at The York School in "Magic + Film = Challenge Week"
    
• From Perfect Magic:
  - Evelyn shares wonderful observations of her grandchildren's relationship to magic in "When is the best age for starting magic?"
   
• From Andrew Musgrave at Ye Olde Magick Blogge:
  - Andrew's focus for May was "specific magicians who’ve inspired me" and added Richard Sanders to his list (which also includes Dai Vernon and Jay Sankey).
          
• Lecleric Show episodes on YouTube (I haven't been able to keep up with viewing, but here are links to the last two week's videos):
  134. The Lecleric Show Official Trailer 135. Interactive Card Trick! TRY IT!! IT WORKS!! - Day 135 of 365 136. Blister Card Trick- DAY 136 of 365
  137. SICK Colour Change- DAY 137 of 365
  138. Self-finding Aces - Day 138 of 365
  139. Spankalicious Card Trick Tutorial - Day 139 of 365
  140. Lego Jail Cell Trick - Day 140 of 365
  141. The Accident - Day 141 of 365
  142. Making Playing Cards - Day 142 of 365
  143. Ripping Other People's Money - DAY 143 of 365 144. The Switch - DAY 144 of 365
  145. My Magic Room - Day 145 of 365
  146. EPIC Royal Flush Card Trick - Day 146
  147. Quickie with Rubbers - Day 147 of 365
  148. The Pom Pom Trick - Day 148 of 365
  149. World's Messiest Coin Trick - Day 149 of 365
  150. Anakin's Video DAY 150 of 365

Links for 14-May-2011

• From the Browser's Den:
  - Chris Mayhew, one of the artists at Theory 11, special guest at June 11 club meeting
    
• From Perfect Magic:
  - Magicians Peforming For Magicians: memories from “A Little Nite Magic," the Sheraton Centre and a great quote by Frank Garcia
  - Things that go wrong in the night!:  memories of Phil Matlin and Romaine
   
• From Andrew Musgrave at Ye Olde Magick Blogge:
  - Andrew's focus for May is "specific magicians who’ve inspired me" and has already included entries on Dai Vernon and Jay Sankey.  Keep up the great work on your Project 365 Andrew!
    
• Lecleric Show episodes on YouTube (I haven't been able to keep up with viewing, but here are links to the last two week's videos):
  121. Static Rising Card Trick - DAY 121 of 365
  122. Levitating Voodoo Doll - DAY 122 of 365
  123. Mystery Box - DAY 123 of 365
  124. Illusion de la Spirale Hallucinante - Jour 124 de 365
  125. Balloon Playing - Day 125 of 365
  126. CD Manipulation - Day 126 of 365
  127. World's Most Popular Magic Trick - Day 127
  128. The Teleporting Ring Live! - Day 128 of 365
  129. Wicked Thunderbird Card Trick! - Day 129
  130. Changing Card Trick @ De La Salle - DAY 130 of 365
  131. Retro Eric Leclerc - Day 131 of 365
  132. Magician Penetrates Playboy Bunny...With His Mind. Day 132 of 365
  133. Cigarette Through Card Trick - Day 133

Magical blogs

Recently, someone asked "Any good magic blogs out there?"  Good question. 

Here's a list of blogs written by magical Canadians (former and current) about which I'm aware:

• Aaron Jones
• Andrew Musgrave: Ye Olde Magick Blogge
• Chris Philpott's Film and Magic Blog
• David Ben: Tricks and Tweets
• Evelyn Matlin: Perfect Magic Then and Now
• Gwyn Auger: The Magic Assistant
• Jay Sankey
• Jeff Hinchliffe
• Keith Brown
• Magicana: Sharing Wonder
• Mark Lewis: Ramblings of a magic genius
• MCA: Mystery & History
• Ryan Joyce
• Shawn Farquhar

Please leave a comment if you'd like to be included or know of others that I'm missing.  The list will appear as a feature in the middle column, below the "Sponsored by" section, under the title "Magical blogs."

Links for 2011-Mar-4

• Andrew Musgrave names Jay Sankey as Favourite Creator
• Piff Paff Poof Theatre Contest
  (Enter for your chance to WIN one of three prize packs for the March 17th show).
   
• Lecleric Show episodes on YouTube:
  55.  Girl of My Dreams - Eric Vanier (Day 55 of 365)
  56.  Cigarette Snorting - Day 56 of 365 
  57.  iPhone Magic Trick - Day 57 of 365
  58.  Live Mentalism - DAY 58 of 365
  59.  Disappearing Card Trick - Day 59 of 365
  60.  Snow Day - DAY 60 of 365
  61.  Rubik's Cube Dilema - Day 61 of 365
    

Looking on the bright side of things

At a time when it's almost de rigueur to find fault and complain about how badly things are broken, it's refreshing to see someone consciously focus on the positives within their domain.  Imagine my delight to see that Andrew Musgrave, in the course of his own 365 project, has declared February to be his "favourites" month.

From his first post in February:

The ironic thing is that if you get really good at being the opposition, however, and embracing that mentality, it can almost have a paralyzing effect upon you. It becomes that much harder to commit to an idea because you can almost start automatically seeing both the flaws in the idea, and the merits in competing ideas in dealing with those flaws. Unfortunately, if you shift to a new idea, then the flaws of that idea start making themselves known, and still more ideas occur to you as being superior (including potentially the one you abandoned earlier on). It can become the psychological equivalent of MC Escher’s “Treppauf und treppab”, and, if you’re like me, that can have a paralyzing effect on one’s development as a magician.

 
Andrew's favourites so far include:

• Favourite Torn and Restored Card Routine
• Favourite Triumph Presentation
• Favourite L&L Performance
• Favourite Approach to “Be Honest, What Is It?”
• Favourite Cups and Balls Routine
• Favourite 2 Item Transposition
• Favourite Fictional Depiction of Magicians
• Favourite Cheap Magic Trick

I can't wait to read about the other favourites he has in store for us!

Welcome readers from "Ye Olde Magick Blogge"

Have a look around and send us your feedback!

Thank you to Andrew Musgrave for today's kind mention of Canada's Magic on "Ye Olde Magic Blogge."  I appreciate your kind words! 

We'll be following-up later in the year to see how Andrew's doing with his own "365 project"!

Andrew Musgrave's project 365 and website for Vancouver magicians

Vancouver magician Andrew Musgrave is 22 days into his own "365 project" where he's committed to "do something that’s both productive and magic-related every day of the year" on his blog "Ye Olde Magic Blogge."

As part of that project, on Day 16 he created  the Magicians-In-Vancouver blog, which offers "a neutral venue for magicians in Vancouver to post a profile of themselves and link back to their website(s), Youtube videos, news articles, etc."  To have your profile published, contact Andrew directly.

[h/t: John Pellatt]