I have a love/hate relationship with the Ambitious Card routine. It's the one where the magician puts a card somewhere in the middle of the deck, and it magically jumps back to the top of the deck. Then he puts it back in the middle of the deck, and it jumps back on top. And then again, and then again, and then again, etc.
The plot goes like "This card is ambitious. It always climbs to the top. Despite, or in spite of all my efforts to subjugate it, it manages to climb the ladder of success. It cannot be defeated."
While the actual tricks themselves utilized to get the card back on top of the deck are visual and stunning, this approach to the plot is little more than Horse Manure. It's a great routine. It's a lame story. It's lame because it doesn't contain any real theatrical conflict. In fact, this approach to the story is nothing more than the magician saying, "Lookee what I can do in umpteen different ways." It's just showing off. The magician sets the conditions and then solves them with the greatest of ease. Where's the mountain to climb? Where's the challenge? Where's the magic?
I believe that every trick has its own story to tell. In every trick, something is happening that can relate to us on a conscious and a subconscious level. It's this subconscious story that the trick wants to tell. That's the story that will ring true to the listener. That's the story that will catch them by the short hairs and not let them go until it's over.
The hardest part of being a magician is figuring out what that subconscious story, the subtext of the magic trick, and then figuring out a way to let the character entertainingly reveal that story to the listeners. Subconscious stories can tell themselves if they are liberated and allowed to do so. The reason this can be so difficult to do is that it's much easier to simply contrive any old story to go along with any old certain trick. It's much easier to just write the story to suit what appears on the surface/conscious level, the superficial, and then mash the two together and call it magic, as I believe has always been the case for the standard Ambitious Card routine.
Putting a card in the middle of the deck, and then seeing that the card has risen to the top, doesn't mean that the card is ambitious. What it means that the card is impish and mischievious. Imagine a non-magician doing the same thing, and you'll get the idea. They put the card in the middle and then find it on top. "Hey, WTF? That's not supposed to be." So they put it back in the middle, and off it goes again. So they put it back in the middle of the deck and then tie a rope around the deck, and the card mischieviously finds it way back to the top. Imagine how flabbergasting that would be to the poor non-magician. Imagine how much cognative dissonance that would cause in their tired and confused brain.
Now put yourself in the place of the poor, tired, confused, and flabbergasted non-magician.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Details of the Not-So-Obvious
Chili peppers are ground down to a fine dust to better be able to extract their active ingredient, capsaicin. Once the capsaicin, a chemical compound that "stimulates" the chemoreceptor nerve endings, is isolated and concentrated, it can be put into a pressurized container to be deployed into the eyes, ears, nose, and/or mouth of any dumbass that deserves it. Pretty dangerous stuff.
Anthrax, actually a bacterium, not a virus, can also be manipulated the same way, although it isn't usually put in a pressurized container and sold at your corner drugstore. The finer the powder, the more concentrated it is, and the easier it is absorbed into the body. PRETTY dangerous stuff.
This procedure and process of extraction and concentration is called "weaponization." That means making a weapon out of something that isn't usually a weapon. A chili pepper isn't a weapon, although it could make you hella sick. The Anthrax bacterium, naturally existing in nature, isn't usually a weapon, although it too will make you hella hella sick. But once you weaponize them, they go from "funny and microscopic" to "you're in big trouble" all the way to "odds on that you're gonna die, bub." REALLY dangerous stuff.
The reason I mention all this is because I've noticed something recently, and it sort of fits in with what I've been talking about. Cuban coffee, elsewise known as expresso, is made from coffee beans just like American coffee, capuchino, and all the other $6 coffees available everywhere you go. The difference between expresso and the other coffees is that the beans used to make expresso are ground down to a fine powder to make the extraction of the active ingredient, caffeine, easier. Consequently, the resultant product is stronger and more concentrated, and much easier to absorb into the system.
Can you see where this is going?
Weaponized coffee!
Anthrax, actually a bacterium, not a virus, can also be manipulated the same way, although it isn't usually put in a pressurized container and sold at your corner drugstore. The finer the powder, the more concentrated it is, and the easier it is absorbed into the body. PRETTY dangerous stuff.
This procedure and process of extraction and concentration is called "weaponization." That means making a weapon out of something that isn't usually a weapon. A chili pepper isn't a weapon, although it could make you hella sick. The Anthrax bacterium, naturally existing in nature, isn't usually a weapon, although it too will make you hella hella sick. But once you weaponize them, they go from "funny and microscopic" to "you're in big trouble" all the way to "odds on that you're gonna die, bub." REALLY dangerous stuff.
The reason I mention all this is because I've noticed something recently, and it sort of fits in with what I've been talking about. Cuban coffee, elsewise known as expresso, is made from coffee beans just like American coffee, capuchino, and all the other $6 coffees available everywhere you go. The difference between expresso and the other coffees is that the beans used to make expresso are ground down to a fine powder to make the extraction of the active ingredient, caffeine, easier. Consequently, the resultant product is stronger and more concentrated, and much easier to absorb into the system.
Can you see where this is going?
Weaponized coffee!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
I should have bet on it
Crystal beat Cecilia in arm-wrestling yesterday. Please remember that Cecilia is the mom, and Crystal is the 12 year old daughter.
Crystal had just jumped rope 400 times about an hour before the big showdown with her mother. A set of 100, then another set of 100, then a set of 200. She was pumped. She was primed.
The match lasted about 8 seconds. At first it was a dead heat. They were both locked, and neither of them could get the advantage. Then Crystal, feeling that her mom was tiring, put her whole back into the operation and put her mom's arm down so quickly, mom almost went flying out of her chair.
Told you she's strong.
I should have bet on it.
:D
Crystal had just jumped rope 400 times about an hour before the big showdown with her mother. A set of 100, then another set of 100, then a set of 200. She was pumped. She was primed.
The match lasted about 8 seconds. At first it was a dead heat. They were both locked, and neither of them could get the advantage. Then Crystal, feeling that her mom was tiring, put her whole back into the operation and put her mom's arm down so quickly, mom almost went flying out of her chair.
Told you she's strong.
I should have bet on it.
:D
Hold 'Em
I hate being obligated to a pocket pair.That pair of fives I'm hiding in my pocket? They're not as strong as I'd like them to be. Neither were those nines I had the last hand. Give me a pair of face cards, please. Or better yet, give me and ace and a face suited. I might even go all in with those cards.
It takes two pairs, aces and kings, to get close to the money, and it takes trips to win. So unless I've got a horseshoe in my back pocket, or somewhere else, and the flop spits out the trip to my baby pair, I'm in a world of hurt, and the pain just gets worse if I keep betting it will get better. It's almost like I'm asking for it.
It takes two pairs, aces and kings, to get close to the money, and it takes trips to win. So unless I've got a horseshoe in my back pocket, or somewhere else, and the flop spits out the trip to my baby pair, I'm in a world of hurt, and the pain just gets worse if I keep betting it will get better. It's almost like I'm asking for it.
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