Quote du Jour

"By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong."

Charles Wadsworth

In my "In Box"

Tom,

You probably won't remember me from Cincinnati. I am a hobbyist-magician who frequented your store downtown. I also befriended a local magician Tom Wolf whom you know. You were always friendly to me when I saw you even though I think I proded you for more help with my skills then your time allowed. You introduced me to Paul Swinford - a wonderful man and spirit. Tom Wolf is of the same. I think you sold me one of your first exchange wallets you brought back from China. I stepped away from Magic until recently.

I stumbled across you blog about a month ago wondering having heard from Haines that you landed in Seattle. More to the point - your love of your children is commendable. Our children are born out of who we are. We all struggle day to day with maintaining who we are and helping them. Life offers up challenges. I pity those that so not recognize this for they take the most valuable gift that God has given us (Life) for granted. Struggle/issues/crisis make the life journey special and make us value life that much more.

I realize from your blog that you are under a difficult strain to spend time with your children. Please realize that you have time. I have 3 wonderful children 8-10 and 12 yrs old. A year ago, my 8 yr old was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor. We have been through so much Tom. My son is on schedule with his treatments and so far is doing well. What is really cool is that he has an interest in Magic - they must have really scrambled his brain during the resection of the tumor. I thank God everyday for Childrens Hospital in Cincinnati. I value every second I spend with him and my other Children. Please remember that our Children are extensions of our past, extensions of ourselves, and wonderful creations of their own. They will always be that no matter how much time we spend with them. I'm glad to see you had a beautiful day with them. Believe me, they will remember this and manifest it into them selves.

Tom, we recently moved and I was going through my boxes. In my books of magic, I found David Roth's Expert Coin Magic. You loaned this to me after a magic lesson you gave me at Tower Place Mall. This is your book Tom. I am willing to make restitution to you for the book or send the book back to you. What ever you choose.

Thanks.

Jay Schuermann

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Jay,

Heavy Stuff. Keep the book as a gift from me. If you feel like it, go downtown for 4th & Walnut to Strauss Tobacconist and buy me a cigar or two. I appreciate you taking the time to write such a nice letter and I apologize for not responding sooner.

All my best to you and your family.

Tom

PS Your words touch my heart and give me hope. Love is a powerful thing.

Performed at the Clise Mansion last night.

What began in 1904 as hunting lodge for James Clise, a Seattle banker, gradually expanded into the 28-room country great house that is now known as Clise Mansion. Clise named his estate Willowmoor, and it became a working showplace farm known for breeding Morgan horses and Scottish Ayrshire cattle. Clise sold the farm in the 1920s, and it changed hands several times before being purchased by Everett lumberman U.M. Dickey in 1941. Dickey leased the farm to three men who continued the dairy operation, renaming it "Marymoor" after a daughter. In 1959 an investment firm bought the farm with the intent to develop it, but King County saved the land for a public park. Willowmoor Farm, which includes the Mansion and the adjacent Windmill, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.










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Cheese Coney night in Seattle

I guess you really have to be from Cincinnati to "Get" the whole cheese coney thing. It's like a chili dog. . . but different. Cincinnati Style Chili isn't like Texas Style Chili at all. I'd like to thank Buster's Mom, Cricket for sending a few cans home with him after spring break. It's nice, after all these years, we get along better than we ever have. We are both interested in what's best for our son. . . and that feels really good. No tension. . . . just cheese coney's.

In my "In Box"

Hi Tom,

Got the cups. This set looks better that than the previous one. There are still things that I do not like but I guess I will have to learn to live with them. In general, the major issues are resolved. I had to fiddle a bit with the case but now it is completely aligned. One question though, where did you find these balls, or what did you do to them to make them fit? I do not know this for certain because it would be hard to estimate sizes without accurate measurements but I honestly do not think that these cups are any bigger than the others (as measured with the balls I have) and yet these balls fit, albeit snuggly. I think that perhaps, as Bill Palmer suggested, there is a lot of variability among tennis balls. He went through a lot of trouble to clarify the issue for us.

I want to thank you for taking the time and effort to get things to work for me. Also, I want to thank you for trying hard to improve the state of the art in magic and and taking a lot of crap for it. We are a bunch of opinionated people that only live to criticize others. If you doubt that, just take a look at the post by Jake about the new generation of Phoenix cups. He fixed the things that people didn't like and people still think that they are not perfect... If we practiced like we talked, Dai Vernon would look bad ;-). I will focus on these things rather than the balls when I post on the cafe. Ahh, I will also leve feedback for you at Ebay.

Again, thank you very much and good luck to you,

Alejandro.

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Alejandro,

Thanks for the kind words. I did the best I could for you. You're right about the cups, they are the same size as the one's you sent back. As for the tennis balls, I bought them at Target.

People can say what the want about the Phoenix Cups, but I stand behind my product 100%. I could take the worst set, and entertain the hell out of an audience. They are, what they are. . . a set of cups and balls. As for the juicy discussions on the Magic Cafe (For two pages of sillyness • Click Here), I used restraint and opted not to enter a discussion that would be reduced to drivel.

Thanks again, I appreciate your business.

Sincerely,


Tom Frank

Slim Pickens & The Vinyl Avengers

Wednesday Night means good music, dancing. . . . and perhaps. . . a cocktail. . . or two. I started out the evening at the "Can Can" at Pike Place Market. It was weird being there at night. All shut down for the exception of a few restaurants and bars. Jake and Annie played beautifully for a small but attentive audience. I'm so lucky and blessed to have so many talented friends that share my desire to make the world a better place through their artistic vision. We've all picked a hard road to travel, but when it comes together it's all downhill. . . . wind in our hair and a smile on our face.



Jake and Annie, "Slim Pickens" busk at the market by day and try and hustle a gig here and there in the evenings. I'm glad I went.



Next stop was the Owl and Thistle, where as Polly puts it, "I get my Fred Astair on". I get so much pleasure out of listening to the Vinyl Avengers and dancing the night away. Been feeling pretty good about my dancing lately. I think I'm finally ready to discard the notion that I'm the worst dancer in the room.



The band is great, and the vibe even better. I encourage those of you in Seattle to make it down one Wednesday Night. You won't be sorry!

Happy Birthday To Mike Gallo!!

I had a nice chat online with my buddy Mike Gallo. He turned the big 50 today and wasn't all that excited about it. We live, we learn, we grow, we age. I like Mike. He's always been very nice to me. We met back in 1983 when we both lived and worked in New York City. Those were the days! Now we talk about being single parents of teenage boys and all the dynamics that go along with that.

Happy Birthday Mike and enjoy the evening with your son!

Session Pics

Brian w/ the Houdini Mirror Hancuff Reproductions


Jeff Edmonds has always favored the now extinct Linen Finish Aristocrat Cards from the US Playing Card Co.


Steve, Me, Jeff, Philemon & Brian early in the evening.


Jeff & Brian

Cups du Jour • From Rings n Things II

Phoenix II Cups
The Phoenix Once Again Rises!

The enhancements were a tighter mouth bead against the cup which changed the look of the cup, a raised shoulder bead and increased saddle which now allows for 3 1 1/8" balls to be nested on top and cups stacked with no sticking or floating. The cups now take a "REGULATION" tennis ball such as Wilson, Penn etc. The cups are slightly heavier than the originals and spun from 065 copper.

The inititial release will be copper due to the high cost of surgical stainless right now does not make it cost effective to spin these in heavy stainless as planned.

Each set comes with Embroidered Phoenix II bag depicting the Phoenix rising up, 4 tight crochet working balls, 3 Copper Phoenix II cups in 065 thick heavy copper, 3 Final load Tennis Balls (Wilson or Penn) and detailed routine Book provided by John Mendoza.

The initial run is 12 sets with 10 remaining.

To Purchase • Click Here

A view of the mouth of the cup.


These cups will accomodate a regulation sized tennis ball!


A side by side comparison to the original Phoenix cup.

In my "In Box"

Mr. Frank,

I suppose the traditional way to begin an e-mail of this sort is to make you aware of who I am, and why I'm writing. So, since I just love conformism I'll do just that. (That last statement reeked of sarcasm by the way.) So, to continue on, my name's Bryan, and I am a resident of a small town southwest of Dayton, Ohio. When I was five my grandfather pulled a quarter out of my ear and for the next week I went through a box of q-tips trying to get rich. Unfortunately, that didn't work. However, my brother decided to buy me a book on magic, which ended up being Expert Card Technique. It may not have been anything on coins, but it definitely got me started, and hooked on magic. Heck, I prefer the boards over coins now. Still being young and in school I'm often left busy working on my studies. Whenever I get a chance to practice my magic I take it, and enjoy it thoroughly.

The reason I'm writing to you though, is not to give you some autobiography of my life. It is to let you know that your life has been an inspiration for me. Tough times hit everyone, and at times it seems as if they've hit me, even at a young age, extra hard. I won't bore with you my burdens, but instead I'll let you know that seeing another magician, another human being, who has dealt with hard times and pulled through them acts as a drive for me to continue fighting through life. I feel that you deserve to know that your struggles and determination to keep going aren't unnoticed. Even a small kid from a farming community has respect and admiration for you.

I wish you the best in your future ventures, magic, and dreams.

-Bryan

Tuesday Night Jam Session

Well, Jeff Edmonds was certainly a hit at the session. Not quite as big a hit as Polly was the week before, but sill an impressive showing. I like some of the faces that have been showing up regularly the last couple of months, namely, Brian Cook, Roger Needham, Pete Borrows and Philemon. All nice additions to our core group of regulars.

Pete had a cool effect to workshop. I think he got some good ideas on how to handle a prop. Steve dusted off an effect that he taught the group months ago. We all performed during a couple of round robins. Jeff performed all of his card flourishes to hearty applause and impressed us all.

Nash performed "Color Fusion" and fooled Jeff. All in all a good night. Brian Masters & Lawrence showed up later in the evening but didn't stay long.

After the session ended at 12:30AM Jeff and I stayed up another few hours and had a session of our own. He showed me a couple of cool 4 card revelations. One was from Bill Malone and another from Chad Long. I did the Vox Box for Jeff as well as repeated the Elmsly Two Pile Trick as Jeff thought that Steve might have been signaling me earlier. I fooled him twice with the same routine!

Quote du Jour

"Every child is an artist.

The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up"

-Pablo Picasso

Busker

If it's not one thing it's another.

I've been experiencing some car problems. Had my car looked at over the weekend and was told that I am leaking coolant from my head gasket. That can't be good. Jeff and I tried some over the counter sealer tonight. We flushed the radiator and well see tomorrow if that did anything to help. The guys at the garage didn't think it was worth a $900 fix job on a car with 140K miles on it. They said once your rip the motor apart, you never know what else your going to find wrong in there.

I'll be wildly optimistic that the goop we put in the radiator is going to work. If not, I'll have to figure something out.

Tour of Seattle

Today started early. I was up at 6:45AM. I wanted to talk to my girl before she went to work. How the hell I got up that early with no alarm clock is beyond me. It's gone far beyond smitten, I'm in love.

It was nice being up that early. The sky was blue, the sun was shining and it was 64 degrees at 9:00AM. Jeff and I touched base in the morning and agreed that we would hook up at the market after he checked out of his hotel room. He'll stay with me for the next couple of nights and fly out on wednesday.

I worked the market today and while it was a beautiful day, traffic was typically light as most mondays are and I barely made any money. I had to dismiss two small crowds for total lack of enthusiasm. Oh well.

Jeff came down in the mid afternoon and I took him a bit of a tour of Seattle. We started out at the Market, then on to Seattle Center. This was the same tour I gave Polly a week or so ago. We walked all around the Seattle Center and I pointed out as many landmarks I could: The EMP, Space Needle, Pacific Science Center, Imax, Children's Theater, Key Arena, The Opera House, Ballet etc. . . .


Stand at the main entrance to the Experience Music Project, look up, and here's what you see: Seattle Monorail tracks, Space Needle and some of Frank Gehry's architecture.

From there we went to Fremont where I introduced him to the Troll beneath the Fremont Bridge. We parked and took a walking tour of Fremont and enjoyed the nice day. This really is a beautiful city!



We took the scenic route back downtown a quick trip to the Hotel Maxx to the the hotel room doors with street performers on them, then back to Alki Beach.

Jeff Edmonds in town

A pal from the old days, Jeff Edmonds, is in town! He had a gig at the Columbia Tower Club for Ford Motor. You got to dig a venue on the 75th floor of any building! The view was spectacular!



He had asked me if I would mind video taping his performance. He set his camera up in the back of the room with a wide shot, I was going for close-ups and audience reaction shots. He'll have both tapes to work and edit from.



I enjoyed Jeff's performance, as I have for so many years. I've never seen anyone else in person that could do some of the old school flourishes and maipulations that Jeff mastered almost two decades ago. I remember when he first showed me the double arm spreads like like old Houdini poster. He'll be around for this weeks session on Tuesday Night, perhaps he'll wow the gang with his extrordinary talent.


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This is a pic of Jeff's double arm spreads.



Jeff moved Indianapolis from Aspen and worked at Illusions. This was after my era at a club that spawned the talents of people like Chris Kenner, Homer Liwag & Mike Close. He's now back in Aspen performing for the rich and famous.

Took Polly to Honky Tonk Dance Night

Polly took this pic as we were leaving the Owl and Thistle. We had a great time. I loved cutting a rug with her and showing off some of my dance moves with her and a few other girls. It was sweet, my friends kept asking me if Polly was my girlfriend. They seemed genuinely happy to see me necking with my girl like some love struck teenager.

Always a great time. I was pleased to share with her both my Tuesday Night Jam Session and Wednesday Night Honky Tonk Dance Night. I miss her.

Dreamin', I must be dreamin'
or am I really lyin' here with you?
Baby, you take me in your arms,
and though I'm wide awake
I know my dream is comin' true.

And, oh, I just fall in love again;
just one thought and then it happens every time.
And there I go, I just fall in love again,
and when I do can't help myself
I fall in love with you.

Magic, it must be magic,
the way I hold you and the night just seems to fly.
Easy for you to take me to a star.
Heaven is that moment when I look into your eyes.

Can't help myself I fall in love with you.