Been Awhile

I guess I owe it to the faithful three and a half who actually read this blog to post something new and recent on here.
I take heart in reading my friend Tom Frank's blog. He posts so often it puts me to shame.
Been kind of down about some things lately, like the fact that there aren't any fish in Puget Sound this year. The price of going fishing has sky rocketed and there aren't any fish to catch. Kind of a double whammer.
We went out fishing six times and caught two fish. That's pathetic. It wouldn't have been so bad had we at the very least been getting some nice strikes. A few nice hits or even the opportunity to feel the Zing Zing of the line peeling from the reel.


On another note. last weekend was the Boeing Classic at Snoqualmie Ridge. I spent three days at the senior golf tourny marshaling. I had a good time. It is amazing to watch these old guys golf. They still hit the ball a long way and really know how to play. I schmoozed some spectators while marshaling, hoping to get some gigs I handed out some business cards. I bet I'll never hear from any of them. Seems that's the way it works, or doesn't work. There are many houses aligning the golf course, Many of the residents had parties going on. One family brought me a nice plate of food. Brats and smoked salmon. It was all good!
The tournament was won by Tom Kite.
I have been constantly working on magic. Cards and coins and odds and ends. Reading Tommy Wonder's "Book Of Wonder" vol. 1. Good stuff!
I Perform as often as possible to keep progressing. Tired of making excuses. Mostly close up card stuff.Funny that! I never wanted to have anything to do with cards when I started on this journey. Now they're starting to actually feel good in my hands.
Soft hands Steve Ameden told me so often. Sometimes I amaze myself.

Ickle Pickle

Wow! I had no Idea!
Got to meet a great American today. His name is Steve Bender.
I am proud of him. Why? Because he is one of those unique individuals who followed his dream and made it happen! A real cool story about how he got into magic and has been living his dream for over 40 years!
He is an inventor and magician. He builds top quality and loves to make people laugh and laugh himself.
I really enjoyed Steven's lecture. There were about 17 of us in the room and I only wish there would have been lots more people to learn and enjoy!
As I move along on this magical journey that really got started almost 5 years ago, I find myself wishing many things... Mainly that I had stuck with magic nearly 30 years ago when as a young adult I first got started in magic.
So much of the wonderful magic that Steven shared with us are the things one leans about when first starting out in the trade. Since I got a late start at it, I jumped over a lot of the beginning, foundational things that make one a natural at it. There is a lot of "children's" magic that I feel is beneath me. This is rather sad as the fact is, when entertaining children, hearing their wonderful, no holds barred laughter, you would think that that would inspire people to get out of themselves and have fun with it!
I think this was one of the funnest magic lectures I have attended. All his effects were geared towards children, but the amazing thing about it is, that everyone of them had the wonderful capability of bringing out the child in all the adults! Steven had wonderful stories to go along with his magical effects.
Money, yes, that thing we all want and need.
Steven Bender's Ickle Pickle products were not cheap. They were however reasonably priced. Well made and many by Steven himself! Very impressive. As you can tell by reading this, I take my hat off to anyone who reaches the pinnacle of their craft. Hats off to you Steven.
I should have spent 200.00 dollars... I could have out fitted a whole children's act if I had.
The challenge with attending these lectures I am finding, is that everyone of the lecturers are pretty brilliant magicians. And they give great lectures, but after the lecture they are selling their products. The problem is that people buy these great items with the greatest of intentions to use them in their show. The truth is however, that most of the "stuff" never gets to see the outside of a magicians carry case. Why?
I think the lecturer makes the items look easy to use and have wonderful scripted stories to go along with the effect. You get it home, and either you forget how it works, have other things to work on, or never figure out a way to fit it into your show. This is the bane of every magician, a closet or drawer full of good ideas and great intentions.
I am learning some discernment in this area, but it is a growing process.
Wonderful, simply wonderful!

Disappointed

The lack of fish in Puget Sound is extremely disappointing to me, I have found out some interesting things lately. A friend of mine is on some kind of Washington fishing board. He told me that the indians get all their fish from the state. These are fish that they raise in hatcheries. They are supposed to cut off the adipose fin on these fish just as the states hatcheries does. However the indians have no incentive to do this. It is estimated that they actually cut off less than two percent of the adipose fins from their fish. This is an ironic catch 22.
The sport fisherman is regulated by state law to release all Black mouth salmon with an adipose fin. This is because the fish with the adipose fin "must" be "wild" salmon. It is believed that these "wild" salmon must make it back to the spawning grounds to keep the species hardy and strong. But because the indians don't cut off the adipose fins from their fish, the majority of Black mouth salmon returning with the adipose fin still intact are actually hatchery fish.
Here is a fish with the adipose fin intact, you can keep these fish if caught in Elliot bay.
The dumbing of America continues... The indians must be laughing at you and me as we release hatchery fish just to be caught in their indiscriminate nets! Think about it! The more fish we release, the more that can be caught in their nets, hahaha...
I think it's high time we revisited the laws and regulations in regards to sport fishing in Washington state.
I have been out fishing six times this year and have caught two fish. Usually by now we have at least eight to twelve.I am not seeing many fish caught by other fisherman either.
Barbless hooks, Boater driver regulations, fish here, not over here, nets that have no knots... we are being regulated to death, yet the indians have no such regulations, every year, after the fishing season, you can see piles of the fish they catch rotting in piles along the river banks because they didn't sell all of them.
I think because of the casino's and the money that is brought in by gambling that it is time to revisit the fishing laws in our state. They were once for a good purpose, that purpose and time is long past.

Needed

I took Thursday and Friday off from work! It was unplanned but needed!
I hadn't realized how much I needed a break from work.
30 years at Boeing. Every now and then a guy just needs to take some time for himself. Selfish time you might say. Or you might say "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!"
Went fishing Friday with our son Ryan in Elliot bay, it is now fish 4- Flynn's 0. Very disappointing as far as the catching of fish is concerned. I got to the bay at about 5:15 A.M. and it was crowded. I drove across the bay to pick Ryan up. We were in cell phone contact. He had to climb over a fence and down a barnacle covered ladder to get into the boat. Youth shall be served!
We enjoyed fishing for a couple of hours and I dropped Ryan off at pier 55 so he could go to work. I continued fishing til about 10:30 with out so much as a real strike. Have been out four times and have yet to get a real hit, something substantial.
There just aren't a lot of fish this year!
Later that evening I hooked up with my friend Dale and we took in a Mariners game. Outside the stadium we bought some Brats from Dales favorite vendor, a fellow named Edgar. Edgar owns a clothing store in Seattle and cooks food and sells drinks and chips along with dogs outside the stadium on game nights. I noticed a family of four and offered to do some magic for their young children. They loved the hot rod trick, but the crazy man's hand cuffs really wowed them. Not only were they impressed but several others that had gathered to watch were as well. Dale told me that several peoples eyes popped and some jaws dropped. That is what magic is all about!
Eye popping entertainment!
BTW, the Mariners lost to the Rays 5-3.
Sunday at church we enjoyed an inspiring sermon by Pastor Bill Vincent. Where is our focus? On our service to God? Or on our worship and praise of God!?
Seems to me that if our worship and praise of God are in the right place, our service to God will take Care of itself.
Later in the day I finally got back into our weight room and enjoyed? a nice work out. It's been over a month since I worked out. So, hopefully this will get me back into it!

Session and Fishing

Cups and balls was the topic of discussion at last nights session at Gary Smith's home.
It was a good evening of fun, video and magic!
Sandy Holt joined us as well. Jose performed two different cups and ball routines, His version of the Al Schneider routine and the Carl Andrews routine as well! Jose has some nice chops, just got to get him to believing it! I have enough trouble performing my one routine, I know Jose knows another routine as well. He has a wonderful child likeness about him.
We also rehashed Think, Touch, Turn and discussed many other things. I performed Gazzo's rising card from the deck for Gary and also Daryl's Cross of India. He liked them both and said, I have good stage presence... Hmm, maybe all those acting classes I took are finally paying off!

This morning after work I took our daughter fishing.
That is just what we did too, fished, and fished, and fished... nowhere did I say anything about catching...We saw only one fish caught from the many boats and anglers out on the Sound.
Katie likes to drive the boat and so I let her take us across the Sound to a different fishing hole. She forgot to remove her hat so the wind from our boat speed decided to help her... as I looked back, fully expecting to see her cap in the water, this is the site that greeted me... It turned out to be the catch of the day!
HAHAHAHA, her cap had landed in our net! We thought that was too funny!
A gorgeous day on the water!

The sunrise was tremendous!

Fish 2, Flynn 0

Monday I took son Ryan to Elliot Bay fishing.
Actually he came over Sunday and spent the night with us after taking me to the movie Batman, Dark Knight.
It was a beautiful day on Puget Sound.

We fished at the mouth of the Duwamish river for a couple hours with no results. So we headed North to the buoy. We marked fish along the way and asked some other fishermen how they were doing. Both boaters said they had one.
We had a nice strike but no hook up. Again, that is why it is called fishing and not going catching.
Katie and I are going in the morning to Redondo. Good luck to us!

It Worked

My little pep talk last week really helped.
I had two shows this weekend and both went great!
I let go of all my inhibitions and just performed like I know how!
The Friday night performance at Cutters point was excellent.

We had about 15 people who came specifically for the magic and some arrived to buy coffee and stayed to enjoy the performance. I rocked em!
I had a decent hat of 52 dollars. But more importantly, I think I found my rhythm.
The following day I did a birthday party for a nine year old and his friends and family. It too rocked, again I found my rhythm and left it all out there! It was great to mesh with the audience. Everyone was laughing and having a good time with the magic! This was kind of a milestone magically as it was really the first gig I did in a total strangers home. Think about that for a minute... Kind of trippy!
It is an awesome responsibility to carry the mantel of magician. This may be the first magician some people ever see.
About 7 children and ten adults. A nice mix. Made some nice green backs too for an hours worth of work, O.K. so with drive time to and from it was two hours, still, 85 bucks an hour is pretty good green. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!
Later Saturday evening I got to enjoy one of my fathers day gifts. Joan and I went to Outback steak house for dinner on our kids. They got me a 50 dollar gift certificate for pops day! Nice time out relaxin!
Sunday after church I met Ryan in South center to see the new Batman movie, Dark Knight. It was really well done. It was sad to watch as Heath Ledger has died since he performed as the Joker in the film. He did a great job as the Joker.
After the movie we took in some of the new and improved Westfield mall. Wow! I didn't even recognize the place. Ryan and i visited a couple of stores...