Magical Blog

Just read “The Best Horror of the Year Volume 1″ (2009). Lord Help me.

In my younger years the likes of the Pan Books of Horror just seemed to reek of blood and dismemberment. Totally unsubtle but to a youngster quite exciting.

Then we had a move to more psychological and satisfying horror. One of my favourites in this area being Ramsay Campbell.

However I have to say that I feel we have strayed too far and this book exemplifies how, in getting into more psychological (and subtle) horror we seem to have lost an element of the visceral, much needed in horror. Half the stories at least in this book are a complete yawn and this isn’t the first time I’ve experienced this recently with anthologies.

The folk who edit these things may be being a bit too clever and artsy for their own good, or perhaps there aren’t that many decent stories out there.

One things for certain …things ain’t what they used to be.

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I’ve had a look at the links and removed those links where the Blog seems to have completely disappeared.

Even if they haven’t posted for a while the link is still there if the content is.

If your blog isn’t on the list and you want it to be, let me know.

Cheers

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And following my last post here’s an example of the right environment, right host and nice classy piece of magic that enhances magic rather than opens it to ridicule.

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I’ve caught up with the performances on Letterman in “The Magic Week” and generally they were okay.

Most disappointed with Michael Ammar and “Pressure”…the idea of popping the balloon ( and thereby pretty much exposing that the phone wasn’t inside at all) was a poor one. Not great thinking.

Despite some of them being nervous and a lot of it being pretty stale looking it was okay . But:—

Letterman hates magic with a passion, its obvious. And his sidekick Paul likes to put humorous musical finales in at the wrong moment…hysterical.

Anybody with an ounce of self-respect would give these two idiots a wide berth. So yep you are giving yourself and magic a huge amount of exposure…thats laudible. On the other hand you are doing it in an environment where mein host is constantly taking the piss and trying to subtly humiliate.

I’d give it a miss…or go on with better tricks and jokes that would shut the loudmouth up. Unfortunately neither I or the magicians involved are up to that task.

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I’ve been visiting the Café for a number of years and found that as a resource for discussing magic its been a great place to come.

The “You Ought to Be In Pictures” and “Not Very Magical” sections have some great contributors and there are some very sane and sound people to talk to on here.

The upshot of it was that this year, in some small recognition of the value I get out of the Café, I was making small regular donations…that was the mood I was in in terms of the Café.

Lately however I have come to reconsider this position and there are a couple of major things for me that have coloured things:

1) Deletions that occur with no explanation but seem to favour certain folks.

2) Admin staff with agendas:- I was having a contretemps with another Café Member and found one of my posts altered. I got a PM from a staff member to say that he had really sharpened up my post for me as the other party needed taking down a peg. I put the idiot straight in no uncertain terms—luckily for him somebody deleted that whole topic anyway —see point 1.

3) There’s a superior take it or leave it attitude from the management here. A very good example being the responses to people querying search times which is dismissed every time its raised but seems to exist only for the Café and and not for any other forums out there. Maybe its being a bit cheap on the server front ?

So I am unfortunately out of here.

I can guarantee one of three things:

1) This post will be gone very very quickly.

2) Vehement defenders will be allowed to come on and mock me and then the topic will be locked.

3) Steve will come on with a patronising or smug response and belittle me and then the topic will be locked.

I’m going for option 1 myself.

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Contrary to rumours circulating through the TV industry, the new series THE CATCHPENNY CLUB, is not a sequel or a spin-off of the popular J J Abrams show LOST.

I realise fans, including me, are eagerly hoping that a new show will emerge as a LOST spin-off, or a LOST prequel or LOST sequel, but THE CATCHPENNY CLUB definitely has nothing to do with the show.

There have been comparisons made between the relationship of Nicholas Johnson and his sidekick Tom to that of Hurley and Benjamin Linus, but that's where the similarities end.

THE CATCHPENNY CLUB is a 7 part series starting on Channel 31 (digital 44) at 10pm on Friday June 18.

www.thecatchpennyclubtv.com 

LOST is over, though the DVD box set of the final season will be released in August.

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Collins St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia

Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

338 George St, Sydney NSW 2000

Queen St, Brisbane QLD 4000

507 Olsen Ave Ashmore QLD 4214

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Yesterday I had a Telemarketer call from some energy assessment bureau who claimed to be working hand in hand "with the Government."

They were offering a free energy assessment of my home. Any day of the week, 7am to 10pm, only takes 2 hours for the average home – "and I see you live in a unit so it shouldn't take very long at all. I assume it's quite small."

Once the assessor finishes assessing my energy use he would then send me a report telling me the steps I can take to minimise my energy wastage.

Hmmm… I wonder if he would also recommend certain companies to do the work too?

A quick google search sheds more like on this scheme:

1. a FREE home sustainability assessment & report (valued at over $250)
2. access to a Green Loans subsidy provided by participating financial institutions to cover four years of interest for bor rowing up to $10,000 to buy and install green products (Obligation Free).

Sounds a lot like the government insulation scam… I mean scheme… that worked sooo well.

So, if I may be so bold as to suggest what's going on here: A company that sells "green" products for homes hires its own "independent assessors" to visit homes and make recommendations. The government pays for the assessments, thus costing the company nothing, and the assessor makes lots of recommendations as to how the home owner can spend every cent of their Green Loan with the company.

The Telemarketer was shocked that I didn't want a free assessment. "But it's FREE!" So it sounds like they must be doing a roaring trade.

Bottom line, if people are phoning you to sell (or even give stuff away) at random, JUST SAY NO!

Even if they say they are "with the Government".

UPDATE:

You need to read this report here as I just did. I was right. It's the insulation scheme all over again. Though it seems I may be wrong about the assessors recommending certain companies. It looks like the scam is the assessments themselves!

" I am also aware, for example, that Fieldforce is using telemarketing companies to cold call and canvass businesses. That was not part of the rules. The assessors were told that they were not allowed to do that. Assessors have now become so desperate that they are buying bookings from the telemarketers."

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