Fredrick Turner

Reflections


  • Book Notes: MaddAddam

    MaddAddam is the final book in Margaret Atwood’s trilogy of the same name. Like its predecessors, the novel takes place in a world of climate change, the aftermath of a deadly plague, and the consequences of genetic engineering. While Oryx and Crake was Jimmy aka Snowman’s story and The Year of the Flood focused on Continue reading

  • Cataracts

    One of the “features” of getting older is cataracts. It’s a condition where the lens of the eye becomes cloudy. It’s a slow process so like many slow building things, you don’t notice the change readily. My optometrist told me a few years ago that I was developing cataracts but it wasn’t time for the Continue reading

  • Book Notes: The Year of the Flood

    This is the second novel in the MaddAddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood. Like Oryx and Crake, I read this about twenty years ago. However time and many other books have written over my memory and it was all new again. The Year of the Flood focuses on the lives of two women, Ren and Toby, Continue reading

  • Book Notes: Comedy, Character & Control

    This is not my typical magic book to read as I have always struggled with the idea of a comedy magician. (Aside: I also have a struggle with magicians who bill themselves as motivational speakers but that’s best left for another day.) I believe that magic is inherently funny – weird and unusual things happen Continue reading

  • The Disclaimer

    Last week Tom Dobrowolski announced to subscribers and Genii forum readers that the monthly magazine, The Disclaimer, is coming to an end. The Disclaimer has lasted a little four and a half years with an almost perfect on time record. Each issue had three close-up effects from a group of high quality magicians: Tom, Curtis Continue reading

  • Cotton or China

    Today marks the two year anniversary of this blog. One hundred and twenty two posts in total. Not too bad; although it could be better. As I said in my first post, this is the resurrection of the blog, Magic and Conjuring, I ran for a few years on Blogger. I drifted away from Blogger Continue reading

  • AI in Magic Advertising

    I don’t know if this story had much traction in social media as I’m not a participant. There’s been no discussion on the Genii or Magician’s Forums. Erik Tait and Nick Locapo discussed it briefly on the Penguin podcast and UK magician, Caven Booth, posted a YouTube video. It’s strange that there hasn’t been more Continue reading