Fredrick Turner

Reflections

Learning

  • Subscriptions Everywhere

    The magic market is essentially a monopoly run by one major distributor, Murphy’s. The sales of magic products are run by essentially two major companies, Vanishing Inc. and Penguin Magic. Sure there’s other online retailers and a few brick and mortar stores around but they’re stuck buying from Murphy’s. There’s also a handful of independent… Continue reading

    ,
    , , , ,

  • Using a Medium

    In his 1964 book, Understanding Media, communication theorist, Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase: The medium is the message. McLuhan argued that the medium or the manner with which a message is communicated should be considered and studied. The medium can facilitate and enhance the message or distract from the message. This is one of the… Continue reading

    ,
    , ,

  • Eugene’s Birthday

    Today would have been Eugene Burger’s 87th birthday. He passed almost 9 years ago. There’s hardly a day that goes by without me thinking of him – especially when reading, studying, or practicing magic. I probably mentioned this before but one of the best vacations we took was to Chicago. Timing was perfect because Eugene… Continue reading

    ,
    , ,

  • But Can I Keep It?

    Recently Helder Guimarães entered the expanding space of subscription services. The idea of a subscription service wasn’t new to me as I was a supporter of Ben Earl’s The Family during its first year. I really enjoyed it however I found I was just watching the videos and not studying and learning the offerings. It… 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

    , ,

  • 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

    , ,

  • A Fine Line

    A recent magic podcast featured a two part interview with a comedian talking about the similarities and differences between magic and stand-up. A significant portion of the second episode was on the comedian’s approach to working with the audience or as it’s called, crowd work. Crowd work is hard and requires empathy and respect as… Continue reading

    ,
    , , ,

Catagories