Chad Long magic lecture (and 'spoke too soon')

Magician Chad Long - he of pulling-cards-out-of-walls fame - came to Calgary last week to give us a lecture. Probably because we'd been misbehaving. I suppose we deserved it.

No one's lecture will be useful for everyone in the room (we all like different stuff. Funny, that.) but I came away with eight or ten little ideas, sleights and bits of business, which is far more than what I consider my minimum to make a lecture 'worthwhile'. Oh - and I was inspired by Chad's opening coin routine. What a superb piece of magic! Elegant and convincing.

...Shame he didn't teach it. And such a shame that the only DVD in the world that teaches this routine is Homer Liwag's CoinTwo DVD... which is sold out of its limited run and is completely unavailable for love or money. Why is it that some crappy dross-filled DVDs are produced in quantities far beyond what is either desireable or necessary, yet Liwag's excellent work hasn't been available for...oh...two or three years?

I say 'excellent' only because that's what the reviews say. I wouldn't know. I haven't seen it. Because there aren't any left. Do you sense my faint sense of frustration? I see a beautiful coin routine that appears to suit my performing style and the kind of venues I work, and there's no way to get hold of it. Damn you, Mr Liwag, for being so good. And for only producing 1000 copies of your DVD.

But back to Chad Long. Yeah. Fun. Nice guy, funny and creative, and worth going to see.


On an unrelated lagomorphic note, in my earlier post when I crowed of our success in reintroducing our previously-antagonistic bunnies to each other, I was a little premature. A week or so on, and the fur started flying again. Damn. This means back to the drawing board. Or more accurately, back to the cardboard box on top of the washing machine during a spin cycle, followed by a nervewracking visit to the Empty Bathtub of Slipperiness.

Day 1 of the reintroduction is over. I'm hoping this doesn't take too long. It's bloody inconvenient having to keep them apart all the time. If anyone's had any experience with this (and how often and how long the stressful situations should be engaged in) I'd be interested to know.

Incidentally, I just got a new little video camera (and new software) so I'm re-learning the video editing thing. Don't expect wonders 'cos you won't get them, but the above video is the boys in the bathtub.

Happy birthday, bathtub boys!

Happy birthday to me! By way of a present to myself we decided that today would be the day we re-introduce Augustus and Snowdon to each other. They've been living in separate pens for three months since the nasty fighting that began when they hit puberty. You may remember they began fighting only two days before their scheduled neutering at the vet's, and have had to be separated since then.

"Give them three months apart before reintroducing them," we were told, so since October each one has occupied a different pen in the living room, side by side but separated by bars. It's been a daily rota of pen-swapping so they both get equal time out of their cages and we've made sure that they've always been able to see and smell each other.



For most of those three months Augustus would still nip at Snowdon through the bars given the chance but suddenly that changed about two weeks ago and they began to groom each other and lie close to each other.

So today being the three-month mark (and coincidentally my birthday) we decided to begin the reintroduction process by putting them in the bathtub together. Stressful? Oh yes! Snowdon sat and cowered and refuse to eat snacks while Augustus ate anything put in front of him and kept trying to leap out of the bathtub in homage to Steve McQueen in The Great Escape.



I think another couple of days of bathtub-panic and maybe a little ride on the washing machine together during a spin cycle (in a box of course) and they might be ready to hang out together in the living room. There's no way I'm going to leave them together unaccompanied for a while, though!