More Magic

Magic updates! Hey! Well, I just performed at the DVD release gala for the new documentary of deaf entertainers, See What I’m Saying, which Universal just took on. So the show was at Universal Studios, Hollywood, in the Globe Theatre (right by the Terminator 3D attraction), and it was a royal blast! I’ve worked within the deaf community previously with the GLAD Association, and it was an honour to be back. Working with the amazing and talented people who were part of this film was inspiring and a lot of fun. I hope you’re able to watch the film at some point, or at least take a peak at the trailer. And working at Universal was just surreal! We had to go through the “backstage” of the park in order to get to the theatre for tech rehearsal, and it was bizarre seeing costumed characters wandering around without their heads on, or Marilyn and Frankenstein’s monster on a coffee break together. On the day of the show, we had to enter through the loading dock, but got in the wrong elevator… Instead of going into the theatre, we went into the monster house! Super trippy. It’s four layers, which I didn’t realize, so every time we’d press a button hoping to get off, we’d just be on another layer of creepy set pieces and screaming teenage girls. Eventually, we found the right spot, but that’s just a taste of the experience.

Make Believe! Let’s talk about that! Super exciting. First of all, we have the first official public screening this Monday at the World Magic Seminar, after which there will be a director/producer/stars Q&A. (I’m flying out to Vegas on Sunday to participate, and am really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, I have to fly home immediately afterward for a linguistics quiz. Blehh.) Aallso, the film has been picked up by Showtime! It’ll premiere on April 12^th. Here’s the official release about it, and here’s a piece with a bit more detail. After that, probably around Spring or Summer, there will be a theatrical release, as well, but I’ll have to let you know more about that once I know more about it. ;)

In the meantime, I’ve been working on some new pieces, especially through various local open mic nights and campus events. They’ve provided a great environment for me to practice and showcase consistently, beyond when I’m performing at formal gigs. I’ve been having a ball! Again, I’ll keep you updated with such things as they come up. I will add, though, that I’m really pumped for Future Stars this year!

Since August...

Since August quite a bit has happened. I went to UCLA orientation (August), attended MAGIC Live!, which was awesome (August), had another stomach issue (September), fretted about school (September/August), and finally moved into my "new home". You can see photos of this on my facebook dot com profile. Hurray!

Also since August I've been having these exciting allergic episodes. Well, these have been a part of my life since it began, but around May/June it started to get worse as I had a change of allergy medication. I'm allergic to dust, pollen, dogs, mold, cheese, pine, you name it. I can go to a different city where something else is bound to be in bloom to make me sniffle, sneeze, or rash, which is often quite entertaining to those around me. So, off and on I'd have a couple of days where my hearing would dull or vanish altogether, but in August (thus this story being included in this post) things continued to slip downward at remarkable speed. My throat was irritated, and soon my Eustachian tubes were fully inflamed. My immune system is my hero, but sometimes my body tries too hard to fix my problems, damaging other aspects of my life. This time it decided to close my ear canals in order to protect my tubing. During this process, however, in my left ear water became lodged behind the wax build-up. This resulted not only in the complete blockage of hearing, unlike the mere softening of sounds in my right, and additionally in massive infection. All sorts of procedures were performed in order to unclog my ears and disinfect, all of which were very painful: fluid flushed in, peeling skin ripped out (seriously), drops, nose sprays, and tablets... In short, I'm back on allergy meds.

Now, here I am at jolly UCLA, which maintains its own host of stories, (many of which will be relayed here as soon as I'm done with my Spinoza reading,) and I'm living in what looks like a log cabin and is, in fact, surrounded by pine. Leaf blowers and lawn mowers have been ever-present, and my system most certainly has been feeling the consequences, especially today and yesterday. Though really, that's one of the only negatives thus far. I'd say that's pretty darn good.

Summer Rains

Sunday morning I woke up at 7:55am in New Jersey to rain beating horizontally across the hotel room window. It looked like a blizzard. 'Maybe my eyes are fuzzy,' I began to think to myself, but when I heard the rain I knew otherwise. It was like an old black and white film with the rain so intense and out of proportion to other sounds in the scene it seems fake. Seriously, it went there... For 37 minutes. Finally the storm lessened so then it only sounded like the Marine Corps was pelting the window with peanuts. 'How can rain fall horizontally?' I was still working through my waking experience.

Soon enough the lights began to fade in and out. The power generator was surging, setting off the fire alarm. 'Whatev's, I still have to fix my belt.' There was pounding on the door, and a young girl's voice came through, "Peoples! This is an alarm! You need to leave! Peoples..." She went calling down the hall. The hotel was being evacuated. I've never had that happen before. There were five fire trucks outside by the time we made it out. 'It's only a generator surge...'

So we head off to the airport, at least the rain had dissipated. To make a longer story short, our flight was delayed and eventually cancelled. We were on the waiting lists for all of the following flights, and there was a good chance of getting one owing to all of the other flights unable to get into Philly. I set up camp by a window, which was fascinating. You know how weather channels show cloud patters as they move over the land, well, that's how the ground outside looked... White masses circulating around like swirling soap in a bathtub. My goodness.

Hours went by, but we made it on the next flight, which was only delayed an hour, and made it to Greensboro, North Carolina, later that night. It hasn't rained an inch.

Summer Travels

Hey, so (many of my posts begin with "so") I just uploaded some Summer travel photos onto my facebook dot com page, and here's an addition that I neglected:

Adventures to/in Buffalo

  It's really hard to believe I've only been out of Los Angeles for two days. It seems like a week. 

  My mother and I left for Buffalo, New York, for the Society of American Magicians convention banquet Friday, July 17th, at 9:46am. Our flight was at 11:48am, and we got to the airport without any issue, checked our bag, went through security (making sure to take all knives out of my purse first), got on board the Boeing 747, and waited. I mean, waited... Two hours. There was a mechanical problem with the plane, so we sat until it was fixed. (It's a good thing French Existentialism is interesting, because that's pretty much all I had to occupy my time.) 

  So, of course, we missed our connection to Buffalo from Chicago. It was about 10:30pm Central Time then. There were three flights to Buffalo the next day, two of which were filled, and one of which would put us into town too late for the banquet. After having a spontaneous Dixieland dance party waiting in line for customer service, we were put on stand-by for the 7:45am flight, and had tickets reserved for a flight to Rochester from which we could drive into Buffalo. American Airlines put us up in a near-by hotel, and sent us away.

  By this time the baggage impoundment had closed, so we were out of luck there. We were driven to the hotel with nothing but our carry-ons. "Aloft" is where we stayed, which is very chic, modern, and mildly ridiculous lodging. The house music was bumping, people crowded around small tables in the lobby, talking excitedly. A pool game was in full swing, and then the pool itself was in full swing, losing much water owing to so many swimmers, or rather, splashers. 

  When we got to our room, which was in the height of fashion, I'm sure, I tried to start this entry, and this is as far as I got, "I think I'm in Chicago. I'm not entirely sure." I ended up reading Bukowski's Post Office in its entirety. It's an amazing read, and I highly, highly recommend it. (I guess something good did come out of a terrible lay-over.)

  I didn't sleep too well, but at 5am it didn't matter. A strawberry yogurt lite later we were on the shuttle, off to the airport. 

  Only one seat was available on the 7:45am flight, which I took. Poor Mother, on the other hand, flew to Rochester, and then drove into Buffalo. She just managed to wrangle the last rental car the airport had to offer.

  The reason why I was brought to the banquet, as I have yet to reveal, was owing to the fact that I was the recipient of the Melbourne Christopher Most Promising Newcomer Award, which was a true honour. It is so special how magicians envelop youth into the community, and I feel like the phrase "it takes a village to raise a child" is largely true. 

  Anyway, it's late over here on the East Coast, or very early morning, as the case may be, and I think that for once in what seems like three weeks, I'm going to sleep at a decent hour. Tomorrow morning before our flight, which hopefully won't cause us any problems, we're going to drive up to Niagara Falls to go on the Maid of the Mist. I'll keep you posted.

"Visit Los Angeles!"

Well, it is officially Summer, and is has been since June 21st. 

Regardless, I've received a number of messages seeking advice about visiting Los Angeles, primarily about where to stay.

If you or a loved one is considering traveling to LA, please take a look the following links for some laudable (and award winning, for that matter) lodging. 

http://www.VeniceSuites.com
http://www.VeniceBreezeSuites.com
http://www.VenicePalomaSuites.com
http://www.AdmiralSuites.com

And if you're considering a weekend get away, or even a week get away on beautiful Catalina Island, why not visit http://www.TheAvalonHotels.com ?