What's new?

A truckload. This quarter at UCLA has been quite the... Well, my classes have been such the chore. Not much academically has been at all creative, but rather just a lot of work, which hasn’t allowed much time for creativity even outside of school. (Not even with internet nonsense: no blogs, no videos, few facebook dot com updates, and I've hardly remembered to tweet. (Ha.)) It’s driving me sane. I mean, I’ve been working on the ResReport, which is the UCLA television news program. (You can watch those episodes here, if you’d like.) And that's been super fun, but not exactly oozing with imagination. However, a couple of us have been developing a scripted comedy talk show that may be in production next quarter, so that’s pretty sweet. We’ll see what happens.

Magically, I’ve been working on a new rope routine as well as a new version of my flying ring routine. Both of these have been keeping me plenty busy, although it’s fairly difficult to balance school with magic. I’m finding this to be particularly frustrating, but what is there to do? I know a few people who aren’t attending college in order to focus on magic, but so much of why I’m involved with magic is because of its emphasis on intellect. Without continuing school I feel like I’d be depriving myself of that sort of development, which I just couldn’t stand. Thus here I am, and loving (just about) every minute of it. (:

Flying Rings

"Check Her Out"

When I founded this blog, I received a number of requests for video blogs. When school picked up, and I started blogging less, I received even more requests for video blogs. So I decided, why not? And thus YouTube.com/TeamKrystyn was born.

On this page I, along with other members of the team, will post various video blogs, videos we've taken that you might find interesting, and probably some magic clips.

I think I'm also creating this as a sort of response to all of the Krystyn videos that have already been posted on YouTube. I'm amused by how much has been uploaded, but at times somewhat embarrassed, because not everything up there is what I would have selected.

Though you know, those videos remind me of where I used to be. It's all part of the learning process, and I'm growing so quickly that what's satisfying to me one day may not be the next. But I'm doing what I love, expanding my horizons, and having a blast. Awww!

By the way, how thrilling is this?

Unfinished Business

I mentioned that I would blog again once I finished my Spinoza reading, and now here I am well over a month later blogging. To be honest, I lied. I'm still not finished with my Spinoza reading. I'm taking the History of Modern Thought and Introduction to Philosophy of Mind, and he just keeps popping up.

Next quarter I'll be taking another version of the History of Modern Thought, this time focusing on modernism, Logic I, and probably a linguistics course. I wonder if Bento will decide to show up again. We'll see.

Regardless, as you may have guessed a lot has happened in the last month... It's college, where more can happen in one day than can happen in three weeks otherwise. Attending UCLA has been the largest emotional roller coaster I've ridden in my life. It's amazing.

When I first moved to school I expected to be surrounded by a bunch of trained test takers who had sold their souls to the SAT. At first it felt like those were the only sort of people I met, and I was a little concerned. "Ah! Where is the zest? Where is the gusto?! Air! Please, I need air!" However, with a school that large statistically you're bound to find a wider variety of students. And I have. It's wonderful. We write songs about having affairs with Descartes, we build cardboard box forts, we spend evenings dancing through campus singing Disney songs, and the list continues. UCLA is an ideal home for me. It seems as though everything is there, and this paragraph really can't do it justice.

Academically, it's delicious, and I can't get enough. My professors are truly top in their fields, and most every class serves a savory plate of... Oh gosh. Can you spell trite? OK, so school's phenomenal. I feel like this post hardly scratches the surface, but maybe that's alright. I mean, I also feel like my experiences at UCLA are so fresh, beautiful, and particular to me... I'm still in the process of reveling in them. I'm still cherishing them, and I think I'm not quite ready to share. When I am, I'll let you know, but in the meantime, perhaps these simplistic posts will have to suffice.

High School Death and Taxes

Musing about college and social interactions, another interesting thing is that what I was scorned for in high school is often what I'm praised for in college. Thank goodness I never have to go through that again! Being passionate, energetic, successful with my career, academic, and you know, just a little quirky (just a little bit) have made me quite likable where I am now, as opposed to being the fuel for nasty glares, rude remarks, and being seen as generally "uncool."

To those of you still in high school, hang in there, and don't compromise who you are, besides what’s necessary for mere survival, obviously. It’s just not worth it. You know, we're all a little mad here. You have to find the right human companions, and they are out there.

It seems as though most people in high school are so busy being concerned about what other people are thinking about them, that no one has time to actually think about anyone else but themselves. I mean, sure, you might not be "cool" or people may still look at you strangely, but no one truly cares. Besides, chances are those kids who are "cool" or give you those weird looks are pretty envious of the fact that you're okay with being atypical.

And when it's over, it's over. Seriously, no worries. Writing this I can’t help but recall Idle's "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." He's right. Just remember, you are going to get through it, and once you do, forget those social restraints. When you move on, they’re not applicable anymore. You’re free.

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:

Tweet, tweet...

Well, it's early, I'm tired... I'm Twitter.com/KrystynLambert. I'm giving it a month, so we'll see how it goes.

Masters of Illusion Delusions

Masters of Illusion Season I has been off the air for a few weeks now, so in this century of instant gratification, it's been a long time. So I figured it’s now admissible for me to reveal some of the inside scoop of my experiences, at least. 

A few interesting tidbits: When I filmed the stage portions I had my appendix removed a about a week before. I mean, I was just out of the hospital, and filming under those conditions marked the first time I had gone against a doctor’s recommendation. 'Well, I can stand up, so I'm okay,' I decided. I had this intense abdominal brace on at all times, except when I was on stage, and it was still difficult for me to walk. It was such a bizarre experience. I’m still not quite sure how I pulled that off. It was totally worth it, though. I mean, those craft table gummy bears were good.

I filmed the street magic segments in three sessions. For the first one, I was called the day before, and told that I’d need a few tricks that did not use a deck of cards or a table. I had just enough material, so no sweat, I thought. We film, no problem. I was with about four other magicians. We’d rotate to keep the crowd present, and so we could set up our next effects in between performances. I came in with all of my scripts, etc., but the directors explained that in order to maintain the MTV Generation’s viewership, I’d have to scrap my lines in exchange for pure narration of my actions. Anyway, it wasn’t clear if FOX was even going to like the street magic bits, so the first session was sort of a test. However, MOI street magic was a hit.

Within a couple of weeks I was called again, and was told that FOX liked “that blonde magician” and wanted me on every episode. Um, well, it just so happened that that week I had the stomach flu. 'No big deal, whatev’s,' I figured, and I went ahead to shoot. Oh my. When I got to the studio to do the prelim camera rehearsal (which they started doing after the network decided that they wanted to air more street magic) I was told that I needed ten tricks to perform. “Um, uh, I’m sick, and I only have so many more effects that you haven’t already seen,” I felt like saying. Regardless, I was informed that I had an hour break, which, I was assured, would be plenty enough time to find four additional performance pieces. Haha, sure. But I did. Somehow. A couple of weeks later, the same process repeated itself, minus illness, and the rest is now, well, history. 

Not as Bitter about Twitter

Maybe it’s all of the fatigue from travel and shows getting to me, but Twitter doesn’t seem as bad as it once did. Skeptical of a respected friend joining the fad, I visited the website again only to realize that you can unofficially follow people’s posts. That is, read the posts without joining the online community. One thing after another, I was on David Blaine’s page, and found his Twitter technique to be interesting. Whenever he finds an intriguing link or takes an amusing photo, he uses Twitter to share the information. It is for that purpose that I started blogging, however with blogging, one is expected to have quite a commentary accompanying whatever it is being posted. While this is wonderful, sometimes there’s just a funny page that needs little explanation. So, for this, Twitter may be a good option.

Additionally, I’ve been running little experiments with my facebook status updates, and find that the reaction time from me posting to “friends” commenting is very short. I consistently find it difficult to believe that people care about my happenings, but apparently this isn’t always the case. Hmm.

Now, I am a bit concerned that Twitter will become too consuming, and I feel weird perpetuating something for which I don’t stand (i.e. human drama addiction), but you know what, that’s not where my addictions lie, and if people are going to maintain such life styles, practically, there’s not too much I, Krystyn, can do about it. I mean, I can see Twitter being obnoxious if all one posts is mundane tidbits, but I'm pretty sure there are ways around that, and furthermore, one is in charge of whom he follows.

I'll keep you posted.

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.

Apparently I'm Fit

So there's this European fitness channel, LA Muscle TV, and they're online, too...

Well, on one of their latest webisodes I'm sure you can guess who's featured, especially since the theme of the week on this blog seems to be shameless self-promotion. Haha. 

Regardless, here's the link.

Autographs

Frequently I field requests for autographs. Thanks to the interweb and the U.S. postal service, Team Krystyn has created a handy-dandy way to facilitate this. Now all one has to do is click this link, follow the instructions, and tah-dah: a signed photograph can be coming in no time! Hurray!

"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 ?