Did Ya Think I'd Died or Something?

Several years older and so is everything around me. My oldest son is soon to start his third year in college, the middle boy will soon be taking the car on his own (and is being recruited in a big way baseball - wise), and the youngest is a teenager in every sense of the word. The wife is inundated at work, but hanging on because we're doing a cruise overseas for our 25th wedding anniversary next year.

On the 'me' front, I am spending more time with magic than with music these days, but I'm also spending a bunch of time reading. I'd been really laboring over a big decision, for me at least. I liked the Kindle, but the Nook has replaceable media/memory and a replaceable battery. In the end though, it was the fact that Amazon is behind the Kindle that really pushed me over the edge. Or, should I say an e-mail from Joe Konrath (author J.A. Konrath) pushed me over the edge. I found out that he and others had begun publishing directly to Kindle! What does this mean to us as a reading public? Well, it means that we'll not have five or six publishers in New York deciding what we will be reading for the foreseeable future. It means that the authors will make more while we will pay far less for our books. I've never published this, because I didn't want it to sound like bragging - but I read about a book a day, and just imagine what that means in terms of cost for a disabled vet. I don't have the friends at the workplace - I don't have a workplace. I don't really get out all that much, so there aren't friends just a few blocks away. Now - think about the cost of books, both paperback and hard cover and imagine buying them one per day. Very hard to sustain, even with visits to the library book sales (I wait until they're down to 25 cents for a plastic grocery bag). Now lets see; I think the most I paid for one of Mr. Konrath's ebooks was maybe $2.50 or $2.99! A far cry from the seven dollars minimum for a paperback and at least seventeen for a hard back! I am excited over a future where I'll have access to books that I decide are worth my time instead of a suit in N.Y. deciding whether there is a large enough reading audience to make their numbers while the authors make very little. I'm sure there are a lot of opinions about this, and I'd love to read yours. In the meantime, check out J.A. Konrath's catalog on Kindle, and be mindful that he also writes under a couple pen names, so be forewarned. Great stuff, really exciting and scary, and no - you would likely never have read it if it were up to the New York publishing houses.

Magic - wise, I just took part in the Essential Magic Conference, the first full online magic conference. It was INCREDIBLE!! 33 performers all donated their time to this pioneering effort, and the result was just beautiful. In terms of magic, as good as any conference I've attended. For our fee, we got three days worth of programming (over 16 hours of video streamed live from Portugal), access to these taped sessions for one year until next years EMC, DVDs of all the lectures and performances, Mr. Kalush has extended us each one year's access to Ask Alexander at the Conjuring Arts Research Center, and the feeling that we were there for something very special. We got to be a part of magic's history, and it felt just so during the conference. I'd be hard pressed to pick a favorite this year, as I really like Eric Mead and his ideas, but Gene Matsuura gave a brilliant lecture about Slydini and crossing the gaze. My dark horse entry would be Dani DaOrtiz, who just fooled the socks off of me! Great time. Finally, I am sessioning with Tim and Jose, and meeting about once a month with a great magician from Tacoma.

I am playing guitar pretty steadily. I keep my Tele right at hand, and my Taylor is also close by. I also have a great DeAngelico that I love playing. It is just such a classy guitar! (No burglaries, please - it is one of the recent ones, not from the 1930's. Hope you're well and having a wonderful summer. Been riding the Gold Wing a ton since the sun finally found Washington State. Finally, I have my 35th high school reunion coming up the first of September - can you believe it?