What does the title have to do with today's post? Find out below!
I'm skipping the normal Monday Mail Call, not because I don't have any deliveries (I have a lot actually), but because I felt like writing a general brain dump. You see, I've been reading a lot this past week. Obviously, Talk About Tricks is at the top of the list. I've really been doing a lot more analyzing of that book that reading, but I have finally started flipping through the pages too. As for actual reading and processing, I'm still in 2001 so I have quite a bit more to go through. Soon, real soon, I'll have the info for the book added to the site -- it's a huge 2-volume set and I've typed a lot already, but it'll be worth it.
Besides that giant amount of material, I'm also still going through The Buena Vista Shuffle Club and Less is More. I had shelved the latter for a while because I got a little peeved that Earl was only slightly tweaking the display of each routine and calling it a new routine entirely, but getting past that, the content of the book is amazing. And yes, at my table I do have all of these books out, and a notebook, and I'm going through them back-to-back -- with a deck of cards in my hands, no less!
One of the Discord groups I'm in is The People's Palace of Prestidigitation, which you can access yourself here: https://discord.gg/NfZc9zU
Each month, Dr Mex DD PhD (the... creator / leader of the thing) puts on a competition. I always like fun competitions, and this monthly adventure sounds pretty fun. He poses a topic, or specific routine type, gives different conditions, and folks have to record a trick meeting the criteria. Easy peasy, right?
This month's competition is all about paper bags, to celebrate the paper bag manufacturing machine's patent date of July 12th, 1859. Coincidentally, I've recently purchased a large number of paper bags to work on a routine I learned from David Regal. I haven't practiced the routine yet, but I have until the end of the month to try it out and get something uploaded -- so that's cool! Though, there will be bonus points given if I can get it done before the 15th... hmm.
The above challenge reminds me of The Hermit's July Challenge, to take a photo of an impossible thing.
My first thought for this was an "impossible bottle." Unfortunately, I feel like that's way too cliché. Also, I don't own one. Ironically though, I have actually gone to the store to look for bottles to make my own -- completely unrelated to this monthly challenge. I thought it would be neat to try my hand at getting a deck of cards into a bottle. Why? No idea. Maybe I'll do one of those long-term type of tricks and get someone to sign a card in a routine now, put it reversed in the deck (in the bottle), then in a few years, force the same card and have them sign it and let them smash the bottle. That would probably get some applause.
Ah, but yeah, I do have another idea for it though. I have always had a fascination with impossibly balancing a card on the tip of my finger. Thanks to Talk About Tricks, I now also know how to do it with a tuck! Maybe that'll be my photo entry. It's not a "thing," but it is kind of? The rules are fuzzy, so we'll see =P
Ah, that brings us back to the title of today's post. It really has nothing to do with the post other than it meets the theme of "brain dump" -- just came out of the ol' noodle while trying to think up a clever title. I'll let you know when I eventually come up with a good one =P