Greetings and Salutations

[Just1pin]

I will take a moment to introduce myself here.

I have been involved with magic off and on for over 15 years. I started, like most, around 12 or 13 if i remember right. Dabbled all through high school and when i moved to Boston when I was 16 did some street preforming over the next couple years. Gazzo was preforming in Boston at the time and i got to see him and hang out a few times. I also would frequent a bar that had a magic night and was fortunate to see some good close-up performers. I remember watching Jamy Ian Swiss back then. I did some private gigs but never anything major(although i did take on a few students). I found myself interested in other things and spent time getting involved in a lot of anti-war activism around 2003. I traveled and did some photo journalism. Moved to NY, worked in film, television and advertising. After a few years in NY, i wasn't feeling the city and escaped to a magic island in the North West (a stones throw from where True Astonishment was filmed)

I have a few issues with a lot of trends i see in the Magical arts and i think those have kept me from really devoting myself to it, although i have always been fascinated by the history, practice and psychology of the art.

Recently i read a fantastic book by V.S. Ramachandran called "Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind" which i related a lot to magic(even thought the book doesn't mention magic at all) I recommend it to any magician interested in how the mind perceives things and the illusions we all experience everyday. After reading this and thinking about how it relates to other things in my life and started looking into magic again.

After this i was reintroduced to Paul Harris through TA and i was very inspired. I think Paul and Bro really touched on a lot of the issues i have had with magic and how it can be approached in other ways then i was used to. (Thank You Paul and Bro)

So i have been looking around at what is going on in the magic world again and practicing some old things and some new things. I am mostly interested in casual, everyday astonishment and creating magical moments for people.

There is a lot i could say but i won't make this too long. I have been on the forum for a few weeks already....

I have posted a piece on the "Voodoo" magic plot here:
Magic for Haiti - The "Voodoo" Magic plot

and Also thrown out some ideas for the Exo deck(more on the way):
Card Back designs

I also am interested and feel strongly about some of the copyright / intellectual property issues that seems to be all the rage in online magic forums. I have some ideas to start creating "Open source magic" Ways to collectively share and collaborate as a magic community without an individual "owning" anything. I want to run some of these ideas by Pyro and hopefully present them to you guys here to see if there is interest.

glad to be here and happy to help where i can

love. respect. astonishment.
J1P

[Alex Hess]

Great introduction J1P, welcome to Exomagic.

However.... you didn't tell us your favorite pie?!?!?!

Seems like you and Misjief will get along great, he is one of our mental buffs lurking around here .

You mentioned something about copyright (below)

I also am interested and feel strongly about some of the copyright / intellectual property issues that seems to be all the rage in online magic forums. I have some ideas to start creating "Open source magic" Ways to collectively share and collaborate as a magic community without an individual "owning" anything. I want to run some of these ideas by Pyro and hopefully present them to you guys here to see if there is interest.

I would as well love to hear your ideas. We have created the Academy at ExoMagic for this very reason. Almost like a collaborative 'wiki' type of magic. Allowing users to contribute their ideas collaboratively and create.

[Just1pin]

Crap!!! you're right, i forgot about the pie. How could i forget about the pie? Well i am also into cooking and baking and have made a few pies in my day, so i might have say "my own pie" and then blueberry and i'm a sucker for a good banana cream pie.

[[RH]magician]

hahaha. There should be a separate subforum on exo to talk about pies. lol.
Good to have you here!.

[Just1pin]

In order to try and make amends for forgetting my Pie preferences... here are some pics from last season. Rustic fruit tarts i baked in our clay oven. The first is Plum Cardamon and the second wild Blackberry. Enjoy

[Alex Hess]

Those look DELICIOUS!

I'll give you a pack of S&M if you mail me one!

[Afields]

Hey pin, almost missed your introduction post

Those pies are awesome by the way.

Oh and I really need to get that book too, sounds great bro