Gardyloo #20
/In December 2015 I put most of my belongings in storage and left my apartment in Brooklyn and I've been living a somewhat vagabond lifestyle ever since. Well... vagabond... may not be the right word. I'm not exactly picking strawberries and living in a lean-to (I don't think I even know what that means), but I've been traveling for work and staying in short term rentals across mostly the northeast US, settling in upstate NY for large chunks of time because two of the people who help with this site are located there and that's where we operate the mailings from. Soon I will be making a semi-permanent move to a bed & breakfast somewhere near the US/Canadian border. After spending time these past 15 months in all sorts of different living situations (like cabins, houseboats, hotels, etc), I thought a bed & breakfast would make a good temporary situation because there is a constant influx of new people to perform for. Am I making my living decisions based on some dopey magic blog? Yeah, kind of. The thing is, I can do my normal day-job (writing/consulting) from anywhere, so I might as well optimize my living location for this site.
My next plan, after the B&B? I want to get an artist residency on Amtrak trains. It's a legit program they have and it would be perfect for me (lots of new people all the time, many of whom are looking for ways to pass the time). Unfortunately I think the program might be suspended (Oh, and they'd never accept me.)
What was my point here? Right... so I've been traveling a lot and in some locations I find that I am completely incompetent with a deck of cards. An Erdnase color change seems damn near impossible. I just sit there rubbing the deck back and forth like some weird pervert. Then I'll try certain moves and the cards will just shoot out of my hands onto the floor.
It's all climate related, of course, and the way humidity or whatever affects your skin. In some places my skin is really dry and everything just seems impossible. And I was thinking that if I grew up in one of these environments and had never really left, I would just assume I was incapable of performing these sleights and I probably would have given up on them a long time ago and resigned myself to the fact that I "wasn't a sleight-guy."
So if you've always lived in the same place, and there's no natural tackiness to your hands, maybe you just think sleight of hand isn't in your skill set when, in reality, a little glycerin and you're good to go.
What I use in these situations is Vagisil moisturizing lotion. No, I'm not kidding. No, this whole post isn't a goof to get you to squirt Vagisil in your hands. And no, I didn't start this blog almost two years ago with the sole purpose of leading up to this post.
Seriously, you can see it recommended on the Cafe as well. And no, I didn't create all those accounts many years ago in anticipation of this post and getting you to douse yourself in Vagisil. (As far as you know.) I know it weirds some guys out... but it's just lotion guys. It's not made of dry vaginas.
The only problem is, for some reason, it's selling for $62 for two ounces on Amazon when I use to get it for, like, $6. I'm not sure what's going on there. Apparently there's been an epidemic of feminine dryness sweeping the globe. (Is this tied to Joshua Jay's recent world travels? Seems possible.). So you may want to go with one of the different options in the Cafe threads linked above. Or you might find it cheaper in a drugstore. Just be sure you get the lotion. Don't be squirting anti-itch gel or douche all over yourself. (Unless that's your thing.)
Always good to see people representing the Jerx family in the wild.
Here's our pal, Stasia in her GLOMM shirt. (And check out her soon-to-be-released full Tarot deck here.)
And here's friend of the site, Leja, in her self-made AATKT shirt.
Bad Equivoque Pt. 2
Because nothing says "choosing" one of two objects quite like touching the other object.
Hey, remember that resolution to recognize magic as an art form? Well, great news! It's really getting a lot of traction now!
