Cibini Newsletter 2
Cibini’s Newsletter – December
2018
Introduction
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, and a healthy and prosperous 2019!
I did it – I mustered the energy to write a second
newsletter. I promised you they would not be too frequent. In case you missed
it, my first newsletter is hosted here:
Many of you might suffer, like me, from email clutter. If
you are not interested in my newsletters, I apologize in advance for the
inconvenience this one time. PLEASE REPLY WITH “UNSUBSCRIBE” IN THE
SUBJECT LINE, and I will remove you from my list – you can include a
reason, but don’t need to.
Before you delete this, scroll down, you might find
something of interest (such as my book or travel recommendations).
News about me
Circumstances constantly challenge me to come up with creative
solutions. For example, a recent client requested that I make him disappear.
Initially I thought he meant it in a figurative sense, but it turned out he
meant it quite literally – as a prank on his coworkers. I met with a retired
illusionist to come up with a workable method, and it turned out that I already
owned two books with practical variations for this illusion. We settled on a
method where he would be wrapped in a piece of fabric, which, when unraveled,
would reveal his wife in his place.
I recruited a volunteer, and practiced the illusion with our
client and his patient wife the evening before the show. To be honest, I was a
bit nervous during the show, but the illusion went as planned, leaving the
audience completely surprised! The client and his wife were highly intelligent,
catching on to the subtleties right away and even suggesting improvements to
the method, and they were also extremely patient, understanding, generous, and classy, which made
the whole process so much easier.
Cibini was great. His
illusions were perfectly matched to a relatively sophisticated audience of
lawyers and clients. In addition to his usual repertoire he researched a trick
I requested and put in extra time rehearsing the trick with me and my wife. He
also recruited a volunteer assistant to help with the trick. It came off
without a hitch and left the audience amazed.
For another show, I incorporated a musical theme – in light
of the hobby of the Bar Mitzvah celebrant. I bought a recorder and learned how
to play a few stanzas from a number of famous musicals. A random musical was
selected, and I ended up playing the Phantom of the Opera theme (my skills do
not come close to those of this young performer, however).
Cibini was phenomenal! He
made everyone laugh and cheer and was great with the kids. His illusions blew
me away. He was great to work with and I would definitely recommend him!
For another client, I conspired with his wife to get my
hands on a decades-old prom picture of the birthday “boy”. Imagine his surprise
when the rabbit I pulled out of a hat was carrying the photo!
I can safely say that no two performances are the same.
Next Performance
I had a busy fall and winter, with corporate events and
private parties piling up. Due to vacations and absences in December, many
companies are moving their holiday parties to January, and I already have a few bookings.
Historical magic
Those who enjoy card tricks should pay homage to a lesser
known 19th century Austrian magician named Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser. An
astounding number of the modern plots in card magic, as well as commonly used
sleights and gimmicks can be traced back to him.
This magician had a full time job in public service – and
often hobbyists have more time to develop their creativity than full time
performers. While a full time magician depends on a full performing schedule,
and delivering what audiences want with little room for experimentation, a
hobbyist can afford to take more time to build new routines, and can afford
refining routines through trial and error.
What to Watch
Not too long ago, I was able to see Piff the Magic Dragon
perform live at the Arlington Drafthouse. While his magic does not blow me
away, he is technically accomplished (I know where to look). His dry style of
humor, great audience management, and superior improvisation skills result in
entertaining performances. Plus, one can never go wrong with a British accent.
Here are all of his performances on America’s Got Talent:
Magic Trick
explained
Some
simple tricks which children enjoy are:
·
Pulling a coin from behind their ear. Hold
a coin in the finger palm position at the base of your fingers (see
below), turn the hand over, displaying only the back of the hand (the coin is
hidden in it), reach behind the ear, and pushing the coin into view with the
thumb. If both hands are “loaded” with coins, you can pull one from each ear.
·
Using a magic wand to vanish a coin. Hold
a pen in the right hand (it’s your “magic wand”) and a coin in the left hand.
Claim you will vanish the coin. Pretend to strike the coin with the wand,
taking large swings. On the last swing simply leave the pen behind your right
ear as you bring the hand down. Most will focus on the coin and will only later
realized that the pen itself is gone. When you eventually reveal the pen behind
the ear, you can turn your body and quickly drop the coin in a pocket on the
left side, bringing your closed hand back out. Tap that hand with the pen, open
your fingers and show that the coin has disappeared after all.
Personal Revelations
My past descriptions of life in Communist Romania generated
interest in some of my readers, and I will continue with some stories.
As the Berlin Wall showed, Communist authorities were not
keen on letting their subject travel abroad freely. In Romania, this was no
exception, and receiving permission to travel abroad was very difficult.
Sometimes retired people were granted
permission to travel to other Communist countries, or very rarely to Western
nations (mostly Greece or Turkey). That is why my grandparents were able to
visit Moscow, Saint Petersburg (called "Leningrad" at the time), and a number of Central Asian destinations in
the former Soviet Union, as well as the Greek island of Rhodes, in their
retirement years.
For my parents, both in the prime of their life, it was
almost impossible to vacation abroad. That is why we, like most Romanian families, always visited domestic destinations.
For most people, summer vacation meant spending two weeks in the mountains and two weeks at the beach. Others (generally retirees) visited areas with naturally occurring hot springs, to treat various real and imagined ailments. The only options were state-owned “all inclusive” resorts, with set meal times
and assigned seating. It should not be surprising that services were generally
poor in the fully socialist society, where everything was owned by the state, and
there was no private enterprise or competition. Furthermore, restaurant crews were
notoriously corrupt, selling the more scarce ingredients (such as meat) on the
black market.
Fortunately, heavily regulated street
vendors (also government employees) were allowed to operate, and one could buy a pastry or
ice cream or soda at the beach. Of course, decadent Western products owned by greedy capitalists, such as Coca
Cola or Pepsi, were not available, but there was a local soda called “Cico”
(pronounced “chico”), which resembled Mountain Dew, as well as a
raspberry-flavored soda.
(Some of the higher ups in the Communist Party had limited
access to Pepsi, however, and I remember a classmate offering me a bottle once,
as a great sign of friendship).
Below I will post some pictures from the more popular beach
resorts.
Above: Mamaia Beach
Above: Typical beach in Romania
Above: Saturn Beach
Above: Neptun-Olimp Beach
Above: Jupiter Beach
And below from some of the popular mountain resorts:
Above: Sinaia resort
Above: Sinaia resort
Above: Bușteni resort
Above: Hiking in the Bucegi Mountains
Above: Lake Bâlea
Above: Hiking in Romania's mountains
Given the rapid, forced industrialization of the country,
most people of my generation also had relatives in the countryside, and I was
no exception. A lot of our family’s vacation time was spent visiting relatives
in the countryside, and I will expand on this fascinating topic in the next
newsletter.
Book Recommendation
In a break with the last newsletter, this time I will
suggest non-fiction book.
After reading Laurence Bergreen’s book on Marco Polo at the suggestion of my father, I picked up another one of his
books, Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe.
While both stories
were fascinating, I found the book on Magellan even better written, with more
cohesive points. As a child, I had read all about mythic voyages, from the
Greek legends of Jason and the Argonauts or Ulysses and his 10-year wanderings
on his way back to Ithaca after the Trojan War, as well as historical stories about Magellan and
his death at the hands of Lapu Lapu in the Philippines, Columbus and his
voyages, or Hernán Cortés (the conqueror of the Aztec Empire in Mexico).
Sea voyages always fascinated me. As a small child
(7-8 years old) I conspired with 3 friends to go on a voyage of our own. We planned to take the train to Romania’s Danube Delta, steal a boat, wander
around for a few days, and return the boat to its owner before he noticed that it was missing.
My older friend named himself captain and bookkeeper, I was
designated navigator and cook, and the two brothers (who were not present at our
first meeting, and thus were not able to vote on their role) were designated oarsmen, responsible for our propulsion.
We secured some canned food and a flag (a boat must have a
flag, of course), but had not yet worked out a viable solution for securing a boat. We
had a loose plan of stealing one from a fisherman in the Delta, and returning
it intact after our short week-long cruise. Unfortunately, we did not know any
fishermen, nor did we know where the Delta was (this was before the internet or
GPS, and we were elementary school children) but our imagination was active.
My dreams of following in Magellan’s footsteps were put on
hold when my parents found the notebook with our detailed plans, and recovered
their canned food from its hiding place.
Today, after adjusting to the comforts of modern capitalist society, with
infinite luxuries available to all, I lost much of
my wanderlust and most certainly my rich imagination. I was able to re-capture
a tiny portion of that wonder, temporarily, while reading the book about Magellan. I recommend
it to others.
As an interesting side note, the fact that the Earth was round
had been common knowledge since at least the ancient Greeks, and none of the
great sea explorers (such as Columbus) had ever assumed the Earth to be flat.
The difficulty with ocean navigation was due to the poor ability to measure longitude, which wasn’t perfected until the British finally managed
it in the 17th and 18th centuries. (That’s why 0 degrees
longitude arbitrarily passes through Greenwich).
Vacation
Recommendation
Today I will focus on Panama. Many Americans visit Costa
Rica, due to its ecotourism, but Panama has everything Costa Rica has (I’ve
traveled to both!) plus a few other things of interest. When I went, albeit 10
years ago, it was cheaper than Costa Rica.
Both countries have a Caribbean and Pacific coast, dense
jungle, and pleasant highlands.
Above: Panama highlands near Boquete
However, Panama City is many times more interesting than San
José, with its modern skyscrapers as well as the colonial town.
Above: Casco Viejo (Old Town), Panama City
The Panama Canal, located in the Canal Zone, which was
administered by the US and resembles an American suburb, is unique and well
worth a visit.
Above: Portion of the Panama Canal
The most unique part of Panama was the autonomous Kuna Yala
(land of the Kuna Indians), also known as the San Blas Islands. They make a big
fuss about their autonomy, and even run checkpoints to check passports on the way
to the boat launches.
These indigenous people live in one of the most beautiful
areas in the world – tropical islands (some small enough to hold one household,
some large enough for a village of hundreds of people). The water is
crystal clear, the temperatures perfect (never too hot nor too cold), there are
no mosquitoes, no snakes, and according to the locals, no sharks, either. Pet
parrots fly loose and perch on poles. Some islands are close enough that a
person can swim from one to another (I did so at night! I was brave, and I had also consumed a bottle of wine, and wanted to impress a pretty German tourist).
Above: Typical Kuna Yala beach
Above: Indigenous Kuna Yala neighborhood
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