This past weekend, I traveled with a few friends to Baltimore and caught an unusual act at a bar called Illusions. Guess what the theme is? The 22 year old proprietor/performer Spencer Horsman has been a friend of mine for years. He grew up in a family of entertainers. Both mom and dad were Ringling Brothers clowns and his dad owned a magic shop in Baltimore. The poor kid never had a chance at a normal life. The place is very smartly decorated with antique magic posters. Leather couches, pool table, booming swing music and $12 martins (ouch Spencer) help make the crowd comfy before the show. Once Spencer takes the stage, he shows experience beyond his years. Now, let me make one thing absolutely clear. I hate this guy. He's young, handsome, very talented, owns his own bar, and the chicks love him. A few lovely ladies made their way onto the stage to assist him and of course, once he flashed those pearly whites, he had them eating out of his hand. The show concludes with an upside down straight-jacket escape above the bar. Not really something you're likely to see at most neighborhood watering holes. Good job Spencer.....but I still hate you.
The idea of a magic bar may be foreign to some people, but at a time they were pretty popular in major cities in the US, most notably Chicago. I was truly born in the wrong city, in the wrong decade. Schuliens, The New York Magic Lounge, The Magic Tap and others served up sleight of hand, suds and plenty of good times. More recently in Snowmass CO the Tower Magic Bar was home to legends such as Doc Eason, Bob Sheets, Eric Mead. This wonderful place, owned by John Denver until his death in '97 is now unfortunately closed. Now, I've been performing magic in a bar/restaurant on a regular basis for about 7 years, but we're talking about something entirely different. An entire place with the theme of magic. There are still a few places around. Houston's Magic Island and Hollywood's famed Magic Castle to name a few. During my little sabbatical from performing for a few weeks, it was so great to sit on the other side and experience the show. There's nothing like live entertainment, unless...
I strolled in my door from Baltimore about 1:45 AM. About 3 hours later than I would have liked, but hey other than laundry I had no major plans for Sunday. Once I rolled out of bed I decided to test a new technology by my favorite company, Apple. Their iTunes music store has become THE place to download music, TV shows, movies and now movie rentals. I was so excited to check this out. I jumped online and found something I meant to see in the theater, but just didn't get to.....Superbad. Now, I have to tell you this movie won't be for everybody. I can be very sophisticated when I need to be. I'm a coinesseur of fine music, art, and food. I go to see foreign language films. I decided that for a cold, miserable Sunday afternoon, the best bet would be a raunchy teen pic that I can only described as this generation's Porky's. It's a great story about 3 high school losers and their never ending quest to get some alcohol for a party, solely to get some girls so drunk they'll actually sleep with them. (Ahh, to be 16 again.) This movie makes no apologies about the many f-bombs, euphemisms for breasts and penis jokes. A lot of penis jokes, (there's even illustrations.) I won't go much into detail, because if this is your kind of movie, you've probably already seen it. If not, you probably stopped reading long ago.
The main point I brought up the movie was the digital rental service available from Apple. I was never much of a renter. If I really wanted to see a DVD, I bought it. I'm horrible about returning DVDs. I never got on the Netflix bandwagon because when I want to see a movie, I want to see it now, not 2 days from now. (I have issues, I know.) This is the perfect solution. For $4, the movie is delivered to my computer and I can watch it there, or transfer it to my iPod and take it on the go. I really think this will come in handy when I have to get on a plane. You have 30 days to watch it and the movies disappear from your hard drive 24 hours after you start watching. For more on the way Apple is changing the way we entertain ourselves on those cold miserable Sunday afternoons, look at my buddy Scott's blog at reelsinmotion.blogspot.com and by all means give it a shot.
Later Tater
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