Lodestones

Discuss the views of your favorite Genii columnists.
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Tom Stone
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Lodestones

Postby Tom Stone » May 2nd, 2014, 9:06 am

I was somewhat in a hurry when I made the illustrations for my column in the May issue, and now I notice that there's an error in the second illustration - I've forgot to draw the bottom of the drawer. Hopefully, it still makes sense from the context.

Also, what do you think about the series of Lodestone columns? I'm not fishing for compliments, more fishing for comments (both positive and negative) since I seldom get any feedback besides the comments on this forum. I'm just curious.

PapaG
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Re: Lodestones

Postby PapaG » May 2nd, 2014, 10:53 am

Lodestones is one of the best things about Genii. Even with the occasional inaccurate drawing of drawers.

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Joe Pecore
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Re: Lodestones

Postby Joe Pecore » May 2nd, 2014, 11:12 am

It is usually the first article I read, after Genii Speaks!
Share your knowledge on the MagicPedia wiki.

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Tom Frame
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Re: Lodestones

Postby Tom Frame » May 2nd, 2014, 11:39 am

Tom,

I enjoy your column immensely. I really like the way you think!


Thanks,

The Other Tom

Jonathan Pendragon
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Re: Lodestones

Postby Jonathan Pendragon » May 3rd, 2014, 1:05 am

Tom's work is priceless. He creates, not performs a post-mortem and that fuels thought not retrospective.

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Marco Pusterla
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Re: Lodestones

Postby Marco Pusterla » May 3rd, 2014, 4:09 am

Tom,

Your column is often the best one in the magazine: the ideas you submit are both original, practical and stimulating, and for most (if not all) of your tricks, mystery is the main element - something often missing from many other effects, in many magazines.

In regards to the "wrong" picture: you could always upload the correct image here and those who are interested could print it out and paste it in the magazine.

Keep up the good work, all the best,
Marco Pusterla - https://mpmagic.co.uk

Ye Olde Magic Mag: magazine on magic history and collecting.

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Arcato
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Re: Lodestones

Postby Arcato » May 3rd, 2014, 4:21 am

I agree, Tom's column is one of the best in Genii! I really liked the piece of the May issue a lot and I'm thinking if I should go the distance to make these boxes... however I'm not so skilled to build them myself and also I don't know anybody who could build it for me, so I might have to look for similar, pre-existing boxes from IKEA etc...

Joe Mckay
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Re: Lodestones

Postby Joe Mckay » May 7th, 2014, 9:30 am

I am a huge fan of the column. It is the most innovative column I have ever seen in a magic magazine.

If all the columns were collected in a book - it would be one of the most interesting magic books I have read.

I plan on going through all the columns again soon - in order to study again all the different ideas and concepts you have taught.

I remember your Cognitive Colour Changing Deck you taught a few years ago - I always thought you should have added that lovely trick to one of your hardback books.

The contents of your column often contain strong msgic and very rich thinking about obscure areas of theory which are overlooked. As such - I will have to set aside a few days to give myself time to really study your ideas. In order to do them justice. It is a task I look forward to!

Joe Mckay
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Re: Lodestones

Postby Joe Mckay » May 7th, 2014, 9:42 am

I will put together some notes and post back in here.

It is very easy to overlook interesting ideas when they are scattered over many columns and not collected in one place. So - hopefully my upcoming overview will be of use to others as well.

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mrgoat
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Re: Lodestones

Postby mrgoat » May 7th, 2014, 12:12 pm

Tom who?

magicrobharv
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Re: Lodestones

Postby magicrobharv » May 7th, 2014, 5:38 pm

Tom your column is amazing !!! I scan a copy of it and put it in a 3 ring binder, so I can reference all your columns at once. The recent parody of David Kaye was great. The drawer box idea, recently shown, is something I'm thinking about. I'm trying to work on a drawer box routine for my kid's show, and I'm considering building one. The drawer box I have now is okay, your's seems to have more potential for interaction with children. Coincidently, I was going through an old hard drive today and I paged through "Gravel" and "Way of the Warpsmith.” In my opinion, your column gives real world advice, combined with practical applications, physical props (I.E. special drawer box), and other ideas from your notebook, that can translate from magazine page to the reader ”creating something” for their act/repertoire.

Joe Mckay
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Favorite Magician: Lubor Fiedler
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Re: Lodestones

Postby Joe Mckay » May 7th, 2014, 7:42 pm

Tom Stone used to have a series of tricks published in the pre-Richard Kaufman years. But - most of these tricks have since been reprinted in his books (Tom has a couple of hardbound books and many ebooks). Tom also contributed an excellent essay on the 'Too Perfect Theory' to the issue of GENII which was devoted to explorations of this principle.

Before we get into the Lodestones columns - lets have a look at the cover story on Tom Stone.

COVER STORY - JULY (2010) - Articles on Tom Stone by Max Maven and Stephen Minch. Excerpts (in the form of tricks and theory) from his recent book are included.

Now - here is a look at his Lodestones column which regularly combines excellent magic with groundbreaking theory.

FEBRUARY (2009) - Tom grapples with the oldest question in magic - 'What is the effect?'

APRIL (2009) - Tom advises that all magicians (who want to be creative) should carry notebooks at all times. And goes on to give examples of the notes he has in his notebook. And he shows some rough ideas which are examples of the sort of random ideas that strike him. And which he hopes to develop in the future.

JUNE (2009) - Tom discusses saccadic eye movements and how they open the door to fully understanding the concept of misdirection.

AUGUST (2009) - Tom applies the ideas covered in the previous three columns to the 'Cylinder And Coins' plot.

OCTOBER (2009) - A few different topics are touched on before Tom teaches one of his strongest effects. It is a mentalism effect with a sinister (and funny) twist that Rob Zabrecky recently used in his performances at The Magic Castle.

DECEMBER (2009) - Tom discusses the value of honesty when it comes to creating magic and analysing your relationship with it. His discussion of his frustrations with magic lead to him writing about how committing to a vision is a helpful way of dealing with a lot of these issues. Examples from the work of Rune Klan and Robert Neale are used to clarify his thinking here.

FEBRUARY, JUNE, AUGUST, OCTOBER, DECEMBER (2010) - The column for this year was devoted to creating, selling and performing a new magic act. Inspirational advice about the usefulness of deadlines and the importance of taking risks. The whole series provides a comprehensive overview of all the details involved in creating a theatrical magic show - with many examples from his career in magic.

MARCH (2011) - Cognitive Color Change. A groundbreaking colour changing deck. The principle involving 'change blindness' is cutting edge. This is one of my favourite tricks from Tom Stone. The column also goes into detail discussing the psychological reasons why this trick will work (hopefully!).

MAY (2011) - Tom follows up his previous column on 'change blindness' by looking at the use of very slow transitions as a possible new principle for use in magic. Could switching something very slowly be as deceptive as switching something very quickly?

JULY (2011) - Tom looks through some old magic tricks to see uses of 'change blindness' which predate the recent interest in this area in psychological circles.

SEPTEMBER (2011) - A ten card poker type effect. Done with 5 poker hands and an 'anti-Jonah' card. Some new thinking for this old plot. I have put this to one side to study further.

NOVEMBER (2011) - An in-depth look at how velocity and vectors affect attention control. The use at the end involving the surprise disappearance and reappearance of a person really impressed me. The thinking is so clever here that it makes me proud to be magician. It is lovely when we have secrets that are just as amazing as the effects.

FEBRUARY (2012) - Tom shares some ideas from his notebooks. Ideas include a tip for strengthening the climax to an Invisible Deck routine. He then develops this by offering a different method for the Invisible Deck. The second effect is a lovely gaffed method for achieving a visual approach to the 'Searchers' plot. The last trick provides an unusual method for a clean prediction of a freely chosen coloured ball.

APRIL (2012) - Another trio of ideas from Tom's notebooks. The first is an unusual approach to the 'Twisting The Aces' plot which ends with the revelation of different coloured backs to the 4 aces. The second ideal details a novel approach to ditching objects in the centre of an empty stage. The third idea details an interactive magic effect - which is still waiting for a method to bring it to reality.

JUNE (2012) - Tom digs into his notebooks again to detail a novel approach to the 'Oil and Water' plot.

AUGUST (2012) - An eclectic column this month. Tom procrastinates about what to write - briefly touching on the topic of procastination and 'Oil and Water' before detailing a new approach to the servant principle. As he shows - just because something is huge doesn't mean it cannot be invisible.

OCTOBER (2012) - The Balducci Cut Deeper Force and the One-Ahead principle are combined in this two deck effect.

JANUARY (2013) - Tom offers a core definition for the art of magic.

MARCH (2013) - A couple of unfinished (according to Tom) ideas. The first is a multiple selection routine which strives to be as open and carefree as possible. The second applies the black art principle to show a freely named card is the same as the card on show in a wine glass from before the trick started.

JULY (2013) - A gaffed approach to the 'Invisible Palm Aces' plot. The gaffs make this trick much cleaner than the versions I have seen in the past.

SEPTEMBER (2013) - Tom offers his approach to the hoary 'Ball and Vase' effect. In this effect - he is interested in the different type of reaction which result from fooling a spectator with a trick that he already knows the secret to.

NOVEMBER (2013) - The method to this effect involves an anamorphic high resolution photograph. And the effect is like something out of a Looney Tunes cartoon. Wild thinking here...

JANUARY (2014) - Tom channels Max Maven this month in this variation of an old Martin Gardner trick from Ibidem magazine.

MARCH (2014) - Tom channels David Kaye this month. This is a magic effect for children which tries to mix things up by introducing an element of terror to the climax. A break from the usual approach to kids magic.

MAY (2014) - Tom channels Jim Steinmeyer, quantum mechanics and 'The Pegasus Page' into an unusual and convoluted mentalism effect. Will take me awhile to get a grasp on this effect.

---------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to Tom Stone for sharing so much innovative thinking over the years. Both in terms of theory and tricks. I hope we will see many more columns (and books!) from you in the future.

Joe Mckay
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Favorite Magician: Lubor Fiedler
Location: Durham, England

Re: Lodestones

Postby Joe Mckay » June 11th, 2014, 1:27 pm

Interesting article in 'The New Scientist' about 'change blindness' (a principle Tom Stone has made use of).

The article makes the good point that 'The Princess Card Trick' is an example of 'change blindness'. I never thought of that before!

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21178-card-trick-reveals-the-subconscious-mind-is-on-watch.html#.U5iQnCiN0s8

Joe Mckay
Posts: 2026
Joined: April 13th, 2008, 6:56 am
Favorite Magician: Lubor Fiedler
Location: Durham, England

Re: Lodestones

Postby Joe Mckay » February 7th, 2018, 1:57 pm

Just realised that the Tommy Wonder deck switch is another example of Change Blindness in magic.


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