Tag: Ian Rowland

January 2023 Part Five (Jan 24-Jan27)

January 24 – New and Old things, New and Old Friends…

We got up late on Tuesday morning, but that was okay, we were already sorted for theatre for the evening – but more on that in a minute. Needing sustenance, Lin suggested a place called “Today Bread” for our morning’s brunch (yes, we’d gotten up that late!). To be fair, this wasn’t generally my kind of place. This is the kind of place where everything is produced on the premises and it felt a bit “hipsterish” for me upon entering, but hey, I’ll give anything a shot (remember my “capacity to enjoy absolutely everything”).

Continue reading “January 2023 Part Five (Jan 24-Jan27)” →

Night of the Iguana – Day 2 London 2020

Jan 23 – Night of the (Los) Iguana

Las Iguanas Menu.jpgOf all the days I was going to be in London, this was the only one Lin was actually working. In a practical sense, what this meant was that she was up and out of the house early, leaving me to fend for myself. So since I was on vacation, I lounged around for a bit, made myself some breakfast, and called Rasa and Monki. All of which took me to about 9:30am. When I relax I really relax, huh? Continue reading “Night of the Iguana – Day 2 London 2020” →

Magic – Live and otherwise

14095822_10154399304143665_5366482407314087398_nSo… A few months back, say around May or June, I got an offer to cover Magic Live for Magic Magazine. The problem of course was that the baby, who had yet to be born, was due July 1st and going off to Vegas for a magic convention with a 6 week old at home didn’t particularly strike me as the best idea in the world. But I really wanted to go. But 6 week old baby.  Continue reading “Magic – Live and otherwise” →

How To Create Monsters & Mythological Creatures

So one day my friend Ian Rowland directed me to the site of his friend Gianni Sarcone, a designer of optical illusions. Specifically, the post on How To Create Monsters & Mythological Creatures. That’s an example over there to the left. 

Once you see the method, like a number of magic tricks, it is deceptively simple. And yet, the results are awe inspiring. As someone who has a penchant for the idea of urban fantasy (I’d love to write one, just don’t quite see it so instead, I read ’em) all I can see are a number of powerful beings trapped in static forms or natural figures waiting to make themselves known in that luminal time between dark and light. 

Maybe you’ll be able to find inspiration here. Or maybe you’ll just enjoy some clever photography. Either way, it’s definitely worth a look. 

Reimagining London 2016

DSC04765 (1) 6.13.04 PMOne of the great things about living centrally located in Europe is that nothing is very far away – and generally not that expensive to get to. If you’re like Monika, you can find amazing deals (she boasts about a roundtrip from Sweden to Italy, via Frankfurt, for little more than a euro each way). But even if you don’t have her luck, you can get some pretty amazing deals which allow you to see new countries or revisit old ones. Continue reading “Reimagining London 2016” →

London 2014: Day Seven & Eight – Cars and Cards

2014-08-20 12.17.31Tuesday was our last full day in the Big City and we still had a full day’s use of the CityPass to take advantage of so naturally, we were once again up and out early in the day. This time, our destination was a bit outside the city center and was looking like it would take close to an hour to get there: The London Motor Museum.

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