OsadaSlowianska

(with thanks to Li Bai & Rene Lavand)

I take a bottle of wine,

My thoughts and memories on Chinese New Year.

I have experienced many Chinese New Years, but i cannot remember the time it actually felt real and authentic to me. What i mean is I've never experienced a heartfelt satisfying Chinese New Year, away from the shallow festivities and rituals (done for show, and over-commercialized).

Oh well. Better luck next year.

On a somewhat chilly Spring day, i find myself here practising at the card table, specifically refining my sense of touch.

It's a good skill to have for us card handlers; to be able to cut to a specific number of cards, to be able to dead-cut (meaning to cut to a position of the deck or to an exact number of cards without margin of error) to a specific location for a card or cards, and to be able to handle a pack of cards in situations where it get's sticky and tight.

This is the training of tactile sensitivity, focused on the fingertips.

Practising sleight of hand is easy, but staying focused and keeping the mind to a specific spot (in my case the overall hands, or sometimes specific phalanges of the fingers, or even the finger tips themselves), this is very mentally draining. But after a certain amount of time, the neuro pathways develope synapses that acts as a index-of-reference. This means the next time we engage in a piece of card move/sleight everything becomes easier.

Praise synapses!!!

Thanks for watching!

This was filmed in 2023 when i was living with someone i considered a freedom fighter and a comrade. I say "someone i considered" because i have had to learn the hard way about the try nature of the human condition in this tyrannical time.

It was also when i rocked the "snail on the head" hairstyle.

I have documented all my attempts in starting up self sufficient backyard allotments for the freedom fighters in my city of Birmingham. You can find the journey here:

As you can see that this plot of land was worked on starting from 2022.

The individual who "owned" this property and i were acquaintances. We met each other often during our walks along the nearby natural reservoir forest we have here. When 2021 came, a lot of friends of mine expressed that they wanted to become self sufficient, including the "owner" of this plot of land.

Thinking it a perfect time in 2021 to sow the seeds of community and to help build up small infrastructure of freedoms, i gave my time and energy freely to serve those comrades of mine.

With heavy lamentations most of these projects failed. Either the freedom fighters became so black-pilled that they gave up on the prospect, perceiving the looming future of Agenda 2030 to be too much for them to stomach, reclusing themselves within the comforts of four walls instead. Some freedom fighters reverted back to their old materialistic selves after experiencing the hard work needed to build a natural mutual-aid community. Some freedom fighters were only pretending to stand for what's right, what must be done, and in the end their true lustful, abhorrent, conniving natures all appear.

I had come to learn that the "owner" of this plot of land was much hated up and down the entire neighborhood, that they had done people over for large sums of money; the nature of their character highly questionable (when you suddenly get 10 armed police/corrupt uniformed agents barging into your house for an unsolved domestic violent crime, that then gives light to crimes of other financial scams, a lot involving real-estate the "owner" had their fingers in)...it makes you think don't it?

I ask often "where are my comrades?". I am reminded of Shimada Kambei (島田勘兵衛) from Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" (七人の侍). Kambei (兵衛) was a war veteran who served a Daimyo (daym yo! lol), who together in battle suffered a terrible defeat. Kambei did not choose the recognised honourable way of "Seppuku". This man believes very deeply in Bushido, the samurai code of honour that's supposed to inform their behavior, but he's also seen plenty of times when Bushido failed: when its code didn't save anyone or make any kind of difference at all. So instead of dying fighting to save his lord, he lingers on part in memory, part in regret, part in lamentation of his own failings of a warrior who's lost more battles in his life, and even his dignity. Yet he still believes in good no matter how scarred his life.

I'm posting this up here for my own record, as a reminder of what was once possible and what still is possible. Much can be accomplished as long as we recognise our own two hands, our own two feet and the dream in our hearts.

Til then i will walk on, hope and caution by my side.

A video that was recorded for Helen & Vlad from Poland.

Here i rock some fucked up hairstyle like i got electrocuted or something. Proper brush head. Anyway.

The effect i perform here is a classic of Ed Marlo, from M.I.N.T vol 1. It utilizes one of my favourite card moves called the ATFUS (Any-Time Face Up Switch). It creates a perfect image of a mentally selected card disappearing and reappearing face up in any position within the deck.

This effect never fails to stun my audiences, whether on a theatre stage (with a DLSR camera connected to a wide projector screen, or just a theatre-screen so the audience can view from their seats), or up close as it was intended for.

PS - in Prestidigitation, a trick is something that has one phase (say for example, you hold a coin, and it vanishes). An effect are a string of tricks merged together, created a lasting effect on the audiences minds, as the increment of phases adds to the impression of the illusion.