As promised in the last issue, we are currently experimenting with the photographs on the HMC website (http://www.magician.org.uk/hmc) using new technology brought to you by a Canadian company called Flickr (http://www.flickr.com). The site allows you to upload them and share them with either the whole world, or privately amongst friends and family. You can group your photographs into sets, and tag them with key-words, and anyone can comment on them, not just by leaving text-based comments, but by adding tags and notes to the photographs themselves. You can see this in action on the main page, where it will always display the last three pictures uploaded. You can then click to see each photo and links to the latest sets. Currently we have a new HMC set and a Young Magicians’ Workshop set. Let me have your comments on this new way of delivering our photographs, I would be interested to see what you think.

So what’s next for the site? I’m always looking for ways to link technology with magic and I have been looking into Podcasting. Some of you may have heard this recent buzzword, for those that haven’t, read the Wikipedia explanation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting). It is a method for publishing audio broadcasts via the internet, which people can subscribe to, download and play on their personal audio players. Usually the audio (or even video) files consist of talking or music, and mostly on a specific subject. You can subscribe using Podcatching software such as iTunes or iPodder (http://ipodder.sourceforge.net/).Just as Weblogs have caught on recently in the magic community, I think Podcasting will enable the individual to easily publish their own thoughts, ideas and views on the magic scene, and even provide an information service. It also means you won’t have to be tied to a computer get these services, as you can listen to them anywhere you have a personal audio player, out jogging, in the bath, at the gym etc.I want to experiment in the future, by putting up parts of the Oracle as a Podcast, much the same as you can access it as text on the website. Again let me have your thoughts on this, and if it would be of use to you, do you own a personal MP3 player and would prefer to listen to the Oracle, whilst you do other things?

I will leave you with some examples of people already Podcasting in the magic world. The Go Magic Go Podcast (http://thetrapdoor.libsyn.com/) is talking about things as diverse as Derren Brown, Andre Kole, Criss Angel, and various product and show reviews. The S.A.M. (http://www.magicsam.com) are doing something quite unique and interesting, they are publishing regular Podcast updates on their 2006 convention to be held in Louisville Kentucky (http://www.samconvention.blogspot.com/). Lastly L&L publishing have just started experimenting with this technology, and have published their first Podcast on the L&L Blog (http://www.llpub.com/weblog/) which features an introduction to the new products and audio clips from their new DVD releases.

Good news to start with. I found some time at the start of this year to do the long overdue update to the HMC site, changed a few things, updated the software, added a new header courtesy of Domanic, and added lots of content from past issues of The Oracle so if you haven’t yet seen it, head on over to http://www.magician.org.uk/hmc and let me have your comments on the new look. I have more exciting things planned for the future – the site will be updated with this issue of The Oracle, and then a major change to the way the photos are displayed. Cutting edge web technology will give us the benefit of better colour, better quality and a gallery of pictures we don’t have room to print in The Oracle.

If you still havent joined the Hull Magicians Circle Yahoo! Group then follow the link on the HMC website, enter your e-mail address to sign up, you can then send and receive e-mails that will be read by all the members of HMC that are part of the group, you can discuss HMC events, or just magic in general.

So what else is going on with magic on the web? Those of you that keep up with the magical forums, have probably noticed lots of buzz about Steve Youells new Card Magic site Cogitations http://www.cogitations.net Its a bi-yearly subscription site that promises one new trick or article a week. So far it has received lots of positive feedback, with, as expected, a few negative comments. I subscribed before the launch on January 1st and so far I feel Ive had my moneys worth and I am still half-way through my subscription. Recent articles have seen writings from Andrew Wimhurst, Darwin Ortiz, Andru Luvisi and Steve himself. With downloads, video clips and articles it really is worth checking out if you are serious about your card magic.

It was recently announced at one of our meetings that Eddie has booked Michael Ammar for Presidents Night. Michael is only presenting a few UK lectures and, if his visit last time was anything to go by, this will be a night not to be missed. If you would like to get a flavour of life on the road as a magical lecturer visit Lee Ashers site to view a short Michael Ammar documentary http://www.leeasher.com/ammar.htm. This is quite a large file and probably only suitable for broadband download unless youre prepared for a long wait on a dial-up connection. It is the first part of his On Tour with Mike Ammar film, which sees Lee travelling with Michael on his X-elent Series Lecture Tour. Michael undertook eight lectures in nine days, and Lee took along his digital camera to capture the highlights. You wont see any magic, but what you do get is a sense of what it is like to be on tour, and what it takes to do a magic lecture - watch it before Michael comes to visit, and you may just appreciate his visit all the more!

A new site has opened very recently, Magic Showcase http://www.magic-showcase.co.uk/, which claims to be an interactive, community website and online performance arena for Magicians. You can view performance videos, take part in the forums, view details of upcoming magic events, and spend your money in the online shop. Derren Brown comes to visit Hull New Theatre on Sunday April 3 with a brand new show. Derren was featured on the front cover and in an in-depth interview in the February issue of Genii magazine http://www.geniimagazine.com; you can still order a back-issue. Jamy Ian Swiss interviewed Derren over a number of years to compile this issue, and Genii has given him permission to publish a longer version of the interview on his website http://www.jamyianswiss.com/fm/works/derren-brown.html. It’s well worth the read, not only for insights into Derren and his character, but also his hard-hitting thoughts on magic in general. That should keep you busy till the next time we log-on.

Emagic brings you news of two new magic sites. Ryan Pilling has undertaken a very exciting project - his Magic Broadcast site (http://www.magicbroadcast.com). He hopes to broadcast magical radio twenty-four hours-a-day, seven days-a-week. To log on and listen to the content you’ll need software, the best being Winamp (http://www.winamp.com) if you have it, or you can use Windows Media Player which should be installed by default on your PC. Ryan is currently building up the site and is testing his concept with a few programmes that repeat. He has an interview with Michael Ammar, an episode of Dunninger’s original radio show, where you can hear him read the minds of the studio audience, and the premier episode of Ryan’s Brain Poke series. You can join in the discussions on the forum and take part in competitions. If you are feeling brave you can even contribute to the programmes by leaving a short message on the Talkback Line; for those of us not in the U.S. this requires e-mailing an audio file to the show. You can even host your own show or apply to appear on one of the shows as an expert.

The second site to bring you in this issue of Oracle is actually a rebirth of an old site. Cheaters Cheater (http://www.thecheaterscheater.com) caused a ‘bit of a stir’ the first time it was launched. It vanished but is now back with a brand new look. Essentially it is a site where you can download video clips of magic that people have recorded and uploaded. You can see clips of moves, short routines and tricks, and they also have a section for comedy clips, which are those funny videos you sometimes get sent via e-mail! You can rate the videos, and join in the discussion forum.Talking about sites coming back from the dead, Sleightgeek (http://www.sleightgeek.com) has just re-opened after being hacked. In a similar vein to the Cheaters Cheater this is a forum where you can post videos of yourself doing tricks and chat to the other members.Have you ever wondered what the big stars demand when they do a show? Well now you can find out. The Smoking Gun site (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/) which publishes copies of interesting documents, has opened a Backstage section (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/backstagetour/index.html) where you can read the rider documents of lots of big name celebrities, including David Copperfield (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/backstagetour/dcopp/dcopp1.html) and Penn and Teller (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/backstagetour/pennteller/pennteller1.html).

If you are planning to buy some magic around this festive season, beware of the pirates. There has been a lot of talk on the internet magic boards recently about rip-off products, mostly coming from certain dealers. The ‘finger of blame’ is pointed at such dealers as Magic Makers (http://www.magicmakersinc.com) who are very closely aligned with Penguin Magic (http://www.penguinmagic.com/). You can read all about the rip-offs at the Bazar de Magia site (http://magia.com.ar/robstiff/) who seem to have fallen foul of Rob Stiff and Magic Makers. Tim Ellis lists products of a dubious nature and the source of the original on his site - Magic Fakers (http://www.magicunlimited.com/magic_fakers.htm). It pays to support the originators of magical routines.

Read some interesting comments on this at John W. LeBlanc’s excellent new weblog, Escamoteurettes (http://www.escamoteurettes.com/blog/) where he expands at length. It’s required reading! Finally something to keep you amused over the holidays, in the form of puzzles. Sam Loyd was a famous American puzzle creator, whom I first became aware of through the work of Martin Gardner. Possibly one of his most famous puzzles was entitled Get Off The Earth and involves the vanish of a Chinese Warrior. You can see it working at a French site, Les Guerriers Chinois de Loyd (http://tinyurl.com/42mwz). You will need the FLASH plug-in to get this to work and you can actually rotate the globe and see how the warrior vanishes. For a fuller explanation head over to Jim Loy’s puzzle site where he explains the theory behind it (http://www.jimloy.com/puzz/getoff.htm). Another of Sam’s famous puzzles was The Trick Donkeys (http://www.defectiveyeti.com/images/trickmules.jpg); you’ll need to print the page, cut the figure into three parts and position the jockey strip onto the other two pieces so that it looks like each jockey is riding a donkey, and folding is not allowed. If you really need to peek at the solution it can be found here - (http://www.defectiveyeti.com/mules/mules-solution.jpg). Have fun!

There are loads of general auction sites, ebay style, on the web but now there is a new one specially for magicians. It's a brand new UK web site launched and written by Kevin Gallagher. After being disappointed and concerned by some of the professional magic items that appeared on eBay, Kevin decided to launch an auction website which offered the same type of facility but which was restricted to magicians.The website has been live since the middle of August and has slowly risen in popularity and usage. Take up has inevitably been a little slow until the site gets established but there is no risk to the seller since it is possible, if desired, to set a minimum bid and reserve price to ensure that no valuable items go for silly money (unlike most magical society auctions!).

A Dutch Auction facility is also provided which allows numerous identical items to be sold at the same time with bidders indicating how many items they are bidding for. At the end of the auction, the items are awarded to the highest bidders in the order they were received until there are none left. It is hoped to encourage magic dealers to place clearance items here.The website basically provides the service of placing winning bidders in direct contact with sellers. There is no charge for either selling or buying, all costs are currently being absorbed by Kevin. To bid for an item or put one up for sale, it is simply a case of registering at http://www.magic-auction.co.uk and, after responding to the automatic confirmation email, the account is activated and ready for use.Some very worthwhile items have so far been sold so it is well worth taking a look from time to time. If you have a number of magical items you would like to sell, this will hopefully provide the perfect forum.It's very easy and quick to sign up, and you will be instantly ready to buy and sell items, it's like a HMC auction night 24/7!

Now to other web-news, there has been a number of new magical weblogs springing up. As you may recall from previous articles, a weblog is generally described as a chronologic, constantly updated site consisting of links and commentary, usually run by an individual or small group. I believe my site at http://www.magician.org.uk was possibly the first proper magical weblog to exist when it started over four years ago; it seems that just recently this has caught on, possibly due to the publicity given to weblogs by the media, as they begin to realise what this corner of cyber-publishing has to offer.

Steve Pellegrino has just started two new blogs. He updated the L&L publishing site and replaced the message board there with a new L&L blog (http://www.llpub.com/weblog) and a personal weblog (http://magic.atomicbrew.com/) which is subtitled ‘Magic rants from the Web’ and is quite a hard-hitting blog focusing on dodgy magic dealers and message board exploits.Kellar’s Nightmare (http://magic.typepad.com/kellar/) is a new weblog with categories focusing on General Info, News, Stage, Television and History, and the last new blog I have spotted is Gordon Meyer’s Rebuilding a Mystery (http://gordon.typepad.com/magic/).That’s it for this issue, don’t forget to sign up for Kevin Gallagher’s Magic Auction site, tell him Oracle sent you!

Elsewhere in this issue you can find a combined FISM 2003 report from the HMC members that attended. As is mentioned in the report I have placed my full report on the website (http://www.magician.org.uk) and you can also download it as a PDF file, just do a search for FISM. [Read More]

The new HMC website is finally up and running with (hopefully) all the problems and bugs fixed and all the software working including a new design to match the new Oracle. It is now configured in a way that makes it really easy for me to up-date it with the latest Missed a Meeting reports, Photos, Articles and Links. This will be your first stop to check on all the new HMC news and reports, in-between print versions of the Oracle. [Read More]

As you will have noticed by now the Oracle has undergone a change of image, thanks in no small part to the graphical abilities of new member and latest addition to the Oracle team Domanic Li. To reflect the change of image, the website will be changed very shortly, hopefully using some of Domanic’s graphics to bring it in line with the new style. I have been busy adding some content to the site, and all of the recent Missed a Meetings have been uploaded, along with various photos of the club nights (click on the camera images). After this issue of Oracle goes out some of the articles that appeared in the print version will be added to the website, so look out for that.

Please visit the website, and let me have your feedback, its still very much in development, but it is getting there slowly but surely, I plan to start an e-mail list very soon to keep members more up-to-date with the changes, so if I haven’t got your e-mail let me have it asap. [Read More]