January Magi-Gram is Online

The January 2009 issue of the Magi-Gram is now online, and will also be emailed and mailed to members. You can see it, read it, and even download it to your computer or print it out by going to this link. It's also linked on the right hand column of this page. Please thank longtime editor and TVP Jim Flanigan for his tireless efforts and excellent work.

Broken Wand Ceremony for Phillip H. Miller

Phillip Miller, 72, of Annandale, Va., died December 13, 2008. He held I.B.M. number 26655M and was a member of the Order of Merlin. Originally from Illinois, he was an educator who moved to the Washington, D.C., area, where he went to work for the federal government as the deputy director of the Defense Supply Agency at the Pentagon until he retired. Phil was also a member of the Invisible Lodge (Masons) and was active in the foundry Methodist Church of Washington. For the last 10 years, Phil enjoyed learning juggling. He recently moved to Greenspring Village in Springfield, Va. He is survived by a brother, Mike Miller, in Atlanta. A Broken Wand ceremony will be performed at the January 7th meeting of Ring 50 by TVP Jim Flanigan. Jack Nance, another longtime close friend of Phil will break the wand.

Magic That Pleases The Eye

There were 63 members and guests attending the Duane Laflin Lecture at IBM Ring 50 on Wednesday, December 3rd. Laflin’s lecture was finding those hidden treasure in our unused magic. A New Look for Old Props – Cultures changing, magicians need to change too. He has a lot of "out of the box" thinking. He took some things that everyone is doing and put a new spin on it. Laflin really puts the MAGIC into everything he does. Throughout the evening you could hear members commenting, I have one of those and never thought to use it that way. Even the seasoned pros were talking about the way he improved upon tricks they had been doing and how they could not wait to add them to their routines and others who had not use silks were lining up to load up on items he used in his lecture. It was a magical, informative, and entertaining evening.

~ ~ Bob Patterson