Category Archives: Magic

TOUCH OF EVIL Opening Scene

January 11, 2013 – 12:51 pm

According to Wikipedia many critics considered TOUCH OF EVIL’s three-minute, twenty-second tracking shot as one of the greatest long takes in cinematic history, especially considering it’s the opening scene. On the U.S.-Mexico border, a man plants a time bomb in a car. A man and woman enter the vehicle and make a slow journey through [...]

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Friday the 13th Umphang

July 13, 2012 – 2:40 pm

This morning my ex-wife, daughter, and I set out from Chai-nat for Umphang, which is one of Thailand’s most remote regions. I had calculated seven hours for the 500 kilometer trip. It took almost eleven of white-knuckle driving through the junled mountains. The road in Umphang had been known as Death Highway back in the [...]

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Old Black Magic of Siam

June 22, 2012 – 7:07 pm

Four years my friend, Pi-Noi brought his work crew down from Ban Nok to install an air-conditioning system in a Pattaya bar. The 400-kilometer drive gave them a healthy thirst and that night under my mango tree we drank a case of Chang Beer. Nearing midnight the bottles were empty, but the out-of-towners wanted more [...]

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Bewitched And Beheaded

June 22, 2012 – 6:58 pm

The temperature in Saudi’s Najran Province bordering Yemen runs into the high 110s this time of the year with spikes into the low 140s. The name itself means thirsty, yet the highlands support dazzling forest in comparison to the sun-bleached deserts. There are even waterfalls in the mountains, but this week the province hit the [...]

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THE MAGUS by John Fowles

June 1, 2012 – 2:02 pm

I drank a lot on my 60th birthday; a glass of wine at the Oyster Bar, several beers and margharitas at Solas on East 9th Street, then more beer at Frank’s Lounge in Fort Greene and finally even more beer at Mullane’s across General Fowler Square. I made it back to my apartment at midnight [...]

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