"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,
starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,
Angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection
to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night"
Some dead man writing feverishly while he was alive about the madness that was going on about him. That's why I painted this. Someone so compulsed and compelled to create that nothing else has come to matter. The floating letters are the key strokes to the opening line of 'Howl', in case you were wondering.
As a magician I often times wonder what people wonder about. Sometimes I know, and sometimes I don't. People can be such complicated things sometimes, and yet, maintain a level of predictability that no one forsees. Because, somewhere along the lines of a yearning to be unique and the road to get to that place we often times they don't quite line up like the perfect stencils of our youthful art kits. Sometimes there is no substance to draw upon. Then what happens?
What I wonder about is pretty simple. Where is all of this going? By 'all of this' I don't mean this blog, or this thought. I mean life as we know it. Being a very studious and curious person by nature I'm fascinated by people. I'm inspired by my friends and the people around me. I love their stories. I love the history of where they come from, where they have been, and where they are going. I love everything around me and it feeds into me, and I give it back to you. I'm organic and I am in the moment at all times. I think that my magic is reflective of those things. If you've seen my magic, or maybe you haven't, and you want to know what I'm carrying on about I'm sure you can find at least a link or two to get you into those windows.
So with magic, as with art, you are channelling yourself, and all those pieces that make you up through a narrow little slit of your chosen form of expression. You couldn't possibly get it all through there. You'd sooner shove a killer whale up a flight of stairs than communicate everything you have to say in a lifetime's volume of work. So what you chose to say, and what you choose to do, is of the upmost importance. You only have a narrow little slit to put it into so make it good. Atop that narrow slit of expression, you only have a narrow slit of time. You have a 30 minute set. You have a one month showing. You have a one minute 'elevator pitch'. The proper timing of all of these things, when it all goes 'right', well, that's what real magic looks like.
So, Mr. Ginsberg, inspired by his friends, his current state of mind, and his current surroundings spawned an epic poem that has since spanned decades and generations...and he flowed, and continues to flow from the eyes of youth to the minds of their older selves in a way that we all 'hope' to do some day. Be it to our children, to our art, to our craft, or simply a kind gesture to a person in a time of need, or a family member, or simply being there for a friend when all seems lost or in shambles, allow yourself to flow and be in the moment.
So, when you ask me,
"I hate to (or I'm sorry to) ask, but, could you show my friends some magic?"
Don't be that way, because you are allowing me to flow.
See you around,
Michael
