Ooh ... shiny.

neil-gaiman:

“When we started we HAD no style, no understanding of ourselves or what we were doing. We had feelings, vague ones, a sense of what we liked, maybe, but no unified point of view, not even a real way to express our partnership. We fought constantly and expected to break up every other week. But we did have a few things, things I think you might profit from knowing:

We loved what we did. More than anything. More than sex. Absolutely.

We always felt as if every show was the most important thing in the world, but knew if we bombed, we’d live.

We did not start as friends, but as people who respected and admired each other. Crucial, absolutely crucial for a partnership. As soon as we could afford it, we ceased sharing lodgings. Equally crucial.

We made a solemn vow not to take any job outside of show business. We borrowed money from parents and friends, rather than take that lethal job waiting tables. This forced us to take any job offered to us. Anything. We once did a show in the middle of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia as part of a fashion show on a hot July night while all around our stage, a race-riot was fully underway. That’s how serious we were about our vow.

Get on stage. A lot. Try stuff. Make your best stab and keep stabbing. If it’s there in your heart, it will eventually find its way out. Or you will give up and have a prudent, contented life doing something else.”

—

Teller, of Penn and Teller, in a letter at http://shwood.squarespace.com/news/2009/9/21/14-years-ago-the-day-teller-gave-me-the-secret-to-my-career.html

Strangely, advice as good for writers or musicians as it is for magicians. 

This is incredibly good advice—not just for magicians and musicians and writers, but for anyone who has ever dreamed about doing anything.

I want to tattoo this inside my eyelids: “We always felt as if every show was the most important thing in the world, but knew if we bombed, we’d live.”

Caution: Spam Ahead

Private message

Please kindly accept my apology for sending unsolicited mail to you I believe you are a highly respected personality considering the fact that I sourced your profile from a human resource profile database on your country. Though, I do not know to what extent you are familiar with events.

Well, I am Major Pavel Karpov, a Russian citizen. My friend and I was accused of stealing $230million   from Mr. Bill Browder who was Blacklisted and expelled from Russia in 2005. Mr. Browder liquidated his Russian investments, paying off a $230million tax bill, and relocated his entire staff and their dependents to London, leaving a solitary secretary to manage the office of various shell companies here in Moscow. But in 2007 his Russian office was raided by the police, who seized seals and certificates, and few months later a court judgment was entered against Browder’s companies for an unpaid debt which he claimed he knew nothing about. That was when Browder called in Russia’s smartest tax lawyer, the late Sergei Magnitsky, who was jailed and unfortunately died after brief illness.

I am extremely in need of your assistance in this matter, since I am not allowed to travel out of Russia because of the recent happening. And please you must keep this as top secret if you are willing to help me to receive and deposit this fund in the bank on my behalf.  I am willing to share 60%/40% with you if you are able to help me. I have the sum of $100million in a PRIVATE SAFE DEPOSIT overseas, I want you to help me put this money in Number bank in SWISSBANK and take your part of the money as I said. Upon receipt of the fund, I will send you a written letter for the disbursement of the fund and then you and I will share the money in this order: 60% will be for me, 40% will be for you. I have all the necessary legal documents that can back our claim we will make with the Private Vault House.
All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us seeing this deal through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law And please contact me.

Kindly provide me with the following: Full name, age, occupation, phone number, address and fax number.
Best regards,
Major P.

May I, Major P.? May I really? Oh boy!

How about this: I’ll just repost your email verbatim (done) and not make fun of you (too much) and we’ll consider it a favor from me to you.

(Side note: I am ever-so-slightly impressed by the Bill and Sergei back story, which is true. But, even if your fictional spam character is meant to be a panicky Russian, please at least pass it around to some of your spam friends for peer review before emailing it to a professional editor.)

Previous spam:

I am Mr. Jimmy Roland, atelophiliac