What do you guys think about the phoenix magazine and other mags getting put on cd?

I just got myself the digital Pabular (not the pirate book!) and am about half way through my first scan. There is a whole host of ideas that I do not think are main stream from renowned contributers.

And for the price I think it is hard to beat. It costs the same as the average book, but has about 1400 pages, so it would be hard to grumble at the great value.

I think putting old magazines out in either book form (apocalypse) or CD (Pabular) is a great thing because I do not have access to those magazines apart from in their collected entities.

I suppose I would be a bit upset if I had subscribed to either magazine and had the whole collection, and now the same collection could be bought for a fraction of the price! I hope more do the same!

PS when is Apoc vol 4 due?

I dunno about being upset, Neil...there's a peculiar joy in knowing you own the original, "flesh and blood" version. I have several issues of the New Phoenix, one with some of Ed Marlo's routines. Yes, I could get them on CD...but it's really kind of neat having the printed version!

I think that the idea of a magazine is that you can read it alMost anywhere and when you are bored you don't need anything extra, apart from the magazine to read it. whereas ebooks and magazines need comoputers and palm pilots etc, so I would much rather have them in printed form, also if you ever come to sell them, what's gonna fetch more money, a few floppy disks/cd-roms or some proper printed well kept magazines?
james

What if the magazine is now out of print, and copies become rare and expensive? Digitising is then the only option left. Having the printed copy is always going to be the favourite, but why deny others the pleasure of reading the words of the past masters of magic?

Sometimes we have to compromise in order to preserve.

Is The New Phoenix available on CD or are we just speculating?

Mike said;
What if the magazine is now out of print, and copies become rare and expensive? Digitising is then the only option left.

Just because something is out of print doesn't mean it is out of copyright. If someone owned the copyright then digitising is not the only option, one could reprint.

The only reason the digital Pentagram appeared was because some unauthorised book versions appeared. Martin Breese had the copyright, had already released The Best of Pentagram Card Magic and was about to put out a Best of Pentagram Mental Magic when the unauthorised books appeared, so he put it all on disc to undercut the books.

I had most of the Pabulars but the CD doesn't worry me, gives me chance to catch up on issues I missed out on, and these magazines on CD are really reaching a new readership. I prefer a good book, but these CD's are superb value for money.

Paul Hallas

Although I will not dispute that these collected magazine are great fun to peruse, I am a great believer of natural selection; if a card idea is buried so deep in print that it has not been updated since, it probably was not that good.

Real world ideas that play for the real public are few and far between. So perusing Apocalypse, for instance, will allow to unearth a great many variations of material published under Paul Harris. I think you'd be better off buying the books.

If you are interested in magic history, it is a different proposition. Apocalypse had great variation once in awhile, but it's true, treasure lied in Mr Lorayne's
'current' column, which was always a blast. Great tales (and I did not care whether it was true or not. The story teller is a master.. in print and live.)

The real shocker, by the way, when going through magazines you have already read eons ago, are the ads... the stuff you just needed to get hold of, the stuff which was going to 'make' you. Man, I did spend a fortune on junk... and my interest was strictly close-up!!!!

Michel said;
if a card idea is buried so deep in print that it has not been updated since, it probably was not that good.

I disagree, (not strongly, but I disagree.) In bygone times people did not rush to get variations into print like they do now, books were more scarce etc. So things might have been updated, and updates not recorded, or the original move/effect might not need updating. Or something might have evolved through countless variations back to what it was originally (I've seen that happen with a Curry item.)

A good example of something old where lots of workable gems can be found is The Jinx. If people think only historians should read it, that's fine by me. I was fooling some magicians with a couple of card items from there only last night. They were amazed to find the effects came from The Jinx around 1935.

Paul Hallas.

There may very be gold in them old magazines, Paul. If you are resigned to pan for a long time and are persistent, you might find a nugget of gold or two. Thre is no guarantee, though.

If you are looking for variations on known effects, sure. Looking for practical effects with real-life application to live contemporary public? You are bucking the odds...

If you wish to successfully dig in, and your zest for archeologic magic matches your zeal, go deep. Magic journals in print from the 70's and earlier may be more likely to be of interest; amateur magic - as a movement, and it's effect on publishing - came into being after that.

Magazines from the 70's and 80's often were (and are, still) featured as a teaser effects from currently published books. One good effect as a teaser for the book. So... the rest of the issue was often (and still is nowadays) filler material.

Still, some nuggets are waiting...

Hi,
There is also the space issue to consider.
I gave away piles of linking rings and abra's
Simply because storing is a problem. with the cd you get all the info and need little space.
phillip

Michel,

re;
Looking for practical effects with real-life application to live contemporary public? You are bucking the odds...

With some old magazine yes, others are a goldmine.

Your comment could stand only too well against a lot of modern books, many of which are there simply to satisfy the seekers of new card tricks rather pass on items which are practical for the worker to the contempory public. They satisfy the need of something to show the buddies of hobbyists, then they seek out new tricks to show them the following week etc.

We are usually lucky if we get more than one or two tricks we will actually use from new books, so we are still seeking for nuggets whether the books/magazines are new or old.
Plus, it is better to have the source material as a springboard rather than a variant of a variant that may well have missed the point along the way.

Anyway, I enjoy digging, I prefer hidden treasure.