THE OMO MISHA TIMES
Volume I

Okay. Okay. My mouth is soooooo big that I decided to start a newsletter. This appeals largely to my whimsical side (at least today, anyway), so don’t expect to find anything terribly deep here. I don’t know if I will be sending it out with any regularity….just whenever I feel like it. In other words, don’t worry – you won’t be getting it everyday or anything like that.

If you have events and things you would like for me to post, please send them to me at omomisha@bigplanet.com. Please note, however, that I will not be posting anything unless I find it to be worthwhile and endorse it personally. So…..if you’re doing a party at club Shake-Yo-Stankin’, I will not be posting it unless I have been to the party and found the Stank Shakin’ to be all that.

If you would like for me to add anyone to the newsletter mailings, please send me their e-mail addresses – the addresses will not be forwarded anywhere, or used for anything else. If you would like to unsubscribe, also e-mail me at the same address. I’d like to know what you think about this. Well…..maybe I wouldn’t. Just kidding!

Oh well….This is just the beginning of something that could turn out to be who knows what. Life is just full of surprises, isn’t it?

-Misha

P.S. – I hope you can view this in its full graphic content. If not, you may need to open the attachment.

ANSWER: NOT COOK!!!
(find the question at the end of this newsletter

“The Magician”

A couple of years ago, I was at Izzy Bar on 1st Avenue, in the East Village. There was a performance. It was a crowded Saturday night, and for the life of me, I cannot remember who was playing.

If you’ve been there before, you know that there is a bench that lines one corner of the downstairs room. It is like a cave and on a busy night, it is crammed with people – loud, drinking, smoking people, packed on the bench and at surrounding tables. I was there, hanging out with a friend, Freedome. Not drinking or smoking, by the way. (And, I was not with Freedome…just bumped into him at the club.) We struck up conversation with the group of people sitting just next to us (well, on top of us) on the bench. One of the guys pulled out a deck of cards and began to do some really corny card tricks. “This is cute,” I thought. Each trick got a little more complex than the last though, and after a few of them I started to think, “…wait a minute. This guy is no joke.” There were a few onlookers and after several of his tricks, I noticed that Freedome was nowhere to be found. I would later learn that he - a big, burly, bearded guy - got the heebie-geebies after witnessing the face of a card change right before his very eyes….less than an arm’s distance away. He was scared out of his wits and did not want to see anymore.

The card trick guy did a number of really amazing things. My memory is fuzzy by now, and I cannot recall them specifically. The most memorable though, was the one that scared Freedome away: We had guessed a card number, and he pulled out a card but it was the wrong one. It was the first time he had faltered since his tricks began, so everyone was happy – we thought we had him. “Oh! Wait a minute,” he said, then he took his cigarette out of his mouth, blew smoke on the card, and it changed to reveal the number we had guessed. I swear this happened, and he was sitting right in front of me, our knees practically touching. I was blinking and rubbing my eyes in disbelief.

After all was said and done and his audience had dispersed, he told me he wanted to try something new. He said he had never done it before and didn’t know if it would work. He wanted to know if I would participate. “Sure.” He asked me to tell him one thing about myself – one thing that would most fully describe who I am. That was easy. “I am creative,” I told him. Then he asked me to simply think of a card. “Okay,” so I thought of a 9 of spades or something, and gave him a cue to proceed. At that moment time stood still: This is the part in the movie where the frame freezes. Nothing is moving but the main character…in slow motion. His sounds are amplified against the silence, and you know, something bad is about to happen…..
Finally, amid my anticipation (all this took about 30 seconds, by the way) he pulled just one card out of the deck. He did not look at it. He simply faced it towards me. “Is this the card you were thinking of?” he asked shyly, never averting from my gaze. He needed only observe my mouth hitting the floor to know the answer to that question. “Yes.” It was the 9 of spades!

He was ecstatic, jumped up and down, I thought he was going to kiss me. He went on about how he had tried but had never been able to do that before. He thanked me profusely, and then sobered up, took my hands in his, looked me dead in the eyes and stated with wonder, “….Wow. You really are creative!” as if the validity of my statement had determined the outcome of that trick. He lit another cigarette, let out a big sigh, and disappeared into a puff of smoke. Freedome returned and I told him what had happened. He said, “See. That’s why I left.”

The magician’s name was Derek Hughes. I’m going to go clean up my room now, so I can find his phone number. Has anybody seen this guy?

volume I: page 1 • page 2 • page 3 • page 4