Falling a bit behind in posting due to life happening. This is going to be a bit of house keeping. I have added a gallery page if you are interested in the various editions of the book that I have added to my shelf along with other research material.

I am working on a page of links to interesting media related to Erdnase. Theory 11 recently hosted a podcast with Jason England who touches on his theories of Erdnase, I’ll post the link to on the new page.

And finally I am working on a bibliography page to keep proper track of sources and quotes as I go along and that will appear as soon as I remember the proper formatting for such a thing.

I am reading about Milton Franklin Andrews early days in The Man Who Was Erdnase right now and while it is interesting I have a bit of a problem with how often they quote passages from EATCT right from the start. Going in blind to this book one would think that there was no question Milton was Erdnase. Peppering the early part of the book with quotes from EATCT as examples of Milton’s opinions and way of thinking is rather misleading when there is little, so far, as hard evidence that he was the right man.

He is still an interesting character but so far there is not a lot to prove the claim. One of the most telling sections, in my opinion will be the two notes that were sent to the newspapers in which Milton Franklin offers alibis and surrender as this will give a sample of his writing ability.

Week nine for me was rather scattered, we were out of our home for much of it while we dealt with the mess of a burst pipe in the bathroom. It threw off everyone’s routine and this is the first time I find myself way behind in my post. I need to say thank you to my mom for taking us in for a week while all the fans and dehumidifiers dried out our house, and to my sister-in-law Lydia for helping get my copy of The Man Who Was Erdnase sent to me, and to Shawn for doing some great design work on the site for me.

I thought I was going to explain the tragic circumstances around Milton Franklin’s final day but then my copy of The Man Who Was Erdnase arrived and there is so much more to it that the couple of newspaper articles that I have read that I need to hold off a little longer. So instead of murder and death let’s have a musical interlude.

Years ago I used to listen to a CBC Radio show that was hosted by Bill Richardson. It is long enough ago that I forget which show, probably Richardson’s Roundup but I am not sure, but I do remember that every once in a while he would play strangely beautiful piece of music called ‘Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet‘. Gavin Bryars recorded an unknown homeless man singing and then looped the vocals over a classical composition. Over the years Bryars lengthened the piece from 25 minutes to 60 and then 74 minutes with the addition of Tom Waits.

While I was digging for newspaper articles I came across a mention of the BBC doing something about Erdnase. I thought that I was looking for a documentary so took a round about route to discover Gavin Bryars ‘A Man In A Room, Gambling’. Bryars name was vaguely familiar and it made sense as soon as I played the first track. The project involved Bryars music and Spanish artist Juan Munoz describing the manipulation of playing cards, including excerpts from Expert At The Card Table. Interestingly Bryars states ‘some of this material was culled from the writings of the extraordinary Canadian S. W. Erdnase’. It is the first mention of Erdnase being Canadian I have come across and I am I curious where that came from.

The project was modelled after the Shipping Forecasts that used, maybe still are, played before the news on the BBC. You can here Bryars talk a bit about it on soundcloud.

It is a strange album but has become a good soundtrack to shuffle and deal cards to.

Week Eight will certainly go down as eventful. We had a plumbing disaster at the house and have had to move out for while well industrial fans and dehumidifiers dry everything out and at this point we are not sure how long we will be out of the house or the true extent of the damage, somethings will dry and be fine others not. It was clean water that was spraying for hours through the broken line and it didn’t ruin any thing of irreplaceable sentimental value and better that it happened now than when we have a newborn in the house. Look for the positive right.

My plan for this post was to tell how things finally fell apart for Milton Franklin Andrews but my notes are in the house and it sounds like there is an airplane engine in the hallway so that story will have to wait until next week.

My copy of Erdnase Unmasked arrived this week. It is a wonderful little volume put out by Magicana with a number of essays reprinted from Magicol. I’ve read through most of it and is very interesting and has a lot of info on old newspaper articles that I want to hunt down and read.

I have added the Diagonal Palm Shift into my practice sessions. I am starting to get the hang of it but it has also led to my first Edrnase injury. I am working on it exactly as described, which means in the opposite hands than I naturally would, and have done something quite painful to my left index finger. If you have ever been hit straight on with a basketball and jammed your finger it is a similar feeling. I also watched Jason England’s instructions on the shift and at one point he states that Erdnase says to curl your finger under the deck but this is not necessary. It is this curling actions that has mucked up my finger so I wished that I had taken Jason’s advice and not bothered.

I have brought my Mexican Turnover back to a passable level, it is a move to I learned years ago but it has been a long time since I have used it, and realize that I don’t think I have ever preformed a straight monte routine that people could actually ‘play’. I have done a number of ‘demonstration’ stye routines in the past, one of my all time favourite packet tricks was a set of cards with shells and peas and if I remember right an eight-ball kicker at the end and I have always loved Harry Anderson’s Wise Guys Monte but it is exciting to be working on a ‘fair’ game.

I have been in touch with Todd Karr of the Miracle Factory about his research into midwestern con-man E S Andrews being Erdnase and while I wasn’t about to convince him to send me his research it provided enough info to get me started on the E. S. path.I don’t think this will be as shocking to research as Milton but I haven’t gotten very far.

The Conjuring Arts Research Centre produced a free pdf of their ‘bible’ edition which I have printed out so I can have something lay flat in front of me instead of snapping the spine of my Dover edition. Also got a copy of Ghosts of Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak by Stephanie Waters which includes a story about the ghost of Bessie Bouton.