Blog Archives

The Weasel Wins!


Our New Mascot -- The Weasel

The election for the Greater American Confidence Party mascot has ended. The Weasel is the victor. From now on, we in the GACP will be represented by a weasel. Thanks for all of your participation. Finally, we can move forward as a party to victory!

Next we will have to choose a candidate for president of the United States.

I humbly put my name up for consideration.

The results of the month-long poll:

Who should be the mascot for the American Confidence Party?

Answer Votes Percent
Weasel 123 63%
Wild Turkey 32 16%
Grey Fox 18 9%
Racoon 13 7%
Badger 5 3%
Opossum 3 2%

On Simplicity:


“You can’t have too much simplicity in your life…” — Pop Haydn

“Machine of Death” Variety Show:


Photo by Nancy Magill

Pop Haydn's Teleportation Device at the FAKE Gallery

Pop Haydn entertains at the Machine of Death Variety Show last night at the FAKE Gallery

Nancy Magill and I had a wonderful time last night at the FAKE Gallery on Melrose. It was a great event to celebrate the success of the Machine of Death (MoD).

There were lots of refreshments, magic, music by Lucciana Costa, games and actual operating steampunk contraptions, all in a wonderful environment, a trove of strange and interesting art and sculpture–what a fun time!

Video of the entire event here:

http://machineofdeath.net/mod-magic-variety-show

Machine of Death is an anthology of short stories edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki !, inspired by this episode of Ryan’s Dinosaur Comics. From January 15, 2007, through April 30, 2007, Ryan, Matt, and David invited everybody in the world to submit short stories for the book, without fee or prejudice. Hundreds of writers from five continents took them up on the offer.

Ryan, Matt and David chose their favorites from the nearly 700 submissions, and invested personal funds to pay each contributor. The manuscript was shopped for several years to agents and publishers who liked it, but were unable to sell a book full of material by largely-unknown writers.

Faced with this rejection, the editors self-published the book and, on October 20, 2010, announced that October 26 — six days later — would be MOD-Day, in which they encouraged everybody to buy the book from Amazon at once in an attempt to become, for one day at least, Amazon’s #1 best-selling book.

On October 26, exactly that happened. The book shot up the charts and hit #1 in all categories, staying there for approximately 30 hours.

On October 28, the editors got wind that Glenn Beck, on his radio program, called out MOD as being part of a “liberal culture of death” — for beating his own book (which had apparently been released the same day) to #1 on Amazon. We continue to find this hilarious.

On November 2, 2010, the manuscript was placed online, in PDF form, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 license. That means you can (and should!) read, copy, and distribute all the stories for free.

There is also an ongoing audiobook version, which is being released as a free podcast.

For more info, go here:

http://machineofdeath.net/about/

About the FAKE Gallery:

http://www.timeout.com/los-angeles/comedy/venue/1%3A6253/fake-gallery

 

Pop Haydn

www.pophaydn.com

School for Scoundrels at Magic Castle Sunday!


Bob Sheets at School for Scoundrels

Despite the recent Halloween fire, the Magic Castle is planning to be open by this weekend, and our School for Scoundrels class will begin on Sunday night, November 6th, as planned.

There is still room for you to join this exciting class, but you must register by Friday.

It is open to both members and non-members of the Magic Castle, and no prior experience, skills or knowledge is required.

This course teaches the basic sleight of hand, psychology, history and importance to magic of the three basic street swindles: Three-Card Monte, the Shell Game, and the various games of Fast and Loose.

We believe that the street hustler makes a better role-model for the modern close-up magician than the card cheat which has been the model since the turn of the century.

We believe that street hustlers have much to teach that is of huge benefit to magicians, especially those who work corporate walk around, trade-shows, or private parties where they need to gather a crowd, hold their attention, control their thinking, and get them to do what they want them to do.

School for Scoundrels at the Magic Castle in Hollywood will begin on Sunday, November 6, and continue on Nov 13, 20, 27, and also on Mondays, November 7, 14, 21, 28. School for Scoundrels is a course taught at the Magic Castle every November since 1996.

Pop Haydn and Chef Anton (two-time national trick-shot champion at pool), teach the class together, with guests such as Bob Sheets and Doc Eason.

The course attracts lawyers and law-enforcement personnel, as well as magicians, students of gambling and history, and many who just find the subject fascinating–you don’t need to be a member of the Magic Castle to sign up for this course, and no previous knowledge or skills are required.

The course is $160 for the eight hours–two hours a night, once a week, for four weeks.

You can switch nights from Monday to Sunday or vice-versa–each week the same lesson is taught on both Sun and Mon at 7:00 pm.

Contact Magic University, and talk to Mark or Nani Wilson at (800) 367-8749 to sign up for the course.

$160 for all four nights.

Weasel is Winning Vote!


Weasel

The Weasel has pulled ahead of the Wild Turkey as mascot of the Greater American Confidence Party in our virtual vote. It is now far in the lead.

Voting is only open for one month total.

You can see the current results by clicking on View Results.

“Some people think they are invisible…


…when they are merely transparent.”  — Pop Haydn

 

Monday Night Tease, Tonight!

Get your free GACP campaign kit!


There are still free campaign kits for Election 2012 available, folks!

Get ‘em while they are free!

You get a Pop Haydn campaign button, a campaign poster Postcard, and a Greater American Confidence Party membership card.

Free shipping and Handling!

Now we can’t keep this offer up for very long (the button alone sells for $3.25 in our online store) but we want to give everyone a chance, and don’t want to put up with the whiners who come back saying, “Why didn’t you tell me you were going to quit giving stuff away free?”

So this is your chance. All you have to do is sign up on our membership list at the GACP Online Headquarters

Don’t be a loser!

Sign up for the sake of the country.

At least go look at the page to find out what this is all about.

You don’t want to be the last one to know, do you?

Help strike a blow for the thin “Sanity Fringe” of American politics.

 

To get you in the mood, here is Pop’s new campaign theme, by Professor Dave Bourne:

Bombasto March — Dave Bourne

You can find Dave Bourne’s CDs and more information about him at: www.SaloonPiano.com

The Bombasto March is from the CD Dawn of the Century Ragtime Orchestra

Pop Haydn in the Close-Up Gallery


Vote for ACP Mascot


We have had a number of wonderful suggestions for a mascot for the American Confidence Party.

We have taken the top ones to put in this poll, so we can let the people decide.

We want a mascot that reflects the values and beliefs and character of our party.

Please take a moment to check one and vote.

Participate in democracy!

Vote!

Grey Fox
Wild Turkey
American Badger
Racoon
American Weasel
Opossum