Friday, June 28, 2013

Rotterdam

Michael's lecture in Rotterdam, Holland. A real fun group of guys! The venue was an equestrian center, of all places. This is the hometown of our friend, Hans Matena - who publishes the funny AmmarFacts.com page. It was great to see Hans and his wife.  A special thanks to John, too, for helping me get my coat back!

Lille

Pascal and Emmanuelle Marc are very dear friends in Lille, France. We have known them for almost 15 years. They treated us to a great homemade lunch on May 19th. We hardly recognized their three beautiful kids - just little ones when we first met!

Now we're in Paris


We've just arrived in Paris. Our wonderful host, Olivier Pelletant, met us and took us wherever we wanted to go. I am reminded constantly how lucky we are to be in magic!  Here, Michael is showing him some video on his phone of his recent adventures in Las Vegas.

We passed the Eiffel Tower on our drive. When you see it going right past your window, you fully realize, "Now I'm in Paris!"








Before the Paris lecture we had a dinner at a crepe restaurant with a great group of guys. A special thank you to Stan Vitko.

Amsterdam Keynote


Michael gave a keynote address at the ACE Conference in Amsterdam on May 18, 2013. It was a three day conference for excellence in clinical psychology.  Michael spoke (and joked) about the link between magic and psychology.  The venue was hundreds of years old; once the West Indies Trading Company. It was in this building  - in 1627, the governors ordered the construction of a fort on the island of Manhattan - laying the foundation for New York City.
Michael is speaking to the other keynote speakers:  Dr. K. Anders Ericsson (center) and Dr. Scott D. Miller (right). Dr. Miller is a professor in behavioral health and the founder of the International Center for Clinical Excellence.  Dr. Ericsson is a scholar and professor at FSU - and his research formed the basis for some of Malcolm Gladwell's books. He was Michael's volunteer for the Linking Rings. LOL

Versailles

On May 21, 2013 we visited the Palace of Versailles, outside Paris. We got lucky because they turned on the Musical Fountain that day. We had lunch inside the palace. The best part of all was our host, magician Claude! He knew how to get in the back way, avoid the crowds, arrange a private tour! Spectacular.