EPISODE 4 – How to Hate Your Visit to Russia: Don’t Carry Small Change, Try to Pay for Things With Large Notes. I should have known better. I’ve been living here in St Petersburg for 12 years now. In a sense, I have no excuse. But you see, the sun was shining. That Spring smell of […]

This is that awesome rant I told you about in the PS of today’s Monday Morning Memo. “Leaders and The Committee.” Here’s how you can reach Mick and the rest of the Wizard of Ads Partners. Mick Torbay: I need to talk to you about leaders and the committee, and what each brings to the table. I’m going […]

The meeting places of the Worthless Bastards is a rapidly growing list! We now have gatherings in Austin, Tucson, Loveland, CO, Columbia, MO, and Kona, Hawaii.

This is the tower at Wizard Academy in Austin. It sits on a plateau 900 feet above downtown Austin, Texas. The view from the star deck is amazing.

 This is not an April Fool’s Day prank, I promise. – Indy This Friday, April 1st, Worthless Bastard Brad Whittington is going to read a bit from his newest novel AND – if they arrive in time – everyone will receive an advance-copy paperback. He might even sign it. You can pre-order the kindle edition […]

The freshly poured cement naturally attracted graffitisti with popsicle sticks, determined to immortalize themselves. Inevitably, one of these was an ardent young swain who wished to proclaim his undying love to the ages. His chilling masterpiece of… er… concrete poetry is located right at the foot of my walkway, where I must look at it […]

There are two awesome ways to subscribe to the training available through the American Small Business Institute, (the online training division of Wizard Academy.) “You cannot be anything you want to be — but you can be a whole lot more of who you already are.” – Tom Rath

“When Cervantes invited a new generation of readers to follow his knight into the Sierra Morena, they discovered through their tears of laughter that they had entered a new world. For the writers and readers to come, the pages of a book could never again stand like foreign objects of wonder, to be admired from […]

If you’re looking for something to trigger a conversation at your first meeting of Worthless Bastards, try on this video for size. (The wizard and I think of Evan the Nerdwriter as the only video blogger as interesting as Ze Frank. It’s a subjective opinion, a perceptual reality at best, but anyway, it’s what we think.)

“I’ve an idea. Why don’t we have a little game? Let’s pretend that we’re human beings and that we’re actually alive. Just for a while. What do you say?” – Jimmy Porter, in John Osborne’s 1956 play, Look Back in Anger

5PM at the Toad and Ostrich, March 18, 2016

Dear Roy, My parents immigrated from England in 1957. My father, true to King and Country, recreated the beloved English pub in the basement of their home in 1960. It became tradition that each time they journeyed back home, or a loved one travelled to Canada to visit, a piece of horse brass was brought […]

Let us suppose that this everyday world were at some one point invaded by the marvelous.1 According to an article in the Harvard Business Review, such an event “requires a distinctive mode of organization—what sociologists call an art world. In art worlds, artists (musicians, filmmakers, writers, designers, cartoonists, and so on) gather in inspired collaborative […]

As you know, I read through the wizard’s email when he’s away from his laptop. Here’s an interesting one he received from his partner, Jeff Sexton. (Sexton is the one we call The Professor.) – Indy Socially, most of us never get too far past the schoolyard, whether it’s elementary, middle, or high school. The […]

Ballet in a public place. Interesting.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about my life the last few days, and I have to say that it doesn’t seem to have had much point. I’ve done well professionally, and I’ve had a pretty good time. Maybe that’s all you can reasonably ask. But tonight I keep thinking about things not done. Things not […]

Millie was watching the same sky from across town. She texted this to us while we looked out the window of the Toad and Ostrich last Friday at 4 o’clock. Why didn’t you come? “Look to the Rainbow.”  Fred Astaire in one of his most delightful roles. The movie is Finian’s Rainbow.

A painting in the bathroom at Spence Manor. Oil on panel by Arrigo Ghedini.

On the way to the Toad, 30 minutes earlier.

YOUNG ONE: “Master, does success go to the clever one, or to the lucky one?” MERLYN: “Success is sometimes discovered by the clever one, and occasionally by the lucky one, but it is most often laid hold of by the determined one.” YOUNG ONE: “Will you teach me to be determined?” MERLYN: “Determination is dangerous… […]

Linda Anderson Folk Art The Wise Men As you know, the wizard collects only the most interesting and unusual depictions of Quixote and The Wise Men (wise-ards.) This trio definitely qualifies, don’t you think? Indy

From: Chad Kroeker Date: Sunday, March 6, 2016 at 2:32 AM To: Roy Williams Subject: 3 Days with the Wizard Roy, I’ve attached the photo with your glitter puppies on and a link to the first of 3 articles I’m writing about my experience at WA. You say you don’t like warm fuzzies… so that’s exactly what I’ll do […]

What to read, bearing in mind a visit to St Petersburg… EPISODE 6 If you’re interested in history, Simon Montefiore is your man. Fantastic novel-like narrative, but all “true facts”. His portraits of Stalin are the only books I’ve read on people like that, which truly helped me understand them. Orlando Figes is Montefiore’s dull […]

What to read, bearing in mind a visit to St Petersburg… EPISODE 5 Lermontov – A Hero of Our Time. Bulgakov – Master & Margarita. It’s not a Petersburg novel, but it’s a fantastic surreal romp through Soviet Moscow. Dovlatov – the drinking man’s writer, died in NYC. I’ve only read Pushkin Hills, which I loved; have heard […]

What to read, bearing in mind a visit to St Petersburg… EPISODE 4 Chekhov – read the short stories, they’re marvellous. I have never liked reading plays, so unless you can get to a performance of The Cherry Orchard, or Uncle Vanya, or The Seagull, I wouldn’t bother. Nabokov & Solzhenitsyn are fascinating, of course, but are not […]

What to read, bearing in mind a visit to St Petersburg… EPISODE 3 Tolstoy – fantastic if you want the cinematic experience of reading a book. Big canvas, lots of characters, so much detail you needn’t think for a moment, just let it play out in your mind. Old Man T didn’t want you to […]

What to read, bearing in mind a visit to St Petersburg… EPISODE 2 Pushkin in the father of Russian poetry. His great grandfather was known as Peter the Great’s Moor, a black man named Hannibal. Exotic and dramatic, he was a Byronic figure, who indeed modelled his great hero Eugene Onegin on Byron’s Childe Harold. […]

Having successfully negotiated with the famous Russian artist Leonid Stroganov to obtain the reprint rights to Wise Men II for Wizard Academy (Wise-ard Academy,) Ambassador Hackett-Jones will now begin a series of 6 book reviews to help us understand the Russian mindset. – Indiana Beagle Starting at the top, and bearing in mind a visit to St Petersburg… […]

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ENTERTAINMENT Turning dreams into art By Joyce Rudolph February 1, 2006 Dreams served as the inspiration for several pieces created by Martin Mondrus of Don Quixote and Cyrano De Bergerac. “They are both kind of dreamers, romanticizing women and yet there is something wonderful about them,” Mondrus said. “Cyrano is more virile and Don is […]

The wizard and I are big fans of Martin Mondrus. He just turned 91. I walked into this recently-auctioned Mondrus painting to see where Martin was when he painted it. This is the overpass at Venice Blvd in Los Angeles several decades ago. It brought $6,000. (A bargain, but the wizard didn’t buy it.) “There was a […]

Mark Fox is a Science and Technology Marketing Consultant. Do you have a product or service that’s high-tech or scientific? Mark is your man, the youngest chief engineer in the history of the space shuttle project and has helped more than 100 important companies overcome their obstacles. Call him at 1-321-626-4786. Want to look at joining the American […]

A fun ad written by Wizard of Ads partner Jacob Harrison for Kenny Grebe of Red Shovel, a lawn service in Albuquerque. The campaign – produced by the famous Dave Nevland – has been highly successful.