Category Archives: Uncategorized

Nujabes in art

January 2, 2014 Haruko Haruhara 11 Comments

I wanted to post something about Nujabes, a very influential and amazing Japanese jazz/rap artist and producer.

I’m not a music expert, so I don’t even know what to call Nujabes’ music. Bass once called it “acid jazz.” To me, it’s almost kind of space music. but, I think the best definition is simply “Japanese Jazz.”

Nujabes’ music was very dreamy and ethereal, almost ghostly. I’ve included a couple of videos to two of my favourite Nujabes compositions: “Counting Stars” and “Arurian Dance.” But these two songs are just the tip of the iceberg, he literally composed hundreds of jazz songs. He was incredibly prolific.

Update, my friend Bass is a HUGE Nujabes fan and here is his blog post about Nujabes. He knows a lot more about music than I do:

Where Nujabes became familiar to some people in the West is he was one of the composers to the soundtrack of Samurai Champloo, a big hit on Adult Swim several years ago. (It continues to be a solid hit through rentals.), a very good 1800s Japanese anime by the same director of Cowboy Bebop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9hwjQBQFIo

Tragically, Nujabes died in 2010 at the age of only 36 in a traffic accident in Japan. He was just starting to become a big deal, and spotlighting a lot of attention on the emerging Japanese jazz scene. So sad. He remains beloved today. While researching Nujabes, I found a whole bunch of posters and other artwork people made of him and so I decided to focus my post around that.

Nujabes artwork by his loyal fans:

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smoking in movies, Uncategorized

Live Action Cowboy Bebop … what are they going to do about the smoking?

December 5, 2013 Pepe Lepew 3 Comments

This is pretty funny. Just read that Keanu Reeves had at one point been tabbed to play “Spike Spiegel” in the live action version of Cowboy Bebop. (Not really sure if live action versions of anime will work, Akira has been in development hell for more than 10 years).

Anyway, here’s where it gets interesting. Cowboy Bebop, a very popular and influential Japanese anime from the 1990s, has a TON of smoking in it. Most of the characters constantly have a cigarette in their mouths. I don’t know what the deal is with Japanese and smoking but the Japanese are really seriously into smoking; you see it in all kinds of anime, even kids’ anime, like Spirited Away. The Japanese are not as hung up on smoking as the West. Unfortunately, Cowboy Bebop goes considerably out of its way to make smoking appear cool and hip, but attitudes have changed in 15 years.

Anyway, the six degrees of Keanu Reeves. Reeves was once in a movie called “Constantine,” which was based on a comic book series called “Hellblazer.” The character in Hellblazer, John Constantine, was a chain-smoker. Hollywood decided to keep Constantine a chain-smoker, but in a decision that was really controversial with Hellblazer fans, made Constantine’s chain-smoking a major plot point; they ended up making the most overtly anti-smoking film I’ve ever seen.

In Constantine, the Reeves character is dying of lung cancer after 20 years of constant smoking. He knows Hell awaits because of a previous suicide attempt; he’s seen Hell and knows what he’s in store for. Constantine hopes that by destroying enough demons walking the earth, he’ll be spared Hell when he dies again, but with his lung cancer diagnosis, he knows he won’t have enough time to collect enough evil souls to spare himself.

He commits suicide again to make a deal with the Devil to spare the life of a friend. However, because Constantine sacrificed himself to save a friend, he now goes to Heaven. The Devil doesn’t want to be denied his due, however, and rips the tumours out of Constantine’s lungs so he’ll continue to live (his lung cancer is black and gooey).

Anyway, that brings me to Cowboy Bebop’s Spike Spiegel. Regardless of whether Reeves is in the film (supposedly, he is no longer a part of the project, but he was at one point) I wonder if they’ll show him chain-smoking like in the 15-year-old anime. Attitudes have changed a lot in just 15 years about media depictions of smoking. If they do, Cowboy Bebop will almost assuredly end up with an R rating, so either the Cowboy Bebop movie will be aiming for an R rating (remember, studios make up their minds long before they begin making movies what rating they are shooting for), or they’re going to have to make a major change to the Spike Spiegel character and remove his smoking. It will be interesting to see what decision they make.

Uncategorized

Why I am boycotting “Ender’s Game”

November 1, 2013 Haruko Haruhara 2 Comments

When I was about 12 or 13, one of my favourite books was “Ender’s Game,” written by Orson Scott Card. It won both the Nebula and the Hugo awards for best science fiction novel the year it came out — 1985. It’s a brutal story about kids drafted into a war against aliens called “The Buggers” (oh, the irony) that has very much a surprise twist at the end.

Ender’s Game led to a number of sequels. I think I gave up after the second book, “Speaker for the Dead,” as the books got more obtuse and harder to read (much like those endless “Dune” novels that became more and more unreadable.)

Another one of my favourite books is another Orson Scott Card book, “Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus.” A fascinating story about Christopher Columbus and how his discovery of the Western World led to the ultimate downfall of society.

I won’t be reading or buying any more Orson Scott Card novels, nor will I be going to see Ender’s Game.

About two years ago, I started reading stories about Card’s rampant homophobia, just ugly, ugly stuff. Apparently, he’s harboured these opinions for many years, but in the past four or five years, has become more outspoken. Card is a Mormon and unfortunately, while his novels appear to be open-minded, he is a hateful, bigoted little man. Such an irony that one of his novels is called “Xenophobia.”

Card also belongs to some right-wing anti-gay marriage organisation called “The National Organization for Marriage.”

Now, I suppose it’s a free country and people have a right to believe what they want, but Card’s comments go beyond the pale, and exhibit just outright bigotry. If he wants the right to be a bigot, then fine, I have the right to not buy his books nor be a patron to his movies.

Here is an example of some of the swill Card has said and has written over the past several years about homosexuals (and frankly, Card has written so extensively over the years about homosexuality that it becomes painfully apparent he is bloody obsessed with homosexuality … to the degree that I believe it’s likely he himself is a closet case.)

Instead they are attempting to strike a death blow against the well-earned protected status of our, and every other, real marriage.

They steal from me what I treasure most, and gain for themselves nothing at all. They won’t be married. They’ll just be playing dress-up in their parents’ clothes.”

The hypocrites of homosexuality are, of course, already preparing to answer these statements by accusing me of homophobia, gay-bashing, bigotry, intolerance; but nothing that I have said here — and nothing that has been said by any of the prophets or any of the Church leaders who have dealt with this issue — can be construed as advocating, encouraging, or even allowing harsh personal treatment of individuals who are unable to resist the temptation to have sexual relations with persons of the same sex. On the contrary, the teachings of the Lord are clear in regard to the way we must deal with sinners. Christ treated them with compassion — as long as they confessed that their sin was a sin. Only when they attempted to pretend that their sin was righteousness did he harshly name them for what they were: fools, hypocrites, sinners. Hypocrites because they were unwilling to change their behavior and instead attempted to change the law to fit it; fools because they thought that deceiving an easily deceivable society would achieve the impossible goal of also deceiving God.

Now, there is a myth that homosexuals are “born that way,” and we are pounded with this idea so thoroughly that many people think that somebody, somewhere, must have proved it.

In fact what evidence there is suggests that if there is a genetic component to homosexuality, an entire range of environmental influences are also involved. While there is no scientific research whatsoever that indicates that there is no such thing as a borderline child who could go either way.

Those who claim that there is “no danger” and that homosexuals are born, not made, are simply stating their faith.

The dark secret of homosexual society — the one that dares not speak its name — is how many homosexuals first entered into that world through a disturbing seduction or rape or molestation or abuse, and how many of them yearn to get out of the homosexual community and live normally.

Please remember that for the mildest of comments critical of the political agenda of homosexual activists, I have been called a “homophobe” for years.

This is a term that was invented to describe people with a pathological fear of homosexuals — the kind of people who engage in acts of violence against gays. But the term was immediately extended to apply to anyone who opposed the homosexual activist agenda in any way.

A term that has mental-health implications (homophobe) is now routinely applied to anyone who deviates from the politically correct line. How long before opposing gay marriage, or refusing to recognize it, gets you officially classified as “mentally ill”?

Ugh, I really can’t read anymore. It’s just stomach-churning. Like I said, this ‘phobe is quite literally obsessed with homosexuality. I’ve yet to meet a sincerely straight person who thinks about homosexuality as much as this guy. And there is also a painfully pathetic whiny streak through much of his writing about gays. Like a typical right-winger nut job, he embraces the victim card with great enthusiasm. Bigots love to wear the mantle of victimhood.

Several gay rights’ groups are organising boycotts of Ender’s Game, which opens in theatres this weekend. I personally can’t stomach watching the movie after reading some of the obsessive garbage this guy has written over the years about gays. Boycotting Ender’s Game will not hurt Card financially; he is an executive producer of the film, but isn’t getting any royalties from ticket sales. Still, a message can be sent that people are sick of this kind of vitriol; no matter how articulately Card writes, hate is hate. I will be checking the box office numbers this weekend and am really hoping Ender’s Game tanks. It’s gotten very mixed review — 54% positive rating on Metacritic, 63% on Rotten Tomatoes (which includes bloggers). Very few movies have made money this year because movies have gotten too stale, too expensive and people have CGI fatigue.

It was so disappointing to find out that the author of these two books I loved as a teenager was such a vile, disgusting person.

American Lung Association, Lung cancer, Lung disease, smoking, smoking among women, Uncategorized

The stigma of lung cancer — do smokers “deserve” lung cancer? (No!)

October 30, 2013 Pepe Lepew 8 Comments

A very interesting opinion piece that I can personally relate to, about the continuing stigma of lung cancer.

I have on a number of occasions no matter how incredibly hard I try to bend over backward to not attack smokers or act superior to smokers either online or in real life, been accused of being down on smokers. I think part of this is because many smokers deep down inside put up with constant stigma over their smoking and frankly, get understandably defensive about it, because hey, we all have some bad habits and none of us are perfect.

Anyway, that stigma also applies to lung cancer. Lung cancer is the most deadly form of cancer; more people die of lung cancer in the U.S. than the next four types of cancer — combined. Smoking is in fact the primary cause of lung cancer — about 85 percent of the people who get lung cancer are either smokers or former smokers.

But, that also means that 15 percent of those people with lung cancer are nonsmokers (20 percent of women who get lung cancer are nonsmokers). Lung cancer not only has an environmental component, it has a genetic component. There is a reason why only 10 percent of smokers die of lung cancer. It’s bad luck+a bad habit.

Dr. Lecia V. Sequist, (a medical oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, an associate professor of medicine Harvard Medical School. and a member of the LUNGevity Foundation Scientific Advisory Board), writes on CNN.com, about the stigma of lung cancer and the mentality of that people who die of lung cancer “did it to themselves.” The stigma has resulted in a lot of grant monies and donations going toward finding cures for cancers other than lung cancer.

It’s something I can relate to because I have been very guilty of hearing about someone dying of lung cancer, and then immediately blurting out, “were they a smoker?” I really, really try not to do that anymore.

Dr. Sequist writes:

Tell a friend or colleague that your aunt just found out she has lung cancer. Almost always the response will be, “Did she smoke?” Then tell someone else that your aunt just found out she has breast cancer, or colon cancer, or any other type of cancer you can think of. This time the response will be pure sympathy, without any blame attached.

I don’t think people necessarily do this for a bad reason. I think it’s a normal reaction of “well it couldn’t happen to me … I don’t smoke.”

This is interesting, according to to Dr. Sequist, (and I have never seen these numbers before and am still digesting them) 60 percent of new lung cancer cases are among nonsmokers and former smokers — not current smokers. Wow, that a high number (remember that 15 percent number I quoted earlier). What that tells me is a lot of people are acknowledging that smoking is really bad for them, quitting, and then 10 years later being diagnosed with lung cancer. That is one of the cruelties of lung cancer. Even if you do the right thing and quit, your risk of lung cancer decreases … but it is still higher than a person who never smoked.

And as far as how smoking is affecting funding, this paragraph from Dr. Sequist:

Unfortunately, the stigma associated with lung cancer has translated to a massive inequality in research funding. When analyzing the combined 2012 cancer research dollars granted by federal organizations, for every woman who dies of breast cancer, more than $26,000 in federal research funding is devoted to breast cancer research. But for every woman who dies of lung cancer, just over $1,000 federal dollars are invested. The difference is staggering.

So, basically breast cancer is receiving 26 times more funding per cancer case than lung cancer among women. Wow.

As far as the attitude that people who smoke and die and lung cancer getting what they deserve, all I can say is how is your glass house? Are you overweight? Do you drink? Smoke pot? Take prescription drugs? Last perfect person died 2,000 years ago. (Even on this article, there is some snot-nosed troll spending hours pissing on smokers with lung cancer. One of the reasons I don’t comment on CNN stories.)

I watched my dad slowly drown in his own bodily fluids at the age of 49. I can’t imagine a worse way to go, honestly. No one deserves that. No one. Not Adolph Hitler, not anyone. So, no, no one “deserves” lung cancer.

Uncategorized

Another reason to quit smoking? It really does make you look older

October 29, 2013 Pepe Lepew

Twins study shows the aging effects of smoking.

This is really interesting. A remarkable study looking at smoking and non-smoking twin graphically displays how smoking makes people look older. 79 twins were studied as part of this project, one of whom had smoked at least 5 years longer than the other.

The photos (non-smoking twins on the left, smoking twins on the right) show how the smoking twins are more wrinkled. Some of these images are really startling.

Why does this happen? Simply, smoking reduces the amount of oxygen going to the skin.

So if lung cancer, COPD and heart disease (and impotence) aren’t enough reasons to quit smoking … think about this … you will be more wrinkled.

Uncategorized

Jesus, dude, lighten up — man brandishes gun after being told he can’t smoke

October 26, 2013 Pepe Lepew

Jesus, dude, is that cigarette really worth sitting in a jail cell? Chill out!

Some guy standing in front of the Atascadero State Hospital was told he couldn’t smoke and he responded by brandishing a gun in his belt. He’s now cooling his ass in a jail cell on a $50,000 bond. Smart move.

Then again, Atascadero IS a state hospital, so it might have its share of nuts hanging out in front.

This is why most smokers don’t get hassled. You never know if there’s a real asshole standing behind that cigarette.

(I’ve twice seen people throw hissy fits for being asked not to smoke. Many years ago. One, in a bar clearly marked as nonsmoking, she was told, “sorry, no smoking,” and she screamed “FUCK YOU” at the bartender and stomped out. That was about 10 years ago. Ahhh, the good ol’ days before people got used to smoking bans …)

Uncategorized

Study: Yeah, right, tobacco industry, candy-flavoured cigars aren’t geared toward kids

October 23, 2013 Pepe Lepew 2 Comments

The Centers for Disease Control just released a report, the first of its kind, on these little candy-flavoured cigars (candy flavoured cigarettes are now illegal, but candy-flavoured cigars are perfectly legal — that makes sense.)

“They’re really cheap, and they’re really sweet, and they have an obvious appeal to kids,” says Danny McGoldrick, vice president of research for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “They’re not your grandfather’s cigar.”

Many of these cigars have flavours like cherry, strawberry, chocolate, apple and even bubble gum. Yeah, some 50-year-old 30-year smoker is really going to buy bubble gum flavoured cigars. These are all about appealing to kids, make no mistake about it.

According to this 2011 study, just released this week, by the CDC, one in 10 teens say they have smoked these “flavoured cigars.”

Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called the new data “disturbing.”

“Flavored little cigars are basically a deception,” Frieden says. “They’re marketed like cigarettes, they look like cigarettes, but they’re not taxed or regulated like cigarettes. And they’re increasing the number of kids who smoke.”

“We know if they were cigarettes, what they’re doing now would be banned,” Frieden says. “If they were cigarettes, there would be a much greater awareness of their harm. But because they’re seen as somehow different, they’re getting another generation of kids hooked on tobacco.”

What’s interesting is that there is virtually no difference between a cigarette and a “little cigar.”

“What makes a cigar a cigar is that it has some tobacco in the paper. Little cigars — there’s just enough tobacco in that paper to make them cigars,” says Erika Sward, assistant vice president for national advocacy at the American Lung Association. “They really are cigarettes in cigar clothing.”

So just a bit of tobacco leaf in the paper makes a cigarette a cigar, that’s all it takes. So candy-flavoured cigarettes: illegal. Candy-flavoured cigarettes with a tiny bit of tobacco leaf in the paper: legal. Go figure.

dick nixon — Not actually cigars. Just thought it was funny

He’s the truly bothersome part. Little cigar sales have more than tripled since 1997. Again, the tobacco industry is extremely skilled at finding ways around federal regulations and little cigars are their latest little trick to get around the ban on candy-flavoured cigarettes.

Now, the FDA banned candy-flavoured cigarettes a few years ago. They need the next step to ban these little sugary kid magnets. This one is a no-brainer.

Uncategorized

Haruko’s baseball extravaganza 2!

October 5, 2013 Haruko Haruhara 5 Comments

Fear the Beards

Hah, OK, now that I’ve written this, I’m sure to have put the jinx on the Scruffy Sox. I always do. I’m bad luck.

It won’t be the Red Sox’s scruffy beards that will get them deep into the postseason, though they are cute, sort of. Well, most of the beard are kind of ugly. I think Mike Napoli looks a little bit like Leonidis in “300.” The only one who really has an attractive beard is Shane Victorino, I think.

The Red Sox weren’t supposed to be any good this year; they were supposed to be in a rebuilding year. In fact, this team was built on a bunch of one-year free agent contracts, so next year’s Red Sox won’t look anything like this team, especially considering that Jacoby Ellsbury will likely leave as a free agent. Victorino is the only guy signed for more than 2 years (and he was signed for just three years).

Looking at this year’s team and why they were so much better than last year’s team. Obviously, their pitching was a lot better. The Red Sox really took off when they got Jake Peavy, who went 4-1 down the stretch. Clay Buchholz also had a remarkable year at 12-1 (.923 winning percentage) and Jon Lester bounced back after an awful season to go 15-8. Even Ryan Dempster and John Lackey, who had losing records both had good ERAs.

And the Red Sox weren’t lucky, either. David Ortiz, Ellsbury and Victorino all got hurt at various times of the year. And they lost their No.1 closer, then lost their No. 2 closer and were looking at a total disaster in their bullpen, but they found a diamond in the rough by making Koji Uehera into a closer. He went 4-1 and had an ERA of 1.09 with 21 saves.

But, I think it was a lot of scary balance up and down the lineup. The Red Sox force pitchers to throw a lot of pitches, draw a lot of walks and usually get into other team’s bullpens by the fifth or sixth inning — even if the opposing pitcher is having a good game. And most team’s bullpens are just not that good, and that’s where the Red Sox have been doing a lot of their damage this year.

Here is an interesting and scary statistic about the Scruffy Sox. The Red Sox are not a particularly powerful team — they hit 178 home runs, but they had 8 guys who hit 10 or more home runs and 11 guys who hit 9 or more home runs. 11. There’s only 9 players on the field at a time!

And on top of 11 guys with 9 or more home runs, they had 11 guys with 40 or more RBIs and 7 guys who hit between .294 and .309. Talk about balance. Even back in the steroid days, teams didn’t have 11 guys with 9 or more home runs. And a couple of these guys — Mike Carp and Daniel Nava — were career minor leaguers who never got a chance before to play in the Majors. That’s team baseball.

Look at these remarkable stats. Other than Ortiz, none of these stats are great, but incredibly consistent:

David Ortiz .309 30 103

Daniel Nava .303 12 66

Dustin Pedroia .301 9 84

Jacoby Ellsbury .298 9 53

Michael Carp .296 9 43

Shane Victorino .294 15 61

Jarrod Saltalamacchia .273 14 65

Mike Napoli .259 23 92

Stephen Drew .253 13 67

Johnny Gomes .247 13 52

Will Middlebrooks .227 17 49

300-game winner update

Well, unfortunately, no 300-game candidate came out of the blue to make me look good this year. It looks like Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon might be right. (Remember, I took offence to Kenheiser and Wilbon saying there would NEVER be a 300-game winner again). All the 300-game candidates had bad seasons this year and are making Wilbon and Kornheiser look good and make me look bad.

Here are the candidates:

. 2013 ERA Total wins Age

CC Sabathia 14-13 4.78 205 33

Tim Hudson 8-7 3.97 205 38

Roy Halladay 4-5 6.82 203 36

Mark Beurhle 12-10 4.15 186 35

Justin Verlander 13-12 3.46 137 31

Felix Hernandez 12-10 3.04 110 28

So, out of that group, Sabathia still has a very valid chance of getting to 300. He is still only 33, and if he stays healthy, could pitch another 8 seasons. He would only have to average 12 wins a year over 8 years to get to 300. But, look at Sabathia’s ERA — 4.78. He might be losing his stuff.

Hudson was having a good year and probably would have won 13-14 games, but he broke his ankle, and I think that ends his chances to get to 300. Halladay had his second straight injury-plagued year and might be near the end of his career. Beurhle is too mediocre of a pitcher to get to 300. He hasn’t won more than 13 games since 2008.

Verlander had an off-year for him, but at 31, he is still young enough to do it. He’d have to pitch another 11 injury-free years and average exactly 15 wins a year. The same with Hernandez, he’s still young. But, look at his numbers last year. He went 12-10 and 9 no-decisions and had a very solid ERA of 3.04. Why? Because he was pitching for a terrible team that went 71-91 (and let’s face it, the only reason Seattle won 71 games is because they got to play 19 games against 51-111 Houston). For a lot of teams, he would have won 15-20 games. I said at the beginning of the year, Hernandez will never get anywhere near 300 wins pitching for a bad team like Seattle his whole career.

Todd Helton a Hall of Famer?

Todd Helton, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera all retired this year. What are their chances for the Hall of Fame?

Well, Mariano will get in on his first ballot and might get in unanimously. He was simply the best closer in the history of baseball, and his record of 652 saves might never be broken — you’d have to average 42 saves a year for 16 years to get there (even though we think saves are a vastly overrated stat).

Pettitte is a little tougher. He won 20 games twice, won more than 10 games 16 times, won 256 games and has the all-time record of 19 wins in the postseason. I would say he probably gets in the Hall of Fame except for one thing — his admission of doing HGH. That’s usually a dealbreaker with HOF voters. I think that will hurt him a lot in the balloting.

Now, Helton is someone I’ve heard very little buzz about for the Hall of Fame, but he put together some remarkable numbers over the course of his career. Helton batted .316 for his career, had an outstanding on-base percentage of .414 and OPS of .953. He hit 367 home runs and drove in 1,406 runs, and had 2,519 hits. Six times he hit more than 30 home runs and 8 times he had more than 90 RBIs, and he batted over. 300 12 times. He also won one batting title (.372) and three gold gloves. Add to that 11 times with 37 or more doubles and 592 doubles all time.

Helton is 26th all-time in on-base percentage, 20th all time in OPS and 16th all-time in doubles.

Wow, that is all a pretty darn good argument for the Hall of Fame. But one thing that will hurt him is he played during the steroid era, and that will cost him votes. Just playing during the steroid era will cost players votes (ask Craig Biggio). Plus, he played in Colorado, which has a tendency to inflate statistics. (He did have an embarrassing DUI arrest this year. But, DUIs don’t keep guys out of the HofF.)

Helton won’t get in on the first ballot, but I think short of direct evidence of steroid use, he deserves to go into the Hall of Fame, as does Biggio. You can’t keep guys out purely because of the era in which they played.

Secondhand smoke, smoking, Smoking bans, Uncategorized, Workplace smoking

Lawsuit filed over “smoke shacks” built by Great Falls bars, injunctions filed, groups formed, it’s a mess

August 2, 2013 Pepe Lepew 7 Comments

This is a hell of a convoluted story. It’s too complicated to tell the whole story here, so I’ll sum up … It’s a city/county health department fighting the courts, owner of some Great Falls, Montana bars and a citizens’ group has gotten in the middle of it. It’s all over things called “smoke shacks.”

I only know of one bar locally that has one of these “smoke shacks” (Another one has some shelter in an alley behind the bar, but that’s different).

Under Montana law, bar owners could install a “smoke shack” in their bars. It’s usually a really small room, with a few video gambling machines, completely cut off from the rest of the bar. So, if you really want to smoke inside and play video poker or whatever, you kind of get shut off alone in these little rooms.

The owners of a bunch of casinos built these smoke shacks, but then received notices from the city and county that they were violating the state’s clean air act. The bar owners finally filed suit over it. The city and county health department requested an injunction against the smoking shelters and lost.

According this article, the judge ruled that the health department “took a ‘kaleidoscope of ever-shifting interpretations,’ concerning smoking structures in Cascade County, and that the board failed to adopt a coherent and logical interpretation of the Clean Indoor Air for bars and casinos in Cascade County.”

So… it gets more convoluted, because now a citizens’ group has gotten involved on the side of the city and the county, mad that these bars in Great Falls have found loopholes in the Clean Air act.

One of the strangest parts of this article is an interview with a former smoker/gambler:

Doug Richardson watched the tavern industry change from a gaming machine in the Palace Casino.

He was there before the law, when the law was implemented and today after the smoking shelters were built.

He smoked like any other gambler, until he was diagnosed with emphysema.

Now whenever he’s around smoke, whether it’s someone smoking a cigarette outside or if he’s near a backyard fire pit, his lungs act up and he has to use a rescue inhaler.

“These rooms have at least cured that as far as coming into places where people are smoking outside,” Richardson said. “They should build rooms like this. It takes the smoker away from people and into their own zone.”

Richardson was playing a game at the Palace Casino, adjacent to one of the Palagis’ smoke lounges, and he said on any given day the smoking room is full and there’s not a hint of smoke inside the main facility.

Whoa, the guy is dying of emphysema and he needs an inhaler if he’s around cigarette smoke, but I give him credit for being so tolerant toward smokers.

Anyway, it’s a big honkin legal mess … and headed to court, if not the State Legislature.

Personally, I’m not worked up about it too much, but it’s annoying to me when bars try to find these loopholes and just don’t deal with the fact that smoking bans are the future.

e-cigarettes, smoking, Uncategorized

Sexy e-cigarette advertising

June 5, 2013 Pepe Lepew 3 Comments

I noticed this beginning a couple of months ago — a sexy new ad campaign for an e-cigarette called Blu.

I first saw an ad on TV and was shocked to see a cigarette ad on TV, then realized it was for an e-cigarette. However, it was using the same techniques used in old cigarette ads — hip, young, sexy people using their product looking cool.

The TV ad features B-movie actor Stephen Dorff (remember him as the evil vampire in “Blade?”) talking about how e-cigs have freed him from being a “human ashtray” and allows him to “enjoy smoking without infecting the people around me.”

“C’mon, rise from the ashes,” Dorff concludes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZishwAt_RM

You’ve probably seen Dorff in a bunch of magazine ads. Sports Illustrated and many other magazines have them every week. Cool, sexy-looking, using retro B&W photography (with the Blu e-cig standing out in blue). This Business Insider article is pretty critical of the whole campaign for employing ancient cigarette advertising techniques.

Here’ is Joe Rogan’s really funny take on the Dorff commercial, mashing it up with a really bad Brad Pitt Chanel No. 5 ad to create the “douchiest ad ever.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmIwTLLDj1I

The Blu commercials are very careful not to tout their product as an aid to quitting smoking. They’re more about how to avoid smoking. E-cigs don’t have a good reputation for helping people quit. Every single person I’ve ever talked to who has used them has told me they were no help at all. (If you don’t know much about e-cigs, they’re not cigarettes at all, they give the user a little jolt of nicotine-laced steam to curb their nicotine cravings. Relatively harmless and totally harmless to people nearby.)

What I noticed is that Blu and other e-cig companies are using techniques mastered by cigarette companies — make their product appear sexy by using young, smart-looking sexy people to promote the product.

Check it out. 1970s-era cigarette ad:

Now, e-cig ads from a company called Ever Smoke