Re: cigarette smoke

[Mike Curtis <wd6ehr@xxxxxxxxxx>]

<Stuff about smokey blues bars, and being annoyed at smokers>

I'm not annoyed at smokers (noun.) It's perfectly legal in bars.  Smoking
(verb) bothers me, and I'll do whatever I feel is reasonable to minimize
my exposure, i.e. carry an ion generator, air filter, ask them to open the
doors or turn on a vent fan, etc.  And yes, I'm a bit of a health nut.  
It allows me to play better harp :-)

Regarding smoke filled bars as some kind of rite of passage into the blues
is bogus.  Back when LWJ, BWH, SBW, and all them folks with three letter
names were alive, something like 80% of the populace smoked.  TV stars
smoked on TV.  Movie stars smoked in movies.  Smoking was sophisticated,
suave, and even healthy according to some ads.  For practical purposes,
everyone smoked.  Even if you didn't smoke, you lived in a smoke filled
environment, so you smoked whether it was your smoke or someone elses. 

Today, 80% of the U.S. population does not smoke.  This also means that 
non-smokers aren't smokers by virtue of environment, so they find it all 
the more objectionable because they're not accustomed to it.

What does this have to do with blues and harmonicas?  Absolutely nothing.
Which is precisely my point.

Smokey blues bars aren't smokey because they're blues bars.  They are
smokey because people smoke in them.  Blues has nothing to do with it. 
Any connection between smoke and blues is specious at best. 

Clubowners are under pressure to produce profits like they used to with
80% of the population as potential patrons, but with only 20% of the
current population able to stand the smoke-filled club environment.  Bands
today make roughly the same as they made back in the 70's (at least out
here in CA.) Clubs have trouble turning a profit.  Yet I've seen MANY
people come in for the music, only to turn toward the door a few minutes
later, eyes tearing and lungs choking from smoke, complaining about the
noxious fumes.  And they never come back.  I get three to four times as
many showing up from my mailing list when I play at restaurants (no
smoking) as bars. 

Are non-smoking musicians going to give up their profession/avocation
because many blues venues permit smoking?  Of course not.  That's why
there has been so much interest, both on line and off, in ways to minimize
smoke. 

"If you don't like it, choose some other profession".  Sorry, but no
thanks.  If I don't like something, I fix it.  So do many others.  That's
why we're discussing ionizers on a harp list.


 -- mike