From: sowa@netcom.com (Erik Sowa)
Subject: Re: smokin' at shows
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 19:20:40 GMT
Organization: Wahoo 5

>>>>> "Steve" == Steve  <sjeck@isi.com> writes:

Steve> Now in Paris, smoking is very accepted.  In
Steve> fact, people smoke right down to the subway car and light
Steve> up as soon as they get off the train.

Gawd, what a bunch of unthinking drug addicts. :-) Can't even wait to go
up the steps and outside.

Steve> And this young French guy lights a cigarette.  This woman turns
Steve> to him and in English (actually in American) says, "Put that
Steve> thing out.  I don't want you smoking near me."

Maybe it was because the French smoke dogshit rolled up in old socks and
cured by rotting in the gutter over the winter. Or at least it smells
that way to me.

Steve> I felt like turning in my passport!  Obnoxious bitch.

My sympathies lie with her. It sounds like she was expressing a personal
preference, which is different than threatening to call in anti-smoking
cops (not that there are any over there). I tried to be tolerant about
it, seeing as how I was in their country, but by the end of the tour it
was really stressing me. Yah, Steve, we agree on lots of things, but
this ain't one. Sometimes ya can't bottle it up anymore.

Steve> I felt like telling her to go take a shower cuz her perfume (if
Steve> you could call it that) was so fucking noxious that i was about
Steve> to pass out.

I think you understand! BTW, You forgot to mention that the local
perfumes are even more noxious. There's no doubt about it: European
cities are smelly. Add up the tobacco, perfume, diesel fumes, and
dogshit on the streets, and you get one big olfactory assault.
Fortunately, these cities have more than enough going for them to make
up for these smelly defects. :-)

I guess I can tell my European smokin' at shows story. It's the first
night of the Wembley run, and I've been assaulted by second-hand smoke
(more vile than most Americans can possibly imagine) for three solid
weeks. Gevie and I are sitting in our assigned seats up in the rafters
during the first set.  The sound is very weak; we are straining to hear
what the Boyz are playing. Meanwhile, the row in front of us is
*completely* ignoring the music. They are chatting about what they had
for dinner and who is dating whom, etc. Repeated requests to respect the
music are ignored.  This is bad enough, but then one of them lights up a
stinky Eurocig. She doesn't even smoke the damn thing: Most of the time
she just holds it behind her back so the smoke doesn't bother her pals.
Nice and thoughtful, except that puts it right under *my* nose. Whaddya
say, Steve: Do ya think she could at least have held it under her own
nose?

So it was blah, blah, blah, stink, stink, stink. My eyes and nose are
burning, I can taste the dogshit-and-socks in the air, and I can't hear
the band fer shit. The first Eurocig burns slowly down to a nub, and she
lights another!  I guess those 3-4 puffs she actually took off the first
one didn't satisfy her craving. Well, that pushes me over the edge. I
happen to have one of those lousy 3.5% beers in the plastic bottles in
my hand.  I carefully tip one small drop out on the burning end of the
Eurocig, putting it out. She has no clue at all; it's behind her back,
and she's still blabbing away. A couple of minutes later (really!) she
decides to take another puff, and gets nothing. So she lights it again,
puffs, and then puts it under my nose again while she continues her loud
conversation.  This time (again without being noticed) I really soak the
end of it in beer. Minutes later, she tries another puff without
success, lights it again, complains about the funny taste, tosses it on
the ground (yecch), and pulls out another. Still no clue, and all my
efforts wasted. I wasn't looking for a confrontation, so we left our
"official" seats and became wandering Deadheads for the night. Ushers
occasionally chastised us, but when we told them why we couldn't sit in
our assigned seats, they were very understanding and politely showed us
a good place to stand and dance.  Yeah, England!  Sometimes they are
*so* civilized!

-- 
Erik Sowa (sowa@netcom.com)
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead