SMOKE THIS
Maybe it's the burgeoning warmth and its lubricating, invigorating effect on the human body or maybe it's the spring winds that carry information as efficiently as a fist full of pollen. Or, hell, maybe it's just cuz the entire city spends all its time chatting on the Cowgirl patio this time of year, but spring in Santa Fe means one thing: gossip.
Yep, as soon as Daylight Savings Time hits, the gossip
factory boosts into overdrive, churning out choice tidbits of possibly partially true information that pop and burst like bubbles in our little worlds. One such rumor involves Santa Fe being on the verge of going "smokeless." That is, that the City Council, now supposedly jam-packed with liberals, is seconds away from proposing and then passing a nonsmoking ordinance for the city of Santa Fe, and bars, clubs and music venues are no exception. Such a proposal, more than any other, strikes fear in the hearts of the following people: Smokers; bar owners; bar owners who are smokers; and people who like to rock 'n' roll all night.
The concept of non-smoking bars has always irritated the crap out of me. For years, I have argued that smoking and second-hand smoke are part and parcel of the rock 'n' roll experience, or the bar experience. That's what those establishments are
there
for. If you want to do something healthy, go to the gym. If you want to take part in something different, you gotta take the good with the bad. My parents always told me nothing good ever happens after midnight, and it's true: If you are hanging out in some drinking establishment at 1 am, sucking down some sort of long-necked beverage and listening to Joe West's cool country or maybe tripping on something and dancing to the latest Daft Punk remix, I hate to tell you this, but your lifestyle is unhealthy already. If you can't handle the smoke, what are you doing there in the first place?
Besides: Masochism, self-defeating behavior, drugs, self-indulgence…I'm sorry, aren't these part of the rock 'n' roll tradition? Doesn't smoking fall into these categories?
Such has always been my philosophy around the "it's too smoky" whining.
Until…until I started attending the Friday night Bedrock parties being thrown at the Lodge (750 N. St. Francis Drive, 992-5800, formerly the Radisson). Full disclosure: I also occasionally spin music there, so it's not really kosher for me to review the goings-on. But I can tell you, it has been crowded, and it has been smoky. Intensely, thickly, off-the-charts smoky. So much so that waking each Saturday morning for the past four weeks, my face has felt like the faces of those Nazis in
Raiders of the Lost Ark
just before they melted-sallow and waxy, a slight green death pallor, skin on the verge of falling off the bone. My hair smelled like I had been held upside down and dipped in a bowl of ashes.
OK, I get it
, I finally admitted to myself last Saturday as I coughed up something the size of a chicken nugget.
This is a bit of a problem.
But the solution is not to ban smoking in bars and clubs altogether. And I'm not going to run through the economic pros and cons, the anecdotal evidence or the laisse faire arguments; we'll hear plenty of those in the coming months. My contention is this: Santa Fe is comprised of a lot-
a lot
-of smokers (hell, you can't have this many service industry people in town and expect otherwise) and we need someplace to be bad. We
know
smoking is bad for us, and we don't do it at the office, and most of us don't do it in our homes, and we don't do it around children or dogs or fish. And we all go work out and eat organic kale with sodium-and-wheat-free tamari sauce from Whole Foods and volunteer at the Food Depot…and…and…and. So,
please
, don't deny us a cigarette at 1 am when everyone else is smoking too, and there's music playing and people making out and whiskey shots being drunk.
That being said, coming from a person who struggles with smoking, I can agree: If you don't smoke, it's gross and nasty and attending some sort of social event wherein you can't see the lower half of your body because the smoke from your waist up is as thick as the clouds on Mt. Fuji is not the most appealing thing in the world.
So, Santa Fe, can we shoot for a compromise? I know this word is foreign to most of us, but how 'bout, say improved use of smoke-eaters? Better ventilation? Venues stay smoke-free til, say, 10 pm? 11? Smoking rooms, a la Swig? Because if you start throwing around words like "ban" and "forever," you start freaking people out. And, worse, you cut out a whole element of rock 'n' roll-one that may be ugly, but one you just can't ignore.
AND PUFF THIS
I don't know what Hriskesh Hirway has been smoking, but damn, I want some. No doubt it's some crunk blend of introspective, inside-out hybrid stuff, equal parts modern (glitchy beats; laptop-made drops; drum machines) and organic (violin; almost Cocteau Twins-like atmospherics; sweet, unadorned lyrics). Hirway, who records under the name The One AM Radio, produces addictively hypnotic songs, simultaneously dynamic and lilting, like a grasshopper in slow motion. How this will go over at the Santa Fe Brewing Company (27 Fire Place, 424-3333), I'm not sure, but if you want your hipster card punched (Hirway has been written up on that most insider-y of all insider sites,
), check him out as he headlines along with the Cherry Tempo and Paul Collins Dance machine (7 pm Tuesday, April 17. No cover).
