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Today is the one-year anniversary of my last cigarette. A full year later I am still a non-smoker. This was something I never thought I would become. I smoked through half the 80’s, all of the 90’s and almost all of the 00’s, all those years I thought that my addiction was far stronger than my willpower to destroy it, and that I was forever doomed to the life of a smoker.
Doomed to the life of dirty clothes that always smell. White shirts I had to keep in a closet in a non-smoking part of the house. Doomed to walls and ceilings covered in that oily yellow dust, the same dust that covers lampshades and curtains and my computer and all my books. A life where I don’t know for sure if I’ll have an old age, a life where my athletic endeavors are limited, as are the levels of whiteness I can expect in my teeth. A life where I am rigidly timed… how many hours between one cigarette and the next? If I do this thing or that, go to this movie or get on this flight, go shopping in this mall or visit these friends, I have to time everything just right so I can minimize the impact of withdrawals that I will be experiencing 2 hours after my last cigarette.
Doomed to be a smoker in a non-smoking world. A world where I am viewed with the eyes of the average stranger who sees smoking as a habit which designates me as part of the lower-classes and the criminal element. A non-smoking world where the smoking areas are disappearing before my eyes… not only in public and private property and mass transit, but in my town there are even public pedestrian streets where smoking is illegal. There are apartments and condos I can’t live in as a smoker, there are insurance programs that won’t accept me, and there are employers who can legally discriminate against me as a smoker and fire me or refuse to hire me based solely on this. This same non-smoking world that will tax the smoker more heavily than any other person, reaping millions of dollars a year from these people whose addiction forces them to pay the taxes, and no one can cry foul… because smokers aren’t people who matter anymore in this world we live in.
I still want the cigarettes every now and again, but that passes. The smoking “lifestyle,” however, is not something I miss. I’ve found other things to do while I wait for a file to download, I’ve found other ways to enjoy a ten-minute work break, and I’ve found other ways to unwind after dinner.
I managed to find a way to break free from my chemical slavery, and today is my new life’s birthday.
Originally published at BlueSmoke Studio. You can comment here or there. Tags: almost insightful
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So today started out rather dreadfully, my first client started out wanting one haircut, then once I was completed she decided she wanted another one altogether, then one more. After three haircuts in a row I was awarded the “attaboy” that only a one-dollar tip could provide. Yepper, a single dollar. I didn’t get a lunch break today because of this multi-cut of indecision, and to say “Thank you I love my hair and I really appreciate you going home starving and exhausted” she heralded me with a single, wrinkly dollar bill. I would have rather gotten nothing at all, it would have said to me “I don’t tip anybody” rather than “This is how much I value your time.” However, I perked up a bit with my next client.
I was starting up a haircut with a lady, we were talking about graduation day and I talked briefly about hours and the concept of banked hours, saying “Might be tempted to take a couple days off just to watch Olympics on TV.”
She replied “Huh, that’s interesting. So you like the Olympics?” and I said “Love ‘em! Especially the Winter games.” “Why the Winter games?” I replied “‘Cause they’re faster and more dangerous. Summer games are OK but they seem to be all about ordinary beach sports.” She replied “Well I’m sorry that I may be a disappointment to you, because the medal I have at my house was won in some of those boring slow summer games.”
I wonder if she could feel my mental pause as I was shampooing her. Did she just say she was a Silver Medalist? Must be kidding, busting my stones for pooping ever so slightly on the Summer games.
“Really?” I asked “What event?” “Rowing. Won the silver medal for rowing back in 1984. I was SUPPOSED to go to the 1980 games, but…” and I finished her sentence “…because of the Moscow boycott. Are you serious? That’s awesome.”
I acted all smooth and stuff, like I wasn’t at all phased by having a world-class athlete in my chair, but as we were just passing time talking casually about Olympic stuff I couldn’t help but be terribly aware that I was talking with someone who was IN the Olympics. In the way that it feel awkward to be casually talking about the Olympics as an ordinary spectator, with someone who viewed them through the eyes of a winning competitor.
Even if it wasn’t one of the more “rockstar” events like gymnastics or speed skating I couldn’t care - a medal is a medal. A medal means “Say what you will about the Olympics, I came here to compete against a world of other competitors in this event, and I beat them.” All but one of them, anyway.
So, I had already forgotten about the woman with the three haircuts and the dollar tip. My day was now brightened just that little extra bit.
So, if anyone knows a Gold medalist who is in dire need of a haircut…
Originally published at BlueSmoke Studio. You can comment here or there. Tags: straight male stylist
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 This week our school participated in a student body fashion show. After more than two months of meetings and planning and brainstorming, followed by weeks of preparation and stress, all our efforts came to a close during a two-hour event. My synopsis of the event? A little stressful (but not enough to matter), a bit of fun (at least in the preparation part), but somewhat disappointing and a lot of anti-climax.
As far back as October we have been aware that there was to be a big-deal fashion show occurring in January. This event would display our talents and drive to the local populace inside and outside the industry, and could result in us making great network contacts. It was drummed into us time and again that this was a big deal, and that we should take it seriously. This was also a competition. We were four teams competing against each other, each representing ideals of “Earth,” “Wind,” “Fire” and “Water.” The prize was reputed to be something substantial, something good that we would actually WANT to compete for.
Read the rest of this entry » Originally published at BlueSmoke Studio. You can comment here or there. Tags: straight male stylist
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On the weekend just before our visit, Stephen Colbert from Comedy Cetral’s “Colbert Report” paid a visit to Lake Placid.
With a swarm of cameramen, producers, assistants, fans, athletes, event staff and curiosity-seekers in tow, comedian Stephen Colbert held forth at Mount Van Hoevenberg Sunday afternoon, filming a segment in which Colbert tried in vain to make the Olympic bobsled team.
As you can see above, he also made a skeleton luge run down the track (which aired on his show last night). It was neat to see all the footage on TV considering we were Just There.
The Colbert Nation has been active with the 2010 Olympics. They are now official sponsors of the financially-strapped U.S. speed skating team, and the Colbert Nation logo will adorn their uniforms. Later, Stephen started a letter campaign to demand the Canadian Olympic committee give the American speed skating team equal time to practice on their oval. The campaign was successful, and Stephen was even offered a job as an official ombudsman of the events, and last night on TV he accepted the job.
From his bid for a presidential run in 2008 (on BOTH party tickets), to his amazing roasting of then-President George W Bush, and now this Olympic activity… I am just always amazed at the proactivity of Stephen Colbert.
Originally published at BlueSmoke Studio. You can comment here or there. Tags: wow!
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 One of the first things I noted about my school in my recollection of my first day, is the constant presence of pop music. Or at least the predominantly hip hop, synthesized dance music that passes for pop music these days. Daily. Constantly. Relentlessly. Remorselessly - I am exposed to the soul-melting toxic waves that come out of one radio or another, probably sterilizing me or, at the very least, rendering my sperm retarded and my future offspring hopeless. My eardrums aren’t so much punctured from the din as they are branded with logos, mass-duplicated, and sold to children in pop music crack houses.
In case you’re new to this blog: I absolutely detest pop music.
I don’t think of it as “music” really, but rather an artless, sleazy commercial product with no originality, no soul, and no guts. Its marketability is of greater import than its merit as an artistic statement, and therefor the music all sounds the same to me: find the formula that sells records, and duplicate the formula. Find someone who looks good in a bikini, use auto-tuners and harmonizers on her porn-movie voice so it’ll sound like someone with vocal talent is doing the singing, pick a synthetic musical background out of a book and hire some dancers. Bingo! Pop music for the masses. Teenage girls will love them. Meat market dance clubs will love them. All-nude full-contact stripper bars will love them. However, do you know who DOESN’T love them? ME!!
Read the rest of this entry » Originally published at BlueSmoke Studio. You can comment here or there. Tags: straight male stylist
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 Today I am home early. My whole class is home early today. Why is this? I suspect it’s probably to make an example of us to the other classes, and I have mixed feelings on the subject.
During afternoon attendance there was an announcement that talking smack about other students will not be tolerated, and that they were not above suspending an entire class for this behavior, and they have done it before. A few moments later, they came into our classroom and did just that - sent us all home, as if to say “See? We told you we could do this.” So for the same infractions I spoke about last week in a blogging, our entire class has been suspended for the rest of the afternoon. For gossiping.
I said that I have mixed feelings on the subject. While I have myself noted how catty a lot of these people I school with can be, I can hardly understand why we would be singled out for something I’ve witnessed half the entire student body do. It’s something that people do, all people are guilty of it at one time or another. Why OUR class? I suspect that there were several complaints from people about members in my class. We weren’t told any specifics, but it was suggested that we would be addressing the issue tomorrow. On the one hand I think this is ridiculous, but then on the other hand I think it’s a good idea.
Read the rest of this entry » Originally published at BlueSmoke Studio. You can comment here or there. Tags: straight male stylist
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 The Japanese have always been very fond of very sharp blades. They’ve spent centuries turning sharp tools of all sorts into functional fine art, and so it’s no surprise that some of the very best hair cutting shears are made in Japan. As a bit of a Japanophile myself, not to mention being a fan of high quality in simple tools (ie; my radio will be very ordinary, but I will prize my favorite hardwood spoon), I’m very pleased to have a set of Kasho shears as the main tools in my arsenal.
Today we had representatives of Kasho come into the school to give us a little class on these shears. One was a Japanese man in a fine, brown suit (and apparently he was supposed to be someone of larger import within the company… an owner maybe? I really don’t know), and the other was… well a character. The Japanese man was washed out after jumping from jet to jet so he didn’t stay for the class, just did the tour of the school, but the “character” stuck around.
I liked the character. I generally DO like “characters.” This one was wearing a black pinstriped suit with pastel-colored fish printed along his shirt, a rockstar-style cowboy hat, tattoos, long hair and facial piercings, and a belt holster holding what looked like 20 sets of shears. He looked like a character right out of this movie I watched this weekend called “Blow Dry.”
Read the rest of this entry » Originally published at BlueSmoke Studio. You can comment here or there. Tags: straight male stylist
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 I’ve said it before: Being one of 6 males in a school filled with females is a learning experience. There are some subtle differences, such as singing along to the radio like an unofficial soft-voiced chorus. This is something men don’t do. We don’t sing along in a group unless we’re drunk fratboys bellowing songs about beer or partying or fighting, while walking through residential neighborhoods at 3am.
There are some not-so-subtle difference, such as the quantity and frankness of conversations of a very personal nature. That’s right guys, women are talking about you when you’re not around. They talk about what you guys do in bed, they talk about your body parts, they talk about awkward situations that have occurred sexually between you two (or at least the ones in which you’re the offending party), and they talk about it out loudly and in groups. Suffice it to say, if you’re a man dating one of the girls in my class, I know personal things about you that you would prefer I didn’t know. Things I myself would prefer not to know! I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but your wives and girlfriends are handing this stuff out like bead necklaces at Mardis Gras.
Then there are the downright sinister differences. The scary differences. The differences that make me want to just blend into the background and hide.
Read the rest of this entry » Originally published at BlueSmoke Studio. You can comment here or there. Tags: straight male stylist
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