Congrats to those who have quit! Anyone still on the fence, my suggestion: do it! You'll be so glad you did. Approaching 3 years off a heavy 34 year addiction, I feel better now at age 53 than my whole adult life.
@roseapple73 there's an account i heard on NPR of a woman who lost her smell and then got it back. it seems to have been a very traumatic experience. Mine was never completely lost but definitely hindered (and probably somewhat still damaged). I'm grateful to have retrieved as much as I have so far, and with an appreciation i didnt have before. Towards the end of my smoking days, when much time would go by between cigarettes, they started to taste simply like suffocation.
smoking numbs me to the world. to the pain, but also to the pleasure. Nietsche (sic) claims that pain is a prerequisite to pleasure.
I went stone sober a few years ago for three weeks. no weed, coffee, alcohol, or cigarrettes, just physical work and walking around the leafy, forgotten corners of the country town in which i lived.
certainly it is true that smoking numbs you. I all but lost my sense of smell and other viscera when i smoked. one of the greatest things about quitting was getting my smell back.
the one thing i miss about cigarettes is the ability to get high quickly, legally, and whenever you want. It's been more than 100 days since i had my last cigarette, and I run about 6 miles a day. Still, i sometimes find myself in a moment of "i could smoke a cigarette right now"
--- unfortunatey, that means I still have some of the neurological connections strengthened by years of smoking.
i wish the compression of time and space offered by globalisation could allow us all to take magic mushrooms together and talk about this stuff, then we'd get to the bottom of this malaise!
1. changes to my biochemistry made by smoking and subsequent physical addiction.
2. small pleasure gained from thinking about a cigarrette...the actual smoke itself is always a disappointment
3. the control over choosing whether or not to smoke is one of the few freedoms we have in a capitalist society. It is identity gained through consumption. similarly with drinking...
3. i think this may be an irony. indeed, it does feel like a freedom at first, but when you realize you're addicted, you feel exactly the opposite of what you described. capitalist society owns you, chooses your identity for you, and frankly doesnt give a shit about whether you live or die.
Well it's interesting to look at the reasons why smoking is now seen as socially undesirable and why we are bombarded with health warnings.
Obviously (my) government wants to cut down on state funded healthcare costs caused by the effects of smoking.
But if you also look at it from a macro perspective, capitalism DOES want you to live and be a healthy, productive worker. The longer you're alive the more time you put into the factory / office / treadmill.
I liked the idea that there are so much beauty in nature around us, but people are all the time in search for some new chemical poisons in order to torture themselves.
i'm probably smoking too much... yes i really do poison myself voluntary... every day the whole year long... not even this video will stop it... i can't help it... well, that was a lie sure i could, but i don't want to...
still i really hope you find somebody interested in sponsering you... despite the fact that i'll probably die due to lung cancer sooner or later, seeing this video is still a must for me
i saw your other creations and was really impressed, keep on the work and good luck...
thanks. that's inspiration for me to continue with this project. to be honest, which i hope the story I tell will be, I'm still smoking. I run 6 miles a day but I still occasionally have a cigarette. sometimes i fall off the wagon entirely and smoke a lot in one night (never the pack anymore that i used to). Life goes on after smoking, and it gets better is all i can say, but i guess it depends on one's circumstances. cigarettes are a real comfort sometimes too. it's a complex issue.
when a person says that he or she could quit smoking if wanted, but anyway doesn't do it ...then it is called an addiction and it means that you can't just take and stop doing at once:P
addict? hmm... i'm not even able to give you an answer to that... i mean... i never even tried to stop... the precondition to stop smoking (doesn't matter if addicted or 'regular' smoker) is the will to stop... and that little fact is completely missing in my brain...
am i addicted? would i get it done to stop smoking?... i don't know... and i won't try for a while...
coward? cause i fear that if i try i could fail?
i say i'm enjoying smoking too much as that i would even give it a try without..
sometimes I say I love smoking, but that's only when i miss it. as soon as I smoke, i hate it. madjo, do you never say to yourself, "I hate smoking" ?
as i said... smoking is a sort of comfort for me...
i think i won't stop smoking until anything "happens"... i see other people die of smoking... the media shows an everyday fate of smokers... just find the right channel...
but that's apparently not enough to get myself thinking about stopping...
as long as such things don't happen to myself i have no reason that i am aware of to stop my destructive time filler (not considering the health of those around me)
i know what you mean. my grandmother is 95 and has been smoking all of her life, and is still healthy, for the most part. there's no telling though, if i have the same genes she does, and even if i do, my circumstance and environment is different. it's the unknown that scares me enough to stay away from it. also, i've personally suffered some stuff... like losing my voice for a week, being wayyy out of breath for really easy things like walking up a hill, etc etc.
Great film, I'm still gonna smoke, but great film. BTW, I know smoking is bad for me, it'll probably kill me. I don't really care though. After all, who wants to live forever?
Congrats to those who have quit! Anyone still on the fence, my suggestion: do it! You'll be so glad you did. Approaching 3 years off a heavy 34 year addiction, I feel better now at age 53 than my whole adult life.
cat3162 6 months ago
Smell is amazing and important. I have never been a smoker of tobacco, and never will be one. Glad you have given up.
roseapple73 1 year ago
@roseapple73 there's an account i heard on NPR of a woman who lost her smell and then got it back. it seems to have been a very traumatic experience. Mine was never completely lost but definitely hindered (and probably somewhat still damaged). I'm grateful to have retrieved as much as I have so far, and with an appreciation i didnt have before. Towards the end of my smoking days, when much time would go by between cigarettes, they started to taste simply like suffocation.
Plomomedia 1 year ago
and one more thing that is completely off topic:
If you get a chance, read (if you haven't already)
Gilles, D (1986) 'maceration and purification'
Douglas, M (1966) Purity and Danger, Ch.2
Shoenwald, R 'Training Urban Man: a hypothesis about the sanitary movement'.
These are three fragments to help in understanding notions of impurity, 'anality' and how we need to get our shit back.
good stuff man, keep it up.
homeoftheherder 2 years ago
smoking numbs me to the world. to the pain, but also to the pleasure. Nietsche (sic) claims that pain is a prerequisite to pleasure.
I went stone sober a few years ago for three weeks. no weed, coffee, alcohol, or cigarrettes, just physical work and walking around the leafy, forgotten corners of the country town in which i lived.
I could feel poetry moving around me.
homeoftheherder 2 years ago
sounds wonderful, why did you give that up?
certainly it is true that smoking numbs you. I all but lost my sense of smell and other viscera when i smoked. one of the greatest things about quitting was getting my smell back.
Plomomedia 2 years ago
the one thing i miss about cigarettes is the ability to get high quickly, legally, and whenever you want. It's been more than 100 days since i had my last cigarette, and I run about 6 miles a day. Still, i sometimes find myself in a moment of "i could smoke a cigarette right now"
--- unfortunatey, that means I still have some of the neurological connections strengthened by years of smoking.
Plomomedia 2 years ago
i wish the compression of time and space offered by globalisation could allow us all to take magic mushrooms together and talk about this stuff, then we'd get to the bottom of this malaise!
:)
homeoftheherder 2 years ago
I smoke for three reasons:
1. changes to my biochemistry made by smoking and subsequent physical addiction.
2. small pleasure gained from thinking about a cigarrette...the actual smoke itself is always a disappointment
3. the control over choosing whether or not to smoke is one of the few freedoms we have in a capitalist society. It is identity gained through consumption. similarly with drinking...
homeoftheherder 2 years ago
sorry it's taken me so long to respond:
1. understood
2. agreed
3. i think this may be an irony. indeed, it does feel like a freedom at first, but when you realize you're addicted, you feel exactly the opposite of what you described. capitalist society owns you, chooses your identity for you, and frankly doesnt give a shit about whether you live or die.
Plomomedia 2 years ago
Well it's interesting to look at the reasons why smoking is now seen as socially undesirable and why we are bombarded with health warnings.
Obviously (my) government wants to cut down on state funded healthcare costs caused by the effects of smoking.
But if you also look at it from a macro perspective, capitalism DOES want you to live and be a healthy, productive worker. The longer you're alive the more time you put into the factory / office / treadmill.
homeoftheherder 2 years ago
were you high when you made this?
eysikal 2 years ago
that's for me to know :)
Plomomedia 2 years ago
Really nice video. I hope you can make this into a film some day like you'd hoped.
AcryllicWonder 2 years ago
I liked the idea that there are so much beauty in nature around us, but people are all the time in search for some new chemical poisons in order to torture themselves.
gryphon108 2 years ago
lol
ihadthisdream1 2 years ago
i'm probably smoking too much... yes i really do poison myself voluntary... every day the whole year long... not even this video will stop it... i can't help it... well, that was a lie sure i could, but i don't want to...
still i really hope you find somebody interested in sponsering you... despite the fact that i'll probably die due to lung cancer sooner or later, seeing this video is still a must for me
i saw your other creations and was really impressed, keep on the work and good luck...
madjo0 3 years ago
thanks. that's inspiration for me to continue with this project. to be honest, which i hope the story I tell will be, I'm still smoking. I run 6 miles a day but I still occasionally have a cigarette. sometimes i fall off the wagon entirely and smoke a lot in one night (never the pack anymore that i used to). Life goes on after smoking, and it gets better is all i can say, but i guess it depends on one's circumstances. cigarettes are a real comfort sometimes too. it's a complex issue.
Plomomedia 3 years ago
when a person says that he or she could quit smoking if wanted, but anyway doesn't do it ...then it is called an addiction and it means that you can't just take and stop doing at once:P
gryphon108 2 years ago
addict? hmm... i'm not even able to give you an answer to that... i mean... i never even tried to stop... the precondition to stop smoking (doesn't matter if addicted or 'regular' smoker) is the will to stop... and that little fact is completely missing in my brain...
am i addicted? would i get it done to stop smoking?... i don't know... and i won't try for a while...
coward? cause i fear that if i try i could fail?
i say i'm enjoying smoking too much as that i would even give it a try without..
madjo0 2 years ago
sometimes I say I love smoking, but that's only when i miss it. as soon as I smoke, i hate it. madjo, do you never say to yourself, "I hate smoking" ?
Plomomedia 2 years ago
if ever... then i'm not aware of...
as i said... smoking is a sort of comfort for me...
i think i won't stop smoking until anything "happens"... i see other people die of smoking... the media shows an everyday fate of smokers... just find the right channel...
but that's apparently not enough to get myself thinking about stopping...
as long as such things don't happen to myself i have no reason that i am aware of to stop my destructive time filler (not considering the health of those around me)
madjo0 2 years ago
i know what you mean. my grandmother is 95 and has been smoking all of her life, and is still healthy, for the most part. there's no telling though, if i have the same genes she does, and even if i do, my circumstance and environment is different. it's the unknown that scares me enough to stay away from it. also, i've personally suffered some stuff... like losing my voice for a week, being wayyy out of breath for really easy things like walking up a hill, etc etc.
Plomomedia 2 years ago
i've never experienced anything delimiting my lifestyle that smoking could cause...
running to reach the bus/going up stairs/go biking... that's no problem at my actual state...
i'm pretty sure that it will be sooner or later...
i get hundreds of advices to stop it now and prevent later effects... and none of the advisors believes me that i really enjoy smoking..
so i won't stop whatever they tell me..
i see why they abuse smoking.. nevertheless it should be my decision whether to smoke or not
madjo0 2 years ago
very nice!
lilucraz 3 years ago
Word.
ruzicka 3 years ago
About as solid as it gets man.
yadayadatube 3 years ago
Great film, I'm still gonna smoke, but great film. BTW, I know smoking is bad for me, it'll probably kill me. I don't really care though. After all, who wants to live forever?
JohnBScott86 3 years ago
beautiful and haunting, sir
sarixe 3 years ago 2
more like this! or at least, please, more of your seductive voice and music
junaskenderi 3 years ago
It's been so long since I've heard your voice!!! Hope you are well.
megabn 3 years ago
sixteenth time :D
m4lvolio 3 years ago
i love this concept. i've always wanted to make videos like these, but i don't have the resources i need. hmmm i'll find a way somehow =)
and i love listening to your voice, its very relaxing.
SixthEllia 3 years ago
thanks
Plomomedia 3 years ago
2009? Come on, I want to see the rest.
copstack 3 years ago
wow, can't wait..
mestophiso 3 years ago
Great work-can't wait to see the rest of it.
You music is amazing.
FingalCat 3 years ago