Pick of the week

"My week beats your year," Lou Reed is once alleged to have said.

I couldn't possibly make a similar claim but last week was a lot more fun than I expected.

It began in Greenwich, Connecticut, took in New York (for the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum), and ended in Bath where we celebrated my aunt's 80th birthday.

I'll write about the business end of GTNF in my next post. Thankfully however there's more to life (and work) than keynote speeches and plenary discussions.

But first, a quick recap.

I flew to JFK on Friday (September 8) where I met my old friend Gary (above) who had also flown in from London but on a different flight.

We've known each other since we were at university together in the late Seventies. His father worked for IBM and for three years, after the whole family moved to America, he attended Greenwich High School.

A few weeks ago he received an invitation to attend the Class of 77's 40th reunion dinner. Knowing I was going to be in New York the following week he suggested I join him for the weekend.

We hired a car, braved the heavy New York traffic and arrived in Greenwich just in time for a late afternoon drink overlooking the picturesque ferry dock.

The hotel where we stopped for a drink held special memories for Gary because it was where his family stayed when they first arrived in the States.

According to a current barman (but unknown to its British guests at the time) the hotel had a reputation in the Seventies for hosting cocaine parties. It later changed its name.

The following day we hit the road again and visited the historic home of Jay Gould, an infamous 'robber baron' who was once one of the richest men in the world.

The Gothic Revival country house overlooks the Hudson River and it was suggested by our guide that every time Gould travelled from his mansion to his office in New York the huge desk at which he worked and in which he kept all his documents under lock and key would go with him – by boat.

Perversly Gould refused to use the train because Cornelius Vanderbilt, his great business rival, owned the local railroad.

Today Greenwich still has some of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in America. It's a very attractive place to live and work.

We breakfasted at Dunkin Donuts, lunched at a chic French bistro, spent time on the beach and watched baseball and American football in a couple of sports bars.

We even found time to see Wind River, a "gripping snowmobile Western" set in Wyoming, at the local cinema.

The weather was sunny but not too hot. Perfect, in fact.

On Monday I caught the train to Manhattan, a 45 minute journey that took me to Grand Central Station, a ten minute walk from the Intercontinental Hotel, home of GTNF 2017.

The conference began the following evening with a 'welcome reception' on the 65th floor of the Rockefeller Center. The view was spectacular.

The Intercontinental lived up to its title as 'North America’s Leading Business Hotel 2016'. I particularly liked the Gin Parlour bar that gave the lobby a lively ambience few other hotels enjoy.

Most impressive was the penthouse suite that had been commandeered for our use after the gala dinner on Wednesday.

This luxurious apartment featured a large fireplace on one wall and an enormous, sports bar style screen on another.

The best feature though was the outdoor terrace where we smoked large cigars with the lights and sounds of the city all around us.

Cost of staying in the penthouse? $25,000 per night.

Outside conference hours we gravitated, inevitably, to an Irish pub – PJ Morans – on East 48th Street, two blocks up from the hotel.

I also discovered that Raffles Bistro on Lexington Avenue did a remarkably fine breakfast (assuming you enjoy steak with your eggs at 6.30 in the morning).

I couldn't stay for the closing GTNF event on Thursday evening because I had to catch a flight back to London. 

Bath, where we spent the weekend, was pretty enjoyable too. But that's another story.

Below: Empire State Building from the top of the Rockefeller Center

From Greenwich to New York City

Spent the weekend in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Never been there before. Thoroughly recommend it.

The area has some of the richest neighbourhoods in America but for ordinary folk like us it also has Joey B's "where making food isn’t just our job, it’s our passion".

Yesterday I travelled to New York (45 minutes by train) for the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum (GTNF) that starts tonight.

Previous locations have included Bangalore (2010), Cape Town (2013) and West Virginia (2014). All three left lasting memories, including at least one near death experience.

Curiously the most surreal location was nearer to home. In Antwerp in 2012 the conference took place on a moving boat and you couldn't get off, however much you wanted to.

On the first day we were held hostage for the best part of 15 hours. I shall never forget it.

Now, following Bologna (2015) and Brussels (2016), we're back in the USA. Venue is the Intercontinental Barclay Hotel, a few blocks from Grand Central Station. 

Tonight's 'Welcome Reception' is at the Rockefeller Center, a short walk from the hotel. If I get a chance I'll update this post with a photo or two.

Above: Greenwich Point Park, Old Greenwich, a short drive from our hotel. Below: steak 'n' eggs breakfast at Raffles Bistro, Lexington Ave, NYC.

Down on the farm

I'm travelling today so I'll leave you with the latest addition to the family album.

After graduating in July my son Ruari is currently working on a farm in Devon.

It's his third summer on the farm and here he is with a bull calf he delivered a couple of weeks ago.

It looks sweet enough but it's a lot bigger now, I'm told.

The picture, meanwhile, reminds me that a few years ago – when I asked Ruari what he wanted for Christmas – he put, at the top of his list, a pair of green Wellington boots.

Now that's what I call forward planning.

Audrey Silk: voice of the smoker USA

This time next week I shall be in New York.

Having waited twelve years to return to the city, it will be my second visit in four weeks.

The InterContinental New York Barclay Hotel (to give it its full title) is the venue for the 2017 Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum (GTNF) and I'm taking part in one of the sessions: 'Risk and Regulation: The Impact of Excessive Legislation on Consumer Behaviour'.

One of my regular complaints about tobacco and nicotine-related conferences is the fact that consumers – current smokers especially – are frequently marginalised or excluded from the debate.

Instead of being part of the conversation they are lectured or, worse, patronised. Smokers (and even vapers) are victims of an addiction over which they have no control. They need our help!

Today the few consumers who are invited to speak tend to be ex-smoking vapers but it's rare for them to be given a keynote address. Most of those slots are reserved for 'public health' professionals and long-standing anti-tobacco campaigners.

The chances of someone who likes smoking and doesn't want to quit being asked to speak are virtually nil because that's not what the organisers (or delegates) want to hear.

The same goes for researchers who ask pertinent questions such as "Why don't more smokers switch to using e-cigarettes?" and get the awkward response, "Because I enjoy smoking!"

Again, it's not what 'public health' (or even the tobacco industry) wants to hear.

In other words, most tobacco-related conferences are not only blind to the fact that many smokers don't want to quit, they stubbornly ignore the reality that millions of smokers don't find alternative nicotine products very attractive.

Surely this is worth discussing? Apparently not. Consumers, it seems, are only worth engaging with if they have stopped smoking or have bought into the bogus notion that if every smoker switched to vaping a billion lives will be saved and the 'most harmful epidemic (sic) known to man' will be eradicated forever.

Even GTNF, an industry-led conference that began in 2008 as the Global Tobacco Network Forum, has become something of a platform for smoking cessation advocates.

Don't get me wrong. I've no problem with GTNF focusing on harm reduction and emerging products – it's a natural evolution for a tobacco industry event – but as long as millions of adults enjoy smoking, know the risks and don't want to quit, their interests and concerns should be addressed as well.

They should also be represented on panels and other platforms.

To be fair, the voice of the confirmed smoker can still be heard at GTNF (unlike other conferences) but it's increasingly peripheral.

Which leads me to GTNF 2017. After the usual lobbying on my part I was askd to put together a panel to discuss consumer issues and since we were going to be in New York the first person I thought of was Audrey Silk.

If you've never heard of her, here's a quick resume, courtesy of her bio:

Audrey is the founder of the grassroots smokers’ rights group Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment (CLASH). A 20-year veteran of the New York Police Department, she retired in 2004. In 2005, she ran for New York City mayor at the invitation of the Libertarian Party.

Based in New York City and originally formed in 2000 to protect and advance the interests of the city and state residents who choose to smoke, CLASH ultimately became active nationally.

In addition to numerous appearances on major cable news networks such as CNN and Fox News, Audrey has been profiled in the New York Times and various documentaries.

Aside from participating at public hearings and meeting with lawmakers, CLASH has launched several court battles challenging the legality of certain anti-smoking laws in New York, including the ban on the use of e-cigarettes.

Her latest CLASH-led campaign, 'Smoking is Normal', is designed to reassure adults who choose to smoke, and to impress on society that smokers are not the villains or victims that public health advocates portray them to be.

The New York Times profile is, I think, a reference to a 2011 article about her homegrown tobacco. Audrey calls it 'Screw You Bloomberg'. This 2012 video explains why.

I'm looking forward to seeing her because when I visited New York in 2005 we arranged to meet at her house in Brooklyn but the meeting never took place. Here's what happened.

It was a blisteringly hot day. I was wandering around and it took me ages to get a taxi. Eventually, after hanging about on a street corner close to Macy's, the famous Manhattan department store, a taxi finally stopped and I hopped in.

I gave the driver Audrey's address but overestimated his ability. Thirty minutes after we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge it dawned on me he had no idea where we were, or where we were going, and I had no idea either.

He was from Armenia, I think. He spoke very little English. He rang someone – his brother, perhaps – to help with directions. Meanwhile he kept on driving, looking for landmarks.

In desperation I tried calling Audrey (this was pre-smart phones) but my battered old Nokia wouldn't connect to her number. Eventually, with the meter ticking and any hope of finding her house long gone, I instructed my hapless driver to return to Manhattan.

The afternoon wasn't entirely wasted because on the return journey I asked him to drop me off at one of the handful of cigar bars in Manhattan.

The bar was air-conditioned but it wasn't plush. In fact it was quite scruffy and differed from an ordinary bar in just one respect – you could smoke a cigar indoors without the threat of prosecution.

Apart from two other customers and the barman it was also completely empty.

When I returned to my hotel later that evening I sent Audrey an apologetic email, explaining what had happened, but her terse response suggested she wasn't impressed and I've felt guilty about it ever since.

Twelve years on I will do my best to make amends.

Clarkson quits but discloses an inconvenient truth

I'm not as big a fan of Jeremy Clarkson as I once was.

He has a great turn of phrase but even I can see that his shtick has become a little jaded.

On the smoking front I've enjoyed his insouciant attitude and occasional jousts with authority, but he's rarely taken it beyond a throwaway newspaper column or a humorous TV moment.

We tried to engage him in the smoking debate. In particular we invited him to take part in several Forest events so he could speak out, as David Hockney did at the 2005 Labour party conference.

Unfortunately he was never available (or willing) to get actively involved, unlike others who were prepared to stand up and be counted.

I gave up on him after he wrote a column supporting the smoking ban which he claimed had helped him cut down on smoking. (He wrote it several years ago but it's not online so you'll have to take my word for it.)

It struck me then (and now) as a rather weak attempt to be contrary just for the sake of it. Or perhaps it was a slow news week. Either way I concluded he was never going to be a reliable ally.

To be fair, he's open about his inconsistency and he's been known to say that his public persona doesn't always represent his personal views.

Anyway, he's now announced that following a bout of pneumonia earlier this year he's quit smoking for good.

Far more interesting though was the revelation that despite being a smoker for 43 years (he estimates he's smoked 630,000 cigarettes in that time) tests showed "I had 96% of the lung capacity you would expect in someone of my age."

"I could breathe out harder and for longer than a non-smoking 40-year-old," he added.

He's also claimed that prior to his illness he hadn't taken a day off work since 1978. According to ASH, of course, smokers cost the economy billions of pounds a year through absenteeism and lost productivity.

Leaving aside the fact that much of what Clarkson says (on non-automobile related issues) should be taken with a pinch of salt, why would he make any of that up?

Let's take him at his word – and I do because the evidence is on his side: the overwhelming majority of smokers never get lung cancer, even if they've smoked for decades.

Three years ago it was even reported that 'Almost half of lung transplant patients were given the lungs taken from heavy smokers, with one in five coming from donors who had smoked at least one packet of cigarettes a day for 20 or more years.'

 Meanwhile there are millions of people who have smoked the best part of their adult lives and if they're suffering from ill health it's not because of smoking.

Compared to overweight people like me, many are as fit as a fiddle.

The question no politician or public health professional wants to ask is, why? Why are some smokers susceptible to 'smoking-related' illnesses, including lung cancer or heart disease, while others live long and relatively healthy lives?

Instead of trying to answer this perfectly legitimate question, governments and the public health industry choose to ignore it in favour of spending millions of pounds implementing policies designed to force every smoker - even the healthy ones - to quit.

I'm sure many people will dismiss Clarkson's comments as more of the usual bluster, good for a silly season story but quickly forgotten.

In fact he's making a serious point but it's now almost impossible to query the exaggerated health risks of smoking without being labelled a 'flat Earther' or worse.

For the record, I accept that smoking is a potentially hazardous, even lethal, activity (although the same could be said for all sorts of things, including living).

The risks associated with smoking are probably greater than many other habits but do I believe all the scaremongering? No, I don't.

The pity is, people are happy to believe all the propaganda. Comments by a popular TV presenter and journalist will therefore be dismissed as little more than light entertainment when this is a discussion that ought to be taking place at the highest levels.

The fact that neither government nor the public health industry will address it is one of the scandals of our age.

Watching the detective

There was an amusing scene in the second episode of Strike: The Cuckoo's Calling, on BBC One last night.

Set in a central London pub, it featured Tom Burke, playing private investigator Cormoran Strike, and Holliday Grainger as Strike's "intelligent and resourceful new temp" Robin Ellacott.

Confessing he was a "wee bit pissed", Strike had a cigarette between his lips and was asking "Have you got a light?" when it was gently removed by his assistant who reminded him, in a non-hectoring way, "You can't smoke in here."

To which Strike groaned and replied: "They've ruined pubs. Pubs used to be bloody brilliant."

Strike: The Cuckoo's Calling is based on a book by Robert Galbraith which, as most people now know, is a pseudonym for J K Rowling who is also credited as executive producer on the TV adaptation.

The third and final part is on Sunday. Worth watching, not least for the likeable lead characters.

The real question though is not 'Whodunnit?' but 'Has J K Rowling just revealed her thoughts on the smoking ban?'

From New Orleans to Joshua Tree

On August 19 Jules Shapiro, partner of Juliette Tworsey, an occasional reader of this blog, posted a message on Facebook:

It's official. I'm now a desert dweller! It's been a calling of ours for a long time and after 5 years in New Orleans we decided to take the next plunge into a new life! We will miss our block on Gallier St. in the Bywater along w our loving neighbors who would go the extra mile for you if you needed anything. That's what makes New Orleans sparkle for us, sweet souls and great music leaving a life long imprint on our spirits now and beyond this life.

In other words, the same week my daughter arrived at Loyola University in New Orleans (see previous post), Jules and Juliette left the city and moved to Joshua Tree in the high desert of California.

The reason I mention this is because the pair were guests of Forest at the 2015 Freedom Dinner and before that Juliette was one of the few people who publicly opposed the NOLA smoking ban and didn't throw smokers under the bus.

By coincidence our own Dan Donovan – musician, photographer and graphic designer – recently spent two weeks recording tracks at Rancho de la Luna, a recording studio in Joshua Tree. Before he flew to California he explained:

I've been obsessed with the desert and the studio Rancho de la Luna, Joshua Tree CA, for a few years now. The studio operates on quite a chilled creative no nonsense, low fi kind of plain. Pretty much everything that comes from that studio I love, Iggy Pop, Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal, Kyuss, PJ Harvey, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club to name a few.

A good few weeks ago I hooked up with long time friend Jonny Quinn [Snow Patrol] and asked him if he'd come across the place in his travels. He said yes and it would be perfect for me to go and record as Dave Catching, the owner, and myself are 'cut from the same cloth'.

I thought no more about it then Jonny told me he'd been in touch with Dave C. Next thing Dave C listened to some of my tunes and invited me over to record. Next thing Jonny says he's recording the new Snow Patrol album in LA during May/June and would come and play drums for the session if I go ahead with it.

But it wasn't the studio that impressed me as much as the location.

Joshua Tree, in San Bernardino County, is in an area known as the High Desert which is part of the Mojave Desert. Named after the trees that are native to that region, its population, according to the last census, is less than 8,000.

Dan took some wonderful photographs that caught the beauty of the amazing landscape. I've posted one below and there are many more on Facebook. I'm hoping however he will publish a photo book to accompany the tracks he recorded at the Rancho. It would make a fabulous package.

In a further coincidence, another band that recorded at the same studio a few years ago was none other than Firebug, aka Jules Shapiro and Juliette Tworsey. Small world.

Anyway, I wish Jules and Juliette all the very best for their new life in the desert. When they've settled in perhaps they will write and tell us how they're getting on.

In the meantime I recommend this Firebug video, 'Wine, Water and Bread', filmed on location at Fountainebleu State Park, Mandeville, Louisiana, August 2015.

Photos courtesy Dan Donovan.

Weather watch

My daughter, having returned from a month in Vietnam and Cambodia, is now in New Orleans (right).

Her four-year American studies course at Birmingham includes a year abroad. Loyola University New Orleans was her second choice, after Montreal.

On Thursday NBC News reported:

New Orleans is facing the biggest threat to public safety since Katrina ravaged the city 12 years ago. With a large number of pumps and turbines out of service, it is not clear if the city is ready for Hurricane Harvey, and the city is studying emergency evacuation plans.

On Friday a state of emergency was declared for the entire state of Louisiana. Yesterdary CNN reported:

As Hurricane Harvey batters Texas, people in New Orleans are bracing for 10 inches of rain or more starting Sunday and continuing into early next week.

 The university website has a notice that says:

We are currently monitoring Hurricane Harvey. Operations at Loyola University New Orleans remain normal at this time. Classes are in session as usual. The university is preparing for weekend rain.

The latest update, posted on the university website last night, reads:

Hurricane Harvey is steadily weakening and some reports indicate it is no longer of hurricane strength. The current models for Harvey indicate a more northward trajectory, which would mean much less rainfall for our area than predicted. While we are currently sunny and dry, the New Orleans area can expect rainfall into next week with the heaviest of rainfall likely occurring on Monday.

The threat, it seems, has receded – so much that last night Sophie attended her first American football match, a pre-season game between New Orleans Saints and Houston Texans (below).

Rain did not stop play.