RIP Gail. One can say anything about her, but she was undoubtely devoted to Frank's music.
On a sad side note, I've lost my father this year due to a lung disease caused by years of severe smoking.
RIP Gail. One can say anything about her, but she was undoubtely devoted to Frank's music.
On a sad side note, I've lost my father this year due to a lung disease caused by years of severe smoking.
This is sad news. I agree that whatever issues fans have had with her over the years, their is no question she just wanted to do right by Frank and his music.
Now if I can just get my wife to stop smoking. She has cut back considerably (which I know doesn't make a whole lot of difference in the long run). She never smokes inside or in the car , so I'm at least spared the second hand smoke.
A horrible thing to happen would be if all the recent remasters of the official releases were to go out of print. That would be horrible because all of the scumbag sellers on Amazon would then charge double, triple, whatever....for just simply a regular Zappa release. Then you would see a recording like ONE SIZE FITS ALL for a hundred dollars and up. This just occurred a year before the remasters were released and we don't want that to occur again. I know I don't.
Ahmet took over administration of FZ's catalog a few months ago (as mentioned in an earlier post). I don't think the CDs will go out of print due to Gail's passing.
Answer: Yes, Gail was absolutely a smoker...and I know this from a bit of trivia, that I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned.
As we know, Frank referred Gail as his "pumpkin"....the peculiar sound of her horrible smoker's hack gave him the name for his label... "Barking Pumpkin".
Not such a funny story now.
It has, just look at post #21.Originally Posted by veteranof1000psychicwars
Standing corrected yet again. I scanned the thread before I wrote, and missed that. Second time I've done that this week.
Rest In Power, Gail. And thanks for looking after Frank's legacy for the last 20-odd years. You left it in good hands.
Lots of interesting themes running through this thread. First, sorry to see Gail go. A lot of PE-ers seems to dislike her with a passion but I felt she did an admirable job running Frank's cottage business, both while he was alive and afterward. She didn't have to continue releasing his music as she was set for life, but she wanted to share. My one peeve I have about what she released was the quality of the information about the releases. Often no list of songs and sometimes very little description at all about what the release was. But maybe she wanted us to be surprised.
The other thing I wanted to mention is the shocking number of Americans who still smoke cigarettes. Like a lot of you, I've been impacted by lung cancer - my mom died at the age of 60 because she smoked 2+ packs a day from the time she was 14-60. My dad and two older sisters both smoked but they all gave it up by the late 70s or early 80s. My mom couldn't stop. It killed her in the end. So why are young people picking up cigarettes and smoking? In the US, we haven't outlawed it but we've made it very hard for smokers: the cost and the fact that there are very few public places where you are allowed to smoke. I have colleagues who will go out to their cars to smoke since there are no places on campus where its allowed. In fact its not allowed in your car either but that doesn't stop them. Some will drive around the area to smoke and then park again. Scrotum Scissor (geez, whats your real name?) mentioned that in Norway there were few cases of women getting lung cancer. I can believe it that places in Europe have been successful at abolishing cigarette smoking. But in the US, its still fairly predominant among men and women (around 20% of adults still smoke). No offense to those of you who do smoke but I just don't get it.
^
I grew up in a smoking household; mum, dad, sister. During my teenage years, most of my buddies (80% or thereabout) started, and the majority still keep at it. My mum died from breast cancer in 1996, and kept smoking practically 'till the end - even after amputations. Although that specific type of cancer is less overtly due to smoking in itself, the latter was just an overall part of a generally dubious lifestyle with mediocre nutrition, zero exercise, daily drink and nicotine. So it killed her.
However, even though I never started myself, I'm not a fanatic about this. I have plenty of vices of my own; binge drinking, getting into silly fights over even more stupid arguments, chasing girls even after reaching middleage and having failed at countless relationships (some resulting in offspring), the odd dope endeavour, over-exercising (to the brink of sickness), exposing myself to general harm and risk. Who the hell am I to judge others' way of conducting their life?
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
Cigarette smoking in the US is still prevalent because the industry is very powerful and young people, for some reason, think it's cool. Just like the booze industry, it's part of the national fabric. The fact that it's addictive, kills people and ruins families doesn't seem to matter to many. It's nothing short of tragic.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
I may have missed this show of dislike about Gail, but I certainly likened her (in here or the parallel thread) to Alice Coltrane's work yto keep her husbad legacy alive.
Cigarette smoking is still quite strong amongst teenagers and 20-sumthin' in continental Europe... Go figureThe other thing I wanted to mention is the shocking number of Americans who still smoke cigarettes. Like a lot of you, I've been impacted by lung cancer - my mom died at the age of 60 because she smoked 2+ packs a day from the time she was 14-60. My dad and two older sisters both smoked but they all gave it up by the late 70s or early 80s. My mom couldn't stop. It killed her in the end. So why are young people picking up cigarettes and smoking? In the US, we haven't outlawed it but we've made it very hard for smokers: the cost and the fact that there are very few public places where you are allowed to smoke. I have colleagues who will go out to their cars to smoke since there are no places on campus where its allowed. In fact its not allowed in your car either but that doesn't stop them. Some will drive around the area to smoke and then park again. Scrotum Scissor (geez, whats your real name?) mentioned that in Norway there were few cases of women getting lung cancer. I can believe it that places in Europe have been successful at abolishing cigarette smoking. But in the US, its still fairly predominant among men and women (around 20% of adults still smoke). No offense to those of you who do smoke but I just don't get it.
Had a girlfriend whose mother was diagnosed lung cancer a few months before she died, and was ordered immediately to stop it...she answered that sh'ed never smoked a ciggie in her life... AAMOF, she was bar)tending in cafés and bars all her life.
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
Reminds me of a story about a sinking cruise ship.
The captain will not recommend the passengers to go in to the lifeboats, because he thinks it will ruin the overturn in the bar.
R.I.P. Gail. Thanks for being an advocate for keeping your husband's music alive.
RE: smoking: I quit smoking real cigarettes on January 1st of this year, but I'm smoking E cigs. It's only water vapor, but it's still got nicotine. My doc says, "it's not the nicotine that concerns us." Still, I'd like to give those up too, maybe next NYE.
For those who've never smoked, you can't know what a powerful addiction it is. I know people who've been addicted to everything from booze to heroin and they all say smoking was the hardest thing to give up. I still think like a smoker because I did it for so long. We know the dangers, we know it's ludicrous to do it and we know the whole non-smoking world hates us and we still do it... because it's so hard not to.
I know that even though I quit, I'm doomed. I accept that I have only myself to blame. Maybe I'll add a couple of years to my life now that I'm not putting smoke and carcinogens in my lungs and I'm okay with that. I'll be 62 in a couple of days, I've had a good long life and at least for now, I feel okay. And my doc said my lungs (at least) sound fine. One way I know that I'm on a good path; I can't stand the smell of cigs anymore. When you're a smoker, you barely even notice that smell.
I've taken lessons from a jazz musician who has had every substance abuse problem in the book and kicked all of them - but he's never been able to get off the butts and stay off. At gigs you still see him outside between sets, puffing away in the rain.
I was kind of saddened to see Ike & Ray puffing away outside the club in the cold a few years back when I saw PO.
From what I've heard, Ike is another guy with a history of substance abuse. He was obviously able to get the demons off his back while working with Frank (or hide them well enough that Frank didn't catch on), but he'd relapse in between.
It's probably worth mentioning that Frank didn't believe that cigarettes caused cancer. Not his cancer, at any rate, but I got the impression from interviews that he didn't believe there was anything wrong with them at all. Of course, addicts do tend to rationalize their addiction away.
Except for right here in Norway, where it's downright uncool or even considered laughable for youngsters to start, the latter according to my eldest son at 18. Apprently it's quite unique for my country, though; former smokers among the young have either quit or resorted to the almost exclusively Scandinavian phenomenon of snus - humid powdered tobacco grain to go under the lip. My latest girlfriend (26 at the time) quit smoking and started snusing, but maintained one helluva consumption of that - to the point where she would actually wake up at night in order to "reload". I actually found two doses of snus underneath my bed this May, six months after we broke up; she had simply ripped it out and thrown it away. Very bizarre way of commemorating one's former partner.
However, when I went to Copenhagen for my summer holidays this year, I was almost amazed at the number of young, healthy looking gals who would sit around and smoke - it's just become such a rare sight here in Oslo. The only girls or young women I see doing it here now are from the Swedish community who mostly work in cafes and restaurants.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
I gave up cigarettes a couple of years ago for the E-Cig variety although I will occasionally still smoke a real one. My mom and dad both smoked without smoking related issues. I had a great aunt who smoked all of her life, died at 85 not from smoking, but fell out of her bed and broke her hip and was unable to recover from it. Not that I recommend taking it up at all, but some people seem to be more likely than others to develop cancer. I also wonder if the additives aren't worse than the actual tobacco. My great aunt was born in 1891, my dad in 1906 and my mom in 1921. They smoked before all of the additives were used in the production of cigarettes without developing cancer.
Bill
She'll be standing on the bar soon
With a fish head and a harpoon
and a fake beard plastered on her brow.
I knew someone who had such bad emphysema that she couldn't breathe unless she was sitting up, so she slept in her wheel chair with her head resting on a pillow on the table in front of her. She still couldn't quit. She continued to smoke even while on oxygen. She'd take the tube out of her nose and put it under the pillow, and light up. Smoking has to be one of the dumbest things we ever invented.
Denmark: Half of the students in gymnasium (~high school) smokes cigarettes.
Most probably they will quit in the next years - if they can.
Geeze, are you kidding... I though America was the last place where people still actually shoved tobacco in their mouths...BTW anyone that thinks that the tar and crap in a cigarette is the only major problem with 'baccy should check out some pictures of people with mouth cancer from chewing.
You are right.
But smoking tobacco also influences the surrondings. Especially kids cant escape if the parents smoke at house or in the car.
I can leave the bar.
Kissing a smoker is like licking an ash tray?
^
Being a lifelong non-smoker, I can attest to how awkward it may be to have a girlfriend who smokes. If I hadn't grown up with little but smokers all around me, I doubt if I'd been able to pull it off.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
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