Cleaning Out The Garage

Written by Smoke Signals | 01 July 2014
Posted in Articles

Cleaning Out The Garage
SMOKE SIGNALS MAGAZINE - July - August 2014

So, after years of procrastination, we finally did it.

We took several days and went through somewhere between 15 and 20 huge boxes of VHS tapes which have been sitting in our garage, mostly untouched, for more than a decade.

Yes, that's right - the Smoke Signals "library."

Some date back as far as the late 1980s, when we first discovered a few small glamour and adult producers who actually sold videos of women smoking (thanks to tips from the few other "crazies" who haunted online services searching for any trace of what we would later call the "smoking fetish").

Some are the very first attempts at smoking video production by pioneers like Tom Compo and Ed Luisser.

Some are the "complete libraries" produced by video companies or solo girls who dipped their toes into the water of the emerging smoking video market of the mid 1990s. And some are private amateur tapes, mostly of wives or girlfriends, traded among a small group of people around that same time.

There are hours and hours of short smoking scenes taped from TV shows or movies, candid videos filmed by smoking fetishists who traded them for similar material, and subfetish videos on such topics as female slaves smoking for Mistresses, and women boxing while smoking cigars.

There's old material originally shot for Smoke Signals by just about everyone you can think of.

And, of course, there are the full catalogs of almost every smoking producer, from the "long-gone" like HH Video, TLS and Cinesmoke, the "still alive" producers like Smoking Females and Bob's Videos, and the producers still active in our community like Specialized, IRL and Random Snaps.

It was quite a chore to go through them all - and to actually get rid of duplicate copies (of which there were quite a few). But we learned several things during the work - since, of course, we needed to take some breaks - and just happened to bring some of the videos into the room where we keep our VCRs.

1. VHS tapes which have been well-preserved still play just fine, even if they're as ancient as 25 years old.

2. Some of the oldest material produced in our community still holds up well today; the earliest work from Tom, Ed and Steve K., for example, is just as stunning as it was when it opened our eyes in the '90s.

3. A lot of material doesn't get better with age. We looked at a few of the tapes we'd watched a few times and grew tired of - and to put it simply, they still sucked. And some of the videos we'd marked with asterisks or other excited notations, just weren't as good as we had remembered. In those days, beggars really couldn't be choosers.

4. On the other hand, we rediscovered some old "gems" (both commercial and amateur) which had been long forgotten, but would quickly become many people's favorites if they were available today. We were thrilled we still had them.

5. Some of the productions which were staged with plot and dialogue by small or niche companies such as Customized and Stevi's Secrets, remained intriguing; but we wished they had been filmed with digital equipment and "modern" lighting techniques - they would have been extraordinary.

6. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to all of the people who went out on a very large limb to film these videos, whether they were amateur or professional, simple or complex. Without all of their efforts, we all might very well still be taping scenes from TV shows in order to get our fix.

7. Videotapes are very heavy - and a very big pain in the ass!

Of course, we couldn't bring ourselves to toss any of them (except for the duplicates) - so we didn't really end up cleaning out the garage after all. If we're all still around, we'll update you in another 10-20 years on whether they still play; and whether they're still worth watching one more time.

Enjoy the July-August issue!

One Of The Truly Good Guys Needs Our Help

Written by Smoke Signals | 28 February 2014
Posted in Articles

A Repeat - But An Important One
SMOKE SIGNALS MAGAZINE - May-June 2014

It may seem impossible to believe, but there are times we have very little to say. This is one of those times.

For that reason, we're going to pass on our bi-monthly opportunity to rant and rave, because we're guessing there are people who haven't seen our last column yet. We think it's important enough to leave up for this issue.

If you have already seen it, but haven't contributed yet - we hope you'll give it another read and follow your heart. If you have contributed - our deepest thanks.

And don't worry, we'll have plenty more to rant about next time around.

Enjoy the May-June issue!

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As you may have gleaned from our musings, rants and diatribes in this space over the last few years, the 2010s have not exactly been great years for smoking fetish producers.

In fact, with huge declines in sales caused by illegal file sharing, many producers have fallen on very hard times. Quite a few have been battling to save their businesses, their homes...and even in one case, his life.

We're using this space to highlight that person's situation.

The name Ed Luisser is familiar to many who have been members of the smoking fetish community for a long time. Even those who are relatively new to our world are probably familiar with the name CoherentLight - even if it's just from a mention on one of those sites which are illegally displaying the company's groundbreaking material.

Ed is the brains and vision behind CoLight, which was without question the premiere smoking video producer of the last quarter-century. Ed's use of lighting (with a big nod to Tom Compo, another pioneer in the field) and costuming, attention to detail, and above all his concern for showing exquisite smokers in all their accomplished glamour and glory, set a standard which all future producers sought to emulate. His glamour videos were, to put it simply, stunning.

Ed was also a connoisseur of "dark side" smoking, and while many of his dark side pieces may not have been appealing to everyone in our community - there was no denying that they were works of art. And, of course, the smoking and detail was still so mesmerizing that even glamour fans could be captivated despite a lack of interest in piece's specific theme.

Finally, there was no more staunch supporter of our community - generous, caring, friendly, and eager to give back (probably more than he should have, in business terms) whenever possible.

During the mid 2000s, Ed was beset with a series of major problems. Serious health challenges and a devastating break-in and equipment theft left him struggling to survive - figuratively and literally. And the huge drop in revenues that plagued all producers made his fight much, much tougher. We certainly won't invade his privacy by detailing the entire story here; it's of course been up to him to reveal as much or as little as he chose. We'll just say that we're not exaggerating the severity of the situation.

The good news that we have to pass along, however, is that Ed is doing much better than he has in years - and he's looking to rebuild CoLight into a viable smoking video producer once again.

To that end, he's appealing to the smoking fetish community which means so much to him. Ed has set up a crowdfunding account, in an effort to acquire new equipment for CoLight, and start shooting again.

We'd ask everyone reading this to take a couple of minutes to read more of Ed's story - and to help in any way you can. Our community isn't as close-knit as it used to be (we used to know most of our subscribers and/or members by name!) - but hopefully we can still show that we care, and appreciate everything he's done for us over the years.

Please visit Ed's page here and do whatever you can to help.