Who is Cigar Media? & My Thoughts on TPE

"Have you Kaplowitz'd to-day?"

PREAMBLE

I don't Facebook much. I don't comment. I barely post. It's just not my cup of posturing douchebags. I like Twitter. Why? The posturing douchebags fly by quicker. Maybe. Mostly, I like Twitter because of blog traffic. I would not social media at all if I wasn't trying to get eyes & ears to see & hear me/my project(s)/this. Or maybe I'd just trollolol from time-to-time. Hard to say. Never can tell.

I'll admit to silently lurking around Facebook, though. Because of info moving slower there; because of it's being a more static even stagnant platform in comparison -- it's easy to check-in & catch up on what have you. Here, I'll be sharing my thoughts on two topics there which seem recurring. I shall keep it ever-so-brief[ish].

WHO IS CIGAR MEDIA?

This is a meta-thought which is apparently garnering some steam. It seems the underbelly of another less recent thing -- "does anyone care what cigar reviewers say?" Lemme field that: yes. I can statistically prove my own readership & can only hope people aren't spending time on shit they don't care about. To what extent they care & what it is whoever means by "caring," is any one's guess. It's also not an answer to the question. The answer, again, is simply yes.

Now let's look at WHO IS CIGAR MEDIA? Or it's more pointed cousin "Is _______ even cigar media?" Dunno... do they create enough cigar content to have it said of them that they create cigar content? It's a simple question to answer, really. Any mud smeared on the lens is, in fact, bullshit & not mud at all. Go ahead, smell it. Taste it to be certain. Note: a more interesting & subjective query is "are they GOOD cigar media?" I believe these two very separate questions get somehow confused.

Is Kaplowitz Media. cigar media? Well, it ain't a linguistics blog with a focus on etymology & w/ some fun crossword puzzle chatter thrown in. If it were, & it almost was, I'd probably be even more broke than I am rn. In a recent Kaplowitz Radio Ep (161, look for it HERE) I talked about a sentiment posted by someone in the cigar media to their Facebook. It essentially read that no one should discuss trade shows they don't attend. Or groups that run these shows of which they are not members.

I didn't always create predominantly cigar-centric content (GOOD stuff, to A a hanging Q). For a good while, back when I wore a younger man's clothes, I wrote about boxing (among other things; pro-writer & all. | lots of comedy*). Boxing used to have a literary flair to it which was par excellence. A. J. Liebling, Jack London, Bert Sugar, Ernest Hemingway, George Plimpton, Norman Mailer, & more -- all lent their pens & tongues to pugilism's canon. The popularity of the sport soared.

Then, the sentiment began to arise that these voices should be negated because they weren't fighters. Some were amateurs, some hobbyists, some not at all, but none were REALLY fighters**... what the fuck did they know & who the fuck cared what they had to say? Boxing journalism & literature is now mainly relegated to under 5min videos of out-of-context one-punch KOs with a DMX soundtrack blaring up-on ahead. Maybe that's where cigar media wants to go? Also, boxing is dying a long death by many accounts.

Perhaps the caregiver in me is attracted to near-dead things? So dryly regurgitate press releases & pay membership dues, & attend trade shows. Because that's just gotta be real as it gets. & if it ain't real we don't want it. Although this ideal is both in-arguably false within the context of this writing, as well as it is in the real world wherein we back politician's motives as if they were kin. Or cram our fat middle-aged bodies into NFL Jerseys to cheer on teams we were never part of. Or, well, you get it. Not a lot of call for "real," irl. 

THOUGHTS ON TPE

There's a show happening as I type this, actually. A TRADE show. No, I am not in attendance HOW VERY WELL DARE I. It's the TPE 2020. & it is all the rage. It's hot hot hot, & happening at the right time of year -- as opposed to the cold cold cold PCA nee IPCPR, happening at the wrong time of year. Even though it lacks the protective rallying (and oft losing) arm of the PCA. See, it's just a trade show, nothing more. 

It's also (just) a trade show, the TPE, one that features exhibitors of cannabis, its sober cousin CBD, vape,  & "discount tobaccos" which all bring the PLUS to the Tobacco Plus Expo (TPE). You know, all those things the premium cigar industry has been telling anyone who'll listen have nothing to do with us -- For years! We are not of them. They are not of us. The premium tobacco industry -- of which I maybe shouldn't write about or have the right to -- if I'm not even media. & I've never rolled a cigar. Nor worked in a Nicaraguan factory. Who's to say? Seems odd fits all 'round, no?

I can say, it feels a lot like I give a lot of my effort & creative process over to premium cigars. So I got that going for me, which is nice. The effort puts pancakes in front of my son at the table. Who knows, maybe the ring writing itch will continue to demand scratched -- & I'll find my way back there. Although I hate the video medium & suck at editing & am trailing off now into thoughts of 90second cigar reviews, bright flashing colors and ah, fuck it.

Thanks for reading. Would you like to know where we get the word 'effort' from? It's interesting & you can email me at kaplowitzmedia@mail.com if you'd like me to tell you.

FOOTNOTES

*Comedy written is often done-so by something called a humorist, which is a person not funny enough to be a comedian.

**I just wanted to let you know that Ernest Hemingway once forced Ezra Pound into a pair of boxing gloves so that he could clobber him. Apparently.