egontheviking

I am more into Indie or obscure rock stuff like Brand New and Murder by Death and various other bands that you all may or may not be interested in. But I use to be all about Metal and the likes. Some great ones that come to mind are: Benea Reach (Norwegian, inspired by Mushuggah and Mastodon) Extol (older stuff like "Undecieved" album, also Norwegian) Becoming the Archetype (Epic feeling) Alethian Living Sacrifice (kind of Thrash Metal with additional percussion, just recently got back together) Training for Utopia (obscure Noise Metal from the 90s) The Chariot (live sounding recordings, energy filled live show) I would be curious to hear what you all might think of these bands

Some "indie" bands I have been listening to recently, wheter they are new to you or not. Colour Revolt Neutral Milk Hotel Mewithoutyou Manchester Orchestra Right Away, Great Captain Pedro the Lion David Bazan Murder by Death Sufjan Stevens Twothiryeight Anathallo let me know what you think of these.

I am grounded in English and I am currently learning koine greek which would be considered new testament. some pretty interesting stuff.

I have been smoking a pipe for about a year now and I am still learning along the way. The best routes for getting started into pipes and the different kinds of pipe tobacco is to either purchase a no name briar pipe that will cost between 20 to 30 bucks or purchase about 2 or 3 corncob pipes. I say 2 to 3 corncobs because if you are interested in trying multiple styles of pipe tobacco, then you do not want to smoke them all out of the same pipe. For example, I would not want to smoke a heavy English blend that has layers of flavor due to the mixture of English, Oriental and Latakia tobaccos in the same pipe as an Aromatic pipe tobacco. The reason for this is that the two flavors get mixed together because the pipe begins to take on "characteristics" of that particular tobacco. I personally would not choose a Meerschaum pipe as a first pipe, especially if you are learning to smoke a pipe. Smoking a pipe is some what of an art form. You will learn all the different ways of packing a bowl, lighting, cleaning and maintenance. As for tobacco, I would generally avoid the general store pipe tobacco for the most part because they can screw up a pipe pretty quickly by semi permanently adhering the taste of that general store tobacco to the pipe. It all really depends on what you like in smoking in regards to the tobacco. English, Orientals and Latakia will be a fuller and dynamic smoking experience. Virginias and Perique are sometimes sweet and earthy depending on how much virginia or perique is in it. Aromatics are the flavored tobaccos that are often sweet. In my experience, aromatics can be a good start but can also ruin a smoking experience if you get a crappy kind. The best way to find what you like is to visit pipe tobacco shop that has a decent selection of bulk tobacco to try from and see if the shop keep will let you sample some from each style in hopes that you will buy up something that you really enjoy. Don't expect pipes to be as easy and immediately flavorful as cigars, but they can make for an unmatchable experience when done right.

I was curious to know if any of you all smoke a pipe? You know like a briarwood or a corn cob pipe. The reason I ask is because I greatly enjoy chilling out on my balcony on a cold night with some nice virginia or dark english tobacco. I just wonder if anyone shares in this "old man" pass time along with hookah.

It is scary to see this bbc video gradually take over the world with one youtube viewer at a time. The craziest thing is to hear a girl quote old greg with precise accuracy of the tone of voice and everything. yeah. funny stuff.

So I have some skill with making pottery and other various pieces of art out of clay. I have access to a kiln and ceramics studio to make whatever I want, I am an art student. So I am going to attempt to make my own bowls for my hookah. I will gather the necessary measurements and such to make a snug seal. My first attempt will be to make a simple egyptian style bowl and then I will try to make a phunnel bowl as well. I figure I would ask if anyone has tried this before and if anyone has any suggestions or words of advice before attempting this. This doesn't appear to be complex at all since I can merely craft these pieces with simple manipulation or perhaps even using a potters wheel. I can also glaze these bowls in various different colors all of which will be glazes that are safe to eat off of. If this proves to be a success I may attempt at making by own ceramic bases as well.

Thank you guys for all of your suggestions. I still have lots of flavors to try, it will take some time cause I don't enjoy my hookah that much when I smoke by myself. Now all I have to do is figure out if it is my personal taste that is making this unenjoyable or if a paticular shisha left a trace flavor that is making it taste funky. Would rose shisha from layalina leave a funky flavor in the hose for a later smoke to be unenjoyable? Cause that was the second bowl I smoked mixed with Al Waha melon, not a good mix by the way (a friend was curious about the combination). Then next time after that I tried Al Waha orange and I could do about 15 minutes and I got a queezy feeling and a light sweat going like when you would smoke a big maduro cigar to quickly. I am just trying to optomize my smoking experience and not give any friends any bad experiences either. Thank you all again.

I have not tried alot of different kinds of shisha and the only two that I have enjoyed were Layalina Watermelon and some kind of Cinnamon and Apple mix (tasted mostly like cinnamon). I have had raspberry layalina and combinations of raspberry and rose or melon and rose. Besides the watermelon and cinnamon/apple I felt a bit queezy or something and none of them I smoked alot of. My speculation is that I am not a huge fan of the super fruity flavors and that I might enjoy some of the other robust fuller flavors. Perhaps some of you may have some suggestions for some non-fruity shisha? I am just trying to figure out why I am not really digging my first hookah and wondering if it is just personal taste of my shisha. thanks.

QUOTE (Xeft @ Sep 14 2007, 09:44 PM) I heard about Modest Mouse from a friend and later found an article in a online hOokah site about them. I suppose their music is great for a hookah lounge. I listened to a couple of songs on iTunes and really didn't find much I liked. Anything from them you'd really suggest? Well, I guess it would depend on what you didn't like by them to show you a different side of them. There most recent album, called "We were Dead Before the Ship Ever Sank," is a bit different from their previous albums and they have a quite a few. The one I suggested it a bit older and is very entertaining. All of their songs are pretty far out lyrically and extremely catchy. As for what you can find on their myspace, their song People as Places as People is pretty cool. I would most certainly suggest some of those other bands though, my favorite on the list would probably be MewithoutYou.

This is what I got playing: As Cities Burn: Come Now Sleep album MewithoutYou: Catch for Us the Foxes album and Brother, Sister album Modest Mouse: Moon and Antartica album Brand New: Devil and God are Raging Inside Me album Murder by Death: In Bocca al Lupo album Smashing Pumpkins: Any Album Sufjan Stevens: Come on and Feel the Illinois album but I listen to this regularly even when I am not smokin.

So after hours of scouring the internet for all the hookah information I have come to the conclusion of purchasing my first hookah, and hopefully the only one for a while. I have read about the Egyptian Hookahs at Social Smoke and I really like the Two hose Sirius hookah and I have also read several reveiws here about the Al Fakher 26" hookah from Al Fakher Online. I am wanting to spend about 120 bucks so I could buy the Sirius II with some shisha (not sure what kind yet since I haven't had lots of different kinds) and it would come out to be about 106 bucks or so with discount. Or, I could go Al Fakher's Hookah Ultimate Pack 1 for about 110 bucks not including shipping. I like the washable hoses on the Sirius II and I wasn't sure if the hoses on the Al Fakher 26" are up to par. That might be the breaking point. So are the hoses on the Sirius II better than the Al Fakher 26" and is the bowl better on the Al Fakher 26" or the Sirius II? I know the Al Fakher 26" has a problem with having a short down stream stem requiring a lot of water in the vase leaving a small area for smoke to till the rest of the vase. Is that a severe problem for doing big hits and such? If I get the Sirius II then I am considering getting Layalina watermelon, pomegrante, watermelon since they come with it all. Are these good flavors from Layalina cause I have enjoyed fruit flavor shisha and some stronger shisha's like Cinnamon? I know this is my first post on this board but I have been reading quite a bit. I thank you for taking the time to help me come to a conclusion, although I have a feeling that you all will say that they are both good hookahs.