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Showing content with the highest reputation on 02/22/2023 in all areas

  1. Smokes from the last few days. Johnny-O BBF, TUA ENE ‘22 Punch Punch, SOP OCT ‘20 Punch Short de Punch, TPO SEP ‘19
    17 points
  2. Nice meet up at the Bong Kong last evening with Rob and few of the FOH members
    16 points
  3. Prize sampler from our hosts!
    14 points
  4. Monte Petit Edmundo. OSE OCT06.
    12 points
  5. 12 points
  6. Connie 1 GEM NOV 21 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    10 points
  7. Beautiful dark wrappers on these. Going to be difficult to hold off on trying one sooner rather than later!
    9 points
  8. First time trying a Cazzie thanks to an FOH sampler prize. Wish I'd tried one sooner
    8 points
  9. What a great night. Thank you for your company, the laughs and the friendship. Big thank you to Dag and the PCC team for allowing us use of the magnificent facility. Tho Gloria and the LCDH staff....you rock Ravi and I wrapped it up just after 2am but there was no stopping him as you saw. I have been to this rodeo before. ' Post LCDH we walked back to WTF bar for a last drink and cigar. It was all happening. Eric the barman/owner was chasing two very inebriated Russian hookers for the 200 HK dollars they owed. Broken glasses. security. bedlam. dodgy customers everywhere.......I mean dodgier than us We stoically kept going through it all. Business is going well.
    8 points
  10. Ok just to even things out, we have been here in California for for a week on vacation and have a week of holiday to go. We have chosen a different cigar lounge to relax in each afternoon, finding incredible nc or CC’s!!, met friends, watched tv and been treated so well. We in Canada are not allowed to smoke in a public place, taxes are 3x and the labels and boxes are like black toilet paper. So quit yer complaining you pussies. These are cigars and they are a luxurious treat. Enjoy them with us anytime, anywhere and we will make you so happy. CB.
    8 points
  11. I just took delivery of a sampler of these aged Monte No 4s that were on 24:24 on Feb 7/8th. Does anyone happen to remember the date? I forgot to make note. I thought it was 5 or so years.
    8 points
  12. Thanks @TroutBum for the care package!!
    8 points
  13. Hildagos, 96 pointer and best R&J I have ever had.
    7 points
  14. Just received these in a cigar of the month club.
    7 points
  15. I'm excited over these - never had one before, but I'm a big fan of other Trinis, most of which were fortunately acquired before the Cigarmaggedon pricing change. I'm also encouraged that several of you have provided highly favorable opinions for other 2021 vintage La Trovas, including from BSM. Box delivered sealed, code is good, box seals, warranty seal, interior packaging, and box good, and cigars look amazing.
    6 points
  16. So I let my imagination get the best of me. I’m sorry, I can’t help myself. Whenever you need that mananitas, shine the V in the sky because..
    5 points
  17. Could have been worse. BICH247
    5 points
  18. Just by some random accident, I smoked 2 triple banded Cohibas today. Smoking a Casilda with my coffee this morning.
    5 points
  19. Last night in Buenos Aires, it has been a great 5 weeks in Argentina!
    4 points
  20. Not to make light of it, but our conversation yesterday had me thinking about this SNL skit.😂
    3 points
  21. Santaella Restaurant , Puerto Rico Pork Shank soaked in melted Caramel.
    3 points
  22. The full picture behind what occurred throughout 1969 is vastly different to what has been subsequently mythologised afterwards. This isn't a bad thing, and is quite normal, because in hindsight human beings look back on events in their lives through different emotional lenses at different stages and so the memories change (or even fade). I'll subsequently provide a detailed glimpse into the decisions made as events occurred, and this may change your view on things, because the break-up of the Beatles has been evaluated in standardised presentation by the Beatles themselves, specifically from the 1990s when the Anthology series came out. In contrast, John was completely honest in the year or two afterwards, and George continued to be candid well into the 1990s too. Paul and Ringo tended to present more wholesome versions of what happened, but that is more in line with their personalities, especially Ringo. To start off with, it's often said in print that George's song All Things Must Pass was rejected by the other Beatles during the Get Back sessions in January 1969. This is most definitely not the case. You see, what happened is that the Get Back project evolved as it went along from rehearsing a set of songs for a live concert, then to a TV special, then a film. Along the way, the Beatles couldn't agree with a venue so they decided to get the finale of the film over and done with and go up on the roof of their Apple Headquarters in London. In hindsight, people think that these events were planned and well-thought out, when in actual case, they often happened more spontaneously. The famous Abbey Road cover of the four Beatles crossing that now infamous pedestrian crossing happened because someone suggested naming that album after their engineer Geoff Emerick's packet of cigarettes (Everest), going to Mt.Everest in Nepal to shoot a photo, and then Ringo suggested that they should just go outside the studio and cross the road instead. So they did and there's history for you. The reason why George didn't have All Things Must Pass on the final Let It Be album is because during the process of working out the arrangement of the song to perform it live, he didn't feel that the four of them could do it justice in comparison to recording a version that was better arranged, with possible overdubs. So, he substituted more simpler songs as possible inclusions due to the theme of the Get Back album, which was to record a set of new songs performed live for the first time in front of an audience. It certainly was an interesting concept. The Beatles very much tried to make this song work for the Get Back album, devoting 71 takes and countless hours to it. George figured that he may save All Things Must Pass for another album down-the-track, but what happened in the meantime, of course, is that he felt marginalised in the whole process of rehearsing at Twickenham, more so with John than Paul (because frankly George was pissed off that John was allowing Yoko to talk for him all the time and he was frustrated in his communication with John), and famously left the band for just under a week. When he came back, he did so asserting himself. This meant that the idea of playing a live concert in front of an audience was no longer on the table and rehearsals were now conducted at Apple Studios, which was much more amenable in terms of a controlled environment. (Twickenham Film Studios, being a large open set was cold and not conducive to allowing the musicians to feel relaxed - notice the difference of the mood of the Beatles and Billy Preston when they went to Apple Studios in the Get Back documentary series.) This attitude that George exuded meant that he no longer held back on his songs thereafter. Note how strong, for example, Something and Here Comes The Sun were as inclusions on Abbey Road. In comparison, John and Paul's songs were not as dynamic, from a commercial point-of-view, on Abbey Road, but I will come back and expand on this point later. In early 1969, the biggest factor in the final break-up of the Beatles occurred when Paul was outvoted 3-to-1 to appoint Allen Klein as their business manager. Paul wanted his Father-in-law, Lee Eastman. This schism cause an untenable rift that could not salvage the relationships within the band. As musicians, the Beatles were always motivated by their contractual obligations and so they regularly put differences aside and simply made great music together. Abbey Road, for example, is proof of that. For a little while Klein managed three Beatles and Eastman managed Paul but in April 1969 a significant event occured. Basically, John and Paul wanted Klein to get their song publishing bought in full. This meant buying out ATV's shares, controlled by Sir Lew Grade, who bought them from Dick James in March, the month before. Dick James, contrary to how the actor Stephen Graham portrayed him in the Elton John biopic, Rocket man, was a decent, well-spoken man, but he didn't even offer a chance for John and Paul to buy him out. This proved to be a momentous occurrence in the history of the band. People nowadays speak highly of Dick James' character, but at that time he felt that John and Paul didn't respect him, especially John. (Does this sound like how George felt for years too, somewhat?) During April, John found out that Paul was buying shares of their Songwriting Publishing behind John's back and of course John was livid. Eastman was subsequently let go from all Beatles business and on May 9th, during a session that went badly at the studio that engineer Glyn Johns worked at (remember he played a big part in engineering the Get Back Sessions and is featured prominently in Peter Jackson's documentary), Olympic Studios, John, George and Ringo tried to get Paul to sign a contract to agree to Klein managing the Beatles. Paul refused. That night, after the other three went home after working on mixing a possible Get Back album release, Paul asked Steve Miller (and Glyn Johns) if he could let off some steam by contributing to the song that the Steve Miller band were working on at that time. To get an idea of how much stress and emotion these guys were carrying at this time, listen to the song My Dark Hour that Paul played drums on, that very night. It's simply incredible! Paul also contributed the bass, a guitar part and backing vocals. The intention was to release a Get Back album but the version that Glyn Johns finalised on May 28th, 1969 was rejected for not being polished or commercial enough. Allen Klein tried to buy out Sir Lew Grade, and when this failed, acting on John and Paul's behalf, he tried to buy out ATV. Eventually, Michael Jackson bought the song publishing rights because the Thriller album sold millions of albums in 1982 and made him immensely rich. By 1995, badly needing money to cover his debts, Jackson went into partnership with Sony and now Sony owns the Beatles songs that Lennon and McCartney wrote (excepting about 4 of them - including Penny Lane which West Australian mining magnate, Robert Holmes a Court's daughter, Catherine owns the rights to, but that's another story). So, these events in 1969 has resulted in Sony owning Music Publishing in Beatles' songs worth over $US1.5 billion today. After that May 9th session went badly, the Beatles all took early Summer holidays. John and Yoko went to the Bahamas and then Toronto for a Honeymoon 'Bed-In', Ringo took the QE2 to the Bahamas and New York with his wife, Maureen, George went with his wife, Pattie to Sardinia, Italy and Paul went with Linda to Corfu in Greece. The Beatles re-convened on July 1st to continue recording music for their next album, but by now a lot had changed. John and Paul were on very delicate terms with each other (for example, notice that on the song Come Together Paul contributions other than his bass part is the 'bare-minimum') and George took this opportunity to put forward songs that couldn't be vetoed by John and Paul, like what had happened in the past. Something became the first George A-side single and has proved to be one of the Beatle's biggest hits. Here Comes The Sun is the most streamed Beatles song of the modern era, easily in front of Let it Be, Hey Jude and Come Together. The Beatles still continued to make music together because of contractual obligations. It's often reported that the Abbey Road album, released in late September 1969 was meant to be a 'swansong' farewell with the intention of the Beatles bowing out on-top. This is merely an homage to that era, seen through rose-coloured glasses. The fact remains that the Beatles had convened in early September (except Ringo who was in hospital for a minor surgical procedure) after the Abbey Road sessions concluded on August 22nd, to discuss how to proceed with the next album (YES, the NEXT album!). The meeting was recorded for Ringo to listen to later and the tapes have been verified by Beatles' historian, Mark Lewisohn. I believe one can even access snippets of this conversation on YouTube! The reason this didn't proceed, and what proved the final death-knell, was that John recorded an acoustic demo of Cold Turkey in early September and presented it to the other band members as a song to be recorded as the next Beatles' single. This was of course rejected because of the subject matter (no way were the Beatles going to release a commercial song about drug withdrawal!), and at this point John decided that he would never record with the Beatles again. He demonstrated this new-found resolve by flying to Toronto for an impromptu concert with Eric Clapton, Klaus Voorman, Alan White and Yoko as the Plastic Ono Band in mid-September. Allen Klein asked John to keep the news of his leaving secret as he was negotiating a new royalty rate from EMI at the time. The new rate was so good that even Paul signed the contract, as can be seen in the image below on September 20th at a meeting at 3 Savile Row, Apple Headquarters... Immediately after this meeting,and after the contract was signed, John informed the others of his leaving to the great shock of Paul and Ringo. George was visiting his mother, sick with cancer, at this time and he signed a few days later, hence why he is not pictured. In essence, the writing was on the wall as during the Abbey Road album as Paul contributed songs that were not as strong as previous efforts. I believe he did this to keep the peace with the others as relations were tense. George continued to write songs and a great number of these ended up being stand-outs on his worldwide smash triple-sided album All Things Must Pass, released at the end of 1970. If the Beatles managed to release just one more album, I have no doubt whatsoever that George would have contributed more songs than his standard two per album. What would have happened is that if a hypothetical album in 1970 was released it would have had equal contributions from John, George and Paul and Ringo would have had one song to fill it out. As it goes, My Sweet Lord, Isn't It A Pity, Maybe I'm Amazed and Instant Karma (We All Shine On) all became famous songs of the post-Beatles solo era. However, at the very least, I'm confident that songs like Isn't It a Pity and Maybe I'm Amazed would have had the same reputation as other noteworthy Beatles songs of that time such as Let It Be and Something. In the end, John, George and Ringo all settled a multi-million dollar buyout of Allen Klein's managerial contract in 1973. Yeah sure, initially he made the Beatles a lot of money, but this came at a cost later, which John, George and Paul indeed found out. Paul took his Father-in-law's sage advice to buy up other artist's music publishing. He started off by buying Buddy Holly's publishing and today he is the wealthiest Beatle by far, making half his current annual income from his song publishing investments alone.
    3 points
  23. Was it Himalayan distilled water that has been hand drawn by virgins? If not, there's your problem.
    3 points
  24. But can he solve the puzzle when the 3rd 7th 9th and 12th cigar are in an upside down position in a sealed box?............"Wholly Smokes Vegueros Man! what does is all mean?" Cant wait for the Scooby Doo ending where they pull the fake mask off the head of HSA, and we find out it was Ken all along.
    3 points
  25. This Churchill had it all! Solid 93
    3 points
  26. Landed in Hong Kong yesterday eveneing and caught up with Kurt for a few drinks and cigars. Great stuff Brunch, dumplings at Duddles with Ravi followed by a cigar or two at the local lounges. I am keen to see how they are after a few years away. Crab under the bridge tonight apparently. I don't know if that means there is a restaurant there or that we will be dropping some crab pots Good to be back! What's up for the weekend?
    2 points
  27. Never looked at it that way but you are 100% correct.
    2 points
  28. Bourbon talking here: am I the only one thinking the Elmer glue eating kids are about to reach their pinnacle? " Yes I'm going to kill off humanity but my machine is perfect! " followed by childish giggles and screams? Having no idea their machine will be weaponized by the military to do what they do. Who am I kidding, DARPA is probably backing this thing. Please GOD take me before it happens. And AFTER I smoke my last great cigar! 😁
    2 points
  29. Fantastic (and unique) restaurant!
    2 points
  30. Had Filomena Italian when I was out there last time. Thought pretty good
    2 points
  31. May 22 Upmann #2 in Phuket Thailand Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    2 points
  32. We need Vegueros man right now. 👍 ......neighbour doesn't like your cigar smoke? "Call Vegueros man" ......having trouble with your Cuban draw? "Call Vegueros man" . ....then again we don't want to overwork the poor bastard 😁
    2 points
  33. Touch decadent but I love it. Pan fried Foie Gras Little place near me called "Mussels and lobster"
    2 points
  34. Great run of cigars lately highlighted by the TLE SEP 21 HDM EE.
    2 points
  35. Strong start to the working week Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk
    2 points
  36. I feel your pain…When my wife found out about the boxes of Behike & Sir Winnies, I somehow became the proud owner of some new LV luggage…
    2 points
  37. The same Ass holes that F#&ked up California get sick of it, then spread like cancer through the rest of the country. Its happening, Badly, in Colorado right now. We've been drastically going the wrong way for 5 to 7 years now. When I was in middle School, my 6 and 10 year old brothers and I would take the train to downtown to catch Rockies games, just the three of us, unsupervised. I feel less comfortable now, as a grown adult, spending time down there. The scariest part is, the worse it all seems to work, the harder people seem to push for it.
    2 points
  38. Nothing that happens in the People's Republik of Kalifornia surprises me one bit. I say let them become their own independent country. I'll stay here in South Carolina where gasoline cars, cigars, barbecue grills and normal folk are not forbidden. 😆
    2 points
  39. No need to overthink this one..quite alright really. Beats a lot of so called premium NC's at triple the price
    2 points
  40. Nice 10er of Padron Churchills landed today.
    2 points

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