Click, Bang!: Talk Show for Vapers
Each morning I used to wake up and make coffee, turn on the TV and watch the news. I’d then get on the computer and check e-mails, forums, Twitter, and Facebook. Added somewhere between any of those activities, I find myself catching up on what I missed on Click, Bang! the previous week.
It’s hosted by Russ (@burnt_wick), a New York native who started using electronic cigarettes in August 2010. He came into the spotlight when asked to do a bit 
on VapeTV. That lasted until he was deemed too “radical” for VapeTV. Deciding that radio allows him to be more uninhibited, the show takes on a new direction and does a couple of unique things. Firstly – it’s a radio show! You might be thinking “Who listens to radio anymore?” but for a lot of people it’s nice to be able to listen and not be glued to a computer. Second – it’s open mic night, every night. The host invites anyone to call in (via telephone) and speak their mind about anything they wish that is going on in the vaping community or elsewhere. He’s even got it set up where multiple callers can talk to each other, live. Lastly (and this goes with #2) – there is no restraint on what can be discussed, from politics to religion to drugs or the history of the Ottoman Empire. Speak and be heard!
Politics, being a passion of the host, Russ says he wants to “Try to bring a philosophical perspective into a talk radio program.” He believes “so many people make the mistake of just jumping into a political discussion without a philosophical base. [You need a] well worked through philosophy that’s based on metaphysics, epistemology, logic [and] reason which will lead you to ethics and then into politics and everything else falls into place…without doing that, it’s hard to win…and end up where you really want to be.”
Beside that, you will hear from special guests, prank phone calls, sex jokes, fart jokes, music, news about new vaping products, and possibly bear witness to some terrible celebrity impressions.
You can listen to Click, Bang! on Tuesdays at 9PM Eastern on VPLive. I have been catching up on past episodes at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/vapersplace.
The Episode Index thus far:
Episode 1: Russ’ first official episode of Click, Bang! on VPLive, including all the reasons why you should absolutely avoid this horrible program.
Episode 2: Russ recaps his bachelor party trip to Montreal and talks about ecig usage and restrictions in Canada
Episode 3: Russ talks about why he lost his show on VapeTV
Episode 4: Russ talks about the HH .357 atomizer, makes a desperate cry for help, and other associated nonsense. Video of the HH .357 in action: http://yfrog.com/15o4jz
Episode 5: An update on the HH .357 Atomizer, dumwaldo and JKBonin go at it live on the air, chaos and New York City go hand in hand….talk about bitcoins and ecigs next week.
I thought I’d provide some direct links to a couple of the prior TV shows as well:
How I started Vaping …and where I am today
Here’s a story I get tired of telling so I’m going to write it down and give up telling it. I don’t mind talking about e-cigs but I just get bored talking about myself at length to explain how it began and where I’m at today.
In May 2009 I had to go out to California for a funeral. While I was there, I read in the LA Times about some electronic cigarette thing called Blu. It made all sorts of claims, but when I got to the part about “no tobacco” and “not real smoke” I said to myself, “Wtf is this garbage?” and totally passed on the whole idea.
I started seeing a girl in January 2010 and she didn’t smoke. She lived in a third story apartment that had no terrace. Who gets a third story apartment without any sort of balcony, especially when your view is the ocean? Anyway, after I began going over there frequently, I got pretty damn tired of three flights of stairs every half hour to smoke. I remembered the electronic cigarette thing and said to her “I’m going to get something I can smoke in here, and you won’t care.” I figured at the very least it might work enough to keep me from running up and down the stairs, and I could return to my traditional tobacco cigarettes when I wasn’t over there.
Always researching things before I buy them, I ended up on ECF. I asked a bunch of questions and everyone at the time was pointing to the Joye 510 as the best device to get started on. I watched a bunch of GrimmGreen video reviews and made my order at CigNot.
I remember buying a no-box kit for about $60 at the time, which came with 2 black batteries, one with a purple light on the end, the other with a blue light. I was trying to avoid the cigarette-look. I ordered their Kent 26mg juice and their Marlboro whatever-strength it was.
Finally got the thing in the mail. I was refilling my cartridges and puffing on that thing all the time! I was able to get off the cigarettes the very first day I received the device. It was so intriguing! I was so conditioned to believe it will without a doubt work (after reading forums), that it did work enough for me to make the switch. I eventually made an order at AwesomeVapor and bought some RY4 after more GrimmGreen reviews. After two weeks of trying to get the cartridges to work as designed, and the filler material getting burnt, I gave up and became a dripper.
Somewhere along those lines I saw an Introduction to Vaping video done by some chick named Spike. She was very informative and I learned everything about how these work, even after thinking I knew it all. The video tutorial was such a great help!
I wanted to learn more, I wanted to know where this person posted regularly. I wanted to say thanks for the video, so I set out to find her. She had an ECF profile but it said “Banned”. I was thinking “wtf”? Later, I found out she had her own forum called VapersForum. Leaving all the forum politics aside, this became my new home. I got in touch with her after not too long, come to find out we live about twenty minutes apart. (No she does not become my soul mate and no we did not get happily married – that’s not where this is going).
I got invited to the February 2010 Long Island Vapers’ Club meeting at the Bethpage Townhouse Diner after not too long and that’s where a whole new world opened up. Most notably I met Robosax and Ridewithme38. Ride had a bunch of DeKang juice that he wasn’t going to use, and just about every mod in existence at that time, tucked away neatly in a poker-chip case. Robosax had (among other things) the Copper. It was a 6v device and once I tried it, I was sold. I left there with a few of those DeKang juices that Ride was going to never use, and ordered the Copper from AtmosUSA right away. High Voltage Vaping was where it was AT !
I continued going to meetings. In March 2010 the Low Resistance Atomizer was introduced. The cost was a bit more than I wanted to pay at the time, finally they came down in price. It was actually not until I was in Spike’s car getting a ride home from a NYC meet that I lost my regular atty in her seat, and she passed me a low-res atty to use on my Joye 510 that I decided “Oh yeah, this is what I need”. (So bullshit to those who say you can’t use a LR atty on devices less than x amount of mAh because that 510 battery still works fine today).
Since then I have used a Joye eGo from PureSmoker almost exclusively with low res atomizers. I won a Leo at an NVC raffle from eliquidplanet, and when Cisco came out with an adapter to use a 510 atomizer on it, I started using it a lot more than my eGo. (Leo had 800 mAh, eGo had 650 mAh – it lasted longer). More recently I bought a Variable Voltage Box Mod from MadVapes and a 1000 mAh eGo-T battery w/ USB charge and Pass-Thru capability from Clouds of Vapor. My favorite juices have been the Root Beer at AveJuice, a lot of different things at Clouds Of Vapor, Taboo & Honey Flue Cured Tobacco from LiquidXpress, and Torque56 from Halo. I still use low resistance 510 atomizers, but I also use low resistance 306’s and dual-coil cartomizers. That’s where I am right now and I learn more and more each meeting I attend.
Thanks to Spikey, Robosax, and Ridewithme38. Thanks also to GrimmGreen for getting me started by being able to see and hear how these things perform. Thanks to everyone else who has contributed by posting on VapersForum where I learned so much from you all. And of course, thanks to all the vendors mentioned for your fair prices and business practices, quick shipping, and quality products!
Cherry Tobacco and Slim Mint e-Liquid from Clouds of Vapor
So I’ve been puffing on these two juices to get away from the month-long of vaping butterscotch that I’ve had going on. The Cherry Tobacco is exactly what I was expecting to get from cherry pipe tobacco when I used to smoke, and DIDN’T get. Ever walk past one of those old men standing outside the tobacco store puffing on a pipe, and it smelled like a wonderful mix of cherry and tobacco? Well, when you actually smoke that shit, you’ll find that it tastes NOTHING like what it smells. Bruce succeeded in making his juice TASTE like that SMELL. It’s wonderful – I have witnessed people who never vape a tobacco flavor, vape this!
I’m not big on menthol and mint flavored e-Liquid, having never been much of a menthol smoker to begin with. I used to only smoke menthol cigs when I was down with a cold – probably made the thing worse, looking back at it. ANYWAY, I didn’t try this stuff before I bought it. I’ve been getting a lot of people turned on to vaping and every time I’m asked about a menthol flavor, I don’t have one – so why not, right? I let my cousin hit it, who never vapes, and his first impression is “This tastes just like a York Peppermint Patty”. I have the same sentiment about it, but I think it’s a little off from that. It’s more minty than chocolaty but still a very good vape. I’d recommend that to anyone who… thinks they’d like to try a juice that tastes like a Peppermint Patty, albeit a little more minty.
Both available from Clouds Of Vapor, the COV Cherry Tobacco is from the CloudPure Juice line, and the Slim Mint is available in their CloudPure Naturals Organic Vapejuice line. Both are available in 8, 16, and 24mg – I’ve been told Bruce will mix you a 0mg juice if you specify in the comments field of the order. All juice made by Clouds of Vapor is 100% VG.
Good Luck in Florida, Bruce!
Well I haven’t always had the greatest cash flow and so my e-cig related gear purchases have always been in the under $100 range. Tonight was going to be no different at the NVC meeting in Manhattan, but Bruce @CloudsOfVapor is moving to Florida in about a week. I don’t like to pay shipping costs so I figured I better buy a bunch of stuff in person for the last time. Let me tell you, this guy is, as we call him, the “Santa Claus” of vaping. He’s got everything in his rolling suitcase.
Don’t have time to get much into the details, but here’s what I picked up:
- 1000 mAh Joye eGo battery with USB charging port and pass-thru capability (black)
- 1000 mAh Joye eGo battery standard (copper)
- (5) 1½ Ω Dual Coil Cartomizers (black)
- (2) 510 LR Atomizers
- (2) 510 Standard Atomizers
- Pawn Tip (made by Chris @CherryVape)
- Ming Tip (made by Chris @CherryVape)
- Delrin Drip Tip
- (3) Butterscotch 24mg Cloud Pure Juice
- Butterscotch 16mg Cloud Pure Juice
- (2) Cherry Tobacco 24mg Cloud Pure Juice
- Slim Mint 24mg Cloud Pure Juice
- Black and Tan Cloud Pure Juice
- COV Tobacco 24mg Juice
- (2) 14500 High-Drain Batteries (come with magnets to help make contact in some devices)
Yeah, he has all that stuff in his bag and ready to sell. Amazing, huh? I wish there were more vendors like this, but I haven’t met one in NY yet! They’ll often bring too little too late, but I guess that’s what I’ll have to get used to after next week, huh?
There’s two reasons for posting this on the blog, one is that I might get back and give my opinion on some of these, and two is that I have my list in case I need to ever remember what I bought for re-order purposes or whatever. Yes, my “opinion” – I don’t want to come out and do full-fledged reviews of any of this stuff, but I do want to come back and say “yeah I liked it” or “no it sucked”, plainly and simply.
