Smoke On The Water

Smoke On The Water is one of those iconic songs released in early 1972.  It refers to the events of the band repeatedly trying to find a place for making music and both times, the venue was destroyed by fire, hence seeing smoke seemingly rise from a water front.  The lyrics do not state wether this was a fictional sequence of events or if they were based on actual experiences of the members, but the intent is there... don't burn bridges before you cross them.  Or maybe a more accurate conceptualization would be, no matter what comes your way, don't let it interfere with your art.  Then there is the possibility that it was the 70's, it could simply mean, don't let your pot head friends set off flare guns in closed buildings.  Regardless, the end result is the same:  you have to be aware of how your actions resonate into the future.

Foreshadowing if difficult at best.  Many decisions in life are lain with the best of intentions, but may cause catastrophic effects.  The bottled water industry could arguably be one the greatest example of such an instance.  Most people love the convenience of a bottled water stuck in a purse, backpack or side pocket of your car for later.  There have been many times in my life when an allergy pill and a bottle of Ozarka have made the difference between a good day and a really bad day for me.  But what is the consequence of our creature comfort?

Millions of bottles fill our landfills.  The resources to manufacture and transport water tax our ecosystem in an extreme way.  I would love to see a report on the fuel usage just to distribute the various brands of water around the world.  I think the total would be staggering.  The electricity that is used by dozens of plants purifying the water to be bottled would also be astounding, I'm sure.  Then you must consider the fuel and energy dispersed to remove the trash from our homes, sort, redistribute to landfills, and then pushed around by trucks and tractors into their designated areas.  If anyone reading this has ever driven by a landfill on a hot summer day (like Lewisville, Texas at 100 plus degrees outside), you can attest to how terrible it is to live near a landfill.  The stench of a steamy, smelly, sun scorched pile of garbage stretched over 400000 square feet... not pretty.  

A clear alternative is to drink tap or filtered water.  Find some rockin reusable bottle at your favorite super-center and drink away.  Also, supporting alternate means of supplying filtered water is a must.  Some college campuses, Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, for example, has dozens of water dispensers installed by a filtered water company and the water is purified inside a unit that looks like a regular water fountain.  By supplying their students with resources to fill their own bottles, the students have almost stopped purchasing bottles all together.  It is no cost to the students and the water is completely pure (according to the manufacturer).  And lets face it... if my doctor tells me to drink two quarts of water a day, I think I can find better things to do with nearly ten dollars besides giving it to the coke company.

So, we can have purified water easily accessible with the proper supplies.  We can have less garbage in our landfills.  We can eliminate pointless waste of natural fuels by less mass transportation.  My foreshadowing feels like this is a no-brainer.  In Poland, 2009, a new Guinness World Record was set for the largest mass participation of a guitar solo in which 6,346 people played the rift from "Smoke On The Water" at the same time.  Maybe if Deep Purple had some foreshadowing of this occurrence, they might have disbanded in 1971.