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rushingheadlong · 4 years ago

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POP IN THE SUPERMARKET

Conveyer rock - is it all a hype? Colin Irwin looks at pre-packed pop and talks to the men behind new bands Queen (left) and Merlin

Hype. An ugly, unpleasant word frequently recurring in rock circles.

Up in the boardroom of a vast record company the fat cigar brigade are scratching heads. Binn and Batman have come up with another surefire hit and they want somebody fresh to market it. They ponder a few names and finally decide on one with slight but clear sexual connotations - suggestively camp.

Name settled, they work on the people who will be in this new band. They might be able to find a ready-made group to fit the bill but better to mould their own. There's a singer who has been around for a few years.

He's not great but he knows how to throw himself around a stage, has a hairy chest and can hit the high notes. Give him a new name and he'll do. Somebody knows a lead guitarist who can play a bit and looks good. They can advertise for the others.

They'll work out a sensational stage act, rig them up in some flash gear, buy them the best equipment and arrange a string of appearances in some influential venues. Plunge a few thousand quid in launching them with advertising and posters and "They'll be the biggest thing since sliced bread," chief fat cigar tells his underlings.

Session musicians are employed to record the single and being a Binn and Batman special the radio stations label it "chart bound" and play it twenty five times a day. Seeing the glossy photos in the bop mags the kids gather up their pennies and buy it.

VOILA, stars are born - or manufactured. An extreme form of hype.

There's also a cliché commonly used in the business about people who have been around for many years and finally make it. It's called talent-will-out. An idealist phrase but there is still a popular belief that if a band is truly talented enough it will win through in the end.

Yet even the greatest band in the world need a bit of pushing in the first place. When a record becomes a hit it's not always that easy to distinguish between hype and talent-will-out.

If a record company spends astronomical sums of money promoting a band, is it hype? Or is it a legitimate and necessary weapon in the music business? The argument is that the BBC's ever-tightening playlist and the effects on the industry of the three-day week have made it harder than ever for a new group to make it - talent or no. Without a big money machine behind it there isn't a hope.

The situation is illustrated by two energetic new bands, who both look like breaking.

Big money has been spent on Queen and Merlin, who have had new singles released during the last month.

Queen's record, "Seven Seas Of Rhye," is already moving swiftly up the chart, while Merlin's "Let Me Put My Spell On You," is doing well enough to suggest it might follow suit.

There is no suggestion that either band is a manufactured or manipulated product in the sense of the Monkees. They play the music on their own records entirely themselves and they are both hard at work on the road.

Yet the question arises as to whether they would be doing quite so well without the resources of big companies behind them.

In the case of Queen it's Trident Audio Productions and EMI and for Merlin it's Cookaway Productions and CBS.

The one common factor is that money and backing has been provided because the companies have a solid, unshakeable belief in the artists they are promoting. They are indignant about any suggestion of a put-on or that there has been any attempt to con the public.

Listen to Merlin's producer Roger Greenaway for half-an-hour and there is no doubting his faith in their ability. "They are going to break, I know they are. I'm convinced the record will be a hit."

Nobody's saying exactly how much it has cost to launch either band. "Over a period of months between £5,000 and £10,000" has been spent on marketing Queen by EMI while the figure for Merlin is even vaguer. "A bit, but not a vast amount. Not a fortune by any means."

"Seven Seas Of Rhye" is Queen's second single and was recorded as part of the album "Queen 2" which has just been released. Things started to move for them about a year ago when they recorded their first album for Trident, who have a distribution contract with EMI.

An advance was paid to them to help with the immediate costs of putting them on the road.

Review copies of the album - about 400 of them - were sent out to everyone who might conceivably have any influence on the record buying public, from discos to the national press. Copies were personally distributed to radio and TV producers and extensive advertising space was bought in the trade papers.

The launch for Queen was more concentrated than most artist are entitled to expect.

Trident were completely behind them from the start and found them their American producer Jack Nelson. EMI promotions men Ronnie Fowler and John Bagnall decided they had a product with an exceptional chance of success and they went all out to exploit it to the full.

Says Fowler: "Every record we release we work to a pattern of promotion. When I went round with the album it was normal procedure. It becomes un-normal when people start phoning you - that's when you put more effort into it."

Bagnall adds: "It became obvious after a week or so that it wasn't standard promotion that was necessary. We did a more complete promotion job than usual on Queen because we thought they were going to make it.

"They're all good-looking guys and I did a round of teeny papers and all the girls in the office swooned over them. Brian, the lead guitarist, had made his own guitar and a couple of the nationals picked up on that. It was good, gossipy stuff."

Queen's publicity machine was working from all angles because they were also getting external promotion from Tony Brainsby's promotion office.

He had been involved with them from the time they had been trying to get record producers interested. The intensity of it all paid off when they were invited to do a spot on the Old Grey Whistle Test. Radio Luxembourg latched upon the single "Keep Yourself Alive" and played it regularly.

Their first tour, supporting Mott the Hoople, got the full works. Local press was saturated with releases about this new band which was shortly coming to their town, elaborate displays were arranged at the front of the house on the night of the concert, local disc-jockeys were informed, and window displays were made in about 200 local record shops.

"Trident and EMI committed themselves right from the start to this band, to make sure they had a PA which was better than other bands had and to make sure they had the right clothes. Some of their outfits cost £150 each," said Bagnall. "Spending money on a band isn't hype. It wasn't being flash or extravagant for the sake of building an image. It was making sure that everything else was as good as their music."

Not so far removed from the attitude towards Merlin, although it has been on a smaller scale in this case.

The first Merlin tour, still underway, is rigorous. They are playing ballrooms and colleges all over the country on a lengthy round.

An ambitious project for a new, unknown band, but it has already been successful in that it has launched them as a name people now know. A full-page advertisement was bought in the MM. That's the sort of treatment you might get if you're Bowie, or Ferry, or even Mick Ronson. But Merlin?

They have only been in existence in their present form since last May.

They emerged as a result of discussions between Alan Love and Derek Chick about the possibility of forming a band with definite commercial appeal and a glamorous stage act. The idea reached fruition via a band called Madrigal, who had for some time been working the same circuit as Mud before "Crazy" broke for them.

Madrigal disbanded but reformed with the same drummer and bass player, and Love as singer and Chick as manager. A couple more young musicians were found to join them and Chick started the usual hustling to get them going.

In due course they came to the attention of Cookaway, and Roger Greenaway was hastily summoned to take a look at them. He had already seen Madrigal and when he saw the new model he immediately saw a big future for them.

Greenaway says: "I'd been looking for a group of this type for three years - a young under-20s group who can present a good act. There's a lot more showmanship attached to bands now. I wanted an act with a slightly different approach. I was in New York producing the Drifters and I came back especially to hear them."

He quickly took them into a studio to see how they reacted there and among the tracks they recorded was "Let Me Put My Spell On You" which had been written by Greenaway in collaboration with Tony Macaulay. Like Queen, the best equipment and some fancy costumes were bought for them and the launching process was put into operation.

My own experience of the Merlin project was a couple of weeks ago at Reading Top Rank - a bizarre mixture of precocious boppers, ageing teds, and stern-looking heavies.

Posters and pictures of the group were plastered all over the place and by the time they eventually appeared late in the evening you had been informed quite thoroughly that Merlin had made a record called "Let Me Put My Spell On You."

Greenaway says of Love: "He's got star quality and he's a great charmer. The guitar player Jamie Moses has got a terrific potential too. I've worked with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones but for me this guy at 18 is a better player than Jimmy Page was at the same age. He's the sort of player guys can follow - like Jet Harris - he had an incredible following with the guys."

He likens the Merlin launch to a military operation. The career of the group has been minutely planned since October. Accepting that it is almost impossible to get airplay for a new band on the BBC they decided the best way to break them was through a solid mass of live dates.

The dates were booked, once again the best equipment, including a light show, was bought for them, and distinctive stage costumes especially designed.

"By the time the tour has ended they will be a really tight band. We are getting support in the regions and you can break a record if you can get regional radio stations and disco plays. I believe this record is a hit and the signs are there. This is a ten-year job as far as I'm concerned."

Not that big money backing is any guarantee of success.

One of the biggest projects of this type was the launching of young Darren Burn as Britain's answer to Donny Osmond. To their eternal credit the record-buying public didn't apparently want an answer to Mr Osmond and the campaign failed.

The pop supermarket is not a new trend. The attractively packaged mass-produced record has been a part of the industry for a long time. The early releases of Love Affair, White Plains and Edison Lighthouse for example spring to mind.

The whole thing is justified for the makers by the fact that they still become hits, thus proving there is a demand for made-to-order records. If the public is willing - or gullible enough - to pay 50p for music created in the boardroom. Well it must be OK.

The Merlin single is blatantly, unashamedly aimed at being a big hit - that seems to have been the one criterion in making it. It has all the ingredients and as the whole thing has been done with concentrated professionalism it will probably be a hit.

Back to Roger Greenaway: "I don't want to present this as a Monkees type of image. It's not a manufactured group in any way - these guys have all been in other bands.

"What Merlin are about is success - reaching people. It's so wrong for opposing people to criticise. If Chinn and Chapman go out to reach a particular market at the thing they do best, and they reach them, then they're doing their job. They've filled a gap.

"When this record happens it'll be called hype but we haven't hyped anybody. Not a vast amount of money has been spent on them. It would be silly to have a tour like this without some sort of advertising. All the money that has been spent on them so far has been towards getting them on the road.

"It's expensive but it's minimal if you think of it as a along term thing."

It may be unfair to associate Queen with the pop supermarket. The group themselves were apprehensive about appearing on Top Of The Pops and the prospect of a hit record.

They have always regarded themselves as an album band and were concerned about being connected with the chart groups. The fact remains that they have been on the receiving end of a giant campaign to create a best-selling single and album.

The first album had sold far better than they had anticipated and there was great excitement around Trident and EMI as the second one was being made. Manager Jack Nelson came in virtually every day to play new tracks as they were completed and many discussions followed on which one should be released as a single.

A special meeting was held between Bagnall, Fowler, marketing manager Paul Watts and a few others to discuss the approach to the release of "Queen 2."

"We talked about the possibility of boxing the album, and other various publicity and posters needed to produce an album we were convinced was going to be one of the biggest of the year. We set a high target for it. 'Seven Seas' isn't a housewives' record so with the daily shows like Edmonds, Blackburn and Hamilton, there's no chance of getting it played, we knew that from the start. But the weekend shows - Rosko, Henry, and D.L.T. - they all flipped over it. I took the records round personally because I felt so strongly about it."

The prime plug, however, is Top Of The Pops. If a record gets exposure on that there is a more than even chance that it will become a hit. He played it to the show's Robin Nash and a couple of days later Nash phoned him and asked him where Queen were. Later he rang back and invited Queen to do a session.

The band weren't too sure whether they wanted to do it but eventually agreed although even then they didn't know until the last minute whether it would be used because they were half expecting a David Bowie film to arrive and take it's place. But in the end Queen were shown and "Seven Seas Of Rhye" moved dramatically from there.

"A lot of people have invested an awful lot of time and money in this band but not as a hype," says Bagnall. "The only truth in the music business is that if a band isn't good, no amount of money will get them to make it."

Greenaway may be right that Merlin are one of the most exciting bands to merge since the Beatles. Fowler might be right that Queen are one of the best since the Who. But big business still remains one of the sadder aspects of the music industry today.

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Huge thanks to the anon who brought this to my attention, since I’ve been looking for a copy of this article for ages now!

Credit for the original scans goes to @Chrised90751298 over on twitter, though I stitched it back together into a single image for ease of posting over there. Open the image in a new tab to see the full-size version!

#queen band #queen #queenband #merlin band #long post //#text

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scriptflorist · 7 years ago

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Question 2. Where in the flower shop, transport, setting up could someone have added a flower without being noticed? How is all this process done? Any possibly of them noticing the odd one they know they don't sell themselves and just remove it or inquire about it? I'm assuming yes so, it had to have been done at the concert and out of the florists hands? My story needs the musician tracking down how the extra flower got in to find his mom. Thanks for your help.

Hey again!

On to questions two! Which is a little tougher because unless it is stuffed away in a pack of other flowers it will definitely be noticed at some point, and if it’s stuffed away so it goes unnoticed it would be a miracle for the poor thing to survive. And since I don’t know what sort of flower you intend to smuggle for your character I can’t give you proper advice on how to hide it. See, when your flower shop owner goes to buy flowers from the wholesaler they won’t buy singles but packages of flowers. So while yes, an odd one could have gotten mixed into the package it’s highly unlikely since that would mean those two flowers came from the same field, and definitely the same company.

What is more likely is that someone at some point smuggled the flower into the stack of already paid packages of the florist. If they wait till the cart is already rather full and nobody’s going through the stacks anymore to check what they have to punch in, then it would go unnoticed till they get to the car. There is still a small chance that they still don’t notice while they load the flowers in, but I am going to advise against it so the special flower doesn’t get crushed. Immediate confusion aside, if the flower is supposed to stick with them they’ll make sure it will have a safe journey back to the shop.

In my experience, there are three ways for flower shops to obtain their flowers. If it’s a big company, like really big, like a flower supermarket, they will likely have deals with the companies growing the flowers and basically, empty some of their fields and from there on out everything goes into the hands of the company. I am going to say that I think smuggling in an extra flower would be much easier here since everything is produced en masse and there will be pre-made flower mixes, but at the same time it is the least likely for your scenario to work because it would include so much luck for your character to end up with the flower.

Way number two would be a well-known wholesaler over here, you can buy directly from them but they also deliver flowers. By well-known, I mean that every florist around here has pretty much heard of them whether or not they buy there. I’ve never been in contact with this wholesaler, so this is more hearsay for me, but I wanted to use this as an example that a single wholesaler with ample connections can very well supply multiple small businesses. (Mod Den Note: All of the smaller flower shops I’ve worked in in the US have had deliveries from a local wholesaler like this.)

Way number three and the one I am most acquainted with is the central flower market, which is exactly what it says on the label. Many different wholesalers gather there, so there’s lots of variety. Basically, your florist will get themselves a cart (they look kinda like these babies) and go looking for their stuff, buy it and get back to their car. They load everything in, bring the cart back and get to their shop. To give you an idea of the time schedule: Since all these purchases will have to be done before the shop opens florists are usually up and on their feet in the middle of the night.

So no, the possibility of nobody noticing the odd one out is very slim, as well as that it even ends up in the florists’ hands. However, if you insist on smuggling it into the shop I would go with the scenario I described earlier. Other than that there is the possibility of someone (in this case the mother in question) will have visited the shop and requested the flower to be bought so she could obtain it. (This scenario would help later, but more when we get to it.) Considering that she grew them herself she would be familiar with the blooming season and maybe even the average price, mainly the former would help her obtain the flower.

Scenario 1 (The smuggled flower): Whether or not the florist will know if the flower sells entirely depends on their clientèle, so you can practically have it go any way you like, but the fancier the flower is the more pricey it is. If it’s something out of their regular customers’ price range there is no use of putting it on display, and they might only present it to a few hand-picked customer who seem to have the money and taste for it. What’s more likely since they will be aware of not having paid for this flower, is checking their receipts (if they kept them) and wondering where they could have accidentally picked it up. Whether or not they mention it to the wholesaler is entirely up to their character though, but going with that they will keep it the flower is most likely to go into a single vase in the back of the store. From there on out the flower is entirely up to the florist’s mercy, they might have truly no use for it but if it’s any kind of presentable cut flower it’s more likely for them to make a special arrangement. Maybe it’s even for a regular, in that case, they would know whether or not an experiment like adding an unasked for flower is acceptable or not, but also whether or not they could gift it or sell it to them in the first place.

Scenario 2 (The bought flower): If they bought it they are more likely to put it on display. However, in this case, it’s more likely for them to have a small number of the flower in question than just a single one. Usually only fancy flowers like orchids or gloriosas are sold in singles, otherwise, the smallest package you can usually get is 3 or 5 at a time. Given that it’s such a small number and someone specifically requested the flowers the most likely scenario is for the florist to keep these separate from their usual display depending. If they are uncertain whether or not other customers would buy them, they could keep them just in eye-sight, but note that they’re already reserved for someone else whenever other customers inquire about them. Which is overall a good way to assess whether or not if it can be sold.

Regardless of the scenario if the flower is something they cannot sell as a single and don’t intend to keep it’s most likely to end up in an arrangement on display. That way it won’t have gone to waste and someone might actually buy it. Or maybe one of the employees notes how pretty it is and they get to take the flower home if their boss is okay with it, in case of a small corner shop that would be likely.Unless there is a definite reason to ask after the flower or they think they have accidentally picked it up from a wholesaler they regularly visit, I don’t think they will.

So now your guy got his flower and wants to track it. This would be quite hard in scenario one since the only way your florist has to do so is hopefully a picture and a guess which wholesaler might have such flowers. From there on out it’s questioning the people at the stands they usually shop at for clues. However, it is unlikely they would go out of their way to find the flower without good reason. Being a fan of said musician or knowing that it holds sentimental value or both might do the trick though.

Scenario two, however, would include receipts, even if the flower isn’t noted on them by name but by some obscure description, that would narrow it down for them if they don’t remember where they bought it. Whether or not the wholesaler actually knows where they got it from I can’t say for sure, but if it’s a well-known brand stamped on their package the more likely it is. The florist themselves might even remember who bought the flower at their shop if both the buyer and the musician mention that it holds sentimental value. Something like that would stand out, especially in combination with an unusual flower. And if the buyer is a regular the florist might even have name and number in their files. Unfortunately, that is information they wouldn’t be able to give out just like that. Either way, if they have the name of the place where the flowers were grown, there’s a slim chance those people actually have a website your character can check out.If you intend to have the florist not know anything about the flower, that is, the flower was added by someone after the florist put the arrangement together there are two points this could happen. If the same florist is delivering a lot of flowers to the concert venue, then they will be filling their van up with these arrangements. It’s possible that only one person will be loading the van (especially for smaller shops) and they will take a cart of arrangements out, get them settled into boxes designed to keep the arrangements from falling over during transit, then go back in for another cartload. That’s the first window where someone could quickly access the van and insert the extra flower into one of the loaded arrangements before the florist/shop assistant/delivery driver returns to load the rest of the arrangements. These vans aren’t always kept in super secure locations, just not easily reached spots like the alley behind the shop.

However, if the shop is a larger one where there is more security around the vans and more than one person loading the deliveries, the only point someone could slip in an extra flower to a previously created arrangement is at and after delivery to the venue. Then it’s a matter of who has access to the concert venue ahead of time.

One other method that I just thought of is someone calling into the florist shop and asking to add the flower to an already ordered bouquet. If the person that is trying to signal the musician knows someone that ordered flowers, say from social media, they could potentially call in pretending to be that person and ask for the flower to be added. If the flower is expensive then this will probably mean an additional charge (especially if the florist doesn’t already have some in stock and has to special order in a rush). But your message sender might get around this with a prepaid credit card or similar that can’t be traced as easily. The florist would have a record of the call in asking for the specific flower and probably have record of the card that the change was charged to (at least in part, depending on security protocols). Or have them go in person claiming to be a friend/family member of the person that ordered the flowers and either provide the flower to be added or pay in cash for any difference. That would allow the florist or cashier that assisted them to possible remember some physical features.

And… I think I’ve got everything covered now. If you still have questions, by all means, please let us know.

- Mod Jana

Disclaimer

This blog is intended as writing advice only. This blog and its mods are not responsible for accidents, injuries or other consequences of using this advice for real world situations or in any way that said advice was not intended.

#floristry #writing advice #purchase and transport #backtracking purchase #customer base #customer service #mod jana #ask answered #long post #Anonymous

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dulwichdiverter · 5 years ago

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A natural fit

BY ELIZABETH RUST

Photo by Lima Charlie

Get your glad rags on Dulwich, because there’s a new bar in town – where you can have a dance if the mood takes you too.

Sylvester, named after the disco queen famed for 1970s dance-floor classic You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real), serves up natural wines, Gipsy Hill beer on tap and cocktails.

First and foremost a natural wine bar, it is introducing wines that are produced with no intervention from their makers.

Natural wine means that the grapes grow wild on small, mostly family-run vineyards, unlike in large production houses where rows of tidy grapevines can be seen for acres.

During the fermentation process, nothing is added to the grapes and nothing is taken away or filtered from the final product.

This means that sometimes the wine can be cloudy, yeasty or more sour-tasting than a mass-produced version, which by contrast, can have sulphur, tannin and sugar added to the grapes.

Natural wines, sometimes dubbed organic or biodynamic wines, are all the rage in Paris. Parisians who are well versed in the winemaking process – and are keen to support the Davids rather than the Goliaths of the winemaking world – are sipping natural wines across the French capital, in down-to-earth wine bars that are passionate about grapes, serve light snacks and are filled with lots of philosophical chatter.

Herve Siard and Maud Level love these natural wines. They also love the funky Parisian places that serve them. So when they saw the French House’s lease up for sale on Lordship Lane, they decided it was time to snap up the opportunity to introduce these special wines to Dulwich.

“Natural wines are so much more individual,” Herve says. He likes that no bottle tastes the same – with some of the wines even being orange in colour or with a light natural fizz.

Herve was formerly very involved in the Parisian music scene, while Maud worked in advertising and hospitality, with a stint at local pub The Actress.

The duo are incredibly knowledgeable about natural wines. They have spent countless hours tasting many different varieties to create an affordable wine list that they hope will convert non-native natural wine drinkers into cult following natural wine experts.

The natural winemaking process is about letting the grapes speak for themselves. It also means that every bottle has its own character, story and complexity, developed by small, independent winemakers who are doing it for the love of wine and not necessarily to make a huge profit.

In essence, these are very different wines than those that are mass-produced to be sold in the supermarkets.

“Shelf life isn’t very long either,” Maud says. “At the end of the night we get rid of any open bottles. And when we get a delivery, we have to let the bottle settle before we can serve it.”

No bottle will taste the same, so really each one is a bespoke product, unlike the “managed” wines from mass-producing vineyards. That also means the wine changes in taste over time. These wines are very much alive and evolving within the bottle.

Currently Herve and Maud serve six wines by the glass, along with around 30 wines by the bottle, but they are adding more and more as they learn what Dulwich locals like drinking.

“We have wines with well-known classic grapes, like Syrah, but we also have funkier ones like the grape Grolleau, which my grandmother used to drink and is considered cool in Paris,” Herve says.

“In France people know grape varieties. It’s like here with beer. In France no one would know IPA, they would just order a lager, but in France people know the difference between the grapes.”

Still, if natural wine isn’t what you fancy, there’s also Gipsy Hill beer, Budvar and cider on tap and a cocktail menu. Maud recommends the Brits Spritz, which is like an Aperol spritz, but tastes similar to elderflower. “Natural wines are popular during the week, but cocktails are popular on weekends when everyone wants to let their hair down,” she says. A barrel-aged negroni sounds very tempting too.

On weekends, “Le Mini Club” in the basement hosts DJs spinning party tunes till 2am. Herve knows the music scene well, even inviting a Swedish DJ friend down for a session, but the area is full of amazing DJs, he says.

Meanwhile Maud has introduced a karaoke night on Thursdays. “Karaoke isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But you get amazing singers, and not so good ones, that’s why it’s fun,” she says. Local mums are getting in on the action too, with one already enquiring about a “mumgarita” party night on Wednesdays.

Sylvester attracts all sorts of people: older, younger and everyone in between – which is exactly what Herve and Maud wanted. They offer a warm welcome and like listening to stories from all walks of life. “That’s really what makes this enjoyable,” Maud says.

There’s a small kitchen in the back serving up thin-crust, Roman-style pizzas, but these are meant more as a snack, Herve says. “We recommend that a table of four order one pizza to accompany the wine.”

His favourite is the Calabria pizza with spicy Italian sausage, red onion, rocket, mozzarella and tomato, while Maud likes the Quattro Formaggi with mozzarella, provolone, gorgonzola and parmesan.

However, “we are not a pizza restaurant”, the duo stress. It’s really more about pairing light Italian tapas with natural wine – that’s how the Parisians are doing it.

As anyone can guess, opening a new independent business isn’t without difficulty. Maud admits they are exhausted by Sunday. “Monday is our rest day,” she says.

The Monday before they went wine-tasting and both fell asleep in the Uber on the way home. “I hope we’ll get into the swing of things.” She’d like to fit in a spin class in the morning before starting her shift.

The two live together upstairs above Sylvester. After dating long distance, Herve living in Paris, Maud in London, they decided that they needed to do something where they could live in the same city.

With a mutual passion for introducing and showcasing natural wine, opening Sylvester was their answer. Their energy and enthusiasm are electric – much like the eye-catching pink and blue neon sign that hangs above the bar.

Sylvester just feels right for Dulwich. Herve and Maud have created an independent wine bar full of life and character. Cheers to them and to their success.

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nancygduarteus · 6 years ago

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Is Corn the Worst Food Allergy?

When Christine Robinson was first diagnosed with a corn allergy 17 years ago, she remembers thinking, “No more popcorn, no more tacos. I can do this.”

Then she tried to put salt on her tomatoes. (Table salt has dextrose, a sugar derived from corn.) She tried drinking bottled iced tea. (It contains citric acid, which often comes from mold grown in corn-derived sugar.) She tried bottle water. (Added minerals in some brands can be processed with a corn derivative.) She ultimately gave up on supermarket meat (sprayed with lactic acid from fermented corn sugars), bagged salads (citric acid, again), fish (dipped in cornstarch or syrup before freezing), grains (cross-contaminated in processing facilities), fruits like apples and citrus (waxed with corn-derived chemicals), tomatoes (ripened with ethylene gas from corn), milk (added vitamins processed with corn derivatives). And that’s not even getting to all the processed foods made with high fructose corn syrup, modified food starch, xanthan gum, artificial flavorings, corn alcohol, maltodextrin—all of which are or contain derivatives of corn.

“It’s such an useful plant,” Robinson says of corn. “It can be made into so very, very many things that are, from my perspective, trying to kill me.”

[ Read: Drowning in corn ]

Corn allergies are relatively rare, and ones as severe as Robinson’s are rarer still. (Many people unable to eat whole corn can still tolerate more processed corn derivatives.) But to live with a corn allergy is to understand very intimately how corn is everywhere. Most of the 14.6 billions bushels of corn grown in the U.S. are not destined to be eaten on the cob. Rather, as @SwiftOnSecurity observed in a viral corn thread, the plant is a raw source of useful starches that are ubiquitous in the supply chain.

It’s not just food. Robinson told me is she is currently hoarding her favorite olive oil soap, which she had been using for 17 years but recently went out of stock everywhere. (A number of soap ingredients like glycerin can come from corn.) She’s been reading up on DIY soapmaking. A year ago, the brand of dish soap she liked was reformulated to include citric acid, so she had to give up on that, too. And navigating the hospital with a corn allergy can be particularly harrowing. Corn can lurk in the hand sanitizer (made from corn ethanol), pills (made with corn starch as filler), and IV solutions (made with dextrose). A couple years ago, she went to see a specialist for a migraine, and her doctor insisted she get an IV that contained dextrose.

“And while in the midst of a migraine I had to argue with a doctor about the fact I really could not have a dextrose IV,” she says. In the moment, she realized how absurd it was for her to be telling a world-class specialist to change her treatment.

[ Read: The allergens in natural beauty products ]

Because corn allergies are rare, doctors are often not familiar with the potential scope. Robinson says she was the first case her original doctor had ever seen in 38 years, and he didn’t know to advise her against corn derivatives. Even official sources of medical information can be confusing, telling corn-allergy patients they do not need to avoid cornstarch and high-fructose corn syrup. Misinformation abounds in the other direction, too, as corn allergies can be easy to misdiagnosis and easy to self-diagnose incorrectly. All this means that corn allergy sufferers encounter a good deal of skepticism. But Robert Wood, president of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology and a pediatric allergist at Johns Hopkins, told me that derivatives like corn syrup can indeed cause problems for certain people.

People with corn allergies have naturally been finding each other on the Internet. A Facebook group called Corn Allergy & Intolerance (Maize, Zea Mays) now has over 8,500 members. Becca, a tech worker in Washington state, writes a fairly prominent blog called Corn Allergy Girl. (She asked I not use her last name because she is currently interviewing for new jobs and didn’t want her health status to come up with employers.) The blog collates years of Becca’s research into corn allergies as well as resources inherited from other, now-defunct corn allergy blogs.

Members of the Facebook group have also forged ties with individual farms. Once a year, says Robinson, a farmer in California sends members of the group a big box of avocados that have not been exposed to corn-derived ethylene gas or waxes. “It’s a great month when you’re trying to get through all of them,” she says. For the rest of the time, she gets most of her food from a CSA with a local farm in Pennsylvania.

Becca, who writes Corn Allergy Girl, also gets a lot of her produce from local farms. The rest she grows. She goes to a specific butcher and meat processor who will custom-process whole animals for her without using lactic acid or citric acid. She has two fridges and several freezers to store food for the winter, when fresh vegetables are less abundant. “I go all Little House on the Prairie on the weekend,” she says, “pickling things and shredding them and baking them.” She counts herself lucky to live in the Pacific Northwest, where there are many organic, local farms. It’s harder to find fresh food in many other parts of the country, and it’s much harder to do so on a budget. “Your dollars just don’t go as far as if you’re getting bunch of Chef Boyardee. It’s very cheap to eat canned, preserved food,” says Becca. She had to run GoFundMes, for example, for friends who can’t afford to buy chicken from a source they can tolerate.

The diet of someone with a severe corn allergy is in some ways the ideal diet of a certain type of foodie: fresh, local, free of preservatives and processed foods, the provenance of every ingredient intensely catalogued. It’s just not exactly by choice.

Knowing how to avoid foods with corn is one thing; knowing how to navigate social situations where danger lurks in every corner is another.

Robinson says she has two rules when eating out with friends now. First, eat beforehand. Second, order a San Pellegrino and an appetizer for the table to share, which deflects the inevitable concern from the waitstaff. “They're nice, but people really feel they can find something, and they try. You have to keep saying, ‘No, I can’t I can’t,’ and everybody feels bad.”

Cassandra Wiselka, whose five-year-old is allergic to corn, has written about the problem of Halloween. Virtually all mass-produced candy contains high-fructose corn syrup. Her son still goes trick-or-treating, but she switches out the candy he collects with corn-free alternatives: lollipops, gummy bears, and “fancy expensive chocolate that we don’t even buy for ourselves.” She makes and freezes big batches of corn-free cupcakes and pizza to bring to birthday parties. It’s hard, she says. “He still gets upset at birthday parties and things where he has to have his own special food.” They recently had to turn down a birthday party that was moved to a pizza place last minute because they didn’t have time to make safe pizza to bring.

Wiselka’s family moved from Germany to California when her son was 18 months old. He seemed to get worse after the move. It’s hard to say exactly why but Wiselka noticed that “in Germany, things are a lot less processed, foodwise. At least not processed as much with things like corn.”

The one thing Robinson told me she really misses is being able to travel without worry. She did make a trip to Hawaii recently, after much advanced planning. She picked Hawaii for the scuba diving. When she dives, she has to watch out for a few specific things—that her wetsuit had not been washed with a corn-containing detergent, that her dive partners have not been eating corn chips. But once she’s in the water, she’s calm. Sure, scuba diving can kill if you aren’t careful (100 people die while diving in North America every day), but she can be sure there is no corn in water.

“You don't realize you're carrying around this extreme sense of alertness,” she says. “That level of hypervigilance that you have for things that you could touch or breath in is gone. You're breathing air that you know is and you know the actual oxygen content of. It's just incredibly freeing.”

from Health News And Updates https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/01/what-its-like-be-allergic-corn/580594/?utm_source=feed

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ionecoffman · 6 years ago

Text

Is Corn the Worst Food Allergy?

When Christine Robinson was first diagnosed with a corn allergy 17 years ago, she remembers thinking, “No more popcorn, no more tacos. I can do this.”

“It’s such an useful plant,” Robinson says of corn. “It can be made into so very, very many things that are, from my perspective, trying to kill me.”

[ Read: Drowning in corn ]

[ Read: The allergens in natural beauty products ]

Knowing how to avoid foods with corn is one thing; knowing how to navigate social situations where danger lurks in every corner is another.

Article source here:The Atlantic

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