73. DEGENERATE ART: THE ART AND CULTURE OF GLASS PIPES

glassblower snodgrass followed the dead.  he blew pipes. they were known as  snodgrass pieces.  through a fluke mistake, he developed color changing glass, and his eugene oregon business and training center grew.  the new generation in corvallis, oregon further developed the art, growing it to the point that  the glass tube industry saw fit to expand production of color tubes from about 10 to a couple hundred.  one featured bong maker earned $350 million a year, and when a container company designed an appropriate box to enable the product to be shipped and stored, he made $4 million!  internet sales  caused another boom, but ultimately led to arrests of 11 dot.coms in a sting called operation pipe dreams.  the industry cooled immediately, until coming back, once again, as underground art.  the designs are elaborate, truly art.  but, as one veteran glass blower asks, WHY does it always have to be a pipe?  another answers that without the bowl, it IS just art; it's like you need the underground tone of it being drug related to get it's proper reverence.  the entire film shows a lot of the production, but without details of exactly what's going on.  it also makes clear the industry is pipes, but doesn't ever directly say what the pipe is designed to do, i.e. smoke crack.  i have mixed feelings about the film.  it certainly shows the beautiful side of the production of these creations.  i can't help but think about the devastation on the other end.