About me: Karma is an elegant smoking lounge with two separate floors to entice you. The main floor, which is open daily from 1pm – 4am boasts a majestic candlelit bar, velvet sofas, deep, resonant music, and cozy tables topped with ornate brass hookahs. The downstairs lounge, which is open in the evenings, is more intimate, with a full bar, velvet benches, and tables topped with hookahs for your smoking pleasure. Artwork displayed by talented local artists is what adorns Karma’s walls, adding to its aura of sensuality and intimacy. During the day you are invited to Karma Café, with happy hour prices from 1pm-8pm, 7 days a week. Ambient beats and alternative classics played at Karma during the day compliment our Happy Hour and are sure to rejuvenate the soul.
Your experience at Karma promises to be a delight to the senses. Beautiful, elegant bartenders, a wide variety of hookah flavors to choose from, a vast array of specialty drinks and spirits, and hot, resonant music spun by talented mix masters are what will contribute to making your experience at Karma unforgettable.
Karma is a true mix of East Village diversity in a no attitude space where everyone is welcome.
Air Quality:
A smoking lounge? Must the air be filled with smoke? Not so at Karma. As you enter you will notice that although most people are smoking, there is virtually no smoke in the air. We manage to keep the environment smoke-free using a state of the art Biozone air purification system. The Biozone system infuses the air with a plasma of Ozone, Negative Ions and UV Light. The smoke is oxidized by the ozone, which loses one of its molecules in the process of releasing pure oxygen into the air. The oxygenated air is continuously circulated and filtered through two sets of filters.
Shecky’s review of Karma
”Karma is classy. This sitting in the shade staring at the clouds kind of lounge knows it’s the little touches that matter in a city over-saturated with bars. The black light that shines on the original artwork adorning the brick walls not only makes the place look hip, but it also serves as a great cover up for all those pimples you’ve been hiding from your date. The best seat in the house is the cozy red velvet couch overlooking 1st Avenue. There you can blissfully smoke some of Karma’s fun and flavorful sheesha as East Village passersby stare in wishing they were as cool as you. There is great music most nights right smack dab in the center of the room that lends itself nicely to the comfortable atmosphere. The staff is very pleasant and seems intent on making your night of excess as pleasurable as possible. And why not, you’re only young once! Spread the love and rack up those points for the afterlife at Karma!”
Who I'd like to meet: A Hookah is a traditional Middle Eastern or Asian device for smoking. It operates by water filtration and indirect heat. There are four fundamental parts of a hookah, or water pipe:
1. The base or smoke chamber, which is partially filled with water
2. The bowl, which contains the tobacco; the heating apparatus is placed on top
3. The pipe, which connects the bowl to the base by a tube that plunges into the water
4. The hose, which connects to a second tube in the pipe that does not plunge into the water, but only the air of the smoke chamber.
There are many decorations or subtle variations in form. The heating apparatus is usually charcoal, but in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf, electric heaters are common. The charcoal is usually placed on a metal mesh or perforated aluminum foil.
Etiquette:
In Arab society, social smoking is done with a single hose: when the smoker is finished, either the hose is placed back on the table signifying that it is free, or it is handed from one user to the next, folded back on itself so that the mouthpiece does not point at the person receiving it. The receiver taps or slaps the giver on the back of the hand while taking it.
Tobacco:
TheThe most commonly-used hookah tobaccos (known as tobamel or maassel) are produced using a 1:2 mixture of shredded tobacco leaf mixed in with a sweetener such as honey, molasses or semi-dried fruit. Originally, tobacco was mixed with one of these sweeteners to form jurâk (e.g. Zhaghoul brand) - a flavorless, moistened tobacco. The now-popular, fruit-flavored hookah tobaccos got their start in the late 1980s when Egyptian tobacco companies began experimenting with flavored tobacco as a way to sell more of their products to women. Today, shisha tobacco is often mixed with dried fruit, natural extracts and flavorings to produce a varying assortment of tobacco flavors, such as apple, strawberry, mango, vanilla, coconut, cherry, grape, banana, mixed fruit, cola, lemon, apricot, and mint, which has a cooling effect on the throat.
hey...
this is my new release TELEBODY...its a 3 track ep out on LEICHTklang Records.
click on the image to buy it, or listen to a preview on my page...
regards, J
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