I thought of a chicken thing!†
[SUMMARY: You are so excited!]
I flipped on the TiVi Monday night and it warmed up‡ to the beginning of Wheel of Fortune. Pat was asking the contestants to tell us a little bit about themselves. The first guy wanted to say, "Hi!" to his four dogs and his wife§ and Pat asked him a couple of leading questions about the dogs.
The next contestant was a woman who mentioned her husband and kids, and Pat, tongue-in-cheek, asked if she had any pets she wanted to say, "Hi!" to.
"We have seven chickens, Pat."
"Seven chickens? What are their name? Do they have names?"
"They do, Pat. There's Kung Pao, Fricassee, Alfredo¶..."
I thought it was pretty funny.
[SUMMARY: You are so laughing!]
What's more, I thought, "Chickens! I have to remember to share that with all my blogfriends! 'Cause it's *chickens*!"
Then four hours passed and I lost it, but trying to remember where I put my Chase credit card this morning, I remembered the chicken story.#
[SUMMARY: You are so lucky!]
In other chicken news, Red, most-favoured pirate chicken of Marybeth, may be a rooster. Which would make him ineligible for city living. And Marybeth would have to send him to live on a farm.
Just like your dad did with your dog when you were four.
[SUMMARY: Euphemism?&]
And guess what? I got a lovely perfume sample in the mail from Ineke††, so perfume too!%
It's Friday. It's a good day. Keep your fingers crossed for Red.
*************
Field Notes from Paris - Ineke
Marin says: Love may not be too strong a word.
It's funny because this evolves in my head as something maybe I shouldn't like and I don't know why -- like a guilty pleasure, only I can't even tell you why I'd be sheepish about it.‡‡
There's a splash of sweet lime in the beginning. Like almost all citrus, it levels out quickly and leads to the most intoxicating, elusive blend of... what? I would swear there's a touch of patchouli in there, but I can't quite catch it. It's not as earthy as some patchouli, not as dark as some patchouli and definitely not as strong as most patchouli. A patchouli of song and light?§§
Something woody, but I can't put my finger on what breed of wood. Tobacco flower, definitely -- it's one of my best scents and I can usually pick it out of a crowd. Maybe the wood is tobacco leaf. It has a sweetish tang I associate with tobacco.
The more it settles in, the more it reminds me of some of the exotic pipe tobaccos I've sniffed in my years of trying to find gifts for my father.
Then the sweeter, rounder elements mellow back in the mix and an oil slick of... leather? Salt? Clean sweat?¶¶ settles on top.
I think this smells the way I want a man to smell, but I find it not unfeminine. Maybe there's a white flower floating around, keeping it from being all horses and testosterone. In any case, it may be the perfect unisex fragrance.
Ineke says: Field notes from Paris is inspired by Ineke's halcyon days studying perfumery in Paris and Versailles. It captures the romantic, nostalgic feeling of sitting at a cafe and writing in a journal while lingering for hours over a cafe creme.
This "woody oriental" structure combines the warmth of tobacco flower and leaf$ with the vintage perfumery notes of coriander seed@, patchouli$ and tonka bean. Field Notes from Paris is an enigmatic scent with a warm, comforting presence.##
Top notes: Coriander Seed, Orange Flower, Bergamot
Middle: Tobacco Flower & Leaf, Patchouli, Cedar
Base: Tonka Bean, leather, Beeswax, Vanilla
Hans says:
Marin: "I really like this one. I probably shouldn't tell you that."
Hans: "Oh, great. Now I'm not objective. Ooooh. I like it too. It's got some spice@, like... cinnamon and... spice. And everything nice.
"You can quote me on that."
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): Which sounds like the tawdry confession of a dirty little fetish.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Remember back in the day when the TiVi had to warm up -- and cool down? It kinda tickles me that my state-of-the-2006-art HDTV has to warm up like when I was a kid.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): In that order.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Hence, the Fredo blogtitle.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): And tomorrow, when I'm trying to find my cookie scooper or my size 9 Addy Turbos, I'll probably run across my Chase credit card.
&FOOTNOTE (ampersanded): Actually, Marybeth does have a friend with extraurban farm space who could take Red. So not entirely a euphemism. Then again, said friend said she couldn't guarantee Red wouldn't end up as Sunday dinner. The suspense continues...
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): From whom I got the lovely A-E scent collection last year, only I can't find the blogpost to link to to remind you because they made me go to IE 2, the stone age version, at work and the search function doesn't work anymore.
%FOOTNOTE (percented): I saw the headline for this on Nathan's blog and I couldn't read it because I didn't want his review to influence me, so I've been cold and lonely and Nathanless for *weeks*.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Sheep! Like knitting! WOOT for the KNITBLOG!
§§FOOTNOTE (spin goths! SPIN!): Did you hear that? That's the sound of a thousand goths spinning in their graves.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (nod with me): These scents are TOTALLY related.
$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): I'm giving myself a little leeway on mixing up sweet lime with orange blossom and bergamot, but deducting points for not recognising tonka bean. It's a wash.
@FOOTNOTE (atted): Two important notes (ha! pun!) on coriander: 1) I don't have the slightest idea what coriander seed smells like, as it turns out, and 2) Hans now claims that the "spice" he was talking about was coriander seed.
##FOOTNOTE (holiday pounds): That's what I said! Not as succinctly, but surely that's what I was talking about when I said it smelled the way I'd like a man to smell.
†††FOOTNOTE ():
Showing posts with label Perfume Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Perfume Review. Show all posts
Friday, December 4, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
State of the Onion
My office is roughly 2/3 of a block from the bathroom.
If you'll direct your attention the clever graphic below, I have drawn a rough diagram of my daily habitat.
The green star is me. The purple star outside the box is the bathroom. The red star is the coffee maker, the blue star the printer where my documents mostly show up and the orange dinosaur-looking thing is Hans.†
[SUMMARY: With that, you know way more about my daily life than you want to.]
The series of events:
A vague notion that I have to pee. A vague notion that coffee would be good. The certainty that this print job is going to take several minutes, seeing as it's 180 pages long.
In a fit of efficient brilliance,‡ I hit print, figuring I'd drop my coffee cup in the kitchen, cruise to the bathroom, pick up coffee and collect my printed document on the return trip.
In reality, I hit print, went to the copy machine, couldn't figure out what I was doing there, realised I didn't have my coffee cup and went back to my office for that.
[SUMMARY: It dont't get any better than this.]
I started out again, this time skipping the copy room and heading for the kitchen, where I dispensed coffee to cup, whitened it up and headed back to my office. When I hit the copy machine, I remembered I had to pee.§
I set the coffee down on the copy counter and went to the bathroom. On the way back, I was intently reminding myself not to forget my stuff at the printer and bypassed the coffee completely.
[SUMMARY: Still not getting better.]
I got back to my desk, started to sit down and bounced like a rubber ball as I remembered my coffee. I went back for the coffee, and circled the copy room for a moment trying to remember what it was I was not supposed to forget in the copy room.¶ There weren't any papers lying around to give me a clue, so I went back to my office.
When I turned back to my computer, there was an email I needed to answer. About ten minutes later, Hans walked into my office with a handful of papers.
"These look like yours," he said.
"Oh, yeah. I printed stuff! Thank you!"
I set the stuff on the desk and continued with my email.
[SUMMARY: Multi-tasking may not be for everybody.]
About five minutes later, I turned without looking and bumped the coffee, spilling it over the freshly printed stuff. I sopped up the brown puddle with the paper towels I keep in my desk just for these moments,# sighed and took a sip of coffee. Which was cold.
Thus the sometimes-vicious cycle of life in the wilds of the office†† begins again. More prints, more coffee and someday I will spill again.
*************
Wazamba - Parfume d'Empire
Marin says: "What are you sniffing these days?" asked Nathan.%
"Not much, really. I'm experiencing perfume ennui," I replied.
"I hate it when that happens," he commiserated.
The next day, Wazamba landed on my desk.
Out of courtesy‡‡ to my generous friend, I pounced, ravaging it like a starving beast ravages a plump gazelle.§§
Mmmmm... fresh-cut pine backed by a dollop of sweet-but-not-too, round, smoky, resiny incense. It mellows noticably but subtly to a gentler pine, not as citrusy-sharp, with the incense bubbling up just a little, but broadening rather than overcoming.
The smoke becomes more pronounced, but this is one of the best smokes I've sniffed -- not too campfire, not too acrid, just smooth and dry and a bit sweet, like the smell of an old church after mass.
Somewhere in here, I was thinking of applewood smoke on a BBQ. Turns out, the perfumer actually lists apple in the notes.
Now, we can chat about all the notes and bits, but there's something complete about this fragrance that wants the forest to be noted ahead of the trees. The word I keep coming back to is "enveloping." I find it cosy and comforting, and just a bit sexy, because smoke and incense usually have a little vavoom in their makeup. The sillage is poofy rather than trailing, more resembling a fog or a cloud than the stream of a peacock's tail carrying behind it.
The fragrance is incredibly long lasting. If I didn't shower, who knows how long it would have stayed? Eighteen hours after a light application, my wrists smelled like baking¶¶ and incense.
It is to be noted that Aaron (the filing clerk) walked into my office and went all dreamy and forgot what he was going to say. "Wow. It smells *really* good in here." Shanny liked it and confirmed that it goes nicely with R&B, Robert Cray-style.
So I've shaken my perfume ennui in favour of Wazamba monomania.##
It's a step in the right direction.
Parfum d'Empire says†††: An aromatic pine$ grove created around incense,$ sacred to all great civilizations. Incense, myrrh, sandalwood, cypress and apple$ fashion the enigmatic formula of this captivaing perfume. A voyage within...
Hans says: A spice. Like a cinnamon. It smells like the colour brown. Rich mahogany. Yeah, I get a spicy scent.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): Hans doesn't merit a star because, once again, Hans is leaving on a deadline. We had a deadline yesterday, we have another October 9 and now we have one October 30, the day Hans is leaving for Madison.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Short lived.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): You'd think this wouldn't be a memory item, wouldn't you?
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): My obsessive nature doesn't only apply to hobbies and things people tell me I can't have; it spreads and permeates every little corner of my being. In this case, erroneously. That copy room haunted me all day.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Yes, I keep paper towels in my desk. For good reason.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): I watched a little Discovery Channel this weekend.
%FOOTNOTE (percented): In one of our rare moments lately -- werk is really eating into my pleasant social time.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Y'know... gentle, courteous attention much like what a six-year-old gives a big, beribboned package on Christmas morning.
§§FOOTNOTE (dervish): Huh. Maybe I watched more Discovery Channel than I thought.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (knock knock): I was really surprised to find it didn't have any vanilla in the notes.
##FOOTNOTE (pound the sistrum!): Wazamba Monomania would be a good name for a band. Particularly, as Grain de Musc so kindly provided, since a Wazamba is a sort of African sistrum.
†††FOOTNOTE (holy holy holy cats): Via the packaging. Their website is all in French and I couldn't figure out which button to hit to get to the next on the list of perfumes and I don't know French for "search" and I was looking at the parade of bottles at the bottom of the page going all Nancy Drew with the "it's a golden colour" and again with the "the label is dark brown" and I never saw a Wazamba bottle float by, which is a shame because I thought it would be funny to post the French, doubly funny if I posted the shipping particulars instead of the perfume PR.
Did I mention "obsessive"?
If you'll direct your attention the clever graphic below, I have drawn a rough diagram of my daily habitat.
The green star is me. The purple star outside the box is the bathroom. The red star is the coffee maker, the blue star the printer where my documents mostly show up and the orange dinosaur-looking thing is Hans.†
[SUMMARY: With that, you know way more about my daily life than you want to.]
The series of events:
A vague notion that I have to pee. A vague notion that coffee would be good. The certainty that this print job is going to take several minutes, seeing as it's 180 pages long.
In a fit of efficient brilliance,‡ I hit print, figuring I'd drop my coffee cup in the kitchen, cruise to the bathroom, pick up coffee and collect my printed document on the return trip.
In reality, I hit print, went to the copy machine, couldn't figure out what I was doing there, realised I didn't have my coffee cup and went back to my office for that.
[SUMMARY: It dont't get any better than this.]
I started out again, this time skipping the copy room and heading for the kitchen, where I dispensed coffee to cup, whitened it up and headed back to my office. When I hit the copy machine, I remembered I had to pee.§
I set the coffee down on the copy counter and went to the bathroom. On the way back, I was intently reminding myself not to forget my stuff at the printer and bypassed the coffee completely.
[SUMMARY: Still not getting better.]
I got back to my desk, started to sit down and bounced like a rubber ball as I remembered my coffee. I went back for the coffee, and circled the copy room for a moment trying to remember what it was I was not supposed to forget in the copy room.¶ There weren't any papers lying around to give me a clue, so I went back to my office.
When I turned back to my computer, there was an email I needed to answer. About ten minutes later, Hans walked into my office with a handful of papers.
"These look like yours," he said.
"Oh, yeah. I printed stuff! Thank you!"
I set the stuff on the desk and continued with my email.
[SUMMARY: Multi-tasking may not be for everybody.]
About five minutes later, I turned without looking and bumped the coffee, spilling it over the freshly printed stuff. I sopped up the brown puddle with the paper towels I keep in my desk just for these moments,# sighed and took a sip of coffee. Which was cold.
Thus the sometimes-vicious cycle of life in the wilds of the office†† begins again. More prints, more coffee and someday I will spill again.
*************
Wazamba - Parfume d'Empire
Marin says: "What are you sniffing these days?" asked Nathan.%
"Not much, really. I'm experiencing perfume ennui," I replied.
"I hate it when that happens," he commiserated.
The next day, Wazamba landed on my desk.
Out of courtesy‡‡ to my generous friend, I pounced, ravaging it like a starving beast ravages a plump gazelle.§§
Mmmmm... fresh-cut pine backed by a dollop of sweet-but-not-too, round, smoky, resiny incense. It mellows noticably but subtly to a gentler pine, not as citrusy-sharp, with the incense bubbling up just a little, but broadening rather than overcoming.
The smoke becomes more pronounced, but this is one of the best smokes I've sniffed -- not too campfire, not too acrid, just smooth and dry and a bit sweet, like the smell of an old church after mass.
Somewhere in here, I was thinking of applewood smoke on a BBQ. Turns out, the perfumer actually lists apple in the notes.
Now, we can chat about all the notes and bits, but there's something complete about this fragrance that wants the forest to be noted ahead of the trees. The word I keep coming back to is "enveloping." I find it cosy and comforting, and just a bit sexy, because smoke and incense usually have a little vavoom in their makeup. The sillage is poofy rather than trailing, more resembling a fog or a cloud than the stream of a peacock's tail carrying behind it.
The fragrance is incredibly long lasting. If I didn't shower, who knows how long it would have stayed? Eighteen hours after a light application, my wrists smelled like baking¶¶ and incense.
It is to be noted that Aaron (the filing clerk) walked into my office and went all dreamy and forgot what he was going to say. "Wow. It smells *really* good in here." Shanny liked it and confirmed that it goes nicely with R&B, Robert Cray-style.
So I've shaken my perfume ennui in favour of Wazamba monomania.##
It's a step in the right direction.
Parfum d'Empire says†††: An aromatic pine$ grove created around incense,$ sacred to all great civilizations. Incense, myrrh, sandalwood, cypress and apple$ fashion the enigmatic formula of this captivaing perfume. A voyage within...
Hans says: A spice. Like a cinnamon. It smells like the colour brown. Rich mahogany. Yeah, I get a spicy scent.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): Hans doesn't merit a star because, once again, Hans is leaving on a deadline. We had a deadline yesterday, we have another October 9 and now we have one October 30, the day Hans is leaving for Madison.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Short lived.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): You'd think this wouldn't be a memory item, wouldn't you?
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): My obsessive nature doesn't only apply to hobbies and things people tell me I can't have; it spreads and permeates every little corner of my being. In this case, erroneously. That copy room haunted me all day.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Yes, I keep paper towels in my desk. For good reason.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): I watched a little Discovery Channel this weekend.
%FOOTNOTE (percented): In one of our rare moments lately -- werk is really eating into my pleasant social time.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Y'know... gentle, courteous attention much like what a six-year-old gives a big, beribboned package on Christmas morning.
§§FOOTNOTE (dervish): Huh. Maybe I watched more Discovery Channel than I thought.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (knock knock): I was really surprised to find it didn't have any vanilla in the notes.
##FOOTNOTE (pound the sistrum!): Wazamba Monomania would be a good name for a band. Particularly, as Grain de Musc so kindly provided, since a Wazamba is a sort of African sistrum.
†††FOOTNOTE (holy holy holy cats): Via the packaging. Their website is all in French and I couldn't figure out which button to hit to get to the next on the list of perfumes and I don't know French for "search" and I was looking at the parade of bottles at the bottom of the page going all Nancy Drew with the "it's a golden colour" and again with the "the label is dark brown" and I never saw a Wazamba bottle float by, which is a shame because I thought it would be funny to post the French, doubly funny if I posted the shipping particulars instead of the perfume PR.
Did I mention "obsessive"?
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
A Half-Hearted, Time-Saving Lick of the Pig
I know, but...
[SUMMARY: Defensive much?]
These days, I don't write blogs.† I barely read blogs.‡ In this economy,§ one must do everything in one's power to stay in the good graces of those willing to pay one.
Translation: Deadlines loom. Free time is short. Can't screw around.%
[SUMMARY: Excuses, excuses.]
I do have a couple of juicy tidbits I want to share, just to let you know I'm still out here somewhere and well, because they're funny or interesting.
Sarah, you're going to want to cover your eyes when we get to "interesting."
[SUMMARY: In the eye of the beholder, my friends, in the eye of the beholder.]
So on the funny front, a follow-up to the Lady Gaga fashion debacle of July 2009:
DON'T LOOK, SARAH! GO FIND A NICE CUPCAKE OR A PUPPY OR A FLUFFY CLOUD OR SOMETHING TO OCCUPY YOUR EYES!
And something I find interesting, courtesy of Kathy-now-Kathryn¶:
Meet Heteropoda davidbowie.
Yep. You read that right. David Bowie gets his own spider. Be it Martian or Glass, it seems somehow glam-appropriate... if a little scary.
[SUMMARY: All day long, my head will be shrieking, "...but where are the spiders?"]
And, since I put it together last week, I can throw this in and complete my tour of the Six Scents line... just in time for the release of Six Scents, part II#, due in October.††
*************
No. 6: Teen Spirit - Preen & Mark Buxton (Part 6 in the series)
Marin says: Bergamot.$ Definitely bergamot. Or maybe lemon of the verbena variety. It's thin and high and sour-citrusy... and as I found out later, may be the most interesting portion of the trip for me.
When the citrus starts fading, a touch of rose$ peeks through. It's very watery, both in that "barely there" sense and in that it smells like rain.$ Once the bergamot is completely gone and the sharper parts of the rose round out, it becomes a round, powdery floral, no particular rose in sight.
I think the "teen spirit" moniker is apt; this reminds me very much of something one gets at Walgreen's when one is a 16 year old girl. Love's Baby Soft. Something attributable to Brittney Spears.@ It goes distinctly soapy (must be musk$) late in the game.
Meh.
Meh meh meh.
Six Scents says: "The idea we had with Preen, was to capture an English summer garden after the rain - light, natural, floral, fresh, but not sweet. Its sprakling top note, made of calabrain bergamot an a unique seashore accord‡‡ is wrapped with magnolia and Turkish rose. The tingling spicy scent of red pepper sustained by hazelnut leaf and rhubarb give the fragrance its natural depth.§§ Finally, a touch of violet wood for the long-lastingness and pleasurable feeling." - Mark Buxton, Perfumer
Ingredients: Hazelnut Leaf, Rhubarb, Bergamot, Seashore accord, Red Pepper, Berry Rose, Magnolia, Violet wood, Sandalwood, Musk.
Hans says: Ooooh, I like that. It smells like grapefruit rind. What do you call that? Zest. Grapefruit zest.¶¶
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): You may have noticed.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Mostly of the "funny cats" variety.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Oh, how I hate it when people use that phrase...
%FOOTNOTE (percented): Much.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Who has the most interesting Twitter list. I did eventually have to remove Courtney Love from my follow list because she's patently bugshit insane and completely misses the seminal point of Twitter, which is its brevity, by posting roughly 20,000 words a day, 140 words at a time.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Electric Boogaloo.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): I can hear you cringing from here, Nathan.
$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): I'm not as proud of myself as I usually am. Picking out orange and rose seems a scant talent.
@FOOTNOTE (atted): Before her particular bugshit slut phase -- back in the Disney "I'm still a virgin" pink poofy feather ponytail days.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): I'm officially a perfume snob. I completely dismissed this whole scent as soon as I saw the cutesy marketing ploy "seashore accord." Good thing I didn't really like the scent to begin with or I'd be torn by hypocrisy and existential angst.
§§FOOTNOTE (shaking my head, waggling my finger): If I had detected any of anything in this whole sentence, I may have been able to find something other than "meh" to say about it. Everything in this sentence sounds delightful.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (heads up!): Hans only got the first whiff. I should've made him hang out for the powdery part.
[SUMMARY: Defensive much?]
These days, I don't write blogs.† I barely read blogs.‡ In this economy,§ one must do everything in one's power to stay in the good graces of those willing to pay one.
Translation: Deadlines loom. Free time is short. Can't screw around.%
[SUMMARY: Excuses, excuses.]
I do have a couple of juicy tidbits I want to share, just to let you know I'm still out here somewhere and well, because they're funny or interesting.
Sarah, you're going to want to cover your eyes when we get to "interesting."
[SUMMARY: In the eye of the beholder, my friends, in the eye of the beholder.]
So on the funny front, a follow-up to the Lady Gaga fashion debacle of July 2009:
DON'T LOOK, SARAH! GO FIND A NICE CUPCAKE OR A PUPPY OR A FLUFFY CLOUD OR SOMETHING TO OCCUPY YOUR EYES!
And something I find interesting, courtesy of Kathy-now-Kathryn¶:
Meet Heteropoda davidbowie.
Yep. You read that right. David Bowie gets his own spider. Be it Martian or Glass, it seems somehow glam-appropriate... if a little scary.
[SUMMARY: All day long, my head will be shrieking, "...but where are the spiders?"]
And, since I put it together last week, I can throw this in and complete my tour of the Six Scents line... just in time for the release of Six Scents, part II#, due in October.††
*************
No. 6: Teen Spirit - Preen & Mark Buxton (Part 6 in the series)
Marin says: Bergamot.$ Definitely bergamot. Or maybe lemon of the verbena variety. It's thin and high and sour-citrusy... and as I found out later, may be the most interesting portion of the trip for me.
When the citrus starts fading, a touch of rose$ peeks through. It's very watery, both in that "barely there" sense and in that it smells like rain.$ Once the bergamot is completely gone and the sharper parts of the rose round out, it becomes a round, powdery floral, no particular rose in sight.
I think the "teen spirit" moniker is apt; this reminds me very much of something one gets at Walgreen's when one is a 16 year old girl. Love's Baby Soft. Something attributable to Brittney Spears.@ It goes distinctly soapy (must be musk$) late in the game.
Meh.
Meh meh meh.
Six Scents says: "The idea we had with Preen, was to capture an English summer garden after the rain - light, natural, floral, fresh, but not sweet. Its sprakling top note, made of calabrain bergamot an a unique seashore accord‡‡ is wrapped with magnolia and Turkish rose. The tingling spicy scent of red pepper sustained by hazelnut leaf and rhubarb give the fragrance its natural depth.§§ Finally, a touch of violet wood for the long-lastingness and pleasurable feeling." - Mark Buxton, Perfumer
Ingredients: Hazelnut Leaf, Rhubarb, Bergamot, Seashore accord, Red Pepper, Berry Rose, Magnolia, Violet wood, Sandalwood, Musk.
Hans says: Ooooh, I like that. It smells like grapefruit rind. What do you call that? Zest. Grapefruit zest.¶¶
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): You may have noticed.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Mostly of the "funny cats" variety.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Oh, how I hate it when people use that phrase...
%FOOTNOTE (percented): Much.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Who has the most interesting Twitter list. I did eventually have to remove Courtney Love from my follow list because she's patently bugshit insane and completely misses the seminal point of Twitter, which is its brevity, by posting roughly 20,000 words a day, 140 words at a time.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Electric Boogaloo.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): I can hear you cringing from here, Nathan.
$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): I'm not as proud of myself as I usually am. Picking out orange and rose seems a scant talent.
@FOOTNOTE (atted): Before her particular bugshit slut phase -- back in the Disney "I'm still a virgin" pink poofy feather ponytail days.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): I'm officially a perfume snob. I completely dismissed this whole scent as soon as I saw the cutesy marketing ploy "seashore accord." Good thing I didn't really like the scent to begin with or I'd be torn by hypocrisy and existential angst.
§§FOOTNOTE (shaking my head, waggling my finger): If I had detected any of anything in this whole sentence, I may have been able to find something other than "meh" to say about it. Everything in this sentence sounds delightful.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (heads up!): Hans only got the first whiff. I should've made him hang out for the powdery part.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Ein Kleine Wachtmusik
We had an auxiliary father-daughter dinner last night. We† needed to be sure my iPod would jack into Dad's stereo and the sound would be good for dining and dancing at the wedding.
The wedding on Saturday.
[SUMMARY: A moment of stunned silence, please.‡]
Even as I type this, I'm aware the full impact of what I am about to impart will be lost. Y'all don't really know my dad.
This is a man who doesn't own a tie.§
This is a man who won't wear clothes with words or wild prints¶ on them.
This is a man who thinks big, fancy anything is worth nothing more than a headshake.
This is a man who has no idea where his cell phone is. Almost ever.
This is a man of even temper, good cheer, relaxed attitude, low maintenance, low overhead, relentless good sense and an inherent Protestant work ethic.
So when he turned into Groomzilla, nobody was more surprised than me.
Last night:
Dad: So I got the kids -- being flowers -- taken care of and then I was going to set up the speakers...
Me: When you started that sentence, I heard, "I got the kids, whom I decided to dress like flowers to perform some sort of elementary-school-musical-program at the wedding."
Dad: I wanted to do that. I got vetoed.
[SUMMARY: More stunned! More silence!]
And it's true. A month ago, he told me he wanted to have all the grandchildren gather and sing "We Wish You a Happy Wedding"# at the ceremony.
While various evil stepsisters have been true to form, telling their mother how tacky and passé all her wedding wants†† are, I have to tip my hat to whichever one of them undoubtedly gave my father that you've-been-smoking-crack look and said, "No. There will be no children's chorale."
[SUMMARY: W.C. Fields wasn't blowing smoke. Dogs and children; don't do it.]
Anyway, there will be a skit, but it will be performed by the bride and groom.
Not kidding.
Songs that didn't make it to the wedding playlist:
Flight of the Valkyries - Wagner‡‡
Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
Another One Bites the Dust - Queen
Achy Breaky Heart - whoever does Achy Breaky Heart§§
Bolero - Ravel¶¶
She Works Hard for the Money - Donna Summer
The Breakup Song - The Greg Kihn Band
Existential Blues - Tom "T-Bone" Stankus
Danse Macabre - Saint-Saëns
Tom Sawyer - Rush
Gin & Juice - Snoop Dogg, or even the Phish## version
At one time, I considered them all. Cooler heads††† prevailed.
*************
No. 5: Illicit Sex - JEREMY SCOTT [sic] & Philippe Roques (Part 5 in the series)
Marin says: Rose -- deep, woody rose with a definite float of bitter orange and a touch of aldehyde.
For me, this is strongly reminiscent of Chanel No. 5, but with a hair less aldehyde and a bit more rose and a skosh of orange. There's something brilliant about the way it captures that memory of Mom and Dad going out for the evening in a cloud of Chanel, while going just far enough into a contemporary space that I could inhabit happily.
Eventually, it parses down to a clear rose, travelling back into history and faded beauty.
The name, Illicit Sex,‡‡‡ doesn't quite meet up with either the scent itself or the perfumer's notes on fragility and strength in love. Do you suppose they really, really hope sex sells?
Six Scents says: ""Illicit Sex is an essay on love: the encounter of fragility and strength." - Philippe Roques, Perfumer
Ingredients: Bergamot,$ Aldehydic,$ Pepper, Nutmet, Rose,$ Benzoin, Olibanum, Cedarwood,$ Musk.
Hans says: Hmmm. It's pretty light. It smells like... I get some incense.§§§ Like Arabian market.¶¶¶ You smell like an Arabian market, Marin. Good morning.###
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): And by "we," I mean, "my father, who has somehow become convinced that I am a technological dummy who will populate his wedding reception with death metal and pimps-n-hos rap music."
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Not that we didn't know it was coming, just... still a little stunned.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): A fact that led to a wedding battle over whether or not he should have to go out and buy a tie for this one tiny occasion when a bolo tie should work just as well. For those of you scoring at home, he won that one.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Like stripes.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Y'know... to the tune of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): Balloons. She loves balloons and wanted some, until Evil Stepsister told her it was tacky and totally 1980s. I say let the woman have her balloons. Who cares if it's tacky -- the guest list is comprised of her children and grandchildren and Dad's children and grandchildren. If ever there was a situation when one could get tacky without repercussion, this is it.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): I have four musical divisions: Taps for the processional (I'm not kidding and it wasn't my idea -- this is all the groom), an hour of classical music for dinner, The Rose for the first dance, two hours of dance music for the reception. Under the heading "classical music," it appears my taste is unsurprisingly gothic, with lots of skeletons and sturm-und-drang. I'm guessing "O Fortuna" isn't a good idea. I have to go get some Handel and Vivaldi or everyone will lose their appetites.
§§FOOTNOTE (do-si-do): Peach wanted me to put in some country music suitable for line dancing. For my country cousins. I told Dad I figured they can dance the Electric Slide with everybody else if they feel a need to line dance. I am NOT BUYING Achy Breaky Heart. Yes, there will be Electric Slide. Possibly Chicken Dance too, because I think those are funny wedding traditions I am willing to follow for my own wicked glee.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (beat that... drum): I saw 10.
##FOOTNOTE (I will pound on this until you get it): Please to pronounce "P-hish."
†††FOOTNOTE (three stepsisters, all in a row): Or at least my Inner Evil Stepsister.
‡‡‡FOOTNOTE (sex on the wrong side of the tracks): Illicit sex should be rumpled, sweaty, hurried, shameful, furtive, seedy, possibly up against the stall wall in a club restroom. There should be nothing fragile or strong about it, unless you count the leg muscles it takes to have sex in a bathroom stall. Essay on love, my ass. Though that may be another way to do illicit...
$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): Well, look at me!
§§§FOOTNOTE (give that man three rounds of applause!): Hans is getting really good at this. Speaking of Hans, he's very disappointed nobody commented on his prom picture. I told him I figure out there was a shocked silence as everybody in his fan club said, "I didn't know Hans was gay." His girlfriend thinks that's really funny.
¶¶¶FOOTNOTE (camels in the desert): And Hans knows of which he speaks -- he lived in Saudi for many years.
The wedding on Saturday.
[SUMMARY: A moment of stunned silence, please.‡]
Even as I type this, I'm aware the full impact of what I am about to impart will be lost. Y'all don't really know my dad.
This is a man who doesn't own a tie.§
This is a man who won't wear clothes with words or wild prints¶ on them.
This is a man who thinks big, fancy anything is worth nothing more than a headshake.
This is a man who has no idea where his cell phone is. Almost ever.
This is a man of even temper, good cheer, relaxed attitude, low maintenance, low overhead, relentless good sense and an inherent Protestant work ethic.
So when he turned into Groomzilla, nobody was more surprised than me.
Last night:
Dad: So I got the kids -- being flowers -- taken care of and then I was going to set up the speakers...
Me: When you started that sentence, I heard, "I got the kids, whom I decided to dress like flowers to perform some sort of elementary-school-musical-program at the wedding."
Dad: I wanted to do that. I got vetoed.
[SUMMARY: More stunned! More silence!]
And it's true. A month ago, he told me he wanted to have all the grandchildren gather and sing "We Wish You a Happy Wedding"# at the ceremony.
While various evil stepsisters have been true to form, telling their mother how tacky and passé all her wedding wants†† are, I have to tip my hat to whichever one of them undoubtedly gave my father that you've-been-smoking-crack look and said, "No. There will be no children's chorale."
[SUMMARY: W.C. Fields wasn't blowing smoke. Dogs and children; don't do it.]
Anyway, there will be a skit, but it will be performed by the bride and groom.
Not kidding.
Songs that didn't make it to the wedding playlist:
Flight of the Valkyries - Wagner‡‡
Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
Another One Bites the Dust - Queen
Achy Breaky Heart - whoever does Achy Breaky Heart§§
Bolero - Ravel¶¶
She Works Hard for the Money - Donna Summer
The Breakup Song - The Greg Kihn Band
Existential Blues - Tom "T-Bone" Stankus
Danse Macabre - Saint-Saëns
Tom Sawyer - Rush
Gin & Juice - Snoop Dogg, or even the Phish## version
At one time, I considered them all. Cooler heads††† prevailed.
*************
No. 5: Illicit Sex - JEREMY SCOTT [sic] & Philippe Roques (Part 5 in the series)
Marin says: Rose -- deep, woody rose with a definite float of bitter orange and a touch of aldehyde.
For me, this is strongly reminiscent of Chanel No. 5, but with a hair less aldehyde and a bit more rose and a skosh of orange. There's something brilliant about the way it captures that memory of Mom and Dad going out for the evening in a cloud of Chanel, while going just far enough into a contemporary space that I could inhabit happily.
Eventually, it parses down to a clear rose, travelling back into history and faded beauty.
The name, Illicit Sex,‡‡‡ doesn't quite meet up with either the scent itself or the perfumer's notes on fragility and strength in love. Do you suppose they really, really hope sex sells?
Six Scents says: ""Illicit Sex is an essay on love: the encounter of fragility and strength." - Philippe Roques, Perfumer
Ingredients: Bergamot,$ Aldehydic,$ Pepper, Nutmet, Rose,$ Benzoin, Olibanum, Cedarwood,$ Musk.
Hans says: Hmmm. It's pretty light. It smells like... I get some incense.§§§ Like Arabian market.¶¶¶ You smell like an Arabian market, Marin. Good morning.###
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): And by "we," I mean, "my father, who has somehow become convinced that I am a technological dummy who will populate his wedding reception with death metal and pimps-n-hos rap music."
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Not that we didn't know it was coming, just... still a little stunned.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): A fact that led to a wedding battle over whether or not he should have to go out and buy a tie for this one tiny occasion when a bolo tie should work just as well. For those of you scoring at home, he won that one.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Like stripes.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Y'know... to the tune of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): Balloons. She loves balloons and wanted some, until Evil Stepsister told her it was tacky and totally 1980s. I say let the woman have her balloons. Who cares if it's tacky -- the guest list is comprised of her children and grandchildren and Dad's children and grandchildren. If ever there was a situation when one could get tacky without repercussion, this is it.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): I have four musical divisions: Taps for the processional (I'm not kidding and it wasn't my idea -- this is all the groom), an hour of classical music for dinner, The Rose for the first dance, two hours of dance music for the reception. Under the heading "classical music," it appears my taste is unsurprisingly gothic, with lots of skeletons and sturm-und-drang. I'm guessing "O Fortuna" isn't a good idea. I have to go get some Handel and Vivaldi or everyone will lose their appetites.
§§FOOTNOTE (do-si-do): Peach wanted me to put in some country music suitable for line dancing. For my country cousins. I told Dad I figured they can dance the Electric Slide with everybody else if they feel a need to line dance. I am NOT BUYING Achy Breaky Heart. Yes, there will be Electric Slide. Possibly Chicken Dance too, because I think those are funny wedding traditions I am willing to follow for my own wicked glee.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (beat that... drum): I saw 10.
##FOOTNOTE (I will pound on this until you get it): Please to pronounce "P-hish."
†††FOOTNOTE (three stepsisters, all in a row): Or at least my Inner Evil Stepsister.
‡‡‡FOOTNOTE (sex on the wrong side of the tracks): Illicit sex should be rumpled, sweaty, hurried, shameful, furtive, seedy, possibly up against the stall wall in a club restroom. There should be nothing fragile or strong about it, unless you count the leg muscles it takes to have sex in a bathroom stall. Essay on love, my ass. Though that may be another way to do illicit...
$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): Well, look at me!
§§§FOOTNOTE (give that man three rounds of applause!): Hans is getting really good at this. Speaking of Hans, he's very disappointed nobody commented on his prom picture. I told him I figure out there was a shocked silence as everybody in his fan club said, "I didn't know Hans was gay." His girlfriend thinks that's really funny.
¶¶¶FOOTNOTE (camels in the desert): And Hans knows of which he speaks -- he lived in Saudi for many years.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Tuesday, Tuesday... la laa la l-la laaaaaa
I played hooky yesterday. It was marvelous.
For some reason, sitting around knitting and reading and communing with the North 40 is just so much better when I realise Hans is in the office working.
*************
You know what those 13 little stars mean... we're going to lick the pig!
*************
This is not my story to tell, but I feel I must relate it anyway.† Many of you don't know Mary Beth and most of you weren't there when she was telling it. I feel I would be remiss if I didn't spread the word.
Wherever you live, there's a good chance the question of urban chicken coops has come up recently. I thought it was that way in Denver because of recent changes to city ordinances, but it turns out it's just part of this big push toward organic self-sufficiency.
Anyway, Mary Beth is going to raise chickens. Which takes a lot of paperwork and governmental meddling.
First, she had to be issued the application from Community Planning and Development and Neighborhood Inspection Services. The completed application was then filed with Animal Control.
Somewhere in here, she bult a chicken coop which apparently rivals the Ritz Carlton and Mary Beth wants to move into it herself and maybe let the chickens have the run of her house.
Animal Control did a home visit to see that the chickens would be clean, comfortable and pest-free. She was approved for six chickens, a feat only slightly less bureaucratically arduous than fostering a human child.
THEN she paid $50 for a chicken permit.‡
Finally, she ordered -- I love this part -- an assortment of chicks.% Which come by post. From mypetchicken.com.
Getting on the Internet and ordering the six chicken assortment and "mypetchicken-dot-com" made me so happy. Some days, just knowing things *exist* out there is totally happy-making.
*************
You will all be delighted to know the sleeves of the guitar sweater for TFN's birthday are on their holders§ and I'm roaring down the sweater body with speed and something approaching accuracy.
Intarsia also makes me happy.¶ Frankly, I'm usually not that big on the look of a lot of it, but it's engaging knitting, the kind where time flies.
*************
I'm beginning to think the new Big Girl Phone may be too much phone for me.
I'm wondering if I want to be *that* connected. Ah, well. I signed a contract. I'll live with it for a couple of years and probably become one of those asshole people who can't leave her phone alone for two minutes and insists on texting at her own wedding.#
It does take nice pictures, doesn't it?
*************
My father is getting married August 22nd. I am in charge of two things: the music for the wedding itself†† and the food‡‡ for the "bachelor party"§§ the night before.
I'm kinda hoping I get some ripe tomatoes from my garden before then.¶¶
*************
Speaking of gardening, did you know cucumbers don't put out big root systems? They have to be watered more frequently than, say, tomatoes or peppers because they won't go looking for the water, you have to take the water to them.##
This was a lesson hard-learned. I lost many baby cucumbers††† before I read that particular bit of cucumber wisdom.
*************
[SARAH! DON'T LOOK! AVERT YOUR EYES!]
Hammacher-Schlemmer apparently heard from my nephews about my spider preferences. They sent me an email about this today.
I'm assuming Batman is posing under the spider arbour rather than Spiderman because he's better colour-coordinated...?
*************
No. 4: Diagonal - Gareth Pugh & Emilie Coppermann (Part 4 in the series)@
Marin says: Dill! Seconds of dill, then off to a very close-to-the-skin, very warm woody scent that could be a spice or richer floral tempered by a delicate amber. I certainly like it, which is good since nobody else is likely to know it's there.
For the record, I put this on mid-afternoon and the next morning I still had a very steady amber/musk finish clinging to my wrists. This would be great for long meeting days when I don't necessarily want to be remembered for my perfume, but I may still need surreptitious sniff during water breaks to boost morale.
Six Scents says: "Contrast, ambiguity, duality. Gareth Pugh said about his style: "it's a struggle between lightness and darkness." this is what I tried to translate in this perfume. The contrast between different raw materials, masculine and feminine, rough and smooth, dark and light, fresh and sensual." - Emilie Coppermann, Perfumer
Ingredients: Dill,$ Black Pepper, Nutmeg, Palissander, Black Tea, Amyris, White Amber,$ Musk.$
Hans says: Well, now, that smells like some kind of food. Mushroom? Fried mushroom? Actually, it doesn't smell like mushroom at all, but I'm sticking with it.
*************
Speaking of Hans, he went to his college roommate's wedding this weekend. The photographer had a ring of lights thing set up, so the wedding guests took turns seeing who could take the best cheesy prom photo.
I believe Hans and Trav‡‡‡ win.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): If nothing else, it's the foundation for this whole pig-licking and I couldn't very well leave it out.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Annual. $50 a year for a chicken permit. You have to pay $50 every year for your chicken permit. By "you," I mean, "Mary Beth." I just love saying "chicken permit."
%FOOTNOTE (percented): Apparently, chicks can live without food through the first 72 hours after they hatch so they can be packed up in boxes and mailed.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): In the grand tradition of circus knitting, I am going to attempt to knit both sleeves at once on two circular needles, in situ. I see no reason it can't be done. Speaking of circus knitting, did you see some guy at Sock Summit was knitting seven pairs at once? Hmph. Been there, done that -- way ahead of you, big guy. I guess if SOME OF US had just gutted up and gone to Sock Summit, we could be famous for our Xtreme Knitting too.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): And intarsia in the round makes me feel like a superhero.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): This is not an immediate danger, just an example.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): The temptation to abuse this power is fierce. I could do two hours of very pointed songs. I won't, of course... the Electric Slide will almost undoubtedly feature, but I *could* propagandise.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): I'm thinking a couple of homemade pizzas, a big ol' salad, some finger food in case a poker game breaks out and a cherry pie made from cherries I picked myself. Hi! Remember me? Susie F. Homemaker?
§§FOOTNOTE (backhanded bachelor party): In quotes because, as Brother said, "You have to have some kind of activity, but clearly we won't be making the bachelor do shots of Jager until he barfs, and the standard substitutes (like paintball) probably won't work..." There will, of course, be no naked girls. Or boys. Or porn of any kind. So it's not so much a bachelor party as a "get Dad from underfoot so the evil stepsister doesn't kill him before the wedding" gig.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (round, ripe tomatoes on the vine): Not quite so much because I'm looking for quality ingredients as I'd like to show off.
##FOOTNOTE (cucumber trellis): Thank you, Dr. Science!
†††FOOTNOTE (stake the cucumbers!): Very sad -- they go dark brown and crispy.
@FOOTNOTE (atted): You should go check out Nathan's pictures of the packaging. Kinda freaky, in a skully-good sort of way.
$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): And if I weren't so lazy at the moment, I'd Google "palissander" to see if it might qualify as "woody."
‡‡‡FOOTNOTE (long and winding road): Trav is a friend of the groom's from out of town. Hans found him delightful.
For some reason, sitting around knitting and reading and communing with the North 40 is just so much better when I realise Hans is in the office working.
*************
You know what those 13 little stars mean... we're going to lick the pig!
*************
This is not my story to tell, but I feel I must relate it anyway.† Many of you don't know Mary Beth and most of you weren't there when she was telling it. I feel I would be remiss if I didn't spread the word.
Wherever you live, there's a good chance the question of urban chicken coops has come up recently. I thought it was that way in Denver because of recent changes to city ordinances, but it turns out it's just part of this big push toward organic self-sufficiency.
Anyway, Mary Beth is going to raise chickens. Which takes a lot of paperwork and governmental meddling.
First, she had to be issued the application from Community Planning and Development and Neighborhood Inspection Services. The completed application was then filed with Animal Control.
Somewhere in here, she bult a chicken coop which apparently rivals the Ritz Carlton and Mary Beth wants to move into it herself and maybe let the chickens have the run of her house.
Animal Control did a home visit to see that the chickens would be clean, comfortable and pest-free. She was approved for six chickens, a feat only slightly less bureaucratically arduous than fostering a human child.
THEN she paid $50 for a chicken permit.‡
Finally, she ordered -- I love this part -- an assortment of chicks.% Which come by post. From mypetchicken.com.
Getting on the Internet and ordering the six chicken assortment and "mypetchicken-dot-com" made me so happy. Some days, just knowing things *exist* out there is totally happy-making.
*************
You will all be delighted to know the sleeves of the guitar sweater for TFN's birthday are on their holders§ and I'm roaring down the sweater body with speed and something approaching accuracy.
Intarsia also makes me happy.¶ Frankly, I'm usually not that big on the look of a lot of it, but it's engaging knitting, the kind where time flies.
*************
I'm beginning to think the new Big Girl Phone may be too much phone for me.
I'm wondering if I want to be *that* connected. Ah, well. I signed a contract. I'll live with it for a couple of years and probably become one of those asshole people who can't leave her phone alone for two minutes and insists on texting at her own wedding.#
It does take nice pictures, doesn't it?
*************
My father is getting married August 22nd. I am in charge of two things: the music for the wedding itself†† and the food‡‡ for the "bachelor party"§§ the night before.
I'm kinda hoping I get some ripe tomatoes from my garden before then.¶¶
*************
Speaking of gardening, did you know cucumbers don't put out big root systems? They have to be watered more frequently than, say, tomatoes or peppers because they won't go looking for the water, you have to take the water to them.##
This was a lesson hard-learned. I lost many baby cucumbers††† before I read that particular bit of cucumber wisdom.
*************
[SARAH! DON'T LOOK! AVERT YOUR EYES!]
Hammacher-Schlemmer apparently heard from my nephews about my spider preferences. They sent me an email about this today.
I'm assuming Batman is posing under the spider arbour rather than Spiderman because he's better colour-coordinated...?
*************
No. 4: Diagonal - Gareth Pugh & Emilie Coppermann (Part 4 in the series)@
Marin says: Dill! Seconds of dill, then off to a very close-to-the-skin, very warm woody scent that could be a spice or richer floral tempered by a delicate amber. I certainly like it, which is good since nobody else is likely to know it's there.
For the record, I put this on mid-afternoon and the next morning I still had a very steady amber/musk finish clinging to my wrists. This would be great for long meeting days when I don't necessarily want to be remembered for my perfume, but I may still need surreptitious sniff during water breaks to boost morale.
Six Scents says: "Contrast, ambiguity, duality. Gareth Pugh said about his style: "it's a struggle between lightness and darkness." this is what I tried to translate in this perfume. The contrast between different raw materials, masculine and feminine, rough and smooth, dark and light, fresh and sensual." - Emilie Coppermann, Perfumer
Ingredients: Dill,$ Black Pepper, Nutmeg, Palissander, Black Tea, Amyris, White Amber,$ Musk.$
Hans says: Well, now, that smells like some kind of food. Mushroom? Fried mushroom? Actually, it doesn't smell like mushroom at all, but I'm sticking with it.
*************
Speaking of Hans, he went to his college roommate's wedding this weekend. The photographer had a ring of lights thing set up, so the wedding guests took turns seeing who could take the best cheesy prom photo.
I believe Hans and Trav‡‡‡ win.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): If nothing else, it's the foundation for this whole pig-licking and I couldn't very well leave it out.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Annual. $50 a year for a chicken permit. You have to pay $50 every year for your chicken permit. By "you," I mean, "Mary Beth." I just love saying "chicken permit."
%FOOTNOTE (percented): Apparently, chicks can live without food through the first 72 hours after they hatch so they can be packed up in boxes and mailed.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): In the grand tradition of circus knitting, I am going to attempt to knit both sleeves at once on two circular needles, in situ. I see no reason it can't be done. Speaking of circus knitting, did you see some guy at Sock Summit was knitting seven pairs at once? Hmph. Been there, done that -- way ahead of you, big guy. I guess if SOME OF US had just gutted up and gone to Sock Summit, we could be famous for our Xtreme Knitting too.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): And intarsia in the round makes me feel like a superhero.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): This is not an immediate danger, just an example.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): The temptation to abuse this power is fierce. I could do two hours of very pointed songs. I won't, of course... the Electric Slide will almost undoubtedly feature, but I *could* propagandise.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): I'm thinking a couple of homemade pizzas, a big ol' salad, some finger food in case a poker game breaks out and a cherry pie made from cherries I picked myself. Hi! Remember me? Susie F. Homemaker?
§§FOOTNOTE (backhanded bachelor party): In quotes because, as Brother said, "You have to have some kind of activity, but clearly we won't be making the bachelor do shots of Jager until he barfs, and the standard substitutes (like paintball) probably won't work..." There will, of course, be no naked girls. Or boys. Or porn of any kind. So it's not so much a bachelor party as a "get Dad from underfoot so the evil stepsister doesn't kill him before the wedding" gig.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (round, ripe tomatoes on the vine): Not quite so much because I'm looking for quality ingredients as I'd like to show off.
##FOOTNOTE (cucumber trellis): Thank you, Dr. Science!
†††FOOTNOTE (stake the cucumbers!): Very sad -- they go dark brown and crispy.
@FOOTNOTE (atted): You should go check out Nathan's pictures of the packaging. Kinda freaky, in a skully-good sort of way.
$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): And if I weren't so lazy at the moment, I'd Google "palissander" to see if it might qualify as "woody."
‡‡‡FOOTNOTE (long and winding road): Trav is a friend of the groom's from out of town. Hans found him delightful.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
The Corner of Lust 'n' Love†
Or the corner of Marin 'n' Quebec.
[SUMMARY: Potayto, Potahto.‡]
Kari was out walking her boy yesterday when she came upon this Greenwood Village street sign.§
And sent me the picture.
[SUMMARY: Kari is my new best friend.]
Guess what I want for my birthday?
It's a big YouTube day, isn't it?
*************
No. 3: The Spirit of Wood - Light Source & Philippe Paparella-Paris (Part 3 in the series)
Marin says: Grapefruit and cigarette smoke.
Right around the edges, a hint of something brown sugar sweet -- fig or currant, maybe. The grapefruit burns off quickly, leaving smoke and a hint of something brown sugar-sweet.
Another light, long-lasting scent. The final amber -- or maybe sandalwood -- throes stuck around until the next day's shower.
Six Scents says: "The inspiration for this fragrance comes from Cosmic Wonder Light Source's nature oriented fahion collection. Inspired by the designers memory of a scent experienced during a walk through a eucalyptus forest, a selection of fresh green top notes were combined with fig leaves and enlightened by green grass playing with fresh cut cypress. The idea was to create a rough and natural fragrance, using a lot of essential oils with a focus on the woody notes such as vetiver and himoki."¶ - Phillippe Paparella-Paris, Perfumer
Ingredients: Green Grass,# Fig Leaves,$ Cypress, Elemi, Coriander, Cedar wood, Vetiver, Himoki, White Amber$
Hans says: It's very earthy. It smells like something I smell a lot, like... trees. Pine trees. I'm getting a lot of wood. I feel like I'm eating wood right now, chewing on bark.††
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): Thus:
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Quebec being well known as the City of Love.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): For those unfamiliar with Denverish suburbs, Greenwood Village is one of the best villages, and certainly has the best street signs.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Oh, yeah. Just like I said... grapefruit and cigarettes. *ahem*
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): The bitter end of green grass has a LOT in common with grapefruit. *ahem*
$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): Yes, I'm taking credit for fig leaves. If I don't want to wreck my midterm grade, I should probably fight for credit for "maybe sandalwood" as the closest I got to wood all day. heheheheheheh. Wood.
††FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): For all the Hansisms, Hans got the perfumer's vision much better than I did. In a snit of jealousy, I believe I will start calling him Cosmic Wonder Light Source.
[SUMMARY: Potayto, Potahto.‡]
Kari was out walking her boy yesterday when she came upon this Greenwood Village street sign.§
And sent me the picture.
[SUMMARY: Kari is my new best friend.]
Guess what I want for my birthday?
It's a big YouTube day, isn't it?
*************
No. 3: The Spirit of Wood - Light Source & Philippe Paparella-Paris (Part 3 in the series)
Marin says: Grapefruit and cigarette smoke.
Right around the edges, a hint of something brown sugar sweet -- fig or currant, maybe. The grapefruit burns off quickly, leaving smoke and a hint of something brown sugar-sweet.
Another light, long-lasting scent. The final amber -- or maybe sandalwood -- throes stuck around until the next day's shower.
Six Scents says: "The inspiration for this fragrance comes from Cosmic Wonder Light Source's nature oriented fahion collection. Inspired by the designers memory of a scent experienced during a walk through a eucalyptus forest, a selection of fresh green top notes were combined with fig leaves and enlightened by green grass playing with fresh cut cypress. The idea was to create a rough and natural fragrance, using a lot of essential oils with a focus on the woody notes such as vetiver and himoki."¶ - Phillippe Paparella-Paris, Perfumer
Ingredients: Green Grass,# Fig Leaves,$ Cypress, Elemi, Coriander, Cedar wood, Vetiver, Himoki, White Amber$
Hans says: It's very earthy. It smells like something I smell a lot, like... trees. Pine trees. I'm getting a lot of wood. I feel like I'm eating wood right now, chewing on bark.††
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): Thus:
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Quebec being well known as the City of Love.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): For those unfamiliar with Denverish suburbs, Greenwood Village is one of the best villages, and certainly has the best street signs.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Oh, yeah. Just like I said... grapefruit and cigarettes. *ahem*
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): The bitter end of green grass has a LOT in common with grapefruit. *ahem*
$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): Yes, I'm taking credit for fig leaves. If I don't want to wreck my midterm grade, I should probably fight for credit for "maybe sandalwood" as the closest I got to wood all day. heheheheheheh. Wood.
††FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): For all the Hansisms, Hans got the perfumer's vision much better than I did. In a snit of jealousy, I believe I will start calling him Cosmic Wonder Light Source.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
There Is an Elephant in the Way
It's the moment you've been waiting for, the storm of the century, ladies and gentlemen, it's time to Lick the Pig!
Bet you never thought the day would come.†
[SUMMARY: Long time no lick.]
*************
We had a fire drill yesterday.‡
We filed in a calm and orderly manner down the stairs, then congregated in the parking lot kitty-corner from the office.§ Hans and I are fire buddies,‡ so we checked to be sure we were OK. The fire wardens for each floor wore their red Fire Warden hats‡ and checked us in on their fire warden clipboards. Then they let us back in the building.
Dude.
I've been four and I've been twelve...
[SUMMARY: I'm ten.]
*************
Speaking of school daze,¶ Brother sent me these:
Consensus is that the elephant is the funniest one.
While Brother thought the lack of humour on the part of the grading parties was noteworthy, I think "Very funny, Peter," made me laugh almost as hard as the funny Peter made to get that accolade.
[SUMMARY: Humour is subjective.]
*************
This morning, I got a parking space on the only street in downtown Denver with no meters and no time limits.#
I have a feeling I spent all my kharmic green stamps for the next three years to get that spot.
[SUMMARY: Kharma is subjective.]
*************
Did I mention I got Bronco season tickets over the weekend? Second-hardest-to-obtain season tix in the NFL?††
[SUMMARY: I may be in kharmic debt after that.]
*************
I took brother to see Leonard Cohen at Red Rocks last week.‡‡ If you get the chance, ya gotta see him. First, he has some of the best musicians I've ever seen/heard backing him up. Then, not only did he play for three-and-a-half hours, he skipped off the stage every time he left.
Skipped. A 74-year-old man.
And he's funny.
Great Leonard Cohen paraphrase:
"It’s been 14 or 15 years since I walked this stage. I was about 60 then, full of a young man’s dreams. I’ve taken a lot of Prozac since then. And Paxil, Wellbutrin,§§ Ritalin, Focalin… but I never took any of the little blue pills.
You see, I was deep in religious study at the time.
I didn’t know Prozac suppresses the libido.
I thought I had transcended desire."
[SUMMARY: Leonard Cohen would definitely understand Kharmic Green Stamps.]
*************
The tiny little Tomato Plant that Could gets stronger all the time.
Every day when I leave for work, I have separation anxiety because¶¶ I'm afraid a tornado will go through the alley or we'll have [more] hail and I'll come home to find it washed away.
[SUMMARY: Parenthood has its stresses.]
*************
Speaking of plants,¶ I planted the north forty this weekend and ended up with an honest-to-Jebus farmer's tan.
[SUMMARY: There's a little white trash in all of us.%]
*************
Speaking of weather,¶ with the current and recent levels of humidity in Denverish,## my hair has become large and unruly.
I give up. The hair is on its own.
In other weather news, I finally bought an umbrella, so it hasn't rained on my walks to and from the office in days.
[SUMMARY: This is me... this is the universe revolving around me...]
*************
And in the lick of a pig, I'm off.
*************
No. 2: Wicken 3000 - Bernhard Willhelm & Lucas Sieuzac for Six Scents (Part 2 in the series)†††
Marin says: Alcohol *flash!*
Aldehyde *flash!*
Soap *flash!*
A brief *flash!* that makes me want to quote Grains de Musc on Jean Claude Ellena,‡‡‡ then licorice and bay rum under heavy cloud cover.
This is so watery and close to the skin and disappears so fast -- even with three direct hits from the bottle.
It's inoffensive.
It's almost not there.
Six Scents says: "A light, fresh, clean scent that embodies a fusion of the elements. The idea was to create a perfume close to the elements of water and air,but with a futuristic approach.§§§ Express "the Back to nature" side of Bernhard with a pure & essential fragrance." - Lucas Sieuzac,
Perfumer Ingredients: Sea Breeze Accord, Bergamot, Water Jasmine, Sheer Musk.
Hans says: Whew! There's a lot of alcohol! It smells like a gin and tonic. It's definitely very light. I like it, but it's very... it smells like, um, summer mist off a... weeping willow.¶¶¶
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): I may be overestimating your excitement over pig-licking.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Srsly.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Not the one I take pictures of all the time... the one across the street from that.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): We were.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): I'm not telling you where.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): For those of you scoring at home, the Green Bay Packers are harder. heheheheheheheh
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Jealous? Oh, please be jealous.
§§FOOTNOTE (I'm just a little confused): sp?
¶¶FOOTNOTE (staked tomotoes): Because I'm a tomato dork.
%FOOTNOTE (percented): Except maybe Nathan.
##FOOTNOTE (the pounding moist): Unheard of humidity! Humidity on a grand scale! A swamp's worth of humidity!
†††FOOTNOTE (tick tick tick): That sounds so 60 Minutes, doesn't it?
‡‡‡FOOTNOTE (I tracked it down!): "...one of Jean Claude Ellena's many variations on the smell of water." And a big auxilliary slurp to Nathan for that quote.
§§§FOOTNOTE (triple take): Hey, that's what I said!
¶¶¶FOOTNOTE (three pats for Hans): And this is why we continue to keep Hans around.
Bet you never thought the day would come.†
[SUMMARY: Long time no lick.]
*************
We had a fire drill yesterday.‡
We filed in a calm and orderly manner down the stairs, then congregated in the parking lot kitty-corner from the office.§ Hans and I are fire buddies,‡ so we checked to be sure we were OK. The fire wardens for each floor wore their red Fire Warden hats‡ and checked us in on their fire warden clipboards. Then they let us back in the building.
Dude.
I've been four and I've been twelve...
[SUMMARY: I'm ten.]
*************
Speaking of school daze,¶ Brother sent me these:
Consensus is that the elephant is the funniest one.
While Brother thought the lack of humour on the part of the grading parties was noteworthy, I think "Very funny, Peter," made me laugh almost as hard as the funny Peter made to get that accolade.
[SUMMARY: Humour is subjective.]
*************
This morning, I got a parking space on the only street in downtown Denver with no meters and no time limits.#
I have a feeling I spent all my kharmic green stamps for the next three years to get that spot.
[SUMMARY: Kharma is subjective.]
*************
Did I mention I got Bronco season tickets over the weekend? Second-hardest-to-obtain season tix in the NFL?††
[SUMMARY: I may be in kharmic debt after that.]
*************
I took brother to see Leonard Cohen at Red Rocks last week.‡‡ If you get the chance, ya gotta see him. First, he has some of the best musicians I've ever seen/heard backing him up. Then, not only did he play for three-and-a-half hours, he skipped off the stage every time he left.
Skipped. A 74-year-old man.
And he's funny.
Great Leonard Cohen paraphrase:
"It’s been 14 or 15 years since I walked this stage. I was about 60 then, full of a young man’s dreams. I’ve taken a lot of Prozac since then. And Paxil, Wellbutrin,§§ Ritalin, Focalin… but I never took any of the little blue pills.
You see, I was deep in religious study at the time.
I didn’t know Prozac suppresses the libido.
I thought I had transcended desire."
[SUMMARY: Leonard Cohen would definitely understand Kharmic Green Stamps.]
*************
The tiny little Tomato Plant that Could gets stronger all the time.
Every day when I leave for work, I have separation anxiety because¶¶ I'm afraid a tornado will go through the alley or we'll have [more] hail and I'll come home to find it washed away.
[SUMMARY: Parenthood has its stresses.]
*************
Speaking of plants,¶ I planted the north forty this weekend and ended up with an honest-to-Jebus farmer's tan.
[SUMMARY: There's a little white trash in all of us.%]
*************
Speaking of weather,¶ with the current and recent levels of humidity in Denverish,## my hair has become large and unruly.
I give up. The hair is on its own.
In other weather news, I finally bought an umbrella, so it hasn't rained on my walks to and from the office in days.
[SUMMARY: This is me... this is the universe revolving around me...]
*************
And in the lick of a pig, I'm off.
*************
No. 2: Wicken 3000 - Bernhard Willhelm & Lucas Sieuzac for Six Scents (Part 2 in the series)†††
Marin says: Alcohol *flash!*
Aldehyde *flash!*
Soap *flash!*
A brief *flash!* that makes me want to quote Grains de Musc on Jean Claude Ellena,‡‡‡ then licorice and bay rum under heavy cloud cover.
This is so watery and close to the skin and disappears so fast -- even with three direct hits from the bottle.
It's inoffensive.
It's almost not there.
Six Scents says: "A light, fresh, clean scent that embodies a fusion of the elements. The idea was to create a perfume close to the elements of water and air,but with a futuristic approach.§§§ Express "the Back to nature" side of Bernhard with a pure & essential fragrance." - Lucas Sieuzac,
Perfumer Ingredients: Sea Breeze Accord, Bergamot, Water Jasmine, Sheer Musk.
Hans says: Whew! There's a lot of alcohol! It smells like a gin and tonic. It's definitely very light. I like it, but it's very... it smells like, um, summer mist off a... weeping willow.¶¶¶
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): I may be overestimating your excitement over pig-licking.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Srsly.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Not the one I take pictures of all the time... the one across the street from that.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): We were.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): I'm not telling you where.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): For those of you scoring at home, the Green Bay Packers are harder. heheheheheheheh
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Jealous? Oh, please be jealous.
§§FOOTNOTE (I'm just a little confused): sp?
¶¶FOOTNOTE (staked tomotoes): Because I'm a tomato dork.
%FOOTNOTE (percented): Except maybe Nathan.
##FOOTNOTE (the pounding moist): Unheard of humidity! Humidity on a grand scale! A swamp's worth of humidity!
†††FOOTNOTE (tick tick tick): That sounds so 60 Minutes, doesn't it?
‡‡‡FOOTNOTE (I tracked it down!): "...one of Jean Claude Ellena's many variations on the smell of water." And a big auxilliary slurp to Nathan for that quote.
§§§FOOTNOTE (triple take): Hey, that's what I said!
¶¶¶FOOTNOTE (three pats for Hans): And this is why we continue to keep Hans around.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
ibid
...I NEED this.
From ThinkGeek, the people who brought you† the Bone Chillers skull and crossbone ice tray, comes the Crawling Zombie Torso Gelatin Mold.
How much do you want to make Zombie-shaped JellO shots right now?‡
*************
No. 1: Urban Tropicalia - Alexandre Herchcovitch & Joachim Correll for Six Scents
The backstory: Six Scents: Series One@ is a collection of six fragrances featuring collaborations between perfumers and fashion designers. An undisclosed portion of the proceeds will go to Designers Against AIDS (DAA) International AIDS Awareness Education Center in Antwerp, originally scheduled to open in December of 2008, but re-set for some time in 2009.
I have procured dollops of all six scents%... do you sense a theme emerging?^
Marin says: Sharp, bitter orange or maybe lime, then it morphs into pine, with a dry something behind it -- like a cedar branch, needles and all. A whiff of lemon lolls in the middle of it, surprisingly similar to the pine.§
There's a definite strata of fresh, white flowers solidly behind, and I would swear I'm getting fig or currant or some other dark, elusive fruit.
As the brighter notes fade off -- and they don't really fade so much as mellow -- a warmer, rounder something flirts with the composition. The floral starts looking like a spicy carnation,¶ just warming from the florist's fridge,# pine still singing in the chorus.
Now, I don't exactly smell amber, sandalwood or musk, but there's definitely something from that classic family. Apparently nothing too loud. Through it all, that cedary dryness just reining it in and making it a bit mysterious.
I think this is a very well-crafted perfume, cohesive, slightly unusual and mischeviously elegant. I like it.
Six Scents says: "The inspiration for this fragrance was driven by the way that Alexandre creates fashion. The creative liberty he uses to design fashion which can be used equally by men or women. This fragrance can be worn at any time, for any occasion, as a form of self expression, to be daring, or simply for the pure pleasure of wearing a fragrance. The Alexandre Herchcovitch scent evokes freedom ad sensuality, and similar to his fashion, the perfume is striking, emblematic and tanscends categories." - Joachim Correll, Perfumer
Ingredients: Erogenous†† Cedar wood$ - Amber Fond,‡‡ Lemon,$ Cassis De Bourgeons,$ Lime,$ Green, [sic] Apple,§§ Apricot, Jasmine, Tagete, Freesia, Cinnamon, Musk.$
Hans says: Tree sappy.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): Well, brought me in any case. Left it right on my doorstep.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): I am looking at you, Lyda Kay.
@FOOTNOTE (atted): Presumably, they are planning on a Series Two.
%FOOTNOTE (percented): Due in no small measure to the (continuing) bad influence of one Nathan Branch.
^FOOTNOTE (careted): We're all about the themes here at the Rickety Blog.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Juno dropped some fine science on me the other day proving lemon and pine have more in common than household cleaners, but if I had the energy to go dig that up, I'd have the energy to write a real post.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): For those of you who don't troll the perfume blogs, carnation IS spicy. It's kinda like freesia or some other distinct white flower with a touch of clove and maybe a hint of cinnamon. Next time you're going past the 12-for-$2.99 bucket in the supermarket floral department, stop, close your eyes and give the carnations a good, deep, thoughtful sniff. Nobody will point and laugh.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): I believe I've already relayed this olfactory trigger, but my sophomore year in college, my mom sent me a giant Christmas floral arrangement that had roses, carnatios and pine boughs. That's exactly where I get stuck with anything that has both pine and flowers.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): Which has to do with erosion rather than sex. I know. I learned about erogenous sinclines during a roadside geology lesson with my dad and have never quite forgiven the geologic world for that not being even half as lustful as it sounds.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): I don't know. Google doesn't know. Google thinks "amber fond" is an agony aunt or maybe a 21-year-old in Fond du Lac. Google thinks perhaps I meant to say "amber found." That's the second time in a week Google has been no use to me at all.
§§FOOTNOTE (double sniff - like a double take, only with your nose): Ahhhh. This is why I try really hard to never look at the notes or the perfumers hype before I do my review. I would have TOTALLY gotten green apple (or green, apple) through the power of suggestion. Funny how much lemon and pine smells like green apple. Srsly.
From ThinkGeek, the people who brought you† the Bone Chillers skull and crossbone ice tray, comes the Crawling Zombie Torso Gelatin Mold.
How much do you want to make Zombie-shaped JellO shots right now?‡
*************
No. 1: Urban Tropicalia - Alexandre Herchcovitch & Joachim Correll for Six Scents
The backstory: Six Scents: Series One@ is a collection of six fragrances featuring collaborations between perfumers and fashion designers. An undisclosed portion of the proceeds will go to Designers Against AIDS (DAA) International AIDS Awareness Education Center in Antwerp, originally scheduled to open in December of 2008, but re-set for some time in 2009.
I have procured dollops of all six scents%... do you sense a theme emerging?^
Marin says: Sharp, bitter orange or maybe lime, then it morphs into pine, with a dry something behind it -- like a cedar branch, needles and all. A whiff of lemon lolls in the middle of it, surprisingly similar to the pine.§
There's a definite strata of fresh, white flowers solidly behind, and I would swear I'm getting fig or currant or some other dark, elusive fruit.
As the brighter notes fade off -- and they don't really fade so much as mellow -- a warmer, rounder something flirts with the composition. The floral starts looking like a spicy carnation,¶ just warming from the florist's fridge,# pine still singing in the chorus.
Now, I don't exactly smell amber, sandalwood or musk, but there's definitely something from that classic family. Apparently nothing too loud. Through it all, that cedary dryness just reining it in and making it a bit mysterious.
I think this is a very well-crafted perfume, cohesive, slightly unusual and mischeviously elegant. I like it.
Six Scents says: "The inspiration for this fragrance was driven by the way that Alexandre creates fashion. The creative liberty he uses to design fashion which can be used equally by men or women. This fragrance can be worn at any time, for any occasion, as a form of self expression, to be daring, or simply for the pure pleasure of wearing a fragrance. The Alexandre Herchcovitch scent evokes freedom ad sensuality, and similar to his fashion, the perfume is striking, emblematic and tanscends categories." - Joachim Correll, Perfumer
Ingredients: Erogenous†† Cedar wood$ - Amber Fond,‡‡ Lemon,$ Cassis De Bourgeons,$ Lime,$ Green, [sic] Apple,§§ Apricot, Jasmine, Tagete, Freesia, Cinnamon, Musk.$
Hans says: Tree sappy.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): Well, brought me in any case. Left it right on my doorstep.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): I am looking at you, Lyda Kay.
@FOOTNOTE (atted): Presumably, they are planning on a Series Two.
%FOOTNOTE (percented): Due in no small measure to the (continuing) bad influence of one Nathan Branch.
^FOOTNOTE (careted): We're all about the themes here at the Rickety Blog.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Juno dropped some fine science on me the other day proving lemon and pine have more in common than household cleaners, but if I had the energy to go dig that up, I'd have the energy to write a real post.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): For those of you who don't troll the perfume blogs, carnation IS spicy. It's kinda like freesia or some other distinct white flower with a touch of clove and maybe a hint of cinnamon. Next time you're going past the 12-for-$2.99 bucket in the supermarket floral department, stop, close your eyes and give the carnations a good, deep, thoughtful sniff. Nobody will point and laugh.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): I believe I've already relayed this olfactory trigger, but my sophomore year in college, my mom sent me a giant Christmas floral arrangement that had roses, carnatios and pine boughs. That's exactly where I get stuck with anything that has both pine and flowers.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): Which has to do with erosion rather than sex. I know. I learned about erogenous sinclines during a roadside geology lesson with my dad and have never quite forgiven the geologic world for that not being even half as lustful as it sounds.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): I don't know. Google doesn't know. Google thinks "amber fond" is an agony aunt or maybe a 21-year-old in Fond du Lac. Google thinks perhaps I meant to say "amber found." That's the second time in a week Google has been no use to me at all.
§§FOOTNOTE (double sniff - like a double take, only with your nose): Ahhhh. This is why I try really hard to never look at the notes or the perfumers hype before I do my review. I would have TOTALLY gotten green apple (or green, apple) through the power of suggestion. Funny how much lemon and pine smells like green apple. Srsly.
Monday, May 18, 2009
In Case You Think I've Forgotten...
In my obsessive,† ongoing war on sparkly vampires‡:
I've refrained from posting the Sparkleback Mountain one and the Hugh Jackman vampire hunter one, but this comes from my favourite movie of all time,§ so I gave in to the temptation.
[SUMMARY: The campaign for saint continues... two steps forward, one step back.]
Later this week, we will be exploring stupid sparkly SweeTarts.
Srsly.¶
I couldn't possibly make that up.
*************
Une Fleur de Cassie# - Dominique Ropion for Frederic Malle
Marin says: The first shot is pure Aqua Net, but in a flash it becomes a rich, meaty jasmine before skipping off into a woodsy, leafy white floral.
My nose may be deceiving me, but I think I get a whiff of lime or bitter orange. As soon as I take a deep hit to verify, I lose it. Skating along on top is that crayola smell I associate with violet, but it too hides as soon as I go looking for it.
Deeper than pretty white flowers, not so indolent as pure jasmine, fresh and wet for woods -- kind of like a flowering wood after a rain storm -- and not at all overwhelming. I think this would be a particularly nice summer evening scent -- just a wee bit rich and sexy for a summer day -- and not bad for the office, really.
The Perfumed Court says: A rich, intricate fragrance with notes of bergamot orange,$ rose, violet,$ cassie absolute, mimosa absolute, jasmine absolute,$ clove, cumin, apricot, musk, cedar, and sandalwood.
Hans says: I'm getting a lot of floral and a lot of aldehyde. Floral like... I'm not good at picking out flowers. Daisy. Is daisy subtle?
[There's a category generically known as "white flowers" that is usually pretty light.]
That's it, then. I'm going with aldehyde and white flowers.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): I warned you right there in the sidebar. Just wait 'til my tomatoes start coming in.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): It's detours like this that make the "still a knitblog" tag necessary.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): I didn't say it was a good movie (though I'd defend its soundtrack to the ends of the earth), but it is my favourite.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): I'm using this so much -- yes, I say it out loud and pronounce it with no vowels -- I'm in danger of becoming as irritating as after the South Park Al Gore episode when Tani and I almost drove Jax crazy saying, "I'm totally cereal" at the end of every single sentence we uttered.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): I was going to blame Nathan for this, but it turns out it's the work of Bad Influence No. 3, Michelyn Camen (FifthSenseNYC), who is rapidly becoming one of my favourite -- and most expensive -- twits.
$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): I can't believe I couldn't get the cedar or apricot, but I'm tickled pink I got the jasmine and violet.
I've refrained from posting the Sparkleback Mountain one and the Hugh Jackman vampire hunter one, but this comes from my favourite movie of all time,§ so I gave in to the temptation.
[SUMMARY: The campaign for saint continues... two steps forward, one step back.]
Later this week, we will be exploring stupid sparkly SweeTarts.
Srsly.¶
I couldn't possibly make that up.
*************
Une Fleur de Cassie# - Dominique Ropion for Frederic Malle
Marin says: The first shot is pure Aqua Net, but in a flash it becomes a rich, meaty jasmine before skipping off into a woodsy, leafy white floral.
My nose may be deceiving me, but I think I get a whiff of lime or bitter orange. As soon as I take a deep hit to verify, I lose it. Skating along on top is that crayola smell I associate with violet, but it too hides as soon as I go looking for it.
Deeper than pretty white flowers, not so indolent as pure jasmine, fresh and wet for woods -- kind of like a flowering wood after a rain storm -- and not at all overwhelming. I think this would be a particularly nice summer evening scent -- just a wee bit rich and sexy for a summer day -- and not bad for the office, really.
The Perfumed Court says: A rich, intricate fragrance with notes of bergamot orange,$ rose, violet,$ cassie absolute, mimosa absolute, jasmine absolute,$ clove, cumin, apricot, musk, cedar, and sandalwood.
Hans says: I'm getting a lot of floral and a lot of aldehyde. Floral like... I'm not good at picking out flowers. Daisy. Is daisy subtle?
[There's a category generically known as "white flowers" that is usually pretty light.]
That's it, then. I'm going with aldehyde and white flowers.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): I warned you right there in the sidebar. Just wait 'til my tomatoes start coming in.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): It's detours like this that make the "still a knitblog" tag necessary.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): I didn't say it was a good movie (though I'd defend its soundtrack to the ends of the earth), but it is my favourite.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): I'm using this so much -- yes, I say it out loud and pronounce it with no vowels -- I'm in danger of becoming as irritating as after the South Park Al Gore episode when Tani and I almost drove Jax crazy saying, "I'm totally cereal" at the end of every single sentence we uttered.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): I was going to blame Nathan for this, but it turns out it's the work of Bad Influence No. 3, Michelyn Camen (FifthSenseNYC), who is rapidly becoming one of my favourite -- and most expensive -- twits.
$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): I can't believe I couldn't get the cedar or apricot, but I'm tickled pink I got the jasmine and violet.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
BSJ for Everyone!
That's what she said.†
This has been all uploaded and ready to go for over a month. Because of my understandable‡ postalphobia, I have a really hard time getting stuff to the post office to ship.
[SUMMARY: Inability to get to post office is related to blog photos. Somehow.]
BECAUSE one of these is for Sarah and her new arrival and I didn't want to post it before she got it.§
As always, the buttons are what really makes the Baby Surprise Jacket.
Then there's the one for my future stepsister-in-law, who decided not to find out the sex of the baby¶ so I went unconventional for the colours.
And got some very happy buttons to go with it.#
So for my dear friends who are new mothers, I hope you had a very happy first Mother's Day and I didn't mean you†† when I said I hate Mother's Day.
*************
Le Rivage des Syrtes (formerly PN1‡‡ or PdN1) - Patricia de Nicolaï for Parfums MDCI
Marin says: Now this has an aldehyde I can live with.
Most aldehydes are overwhelming to my delicate palate§§ and leave me thinking "Aqua Net." This one is bright and light and puts a fine synthetic net over a fruity floral.
I can't quite pick the fruit -- it's not exactly citrus, not exactly peach, not exactly mango. But it's definitely fruity. Perhaps like orange blossom, where the fruit hides in the flower. The flowers are strong and white and sweet like tropical blossoms -- maybe a dash of tuberose. And there's an edgy, slightly acrid depth that I'm starting to associate with ylang ylang.
As this dries down, everything mellows nicely, and there's a definite tinge of sweet oranges in the mix, complimented by a clean, clear tuberose. The aldehyde is nearly gone and there's a delicate golden depth -- amber -- that I find sophisticated and enchanting.
So my love affair with MDCI continues. They are so very French, to be sure, and so very well-crafted and slightly unusual.
This one is the brightest of the MDCI group so far and may be the spring/summer scent -- or one of them¶¶ -- that I've been looking for.
LuckyScent says: The top notes or [sic] orange, pineapple and galbanum combine in an unexpectedly radiant composition which fans of Nicolai will recognize as very much in her style. With the precious fruits secured as cargo, the search continues. Our hero gathers an abundance of heady florals— precious ylang, orange blossom and tuberose designed to delight any recipient of such a magnificent bouquet— and tucks them into a basket he has lined with grasses in order to protect them. Finally, the sailor’s attention turns to the most precious and rare essences– musks, incense and ambergris– eternal mementos of his exotic travels and worthy of none save the one who waits for him alone, praying for his safe return. A complex scent that evokes the bitter and the sweet, the tenderness and the wistful longing of romance.
Notes: sweet orange essence,$ pineapple, galbanum, ylang ylang,$ tuberose,$ orange blossom absolute,$ incense, ambergris,$ vanilla, musk
Hans says: Mmmm. I get, like, honey. Like a sweet honey. Like a flower honey. Honeysuckle. Call it honeysuckle. I think my talents are waning.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): This is all my cousin Joe and I say to each other. It makes Thanksgiving really, really funny (to us) and made Mother's Day bearable (to me), but I think it irritates our grandmother.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): I hear you laughing.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): There's a protocol here, you know.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Which is both liberating and limiting, knitting-wise.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): If future stepnephew-in-law is half as happy as these buttons, he will have a fairytale childhood... "fairytale" in the modern-day connotation, not like Hansel and Gretel.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): For the record, FSSIL went into labour at about 1:00 Sunday morning and had the baby Sunday night. It's a boy. And Sarah had hers three weeks ago. Also a boy, but we already knew that.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Mine says "PN1" on the bottle because it was still in the working title stage when I got my set of MDCI samples. I consider this to be like my Metallica: Ride the Lightning tour shirt, which proves I got in on the ground floor. We, the uncool, clinging to the symbols of our occasional accidental hipness...
§§FOOTNOTE (tendrils and wafts and other delicate stuff): You're laughing again.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (arms thrown open): Why limit myself?
This has been all uploaded and ready to go for over a month. Because of my understandable‡ postalphobia, I have a really hard time getting stuff to the post office to ship.
[SUMMARY: Inability to get to post office is related to blog photos. Somehow.]
BECAUSE one of these is for Sarah and her new arrival and I didn't want to post it before she got it.§
As always, the buttons are what really makes the Baby Surprise Jacket.
Then there's the one for my future stepsister-in-law, who decided not to find out the sex of the baby¶ so I went unconventional for the colours.
And got some very happy buttons to go with it.#
So for my dear friends who are new mothers, I hope you had a very happy first Mother's Day and I didn't mean you†† when I said I hate Mother's Day.
*************
Le Rivage des Syrtes (formerly PN1‡‡ or PdN1) - Patricia de Nicolaï for Parfums MDCI
Marin says: Now this has an aldehyde I can live with.
Most aldehydes are overwhelming to my delicate palate§§ and leave me thinking "Aqua Net." This one is bright and light and puts a fine synthetic net over a fruity floral.
I can't quite pick the fruit -- it's not exactly citrus, not exactly peach, not exactly mango. But it's definitely fruity. Perhaps like orange blossom, where the fruit hides in the flower. The flowers are strong and white and sweet like tropical blossoms -- maybe a dash of tuberose. And there's an edgy, slightly acrid depth that I'm starting to associate with ylang ylang.
As this dries down, everything mellows nicely, and there's a definite tinge of sweet oranges in the mix, complimented by a clean, clear tuberose. The aldehyde is nearly gone and there's a delicate golden depth -- amber -- that I find sophisticated and enchanting.
So my love affair with MDCI continues. They are so very French, to be sure, and so very well-crafted and slightly unusual.
This one is the brightest of the MDCI group so far and may be the spring/summer scent -- or one of them¶¶ -- that I've been looking for.
LuckyScent says: The top notes or [sic] orange, pineapple and galbanum combine in an unexpectedly radiant composition which fans of Nicolai will recognize as very much in her style. With the precious fruits secured as cargo, the search continues. Our hero gathers an abundance of heady florals— precious ylang, orange blossom and tuberose designed to delight any recipient of such a magnificent bouquet— and tucks them into a basket he has lined with grasses in order to protect them. Finally, the sailor’s attention turns to the most precious and rare essences– musks, incense and ambergris– eternal mementos of his exotic travels and worthy of none save the one who waits for him alone, praying for his safe return. A complex scent that evokes the bitter and the sweet, the tenderness and the wistful longing of romance.
Notes: sweet orange essence,$ pineapple, galbanum, ylang ylang,$ tuberose,$ orange blossom absolute,$ incense, ambergris,$ vanilla, musk
Hans says: Mmmm. I get, like, honey. Like a sweet honey. Like a flower honey. Honeysuckle. Call it honeysuckle. I think my talents are waning.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): This is all my cousin Joe and I say to each other. It makes Thanksgiving really, really funny (to us) and made Mother's Day bearable (to me), but I think it irritates our grandmother.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): I hear you laughing.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): There's a protocol here, you know.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Which is both liberating and limiting, knitting-wise.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): If future stepnephew-in-law is half as happy as these buttons, he will have a fairytale childhood... "fairytale" in the modern-day connotation, not like Hansel and Gretel.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): For the record, FSSIL went into labour at about 1:00 Sunday morning and had the baby Sunday night. It's a boy. And Sarah had hers three weeks ago. Also a boy, but we already knew that.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Mine says "PN1" on the bottle because it was still in the working title stage when I got my set of MDCI samples. I consider this to be like my Metallica: Ride the Lightning tour shirt, which proves I got in on the ground floor. We, the uncool, clinging to the symbols of our occasional accidental hipness...
§§FOOTNOTE (tendrils and wafts and other delicate stuff): You're laughing again.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (arms thrown open): Why limit myself?
Monday, April 20, 2009
Is "Old News" Oxymoronic?
And who are you calling a moron?†
Ah, it's a good thing I'm here to laugh at myself. I mean, I know all y'all are laughing at me, but I'm laughing because I think I'm funny.
[SUMMARY: I take what I can get.]
In last weeked's Travels with Shanny, we witnessed this gem:
"Do you suppose if Jesus came back now, he'd say, 'When *I* was crucified, we didn't have any wheels on our crosses. Oh, no, we had to drag our crosses through the alleys of Jerusalem with no help at all! Uphill both ways! And my father went *right by me* on his way to work!'"‡
Then we took a seat to watch the weirdos and tourists§ drift by and I saw this sign:
In all my years wandering up and down the 16th Street Mall, I never noticed this sign. I told Shanny so.
"Hey," he said, "Do you think they'd arrest the guy with the wheeled cross?"
[SUMMARY: Shanny's going to hell. I'm gong to hell.¶ The arresting officer would most certainly be going to hell.]
Sometimes you just couldn't make up anything funnier than what's floating around out there not trying to be funny.
*************
Black Violet - Tom Ford Private Blend
Marin says: Lime... or bergamot, maybe,# with something else fruity -- I'm going with apricot, since it's one of my favourite notes and is just a little drier than peach, for these purpoes. My wrists feel warm -- not in a burning, allergic way, but in an electric blanket, comforting way.
We know the citrus isn't going to last long, since that's citrus's lot in life. That scent boosting it up, pushing it over the edge... vanilla? Amber? Warm and sweet, but a little dusty and not sugary. It has a moment of flirting with bay rum.
And there goes the citrus.
Now I smell like a Barbie doll fresh from her package, the scent I generally get when there are violets in the offing.†† That's quickly overcome by a blond wood. Not sweet, not balsamic, but definitely woody.
And... scene!
In the time it took you to read this, the scent went almost completely away. My wrists still feel warm, but it's very difficult to find the slightest trace of a scent left.‡‡ It's a shame -- I really liked the scent, very well balanced, intriguing, with some of my favourite inoffensive notes§§ well represented.
Tom Ford says: Crisp Citrus$ surrounds a modern pulpy Fruit Accord,$ fused with Black Violets.$ Woody$ accents fold into Oakmoss adding the universally comforting sensation of warmth.$
Hans says: it smells like an Abercrombie & Fitch cologne someone got me in high school.¶¶
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): I should know better than to ask that.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Wow. That's so deep you could do a doctoral thesis on it.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Po-tay-to, po-tah-to.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Probably a good thing. I'm not sure I want to go through an afterlife without Shanny. Hey, if you make saint, do you get to appoint a cabinet?
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): I only throw bergamot in because half the time when I think I smell lime, the perfumer tells me it's actually bergamot.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): Epiphany: it's interesting how many perfume notes take me back to some childhood toy: Barbie, Play-doh, Silly Putty...
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): If I put the tip of my nose right at the bottom of my hand with my nose-holes perpendicular to my wrist, nothing. If I lay my nose-holes right on my wrist, I get a surprisingly full snork of violets and wood.
§§FOOTNOTE (twisted sense of smell): 'Cause we all know how I feel about honey.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (A&F models, staring off-camera to the sea): He didn't say whether that was bad or good, but he did allow as how he had ended up with maybe five bottles of cologne through his lifetime, but had probably worn cologne twice.
$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): I'm claiming apricot as "modern pulpy Fruit Accord" and I'm mildly freaked out that the warm thing may be a feature of the blend rather than just my own reaction. Those KY his 'n' hers commercials keep going through my head. Also? Some day I'm going to get a bead on what oakmoss smells like...
Ah, it's a good thing I'm here to laugh at myself. I mean, I know all y'all are laughing at me, but I'm laughing because I think I'm funny.
[SUMMARY: I take what I can get.]
In last weeked's Travels with Shanny, we witnessed this gem:
"Do you suppose if Jesus came back now, he'd say, 'When *I* was crucified, we didn't have any wheels on our crosses. Oh, no, we had to drag our crosses through the alleys of Jerusalem with no help at all! Uphill both ways! And my father went *right by me* on his way to work!'"‡
Then we took a seat to watch the weirdos and tourists§ drift by and I saw this sign:
In all my years wandering up and down the 16th Street Mall, I never noticed this sign. I told Shanny so.
"Hey," he said, "Do you think they'd arrest the guy with the wheeled cross?"
[SUMMARY: Shanny's going to hell. I'm gong to hell.¶ The arresting officer would most certainly be going to hell.]
Sometimes you just couldn't make up anything funnier than what's floating around out there not trying to be funny.
*************
Black Violet - Tom Ford Private Blend
Marin says: Lime... or bergamot, maybe,# with something else fruity -- I'm going with apricot, since it's one of my favourite notes and is just a little drier than peach, for these purpoes. My wrists feel warm -- not in a burning, allergic way, but in an electric blanket, comforting way.
We know the citrus isn't going to last long, since that's citrus's lot in life. That scent boosting it up, pushing it over the edge... vanilla? Amber? Warm and sweet, but a little dusty and not sugary. It has a moment of flirting with bay rum.
And there goes the citrus.
Now I smell like a Barbie doll fresh from her package, the scent I generally get when there are violets in the offing.†† That's quickly overcome by a blond wood. Not sweet, not balsamic, but definitely woody.
And... scene!
In the time it took you to read this, the scent went almost completely away. My wrists still feel warm, but it's very difficult to find the slightest trace of a scent left.‡‡ It's a shame -- I really liked the scent, very well balanced, intriguing, with some of my favourite inoffensive notes§§ well represented.
Tom Ford says: Crisp Citrus$ surrounds a modern pulpy Fruit Accord,$ fused with Black Violets.$ Woody$ accents fold into Oakmoss adding the universally comforting sensation of warmth.$
Hans says: it smells like an Abercrombie & Fitch cologne someone got me in high school.¶¶
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): I should know better than to ask that.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Wow. That's so deep you could do a doctoral thesis on it.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Po-tay-to, po-tah-to.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Probably a good thing. I'm not sure I want to go through an afterlife without Shanny. Hey, if you make saint, do you get to appoint a cabinet?
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): I only throw bergamot in because half the time when I think I smell lime, the perfumer tells me it's actually bergamot.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): Epiphany: it's interesting how many perfume notes take me back to some childhood toy: Barbie, Play-doh, Silly Putty...
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): If I put the tip of my nose right at the bottom of my hand with my nose-holes perpendicular to my wrist, nothing. If I lay my nose-holes right on my wrist, I get a surprisingly full snork of violets and wood.
§§FOOTNOTE (twisted sense of smell): 'Cause we all know how I feel about honey.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (A&F models, staring off-camera to the sea): He didn't say whether that was bad or good, but he did allow as how he had ended up with maybe five bottles of cologne through his lifetime, but had probably worn cologne twice.
$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): I'm claiming apricot as "modern pulpy Fruit Accord" and I'm mildly freaked out that the warm thing may be a feature of the blend rather than just my own reaction. Those KY his 'n' hers commercials keep going through my head. Also? Some day I'm going to get a bead on what oakmoss smells like...
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Damning the Saint
Brother called Friday morning to say he and The Gov and Fuzzy G and maybe Magnet† were meeting for happy hour at the Coral Room.
I thought, "Why not?"‡
I debated over whether I would have a drink or try to stay true to my own idea of Lent.
Guess how long that debate lasted.§
I believe Ben was two tables away when I shouted, "Tempranillo! Please!"
[SUMMARY: Sainthood hasn't changed me a bit.]
Actually, I had given myself an out for emergency situations: if I'd hurt someone's feelings by not having a bite of birthday cake, if someone got engaged and anything but a champagne toast would be inappropriate, if someone got pregnant and a jug of Wild Turkey seemed wholly appropriate...
For someone who gave herself that many loopholes, I think I did remarkably well.
[SUMMARY: Auto-aspiratic horn blowing.]
Anyway, wine.
Wine.
Wine.
After the old Corral, grabbed a bite at Chipotle,¶ peed twice# and headed for the Hai Bar.
Shot.
Vodka.
Vodka.
Talk turned to getting brother a little action, seeing as he's wounded and divorced and needs to get back on some horse, maybe any horse. We were right in the middle of extolling the virtues of rebound sex when what to our wondering eyes should appear but a young woman who, in the dim light of the bar, could best be described as the love child of Robert Smith and Amy Winehouse.
Black chaos of hair, eyeliner as wide as a Wyoming sky. Lanky. Gawky.
So Bruce grabbed her and said, "Have you met my friend Bill?"
She told us her name was Erica†† and she was going to see Z-Trip and we should come. This excited the young folk to no end.
The old folk sucked her vodka ice cubes and tried not to feel her grey hairs glowing in the dark.
Brother and Bruce thought Z-Trip at Beta sounded like a *fantastic* idea.‡‡ Greg was interested in going home early, but allowed as how maybe he could be talked into it. And your dear ol' AntiM shrugged and said, "Sure. I can hang."
[SUMMARY: Enthusiasm is my middle name. Some of you may think it's Elizabeth, but that E is actually for Enthusiasm.]
So we cabbed to LoDo§§ and stood in line at the club.
Once inside, Crown and ginger ensued.¶¶
I tipped the bathroom attendent $20 because it was all the cash I had and nobody is going to work my soap pump for me and not be rewarded for it.##
We ran into Erica and she and I did a brief, happy girl dance together.†††
Later that evening, a very young, very drunk young man chose me for his own. I danced with him for a moment, then tried to get him to go on his way.
"You were really mean to him," said Brother later.
"I wasn't mean. I danced with him for a minute."
"Then you said, 'Make him go away.'"
"I believe what I said was, 'Step on him.'"
"Dude, you got hit on by a 22-year-old. You should be happy."
"Yeah, that was pretty cool."
[SUMMARY: That really was pretty cool.‡‡‡]
Z-Trip was interesting. He uses songs I know§§§ much of the time, which is an important component for my DJ well-being.
Y'know, the whole DJ-as-concert thing is a little weird. I can see a good DJ at a dance club being worth a following, but *watching* someone put other people's music together is like paying a premium price for a signed, numbered photograph of Starry Night.
Weird.
[SUMMARY: Old and feeble and you kids get off my lawn!]
Ish.
*************
Incense Rosé - Tauer Perfumes
Marin says: I totally fell in love with this. I think it is the hallmark of my undistinguished scent palate that I love big, spicy things.¶¶¶
With the spices, this is a tangy rose -- like a Tropicana -- rather than the prickly velvet of an American Beauty. The woods give it a darkish depth that makes me think of an opium den. There's something camphorous in the mid-hours of the perfume that speaks patchouli, but not too high and medicinal -- tempered by woods, for sure.
The incense isn't too churchy. In fact, I'm really impressed by the way the incense, wood and rose balance each other out. Nothing every shrieks or submits, they just fit together like a snake eating its own tail.###
The scent lasts for a long time and stays true to the core of itself through most of the journey. Oh, there are moments of higher camphor and moments of deeper woods and when it all boils off, it's more resiny that it was through the rest of the trip, but that tangy, spicy rose stays the course.
Andy Tauer says: Incense rosé is a mysterious fragrance built around smoking frankincense,$ with rose$ and citrus notes, and dark balsamic resins.
First, you might find a few rose petals, from a dark and spicy rose. The natural bergamot and Clementine essential oil, together with just a hint of cardamom play there with the natural rose absolute from Bulgaria.
The fragrance is lifted by orris notes, rendering it vibrant and clear. At the same time it is dark and rich, with castor and woody notes playing on the skin.
It is the Texan cedar wood, vetiver and the balsamic, dark and mysterious notes of myrrh and patchouli$ that are all dancing with the incense. This natural frankincense, CO2 extracted Boswellia serrata, is softened by balsamic labdanum and ambrein.
Brother says@: Woody.
[It's "Incense Rosé."]
Yes, it is.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): People actually call them by these names, though their parents probably still call them Adrian, Greg and Bruce.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): If the heathens are going to party in my house of worship, shall I not join them?
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Just about as long as it takes to say "Maundy Thursday."
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Except me. One side effect of drinking is it kills my appetite. Then I'm starving the next morning -- that's my version of a hangover.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Maybe that was just me.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): Erica was actually lovely, just sporting unfortunate choices in hair and makeup.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Brother and Bruce may have had more to drink than I had by that point.
§§FOOTNOTE (just turn around and go home): LoDo on a Friday night is almost always a bad idea.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (that's me, sticking my tongue out): Not a fan, it turns out. Thought you should know.
##FOOTNOTE (pound that soap!): Heheheheheh...
†††FOOTNOTE (my cross to bear): You know.... squeal, air-kiss, boobboobboobboob and away.
‡‡‡FOOTNOTE (what are those things anyway?): Even if he was really drunk.
§§§FOOTNOTE (earworms): I haven't been able to get "Take On Me" out of my head since.
¶¶¶FOOTNOTE (that's me, bob-bob-bobbing my head): Heheheheheh...
###FOOTNOTE (tic tac toe in 3D): I've wanted to use that image for weeks. Thanks for giving me this opportunity.
@FOOTNOTE (atted): This was Friday night. I thought it an appropriate review for the occasion. The occasion being, of course, Friday night.
$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): I would never have gotten Boswellia serrata, but by golly, I managed incense and rose.
I thought, "Why not?"‡
I debated over whether I would have a drink or try to stay true to my own idea of Lent.
Guess how long that debate lasted.§
I believe Ben was two tables away when I shouted, "Tempranillo! Please!"
[SUMMARY: Sainthood hasn't changed me a bit.]
Actually, I had given myself an out for emergency situations: if I'd hurt someone's feelings by not having a bite of birthday cake, if someone got engaged and anything but a champagne toast would be inappropriate, if someone got pregnant and a jug of Wild Turkey seemed wholly appropriate...
For someone who gave herself that many loopholes, I think I did remarkably well.
[SUMMARY: Auto-aspiratic horn blowing.]
Anyway, wine.
Wine.
Wine.
After the old Corral, grabbed a bite at Chipotle,¶ peed twice# and headed for the Hai Bar.
Shot.
Vodka.
Vodka.
Talk turned to getting brother a little action, seeing as he's wounded and divorced and needs to get back on some horse, maybe any horse. We were right in the middle of extolling the virtues of rebound sex when what to our wondering eyes should appear but a young woman who, in the dim light of the bar, could best be described as the love child of Robert Smith and Amy Winehouse.
Black chaos of hair, eyeliner as wide as a Wyoming sky. Lanky. Gawky.
So Bruce grabbed her and said, "Have you met my friend Bill?"
She told us her name was Erica†† and she was going to see Z-Trip and we should come. This excited the young folk to no end.
The old folk sucked her vodka ice cubes and tried not to feel her grey hairs glowing in the dark.
Brother and Bruce thought Z-Trip at Beta sounded like a *fantastic* idea.‡‡ Greg was interested in going home early, but allowed as how maybe he could be talked into it. And your dear ol' AntiM shrugged and said, "Sure. I can hang."
[SUMMARY: Enthusiasm is my middle name. Some of you may think it's Elizabeth, but that E is actually for Enthusiasm.]
So we cabbed to LoDo§§ and stood in line at the club.
Once inside, Crown and ginger ensued.¶¶
I tipped the bathroom attendent $20 because it was all the cash I had and nobody is going to work my soap pump for me and not be rewarded for it.##
We ran into Erica and she and I did a brief, happy girl dance together.†††
Later that evening, a very young, very drunk young man chose me for his own. I danced with him for a moment, then tried to get him to go on his way.
"You were really mean to him," said Brother later.
"I wasn't mean. I danced with him for a minute."
"Then you said, 'Make him go away.'"
"I believe what I said was, 'Step on him.'"
"Dude, you got hit on by a 22-year-old. You should be happy."
"Yeah, that was pretty cool."
[SUMMARY: That really was pretty cool.‡‡‡]
Z-Trip was interesting. He uses songs I know§§§ much of the time, which is an important component for my DJ well-being.
Y'know, the whole DJ-as-concert thing is a little weird. I can see a good DJ at a dance club being worth a following, but *watching* someone put other people's music together is like paying a premium price for a signed, numbered photograph of Starry Night.
Weird.
[SUMMARY: Old and feeble and you kids get off my lawn!]
Ish.
*************
Incense Rosé - Tauer Perfumes
Marin says: I totally fell in love with this. I think it is the hallmark of my undistinguished scent palate that I love big, spicy things.¶¶¶
With the spices, this is a tangy rose -- like a Tropicana -- rather than the prickly velvet of an American Beauty. The woods give it a darkish depth that makes me think of an opium den. There's something camphorous in the mid-hours of the perfume that speaks patchouli, but not too high and medicinal -- tempered by woods, for sure.
The incense isn't too churchy. In fact, I'm really impressed by the way the incense, wood and rose balance each other out. Nothing every shrieks or submits, they just fit together like a snake eating its own tail.###
The scent lasts for a long time and stays true to the core of itself through most of the journey. Oh, there are moments of higher camphor and moments of deeper woods and when it all boils off, it's more resiny that it was through the rest of the trip, but that tangy, spicy rose stays the course.
Andy Tauer says: Incense rosé is a mysterious fragrance built around smoking frankincense,$ with rose$ and citrus notes, and dark balsamic resins.
First, you might find a few rose petals, from a dark and spicy rose. The natural bergamot and Clementine essential oil, together with just a hint of cardamom play there with the natural rose absolute from Bulgaria.
The fragrance is lifted by orris notes, rendering it vibrant and clear. At the same time it is dark and rich, with castor and woody notes playing on the skin.
It is the Texan cedar wood, vetiver and the balsamic, dark and mysterious notes of myrrh and patchouli$ that are all dancing with the incense. This natural frankincense, CO2 extracted Boswellia serrata, is softened by balsamic labdanum and ambrein.
Brother says@: Woody.
[It's "Incense Rosé."]
Yes, it is.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): People actually call them by these names, though their parents probably still call them Adrian, Greg and Bruce.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): If the heathens are going to party in my house of worship, shall I not join them?
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Just about as long as it takes to say "Maundy Thursday."
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Except me. One side effect of drinking is it kills my appetite. Then I'm starving the next morning -- that's my version of a hangover.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Maybe that was just me.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): Erica was actually lovely, just sporting unfortunate choices in hair and makeup.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Brother and Bruce may have had more to drink than I had by that point.
§§FOOTNOTE (just turn around and go home): LoDo on a Friday night is almost always a bad idea.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (that's me, sticking my tongue out): Not a fan, it turns out. Thought you should know.
##FOOTNOTE (pound that soap!): Heheheheheh...
†††FOOTNOTE (my cross to bear): You know.... squeal, air-kiss, boobboobboobboob and away.
‡‡‡FOOTNOTE (what are those things anyway?): Even if he was really drunk.
§§§FOOTNOTE (earworms): I haven't been able to get "Take On Me" out of my head since.
¶¶¶FOOTNOTE (that's me, bob-bob-bobbing my head): Heheheheheh...
###FOOTNOTE (tic tac toe in 3D): I've wanted to use that image for weeks. Thanks for giving me this opportunity.
@FOOTNOTE (atted): This was Friday night. I thought it an appropriate review for the occasion. The occasion being, of course, Friday night.
$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): I would never have gotten Boswellia serrata, but by golly, I managed incense and rose.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Colour Me Random
When last I cleaned off my camera, I had an unusually large collection of random shit.† Enough to make a whole blogpost. Enough, even, to proclaim a photojournalistic pig-licking.
[SUMMARY: My pig, my rules.]
NOTE: Click for big is your friend here in today's offering.
*************
Jack 'n' Grill on Federal has marvelous food. They also have the new‡ Wall of Jack§ and these Marin-friendly bathroom signs:
*************
Dad has cleaned out the tool annex¶ in the Peach's basement. There is a bank of very cool drawers, reminiscent of the days when libraries had card files.# One is now labeled, "Trowels, etc."
*************
Hans spotted this outfit from my window. We spent many, many company-sposored minutes trying to figure out what in the hell she was thinking††:
*************
This guy was working in our parking lot. He measured something. Then he sawed the end off that something. Then he made some notes. Then he put something else on his wheeled sawhorse and measured it. Then he cleaned up and left. I kinda wish I'd gotten a movie of it.
I'm guessing that at $8/day, this is the cheapest shop space in town.
*************
"Yellow squeeze bottle mustard" listed as an organic ingredient. So... specific:
*************
Before my break-up with Barnes & Noble,‡‡ I was perusing the knitting books at lunch one day and noted a new trend in the fibre arts§§:
*************
Two days snowed in, you'd think I'd be more ambitious.
[SUMMARY: Thinking never did anybody any good.]
Tomorrow? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps¶¶...
*************
Péché Cardinal - Amandine Marie for Parfums MDCI
Marin says: There is a moment when the juice first hits the skin when you@ usually get a completely different scent than you do even two seconds later. It's like the ghostly haze that hovers in the neck of a beer bottle right after you open it## -- there, then gone.
This one is pure Jolly Rancher in that moment: sugary, synthetic, recognisable for its candy version but nothing like the real thing.
You blink and it's different.
Then it's peach, bright and sun-drenched... then mixed with champagne, perhaps. It's bubbly and bright. After a bit, it smells like tuberose and peach with a touch of that tawny port smell I call raisin, but always ends up being plum.
Somewhere along the line, something very round, like amber, and something prickly and dry, like cedar, rein the tuberose in a bit and give it round depths and linear highs.†††
Luckyscent% says: Péché Cardinal is an enticing froth of sinful and sweet, blending luscious fruits and mesmerizingly heady white flowers into a siren song. Warm, rounded and alluring, this Bellini-esque$ scent opens with a juicy, light-hearted sweetness that belies its intoxicating nature. As it warms on the skin, it becomes boldly flirtatious— this is the perfect scent for the belle of the ball. Péché Cardinal (translation: Cardinal Sin‡‡‡) opens with the apricot-hay sweetness of davana combined with the silken fur of ripe golden peaches$ and creamy coconut. The tart fruitiness of blackcurrant and prune$ keep the fragrance from becoming too sweet, allowing the cool, fresh-from-the-flowershop tuberose$ to shine from the heart of the composition. White lilies add an additional, slightly green aspect to the scent. The cedar,$ sandalwood and musc provide a quiet contrapunto§§§ to the fruits. An unabashedly romantic fragrance for those daring enough to wear it
Hans says: Bubble gum. Do you get bubble gum? Definitely something sweet. I don't know. Tell them my nose muscles are tired.¶¶¶
Later, after that syrupy opening, Hans identified fruit, something he should know, and got very excited when I told him it was peach because that was what he was reaching for.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): Even for me.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Since the last time I was there, which may have been a year ago.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Too big to take a picture of, but had a jackalope, a box of Apple Jacks, Jack Kerouac... from table top to ceiling. Cooler than it sounds, trust me.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Seriously, it's a big house. Plenty big to have a tool annex. And a drawer devoted to trowels.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Remember the days, Sarah, Susie? Good times, good times...
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): Please note that I do not deride the red/turquoise/brown cowboy boots in and of themselves, but the mind that paired them with black leggings and a purple/blue sweater. And there's something... off about matching one's earrings to one's boots. Like matching one's lipstick to one's nail polish. Just... too.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): And it's a shame the relationship was over before I could get a picture of the end cap full of owl tchotchkes labeled "penguins."
§§FOOTNOTE (kama sutra position #43): I saw the fetish book and thought it might actually be a knitting book, naughty or just indicative of the mania of knitting. Then I saw the Kama Sutra and I realised yet another knitter had abandoned sex in favour of socks.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (marching band style!): If I have to hear that song all day in my head, you have to hear that song all day in your head.
@FOOTNOTE (atted): As always, when I say, "you," I mean "I."
##FOOTNOTE (the pounding of palm to forehead): About the time I finished typing the beer bottle analogy, I realised a shooting star would work just as well and probably be more elegant. Then I decided I don't want to get *too* elegant. I'd never be able to live up to it, long term.
†††FOOTNOTE (is it Easter yet?): I am getting so good at this review-speak.
%FOOTNOTE (percented): The Parfums MDCI site doesn't have any words on Péché Cardinal that I could find. Normally, I would quote them and use this footnote to tell you what a wondeful, warm, gentlemanly man Claude Marchal (the owner of MDCI) is, but since I couldn't hook that all up like I wanted, I'm just going to hijack the footnote for my own purposes. Why are the French so vilifiable as a group, but so lovely individually?
$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): You know that if I thought "raisin" was close enough to plum, I will argue that "prune" is that much closer.
‡‡‡FOOTNOTE (all roads lead to Paris): This is also apparently a pun of sorts, as Peche without accents, or with different accents or perhaps without the "e" on the end means "peach tree." And this is a peach fragrance, so... pun.
§§§FOOTNOTE (nothing spins me like a good word): I love "contrapunto." You don't get nearly enough contrapunto in daily life. I plan to work contrapunto in to my everyday conversation.
¶¶¶FOOTNOTE (your head, it goes *beatbeatbeat*when your nose muscles are tired): Hans played many hours of beach volleyball yesterday and maintains that *all* his muscles are tired.
[SUMMARY: My pig, my rules.]
NOTE: Click for big is your friend here in today's offering.
*************
Jack 'n' Grill on Federal has marvelous food. They also have the new‡ Wall of Jack§ and these Marin-friendly bathroom signs:
*************
Dad has cleaned out the tool annex¶ in the Peach's basement. There is a bank of very cool drawers, reminiscent of the days when libraries had card files.# One is now labeled, "Trowels, etc."
*************
Hans spotted this outfit from my window. We spent many, many company-sposored minutes trying to figure out what in the hell she was thinking††:
*************
This guy was working in our parking lot. He measured something. Then he sawed the end off that something. Then he made some notes. Then he put something else on his wheeled sawhorse and measured it. Then he cleaned up and left. I kinda wish I'd gotten a movie of it.
I'm guessing that at $8/day, this is the cheapest shop space in town.
*************
"Yellow squeeze bottle mustard" listed as an organic ingredient. So... specific:
*************
Before my break-up with Barnes & Noble,‡‡ I was perusing the knitting books at lunch one day and noted a new trend in the fibre arts§§:
*************
Two days snowed in, you'd think I'd be more ambitious.
[SUMMARY: Thinking never did anybody any good.]
Tomorrow? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps¶¶...
*************
Péché Cardinal - Amandine Marie for Parfums MDCI
Marin says: There is a moment when the juice first hits the skin when you@ usually get a completely different scent than you do even two seconds later. It's like the ghostly haze that hovers in the neck of a beer bottle right after you open it## -- there, then gone.
This one is pure Jolly Rancher in that moment: sugary, synthetic, recognisable for its candy version but nothing like the real thing.
You blink and it's different.
Then it's peach, bright and sun-drenched... then mixed with champagne, perhaps. It's bubbly and bright. After a bit, it smells like tuberose and peach with a touch of that tawny port smell I call raisin, but always ends up being plum.
Somewhere along the line, something very round, like amber, and something prickly and dry, like cedar, rein the tuberose in a bit and give it round depths and linear highs.†††
Luckyscent% says: Péché Cardinal is an enticing froth of sinful and sweet, blending luscious fruits and mesmerizingly heady white flowers into a siren song. Warm, rounded and alluring, this Bellini-esque$ scent opens with a juicy, light-hearted sweetness that belies its intoxicating nature. As it warms on the skin, it becomes boldly flirtatious— this is the perfect scent for the belle of the ball. Péché Cardinal (translation: Cardinal Sin‡‡‡) opens with the apricot-hay sweetness of davana combined with the silken fur of ripe golden peaches$ and creamy coconut. The tart fruitiness of blackcurrant and prune$ keep the fragrance from becoming too sweet, allowing the cool, fresh-from-the-flowershop tuberose$ to shine from the heart of the composition. White lilies add an additional, slightly green aspect to the scent. The cedar,$ sandalwood and musc provide a quiet contrapunto§§§ to the fruits. An unabashedly romantic fragrance for those daring enough to wear it
Hans says: Bubble gum. Do you get bubble gum? Definitely something sweet. I don't know. Tell them my nose muscles are tired.¶¶¶
Later, after that syrupy opening, Hans identified fruit, something he should know, and got very excited when I told him it was peach because that was what he was reaching for.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): Even for me.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Since the last time I was there, which may have been a year ago.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Too big to take a picture of, but had a jackalope, a box of Apple Jacks, Jack Kerouac... from table top to ceiling. Cooler than it sounds, trust me.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Seriously, it's a big house. Plenty big to have a tool annex. And a drawer devoted to trowels.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Remember the days, Sarah, Susie? Good times, good times...
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): Please note that I do not deride the red/turquoise/brown cowboy boots in and of themselves, but the mind that paired them with black leggings and a purple/blue sweater. And there's something... off about matching one's earrings to one's boots. Like matching one's lipstick to one's nail polish. Just... too.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): And it's a shame the relationship was over before I could get a picture of the end cap full of owl tchotchkes labeled "penguins."
§§FOOTNOTE (kama sutra position #43): I saw the fetish book and thought it might actually be a knitting book, naughty or just indicative of the mania of knitting. Then I saw the Kama Sutra and I realised yet another knitter had abandoned sex in favour of socks.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (marching band style!): If I have to hear that song all day in my head, you have to hear that song all day in your head.
@FOOTNOTE (atted): As always, when I say, "you," I mean "I."
##FOOTNOTE (the pounding of palm to forehead): About the time I finished typing the beer bottle analogy, I realised a shooting star would work just as well and probably be more elegant. Then I decided I don't want to get *too* elegant. I'd never be able to live up to it, long term.
†††FOOTNOTE (is it Easter yet?): I am getting so good at this review-speak.
%FOOTNOTE (percented): The Parfums MDCI site doesn't have any words on Péché Cardinal that I could find. Normally, I would quote them and use this footnote to tell you what a wondeful, warm, gentlemanly man Claude Marchal (the owner of MDCI) is, but since I couldn't hook that all up like I wanted, I'm just going to hijack the footnote for my own purposes. Why are the French so vilifiable as a group, but so lovely individually?
$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): You know that if I thought "raisin" was close enough to plum, I will argue that "prune" is that much closer.
‡‡‡FOOTNOTE (all roads lead to Paris): This is also apparently a pun of sorts, as Peche without accents, or with different accents or perhaps without the "e" on the end means "peach tree." And this is a peach fragrance, so... pun.
§§§FOOTNOTE (nothing spins me like a good word): I love "contrapunto." You don't get nearly enough contrapunto in daily life. I plan to work contrapunto in to my everyday conversation.
¶¶¶FOOTNOTE (your head, it goes *beatbeatbeat*when your nose muscles are tired): Hans played many hours of beach volleyball yesterday and maintains that *all* his muscles are tired.
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