Summertime, and the living is easy…

Summer Thoughts, Perfumey and Not

So it’s summer, actual summer, here in Portland. I can tell because I keep seeing the sun. So since I love seasons and enjoy celebrating them, I was thinking it was time I talk to you about the scents I’m loving for the two months a year the temperature rises above 69 degrees here in Puddletown. So here it is, perfumey thoughts and not, for your warmer weather living.

Bands/Artists I can't get enough of: Still stuck on Neko Case, Florence and the Machine, and Fitz and the Tantrums. Also The xx, Claudine Longet, Julee Cruise, Feist, Midtown Dickens, Mountain Goats “All Eternals Deck,” Lady GaGa,  Alison Krauss and Union Station "Paper Airplane."

Surprise Go To Scent this Summer: By Kilian Love. So super sweet you’d think the hot weather would make me run the other direction, but I keep putting it on.

Houses I need to try more of: Hermes (still), Annick Goutal (still), Sonoma Scent Studio, Aftelier Perfumes.


Scent I wanted for a long time and finally purchased: Tauer Perfumes L'Air du Desert Marocain.

On the "soon to be purchased" short list: Miller et Bertaux no. 3: Green, green, green and green (still); L'Artisan L’Eau de Jatamansi (it’s been discontinued, and I need to grab it before it’s gone); Honore des Pres I Love Les Carottes (thanks Sam!), Washington Tremlett Royal Heroes 1805 (in time for fall!), slumberhouse Mur (so great!).

If I had a million dollars: I’d just buy every one of the Tauer Perfumes scents. Every. Single. One.

Happiest stumbled upon scent love of Summer: Three way tie: slumberhouse Mur, Olympic Orchids Carolina, DSH Spring Moss. I keep going back to all three.

Best newly discovered indie perfumer: Loving slumberhouse, aroma M, and JoAnne Bassett Perfumes.

Notes I’m weirdly over right now: fruits and leathers. Just not feeling summer to me.

Notes I can’t get enough of: patchouli (I bought the patch bunny set – wow!), vegetables, SUPER gourmands, anything earthy. If you’ve got recommendations in this area, please provide them.

Summer, in general and my life in specific: All winter I kept longing for the lengthy days of summer. Now that they are here, my self-discipline has gone to absolute crap. I’m trying really hard to keep going but all I seem to want to do is sleep. I think because I live on campus, I can’t get out of the mode that “summer” is the time to goof off, while Fall and Spring are for buckling down and actually working.

Also, I’ve been recently stymied by the announcement that Borders is going out of business. I write and edit in a lot of places, but Borders has been my go to off and on for years. In fact, I frequented my local Borders so often all the employees knew me by name. I was wandering through the Young Adult section the other day, and I met a girl there. She was probably no more than fourteen, and still stuck in that place where her body is straddling childhood and adulthood. With tears in her eyes, she turned to me and said, “I can’t believe they’re closing. Where am I going to go now?” She hugged her book to her chest and looked so lost.

Alas, poor Borders,
I knew them well...

Bookstores are not dying, necessarily, but their number is greatly reducing, to everyone’s detriment. The last bookstore in Laredo, Texas, a town with over a half million residents, closed over a year ago. Borders closing means another 400 bookstores will leave the world.

In 1989, Ray Oldenburg coined the concept of the “third place” in his book The Great Good Place. The idea is that a person’s home is their first place, their work/school location their second place, and that the “third place” is a physical space that helps define individual identity with the a community and communal identity as a whole. Oldenburg outlined the following criteria:

• free or inexpensive
• food and drink, while not essential, are important
• highly accessible/proximate for many (walking/short driving distance)
• involve regulars – those who habitually congregate there
• welcoming and comfortable
• both new and old friends should be found there

Community centers, coffee shops, and local bars can function as third places. But for youth, who frequently do not have the organizational structures to reserve community center space and who cannot get into bars. We all know that real community centers, where they existed at all, are barely hanging on in the face of massive cuts to social programs due to economic downturn. The same goes for libraries. Schools frequently try to fill this space after normal school hours, but often does not truly meet community needs, especially for young people for whom it functions more as a work environment.

Malls and bookstores have become centers for young people to congregate, eat, hang out, and socialize, often without the threats of violence or criminal activity or the barriers that tend to outline space as being only for adults. I feel like every time a large bookstore goes under – one that provides hang space, cheap food, meet study groups, free wireless, and opportunities for meeting up in safe, clean spaces – it makes me sad, particularly for geeky kids who may find their solace in books and among other bookish kids. As one of those kids who lived in books, the girl in the bookstore got to me, because I couldn’t think of where to tell her to go. Truthfully, I spend a lot of time in bookstores still.

So I guess I feel sad, too.

"Your daddy's rich and your mamma's good lookin'.
So, hush little baby don't you cry."
~ Ira and George Gershwin from Porgy and Bess, but my favorite version is Ella Fitzgerald's, seen below:

Hold me until all the prayers that go to heaven get an answer.

Perfume Challenge Week 20: Monday, 5/30/11, to Friday, 6/3/11

Dear reader -- I am currently enraged by this WSJ piece criticizing current Young Adult novels. I am enraged for many, many reasons, but for now I will focus on this one.

My brother had severe hearing problems as a child, and as a result had slower reading development than average. This always made him feel stupid and academically inadequate.

My parents did not help in this, constantly reinforcing my voracious reading habits and academic prowess, while telling my brother his strengths lay in his athletic accomplishments and social acumen.

In the 8th grade, his English teacher assigned his class S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders."

It was the first book my brother ever truly read, and he identified with many of the characters and themes. It became a favorite. It inspired him to read "Rumblefish" then "Tex" and to branch out to other authors. He learned about poetry, because the book used Robert Frost's "Nothing Gold Can Stay."

He's 31 years old now. He has three sons. He reads to them all the time when he's not gone on deployment. In just this last year he's read Kerouac's "On the Road" and Homer's "The Odyssey" -- for pleasure.

"The Outsiders" changed my brother's life.

Shame on anyone who would have denied him that opportunity because they felt they had the right to determine what was appropriate for him to read. Growing up as children in a home caught in the grip of domestic violence and alcoholism, I assure you that these books were far less dark than parts of our every day lives. Instead, they made us feel less alone.

Okay. Rage...abated, temporarily. On to the perfume.

This week I bring you five scents from the lovely house of By Kilian. Founded by "the heir to a long line of cognac-makers that were pioneers in luxury, the grandson of the founder of The LVMH Group" this line is a fantastic,luxurious scents. The line is, generally speaking, heavy on sillage and foodie aspects, though some of the scents occasionally surprise.

Monday: By Kilian Love - neroli, iris, jasmine, rose, musk, vanilla. Supposedly inspired by the smell of marshmallow  this is one very gourmand scent. I do get marshmellow fluff, but really it reminds me most of the these creamy glazed bundt cakes they sell in grocery stores across the southlands from whence I spring. (Sadly, I cannot find there here, but they generally looked like the photo to the right.) Super sweet, even as it turns towards its more floral face toward you as about forty-fve minutes in. If you don't like sweet, run away from this. If, however, you love sweet like I do, it's pretty good. 3 of 5 nods.

Tuesday: By Kilian Liaisons Dangereuses - plum, pelargonium, cinnamon, musk, sandalwood. A sophisticated rose with an obvious fruit aspect, in a realistic way that makes me feel like I'm biting into a fresh plum. It's also got a nice coconut aspect, more like the fresh flesh of a coconut than the sweetened and sugared flake. I also definitely plum in it, which I surprising and lovely. It reminds me most of Jo Malone Red Roses, but less soapy. 3.5 of 5 nods.

Wednesday: By Kilian Cruel Intentions - Notes: calabrian bergamot rose, papyrus, tahitian vetiver, guaiac wood, amber, coconut and styrax. Hello oriential. Cruel Intentions is woodier than your classic big orientals, like CK Obsession, though you can tell they are in the same family. Lots of powdery amber here, but I get a decent wallop of the vetiver which makes it feel less like a big-haired model straight out of Xanadu or Elton John's "I'm Still Standing" video (see left). Very nice, as orientials go. The vetiver is what really sets this apart, giving it a dry smooth quality like a good leather. A well-made oriential, so if you roll that way, try it. 3.5 of 5 nods.

Thursday: By Kilian Back to Black - Notes: bergamot, saffron, nutmeg, cardamom, coriander, raspberry, chamomile, olibanum, honey, cedar, oak, tobacco, patchouli, almond, vanilla and labdanum. According to Fragantica, Back to Black is loved by those who enjoy L'Artisan Tea for Two, Guerlain Spiritueuse Double Vanille, L'Artisan Timbuktu, Tauer Perfumes L'Air du desert marocain, all of which I love. So here I am, getting all googlied eyed at another tobacco scent. I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever meet one I don't like, or if my intense love and adoration for my grandpa and his pipe smoking during my formative years is going to result in an army of tobacco scented bottles in my perfume armory. Back to Black comes off at first as a weirdly spicy tobacco; I definitely get some of the various spicy top notes, particularly the cardamon. During the dry down, I'd think there was coconut oil in here from the beach-y note I keep hitting half an hour in, but I suspect that's a combination of the vanilla and labdanum base notes bleeding through. This does not seem particularly foodie, thought it is sweet, more sweet than a lot of other tabacco scents. I'd love to smell this on a man; I think the sugary edge to it would be dead sexy with an open collar and light summer suit. 4 of 5 nods.

Friday: By Kilian Straight to Heaven - Nutmeg, patchouli, rum, cedar. The opening is whack in the face of rum. It's like taking a shot of rum and just as the initial taste on the tongue fades, taking another. It then grows increasingly nutty, and not all that sweet, which after this week of scents, was really welcome, especially in our close to 80 degree weather. Also, in a house where so many scents are knock-me-down strong, this is surprisingly subtle. I really like it.

I tried it next to Olympic Orchids Bay Rum, which is more medicinal and earthy, where Straight to Heaven remains polished, sleek, and smooth. The difference feels like the difference between drinking hooch our of a barrel with the Bay Rum, as opposed to sipping from elegantly cut crystal tumblers with Straight to Haven. If you're into boozy scents, this is going to thrill you to your toes. 4 of 5 nods.

Winner of the Week: You know, on Thursday I thought I'd be saying Back to Black, but I think I have to go with Straight to Heaven.  On the whole, though, I really enjoy the various offerings of the house in general, and I would be pleased to own any of these scents.

"You are absurd.
You say the cutest things I've ever heard.
I don't think that I could take another word,
or my head might explode
and I might have to go to heaven
Love me..."
~ "Go To Heaven," The Pierces

Scent samples generously provided for review by the perfumer.

Scent that Book!: Frostbite

Scent That Book! is a new, reoccurring feature here at Feminine Things. It is premised on the idea that even books require perfuming, whether the authors realize that or not.

This month I bring to you, for Scent that Book!, the second volume of Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy six-book series. The series is a New York Times Best Seller list and has been optioned for a film series.

Here's a brief description of the series premise:

It tells the story of Rose Hathaway, a seventeen-year-old Dhampir girl, who is training to be a bodyguard for her Moroi best friend, Vasilisa "Lissa" Dragomir. In the process of learning how to defeat Strigoi (the undead and evil vampires) in St. Vladimir's Academy, Rose finds herself caught in a forbidden romance with her handsome instructor, Dimitri Belikov, while having an unbreakable bond with Lissa.

The series is surprisingly good despite the generic name.  It has a lot of lovely scent related description, so much so that I wonder if author is into perfume herself.  The passage that caught my eye in this book is outlined below.

Opening up the door, I saw one of the hotel staff standing outside with a large box in both arms. He shifted it slightly so that he could peer around and look at me. 

"I'm looking for Rose Hathaway?" 

"That's me." 

I took the box from him. It was big but not all that heavy. With a quick thank-you, I shut the door, wondering if I should have tipped him. Oh well. 

I sat on the floor with the box. It had no markings on it and was seraled with packing tape. I found a pen and stabbed at the tape. Once I'd hacked off enough, I opened the box and peered inside.

It was filled with perfume.

There had to be at least thirty bottles of perfume packed into the box. Some I'd heard of, some I hadn't. They ranged from crazy-expensive, movie-star caliber to cheap kinds I'd seen in drug stores. Eternity. Angel. Vanilla Fields. Jade Blossom. Michael Kors. Poison. Hypnotic Poison. Pure Poison. Happy. Light Blue. Jovan Musk. Pink Sugar. Vera Wang. One by one, I picked up the boxes, read the descriptions, and then pulled out the bottles to sniff.

[...] Once more, I started pulling out bottle after bottle. Some I just sniffed the cap of; others I sprayed in the air. Serendipity. Dolce & Gabbana. Shalimar. Daisy. Note after note hit me: rose, violet, sandalwood, orange, vanilla, orchid...

By the time I was finished, my nose barely worked anymore. All of these had been designed for humans. They had a weaker sense of smell than vampires and even dhampirs, so these scents were extra strong. I had a new appreciate for what Adrian had meant about only a splash of perfume being necessary. If all these bottles were making me dizzy, I could only imagine what a Moroi would smell. The sensory overload wasn't really helping the headache I'd woken up with either.

I packed up the perfume for real this time, stopping only when I came to a certain kind I really liked. I hesitated, holding the little box in my hand. Then, I took the red bottle out and re-sniffed it. It was a crisp, sweet fragrance. There was some kind of fruit--but not a candied or sugary fruit. I racked my brain for a scent I'd smelled on a girl I knew in my dorm. She'd told me the name. It was like a cherry...but sharper. Currant, that's what it was. And here it was in this perfume, mixed with some florals: lily of the valley and others I couldn't identify. Whether the blend, something about it appealed to me. Sweet. but not too sweet. I read the box, looking for a name. Amor Amor.

"Fitting," I muttered, seeking how many love problems I seemed to have lately. But I kept the perfume anyway and repacked the rest. (pp. 198-200)

Wow.  A box of perfume.  I don't know if I could send it back.  Okay, no, let's be honest, I would definitely not send it back. Unless the guy was a total creeper, and in the book in question, he's not. That said , eighteen scents are listed, which means at least twelve are not.  So my questions to you are:  (a) What else do you think was in the box; (b) Does any of this seem "crazy expensive" to you? (Not me.)  what "crazy expensive" scents would you toss into the package?; (c) given the list provided, would you have chosen Amor Amor?

Since the above scents are fairly outside my mostly indie scent realm, I'm not sure what would be in my box.  Trying to keep the missing twelve scents in the range already outlined in the book, I like to think the box contained Calvin Klein Obsession, Robert Piguet Fracas, Coty Sand & Sable, Stella Nude, Calvin Klein Euphoria, Prada Infusion d'Iris, Kenzo Flower, Revlon Charlie,  SJP Lovely, Chloe Chloé, Tocca Cleopatra, Chanel No. 5.

If I was adding crazy expensive scents, I'd certainly add L'Artisan Iris Pallida, Guerlain Spiritueuse Double Vanille, and  Ralph Lauren Notorious (the last one for the lols).

My choice, of the actual given list: Shalimar. 

Scent that Book!: Beautiful Creatures & Beautiful Darkness

Scent That Book! is a new, reoccurring feature here at Feminine Things. It is premised on the idea that even books require perfuming, whether the authors realize that or not.

Reading is sexy!

Dear reader, do you read a lot? I read…a lot. I’ve always been a big reader. I was the kid who always carried around a book like a safety blanket; I was like the Rory Gilmore of my Houston suburb. My reading slowed to a trickle during college and then law school. In the last year, though, I’ve returned to fiction with ferocity. I read two to three books a week, usually in the two hundred to five hundred page range.

Something I’ve been noticing. These books will have passages that describe scents, usually the specific way a person smells, and my little sniffa brain immediately begins distracting me with an internal hunt to place the scent in the panoply of perfumes I know. Then I thought – why play a game alone that could be so much more fun with friends?

Thus here we are, the first in a new series I’m calling Scent that Book. I’ll give you a passage from a book with some scent related items mentioned. You help me figure out what perfume you think might be similar.

First up:  Beautiful Creatures, and its sequel, Beautiful Darkness, also known as the first two novels in  The Caster Chronicles, are books by Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia. Beautiful Creatures was named it one of the top ten books of 2009 and the top pick for best teen book by Amazon.com. Here's a brief description:

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small southern town of Gatlin has ever seen. Lena has wavy black hair with large green eyes. She wears a necklace made of pieces of junk and carries around a tattered journal. She is gossiped about, picked on and neglected because of the fact that she is the niece of Macon Melchizedek Ravenwood (Otherwise known as Old Man Ravenwood), the town's shut in. Lena is struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps, and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten south, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Lawson Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape Gatlin, is haunted by dreams in which he is trying to save a beautiful girl he has never met. He has brown hair and blue eyes and lives with his care taker and house keeper Amarie "Amma" Treadeau and his depressed father who has shut himself in his study since his wife's death. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

Without giving away too much detail, here are two snippets of scent description from Beautiful Darkness:

I was caught in her drag, struck by the current that bound us together and kept us apart. I leaned in to kiss her mouth, sand she held the lemon in front of my nose, teasing. "Smell." "Smells like you." Like lemon and rosemary, the scent that had drawn me to Lena when we first met. (pg. 32) 

Lemon and rosemary, Lena Duchannes' signature scent. So what do you think, dear reader? What scent might capture all the magical turmoil of Lena Duchannes (rhymes with "rain") and her star-crossed love affair with Ethan Wate in tiny Gatlin? I was thinking maybe Guerlain Jicky at first because Lena's power is supposed to go back generations, but now I'm thinking Miller Harris Le Petit Grain, the oak-moss, vetiver, and patchouli leaves at the base reflect some of the story elements that I'll let you discover on your own.

Ah, yes, but as all star-crossed stories go, Lena and Ethan struggle with forces working against their love, and teenage temptation rears its head. Enter Liv, who is described below.

But I didn't answer her. I pushed her shiny blonde hair away from her face and leaned down, our faces only inches apart. She inhaled softly, our lips so close I could feel her breath and the scent of her skin, like honeysuckle in springtime. She smelled like sweet tea and old books, like she had always been here. (p. 211)

Honeysuckle, sweet tea, old books. Like a cross between CB I Hate Perfume In the Library and Jo Malone Honeysuckle & Jasmine, or better yet DSH Perfumes Wild Honeysuckle? Though that, sadly, misses the sweet tea aspect, which if you're from any part of the South, you know won't do a'tall. I've never tried elizabethW Sweet Tea but maybe that would do. I dunno. It's stumper, Liv, the English would-be librarian.

So now its your turn. You've got a few words about the universe, the characters, and some notes. What do you think?

You can read more about Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness here.

Recommended Reading

This lovely post by Donna at Perfume-Smellin' Things, Perfume and Memory: Holding Back the Darkness was so good I wanted to pop on before work and recommend it to all of you.

I suspect the February mix will revolve around this idea (January's is already complete), so I'd love to hear thoughts about which scents most say "love, longing, loss, and hope" to all of you.

In Case You Missed It: Awesome PSAs and Other Fun with Feminism!

Hello again dear Readers!

Only one review this week? I know, I'm as disappointed as you are. What can I say? I was busy with two other projects. I still am. I might be a little slow with the posting. But I'm thinking of you and smelling pretty things to tell you about and I still love you! You're awesome. Really. It's not you -- it's me.

Now onto this week's links!

* These portraits of prison rape survivors are really worth looking at. Just Dentention International's PSA campaign is very effective.

* Speaking of public education efforts, the Feds have a new texting campaign to educate young mothers on prenatal care. I applaud the Dept. of Health leveraging whatever they have to in order to get prenatal care education out there.

Here's one of the highlights of my week, thanks to the tubes: a word from Tavi, the current and future of feminism, on the Terry Richardson scandal:

And, let's clarify: you don't love women just because you have sex with them and like taking pictures of their ladyparts. I'm not saying that's all Richardson does, but "love" entails "respect" and also "the basic human decency to not use pictures of someone's lady parts for your photography show without her permission" and also "the basic human decency to not pressure a girl into giving you a hand job because OH MY GOD I WILL LITERALLY NOT BE ABLE TO PRESS THE FLASH BUTTON ON MY CAMERA UNLESS YOU TAKE NOTICE OF THE FACT THAT I HAVE NO PANTS ON. ALSO I'M A PROFESSIONAL."

I have only one word for Tavi -- awesome. She's a wonderful writer with a very bright future.

* Yeardley Love's case demonstrates some gaping holes in Virginia's restraining order laws. Turns Out, Yeardley Love couldn't have gotten an RO even if she wanted one.

* This piece has already demonstrated to me that I will basically have to turn off my brain to enjoy Iron Man 2.

* In a surprising trend away from the last couple of weeks wherein several U.S. states seemed intent on making sure I'd never move there, Minnesota makes a step toward being a future home for David & I as the Minnesota House approves granting gay and lesbian couples rights over their partner's remains upon death. The bill still has to clear the state Senate and be signed by the Governor, but I'm please to see the bill gaining traction. Might seem like a small thing, until you consider what it feels like to be the surviving partner as some distant relative to sweep in during the wake of a heart-breaking loss, identifying the body, making the funeral arraignments, and burying your partner of 25 years 3000+ miles away. So yay Minnesota for treating people grieving their loved ones with a tiny smidgen of decency and respect!

* Recommended tweet o' the week: Feminist Hulk! Some Choice Tweets include:
~ "HULK SMASH MALE PRIVILEGE INTO HEGEMONIC SHRAPNEL!"
~ "HULK RETURN FROM DAY OF PARADIGM SMASHING TO FIND PLETHURA OF NEW FEMINIST ALLIES! HULK OFFER BIG GREEN HUG TO NEW FOLLOWERS!"
~ "HULK BAKE STRAWBERRY SCONES FOR MONTHLY FEMINIST POTLUCK. HULK KITCHEN SMELL WONDERFUL. DELICIOUS BERRIES FOR SOCIAL CHANGE!"

In Case You Missed It: This Week in Victim Blaming...

This week's recommendations for In Case You Missed It:

~ An Australian jury decides the rape of woman in skinny jeans is not really possible -- clearly getting her out of the jeans meant she must have consented and helped. Proof that juries will find any excuse to victim-blame.

~ I tend to side with Justices Breyer and Ginsberg that the US Supreme Court decision to close its iconic main entrance due to fear of 'terror threat' when even Israel hasn't taken such a step is overkill and fear-mongering.

~ Arizona rushes ahead to compete, once again, for top place I don't want to move because the politics are crazy by grading its teachers on fluency, as State Pushes School Districts to Reassign Instructors With Heavy Accents or Other Shortcomings in Their English. As my husband noted, why do I suspect that the "heavy accents" they're referring to aren't the one's my Texas family members have?

~ Elizabeth Hasselbeck's teary apology neither impresses me nor excuses her entirely inappropriate comments that "ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews has been wearing 'next to nothing' on Dancing With the Stars, and that if she were the stalker behind bars for secretly videotaping Andrews naked in hotel rooms in 2008, she’d think, 'Man! I just could've waited 12 weeks and seen this -- a little bit less -- without the prison time!'" Yes, because when women wear very little, they deserve to be stalked!

~ Blog recommendation: Stupid Nail Polish Names is pretty funny.

~ Grain de musc asks: what notes/scents do you gender and why?

~ Last, but not least, MTV bans Tiombe Lockhart's video "Ropes" for being too graphic in its attempts to address depression and suicide. See it below and judge for yourself -- more graphic, violent, or disturbing than other MTV-okayed videos, say like Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" (homicidal school shootings), Nirvana's "Heart Shaped Box (bird-pecked, emaciated self-crucifixion victim; aborted fetus tree) or hell, even Tom Petty & the Heartbreaker's "Last Dance with Mary Jane" (complete with the manipulation of a woman's corpse for male pleasure and then discards her when bored -- necrophilia, the ultimate in objectification)?

In Case You Missed It: The Mary Tyler Moore Edition

In a new series here at Feminine Things, I'll be posting on Sundays to share links I've though were excellent from the last week, both perfumey and not, that you might have missed. 

* Sady from Tiger Beatdown writes about how Rivers Cuomo Messes You Up Forever.

* A good argument for why men should be into feminism: Feminism for Young Dudes

* Bond no. 9 threatens The Perfumed Court with litigation through twitter, of all things. There's no case to be had, but I can't believe that any reputable company would attempt a 'cease and desist' via twitter.  Like when Courts cite Wikipedia in decisions, it just ain't right, yo.

* Another by-product of finals procrastination: an all male a capella review of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance straight outta Eugene, Oregon (Go Ducks, and good luck to Andrew, who is working on his 2nd semester 1Hell finals.)

* Natania Barron reminds male readers to Never Assume Anything About a Geek Girl

* Oklahoma steams ahead in the race for "places I'm least likely to ever move" by passing the most restrictive measures on choice in the nation this week. I thought that Nebraska had the title sewn up the week before, but between Oklahoma' new laws and Arizona's continuing mission to persecute basically anyone brown through racial profiling, more and more places are becoming unlikely. It does make the job hunting easier, though, since now I just refer to my big US map of "Places I Wouldn't Raise a Kid or Want to be a Lawyer" in order to mark possibilities off the list.

Recommended Reading & Shopping: Holiday Edition

As a young woman, I never had much interest in fashion, much to the chagrin of my brother, who I'd affectionately call a label whore. As I've gotten older, though, I've become less interested in fashion as a statement -- in my case, a statement of nonconformity -- and more in fashion as an art form. Gaining weight in America today means having an increasingly difficult time finding clothes that even fit me, much less that look nice or qualify as art. The development has increased my interest in finding flattering and artful clothing that can look good on people bigger than a size 2.

Part of my interest extends to reading fashion blogs, like style rookie, and also following The New York Times The Moment. I was excited to see Hermes Eau de Pamplemousse Rose show up in Gift Guide Bonus Round. I have not yet tried a grapefruit rose, but I'd love to. Another site I've found to salavate over is Osmoz because it has an easy interface allowing you to look at lots of incredibly beautiful perfume bottles in one place. I also really enjoyed Chandler Burr's piece, "Dude You're So...Citrusy!," recommending men's scents, which included a lot of pretty bottle pix as well. There were more than a bottles on the Burr list I'd love to own. Maybe for Christmas...

Speaking of the holidays, if you're anything like me, you'ere probably already thinking about the shopping you need to do. Sample packs make great stocking stuffers, especially for those who already wear a fragrance but may not realize all the lovely options available to them. A young man who enjoys Old Spice Sport, a teenage girl who is only just beginning to explore scent, or any woman who enjoys scent and could also try new things. In addition to the INeKE sample set, which I can never say enough good things about, there are a lot of other independent perfumers who offer sample packages that would make a great little gift.

Possets Parfum has really affordable sample packs that allow you to choose what goes into them, which is great because you can customize the packs to the giftee. Ayala Moriel makes quality scents, and you can get a nice sample of two as stocking stuffers for very good prices. There's also a very nice sample set available. Rich Hippie, purveyor of organic and wildcrafted scents for the hippie-types in your life, has affordable samples and scents that are well worth your time. smell bent also has great prices on scents and with samples at only $3.75, you can buy several for your secret santa giftee without breaking the bank.

DSH Perfumes has wonderful sample packs, some of which are made up of scents that replicate the perfumes made for Kings and Queens of old. They also have some very nice collection boxes. Aftelier Perfumes has not just lovely perfumes, but perfume solids in antique containers, perfumed teas, and lots of other high quality, handcrafted items. So keep these items in mind when you are searching for a gift for that person on your list who has everything, because my bet is, they don't have some of this, and their lives would be richer for experiencing them.

Last but not least, let me point your attention to three great interviews over at The Scented Salamander with Mandy Aftel of Aftelier Perfumes, Ineke Ruhland of INeKE, and Liz Zorn of Soivhole, all three of which make beautiful scents I have personally tried and enjoyed.

Images from Heremes, INeKE, smell bent, and Aftelier Perfumes.

Recommended viewing, reading, a note on shopping....

"Let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King,
and recognize that there are ties between us.
All men and women living on the Earth,
ties of hope and love.
Sister and brotherhood
that we are bound together
in our desire to see the world
become a place in which our children
can grow free and strong..."

Basenotes is doing a random give away for subscribers to their youtube video feed. I've embedded the video below, but I recommend going to youtuvbe proper so you can enter the draw!



Also, I have added several new blogs to the blogroll, including SmellyBlog, Vetivresse: Nosing Around in Scent, Wine & Style , and Tea, Sympathy, and Perfume, as well as a great new shopping opportunity, Rei Rien. Like others, I'm wondering how I missed this site for so long and look forward to receiving my shipment of samples. It's surprisingly hard for me to find places to get samples of mainstream fragrances, so I really appreciate Rei Rien.

Also, in recommended viewing, may I point you to this testimony from April from Philip Spooner? Spooner, 86, spoke out in favor of marriage equality during hearings in Maine on gay marriage Apr. 22, but the remarks are no less timely for being six months old. The World War II vet, and father of four, says he didn't fight in World War II for his gay son to be treated as a second class citizen. When a member of the Greatest Generation talks about the sacrifices he and others made so that we could all share in equal rights, rights we currently deny to our fellow citizens, I think it says something profound about the civil rights fight going on in America today. November is historically a month spent thinking about elections and rights and voting. In that spirit, let our thoughts turn to Martin Luther King and the distance that still remains before us as we work to realize his dream of one America, a dream still being denied to too many people in too many ways.



"We are bound together
by the task that stands before us
and the road that lies ahead.
We are bound and we are bound.
There is a feeling like the clenching of a fist.
There is a hunger in the center of the chest.
There is a passage through the darkness and the mist,
and though the body sleeps the heart will never rest..."
- "Shed a Little Light," James Taylor

Recommended Reading Round-Up

A few links worth checking out...

~ Ayala from SmellyBlog recommends L'Artisan Tea for Two for the fall. I wholeheartedly agree.
~ Angela from Now Smell This! discusses her process for choose a scent.
~ I can't remember the last time I wanted to completely squander $900 but this would do it. So pretty!
~ Is Browsing a Dying Art? - a piece reflecting on the dying art of book browsing and how literature isn't as accessible as it used to be.
~ If you are not reading style rookie, a self-described "tiny 13 year old dork that sits inside all day wearing awkward jackets and pretty hats," you are totally missing out.
~ Neil Patrick Harris's latest tour de force, a turn as a musical Batman villain!

It's all over and I'm standing pretty in this dust that was a city.

This post lovingly dedicated to Dr. Kristi Williams and the late Dr. Dorothy Berkson, two women who taught me the joy and the value of reading the works of the wonderful and audacious women writers who came before us, and to Judy Blume, whose many challenged books gave me, as a little girl, characters to guide me in my growth as a woman.


Because it is Banned Books Week, and as a writer/blogger I am also an avid reader, I wanted to take a moment to point out that written words are ideas expressed in a format that can be shared with others, and that to love freedom means to recognize that ideas, as ideas, are not in and of themselves, dangerous.

When we refuse to face, as a human race, the thoughts we’ve been persuaded by in the past – sometimes with unspeakable results – we refuse to learn from our own failings. When we are too scared by that which we don’t know, that which is foreign or alien to us, to confront it, we limit not only what we might be ourselves, but frequently fail to see the humanity in others. Lastly, consideration of a thing and being or doing it are not the same; by considering the plight of others we, in turn, may avoid entering darkness ourselves.

To that end, I give you the top 100 most frequently challenged and banned “classics.” I have highlighted those I’ve read and put a little plus mark by those that were enjoyable and/or thought-provoking. Now that school for me is, as Alice Cooper so musically put it, out.for.ever! I am endeavoring to read all the rest of them. I hope you will join me.

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald+
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger+
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee+
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses by James Joyce
7. Beloved by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
9. 1984 by George Orwell+
10. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
11. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
13. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White+
14. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
15. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
17. Animal Farm by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
21. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
22. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne+
23. Their Eyes are Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston+
24. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison+
25. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
26. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
27. Native Son by Richard Wright
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
29. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
31. On the Road by Jack Kerouac+
32. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway+
33. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
34. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf+
35. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
37. The World According to Garp by John Irving
38. All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
39. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
40. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
41. Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
42. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton+
43. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand+
44. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
45. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
46. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf+
47. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
48. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence
49. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess+
50. The Awakening by Kate Chopin+ (My favorite on the list!)
51. My Antonia by Willa Cather
52. Howards End by E. M. Forster
53. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
54. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
55. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
56. Jazz by Toni Morrison
57. Sophie's Choice by William Styron
58. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
59. A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
60. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
61. A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
62. Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald+
63. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
64. Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence
65. Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
66. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
67. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
68. Light in August by William Faulkner
69. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
70. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
71. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
72. A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams+
73. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
74. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
75. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
76. Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe
77. In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
78. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
79. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
80. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
81. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
82. White Noise by Don DeLillo
83. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
84. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
85. The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
86. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
87. The Bostonians by Henry James
88. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
89. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather+
90. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
91. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
92. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
93. The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
94. Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
95. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
96. The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
97. Rabbit, Run by John Updike
98. Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster
99. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
100. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie


Also, in honor of those who fight censorship in all forms, I give you the 2001 Clear Channel memorandum of "lyrically questionable" songs, which includes Louie Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World, "Peter, Paul, and Mary's "Blowin' in the Wind, and of course, a personal fav, Nena's "99 Luft Balloons."

Enjoy!

99 Decision Street.
99 ministers meet.
To worry, worry, super-scurry.
Call the troops out in a hurry.
This is what we've waited for.
This is it boys, this is war.
The president is on the line
As 99 red balloons go by.

Recommended Reading: The Bright Side Project

While searching for Fracas reviews today, I found another would-be "Esq." whose law school boredom lead her into perfumed bliss. Whereas I credit Angela at Now Smell This!, one of the The Bright Side Project gals thank LuckyScent for saving her from intellectual death by dreaded federal procedural morass. Check out their ode to perfume and their incredible project here.

Recommended Reading

* Angela at Now Smell This! just posted a great piece about major myths related to perfumery. Be sure to check out the commentary, as there are some nice additions to the list from readers.

* Perfume-Smellin' Things has a nice piece entitled Fraîche & Easy recommending some summer scents that I think are worth checking out.

More recommended reading!

I'd also like to give a reader recommendation to Notes From the Ledge's piece on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, entitled Potter's Potions, which discusses imagery related to love and perfume and memory beautifully!



Image courtesy of IMDB, Warners Bros. Pictures.

Recommended Reading

Angela over at "Now Smell This! has wrriten a great article entitled, "How to Help a Friend Choose Perfume." Angela, who has genius taste in everything from fashion to food to perfume, correctly identified me in the last category and brought me a sample of Dzing!, which I wear to this day and is probably one of my all-time favorites. It would be one of my "Top 5, all-time, have to live with only these forever" scents. I'll never quite understand how she identified me as being someone who would begin a lifelong relationship with perfume, but I am so grateful. If you have ever been asked to help a friend find a perfume, or if you yourself would like a place to start, this article includes a great list of options. Definitely a must read next to Perfume Posse's Perfume 101 and Perfume 201 pieces.