I used to think we'd tell the story of us...

Monday, 1/3/11, through Friday, 1/7/11.

Monday: Jo Malone Black Vetiver Café - Coffee with sweetened condensed milk, in a ceramic mug wrapped in a leather cup holder. I had tried this once before and found it wanting. I like it more this time round, but I think there are probably better "vetiver and coffee" scents out there. Can anyone give me other recommendations that combine them both like this does? 3.0 stars.

Tuesday: Shiseido Koto EdC mist A light lovely scent, crisp and clean. I agree with Perfume Shrine that it is a very nice and accessible chypre. 3 of 5 nods.

Wednesday: Pacifica Tuscan Blood Orange solid perfume - This is going to sound bad, and I don't want it to: on application it reminds me of the orange-flavored pink bubble gum that used to come with collectable cards. That might sound cheap and plastic and trashy to you, but to me it was a strangely comforting and happy smell. It's a little on the sticky sweet side, so it feels awfully young, but as youth perfumes go, you could do a lot worse. It's a guileless scent. I think of it as a scent costume; not for every day wear, but you never know when you might need to look innocent. 2.5 stars.

Thursday: Annick Goutal Mandragore - Citrusy and light at the opening, the bergamot is strong, and the scent becomes kind of herbal, like a not overly strong tea. Might be nicer in summer than in dead of winter (i.e. now). The top reminded me of a cross between Miller Harris Geranium Bourbon and Miller et Bertaux No. 3 Green, Green, Green, but did not strike me as being either as distinctive or as good as either of those. The bottom reminded me of Jo Malone Orange Blossom, but a weaker version. On the whole this wasn't bad, and I wanted to like it more, but I didn't. Also, like many other reviewers, I gotta say, really lacking in longevity. 3 stars for scent, but 1.5 for lack of lasting power.

Friday: Juliette Has a Gun Midnight Oud - Immediately sour, deep and yeasty like a good sour beer, then becomes strong and spicy, yet somehow still feminine. It also has a little bit of freshness to it, like chewing on a spearmint leaf. Sadly becomes much less interesting within an hour, and substantially weaker. 2.5 stars.

Favorite of the week: Juliette Has a Gun Midnight Oud ties Jo Malone Black Vetiver Café in a war of unimpressive acceptableness.

"Now I'm standing alone in a crowded room,
and we're not speaking.
And I'm dying to know:
is it killing you like it's killing me?
I don't know what to say.
It's such a twist of fate.
When it all broke down.
And the story of us
looks a lot like a tragedy now."
~ "The Story of Us," Taylor Swift

TOP FIVE Albums I fell in Love with in 2010

Also, because I love you so much, here is a list of the TOP FIVE Albums I fell in Love with in 2010 (FN1):

1.  Florence + the Machine - Lungs (Deluxe)

I love this album.  I have spun it on my mp3 player or in my car probably more than 100 times since the beginning of 2010.  It will probably end up being one of my favorite albums of all time.  In a era that allows listeners to buy straight singles, no B-side or album required, it's harder and harder to find well made albums.  Makes this so much more impressive.  Definitely worth the deluxe edition, btw. Fav track:  love them all, and favorite rotate.

2.  Amanda Palmer - Who Killed Amanda Palmer?

I have only one thing to say about this:  It is very good Amanda Palmer is in love with Neil Gaiman, because I would seriously consider running away with her if she asked me to.  Fav tracks: Ampersand, Runs in the Family.

3.  Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat

It was a tough call between this and Acid Tongue but I'd never heard anything like this album, which I like to think of as gospel music for atheists.  It's a lovely album, somehow bitter and hopeful at the same time. And to be perfectly honest with you, I managed to burn both albums onto one CD, so when I play it in the car, I actually listen to both.  Fav tracks: You are What you Love, Born Secular, The Charging Sky.

4.  She & Him - Vol. 1

I love all the different styles embraced on this album, from slow country to 60s girl group.  It's fun, and flirty, it has a video featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  Fav tracks: Sweet Darlin', Sentimental Heart.

5.  Bat for Lashes - Fur & Gold

This album has a dreamy quality about it that makes me want to close my eyes and dance like Audrey Horne.  Fav tracks: Sad Eyes, Bat's Mouth.

Honorable mention: Twilight: Eclipse Soundtrack, The Pierces - Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge, Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue, Sam Phillips - A Boot & A Shoe, She & Him - Volume 2, The Bird & The Bee - Interpreting the Masters, Vol. 1, Ingrid Michaels - Be Okay, Metric - Fantasies, Muse - The Resistance.

Side note: As I was finishing getting dressed this morning, I stepped back and looked at the mirror.

I took in my hot pink sweater and matching infinity scarf, jangly gold earrings, jagged edged hair cut, pink and gold eye make-up, and pink-white nails glowing against my otherwise pale fingertips sticking out of my bright white hand warmers and thought

"Damn, the dream of the 90s *IS* alive in Portland.  And I have morphed into a poster girl for it." FN2.FN3.

Now all I need to do is get new glasses and more tights and I'll be all set.

_________________________

FN1. Not released in 2010, just discovered/rediscovered and loved by me in 2010.

FN2. Okay, late 80s/early 90s. 

FN3. Also, new trend: spats over boots -- thoughts, feelings, impressions?

2011 Perfume Challenge: 365 days. 261 Scents.

That's right kids.  My goal is to not just sample, but full on wear for a minimum of 4 hours, a different scent every single week day of 2011. Yes,  even if 5 minutes after I put it on I'd rather remove my skin than keep smelling it.  Yes, more or less without rhyme or reason as to season,  note, etc.  To give myself a break, I'm excluding weekend days and also will occasionally rotate in a scent I know and own and love, but each one can only be worn once for the  entire year.

Once a week I will post a week long wrap up, and announce the favorite scent of the week.  The very best scents will be set aside for the honor  of full-length bloggy love.  Others will be given away to the first person willing to take a lovelorn sample off my hands.

Also, in honor of those of you who were so excited to get a mixed CD in one of my previous drawings, once a month there will be a scent and song  drawing.  The winner will receive a copy of the mix CD from my music diary that month or a mix inspired by a particular scent/note/perfumey  theme, whichever strikes my fancy. FN1. FN2.

We will see how close I get.
_________________________
FN1. For those of you who don't know, a few years ago I ran across an article wherein Cameron Crowe talked about how he did the music for Almost  Famous.  He started by going back to the monthly mix tapes he made during the period the film is set.  I thought, how awesome.  A musical  history of your life!  So I started keeping, at minimum, a playlist for every month as part of my New Years resolution that year.  That was back  in 2002 or 2003, and I've been doing it more or less ever since.

FN2.  Yes, we're back to footnotes.  It's a sign I love you.  Take it that way.

Wow, Bob, wow.

Wow, I wasn't going to post this week, but I just have to stop by to say how much I heart ya'll, how amazing and supportive you all re and how glad I am that I have this blog.  Also here are a few fleeting perfume-y thoughts I had today:

* Bath & Body Works Velvet Tuberose is not as sucky as it could have been.  As tuberoses go, it's not a bad one for the novice to encounter, and might lead a body to something like Prada's tuberose, and then eventually to Fracas.

* Speaking of tuberoses, here's a little tip for you perfume sales types: don't try to sell me various versions of a note I've already told you I have a favorite of.  If I tell you I own and love pure parfum Fracas, this is not a sign to fling every tuberose-based scent at me.  Also, don't try to sell me every flanker variation of a scent if I tell you I own it.  Perhaps I am merely trying to demonstrate to you that I like things that aren't necessarily tuberose.  Though, thank you, incidentally, for the Prada Infusion de Tubereuse, since I liked it -- but generally DO NOT DO THIS (especially after I tell you I collect and review perfume!)

* I got some solid perfume for Christmas. I liked it so far. I think I'd like it even more a crazy locket (note to self).

* Also, check out this adorable little clutch I got today (see above). Anyone have suggestions on scents I could wear with an outfit that is seriously built around this?

You said you'd help me disappear, but that could take forever.

Dear Reader:


I am floundering.


It's sad. It's true.  It's what it is.  2010 is coming to a close; what do I have to show for it? I don't know.


I guess this is the hard part of being, for reals, a grown up.  I've always been going, going, doing, doing.  Cross some item off a cosmic list.  Making some haunting spectre's dream for me come true.  I turned to David about six weeks ago and said, "I think I've finally accomplished everything every dead person I ever loved really wanted for me.  Now I have to figure out, what the hell do I actually want for myself?"


And that's what I'm trying to do.  


I'm in the middle of a project I really want to finish, to the point that I sometimes feel irritated at the rest of my life for getting in the way of it.  I haven't really made any progress on a project I'm committed to.  My perfume storage is too small and cramped to be really effective, I've been sniffing but not really loving anything new, and thus returning over and over to the things I already have.  I've been neglecting this blog because I'm not sure what to say.  Any review I would have written in the last two months would have come out "meh."  I just haven't loved anything seriously, though I do want a bottle of Jo Malone Red Roses to layer with my CB I Hate Black March so bad my teeth ache.


I put off taking the bar until July 2011, though at this point I'm resigned to doing it so I can practice, even though at this point I'm pretty sure being a lawyer is just another thing I'm going to pass through rather than be.  I wish I could find a way to make the things I love -- perfume, and writing, and music, and story telling, and fighting for women and my own voice -- be what I do every day.  I like to think I'm working toward it in a lot of little ways, but I emphatically do not want to wake up an other five or ten years and still be trying to make other people happy.  I'm lucky in that David seems pretty cool with me never really knowing, to be supportive as I try and toss away various hats.  And my friends love me for who I am, whoever that is today, and that's lucky.  And I have John, who knows me, really only he does, and I will always have him, though his being in Iraq has been really hard this holiday season.  But I don't know who I am yet;  not really.  I have axioms.  I have codes.  I have rules and  theories, faiths and scars, expressions and philosophies, hand gestures and nervous tics, but I feel like a work in progress, all the time.


I just want to be me.  And for that to be happy.


I'm going to give myself the week of between now and 01/01/11 to sniff around and think and maybe listen to some music and make some notes and be inspired before I come back to you.  Until then, I love you.  I really do.


Thanks for listening.


~ Diana


"I want my chest pressed to your chest
My nervous systems interfere
Ten or eleven months at best
I think I'll wait another year

This weather turns my tricks to rust
I am a lousy engineer
The winter makes things hard enough
I think I'll wait another year."


~ "Another Year," Amanda Palmer