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As winter comes on, I am only too pleased I won't be alone this season.

*Grammar&Pronunciation*

Please don't use 'me' when you should be using 'I.' There are many places where it has become colloquially acceptable; it's still wrong and you will only sound bright and eloquent for using 'I' correctly. Someone says:

I think _you_ did this.

A typical response might be:

Who, me?

What do you mean to say here? "You think me did this?" ? No, you mean to say, "You think I did this?" So say that. Often, the use of 'me' is simply for expedience, but it's never very hard to utter your sentiment correctly. Examples:

Me too.

No no no! It should be properly,

I do also.

Someone says,

I hate this crap.

Correctly, you should say,

I do as well.

Lastly,

I adore this music.

You might correctly say,

I do too.

or

I agree that this is phenomenal stuff.

or

I beg to differ.

There is always a better way than to use 'me' (except of course when it's called for). It is a direct object, and was only ever meant to be used as an accusative, the object of pronouns, transitive verbs, etc. Please be concise in your language.

*Lord's-Jester*

I have written my first article for Fragrantica, a very large perfume web-site. My significant other, Michelyn Camen, invited me to try being a guest writer, on the topic of natural perfume. The publisher raved about what I wrote so I think there's a good chance I will become a regular writer for them. I'm just a short time away from launching my natural-perfume business, so this couldn't come at a more perfect time. Fragrantica has some 550,000 registered users, and I encourage all my friends to join. If you comment on this, my first article for Fragrantica, you will be entered in a drawing to win a jar of my fabulous solid perfume, Anthea (now in its third or fourth revision).

The remake of Demeter is perfect. I intended to brighten it and that's exactly what I accomplished. Sandalwood in the base, orange flower in the heart, and neroli, templin (distilled from fir cones), juniper, and pink pepper (among 14 notes altogether) combine to make a perfume that retains the earthy, smoky, sexy nature of the original, while resulting in a brew not quite so dark as the original, with some lift. I also made it slightly sweeter with more benzoin. I'm also waiting for three other remakes to cure: Cuir du Farceur (my leather doppelganger), Heracles (my first boronia perfume), and Chronos (based on immortelle, one of my favorite extracts).

For my application for Professional Perfumer (with the Natural Perfumers Guild), I plan to include five perfumes, 3 liquid and two solid: Ares eau de cologne, Demeter (name might change) eau de toilette, Selene eau de parfum, Anthea solid (my ode to jasmine, sultry, erotogenic), and Helios solid (made originally for my father, who wanted a smell like the orange-patchouli candle he came across a while ago, which was not natural; it is extremely difficult to scent candles naturally). I am working now to get ecommerce up and running on the Lord's Jester web site.

Michelyn is a very successful fashion and perfume writer. I am an esteemed natural perfumer who will soon be writing the great American novel, and plays, and will soon be recognized for 20 years of great poetry. If all goes well with Fragrantica, I too may become a force in the fashion world. Something tells Michelyn and I are going to conquer the globe. In the mean time, I will be madly working (it might take years) on a signature fragrance for her. Michelyn and I agree that the best art has always been inspired by love. Perfumers making perfumes for their lovers has a long, long history. Natural perfume has been about enhancing one's allure since the dawn of civilization. Onward and upward!

*Quotations*

When you do this sort of work, you pretend to be the sort of person that you could imagine writing this kind of stuff; then you write what he would write.

--John Crowley

It is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one's existence--that which makes its truth, its meaning--its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream--alone.

--Joseph Conrad

Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space.

--Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

There was much in such a society that was primitive and insecure and it certainly could never measure up to the demands of the present epoch. But in such a society are contained the seeds of revolutionary democracy in which none will be held in slave.

--Nelson Mandela

A good aphorism is too hard for the tooth of time, and is not worn away by all the centuries, although it serves as food for every epoch.

--Nietzsche

A man lives not only his personal life, as an individual, but also, consciously or unconsciously, the life of his epoch and his contemporaries.

--Thomas Mann

Beauty is also submitted to the taste of time, so a beautiful woman from the Belle Epoch is not exactly the perfect beauty of today; beauty is something that changes with time.

--Karl Lagerfeld

In all the areas within which the spiritual life of humanity is at work, the historical epoch wherein fate has placed us is an epoch of stupendous happenings.

--Edmund Husserl

The human mind, I believe, cares for the True only in the general character of an epoch.

--Alfred de Vigny

A friend who cannot at a pinch remember a thing or two that never happened is as bad as one who does not know how to forget.

--Samuel Butler

*Music*

I downloaded Joe Henry's latest, Blood from Stars. I'm a big Joe-Henry fan; Tiny Voices and Civilians contain sublime, bittersweet, heart-wrenching peri-millennial music. Blood from stars does not disappoint one bit; it's every bit as great as the previous titles. Joe Henry has found his bag. He aims to write raunchy, Tin-pan-Alley type songs, and he most definitely succeeds, big time. This music is like jazz's black-sheep brother, containing classic instrumentation, pianos, horns, violins, and also much more, distorted electric guitars when needed, bits of electronica as called for, whatever it takes to make the tune just right. One can tell Henry intends for every one of these songs to be anthems, to be music that will uplift, with intense lyrics, often dense, often reaching deep, often confessional, and so, unavoidable. The entire album is inevitable in the best of ways, and Henry's stark, evocative, pining voice seems to be the only voice that would suit the material. The music on these three records I've mentioned is far too complex for most people I would say, but if you love it, you really love it. It is not your everyday music and it is not for everyday people. For those who are, like me, "different," always dissenting, always unconvinced, forever disappointed with the commonplace, this music couldn't be more highly recommended.

_____

This is from Kurt Elling's first record. Astonishing; he was a master of vocalese from the beginning. He dropped out of divinity school to sing jazz. One can tell from these lyrics that his mind was still on the divine. Music by Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond, lyrics by Kurt Elling:

Once upon a time a cloud (a little cloud)

gathered her friends together and began to say, aloud,

"Friends, we can't find God. Isn't it odd?"

And they all agreed it was very odd, indeed,

to blow about the sky like a brainless seed.

"Something's really gone awry when older clouds oversimplify,

when they say that it's just another day.

It's imperative we be somewhat more truly demonstrative

in becoming provocative.

Our parents neglect God, it's true--all their world is askew.

They go about bickering and scheme of possessing things

as though they own us, too, and own all that we do.

Yet they can't understand

just how foolish it is to build a house on sinking sand.

And when we cry

they say, 'Oh my!

You'll grow out of it soon

and start singing a grown-up tune.'"

So the clouds made a vow,

since the grown-ups had lost God, somehow.

They would pick something out that would keep them aware,

that they could take with them anywhere (like a lock of hair, or a pear).

Not an animal, or too big.

So the little ones looked around and up and down and in and out

and came up with a list:

They had a feather, erasers and string,

pen knives, and pencils, and pieces of things

that they found in their pockets to spare

(and which they began to compare).

The shiniest object, when looking them over, the thimble was brightest

and so they decided the thimble was rightest

for taking along and for knowing God was staying long and in their every day.

They knew where to find

their peace of mind

playing a game of tag or 'fame'

they simply had to call out the thimble's name.

Then, one day, the smallest

cloud took a big fall and

dropped the thimble from her hand.

And God turned to sand.

Just then, a wise old woman cloud happened along,

and she asked the little cloud, "What's wrong?"

And the little cloud replied, "God's gone."

But the older cloud knew right away,

so she said to the little one, "Here's your thimble. I found it today."

Peace love and ATOM jazz