The Internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn't understand, the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had.
--Eric Schmidt
*Fragrantica*
It's been five or six months since I began writing for Fragrantica exclusively about natural perfume. My column appears twice monthly. It does a world of good for me to be writing about Natural Perfume. Fragrantica has 600,000 registered users--people who don't just surf there; people who have taken the time to create a profile and register their names. That's a very large audience, and they pay attention to me. People frequently admire my writing, judging from the many comments. This is just the ticket: by writing about natural perfume, I can make sure folks don't forget about the way things used to be. Remember, before Chanel No. 5 was released in 1920, every perfume in history (all perfume through the ages) was all-natural.
I'm doing my part in calling attention to that fact. If we can just get folks on naturals. Synthetic perfume contains neurotoxins, anti-freeze, and other substances which we know nothing about long-term effects. Do yourself a favor: stop using synthetic perfume. It doesn't matter whom you talk about: Serge Lutens, Joe Malone, Bond Street, it's all synthetic. The _only_ place you can find natural perfume is directly from natural perfumers. Don't be misled by perfume houses who claim their perfume is natural--now that we've got them on the run, they will say anything to obfuscate, render things unclear, and generally make a mess of the facts. Far less than 1% of the market is natural perfume. Don't forsake your principles. Here are a few:
There are numerous others. Perhaps I will make it a point to include URLs in future installments.
*Lord's-Jester*
You can always view my homepage at Lord's Jester.
I expected Daphne to turn out right, and it did. It's a heavy brew, with everything from oakmoss to tonka bean, immortelle to frangipani, cypress to citrus (20 notes altogether). I think it works quite nicely; all the elements dove tail inside each other, and you have a perfume that you can't quite decipher. I will be pleased to offer this as my chypre. High-flying, loose, complex. We also made another attempt at Phoebe. I took out everything that didn't need to be there, allowing for the full magic of osmanthus to take over. I think this will be one of my best perfumes. I wrote out a recipe for Selene solid; it contains, among other things, one drop of osmanthus; I'm hoping it will add to the powderiness.
One of the other goals I've set for myself is this: to compose a fragrance that's a tribute to rose. This will be tough; I imagine I'll use a lot of things that smell rose-like, araucaria, rosewood, etc. I might make a solid perfume, as that's the ticket I used to feature jasmine (Anthea). I think Dionysus is just right; it smells funky and that's the key to that perfume. A little bit of cognac and spikenard, to add to the god of wine's inebriated state. It's another that's dense and rich; I'm hoping god of wine and merry-making will allow me to carry out what is my own impression of the perfume he would like. At the very least, I think he'll admire my going by the seat of my pants.
*Poem*
I am not
down with the anti-immigrant
legislation put into effect
in Arizona.
We are _all_
in this country descended
from immigrants.
From the slaves who
fight their way here
no matter what,
from Eastern Europeans
who somehow managed to escape
genocide and worse,
from Mexicans,
descended from La Raza,
who come here expecting
this would be the land of
opportunity.
All of them,
we are descended
from them all.
Maybe some folks
like to pretend
we're only descended from
white Europeans,
but in this mosaic where we
find ourselves,
we are all in this together.
In.
This.
Together.
*Catholic*
From the Writer's Almanac:
"It was on this day in 1891 that Pope Leo XIII issued an official Roman Catholic Church encyclical addressing 19th-century labor issues. It's called Rerum Novarum, Latin for "Of New Things," and it is considered the original foundation of Catholic social teaching.
"He said in the open letter that while the Church defends certain aspects of capitalism, including rights to private property, the free market cannot go unrestricted--that there is a moral obligation to pay laborers a fair and living wage.
"He had much more to say to employers; first, he told them "not to look upon their work people as their bondsmen." He told them it was never okay to cut workers' wages. And he told them to "be mindful of this--that to exercise pressure upon the indigent and the destitute for the sake of gain, and to gather one's profit out of the need of another, is condemned by all laws, human and divine. To defraud any one of wages that are his due is a great crime which cries to the avenging anger of Heaven."
"With these words Leo began a new chapter in the Catholic Church, one where social justice issues became incorporated into official Church doctrine, an essential part of faith, where the Church would stake out official positions and be vocal on issues like labor, war and peace, and the duties of governments to protect human rights."
Would that this man were still around. What scathing rebukes he would have for the state of global capitalism!
*Quotations*
The house rests not on the ground but on the woman.
--Mexican proverb
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
--Marcel Proust
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
--George Orwell
We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.
--Francois de La Rochefoucauld
I'm celebrated for celebrating the uncelebrated.
--Studs Terkel
To create a perfume you have to be the servant of the unconscious. Each idea evolves and transforms, but there should be a surprise with each note.
--Serge Lutens
If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.
--John Stuart Mill
Writers can wear anything. I could go to a black-tie dinner in New York City with blue jeans on and boots and a cowboy hat and a bow tie, and people would just say, 'Oh, he's a writer.'
--John Grisham
A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the writer learns.
--PL Travers
He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realise.
--Oscar Wilde
Peace love and ATOM jazz
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