The great wisdom for writers, perhaps for everybody, is to come to understand **to be at one with their own tempo.**
--Alan Hollinghurst
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Just in case you were wondering, _I do not_ have a girlfriend.
*Lord's-Jester*
I've been writing for Fragrantica about six months. My latest article is up:
This week we made three perfumes, Dionysus, Phoebe, and Selene. With Dionysus, we made a larger batch, about a cup. That one's a mystery to me: I know how and why it works, but the details of how it works is a conundrum. It works and that's all I need to know. It's got a distinct funkiness to it, and that's just right. With Phoebe, my goal was to make one last batch before making a larger batch. I have to be sure that all aromatic amounts are copacetic before embarking on a large batch. If you have a given amount of an aromatic material called for in a formula, you will need to alter it slightly. Maybe hay is too much, jonquil is a touch too plentiful, or pink pepper is too macho.
My experience, with the larger batches I made before, is that certain quantities of aromatics need to be curtailed or expanded depending. Generally, I've found that sweet things are fine; it's the harsher elements that tend to become too harsh. Hay or tobacco ruined the last batch of Demeter; I mean it's fine, but I notice a hair too much of something. Of course, that could also be because I switched suppliers. If you've got materials which you like, best go ahead and make the full batch; it's somewhat frightening how the odor profiles change according to different material sources. Daphne is just right (based on tonka bean); would that the larger batch (I'm going to make a large batch) turns out right.
We also made a batch of Selene solid. This is the perfume I passed Level One of Mandy Aftel's course with. For this batch, I decided to add to the aromatics; it's got 18 notes instead of 12. I fleshed out the various notes that I take to be necessary of real perfume. Six notes are in each category, base, heart, top. The result is I find very powdery; I tried to enhance the powderiness. I included orris, carnation, clary sage, and petitgrain. This makes me think of moonlight: Selene was goddess of the moon. I've already got a liquid perfume called Selene; I happen to think it's one of my best. This was an experiment to see if I could make a solid that's close.
*Movies*
I trust you've all seen by now the adverts for The Karate Kid, played this time by Jackie Chan as the teacher and Jaden Smith as the student. This is exactly what I'm talking about: a role that was played originally by a white kid, suddenly is played by a black kid. I think the roles have totally opened up, and I think it's because of one movie: Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino. In that movie, Clint plays a racist character, but one who protects the neighborhood. With the recent immigration of South-Asian folks, he finds that he's pretty much alone. Then once the shit hits the fan, Clint doesn't leave his prized possession (Gran Torino) to a white kid--he leaves it to a Vietnamese kid. I think things have opened to the point where a black kid can have a good shot at playing a role formerly reserved for a white kid. This turn of events has me incredibly pleased.
*Indonesia*
What is the largest producer of coffee in the whole world? If you're thinking Columbia, you couldn't be more wrong. It's Indonesia. Of course, they drink plenty coffee in Indonesia, but it's done "cowboy style:" grounds are put into a glass, boiling water is poured over them, and the whole thing is left to sit for a minute or two. That's the way they prepare coffee in Indonesia. And you can get it everywhere, in that vast jungle nation. I spent about a month in Sumatra, there with my brother who'd spent some time in Jakarta. There was one coffee shop in Bukittingi where we found ourselves a lot. It was not early-morning coffee drinking we were there for; it was all hours. And every cup we had was cowboy coffee. It amazes me that now I need to have multiple methods of making coffee, most importantly the Keurig coffee maker which is my lifeblood. I know now that, regardless of the method, I'd be able to get my coffee on.
*Quotations*
The great wisdom for writers, perhaps for everybody, is to come to understand to be at one with their own tempo.
--Alan Hollinghurst
I like to hear and smell the countryside, the land my characters inhabit. I don't want these characters to step off the page; I want them to step out of the landscape.
--Peter Matthiesson
Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.
--Jimi Hendrix
I knew a woman, lovely in her bones;
When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them.
--Theodore Roethke
Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant; there is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.
--Johann Gottfried von Herder
I don't care what is written about me so long as it isn't true.
--Dorothy Parker
Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
--Dr Seuss
There are only really a few subjects in poetry: growing old, dying, intellectual or physical passion, the search for self or identity. The smaller subjects we might write about are just ways to get into those basic things.
--Linda Pastan
To know someone here or there with whom you feel there is understanding in spite of distances or thoughts unexpressed--that can make of this earth a garden.
--Goethe
A man's library is a sort of harem.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
Peace love and ATOM jazz
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