Tommy

My SotD (Scent of the Day) is Tommy Cologne by (who else?) Tommy Hilfiger.  I got a great deal at Target a few days ago—a 1oz bottle with a body wash and after-shave for $8.  I thought if I hated it, I wouldn't be out too much.

Well, color me impressed.  I love it!  This comfortable scent was launched in 1995 and is a blend of “tangy citrus, cranberry, blue grass, spearmint and lavender, accompanied by the scent of apple pie and cinnamon.”

I don't get all those components beyond the citrus, cranberry and apple but it's a great blend.  The fragrance goes on lightly and without fuss.  Those early citrus top notes don't fade, providing a nice thematic thread which ties the experience together over time.  The fruit is also present but in constrained tones.  It's also quite warm, surrounding the wearer with a glow of natural freshness like a newly laundered blanket.

This is a very clean-cut fragrance that I'd expect to smell on some northeastern high-brow holiday destination.  I doubt I could find anyone, even the most sensitive, that will take offense at Tommy.  Destined to be a classic.

Quote Of The Day

Thanks to Du Toit, From H. L. Mencken:

“The urge to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to rule it.”

Ain't that the truth?  We flawed humans do not perform actions for purely altruistic reasons.  Even in the best case scenario of a Christian man who offers a hand of hope, of help, he is doing it for selfish reasons.  Fine, he may not expect anything in return, but he's also attempting to assure himself a way into heaven.  He's currying favor with The Big Guy, if you will.

And that's the best case scenario.  For most others, especially emotion-driven self-righteous liberals like Al Gore and Hillary Clinton, sinister motives belie their actions, much like a Midwesterner's corn-encrusted turd.

Scent Of The Day

Decidedly more pleasant—today, in an attempt to forestall the winter blues, I'm wearing green: Mugler Cologne.

Valkyrie

I've always liked the forceful , Valkyrie.

Anyway, the new movie of the same name directed by Bryan Singer and starring Tom Cruise looks to be quite good. The only problems I have with it is Tom Cruise himself. He's too “round,” too boyish. There is a certain austere ascetic quality about Germans of that era that is missing. The American accent also disturbs the plausibility of the movie.

Don't get me wrong, I'll still see it.

Yahoo Trailer here.

Best part of the trailer is the line by Eddie Izzard's character: “When the SS catch you, they will pull you apart like warm bread.” Love that line.

SOTD

Because of my mood today, I'm wearing Bulgari Black.

Monday, Monday

Hope everyone's weekends were fun-filled and interesting. Mine wasn't, and that's the way I like it. To me, life's like a plane ride: I want the most boring flight possible, no “funny stuff.”

Food

Once again this weekend, P. F. Chang delivers. Is it even possible to get a bad meal there? I don't think so—highly recommended, especially the Mongolian Beef, cooked well (crispy) and spicy with white rice. Yum.

Movies

Saturday saw me, R, and my in-laws watching the new animated movie from Pixar: Ratatouille. Marred though it was by the inevitable presence of pesky, loud, sniveling, unruly children, I thought it was well-done.

The animation itself was par excellent and the voice work was really good, especially Peter O'Toole as Anton Ego, a food critic extraordinaire. The story unfolded nicely and with good pace and though far-fetched in certain areas, I had to remember it was geared toward children after all.

This quote from the movie, spoken in O'Toole's inimitable voice stands out:

In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. Last night, I experienced something new, an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core. In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto: Anyone can cook. But I realize that only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at Gusteau's, who is, in this critic's opinion, nothing less than the finest chef in France. I will be returning to Gusteau's soon, hungry for more.

This is Anton Ego:

If you watch this, poison all the children (and their fucking idiot parents) first.

Books

Once again my disease, Bookaphilia Nervosa, reared its ugly head and I bought two: Michael Timo's Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters and Clear and to The Point by Stephen M. Kosslyn.

In addition, I'm reading a most interesting book by Robert Kagan, Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order. To call this work superlative is inadequate. There are very few books that produce Aha! moments for me, this is one of them. I will produce a full-length post on its contents soon.

Clear and to The Point is a fascinating work about information transfer using PowerPoint by a Psychologist, a Harvard Psychologist no less. In the few pages I was able to read in between munching away at a godawful muffin at Borders (great bookstore, terrible cafe, coffee, and food; Barnes & Noble is much better), he mentions the guru of visual communication (Tufte) thrice, alas, each time to poohpooh Tufte's principles. In one example, he criticizes one of Tufte's well-known examples of superlative data transfer, Minard's chart. I didn't find his argument compelling on the surface and were that it for content, I wouldn't have purchased it.

Luckily, there's a lot of original work in the book. Essentially, like the sub-title says, the book explains 8 psychological principles for compelling PowerPoint presentations. I'm looking forward to finishing this one.

SOTD

Chez Bond, superb. By the way, Wal-Mart has a 1-oz. bottle of Unforgivable by (spit!) Puff Daddy for $16!

It's TODAY!

It's finally arrived. The day I get to see 300! Hooray for Hollywood. Well ...

Reminds me of a joke I once heard: at a seminar for "sexual healing" or something--had to be in the early 1970s--the speaker was making a point about happiness and intercourse. He had all the couples present who indulged every day to raise their hands. Looking around, there were a lot of very happy-looking people with their hands up.

Next, he had others who had sex only every few weeks and the level of contentment on the couples's faces was indeed a little less apparent. On it went. Once a month (even less happier); once every few months (positively dour.) Then: the presenter asked, somewhat unnecessarily, one supposed, for those who only had sex once a year, not really expecting anyone. But no! There was one guy, and he was ecstatic!

"I do! I do!!" screamed the gentleman, pure, unbridled happiness beaming out of every pore. The man was positively dancing and the presenter, in danger of having his theory dashed, asked incredibly, "Really?"

"Oh yes! It's TONIGHT! It's TONIGHT!!"

That's right, y'all, 300 is tonight!

Speaking of which, I visited the home page of Steven Pressfield, the author of The Hot Gates and espying an email form, decided to send him (or whoever reads his email) a thank-you for a great book and telling him, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that I was off that second to buy his other book, The War of Art, not literally, of course, but I will be buying his book this weekend.

Blow me over if I didn't receive an email from the man himself! Thanked me for communicating and told me if I didn't like the book, he would refund my money! Now, that's confidence! Or is it great customer service? I don't know, but I like it!

SOTD

I'm wearing Kenzo Pour Homme (1991). Great Summer scent.

Updates

Y-a-w-n!

Tuesday morning and I'm writing from my desk, tired as a four-peckered rabbit.  Nuclear waste-powered coffee is the only thing I wager will wake me up today.

I had President's Day off yesterday, and I thought I would get some "real" work done: brush up my CV (resume), do some studying, etc.  I should have known better.  I spent almost two  hours playing lightning chess in which the entire game is played in two minutes.  Can you imagine how many games that is?  My brain was fried afterwards and I was essentially useless.

Writing

I'm considering writing a book--topic unknown right now--and in preparation, I've been reading Stephen King's On Writing.  Dealing mostly with writing fiction, this is a tremendous book.  Highly recommended.

2007 Basenotes Awards

The 2007 Basenotes awards are out!

Chanel's No.5 won Best Women's Fragrance, followed by Shalimar and Mitsouko.  These are old perfumes (No.5 is over 80 years old) and many women I know don't like them, but what the hey, it works.

Women's Best New Fragrance is Songes by Annick Goutal.  I've heard wonderful things about this one and can't wait to smell it.  Guerlain's Insolence came in second place.

For men (you're not going to believe this), the most votes go to Egoiste!  Wow.  Followed by the odious Vetiver (Guerlain) and Creed's Green Irish Tweed in third place.  I smelled this at Nordstrum's in Las Vegas some time ago and I almost retched.  Being that it was Cary Grant's perfume, I am honor-bound to try this one again.

I've only recently discovered Creed and let me tell you, Millesime Imperial is lovely!  Nothing better in hot weather.  Hell, it's good in any weather.  Bois du Portugal (BdP) is a bit too bubbly for my taste, and smells very much like Patricia de Nicolai's New York although I like BdP better.  You already know what I think of Green Irish Tweed.

Best New Fragrance unsurprisingly goes to Hermes's Terre d'Hermes!  Excellent.  Calvin Klein's Euphoria (eh!) and Burberry London for men (great!) are next.

My SOTD is Estee Lauder's Beyond Paradise Men.

Dead Like Me

My brother- and sister-in-law recommended the Showtime series Dead Like Me.  I have to agree.  My favorite character on the show, which is no longer on the air, is Mandy Patinkin's Rube.  Really funny, really good.

Trifles

Argh!

I need a cigarette.

I stopped smoking cigarettes a long time ago, believing, like James Bond, that smoking as an addiction is uncouth. A cigarette once-in-a-while is suave and helps calm the nerves. If you believe that, there are plots of land I have for sale in south Florida, email me.

I still need a cigarette.

Work

More information on the impending demolition of my department. Apparently, the team of monkeys (AKA the transition team) for the new governor decided to shoot then aim, in that order. They saw a problem with some divisions within department and decided the best route to take was to devolve the entire thing, rather than first perform a cost-benefit and efficiency analysis. The effect is that other divisions which have a history of high performance are getting dismantled almost as a sort of collateral damage, throwing the proverbial baby out with the proverbial water. This part of the governor's budget was so haphazardly thrown together that no one can answer authoritatively what the new IT will look like or what they will do! Brilliant.

There is some hope the governor will change his budget to reflect how brain-dead it would be to contract out IT services. We'll see.

SOTD

I quite enjoy the television series Poirot on A&E. Yesterday, I saw the episode How Does Your Garden Grow? which opens with David Suchet's Poirot stepping out of Geo. F. Trumper's! For you non-scentites, Trumper's is a renowned men's perfumer (in addition to other, men's grooming-related products). All through the episode, Captain Hastings, Poirot's assistant, complains of hay fever, but unbeknownst, is really bothered by Poirot's perfume.

The final scene has Poirot admitting he's wearing a scent to the abject surprise of the good Captain, Chief Inspector Japp and the redoubtable Mrs. Lemon. And what's more, he paid 5 guineas!

"Why, that's a year's worth of hair cuts, Poirot!" interjects Hastings, just before he sneezes again. The policeman is besides himself at the amount and is about to intone such when Poirot says his office is now closed.

"Hastings! You go home this minute and nurse your unfortunate affliction. Mrs. Lemon, cover your typewriter and good day to you, Chief Inspector!"

After dismissing them, Poirot continues his interrupted task of grooming his magnificent mustache, but pauses long enough to sniff his wrists and smiles in thorough enjoyment.

Attaboy, Poirot!

In honor of what is now my favorite Poirot episode, I am wearing a new classic, French perfumer Montale's Black Aoud. Normally, this would be completely out of my range, being some $200 for a 3.4-oz bottle, but I was able to get a 1ml sample.

I call it a new classic because even though this is from 2006, it smells Gothic, like something Dracula would wear as he makes the rounds of the luscious womens' boudoirs.

With notes of Cambodian aoud, patchouli leaves, mandarin, musk, and rose petals, I really love the opulent rose accord in this one which is strange because I usually do not like rose perfumes, like the despicable Czech & Speake No.88

I have yet to find out what an Aoud is, but who cares? It's wonderful.

Slick

I was fresh off the boat going to school in Boca Raton, Florida.  I didn't have many friends and I didn't want any, come to think of it.  Things were blowing my mind, culture shock at its most poignant.

This music video by Digable Planets transports me to that time filled with self-imposed social isolationism, Maxwell's theories of electromagnetism, differential equations, circuit analysis and other things that make my head hurt just thinking about it.

Since yesterday was my music video day, I thought to start off today with one (and only one!) video of the day, Digable Planet's Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat):

SOTD

  Today's scent of the day is a special one.  I received a decant from a good perfume buddy (sounds strange, doesn't it,  a perfume buddy?) of Diptyque Tam Dao, a Sandalwood scent from 2003.  This is light-infused woodiness engendering tranquility and focus.  I'm very happy with this one, and for those who enjoy smelling glorious Sandalwood, you'll love this five-star paragon of unisex perfumery.

Evasion-English

As one interested in language and its use, I'm always on the look out for books, reference material of any kind which (hopefully) allows me greater insight into language use and abuse. One of the better ones on the market is Hayakawa's Language In Thought and Action. I haven't had the opportunity, alas, to skim more than a few chapters, but it'll be worth it in the end.

Here's another gem I found the other day: The Evasion English Dictionary by Maggie Balistreri. From the introduction:

This is a short book about short words--like and but, it and you--the mainstays of speech that go unexamined, those throwaway words by which we reveal what we mean, no matter how hard we try not to.

Already intriguing! More from the introduction:

Change your words, I believe, and you change your deeds. It is, for example, harder to look somebody in the eye and say "I am unproductive" than it is to say "I feel unproductive." We do what is easy, and if I cringe at the admission that I am unproductive, perhaps that will spur me to industry. If I commit to being honest, I'll have less to evade.

...

Discomfit yourself with the truth. Conversations should invite frankness. Instead, modern conversation is excruciatingly considerate; so determined are we to dodge discussion and the perils of disagreement that we dilute talk with unassailable phrases that do little more than lob back the ball the keep the game going.

Imagine if someone said, "I have money trouble but I don't like to think about it," and you replied, "If you don't think about it, you'll continue to have money trouble." The impertinence. The person will look askance as though to say, "No, dear, you've gone off script; the way it works is, I say, 'I have money trouble but I don't like to think about it,' and you say, 'There, there, hon.'"

Great stuff! It then goes on to cover those words in such a brilliantly comical but deeply insightful way that this book rockets to the top of my wish list. Highest recommendation. I'll have some entries from the book in the next few posts.

SOTD

Versace's The Dreamer. Nuclear-powered powder, excellent.

Trivia

Back at work. It seems wrong to work on the day after Christmas! I would love to celebrate Boxing Day again.

Received some nice Christmas presents, I hope you all did as well. My favorite is Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion by Alan Flusser. Gentlemen, this book should be staple in your library. Actually, all of Flusser's well-thumbed books should be staples in any modern gentleman's libary.

SOTD

L'Artisan's Mure et Musc. Good. Bit ephemeral, but good.

Back to work now... groan!

Vade retro me

I'm back in the office after a weekend spent helping the missus recuperate. Very strange thing, surgery. Especially if one's never experienced it before. My cats were very inconvenienced by the whole thing, as cats are wont to do, seeing as the world revolves around their needs and wishes!

Since they couldn't sleep on the bed, nor jump on R's lap, they slunk around the house pouting. Fokker, the 15-pound wonder, particularly wasn't happy and made us understand his displeasure by taking a chunk out of the lip of O, R's visiting sister. To be fair, he wasn't being malicioius, just trying to get away from Piper, that bad-termpered bitch and O happened to be holding him at the time.

After profuse bleeding (on her part) and apologies (on ours), I shut them all in my study and will continue to do so until R is better. I'll also be a hell of a lot more diligent in trimming their claws.

SOTD

I'm loving this one today! It's Christian Dior's Dior Homme.

It's very interesting that Iris, which is the dominant accord in this fragrance, reminds me of my mom's make-up bag! I didn't make this connection until I'd read some reviews and dang, if they weren't right on! It did smell of dear old mom's cosmetics bag, but who cares, really? It's very good and I like it a heck of a lot. Very well done.

Don't get me started on that beautiful bottle! This is definitely my next purchase.

Books

I'm reading Harris' Imperium (among others). So far, really enjoying it. Really, really. Were it not for Harris's seemingly insatiable appetite for America's destruction or at least a desire for her to be put in her place, preferable at the bottom of the totem pole, I'd call him one of my new favorite authors. But it seems everything he writes, from Pompeii to Imperium is a "warning" to America. What a douchebag. Glad I didn't actually buy the book.

SOTD, 13 December

Scent of the day: Chanel's most excellent Eau de Toilette, Égoïste (1990).

 

 

 

Check out this commercial, one of the better perfume TV ads:

SOTD, December 7

My fragrance of the day is Gucci's Envy from 1998.

Envy has top notes of Mandarin, Coriander, Pepper, and Rosewood. A delicious heart of Rose, Jasmine, Carnation, Sandalwood and basenotes of Patchouli, Vetiver, Leather, and Vanilla. What this all means is that Envy is a medium to medium-heavy Woody-Oriental. Perfect for Fall (Autumn to you limeys), Winter, and early Spring days and most definitely great for evenings out all year long.

If you're a "shallow citrus" lover (Z by Zegna, Kenneth Cole Reaction, Acqua di Gio, Calvin Klein's One), this will not be your cup of tea. So sodd off and let us Higher Beings alone with out wonderful Envy.

By the way, Envy Me (for girls) is tres bon!

SOTD: 3 December

Busy morning: Starbucks for a triple-shot Venti Vanilla Latte and a cozy chair for a few chapters of Graceland by Abani (good writing, bit far-fetched plot so far) after which I was off to Barnes & Noble to spend the $25 gift certificate I got as a birthday present. I bought a Moleskine notebook for my collection. I love Moleskins, which is billed as the "Legendary notebook of Hemingway, Picasso, Chatwin." Well, if that's not good enough for you my friend, just what is?

My scent of the day is Cannabis Santal by Fresh. From osmoz.com, here is its formulation:

Top note :
Bergamot, Orange Brazil, Black Plum

Middle note :
Patchouli, Cannabis Accord, Rose

Base note :
Chocolate, Sandalwood, Vetiver, Vanilla, Musks

This is yummy, from start to finish. And it is warm and cuddly, perfect for a quiet evening out or in! I would hate to wear this in brilliantly hot weather though and certainly nowhere near any drug-sniffing dogs, you know what I mean, man? Irie, mon, irie.

All right, as you were. ... Although, I couldn't write about wearing something called Cannabis Santal without the obligatory Bob Marley reference. That would simply not be right. So, here goes:

Got to have kaya now
Got to have kaya now
Got to have kaya now
For the rain is falling

SOTD

And in what will be my last post of the day, for my scent of the day je presente Jicky!

Luckily, I'd written about it before.  Excellent!

SOTD

Beginning a new tradition on the blog: my scent of the day. I'll list what I'm going to be wearing for the day, give a cursory (or lengthy or none, as the case may be) overview of the scent and if I can find a picture, I'll add that as well.

So, for December 1, 2006, I'm wearing Caron's Le Trioisieme Homme. According to the official Caron site, The Third Man was created in the age of brash perfumery, the 1980s. From the site:

In 1985, Caron put all its perfumer know-how to the task of creating its third fragrance for men: le 3ème Homme de CARON.

Inspired by the film of Carol REED, it appeals to the elegant man as portrayed by Orson WELLES. Avant-garde and yet very accessible, le 3ème Homme de CARON is the fragrance for men who know how to cultivate their intellectual curiosity in the simplest of fashions.

Top Notes are: Lavender, Rosemary, Anise, Bergamot

Middle Notes are: Geranium, Jasmin, Rose, Fern, Carnation

Base Notes are: Amber, Musk, Moss, Cedarwood, Patchouli, Tonka, Vanilla

The first time I tried this fragrance, I was blown away. My nose felt like someone playing a prank had filled a spray can with Lavendar oil and sprayed it directly into my face. Pop, fizzle, snap! I instinctively recoiled in fright, and not a little consternation because I'd just spent a pretty penny for a 4.2-oz bottle. If I didn't like it, as all the signs seemed to show, I was stuck with this massive bottle. Ugh.

After the initial explosion, I bagan to detect subtler, mellower notes. Rosemary and others. H'mm... very nice, actually. With time, a flowery accord showed up and even though the fizzy Lavendar never went completely away, the mid- and base-notes were just absolutely wonderful and did a great job of softening the initial loudness. This fragrance took on a creamy appearance that's amazing in longevity. This is a great perfume, one of the best. It certainly gave my nose an education. And a bit of a fright!