02009-06-01 | Photos
Went back to the area I walked in last Tuesday.
Discovered quite the symphony going on between different species of birds and some frogs. From one particular spot I could hear water rushing left and right and a nice stereo image of the animals in between – perfectly arranged! Must go back and record
neo bohemia
Court nobles in China and Japan took great effort to perfume their robes and writing paper with incense. Not only to scent their surroundings, but to mark time. Incense measured out how much time had passed. Can you imagine marking time with scent?
I imagine someone staring at a stick of incense, smoke curling upward, waiting for three more sticks to burn before the time of the meeting came.
neo bohemia
The Romans used applied perfumed oils to their horses, dogs and were known to scent the wings of birds. In flight, their wings would fill the air with fragrance.
Releasing a basket full of scented doves to celebrate a birthday or wedding? What a moment to imagine.
02009-05-27 | Uncategorized
Times Square Plan’s Challenge – Lose the Cars, Keep the Grit – NYTimes.com
Well, I’m happy to report that, a day after the stretch of Broadway between 42nd and 47th Streets was closed to cars, the soul of Times Square remains intact. The neon still sparkles. Tourists still wander around bewildered. The whiff of last night’s junk food still hangs in the air.
Love the photo!
I know how to listen to music. I know how to open a bottle of champagne or enjoy a bottle of wine… but, I don’t know a lot about scents. Most of what I know is probably from the book Perfume.
With her permission I am posting this, written by Y., and would like to encourage her to write about scents and calligraphy (check out her Flickr) because I want to learn more about those subjects.
Last night to celebrate an occasion, I opened a new bottle of perfume. Just writing that sounds extravagant, doesn’t it? Never having the nature of a person who needs expensive things, a bottle of pure perfume is certainly special. Carefully breaking the wax seal and the silk cord that fastens around the opening of the perfume bottle is such a ritual, along with taking the time to take in the scent from the stopper. The scent that greets you upon opening the bottle is so much nicer than any atomizer can provide.
The stopper is the key. There is such a difference in the experience of placing a scent on the pulse point rather than spraying. Applying a scent with a stopper and rushing do not mix well. The idea of an atomizer was to make a fragrance convenient, portable, lighter, preserve the fragrance and most importantly, making it less expensive so that it would become more popular. Sometimes a light spritz of a scent is nice and ideal, but not for a classic fragrance. It almost sounds like a good wine, doesn’t it? In an eau de toilette or in an eau de parfum form, essential oils used in a scent are diluted and can translate into a harsher scent. You would think that a pure perfume is stronger, when actually it is softer, longer lasting and you use much less. Swayed by retail trends, maybe we eventually forget what the real essence is like.
Later in the evening a guest mentioned how much he dislikes fragrances. Out comes the perfume bottle that I opened that day. I asked him to close his eyes and removed the stopper from the perfume bottle in order to move it lightly in front of him. His eyes still closed, I detect in the beginning a serious look and then, a smile that told me how different that experience was. It was great. He did not have to say anything.
Scent is such subtle way to communicate. Unspoken. Do you think there is a possibility that a whole generation of of mine/ours (?) will never know the mysteries of scent presented in a very intimate fashion?
Well, she didn’t need to be encouraged much, because here is her new journal.
Today was one of those days that ran away… and is still running. I also ran, back and forth to different appointments, but was able to do some work in the studio.
And last, but not least! An alternate Ottmar Liebert, apparently a Christian Rapper from Uganda, was found on MySpace :-)
02009-02-14 | Uncategorized
Scent of tragedy lingers in a 650-year-old perfume bottle buried by pogrom victim
When the tiny stopper is delicately eased free, a mere wisp of scent imprisoned for over 650 years is released.
In a unique experiment, scientists at the L’Oreal perfume institute in Paris tried to analyse the ingredients of a perfume whose precious container survived the Black Death, which annihilated a third of the population of Europe.
(Via Guardian Unlimited Science)
Y wrote:
I started thinking how rare scented oils were, compared to now. To carry a scent in a piece of cotton, place it in a bottle in order to carry it around your waist. How beautiful the thought of that.
Scent is such an industry and no longer special. The elite aspect is not welcomed, either. But, the beauty of it…trying to capture the scent of grass or damp wood after a rainfall…flowers, the sheerness of air.
Scent parallels music.
Music used to be special. Performed only by musicians (whether amateurs or professionals) in real time. There were no recordings until 100 years ago. Now you can hear music at every gas station, fast-food chain etc.
We gained something, but we also lost something. That surprise, even shock of smelling something new, or hearing a different music. Only a person traveling would smell and hear these scents and sounds…
02009-02-14 | Uncategorized
Scent of tragedy lingers in a 650-year-old perfume bottle buried by pogrom victim
When the tiny stopper is delicately eased free, a mere wisp of scent imprisoned for over 650 years is released.
In a unique experiment, scientists at the L’Oreal perfume institute in Paris tried to analyse the ingredients of a perfume whose precious container survived the Black Death, which annihilated a third of the population of Europe.
(Via Guardian Unlimited Science)
02008-09-05 | Music
If There Ever Was: A Book of Extinct and Impossible Smells
Robert Blackson is a trailblazer in the nascent field of conceptual scent art. He recently curated an exhibition at the Reg Vardy Gallery in Sunderland, England, that took viewers through fourteen significant points in time and space using only the olfactory sense.
Continue reading.
Doesn’t that sound like fun?
Many years ago I did a solo guitar performance in a Boston gallery, and after every piece I would walk around and find a new spot to play the next piece. It would be quite wonderful to perform in a venue (((gallery-type open room or loft… maybe industrial space?))) that had scent locations scattered throughout the space. Musician and audience would discover a scent and derive music and memories from it.
