The Perfume of the Lady in Black

Le Parfum de la Dame en Noir

Written and Directed
by Marcel L'Herbier
1931







2005 film, trailer here


There are many beautiful parfums noir in the world!



and the 1974  Il Profumo della Signora in Nero (not shown here).

Autumn Alchemy

 








Almost tragic isn't it, autumn? But so beautiful

- Chef Giorgio Locatelli


Re-reading this line, I then came across my writings from August 2005 on Alchimie/Rochas, Jacques Cavallier 1998

For those unfamiliar with the bottle by Serge Mansau, it is reminiscent of a magic wand in a magic pumpkin of beautiful autumnal amber-orange.

Alchimie, you bewitcher.

Alchimie, you bringer on of autumnal nostalgia, the time when land hovers, for moments at a time - into a phrase of time, the ear can hear to the horizon.
Watercolor transparencies of rust colored leaves and woods. A walk in the damp barked green forest, dark soiled, dark limbed, the wild colors of Mother Nature's last ditch attempt, before shedding into winter's serenity. The ice crackling quiet. But, first, the party!

The bee buzz around grape must. Dried golden stalks. Browns. I think of Cavallier's palettes of browns within M7, Alchimie. Woods of santal, oudh. (I hold to my 2002 prediction that M7 (Alberto Morillas & Cavallier for YSL) will have a comeback and be an even stronger seller, as it is "found again".)

Just when I fear its fruit note will sour, Alchimie veers.

It's a skin veil that hurts with its mystery. A deep inhale grounds, then on to feel the mystery of sheer watercolor autumnal silk on the skin.

This one haunts. Evokes.

I remember, Cavallier doesn't care for flowers, florals. So, in this one those notes on the palette, the florals, are used for enchantment, the beauty sleeping in the forest. Either sleeping to be eventually awakened, or, sleeping to eventually die, autumn to winter. It is the Life-Death bloom-or-fade transition that disturbs, that Alchimie captures. Fruits & Woods - flowers used as coloring, tints, hues, sheers, wind ...

Definitely a rêve, this dream state perfume. There is a vulnerability with this one, the mature sensitivity before the ice coat is worn.

It's the most beautiful day in the universe, and I am allowed to attend. It is not classic beauty, or textbook, or Hollywood film. There is overcast burning off, Mercury out of retrograde, stationary direct. A veil.

Veil of mist, veil of burn off, veil of heart yearnings, veil of sun's shine, veil of Alchimie, veil of thyme in oil on skin, summer bug repellent, Raid in the memory, citronella, nail polish remover, hair sprays, Hairnet with hair net, spider's web holding a bun.

Because of my own training in autumn nights getting darker and darker, earlier and earlier, sweating in ballet rehearsals with cold chill goosebumps and then ... a pumpkin appears ... in Cinderella during Snoopy's pumpkin patch season, I present:

Sergei Prokofiev: Slow Waltz, from the ballet Cinderella Op. 87
Piano: Vladimir Ovchinnikov
Venue: Piano Festival 2008
(performing 17 October 2010 in Bushy, Hertfordshire, England info here)



Happy Autumn Equinox! 
Illustration: Trees Lura Astor

Smell It! in Amsterdam - 23 September 2010

Smell It! ... exploring olfactory dimensions in contemporary art at the Stedelijk Museum, click here

Presenting recent developments in smell culture with the experience of scent

Artists: Peter de Cupere (lecture), Sue Corke/Hagen Betzwieser (art work), Valentina Hulsman

(olfactory performance).

Jim Drobnick examines the practice of distillation in contemporary olfactory art, connecting the artistic search for new ways of addressing aesthetic and political dimensions of urban experience.

His must read: here

Round Table Discussion: Peter de Cupere, Jim Drobnick, anthropologist Yolanda van Ede, Adam Tasi of SmartNose.

Moderator: Caro Verbeek, olfactory art historian. The 2 lectures will include visuals and smells provided by Aroma Jockey Dr. Perfume and visual artist VJ ED (AromaVisuals).here

In the exhibition Monumentalism: History and National Identity in Contemporary Art, Job Koelewijn presents an olfactory art work.

The Stedelijk Museum has other art works in its collection that use the sensory experience of smell, such as Edward Kienholz's The Beanery 1965.

Painting: Calm: lastor

How Many Roses are Covered with Dew?

How much do I love you?
I'll tell you no lie
How deep is the ocean?
How high is the sky?

How many times a day do I think of you?

... how many roses are covered with dew?

How Deep is the Ocean
-Irving Berlin 1932

photo: Huntington Garden November 2009 lastor

Nosin' Around

A Day Put into A Book

Just because I love it

Yann Tiersen's Le Train

Parfum BIC

In 1988 BIC launched a perfume line. I did not know this, though I was around when the ad campaign Flick Your Bic! launched for their disposable lighters. It was a newly odd and memorable tagline at the time, alongside You Bet Your Bippie.

Their perfume bottles have a flick lid sprayer, like the portable, disposable, lighters. The company's name derived from founder Marcel Bich's name.

Parfum BIC® "the world’s first fine French perfume that combined high quality with affordable pricing and a stylish, portable design."

For women: Jour, Nuit
For men: BIC for Men, BIC Sport

Produced in France, introduced in Europe, North America, and some African and Middle East markets. In 1991, manufacturing and distribution of BIC® perfumes stopped in most markets, continuing in Iran where it is still manufactured and/or distributed.

Information, perfumes, bottles are welcome by this author.

Smell of Fear, Recovery, Ash, Cash, Balance

Pitti Immagine Fragranze No.8,  Florence, Italy, 10-12 September 2010, click here

Chemist, linguist, artist, scent provocateur, Sissel Tolaas of Norway presents FEAR: The FEAR of Smell vs the SMELL of Fear. 

A Saturday afternoon panel on 11 September 2010 addresses this year's Il Profumo del Futuro/The Fragrance of the Future No. 2: Olfactory scenarios for the next 12-24 months, organized by Pitti Immagine & Futuretaste, details here, titled The Smell of Recovery.

Future No. 1 addressed anthropological constants accompanying the historical-social changes in a globalized world influencing perception of odor and taste.  *note below

"Taken together, the opulence of floral scents (that peaks in the tuberose), the freshness of greenery (cut grass, essential oils, pine, rosemary, herbs of Provence), the sensuality of Middle Eastern oudh (leather, perspiration, animality), make us think of a greater propensity for optimism, extroversion and self-satisfaction, of a quest for nature and body sensations that speak to a desire to leave the crisis behind us."

We can shotgun an apple tree and it sprouts more flowers due to the stresses of imminent death. Humans breed like rabbits during war, thus war boom babies, and later big box sales. We can silence the buzz and see the dark with stars and produce lots of babies; referencing the NYC/NE Coast 1965 electrical outtage.

Knowing the pheromonic relays within perspiration, leathers and animalics, it is no wonder that these scents are back, for,

we live in a petrie dish world.

We can bomb or starve the crap out of humans elsewhere, but it still affects others in a completely different region, in our vibrating agar agar.

let's ".... speak to a desire to leave the crisis behind us."

Earth scents are nice.
Also consider which plantations, marketplaces and distribution channels open up, for these predicate which scents go to mass-market, with correct titillation/teatillation of course.

Smell of Recovery ... speaking of recovery cash ...

Spring 2010
Icelandic Sky
16,000 flights in Europe cancelled yesterday due to Icelandic ash.

I heard that in Iceland people looked up in the sky and yelled, We said Cash!

.. after last year's bankruptcy and billions of UK Sterlings deposited in Icelandic banks by UK city authorities, at high interest rates, it was one C short. Where's Vannah White (spinning for letters on Wheel of Fortune) when we need her?
ash
cash
ash
cash 

Summer 2011 Iceland changes its democracy click here

Spring 2009 an ocean away, sulfurous Funky Green Imposter pleases crowds in the Green Aria Scent Opera, Guggenheim Museum, NYC, click here.

 

The Scent of Petrol - Smelling Aliphatic Hydrocarbons

Near the Gulf of Mexico, bumper stickers change from Drill, Baby, Drill to Spill, Baby, Spill.

Conference No. 1 addressed anthropological constants accompanying historical-social changes in a globalized world influencing perception of odor and taste.

*Includes getting used to the taste of plastic packaging in our food, unappealing textures and tastes of irradiated foods, and, genetically engineered food, such as not being able to spit a watermelon seed into desert ground and have it grow.
Seed Savers Exchange here.

... my idea of genetically modified food is more sensual

and as a child it was more along the lines of strawberries the size of oranges, honeydews the size of blueberries or watermelons, honeysuckle nectar to drink by the mouthful, and honey-chocolate kiwi. But then, I'm an artist.

Earthy ... technology balanced with gender-integrated imagination.

The Smell of Balance

and I'm not talking double books

One of India's top actors produced a film that manages to bring humor to the dark subject of 15,000-plus farmers per year, during the last 10 years, commit suicide due to genetically modified patented seeds breaking the bank and the farms.

Click here for the trailer.

For English, click the person on the right, then Trailer, then International Trailer.

Laugh yourself sad with Peepli.

illustrations:
Snakes  lastor
Blue Green Leaf  lastor
Favored Tale  lastor
Volcano tourism is real, as are tornado and ambulance chasers
photo: People Admiring the Volcano Eruption at Fimmvörðuháls, Iceland, 27 March 2010
Henrik Thorburn   Latitude: 63.632875° N Longitude: 19.433594°
photo: Philip Seymour Hoffman as a huffer in the movie Love, Liza
photo: It Takes Balance to Look at the Sky: lastor See how here

If You're in London the Next Weeks

The Perfume Diaries

Multiple events at Harrod's
through 2 October 2010
London


click here and here

Fragrant Life

I wish that life should not be cheap, but sacred, I wish the days to be as centuries, loaded, fragrant.


- Ralph Waldo Emerson

1 letter difference
scared
sacred
fear
fare

Photo: Smiling or Winking: lastor