The Nature of the Sense of Smell

This Friday & Saturday you can enjoy special events with Luca Turin, Tania Sanchez, Patricia de Nicolai at the Smithsonian in DC.
info here

Here, WonderMonger introduces Dr. Turin at the University of Alaska Southeast. Grab the popcorn, it's a bit over one hour, and fun.

5 & 6 February 2010 Smithsonian Washington DC

in collaboration with the Embassy of France in Washington DC

Two Aromatic Events
with Luca Turin
Tania Sanchez
Patricia de Nicolaï

reservations required

ticket includes the book Perfumes: The Guide, bevvies, and gift bag from Bloomies

The Art of Fragrance
Friday 5 February 2010
6:45 PM
$25 members, $40 general admission
click here for Friday ticket information

Perfumes: An Exquisite Exploration
Saturday 6 February 2010
10 AM - 1 PM
$125 members, $150 general admission
here for Saturday ticket information

Embassy of France - Auditorium
4101 Reservoir Road, NW
Washington, DC
Business Attire & Photo ID required

Friday's lecture, with scented examples, discusses enjoying fragrance, chemical breakthroughs that make modern perfumery possible, and the still-a-mystery how do our noses figure it all out?

Saturday, you get to smell new scents, natural and synthetic raw materials, and You Lucky Duckies !!! masterworks that have been unavailable for decades, courtesy of a rare collection from the Versailles’ Osmotheque, International Conservatory of Perfumes.

Perfumer Patricia de Nicolaï is director of the Osmotheque, founder of Parfums de Nicolaï, and author of Once Upon a Time... Perfume.

Luca Turin, biophysicist at MIT, author of The Secret of Scent, founder/CTO of Flexitral - an odorant molecule design company; Seen on TED and BBC regarding how the sense of smell works; Co-author of Perfumes: The Guide,
with Tania Sanchez, who publishes on the topic of perfumes.

Books & authors available for signing! Report back.

Related links to right under Feed Your Inspiration.

photo: French Embassy in Washington DC

Congratulations & Shout oUts 2

to Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez
for their updated book
now available in paperbackPerfumes: The Guide A-Z

Check out the reviews here
about the authors here
  There is a growing platform for perfume criticism much the same way Siskel & Ebert & Roeper gave us their version of film criticism and a serious, long lasting, platform including guest critics.
In Living Color gave us movie critic send-ups with Men on Film - the manly or bitchy Loved It, Hated It, tell it like it is, 2 snaps and a rewind ratings with David Alan Grier, who now has his Chocolate News, and Keenen Ivory Wayans.

If you have problems with the art of dish and homoerotica do not open this link  as Men on Film cover the films Grease, Psycho, 48 Hours and more.

While I in no way agree with each of the final (that is, standing in print) pronouncements on the fragrances within Perfumes: The Guide A-Z, who cares? The Guide allows readers to stick to their opinions, gain more facts in the process, learn more of perfumers, houses, recipe changes and other lore, perhaps change an opinion or way of smelling/revisiting particular fragrances. Remember, perfume lovers are nothing if not opinionated.
 
This book is

So entertaining, you don’t even have to like perfume - The Denver Post
 
A wake-up call for the nostrils -The Independent (UK)

Bigoted, snarling, monomaniacal, subjective, triumphalist, and quite magnificent
 - Prospect (UK) 

As if a light has been switched on in a murky room - Philip Hensher, author The Northern Clemency

Illustration: The Two Snifftateers: ©Lura Astor
part of Perfume Series