Monday, December 29, 2008

Winter Favorites

It's best-of-2008 list time! But I'm no good at that. So here's what I'm enjoying the most over my Christmas/New Year's Eve vacation:

Perfume:

Dzing! L'Artisan Parfumeur
This smells like the ultimate used bookshop with leather club chairs. My happy place.

Cuir de Lancome
Saffron-leather, medicinal and buttery in turns.

Joy de Jean Patou parfum
The thing that's so fascinating about Joy parfum is that underneath the satin skin of this jasmine-and-rose lovechild beats the warm heart of a tawny-furred creature. It seems to amplify your own heat, smelling like golden, sun-warmed fur as it dries down. So amazing in the winter.

Books:
Summer Lightning by P.G. Wodehouse
I'm such an anglophile geek that I'll read anything by Wodehouse and giggle uncontrollably at any number of newt-fancier jokes. This is a great read so far.

Twilight saga by Stephanie Meyer
There's nothing I love better than devouring a good fantasy series for a relaxing vacation, and this is...well, not exactly that good. It's no Harry Potter, and it gets kinda boring in places. The third book is definately the weakest, but I'm finishing the fourth book, in which Bella *finally* gets to be badass rather than the constant helpless victim. It's about time. But have I also mentioned that I love a good vampire romance? So they shouldn't be rotting teenagers' brains with this stuff, but the scent stuff in this series is kinda fascinating.

So who knew, but vampires are the ultimate perfumistas of human blood. Well, more like the ultimate gourmands, I suppose. But Edward is a gourmet. You see, he's ignored human blood for a century; only the smell of Bella is nearly unbearably "luscious." He can barely control his urge to rip her throat out upon first sniff. How romantic! *snort* Her blood's smell is floral (freesia and lavender are tentatively used to describe it), and as their relationship gets closer, he sniffs her wrists, "enjoying the bouquet while resisting the wine." For all the emphasis on her scent, he barely describes it, really. Her scent is all about the effect it has on him, and about his power and control in resisting its allure. Bella notes more specifically Edward's "strange honey-lilac-sun perfume." Of course scent has nearly always been a way to describe erotic yearning, but as someone obsessed with perfume, I have to say: I love that vampires are perfumistas, too!

Music:
Bon Iver = For Emma, Forever Ago
My friend Emily made me listen to this, and I now crave this CD weekly at least.

Morphine = Cure for Pain
When my old friend Jonathan came to visit, it reminded me of nights in Cambridge, Mass. at places like the Lizard Lounge, listening to bands like Morphine and Dirty Three. So I just had to dig up my old CDs. This stuff is still awesome.

Neutral Milk Hotel = In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
"The King of Carrot Flowers" is one of the best songs ever. Glorious, epic family dysfunction.

Andrew Bird = Armchair Apocrypha
"Scythian Empires" mesmerizes me.

MGMT = "Time to Pretend," Oracular Spectacular
The Walkmen "In the New Year," You & Me
I actually had time to dig through some "best of 2008 music" lists and check out some new dance-around-my-house music, and success! These are my newest favorites.

TV:
30 Rock, complete first and second seasons on DVD
As the inimitable Liz Lemon says: "nut up, Jack." So by the hammer of Thor, nut up and watch this!

5 comments:

Rose said...

Really enjoyed your round up. I only tried Cuir De Lancome recently and had to have a bottle.

I just saw the Twilight film, I went thinking I wanted some trashy escapism but I actually really loved it. So I'm going to seek the books out now.

Aimée L'Ondée said...

Hey Rose, thanks! Yeah, Cuir de Lancome is awesome, and now it's way cheap at parfum1, compared to how much I spent on it. Nerts.

The movie is great fun, I thought, and that's what got me reading the books, because I wanted to know. what. happens.

ScentScelf said...

Aimee,
I love how the end of the year is bring Cuir fans out of the woodwork--I am there, and Brian at ISmellThereforeIAm, and ErinT over at Now Smell This have mentioned their love, too. Funny...I couldn't find anybody to split a bottle half a year ago.

My son introduced me to Andrew Bird, and I am a big fan now. Am going to have to check out your others. :) Have way too many friends and students who are Twilight fans...I'm saving face by adopting the "I loved vampires before you knew what they were" attitude. (I'm not proud of it, but I've got a 2 foot pile of other books to read first. ;0 )

For some reason, your TV entry reminds me how much I miss having TiVo...someday, again...

Happy New Year to you!

SIMONE SHITRIT said...

Lovely list, specially because here is summer. it is nice to cool off with explendid ideas

Perfumeshrine said...

I like Cuir de Lancome as well!
And Dzing!

It was really funny to see how scent was playing a role in Twilight! (haven't read the books, just saw the movie) I mean, the fact that something as intangible as a person's aura can be the smell of their blood. The Edward scent sounds even more appealing to me, honestly, but I have to wonder: wouldn't a vampire smell a little weird from all those coffins and the cemetaries etc? A little mouldy? Huh?

Happy new year!