L'Occitane Vetyver

 I went to the local L'Occitane shop to take a whiff of their Vetyver fragrance after having read it's praised so much. This is a fresh-dry woody smell. I liked it so much I bought this last week. Some fragrance bottles are pure works of art, this one isn't. Far from it, it looks like an old medicine bottle, an observation that's enhanced by its brown colour. Not a lot of money went into its design and manufacture by the looks of it. Likewise no money went into marketing the fragrance: no famous face and/or glossy ads seducing you to buy it. The quality of the fragrance is its main selling point. A 100 ml bottle sells for only €39.50. An excellent scent for little money. 

Update. I now own the Vetyver shower gel too... Great stuff.

Perfume related books

I just finished reading The Emperor of Scent by Chandler Burr.

I discovered that the public library actually had two copies of it, in English and the Dutch translation. I took home the Dutch translation.  Interesting stuff. For good measure I also took home Perfumes, the Guide by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez. Great books, both of them.

Interesting bit of Canel No.5 info from the Guide: the perfume, eau de parfum and eau de toilette are all of different composition, rather than the eau de parfum and eau de toilette being just diluted perfume as one would expect.

Luca Turin didn't think highly of Floris' Santal, two stars: "cheap and boring".

The Hobbit

I can hardly wait for this film. Looks to be a must-see for Lord of the Rings fans.

Game Change

My wife saw me reading a newspaper article with the above photo. "What's that woman on about this time?", she remarked. "That's Julianne Moore", I said. What a resemblance!  

Ed Harris is an actor I can't get enough of and Julianne Moore is underrated IMO. Looks to be an interesting movie, I hope I can get to see this one.

Jeff Lorber Fusion - Galaxy

Jeff does it. Again. Jeff blew new life into the Jeff Lorber Fusion of ye olde times with Now Is The Time. Again Jeff teams up with Jimmy Haslip (bassplayer extraordinaire of Yellowjackets fame) and sax player Eric Marienthal and brings back some of the old grooves and serves up some new ones too with the release of Galaxy. For good measure Jeff made sure to give Paul Jackson Jr., Vinnie Colaiuta, Lenny Castro, Dave Weckl, Larry Koonse and Randy Brecker a call... Too bad Will Kennedy didn't get to play drums on this one. Conflicting schedules? Galaxy of course a twist on the Galaxian album, no doubt.

Galaxy again is high octane JLF stuff with plenty of funky Rhodes piano, just the way I like it. Oh Jeff, if you should ever read this, when are Tune 88 and Can't Get Enough up for getting the kiss of life?