Where I am fabulastically tagged....

The lovely K from Rose beyond the Thames (a wonderful blog, btw) tagged me and awarded me this fabulous award. So I have to play and expose myself yet again and again, haven't I? OK, I'll try and in the meantime award 5 more blogs with the "You're fabulous" tag.

The rules are:
1. You have to pass it (the award) on to 5 other fabulous blogs in a post.
2. You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.
3. You must copy and paste the rules and the instructions below in the post.
Instructions: Include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them. When you post your five winners, make sure you link them as well. And don't forget to let your winners know they won an award from you by emailing them or leaving a comment on their blog.

So what about my ~euphemistically called fabulous~ addictions?

1.Cinematic Fixation: You all expected me to say perfume, huh? Well, no; that's a given! I am hereby confessing to visual pleasures (you might have guessed if you're following this blog). It especially focuses on David Cronenberg (ever since Videodrome and The Dead Zone; please watch that Poe recital again), David Lynch (ever since Eraserhead, The Elephant Man and Twin Peaks), Vincent Pryce (a fellow historian! how kewl!!) and Charlotte Rampling (can anyone resist the sexiest actress alive?)
Last night History of Violence was on. Guess what I was watching for the 5th time with one sleepy eye open.

2.Jewellery. No, I'm not a material girl and I don't need sugar daddies, I can get my own thank you very much (although S.O. has been quite generous). But the flutter of a decent jewel does make my heart skip a beat from time to time. This is only a part of my collection(click pic to enlarge; if interested I shall post more later), but they're current favourites. I want a Gavello ring with a skull in pink gold and small brilliants next!

3.Air-conditionning. This is even costlier than the above ultimately (darn electricity company!), but I simply can't envision summer or summer sleep without the trusted humming of my A/C unit. Please dear God, don't let failures happen.

4.Sour cherry drink by Epsa (a traditional Greek brand). My cheap indulgence, a summer staple and simply a-m-a-z-i-n-g!. Less than a euro a bottle and it has the most refreshing sour-sweet taste evah! I could drink it by the galon which is what I often do.

5.Reading. I can't help it and it sounds nerdy or pretentious, but everything within access must be devoured be it high art or lowly pulp-fiction pamphletes (I like those for balcony reading along with crosswords puzzles!). Books are friends. And we don't choose them, they choose us!

I am passing the baton to 5 more blogs (the choice was very difficult!), not strictly perfume, which fully deserve the "you're fabulous" award:

Les Tuilleries by AlbertCan: A dear friend on ethernet, but most importantly a sensitive and talented individual who writes on the arts and scents with gusto and genuine sophistication. His clips of classical music have me sorting out for the headphones, even when I should be frantically answering my mails before class.

Tea, sympathy and perfume by M: Her beautifully eclectic blog is dedicated to all flights of fancy possible through common themes in art, as well as notes of her self-smithed poetry which is elegant and thoughtful. And joy of joys, the occasional Barbie sighting brings it full circle!

Under the Cupola by L: Studying in Florence would have been my second choice, had I not succeeded into entering the preciously-difficult-to-accept-you and precariously mine-strewn National & Kapodistrian University of Athens. L is following that Florence course, finishing up her PhD while perusing rosette windows, drinking Chianti (I assume) and making discoveries in the wake of scent along the way including Calvados-inspired essences. If blogs can also present a slice of life, hers is a full-plate.

Perfume de Rosa Negra by Chris: Chris does the impossible; she tries to inject visibility to the unknown Brasil and South American perfume scene and she does it bilingually and with great skill. Reading her venue opens the vista to different cultural associations.

Fashion Tribes: Because a historian needs to dress well too and because getting inspired by Minoan wasp-waists is all very well (wish I had a wasp waist too!) I follow a couple of fashion and design blogs. Fashion tribes is compact, aesthetically easy on the eye and sweetly to the point.

Photos © by Perfume Shrine

Tagged yet again!

I have been tagged yet again by two wonderful bloggers: oenophiliac (and sensexplorer) Chris from Vetivresse and the formidable on many levels Ayala from Smelly Blog.

Quick recap of rules: 1. Link to the person who tagged you 2. Post the rules on your blog 3. Write six random things about yourself 4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them 5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog 6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Of course as I have already admitted some of my "dark" secrets, I thought this time I'd share some of my perfumed ones....

1. I have a strange aversion to the smell of burnt nutmeg pods, thanks to an "experiment" I conducted when young. I really like nutmeg as a note however and enjoy the spice in cooking.
2. My perfume hero is my maternal grandmother: she had the knack of scoring every classic-to-be when she was young resulting in an impressive collection through her middle and advanced age and an array of bottles the stuff of daydreams for her descendants. I often take my inspiration from her.
3. The smell of those pumping valves at the gas station? Makes me rather nauseous...contrary to my significant other who inhales deeply.
4. Pee has an interesting nuance of what the other person has drunk and/or eaten. I make a mental note (and guess) when visiting toilets in public places. My hypotheses have the invaluable advantage of not being able to be proven wrong (unless I want to end up incarcerated or something!) which makes me feel rather smug about it ("Hey, check out that garlic fest! Must have been skordalia!").
5. I must have read Das Parfum 10 times since I first did as a very young girl; 4 of those have been in the last 4 years ~it's become a weird annual evaluation of how far I have gone into the fragrant journey; the day I am fed up with Grenouille's efforts is probably the day I lose interest in fragrance altogether I like to think. (although I often re-read books that made an impression)
6. I have long reached the point when I leave bought samples unsniffed for weeks on end. It's called saturation; or is it satiation? The day I leave them unsniffed for ever after will be the day I lose my interest in fragrance altogether. That day hasn't come yet.



And who am I tagging this time since I already tagged my unsung heroes and many regulars have also been tagged? Angela Sanders, a precious contributor of the articles which every perfumista identifies with on Now Smell This, Erik from the German Aromatisches Blog, Karin the life-savant of Savvy Thinker, Michelle with her pansensorial articles from Glass Petal Smoke, Rose from the very British Rose beyond the Thames, and the new entry immersed in the arts world at Nose About Town .

Feel free to elaborate on little known facts that have to do with your life or your path to perfumedom!

Clip originally uploaded by leo1946 on Youtube.

Tag, you are it!

Roxana over at Illuminated Perfume Journal tagged me on October 5th. This is all new to me and I discovered being tagged is like playing the game "tag", so I'm "IT" now and the rules dictate I do the following:

1. Link to the person who tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Write six random things about yourself
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

My contribution to six random things about me:



1.I trained as a classical pianist in my youth. After getting my diploma I soon found out the error of my ways and realised classical music serves not as a balm for the mores but instead excites them into one of the most vilely back-stabbing and prima-donna-ish sectors this side of arts. I soon found out it's just about the same with every sector really...

2.There has been a nerdy phase in my life when I was maniacally playing board games that usually have other nerdy guys (mostly) retreat to the Hebrides and play with their friends for days. Yup, talk about a guilty secret!

3.I can cook a mean set of tasty dishes in under two hours and not spoil my manicure. Have cornered all the little tricks of making something appear more complex or gourmet than it really is (ie. chopping up some fresh herbs over a simple gratîn or drizzling some balsamic glaze, raisins and croutons over a green salad are two of them)

4.I am pathetically challenged in gardening: gifting me with a pot containing some plant matter in it, no matter its endurance is a sure sentence of death for the poor living thing. Spare them or present them to me guilty-free as in already decapitated beyond my control (not that I am very good with preserving the latter either)

5.I am younger than people who read me online think. This is an interesting phenomenon to watch though: how perception makes for age-related guesses.

6.While on a trip to Austria's historical places I had to live for a few weeks in an old-fashioned, grandiose hotel (rather mansion turned into hotel) that had a communal floor bathroom with a curtain instead of a door (!). I have never felt so constipated in my life since. Fortunately, I might add...

And who I am tagging next? A selection of some of the blogs I peruse; no desire to exclude anyone, just giving credit to unsung heroes this time.

Dain at Ars Aromatica: an all-inclusive lifestyle venue that has some of the best magazines panting in the competition. There is nothing that Dain doesn't do better, including short essays on literary heroes and foes who have entranced or annoyed her.

Qwendy at Notes on Shoe, Cake and Perfume: For some unfathomable reason I had missed this venue all along. I am discovering that was an oversight I should remedy. Lots of interesting stuff going on!

Maria at BitterGrace Notes: This is where I go to read insightful comments on matters pertaining to current events, read about what city-dweller me has been deprived of ~in short, criters, hikes and assorted nature-loving images; and watch a clip or two of divine musical choices.

Jenavira at Scent of Abricots: If blogging is about glimpsing a little of another person's life, Jen has been most generous with allowing us to do so with hers. I love that she uses wonderful paintings or illustrtations to accompany each post.

Pat at Olfactarama: Besides sharing a passion, nay obsession is more like it, about cinematic past and present, I love to read how Pat is discovering her path in perfume LaLaLand and how the surprises are often astounding or disappointing ~nothing like the candid shots of an honest appraiser with taste.

Lucy at LucyFishWife: This Londoner among books which talk about books asks in echo: "Why must you tell me all your secrets when it's hard enough to love you knowing nothing?". I am challenging her to reveal more than the cherry tomatoes her eagle eye has spotted on Minas Tirith. I know she can rise up to the challenge!

The clip "I have a secret" sung by Aliki Vougiouklaki with music by Manos Hadjidakis comes from the 1959 classic Greek film "To xylo vgike apo ton paradiso" (=Spanking comes out of Paradise; lol, it sounds naughtier than it is!) or "Maiden's Cheek" in its UK title inspired by a lyric in the "Ode to Love" in Sophocle's Antigone, taught in the classroom at a crucial scene in the movie ~the quote goes thus:

"O love, thou art victor in fight, thou makest all things afraid;
Thou couchest thee softly at night on the cheeks of a maid;
Thou passest the bounds of the sea, and the folds of the fields;
To thee immortal, to thee the ephemeral yields".

The secret is that the girl is in love with her handsome teacher...