l'ombre dans l'eau

i was on a mission for an xmas gift to myself, l'ombre dans l'eau by diptyque, my favorite parisian parfumeur next to fresh. another favorite is the series 3 incense by commes des garcons. i'm a sap for amazing, unusual fragrances that engulf the senses. i made a special trip to diptyque during one trip to paris just to stock up on candles. fue de bois! baies! heaven scent.

on a low budget whim i tested and liked kiehl's pour homme. a very nice woodsy-green musk oil. i think what appealed to me was going into the winter season and i love the scent of wood.

one day recently, i braved union square, which is like traversing the levels of retail hell. navigating parking, people, finding a restroom, getting to maiden lane, and through the tourist hordes back to the garage. it was a wicked indulgence, but it's been years since i've spent a nice little grip on a fragrance. i don't like most of the synthetic scents that have a 10 year life-cycle from department store > discount outlet > marshall's. i remember in the 80s when people went bananas for white diamonds (for me it fell into the realm of georgio of beverly hills, i.e., a stinky overblown flower bomb). these days you can usually find white diamonds in walgreen's next to anything by coty. most commerical scents smell the same to me; variations on the same two themes and notes - floral for women and musk for men and very, very strong. these scents invoke suburban princesses, reality tv hoochies in big shades with orange-hued skin, and (my favorite type of clown) the moussed pimp who wears his shades inside. these creatures wander the earth; their scents greeting you before they do.

i do like tom ford's private blend scents; they're very earthy, green, and deep - the kind of scents i prefer that remind me of insense or arabian angels flying down to earth. the line has names like black orchid, japon noir, bois rouge, black violet and tuscan wood. so divine, but also uber expensive - $165.00 for 50 ml (dayum). diptyque i can (more or less) afford. i mean, really the cost of a diptyque perfume is equivalent to my utility bills combined, but once in a while even the most modest among us needs to just indulge in their own beauty.

what makes diptyque so amazing is that their scents remain for hours. spray in on yourself or in a room and those little ions of olafactory bliss continue to linger on you or in the air. what i love about l'ombre dans l'eau is even though it has black currant and rose notes to it there's also a blast of green (my favorite) underlying the floral. it's just a gorgeous combination. i wonder if the garden of eden smelled like this. or perhaps the countess ellen olenska from the age of innocence.

diptyque doesn't really advertise; not in the glossy ad and sample tabs such as you find in vogue. it is a hidden treasure; a coven of secret scent agents on the boulevard saint germain.

joyeux noel!

mslisa

movies i saw this year that sucked.

i'm a movie geek. the other night at a show with a friend there was this cool audio loop being played before the band took the stage. i leaned over to my friend, 'that's from blade runner,' i told her. she gasped, 'oh yeah!'

i regularly watch movies as a means to chill out, transport myself, and simply to examine someone's interpretation of the human (alien or the undead) experience. i generally avoid the brainless, commercial movies hollywood cranks out every few months. those riddled with cliches, stereotypes, and superficial narratives. romantic comedies are high on that list; most are just variations on the same tired theme.

i like wes anderson's movies, although his films generally have a similar composite character - an eccentric and nuerotic rich person from the northeast who goes on a cathartic journey. i enjoy his movies primarily for the visual style and music. (for example, darjeeling limited is my favorite of his).

i am not however a big fan of noah baumbach. greenberg, although critics went bananas over it - i thought sucked. he was a hopelessly awkward, narcissistic asshole. i didn't give a shit about him and was frustrated that florence gave him any compassion or affection. she was way too good for him. greenberg was privileged, smug, emotionally fucked up and couldn't see past his own useless self-obsession. i think what i always get from baumbach's movies is i find his own alter-ego and issues, not an original character.

boring. zzzzz.

the kids are alright. massive dislike. i thought it was riddled with cliches (the hip lesbian parents who love wine, gay porn, and joni mitchell). i choked on the touchy-feely california goodness. the sperm donor dad was also hip and sexy with his urban garden that provided produce for his hip and sexy rustic LA cafe. he's fucking the super hot hostess and disses her for the hot mom (sorry, totally implausible even if julianne moore is hot; the sister from the cafe is so gorgeous it's distracting). no way mr. sustainable california living dude would ever dis that woman. not buying it. the kids had cool names and cool problems like the oldest going off to an amazing college with her amazing GPA, while her younger brother wallows in adolescent complacency.

i have no issue watching films that depict life of the affluently hip and privileged if it has meaning. this was a boring family therapy feel-good acceptance fest. i didn't really get the sense of transformation in anyone and it was certainly a world of social class isolation (everyone has a deck!). yes i know what petite syrah is, so what? the movie just didn't resonate with me as i had expected.

cyrus. sucked! even if i love all the actors in it. grim story about an adult woman whose creepy adult son controls her life and tries to sabotage the possibility of her finding true love. i looked at this from my own perception in that i would have kicked the kid out long ago; demanding he either get a job or go to school instead of spending thousands of dollars on equipment making crap music to nature photography. barf! who would put up with that? it was a creepy oedipal complex narrative that just grated on me. the end was positive, but the process beforehand was a little excruciating to watch.

maybe i'm missing something, but i just couldn't get with it on these movies despite all the critical praise.

now let's talk about inception or i am love. :)

mslisa