Plutonic Rainbows

Fendi La Baguette is hugely disappointing. Although it may be a lovely scent, it’s light and airy, disappearing in about two hours — which is inexcusable at this price range. This fragrance is an easy pass: it provides no projection and feels weak and fleeting.

Released in 1986, this is an extremely rare animal. It is as bizarre-sounding as it is old. Starting off like some menacing science fiction movie, it moves through sound corridors of time and space that you might have wished remained closed. The title song is a thing of beauty for sure, while still tinged with a bit of the beast, as it hints at a psychotic circus of sounds. Strange but still soothing. The epic third track brings it all together and makes the album whole. Bells and drums are prominent here in the long, drawn-out musical scenery that ends the first side.

While the second side is not up to the greatness of the first, it is not for lack of trying. It is chock-full of strange sounds. Only the bells and flutes that come and go seem familiar. You may feel like you are losing your mind. But don't worry, by the time you are in the middle of the last song, your mind will belong to you again and all will be as it was. All except for your ears, of course. Like a flood rerouting a river bed, that sound you heard may forever be ingrained in your ears' memory channels. Like it or not, it may be a sound you won't forget.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Everything goes away eventually. The new 2025 edition is what you get when the boardroom decides what constitutes a good fragrance.

Today is the last night the Christmas lights will cast their glow, a brief luminescence before Epiphany’s dawn demands they be taken down. The season’s end always leaves me torn — its magic slips away like a half-remembered dream, and I mourn its passing even as I glimpse the promise of the new year suggesting other possibilities and new paths.

I’ve made a few design tweaks: the links in the post entries now have default underlines, and I’ve updated their color to align with the 4.5:1 readability standard. On another note, I received a brand-new, pristine copy of Alan Moore’s magic book today.

For my fragrance today, I chose Frederic Malle Promise, and tonight I’m cooking tempura-battered fish fillets, triple-cooked chips, and mushy peas.

I bought Wintering Out by Seamus Heaney for my kindle.

This week, if it ships on time, I should hopefully receive a 5ml sample of Fendi's La Baguette to try.