January 31, 2007

• *waits for smell-O-vision to hit teh inter-tubes* You may tempt me with this text but I will not succumb! Oddly enough when I was a kid I smelled very badly. No wait - I mean I had trouble smelling. It wasn't until I hit my teens that my sense of smell became normal. What is cool about smells is how invocative they are.
• This is cool. And I'm glad you smell better, gomi. I recall something about "smell performances" in halls during the late 19th century, involving fans turned at the audience. There was a brief experiment with "smell-o-vision" in cinemas, as far as I know. There has been some patent activity for devices that will work on the inter-tubes, though I'm not sure if anything's been commercialized.
• Harold: Subways... Perfume... Cigarette... (gradually becoming more excited)... Cologne... Carpet... Chestnuts! ... Snow!
• I got an organ you can smell right here!!!
• Harold: Subways... Perfume... Cigarette... (gradually becoming more excited)... Cologne... Carpet... Chestnuts! ... Snow! Heh, that was my first thought too ...
• Also, wasn't there a John Waters movie in smell-o-rama?
• Yes! ODORAMA.
• Nifty. Between a BPAL order that will arrive any day now and seeing 'Perfume' in the theaters, I've been feeling very smell-oriented these days.
• It takes 112 pounds of patchouly herb to yield 28 ounces of its essential oil. Damned wasteful hippies!! *shakes fist*
• But those 28 ounces produce so much patchouli stench you might as well be sitting in 112 tonnes of the plant.
• Oh god, BPAL! Those people have a helluva racket going (she said, looking at the mailbox anxiously to see if her order has arrived). I seem to recall a smell organ in Brave New World, playing an Herbal Cappriccio, which sort of sounds like it ought to be a brand of shampoo.
• a brand of shampoo Or some sort of hippy doesn't-actually-contain-any-coffee "coffee" beverage. As in "I'll have a Herbal Capriccio with soy milk, please."
• This music stinks.
• Hi ya, speedy! I likes 'ya even mores!
• Hiya, smt! Your expression of regard is helping me resist the temptation to derail this thread into a discussion of the torments of BPAL addiction :) I found the passage in Brave New World describing the scent organ: "The scent organ was playing a delightfully refreshing Herbal Capriccio–rippling arpeggios of thyme and lavender, of rosemary, basil, myrtle, tarragon; a series of daring modulations through the spice keys into ambergris; and a slow return through sandalwood, camphor, cedar and newmown hay (with occasional subtle touches of discord–a whiff of kidney pudding, the faintest suspicion of pig's dung) back to the simple aromatics with which the piece began." It seems like it is at least a little influenced by Piesse's ideas. Though I dunno about the pig's dung...
• And I'll have one venti Herbal Cappriccio with soy milk, please!
• I thought of BNWorld upon seeing this post as well. A lovely quote, I might add... Now, what is all this talk of BPAL? *googles*
• Hell, BPAL is news to me... *wanders and and gets lost*
• I keep reading BPAL as Bhopal.
• Hah! Well, at the risk of sounding unbelievably insensitive, some of their perfumes ARE just about that toxic. ...and yet I still buy them...
• I like the idea of rose as the middle C of smells.
• Fry & Laurie did a great sketch about Mr Fry as a composer who had transposed 'The Overture to the Marriage of Figaro' into fragrances. He used "the Vetivers and the wood barks for the minor key, and the lighter, more floral essences for the major key". He then held up lots of bottles to the nose of Mr Laurie, who fainted under the assault. Mr Fry then revived him by playing his scent version of 'Take Me Home Country Roads'. It were on t'telly t'other day.
• Lavender, vetiver, ginger, neroli Sandalwood, rose and a drop of patchouli Blossoms of orange and jasmine incense These are a few of my favourite scents Pine needles, cedarwood, beaches and leather Freshly mowed grass in the warm summer weather Air after thunderstorms clear and dispel These are a few of my favourite smells Gas stations, garbage cans, stagnant pondwater Litter box what ain't been cleaned like it oughter Hot unwashed masses and foul kitchen sinks, These are a few of my favourite stinks When the nose blows, when the cold grows When I'm feeling stuffed I simply remember my favourite stinks And then I feel mighty chuffed! Arranged for scent organ by Wolfgang Amadeus Noseart Orchestral accompaniment by Ludwig van Reekhoven
• ))) for PA! And is it just me, or is the idea of someone named Piesse building a smell organ slightly, um... redolent?
• *applauds. blows nose.*
• A nosegay for PA!
• *applauds Pallas mightily, throws vials of perfume onto the stage*
• mmmmm, Gautier! And what a lovely nosegay! Hydrangeas! *sniffffff* thank you.
• I think that I shall never smell A poem as lovely as PA's roundel.
• *looks up 'roundel', learns something*