bloodthirsty demonness

millie and i went to visit my dad over the weekend. we had the best time. lots of great talks and glasses of wine on the back porch with the chimes blowing in the breeze. so peaceful. he bestowed us with fruit and wine when we left. on saturday i had to go with my mom (and her siblings and in-laws) to my grandma de's house to go through her things (she's the one who passed away in february.) it was kind of weird to be there at first. i got this really neat old chair i've always loved, and am really happy to have it. it was her sewing chair that sat at her sewing table. i also got her sewing machine, which i am excited about because i've been wanting to sew some simple things, as i am not much of a seamstress.

when i was at my dad's, i went through a huge box of photos that had been from my grandma roseanna, of her family, and scanned a bunch.


( bunch of old photos under the cut... )

so, i went with m. to see pulp on tuesday. it was fab. i saw jarvis cocker solo a few years back, and he is consistently a good frontman. best dance moves and interesting banter. he kept talking about things like, "today is so and so's birthday" and would quote them. isak dinesen (whom i've never read) and another person who i am now forgetting. also, someone threw their bra on stage right before they played "underwear", ha.





in other news, i am getting more serious about planning my NYC trip in which i get to see my BFF and visit museums i haven't visited yet. hopefully the met, cloisters and/or natural history museum. i may even take the train to the mutter museum in PA, on d's suggestion. i've never been to PA except passing through on a train when i was 10 years old. yay.

[Error: unknown template qotd]a conglomeration of:

poison ivy rorschach
rose mcdowall
siouxsie sioux
lydia lunch
and iona from pretty in pink

that's all, off the top of my head.

as some of you know, i am a BPAL fanatic. they just came out with their lupercalia collection, which is the valentine's day scent collection, and many of my absolute BPAL favorites come from this collection. i always want to like halloween the best, but it usually falls second in line with yule in 3rd. this year i didn't even find ONE yule that i would buy a bottle of! normally i find at least one. for halloween i bought 2:

SONNET D'AUTOMNE: Shivering white musk with vanilla-infused white cocoa, amber incense, and dead, dry leaves.

& THE VAMPIRE BRIDE: Icy skin touched by a perfume of violet leaf, white tea, olibanum, elemi, myrrh, wormwood, crypt dust, and saffron with a dribble of blood red musk.

i almost ended up getting this one too, it's really nice: A NOCTURNAL REVERIE: Violet musk and oudh with black amber, ambergris, agarwood, black currant, dark musk, fig, and lavender incense.

for the lupercalia, i am going to get samples first:
BODY, REMEMBER: Profoundly sensual. The echo of caresses: raw black coconut, ambergris accord, ambrette seed, champaca flower, and sugar cane.
THE DOOM OF BEAUTY (i love the name of this): An opulent, bittersweet Renaissance-inspired fragrance: Hungary water, parma violets, and roseated oil.
ELIZABETH OF BOHEMIA: Incomparable loveliness: the perfect rose oude.
THE ROSE IN THE DEEPS OF HIS HEART: Golden amber, red rose, frankincense, Egyptian musk, galbanum, and immortelle.

and these are from the shunga line (japanese erotic art):
BLOSSOMS IN SPRINGTIME: Vanilla bean and vanilla blossom, golden honey, antiqued amber, beeswax, copal, lotus blossom, and helichrysum.
THE HELL OF GREAT HEAT: Indonesian patchouli, tonka bean, red musk, natural hedoine accord, black opium, cassis, styrax, costus, oakmoss, frankincense, and kief accord.
MEDICAL PROCEDURE: (LOVE the artwork for this one. basically a nurse sex fantasy): Linen, tobacco flower, white sandalwood, and dragon's blood resin.
VARIETY OF PLEASING AMUSEMENTS: (love the artwork for this one too): Honey, leather, tobacco, and myrrh.

i think maybe lupercalias tend to work well for me because they are dominated by florals and "sexy" notes like honey, musk, amber, leather, and those are my favorites. halloween scents are often very foody and herbal, neither of which do well on me and yule scents are often piney and snowy, which also aren't my thing.

these are some of my absolute BPAL favorites, all lupercalias:
DIA: White amber, coconut, white musk, oakmoss, and tobacco flower.
DOLCE STIL NUOVO: Our interpretation of Dolce Stil Nuovo is a blend of rose otto, carnation, vanilla flower, lavender and jasmine with the clarity of crystalline white musk and the warmth of golden amber.
EBISU MAKING LOVE AS TWO OCTOPUSES LOOK ON: Oakmoss, skin musk, and nectarine.
ABHISARIKA: She boldly goes forth to meet her lover, heedless of propriety, intoxicated by love, and radiant with youthful, innocent passion: Damascus rose, African orchid, cream accord, and Kashmir musk.

next up i am going to make a longass post about my perfume preferences which i am stealing from absolution :D

i love rowland s. howard, and have been thinking about him a lot lately. i guess the 1 year anniversary of his death is coming up soon, so sad.

i got this in a dorky online swappy-thing for DDLM. he loves it!

so d. and i finally got to go to big sur for the day. it was nice. we got picnic stuff in carmel, then drove to BS, went to the phoenix gift shop and walked around the big sur river inn, then went to andrew molera state park, which is a beach that you hike into. it's rockier than the other beach, and has much more driftwood. also, less people go there, so that's nice.

( photos )

trying to give this witch house stuff a chance. i'm not feeling it. a friend insists that it isn't all the same though, and i will like some of it, based on what he knows i like.

i kind of doubt it, but who knows? i don't like anything that sounds modern-dancey. old-dancey is ok though. hard to explain. i think it's the percussion or synths that turn me off. percussion in the witch house i've heard and synths in a lot of electronicy pop stuff i've heard. oh and vocals. like cold cave. and ladytron. ecch.

also, i just downloaded spotify...whee, now i can see what all the fuss is about.

OMG i am obsessed with turntable.fm.