Sandy tracks and a confession
Sorry folks for being somewhat silent lately; together with many things that needed to get done, like attending a little conference last Friday, I needed to get back to tracks, had to find them in a sense. Well, I guess I found them hidden below some sandy memories and there we are:
After a few “is this you?” here’s the official statement: The guy cleaning up the soaking wet tent somewhere in Etosha (earlier post), that’s W. , the famous W.-factor carrier. The guy on the RĂªverie au jardin sample and packaging flyer is the perfumer himself.
Another, somewhat wild and sandy aspect of a perfumer you find revealed in the video
Sandy acitities (15 MB, avi file, opens with windows media player); trust me, the dunes are higher than they seem and the speed is faster than it looks. I managed to get 72 km per hour down on a particular dune. No lasting injuries, but I think my body is still getting rid of some sand….
RĂªverie au jardin kept me quite busy this weekend, as I needed to get the first pile of boxes ready for shipment. When not in Brussels this week, I will make samples; whereby I have said it already…. Tuesday evening sees me in Brussels until Wednesday, followed by business trip to Berlin next Sunday until mid-week….
Thus, quite busy days ahead, but with all my memories of peaceful hours around smoking camp fires, these busy days will pass easily.
And finally, when I say “smoking camp fire”, I mean it. I never got so much camp fire in such a little time and I was always quite good in picking the place around the fire where the smoke would travel to. Some of you know it: I quite like birch tar, smoky, leathery earthy notes, with an animalic undertone. I remember a post on basenotes by Scentsibility, Paul, that made me smile, I never thought about “tauer” being german for tar, or being pronounced as [ta:r], in German it is pronounced like “tower”, but Mr. Tar is cool. And I love birch tar. “Hello, I am Andy. I like birch tar and put it in, almost everywhere ” ;-)
Now, Namibian camp fires converted me; I am in search of soft flowers these days. Lucky me, I had my RĂªverie au jardin with me, allowing me to draw soft green lines, gleaming through clouds of smoke, under a yellow moon.
March 19th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
OMG Andy - good to have yhou back - I almost wish I didn’t watch the short clip you showed - this is totally too dangerous for me to even thing about it (on the other hand, I am not a desert enthusiast myself - I mean, I am curious about the desert but to read only). Great to hear that all is going great!
March 21st, 2007 at 11:05 pm
In English, or at least my mostly West Coast accent of it, Tauer is roughly pronounced “tower” too, though I have a more pronounced “au” inflection since I didn’t grow up on the West Coast. (Still, the Germanic influence on English is pretty profound.) Mr. Tar… it sounds like a fantastic pen name doesn’t it?
I love your pictures (this .avi clip, and also the photos below) from your trip. Every artist has a muse, but I think where many artists focus on a specific model or a specific city, yours is simply the broader muse of Nature. Overall, that is. Which is somehow more impressive, in a way, since rather than trying to pin down and specify only one specific thing, like Brecht writing and rewriting Galileo over and over, you are trying to capture some larger sense of beauty (meaning: truth) you are appreciating. It’s one of the tricky things I found about trying to write about Lonestar Memories, and why I couldn’t not figure out how to write about your Orris. While there may be references to a certain type of imagery, there seemed to be a much broader reference to Nature in general. I think this shows very much in many of your posts: it’s not about trying to define things in nature, they seem to read as though you are trying to communicate your appreciation of them, rather. I think these are very different goals, and for me, it is an appreciation I can smell in the scent-portraits you create.
Um, but back to the subject of this particular post: Namibia! It looks lovely. I am especially fond of the last photo, the one with you guys’ long shadows against the sand. You would be a great travelogue writer, I bet :)
[This is going to be a terribly random question I know, but for some reason I have always meant to ask: Have you ever listened to Benjamin Britten’s compositions? (Especially, his eerie, haunting pieces from the Wealdon and the Ceremony choral-harp songs.) I know, it’s a VERY random, silly thing to ask!]
March 23rd, 2007 at 8:46 am
Dear Katie
Thank you for your wonderful comment. I tend not to think too much about myself (it is a fruitless endeavour….) and the more appreciate your thoughts. I printed it out to read it and think about what you have writen when flying to Berlin in two days.
By the way: I haven’t listened to any of Britten’s compositions.
And now…. Have a wonderful day, followed by an even more wonderful weekend!