When I came over to the Oz, I left my bottle of CK One with the lovely Futura drawing back home so I needed to get something new. So this presented a perfect opportunity for me to dig around and find something good. My previous fragrance experiences revolved around trying out friends’ stuff or receiving them as gifts. I only got the CK One because I’d used it before and they had that Futura and Delta thing going. So I went and did some research and considered what I wanted and found Basenotes to be an excellent resource. From there, I picked out a few based on checking forums, best of lists and reading reviews plus checking what notes the fragrances were comprised of. Till that point, I didn’t even know what a top/middle/basenote was, so at least one step in the right direction.
Then I went down to David Jones in the city and also a chain store called Perfume Empire to check out a few fragrances. I tested on paper and wrist, waited for the drydown and was extremely pleased with two, and promptly stumped up my card for Hermes’ Terre d’Hermes and Dior’s Dior Homme. The former was incredibly earthy, like soil but with a citrus top and a more spicy middle. The drydown was particularly impressive, like what a dry but cool desert might smell like. But my crappy analysis does it no justice. Read this review by Now Smell This instead.
Dior Homme was a completely different fragrance. It smelled completely unoffensive, not too strong or in your face at all. It was pleasant and definitely felt incredibly modern and atypical. Probably because it was flowery, which isn’t something you’d naturally associate with a men’s fragrance. But it comes across as almost an edgy kind of softness for me, which I really enjoyed. Again, check out the Now Smell This review for more insight. The review actually feels that it doesn’t really go against the grain but I’m still very much of the opinion that Dior Homme is completely different to what 90% of guys would wear.
Now that I’m getting the hang of it, I’m really getting pretty interested in this little fragrance adventure. Heck, I even ordered some samples of fragrances by Comme des Garcon and The Different Company from Luckyscent, which basically stocks more of the niche stuff. Can’t wait till I get it all to test, just rubbing my nose in anticipation.
Filed under: Fashion
What will adorn my wrist in the not too distant future. The Panerai Luminor 1950 10 Days GMT.
One of the best places to chill out in Sydney is probably Max Brenner’s. Who’s gonna say no to chocolate anyway? The decor and design is a throwback to 1960s French graphics brought current and the music always classy. The chocs on sale are lovely bite sized morsels of joy, with signature Max Brenner graphic patterns printed over. On the menu, a great selection of chocolate based drinks and desserts that tantalize the tongue. They do like to use unconventional cups and containers. If you get a hot choc, its gonna come in a hug mug, where you basically cup your hands together to hold it and drink at the pointy end. If you get a cold choc, it tends to come in a tall glass with the top pressed over like a shade and a hole for a straw. (Note: you probably can’t use that one like a drinking glass, its pretty much useless without a straw) Dessert wise, you get great choc fondues and delectable cakes and tarts that will satisfy any chocoholic. This place just screams first date all over. Its not overpriced, the ambiance is great, its very trendy and the food and drink brilliant. Its almost too conducive, too easy. Thank you Max.
Filed under: Music
The first time I put Fever To Tell through my ears, I decided that Karen O’s name had to stand for Orgasmic. She just sounded that way; raw, sexually charged yelps and a gritty, engaging beat to which breaks into the calm of Maps. That’s what I sorta missed in the second Yeah Yeah Yeahs LP, Show Your Bones. The rough around the edges, New York style craziness which seemed to have mellowed somewhat. Much to my delight, their latest release, Is Is, is an EP that manages to align itself rather closely to Fever. This all makes perfect sense since these 5 tracks were written in between the two albums. Down Boy is probably the standout track for me but the whole EP just leaves me craving for more.
Filed under: Music
I have to admit that I didn’t really take to M.I.A.’s debut album Arular so it came as a surprise to me that I actually kinda like her second one. Kala is out now and to me at least, its poppier than her previous effort, most markedly in the last track, where she collaborates with Timbaland and almost comes off like Nelly Furtado but better. She borrows samples from all over and my favourite track is the very listenable Paper Planes which has got bits of The Clash’s Straight To Hell. She even takes New Order’s Blue Monday in one track, 20 Dollars. With Arular, she was all snarly and political which sort of flew over my head at that point in time. Come to think of it, right now, she just feels extremely current, crest of the wave kinda vibe. The beat, the delivery, the attitude, its like a looking glass into today’s style. So yea, maybe I will get back to listening to Arular again after all. Ba-na-na.
My mother, bless her, bought me this massive book just before I came over to Sydney. I didn’t bring it on board with me because its pretty damn heavy and my clothes took precedence. It should have been the other way around haha but I rectified the issue promptly by getting someone to bring it over to me, along with a couple of Graniphs I left behind. Obviously still quite unrepentant.
But this is about the book, which is absolutely superb. Its like an encyclopedia or index for the culinary arts. Its chock full of info starting with Abaisse; a term in French cookery for a sheet of rolled-out pastry, and ending with Zuppa Inglese; a dessert invented by Neapolitan pastrycooks and ice-cream makers. And that’s just excerpts for each one. There’s typically a little bit of history, details of methods, ingredients and also recipes in some cases. The depth and wealth of information is astounding, and the size of the book, daunting. Just makes me feel really really small because I can flip a page and have no idea about a single entry. Enticing.
Sydney = hothouse for good gigging. Check out LiveGuide. I just realised I’m missing Lupe Fiasco right now and Ryan Adams within the next couple days. Here’s a select list of what I’m gonna try to catch, even if its on my own sobs!
- James Lavelle – 7-8 Sep
- Snow Patrol – Sep
- Battles – 26th Sep @ The Gaelic
- M.I.A – 28th Sep @ The Forum
- Klaxons – Oct
- Ben Kweller – Oct thru to Nov
- Muse – Nov
- The Killers – 9th – 13th Nov
- Art Brut – 16th – 19th Dec
- Rufus Wainwright – 27th Jan – 1st Feb
Filed under: Music
Most people don’t really know Jose Gonzalez until you mention if they remember that Sony Bravia ad with a million bouncing balls. Yea that track’s called Heartbeats. This one is Crosses, off his excellent LP, Veneer. You can catch more vids off his website.
Sydney sucks for haircuts. In terms of cost that is. In my opinion, there’s only two kinds of places. One type cuts badly and the other does it well. There is no in-between. The former ranges from AUD$10-30, which isn’t even what you’d call cheap anyway. The latter is AUD$50 and up for guys even. So its either you pay quite a bit of money for a crap cut or a good chunk’a'change for a good one. You could actually draw several other parallels to this cost to quality ratio in Sydney really, like food, alcohol, clothes which is sort of interesting.
But back to hair. I settled on Wink! Hair, because of Vogue Australia’s forums. Immensely helpful for all things fashion by the way. Why Wink? Because they had 2 guys in their online gallery whereas a lot of the other salons had either no guys in their portfolio or I just wasn’t sure about. Also, I noticed they had Barca chairs off their webby. That earned brownie points. They did a great job and I don’t know if they have many Asian customers but the cut was pretty damn good. Its expensive though, at AUD$67 for a wash, massage, consultation, cut and product. I can’t fault the service though. It was pretty much impeccable. The stylist talked it over with me, pointed me in particular directions and the resolution was very much satisfactory.
When I first moved to Sydney, I was staying at the house of an acquaintance of my mother. I’ve now since moved and was looking to get her something for the bother. So I resorted to the tried and true chocolate method, which is basically buying chocolates because you can’t think of anything better. But I didn’t want to get her any old choc-a-bloc and even stuff like Ferrero Rocher and Lindt didn’t make the cut for me. Maybe its because I’m sick and tired of that kind of stuff but I wanted to try something else. Then I vaguely recalled seeing this thing called a chocolate map when I was researching for places to go to in Sydney. I think it came off Gridskipper or Refinery29. Anyway, its called Chocomap and off that, I found Adora Handmade Chocolates, located at the Wentworth Hotel in Sydney’s CBD area. I also cross referenced with some other random forums and was blindly convinced by some person who claimed to have tried it all and said Adora was great.
I went for the 30 piece, one of each variety box, which the lady behind the counter referred to with the phrase “You can’t go wrong with that.”, which went along quite well with my intentions. I also picked up 6 for myself. I gave one to my housemate but ate the other 5. Quite bloody lovely. I still remember the first one I popped in. Full bodied chocolate flavour, melt in your mouth goodness, wholesome and rich velvety taste mashed in with bright orange and the texture and twist of marzipan and brandy. Its a chocolatier’s standard maybe but it was good, which it should be since they only use Belgian couverture. Would definitely want to try a few more. I can’t even remember what the wattleseed one tastes like except that it was good. I didn’t refer to the pictorial list when chomping down. Also wanna check out stuff like the aniseed one, cinnamon chilli, chai and several others I didn’t recall seeing on the website. Definitely see myself getting a few more boxes there.
