Smell Goods and Silent Film

Now that the holidays are over and the new year has begun, I have a lot of quiet free time that I’m using to catch up on watching a lot of things I’ve had on my list for a while.

We recently finished IT: Welcome to Derry which admittedly started out really slow but did eventually pick up by episode 3, and by the end I really enjoyed it. It’s definitely the Marvel-fication of the IT universe, which not everyone is going to appreciate. But it was super fun seeing Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise again and I particularly loved how they included and built out the story for a particular character that’s in another famous Stephen King story.

Around this time last year I watched the first season of Twin Peaks. I blew through it so fast that when I saw season 2 was double the amount of episodes I just got overwhelmed and paused for a while. But with the current winter atmosphere being so quiet, dark, and creepy, I was feeling in the mood to pick it back up again. I’m about 5 episodes through season 2 now and while the tone really ebbs and flows, the vibes are just absolutely immaculate. I’m hoping I can finish season 2 soon because I really want to get to Fire Walk with Me and season 3. I feel like those are the ones people talk about all the time.

Another show I’m slowly making my way through is Gilmore Girls. I’m at the beginning of season 5 and while I loved season 4, Rory is driving me crazy right now. I heard it only gets worse from here though, so yay 😅

Ever since Heretic released their Häxan perfume inspired by the 1922 silent film of the same name, I have been dying to watch it. This week I finally got around to it and it was fantastic. This is part reenactment part documentary about witch lore, the witch trials, and surprisingly concludes on a very grounded thesis where the director theorizes that women who were accused of witchcraft possibly suffered from mental illness. It’s a thoughtful, empathetic, educational, and creative with beautiful and surreal visuals.

Finally, I watched Together, which I knew nothing about but was intrigued by the body horror premise. It’s short, sweet, and twisted (literally) and the ending was definitely not where I was expecting it to go.

I believe I’ve mentioned before how I’ve really gotten into fragrance and exploring scent craft as an art form, and this week I really dove into this. I love watching videos where people talk about smells; describing them, talking about what they love to wear and why. There’s just something that just scratches the brain for me like ASMR just listening to people talk about fragrance.

I found and love this video of Hayden (Ethel Cain) talking about her favorite perfumes and candles and I am just so soothed about how she talks about fragrance notes and scent memories.

I’m also trying a creative exercise where I tie fragrance to music and just seeing where that leads me creatively. I have a box full of perfume samples I have acquired over the last year or so, and I’m picking ones I associate with albums and smelling them while I listen to the album. This week I paired Heretic’s Häxan with Ethel Cain’s Preacher’s Daughter and it definitely elevated the listening experience.

I also found a video about the Perfume Passage museum and it looks like such a cool place, I would love to go there one day.

I love Estelle the fox, all her videos crack me up and this week’s episode of her ongoing series “Two Tings” really made me laugh, and also helped me refocus and appreciate the little things in life.

I wanted to share this handy graphic from So Informed with resources on how to keep our communities safe from 🧊