Risk Alienation
Let's workshop this poem about how the parallel push for making art relatable and trusting our instinct carries the danger of preserving status-quo biases, narrow thinking, and mediocrity.
scent of the day: Epic Man, by Amouage. A woody-oriental fragrance that combines skanky spiciness with minty freshness (one might think of the equally-bone-dry One Man Show Oud Edition, albeit done with topnotch ingredients and care; one might even think of a spice-trading bedouin’s camel-panty-dropping version of Dolce and Gabbana’s The One), Epic Man—easily in my top five were it not for its polite projection—is a dark nougere done in an unapologetically Arabic style: the classic notes of lavender, geranium, and patchouli account (with the help of green notes like myrtle, and perhaps artemisia, anise, and wormwood) for the barbershop backbone, only one made scoliotic by the aromatic mélange of headshop incense, camel-saddley oud, and woods (cedarwood, sandalwood) as desiccated as the spices (mace, pink pepper, cardamom, cumin, saffron, nutmeg).
Risk Alienation The push to craft “accessible” art (we all know the indie-bio cliché: “odd yet relatable”) can sound as good as the push to trust your gut, but your gut once would have heaved (vomit-emoji toxic in today’s tongue) at the mere thought of interracial swimming pools.
