Author: elemonated

Ineke & Imaginary Authors reviews coming soon!

Posted on by elemonated

I purchased the Ineke sampler a month ago, but it arrived the day after I moved back into my dorm so I wasn’t able to retrieve it until earlier this week, and I’ve already started to work on the reviews and how I want to structure my posts. I’m also pretty sure I just received my Imaginary Authors sampler in my school mail room, but I’ll have to check. I bought it for myself as a Valentine’s Day gift, and I’m hoping it’s worth the hype!

The next few weeks will probably be full of fragrance since I’m running out of time to do anything else, and sitting down and writing about fragrance helps relax me and get me away from all of the stress and the emotions and the ridiculousness. I feel like I’m already falling behind on some things and I have no idea how to make up that time.

I Will What I Want – Under Armor

Posted on by elemonated

I’m loving those new Under Armour ads. They’re a perfect follow up in the theme set by the Always #LikeaGirl Superbowl ads; crazy excellent women doing crazy excellent at the things they do. Misty Copeland, especially struck me as a a great model for this particular set of ads because I have experience with the dance and performance industry, and the voice-over used in her video really struck a chord. Under Armour especially does a great job expressing an emboldening message, while making their products look fantastic.

Any profession where the body is used as an outward vessel for expression incites criticism of the vessel. Calls for an idealization of the vessel that makes it so that expression through it is exclusive. Modeling is the same way, though Giselle Bundchen’s ad focuses on a slightly different issue. There’s this odd tendency in all visual arts, from videography to photography to writing to watercolor to etching to dance, that dehumanizes the subject, and concentrates them down to that moment. At best, art gives a summary. We can’t forget that there’re always more to the story.

Fresh Off the Boat

Posted on by elemonated

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/01/the-terrible-questions-journalists-have-been-asking-the-cast-of-fresh-off-the-boat/384666/

I found this article which better describes some of the stuff I put in my last post, except in a much nicer, neater, non-emotionally charged way. I’m with a lot of the comments I’ve seen from fellow immigrant-Americans, and Nahnatchka Khan herself:

“When I read his memoir, the specifics were different to my growing up experience, being Persian American and him being Taiwanese American, but what I related to was the immigrant experience of the show, being first generation and having parents who weren’t born here. And that, to me, was my access point. When you take something from the source material that’s such a strong voice and make it into an 8 p.m. family sitcom on broadcast TV, you need a lot of access points.”

Some people criticized the story for being all about that 拉面 and not so much about 냉면 or ラーメン or even like, Maggi. And I understand that how that must feel, truly. But I also agree that the slippery slope is real; if this is accepted into media, and it doesn’t even have to be embraced, but if it gets, say, two seasons, then introducing other perspectives and other cultures and making them the heroes and the protagonists instead of the sidekicks and villains becomes one hundred percent plausible. If the networks see the money, then there’s a huge potential to expand into.

Yes, I’m biased because Fresh Off the Boat reflects my experience as an ABC (haha, ABC, get it? Because the network…It’s really early in the morning…) but I want to see all of my minority friends get their own on the screen without producers having to resort to placing everyone back in their respective countries (or fantasy countries; I’m looking at you, Disney) and their historical timelines that aren’t here and now. If this goes better than All-American Girl, we might actually get somewhere meaningful.

With this show I get to cheer on little Eddie Huang as my little brother if my little brother was awesome (just kidding, my actual little brother is pretty cool too) and as an extension of myself as I lived (R&B and hip-hop, Asian underachiever, strict parents, realization that I might not be worst off), not some random sword-wielding girl I can’t love like a younger OR older sister because she doesn’t exist as far as my reality schema goes.

You know who actually exists? Sophia and Louisa Chua-Rubenfield! The Fung Brothers! Joe Jo! David So! Bart Kwan! Olivia Thai! Ryan Higa! Freddie Wong! Anna Akana! Eddie Huang! David Chang! Ming Tsai! Dale Talde! Hung Huynh! Anita Lo! (if you recognize all or most of these names, we should be friends. Also, I present to you basically all the media I digest regularly. And literally.)

And ME! I EXIST!

Maybe it’s just because it’s really early in the morning, I still haven’t gotten anything done, and I’d really like to sleep, but I swear if ABC takes it off the air too soon, I’m going to send so many passive aggressive tweets, you won’t even recognize my Twitter feed.

Breyers Announces Switch to Hormone-Free Milk and Cream

Posted on by elemonated

http://www.thedailymeal.com/news/eat/breyers-announces-switch-hormone-free-milk-and-cream-other-unilever-ice-cream-brands-follow/20415

I’m feeling pretty good about this change. Breyers was my number one back when I was younger, and I was so disappointed when a lot of their ice cream became “frozen dairy dessert” after Unilever changed the recipes in 2006. The news doesn’t say anything about changing some of the frozen dairy dessert back to ice cream, but it’s good that the company is paying attention to consumers and aiding them on the quest to a less problematic diet, I guess. And who knows? Maybe one day Breyers will change everything back and my inner fat kid will rejoice in the nostalgia of it all. I still eat that natural vanilla when my throat is sore though (before you think this is odd, I know it’s counter-intuitive and likely completely counterproductive, but the main character in The Dark Side of Nowhere by Neal Shusterman does it and I’ve always been heavily affected by books.)

Until then though, I think I’ll stick with some local product, like ice cream from the Denville Dairy and Milk Sugar Love. And if I need a quick pint, there’s always the ever faithful Haagen Dazs, which has a more complicated ownership: while the brand is owned by General Mills, they acquired it when they acquired Pillsbury who bought Haagen Dazs in 1983, and it’s licensed to Dreyer’s/Nestle, so technically they make the product. Crazy corporate stuff!

By Kilian Addictive State of Mind – Light My Fire

Posted on by elemonated

“Here, Heracletus, did you build of fire
And changing stuffs your prophecy far hurled
Down the dead years; this midnight I aspire
To see, mirrored among the embers, curled
In flame, the splendor and the sadness of the world.”

– Princeton – The Last Day by Scott F. Fitzergerald

Light My Fire
Wet: nail polish remover, tobacco
Dry: tobacco, patchouli, vetiver, maple syrup

Really it just smells like a fragrant chewing tobacco, or the basement of a Chinese restaurant reserved for smoking and cards and gangster activity. Like a good chewing tobacco, which I have only been exposed to a few times and have never tried myself, it’s a little floral, but it lacks the sourness that tobacco can have sometimes. It smells like gangsters, but during Sunday mass or attending their sons’ graduations; whichever culture you want to use. As if they washed and scrubbed themselves and their suits clean, but the scent lingers, just like the consequences of their actions.

By Kilian Addictive State of Mind – Intoxicated

Posted on by elemonated

“So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
Or as sweet-seasoned showers are to the ground;
And for the peace of you I hold such strife
As ‘twixt a miser and his wealth is found.”

– Sonnet 75 by William Shakespeare

Intoxicated
Wet: ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, gasoline, patchouli
Dry: speculoos, lapsang souchong

This one is really yummy. I love speculoos cookies and the spread more than I love Nutella or peanut butter. And the dry down smells like speculoos served with lapsang souchong, a smoky black tea from Fujian, and it’s so nice. I know it’s unisex, but I can’t really see a guy wearing this. It’s very sweet, and it makes me want to lick my wrist, even though that’s a terrible idea. It reminds me of a girl I know who’s incredibly beautiful and warm, and she’s the only one who comes to mind when I try to think of a character profile to fit this fragrance.

By Kilian Addictive State of Mind Series – Smoke for the Soul

Posted on by elemonated

“Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunwards I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds – and done a thousand things”

– High Flight by John Magee

Smoke for the Soul
Wet: pepper, cardamom, marijuana, tobacco, citrus rind
Dry: lemon rind, marijuana, tobacco smoke, medicinal herb, leather

Spicy, herbal, woody like an apothecary, except without that weird salty hit that you find in some places. The only non-apothecary smell is the citrus, and that really lightens it up where the other two are heavy and rich. Acts a little like the orange on a Blue Moon or a squeeze of lemon on some salmon. This one I think smells the most like leather. It reminds me of a young, attractive businessman at the airport lugging their expensive tote and their frequent flyer miles and their ability to turn their tiredness into disdain.