June 3, 2024

LG SOTD, DAY 3: DUCK, YOU SUCKER!

(A SPAGHETTI SHAVER EPIC)

Daily theme relevance: my beef tallow alternative (or surrogate, if you are a beef suprematist) is duck.

PHOTOCONTEST - ANIMAL

Mexican painted ceramic duck (tribute to today’s MOTD setting) and Yellow rubber duck (tribute to AdP yellow faux-leather fantasy of a sophisticated shatter-proof life)

Special theme: As a tribute to u/OnionMiasma, my SOTD pic includes the actual envelope he used to send me smushes, as well as an Italian spaghetti-alum block: we reinvented westerns, think we can't do a decent OSMA dupe?

OPENING CREDITS SEQUENCE
-> Soundtrack by Ennio Morricone here

--THE CAST

Pre shave: Acqua di Parma - Bagno alla Colonia Bath and Shower Gel, Acqua di Parma - Deodorante alla Colonia Deodorant Spray

• Brush: Muhle – Anodized Aluminum Travel Brush Black 21mm #HOLLOW
• Razor: Henson AL-13 Medium blue
• Blade: Silver Blue [2]
• Lather: Chicago Grooming - Shiloh (Canard base)
• Post Shave: Ethos Grooming - DFS Colonia Skin Food Lotion
• Fragrance: Acqua di Parma - Colonia Assoluta EdC 30cl

Additional Post-Shave: Acqua di Parma – Barbiere Emulsione Rinfrescante Dopobarba

--THE SCENE

Yesterday’s gunpowder scent trail takes us back to Andalusia, today a cinematic stand-in, or dupe, for 1912 revolutionary Mexico.

We are here for a story of undaunted dupes and surrogates, an epic of reluctant reinventions and revolutions, a fable about heroes who stand broken but not defeated.

Duck, you sucker is the title of Sergio Leone’s penultimate film, a film he didn’t mean to direct. It was released in 1971, three years after Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), thirteen years before Once Upon a Time in America (1984).

After using the alias Bob Robertson to make his early films sound more “international”, the director returned to his real Italian name, Sergio Leone, after he reached global success with the so-called Dollars Trilogy, the cornerstone of the spaghetti western genre.

As film heroes are defined by conflict, here are the links to dig into the genesis of the MOTD (parts 1-3), and to the SOTD it inspired (part 4):

parts 1 and 2:
- THE HERO'S (UN)ORIGINAL SIN: KUROSAWA’S BEEF WITH LEONE
- NOT IN ~~KANSAS~~ ITALY ANMORE: LEONE'S BEEF WITH THE AMERICANS

parts 3 and 4:
- A STUBBORN LION, PRONE TO BEEFS AND FIXATED WITH DUCK
- DUCK, YOU SHAVER! MY SOTD WITH DUPES, SURROGATES AND THINGS THAT GO BOOM

part 5: FOF WRITEUP
Today’s FOF is a journey that spans from well-groomed city brightness of the AdP products I used for the pre-shave, to the dustier notes of CG’s Shiloh soap, that feel as if it has been seasoned by the experience of some tough travels across a Mexican desert. Compared to its fragrance inspiration (re-tested through prep with two AdP products: shower soap and deodorant), and in particular to AdP's signature opening, a bright lemon/verbena and Spring rose accord, my tub of Shiloh leans toward a more powdery floral/orange smell with just a hint of nutty-ness. Dunno if it is a problem with my tub being kinda "seasoned" before my recent purchase, in any case it’s still very pleasant per se – just not an accurate dupe if you make a back-to-back comparison with the original.

Having been broken similarly to Rod Steiger’s character in a painful sequence of DYS, my flacon of Ethos DFS Colonia remake still shines for excellent qualities of its own, just like Leone’s For a Fistful of Dollars when compared to Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. Actually, compared to AdP mildly scented aftershave emulsion, Ehtos’ reinvention stands out as a more punchy reinvention, like spaghetti westerns when they “exploded” against the all too familiar backdrop of Hollywood stories of the old frontier.

For the finale, I didn’t want to backtrack to the original AdP Colonia. Instead, I explored the self-remake/reinvention of AdP Colonia Assoluta, a fragrance created by Bertrand Duchaufour and Jean-Claude Ellena in 2003 and discontinued a few years ago. While Ellena is widely known for his signature “transparent” aesthetic (mostly evident in his Hermès creations), AdP Colonia Assoluta conquered me for its oakmoss-heavy and spicier drydown, reminiscent of old-school, old-world perfumes. On a Cary Grant scale, AdP Colonia is like watching him in the light sophisticated 1930s comedy Bringing Up Baby, AdP Colonia Assoluta feels more like 1950s North by Northwest, where he keeps being charming and cool, but is also shown doing more "mature" stuff (by that time's sensibilities: today these are just SOP for college kids) like being drunk in public and having casual sex with a stranger.

Yes, DYLF Colonia Assoluta is Dad's spaghetti, way cooler than plain vanilla Colonia.

FOF

Edit 1: links added
Edit 2: hw scavenger hunt hashtag added

ROTY