June 15, 2024
- Brush: Commonwealth 'CW' Badger, purchased on Ebay
- Razor: Fatip Piccolo Slant Closed Comb
- Blade: Astra Superior Platinum (Green) (6)
- Lather: Spearhead – Seaforth! Black Watch
- Post Shave: The Club – Poison Hemlock
- Fragrance: Chris Rusak – After Every Ounce of Joy (Leave My Body)
I have only one tub of shaving soap (everything else is samples). This made the decision easy—it can only be Spearhead Black Watch, which smells (to me) like a sort of dessert. Recent developments with the tub have portended the proverbial Ring of Death. Prior to tonight’s shave the Ring of Death first glimmered. Tonight, however, I avoided dilating the aperture, preferring instead to work the periphery.
Ever had a near-death experience? I have…twice. Once a goat knocked me off a cliff. The other… I won’t describe the other instance.
Theme-wise, I’m interpreting “Near death” as “on the verge of death.” Hence Poison Hemlock, an aftershave from The Club (an outfit that seems to be affiliated with A&E— though how affiliated I have yet to determine). Poison Hemlock is the weirdest aftershave I’ve ever smelled. It’s more cocktail than aftershave. Blood orange, pine tar, and (supposedly) actual hemlock(?!?). It packs a punch.
Chris Rusak After Every Ounce of Joy (Leave My Body) was described by someone online as the smell of being in a car accident. In fairness, admirers of the fragrance insist that it’s not more than this—according to a more favorable description, it smells like repairing an engine in a pine forest in the fog. Midnight Stag devotees take note!
Brush Strokes today features the The Death of Socrates as painted by Jacques Louis David. Socrates, of course, was condemned to death and forced to drink hemlock. This French Revolution-era painting turns Socrates into something of a superhero, fearlessly overcoming injustice and unreason in a single melodramatic flourish. A more humanizing (and who knows, more realistic?) portrait was furnished by Raphael in The School of Athens, wherein Socrates is depicted not as a hero but as one among many in a crowded field, in his natural element, discussing, disputing—as one who tirelessly argues and questions.
#ROTY