July 10, 2023 - Musical Monday
- Brush: Summer Break Soaps Mood Indigo - 28mm Synthetic
- Razor: Schick Krona #UNICORN
- Blade: Gillette Platinum (2)
- Lather: House of Mammoth - Mood Indigo - Soap
- Post Shave: House of Mammoth - Mood Indigo - Balm
- Fragrance: House of Mammoth - ~~Mood~~ Indigo - EdP
- Music: Duke Ellington - Mood Indigo
Daily Write-Up:
Growing up I was a music nerd. Though my band camps never had the kind of hijinks that they do in the movies, they were plentiful. And as nerdy as band camps are - choir or drama camps are way nerdier.
But back to band - I played the saxophone. Pretty well too. I was in multiple bands during high school, and continued on in college. Alto was my favorite, but there are a LOT of alto players, so it always seemed like I ended up playing tenor. Though I was better in choir, and college choir was a blast, in high school my favorite activity was jazz band. It was so much fun being able to be in an ensemble where the notes on the page were just a suggestion - a framework for the music to be created, as opposed to a recipe to be followed.
My favorite song in my three years of jazz band that we played was Caravan, by Duke Ellington. That particular year our band was really good, and we thought that a state championship was not outside of the realm of possibility. I remember the feedback we got at the state contest - though it was crushing at the time, it was right. “Your band is one of the tightest ensembles we’ve heard. But they aren’t playing as a jazz band, they’re playing as a rock band with trumpets.
He wasn’t wrong, but playing with that group was so much fun. Some years later I remember my director lamenting that that was the best ensemble she had in her career, and felt robbed that we didn’t do better at contests. But, that’s life - and at least 3 members of that group are professional musicians. Myself excluded. I mostly just sing in the car and shower, and haven’t touched a saxophone since I donated mine after college. But - listening to Duke all morning while I work has been nice.
The Shave
One of the things that really struck me about the Lather Games last year was how many shit-tier shaves you can end up with if you really try to hit all the daily themes. No one is getting a great shave in a child’s kitchen, or at Pei Wei (props again for that), or on the CTA.
Today was great. I really like this razor, the new SBS brush (which I’ve nicknamed Mood Indigo because the color is almost a perfect match to the label, and I didn’t see that /u/rocketk455 named it) is perfect, and I never get a bad shave with HoM. But- I think so far, good shaves have been the exception rather than the rule.
- 7/1 - Valet Autostrop - Abysmal shave 1/10
- 7/2 - Valet Autostrop - Only slightly better 2/10
- 7/3 - Almond Shave - Pretty good. Stirling++ 8/10
- 7/4 - Spring Shave - Great shave, great scents 9/10
- 7/5 - Dollar Tree razor. Gentle 3# baby Jesus 2/10
- 7/6 - All Zingari Watchman - Pretty good. 8/10
- 7/7 - Old Spice - not a good soap 5/10
- 7/8 - Maggard - decent shave 6/10
- 7/9 - Toy kitchen shave with homemade kamisori - 3/10
- 7/10 - Mood Indigo Trickhole - 10/10
Best shave of the games. Great music. Great software. Gentle unicorn razor with my favorite blade. Against an average of 5.4, today was transcendent.
Daily Challenge Notes: Close up of my drawing here. I’ve never thought I was good as an artist, but I think this turned out pretty well.
Soap Theme Justification
* Duke Ellington - Mood Indigo
Post-Shave and Fragrance Relevance Notes
* (Mood) Indigo Trickhole. Yeah, my EdP is just Indigo instead of Mood Indigo. But they all match.