First and foremost:

Happy Birthday, evergleam83!
Anyway, I made it to the end of the week. Tonight, I'm going dancing with Ariel, since it's big band night at FNS, and Flissy will be there, to boot. Bellydance was pretty good last night, too-- we learned a bit of some Indian tribal dance (think Bollywood) that was pretty silly, but incredibly invigorating. I sweated more last night than I think I've ever done in dance class. I came home totally exhausted-- stayed up just long enough to catch Supernatural, then passed out in front of the TV.

All things considered, I have a quiet-ish weekend ahead of me. Ashley has to work, as it turns out, so tomorrow will be spent at family birthday parties, and Saturday night into Sunday I have mostly free. It will be good, I think-- I have a big project that I need to work on, so I'm going to do a Nine Muses ritual to get in the Zone and start plugging away at it before hanging out with Anna. At any rate, I've been consistently busy for the last few weeks-- and my social calendar likewise tells me that I'm busy every single evening until Feb. 18th (!)-- so a little unexpected battery re-charging time is a pleasant surprise.

( Planning questions for Abby, Flissy, Noelle, Ty, & Roddy.Collapse )

Busy busy busy busy busy. Good busy, but busy. I keep telling myself to not feel guilty about neglecting my writing. After all, when I was corresponding with Elizabeth Hand, she told me that the best possible thing a fresh-out-of-college writer could do is to have capital-E Experiences. When I look back over the past two years, I have made a lot of new friends and have really broadened my horizons artistically, culinarily, socially. I keep telling myself that this is all good input, and better than me holing myself in my room, writing based on conjecture and other peoples' experiences. For the time being, it is important to me to live stories, not only tell them. Who knows, this might keep up, and even my grandkids will be jealous of Grandma's social life. Bea Arthur, eat your heart out!

BPALs o' the day: (ETA: OMG, there were prototypes for Snake Oil soap out at will-call! *faints*)

Glasgow: The rich scent of wild blackberry breezing over gentle rosy heather.

Perfumey blackberry. I remember this one being much lighter, but the tester I tried it out of is about two years old now-- and imps age quicker than bottles. It may be that the heather note has gotten more potent with time, because I remember this as being almost whisper-soft when I first tried it. That said, the floralness dies off after a half hour or so, leaving a pale lavender scent with hints of herbal green. The scent of a bowl of blackberries freshly washed, not the sweet synthetic blackberry "flavoring", if that makes any sense. Looking at the notes, I expected this to be a little like Philosophy's Falling In Love, but it lacks the round creaminess of that scent. Overall, I'd like a little more berry, a little less heather.

Dana O'Shee: In Irish folklore the Dana O'Shee are a fae, elven people that live in a realm of beauty, their nobility akin to our that own Age of Chivalry, eternally beautiful and eternally young. They surround themselves with the pleasures of the Arts, they live for the hunt, and to this day can be seen riding in procession through the Irish countryside at twilight, led by their King and Queen. However, the Dana O'Shee are not benevolent creatures, despite what their unearthly beauty may imply. They are vengeful and treacherous and possess a streak of mischievous malice, and many have whispered that their true home lies deep in the shadowed groves of the Realm of the Dead. Hearing even a single chord of their otherworldly music leaves one stunned and lost to the mortal realms for ever, finding themselves prey to the Dana O'Shee's hunt or enslaved in their Court as servants or playthings. Offerings of milk, honey and sweet grains were made to placate these creatures, and it is that the basis of the scent created in their name.

Mmmm. Fresh almond milk. Usually, almond is one of the notes I absolutely can't stand. It tends to go to rotten cherry on my skin with astonishing speed, but this blend mercifully does not. This reminds me quite a lot of O. I think they share the same round, creamy honey note-- it is a sweet scent, but not explicitly foodlike, nor cloying. It has moderate throw, but is not overpowering. Very white, very glowy. Comforting-- a consistent soft, milky scent that promotes an overall feel of well-being. Incidentally, if you're a fan of LUSH's Snowcake soap-- this scent is almost dead-on.

Also, it amuses me to no end that I chose a milk, honey, and grains scent before I realized that today is Imbolc. Blessed Imbolc, everybody!

So, apparently this week on her talk show, Tyra Banks hosted a show about witchcraft. Of the guests on the show, the only immediately recognizable witch was... Fiona Horne, self-promoter extraordinaire. While I haven't actually seen the show, I gotta say, I'm not particularly surprised. At any rate, she was an example of a "white" witch, and there were also several Satanists / "black" witches. And of course, a Christian ex-witch, for "balance." Because, you know, if Tyra were doing a show on Christianity or Judaism, she'd totally have an ex-Christian or ex-Jew born-again witch on the show, right?

Anyway. There are several big, glaring issues I have with the way that the show presented witchcraft, simply based on screencaps, show promos, and transcripts alone. First-- the sensationalism. Could they have picked more stereotypical "black" witches? For real, one chick looked like she was doing her best Faruza Balk in "The Craft" impression. And of course, the "white" witches were pretty, perky, dressed in light colors. This leads me to my second point. There's no goddamn such thing as a "white" witch or a "black" witch. For starters-- racism, much? Way to play on old stereotypes that white = good and black = bad. Magic itself is inherently neutral-- just as energy itself is inherently neither good nor evil. It is the intent put into the working (as all magic is is using the will and symbolism to create change in the world) that makes a working subjectively good or bad, positive or negative. Key word there: subjectively. Think of it like tofu: magical energy is flavorless, completely amoral, and takes the taste of whatever the practitioner cooks it with. So while you might be a witch with a personal ethical code of positive workings only, that doesn't make you a "white witch." Technically, the only people that make sense being called "white witches" are magical practitioners of the caucasian persuasion and badass alien queens in Narnia.

Furthermore... okay, so some Satanists are witches. That said, Satanism is complex and often misunderstood. Erm, even by some "Satanists" themselves-- they're dealing with an influx of pissed-off teens and ex-Christians using their belief system to shock and justify bad behavior. But that's neither here nor there. If you're going to have the "dispelling myths about Satanism hour," sure-- go ahead with that. But to mix that complex issue in with a larger discussion about magical practitioners in general without deep discussion is just... sloppy. Trying to cram too many things together, and so they overlap and just make a bigger mess. Witchcraft is a practice, while Satanism and Wicca are belief systems. There are many witches of varied religions, and some with no religious affiliation at all. From what I've heard, this distinction is not made.

I was thinking I might try to find a torrent to watch, but I don't know if I can manage to do so without throwing things at the screen, and frankly, I like my cute new laptop. I think I've developed a deep-seated cynicism in regards to anything remotely Pagan in pop culture. It seems to me that whenever the latest High Priestess Pixie Moondrip shovels on every piece of pentacle jewelry she owns and sashays ~*~*mystickally*~*~ in front of a camera these days, I'm left sputtering excuses of, "hey... dude. Not me."