MARSEILLE DISPATCH 06
this time with MORE côte d'azur!
Last week, you could find me on morning and evening Malmousque swims or driving up and down Côte D’Azur to look at art! I will phase out cross-posting newsletters to Instagram and Twitter. This means that you’ll only know if I’ve written if you’re subscribed to see my letters in your email or Substack. I suppose you could also refresh my page to check for updates, but a messenger pigeon is more efficient. I’m making it easy for you, here’s the button:
WHAT I’M INTO
Press Play: “Perfume” by The Dare
The music video for this song really makes it. It’s reminiscent of an early aughts Calvin Klein perfume ad. “Perfume” is best when heard at the club (that’s The Dare’s MO), but blasting it on the drive to the perfume capital of the world works too. All the boys and the girls ask me, "What is that smell?" That's my perfume!!!
Borrow from ur public library: The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell by Luca Turin
Scent and perfume are having a moment, but scent was described as “the forgotten sense” when Turin wrote this book in 2007. Turin is a scientist with a deep curiosity for olfaction and a nose to back it up. He’s also interested in the mechanism behind general anesthesia. I first read this book in December 2017 and revisited it last week to pregame the Musée International de la Parfumerie in Grasse. Turin writes for people interested in the chemistry behind scent and perfume but makes it fun. The book merges his experience as a perfume critic/collector and knowledge of science and history, to draft a comprehensive story on the creation of perfume and how smell works.
He joined Substack around the same time as me and has doubled down on perfume writing. If you’re at all interested in scent, subscribe!
Anti-algorithm news: “Midnight in Toronto” by Joel Lobenthal (Air Mail)
This is the story of ballet’s most iconic short king, Mikhail Baryshnikov AKA Misha. You may know him as Aleksandr Petrovsky, the best of Carrie’s boyfriends on Sex and the City (this is MY opinion, it is not up for debate).
Misha was born in Latvia and trained at the Vaganova* ballet school—the training school for the Kirov Ballet in (FKA) Leningrad in the same way that the School of American Ballet is the training school for New York City Ballet (except for the communism at the time). He was so good, that he didn’t have to serve time as a corps de ballet member, and was initiated into the legendary Kirov Ballet as a soloist. Misha defected from the USSR after a performance, while on tour in Toronto. Lobenthal writes about how this moment changed the future of dance forever:
“And then came an unforeseen windfall: the consummate classical technician, whose appearance onstage suggested an Icarus whose wings never melted, touched down on our side.”
Please read this both because the writing is beautiful AND I agree with this take.
*Vaganova is the Russian ballet method. It’s known for its speed, flexibility, athleticism, and strength. AKA it’s intense AF. Legs + arms doing the MOST. Misha played a fictionalized version of himself in the movie Turning Point, you can find many scenes on YouTube if you want to see his Vaganova training + prowess in action. The man’s got hops. Don’t get dizzy!
WHAT I’M GRATEFUL FOR