I’m pretty happy with the look and feel of my website but, looking around the indieweb, I see so many creative and fun websites with neat animations and interactive features. Reader, I was jealous; I wanted my website to be more fun. The flying toasters just weren’t enough anymore. My first thought was to add a...

Just a quick post to let all of you incense-heads out there know that I’ve put together a page compiling all of the resources I can find on incense and incense making. The page contains links to everything from documentaries to tutorials and suppliers. It even has a place of honor on the home page for easy access....

I’m not a big perfume guy. I’ve been wearing 212 Men by Carolina Herrara (well, actually by Alberto Morillas, Rosendo Mateu and Ann Gottlieb) for years just because I happened to have bought a bottle at some point[1]. Perfumes are expensive. They’re strong; they cling to you for days, making it difficult to try new...

In a recent post, our friend Steve of Incense in The Wind described those with an aversion to perfume-dipped incense sticks as prejudiced. This has invited some self reflection. Dear reader, I think I may have been called out[1]. It is true that I typically enjoy incense made out of, well, incense, but hell, maybe...

Someone recently shared with me transcripts and audio recordings that have been going around of comments that are alleged to have been made by the owner of a well-regarded perfumery. This owner also recently published a video on the matter. I am not going to mention names, but I am sure many in the fragrance and...

Since I started writing here in earnest, I’ve been enchanted by the idea of having a proper name for my humble blog. I didn’t dare put too much thought into it until recently; the task seemed too intimidating. There’s a lot to think about after all: Do you choose something dry and professional, at risk of sounding...

It’s been a while since I’ve written about incense making; to be honest, things have slowed down a little. It’s been pretty hot in Chicago lately—I find that my sense of smell is dulled as the temperature and humidity rises. Unfortunately my apartment is very poorly insulated, so I’ve been burning, testing, and...

In my last entry I noted that I was trying to be a little less salty this year, and I’m pleased to say that it’s paying off. I’m also trying to tackle some of the value judgments / statements that pop into my head by reminding myself to phrase things in a more productive way. For example, I recently had a discussion...

Anyone familiar with my blog will know that I like to write about incense. A reader wrote to me some time ago asking about what sticks I’ve been enjoying lately, and it occurred to me that it might be a nice thing to have a “now listening” type feature on my website, so that fellow incense heads could get a sense of...

Update: Boy Vienna’s 11:11 sticks have since also been reviewed on rauchfahne.de. Boy Vienna is a brand from fashion designer and multi-media artist Afaf Fi Seyam that has been receiving attention on TikTok and Instagram for its incense cigarettes. As opposed to the tobacco variety, these “cigarettes” are designed...

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a fantasy RPG in which you play as Ged Gerd Gerald Geralt, a super masculine generic-white-man protagonist who grumbles everything he says like Batman. Hopefully you like Geribald, because you don’t get to customize him in any way. You’ll control Gabriel from a third-person perspective,...

I’m forever keeping my eyes peeled for brick-and-mortar stores in my city that sell decent incense, particularly Japanese incense. As such, I was delighted to discover Five Elements Home in the beautiful Chicago neighborhood of Andersonville. On my first visit to the store, I darted right past the beautiful imported...