SOTD by u/RedMosquitoMM

Aug. 16, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM (16)

• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap

• Post Shave: Porter's Lotion, WSP - Neroli - Cooling Aftershave Balm

• Fragrance: Cognoscenti - Wild Child

• Passes: WTG, ATG

• Coffee: Ethiopia, Sidama, Oromia - v: Ethiopia Heirloom - p: Natural
• Music: Lower Dens - Twin-Hand Movement
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

Date	Soap Before (g)	Soap After (g)	Usage (g)	Loading
8/1	235.5	232.5	3	◊
8/2	232.5	228.0	4.5	◊
8/3	228.0	227.0	1	◊
8/4	227.0	223.3	3.7	◊
8/5	223.3	220.3	3	40 seconds
8/6	220.3	218.8	1.5	30 seconds
8/7	218.8	217.9	0.9	40 swirls
8/8	217.9	216.5	1.4	40 swirls
8/9	216.5	215.9	0.6	40 swirls
8/10	215.9	215.6	0.3	50 swirls
8/11	215.6	213.9	1.7	60 swirls
8/12	214.7	213.0	1.7	60 swirls
8/13	213.0	211.5	1.5	60 swirls
8/14	211.5	210.5	1	60 swirls
8/15	210.5	209.0	1.5	60 swirls
8/16	209.0	◊	◊	◊

u/EldrormR and u/gfdoto gave me some advice yesterday about how to better capture the progress on this Zenith knot, so here you go. It's obviously a well used knot, and all the bristles have started to flex, but there's very little splitting at the tips—or at least not the feathery look I associate with fully broken-in boar knots. I suspect I haven't pushed any boar knots that far, so I don't even have a guess about how many more lathers would be required to get this knot to that point.

Regardless, Zenith knots tend to feel acceptable right out of the box, or at least after a cleaning lather or two. This Scrubby was an exception, but it's still remarkably comfortable now considering I'm only 16 lathers in and this brush has so much backbone. This one will be replacing the one short-lofted badger I have around—it's that good already.

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

J Hunter and the Lower Dens called it quits this year, but they had a fantastic four-album run. Their first, 2010's Twin-Hand Movement, occasionally hearkened back to J's solo work (dreamy neo-folk, sounding something like early Cat power, often referenced alongside collaborator Devendra Banhart). Looking back it from 2022, I read Twin-Hand Movement as a transitional album, leading Lower Dens from Krautrock rhythms, shoegaze, New Wave, and weird folk, to what would become their subsequent dream pop releases. Anyway, before they started drawing comparisons to Beach House, they already had landed on something special.

"I Get Nervous" is my favorite track from that record, and one of my favorite recordings from the entire Aughts. (Yes, Twin-Hand Movement technically came out in 2010, but it sounds like it was written and released just a bit earlier.) "I Get Nervous" is an ethereal, twilight drive of a song, floating along on waves of reverb and oscillating, pedal-manipulated guitar that wrap Hunter's restrained vocal in atmosphere. A precise, spare drum rhythm tethers all that guitar shimmer to the ground. Put this one on in low light and let it wash over you.

Bandcamp: Lower Dens - "I Get Nervous"