u/RedMosquitoMM's SOTDs for challenge 'GEMsOfWisdom 2022'

Aug. 1, 2022 - Austere Hogust, Day One

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM (1)
• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap
• Post Shave: Porter's Lotion, WSP - Neroli - Aftershave Balm
• Fragrance: Berceuse Parfum - Minneapolis 5.3
• Passes: WTG, XTG
• Coffee: Leftovers Blend, Chilled
• Music: The Long Winters - The Worst You Can Do Is Harm
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album: https://imgur.com/a/7shDpdl

It's August already? What happened? I'm still recovering from the Lather Games and some late-July travel, so I'll enjoy some simplicity for the next thirty-one days.

Let's start by breaking down my hardware and software selections. I'm doing the full Ultra mode this month:

• Brush: For Austere Hogust, I'm breaking in this raw Zenith Scrubby. I opened up the box, plopped the brush in water for a bit while I poured my coffee and loaded my MMOC, and then went to town.
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb. I got very comfortable with this razor last August, and I pull out my new-to-the-den Clog Pruf weekly since I got it earlier this summer, so I don't anticipate any issues with the MMOC. Starting with a brand new blade I'll use all month.
• Lather: Stirling - Lime - Shave Soap. This boar knot is unused and the break-in won't be accelerated at all—plus it's a stubby loft—so I anticipate this Zenith eating a ton of soap. I never reach for this tub of Lime soap, so this is the perfect time to do some damage. Also, if I can only use one scent all month long, I'm sticking to something simple and easy to love.
• Aftershave Splash: Porter's Lotion. I've been trying to kill this bottle for ages and want it off my counter. I'm using this for skincare purposes—as far as I can tell, it's unscented, though whatever is in it smells medicinal. I think it's a toner, despite "lotion" suggesting a moisturizer or balm. That it ain't.
• Aftershave Balm: WSP - Neroli - Balm. This stuff is strongly scented and tenacious. I rarely use it, and when I do, I cut it with some unscented moisturizer (and it still lasts all day and throws way out into the room.) Honestly, I don't like this stuff very much and want it gone.

How did the shave go?

Lathering with the raw Zenith went about how I'd expect. It's pretty rigid right now and felt less like lathering with a shave brush and more like lathering with a scouring pad. The resulting lather was bubbly and not as cohesive as I'm used to. However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover no pig-stank; this knot smells neutral, or not at all, which is a lot more than I can say for many of the costly badger knots I've used for their first ten lathers (at least). Kudos to Zenith for making my month more pleasant.

Also, this brush ate a ton of soap. I weighed the puck before I started, and weighed it after, so I can safely say I used about three grams of soap. Assuming I'm not still losing weight in this tub from evaporation, three grams feels like a lot to use in a single lather, especially with a 28mm knot. That's big, but not gigantic (or ultra dense). I definitely under-hydrated, due to the stiffness of the brush (which made it difficult to work added water into the lather), but I had very little lather left over after the second pass (instead of at least one more pass worth like I would with any other brush and 1-1.5 teaspoons of soap). I'm going to continue loading heavily and stick to Sourav's method all month long, adding a ton of water while I'm still loading from the tub.

The shave went alright. I managed to cut myself with a thin sweep across one cheek, which I haven't done in ages, and I didn't even notice while I was shaving. Weird. I also had a few weepers, which I expected considering the less-than-hydrated lather and brand new GEM blade, which can be pretty gnarly at first.

I'm looking forward to a better shave tomorrow.

⁂

I also want to tag u/Teufelskraft and start the Let's get sidetracked side challenge off with one of my absolute favorites.

"Johnny & Mary" is the highlight of Todd Terje's 2014 release It's Album Time. Terje and Bryan Ferry completely transformed Robert Palmer's '80s-styled, bouncy, synth-pop single, creating the canonical version of this song. Terje's narcotic production renders the bleak lyrics in a more fitting, dreamy light; it's a coldly beautiful recording, cavernously spacious and dance-floor thumping, yet simultaneously both sensual and profoundly sad. It sounds like the final dance of lovers that both know they'll be spending the evening together, but will go their separate ways in the morning—this time for good. It's also Ferry's best work in years, his mournful vocal made reedy by age, hanging in the air like yearning memory and remembered heartbreak. As a fan, it's satisfying to see Ferry's many artistic evolutions reach their final form, having started by parodying a mousse-coifed and suited lothario as part of Roxy Music, then fully inhabiting the character by the mid '80s. "Johnny & Mary" gives us a snapshot of that persona years down the line—still polished, but haggard, and hardened by time, experience, late nights, and thoughtful regret.

YouTube: Bryan Ferry & Todd Terje - Johnny & Mary [Official Video]

#sidetracked

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Tagging u/EldrormR and u/Semaj3000 for EldrormR's and Semaj3000's Second Annual International MMOC Appreciation Austere August Challenge. I gotta score that sweet 💎🗡MMOCtamer🗡💎 flair!

Also, tagging u/EldrormR for the Raw Hoggin' Austere August Challenge. 🐷🤢🪒

#GEMsOfWisdom

#RawHoggin

Aug. 2, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM (2)
• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap
• Post Shave: Porter's Lotion, WSP - Neroli - Balm
• Fragrance: The Zoo - Community
• Passes: WTG, XTG
• Coffee: Burundi, Kayanza - v: Red Bourbon & Jackson - p: Washed
• Music: Witch Mountain - Mobile of Angels
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album: https://imgur.com/a/7shDpdl

Today I tried to load a lot more soap with the goal of yielding (1) more lather and (2) a more luxurious, hydrated, cohesive lather. Yesterday was more sudsy than I'd prefer. I added a bunch of water while loading, a dip of the brush at a time, and picked up about 4.5 grams. If you're counting, that's about 1.5 grams more than yesterday.

Unfortunately, this just created more of a mess, and made it even harder to fully hydrate my lather. I lost globs to my t-shirt and the bathroom floor faster than I could add water in. I ended up with about the same amount of lather leftover after the second pass as yesterday, and the quality wasn't any better either.

It doesn't help that I'm used to spending most of my lathering time in the bowl, adding water slowly, and then only moving to my stubble when I'm about 80% of the way there. Maybe I'm just out of practice face lathering.

The tips of this knot really need to split and develop a little bit of give; when I see those distinctive broken-in-boar feathery tips, I'll know we're getting there, but it's going to be a few more shaves at least. This is not an easy brush to break in without the assistance of a hair dryer. However, it's gonna be a gem by the end of the month.

My shave was harsh again, but I avoided any nicks, and the weepers were sparse. I find new GEM blades to be a bit scratchy, but my lather is the more likely culprit. Usually my lather be drippin', and I'm just not getting there with this brush, which at the moment reminds me of a tool I'd use to clean a grill. No problem though. I've got all month and will try the Full Marco tomorrow. (Without any bowl lathering, of course.)

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

I'm going to try to cover a lot of genres, vocal styles, and eras with my selections this month. I started with a neon-lit, mid-Aughts cover of a jittery '80s pop classic, featuring a male vocalist with decades of performance under his belt, so I thought it fitting to go with a female vocalist today. This song is a completely different genre and centered around a fundamentally different vocal style, though the BPM and pacing aren't too far off (and it was coincidentally released the exact same year).

Portland's Witch Mountain had something special with their 2011 lineup, after guest-vocalist Uta Plotkin joined the band permanently in 2009. Witch Mountain would record three terrific doom metal albums with Plotkin's bellowing, raging pipes absolutely stealing the show, each release a bit weirder than the last. The last of the three, 2014's Mobile of Angels, flows from one lengthy dirge to the next. "Can't Settle" manages to showcase what this Witch Mountain lineup did best: patient, decidedly-retro guitar riffs; an unstoppable, building tension plunging us into the abyss; Plotkin's voice first bluesy, then layered in a ghostly choir, then a chainsaw death growl, then a bloodcurdling wail, and finally soaring above (or is it below?). It's a terrific song on its own, but even more impactful in the context of the album's uncompromising descent into despair.

Bandcamp: Witch Mountain - "Can't Settle"

Aug. 3, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM (3)

• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap

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

• Fragrance: Acca Kappa - Black Pepper & Sandalwood

• Passes: WTG, XTG

• Coffee: Peru, Inkawasi, La Convencion - v: Bourbon, Typica, Caturra - p: Washed
• Music: Charles Mingus - Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album

Today's lather was much improved. It was richer, about at the hydration level I prefer, and protective, though my face still felt abraded by the time I got the lather to that point. This Scrubby doesn't mess around.

1. I started with a soaking brush and only let any extra water drip off. I didn't squeeze out the brush or flick water off.
2. This made a mess, which is to be expected. I loaded for about 40 seconds. The mess on top of the puck started off really sudsy, and overflowed down into the sink, but eventually settled a bit into a promising proto-lather.
3. I tried to be as gentle as I could with the face lather, but these tips still don't have much give.
4. No weepers today and the shave felt much smoother than the last two days. However, the MMOC handle felt extra slippery; one of the downsides of face lathering nobody talks about (despite lots of hand rinsing and toweling off).

I was surprised to see I consumed much less soap today (1 gram). I had better results than my first two shaves, and it felt easier to hydrate the lather, which suggests I had been overloading. Noted.

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

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#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

I feel like my first two selections suggested I only listen to music from a specific decade, and both relied heavily on their vocal performances, so today's selection is both instrumental and considerably older. However, this one's yet another low-key number. I'll get to more lively stuff later this month.

"Harlem Nocturne" is one of those standards that everybody and their cousin has recorded, but my favorite is Illinois Jacquet's 1956 version from Swing's the Thing. There aren't any blues solos here, or bossa nova rhythms, or private eye noir by way of Twin Peaks atmosphere. Jacquet plays the song straight, a crooning serenade softly echoing down dark city streets. His tone on this recording is lovely; relaxed, rich, and breathy, all while gracefully fluttering between passionate, forceful lines and quiet moments of reverie. This is late night jazz at its moody best.

YouTube: Illinois Jacquet - "Harlem Nocturne"

Aug. 4, 2022 - "Face Lathering, I Don't Get the Appeal" and Other Thoughts

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM (4)
• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap
• Post Shave: Porter's Lotion, WSP - Neroli - Balm
• Fragrance: Barrister and Mann - Just Right for a Tuesday - Eau de Parfum
• Passes: WTG, XTG
• Coffee: Ethiopia, Sidama, Oromia - v: Ethiopia Heirloom - p: Natural
• Music: The Long Winters - When I Pretend to Fall
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album: https://imgur.com/a/7shDpdl

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

I don't like face lathering. There, I said it. Feels good to get that off my chest.

Everybody argues the merits of face lathering and I definitely see the appeal, especially when traveling. There's a strong argument for less gear on the countertop, adequate time hydrating the stubble, and plenty of pre-shave exfoliation. All that being said, I just don't enjoy it as much. I get demonstrably better results starting my lather in a bowl, I don't sling lather all over my bathroom, and I have a place to catch extra lather and falling lather as I work it into my stubble. Combine all that with a super-scrubby boar knot that's just starting to split and feather, and I'm already missing my usual Precision Loading™ routine.

Also, what is going on with my soap consumption?

As usual, I weighed my soap an hour or so after this morning's shave, but I'm confused by the result. How did I only use one gram yesterday but eat up more than three grams today? I loaded for about a minute today, versus forty seconds, but with the same soaking wet brush as yesterday.

Here's what I'm thinking.

I generally use a different soap every day, and scoop (versus tub loading), so I'm used to working from a dry soap puck. That's different than Austere August; now I'm using the same tub of soap everyday and I'm introducing water directly into the tub. The top of this Lime tub is starting to hold some moisture, making it much easier to load soap, at the same time the boar knot is breaking in (making it easier yet to pick up soap). By that logic, I will need to spend less and less time loading throughout the month, with a steeper decrease at the start (when most of the bristles split). We'll see if this holds true.

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#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

I promised I'd get to some fun stuff. Today, I present for your enjoyment two upbeat tunes, both released in the aughts and linked by variations on some of my favorite slang.

Let's start with a delightful 2006 single from revival girl group The Pipettes. I think this is from the remixed 2007 release of We Are the Pipettes, which has a bit of filler, but generally mined the early 1960s girl group sound with just the right balance of riot-grrrl-meets-Spice-Girls wink and reverence. The A-sides are where it really shines, the best of those being "Pull Shapes." That title is British slang for dancing, and that's exactly what this track will make you do. It's pure, uncut joy, manufactured in a lab, slapped onto vinyl, and delivered straight to you ears.

YouTube: The Pipettes - "Pull Shapes"

Next, we have a song that throws "Shapes" instead of pulling them.

This is one of my favorite tracks from The Long Winters' 2003 release When I Pretend to Fall. I recall songwriter and vocalist John Roderick explaining that he got the expression "throwing shapes" from old hair metal promo photos, where a flamboyant front-man would pose with their guitar, body contorted into weird angles, axe jutting out all showy and phallic. They were arranging themselves into shapes and throwing them at the camera. Anyway, a search engine will tell you "throwing shapes" is, again, British slang for dancing. Let's say both are true and chalk it up to vernacular differences across the pond. I'll also call your attention to this song's twangy guitar melody. I'm no musicologist, and my command of theory is nonexistent, but I'm pretty sure that riff skitters along at a different time signature than the rest of the propulsive composition—at least after the first few bars. That little flourish reads as tangled more than it does showy, elevating a good song to a great one, making "Shapes" one of my favorite in the short-but-terrific Long Winters catalogue.

(If I had to choose—today, right this moment, knowing I'd forget about a gem—I'd say "The Commander Thinks Aloud" is Roderick's crowning achievement, while "Carparts" and "Mimi" are my favorites. "New Girl" and "Pushover" would be in there as well. When I Pretend to Fall is good start to finish, if you prefer to listen to a full album.)

Bandcamp: The Long Winters - "Shapes"

Aug. 5, 2022 - Science!

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM (5)
• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap
• Post Shave: Porter's Lotion, WSP - Neroli - Balm
• Fragrance: Cognscenti - No. 30 Hay Incense
• Passes: WTG, XTG
• Coffee: Ethiopia, Sidama, Oromia - v: Ethiopia Heirloom - p: Natural
• Music: Four Tet - There Is Love in You
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album: https://imgur.com/a/7shDpdl

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

Today's shave was pretty good.

Starting Austere August and having to return to face lathering, I forgot how effective the Another Cut Above lathering method is, and finally remembered to use it today. So I squeezed out the brush a bit, loaded a bunch of soap, worked the pasty protolather into my stubble, and then gently brushed in dips of water until it went transparent on my skin. From there I started "splaying" the brush (this Scrubby has zero give so far) to work up a lather, occasionally adding a dip of water until my lather passed The Swipe Test™. I also discovered my chin can take a lot more abuse than my cheeks or neck can, so I'm going to do a lot of splaying and scrubbing and swirling there to accelerate the break-in progress. This knot still has a ways to go.

I'm still yielding far less lather than I'm used to (scooping a 1/4 teaspoon of soap) while eating up a lot more soap. I usually end up with enough extra for at least enough for a full pass, and Austere August lathers are giving me about half that, if not less.

Out of curiosity, I weighed a 1/4 teaspoon of Stirling Sheep shave soap to confirm about how much it weighs, so I could then compare my typical routine's soap consumption to what I'm using now. This Sheep tub is dried out and in the Mutton base, so it might be a little different than my Austere August Lime tub in the standard Stirling base. Still, my rigorous scientific method suggests a level 1/4 teaspoon of shave soap is equivalent to about 1/5 grams of that same soap, give or take a few tenths of a gram. Right now I'm using about 3 grams of soap a day—double what I would be with my usual brushes, scooping and starting my lather in a bowl. I'm curious how this changes as the knot continues to break in.

Also, not much to share on the MMOC. I'm used to it, it's a little more aggressive than I'd prefer most days, and the new GEM blade has been tamed a little. Only once weeper on my chin—but that skin was kind of used and abused from trying splay the knot. Worth it.

Date	Soap Before (g)	Soap After (g)	Consumption (g)
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

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#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

I started writing today's Sidetracked blurb thinking I'd introduce a few people to a hidden gem. Unfortunately, when I searched for a YouTube video of Adriano Celentano's famously weird "Prisencolinensinainciusol," I discovered that the Fargo show (which I haven't seen) used this song to soundtrack a bridge tournament scene in season three. So now I'm officially less in the know then I ever used to be. It's a disappointing development.

That being said, you should still go give this uniquely-weird pop song a listen. The story here is that "Prisencolinensinainciusol" is a popular Italian rock musician's idea about what American English sounds like, spoken entirely in gibberish (with the exception of Celentano and company occasionally exclaiming "all right!"). It's weird and the classroom-themed music video is even weirder. And yet...it's great. The main chugging melody is a real earworm; there's a fuzzy guitar track, some funky horn jabs, and four looped drumbeats giving the song a never-resolving tension. "Prisencolinensinainciusol" was never intended as a novelty, and it deserves to be appreciated as the oddball rock-disco-funk-rap amalgamation it is.

“Ever since I started singing, I was very influenced by American music and everything Americans did. So at a certain point, because I like American slang—which, for a singer, is much easier to sing than Italian—I thought that I would write a song which would only have as its theme the inability to communicate. And to do this, I had to write a song where the lyrics didn't mean anything.”

– Adriano Celentano

YouTube: Adriano Celentano - Prisencolinensinainciusol

Aug. 6, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM (6)
• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap
• Post Shave: Porter's Lotion, WSP - Neroli - After Shave Balm
• Fragrance: American Perfumer - Bloodline - Parfum
• Passes: WTG, XTG
• Coffee: Ethiopia, Sidama, Oromia - v: Ethiopia Heirloom - p: Natural
• Music: Aimee Mann - Bachelor No. 2
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album: https://imgur.com/a/7shDpdl

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

Yesterday's Another Cut Above style lather worked well for me, so I took the same approach today. Start with pasty soap in the stubble, add water until translucent, and then splay the brush. That last step isn't really an option right now, so I agitate with the tips of this Zenith knot and spent more time swirling the brush on my chin. (Speaking of, here's the knot before and after.)

I tweaked my loading time a bit, and tried reducing it to about 30 seconds (1.5 g). Starting tomorrow, I should start counting the swirls on the puck instead of going by seconds. A single "swirl" is a more precise measurement to use during this month of photo documentation and experimentation. Anyway, this loading time worked well and yielded about the same amount of leftover lather, probably because I didn't lose as much to the floor, mirror, and countertop. It was also easier to hydrate. Turns out I was overloading.

Also, check out how this Zenith handle is transforming! I really like the way copper patinas and this will look better and better the more it ages.

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

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#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

Where do you begin when choosing a few songs from Aimee Mann's catalogue?

You'd have to start with "Voices Carry," which will forever be 'Til Tuesday's most well known song. Fortunately, Mann eventually out-shined that '80s video hit's long shadow, though it took a three-hour Oscar-winning film and setting up her own record label to do it.

Director Paul Thomas Anderson wrote Magnolia (1999) as "an adaptation of Aimee Mann songs," inspired by her music. It's an exceptionally well-curated soundtrack, and many songs are woven tightly into the plot and scene blocking, including two standouts that were written for the film ("You Do" and "Save Me"). "Deathly" (another favorite of mine), "Driving Sideways", and "You Do" would all appear on Mann's Bachelor No. 2 or, the Last Remains of the Dodo album, also released in 1999, and the first on Mann's SuperEgo label.

Which brings me to the song I'm going to profile here.

The album starts with "Red Vines," a song Mann wrote about Paul Anderson's growing fame. Read literally, it's not particularly kind; Mann sings, "Everyone loves you—why should they not? / And I'm the only one who knows / That Disneyland's about to close." Regardless, the refrain is a surging and hook-driven demand for a singalong. I don't know if it's Mann's unusual and expressive timbre, the guitar riff in the background, or some other detail I can't quite tease out, but I adore this song. It's a heck of way to start an album. Many of Mann's most immediate hooks open her records—I'm partial to "Humpty Dumpty" on 2002's Lost in Space (which features some of her most effective ballads) and "Dear John," which sets the scene for her 2005 concept album The Forgotten Arm (Caroline and boxer John meeting on the cotton-candy scented midway in Richmond). Still, "Red Vines" is the one I return to regularly, sometimes on its own and often with a full play-through of Bachelor No. 2. I love it.

YouTube: Aimee Mann - "Red Vines"

Aug. 7, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM (7)
• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap
• Post Shave: Porter's Lotion, WSP - Neroli - Cooling Aftershave Balm
• Fragrance: The Zoo - Rhubarb My Love
• Passes: WTG, XTG
• Coffee: Ethiopia, Sidama, Oromia - v: Ethiopia Heirloom - p: Natural
• Music: Black Sabbath - Sabotage

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

As promised, I'm still tinkering, and switched to loading for a certain number of swirls instead of seconds. I decided on 30 swirls, realized at about 15 that probably wouldn't be enough, and upped it on the fly to 40. Check out the results. This didn't take forever to hydrate, but it also didn't yield enough for a third pass (which I really don't need with the MMOC and a scrubby brush). And I used less than a gram of soap. I'll stick to counting swirls for the remainder of the month and try 40 swirls again tomorrow.

Also, I keep updating my photo album, but I should post a brush progress report. This knot is still burly, but feels less like a scouring pad and more like an exceptionally stiff shaving knot.

• After first shave
• Before today's shave
• After today's shave

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

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#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

I'd guess very few fans would choose 1975's Sabotage as their favorite Black Sabbath album. It falls right after their unassailable run of early '70s records, which started with the game-changing Black Sabbath and ended with Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. And even though it's hardly a fair comparison to pit any metal album against Paranoid or Master of Reality, that's unavoidable with Black Sabbath.

Nevertheless, it would be a shame to forget about Sabotage. You'd miss out on "Hole in the Sky" and "Symptom of the Universe," as well as my favorite, "The Writ." Black Sabbath recorded Sabotage after their meteoric rise to superstardom, in the midst of a nasty dispute with their record company, and you can hear that frustration throughout the album. Ozzy Osbourne wrote "The Writ" as that disgust, anger, and resentment boiled over. He was always capable of stealing the show with the right song—which made his '80s solo success a given—and he absolutely rages through all eight minutes of this painfully thorough airing of grievances. It's a tangled, multi-part endurance contest (with a bit of "Frankenstein" in there), Ozzy shrieking along a relatively simple guitar riff and steady, sedate tempo that's broken up by occasional proggy tangents to take a deep breath. The twinkling interlude is particularly unexpected. And then Sabbath gets right back into it, ready to tear somebody a new one.

YouTube: Black Sabbath - "The Writ"

Aug. 8, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM (8)

• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap

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

• Fragrance: Chatillon Lux - 1904

• Passes: WTG, XTG

• Coffee: Peru. Panchia, Tabaconas, Cajamarca - v: Yellow Caturra & Typica - p: Washed
• Music: Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

I don't know how exactly I managed to break my rolling monthly Imgur post (Multiple uploading devices? Too many uploads? Concurrent conflicting uploads? Too big of images? Wild mis-clicks? Skynet?), but my original August log disappeared as of this morning, so I started over with an abridged set of SOTD images from my phone. Hopefully that's not a problem for our venerable judges and my dear readers.

I think I've already found my rhythm for the month. 40 swirls of soap is working out well (enough soap for a two-pass lather, but not too much to make hydrating that lather challenging). This knot is slowly breaking in, though it still has a way to go. This GEM blade is comfortable now, though I noticed that the MMOC benefits from a bit less cap-riding than I recall. I set it flush and then back off a degree or two. That's the sweet-spot for me. I don't remember if I picked up on that last August when I used the same razor.

Soap consumption was up a bit from yesterday, despite the same number of swirls. I suppose dampness of brush and pressure are also factors, but I don't know how to be more precise with those.

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

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

I was apprehensive to even bring up Bob Dylan this month. What do you say that hasn't already been said? On top of that, Dylan is a songwriter I respect and admire more than I enjoy, and I just don't think to listen to his music often.

I do have a soft spot for two very different recordings: The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan and Blood on the Tracks. Despite being very different productions, both albums feature a stellar, heartbreaking ballad, and the stiff-shouldered resentments of "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" have always felt emotionally and thematically antecedent to my favorite Dylan song: "If You See Her, Say Hello." In that early-career track, our protagonist leaves "babe." In "If You See Her, Say Hello," it's the opposite situation, and "she left that night". "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" communicates the raw sting of a fresh breakup, inflamed by resentment, bitterness, and unkind blame, while the latter is a wistful lament, fondly remembering better days. I think they're a fitting double-feature.

• YouTube: Bob Dylan - "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"
• YouTube: Bob Dylan - "If You See Her, Say Hello"

Aug. 9, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM (9)
• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap
• Post Shave: Porter's Lotion, WSP - Neroli - Balm
• Fragrance: Barrister and Mann - Just Right for a Tuesday - Eau de Parfum
• Passes: WTG, ATG
• Coffee: Colombia. Ciudad Bolivar, Antioquia - v: Catillo & Colobia - p: Natural
• Music: Bryan Ferry - These Foolish Things
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

Now this knot is starting to loosen up. The tips still don't look particularly feathery, and there's still a ton of rigidity to the knot, but I feel like there's now the telltale promise of comfortable scrub. I also only used a little over a half gram of soap, though this lather was a bit thin, and I'll succomb to u/gfdoto's peer pressure and add a few more swirls.

But here's the thing—I don't try to minimize soap usage to conserve it. I try to keep the amount of soap loaded reasonable because I hate how long it takes to hydrate all that soap if I load too heavy. I particularly hate long lathering times if I'm in the early stages of breaking in Zemporor Scrubby, Destroyer of Faces. I want to keep the abuse to a minimum.

Speaking of, I tried shaving with a very light touch today, and let the razor hinge in my lightly pinched fingertips. Doing so worked well. No cuts, no irritation, and a very close shave.

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
8/8	216.5	215.9	0.6	40 swirls

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

Yesterday I mentioned that I don't listen to Bob Dylan's music that often. However, that's not quite true. Dylan is famously one of the most often-covered songwriters out there, and I count many of those covers among my favorites, including the three I'll highlight today. (Presented in chronological order.)

Dylan adapted the traditional "Who's Gonna Buy Your Chickens When I'm Gone" melody into his "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," and I'd bet most folks associate that melody with Dylan. But his own recording of that song isn't my favorite. American folk contemporaries Peter, Paul, and Mary (for the youth out there, yes, that Peter, Paul, and Mary) performed a bunch of Dylan songs, but their version of "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" is so hauntingly beautiful—so poised—that it even helped push The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan up the charts.

I started this month's #sidetracked posts with a relatively modern Bryan Ferry cover, but he's recorded many over the years, and Ferry's take on "Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" is one of his best. These Foolish Things is great because all of the covers are so consistently sincere; a little goofy, but also obviously reverent of the original source material. "Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" is possibly the most obvious exception, deconstructing the overly sombre lyrics and filtering them through a performative, arch, high-energy rendition. Starting in the second verse, Ferry includes matching sound effects after a few of the lines, and after all of them in the third (thunder, waves, newborn baby, howling wolves, whispers, laughs, sighs, and a crying guitar bend), which is both detailed and impossible to take seriously. Ferry makes the song his own, utterly transforming it with a wink and wiggle of the shoulders.

And finally, while almost unseated by Antony and the Johnsons' 2019 version, Warren Zevon's version of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" will always be my favorite. It's arguably the most emotionally resonant take on the song I know of; both Antony and Zevon's sound wounded, weary, and scarred, but Zevon's cover is made all the more impactful by his terminal cancer diagnosis at the time of the recording, which I'm pretty sure you can hear in his voice throughout The Wind. "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is an artist in top form, looking back on their career, and starting to come to terms with it all through a tribute to the lyrics of one of the greatest songwriter's of our time. Zevon embodied the song's meaning as literally as a performer can.

• YouTube: Peter, Paul & Mary - "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" (1963)
• YouTube: Bryan Ferry - "Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" (1973)
• YouTube: Warren Zevon - "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (2003)

Aug. 10, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM (10)

• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap

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

• Fragrance: Hans Hendley - Mown

• Passes: WTG, XTG

• Coffee: Ethiopia, Sidama, Oromia - v: Ethiopia Heirloom - p: Natural
• Music: Sleep - Dopesmoker
• 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

You'll notice from today's table entry that I tried to load more swirls of soap than yesterday. I'm thinking 40 swirls was under-loading just a bit (especially with a squeezed out brush) and adding marginally more soap would yield a richer lather without requiring ages to hydrate it. In a bizarre twist, my weighed soap usage was dramatically less than yesterday.

I think this further cements u/gfdoto's argument that swirls aren't terribly precise. Then again, I'd argue that it's the tub loading that's the problem. Satisfying? Definitely. Precise? Not at all.

I probably squeezed too much water out of the knot before starting to load. I worked with a sopping wet brush earlier in the month, knowing it would ensure I picked up a ton of soap and introduced lots of water early. Looks like I overcompensated a bit and squeezed too much out today.

Is it possible my lathering technique is somehow getting worse in real time? At least the knot is coming along nicely.

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

Get out your bong, sit directly in front of the biggest speakers you can find, crank up the volume dial, and loosen up your neck muscles, because today we're listening to all sixty-four minutes of Sleep's "Dopesmoker." This lumbering beast of a track combines an absurd stoner doom tale (as far as I can tell, a religious Dune meets weed saga), hypnotic, seismic riffs, extended, meditative, often concussive solos, chanted incantations and roared mantras, and the kind of continuous low-end vibration that is felt more than it's heard. "Dopesmoker"—or Dopesmoker, because they're one in the same—is not a song you should think about. Instead, you feel it man. Let the waves of over-driven sound surge through you. Notice the subtle evolution of the melody on a primal, subconscious level. "Dopesmoker" will rattle your gut. And when the song finally reaches the next of three stages—at about 20-minutes and 40-minutes in—the volume fading and the melody changing and the noisy atmosphere of the track suddenly dropping out feels like a temporary, confusing, questionably-welcome catharsis. And then more smoke billows into the sky and the monstrosity starts lurching forward again. When you finally make it to the end, you'll be entirely in the song's headspace, used and abused and not sure whether you want more. Like Sleep says: "Drop out of life with bong in hand." Deep.

YouTube: Sleep - Dopesmoker

Aug. 11, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM (11)

• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap

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

• Fragrance: Cognoscenti - No. 19 Warm Carrot

• Passes: WTG, XTG

• Coffee: Peru, Inkawasi, La Convencion - v: Bourbon, Typica, Caturra - p: Washed
• Music: UGK - Ridin' Dirty
• 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

I upped the load to 60 swirls of soap, with a damp brush (instead of fully squeezed out). The results continue to be confusingly variable, which tells me u/gfdoto has a point, and I'll need to weigh the puck at the same time of day to account for water loss. Starting tomorrow, I'll start weighing the puck right before I shave. Or should I weigh it right after I shave? Sigh.

On the #RawHoggin front, this Zenith knot is starting to give a little and feather at the edges. I'm starting to comfortably "splay" the brush on my cheeks and neck, though it doesn't really compress in that way, but it's also no longer straight-up uncomfortable to do so. We're approaching comfortable scrub. Also, it looks better and better by the day.

Wait...it's only August 11th?

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

I don't listen to much rap. I didn't grow up with it playing around the house and failed to keep up with many of the developments in the genre over the last twenty years. I need to make a more concerted effort to explore and appreciate it. Nevertheless, I have some favorites, including UGK's "One Day."

While 2007's Underground Kingz really hit me at the right time, 1996's Ridin’ Dirty was Pimp C and Bun B's earlier triumph—an often soulful, funky, distinctly Southern meditation on resiliency. “As far as Pimp and I are concerned, it’s the first real UGK album.” And nowhere is that musical growth and theme as obvious as in the opening track. "One Day" is a reaction to two days in jail and the tragic death of a hypeman's son (and three other children) in a house fire, lamenting life's struggles, fragility, and chaos. "One day you're here, baby / and then you're gone." Pimp and Bun both flow languidly over a rich, head-nodding melody, the refrain balancing exasperated desperation and weary acceptance.

Ridin' Dirty is terrific all the way through, but it's hard to top that first track.

YouTube: UGK - "One Day"

Aug. 12, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM (12)

• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap

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

• Fragrance: No. 32 Blue Oud

• Passes: WTG, XTG

• Coffee: Peru. Panchia, Tabaconas, Cajamarca - v: Yellow Caturra & Typica - p: Washed
• Music: Buck 65 - This Right Here Is
• 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	◊	◊	60 swirls

As promised, I waited until right before my shave to weigh my puck of Stirling Lime soap. It weighed in at 214.7 g; still heavyweight, and more than what I recorded after my shave yesterday (213.9 g). I have to assume some user error is involved (though I recall taring the scale) and will redo this whole process tomorrow morning, which means my table will include some variables until tomorrow's shave of the day post. I apologize to my dear readers for the delay and suspense.

As you can see, this boar knot is looking good. I wish I had taken similar photos the last time I broke in a Zenith knot—set at a more standard loft in an artisan handle—so that I had a point of reference for this one. I have no idea if this is breaking in slowly, quickly, or at a typical pace.

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

I’ve recommended a lot of sad, morose songs this month, and I swear that’s not all I listen to. However, I do enjoy many ab-so-lute downers.

Since I mentioned UGK yesterday, I'll stick with that genre and point you to a "Canadian alternative hip hop artist" and one of his most gut-punching songs. For the record, I'm not sure Buck 65 (the stage name of Richard Terfry) fully qualifies as rap. It definitely tests the limits of that genre taxonomy; his productions invoke country, folk, and bluegrass while his lyrics often flirt with absurdity. And I guess you could call his vocal delivery rapping, but his music probably falls more on the freestyle and beat poetry side of things, next to guys like Sage Francis and Saul Williams. Anyway, back to the song at hand...

“Cries a Girl” is not for everyone. The lyrical content is heavy, Terfry’s voice sounds like a backwoods growl infused with risky moonshine and cigar smoke, his sing-speak flow is off-putting, and Buck 65 makes you really sit with both for a slow-moving five minutes. You're going to hear every line clearly and have plenty of time to let the devastating lyrics sink in. Nevertheless, I’m going to suggest it here, because sometimes you hear a song and a particular turn of phrase just grabs your attention and sticks with you forever. In “Cries a Girl,” it’s a few lines, and especially the end of the refrain:

I knew the woods like the back of my hand / And I would shoot the breeze / with the roots of trees.
...
She tried to hide the scars, her name reminds me of the stars / I saw diamonds dividing the corners of her eyes.

Those lyrics are poetic and heartbreaking, all conveyed with the most colloquial of language.

YouTube: Buck 65 - "Cries a Girl"

Aug. 13, 2022 - Pool Day

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM (13)
• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap
• Post Shave: Porter's Lotion, WSP - Neroli - Balm
• Fragrance: Motif Olfactif - Nectar Boisé
• Passes: WTG, ATG
• Coffee: Ethiopia, Sidama, Oromia - v: Ethiopia Heirloom - p: Natural
• Music: Atom™ - Dystropicalía AAA Mix by Normal Ones
• 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	◊	◊	60 swirls

Now that I have two days in a row of morning measurements available, I'm able to fill in my table a bit (and proceed with the same recording schedule from here on out). Let's pretend that it isn't peculiar and damning that my soap tub apparently gained weight overnight Thursday evening; last I checked, soap doesn't spontaneously generate, but what do I know? These are unprecedented times.

Anyway, it looks like I used about 1.7 grams of soap to produce yesterday's lather, which is coincidentally the same amount that I used the day before. Let's hope tomorrow's number on the scale confirms a similar amount of soap loaded after 60 swirls of the brush. I'm not ready to triumphantly yell "Checkmate!" at u/gfdoto until I record a few more days of data without any obvious errors, but my 8/11 and 8/12 recordings bode well for the "swirls are a more consistent-ish measurement than seconds" argument.

u/EldrormR regularly and enthusiastically talks up this Zenith Scrubby, and I'm finally feeling this thing come into its own. It's a rough break-in period, but the boar knot is starting to feel very firm while simultaneously very pleasant at the tips, and it's still got a ways to go yet. I think this will be one of my favorite brushes by the end of the month.

Also, I skipped my XTG pass today and went directly from WTG to ATG, and I might do so going forward. With the MMOC, the ATG pass feels less scrape-y; something about the geometry of the razor head makes it easier for me to maneuver ATG, especially around my neck. I ended up with a very close shave today.

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

I'm not sure today's music selection really conforms to the parameters of this #sidetracked exercise, but I'm going to mention it here anyway, because I'm going to hang out by a pool next and “Dystropicalía” seems to match that vibe.

First of all, I can't recommend “Dystropicalía” based on experience, because this is the first chance I've had to listen to it. Prolific electronic producer Uwe Schmidt posted this to his Atom™ blog at the end of July. In case you don't click through, I'll quote him here:

This is number one in a potential series of AAA mixtapes. Normal Ones will kick this off with “Dystropicalía” – a colourful ride through the depths of an imaginary latin mind space. This 78 minute mix taps deep into the Archive and re-contextualizes some of Atom™’s most classic latin and lounge-infused musical compositions into a feature-length tropical sound expedition. And as the Naturalist put it best… “why don’t you simply sit back, relax and have a coffee”.

Normal Ones curates a Vimeo page called “Holographique TV” featuring video synthesis compositions that include their experimental AV project “L’Astra Cosmo” and their audiovisual collaboration with Atom™ known as “nuuun”.

https://vimeo.com/holographique

Second of all, does a mixtape count as a song? It certainly doesn't by any traditional definition, but it probably does for purposes of #sidetracked. It's one single audio track that just happens to be 78 minutes long.

Anyway, enjoy!

This has made for fun background music while I'm writing. And if you like it too, give Schmidt's "electrolatino" style Señor Coconut recordings a try. They always bring a smile to my face.

Atom™ - "Dystropicalía"

Aug. 14, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM (14)
• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap
• Post Shave: Porter's Lotion - WSP - Neroli - Cooling Aftershave Balm
• Fragrance: Cognoscenti - No. 17 Civet Chypre
• Passes: WTG, ATG
• Coffee: Ethiopia, Sidama, Oromia - v: Ethiopia Heirloom - p: Natural
• Music: Gruff Rhys - Hotel Shampoo
• 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	◊	◊	60 swirls

At this point in August—about half way through, starting with a completely raw hog—the initial rigidity of this "Scrubby!" Zenith has forced me to spend most of my time face lathering with back and forth swipes, versus a lot of splaying. I think this is generally how u/VisceralWatch lathers in his videos. This method doesn't beat up my skin too much, it works well with any knot—since it doesn't require much splaying (we'll call it knot agnostic)—and doesn't shoot lather all over my bathroom unless I'm really whippin' it. I'm not wearing a funny hat, so there's no whipping allowed around here.

About 60 swirls of soap seems to be the sweet spot with this knot. The lather is rich and slick, doesn't take forever to hydrate, and gives me plenty for two passes. The MMOC is not a razor that demands a full three-pass shave, or even benefits from one.

I did manage to scrape up a little spot below the hairline on my neck yesterday, but I didn't realize it until that afternoon when it started to look irritated. My razor must have dipped more south than I intended and I went easy on that part of my neck this morning.

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

I'm a big fan of Gruff Rhys's work with the Super Furry Animals, but his solo recordings are just as varied and interesting. One of those is among my favorite novelty songs—if only because it's such a surefire way to annoy my wife.

During the heyday of mobile endless runner games in 2011, Ustwo released Whale Trail, a simple, candy-colored gem of a game that took the best of the genre (simple mechanics, addictive play, no time commitment) and combined it with a delightful aesthetic. And while the colorful visuals and dreamy look of the game—picture an airborn whale flying slow loops in the sky, popping bubbles and dodging crackling cartoon storm clouds—contributed to that unique atmosphere, it's Gruff Rhys' whimsical electro-psych soundtrack that completed it.

The theme song and repeated soundtrack motif, "Whale Trail," is sunny, energizing, and exceptionally memorable. Combined with a "Sesame Street" meets Yellow Submarine music video, this song will first make you chuckle, before immediately getting stuck in your head for days. Let me know if you also start mindlessly saying "I can see my house from here!" at odd times, before you realize nobody knows what you're quoting in a oddball, sing-song voice.

YouTube: Gruff Rhys - "Whale Trail"

Aug. 14, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM (15)

• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap

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

• Fragrance: Gallagher Fragrances - Carpe Cafe

• Passes: WTG, ATG

• Coffee: Ethiopia, Sidama, Oromia - v: Ethiopia Heirloom - p: Natural
• Music: Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Denial
• 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	◊	◊	◊

I enjoyed today's shave a lot. The lather came together quickly, the knot is starting to feel correct, and I avoided any obvious scraping.

Speaking of the knot, does anyone know how close this is to "broken-in"? I know it's hard to tell from a photo, but here you go. u/EldrormR, what do you think? Do you recall how many lathers it took to break yours in?

Not much to report on the MMOC front. The blade is still going strong; I find ten to twenty shaves to be the comfort sweet spot for most blades, including GEMs. I'm anticipating some tugging once I round twenty-five.

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

Yesterday's "Whale Trail" write-up reminded me of a different song that's related in title, but not at all in theme, style, or aesthetic.

I slept on Car Seat Headrest for ages because I couldn't take the band's name seriously. That was a mistake, because Will Toledo's guitar rock is varied and full of stellar hooks. Try "Martin," "Sober to Death," or "Something Soon," for just a sampling. But the oddly-titled "Drunk Drivers / Killer Whales" is the song that got me into the band, and it's also a heck of an introduction to Toledo's music.

I believe Teens of Denial is the first full-band studio recording under the Car Seat Headrest name, and that makes it a little easier to appreciate, though Toledo's songwriting was dynamic and imaginative long before he signed to Matador. In the case of "Drunk Drivers / Killer Whales," the song goes through a couple of lyrical and melodic ideas before it even hits the first refrain—a triumphant, arena-destined harmony around 3:20. Bouncing between quiet, hesitant verse and top-of-their-lungs chorus, "Drunk Drivers / Killer Whales" steadily commands more attention as it progresses, building to a rousing finish. It's a centerpiece of Teens of Denial and an excellent combination of everything that makes the album such a fun listen.

Bandcamp: Car Seat Headrest - "Drunk Drivers / Killer Whales"

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"

Aug. 17, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM (17)

• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap

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

• Fragrance: Gallagher Fragrances - Pearfecto

• Passes: WTG, XTG

• Coffee: Colombia. Ciudad Bolivar, Antioquia - v: Catillo & Colobia - p: Natural
• Music: Masao Nakajima Quartet - Kemo-Sabe
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

Question for the community:

When you lather with a high-backbone, scrubby brush, how do you actually move the knot on your face?

I've noticed side to side strokes work pretty well with this Zenith brush—the 'ol painting motions—but I have to be sparing with any attempts to splay or swirl the brush. Doing so feels good on my chin, and helps work up the lather, but is actively uncomfortable on my cheeks and is a little abusive on my neck as well. Like the MMOC, this brush demands a light touch.

I also had an off-the-cuff thought about the MMOC while I was chatting with u/VisceralWatch yesterday. It's an efficient razor, with some notable aggression. However, when folks complain about how it feels, I wonder if at least some of what they're feeling is the comb (versus the blade, or the edge of the razor head). My brass Peerless Clog-Pruf feels totally different than the MMOC; the teeth are smaller, more plentiful, and sit on a smooth bar. That Micromatic variant is extremely comfortable, and doesn't scrape at all, while feeling just as efficient as the MMOC.

Anyway, fourteen more shaves to go and then I can put this Lime soap aside for a while. I'm over it.

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	207.2	1.8	60 swirls
8/17	207.2	◊	◊	~62 swirls

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

I'm not sure how I feel about Portugal. The Man as a whole, or even today's song—"Modern Jesus," which is undeniably catchy—but I love the song's music video. It's a weird little snapshot of mid-2000s America, composed of footage recorded across nine states. The glimpses of blighted neighborhoods in Detroit and open land in Wyoming are particularly striking, and the way people exist in the diegesis of all these culturally and geographically disparate shots ranges from the whimsical, to the alarming, to the weird, to the profound. I'm not sure the song is as smart as it wants you to think it is, but if the video was made as organically as it appears, it's one of my favorite works of observational documentary.

YouTube: Portugal. The Man - "Modern Jesus"

Aug. 18, 2022 - Where did today go?

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM (18)

• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap

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

• Fragrance: The Zoo - Amber Classico Modern

• Passes: WTG, XTG

• Coffee: Peru. Panchia, Tabaconas, Cajamarca - v: Yellow Caturra & Typica - p: Washed
• Music: The Nightmare Before Christmas OST
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

Today was super busy, so I apologize for the late post everyone.

Fellow B36 shaver u/Environmental-Gap380 pointed out yesterday that there's more than one way to splay and that our brushes are performing a little differently. I kept that in mind when lathering this morning. I splayed the brush slowly, and then attempted to agitate; before I was combining those two motions, which sounds very similar (and is), but roughed up my cheeks. I was able to splay the brush more than I expected and do so without that same discomfort.

Good shave today.

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	207.2	1.8	60 swirls
8/17	207.2	205.9	1.3	~62 swirls
8/18	205.9	◊	◊	60 swirls

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

I mentioned a favorite music video yesterday, which reminded me of the singularly weird and wonderful "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?" This charity record involved dozens of contributors, many of which remain big names, including members of Arcade Fire, Beck, David Cross, Feist, Peaches, Jenny Lewis, and Karen O., and was written by the succinctly-named North American Halloween Prevention Initiative (NAHPI) band (mainly Adam Leith Gollner and Nick Diamonds, of Islands and the Unicorns). Everybody involved really hams it up, invoking "pure tarr-rarr", singing in kooky ghost voices, and doing their best Vincent Price impressions over sound effects cribbed from somebody's well-used trick-or-treating soundtrack CD. Combine that with a frenetic and retro music video and you've got yourself a perfect artifact of the early Aughts.

North American Hallowe'en Prevention Initiative - "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?"

Aug. 19, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM (19)
• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap
• Post Shave: Porter's Lotion, WSP - Neroli - Cooling Aftershave Balm
• Fragrance: Olympic Orchids - Osafume
• Passes: WTG, ATG
• Coffee: Colombia. Ciudad Bolivar, Antioquia - v: Catillo & Colobia - p: Natural
• Music: The Soft Pink Truth - Was It Ever Real?
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

Nineteen days into Austere Hogust, I am feeling very, thoroughly, maximally exfoliated. As a general routine, I typically use a boar, then a soft synthetic, and then a badger brush every three days, but Austere August yet again proves that I could use a boar brush every morning and not get too beat up. However, this is more exfoliation than I really need. I really like this Scrubby more and more as it progresses, so I may try using my boar brushes more frequently to give this one regular lathers.

Today is the first day I noticed the MMOC beginning to tug. I've been pulling the blade out of the razor each night so it can air dry, but nineteen two-pass shaves on a GEM blade is still a good amount of use. I'll be fine for the full thirty-one shaves, but it will be pushing the blade farther than I need to, and I'd usually toss a GEM blade shy of thirty uses.

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	207.2	1.8	60 swirls
8/17	207.2	205.9	1.3	\~62 swirls
8/18	205.9	204.4		60 swirls
8/19	204.4	◊	◊	60 swirls

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

Yesterday's Halloween-themed track included an all-star cast of early-Aughts indie musicians, including the singularly-eccentric Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields. He's an exceptional songwriter, and I enjoy the stylistic breadth of his recordings, including the diverse Magnetic Fields records, as well as his work in film and musical theater. i is one of my all-timefavorite albums, and a few of the 69 Love Songs rank up there among my most played tracks.

Lesser known is Merritt's Gothic Archies project—namely The Tragic Treasury: Songs From a Series of Unfortunate Events, a compilation of songs recorded for the series' audiobooks. My favorite of those is "Crows," written to accompany "The Vile Village." Despite the band's name and the track's titular corvid, "Crows" isn't an overly spooky song, instead leaning into a grungy guitar sound, psychedelic synths, and a swirling chorus of voices fluttering about. Merritt has a unique gift for melody and "Crows" is no exception. It's short, deliberate, and captivating.

Aug. 20, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM SS (20)

• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap

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

• Fragrance: Olympic Orchids - Dev #1: Foreplay

• Passes: WTG, XTG

• Coffee: Peru. Panchia, Tabaconas, Cajamarca - v: Yellow Caturra & Typica - p: Washed
• Music: Otis Redding - The Dock of the Bay
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

This Zenith knot continues to soften at the tips, ever so slowly, making lathering easier and easier. I also loaded an extra ten swirls now that the knot doesn't seem to eat any extra soap I offer it. That load yielded enough lather for at least three passes.

Looking at my measurement table, I'm on track to use another 17 grams of soap or so. This Stirling Lime puck was lightly used when I started Austere August and weighed in at about 236 grams of soap. I could easily get another hundred shaves out of it using any 26mm brush, regardless of knot fiber or density. That solution to my soap problems can't arrive soon enough!

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	207.2	1.8	60 swirls
8/17	207.2	205.9	1.3	~62 swirls
8/18	205.9	204.4	1.5	60 swirls
8/19	204.4	203.3	1.1	60 swirls
8/20	203.3	◊	◊	70 swirls

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

Today's song is very much not a hidden gem. "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" has been a classic as long as I've been aware of radio stations playing music for the masses, and is famous not just for it's exceptional whistle-bility, but also for reaching the top of the charts after the death of its co-writer and performer, Otis Redding. I've read that Redding considered the song unfinished, and there's a certain rawness to "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" that makes it timeless. The recording sounds a bit like an early take, the whistle solo suggests a pro-on-their-day-off casualness, and the ending fades out in a way I've always found abrupt and unsatisfying. "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" feels like a snapshot of a moment; Redding's tragic death in in 1967 meant it had to be published as is. I think that vague sense of the song being incomplete, in flux, and experimental is what makes it so impactful—perfect in its imperfection.

YouTube: Otis Redding - "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay"

Aug. 21, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM (21)

• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap

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

• Fragrance: Olympic Orchids - Olympic Rainforest

• Passes: WTG, XTG

• Coffee: Peru, Cusco - v: Caturra, Typica, Bourbon - p: Washed
• Music: Josh Ritter - So Runs the World Away
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

Another late SOTD after a busy day involving a long hike, burger stands, and too much sun. Great way to wrap up the weekend.

This morning's shave felt a little rough. I didn't feel the MMOC tugging, but it did feel harsh, like it was scraping me up more than I'd prefer. I added some evening shaves in this week so I may have just beat up my skin too much.

(Judges, don't worry, my Austere August setup is only being used for Austere August shaves. That being said, I'm looking forward to the Scrubby joining my regular rotation.)

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	207.2	1.8	60 swirls
8/17	207.2	205.9	1.3	~62 swirls
8/18	205.9	204.4	1.5	60 swirls
8/19	204.4	203.3	1.1	60 swirls
8/20	203.3	202.8	0.5	70 swirls
8/21	202.8	◊	◊	60 swirls

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

Josh Ritter is an incredible performer and put on one of the best concerts I've ever seen. Nevertheless, his poetic troubadour songs often tell detailed, evocative stories, making them ideal candidates for a creative music video. Which brings me to today's #sidetracked.

"The Curse" is a memorable track on Ritter's 2010 album So Runs the World Away. Over an ornate, twinkling waltz, Ritter softly sings of an Egyptian pharoah's mummified body transported to New York. "He watches the sea from a porthole in stowage." The pharoah quickly falls in love with the archeologist that escorts his dusty bones across the sea; "After thousands of years, what a face to wake up to." But their love is star-crossed, and "The Curse" is equally beautiful and tragic.

YouTube: Josh Ritter - "The Curse"

Aug. 22, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM SS (22)

• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap

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

• Fragrance: Olympic Orchids - Red Cattleya

• Passes: WTG, XTG

• Coffee: Peru, Cajamarca - v: Caturra, Typica, Pache - p: Washed
• Music: Au Suisse
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

I'll admit, I'm at that time of the month where I'm running out of things to say. The Zenith brush still has plenty of break-in left, but is a lather monster as is, and robust copper patina makes the handle one of my favorites. The Stirling soap continues to be a reliable performer, though I'm pretty much sick of this Lime scent. I'll enjoy putting it aside after August and killing a bunch of samples. And the MMOC continues to give me very close shaves. As ever, it's a little more aggressive than I'd choose for a daily driver, but I appreciate how close the shave is.

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	207.2	1.8	60 swirls
8/17	207.2	205.9	1.3	~62 swirls
8/18	205.9	204.4	1.5	60 swirls
8/19	204.4	203.3	1.1	60 swirls
8/20	203.3	202.8	0.5	70 swirls
8/21	202.8	202.0	0.8	60 swirls
8/22	202.0	◊	◊	60 swirls

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

I rarely listen to Gospel music, but I do have a few favorites. Presented in chronological order:

Sam Cooke's voice remains one of American culture's great gifts to music, as is his profound influence on what would become soul music. "Touch the Hem of His Garment" is one of his very best recordings with the Soul Stirrers and it profiles his range, tone, and charisma.

Written in 1939, "There'll Be Peace in the Valley for Me" was covered by a wide range of gospel and country singers through the '50s and '60s, and Red Foley's 1951 version was one of the first million-selling gospel recordings. Sam Cooke recorded an almost barbershop-esque take on the song in 1950; it's vocal harmonies remind me a bit of the Mills Brothers. My favorite version will always be Elvis Presley's 1957 recording. I've always liked how spare and mournful it is—Presley's voice wavering down in the lower octaves—but the movie Frailty reminded me just how haunting this song feels in the right context. It's hopeful, but ultimately about how hard things can be in the present.

Judee Sill wrote and performed Laurel Canyon folk music with an unusually religious and occult flavor (think "Twelve Thirty" trappings) and her song “Jesus Was a Cross Maker” is a nice companion to my other two selections. Sill wrote the song for her 1971 debut and it's one of her most well-known compositions. Unfortunately, Sill's modest voice and upbeat tempo made the song too sunny and twee for my tastes, and I’ve never connected with her original recording. The Hollies version is wonderful, and probably the most well-known, but Frida Hyvönen's 2009 take feels like the canonical version of this song to me. Recorded for the Judee Sill tribute compilation Crayon Angel, Hyvönen's “Jesus Was a Cross Maker” shows what a great song can become in the hands of a skilled vocalist, and minimal piano chords put all the attention on Hyvönen and her angelic harmonies. It's an emotional, dramatic performance that sounds like it was recorded in a place of worship. It's stunning.

• YouTube: Sam Cooke - "Touch the Hem of His Garment"
• YouTube: Elvis Presley - "There'll Be Peace in the Valley for Me"
• YouTube: Frida Hyvönen - “Jesus Was a Cross Maker”

Aug. 23, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM SS (23)

• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap

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

• Fragrance: Hans Hendley - Blonde

• Passes: WTG, XTG

• Coffee: Colombia, Bruselas, Huila - v: Caturra - p: 36hr cold ferment, washed twice
• Music: They Might Be Giants
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

Last week I added a few evening shaves on top of my daily Austere August shaves—using a different setup, of course.

I shave every morning, but I've also been enjoying a refreshing mentholated shave after summer training sessions at my local ~~sealed sweatbox stank sauna~~ gym. This works fine two or three times a week (totaling nine or ten shaves) because I spend most of my lathering time in the bowl to give my skin a break, use an extra-soft motherlode knot, and stick to one or two passes with a mild razor. And if my face starts to feel a little beat up, I do without the extra shave and save myself a few minutes in the evening.

However, that routine did not combine well with Austere Hogust or #GEMsOfWisdom. The MMOC can be used comfortably for a daily shaver—many of us are proving that for the second year in a row ([brushes shoulders dramatically])—but it's aggressive. Combined with an extrememly scrubby boar brush, it provides maximal exfoliation, and I noticed my skin feeling aggravated after adding another shave in less than 24 hours.

I'll stick with one shave a day until Austere August wraps up.

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	207.2	1.8	60 swirls
8/17	207.2	205.9	1.3	~62 swirls
8/18	205.9	204.4	1.5	60 swirls
8/19	204.4	203.3	1.1	60 swirls
8/20	203.3	202.8	0.5	70 swirls
8/21	202.8	202.0	0.8	60 swirls
8/22	202.0	200.5	1.5	60 swirls
8/23	200.5	◊	◊	60 swirls

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

Yesterday's gospel music blurbs reminded me of a favorite song with "angel" in the title.

They Might Be Giants is one of those bands that's recorded so much music—much of it singular and quirky—that it's hard to recommend just one song. I'm certainly not going to argue "She's An Angel" is representative of their larger catalog; this is the band known for nerdy high-concept poetry masquerading as kid's songs, for operating a telephone service that "would pick up calls and play back a song in the place of an outgoing message," and for jamming a suite of 21 micro-songs into the back half of a full-length album. If you're only going to know one single, it should probably be "Birdhouse in Your Soul"—that song is exceptional and clever on multiple levels.

Nevertheless, I have a soft spot for "She's An Angel," from TMBG's eponymous first album. The lyrics contain the requisite TMBG weirdness ("I met someone at the dog show", "The Shriners loaned us cars / we raced up and down the sidewalk twenty thousand million times"), and manage to wrestle with some interesting questions. The instrumentation jumps around, starting with a series of fat, ominous synth cords before swooping guitars unexpectedly carry the song into lighthearted, carefree territory (including a lot of accordion). And the catchy refrain really makes the most of John Linnell's scrunched, almost geeky vocal style. It's a fun survey of a lot of what makes They Might Be Giants great beyond their well-known singles.

YouTube: They Might Be Giants - "She's An Angel"

Aug. 24, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM SS (24)

• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap

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

• Fragrance: Hans Hendley - Untitled

• Passes: WTG, ATG

• Coffee: Peru, Cusco - v: Caturra, Typica, Bourbon - p: Washed
• Music: Tribulation - The Formulas Of Death
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

I've' gotten a bit complacent with the MMOC and needed to dial my technique in again, especially as this blade starts to dull. The MMOC demands a light touch—fingertip grip, loose wrist, minimal pressure. Just focusing on that technique makes the razor feel much less harsh and still yields an extremely close shave.

On the measurements front, I've finally broken the 200g barrier, but I'm not even going to make a noticeable dent in this soap by the time Austere August wraps up. I'm a little disappointed. I expected the Scrubby to me more voracious, regardless of break-in.

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	207.2	1.8	60 swirls
8/17	207.2	205.9	1.3	~62 swirls
8/18	205.9	204.4	1.5	60 swirls
8/19	204.4	203.3	1.1	60 swirls
8/20	203.3	202.8	0.5	70 swirls
8/21	202.8	202.0	0.8	60 swirls
8/22	202.0	200.5	1.5	60 swirls
8/23	200.5	199.2	1.3	60 swirls
8/24	199.2	◊	◊	65 swirls

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

I'm going to risk the wrath of overly-aggressive content filtering algorithms and share one of my favorite death metal songs. The opening track on Tribulation's 2013 sophomore album The Formulas Of Death, "Vagina Dentata" sounds like the warmup to an album more than a standalone track, and flows seamlessly into the dizzying "Wanderer in the Outer Darkness" (a much more showy recording, full of growls, frenetic drumming, and other reliable death metal conventions). Still, I love how this song's instrumental builds in intensity and volume from almost nothing, steadily galloping behind a simple, deadly-effective guitar melody. There's a cinematic quality to "Vagina Dentata"—it's spacious, heavy with brooding atmosphere, and seems to be the soundtrack to something momentous and evil slowly climbing out of the ground. It always gets my heart pumping and head banging.

Bandcamp: Tribulation - "Vagina Dentata"

Aug. 25, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM SS (25)

• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap

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

• Fragrance: January Scent Project - Eiderantler

• Passes: WTG, XTG

• Coffee: Colombia, Bruselas, Huila - v: Caturra, Colombia - p: Washed, Sun-dried
• Music: Tommy James and the Shondells - Anthology
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

I loaded more soap today than I have for the last few weeks. At this point in the month, I'll do anything to stave off the boredom, and loading is a variable I can tweak from day to day. The lather was that little bit more luxurious and creamy today, even when hydrated to my usual preference. This Zenith knot is broken in enough that I can load as heavy as I want without the soap taking a prohibitive amount of time to hydrate. (That's not what I could say for this brush early on.)

Also, go check out the newly-published episode of Audio Book Club Shave. "The Djudges are back in full strength to discuss the joys of participating in Austere August and djudging a bunch side challenges and side side challenges." This is the content I came here for!

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	207.2	1.8	60 swirls
8/17	207.2	205.9	1.3	~62 swirls
8/18	205.9	204.4	1.5	60 swirls
8/19	204.4	203.3	1.1	60 swirls
8/20	203.3	202.8	0.5	70 swirls
8/21	202.8	202.0	0.8	60 swirls
8/22	202.0	200.5	1.5	60 swirls
8/23	200.5	199.2	1.3	60 swirls
8/24	199.2	197.9	1.3	65 swirls
8/25	197.9	◊	◊	80 swirls

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

Tommy James and the Shondells recorded many hits throughout the '60s, but "Crimson and Clover" transcends James's era-specific appeal. It has all the joy and upbeat pop energy of "I Think We're Alone Now" and "Mony Mony," but replaces most of those hits' sugar with the woozy trance of sunny psychedelia. That iconic tremolo makes the song for me, especially at the end, as James sings "Crimson and clover / over and over". "Crimson and Clover" sounds best played loud, in low light— ideally in a college dorm room. And then there are the covers. Everybody likes Joan Jett's version, but I also love Built to Spill's take on the song. I've seen them live a few times, but on this particular tour, they played a jammy, faithful cover during their final encores. "Crimson and Clover" really lends itself to triumphant, going-out-with-a-bang concert energy, and it brought down the house. (It also brought down a thick haze of skunk smoke. Coincidence? I think not.)

YouTube: Tommy James and the Shondells - "Crimson and Clover"

Aug. 26, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM SS (26)

• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap

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

• Fragrance: Barrister and Mann - Fougère Gothique - Eau de Parfum

• Passes: WTG, XTG

• Coffee: Colombia, Bruselas, Huila - v: Caturra - p: 36hr cold ferment, washed twice
• Music: Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

I've officially run out of steam.

I'm still getting good shaves out of the MMOC, but it's far from my favorite razor, and I'd prefer shaving with something milder for a while. (For example, my MMOC-minus-the-harshness Peerless.) And I'm really sick of this Lime soap. It's a fresh, natural lime scent, but it's starting to make my stomach turn a little after twenty-six face lathers in a row, and I'll be putting this aside for a while after the end of the month.

Hang in there everybody—just a few more shaves.

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	207.2	1.8	60 swirls
8/17	207.2	205.9	1.3	~62 swirls
8/18	205.9	204.4	1.5	60 swirls
8/19	204.4	203.3	1.1	60 swirls
8/20	203.3	202.8	0.5	70 swirls
8/21	202.8	202.0	0.8	60 swirls
8/22	202.0	200.5	1.5	60 swirls
8/23	200.5	199.2	1.3	60 swirls
8/24	199.2	197.9	1.3	65 swirls
8/25	197.9	196.3	1.6	80 swirls
8/26	196.3	◊	◊	80 swirls

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

"Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" is one of the first jazz melodies I learned to play on saxophone...poorly. Same goes for "Stardust." My saxophone career was never destined for greatness, and ended unceremoniously towards the end of college, but I still listen to a lot of jazz at home (especially while I'm reading or getting some work done).

By the way, if you're just getting started with Mingus, you can't go wrong with either Mingus Ah Um or Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus, but the former is one of the many essential releases that made 1959 a famously good year for jazz.

YouTube: Charles Mingus - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat

Aug. 27, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM SS (27)

• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap

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

• Fragrance: House of Mammoth - Mood Indigo - Eau de Parfum

• Passes: WTG, XTG, ATG

• Coffee: Peru, Cajamarca - v: Caturra, Typica, Pache - p: Washed
• Music: Why? - Alopecia
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

I loaded with a slightly wetter brush today and it picked up plenty of soap. Yesterday's 1.9 grams of soap felt like the perfect amount for three passes of creamy lather (or four of slick, but thin lather). I bet I picked up more soap today, because it took longer to hydrate than I'd like.

The shave was good. I'm attending a wedding this afternoon, and throwing on a suit for the first time in ages, so I did three passes to achieve a very close shave.

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	207.2	1.8	60 swirls
8/17	207.2	205.9	1.3	~62 swirls
8/18	205.9	204.4	1.5	60 swirls
8/19	204.4	203.3	1.1	60 swirls
8/20	203.3	202.8	0.5	70 swirls
8/21	202.8	202.0	0.8	60 swirls
8/22	202.0	200.5	1.5	60 swirls
8/23	200.5	199.2	1.3	60 swirls
8/24	199.2	197.9	1.3	65 swirls
8/25	197.9	196.3	1.6	80 swirls
8/26	196.3	194.4	1.9	80 swirls
8/27	194.4	◊	◊	80 swirls

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

I don't know how exactly to describe the sound WHY? achieved on 2018's Alopecia. It's exceptionally clever indie rock, filtered through a hipster's arch sensibilities, always hinting at the alternative rap founder Yoni Wolf performed under the same name solo. Despite highly unusual verse and precise melodies, it manages the jangling, rickety feel of music composed just enough to keep it from falling apart into a garage-band's unkempt tinkering. "These Few Presidents" is all those things, and exceptionally catchy for it. Some of the lyrics here are memorable turns of phrase, like the namesake "these few presidents / frowning in my pocket", and the kinda-sorta refrain "Even though I haven't seen you in years / yours is a funeral I'd fly to from anywhere.. That line stands out for its duality; is it sweet and wistful or cold and cruel? Maybe it's both.

Bandcamp: WHY? - "These Few Presidents"

Aug. 28, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM SS (28)
• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap
• Post Shave: Porter's Lotion, WSP - Neroli - Cooling Aftershave Balm
• Fragrance: Motif Olfactif - Mon Oasis
• Passes: WTG, XTG
• Coffee: Colombia
• Music: Madonna - Confessions on a Dance Floor
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

We're approaching the end of Austere August. I've got my Sample September samples-to-kill piled up and ready for lathering. I'm also ready to take some SOTD photos of literally any other gear.

Today's shave was good. I'm still feeling a little beat up from yesterday's triple-pass shave and all these back to back Scrubby lathers, but this knot is becoming a comfortable lather monster. I might keep pushing this blade for a while; it started to tug around shave #20, but I haven't noticed that issue consistently, so better lathers could be helping. It certainly hasn't gotten any worse, despite a few more shaves worth of wear.

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	207.2	1.8	60 swirls
8/17	207.2	205.9	1.3	\~62 swirls
8/18	205.9	204.4	1.5	60 swirls
8/19	204.4	203.3	1.1	60 swirls
8/20	203.3	202.8	0.5	70 swirls
8/21	202.8	202.0	0.8	60 swirls
8/22	202.0	200.5	1.5	60 swirls
8/23	200.5	199.2	1.3	60 swirls
8/24	199.2	197.9	1.3	65 swirls
8/25	197.9	196.3	1.6	80 swirls
8/26	196.3	194.4	1.9	80 swirls
8/27	194.4	192.9	1.5	80 swirls
8/28	192.9	◊	◊	80 swirls
8/29	◊	◊	◊	◊
8/30	◊	◊	◊	◊
8/31	◊	◊	◊	◊

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

I had a strong bader meinhof moment this morning, leading me to today's #sidetracked selections.

I attended a wedding last night and by around 9:30pm or so the DJ had really started moving into '90s club territory. ABBA's 1979 post-disco single "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" started playing, which reminded me of Madonna's "Hung Up," which samples that ABBA song's distinct ba-da-doop-ba-da-doo synth. I leaned over to my wife to confirm I was remembering "Hung Up" correctly as a Madonna song, or maybe misremembering a Kylie Minogue joint as one of Madonna's. That was about where we ended the brief conversation, because it was very loud, my wife wasn't familiar with the Madonna song, and there were better things to be doing at the moment than hashing out music trivia.

Then this morning, I flipped open Overcast to play a podcast while I'm shaving, and what do I see? Near the top of the list was the most recent episode of Song Exploder, exploring how Madonna and Stuart Price recorded "Hung Up."

So anyway, these two songs—connected by a distinct sample and an equally strong connection to club culture—just keep popping up. That synth will be stuck in my head for days.

• ABBA - "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)"
• Madonna - "Hung Up"
• Song Exploder - Episode 239: Madonna / "Hung Up"

Aug. 29, 2022

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM SS (29)

• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap

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

• Fragrance: Motif Olfactif - Nectar Boisé

• Passes: WTG, XTG

• Coffee: Colombia, Bruselas, Huila - v: Caturra, Colombia - p: Washed, Sun-dried
• Music: Scout Niblett - It's Up to Emma
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

We're almost there, y'all. Two more shaves. If you're about to kill a tub, load heavy, because you might just pull it off. I believe in you. We believe in you. May the bristles be in your favor and the wind ever blow your lather away from the mirror. This is your time. This is your moment. Fulfill your destiny!

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	207.2	1.8	60 swirls
8/17	207.2	205.9	1.3	~62 swirls
8/18	205.9	204.4	1.5	60 swirls
8/19	204.4	203.3	1.1	60 swirls
8/20	203.3	202.8	0.5	70 swirls
8/21	202.8	202.0	0.8	60 swirls
8/22	202.0	200.5	1.5	60 swirls
8/23	200.5	199.2	1.3	60 swirls
8/24	199.2	197.9	1.3	65 swirls
8/25	197.9	196.3	1.6	80 swirls
8/26	196.3	194.4	1.9	80 swirls
8/27	194.4	192.9	1.5	80 swirls
8/28	192.9	191.9	1	80 swirls
8/29	191.9	◊	◊	◊
8/30	◊	◊	◊	◊
8/31	◊	◊	◊	◊

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

Scout Niblett's "Gun" is among the angriest songs I know of. Her guitar growls, Scout snarls, and the lyrics drip with scorn, disdain, resentment, and bitter, murderous jealousy. "She took your love away from me / and I am thankful, every day." She lays out her plan to acquire the titular nice little silver one and show up in the crowd of her ex's "shitty band." And none of this is obscured by verbosity or sloppy vocals. Scout sounds raw and raging, but she articulates every sharp-tongued syllable, and details the depths of her feeling in methodical, excrutiating detail. She's been waiting for this and can wait as long as it takes.

Scout Niblett - "Gun"

Aug. 30, 2022 - Penultimate

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM SS (30)

• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap

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

• Fragrance: Barrister and Mann - Just Right for a Tuesday - Eau de Parfum

• Passes: WTG, XTG

• Coffee: Peru, Cajamarca - v: Caturra, Typica, Pache - p: Washed
• Music: Strange Advance - Over 60 Minutes With...
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

Really good shave today. I'm at that point in the month with the MMOC where it's still a noticeably more aggressive razor than I prefer, but shaving with it feels like I'm on autopilot.

Also, the Zenith Scrubby is starting to yield a ton of lather. It took a while to get there, but this knot feels great, and is using soap efficiently. I expected it to eat a ton of soap but I haven't needed to load that heavy after the first week or so with this brush. It is still a touch more scrubby than I'd like for daily face lathers, but I bet it will be perfect for more of a 50/50 Precision Loading™ approach.

I also want to try the u/USS-Spongebob Method™ for breaking in boar knots after tomorrow's shave. Looking closely at the tips of this knot, there's still plenty of splitting in their future. I'm curious to see if the hairdryer makes a dramatic difference after 31 daily face-lathers.

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	207.2	1.8	60 swirls
8/17	207.2	205.9	1.3	~62 swirls
8/18	205.9	204.4	1.5	60 swirls
8/19	204.4	203.3	1.1	60 swirls
8/20	203.3	202.8	0.5	70 swirls
8/21	202.8	202.0	0.8	60 swirls
8/22	202.0	200.5	1.5	60 swirls
8/23	200.5	199.2	1.3	60 swirls
8/24	199.2	197.9	1.3	65 swirls
8/25	197.9	196.3	1.6	80 swirls
8/26	196.3	194.4	1.9	80 swirls
8/27	194.4	192.9	1.5	80 swirls
8/28	192.9	191.9	1	80 swirls
8/29	191.9	191.0	0.9	80 swirls
8/30	191.0	◊	◊	◊
8/31	◊	◊	◊	◊

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

I started this month of #sidetracked blurbs with a contemporary cover of an '80s tune, so as we wrap up Austere August, I'll to return to that decade.

While Vince Clarke is more well known for his work with Depeche Mode, his 1981 duo with Alison Moyet should be a big name too. Yazoo—apparently also known as Yaz in North America—only released two albums, but packed those full of synth-pop gems, including their 1982 torch song "Only You." Clarke gave Andy Fletcher and Martin Gore a chance to record the song, but I'm glad they passed on it, because I can't imaging how "Only You" would have sounded without Alison Moyet's robust, bluesy, soulful vocals. She's outstanding here. And I love how this ballad could have only been recorded in the '80s; the bouncy synths we now associate with vintage RPG soundtracks; the twinkling production over sparse instrumentation; the gated drum sound; the "nursery rhyme simplicity" and classic arpeggios.

Yazoo - "Only You"

Vancouver's new wave act Strange Advance only made it one album farther than Yaz, before going dormant after their 1988 release The Distance Between. They recorded a number of great songs, but I'll point you to the gorgeous, cinematic title track of their debut—Worlds Away. This exquisitely-produced single is one of my favorite evening headphone listens. The starlight intro sets the mood before a few tentative drum beats pull the song into its steady tempo, Darryl Kromm's voice heavy with emotion, and the guitar solo around 4:30 streaks through the night sky in neon '80s splendor. "Worlds Away" should be up there in the pantheon with "Glittering Prize," "Blue Monday," "The Chauffeur," "More Than This," and "Don't You Want Me."

Strange Advance - "Worlds Away"

Aug. 31, 2022 - That's a Wrap, Folks!

• Brush: Zenith B36 "Copper Scrubby!" 28x50mm Boar
• Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb
• Blade: GEM SS (31)
• Lather: Stirling Soap Co. - Lime - Soap
• Post Shave: Porter's Lotion, WSP - Neroli - Cooling Aftershave Balm
• Fragrance: Gallagher Fragrances - O'Vert
• Passes: WTG, XTG
• Coffee: Colombia, Bruselas, Huila - v: Caturra, Colombia - p: Washed, Sun-dried
• Music: John Moreland - In The Throes
• August 2022 SOTD Photo Album

#GEMsOfWisdom / #RawHoggin

We made it! Thirty-one shaves, using the same gear and software, and many of us exclusively face-lathered with a raw boar brush. And we posted about every shave along the way. Following June's Lather Games, I'm feeling pretty tapped, but it's important to finish strong.

First, some photos of the gear prior to this morning's shave:

• The knot, before this morning's shave, from the side.
• The knot, before this morning's shave, from above.

And some photos after the final shave of Austere August 2022:

• The soap after shaving.
• The knot after shaving, and blow-dried per the u/USS-SpongeBob method, from the side and the top.

I used a Zenith copper B36 Scrubby all month and it transformed over 31 shaves. The knot is looking very feathery, though there's still plenty of splitting to be done, and I plan to give it a few blow-dry cycles to accelerate any remaining break-in. The knot is terrific; I enjoy this brush's unique, robust backbone, though my usual Precision Loading™ approach won't take full advantage of it. Also, I'm very fond of the copper handle. The patina looks fantastic and the shape is super comfortable—it might just be my new favorite handle.

Last year's Austere August convinced me the MMOC is a really good razor. This year's Austere August didn't change my mind, but I managed to score a Peerless a few months back, and I'd reach for that Micromatic over the MMOC every time. It's just as efficient and well-designed, but it doesn't feel as harsh, and isn't as unforgiving to complacent shaving. I also prefer how Micromatic razors look in brass.

I didn't manage to kill any of this month's software, which is a bummer, because this Neroli balm is too strong for my tastes, I'd rather have Thayer's Cucumber around than this Porter's, and what is Austere August for if not emptying a tub of shave soap? Still, I put a dent in this tub of Lime. That's something I guess. As for the aftershave balm, I'm going to combine the remaining Neroli with some Glacial Lemon Chill and keep it in an old conditioner tub. My countertop would appreciate fewer bottles.

So what's next? I'm going to try to kill a backlog of samples all September, enjoy some mild razors, and try out Voices and Coffee & Contemplation. The variety is going to feel like sweet relief.

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	207.2	1.8	60 swirls
8/17	207.2	205.9	1.3	\~62 swirls
8/18	205.9	204.4	1.5	60 swirls
8/19	204.4	203.3	1.1	60 swirls
8/20	203.3	202.8	0.5	70 swirls
8/21	202.8	202.0	0.8	60 swirls
8/22	202.0	200.5	1.5	60 swirls
8/23	200.5	199.2	1.3	60 swirls
8/24	199.2	197.9	1.3	65 swirls
8/25	197.9	196.3	1.6	80 swirls
8/26	196.3	194.4	1.9	80 swirls
8/27	194.4	192.9	1.5	80 swirls
8/28	192.9	191.9	1	80 swirls
8/29	191.9	191.0	0.9	80 swirls
8/30	191.0	189.4	1.6	80 swirls
8/31	189.4	◊	◊	80 swirls

⁂

#sidetracked u/Teufelskraft

My final #sidetracked selection is pretty self-explanatory; we should wrap up the month of song recommendations with a song about songwriting. John Moreland's 2019 album In The Throes introduced me to the Tulsa singer-songwriter's powerful chops, and the second track— "Nobody Gives a Damn About Songs Anymore"—was immediately one of my favorite songs of the year. It fits within a long tradition of songs about performing, touring, and being a professional musician, with a particular focus on the existential burden of skill, fame, and vocation. "Why’d I have to go and get blessed with a curse / I’m chasing death or glory, whichever comes first." Ultimately, Moreland reckons with the same question any musician with half a chance at fame does; when you write a song, do you write for you or do you write for them?

John Moreland - "Nobody Gives a Damn About Songs Anymore"

But Wait, There's More

I wanted to cover a long list of songs this month but couldn't figure out how to link them together or other songs felt more timely. Maybe I'll get to more of these next year. Anyway, here's some of the remaining list, presented in no particular order. I had planned to mention a few of these together (like "The Last Great Washington State" and "The Trapeze Swinger" as beautiful, super long songs) and I wrote most of an unfinished blurb for Kyle Craft.

• The Mountain Goats - "Palmcorder Yajna", "Ezekiel 1 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace"
• Deer Tick - "Smith Hill"
• Kyle Craft - "Lady of the Ark"
• Duke Ellington - "Isfahan" (sorry u/VisceralWatch)
• Big Thief - The back to back combo of "Mary" and "Black Eyes"
• Scott Hutchison - Frightened Rabbit ("Head Rolls Off", "I Wish I Was Sober") and Owl John ("Los Angeles, Be Kind")
• Damien Jurado - "The Last Great Washington State"
• Iron & Wine - "The Trapeze Swinger"
• Wilco - "Summerteeth", "California Stars"
• Weyes Blood - "Seven Words"
• James - "Laid", "Ring the Bells"
• Chelsea Wolfe - "Feral Love", "After the Fall"
• Deep Dark Woods - "All the Money I Had is Gone", "18th of December"
• Pepper Rabbit - "Older Brother"
• Murder by Death - "I Came Around"
• Sunset Rubdown - "Shut Up I Am Dreaming of Places Where Lovers Have Wings"
• Nick Cave - "Palaces of Montezuma" Live at Alexandra Palace, 2020
• Bob Marley ("Mr. Brown"), Desmond Dekker ("Israelites"), and Gregory Isaacs ("Mr. Cop")
• Simple Minds - "Glittering Prize"
• Pulp - "Razzmatazz"
• Daniel Romano - "Old Fires Die", "A New Love (Can Be Found)"
• Agnes Obel - "Broken Sleep"
• Saint Saviour - "Reasons", "Let it Go", "Tightrope"
• The Rural Alberta Advantage - "Bad Luck Again"
• Shearwater - "Breaking the Yearlings", "Backchannels"
• Yeasayer - "O.N.E."
• Crypt Sermon - "Temple Doors"
• Dawnbringer - "V"
• Queens of the Stone Age - "I Sat by the Ocean"
• Kelley Polar - "Satellites"
• Elbow - "Leaders of the Free World"
• Primus (not sure what I'd cover here)
• Roy Orbison (same as above)
• Sisters of Mercy - "Temple of Love"
• Brian Eno and John Cale - "Spinning Away"
• Poni Hoax - "Antibodies"
• Witch - "Black Saint"
• Kate Bush - "This Woman's Work"

Check these out sometime.