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Great news, fam — the rotting stench of death will be coming to Golden Gate Park soon!
The San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers announced Tuesday that its magnificent corpse flower, named Chanel (no relation to the perfume), is beginning to bloom and is set to reach peak stinkiness within a week.
— Read more in A corpse flower will soon make you want to puke at the Conservatory of Flowers at The San Francisco Standard.
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Maybe it was just me, but the scents landed on the wrong part of my brain, knocking on reason’s door. Scriabin leaves you with enough questions as it is, and here were more. Salonen’s and Thibaudet’s sensational performance of “Prometheus” — transparent, nuanced and colorful — had no need for further tickling the senses.
— From a review of the San Francisco Symphony's production of Scriabin’s “Prometheus, The Poem of Fire,” scented by perfumer Mathilde Laurent. Read more in Symphony, scents in San Francisco: Does adding smells to performance make sense? at The Los Angeles Times.
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Onstage, the pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet practiced his solo part in “Prometheus,” which the San Francisco Symphony will perform March 1 through 3, while the conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen listened attentively to the wooden vortexes as they were being tested; the sound they made while emitting smoke, he noticed, was nearly a G.
Mathilde Laurent, Cartier’s longtime perfumer, who had designed the scents, double-checked notes on her iPad. For this day’s test, without the orchestra, she wanted to be sure the diffusers were timed to match the music. So they were going to play a recording overhead.
— Read more in Smell the Music: Inviting a Perfumer Into the Concert Hall at The New York Times.
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As my eyes adjusted to both the darkness of the gallery and the swirling pink and fuchsia flowers projected on the walls and floor, it hit me: a blast of sweet pea, maybe tuberose, perhaps peony? The fragrance drifted through the galleries (and my mask), and I mentally connected the smell to the explosions of digital flowers surrounding me. The perfume was mildly intoxicating but not too artificial: It was a heightened interpretation of what spring flowers smell like, rather than a re-creation. That is also an apt description for “Continuity,” the inaugural exhibition at the Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Pavilion at the Asian Art Museum by Tokyo-based art collective teamLab.
— Read more in TeamLab’s ‘Continuity’ at the Asian Art Museum is a uniquely immersive, interactive experience at San Francisco Chronicle's Datebook. Hat tip to Kevin!
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During my stay for the South by Southwest festival, the same olfactory occurrence would repeat itself frequently: a whiff of perfume on an escalator. A floral moment in a conference hall. And not only Austin. Visits to other countries over the past year, from Israel to Britain, had enveloped me in clouds of perfume. It bothered me, ever so slightly, and the fact that it bothered me came as a surprise. That’s because, I came to realize, six years in the Bay Area completely neutralized this portion of human existence. San Franciscans, you see, simply don’t smell like anything.
— Read more at Why does San Francisco turn up its nose at perfume? at the San Francisco Chronicle.