We love champa incenses. This isn’t something that we keep as a secret. We’re always looking for another one to add to our selection. When we found Tree of Life Champa, we knew it had to be part of our library of incenses. This offering is from the Tree of Life company that also produces the wonderful and powerful Mars Choice and Champaka, so we knew it would be solid before we even tried it. It’s such a wonderful classic champa incense. It’s rich, complex, satisfying, semi-sweet, full of spice and distant florals. It gets much of its fragrance from that key component called “Halmaddhi” that defines champa incenses and distinguishes them from others. Please, if you’re a champa fan, or even just an incense user, Tree of Life Champa needs to be experienced.
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Nitiraj Natural Masala Incense
Over the years, there have been many champa incenses, all of such varying quality. The classic that we all know so well, the famed blue box Shrinivas Sugandhalaya has undergone so many changes since the 90s that it is nothing similar to its original formula. It’s still a good fragrance, but it has changed so very much. A champa that we have come to love so much, Nitiraj Natural Masala Incense, thankfully hasn’t changed as long as we have known it. It’s a classic champa, meaning what? A true champa should include a key ingredient known as “halmaddhi” (the spelling of which can vary). It’s a sap from a specific tree, much like other sap incenses like frankincense or myrrh. It carries a unique fragrance that is semi-sweet, somewhat spicy, and somewhat floral. Halmaddhi defines this incense. It is right up front. It captures the scent of headshops and black light rooms and 60s pads. It’s like a time machine in a stick of incense. If you’re a champa fan, please do give this selection a go.
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Frankincense Better
Nearly all of our incense dealers offer frankincense. It varies in quality considerably from dealer to dealer. It can even differ greatly from one dealer from batch to batch. It is a natural product, so there is little way to know what one is getting from run to run. We found a a source that deals in larger quantities of varying grades of frankincense and other resin incenses nearly exclusively. The way to get the good stuff is to deal with someone that specializes in frankincense rather than a dealer that has it as an after thought. This is why we dubbed our frankincense “Frankincense Better“.
We had choices to make, naturally. Just which grade of frankincense do we go with? The disparity is considerable, even from the one source. It was an easy choice. We went with their top-of-the-line frankincense. Granted, there were choices that would have permitted us to offer more quantity for a given price, but that’s just not us. The pieces are fairly large, medium amber in color and are highly aromatic. Once on the charcoal, these pieces offer an exceptional frankincense nose, bright, lemony, resinous with a little hint of bergamot, evidence of a high quality frankincense. We used to offer several grades, but we now only carry the higher grade frankincense. It just didn’t suit us to carry anything less.
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About Morning Star Cedarwood Incense
The Morning Star line is all about theme and variation. All of them have the same basic clean, crisp, cooling sandalwood base. Morning Star Cedarwood differs in that it has the addition of refreshing, balsamic cedarwood. It brightens up the fragrance, gives it a distinctive, subtle quality that reminds us of baking apples Morning Star Cedarwood is subtle and gentle enough to appreciate in small environments as it is not heavily perfumed. It can be enjoyed by those who are sensitive to perfumes since it is so light. Each pack comes with a little tile to set the sticks in, but we still recommend putting it on a fireproof surface.
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WEDDING CAKE BEADS
“Wedding Cake” beads, so called because of the fancy designs on the bead made to look like icing. Originally these beautiful ornate glass lamp worked beads were made in Italy.
East Indian Glass artists adopted the designs with a less expensive version that was the work of the Murano glassblowers. These beads vary in color, shape and size with the overlay of “icing”. They make attractive focal beads for jewelry.
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Dr. Bronner’s Great Products
Dr. Bronner a famous name in natural personal care products including, liquid soaps, bar soaps, lip balms and many other items. The products date back 5 generations to 1858. Emil Bronner, born 1908, never received a doctorate; it was common practice to adopt an honorable title of doctor in Europe. It was bestowed on those of outstanding knowledge of science and the arts. Emil Bronner born in Germany emigrated to the US in 1929, leaving his family. They refused to join him and were killed by the Nazis during WWII.
Famous for “castile” soap the base of which is olive oil, branching out into many other pure natural skin care products. The product labels have not been changed except when required by the government. If you have a chance, please take the opportunity to read these fascinating labels, since they do spell out the legacy and thoughts of Dr. Bronner.
Many consider Dr. Bronner’s to be the best on the market and sold by select stores.
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MOM LOVES THE KESWICK THEATRE
I have spent many wonderful moments at the Keswick Theatre over several decades and I have always felt it was such a great venue to see a variety of entertainment. The size of the theatre and the acoustics is wonderful for the kind of diversified venues that have appeared and for those to come.
The Keswick first opened on Christmas Night 1928 and was given National recognition as being comfortable, acoustically perfect. The architect also created the most wonderful Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 1955, the Keswick was remodeled into a cinemascope film house and hosted premier releases. In 1980 the Keswick was to be demolished and was saved by The Landmarks Society with the hope for restoring the facility to open as a performing arts center. In 1981 the Keswick reopened and has hosted prestigious artists as Roberta Peters, Buddy Rich, Lionel Hapmton. The Keswick was then placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Keswick closed in 1985 because the Non-profit could not meet the expenses.
March 1988, The Keswick opened again under private ownership. During this time the theatre once again gained in reputation. The growth allowed the Keswick to join such venues as the The Chicago Theatre, Today’s Keswick is hosting a fantastic variety of entertainment …I am so happy to have it so close to home (There is even free parking) -
GOOD KNIGHTS
Good Knights
credit to ap wire With the Knighting of Van Morrison, I became curious as to other Rock stars who have had a similar honor. 51 years ago the Beatles became the first rock stars to receive royal honors and then six more Rockers earned the title of Sir. They are: Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Mick Jagger, Sir Cliff Richard, Sir Tom Jones, Sir Elton John and then Sir George Ivan Morrison. Receiving the title of Knight is the highest honor, however, there are lesser honors and this year about 1000 received this lesser honor.
Among the lesser honors are: Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, Dave Gilmour, Brian May (and not the rest of Queen), Mark Knopfler, Rod Stewart, and Gordon “Sting “ Summer, just to name some. It should be noted that that David Bowie actually declined honors.
Women who have been given honors are called Dames which is the highest form of title for British females. There are not many women in rock and among them are: Joan Armatrading, Kate Bush, Annie Lennex and Adele have been given lesser honors than a Dame-ship. -
Frankincense Fans Rejoice
We just found out about an exciting and beautiful line of resin-based incense sticks to compliment the Fred Soll line. Many of them are Frankincense based. We made sure to get a nice sampling of what they have. We are slowly rolling them out so as to not confuse ourselves as much as our clients. We will begin with Jerusalem Blend. This is a natural, resin-based stick form of incense. It is a blend of frankincense, myrrh and fragrant oils. Jerusalem blend yields a classic frankincense and myrrh mix with peppery, orange, bergamot notes. Fantastic. $6 for 10 sticks. That’s not cheap, but what you get is well worth it.
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on this day…
We tried to blog this before, but we had some pooter-related issues, so here it is, a bit late. Yesterday marks the 39th anniversary of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. For many, I don’t have to tell how epic this release was. For others, well, it was epic. It’s one of very few albums to go diamond. Considering how many great releases there were in 1977, it still won the Grammy for Album of the Year. That’s not too shabby for a once little blues band.
We wish that there was more Mac stuff to be found. Here is an offering of a beautiful poster of Lady Nicks