The Scandal Sheet: Straights and other stuff

[Darth Scandalous]

Matt, another favorite pedal steel player of mine is Red Rhodes. Here's some of his work with Michael Nesmith.

Red Rhodes - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Cool, will do some more listening there too. You know, for modern steel players, I've been impressed with Chris Scruggs. He seems to take a very traditional approach, kind of Don Helms-like, but with a modern twist.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Pretty good shave today again, not much to report, really. I grabbed the Hoshi Tombo for Frameback Friday. This razor always feels incredibly smooth and today was no exception. As I recall it has a fairly obtuse bevel angle but it seems to have no problems cutting effectively. Soap was MdC Rose, lathered with the Vestavia silvertip. DE work was entirely on the Retro/Bic combo. I forgot to go back and look how many shaves are on this Bic-- it felt like it was struggling on a few pesky whiskers today. Was very smooth, though.

I finished with Myrsol Limon. Usually I pair the Rose with The Veg but I guess I wanted the feel of Myrsol today.

Had some dizziness and (mild) vertigo this morning. This has been off and on ever since the last time I had covid this Fall. It's frustrating, though, because it makes things like shaving and walking and driving challenging. I can't complain, though, it's been much less frequent where it was pretty much every day, all day, for a month or so shortly after the illness. The fatigue comes and goes too. I usually get 6-8 really good hour a day and then somewhere in the afternoon I start to feel bad again. It's made it very difficult to keep to an exercise regimen, even a conservative one. But, it could be, and has been, a lot worse. I'm grateful that I can exercise at all.

On the positive note, my "Spider Friend" (or perhaps one of its descendants) is back. There's a tiny jumping spider that hangs out in my bathroom and watches me shave. I know its watching me because it moves from one side of the mirror to the other depending on which side of my face I'm shaving. This morning it hung out near my lather bowl and made sure my lathering was up to snuff.
Here's the OG spider friend from last summer:

 

[Eric_75]

Pretty good shave today again, not much to report, really. I grabbed the Hoshi Tombo for Frameback Friday. This razor always feels incredibly smooth and today was no exception. As I recall it has a fairly obtuse bevel angle but it seems to have no problems cutting effectively. Soap was MdC Rose, lathered with the Vestavia silvertip. DE work was entirely on the Retro/Bic combo. I forgot to go back and look how many shaves are on this Bic-- it felt like it was struggling on a few pesky whiskers today. Was very smooth, though.

I finished with Myrsol Limon. Usually I pair the Rose with The Veg but I guess I wanted the feel of Myrsol today.
View attachment 1808836
Had some dizziness and (mild) vertigo this morning. This has been off and on ever since the last time I had covid this Fall. It's frustrating, though, because it makes things like shaving and walking and driving challenging. I can't complain, though, it's been much less frequent where it was pretty much every day, all day, for a month or so shortly after the illness. The fatigue comes and goes too. I usually get 6-8 really good hour a day and then somewhere in the afternoon I start to feel bad again. It's made it very difficult to keep to an exercise regimen, even a conservative one. But, it could be, and has been, a lot worse. I'm grateful that I can exercise at all.

On the positive note, my "Spider Friend" (or perhaps one of its descendants) is back. There's a tiny jumping spider that hangs out in my bathroom and watches me shave. I know its watching me because it moves from one side of the mirror to the other depending on which side of my face I'm shaving. This morning it hung out near my lather bowl and made sure my lathering was up to snuff.
Here's the OG spider friend from last summer:
View attachment 1808837

You let the spiders live. St. Francis would be proud, my friend.

You have a gentle soul, Matt.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Thanks, Eric. It helps when they're small and well-behaved.

 

[Eric_75]

Thanks, Eric. It helps when they're small and well-behaved.

My general rule is as long as it's not a Black Widow or a Brown Recluse they can live.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Straight today was Ribbon 100. Since I've been testing out my Naniwa 12k I decided to do a quick touchup since I had used the razor earlier in the week and still recall how it shaved. (Not that it needed any touchup). 10-12 laps was all it took. Very keen, but I did notice some of that trademark synthetic harshness, but only on ATG and only in a couple spots. Fatip slant did the rest of the cleanup. As the Treet blade has settled in, it's gotten more pleasant.

Soap was Agrumes, very sloppy wet lather with the Vielong synth today was very nice. Splash was Myrsol and despite the occasional perceived harshness in the shave the splash didn't sting.

I think Spider Friend (or son of a son of a spider, apologies to Jimmy Buffet) may be getting ready to cross the rainbow bridge. He was still in the same spot as yesterday and only moved when I actually nudged him.

Mrs. Scandalous and I had a very rare date night. We went to see Dune Part 2. If you're considering seeing this I'd strongly recommend seeing it in the theater. The music and foley work is incredibly integrated with the visual experience and absent a really excellent system I think it would suffer in a home theater environment. The plot has some fairly minor changes from the book, entirely in the interest of compressing the timeline, I think, and I didn't find it problematic at all. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Be well.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Catching up for yesterday and today. After the Naniwa 12k experiment on the Ribbon, I decided to finish it on the translucent arkansas stones. I ended up going back a little further in the synth progression just to make sure everything was good, so it was more like a full refresh than a touchup. For Sunday I had my Danshaku quarter hollow dialed up but I wanted to at least do a partial pass with the Ribbon to see how it compared to the day before.

Well, the Danshaku was just fine, but.... the Ribbon was outstanding. So I ended up doing the whole shave with that. The straight portion, anyway. I pitched the tired Bic from the Fatip Retro and loaded a Feather, which made for a really nice cleanup pass. If I recall, the soap was Agrumes, and I used Sapofonicio Bignoli Agrumi di Mediterraneo splash . It's a little more orange forward and has some other notes in the background. A little menthol, and a neutral skin feel. I use it a lot in the warmer months. I guess the air is a little dry here these days because I needed some balm, midday to moisturize my skin.

After the very solid showing by the Ribbon, I decided to do a similar refresh on the Danshaku. Shave today was likewise very nice. Soap was Rose, splash was the Veg, and I preemptively applied balm before the splash because my skin felt a little dry even before I started shaving. Fatip/Feather again for the DE pass below the jaw.

The kids and I listened to a lot of things this weekend. Last night the app's autosuggestion was a new recording of the Bach Goldberg Variations by Víkingur Ólafsson. It's pretty nice. I have listened to parts of his recording before but maybe not from end to end. So I'm going to listen to that through on the next few drives.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Brilliant shave today. The straight was Kyoei 39, Yasuki steel full hollow. Soap and brush were Proraso red, myrrh added (of course) and Vielong horse. Maybe I didn't soak the brush long enough because it felt a little scratchy as I lathered up for the first pass. But by the second it was not scratchy at all. Weird.

DE was the FOCS. Can't remember how many shaves are on the Treet 7 day that's in it, but it just keeps getting better. I finished with the Veg. Got some tingle but not much sting or burn. Good times.

Spider Friend has passed on. I didn't have the time or infrastructure for a proper Viking funeral so I gently laid him to rest in the wastebasket.

 

[thombrogan]

R.I.P., spider buddy

 

[huck1680]

...a tiny jumping spider...

You should call him "Jack" cuz when he "Jumps" he's gone in a "Flash" yessir! BADABOOM! Ima gas, gas, gas. Here all week.

 

[Eric_75]

Brilliant shave today. The straight was Kyoei 39, Yasuki steel full hollow. Soap and brush were Proraso red, myrrh added (of course) and Vielong horse. Maybe I didn't soak the brush long enough because it felt a little scratchy as I lathered up for the first pass. But by the second it was not scratchy at all. Weird.

DE was the FOCS. Can't remember how many shaves are on the Treet 7 day that's in it, but it just keeps getting better. I finished with the Veg. Got some tingle but not much sting or burn. Good times.

Spider Friend has passed on. I didn't have the time or infrastructure for a proper Viking funeral so I gently laid him to rest in the wastebasket.View attachment 1811180View attachment 1811181

At least it lived a great life in your den.

The fairest things have fleetest end - Francis Thompson

 

[Mannic]

Love the look from the vielong brush, such a shame they stop production. I have two old vintage boar ones, but i would love to try a horse hair from that brand they had some real nice ones.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Love the look from the vielong brush, such a shame they stop production. I have two old vintage boar ones, but i would love to try a horse hair from that brand they had some real nice ones.

Thank you. Their most recent synthetics were nice too; I generally prefer natural brushes but the Vielong synthetic I have is probably my favorite of the few I have.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Another killer shave today. Straight was the new Kikuboshi, brush was Elite Razor, soap was Proraso blue. I'm still not jazzed on the scent, but it's not bad. Just not my favorite. I also kind of prefer, if I'm going to put menthol on my face, that it be at the end of the shave. But, the stuff performs really, really well. DE was the FOCS again, maybe the Treet is nearing the end of its usefulness--felt that way at first-- but maybe it was me. Splash was Myrsol.

I'm beginning to think that I am getting a little closer with the FOCS than the regular Fatip. Only because, normally, by the next morning I have a little more stubble length below the jaw than I do above. In other words, I get a little closer on the straight-only areas. But the last few times I've used the slant, my next-day growth is pretty consistent across my whole face.

Music the last couple days has been Hans Zimmer's Dune scores. I think he really outdid himself on these.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Another good shave today. The straight was Paul Drees Sistrum, I did a little honing experiment last night with a new component, still ended on the translucent ark though. Results were top notch. Soap was Proraso Red/myrrh, brush was Simpsons Emperor.

DE was the FOCS again, with a fresh Nacet. Still figuring out blade pairings in this razor. Feathers, which are always a "wow" blade in all my other razors, were "meh" in the FOCS. Treet 7 day was great. Nacets are good but always feel a little dangerous on the first run in my other razors, but it was damn near perfect in the FOCS today. Perfectly close and zero burn from the Veg.

Didn't listen to music today. Feeling a little thick headed this morning and figured I needed to give my full attention to driving.

 

[Eric_75]

Treet 7 day was great.

Glad to hear this, Matt. It's a fine blade, imho.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Glad to hear this, Matt. It's a fine blade, imho.

Yes it is, thanks again for the PIF. It's my go-to in the Old Types and it holds its own in the others too. Although I am more likely to grab a Bic or a Feather for the regular Fatip, they really shine there.

I still need to try GSBs in the FOCs.

 

[Eric_75]

I still need to try GSBs in the FOCs.

Concerning GSBs, maybe you can help us recruit @blethenstrom

 

[Darth Scandalous]

I'm not the right guy for the GSB recruitment drive, unless you're looking specifically for "damning with faint praise."

 

[blethenstrom]

Concerning GSBs, maybe you can help us recruit @blethenstrom

What are you trying to do here my dear @Eric_75? Recruiting to recruit?