Ear to the ground:
“With all the smut on the internet, why do they even bother banning books anymore?”
– Local ruminations on the futile crusade of attempting to censor the written word in the digital age
Save the biners!
Local rockhounds now have one more lead in sniffing out the area’s best routes. Last week, Durango Sandstone – The Save the Anchor Biner Edition hit the shelves at local climbing stores and bookshops.
This is the fifth edition of the book, which has been out of print for the last three years. The latest edition featured new maps, graphics and route descriptions including newly established climbing routes north of Lemon Reservoir as well as Cascade Canyon and East Animas. Many recent routes at other areas are featured as well.
According to editor/publisher Tim Kuss, the book is peppered with tidbits of sarcasm, irreverent jabs and excellent photographs to “lend some entertainment value” to the otherwise basic climbing guidebook format
“The book has been long anticipated, while climbing in Durango and the surrounding area becomes increasingly noticed by the travelling climbing community,” wrote Kuss.
That ‘new car’ smell
Move over Axe – there’s a new manscent on the scene. The purveyors of fine luxury automobiles at Mercedes-Benz have switched lanes into the fast-paced world of male preening. This week, the German automaker released “Mercedes-Benz: The Perfume” which officially took nostrils by storm at Dillard’s perfume counters across the country.
Billed as “a vibrant and distinctive fragrance ... presented in a luxurious, yet masculine shaped bottle,” (read: cylinder) the scent is said to have an “assertive personality” with a “naturally sophisticated essence, tinged with refinement and modernity.”
The scent is geared toward the “young, free, masculine” types with hints of citrus, bergamot and violet. And for those local natural sophisticates who may not be familiar with the “aquatic notes of cascalone®” or the “vibration” of galbanum, there are a few more familiar scents: bourbon and patchouli. The latter, in addition to reminding one of his college years following the Grateful Dead, is said to impart “nobility and warm masculinity.”
Perfume maker Olivier Cresp said he “wanted it to oscillate between the fusing effect of the citrus cocktail and the addictive sensuality of an elegant woody sillage ... Revealing the excitement that comes from mingling lemon zest, grapefruit and Florida orange.”
Uh OK.
And while “sillage” sent us running for google, we are pretty sure eau de campfire with undertones of spruce, Toyota and microbrew is the preferred fragrance for most local “young, free, masculine” types.