Author: kira a. gold

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A DIRTY Vermont playlist

klimt music“A summer rain shower had left the evening air thick with steam.
Lazy fireflies flicked between the trees edging the streets as he drove. He tuned the radio to the campus station with eclectic song sets, and wound through several neighborhoods, old and new.”

In chapter thirteen–Kitchen Sync–of THE DIRTY SECRET, Killian drives through Burlington to walk in on Vessa, baking. She’s listening to the same indie radio station he was just playing.

A friend asked what song they were both listening to, so of course I had to make a playlist of some cool musicians from Vermont.

“He felt drunk, post coital with the euphoria spiraling through his guts and his spine, all because a girl had made him cookies.”

THE DIRTY SECRET Vermont Playlist:

THE DIRTY SECRET is available at amazon.com and other fine ebook retailers.

 

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Womanity Eau

womanity eau edgesThe bottle is gorgeous. I want it to hold all my secrets and mist me with strength and sex and knowledge.
It doesn’t.
Instead, I am sprayed with slush and rock-salt from a road plow, and pelted with rotting strawberries, and wow, does Thierry Mugler ever blow loud and long on that truck horn.
Whew. Not for me.

All the love for this woman–and I adore this salty song.

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Edition d’Ete

edition ete edges
Print of pale blue Lolita Lempicka apple bottle, dusted with talc.

This is a baby-sitting diaper change at a ridiculously rich family’s house.
A splash of lemon scented bleach that combusts to a cloud of talcum powder and finishes with high end floral musk potty-spray.

An enormous powder grenade, yet there was an ugly chemical plastic underneath. I’m a Lolita Lempicka fanatic and I was so disappointed I didn’t even keep it for the bottle.

I’m not so sure about this song either, but it gets stuck in my head a lot.

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A City On Fire

a city on fire edge
Test paper cutout of Imaginary Author bottle, “Short Story Collections” book box, and sample spray.

Triage at a burn unit.
Scorched rubber tires, plastic bandages, charred flesh. An hour later, it rests painfully with a smear of aloe, and then fades completely with an ominous gasp of sweet lilies.
It’s tragic–and yet still kind of gorgeous.

I’ve always loved this song.

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Tobacco Vanille

tobacco vanille
Tom Ford bottle, distorted behind a Four Roses bourbon bottle.

This is amazing.

Opens up with glorious daddy issues of pipe tobacco and bourbon, then dresses in a chocolate velvet vest with a watch chain and takes me out to the lesbian billiards bar.
I drink vanilla shots until I’m cut off for spilling one and we go home to empty cabinets except for that fruitcake I re-gifted and got back two years later.
It’s delicious. Best date ever.

Filthiest song ever.

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Civet

civet
Blue-point cat ears hovering over test paper printed with Zoologist bottle and decant vial.

My cat just peed on the carpet.

No, that’s not what Civet smells like–it’s actually quite lovely. Leather and citrus and peppery carnations, smoke and it’s so lush.
But when I dabbed it on my wrist my cat freaked out, frantically pawed at my sleeve and then took a stress squirt on the rug.

Never have I felt so sexy doing laundry.
ETA:
Carpet is clean, cat is sleeping, perfume calmed down to sweet black coffee on the skin.

This Rolling Stones cover was the B-side of Jesus Christ Pose. (Best played loud.)

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Tank Battle

tank battle edgier
Basic LUSH bottle with rusty cognac colored liquid, and a burning stick of incense with gumballs in the background.

Fully loaded Bazooka Joe.
This stuff is like the sexy battle armor you put on before conquering your own world.

Tank Battle opens with a wet bubblegum pop, and a moment later a bright sulfur flare. Smoky haze sits at arms length–a burnt spice offering, a swallow of bourbon, metal shavings from a sharpened blade.

Sun-scorched patchouli and cloves settle to the skin after an hour, with an occasional whiff of daring and sweetness the whole day long.

The Seatbelts’ Tank! (the opener for Cowboy Bebop) is a lot of fun.

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Fraaagola Saalaaata

fragolaaa
Wild strawberries, salt, decant vial and paper test cutout of pink capped bottle.

Imagine the Morton Salt girl in a pink raincoat and red rubber boots, blowing a bubble of strawberry gum.
The strawberries run the gamut from fresh picked berries in the sun, to red soda pop, then shortcake ice cream bars, and finally those smelly erasers from primary school.

The salt melts quickly and disappears into violets, then a breath of vanilla, a brief taste of hazelnut.
Sweet but strangely chaotic.

(In my head, this is what the Strawberry Letter was scented with.)
Yuna is amazing–this song was featured in an H&M video spread.

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Encens et Bubblegum

encens et bubblegum edgy
Wad of gum on a paper bottle test strip.

All I get from this is dried peaches in a plastic bag. Maybe a whiff of the incense aisle at the other end of the food co-op.
And it lasts as long as the 10-items-or-less line.

I’ve seen Encens et Bubblegum compared to Gorilla Perfume’s Tank Battle (from LUSH).
Nope.
This stuff is a stale sugarless dime ball from a reproduction piggy-bank next to Tank Battle’s fresh packet of Big League Chew. This is clove cigarette ash likened to Satya Sai Baba Nag Champa.
Twice the price, half the sillage and none of the longevity.
Doesn’t compare at all.

Edit – 7/3/23

(Wow. I was a bit angry about it!)

Here’s some more French bubblegum from 2006.

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Si Magnifique!

si magnifique edgesI got this at a mission store in Stockholm for ten kronor, and didn’t open it until I got back to the States…
…where it smelled like every Victoria’s Secret store distilled into a bottle. Entirely too girlish sweet almond, rosebuds and muted citrus with some obligatory white musk underneath.
On my early twenties daughter-child it became Earl Grey tea in a rose-patterned china cup, elegant and perfect.
Dammit, I’m old.

This Swedish song (Oriflame started out in Stockholm) was a hit in 2016, too.