End of Oud

bhanny

Well-Known Member
#61
In the oud world, some people cannot spot the fine blue line, or they don’t care to… or it just doesn’t personally matter as much as the price difference they will have to pay. We all agree, this ultimately comes down to personal infatuation and appreciation. But at least folks should realize and appreciate that to achieve this '10-15%' superiority in an oud oil means disproportionally more financial investment, effort and involvement than getting to or settling for 95% of perfection. And that’s also the point where for some 'oud' really begins……
Kruger, great post, top to bottom. I assume the oud that has you, and Ensar, obsessed is Chugoku Senkoh? And the bolded line really resonates to me.
 
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Tuff

Active Member
#62
There’s this one oud that’s had me addicted and obsessed the last few days (and it probably still has Ensar in its grip). I keep craving a new swipe before the drydown ever hits the first. An oud that’s reached the point where oud is at its best; where the temperature, the timing, the scent progression, the wood, the distillation, the days and months that went into it… everything has come together to make the perfect masterwork.

A great Iranian calligrapher once said that in the arts, with determination, dedication and many years of repetition, a truly great artist can reach 95% mastery of his craft. Only a tiny handful will make it to 98%; these are the visionaries. But only the odd Mozartian genius will achieve 99%. No one ever gets to 100%.

Think of a master sushi chef, in whose hands the soaking, steeping, smoking, marination, slicing of nothing but the freshest, fittest fish is a matter of precision that’s beyond the grasp of most palettes perusing the menu. A sushi master insists that his fish be aged, wild, its muscles toned, caught and cured fresh, served not too soon, not too late. The rice matters. The temperature it gets served at matters. Aging the tuna that swam for decades for ten days instead of serving it fresh from the salt matters.

One such sushi dinner easily runs more than a bottle of this oil that’s got me so spellbound. Only, with oud the process is yet more intense, the journey far longer, and the stakes even higher. Many people, with some dedication and hard work can figure out how to set up distillation and fire up the burners… and they can come up with decent smelling oud. But achieving that 10–15% difference is basically where the ‘art’ comes into play; that’s where experience counts, dedication shows, and expertise is the result. (That’s also where sheer aptitude or talent gives you a head start, or lets you break past the 95% barrier.)

Like @saint458 said, 1-2% PC processing power can make or break the Counter Strike playoffs. In the obscure world of stock markets, having your fiber optics transfer data 0.00001 seconds faster means earning MILLIONS in less time than the blink of an eye. Or take any sport, like tennis. What sets the top 100 players, even top 1000, apart from one another is a matter of acute precision. Federer is able to time the angle of his shots only fractionally better than the 100th ranked player… but that makes ALL the difference. Nadal hits the ball only factionally harder than most, but in the end that’s what gets him to hold up the trophy.

In the oud world, some people cannot spot the fine blue line, or they don’t care to… or it just doesn’t personally matter as much as the price difference they will have to pay. We all agree, this ultimately comes down to personal infatuation and appreciation. But at least folks should realize and appreciate that to achieve this '10-15%' superiority in an oud oil means disproportionally more financial investment, effort and involvement than getting to or settling for 95% of perfection. And that’s also the point where for some 'oud' really begins……
Is it me or does it seem like Kruger is the ultimate Yoda, with almost everything he says.
"Experienced, You Are Not. MMMMMM?"
 
#63
"The End of the World" by Alistair McCartney (2001)
"The End of the World" by Emily Jeannee Miller (2017)

Of course, it WILL, but not IS. The same is true to Oud, Sandal and, of course, Musk. Hyperbolic expression is an integral part of poetic genius to highlight something. The more high the light is, the more the point is highlighted.
 

Kruger

Well-Known Member
#65
… Hence my green avatar :)

PS: Here's some movie trivia worth repeating: The Jedi, their names, their practice, and the rest, have been heavily influenced by Sufism. Lucas borrowed liberally from Moroccon Sufi tradition, from the lone hero in the desert, to the brown-cloak Jedi wardrobe to the character and city names… down to the theme of the Force. Aaand.... guess why Yoda is green?
 

5MeO

Well-Known Member
#69
Great discussion!
Any thoughts on the video? I thought the filmaker was very thoughtful and balanced in his inquiry - really enjoyed it..
Any opinions on how primo the wood might actually be from that 200 year old tree at the monastery in Thailand?
Opinions about the perfumer who uses aged (I gather animalic/barnyard stye) ouds in his perfumes or on the Agarwood Consulting company? I see Agarwood Consulting is offering a 50.9g chunk of sinking purple kinam to the highest bidder - anyone wan to go in on this with me? I'm good for like, .5g of it :p
 

Kruger

Well-Known Member
#70
Great discussion!
Any thoughts on the video? I thought the filmaker was very thoughtful and balanced in his inquiry - really enjoyed it..
Any opinions on how primo the wood might actually be from that 200 year old tree at the monastery in Thailand?
Opinions about the perfumer who uses aged (I gather animalic/barnyard stye) ouds in his perfumes or on the Agarwood Consulting company? I see Agarwood Consulting is offering a 50.9g chunk of sinking purple kinam to the highest bidder - anyone wan to go in on this with me? I'm good for like, .5g of it :p
I also thought the video offered a more realistic portrayal of the oud scene than most. But there are some question marks raised throughout, like that kinam sells for $10,000 / gr. (If someone knows more about this, please share.)

I don’t want to step on any toes here, but aside from our own bad experiences, Adam quite diplomatically mentioned that he’s also had unfortunate run-ins with the two guys featured in the video.

I’ve visited that tree many times and there’s likely some killer resin in there but unless age alone triggers the formation of kinam, I doubt it contains any.

I don't know if it’s still like that but the only legal way to get any wood from it is to claim a piece that fell to the ground. Because of this, people used to basically camp under the tree hoping for a piece to fall into their lap. This was before they had police guards. There’s even a little altar to offer flowers and burn incense in hopes of you being the chosen one to strike it lucky. I actually had one such piece…… but only about the size of my finger :( (non-sinking, I checked!).

OldCrassnaS.jpg
 
#71
… Hence my green avatar :)

PS: Here's some movie trivia worth repeating: The Jedi, their names, their practice, and the rest, have been heavily influenced by Sufism. Lucas borrowed liberally from Moroccon Sufi tradition, from the lone hero in the desert, to the brown-cloak Jedi wardrobe to the character and city names… down to the theme of the Force. Aaand.... guess why Yoda is green?
This is really interesting, did he really say this somewhere that he took his inspiration from Sufi tradition?
Also, why is Yoda green? Khidr?
 
#72
One of the most critically-important supporting characters in my novel is Sufi. He is also Indonesian and is likely how my protagonist came to learn of agarwood in the first place.