Aug 10, 2021 – Austere August. Day 10.
- Prep: Hot Shower
- Brush: Zenith - B16 24mm Boar
- Razor: GEM Micromatic Open Comb Gen 2
- Blade: GEM PTFE (10)
- Lather: Stirling Soap Co. – Sheep
- Post Shave: Zingari Man – Unscented - Aftershave Balm
- Music: Johnny Cash – Hurt
Today’s MMOC shave was mostly smooth. My 7 days streak of no cuts was broken today as I got a small nick on my ATG pass under my nose. Very small, and didn’t even need to break out the styptic pencil, but it happened and I was surprised. Just when I was thinking I truly mastered this thing, the MMOC humbles me. A wild stallion is never truly tamed. Other than that, it was an uneventful shave.
The new boar brush gets better with every shave. I feel like it doesn’t use as much soap and is really starting to do a good job holding soap between passes. Most days, I’ve been having to reload the brush between passes, but today, I had enough for the whole shave. Still a faint stench that gets less and less every day.
Today’s #sidetracked music selection is Johnny Cash’s cover of the song “Hurt”. This is a beautiful, raw, and emotional version of Nine Inch Nail’s original song. Johnny takes this song, strips it down and truly makes it his own, seemingly allowing someone else's words to tell the story of his life.
For me, the video is the cherry on top on of this musical sundae. Pairing old videos of a young Johnny Cash along side a frail old version of himself is somehow powerful and sobering. Trent Renzor, who wrote the original song felt the same way: “That song in particular was straight from my soul, and it felt very strange hearing the highly identifiable voice of Johnny Cash singing it. It was a good version, and I certainly wasn't cringing or anything, but it felt like I was watching my girlfriend fuck somebody else. Or something like that. Anyway, a few weeks later, a videotape shows up with Mark Romanek's video on it... I pop the video in, and... wow. Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps... Wow. I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn't mine anymore. Then it all made sense to me... I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone. Some-fucking-how that winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning-different, but every bit as pure.”
To emphasize, the guy that wrote the song said “that song isn’t mind anymore” after seeing this video. Absolutely amazing.
The video reminds me that all of us will (hopefully) get old, and even a badass like Johnny F’ing Cash is going to age, and it will do a number on us. There’s a moment where he’s lifting a glass, and you can clearly see his hand shaking as he’s struggling to hold it up and then it’s paired with a young version of himself casually hopping a train. It’s somewhat heartbreaking, and somewhat beautiful. It’s the circle of life… And it rules us all.
Tags: #unscented #rawhoggin #GEMsOfWisdom
sotd.djudgement_invitations: [<DjudgementInvitation 666>, <DjudgementInvitation 2869>]