Latest news with #Dorn
Los Angeles Times
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Personalized perfume by text? I tried it with this scent stylist
There's a reason perfume commercials aren't close-up images of the ingredients noted in a specific fragrance. Instead, they're sweeping landscapes, a beautiful man on a galloping horse, a wistful goodbye between two lovers with no backstory. That's because scent isn't simply the notes — say vanilla, sandalwood, tuberose; it's about the feeling they evoke. It's more effective to produce a visceral reaction than provide a technical definition. It makes sense, as scent is processed by the limbic system, the part of the brain that handles emotion and memory. So when Anna Dorn texts to ask me what I want to smell like, she provides some thought-starters that sound like treatments for big-budget fragrance ads: 'like a library in ancient Egypt,' or 'like Persephone rising from the ashes.' Dorn is a prolific author of three novels and a memoir, 'Bad Lawyer,' where she divulges secrets from her past life as a reluctant lawyer trying to meet her family's expectations. She also moonlights as a perfume stylist, offering scent fittings for clients performed over text message. It's not an established side hustle, but if there was ever a city where it could thrive, it would be Los Angeles. I've hired Dorn to help me find a new scent, something more adventurous than my current Sephora-grade options. My hope is that like with a romantic match, I'll find something that ticks the boxes, but ultimately has an unspoken variable I'm drawn to. It's a task well worth her $150 fee. The service promises eight tiny vials of custom-selected scents shipped directly to me. The product is included in Dorn's fee, which means she pockets around $70 per session, but to her, it's a labor of love she is happy to spend hours on. My inquiry comes at the perfect time to offer a distraction from working on her forthcoming novel 'American Spirits,' out next April with Simon & Schuster. As a writer, I'm disappointed I don't have a well-crafted scene to give Dorn as an example of how I want to smell. But Dorn is adaptable; many of her clients are amateur perfume wearers like me. She peels back and asks what fragrances I already own and love. I provide a list: Glossier You, Versace Crystal Noir, Maison Margiela Jazz Club. Scents I've loved for years but I know are just the tip of the iceberg. She asks about notes I'm interested in. I tell her I like the tobacco, masculine energy of Jazz Club. 'I used to think I didn't like floral, but I realized I do when paired with spicier, woodsier notes,' I say. She is quick to reply, explaining she once thought she was too tough for florals. She already has some ideas, which she categorizes as 'baddie florals.' Dorn's knowledge and love of fragrance comes through in her work, notably in her most recent novel, 'Perfume & Pain.' 'In the beginning, the novel had nothing to do with perfume, I just liked the title — which I jacked from a 1950s out-of-print lesbian pulp novel,' she says, 'but then I started collecting all this niche perfume knowledge and I knew I had to put it into the book. Once the book came out, I had all these new 'fraghead' followers, some of whom have become friends and my perfume obsession just continued.' Despite her obsession, her Los Feliz apartment isn't a storage unit of scents. When it comes to full-size bottles, Dorn says she only keeps about five at a time, taking to eBay to sell lightly used bottles to make room for new ones. She estimates her collection of decants — the insider term for 2-milliliter bottle samples, which she orders from the website DecantPlanet for between $4 and $12 — is in the hundreds. I'm intrigued by Dorn's suggestion of 'baddie florals,' but I want to make sure I don't end up with a grab bag of grandma scents. (Think the infamous, but simply too strong for me, Chanel Number 5.) Dorn immediately clocks my concern and deploys more jargon. 'Contemp [contemporary] andro [androgynous] florals, got it,' she replies. I try my best to reply with moody adjectives instead of notes. I hope for something sexy, mysterious and fresh from nature. Something that seems foreign, not simply tropical, but dare I use it in this context, exotic. 'How do you feel about a heady, narcotic, floral? Is that too femme?' Dorn asks me. It sounds aligned with the adjectives I gave, but I'm unsure what narcotic means in this context. 'In the Victorian era they allegedly didn't let virgin women smell tuberose because they thought it would make them spontaneously orgasm,' Dorn clarifies. It feels like a challenge. I tell her I'm interested in tuberose. Dorn has an idea and texts back quickly to ask if I am open to mainstream designers. In order to maximize her expertise over, say, a Sephora employee, I decide against it. I'm already worried my favorite scent, Jazz Club, which sells at mainstream mall retainers, has become too well known. 'I don't want to smell like everyone else,' I confess. Everyone probably says that. Dorn's passion project is perfectly timed. Scent is taking center stage in beauty circles — the same way skincare was once the if-you-know-you-know conversation bubbling under the surface of a makeup tutorial, fragrance is where professional beauty critics and the everyday obsessed are having the most nuanced conversations. Dorn thinks the growing appreciation for niche fragrances was born during the pandemic, when she advanced from a lifelong lover of body sprays and soap scents to a reader and commenter on Fragrantica, a fragrance website with its own Reddit-like forums. Post-pandemic, she began frequenting L.A. shops Scent Room, Scent Bar, Le Pink & Co and Beverly Hills Perfumery, befriending sales associates and 'nerding out together.' She's not the only writer who is applying her love of storytelling and world-building to fragrance fandom. Los Angeles-based Arabelle Sicardi, writer of the newsletter 'You've Got Lipstick on Your Chin,' offers a virtual nose-training course. Sicardi ships participants a box of 40 objects and leads discussions on the properties of each, establishing the 'building blocks' of a scent. If texting Dorn descriptions of scents seemed too abstract for me, a podcast seems like an even more difficult medium to describe scent. Yet New York City-based writers Tynan Buck and Sable Yong have hosted the popular podcast 'Smell Ya Later' for five years. There's clearly a connection between prose lovers and nuanced noses, and I want to join the club. I think of the phrases Dorn deployed in our text messages and instead of giggling, I'm impressed. I know the pain of finding the right adjective for a situation. I find that I'm less interested in Dorn's mastery of the scents themselves than in the way she conjures them with words and decides how to pair them with real-life situations. My journey has become less about finding a singular scent than developing the confidence to articulate the right scent for the right occasion, celebrating the multitudes we contain rather than putting them all under one aromatic umbrella. Less than a week after my half-hour text conversation with Dorn, a small package arrives at my door with decants of her eight selections. Each bottle holds about 20 sprays. DecantPlanet threw in three free vials and a signed, handwritten note on the receipt, a touch that further convinces me of the thoughtfulness of scent lovers. Within hours of receiving my package, an email appears from Dorn outlining her selections by name with notes and reference points to my existing collection, as well as a backstory of each brand. The first scent I try is Moonmilk by Stora Skuggan. I'm intrigued by Dorn's use of 'creamy' to describe its sandalwood. At first, I worry I've over-applied, but as I finish getting ready — arguably my favorite part of any night — the scent settles into an earthy depth I can't place without Dorn's cliff notes but know I like. It's the most abstract of the bunch, inspired by 'liquid deposits in limestone caves,' something I've never encountered and likely never will. True to her narcotic floral promise and tuberose history lesson, Dorn includes Moon Bloom by Hiram Green from the Netherlands. There is no spontaneous orgasm, but it smells like the marriage of the musky scents and warm and spicy florals (called 'oriental florals' by the industry) in my entry-level collection. I like to wear it during the day. I put my new vials in a little jar on my vanity. They're still foreign to me, so I pull up Dorn's email to remind myself which has 'creamy woods' or 'subtle gin.' Where I once thought having an expected, signature scent was a sign of adulthood and knowing yourself, I see why Dorn opts for hundreds of decants instead of a dozen chic bottles displayed. I'm having a lot more fun with my curated choose-your-own-adventure, building my arsenal of fantasies that are one spritz away. Lina Abascal is a writer and filmmaker born and raised in Los Angeles. She is the author of 'Never Be Alone Again: How Bloghouse United the Internet and the dancefloor' and director of the award-winning short documentary 'Stud Country.'
Boston Globe
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
The Digital Equity Act tried to close the digital divide. Trump calls it racist and acts to end it.
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The Digital Equity Act was intended to fill gaps and cover unmet needs that surfaced during the massive broadband rollout. It gave states and tribes flexibility to deliver high-speed internet access to families that could not afford it, computers to kids who did not have them, telehealth access to older adults in rural areas, and training and job skills to veterans. Advertisement Whether Trump has the legal authority to end the program remains unknown. But for now the Republican administration can simply stop spending the money. Advertisement 'I just felt my heart break for what we were finally, finally in this country, going to address, the digital divide,' said Angela Siefer, executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, a nonprofit that was awarded — but has not received — a $25.7 million grant to work with groups across the country to help provide access to technology. 'The digital divide is not just physical access to the internet, it is being able to use that to do what you need to do.' While the name of the program likely got it targeted — the Trump administration has been aggressively scrubbing the government of programs that promote diversity, equity, or inclusion — the Digital Equity Act was supposed to be broader in scope. Though Trump called it racist, the words 'race' or 'racial' appear just twice in the 'Digital Equity passed with overwhelming bipartisan support,' said Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the act's chief proponent, in a statement. 'And that's because my Republican colleagues have heard the same stories as I have — like kids in rural communities forced to drive to McDonalds parking lots for Wi-Fi to do their homework. 'It is insane — absolutely nuts — that Trump is blocking resources to help make sure kids in rural school districts can get hot spots or laptops, all because he doesn't like the word equity!' Advertisement The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which administers the program, declined to comment. It's not entirely clear how much of the $2.75 billion has been awarded, though last March the On a recent morning in Portland, Ore., Brandon Dorn was among those taking a keyboard basics class offered by Free Geek, a nonprofit that provides free courses to help people learn to use computers. The class was offered at a low-income housing building to make it accessible for residents. Dorn and the others were given laptops and shown the different functions of keys: control, shift, and caps lock, how to copy and paste. They played a typing game that taught finger and key placement on a color-coded keyboard. Dorn, 63, said the classes helped because 'in this day and age, everything has to go through the computer.' He said it helped him feel more confident and less dependent on his children or grandchildren to do things such as making appointments online. 'Folks my age, we didn't get this luxury because we were too busy working, raising the family,' he said. 'So this is a great way to help us help ourselves.' Juan Muro, Free Geek's executive director, said participants get the tools and skills they need to access things like online banking, job applications, online education programs, and telehealth. He said Trump's move to end funding has put nonprofits such as Free Geek in a precarious position, forcing them to make up the difference through their own fund-raising and 'beg for money to just provide individuals with essential stuff.' Advertisement Sara Nichols works for the Land of Sky Regional Council, a multicounty planning and development organization in western North Carolina. On the Friday before Trump's inauguration in January, the organization received notice that it was approved for a grant. But like other groups the Associated Press contacted, it has not seen any money. Land of Sky had spent a lot of resources helping people recover from last year's storms. The award notice, Nichols said, came as 'incredible news.' 'But between this and the state losing, getting their letters terminated, we feel just like stuck. What are we going to do? How are we going to move forward? How are we going to let our communities continue to fall behind?' More than one-fifth of Americans do not have broadband internet access at home, according to the Beyond giving people access to technology and fast internet, many programs funded by the Digital Equity Act sought to provide 'digital navigators' — human helpers to guide people new to the online world. 'In the United States we do not have a consistent source of funding to help individuals get online, understand how to be safe online, and how to use that technology to accomplish all the things that are required now as part of life that are online,' said Siefer of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance. This includes everything from providing families with internet hot spots so they can get online at home to helping seniors avoid online scams. 'Health, workforce, education, jobs, everything, right?' Siefer said. 'This law was going to be the start for the US to figure out this issue. It's a new issue in the big scheme of things, because now technology is no longer a nice-to-have. You have to have the internet and you have to know how to use the technology just to survive, let alone to thrive today.' Advertisement Siefer said the word 'equity' in the name probably prompted Trump to target the program for elimination. 'But it means that he didn't actually look at what this program does,' she said. 'Because who doesn't want grandma to be safe online? Who doesn't want a veteran to be able to talk to their doctor rather than get in a car and drive two hours? Who doesn't want students to be able to do their homework?'
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Yahoo
Man tased 3 times, hit in face by officers after resisting arrest, police say
Police tased and hit a suspect after he allegedly resisted arrest during a traffic stop. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Toldeo police stopped a car in the 300 block of West Manhattan Boulevard around 11:15 p.m. for a traffic offense, CBS-affiliate WOIO reported. John Dorn was the passenger in the car. Dorn allegedly had an open container that was by his feet and refused to tell police who he was. Dorn then tossed the contents out of the car window. TRENDING STORIES: High school senior shot, killed during possible prank before graduation 'Troubling social media trend' has students forcing objects into Chromebooks New rules say kids can't play in local city street after driver complaints, Police said they told Dorn to get out of the car, but he refused and 'held onto the door frame' and 'continued to pull back from officers.' Officers then tased Dorn three times, but it was 'not effective.' Police then struck Dorn in the face twice, according to court records. In the affidavit, police claimed Dorn 'continued to tense up' and refused to give his hands once he was removed from the vehicle. A Toledo police sergeant suffered 'multiple lacerations, bruising, and swelling' to his right hand. Dorn was ultimately arrested and booked at the Lucas County jail. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Indianapolis Star
25-04-2025
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
Indiana basketball lands another 3-point sharpshooter out of the portal
BLOOMINGTON — Indiana basketball picked up a commitment from Elon guard Nick Dorn on Thursday night. Dorn posted a video on his Instagram account with highlights from his recent visit to Bloomington to announce his decision. He's the eighth transfer pickup in the portal for new IU coach Darien Devries. Per 247 Sports, Dorn is the No. 104 overall ranked transfer. The Charlotte, North Carolina native averaged 15.2 points per game and 3.8 rebounds per game as a sophomore. He led the team with 74 made 3-pointers — his 3.0 made 3-pointers per game ranked 40th in the country — on 35.1% shooting from the outside. He started 47 of the 55 games he's played at the collegiate level and was named to the CAA All-Rookie Team as a freshman. Last season, he had notable performances against two of Elon's tougher non-conference opponents. He scored 17 points with five 3-pointers against North Carolina and dropped 24 points with five 3-pointers in an upset win over Notre Dame in South Bend. Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle. The 6-foot-7, 200-pounder has two years of eligibility remaining. Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
Indianapolis Star
25-04-2025
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
Indiana basketball adds another 3-point shooter out of the transfer portal
Elon's Nick Dorn is the eighth player IU has added out of the transfer portal Dorn averaged 15.2 points and 3.8 rebounds as a sophomore at Elon, shooting 35.1% on 3s BLOOMINGTON — Indiana basketball picked up a commitment from Elon guard Nick Dorn on Thursday night. Dorn posted a video on his Instagram account with highlights from his recent visit to Bloomington to announce his decision. He's the eighth transfer pickup in the portal for new IU coach Darien Devries. Per 247 Sports, Dorn is the No. 104 overall ranked transfer. The Charlotte, North Carolina, native averaged 15.2 points per game and 3.8 rebounds per game as a sophomore. He led the team with 74 made 3-pointers — his 3.0 made 3-pointers per game ranked 40th in the country — on 35.1% shooting from the outside. He started 47 of the 55 games he's played at the college level and was named to the CAA All-Rookie Team as a freshman. Last season, he had notable performances against two of Elon's tougher non-conference opponents. He scored 17 points with five 3-pointers against North Carolina and dropped 24 points with five 3-pointers in an upset win over Notre Dame in South Bend. Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle. The 6-foot-7, 200-pounder has two years of eligibility remaining. .
