#james wise

Charged were Harry Clifford Wise, 36-years-old, and James Allen Wise, 29-years-old. Both were arrested on December 6th, 2018, and appeared on December 11th, 2018, in federal court for their detention hearings.

On April 1, 2017, the Monroe Police Department responded to a house in the 300 block of E. 4th St. on a report of a deceased 33 year old male. An investigation revealed that the male victim had died of an opioid overdose. The Monroe Police Department conducted a thorough investigation which uncovered that two brothers from Oregon, Ohio had supplied the victim with the opioids that took his life. On December 4, 2018, the two brothers, Harry Wise III and James Wise, were indicted on charges of delivery of opioids causing death and conspiracy to distribute opioids.

“Overdose deaths from heroin and fentanyl have become a national epidemic, including here in Michigan,” United States Attorney Matthew Schneider said. “Law enforcement agencies are working closely together to investigate and prosecute traffickers who are contributing to this epidemic.”

DEA Special Agent in Charge Plancon said, “It is a priority of DEA to identify and investigate those who distribute drugs that result in overdose and death. The charges announced today should make it clear to all drug dealers that they will face consequences, for the harm that they inflict on the user and on society. The Monroe Police Department deserves significant credit for devoting the time and effort needed to successfully investigate and bring these individuals to prosecution.”

Monroe Police Chief Charles F. McCormick IV stated, “I would like to thank the DEA for their partnership in this investigation, and a special thank you to MPD’s D/Lt. Derek Lindsay for his relentless efforts to seek justice in this case”.

The charges in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

This investigation was led by the Monroe Police Department in partnership with the Drug Enforcement Administration. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Lievense.

Every now and then, we get the privilege of having a member of staff from a Lush store come to work with us at Gorilla Perfumes Islington. After spending the day listening to our Death, Decay and Renewal EP, looking at tarot cards, and of course, talking about perfume with the lovely James from Lush Stratford, we discovered he was in fact a talented musician. He was even playing at Stratford’s opening night (after having their fab refit done), that very next day.

Obviously, we couldn’t hear this kind of news and let him leave before booking him in for a #ScentedSongs.

In a bit of a twist to the usual setup, James was already incredibly familiar with all our perfumes. Whilst a lot of musicians come in with perhaps a few songs in mind, or at least some kind of repertoire to choose from, James looked at it from another angle. He chose his fragrances, and then went away to research what songs, from the history of British folk music, might suit them.

"None of the songs I performed are my own; some were old folk songs and some are quite contemporary. I worked quite intuitively, spending some time smelling the fragrance until the right song popped into my head and I thought, 'Yeah, that's what this perfume sounds like’."

The theme, much to our excitement, was Set in Stone - so that’s Hellstone, Lord of Goathorn, Flower’s Barrow, Furze and Devil’s Nightcap. Some of you might remember the scented stone circle we had when we first released these as part of our Volume 2 collection. All a little bit mystical (OK - a LOT mystical), we knew we’d be in for a treat this night, steeped in nature, folklore and perhaps a little touch of magic:

"I've loved the Lush perfumes for over four years now and know the fragrances well. When I was invited to perform I instantly thought of the ‘Set in Stone' fragrances, as I also have a deep interest in British folklore and mythology. These seemed the obvious choice.”

Little did we know that some of the audience members would end up DANCING to this enchanted set... 

SETLIST

The Little Drummer (scented with Flower’s Barrow)

For this song, we invited the audience to eat berries as they listened and smelled, the same way we always imagine to be doing when we smell Flower’s Barrow.

The Twa Magicians (scented with Furze)

“It's a folk song with routes at least as far back as 1828. It describes a maiden going through various magical transformations in order to avoid the unwanted advances of an old coal smith. I thought that it might suite Furze quite well -the warm, freshness of the fragrance encapsulates the maiden wonderfully.”

Although we desperately strived to find some gorse for this song, there doesn’t seem to be any hanging about on the streets of Islington. Instead, our Jess made some scented bracelets out of string, and they felt like you might stumble across them if you entered into a fairytale.

The Wind Knows (scented with Hellstone)

“The Wind Knows is a song originally by Richard Masters which describes the devil acting as lawyer to wrongfully imprisoned soldier. I thought it might work nicely with Hellstone. I think it's got the same heavy, earthy feel and keeps in with the 'infernal' folklore of the perfume.”

As well as being fascinated by James’ diatonic guitar which he used for this song, we (or rather, Vickie) found an incredible ‘staff’, which we scented with Hellstone and passed around the audience. It brought us back to days of olde!

The Maiden and the Selkie (scented with Lord of Goathorn)

The link between the sea in Lord of Goathorn, which, as James introduced it, “smells like a beach”, and The Maiden and the Selkie meant we wanted to go all out. We scented a cup of ice with the fragrance, which became eerily atmospheric, and sourced some seaweed to hold it. All of this, along with James’ special effects, went hauntingly well together.

Noon of the Solstice (scented with Devil’s Nightcap)

We couldn’t allow a song to be scented with Devil’s Nightcap without actually making a nightcap for everyone to drink. It’s a secret recipe - obviously - but this dark and mysterious beverage complemented the music and the perfume.

The songs worked so beautifully well with the five perfumes; we asked James if he’d thought to pair music with scent before.

"Quite a lot! I wrote a forty-five minute drone piece for sine waves and incense about a year ago. It's a bit complicated to explain, but a major part of it involved one performer adding various herbs, resins and essential oils to a charcoal disk at set times in the piece. Unfortunately, my attempt to perform it failed as many venues get concerned about burning things inside... (If anyone would like to offer me space to perform it, get in touch!).”

And, after a performance that was steeped in memory and story, we asked him for a scent memory of his own.

"The smell of fresh cut grass. It's so deeply embedded that I can't really remember why I love it. It takes me back to so many happy memories... Rolling down hills as a child, rolling down hills as an adult... I walk in forests or parks as often as I can. Whenever I'm feeling down, I pull a blade of grass up and roll it in my fingers and smell it.”

All of our perfumes have their own element of bewitchment to them... but we were cast under a bit of a spell for this Scented Songs.