Beautiful Birds / The Botanical Treasury

Issue No. 113

BEAUTIFUL BIRDS – FLY FROM A TO Z WITH DOZENS OF FEATHERED FRIENDS

Beautiful Birds
by Jean Roussen (author) and Emmanuel Walker (illustrator)
Flying Eye Books
2015, 56 pages, 8.9 x 12.2 x 0.4 inches

Buy on Amazon

In Beautiful Birds, author Jean Roussen and illustrator Emmanuel Walker fly through the alphabet with dozens of feathered friends. It begins, of course, with “A is for albatross, the admiral of the skies,” and progresses all the way to “Z is for zos-ter-o-pi-dae…” with details about all kinds of avians in between. The writing brims with clever rhymes and colorful words (ogling orbs, polychrome quills) making it delightful to read out loud. If I had to guess, I’d say Roussen is a fan of E.B. White’s idea that “children are game for anything… They love words that give them a hard time, provided they are in a context that absorbs their attention.”

Walker’s vibrant illustrations give kids all the context they need. His graphic, full-bleed drawings feel like those of mid-century masters Saul Bass and Charlie Harper. As an added bonus, the book’s design is also gorgeous. It’s bound in a neon salmon linen, with patterned endpapers to match. The neon color can be found on almost every page in varying doses, giving the optical effect of spying a ruffle of feathers in the wild. – Sara Distin at Tinybob

THE BOTANICAL TREASURY CELEBRATES 40 OF THE WORLD’S MOST FASCINATING PLANTS

The Botanical Treasury : Celebrating 40 of the Most Fascinating Plants through Historical Art and Manuscripts
by Christopher Mills (editor)
University of Chicago Press
2016, 176 pages, 8.5 x 11 x 1.6 inches (softcover in clamshell box)

Buy on Amazon

The Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England has just come out with a sumptuous collection of “40 of the world’s most fascinating plants.” What makes them the “most fascinating”? For some it’s their appearance or structure, for others it might be their medicinal properties or economic impact. But from the bizarre-looking banksia to the quinine-packed cinchona to the functional bottle gourd, what they all have in common is a fascinating story.

The Botanical Treasury, which comes in a richly textured cloth-covered box along with 40 reproduced frameable prints, devotes four pages to each plant. Each entry includes an interesting tale pertaining to the plant along with copies of historical drawings, photos, letters, maps, journal entries and newspaper clippings. Most of the stories are about the naturalists and explorers who hunted for and studied these plants, but the book also celebrates the plants themselves, highlighting their unique features, uses, and capabilities. This makes a gem of a gift for any botanical nerd. – Carla Sinclair

Music Production

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 185

Best guide to music production

Tape Op Magazine

Tape Op is the only music geek magazine worth buying — and it’s free. Widely eclectic and ever encouraging, the main premise seems to be “Try, and trust your ears.” Pro, semi-pro, and DIY info sits comfortably side-by-side. Pros read it, hobbyists read it, some kids read it, all get something from it. Tape Op will give step-by step demos of, for instance, modding a certain low-cost microphone to get more bang for the buck written by a guy who sell his own mics for thousands. Or they talk to a guy with a barn full of home-made analog synths or someone who makes music out of sounds from antique recordings. The mag offers information in all kinds of directions, but it only wants you to do your own thing with it, what ever that is. Tape Op’s philosophy: use your ears and twist some knobs, learn all you can, then forget about it. Standards are explained, history is explored first-person, but rules might be thrown out the window. An undercurrent regarding how unrealistic and difficult it is to run a studio coexists with inspiring tales about the pleasure and pride that comes from recording music. The contributors work hard in their own studios and know what they’re talking about. A large community of recordists supports contributing articles and a lively online Q and A page (later edited and published). Recent profiles have run the gamut from legendary producers/engineers to seriously indie/outsider recordists; all have a jones for doing what they do their own way.

A recent, typical issue reviewed a mic you can buy for a steal on eBay for $40 and a mic that streets for $7,000. They don’t waste time writing slagging reviews; they review only what might be useful to someone on some level. On one hand, you can learn a lot by reading about something you may never be able to afford. On the other, you see that despite how amazing, desirable and beautiful that thing is — and this where most music mags stop — you don’t really need it. It might be a great tool for someone, but you don’t have to need it. Record reviews, written in the same “we like this” spirit, lean indie and outside, but might go anywhere. I always read about something I don’t know, but wouldn’t mind hearing. It’s independently published and paid for by ads from all kinds of audio-related concerns, but beholden to no one, so it’s neither slick nor slimy. Other recording magazines often seem to be trolling for sales or hyping an image. Their editorial decisions are suspect, noising on about last year’s retreads, repeating a press release, offering the same tutorials you could find in another magazine — or the library(!). The ‘net offers a lot of basic DIY sites you can learn from, but will they print an interview with Rupert Neve, as issue by issue, you learn about the products that riff on his designs? How about talking to Rudy Van Gelder (who recorded all the classic Blue Note jazz) about taping John Coltrane in the living room of his parent’s house in New Jersey?

I’ve been subscribing since 1997-8 when a producer I met turned me onto it. There is absolutely nothing out there like it. Nowadays my job is production manager/soundcheck and rehearsal substitute/backline tech for a three-time Grammy winning artist. I work with and have hired top-notch audio pros and I learn a great deal from them. Tape Op has often given me insight that keeps me apace in our discussions and what I learn from them takes me deeper into the magazine. However, Tape Op also has allowed me to nourish a side-line in sound designing/composing for theatre when I am off the road. When no one’s paying me and I’m home with the kids asleep, I record my music or occasionally, friends. That is where the knife really gets sharpened and what I have taken in from Tape Op gets put to the test. — John Stovicek

• I finished a session the other day where I went 10 hours without eating anything and kept suggesting breaks. It never happened.
  It’s funny you brought that up. That happened to me last week. A person came in to record five or six songs for basic tracks in two days. It was that sort of scenario. It felt like if they weren’t doing something every second that an opportunity was being wasted. I can deal with that for two days or so. The longest session I worked on was 3 1/2 months. It was four people, and their mom, who never wanted to take any breaks. It was a trial. I remember saying, “You know, I’ll do this again but I need a significant amount of money.” The studio salary didn’t cut it.
  You lost three months of your life!
  Exactly. I broke up with a long-term girlfriend. Everyday was noon to midnight. It was a mixed blessing. Usually the types of bands that come in here are short and quick. They’re paying for everything themselves. We never got into that stride of a big studio getting big sessions that last for months and months. But our main fuel is bands that come in from three to twelve days. No one’s had to give up six months of his or her life to babysit.
• Seating a new head
  Here’s a good way to quickly seat a new drumhead (which allows the drum to better conform to the specific contour of the drum’s bearing edge): Put the head on and tighten it slowly, making sure to maintain even tension around the head. When the head is fairly tight (and evenly-tensioned), take a heat gun or blow dryer and slowly work your way around the outer edge of the drumhead, just inside the hoop and along the bearing edge. Don’t try to get the head hot, just warm to the touch. The heat will make the Mylar conform to the bearing edge almost instantly. Be careful not to get the head too warm, as too much heat buildup will deform the head in a destructive way.
• Tape down one end of the Slinky inside the cone of an expendable speaker (eithera raw loudspeaker or one in a cabinet) – gaffer’s tape works well – and place thespeaker on the floor as shown in Figure 5. Clamp your contact mic to the otherend of the Slinky with a strong spring clip and attach this assembly to the end of a mic boom 3-6 feet up from the speaker, with the Slinky stretched between (Figure 6.) Plug the contact mic into your mixer or a guitar amp and pluck the spring to check your level. Now play some audio through the speaker and listen to the contact mic as the speaker shakes the Slinky – you may want to use headphones so you can distinguish the sound of the Slinky from the music coming directly out of the speaker.You should hear a “spoingy,” vaguely spring reverb-y cloud around your originalsignal.

Pocket-sized sound manipulator

Korg Kaossilator Synthesizer

For a number of years I’ve been into sound art and electronics, but never had the cash and space for an ARP 2600. I recently acquired a Korg Kaossilator, a fabulous little dynamic phrase synthesizer, which, for all intents and purposes, now serves as my main musical device. Pocket-sized and touch-operated, the Kaossilator is comprised of 100 sounds: electronic beats, synth chords and pads, squelchy bass tones and the odd acoustic instruments. The Theremin sounds alone are worth the price tag. The fun part is creating 8-beat loops in which you can control the tempo and the scales of the instruments selected. I’ve already “composed” a few pieces using just the Korg and will most likely start incorporating it into GarageBand or, perhaps, Max/MSP once my visual programming chops get happening. My only complaint is you can’t edit or remove instruments/sounds as you layer them or control individual volumes. Still, I highly recommend the Korg for beginners and semi-pros that haven’t got a cache of gear and/or software. For standalone equipment, I don’t think there’s anything really comparable to the Kaossilator, except it’s cousin, the Mini Kaoss Pad, which is more for effects.

A hobbyist that was a session drummer in another life (before children), it’s limiting to how often I can make music. Drummers have to deal with the confines of noise volumes (the neighbors), the amount of space required and the portability of your gear. Plus, your output is restricted to mainly the rhythmic aspects of music as well as performing in the more traditional acoustic genres. With two small children, I don’t get to play with the Kaossilator as often as I’d like, but the one-year-old loves to see and hear it in action. While you can use the sounds to record with in your audio software, you can also just plug in headphones and experience your public transit commuting time diminish exponentially. I’ve taken it out of the house a few times. It runs on either a 4.5V adapter (not included) or 4 AA batteries (included). I have yet to really clock the amount of time used with just the batteries, but it’s been a lot longer than you’d get on a laptop. — Gord Fynes

Software synthesizer

Moog Modular

I remember the first time I encountered a Moog Synthesizer: Switched-On Bach. I was all of 14-years-old and absolutely captivated. All those knobs and patch cords. And then there were the sounds that it made. To an adolescent boy growing up in the mid-late ’60s whose hero was Mr. Spock, it was like a futuristic dream come true — my own musical version of the Starship Enterprise and for only a few thousand dollars. The Last Whole Earth Catalog even featured a review of it by Wendy Carlos herself!

Then I learned how much a few thousand dollars actually was. I tinkered with resisters and capacitors, transistors and chokes, but I couldn’t do anything like that. But this is what led me inexorably to a career in music and recording. Well, and the Beatles helped, too. Flash forward 41 years and many synthesizers, guitars and amps later, I still could not seem to afford that big gleaming Moog dream.

Then a company called Arturia released a virtual software version of my childhood Holy Grail, the Moog Modular V. And there were nine — count ’em, nine! — oscillators. Filters, envelope generators. A fixed filter bank. A sample and hold module. A bank of configurable mixers. And with enough computer firepower, I could finally make the sounds I’d heard Wendy Carlos make. The software even has stereo chorus and delay lines, a very neat addition to the package to fatten up your sound without having to use any outboard effects. And did I mention polyphony? Yes, unlike its hardware predecessor, the Moog Modular V offers up to 32 voices, if you have the processor power to deliver them.

I’ve been using this powerful, flexible piece of software for almost four years now and I have to admit that it does almost everything I ever wanted a music synthesizer to do. It does things the hardware version couldn’t even do. My only complaint is latency (delay). I would never use it live, but then again I haven’t been playing live these days, and if I did, I’d probably sample off the sounds I want to use and do it that way. The software can be used stand alone or as a plugin, for Mac or Windows OS. — Jeff Bragg

Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

Best weather app / Airport delay tracker / Mars photos

Recomendo - issue #509

Best weather app

Dark Sky used to be the best weather app on the iPhone. Apple bought it years ago, incorporated its best features into their Weather App, but then never improved it. The folks who made Dark Sky are back with version 2.0, which they call Acme Weather. It produces extremely hyper-local forecasts with probabilistic scenarios, alerting you to how certain the forecast is. They also display crowdsource data, like rainbow sightings. I found it superior enough to pay for it ($25/yr), once the free trial ran out. — KK

Real-time airport delays

Flighty’s airport dashboard shows live departure and arrival delays for hundreds of airports around the world. A quick glance before you leave for the airport could save you a lot of stress — or at least help you decide whether to grab that extra coffee first. Free to use in a browser. — MF

Show about a dysfunctional family of gods

KAOS on Netflix is a dark, modern remix of the Greek gods that is both chaotic and entertaining to watch. The plot revolves around Zeus trying to prevent a prophecy of his downfall, the three humans handed the greater destiny of being the ones to topple the gods, and the betrayals of his dysfunctional immortal family. Dionysus, god of wine, pleasure, and wild frenzy, was my favorite character—a sad party boy god aching for real love and meaning. Because we’re dealing with gods and myth, there is of course sex and violence and a lot of death—nothing is sacred, not even babies. It’s definitely not for everyone, but if you love mythology I highly recommend it. It will make you squeamish and it will make you laugh. I binged the first season in two weeks and was genuinely bummed to learn it was canceled. — CD

USB charger with a useful display

The Anker Smart Display Charger is a 45W USB-C block with a built-in color screen that’s genuinely useful. It shows real-time wattage, how close your battery is to full, which device is connected, and if your phone is fast-charging or just trickling. It is smaller than most 10W chargers, with 180-degree folding prongs that flatten for travel. — MF

Tiny rechargeable flashlight

The best flashlight is the one that you are carrying, which means the tiny one on your phone is what most of us use. However I like a lot of extra light inspecting work in my workshop, hunting for things in the house, and walking at night, so I carry a small dedicated light on my keyring and in my daypack. The Olight Imini 2 is only 2 inches (42mm) long, easy to turn on with one hand, and most agreeably, can be recharged with USB. No batteries ever needed! It’s 10 times brighter than a phone and easier to handle. I use mine far more than I thought I would. — KK

Visually traverse another planet

This website lets you follow the path of the Curiosity rover through every step and photo since it landed on Mars in 2012. You scroll along the rover’s path on a topographical map, and the actual raw NASA photos from that day fill the screen alongside it. It’s awe—and a super cool project. — CD

Sign up here to get Recomendo a week early in your inbox.

Book Freak #205: Mindset

The New Psychology of Success

Get Mindset

Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck spent decades studying why some people bounce back from failure while others crumble. Her answer comes down to belief. People who see their abilities as developable (a “growth mindset”) consistently outperform those who see talent as something you’re born with or without (a “fixed mindset”).

Core Principles

Fixed Mindset Traps You

A fixed mindset assumes intelligence and talent are carved in stone. When you believe your qualities can’t change, success becomes about proving you’re smart, and failure becomes a verdict on your worth. You avoid challenges that might expose you. You get defensive about criticism. You start to see effort as a sign you don’t have natural ability. Every situation becomes a test of who you are.

Growth Mindset Liberates You

A growth mindset sees abilities as developable through effort, good strategy, and help from others. Failure isn’t a verdict. It’s information. People with this mindset don’t just seek challenge; they get energized by it, because struggle means they’re learning. Dweck’s key point: a person’s true potential is unknown and unknowable. You can’t predict what someone will accomplish with years of dedicated practice.

The Power of “Yet”

A growth mindset turns “I can’t do this” into “I can’t do this yet.” One word, but it changes your whole relationship to difficulty. When students learn they can strengthen their brains through effort, their performance improves. And there’s a physical difference: brain scans show that growth-mindset brains light up when reviewing errors, while fixed-mindset brains show no activity at all. One brain is engaging with the mistake. The other is ignoring it.

Praise Effort, Not Intelligence

Praising children’s intelligence backfires. They stop wanting challenges because they don’t want to look stupid. Praising effort and strategy does the opposite. If you want to give kids a gift, teach them to love challenges and be curious about their mistakes. This applies to how you talk to yourself, too.

Try It Now

1. The next time you avoid a challenge because you might fail, stop and ask: am I protecting my self-image, or am I learning?
2. When you catch yourself thinking “I’m not good at this,” add “yet.” Notice how one word changes the feeling.
3. Listen to how you praise others. Are you praising talent (”You’re so smart!”) or effort (”You worked hard and tried a new approach”)? Shift toward the second one, including when you talk to yourself.

Quote

“The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life.”

JetBlue Bag Gouging/2026 Summer Bargains/Canadian Immigration

Nomadico issue #201

JetBlue Makes Iran Your Problem

It’s telling that no other airline exec has said, “Great idea!” yet and followed their lead, but JetBlue decided to use the Iran bombings as an excuse to raise baggage fees for passengers. This despite the fact that JetBlue was already charging some of the highest checked bag fees in the world. Fees are now rising to a range of $39 to $59 depending on the date and how far ahead you book. If you’re flying across the Atlantic, a situation where better airlines include one checked bag automatically, it’ll cost you a minimum of $74 for one suitcase, $109 or more for the second. Book accordingly…

Bargain Destinations This Summer

One of the frequent themes I cover is the benefit of leaving your variables open when planning a vacation. If you can snag a cheap airfare and get a bargain place to stay, you can easily spend half what you would have if you were set on one location at one particular time. This article runs down 10 destinations that will be a good deal this summer, based on booking info supplied by Kayak.com. It is aimed at North Americans, so your results will vary from Europe or Asia, but for this part of the world the deals include Costa Rica, Canada, Panama, and Peru.

Give a Birthday Playlist

In my younger days before digital MP3s, I would frequently make cassette mix tapes for my close friends, including ones living far away. Watch the circa 2000 John Cusak/Jack Black movie High Fidelity (or read the book) if you’re too young to know what I’m talking about. Anyway, my daughter knew I didn’t need any more “stuff” for my birthday and she made a 5-hour playlist on Spotify for me to listen to instead. I appreciated the time and thought she put into it and it’s a fun playlist that will make me think of our history together when I hear it. Here are the instructions. (This obviously works best if you know the person’s tastes…)

Canadian Heritage Immigration

More people left then USA than entered it last year, spurred in part by frustrated Americans moving abroad. Canada used to be out of the running for most people, even if they had a family history there, but that has changed recently. If you’re the type that sews a Canadian flag on your backpack to fool people, you may have an immigration path available now for you and your children if you can trace the lineage. See more info here.

What’s in my NOW? — Semi Chellas

issue #249

Semi C. is a writer.

PHYSICAL

• Five year diary – only a couple sentences a day, but the perspective that emerges once you are into the second or third year is incredible. Like, it turns out everything bad happens to me on December 11. Everything good is first week of April. I’m on year 7.
• Reading light (bookmark style from Glocusent) – this tiny thumb drive of a nightlight saves me from looking at my phone if I’m awake in the night, with warm and cool settings and different brightness.
• Mandoline slicer (from OXO Good Grips) – makes all slicing and dicing way easier, which makes me eat more veggies.

DIGITAL

• Duolingo – I am now competent in two new languages, but it’s also a way to be productive and not on social when I’m on my phone.
• Headspace – meditating on a streak!

INVISIBLE

I love this Toni Morrison quotation:

“Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge—even wisdom. Like art.”

Sign up here to get What’s in my NOW? a week early in your inbox.

What’s in my NOW? — Semi Chellas