#botantist

Collected on May 6, 1950, this specimen was found in by Werner E. Buker. Buker was a math teacher at Perry High School in Pittsburgh and a long-time affiliate with the museum and the Botanical Society of Western Pennsylvania. This spring ephemeral has a great name—Dutchman’s breeches (Dicentra cucullaria). The white flowers look like little pants hung out on a line to dry. Bumblebees get nectar from this plant with the help of a long proboscis (tongue-like appendage). Native Americans are said to have used the dry bulbs of this species as a blood purifier, spring tonic, and to treat syphilis. However, it contains alkaloids that are poisonous if eaten in large quantities and can cause skin irritation. It has been found to induce trembling, vomiting, and convulsions in cows that wandered into the forest in early spring looking for food. 

BEST TRACKS OF 2017-ARTISTS LIST #59

NIM CHIMPSKY

Nim Chimpsky have a penchant for offering up rollicking good punk with lots of attitude and lush atmospheric melodies! Here they share the tunes that made their 2017!

01. Mount Eerie - Real Death Canadian illustrator and musician Genvieve Castrée sadly passed away last year, but this is about what happens after that. Written and recorded by her husband, on her guitar, in the room she used as an art studio, it’s visceral, unpleasant, and one of the most moving pieces I’ve heard in years.

02. Chelsea Wolfe - Spun I’ve never really needed an excuse to swan around dressed all in black, but the first time I listened to this I finally perfected my wingéd eyeliner and got super into horoscopes.

03. Botanist - Upon Veltheims Throne Shall I Wait Apocalyptic Black Metal about flowers, played on an electrified hammered dulcimer. It’s not for everyone, but if you’re looking for something off the beaten track it’s definitely worth checking out.

04. Novoline - Triad Designed (like the rest of the album it’s taken from) to be played at either 33 or 45 rpm, you get the choice of either a menacing Industrial stomp or joyous 80’s House workout. Two tracks for the price of one? That’s just good value.

05. Open Mike Eagle - Hymnal (feat. Sammus) Brick Body Kids Still Daydream isn’t the most immediate album, but really gets under your skin when you spend some time with it. It was hard, but I’m choosing this track for the added bonus of a standout verse from Sammus, who is well worth a listen in her own right.

06. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - To Follow & Lead If you’re like me and you enjoy watching disembodied hands twiddle modular synths on YouTube then boy howdy do I have a present for you! If you’re not, you owe it to yourself to at least give this a try, I promise you’ll come out the other side a better person.

07. Natalia LaFourcade - Mi Tierra Veracruzana This was a Tiny Desk discovery, and from what I can gather came out of Ms. LaFourcade exploring the musical traditions of her native Mexico. Which I’m not going to pretend I know huge amounts about, but there’s always time for a sweet little song about missing your home town round these parts.

08. Dude York - Black Jack Not everything has to be big and clever! This has featured in most of our car journeys so far this year, and I believe it fulfils all the criteria of what children are referring to as “a bop” these days.

09. Hauschka - Constant Growth Fails Prepared piano loops, vintage synthesisers, disklaviers played through harmonisers - it can be hard to tell just what it is you’re listening to exactly, but even through all the layers and experimentation there’s a nervous energy bubbling up throughout this piece, part of a series imagining what the future might hold for his children. It’s unsettling and pretty in equal measures, and an excellent introduction to an artist I keep finding myself coming back to.

~  Jean Baptiste Lamarck, 1744-1829 ~ by Kay Pope

Jean Baptiste Lamarck was the great French Botanist and naturalist who, in the next generation, continued Linnaeus' work of classifying living organisms on the binominal index. His ideas also later led him to be called the Father of Evolution, although his work was not recognised until long after his death. Lamarck came from a family of eleven children living in Picardy, in northern France and at the age of seventeen joined the Army during the Seven Years War. While garrisoned in the south of France during the peace…read more at http://www.cabotrafalgarinthemoonlight.com/blog.html