Songs Of Freedom

One of my favorite things about turning 16 and getting my license (and growing up a suburban white kid) was being able to blast the first disc of Songs Of Freedom while driving through the "farmland" of Northern Illinois during the summertime. Yeah, there are better Bob Marley records to turn on, but we all got our musical keepsakes from teenage yesteryears. Turns out that CD sounds just as good in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York. Shocker.Enjoy it on the way to wherever you find yourself going this summer. Free anti-depressants for everyone..MP3: Bob Marley - Mellow Mood MP3: Bob Marley - HypocritesMP3: Bob Marley - Thank You Lord MP3: Bob Marley - Back OutMP3: Bob Marley - Mr. Brown****And one more in honor of Best Made Co's newest arrival:MP3: Bob Marley - Small Axe

All That The Rain Promises and More

All That the Rain Promises, and More is a wild mushroom identification and field guide by American mycologist David Arora. Published in 1991, the book includes detailed descriptions of more than 200 edible and poisonous mushroom species, as well as recipes, stories, and information on uses of various species such as for dying hair and clothing or playing games. In the preface, Arora writes:

"In leafing through these pages, you may wonder what all the 'fanciful,' 'foolish,' or (shudder) 'extraneous' material is doing in a factual guide. After all, it is the practical, hands-on, how-to-identify information that makes this book usefull and gives it substance. But I ask: is it any stranger or less desirable to sprinkle the facts with flakes of fancy than it is to liven up solemn, substantial fare like potatoes with something fancier and more flavorful, like wild mushrooms?"

Read it here and then buy it here.

The Conquest Of Everest

On May 29, 1953, at the age of 33, Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the 29,029 foot summit of Mount Everest. Hulu has the full stream of The Conquest Of Everest, a documentary about the expedition, so if you'd like, you can click here and watch the film in its entirety.

Max and Brian/The Rising Storm

(via)There aren't many music sites better than The Rising Storm. And not that those guys are ever in a slump, but good lord have they been killing it as of late. Everything's a gem. Go visit and stay as long as you can. Make yourself a mix and play it loud while your dog (Max or Brian? I say Max is the dog) is sticking his head out the window.MP3: Hoyt Axton - Have A Nice Day MP3: Manfred Mann - Part Time Man

There are No Other Everglades In The World

In the early 1940s, while working as a journalist at the Miami Herald, Marjory Stoneman Douglas was asked to contribute to the Rivers Of America Series by writing about the Miami River. She was unimpressed by the river, so asked if she could instead write about the Everglades. She researched the Everglades for five years at a time where little scientific knowledge existed about the area, and in 1947, the year that the Everglades was designated a national park, The Everglades: River Of Grass was published. The book's first line is one of the most famous written about the good ol' Glades:

There are no other Everglades in the world.They are, they have always been, one of the unique regions of the earth, remote, never wholly known. Nothing anywhere else is like them: their vast glittering openness, wider than the enormous visible round of the horizon, the racing free saltness and sweetness of their massive winds, under the dazzling blue heights of space. They are unique also in the simplicity, the diversity, the related harmony of the forms of life they enclose. The miracle of light pours over the green and brown expanse of saw grass and of water, shining and slow-moving below, the grass and water that is the meaning the central fact of the Everglades of Florida. It is a river of grass.

Stoneman helped to educate the public and protect the park until she died in 1998. She 108 years old. What a pretty little bird.MP3: Lonnie Mack - Florida

Cold Splinters Survey: Getting Back To Your Car

It's always a bittersweet moment getting back to your car after a few days in the woods/desert/prairie. You've accomplished something - even if it meant walking a few hundred yards, starting a fire, then drinking yourself to sleep - but you've also got to get back into a big piece of metal that will most definitely be either too hot or too cold for comfort. You take off your muddy clothes, put on less muddy ones, and drive a group of aching bones back to wherever it is you call home. But no matter how badly you wish you had one more day of eating apples and cinnamon oatmeal from an enamel bowl while watching the sun come up, you finally have a chance to play (BLAST) the song you've had in your head since the second you stepped on the trail.Last week I carelessly asked how y'all prepare your coffee in the morning, and was surprised, shocked even, that so many people commented. I thought it'd be fun to do something like that again, because as I'm sure you must know by now, you are all much more interesting than I am and your answers show it. So hopefully you'll take part in this one too and not make me feel like a fool when the comment section reads "0."What album do you put on when you get back to the car from a good hike?MP3: Free Beer - Cruisin

Colin Fletcher

In the late 1950s, after joining the Royal Marines, serving during World War II, and building roads in Kenya, Welsh-born Colin Fletcher moved to San Francisco. He began hiking in the hills, and two years later, when faced with the decision of whether or not to marry the woman he had been living with, decided to walk the length of California and do some thinking. Fletcher came back, married the girl, and wrote an account of his journey called The Thousand-Mile Summer.The marriage, unfortunately, lasted less than a year, and in 1963, to mend his broken heart, Fletcher decided to walk the length of the Grand Canyon. In 1968, Fletcher published a book about the adventure, The Man Who Walked Through Time, and The Complete Walker, a backpacking guide that has now sold over 500,000 copies. Because of both books, many consider Fletcher to be the father of modern backpacking. Sadly, Fletcher died in 2007 from complications of head injuries he sustained when he was hit by an SUV near his California home in 2001.If you haven't already, pick up a copy of The Man Who Walked Through Time. It's a quick and inspiring book that will certainly help fuel the I-CAN-NOT-WAIT-FOR-SPRING-fire.

Dan Gibson + Solitudes

Throughout the 1940s, Dan Gibson (above, left) made nature films, including Audobon Wildlife Theatre, where he learned how to record wildlife sound. He helped design pioneering audio equipment, including the "Dan Gibson Parabolic Microphone," which he used to record LPs in the 1950s and 60s. In 1981, Gibson started the Solitudes series, which is now run by his sons (Gibson passed away in 2006). Solitudes is more like New Age music with whale calls now, BUT, f you ever find one of the old LPs at the thrift store, buy it. The covers, descriptions of the environments they're recording in, and the actual recordings are just wonderful. From the first volume of Solitudes, By Canoe To Loon Lake:

"Our starting point is a waterfall at the end of a portage. We dip the paddle into the gently flowing river. We drift awhile. We are watched. The ruby-crowned kinglet notes our presence in its territory. The Kinglet is the first wildlife voice we hear. As we drift downwards a spruce lined shore one of nature's friendliest sounds keeps us company, the spruce forest rings with the song of the white-throated sparrow. ... Up ahead we can see the white waters of the rapids thrashing up above the surface level of the lake. The canoe is drawn forward. Our microphones are mounted on the on the gunwales, soon you are plunging into ever quickening rapids until they are thundering all around you as you surge through the channels ... then come at last to the placid reaches of Loon Lake. A slight evening breeze drifts us out into the secluded lake where the gray tree frogs and the spring peeper frogs provide their evening background chorus to the haunting calls of the loon."

In 1994, Dan was awarded The Order of Canada for his environmental works, and in 1997, Dan was awarded the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award at the Juno Awards.Download By Canoe To Loon Lake and Storm On A Wilderness Lake at Closet Of Curiosities.