SEABOURN SUGGESTS: HOW TO SPEND YOUR DOWN TIME
SAILINGALONEAROUNDTHEWORLD:THEILLUSTRATEDEDITION, JOSHUA SLOCUM (ZENITH PRESS)
Joshua Slocum became a bestselling author in 1900 — and all he had to do was sail 46,000 miles around the world alone to do it. He was the first sailor to perform the feat single-handed, and luckily for us, was also a talented storyteller. Between April 24, 1895, and June 27, 1898, he crossed the Atlantic twice, befriended the ghost of Christopher Columbus’ navigator (a fever vision brought on, he says, by too many green plums with farmer’s cheese), crossed through the Straits of Magellan, met Robert Louis Stevenson’s charming widow in Samoa, and visited Australia and South Africa before returning to Fairhaven, Massachusetts. This new edition is lavishly illustrated with the original ink drawings from the 1905 printing, historical maps, and colorful photographs of Slocum’s ports of call and a replica of his ship, Spray, that sailed in the 1930s. It’s also filled with excerpts from other sailors and sailing enthusiasts inspired by Slocum’s journey.
THE PINK RIVER DOLPHINS, LAKE ACAJATUBA, BRAZIL
The locals call them botos, and they look like something a little girl dreamed up for her fifth birthday party. In the heart of Brazil’s Amazon Basin, you can meet a species of dolphin with long, smiling snouts and skin the color of bubble gum, heirloom roses and princess dresses. The pink dolphins, one of South America’s rarest creatures, live only in the fresh water of the rain forest. In the past, they competed with humans for catfish — viewed as a delicacy by both species. Now, local fishermen credit the pink dolphin with creating a new eco-tourism industry, and the fascinating creatures delight visitors from all over the world.
FULLHEAL, WAKING AIDA
This reflective, thoughtful, Southampton-based musical collective creates soundscapes that run a full emotional course from spare melancholy to richly textured exuberance. Their compositions (can they be called “songs” if they don’t have any words?) get described as “intricate” and “mathematical,” and there is a sense of precision and control here, but it’s all in the service of sweeping emotional stories (and yes, they can be called “stories” even without any words). For example, the track “Exploding Palm” starts with all the joy of 1960s surf rock, veers into a smokier cool-jazz vibe, then follows a solo piano as it gradually builds on the minimal melody and ultimately opens into a grandeur the equal to contemporary composers like Jerry Goldsmith or Howard Shore. Good music for a memorable journey.