Snake in a Can • Drawing a Turtle • Nick Drake and Watercolor music • Creative cooking and kids • Butterflies and landscapes
Nick Drake’s underreported influences. Drake only made three records, but they contain so many layers that I keep finding new details. The records sound so perfectly independent of influence — solitary islands with their own invented rules and rhythms. Yet, what first appears to be the work of a solitary auteur slowly reveals the multitude of players and influences that formed the records. John Cale, Chris McGregor, Richard Thompson, Joe Boyd, his own mother.
I only recently came across Frederick Delius — a classical musician who influenced Drake and a name I had not heard before.
Listen to his Aquarelle (Lento, ma non troppo) and then listen to River Man.
An “aquarelle” is the French term for a watercolor painting. With these songs, I like to imagine the slow motion behavior of watercolor pigments seeping into the fibers of thick paper canvas.
Delius had a non-linear arc towards becoming a composer. Born in England, failed as a citrus farmer in Florida, he turned his attention to composition, moved to Europe, married a painter, and inhabited a Parisian social network with Gauguin, Munch, Rodin, Camille Claudel, Henri Rousseau. The painting above is a portrait by his wife, Jelka Rosen.
Occasionally I’ll meet someone who has never heard Nick Drake and I’ll envy their position of listening to his records with fresh ears.
Drawing a turtle. The 70s and 80s were the Florentine Renaissance for American t-shirt designs. Super soft (yet durable) cotton fabrics, analog silkscreen graphics, flowy logos — it was a golden age for the craft. So, when I was invited (self-nominated) to design a t-shirt for the Hudson’s 10th annual Turtle Trot (an actual turtle race), my primary goal was to do justice to the great history of American vintage t-shirts. I was influenced by 70s record covers, sleepaway camp styles, and Looney Tunes.
Ben Hudson had the fine idea of selling the t-shirt and donating the funds to cancer research. Should you be interested in purchasing one of these t-shirts, an article of clothing that is designed to improve over time, please reply to this newsletter and I'll share an order form.
Peanut brittle, the most common snack in all the world. I have a fondness for the silly practical jokes of time gone by. As does comedian Paul F. Tompkins in this legendary standup sequence. Perhaps it’s nostalgia for a time when humans were entertained by matters for which we now have little attention. As primarily a rhythm and tone comedian, Tompkins is at his best when exploring life’s most mundane matters and expressing wonder at the absurdity of it all. Comedy historian Jesse David Fox takes a scholarly approach to this sketch and spends an entire podcast asking Mr. Tompkins probing questions about his relationship to bygone gags. If you are finding life too serious, I can recommend listening to both.
If you are trying to cook with kids, I have some thoughts. Grandmas are excellent at this, but they often constrain themselves to a repertoire of baked goods. Dads, anecdotally speaking, seldom try. In my experience, cooking works best with kids when there is 1) a narrative 2) urgency 3) sensory tactility and 4) a tasty payoff, of course.
Danger also helps to keep attention. My boys like using our knives and they have yet to cut themselves. They are also very into cuisine that involves a kitchen torch. We made a Chinese dish that involved a complicated preparation of pork belly and Callahan was riveted.
The artwork here, and the detail above, are from landscape painter Albert Bierstadt. As you likely know, he was famous for painting monumental, iconic vistas — valleys, mountains, sweeping forests. Lesser known was his series of butterflies. Sometimes we get accustomed to inhabiting a certain perspective.
I thought this was a good reminder to occasionally adjust your scale of attention.
—Michael Neault • August 9, 2026 • primarily written at a picnic bench on the shores of Mill Lake, Michigan • reply to this email with your thoughts