This wooden box looks like my dad’s makeshift garage stepstool. Or my friend’s makeshift ferret bin. Due to the hole, one might assume it’s a makeshift stimulating aid from someone’s fetish closet. Regardless, it screams makeshift.
It’s actually a cajón, a lesser celebrated instrument in the contemporary world of percussion. When struck, this seemingly simple wooden box has all the pitches of a drum set’s snare, tom(s), and bass.
At first glance, it looks and sounds like something from Stomp, but it has a rich and interesting history. Rather than rip from Wikipedia, I’ll credit one of my dear friends D.G. who said the cajón was invented by African slaves who struck rhythms on fish crates during their time at sea. And so the cajón was born.
SIMPLICITIES BY JANINA LARENAS: Still scrambling for a holiday gift idea? Homemade hot chocolate is a delicious gift for less than $5.
BY KATE DANDIZETTE: An interview with two of the organisers behind a series of free programming classes for womin being held in London
MOONY HABITATIONS BY LEILANI CLARK: “It amazes me how much I struggle with the acts of consumption and spending”
The Devil Makes Three’s Pete Bernhard details what he wished he’d known before heading out on the road the first time
It’s not too late–there are a ton of cheap and easy gifts you can make at home
Online resources for handmade gift-giving inspiration
the Small Science Collective, a public education project that aims to put scientific information in the hands of non-scientists
Paul M Davis