Ask most of us what we know about Tasmania and we might be able to identify that Tasmania is home to an animal called the Tasmanian Devil.
Anything further about that animal – its size, its diet, whether it resembles a tornado while running – we have no idea.
In case you find yourself in conversation about Tasmania, here are some other facts to keep up your sleeve:
- It’s part of Australia, but it’s not blazing hot all the time. It’s about as far south of the equator as Toronto is north
- Until the end of the last ice age about 12 000 years ago, it was connected to the mainland of Australia, but rising sea levels cut it off
- The aforementioned Tasmanian Devil is a marsupial, meaning they’ve got pouches just like kangaroos
- The Tasmanian Devil is the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world, but only because the Tasmanian tiger, which was a freaking cool-looking animal, went extinct in the 1930s
- The Tasmanian tiger features on Tasmania’s coat of arms, which is either a cool tribute to a cool animal, or the creepy heraldic equivalent of mounting a deer head on a wall
- Tasmania is home to Alan Gogoll, a guitarist with fingers of absolute fire
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. He plays it with a capo way up high on the guitar’s neck, giving it a high-pitched, mousy feeling.
2. You can almost hear the mouse scrambling around in the dizzyingly quick harmonics that recur throughout the song.
3. He occasionally adds percussion by tapping the body of the guitar.
Recommended listening activity:
Wearing a hoodie just so you can keep something in the marsupial pocket.
Buy it here.
The post Week 701: “Mulberry Mouse” by Alan Gogoll appeared first on Beautiful Song Of The Week.
