Tiptoe Tiger 🐯| Out of the Blue 🔵

Tiptoe Tiger spontaneous transmission | Old sounds, Heard a bird, Author-homies, Natural Hypotheticals, Spish spash

Jun 11, 2025

this is what’s going on in my head these days

Surprise, it’s Tiptoe Tiger. 😎

We’re back with a little edition today. I’ve been hearing reports from former Tiptoe Tiger readers that they feel lost in the world since this humble newsletter shop has shuttered its windows and sold its doors to the nearest pawn shop. May this edition serve as beacon in the dark for the lost among ye. God bless.

Unusually nature-heavy edition… nature & writing, nature & writing & music… I like the sound of that.

[Editor’s note: If you’re wondering what happened to the alien related interview from a little while back, I removed it upon request from the interviewee due to circumstances that neither I nor the interviewee could foresee. Ah well! Hard out here, tuh. 😤]

This week:

Ancestral Tones
Merlin Bird ID
Friend Writing
Ask Nature
Light up my screen

Ancestral Tones

For awhile, I’ve been following this sick instagram account called Ancestral Tones that showcases musical performances on traditional instruments and in local/indigenous/folk styles.

For example, I’m really taken by this Thai flute, the khaen:

Somewhat recently, it looks like the creator launched a Substack as well with some really interesting articles. Sadly some of the juiciest ones like “Why Football Chants are the Real Folk Music of Britain,” “The Price of a Tune: Bargains with Faeries and Musical Mysticism,” are behind a paywall. But, free to read, there is a great piece on how it looks like the ehru and the chuniri, predecessors to the violin, were perhaps orginally made with human remains… cool.

Also awesome that it’s made with python skin

Merlin Bird ID

Pretty straight forward, Merlin is an app that came out of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that’s like Shazaam for bird calls. You hear a bird, open the app, turn your mic on and Merlin will identify the bird. In addition to sound-recognition, you can also upload photos.

You can see what birds people have been identifying near you. My favorite feature I think though is the “Life List” that tracks all the birds you’ve ever seen and identified.

(This fits well with other Tiptoe Tiger recommendations like the iNaturalist App, this pocket bird call, Earbirding, and this crazy video visualizing bird calls.)

Friend Writing

I know you probably don’t have anything to read now that Tiptoe Tiger is defunct. Good writing, too, is hard to come by (and you won’t find it here).

Thankfully, I can share with you a few friends who are great writers whose work I can recommend… (to any friends cruelly omitted, this is in no way exhaustive)

Asa Canty -

I’m a big fan of Asa’s poetry. There’s a timeless quality to it I really enjoy. You can find it on his substack, The Womby Demijohn.

Julia Vassallo -

Julia, also, is a very strong poet. Subscribe to her substack, poetrygrl secret garden. She doesn’t post too much but when she does, it’s straight heat:

Nathan Keeble -

It was actually Nathan debuting his new substack that inspired me to create this Tiptoe Tiger edition and to include the “Friend Writing” recommendations.

Until his newsletter launched, I basically knew Nathan had preternatural talent at drinking high volumes of beer, whiskey, smoking Parliaments, and breaking out into songs by The Pogues after some amount of this rampant consumption. I now also know him to be a very sharp writer.

His first investigative piece, on the ferret outbreak in Bolsover, the northern English town he lives in, was cracking me up. He’ll be posting weekly, so do subscribe.

Ask Nature

This is interesting… it’s like a nature/biomimicry that you can pose questions too. The website is well designed and easy to use although I can’t really get a strong sense that it does what it’s designed to do.

https://asknature.org/

For example, I found the website on a hot day so I searched “temperature retention in nature” and… I found an article on how “Humpback whales control movement of prey by blowing spiraling nets of bubbles underwater.” They’re herding krill down there, so I’m not even mad I didn’t get the results I wanted, just a little sweaty.

Light up my screen - Splash Out

I just put out new music with my friend Joel. We’re called Splash Out! much more to come… enjoy our first video. I’m the one singing 🤷‍♂️

Thank You!

(dramatically) I don’t know when I’ll see you next. Keep it real & smile though. Much love.

Shrugs and disses,

Rob Hogan

Tiptoe Tiger’s Pop Pistol

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