Lounge Loves: From mushroom music to The Cat Daddy

Watching clouds go by

I bet that you, just like me, look at screens more than skies. Artist Chris Judge is repairing that with A Daily Cloud, his Instagram account. He urges us to take photographs of clouds and proceeds to transform them with a few strokes into surreal but fun images. Could the cloud you are seeing actually be a crowd of cats, a bear chilling with a book and hot chocolate, or even a full animal brass band in the sky? Get out, look at the sky and explore the canvas of possibilities above you. Bonus: Judge has announced a calendar for 2023 filled with a selection of such pictures, available for purchase. Another bonus: If you love clouds, check cloudappreciationsociety.org, where you can find information, art, podcasts, haikus and more, all about, or inspired by, clouds. — Vangmayi Parakala

I bet that you, just like me, look at screens more than skies. Artist Chris Judge is repairing that with A Daily Cloud, his Instagram account. (Chris Judge)

Symphony of Mushrooms

Plants can make music—and so can mushrooms. Veteran musician Tarun Nayyar, who has a background in classical Indian music and biology, mixes electrical signals from plants and uses home-built synthesisers and other analogue equipment to create plant music. In his most recent work, Mushroom Dance, the synth-wave music is almost in the realm of science fiction, something that would fit right into Stranger Things. In the past, Nayyar has also created plant music from, among other things, bigleaf maple (with a mix of raga Bhairavi), mangosteen and cactus. While his Instagram feed is a treat, you can hear the entire discography on Spotify, SoundCloud and find videos on his YouTube channel, Modern Biology. — Nitin Sreedhar

Mushroom Dance is veteran musician Tarun Nayyar's most recent work.

Sweet truth

Monkfruit, or lo han guo, was first grown by Chinese monks centuries ago and was used as a sweetener and in preparation of Chinese traditional medicine before artificial sugar substitutes like aspartame. In recent years, the hip keto-bros have discovered it and made it mainstream as a natural alternative to chemical sweeteners, which have been shown to impact gut health negatively. While there are not enough studies to show the effects of monkfruit over the long term, initial studies do show that the zero-calorie, zero-carb sweetener, now in India in a user-friendly form from Lakanto, is safer than the likes of aspartame. For me, its neutral aftertaste makes it a better choice than stevia, for sure. — Shrabonti Bagchi

In recent years, the hip keto-bros have discovered monkfruit and made it mainstream as a natural alternative to chemical sweeteners.

Ask daddy about cats

I first came across Jackson Galaxy, aka The Cat Daddy, earlier this year while moving cities with two cats. His tips on setting up a base camp in a new place when one moves with cats were invaluable and helped my cats adjust pretty quickly to our new home. Since then, I have used this cat behaviourist frequently for several things, including litter tray issues. Right now, he is my go-to resource for cat introduction, an invaluable one since my last cat, a kitten named Mimi, came into our lives. And no, you don’t need to have a cat-related situation to tune in to The Cat Daddy’s YouTube channel. He is also a great source of information on all things cat: from mapping the evolution of the felines to analysing Stray, the recent video game whose protagonist is a stray cat. — Preeti Zachariah