Josh's Book Club

For those of you that think I'm on vacation or in "paradise", you'll be happy to know that it has been raining. Almost continuously. For the last 5 days (with the exception of our competition on Sunday - thank you Steel Pan Gods). Things have been pretty slow so I have been doing far more reading than anything else. The house I am staying at has a nice little porch with two comfy chairs for myself and my feet. I recently finished Drive by Daniel Pink and I have to say: GET IT.

At it's most basic level it's about motivation: External vs. Intrinsic. But Pink uses it to discuss what's wrong with businesses today (and many other systems like education, economies, families) as well as what's wrong with rewards and punishments. He argues that we all have three basic components to our motivation that we need to fulfill: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. And all along the way he backs it up with examples of physcological and behavioral research, stories, business models, interviews and more. It's great.

So buy it, borrow it, check it out at the library, get it on tape, Border's, Amazon whatever. I know I'm not exactly Oprah (nor do I want to be) but I highly recommend it to everyone. And if Oprah's smart, she'll follow my lead. By the way, the first book I read by this author A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the World is also fantastic. And that one is on Oprah's list.

However, with all the reading, writing, composing and practicing I have done inside, I developed quite the case of cabin fever. I finally decided that I would no longer be subjected to the weather's rules! I put on my rain coat, crocs, and swim suit and proceeded to walk around town for over an hour. I had the thought that maybe I finally blended in a little with a long sleeve jacket on and the hood up over my hat on a dark day, but then realized my long white legs were sticking out. I'm sure I looked like some type of giant bird. Anyway, I explored some new turf. It was nice to be out of the house.

TT

One of the many things that has fascinated me about this culture is their currency. Trinidad has some of the most beautifully designed and printed money I think I have ever seen. It is called TT and it comes in a variety of colors with many different images - and I don't just mean architecture or a bunch of dead white guys. There are images that are staples of Trinidad's history and prosperity: people buying fresh fruit, oil refineries, the shipping docks, and my personal favorite, steel pans. That's right, they have a musical instrument proudly displayed on their 20 dollar bill. Now it was invented here and so it is the national instrument...
but still...
lets get with it America!

The money is also decorated with a myriad of different birds on each bill. They appear many times both stylized and as realistic rendering. I'm not in to Ornithology, but it's still fascinating.

The conversion rate is roughly 1 USD = 6 TT (thank you iPhone!). Needless to say, I have been getting very good at my 6 times tables. Particularly the division aspect. As I said before about the maxi taxi - when I ride it for 30 minutes and it costs 4 TT - that's not even one US dollar. Now, I haven't been in a taxi in Chicago in a while, but I'm pretty sure they click something on the meter before you even shut the door that charges you well over a dollar - and you haven't even told them where you want to go yet. Ridiculous.

Here is a picture. So strange. I feel like I've seen this somewhere before....




ooohh yeaaah....



P.S. - Another reason I became interested in currency and it's artwork is thanks to a fantastic printmaker/ teacher/ friend I met in college. His name is Curtis Readel. Google his name and check out his series Famous Dead White Guys from American History. It's quite fantastic. As well as his work with shredded money.