Personally, I think sock monkeys RULE! But seriously, this is a great looking design. My only suggestion for improvement is that the plain lower barrel seems out of sync with the upper barrel. I wouldn't repeat the upper barrel on the lower, that would be too complicated (visually speaking). But I think the lower barrel would fit much better with the upper if you put in some simple, small bands of the contrasting wood used in the glue-up.
But i could be all wrong [
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