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home | buy ukulelia stuff | gary | email gary | suggestions | email craig | rss feed Friday, October 03, 2008How many ukes???? You'll never be able to look your ukulele in the face (do they have faces?) if you miss this one..."Night of 100 Ukes" Thursday, Oct. 16 at New York's favorite tiki bar, Otto's Shrunken Head (538 E. 14th Street, between Ave. A & B). This will be a great night of uke excitement, with five fun acts and best of all, NO COVER! Agent 99 - 10:30 Fez-sational Hawaiian pop from the Big Island of Manhattan! Hot Time Harv - 10 The Geriatrics? Gigolo featuring J-Boy Shine! Sweet Soubrette and the Shipwrecks - 9 Brooklyn?s femme fatale with her full band! Craig Chesler - 8 The cool crooner of ukedom! The Ukemen - 7:30 Rush Kress and friends making their NYC debut! SUBWAY: L to First Ave. or 4 / 5 / 6 / N / R / Q / W to Union Sq. more info. posted by Craig at 8:11 AM permalink 0 comments :: click here to comment!
Sunday, September 28, 2008Sample track from NOWHERE This is one track called "Frontporch" from my upcoming CD called NOWHERE, due out at the end of November. Frontporch fair warning! This song contains adult language and situations... posted by Craig at 4:01 PM permalink 1 comments :: click here to comment!
Monday, September 22, 2008Pardon My (Relative) Silence Dear Readers,If you've been a fan of Ukulelia for a while, you've probably noticed that my posting volume has been down for about a year, and why The World's Greatest Ukulele Weblog is only #8 these days. If you'll take a moment and read this article, you'll get a small taste of what we've been going through for a year. Obviously, it's hard to keep up a blog when you're spending an extraordinary amount of effort trying to keep your disabled son out of jail. It's a really sad story, and this article doesn't quite convey the amount of stomach acid and legal fees my wife and I have had to incur simply to make sure my son receives the basic education guaranteed him by law. I am profoundly proud of my son, Garrison, who turned 16 on Saturday. (Happy birthday, Brother.) And I'm profoundly proud of his two sisters, who study hard and do really, really well. And, ironically, I'm proud of our local high school, which is in the highest ranking district in California. And I'm ashamed that this same, excellent school put a kid with Down Syndrome in a closet. Link posted by Gary at 8:18 AM permalink 2 comments :: click here to comment!
Friday, September 19, 2008Ukulele Ireland But so far as I know, James Joyce never played:"Ulster, Leinster, Munster, Connacht. My, Dog, Has, Fleas. Ukulele Ireland - four strings, four provinces and the truth, brothers and sisters."Link posted by Gary at 11:24 PM permalink 0 comments :: click here to comment!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008Heart Strings - The Story of the Kamaka Ukulele Thursday, September 18, 2008 at 8:30pm, PBS Hawaii will air Heart Strings - The Story of the Kamaka Ukulele. Plans for re-broadcast on the mainland are in the works, but prolly on Island Time. If you catch the show, drop us a note and tell us how it stay was. Linkposted by Gary at 8:19 AM permalink 0 comments :: click here to comment!
Sunday, September 14, 2008Sweetheart Story Nice article in the Philly Inquirer. Among others, it has some nice things to say about Joseph Todaro. Philadelphia's first all-ukulele festival, "One Nation Under a Uke," begins today at 7 p.m. with an open mike at the Green Rock Tavern on East Lehigh Avenue, followed by performers doing songs from traditional to obscene. link. posted by Craig at 8:22 AM permalink 1 comments :: click here to comment!
Saturday, September 13, 2008No Jimmy Buffett, Just Warren and Son Composer Peter Buffett and his ukulele-playing pater will be on stage at the Paley Center in October. If you can afford to go, you're prolly already a Berkshire-Hathaway shareholder. Gotta buy the whole season series at Paley if you wanna go. Peter Buffett in Concert and ConversationLink posted by Gary at 11:51 PM permalink 0 comments :: click here to comment! Ukulele covers of Jonathan Coulton's "Still Alive" from Portal - Boing Boing On Ukulelia's big sister blog boingboing today. Linkposted by Gary at 12:48 PM permalink 0 comments :: click here to comment! This Machine Kills Cancer  Activist singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie often scrawled "This Machine Kills Fascists" on his guitar. Ingrid Michaelson carries the flame in a somewhat different vein, this time in a war against cancer. Her new CD, Be OK, will benefit cancer research, specifically through the organization Stand Up to Cancer. The title track is a uke tune, and you can hear it here. We'll forgive Ingrid for not painting "This Machine Kills Cancer" on her Rick Turner Compass Rose Tenor. Link (Photo by Josh Hunter) posted by Gary at 10:35 AM permalink 0 comments :: click here to comment! Formby Swag Speaking of George Formby, OBE, the George Formby Society has some swell swag available for purchase. Arrive at your next club meeting sporting an Official George Formby Society Tie. The Face ties turned out nice again, too. Linkposted by Gary at 9:40 AM permalink 0 comments :: click here to comment! Saturday Morning with George  I've been wanting to post a few bits about George Harrison for a while, and being stuck home with a nasty cold has afforded us the chance to pull a few threads together. First off, next week, the The Beatles Story, a themed attraction in Liverpool, will unveil the latest addition to their collection: a gold-plated banjolele previously owned by George Harrison. The uke was purchased for around $38,000 (21,600 GBP) by The Beatles Story at auction from Bonhams in June, 2008.: "George Formby/George Harrison: A gold-plated Dallas 'E' banjolele, the headstock inlaid with George Formby's name and the reverse stamped E/1169, fingerboard with dot and shaped markers, replaced skin, in original plush-lined, shaped case by Paxman Bros. Ltd. London, together with background documentation"There's apparently some argument as to whether the uke was ever owned or played by George Formby. It was indeed owned by Harrison, who later felt it belonged with the family and offered to gift it back to them. Formby's nephew insisted on paying for it, however. Lovely chaps, both. This uke was one of three at auction; the others being: George Formby's Dallas 'C' banjolele, which Formby used to perform, among other things, When I'm Cleaning Windows. (Formby used several differently-tuned ukes on stage, noting which songs each was to be used for. There's a professional cheat that anyone with Ukulele Acquisition Syndrome can use to justify the need to own multiple ukes: But Honey, I tune this one in C and I need this other one so I can tune it in D...) "...with impressed serial no. 2364, in shaped case, an envelope attached inside inscribed in Formby's hand Uke in D Low, also with five song titles written in pencil on a scrap of paper by Formby, Window Cleaner, Serves you right, Lampost, Blackpool Rock, Growing Lad, a set of 1940s' strings by Keech 'Made expressly for Mr. George Formby', and the original vellum" "rear of headstock stamped 4967 and neck with indistinct maker's mark, sold with background documentation"As for the purchasers of the Dallas 'C' and the Abbott 'Monarch," well as my mother used to say, my hat blew off. The Monarch sold for around $129,000 (72,000 GBP). No selling price is listed for the Dallas 'C', so perhaps it did't sell. I also recently ran across a video of George Harrison that I hadn't seen before. In case you haven't, here's the music video of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. Everyone looks like they're having the time of their life. I can only imagine that this must have been what it was like at George's home when he brought the ukes out.
posted by Gary at 7:52 AM permalink 0 comments :: click here to comment!
Friday, September 12, 2008Eugene UKEtoberfest 2008 Left Coasters, mark your calendars for the Eugene (Oregon) UKEtoberfest this October. Link posted by Gary at 10:44 AM permalink 0 comments :: click here to comment! Wii Ukulele We've joked around before about there being a "Ukulele Hero" coming out, but this actually appears to be a real Wii app that's in development. Anyone who knows more or can read Japanese, please drop us a line to let us know what this is all about. I have to say that, with beginner ukuleles being fairly inexpensive, and the uke being so easy to learn, this seems like a big waste of money. Now if it was truly Ukulele Hero and you could jam with Jake, that'd be different... posted by Gary at 7:57 AM permalink 3 comments :: click here to comment!
Thursday, September 11, 2008Upcoming Events at DaSilva and Santa Cruz Rising star/Slack Key Supergirl Brittni Paiva will be at Mike DaSilva's in Berkeley, CA this Sunday, September 14 at 8pm. Down to Santa Cruz, too, next Wednesday. Sez Mike: "For those not so familiar with this youthful ukulele star, here is a brief introduction. For Brittni Paiva and her ukulele, it was love at first touch.Later on in September, the Sweet Hollywaiians will be performing with special guests Robert Armstrong and Tony Marcus. We've been remiss in not writing about the Sweet Hollywaiians. They're teriffic! Catch them at Mikes on Sunday, September 28. More from Mike: "About a year ago, I was treated to an impromptu concert and recording session in the shop by four visiting musicians from Osaka, Japan. The Sweet Hollywaiians blew me away with their multi-instrumental talents and virtuoso playing of the Hawaiian steel guitar, guitar, ukulele, mandolin and bass. Link posted by Gary at 8:46 AM permalink 0 comments :: click here to comment!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008The Ballad of Blanche Barrow Inspired by my earlier post about Bonnie & Clyde's sister-in-law playing the uke in prison, Craig Robertson has written The Ballad of Blanche Barrow. Okay, so full disclosure: Craig is my partner-in-crime here on Ukulelia. Nonetheless, I have to tell you that I had a Hemingway moment this morning when he sent me the link. After reading Ulysses, Papa wrote to Sherwood Anderson: "Joyce has a most goddamn wonderful book..." Well, Craig has a most goddamn wonderful song... posted by Gary at 12:22 PM permalink 2 comments :: click here to comment!
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UKE MUSIC BOOKS Ian Whitcomb Songbook Arranged for Ukulele and Easy Keyboard
Jumpin' Jim's Ukulele Tips 'n' Tunes Jumpin' Jim's Ukulele Favorites Jumpin' Jim's Ukulele Beach Party Jumpin' Jim's Ukulele Masters: Lyle Ritz Jumpin' Jim's Ukulele Masters: Lyle Ritz Solos : 15 Chord Solos Arranged by the Ukulele Jazz Master Jumpin' Jim's Ukulele Masters: Herb Ohta Jiminy Kokopo's Ukulele Sing and Strum Fun Book UKE HISTORY BOOKS The Ukulele: A Visual History, by Jim Beloff UKE VIDEOS Bob Brosman's Ukulele Tunes and Techniques: Hawiian and American Styles UKE CDS Cliff Edwards: Singin' in the Rain FAVORITE UKE SITES UKE DISCUSSION BOARDS UKULELE SOFTWARE UKULELE MAKERS UKULELE INFORMATION UKULELE DEALERS UKULELE INSTRUCTION UKULELE PEOPLE UKULELE MUSIC AND HAWAIIANA |
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