Jan/16/09
13comments

Friday Links

We’re back in business. I hope everyone had a good Xmas/New Year. Lots to catch up on.

Mike Hatter (aka hoosierhiver) has started a new ukulele company: Mainland Ukes. Julie from Ukulele Review took a visit to the shop.

After the ukuleles for libraries stories, Unshelved did a week long comic strip series on ukes starting here with a line I intended to steal at the earliest possible opportunity.

Jimmy of the Bobby McGees has been sharing his ukulele wisdom with videos about moveable chord shapes, the split stroke and plenty more.

Ken Middleton has recorded a fantastic entry to the ‘Collaborate with Yo Yo Ma’ contest. You listen to and vote for his entry here and get the tab for it here.

Curt Sheller has uploaded a bunch of his ukulele books to Scribd where you can read them for free.

I wrote a guest post telling guitar players to buy a uke on Jemsite.

Winner of the Bushman World and so forth Contest is announced. I’m even more baffled than I was last year. I can’t believe my choice of winner didn’t even get an honorable mention. Nor did my second favorite: Banana Phone. And this video deserved at least a mention for the animation alone. And no Seeso. Pffft. Atleast Boing Boing knows its shizzle from its pizzle.

Wilfried Welti compares ukulele strings.

On Uker Tabs: Sam has put up a whole load of King Blues chords and Bomb the Music Industry, Todd has Pink Floyd’s Is There Anybody Out There?, katreetrunk put up A Fine Frenzy’s Almost Lover and Arnaud provided us with Round Midnight. Thanks folks.

No New York Ukulele Festival 2009.

UkeToob interviews Howlin’ Hobbit.

Second edition of Ukulele Player Magazine.

Ukelele-bot (Via ilovefizzypop).

Amanda Palmer and Emilyn Brodsky jump on the ‘ukulele covers of The Cure’ bandwagon.

Anyone have any advice on building a ukulelecopter?

Flapper girls are the cat’s meow.

You are reading Friday Links - permalink
View Comments

13 Comments

  1. zymeck January 16th, 2009 2:12 pm

    Huzzah!!

    Good to have you back Al. :D

    Got to agree with you about the Bushmans – what were they thinking?
    I future i will only be supporting music competitions with integrity, such as the Eurovison song contest.

  2. Donnie Bubbles January 16th, 2009 2:29 pm

    Welcome back!

    The generous amount of Bushman prize money does make it the biggest uke contest of the year. Most of my favorites in the running had “Julia Nunes” style humor to them, which I had mixed feelings about. While the winner did not grab me on first view, they may have the potential to expand the uke world more than a “funny” performer would, and that could be prize money well spent.

    If you feel strongly about this contest, join the forum at Bushman now and you can vote next year….

  3. Hello Jodi January 16th, 2009 4:24 pm

    I can’t believe you and I both liked the same videos! Those two were my favorites as well. There was one more I loved, but I can’t get to it now.
    That whole contest is a little confusing. I mean, it’s not like the ukuleles are the actual prize because c’mon, who wants a Bushman bad enough to do all that work? It’s about bragging rights, really. And for Bushman, it’s about promoting themselves, I get that, and so Julia Nunes win last year makes sense. But MmmBop? Really?
    Anyway, it’s nice having you back! Every other day I would check the site as I always forgot when you were actually back.

  4. Howlin' Hobbit January 16th, 2009 5:57 pm

    Mmmmm…. flapper girls.

  5. Emily January 16th, 2009 7:08 pm

    As a librarian I can admit that I’ve never really like “Unshelved”. The uke strips are pretty good, though. Thanks for sharing and welcome back!

  6. Woodshed January 16th, 2009 9:09 pm

    Andy: I’m seriously considering starting a Eurovision Ukulele Contest.

    Donnie: I don’t have anything against the winners. They seem like good singers. But I’d rather they’d picked something that showed some creativity.

    Jodi: At least Mmmbop was a better choice of cover than I’m Yours. Talk about thinking inside the box. It’s a bit disappointing that so many of them are covers.

    Hobbit: My thoughts exactly. That’s a look that has to come back.

    Emily: Thanks, it’s good to be back.

  7. Hello Jodi January 16th, 2009 9:21 pm

    I wonder if MGM would partner with you to have a video contest? Some token prize like a clip on tuner (I say that because I really need one, actually), but ultimately supreme bragging rights? That would be sweet. And select “celebrity” judges or something, like the ukulelia dudes or Victoria or whoever. I would totally enter a contest where I had the chance to win carte blanche on trash talk.

  8. Woodshed January 16th, 2009 9:38 pm

    Jodi: I’m not too keen on having my own video contest. For many reasons. But the main one is that you go to all that effort and expense to create excitement in the uke community and all you get is some idiot blogger slagging you off because they don’t like your taste in music.

  9. LonnaB January 16th, 2009 10:44 pm

    That was one rocking version of Banana Phone.

    I’m inspired.

    Maybe the fact that I work my way through the Raffi songbook daily (three year olds LOVE him) may pay off after all.

  10. LonnaB January 16th, 2009 10:45 pm

    Oh, and Al, I’m glad you’re back.

  11. Olly January 17th, 2009 9:10 am

    Yay! Good to have uke hunt back! Hope you had a good xmas and new year! Btw, least the flying Vee looks funky, if nothing else

    :o)

  12. Phredd January 17th, 2009 1:09 pm

    Welcome back Al, and Happy New Year. Great job on the Jemsite article.

  13. Woodshed January 18th, 2009 11:56 am

    Lonna: I look forward to seeing your Raffi series on YouTube.

    Olly: I did, thanks.

    Phredd: Thanks. And good luck with the bassoon.

Sorry, Comments Are Broken Right Now

You must be logged in to post a comment.