Vanilla Ice plays ukulele for hipsters (seems like the video only works in the US though), Warren Buffett ukes for the Chinese, and The Rock plays to promote his film.

Makers of the film The Descendants attempt to bribe Oscar judges with a ukulele. Although Brett McKenzie is the true uker’s choice for an Oscar.

The Ukes for UNICEF festival takes place in Berkhamsted (UK) on the 3rd March and features Uke Hunt friends Ken Middleton and Krabbers and plenty more.

Coverage of the industry-fest NAMM on Ukeeku and Ukulele Underground.

On Uker Tabs: Coheed and Cambria, Bombay Bicycle Club and Charlie McDonnell.

Pictures: Taylor Swift in Vogue, mustachioed paper valentine ukulelists.

How to learn the ukulele well enough to (almost) get you laid.

Jontom has released a new ebook 50 Licks for Ukulele.

Ukulele juggling (via @WillGroveWhite).

Pierce Brosnan endorses Kamoa (via Ukulovely).

The Netherlands has a new premier ukulele outlet The Jumping Flea Market run by The Uke Box.

Trying to make conversation at the Corktown Ukulele Jam (via loriroberge).

New releases: Manitoba Hal’s Flirting with Mermaids, Kahiwa’s Love Story, MeggFarrell’s Whiskey Social, The K’s Simple As That

Lou ‘Bossarocker off of the podcast’ Armer is promising one new song a week in 2012.

There are plans for building this five-string ukulele at the bottom of this page (via Herman Vandecauter).

Springsteen on Vedder and the ukulele.

The great strumming pattern video list.

Amongst the works that would have entered the public domain on 1st January under the law in 1978 is ukulele-club favourite Folsom Prison Blues. As it is, it is going to be under copyright until 2051.

Not ukulele related, but check out Sorie Kondi on Kickstarter. He’s a musician from Sierra Leone. He’s been invited to play at South by Southwest but needs to raise the money to make the trip. From his Kickstarter page:

Being born blind in such a poor country and never receiving any formal education would seem like enough hardship by itself. But then his life was uprooted in 1996 when civil war forced him to leave his home and seek refuge in Freetown. Despite the ongoing war, he began recording his first album there in 1998, and finished it after 4 months. But on January 6, 1999, the rebels staged a brutal assault on Freetown called Operation No Living Thing. Almost all the city’s residents fled to the bush. Sorie was abandoned, forced to hide inside his house for 5 days while much of the city was looted and burned down. When the dust settled, the master tapes had been lost and his career plans derailed. He decided to remain in the capital city, in a neighborhood called Fourah Bay, renting a one-room shack perched on a dangerously steep hill (dangerous, that is, even for a sighted person).

I wrote a bit about ukulele songs and cultural appropriation. The short version: the mock-Hawaiian songs from the early years of the ukulele-boom are really horrid.

Amazon US are offering $3 off my book Ukulele for Dummies (click where it says ‘Clip this coupon’).

The book of Ralph Shaw’s blog, The Ukulele Entertainer is out now.

More free Christmas ukulele tunes from Patsy Monteleone and Shiny and the Spoon.

Will from the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain discusses the tracks of his years.

Oh shit, I own a Mahalo.

Good news for Aquila, bad news for cows. They can make real gut strings again (via @danieladuck).

It’s the best day ever to be a bartione player.

Learn pieces quicker backwards.

Ryan Gosling is Time’s Coolest Person of the Year mostly due to his ukulele playing.

Un Ukulélé pour Junior (you can buy it here)

Kimo Hussey present a TV show dedicated to the ukulele. You can watch episode 1 of The Uke Project here and episode 2 here.

Aquila have had to stop making real gut strings due to mad cow disease. Before you panic, it shouldn’t affect their bionylon and nylgut strings (thanks to Zym).

Ian Whitcomb has a new book on the way Ukulele Heroes: The Golden Years (thanks to Ron Hale) And Guitar Muse has seven more books for musicians.

8 necked guitar/bass/ukulele/mandolin.

Thanks to phi for pointing out that tabs for the Jonathan Coulton song I posted last week can be found here.

Jim D’Ville’s ukulele tune is the soundtrack to every cat video.

Molly Lewis recounts playing for Stephen Fry.

In a hurry? Tune your ukulele with a drill.

New releases: The multi-talented Lil Rev has a new album out and a book of poetry on the way, Salwa Azar’s For America, Ariel Rubin’s Big Spoon.

Free Christmas ukulele music: Leftover Cuties, Tricity Vogue, Phredd’s pirate Christmas and Kahiwa’s Christmas down under, Darren Hayman, Steffaloo, The whychristmas? podcast.

No Hawaiian category in the new slimmed down Grammys. But the ukulele is represented in the 2012 nominations list by Eddie Vedder’s Ukulele Songs. My nominations for Ukulele Album of the Year are:

Givers – In Light
Leftover Cuties – Places to Go
Emily Scott – i write letters i never send
Tune-Yards – W H O K I L L

Leave yours in the comments.

I’ve been over exited about the release of John King and Jim Tranquada‘s The ‘Ukulele: A History for what seems like years. And it looks like the University of Hawaii Press is excited about it too. They’ve given over the front cover of their 2012 catalogue to it with a marvelous picture.

Pluck Magazine – for Francophone ukers.

Pictures: Kermit and Brett McKenzie jam (thanks to Kevin), as do Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon, Winston Churchill’s license plate (via Bartt).

Sweet Soubrette discusses her ukulele-playing, insider-trading, theremin-making, Zeigfeld-girling ancestors.

Make your own cardboard ukulele which sounds better than I expected it to (thanks to cardboardfrog). Although the folding ukulele does sound as bad as I expected (via Ben Lew).

Playing: Scott Joplin’s Elite Syncopations. Manitoba Hal has some blues lesson videos.

An interesting article looking at ukulele sales. It includes chats with Mike ‘Kala’ Upton and Joe ‘Kanilea’ Souza and some interesting sales charts.

Mark Nelson – he of Fingerstyle Solos for ‘Ukulele fame has started putting up slack key ukulele video lessons (you can watch the first installment here) to accompany the release of his new slack key ukulele album.

James May doesn’t know anything about ukuleles either.

Amanda Palmer and Stephin Merritt hook up for some halloween fun on The Late Late Show.

Pictures: Dent May when he still played ukulele, girl group.

Yuval has dug up some amusing (now, perhaps not at the time) court cases involving ukuleles:

- Thomason v Thomason – a cautionary tale where buying a cheap ukulele leads to divorce: “At another time he made a present of a ukulele to his daughter and this evoked from his wife a letter which was in evidence and starts: “Cheap Cheap Cheap Scrooge—Humbug If you can’t buy a uke that will hold strings in tune—why don’t you let some one who knows how buy one—* * * ” It continues in the same tone to its conclusion.”
- State v. Haili – is carrying a ukulele probable cause for a search? The police pull over a car, see a ukulele case, search it (without a warrant) and find a gun. They find that, “In the case at bar, we conclude that once the officers saw the.22-caliber casing on the front floor of the car and the ukulele case, a known repository for firearms, there was probable cause to search,” but conclude, “In granting the motion to suppress the contents of the ukulele case, the trial court ruled that the warrantless search of the ukulele case was unconstitutional.[1] We affirm.”
- Tex Smith, the Harmonica Man,v, Arthur Godfrey et al., Defendants. – Arthur Godfrey was discussing which ukulele to buy on his TV show (those were the days) and says of Tex Smith’s $2.99 uke (those were the days), “to sell the instrument as a ukelele might not be contrary to law but that people who did it should be jailed.” You’ve got to think Godfrey had a point. The ukulele had painted on frets.
- French American Reeds v. Park Plastics – the makers of plastic Islander ukuleles sue the makers of Flamingo ukuleles claiming they’re so similar customers will confuse the two. They decided, “The “Islander” sales volume of 136,000 before the “Flamingo” appeared is not such as to indicate that plaintiff’s plastic ukelele had captured the musical imagination of the country.” Zing! Judge for yourself.

The Martin Tiple blog is turning up some fantastic vintage pictures and clips. Well worth following.

Heart Strings – it’s being made into an animated film and she’s looking for ukulelists to reference for it.

Frank Skinner’s Formby documentary on iPlayer. It’s a good watch – even if I disagree that George doesn’t get the credit he deserves – and there a few familiar faces along the way including Steven Sproat, Andy Eastman and Lorraine Bow (who has a new round of ukulele lessons coming up if you’ve been inspired).

Videos: ‘Ukulele’ must be some sort of sex-pun in Thai. What’s playing on the Uke Box?, Adam Sandler’s Mixed Nuts. I’m reconsidering putting up lists of the most watched ukulele videos each month, this month’s were pretty unwatchable.

London’s highly popular ukulele jam night Ukulele Wednesdays is heading up north. If you’re in the Manchester area in December and are up for a free jam sign up to the Ukulele Wednesdays – Manchester Facebook.

New Releases: Lil Rev’s The Happiest Way to Be Sad, A Very She & Him Christmas, The Crazed Mugs’ Find Forbidden Island, Craig Robertson is rereleasing the ukulele classic Practical Hypnotism, Ukeristic Congress

Kickstarting: The Vespers (if you’re reading this on Friday you can watch them play live at a very precise 8:57pm CST).

Setting up a home recording studio on the cheap.

New releases: Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra have a new EP out, Givers’ In Light is finally out in the UK, Shelley O’Brien’s Vivarium.

Videos: Is this a solid electric ukulele in the 50s? (Via Alex), Lorraine Bow tours the Kainle’a factory, Amanda Palmer occupies Boston with a new ukulele song, Gerald Ross has a lesson on how to make your ukulele swing.

Folding ukulele.

Learning to fly is easier than learning to play the ukulele?

Frank Skinner’s Formby documentary is going to be on BBC4 on October 27th.

Kickstarting: Michelle Blades.

Pictures: Wonder Woman at the festival, Quo ukulele, do not click this link unless you are ready to be grossed out (via Shelley), Cosby, Matsuda ukulele deconstructed, all new ukes are machine guns.

No uke action but the Watkins Family Hour Podcast is delightful and features Kate Micucci and Sara Watkins.

Addams Family Theme Tune
Chopin – Funeral March
Dance Macabre
Ghostbusters (Duet)
The Gothic Archies – Freakshow
Halloween Theme
Harry Potter – Hedwig’s Theme
London Bridge Is Falling Down (From Halloween)
The Misfits – Dig Up Her Bones
The Misfits – Halloween
Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells (from The Exorcist)
This is Halloween (From Nightmare Before Christmas)
Twilight Zone Theme
Warren Zevon – Werewolves of London
Yiruma – River Flows In You (Edward/Bella’s Lullaby)

David’s official uke rules. Including:

- Don’t say you play the ukulele if you just own one and don’t touch it.
- Don’t be an overly happy asshole
- Don’t constantly flit around reminding everyone you play the ukulele…
- …Unless you’re James Hill. Then you fucking rock.

I was interviewed by Ukulele and Languages.

Jake interviewed by Fretboard Journal. One revelation:

FJ: Do you prefer slotted headstocks?

JS: You know, it really doesn’t matter to me. However Kamaka prefers to build them, that’s how I take ‘em.

Frank Skinner Plays the banjolele on QI.

Buy the Bigfoot and Tiki collection.

Kickstarting: The Love Leighs.

MP3s: Bosco and Honey on ABC Sydney, Songs Illinois has Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapels, Fluxblog has Tune-Yards.

Middle lead of The Beatles’ Something on Uker Tabs.

Pictures: The situation was deteriorating rapidly, The Magic Ukulele, vintage ukers, O.M.G. A U.K.E. : Ukuleles in Pop Culture.

If I give my ukulele a girl’s name will people think I’m a lesbian?