Ukulele Cookbook: Friday Links

What do ukulele players like to eat? Rose Turle Ertler has answers from James Hill, Cat Green Bike, Jen Kwok and many others.

Voting has started for Bosko and Honey’s Join the Safari Contest. The process of selecting a winner is closely modelled on that of the election of the Doge of Venice; I think you vote for one video from each country and then your overall favourite. Those favourites and possibly others go through to various rounds of judging by Safari participants, sponsers and relatives. Then the winner is paraded round Piazza San Marco on Easter Monday.

Help Victoria Vox record her new album and get yourself mp3s, a house concert or a chance to chat her up depending on how much you’re willing to donate.

Uke, Ubu, Uke! is a new uke blog that already has some cool posts.

The New Zealanders didn’t manage to break the mass-ukulele record. But they did have Bret McKenzie. His opinion: “It looked better than it sounded.” Keep fighting those New Zealand jibes, guys.

Mark Nelson has put up tab for Moana Chimes on Uker Tabs.

Ukulele zeitgeist on the wane according to The Guardian (via Mr D).

Roger Daltry: “Is it worth tuning it?” And Steven Tyler plays Little Grass Shack for Oprah.

Mike DaSilva has some interesting things to say about ukulele tone.

Ukulelezo won last year’s Bushman Contest. Yes, it definitely happened. And anyone who tells you a cover of Mmmbop won is obviously joking.

The Leisure Society are looking for an army of ukulele players to join them on stage in London.

Sheena Beaston has an interview with and track from Via Tania.

Ukulele pin-up of the week: Sari (a slight misunderstanding of the roots of the ukulele but who cares?).

Friday Ukulele Links

Thanks to everyone who has bought How to Play Ukuleles for Peace already (six days left to get the ebook at the cheaper price). And an ever bigger thanks to everyone who promoted it including Valerie who made a video for Project 4 Awesome promoting UfP. I’m going to keep going on about this until everyone’s bought it – it’s my last chance for avoiding eternal damnation. I think the only way to counteract my lifetime of coveteousness, apostacy and making girls cry would be to bring peace to the Middle East.

If you were quick off the mark and downloaded an early version of So You’re Just Got Your First Ukulele, you might have found some of the links didn’t work (specifically, the ones with numbers in). It’s been fixed and you can download the new version here.

If you’ve been following UkeTube, you’ll know I’m a big fan of Jake Wildwood. As well as the old-timey songs, his videos always have him playing the gorgeous vintage instruments that he repairs and restores. And he’s now started a blog Antebellum Instruments. There’s already a healthy amount of ukulele pr0n including a Regal Soprano Ukulele.

Two excellent new ukulele CDs out: Craig Robertson’s DeChirico Street (buy it and get a free MP3 here) and Allo, Darlin’s Christmas EP (available on MySpace).

Friend of the blog, Tzu Ann discovered this Sapelele for sale whilst out Christmas shopping. It’s a cross between a uke and a sapeh.

Lee Evans’s ukulele song.

New fish-tacos/ukulele song from Flight of the Conchords. (Thanks to Zak).

Legolele.

Wii Music creator Shigeru Miyamoto plays the ukulele in real life.

Bucky Greenhorn: Hollywood’s next leading man.

ya see there is this guy i like. whenever he has a ukulele with him and i am near him or i passed my him him he plays im yours. does that mean he like me?

The Saturday UkeTube

Bret McKenzie uking it up with his old group, sweetafton23, Taimane, Des O’Connor and plenty more. [Read more]

Flight of the Conchords – Mermaids

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Flight of the Conchords – Mermaids (Chords)

I woke up this morning to an excited email from Uke Hunt’s official FotC correspondent Jenny Flame telling me that last Sunday’s episode featured a ukulele song. I immediately dashed over to YouTube, stole the lyrics and started working out the chords.

After Jemaine’s appearance with a ukulele earlier in the series, it was the turn of Bret “Bret Bret” McKenzie (also of the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra) to strum the uke. Although he didn’t bother playing the uke with his left hand (I assume it’s a parody of something).

Once you get passed the intro, the song itself only has two chords. The chords have names that sound like a chemical compound but don’t let that put you of. To play a Bm7, you bar your finger across all the strings at the second fret – make sure your thumb is behind the fingerboard to give you something to press against. The Amaj7 is like a normal A chord but with the g string played at the first rather than second fret.

Once you’ve got that chord change down, the only challenge is singing the song without bursting out laughing.

Buy The Distant Future US UK

Friday Links

Uke Hunt has a MySpace. Friend me up and join the Uke Hunt endorsed Ukulele Nation.

Lyle Ritz and Roy Sakuma chat on NPR (via Ukulelia).

The C-FleaPO & R2-Flea2 Flea ukulele doesn’t exist. But Darth Vader plays uke.

Howlin’ Hobbit is dishing out bi-weekly uke tips.

An ukulele has finally made an appearance in Flight of the Conchords during the song Goodbye Leggy Blonde.

Short lived cartoon character Crazy Ike and His Uke.

A short clip of Aldrine Guerrero in the studio on DoctorTrey and a podcast with him here.

Old Blue Bus has Hawaiian tracks and WFMU’s Beware the Blog has an interview with Tiny Tim (thanks to KDUS).

Another art uke.

Naked ukulele in New York.

Be careful how you type ukulelehunt.com.

The chords for 100 Hawaiian songs.