Tuesday, February 25, 2003

My occasional uke teacher and Cheap Suit Serenader, Robert Armstrong, is the featured "cover" artist on the first in a new series of Hawaiian-themed Martin guitars. Check out the cool luau scene, with Chris Martin himself eating poi while musicians play slack key. Sadly, no one is playing the vintage Martin uke in the foreground. Okay, it's made out of the equivalent of koa wood Formica, but Bob's artwork transcends all. Link Discuss

Monday, February 24, 2003

Here's a site with lots of high res scans of vintage ragtime sheet music. It all seems to pre-date ukulele notation, but you may find the words and melody to a tune you've been looking for. Plus some amazing cover art. Be forewarned: clicking on a thumbnail will begin downloading a pdf of the entire song. Many are over 2 megs. Bonus points to whomever charts out the chords to "I'll See You in C-U-B-A"Link Discuss
Sweet little video about the making of George Harrison's last album, with footage of George on ukulele. Link Discuss

Thursday, February 20, 2003

"Hey Neil Armstrong! You just got back from walking on the moon. What are you going to do next?" An amazing photo from the "Rock That Uke" site. I know I just blogged them, but you have to see this. Click on "RTU Extras." Link Discuss

UPDATE: Direct link to page with image.
The directors of the documentary "Rock That Uke" have invited Robert Wheeler, Founder of Ukulele Consciousness to contribute occasional commentary to the RTU site. The site is in frames, so look for the "Ukulele Consciousness" icon in the left hand nav. I also see that RTU will be shown in San Francisco on March 1! Link Discuss

Tuesday, February 18, 2003

NoCal uke players: mark your calendards for the 2003 Ukulele Festival of Northern California. It will be held in Hayward on Sunday, April 27. It's a great event, with both performances and vendors, plus plenty room to jam (or cool off with a shave ice!). Check out this link, and be sure to download a pdf of their flyer to post in your local haunts. The flyer also contains information on a $500 Cultural Scholarship Award that's available for budding ukulele players!Link Discuss

Sunday, February 16, 2003


If you've ever checked out the Bulletin Board section of the Flea Market Music site, you might be curious just what all those marvelously resourceful, intelligent, generous, and, er, opinionated folks look like. Well, frequent poster "Catfish" has set up a Family Album so you can see for yourself. There's also information about some compilation CDs that the Bulletin Board community has put together. Link Discuss

Calling all Fluke Fans, Dale Webb has just announced the introduction of a new member to the family: the kid-friendly, soprano-sized Flea Ukulele. There are also more photos and info at the Fleamarket Music site (click on the Fluke over in the right hand column).Link Discuss
A few weeks ago, Mark blogged a site that serves up ukulele e-cards. The mysterious ukulele player in the item's accompanying photo is none other than actress Zooey Deschanel. Zooey plays ukulele in her band "If All the Stars Were Pretty Babies." Here's another photo of Zooey, who notes that the ukulele has "a sound the world misses."Link Discuss
 
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