Annual Ukulele Festival of Hawaii

It's the 35th Annual Ukulele Festival at the Kapiolani Park Bandstand this Sunday, July 31. If you're going, just know that I'm very, very jealous. Link

Global Ukulele Odyssey Benefit Concert

Mike DaSilva is also hosting a benefit concert for Randall Wright's upcoming Global Ukulele Odyssey tomorrow, July 23, 2005:

"One man, one ukulele. Randall will be traveling to Taiwan, China and India to learn and translate regional indigenous musics through the ukulele and explore the contemporarization of such musics into pop, blues and rock formats. Come support the kickoff to his monumental journey. For more information please visit Global Ukulele.

Information on the DaSilva concert venue is here.

Bay Area Workshops with Byron Yasui

Ukulelia pal and luthier Mike DaSilva wrote to let us know that Dr. Byron Yasui (left) will be in the San Francisco Bay Area and conducting a series of worshops--from beginner to advanced--between July 29 and 31.

Complete details on Mike's site. Don't miss it! Link

Dopyera Collection - National Steel Body Ukulele

Check out this pear-shaped 1929 National Tricone ukulele. It's for sale at Elderly Instruments. But there's a catch. To get the uke, you have to buy the entire resonator collection of John and Rudy Dopyera, brothers and creators of Dobro instruments. Link

Weird News of the Uke

Uke playing three-year-old's national anthem-singing career abruptly ended by father's second place finish in tractor pull. Link

Gabby La La

Petty Booka meets Primus? You be the judge. According to today's review in the San Francisco Weekly,

"La La plays sprightly ukulele, sitar, accordion, toy piano, theremin, and Afropop guitar; [Primus's Les] Claypool provides a thumping bottom end on bass, drums, and percussion. Granted, the tunes may sound a bit peculiar at first, but closer attention reveals gems of pop merriment, variously catchy or groovy, with spare, elegant arrangements and an overall feeling akin to a children's game, like Pin the Tail on the Donkey, which despite its veneer of strange discombobulation is basically wholesome fun."

Link

'The Jerk: 26th Anniversary Special Edition' DVD

This new anniversary DVD of Steve Martin's "The Jerk" includes a bonus feature in which none other than the enticing Miss Janet Klein will teach you how to play "Tonight You Belong to Me". Yowzah! Link

The Red Uke

Heading to the Oregon Country Fair in Eugene this weekend? Check out this vaudeville review on Stage Left, starring Dusty Rhodes, Darcy DuRuz, Phina Pipia, Noodlini, Nanda, Stage Left Dancers and more." Link

Exotica in Chicago this Weekend

Uke music will be in abundance at Exotica 2005, July 7 - 10 in the Windy City. (Chicago Dogs Have Fleas?) Link

Journalist Saves Uke Class

Cincinnati Enquirer staff writer Maggie Downs writes about how she single-handedly saved the uke class offered by the University of Cincinnati's Communiversity. Link

Jake Shimabukuro on "The World" Today

"The World" on public radio today will air a feature on Jake:

"The ukelele (sic) has just four strings, and a very limited range. But one Hawaiian musician has taken the humble instrument out of its customary setting, and even scored a pop hit in Japan. A master musician demonstrates the power of the ukelele, from Beatles tunes to speed metal."

Check your local listings for airtime. Here's info for KQED. (Thanks, Jennifer!)

Nirvana for Ukuleles!

TGIF: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as performed by The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Link to mp3

Open Source Ukes

Ran across this amazing site when poking around on the King David site.

"The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an ‘Internet library,’ with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format."

A search on "ukulele" turned up some real gems, like this 1918 Edison recording of an 'ukulele/mandolin duet, Ragtime Echos with the mysterious Marie Caveny on uke. Not to mention some Cliff Edwards classics here.

Take Your Uke on Your Trip!

Well, it's officially Summer, ukefans. So while you're off on your vacation rambles, be sure to snap a shot of your uke in front of local landmarks. Then send your snaps to Jerrold Connors, host of Ukulele Boogaloo and creator of Jiminy Kokopo's keen uke method book. Check out Jerrold's wonderful gallery of travellin' ukes, and don't miss the outstanding collection of chords, lyrics, and tabs! (Perfect stuff for your long car rides...) Link

Six-String-Son-of-Nunes

Over on Frets.com, a drop dead gorgeous 1914 six-string koa uke made by Leonardo (son of Miguel) Nunes. Link