Sunday, May 31, 2009

Uke Joint Jake....

I know the ukulele has 4 strings.

I understand it was created in Hawaii back in the 19th century.

It is small and easy to carry around.

Perfection in playing it was demonstrated last night during the Spoleto Festival by Jake Shimabukuro.

This young man stood alone on the stage at The Cistern on the College of Charleston campus and blew away the huge crowd.

We were in stunned silence.

We were in awe.

He was magnificent.

He told stories of traveling with various bands and picking up pointers. He loved the challenge of adapting songs for his ukulele that had been written for guitar, piano - even horns.

Years ago he popped up on Youtube as he played a George Harrison tune in New York's Central park for a segment of Ukulele Disco.

He had agreed to play "as long as I don't have to dance."

More than 3,000,000 online hits later, he said he gets amazing e-mails from all over the world inviting him to come and play in their town, in their state, in their country.

When the opportunity comes to go see Jake, do it.

Meanwhile, to sample just a bit of what he sounded like last night, look him up on Youtube playing "As My Guitar Gently Weeps." You'll be happy you did.

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Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Can You Picture This?


Well, yes, I AM an impulse buyer.

I know the difference between "needing" something and "wanting" something. But, there is a third category ..."hey, that would be neat."

Thinking it through is the opposite of quickly deciding to buy an item. High tech devices especially affect me this way.

So now I have a PC camera.

It installed easily with the included software disc. It shows an image on the screen and even has a setting so it will follow your face. You can relax while you are on camera and you don't have to sit rigidly in one place. Whew, what a relief.

But.... I don't know anyone else who has a PC Camera to receive my video messages.

I have a friend who had me sign up for Skype last year but then he changed his phone service and doesn't use Skype anymore so I have no one to call for free.

Is this how YouTube got started?

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