...sometimes the bear bites you.

Case in point:

Last night Thad and I went out to an open mike. We saw lots of friends there and listened to some good tunes. The place was so thick with musicians that each of us only got one song.

Thad and I (Snake Suspenderz Classic) played my song, Daisy Fraser, on ukulele and trombone. Shortly after our set we sold two of our $10 CDs and one of the $5 ones. Due to how the money is split up between the people on the recordings, that meant we made $10 each for our one song.

Today we went busking at the Pike Place Market. In two sets (an hour per set) we made about $2 more (each)  than last night.

Life is so difficult.

Neal Paisley has been around the uke scene a while, turning out great tunes solo and with friends. His latest offering is this great fingerstyle piece called "Gossip."

You on RSS readers or anyone else who can't get the embed to work for them can check out the video here.

Now that's some fabulous fingerpicking, ukulele-style.

Be sure to have a view of his other videos on Neal's YouTube channel.

Every weekday morning I do 4 online crosswords with my coffee. I have to do something to get the brain firing after all. Weekends it's only 3 because, for whatever reason, the USA Today one takes weekends off. In any event...

This morning one of the puzzles had the clue "It provides the bass line" and the answer was "tuba."

This amused me (and was an easy one for me) as my band, Snake Suspenderz, features salamandir holding down the bass line on, yep, tuba.

Well, it amused me, but it could just be one of those "guess you had to be there" things.

I posted recently about my YouTube subscribers passing the 100 mark. It's taken me a couple weeks, but I finally got around to posting a thank you video.

It starts with a simple, short ragtime piece that I cobbled together from this demo by Pete Howlett of his new Cherrylele, a lovely little soprano ukulele made of indigenous (to the UK) woods. Add in a bit from one of Pete's earlier tutorial vids, tart it up some, and here you have it.

As usual you can check it out on YouTube if the embed doesn't work for you.

I only blather on for about 40 seconds after the tune. If you're one of the subscribers I'm blathering to, thanks again!

I also used this as an excuse to play around a bit more with iMovie, using some small fades and "cross-dissolves." I like that a lot better than just the picture snapping into place and starting to play. Hopefully I'll be able to master it enough to do a fancy one I've plotted out in my fevered brain. We'll see.

A quick note to other (non-ukulele-centric) bloggers that might be reading this. I'd like to expand views on my videos to more folks who don't watch just because it's a uke vid. So...

1. If this is something you'd normally do in your blog and...
2. If you dig one or the other of my vids...

Could you please spread it about a bit? Embed and/or link?

Thanks!

Let's do the Time Warp again!

(Is this one of those cats that's frequently mistaken for Meatloaf?)

If your cat is in the room, for pity's sake, fire up the screen saver!

(You don't even have to turn on the vacuum around here. Just move it a bit and both cats head for the nearest far away place.)

The third day of this year's NaBloPoMo I was checking the blogroll to see if mine had made it to the list. It hadn't (at the time) but I discovered Uku-Ali's blog. She was playing her Fluke and singing "All of Me," one of my favorite tunes, and one that I have on YouTube. I think she has a fabulous voice and I like her clean, solid uke accompaniment as well. Here she is performing "All of Me."

You can check it out on YouTube if the embed doesn't work for you.

I immediately added her blog to my RSS aggregator and have been enjoying her daily posts ever since. I keep expecting to see her on Ukulele Hunt, but so far, nope.  So I decided I'd just have to "scoop" Woodshed on this. Maybe he'll read this and put another one of her vids on his Saturday UkeTube or one of his other features.

Before I started this post I decided I'd have to look up her YouTube channel address and such. I found her personal web site as well and two things leapt out.

First, of course she's got a beautiful voice. She has training -- and degrees, including a Masters -- in music with a jazz focus.

Me? I do the "croak yer heart out froggie" school of tunage.

Hey! It worked for Sonny Bono! Sort of.

Second, she's located in Eugene, OR, a short jaunt from my hometown of Lebanon, OR.

If you're humming "It's A Small World" right now... STOP IT!

Go and check out her other tunes, both on YouTube and on her site. I think you'll dig 'em as much as I do.