This video causes a horrible bout of cognitive dissonance in me. I'm torn between wanting to practice until my fingers bleed and wanting to just give up!

These cats can swing! Nothing but one guitar and four voices.

Damn.

My friend salamandir found this article on the UK's Guardian site.

Read it. Heed it. Think of it every time you say "there oughta be a law" or every time you think passing another restriction is ok because it doesn't apply to you.

First, they came for the Jews...

I just found a link on Clicked that led to PC World's article on The 20 Most Annoying Tech Products. It's an amusing and mostly true listing of all sorts of things, both hardware and software, that maybe shoulda been rethought before release.

The thing that raised the ol' ranting spirit in me was when they got to Windows Vista, in the "Your Take" section someone named rkinne01 says: "Many of the problems that I have seen posted are generally easily solved or are errors caused by people who have no experience installing OSs."

Hey! Geek boy! If you're releasing an OS for the home market you should not expect the end user to be a geek! Further, they shouldn't have to be. An OS installation should go: Put in CD. Fire it up. Answer a few easy questions. Let it install. Get to work.

You should not need "experience installing OSs" to use your computer anymore than you should need "experience making hammers" to hang a picture in your home.

Now, I know I've crowed about Ubuntu Linux and it does take a bit more effort to install than what I described above. But only a bit more. And Linux is a traditionally geeky OS. And free too.

So what excuse does M$ (and/or Mr. rkinne01) have to offer?

This is fucking awesome!

Check out their MySpace page.

(Hat tip to Bob Baker's Indie Music Promotion Blog.)

I can't remember if I've mentioned Hometracked yet but if I haven't, I should have. Hometracked is a blog that covers home recording in lucid language and features tips that you and I can put immediately to use.

I'm sure they get into the necessary depth for their topics, but so far I haven't come across an article that bogged me down in complex babble-speak.

Put 'em in your RSS aggregator, apply your new knowledge and listen to your recording quality improve.

This is a rehearsal recording of All of Me by the new, expanded (and still expanding!) Snake Suspenderz. Currently we're calling it the Snake Suspenderz Combo. Hobbit on ukulele and vocals, Thaddeus Spae on guitarron (the big, fat, mariachi bass guitar) and Andrew Hare on drums.

This was only the third time that the three of us ever played together.

It was recorded in one take in my living room on Wednesday, April 11, 2007 using Andrew's mini-disc recorder. The microphone was pinned to the living room drapes about five feet off the floor and closer to me than anyone else. Nothing has been done to the recording except to transfer it to a computer and convert it to an mp3.

It's rough around the edges but we're pretty chuffed about it anyways. Feel free to leave a comment with your impression/opinion.

Also, as part of the "still expanding" mentioned above, if you know of anyone in the Seattle area who plays stand-up bass and might be interested in joining us, let me know. We want to cut Thad loose to do more trombone and guitar.

And here's the lead singers from the Turtles (remember them?) with their take on big time music. Like, just in case Dick Dale wasn't enough.

This one is just wacked. It's a Chinese acrobat (a young boy) jumping with his head. Note, I didn't say on his head, I said with his head. The part in question is nearly two minutes into the video. Be patient, the first two minutes are pretty cool too.

(Hat tip to Clicked)

You may read my assorted rants about the music industry and think it's just sour grapes or something. But, if you don't believe me on the subject, how about the King of Surf Music, Dick Dale?

After the disastrous half-set of busking related in the previous entry I head up the hill to the bus stop. As I get to the street I notice a Bronco about three car lengths back from the crosswalk with its emergency flashers on. There's the unmistakable odor in the air of "I've cranked and cranked and the engine just won't turn over."

Sucks to be him, right?

The driver is on the cell phone so I figure, except for the blockage in the middle of a main drag during rush hour, everything's under control.

I unfold my little performance stool and happily sit down to wait for the bus.

People are going around the guy as soon as possible until this smallish Saturn pulls up behind him. The woman who is driving is yakking on her cell phone. She stops behind the Bronco and continues yammering away.

Time passes. Several green lights go by. She pulls up even closer... to the extent that there's maybe 4 or 5 inches between her and the broken down Bronco. I begin to think, "Wonder how long it'll take her to realize what the emergency flashers mean?"

More than 10 minutes. That's how long. Quite a few cars go by her in the meantime.

Crikey! Hang up and drive!

I've posted a couple times on how I've been doing pretty well with my solo uke busking at the Pike Place Market.

Just the other day I went and played two sets, bringing home more than $35 for my two hours and loving every second.

In the second set I even had cute dancing babies. Toddlers spinning in circles with their arms out and clapping at the end of the songs. Yeah! I love dancing babies!

Wish I'd have asked the mom to get a pic of me playing while the babies danced but I was too busy playing music for them to think.

So I moved down to the spot by the iron stairs (right next to Mr. D's, home of the gyros sandwiches).

I get there and right across the street is an armored car with its engine idling. This is somewhat louder than you might imagine.

But, I'm a pro, right? I was patient because I knew he'd eventually leave and, indeed, he did. After a longish while, but he did. In that time I'd made a tad over a dollar in chump change.

But I persevered. Pro, remember?

I got maybe two more songs out, collected a bit more chump change and -- gasp! -- one whole dollar bill and what should happen?

Apparently the little old lady I saw getting out of the cab as I was hauling the cart full of product back to the locker had proceeded to get well and truly soused in one of the bars and then gotten rowdy. She's like 77 years old and manages to be so unruly that she gets 86'd from one bar, proceed to another and gets kicked out again.

Now she's having some sort of quiet but sincere attack on the bench a mere couple of yards behind me and someone calls 911.

So I get a BIG fire engine parked right smack in front of me. And I thought the armored car was loud.

This I considered a sign from the gods. I packed up and headed for the bus.

Total take for my half-set (half an hour)? $2.46.

Ah, hubris!

My Google Alerts led me to a blog by misscharo called My Little Radio Show.

From there I found her Flickr account that included this photo of a terrific art deco cafe in Florida and this one of the Winter Haven Hotel lobby, also in Miami.

Damn! Why don't they build 'em like this nowadays?

My friend Stanislove pointed this video of Ursula Martinez' magic act out to me.

WARNING: Not safe for work. Do not click if you'll get upset at the sight of a tall, beautiful woman dressed in nothing but high heels and a big smile.

Nothing "dirty," mind you. Just a tad naughty.

I recently decided to try out "Google Alerts" and I set up a news and a blog version on the word "ukulele."

Like, what else?

I had been wondering for a while and the answer is yep, it's not just ukulele phreaks and their friends who're catching on to the good uke music out there. There are regular people digging it too.

Cool.