Many thanks to Will at Clicked for this find.

It's called "Paranoia mix" and I'm going to paraphrase what Will said... it doesn't even start to make sense til around the 24 second mark and really starts rolling around the 42 second mark. Be patient.

As usual, here's a link to click if the embed doesn't work for you.

Seattle's mayor, Greg "I never met a developer I didn't like" Nickels has a new tribute to his works. The inhabitants call it "Nickelsville" and, yes, it's a direct reference to the Hoovervilles that rose up in the Depression. Seattle had its own Hooverville that lasted for nearly a decade.

I wonder if Nickels has a MacArthur in the police ranks willing to go in with fire, tear gas and bayonets?

Probably.

The "money quote" from Nickels in the article (as he's explaining how he's going to kick them all out for being "unauthorized") is, "It's obviously a political demonstration." And we all know that those can't be allowed to go on, hm? I mean, fuck the 1^st Amendment, there's real estate to be developed.

Marie Antoinette said, "Let them eat cake." Nickels thinks it's more like "Let them buy condos."

American Revolution II is coming, not just to a movie theater near you, but right there in your front yard.

It's not going to be pretty, is it?

When I first saw the headline, Chinese Say They're Building 'Impossible' Space Drive, I immediately flashed on the "Improbability Drive" from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Alas, not that drive. But, if true, pretty cool nonetheless.

In ukulele phreak circles George Harrison is one of the patron saints. I do dig how he was so into the uke, but I love him more for his unassuming attitude.

One example is how hard a time Guitar Player magazine had getting him for a cover interview. It wasn't that he thought he was too good for them, just the opposite. They finally convinced him and he flew in from wherever he was at the time, bearing a large stack of polaroids he'd taken of his justifiably legendary guitar collection. He'd taken the time on the plane to write little explanatory blurbs in the thick side of the polaroids borders. Guitar Player got a whole 'nother article that issue, courtesy of the fine gentleman.

I owned that issue. In the interview they mentioned his beginnings in a skiffle band. He said something to the effect of how he was still playing skiffle, just nowadays he supposed it was "posh skiffle." My late friend Howard Lussier and I formed the duo Blues Plate Special -- he on washboard, me on guitar and harmonica -- not long after that issue came out and our tagline was "Acoustic Blues and Posh Skiffle."

Now, in the middle of this great LA Weekly article on McCabe's Guitar Shop's 50^th anniversary, we find this story.

Former repairman Ron Chambliss remembers George Harrison coming in not long before his death. ("A lot of stars come in. We have a hands-off policy.") Harrison chatted Chambliss up, shared his deep passion for songwriter Hoagy Carmichael, hipped Ron to a reissue of Carmichael’s recordings and then left. (For Beatles completists: He also bought a metal-body National ukulele with a brown wrinkle finish.) A little stunned, Chambliss went back to work. A half-hour passed and someone told him he had a phone call. He picked up the phone: "Hello Ron, this is George, I was in there a little while ago." Chambliss affirmed that he remembered who he was. Harrison had simply called to give Chambliss the catalog number of the Carmichael CD so he could order it. "He took the time to call me back. It gave me a boost in humanity."

Miss you, George. You was always fab.

Thanks once again to the Zoom H2, at the Snake Suspenderz rehearsal on the 17th we got another decent recording. Thad did his usual fab job balancing and mixing so, for your delectation, I'm happy to present the latest in our "rehearsal tapes" series, a song called Burnt Bean Water, written by our friend Jim Nason.

Note: The song link takes you to the Mediafire site but you don't have to have any sort of account to download the file.

Jim ("The Emergency Folksinger") is a Seattle area folk icon. He writes terrific tunes, often funny but many times sweet and beautiful as well.  He's got two CDs out but, near as I can tell from a medium-weight google, there's no way to get them online.

Jim, if you're reading this, fix that! (Ask me for help if you need it.) Lots of folks out here on the intarwebs that would enjoy your music.

One thing I did learn from googling which I hadn't realized before is that Jim started out on his sister's ukulele. You see, we are ubiquitous. Resistance is futile.

Jim taught me this song while we were in the Emerald City Jug Band together. We were waiting for a ferry to take us home from a gig on Orcas Island several years ago. I've been playing it solo and with various permutations of bands ever since.

The band:

• Howlin' Hobbit on ukulele and lead vocals
• Thaddeus Spae on trombone and band shouts
• Sketch Hare on washboard, band shouts and vocals
• salamandir on tuba and band shouts

I'm using my Glyph soprano for this recording.

If you haven't caught all the reheasal tape series to date, you should be able to click on "rehearsal_tapes" in the tags on this post and see the rest of the posts about the series.

Let me know what you think!

I've never done one of these. But then, until yesterday when my new Dominator soprano ukulele arrived, I didn't have quite the same urge to.

Yes, the Dominator will get its own blog post. Just as soon as I play it for a few more days.

Early hint: Pretty fab.

In any event, you can click on the little thumbnail to the left there and get a big picture of my current ukulele collection.

They are (from left to right, in order I got them) Glyph soprano, National resonator soprano, Ohana sopranino, soprano Tiki Flea, new Dominator soprano.

It's really odd but until very recently I hadn't imagined I'd end up with even this much of a collection. And it's still missing the banjo ukulele that needs repair. But there are scads of folks out there with walls full of ukuleles. I still don't think I'll ever get quite to that point, but the recent developments may indicate otherwise.

To me the best part is there's not a one of them that I wouldn't take to a gig. Players all.

But I don't begrudge the bigtime collectors anything. Whatever makes them happy. Plenty of ukuleles out there for everyone that wants one. Maybe even you, gentle reader?

And for the already uke-obsessed, hope you enjoyed the little dose of ukulele porn.

This past Friday, author David Foster Wallace commited suicide at his home. I have heard of him and his breakthrough novel, "Infinite Jest" but had not read it nor known much about him.

The other day I ran across this wonderful tribute to Wallace on Mental Floss. In it he (the blogger, Ransom Riggs) reprints the commencement address that Wallace gave to the 2005 graduating class at Kenyon College.

The address is a worthwhile read. What a thoughtful essay that is!

Check it out and let me know what you think.

I can't remember where I found the link to her blog, but Miss Cellania posted this fantastic political rant by Craig Ferguson the other day and I wanted to share it with you.

Use this link if the embedded video doesn't work for you.

I found this via the Agitator and it's just plain cool.

Next weekend two old friends are going to don tuxedos and have a public pie fight, keeping a vow they made to each other back in 1976, when they were both 18. They had decided that they didn't want to be stodgy when they reached 50 and that a pie fight would be a good way to shake loose if they had somehow become a little too "mature."

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has the whole story.

My favorite part? They're turning into a bit of a party and an opportunity to help a charity.

"The pies will fly in a parkway near Dan’s house. He and Malcolm will begin by tossing real fruit-filled pies at each other, but everyone else will use shaving cream spread on paper plates. Anyone who would rather not be wearing pie must make a donation to charity."

So here's to Dan and Malcolm, long may they pie!

I got curious today about the current population of Lebanon, Oregon, where I was born. In the process of finding this out -- 12,950 as of the 2000 census, btw -- I discovered that Howard Hesseman was also born in Lebanon... about 18 years before me (he's a tad younger than my mom).

I never knew that Lebanon had ever produced anyone famous.

Must be my turn now. Right?

I'm a regular at the Ukulele Underground forums and one of the members there just won an hour of recording at a pro studio. He had a thread about "what should I play?" and got lots of great advice. He went in and recorded three original tunes (Okay, Masks, Middle School Blues) and a cover (Lips of an Angel). When they were done he posted them on his MySpace page. So I went and checked them out.

They're fantastic examples of pop tune craftsmanship. And get this, the kid is only 13 years old!

Frankly, I'm not sure if I should be touting him or just insanely jealous.

His name is Will Brown and he also has a YouTube channel. Check out both the MySpace and YouTube. I think you'll like 'em. As a teaser, allow me to present the YouTube version of "Okay." As always, you can click the link if the embed doesn't work for you.

If any of my readers have an account at either of those sites, friend the boy (or subscribe, depending).

Keep on strummin', Will!

Ukulelezaza hails from Belgium and is a fantastic player. Check out his YouTube channel for more goodies but start with these "two famous German songs" done on a Carnival sopranino ukulele. Tiny and plastic, but it rocks!

If the embedded video doesn't work for you go straight to YouTube.

It's been a while since we've done this, but last night at the Snake Suspenderz band rehearsal Thad broke out the Zoom H2. We were all sitting around it in a circle in Thad's living room and we recorded several of the tunes we were rehearsing. I've just uploaded the two best ones to my Mediafire account.

First up is Dead Egyptian Blues, a song written by Michael Smith that I first heard in a recording by Craig Robertson. Craig is a great ukulele player and also a superb songwriter (though, as mentioned, he didn't pen this one).

Next is Say Hello To Mr. Snake, written by yours truly. This one is pretty much the "Snake Suspenderz theme song" and has got to be our most heavily recorded number. I think this makes 3 different versions. Guess all we're missing is a video.

You can click the links and download them for your iPod (or whatever you use) for freesies.

Such a deal!

Note: The links take you to the Mediafire site but you don't have to have any sort of account to download the files.

The band:

• Howlin' Hobbit on ukulele and lead vocals
• Thaddeus Spae on trombone and vocals
• Sketch Hare on washboard and vocals
• salamandir on tuba 

Not counting a couple vids from our last Smokin' Pete's appearance, these are the first recordings featuring salamandir's tuba. I think they're also the first time we've recorded Sketch on washboard instead of drums.

I'm using the National resonator uke for both cuts.

Thad recorded it in the "4-track" mode, dumped the results onto his trusty Mac, cleaned up and balanced them a bit, and now we're releasing them into the wild as part of our "rehearsal tapes" series. There will be more coming!

Do leave a comment and let me know what you think of the tunes.

I've had the little Tiki Flea for two months now and just the other day finally got around to recording a video with it. You can view the video of Girl From Ipanema below, or, if the embed doesn't work, the previous link will take you to the vid on YouTube itself.

It's actually the third arrangement for the tune that I've learned. The first one was in a key I couldn't sing in at all so the second one was just a transpose job. Then Richard G posted his version. And it was mo' better. So I learned it.

Luckily, it was pretty close to the second variation so it hasn't thrown me completely out of kilter. And I changed one chord.

Still working on the whole "jazz whistling" thing, but I hope you enjoy it anyways!

(And thanks again, Nina.)