Tuesday, January 10, 2012

blog game/ukulele

Sarah was kind enough to tag me with a versatile blog award. I hope you'll go and look at her blog and at the other blogs she named.


And then please forgive me while I cheat on this post. I recently did a similar one here, and that seems like enough stray information about myself for the moment.


Okay, I can add one new fact: I've recently started playing ukulele.


Just like everyone else, right? I'm no musician, but it's pretty hard to resist an instrument that has such a low threshold of entry. Sure, there are amazing virtuosi like Jake Shimabukuro or Peter Moon, but it's also possible for the average doof like me to play simple songs pretty quickly. I love that.
This is one of my mom's ukuleles. She grew up in Maui in the '40s and '50s and had at least 3 soprano ukes in the house when I was growing up. This one is the Duke Kahanamoku model—which sounds impressive, until you learn that Duke was actually a surfer whose name was on the nightclub where Don Ho rose to fame. Knowing how crazy my mom was about Don Ho in the '60s, my guess is that on a trip back, she and her sister went to Duke's where she bought this ukulele in the gift shop.


This was made in Taiwan, and there seem to be a gazillion of them in existence. You'll see them listed for lots of money, but the two most recent sell prices I found on eBay were on one side or the other of $100. Still, it sounds nice and bright to my newbie ears and tends to be the one I pick up to play. This last week, however, it's been on loan to a friend so I am playing Mom's other ukulele, which I will show you in another post.





4 comments:

  1. Aw, I love the picture for this one. And, I'm still impressed with the Don Ho thing : ) Who wouldn't be?? Which reminds me, I don't have enough Don Ho music in my life...

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    Replies
    1. Don Ho is like Dean Martin with a flower lei around his neck. ;)

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  2. "Mighty Uke"... find it~ watch it~ love it!
    I think it's super cool that you are playing.
    (btw I have the Sugru: thank you! I just haven't got my act together about what to repair... and of course as time passes the number of options increases... lol)

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Natalie--I'm on it! :)

      And I'll look forward to your sugru post. I know you'll find something amazing to do with it.

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