I'm headed back to Michigan next week. I'm not taking my uke but my mom has one so I'm going to take some music and work on:
The One Rose That's Left in my Heart
The Ukulele Song
The Slurf Song
I'm only going to be gone for a week and my mind will likely be elsewhere so I'm not too ambitious. I'm also taking books.
HH Scullard's From the Gracchi to Nero and Journey to Argos which sounds like a good Doctor Who episode title.
Speaking of I'm watching The Brain of Morbius, a Tom Baker episode. Man, he was good. Not so much running as nowadays but Baker's presence is enough to make up for the lack of explosions and excitement not to mention the REALLY bad special effects.
Friday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Saturday
Nashville
So, my trip to Nashville for the YALSA Young Adult Literature symposium was a success.
But it didn't seem like it was going to go that way.
When I first arrived at the airport waiting for the shuttle to my hotel I realized that I was going to have to fake my way through endless conversations about YA lit. You see, I haven't read much YA lit that I like. I was being bombarded with questions I didn't have the answer to on the ride to my hotel and, not having slept in 36 hours, having been crammed into 3 different airplanes for the 11 of those, and the 3 hour time difference, I was not a happy camper.
Not to mention the music...oh the terrible terrible music.
The hotel lobby, the gas stations, the restaurants...everywhere I went there was horrible, pop/rock/country music just blaring. It took everything for me not to explode when I was waiting to check in to my hotel.
To cut a long story short, I grew into the YA lit thing. The country music just started to blend into my mind.
It was a good trip. I made a couple new library friends. I'm still recovering from the lack-of-sleep/time change thing but overall it was a great trip. The one thing I regret is not having even touched my uke. I was so busy and tired and just plain social (which is a HUUUUGE stretch for me) that I didn't even make it downtown.
Bummer.
But it didn't seem like it was going to go that way.
When I first arrived at the airport waiting for the shuttle to my hotel I realized that I was going to have to fake my way through endless conversations about YA lit. You see, I haven't read much YA lit that I like. I was being bombarded with questions I didn't have the answer to on the ride to my hotel and, not having slept in 36 hours, having been crammed into 3 different airplanes for the 11 of those, and the 3 hour time difference, I was not a happy camper.
Not to mention the music...oh the terrible terrible music.
The hotel lobby, the gas stations, the restaurants...everywhere I went there was horrible, pop/rock/country music just blaring. It took everything for me not to explode when I was waiting to check in to my hotel.
To cut a long story short, I grew into the YA lit thing. The country music just started to blend into my mind.
It was a good trip. I made a couple new library friends. I'm still recovering from the lack-of-sleep/time change thing but overall it was a great trip. The one thing I regret is not having even touched my uke. I was so busy and tired and just plain social (which is a HUUUUGE stretch for me) that I didn't even make it downtown.
Bummer.
Thursday
winter reading
With winter already upon us, I've been spending considerably more time doing two important things: sleeping and reading. Okay, so I've been thinking about wanting to read, but I've been reading too.
I haven't had the urge to uke a lot lately despite my ukulele crush having released a new book on Blues ukulele. I bought it, saved it all onto my flash drive and there it sits...waiting for me to get my shit together.
Back to reading, though...
I've been obsessing over Indian (sub-continental as opposed to native American) legends and iconography lately. I bought two shirts from the local Indian store with beautiful colorful pictures on them. I've put half-a-dozen books on hold at the library including the Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads...I purchased a very readable Ramayana (though not as pretty and lyrical). I'm just about done with the Ramayana. I haven't even started the others.
I've also been trying to force myself into reading some Young Adult novels. As a long-time reader of solely non-fiction, this is tough for me. I've found some adult novels that I enjoyed very much (thank you, Mr. Evelyn Waugh) but I just can't bring myself to get caught up and enjoy YA subject matter.
On the skirts of the obsession with human-monster love stories thanks to authors like Laurel K. Hamilton and Stephanie Meyer more of those types of stories are starting to emerge. I just reluctantly tried (and triumphantly failed) to read Generation Dead by Daniel Waters. It's a story about zombies--not the ones that come after your brains--living among us. Some mysterious affliction has brought American teenagers back from the dead creating a schism in the society. There are calls on one side for extreme political correctness ("living impaired" and "differently biotic" are terms to call the zombies...not the zed-word). The other side seems to feed on American History X-styled bigotry. Caught in the middle is a pale, social outcast who is compelled to befriend the zombies--in fact she falls for one.
*yawn*
The other YA book, one that I nearly read all of before I gave up, was Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. I read it because I want to see the movie. I want to see the movie because I love George Michael Blu--er, I mean Michael Cera. I gave up on the book because it really delves into the part of teenagers and people in general that I can't stand. That part of everyone where, at one-time or another, you over think things. Hearing my own inner-dialog constantly is enough for me. It wasn't enough to drive the story. It makes me afraid that the movie is going to be all voice-over. Blech-- So I decided to wait until the movie comes to video. I'll Netflix it.
I haven't had the urge to uke a lot lately despite my ukulele crush having released a new book on Blues ukulele. I bought it, saved it all onto my flash drive and there it sits...waiting for me to get my shit together.
Back to reading, though...
I've been obsessing over Indian (sub-continental as opposed to native American) legends and iconography lately. I bought two shirts from the local Indian store with beautiful colorful pictures on them. I've put half-a-dozen books on hold at the library including the Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads...I purchased a very readable Ramayana (though not as pretty and lyrical). I'm just about done with the Ramayana. I haven't even started the others.
I've also been trying to force myself into reading some Young Adult novels. As a long-time reader of solely non-fiction, this is tough for me. I've found some adult novels that I enjoyed very much (thank you, Mr. Evelyn Waugh) but I just can't bring myself to get caught up and enjoy YA subject matter.
On the skirts of the obsession with human-monster love stories thanks to authors like Laurel K. Hamilton and Stephanie Meyer more of those types of stories are starting to emerge. I just reluctantly tried (and triumphantly failed) to read Generation Dead by Daniel Waters. It's a story about zombies--not the ones that come after your brains--living among us. Some mysterious affliction has brought American teenagers back from the dead creating a schism in the society. There are calls on one side for extreme political correctness ("living impaired" and "differently biotic" are terms to call the zombies...not the zed-word). The other side seems to feed on American History X-styled bigotry. Caught in the middle is a pale, social outcast who is compelled to befriend the zombies--in fact she falls for one.
*yawn*
The other YA book, one that I nearly read all of before I gave up, was Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. I read it because I want to see the movie. I want to see the movie because I love George Michael Blu--er, I mean Michael Cera. I gave up on the book because it really delves into the part of teenagers and people in general that I can't stand. That part of everyone where, at one-time or another, you over think things. Hearing my own inner-dialog constantly is enough for me. It wasn't enough to drive the story. It makes me afraid that the movie is going to be all voice-over. Blech-- So I decided to wait until the movie comes to video. I'll Netflix it.
Friday
I'm a terrible gift giver
I'm going back to Michigan in September to visit my cancer ridden mother. No doubt a visit from her most charming and beautiful daughter will chase her cares away along with her sickness. She has been bothering me for months to help her pick out a ukulele. She doesn't have a lot of money since she can't work so she needs something inexpensive but that sounds good. I've been looking. I looked in stores, I looked online. I knew what she should get but she just hasn't had the time, energy or money to get the ball rolling.
So I did it for her.
A friend came up to me the other day and said, "Chris just bought a mandolin from a guy with a whole workshop full of instruments! He had ukes! You should give him a call." Well, of course he didn't have the guys number. So I placed an ad on Craigslist: "WANTED: UKULELE TO BUY Please contact Emily at..."
20 minutes later I got the call. He has all four sizes and three different brands. He's a hobbyist, you see. He puts new tuning pegs on, he puts strap buttons on. He shines them up all pretty and puts Aquila strings on. I was amazed at his dedication and will definitely be shopping with him again.
Here's my mom's Mahalo with new tuning pegs and strap buttons (if she'll want a strap, I hope she does):
Despite my disappointment with my own Mahalo (considerably cheaper in many ways), this one sounds pretty darn good. I think she'll be pleased with it.
Of course, I didn't go without considering the fact that I wanted a soprano sized uke of my own to play outside of the storytime arena.
I came out of the deal with this:
It was funny. He seemed embarrassed that he hadn't changed the tuning pegs on it to the sticky-outie ones (that's a technical term, by the way). It was so beautiful (and a hundred bucks cheaper than the concert sized one he was trying to push on me). It was cool, for sure. I'm not sure what model it was. It looked like the K-Wave Les Paul style uke but it actually said Bushman on the headstock.
Anyway, the pictures I have of the one I got don't do it justice. It has this beautiful inlay around the headstock, the body and the hole. When I took it out immediately to the park while my strong arm/boyfriend ate lunch the wood actually glistened in the sun. Unbelievable! It glistened! It was meant to be.
So I did it for her.
A friend came up to me the other day and said, "Chris just bought a mandolin from a guy with a whole workshop full of instruments! He had ukes! You should give him a call." Well, of course he didn't have the guys number. So I placed an ad on Craigslist: "WANTED: UKULELE TO BUY Please contact Emily at..."
20 minutes later I got the call. He has all four sizes and three different brands. He's a hobbyist, you see. He puts new tuning pegs on, he puts strap buttons on. He shines them up all pretty and puts Aquila strings on. I was amazed at his dedication and will definitely be shopping with him again.
Here's my mom's Mahalo with new tuning pegs and strap buttons (if she'll want a strap, I hope she does):
Despite my disappointment with my own Mahalo (considerably cheaper in many ways), this one sounds pretty darn good. I think she'll be pleased with it.Of course, I didn't go without considering the fact that I wanted a soprano sized uke of my own to play outside of the storytime arena.
I came out of the deal with this:
It was funny. He seemed embarrassed that he hadn't changed the tuning pegs on it to the sticky-outie ones (that's a technical term, by the way). It was so beautiful (and a hundred bucks cheaper than the concert sized one he was trying to push on me). It was cool, for sure. I'm not sure what model it was. It looked like the K-Wave Les Paul style uke but it actually said Bushman on the headstock.
Anyway, the pictures I have of the one I got don't do it justice. It has this beautiful inlay around the headstock, the body and the hole. When I took it out immediately to the park while my strong arm/boyfriend ate lunch the wood actually glistened in the sun. Unbelievable! It glistened! It was meant to be.
Saturday
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