In Tune With Your Taste

Here are some unusual ukulele spottings...
A ukulele on a package of sweetener:
A smurf toy i found in a box of cereal:

And yet another toy i found in a chocolate egg. When you press on his head his arm moves up and down, strumming his ukulele.

Another cool desktop for your Mac!

Click on Image to ZOOM! Okay, you can put it on a PC too. But i'm tellin' ya, You're missing out. I've seen my blog on a PC and it lacks lustre. Anyway, think about it. I know, a Macintosh is expensive. But i'm not exactly Miss Moneybags and i got me one. Then again, i don't have kids. I've got my priorities straight!

I'm just joshin' y'all. PC's just get me all riled up. I can't help it. Anyway, whatever type of equipment your using, this desktop will look swell on it. Click here to download your Tattoo Uke Desktop!

Review of the Ukulele Jamboree Nr.10

Let me tell ya, this was a Ukulele Jamboree with style. Jaynickel & ZAZA were increidble! They played an absolutely amazing set and really got the crowd going. There's a video at the end of the post to show exactly what i mean. And, to our delight, several new folks showed up to play at the open mic...

Klaaske came from Zeist and played a very lovely set including a very moving song she dedicated to her little boy. Wessel came from Amsterdam and had a damn good looking and sounding uke with him made by Ken Timms. Wessel also plays bass with the Tennessee Studs but we were glad he had time to do some moonlighting in Rotterdam with his uke. We also had great performances by some frequent visitors to the Ukulele Jamboree. Much thanks to Miss Yvonne, Thako & The Beast from the East!

The evening began with a workshop given by Ukulelezaza. He taught everyone some really amazing right hand techniques. Visit ZaZa's YouTube channel...he has some amazing stuff posted there including instructional videos.

And, we gave some fantastic prizes away. This edition we had a 'V' theme. 1st Prize: Flying 'V' Ukulele, 2nd Prize: 'V'-neck T-shirt & 3rd Prize: a 'V' snaar! (The V snaar doesn't make sense in english seeing that it's probably called a belt. But, in Dutch it's a riot, trust me.)

There was also an after party at our house that went on until morning. Took me two days to recover from it. What a whopper! Big Thanks to everyone that came and to the staff at Cafe de Bel! Here is a video to give you an idea of what an amazing evening it was.... You wanna see more? Visit the Ukulele Interventie Site. (Text in Dutch, Pictures in Color!)

Ukulele Jamboree Nr. 10

Wow, already the 10th Edition of the Ukulele Jamboree!
It's going to be fantastic... Ukulelezaza & Yannik are coming from Belgium to treat us to what will surely be a magical concert. But first, at 20:30 Ukulelezaza will give a workshop about right hand techniques. Get there early to be assured a place. This will be a very popular event.

After that, around 10pm we'll have an hour long Open Mic. Bring your uke and play us a song! (Can't wait to see who comes. Last time we had 10 acts!)

Then, around 11pm Ukulelezaza & Yannik will take the stage to WOW us!

There will also be great prizes to win. Please, Come Early & Stay Late!
Click on the image to ZOOM!

Ukulele Infiltration in Rotterdam North

During Route du Noord, an art Route through Rotterdam North, "The Big Damn Ukulele Band" infiltrated the neighborhood and gave guerilla concerts. We had a ball! Here's a report from CineacNoord (in Dutch)...

The summer is definitely over...

But, i'm actually looking forward to the fall and winter. Of course i'll change my tune by January but for now i'm quite happy to tuck myself in my workshop during the dreary months and build some great instruments.

Another thing that i love about the fall is that it is mussel season. I love mussels. So easy to cook and so delicious. Throw them in a pan over high heat with some onions, carrots and parsley. Once they open up put some more herbs and spices in and a dash of dark beer. Cook for another 5 minutes and before you know it you've got a party in a pan. Serve them up with some beautiful warm bread and cold beer....Yum!

So to celebrate the fall, here is a painting from my "Paint By Numbers" collection depicting what looks like a fisherman harvesting mussels on the beach. (Hope he also has some cold beer in that saddle bag!)

A weekend in the workshop

Spent most of the weekend working on a neck for a cigarbox ukulele. It looked like this when i started working on it Saturday afternoon...
Click on the images to ZOOM! Then i tackled it with chisels, wood grater, spoke shaver, files, & a sander. First knocking out the form and then gradually shaping it. I have an idea of it's general shape but the details come out during the work. Sometimes i had a small mishap, usually when chiseling too vigourously. So then i had to work with the mistake which also changed things a bit. (That chiseling business is tricky by the way. I'm still working on mastering it. But the wood grater is my friend.) After a whole hell of a lot of filing and sanding it turned out like this. Still a bit of fine sanding to do but it's looking pretty damn good. Quite elegant i'd say....