Flea Market Finds

My favorite Sundays are spent going on Flea Market Road Trips with Marko in search of great items for our shop. Here's a few of this weekends finds. A German Kitchen Clock, Glass Flask with Wicker Cover and Pewter Screw Top & Jigger, Newspaper Rack for 'Dagbladen' (Dailys) and 'Weekbladen' (Weeklys) & a Plaid Guitar Case with leather handle and closure.

Blue Sunday

Marko and i host all kinds of wonderful, wacky and obscure events in The Jumping Flea. Yesterday we held the very first 'Blue Sunday', a Cyanotype Workshop by Rens Horn. I say the very first because it was so great that we are definitely going to repeat this. Rens taught this so well and we had such a great group of participants. Just look at 'em!...

Merry Christmas from 'The Jumping Flea' & Friends

Marko and i got together for a Christmas Song. We hope you will like it. Merry Christmas, EVERYBODY!

Bitchin' Kitchen Potholders

Just finished up a batch of crocheted potholders which will be available at WAUW in Den Hague. For those of you who would like to order online... a fresh batch will be available next week via The Jumping Flea Market Etsy Shop, in time for Christmas shopping. Won't Grandma be pleased. F*CK YEAH!

Halloween Night in The Flea....

We celebrated Halloween at The Jumping Flea with Music by the amazing Dusty Stray, Spinning Discs by Howlin' Quin de Vreede, A Story by Eddy Elsdijk, Art by Daniel van Nes and Marko and I also sang some 'Songs for the Night Owl'. But, most importantly, the night was awesome due to the amazing creepy costumes worn by our guests. It was definitely the most 'artsy' Halloween ever. Check it out...

Dusty Stray did a brilliant job singing us 'Tales of Misfortune and Woe'. This video was his last song during which he handed out those toys that you turn upside down and they make an animal sound. In this case, a MOOOOO. Here's 'Cows In The Pasture'.

'All Hallows' Eve'

We decided on the spur of the moment to throw a Halloween Party in the Flea and i think it's going to be an exceptional evening... A Southern Gothic Night of Horror with Murder Ballads, Story Telling, Devastatingly Beautiful Artwork and... Creepy Dancing! Among others, the brilliant Dusty Stray will be performing. He'll be at SXSW next year but first, he's playing The Flea. We'll also have Howlin' Quin de Vreede over spinning the records, writer Eddy Elsdijk telling Horrific Tales and the amazing illuminated artwork by Daniel van Nes. Now if i can just get those Nederlanders to dress up and come over. (The Dutch are not as easy to get dressed up and ready for a party as, for example, the Americans or the Brits, but i'm working on it.) 

Visit The Jumping Flea website for more information!

Let's get this party started!

Dudes, what's up?!

Full Screen-Shot
of this month's
Jumping Flea Mail.
Look at all those events!

Good grief, my last post was mid August?! Dang. That's pathetic. Blogs are like diaries, when things get going really good, you just don't have time to write it down. Ashame really. Now i feel the need to catch up but if i do that, this post won't get written either. I do hope to sit down one day and recap the summer. It was an eventful one.

What's up now? Lots. Start of the cultural season which means way too many events in one month. Kind of irritating really. There are months that are really horrible for creatives then suddenly, there's so much work you have to turn down stuff because it's all falling on the same dates. DAMN. Anyway, it's good we're busy now. Let's hope we can sustain this momentum.

Besides the varied engagements out and about we are also very busy with upcoming events in The Flea and we've got some pretty damn cool ones, including a Soul-Food Dinner on the 2nd of October -  which i am to cook in a kitchen which we haven't quite finished building yet. YIKES-O-RAMA. I'm sure we'll pull it off in time but man, why do we do these things?! The adrenaline running through me the last few weeks could light up a small village. Oh wait, i know why we did it, because it would force us to finally get the damn thing done. Yep, i see my reasoning now. It was probably a smart decision.. Yep.

More importantly, the main reason we want the Flea to be extra swell is because we have two legendary musicians coming... Del Rey and Steve James. Masters, both of them. Steve James gave a Master Class (Acoustic Finger-Picking Style Blues Guitar) on the 25th which was exceptional and Del Rey is coming next week to give a Master Class (Memphis Jug Band just for Ukes) on the 1st of October and a day later on the 2nd she's playing a parlour concert in the shop while i whip up a classic Soul Food Dinner.

Along with the events we have two ukulele classes starting up, one for beginners and one for intermediates. So, that's the scoop. Oh, one other cool thing...


The 'Maritza', My 3-string Cigar Box Guitar got the white-glove treatment at an art auction by Galerie de Aanschouw during the Wereld van de Witte de With Festival. SOLD! (Awww, Look how sad the handler is to see it go. : ) Me too.

We're off to Burning Uke II in Ghent!

Marko and i will have The Jumping Flea Market set up there at the DOK in Ghent and will be doing some live Cigar-Box Ukulele building. The finished uke will be raffled off later in the evening. We will also be selling these awesome Kits with which you can build your own ukulele. There will be plenty of awesome performers there at the Fest like Ukulele Uff & Lonesome Dave from Liverpool whom we ADORE! And, there will be workshops, funky stuff, weird shit, great food and cold beer. Oh, and of course, the ritual burning of the ukulele. Looking forward to seeing y'all there. BURN, BABY, BURN!

Pictured Below 6 of the 7 CigarBox Ukulele Kits i designed for Burning Uke II this weekend. Pictured Below That: The dude that saved my ass by building them while i was in bed being a grumpy, fevery, flu-y, snotty mess. Which explains why he is threatening me with the drill. Aaargghhh, he's so damn CUTE when i drive him to madness! 

The Most Kick-Ass Festival in Rotterdam!

The Pijnackerplein Bluegrass Festival is a two-festival organized by Kito Events which takes place just around the corner from our shopon the beautiful Pijnackerplein. There are some absolutely In-cred-i-ble musicians performing and there is lots to do and see besides... art, cool market stands, comic strip expo and workshop by none other than J.D. Wilkes, good food and cold beer and much much MUCH MORE!

This is going to be one hell of a good time y'all. My good lookin' and highly-entertaining dude, Marko will be performing with the Bommelband on Friday and we have a market stand full of Jumping Flea Goodness on Saturday. See you there!

Flyer design by: Me!, Illustration by Kito Cartoons!

*The making of this flyer nearly resulted in Guido 'Kito Cartoons' de Groot and myself having a cage fight. Instead, it resulted in this poster which i think turned out pretty damn well. Still want that cage fight with Guido though. Ashame to put all of that perfectly good chicken wire to waste. 

Route du Nord 2013!

Next weekend is THE big yearly art happening in our neighborhood called Route du Nord. Literally hundreds of artists will be showing off their talents throughout Rotterdam Nord. Marko and i will be at the Marché du Nord Art Market which is a new edition to the festivities this year organized by the awesome Christy de Witt of TWC Network. It takes place on the Teilingerstraat this Sunday and we hope to see you there!
This is the flyer which i designed for Marché du Nord

A Symphony played on Water Instruments

To be presented by Marko and I this Saturday 

in Rotterdam during Museum Night.

See You There!

Want to know more about this project? Click Here.

Move the hell over, Martha Stewart

The Jumping Flea's Holiday Fun Book is out.... Merry Mechanics, Songs with Ukulele Chords, Homemade Explosives and many many other Bad Ideas for the Holiday Season. (Sure, Martha is crafty and all that, but she never blew anything up) It's a bit on the expensive side (the printer ripped me off) but the amount of fun per page is priceless! Plus, it's a very first and a very limited edition. Click here and order yours today!

Neighborhood Musicians Portraits

This is our portrait taken by Marcel Speets as part of the Neighborhood Musicians Photo Project. We'll be hosting a concert featuring a selection of the participating musicians in our store, The Jumping Flea, on November the 10th. To view more of Marcel's portraits visit the official website. To find out more about the concert, visit our shop website! www.jumpingfleamarket.nl

Vintage Heat

UPDATE: Unfortunately this heater was WAY too dangerous so we didn't buy it. Too scary but still Oh so beautiful....
It was getting damn chilly in The Jumping Flea so i went online to score a heater and boy did i find one. Look at  this beauty. It reminded me of designs from the Amsterdamse School around the 20's and 30's. I found another one online and it had a seal on it dated 1928. I'm sure many would find it a monstrosity but I think it's absolutely gorgeous. It's been kept up to date and is still running in the sellers home which we will visit tomorrow. Just 35,- euro's and the seller lives about 5 minutes from our house. WIN! The pictures below are actually from the other heater i found online. The heater we're picking up is in much better condition but these photographs were more attractive.
Click on the image to ZOOM in on the AWESOMENESS.

'The Uke Box' @ Burning Uke in Gent, Belgium!

Burning Uke is a ukulele festival for the Gent-ry, with plenty of live music, rarities, open mic, raffle, market en much much more. It will be held at DOK Gent, center for amusement and creative manoeuvres.

Marko and i will be performing, giving workshops and selling cool stuff!

Data: Za. 25 Augustus
Tijden: 12uur tot 24uur
Lokatie: DOK Gent

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:
- 18:00 Flamingo Sisters
- 18:45 Oona Libens Trio
- 19:30 Nele Needs A Holiday
- 20:15 Winin' Boys
- 21:00 The Uke Box
- 21:45 Kenji Minogue

Burning Uke op Facebook

Bad Girls & Mean Women Songbook

Ooooolala... This is a very naughty songbook indeed! This little black book contains 10 songs, some dating back as far as the 1600's, that are so raunchy that they would make Snoop Dog blush. Each song has both the ukulele chords and the musical score. Also included are 2 recipes and 5 potions plus a fold-out ukulele chord chart.
WARNING: ADULT CONTENT!

My book is available in our store in Rotterdam or via My Etsy Shop.
Click on the image for a closer look

'The Uke Box' Italiano

Marko and i have been rehearsing like mad because we're getting ready for...Sunny Italy!! We'll be performing at the Ukulele Festival of Italy (19-22 July) AND The International Ukulele Festival of Matera (27 July).

We're pretty damn excited about this trip. First of all we'll be on the same bill as James Hill who is a modern day MASTER of the ukulele so it is quite an honor to be invited to perform on the same stage. Plus, the festival is hosted by the wonderful folks from Aquila Acorde and we're looking forward to seeing them and all of our friends in Vincenza again. And, i'm very very curious about Matera. Apparently it is one of the oldest inhabited cities beginning in the Paleolithic Age. That's not old... that's freakin' prehistoric. Look at it... (click to zoom in on the WOW-ness!)

So, if you are in the area come on by. We'll also be giving workshops and selling handmade wonders and curiosites from The Jumping Flea.

Oh, and due to this trip our store will be closed from the 17th till the 30th of July. I know, we'll miss you too. See ya when we get back! I'll leave you with a bit of James Hill. Ciao Bella!

One Hell of a Hoedown

Holy Grass of Blue!... The Pijnackerplein Bluegrass Festival was INCREDIBLE, Y'all! I mean it was two weeks ago and i swear i've just recovered from it. Not sure about our neighbors though. YIKES. But, getting back to the fest... such amazing bands, wonderful musicians and fun people both playing and attending the fest. It was an all day, all night, and all day again musical throw down.

The Pijnackerplein is this amazing little square in Rotterdam North with this beautiful old fashioned band stand. Our store, "The Jumping Flea", is right around the corner and served as the backstage for the festival. We had about 80 people through the door. One of our awesome buddies, Nor, was in the kitchen whoopin' up some amazing chow for everyone all day and all night long. After the festival we came back to The Flea for a jamsession that lasted until 7AM in the damn morning. This party was OFF THE HOOK! Man, what a DAY. We had our hands full leading the jamsession in the morning, performing with our other band 'The Fournicators', running a market stand, hosting all the musicians and crew in 'The Flea' and we also had a handfull of musicians sleeping at our place. Whooodoggy. What a beautiful mess it all was. So what was the high point of the day? Dang, hard to tell. The whole damn day kicked ass. I guess i would have to say musically it was when it started raining and the whole audience joined Morgan O'Kane on the bandstand. Freakin' ROCKED! Besides that, just hanging out and jammin' with everyone. AMAZING. To get an idea of what a beautiful day it was, there are tons of photographs for your viewing on the PBGF Facebook Event Page and video is coming up soon too. So, if you're interested you can take a look here. To the right i've chosen a few of my own favorite photographs of the day. All of these images are from the fabulous Paul van der Blom except the last one which i took myself.

Open image in a new tab to ZOOM!


From left to right: 1. My good lookin' dude, Marko playin' the longneck during our set as 'The Fournicators', 2. Morgan O'Kane backstage with The Jolenes. 3. Morgan O'Kane with his crew Ferd Moyse (fiddle) from Meridan, Ms. and Liam Crill (spoons - check out the spoons on his shirt! I liked spoon dude.) 4. Zeke Healy, Morgan's guitarist, relaxing backstage with a bit of uke at the Flea. 4.Elma Plaisir & Rikke Korswagen of Halfway Station. 5. The gorgeous bandstand on the Pijnackerplein and if you look real close, i'm on stage with The Fournicators. 6. Rocco punchin' the ever-lovin' hell of a high score out of the punching ball BAM! And lastly 7. Guido de Groot, the super organiser of the festival and Edith Vijfwinkel the kick-ass stage manager.

Pijnackerplein Bluegrass Festival Tomorrow!

Marko and i will be playing with The Fournicators and we'll have The Jumping Flea Market set up on the square. Come on down, there are amazing bands playing all day and all night! For more information check the Pijnackerplein Bluegrass Festival Website

Our shop front

A lot of times when Marko and i are walking back to The Jumping Flea i'll tap Marko and yell out, 'LOOK, WE'VE GOT A SHOP, LOOK HOW COOL IT IS!!' Hehehee.