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!

Summer Festival in Den Hague

The summer is always so crazy it's hard to take the time to post stuff about it. Luckily, Carl TjonAtjoe, of The Small Time Crooks made a handy photo impression of our performance together at the Summer Festival in Den Haag. We were also joined by a really great slide player, Hugo Schneider. I always love playing with The Crooks. Great fun. Oh, and i was also given a German artist name, which was required by the Crooks... 'Bumpsy von Hinten'. Oh my! Here's a link to more photographs of the afternoon on the 3voor12 website.

The Accidental Champion Soundtrack

Marko and i composed several peices for the soundtrack of The Accidental Champion. Here's a small bit called 'The Sackcloth and Ashes Waltz'

Live Cinema: THE ACCIDENTAL CHAMPION

Oh HELL YA, baby! The film project, THE ACCIDENTAL CHAMPION by Abner Preis that we have been working on together with The Small Time Crooks is going to premier this Sunday and will be presented 3 times in total in the Film Huis in Den Hague. You may have read a previous post back in August about this project. Marko and i appear in the film and we also play the soundtrack live together with The Crooks. Really a very very special happening indeed and if you are able to get to Den Hague, i recommend you come and admire it. It will be shown on:

Sunday, 2 December 4:00 PM
Monday 3 December 8:00 PM

Friday 7 December    9:45 PM

Tickets can be bought via the Film Huis Website: www.filmhuisdenhaag.nl 

Or at the door, but i suggest making reservations to be on the safe side:
070 365 6030

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

Playing 'De Nacht van de Kaap' this year!

De Nacht van de Kaap is a big musical bash in Katendrecht, the old red-light district of Rotterdam. This night goes way back to celebrate the glory years of hardened sailors, loose women and hot tunes. Marko and i will be there as 'The Uke Box' performing songs from the 20's and 30's and our friend Goslink will be there doing his awesome Goslink stuff. We are really looking forward to it. See you there!

'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

Accidental Champion

Last Sunday we played a wee-bit part in a short (silent) film by Abner Preis in collaboration with the Small Time Crooks. The short film will be the basis of live performances in Filmhuis Den Haag in December 2012. I'm so curious how it turns out. It looked fabulous while it was being filmed. Hilarious too. We had to act everything out in super slow motion. Every try to dance in slow motion? It aint easy and you feel pretty damn silly but we did our best. Hope we don't land on the cutting room floor but if we do, it will probably be because of the dancing. Ooo, and what i really hope... That they need a singing saw or ukulele in the live performance. That would be very cool. Here are a few stills from the shoot...

Ireland, Here We Come!

I've only been to Ireland once but i LOVED it. We're heading there this weekend for the Ukuhooley Festival by the Sea where we will be performing, giving a workshop and setting up a small stand with merchandise from The Jumping Flea. Can't wait! For more information visit the Ukuhooley Website.

Oh, and apparently, our picture was in the Irish Times this past weekend. Neat-O!

Ukulele Avventura Italiano

(I usually never write a post this long. I'm not so obnoxious that i think that you care about every detail of my life but i also keep this blog as a sort of diary of my artistic life and in this case it was a very adventurous extended week that i'd like to remember. If you are interested, go get a cup of something first and get yourself cozy.)
Marko and i had an incredible time in Italy. The adventure started in Caldogno at the very lavish Italian Ukulele Festival hosted by THE most generous folks at Aquila Corde, namely Daniela Gaidano and Mimmo Peruffo.

Villa Caldogna, Daniela Gaidano, Interior Villa Caldogna, Mimmo Peruffo, Aquila Corde

The festival was held at the Villa Caldogno, built in the mid 1500's and decorated with frescoes by Giovanni Antonio Fasolo (1530-1572). Amazing setting. It was a three day festival chock full of musical performances, workshops, open mics, variety shows, vendors, fun people and good food.

Variety Show, James Hill Workshop, The Uke Box on stage, Ukulele Vendors, Burlesque

The Uke Box with Anne Davison & James Hill

Besides the super organization behind the festival, what made this festival extraordinary was the incredible musicians on hand. There was some major talent present. James Hill and Anne Davison were the headliners of the fest. James is one of the most famous players on the ukulele planet at this moment and with good reason. He performed some beautiful sets with Anne on the Cello. He also did some experimental stuff involving chopsticks. You wouldn't believe what he does with a ukulele and chopsticks. Crazy.

Marko joins in with Betty's Boys (Ukulelezaza & Paul Moore)
with special guest, George Hinchliffe (Ukulele Orchestra of GB)

Further, well, there were just too many amazing acts to name here but just to mention a few, Some of our personal favorites were 'Betty's Boys' starring Ukulelezaza & Paul Moore with a special guest appearance by George Hinchliffe of the infamous Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, The Red Wine Serenaders starring the absolute musical knock-out, Miss Veronica Sbergia and The Winin' Boys from Belgium.

The highlight of the performances, in our opinion, came from Liverpool. Two couples came and both the two girls and the two guys performed as duos. The girls, Amanda Brown & Chantelle Cox performed as Ukulele Red & Lil' Mamie Brown. They do these great nasal over the top 20's-like vocals which make your hair stand on end (I mean that in a good way) and their repertoire is old-timey, cheeky, danceable fun. They also perform with The Flamming Mamies. And the guys, Chris & Dave. DANG!, boy can they play. We were standing in the audience with a group of other performers and all of our jaws were dropping. Ab-so-lute-ly Brilliant! Besides being musically awesome, all four of those 'scousers' were fun as hell to hang out with. Instant friends. We love them. Sorry, no website yet for Chris and Dave but here's some video's. Check them out for yourself...

Here's Amanda & Chantelle (with me filling in on Washtub Bass).


And here, Ukulele Uff and Lonesome Dave


The most fun of the Festival in Caldogno was actually just hanging out with all the musicians and meeting up again with old friends and meeting some very cool new ones. The performers had full run of the Marco Polo hotel. Every morning started with this incredible Jam Session in the lobby and the very friendly proprietor greeting you with a big smile and a friendly "Cappuccino?". This is what it was like...


Every night ended in a beautiful mayhem of laughing, dancing, drinking, story telling, more jamming and a heaping dose of good-humored naughtiness which i think requires it's own blog post. More about that later. Besides the musicians we met hundreds of people at the fest. We had a table of merchandise from The Jumping Flea Market set up on the grounds so over the festival weekend we had so many notable encounters with people it was almost dizzying. (Funnily enough, LOTS of conversations about our Washtub Bass. People are amazed by that thing.) Anyway, it was just a very very special event. A real treat.

Marko and i with Sven Joos, Beppe Traversa, Paul Moore (Ukuleles for Peace), George Hinchliffe (Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain), Ken Middleton (Ohana), Amanda Brown, Chantelle Cox (Flamming Mamies), & Chris (Ukulele Uff)

Now THIS is ICE CREAM!

After Caldogna we had 3 days before the next festival in Matera. Aquila Acorde generously arranged for us to stay in Vicenza for in the mean time and it was heavenly. We strolled the city admiring the architecture and ate lots of ice cream. (You haven't eaten ice cream until you have eaten it in Italy). Each evening ended with a superb and surprisingly affordable meal at Righetti's. We were even able to take a day trip to Venice which is just 30 minutes away from Vicenza. These three days were a really wonderful break for us. We had been working ourselves silly, to the point of it being a bit unhealthy to be honest. But, after the festival and the days of rest in Vicenza, we were on quite a high. Then, we headed down to Matera...

Well, the good part of our trip to Matera was that it is was, without a doubt, the most amazing landscape i've ever seen in my life. Looked like a prehistoric city designed by Escher. No photograph can give you any idea how WOW it is. You really have to see it for yourself. But the festival, well, that was the bad part. The organization, man, i don't even know what to say about them. They were obviously inexperienced but it went beyond that. They were oblivious. I felt like we had entered a zombie film. We did of course enjoy seeing this amazing city and we met up with friends that we knew which was super. The show at the festival had some great moments too. Ukulollo did a really neat show with synchronized video projections and the Sinfonico Honolulu was a lot of fun.

View from our hotel window, Marko performing with Francesco Albertazzi, Our view at night,  Sinfonico Honolulu

But unfortunately the situation we were in  overshadowed everything. I won't go into detail. You wouldn't believe it if i told you. It was a pretty horrible experience. Pretty stressful and caused us quite a bit of financial woe. I hope that these people never attempt a festival again and if they do, i hope that none of my musician friends get mixed up in the fiasco. You've been warned. And that is enough said about that.

Oh wait a second, i forgot something. To add to the fun, after our performance in Matera, I was bit by a dog. I thought my thumb was going to rot off for a couple of days but it didn't and for that i am very thankful.

So getting back to the awesome part... We want to conclude by sending our thanks and love to everyone that made our trip truly unforgettable and especially to Daniela and Mimmo who made it all possible in the first place and all the volunteers, kitchen staff and sound crew. Y'all were awesome all weekend long. It was an absolute thrill to perform at such an amazing event. Grazie e Ciao, Italy!

'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!

Big Damn Front Page

Whooooweee. I'm not going to lie about it. The preparations leading up to The Big Damn Ukulele Bash for Route du Nord were a freakin' fiasco. Thankfully, that doesn't happen often. Marko and i work so damn well together that usually we've got everything covered and them some but this time, DANG. But, I guess you can't always expect things to go your way and you just have to experience small disasters along your path sometime. With that in mind, it makes it even the more sweeter that there is a photograph on the front page of the newspaper from the show. Look how damn cute David is playing his 'funky ukelele'. He and his wife Jos are the new proprietors of Café Wijnberg where we hosted the event. To them AND to everyone that came and filled up the house with fun, we THANK YOU!

The Big Damn Ukulele Bash

Sunday the 24th of June during 'Route du Nord'
¡THE BIG DAMN UKULELE BASH!
Starring
'The Big Damn Ukulele Band'
Hosted by The Uke Box & Guaranteed to Swoon!
Café Wijnberg, Zwaanshals 239, 3036 KP Rotterdam Noord

15uur - UKULELE INTERVENTION!
Free Ukulele Workshop voor aspiring Ukulele Spelers!
24 seats available. First come, first serve.
Duration: ±1uur
4pm - OPEN MIC
Bring your ukulele and WOW us with a song!
15uur - PERFORMANCES
The Big Damn Ukulele Band & Surprise Guests!
Doors Open 14:30, Admission: FREE!

Plein du Publique this Saturday!

Come join in on the fun this Saturday at the creative market, Plein du Publique on the gorgeous Pijnackerplein in Rotterdam North. There will be food, art, music, performance, curiosities and much more.

Marko and i will be there with a small stand from The Jumping Flea Market and we'll also be performing throughout the day. The market starts at 12pm and is open till 19pm. Don't miss it!

13 High

Last week we performed on a balcony on the 13th floor for an Architectural Festival, Zig Zag City. Much thanks to Joost and Sanne for their hospitality and to Eva Liukku from ZigZag City.

Night in the North!

This weekend we will be opening the doors of our Parlour at The Jumping Flea for the first time during the 'Nacht in Noord' or 'Night in the North'. The 'Nacht in Noord' is an initiative by Powerboat and is an evening filled with amazing sights, sounds and mysteries. Tickets are just 12.50 for the whole evening. We have just 10 tickets left at The Jumping Flea Market so make haste! It promises to be an absolutely unforgettable evening. This from the organization...

"In the night from April 28th to April 29th we will Celebrate the Night in the North of Rotterdam. From 20:00h in the evening until 08:00am the next morning.


A unique night with meetings, places and things, performances and installations that nobody ever saw before. Listening, dancing, building, learning, meeting, eating and sleeping!

We present 3 special Night routes along clandestine locations with exclusive musical acts, (light) installations, rituals and guerilla actions on and around the Hofbogen. For the night owls among us Station Bergweg is the place to be, offering a nightcinema, Caffeinebar, Midnight sjoelen, soup-lab, Wohlwollen (mega Bender), Bed time storytelling and DJ’s. For anyone who wants to do a blind eye hostel Ani & Haakien will open her doors specially for this one night.We conclude the night together with a ritual at sunrise and breakfast."

See You There!

Important Fundraiser Update!

Dear Friends,
Last week Marko and I started a fundraiser to create a parlour at 'The Jumping Flea Market'. In case you missed the previous post please click here to read all the details and then come back to read this update.

So far...
We have raised €1,010! (+ 2 tables and a Towel Rack) We are thrilled about this and Thank all of you who have given us a helping hand. We appreciate your support immensely. But, we are still 2,000 euro's short of our goal of €3,000 which we need to create The Parlour at 'The Jumping Flea Market'. For those of you who appreciate The Uke Box and our various endeavours but haven't made a donation yet we thought we'd give you just a little more encouragement to do so. Here's a list of the neat things you will receive by giving a donation.

All the Goodies in a row
All Donateurs names (with a link) will appear on The Jumping Flea Market website on the 'Friends of The Uke Box' page

Donateurs of €20 will receive a special Thank You package in the mail.
+name/ link on website

Donateurs of €50 will get their name carved in our Parlour Piano.
+ your name/link on our website
+ special Thank You package in the mail

Donateurs of €100 will get a chance to win a Workshop and or Performance by The Uke Box (within the Lowlands) or for those outside the lowlands, you will get a chance to win a special video of us performing your favorite song
+ your name/link on our website
+ special Thank You package in the mail
+ name carved into our Parlour Piano

BONUS PRIZE:
The Oosterport Theater in Groningen has made a very kind donation of two tickets for The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain on the 20th of April which we will raffle off to one of our lucky donators in the Lowlands on the 10th of April.

How can you donate?
You can donate via PayPal (see PayPal button at the bottom of this post or at the bottom right hand corner of our website: www.jumpingfleamarket.nl) or via our bank account:
The Uke Box, account number: 5729448 under the memo: “I Support The Jumping Flea Market”. Don't forget to note your postal address!

We will be holding this fundraiser till the end of April. Shortly thereafter you will receive an update about the results, a receipt for your donation and the aforementioned prizes.

In closing
When supporting a small creative business, your money goes a long way. It's entrepreneurs like us that help make up the cultural environment of a neighborhood, initiate community projects, teach skills which enrich lives and make life just a lot more colorful in general. Your donation will help make our big dreams for our small creative business come true which will in turn help us to help others. Isn't that beautiful?! We appreciate your support enormously!
Much love,
Shelley & Marko
The Uke Box

Thank You
Your support is greatly appreciated!

Without your help, no music. No music, no magic.

Raoul de Jong has been working on this great project for 5 years...5 YEARS! It's a Musical Book called, All The Stars in the Sky. Of course, this isn't all he's been doing during this time. Raoul is a young talented writer, he makes films and also has an awesome children's series called 'Iedereen Kan Dansen' (Everybody Can Dance) on the VPRO television network here in the Netherlands.

But, during all of this, he's worked on his little dream project, the musical book. A book with music and dancing. The book is as good as finished but the last little hitch is funding the recording of the music and obtaining the copyrights to publish it. And this is where we come in! He's trying to fund this by asking for our help via 'Voor De Kunst' which is the dutch version of 'Kickstarter'. I invite you to watch this promotional video. It's in Dutch, but there are English Subtitles.

And why am i telling you about this project in particular? Well, we met Raoul last year after our appearance on De Unie Late Nite Talk Show, and we just completely hit it off. The following week he came over to our house to show us his Musical Book. We saw it in it's raw form and it was already so charming. Great graphics, cool music. Just very original. Anyway, he asked us if we would be willing to do one of the songs. The following week we made this demo of Tous les Garcons et Les Filles by Francois Hardy.

So if Raoul gets this funded, then we and the other artists can go ahead with the recordings and get this awesome little musical book published! Marko and i will be recording two tracks including the fabulous, 'Tame Me Tiger', and boy would i love to do that tune. Grrrrr. So yes, supporting Raoul would also be supporting us and the other musicians that will, or have already made amazing tracks for this book. Once it's finished, it will be available in museum shops and gallery's worldwide and Raoul's dream will have finally come true. Don't you just love a happy ending?!

To show your support, go to the Project Page on the Voor de Kunst Website. There is just one little difficulty... it's in Dutch but, i looked at the site using Google Translator and i'm thinking you should be able to figure it out. So, to translate, go to the Project Page, Copy the URL, Open up Google Translator in another tab and paste the URL in the window and translate it from Netherlands(Dutch) to English. Voila!

Oh, and i almost forgot. Each donation above 30,- euro's will receive one of the 'thank you' packages according to the amount donated. Should you donate 60,- euro's or more. Raoul will make a personalized dance instructional video for your own personal favorite song. Raoul and all of us Thank You in advanced for supporting the arts!

Belgium here we come!

This Sunday we (The Uke Box) will be performing at Ukulele Sur Meuse in Belgium. They host an event every two months which includes an Open Mic, Performances AND Good Food. (Those Belgians can cook y'all, not to mention they brew the best beer in the world.) We are really looking forward to it. If you are somewhere close by, come out and see us, we'd love to meet you!

The Uke Box welcomes The Mighty Uke to Rotterdam!

On Friday the 11th of November

at Rotabs StyleCenter

Zaagmolenkade 46

3035KA Rotterdam 

'The Uke Box' presents

The premier of the documentary

"Mighty Uke"

The Amazing Comeback 

of a Musical Underdog

The Film

MIGHTY UKE travels the world to discover why so many people of different nations, cultures, ages and musical tastes are turning to the ukulele to express themselves, connect with the past, and with each other. From the Redwoods of California through the gritty streets of Paris, from swinging London through Tokyo’s highrise canyons to Hawaii, ukers tell the story of the people’s instrument: The Mighty Uke

Meet The Makers

Canadian Film Makers, Tony Coleman & Margaret Meagher will be there to introduce the film and answer any of your questions afterwards. And, they're going to bring their ukuleles!

The Mighty Uke Road Show

Following the film, huge  ukulele hilarity will commence! Bring your ukulele and join in the Big Damn Ukulele Play Along. Click here to download the songbook!  You say you don't have a ukulele?! No worries, The Jumping Flea Market will be set up where you can purchase a ukulele starting at just 35,- euro's.

There will also be an Open Mic. Show us your 'U Factor'! And, there will also be a special performance by Aaron Lee from the good ol' USA. He's going to tell us all about the ukulele tour he made on his bicycle and play us some songs from his new album, The Ukulele Project.

Be A Winner!

Everyone who purchases a Mighty Uke DVD or T-Shirt will have a chance at winning this super cool Kala-Brand 'Mighty Uke' Soprano Ukulele. WOW!

7pm:

Doors Open

Enjoy a drink, a snack & ukulele intermezzos

7:45pm till 9:20pm:

Film Starts

with an introduction by the filmmakers

Tony Coleman & Margaret Meagher

±10:00pm

Mighty Uke Road Show

Big Damn Play Along,

Open Mic & Performances

Midnight:

End

Admittance:

10,- Euro's 

BRING YOUR UKULELE

& RECEIVE A €2,50 DISCOUNT

AT THE DOOR!

Pre Sales via PayPal

Kies voor één of meer tickets

1 Ticket €7,50 2 Tickets €15,00 3 Tickets €22,50