{"id":25306,"date":"2011-03-23T22:06:30","date_gmt":"2011-03-24T02:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/25306\/live-yellow-submawhat-ask\/"},"modified":"2011-03-23T22:06:30","modified_gmt":"2011-03-24T02:06:30","slug":"live-yellow-submawhat-ask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/25306\/live-yellow-submawhat-ask\/","title":{"rendered":"We All Live In a Yellow SubmaWHAT?!? Why Do You Ask?!?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n\u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s so good to know how to read music!\u201d<\/em> the grumpy conductor of the ukulele circle barked, \u201cIf we\u2019re going to be using these books, we should do the music as it is in the book!\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The dozen or so septuagenarian ukulele players smiled nervously and looked at one another sheepishly, feeling quite scolded.\u00a0 They held their ukuleles and prepared to do the song for a 3rd time.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019ve been singing this song since I was a little kid!\u201d<\/em> said one eighty-something year-old, who had been singing quite enthusiastically the last go around.\u00a0 Appealing rebelliously to the long-haired Hawaiian man with the microphone at the front of the room, \u201cthat\u2019s how I\u2019ve always sung it!\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBill, can you read music?\u201d<\/em> the conductor quearied.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWell, yeah,\u201d replied Bill, \u201cSort of..\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no SORT OF<\/strong> Bill!\u00a0 You can either read music or you can\u2019t.\u00a0 I\u2019m not really sure myself how this song goes, but I know that what you\u2019re singing are not the notes that are on this page!\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I.. uh\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Bill mumbled something inaudible under his breath.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s do it again!\u00a0 We\u2019ll try it slower this time!<\/em><\/strong>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n


\nWow.\u00a0 Someone woke up on the wrong side of the hammock this morning! <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When I had entered the room ten minutes prior, I was enchanted by the sound I was hearing.\u00a0 As you know, I love the subtle, bright, cheerful sound of an ukulele. As I discovered today, get 20 of them together, all playing in time, as in a ukulele circle, and it\u2019s indescribably beautiful.\u00a0 Even the simple, one downstrum per quarter note, 4\/4 time songs these old uke players at the Senior Center were performing sounded like an orchestra to my ears.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I have known that an ukulele circle met at a nearby senior center every Wednesday, but due to my school schedule, today during Spring Break was my first chance to go.\u00a0 Despite mister prickle puss conductor, despite him blatantly passing me over when it was my turn to pick a song (I dunno, maybe it\u2019s a hazing thing) despite the fact that I was by far, the youngest person in the room (which at 40, ain\u2019t such a bad thing), I will definitely be going back next week.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Why?\u00a0 It\u2019s like traveling back into the history of music first hand.\u00a0 Today, I heard sung and got to play along ukulele standards like Aloha Oe, Blue Hawaii, Ukulele Lady and the really fun Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue.\u00a0 I have seen the printed music for these songs dozens of times, and like Bill, I \u201csort of\u201d know how to read music, but hearing them and playing along first hand with folks who knew these songs when they were new, that\u2019s quite an opportunity!\u00a0 I mean, half these folks will be dead in ten years!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"When someone picked \u201cDaydream Believer\u201d near the end of the 90 minutes, I really let loose.\u00a0 Yeah, it was a #1 hit three years before I was even born, but at least it was a #1 and I knew it!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m tentatively thinking that for next week, I am going to print up the lyrics and chords to last week\u2019s Internet meme-song,\u00a0 Rebecca Black\u2019s \u201cFriday\u201d, ask them to sing it with me.\u00a0 I dunno.\u00a0 Twenty silver haired ukulele players singing Friday, that might get a few views on YouTube.\u00a0 This week, as it was my first time, I didn\u2019t want to be too blatant and intrusive with the video camera, so I barely have any footage of this gathering to share with you.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The, something even more interesting happened.\u00a0 As you will see in the video below, this senior center I\u2019m talking about is right on the edge of Puget Sound.\u00a0 The beach at Edmonds, WA, is an absolutely amazing place, and when I got out of the uke circle, the sun was shining, the wind was mild and the thermometer felt like it was pushing 60 degrees.
\nAh, Springtime!\u00a0 A partly cloudy day in the high 50\u2019s (F) is objectively not THAT awesome.\u00a0 If it falls in June in our climate, it would be cold.\u00a0 Bright sunshine, blue water and having to take your jacket off outdoors feels like a Godsend in late March.\u00a0 The five months of cold, dark, rainy weather is coming to an end!\u00a0 Yay!!! Weather is subjective.\u00a0 Today was the most beautiful day of the year so far, and it\u2019s only going to get better.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Y\u2019know, during this long, dark winter, I\u2019ve given a lot of thought about moving back to San Diego, where I lived during most of my 20\u2018s.\u00a0 I have family there, and more family is talking about moving there.\u00a0 In San Diego, you have a lot more glorious days than today in Seattle, all year around\u2026 but there really is no Springtime in San Diego. Endless Summers have nothing to contrast themselves against.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So, I wasn\u2019t going to go getting right back on the bus to head home from the beach.\u00a0 I got down onto the sand, settled in, and started playing my ukulele.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been on a bit of a Beatles kick lately, and so I found a suitably nautical song from the book I\u2019d brought with me and started playing.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Since I kinda fucked it up at the end of the first verse, this normally wouldn\u2019t make my YouTube channel, but something remarkable happened. I had a bit of an encounter.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know where it is going to lead, but it was certainly interesting.\u00a0 Be sure to watch to the end; its a two minute video.\u00a0 I get the videographical tables turned on me. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/object><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As I often do, I had a little difficulty transitioning from the first to the second verse, as I paused, I get interrupted with a guy above me on the walkway asking, \u201cExcuse me, sir!?!\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As you might be able to discern from my tone, when this guy leaned over the sea wall and asked, \u201cHow much longer are you going to be playing down here?\u201d I thought he was complaining about my music.<\/strong><\/em> I thought I was disturbing his peaceful enjoyment of this bucolic scene.\u00a0 My fragile little musician ego was about to be crushed\u2026 as it turns out, he wants ME to be part of his documentary.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Like I said, we\u2019ll see where it goes, but I\u2019m the one who MAKES documentaries (sort of), being PART of one, well, that\u2019s a first.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s so good to know how to read music!\u201d the grumpy conductor of the ukulele circle barked, \u201cIf we\u2019re going to be using these books, we should do the music as it is in the book!\u201d<\/p>\n

The dozen or so septuagenarian ukulele players smiled nervously and looked at one another sheepishly, feeling quite scolded. They held their ukuleles and prepared to do the song for a 3rd time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,10,8],"tags":[107,81,69,1538,106],"class_list":["post-25306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-life","category-music","tag-fun","tag-joko","tag-life-2","tag-seattle","tag-ukulele"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25306\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}