I’m willing to bet that - as far as religion/politics blogs go - this blog writes about great Ukulele performances and other uke fun more than any other. This is not my fault. I have eccentric children.
Since my eccentric children do not ask for normal things at Christmastime - and they ask for little enough - I have been traipsing around the ukulele culture of the internet and stumbled upon this site which sends Ukes to Troops in the Middle East. In the pics the troops look pretty amused. I think it’s very hard to have a uke in your possession and not be happy, and apparently you can send one to a soldier (with a songbook) for $25.00. I’m considering doing it - sounds great! Coverage in the Boston Globe here. News about Ukes in Fallujah here.
Meanwhile Operation Gratitude has sent almost 300,000 packages to troops, and they’d probably appreciate some holiday green as well!
November 26th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
LOL. I asked for a uke for Christmas one year. It was, however, 1962 and folk music was all the rage.
November 27th, 2007 at 8:16 am
[...] Anchoress is doing that You-kah-, U-ka-, Ukulele thing [...]
November 27th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
‘Difficult issues’ loom at Mideast summit…
Delegates to Tuesday’s Middle East conference said Monday that the event is designed to launch peace…
November 28th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Now why would you think that you have eccentric children. Because they are “individuals”? Back in the day, dear friend, parents encouraged their children to be true to their own individuality. Now? Not so much!
I started piano lessons at the age of 3-1/2 because I wanted to make the same wonderful sounds my [absolutely idolized and 15 years older than me] cousin Gene was able to make at the piano. And serendipity intervened because he was a student at the Cleveland Institute of Music and needed a STUDENT to teach. And although it was hard for me to admit - even to my parents - I didn’t (even at that young age) particularly find my contemporaries very interesting. And from studying with my cousin Gene to being admitted as a student at the Cleveland Institute at the age of 7 when Gene went into the Army after his graduation, to abandoning the study of the piano at age 9 when ice skating captured my wandering eye - I followed my own odd drummer. As an adult, it has finally dawned on me that the love of music (thank you A for introducing us to Bryn, among others) was an essential component of my love for figure skating, particularly since my only gifts in that athletic arena were musicality and sheer muley-headed determination, since I wholly lacked talent! I always had to work twice as hard to achieve half as much - and I was happy to do it, so overwhelming was my love for the sport.
By these unusual (especially for someone growing up in the late 40s and throughout the 50s) twists and turns of my peculiar enthusiasms, I have learned a great deal: discipline - masses of it - along with appreciation of and knowledge of all kinds of music and a level of physical health I might never have achieved otherwise given my natural tendency to curling up with a good book for many, many, many sloth-filled hours.
But I never learned to play the ukelele and I’m thinking that’s a flaw I need to remedy. As my late mother used to say, she’s off on another tangent. (Poor woman survived my UFO period which involved endless reading of whatever science fiction was available at the time and many preteen excursions out into fields with other enthusiasts of the invasion from Mars - wonder if Dennis Kucinich joined us - to wait for the saucers to land - my mother had a LOT of patience and she needed it, bless her heart.)
By the way - I work in D.C. and we could do without the added burden on our traffic, not to mention the sight of low-flying helicopters that trigger other unpleasant memories and fears. In other words - they can’t go home too soon!