Author: admin

Slept ok, but tossed and turned a lot this morning. Got up and started sneezing. Gotta love ragweed. My allergies have been fairly mild for most of this summer, but I think they're planning to make up for it these days. I'm sneezy and generally feel like shit. Joy. I was wondering why I was feeling so lethargic these days, until I realized this morning that it's probably the benadryl. I could switch to something non-drowsy, but it takes a few days to build up an effective dose, and now is not the right time to do that… so I'll stick with coffee.

On another note, cat is no longer allowed in my room when I'm not in the apartment. Little bugger discovered how to climb on the shelves above me computer. Ya know, the ones where I keep all the fragile knick-knacks I have. That, and he batted my sketching pad stylus off my desk. I wanted to check my email last night when I discovered that my stylus was missing. I checked under the desk, bed, commode, radiators, yada yada, but to no avail. Do you have any idea how friggin annoying it is to use windows without a mouse? Bleh.

If you're a guy, your only as old as the girl your feeling.

..hehe

Jake Shimabukuro is perched on the verge of stardom. He still does the little clubs, but he can also fill arenas, pulling in thousands of raptured admirers. And he's a darling of the critics, who have compared him to such guitar greats as Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen.

“I've always thought the ukulele was an untapped source of musical potential,” the 27-year-old from Honolulu said in an interview recently after wrapping up his third Japan tour. “I want to expose more and more people to the ukulele in this new fashion, changing people's perspective of the instrument. Or just opening up their minds to the new possibilities of it.”

Though his repertoire includes a healthy dose of Hawaiian folk songs and light beach music, he also does classical, rock and blues. He performs solo for the more serious, classical pieces. In a group, he plugs in his ukulele and goes nuts, playing it with his teeth a la Hendrix or using a pedal board to create electric-guitarlike effects.

Such virtuosity is quite a feat, since the ukulele has only four strings and a frustratingly narrow range.

“Definitely, the ukulele is limited in a lot of ways. That's what makes it difficult and challenging,” he said. “With a guitar, or any other string instrument, you have so much more range. Basically, you're working with only two octaves, which makes it very challenging when you're attacking classical pieces.”

Shimabukuro's own exposure to the ukulele – which made its way to the island state about a century ago from Portugal – is very Hawaiian.

His mother got him playing it – or playing with it – when he was 4. After a few years, he was strumming for his immediate family, then for larger family gatherings, then weddings, then for whoever happened to be at Honolulu's now defunct Java Java Cafe. “It was a coffee shop about five minutes from my house,” he said. “So I could walk there.”

Three years ago, however, he decided to take his career up a notch. By 2002, he had become the first Hawaiian – and only ukulele player – to sign with Epic Records.

Shimabukuro, a fourth-generation Japanese-American, has since built a solid following in Japan, which has long had a love affair with virtually all things Hawaiian. Last year, he performed at the Fuji Rock concert, one of the biggest summer music extravaganzas in Japan, and did a joint performance with the popular band Tube that drew a crowd of 35,000. “It was just a sea of people,” he said. “Amazing.”

His most recent Japanese tour took him through nine cities this summer, mostly for shows in small to medium-sized venues. As usual, the critics were left gushing. “He has fingers faster than the best rock guitarists,” the Yomiuri newspaper said in a glowing review. “If he plays country, his ukulele transforms into a banjo.”

Still, Shimabukuro has had a hard time hitting the big time. His biggest audience outside of Hawaii or Japan to date was about 10,000 at a festival in Colorado.

“I don't want to say people are closed-minded, because that's not quite it,” he said. “They have an image about the ukulele, an idea about it, and it's hard to convince them to come to the shows. But once they do, and they see it, they appreciate it. To me, that's an indication we are moving in the right direction.”

Shimabukuro isn't bent on jettisoning the ukulele's playful connotations.

“A lot of people think of the ukulele as a toy,” he said. “I certainly do. When I'm on stage, I want people to see that it's fun to play. I'm having a ball, I hope they will too.”

To win over more hearts and minds, Shimabukuro will be touring the States over the next several months, playing at venues ranging from the Bumbershoot arts festival in Seattle to the Knitting Factory in Hollywood. His newest CD, “Walking Down Rainhill,” also was released in the United States on Tuesday.

But he says he isn't in any particular hurry to become a household name.

“Doing music is like anything else, it takes time,” he said. “What I like isn't being there, it's trying to get there.”

Original link: http://www.azcentral.com/ent/pop/articles/0826ukelele26.html

Head goes boom.

I get in the metro, heading for work. The guy in front of me is wearing blue jean… and tan suede leather cowboy chaps. With frills.

Interesting.

Just in case some of you might have missed this before. Fun quotes:

Kerry: You can't say nuclear, that really scares me…

Bush: You're a libreal sissy!
Kerry: You're a rightwing nutjob!
Bush: You're pinko commie!
Kerry: You're dumb as doorknob!

I bought some new batteries for the camera, so I was able to download the pics. Here's Boris. He's driving me fucking nuts right now…

And for those of you who wanted to see the latest version of the fridge, here it is:

So, between emailing with eniran, chatting with petkatyyazzick and doing a back-and-forth LJ comment run with raspberrysalmon, eniran and blacksquiggles, I basically did sweet fuck all this afternoon :D

Good jorb!

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Still talking with Katy, still not working:

Katy says: you ok?
Rc says: I'm fine
Rc says: considering I'm horny as hell at the office
Rc says: and looking over my shoulder to make sure nobody can read this.
Katy says: good to know you take pleasure in your work

Found this on my friend page. Here's my version:

Opening Credits: Underworld – Born Slippy
Wake Up: House Of Pain – Top O' The Morning To Ya
Average Day: U2 – Running to a Standstill
First Date: Phish – Bouncing Around the Room
Fall In Love: Blossom Dearie – Someone to Watch Over Me
Love Scene: Starmania – Les uns contre les autres
Fight Scene: Eric Clapton – It hurts me too
Breaking Up: Bet.e & Stef – It's over
Getting Back Together: Creed – With arms wide open
Secret Love: Stevie Ray Vaughan – Ain't Gone 'n' Give Up On Love
Life Is Good: Pink Floyd – Shine on you crazy diamond
Mental Breakdown: Flogging Molly – The Worst Day Since Yesterday
Driving: Cinemaphonic – Hot Asphalt
Learning A Lesson: The Rolling Stones – You Can't Always Get What You
Deep Thought: Coldplay – Everything Not Lost
Helping Dire Straits – Brothers in arms
Partying: George thorogood – 1 bourbon, 1 scotch, 1 beer
Happy Dance: Harmonium – Dixie
Regretting: Ella Fitzgerald – Cry Me A River
Laughing: Dixie Dregs – Refried Funky Chicken
Leaving: Colin James – Just came back to say goodbye
Missing: Tea Party – Walking wounded
Long Night Alone: Pink Floyd – Is There Anybody Out There?
Falling Asleep: Diana Krall – Dream a little dream of me
Closing Credits: ABBA – When All Is Said and Done

… a bunch of your friends goofing off together, making you laugh :)