I may start posting substantive things again in the near future. On the other hand, I may not. For now, here are my three favorite YouTube videos from 2020 so far:
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain featuring Laura Currie, The Lovecats
The Phoenix Chamber Choir, For the Longest Time
Thereminist Gregoire Blanc, pianist Émilie Couturier, and cellist Paul Colomb perform Saint-Saens’ “Aquarium”
Posted by acilius on August 6, 2020
https://losthunderlads.com/2020/08/06/three-youtube-videos/
Al Wood’s roundups of ukulele videos have been a highlight of Saturdays for many years now; the latest installment is no exception. My particular favorites from this list were the last three, from Maiah Wynne and Dreadlight, Laura Currie, and Randy Gapasin.
There were two other videos posted last week that would also have been worthy of inclusion. One appeared on YouTube late in the week, perhaps after Al had finalized the list. It is John R. Hazzard’s first performance video in two years, and it’s worth the wait:
Another notable absence is of a video I wouldn’t expect Al ever to include in his best-of postings, since he’s modest and it’s one of his own:
Also last week, weird New Orleans musician Dr John died, just days after the death of equally weird quasi-New Orleans musician Leon Redbone. So here’s a ukulele cover of one of Dr John’s best-known songs, from Jonny Ukebox:
And here’s Leon Redbone singing “Anytime,” accompanied by a fan on ukulele:
Posted by acilius on June 10, 2019
https://losthunderlads.com/2019/06/10/john-r-hazzard-al-wood-and-other-eminences-of-the-ukulele/
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain routinely gives little gifts to their fans at Christmastime in the form of particularly generous postings on their (already very generous) website; this year they’ve posted a series of videos under the title “Christmas Playalong.” Here’s one of them:
Also, our old friend Al Wood has posted his usual excellent Christmas things at Ukulele Hunt, including the Christmas UkeToob.
I remember Mystery Science Theatre 3000 fondly, or perhaps I should say I am of the age of people who remember that show fondly. I didn’t have a TV when it was on. Anyway, I don’t think I’d ever heard this one before.
Here‘s a holiday favorite:
And a great classic from the 1980s:
Thanks to theologian Alastair Roberts, I found a new favorite Christmas song just this morning, as I said on Twitter:
This has been making the rounds today:
Psychologist James Thompson engages in one of the most venerable of all Anglican religious traditions, publicly declaring that Anglicanism is doomed and wondering whether it deserves to die. I can’t explain why we do that, I can only say that it’s our way.
Jacobin magazine has a brief summary of how the Christian Left in the USA tends to think of Christmas, which picks up where James Brown left off a few decades ago:
I allowed myself a little scholarly musing on Twitter this morning, in response to a remark by Tom Holland:
As to who should do what with which holiday at this many-festivalled time of the year, here‘s a view from Mya Gosling:
Asked on tumblr whether it’s okay for Gentiles to celebrate Hanukkah, Scott Alexander writes:
To stick with stuff on tumblr for a minute, here’s a cartoon in which Gahan Wilson expresses irritation that various holidays, including Christmas and Halloween, run together in the USA:
This is kind of neat:
The Comics Curmudgeon has taken a vacation over the holiday, and it looks like Rebecca Watson is missing him as much as I am:
Ross Pearsall has put together a nice concept cover for a Christmas comic book that ought to exist:
So, Merry Christmas, everybody. And:
Posted by acilius on December 25, 2016
https://losthunderlads.com/2016/12/25/miscellaneous-christmas-gleanings/
Halloween is coming, so I recently watched the video of the 1982 touring company of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I wonder if the opening lines of the song “Johanna”- “I feel you, Johanna, I feel you”- are the source of the phrase “I feel you,” meaning “I share your concerns and understand your position,” that was in such widespread use a couple of years ago. Anyway, it’s a good song. Here is a clip from that 1982 video showing the bits of it from before and after the confrontation between the sailor Anthony and the evil Judge Turpin:
Out of context, a man telling a woman that no barriers can stop him from his plan to “steal” her may sound creepy, though in the show it is clear that she needs all the help she can get to escape from Judge Turpin and the nightmarish London he and men like him have created. Perhaps the problem of the male rescuer can be alleviated a bit if we turn to Bernadette Peters’ concert version of the song:
Another reinterpretation of the song is provided here, by Robert Adams:
“Happily you were not rotten…”
Posted by acilius on October 30, 2014
https://losthunderlads.com/2014/10/30/i-feel-you-johanna/
As I continue paring down our collection of links pages, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s time for us to let go of the one for the ukulele. I still love the ukulele and still use some of our links pages, but that page hasn’t been updated since June 2012. So here are the links from it that are still live as of today:
Ukulele Acts (more…)
Posted by acilius on February 13, 2014
https://losthunderlads.com/2014/02/13/our-ukulele-links/
Slate recently reran a New Scientist piece about the similarities between mathematical patterns musicologists use and mathematical patterns researchers to explore other fields. Pythagoras did something similar two and a half millennia ago, and built a whole religion around it. The Pythagorean cult was apparently still up and running in 1959, that’s when no less a celebrity than Donald Duck was initiated into Pythagoreanism:
Posted by acilius on February 9, 2014
https://losthunderlads.com/2014/02/09/pythagoras-today/
Dave Brubeck died today, I’m sad to say. I’ve always had a soft spot for him. A few numbers I’d mention are his versions of “Linus and Lucy,” “These Foolish Things,” “The Way You Look Tonight,” and “Le Souk.” I shook his hand once, after a concert in 1987.
Posted by acilius on December 5, 2012
https://losthunderlads.com/2012/12/05/dave-brubeck-rip-2/
This was one of the Videos of the Week the other day at Ukulele Hunt, I hope it wins the Nobel Prize for Awesomeness:
Posted by acilius on November 16, 2012
https://losthunderlads.com/2012/11/16/something-brilliant/
Yesterday morning I thought of Classical Ukulele, a blog I started in February 2010 and proceeded to do nothing with. It struck me that it was a shame to waste such a good url, and I wished I could hand it off to someone who would make proper use of it. Then I opened my email, and saw that WordPress had a message for me. Someone had started following Classical Ukulele. It turned out to be Phil Doleman of the Re-Entrants. When I saw that Phil had started a blog called The Classical Ukulele, I contacted him and offered to give him the url for Classical Ukulele. He accepted. So, if you are interested in the ukulele as an instrument of the classical repertoire, Phil’s your man now.
Posted by acilius on August 22, 2012
https://losthunderlads.com/2012/08/22/phil-doleman-takes-over-the-classical-ukulele-blog/
It’s time to go to Ukulele Hunt and vote for the best ukulele video posted online last year. I seem to have been the first person to have voted for Amanda Palmer & the Young Punx’ “Map of Tasmania” (Oh. My. Gawd!,) and the second to have voted overall. I won’t deny that several of the other candidates are probably at least as good (especially LP’s “Into the Wild“), but I couldn’t help myself.
Posted by acilius on February 6, 2012
https://losthunderlads.com/2012/02/06/ukulele-hunts-ukulele-video-of-the-year-2011-contest/
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