Bruner Blog

A totally surreal piece by The Smokin’ Ukulele, aka Bob Stevo, a solo ukulele version of Zappa’s “Wille the Pimp” to Stevo’s own pretty good, and very weird animation. How do I find this shit? Shouldn’t I be doing something better with my time than finding things like this on YouTube? What has society come to, seriously?

The KazooKeylele. A kazoo fixed to a ukulele made out of a toy piano. Pretty awesome. And a corny song by ’80s rockers Europe, “Final Countdown.”

A favorite UkeTuber performing a mutually favorite songwriter, appropriate for the holidays.

Merry Christmas! Photos from Google’s NY Sales and Marketing holiday party a few weeks ago at Central Park’s Boat House. Here’s the complete set.

This is my new favorite video! I could watch it for hours. I have to give Bush props for his reflexes. That guy was not holding back, he was hurling that shoe, and he aim was pretty dead-on. If Bush hadn’t ducked so fast, it would have seriously brained him. (Mark my words, journalists at press conferences for the remaining 4 weeks Bush is in office will be in stocking feet.) This BBC version is good, too, for its slow-mo, but alas they don’t allow embedding clips on the blog.

Someone emailed me these. Hoot.

It is with no small trepidation that I post this video of my last summer playing “5 Foot 2 (Eyes of Blue)” followed by a cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” on the ukulele. You know, because I’m shy. Actually, it’s because I realize I’m still not very good. Much as I love the ukulele, I’m regularly reminded I’m more enthusiastic than talented. But what the hey, with all the uke posting I’ve been doing here, I better put up or shut up, eh?

This weekend, working on some numbers with dear friends Masha and Rush, I am humbled by Masha’s gentle pointers that tempo and pitch remain challenges for me. Oh well, I am still a ways from the 10,000 hours of practice required to master anything, and it’s still fun, so I live in hope.

My dad forwarded me this wonderful joke:

One sunny day in 2009, an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Ave, where he’d been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the US Marine standing guard and said, I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.

The Marine looked at the man and said, Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.

The old man said,Okay and walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.

The Marine again told the man, Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.

The man thanked him and, again just walked away

The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same US Marine, saying I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.

The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I’ve told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer the president and no longer resides here. Don’t you understand?

The old man looked at the Marine and said, Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it.

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, See you tomorrow, Sir.

Yeah, it’s not that funny, per se, but I love it none the less!

Wow. Cool Hand Uke is my new ukulele hero. I’ve so far seen only this of his stuff, but he’s clearly an amazing uke master. I will be watching many more (and posting, too, if you’re lucky).