Today was the first meeting of the Riverside Ukulele Circle. It was organized by the Odien bros. It was held at Back To The Grind, a downtown coffee place. They have this cool basement room that's very acoustically alive. Like ukes in a shower. I thought it sounded pretty good. That is until these two loud, pool playing, speed freaking assholes showed up about halfway through the meeting. Those guys pissed me off.
Jeff had put together a songbook of simple 3 chord songs. We went through a bunch of them (maybe too many) and then everyone had a chance to share a song. Almost everyone had something to perform. The Canaries sang I Shall Be Released. It was the first time I've heard them sing that since Jim's party. The tears started to flow. Virginia saw me falling apart from across the room and brought me a napkin. Thank you, Virginia.
I got up and went to the back of the room for a while. I was still way too weepy so I went behind the curtain where the pool table was. Bevis and Butthead hadn't shown up yet. I found a little sofa in a dark corner. Pretty little dragon fly lights lined the ceiling. I sat down and waited for my sadness to pass. Then I heard these two loud, stupid, bridge troll voices. They were dinking around with the pool table and having this loud conversation while the uke people were performing. I was afraid they'd come around the corner and see me so I got up and went back to the uke circle. The trogs figured out how to get the pool balls loose and started up a game. Assholes.
Oh well, whaddaya gonna do? We kept going. I went back to my seat and sang Haiku, by Tally Hall. Need more practice on that one. But I think people enjoyed it. Everyone had cool stuff to share. One of the guys sang Mongoloid by Devo. There was this kid (another Liam) who's been studying with a ukulele master who blew us all out of the water. He's what, twelve?
Sue Hannibal was there. She didn't remember me at all. Well, I guess I made a big impression on her 30 years ago.
So, other than the aerosol brothers and my crumble it was a fun afternoon. When I was leaving my car wouldn't start. Shit! Bill and Liam hadn't driven away yet and Bill saw that I was having trouble. They stayed to help me. Bill thought it sounded like I was out of gas. I thought that was probably true since my gas gauge has been acting squirrely lately. It'll show a full tank and then plunge down to empty. I guess it was telling the truth this time.
They drove me home to pick up a gas can. It only had a gallon but we figured it was enough. It wasn't. They took me home (Thanks, guys!) and I had Lindsay take me back. We stopped for more gas on the way. That did it. Whew! So, yeah, that was the third sucky thing of the day.
Dinner, tv, jammies. I came out here and practiced uke. I'm still a little bit heartsick but I'm better.
8 comments:
You are so welcome.
Your song was fab ya know. I sat and was impressed that you are one of those people who can start a song last night and perform it the next day. It was good and lovely to hear you sing it.
I loved there were so many ages there, from 12 to somewhere in the 50's. So cool.
I'll put pics up in blog tonight after I get home from work.
Haiku is a cute song. I found it on the Chordie site. I mean, I've known it for a while (we LOVE Tally Hall) but I was happy they had it on Chordie and it turned out to be so simple.
I also liked having different ages in the group. Looking forward to seeing the pics!
I didn't realize that our song broke you up until after the fact. I thought I heard a crash and that you had spilled something. I realized later what had happened.
Your song was a perfect Donita song.
I don't say this to be funny, but remember Sue (Hannibal, by the way) fell on her head.
And she'd be the first one to tell you that she can't remember ANYTHING these days. We laugh about it all the time.
Jeff- You thought you heard a crash? I didn't fall over or anything. I just teared up. You silly.
Hannibal! That's right. I'll fix it.
Sue didn't fall on her head. Well, maybe she did some other day but when I was with her it was a huge rock that konked her. It was so surreal. RCC Chamber Singers were on a picnic in the mountains. We went for a hike. One of the guys knocked the rock loose while Sue was under it. All I remember was one of the guys came flying down the mountain yelling that Sue had gotten hurt. A bunch of us got hurt that day. Some people injured themselves scrambling for help. One of the girls I was with fell into a nest (?) of bees which immediately flew up and started stinging her. I had to whack them off her head. The search and rescue helicopter picked Sue up and took her to the hospital. She was out of school for quite a while. We were all so glad when she came back.
Sounds like fun! I wish I could have been there - I can play 3 chords! Saw the pics on Viv's page and on Jeff's.
We have an ukulele festival coming up in Hayward in April. I think I'll go this year.
Nancy
Doni - Check this out:
http://www.jazzukes.com/crooner/images/beyond.MP3
Nancy
Awwww! That was schweet! Shades of Roy Orbison.
I've been listening to a lot of Hawaiian music lately. I want to learn some songs. You can help me with my pronunciation.
Post a Comment