It's actually true. My father, the man who introduced me to The Beatles with his incredible record collection, bought me a ukulele for Christmas this year. I'm loving every second of playing it.
I attempted to be very heady about learning to play. I'm a classically trained piano player since the age of five, and my analytical side of the brain wanted to learn the same way I did as a kid. Learn the notes, learn the chords, understand where everything is before moving on to playing a song. I have to say though, this hasn't been helpful. It seems almost impossible to do such a thing with such a fun little instrument. It would be like handing an eager young student a dictionary and forcing them to memorize each word, each definition. The way you get people to learn the meaning of words is by giving them an extraordinary book to read. Fall in love with the story, then you fall in love with the words. The life of the sentences inspires one to understand the meaning of the words that created it. The love for a song's melody and tone inspires one to understand how each note creates it.
This is why I'm saying that George Harrison has taught me how to play the ukulele. Songs like "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something" had me go from not being able to strum a proper sounding note, to memorizing and fully playing both songs; singing included. All of this accomplished in only a few short hours. And who better than to teach me than someone who loved the ukulele himself. "It's one instrument you can't play and not laugh!" He wrote this about the beloved instrument in February of 1999.
I was doing some searching around for great versions of "Here Comes the Sun" to watch how people strum and happened upon this amazing video of George performing in 1972.
I can't help but swoon when I watch this.
Oh! And here's a fun clip of George, Paul, and Ringo sitting in Central Park from The Beatles Anthology DVD.
In other Beatles news, Ringo Starr is getting his star tomorrow from the Walk of Fame on Ivar. Wish I could be there to witness it. My friend Evren got to see George Harrison's star ceremony from inside Capitol, right where his star was laid. Exciting! Gives me the wiggles.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
New Year, Flu, Commercial, Sugar, Sugar, Sugar.
This is my first blog post of 2010. It’s already February, 7, I know this. Yes, I’m apparently no good at the upkeep of a regular blog, but I fancy the idea of it. I really do. Here’s to another feeble attempt at keeping up with life and all the things I have to say about it.
2010 has been rad so far. Is it the beautiful even number? The communal excitement that things are on an upswing? Is it because my hair is blonde (I’m ready to dye it back. I can’t help it. I’m a brunette through and through.) after only three months (That equals a season. That’s a substantial amount of time!) of living the truth behind “blondes have more fun?” Who knows what’s made a wave of awesome come through the general public, but here’s to more of the same! Hear, hear!
Within the first two weeks of January, I managed to book my first national commercial. This was beyond thrilling. After years of auditioning and not booking commercially, this could not have come at a better time. I had the opportunity to work with an all out fun and similarly humored group of people. It was a brilliant time and I want more of it. I was also reunited with a very talented friend and woman that I admired for the year that I got to spend with her in college (she was a senior when I entered LMU as a freshman), Lily Rains. She’s an amazing working (because she’s killer good) actress whose name you will know well some day, preferably soon. I not only had fun working with her, but was so grateful to reconnect. Lord knows I’m always looking for more and more strong, intelligent and exceptionally talented women to collaborate with.
In January, I’ve also managed to get a mild flu, then get a mild stomach flu, and then consume copious amounts of sugar since the new year began. I LOVE sugar. Am I expressing an addiction here? Yes. Am I going to do something to stop myself? We’ll just take this one day at a time. I was warned by one of my yoga students, Laila, that the Cadbury hard shelled chocolate eggs of ecstasy and dream making are already in stores. This means that I’m not allowed to enter CVS until a month after Easter. A month!
God, I just want to dive mouth first into a bank vault (à la Duck Tales) filled with these stupid things.
So, that basically sums up my month. (I originally wrote mouth instead of month before catching it. Am I thinking about eating? What exactly is on my mind?!) Sugar, check. Target commercial, check. Flu, check. All of the bases have been covered. Keep a look out for the Target campaign in March. I’ll post the video up when I get a copy, whenever that is, just in case you miss it.
And I’m off! I have a special carton of Peanut Butter Zig Zag waiting for me in my freezer. Yes, I’m doing my best to develop diabetes by the time I’m 30. Diabetes, almost a check.
2010 has been rad so far. Is it the beautiful even number? The communal excitement that things are on an upswing? Is it because my hair is blonde (I’m ready to dye it back. I can’t help it. I’m a brunette through and through.) after only three months (That equals a season. That’s a substantial amount of time!) of living the truth behind “blondes have more fun?” Who knows what’s made a wave of awesome come through the general public, but here’s to more of the same! Hear, hear!
Within the first two weeks of January, I managed to book my first national commercial. This was beyond thrilling. After years of auditioning and not booking commercially, this could not have come at a better time. I had the opportunity to work with an all out fun and similarly humored group of people. It was a brilliant time and I want more of it. I was also reunited with a very talented friend and woman that I admired for the year that I got to spend with her in college (she was a senior when I entered LMU as a freshman), Lily Rains. She’s an amazing working (because she’s killer good) actress whose name you will know well some day, preferably soon. I not only had fun working with her, but was so grateful to reconnect. Lord knows I’m always looking for more and more strong, intelligent and exceptionally talented women to collaborate with.
In January, I’ve also managed to get a mild flu, then get a mild stomach flu, and then consume copious amounts of sugar since the new year began. I LOVE sugar. Am I expressing an addiction here? Yes. Am I going to do something to stop myself? We’ll just take this one day at a time. I was warned by one of my yoga students, Laila, that the Cadbury hard shelled chocolate eggs of ecstasy and dream making are already in stores. This means that I’m not allowed to enter CVS until a month after Easter. A month!
God, I just want to dive mouth first into a bank vault (à la Duck Tales) filled with these stupid things.
So, that basically sums up my month. (I originally wrote mouth instead of month before catching it. Am I thinking about eating? What exactly is on my mind?!) Sugar, check. Target commercial, check. Flu, check. All of the bases have been covered. Keep a look out for the Target campaign in March. I’ll post the video up when I get a copy, whenever that is, just in case you miss it.
And I’m off! I have a special carton of Peanut Butter Zig Zag waiting for me in my freezer. Yes, I’m doing my best to develop diabetes by the time I’m 30. Diabetes, almost a check.
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