riding the uke wave

ok, so here's the deal. the uke. it makes me smile unlike anything else i've ever really experienced. i was turned on to the uke by two fantastic people. and last month, i went to see the The Mighty Uke with them, a documentary about the ukulele and all its glory. now, i'm aware that i'm a wee bit behind the uke revolution of late. people all over the world heart this little endearing instrument. it's what keeps the amazing ms. amanda palmer up late writing songs about madonna and lady gaga. even the Canadians love it and use it as a gateway to musical education for kids. and in our fair city, in this bay we know and love, there are so very many hilariously wonderful people strumming along together just for the love of the uke.

on pi (pie) day this year (you know, 3/14), i was privy to one of those fabulous groups at a great party in west oakland. replete with literally scores of pies--sweet and savory, of course--the lovely and talented ukaladies performed a variety of pie-inspired tunes, many of their own creation. my favorite by far, aside from the rockin' rendition of warrant's 'cherry pie' they did while sexy pie ladies in red fishnets danced through the crowd offering teeny individual cherry pies--was '3.14159' sung to the tune of '867-5309.' who knew the uke could be so fun?

well, i'll tell ya. it is. i dare you to not smile when you hear someone sweetly strummin on this lil thing. it's pure joy. life hasn't been so easy this winter, and watching 'the mighty uke' may have been the first time in months that i had smiled and laughed quite that much.

tomorrow i've got my first strumming date. today, on a gorgeous, sunny spring san francisco day, i bought my first uke at Noe Valley Music. it's a makala concert uke. i spent the afternoon on pineapple pete's uke school site. i mean, really? it's just awesomely silly and fun. got myself 3 chords and some strummin done. looking forward to tomorrow. yay to making music.

"That's a damn fine cup of coffee."

at 13, twin peaks blew my mind. and i am certain it made me who i am without a doubt. this article from the guardian about the show's 20th anniversary shares the thoughts of 6 veterans of the show and points out that, really, this show broke the mold. http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/mar/21/twin-peaks-twenty-years-on

this show set in stone the kind of weird freak i was soon to become. my love for film -- strange, confusing, arresting, beautiful films -- came directly from my obsession with Twin Peaks (and, to be fair, my obsession with 'Rear Window' which definitely predates Twin Peaks for me. I first saw it at age 8, i think...). I can remember being on the phone with my best friend, Cotter, at a commercial break and having to cut that conversation off so I could go back to Agent Cooper and Donna. i remember my parent's friends having these parties every week where everyone would drink cocktails and swap theories about who killed Laura Palmer. and i remember feeling so cool that i knew and loved the show as much as they did. i *got* it. it made sense to me in all its complete nonsense and 'elliptical plot' ness.

takashi miike, almodovar, park chan wook, godard, truffaut, fellini, lynch, john waters, tood haynes, todd solondz, francois ozon. strange spanish films, strange french films, bizarro japanese and korean and chinese films. and of course, the strange and disturbing sensibilities of american film. these are what i love. worlds that make no sense, where nothing is as it seems, where every idea crushes what you thought was truth or reality. i have never truly loved movies with happy endings. never liked films where everything makes sense. they're entertaining. they're good for distraction but not for the kind of deep-down-in-your-soul transformation that comes from the likes of what david lynch created with Twin Peaks. that's what film, and tv for that matter, should be at their best.

it just may be time to watch the mystery of laura palmer unravel all over again.