Luthiers are fascinating people!

Pretty sure it's somewhere in this wonderful video interviewing luthier Rick Turner that he comments on finding Apple Macintosh computer as a tool.. I'll have to watch it again and note the minute mark.



Chock full of so much wonderful history about guitars, ukes and luthiers!

Entitled to an opinion, but so sadly misinformed... the wonders of the ukulele

What a shame that people choose to voice opinion based on little experience and less fact. Perhaps he's just out to be inflammatory and I shouldn't even bring attention to him (to all 5? of my readers ;).

I mean, he does start his posts with "Grumpy Young Man", after all. But, since it's not possible to leave comments on his post (at least for me is wasn't), I thought I'd just go ahead and say here what I would have left in a comment.

"You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but are sadly misinformed and should back up your lambasting with some actual facts. Please do some research before you bash something you appear to be barely familiar with."

Grumpy Young Man: Keep the ukulele inside the classroom - Columnists - Views & Blogs from @examiner

The ukulele was indeed created in Hawaii, by Portuguese luthiers who adapted their native instruments to this new form. It is based on their reworking of the machete, a small guitar-like instrument similar to the cavaquinho, braguinha and the rajao.

And if this sounds like a child's toy... Mr. Himelfield must be around some pretty astounding children:



Perhaps Mr. Himelfield is familiar with a guitarist named Carlos Santana?

Mr. Himelfield states: "It has all the resonance of an asthmatic flea blowing into a pillow and the clarity of a secret service document with all the verbs redacted."

Mr. Santana seems to be enjoying some pretty resonant, clear and well played ukulele in the clip above!  Brittni Paiva is but one of the amazing young uke players out there these days.

Is it easier to learn to play than guitar? Ohhhh yes. There are two less strings to deal with. Is it any less valid as a musical instrument? NO WAY. Sorry, Mr. Himelfield is fond of quotation marks... the "uke" is as much an "instrument" as a "guitar" or "violin" or... pick your widely accepted orchestral "instrument" or band "instrument".

Because you can't stand egotistical bass players who ALSO get to use just 4 strings, don't lay that baggage on a wonderful, full sounding, versatile instrument like the "uke" because it also has "just 4 strings".

And here are some ideas just what techniques and sounds you can get out of these supposed "toys" (warning - it's a full fledged lesson video - 24+ min):



Jake Shimabukuro's uke isn't resonant at all, is it? :P
Did I say it was easier than guitar? Well, it is easier to learn for many... it may not be quite so easy to aspire to the level of the Jake Shimabukuros, James Hills or Brittni Paivas of of the world.

Sorry you were subjected to the horrors of attempting to play a plastic recorder in school (my son went through that in elementary school as well). There are far better instruments for teaching music to young children, but schools are pretty limited on just about ANY funding for the arts (much to our cultural shame).

I have no problem with people not liking a certain instrument, it's sound, the type of music it may be used to create. That's no reason to malign and debase it as a valid musical instrument.

There are indeed horrible sounding plastic ukes... that is a fact. Not all ukes out in the world are plastic. Expand your horizons a bit Mr. Himelfield and perhaps strive to write informed and informative columns in the future. Ah, but then maybe you'd be less grumpy and have to change that header for your diatribes.

Wanna win an ukulele?

Music has been part of my life since I was little. I'd not taken time to play and enjoy it much in recent years. Thankfully, that changed.

Thanks to a wonderful person, I have discovered the ukulele. If you don't know what this humble (but sometimes insanely flashy) little instrument can do, just take a listen to this:



Don't have one of your own? The amazing folks over at Hawaii Music Supply have a contest going right now to win one of 4 lovely ukuleles. Give the trivia contest a shot. :)

Having come from a guitar background, the ukulele is quite a bit easier to play (especially the nylon/fluorocarbon vs. steel strings). Check one out the next time you are wandering through your local musical instrument store... They don't have one? Ask them to get a couple in for people to try!

Humans are odd creatures...

While this little guy certainly looks happy... I really wonder who thought it would be appetizing for their tea to come pouring out of a pig's snout? :P

A Couple of Bundles with Quality Apps

It's been a while since I've bothered to list any of the app bundles that crop up from time-to-time. There are a number of sites that track app bundles much more consistently than I do. (notably: http://www.squidoo.com/current-mac-bundles)

There are a couple out right now that are well worth mentioning though. They have a reasonably good mix of apps and the prices are great for what is included.

ProductiveMacs bundle is 9 Apps for $29.99.

It's a nice bundle that fit the site's name/intent quite well with an assortment to enhance your productivity. As of this post you have 11 days to pick this one up. It includes:

1. Concealer
2. DesktopShelves
3. DiskAid
4. iDocument
5. Optimal Layout
6. Path Finder
7. TaskPaper 
8. TextExpander

MacLegion just gathered up a bundle of apps that you might fine useful too. Their Holiday Bundle has quite the line-up of 10 apps (with an 11th app - Koingo's Alarm Clock Pro - for the first 5000 buyers).

This bundle, more geared to web design & music runs $49.99.

The MacLegion Holiday Bundle has 18 days to go and includes:

1. Beamer
2. Capo
3. Code Collector Pro
4. CopyPaste Pro
5. djay
6. Fantastical
7. Freeway Pro
8. iRip
9. Ripit
10. TechTool Pro
11. Alarm Clock Pro (for the first 5000 customers)

These two bundles cover a fair amount of territory and have no overlap in functionality (which is great since a lot of times bundles have had quite similar types of apps). 

Time flies...

Wow, nearly a year has gone by since I last posted here. That's a bit too long!

It's been a rather momentous 10 months overall. Lot's going on at the day job, at home, travel, buying an iPad app and now watching the shifting role of Steve Jobs.

So, buying an iPad app. I don't mean that in the sense that I just added another to my ever growing collection of apps that I need to organize on the iPad in addition to the hundreds on my iPhone.

My partner, Dan, and I bought... the entire app... and are now selling it in the App Store. If you get a moment go check out Agendas. Our up-and-coming business app that is very sleek, straightforward and just poised for us to add some great features to push it forward in the business space.

I've got outlines sitting waiting to go onto Macappgem.com as well. And I'm still blogging a few other places as time and inclination permits. That is, when I'm not mowing the lawn or trying to get the rest of the frame siding painted these days.

Oh, right, Steve Jobs. There was a bit of news about him recently. The wild speculation from both the doomsayers and the intense Kool-Aid drinkers just has me shaking my head and waiting for the furor to die down. :P

Do people really think he doesn't remember AT ALL what happened when he left Apple all those years ago? Do people really think that no-one else on the planet has any vision for cool and innovative?

I agree with many — yes Jobs absolutely is a visionary and an amazing CEO and took Apple to insane heights. He's not the only person on this planet who is capable of things like that.

I've been using Macs since 1985, I'm a shareholder and now I'm an Apple Developer as well. I've enjoyed a fair amount of that Kool-Aid myself. But I have no fear that the company whose computing products and software I prefer is going to be doing anything but keeping it's customers happy and ensconced in intuitive software and sleek wonderful engineering for years to come.