Rambling the musical streets of Canberra....

Gone are the days when I planned trips to Sydney and Melbourne, organised accommodation, and generally forked out an extra bucket load to see one of my favourite muso's!!! Canberra is bringing it home :-)

Recent ramblings have seen us at the gallery for a brilliant outdoor Tim Rogers gig - the man is a genius - throw in some rather well known paintings and we're regular "Manuka" gals... The Whitlams also came to town, harking back to their uni roots, and enthusing us all with their tales of love, loss and laughter. Then there was The Rockwiz Tour, bringing Tim Rogers, Claire Bowditch, Adalita Srsen (Magic Dirt), and John Paul Young to ANU (mind you Dougald got all the attention and I may have bought an I Heart Dougald singlet along with every other woman there....)

and if it couldn't get any better.....

This Thusday night the one and only Michael Fielding (yes, Noel's brother who plays Naboo in The Mighty Boosh) is doing a set at Meche $33.30.

Thursday 20th May Tim Rogers (his frequent Canberra gigs are obviously a reflection of the calibre of fans....) at Transit - $20 at the door

Saturday 22nd May Dan Sultan and his brilliant 6 piece band will be at UC - $20 through ticketek (I have gone up to Sydney twice to see him this year - the whole band is sublime - check him out on Rockwiz doing "With A Little Help From My Friends" with Ella Hooper, or in the recent comedy "Bran Nue Dae").

July 1st and 2nd - Tex perkins is The Man in Black - The Johnny Cash Story. I went up to Sydney to see this at the beginning of the year and it was incredible - Tex's voice is spot on, as is the swagger....

My fellow rambler is currently at Groovin' the Moo - so check back soon for her review!

Ukes not Nukes

I should apologise for my complete lack of input here at Midnight Ramblas but Galaxy Quest taught me a very important lesson, to test alien technology on ugly monsters before using it on Tim Allen. It also taught me that Alan Rickman really is great, despite his being Snape. Two important life lessons! So you see I have good reasons not to apologise. Plus I know Ruby will forgive me anyway :)

So hello internet folk, let's try this again.

I bought a ukulele about a month ago. It was a beautiful beautiful experience. I'd done my internet research on the best beginners ukes and emailed stacks of interweb sellers to see all my options. And of course I ended up going out to Better Music anyway.

My sister's and my hearts were sent all a'flutter when we realised that the chap walking towards us as we lumped around the ukulele/ banjo/ ludicrous instrument section was the lead singer of Ivoj Nob (who I know you have heard about already)... So yes my friends, a Bon Jovi sold me a ukulele. And played the opening of Smoke on the Water on it too!!!!!!!!! It was So. Very. Awesome.

I'm imagining that someone out there is interested in why I'd want to buy a ukulele in the first place. Thanks for caring guys! Actually it came about due to a confluence of events. Well two, maybe three, confluencing events.

Reason 1) I learned about the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra. They rock so hard! Plus Bret from Flight of the Conchords was in it. Here are some a links so you can see their genuis for yourselves -

*  Hey Ya by Outcast
*  I Can Never Take the Place of Your Man by Prince
*  The Bucket by Kings of Leon
*  It's a Heartache by Bonnie Tyler - someone's also made a cool video for it on YouTube :)
So I saw these, bought their EP and thought not only do I want to do this but I probably could as well.
Reason 2) I learned that Eddie Vedder, George Harrison and Bette Midler can all play the ukulele. Also the frontman of that swell band Beirut trots it out quite frequently. Watch their song Elephant Gun here, you won't regret it. You may even want to get married to it it's so nice.
Reason 3) Ukuleles are cheaper and smaller than guitars and they're often painted like fruit and made in brilliant yet acoustically impractical shapes. Plus they only have four strings so SURELY they'll be easier to play??? Yes and No - I'll tell you how I get on.

I probably convinced you of the value, nay necessity, of the ukulele to the whole wide world and I'm sure you're all gagging to rush out to buy one since those first clips I put up of WIUO so here are some online resources I found very helpful in the peliminary stages of Uke obsession -

* http://ukuleleunderground.com/ This is a great site including online tutorials for beginners all the way through to crazy flamenco finger picking insaneo stuff that's really depressing to watch when you're still trying to figure out chords like me. Another dreamboat at Better Music recommended this site while selling me a pitch pipe.
* http://ukulelehunt.com/ Also good, the dude who runs this site has also put together a free pdf book about getting started on the uke which is really useful. Both sites also link to other good sites with tab, chord charts etc.

Hooray! Let's all play ukuleles! Except maybe one of you should play double bass, it sounded grand when WIUO did it... Every town needs an International Orchestra, an army or an after dinner trio of uke players to play in the streets. Let's make it happen :)

Etsy Honours Roll 2

Storage that actually looks great:

Use a printers tray for jewellery, beads, buttons, ribbons, etc. like this one from "MyraMelinda"














Or this from "LeChic Trasures":
















I also find cake tier stands with miss-matched vintage plates look great when adorned with jewels:
from "judstrashntreasure":



















From "Eamartin6":

I'm With the Tribute Band

Let me take you back to 1992 - it's November, Rage is on, a voice sings "I wanna lay you down on a bed of roses...". I was a month shy of turning 7, but boy did I believe Jon Bon Jovi was singing to me!!

Fast forward to last Friday night and I was at Hellenic Club rocking on with the BEST Bon Jovi Tribute Band ever - Ivoj Nob. They're local, they're wonderful and the crowd loved it - particularly one beautiful Jack Sparrowesque man...but that's another story!

I have seen the real thing a few years back, but Ivoj Nob were fantastic - there's something magical about a crowd of die-hard fans all sharing their love with a tribute band, and i'll certainly be looking out for the next one!

What's on Wednesday?

Current Favourites:

Listening to: Dan Sultan

Reading:

It's absolutely brilliant! Keith really is a genius, trust me, just read it.

Watching:

TV: Grey's Anatomy, Supernatural (desperately catching up on Season 4), 7 Ages of Rock.

Film: saw The Road, Up In The Air, It's Complicated (managed to sit through Alec Baldwin's performance, because the film is actually hilarious!), In the Loop (favourite this year), Bran Nue Dae (two viewings so far...), Bright Star (exquisite) and Invictus.

What I'm Waiting For:

The Wolfman, Shutter Island, Alice in Wonderland, Clash of the Titans, FIFA World Cup, Spicks & Specks and Rockwiz - it's going to be a fantastic year!

Etsy Honours Roll

Fabulous Etsy finds this week:

"Shot Through the Heart"














From one of my favourite sellers (located in Melbourne) Black Swan Vintage:





















An amazing Octopus Ring by OctopusMe in San Francisco:














Red Dress from CalendarGirlVintage:

Knit One, Save One

The lovely Pip at Meet Me At Mike's passed on this information for fellow crafters:

http://knitonesaveone.wordpress.com/

It is a Melbourne based group that is collecting knitted squares to make blankets for children who desperately need them.

Get your needles out (crochet "granny" squares are also ok!) and get creating!

And so the year begins....

I've always thought of January as the "inbetween years" month...strange, i know, but when you think about it, most of us work up until christmas eve and then new years eve, and then go off on holidays before school/uni goes back in February. That's when the year really kicks in - post tennis, cricket, Australia Day, all the award shows (thankfully we still have the Oscars and BAFTA's to look forward to), etc.

How does one celebrate such an occassion, you might ask? Well, if you're a Canberran you'll have obviously been counting the days until Cornucopia reopened. My housemates and I certainly were and enjoyed a delicious breakfast at this fabulous establishment when it opened it's doors this morning.

So, Happy New (working, schooling) Year everyone, go out for a cuppa and a pastry - you deserve it!

Fedexed

Unless you've been distracted by the Brangelina "breakup" and Tony Abbott's "Gift" (the later may have put you into a coma, for which you could be forgiven) you'll be aware that a little thing called The Australian Open has been on for the past week and a bit...
After years of late nights in front of a small TV with bad reception, I finally decided to head down to melbourne to watch the game in all it's glory - BEST DECISION EVER!!!!!!!!! Rod Laver Arena is perfect, and combined with Andy Roddick losing (never been a fan) and watching a friendly doubles match between 'The Woody's" and Pat Rafter & Henri Laconte, I was one happy gal :-) then the unthinkable happened - Nadal retired in the quarter final with a knee injury. Now i've seen footage of girls crying at Beatles and Rolling Stones concerts and airport arrivals, but I did not expect to see tears at the Open, let alone shed some myself. It was a perfect and surreal night - I wholeheartedly encourage you to buy a ticket next year!! Anyway, that brings me to tonight's event The Men's Singles Final... my fellow Midnight Rambla and I have spent many a night watching our favourite players win and lose. Tonight we're saving a bottle of Penfolds and maybe some homemade chocolate croissants to watch Andy Murray beat Roger Federer. In the unlikely event that this happens, prepare to hear squeals of delight in a 10km radius...