@BigJackBrass@vivaldi.net
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BigJackBrass

@BigJackBrass@vivaldi.net

Charlatan, Humbug and Imitation Humorist.

Former sporadic cartoonist and game designer. Occasionally #Outdoorsy, sometimes #Cycling. #Ukulele torturer. #RPG player and GM at Whartson Hall. Still European. #LongCovid.

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BigJackBrass, to uk
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Reasons to be Cheerful: "Beavers Are Back in London — and They’re Thriving"

https://reasonstobecheerful.world/beavers-are-back-in-london-and-theyre-thriving/

BigJackBrass, to movies
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'“By mistake Roger would actually make a good picture every once in a while,” Jack Nicholson said of his frequent collaborator. “But I was never in it.”'

https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/may/12/roger-corman-hollywood-mentor-and-king-of-the-b-movie-dies-aged-98

BigJackBrass, to random
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Cover up the obviously bird part of this picture and suddenly it's a shoggoth 😶

https://universeodon.com/@JonBowie/112422828442412660

BigJackBrass, to music
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Inevitably, the part about skipping today and taking a rest from the Cliff Edwards Project can be safely ignored.

A popular Irving Berlin number this time, covered by all manner of people over the years including Cliff on the "Shakin' the Blues Away" LP.

Ukulele songsheet for "Everybody Step" by Irving Berlin (1921). Lyrics and chord diagrams, unfortunately too much for alt-text.

BigJackBrass,
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No sheet music for the next song, since Cliff wrote it and he really seems to have had an extremely relaxed approach to publishing and copyright where his own compositions were concerned.

Bit of an experiment here: I've taken the chords from Chordify (no sheet music to work from, you see) and left them in the original key. That means you can play along with Cliff's performance, but it also means that they are slightly more complicated chords. The fact that they are mostly closed chords (no unfretted strings) does mean that it's possible to get that swinging, jazzy sound by slightly releasing the pressure after each strum, which is far harder to do with open chords. In that respect it's a lot closer to how Cliff played, but transposing to a different key is always an option if this looks a bit daunting. It's certainly going to take me a while.

https://youtu.be/PrJyjGBLURA

BigJackBrass, to random
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Ukulele: "Stars and Stripes Newspaper 1918"

https://dailyukulele.wordpress.com/2024/04/26/stars-and-stripes-newspaper-1918/

BigJackBrass, to random
@BigJackBrass@vivaldi.net avatar

I never get a simple appointment reminder from my dentist, I get a "gentle reminder"… which sounds so calmly threatening that I'm convinced that missing an appointment will result in a gentleman called Big Dave coming round to ensure I'll never need the services of a dentist again.

BigJackBrass, to random
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Tea break this morning involved a spot of plinking and strumming on my Ohana O'Nino sopranissimo. I've settled on CDAF tuning for this one, which sounds good and has also improved the intonation (always a problem with fretted instruments of this size). Pretty happy with it.

BigJackBrass,
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@NeadReport Especially important on a small instrument like this. I've tried some with narrower string spacing, but found them almost impossibly difficult to play.

BigJackBrass, to music
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I might skip tomorrow, but this evening I had enough energy to tackle two more ukulele sheets:

"(Back Home Again in) Indiana" by Ballard MacDonald and James F. Hanley (1917) is an old jazz standard and still played today, so perhaps it doesn't matter that I couldn't find Cliff's version online (I have the album it's on, but nobody seems to have YouTubed it).

Ukulele songsheet for "(Back Home Again in) Indiana" by Ballard MacDonald and James F. Hanley (1917). Lyrics and chord diagrams, unfortunately too much for alt-text.

BigJackBrass, to movies
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Please stop. You're talented people, do something fresh.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/may/09/peter-jackson-andy-serkis-new-lord-of-the-rings-film-hunt-for-gollum

BigJackBrass,
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@SJohnRoss Maybe they need a new yacht or something. I can't imagine it being a sensible creative choice.

BigJackBrass, to random
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BigJackBrass, to random
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Read an article this morning about a song, "…the longest-running Top 100 hit in UK chart history, [and which] has been named the biggest single not to reach UK No 1." Didn't ring a bell, so I clicked on the link and had a listen.

Not the slightest hint of recognition. Somehow this tune has been popular for over twenty years, yet I seem not to have even heard it playing on someone's radio at work. The article describes it as "…a much-chanted staple at boozy weddings, karaoke nights and cheesy club nights" which could explain why we've never crossed paths, but it interests me how one person's fundamental pop culture bedrock can be so entirely unknown to someone else. We tend to assume that everyone knows a particular thing, hence my recurring surprise when a Douglas Adams quote receives a blank look.

I guess I missed it initially because I was spending time in America. Since then, my attention must have been elsewhere.

BigJackBrass,
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@DarkestKale @RogerBW Ah, I sense that you're familiar with it.

BigJackBrass,
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@DarkestKale @RogerBW I shouldn't be surprised that I missed it. I only heard The White Stripes last year, and that was because we played "Hotel Yorba" at the ukulele club 😁

BigJackBrass,
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@RogerBW @DarkestKale I'm not certain that a seven year old video of someone covering a forty year old song is quite as new as you imagine 😁

BigJackBrass, to random
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BLOOD, INK OR WATER 😶

https://botsin.space/@NoveltyBot/112404888121600979

mrundkvist, to ArtificialIntelligence
@mrundkvist@archaeo.social avatar

All artefacts degrade over time. What is the component of a 1980s home computer that gives out first? When did/does this happen?

BigJackBrass,
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@mrundkvist Capacitors seem to be a failure point for older electronics, from home computers to pinball machines. Replacing them seems to be standard advice for anyone trying a repair.

BigJackBrass,
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@mrundkvist That's quite a story!

BigJackBrass, to music
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Gee, Wm H. Windom sounds like he was a barrel of laughs.

BigJackBrass, to random
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This morning's musical scavenger hunt sees me off in pursuit of "The Horse with the Dreamy Eyes" from the film "Saratoga". Success may prove elusive, as the only copy I've found so far is going for $95 plus postage on eBay...

https://youtu.be/oSwY_6izX8I?

BigJackBrass,
@BigJackBrass@vivaldi.net avatar

@DarkestKale Copyright is a bugger.

BigJackBrass,
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@DarkestKale Let's not forget Edgar Rice Burroughs and his estate. Surprisingly big players when it came to copyright extensions.

BigJackBrass, to random
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BigJackBrass,
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@RogerBW Precisely! The rest of the ad only reinforces the impression of jollity provided by the ukulele.

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