Most of the Fleas drove their own cars -- for various reasons -- but Sal and I were able to hitch a ride. (Thanks, Bruce, for letting us tag along with you.) Before going to the motel where out-of-town ukers customarily stay, we stopped at Folkcraft Instruments to say "hello," pick up our registration packets, have a strap button put on my beautiful Druid Moon ukulele -- and, let's face it, maybe we just couldn't wait to get to the scene of the weekend's uke-tastic events... While we were there, Thomas, a fellow Flea, arrived at Folkcraft, too. Great minds.
We got our registration packets, and I received a surprise extra in mine! It requires a small flashback to explain it, so here goes. Last year I brought Sal to the Uke Fest, and took many pictures of her there. If you'd care to take a journey down memory lane, here is the post about last year's Uke Fest. When registering for the Fest, you can order a t-shirt, which I always do. This year my packet also contained a tiny Uke Fest shirt for Sal! What a thoughtful -- and fun -- gesture from the wonderful Folkcraft people! You'll see a photo of Sal wearing her shirt later in this post. :)
After the visit to Folkcraft, we went to the motel to check in, and meet up with the rest of the Cleveland contingent. We all went out to dinner together -- with the exception of the one unlucky Flea who had to work that day and arrived too late to join us. After all the driving, everyone was looking forward to a beer or glass of wine. We found a Thai restaurant, and began looking at the beverages on the menu. When our server came to the table, I asked her to describe two of the beers listed. She then stated that the restaurant did not serve alcohol or pop -- even though they were on the menu! All of our faces simultaneously fell! It was quite funny, actually.
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| There was no beer or wine, but the food was tasty and we had a good time anyway. |
After our meal, we returned to the hotel, and everybody met in my room to practice the song we planned to do at the Open Mic Concert on Sunday. Happily, wine and other liquid refreshments were available -- thanks to the prior planning of almost everyone in the group!
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| For some reason I was given a big room with a sitting area, so it was our practice space on Friday and Saturday nights... and the place to have a bit of a party, too. |
As in previous years, the Midwest Uke Fest was wonderful! The classes were great -- and so were the people! Intense learning, lots of laughs, wonderful camaraderie... <3 the Midwest Uke Fest!!!
Of course I had to get photos of Sal with all of the instructors! Check out these fine musicians and the creative ways they elected to pose with Sal!
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| King Richard, as he was jokingly called by his fellow instructors, is also the big cheese at Folkcraft. |
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| Bing Futch with Sal. I took two of his classes, and he blew my mind at least three times! |
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| Li'l Rev and Sal. I really enjoyed my classes with him. I've heard that he will be an instructor at next year's Uke Fest, too, and am looking forward to taking more of his classes. |
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| Sal hanging out with The Ukulele Cowboy Society. They are based in Columbus, so I envision some Flea field trips and/or group outings to see them when they come to Cleveland to perform. |
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| Nick -- the guy who can do it all -- measuring Sal for her t-shirt. He was not an instructor, but Sal wanted to pose with him anyway! |
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| Sal wearing her Midwest Uke Fest T-shirt on stage. Doesn't she look great!? What a wonderful surprise this shirt was! A gesture like this says a lot about the Folkcraft family. They are good people! |
The Fleas rehearsed again in my room on Saturday night. We practiced our group song, and Nicole played through her solo for us. And then it was Sunday -- a day of more great classes and... gulp... the Open Mic. Happily, we didn't embarrass ourselves -- and Nicole was outstanding! Check out the videos of our performances.
The Tide is High performed by our merry band! (Don't worry about the thumb. It's soon removed!) From left to right you can see Thomas, Holly, Nicole, and me. Unfortunately, because of the angle this was shot from you can't see Bruce and Tabitha, who are behind us. I guess we'll have to configure ourselves differently next year so all the Fleas get their 15 minutes of fame!
The Cuckoo performed by Nicole. The audience was amazed by this -- and for good reason! Wow!
GUSH ALERT! Picking up the ukulele was one of the best things I ever did! It has brought me so much joy -- through playing it and through the people I've met because of it. One of the best things about my uke buddies is that they don't look askance at my kooky ideas. They are willing to do things that others would look askance at. For example, in the time we had left after eating lunch on Sunday, they agreed to walk quite a distance to pose for a photo with Sal and a tin man! We saw this metallic fellow in front of a heating and cooling company as we drove into town, and I immediately thought that Sal must be photographed with him. I was afraid I would have to do this necessary task alone, but most of the hardy Fleas made the trek with me.
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| What fun! |
As we were walking back from the tin man photo shoot, I had another crazy idea for a Sal photo. What if we pretended we were busking in front of Woodburn's bowling alley? As I said before, my uke buddies are game for anything, so they all got into the spirit of the thing. I thought we should have a cardboard sign, so I explained what we planned to do to Folkcraft's Nick, who readily agreed to get us a big piece of cardboard. After that the Fleas contributed their ideas for the perfect wording, and Tabitha did a great job of lettering and decorating the sign -- with much verbal input from the rest of the group.
After we ate our Sunday dinner, we all walked to the bowling alley, and realized that a photo there would not work. The sign was too high on the wall, and the light was not good for photography. After some pondering and walking around, we discovered that there was a pizza place around the corner. It looked perfect, so we began to get out our ukes and set up our scene. Then we saw a cop car -- with a cop disembarking from it -- next door! It appeared that we were doing our pretend busking next to the police station! Much hilarity ensued as we discussed the possibility of being arrested and calling Folkcraft to ask them to send somebody to bail us out, etc. Some even floated the possibility of asking the cop to pretend to arrest us and taking a photo of that, but wiser heads prevailed.
Usually I don't want to be in photos, but these turned out so great that I wish there had been a passerby to take them so I could have been part of the picture, so to speak. These photos are classic! Our first album cover! ;)
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| The wall was a bright color, but these pictures were crying out to be sepia! |
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| Don't you love these tough characters!? Suggested group name = The Hard Cases! |
We went back to the hotel, had one last little drinks party in my room, and went downstairs to the lobby for a final jam session. On Friday and Saturday night other uke players had been there, but tonight it was just us. It was fun, but we were pretty tired, and I know I was about ready to call it a day, when in walked Bing Futch. He sat down and joined us. We had a great half hour of playing with him, but had to regretfully say, as midnight passed, that it was time to say a final goodnight...
Good-bye to Uke Fest one more time... Already counting the months until we meet again next year... Thanks so much to everyone at Folkcraft for all they do to make this a wonderful experience; to the instructors for their patience, skill, kindness, etc.; and to the awesome Flea contingent for making every experience so much fun! You guys are the bomb!
Monday morning arrived, and it was time to return to real life. Sigh... But happily, some of us were willing and able to make a fun stop on the way home -- Sechler's Pickle factory. Next post: all about our pickle adventures.
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