2018 “Uketide” Tunes – Part I

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The ukulele lessons have been going great! For the last month I’ve been working on Christmas songs. Since there are requests to hear what I’m doing, the easiest way is to put videos online. I’ve got a set list of seasonal tunes for this “uketide” concert, and there may even be props and help from family members throughout December…

One of my favorite Christmas hymns is Once in Royal David’s City. The lyrics were written in 1848 by Cecil Frances Alexander and set to music a year later by Henry John Gauntlett. I’ll always remember it as the Christmas Eve processional hymn at church. The choir sang the opening verse with the organ joining on the second. It was always majestic.

While the humble ukulele isn’t quite as regal as a pipe organ, this is a beautiful song, and the first Christmas carol I learned to finger pick:

Another song coming next week!

Thanksgiving 2018

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As has become a tradition I’m taking the time to list a few things I’m grateful for this year. There have been trials and frustrations in 2018 but a lot of good too:

1. I finished a major audiobook project that took the better part of a year to complete. The end product is excellent and one I’m proud to have my name attached to as a producer.

2. I’m warming up to Salem, Oregon, and I love our new house.

3. Lisa. She is a fantastic mom to Aria and keeps so much on track at home.

4. We got back to Hawaii for the first time since Aria was born, and she came with us. A good time was had by all. I really need to take all the video shot and make a movie out of it. Just haven’t had the time yet.

5. I Love Love LOVE the ukulele. It’s been a joy taking up the instrument this year. I’m working up some Christmas songs and plan to post videos during the holiday season.

6. New creative endeavors may be on the horizon over the next year…

7. Somehow our Portland adult coed soccer team held together over a difficult summer of widespread absences and missed games, and as of this month we’ve started our eighth year together.

8. It was another great apple season. I should have homemade applesauce until spring!

9. In October I ran my first foot race in five years. The experience at the Spirit of Oregon Half Marathon and 5k was fun, and my time was excellent!

10. Aria is growing up, and she is definitely a daddy’s girl. I’ve enjoyed bonding with her over another year, and she makes me laugh — often.

Speaking of Aria, here is what she’s “thank you for,” as she says:

  • Mommy
  • Daddy
  • Stormy (the cat)
  • Maisy (her best friend)
  • Getting to color
  • Eggs

How about you? What are you grateful for as you look back over the year? However you celebrate the holiday, enjoy your turkey, turducken…or tofu. Happy Thanksgiving!

The Arc Bends

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Recently I saw a picture taken of a message on the reader board outside of Madison Avenue Baptist Church in New York City. It read: “Rather than a wall, America needs to build a giant mirror to reflect on what we’ve become.”

The last two years have been noxious in politics. The United States has been working overtime to destroy its reputation with the world and its own citizens. It has been succeeding. Racism, bigotry and audacious lying are in vogue, and there were alarming echoes of 1930s Germany running through the just completed campaign season.

The president of the United States has proudly been the head of this dark version of the country. His sycophants in Congress have allowed him to run unfettered over and through the norms and expectations of American leadership. To them retaining power takes precedence over issuing anything but tepid responses — when they aren’t behaving as cretins themselves — against the president’s worst instincts. Voters, however, have seen enough at this juncture to want a counterweight. Perhaps we’ve begun looking in that mirror. Real oversight of the television star with poor impulse control is coming.

Yesterday’s election was ultimately a referendum on the president’s performance. Granted, not as much as many preferred but enough that there will be accountability going forward. The House can start to slow the wrecking ball that is this administration and current version of the GOP. This can be done effectively but must be done without abusing power.

My hope is that we avoid self-induced calamities as a nation, especially on the international front, for the next couple of years before voting this president out of the White House and back to his golden throne in New York. He can take his enablers with him. In the meantime, the bend in that arc of the moral universe is becoming visible. The national nightmare isn’t over, but it’s soon to be assuaged. Keep fighting for the truth and for what’s right, both of which have been casualties of this administration. Don’t let this flicker of light go out. Onward.