May 26 2009

A Visit to the N.C. Ukulele Academy

The weather here at the beach had been fantastic up until now, but some thunderstorms have blown in as of last night.  With beach-going out of the picture at least temporarily, I figured this’d be a great time for a road trip to Wilmington, N.C.’s North Carolina Ukulele Academy, so I hit the road this morning and was there a little after they opened at 11:00 this morning.

The Academy is in the upstairs portion of what seems to be an arts-focused commercial space on Racine Drive in Wilmington, not too far off Highway 17.  It’s easy to spot, though, because there’s a big sandwich board outside the parking lot advertising the school.  The space itself is terrific.  One end of it is a ukulele store with tons of new ukes for sale.  One wall is pretty much all kid’s student models–those brightly colored plastic ones that usually sell for thirty or fourty dollars–but the other wall has tons of traditional wooden instruments of varying qualities and price ranges, from entry-level ukes to really really beautiful high-end instruments.

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The other side of the place is a huge area for students to sit and play/practice in front of a stage–presumably where the instructor, Kent Knorr, teaches.  I spoke some with Kent, who’s a super-nice guy and he checked out my soprano uke that I’d brought along.  He mentioned that the Academy also puts on occasional concerts, bringing in bands and performers to play on the stage and using the student area for the audience.

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Given that this is, I’m pretty sure, about the only place I’m going to find myself any time soon  where I can sit and play lots of different ukes for sale, I figured I’d see if I could find a new ukulele I liked enough to buy.  I played some really gorgeous-sounding insturments, but ultimately I’m not an avid enough player to justify buying a really nice uke.  So, I settled on this concert size uke from Hula Ukes (pictured on the left).  The Hula Ukes line is basically low-end foreign-made versions of the nicer Mele Ukes.  I think my old mid-60s soprano size Harmony actually has a nicer tone, but the Hula is a lot more solidly built and has decent tuners, etc.  It’s probably a better “everyday” uke, and being bigger it has some extra range because of the longer neck.  Maybe I’ll finally try to tackle “Sailor’s Hornpipe,” which I’ve not been able to attempt on my soprano uke with only 12 frets.

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May 25 2009

Sketchbook 5/24

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The lastest in a series of sketchbook drawings of rock and roll people which only vaguely resemble their subjects–in this case Mick Jagger and Brian Jones.  I like to tell myself that my sketchbook drawings aren’t good likenesses because I draw directly in pen… yeah, that’s the ticket.  Sorry about the washed out/blurry quality of this image, but I’m on vacation and I just can’t seem to find a USB scanner handy in this darned beach house.

May 21 2009

Sketchbook 05/21

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So, apparently there’s a new Bob Dylan record….

May 20 2009

Strange Eggs Jumps the Shark

I just uploaded the completed files for the third installment of SLG’s occasional anthology, Strange Eggs.  This issue is titled Strange Eggs Jumps the Shark and here’s the official skinny:

The Strange Eggs are making the jump to the big time – television, video games, cartoons, the works! We get several different takes on the brainstorming sessions where network executives cover every possible angle on the Strange Eggs. Every idea is considered, from the absurdly disturbing to the downright silly. Creators as diverse as Jhonen Vasquez, Ben Towle and James Turner all try and save the most reviled kid’s show on the planet.

Release Date:      7/29/2009
Cover Price:     $4.95
Previews Code:     MAY090640

Here’s the cover of the book, by me and Tara Billinger:

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This issue’s got a particularly strong lineup, I think: Jhonen Vasquez, James Turner, Ben Towle, J. Marc Schmidt, Jorge Santillan, David Ray, Chris Reilly, Todd Meister, Roger Langridge, Kenny Keil, J. Chris Campbell, Jen Feinberg, Paul Friedrich,  Chris Grine, Tara Billinger, Steve Ahlquist, Derf, and Colin Miller.  Here are a couple of pages that set up the theme/framing story of the book, drawn by me and written by Chris Reilly:

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May 11 2009

Completed Sketchbook Grid

Here’s the completed sketchbook grid exercise I’d posted an in-progress version of a while back.  These things usually yield one or two “panels” that are passable, but I think I actually like three of these: the characters in panels eight, ten and eleven.

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