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Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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squidish

(to thraxamer)
I’m hoping for the glass harmonica :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_harmonica

I just thought I’d take the first-post chance to boldly state my opinion.
Fabio

As an instrument, the ukulele sounds like a crappy plastic kid’s toy version of a guitar. The only redeeming elements of these videos are the cute girls.

So, how’s about just post videos of cute girls instead?
srsly

ok, i’ll watch these but my heart belongs to julia nunes,,, she is a gigantic ukelele full of awesomeness and cute.
my favorite cover of hers is here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr09fYxQXMU
celeb8

Wow more ukulele videos. How new and fresh. How edgy and ironic. How… HW S THS CRP GTTNG GRNLT TS KLL PLZ GRDT T RCRDRS R SMTTHNG CHRST

btw Mark <3 <3 <3 love you big fan etc
celeb8

much love I’m a big fan
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Community Manager

Okay. I want everyone who’s protesting all the ukelele videos to look at the list of related previous stories. It’s at the bottom of the main entry.

Notice how every one of those stories had “ukelele” in its title? Notice how this story does too?

If you don’t like stories about ukeleles, don’t read them!

Thank you.

This has been a message from the Obvious Clue Fairy.

===

(Celeb8: Your comment is fine. It’s the “shouting in all-caps” thing that’s the problem. Please don’t do it.)
Antinous / Moderator

I, for one, welcome our new ukulele overladies, but if you’re taking requests, I’d like to see more contrabass balalaika.
dculberson

I think squidish is just making a protest; since video is 30fps photos and we know photos steal souls, then ukulele videos steal a lot of soul. Stop them! Before all the soul is stolen from ukuleles!
Takuan

one mahogany ukulele, one desk-top steam engine, hand made generator set, hand made amplifier with hand-blown tubes, hand-wound pick-ups, a few flourishes and viola: the steam-powered electric ukelele!
yclept

Thanks for that! It made such a bright spot in my otherwise flu-ridden miserable day. Maybe I will go apologize to some of the folks I affected with my dark mood earlier. I am smiling.
Mark Frauenfelder

Thanks for the comments! I’m glad so many people appreciate them. As for the folks who are angry that I’m posting them — well, you are just encouraging me to keep it up.
trimeta

Another vote for BBcutegirlswithukeleles.com, or Fabio’s “cute girls without ukuleles” suggestion. Actually, an interesting alternative would be “cute girls with instruments we haven’t previously seen cute girls play on BoingBoing.” A new instrument each time would provide the variation necessary to make each post not completely identical to the 10 that preceded it.
randrews

For anyone else curious, the song is originally by Ingrid Michaelson, and can be purchased DRM-free (either the song or the whole album) at amiestreet.com.
Takuan

they don’t all have to be cute girls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D68ymfjpw98&annotation_id=annotation_790015&feature=iv
Anonymous

You haven’t seen Ukulele pushed to the limits until you see Lucy Michell & The Velvet Lapelles. They’re big in Minnesota ;-)
Mark Frauenfelder

Love Iz. RIP.
Anonymous

this was really enjoyable. i like the song and megan’s voice was very pleasant. thanks for posting this.

-jim
barrymcw

For gods’ sake, DO NOT stop posting girls playing uke vids.

Mark, I know where you live. Don’t make me do anything crazy (grin).

I need these doses of adorable!
arkizzle

You Keh Lay Leez!

Moar.
arkizzle

Ukeladies?
arkizzle

“A new instrument each time would provide the variation necessary to make each post not completely identical to the 10 that preceded it.”

And here I thought the girls did that. Silly me :)
Bucket

As a grizzled and jaded veteran of the Great Irony Wars, and who was totally into U2 back when they were cool, I say this, with no snark or sarcasm:

I have enjoyed each of these videos and they’ve all made me a little bit happier for having seen them. Thank you.
ThePoptimist

Aww, these kids kind of stole my heart! How precious!
Anonymous

Steel drum?
yes

Mbira?
yes (sounds like a music box)

how about a band that just plays these weird instruments?
Takuan

thanks for weighing in, glad you won’t have to twice.
weewillie

cute chicks and ukuleles… hmmmm
We’ve got boingboing and we have BBtv and we have BBgadgets and we have BBoffworld – maybe we need BBcutegirlswithukeleles.com?

I LOVE it!

ps. – just my own personal favourite – cute girls with charangos?
mostlybob

contrary to a protest against uke videos, I’d like to toss another one in there. Molly, aka SweetAfton23 has a youtube account, natch, and comes with the personal endorsement of Jonathan Coulton himself:

http://www.youtube.com/user/sweetafton23

http://www.jonathancoulton.com/index.php?s=molly

She’s even got a few of her tunes up for sale:

http://sweetafton23.com/songs/
usonia

I love BoingBoing, but that does not mean we’re BFFs who love all the same stuff. To wit: ukeleles, girls playing ukeleles & paintings of naked girls and monkeys with ukeleles: wonderful? Not to me, but I’m fully won over by yous guy’s adoration of these things. I’mna go wash my eyes out with some Eames cruft now.
tomston

This is clearly not a patch on Sparky Deathcap:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0emOtm3M8E

Who played a one-off spectacular ‘ukelele rock opera’ last week in Manchester. I submitted it but I guess since he’s not a girl and the video’s a bit grainy it doesn’t warrant a mention.

Not that i’m bitter. Nope…
Takuan

heh heh! Yeah!
gowerboy

More ukelele action.

http://videotapasvideos.blogspot.com/2008/06/fecha-27-de-mayo-alrededor-de-las-830.html
Anonymous

Bass clarinet, please. Plus cute girl if possible.
ridl

That was fun.

But I second mbira. Here’s a start.
Takuan

mbira tres cool! is there an Orffian Gassenhauer? It would be a natural for mbira. You know, Musica Poetica fur Kinder, Badlands?
ridl

Arkie, you’re magic. I do believe “ukeladies” needs to be the tag for all these posts.
Anonymous

I love this ukelele Toxic!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWxxTph7ibU
squidish

STOP UKULELE VIDEOS
tuscadero

How about some ukecandy for the ladies?

There are a ton of cute boys with ukuleles on the youtubes, too. Wade Johnson, a.k.a. the male Julia Nunes. Seeso and Aldrine from Ukulele Underground are both quite adorable. And my new personal fave is a 13 year old from Sweden who goes by the tag EvilHamster95, I want to buy him cup a’ soup.

For the record, I believe the next ironic instrument of choice will be the melodica. I’ve already seen the signs.
TheDiversePurse

Cute!But, when I first saw this, I thought she was gonna rock out to Rick James’ “You and I”. Haha.
theawesomerobot

There’s an awesome little band I know called Apollo Sunshine that plays a ukulele acoustic song called “U & I” – this post just reminded me of it, it’s really sweet.

Really hard to find somewhere to listen to it (though their other stuff is good and easy to find)

I found this

https://myfiles.neu.edu/dwyer.c/Apollo%20Sunshine%20-%20You%20and%20I%201.mp3
Thraxamer

Eh. No one’s making you watch them, Squidish.

I’m just wondering what the next quirky instrument of choice will be. Concertina? Steel drum? Mbira?