Cannonball's Christmas Concert

Hey familiars,

Free Blue Moon.  Can't complain.

So today was a crazy day, rest assured.  I went to work, then afterward sat through an excruciatingly painful department meeting, then had to drive all the way out to f***in' St. Cloud for a book study (which wasn't all that bad, since it was at a Chili's and our facilitator bought me my first two beers). 

Following a few beers and a discussion on the effect of booze on world history (if you haven't already done so, I highly recommend picking up a copy of The History of the World in Six Glasses - awesome book), I had to speed back over to Hunter's Creek in order to catch Alayna's Christmas Concert at the Peace United Methodist Church.

As many of you may already know, I tend to be one of those people who enjoys documenting every, waking moment with a camera or camcorder.  My wife hates it, but, thanks to me, we have documentation of everything.  For future enjoyment, if you will.  Alas, as the date of Alayna's concert rapidly approached, such attention to detail was lacking as Kris and I realized we were out of DV tapes for the video camera.  I didn't think too much of it, seeing how one can generally find these pretty cheap in the store.  So we put it off.

Dumb move on our part.

A couple days before Alayna's concert, Kris went into four different stores looking for them, and we only found the three packs for $15.  On Amazon, however, a three pack of tapes - we tried and couldn't find anything smaller - was selling for $9 with free shipping (once again, thank you, Amazon Prime).  So we opted to purchase the tapes through Amazon, as they were to be delivered by the night of the concert anyway.

No worries, right?

Well, the day of the concert came, and still no tapes.  By the time I was speeding back from Chili's, I didn't have time to swing by the house and check the mail.  So, screwed without a video camera, we were forced to document the whole evening with my cell phone video camera.

The quality isn't great, but we're in the process of finding a copy from someone who was there that wasn't a complete idiot and remembered to purchase tapes well in advance.

(Just a heads up - a lot of these pics are blurry.  Kris took them, and I don't think she was using the flash.  My apologies.)

 

 

 

 

 (In this last video, you can hear Alayna singing one of the songs from the concert.  I had to videotape it without her knowing, as she gets a little stage shy. . . as you could probably deduce from the other videos.)

 - Brian

The Great Cordoba Heist

As some of you may or may not already know, I used to play the drums.  Awesomely.


Alas, the last time I touched a set was the infamous Virgil Q's Dixieland Kazoo Revue show, the night before I graduated from Western Michigan (at 8am... that was rough).  Anyway, two months after flying out to Africa and beginning my stint of service with the Peace Corps, my set was stolen out of a storage unit and I haven't played the drums since.

I still cry a little whenever I see a drum set.

Ovation Balladeer LX

Anyway, I tried picking up guitar for awhile, and played the hell out of it while in Africa.  And while it was easier than the drums, I never really got all that excited about it.  Nowadays we have three acoustics lying around the house collecting dust (if my instruments were kids, my guitars would be those emotionally-scarred, forgotten children from a previous marriage).

Michael Kelly F-Style Mandolin

Well, when I got back from the Peace Corps I decided it'd be a good idea to try out a new instrument, and made the genius move of dropping $600 on a fancy mandolin (not my wisest purchase by any means)... only to realize later that learning the mandolin was about as hard as translating the Rosetta Stone (i.e. nearly impossible).

The Uke-ular Arsenal

Finally, in 2008, I picked up the ukulele, and took to it like a hobo to crack (or bottom shelf gin, depending on the hobo).  Since inheriting my grandpa's old Harmony concert uke, I've slowly been adding to my 'Uke-ular Arsenal' (much to the wife's dismay).  I've acquired a few sopranos and another concert, but have really been wanting a tenor-sized ukulele (they have a longer fretboard and a deeper, richer sound).

Cordoba 25TK Koa Tenor

So, over the course of the last few months, I've conducted some intense research - both online and in music stores.  Eventually, I settled on the Cordoba Tenor 25TK - their top-of-the-line, solid koa wood ukulele.  Check it out.  It's gorgeous, but, at $400, not something I could get away with spending on myself with Christmas coming up.

Then, one day, as I sat in my office at work during my planning period, I decided to check something out on Amazon.  When I opened up my account page - BAM!! - I noticed that the Cordoba 25TK had dropped down to $176... and there were only three left.

Immediately, I crapped my pants...

 

Then, after driving home from work, I checked online again.  One of the three had already sold.  So, throwing caution to the wind, I signed up for one of those Amazon credit cards and pounced on the uke.

Minutes later, the price sky-rocketed back up to $302.


So, as I'm an Amazon Prime member, I received the instrument with free two-day shipping.  Upon tuning the instrument, I realized there was some rattling going on when playing the C and E strings.  At first I thought it was the nut, but there was something metal rattling about in the headstock whenever I shook the instrument.  I had no idea what the hell this was.

In the past, I've had great customer service from the local Guitar Center luthier - he's fixed a couple of my ukes in the past - so I took it in to him to have a look over it.  He, too, at first had no idea where the rattling was coming from, but eventually figured it out:  turns out that two of the tuning peg plates was loose, causing the vibration whenever the strings were played.  At $15, not a huge deal at all.

Nevertheless, I wasn't pleased I had to drop $15 on an instrument right out of the box - even if it was already 70% off the list price.  I wrote Amazon a pointed letter, citing poor product oversight on their part in their shipping the product to me in such a state.  Within hours, they notified me that they no longer had the instrument, and that it was sold through a third-party seller.  To satisfy me, the disgruntled consumer, they offered to refund me 30% - $65!! -  for my trouble.

Taking all this into consideration, this meant that I was able to score a beautiful, new ukulele that normally costs $400 for a mere $115.

The lesson to take away from this whole ordeal?  Use Amazon for everything. Everything possible.  Definitely doing so for Christmas this year.

Holy Jebus do I love that site...

- Brian