Isekai Ukulele

Category: Stream

Archives of daily streams and special events

  • From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Ukuleleman (1)

    Well, it’s been quite a time recently. I lost most of last week due to travel, and haven’t been keeping up on blog updates because that really drained my energy. It also drained my motivation a bit, to be back on Oahu and be reminded of all the things I used to do when I was healthy. I manage to do ok in my little room and routines, but its actually very difficult to do anything resembling normal people activities. Being forced to go outside and see the world working, and be reminded of the times when I was a part of it was not the most pleasant thing for me. Its much easier for me to not think about it when it’s not in my face. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

    Then, Hurricane Nolo came. Luckily damage wasn’t too great, but my area lost electricity and internet again. For the entire weekend. So, I didn’t have my usual stream of games and anime to keep me distracted from thinking thoughts about myself and my situation. Even now I don’t want to write about it too much because it’ll just bring me down. But I do want to continue making these post stream reviews to keep an honest record of this journey. It’s way to easy for me to decide its not worth it and do nothing instead, so I need to try make it an automatic habit. Just like when it comes to practicing, a little bit is better than nothing at all. So here we are.

  • Those who hunt ukulele (5)

    Another headache day, I hoped it would go away if I noodled for long enough, but it didn’t, and I had to take the migraine medication. Here’s hoping it doesn’t turn into a full on episode tonight. Gonna take a pill and call it, sorry no stream summary today.

  • Those Who Hunt ‘Ukulele (4)

    Did I miss (3)? It’s been kind of a tough week for me. I wasn’t feeling well enough for my normal voice lesson today either, and I probably won’t be able to do next week’s one either because of medical stuff. I started today off with a bunch of noodling, and actually had a new guy come and hang out and chat for most of the day, which was pretty cool. Also ended the day with the realization that I could play a bunch of songs from the musical Grease, and I had just never tried it before. Who’d have thought.

    Here are some songs that stood out to me today: 

    • New Songs Attempted
      • Greased Lightning – Grease
      • Sandy – Grease
      • 867-5309 / Jenny – Tommy Tutone
    • Works in Progress
      • Superfast Jellyfish – Gorillaz
      • Broken Wings – Mr. Mister
      • Wake me up when September Ends – Green Day
    • Learned Songs Revisited
      • You can Get it if you really want – Jimmy Cliff
      • Welcome Home – Coheed and Cambria
      • Long Gone Day – Mad Season
    • Song of the Day: Bi-Polar – Assemblage 23
      • You can get it if you really want is my proper theme song, but when I’m feeling down, this track by A23 is my anti-theme song. I do feel this way often, but don’t usually want it to be part of my public persona. If I’m out in front of people, I want to be focused on the good vibes, right? Well, not always. Sometimes gotta let them know how I really feel.

  • Those Who Hunt ‘Ukulele (2)

    I crashed after the stream yesterday, and then stayed up late watching anime because I napped through the evening, and then woke up feeling not so great today. So I kept it chill and decided to play random roulette with my Hawaiian / Island Style Set. Turns out, I can play 3 hours of local music. Some songs still definitely need work, but I even had a good handful of tunes leftover that I didn’t get around to playing. I still can’t do the proper “Hawaiian” style strumming, but I think the songs still sound pretty fine when I just strum my style.

    Here are some songs that stood out to me today: 

    • Works in Progress
      • Hanalei Moon
      • Ulupalakua
      • Na Ka Pueo
      • Hawaii Aloha
    • Learned Songs Revisited
      • Cool Down – Kalohe Kai
      • Opihi Man – Ka’au Crater Boys
      • Maui, Hawaiian Superman – Iz
    • Song of the Day: Roots Rockin – Mana’o Company
      • I had learned this song a long time ago, and it was on my list so I gave it a go… and it turns out I still remembered how to play this song purely from memory! Its kind of interesting when a whole song comes out of the brain that I didn’t have actively in mind. Pretty fun.

  • Those Who Hunt ‘Ukulele (1)

    I’m super exhausted from dealing with medical stuff all day, so I’m not gonna do the full review. We played some modern pop, and noodled for a while. As much as I love the my Sparrow and electric ukulele Mondays, this one was still pretty rough.

  • The 100 ‘Ukulele Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You (5)

    I made it through the week! It was kind of a tough day, I was up all night learning about “Spiky-Leaky Syndrome” and then spent most of the morning comparing my experience to the description. There does seem to be some overlap, but the alignment isn’t perfect. Then again, the paper describing the syndrome was only released two years ago, so this really is cutting edge medicine.

    Anyway, the music was fun. It’s cool to find people who like the same music that I do, and then to sing for them. I’m really enjoying that part of the gig, though my confidence and self-esteem is still

    Here are some songs that stood out to me today: 

    • New Songs Attempted
      • A Whole New World – Aladdin
      • Arabian Nights – Aladdin
      • Wonderful Tonight – Eric Clapton
    • Works in Progress
      • Friend Like Me – Aladdin
      • Broken Wings – Mr. Mister
    • Learned Songs Revisited
      • I don’t wanna be me – Type O Negative
      • Breezeblocks – Alt-J
      • Where is my Mind – Pixies
    • Song of the Day: Autumn Leaves
      • It’s too early for autumn leaves to be falling, but I remembered that I had learned this song a while back, and I was quite happy with how it came out when it resurfaced. Always nice when that happens!

  • The 100 ‘Ukulele Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Love You (4)

    It was a busy day, and a fun day. Started with a voice lesson where I learned yet another new thing about singing that I get to start practicing. Then I had an appointment with a CFS leak specialist doctor who instructed me to look in to “spiky CSF leaks” which in my brief investigation does sound somewhat relevant. He wants me to go to Oahu for more imaging, so I guess that’s the direction that is heading.

    Finally on today’s stream we had a bunch of new people stop by. Opened up with playing through my set of 9 songs by The Strokes, and then had a nice long chat with a new viewer who got me to attempt a handful of AJR songs. I’d never heard of the band or the songs, but I attempted them. It’s always fun to see how different my version reading off the chart alone is from the actual song. I liked the lyrics a lot, so I’ll definitely be looking into that band more. And, further failing at “quality over quantity” – 8 new songs to learn got added to the set today XD

    Here are some songs that stood out to me today: 

    • New Songs Attempted
      • The Big Goodbye – AJR
      • God is Really Real – AJR
      • A Dog Song – AJR
    • Works in Progress
      • Free Bird – Lynard Skynard
      • Heart Beats in its Cage – The Strokes
      • The Next Episode – Dr. Dre
    • Learned Songs Revisited
      • Wanderlust King – Gogol Bordello
      • Coin Operated Boy – Dresden Dolls
      • Is this it? – The Strokes
    • Song of the Day: Ode to the Mets – The Strokes
      • Someone who joined the Uke Tribe Discord introduced me to this song because they wanted to play it, and I really liked it. I still don’t really know what it means, and don’t know how it relates to the Mets, but who cares the song is good. I am assuming the Mets are the baseball team right? Well, further proof that you don’t actually need to understand a song to enjoy it.

  • The 100 ‘Ukulele Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Love You (3)

    Another fun day of practice. I got in a mood and ran though every song by Radiohead that I know, and then started working on the Beatles.

    Here are some songs that stood out to me today: 

    • New Songs Attempted
      • Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd
      • Brick in the Wall – Pink Floyd
    • Works in Progress
      • Broken Wings – Mr. Mister
      • Come Sail Away – Styx
      • Danger Zone – Kenny Loggins
    • Learned Songs Revisited
      • Let Down – Radiohead
      • The Bends – Radiohead
      • Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds – The Beatles
    • Song of the Day: Billy Jean – Michael Jackson
      • It came to my attention that I’ve been singing the wrong notes for this, so I spent some time trying to fix that.

  • The 100 ‘Ukulele Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Love You (2)

    We got a raid today from InfraRaye and had a bunch of fun taking requests and chatting about anime. Sounds like they’re a new ukulele player, so I hope they got inspired to keep at it!

    I sang so much that my voice was kind of dying at the end, so I just had to noodle around for a while, but all in all I’d call it a pretty good day.

    Here are some songs that stood out to me today: 

    • New Songs Attempted
      • Tearing up my heart – NSYNC
      • Complicated – Avril Lavigne
    • Works in Progress
      • Thousand Miles – Vanessa Carlton
      • Broken Wings – Mr. Mister
      • Friends Theme
    • Learned Songs Revisited
      • Baby You Wouldn’t Last A Minute on the Creek – Chidos
      • Cute without the E cut from the team – Taking Back Sunday
    • Song of the Day: Light up the Night – Protomen
      • InfraRaye requested the song, demonstrating their immaculate taste in music, and let me know that the long awaited part 3 of the saga has been released. Very much looking forward to hearing that album!

  • [Electric Bari Uke] The 100 ‘Ukulele Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Love You (1)

    We noodled a lot today while talking about a bunch of fun topics. I recently finished reading Nick Bostrom’s SuperIntelligence and gave some of my thoughts on that, and then had a fairly long discussion about Power and society. Max Stirner was the philosopher whose name I forgot, so I’ll be sure to bring him up again next time.

    I’ve been getting a creeping feeling to buy a new guitar pedal, so Instead of instantly succumbing I found a new effect on my H90 to play around with it and I’ve been really enjoying it. This led to a little Shoegaze set, followed by some interesting versions of other songs. The noodling was lots of fun too though, really don’t want to discount that.

    I still kind of want a dedicated reverb pedal, but for now I shall resist.

    Here are some songs that stood out to me today: 

    • New Songs Attempted
      • Thousand Miles – Vanessa Carlton
      • Don’t Fear the Reaper – Blue Oyster Cult
    • Works in Progress
      • Actual Cannibal Labeouf – Rob Cantor
      • Teardrop – Massive Attack
    • Learned Songs Revisited
      • Liquid Paper – Ariel
      • When the Sun Hits – Slowdive
      • 23 – Blonde Redhed
    • Song of the Day: Something – The Beatles
      • So nice I ran through it twice! It took me a try to figure out the chords and iconic lick, and felt like it deserved a second run without distortion.