The Creep on the Christmas Ukulele

The more I think about the story behind the video at the end of this post, the longer it gets. I'll try to relate the shortened version here:

When I first joined Twitter, over 2,700 tweets ago, I, like practically everyone else, wasn't sure whom I wanted to follow. One of my favorite authors is Neil Gaiman, and he has been recognized numerous times as a mover and shaker on Twitter, and someone worth following. So I did.

It didn't take long, then, for me to discover his fiancée, Amanda Palmer, a quirky, eccentric performer who is as active on YouTube as she is on Twitter, which is a lot. While I was nosing around on YouTube, I found a video of her performing Radiohead's "Creep" on a ukulele. (There are actually quite a number of them out there, but this is one of the best.) I loved it. I love the song, and I loved the idea of covering it on ukulele.

Closer to home, my father took up luthiery as a hobby some time ago. At some point, I mentioned that I'd love to have a ukulele. Lo and behold, on Christmas Eve, we exchanged our gifts, and out of one box I pulled this ukulele, hand-made by my father:

It seems fitting, then, that the song that made me want to find a ukulele and learn how to play it ought to be the first song I learned. So here it is: My rendition of Radiohead's "Creep" (the PG version) on ukulele, a la Amanda Palmer:



Thanks, Dad.

The Annual Festivus Airing of Grievances

Today is Festivus. Part of the joy of Festivus is the Airing of Grievances. I did my airing today one grievance at a time on Twitter, but it seemed like a good idea to record them here. Maybe next year I’ll be able to avoid some of these.

So here are the things that cause me or have caused me grief, as seen on Twitter:

• People who will wait 10 minutes in the Taco Bell drive-through but complain about the cost of gas.
• “Unnecessary” “quotation” “marks”
• People who misuse comprise to try to sound smarter.
• Tandem mountain bikes
• I blame John McCain for Sarah Palin.
• Movies made from 1980s TV shows
• People who use SMS shorthand when they’re bloody speaking
• No one recognizes my genius except my mother
• Justin Bieber will make more money this year than I’ve made in the last 36.
• People born into wealthy families who wrote books about how to become rich.
• @BrnzBarbie wrote: People that think “conversate” is a real word annoy me. To which I added And “orientate.”
• When people say “people that” instead of “people who”
• It’s almost 2011! Weren’t we promised flying cars by now? Where are the flying cars?!
• Still haven’t gotten my birthday presents from Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates.
• Indiana went back to being a red state.
• Stupid gravity made my grandma fall down.
• Still haven’t finished my naNoWrimo novel.
• That beautiful woman would rather stay married to her handsome, rich, stupid husband than go out with me.