Thursday 30 June 2011

Advice in Unexpected Places

I was going to upload a video of my children eating sand for your delectation, but I don't have the right cable and I'm too tired to hunt for it. Everything feels a bit much at the moment, even stupid things like looking for a cable. I wanted to post the video because trying to write anything also feels like too much - way too much. There's a lot of stuff that I need to process but I can't because there is no time to do it. My head is in a terrible mess at the moment, about fourteen different difficult things all churning away in there together, making me feel like my skull has turned into some kind of industrial grinder of confusion.

In other news, my brother has been teaching me how to play his ukelele. Do you have any idea how much fun that is? Tons of fun, that's how much fun. There's nothing that's not fun about the ukelele. It's even fun to type the word 'ukelele' - try it. He's really good. I'm absolutely not, but happily I'm starting to form a callous on my left index finger and I'm hoping that I will improve once my fingers numb up a bit and I stop getting such burning pain every time I try to play E minor.

These two things, the angst and the ukelele, do relate, because the best advice I got for dealing with the angst was during a ukelele session with my brother, when he introduced me to the song in the video below. To set the scene: this is the crazy genius who did the music for the movie of A Series of Unfortunate Events. Wonderfully uncomfortable interview first up, but to hear the music, forward to 1:55. (And if you want to learn how to play this, here's a tutorial, although obviously you would have to buy a ukelele first. Obviously). 



Good advice, no? Harsh but brilliant. I wish I'd heard it years ago. Now, if only I had the self-control to put it into practice...

6 comments:

  1. i didn't know a uke (for short, we are friends) could sound like that. also, that guy is completely bizarre and the interview was terribly uncomfortable!)

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  2. Stephin Merritt is a freakin' genius. I'm a big Magnetic Fields fan - 69 Love Songs is brilliant. Listen to any of his music you can get into your ears.

    PS... you'll be home soon. Soon. Soon.

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  3. Oh my goodness, I could so relate to things being just a little too much at the moment and having a head like an industrial grinder!
    I'm sorry that you're struggling, but glad you've found an outlet - the ukelele???? Hmm, that WAS fun to write out!! Good on you!!

    Blessings, and hugs coming your way!

    Ruth xx

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  4. You know that we're a ukulele playing family, right? Babba has been preaching to others "Ukuleles for the whole family!" and he recently won over a family who then bought 2 ukuleles for their kids and are buying them for the grownups now. Dew Drop is learning to play, too.

    Awesome. I love it.

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  5. That is great advice. I'm going to sing it to myself next time people are annoying me.
    Amy x

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  6. I forgot to come back the night you posted this - eek.

    so sorry things are so tough but yes, ukelele is a great word.

    I actually get a kick out of "difficult" words and saying them correctly. we have lots of difficult names in SOuth Africa and I feel almost like a rock star when I can say them properly. A guy whose surname was Mohlaloganye once reported to me - More - SHLal - OH - gan- YEH :)

    so what did you decide? holiday without or with babies?

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Over to you!