Writer Chick With A Ukulele: The San Francisco and Niles Musical Adventure!

I said good-bye to Baby Jeremiah as I headed out to San Francisco this morning. He's eating oatmeal in his FAVORITE spot, John Lennon presiding and ukulele always close by. Had to stop him from strumming ukulele with oatmeal crusted hands though. :)

I'm heading to San Francisco to meet fellow San Francisco uke rebels in golden gate park for more uke playing! After five hours yesterday? Our Fremont uke jam yesterday was over the top cool! My fingers still hurt from playing the 8 string uke the whole time! Will definitely bring the Kala today. Here comes yet another adventure!

I just got home and apparently I missed a whole bunch of stuff! Today I went to my old stomping grounds in golden gate park to play ukulele at the band shell! At least that's still the same. The path from where I got off the good old newer version of the N Judah streetcar at ninth and Irving hasn't changed...same park I know and love...the old green benches and some fountains and the old band shell still intact and I could see a bit if the Japanese tea garden. But I tried not to look at that new De Young museum or the academy of sciences or to imagine the expensive underground parking that I just found out about today.

The Band Shell in golden Gate Park still just as I'd remembered it my whole life!!! some things don't change and some things do...
that is just the way it is.

Instead we played ukes and sang at the band shell on a beautiful cool sunny day...people sat on benches and listened. And when my G string snapped on my uke! I broke my G-string! Now what will I do? I can’t play my ukulele with only three strings.

Then Emeline, my good friend from the uke rebellion, pulled up on her bike and saved the day! She had ukulele strings for me and she’s a super hero! And Nancy showed me how to replace the string! Now I have one purple titanium G string on my ukulele and three Aquila nylgut white strings (C, E and A!)...I was back in business and able to play San Francisco Bay Blues with the gang in no time! YAAAY FOR EMELINE AND NANCY!

Me, Dean, Nancy, Vicki, a random new guy I don't know and Mark...and a few others not pictured here...playin' ukes at the band shell!

For those wonderful moments of time I felt transported back to the beautiful San Francisco I know and love so much. We even had an audience -- people who sat on the old green benches...the same ones I remembered as a kid and felt the warm sun beat down for a while before it cooled down...listening to us play and sing our songs. I loved Everybody's Talking At Me which we played from the Daily Ukulele Songbook. We played a bunch of our familiar songs from the "Rebellious" songbook which is still a work in progress...songs like Five Hundred Miles by the Proclaimers, Friday I'm in Love (the Cure)...Secret Agent Man (one of my faves) and many others!

More people jamming on ukes including Dave (DRW) who drove to the City from Sacramento! He's part of the Sacramento Strum Shop gang I also love so much!

Then someone requested us to sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/Wonderful World" Iz style and everyone groaned, hehehe! Not that we don't love that, but it seems that every time someone requests it, sort of like when people think of you playing ukulele, they think you're going to play "Tiny Bubbles" or "Tiptoe Through the Tulips!" We played it and sang it and sounded nice though...

Then Emeline and me played and sang "Dream A Little Dream of Me" together...it was cool that she also knows it in the same key I do. and it sounded good when we played it together! I hope we can get together and jam soon...Emeline is so awesome.

And I felt space ageish with that clipper card you swipe on the street car. When I attempted to show the driver my card and explain I paid for a round trip she said don't tell me! Tell that! And pointed to a scanner! Trippy! Then there's another card for BART. I was sad to leave the city for some reason like I belong there.

When I got back to Union City, I headed straight for Niles...it was a beautiful clear night and the mountains surrounding Niles looked golden as I drove through what felt like a time warp in space and time into Niles...and called my friend Brian who told me I MUST remain outdoors until 6:12 pm because a SPACE STATION was flying overhead! At first, I thought perhaps he was joking. "For real?" I asked.

I was already running late for the 6pm show at the Mud Puddle, Michael McNevin's tiny place that's fabulous for acoustic shows as well as jams -- always jams after the acoustic show with the group he refers to as the "Horribles" I absolutely love being a part of the Horribles, but you'd think I would have had enough ukulele playing for ONE weekend right? Apparently wrong.

Anyway, I'm walking down the street talking to Brian about this alleged space station. I even mentioned it to a random couple who walked out of a store right in front of me and they laughed. they probably thought I was nuts.But when I got right in front of the Mud Puddle, listening to Michael McNevin play and sing my all-time favorite song he wrote, "Things Are Going to Change Around Here," I looked into the horizon and saw the yellow dot heading our way. It just had to be the space station!

As I watched the Space Shuttle squinting to make it out...flying in from the west where the sun was setting and the sky was all shades of orange...that's the way it looks in the hills....and listened to Michael McNevin sing, for just a moment, I thought -- yes, maybe things really are about to change in my life...! But no time for thinking.

After Michael McNevin finished the song, I announced to all that a space shuttle was heading our way! some people got up and ran outside to look. Michael McNevin wasn't thrilled about people leaving after the show started, and I can't say I blame him at all. I was just so excited about the space station or the space shuttle...oh now I'm confused.

"That's just a plane in the distance," one guy said.

"No, it's not!" someone else said...as we watched it fly towards us...just a mere yellow dot in the sky flying in right at the time Brian said it would. I had to let Brian go and get off the phone because of all the drama and hoopla...and shuffling around -- and Michael McNevin attempting to gather us all back in again...which he did. Ira Marlowe who was the headliner on Sunday night, thought the whole space station thing was cool and even referred to the space station and me in one of the songs he performed that night! I was thrilled and honored...but I have Brian to thank because I had no idea a space station would be flying overhead to be honest. Nancy Cassidy opened the show with her rich voice and Ira Marlowe sang and played the most beautiful songs -- I loved the one about the guy who thought the world was going to end and what he did...dress up in a suit, quit his job and give the waiter a huge tip because he figured it was the end of the world, so why not? And the spooky song about the kid whose weird neighbor transforms into a beast, or so he perceives...

And afterwards, I was a part of the HORRIBLES...and I loved it.

It was a good day.