We survived the Ukelocalypse!

Well. Last week was quite amazing. It was the ukulele invasion, ukelocalypse...whatever you want to call it, ukes were all over the place.

On Wednesday July 22, Dave took our mobile booth to the first ever (and hopefully annual) Ukulele Festival at the Strathmore performing arts center in North Bethesda, MD. The attendance was estimated at 1,500-2,000 for this outdoor festival. There were performances by Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, James Hill, Victoria Vox and Bruce Hutton...plus some other special appearances by uke groups that Cathy & Marcy have been helping. While I wasn't personally there, the pictures kind of say it all. Happiness and uke coolness abounded:


The crowd enjoys a lovely evening. Maybe we could call it a uke-in?


Marcy Marxer leads a performance of a local Brownie troup she's been working with.


The Riders--a group of 30 seniors from the Riderwood retirement community in Silver Spring ukes it up!


Dave Eisner takes a moment out from uke-selling to pose. Most of the inventory we sent over to the booth sold...Dave said people were still shopping at the booth after darkness fell and they had to pack up by headlights!

(the above photos are all courtesy Paul Sharratt. You can see his full Flickr set here.)

The following day, we hosted uke virtuoso James Hill for a workshop and concert. We had so many people signed up for the workshop (22...might be a record!) that we had to move it to a larger space up on Carroll Ave. Below is James and participants doin' their thing. There were varying levels of uke skill in attendance, but James really had something for everyone, and all the participants seemed to enjoy themselves.



Afterwards, James raced over to Seeker's Church for a "Next To the House" concert. While we don't have any pictures/video from that event, I thought I'd post one of his most popular YouTube videos here. Most people's response to James is "I had no idea the ukulele could be played like that!" He definitely blows peoples minds with his virtuosity, and is really showing that the uke is not just a novelty.



Judging from our ukulele sales in recent years, we've guessed that there is a uke revival in this area...but it was really cool to see it in full force. All the uke players had a great time meeting new friends, hanging out and talking shop. It really is an instrument for everyone, from kids to seniors.

Hopefully we'll do it again next year!

A day in the life...

Whew. It's been quite a day. Just...one of those days, lots of stuff going on. Realized I haven't done a blog post in awhile, so I thought I'd give a rundown of the day's happenings. This kind of a taste of the randomness that is a typical day at the ol' HMT:

First, our former assistant manager and House Tech Geek, Rowan Corbett, came in to help with some computer stuff. The computer we have our store play CDs loaded in iTunes on is dying, so we decided to change things around and transfer everything to our front counter computer, where we can play music from the nicer speakers up there. This will also allow us to get rid of the cumbersome desk and clear some space in our bookroom. Even a year after our move, we're still trying to find ways we can use space better. We're still workin' on it!

We also got a surprise visit from another former assistant manager, Aleta Quinn. She's home for the summer but still working feverishly on her PhD papers for her philosophy program. Our webmistress Darcy Nair also happened to walk in with her supercute daughter Elizabeth, so of course I had to capture the moment with some pictures...





Much of the day was spent putting together an enormous order of ukuleles from the Kala company (in tandem with Dave on the phone), in preparation for the Strathmore Uke Festival on July 22nd, which we will have a booth at. 49 ukes, folks. All colors, styles, shapes & prices. Ukes are hot and we're following the trend!

We also had a good bit of chaos when a semi truck pulled up on the street with loads of boxes for us. We almost thought it was a mistake order that was supposed to go to another store, but no, we eventually figured out it was a bunch of Alvarez guitars that Dave ordered on special. And yes, they're a great deal...the $199 Alvarez is back! rob had to deal with a personal/band emergency where the company duplicating ilyAIMY's new CD rejected the master he'd overnighted to them, so he had to go in search of their preferred brand of blank CD, make another copy, and find a UPS store to overnight it. We're all musicians here and understand the importance of these things, so Rowan stayed on to unpack a dozen guitars to cover for rob.

I've also had to tie up some loose ends for the Old Time Banjo Festival this weekend...we have 4 workshops happening on Sunday and I've got to make sure everything is straight for that. Takoma Groove Camp is also starting next week and some last-minute registration issues popped up...but we've got it under control!

Dave's also been on the phone at home much of the day talking to the folks from the Smithsonian Folklife Festival which just ended last weekend. They sold a lot of percussion for us there, and we're arranging for the pickup of what hasn't sold.

In the midst of all that, we found a happy customer for an Eastman archtop guitar that's been hanging around for awhile, and a home for one of Alvarez' new model guitars that just came in. Been emailing with a guy in Florida very interested in one of our Goodalls; hoping that comes through.

We're also in need of a replacement file cabinet...found one on Craigslist and trying to arrange pickup of that.

The percussionist I'm playing with at a gig tonight called up hoping we had a riq. Luckily, yes...he gave us his credit card number and I shall bring it to the gig tonight! Another person called with a case emergency...they must have an SKB dreadnought case and nothing else will do...willing to pay for overnight shipping from the supplier! Make it so!

Inquiries have come in for samba whistles, oud strings, some Indian instrument even the ethnomusicology major hasn't heard of. Some time spent pacifying customers who have been waiting for their accordion reed wax for months (our supplier has run into a supply problem from their Italian source. What are they doing to the bees over there?).

Phew. I think it's time to go. Now off to the wilds of Clarendon, VA to play steel pan and cello with 50 Man Machine for more musical randomness.