Dragon – Jake Shimabukuro

The ukelele is not an instrument that I normally dream about excelling at. Or you for that matter. Admit it, if you like music and would like to play an instrument, you almost always dream about rocking on the guitar, bass, keyboard, piao, drums, sax, violin etc. But a ukelele? Well that’s what Japanese-Hawaiian Jake Shimabukuro set out to do and to be – a worldwide ambassador for the guitar’s little brother. The flamenco driven Shake It Up! starts the album with a strong kick and its an enjoyable kick. The title track Dragon is a tribute to one of Jake’s (and I’m pretty sure one of most of ours) heroes – Bruce Lee! Its a riveting Asian influenced number that is probably his best. Jake’s exquisite tone and musicality is shown on songs like With U Always, Me & Shirley T & Circle of Friends.

Floaters is an wonderful solo effort, that reminds me of a slow moving river besides a forest. 3rd Stream is an impressive, fusiony fast-fingers display with a jaw-dropping uke solo. The two side of Jake are showcased here : his solo brilliance and his ability to merge the ukelele into a more traditional band number.
The ukelele will always be a quite instrument that will need more space than most spotlight instruments. Touch, Toastmanland and Making a Perfect Yesterday are prime example of that. However, Shimabukuru is talented enough to make us absorb his liquid crystal sounds that are played on his instrument of choice, like in Looking Back. Give it a try.

The Sens Show Some Life

My team has floundered during the last few weeks. We have gone from the top to, well not the bottom, but we’ll need to really pick our act to even have a chance at winning the Stanley. After my last update, the Sens have lost to Carolina, Toronto, Montreal and Boston and also split a game each with the Buffalo Sabres. There was also a win against The Blues and another loss to the Canadiens. Things were not looking too good.

Yesterday’s game saw Ottawa looking more like the team that started the season. Facing a must win game away to Toronto, the Sens beat their provincial rivals 8-2 with a hattrick coming from Antoine Vermette, the first of his career. Dany Heatley scored a pair of goals, and Dean McAmmond, Cody Bass and Jason Spezza also notched goals for the Senators, who are now in 6th place and could finish 5th if things go their way. We just need a single point to avoid a scare and I speak for every single Sens fan, we could use a solid win.

Battlestar Galactica Final Season

Battlestar Galactica season 4 will start airing today (not in India), resuming the cult series for the final time. The series is poised for a climatic conclusion, with Kara ‘Starbuck’ Thrace, returning from what was presumed to be death, showing up in her viper and stating to have been to Earth and that she will lead the fleet to her. What will progress, I can only guess.

download electric apricot I haven’t yet been able to watch this show on tv here. I have seen quite a few episodes online on Veoh but Zee English is not one of the channels that I get with my stupid cable operator, hence I don’t get to see BSG. And they have deleted the episodes on Veoh due to copyright issues (I think).

I have asked around for getting the series on dvd and a couple have assured me that they will get atleast the 1st two seasons for me within the month. Then I will be able to follow the entire series, although I do know what has been happening all along (thanks to the internet).