From the category archives:

Accordion, Instrument of the Gods

“Garfield Minus Garfield” Features the Accordion

April 20, 2009

Today’s Garfield Minus Garfield strip – a web comic strip featuring Garfield comics with the titular character Photoshopped out – explains why the cool kids play accordion:

Thanks to Guillaume for the heads-up!

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Seattle Travel Diary: Making Friends with the Locals

February 5, 2009

For the past couple of nights, we’ve ended up at Kells Irish Pub, located right by the market in Seattle’s Post Alley. We’ve made friends with Liam, their house musician. He’s been giving me a solid education in Irish folk music and I’ve been telling him about Burning Man.
Chances are we’ll end up there tonight. [...]

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Police Shoot Accordion-Playing Student in German WWII Uniform

January 2, 2009

John Bowman just sent me a message linked to a Seattle Times story about the police shooting of a University of Washington student.
Seattle police shot and killed a University of Washington senior who was dressed in a World War II-era German uniform and who officers say was brandishing a long rifle with a bayonet [...]

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Happy 10th Anniversary, “Baby One More Time”!

November 3, 2008

Before November 3rd passes, I must make it known, that today, November 3rd, 2008, is the tenth anniversary of the release of Britney Spears’ single Baby One More Time. I wonder if Ms. Spears wishes she could take a time machine back to those more innocent days and re-do some of her life choices.
Here’s the [...]

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Ooh! New Accordion! / Ooh! Newly Married!

October 27, 2008

It’s a Silvetta 60-bass piano accordion, which is much smaller and lighter than my other ones. It’s perfect for schlepping to conferences, like the one I’m attending right now, as it’s easier to carry and fits very well within just about every plane’s overhead compartment:

Oh, the “Phileas Fogg” outfit is from Cory Doctorow’s wedding, [...]

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Accordion News for July 27th, 2008

July 27, 2008

Accordion Death Squad

Brian Jepson forwarded me an email with the preface “Couldn’t let this sit in my inbox without sending it to Accordion Guy!” The email announced some bands coming to his home area (he’s deep in Family Guy country), including an intriguing one called Accordion Death Squad. How could I not like a band [...]

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Nine Years as “The Accordion Guy”

May 2, 2008

Here’s a blast from the past: me with purple hair, rockin’ out at Queen’s Park on Saturday May 1st, 1999:
I had no idea what was coming up next.
Yesterday marked the 9th anniversary of my playing the accordion on the street for the first time. I’ve got a longer entry about that fateful Saturday, when my [...]

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The OTHER Accordion Guy

April 11, 2008

Photo by Richard Lautens, Toronto Star.
I’m not the only accordion guy in town, and I’m glad to see some younger folks taking up the instrument. Here’s an excerpt from a Toronto Star article titled Squeezing Life Into His ‘Hood:

Ronen Segall uses his bright red accordion to inject life into his Huntley St. home near Bloor [...]

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An Accordion Tune About Coffee’s Chemistry

April 8, 2008

Eva sent me a note about this video, which features an accordion performance about the chemistry behind the coffee experience:

Accordions, coffee and science — three things I love!
For the curious, here are the lyrics to the coffee song in the video (the tune used is from Where Do They Make Balloons? by They Might Be [...]

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Time to Rock Out on the Accordion

April 7, 2008

It’s a gorgeous spring day here in Accordion City. Now that I’m working at b5media, which is a stone’s throw away from my old busking haunt at Queen and Spadina (you can see a panoramic view of the corner here), I think I might take the ol’ office accordion (yes, I actually do keep a [...]

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My Own Private “Abbey Road”

March 29, 2008

Someone I know by way of Miss Fipi Lele took the “I Walk the Line” photo of me and with a little Photoshop, gave me the Abbey Road treatment:

The Abbey Road cover features the Beatles walking in the other direction, but thanks to the power of Photoshop (well, actually Adobe Fireworks), it’s easy to flip [...]

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New Accordion!

March 26, 2008

Photo by Sean Galbraith.
A couple of days ago, Sean Galbraith was cleaning out his parents’ house and came across his mom’s old Hohner Verdi IV accordion. She told him that it had one oiwner prior to her and she believes it’s from the early 1960s. She hasn’t played it in about 15 years and suggested [...]

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Austin Travel Diary, Part 21: I Walk the Line

March 15, 2008

If I ever release an album, this Johnny Cash-a-riffic photo that Morgan Johnston took of me in Austin will have to figure into the album art somehow:
Photo by Morgan Johnston.Click on the photo to see it on its original Flickr page.

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Austin Travel Diary, Part 18: Annoying Stowe Boyd

March 11, 2008

Although he Twittered the opposite, Stowe’s a real accordion fan:

Thanks to Stowe for posing for these shots!

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Austin Travel Diary, Part 10: Halo 4!

March 9, 2008

Master Chief feels the accordion love!

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