Here’s a photo of Yours Truly playing AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long at the first karaoke night for the ng-conf programming conference in Salt Lake City. They didn’t have mic stands on the first karaoke night, but Brady from Rock the Mic Karaoke helped out by playing “human mic stand.”
And hey, you have even less of an excuse if you can work from home.
Two Saturdays from now, I’ll be the one of the distinctly non-ukelele players at the Ukulele Fest in the District, which will happen at the District on Cleveland Street in downtown Clearwater on Saturday, April 23rd from noon and straight on through to the evening!
The event is free to attend — come on down to Clearwater and enjoy some music!
![Ukulele Fest in the District acts: Spirit Band, Ukulele Russ, Chris Tracy, Roaming Busker, Connie Mason Project, Moon Dog, Tom Hood and the Tropical Suns, and Joey Davilla [sic] The Accordion Man](https://www.joeydevilla.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/ukulele-fest-musicians-1.png)
Just listen for the accordion!
The evening concert starts at 6:30 with Steve and Amanda Boisen…
…and The Birdwatchers:
You don’t have to be a spectator at this event — there are many opportunities for you to play the ukulele in a group, or learn how to play!
There will be three 45-minute “Introduction to the Ukulele” classes — they’ll be held at 12:30, 2:00, and 3:30. Bring your ukulele if you have one, and they’ll have some ukuleles on hand if you don’t.
Are you an experienced ukulele player looking to sharpen their skills? There’ll be a couple of classes for you:
Four years ago today, I was flying into Washington, DC to both attend and give presentations at RWDevCon, a conference for mobile app developers.
The winds were high that day, and as the pilot made their first attempt at a landing, the gusts hit the plane with enough force to make it obvious that we’d have to do a go-around.
On our second landing attempt, the gusts were still there. There was a nervous vibe throughout the cabin, and one of the flight attendants decided to lighten the mood by making an announcement over the PA system:
“If we need to do another go-around, I’m getting the accordion man to play us a song.”
To celebrate our seventh anniversary, we took a a Thursday-to-Sunday road trip to St. Augustine. We had a great time, mostly because we had each other for company, but also because we brought this lucky charm, which made for an interesting Saturday night:
We started the evening here — Sainte-George Restaurant:
It’s a place known for its European cuisine and its outdoor deck with a view of St. Augustine’s fortress, Castillo de San Marcos, and the Matanzas River.
We’d lucked out with our early reservation and were able to get an outdoor table with a view of the fort, river, and partygoers wandering (or stumbling) down the pedestrian-only St. George Street.
“What do you want to do now?” Anitra asked after we finished dessert.
“I figure we should walk around and see where the night takes us,” I said.
With that, we got up and started making our way out of the restaurant. We was starting our way down the stairs when someone called out: “Hey, you with the accordion!”
It turned out to be a table of eight, two of whom were celebrating their twentieth anniversary. We told them that we were celebrating our seventh, and it was congratulations all round.
“Here, let me play something for you,” I said, playing the first fitting song I could think of — Praise You by Fatboy Slim. It got applause not just from the table but the rest of the room, and the couple insisted on giving me a $20 bill by way of saying thanks.
“Looks like they covered the first round of drinks!” Anitra said as we walked out.
We started walking southward on St. George Street and saw that Cotton St. Aug was still open.
“Do you want to take a look?” Anitra asked.
“I’d love to check out their aloha shirts.” I replied, and we walked in.
We were greeted by the manager, Bridget, and struck up a conversation. Of course, the question came up — “Could you play me a song, please?” — and I went with the crowd-pleaser, Britney Spears’ Baby One More Time, which she recorded on video with her phone.
After the performance, Anitra started checking out their sizable selection of Anuschka hand-painted leather handbags. She picked out the “Lighthouse” design pictured to the right. As Bridget rang up our purchase, she looked at us, said “for the entertainment”, and gave us a discount.
“We’re on a bit of a roll tonight,” I said. We continued on our way south.
As we walked past Casa Monica (pictured above), a guy came up to us and talked about a friend of his who played classic rock on the accordion and asked if I did the same. I answered by playing AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long.
A couple overheard the performance and asked if I could play it again so that they could capture it on video for their friend. I obliged, and they invited us inside to buy us a drink at Casa Monica’s lobby bar, the Cobalt Lounge:
We enjoyed our drinks, and after a day that included climbing to the top of St. Augustine Lighthouse, touring Flagler College and the Lightner Museum, and miles of walking, we figured that we’d quit while we were ahead and call it a night.
This was a fun one: The Glazer Children’s Museum celebrated its 11th birthday with a big party at Curtis Hixon Park, located right by their front door in downtown Tampa. We’d already planned to attend when they suggested that I play some accordion numbers between acts on the big stage. I was honored by the request and was only too happy to play for a good party and a great cause!
Ever better, Captain Fear, mascot for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, joined me onstage! We had a grand old time.
I played: