The Singing Treholipee

Check it out my very own Singing Treholipee! I picked this up yesterday morning during my rounds at the Santa Cruz Flea Market. Apparently Treholipee means "Tre" for "three" and "holi" for "holes" The "pee" part remains a mystery. These long instruments were one of a family of nutty ukes that were pretty popular in the 60's and became a small sensation. The Treholipee was the most bizarre looking with it's long headstock. The concept was that when you went out surfin' you could stick it in the sand and it would be waiting for you when you got out of the water. These things were made by Swaggerty Co. Swaggerty was a San Clemente, California company who also made the Surf-a-lay-lee and the the Kook-A-Lele.



I am pretty stoked about this pick up. I have wanted one these obscure bits of beach culture ever since I first saw one at Uke Fest West! One of the perfomers Mark Kapner was playing his Kook-a-lele. I totally dig the lil surfer dude graphic on the back of the neck. Tiki King has confirmed it is a Rick Griffin design. So that adds extra coolness points in my book.

There are a few things wrong with this Treholipee. Two of the tuning pegs are busted so I have to find new ones, which is starting to look like it could be difficult and take time. So I may have to fabricate my own. I don't really want to start crankin on the other ones for fear of breakin' them. It is also missing one of the long strings and the others are soundin' flat. I don't have any idea of how hard those strings will be to find. The plastic fretboard is faded but not cracked and some of the fasteners are a little rusty too. Otherwise it is in pretty good shape and sound fairly bright when you pluck at the remaining strings. I am going to retire it as a playable instrument and let it become a prized wall hanger.
You can find more info, buy and see more pics of these crazy ukes at these links:

Oddball music.com

Elderley Instruments

My Treholipee Post On Tiki Central

Flea Market Music Collector Uke Yak

What a week!

BZZZZZZZZZZ!


So this past week I had a real blast! I got to hang out with one of my favorite people my good ol Uncle Sasquatch. He and I went up to San Francisco for the Mac Expo to take a look at all the new whistles and bells for our beloved Macs and discuss prehensile tails with the Mac Geniuses. In addition too tons of brightly colored and weird shaped iPod thing-a-ma-jingys we also got to check out and poke at Apple's new laptop The Macbook Pro with the controversial but highly acclaimed Intel chip. The sleek new laptop looks pretty bitchin' and has a video camera built right above the top of the screen. It also comes with iLife 06 which includes podcasting capabilities inside Garageband and iWeb a new application that lets you create and publish websites, blogs, podcasts and video to the internet. Of course everything in the iLife suite seamlessly integrates with each other. Well, I simply had to have it and placed my order right when I got back home. I am going to give it a try and if it works out use it for my web publishing endeavors. I was pretty impressed with the whole Expo and left with my propeller spinnin' crazy RPM's.

HANA HANA HANA HO HO HO!
Last night was another magical evening at the Ukulele Club of Santa Cruz meeting. Visiting us again was our good friends and club members Herb Ohta Jr, Keoki Beamer and Daniel Ho. They played some beautiful Hawaiian tunes that brought smiles to everybody's face and there was a lot of faces there too! Those three Hawaiian guys play so effortlessly and precise it's completely amazing. And oh boy were they havin' fun up on stage too. They were also accompanied for a couple of songs by Valerie, Garrick and Dana who are some of the Hula dancers from Ka Lei Wehi O Ka Mailelauloa Although it was a chilly night da boyz kept us all cozy with warm Hawaiian tunes. I was super stoked to hear Keoki talk story and here him sing his song about Pele and Kamapua'a called Ho's Kupu off his album with Herb entitled Hana Ho. A truly memorable night. As my good buddy Pat said to me "you couldn't get any closer to the the islands unless you are there."


THE CAT IS OUT OF THE BAG BABY
The secret is out and it's more BIG tiki news for the Bay area. Did you think it was going to stop at the Kona club? Nope, The great gods of tiki desire a temple of worship in Alameda as well and so be it. Thanks to a cast of unbelievable talent, skill and knowledgies aplenty the Forbidden Island should appear on the horizon as soon as April. Find out more about this news at Humuhumu's blog.

My next entry maybe comin' in a new format if the iLife 06 package works out. Keep your fingers and eyes crossed

Until next time eek-eek

Jungle Trader Tikis at The Lost-Isle

Good 'ol Jungle Trader from Tiki Jungle came out for a surf trip and dropped off some tikis here at the Lost-Isle. Jungle Trader carves a bad ass tiki and his influences are endless. He has done carvings that embrace Marquesian, Maori, Hawaiian, Tongan even pelican style! His Tikis have stood vigil over the world famous Minnie's of Modesto and the former Wanga Rei. JT is also the man responsible for the creation of Pika Kelawaka, the signature Minnie's Tiki Mug. Jungle T has been knee deep in the creative juices and so busy that he doesn't have the time to peddle the stuff he is crankin' out. At least that is what he told me last time he was hangin' out in S.C. after an all day surf session. Come to think of it he had a Mai Tai in his hand and his shoes were off too. Anyways, I dig the Jungle Trader like a brother so I told him I would try and help him out. So here is what I did...

I currently have his tikis listed on Craigslist.com and on the new classified site BlockRocker.com Just search for tikis in the Santa Cruz and they should blink up. I also have his mugs at The Lost-Isle Trading Post. If anybody out there readin' this is interested give me a call and I will zap your over a pdf with all the prices and pics. These are killer tikis made by a man who knows and speaks their ancient silent language.

So long 2005!

Well here we are in 2006 as 2005 slowly shrinks in the rearview mirror. See ya sucker! 2006 is my new buddy! Yep me and 2006 are going to do BIG things together! That's right! Why looky here I already got a blog and it's only 5:00 January 2. For the record, I think blog is a goofy word. Every time I hear it I think that if Beavis and Butthead were in the room they would snicker and say " huh huh...You said Blog." Don't even get me started on what the word "podcasting" makes me think of.

O.K. so 2005 had a few good memories, highlights include the wang dang doodle of a party for my 40th. The Kamapua'a series, all the ukulele jams, tiki parties and surf trips I made. I also got to mention all the great friends and people I met while travelin' around selling my art, playing my uke and havin' fun' Hey! that's pretty much the kind of stuff I want to share in my uh....blog (uh uh-huh, huh.) I am going to try and post Information and tidbits on the things that make me smile, laugh and go mmmmm!. And hey if I sell a few of the things I have created along the way or help another artistic soul get some recognition well then that's just gravy on the biscuit as it were.

So with that brief introduction and the ceremonial shrieking like a crazed monkey. I go back to my attempts at getting my ducks lined up in a tight crisp formation.