He plays a mean ukulele

A little over a year ago, my friends Lim Jia and Jake sent me a link to a video of a Japanese-Hawaiian ukulele player named Jake Shimabukuro. The playing, the energy near winded me. I couldn't take my eyes off him, or my ears away from the music, which was at once beautiful and wild; his right hand on that ukulele moved like a circular razor in motion. He didn't just draw out music from the instrument, he whipped the notes into beings, and what spectacular ones they were. I'd never heard "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" played with such sensitivity and gusto before. He plays with such heart, as my friend Jake once said.

I sent the link to noob, who, resourceful fellow that he is, emailed in return a high-res file of the video. It's been over a year since I last watched it; life and other business got my attention, and the file stayed hidden for a time. So it was with much cheer when I spotted a feature on him during my evening visit to the NPR website. His latest album is an acoustic one, and in my opinion, the kind worth getting because previous studio albums had him record with a band, which distracted from his playing and diluted much of the energy that he's known for, the energy he seems to display best in live performances.

So thanks again to my friends for sharing their musical finds with me - Lim Jia and her Jake, the tuba-playing Jake, who can be seen below embracing a large red clock in Iowa.

Photo courtesy of Jake

Postscript: I'd like to think that if I could one day start living my life with say, even just half the energy and passion of Jake's as he plays his ukulele (see above-mentioned video), then it'd be a pretty good life. Dimsdumdolly and I had dinner yesterday and we spoke of how we didn't want to be typical - and this is a sweeping generalization - Singaporeans who are defined only by their work. We didn't want to just work, go home, go to work, go home, work, get home...you get the idea. Life's more than a job, more than fulfilling duties, and existing drearily. There's a world beyond making a living - unabashedly pursuing quirky interests; gushing about a perfect paragraph or a damn fine song; learning about the world and its history; going on adventures, walks, or hugging a red clock; seeking out the unusual; relishing big ideas and gargantuan things, and the little ones too; traveling to places that I've always wanted to see and really seeing them. Sure, having a job and being good at it does matter, but I'd like to be in love with life too. I'd like to think I am, and that I still have a sense of wonder about this world. But then, there are too many people I know who have lost that. And it saddens me.