Cover-a-Week #39: "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King

Here's another ukulele video! It's another foray into more old-school material:



http://youtu.be/iPJV9PwKLLE

And as mentioned in the video, if you're a dancer in New York these few weeks, you should definitely check out Midsummer Night Swing!

Cover-a-Week #38: "Cannonball" by Damien Rice

Here's another cover!



http://youtu.be/U7Nsn_lWOLI

I've listened to both the original song and Vienna Teng's cover, and I must confess that I like Vienna's version better. (Really, I just like her voice more than Damien Rice's.)

P.S. -- More amazing channel stats: I have over 10,000 views total, including 1000+ views of "Finite Simple Group (of Order Two)" and 2000+ views of "Take Me Home, Country Roads." I am astonished, and more pleased than I probably should be.

Cover-a-Week #37: "Ivory Tower" from Tripod versus the Dragon

This is my favorite song from the musical comedy Tripod versus the Dragon, which I recently watched at the behest of my friend Deb:


http://youtu.be/e_vkU6ZOI9w

It's a clever musical about Dungeons and Dragons, and it has some great songs. What's not to love?

(Also, I look particularly bewildered in the still frame...)

Cover-a-Week #36: "The Rainbow Connection" by The Carpenters/The Muppets

A while ago, I got a new ukulele -- a beautiful Kamaka tenor. This is my first video with the new uke:

http://youtu.be/9oxouJq2Q1o

Isn't it a wonderful instrument? :-)

Cover-a-Week #35: "Seasons of Love" from Rent

It's 2014, and I haven't posted fifty-two covers yet... so I figured I'd just keep making these videos! This one's belatedly holiday-themed...


http://youtu.be/eHQxDfC39BY

Also, given the previous post, I thought it rather appropriate. :-)

Cover-a-Week #34: "The Engine Driver" by The Decemberists

It's been quite a long time since I last posted one of these -- I completely stopped making these videos during NaNoWriMo, and during the period of catching up with my life afterwards. But here's a new one!


http://youtu.be/svuvxbpSmR8

Also, just noticed that I now have two videos with over a thousand views; "Finite Simple Group (of Order Two)" just hit four digits. Yay!

Cover-a-Week #33: "Creepy Doll" by Jonathan Coulton

It's Hallowe'en! Ergo, today's the day for a spooky song:


http://youtu.be/f1hddcJiGZ8

This was such a fun piece to cover! (Jonathan Coulton is an evil genius.)

I was tempted to make Coraline-style button eyes out of construction paper to really get in the spirit of "Creepy Doll," but I realized that I couldn't see very well out of the tiny buttonholes...

Cover-a-Week #32: "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1" by The Flaming Lips

Because it was recently Ada Lovelace Day:


http://youtu.be/K0Y8pf009yo

I have a lot of friends from college who were female computer scientists and engineers. I'm very proud of them -- of what they do, what they represent, and the hard work and extraordinary talent I know it took (I was there, after all). They might not be fighting pink robots, but they are, every day, combating the societal forces that created this unequal world. They're "destroying the status quo, because the status is not quo" -- and I love them for it. This one's for you, ladies.

Cover-a-Week #31: "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" by Green Day

I used to listen to this song all the time in high school:


http://youtu.be/CDMJUeJTKcM

All I need are some strings in the background...

Also, I just had my seventeenth video (out of thirty-one) hit a hundred (a hundred?) views. I don't know who you are, but thanks for listening! (It's "Somewhere Only We Know" -- in case you were wondering.)

Cover-a-Week #30: "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen

I love this song (cliché but true):

http://youtu.be/1RbR-VORCAo

I'm getting over a cold, so I suppose I'm channeling more Jeff Buckley than Leonard Cohen here...

Cover-a-Week #29: "Greensleeves" (traditional)

A Tudor era piece:


http://youtu.be/dMS42q0wPF8

The original is very long (not to mention that there exist many versions of the song, which was often learned orally, in true balladeer fashion), so I took the liberty of cutting a few verses.

Cover-a-Week #28: "Half Moon" by Blind Pilot

In celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival:


http://youtu.be/91_ZVMVB-QM

It's such a wistful and oddly uplifting song. It reminds me of Thoreau and Emerson (in both the philosophy and the New England aspects), but also of cranes and kingfishers.

In related news, I notice that one of my Cover-a-Week videos, "Take Me Home, Country Roads," recently exceeded a thousand views!

Cover-a-Week #27: "May It Be" by Enya, from The Lord of the Rings soundtrack

It's a week for mourning writers, so in honor of Tolkien's fortieth death-day, here's Enya's "May It Be" from the soundtrack of The Lord of the Rings:


http://youtu.be/juwu5tTC0hc

I maxed out the new microphone... again. (It's clearly the deadly combination of high notes, vibrato, and volume.) I tried putting a sweater over the mic -- perhaps next time, I should try sitting a bit farther back?

Cover-a-Week #26: "Nightswimming" by R.E.M.

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic this week...


http://youtu.be/JgwJ3Ti4j3s

The rhythm for this song was a bit tricky to figure out; it took me a few tries before I realized that the irregularities were in the chord changes rather than the strum pattern.

Cover-a-Week #25: "Doctor Worm" by They Might Be Giants

A bit belatedly, for Geek Week:


http://youtu.be/odJD73piZdc

This was meant to be good, nerdy fun, but ended up a little more introspective than I'd intended... (It was fun nonetheless!)

Cover-a-Week #24: "The House of the Rising Sun" (traditional)

People seemed interested in more folk/old-school material, and I'm happy to oblige:


http://youtu.be/_scn7y8uCis

I didn't realize until after the video went live that the angle of lighting makes me look a bit ghostly in the still-shot... I suppose it's appropriate for the piece.

Cover-a-Week #23: "The Ballad of Serenity" from Firefly

More geek-tastic covers!


http://youtu.be/hmlDnPYzsq0

Firefly is one of the best television shows out there, and it's a shame that only fourteen were produced before it was cancelled. I've not seen all of them -- this will be remedied in due time!

Cover-a-Week #22: "One Tin Soldier" by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter

This week's ukulele video, a tribute to the 60s:


http://youtu.be/xorad7fLzkA

I've always thought this a rather wistful piece. I hope you all like it!

Cover-a-Week #21: "Summersong" by The Decemberists

In the spirit of the holiday weekend -- after which it feels like summer is really underway -- here's a somewhat dark and incongruously cheerful piece about the season, by (who else?) The Decemberists...


http://youtu.be/Ckrwx_AyL1A

I had, for the record, a much more pleasant Fourth than the song would suggest; I spent a few days in Philadelphia with my family.

Cover-a-Week #20: "City Hall" by Vienna Teng

In celebration of the recent Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage, United States v. Windsor:


http://youtu.be/lkrvnkgKTu0

The song was originally written about the 2004 same-sex marriage initiative in San Francisco, but it's just as relevant today; it commemorates the victory of love, justice, and human dignity over the prejudices of a shrinking minority.

Also, Oscar Wilde's two pence: http://www.gocomics.com/thenewadventuresofqueenvictoria/2013/06/27