Santa Monica Ukulele Festival - April 18th, 2015

I am all for supporting the high school music program and this event seems like a great cause. I spent much of my high school years in the orchestra / symphony and I can relate to the financial burden my music education placed upon my parents. I am grateful they continued to support me. Mikent, not sure if you are the right person to ask, but can you provide a bit more info on the school? What are the students raising money for? How does our participation help these musicians? Do any students play ukulele? I am curious how the event came about. Anyone know?
 
Hi ShibaUke,
You can visit SaMoHi's Orch website for more info on their music program www.samohiorchestras.org
The money is raised for their general music fund. A number of the students study "classical" instruments
formally and play the uke informally. I want to show them how to blend the two together. Jumpin Jim Beloff
is going to have a West Coast Premier of his Concerto for Ukulele. The event came about as a realization that
this is what I need to do at this time in my life - work, play the uke, support the music program, help out the ukulele
scene here in the Westside. Thanks for the great questions!
 
Looks like a nice event, but it is on the same day as the LA Ukulele Expo.
 
They coordinated their hours? They are at least 15 miles apart. And this is Los Angeles, and they are separated by the 10 freeway which can clog to a dead stop at any hour of the day or night. And not all of us live on the west side. And traffic in Santa Monica on weekends is a nightmare. I guess they figure anyone who is going to come to Santa Monica High School lives on the West Side.
 
katysax said:
They coordinated their hours? They are at least 15 miles apart. And this is Los Angeles, and they are separated by the 10 freeway which can clog to a dead stop at any hour of the day or night. And not all of us live on the west side. And traffic in Santa Monica on weekends is a nightmare. I guess they figure anyone who is going to come to Santa Monica High School lives on the West Side.
Click to expand...

While it's great to see something ukulele-related happening on the west side, when I first heard about this I couldn't help but question what logic there was behind scheduling these two events back to back on opposite sides of town. Traffic ain't what it used to be - weekends on the 10 freeway can be just as bad as rush hour!
 
SM Uke Fest and U space

Aloha. You are all correct. Brad & Jason, from U space/JACC and myself, Mike from SM Uke Fest/SaMoHi Barnum Hall talked about this issue last November. Both of us are constrained by our respective organizations, so we compromised on having "half" days. And our Grand Concert isn't until 6:30 PM. Jumpin Jim Beloff is flying out from Conn. to present his West Coast Premier of "Uke Can't Be Serious" concerto with the SaMoHi Orchestra. BTW., the traffic on the 10 Fwy can be 10 min to 20 min max from Downtown to the Westside during the afternoon. www.SantaMonicaUkuleleFestival. com Mahalo
 
kohanmike said:
The U-Space Expo at the Japanese American Cultural Center Plaza is at 11:30 am, mainly to try and break the Guinness world record for simultaneous uke players; https://www.facebook.com/events/381014935430943. The Santa Monica Festival is from 1:30 to 8:30 pm at Santa Monica high; http://www.santamonicaukulelefestival.com. The organizers are aware it's the same day and coordinated their hours.
Click to expand...

Aren't there a bunch of performances at U-Space after the record attempt (which would conflict with the Santa Monica Uke Festival -- which I could walk to, by the way. ;-)
 
I just found out today that The CC Strummers, the group to which I belong, will be playing in the amphitheater at the SM Festival at 1:30 PM for 45 minutes. Crap, I'm going to have to boogit from the Expo attempt at who knows how long after 11:30 to SM as fast as I can, most probably will be late, but I'm not missing the record attempt with U-Space.
 
This is kind of off topic but I was a bit crabby when I posted on this thread before. I'm really getting burnt out on driving. I live in the West Valley and I just spent almost 4 hours in traffic going downtown and back. There are stretches of the Santa Monica freeway that can take an hour to move one mile. I was already struggling with wanting to participate in the record attempt and resisting the traffic to get there. Then adding in something in Santa Monica just seemed like way too much. I do understand that the organizations are constrained in when they can do things. But I also end up deciding not to participate in things just because of the traffic. It just sucks the joy out of the activity.
 
As much as I hate traffic, I love playing the uke and participating in uke events more, so I just accept it and have the event excise the angst. In actuality, I've found that my trepidation is more the problem than the actual traffic. When I drive downtown via 3rd Street to U-Space from the Beverly Center area, I would give myself more than an hour, but it never takes more than 40 minutes. I just hope with the likelihood of very nice weather, the beach traffic at around noon on the 10 in Santa Monica is not atrocious.
 
Last edited:
katysax said:
This is kind of off topic but I was a bit crabby when I posted on this thread before. I'm really getting burnt out on driving. I live in the West Valley and I just spent almost 4 hours in traffic going downtown and back. There are stretches of the Santa Monica freeway that can take an hour to move one mile. I was already struggling with wanting to participate in the record attempt and resisting the traffic to get there. Then adding in something in Santa Monica just seemed like way too much. I do understand that the organizations are constrained in when they can do things. But I also end up deciding not to participate in things just because of the traffic. It just sucks the joy out of the activity.
Click to expand...

I hear ya! I don't think your comment was meant to criticize in any way, and my earlier one was not either. I have vision difficulties that make driving challenging so I rarely leave Santa Monica, but these past few Saturdays I've had to drive inland to Hollywood and Pasadena and each time I've been amazed at how long that drive takes even on a weekend mid-day - and how much longer it seems to take every time I do it. The days of the 20-minute freeway drive are long gone, although of course one can always hope :)

kohanmike said:
As much as I hate traffic, I love playing the uke and participating in uke events more, so I just accept it and have the event excise the angst. In actuality, I've found that my trepidation is more the problem than the actual traffic. The times I've would drive downtown via 3rd Street to U-Space from the Beverly Center area, I would give myself more than an hour, but it never takes more than 40 minutes. I just hope with the likelihood of very nice weather, the beach traffic at around noon on the 10 in Santa Monica is not atrocious.
Click to expand...

Really depends on the time of day. My dentist is downtown and if I need to get there on a weekday afternoon, I've gone from allowing 1 hour to allowing an hour and a half - forget the freeway, and even lesser-known surface street routes are often congested because there is *so* much street construction. Heck - I tried to walk from my dentist's office by Pershing Square to U-Space a couple weeks ago and never made it, because even on foot there were two complete street closures! At that point I gave up.

All of that being said - I'm really glad this is happening on "my" side of town and I'll be able to walk :)
 
janeray1940 said:
Heck - I tried to walk from my dentist's office by Pershing Square to U-Space a couple weeks ago and never made it, because even on foot there were two complete street closures! At that point I gave up.
Click to expand...

That's a far walk!! I wouldn't even dare to do that as you might have to walk through skid row, depending on what street you decide go east.
 
nongdam said:
That's a far walk!! I wouldn't even dare to do that as you might have to walk through skid row, depending on what street you decide go east.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I skipped 5th St keeping that in mind - turned out the construction workers on 2nd Street were a bigger threat :)

Off topic but I have noticed that downtown has changed a lot in recent years. Skid row still exists, but I'd estimate there's a pretty equal ratio of homeless folks to affluent hipsters walking their designer dogs these days... a far cry from what it was when I lived in the arts district in the punk-rock 1980s.
 
@janeray1940, I think it's time for a dentist on the West side!

BTW, you must live quite close to me. I'm on 20th between Pico and Ocean Park.
 
Ukulele Eddie said:
@janeray1940, I think it's time for a dentist on the West side!

BTW, you must live quite close to me. I'm on 20th between Pico and Ocean Park.
Click to expand...

You know, I've had the same dentist for years; every now and then I'd try to find someone closer to home but never had any luck. And now some of my westside friends have started making the trek to her as well - she's that good (and her prices are that fair!). Dentists in SM tend to charge close to twice as much as she does! The rent must be that much higher... I'm 20th and Montana-ish. I've probably driven by your place a million times!
 
I totally get what you all mean with the traffic. I hate driving in LA (funny since my job is to improve traffic conditionsand deal with improving our transpotation system) but both of these events seem awesome. I would not want to miss out on either one. If you guys want to carpool, Im all for that. Then at least if we are late to Santa Monica from U Space, we can do so in a group and minimize any angst generated from sitting in traffic going to the SM beach area. Going to SM on weekends is not fun at all. The 10 gets backed up. I think it would take at least 45 min to drive from downtown LA to SM in the weekend traffic. maybe more if the weather is beautiful. i dont blame anyone. id go to the beach as well! I love the SM beach, especially biking up and down the coast in the morning!
 
Mikent said:
Hi ShibaUke,
You can visit SaMoHi's Orch website for more info on their music program www.samohiorchestras.org
The money is raised for their general music fund. A number of the students study "classical" instruments
formally and play the uke informally. I want to show them how to blend the two together. Jumpin Jim Beloff
is going to have a West Coast Premier of his Concerto for Ukulele. The event came about as a realization that
this is what I need to do at this time in my life - work, play the uke, support the music program, help out the ukulele
scene here in the Westside. Thanks for the great questions!
Click to expand...

Well I'm sold!

What do you mean about blending the two together? Playing classical music on the uke? Or creating an orchestra with traditional orchestra instruments (violin, viola, cello, bass in an orchestra and woodwind and brass and percussion if you consider symphony)?

If its merging ukes into an orchestra, that seems really interesting to me. I started off on violin and cello before switching to uke. Ive always been interested how I could write a song to include me playing the uke and me playing the cello. That is the first step - and I struggle to find the time to do that. The second is trying to figure out how to record myself playing two instruments separately. I am just not tech savvy. :)
 
Both events sound great, and although the comments on LA driving may seem overblown to folks who aren't familiar with LA, they are sadly accurate. Getting to Santa Monica on the 10 on a weekend can be a long slog if it's a great beach day or there's an accident on the freeway. Absent those problems, one might just have enough time to make it to the SaMoHi event.

It's interesting to me that no one has mentioned the time and angst that will undoubtedly come with trying to find parking. I don't know where 2370+ people will find parking near the plaza where the record attempt will occur. Our (not so) Rapid Transit is one alternative for people traveling to the attempt, but is of no use in getting to Santa Monica because the Metro line ends in Culver City. Car pooling sounds like the best suggestion. Any others? And does anyone know where there will be parking at SaMoHi?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

janeray1940
Santa Monica, CA - beginning ukulele class starts Sept 19
Replies
1
Views
712
janeray1940
janeray1940
janeray1940
beginning ukulele class - santa monica, ca starts june 20
Replies
0
Views
323
janeray1940
janeray1940
janeray1940
Santa Monica, CA - Beginning Ukulele class starts January 10, 2018
Replies
0
Views
743
janeray1940
janeray1940
janeray1940
Santa Monica, CA - McCabe's Ukulele Ensemble and others
Replies
16
Views
2K
janeray1940
janeray1940
Lori
Live Streaming Video of Santa Monica Ukulele Festival
Replies
0
Views
405
Lori
Lori
Top Bottom