42nd Season of the Ukulele: The Italian Job

Season of the Ukulele 42
“The Italian Job”

Buongiorno ragazzi e ragazze di Stagioni dell’Ukulele!



Saskia and I are big fans of Italy. We love going there on holiday and enjoy the food, the culture and also the music. As an Art&Design teacher I visit Italy at least once a year.
We first thought about doing a season about the maffia/ the mob, crime, murder ballads, etcetera. But we thought we might as well connect it to our love for all things Italian and create two seperate categories within one theme. So here it is!

The first category is: All Things Italian
Italian songs would be great, but anything remotely related to the italian culture will do. You can do Sinatra, Dean Martin, Louis Prima, soundtracks from The Godfather, The Sopranos (played on Sopranos!), Ennio Morricone, or something like that. Italian crooners from the sixties like Gino Paoli, Italian pop music like Giovanotti or Neffa, hell, you can even do Giorgio Moroder! Go wild!

The second challenge is: Crime Songs
As a librarian I love books and good stories, and many cultures have an oral tradition wherein stories were passed around through music and song. I love the drama that is spread through the old murder ballads, whether they tell from the point of view of the victim, or the perpetrator. Your song should be about a true crime, and I will put up a link to a wiki site that should get you started. There are songs out there like Tom Dooley, traditionals like The long black Veil, or modern classics like Nick Cave’s Where the wild roses grow or Sufjan Stevens haunting John Wayne Gacy jr. You will get bonus points for drama! (More Barbie dolls!!!)

Parameters:
The standard season rules apply. Your official entry has to be a new video created for this season and cannot have overdubs, but multitracking is allowed on any bonus material.
Your video should mention the 42nd season of the ukulele.
When posting please mention the category. If you play a Sinatra song about a murder, you choose in which you enter!
Multiple versions of one song are allowed.

Judging:
Saskia and Michael will be judging. No real criteria… Just be awesome!

Prizes:
All Things Italian:
First prize: Panel mounted photographic art made by Michael
Second prize: a bag of money! Chocolate money that is… Hey; we’re in a worldwide financial crisis!

Crime Songs:
First prize: Framed needlework art made by Saskia
Second prize: a bag full of Dutch seasonal chocolate covered ‘kruidnoten’.

Bonus prizes:
Our twins will draw two names from the hat. They will win:
a set of Aquila LowG tenor strings or
another bag of chocolate money

DEADLINE: 11:59 PM HAWAII TIME, SUNDAY DEC 9th.
That’s somewhere Monday morning in Rome.

Go for it!
cheers,

Saskia & Michael

Playlists:
Italia
Crime Songs
Bonus

As I mentioned before, here are two wikipedia links to give you some ideas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Murder_ballads
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_about_killers

So if I understand well the top would be an Italian crime song ???? ;-)))

hey folks

love the seasons though i seldom enter.

I can do a bonus track this week at least.

The Sopranos... done for another contest a while back... good luck seasonistas.

Thanks for this interesting challenge! I was afraid it was going to be songs with glockenspiels.

At the risk of sounding like an up-tight Californian (which I probably am),
I have to say that we gave the world the first telescope, and showed the Vatican where the sun really sat in our solar system. We invented (for better or worse) the battery, the radio, the telephone, the nuclear reactor, and the plastic we are now surrounded by. We told the world about density, gave them their alphabet, and handed them an ice cream cone. We invented musical notation, and made a piano to play it on. The gasoline engine and the pneumatic tire are Italian, as is the helicopter. The list goes on and on.
I am fairly certain that if any other culture represented on the underground had their most enduring and damning stereotype made into Season, it would hit the fan... might as well defend mine.

Another stereotype of ours- We are often proud to a fault.
The Cloverdale Kid-via Ustica and Sicily.

............

TCK said:

At the risk of sounding like an up-tight Californian (which I probably am),
I have to say that we gave the world the first telescope, and showed the Vatican where the sun really sat in our solar system. We invented (for better or worse) the battery, the radio, the telephone, the nuclear reactor, and the plastic we are now surrounded by. We told the world about density, gave them their alphabet, and handed them an ice cream cone. We invented musical notation, and made a piano to play it on. The gasoline engine and the pneumatic tire are Italian, as is the helicopter. The list goes on and on.
I am fairly certain that if any other culture represented on the underground had their most enduring and damning stereotype made into Season, it would hit the fan... might as well defend mine.

Another stereotype of ours- We are often proud to a fault.
The Cloverdale Kid-via Ustica and Sicily.

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We NEVER EVER meant to offend. The mobster link was a way for us to connect the two challenges. As we clearly stated: we love Italy and Italian art and culture. We visit the country several times every year and have great respect for its historical achievements, as we do for every other culture.

we tigers said:

We NEVER EVER meant to offend. The mobster link was a way for us to connect the two challenges. As we clearly stated: we love Italy and Italian art and culture. We visit the country several times every year and have great respect for its historical achievements, as we do for every other culture.

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brilliant theme you guys, love it lots. Thankyou Michael and Saskia for hosting the week, it'll be a lot of fun. As for Italian stereotypes, here in Oz there is a pasta bar on every corner and a pizza shop on every other one, and 'Casino' is just about my favourite movie. Italians are also recognised here as THE greatest soccer actors in the world after the inglorious dive of one of their players in the penalty box to put us out of the World Cup in 2004 which we have still not gotten over...

Excellent themes this week we tigers! Looking forward to hearing some great entries. Here's a bonus from the 19th Season. In the background is the Matanuska River. The video has been overdubbed since the noise of the river drowned out the actual recording.

eor said:

hey folks

love the seasons though i seldom enter.

I can do a bonus track this week at least.

The Sopranos... done for another contest a while back... good luck seasonistas.

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Wow! That was fantastic! Loved it!!

I have one I prepared earlier as a bonus track for this season as well.
It is My Rifle, My Pony and Me sung by Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson in the movie Rio Bravo.
One of the prettiest 2 chord songs there is IMHO.
I'm thinking something about Ned Kelly as my official entry.

I figured Italian week would come eventually. So I already know what song I want to do. I only hope I have time this week to learn it.

By the way, can somebody answer this for me: I've encountered a bunch of Italian songs where the word "e" is in the lyrics but is not pronounced at all by the singer. Is this customary? Is the entire word just implied by the context?

Song where WGY dons his John Lennon nose and specs and does a song about a crime of passion
that results in the death of one of the protagonists, and a bonus for season 42.

Here is my entry for the Italian side; thanks for the fun challenge!



Ciao!

wee_ginga_yin said:

Song where WGY dons his John Lennon nose and specs and does a song about a crime of passion
that results in the death of one of the protagonists, and a bonus for season 42.

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oh bum, I was gonna do that one...shucks...nice job anyway brother and a beautifully framed clip with an awesome outfit to boot!!!

pabrizzer said:

I have one I prepared earlier as a bonus track for this season as well.
It is My Rifle, My Pony and Me sung by Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson in the movie Rio Bravo.
One of the prettiest 2 chord songs there is IMHO.
I'm thinking something about Ned Kelly as my official entry.

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lovely voice Briz and wonderfully smooth feel mate, really enjoying your music brother
:cheers:

Here my entry for the Everything Italian Bit, my Italian is a litte sloppy I guess ;-).
It's a U2 song, as WeTigers was expecting one from me .
It's called Miss Sarajevo by the Passengers, which is U2 and some friends like Pavarotti.

PatriciaPDX said:

Here is my entry for the Italian side; thanks for the fun challenge!



Ciao!

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lovely background story Patricia and a great rendition of a fab song. You have an awesome voice! More please...

uke4ia said:

I figured Italian week would come eventually. So I already know what song I want to do. I only hope I have time this week to learn it.

By the way, can somebody answer this for me: I've encountered a bunch of Italian songs where the word "e" is in the lyrics but is not pronounced at all by the singer. Is this customary? Is the entire word just implied by the context?

Click to expand...

I'm not Italian, but I've studied the language a bit. There are actually two words that are just the letter e, one means "and", and the other, with an accent (è), means "is". The pronunciation is closer to "eh", and not "ee". I don't think either would normally be dropped, but the phrasing of any given song might allow it to be omitted or de-emphasized. Perhaps a UU member who is a native Italian speaker could shed further light.