I’m home from Worldcon … technically. Both my brain and body are still on London time, which means I’m tired when I should be awake and unable to sleep when I should be tired. But in this brief moment of lucidity, before I launch into a full Loncon3 report—as well as recaps of my meals at The Fat Duck and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal—I thought I’d share my personal highlight of the convention.

It occurred an hour or two into a party being thrown by the publishing company Gollancz. I was in a back room of the Aloft Hotel bar with Robert Reed, Ellen Datlow and others when I spotted the great Brian Aldiss standing by a pool table watching the action. And since I don’t get to see Aldiss often—in fact, the last time was likely during the 2000 Nebula Awards ceremony at which I was Toastmaster and he was named a Grand Master—I immediately left my group, because such opportunities are not to be missed.

I introduced myself and reminded him of when we’d last met. Joined by Rani Graff and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, we chatted for awhile, a discussion which eventually led to Aldiss reminiscing about the first London Worldcon, held in 1957. I pulled up a site filled with numerous photos from that event, which delighted him. Luckily, looking at all of those images of dead friends made him wistful rather than maudlin.

A wonderful moment … but not yet the most wonderful moment. (more…)

I wasn’t able to make it to the June George Formby Society convention in Blackpool. I suspect you weren’t able to be there either. (Well, most of you, anyway.) Luckily, David Brindley was there to film the two-day event, and he’s since cut together a couple of hours of highlights.

Check out the strumming and merriment below!

George Formby Society Convention June 2013 – Part 1 from DeeBee Web Design on Vimeo.

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Whenever I tell people that one of the most joyful parts of the George Formby Society convention I attended two weeks ago was the Thrash, they ask me to explain—what the heck’s a Thrash? And though I tell them it’s that part of a concert during which everyone who wants to is welcome to come up en masse to strum a bunch of songs, it’s hard to really convey the fun of it all.

Much easier to simply show you. And so …

If you scroll ahead to 40:06 on the video below, you’ll see a small part of one of the many Thrashes that took place during the weekend.

Now that you’ve experienced a Thrash, make sure you go back to the beginning and watch the video straight through. Lots of great ukulele playing there!

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I was in Blackpool last weekend for the George Formby Society convention, where I met in the flesh friends who’d previously only been virtual, saw some amazing uke players, got a tutorial in Formby-style strumming, and even had a chance to get up and bumble my way through a song in the “Up and Comers” session meant for beginners.

Plus I added a third uke to my collection, on top of the Mitchell concert you’ve seen in all my videos up until now and the Kala pocket uke which I’ve carried as far as Machu Picchu.

But to play George Formby, you need a banjolele, so I headed off to Blackpool hoping to find one I could fall in love with, that fit my budget, and that my friends at the convention would feel delivered both good sound and value. (Believe me, without their advice, I’d never have had the confidence to make a decision.) I was hoping to find a pre-war ukulele, but instead ended up with something as far from vintage as you can get—a new uke completed just a week before the con, handmade by a man named Steve Helme.

Since it was built by a person rather than a company, it doesn’t have a brand name to go with it, but my friends in Blackpool who advised me it was a good deal told me it’s basically a replica of a UB-2.

Check it out below.

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Yesterday, I shared my ragged performance of “When I’m Cleaning Windows” at the George Formby Society convention in Blackpool, and promised that as a reward for enduring it, you’d get to see how the banjo uke is really meant to be played. And so here are eight performers I managed to record before the battery on my Flip camera decided it had done quite enough.

There were multiple concert sessions throughout the weekend, and these performances were all from the first on Saturday.

John Walley started us off in the ballroom of the Imperial Hotel with “Sitting on the Top of Blackpool Tower” and “Mr. Wu’s An Air Raid Warden Now.”

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I returned late Monday afternoon from a magical weekend at the Imperial Hotel in Blackpool, where I attended one of the George Formby Society’s quarterly conventions. I met in the flesh many friends I’d already made through Facebook and Twitter, made many new friends, sung with a group atop the famous Blackpool Tower, bought my first banjolele (which I’ll tell you more about another day), saw some of the best live ukulele performances of my life, and was generally filled with so much joy that my face hurt from smiling so much.

Oh, and I performed “When I’m Cleaning Windows” in public for the first time.

Those who’ve been following my brief ukulele career (it’s only been about 15 months, remember) will have seen my overwrought thrashing out of that song early last year. But playing in front of others was going to be a lot different, even though the folks in Blackpool were about the kindest, gentlest, least judgmental bunch you’ll ever meet.

I didn’t dare do it on the big stage—that will come in the future once I’ve gotten my brain and fingers around the Formby style of playing—but luckily, the convention holds what’s called an Up and Comers session so that those of us who are still trying to figure out what the heck we’re doing can perform just for each other, rather than in front of the uke masters, who can be intimidating even though they don’t mean to be.

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I’ve got a foot in many different worlds. I’ve got a foot in the science fiction world, a foot in the comic book world, a foot in the foodie world, a foot in the ukulele world …

Wait! That’s far too many feet.

In any case, sometimes these worlds overlap, such as when I’m at a science fiction convention and take my friends along on foodie expeditions. Or when some other friend brings a ukulele to one of those same cons and we get to jam. But for the first time, comics and the ukulele have formed their own Venn diagram, overlapping to result in this.

That’s right—a George Formby comic strip.

Thanks to Steve Thompson of BookSteve’s Library for pointing me to Lew Stringer’s blog, Blimey!, where Stringer posted this page from the December 26th 1953 issue of Film Fun.

I’ve no idea how many of these there were, but it looks like George’s Christmas turned out nice again!

As those of you who’ve been following my ukulele exploits know, not only did I fall in love with George Formby, but I actually went ahead and joined the George Formby Society, where it turned out I was only the 12th U.S. member.

Since we’re so spaced out across the country, we’ve yet to meet face-to-face, our only contact being via email, Facebook, and Skype. I’m sure we’ll meet someday. But you can meet them now, and by their wonderful playing see the long road I must travel before I’ll properly be able to play this four-string weapon which has captured my heart.

First up, Nashville’s Johnny Foodstamp, covering the George Formby classic, “Why Don’t Women Like Me?”

Next, Dan Breton from Springfield, Massachusetts, with a Formby signature song, “When I’m Cleaning Windows.” (more…)

Remember how miserable I was when I found myself ukulele-less in Salt Lake City? My withdrawal symptoms gave me the shakes. I was determined not to let that happen again, and yet, I didn’t want to lug my concert-sized uke to Peru.

Luckily, one of my new UK friends, found through George Formby fandom, recommended that I purchase a tiny Kala pocket ukulele, created just for that purpose.

Which I did!

And so if you were in Peru the first week of May, you’d have found me holding my uke aloft at Machu Picchu …

… along the Inca Trail, in front of a backdrop that seemed perfect for a performance of “When I’m Cleaning Windows” … (more…)

I bought a ukulele five months ago today, and to the dismay of some, I’ve been letting you all share in my progress (or lack thereof), checking in at three months (with “Teddy Bears Picnic“) and four months (with “Side by Side,” “Why Don’t Women Like Me?,” and “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue“).

For my five-month performance, I’ve decided to go with George Formby’s “When I’m Cleaning Windows,” even though I’m in no way ready for it, because a) I’ve fallen madly in love with Formby, and b) I’ve read that, “If you play the ukulele in England then everyone who sees you will ask if you can play ‘When I’m Cleaning Windows.'” So I’d better start figuring it out then, eh?

A word of warning for those familiar with Formby—there’s no attempt at a solo below, as I’m a long way off from taking a stab at that. But let this be a testament to how far a guy can get in his first five months … plus something to look back on and chart my progress with once I’ve really figured out what I’m doing.

And so, here’s my first ragged stab at a classic.