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bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
Jon Hancock
@bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
160 followers 10 following 2.8K posts
Charlatan, Humbug and Imitation Humorist.

Former sporadic cartoonist and game designer. Occasionally #Outdoorsy, sometimes #Cycling. #Ukulele torturer […]

🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://social.vivaldi.net/@BigJackBrass, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact
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bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
No luck with my online sheet music searches today. Conrad & Rose's "I'm Gonna Bring a Watermelon to My Girl Tonight" seems only to be available in its 1924 first printing, with a racist cartoon cover and no ukulele arrangement (both changed for later […]

[Original post on social.vivaldi.net]
Sheet music cover of "MISERY FARM by C.JAY WALLIS, Writer of "ALL BY YOURSELF IN THE MOONLIGHT". Cream/tan page with black ink drawing of a decrepit farmhouse, broken cart, swampy ground and a very undernourished horse. Price 6d.
November 23, 2025 at 11:43 AM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
It's not great. It's unbelievably stressful and exhausting. I can fake my way through it, more or less, by turning my inevitable misunderstandings into quick jokes or related questions, but I'm on edge for the whole time. It's an interactive performance, not a conversation.
Screenshot from The Guardian website showing the caption from a photograph above an article headline. Text: 'If you think small talk is boring, that may be a skill issue.' Illustration: Guardian Design/Panther Media Global/Alamy. 'It's incredibly useful': why small talk is actually great.
November 21, 2025 at 7:50 PM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
Awake enough at last to type up this popular number from the very dawn of the ukulele craze.

Made famous by Al Jolson, who included several alternative verses in his version, and revived in the 1960s by Ian Whitcomb, but this recording by Billy Murray on […]

[Original post on social.vivaldi.net]
Ukulele songsheet for "Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go With Friday On Saturday Night?" by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young, Geo. M. Meyer (1916). Lyrics, chord abbreviations and diagrams, unfortunately too much for alt-text. Song title from the cover of "Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go With Friday On Saturday Night?" published in 1916. The cover is orange with black text. Unfortunately the rest of the cover prominently features a blackface photograph of a man leering at a pantomime goat, so I've not added the rest of it.
November 20, 2025 at 2:38 PM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
Today's roll is…

#fudgerpg #dice #rpg
Screenshot of fudgerpg.com showing the online Fudge dice roller. The dice are displaying two blank faces, one plus sign and one minus sign, for a result of Fair (0).
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 AM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
"I've had the most horrible dream," it said.
Screenshot of sciencealert.com. Headline: Bizarre New Species of Flying Reptile Discovered in Fossilized Dinosaur Vomit. NATURE 20 November 2025 By MICHAEL IRVING.
November 19, 2025 at 6:59 PM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
I swear I've seen this sort of thing before… https://mastodon.world/@funhouseradio/115577724780191150
The Bad Idea Bears from the stage show Avenue Q. They are two adorable fluffy puppet bears, one yellow and the other blue, who pop up to suggest sentient awful or inappropriate things to other characters. In the case of this picture, the caption reads TAKE HER HOME! SHE'S WASTED! YAAAY!
November 19, 2025 at 6:55 PM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
Working on this piece after days of being unable to pick up a ukulele at all, and before that pretty much a year of illness making for highly infrequent and erratic practice. Some progress, but the same problem I still struggle with when I try to do more […]

[Original post on social.vivaldi.net]
Photo of a binder open at a page of music notation for "Staten Island Slide", ukulele solo, music by Craig Robertson, arr. Choan Gálvez. The page is leaning against a music stand on which is a red binder decorated with stickers, along with more musical arrangements and accessories.
November 19, 2025 at 2:28 PM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
Only for them to end up as lava-ish towers.

Too soon?
Screenshot of Smithsonian magazine website. Headline: Ancient Pompeiis Elite May Have Built Lavish Towers on Top of Their Villas. Here's What They May Have Looked Like.
November 17, 2025 at 10:19 PM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
There is no spoon.
Product photograph from Ali Express for what is listed as "Wooden Plush Ukulele Storage Box Thickened Portable Stress-resistance Guitar Box Professional Musical Instrument Accessory". Picture shows a ukulele lying atop a brown tooled leather (or more likely vinyl) covered ukulele case. The caption reads "The piano is only for reference".
November 16, 2025 at 8:58 PM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
Far too tired to do much of anything today, but I did at least find the sheet music I wanted for my next ukulele songsheet. No ukulele arrangement included, alas, which is a bit poor for 1925. Couldn't move for ukulele arrangements cluttering up otherwise […]

[Original post on social.vivaldi.net]
Cover of the 1925 sheet music for BANANA OIL by AL. DUBIN, JIMMY MCHUGH AND MILT. GROSS. Song title in large, friendly, rounded red letters across the top of a white (or slightly off-white) page. Cartoon illustration by Milt Gross of a couple seated at a small table beneath a palm tree. She has bright red hair and is fashionably dressed, looked to be about seventy years the junior of the very happy gentleman sitting beside her, whose enormously long white beard she is caressing. The aged gent is in formal dress, complete with diamond studs and a top hat. His walking crutch is leaning against his chair. "I love you for yourself alone!!" she says, meaning not a single word of it.
November 16, 2025 at 8:13 PM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
"Abebooks has found the book you're looking for!"

Ah, these are always fun emails, since inevitably what it's found is absurdly overpriced. Sure enough, I can't imagine who would pay over £230 (plus postage, from America to the UK in this case) for a […]

[Original post on social.vivaldi.net]
Screenshot of listing from Abebooks. Text: Faces of Thedas: A Dragon Age RPG Sourcebook Lisa Adams, et al. From Salish Sea Books (Bellingham, WA, U.S.A.). Green Ronin Publishing, 2019, 9781934547830, Very Good+; Hardcover; Light wear to the covers; Unblemished textblock edges; The endpapers and all text pages are clean and unmarked; The binding is excellent with a straight spine; This book will be shipped in a sturdy cardboard box wi... (read more). Price: £ 230.60.
November 16, 2025 at 5:43 PM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
After I cleaned the old Martin uke and oiled the fretboard, Carrie Fisher stepped in to help with changing the strings.

#cats #ukulele
Carrie Fisher, a black cat simply too beautiful to adequately describe here, stands on a wooden surface by a window, her tongue sticking out as she licks and bites a discarded white ukulele string.
November 15, 2025 at 4:38 PM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
[A very unnecessary and crude joke about a Glenn Close photo shoot.]

Sorry, Ms. Close.
Picture of the actress Glenn Close taken from The Guardian website, credits Portraits: David Vintiner/ The Guardian. She is seated and wearing a cream-coloured jacket and a frankly bizarre skirt, made of long and shaggy brown fur. Underneath is a line from the song "The Mayor of Bayswater's Daughter": And the hairs on her dicky-dido hang down to her knees. This was not included in the original article.
November 15, 2025 at 4:28 PM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
The "new" uke has spent the day settling in and adjusting to household temperature and humidity. Tomorrow I'll give it a light cleaning, fit new strings and have a proper play of it.

#ukulele
Photo taken through the strings and soundhole of a wooden ukulele, showing the inside of the instrument. A stamp just above a wooden brace reads C.F. MARTIN & CO. NAZARETH, PA. Headstock of a mahogany soprano ukulele. The ebony nut and top of the rosewood fretboard can be seen, as well as the four white strings terminating at the tuning pegs. A gold transfer near the top reads C.F. Martin & Co. Est. 1833.
November 14, 2025 at 6:31 PM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
Is it "drinking less alcohol"?
Screenshot of sciencealert.com. Text: sciencealert: There's One Simple Strategy to Reduce Alcohol Intake, Experts Say, And It Works. HEALTH 14 November 2025 By DAVID NIELD.
November 14, 2025 at 6:13 PM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
Search engines continuing to be more and more useful, eh?
Screenshot of Bluesky showing the account of Dirk the Dice @thegrognardfiles.bsky.soc... Post: Google has just alerted me to this breaking news from Bolton. Breaking in 1946. (This is followed by a screenshot of an article headed The Bolton News). Bolton mill closed by flooding after heaviest rainfall in 58 years. 12 hours ago - The heaviest rainfall experienced in and around Bolton for 58 years saw the River Irwell burst its banks in September, 1946.
November 14, 2025 at 6:02 PM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
Doctor Pac-Man will see you now.
Photo of a nondescript wooden door with a metal lever handle. A small sign reads Fire Door Keep Shut; another says Radiation controlled area. The main sign is a black rectangle with SURGERY 1 in white letters, and on the left hand side a white outline that looks like a circle with a quarter removed, which makes it look exactly like the Pac-Man video game character.
November 14, 2025 at 5:54 PM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
From the "week in wildlife" photographs on the website of The Guardian.

#capybara
Photo from The Guardian website of a bird sitting on the back of a large, quite relaxed, rodent. Caption: Feathered friend … a juvenile yellow-headed caracara perches on the back of a resting capybara among the mangroves in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Common throughout Brazil’s wetlands and urban parks, these adaptable raptors are often seen riding on large mammals such as capybaras or cattle, feeding on ticks and insects they uncover Photograph: Bob Karp/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock.
November 14, 2025 at 11:00 AM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
No no, of course I haven't bought a seventy-year-old ukulele from overseas without paying it. That would be ridiculous.

😬
Photo of an open cardboard box sitting on a wooden floor. Inside is an old and worn grey ukulele case with black trim. The latches are rusty and it could all do with a good cleaning, possibly by fire.
November 14, 2025 at 9:15 AM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
A lovely number I first heard played by the Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band, then in an early recording by ukulele specialist Johnny Marvin, but so far I've not found a commercial recording that doesn't simply jump straight in at the chorus.

Thanks then to […]

[Original post on social.vivaldi.net]
Ukulele songsheet for "Half A Moon (Is Better Than No Moon)" by Herbert Reynolds, Eddie Dowling and James F. Hanley (1926). Lyrics, chord abbreviations and diagrams, unfortunately too much for alt-text. Sheet music cover for "Half A Moon (Is Better Than No Moon)" by Herbert Reynolds, Eddie Dowling and James F. Hanley (1926). Green background with white trellis pattern. Central illustration of a bungalow with trees and cloud behind it. Song title across the top. Main text reads "Mr. A.L. Erlanger Presents Eddit Dowling in the new musical play HONEYMOON LANE, book, lyrics and music by Eddie Dowling and James F. Hanley". The same cover would have been used for all songs published from the show, with only the title at the top changing.
November 13, 2025 at 8:38 PM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
The Guardian aiming across the spectrum with this crossword clue.

(Danger Mouse was, of course, the pinnacle of cultural entertainment)
Screenshot of The Guardian website showing a crossword clue: 9 Statement used in evidence (9). 10 Item worn by James Joyce or Danger Mouse (3,5). 11 Denuded (4).
November 13, 2025 at 5:15 PM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
This song may give away its punchline in the title, but the story existed in jokes and poems long before it was claimed by these writers. I've based the lyrics more closely on Frank Crumit's take:

https://youtu.be/LOOa5Snbyac

#music #ukulele #1930s
Ukulele songsheet for "The Pig Got Up And Slowly Walked Away" by F.W. Bowers and Benjamin Hapgood Burt (1933). Lyrics, chord abbreviations and diagrams, unfortunately too much for alt-text.
November 13, 2025 at 12:34 PM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
Are they both in the same kind of venue?
Screenshot of The Guardian website culture section. Headline: Music - A night to remember: does everyone really prefer live music to sex?
November 13, 2025 at 9:01 AM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
“What! a furrier, a man that calls rabbits conies, when he doesn’t turn their skins into squirrels?” asked Bilbo.

“Good gracious heavens, no, no, NO, NO!” said Gandalf. “Don’t be a fool Mr. Baggins if you can help it; and in the name of all wonder don’t […]

[Original post on social.vivaldi.net]
Ukulele songsheet for "Doin’ The Raccoon" by Raymond Klages and J. Fred Coots (1928). Lyrics, chord abbreviations and diagrams, unfortunately too much for alt-text. Sheet music cover for "Doin’ The Raccoon" by Raymond Klages and J. Fred Coots (1928). Jagged red and blue background with a black and white illustration of a man and woman in front. They are both wearing fashionable hats and huge, calf-length raccoon-fur coats with high rolled collars. The man is immediately behind the woman as they high kick from left to right, lifting her slightly off the ground and holding her right hand in what could be an anatomically implausible position, or might be fine under all that fur. It's hard to tell.
November 12, 2025 at 8:56 PM
bigjackbrass.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy
Well, that's a more novel method than a vote of no-confidence, I suppose.
Screenshot of thenational.scot, from a report about a very strong solar storm. The article is broken partway through with a link to a different story. Text as shown: Discussing the current storm, it added: "Solar storms travel from the Sun and can reach Earth in as little as 17 hours, although they can also take significantly longer. READ MORE: How could Keir Starmer be ousted as Prime Minister?
November 12, 2025 at 6:48 PM