Chris and I had a great holiday and received some awesome accordion-related presents! Here are a few of the highlights:
Custom-Made Folding Accordion Stands Handmade by my dad, the expert craftsman! One of the stands is pictured here. Using wood from an old futon frame, he designed two identical stands from pictures of other accordion stands I found online.
Big Lou’s Polka Casserole CD Big Lou’s first album is a classic and belongs in every accordion lover’s collection!
Julius and Friends Slippers Check out these awesome Paul Frank slippers that Karla gave me. The slipper on the left shows Julius the monkey playing the accordion to a chicken wearing lederhosen. These slippers are perfect for your favorite bird-lovin’, accordion playin’ friends! You can find them online at Tilly’s.
What do you call it when hundreds of crazy Santas — often fueled by “high octane egg nog” — roam the streets en masse, spreading holiday cheer? It’s not anarchy; it’s Santarchy, an annual tradition that’s grown to include gatherings from Berlin to Tokyo, and numerous places in-between.
The Santas invaded San Francisco on Saturday and, while my suit didn’t make it back from the cleaners in time, I was happy to see these accordion-toting Santas in attendance. Jingle Bells Polka, anyone?
Ever wonder how Hohner accordions are made? Peter Unbehauen has posted a fantastic photo tour of the Hohner accordion factory in Trossingen, Germany. If your Hohner was “made in Germany” — very likely if it’s a Gola, Morino, Genius, Ventura, or Corona Classic — it came from this factory. It’s a really fascinating look at the production process as craftsmen install reeds, wax reed blocks, and tune accordions before they’re shipped to players worldwide.
I highly recommend poking around Peter’s site — it’s full of fascinating and unique accordion information. For instance, he has some great photos of the old Hohner factory buildings in Trossingen, as well as the workshop of master tuner and builder Claudio Beltrami.
How to Play Rock ‘N’ Roll Accordion uploaded by Jan TonnesenHere’s a blast from the past: this 1967 Palmer-Hughes accordion instruction book promises “all you need to know to play Rock ‘n’ Roll solos or play with a Rock ‘n’ Roll combo!” And if you put on 3-D glasses, you’ll discover the guy on the cover is actually playing “Paint It Black” backwards! Groovy!
Interestingly, this isn’t the only rock accordion lesson book out there. Palmer-Hughes has another book called Easy Rock ‘n’ Roll that appears to have first been published in the early 1960s. And with imaginative song titles like “Red Hot Rock”, “Soda Pop Rock”, “Juke Box Rock”, and “Injun Rock” (really!), it’s hard to see why more kids weren’t ditching their guitars for accordions. Shocking, really.
Classic Texas Accordion uploaded by -DonsWhile I can’t to make it to this year’s Wurstfest, I can live vicariously through this excellent slideshow I found on Flickr. For a minute, I thought I was actually in New Braunfels, TX — listening to the accordions and tubas, watching the dancers in their authentic German garb, and eating all of that tasty, tasty sausage. Mmm…
Our apologies to anyone who visited the site yesterday and was greeted by an unsightly “Fatal error” message. Long story short: our hosting company (for the second time in six months) suffered a server catastrophe which took down our site. Fortunately, we’ve learned the value of making backups, so everything should be back to normal now. Drop us a line if anything appears out of whack.
In the meantime, I’ll try to make up for lost time by posting a whole bunch of squeezebox-related goodies today. To start, here’s a clip of Anna playing accordion with the Corner Laughers during their excellent show at Brainwash last night (see photos).
The San Francisco Chronicle has finally picked up on what Let’s Polka readers already know; namely, that the Friday night “Polka Happy Hour” at Schroeder’s German Restaurant in San Francisco is a blast. Live polka music, polka dancing (and lessons), great German food and beer, drinking contests… what more could you ask for?
“Oh, I love polka; it’s cheaper than aerobics and more fun. Plus the music’s better. And, there’s beer. In aerobics, there is no beer. You may quote me on that one.”
It’s not too late to join the fun — there’s another party this Friday (with Joe Smiell’s band playing) and there’ll be more parties throughout the fall. Check the Schroeder’s calendar for details.
from where i work uploaded by otrocalpeLast week we saw the inside of a 1960s era concertina factory; this week we get a glimpse inside a modern-day accordion factory. Flickr user otrocalpe took this photo, which shows a workstation inside the accordion factory where he works in Castelfidardo, Italy. (Castelfidardo is the legendary center of the Italian accordion industry and home to an accordion museum.) Apparently, this factory was built by his grandfather sixty years ago!
I’ve covered my Guitar Hero addiction here before, but I had to post this. I just picked up the Guitar Hero 2 demo and my jaw dropped as this flashed across one of the loading screens:
Is it a nod to the Accordion Hero parody from earlier this year? Or have the makers of Guitar Hero finally realized there’s a vast, untapped market for accordion-related video games? After all, if they’ve made a Godfather game, can Accordion Hero really be that far behind?
Big Lou’s Polka Casserole CD
The Weird Al Show – The Complete Series DVD
