About Me
Ukuleles For Sanity is a nation-wide affiliation of left-leaning professional musicians and musical enthusiasts who have found their artistic voices in the diminutive, underachieving simplicity of the four-stringed ukulele, and are using that voice, with all of its quirky and unique charm, to deliver a powerful political message of empowerment in these dangerous, oppressive times.
Armed only with a love of democracy, a constitutional indignation...and perhaps the single most portable protest instrument in the history of music, Ukuleles For Sanity is looking to form a loose, leaderless "Ukulele National Guard" all around the country to participate in street marches and activist benefits--to sing and plink and strum against the empire-building, war-mongering, democracy-hating, environment-debasing, gay-bashing, morally corrupt Bush Administration, its neo-feudalist billionaire underwriters, and its heir apparents, McCain and Palin.
So, okay--so no one said the job was easy.
But consider this: Ukuleles For Sanity marched in New York City with 500,000 of our closest friends during the 2004 Republican National Convention. Our ironic humor and inexplicable confidence disarmed the angry opposition, and our sing-alongability lifted the spirits of fellow protesters marching around us in the sweltering, asphalt-scented heat.
Two days earlier, Ukuleles For Sanity presented a benefit concert for United for Peace and Justice at The Fez Under Time Café in New York. Hosted by the uke-playing indie actress, Illeana Douglas, and featuring 16 different ukulele acts, "Dubya’s Ukulele Farewell Party" packed the house and raised $1,070 for UFP&J.
In part this was because the bravely unapologetic quirkiness of our ukuleles drew the media to our underlying protest message and gave us the advance pr we needed. We were written up in the Washington Post, interviewed by BBC Radio, and invited to perform on MSNBC TV. We also became minor legends among the bloggers and web reporters covering the protests. There's even a white paper floating around the web that specifically cites our approach as succesfully manipulating the media with humor and high concept.
Our message is simple. Sometimes, it is the fearless defiance of the smallest, most vulnerable and least threatening among us that makes the strongest statement. Sometimes the smallest voice can be a mighty force!
Now we want to see that message and our protest concept spread across the country to other activist venues. Not to create a structured organization called Ukuleles For Sanity , but to create a movement—a quirky philosophical approach to dissent that ultimately serves to augment and facilitate the less showy, more serious work of other activist organizations.
To leftist ukulele players everywhere, we say: Take up the banner. Help create that mighty force.
Go to http://ukesanity.org . Download our posters and flyers. Pick up your ukulele. Put on a Uke Sanity tee shirt. And take to the streets. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Ukulele National Guard of one or many. Whenever you march, do so with a ukulele in hand and consider yourself a sanctioned Ukuleles For Sanity representative. Take the Ukuleles For Sanity message with you whenever you perform on stage at your regular gigs. But be sure to let us know when you do so that we can promote you and your music on our website.
And to those activist organizations who like this concept and wish to create their own Ukuleles For Sanity group but don’t actually know any ukulele players, we say:
5 minutes. That’s how long it takes to learn a basic three-chord protest song on a ukulele. It doesn’t even matter how well you play it. It’s a ukulele, for Christ's sake. Expectations will be low; novelty interest will be high. We think having strings that are in tune helps, but it’s your call.
The point is, go buy yourself a ukulele and you are five minutes away from being a sanctioned Ukuleles For Sanity representative.
For more info, including .pdf templates for iron-ons and buttons, or for access to the Cafe Press site, go to http://ukesanity.org or contact Tom "Ukulele Man" Harker . The whole damn thing was his idea. Bill Robertson of Rock That Uke just wrote the copy and put the uke in Uncle Sam's fist.
Now here's a fine example of what we're talking about as demonstrated by Ukes for Obama:
And in this Texas for Obama spot starring Pilar Diaz:
