Don Ho

ROCKSTAR (LIFE) UPDATE:

Just back from visiting my sister Newt in Calgary…

ME: Mom, I don’t know about the band…

MOM: What Mikey? ….. Mikey? ….. What Mikey??!?!?

ME: I couldn’t line up a single gig in Calgary.

MOM: Well Mikey, you were in the burbs. You’ll never be discovered there at all. Like I mean, really…

ME: Well, it’s Newt’s fault for living way out there. BUT, when I was out there I learned how to play Ukulele.

MOM: How? On the YouTube?

ME: No, I took a Ukulele.

MOM: And you just taught yourself?

ME: Yeah.

MOM: Well that’s good Mike, that means you’re smart.

ME: So that can be the new thing for Andrew Damen and I, we can do some Ukulele songs.

MOM: Does Damen know about that?

ME: Well he doesn’t have to learn Uke, he can still play guitar. Do you know any good Ukulele songs?

MOM: No, I have no idea, no, is there some Hawaiian song? Yeah, I like that one Hawaiian song. Steve [calling to my dad], what’s that one Hawaiian song I like?

DAD: No, I don’t know what song.

MOM: I had you tape it. Several versions.

ME: Was it by Elvis?

DAD: Was it Don Ho?

MOM: It was like a New Year’s song. Steve, you know what one I mean.

DAD: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

MOM: YouTube it. YouTube Mike. YouTube… ‘Ukulele’… Hawaiian”. Mike?!

ME: Mom?! Everyone in Hawaii plays the Ukulele. You gotta do better than that.

MOM: No, it’s it’s that famous guy. But he’s dead now. Steve, what was the guy that’s dead now?

ME: Jimi Hendrix?

MOM: Nooooo! No no no. Hawaiian dude.

DAD: Don Ho.

MOM: Nooo, no. It was that big guy. Don Ho was not a big fat guy. He’s dead, he’s the big guy.

ME: Do you like ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’, by Iz?

MOM: Yes! That’s it! That’s it!

ME: He’s dead?

MOM: Yeah, the big guy, he’s dead. I looooove that song. I think it’s a Ukulele song. He did it so beautifully.

ME: Okay, I’ll see if Damen wants to do ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’.

MOM: Yeah, learn that one Mikey. Seriously, that is a beauty. But Mikey, you have to learn it that way that guy did it. Not the guy, not Don Ho. The Guy.

ME: Don Ho didn’t do ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’. Judy Garland did.

MOM: Well Judy Garland did one of the originals, but no, the way the guy.

DAD: Don Ho did [inaudible].

MOM: Oh, bluuuah oooooo bllu ppppbbbbbb. No, don’t do that one. Can you do ‘Mary Did You Know?

ME: Is that a Christmas song? By who?

MOM: Yes, It’s my favourite right now. Well there was two guys, and one was a skinny guy that lost. Or did he win?

ME: Don Ho?

DAD: Clay Aitken.

MOM: YouTube that one Mikey. It’s so stunningly wonderful. YouTube it! YouTube it Mikey! YouTube it!!!

*Side note – I have no clue who Don Ho is, or if I spelled their name correctly.