May 2016 Holiday Box – Unboxing the Bizarre™

May 4th Star Wars Day

May 2016 Holiday Box, Unboxing the Bizarre

May 4^th Star Wars Day

George Lucas created Star Wars in 1977, “A long time ago in a Galaxy far, far away.” Even George Lucas didn’t expect the success Star Wars would be when he created it. And I am sure he certainly did not think that he would share this day with Margret Thatcher when she was elected Prime Minister of England on May 4^th, 1979.

Why? The newspaper headlines read after Thatcher’s election, “May the Fourth be With You”.

Characters such as Darth Vader, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobie, R2D2, C-3PO, Yoda, Han Solo and Chewbacca have become common names in today’s society worldwide.

It is one of the few series in history where a child can grow to be a parent and share new releases with their children. “May the Force be with you.”

How to celebrate – Watch a Star Wars movie. Study the struggles Lucas had in trying to get Star Wars made. Read about Margret Thatcher’s election.

May 2nd National Play Your Ukulele Day

May 2016 Holiday Box, Unboxing the Bizarre

It use to be uncool to play ukulele, but now it is making a huge comeback! Just goes to show what was old is new again. Back in the 1920’s it was very cool to play the ukulele. All across the country students on college campuses played ukulele, wore fury coats, and straw hats to celebrate ragtime music.

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It then fell out with the population along with swallowing goldfish but lately it’s becoming very, very popular again. The band Train featured the ukulele in Hey, Soul Sister and all of a sudden the stringed instrument became featured in many, many songs by many, many artists.

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Of course, it never stopped being popular in Hawaii. Nearly every Hawaiian song you hear uses the ukulele. There is just something fun about the instrument and it generally creates happy music, perhaps because it is a light sound and cannot really be used in anything over powering or dynamic.

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Did you know that there are seven different classes of ukulele though!?! The smallest is the pocket ukulele, next the soprano, tenor (the most popular), baritone, bass, and contra-bass. Each gets larger with the contra-bass almost appearing to be a small guitar.

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So there is a World Ukulele Day, February 2nd, but today is just a National Day. It is still considered more of an ‘artsy’ instrument but it is coming on strong and gaining use by national, and international artists.

How to celebrate – Learn how to play ukulele. Go to Hawaii. Revisit the Roaring 20’s.