NYEPLAK

The first ever photograph of a ukulele being played by Just reading the wonderful Alice in Sunderland, which includes this photograph of three English girls taken in the Summer of 1858 playing machetes, the Madeiran predecessors of ukuleles (legend has it that three Madeiran carpenters went to Hawaii in 1879 and started making tiny four stringed guitars). Anyway, the photograph is the first time anyone took a picture of a machete or a ukulele, and the girl on the left? Alice Liddell, Lewis Carrolls inspiration for Alice in Wonderland... BONUS: Get extra Music Thing updates at: http://twitter.com/MusicThing or in the sidebar at http://musicthing.blogspot.com download file now

The most beautiful piece of synth porn Ive ever seen Heres Charles Cohen playing a beautiful and incredibly rare (only 14 were ever made) Buchla Music Easel. Be sure to click through to the Vimeo page and view full screen for true high def (embedded videos arent in HD, theyre just a lot crisper than YouTube). Heres Charles talking about the Music Easel: "Ive been playing The Buchla Music Easel since 1976. With its color-coded slide pots, its musically logical panel layout, and its almost sculptural patching system, I can comprehend the state of the instrument with a fleeting glance. The touch-sensitive, capacitance-activated keyboard responds smoothly at the speed of light to the slightest skin contact, and its assorted control voltage outputs can be directed to sonic and structural perameters very quickly. The potential to supplely flow into and amongst all the basic electronic sound forms is literally at my fingertips. I am happy when Im playing this instrument." Im h...