“Dim Brown Dwarfs” Press Release

NASA has just posted a press release on one of my recent results involving the very cold brown dwarf 2MASS J0939-2448. Based on observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope and ground-based astrometry, we find this source to be one of the coldest brown dwarfs known (600+/-35 K) and, because of its overluminosity, an (as-yet) unresolved double. The paper appears in today’s edition of Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Links:

NASA Press release: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-232

Original paper in Astrophysical Journal Letters: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/595747

PDF version of result: http://web.mit.edu/~ajb/www/papers/2008ApJ_689_L53.pdf

ukestock 2008

Slide over Jimi Hendrix; lay off Eric Clapton; because here comes….Jumping Jim? He’s just one of the 18 acts who showed off their ukulele mastery at Ukestock, held in Worcester (pronounce it “Wooster”), MA this past Saturday, September 6th.

First, a little disclosure: I love the ukulele. In June, my wife and I went to Hana for our second anniversary and took a little mini-lesson on ukulele at the Hotel Hana-Maui. We loved it so much, we refused to part with our practice ukes until we had to leave, and promptly picked up a pair of Ponos at Bounty Music in Kahului. Playing together is one of our favorite “couple-things” to do, so much so that we subject our friends to little mini-concerts (keep in mind that several of them are professional musicians, so they are incredibly patient with us). Having played guitar on and off, I find the ukulele (pronounced “oo-koo-le-le”, not “you-koo-le-le”) the perfect size for some mellow playing at home.

Which is exactly what I was doing when I found an online advertisement for Ukestock on Saturday morning. I was amazed – was there really enough interest in the ukulele here to warrant a festival? My curiosity piqued, I set out for the White Eagle Hall Ballroom (in the midst of a tropical storm warning) to find out.

The Scene

After negotiating downtown Worcester’s maze of streets and roundabouts, I found Ukestock’s venue on Green Street tucked within two blocks of bars, dance clubs and music stages – Worcester’s local music scene. I walked out of the rain and into the White Eagle Hall, paid my $8 at the door (the “expensive” price for not reserving a ticket in advance) and entered the festival.

White Eagle Hall is not Wembley Hall – more like a Polish-American VFW complete with an 8-foot tall map of Poland and massive watercolors of Polish National Parks. The hall is old-school architecture – long and tall, with wooden floors under an even rectangular grid of metal folding chairs, some of which (particularly those up front) were already occupied when I got there. The raised stage was unadorned except for several mic stands, amps, and a single light tree flashing a random sequence of white, pink and sort-of-baby blue spots. Toward the front were a few tables occupied by the “ukulele capitalists”. I bought a ukulele jazz chord book from Curt Sheller, and Flea Market Music was selling books, CDs and ukelele’s – more about them later.

The crowd was not what I expected. Having mostly seen ukulele played in Hawaii, I have never witnessed so many white people gathered for a uke concert. No big bruddahs, no hapa wahines – the only person of color was the security guard. And it was clearly an older crowd, with 40+ folks in Hawaiian print shirts greatly outnumbering the few teenage alt-fans, the locally curious and the kids dragged in by their parents. A very different demographic than a Duke’s Ukes contest (incidentally, which is happening September 27th in Waikiki). But there was definitely a buzz in the air – people were excited to hear a little ukulele!

Oh, and one important detail – there was a bar.

The Artists

One of the unique things about Ukestock was the mixture in the line-up – several professional uke players and bands mixed in with a few amateurs, some of whom have been playing less than a year. The choice of music was equally varied, from rock ballads to old folk tunes, from hawaiianna to…well, some of it I’m not sure how you would actually classify. But long-term ukulele experience did not seem to be a requirement for good playing – even the supposed “amateurs” rocked out. One of the best performances of the night was put in by Jon Short, a local public school teacher and blues specialist, who picked up the ukulele last year. His performance was dynamic – using his uke as a percussion instrument, spinning it in his hands and calling out to the crowd. Other performers, like “Jumping” Jim Beloff and his wife “Leaping” Liz Beloff, had a more classic hapa-haole feel. In general, Hawaiian shirts were the order of the day, but there was plenty of mixed style, from Craig Robertson’s signature zoot suit and fedora to more laid-back jeans and t-shirts.

But no matter the style or ability, the crowd was into it. The whole event had a feel of part small town community dance, part karaoke bar, part old time music revival. And it was fun.

People at Ukestock

Ukestock is the creation of Rich “Amazing Dick” Leufstedt, a frenetic Auburn resident in a flame-streaked shirt, who clearly has a real passion for ukulele. A self-described “ukaholic”, Rich told me that he got into ukulele about 5 years (and 13 ukes) ago while doing open mike nights. Although a bass player at heart, Rich found he could differentiate himself by playing ukulele. Hooked, he organized the first “Ukapalooza” in 2007 as a means of bringing together like-minded players. It was a huge success, their venue at the Hotel Vernon packed wall-to-wall as 15 acts showed off their ukabilities. The White Eagle Hall was chosen to accommodate an even larger crowd this year. “Next year we’re going outside,” he said, while flitting between friends, performers and vendors. “We’re going camping.”

Not everyone at Ukestock was a ukulele fanatic. Mia and Patrick, two Worcester locals who came with friends, had heard about the event from the Boston Globe and thought it might be entertaining. They had never played nor heard ukulele before. “Our friend is into ukulele,” said Mia, “but Patrick plays guitar. But he was eyeing some of the ukeleles for sale.”

Those ukuleles were from Flea Market Music, based out of Clinton, CT and headed by “Jumpin” Jim Beloff. I was pretty excited to see Jim here, as one of the first songbooks my wife and I picked up was “Jumpin Jim’s Gone Hawaiian”, and I recognized his picture from the book cover. Jim’s story is an interesting one, as he got into ukulele over 15 years ago when he picked up a Martin tenor at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl Flea Market. He and Liz soon turned hobby into career, producing over 20 beautiful songbooks and one of the first history books on ukuleles. Jim’s brother-in-law Dale Webb also designed two robust and low-cost ukulele models – the “fluke” and the “flea” – that provides additional revenue for their venture. I had been wondering if anyone actually lived off the ukulele, and it turns out that these guys do. “Our whole family makes a living off of this,” said Liz, “We’re very fortunate.”

An Uke-filled Future

The business success of the Beloffs, and the substantial turnout at Ukestock, both reflect a growing interest in ukulele playing in the northeast. Several ukulele festivals and concert series have sprung up in recent years, including the New York Uke Fest (held in April) and Uke Noir right here in Boston. Why interest in ukulele is rising as of late is not clear, although perhaps it is a cyclical phenomenon. There have been previous ukulele golden ages at the turn of the 20th century and in the 1950s and 1960s when Hollywood “rediscovered” Hawaii. For the folks at Ukestock, riding the current trend is certainly a thrill. Expect to see more ukulele events like Ukestock in the northeast over the next few years.

And if you’re inclined, pick up an uke of your own!

Fly around the world for free (almost)

I was recently on an American Airlines flight from Santiago to DFW when the women next to me started telling me all about her and her husband’s flight around the world in March – 10 destinations in 1 month paid for with frequent flyer miles, and for what seemed to be an incredibly low mileage. So I called AA, checked out the websites, and here’s the scoop (at least as of August 20, 2008).

There are two programs that the oneworld alliance offers:

oneworld Explorer: Determined by the number of continents you visit, not the mileage you fly, allowing a little more flexibility if you want to explore around in a given continent. You also don’t have to plan your trip out in advance, just the first flight. There are some class restrictions, however.

Global Explorer: Determined by the number of miles flown, with 4 tiers: < 26k miles, 26k-29k miles and 29k-39k miles in economy, or up to 34k miles in any class. This option includes Aer Lingus, Air Pacific and Gulf Air, so you get some more destinations especially in the South Pacific. You have to plan out your trip in advance, so this is a little less flexible; however, you purchase tickets in all three classes of service (economy, business and first).

There are of course some rules:

• You have to travel in one direction only (either eastward or westward) and must cross both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, only once. However, you can backtrack within a continent.
• There are some constraints on whether you can travel by surface transport between destinations; e.g., if you want to take a train across Canada or a drive through France. The direct flight mileage will count toward your total flown mileage and maximum number of stops.
• For oneworld Explorer, you can use American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, JAL Japan Airlines, LAN, Malév Hungarian Airlines, Qantas, and Royal Jordanian Airlines. You can also use affiliates such as Aer Lingus, Air Pacific and Gulf Air for the Global Explorer. Codeshares count too, so if you are on an Air Tahiti Nui flight codeshared with Quantas, no problem.
• For the Globlal Explorer, the number of stops allowed depends on the Tier you sign up for, with a maximum of 16 segments for both programs (which includes any ground transportation from one city to another).
• Total trip times can be between 10 days and 12 months (yes, a full year of travel!).
• For the Global Explorer, you have to decide on all your stops in advance and make every booking. For the oneworld Explorer, the first flight must be booked at least 7 days in advance (if leaving from the Americas); after that you can book as you go.
• You get two stopovers in your continent of origin and up to 4 in another continent (or six if the North America is not your country of origin).
• For purchased round-the-world flights, you do get mileage credit. I’m not sure, however, if you can apply upgrades.
• You can include Cuba on your itinerary! Just not on an American-based carrier…

This is a just a brief summary of the rules, be sure to check out the oneworld around-the world travel page for detailed rules (and the inevitable changes).

Buying Around the World Tickets

The costs are pretty reasonable for the amount of travel that is available. The following numbers are from the oneworld site, for travel from the United States. For the oneworld Explorer it scales by the number of continents:

Number of continents	Economy	Business	First
3	$3,900	$8,600	$11,600
4	4,400	9,100	12,500
5	5,100	10,400	14,400
6	6,000	12,000	16,900

For Global Explorer the costs are broken down by mileage tier, and business/first is only available for Tier 3. Again for travel from the United States (note that no Tier 1 cost was listed on the oneworld site):

Tier	Economy	Business	First
2 (26-29k miles)	$4,499	not available	not available
3 (29-34k miles)	5,199	$9,199	$12,599
4 (34-39k miles)	6,099	not available	not available

Around the World Tickets with Frequent Flyer Miles

I was more interested in using my AA frequent flyer miles for this, so I called AA and got these numbers:

Miles flown	Economy	Business
4k-9k	60k	80k
9k-10k	70k	90k
10k-14k	90k	115k
14k-20k	100k	130k
20k-25k	120k	150k
25k-35k	140k	190k
35k-50k	160k	220k

I’m not sure how you manage to go around the world in less than 25k, but there you go. I think these flights probably fall under the Global Explorer program as well. For comparison, my wife recently flew from Hawaii to Scotland on a (very last minute) frequent flyer business class ticket for 180k – for 10k more she could have visited 16 cities around the world flying business class! Overall, seems like a good use of miles if you got ‘em.

I’m curious to hear form anyone who’s taken advantage of this.

Links

• oneworld round-the-world fares information