Hilarious and gorgeous new nose flute video by Will Grove-White

Our friend Will Grove-White (ukette player in the famous Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain) just released a new nose flute video (take a look at his other ones), a cover of « God Only Nose » by the Beach Boys. In this video, Will plays the 4 parts Bocarinas plus some "whiff-sniff" percussion line. The result is as splendid as it is hilarious. No need to say more, just watch it! :

Happy 60th Birthday, Schwan!

On February 24, 1955, the Weidlich & Lohse Musikwarenfabrik from Göttingen (DE), sent the file for a patent on a Nasenflöte aus Plastik mit biegsamen Oberteil (please check this post). This German nose flute was launched the same year, knew a great commercial success, and is still selling by batches under the popular name "the Schwan Nasenflöte", nickname coming from the logo showing a swan.



So, today is the 60th birthday of the "legal existence" of the Swan! And to celebrate this, we publish today a new collection of special color Schwans that has been discovered, then offered to us by the Nosy Diva herself! How did she find the nest ?

All are from current Chinese production, and let's remember that the so-called special colors are either intermediate production artefacts (when they change the color in the injectors), theoretically discarded from commercialization (but in fact given as goodies/bonuses to major resellers), or very limited color tests. All in all, it is very difficult to put the hand on them.




Now, let's take a look at some samples of this collection, particularly the ones with very colors...

Several specimens show a very bright petroleum blue, almost turquoise :



Another color that is present in several flutes is this rather translucent deep purple (very different from the regular pink-purple). Ths one also got a beige air cover:



Here is a chocolate brown one:



Even rarer and beautiful, two marbleized samples:



And last but not least, some silver specimens, with different silver hue (dark to light)!





Great collection, uh? And imagine it gathered with this one...

Thank you Nosy Diva!!!

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I discovered a new "production stigmata" on several of these collector babies... It is particularly visible on the silver body one, and looks like the inside of the nose shield was vertically torn. But there is no contour, the "tear" is plain and smooth, filled with translucent plastic. On the swirled grey flute, the "tear" just cut the marbling waves. The silver one also shows tiny cracks around the horizontal stigmata, as smooth and "unreal" than the big tear. Strange...

Stunning Chocolate Bocarinas by Ayano

Inspired by the Chocorina^™ we made for Christmas 2012 (please check this post), Miss Ayano Tominaga, producer at Ustream Angels and main caster at UstToday, just released a series of beautiful and gorgeous Valentine Kiss Bocarinas^™!



Ayano first cast the mould with white soft silicone poured in a Lego^™ box! As we did, she dissassembled the Bocarinas^™, placed the part on a bed of soft clay, built the Lego^™ walls, and poued the silicone:

All the photos are copyrighted © 2015, Ayano Tominaga
Then Ayano cast the second part of the mould :

And finally, once the mould ready, she cast the chocolate. And as we encountered, Ayano also had some difficulties with unmoulding, breaking the precious production! She had begun with 75% coca, then she increased the percentage (On our side, we had used directly 85% cocoa, and got better results with putting the mould in the freezer before unmoulding).

But finally, Miss Ayano got a beautiful batch of gorgeous Valentine Kiss Bocarinas^™, that she individually decorated with some white chocolate ornaments :




Then, Ayano organized a party at the bar El Rojo in Tokyo, to present her great chocolate kisses!

Congratulations, Ayano! You did a wonderful work, for a stunning result!

Nose Flute and Ukette on Radio Caraib Nancy

Yesterday, I was invited as member of the Conseil de Développement durable du Grand-Nancy (C3D) to express my feelings and opinions about this citizen think tank, on RCN radio (Nancy, FR). I was asked to take some music with me, so I brought Low Down Blues, by Lloyd Buford Threlkel (that has been cut in the middle of the nose flute solo, alas...), but also my sopranino ukette and a special color Bocarina^™.

Dominique Valck, President of the C3D, shot a little video of my performance, here it is:
(sorry for the ukette out of tune: thermic shock from the winter chill)

The Nosy Diva at the Nose Flute Cookie!

Do you remember the Nose Flute Cookie we made for Christmas? Our playing was not great, uh? But what was due to our poor playing skill and what the fact of the instrument? To answer this question we asked NosyMusic and the Incomparable Nosy Diva to try one of our Weihnachtsplätzchennasenflöten (German is a funky language). Here is her test: