Tuesday morning this week, I was seated in the vast Moscone keynote cavern, with 15,000 other Java developers, taking in the start of another JavaOne conference. The keynotes and demos were entertaining and I hope you didn't miss the HUGE Swing Aerith demo at the conclusion of the morning. Sadly I did, although I've seen quite a lot of it over last few weeks. I had to dart out early, because my first-ever JavaOne musical gig started at about 10:30 and I had to get my bass and set up in time for the big Dukelele show.

That's right, Dukelele. A Ukelele painted like so:

A group of us played music in front of the JavaOne store at one end of the corridor that connects the Moscone's North and South subterranean chambers. In addition to me, the band was Hideya Kawahara and Yuichi Sakuraba playing Ukeleles (Dukeleles!) and singing, Mark Anenberg on a guitar-shaped drum synthesizer, Chet Haase on a laptop powered keyboard, and Kaoru Nakamura playing a keyboard/harmonica hybrid called a Pianaca. And to top if off, Duke danced and hugged people.

We started playing as the keynote audience began flooding past and to our delight, many of them stopped to listen. Tragically, the Moscone Fire Marshall did not share our joy. After about 10 minutes he swooped in and put a stop to the show. I guess we were a fire hazard, or at least Hideya was. He was really putting his heart into singing and playing and I suspect that the Fire Marshall was afraid that he might suddenly burst into flames.

Another rock and roll show, shut down by the man. Not exactly Altamont Speedway, but definitely a strange and abrupt ending to our little performance. Fortunately one of our colleagues videotaped the whole thing and so now you can check it out on YouTube.com. No animals were harmed in the making of this video.

We played again, in the afternoon, outside on the sidewalk. It was a bit breezy and most of the people who drifted by gave us an odd look and then slipped indoors. One was exception was Tim Boudreau, who took in the entire set and then threw a quarter in our tip jar. Except we didn't have a tip jar. Our friend the Fire Marshall seemed to be pleased that we finished without spontaneously combusting. Cautious man that he is, he kept a sharp eye on the proceedings from a safe distance, clutching his fire extinguisher in one hand, and a fistful of swag from the Motorola booth in the other. Next year we'll bring our own fire protection.