Ray It Forward

The list of celebrities for whom Tempe-based artist and entertainer Ukulele Ray has created his custom “Lunchbox-A-Leles” read like a People magazine who’s who. He’s made a left-handed “Yellow Submarine” original as a birthday present for Paul McCartney, a KISS creation for Gene Simmons, and a Spongebob Squarepants product for...

By Laura Hahnefeld

April 15, 2010

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The list of celebrities for whom Tempe-based artist and entertainer Ukulele Ray has created his custom “Lunchbox-A-Leles” read like a People magazine who’s who. He’s made a left-handed “Yellow Submarine” original as a birthday present for Paul McCartney, a KISS creation for Gene Simmons, and a Spongebob Squarepants product for Prescott native porn star (and contributor to Tiger Woods’ marital woes) Holly Sampson. About Sampson, Ray jokes, “I thought it might help her clean things up.”

Starting out as an oddball idea posted online in 2006, Ray’s Lunchbox-A-Lele (a ukulele/lunchbox suitable for playing and packing a sandwich) was an overnight success. Since then, the fancy’s taken flight, with several LAL’s featured in San Francisco’s SOMARTS and the Andy Warhol Museum. Now, there’s talk of mass production and Ukulele Ray is getting out of the instrument-making biz and putting the last of his prototypes up for grabs.

April 18-21; April 23-May 16, 2010

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