Posts Tagged ‘I Saw Stars’
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Last Licks
0November 17, 2015 by admin
Giant white snowflakes have been hung over Columbus Ave. Along Central Park West, they’ve set up the aluminum grandstand 7 tiers high for the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Inside the park, the crowds are thin, despite the 65 degree weather. The hydrangea behind the benches has turned wine red. On the almost leafless rose bushes, a few pink petals have opened wide, as if asking the sun for a handout; orange hips swell on the lower branches.
At the Imagine Mosaic, the homeless guitarist led the crowd in “Imagine,” encouraging the multi-part harmony with shouts of “lovely, beautiful” between line breaks. Fuzzy buds have lengthened on the tips of magnolia branches. Through the bare trees, I could see the tops of the tall buildings of Mount Sinai Hospital on upper Fifth Ave. In the arcade, the Boyd Family Singers have expanded their repertoire of sacred music to include a few secular Christmas carols.
Andrew, the young guitarist, was packing up when I got to center stage. “I like these European crowds,” he told me. “They drop a five where New Yorkers drop singles.”
A 40-something man gave me a dollar and asked if he could take a picture. “Do you play ‘Ukulele Lady’?” he asked. I told him I’d be getting to it soon. Not soon enough, I suppose, because he wandered away.
A guy and his gal from Brooklyn gave me a fiver and said, “Ok, entertain us.” I had just finished “Fit as a Fiddle,” and launched into “I Saw Stars.” The girlfriend bopped along to the beat, but refused to put on a lei. “How much to come out in a rowboat and serenade us?”
I hesitated. “150 bucks,” I told him, certain that at that rate I would keep my feet dry.
“No, don’t you get it?” he insisted. “You’re missing a great opportunity. People will row up to you from every direction to give you money.”
After haranguing me for a while longer, off they wandered to the boathouse. A man wanted to know if I would stand for a picture with his girlfriend. I put a lei around her neck for the shot. She would not hula.
A little girl came by and wanted to dance. “If it’s ok with your mom,” I said. It was. The girl was at a loss as to what to do, so I put a lei around her mom’s neck and told the girl to follow. It was a charming scene, recorded by several passers-by. Two women, who had been sitting on the bench for a while came by with a dollar.
The first photographer came back. “Thanks for playing ‘Ukulele Lady’,” he said. Marcel walked by with Maggie the dog to say hello, marvel at the weather and wish me a pleasant winter. The couple from Brooklyn pulled their rowboat up to the steps leading from the lake to the fountain area. They hailed me.
“Yo, Brooklyn,” I shouted to them.
At the end of my set, a thirty-something man got up from the bench and tossed a fiver in my case. “I gotta tell you,” he told me, “you’re the most talented man in Central Park.”
With his $5, my total came to $15, as good as any day in the summer, let alone a week before Thanksgiving.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Fit as a Fiddle, I Saw Stars, Imagine, Ukulele Lady
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Penultimate Hula
0October 31, 2015 by admin
Thursday may well have been the last busking day of the season, yet I’ll remain optimistic there will be another.
The temperature was above 70. Large dark November clouds rolled in and kicked up a cool breeze, but they failed to mask the sun for long. The park was being prepared for the NYC Marathon on Sunday. Six foot chain link fence surrounded the roadways. Steel structures arched over West Drive with signage. The fall foliage was at its peak, predominantly orange and yellow, punctuated by flame red. Pink roses were still forming buds in the warmth, while just where the marble balustrade of Bethesda Terrace comes into view, a wave of purple asters reminded me that this could be the end.
The cowboy was by the water, so I set up at center stage. There were fewer people around than I would have expected on a day so fine. I didn’t even see many runners.
A contingent of French bicyclists dismounted nearby. After checking their tires and maps, one of the men stopped to listen. I saw him smile at the simple lyrics of “I Saw Stars.” After a few more songs, he came over with $2. He had a little boy of 3 or 4, who, fascinated by the uke, clapped his hands and bopped around. Pretty soon I had a lei around his neck and we were going to the hukilau. All the Frenchmen whipped out their hardware and took pictures. Pere gave me another dollar. As they rode off there were shouts of Merci, Mahalo, Aloha.
A man came forward, from I didn’t see where, gave me $2, and, without eye contact, walked away.
A young Chinese couple arrived on the scene with great flair, whirling in a dance-like embrace. She wore a bright red mid-length trench coat buckled at the waist that flared as her partner led her in graceful circles. They were definitely up for a hula. They were heading back to China to be married.
A young Italian man, handsome, tall and ill-shaven gave me a dollar and said, “I want to have a picture with you.” His girlfriend was ready with the camera. He got giddy when I put a lei around his neck. He took my uke from me and grinned into the camera. “Look, mama,” he said, “I got a job in America.”
A photographer gave me a dollar. He took quite a few pictures, then sat down on the bench across from me and listened for 10 minutes.
To my left, toward the water, a man, woman and dog warmed themselves and listened. A woman to my right also listened while her partner rested her head in her lap. When the partner stirred, the woman came up and shook my hand. She told me, in an English accent, that she’d loved my singing, then turned and walked away.
When the man, woman and dog got up to leave, they dropped a dollar in my case. The man said in a soft voice, “We really enjoyed it.”
I really enjoyed it too. Aloha.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: I Saw Stars
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Fine, Great and Wonderful
0July 24, 2015 by admin
Another day of high temperatures and low humidity brought me back to Bethesda Fountain. An Italian man from the Veneto took video. After telling me what a fine singing voice I had, he walked off. A couple from Lucerne, Switzerland, dressed in biking clothes, broke into free style dance as I rocked out to “I Saw Stars.” They gave me $2, and pronounced me “great.”
The international theme of the day continued with a preteen from Finland. She danced demurely and rewarded me with a dollar. An Indian family spanning 3 generations gathered around me. The grandkids, a boy of 6 or so, and a girl of 4, danced for a few bars, but the boy was more interested in the toy hula girl on the stone step behind me. “What do you think makes it move?” I asked.
“The wind?”
“No, sir,” I said, picking up the toy. “Check this out. Sunlight is collected by this little solar panel, which sends a small electrical charge through this wire coil.” I pulled the hula girl off her base to show him the spool of copper inside. Then I showed him the magnet attached to a pendulum that moved over the coil; the other end of the pendulum was hinged to the hula girl’s arms, so, when it swung, her arms moved from side to side. Reassembling her, I turned to his mom. “There you have it, the principle of electromagnetism in a 25-cent toy.” Mom gave me a dollar; grandma gave me two.
A group of Iowa high school girls decided to dance. None knew how to hula, so I gave a quick lesson. It required more explanation than usual because none had ever seen the ocean or been on a beach. Bright girls all, however, they went to “The Hukilau” in their imaginations, throwing their nets into the sea, and singing songs of love under the silvery moon. There was at least a fiver in it for me.
A hipster and I locked eyes and exchanged smiles. Ten feet past me, he stopped, found a dollar in his pocket and came back to give it to me. A young boy, sitting with his parents on the bench in the shade, gave me a buck, but would not hula.
As I packed up, two 20-somethings, who had been eating their lunch near the lake, each gave me a dollar. “Have you got time for a hula today?”
“No,” one said, “we have to get back to work. I wish we could, you’re wonderful.”
In addition to the $15.35 in my pocket, I went home with a “fine”, a “great”, and a “wonderful” to my credit, making it another most excellent day.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: I Saw Stars, The Hukilau Song
