Posts Tagged ‘Theme from the Godfather’

  1. A Good Friday

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    March 27, 2016 by admin

    The sky looked like a concrete sidewalk, including the variations of gray and the swirling irregularities, as if smoothed by a distracted workman. Rain was predicted for the morning, but by noon it still hadn’t come.

    There seemed to be no life on the wisteria covering the north pergola. Upon closer investigation, however, I could just make out some growing tips emerging from the vine’s creases. It was the change of shift at the Imagine Mosaic, one guitarist carrying away his case to count his money, the next sitting down on the back of a bench, his feet on the seat, his case on the ground, tuning up. The magnificent magnolia was drawing a crowd; I edged my way past to avoid spoiling anyone’s photos.

    Was that a raindrop? No. Is that a dandelion? Yes.

    The cowboy had arrived before me, so I set up under the leafless maple. A man smiled as he tossed me 50 cents, then looked to the sky. “It’s not gonna rain,” I said, just as the leading edge of the front moved overhead, and annoying drops turned into real rain, rain I could no longer ignore. I folded everything into my case and headed for the tunnel under the road leading to the Conservatory Pond. Although I was no longer walking with an air boot and cane, I could still only make my way slowly, so I got pretty wet.

    The space under the tunnel was packed with tourists waiting it out. Despite the darkness, I found a cloth in my case and wiped down my uke. After 10-15 minutes, the rain stopped, the sun peaked through, the people scattered, and I headed back to the maple. On a hunch, however, I kept walking to the fountain to find the cowboy hadn’t come back, so for the next hour, center stage was mine.

    A school group from San Diego had time to hula. Eight or nine teenagers donned leis and pranced around. Once again, my case filled with bills. After the dance, the kids hung around, during which time I learned that they’d never heard of Laurel and Hardy (“Honolulu Baby”) or Dean Martin (“Making Love Ukulele Style”). One girl asked what decade my songs were from. “Mostly the 20’s and 30’s.” The look on her face made me realize just how long ago that must seem. Comparatively speaking, how many songs from the Civil War did I know at her age?

    “Have you got time for a hula today?”

    A shy teenage girl from Virginia was talked into dancing by one of her friends. After a few bars of “The Hukilau Song,” a pair of younger girls from somewhere else wanted to join in. “Put on a lei.” I motioned to the colorful array of leis draped over the back of my case. The three danced a verse, the Virginian bowed out, and the kids kept waving their arms until the final Huki-huki-huki-hukilau. What had started as a dreary day was now bright and warm. When I played “Tiptoe through the Tulips,” I felt that by singing, as the song says, “we’ll keep the showers away.” The front moved through;people were happy to add to my growing pile.

    Over my shoulder I could hear amplified music. It was the Chinese accordion player, sitting on her stool in her cap and sweater, midway between me and the Boyd singers in the arcade. She was really too close – I could have called her out on her breach of busker etiquette — but I didn’t. It had been a fine day. I made $22.42.

    As I walked past the accordion player, she played the theme from “The Godfather.” In a box at her feet were a few dollars and her CDs. My CD, “Aloha, New York,” is currently out of print. I must attend to that.

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  2. Friday’s Record Haul

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    July 26, 2014 by admin

    I got a late start on Friday. My ukulele case, which has been falling apart for the last year or more, needed additional repairs before I could go out. While I wait for a new case to arrive, I keep the old case going with safety pins and wire garbage bag ties. It was well after noon when I entered the park. The usual Beatles repertoire was afoot around the Imagine Mosaic, while on the rock leading away from Strawberry Fields a 60-ish guitarist, with a harmonica holder around his neck, sang “You Know It Ain’t Easy.”

    At the fountain, I assessed the cool breeze, the blazing sun, and decided to start the day on center stage. As I set up, a father and his two sons were tossing coins in the fountain. While little girls make wishes, little boys take aim at the Angel of the Waters. “How about a hula today?”

    With their father snapping pictures, the boys waved their arms and shuffled their feet to “The Hukilau Song.” At the end, he gave them each a dollar to give to me, after which he himself put a fiver in my case. Seven dollars, and I hadn’t even put my own lei on yet.

    The big bubble man put his soapy pail down in front of me. I was contemplating speaking to him about moving farther off when a young woman gave me 2 Susan B’s, and advised me to get out of the sun. So rather than confront the bubble man, I closed my case and carried it up the path toward the boathouse, to my shady spot under the maple.

    A few minutes later, two 50-something men in aloha shirts wandered by. “How’re you guys going on this beautiful day?” I asked. “Have you got time for a hula today?”

    “Of course,” said the shorter.

    “Delighted,” said the taller. “Just last night in our hotel room,” the taller told me when the dance was done, “we were saying that we couldn’t be any happier. Now look. You’ve raised the bar.” I watched as he drew a twenty from his wallet.

    “Hey, thanks a lot.”

    “No, no, thank you.” Off they strolled, their feet just touching the ground.

    At the end of my set, I heard the melodic screech of an electric violin. Walking back toward the fountain, I stopped to chat. “Amplification is not allowed,” I told the young man, “so turn it off, or at least turn it down, or you’ll screw it up for the rest of us.”

    Back at Strawberry Fields, the harmonica-and-guitar man was gone, replaced by the accordion player, enrapt in her soulful rendition of the “Theme from the Godfather.” Another guitarist, from his bench near the mosaic, was singing from the Beatles songbook. Two pm, and the second shift had started work.

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