Posts Tagged ‘Tiptoe through the Tulips’
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November 4, Really
0November 5, 2015 by admin
The post-marathon park seemed out of season. Annuals were torn up; past peak, many trees were bare. Despite the 70 degree temperature, people were wrapped in scarves and sweaters. The cowboy was in his proper place in the northwest corner of the plaza, allowing me the uncontested center stage.
An Australian family started me off. One daughter wanted to hula, the other hung back to watch. After a verse of “The Hukilau Song” I invited the second daughter to reconsider, and soon the sisters were dancing in tandem, clomp-clomp right, clomp-clomp left. Dad got the picture, and I got a fiver.
A woman with a huge camera gave me a dollar and asked for a photo. Before she could get me in focus, a man with an equally huge camera took his photo from another angle.
An old man lurked, watching and listening first from the bench, then from the lip of the fountain, then back at the bench. After a half dozen songs, he approached with a dollar and asked, “Who besides you and me has ever heard of these old songs? ‘Tiptoe through the Tulips,’ ‘All of Me,’ ‘I Can’t Give You Anything but Love,’ ‘My Baby Just Cares for Me.’ Great job,” he added, returning to the bench to hear some more.
Mothers with small children took advantage of the warm weather. Two moms, with 3 kids between them, let them run freely, which eventually led them to me. I folded the leis in half so they would not trip over them. The 4 year old girl danced. The 2 year old boy, alert to the fact that people were watching, stood stock still, not wanting to call any more attention to himself. The third child clung to his mom’s leg. The dancers were each given a dollar for me.
While all this was going on, Marcel and Maggie came down the path and into the plaza. A 70-something woman, introduced as Marcel’s wife and Maggie’s mom, told me how cute it was to see little kids dance, and how much Maggie enjoyed the ukulele.
As a woman walked by, our eyes met just as I got to the lyric in “Sunday,” “…so sweet, the moment I fell for you.” She doubled back and dropped some change in my case. “You got me,” she said.
A small girl broke away from a group photograph at the fountain and handed me a dollar. Two women from the bench, an 80-something and a 60-something, who had been chatting through my performance, approached with a dollar too.
Counting my take at the end of the session, $12.35, I sent a silent prayer of Aloha into the warm blue sky. What’s weird is that this unseasonably warm weather is likely to reprise tomorrow, as am I.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: All of Me, I Can't Give You Anything But Love, My Baby Just Cares for Me, Sunday, The Hukilau Song, Tiptoe through the Tulips
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The Man from the Movie
0October 22, 2015 by admin
In addition to the sights and sounds of autumn, there is the smell of the ginkgo tree. As I entered Strawberry Fields, it hit me in the face like a bag of compost.
The cowboy was packing up when I got to Bethesda Fountain; center stage was uncontested. The park was filled with people on yet another 70+ degree day. On the bench opposite, 2 elderly men were sketching. After a few songs, as they got ready to leave, one of them, shorter than me and slightly bent, with thick, curly, salt and pepper hair that may have been a toupee, came forward and handed me two $5 bills. Though I won’t say for certain, I think it was Tony Bennett. He said, “Very nice.”
A young Asian man, sitting on the rim of the fountain, gave me $1 when he left.
A young boy and older man, perhaps an old father or young grandfather, rested on the benches. When I finished the first verse and started the chorus of “Tiptoe through the Tulips,” the man perked up with recognition. At the start of the second verse, where Romeo and Juliet are used as transitive verbs, the man reached for his wallet and sent the boy over to me with a dollar.
A 2-year-old girl, dressed head to foot in orange velour, toddled over. I twisted the lei to double it, so it didn’t drag on the ground while the girl worked her chubby knees up and down in what we’ll call a hula. Another little girl wanted to go to the hukilau too, and soon the dancing babies drew a nice crowd of people, who ooh-ed and ah-ed as they took photos, a few of whom thought to tip the ukulele man.
Two young men each gave me a dollar. “Good job,” said one of them.
“Have you got time for a hula today?” The girl of 6 or 7 was just waiting to be asked.
“Yes,” she said, wide-eyed. With the lei around her neck, there was no stopping her. She ran and leaped in a wild, ecstatic burst of energy. She even did a few cartwheels. I asked her dad, when he handed over a dollar, if any of the furniture in his house was still in one piece, recalling the wreakage I created as a child jumping on beds and tumbling from sofa to floor in my own gymnastic enthusiasms.
Over the crest of the path came Marcel, with Maggie the dog. It’s been weeks since I’ve seen them. “We’ve been coming out later,” Marcel told me.
“Me too,” I said, which is why, of course, I was seeing them now.
With about 5 minutes left in my set, 2 men got off the bench and put $2 in my case. “Where are you from?”
“Slovenia.”
“I believe you are my first Slovenians,” I told them, shaking hands.
As they walked away, one of them turned to me and said, “You look like the man from the movie.”
Since I had no idea what he was talking about, I was forced to respond, “I suppose I do.”
Category Uncategorized | Tags: The Hukilau Song, Tiptoe through the Tulips, Tony Bennett
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Randy Joins the Rotation
0August 14, 2015 by admin
His dobro on his lap, Randy sat just outside Strawberry Fields. Ordinarily, an artist sets up at this spot, but Randy had taken it when the boys at the Imagine Mosaic gave him a hard time about joining in their rotation. The urban cowboy was back at the fountain, accompanied by a soft electronic bass line. I set up under the maple, soon joined by a caricaturist on the opposite side of the path.
As with so many days in the park this summer, the crowds were thin and the money tight. Two girls, sisters, were getting their portraits done. While one sat, the other checked me out; I gave her a big smile. A few minutes later, she put a dollar in my case. When it was her turn to sit for her portrait, her sister wandered round and she too put a dollar in my case. This artist was a fast worker. Others, who advertise a 10-minute portrait, can take 20-30 minutes. But, as promised, 10 minutes was all he needed. The portraits, framed in black matte, were tucked away among mom’s shopping bags. As her family walked away, the little girl found another dollar to give me. When offered, however, she declined to hula.
A mom with 3 kids stopped to listen. “Have you got time for a hula today?” Only one child stepped forward. Without once breaking into a smile, the girl waved her arms, shifting her weight from foot to foot, and danced through both verses of “The Hukilau Song.” She didn’t seem to be having any fun at all, yet mom thought it worth a fiver.
Two teens, who said they grew up in Hawaii, did a proper hula. They had learned all the moves to “The Hukilau Song” in third grade. They made quite an attraction, causing many people to stop and admire. At this point, two guys, raising money for a basketball league by selling candy, started shaking hands with my audience, dogging them down the path as they tried to get away. Soon everyone was gone, my Hawaiians included, and I none the richer.
A kid walked by and dropped 18 cents, followed by a 40-something woman who donated a dollar with a big smile and warm thank-you. Later, while I played “Tiptoe through the Tulips,” an old man of at least 80 took out his wallet. His companions kept walking while the man carefully extracted a single for me.
On my way out of the park, $10.18 in my pocket, I saw Randy again. He had set up his chair at the Imagine Mosaic, and was playing Beatle songs on a guitar, like everyone else in the rotation.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: The Hukilau Song, Tiptoe through the Tulips
