Posts Tagged ‘My Little Grass Shack’
-
A Hot Day on Center Stage
0June 18, 2015 by admin
Yet another week has gone by before I made it to the park again. A week’s absence reveals great transformations. Golden stelladoro lilies dominate the beds at 72nd Street’s Women’s Gate. A huge lilac-colored spirea bush demarks the transition to small purple celosia, in front of tall, pale pink cleome, backed by dense, deep red roses, their thorny branches rising 8 feet in the air.
Shade engulfed the entrance to Strawberry Fields, where one of the guitarists sang “If I Fell.”
At center stage, under the hot sun, I tuned up and sang “Making Love Ukulele Style.” For almost 30 minutes no one seemed to notice me, then a girl rose from the bench where she was sitting with her parents and put a dollar in my case.
Three girls from Queens did a fine hula, then walked off. Moments later a family from Milwaukee stopped to dance to “The Hukilau Song.” A mom and her 3 daughters knew all the moves; dad took pictures. That was worth a fiver. It had also drawn a crowd.
Some young children got the idea for another few bucks. At a break in the action, a wise guy from Norway asked me, “Did you lose a bet?”
A lady taking video of “Honolulu Baby” dropped a fiver, and a young man, who was just walking by, added his dollar to my case. Walking up to me from the bench, a man in his forties asked if I could play “Tiny Bubbles.” He told me that his father, a Vietnam vet, had done R&R in Hawaii, and had seen Don Ho. “Tiny Bubbles” is not in my repertoire, but I faked it well enough to earn a buck.
A school group from PS 11 in Queens massed at the fountain for a photo. The left flank sat behind my case, so I moved out of the way and waited for them to finish. “How about a song,” one of the teachers shouted to me from the right flank.
I started singing “My Little Grass Shack” and before long another teacher stepped out of the pack and started to hula. I put a lei around her neck and kept singing. Soon some of the students grabbed leis and before long a riot of hulas broke out. I saw one of the parent-chaperones put a fiver in my case, but the kids put in money too, as did the dancing teacher. I quickly lost count, but upwards of $10 came from this group, lifting the day’s total to $28.61.
As the kids from PS 11 moved off, another parent/chaperone offered me a banana. I declined, but I did accept her offer to refill my water bottle. During these hot days on center stage, staying hydrated is vital.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Honolulu Baby, Making Love Ukulele Style, My Little Grass Shack, The Hukilau Song, Tiny Bubbles
-
A Rare Saturday
0May 31, 2015 by admin
It’s a rare Saturday that I go to the park. The crowds are fierce; I have to excuse myself many times to get through the scrum taking selfies around the Strawberry Fields sign. One homeless guitarist screams at another homeless guitarist about who plays next and for how long. The regular order of weekdays has broken down. Sunbathers on their blankets and towels dot the lawns; people picnic under every tree. As I walk toward the fountain, I hear far more English than on weekdays; New Yorkers have crowded out the tourists.
The south face of the catalpa is in full bloom, while the north side is still largely showing little green berry-like buds and the occasional white floret, tinged pink in the center. White dogwood blossoms float like kites above the green leaf clusters. Rhododendrons bloom pink in the shade of the stone staircase. The azaleas are kaput.
I set up in the heat of center stage. My first contribution was 26 cents, same as yesterday. Later, when I mentioned the coincidence to friends, they pointed out that a large regular coffee at Starbucks is $2.74, putting a quarter and a penny change in more pockets than I’d realized.
“Have you got time for a hula today?” The young couple was eager, having just returned from their honeymoon on Maui. At the end of “The Hukilau Song” they returned the leis, patted their pockets and shrugged that they had come out without any money. “Don’t worry about it,” I said, draping the leis over the back of my case.
During my rendition of “My Baby Just Cares for Me,” I noticed that a woman sitting at the fountain to my right was singing along to the first verse, but got lost in the second. When we talked, she told me how much she liked the Nina Simone version released in 1958. In that recording, the second verse features Liz Taylor and Lana Turner, updated for time and gender from the original Gus Kahn lyric written for Eddie Cantor in 1930, featuring John Gilbert and Ronald Coleman. My 2015 rewrite features George Clooney and Brad Pitt.
The woman was from Argentina, in New York with her sister. Would I be willing to sing a duet with her for her daughter back home? And so we did, twice in fact, because the sister had trouble with the video recorder on her smart phone. That was worth a fiver.
A short time later, a family came by with a 3-year old who wanted to hula. The child waved his arms with a determined intensity, sucking in his lower lip in concentration. Grandpa rewarded me with a $2 bill, the first I’d received in the 8 years I’ve been busking. Now I’d been given at least one of every denomination from 1 to 100.
Adding to the chaos, the troupe of acrobats had colonized the western staircase and were whipping up the crowd with loud music from their boom box, and with clapping and chants. I ignored the commotion as I finished my set with “My Little Grass Shack.” Although tomorrow, Sunday, also promises wonderful busking weather, I’m done with weekends for a while.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: b, My Baby Just Cares for Me, My Little Grass Shack, The Hukilau Song
-
Sienna, Sam and Ann
0April 23, 2015 by admin
Four 40-something women stopped me as I walked by and asked me to take their picture as they sat at the edge of the fountain. After two snaps, I invited them to do a hula. “Not me.” “Not me.” “Not me.”
“I will,” said one.
“I knew she would,” the others said. I quickly unpacked my uke, and off we went to the hukilau. The women were from Texas, the dancer from the Houston area. She closed her eyes and undulated languorously, while her friends took photos. I got a fiver from a friend and a buck from the dancer, an excellent start to the day.
There were several groups of elementary school kids assembling on the stairs or at the fountain for class pictures. They were young and hard to manage, so I wasn’t surprised that the teachers did not want to stop for a hula. But a quartet of high school boys, on a trip to NYC from Atlanta, had wandered from their classmates and wanted to dance. I gave them a quick lesson, they lined up and danced a marvelous freestyle. When called back to their group, they dropped $2 into my case.
A little girl of 4 or so walked up to me, wanting to dance. “Are you here with your mom or dad?” I asked. “Go ask them if it’s ok.” She ran off and soon returned with permission. Two verses of “The Hukilau Song” were not enough for her, so I played “My Little Grass Shack” too. Off she ran again, this time returning with a dollar for me. Her mother, father and brother followed. She told me her name was Sienna. “The color or the town?”
Her brother answered, “The color, two n’s.”
Walking down the path toward me came the dog Maggie and her master. They’ve been regulars over the years. Maggie loves my music; she happily sits in front of me to listen. A photographer thought the scene cute and started taking pictures. A toddler on a leash approached and bounced up and down on her chubby knees, grinning and clapping. Finally a 75-year-old man in a baseball cap stopped to listen. “This is my music,” he said in a thick middle European accent, and as I sung out “Get Out and Get Under the Moon” he began to tap dance. Amid all this chaos, money piled high in my case.
The tap dancer was Sam Katz, who after a career dancing in the city now lived in Parsippany. He had not lost his joie de vivre. The photographer was Ann Price. Here is one of the pictures she took.
Another 1pm drought took hold, and for the next 30 minutes, except for 2 women bikers eating lunch, I sang to the empty spaces. As I packed up, one of the bikers approached and gave me $3. “Thanks for entertaining us,” she said.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Get Out and Get Under the Moon, My Little Grass Shack, The Hukilau Song
