Posts Tagged ‘Honolulu Baby’
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As Beautiful as a Day in June
0June 12, 2019 by admin
After my annual wellness visit with my GP on the east side, I entered the park south of the Metropolitan Museum at 11 am, about 90 minutes earlier than usual. I followed the path south and ended up at the Alice in Wonderland Statue near the sailboat lake. When all other locales are occupied, I sometimes try my luck busking here; I’ve been asked to leave by Conservancy workers more than once. Across the road to the boathouse, past my maple, I found Bethesda Fountain free of other buskers.
Since last I played here, they’ve placed the water plants in the fountain. The day was as beautiful as a day in June can be, warm air, cool breezes and happy people everywhere enjoying New York. A little girl in her daddy’s arms came up to me with a dollar in her hand. Another little kid with another dollar soon followed.
Four teens on a school trip from Colorado talked themselves into a hula. One of the boys said he once danced the hula in Hawaii, so I moved him to the middle of the line and told the others to follow him, but it was the girl on the far end who, like “Honolulu Baby,” knew her stuff. For the second verse of “The Hukilau Song,” they grabbed hands and did a wave, which pretty much followed my hula instructions: use your arms to simulate waves. Each of them gave me money in bills and change.
Four 30-something women stopped and rummaged around in each other’s backpacks. It often happens that I see people reach into their pockets or open their purses. It’s a virtual certainty that it’s not to get money for me. Instead, out come phones, mostly, water bottles, sunglasses, and change purses for coins to throw in the fountain. But after the picture-taking and suntan lotion application, these most improbable women each gave me a dollar.
An Indian man and his wife came up to talk. “You play very well,” said the wife, as the man gave me a dollar. “And you sing very well,” he added.
Two 20-something women in hijab played around the fountain. They struck funny poses for countless selfies. “Have you got time for a hula today?” I asked. Giggling “no” with their hands over their mouths, they continued taking pictures. I engaged with some other people, but saw that one of the women had put a few singles in my case.
A boy and girl of about 5 sat around the fountain with their parents. The boy came over to inspect the solar-powered hula girls. “I’m Logan,” the boy said. “And that’s my sister Lily. I’m a minute older than her.”
“Hi, Lily, would you like to dance the hula?”
She was a slender child in pigtails and glasses. “Not really,” she said. “I’m nervous.”
“Give it a try, I’ll help you,” I said, slipping a lei around her neck. Logan had already grabbed one.
“We’re going to a big party on the beach in Hawaii, called a hukilau,” I explained, then broke right into “The Hukilau Song.”
Mom and dad remained at a distance, cell phones at the ready. The twins danced the hula, more or less. After I’d collected the leis, they ran to their parents, got a dollar each from dad and ran back to give it to me.
Last were a group of preteen Texans who only wanted a picture with me. I dressed them in leis for the photo. Together they put over $5 in my case.
My daily total was $28.06. I have no idea where it all came from.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Honolulu Baby, The Hukilau Song
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“He’s Alive”
0September 11, 2017 by admin
On my way to Bethesda Fountain on Friday, I saw a woman leaning over an unconscious man lying on the grass along the side of the road. “He’s alive,” she told me. Relieved, we each kept walking.
I arrived at the fountain just as the cowboy was leaving. “Have you got time for a hula today?” I asked a family who passed by.
“I’ll hula,” said the teenaged daughter. The family was from California, and talked among themselves while the daughter undulated like the sea, as I had instructed her. Dad gave her a dollar, which she handed to me.
Two 50-something women stopped near me to listen. When I finished my song, one asked, “Do you know ‘Ukulele Lady’?”
“Is that your favorite song?”
“My favorite ukulele song,” she said. I played it for her; she gave me $2. Neither would hula.
As soon as they left, a man led his young daughter by the hand to me. The man’s gestures indicated that she would like to hula. They were from Argentina. Dancing rather awkwardly, she started laughing as her dad snapped pictures, and laughed all the way through “The Hukilau Song.” Dad tucked a fiver under the capo I used to keep bills from blowing away.
A bearded man and his girlfriend came off the benches; he tossed me a single. “Thanks for entertaining us,” he said. Next, a woman pulled out a handful of change, including a Susan B., and sprinkled the coins deliberately over the cash in my case. A man with a baby in a Snugli on his chest bounced to the music and gave me a dollar.
A toddler ran up to me. “Do you want to do a hula dance?”
“Yes, please.” He put the dollar his mom had given him into my case. I put a lei around his neck and gave him my quick hula instructions: Put out your arms to form the horizon, now move them like the waves breaking on the shore. He tried, but could only manage one arm at a time. When I told him to use both arms, he lifted one up and let the other drop.
Two women from Minnesota with a little girl stopped to listen. I put a lei around the girl’s neck and started to sing “The Hukilau Song.” The girl had no idea what to do, so the women started dancing too. I grabbed 2 more leis for the women and off we went. At the end of the song, one of the women said, “We have no money.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I told her.
A couple in their 40’s walked by hand in hand. “Have you got time for a hula today?” They did not have time for a hula, but they did have time to foxtrot to “Honolulu Baby,” complete with turns and dips. The man rewarded me with $2.
I finished my set, as usual, with “My Little Grass Shack.” When I turned to start packing up, I noticed a couple walking toward me with a dollar. For their dollar, I encored “Honolulu Eyes.” Stuffing $15.30 in my shirt pocket, I exited the park.
I was pleased to see that the unconscious/sleeping man was gone from the side of the road.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Honolulu Baby, Honolulu Eyes, My Little Grass Shack, The Hukilau Song, Ukulele Lady
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Summer’s End
0August 27, 2017 by admin
The faint stink of ginkgo greeted me upon entering Strawberry Fields. Another sign of summer’s end, the fallen leaves of plane trees freckled the green lawn at Daniel Webster’s feet.
Bethesda Fountain was given over to the film crew for a new movie, “Three Seconds,” coming out next year. A sign on the stairway warned that anyone in the area could end up on the silver screen. I set up at center stage, ignoring the many PA’s with headsets, the techies with clipboards, and the bevvy of people huddled around the director’s chair in the arcade. I stood to play, scanning left and right for anyone approaching who might want me to shut up and go away.
Three young people, 2 women, and a man with earrings and a blonde streak in his hair, wandered by. “Have you got time for a hula today?” One of the women, who was from New York, was all in, and, after a few words of encouragement, so were her friends from Connecticut and Philly. They rocked out to “The Hukilau Song.” The New Yorker danced and took pictures at the same time. Afterward, she showed me a handful of coins, pointing out that most of them were Susan B’s. In fact, there were 5 Susan B’s, and 2 quarters, plus another 2 bucks from her friends.
A threesome of 5-year-olds were the next to dance the hula. Three dads took pictures and reached into their wallets. The kids, one white, one black, one brown, delivered the dollars to me. One of the boys wanted to play with my solar-powered hula girls. I took the pink one apart and showed them all how the sun’s rays generated a tiny current through a copper coil, creating a tiny magnetic field that caused a pendulum, hinged at the shoulders and equipped with a magnet at the bottom, to swing back and forth, and with it the hula girl’s torso and arms. “They’re never too young to dance the hula or learn about electromagnetism,” I told the dads.
A well-dressed woman holding a well-dressed child by the hand slowed as she came close. “Have you got time for a hula today?” She laughed and kept walking. Then she stopped. “Changed your mind?”
“No, no, but I will listen for a moment. Sing me something.”
I sang “Honolulu Eyes.”
She said, “Thank you,” and gave me a fiver.
A Brazilian woman danced a sexy hula, while her friends clapped and laughed ($3). A thin old man stood at a distance while I finished off “Honolulu Baby” with a flourish. He came forward to make a donation. “Did you like that song?” “It’s not the song, it’s how you sing it,” he said ($2). Two kids wanted to hula. “Make sure it’s ok with your mom,” I said to the elder. “That’s my nanny,” she said, adding, “that’s his nanny too” ($4).
A short, muscular man came running up to me as I sang “My Baby Just Cares for Me.” He held a phone to his ear; he was drunk. “Sing to my buddy in Michigan,” he said. “Listen to this guy,” he said, “I’m in New York City. In Central Park. Listen to this guy.” He held the phone up to me.
I continued to sing, “My baby don’t care for shows, my baby don’t care for clothes…”
“Sing about Ted Nugent,” he said. “My baby don’t care for Ted Nugent, ‘cause he sucks.”
His friend hung up on us. The man explained that his friend was having a terrible time, gave me a dollar and walked away.
It was a $25-plus day. As I packed up, I said to the PA who’d been assigned my corner of the fountain, “Thanks for not asking me to stop playing. Film crews usually want me to go away.”
“No problem,” she said. “We shot all the dialog yesterday. Today was just people walking around, strictly M.O.S.”
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Honolulu Baby, Honolulu Eyes, My Baby Just Cares for Me, The Hukilau Song, Three Seconds
