Posts Tagged ‘Making Love Ukulele Style’
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Why Not
0August 9, 2019 by admin
I was making notes about the 2 stella d’oro lilies in full bloom behind the benches at 72nd St. Were they the harbingers of a second blooming, or 2 stragglers who had been waiting in the weeds for this opportunity? Entering the park with me were a dozen or so red T-shirted teen-aged girls. I let them pass. At the back of the line was a red T-shirted overweight man, their guide.
“Where’s your group from?” I said.
“Mostly from Germany and Japan.” The axis tour, I thought, but did not say. “I had a group that danced with you last week, from Spain.”
“Bring them by again,” I said, remembering that particular hukilau, for which I received nada.
Colin told me to set up, he was about to sing his last song, “Africa,” by Toto, 1982. The crowd around me at the fountain sang along, so did passersby, who took pictures and mouthed words.
I started my set, as usual, with “Making Love Ukulele Style.” Somewhere during my medley of “Sunday,” “Fit as a Fiddle,” and “I Saw Stars,” a little kid gave me 36 cents.
“Have you got time for a hula today?”
A willowy 20-something blonde said, “Why not?”
“My favorite answer,” I said, reaching for a lei to put around her neck. “No reason at all.”
Her name was Hannah, from Norway. She danced a beautiful hula that would warm the fjords of your heart. Then she walked away.
A young girl of 9 or 10 wandered free around the fountain. I saw her checking me out several times. Finally, she approached with a dollar in her hand, but instead of putting it in my case, she clutched it to her chest and shyly peeked at me. Without a word from me, she inched closer, threw the dollar in my case and burst into a bright grin. Her name was Alia, and it didn’t take long for her to hula. By this time her family had gathered, taking pictures. When Alia faltered, her grin turning to panic, she would focus on her grandfather, who danced a silly hula in encouragement, and all was right again.
A 30-something woman and her mother gave me a dollar. When I asked if she’d like to hula, she said, “Why not?” She was born in Arizona, but had been living in Amsterdam for 20 years, and had earned her BS, “in Dutch,” her mother bragged.
My 90 minutes was almost up, and here I was, once again, below my break-even by 34 cents. The fountain area was thinning out. Something in me said, pack it up and go home. Yet how could I ignore the evidence that showed that 99% of the time I made my nut. So I kept on singing.
A 20-something floated into my vision. She was short with a pixie cut and the ubiquitous white ear buds.
“Have you got time for a hula today?”
“Why not?” Why not indeed. She was from California, now living in Cobble Hill. With her dollar, I’d had another successful day.
My time up, I sat down, stuffed $3.36 in my pocket and was carefully folding my leis so they wouldn’t get tangled when I sensed somebody standing over me. A woman and her daughter wanted to buy a solar-powered hula girl for dad’s dashboard. They chose turquoise and handed me a fiver.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Africa, Fit as a Fiddle, I Saw Stars, Making Love Ukulele Style
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A Good Friday
0April 20, 2019 by admin
It was warm and overcast on Good Friday. In the weeks since my last outing in the park, the yellow daffodils were replaced by a white variety, swaths of pink and white tulips opened as wide as saucers, while tall stems of yellow fritillaria wowed the tourists. Other spring starters, like bleeding heart, grape hyacinth and Virginia bluebell, bloomed behind the benches. Across the road, at the Imagine Mosaic, the beds were thick with pheasant’s eye narcissus. Magnolia bloomed in several locations. Foot-high Solomon’s Seal and hellebore lined the path toward the statue of Daniel Webster, around which dandelions poked above the grass.
As I neared Bethesda Fountain, I noted flowering forsythia and the trees, so many trees, showing red and green leaf tips and pollen-rich florets. There were mobs of people around the fountain, which was filled with water, and operating.
I set up, got to my feet and opened with “Making Love Ukulele Style.” Before long, a man gave me a dollar. A little later, a dad with 2 young sons stopped to listen and gave each boy a buck to give to me. For the next 30 minutes, a steady stream of singles filled my case, but no one would hula.
“Have you got time for a hula today?” This time I asked a group of teenage girls from Montreal.
“I do,” said one, who was immediately joined by 2 of her friends. Another 10 or more girls gathered to watch, as well as a ragtag bunch of curiosity seekers. The girls hula-ed through 2 verses of “The Hukilau Song,” then stood with me for a picture, while members of their group started tossing money into my case; the dancers put money in too, probably doubling my take up till then.
I sang “Little Grass Shack” for a grandma from W. 84th St., who was enjoying the sun with her granddaughter. She gave me a dollar coin.
A family of 4, mom, dad and 2 daughters, stood nearby, waiting for me to finish a song. They were from Waterloo, Belgium. They wanted to know if I could sing “Happy Birthday” to Pierro. We all sang together into the camera.
“Do you want to sing it in French?” I asked
“Of course not,” said dad with gallic disdain. “It is an English song.”
While dad and I talked about Bruges, one of the daughters put a few bills in my case. Later I was pleased to spot a fiver. After another song, and another single, I looked down and saw what I thought was another fiver. No, wait, it was a 50!
The last time I got a 50-dollar bill, it was from a tv production company who paid me not to play. I’ve gotten a few 20’s over the years, and once was handed a $100-dollar bill by a man who was part of a foursome from Nantucket who very much enjoyed my music.
I ended the day with a few more singles, and one more hula, by a 20-something woman from Maryland. On my way out of the park, I said hello to Dominick, the big bubble man. He said, “I can’t believe what a good day this is.” With $78.22 in my pocket, I enthusiastically agreed.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Happy Birthday, Little Grass Shack, Making Love Ukulele Style, The Hukilau Song
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An Excellent Outing
0August 23, 2018 by admin
Colin, the singing cowboy, asked for 30 minutes more, so I moved to the maple and set up in the shade. It was another very fine day. Early on, a young woman gave me a dollar, but that was it for this location. I managed to get a French family to hula, a boy and his two sisters, while mere and pere looked on, yet, at the end of the set, they walked away without so much as a merci.
At the fountain again, Colin was packing up. I quickly restored my case and all my paraphernalia, and started my set over again with “Making Love Ukulele Style.” A Korean family sat on the bench and listened. A little boy in what looked like a sailor suit and hat was fascinated. After a few songs, mom and dad policed the area for litter, then sent their son to me with a dollar.
The next half hour passed without a hula, let alone a donation, until a rowdy bunch of Costa Ricans and Colombians entered the fountain. “Have you got time for a hula today?”
“Of course,” said a young man enthusiastically.
I handed out leis, even taking the one off my own neck to accommodate all the dancers. They needed no instruction; they were dancing before I finished telling them about the hukilau. The second verse kicked off a display of gyrations, dips and wiggles, encouraged by the photographer, who systematically took pictures with the different cameras everyone had handed him. The end of the dance concluded with handshakes and air kisses, and a pair of fivers plus change in my case.
“Costa Rica and Colombia,” I said, “are now my favorite countries.”
A boy of 16-17 listened from afar. When his family started moving away, he approached me with a crumpled dollar and a big grin. He walked away backward while I sang “I Wonder Where My Little Hula Girl Has Gone,” trying to catch the words before turning to catch up with his family.
Yielding $14.81, it turned out to be an excellent outing.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: I Wonder Where My Little Hula Girl Has Gone, Making Love Ukulele Style
