Posts Tagged ‘Tiptoe through the Tulips’
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Taking One for the Cowboy
0October 27, 2019 by admin
This time of year, every day above 60 degrees is a gift. Judging by the size of the crowds in Central Park on Thursday, I was not the only one who felt that way.
Someone at Bethesda Fountain has an amp turned way up. At the top of the stairs I see a dense throng across the plaza where Colin, the cowboy, likes to play. I haven’t seen Colin for a month and assumed he’d headed south, as he does, for the winter. But as I got closer, past the audience that had formed a neat semicircle around him, I saw it was Colin himself, his basket brimming with bills, belting out his repertoire from the 80’s. He acknowledged my thumbs-up as I walked past. Even under the maple, he was audible.
After 30 minutes, with no activity beyond the birds feasting on the bright red mulberries, I stopped playing and cocked an ear. Colin was still at it.
After another 30 minutes, thinking today might be the day I get schneidered (shut out), I turned to find a dollar in my case from an unseen passerby.
During the last 30 minutes, an Orthodox Jewish couple pushing a carriage stopped when they noticed, as I did, that their son couldn’t keep his eyes off me. I was singing “Tiptoe through the Tulips,” and finished the song, our eyes locked. The parents clapped, so the boy did too, then dad gave me a dollar.
Not long before I finished my set, a 40-something woman, smartly dressed, walked by and smiled while I sang “My Baby Just Cares for Me.” She stopped to listen about 10 yards past me, while I crooned my own second verse:
…My baby don’t care for Frank Sinatra.
She shows the exit to Jean Paul Sartre…
She came back with a dollar, taking me from schneidered to a break-even day.
At the fountain, Colin, still amped to the max, raked it in well past his usual quitting time. The old accordion player, set up much closer to Colin than he needed to be, could barely be heard.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: My Baby Just Cares for Me, Tiptoe through the Tulips
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Rained Out Farewell Tour
0October 17, 2019 by admin
It had been more than a month since I’d gone a-busking, the events of life having intervened. If I didn’t go again soon, winter will have sidelined me until the first nice day in spring. So yesterday, when the temperature rose above 60 degrees, despite the predictions for a nor’easter, I headed for Bethesda Fountain, for what I thought of as my Farewell Tour.
It really was a crummy day. A cold, moist wind nearly took my hat off on West End Avenue. Gomphrena, God bless it, stood tall and colorful behind the benches and in front of the rose bushes covered in hips. I spied 2 wild rose flowers blooming in the underbrush, beside the last remaining wild asters. The button man was gone. Along the path to the fountain, spirea bushes flashed foamy white bouquets. The western wood anemone had burned up, but the eastern had escaped the thuggish jewelweed and seemed to have reestablished itself 10 feet off the path at the base of a boulder.
The wind was wet and heavy. I wondered if I’d even get to the fountain before it rained.
NOW PRESENTING ON CENTER STAGE, MR. UKULELE
There was no one around. What people there were kept looking up, at the clouds rolling in from the northeast. The flagpole pullies banged against the metal poles, as if sending out a warning.
A 40-something woman stood at the benches and fumbled in her purse. Instead of her cellphone or a handkerchief, she pulled out her wallet. I was not disappointed, there was a dollar in there for me.
A man, walking with his wife and friend, rushed up to me for a picture. “You must wear this,” I instructed him, “I have to protect my brand.”
A kid of 10 or so approached respectfully with a dollar and laid it in my case. “Thank you,” I said as he hurried away. He stopped and said quietly, “You’re welcome,” as if English were not his native language.
A light drizzle started during “Tiptoe through the Tulips.” I sang:
Knee-deep in flowers we’ll stray.
We’ll keep the showers away.
And they stayed away for another few tunes. A sonorous thunderclap, however, signaled time to go. I had played for 50 minutes and made $3, covering senior subway fare home, avant le deluge.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Tiptoe through the Tulips
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Cat and Mouse
0August 2, 2019 by admin
Colin was finishing up; he looked exhausted. On this hot day, while I wore shorts, a rayon shirt, sandals and a paper panama, Colin was in a leather vest, long pants, boots and a cowboy hat. “I’ve had enough,” he said when he saw me. “It’s your turn.”
Across the plaza, the jazz violinist was amped up high. “I thought the cops cleared out the amplifiers,” I said.
Colin, who used an amp, smiled as he turned it off. “They cleared us out yesterday.” I made a gesture with open palms, as if to say, yet here you are today. “Cat and mouse,” said Colin. “Cat and mouse.”
After my first 30 minutes, there was nothing in my case. I took a long drink of water and looked around. Despite the heat, there were lots of people walking through. Given that I’ve never yet gone without making, at the least, round-trip senior subway fare, I stood up for my second 30 minutes and confidently began to play.
Almost immediately, a passing 20-something Chinese man put a dollar in my case. A short time later, a burly black man gave me $2, saying, “Good effort.”
A busload of Spanish teenagers in red tee shirts flooded the plaza. They pretty much avoided me, until 3 young women came close enough for me to ask, “Have you got time for a hula today?” As I passed out leis, 3 more young women joined in. They did a wonderful synchronized hula to “The Hukilau Song.” A small crowd formed to watch and take pictures. Afterwards I collected the leis and draped them over the lid of my open case again, where I could see the same 3 singles lying there. All 6 dancers had walked away.
I started the third 30 minutes of my set, content that I’d broken even. I earned 2 more dollars for singing a chorus of “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” for a 30-something woman who video-ed the performance. She seemed never to have heard the song before. “Thank you,” she said. “That’s a really pretty song.”
Category Uncategorized | Tags: The Hukilau Song, Tiptoe through the Tulips
