Posts Tagged ‘Ukulele Lady’
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Mid-August Thursday
0August 16, 2019 by admin
I can hear Colin’s amped guitar from Cherry Hill. He is playing Al Green’s “I’m So in Love with You” (1972). As I approach, he says, “Ten minutes.”
I’d just started to set up when I heard him lament, “I’ve popped a string.” His 10 minutes was now.
Half way through my first 30 minutes, a man started filming “Ukulele Lady.” I gave him a full-face rendition, after which he flashed the thumbs-up. “Ok,” I said to him. “You’ve got yours, now it’s your turn to do a hula dance for me.”
“No, no,” he said.
“It’s only fair,” I said, but nevertheless he walked away. At my first break, my case was empty.
Things picked up after that. A photographer gave me $2 for a picture. A woman off the bench added another dollar. Two Chinese teenagers, having listened to me sing during their lunch, dropped over a dollar in change as they left the fountain area.
An Israeli man, his son on his shoulders, stopped to listen. The little boy did not want to hula, but his mother did. His father, unable to convince his son to get down, put a lei on and joined in anyway, for another $2.
A young couple from Los Angeles stopped to hula, then walked away.
Dancing toward me from the bench came a giant of a man, 6-4 or better and 350 pounds. He took a lei and hula-ed gracefully, his eyes cast skyward, as he swayed to “The Hukilau Song.” I started to introduce the second verse; he interrupted, “I know, I know.” At the lyric, “kanes and wahinis sing a song about love,” he covered his heart with a soulful gesture and brought his dance to an end. He pulled 2 bills out of his wallet, a single and a fiver, then gave me the single.
A 20-something couple from Toronto threw a dollar coin in my case. “Have you got time for a hula today?” They did, after which the woman reached into her purse and tossed me another dollar coin.
After my 90 minutes, I counted out $9.31, plus a coin that appears to be a 5 Turkish kuru piece, .05 lira, worth less than a penny.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: I'm So in Love with You, The Hukilau Song, Ukulele Lady
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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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A Busy Day
0July 21, 2016 by admin
I’d hardly begun before 2 teenage girls walked up and put money in my case, but they refused to dance. A 30-something man from California gave me a buck. I told him I had just come home from L.A. where my daughter had given birth. “Your dawta?” he repeated. “Now I know I’m in New Yawk.”
Marcel came by with Maggie the dog. While we chatted, I circled around the G major chords, G-G7-C-Cm-G-D7-G. A young boy gave me a quarter. A Chinese girl wanted a picture. “You’re busy,” said Marcel, picking up Maggie and continuing their walk.
A man got off the bench and gave me a dollar, saying, “Thanks for the music.”
A man stopped with 2 girls and wanted a picture. He was from Cherry Hill, NJ. His daughter reminded me that she had danced the hula with me last year. This year her friend and her dad joined in. A pre-teen French girl watched, then danced her own hula when the Cherry Hill gang had gone.
A family of Michiganders stopped to listen. The dad was particularly interested; he had just taken up the uke. “Do you know ‘Ukulele Lady’?” I played him a verse while his family walked to the edge of the plaza, where they found some shade.
A Spanish man and his daughter danced next, followed by a pair of Argentine girls, who walked away. A photographer caught the whole dance from a distance, then gave me a dollar.
Another photographer was taking pictures of the fountain, moving his tripod a few feet, taking another, etc. It took him a few minutes to move through my space. I tried to stay out of his way, for which he rewarded me with a buck.
Despite the heat, a cool breeze gave relief. At the end of my set, my heart, as well as my pocket, was full.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Ukulele Lady
