Posts Tagged ‘The Hukilau Song’
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After the Heat and Rain
0June 16, 2017 by admin
At the entrance to the park, the stellas formed a golden carpet leading to a profusion of pink dog roses behind the benches. At Strawberry Fields, the ferns fought with red-leafed corral bells. Daniel Webster oversaw a newly mown lawn, with clouds of incipient clover blossoms rising to the sun. After the heat and rain of the past few days, the park was lushly fecund.
A buck from a man and wife walking by got me started.
“Has this group got time for a hula dance today?” There were 8 teenage girls in blue tees from a high school in NJ. The leader, similarly dressed, was enthusiastic. They had come to the park to smell the roses, she told me. “And to hula.”
They danced to 2 verses of “The Hukilau Song,” then walked off. I saw them stop at the bottom of the path, where they smelled the roses, of course.
While singing “I Wonder Where My Little Hula Girl Has Gone,” I looked to my left and saw a toddler bearing down on me; her dad proudly followed. “Are you my little hula girl?”
“I think she is,” said dad. I gave her the baby lei, and off she went to an arm-waving, foot-stomping, body-turning hukilau.
A young woman, who had been watching from the bench, came up with a dollar in her hand. She was interested in ukes, and peppered me with questions about tuning, string types and the various sizes ukes came in.
A stylish woman photographed me from afar. When the song ended, she smiled and walked away, but she soon came back with a dollar.
At the end of my set, I sat down to count my take: $5. A young teen, who had been sitting near the water with her family, came running to make it $6.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: I Wonder Where My Little Hula Girl Has Gone, The Hukilau Song
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“Honolulu Baby”
0June 10, 2017 by admin
The guitarist sang, “Imagine all the people,” but no imagination was required. The crowd was as impenetrable as those at the Sistine Chapel. Finally, I broke from the pack and hurried to Bethesda Fountain. The park workers who had guided the delivery trucks to the site of the fund-raiser on Wednesday and Thursday had assured me that all would be back to normal today, and they did not lie.
“Have you got time for a hula today?”
The woman smiled, hesitated, then the large man she was with said, “Yes, of course.” At the end of the dance, he handed me a twenty. I asked him if he wanted change, but he waved me off.
I got my first 20-dollar tip one fall day in 2007. An old man had been sitting on the bench with his attendant through several songs. The attendant walked up with the twenty while I was singing; at the end of the song, I walked to the old man to thank him.
“Do you know ‘Honolulu Baby’?” he asked. I had to admit I did not. “If you’re going to sing the ukulele canon, you really should learn it.” I took his advice. Over the next few years I hoped to run into him again to thank him, because “Honolulu Baby” has become a mainstay of my repertoire.
A woman accompanying 2 developmentally challenged teenagers, a boy and a girl, came by. The girl wanted to hula, but mostly just stood still and smiled. The woman, camera in hand, showed her the moves, but we got to the end of “The Hukilau Song” without hula-liftoff.
A woman took pictures from the edge of the plaza. Most photographers get their shot and walk away. The woman, seeing me see her, approached with a handful of quarters.
A 40-something man with his 2 daughters stopped to dance. They were from London, although the man was originally from Belgium. He gave each of the girls a dollar for me, then stuck around to chat about the political situations in both the US and UK.
A young woman sat on the bench in front of me. She appeared to be writing in a notebook; from time to time she looked up to listen. After 30 minutes or so, she gathered her things and walked up to me. She put a dollar in my case, then asked me questions about my music. “I’ve heard ‘Tiptoe through the Tulips,’ but all those other songs are new to me. Did you write them?” Her name was Sophie. She used to play classical guitar, but now she thought a ukulele was the way to go.
Two guys walked past. “Aloha,” I said. They stopped and consulted, then walked back to toss a handful of change into my case.
As usual, at the end of my set, I counted my take: $26.53. A good day, however, got better, when I unfolded the dollar I got from Sophie and found this drawing.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Honolulu Baby, The Hukilau Song, Tiptoe through the Tulips
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A Cool Day in June
0June 8, 2017 by admin
Since my last outing, the gardeners in Central Park have been busy. Skeletal tulips and south African daisies have been cut down or grubbed up to make room for new plantings, pink begonia, multi-colored cosmos, stella d’oro lilies. Dog roses bloom in profusion, both behind the bench where the button seller sits, as well as along the paths that lead toward Bethesda Fountain.
A new guy is singing at the Imagine Mosaic. Unlike the usual platoon of guitarists, this on stands and sings non-Beatle songs. In the foliage lining the path, I spotted tradescantia and astilbe. Both giant catalpas are clothed in white blossoms.
It’s June, and the Central Park Conservancy has covered the fountain area in tents for its fund-raiser. In the small area to the north, between the fountain and the water, the jazz combo has found room to play. I kept walking to my spot under the maple, facing the English mulberry, which has started forming berries.
Before long, 3 girls from Central Virginia stopped to hula. They were in their mid-teens. One of them knew the gestures for “The Hukilau Song,” while the others followed along. It was very important to their mother, or whoever she was who was shepherding them around, that I understood they were not from Northern Virginia, as if she wanted to pick a political fight with this New Yorker.
A class of 30-40 high schoolers came by. “Has this group got time for a hula today?”
“Not now,” said the teacher in charge. “We’re on our way to lunch.” I sang “I Wonder Where My Little Hula Girl Has Gone” as they walked by. Two stragglers examined my case. One of them gave me 50 cents; not to be outdone, his friend gave me $2.
As a 40-something man approached, I saw him reach for his wallet. We exchanged broad smiles as he launched a dollar into my case.
A pre-teen girl started dancing as she passed. “I know you want to hula,” I said, and I was right. With a lei around her neck, she flashed a winning smile, planted her feet a little too far apart and started to hula. The more she danced, the wider her stance; by the end of the song she looked like she was going to do a split.
A woman stopped her bicycle in front of me and dismounted. Her name was Tony, a bus driver from the Denver suburbs. “Did you take a day off from work?”
“This is my work.”
“Are you retired? I can’t wait; another 10 years to go for me.”
After her hula, as she pulled 2 singles from her purse, she said, “You’re probably a millionaire, and here I am giving you money.”
Her friend had taken video and had already uploaded it when Tony got back on her bike. I ran over with my card and asked her to send me a link so I could put it in my blog. I do this a lot, although only once has someone actually sent it. That was the Minnesota woman in October, 2016.
A 20-something woman was greatly amused as she walked by. She got as far as the caricaturist, who was plying his trade about 20 yards away, before running back to give me a dollar, which topped off the day’s take at $8.50.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: I Wonder Where My Little Hula Girl Has Gone, The Hukilau Song
