Posts Tagged ‘The Hukilau Song’
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At Long Last, Wisteria
0May 3, 2017 by admin
Hanging over the old bridle path that passes under the entry to the park, obscured by bushes, a splash of purple blossoms caught my eye. It was wisteria, growing from a thick root outcrop, between the barren vine covering the north pergola and the precipice. The button seller told me that it sometimes bloomed there; now I saw it for myself.
There was hellebore among the spent wood hyacinth, and hot pink azalea closer to the road. Under the judgmental squint of Daniel Webster, a squirrel faced off with a dog on a leash, just out of reach. How did I miss the trillium yesterday? Single three-petaled flowers opened pink and white out in the open, while in the shade of an Eastern Hemlock, they were wine red.
The white and red azaleas led me down to Bethesda Fountain, where the lunchtime crowd was light. A cool breeze blew off the lake.
My first contributor dropped a pocketful of change into my case. I spread it around to weigh down the 2 singles — shill bills — I use to give people the right idea.
Coming down the path in her green Central Park Conservancy volunteer tee shirt, skipped Joan. Five years ago, Joan heard me singing the verse to “Have You Ever Seen a Dream Walking,” and joined me for the chorus. A year or 2 later, we met up again for a reprise. Today, for the third time, we belted out her number. And for the third time, she walked away without a tip.
An Argentine girl did a Latin hula while her friends photographed her. She too walked away.
A young woman couldn’t pass by without stopping. She and her friend worked in the area, and were having a hard day. I pitched the therapeutic benefits of hula. “I’m up for that,” she said. Her friend demurred, until I started playing “The Hukilau Song.” Soon both of them were gracefully swaying, hips and arms, languid and relaxed.
At the end of the dance, they gave me 2 dollars. “That was fun,” said the first.
“So what kind of work do you guys do?” I asked.
“We raise money for people richer than we are,” said the second.
Another young woman of about the same age, 20-25, stopped to hula. “Do you know how to hula?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know how to hula to the hukilau?”
“Yes.”
In fact, she’d never heard of a hukilau and had only a loose grasp of the hula. As she dropped a fiver in my case, she told me she was from Utah.
The breeze had picked up. When I tried to anchor the leis across the back of my case, one flew off into the fountain and floated away.
Next came 3 Italian girls from Milan. They wanted me to say something in Italian to their friend Katerina. I think it was Happy Fortieth Birthday. They filmed it and tipped $2.
By the end of my set, the lei had floated back to me. I plucked it from the water and spread it out in the sun. By the time I counted my money, $10.78, it was dry.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Have You Ever Seen a Dream Walking, The Hukilau Song
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May Day
1May 2, 2017 by admin
After a 3 week hiatus, I returned to the park. Most of the daffs were shot. Silvery rose-colored tulips dominated the hillside by the hundreds, giving way to purple pansies and multi-colored South African daisies at the entry to the park at 72nd Street. Above the corpses of white tulips now rose pale yellow fritillaria imperialis, their shy flowers peeking up from a cover of spiky green leaves. Next to the still bud-less rose bushes was a single bleeding heart.
The area around the Mosaic Fountain was in deep shade. There, Solomon’s seal and buckeye bottlebrush dominated. One pink wild geranium was also having its moment. The pallid white conical blooms on the chestnut tree masked the disease we know is there.
The park today was full of families, dogs and bikes. Local school kids, under the watchful eye of their gym teacher, ran relay races to a big tree and back. What started as a cool day had turned delightfully warm and clear.
I set up at Bathesda Fountain, center stage, where I soon attracted the attention of a toddler. She could barely walk, but with a lei around her neck, she could hula. Her father gave me a dollar. Soon a young man got up from his bench and dropped a dollar bill and some coins into my case A young woman from Michigan, who danced her first hula ever while her boyfriend documented the event, netted me another $1.
A trio of Greek girls got hold of my leis and frolicked around the fountain. They asked me to play something Greek; all I could come up with was “Never on Sunday.” They had never heard of it, nor of Melina Mercouri, the Greek actress and politician who’d made the song famous long before they were born. That notwithstanding, each gave me a buck.
A stressed office worker from 55th St. had come out to the park on her lunch break to enjoy the beautiful day. Not long after we started to talk, she was swaying to “The Hukilau Song.”
About an hour into my set, a young man with a broad grin and straw hat, approached. His name was Jonathan. In about 45 minutes, he would be conducting a wedding. Since live music is always better than pre-recorded, he’d checked out the buskers and chose me to provide the processional over the kids playing guitar and mandolin. “Because you looked more like a professional musician,” he told me. I assured him I was not, but that didn’t stop him. “Can you play ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’ the Iz version?”
“No, but I can play the Judy Garland version.” That seemed fine to Jonathan; we struck a deal for $25. I moved to the far end of the fountain, facing the lake, and started to entertain the wedding guests as they arrived. Between songs, surreptitiously, I rediscovered the forgotten chords I would need, so that by the time I got the nod from Jonathan I could pretty well croon the tune without mistakes. As I sang “why, oh why, can’t I,” Marielle and Ray had reached Jonathan and the ceremony began.
Afterward, everyone gathered for pictures while I sang “The Hawaiian Wedding Song,” followed by “Making Love Ukulele Style.” It was a fun gig. With $34.72 in my pocket, I exited the park.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Making Love Ukulele Style, Never on Sunday, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, The Hawaiian Wedding Song, The Hukilau Song
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A Whimsically Happy Payday
0October 20, 2016 by admin
It was another record hot day in October, so once again I sallied forth. A young woman with a video camera gave me a fiver to record me. “You’re so happy, in this beautiful setting, on this beautiful day.” She said she’d send me the link, but so far I haven’t got it.
A small boy dumped some change in my case.
A group of high-schoolers from the Grace Church School came by. They had been assigned to film something whimsical. “You think I’m whimsical enough?”
“You’re the whimsicalest,” said the girl with the camera. The kids donned leis, lined up, and danced to “The Hukilau Song” while the camera rolled.
“Your church is famous,” I told a boy as I took back his lei. “Edith Wharton was married there.”
He turned a blank face to me. It’s possible that I too had never heard of Edith Wharton until college – who remembers? “Look it up.”
Glancing into my case, I spotted 2 more fivers and then some. I’d been playing for barely 30 minutes and it was already a very good day.
People walked up to me with money in their hands at a regular clip. A Brazilian woman did a credible hula for $2. A Chinese woman dropped a fiver for a photo. It turned out she was an ABC, Australian-born Chinese. “What do you call Argentine-born Chinese, or Armenian or Austrian? You need to start using subscripts.”
A pear-shaped man walked up from the bench near the water and gave me 3 tightly folded singles. “I do believe you are the happiest man in New York today,” he told me. I had to agree. Later I saw him sitting with his pear-shaped wife. At the end of “That’s My Weakness Now,” they applauded enthusiastically.
With $27.83 cents to show for it, it had been a superlatively whimsical, and happy day.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Grace Church School, That's My Weakness Now, The Hukilau Song
