Posts Tagged ‘Making Love Ukulele Style’
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The Season Winds Down
0October 26, 2017 by admin
The wood anemone score: 0-0. So much for that.
Most of the water plants have been removed from Bethesda Fountain. Here and there, sunken tubs of water lilies remained, their greenish-yellow leaves floating on the surface. At the southern end, 2 plants still sported white flowers.
The park was cool, the rolling gray clouds threatening. More than 30 minutes went by before my first dollar. Two men bundled against the weather stopped to listen. One of them, it seems, owned 5 ukuleles, yet he would not take my uke to show me what he could do.
Chatting about the kind of music he played, he mentioned that he and his teacher were working on “Five Foot Two.” I sang Dean Martin’s “Making Love Ukulele Style,” as an example of my repertoire of ukulele novelty songs.
“And you have a good voice too,” he said
Two 20-something women walked by. “Have you got time for a hula today?”
With a little encouragement, one of them, from New York, put on a lei. The other, from England, would have been content to take video, but her friend put a lei on her and pulled her into the dance. They swayed to “The Hukilau Song,” laughing while they passed the camera between them. The New Yorker gave me a buck. The Englishwoman gave me two, saying, “That was fun.”
Toward the end of my set, a woman off the bench gave me a buck, wrapping up a $5 day.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Five Foot Two, Making Love Ukulele Style, The Hukilau Song
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What’s a Well-Tuned Ukulele Worth?
0September 13, 2017 by admin
Behind the northern benches at the entrance to the park, lantana and celosia are having a second blooming. The wood anemone derby, in which the two plants compete for the number of open flowers, is tied at 3. The south-facing catalpa pods, dangling like string beans, are reddening into ripeness.
As I set up at Bethesda Fountain, the cowboy introduced himself as Colin. I gave him my card.
My first dancers were a young Bulgarian couple, who seemed delighted to be asked to hula. They put a dollar in my case as I turned to entice a toddler in a straw hat with my baby lei. He threw it on the ground, at which time his parents led him away.
Another little boy seemed inclined to dance. His mom gave him a dollar for me. He dropped it in my case, then grabbed a lei and ran back to his mom. He put on the lei and started to walk away. I decided not to run after him; as it turned out, his mom walked the lei back to me.
One of the snake boys came down from the terrace in front of the arcade. He started hustling all around me. After collecting some money for photos with the snake, he approached me. “How about some Beatle songs?” he said.
“How about you take your snake back where you came from,” I said. “I’m working here.”
A family from Orlando stopped to let their little girl dance. “I know how to hula,” she said. “We were just in Hawaii. The boys do this,” she waved her arms to the left, “and the girls do this,” waving her arms to the right.
“Since your brother won’t dance,” I said, “you’ll have to dance both parts.”
After the dance, her dad and I discussed Hurricane Irma. “That’s why we’re here,” he told me, folding up a fiver and laying it in my case.
Two young men, with back packs and hiking boots, slowed to study my solar-powered hula girls. One of them bent down to get a closer look. When he got up, he gave me a buck.
A couple from the bench, having finished their lunch, also chipped in a buck.
A large man with a crew cut waited for me to finish “All of Me.” His name was Carl and he engaged me in a wide-ranging conversation about ukes. “Do you play?”
“A little,” he said. I offered him my uke and he proceeded to tune it before plucking out a ditty. He handed it back and told me he ran a music school. “I’ll be seeing a lot of you,” he said. “I come to the park a lot. Play me a tune.”
I played 8 bars of “I Wonder Where My Hula Girl Has Gone,” then switched to “Making Love Ukulele Style.” “That was written by Dean Martin,” I told him.
“He did lots of interesting musical things,” Carl told me, then he walked away. He didn’t give me any money, but he’d tuned my uke perfectly; it sounded better than it had all summer.
After Carl, no one else came by. I exited the park with $10 in my pocket, and a well-tuned uke on my back.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: All of Me, I Wonder Where My Little Hula Girl Has Gone, Making Love Ukulele Style
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Happy Birthday, Lowell and Martin
0September 3, 2017 by admin
Friday was crisp and breezy. I arrived at Bethesda Fountain just as the cowboy finished his last number. Before too long, a man dropped 41 cents into my case.
A roly-poly man in his 40’s rushed up to me. “I have two 2’s here,” he said, showing me the bills. “Can you sing something for my brother Lowell? It’s his birthday.”
“How about ‘Happy Birthday?’”
“Perfect,” he said, disappearing behind a large camera. I sang to Lowell. The man gave me a thumbs-up, then ran to catch up with his wife.
While singing “Making Love Ukulele Style,” a man set up in front of me and began recording. He dropped a buck and stayed to talk. He was from Toronto, and his 12-year-old daughter had just taken up the uke. He wondered if I gave lessons. “How much?” he said, reaching for my CD.
“Ten dollars, U.S.”
Lots of people stopped near me to take group photos and selfies at the fountain’s edge. People came off the benches to give me money. The park today was happening.
A young couple from the Czech Republic stopped. This time it was brother Martin’s birthday. The man and I sang “Happy Birthday” together, while the woman recorded. The man gave me a fiver. Looking into my case, I now saw a 10, a 5, and 2 2’s among the singles; it was already a very good day.
Four siblings under 10 came running off the bench to hula. They were from Illinois. A few minutes later, 3 young teen-aged girls from Ohio stopped to hula. They stepped up on the ledge, where my solar-powered hula girls were dancing. I sang “The Hukilau Song,” while the girls, who seemed to be aping the toys, stiffly rocked back and forth.
I was packing up the leis when a couple, who had been sitting in the northeast corner by the lake, came by to give me a dollar. “I haven’t closed my case yet,” I said. “Have you got time for a hula?”
“No, we’ve got to go,” said the woman. Then, apropos of nothing, “Today’s my birthday.”
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Happy Birthday, Making Love Ukulele Style, The Hukilau Song
