Posts Tagged ‘The Hukilau Song’
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Monday under the Maple
0August 21, 2019 by admin
A young guitarist with a man-bun was playing, without amplification, where Colin usually sets up. Given how hot it was, I was not unhappy to be forced into the shade of the Norway Maple.
“Have you got time for a hula today.”
“Sure,” said one of the 2 teenaged girls who stopped to watch me play. She put a dollar in my case; I handed out leis to both girls, who hailed from Kingston, NY.
A mom came up with her camera and asked, “What are you doing?”
“We’re doing the hula,” was the answer.
Mom tossed me another dollar, and when I started the second verse of “The Hukilau Song,” she tossed in a third. Blowing past my break-even in the first 10 minutes of busking was a harbinger of a good day.
A woman with a bright orange muumuu smiled as she walked past me toward The Boathouse. On her return, she smiled again and laid a single in my case.
A family, consisting of mom, dad and 2 kids under 10, a boy and a girl, hung out by the fence to watch the rowboats. With her back to me, mom started swaying to my music. As they turned to leave, she smoothed out a fiver and floated it into my case. A moment later, the young boy ran back to me with another buck.
When I counted out my money, there were $10 in paper currency, plus 1 quarter that someone had tossed in when I wasn’t looking.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: The Hukilau Song
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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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FX Friday
0August 4, 2019 by admin
It was gorgeous on Friday, so I strapped on my uke and made my way to the park. The jazz quartet by the lake was reduced to a trio when I walked by, guitar, bass and drum; the fourth was sitting with his back against a tree, hat over eyes, hugging his saxophone.
At Bethesda Fountain, Colin the cowboy said he needed another 20 minutes, so I headed toward the maple, stopped, considered and turned around. “Changed my mind,” I told him, as I walked by. I found a seat in the shade of the arcade, where a classical guitarist played Bach. I did the ken-ken and sudoku in AM New York, a morning free daily, and in 20 minutes took over from Colin.
A collection of teen girls and their chaperone sat near me as I set up. “Have you got time for a hula today?” It was Taylor’s birthday; she and all but one of her friends danced to “The Hukilau Song.” Afterward the chaperone gave me a fiver, then Taylor gave me another. It had been a good decision to wait for center stage.
A girl from Ottawa and her friend from Brazil stopped to hula. Today was a good day for Canadians; after getting a dollar from the hula girls, a 20-something videographer captured the full chorus of “Ukulele Lady,” then gave me a bright blue Canadian fiver.
For the rest of the afternoon, change and singles from those who walked by and those who listened from the benches piled up. My last dollar came from the parents of a dancing baby, big head, fat thighs, bouncing up and down in place on chubby knees to “Get Out and Get Under the Moon.”
On Friday’s foreign exchange markets, one Canadian dollar traded for 76 cents; so that bright blue fiver was worth $3.80. My take on the day, therefore, adjusted for currency fluctuations, was $24.70.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Get Out and Get Under the Moon, The Hukilau Song
