Posts Tagged ‘The Hukilau Song’
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Another Hot One
0July 9, 2015 by admin
Today, a tee shirt vendor has replaced the Sabrett hot dog man at the entrance to the park at W. 72nd St. Hot dogs had always been more expensive at this location, $3 compared to $2.50 inside the park. When I asked the hot dog man about it, he told me his monthly rent was $10,000 – that’s a lot of hot dogs. This year hot dogs are $3 everywhere.
It’s hotter than yesterday. A Japanese Katsura tree at the entrance to Strawberry Fields looks stressed, its heart-shaped leaves browning in the sun. The guitarist sings “Let It Be.” At Bethesda Fountain, an accordion has replaced John Boyd’s family singers. He had to have gotten up pretty early in the morning to do that.
Once again, I sought the shade. The doo-wop singers had already set up by the boathouse. I launched into “Making Love Ukulele Style,” and immediately got a dollar from a 60-something, like me.
It was a day for families and pleasant conversation. First a family with 4 girls, from 6 to 16. They got a line-dance hula going. The oldest guided her young sisters, while mom sat behind, on the rock, and dad took some photos. He was an optometrist from Sherman Oaks, CA. He too had a pension, he told me, and couldn’t wait to retire like me and have nothing to do all day but seek his bliss.
“Are these all yours? That must be quite a pension.”
He laughed. “Four daughters, how expensive can that be?”
A man from Norway stopped to tell me his son had just started to learn to play the ukulele. I handed the instrument to the pre-teen boy. “Let’s see what you can do.” He was indeed a beginner, laboring over D-G-A7-D. I helped him along, giving him tips his father translated.
The doo-wop dancers got chased away by the park rangers. According to the optometrist, who gathered his information on a trip to the bathrooms with a couple of daughters, the group had been blocking the path. More probably, the restaurant had complained; Meta and her inoffensive harp, after all, had also been rousted from that spot.
An Italian family replaced the California family, this one with 3 young children. While 2 daughters did the hula, a toddler boy kept picking up my watch from out of my case and slipping it on his wrist. Dad took it off, put it back, and the kid swiped it again. At the end of the “The Hukilau Song” I took a quick inventory; everything was there, including $6.15 in donations.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Let It Be, Making Love Ukulele Style, The Hukilau Song
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Evan’s Video
0June 30, 2015 by admin
Shot on Wednesday, June 24, 2015:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps_LGeSjmeA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfE1rn-fwLY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CzvGz7WrkI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC8yAeUWbJU
More of Evan’s videos can be found on the 3rd Party Images page.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Get Out and Get Under the Moon, The Hukilau Song
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Central Park Hustlers
0June 20, 2015 by admin
Even a couple of days can bring change to the park. Flowering fuschia and begonia have been added to the beds, along with some low-lying yellow flowers I can’t identify. Walking to the fountain, I passed 35 portable toilets rented from a company called Callahead. A carnival was being set up on the mall, with booths for food, games of chance and a merry-go-round. The displaced acrobats had already taken over the western staircase, their boombox music thumping loudly, crowding out all other action on the plaza. Jim, the big bubble man, was packing up. “They kill it for all of us,” he lamented.
Meta was at her bench on the path, looking rather annoyed. Not only were the acrobats still audible, but more amplified music floated from the restaurant over the lake. The ugly construction fences had come down in the morning, revealing a new rowboat dock built out over the water to create a narrow lagoon. I walked to my spot under the maple and got a better look: a wedding or some other event was taking place. I returned to assure Meta that it didn’t look like The Boathouse music would be permanent competition.
Two boys with mom and dad were eager to hula. After thanking dad for a $2 tip, I asked, “Where’re y’all from?”
“Atlanta.”
“Was that the proper usage of ‘y’all’?” I was assured it was. As they left I said, “Bha.”
“Has this group got time for a hula today?”
The kids were wearing tee shirts indicating they came from the Bronx. Their leader hesitated. “Sure,” he finally said, “they gotta learn about getting hustled sooner or later.”
“No, no, no,” I said, handing out leis. “You’ll see, this is value for money.” At the end of the dance he coughed up $2, looking, I must admit, as if, maybe, he’d been a little bit hustled.
An older man with his young wife or daughter, a nanny and toddler twins, stopped his entourage in the shade of the mulberry tree in front of me. “Have you got any songs for strapping kids into their carriage?”
As he lifted them into the 2-seater, he struggled with wiggly legs and arms.
I started singing, “I can’t give you anything but straps, baby. That and a couple Apple apps, baby.” Click, click and the deed was done. The young woman gave me a buck.
Two teenage boys selling candy set up on either side of me, one at the crest of the hill, halfway between Meta and me, the other at the bend in the path toward The Boathouse, near the stairs leading under the roadway. They accosted everyone walking toward me from both directions. This hustle too, as Jim said, killed it.
I considered quitting early when a large group of kids from Southern California came by. Their leader was thrilled to have the kids hula and handed out leis to all who wanted to dance. At the start of “The Hukilau Song,” she danced slowly, urging the kids to stop complaining that they didn’t know how and to follow her. In the end, they did a credible line-dance resembling a hula, close enough to cause a good number of singles to show up in my case. Take that, candy hustlers!
Category Uncategorized | Tags: The Hukilau Song
