Posts Tagged ‘The Hukilau Song’
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Leading Economic Indicators
0October 16, 2014 by admin
Underneath a warm, wet sky, I set up on center stage. As I put a lei around my own neck, a dozen or more kids on a scavenger hunt, attracted by the bright colors, hurried over to check me out. “Have you got time for a hula today?”
They did, and afterward my case took in a few singles and change. It’s always a boon to get dancers early in the set; it gives everybody else an idea of what I’m doing, like the family with kids who next happened by. “Where are you from?”
“Brazil,” said one of the dark-haired moms. “What about you?”
“I’m from New York.”
“You are the first New Yorker I’ve met since I arrived on Monday,” she said, shaking my hand.
Two well-dressed men in their mid-30s walked by and one of them took my picture. “Did you get it? Good, now how about a hula?”
He hemmed, he hawed, he hula-ed. “Now I’ll have to give you a tip,” he said, pulling a $20 bill from his wallet. It turned out he and his friend were in from Reno to get married.
A young Hispanic man wearing a “Bronx” baseball cap asked me if we could take a picture together. “Of course,” I said, “but you’ve got to wear a lei.”
He put his arms over my shoulder and took a selfie. “My girlfriend loves the ukulele,” he said, dropping a dollar in my case.
An elderly couple, who had been sitting at some distance, packed up their lunch and started out of the park. As they made their way toward the trash cans, the woman veered toward me and gave me a dollar. “Thank you,” she said, “you’re very entertaining.”
Another school group came by from the High School for Construction Trades, Engineering and Architecture (HSCTEA) in Ozone Park, Queens. Among the 20 or more kids I spied some credible hulas, but nothing compared to the woman from Hawaii, who, after reviewing the movements she’d learned in grade school, danced a lovely hula to “The Hukilau Song.”
A short while later, I sang “The Hawaiian Wedding Song” to a pair of newly wed women in buzz cuts and blue blazers with wide lapels and gold trim. Their photographer grew impatient while I crooned of “sweet aloha” and of how “blue skies of Hawaii shine on this our wedding day.”
Toward the end of my set, a woman of 60 or so laid a fiver in my case and piled some coins on it to keep it from blowing away. “Delightful,” she said.
As I packed up, noting that today’s take again far exceeded normal levels, I wondered if perhaps my busking revenues were a leading indicator of the economic recovery. If so, it would be most delightful indeed.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: The Hawaiian Wedding Song, The Hukilau Song
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Back to Center Stage
0October 9, 2014 by admin
I took up my uke at center stage, under a wind-swept October sky. Clouds, some dark with rain, passed in front of the sun, then moved off to the southeast. The crowds were sparse today, only a few people on the stone benches, reading, eating, enjoying an illegal smoke. An elderly woman started me off with a buck and a smile.
A family of four stopped nearby. Dad gave his young son some money. As he approached to give it to me, I watched the kid unfold two singles and put one in his pocket. I got the other.
A quartet of young Brazilians danced by. “How about a hula today?”
One woman looked interested, but she needed encouragement. “Don’t let it rain. A hula will chase away the clouds and bring out the sun. Do it for your friends, do it for yourself.” She danced, and damn if the sun didn’t emerge .
A 50-something couple strolled down the path toward me. When they got to the benches they sat down and listened to my rendition of “Honolulu Baby.” They were Brits. “Do you know that song?” I asked the man when he made his $2 donation.
“No,” he said, “but you sure sold it. You’ve got charm.”
One of the reasons I prefer center stage to my spot on the path under the maple is that people get a chance to hear more than a snippet as they walk by. Another couple of a certain age had been listening for a while before thanking me with a dollar. Two young women took a seat and, between bites of their sandwiches, struck silly poses for each other. It was inevitable that one of them would answer the call of the uke.
“I don’t know how to hula,” the mocha-skinned California girl told me.
“Just do what’s comfortable for you,” I said. “No rules.”
She must have seen people hula, however, because she had all the moves, including the double-time hip action of the natives. Her friend filmed most of “The Hukilau Song,” promising to put it up on Facebook.
While singing “Ukulele Lady” for the second time, a man in flip-flops and long white hair sat down by the fountain to listen. He introduced himself as Mr. Melody TM, told me he was an international music distributor and asked me if I had any of my own material. When I told him I only played the old songs, he asked me to listen to his latest release; maybe I would cover it. It was called “Riding in the Park,” about horse-drawn carriages. The chorus begins: “Don’t take away our horses, please.”
My time was up. With $10.12 in my pocket, I considered it a fine day.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Honolulu Baby, The Hukilau Song, Ukulele Lady
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Memory and Tradition
0October 4, 2014 by admin
The saxophone blared from center stage, simulating laughter with a reedy run in thirds down the scale, before breaking into “The Girl from Ipanema.” Two caricature artists worked the rise in the path, a painter sold his park scenes at the crest, and I set up at my usual spot, under the towering maple. The day was warm, the sky cloudless blue.
A German girl was the first to drop a dollar in my case. “Haben Sie die Zeit für eine Hulatanzen heute?” She did not.
Two Swiss men had been rowing on the lake, heard me singing, and wanted to give me a dollar. I often get reaction from folks in boats, a wave or a smile, but rarely does anyone seek me out afterward. Once, several years ago, a young woman asked me to play “Honolulu Baby.” She knew that I knew the song because she’d heard me singing it when she was on the lake a few days before. I had revived a favorite memory of her grandmother singing it while bouncing her on her knee.
A short-haired southern lady with a backpack hurried by, gave me a buck, and wished me a wonderful day.
About a dozen pre-teen girls came noisily up the path. I asked their leader, a thin, middle-aged man with a neatly trimmed beard, if they had time for a hula.
“Have we got time for a hula?” he asked. The response was a boisterous affirmative. They danced to 3 verses of the “The Hukilau Song,” passing the leis to each other between verses so everyone had a chance to wear one. The leader gave a fiver to one of the girls to drop in my case. “The group I brought last year did the hula too; it’s getting to be a tradition.”
Next up was an Australian family, with a young boy who tried to hula, but only managed to move his shoulders up and down. Dad gave him some coins for me. When they’d gone, I peeked into my case to see a quarter and a penny among the folding money. I also looked at my watch, which I keep in my case, and was amazed to see that my 90 minute set was over.
Category Uncategorized | Tags: Honolulu Baby, The Girl from Ipanema, The Hukilau Song
