On August 8, the temperature in Central Park reached 88 degrees.\u00a0 The triumvirate of begonias, ageratum and allium provided color.\u00a0 Not a rose could be found behind the benches; instead the bush was littered with brown leaves and wilting tips.\u00a0 In the shade of Strawberry Fields, the guitarist finished \u201cLet It Be,\u201d then immediately launched into a dark rendition of \u201cStrawberry Fields.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Colin, the cowboy, dressed in black, motioned to me as I walked past.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m ready to call it a day,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cThis is brutal.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cNot for me today,\u201d I said, looking toward the sun-drenched fountain.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll go play in the shade.\u201d<\/p>\n
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There weren\u2019t many people in the park.\u00a0 I played to the sky and water, and to the towers of the San Remo on Central Park West.\u00a0 The boat rental business just across the path, on the other side of a chain-link fence, looked slow.\u00a0 One of the attendants, his back to me, danced a lazy hula.<\/p>\n
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I took a water break after 30 minutes, and another, 30 minutes later.\u00a0 So far, except for the 2 singles I use to give people the right idea, priming the pump, so to speak, my uke case was empty.\u00a0 While I sang out lyrics I\u2019d sung 10,000 times before, I started to compose this blog in my head.\u00a0 After 11 years of busking, nothing, nil, bupkis. \u00a0Then, literally at the 88th<\/sup> minute of my 90 minute set, a woman, who had been taking pictures of her young teen daughter, plopped a fiver in my case and said, \u201cPicture, please.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI have one requirement,\u201d I said, reaching for a lei and draping it around her daughter\u2019s neck.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cRequirement?\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cOk, we accept.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After the picture was taken, I invited the girl, who was in New York from San Diego, to hula.\u00a0 \u201cGo ahead,\u201d said mom.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou go ahead,\u201d said the girl, taking the camera and putting the lei on her mother.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So mom danced to \u201cThe Hukilau Song,\u201d while daughter took the pictures.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s worth some more money,\u201d mom said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The set over, I unfolded another 3 singles, for a total of — what else — $8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"