{"id":1153,"date":"2019-06-13T11:47:05","date_gmt":"2019-06-13T15:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/?p=1153"},"modified":"2019-06-13T11:47:07","modified_gmt":"2019-06-13T15:47:07","slug":"feel-free-to-give-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/?p=1153","title":{"rendered":"Feel Free to Give Advice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A volunteer gardener was laying out flowering plants behind the benches at 72nd<\/sup> St.\u00a0 I recognized white nicotiana and cleome, and asked for the name of a ping-pong ball sized purple flower on a tall, skinny stem:\u00a0 gomphrena.\u00a0 In the background, the perennial stella d\u2019oro lilies and hollyhocks sported different shades of yellow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I set up at Bethesda Fountain, and soon an Englishman was\nhovering about, waiting for me to finish a song.  \u201cDo you know any George Formby songs?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know of them, but I can\u2019t play them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut you must.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI tried to learn \u2018With My Little Ukulele in My Hand,\u2019 but it was too complicated.\u00a0 Here\u2019s an old music hall song,\u201d I said, and played the chorus of \u201cGive Me a Ukulele.\u201d\u00a0 That was good enough for him, and he gave me $2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A large number of high schoolers in matching gray tee shirts encamped at the southeast corner of the fountain to rehearse for some kind of show or pageant.\u00a0 I tried at first to soldier on, but I couldn\u2019t compete with their amplified soundtrack and the crowd of assembled curiosity seekers, so I sat down at the fountain and waited.\u00a0 There were 30 or more of them, performing choreographed dance numbers, with lifts and dips, hand-springing boys and high-kicking girls.\u00a0 This went on for about 20 minutes, then they came together as a chorus, boys in the back and girls up front or kneeling, to sing \u201cMy Country Tis of Thee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, good, I thought, this must be the finale.\u00a0 I stood up, ready to resume my set, when they broke into the second verse.\u00a0 I sat down again.\u00a0 \u201cAmerica, the Beautiful,\u201d came next, followed by a choirmaster\u2019s idea of a socko finish, higher and louder repetitions, ending with a major chord that lasted for what seemed an eternity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After I\u2019d resumed playing, an old man with a ponytail, tie-dyed\nshirt and beer belly, pulled a harmonica out of his pocket; he wanted to play\nsomething with me.  \u201cWhat key are you in?\u201d\nhe asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cF-sharp,\u201d I said.  \u201cI\ntune it down a half tone to increase my range.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a C and a G harmonica.\u201d  I put on a capo to get back to G, but I couldn\u2019t\nfind the right chords for him.  Before he\nwalked off, he gave me some advice.  \u201cYou\u2019ve\ngot to seed the pot,\u201d he said.  \u201cThrow in\na 5 or a 20, that\u2019ll get you the bigger tips.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, I seed the pot with 2 singles, but to make him happy I pulled a fiver from my wallet and tossed it in.\u00a0 It crossed my mind that he could have provided the 5 or 20, but I said nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A woman walking by gave me a dollar.  A mid-teen girl with her mom gave me 2.  I\u2019d been watching her watching me.  I could tell she liked the music, but she\nrefused to hula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beer belly came back. \n\u201cSo did it work?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He shook his head, deeply disappointed in me.\u00a0 \u201cWhen I busk in Key West it always works.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMust be me,\u201d I offered, happy to see him leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I packed up, a well-dressed man with a tall, skinny\nblonde on his arm, asked, \u201cHow much for the purple one?\u201d  He pointed to a solar-powered hula girl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFive bucks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor the purple one?\u201d asked the woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes,\u201d the man assured her, handing me a five.\u00a0 I packed up the hula girl in a plastic case and gave it to him.\u00a0 Despite losing 30 minutes to the pageant rehearsal, I was pleased with my $12 take.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A volunteer gardener was laying out flowering plants behind the benches at 72nd St.\u00a0 I recognized white nicotiana and cleome, …
keep reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[136,28,90],"class_list":["post-1153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-america-the-beautiful","tag-give-me-a-ukulele","tag-with-my-little-ukulele-in-my-hand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1153"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1157,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153\/revisions\/1157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}