{"id":815,"date":"2017-05-02T11:28:43","date_gmt":"2017-05-02T15:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/?p=815"},"modified":"2017-05-02T11:28:43","modified_gmt":"2017-05-02T15:28:43","slug":"may-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/?p=815","title":{"rendered":"May Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a 3 week hiatus, I returned to the park.\u00a0 Most of the daffs were shot.\u00a0 Silvery rose-colored tulips dominated the hillside by the hundreds, giving way to purple pansies and multi-colored South African daisies at the entry to the park at 72nd<\/sup> Street.\u00a0 Above the corpses of white tulips now rose pale yellow fritillaria imperialis, their shy flowers peeking up from a cover of spiky green leaves.\u00a0 Next to the still bud-less rose bushes was a single bleeding heart.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The area around the Mosaic Fountain was in deep shade.\u00a0 There, Solomon\u2019s seal and buckeye bottlebrush dominated. \u00a0One pink wild geranium was also having its moment.\u00a0 The pallid white conical blooms on the chestnut tree masked the disease we know is there.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The park today was full of families, dogs and bikes.\u00a0 Local school kids, under the watchful eye of their gym teacher, ran relay races to a big tree and back.\u00a0 What started as a cool day had turned delightfully warm and clear.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I set up at Bathesda Fountain, center stage, where I soon attracted the attention of a toddler.\u00a0 She could barely walk, but with a lei around her neck, she could hula.\u00a0 Her father gave me a dollar.\u00a0 Soon a young man got up from his bench and dropped a dollar bill and some coins into my case \u00a0A young woman from Michigan, who danced her first hula ever while her boyfriend documented the event, netted me another $1.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A trio of Greek girls got hold of my leis and frolicked around the fountain.\u00a0 They asked me to play something Greek; all I could come up with was \u201cNever on Sunday.\u201d\u00a0 They had never heard of it, nor of Melina Mercouri, the Greek actress and politician who\u2019d made the song famous long before they were born.\u00a0 That notwithstanding, each gave me a buck.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A stressed office worker from 55th<\/sup> St. had come out to the park on her lunch break to enjoy the beautiful day.\u00a0 Not long after we started to talk, she was swaying to \u201cThe Hukilau Song.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About an hour into my set, a young man with a broad grin and straw hat, approached.\u00a0 His name was Jonathan.\u00a0 In about 45 minutes, he would be conducting a wedding. Since live music is always better than pre-recorded, he’d checked out the buskers and chose me to provide the processional over the kids playing guitar and mandolin. \u00a0“Because you looked more like a professional musician,” he told me.\u00a0 I assured him I was not, but that didn\u2019t stop him.\u00a0 \u201cCan you play \u2018Somewhere Over the Rainbow,\u2019 the Iz version?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cNo, but I can play the Judy Garland version.\u201d\u00a0 That seemed fine to Jonathan; we struck a deal for $25.\u00a0 I moved to the far end of the fountain, facing the lake, and started to entertain the wedding guests as they arrived.\u00a0 Between songs, surreptitiously, \u00a0I rediscovered the forgotten chords I would need, so that by the time I got the nod from Jonathan I could pretty well croon the tune without mistakes.\u00a0 As I sang \u201cwhy, oh why, can\u2019t I,\u201d Marielle and Ray had reached Jonathan and the ceremony began.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Afterward, everyone gathered for pictures while I sang \u201cThe Hawaiian Wedding Song,\u201d followed by \u201cMaking Love Ukulele Style.\u201d\u00a0 It was a fun gig.\u00a0 With $34.72 in my pocket, I exited the park.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a 3 week hiatus, I returned to the park.\u00a0 Most of the daffs were shot.\u00a0 Silvery rose-colored tulips dominated …
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":[7,102,103,14,12],"class_list":["post-815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-making-love-ukulele-style","tag-never-on-sunday","tag-somewhere-over-the-rainbow","tag-the-hawaiian-wedding-song","tag-the-hukilau-song"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815","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=815"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":817,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815\/revisions\/817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mrukulele.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}