THE STORY
In 1990, 21-year-old Bunny Sparber moved to Hollywood. He brought with him Kenneth Anger's HOLLYWOOD BABYLON, THE PSYCHOTRONIC GUIDE TO FILM, a few changes of clothes, and a 16-year-old brother who was running away from home. The trip was partially supported by a burglary -- Bunny had stolen a silver flute and several camera from his parents and then pawned them. He and his brother landed in Los Angeles with $600. Two weeks later, they were broke.Bunny's brother returned home, but Bunny stayed on, moving into the Citrus House, a homeless shelter for gay and lesbian teeangers. Many of these teeanger worked as male prostitutes on the nearby Santa Monica Boulevard, some were sick, some were hooked on drugs or alcohol. Most didn't stay in the shelter more than a few weeks. Bunny worked, saved money, and moved into a transitional living program run by the Teen Canteen, an organization dedicated to helping homeless teenagers in Hollywood.
While in this program, Bunny began taking acting lessons from multiple Academy Award-winner Shelley Winters, who had once made a promise to Marilyn Monroe that she would start a program for orphans. There being no more orphanages, Shelley did the next best thing and offered weekly classes to homeless teenagers. Bunny spent more than a year in this program, eventually writing several plays for it. Shelley did not like Bunny's plays, which drew from actual experiences of the homeless teenagers involved in the program; she called it psychodrama and expressed fear that the plays' violent content might hurt the teenagers involved in making it. After a tense meeting at her duplex, Shelley dropped out of her own program.
The day after the Rodney King beating, Bunny was at work in Westwood, where NEW JACK CITY was opening. A riot broke out, and Bunny was beaten on his way home. Shortly after than, Bunny moved into an apartment in Hollywood called The Nirvana, which was rumored to have once been owned by Errol Flynn, who kept his mistresses there and visited them through a tunnel connected to his nearby mansion. It was on the roof of this building that Bunny watched the Los Angeles Riots erupt. Not long afterward, he returned to his hometown of Minneapolis.
WHY THE UKULELE
Bunny started taking guitar lessons when he was 8 years old, and played until he moved out to Los Angeles. At that time, he bought himself a cheap ukulele, which he has played ever since. The ukulele is small, inexpensive, and portable. It doesn't require wires or amplifiers or straps or picks (although Bunny's current uke can make use of all of those), making it ideal for Bunny's itinerant lifestyle.
The ukulele has an unexpectedly storied history in rock and roll; even more unexpectedly, it has some history in punk rock and new wave. Elvis Costello has made extensive use of the uke, while Joe Strummer got his start playing uke while busking in the London Underground system. Additionally, the ukulele has enjoyed quite a revival lately, with bands such as Hazard and The Rumble Pups using the ukulele as their primary instrument.
