Tag Archives: dan bern

An open apology to Dan Bern

Humor, Music, ,

Dear Dan Bern. or Bernstein if you prefer,

As you stand on the stage at Jammin’ Java on Thursday night you’ll notice something is not quite right. Something about the crowd is a little off-kilter, but you won’t be able to put your finger on it – won’t be able to figure out what, exactly, is different this time from all the other times you played at Jammin’ Java. Or Iota. Or Birchmere*.

Dan Bern Jammin' Java September 2006
You at Jammin’ Java September 2006
Dan Bern and Rupert at Iota 2002
You and Rupert at Iota 2002

I’ll tell you now, so you’re not distracted on Thursday night. What is different (or what will be different, rather) is the unfortunate fact that I’m not there.

It’s not that I didn’t want to be there – in fact I replied “yes” on your Facebook event. It’s that I can’t be there. See, a friend passed away last week and the memorial service is on Thursday at 7:00 pm. You understand, I know you do.

And before you suggest I go to Friday’s Night Cat show in Easton – not terribly far away from Bethesda, where I live — I cannot do that either. My son, a senior in high school, is a wrestler and has his county wrestling tournament this weekend beginning on Friday. Again, I’m sure you understand why I cannot go to the Friday night performance either.

Good luck on your performances in both Virginia and Maryland this week. May your audiences behave and be appropriately lively and not request “Tiger Woods” too often. May they listen attentively and appreciate your new material as much as they appreciate your older stuff.

Please make plans to return to the area soon. Barring deaths and wrestling tournaments, I’ll be there, I promise.

Love,

Dona aka cedarwaxwing

*That you headlined since 1997. I missed your most recent Birchmere performance when you opened for Todd Snyder. I did see you open for him there once, and while I like Todd Snyder, it is hard to hear you for a few songs and then have to hear someone else for the rest of the evening. I also missed your 930 Club performance even though a member of your band at the time got me VIP passes. My babysitter didn’t show up that time.

Dan Bern – Still the Messiah

Entertainment, Music

Dean and I saw Dan Bern at Jammin’ Java last night. I think its been a year since the last time I saw him. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve seen him perform, but it is probably somewhere around 30. Last night’s performance was a good solid show — not particularly noteworthy except that he seemed in a good mood the entire performance.

He played lots of his old and recognizable songs including Tiger Woods, Black Tornado, Suzanne, Chelsea Hotel, God Said No, & Jerusalem. He played a couple of songs from Two Feet Tall, his new CD intended for kids: It Vibrates and Hen Party.

He played The 5th Beatles which always makes me laugh. I guess I’ve not heard it enough to remember all the jokes in it. He also played a song I’d not heard before. The first line was “God is a concept by which we measure our own pain”.

I like sitting near appreciative new-to-Dan folks and seeing / hearing their reaction to some of his lyrics — last night we sat near a table of them. They laughed at all the right places: “I’ve got big balls…” “I am the messiah…”

The icing on the cake last night was running into a friend I’d not seen in years. It felt a little like old times again.

Fiestaware, Ted the Cow, Coke and me

Dreams, , , , ,

So last night I had a Dan Bern dream. I was watching TV on a big screen television that was attached to the wall. I think I was at my parents’ house, but it wasn’t really my parents’ house. A commercial came on the television and in the middle of the screen was a book with talking line-drawn characters. I recognized them as Ted the Cow-type drawings, but now that I look at the book, what I saw in my dream was not Ted the Cow-type drawings. Anyway, two of the line-drawn characters started to sing a well-known Dan Bern song (don’t know which one it was but my dad said something disparaging about those “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah”1 lyrics) and I immediately ran to the store and bought a new shirt.

While the salesperson was ringing up my purchase (an oversized pink, lavender and aqua button-down denim shirt2) she asked what I wanted to drink — it came with the shirt, so I said a Coke. Then she said that the Coke had some strange powder3 in it and was probably contaminated, and showed me the front pocket of the shirt. Sure enough, something fizzy4 and white was floating in the Coke filled pocket of the shirt. She sent for a new shirt, but it was not the same color. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to buy it, but since it came with free Fiestaware, I figured I’d get it and donate the shirt.

On the way out I mentioned that my favorite singer, Dan Bern, liked Fiestaware6, but didn’t expect them to know who Dan Bern was. Turned out they did because he owned the shop.

—–

[1] This really happened once — but I was listening to Beethoven at the time.
[2] I recently found two oversized denim shirts and wasn’t sure if I should keep them or not. They are both blue though.
[3] I mis-read a mis-read comment on a bulletin board and confused Coke (as in Coca Cola) with coke (as in cocaine) and had to re-read it. Weird it would pop up in a dream.
[4] Last night my daughter had fun with suds and the kitchen counter and floor and walls were covered in soap bubbles. Before I went to sleep I worried about who was going to clean it up, since my daughter didn’t seem willing.5
[5] Dean cleaned it up.
[6] I don’t know if Dan Bern even likes Fiestaware — but he does live in New Mexico.