1. There I was. One bag, a guitar and a passport that opened all doors I chose entering. There was no room for the past. I vanished.

    VAGABOND/ Jon Ber

    hello

    VAGABOND 3:47
    Winds came suddenly, the sky let it go it snowed.
    As white swept the soil,
    for a moment we thought, maybe you and I?

    You were shy, wanted to know.
    I no longer lie, so I told you that in the morning
    I'll be gone.

    I no loner lie.
    Loveless I'm free to be walking off.
    Doesn't daunt me, that my restless soul,
    will forever be wondering on.
    Code of the nomads, a Troubadour, I'm a vagabond.

    Winds came suddenly, the sky let it go it snowed.
    As white swept the soil, contemplation evoked, maybe you and I?

    Persona Grata
    The end of the Cold War and the death of Apartheid - two seminal geopolitical events, in the last years of the  second millennium - yielded a window of opportunity to cross borders between continents and countries like never before. Resurrected, passages in coma since the Dark Ages, sprouted myriad of new paths. Proprietors of privileged passport, of the sort I have just been granted with, were welcome everywhere.



    LOVE IS FREE 3:33 
    Sensing cloud hugging mountain.
    Shortly lived affair.
    Love is free, does what she wants.
    Comes and goes.

    Misty clouds kissed the valley.
    Stirring life from despair.
    Love is free, can't be imposed.
    Comes and goes.

    I can say Je t'aime.
    But yet to learn how to love.
    Love is free, nobody knows, when she comes or goes.


    Melting Borders
  2. It had a picture aimed at easing the mind of customs borders officers and officials in general. I farewell the yuppie suit, yet maintained a short hair cut and clean shave. Keeping up appearances was crucial. Saluted by sycophantic  bureaucracy, I'll be getting in and out countries, carryings handcrafted creations produced on  the streets, market, and  remote indigence villages in Africa, Asia and South America then, selling it to shop owners and market venders in small towns and the biggest cities in the west.

    It was all legal. Result of perception. USA citizens are rich therefore legitimate. Routinely I witnessed other nations dreamers stopped at the border.


    Maternal Trust
  3. Being born in  Eastern Europe, I was well aware of the extent of my fortune. Nasha didn’t know that. She had a burning desire (“brennende wunsch”) to visit London and Paris. She wasn't an optimist.  It was something foreigners, undamaged by  the East German regime Stalinestickly inspired brand of sadism, could envelope to be. Colleagues, friends and lovers were programmed to tell on each other. Information was gathered in unmarked building, by anonymous officials, on behalf of the supreme power. Capricious, impenetrable, incomprehensible Kafkaesque maze.

    There was no safety nor trust among the privileged party inner circle either. Alienating the core of humanity, the East German secret police, Stasi, had mothers snitch on their children. To the Fatherland. DDR. The



    CHINESE JOKE 3:11
    Thugs sell oil. You are buying.

  4. In Darfur, people are dying.

  5. Women raped, children slaughtered,
    life set on fire.

    Urgent to Panda.

  6. People republic of China.

  7. Need your help.
    Stop evil.
    Free Tibet.
    Free your own people



  8. Gulliver nor Giraffe 

  9. We met on the train from East Berlin to Prague. Nasha was one of the few Rock band promoters in the Soviet block, hence permitted to travel within some of the Iron curtain’s constrains. There were three armed  Russians and an East German soldier in the compartment with us. “Musica” demanded one of the russians, nodding towards my guitar. I played  American songs while the train made its way under darkening evening sky. Nasha’s eyes were glued to my guitar.

    I pulled out A bottle of Scotch Whiskey. A singing party started, with more passengers crowding the corridor, cheering and  dancing as the bottle was passed on.


  10. Few years earlier I would have been arrested for  spreading  decadence. Being accused of spying was  feasible. Even some of my friends in the USA were convinced that I worked for the CIA because of my traveling habit, peculiar languages skill and unconventional military background. My assertion that I'm conspicuously tall for a  secret agent, were dismissed as being part of the ploy.

    Missed another Sign

  11. Crackles the barbed wired Berlin Wall steel enforced cement bricks, were as grimly grey as ever. Endless miles of rusted tanks, canons, trucks and other assorted out of commission mutilated heavy weaponry, piled on sparsely connecting railway tracks, matching the surrealistic atmosphere of dilapidation, in a country that forbade rejuvenation.  But omen was given. Music allowed.  Space  will  soon
    merge with eleven time zones across the USSR to bestow hundreds of millions of people, freedom of movement and expression.   Before long the positive waves will impact the rest of the  planet. I couldn't imagine that, yet heard myself assuring Nasha that she will get to go wherever she wishes soon. There I sang a  verse from John Newton's Amazing Grace . "How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me." Chill ran through my spine earlier that morning when I crossed at Checkpoint Charlie through prison gates from free West Berlin in to the dreary East.


    Happy Fool

  12. In tandem with the wondering one, I was born under an optimistic star. Still a pre-schooler I comforted a girl I had a crash on: “anybody can achieve their wishes  if they really wanted them hard enough”. She laughed. I wore blue short trousseaus. Her name was Mia. She was , six years older. It was hopeless. 




  13. polish

  14. POLISH J0KE   3:17  
    A certain frog lady felt weak.
    So she went to the doctor and said:
    I am sick.

    The doctor put on hiss glasses,
    because he was getting a bit old.

  15. Then, he examined her thoroughly
    and at last, said this:

  16. Lady. Dear Lady:

  17. You must sit on a pump.

  18. You must exhale and inhale,

  19. because you must be dry.


  21. The Frog left the doctor and said to herself:
    I am sick.
    And a patient listens to a doctor.
    I have to be dry. I will be dry.


  23. The frog took care of her health
    The frog dried herself dry.

  24. She did it step by step.

  25. But al that remained of her,was a little dust.


  27. And the doctor scratches his ear:
    Dry, didn’t work for the dear.


    Prague Flamenco

  28. By morning, we were in the Danube wonder city of Prague. It was twenty years after its spring was crashed by Russian tanks.

    The colors were brightening. The city was humming with local activity and mostly Eastern European travelers. Fresh paint was applied by a matriculate master, to a magnificent gate  decoration of a busy beer garden, where we joined other patrons at one of the long massive wooden  tables. My guitar found itself in the hands of a gifted young Flamenco player from Cuba. She played Malaguena. Nasha cried. I have never seen here again.



  29. Soon Africa

  30. Gleaming  eternal light came to shine on  Africa. It illuminated Earth. His name was Nelson Mandela.  He called upon traders to  come  to the the new Rainbow Nation of South Africa. And I went. I was doing Austria...at the time (More about my three years in Africa soon.)



  31. PEACE OF MIND
    Peace of mind comes your way one day.
    Rivers run away from mountains.

    Query thoughts. splitting hair. C'est moi.
    On a fence. Detached.
    No Love no pain. 
    But now it rains.

    Peace of mind comes your way one day.
    Rivers run away from mountains.
    Unite with oceans.
    Curious water spreads forever.
    Merge with the sky, awaits stormy day.
    And then it rains.


    Tora Shanty

  32. Traveling became significantly more affordable as the 1990s unveiled. Infant that it was, the Internet transformed information - momentarily  accelerated flourishing global trade and leisure traveling related industries -  consequence  of rapidly growing middle-class in the developed world. Travelers were no longer in the hands of self-serving, incompetent, untraveled travel agents. 

    Access to India was still limited. There was not much choice beside Tarom, the Romanian Airline and the Soviet Union’s, Aeroflot. Both were using the same notorious, mid air rattling planes. Yet somehow, India where TORA TORA, (slowly slowly) after surviving the initial few years shock - I started feeling shanty. (Inner peace.)



    I travels to:
    Africa: Botswana, Egypt, (Sinai) Grand Canary Islands (Spain), Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, (Zanzibar) Zambia, Zimbabwe.
    Americas: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, United States 50 states.
    Asia: Cambodia, India, Indonesia, (Bali) Israel, (Palestine occupied West bank & Gaza strip) Japan, (three southern Islands) Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, (Burakay) Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, (Ko Chang. Ko Phangan, Ko Samoi) Turkey.
    Europe: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, (now split into north and south) Czechoslovakia (now split into two countries) Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, (East Germany now reunited with west) Greece, (Corfu, Crete) Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, (Majorca) Sweden, Switzerland, Wells, Yugoslavia
    Oceania: New Zealand (North & South Islands)  Australia.




    MURDOCH SHUT UP 2:35

  33. Eight years nightmare ended.
    The people have spoken.

  34. We had enough lying crap.


  36. Corporate stooges brought the country to the brink.
    We bailed you out, now shut up.



    One Bag

  37. Visa requirements were cancelled or dramatically liberalized everywhere. There I was. One bag, a guitar and a USA passport that magically opened each door  I chose entering.  There was no room for the past. I vanished. Thus it came to be known, among my family and friends that I have expired. They should have known better. I've been doing thin air imitations since childhood.


    WOMEN IN BLACK
    I, Yo, E'yo, beg of you:
    Give them a chance to live in freedom, dignity, hope.

    Women in Black, Silently defiant.
    In between madness alone.

    Collecting darts of pain.
    Fragile souls in horror.
    Humbly plea emancipation.
    For tortured generations.
    A current situation in Jerusalem.

    I, A'ny, A'na, beg of you:
    Share with them your luck, to live in freedom, dignity and hope.

    Sarah, remember: "Lion will lay down with lamb"
    It won't be always  lonely in Jerusalem.


  38. Literal Resurrection

  39. It was few years ago, while at one of my favorite palaces on Earth, a desert oasis Hindi holly town Pushkar, Rajastan, India, that Yo'av, the Sitar player, notified me that "actually everybody back home knows" that I  am dead. "Been like that for years." People eagerly spread sad news. It makes them feel wonderful. In my  case however, disappointing as the update may be for some: "The rumors of my demise were highly exaggerate:.." Mark Twain.



    AMERICA COME BACK  2:49
    Tear in the eyes carries the torch.
    Everybody can see what’s going on:
    La la la lies,
    P P P poop.
    ga ga gaga.
    Blah Blah blah blah

    America come back.
    Home of the free & competent.
    Katrina.. Abu Grab...
    The war doesn't end.
    Bin Laden is not dead.

    Cheney & Bush or McCain.

  40. Enough is enough.

  41. It exactly the same.
    La la la lies....



  43. Sunset Cruises

  44. Jane had the same information in Los Angeles, California, where I affectedly ended the years of deadness, by showing up at her place in Hollywood. The house number was unforgettable: 414 and a quarter. Husky,  brisk animated-self, she was the best at talking without pauses - giving me a summery of the time I lost in one sentence that lasted well over an hour, during  which, without missing a beat, she summoned Karen by phone. In the early eighties Jane rumbling caused us to be kicked out of a Sunset avenue restaurant.

    Ah the good old days. Jagermeister with beer chasers and Irish coffee to boot. Cruising between the Roxy on Sunset, Barney's Beanery, Raincheck room, on Santa Monica boulevard and Molly Malone on Fairfax, with morning  breakfast at Canter’s.

    japanese

  45. LOVE IS FREE 4:01

  46. Ichinichi, that’s “one day” in Japanese
    Anata (you) told me kudasai.
    Please stay with me tonight.
    Dozo. (please)
    Domo arigato, (Many thanks)




    Scientific Evidence

  47. Later that evening, Ron whom I have just met, decided after listening to my reasoning for not contacting anyone and consulting a dictionary, that Vagabond is most suitable way to  describe who I am. He was Karen's boyfriend and a  movie director at that. I was flattered. Somehow it sounded a bit more romantic than being called a bum - which was the way I thought of myself after so many years on the roads. Couple of weeks later I went back to the Pushkar and wrote the music and lyrics for VAGABOND. BAR HARBOR and CAROLINA GREENS - were added later in my travels in the USA - to a soundtrack based on the same theme.



    hebrew
    KING SHARON 2:47

  48. Wakes up with conflicting thoughts.
    What's better: Build or demolish?
    Reality changed, as I slept through the years.
    It is an abnormal situation.
    He’ll summarize in a word.

    Oh what a man he was.
    From his nation’s greatest.
    Idealist. Revisionist and a do it man.
    Once they called upon him, to be their king. Forever.

    And so on the way to top:
    He climbed and devoured.
    Embezzled and killed.
    Didn't stick to a post.
    He'll be switching jobs, 
    when he wishes.


  49. They sang "king Arik live and alive".
    Not only In Holon, also in Bat Yam.
    And in Bet El, they claimed
    he is The Saviour.

    And so at the top, rich an obese, he squinted and stuttered.
    With your blood he'll pay.
    Till the end he will fight, against peace for Israel.


  50. Ass’s Sunglasses

  51. The very last day of 1999 seen America in a bit of hysteria, due to a computer related millennium doomsday theory named Y2K. I accompanied an actress friend, to a Los Angeles, Rodeo Drive, bookstore were she loaded herself up with fancy cover books, about such and other catastrophe predictions. "One has to surround themselves with books, so they can sponge the knowledge."  she explained.
    I remembered a newspaper cartoon I've seen when I was a teenager. "An Ass carrying books is still an Ass." I said grinningly. “Never mind that.” She smirked, waving her credit card to pay for a $380  sunglass pair. She received movie royalties pay that day. “I’ll never ware cheap sunglasses again” she declared in a true Vivian Lee - Gone with The wind - fashion. Next morning I woke up in a Bell-Air mansion after a new year’s party. It was 2000. We were all alive. I flew back to India where most families couldn’t earn $380 annually.



  52. BAR HARBOR  4:08
    Winds from the north came suddenly.
    The sky opened-up it started to snow.
    When white swept the soil, contemplations evoked:
    maybe you and I?


  54. You were shy in Augusta, brave in Bangor.

  55. Aloof the moon, had lit up the welcome post to Bar harbor.


  57. It was known all along, that rivers somehow return to the sea.

  58. I've no one to return to.

  59. Loveless yet free, I keep moving on.

  60. Never fearing that my restless soul, will forever be wondering on.

  61. The ways of the nomads, Troubadours. I'm a Vagabond.


  62. Childish Fantasy

  63. I got stuck penniless, just about everywhere I went, while learning to do business on the road. Uncontrollable desire to see the world and nothing to miss, helped me overcome hurdles and luck showed up again, just when it seem I could go no further. It was  an idea from a mind of a child: Get to the countries I dreamt about - Find handcrafted merchandise I liked and could afford developing with the artists that made them, to fit international standards - Peddle the final product, to shop owners in a different area of the same country, or other parts of the world. And so I came to be a traveling trader.


    SEEN THE LIGHT  1:45
    He seen the light.
    It was too late.
    It knocked him out, but he wasn't dead.
    Instead he said: I've seen the light.
    Its a big one. It shine so bright.


  64. We've seen the light.
    It was too late.
    By now he was the president, who've seen the light
    Its a big one.
    It shines so bright.


  65. Harmonious Solitude

  66. I fell in love with Pushkar, where time strolls lazily, on my first trip to India. It was the local friendly, shanty life style. The roaming monkeys, camels,
    cows and donkeys,  the daily morning salute to the sun and evening sunset rituals by the lake - with Bangalassy at the Teahouses and a chance to enjoy the company of other travelers - while been mesmerized by ever changing circus, for months at a time. Playing guitar quietly, singing whispery in my rooftop room, at the Mona Lisa hotel, I joined the echo of drums and singing from passing processions, wishing harmony in solitude. Around the corner Pawan have just opened his first silver shop. It was destiny. We became brothers.



  67. CAROLINA GREENS  4:12
    The moon couldn't sleep.
    Early in the morning.
    Carolina greens unfold,
    the sun is waking up.
    We've been through long ago
    but I still don't know why:
    tears don't dry and the void
    lingers on and on?

    If suddenly, out of thin air.
    you pop back in town.
    Don't cherish any hopes,
    we've been through long ago,
    but I still don't know why.


  68. Fulfilling Friends

  69. Coming back to the same villages & markets to upgrade quality, strengthen trust and improve communication was an uplifting experience I relieved on six continent. Even better. I returned to visit my best friends and their families. In some countries, I was sticking around for months, couple of years, coming back for years, or passing through just because I had to check it out. I was lucky to have worked with artists and master artisans. Got to meet and hang out with hundreds venders at their places of business and homes - while seeing the world and establishing fulfilling relationships.

    Street Level

  70. Now, my life is quite. Peacefully green. There’s no need to shave in the morning. I am going nowhere. Birds, deer,  woods fields, and  cows for neighbors, my life style is completely opposite, from the days I lived on the road between somewhere and nowhere - moving on while getting to know Earth on the street level.


  71. hebrew & arabic
    DAY HAS COME  3:41
    (Hebrew)
    Once destiny told me:
    Fear not mistaking.
    I'll guard you at night.
    Day will come.

    Fallen soldiers playing  flutes.
    Orphans refugee camps.
    Sing a song longing for peace.
    Day has come.

    (Arabic)
    Forgive me child, sir,  leader.
    My heart wishes peace,
    but my head is crazed.
    Thousand nights and a night...
    Peace. Day has come.
    Really. My child really.
    Positive. Yes.


    Ubiquitously Raw
  72. Thanks to the visionary geniuses who developed digital
    mind-bugling  tools - you can read, watch and listen to what I write, play, sing, record  and publish directly here, from my little house in rural USA. Unrestricted. Inedited, constantly changing. Still, for better or worse, master of my domain - I pilot solo in hyperspace, visible everywhere at all time.


    MAC Factor
    For that my reverence
    and gratitude to the creators of my new Mac Leopard OS X 10.5.6.  Magnificent, silent, nimble,  reliable, multifaceted, suave operator - enabling anyone anywhere champion  showcase to  the world - seamlessly bypassing range of instantly archaic technical expertise, charlatans and gatekeepers.



  73. slides 
    CHINESE JOKE   WALLA   AMERICA COME BACK   CAROLINA GREENS   POLISH JOKE  SCARECROW  

    MUSIC
    BAR HARBOR    VAGABOND   LOVE IS FREE     SEEN THE LIGHT   PEACE OF MIND   USA COME BACK   WOMEN IN BLACK      KING SHARON    SHOMER NAFSHO   DON QUIXOTE   HEARTBREAKER    EYA    AMAZING GRACE  

    REVIEWS
    GOOGLE BOOKS   THE CASTLE   BLACKADDER   RISING DAMP   BRITAS EMPIRE   ONLY FOOLS & HORSES


    ”A gem of a singer/songwriter has come to us in the form of  Jon Ber.  His work puts us in mind of such greats as Leonard Cohen or Nick Drake. Simple tools, words and strings. Nothing at all simple in using them to their utmost."      starlightstudios.net


    SITCOM

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  74. www.jonber.com 
    Music, lyrics, vocals, guitars, keyboard,
    audio, video, photos, design, publishing
    by Jon Ber Copyrights 2009 reserved

    email
    boa

    BOX 264 CATAWBA, NC, USA 28609
 

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