Homemade Freedom

2010-07-27T06:20:00.000-07:00

Visionary geniuses invented digital tools, that allow me to publish music and videos I create at home - and share news, arts and entertainment channels - with everyone on Earth. Welcome. My name is Jon Ber. This is my story.

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.

Melting Borders.
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 a 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.

VAGABOND
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?
music, lyrics, vocal, guitars, by Jon Ber

Maternal Trust
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 Deutsche Demokrratische Republik. Demented dictators do have a flair for slogans. Democratic Indeed. Like PEOPLE'S Republic of China where the regime survived Tieneman Squar to excel enslaving its 1,298,847,000 people. Befriended and emulated by all other current tyrannies who enslave editional 1,000.000.000 (1 billion) people.

NEW DRILL BABY DRILL 3:56 music & video by Jon Ber

Gulliver nor Giraffe
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.

TAR BALLS Video, music, guitars, keyboard by Jon Ber

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.

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
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 most 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.

GOP BLUES Video, music, lyrics, vocal, guitars, keyboard by Jon Ber
Tear in the eyes carries the torch.
Everybody can see what’s going on:
La la lies, p p poop, ga ga gaga, blah blah blah .
Cheney Bush or McCain.
Enough is enough its exactly the same:
La la lies, p p poop, ga ga gaga, blah blah blah .

Happy Fool
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 but not sad. I was in love with all the girls.

NO MORE SWEET NOTHINGS
Lyrics & music by Jon Ber

Well you just about to dump me.
Says so frankly in your eyes.
And to ease the pain you're cold yet nice.
Better skip the stage of sorrow.
Wouldn't help things very much.
Spit it out and lets continue with our lives.

Loving softly all night till darkness disappeared.
Sharing each others dreams, with no shame without fear.
Before you go please tell me dear.
Were you always sincere?
Even at times you whisper sweet nothings and nothings in my ear?
Alaska through Rio to Cape Town then Amsterdam.
Goed (good) Amsterdam. It's freezing but clear.
There's no more sweet nothings and nothings in my ear.

Prague Flamenco
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 strikingly brighter than those of East Berlin. 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 Ernesto Lecuona's Malaguena. Nasha cried. I have never seen here again.

KING SAHRON
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 the nation’s greatest.
Idealist. Revisionist, and a do it man.
Once they called upon him, to be a 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 wants.
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.
Lyrics, music & translation from Hebrew by Jon Ber

DAY HAS COME video, music, lyrics, vocals, guitars, keyboard by Jon Ber
(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, landlord, 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.

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.)

Tora Shanty
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.

POLISH JOKE Lyrics by Jan Brzechwa
Video, music, vocals, guitars, keyboard by Jon Ber

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.
Then, he examined her precisely. And at last, said this:
Madam.dear madam. You must sit on a pump.
You must exhale and inhale, because you must be dry.

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.

The frog took care of her health. The frog dried herself dry.
She did it step at a time.But al that remains were dust.

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

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).

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

Rivers run away from mountains.
Unite with oceans.
Curious water spreads forever.
Merge with the sky, awaits stormy day.
And then it rains.

One Bag
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.

Literal Resurrection
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.

CHINESE JOKE video music lyrics vocals guitars keyboard by Jon Ber
Thugs sell oil. You are buying. In Darfur people are dying.
Women raped. Children slaughtered. Life set on fire.

Urgent to Panda. People republic of China.
Need your help. Stop evil. Free Tibet. Free your own people.

Sunset Cruises
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.

Monty Python BEST FREE LAUGHS EVER. Monty Python channel on YouTube.

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.

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

You were shy in Augusta, brave in Bangor.
Aloof the moon, had lit up the welcome post to Bar harbor.

It was known all along, that rivers somehow return to the sea.
I've no one to return to.
Loveless yet free, I keep moving on.
Never fearing that my restless soul, will forever be wondering on.
The ways of the nomads, Troubadours, I'm a Vagabond.

Scientific Evidence
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.

BBC WORLD NEWS

Ass’s Sunglasses
The very last day of 1999 seen America in a 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.

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.

Childish Fantasy
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 yet another fantasy I have not forgotten from childhood: 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.

Harmonious Solitude
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.

Flicker todays pictures

CAROLINA GREEN.
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,
thought I still don't know why.

Fulfilling Friends
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
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.

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

Misty cloud kissed the valley.
Stirring life from despair.
Love is free nobody knows.
When she comes or goes.

music, lyrics, vocals, guitars, keyboard,
photos & video, homemade by Jon Ber

Making Sense
And while I'm trying to make sense of it all, I'll let thespians, and comedians in particular, explain why, who and what, is going on, on our huge-little planet. I wish I could do it myself, but as you must have guessed by now, I was born without sense of humor. The English got it. So they can survive without taste buds. more soon

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
by David Nobbs. Starring Leonard Rossiter, Pauline Yates, John Barron, Sue Nicholls, Geoffrey Palmer, Trevor Adams, Bruce Bould, Tim Preece, Sally-Jane Spencer, John Horsley.
26 episodes BBC 1976 - 79.

Blackadder
by Richard Curtis, Rowan Atkinson & Ben Elton. Starring Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson, Tim Mclnnerny, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie. BBC ONE 24 episodes & 3 specials 1982 - 83.

Yes Minister & Yes Prime Minister
by Antony Jay & Jonathan Lynn. Starring Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne & Derek Fowlds. 38 episodes 1980 - 88. BBC TWO

The Vicar of Dibley
by Richard Curtis & Paul Mayhew-Archer. Starring Dawn French, Gary Waldhorn, James Fleet, John Bluthal, Liz Smith, Trevor Peacock, Roger Lloyd Pack, Emma Chambers. 20 episodes + 4 shorts. .BBC1 1994 - 2007

The Thin Blue Line
by Ben Elton. Starring: Rowan Atkinson, James Dreyfus, Mina Anwar, Serena Evans, Rudolph Walker, David Haig. BBC 14 episodes. 1995 - 1996.

Open All Hours
By Roy Clarke. Starring Ronnie Barker, David Jason Lynda Baron & Kathy staff. 26 episodes 1976 - 85 BBC two & BBC one

The Britas Empire
by Richard Fegen & Andrew Norriss. Starring Chris Barrie. 52 episodes 1991 - 94. BBC ONE

'Allo 'Allo!
By Jeremy Lloyd, David Croft & Paul adam. Starring: Carmen Silvera, Gorden Kaye, Guy Siner, Kim Hartman, Richard Marner, Sam Kelly, Vicki Michelle, Kirsten Cooke, Francesca Gonshaw, Kenneth Connor, Sue Hodge, 85 episodes 1985 - 1995. BBC1

Special Thanks and credits

COMPUTER
Apple Mac Leopard os x 10.5.6. is a magnificent, silent, nimble, reliable, multifaceted, suave operator - enabling anyone anywhere champion showcase of their work to the world - seamlessly bypassing range of archaic technical expertise, charlatans and gatekeepers.

MUSIC RECORDING Apple's GarageBand, it is composers and musicians fantasy. Its integral part of the Mac OS X encompassing abundance of inspiring sound modifications tools.

PUBLISHING RapidWeaver exceeds expectations. It offers publishers speedy delivery, whilst maintaing pages integrity on all browsers. Build by Realmac for the Mac OS X - it is trustworthy CSS templates champion.

MICROPHONE Samson G TRACK USB Condenser MIc that has a GEE WEEZ easy interface with midi, electric guitars and headphones input. Cables are included. I'm thrilled with it.

CAMERA Canon Rebel Ti1

VIDEO HOST YouTube

PHOTO EDITING Adobe Photoshop

VIDEO PRESENTATION Apple Keynote

VIDEO RECORDING ScreenFlow

WEB PRESENTATION Cooliris

RESEARCH Wikipedia, Google, Bing

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.

Palin McCain: Drill Baby Drill

2010-07-26T05:38:00.000-07:00

80 Million Gallons of oil gashed into the Gulf of Mexico until today and no end in sight. But Sarah Palin Greed Protection GOP Joe Barton cries: OBAMA''S BP SHAKEDOWN #1 TRAGEDY.

Drill baby Drill - Republicans Sarah Palin, John McCain, John Boehner, Michael Steele and Rudolf Giuliani, incite crowds on behalf of BIG OIL. Drill Baby drill - ITS SAFE.

Featuring a Bill Maher clip about Sarah Palin, from his HBO show. Original music and video, homemade by Jon Ber

Michele Bachmann Poison Lies

2010-07-26T05:11:00.000-07:00

by Jon Ber

Tar balls of death have landed everywhere in the Gulf of Mexico. More is certain.

The culprit, the Republican party, spent decades in bed with Big Oil, Big Banks, Big anything for money.

Without a scruple, nor a whole brain between them, masters and stooges, sabotaged human advancement mutilating generations on Earth on behalf of greed.

OBAMA''S BP SHAKEDOWN #1 TRAGEDY cries Texas Republican Joe Barton on behalf of his corporate financiers.

Minnesota, Michele Bachmann, calls president Obama's action to insure BP pays its victims, extortion. Senator Johen Cornyn (TX) agrees and so does Newt Gingrich, a prominent leader of the Tar Balls aka Republican party.

Clips from PBS NewsHour, NBC, Rachel Maddow and the Ed shows, AP, Fox News and YouTube.

A video by Jon Ber.
Homemade. jonber.com.

Jon Ber VAGABOND

Facebook | My Photos - Wall Photos

Homemade Freedom

Palin McCain: Drill Baby Drill

Michele Bachmann Poison Lies