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Song in my head: The "the best is yet to come" song by Dan Bern, the name of which I don't know Mood: mellow and peaceful and sleepy and good Current book: Dorian Gray hasn't changed yet I just got back from my Artist�s Date and this is wild, I feel as happy and content and wistfully sigh-filled as I would be coming home from a �real� date. Wowsa. I didn�t expect this. I was feeling kinda not grumpy per se, but not necessarily looking forward to spending an evening all by my lonesome, and I thought I would get rained on, or I would feel conspicuously alone, or fill in the blanks with negative outcomes, but it was an utterly lovely night and one happily spent in silent solitude even among a throng of people. I got to the seaport and sat on the pier and just watched the people sitting among me and read a little bit but mainly just sat and watched, and the sky had cleared and was a pale blue brushed with thick swaths of clouds. The first act was David Poe, whom I�d never heard of before, but he wore sunglasses and played an amplified acoustic guitar (an oxymoron?) and I felt so ridiculously content and fulfilled sitting and listening. Usually when I�m alone at such events I feel anxious and out of place, but I didn�t at all. And then Dan Bern came on and it was such a rush to see him again, I hadn�t seen him live since I met the Louse, so it had to be before February of 2000, and all the songs came rushing back to me, it was like the past three or four years hadn�t even happened, I was transported. He sang �Wasteland� and I was back in my bathroom in my Harlem apartment � I loved that bathroom, it was mine, all mine, and I had a clear shower curtain with butterflies on it and a purple beaded light pull and a deep claw-footed tub where I could take bubble baths and a tiny windowsill where I kept framed photos, and I would shower and listen to Dan Bern and sing along about dead Marilyn Monroe strung up like a two bit whore and I wondered how Joe DiMaggio felt? I will have to look up the song but he sang one I hadn�t heard in years about a tongue in cheek, hilarious encounter with God and the commandments (the commandment Moses neglected to impart? �Thou shalt not be mean to a moose�), but it turns unexpectedly poignant as God sings in his ear, �the best, the best, the best is yet to come� and I found myself ridiculously tearing up as if the words were meant for me. Dan Bern sings an awful lot like Bob Dylan � as in, I wouldn�t really call it singing � and you don�t listen to him for his singing voice, it�s his voice that is so compelling, his imagination and humor and sudden melancholy depth, and just his love for words and story, and all he needs is that raspy speaking-singing and a guitar and a harmonica to tell his stories and I was so inspired. Sigh�swoon� I�m so glad I did something that I was so resistant to! After the concert I did something really good Samaritan-y without really thinking about it; I went into a bathroom stall and someone had left her cell phone behind and I took it so no one would steal it and the girl�s going to come to my office tomorrow to get it � turns out she works at 168th and it�s really easy for her to come get it. Hooray! I just felt so bad for her leaving it behind - I could really identify after having my wallet stolen last summer. Hooray! I�m just so ludicrously cheerful. Hooray!
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