Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
I'm going to do a bit of bragging by proxy.  I just received my first
"official" copy of my wife Amy's first book today!  The title is "The Twenty-
Year Itch:  Confessions of a Corporate Warrior", and it's published by
Motivational Magic Press (us!).  It's sort of Irma Bombeck meets Dilbert.

She has been on the WELL in the past (amyberger), but hasn't been by much 
lately.  She can be reached (and copies ordered for $12 plus tax, 
shipping and handling!) at 'aberger@home.com'.
  

    
Brava, Amy!
  

    

Congratulations!!
  

    
Humorous career book.  There's room for one of those.  Congrats to both of
ye.
  

    
Great news!  I will order a copyt.
  

    

Oooh, everybody read my piece in yesterday's NY Times Magazine.
  

    
Is it online...?
  

    

DUnno!
  

    


The E! special with my Monica song airs this week:

>airdates for the special are as follows:  Saturday at 8pm (and again at
>midnight), Sunday at 2pm and Monday at 12pm.



(For more about "Monmica Lewinsky" by David Gans andd the Broken Angels, see
<http://www.trufun.com/monica> )
  

    

 
 Some reviews from my February east coast tour:
 
 
 He chose his covers well and performed them with subtlety and sincerity.  You
 didn't see anyone heading for the can or the lot during the show.  His own
 songs are much better than the average singer/songwriter that is playing out
 these days. If Shawn Mullins has a hit, David should be all over the charts.
 
 -- Alan Thornton (alan@MINDSPRING.COM)
 
 
 
 The Monica Lewinsky song was GREAT and I especially liked your version of
 "Wharf Rat" since this is one of my all-time favorite Dead tunes.
 
 -- Jeff Simons (jsimons@crownbooks.com)
 
 
 
 
 Senor Gans played a fantastic show last night.... If you've never heard David
 live before, you are in for a real treat.  He has a sweet voice that really
 brings out the emotion in his lyrics, and he picks a really diverse setlist,
 in spite of the incessant requests for nearly every song in the Grateful
 Dead's musical canon.  Oh yeah, his playing is pretty damn good too!
 
 -- Brian Ferdman (BFerdman@arlserver.fhi.org)
 
 
 
 My friend who couldn't make it asked me to describe your style.  I don't play
 guitar, so I was a bit of a loss, but I told him that you were meticulous
 with your notes, if that makes sense.  It's kind of like bb king to me.  He
 said, "Anyone can play notes fast, but the object is to play them well."
 Which is what I thought you did/do.
 
 -- Brian Shapleigh (bes@cip.saic.com)
 
 
 
 David gave us a nice show here in Philly.... What surprised me most at this
 show was the quality of David's singing.... he has a lot more range and
 subtlety than I expected.  Some real nice solo acoustic work, too.
 
 -- Bruxist1@aol.com
 
 
 
 
 Hi all, David was terrific at the Iron Horse last nite.  I strongly advise
 all of you in the Boston area to head out to Johnny D's in Somerville to
 catch him perform.  Besides singing many of all of our all time favorites,
 his own original songs are WONDERFUL.  His guitar playing is really sweet and
 his vocals are clear.  He is a very talented and warm person. You'll have a
 really grate time !!!!!
 
 -- LABINS (labins@home.com)
 
 
 
 
 The guitar playing was very accomplished, as was the singing, but the most
 notable part of the gig, beyond the classic deadtunes, was David's
 non-Hunter/Garcia numbers.  While Attics and UJB were very well played, the
 clear jamming highlight was the New Speedway Boogie jam ... into a truly
 inspired George Harrison raga rave - Within You Without You... Wow! ...
 Thanks for playing that, David - and good lead playing on NSB....
 
 David has a unique view of the hippie generation, captured well by Martin
 Mull's "Normal" - the line "cut our hair so folks won't hate us"... but his
 single best song was the oft-mentioned "River and Drown"...  You have really
 nailed so much about the ecstatic experience and the many ways to pursue it.
 This should be your next single - would love to hear a big band treatment of
 this number.  We all could really get back to talking about the deadlife with
 poetry like this - well done, Mr. Gans!!!
 
 Sovereign Soul was also very moving - good end of the tour tune, if not a
 statement of purpose...
 
 -- AKnight579@aol.com
 
 
 
 
 
 Review: David Gans solo Johnny D's Restaurant and Music Pub 2/17/99
 
 We entered the dark and smoky doorway on a cold New England Evening.  It
 seems like a "smoky joint" my friend exclaimed - people were into the evening
 - there was light conversation in the room.  The food was good, and the
 prices reasonable.  It was a nice, warm, comfortable place for acoustic
 music.
 
 David wasted no time to show the small crowd he was there for a good time.
 Right away he threw it open for requests - Everyone seemed subdued until Mr.
 Gans insisted on our requests - then everyone had something to say -
 
 While performing some solo tunes he recorded with a band on his new album,
 Gans would jest with the crowd and say "at this point on the "CD the regular
 band kicks in" - Gans gave us great guitar rhythms and a humorous glare.  The
 crowd ate it up!
 
 The audience also helped out a couple of times with the rhythm section by
 clapping along.
 
 We were both surpassed to hear the very nice solo rendition of thunder road -
 "that tune is much better solo than with a group" someone in the audience
 commented!  The crowd seemed pleased with Mr. Gans' interpretation!  The
 crowd was positive and pretty well lit for a Wednesday night. Must have been
 the Guinness on tap.
 
 In all, it was far superior to a lot of today's new musicians out on the club
 circuit. I may be a bit biased by the great grateful dead tunes Gans played,
 but the quality of music was also very pleasing to the ear. The combination
 of solid vocals and clear word projection made the songs as strong as the
 musical accompaniment.
 
 The first set closer, Monica Lewinsky, was wonderfully received be the
 audience.  First with confusion, then with delight when the light hearted
 tone of the song was realized.  Although I disagree with Mr. Gans political
 conclusions regarding the scandal and disgrace President Clinton has brought
 on himself and all Americans, the song is a perfect addition to the tradition
 of topical song writing.  I hope that one day musicologists researching the
 impact that the Presidents behavior has had on American culture, they will
 find the FIRST recorded topical song (that I know of) regarding the whole
 affair.  When that happens, the name David Gans will be in the topical song-
 writing history books!
 
 From Boston
 Kevin Comtois
 with, Marc Sincage
 
 
 
 
 ... DO catch Mr. Gans if he gets out your way.  His "Heartland" performances
 here in Chicago have been absolutely great.  I think the best way to put it
 is, even if he weren't "our" David, and an unreconstructed Dead Head, you
 would enjoy his artistry.  His shows are really well paced and crafted, and,
 as somebody pointed out recently from the Atlanta shows, show a lot of humor.
  Catch this guy!!
 
 -- RickHutt@aol.com
 
 
 
 Is "An American Family" yours? If so, hearty congrats on an authentic
 original creation that sounds like it's always been here.
 
 -- Steve Solomon (ssol@well.com)
 
 
 
 Had a very enjoyable evening at the Iron Horse in Northhampton!  My highlight
 was Sitting in Limbo.  Beautifully sung and played.  I am amazed at the
 honesty and sincerity in your voice, I did not expect it! I have heard you
 sing before, but not in that pared-down acoustic setting...WOW!  I really
 liked what I heard.
 
 -- Todd Schaefer (schaefer@slamcoll.com)
 
 
  

    <scribbled by tnf Fri 5 Mar 99 12:56>
  

    

Details of my April midwest tour are available at
<http://www.trufun.com/gigs.html>
  

    
He chose his covers well and his sheets even better.
  

    

I cannot get "Monica Lewinsky" (the song) out of my mind.
  

    

If I could translate that into sales, I'd be in great shape right now.
  

    
> Johnny D's in Somerville

Huh!?!  Maggie Simpson (currently of Laramie, WY) attended BU, and has a
song about a "Johnny D".  I wonder if there's a connection. 
  

    
Today is a happy day for me.
I woke up to a phone call announcing an excellent book review of
"Little Lords of the Desert" in Phoenix Magazine. The same caller told
me she ran into one of my titles in BookStar -- I didn't even know they
were stocking it. Then the mail came and Baker & Taylor have accepted
MY terms instead of forcing me to accept theirs. Yippee.
  

    
Wow!  Congrats on the good news!
  

    
I'm signing contracts in the next few days for yet another beauty book
(am in the midst of one for Chronicle) to be written with an L.A.
makeup artist. This one is a short project for ReganBooks that will
take me through the summer. It may be the start of a whole new career.
  

    
You sure are busy, Cynthia. Congratulations! And hooray for your
victory too, bratwood.
  

    

My pieces on Earthday are up at http://www.wholefoods.com

Enjoy!
  

    
My wife, Amy (formerly <amyberger> here) had her book mentioned in Leigh
Weimers' column today in the San Jose Mercury News.  Not only was the
title spelled right ("The Twenty Year Itch: Confessions of a Corporate
Warrior"), he told people where they could buy it. 

Thanks, Leigh!
  

    
Nice going.
  

    
Cool!
  

    
More good news about "The Twenty Year Itch: Confessions of a Corporate
Warrior."  Amy is being interviewed by Mike Cassidy of the Mercury News
tomorrow morning!  And, we got another book order from Amazon.com today!