Bernie Reprise: Two TV Sets & Two Cadillac Cars

Many moons ago, my dear friend Ariela told me that if this is a Phish blog, she'd be lost.  I assured her that it is not.  Sure, I am inspired by much of my favorite band's lyrics, but as stated in the subheader, this is a cultural commentary.  I talk about parenting and other stuff too.

However, it's a presidential election this year.   Me?  I don't get too into it.  I can say I will not vote for a bigoted and racist fool.

So far, the thing that has caught my attention is that Bernie Sanders has wonderful things to say about the band that changed my life.   Yep, Loony gets about that deep when it comes to her politics.  As the old adage goes, "Her life was saved by rock-n-roll" (and the Torah).

I know that most of you reading can't relate to the power of a Tweezer Reprise, but there is incredible power, emotion, depth of heart in experiencing that song live.   Ask any phan and no one will deny the proper respect that a Tweeprise deserves.  There's little debate that this tune is emblematic of the Phish experience.  It's filled with positivity and hope and all good things.  It is a very motivational tune.

So when Bernie walked out to this tune at a recent rally, I was pretty psyched.






I was also pretty psyched to meet the very solid and kind Tom Marshall, one of Phish's essential lyricists and collaborators, recently though a friend.   Sometimes it's hard to keep all of my seemingly disjointed thoughts together, but I shared with his wife, whose name is spelled Lea Lea but pronounced "LiLi" as in the song "Yaalili", that her name reminds me of this really catchy tune that was popular in the Jewish world like 5 years ago.   She definitely gave me a blank stare, but was kind about it.  Am I nuts?  Nah, just got a little bit of the loony thing going on.

When you have a conphergence of a person who loves both Phish and her ancient heritage (that's me you're talking about!), you get one freaky, heady holy chiller!


How I get from a Princeton prep school hippy who writes noodley jamband tunes (the classic one being Golgi Apparatus)  to heart-o-Flatbush observant, chassidic Jews who created a tune that has reached millions of Jews is the power of my ever connecting thoughts.  I attribute this ability to the aybishter, as always.  What can I say, it's a G!d-given gift.  I just want more people in my life who can appreciate this stuff.





I just hope that Tom and Lea Lea got a kick out of the video.  And of the Balki-looking guy towards the end.