Arlene's Leonard Cohen Scrapbook

US TV Promo Leonard Cohen "Old Ideas" on CBS Sunday Morning

2012-01-29T17:42:00.000-08:00

January 29, 2012

Imagine my delight when I watched today's DVR recording of "CBS Sunday Morning" on TV.

During the playback, there was a 30 second promo for Leonard Cohen's new album, Old Ideas.

What a nice surprise.

I had seen some TV promos uploaded from other countries, but not one in the US yet.

I grabbed my camera, replayed that portion and uploaded it to YouTube.

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Links to TV promos in other countries assembled by Roman aka Goldin (here)

Report From Australia, "A Successful Gathering - Twice As Long As A Leonard Cohen Concert."

2012-01-28T22:01:00.000-08:00

Alan Mawhinney with "Roscoe" & Dean (from Adelaide) Engelhardt

January 28, 2012

Alan Mawhinney and I have been exchanging emails since the Adelaide concert in 2010. One thing about Alan that was evident from the start, he is so passionate about the genius of Leonard Cohen he wants everybody in his life and beyond to enjoy and admire LC as much as he does.

Alan was inspired to bring together people of different levels of appreciating Leonard Cohen including newcomers with little background. It was a mission he set for himself and it appears he has succeeded

Karin (like a rose on its ladder of thorns)

On January 21, 2012, Alan and his wife Karin hosted a Leonard Cohen fans get together at their home in Adelaide. Alan, along with the equally passionate Dean (from Adelaide), organized a program for the evening with extensive coverage of Leonard Cohen material.

Alan kindly sent me emails and photos to let me know how the evening went. Thank you to Dean for inviting me to join in on Skype, but I am not on Skype...yet.

Following is a reprint of Alan's emails (in part) describing the planning and the meet-up in his own words.

By: Alan Mawhinney, Adelaide, Australia

Overall we had a successful gathering - twice as long as a Leonard Cohen concert.

I have decided to host the inaugural meeting of the LC Fan Club (Adelaide branch) on Jan 21st.
Each person is asked to introduce a song and then I will play the relevant video.
Dean and I will then introduce the novices to some of the songs not played on the World Tour.

There is a tradition in Australia to have "Christmas in July" when it is cold, so this will be LC's birthday party in January when it is hot.

I caught up with Dean and Cathy at a cricket match a few days ago and they are both in good form.
Dean will bring his concert CD artwork and I will display my vinyl collection.

They are the only others outside my group of inductees that are local forum members.
However I found out a couple of weeks ago that my neighbours are recent fans, so that will increase the numbers a little.

....
Meeting Dean and Cathy this evening (yes at another cricket match) for further planning for our gathering.

....
Planning for Saturday week is progressing a-pace. Dean wondered if you wanted to tune in on skype!

.....
Overall we had a successful gathering - twice as long as a Leonard Cohen concert.

1. Some audio recordings of Cohen Rarities - Do I Have To Dance All Night, To Love Somebody, etc.

2. Video "The Guests"; Alan intro 21st January = LC birthday when it is hot (33C), followed by Albert Noonan's "Happy Birthday" video.
....
Followed that with the Sony version and then the Alan/Allan version of "A Thousand Kisses Deep". (see below)

Some examples of Cohen humour including the Shoe Hospital thing from Austin City Limits and the intro to Billy Sunday (Blues by the Jews).

Then 3 tracks from Old Ideas -lyric videos of "Going Home", "Show Me The Place" and "Darkness". All very well received. Easy segue from the Cohen humour bit to "Going Home".

3. Each person or couple then presented a song, for which I supplied the video. They said what their song meant to them and I tell you that was a real eye opener for me. I thought many just tagged along because of my missionary zeal, but each had their own deep meaning that they had discovered for themselves.

One of the group is a serious Elvis fan and was delighted when I slipped in the video of Leonard singing a few lines of "Can't Help Falling In Love With You" from the recently appeared BBC interview.

Dean and I gave our various concert recollections during the introduction to our songs, and through it all there was significant discussion, followed by respectful silence during the playing of the videos.

4. To round off the evening I had compiled a list of audio recordings that I called "Gentle Songs". These had not been played during the World Tour and were more easy-listening for novices. I omitted things like "Dress Rehearsal Rag", "Sing Another Song, Boys" and similar. I feel they are more for the advanced listener.

I had displayed my vinyls, books and DVDs and Dean displayed his 2010 concert CD collection with its magnificent artwork - greatly admired by all.

5. The unplanned bit - my neighbours - the most recent fans of all - demanded to see more before they went home!

All in all, a successful evening.

L-R Front row - Lee, Karin, Jo, Lorraine, Cathy, Dean; Back row - Klaus, Mel, Ian, Julie, Chris, Alan

The Alan Mawhinney/Allan Showalter collaboration of "A Thousand Kisses Deep"

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Alan Mawhinney is AlanM on the Leonard Cohen Forum
Alan is alanm5049 on YouTube. His YouTube channel is (here) with six superb videos from the Adelaide and Sydney concerts.

Dean (on the beach)

Dean Engelhardt (dce) posted a wonderful comprehensive report about this Adelaide event on the Leonard Cohen Forum (here)

Dean (from Adelaide) blog, lcdownunder 2010, A Time Capsule of Leonard Cohen's 2010 Tour of Australia and New Zealand (here)

Karin Mawhinney (photo above) is sporting a transfer rose tattoo in honour of the event

And leave no word of discomfort
And leave no observer to mourn
But climb on your tears and be silent
Like a rose on its ladder of thorns (The Window)

Pup "Roscoe" is now 15 months old and was named after...you guessed it... Roscoe Beck, Bassist and Musical Director with the Leonard Cohen World Tour 2008-2010. I just love pup Roscoe's hat.

"Excuse me. I Think I Saw You At The Leonard Cohen Concert In Las Vegas At The Colosseum"

2012-01-25T21:11:00.000-08:00

Meet KEN. My favourite guy in Sherman Oaks, CA

January 25, 2012

I once read Dr Heck's lament about posting on his blog (based on Leonard Cohen's quip about composing songs).

If I knew where good posts come from, I would go there more often.

Allan, try hanging out at your local supermarket.

I was shopping at my local supermarket today in Sherman Oaks where another shopper stopped me and said:

"Excuse me. I Think I Saw You At The Leonard Cohen Concert In Las Vegas At The Colosseum"

Oh, did we meet?

No. I just remember seeing you there.

I was so excited. This is only the second time since moving to Los Angeles three years ago that I've met somebody who actually is familar with Leonard Cohen.

His name is "Ken" and hails from South Africa. He has been a fan of Leonard Cohen dating back to 1967 when he first read a review of Songs Of Leonard Cohen. The reviewer was so ecstatic about these being the best songs he had ever heard. So Ken bought the album and has been enthralled with Leonard Cohen ever since.

Fast forward to October, 2011. For his birthday this past October, Ken's wife bought him Leonard Cohen-The Complete Columbia Albums Collection .

We talked about Leonard's new upcoming album, Old Ideas and about Ken listening to some of the songs streaming online.

Ken remarked about SONY's aggressive campaign for this album being so different from almost no publicity for past albums. He feels this is indicative of how important Leonard Cohen is now perceived.

Then Ken added ...He will probably go on tour again.

I hope so, Ken. I hope so.

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Sorry for the photo quality. I only had my lo-tech Virgin LG Touch cellphone with me.
Dr Heck aka Allan Showalter is webmaster of the Cohencentric blog 1heckofaguy and related LC blogs
My first encounter in LA with another Cohen admirer (here )
Old Ideas will be released in the US and Canada on January 31, 2012

Leonard Cohen's New Album OLD IDEAS Is Now Streaming on NPR and Soundcloud (Guardian UK)

2012-01-22T21:32:00.000-08:00

January 22, 2012

First Listen: Leonard Cohen, 'Old Ideas'

on NPR Music

Thanks to Lorraine Sexton (maltmom) for posting the link.

(click here)

OLD IDEAS TRACK LISTING:
Going Home
Amen
Show Me The Place
The Darkness
Anyhow
Crazy To Love You
Come Healing
Banjo
Lullaby
Different Sides

Also: Streaming on Soundcloud (Guardian, UK)

(click here)

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Old Ideas will be available to stream on demand from January 23 through January 31, 2012.

Old Ideas will be released in the US and Canada on January 31, 2012

"Leonard Cohen: the maestro who’s made the most of his misery" The Telegraph, William Langley

2012-01-22T14:13:00.000-08:00

Trim and dapper, Leonard Cohen today has the look of an ageing mob lawyer,

with a voice once described as 'deeper than a Siberian coalmine' Photo: SPRINGS

January 23, 2012

Leonard Cohen: the maestro who’s made the most of his misery

Even on the release of 'Old Ideas' – his 12th album – the 77-year-old singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen remains happy to be sad, says William Langley

William Langley wrote an article about Leonard Cohen and his forthcoming new album Old Ideas in the January 22 issue of The Telegraph (click here) . The wonderful caricature above of LC and the backing Webb Sisters was included with the article.

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Old Ideas will be released in the US and Canada on January 31, 2012

Leonard Cohen's Old Ideas Billboard-Times Square, New York

2012-01-22T01:36:00.000-08:00

January 22, 2012

Marie Mazur, moderator of the Leonard Cohen Forum sent these two fantastic photos of a billboard for Old Ideas at Times Square in New York City. These photos are from Robert Kory, Leonard's manager.

Thank you Marie and thank you Robert.

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Old Ideas will be released in the US and Canada on January 31, 2012

Leonard Cohen at Joes' Pub in New York-Old Ideas Press Conference Jan 20/12

2012-01-21T00:50:00.000-08:00

January 21, 2012

"Leonard Cohen listening session/press conference at Joe's Pub. Simply amazing"

Source: Twitter, Stacey Anderson, New York
"Music journalist for New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, Nylon, etc....and, more importantly, not the TV Land cougar."

And another tweet by Shanta Thake
Directress of Joe's Pub in NYC

"Leonard talking about living in the Chelsea Hotel next to Edie Sedgwick and his quest for popularity"

"Me photo bombing @RitaHoustonWFUV and Leonard Cohen before we got all chummy about 'Old Ideas.' "

Twitter: Liana Huth @JustLiana

"Arlene's Leonard Cohen Scrapbook" Makes New Yorker Map Cover per Dr HGuy's Vision

2012-01-20T12:14:00.000-08:00

January 20, 2012

The devlish Dr HGuy aka Dr Allan Showalter today posted his vision of

Leonard Cohen Map – New Yorker Style

Cohenlandia Cartography

In honor of the New Yorker’s recent publication of the Leonard Cohen poem, “Going Home” and the streaming of the “Going Home” track from the Old Ideas album from the New Yorker web site, Heck Of A Guy offers its somewhat more Cohencentric version of the iconic 1976 New Yorker cover drawn by Saul Steinberg that depicted the world as seen from a New Yorker’s perspective.

"Arlene's Leonard Cohen Scrapbook" made the cover.

See 1heckofaguy.com (click here)

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The New Yorker audio link and lyrics -"Going Home"- from Leonard Cohen's new "Old Ideas" album, out Jan 31/12 (click here)

Leonard Cohen in Paris on January 16, 2012 - Oh that smile...

2012-01-16T22:10:00.000-08:00

Photo: Daylife, Jan 16/12

January 16, 2012

Leonard Cohen was in Paris today for the SONY Music unveiling of his new album, Old Ideas.

Thanks to Suzanne Harlacher for her Facebook post.

Lucky me ... just found this on " daylife "

Canadian singer and Poet Leonard Cohen smiles as he poses on January 16. 2012 in Paris ♥Leonard Cohen's new album " Old Ideas " will be released in France on January 30 .

Oh, and what a smile. I can't stop smiling myself.

More Leonard Cohen photos on the Daylife website (click here)

Reminder: Leonard Cohen's New Song "Going Home" Begins Streaming Today onThe New Yorker Website

2012-01-15T22:05:00.000-08:00

January 16, 2012

Audio here

Going Home

by Leonard Cohen

I love to speak with Leonard
He’s a sportsman and a shepherd
He’s a lazy bastard
Living in a suit

But he does say what I tell him
Even though it isn’t welcome
He will never have the freedom
To refuse

He will speak these words of wisdom
Like a sage, a man of vision
Though he knows he’s really nothing
But the brief elaboration of a tube

Going home
Without my sorrow
Going home
Sometime tomorrow
To where it’s better
Than before

Going home
Without my burden
Going home
Behind the curtain
Going home
Without the costume
That I wore

He wants to write a love song
An anthem of forgiving
A manual for living with defeat

A cry above the suffering
A sacrifice recovering
But that isn’t what I want him to complete

I want to make him certain
That he doesn’t have a burden
That he doesn’t need a vision

That he only has permission
To do my instant bidding
That is to SAY what I have told him
To repeat

Going home
Without my sorrow
Going home
Sometime tomorrow
Going home
To where it’s better
Than before

Going home
Without my burden
Going home
Behind the curtain
Going home
Without the costume
That I wore

I love to speak with Leonard
He’s a sportsman and a shepherd
He’s a lazy bastard
Living in a suit

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The New Yorker: January 23, 2012 issue, click here
For the January 15 SONY press release, see previous post or click here

"The New Yorker" Makes History With New Leonard Cohen Song "Going Home"

2012-01-15T05:01:00.000-08:00

January 15, 2012

Here is a press release from SONY with very exciting, ground breaking news about the first track, Going Home from Leonard Cohen's forthcoming new album, Old Ideas. The album contains 10 new songs and is set for release on January 31.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Leonard Cohen Song to Be Streamed by The New Yorker

Cohen's Recognition Reflects the Strength of Popular Songwriting

January 15, 2012, Los Angeles: For the first time in its history, The New Yorker, esteemed for its consistent publication of great poetry, will stream on its website (www.newyorker.com) Leonard Cohen’s new lyric “Going Home,” one of ten songs on his new studio album, Old Ideas. The New Yorker will publish the lyric in its January 23^rd issue (on newsstands January 16^th). The song will also be streamed on The New Yorker website on January 16^th. Cohen and Sony will release the album on January 31st (www.leonardcohen.com/us/news/new-album-old-ideas-be-released-013112).

New Yorker poetry editor Paul Muldoon, who has been listening to Cohen since 1967, said that he is “thrilled” this will be happening in the magazine, which has recently been acknowledging the great power and achievement of singer-songwriters. Muldoon said, “The New Yorker has been publishing lyrics over the past years by Cohen, Bob Dylan, and Paul Simon…Cohen is in some elite company, including his own!” Cohen’s rich, complex lyrics have intoxicated listeners for more than a generation; his work bridges the world of lyric poetry and song. A selection of Cohen’s poems and songs has recently been published by the prestigious Random House “Everyman” series, which includes in its pantheon Rumi, Keats, Byron, Pushkin, Dickinson, Frost, and, now, Cohen (http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/classics/resources_press.html). Already, through a second printing, a new edition will be released later this winter.

Recently, Cohen’s work has been receiving literary recognition throughout the world. In late October, Cohen received the Príncipe de Asturias, the highest literary award granted by Spain (www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u_7e3Tv7Uk ). PEN New England has also awarded Cohen and Chuck Berry its first “Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence.” Judges included Bono, Rosanne Cash, Elvis Costello, Paul Muldoon, Smokey Robinson, Salman Rushdie, and Paul Simon.

His native Canada, which has honored Cohen before, will bestow the Ninth Glenn Gould Prize upon Cohen for his great artistic achievement in bringing literary richness to popular music and for touching “audiences far outside his main genre.” Cohen’s honors and the recent nomination of Bob Dylan for the Neustadt International Prize (www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/03/leonard-cohen-major-spanish-literary-prize) reflect the cultural recognition of folk-rock songwriters as poets of the highest order.

# # # #

The album by Leonard Cohen was produced with Patrick Leonard, Anjani Thomas, Ed Sanders and Dino Soldo and features backing vocalists Dana Glover, Sharon Robinson, The Webb Sisters and Jennifer Warnes.

Track list of Old Ideas

Going Home
Amen
Show Me The Place
The Darkness
Anyhow
Crazy To Love You
Come Healing
Banjo
Lullaby
Different Sides

Two other tracks off Old Ideas are currently online.
Show Me The Place (lyric video here)
Darkness (audio here)

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For more information about the album and Leonard Cohen, click here
"Old Ideas" album photo: Kezban Ozcan
"The New Yorker" first issue cover: Wikipedia

Leonard Cohen In A "Red River Coat" Is Left Outside By His Mother and Could Never Get In

2012-01-13T14:41:00.000-08:00

January 13, 2012

The title of this post came from listening to an interview of Leonard Cohen on a program called "Mixed Bag" with Pete Fornatale on WNEW-FM in New York.(4/28/85 Part 1).

In response to the interviewer asking why LC chose "Stranger Music" for the name of one of his publishing companies, Leonard's comments included:

I have always been on the outside...
My mother used to leave me outside, in the snow, in the winter, in Montreal.
She would dress me very warmly and just leave me outside.
I could never get in.
And those Montreal winters were bitter.
I had this Red River Coat with a red sash and a toque with a pom pom
and I was visible in the snow.
She could see from the kitchen window, but she'd never let me in.
...I don't think she wanted me around

I have heard Leonard Cohen tell this very charming story before. But I don't recall him describing what he wore. When he mentioned wearing a "Red River Coat", I was curious. Having lived in Toronto, a large Canadian metropolitan city, for most of my life, I have never heard of that coat style.

Although the Red River flows through the US and Canada, I always associate it with Winnipeg, Manitoba. So, the mention of a "Red River Coat" interested me.

I learned that the "Red River Coat" for children was very popular in Montreal in the thirties and it was worn by... "rich kids".

Red River coats

One especially popular type of winter coat was the Red River coat which was worn by both boys and girls... a kind of duffel coat with a toque with pom pom. There was also a wool sash which was useful when it was really freezing. The child put this sash over his face like a scarf... Leggings were the same colour as the toque, mittens and sash. Stockings were under leggings and kept the child warm...it was one of the most beautiful winter outfits worn by children until 12...The coats were always black (or very dark blue), accessory colours were either tomato red or aqua blue for the toque, sash, mittens and thick stockings.

Photo source: McCord Museum of Canadian History, Montreal

Photo by: William Notman (1867), McCord Museum, Montreal

The Red River Coat came from the Métis culture, described as people of mixed native and European origin. Métis often acted as middlemen who communicated between the First Nations peoples and the European settlers and colonists.

The sash was used by the Métis as a practical item of clothing. It was decorative, warm and could be used to replace a rope if none was available. The Metis consider the sash as a symbol of nationhood and cultural distinction. Today it is still considered to be an important part of traditional dress.

There is also a book written by Mary Peate, Girl in a Red River Coat: Growing Up in Montreal in the 1930's, originally published by Clarke, Irwin & Company in 1970. It was aimed at younger readers, but according to literary articles, it is still enjoyed by many age groups because of its Montreal nostalgia.

Book cover: Google images

This is the fictionalized memoir of Mary Peate, a young girl in Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grace neighbourhood near the onset of World War II. It is the best of times and the worst of times. The Depression is still affecting even middle-class communities. There is an innocence to pre-adolescent life (especially convent-educated life) in this era, resulting in some of the book's best comedy. Peate also has to deal with real problems of polio outbreaks, friends losing their parents, and her ongoing battles with the nuns.

"Mixed Bag" with Pete Fornatale on WNEW-FM in New York.
Leonard Cohen Interview (4/28/85 Part 1)

Uploaded by minordrag on Feb 12, 2008

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WNEW Interview Part 2. Leonard performs an acoustic version of "Night Comes On" click here

WNEW Interview Part 3. More interview and Leonard reads a couple of poems. click here

The Webb Sisters, Hattie & Charley, Delightful As Always

2012-01-02T00:06:00.000-08:00

January 2, 2012

I received a lovely surprise in my Holiday mail. Hattie and Charley Webb sent me a very gracious thank you postcard and also...

...one of their buttons. I love the image word play of the little bird on the "W". The backing paper for the pin is also interesting.

How kind and thoughtful of them. They have had quite a busy and exciting year doing many concert gigs. And they also traveled to Los Angeles to participate in the recording of Leonard Cohen's new album, "Old Ideas". I am really looking forward to hearing them on the album.

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Leonard Cohen's new album "Old Ideas" will be released on January 31, 2012

Eija & Jarkko Arjatsalo "Ice" Stewards of the Leonard Cohen Forum & Leonard Cohen Files

2011-12-31T13:19:00.000-08:00

December 31, 2011

I have been enjoying Eija Arjatsalo's beautiful photography ever since I joined the Leonard Cohen Forum in 2009. I have particularly been struck by Eija's photographs of her Ice Creations.

They are live artworks, so breathtaking.

It was only recently that I realized that the posting of photographs of Eija's Ice works are a Forum tradition at Holiday time. So I surfed the Forum and the Leonard Cohen Files to collect some of her other Ice photographs. One lovely surprise I discovered, the first one below is what Jarkko uses as his avatar.

And here are some of Eija Arjatsalo's beautiful Ice Creations that I was able to find.

Thank you Eija, for all your exquisite photo galleries.

And thank you Jarkko, for everything you do for Leonard Cohen and his fans.

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Photos of Eija & Jarkko Arjatsalo: Leonard Cohen Krakow Event, August 2010
Link to the Leonard Cohen Forum here
Link to the Leonard Cohen Files here

No Tennesse Waltz At Tennessee Concert - Aw Shucks

2011-12-26T01:10:00.000-08:00

Leonard Cohen Forum members
Forum early entry - Nashville, Nov 5, 2009

December 26, 2011

The Nashville, Tennessee concert that I attended on November 5, 2009 has been on my Leonard Cohen radar for the past few weeks.

“Darkness”, which premiered at the Nashville concert, is the only one of the four new songs performed on the World Tour to be included in Leonard Cohen’s forthcoming new album. “Old Ideas”. (release date Jan 31/12)

Several onlne publications have featured…ahem…my video of “ Darkness” at Nashville. So I often think about the special concert experience I had in Nashville.

The Tennessee Performing Arts Center certainly made Leonard Cohen Forum members feel special.

When we arrived early, we were directed to a sign in a private area, a lovely place for us to mingle and meet some of the band members. And it was very close to the Merch stand where I did some shopping.

This was my first time snapping pics at a Leonard Cohen concert (or any concert for that matter) and I apologize for not asking the three delightful forum fans in the photo above for their names.

I do remember chatting with them and having a lively conversation. As I recall, they were not locals, rather they drove in for the concert from a considerable distance.

I had hoped that Leonard Cohen would include, perhaps as an encore, his wonderful augmented rendition of "Tennessee Waltz". After all, the concert would take place in Tennessee, right? Well, that didn't happen.

No Tennessee Waltz in Tennessee - aw shucks.

I love Leonard Cohen's version and I have embedded below a very special video captured in Poland in 1985. His intro is very gracious and very moving.

The basic song was written in 1947 by Redd Stewart and Pee Wee King...Cohen added the third stanza for the live version (dating from 1985) included on Dear Heather (2004) "The Lyrics Of Leonard Cohen" (Omnibus Press)

Tennessee Waltz (Live)

I was dancing with my darlin'
to the Tennessee Waltz
When an old friend I happened to see
Introduced him to my loved one
and while they were waltzing
My friend stole my sweetheart from me.

I remember the night and the Tennessee Waltz
Now I know just how much I have lost
Yes I lost my little darlin'
The night they were playing
The beautiful Tennessee Waltz.

She comes dancing through the darkness
To the Tennessee Waltz
And I feel like I'm falling apart
And it's stronger than drink
And it's deeper than sorrow
This darkness she's left in my heart.

Leonard Cohen
22 March 1985
Sala Kongresowa, Palac Kultury i Nauki, Warszawa, Poland
uploaded by musicloveraustria1

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Other Nashville Concert reports

Nashville Early Entry here
"Darkness" video here
Nashville concert here
Leonard Cohen living in Tennessee here

Adam Cohen Sings Silent Night On TV- CBC Video Uploaded December 22, 2011

2011-12-24T23:22:00.000-08:00

screen shot

Adam Cohen and Coeur de Pirate - Silent Night
George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight (CBC)
Holiday Music Special
Uploaded by TheHour on Dec 22, 2011

Adam and Béatrice team up for a stirring rendition of the holiday classic.

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Béatric Martine website is here

Hanukkah Candles, Leonard Cohen, & Rafael Bernardo Gayol

2011-12-20T14:23:00.000-08:00

December 20, 2011

Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah. While preparing my Menorah (lovingly made years ago by my then young grandchildren) and organizing the Hanukkah candles, my thoughts went back one year ago to the two final concerts of the Leonard Cohen World Tour in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace, Colosseum.

As happened at every concert at the end of "Anthem", Leonard Cohen introduced each band member individually. For a while, Leonard had been doing an elaborate and hilarious intro of Rafael Bernardo Gayol (eg.Oakland here)

At both concerts, on December 10 and 11, Leonard included yet another imaginative description for Rafael, one we had never heard before.

The new description added:

...he converts to Judaism
but is excommunicated for lighting the Hanukkah candles in the wrong direction.

Yes, there is a correct order. On each of the eight nights of Hanukkah, another candle is added and placed in the Menorah from right to left. But when the candles are lit, the order is from left to right, starting with the newest candle first.

Cued to start at Leonard Cohen's introduction of Rafael Bernardo Gayol

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Hanukkah, the "Fesival of Lights", is not mentioned in Jewish scripture. The story is related in the book of Maccabees.

The candle sitting highest is called the "shamus" (sexton) and is kindled first then used to light all the other candles in "the right direction"

Christopher Hitchens (April 20, 1949 - December 15, 2011)

2011-12-17T14:10:00.000-08:00

From Dec 17, 2011 leonardcohenforum

From Unspoken Truths by Christopher Hutchens (Vanity Fair/Crescent Post)

When you fall ill, people send you CDs. Very often, in my experience, these are by Leonard Cohen. So I have recently learned a song, entitled “If It Be Your Will.” It’s a tiny bit saccharine, but it’s beautifully rendered and it opens like this:

If it be your will,
That I speak no more:
And my voice be still,
As it was before ...

I find it’s best not to listen to this late at night. Leonard Cohen is unimaginable without, and indissoluble from, his voice. (I now doubt that I could be bothered, or bear, to hear that song done by anybody else.)

Jian Khomeshi, CBC Radio studio Q, put together two wonderful podcasts Dec 16/11.

Today on Q, Jian started off the program with a tribute to the late writer, thinker and debater Christopher Hitchens. Listen in below.

Later in the program, we revisited our 2009 interview with Christopher Hitchens in Studio Q. It was recorded when he was in Toronto for a speaker series at the Royal Ontario Museum surrounding its "Dead Sea Scrolls" exhibit. Hitchens was to give his thoughts on how the bible's moral codes can be interpreted today. He was also asked by the ROM to add three more commandments to the original ten.

Before he spoke at the ROM, the renowned contrarian sat down with Jian in Studio Q for a chat about the ten commandments and his bestselling book, "God Is Not Great."

To listen to the two CBC podcasts "Q Remembers Christopher Hitchens" click here

CBC Q Video - June 2009

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The ROM is the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto

Proud to be a Canadian Moment-Jian Ghomeshi Interviews Adam Cohen on CBC Radio One Studio Q, Dec 14/11

2011-12-16T22:04:00.000-08:00

"Like A Man" album cover

December 16, 2011

On Twitter: Jian Ghomeshi, CBC Q
Dec 15, 2011

Just heard from Adam Cohen mgmt that he's moved up to #28 (from #141!) on iTunes Album Chart after playing #Q today. Nice. Beautiful album.

Q: The Podcast from CBC Radio

CBC Radio's Q is Canada's liveliest arts, culture and entertainment magazine. It's a smart and surprising tour through personalities and cultural issues that matter to Canadians. Hosted by Jian Ghomeshi, with his trademark wit and spontaneity, Q covers pop culture and high arts alike, with forays into the most provocative and compelling cultural trends. Q brings you big names, big ideas, and those paving the way in Canada's cultural community. Q is your cultural intervention!

Q: The Podcast ...Wednesday, December 14, 2011
(extract only)...Singer/songwriter Adam Cohen, son of Leonard, performs from his record "Like A Man".

Sharon Robinson Accompanied On Piano By Son Michael Gold at Leonard Cohen Tribute Concert, Dec 4/11

2011-12-14T21:48:00.000-08:00

December 14, 2011

This is my favourite photo from the Leonard Cohen tribute concert in Los Angeles.

When I saw first the proofs that the official photographer kindly shared with me, I looked at this photo of Sharon and Michael and said to myself,

Sweet

* * *

A very special thank you to Marvin Steindler Photography for permission to use his photos...

...including a shot of me leaning into the aisle to get a better view.

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Top photo - Sharon Robinson and Michael Gold, Alexandra Leaving

Bottom photo-Front (L) Iliana Rose, "Dance Me..." (R) Wellspring, "If It Be Your Will". The artists are included in Various Artists (clips)

Event description and Tribute Concert stage list here

Lisa Edelstein Cell Phone Welcome at Leonard Cohen Tribute Concert, Los Angeles Dec 4/11

2011-12-13T17:29:00.000-08:00

Lisa Edelstein (Dr Cuddy on "House")

December 13, 2011

Lisa Edelstein was billed as host for a tribute to the words of Leonard Cohen from some of our community's leading voices.

When called to the stage, she held up her cell phone and began reading her welcome speech from it,

Well, this is Hollywood after all.

She followed her welcome with a recitation of ARGUMENT, a poem by Leonard Cohen included in the "Book Of Longing" (ecco 2006).

------------------------

Event description and Tribute Concert stage list here

Photo: Special thanks to Marvin Steindler Photography

Where The Leonard Cohen World Tour Began-Frederiction NB Canada, May 2008

2011-12-12T16:28:00.000-08:00

December 12, 2011

This wonderful photo was recently uploaded by Jacques Poitras (2nd from right), CBC News Provincial affairs reporter in New Brunswick. It was included in a tweet with a link for the new Leonard Cohen album, "Old Ideas".

I admire his caption:

"The NB press gallery's 2008 brush with greatness"

One Year Ago Today, Final Leonard Cohen Concert in Las Vegas on December 11, 2010

2011-12-11T13:41:00.000-08:00

December 11, 2011

Leonard Cohen FRIENDS Gather For Final Five Concerts 2010-Oakland, Portland, Las Vegas

Sharon Robinson & Perla Batalla Sing Duo For The First Time at Leonard Cohen Tribute Concert, Los Angeles, Dec 4/11

2011-12-11T12:37:00.000-08:00

Screen shot

December 11, 2011

The clip below is from a video included in an earlier post about Who By Fire (click here)

-----------------

Event description and Tribute Concert stage list here

Leonard Cohen Tribute Concert - Various Artists - Los Angeles Dec 4/11

2011-12-11T00:06:00.000-08:00

December 11, 2011

I put together a video with short clips of some of the other performers. The video includes three excerpts from Hallelujah -the band instrumental intro and band playoff after the final act...which was...a very large combined school choir singing Hallelujah at the back of the ballroom.

The choir dramatically took the audience by surprise when they started singing because we were all facing the other way.

--------------------------------

Event description and Tribute Concert stage list here

Spirited WHO BY FIRE led by Cantor Joseph Gole and Leonard Cohen Tribute producer, Craig Taubman, Dec 4/11

2011-12-10T01:31:00.000-08:00

Photo: Martin Steindler Photography

December 10, 2011

It started off with Cantor Gole solemnly chanting the Unetaneh Tokaf, the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur prayer upon which Leonard Cohen's "Who By Fire" is based.

Craig Taubman & Cantor Joseph Gole

Then at 2.35 (video below) Craig Taubman kicks in and the performance starts to rock with audience participation and a lot of play on "Who shall I say is calling".

Screen shot

Craig Taubman called on some of the other performers as backup singers, including...drum roll, please... Sharon Robinson and Perla Batalla singing together for the first time (4.19)

It was great fun.

------------

Event description and Tribute Concert stage list here

Special thanks to Marvin Steindler Photography for allowing use of the photo at the top of this post.

Perla Batalla BIRD ON THE WIRE, Leonard Cohen Tribute Concert, Los Angeles, Dec 4/11

2011-12-09T00:06:00.000-08:00

Photo: Marvin Steindler Photography

December 9, 2011

At the Leonard Cohen tribute concert, we were treated to a fantastic rendition of "Bird On The Wire" beautifully performed by Perla Batalla..

In her intro, she told a story about Leonard Cohen once asking her to sing "Bird On The Wire" at a concert he was giving for a special person...teacher...master.

"But that's your song. I only know the la, la's and the ah, ah's."

LC insisted she do it.

So with a friend who plays guitar, she practiced singing it for days until she felt confident.

One day she said to the friend, "Today I own this song".

Her friend responded,, "No, this song owns you."

---------------

Event description and Tribute Concert stage list here

Thank you to Marvin Steindler Photography for use of the photo above

Joshua Malina Recites BABYLON at Leonard Cohen Tribute Concert, Los Angeles Dec 4/11

2011-12-08T00:06:00.000-08:00

Joshua Malina (Will Bailey on "The West Wing") and Arlene

December 8, 2011

Joshua Malina recited Leonard Cohen's poem "Babylon", also known as "By The Rivers Dark" at the Leonard Cohen Tribute concert on December 4, 2011.

In his intro remarks, he mentioned that the Rabbi and Cantor at his synagogue are also huge fans of Leonard Cohen. They have set the Hallel prayer to the tune of Hallelujah.

Hallel (Praise) consists of a group of Psalms which is chanted for praise and thanksgiving on joyous occasions.

Malina's son asked him why they were praying to that song from Shrek?

----------------------------------

By The Rivers Dark is a poem included in Leonard Cohen's "Book Of Longing", ecco 2006
The Shrek/Hallelujah connection was mentioned several times during the concert by different performers.
Event description and Tribute Concert stage list here

Sharon Robinson ALEXANDRA LEAVING, Leonard Cohen Tribute Concert, Los Angeles Dec 4/11

2011-12-07T07:53:00.000-08:00

Son Michael, Sharon and hubby Greg Gold

December 7, 2011

I arrived early at the concert, as is my wont, to snag a seat with a good view,. I was lucky that the performers were sitting in the first two rows (maybe following a sound check?). I easily spotted Sharon and Greg and was introduced to their son Michael.

Sharon looked radiant and stunning as always.

She was so elegant and charming as she is with everyone. My old crush Greg was a delight. (Greg won my heart in Las Vegas after the final concert.) And Michael was an engaging young man. I had seen Michael from afar on the Leonard Cohen world tour but never met him before this.

Well, I must say, this is one power family. So wonderful, all of them.

I was able to get a video of Sharon singing Alexandra Leaving. It was so moving. The words, music, imagery and Sharon's soulful voice touched me deeply.

It has been a long time favourite and I yearned to hear it on tour. But that didn't happen.

So it was a great treat to be there to hear Sharon sing it live...just for me.

All during the concert, there was a slideshow screen on the side of the stage with continuous looping of Leonard Cohen photos. Some of the pics had LC quotes as well. You will see one of these in Sharon's video.

------------------

Event description and Tribute Concert stage list here

Leonard Cohen Tribute Concert, Los Angeles December 4, 2011

2011-12-06T20:22:00.000-08:00

From December 6, 2011 leonardcohenforum

he Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles held an event called
"Imagining Our Future, A day of Jewish learning and culture".
on December 4, 2011 from 12 noon to 6pm (the concert actually ended closer to 6:30 PM)

The closing concert was billed as "A Celebration of the Words and Music of Leonard Cohen".

Stage list

Two Icons, Sharon Robinson and Perla Batalla Perform at Leonard Cohen Tribute Concert, Dec 4, 2011

2011-12-05T17:05:00.000-08:00

December 5, 2011

I was so excited yesterday to meet up again with both of these wonderfully talented singers at a Leonard Cohen tribute concert in Los Angeles.

I have never seen a photo of Sharon and Perla together. So, I just had to share these photos right away.

Consider this a preview of more to come. I have many short video clips of most performers to process. And it is taking longer than anticipated. YouTube limitations are not kind.

More posts about the tribute concert to follow.

Stay tuned...

I Am An Intergalactic Leonard Cohen Fanatic, The Real Thing - Tony Palmer Podcast, Bird On A Wire Film

2011-12-02T22:08:00.000-08:00

Tony Palmer introducing premiere of "Bird On A Wire" - Leonard Cohen 2010 Event, Krakow Poland

December 2, 2011

In a recent 30 minute podcast recorded in Sligo about the making of "Bird On A Wire", Tony Palmer described some aspects about the original film which were most interesting.

the deal making environment in Leonard Cohen's manager's office
two examples of why Leonard Cohen felt he looked confrontational
a funny story that took place in East Berlin with a Stasi officer who didn't understand English

But the highlight for me from this interview was Tony Palmer's description of Leonard Cohen fans who are members of the Leonard Cohen Forum, which proudly includes me.

Hence the title of this post.

Host

What is his reaction to the film? Has he warmed up to it?

Tony Palmer

He's been very supportive...

He gave permission for the first screening to be held at the biennial intergalactic Leonard Cohen fanatics get together...official Leonard Cohen fan club which has his blessing and support...they meet once every two years...and it so happens the year before this, they met in Krakow, in southern Poland...

I think the suggestion actually came from him that we should show the film there because there will be five or six hundred people...who will come literally from all over the world...and if they like it, then it was okay because they knew their Leonard Cohen. This wasn't a general audience. This wasn't someone who just heard him sing Hallelujah...this was the real thing.

I'm told that to a man or a woman they reported back that this was an amazing document.

So, after that he wrote me a very nice note which just said, "I'm very glad that the problem has been solved".

Yet again, it's not either like it or dislike it.

MusicFilmWeb, The Music Documentary Hub (here)
See It Loud
Podcast #29a: Tony Palmer Part 1 – Travels With Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen, Bird On A Wire trailer
Uploaded by cosmicnrg on Jan 2, 2011

Clips from the Tony Palmer's Classic Film "Leonard Cohen, Bird On A Wire" from The Machat Company. The DVD package includes poster, postcard, booklet, and the movie features live performances of 15 Leonard Cohen songs, 4 poems from his "The Energy of Slaves" and rare intimate and backstage footage from the 1972, 20 City European tour, beginning in Dublin March 18th and ending in Jerusalem April 21st.

-------------

The actual number of registrations at the 2010 Leonard Cohen Krakow Event was less than 300.

Leonard Cohen Photo And Handwritten Store Endorsement at "Incredible Records", Sebastopol, CA

2011-11-27T23:43:00.000-08:00

Photo: Barry Wentzell circa 1968

November 27, 2011

This morning, I read an article about the January 1, 2012 closing of a record store in Sebastopol, CA which is owned by Jonathon Lipsin. When the owner mentioned in the article that a favourite memorabilia in the store is a Leonard Cohen photo, that really piqued my interest.

One of Lipsin's favorites is a black-and-white photo of Leonard Cohen, with the Canadian singer-songwriter's handwritten endorsement of the Toronto store: “This is the greatest store in the country".

I wanted to ask permission to post the LC photo, so I called "Incredible Records". Jonathon Lipson, the owner answered the phone himself and was an absolute delight. He spoke to me at length then had to ring off as customers wanted his attention.

Before moving to California, his current location, Mr Lipsin first opened "Incredible Records" in Toronto. The following account took place in his original Toronto store in 1993.

Leonard Cohen came in one day and spent 5 hours in the store and spent about a $1000 .He left and came back 10 minutes later and asked for a pen and paper and wrote this. We are all from Montreal and have known each other,his family and mine. He used to hang out with my grandfather who was a yiddish poet. Jonathon Lipsin (Facebook)

Mr Lipsin added that Leonard Cohen was so pleased with his visit to the Toronto store because he was able to find and replace all the records that were stolen, left behind or were recommended.

The photo and handwritten store endorsement shown above are for sale.
Contact info: jonathonlipsin@att.net or (717) 824-8099

Jonathon Lipsin (photo: pressdemocrat)

-----------

The article about Jonathon Lipsin and the closing of "Incredible Records" on Jan 1, 2012 is here

Photo info above was supplied by Jonathon Lipsin

A link to the photographer's website with another Leonard Cohen photo, dated 1973 is here.

Old Ideas - Leonard Cohen Photo on New Album Cover Reveals Familiar Accessories

2011-11-23T20:09:00.000-08:00

Macro detail

November 23, 2011

After reading the observation by burningviolin on the leonatdcohenform about Leonard wearing a ring on the cover of the new album "Old Ideas", I had another macro look at the photo by Kezban Özcan.

Old Ideas album cover -original photo by Kezban Özcan

I noticed three familiar Leonard Cohen accessories. (see yellow highlights above),
I compared them to three similar items I have at home, much like any typical Cohenite

And, I concluded the following: NB, These are my impressions only.

1. Black Catholic Saints bracelet (right wrist)

Gift from NEeMA

2. Unified Heart ring. (left hand)

Purchased at the San Diego concert merch store, April 7, 2009

3. The ever present black sharpie (handkerchief pocket)

Never leave home without one

"Leonard Cohen Gentleman Watching Us", A Turkish Delight

2011-11-19T22:16:00.000-08:00

Leonard Cohen beyfendi bizi izlemekte

Leonard Cohen gentleman watching us
(Google translation)

November 19, 2011

This image was uploaded on Twitter, November 8, 2011

I really like the tweeter's caption. It's charming.

There is no description of the photo's location. Here are a few points to consider.

The language of the caption title is Turkish (per Google Detect Language)
The tweeter is located in Ankara, capital of Turkey
Leonard Cohen gave two concerts in Istanbul on August 5 and 6, 2009
The square column with Leonard Cohen's image doesn't look like it's in the Grand Bazaar.

-------------------------

Tweet and twitpic by Gokalp Ceyla,
Gökalp Ceylan

@gokalp_c Ankara Kavaklidere

içmimar, aşçı yamağı, azbiraz müzisyen, seymen | interior architect, assistant cook, a little bit musician, seymen

Leonard Cohen Graciously Poses With Happy Fan Outside El Pollo Loco Restaurant, Los Angeles, Nov 5, 2011

2011-11-17T21:58:00.000-08:00

November 17, 2011

This great tweet and twitpic was recently spotted on Twitter by a friend.

Me and LEONARD COHEN!!!!!! Outside of El Pollo Loco. Whoa

Leonard is wearing a wool/felt fedora again. Well, it has been a bit chilly lately, even here in Los Angeles.

And Leonard is also wearing two jackets again. This time, the inside zippered windbreaker is a patterned fabric. I don't recall seeing photos of Leonard Cohen wearing patterned attire very often.

Another double jacket style from an earlier LA sighting was posted here.

There was no indication by the tweet whether LC actually ate in the restaurant.

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Twitpic: Dave Krumholtz

Leonard Cohen On Playbill Of 1970 Washington Festival

2011-11-13T09:56:00.000-08:00

From November 13, 2011 leonardcohenfiles

I stumbled upon this Washington advertising poster today and was fascinated with Leonard Cohen doing two solo shows, 90 minutes each, back to back and a $5 ticket.

According to the Leonard Cohen Files, the date matches a 1970 festival.

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Photo: kathysattic

Leonard Cohen's New Song "Darkness" Concert Premiere In Nashville -Two Year Anniversary

2011-11-05T00:06:00.000-07:00

November 5, 2011

"Auntie Arlene is a Stoner"

That is what TAN (techie architect nephew) wrote to me after seeing a recent online Rolling Stone article which included my November 5, 2009 Nashville concert video of Leonard Cohen's new song, Darkness.

The subject of the article, Leonard Cohen Gearimg Up For First New Album In Seven Years, which will be called, Old Ideas, has been widely covered in both print and online. Of interest was RS noting that Darkness was the only song of the new songs performed on the last world tour to make it into the new album.

Thrilling.

Darkness is my favourite of the new songs I heard when attending 16 concerts of that World Tour.

I am so lucky I happened to be at the Nashville concert when Leonard Cohen premiered his song. And also fortunate to have had a first row seat for this newbie videographer to be able to capture an historical video. Thank you, Jarkko!

It was also great fun at subsequent concerts (some of which I captured on video, see below) watching Leonard vary the lyrics, especially this verse:

I caught the darkness [baby]
It was drinking from your cup
I caught the darkness [baby]

...from your little ruby cup (Nashville, Nov 5, 09)

...from your little golden cup (St Louis, Nov 7, 09) (Berlin, Aug 18, 10) (Ghent, Aug 20, 10)

...from your little cup (Gothenburg, Aug 12, 10) (Oakland, Dec 5, 10) Portland, Dec 8,10)

It will be interesting to see the final lyrics for this verse that Leonard Cohen chose for his new album.

------------------------

The first video of the new "Blues Song" was taken at the Venice sound check on August 3, 2009 by Maarten Massa. (click here) LC sang "...from your little ruby cup".

My previous reports of the November 5, 2009 Nashville concert are here and here.

And my Nashville Forum Fan Slideshow, Early Entry is here

I Love Leonard Cohen, Dazzling Smile Cross-legged On The Floor Surrounded By Young Choristers In Gijon

2011-10-22T21:09:00.000-07:00

LNE.es "Prince of Asturias Awards 2011 Tribute to Leonard Cohen", Angel Gonzalez

October 22, 2011

This is my favourite photo of Leonard Cohen from all the Prince of Asturias Award 2011 events.

Thanks to Beatriz Salles on the leonardcohenforum for posting the link with many gorgeous photos taken at the tribute concert at Teatro Jovellanos Gijon earlier this week.

Below is a longer shot of the same scene. Sigh...

Jovellanos Theatre, Gijon, Angel Gonzalez

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Wednesday, October 19, 2011: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen at the Jovellanos Theatre (Gijón). With the participation of the Spanish guitarist Javier Mas and the Webb Sisters, who accompany Cohen on tour, the Spanish singer-songwriter Nacho Vegas, the flamenco singer Duquende, the Irish singer and guitarist Glen Hansard and the Prince of Asturias Foundation Youth Choir. Also featuring Andrés Amorós and Laura García Lorca. (Prince of Asturias Foundation website)

Bravo Leonard Cohen, Always a Classy Gentleman

2011-10-22T10:37:00.000-07:00

Pipe Band of Oviedo City -screenshot, Prince of Asturias Foundation official video

October 21, 2011

From: Emol's report of The Prince of Asturias Award ceremony (here)

Cuando la banda de gaitas Ciudad de Oviedo ponía el broche final a la ceremonia con su tradicional interpretación del himno de Asturias, uno de los premiados rubricaba la última nota con un discreto "¡bravo!": era Leonard Cohen.

When the pipe band Oviedo City put the finishing touch to the ceremony with the traditional interpretation of the anthem of Asturias, one of the winners last initial the note with a quiet "bravo!" Was Leonard Cohen.

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Google translation

Leonard Cohen With "Inseparable Sombrero" Arrives At the Prince of Asturias Awards Ceremony, October 21, 2011

2011-10-21T22:19:00.000-07:00

October 21, 2011

Leonard Cohen arrived at the Campoamor...greeted the audience with his inseparable hat ... (diario de aviso)

I started watching the live television feed from Spain about a half hour before the designated ceremony start time. I wanted to catch the arrival of the laureates and see them walk down the Blue Carpet.

I was tickled to hear "Leonard Cohen" and "sombrero" mentioned together often during the next few hours.

I do not know Spanish, but I am familiar with the word sombrero. Living in North America. I associate sombrero with a unique style of hat connected to Mexico. Well in Spain, sombrero is just...hat.

I wanted to collect some of the quotes to paste here, by searching for "Leonard Cohen" and sombrero. I had many hits which made me chuckle. Some were headlines and some were within a report.

Here are just a few:

Cohen se quita el sombrero ante los gaiteros asturianos

Cohen takes off his hat to the Asturian bagpipes (El Mundo headline)

~

El sombrero de Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen's hat (Que headline)

~

Leonard Cohen, sombrero en la silla, ha elegido una historia personal que ha improvisado sin papeles: una narración de gratitud hacia un profesor desconocido, un joven guitarrista español que, a comienzos de los 60, le dio unas clases de guitarra en Montreal.

Leonard Cohen, hat on the chair, has chosen a personal story that has improvised without papers: a story of gratitude to an unknown teacher, a young Spanish guitarist who in the early 60's, gave him some guitar lessons in Montreal. (as. com)

~

Pero ha sido Leonard Cohen quien ha cautivado al público, con su voz profunda y pausada, cuando se ha despojado por una vez de su inseparable sombrero negro para acercarse al micrófono -"no estoy acostumbrado sin una orquesta detrás"- y revelar una anécdota de principios de los años sesenta que marcó toda su carrera y le vinculó a España para siempre.

But it was Leonard Cohen who has captivated audiences with his deep voice and slow, when it has once again stripped of his black hat inseparable to approach the microphone - "I'm not used without a band behind" - and reveal a story of the early sixties that marked his entire career and forever linked to Spain (emol. com)

~

Two comments posted on the Leonard Cohen Forum that made me smile

From today I love the word "sombrero". It's much cooler than "hat", or German "Hut", or Russian shlyapa

(Goldin/Roman)

From today: It was the sombrero, after all

(Majmunka/Eva)

* * *

Oct 22, 2011 update: The official video with the arrival of all the laureates is now available. click here

---------------------

Google translation used for all Spanish quotes

Director Arev Manoukian on Leonard Cohen in "Sony Two Worlds" Commercial

2011-10-16T15:41:00.000-07:00

October 16, 2011

Screenshot and quote: Making of Sony Two Worlds

It was a great pleasure working with Leonard Cohen.
Leonard brought a real human, raw emotion to this piece.
I think it really helped elevate the film, his words, his voice, just one of a kind.

--------------------------------------------------
As for the narration, Leonard Cohen loved Arev’s work, and the level of originality and beauty in the project drew him in. He adapted his original poem ‘That’s What I Heard You Say’ and read it over the stunning score from Oscar winning composer (Black Swan) Clint Mansell. (Live For Films)

Leonard Cohen Recites Specially Written Verse in "Sony Two Worlds" Commercial

2011-10-14T20:59:00.000-07:00

Enigmatic illustration & lighting setup (top), final video image (below)
Screen shots from "Making of Sony Two Worlds"

October 14, 2011

Ever since Jarkko Arjatsalo, webmaster of The Leonard Cohen Files posted the news about the new Sony commercial featuring Leonard Cohen, I have watched it many times.

I find it mesmerizing.

Leonard Cohen recites a specially written verse, "That's What I Heard You Say". His voiceover is gentle but spoken in a compelling, spellbound way.

Don’t matter if the road is long
Don’t matter if it’s steep
Don’t matter if the page is gone
It’s written that we’ll meet.
I loved you when you opened
Like a lily to the heat
And I love you when it closes
A thousand kisses deep

I know you had to lie to me
I know you had to cheat
You learned it on your father’s knee
And at your mother’s feet.
But did you have to fight your way
Across the burning street
Where all our vital interests lay
A thousand kisses deep

When I viewed this for the first time, I felt instantly that it was an exceptional work of art, an extraordinary technical production.

The behind the scenes video, "Making of Sony Two Worlds" is equally compelling. I am a fan of "process", so I have watched the "Making of..." video multiple times as well.

*Sony Two Worlds featuring Leonard Cohen* sonyelectronics

Directed by Arev Manoukian and inspired by his short film Nuit Blanche, '"Sony Two Worlds" is a video short showcasing cinematic art with the power of 3D. The short features Sony artist Leonard Cohen, an original soundtrack by composer Clint Mansell and was produced by Grey London

*Making of Sony Two Worlds* sonyelectronics

Agency: GREY, London, UK
Executive Creative Director: Nils Leonard
Creative Director: Dave Monk and Matt Waller
Agency Producer: Jacqueline Dobrin
Production Company: Spy Films, Toronto, Canada
Producer: Marcus Trulli
Director: Arev Manoukian
Editing Company: Digital Domain
Post Production: Digital Domain

This is only a guess. In the "Making of..." video, starting at 4.53, the camera pans to the sound booth on the left. The lighted lectern and microphone are facing towards the screen. The voice over corresponds with the images on the TV monitor.

So, is Leonard Cohen in the sound booth?

And at 4.37

Leonard Cohen's Poetry Inspires Glass Portals, Featuring Tim Fain -- West Coast Premiere Los Angeles, Oct 9, 2011

2011-10-12T22:02:00.000-07:00

From Oct 12, 2011 leonardcohenforum

My afternoon delight in Santa Monica (Los Angeles) Oct 9, 2011

When I put my ticket in my handbag, I noticed for the first time that the ticket bore the shortened name of "Portals." I thought at first this might be a printing limitation. However, the printed theatre program confirmed this was indeed the title. The original press release and early promos listed this event as "Glass Portals". Hence the title of this post.

When I arrived at the wonderful, intimate Broad Theater, I was able to park my car very close to the Stage Door. I had brought with a paper copy of the Book Of Longing Poster (original is framed) from the Philip Glass/Leonard Cohen collaboration in which Tim Fain played violin and was inspired by LC. I asked the Stage Door man if I could leave it there for an autograph. He agreed. So, the afternoon was off to a good start.

I met Rike for the first time in person after lots of correspondence and we hugged as planned. Rike introduced me to her lovely husband.

Judy Scott (jazz4111) was also at the concert and it was great seeing her again, an original stalwart of our SoCal gatherings.

The first thing I did was check the program to see if Leonard Cohen was given sufficient credit. Some of the early ad promos and videos mentioned LC in passing or not at all. To my delight, the name Leonard Cohen was very prominent in the program. (red highlight mine)

The concert piece was made up of several good parts, superb violinist, great music, interesting choreography and split frame film photography.

But the sum of all the parts just did not work for me.

Tim Fain is indeed superb. As previously reported, he is a hunk to look at and what an exceptionally talented young man. He deserves all the accolades he receives as an acclaimed violinist and rising star

I enjoyed the music very much. However, I was disappointed with the audience. They applauded between movements and sometimes started to applaud in the wrong place. I found that distracting. Tim Fain handled this very well. I have seen other artists get annoyed when this happened. He just smiled sweetly and carried on.

This performance had been promoted with descriptions such as "interwoven" and "multi-media". But, for me it felt like "multi-tasking", work.

I couldn't make sense of the film sequences and the connection with the music or the spoken text. It was not a piece I could just let float over me and absorb.

Now for the best part: the spoken words of Leonard Cohen.

The piece opened with a prologue and it was spoken text by Leonard Cohen. Now, how good is that!

The Los Angeles Times review here describes the text reader very well.

[Fred] Childs reads Cohen’s characterful lines like the genial radio host he is, grit-free. Cohen is not that man. And Fain, as violinist, amplified (expertly) and attached to the prerecorded business behind him, becomes like bird on an interpretive wire.

It was a 90 minute concert (no intermission) and spoken words of Leonard Cohen interspersed during the production totaled 13 minutes.

Delightful.

These 13 minutes (four segments) can be heard here. (The audio is satisfactory given the "circumstances")

After the concert, when everyone was dashing to the parking lot, Judy and I bumped into Robert Kory+fedora and his wife Phyllis. They were both very gracious, stopped for a moment to say hello and agreed to have a photo taken. (Yes, I am wearing my 'I love Leonard Cohen' button.

Then, the Stage Door man appeared in the theatre lobby and handed me my autographed poster copy. Such a kind man to do that. And so very kind of Tim Fain to autograph it for me.

As I said at the top, it was an afternoon delight.

George Johnston & Leonard Cohen On Hydra

2011-10-11T21:55:00.000-07:00

Illustration: Chris Grosz

From October 11, 2011 leonardcohenforum

A friend recently sent me a link to an old article by Shane Maloney about George Johnston & Leonard Cohen on Hydra, but was unsure if it had already been posted on the Leonard Cohen forum.

I found that "st theresa" posted the text of this article last January. click here

The article also included the above terrific cartoon illustration of Leonard Cohen and George Johnston on Hydra both at work at their respective typewriters, which I had not seen before. It's a hoot. click here

Leonard Cohen's Who By Fire and the Unetanah Tokef Prayer in High Holiday Services, 5772

2011-10-07T09:09:00.000-07:00

Who By Fire, Oakland, Dec 6 2010 (screen shot)

October 7, 2011

Just before sundown tonight, many Jews around the world will gather with a congregation for the holiest night in the Jewish year, the start of Yom Kippur. While thinking of my plans for today to ensure getting to Synagogue services on time, the song by Leonard Cohen, "Who By Fire", which is so inextricably connected in my mind with the liturgical poem, Utnetaneh Tokef, has been playing repeatedly in my head.

Leonard Cohen's gentle but haunting melody intertwined with his deeply rich and sensitive poetry makes his version of this Piyut utterly compelling

We heard the Unetenah Tokef prayer on Rosh Hashonah and we will hear it again at Yom Kippur services.

On Rosh Hashanah it is inscribed,
And on Yom Kippur it is sealed.

How many shall pass away and how many shall be born,
Who shall live and who shall die,
Who shall reach the end of his days and who shall not,
Who shall perish by water and who by fire,
Who by sword and who by wild beast,
Who by famine and who by thirst,
Who by earthquake and who by plague,
Who by strangulation and who by stoning,
Who shall have rest and who shall wander,
Who shall be at peace and who shall be pursued,
Who shall be at rest and who shall be tormented,
Who shall be exalted and who shall be brought low,
Who shall become rich and who shall be impoverished.

But repentance, prayer and righteousness avert the severe decree.

Leonard Cohen's "Who By Fire"
New Skin For An Old Ceremony (1974)

And who by fire, who by water,
Who in the sunshine, who in the night time,
Who by high ordeal, who by common trial,
Who in your merry merry month of may,
Who by very slow decay,
And who shall I say is calling?

And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate,
Who in these realms of love, who by something blunt,
And who by avalanche, who by powder,
Who for his greed, who for his hunger,
And who shall I say is calling?

And who by brave assent, who by accident,
Who in solitude, who in this mirror,
Who by his ladys command, who by his own hand,
Who in mortal chains, who in power,
And who shall I say is calling?

My video from Oakland is cued to start at 5.16 when LC begins singing his prayer composition.

At the beginning of the video (0.0-5.15) there is a five minute exquisite intro by Javier Mas.

WHO BY FIRE, Oakland, Leonard Cohen, Dec 6, 2010

Leonard Cohen 2012 Madison Event--Registration Is Now Open

2011-10-01T16:37:00.000-07:00

OCTOBER 1, 2011

Registration To The Leonard Cohen 2012 Event in Madison, WI Is Now Open

For the following important information and links, click here

Event registration

Accommodation options

Sightseeing add-ons

Event program (in progress)

Other Madison 2012 links

Leonard Cohen Forum, click here

Leonard Cohen Event Info, click here

Facebook Leonard Cohen Event, click here

Arlene's Leonard Cohen Scrapbook, click here and here

Leonard Cohen's Book Of Longing -- Reviewed By a Teen For teens

2011-09-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

Book of Longing by Leonard Cohen - a book review by Alix

September 30, 2011

Cohen, Leonard. Book of Longing. New York: Harper Collins, 2006. Print.
Book of Longing is a collection of poems by Canadian poet, novelist, and singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen.There are a total of 167 poems that had never been seen before, most of them being written during his time as a monk on Mount Baldy or from his stay in India. Some of the poems that are in the book have been turned into lyrics for the albums Ten New Songs (2001) and Dear Heather (2004). Even though Cohen does not follow a certain form and his style varies quite often, his poems were all very similar in small ways. He doesn’t stay strictly with short poems (some being only two lines) and has long ones as well (some being two pages). The topics that his poems deal with are slightly controversial, some dealing with sex and drugs, but there are some which are amusing (Butter Dish).

I would give Book of Longing a rating of five stars out of five. It is an excellent collection of poetry; it’s very well written and contains humor as well as more serious matter. It won’t be hard to pick at least one poem out of the 167 that is interesting in one way or another.

The mp3 of the full interview, from a teen's perspective is quite charming.

Host: How did you encounter Leonard Cohen?
Alix: I was really little, my mom actually listened to a lot of his songs which are amazing and I just stuck with him

Shanah Tovah, High Holidays 5772-Leonard Cohen's Story Of Isaac, The Liturgy of Rosh Hashonah

2011-09-28T00:06:00.000-07:00

The Sacrifice Of Isaac

aka The Sacrifice Of Abraham

Rembrandt (1635) Hermitage, St Petersburg

(Wikipedia)

September 28, 2011

At sundown tonight, the Jewish New Year 5772 begins. My thoughts turn to the Torah readings at Rosh Hashonah services, especially the Akedah, "the binding of Isaac".

When I was in (then) Leningrad during the time of Perestroika, we were given limited time to roam the Hermitage. I had to choose one area, and I selected the wing with Rembrandt's "The Sacrifice Of Isaac".

It was spellbinding.

Leonard Cohen's interpretation of the Akedah, in his composition. "The Story Of Isaac" is equally spellbinding.

The Story of Isaac

The door it opened slowly,
my father he came in,
I was nine years old.
And he stood so tall above me,
his blue eyes they were shining
and his voice was very cold.
He said, "I've had a vision
and you know I'm strong and holy,
I must do what I've been told."
So he started up the mountain,
I was running, he was walking,
and his axe was made of gold.

Well, the trees they got much smaller,
the lake a lady's mirror,
we stopped to drink some wine.
Then he threw the bottle over.
Broke a minute later
and he put his hand on mine.
Thought I saw an eagle
but it might have been a vulture,
I never could decide.
Then my father built an altar,
he looked once behind his shoulder,
he knew I would not hide.

You who build these altars now
to sacrifice these children,
you must not do it anymore.
A scheme is not a vision
and you never have been tempted
by a demon or a god.
You who stand above them now,
your hatchets blunt and bloody,
you were not there before,
when I lay upon a mountain
and my father's hand was trembling
with the beauty of the word.

And if you call me brother now,
forgive me if I inquire,
"Just according to whose plan?"
When it all comes down to dust
I will kill you if I must,
I will help you if I can.
When it all comes down to dust
I will help you if I must,
I will kill you if I can.
And mercy on our uniform,
man of peace or man of war,
the peacock spreads his fan.

"Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man" Film By Lian Lunson Can Be Viewed Online

2011-09-23T05:57:00.000-07:00

A documentary on the legendary singer-songwriter, with performances

by those musicians he has influenced. 2005 (IMDb)

On Google Video

for US viewers on SNAGFILMS

Source: COURSEKEEPER.COM (click here)

Happy 77th Birthday, Leonard Cohen, September 21, 2011

2011-09-21T07:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday,Leonard

With love,

~Arlene

Canadian Tenors Sing Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah at the Emmys 2011

2011-09-19T07:23:00.000-07:00

FOX screenshots

From zap2ittv, Sept 19, 2011 (click here)

During the 2011 Emmy Awards In Memoriam segment, a group sang a four-part version of "Hallelujah" over the montage of the deceased entertainers. And if you are anything like us, you were sitting at home going, "Who the heck is that singing? Show more Jill Clayburgh." (Well, maybe not that second part.)

The group is none other than the Canadian Tenors, a group hailing from all over Canada, including Toronto, Quebec and Vancouver. Members (above, l to r) Fraser Walters, Remigio Pereira and Victor Micallef have been together since 2006, adding Clifton Murray in 2009.

From the Los Angeles Times, Sept 19, 2011 (click here)

At its worst...yet another hijacking of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," this time for the in memoriam section.

Leonard Dick

I am happy that in this morning's edition of the Los Angeles Times on the front page of the Calendar section, the wonderful television critic, Mary McNamara acknowledged Leonard Cohen and the persistent hijacking of his Hallelujah.

As for me, this song was the highlight of the Emmy show, especially after sonLeonard aka "the other Leonard" didn't win an Emmy for Best Drama Series as Co-Executive Producer (writer) on "The Good Wife".

Uploaded by Simbartolo

--------------------------------------

sonLeonard teases me a lot about my Leonard Cohen passion.

So when this came on, I texted him, while he was sitting in the Nokia Theater watching them sing it live,

"hope you are enjoying the canadian tenors singing LEONARD COHEN's hallelujah"

Leonard Cohen Headlines Radio Program "Rock 'n' Roll Times With Robert Hilburn" Sept 11, 2011

2011-09-17T00:50:00.000-07:00

Robert Hilburn

California Highway Heaven - Irvine to Sherman Oaks

A confluence of coincidence.

I had been at the Irvine Hyatt for a Bridge Tournament and was driving back home on the fierce Interstate 405 (think Autobahn) to Sherman Oaks/Los Angeles. When I switched on the car radio, I didn't care for the first station's offering, so I changed to another station. I heard a "male singer", his song was quite touching, so I stayed with that station but didn't pay too much attention to the host.

However, when I was approaching the LAX area, I heard the host announce:

Now, lets move to the show's headliner...Leonard Cohen

Now that got my attention.

I shrieked with joy, had a big smile on my face and immediately ramped up the volume.
(But I still had to be careful to focus on the savage traffic)

The Leonard Cohen segment, which closed the program, ran for about a half hour. (When listening to the podcast the next day, I learned that the host also introduced the program with Leonard Cohen.)

The Host - Robert Hilburn

As pop music critic of the Los Angeles Times from 1970 to 2005, Robert Hilburn was one of the most widely read pop writers of the rock ‘n’ roll era. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination committee, Bob has interviewed and written about virtually every significant musical artist of our times, including John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Marley, the Clash, Prince, Michael Jackson, U2, Sinead O’Connor, Eminem and Jack White.

For some of his Leonard Cohen background comments, Hilburn drew from his own interview with Leonard Cohen at the Mt Baldy Zen Center published in the Los Angeles Times on September 24, 1995 and posted on Carter's Tribute Pages archived by Marie Mazur, Speaking Cohen.

The Program Theme

Hilburn was showcasing singer songwriters from the '60s and chose to pair Leonard Cohen and Tim Hardin.

It is fitting to include Tim in the same show as Leonard because the best of Tim's work reflects both the confessional anguish of Hank Williams and the artful intimacy of Cohen .

He played some of their own songs and some cover versions of those tunes.

The "male singer" - Tim Hardin

Cover of "The Best Of Tim Hardin, 1969"

I was not familiar with Tim Hardin, but I instantly was taken with his singing which was expressive and stirring. The song I heard was composed for him by Bobby Darin, "Simple Song of Freedom". You will hear it on the podcast. (link below) Alas, Tim Hardin had a sad troubled life with drugs and died of an overdose at the age of 39.

Tim Hardin (Dec 23, 1941-Dec 29, 1980) bio on Wikipedia (click here)

Play list:
Tim Hardin: Don't Make Promises, Reason To Believe, If I Were A Carpenter
Covers: Reason To Believe (Rod Stewart), If I Were A Carpenter (Bobby Darin)
Demo: Tim Hardin, written by Bobby Darin: Simple Song of Freedom

The Leonard Cohen segment

"Leonard's songs do matter and they have for a half century"

"This gracious, gentle man"

Hilburn's background comments and anecdotes were superb. He played three songs with Leonard Cohen (one "young voice" and two "mature voice") and five covers.

The one cover that took me by surprise was Aretha Franklin's "Suzanne".

Cover of " Rare & Unreleased Recordings...2007

I had never heard Aretha Franklin's 1972 cover of Suzanne. At first, I was not receptive. But after listening to it two more times at home, I am quite taken with it. Her interpretation is very compelling.

A commanding version... it's pretty stunning (Hilburn)

Play list:
Leonard Cohen: Bird On The Wire, Suzanne, Dance Me To The End OF Love
Covers: No Way To Say Goodbye (Judy Collins), Bird On The Wire (Joe Cocker), Aretha Franklin (Suzanne), Famous Blue Raincoat (Jennifer Warnes), Hallelujah (Jeff Buckley)

KCSN 88.5 California State University Northridge (Los Angeles)
click here and select link 2011-09-11

I am unsure how long the podcast will remain up. So, I recorded the audio off my laptop with a Sony stick.

----------------------------------

California Interstate 405 is mentioned in Leonard Cohen's poem, A Life Of Errands
Photo of Robert Hilburn (Google Images) and Tim Hardin album cover (Wikipedia)
Photo of Aretha Franklin album cover (Amazon.com)

Jennifer Warnes Talks About Leonard Cohen In Saskatoon Interview-Sept 13, 2011

2011-09-13T23:07:00.000-07:00

Interview from The StarPhoenix - Saskatoon, Canada

In the midst of upheaval, Warnes reaches out

By CAM FULLER, THE STARPHOENIX September 13, 2011

Jennifer Warnes in concert

Sunday, Sept. 18, 8 p.m.
Monday, Sept. 19, 8 p.m.
Broadway Theatre
Tickets $48
Box office: 652-6556

On a day after an earthquake, two days before a hurricane and in the midst of an economic meltdown, Jennifer Warnes was explaining why she’s touring for the first time in two years — in Canada, of all places.

It’s because the world is in a “blender.”

“I can’t stand still,” Warnes said from her home near Venice, Calif.

“I think making connections to people is crucial right now, just crucial.”

If a song can help — impeccably sung by an artist who sees music as a means to an end — the world might not be in such bad shape after all.

Warnes grew up in California, a child prodigy whose voice made strangers cry in church.
“I didn’t have any clue what was going on other than it was effective and I didn’t have to wash the dishes with my brothers and sisters.”

Her father rebuffed a recording contract offered to his seven-year-old daughter. She’s grateful he did “because the music business is just a corrupt, insane path and it would hurt a child, it would hurt any child.”

She seemed destined for opera but chose a path that went in some unexpected directions — songwriter, folksinger, recording artist, Broadway (the lead in Hair), TV (the Smothers Brothers). By the late 1980s, she had two Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe and had lent her voice to three songs that won Academy Awards: It Goes Like It Goes from Norma Rae, Up Where We Belong (with Joe Cocker) from An Officer and a Gentleman and Time of My Life from Dirty Dancing.

But her movie music career hardly means a thing compared to her association with Leonard Cohen. Her career was well-established by the time she introduced herself to him in a hotel lobby in Hartford, Conn. Their friendship would change her work and her life.

“I read people well and I felt like his eyes were like falling into the Grand Canyon, and I got it. I got that we would meet and know one another. I knew that.”

Some time later, Cohen asked her to sing backup on a tour of his. Later, she had a smash success with her album of Cohen songs, Famous Blue Raincoat.

They stay in touch mainly by phone and email, and have shared the same housekeeper for 25 years. It’s a treasure to know him, she says.

“I would never attempt in an article to sum up anything I feel about him. But he’s a gentle man, he’s generous, he’s kind, he’s tender, he sees through what you’re trying to ask before you ask it.

“ I learned how to offer more to a person than I normally would have done and to offer more to life.”
Cohen, she says, caused her to “dump my aspirations to do anything superficial.” She did some of that anyway, to pay the bills, but Cohen’s influence never waned.

“He, in a way, derailed a perfectly innocent career and turned it into a career with integrity,” she laughs.
She laughs generously throughout the interview, contradicting any presumptions that she’s some kind of unapproachable icon.

She likes to say that music means less to her than people think — it’s connecting through music that attracts her. Other misconceptions amount to “99 per cent of what’s in the press,” she says, laughing again.

“For some reason, I’ve very intentionally hidden who I was all my life. Because I didn’t want to be broken.
“Half of my peers are dead. I saw that. I thought survival was a really important attribute. A lot of the fragile ones didn’t make it. Fifty per cent.”

Warnes, who put her life on hold in her mother’s declining years and hasn’t written a song since, cherishes the comfort Cohen gave her at her mother’s funeral. We don’t get to choose where love comes from, he told her: “Your only proper response is to say yes, and you always said yes to her offer of love. You got love from the one place we all want it.”

Warnes can finally see a day when the pain lets go and she does feel like writing again. In the meantime, she finds songs she likes and has a new album that’s almost finished — but there’s so much tumult in the music industry she doesn’t know when it might come out.

For now, what she’s most interested in is the unique challenge of the upcoming tour. With only a guitarist and bass player accompanying her, there’s nowhere to hide. She likes that pressure.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever toured with so little music. And I’m older now and absolute empty air is all I have to cling to, really. So I’m kind of excited about it. I’m going to show the audience who I am.”

cfuller@thestarphoenix.com

Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah Set to Words by Bereaved Israeli Father

2011-09-08T01:01:00.000-07:00

The "One Family" Choir of Bereaved Fathers (IsraelNationalTV)
Cued to start at 4.0 - one verse of Hallelujah
NB. be sure to X the ad at the bottom of the YouTube screen so the English subtitles will be visible.

I would recommend watching the entire video. I found it very uplifting.

.........................................................................................................................................

The YouTube video link was included in the article below from: ARUTZ SHEVA 7

Meet the Bereaved Fathers' Choir

The Bereaved Fathers' Choir is a group of men who lost their children to terror or in IDFservice and who deal with the grief by singing.

By Elad Benari & Yoni Kempinski
First Publish: 9/8/2011,

The Bereaved Father’s Choir is made up of a group of bereaved fathers whose children fell during their military service or were killed in terrorist attacks.

The group members cope with bereavement by getting together and performing Israeli songs. They say that singing helps them to cope with the difficult loss. Arutz Sheva recently met up with this incredible group of individuals.

Moshe Har Melekh lost his son, Shuli, eight years ago. One day after marking his son’s yahrzeit (anniversary of death), he joined his choir friends for their weekly meeting.
“I think I get the strength to sing from my son,” Har Melekh said, explaining how he gathered the strength to sing one day after remembering his fallen son. “He was a happy man, he believed in life, he believed that you have to continue. He believed in the land of Israel and in Israel’s Torah so I think that our being here today is exactly what he would have wanted.”

Har Melekh said that despite the great losses the men feel, the songs they sing are not sad.
“I think the songs are happy,” he said. “We sing together for the future: for our children, for our grandchildren. I think that singing together gives hope to all of us.”

The choir has already released one album and will soon release a second one. The choir recently recorded a song with the IDF’s Chief Cantor, Lt.-Col. Shai Abramson and, as Har Melekh explained, “We are getting together with the IDF to say that we are here despite what happened to us. We hope that our loss was not for nothing.”

One choir member, Cantor Moshe Keinan who lost his son Avihu, recently released a single put to the tune of Jewish Canadian singer Leonard Cohen’s song, “Hallelujah.” The words Keinan sang, however, were completely different and reflected his own personal loss.

From my soul to my G-d, I call you
I trust in You and shall not fear
G-d is my strength and stronghold,
and my song
Open a gate of repentance for me
And I will pass through it crying
All souls shall praise G-d, halleluya

(from the video subtitles)

----------------------------------------------

From leonardcohenforum, Sept 8, 2011

"musicmania" wrote: Everyone knows what my usual opinion of covers of Hallelujah are but in this instance I was very moved.

My reply (bridger15)

I feel the same way, Gwen, about covers. But as time goes on, I am reluctantly appreciating that the musical structure of Hallelujah is so powerfully spiritual in itself that it transcends the original "music with lyrics" idiom, finds people in a different place and becomes inspirational. This is just another instance of the magnificent genius of Leonard Cohen.

Magical Moment - Leonard Cohen Recites One Verse from Hallelujah at Songwriters Hall Of Fame Induction

2011-09-07T06:55:00.000-07:00

Artisan News Service captured Leonard Cohen's induction speech at the Songwriters Hall Of Fame ceremony on June 17, 2010.

"kd Lang and Judy Collins inducted Leonard Cohen into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame, and he received one of the biggest cheers of the night."

Leonard Cohen's magnificient words and compelling recitation are so moving, it was indeed a magical moment.

There is a verse of Hallelujah that I want to give to you. It goes like this:

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I learned to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

ArtisanNewsService - cued to start at 1.51
(Alert: ANS has engineered the audio on that section of the clip and the end result is less than stellar.)

----------------------------------------

(YouTube comment by Maetel22) Oh my God...wen he recited that verse of Hallelujah, i broke down in tears...this song has such a deeper meaning than we could possibly understand...

Photo: screenshot from ANS video

Sketching Leonard Cohen by DREG Studios, The Artwork of Brandt Hardin

2011-09-05T09:06:00.000-07:00

DREG Studios, The Artwork of Brandt Hardin published the following description of sketching Leonard Cohen. The step-by-step images that match the narrative can be viewed here.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Portrait Process: Leonard Cohen

I was running errands Sunday when I got a song stuck in my head. Actually- just one line in particular from Leonard Cohen's "Anthem."

"There is a crack in everything-
That's how the light gets in"

This is one of my favorite songs from the author and musician next to Hallelujah and Everybody Knows. I hadn't considered drawing a portrait of Cohen in the past but when the lyrics got stuck in my head, the gears turned just right to give me the perfect image of him in profile with a beam of light radiating out a crack in the darkness. I couldn't get the image out of my head so I started working on him Sunday night...

I began sketching Cohen's profile from a picture off the net. If I'm doing a larger piece with multiple reference photos, I'll usually print them but tonight was just a small 5 x 7 portrait. I start out loose, just trying to get the general layout and spacial settings, them start hashing out the details..

After the sketch is done, I throw down my outlines in ink and call it a night after I get a scan (I had already been working on a much larger piece all day for an upcoming group exhibit.)

This morning I got back to the portrait as I erased away the sketch and got a clean outline for coloring. This is the process I go through on each and every illustration. When you erase the lead however, it dulls the outlines, so I go back over them when I'm done coloring. So essentially all my drawings get an initial sketch and the outline done twice, the second outline usually adding much more detail. Now to get to coloring...

In many mediums, you go dark to light. With markers, I've found it depends on the situation and I often go back and forth. Most of the time I'll get my background done and then start adding my highlights to see where my light source will be. You can't really add a light area over top of a dark one with my medium. I lay some grays down first to get some depth on the "crack" and let the light in with three different hues of yellow.

Next, I begin work on the clothes and skin-tones. I generally use anywhere from 2-5 colors for a skin tone. The hat and suit took four different blues and then a few grays to shade...

I work the drop shadow from the hat and then darken the background with another wash of black before adding some stars to match the suit (with a blue metallic pen.) Last, I add some more depth to the shadow from the hat...

I went back over my outline to get things a big crisper (as I mentioned above.) Now I get my final scan...

Reprinted with the artist's permission. Thank you.
----------------------------------------

Brandt Hardin is a pop surrealist illustrator and designer living and working out of Clarksville, TN. Brandt’s colorful creations are inspired by pop culture, surrealist art, comics, and alternative culture. His works have appeared in hundreds of galleries, festivals, and publications world-wide including The Detroit Dirty Show, Hive Gallery of Los Angeles, and Youngblood Gallery of Atlanta. The artist has worked with many musicians, companies, galleries, and groups creating custom artwork and illustrations including Disney of Hong Kong and The Rivers & Spires Festival locally.

Boogie Street by Leonard Cohen & Sharon Robinson--Ten New Songs Reviewed in The Times Quotidian, 8/29/11

2011-09-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

Leonard Cohen has performed a song (written by Sharon Robinson (songwriter)) called "Boogie Street", published on his album Ten New Songs (2001). In an interview with Brian D. Johnson in Maclean's Magazine on 15 October 2001, Cohen said of Boogie Street:

"… during the day Boogie Street is a scene of intense commercial activity … And at night, it was a scene of intense and alarming sexual exchange."

Later he goes on to talk of its metaphorical meaning: "Boogie Street to me was that street of work and desire, the ordinary life and also the place we live in most of the time that is relieved by the embrace of your children, or the kiss of your beloved, or the peak experience in which you yourself are dissolved, and there is no one to experience it so you feel the refreshment when you come back from those moments … So we all hope for those heavenly moments, which we get in those embraces and those sudden perceptions of beauty and sensations of pleasure, but we're immediately returned to Boogie Street." (Wikipedia)

"onboogiestreet" is the root domain name of this Leonard Cohen Scrapbook.

When I first started this Scrapbook blog, I tried to register its domain name as "ringthebells" but it was not available. Drats.

I wanted a recognizable domain name associated with Leonard Cohen that would be easy for people to remember. I next tried "boogiestreet" and it also was unavailable. Double Drats.

But, "onboogiestreet" was available. Success!

As you can see, I am partial to this compelling song. So I was delighted by this article in the The Times Quotidian by Guy Zimmerman and wanted to post it here "onboogiestreet".

August 29, 2011

Boogie Street

And the Production of Repose
By Guy Zimmerman
I remember lying around in the living room of the house on West 3^rd Street in Lexington, Kentucky where the phonograph, the record player, commanded the space below the windows that looked out toward the holly tree. I remember the album covers stacked beside the speakers – 12×5 by the Rolling Stones, The Beatles’ Abbey Road, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and many others that were only slightly less emblematic of that era. Set apart a little in my memories is the album cover with, on the b-side, the picture of the naked woman engulfed in flames. Dark haired and voluptuous, the woman raised her eyes toward heaven, transfixing my ten year old imagination with her beauty, her nakedness, and with the mystery of the broken chains that hung from her wrists. When I turned the album cover over I could contemplate the face of the singer, a close shot, the focus a little soft, of a man with dark hair and liquid, sensual eyes that made a strong impression, I could tell, on my older sister. The songs on the record seemed almost old-fashioned, the lush imagery salvaged from melodrama by the singer’s precise phrasing – the way his voice relaxed into its own depths and broke a little, not taking things too seriously but never ironic in its sincerity either. On the one hand there was the sense that these songs were offerings, confessions that moved as far as they could in the direction of prayers, and on the other hand they made no such extravagant claims and were content to remain ordinary ballads with catchy melodies – no big deal.

Thirty years later, in 2001, the singer’s new CD arrived, a Christmas gift I think, from my older sister probably. Ten New Songs it was called. I listened to it once or twice but it didn’t grab me. I thought the singer-songwriter – Leonard Cohen – had lost his edge, and the songs seemed over-produced and un-hip. Plus, without really knowing why, I had fallen out of the habit of listening to music. It wasn’t a choice, really, but at some point during the Bush-Cheney fiasco playing CDs disappeared from my daily routine. Listening to music had started making me feel like a consumer perhaps, at a time when I couldn’t stomach that identity. The counterculture had long since been emptied of juice and abandoned, conceding its irrelevance to the course of things in a “real” world that had been seized by ghouls and demons. Also, all the young artists making a bid for striking relevance had begun to seem inherently irrelevant to me: the packaging of persona, the pageantry of personality, the new combinations of moves emblematized by artists from Elvis to Iggy Pop seemed trite and over-worked in the corporatized era of the new century.

I don’t know why I put the CD in the player a few months back, but I was instantly struck once more by the deep ease in Cohen’s voice. The same seductive and disarming intimacy that had set that earlier album apart so many years before had been amplified so that now the voice seemed to emerge from some place the other side of a whisper, or from deep within the structure of the singer’s cells. The lush arrangements that had seemed over-the-top to me when I first heard Ten New Songs now seemed like a smart choice, a covering of ones tracks. “Can I experience this and be at ease at the same time,” the songs seemed to ask, examining love and death and other highly charged and defining experiences of humanity. Over the top but also somehow irresistible, this is music that aims to transform surreptitiously, shifting weight into ease, reconciling us to our situation.

As many will know, Cohen is a Zen adept in the Rinzai tradition who lived for many years in the monastery on Mt Baldy under Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi. Having practiced in a related tradition for some time now I found myself listening to the ten songs with the ears of practice, appreciating the way Cohen was able to convey the experience of dharma via the over-familiar forms of the popular ballad. To my ear, songs like In My Secret Life and A Thousand Kisses Deep seem written and delivered in a purely meditative mode, all the forms of a long and successful career as a commercial musician are engaged with and purified simply because that’s what this particular trajectory entailed. All the songs on the album now seemed strong to me. Love Itself, the fifth song, is perhaps the clearest expression of the kind of affective experiences that come with a daily practice.

But it’s the 8^th song on the album, Boogie Street, that had the strongest impact. “Oh Crown of Light, oh Darkened One,” the song begins, a soulful refrain, “you kiss my lips and then it’s done.” Death is being addressed here by a man old enough to be cultivating that acquaintance. I think of the Tibetan Book of the Dead and the eerie accounts it contains of what our last moments look and feel like as we sip that final breath. I think of a sequence in my own daily practice where the instruction is to examine those very last moments – how the five stages of grief tend to seize the mind then, and what steps one can take to move through denial, bargaining, anger and despair toward acceptance and a return to presence. It’s always instructive to observe which steps in a meditation sequence we skip or gloss over in distracted, auto-pilot mode. Often in my own practice it’s this step, the one involving an encounter with the moment of death, the moment Cohen has, with rueful humanity, re-christened the moment of boogie street.

The aim of such “impermanence” meditations is hardly morbid – these practices do not enervate so much as provide relief and release, and are actually among the most energizing and liberative meditations. We are turning to confront in its purest form one of our shaping anxieties, an anxiety that has always hovered at the edges of our conscious awareness. Under the tent of that encounter we can finally assess what we are to each other, how we should behave, even what music is worth the investment of time.

So come my friend, be not afraid

We are so lightly here

It is in love that we are made, in love we disappear…

Listening recently to Ten New Songs I was struck by the sophistication of what Cohen has accomplished, and by the way authentic understanding can permeate simple artistic forms. The rap about Cohen was always that he was a published poet first and a songwriter second. It always seemed to me Cohen used his literary credentials to inoculate himself against those aspects of pop celebrity that would have been a burden, preserving himself from the parade of shtick that got in Bob Dylan’s way, for example. But with this new work I found myself appreciating the songs on a purely poetic level. My sense was that Cohen’s celebrity was now serving to protect that essential poetic quality of repose in the grip of tension, a quality that now seems in danger of receding from our world. Who has time to read poetry anymore? Who has the mental space required for that contemplative experience in a world defined by frenzied business of the internet? Well, we still know how to tap into iTunes and Cohen’s ten songs are waiting for us there. The strength of the commodification that had drawn me away from commercial music seemed suddenly providential – a gift preserving our link to the essence of that more vulnerable literary cousin. Cohen’s voice, the deeply embodied way it lays back into the shadow-ground of love and mortality to give form to the simple truths it finds there, now seems to make a powerful case for the relevance of poetry in general. Along with the repose comes insight and compassion, life as a song full of sadness and glory.

Oh Crown of Light, Oh Darkened One

I never thought we’d meet

You kiss my lips and then it’s done

I’m back, back on Boogie Street

(Boogie Street – Leonard Cohen)

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In a previous post, there is a link to my video of Sharon Robinson's spellbinding rendition of "Boogie Street" in Oakland, December, 2010. (click here)

Album Cover: 2001 Sony Music Entertainment Inc

Leonard Cohen Cartoon by CM Evans -- Litro Magazine

2011-09-01T06:47:00.000-07:00

Sept 1, 2011, Issue 109-1

LITRO is a free, monthly literary publication with a reputation for high-quality, original short fiction. LITRO is distributed near London Underground stations and in libraries, galleries, bars, cafés and other venues in the Capital and beyond. Previous contributors have included Charles Bukowski, Glyn Maxwell, Yiyun Li, Benjamin Zephaniah and Andrew Crumey. LITRO is published by Ocean Media Books Ltd www.oceanmediauk.com (Facebook)

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C M Evans Cartoons (click here)
C M Evans Blog (click here)

"Leonard Cohen Bird On A Wire" Screening in Winnipeg, October 5, 2010--Tony Palmer In Attendance

2011-08-29T21:59:00.000-07:00

A review from BORDER CROSSINGS
Issue No. 116 - Dec, 2010
Lost And Found: Bird On A Wire
by: Robert Enright

Bird on A Wire is the most revealingly watchable film about a musician on the road since Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home from 2005, which highlights the abusive tour Bob Dylan and The Hawks took in 1966.

In 1972 Leonard Cohen was irresistible. Across Europe, after his concerts, women come to him backstage, hoping to take strange gain away. Some have kohl-lined, predatory eyes; you can almost hear the sound of their tongues licking their lips. Others steal quick glances, or look up with doe-eyed, come-hitherness. Their minds are a sea of desire. For his part, the poet and singer politely declines their invitations, saying he will spend the evening with the members of his band. His disengagement is respectful; the women’s disappointment is palpable.

These scenes are part of Bird on A Wire, a new “old” film by British filmmaker Tony Palmer. The film is a phoenix, having been resurrected from the ash of its 30-year-long disappearance. The story of how it came to be found is itself the stuff of legend. Palmer was a reputable director who had already made award-winning films about a number of musicians and performers.

When he was asked to document Cohen’s 1972 European tour, he had a single stipulation, as did the singer. Cohen wanted his political poetry included in the documentary as a way of reflecting the complexity of his art. He was being characterized as a poet/singer of sensual love songs, and his serious writing was being ignored. Palmer wanted complete access to what went on during the tour. Each accepted the other’s condition, and the film was on.

During the first of many media interviews in the film, Cohen is asked, “What is success?” In the context of the exhausting and troubling tour on which he and his band are about to embark, his answer is prophetic. “Success,” he says, “is survival.” If any tour was designed to test a musician’s capacity for survival, this was the one: 20 cities from Dublin to Jerusalem in 34 days. Before it was over, three-quarters of the concerts would be compromised by an inadequate sound system; there would be a riot, as well as what Cohen himself would describe as some “disgraceful” lapses in behaviour. “It was a roller-coaster,” Palmer remembers, and his film is a rich and unblinkered document of the ride. He modestly calls it “an impression of what happened on that tour.”

The connection between survival and success is equally germane to the film. When Palmer showed Cohen the edit (which had already been purchased for broadcast by the BBC), Leonard found it “confrontational.” Palmer then did something he had never done before and would never do again: he gave the material to Cohen and said, “See what you can do.” Two years and $300,000 later, Cohen brought back a film that premiered at the Rainbow Theatre in London on July 5, 1974, and then disappeared for three decades. It was discovered by accident in a Hollywood warehouse. More accurately, 296 cans of film that had to be hammered and chiselled open were discovered. Palmer took 3000 of the off-cut fragments from those cans, which had to be cleaned and digitally restored, and reassembled the film. The original took two months to shoot; the reassembly took half a year.

So what exactly is the nature of the film that Tony Palmer resurrected? The answer is simple enough: Bird on A Wire is the most revealingly watchable film about a musician on the road since Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home from 2005, which highlights the abusive tour Bob Dylan and The Hawks took in 1966. The scope and duration of Palmer’s film is less ambitious than Scorsese’s, and the implications of the tour for Cohen were less drastic than for Dylan, but the films are documents of a similar kind. Both show the demands and pressures applied to musicians who embark on extensive tours, and both end up being revelations about the character of their respective lead performers.

It’s worth repeating that Cohen is irresistible. There are moments when he is aware of the camera and he plays to it. In one scene, he says to a young woman who is inviting him to join her for the evening that, “it’s hard to come on to a girl with a camera around,” but as soon as she leaves he turns back to the camera and asks, “Did you get all that?” After a concert in Frankfurt he laments to his director, “God help us, I’ve disgraced myself, Tony.”

More often than not, though, he seems to forget he is being filmed, even in the most difficult circumstances. The biggest problem he and his excellent band face (his backup singers are Jennifer Warnes and Donna Washburn; he has Ron Cornelius on guitar and Bob Johnston on organ) is a sound system that continues to break down, providing enough feedback to give headaches around the room. At one post mortem following a particularly bad concert, Cohen, who is near tears of frustration, says, “I’m not a difficult man to deal with, but this is the 15th concert with no sound. There’s no music up there. It’s all in the dark.” Watching Cohen come out of the Dark Night of the Soulful Singer in which he finds himself, both because of failed technology and his own precarious relationship to the act of performance, is one of the distinct pleasures that Bird on a Wire provides.

Palmer structures the film in a way that in turn ignores the chronology of the tour, but that gives him a frame for his story beyond simply moving from one city to another. You don’t always know where you are; an airport sign might indicate Germany, or Cohen’s introduction of a song in French locates him in Paris, but for the most part Bird on a Wire is a psychological and emotional journey and not a travelogue. The film opens with a four-minute-long sequence in Tel Aviv (which was actually the penultimate city on the tour) where the security men lose control of themselves in trying to manage a crowd that Cohen has encouraged to move closer to the stage. What develops is a riot and the concert ends abruptly, amidst shots of chaos and physical upheaval. Cohen is stunned. Backstage he says to no one in particular, “They were really nasty, those people.” The riot is a clever place to begin because it sets in motion the need to overcome the bitter experience of what we have just seen. The first song we hear is Avalanche—“I stepped into an avalanche and it covered up my soul”—the lyrics of which describe the riot’s effect on Cohen. He refers to himself as “a broken-down nightingale,” and while the comment is intended as an ironic reflection on the duress of the tour and the nature of his own voice, it ends up being an accurate description of where he found himself after 33 days on the road.

Significantly, the film ends in Jerusalem with what was the final concert. It is a triumph. Earlier in the film, Cohen tells an interviewer that you can lose contact with the emotion of a song when you perform it repeatedly. In his inimitable phrasing, he says, “Sometimes you can live in the song, and sometimes it is inhospitable and it won’t admit you and you’re left banging at the door.” But in the Jerusalem concert his performance of So Long, Marianne is overwhelming. The backstage reaction of everyone involved—the band, the tour manager, the producer—is immediate and emotional. When they’re not crying, everyone sits in wordless silence. “It’s like a morgue in here,” Cohen says, and someone responds, “That was the most beautiful audience I’ve ever seen.” No one watching the film would disagree.

Bird on a Wire, then, is about redemption, about climbing free from the avalanche of despair that was a large part of the experience of the tour. Cohen tells a West Berlin audience that Passover “is a festival of freedom, and I’m trying to break free myself.” It is a hard-won gain, but he achieves that freedom in Jerusalem, in front of an audience that stayed in their seats when he couldn’t perform, and waited for him to be strong enough to return to the stage. His tour producer comes backstage where Cohen has undergone a meltdown and tells him that a pair of kids in the audience heard him say the concert was going to be cancelled and their money would be refunded. “They said, ‘No. Just let Leonard stand there. We know the words to every song. We’ll sing to him.’”

Throughout the film, Cohen has tried to explain the necessary connection he needs to have with his audience. “Whether it’s written on a page or sung as a song, if you are in touch with that thing that moves a song from lip to lip, you never command it, it’s just on you. I’m not interested in going from city to city to gather the applause of the people. It’s only nourishing if I can do something for them.” Much of his fragility and the vulnerability that accompanies him on stage has been caused by his feeling that, in not giving back commensurately, he has been cheating his audience.

What happens in Jerusalem, “the city of peace” as Cohen says to a member of the band, is that the audience redeems him. The lines from the beautiful version of Chelsea Hotel he sings in the film—“And that was called love / for the workers in song / and still is / for the few of us left.”—are a motto and an epigram for his inexhaustible presence and the knowledge he gains on the tour. In this inspiring and candid film, Cohen demonstrates for us how hard it is to survive as a worker in song. By the time the tour and the film is over, he has made it profoundly clear why he is one of the survivors. His words and songs move from his lips to our ears.

The Canadian Premiere of Bird on A Wire was held in Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall at the University of Winnipeg on October 5, 2010, with the director in attendance. The 106-minute-long film, which includes 17 songs, is available on DVD.

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"Border Crossings" is a quarterly cultural magazine published in Winnipeg and edited by Meeka Walsh. Its subject is contemporary Canadian and international art and culture, which the magazine investigates through articles, columns, reviews, profiles, interviews and portfolios of drawings and photographs.

"Leonard Cohen Bird On A Wire" Screening in Montreal, May 11, 2011--Tony Palmer Interview

2011-08-29T09:13:00.000-07:00

Extérieur du Corona

From August 29, 2011 leonardcohenforum

On May 11, the day of the Montreal screening of "Bird On The Wire" at the Théâtre Corona, there was an interview segment with Tony Palmer on CBC Radio, "Montreal Daybreak".

I always find it very enjoyable to listen to Tony Palmer speaking about his projects. He is always so ethusiastic and charming.

There are a few nuances and incidents he mentioned in this interview that I had never heard before, such as:

there was a sequence in a sauna bath but unfortunately the camera steamed up, so we had to drop it

CBC Montreal podcast with Tony Palmer click here
If you move the slider about 80%, you will get to Tony Palmer's segment near the end of the program.

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If the podcast is ever pulled, I have saved it here

Leonard Cohen Cruising For Suits At "Opening Ceremony" Los Angeles

2011-08-28T08:57:00.000-07:00

Fri, August 26, 2011 OC

Make It Snappy: A Dapper Leonard Cohen Stops by OCLA; We Swoon!

WOW. Leonard Cohen looks so elegant, especially with a handsome Collar Pin evoking:

...a dandyish gangster...or...a properly dressed businessman of the 1920's

(OCLA) Opening Ceremony Los Angeles (click here)

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Photo source: Google Alerts

Steven Page Sings Hallelujah By Leonard Cohen at the State Funeral of Jack Layton - August 27, 2011

2011-08-27T18:24:00.000-07:00

August 27, 2011 - Proud to be a Canadian!

This transplanted Canadian, living in Los Angeles, watched the live streaming of the entire State Funeral of The Hon. Jack Layton, Canadian New democratic Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition.

The funeral took place at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, my home town.

It was a very moving tribute. I stood up when the National Anthem was sung.

I was proud to be a Canadian today.

Jack Layton's son Mike asked Steven Page to sing Hallelujah at the funeral.

Peter Mansbridge with the CBC commented that Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen was Jack Layton's favourite and Jack was listening to kd lang singing it while he drifted away.

The video below is from a live streaming transmission that I captured off my laptop screen.

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The "Canadian Press" reports, the musician says it's "daunting" to be performing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," because it has been done so well many times before.
Page says he wouldn't have chosen the song himself, but that is what Layton's son Mike requested.

Stephen Fry Gets Confidence From Leonard Cohen's Writing

2011-08-25T23:06:00.000-07:00

Screenshot: George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight (CBC TV)

From August 25, 2011 leonardcohenforum

I am a Twitter follower of Stephen Fry which is where I learned about his two recent CBC interviews in Toronto. In both interviews, Leonard Cohen was referenced, once directly and once obliquely.

Stephen Fry was in Toronto in the Spring of 2011 as a member of the international jury for the Glenn Gould Award, which ultimately was awarded to Leonard Cohen. The two CBC TV interview programs were:

The Hour with George S Stroumboulopoulos
Studio Q with Jian Ghomeshi.

The Hour

British Actor Stephen Fry talks with George Stroumboulopoulos about uncertainty and the value of being vulnerable

In the interview about his book (unnamed), Stephen Fry talks about struggling with his insecurities and unhappiness as a gay teenager back in scary times. He felt he was the only person who felt that way. He yearned for a writer, songwriter, it could be Leonard Cohen...somebody who touches you, makes you feel you are not alone. We're all scared inside...

The short clip (1.46) is very uplifting.

The Hour (CBC TV)

Studio Q on QTV

Renaissance man, Stephen Fry speaks to his influential role on Twitter - and how social media/new technology are affecting our language and culture

Jian Ghomeshi asked about the rigors of the eight hours of the jury's deliberation the previous day. Stephen Fry responded:

We were considering some remarkable people and we came up with a winner ...that will be announced in less than an hour, who is simply I think a brilliant ornament. Everyone will smile and nod and say of course.

Of course, the brilliant ornament turned out to be Leonard Cohen.

QTV (CBC TV)

Leonard Cohen Free Legal Sony Music MP3 Download From Los Angeles Public Library

2011-08-22T09:32:00.000-07:00

Screen capture: Los Angeles Public Library website

From August 22, 2011 leonardcohenforum

Imagine my delight, when I logged onto the Los Angeles Public Library website and read the announcement about free legal MP3 downloads for library card holders. (Limit of three track downloads per week.) This is all thanks to Sony Music.

When I hit the link, I was astounded to immediately see a slideshow flashing by which included the familiar iconic Leonard Cohen album cover from "Songs From The Road".

Yippee. Leonard Cohen is so mainstream now.

So I checked out the Leonard Cohen link and found twenty Leonard Cohen albums.
Amusing to see the various genre categories assigned to each of his albums.

Here are a few examples:

Songs From The Road - ROCK

Live At The Isle of Wight - POP

Live in London - FOLK

Pop and Rock for the rest of his albums

Included in the available albums are:

Anjani - Blue Alert, JAZZ

Adam Cohen - Adam Cohen, ROCK

NEeMA - Watching You Think, POP

I am presuming because this is "free' and "legal" that YouTube will not threaten us with copyright infringement if we use one of these for background music on a video.

The LAPL press release is below. There are several other cities participating (which I highlighted).

L.A. City and County Libraries Partner to Offer Free Music Downloads

“Freegal” Allows Library Cardholders to Download

Sony MP3 Music Free From Library Websites Starting July 1

Los Angeles (June 28, 2011) — Two of the country’s premier public library systems

that together serve 8 million residents, the Los Angeles Public Library and the Los

Angeles County Public Library, have joined Library Ideas’ network of public library

websites that offer access to hundreds of thousands of songs from Sony Music’s

catalog of legendary artists.

The service, “Freegal” (“free” and “legal”), will be available starting July 1, 2011,

on both library websites. Freegal allows registered card holders of either library to

download up to three selections of Sony Music tracks in the MP3 format each week at

no direct cost. The artists and the works available through the service are listed at

http://www.sonymusic.com.

“The Los Angeles Public Library is pleased to partner with the Los Angeles

County Public Library to enhance our digital services and offer an easy-to-use music

download service that delivers great music to a variety of devices,” said City Librarian

Martín Gómez. “Together, we are able to utilize Freegal to help meet the soaring

demand in Los Angeles for digital-format information and entertainment.”

“The County Library has been waiting a long time for a service like this that

delivers good music, compatibility with lots of devices and simplicity of use. We think this

will be very popular with our customers,” said County Librarian Margaret Donnellan Todd.

“Music is an art form like literature and cinema. With Sony Music’s incredibly

expansive and popular catalog, this becomes a very important product for libraries,”

said Brian Downing, co-founder of Library Ideas. “A library is a focal point of the

community that requires many tools to excite people about library resources. More than

anything, that is the reason for the service.”

Other libraries participating in the Freegal music service include the Princeton

Public Library (NJ), Maricopa County Library District (AZ), Orange County Public Library

(FL), Nashville Public Library (TN) and Fairfield Public Library (CT).

Library Ideas is a new media company focused on the educational markets,

based in Fairfax, Virginia. The Company offers music, games and language learning

solutions to public libraries as part of its developing product suite. For further

information please contact Brian Downing, briand@libraryideas.com.

Sony Music Entertainment is a global recorded music company with a roster of

current artists that includes a broad array of both local artists and international

superstars. The company boasts a vast catalog that comprises some of the most

important recordings in history. It is home to premier record labels representing music

from every genre, American Recordings, Arista Nashville, Arista Records, Aware,

Battery Records, Beach Street Records, Black Seal, BNA Records, Cinematic,

Columbia Nashville, Columbia Records, Epic Records, Essential Records, Flicker

Records, Fo-Yo Soul, GospoCentric, Hitz Committee Entertainment, J Records, Jive

Records, LaFace Records, Legacy Recordings, Masterworks, Polo Grounds, RCA

Records, RCA Nashville, RCA Red Seal, RCA Victor, Reunion Records, Slightly

Dangerous, Sony Classical, Sony Music Latin, Star Time International, Verity Records,

andVolcano Entertainment. Sony Music Entertainment is a wholly owned subsidiary of

Sony Corporation of America.

The Los Angeles Public Library serves the largest and most diverse population of

any library in the nation. Its Central Library, 72 branch libraries, more than six million

books, and state-of-the-art technology accessible at http://www.lapl.org, provide everyone

with free and easy access to information and the opportunity for life-long learning.

Leonard Cohen Hydra Friends Reunite after 35 Years, May 2011 -- Photos and Narrative by Judy Scott

2011-08-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

Judy Scott and Marianne Ihlen at the Merlina Mercouri Gallery art opening (artist: Tom Powell), May 28, 2011

After a 35-year absence, we finally had a joyous Hydra reunion! Marianne was there to celebrate her birthday, a day we celebrated together on Hydra many years ago.

Judy Scott & Marianne Ihlen visiting at the house of Pandias Skaramanga on Hydra, to view his collection of Anthony Kingsmill paintings, May 30, 2011

Anthony was a very dear friend to all of us and one of Leonard’s oldest friends. He was a very talented artist who lived and worked on Hydra for 27 years, and passed away in London in 1990.

Judy Scott, Marianne Ihlen, Brian & Valerie Sidaway and friend Jan

May, 2011

One never tires of the sunsets on Hydra, and Brian & Valerie have possibly the best terrace in Kamini to view them from.

My partner, Monika, Marianne, Brian & Valerie, and Jan

It’s so wonderful to maintain such close connections over many miles and many years. Hydra is famous for fostering such a community. We used to call it ”the Hydra Connection.”

Judy and Monika on the terrace of our rented house, referred to as the "Gore-Booth house", which was once owned by the English ambassador to India.

Monika and I have been together for 22 years and have visited Hydra 15-16 times.

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Photos and narrative by Judy Scott (Jazz4111): Please do not copy or republish these images without prior permission
To see Leonard Cohen and Marianne Ihlen 1960 Hydra photos, click here

Movie: Inside the Chelsea Hotel--with Comments by the Resident Photographer and Other Residents

2011-08-17T21:19:00.000-07:00

Inside: The Chelsea Hotel Photographed by Julia Calfee from Bjarke Myrthu on Vimeo.

"People are always asking me what it's like to live in the Chelsea

Hotel. Not always easy. There are times I felt like a fly caught in

a spider's web, at risk of being eaten alive if I made the wrong

move. ..."

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Articles about the fate of the Chelsea Hotel (as at Aug 18/11) are posted on the Leonard Cohen Forum here (Mordy) and here (KenKurzweil)

Jeff Bridges' grizzled vocals evoke "Leonard Cohen if he was born a cowboy instead of a Canadian Buddhist folkie"

2011-08-17T17:22:00.000-07:00

LA Times: Blue Note

Once again I was surprised and delighted to read another reference to Leonard Cohen in the prestigious Los Angeles Times. At first reading, I didn't quite understand what the Jeff Bridges album reviewer was trying to say. After a friend explained it to linear me, I actually found the Leonard Cohen voice comparison a hoot.

To simplify the complicated sentence for others like myself, I highlighted the Leonard Cohen bits in red.

From The Los Angeles Times, August 16, 2011

Album review: Jeff Bridges' 'Jeff Bridges'

All too often, a record from a famous actor can inspire cynicism in a music critic, a knee-jerk post-traumatic reaction from too many grisly attempts (anyone remember “Mr. T’s Commandments”?). Thankfully, the second album from noted thespian Jeff Bridges transcends expectations. Then again, if anyone would, it’s him: from playing a jazz pianist in 1989’s “The Fabulous Baker Boys” to his Academy Award-winning turn as a country singer in 2009’s “Crazy Heart,” Bridges has consistently portrayed musicians with wizened authenticity.

This effort appears to have evolved directly out of Bridges’ “Crazy Heart” triumph. For one, it’s produced by Grammy-bedecked studio guru T-Bone Burnett and features contributions from the likes of Greg Brown and Ryan Bingham, all of whom helped guide the “Crazy Heart” soundtrack, also produced by Burnett, toward credibility (and Oscar recognition). Unsurprisingly, Bridges proffers eccentric, rootsy Americana, from the Byrdsian guitar chime hot-wired with Buddy Holly melodies on “What a Little Bit of Love Can Do” through the pedal-steel driven, clip-clopping frontier ballad, “Everything but Love.” Most appealing are Bridges’ grizzled vocals: the sonic equivalent of gray whiskers, they evoke Nick Cave if he were, say, a baby-boomer Hollywood star baked by the Southern California sun (and other things), or Leonard Cohen if he was born a cowboy instead of a Canadian Buddhist folkie.

Bridges’ frayed charisma fits these songs perfectly. Nostalgic yet out of time, welcoming but secretly brooding, the combination creates an audio correlative to the beloved characters he’s played on-screen.

Jeff Bridges
‘Jeff Bridges’
(Blue Note)
Three stars (Out of four)

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In an interview with Jeff Bridges about his character in the movie "Crazy Heart", there is a Leonard Cohen reference. click here

In fleshing out Bad's background, it was decided that his influences should extend beyond the country genre... and that he should have an eclectic taste in music. "T Bone made a wonderful graph for me of the music that Bad might have listened to," Bridges says. "Leonard Cohen was one of the guys we thought of...

Leonard Cohen's Chelsea Hotel Intro, Kansas City-Nov 9, 2009 is a Special Highlight

2011-08-15T08:52:00.000-07:00

I had heard many versions and variations of Leonard Cohen meeting Janis Joplin in the Chelsea Hotel elevator and the Kris Kristofferson exchange. But I had never heard some of the very witty observations he related at the Kansas City concert. (in bold below)

The Kansas City audience was very boisterous and that helped to make the experience even more memorable. Luckily, I had my camera rolling and captured Leonard Cohen's delightful intro to the Chelsea Hotel on video. I was thrilled to be sitting there witnessing it. And it has remained one of the special highlights of the 16 concerts of the World Tour I attended.

I was sitting in this bar in Miami Beach
It was a Polynesian restaurant
And I was drinking a cocktail out of a ceramic vessel
that was fashioned to resemble a coconut

I was taking a vacation from the deeply authentic
It allowed what was left of my mind to drift back
to earlier days, to the 60's
which contrary to conventional wisdom
only lasted 15 minutes

It was during that period
that I lived in the hotel on 23rd Street
I came home one night after a pointless evening
And I rode up to my room on the elevator
There was a lovely young woman in the elevator
of ordinary countenance,
but with a radiant spirit that (inaudible)

And being Canadian I kept to myself

I had occasion to come down to the lobby once again
And she was still in the elevator
apparently riding the elevator
And then when I took the elevator back to my room
she was still there

I eventually say, can I help you
She said, no
And I said, are you looking for someone
She said, yes I am
I'm looking for Kris Kristofferson
I said, little lady, you're in luck
I'm Kris Kristofferson
Such was the generosity of those times
I thought you would be taller

Back to the bar in Miami Beach
I began to scribble some notes
And those notes became this song...

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Chelsea Hotel photos: Google Images
A collection of Chelsea Hotel prologues can be found here

Leonard Cohen Thanks Canada For Embracing His Immigrant Ancestors

2011-08-13T00:08:00.000-07:00

August 13, 2011

August 13 was the date of my parents wedding anniversary ז״ל

These past few days, I have been reminiscing about my parents and their immigrant life in Canada (father from Russia, mother from Poland). My thoughts reminded me about Leonard Cohen's gracious thank you to Canada at a gala a few days before he received his special Lifetime Achievement Grammy in January, 2010. I was so moved by his sentiments, I posted an extract from an article on my personal blog, Arlene Now (which pre-dates this Leonard Cohen Scrapbook.). The post title is mine, "A Real Mensch." Here is that post.

* * * *

From an article by Darryl Sterdan, Sunmedia on Jan 29, 2010

A Real Mensch

The Canadian Consulate in Los Angeles threw its annual Grammy bash to celebrate and showcase this year’s nominees from north of the 49th parallel. Leonard Cohen will be honoured on Saturday with a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy, which puts on the Grammys.

The 75-year-old Cohen, clad in his ever-present dark suit and fedora, made a brief appearance to say he was “deeply grateful” for his accolade.

“My great grandfather, Lazarus Cohen, came to Canada in 1869, to the county of Glengarry, a little town in Maberly,” the folk-rock icon said. “On this occasion, because of the great hospitality that was accorded my ancestor who came here over 140 years ago, I want to thank this country, Canada, for allowing us to live and work and flourish in a place that was different from all other places in the world. So I thank Canada for the opportunity that was given me to work and play and flourish.”

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I referred to the distinctive lectern in the screen shot above in, My Leonard Cohen Button Goes Everywhere

Meeting Leonard Cohen World Tour Band Members in 2009-2010

2011-08-11T22:20:00.000-07:00

San Diego Concert Poster
April 7, 2009

Copley Symphony Hall

I feel very fortunate to have enjoyed 16 incredible concerts of the World Tour in 2009 and 2010 and to have had the honour of meeting Leonard Cohen in person for the first time.

I also feel very lucky that I had opportunities to meet every wonderful member of the band, including the three back up singers.

The warm memories of meeting each of these very talented and remarkable individuals will last forever.

I started with the concert in San Diego on April 7, 2009 where I bought a site specific poster (seen above). I started collecting autographs there at the early entry for Forum members. After San Diego, I brought the poster to the rest of the concerts I attended in 2009. In total, there are seven autographs on that poster. The only two missing are Neil Larsen and Sharon Robinson. I just never ran into them in 2009. Ah, but I did in 2010.

Javier Mas, Dino Soldo

San Diego, April 7, 2009
How I eventually received this photo (more)

Dino Soldo

Gothenburg, Aug 12, 2010
Dino and the red socks story (more)

Roscoe Beck
Nashville, Nov 5, 2009
Forum fans early entry (more)

Bob Metzger
Kansas City, Nov 9, 2009
Forum fans early entry (more)

Rafael Bernardo Gayol

Gothenburg, Aug 12, 2009
Rafael graciously helped with my red socks (more)

Hattie Webb, Charley Webb

Los Angeles, Jan 18, 2010
Hotel Cafe gig (more)

Hattie Webb

San Jose, Nov 13, 2009
Before the final 2009 concert (more)

Neil Larsen

Las Vegas, Dec 11, 2010
Very gracious and well deserved accolades (more)

Sharon Robinson

Las Vegas, Dec 11, 2010

It was wonderful to see her back (more)

...and I can't resist adding a
candid shot by Albert Noonan.

Las Vegas, Dec 11, 2010

Leonard Cohen's poetry inspires Glass Portals, featuring Tim Fain -- US Premiere, New York, Omaha, Los Angeles

2011-08-09T21:36:00.000-07:00

Portals Trailer (SilverScreenPresents)

From August 9, 2011 leonardcohenforum

US premiere - New York
Symphony Space
Peter Jay Sharp Theatre
Sat, Sep 24 at 8 pm

Portals: A Multi-Media Exploration of Longing in the Digital Age

"Fain's tone is dark yet athletic; he plays a mean violin...a performer with a burgeoning career" -The New York Times

It's a rare treat to experience a Philip Glass premiere, especially as performed by rising star violinist Tim Fain. This multi-media evening features Glass's new Partita for Solo Violin, pianist Nicholas Britell, a film choreographed and directed by Black Swan's Benjamin Millepied, the music of Pulitzer Prize winners Aaron Jay Kernis and William Bolcom, celebrated composers Nico Muhly, Kevin Puts, and Lev Zhurbin, and the genre-bending Laura Karpman, all interwoven with films by Kate Hackett and the words of Leonard Cohen.

Mid-West premiere - Omaha
KANEKO
Omaha, NE
Wed, Oct 5 & Thurs, Oct 6 at 7:30 pm

...the poetry of Leonard Cohen spoken by Performance Today host Fred Child.

West Coast premiere - Los Angeles
Broad Stage, Santa Monica
Sun.Oct 9 at 4pm

...this piece brings together spoken word and poetry of Leonard Cohen

Tim Fain, Philip Glass in rehearsal (fb)

"Leonard Cohen...Such a kind, unassuming soul with such a deep artistic vision" (Tim Fain, acclaimed violinist)

2011-08-08T23:09:00.000-07:00

Tim Fain: UNTAPPED NEW YORK

From August 8, 2011 leonardcohenforum

An Interview with Tim Fain, Violinist from Black Swan
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
Feb 10, 2011
by Michelle Young
(in part: asking about Philip Glass)

Michelle: Do you have any good stories from your tours with Philip?

Tim: He loves telling stories about the old days—Einstein on the beach, driving a cab in New York City…he’s a lot of fun. A few years ago we worked together on this project called “Book of Longing,” which was a song cycle that Philip had written to the poetry of Leonard Cohen. We were on the road and had just played a concert in Stanford. I got off the bus at the hotel and there was Leonard standing right there. He’d just gotten off the bus himself and he offered to take my violin for me so I could grab my suitcase. So it was Leonard Cohen, carrying my violin for me—I just couldn’t believe it. He’d always been such an inspiration, and I was quite touched. Such a kind, unassuming soul with such a deep artistic vision

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For my background post about "Philip Glass new composition based on Leonard Cohen's Book Of Longing for Violinist Tim Fain", click here