CONCERT REPORT: Ottawa, Ontario - December 7, 2012

[Tchocolatl]

Sturgess66 thanks for the video of Save the last dance for me, I was curious. Oh! What a voice.

Indeed, the journalist may not have been pleased with the subtitle (but the mayor, probably .

"Near perfection" often means "the best that can be possibly achieved". I have read it that way.

Rather strange coïncidences happen to me also any time Leonard Cohen is afoot.

It is like if he is fueling so much energy in people and that generates all sorts of extraordinary (like in "not ordinary") behaviors - that depends of how a person is using energy usually in every day life.

Stimulate the creativity also.

[MaryB]

Madeline,

That has to be one of the funniest, interesting reviews I have read! I kept wanting more! Thank you.

Grateful regards,
Mary

[madeline]

Thanks Mary. I thought perhaps I'd gone on for rather a long time without saying much about the actual show. I am a writer who needs an editor.

Re: the Toronto/Tarahna issue: Many years ago I attempted to study "Teaching English As A Second Language" as a way to supplement my meagre income. I studied "Linguistics 101," which was enough to make me abandon the whole idea. Linguistics is science, man!

There are amazing differences in the dialect of people living in the same country (even province, in our case) and speaking the same language. Canadians do not pronounce the second "t" as a "t" in a sentence where the vowel preceding the second "t" is stressed. Instead, they substitute it with a "d". Hence, "po-TAY-do." and To-MAY-do. This is called the "Canadian flap D."

Hey, wait a minute! This doesn't apply to Taranna because of the 'n' before the 't.' Oops. Well, English is the most difficult second language to learn because of the many exceptions to every rule. For example: "i before e except after c or when sounded like a as in neighbour or weigh." So please tell weird Keith to get that heifer off my lawn before my brain seizes, necessitating a large dose of codeine."

I think, like the "lazy bastard in a suit" I'd rather write in English than teach it as a second language. Although I imagine one wouldn't have to speak English to understand the man "born with the gift of this golden voice." His songs transend the language because he so often sings in the universal language of love.

I have heard the following story and wonder if anyone can verify it as truth or an apocryphal tale:
Apparently in Berlin Leonard went on stage and tried to sing but he had laryngitis and had to stop. He was mortified. The crowd then proceeded to sing his songs to him.

At the Glenn Gould awards ceremony, where many fabulous singers were about to croon his tunes, he said, in his short acceptance speech ("I want to get to the music") that if any of them were nervous about singing his songs with him present, they shouldn't worry because, "When I hear my songs performed by others I experience paroxysms of joy." (paraphrased as best as I can remember, but I'm not a reporter so that's okay.)

As a writer who often (too often?) uses the word "paroxysms" I experienced one of my own when he spoke those words.

I had a gift for him, my erotic novel Sarah's Education (it won an award in the UK for best cover art so I assured him in the note I wrote preceding my signature that I didn't particularly expect him to read it but I thought he might like the pretty cover) and my adaptation of Famous Blue Raincoat, which I wrote for his 70 somethingish birthday, called Famous Troubadour. (It's here, somewhere in the thread for fans who wanted to wish him a happy birthday.)

I experienced paroxyms of joy when I signed my book for Leonard Cohen. It doesn't really matter to me if he read it, though I'd like to think he received it. (I gave it to a member of the Massey Hall staff to give to him.)

One last thing: Although I was terribly embarassed at what I blurted out when I met him (see my previous post, "I love you, Leonard.") in retrospect I think that in the one moment I spoke to him face to face, I'm happy I said something simple and true.

[Tchocolatl]

And i dare say : necessary!

[Tchocolatl]

I'd rather write in English than teach it as a second language

"If poetry is like an orgasm, an academic can be likened to someone who studies the passion-stains on the bedsheets."

"I am a quiet madman, never far from tears, I write poems to cause trouble. The sparks fly, I gather each one, and start a poem."

-- Irving Layton

Source :
http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/1071

Keep going Madeline!

[Sochijava]

Wonderful Madeline, thank you so much for your reports. Yes, keep going!

Tchocolati - love the Layton quotes, thank you!

Paula
(sochijava)

[madeline]

Thanks, all. In Brit speak, which is a form of English I've become fluent in, I'm chuffed!

[sturgess66]

From LaPresse.ca - Le Droit -
http://www.lapresse.ca/le-droit/arts-et ... -temps.php

"A show full of life and grace, humor and verses matured over the years."

GOOGLE TRANSLATION [Original article in French is at the link above.]

Published December 8, 2012
à 05h30 |

Leonard Cohen At Scotiabank Place
The Poet Who Suspended Time



Leonard Cohen was visiting Scotiabank Place last night.
Étienne Ranger, LeDroit

By Maud Cucchi - Le Droit

His hands, his hat and his grace. Leonard Cohen style is still there, haunting and lascivious flow in slow, a way to support each word and to enjoy them, enjoy them more than to sing.

And if, as Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, 78, had gone for a tour without end? "I do not know when we meet, but we will give everything we have tonight! "He whispered in a very charming French yesterday, Kanata, before introducing the strongest of all his songs: Dance me to the end of love. 9000 people the ovationnaient. A return to origins, to some extent, since it is on stage that began before embarking on the production of his first album, the highly acclaimed Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967). Since 2008 and after fifteen years of absence, the Montreal poet travels insatiably routes to North America and Europe. The average duration of its service-river? More than three hours. Scotiabank Place was no exception to the rule, the singing tour continuing at the time of going to press.

A show full of life and grace, humor and stanzas matured over the years.

Because since its inception, Montreal was able to take his time. Unlike ups mounted too fast, Leonard Cohen, tortured and bright, has built his career, album after album, through fads with a nice casual. As recalled in his biography recently published by Editions Didier Carpentier "magnificent winner" will have to wait a craze across the Atlantic to finally recognize that the profession talent to stamp singular near the confidence, which raised the hoarse introspection an art.

Cohen, imperturbable in his impeccable business suit.

Cohen, goldsmith's where everything is carefully staged, the knee, bowing to the musicians, the visor hat revealing precious eyes.

Cohen and vaulted shape would look like a harmonica. And it is not far when we see that his side is all about breath, deep frequency modulations that accompany the body bent faithfully. Not to mention the three singers

From the first, the singer invites us closer to the music, the inexhaustible source of whispering, which is nothing obvious in the huge arena where it happened. In this space elusive, he opposed his tempo, slow, very slow. Won the battle? And how! Left fist adorned with a signet ring, he scrolls his music travelers, to its enchanting. Thirty titles was expected, the Mediterranean (great guitar solo to introduce Bird on the wire) in Eastern Europe, through the standing ovation he interpreted to Suzanne rare silent meditation . Appearance when the light revealed on stage when he sings religion. Mass was said.

[MaryB]

What the heck? This is the most garbled google translation I have ever read, funny too.

[Tchocolatl]

G gle translations. A human brain can ( always almost) make sense out of it, and catch the meaning. But the soul, unfortunately, the soul may be easily lost somewhere in the unhuman process, in the depth of an unconscious robot, every bit of human reality lost in the rational.

If Madeline come back around here, by coïncidence, maybe she would be willing to put this in fluent Brit speak, for you, if you are lucky. Who knows?

In French it is good to read it. It is a piece well inspired by Leonard Cohen, it is palpable. (No where I read this word "palpable" more often than in the papers of journalists writting about the atmosphere during this tour ).

Just a little last observation : The journalist is not the photographer, Étienne Ranger, but Maud Cucchi.

[sturgess66]

In order to avoid wounds to the soul - - this could be a good way to approach a Google Translation.
A quick scan through the article can usually give you the general idea - but leaves your good feelings unscathed.

http://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/l ... n-you-read

Can You Read This?

Take a look at this paragraph. Can you read what it says? All the letters have been jumbled (mixed). Only the first and last letter of each word is in the right place:

I cnduo't bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghhuot slelinpg was ipmorantt! See if yuor fdreins can raed tihs too.

CORRECT PARAGRAPH -

I couldn't believe that I could actually understand what I was reading. Using the incredible power of the human brain, according to research at Cambridge University, it doesn't matter in what order the letters in a word are, the only important thing is that the first and last letter be in the right place. The rest can be a total, mess and you can read it without a problem. This is because the human mind does not read every letter by itself, but the word as a whole. Amazing, huh? Yeah and I always thought spelling was important! See if your friends can read this too!

Thanks Tchocolatl - I edited and added the name of the journalist!

[Tchocolatl]

The uncredible power of the human mind can do this, indeed, and can even make sens out of a cloaca, and I dare say, even out of the chaos. It can also create any tool like google to create nonsense and chaos. The uncredible power of mind is fascinating. I guess that good feelings are the key. Indeed, indeed. But now, that leads to mule over : how and why real "good feelings" are produced, and what they really mean. Too deep, at least for such a moment and place.

Now, Strugess 66, is this a Google act that changed Étienne for Stephen? There is so much in a name.

This bracelet of Leonard Cohen that appears on this photo... I have almost bought one like this, very similar to be accurate, but I thought : "This is the kind of thing that only Léonard Cohen can wear". More or less as a joke. It is amazing how I can feel my subject!

[lizzytysh]

A fun and funny review, madeline. Understandable how you're doing so well as a free-lance writer.
Loved your spontaneous outburst with Leonard, and all your teasing and reminding with your sister.
Here's hoping you get to see more of Leonard!

Edited to add:

In reading further through the thread, I came across this just now...

One last thing: Although I was terribly embarassed at what I blurted out when I met him (see my previous post, "I love you, Leonard.") in retrospect I think that in the one moment I spoke to him face to face, I'm happy I said something simple and true.

Absolutely.
Well done, madeline.

[madeline]

Re: Google translation of article written in French:

I love this line:
Cohen, imperturbable in his impeccable business suit.

I think I'll leave it at that.