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.
writer of contemporary women's erotica, 3 novels with Black Lace, numerous short stories published in anthologies. Screenwriter with short film and TV credits.