What L.C thing pisses you off

[Arno]

peter,

youre absolutely right... come on lenny, pull yourself together we need more, more, more, more laughter, more choruses more monkeys and stamps to send them to other people, more cures for love and other stuff, more police to control jazz from destroying skip buttons and reinforcing cds so they dont get hit by the monkey falling from the table as I tried to get the stamp on him...

uh oh forgot my medicine... never mind

Arno ( **need holidays**)

[margaret]

Ves, I haven't seen a tape with Leonard and Rebecca listening to Anthem Where does it appear?

[catherine]

Interesting to see to what extend the various observations correspond with one another.



What pisses me off, is that I am most likely never to see Leonard in person.

[Vesuvius]

Ciao Margaret,

It was a thing Sony put together as a "infomational" (my latest American word!) It was to talk about the new album The Future. Leonard was being interviewed by somebody (I think Texan?) in a booth in a diner. Rebecca was at the counter reading (or "acting" like she was reading) a newspaper. They were the only ones in the diner. They interspersed the interview with different shots of Leonard doing things like:

Twirling his prayer beads
Drawing pictures of himself on his Mac (The mac was prehistoric!)
Looking at his books
Lighting an incense candle with a gun

and of course the scene I mentioned before with Rebecca closing her eyes while Anthem plays.

I have no idea what became of my copy. But that is what I remember of it.


Vesuvius

[tomsakic]

Well, I do like Be For Real very much, and it's bloody shame in the end "The Future" wasn't issued under that title (it was one of options:).
First time I hear somebody doesn't like Ain't No Cure, that's surprising. I thinks it's very great.
t.

[Kush]

Ves....would you care to elaborate on that "lighting an incense candle with a gun"?
How the hell do you do that???

[Vesuvius]

Ciao Kush!

And I thought you were a Texan!

I apologize I did not make it plain. Leonard lit the candle with a lighter that looked like a small pistol. Almost like a 22 deringer. (I think.)

It was a very strange scene. He lit the candle with the gun waves the incense around and then quotes from the Talmud something about incense getting the husks off your soul. The more I think about it the weirder it seems.

I think Leonard likes guns as much as he likes incense.


Vesuvius

[margaret]

I think maybe he likes playing to the camera also

[Kush]

Ciao Ves....this urban Texan is scared of guns my friend. Nevertheless, lighting an incense candle with a real gun would be a neat trick I'd have liked to see.

There's nothing particular about LC that pisses me off - that's too strong a word - but I was a little disillusioned/disappointed by all this spirituality stuff. I mean I consider myself a decent hardworking regular capitalist who has never had any spiritual aspirations so I appreciated his songs better without knowing that aspect of him I guess.
I guess I prefer to take the lyrics more at face value without any spirituality connections etc etc....

[bee]

Kush, darling, how u would do that? hard to imagine Leonardo without his spiritual stuff~ would it be a dead Leo? u really dont mean that, i know there is always a humor in any religion or church etc. also, Leonard is an artist, playing and crying and laughing

[Kush]

bee...I have never really been quite sure what 'spirituality' means. I think it is the very overt "spirituality" or "spiritual quest" of LC that bothers me a little. And that may be coz' I have never been that way nor have I known anybody like that so to be so consumed by this spiritual quest i don't know what it is for?
If there is anything in me that is spiritual (whatever that may mean) and I don't know it then that's good coz' it is something that is ingrained in me or part of my being and I am not even conscious of it. And if there is nothing in me that's spiritual that's good too coz' I am still able to lead a decent productive life and contribute to society (I like to think so anyway ).
Perhaps some inherent spirituality is a useful guard against the excesses of capitalism....

But this going over ancient and exotic texts searching for answers to questions that you cannot answer I don't know what good that is for. But hey, whatever rocks your boat....

[tom.]

i can't imagine a life without some sort of spiritual yearning or wonder. i've never heard of someone who does not eventually embark upon a spiritual journey of some sort but, then again, maybe what some think of as sprituality others might think of as a living philosophy. a life without philosophic wonder and existential questioning hardly seems worth living to me, and questions of spirituality eventually come up whenever one thinks philosophically. without wonder what's the use? i think that the exact "spirtuality" of leonard cohen's music that you seem to find so troubling is what makes me love the man's music and words. it instantly places us on equal footing...two humans, terrified and amazed, as we celebrate and explore the infinite chaos of existence...

[jurica]

this term 'spiritual yearning or wonder' is realy confusing. since i'm a materialist when it comes to philosophy, i realy don't know what 'spirit' is. is it 'soul' as in 'when you die your soul goes to heaven'?

this spirituality bothers me too, but it's, thankfuly, rarely explicit in his lyrics. he usualy uses some sort of self-irony when it comes to 'spirituality'. like i said: thankfuly.

[tom.]

as far as i'm concerned spirituality refers to an individuals search for internal meaning or substance. something beyond the ordinary and mundane exterior and experiences. i don't think spirituality has anything to do with "a soul" or "heaven." it is more about those intangibles inside of us all that are inexplicable and that keep us searching for more.

in short, if you don't feel IT you won't understand what i'm saying....i just pray, for your sake, that the yearning and wonder doesn't begin too late in life for you, and that you will be left enough time to make peace with existence once IT does begin...

[Kush]

Hi tom. and jurica,
I realized at some point that my living philosophy diverges rather sharply from LCs (as far as I can make out) although there are points of overlap.
Hence my earlier statement of that aspect of his life.
I have no problem with the so-called spirituality in his songs but perhaps I am interpreting them a little differently. After seeing some interpretations of songs by others here I think I tend to attach less symbolism to them than some others, perhaps coz' I know less in those areas. For better or worse.
But yes I do appreciate songs like If It Be Your Will or Hallelujah not to mention Dylan's Every Grain of Sand.