leonardcohenforum.com

Greetings yet again!

You guys sure are a warm and witty lot - never have I felt so welcome in a forum before. Thanks for the affirmation, especially from Cate, that this little adventure of mine makes perfect sense (though I guess objectivity goes out the window - 900 windows, in fact - in a message board like this )

I do envy leonardmtl and lizzytysh - I just might save myself a night's accommodation and hit the pubs...


Lester

Well if he's not playing Singapore and you have the means of course you did the right thing! It's not really that far! Although the Cambodia concert will be special. Hopefully someone will begin the momentum to have a Sydney GTG before the show( now that would be the icing on the cake...or in your case nuts on the banana split ). And being towards the end of the tour think of all the perfected new songs we may get by then!

horo1984 wrote:
>It suddenly hit me that I would be flying 4,000 miles . . . am I nuts?

It depends upon the definition of 'nuts'. 'Irrational', 'silly', 'crazy' - or whatever. From a psychological viewpoint I would not say you were necessarily mad, although your behaviour could well be seen as questionable. Yet if anything is askew, it is asking your question in this very environment, a forum inhabited by people guaranteed to be supportive. Choose a nudist colony in which to run naked and not an eyebrow will be lifted. Now, I am going to tell you the truth - so listen up. It is crazy to travel 4,000 miles to see a music concert. Totally whacko - let me be quite clear about that. There is no doubt. But why fear being odd? People who are not A4, those inspiring eccentrics amongst us who step beyond the confines of dull normality, are the precious lifeblood of our existence. Bravo. Do it with your head held high. Vive la différence!!

Geoffrey wrote: Vive la différence!!

That was good G - I liked the energy of that, makes me want to go dance at a parade.


Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.
Albert Camus

Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.
Albert Camus

Off-topic. I love that quote and it reminds me of a situation day before yesterday at my job. I rescued a teenage blue jay [a bird here] from the literal jaws of death of my cat, Avi [the wildest, closest to nature, among mine]. I kept him through the night and 'force fed' him a bit. He's fully feathered and about the size of a hamster. Having no idea if he might not die without food during the day, I packed him up and toted him to work with me. Didn't try to be sneaky, but wasn't obvious about it, either. I put the rather large cat carrier, that I had him in, on the floor, half beneath the 'desk counter' area of my cubicle [other work-related boxes kept the carrier from going back against the wall]. Mostly covered with a lime green bath towel, it was hardly camouflaged and ought to have been immediately obvious to anyone paying attention.

About 3:30 in the afternoon, I was in my supervisor's office talking with her and our Center director. Along comes a co-worker from a different agency and wide-eyed exclaims, "Do You have a BLUE JAY in your CUBICLE!?!" I saw the director's full face, ALSO wide-eyed and my supervisor equally so, both turn and look at me. I said, "Yeah... [as though it were somewhere between perfectly normal and mandatory to take such action, and explained all of the above]," along with my plans to release him the next morning at daylight, when he could re-orient to his surroundings... after I had already called vets, etc. from work re: how best to proceed toward his eventual freedom. They both started talking about how I HAVE to get him out of my cubicle, perhaps in the back conference room, etc. So, I went to do that. The center director walked out at the same time, so we were walking alongside each other toward the back, and she said, "You never cease to AMAZE me, Elizabeth." Well, in the back room, he began to squawk again, mouth wide open [the source of his discovery in the first place] and I realized that, even though I THOUGHT he was ready for release, he was still dependent on Mom for food.

So, I kept him overnight and took him to the vet in the morning. The vet and I talked later and the bird wasn't injured, and he had obtained a vet tech's agreement to take it home to feed and 'rehab' for release, to resolve my dilemma of leaving for Cracow within 3 days. What a relief! This is one of a huge number of anecdotes manifesting the truth of Camus's quote. Those times not inhabited by them are the means I have managed to keep my job... where I have had to subjugate the 'I' in me to adapt to the 'corporate'-office environment. So, as Geoffrey said, hold your head high and follow your passion... 4,000 miles to peace.


~ Lizzy

Thank you, Cate - and also for Elizabeth's engaging little story. Reminds me of a film in which Nicholas Cage kept saying: "This is a snakeskin jacket, and for me it's a symbol of my individuality - my belief in personal freedom!" The town where I live is currently experiencing an invasion of large brown slugs - they are everywhere. So in my back pocket I carry a hammer, but I don't want to get into that now.

Hello for the fourth time!

Thanks everyone, for your two cents'. Appreciate the straight talk, Geoffrey

Geoffrey wrote:Yet if anything is askew, it is asking your question in this very environment, a forum inhabited by people guaranteed to be supportive. Choose a nudist colony in which to run naked and not an eyebrow will be lifted.

which was why I said

horo1984 wrote:though I guess objectivity goes out the window - 900 windows, in fact - in a message board like this

Still, it was great fun reading the many replies. lizzytysh, thanks for your blue jay story. For some reason, LC's line "sentenced to death by the blues" keeps popping up in my head now

Anyway, I've just settled my accommodation and airfare. No turning back now. Meeting the guys tomorrow for drinks, where they will doubtless certify me nuts. I'll drink to that.


Lester

Enjoy L.

Lizzy I liked your Blue Jay story as well - I can imagine him on your office floor yelling at you for food.

G - a hammer!!!!
OMG

IF YOU ARE NUTS ....SO AM I......FROM FLORIDA TO FLORENCE ITALY.....I QUESS WE ALL FEEL THE SAME.. THERE ARE NO BOUNDARIES OR LIMITS THAT CANNOT BE CROSSED . JEANNE

No you are not nuts to go to Florence from Florida

LOL ~ The problem came when I wasn't there, Cate . Ordinarily, I'd have hastened to his food-rescue, but I was two aisles away and in an office, so didn't hear him... therefore, given the lack of attention, he squawked more and louder. At first, the woman who came with the big question had asked someone else if they heard a blue jay. That other person dismissed it with, "No, that's just a cellphone." Straight from the egg to techno advances. Hence, had I been there... someone would have answered that cell very quickly.

Thanks for your comments, Geoffrey, horo1984, and Cate .


~ Lizzy

Lizzy - What a lucky blue jay to have found his way into your heart and helpful hands, though via Avi's mouth was probably not his first choice of transport! Have a wonderful and safe journey.

As for being nuts, well, yes, I suppose we all are. But, only in that way that allows us to look back in life and say, "yes, I did that!", rather than lamenting the "would-have", "should-haves". My journeys weren't so far in miles, but the first was 6 hours by car, me 5 months pregnant, with my husband and a 2 year old. The second, 7 months pregnant, flying to Denver from Washington state, first night away from my little one, and then returning home as the concert was postponed. And then the third, flying half way across the US with my dear husband, 2 year old and a colicky 3-month old! And as we were far from home, my husband braved the evenings alone with our little ones, while I went to the concerts alone - yes, he is a saint! Fortunately (or unfortunately, I haven't decided yet...) this year's concerts are so out-of-reach from a practical travel standpoint, that I don't even have to consider going. But, when our friends set feet back on North American soil, we'll be there - again!

And then the third, flying half way across the US with my dear husband, 2 year old and a colicky 3-month old! And as we were far from home, my husband braved the evenings alone with our little ones, while I went to the concerts alone - yes, he is a saint!

Yes he is - what a nice husband!

~~~
bee kid video - just made me think of that whole celebrating differences idea - I love when the kid finds a whole mess of other bees.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYlAwvz8 ... ure=avmsc2

jeanne wrote:
>IF YOU ARE NUTS ....SO AM I ...FROM FLORIDA TO FLORENCE ITALY.....I QUESS WE ALL FEEL THE SAME.

i think we need to be a bit careful now. if everybody starts traveling 4,000 miles to see a concert it will no longer attract attention. if it catches on too much there will be no individuality, eccentricity will become the norm and a person will have to think up something new in order to be special. i'm just telling you, that's all.

Of course, horo1984 is stark raving bonkers, but he won't regret it if he has the money and all goes according to plan (I wonder if anyone travelled 4000 miles to that Morrisey gig last year, where he walked offstage after one song?!). As it happens, a friend of mine has gone farther than this to see a gig (and one that he had already seen several times). He travelled from Brighton, UK to Los Angeles (5500 miles), just so that he could catch Brian Wilson's "Smile" concert, one last time. He didn't even bother to check into a hotel...just stayed in a bar till about 4am, then took the first available flight back.