leonardcohenforum.com

I've been thinking.

It can't be easy to have a contest that would satisfy the demanding, aesthetic sensibilities of LC Fandom, and still retain the Aristotelian Unities.

What, I ask myself, would be the perfect contest? What? What? What?


Hmmmm.....I wonder...

Arm wrestling?

Leonard told Stina or Valerie Pringle [can't recall which at the moment] he could probably beat "her" at it.....so, he'd be into it.

I have to admit I was stumped for awhile when I was cogitating about the perfect contest for LC Fans. But then I decided to try Elizabeth Laishley's technique for painting. I consciously stopped thinking and let the music and lyrics take over. Eureka! Was I surprised when it worked! So here it is. The perfect contest. It is designed for both those who find LC endlessly fascinating (and we know who you are) and those who hate TNS (get in line).



THE CONTEST

On occasion, LC would forget to unplug his Jaccuzi while laying down his vocal tracks in his home studio. Because of this oversight, the Jaccuzi can be distinctly heard running in the background on one of the songs from TNS. Name this song. (Your odds on getting this right are incredible... 1 in 10). One entry per person. Email your entry to me at mred294@hotmail.com. Contest ends October 15, 2002. A winner will be selected from all correct entries in a random drawing.


Unfortunately, I am fresh out of Unified Heart Rings. Instead, the Grand Prize will be a rare and little known 8-track tape of Leonard Cohen's "Songs from a Hot Tub."


Mr. Ed

Of course, I may be mistaken. The ambient sound may not be the hot tub...it might be a blender. In which case, the Grand Prize will be a rare and little known 8-track of Leonard Cohen's "Songs from the Bottom of a Blender."

Dear Mr. Ed,

Are you for real?

I guess this puts me in the endlessly fascinated catagory but I've been listening to Ten New Songs for nearly a year now and can't hear anything but wonderful music.


Miranda

Ten new songs is the pinnacle of the Cohens work
and spiritually driven and messages of lusts
almost ten years of baldy made his mortality rust
and made his younger years seem like a fuss
the blender was there and it was love and hate
a curious mixture of the field and the gate
of tea and oranges and the children in rags fate?
of mighty ships and dealers relate
the queen of diamonds and the hydra solace
so patterened in time and the writers of the past
content and at peace with the journey that does not last
Georges

Dear Miranda,

I congratulate you on your appreciation for TNS. However, I am perfectly serious about the "noise." Herewith a quote from Leanne Unger in the article, "Leonard Cohen: New Songs, New Approach" by Eric Rudolph in Mix magazine.


Tracking final vocals in Cohen's home studio (which despite its reasonably high-tech trappings, Ungar says "is not acoustically isolated") was an environmental challenge. "There were dogs barking, birds singing, garbage trucks. Also, occasionaly Leonard would forget to turn off the Jacuzzi that is adjacent to the studio--the studio resides in a second story Cohen added above his garage, next to his Los Angeles home. When you're involved in doing vocals and your ears are full of track, it is easy to not notice these noises," Ungar says. She removed most of these sounds, but says she can still hear their remnants on the finished CD.

Please do not think I am being unduly critical of the results from Mr. Cohen's home studio. I, myself am working on cold fusion in my basement and I can't begin to describe the technological nightmares I am encountering.

Yours truly,

Mr. Ed

I can't tell you how much it warms my heart to imagine Leonard relaxing in a profusion of warm bubbles with a Red Needle close by! Thank you for this lovely picture, Mr. Ed. Good luck with your neightmare!

babz

Dear Ed,

At first I thought you were just pulling our collective legs (after reading your back-posts! ). So I'm going to give the "noise" thing another listen. In any case listening to Ten New Songs will not be a waste of time!


Miranda


Oh, and Good Luck on the cold fusion.

The sound of your own Jacuzzi in the back ground with Ten New Songs on the stereo works pretty good too.

Linda,

What a great idea! Wish I had one. The combination would be irresitable!


And Ed,

I listened to Ten New Songs again last night and once again failed to detect anything. I give up. On the "noise". Not Ten New Songs!

Miranda

As a matter of fact, Mr. Ed or anyone else, which song[s] is it that the jacuzzi comes through on? Specifically, name the song.

Actually if you really listen you can hear it in all of them I think he spends a lot of time in that Jacuzzi with those red needles. Seriously I doubt if I would be able to detect it if I knew

I've set out to listen for inappropriate 'noises off' a couple of times, but I always get distracted by the songs. For what was apparently such a messy recording it really is remarkably soothing - the aural equivalent of a good soak in the jacuzzi, in fact.