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| warpedgirl17 |
 Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 8:55 pm |
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Joined: 06 Jan 2009
Posts: 51
Location: Salt Lake City,Utah
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lissa wrote: Just got Last Night's Fake Blood playing on Last FM, and you're right, wg, the Mini Tigers are great! Thanks for the recommendation!
you're welcome! I'm glad you like them! Last Night's Fake Blood was the song I got to play tambourine to on stage with them! That's a great song! |
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I read somewhere... how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong... but to feel strong.- Christopher McCandless(Into The Wild) |
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| lissa |
| Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 8:16 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 2148
Location: my computer
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Now THERE'S a cool gig, warpedgirl!
I just scored 2 tickets to see Katie Melua in May. She'll be playing cabaret-style at Montreal's Metropolis club. That place is great, and the last time I was there was probably to see Squeeze back in the 80's...
But my 12-year-old son is coming with me (I'm taking him on a date) and is very excited. |
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Statistically, 6 out of 7 dwarfs aren't happy. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 1:14 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Quote: please give us a review of Cohen in Phoenix.
It may well have been the best concert I've ever seen. If I could give any sick or sad and broken hearted people one thing for their healing it would be this concert.
He is an inspiration. He skipped off the stage before giving 7 encores. He stood for all his songs, sometimes kneelling, sometimes swaying, sometimes taking off his hat in reverance for the 8 musicians accompanying him. 75 years old and so sweet, so kind, so light-hearted and funny, so in touch with his audience and his band........Everybody loved him.
The concert wasn't sold out.....but it was packed and lasted 3 hours and 15 minutes. I realized by the last song that I didn't have his endurance......but up til then I had been wanting him to play all night.
I like to hear other artists cover his songs.......but last night he was lacking nothing. His instrument.....his voice was perfect and his words so clear..... if there were cracks they were only there to let the light come through. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 1:27 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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The amazing thing is that Leonard has never had this kind of adulation in this country. He's huge Internationally, but in the USA he's never been a big deal. Until now. I'm not sure what happened. It's like some form of magic.
In Grand Prairie Texas (of all places) over 6000 people came to see him and gave him repeated standing ovations. This is Mr. Cohen's golden moment, well deserved, and he clearly is humbled and inspired by it. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 1:32 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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Betsy,
I took my 80 year old Uncle Richard to the Cohen concert and he was knocked out. He said it was the best live performance by an artist that he's seen since seeing Bob Dylan in 1966. Richard has a rock and roll heart. It was probably inspiring to Richard to see an artist of his generation put on a 3 1/2 show.
Where does Leonard Cohen get his energy? Spending most of the last couple of decades in a Zen monastery meditating and eating well might be part of the answer. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 1:52 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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Dylan is one of the few performers I've never seen. Some people were talking during the intermission about Cohen compared to Tom Waits (he has some good songs.....but in Cohen's songs every line is good) and Dylan (he doesn't connect to his audience......he's in another place).
Didn't Cohen joke with your audience, Marc? In PHX he told the crowd he'd been spending the last few years doing religious studies......but cheerfulness kept interrupting him. Then he said that he hadn't toured since he was 60......just a young kid with alot of dreams......since then he's had experience with prosac and wellbutrin, etc.
And beginning one of his encores he said he felt he could confide in us about his drinking problem. He was only able to deal with it when he was drunk.
If he does live clean he certainly isn't pompous about it.
The audience was probably 30 yr. olds to 70 yr. olds. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 10:23 am |
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"In 1994 Cohen retreated to the Mount Baldy Zen Centre near Los Angeles, beginning what would become five years of seclusion at the center. In 1996, Cohen was ordained as a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk and took the Dharma name Jikan, meaning 'silence'. He served as personal assistant to Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi. He left Mount Baldy in 1999.
He has said in a number of interviews that his depression has lifted in recent years, which he attributes to the aid of Zen Buddhism."
Betsy,
yes, Leonard made jokes about taking anti-depressants and that cheerfulness kept interrupting his religious studies. But, keep in mind, Zen is not a religion.
I think Cohen was referring to his studies of Judaism.
"Mr. Cohen is an observant Jew who keeps the Sabbath. So how does he square that faith with his continued practice of Zen?"
"Allen Ginsberg asked me the same question many years ago," he said. "Well, for one thing, in the tradition of Zen that I've practiced, there is no prayerful worship and there is no affirmation of a deity. So theologically there is no challenge to any Jewish belief."
Leonard's diet at Mt. Baldy was vegetarian. Lots of homemade breads, grains, yogurt, some eggs and organic vegetables. So, I'm sure that has some bearing on his good health and cheerfulness.
Regarding alcohol:
"His Zen mentor, Roshi, now 101, tried to warn him about alcohol long ago. "It was the '79 tour. He was in the dressing room with me drinking cognac. He taught me to drink cognac. But I was drinking a tumbler of cognac like it was water. He hit my thigh very hard and said, 'Body important."
On his last tour, Cohen became hooked on Château Latour, a fine Bordeaux. "It's curious with wine," he says. "The wine experts talk about the flavour and bouquet and whether it has legs and the tannins and the fruit. But nobody talks about the high. Each wine has a very specific high. Château Latour went with the music. I tried to drink it after the tour was over and I could hardly get a glass down. It had no resonance whatsoever. It needed the adrenalin of the concert, the desperate atmosphere of touring - desperate because I was drinking so much."
He says he didn't enter a detox program. "I lost my taste for it. Just like cigarettes. I find I can't even drink a glass of wine. It interferes with my mood. On Friday night when we celebrate the Sabbath with my family [his daughter, Lorca, lives downstairs], I'll have a sip or two. Occasionally I'll take hard liquor, but I can't drink wine."
It seems Leonard found a few good ways to deal with depression: meditate, eat well and keep writing songs. And he stopped drinking.
I wish I had his discipline. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 12:04 pm |
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In an interview I heard, he said that after or before one of his concerts someone presented him with a case of Chateau Latour. He loved it and said that he ended up drinking prodigious amounts of the wine as time went on. He realized that he was drinking way too much. All through the interview he displayed his 'cheerfulness'.
A good friend of mine from the Paris days (a Montrealer) is a cousin of Cohen's and his lawyer though I don't know mif he still is. When my friend, Alan, was visiting my ex and me in Wpg. in the late 60's I asked him if he liked Leonard Cohen. He said, "He's my cousin. I'm his lawyer." Al was quite unlike Leonard, he was quite proper and drank very little, didn't smoke and when we smoked grass in Paris, he wouldn't inhale.  Nice guy though. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 4:47 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Marc..........Thanks for that info. I knew he was into zen.......but not the details. In fact.....Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed were in Phoenix doing a program at a Buddhist center 5 hours before Leonard's concert. The article in the paper mentioned a "special guest". I'm trying to find out if it was Leonard. Good article.......I'll put a link to it. I've seen Laurie before but never Lou. I would have gone if I'd known about it. I've had some experience with Tibetan Buddhist......but I prefer Zen.
As to his discipline........Leonard Cohen is the only Leonard Cohen. We can only work with what we've got. You've got a huge life change to deal with....why would you expect to be calm and disciplined right now? |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 4:53 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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| Marc |
| Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 6:56 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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Betsy,
This is off the music topic, but still related to some of what we've been talking about:
I have benefited greatly from my long walks, which I consider a form of meditation. I do sit zazen every morning for about 15 minutes. As to drink, well wine has helped my occasional anxiety and panic attacks. I much prefer to drink a few glasses of wine as opposed to taking Valium or anti-depressants.
And deep breathing is also very good.
I'm taking lots of nutritional supplements and various herbs that are effective in helping your body and mind to adapt to stressful situations. Specifically: rhodiola rosea, bacopa, ashwagandha, gingko and various minerals and vitamins.
In addition, I've discovered two nootropics (smart drugs) that are unavailable in the States (though you can get them online from Europe): Stablon and Reboxetine. Both are often referred to as "mood brighteners". Neither have any side effects. They actually work in opposite ways to anti-depressants like Prozac, Effexor, Paxil etc. They don't keep your brain soaking in serotonin. They actually speed up the process of expelling serotonin from the brain, thereby allowing the dopamine and noradrenalin in your brain to take over. The result is I am more focused, energized and upbeat. No edginess. Quite the opposite. I have energy but am simultaneously relaxed. Amazing stuff. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 7:03 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| Bottles of Chateau Latour range in price from around $250 to several thousand dollars a bottle. Leonard must have been drinking that stuff before his manager made off with 5 million of dollars of Leonard's money. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 7:13 pm |
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| Yeah it was while he was still performing. He found out about what his manager did when he was taking it easy. The loss apparently got him back on the road. Sometimes bad things make good things happen. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 1:43 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Gary.........I just checked Leonard Cohen's tour schedule. He's going to be in Winnipeg April 30. Why don't you and Marta spend your honeymoon listening to him?
Marc.........what you said about the European drugs is interesting to me. Walking meditation sounds like Thich Nhat Hanh who has influenced me. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 1:53 pm |
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| Betsy, of course I know that Leonard (his close friends call him Leonard) is performing here. It was big news as soon as the schedule was released. They were sold out right away. |
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