Rare Film Clips Of Leonard Cohen To Be Screened

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Wybe
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Rare Film Clips Of Leonard Cohen To Be Screened

Post by Wybe »

I saw this a few minutes ago.
http://www.courant.com/entertainment/mo ... 3731.story
By SUSAN DUNNE, sdunne@courant.com
The Hartford Courant
9:45 a.m. EST, December 16, 2013

Leonard Cohen moved to New York in 1967 to pursue a career in music, and these early days of the legendary singer-songwriter's career are the focus of a special screening on Thursday, Dec. 19, at Avon Theatre in Stamford.

"Leonard Cohen: Rare Clips (1967-1980s)" features rare film clips, television performances, concerts, and promos and song performances including "Suzanne," "So Long Marianne / Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye," "Bird on the Wire," "The Partisan," "The Stranger Song" and "Hallelujah."

Music archivist Bill Shelley will be the host of the evening. Showtime is at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $11, $8 students and seniors, $6 members. Details: http://www.avontheatre.org.
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holydove
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Re: Rare Film Clips Of Leonard Cohen To Be Screened

Post by holydove »

Hi Wybe,

Thanks for the post. Maybe you already know this, but this program has been discussed in the "Live Performance. . ." section, where I also posted regarding the Dec. 19 showing; here is a link to the thread:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=33858

Good idea to post it in "News" too, though, in case anyone interested missed it in the other section. I will be at the Avon on Thurs. to see this, & I'm certainly looking forward to it!

Regards & happy holidays to you & Willy!

Rachel
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Re: Rare Film Clips Of Leonard Cohen To Be Screened

Post by jeremek »

Revelation! But why so far away ... Thank you, Wybe, maybe someone will write a report here?
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Wybe
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Re: Rare Film Clips Of Leonard Cohen To Be Screened

Post by Wybe »

Hi Rachel, I missed your earlier post.
I hope you enjoy it.
Happy holidays for you both too.

Wybe
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Re: Rare Film Clips Of Leonard Cohen To Be Screened

Post by holydove »

I've been debating whether I should post anything about this, & I regret that I have to say the things I'm about to say, but I decided that it should be said.

I'll start with the part that's not so terrible. It's always great to see clips of Leonard Cohen in any form & since I own many "rare clips", I didn't necessarily expect to see much that would be new to me, & that was the case, & that is okay. But the performance clips I own are actually of better quality, visually & sound-wise, than the clips Bill Shelley showed. The sound quality was particularly bad - & in addition to the quality itself being poor, the volume kept changing - going in & out. There were, however, some great close-ups that are not in the versions I have, so that was a perk. There was only one short clip that I don't remember having seen before, from 1974 - but no info was given as to where that performance was given, & it couldn't have been from the tour because there were different back-up vocalists, so maybe it was a tv show, I don't know - & I didn't ask, & you'll know why I didn't ask when you read my next paragraph.

As for the Q&A, if it wasn't so disturbing & shocking, not to mention disrespectful, it would be hilarious. Bill Shelley is apparently totally ignorant as to anything regarding Leonard Cohen, & he obviously didn't even try to learn anything in preparation for this program. For instance (& this was the worst one), when someone asked if Leonard has children & if any of them are musical, Shelley responded: "Leonard Cohen has a bunch of children from several marriages" :shock: :shock: And he didn't even mention Adam. Even though we had already seen at least 3 different pairs of female backup singers in the videos shown, when an audience member asked if the same female singers had been with Leonard throughout his career, Shelley said, "Yeah, they stayed with him, they've been with him all along". Shelley also said that Leonard has been living in Greece for 50 years & that he was born in Calgary. It would take too long to mention all the lies that Shelley disseminated during the Q&A (thank goodness it was only about 15-20 min. long). An audience member mentioned Sylvie's biography & Shelley had never heard of it, & didn't even know the title of it. I didn't have the heart to correct everything he said, & as you can see, I would have had to stand up & correct him every second of the way, & that just didn't seem like the proper thing to do at the time; maybe I have to apologize for that, but I was also kind of paralyzed & speechless by the shock of what he was saying. I did, however, quietly give some correct info to people sitting near me.

Given that Bill Shelley obviously didn't know anything about Leonard, I think it would have been better to not have a Q&A at all. He only showed one very short interview clip, & given the fact that there is so much great interview footage in existence, I think the Q&A time would have been better spent showing more interview footage.

The best part of the evening was meeting a woman in the audience who had recently discovered Leonard, & I could tell from the way she spoke that she was really connecting & completely awed by the exprience; & it was like getting a little glimpse of a magnificent awakening or rebirth - like watching a new birth in progress - a whole new world opening up to her - & that is really something wondrous to behold! That alone made the evening worthwhile & because of that, I'm glad I was there. We only had a very brief encounter, & I didn't get her name or anything, so even though she will probably never see this, I have to thank her for allowing me to witness a tiny fraction her awesome awakening.

But really - I can't imagine any way, or anywhere, Shelley could have seen or heard the misinformation he was throwing out there, so my only guess is that he did no research at all, & was fabricating things as he went along :shock: And he's calling himself a musical archivist & he's getting paid for this. . .???
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Re: Rare Film Clips Of Leonard Cohen To Be Screened

Post by lizzytysh »

Dreadful and egregious, Rachel.
Thanks for the report ~ geesh :roll:
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Re: Rare Film Clips Of Leonard Cohen To Be Screened

Post by HelenOE »

What cavalier dishonesty. To not even have the inner fortitude to say, "I don't know."
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Re: Rare Film Clips Of Leonard Cohen To Be Screened

Post by Wybe »

Terrible Rachel, if a knew I never had put this link on the forum.
Maybe you can mail your experience to The Hartford Courant.

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2009 -- Antwerpen, Venice, Barcelona .-- 2009
2010 -- 2 x Gent, Lille, 2x Las Vegas, -- 2010
2012 -- Gent, 2 x Amsterdam, Dublin, Verona -- 2012
2013 -- Pula, Rotterdam -- 2013
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Re: Rare Film Clips Of Leonard Cohen To Be Screened

Post by musicmania »

I've been debating whether I should post anything about this, & I regret that I have to say the things I'm about to say, but I decided that it should be said.
I'm glad you decided to post this. It is an absolute disgrace and Bill Shelley deserves to be named and shamed. I agree with Wybe that you should email The Hartford Courant and advise them about this.
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Re: Rare Film Clips Of Leonard Cohen To Be Screened

Post by Athnuachan »

This is NEWS?

Sad but typical.

I suggest this "Forum" be stood down, unless or until LC concerts resume.
Without LC concerts this forum is nothing!!!
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Re: Rare Film Clips Of Leonard Cohen To Be Screened

Post by Goldin »

Athnuachan wrote:This is NEWS?

Sad but typical.
Sad but typical Athnuachan :lol:
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Re: Rare Film Clips Of Leonard Cohen To Be Screened

Post by Athnuachan »

Apologies for the previous comment - had tuned in briefly to see was there any news of LC ' s (possibly last ever) concert and was annoyed to find this kind of stuff. Still, each to his or her own... Should know by now not to look in "news" for news!
Last edited by Athnuachan on Tue Dec 24, 2013 4:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Rare Film Clips Of Leonard Cohen To Be Screened

Post by holydove »

Wybe wrote:Terrible Rachel, if a knew I never had put this link on the forum.
Maybe you can mail your experience to The Hartford Courant.

Wybe
Good idea, Wybe - thank you. I agree that someone in charge should be made aware of this travesty, & hopefully stop him from doing it again. I wasn't sure if the message should go to the Hartford Courant, or someone else, like the Avon Theater, maybe. . .but Gwen seems to agree that the Courant is the best place to send it, so I think I'll take that advice, since I don't really know how that kind of thing works. And Wybe, if I knew, I wouldn't have put the other post about it in the "Live Performances.. . " thread either. But there was no way any of us could have known that someone would do such an awful thing.

And thank you also to Lizzy, Gwen, Helen & Roman, for your responses.
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Re: Rare Film Clips Of Leonard Cohen To Be Screened

Post by MaryB »

Rachel,

While reading your comments (thank you so very much for all of them), all I could do was picture in my head you standing up and correcting him at every turn. It would then have become a Q&A with Rachel :D 8) . That would have put him down quite a few notches and debunked this 'musical archivist' right there on the spot.

Kindest regards,
Mary
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Re: Rare Film Clips Of Leonard Cohen To Be Screened

Post by holydove »

MaryB wrote:Rachel,

While reading your comments (thank you so very much for all of them), all I could do was picture in my head you standing up and correcting him at every turn. It would then have become a Q&A with Rachel :D 8) .

Kindest regards,
Mary
:lol: My brother had the same idea (about me leading the Q&A) - even before we went. Thank you for your comments, Mary.

Update: I decided it might be more effective to send a message to the theatre that hosted the program, instead of the newspaper, as the newspaper is just the advertiser, & it seemed potentially more constructive to address a party that is directly involved in programming. (But I am grateful to Wybe & Gwen for encouraging me to write to someone, so thank you again). So, a couple of days ago, I finally got around to writing an email to the theatre (in which I cited the falsities mentioned above), & within a couple of hours, the Director of Film Programming sent me a reply. The main thrust was that he was sorry & disappointed to hear that so much misinformation was given, he was grateful to be informed of it, & most importantly, he said he would politely bring it to Bill Shelley's attention, that there were inaccuracies in his presentation. He also mentioned that Bill is a really nice guy, which I don't doubt, but that's not the issue at hand. However, I'm glad the Director said he would approach Bill politely, & that he basically feels kindly toward him, because, awful as his presentation was, I really didn't want to be the cause of major grief or make him lose his job, which is partially why it took me so long to get around to writing the email. But I am glad that the issue will be brought to Bill's attention (otherwise, the message would have been useless), & I hope that it will inspire him to do more research (or at least be honest about not knowing something), & be more respectful & accurate in the future.
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