A 'devastated' Leonard Cohen

[lizzytysh]

Yellow journalism is yellow journalism. Fortunately, the article itself wasn't in that mode. However, the cover was blatantly in that mode. It was all about selling mags.

Yes, the "situation" is devastating. However, due to Leonard's spirituality and philosophical leanings, he is rising above a continual state of being "devastated."

Yes, celebrities participate in articles and interviews, both, and are often shocked to find how they end up being represented and 'quoted' in both. I reiterate that the article itself rose well above the cover.

Those consciences are long past being piqued.

[LaurieAK]

Liz wrote:

It was all about selling mags.

Yes, the "situation" is devastating. However, due to Leonard's spirituality and philosophical leanings, he is rising above a continual state of being "devastated."

....point is magazines are all about selling magazines.

So what if the cover is tantalizing?
Back to what I said, is that it is getting this story, (most importantly With Leonard's input) out to the masses.

Crying about how this is done is ridiculous.

Some should stop being emotional 'Princess & The Pea' types and focus on the outcome, not on how something along the way hurt their feelings. Enlightened individual or not, money problems of this caliber are devastating. No one implied LC is wandering aimlessly in a state of 'devastion.' The facts are devastating, be it the Pope, Richard Geer or Leonard Cohen.

Laurie

[Fljotsdale]

Yellow journalism is yellow journalism. Fortunately, the article itself wasn't in that mode. However, the cover was blatantly in that mode. It was all about selling mags.

Yes, the "situation" is devastating. However, due to Leonard's spirituality and philosophical leanings, he is rising above a continual state of being "devastated."

Yes, celebrities participate in articles and interviews, both, and are often shocked to find how they end up being represented and 'quoted' in both. I reiterate that the article itself rose well above the cover.

Those consciences are long past being piqued.

I hope he got paid for the interview and pics.

[davideo]

Hi- I am probably missing something here, since I am only returning (after not-showing for quite a while). But- I don't understand why folks are reacting so intensely to the arbitrary nature of the press. I just don't. Don't we assume that the statements thereof are dramatized , incomplete and lop-sided. This American idea of 'freedom of speech' seems to enable endless distortion and invention. Is it too much for the system to acknowledge that "Freedom of speech" could never have been meant to fascilitate the "prerogative of false witness". Anyway- that's nearly off the topic.
It was only in today's newspaper here in Vancouver that I heard of this sad turn of events of Leonard's money. I am very sorry it happenned, whatever exactly the 'it' is. Surely Leonard can handle the word "devasted". He's heard so much worse, because he always runs so much deeper than the popular level of glitz, glamor and the American dream.
I think it is nice that Leonard gave God a bit of credit for the strength of constitution that he has had over these years.
I love the idea of people pooling resources to back Leonard while this legal stuff goes on. For such an independant man, I don't know how well he would take 'charity', but we must appreciate that charity should never be a dirty word. ("There are no dirty words." L.Cohen,CBC video tape.) And of course, I have no way of knowing, for sure, to what extent a helping hand is needed by Leonard. It sure sounds like it is in order.
I am glad to hear from Jarrko's words that Leonard is well aware of the support that his appreciators/enjoyers/lovers have for him. It is also terrific to hear that Leonard has passionately returned to the Studio, even if such was engenderred by the evident thievery.
Was it in The Partisan where it says,"But I have many friends..."?

[jarkko]

Looks like we haven't yet posted the second part of Maclean's article. So here it comes.

http://www.macleans.ca/culture/music/ar ... 882_110882

August 17, 2005

Up close and personal

Cohen's lifestyle seems anything but lavish

BRIAN D. JOHNSON

Through interviewing him over the years, I've developed a bit of a relationship with Leonard Cohen. We stay in touch by email, and if I'm in Los Angeles or Montreal, the two cities he calls home, I might look him up. A few weeks ago, I joined him for dinner at his house in L.A. with his 30-year-old daughter, Lorca, and a friend. Leonard served matzo ball soup and beef brisket, a dinner prepared by a friend's mother and dropped off at his door. It was a Friday night, Seder, and before the meal they sang in Hebrew. (Though a Buddhist, Leonard maintains some Jewish traditions.) That night he told me what he'd hinted at months earlier in an email -- that he'd been stripped of most of his assets, and was mired in a legal battle with his money managers, who would accuse him of extortion. He said it would get nasty and personal, and that his name would be dragged through the mud.

Now, after reading the pre-emptive lawsuit filed against him, a 34-page screed that reads like a salacious tabloid, I know what he meant. It's bizarre, and sad. But I had to laugh. In trying to portray this Zen poet as a criminal mastermind, his accusers kept referring to his "extravagant 'celebrity' lifestyle." I've had a glimpse or two of that "lifestyle," and by celebrity standards, at least, it seems decidedly spartan.


His home in Montreal, which he bought in 1972, is a sparsely furnished, unrenovated row house without air conditioning. There are a few Persian rugs scattered about. The most luxurious item, which he seems quite thrilled with, is a recently purchased Tempur-Pedic bed, with a fair-sized television at the foot of it. His house in L.A., on a leafy middle-class street not far from downtown, is a modest duplex with no pool. His daughter lives downstairs. There's a small recording studio in the backyard. In the living room/dining room, a portable CD player serves as the sound system.

Leonard enjoys red wine. I like to bring a good bottle when I come for dinner, but he's usually got something less expensive open. One night in L.A., after proudly serving a dinner of lentil soup that he'd made himself, he set about trying to fix an old toaster. The kitchen has no dishwasher. The only signs of extravagance I could detect were three kinds of premium tequila nestled in the freezer, which was stacked with TV dinners. Leonard doesn't go out much. He and his partner, Anjani Thomas -- who lives down the street -- do catch the occasional movie. Leonard saw War of the Worlds, which he said was "dumb -- and that's a word I never use." But it was at the mall, not at a Hollywood premiere.

In a triumph of redundancy, the lawsuit against Cohen describes him as a "famous celebrity" -- not to be confused, one supposes, with all those unknown celebrities. Leonard is, indeed, famous in Canada as well as in some other countries, such as Norway. If he decides to tour again, he'll have no trouble selling out concert halls around the world. And in Montreal, where he's a patron saint, he does get recognized on the street.

But in Los Angeles, a town saturated with stardom, he's virtually anonymous. More legend than star, Leonard has achieved an ideal level of celebrity. He knows how to play the game and how to woo the media. In 1994, he vanished for five years to serve as a monk at a monastery on Mount Baldy in southern California, without fear of losing his place. He knew that when he came down from the mountain and re-entered the fray, several generations of loyal fans would be there waiting for him -- as he sang in Boogie Street: I'm wanted at the traffic-jam / They're saving me a seat.

For those fans, Leonard's financial woes may come as a blessing. Now that he's broke, he's had to fan the fire under a career that has been quietly smouldering. He's putting the finishing touches on a long-awaited collection of new poetry, the Book of Longing, which McClelland & Stewart plans to publish in March. He's eager to record a new album in the fall and hopes to tour -- for the first time in 12 years. And when I visited him last month, he played me an unmastered recording of a stunning album of new songs he's produced for his partner and collaborator, Anjani Thomas.

Titled Blue Alert, it's a collection of jazz-blues ballads, with Anjani singing Leonard's words and accompanying herself on piano. The project, which Sony will release early next year, originated when she picked up a notebook of his lyrics lying open on the coffee table. Anjani, who began singing backup for Cohen in the '80s, has an exquisite voice. But here she drops her soprano down a notch and sounds like Cohen reincarnated as woman. With her hypnotic vocals harnessed to his lyrics, Blue Alert's torch songs put her in a league with Diana Krall and Norah Jones. And though Cohen doesn't sing a note on the album, his voice permeates it like smoke.

Leonard now admits to being strangely happy, although he conceded that being wiped out financially and having your name blackened "is enough to put a dent in your mood." But his chronic depression, which lifted more than a decade ago on Mount Baldy, has not returned. With monastic discipline he gets up at 4 a.m. to write, and clings to the peace of the morning before the lawyers' phone calls and emails break the spell. The last time I saw him, he read me an ancient Eastern scripture that says that, internally, you must be "free of hope and desire," while outwardly you should "do what is to be done." Those years of extravagant meditation on Mount Baldy have not been in vain. When you're broke on Boogie Street, a little Buddhist detachment may prove invaluable.

[Fljotsdale]

Oh, fantastic article, Jarkko!

But I'm sorry he's not singing himself of that new release.

[linda_lakeside]

When you're broke on Boogie Street, a little Buddhist detachment may prove invaluable.

I bet it helps. But there's the line...I'm turning tricks/I'm getting fixed/I'm back on Boogie Street..

He knows what he has to do. Most of us want to quit work by 55 at the latest, not have to start over, yet again. Still, I have no doubt, that he'll rise to the challenge. He has a pretty tight circle of supporters around him. I think he'll make out.

Linda.

*** Just a note to apologize to davideo for the above quote which I attributed to him. The quote came in the last paragraph of the article itself. Linda.

[linda_lakeside]

Hi Fljots,

Yes, it would be nice to hear him sing an album, again, but some of the most beautiful songs on DH were predominantly Anjani's voice. He still has a wonderful deep voice, but I think this will work. I'll buy it. Also, I've been meaning to get Jennifer Warnes' album, I think I finally will. Even though he may not take 'centre stage' for the singing, he'll likely be there, somewhere - and they're his songs. Which, as we know, is the most important. Even to hear him speak is a joy.

Linda.

[ForYourSmile]

I feel a deep displeasure, which I would feel for a dear. Yes, Leonard is a dear.

I just now I read the last article that Jarkko have posted. I feel several things. A very interesting article that reinforces the idea of modest life that already guessed in "Spring 1996 A Portrait by Armelle Brusq". How could they have done this to a man like that? I thought that this one was his last disc, without more concerts. Here is the good news of future activities. But if he does not want to work any more we cannot ask him any more, already he has given us enough. I did not want to take advantage of the circumstances, but anything that he would do would be welcome.

Leonard has an army of faithful and good friends, he will never walk alone.

[Fljotsdale]

Hi Fljots,

Yes, it would be nice to hear him sing an album, again, but some of the most beautiful songs on DH were predominantly Anjani's voice. He still has a wonderful deep voice, but I think this will work. I'll buy it. Also, I've been meaning to get Jennifer Warnes' album, I think I finally will. Even though he may not take 'centre stage' for the singing, he'll likely be there, somewhere - and they're his songs. Which, as we know, is the most important. Even to hear him speak is a joy.

Linda.

Yes, I will buy the new release as well, because, as you say, they are HIS songs.
I agree about his speaking voice. It's beautiful, gentle. Shy.

@ FYS - yes, I agree.

[jarkko]

About Leonard's speaking voice - go to http://www.worldofpoetry.org/usop/dream6.htm and click on the "Audio" button - you will hear him reciting "Democracy"

[lizzytysh]

I've always had an issue with the ethics of the press. Yes, Leonard was certainly consulted in the article's being written, but he wasn't regarding how the cover would look. That was an editorial decision. With the listing of those highly-charged words, it appears that he may have been culpable with those things.

Perhaps, because this "freedom of speech" is so abused here in the U.S., I react more strongly to it. It makes and breaks people, and ruins their reputations without cause. There will be those who don't buy the magazine and simply walk by and later comment, "I saw on a magazine that Leonard Cohen is in ruins. Something about lawsuits, sordid, tantric sex and forcible confinement. He's the one that wrote that Beautiful Losers book, y'know. . . [etc.]." The blurb very carefully avoids indicating who is suing who, and what the forcible confinement is about, etc. No mention whatsoever of Kelley Lynch or manager, the one through whom all of these sickening words have been channeled. The "forcible confinement" is, of course, a term that would more easily be attributed to a male. In fact, there's nothing in that, that suggests that Leonard is not the culprit. I just happen to believe in responsible reporting and journalism, and the front cover could have framed the issue in a better light than directly linking him with all those "sordid" words does. There are any number of other ways that the front could have been handled, and still attracted readers, while giving a more balanced overview.

I was going to comment that, of course, the fronts of magazines are intended to sell magazines, but it seemed too obvious to point out the obvious, so I let that rhetorical comment pass. It's why Oprah always puts photos of herself on hers, because they sell better than putting someone else on them.

~ Elizabeth

[Fljotsdale]

This is why I don't buy newspapers, Lizzy. the rag-tag end of the British press is as bad as that; though there are some newspapers that present more balanced views.

However, I prefer radio4 and uk tv news programmes. I DO listen to US news channels sometimes, but they are a bit too ta-rah-rah! for my taste.

[lizzytysh]

Yes, Fljotsdale, most of my news information is gleaned from NPR [National Public Radio], which also employs reportage of PRI [Public Radio International], including the public radio broadcasts of Britain. You would enjoy listening to NPR, and it is streamed via the computer, as well.

[Fljotsdale]

Can you post a link, Lizzy? I'd like to take a sampling of that.