leonardcohenforum.com

I leave this place for a few minutes, and when I return there is another outpouring from solongleonard's fecund fountain of clever verse! Very interesting talent.

While we are on the topic of talent, let's not forget to mention our other fellow forum member, Geoffrey, who produces a remarkable portrait of Leonard Cohen every time he spills something or burns his toast.

As far as I know, neither of them have ever suggested any sort of pecuniary remunerations regarding the efforts that they are kind enough to share with us.

LisaLCFan wrote:While we are on the topic of talent, let's not forget to mention our other fellow forum member, Geoffrey, who produces a remarkable portrait of Leonard Cohen every time he spills something or burns his toast.

on a good day i can perhaps sketch a little, but sadly lack your enviable writing precision or the imaginative wit of solongleonard. i feel i am the poor relation in this triangle, so appreciate the positive mention very much. thank you

Geoffrey wrote: ↑Mon Sep 04, 2017 1:31 pm

LisaLCFan wrote:While we are on the topic of talent, let's not forget to mention our other fellow forum member, Geoffrey, who produces a remarkable portrait of Leonard Cohen every time he spills something or burns his toast.

on a good day i can perhaps sketch a little, but sadly lack your enviable writing precision or the imaginative wit of solongleonard. i feel i am the poor relation in this triangle, so appreciate the positive mention very much. thank you

you are indeed the poor relation, Uncle Geoffrey, and this explains your refusal to lend me a measly Cock and Hen. I will settle for a Lady Godiva if you continue to resist.

Geoffrey wrote:on a good day i can perhaps sketch a little, but sadly lack your enviable writing precision or the imaginative wit of solongleonard. i feel i am the poor relation in this triangle...

I have to admit that I lack the competitive tendencies that I observe in many of my fellow human beings. I am not them, they are not me, and thus it seems quite absurd to make direct comparisons between myself and others as a means of determining my own personal worth.

As a child, it was sometimes suggested to me that I should try to be more like the other kids (apparently so that I would better "fit in", as if I wanted to do that!), but my response was always, "Why can't they be more like me?". Of course, I didn't particularly want that, either, but I thought it relevant to point out to the woefully misguided adults that if one is determined to compare people, it ought to go both ways, for to favour one side over the other is really rather offensive, completely ignoring or even outright denigrating the wonderful uniqueness of the one being asked to change. 

We all have our individual talents, abilities, propensities, etc., and I have always thought that such differences make the world a rather interesting place, allowing for myriad joyous discoveries of facets of existence that we would not otherwise know or be able to appreciate if we were all the same.

This bizarre competitiveness that seems to be encouraged and which pervades so many aspects of our social interactions, does nothing but create a tremendously negative atmosphere that prevents people from being able to take delight in the accomplishments of others without feeling inadequate because they have not done (or cannot do) the same things. 

When people suggest that it is in human nature to be competitive, often citing Darwin to support their claim that we are somehow genetically hard-wired to be that way in order to survive, two thoughts immediately spring to my mind: 1) such a belief betrays a deep misunderstanding of Darwin's work, for he would have rejected (and been appalled by) the application of his genetic discoveries to a social context; and, 2) since I have always lacked this distasteful predisposition, but am nonetheless firmly convinced that I am, in fact, human, surely it cannot be inherent, and must therefore be something that people are simply taught to believe.

A person with moderate intelligence and the ability to think critically should be able to recognise a load of BS when they see it, and that includes the ridiculous assumption that if we do not possess the particular talents of specific others, then we are somehow fundamentally inferior to them. Sorry, but I don't buy into that idea, and neither should anyone else! I think that it is far better to cultivate the really lovely notion that each of us can rejoice in who we are, as we are, without the unnecessary (and fruitless) burden of trying to be something that we are not.

Just a thought.

and Nations. here in little UK they have an obsession in claiming we are the best at everything. Pathetic. Who cares.

much wisdom can be found in your message, and i take comfort in knowing that there exists someone who does not favour comparing one person to another. however, the truth is that some people are nice, and some are nasty pieces of work. take away one's permission or ability to compare and one opens the door to problems. whenever one is confronted with different qualities, whether it be animal, vegetable or mineral, one naturally has to make a choice. making comparisons is an essential part of daily life. you may envy someone, you may have a best friend, a favourite restaurant, participate in a competition, etc. - all of these are founded on having made a choice. when i wrote to leonard's manager and asked how his client died he assessed me as not being worthy of an answer. my personality is so bad that he didn't want contact with me. when nobody likes you, it is understandable that you try to be like everyone else.

if you participate in a contest the panel of judges will pick a winner. "you're faithful to the better man", "everybody knows the good guys lost", "let us compare mythologies" - and so on. i realise that in a perfect world, or on an intellectual level in an imperfect world, having no feelings of inadequacy sounds ideal, but on a practical level it seems doomed to fail. a while ago jarkko had a logo competition here and i lost to someone who submitted a superior work. i lost because my picture was inferior. a decision was made and the result confirmed my incompetence, but by learning to accept failure one becomes immune to disappointment, conscious of one's limitations, less likely to boast, and much more able to survive in society.

solongleonard wrote:A sweet tribute to his thieving manager

here's mine

i read the sermon on the mount
the words were empty, like my bank account
and now all i really want to do is sue ya
and upon what was all my money spent -
on your gigolo, i suppose, is that where it all went?
did you really have to pay a man to screw ya?

i've got an aching in my belly
'cos you took me to the cleaners, didn't you, kelley!
but now we all can see right the way through ya
and i don't know what i'm gonna do now
my pension's all gone, you bloody thieving cow
when you get to heaven all the angels are gonna boo ya!

Geoffrey wrote: ↑Mon Sep 04, 2017 11:03 pm

solongleonard wrote:A sweet tribute to his thieving manager

here's mine

i read the sermon on the mount
the words were empty, like my bank account
and now all i really want to do is sue ya
and upon what was all my money spent -
on your gigolo, i suppose, is that where it all went?
did you really have to pay a man to screw ya?

i've got an aching in my belly
'cos you took me to the cleaners, didn't you, kelley!
but now we all can see right the way through ya
and i don't know what i'm gonna do now
my pension's all gone, you bloody thieving cow
when you get to heaven all the angels are gonna boo ya!

Bravo! Very good

LisaLCFan wrote:As for your albums, I don't have Spotify and I don't purchase unknown music, so I have not heard them and cannot comment.

that goes for me too. an unkind coincidence, perhaps, that 'nebula' is an anagram of 'unable'

Geoffrey wrote: ↑Mon Sep 04, 2017 10:54 pm much wisdom can be found in your message .... however...

Geoffrey, you can be such a predictable chap: I am not at all surprised by your response to my post, and in fact, I was fully expecting it. It is a tune that you have sung many times before around here, and clearly nothing I can write, however enviably precise it may be, is going to change your pessimistic and dreary attitude.

I took such pains to elucidate my insight into the joys of individual uniqueness in order to dispute all that competitiveness drivel with regards to personal self-worth, and yet you deliberately took my sentiments out of context, applying them to random irrelevant scenarios, blatantly contradicting my assertions, etc., to demonstrate your belief that I am wrong and/or delusional in my assessment of self-worth, and that you are right.

You have thus turned my good-natured and sincere attempt at a pep-talk into a competition, and you have declared yourself the winner. I hope that you can see the irony.

hey lisa.

yes, you are clever at writing good-natured messages. great to know you accept and respect so warmly the viewpoints i mentioned - even though they dared to be different from your own. also, thank you for not turning this into an attack on me as a person.

Geoffrey wrote: ↑Tue Sep 05, 2017 11:18 am hey lisa.

yes, you are clever at writing good-natured messages. great to know you accept and respect so warmly the viewpoints i mentioned - even though they dared to be different from your own. also, thank you for not turning this into an attack on me as a person.

We don't do personal attacks here you Bastard. Unlike you, we have class. Death to anyone who changes this oasis to a place of fighting and war. Several people who once posted here have since died and no longer post. Who can forget Miriam Henriques or Joe Schlomo. This was their House of Worship and they each neither both never spake a word from anger or naughty. Oh no, not them. They rose above a tool and sprinkled fairy dust on other people's cakes, which was a particularly annoying habit. I don't miss them, especially Joe and equally the same Miriam.

solongleonard wrote:Unlike you, we have class.

what kind of class are you in - working? here, anyway, is upper

Here is a photo of our artist friend, Benny.

Some of you, particularly British Tea time TV watchers in the 1960's willremember him as one of the Stars of the Soap Opera Crossroads https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossroads_(soap_opera)

It is exciting that he is still going strong and now he is concentrating more on his music than his acting.

solongleonard wrote:Here is a photo of our artist friend, Benny. Some of you, particularly British Tea time TV watchers in the 1960's will remember him as one of the Stars of the Soap Opera Crossroads. It is exciting that he is still going strong and now he is concentrating more on his music than his acting.

i never stooped low enough to watch no 'crossroads'. anyway, while i got you here. how long is a 'quick listen'? is it strictly 7.5 seconds, as was mentioned during the frank zappa discussion, or is it based on a specific percentage of the recording's duration? the holy scriptures (ebonics version) usually answer all my questions, but alas, not this time.

james 1:19 only says: "listen up, muh mutha fuckin niggas an git yo black asses in line. yo all gots to be quick ta listen, slow ta speak an slow ta anger - yo dig? fo dis anger shit do not produce da righteousness of god - no wham sayin?"