It has been decided...

Paula · Post by **Paula** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 1:11 am

Margaret - Rowan Atkinson and Lawrence L-B

I can't see it at all

My prime candidate for a Leonard Cohen lookalike would be Dustin Hoffman.

margaret · Post by **margaret** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 1:48 am

Paula,

if you watch the younger Leonard in the 1965 video "Ladies and Gentlemen...." you may see a look of Rowan Atkinson at times, or then again, maybe it's just my eyes playing tricks

linmag · Post by **linmag** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 4:04 am

I can see Rowan Atkinson, Margaret, particularly at the begining of 'Ladies and Gentlemen..' where Leonard is telling the story about the asylum, but not Laurence L-B

I treated myself to a DVD of The Graduate with some of my Christmas money, and the young Dustin Hoffman on the cover could easily pass for the young Leonard Cohen in 'Ladies and Gentlemen ..'.

glyn · Post by **glyn** » Sat Jan 10, 2004 5:44 pm

The Graduate, my desert island film. got it for £5.99 in the new year HMV sale on DVD.

linmag · Post by **linmag** » Mon Jan 12, 2004 3:21 am

Same price as I paid at MVC, Glyn. I haven't seen The Graduate since it first came out, so I'm really looking forward to seeing it again. I hope it's as good as I remember it being.

mamalex · Post by **mamalex** » Mon Jan 12, 2004 8:52 am

i think lc knew back when he posted "star trek" that he would continue. i suspect he is just having a little fun, setting off hisfrenzied fans

Coco · Post by **Coco** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 5:49 pm

Hi All!

"So I must say it quickly
Whoever is in your life,
those who harm you,
those who help you;
those whom you know
and those whom you do not know--
let them off the hook,
help them off the hook.
Recognize the hook.
You are listening to Radio Resistance."

That was from Leonard's poem S.O.S. on the blackening pages section.

So I guess Leonard has changed his mind about the hook!

I, however am going to let Heretic off the Hook! This is Radio Coco.

margaret · Post by **margaret** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 6:12 pm

well spotted Coco

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 1:35 am

Excellent, Coco

! You found the hook!

National Coco Radio ~ NCR; Coco Radio International ~ CRI. Both have a nice ring

.

linmag · Post by **linmag** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 3:01 am

Well spotted indeed, Coco. I know it's easy for people to go to the Blackening Pages to read this, but I thought it would be even easier if I brought it here, especially if the two are to be read together.

SOS
Take a long time with your anger,
sleepy head.
Don't waste it in riots.
Don't tangle it with ideas.
The Devil won't let me speak,
will only let me hint
that you are a slave,
your misery a deliberate policy
of those in whose thrall you suffer,
and who are sustained
by your misfortune.
The atrocities over there,
the interior paralysis over here--
Pleased with the better deal?
You are clamped down.
You are being bred for pain.
The Devil ties my tongue.
I'm speaking to you,
'friend of my scribbled life'.
You have been conquered by those
who know how to conquer invisibly.
The curtains move so beautifully,
lace curtains of some
sweet old intrigue:
the Devil tempting me
to turn away from alarming you.
So I must say it quickly.
Whoever is in your life,
those who harm you,
those who help you;
those whom you know
and those whom you do not know --
let them off the hook,
help them off the hook.
Recognize the hook.
You are listening to Radio Resistance.

I'm not sure what the message of the two together would be. SOS seems to be asking people to examine how we are manipulated by those in power, and to get together to resist conditioning. I think there are also echoes of Stories of the Street ("You are locked into your suffering, and your pleasures are the seal"). I think 'seal' and 'hook' mean very much the same thing. Looking at it this way, though, "You will not be let off the hook" sounds like more of a threat than a promise.

Anyone have a different reading?

Moonlight · Post by **Moonlight** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 3:19 pm

He's mad at us.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 3:21 pm

You seem pretty firm to that, Moonlight.

Linda · Post by **Linda** » Sat Jan 17, 2004 2:45 am

Thanks Coco. Might be interesting to dwell on, then again maybe not.

linmag · Post by **linmag** » Sat Jan 17, 2004 3:30 am

Moonlight, would you care to expand on that at all?

lightning · Post by **lightning** » Sat Jan 17, 2004 5:33 am

Remember "like a worm on a hook?" The hook is what traps us and keeps us from being free. It could just be some Buddhist advice to free yourself of attachments for they only lead to pain ( the Catholic "devil" doesn't want us to realize that.) To free yourself from both those who harm and help you is in keeping with this philosophy. I have heard members of this forum refer to their attachment to Leonard and his music as "being hooked." Saying, "after that, I was hooked" like the pleasure the music gives is like an addictive drug. By deciding to not let us off the hook, I heard him saying in a coy way, that he is grateful for our fandom, our attachment, and doesn't want to lose it.