leonardcohenforum.com

i note with interest that this place can sometimes almost be educational, just like jarkko can almost rhyme with charcoal. "janis joplin wasn't looking for me, she was looking for kris kristofferson, and i wasn't looking for her, i was looking for brigitte bardot - but we fell into each other's arms through some process of elimination" "usually i take a long time to write a song, partly because of an addiction to perfection, partly just sheer laziness"

one of the beautiful mosaics found in the recent excavations at pompeii

Thanks for the new pics of your artwork, Geoffrey. The titles that you give to some your photos are, um, interesting! While all your pictures are very nice, I particularly like young Leonard in blue and white.

I was in a blue mood the other day, and did my own blue picture...

LisaLCFan wrote:
>Thanks for the new pics of your artwork, Geoffrey. The titles that you give to some your photos are, um, interesting! While all your pictures are very nice, I particularly like young Leonard in blue and white.

thank you, lisa. finding an interesting title or quote often uses more energy than making the picture.
people have wondered what programme was used to achieve the background pattern effect on those blue and white images. truth is no data work at all. simply put 80g copy paper onto a piece of hardboard (reverse of shiny side). drew leonard's face while pressing hard with two blue crayons.

>I was in a blue mood the other day, and did my own blue picture...

beautiful - another one for my collection, which i look at when feeling discouraged. i don't know how you do it, far better than the flowers i have done. when you write blue i cannot be sure if you are referring to colour or mood. you write in past tense, so if you have been feeling down it warms me to know you feel better

Geoffrey wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2020 11:55 pm ...people have wondered what programme was used to achieve the background pattern effect on those blue and white images. truth is no data work at all. simply put 80g copy paper onto a piece of hardboard (reverse of shiny side). drew leonard's face while pressing hard with two blue crayons...

I remember doing things like that in art classes as a kid, to create different textures on paper. I'd forgotten all about that technique -- thanks for the reminder!

Geoffrey wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2020 11:55 pm ...beautiful - another one for my collection, which i look at when feeling discouraged...

...when you write blue i cannot be sure if you are referring to colour or mood...

Thank you -- I am glad you like it! I am also very touched that you have saved my pictures and continue to look at them -- I've saved a few of yours, as well.

As for my "blue" remark, I was being deliberately ambiguous.

leonard was wrong; no cracks in this plate! "it comes to you, he never was a stranger - and you say ok the bridge or someplace later" "whatever the forces are that guide the rising and falling of ideas that burn the mind is a mystery beyond anybody's knowledge" -1975 charcoal on the inside cover of a takeaway pizza box

"i've never had much to say. things have come out that have some meaning for some people, and even some meaning for me, but i don’t start with those ideas - they arise out of the work itself." -2005 if i have anything in common with leonard, it's that i've never had much to say either. i am not a deep thinking person, keep mostly quiet at gatherings. it is enough for me to simply observe people, listen to them, study the details in their features and carry home material that can be used in some creative way. i will try to write a few sentences now, but not something that begs a response. many people silently follow this thread, or so i am told, yet no one must feel obligated to answer. communication is certainly not one of my strong points either

people regularly enquire about purchasing pictures. fact is that they are seldom, if ever, sold to anyone. this is not a business - merely a therapeutic hobby that is helpful after having family members dying too early. one could use a comforting euphemism and say they passed away, but perhaps such language belongs more to the faint-hearted. it would be interesting to know how many different portraits of leonard have been scanned and posted online; possibly hundreds of them. if there are any completist collectors around, they may have a better overview. images posted to this forum normally have a resolution of 251-255 kb.

a very few times, when a little money is needed, i have accepted symbolic payments, but only from people who insist - and the amount just about covers the cost of packing and sending. i detest using energy on packing and sending, utterly boring, time that could be better spent.
like everyone else i have bills to pay, but making money from leonard's name is not an attractive idea. another important point is the fact that in most cases my pictures are personal interpretations of other people's photographs, and that means copyright issues - though many in the trade make money by disregarding such inconvenient laws.

i dislike calling myself an artist, or at least not a good one, possibly because of the scandinavian 'janteloven' (law of jante) that has ingrained itself in my behaviour. i have written about this before. living in a remote area, as i do, we have enjoyed a mostly virus-free environment, unlike the big cities - no one wears masks here. on the other hand, the janteloven thrives far more healthily in these small communities. trying to promote oneself is strictly taboo, although that is not necessarily a bad thing. i am too old to rebel anyway.

frequently luck is with me, a picture turns out acceptable - and people ask if i do commissions. the answer is always negative, as i feel neither confident nor competent enough to tackle such a challenge. far better a person sees a picture they like and just takes it home. they can always treat me to a black coffee with a slice of napoleon cake at the racoon cafe when our paths next cross in town. an interest in what happens to any pictures occupies little territory in my frontal lobe; for when finished their purpose has been served. visitors take them, or they end up god knows where.
https://youtu.be/CQnR0UBGWgw
https://www.tripadvisor.com.ph/ShowUser ... orway.html
fatima takes a selfie sketch from a few days ago of a talented singer/guitarist with whom i have the privilege to call a good friend

G,

Your world as you describe it seems like a Shangri-La, and I am happy that you've found it. Most of us dream about such a place, but if we found one we would start destroying it straightaway. This idea, that mankind would ruin paradise if he found it, was the subject of "Tralla-La," a 1954 story by the comic artist mentioned here some time ago. I reviewed Sandemose's ten rules of Jante Law, and if we liken them to a scorecard, you would earn many points. So too, I believe, would the man whom this forum honors. I am not sure that I am Jantevite material myself, but my interest has been piqued enough to resolve to read Sandemose's novel.

4

hello 4. good of you to write

it is quite nice here, i'll give you that, although if one is a townie - as my transient 'stepfather' derogatively called city people - then it might take some getting used to.

leonard's propensity for self-deprecation, sincerely modest assessments of his own achievements, caused him to always be warmly welcomed in norway, and he visited here many times. the wages of egotism is an unlikable reputation, a fact that people who brag have difficulty in realising. it's so tempting to boast, but one should avoid doing so - regardless of how justified it might be. nobody likes listening to or reading it. if a person has any worth, it usually becomes known in other, more attractive, ways. you already know this, of course, but i write it in case there is anybody else out there reading this who needs to be educated in social skills.

in this interview leonard mentions norway.
https://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/leonard2006.html if you want to take me for a ride, you know you can "i definitely don't have much of a voice, but it's suitable for the songs i do." -1983

the male species. august 2020

Geoffrey wrote: ↑Sun Dec 20, 2020 12:54 pm a fact that people who brag have difficulty

but Billy did, and he wrote the wonderful song, Tank Park Salute. I think his hymn of love to his father, and to his own childhood, is outstanding.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O51StLH ... antonskate

Tank Park Salute
Billy Bragg
Kiss me goodnight and say my prayers
Leave the light on at the top of the stairs
Tell me the names of the stars up in the sky
A tree taps on the window pane
That feeling smothers me again
Daddy is it true that we all have to die
At the top of the stairs
Is darkness
At the top of the stairs
Is darkness
I closed my eyes and when I looked
Your name was in the memorial book
And what had become of all the things we planned
I accepted the commiserations
Of all your friends and your relations
But there's some things I still don't understand
You were so tall
How could you fall?
Some photographs of a summer's day
A little boy's lifetime away
Is all I've left of everything we've done
Like a pale moon in a sunny sky
Death gazes down as I pass by
To remind me that I'm but my father's son
I offer up to you
This tribute
I offer up to you
This tank park salute


I don't mind your a'musin' and your a'ponderin', Geoffrey. I am diagnosed as a highly sensitive person, and which utter bastard amongst you could disagree with that. Like your 'umble self, I too struggle to communicate with any other human being of the person type. Shyness is my curse, even extreme articulosityness can't outweigh that. I too do not sell your paintings and that's for a variety of reasons. That mush we have in common, both of us not just one.

it is touching to know that you read my messages, michael - thank you. i use touching euphorically, of course, because in these viral times touching is heavily frowned upon. a whole lot of fewer babies are going to be born next year, i'd wager. i wish you would have celebrated jesus' birth like all the rest of us; not his fault he was a rape baby. nice song, by the way. pity about the stars up in the sky bit (i mean, like, where else are they going to be!) - but i forgave mr bragg when he didn't sing little with a glottal stop, which is what i was expecting - not like when you wrote the word 'umble! i looked the chap up because i wanted to know why in 'eaven's name his ancestor would choose the word bragg when it was time to pick out an apt surname. it said that in the olden days bragge meant gay.

Geoffrey "Christmas" Wren -Thank you for explaining to me, Marvin, the meanings of the name "Bragg" You have explained that the name Bragg is rooted in the ancient Norman culture that arrived in England after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. It was a name for someone who was a cheerful or lively person. The name stems from the Old English root, bragge, which means lively, gay, or active. Where did you know this from, O Erudite Soul Singer, you ?

I Heard it Through The Grapevine, Geoffers


As to the population dip that you mention, you may not know but the "sexual distancing" rules in the UK only require the torsos to be 2 metres apart. How would that stop me in matters of intimacy?


On a connected note, Marvin also performed Sexual Ealing, a West London suburb which, at nighttime, is an established meeting place for friendly gentlemen seeking the company of other friendly gentlemen.

solongleonard wrote:
>. . . you may not know but the "sexual distancing" rules in the UK only require the torsos to be 2 metres apart. How would that stop me in matters of intimacy?

permission to approach the bench. size is not that important, m'lud, it's what you do with it that counts. at a party errol flynn exposed his appendage and used it to play 'you are my sunshine' on the host's piano. can you follow that?

>On a connected note, Marvin also performed Sexual Ealing, a West London suburb . . .

also a connected note is that leonard once published a complete analysis of one of marvin's songs - this one:
https://youtu.be/Xxh-jLKaET4 all rise!

Geoffrey wrote: ↑Mon Dec 28, 2020 3:29 am solongleonard wrote:
>. . . you may not know but the "sexual distancing" rules in the UK only require the torsos to be 2 metres apart. How would that stop me in matters of intimacy?

permission to approach the bench. size is not that important, m'lud, it's what you do with it that counts. at a party errol flynn exposed his appendage and used it to play 'you are my sunshine' on the host's piano. can you follow that?


"Objection!" back at ya. We are not in Trumpland here. "m'lud" - nor are we in a twatty airport novella.

"it's what you do with it that counts" I counter that -

"It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it
It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it
It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it
And that's what gets results"

Geoffrey to pharmacist, "Via gra please, can I get it over the counter,?"
Pharmacist geezer - "you'll have to take 2 for that".

When you grow up you will realise that you bought the crock they sold you. Style is all.


>On a connected note, Marvin also performed Sexual Ealing, a West London suburb . . .

also a connected note is that leonard once published a complete analysis of one of marvin's songs - this one:
https://youtu.be/Xxh-jLKaET4
canadian artist.jpg
all rise!
london barrister.jpg

The weirdest thing is that my horse trainer Gay Kelleway is gay
but I looked up Marvin Gaye and he wasn't. Oh well, "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of tiny minds".

I want to do right by everyone but often I am confused.

I know this guy called Mr.Johnny Homosexual but because of politics I am terrified of asking him if he is in fact Black.