Nostalgia Trip

[mickey_one]

It is a very long time since I have posted here although close acquaintances keep me in touch with all your wrongdoings. Searching my computer for a file this morning, one that begins with a C, I found the text of my speech when I opened the New York Event and here it is. Clever students reading it may look closely at the name "Niklow" the alleged academic mentioned. His billing on the Event schedule for months in advance upset at least one acclaimed Cohen expert but ha! who cares. See you all in a few years time, Michael.

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LETS SING ANOTHER SONG BOYS, LEONARD HAS GROWN OLD BUT BETTER



They chose me!

Organising this Event is a really sensible committee of bright young persons, to whom I will introduce you soon, yet they chose me.


Alright I wasn’t the first choice. You should now be being addressed by the famous Cohen Academic D Niklow from Uzbekistan. But he took the wrong bus and won’t arrive here until…. mid-September the earliest.


And so here I am instead, a simple man with a simple admiration for a Great Artist. Actually, I’ll tell you why they chose me. It’s to stop me heckling, they can keep an eye on me up here!


As a veteran of these Gatherings I can tell you that if you have even half the fun I did in Montreal and Hydra then you will have a wonderful time, but BOY, will you be in trouble when you return home.


Leonard Cohen and New York. I am going to devote the first hour or so of my Opening Speech to a word by word analysis of the song “Chelsea Hotel”. Why was Leonard so angry that his bed was unmade. And “giving me head on the unmade bed” The expression “giving me head” means that he was put to the very top of the queue by the Hotel management who would deal with the problem.


And yet Leonard was so impatient and the song reveals a demanding side of Leonard’s character. O.K, it was poor room service that the bed was unmade but to complain so bitterly in song is surprising. Why not just pull those sheets himself, and plump up the pillows. Goodness, he’d never last a day in a really Spartan regime, like a monastery for example.


Back to Chelsea Hotel. Many scholars believe that song was about Leonard’s relationship with another famous musician. But others disagree- after all, the famous Ragtime pianist Scott Joplin did die in 1917. So as well as Racial and Religious issues there would also have been a significant age difference. And yet, and yet, when we listen carefully to Leonard’s 1988 acknowledged Masterpiece, Jazz Police, do we not hear traces of Scott there?


It’s this sort of intense debate that makes Leonard so fascinating.


I know the one question you all want to ask me “Michael, what are your 6 favourite Leonard Cohen tracks?”. And although it will be way out of character I am going to indulge myself and answer you-

Master Song
Teachers
The Stranger Song
Stories of the Streets
Dress Rehearsal Rag


& In case you think I only like very old songs

A Recent song, 1979, The Guests



Everyone of the Guests here is welcome. Please introduce yourself to as many fellow enthusiasts as you can. Have a brilliant time. Don’t go home with….. any regrets. The programme that has been organised for you is wonderful.


If you need any help at any time from now ‘til Closing Time the committee is here to serve you!



• Geoff Gompers, Pennsylvania, Chairman A very eminent lawyer. He will be delighted to take time off from enjoying himself this weekend to discuss any civil litigation you are involved in. No problem too small. Just take your time to outline the issues to him in as much detail as possible. Don’t rush. A good client is one who makes his point by repetition and inclusion of lots of unnecessary background material. Geoff wants me to make it clear that he will refuse to accept any offer of payment. As we know from the Master himself there is a Law between the Rich and Poor, Geoff’s available for the poor this weekend. I will be available for the rich. Somebody has to do it. I was last in this city in the summer of 1976. I found my name in the English paper. I had passed my Bar exams. How did that happen?



• Bobbie Chalou, Maine She will be known to many of you as the 3 time runner-up in the Sopranos’ Dr Melfi look-alike competition. Along with Valerie Shertzman and Joe Way, 2 important and popular figures, (I misprinted this originally and Spell-check offered me “impotent”, well- Joe maybe, but Valerie? Never!) she will be available throughout the Event to answer any of your questions, however irrelevant. They know the answer to any query you could dream of about baseball, Home furnishing, fitness tips, why do people like Bird on the Wire? Well, NO-ONE knows the answer to that.


To keep them in order, the Giant figure of Dick Straubb, did you know that at home in New Jersey, Tony Soprano pays Dick 10% of all his earnings. But above even him


• Jarkko Arjatsalo, Finland, without whom these Events would never have started and without whom the entire taxation system in Finland would be unable to function.


Those are the persons and this is New York!!!!!

[Violet]

.. gosh, you show up, deliver this.. this.. well, anyway, and then just up and leave us again???? !!!!!! I mean, the one and only LORD OF ONE???!!!.. (to those of you a bit sketchy on these matters)..

.. anyway, if I were the famous musician in bed with Leonard at the time I'd probably have spruced up the bed myself.. I mean, I hate it when.. well, when you just want to get down to business, as it were, and the person you're all jazzed up about (yes "jazzed" has multiple reference points I realize).. is fixated instead on the poor room service!!.. (geez.. that's the last time I'll imagine myself to be that famous musician).. (I hope you're happy now, Michael.. now that you've ruined one of my very few [and dwindling, I might add] pleasant amusements)..

.. well.. need to go.. I'm anointing you with my devotions on another thread..

.. (oh, and I won't sign out.. I'll get too mushy if I do)..

[Teratogen]

I was present for this speech!

Fond memories... just earlier today I was talking to friends of my one and only trip to New York. I mentioned mostly touristy stuff. They did not know of Leonard Cohen. But those three days were the most unforgettable. Thank you, Michael, for reminding me of this.

[mickey_one]

I was present for this speech!

Fond memories... just earlier today I was talking to friends of my one and only trip to New York. I mentioned mostly touristy stuff. They did not know of Leonard Cohen. But those three days were the most unforgettable. Thank you, Michael, for reminding me of this.

Thanks, Jason. It was a great Event in NY and I remember meeting you in passing. All the best
Michael

[Teratogen]

I so wish I could make more trips. Being young, underemployed, and lacking motivation really helps with nothing that will allow me to travel. Should there be an event in L.A. I will guarantee my attendance!!

[lizzytysh]

How about San Francisco in 2014? Could you manage that, Teratogen? I really like your new look by the way.


~ Lizzy