Off to the wild lands...

Fri, 29 May 2009 14:51:59 GMT

I'm going to be spending the next few days at the Rideau Mac Resort. Rest and relaxation! Books!

So I probably won't have net access till next Monday or Tuesday. I hope you will miss me. (Do you think I'll survive without going online? I'll try to consider it a kind of net-silent retreat.) Don't get into trouble without me.

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Leonard Cohen at the Arts Centre...

Tue, 26 May 2009 13:13:45 GMT

Now that I've had some sleep... a bit more about Leonard Cohen. auriaephiala sent me a link to this interesting article about him. Besides enthusing over how wonderful the concert was... and it was amazing... I have a few things to say:

I love hearing a singer for whom the words are important. And as auriaephiala pointed out, the words are always simple. It's what he does with them that matters, and the ideas behind them.
I loved Sharon Robinson and the Webb sisters. Beautiful singers. The cartwheels were a nice touch.
Cohen thanked the technicians. Good for him!
The lighting was amazing, too. Not fancy. Just... kind of perfect.
While waiting for auriaephiala in the lobby of the National Arts Centre, I was enjoying watching the crowd. A woman beside me said to her friend, "The people here, they look like people with character. The people who've followed him over the years, they have individual style." And it was true. I was impressed how there were people of all ages there.
The gentleman sitting two seats over from me had seen this concert twice already, in different cities, and had driven here from Vermont to see it again. He'd never been to Ontario before. He was amused that Ottawa is now so sprawling that he'd seen the signs on the highway announcing arrival in Ottawa way back, but then was driving for half an hour with no sign of a city, thinking, "Shouldn't there be a major capital city coming up?"
Though he is now 73 years old, Cohen's performance is remarkably physical. He started off many of the songs kneeling, but did a fair amount of dancing, too, and he got skippier as the performance went on and the audience was responsive.
I had been really hoping he'd sing "Hallelujah". And he did.
Never thought I'd get to see him in person.

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World Enough and Time

Off to the wild lands...

Leonard Cohen at the Arts Centre...