PHOTO: Unshaven and Undaunted

This photo of Leonard accompanied one of the many articles about his concert postponement. I think it was taken at the Grammy Awards on January 30. A beautiful photo credited to the AFP. I love the facial hair. Just perfect for a gentleman.

NEWS: Get Well Soon, Leonard

Good wishes to Leonard for a speedy recovery. We love you.

Leonard Cohen Suffers Lower-Back Injury, Postpones Tour
Spinner
Posted on Feb 5th 2010 9:36PM by Benjy Eisen

European fans of Leonard Cohen who are lucky enough to hold concert tickets for the European run of his current world tour are going to have to wait just a little bit longer: Cohen has been forced to reschedule the shows in the wake of a sports-related injury that he suffered while exercising recently.

Don't worry: Cohen, age 75, is on track to make a full recovery, but physicians have advised him to take it easy and follow a four to six month physical therapy plan for the compression injury that he sustained in his lower back. It's the same type of plan prescribed for athletes with similar injuries.

Postponing the run is just a small obstacle in an otherwise storybook comeback that began in May 2008 when Cohen returned to the stage after a prolonged absence. More than four decades into his enormously influential career, Cohen hushed the notoriously loud Coachella crowd last year with a spellbinding performance, proving that he's still on top of his game. More recently, the night before this year's Grammy Awards he was honored by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences with a 2010 Lifetime Achievement Special Merit Award.

"Doctors have confirmed that Mr. Cohen is in otherwise terrific shape, thanks to years of exercise and careful diet," said his manager, Robert Kory, in a statement. "[He] simply needs appropriate time to recover from the lower back injury."

Take your time but hurry up: the world still needs you, Mr. Cohen.

NEWS: The Virtues of the Father

You really got to love Adam. He's a fan and a son. He speaks so eloquently and informatively about his father.

Leonard Cohen Artworks
By Bernard Perusse
The Montreal Gazette
February 5, 2010

Adam Cohen is fully aware that struggling visual artists will resent the interest Leonard Cohen’s artwork will automatically bring when some of it goes on display here in less than two weeks.

He even understands those who will instinctively grumble about his father’s sketches and drawings.

“There are many artists out there who might (say), ‘What will he do next? An exhibition of pottery? Who else is he going to put out of business or compete with?’ ” Cohen said during a recent interview. “(But) what’s so infuriating to the rest of us is his ability to leave this distinct imprint and a command of yet another voice.”

Leonard Cohen Artworks will launch Feb. 18 and remain on display throughout the High Lights Festival and beyond, ending only May 9. Its four original pieces and 51 prints show impressions set to paper by the poet and singer-songwriter between, by Adam Cohen’s estimate, 1961 and 2004.

The younger Cohen said the subject matter ranges “from the mundane to the sublime – from candlesticks on a table and a guitar in the corner of a room to the exquisite form of a woman he had the luck to have sit for him.”

The exhibition mostly features limited-edition prints, signed and numbered, and produced by a high-end print business owned by Graham Nash. The collection has so far been shown in Vancouver, Toronto and London, England.

There’s plenty of precedent for popular performers dabbling in the finer arts: Tony Bennett, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and Ronnie Wood are among those who occasionally moonlight with brushes and ink.

“If you’re good, you’re good, and maybe you can extend your goodness to another field,” Adam Cohen said, likening the naysayers to player haters.

His memories of his father drawing go back to childhood, and “the poor old guy trying to contend with two very young children and distract us on a rainy day. We’d break out the crayons at the kitchen table. It was part of a Cohen family ritual,” he said.

“Being a father myself now, I realize it’s far from a unique endeavour, but he had a gift and passion and interest,” he said. “There are some images (in the exhibition) I’ve seen my whole life – so not only are they dear to me because they’re my father’s work and I love what he does, but they’re dear to me because they’re family heirlooms – they’re artifacts of my little past.”

Leonard Cohen never fancied himself as a visual artist, his son said. “Yet somehow, his work has an inimitable power, something with which artists, historically, have struggled: it resembles him,” he said. “That’s the thing we should all aspire to: that our work resemble us, bear a resemblance to our aesthetic traits and be a truthful representation of our ideal of beauty and our capacity.”

Adam Cohen, a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter in his own right, said that unlike his sister, Lorca, and his mother, Suzanne Elrod (apparently not that one), he “has no skill whatsoever” in drawing or painting. But his new album, due out in three or four months, seems to show his lineage in a more conventional way, he suggested.

“It’s my proudest achievement yet, and it finally bears a resemblance to my father – who I spent my life trying not to sound like,” he said. “But as a result of the birth of my son, which is connected to my family in a beautiful way, and (my father’s) resurgence, I finally had the courage to make a record that dignifies my last name.”

And from either angle – sketchpad or studio – Adam Cohen is clear on “the most important thing I learned from my old man.”

“He always said that just when you want to give up, and you’ve put break-back hours into a song, that’s when you should consider the work having commenced. That’s when you should consider your job having actually started,” he said. “My father said it’s in that exhaustion and sense of hopelessness on the doorstep of defeat that – if you can actually pass that threshold – you get to the good stuff.

“To me, that demonstrates a tenacity, a belief in self, a dedication and a discipline that is awe-inspiring,” he said, “and that has produced some of the most beautiful songs and poems ever written.”

Leonard Cohen Artworks will be on display at the TD Lounge at the Maison du Festival Rio Tinto Alcan, 305 Ste. Catherine St. W., from Feb. 18 to May 9. Admission is free.

NEWS: Grammy Afterglow

Some very cool coverage by the CBC on Leonard Cohen at the Canadian Consul General reception to celebrate the Grammys on Thursday, January 28. Thanks to sturgess66 for finding and posting.

Report from the event includes Leonard greeting other attendees, a snippet of Leonard's speech, and quotes on Leonard by others

http://www.cbc.ca/video/news/player.html?clipid=1399703628

Report from the event includes a larger clip of Leonard's speech

http://www.cbc.ca/video/news/player.html?clipid=1399241177

NEWS: More Grammy Gems

Check out this wonderful photo of Sharon Robinson and Leonard Cohen at the Grammy ceremony where Leonard received the Lifetime Achievement Award.

YOUTUBES: There Is A War

Continuing our review of songs not included on Leonard Cohen's 2008-2009 World Tour, we have There Is A War. You got to wonder how this one was missed. It is so appropriate for our times. Special thanks to messalina79 who provides a wonderful treasure trove of Cohen performances. So yeah, "Why don't you come on back to the war, you know damn well it's just beginning." Especially appropriate for today.

NEWS: Recap of Leonard's Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

I've collected the articles, photos and a youtube and audio clip of Leonard at the Recording Academy ceremony where he received his Lifetime Achievement Award. We are still waiting for the Grammys to (hopefully) post his tribute video and speech. You can catch up with the festivities, including the pre-party at the Canadian consulate, here.

In the meantime, arlenedick15, captured Leonard's acceptance speech at the ceremony. She also managed to fend off security to capture Sharon Robinson arriving as well as The Man himself. Apparently, arlenedick15 knows how to get her man.

Leonard's Acceptance Speech



Sharon Robinson and husband arrive at Grammy ceremony



Leonard arrives at Grammy ceremony