I’m thinking about Leonard Cohen today. Not thinking too hard, mind you. I’m holding my copy of Leonard Cohen, “Live in London” (Sony, 2009) while sitting this morning at Printers Inc and asking myself a couple questions. To wit:
1. What is it that I can learn about Leonard Cohen?
2.What is it that I can learn from Leonard Cohen?
3. How will it shape my future to invest some time in Leonard Cohen?
4. Will it help me to live to be 73?
5. How am I like Leonard Cohen?
6. How am I unlike Leonard Cohen?
7. Is Leonard Cohen, the study of, a sufficient way to spend Yom Kippur?
8. Does he actually look like my grandfather?
9. Could we actually be related?
10. Would he submit to a 23andMe “spit” session?
11. Will I someday wear a fedora (my grandfather did. When I was 16 my mom gave me money to buy a fedora for my birthday and in the card commented that Pops like hats)?
12. When will I visit Montreal and why? (when I was last there — I’ve been there twice — Brian and I caught an Expos game and saw an unknown pitcher named Pedro Martinez strike out a dozen batters. I also remember the artificial turf looked like crap. The previous time I was in Montreal was “spring break” in 1986. I just last week wore my Schwartz smoked meat shirt and wonder if they are still in business. I like to check out Jewish deli’s where they still exist in urban cities. Schwartz’s I recall was by a Jewish tombstone maker. Smoked meat is there version of corned beef. It was, I recall, the week before the Montreal Jazz Festival; I could see the bandstands. I think I recall that Action Plus or maybe the Orange Symphonnete — local bands, both feature Joe Gore, were to appear).
13. Should I read his — Leonard Cohen, not Joe Gore’s — books and poems?
14. Should I at least do a close reading of his lyrics?
15. How many artists have covered “Hallelujah”?
16. Which artists?
I think I saw it on “Glee” and “American Idol” — 17. What kind of performance rights fees do the writers of such songs get and or do they stimulate downloads and sales? I wondered this when I heard Matt Nathanson’s song on “Idol”
18. Will I learn to spell “Hallelujah”? I first wrote hallejlelaedslja or something. I recall reading something interesting about the etymology of that word. Also, I should dig into my research on the word “Yiaweh” and why I think it is related to “yud yud” which, when I was in Hebrew school was a way of denoting the Almighty — to the uninitiated you might try to pronounce it “Yih-Yah” which to me is suspiciously close to “Yiaweh”. Also, “yud yud” to me looks like ” “” ” like “ditto” or “air quotes”. When did the concept of quotation marks — as empty sets — begin to be used for a substitution for an unmentionable or questionable term? Around the time of alegebra?

19. This is not Cohen but I found it interesting that I was reading a comic book about Jack Kerouac and then noticed that a Sports Illustrated columnist did a Kerouac column in the football preview issue. He used a quote about Kerouac stating that he felt he could score on every play, the optimism and energy in a new start, a new season, shana tovah. Also, I am meaning to look into the oft-repeated statement that JK earned a football scholarship to Columbia? Did his career pre-date the Ivy Agreement or are people para-phrasing the terms of his agreement with Columbia?
20. What did Steven Bernstein do with or for Leonard Cohen?
21. Did he notice that I texted him a photo of The Webb Sisters — Charley and Hattie Webb?
22. How did Laura Thomas meet the Webb Sisters?
23. Who was Sharon Robinson before?
24. Is “Democracy” inspiring?
25. What did my former client CB see in Leonard Cohen? (Truth be told, I don’t think I had heard of him before she spoke of him as an influence. This was 2002 or so. “Heather” era).
26. What do The Conspiracy of Beards?