Just wanted to add one of my favorite Leonard Cohen songs to the list: Everybody Knows. I played this for retreatants one day during an 8-day retreat I gave titled Embracing Mary. I played this during a segment on Mary, Prophet of Justice, calling the song the Anti-Magnificat. Here is a youtube link to it
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Another Leonard Cohen Fan
Leonard Cohen, Jerry Cohen, Nick Drake, & cet.
Greetings, All,
It's delightful to find something during Pesach and Holy Week that a number of us here can agree upon with enthusiasm -- the wonderful Leonard C. For what it might be worth, this here's my favorite of the bard's songs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYP-fL8ndmI&feature=related . But of course I love 'em all, particularly the early ones that Robby cites just below.
Those who appreciate Leonard might also find much -- if not even more -- in Nick. Here's a sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idcaRTg4-fM . As with Leonard, so here there are many, many wonderful pieces from which to choose. What a wonderful spirit.
Two other items perhaps worth noting here: First, the other Beck - the non-idiot one - has done some nice covers of these fellows' songs, as well as of many other great artists' songs.
And second, a nice anecdote: I once asked my pal Jerry Cohen, who left so many of us bereft by his untimely passing this past August, what he thought of his namesake and fellow Quebecois Leonard C, whereupon he said one of the very few things that he ever has said with which I had to disagree. He said he prefers his schmaltz unadulterated, and found LC intolerable for purveying a sort of ersatz-schmaltz. I agree that some of the songs come dangerously close to that characterization, but it seems to me they are very few. Moreover, remove the word 'lady' from all of them -- including that linked to above -- and I think you're altogether free and clear.
Pesach Shalom & Blessed Holy Week to All, and another Kaddish for Jerry while I am at it here,
Bob
One more thing about Leonard Cohen, and a request for Robby
Robby just mentioned LC's first album, which was released in 1968 (as I recall), and is a masterpiece. Three songs from that album became the soundtrack to Robert Altman's "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" (1974?)--which is one of the greatest American films of the 20th Century. The songs add immeasurably to the film's impact.
Robby, be sure to post a video of your rendition of the LC songs you're performing in class today!
More and more parents are opting for school-homing
This just in:
According to a report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Education, an increasing number of American parents are choosing to have their children raised at school rather than at home.
Deputy Education Secretary Anthony W. Miller said that many parents who school-home find U.S. households to be frightening, overwhelming environments for their children, and feel that they are just not conducive to producing well-rounded members of society.
Thousands of mothers and fathers polled in the study also believe that those running American homes cannot be trusted to keep their kids safe.
"Every year more parents are finding that their homes are not equipped to instill the right values in their children," Miller said. "When it comes to important life skills such as proper nutrition, safe sex, and even basic socialization, a growing number of mothers and fathers think it's better to rely on educators to guide and nurture their kids."
"And really, who can blame them?" Miller continued. "American homes have let down our nation's youth time and again in almost every imaginable respect." . . .
Get the full story here, at The Onion. Of course, like many of the funniest things in The Onion, this piece entertains because it has some truth (or "truthiness") to it. (Too) many parents are comfortable letting government-run schools raise their children, and (too) many people with power and influence believe that it is important for such schools to play a competitive (that is, versus the parents) role in raising children.
MOJ gets results! Duke apologizes to pro-life group
No doubt as a result of this Duke fan's complaining, "the Duke University Women's Center has issued a letter of apology after it denied the campus pro-life student group space for an event on motherhood. The center abruptly canceled a Duke Students for Life event on the day of the meeting because it was engaging in pro-life activities elsewhere on campus." (More here.)
Here we go, Devils, here we go! (Clap, clap).
Leonard Cohen
Thanks, Michael. I'm delighted to know that you and your wife are huge fans of Leonard Cohen. I am too. As it happens, Cornel West last week mentioned Cohen during the seminar he and I are teaching together. It seems that the students were familiar with only one of Cohen's songs: "Hallelujah." So I'm bringing my guitar to the seminar today to introduce them to three more of Cohen's pieces: (1) "You Know Who I Am"; (2) "Nancy"; and (3) "Famous Blue Raincoat." Some other favorites of mine are "Joan of Arc," "The Night Comes On," and all the songs on that very first album of Cohen's (the one that includes "Master Song," "The Sisters of Mercy," "The Dealer," and "Suzanne").
Of Leonard Cohen, Marriage, and Well-Being
My wife Sarah and I are HUGE Leonard Cohen fans, but we had not see the video Robby posted. Thanks, Robby. Many MOJ readers will be interested in David Brooks' column yesterday, which has some things to say about marriage, human relationships generally, and well-being. The column is here. An excerpt:
"Marital happiness is far more important than anything else in determining personal well-being. If you have a successful marriage, it doesn’t matter how many professional setbacks you endure, you will be reasonably happy. If you have an unsuccessful marriage, it doesn’t matter how many career triumphs you record, you will remain significantly unfulfilled."
Hell
Lisa Miller, who has a recent book on heaven, (for discussion, see http://www.religiousleftlaw.com/2010/03/heaven-.html) maintains that 80% of Americans believe in heaven, but belief in hell is plummeting. She argues that this phenomenon is attributable to the rise in the view that there are many paths to the same God. Not only are vastly fewer people believing in hell, she says that those people who do believe in hell do not believe that hell is their destination. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2010/03/27/VI2010032703846.html
In the Catholic tradition, there are three views of hell
that I know about: The view that hell is permanent conscious separation from
God; the view that hell is permanent suffering in fire; and the view that hell
is death. I think the first view is the one most widely held by leaders of the
Church; the second is a metaphor.
The third draws support from two sources. First, if one believes in a loving God, the first two seem disproportionate (though a standard response is that hell is chosen and that the disproportionate idea misconceives the gravity of offending God). Second, the frequent biblical references to fire are references to trash burning in a constant fire around Jerusalem. The fire is constant, but the trash does not burn forever. On this theory, the reference to fire is a metaphor for death. In any event, it is not a metaphor for eternal suffering.
cross-posted at religiousleftlaw.com
Marriage . . . . many, many years
If you haven't seen the official video of Leonard Cohen's "Dance Me to the End of Love," it is something you don't want to miss:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_PIadFsvDk
(Warning, do not watch without handkerchief in hand.)
"Remember that you once were . . . "
I think that Michael Walzer is right about the potential value of ceremonial acts of remembrance. Where we are tempted to commit (or abet or ignore) injustices, sometimes a ceremonial enactment of remembering our own vulnerability could help us to avoid falling into the trap. Abortion is a good case. Each and every one of us, without exception, was once an embryo and a fetus. In those early stages of our lives we were weak, vulnerable, highly dependent creatures. Our lives could have been violently snuffed out while we were still hidden in our mothers' wombs. Many people don't like to remember that or be reminded of it---it can be quite inconvenient---so we repress the memory (to use Walzer's phrase). But a ceremonial remembrance of our vulnerability would remind us of the injustice of deliberate feticide and the need for us to remember those who are today vulnerable and stand with them in solidarity. We could do it right in our own homes or in local churches. I'm sure it would be harder to fly to Hollywood for the Academy Awards or to Chicago for a MoveOn.org convention.
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