June 2, 2008
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June rolls around
I'm feeling rather excited. In a few hours, I will be sitting in a nice theatre, watching the legendary Leonard Cohen perform. It's not an opportunity I thought I would ever have, so even though tickets were more than I've ever spent on a show before, there wasn't a moment's hesitation over whether or not I would go. I even sprung for good seats (though the venue is fairly small, so even the worst seats are pretty darn good).
Cohen's music has been very important to me since... I think it was the summer of 1991. My parents and brothers and I were visiting my aunt and uncle in Nova Scotia. They lived in an old post house, with amazing solid 16" boards as mouldings. It was unbelievably, stiflingly hot that week. Even now, I don't deal well with the heat, but when I was younger I was just toast. The heat made me claustrophobic and panicky and cranky. It also didn't help that I burn almost instantly. So I spent a lot of our time there sitting inside, moving as little as possible and sweating profusely. Much of that time was spent in front of their stereo, headphones on, completely mesmerized by the sound of Leonard Cohen. From the first moment I popped one of the unfamiliar CDs into the player, I was hooked. Later, my grandmother took me to England in the spring of 1992. It was a fantastic trip, and I returned to Canada with one 20-dollar bill to my name. I used that twenty to buy the just-released album The Future, on cassette.
I had originally planned to go back to university this fall. I was accepted, but due to an assortment of issues financial, emotional and logistical, that's going to have to wait another year. I'm disappointed, but the decision has been made and I need to make the best of the coming year. I've been back at work for two weeks now, and it took no time at all to settle back into my antipathy and exhaustion. I'll need to do something about that. But the weather is lovely, I'm relatively healthy, and if I can just focus on the possibilities of life instead of the problems, then I can take back control and get the good times rolling again.
Okeedokee. I'd better get ready. Don't want some unexpected snag to keep me from getting to the show in plenty of time. I'm so excited!!!
Take care
-J-P.S. A big congratulations to Byron and his lovely wife, on the birth of their beautiful daughter, Ava.
Comments (2)
Enjoy yourself! I saw LC live once, years ago, he was amazing. Although I think he has always written good songs, I don't think any album in total approached the genius of his early ones until Ten New Songs, which, to me, was an absolute knockout. (I wish I could say the same of his book, Beautiful Losers though).
Hope you had a nice time at the Leonard Cohen concert. Sounds fun. "Everybody knows" has been a personal fave of mine for a long time.
I wish I could say getting my raise has changed things but it really hasn't except that my budget isn't quite as tight as it used to be. I suppose that in itself is a nice thing to have. Still for the most part things have not changed all that much. They never really did. I did get a chance to go up to New York again and I even did a trip around all of New England. I only have ten states left to go and then I've seen them all. After that I'm going to attempt to see all the Canadian provinces .
That stinks that you have to wait a little longer than expected to see your family. I know how much it can stink at times being so far away from them. At least you have something to look forward to come the fall right? How have things been with you otherwise? I haven't been around Xanga much as of late so have missed a lot of what's been happening the last few months. Hope all is well.
Take care,
Shane
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