posted July 30, 2007 10:34 AM           

Now,
some words about the documentary film
"Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man"

trailer: http://youtube.com/watch?v=JyVHhcCnuEk

I saw it Friday night, and I'm in awe of that man more than ever. He is so humble and wise. He is the kind of man I wish I could be. I'm so ridiculous, so full of myself and my ambition sometimes. This man really lived, felt, thought. I feel like a pale shadow in comparison. I'm always comparing. That, too, is my vanity. But he is so unpretentious. Everyone should see this film, to be reminded what a truly good man looks like. It moved me, and there are a lot of beautiful tribute performances to him, like the one linked to above (which is from the movie, and contains a brief commentary by Leonard Cohen).

I really felt my soul that night, listening to these songs and lyrics, and to Leonard (who spends three months of every year with his guru, Roshi, in a Buddhist monastic community) speak about life. You know, the mystery of Grace is/was a huge attraction for him, and its everywhere in his thinking and his music. This idea that we must give up perfection, and all rigid ambition to be something more, and just accept ourselves as we are, and then the pieces begin to fall into place. When we accept ourselves, but also life, and God, as they are, and not as we desire them to be. I've often thought about this and understood it on various levels, but last night it occurred to me in such a soulful way, as if I'd never thought of it before. Oh, I want to feel, and be alive, and follow beauty!! If music is food for the soul, Leonard Cohen's music is healthfood for the soul. What a deep, mature, brilliant, modest, wise and beautiful man.

posted July 30, 2007 12:39 PM           

Thank you for sharing this HSC. I'm not familiar with Leonard Cohen, but after watching the trailer would like to be. I wonder if my library has a copy of the film...
He became a monk. That's all i needed to hear. lol

Thanks.

posted July 31, 2007 07:00 AM           

quote:

---

I have watched this video 40 or 50 times I saw the documentary and it knocked me out. Antony is a transexual I have heard and is becoming female, or has become one by this writing. Great emotion and depth.

---

posted August 01, 2007 12:12 AM           

If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will
If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing

If it be your will
If there is a choice
Let the rivers fill
Let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell
If it be your will
To make us well

And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will

If it be your will.

Beautiful, Stephen,
thank you

I think the Beauty of this song
and the way Antony sings it,
is expressively received by
hearts of empathy and innocence.
He sings/he writes from 'rags of light',
beautiful for his imperfection.
Sung deep from the Soul~
Real, rough/light and True, from a humility wisened from a seasoned life of suffering and realization,
not meant for a perfect tone that
couldn't reflect the rougher edges
of a True Beauty that knows to Surrender is to simple Be;
acceptance of one's own flight and a surrender to mysterious tides that flow it onwards.

Beauty is as tremoring as it is pristine.

Eyes of criticism or judgement,
won't hear its ethereal lyre.
Is it all in from how you are listening?

How do we listen to each other?
How do we see each other?
What are we seeing/hearing? and why?

Did you know that Whales, Dolphins and Elephants communicate in sound vibrations
that are able to travel thousands of miles away?
The sound waves are so long inbetween waves that we don't hear it. Recently scientists discovered that the earth itself emits a constant humming, of a similiarly low vibrational frequency of sound. Out of our range of hearing. They're yet unsure why or where it comes from yet.
It's said, if we were able to hear these sound vibrations, they would be so loud to us that they'd cause deafness.

totally unrelated ...
I just thought it was interesting.

The Earth is Humming.

posted August 01, 2007 01:49 AM           

I guess you have to be my age to be familiar with Leonard Cohen 26 T.

He has written the music for many, many movies in his time.

posted August 01, 2007 10:06 PM           

Those are very pretty and interesting thoughts. As always, you ask questions that dont just get me thinking, but seem to usher me towards new paths, new lands, new quests. I'm always gratified when somebody sees/hears as beautiful what I see/hear as beautiful. When I discover something like this, I have to share it. I want everyone to share the experience of beauty. I get so discouraged when someone doesnt respond similarly. But I remain hopeful that others do see and experience beauty, even truly subtle and ethereal beauty, even if they do not find it in the same places I do. Ultimately, the feeling is what matters, and I'm happy if others get those feelings, however they get them. I'm just disappointed that, when I try to share that feeling by sharing something that made it possible for me, some people do not get that feeling, and are even met with something they find decidedly disagreeable. I wish I could make everyone happy, and share with everyone only those things which will produce in them that feeling - for it is the feeling I want to share, not the particular song or video or whatever. If the video does not inspire that feeling, it is not the video I posted - not the thing of beauty it was to me. The video AG saw was not the one I saw, and wanted him to see. That's for sure.

AG,

I was so tempted to respond to you with this:

"Oh, well, there's no accounting for (bad) taste."

Or some other equally snarky witticism.

Taste is a tricky matter, isn't it?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,
and who's to say whose eye is kinder or more clear?
God only knows.
Perhaps we all have equal sympathies and insights,
differently distributed, directed, and engaged.
God only knows.
It's clear enough, though, that none of us has eyes to see
the beauty that surrounds us at all times and in all places.

I'm sorry if I wasted your time,
and I appreciate your candor.

I think the song is gorgeous and his performance more than did it justice. I love his voice. First hearing it, I thought it was uncanny. And his eccentric gesticulations conducted an emotional resonance for me. His facial expressions struck me as expressive and appropriate, not the least bit pretentious or affected. I was transfixed. I saw rare honesty and tenderness in him. Even grace.
What did you see?
And is there a performer who affects you similarly?

Did you watch the other video?
If so, what did you think of it?

posted August 02, 2007 03:07 AM         

My perspective is simply that I was expecting to be blown away, and instead I got a pretty lackluster performance. If I were an A&R guy and that performance was given to me with the introduction you gave I'd expect to be impressed, and I'd be severely disappointed. If I were at an event and this performance came from a nearby stage I don't think I'd voluntarily stay to watch it.

I look at the guy and I see a little J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr), and a little Robert Smith (The Cure), but I don't see a guitar strapped to him, and him making exciting music while singing. I read the Roy Orbison comparison on YouTube, and while the quality is similar I think Roy's voice was more precise.

If "the most beautiful performance you'll ever see on YouTube" is simply a matter of the singer being emotionally intuned with the song, then I'm a person who won't get that. Not that I don't get a singer feeling what he or she is singing. I just don't get it when that's the only thing making the song interesting. For me it even killed the message, which is not what you want a singer to do.

Powerful song to just listen to:
Before this singer even decided to be a Christian he was bringing people at secular clubs to tears with this song. No need to watch the video if you don't want. It's not bad, but still a little amatuerish. (Oh, and at 9:47 it doesn't even cover the song in it's entirety. The ending is cut off.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOfe9EhAh7k

Emotional intensity mixed with performance:
He's seemingly so distracted by emotion he skips a few lines, but he keeps the song going and gets through it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHamV1pfMJU

A couple songs that have wrested some tears from me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9igUD4DRQcM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my3yP-w3rtw

I'm almost...no I'm definitely embarrassed to post those last two as songs that have gotten to me, but it's interesting to see the thread running through these astrologically:

Keith Green - October 21, 1953 - Libra
Art Alexakis - April 12, 1962 - Aries
Alanis Morissette - 1 June 1974 - Gemini

Other favorite singers of mine:
Tim Booth (of James) - 4 February 1960 - Aquarius
Morrissey - May 22, 1959 - Gemini

Oh, keeping with the masculine sun theme here's another song that has gotten to me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeIHZvZTJTg
3:28 through the end is just extraordinary for me (it's a little better in the studio version honestly, but this is powerful for a song with one woman and one guitar.)

My Venus is conjunct my Neptune in Sag in Libra's house, and Neptune makes a sextile to my 5th house Libra Pluto, which is conjunct my (also 5th house) Virgo Moon.

posted August 02, 2007 06:06 PM           

Martha Wainwright has a beautiful voice.

posted August 04, 2007 03:58 AM           

Some singer's voices are themselves a musical instrument. It was the case with the Bee Gees. They really didn't need any musical accompliment. I think this applies to The Antony. His voice is itself a musical instrument.

I also picked up on the feeling or emotion he put into that song. That is what really made it all the more moving and spiritual for me.

posted August 04, 2007 06:01 AM           

Antony Hegarty was born in the UK and has a British passport
The lead singer of Mercury Music Prize winners Antony and the Johnsons has dismissed claims he is an American artist taking a British award.
"Everyone's certainly entitled to that opinion, but I actually am British," Antony Hegarty told BBC News.

The 34-year-old singer was born in Chichester, West Sussex, but has lived in the US for more than 20 years.

When the shortlist came out, favourites the Kaiser Chiefs said he was American and "got in on a technicality".

His inclusion raised eyebrows among others who said he should be classed as a US artist and pointed out the winning album, I Am A Bird Now, was made in New York.

The band have become critical darlings around the world. The Mercury Prize rewards the best British or Irish album of the last 12 months.

But Hegarty has a British passport and says he was heavily influenced by English artists like Boy George and Marc Almond - even when he was living in the US.

"My thing is really mixed up because I've been moving around my whole life, so I take a lot of inspiration from really soulful singers, and there are a lot of those in Great Britain," he said.

The singer's heartfelt, haunting songs have forced critics to take notice but defied categorisation.

He has been compared to artists from Nina Simone to Inuit throat singers while Boy George, Lou Reed and Rufus Wainwright put in guest performances on the album.

Hegarty follows in the torch song tradition - singing sentimental songs, often about unrequited love.

An androgynous giant with gothic black hair, college dress sense and mid-Atlantic accent, Hegarty's emotional music is mirrored in his demeanour.

Both laughter and torment are never far from the surface and, facing the media on Tuesday, he seemed awkward in the spotlight but at the same time open and amiable.

"I just feel so honoured, I feel really delighted," he said after picking up the trophy and £20,000 cheque.

"I could never have imagined I would be singled out - and that makes me a little uncomfortable to be honest. But really it's been such a fantastic night."

He was happy to talk about his friendship with Lou Reed, his admiration for Boy George or doing cartwheels to Kate Bush at the age of seven.

"That was the beginning of an illustrious and exciting relationship with English music," he said.

The winning album was released in the UK in February
But his brow furrowed when the question of nationality was raised.

Asked how he felt to win the Mercury as an American artist, he responded: "It's interesting you would call me an American artist... as I said, I just feel really pleased to be a part of it."

When he has been previously asked whether he felt American, he has said: "I do in the fact that I'm an immigrant."

He added he would not live in the US if New York did not exist because "it's an immigrant city and I love it so much".

Hegarty has been a fixture on the New York arts scene for more than a decade and said he has never aimed for any awards.

"It hasn't really been a matter of me setting my eyes on a prize," he said.

"I've just been involved with things at every step of my life.

"I'm not 22, I'm 34, and I've had a long adult life in the arts and this is just an amazing new phase that I hadn't really anticipated."

'Vote of confidence'

The Mercury was a "wonderful arts award", he added.

"It really means a lot, because it's really an aesthetic award more than the success of the economy of your work.

"So it really was a vote of confidence and it meant so much to me, especially with that group of artists that are gathered here tonight."

He was up against "so many wonderful people, such a diverse array of creative ideas and work", he said.

As for the £20,000, he joked it may go towards clothes. "I know I look a bit rough," he said.

But he had already lost the cheque. "I don't know where it went, someone took it. I think it was the Kaiser Chiefs," he said with a smile.

posted August 04, 2007 06:04 AM           

Biography
Born in Sussex, UK in 1971, Antony's family moved to Amsterdam in 1977, before settling in California in 1981.

As a teenager he was enthused by the British synth pop of the time – in particular emotive singers such as Marc Almond, Alison Moyet and Boy George. In 1990 he moved to Manhattan, and founded the performance collective Blacklips with creative partner Johanna Constantine.

British experimental musician David Tibet of Current 93 heard a demo and offered to release Antony's music through his Durtro label; the debut album, Antony and the Johnsons, was released in 1998. In 2001, Antony released a short follow-up EP, I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy, which, in addition to the title track, included a cover of a David Lynch/Angelo Badalamenti song and a Current 93 song.

Antony and the Johnsons' most recent album I Am a Bird Now won the UK's prestigious Mercury Prize in 2005 and was called Album of the Year by Mojo magazine.

He has notably worked with Lou Reed live as a second vocalist on Animal Serenade. Antony also appears on the song "Lowlands Low" with Bryan Ferry on Hal Willner's Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys album, the song "Old ***** 's Diet" on Rufus Wainwright's album Want Two and on the song "Beautiful Boyz" on CocoRosie's album Noah's Ark.

He was featured as a performing artist in the film Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man about Leonard Cohen. Antony covers "If It Be Your Will".

Antony and the Johnsons collaborated with experimental film maker Charles Atlas and presented "TURNING" in Nov 2005 in Rome, London, Paris, Madrid, and Braga. The concert featured live video portraits of some of New York City's most enigmatic women. The Guardian called the piece "fragile, life affirming, and truly wonderful (five stars)" Le Monde in Paris hailed TURNING as "Concert- manifeste transsexuel".

Antony has recently collaborated with Icelandic musician Björk in recording sessions in Jamaica and Iceland. The songs, "The Dull Flame of Desire" and "My Juvenile", feature on her latest album Volta . He is also singing two songs on Rufus Wainwright's Album "Release the Stars" (2007). [1]

Antony also worked with renowned guitarist Bernard Butler (formerly of Suede) on some acoustic sessions for XFM.

posted August 04, 2007 11:47 AM           

I'm not sure if I expressed what I was thinking well, so Stephen, it's nice to hear you found something there.

I was awed by the humility of the song.
Thinking about what brings us to it.
It's never easy for us to give up control like that. It's really amazing to think about the beauty of that surrender.

Faith unsurrendered
is as Love hoarded inside ~
Unable to glint the hint
of its promise
Unable to let miracles guide.

I just listened to Martha's version of "I am Your Man" and it was beautiful too.
I loved what Leonard said in the song.
Wow.
It's braver to stand guiltless and unashamed. For we are just being who we are.