Leonard Cohen Supper (Only happy when it rains…) This is the event I’m missing tonight. To quote the description,
The latest Vital Synz event involves Liz Lochhead, the McCluskey Brothers, Donny O’Rourke, Stuart Ennis, and David Wilson in a celebration of all things Leonard Cohen.
The evening includes live performances of Cohen’s songs, film footage of the man himself in discussion, and opportunities for the audience to raise their own voices (and a Cohen Cocktail) to the writer of hits such as “Hallelujah”, “Bird on a Wire” and “Suzanne”.
Another site, The List, assuages the Cohen-anxious among us (that would be, well, us), noting that “There’s no particular reason why Glasgow poetry promoters Vital Synz are holding a Leonard Cohen Supper this fortnight. It’s not the great songwriter’s birthday, and he’s still, as far as we know, in rude health.” That post goes on to explain that the Cohen Supper follows “your basic Burns Supper template, but with a completely different poet, and tea and oranges (‘Suzanne’’s sustenance of choice), rather than a haggis, piped in.”
The closing paragraph is the grabber, however:
The thing that makes a good Burns Supper is its tone. That tone has to be informed and respectful, but not po-faced or solemn; there must be wit and warmth and informality that can nonetheless create and sustain ritual and there’s something ritualistic about Cohen’s work in terms of his interests, his themes. Cohen is very much the rabbi, the bard, the European cabaret singer. And the spirit is important. We will hope, while having our tongues in our cheeks, to manage simultaneously to place our hands on our hearts. And we will celebrate him as he ought to be celebrated.’ Sing another song, boys.
That is precisely correct.
