Back On Boogie Street

A month ago, medical problems interrupted my online activities. Following a hospital stay, a home-based convalescence compassionately and skillfully managed by The Duchess aka  Penny Showalter, and ongoing outpatient treatment, things are better. While I have not achieved tippity-top health (and, in response to a friend of many years who, somewhat rudely by my lights, questioned whether I had ever reached that optimal tippity-top level, I have indeed done so – twice, in fact – on consecutive Thursday afternoons in Sept 1989), I am much improved. As one measure, I can currently ascend the stairs in our house without automatically defaulting to the fantasy of employing a Sherpa to tote me in this assault on the second story. Cognitively, I am now able to keep track of all four couples’ sensual misadventures – and which of the 24 singles with whom each is misadventuring – on “Temptation Island.” (I should also note that when I included mental obtundation as one of my ongoing concerns, my doctor opined that “no one who describes himself as ‘obtunded’ is obtunded.” So, I got that going for me). And, my stamina has escalated to the point that sundown no longer inevitably triggers slumber (although I didn’t even consider staying up for the Baylor Vs Gonzalo NCAA Basketball Championship game – a start time of 9:20 p.m. ET? That’s crazy talk).

Anyhow, I’m returning to my program of republishing selected posts from my former Leonard Cohen site, Cohencentric.com, as well as offering occasional new material about Leonard and anything else that meets my “how about that” criterion at AllanShowalter.com.

Why?

After 15 years of posting about Leonard Cohen, why am I continuing? Well, I’ve loved Leonard Cohen for a long, long time and believe his work provides qualities that are unique and fundamental. As I’ve previously observed,

Leonard Cohen offers the possibility of living with grace, dignity, and integrity, without submitting to illusions, without succumbing to indifference, and without indulging in denial of our own failures and flaws, in a world that is too often corrupt & malevolent.

So, I am deeply motivated to introduce Leonard Cohen to those not familiar with him and to share photos, anecdotes, insights, videos, information, humor… pertinent to Leonard for the enrichment of those who are already fans.

And, of course, there is the fact that, like Leonard, I “want to show off.”

Why do poets become songwriters?

Well, if you want to show off, like I did, you go for the widest audience possible.

Leonard Cohen1

Credit Due Department: Photo atop post taken at Leonard’s LA home in 2014 by The Duchess aka Penny Showalter (see Calling On Leonard Cohen & Kezban: The Cat, The Cane, The Conversation). Photo of Leonard Cohen at 1993 Juno Awards by George Kraychyk.
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1. From Leonard Cohen’s The Future Interview by Bob Mackowitz. Transcript from a radio special produced by Interviews Unlimited for Sony Music, 1992. [↩]