words, colours, feelings & other stuff

apart from that fantastic leonard cohen concert, life has not been tooooo bad either. *g*

i was rather spontaneously invited to read as special guest at the first café kafka open mic after the summer break - and of course i didn't decline. the atmosphere was great, i was quite relaxed, apart from the little bit of nerves that are part of it all. i read for about 25 minutes, poems from my chapbooks and others, and i was happy with my performance. i feel so at home there that it's almost like being in my own flat. and reading without the mic is so liberating and great that i am wondering why i never tried it before that technical breakdown a few months ago.


me at café kafka after my reading


october has been beautiful lately, blue skies and ahhhh the light! so, so amazing, and it's no wonder that this is my favourite time of the year. i was out taking pictures several times over the last couple of weeks, but i have had no time to edit anything.


busy bright bluish beetle



fragile: blossoms, leaf, snail @ donaupark


work is going well. my english class is great, they are so talkative, which makes speaking activities real fun. i can't believe that this is already week 4! i've had a few job offers, but i have to decline just about everything these days.

one other thing that is still fairly new is that i am now an ex-single, and have been for some weeks. the man in question is not a poet, he is not a native speaker of english, and he is not the dangerous heartbreaking kind that this girl has fallen for time and again. meet heinz:


h&m



mirror, mirror



three guys and barbapapa (on tv, not in the picture! *g*): jakob, simon, heinz


tomorrow, my poet friend john siddique arrives around lunchtime, and i am sooooo looking forward to seeing him, and to wour reading on thursday. now if only my temperature went down, and i could breathe through my nose, and my voice were back ... *s*

if you happen to be in vienna on thursday, 16 october, drop in at shakespeare & company bookshop, sterngasse 2, 1010 vienna, from 7.30 pm.


song of the day: los peces by lhasa .

tower of song

i know it has been ages, but life seems to get in the way sometimes ... still - even if it has been a while, i do want to say a few things about the leonard cohen concert on 24 september, and i do want to say more than just "wow".

like one of my friends said, it is quite impossible to count highlights at a leonard cohen concert - the whole event IS a highlight. and the whole event lasted about three hours. the concert began with dance me to the end of love, and right from the start it was one great song after another. it was almost as if he had seen my secret wish list and granted me more than just one of them. here's the set list:

First set
1. Dance me to the end of love
2. The Future
3. Ain't no cure for love
4. Bird on the wire
5. Everybody knows
6. In my secret life
7. Who by fire
8. Hey, that's no way to say good bye
9. Anthem

Second set
10. Tower of song
11. Suzanne
12. Gypsy wife
13. Boogie Street
14. Hallelujah
15. Democracy
16. I'm your man
17. Take this waltz

Encores
18. So long, Marianne
19. First we take Manhattan

20. Sisters of mercy
21. If it be your will
22. Closing time

23. I tried to leave you
24. Whither thou goest

of course, take this waltz is special for us here, because of the references to vienna. hallelujah is - and most likely will always be - one of my favourite songs of all time. i was particularly happy to hear who by fire and sisters of mercy as well as tower of song. one of *the* goosebump moments was when cohen quoted the first few lines of if it be your will before the webb sisters took over: wonderful, almost haunting version of a terrific song, and it really became clear that the song is indeed a prayer. (follow this link for a video of the song recorded at the toronto concert)

cohen's musicians and background singers were incredible - as if they had become musicians for these moments on stage with cohen. the three ladies supported cohen beautifully, their voices a perfect match for his. what really impressed me was cohen's obvious respect for his musicians and singers, and i don't think it was just show. i am sure a man like him understands the importance of a good band. and there was also respect for the audience. after all - without fans, where would artists be?

one thing i noticed was that some of his songs, while they were great when he wrote them years ago, seem somehow more meaningful now. it's as if a younger cohen had written them for the older cohen he is now, as if he'd grown into them. i also think that a little ironic smile on the side doesn't hurt them either, and that is something that comes with age, i assume. a bit of distance.

my favourite quote of the evening: cohen was saying that he had not been on stage in about 15 years and joked "back then, i was just a kid with a crazy dream". but of course, he also showed us the secret, the key to everything that life is about, and it can be found in his tower of song; it is not what he is saying, it is what the background voices repeat, time and time again. doo-dum-dum-dum de-doo-dum-dum.

i did take photos, but the light was not very good, and i was too far away from the stage. still - here are a couple:


my brother martin and me before the concert



the venue: wiener konzerthaus



leonard cohen & band



mr leonard cohen



mr cohen kneeling


song of the day: if it be your will by leonard cohen / the webb sisters.