2007-05-14 // 21:17:08
Hugh Whitaker
The Cohen song you quoted from is one of my favourite as well :0)

2007-05-14 // 21:14:42
Hugh Whitaker
For Hermann Hesse start with Siddartha, its a beautiful book and so uncomplicated in its message. Have you ever come across the musician Nick drake as well? He tragically died at 26 but in that period he produced some of the most emotive music ever.

I never felt magic crazy as this
I never saw moons knew the meaning of the sea
I never held emotion in the palm of my hand
Or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree
But now you're here
Brighten my northern sky.

He never reaches the same levels of Cohen as he never lived like Cohen did, but the simplicity, of his life in relation to the the depth of his thought, left an incredible collection of music. It really helps to read his biography as well, which again is so tragically short

2007-05-13 // 18:45:40
Hugh Whitaker
I'd love to visit, for that reason, he's someone who has always fascinated me, not only for the beauty of his writing and music but also for the idealism(to small a word for what I mean) he seems to ofter. Have you come across Hermann Hesse? a writer who again seems to understand how life is

^ Hesse has been on my list for awhile, but i have not read anything by him as of yet. i have always felt the exact same way about Cohen - that he understands how life really is and is able to break down relationships (especially romantic/sexual ones) into their core truths. like in the stranger song "it's true that all the men you knew were dealers who said they were through with dealing every time you gave them shelter". i mean jesus christ it just doesn't get any more honest than that does it?

2007-05-12 // 21:32:29
Hugh Whitaker
Well I see you there with the rose in your teeth
One more thin gypsy thief

^ a perfect fit... somehow it doesn't surprise me at all that you know his music. He wrote some beautiful songs while living on Hydra in the '70s and when I went to Greece for the first time, I had to go to this island just to try and see something that he saw... it was amazing. i could have stayed there forever and been perfectly content.