Cohen On Tour: Wrong Cohen, Wrong Tour1
But At Least It’s Not The Same Photo Every Other Story Used
The Problem: Leonard Cohen 2008 Tour Vs Tour Cohen 2008 Leonard Vs Cohen Tour Leonard 2008 Vs 2008 Leonard Tour Cohen Vs Tour Cohen Leonard 2008 Vs …
Three issues impact the online and print stories about the 2008 Leonard Cohen Tour:
1. The only recently available information about the 2008 Leonard Cohen Tour2 is limited to this announcement posted at leonardcohenforum.com:
The following advance notice is posted with Leonard’s permission.
Leonard Cohen will be touring with his band in Canada and US in May and in Europe in the summer. More details will be announced in February
2. Only a finite number of combinations and permutations exist to present that core data.
3. The journalistic imperative of professional writers, critics, and reporters as well as blog-empowered amateur hacks of the DrHGuy variety is to produce unique, original stories
The simultaneous existence of these three factors offers the spectator not only a light amusement but also an opportunity to assess the personality of the publication based on its selection of photos and nonessential facts in the attempt to create a very special post about the tour. From my casual and unofficial count, these extraneous elements occur most frequently in these posts:
- Leonard’s Cohen’s age: 733
- Time since last tour: 15 years
- Reference to the tour announcement appearing at leonardcohenforum.com, with or without a caveat (e.g., “if the posting is legit”)
- Speculation that tour is motivated by financial losses secondary to the theft of Cohen’s funds by his former manager4
- Mention of Cohen’s impending induction into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Also interesting are the attempts to choose a unique graphic (a photo of young Leonard Cohen, a photo of old Leonard Cohen, an album cover, a video, etc) that accompany most stories, a quandary I have cleverly avoided in this entry by inserting “Cohen On Tour” pictures of other Cohens on other tours.
Again, Wrong Cohen, Wrong Tour5
But It Is A Different Look
The Posts
I’ve placed the graphics and links to more than 30 of these posts at GoodCleanWholesome Fun
- Sacha Baron Cohen at Tour de France↩
- See Leonard Cohen 2008 Tour Prophesied↩
- Rolling Stone lops off a couple of years, making Leonard 71↩
- Most stories are sympathetic to Cohen’s plight. I found only one site that was nasty about this, declaring “let us be the first to say that Cohen probably isn’t doing this out of love for his fans, but rather, his dire financial situation. Wha’? Cohen has accused his business manager Kelley Lynch of defrauding him of $5million.” Although the implicit contention that other, presumably more altruistic artists give concerts for the love of their fans (which would explain why all those other concerts are freebies) is a rather pedestrian bit of malice, the phrasing that makes Cohen the perpetrator rather than the victim of fraud displays more skill.↩
- Ben Cohen on the English Rugby Summer Tour↩
Keep the cleverness flowing Dr. Heck. Love it!