DrHGuy Lookalikes
Separated At Multiple Births
The folks at myheritage.com offer a facial recognition system that, among other tasks, will match ones uploaded photo with so-called celebrity lookalikes.
You can judge its accuracy for yourselves.
http://www.myheritage.com/collage
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The Undisappearing Of Jarkko Arjatsalo
The Big Little Golden Book Of Leonard Cohen:1 Correction Of Jarkko Omission
Editor’s Note: I just noticed that a section introducing Jarkko Arjatsalo somehow dissipated between the final draft of Field Guide To The Current Life Of Leonard Cohen and the posting of that first installment of The Big Little Golden Book Of Leonard Cohen. My apologies to both readers and Jarkko himself for the error. The following content will be added to the original post.
Jarkko Arjatsalo, Webmaster - and De Facto Chief Curator, Head Archivist, Documentary Photographer, Fan Club President, Social Chairman, High Priest, Ringmaster, and Prime Minister Of Cohenatia
In 1995, Jarkko Arjatsalo, an accountant from Finland, began leonardcohenfiles.com, a web site devoted to (duh) Leonard Cohen.3 In 1997, Leonard Cohen, then residing at a Zen monastery (more about that in a later chapter), contacted Jarkko about his unauthorized site - to offer to contribute unpublished poems, notebooks used to compose his songs, a passport from his student days, personal anecdotes, that kind of stuff. That affiliation has persisted and appears stronger than ever. Leonard Cohen, for example, chose to officially announce his 2008 tour first at leonardcohenfiles.
While leonardcohenfiles is most often described as an “encyclopedia” of Cohen information, a more apt analogy would be to the Smithsonian Institute with a plethora of displays of widely varying but consistently fascinating content. Leonardcohenfiles now offers more than 800 indexed pages of material about Cohen and its 2.000.000th visitor landed on the site over a year ago.
Less heralded but of growing importance are Jarkko’s additional roles, such as propagating other Cohen-dedicated web sites, whether as primary originator (e.g., leonardcohenforum.com) or as a facilitator for other members of the Leonard Cohen Web Ring. He has also been a prime mover in organizing meetings, conferences, and events celebrating Cohen’s work and serves as a communications network for Cohen fans.
For an introduction to Big Little Golden Book Of Leonard Cohen, see Publication of Big Little Golden Book Of Leonard Cohen Impends.
The most recent post from the Big Little Golden Book Of Leonard Cohen,Leonard Cohen - Boy Wonder.
The Jarkko material will be added to Field Guide To The Current Life Of Leonard Cohen.
Footnotes
- The Big Little Golden Book Of Leonard Cohen is a simple, easy to understand introduction to Leonard Cohen for anyone who has recently tuned in to his music and for fans who may have listened to the songs for some time and now have want to learn something about the singer-songwriter who produced them. The goal of this series of posts is to avoid both (1) overwhelming readers with details and tangents, however interesting those channels might be, and (2) omitting fundamental elements of Cohen’s life. ~back~
- Photo and caption from - of course - leonardcohenfiles.com ~back~
- OK, I suppose one could make the case that leonardcohenfiles could have been a site about a guy named “Leonard Cohenfiles,” but that would be wrong. ~back~
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Allan Truax, Jim Sand, The Forest, And The Trees
An Email From Jim Sand About Allan Truax
I recently received an unsolicited email from Jim Sand (who was previously unknown to me) about Allan Truax.1 The pertinent portion of that message follows:
My best friend and I would sometimes crawl over the fence to see what was in his yard. We never stayed long, but I remember that it seemed his yard was a forest. Since in that part of North Dakota, the only trees were those planted by farmers as shelter belts or the cottonwood trees along Long Creek about 5 miles north of town.
Why An Email2 From Jim Sand To Heck of a Guy About Allan Truax Is Important
I’ve featured the email from Mr. Sand in this post for two reasons:
1. The content confirms and clarifies an important detail about Allan Truax. In Evelyn and Allan Truax Journey Through Life Together, I wrote “Allan Truax’s interest in horticulture, for example, resulted in his planting trees and shrubs around the Truax home in Crosby, North Dakota, at a time when those “were about the only trees in town.”3 The email, describing the Truax lawn from an 8 year old boy’s perspective, is significantly more effective.
2. This email is an example of one of the genuine advantages blogs confer on humanity: mutually beneficial interactions. Obviously, interactions are hardly blog-dependent, but the accessibility of blogs and effective search engines have dramatically increased the number and quality of such connections compared to pre-internet technologies.
Even if I had, for example, written the definitive Allan Truax biography and even if Mr. Sand had read it, what are the chances he would have written me about his childhood memory? And, even if he had written, how could I have circulated that information short of publishing another edition of the biography?
Further, this is no fluke. Some readers may recall the The Great Ozark Folk Festival Flood of 1973 adventure. I have heard from at least two readers who were at that same bluegrass festival deep in the Ozarks that same weekend in 1973, one of whom has promised to write up her own story from that weekend - a story which equals if not surpasses the weirdness of the sojourn I described.
That’s why - ya gotta love the blogs.
Identification: Allan Truax, Allen Truax, and A.L. Truax
“Allan Truax” and “Allen Truax” appear with approximately equal frequency in the written material I’ve reviewed, with “A.L. Truax” occurring somewhat less often. The name Mr. Truax inscribed in his books was “Allan” so I use it preferentially
Other Heck Of A Guy Posts About Allan Truax
- The first Allan Truax Post was Allan Truax, A.E. Housman, The Ex, and Me
- The most recent Allan Truax Post before this entry was Crosby, North Dakota In The Time Of Allan Truax: Railroad Depot and Hospital
- All Allan Truax posts can be found by clicking on the Allan Truax category
Footnotes
- An explanation of who Allan Truax is and why he is a feature of the Heck Of A Guy Blog can be found at Who’s Allan Truax? ~back~
- Mr Sand also sent a second complementary email:
I only lived across from Mr. Truax for about 2 years. We then moved to “south hill” as the south side of town was called. Coincidentally, after we moved, I lived two houses up from Mrs. Truax. Mrs. Truax was my music teacher throughout elementary school. I assumed she was Mr and Mrs. A.L Truax’s daughter-in-law. Unfortunately, I have no additional information about Mr. Truax. (I do recall seeing a sign that read A.L.Truax. I can not remember if it was on the gate to the fence around his house, or if it was by the door to his house.)
~back~
- Mr & Mrs A.L. Truax, Richard Truax, A History Of Divide County, 1964. p 224 ~back~
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Leonard Cohen Is The Cat In The Hat
Leonard Cohen preparing for 2008 Tour1
I’m Your (Sharp-dressed) Man
‘Cause every girl crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man.
-From Sharp-dressed Man by ZZ Top
This shot of Leonard Cohen rehearsing for his upcoming World Tour in his Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes2 is intriguing and even a tad mysterious.
How, for example, does he look so good in that hat? Why does he look like an illustration for the dictionary definition of “dapper” wearing a double breasted jacket while 97% of the men that don them (including Dave Letterman, who wears one almost every night on his show) resemble nothing else as much as a corpse being fitted for a shroud? Why is he fingering a keyboard when he typically plays a guitar, if he plays any instrument, in his concerts? Why does he have only one hand on the keyboard? Is the one hand in the pocket stance essential as a component of the not quite insouciant slouch?
And what the heck is with that gong in the background?
Footnotes
- Photo by Lorca Cohen. Used by permission of Leonard Cohen via Ed Sanders. Thanks to Dick Straub for alerting me to the photo, which originally appeared on LeonardCohenFiles.com and LeonardCohenForum.com ~back~
- Or would these be Leonard Cohen’s “Sabbath-go-to-meeting Clothes?” Or his “Sabbath-go-to-synagogue Clothes?” Such are the perils of the culturally sensitive blogger. ~back~
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Best House Showing So Far
Potential buyers toured HeckOfAHouse this week. Now, even in this depressed (and, for sellers, depressing) housing market, a shopper’s request to be shown the place isn’t enough to promote that event to a Heck Of A Guy blog entry.
Even the fact that the visitors were personable, appreciative of the design and features of the house, and - yes - chuckled at my jokes doesn’t qualify the episode as post-worthy.
And while their attestation to being “interested” in further pursuing the possibility of purchasing this home is promising and a definite plus, many others have made similar declarations.
So, what put this showing over the top?
Well, these were the first potential buyers to arrive bearing a gift - and a pretty nifty gift at that: Harrods Peppermint Discs.1
These tiny cookies (with a circumference hardly larger than a dime) consist of a wondrously tasty peppermint filling wrapped in chocolate and encased in a similarly nifty package that resembles the one displayed below.
Harrods Discs also come in Lemon (shown above) and Orange.
While I don’t pretend to have an accurate reading on the likelihood of these folks actually handing over stacks of freshly minted, high denomination US currency in exchange for this place, I gotta admit I’m rooting for them.
The individual who arranges to inspect the house and shows up brandishing a box of Harrods Peppermint Disks is, as far I am concerned, an individual worthy of HeckOfAHouse.
Footnotes
- A signature confection from Harrods of London ~back~
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Ducklings Provide Message Of Courage
Courage, Love, and Mandarin Ducks
The BBC Planet Earth video clip below shows day-old Mandarin ducklings taking a literal leap of faith.
Watching it this morning while someone close to me is going through yet another set of tests for yet another feared complication of her disease brings to mind thoughts about the kind of bravery she has exhibited in these situations.
- For some, courage is a daily necessity that is manifest without fanfare or self-aggrandizement. Those of us honored to know someone in this category have the responsibility not to confuse the absence of dramatics with an absence of courage or, worse, an absence of peril.
- Cute and courageous are not mutually exclusive. Those of us in the audience would do well to acknowledge and applaud both qualities.
- Grace, born of resilience, is far more important than gracefulness.
the sole sources of self-esteem and personal dignity, and,
ultimately, the only items of value we have to offer one other.
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Leonard Cohen - Boy Wonder
The Big Little Golden Book Of Leonard Cohen:1 From Adolescent To Artist
Today’s entry is the sequel to The Childhood Of Leonard Cohen, focusing on the period during which the end of Cohen’s adolescence overlapped with the beginnings of his life as an artist.
In the past, I’ve been puzzled by the seemingly cavalier treatment of these years in many of the articles about Cohen which offer highlights, apparently chosen at random and listed in haphazard, abbreviated fashion.
Given how impressive some of these early accomplishments were and how they foreshadowed his development as a songwriter, this seemed shabby treatment. It only recently occurred to me that for many years Cohen was known primarily as a poet and novelist and that his early efforts in these fields may have been, at least in the minds of some of the authors of these pieces, old news.
Those who have come to Cohen’s music only in the past few years,2 however, tend to view Leonard Cohen almost exclusively as a singer-songwriter. Even among those who are aware of Cohen’s writing career, its significance is often trivialized as little more than a historical factoid, Was a poet and novelist, that ranks somewhere above Had a role in an episode of Miami Vice but below Is a dapper dresser.
For those who are unaware or only vaguely cognizant of Cohen’s literary aspirations, an organized overview of this part of Cohen’s life - even without going into detail - can yield valuable insight to his work and a useful perspective on Cohen’s career.
Oh, and this chapter also covers the formation of Leonard Cohen’s first band and his first professional gigs.
So, as we say back in the Ozarks, grab your partner and promenade.
Leonard Cohen, Teenager - Scary Idea, Eh?
In 1949, when Cohen was 15, he purchased a guitar and started writing, playing, and singing folk songs.
That same year, Cohen also discovered Frederico Garcia Lorca, pictured on the right. (Returning viewers may recall that in Field Guide To The Current Life Of Leonard Cohen, we were introduced to Lorca as the namesake of Cohen’s daughter, Lorca. At that time, I asked the reader to keep the name of Lorca (the poet), “in mind for future reference.” Well, this is that future reference.)
Lorca’s style, imagery, and vision were an epiphany to Cohen and were to remain a fixture in his own poetics and his life in general. As Cohen put it, “I loved him [Lorca] as a kid; I named my daughter Lorca, so you can see this is not a casual figure in my life.”
One direct result was to be Leonard Cohen’s painstaking translation of Lorca’s “Little Viennese Waltz” (Pequeno Vals Vienes) into English and its transformation into the song, Take This Waltz.
Cohen frequently introduced the song, first released in 1988 - 39 years after that first exposure to Lorca - at concerts with a tribute to the poet that described what happened in that Montreal bookstore when he was, remember, 15.
From the San Francisco concert (March 7, 1993)
The connection between Cohen’s discovery of Lorca at 15 and his release of Take This Waltz in 1988 is extraordinary, compelling a break in our chronological exploration of Cohen’s life in order to take a virtual field trip to hear him perform the song. Of the several video versions of Take This Waltz available, I chose this one for two reasons:
- The song is prefaced by a introduction not unlike the one presented in print in the preceding paragraph. Listen to Cohen’s intonations when he talks about Lorca. One would be hard pressed to find a better example of words spoken in a “heartfelt” manner.
- The video features not only Cohen but also acknowledges the influence of Frederico Lorca.
Frederico Garcia Lorca and Leonard Cohen: Take This Waltz
Leonard Cohen - BMOC
At 17,3 Leonard Cohen entered McGill University.4 While not considered an excellent student with respect to his coursework, Cohen was considered a star in the English Department on the basis of his writing. He was also president of the debating union and ZBT fraternity.
Leonard Cohen’s First Steps Toward The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
It was a year or two after entering McGill University that Leonard Cohen formed his first band, The Buckskin Boys, which featured himself on guitar, a friend (Mike Doddman) on harmonica, and a friend of Doddman’s playing bucket bass. This group is sometimes described as a “folk trio” but it seems to have been straightforwardly country western5 from the description Cohen gave an interviewer from Goldmine in 1993:
Leonard Cohen With His First Band: The Buckskin Boys6
Cohen also commented,
The Poet
During this period, however, poetry was Cohen’s central focus. He developed relationships with the most important Canadian poets of the day, Irving Layton, F.R. Scott, and Louis Dudek (who was also his professor at McGill and his mentor).
Cohen’s poetry was published in a Canadian literary magazine and he won the University’s MacNaughton Prize for creative writing, but even more striking was the episode in which Louis Dudek, poet, literary critic, founder of Contact Press, a publisher of poetry, McGill Professor of Modern Poetry, and the man Robin Blaser called “Canada’s most important—that is to say, consequential modern voice,” knighted a kneeling Leonard Cohen “Poet” with one of Cohen’s manuscripts rolled-up into a suitable dubbing sword.
In 1955, the year he would graduate from McGill, Cohen read some of his work at a regularly scheduled poetry gathering held at Layton’s home, following which Dudek agreed to publish a collection of Cohen’s poems - but only if they could come up with “a lively title” for the volume.
Cohen’s recall is that 400 copies of the first edition of Let Us Compare Mythologies7 were sold by subscription when it was published in 1956.8
Coming Attractions: Leonard Cohen’s first album, his (very short) career paths in law and academe, the bright lights of New York, and the idyll in Greece.
Previous Big Little Golden Book Of Leonard Cohen Post:
Footnotes
- The Big Little Golden Book Of Leonard Cohen is a simple, easy to understand introduction to Leonard Cohen for anyone who has recently tuned in to his music and for fans who may have listened to the songs for some time and now have want to learn something about the singer-songwriter who produced them. The goal of this series of posts is to avoid both (1) overwhelming readers with details and tangents, however interesting those channels might be, and (2) omitting fundamental elements of Cohen’s life. ~back~
- A group which includes me. ~back~
- Canadian secondary education stopped at the 11th grade so graduating high school at 16 and entering college at 17 as Cohen did was not unusual. ~back~
- For the reader unacquainted with McGill, I offer this quick description that is helpful in understanding the significance of Cohen’s status there: McGill is a formidable place; founded in 1821, its main campus comprises 80 acres located at the foot of Mount Royal in Montreal’s downtown. Currently, it has an undergraduate and postgraduate population of 30,000. It is certainly diverse, offering hundreds of academic programs including accounting, fine arts, religious studies, engineering, medicine, law, dentistry, education, agriculture, and much, much more. McGill has lots of Rhodes Scholars, Nobel Prize winners, awards, and famous alumni. It is not, in other words, a northern version of Joplin Junior College. It is rather prestigious. Whatever reputation Cohen achieved there was not the result of the Big fish in a small pond effect. ~back~
- And yes, as someone who grew up listening to the Grand Ol’ Opry, I find this episode delightful. ~back~
- Buckskin Boys photo by John Hand, published in Songs of Leonard Cohen, Herewith: Music, Words and Photographs, Amsco Music Publishing, New York, 1969. Thanks to Dick and Linda Straub for scan from their book ~back~
- ”Lively titles” are clearly a matter of individual taste ~back~
- According to the reprinted edition ten years later, Cohen wrote most of the poems between the ages of fifteen and twenty. ~back~
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Another Best Leonard Cohen Song Some Of You Still Haven’t Heard
Check Out A Different Version of Do I Have To Dance All Night?
Front Cover of Do I Have To Dance All Night? 45 rpm Single1
When I posted The Best Leonard Cohen Song You’ve (Probably) Never Heard in July 2006, I wrote that even someone who was a Big Leonard Cohen Fan probably hadn’t heard Do I Have To Dance All Night?,2 AKA The Best Leonard Cohen Song You’ve (Probably) Never Heard, unless he or she were
- A Big Leonard Cohen Fan who went to the right concerts in the late ’70s or
- A Big Leonard Cohen Fan who bought his or her 45s in Central Europe or
- A Big Leonard Cohen Fan who found a crappy MP3 of the song.3
While that list was an oversimplification, its premise - that only a few, atypical Leonard Cohen fans had heard the altogether dandy Do I Have To Dance All Night? - was true.
The cause of this tragedy was no mystery.
Checking Cohen’s discography, one discovers that among all the Leonard Cohen albums, this song is only on – exactly none of them.4 Indeed, Do I Have To Dance All Night? was and continues to be available only as a seven inch single that was originally recorded at a 1976 concert in Holland and pressed in Paris for sale in Central European countries.5
Bummer, eh?
Onward Ever, Eventually
Convinced at first that Do I Have To Dance All Night? would inevitably end up on one or another of Cohen’s albums, I waited a couple of years before deciding to go with Plan B, which could be accurately summarized as throw money at it.