I'm Your Man

I'm Your Man
Originally uploaded by shinyu32.

We went to see the Leonard Cohen documentary last night at the DMA. The film needed more Leonard Cohen and more narrative continuity - you come away knowing very little about the man - but there are some really nice moments. Rufus Wainwright, who performs "Everybody Knows", "The Chelsea Hotel", and "Hallelujah" in the film tells a great story about meeting Cohen for the first time, who is also his friend's dad. When Wainwright walks into the apartment, Cohen is in his underwear, cooking a pot of soba noodles and chewing on tiny sausages that he is regurgitating to feed to an injured bird. Then he steps away into the bedroom to get dressed and comes out wearing an Armani suit at which point, Rufus Wainwright bolts to upright attention, recognizing oh my god it's Leonard Cohen. Such a "snappy dresser!"

Before Cohen was a singer, he was a poet. He has been practicing Zen Buddhism for 30 years and lived on Mt. Baldy where he studied and practiced. He became an ordained priest because it was the protocol in order for him to continue studying, and says in a wonderful moment of humor that he became a priest because he had to and he hated everybody but no body knew because he was generous to everyone.