This is a classic case of me doing something backwards and getting it right. About a week, while looking for a Laurie Anderson song, I stumbled across the soundtrack to Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man. Laurie Anderson sings the tune The Guest and it was so well done that it made me buy the whole soundtrack. Turns out I enjoyed the soundtrack so much that I ordered the dvd of the movie which happened to be on sale by Amazon.

I have two different takes on both the soundtrack and the movie and I should say that up until now, while I had heard a couple Leonard Cohen songs, I didn’t know much about him or his work. That has changed and I’m really impressed with his poetic skills. The lyrics in his songs are worth the listen.

Cohen has a unique voice which if you are like me you have to be in the mood to listen too. By his own admission, he’s not a singer although he can bring a haunting emotion to his own work. But the good thing about the soundtrack is that the covers are soooooo good!

Martha Wainwright opens up with a great rendering of Tower of Song. Rufus Wainright does justice to Chelsea Hotel and an unexpected arrangement of Everybody Knows. All the songs are so vibrant on the soundtrack that the poetry really stands out and hit a really creative nerve in me that I suspect I will be sorting out for awhile.

Now, the order of songs on the soundtrack and how they appear in the movie are two different guest lists. In fact, the movie has many of the performances in the special features section which is a little disappointing. The movie doesn’t settle in enough to be a real concert video – and I kept feeling Nick Cave was reading the lyrics as he went – or a documentary.

If you have the sense that I like the soundtrack more than the movie that is true. The movie didn’t do enough interview with Cohen to flush out real aspects of his life or even offer up background info to give a personal glimpse of Cohen. I was real disappointed by this.

Cohen’s personality did come through though and that only added to the frustration I wasn’t learning more about him. He did add some background about a couple of his songs like Suzanne which offered a glimpse at how his creative mind works. Still I was wishing there was more.

The concert footage was good but not great. You never got the sense of a flow a concert offers up. The camera angles were limited the scale of what was happening onstage and not one time did you see the audience. Again, it was good but left you wanting more.

Overall, I would say the soundtrack is a MUST own. Top rated from start to finish and does Cohen well. The movie is worth a view especially if you like Cohen. But don’t expect to learn everything about Cohen here. The film honors Cohen well but leaves his admirers a desire to dig deeper.

It seems on Tuesday President Obama will announce that he’s sending 30,000 (or more) additional troops to Afghanistan. As far as I am concerned, he should give his Nobel Peace Prize back. Why are we sending more troops? What will they accomplish? Protect Afghan Pres. Karzai and his drug-lord brother? This is why good soldiers are dying?

There is precedent for this. South Vietnam was totally corrupt and it was a major reason the war was lost. Apparently the Pentagon  (surprise, surprise) hasn’t learned a lesson. Of course, the guy in charge of Afghanistan is the one who helped in covering up the truth about Pat Tillman. Instead of putting Gen. McCrystal on trial they promoted him.

If you want to track Al-Queda – and who doesn’t – you don’t need to support an Afghan government. It is just as easy to let Special Forces roam where they need to be to track those guys. Who’s going to stop them? I don’t buy Gen. Powell’s pottery barn rule “if you break it you own it”. For starters, Afghanistan was already broken. Secondly, some things are better off left broken.

I’ve always given Obama credit for thinking things out and even now I am sure on Tuesday he will have what he considers a logical reasoning for this action unlike the Bush administration which sent guys into combat with no food and a half dozen rounds each then lied about it. Still, Obama is wasting lives here. And money since if you took what we’ve spent in Iraq & Afghanistan and realize that cost would’ve given every American free health insurance. Want to know to why D.C. can’t afford anything look to the history of the wars. Want to know why Americans & Nato troops are dying without results, look to Obama.

I am not a pure technophile (is that a word?)  meaning I don’t think technology is everything. While I use it in life, I don’t want it to be the center piece of my daily life and there are days when I can do without it all together even though more often than not I spend a good deal of time online.

Having said that, I can say this past week was largely spent in spreading the use of technology. The office is putting in use a lot of new software which I have to find for them. Also, I had two staff meetings detailing the importance of social networking i.e. facebook. Business today has to have an internet presence. I’m a firm believer in that.

In the staff meeting Saturday, I was shocked by how many people – not old people either – had no clue how to use facebook or the importance of websites in connecting with people who are interested in your projects. What also makes an impression on me is the CLEAR division between those with a curiousity to learn new things and those who shun it. Those who are open to learning new things seem to be more successful. This is hard to explain but to put it another way, I don’t think one can survive too well by building a cocoon to live in and hoping nothing penetrates that shell you create for yourself.

That just doesn’t go for technology. Times are changing – Bob Dylan is always relevant - and it is increasingly becoming a ’survival of the fittest’ situation especially in America. There’s not going to be a let up anytime soon and those who can adapt probably will have the best chance of surviving. 

Anyway, spreading technology for me is a good thing. Looks like it will give me enough part time work when I do the move to make sure the rent is paid every month. I’m reluctant to pass up any work these days no matter how badly it pays or how much I’d rather be doing something else.  

You have to turn off your brain when you enter to view the movie ‘2012′. Despite the title, there is almost no mention to the Mayan (and a couple other cultures) who have prophecies of a disasterious and possibly species ending event that is suppose to occur in 2012. I think I counted 3 references.

The special effects in the movie are great. But then the guys who did this also were involved in that disaster of a film – every pun intended – ‘Day After Tomorrow’ which just plain sucked. This one is better even with the major plot holes. The effects are better even if you have seen some of the same things in ‘Day After Tomorrow’.  Despite the star power – John Cusak, Danny Glover, Amanda Peet to name a few – there is no acting here. None is required. There was a lot of screaming though as though if on cue and it made the cast sound like at times they were on a rollercoaster ride at Six Flags instead of say flying through a collapsing skyscaper.

This movie is good if you want to go, sit back, be mindless for a couple hours and munch down on popcorn. If you want something that has texture, or just plain makes sense, this isn’t the movie for you. And the irony is of course that ‘2012′ will be facing it’s own life threatening event when ‘Twilight: New Moon” hits the screens in just over 48 hours from now.

On FB I summed up my Friday the 13th this way:

Speaking in rhymes and not a riddle, I diddled with a black cat who piddled in my path, while on my ipod Nero plays his fiddle to the town around me that is tender kindle. And as on cue with Friday 13th gloom, a boulder threatens to turn me into WileyE Coyote with a BOOM. Maybe I will end the day 2nite with some ‘2012′ doom.

Yesterday was Armistice Day and I posted a famous poem to commemorate the day. I also have this pic I want to post. This is the tomb of Marshal Foch in the same building as Napoleon’s Tomb in Paris at the Military Museum there. I actually found this tomb very moving. More so than Napoleon’s really and I really like this pic.

On the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour, WWI ended. It was called the Great War at the time. A war when in a battle 100,000 men would die in the first minute of going over the top of the trenches. It was brutal and the blood lust was unreal. In many respects, WWII was an extention of it. So, to honor the day, I thought I would post one of the most famous poems to come out of that war and there was some good poetry in the war. This one though, is probably the most recognizable and worth another read.

‘Rendezvous with Death’ by Alan Seeger killed in 1916.

 I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air—
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.

God knows ’twere better to be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down,
Where Love throbs out in blissful sleep,
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,
Where hushed awakenings are dear…
But I’ve a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.

I bought new shoes yesterday. Yes, I am wearing them today.