he was born with the gift of a golden voice

Dad and I went to see Leonard Cohen while I was in Vancouver. (Thanks to filmguy for the tickets--he couldn't go, but don't feel too bad for him because he got to see Leonard in Rome!). Leonard and his musicians played and sang for 3 hours and they were every bit as good at the end as at the start. I'll be happy if I'm able to sustain any sort of activity for three hours at the age of 74, never mind playing a sold-out concert.

The last time Leonard Cohen came to Vancouver was 1993, and although he played at the Orpheum I didn't go because I had a night class. Ah youth. What was I thinking? I suppose it's telling that I don't even remember what class was so important for me to attend that I missed out on hearing LC sing. I'm glad I didn't miss out this time though.

And yes, he did sing "Chelsea Hotel No. 2."

they thought God had left the museum for good

I'm reading The Madonnas of Leningrad right now; it's about a woman's memories of hiding from the Nazis in the Hermitage during the siege of Leningrad.

When we were at the Krakow film festival, there was a Russian filmmaker who had spliced together footage from the recently released archival reels of the siege. It was all images, little if any dialogue. It was really arresting, just one stark black and white image of suffering after another.

Last night I was reading a passage in the book where the main character and her colleagues (she's a docent at the Hermitage) are working around the clock to pack up all the artwork so it can be shipped out to safety, when I suddenly remembered the lyrics to an old Tragically Hip song, "Scared":

you're in Russia
and more than a million works of art
are whisked out to the woods
when the Nazis
find the whole place dark
they'd think God's
left the museum for good

I've listened to that song many times before, but I never realized what those lines were about until I read that passage.