Leonard Cohen means something to me that is hard to explain. His songs, the stories within them, and the way he unfolds them have a mainline to my soul. I feel them in ways that cut deeper than words and language alone.

Sometimes I feel as if I’ve lived within his songs.

Sometimes I dream about them.

“And clenching your fist,
for the ones like us,
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty.
You fixed yourself,
you said, “well never mind,
we are ugly,
but we have the music.”

“Chelsea Hotel #2” (live) by Leonard Cohen
originally from the album, New Skin For the Old Ceremony (1974)
Song Of The Day – February 12, 2011

The Chelsea Hotel is one of those dream places that I hope/wish/plan to someday visit. I picture staying for a spell, writing, living without any sense of time. I know there are stories that are meant to be written there, as strange as that may sound.

And music, one of the most beautiful fucking things in the universe, no matter how alone we sometimes feel, or how used, ugly, or broken – well, we do always have the music.