Here is one of my favourite stories, about ‘those very generous times’, about a great singer, one of the world’s greatest hotels (I once just about survived one night in:), and told by one of the world’s greatest poets (and an abysmal singer).

‘About a thousand years ago I used to live in this hotel in New York City, a very good hotel. In the elevator of that hotel, early in the morning I used to bump into a young woman. After about a week, I gathered my courage and I said to her, “Are you looking for someone?” She said, “Yes, I’m looking for Kris Kristofferson.” I said, “Little Lady, you’re in luck. I’m Kris Kristofferson.” Those were very generous times as you may have read. So she never lead on that she really knew I wasn’t Kris Kristofferson. Maybe I was Kris Kristofferson. I wasn’t wearing cowboy boots until that moment. – A couple of years later I was sitting at the bar of this Polynesian restaurant in Miami Beach, some place I hope I never bump into you. They serve drinks in ceramic coconut shells. All up and down the boulevards there are real coconut trees with real coconut shells. There is some arcane meaning in all of that but I couldn’t penetrate it. I was sitting at that bar and this young woman’s presence became very strong and I wrote this song for Janis Joplin at the Chelsea Hotel.’

The story came back to me when I caught up with the preparations of two big concerts Pádraig’s friends are organizing in Dublin for him, with some of Ireland’s best musicians (details to follow soon).

29 January 2014
The Workman’s Club. Concert for Pádraig. With Seo Linn, Members of Kila, and others…

05 February 2014
Concert in Coláiste Eoin

And there is another really great, imaginative event being organized by his friends: “Snámh Phádraig” – a sea swim in every county of Ireland with a coast line over just two days. When they told me about this, I thought that just doing it was quite some challenge. When I heard that they wanted to get a full bus load of 53 friends to join, I thought they were, well, let’s say ‘ambitious’. – Then the website went life today, and guess what? At the time of writing, they had 55 people signed up already. Not sure what is going on? Who on earth would want to go for not just one, but for dozens of swims in April, and in Ireland’s absolutely freezing coastal sea waters??? There seem to be enough crazy people around that they might have to organize a second bus if people keep signing up!

Pádraig is getting better and recovering from the operations. They stopped flushing out the lung, adjusted the drainage to make sure all fluid could get out of his lung, he is off the breathing apparatus now all of the time (or: until he’ll need it again, and if it was only for a few hours to relax). Later in the week they will continue with the ‘drill’: the removal of the first drainage, then the clamping of the second, finally the removal of the second drainage. Everybody would really like to see him back in Eilbek as soon as possible so that he’ll be able to (re-)start his early rehab – but (here is the ‘but’ again) we asked to be sure to be sure at each step along the way, in order to avoid as much as possible any nasty surprises. He’s had enough of them for the foreseeable future.

These are generous times. Nobody knows I’m not Leonard Cohen. Maybe I am. Who knows? Maybe I am. Although – I’m not wearing one of those fancy hats right now. What is beyond any doubt: These upcoming concerts for Pádraig and this Snámh are going to be magic. There will be live links to Hamburg, Germany, and the rest of the world, beaming strong positive vibes around the world from Ireland.