And it’s partner found, it’s partner lost
And it’s hell to pay when the fiddler stops
It’s closing time
Closing Time by Leonard Cohen
The final Cohencentric post will be published Nov 3, 2018. The static site will remain online for a short time but will then close altogether.
Cohencentric: What Hath DrHGuy Wrought?
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
Anthem by Leonard Cohen
When I first announced The Cohencentric Farewell Tour, I explained that, after posting about Leonard Cohen for more than a decade, I had achieved my goal of creating the Internet’s most devoutly irreverent, delightfully droll, and distinctively offbeat Leonard Cohen site administered by a deeply superficial, hard-core dilettante who is also an acknowledged nonpracticing agnostic.
I now immodestly add that in the process of attaining that objective, Cohencentric has come to offer not only an impressive amount of catalogued, searchable information (e.g., the category, “Words By Leonard Cohen” alone contains more than 2000 quotations, all with citations and all tagged by topic). but also a bounty of photos, videos, original analyses, polls, and stuff that is trivial, funny, irreverent, and speculative (Photoshopped graphics, rumors about possible new albums, jokes about Leonard, animated gifs, etc.). Cohencentric has become a trusted source for journalists, artists, authors, museum exhibitors…
And, Cohencentric is well-liked. Since opening March 7, 2015, Cohencentric has accumulated over 4.8 million hits. It is, in fact, the single most popular Leonard Cohen website, according to Alexa.
Alexa.com Rankings: Oct 16, 2018
That statistic does not include viewings previously accumulated by Cohencentric’s predecessors, 1HeckOfAGuy.com and DrHGuy;com. Nor does it cover viewings on Facebook or the associated YouTube channel (more than 4,400,000) or Twitter account.
Most importantly, it does not take into account the content originally published on Cohencentric but subsequently posted elsewhere, with or without attribution. Recently, for example, Radical Reads posted its “Leonard Cohen’s Reading List,” based entirely on Cohencentric’s own Leonard Cohen Reading List. Photos and text from Cohencentric routinely show up on Facebook Fan Pages and elsewhere. Below are a few of the Cohencentric-created graphics posted on social media during the past week.
Also see:
Dear Allan ~
Please explain to us why you plan to close the static site altogether, rather than allow your huge body of work devoted to Leonard stand in perpetuity in honour of him. It’s like closing a museum because new artifacts are no longer being accepted. There are children yet unborn who will discover Leonard and all you have worked so hard to accumulate won’t even be here to add such special insights as to who and all he was. To close it altogether seems to make it about you rather than him. That is not how I have ever perceived you, and I am at a loss as to what your justification for just making it all disappear could possibly me. Not a soul could fairly question your wanting to stop adding to it. But where is the soul who can understand or want for it all to become a blank page.
Respectfully,
Elizabeth
There are too many issues to discuss comprehensively (and some issues which can’t be discussed publicly). The best I can offer now is that potential liability attaches to the site as long as it is online and that maintaining a static site that functions correctly requires significant effort (it also requires some money but financial considerations are way down the list of reasons).
I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it. Best wishes and thank you so much for the morning coffee readings.
To DrHguy, aka Allan!
I will miss your nice page that has been a lot of fun and wish you want to transfer all this in Cohencentric along with the photograps to a wonderful book about Leonard Cohen when you have the time! You will be appreciated for that I think! Thank you and good luck with everything! I
This is exactly what I was returning to suggest, Suzanne.
Allan,
I am in mourning.
Had hoped to the last.
Good wishes, always.
Rike
You will be missed.
Thanks for the dance Allan. See you down the road.
This is nothing short of dreadful, Allan. I was going to suggest what immediately followed my and your post. The book with photos idea is an ideal solution, when all of your material here was WITH Leonard’s approval. When your site has become “a trusted source for journalists, artists, authors, museum exhibitors,” it’s a travesty for anyone to have to reinvent the wheel!! Leonard would not be pleased with this happening, I just know he wouldn’t. Heartbreaking.
Thank you Allan for the years of smiles. Wishing you all the very best in the future.
Judy
Hi Allen,
Is there any way an archive of the site or its articles can be made available for download? Otherwise I’m gonna have a lot of copy+pasting to do. Ty for your contributions to our lives!!
I’ve been working on that idea but can’t promise anything beyond my best efforts
I’m respectfully and deeply hoping for that!
I would also be most grateful for an archived version of the site available for download!
That also would make me very happy …
Whatever happens, thank you for everything you have done on this site.
Oh Allan,
I understand you, but it makes me so sad, I could just burst into tears.
First we lost Leonard and now this incredible valuable source, additionally your marvellous humor and special twists.
I wish there had been another way to keep the site open, even though not actualized.
I am so grateful for all your efforts for all of us. Maybe somehow I hope, you’ll transfer it into a new project.
Whatever you decide, I want to give you a huge heartfelt thank you and send you my best wishes.
Yours, Amrei
You have done a tremendous job with the web site for many years and we all appreciate your efforts. No-one likes to see the end of an era but I wish you all the best in your future endeavors. You deserve to start a new project. Now it is up to all of us to continue our adulation of Leonard Cohen and I hope someone with Allan’s talents in research and posting will continue hosting a site.
All the best
Elizabeth
Thank you for having engaged in a hobby that brought so much information and enjoyment to so many over all these years. Cohencentric had to involve an incredible amount of work, much more than most realize; never feel that those hours were wasted effort. Sad to hear that a few malcontents were annoyances over the years, but we all know that no good deed goes unpunished. Here’s hoping you find a another worthwhile endeavor to occupy your time going forward.
Kindest regards,
Curt Adams.
You have created something amazing — a truly beautiful work of art that has given me much joy.
In deep appreciation,
Andrew
Dear Allan,
Your site (and it’s predecessors) was a great part in “my Leonard Cohen World”.
What i want to say peronally now is a very big THANK YOU !!!
All the best to You and to your future projects, whatever they be!
Florian
Allan, my friend,
I cannot express how much I will miss everything you have done for Leonard and all of us.
I can only reiterate part of what I said when I first replied to your closing time news with this –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHvf20Y6eoM
I know things will work out the way they are meant to for you.
Now so long, ….., it’s time that we began …
I agree with everyone who feels sorry. Thank you for all your efforts, it was a pleasure reading and sometimes contributing to the best website ever.
All the best, we will miss you,
Peter from the Netherlands
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Dear Sir,
I have become a Leonard Cohen fan just within the last few weeks after buying and listening to The Essential Leonard Cohen. I will be buying all the albums and know that I will be listening and studying them for many years to come. I discovered your site a few days ago, only to discover that shortly it will no longer exist. I am not yet sure where I will go with our curiosity and hunger about this man and his work. But I am grateful for what I have been able to see and read here in these few days. It is obvious how much love went into what you have done, and so thank you. In a way I represent all the future discoverers of Leonard Cohen who will have never gotten the chance to see him live or to anticipate new music. We hope your work on finding a way to accessibly archive your work bears fruit.