LEN, DARDO, AND THE BOYS Henk Hoftstede and Seppo Pietikäinen on their way to Leonard's house in their 1992 movie "Film From A Room", guided by Dardo The Donkey. UPDATE IN OCTOBER 2024: Watch this film on YouTube here I’m glad you asked me to write for the Hydra website. As an official guide donkey for Leonard Cohen Hydra Tourists Inc. I am entitled to do that, don’t you think?. This is hard work, taking people up to Len’s house, and look what I have to carry in my back! They come and they know nothing. Look at these two guys, they even want to do a film about being lost in Hydra. They want to call it Film From A Room. My ass! Wait till Len hears about this. Needless to say, I probably never get any royalties from it. The one on my right in his Austrian type yodeling suit claims to be Henk Hofstede, a Dutch singer and a songwriter, video artist and a man of many ideas, but I have my doubts. See how he is holding the rope? He sure ain’t a donkey rider! He says he did a tv-special in Holland with his group the Nits with lot of Len’s songs. Thinks the man’s best song is Famous Blue Raincoat. Glad we don’t need them here. Raincoats I mean, tourists always welcome. And what about the other guy, the one who is pulling my hair. Also looks like he just fell from another planet, city sidewalks or something! His jacket is a little worn out for my taste. He says he is Seppo Pietikäinen. A Finnish writer and a film maker with a long career as a host of many tv-talk shows. Now that’s something I would never do. Who wants to make himself act and look like a fool! He says he translated Book Of Mercy, but I don’t know. Thinks Dress Rehearsal Rag is a best movie scene ever recorded. I wish he would rehearse how to take his hand off my hair. These guys say they know Len. Let me laugh! That he telephoned them while they where acting stupid in Paros. “What’s up?” the man had said with his crackling voice coming thru from Paris. “How can we find your house in Hydra?!” the taller one had yelled at the phone. “Ask for...” and the line goes dead. And now they are here and want my help. This is their story too, they say, when we bargain about the price of my services. To take them to Len house or not? Well, I suppose they deserve it (and pay for it) although their story is unbelievable. Would old Leonard really know these characters? I doubt, but also know he has a soft spot in his heart. Even for donkeys. Bless him. Signing off, Dardo. Looks like Henk and Seppo were more fortunate in 2002! From the left Seppo Pietikäinen (Finland), Aafke Bruining (Belgium), Henk Hofstede (Holland), and Yasmine (Belgium) At the same time elsewhere on Hydra: Dardo, the retired donkey