Hi, Wonkers! It's time for your Wednesday dance party, where we shuffle the old iTunes machine and post the first ten songs that come up at random, and you all share what you are listening to, AND SO ON.

But first, this is wonderful and beautiful and heartbreaking and did we say beautiful? Yes, we did:

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Leonard Cohen penned a poignant final letter to his dying muse Marianne Ihlen, a longtime friend of hers revealed on Canadian radio.

Ihlen, whom Cohen wrote about in So Long, Marianne and Bird on a Wire, died in Norway on 29 July, aged 81.

Cohen met her on the Greek island Hydra in the 1960s and they became lovers. So Long, Marianne appeared on his 1967 album Songs of Leonard Cohen. [...]

[Marianne's close friend Jan] Mollestad, a documentary maker, read Cohen’s letter to her before she died. “It said well Marianne it’s come to this time when we are really so old and our bodies are falling apart and I think I will follow you very soon. Know that I am so close behind you that if you stretch out your hand, I think you can reach mine.

“And you know that I’ve always loved you for your beauty and your wisdom, but I don’t need to say anything more about that because you know all about that. But now, I just want to wish you a very good journey. Goodbye old friend. Endless love, see you down the road.”

OH GOD WE ARE CRYING, NO YOU ARE CRYING, NO WE ARE CRYING. Anyway, this is very special, because we got to see Leonard live a couple years ago, in the front row, and he played for FOUR FUCKING HOURS. It was spectacular, and we're grateful we could experience that.

OK here is your song list:

1. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47 - II. Allegretto (National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine; Theodore Kuchar, conductor)
2. Dave Matthews Band - "Crash Into Me"
3. Grimes ft. Blood Diamonds - "Go"
4. Lambchop - "The New Cobweb Summer"
5. Agnes Obel - "Philharmonics"
6. Dan Zimmerman - "Cosmic Patriot"
7. Built To Spill - "Untrustable / Part 2 (About Someone Else)"
8. DIIV - "Earthboy"
9. Tricky - "Puppy Toy"
10. Okkervil River - "The President's Dead"

And here is your music:

And now you are dancing in the comments, or maybe you are just listening to everything Leonard Cohen has ever done, that would be OK too.

[The Guardian]