"See The King, He Does Come Down" - Catching Up On Comments, Tooting A Deserving Horn & Seeing A Familiar Face More Clearly (First Grey Cup Show Photos)

More beautifully bearded Alan Doyle.

For all of the "Alan is a teddy bear" nonsense, I think he's coming across more as a grizzly bear these days, and that is extremely appealing.

Only a few photos and not too terribly many words for now, since an unhappy tendon is making a brace on my right thumb necessary and that brace is making it darn hard to type, as well as darn hard to edit photos. I did manage to get all the comments posted and/or responded to, so if you made a comment on the previous four entries, it should be up and answered, with my sincere apologies for taking so long. Please don't take my lack of organisation when it comes to timely replies to mean that I don't appreciate the comments (well, the sane comments, that is) that people make here. I do appreciate them very much; not unlike Bob, I suppose (a mildly discomfitting realisation), I enjoy intelligent conversation and remain hopeful that it is possible to partake of such online. Things would be much less interesting here if it were always and only my voice being heard; I am grateful for all of the other voices that have spoken up here, and there are some voices I would dearly love to hear from as well, privately or publicly, if those speakers should ever feel so inclined.  But if not, I am also very grateful for those who read quietly.

The series of photos below are all from one song at the recent Grey Cup show, and when I sent the first few pictures in the series to a friend who has seen a sizeable number of GBS shows and asked her to guess the song, she thought it might be River Driver or perhaps Process Man, maybe even General Taylor. She was thoroughly surprised when I told her what song these photos are actually from: Donkey Riding, the "customary" opening song for a GBS show, but most certainly not performed in the customary way at this GBS show.

I've never hidden my opinion that I don't think much of Donkey Riding as an opener for GBS's shows: too many in the crowd think they're singing about a jackass (I will never forget the Chicago woman who accused me of supporting an "animal abusing band" because They keep that poor little donkey tied up to a tree!); even more think a GBS show couldn't possibly be done "right" if Donkey Riding were not the opening song, regardless of whether they know what the hell the song is actually about; once you give change-fearing people exactly what they expect of you at the outset, you've made them all the more resistant to anything new that might follow after; and the song simply isn't one designed to make the singers seem like much to be taken seriously, nor to give the impression that they take themselves or their crowd very seriously either, mockery and self-mockery harmonising to a bodhran beat and dancing an ironic jig to the screech of a fiddle.

Donkey Riding isn't a Newfoundland song and it isn't one of their originals; best as I can tell, it had become known mostly a Mainland Canadian children's tune before it assumed the role of GBS's Customary Opening Song. From the first show I saw, it seemed to me that they deserved a better starting point, and that opinion has not mellowed with the passing of time. Quite the contrary. There's been no love for Donkey Riding coming from this direction.

And yet for all that the problems with the song remain and in spite of my hearty dislike of the song, Donkey Riding was an awesome opener for GBS at the recent Grey Cup Festival show. The reason it was awesome was because it was performed with a blast of buoyant energy from Sean and Bob and Murray and with sheer ferocity from Alan. Alan performed Donkey Riding like he took it seriously; he performed it like it was the opening song of a show that everyone should and would take seriously, no hesitation or doubt in his mind of that outcome.

Maybe Great Big Sea used to perform Donkey Riding this way, back when it was still in the process of becoming GBS's Customary Opening Song. Or maybe this was something as new to them as it was to anyone else. All I can say for sure is that it was new to me, new and impressive. I sure took it seriously, even Donkey Riding.

This non-customary Donkey Riding was the first evidence that this show was going to be something out of the ordinary. I've seen a whole lot of Great Big Sea shows and I have seen so many Alan Doyle performances - performances where he was charming, sweet, impatient, endearing, impassioned, insistent, silly, impudent, needy, exhausted, stubborn, sexy, pissed off, persuasive, frustrated, shitfaced, triumphant...you name it, I've quite likely seen it. This show I saw Alan Doyle put on a performance the likes of which I haven't seen him do, not with GBS (though I did see long and lovely glimpses of something similar when Alan played the Australian shows with Russell Crowe and The Ordinary Fear Of God); for nearly all of this show, Alan came across as serious and grounded, intensely focused and adamantly real - sharply and clearly defined, and perhaps the most compelling I have yet to see him be.

On the one hand, this felt like something different, something exhilarating and exciting and new. But on the other hand, it felt even more like something familiar, something wonderful and amazing and dear that has been right here all along just below the surface - a potential and a promise that has just begun to rise up and come into its full power.

Not that I had this all thought out during that surprising opening song. I was totally bedazzled and intrigued by a gorgeous beard for the first few songs, and that distracted me enough to keep me from putting the pieces together; I knew something significant was going on, but wasn't sure what to make of it. It wasn't until they got to Walk On The Moon that it all began to make some sense to me. When I looked at Alan through my camera and saw this man, all of those pieces finally came together to fit into one coherent picture:

I recognise you, I thought. I saw you while standing in a cavernous Danish tent and also when leaning up against the pokies in that odd little RSL casino in Australia. You were there at the edge of the stage at Mile One and again at the Big Easy in Spokane. That same face, those same eyes, and even the same song in the bright lights of the Halifax Junos and the soft lights of the New Orleans Parish. Winnipeg, Louisville, Phoenix, Victoria, Kingston, Austin, Kansas City...you are familiar and known and most welcome. I saw you for the very first time on my television, sitting in a circle with Bruce Guthro and Julian Austin and playing amazing songs with all of your heart and soul. The performer, the musician, the writer, the real and genuine man has been here all along. It's just that he's suddenly showing up so much more clearly and distinctly than he ever has before.

Which is a very good thing. I really like the performer, the musician, the writer - and most of all, I really like the real and genuine man who could be so clearly and distinctly seen on this night at this show. He is someone very special in all of his many manifestations. So much so that I hope he will remain clearly and distinctly visible in all the days to come.

Those who come here will be seeing him, hopefuly fairly clearly and distinctly, in this show, and also the others who along with him made it such a powerful show, when I get the pictures, as well as the videos, up in the next few entries. This might take some time because of that cranky tendon, a decidedly displeased tendon at the present moment. One last note for now, though, once again because I think that what the men of Great Big Sea are doing is really cool and that "really cool" is something that's best when shared as much as possible:

Great Big Gift For Daffodil Place

Great Big Sea has announced that all of the proceeds from their Great Big Christmas Concert will go to Daffodil Place. The show is in its thirteenth season and members of the band indicated that making Daffodil Place the beneficiary of the event was an easy decision to make. Chairman of the Daffodil Place Campaign John Steele says they are truly grateful to Great Big Sea for the selfless gesture. The Great Big Christmas Show will be held December 28th at the Delta St. John's and will include special guests The Novaks.

It's all good when they do something that makes it so easy to be proud of them. This qualifies. Maybe it's true that you aren't supposed to toot your own horn about your generous charitable efforts, but that does not preclude someone else from tooting your horn for you.

Comments

[Marianne]

hi Linda,

I know the feeling you're talking about I think. It's like when you look at somebody you know for a long time and see who they are now and that's who they always were as long as you knew them. It's like the difference between a song and a symphony. That's how I think of it. I hope that's what you meant. :)

Am I allowed to say here that sometimes I envy Alan's jeans? *blush*

Thanks....Mari

[Jen]

I liked reading this. It's a slow gray day today and reading this made it feel bright and warm for a few minutes.

[Lynda]

Jen, thank you. Your comment has done a great deal to brigthten and warm my own chilly, grey night.

Marianne, you said that beautifully. Yes, that is exactly what I meant, and you found a excellent metaphor with song and symphony.

And if we can't talk about Alan Doyle's jeans here, then where else? Of course you can say that here, and no need for blushing.

It's an interesting way to look at the Jeans Problem. I tend to see his jeans as unnecessary interlopers who should be speedily and summarily banished (the black socks are always welcome to remain), but now that I think about it, I can understand feeling some envy for the role his jeans play while they are doing that interloping. Especially a few of those seams.

Thanks for the comments - you both made me smile, and now I am thinking about Alan's jeans, and the banishing thereof. Definitely warming me up on a chilly night.

[Anon]

If you can tear your gaze away from Alan's inseam for a few minutes, what do you think about the attacks on Bob's blog?

[Lynda]

But it is such a beautiful inseam....

Alright, a few minutes. Actually, more than a few. After reading your comment - oh, imaginatively named one - I spent some time reading on the GBS message board, which I haven't done much of lately. It was a good reminder of why that's the case.

If what you're specifically referring to are the comments on Bob's most recent journal entry, I don't know if I'd call those "attacks" per se. Sour crankiness, yes. Self-absorbed pomposity trying to accuse the kettle of the same, sure. But not even much of a tempest in a jet-black tea pot; more like a few sloshes in the latte.

I enjoy reading Bob's journal entries. I think he's making solid progress toward developing a consistent and appealing writing voice, and his subject matter has been quite interesting far more often than not. And I appreciate what Bob and Alan are both doing in attempting to provide some articulate content on the official GBS site.

Maybe most of all, I sympathise with the desire every writer has to engender some sort of response to what is written. It's not easy to send your words out into a world that, for the most part, reacts with silence. Meaningful response (something that goes beyond "Oh boy, that was cool!") lets the writer know that those words he or she laboured over had some sort of impact on someone, which is the point of the writing in the first place.

I hope Bob doesn't let any dissatisfaction he might feel with the responses (or lack thereof) he's received so far cause him to reconsider keeping up with the journal. That would really be a shame.

I'm not sure what to say about the web site part of his comments. I've always assumed that the Happy Idioting of the OKP was because the hired hands had been instructed by GBS to at all costs prevent any kind of turmoil, by whatever means they chose to do so. And I thought the whole Cheerful Idiocy Regime on the OKP was TOCC's chosen method for how to keep that required peace.

Now I'm not so sure. Maybe it's just the way TOCC sees GBS fans as being, what they think the fans of a band like GBS would respond best to. They sure don't run the Blue Rodeo site with the same cloying, simple-minded tone; there's even a World News forum there, and the overall ambience is one of adults talking to other adults. Maybe TOCC finds that more appropriate for the fans of an Ontario band than for the fans of a Newfoundland band.

Or maybe the difference is the GBS fans themselves, at least the ones most vocal and involved online on the official GBS site - the ones with the time and energy and motivation to bitch the loudest and longest when things are not the way they think those things "should be". There are calls right now there for the admins to clamp down even further to prevent the "troublemakers" from saying Very Bad Things, rather than having to be adults and deal with such matters on their own in some sensible and sane manner. God forbid the "peace and harmony" be disrupted; all that's needed is for Someone In Authority to burn the Wicked Witch. Then Sunshineland will be saved and all the Good People will live happily ever after. The End.

If TOCC does think that the way the OKP is these days is what the most hardcore online GBS fans want, perhaps they are correct in that judgement.

Regardless of sources and causes, I still believe the tone of an official web site, as well as the tone of the official message board, reflects on the people the site is supposed to be about. And I still believe that with the sole exceptions of Bob's and Alan's journals, there's not a whole heck of a lot to take seriously on their official site. All the more reason to hope that Bob keeps on writing, and Alan as well.

Good enough of an answer for you? I hope so. Now, back to that lovely inseam...

ETA: This is going to be it from me on this topic, I think. This poor little horse has been beaten enough already.

[Appalled]

I just read Bob's comment. If all the boys care about is keeping their private lives private an no fan on fan personal attacks then WTF has the last few years been about?!?! What the hell were they so APPALLED about they had to shut down the old site and turn it into what it is now??? It's been years and NOW he says this is all they care about???!!! /:-(

[Lynda]

Whenever comments start to come in from names such as "Anon" and "Appalled" (among other similar pseudonyms) that's usually a good indicator that a topic is past its best-by date. So to the others who have made comments in a similar vein, I'm choosing to end this conversation here. I'd really rather not have to close this entry to all comments, just in case anyone else would like to discuss Alan's inseam. We'll see how it goes.

But this last comment from "Appalled" does bring up one final point that seems worth addressing, though all I can do is offer my own opinion for an answer to the question.

Maybe it's not such a mystery what it was GBS was so appalled by when they "shut down" the OKP. Actually, they never shut it down...the OKP was brutally cut back to one basic thread, but it was never shut down; I and maybe a dozen or so others (still there, Desertgal?) continued to post on the OKP from January of 2005 on, all the way up until TOCC officially took over and "re-opened" the OKP in September of 2005; but for all practical purposes, it's fair to say that it was more or less moribund for months.

Why did it happen? Maybe they shut it down/cut it back because they were appalled by the discussions of their private lives and the personal attacks fans were making on other fans there.

Why not take Bob at his word here about all they are asking from their message board now? When in doubt about why someone has chosen to do something you don't understand, it's not at all a bad move to just go with the reasons the person is giving you for why they did that thing. Even if those reasons might not be 100% consistent with what you thought the person was saying a while ago, what really matters is that those are the reasons the person is giving in the here and now. Why not just accept that and go on from here?

I'd guess the reason why the OKP has been "what it is now" for so long is because, as Bob stated in that comment, they just don't monitor their message board. That's no particular surprise to me, though I suspect this revelation could very well take a lot of the point and the purpose out of posting there for some folks, the ones who seem bound and determined to believe that their every word will be noticed by the objects of their affections. I'm guessing those people will be rather disappointed to realise they have "only" been talking to other fans.

Which seems to me to be the wrong way to look at it. Think about it: If GBS has no particular personal interest in whatever gets said on their board...so long as it does not cross the boundary of interfering with their private lives and so long as it is not causing/resulting in personal attacks...then that means they put up with the silly thing (and pay to have it professionally managed) because, as Bob said, it is something that their fans want. That seems pretty generous of them, though I'd still argue that they do get some benefit from the dissemination of information there. Whether that benefit outweighs the cost of keeping the thing going - both the tangible and the intangible costs - is always going to be their call.

Maybe - and this is purely speculation - the whole Speak No Evil dumbing-down of the OKP and the relentless insistence on being "positive" no matter how removed from reality that positivity might be has been the hired admins' strategy for creating an atmosphere where there would be no cause for or tolerance of personal attacks. Kind of like going with lobotomies or shock treatments or really fucking strong happy drugs to pacify the inmates/residents/patients.

Clumsy and crude, to be sure, but for the most part, you have to admit it's been 'effective," in terms of halting the personal attacks, at least. So far, the only ones who get attacked there these days are the potential threateners and disturbers of the peace and harmony. Not too sure how any of that works with keeping fans from discussing band members' private lives, though. But that's usually been more a matter of just pulling offending posts, I think. I doubt that there is ever a shortage of those ready and willing (and eager) to report an offending post.

Maybe now that Bob has said what he's said about what the band members actually want said on their board (or, rather, the only things they do not want said there), there will be more of a willingness to let people talk about real things in a real way that is not forced into an artificial and shallow "positivity". Maybe there will be less fear among some that if the "wrong" thing is said or done, their online "home" will not be taken away from them again. Maybe they'll notice that in their latest "Omigod, you aren't supposed to say that here!" thread, there are the beginnings of an intelligent discussion.

Or maybe things will stay as they have been. They might decide that intelligent discussion is too risky or that it interferes with being Happy. As always, time will tell and the loudest ones in the group will dominate the field of play; if those people prefer Sunshineland, that is probably what they will get. But what Bob has done is make it harder for them to claim that "this is exactly what the b'ys want" if they do indeed opt for Sunshineland, harder but still not impossible. If one is truly determined to escape from reality, not very much is going to be impossible.

OK, that's a wrap. I'm going to get busy and put up another entry as soon as this damn tendon lets me get it done, this one all about that which is Wonderful and Grand, band and man alike, with some spectacular closeups of a gorgeously bearded man, more than enough to distract me from any other topics of conversation.

The inseam topic remains open here too. But you can stick a fork in the OKP discussion, publicly at least. I'm going to hope for the best to happen there, and try to keep from saying any more.