"An Arrow In Flight" - Surrendering To The Hope For A Smile On The Sweetest Face Of All

Sadly, no Genie Award for the dear and wonderful songwriter. Not this year, at least. But since that dear and wonderful songwriter's very first film-tune attempt resulted in his receiving a nomination for the highest award his country has to offer for such artistic endeavours, it seems eminently reasonable to assume that this one is quite likely just a matter of time. I hope that thought, along with his having received such notice and acclaim for his first effort, is enough to put a smile on the sweetest of faces tonight. Alan has given everyone who cares about him such excellent reason to be proud of him and his beautiful song; that pride might not shine quite so bright as does the Genie, but it is an award that belongs solely and irrevocably to him. I can't wait to hear his next beautiful song.

(And congratulations to Gordon Pinsent...not my favourite film from among the nominees, but still a tour de force performance by a always-impeccable actor.)

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Wherever I go, whether it's a stroll around the block or a bus ride across the country, I notice faces; I watch faces and read the multitude of stories those faces tell me. I always have. In the midst of that endlessly fascinating series of faces, on a very rare occasion and in the most unexpected of places, I see the face that causes me to stop and say, "That one...that face. That's a face that should be loved and encouraged and treasured."

Some faces are so endearing that they leave you hoping earnestly for anything, for everything, that will keep that sweet smile exactly where it belongs.

There are times when you simply have to surrender yourself to hope. I think today might be one of those days for me. I've been trying most of the day to get some "real" work done, but my mind keeps wandering onto other topics, specifically onto the topic of what's going to happen tomorrow evening at the MTCC in Toronto when the winner of the Genie Award for Best Original Song is announced. 

I suppose Alan feels somewhat constrained when it comes to saying much about how great it feels to find himself in such auspicious company with all the rest of the Genie Award nominees, even more so when it comes to expressing how utterly cool it would be to actually win the award that his excellent song Young Triffie so deserves to win. I, on the other hand, suffer from no such constraints. I think Alan's nomination is fucking fantastic and I want so much for him to win that I am apparently not going to get a damn thing accomplished until after the Genies, at least not much accomplished other than wishing him the best and hoping that the most endearing of all smiles winds up on his face again tomorrow evening. Exactly where it belongs. Alan Doyle, Genie Award Nominee is grand all on its own.;Alan Doyle, Genie Award Recipient...now that's how to write the story that goes best with the face.

A few more views of the Best Original Song nominee, doing the rest of what he does so very well. (All photos in this entry are from the second Vancouver casino show this past November.)

And just as gorgeous of a dream in black and white:

No matter what happens tomorrow, Young Triffie is a beautifully well-written song. And no matter what happens tomorrow, Young Triffie's writer is a dear and wonderful man. But if events should transpire in such a way tomorrow as to elicit a smile like this from that man, perhaps even cause that man to feel the urge to pump a victorious fist at stage edge, then the arrow's path will run true and straight, striking its target with expert aim.  Until then, not much else to do other than admire the beauty and power of that arrow in flight and hope for all good things deserved upon its landing.

And when I finally do hear what happened at the Genie Awards, maybe then I will finally be able to get some work done,.

Comments

[Mari]

Congratulations and good luck to Alan! He's already a winner because of who he is but I hope it gets made official tomorrow night!

[Stephen]

I wish Alan had won the award. It would be a good wake up call for what he's capable of. Even though he didn't, he really has made a promising start writing music for films. He's probably gotten attention from a whole new set of people who had no idea Alan Doyle, GBS could write that kind of a song. Not bad for a rookie effort. He did himself proud. and that should be worth a smile or two. You should be smiling too, even though he didn't win the award. Sometimes winning respect counts most in the long run.

I read what you wrote about waiting to tour till people grow familiar with new music. Will GBS still get radio play in Canada for single releases and video play too? I'm still CBC centric in my view of Canada's media. It's got to be harder for them here. Other than festivals how do they every get heard by anyone new?

[Barb in Minn.]

Hi Lynda-
Wanted to say "hello" and tell you that I'm pleased to have found your informative and insightful GBS blog. Having become annoyed with the lack of both elsewhere...

Are you the red-headed Lynda I met at the Lowell and Vancouver shows?

In defense of the cruise -- I enjoyed it because I enjoyed the music festival aspect very much. It was fun to run into various band members, but that wasn't why I was there. Yes, there was more fluff to the GBS shows than the norm. But I think it was a deliberate move on their part to engage a crowd where the majority wasn't familiar with GBS music.

(btw, yes there was free alcohol during the sailaway show, because it was the captain's party not cuz of GBS. I can't say that I was enamored with cruise life and the way alcohol was pushed.)

[lynda]

Hello Barb - Yes, I'm the same Lynda you met in Lowell and Vancouver. The hair is still red too, at least for the forseeable future.

I hope you don't mind my moving your comment up to this entry. You commented quite a ways back and then I took awhile to answer and it was all in danger of disappearing into the archives, so I thought a bump up might be in order.

I'm glad to hear you've found your way here and enjoyed the read. There are probably nearly as many reasons for why there's such a deficit of thoughtful public discussion about GBS as there are intelligent GBS fans who'd be capable of participating in such discussions.

I'd absolutely agree that the tone of the shows on the cruise - and this is likely true of all the bands, at least all of the smart bands - was primarily an adjustment to the makeup of the audiences at those shows. I'm not sure I'd go with "fluff" though. For the most part, what I've seen of the set lists indicates that these were more or less straight-up GBS shows. With the exception of the dredging up of The Mermaid (again, I think doing this song was a matter of giving a particular kind of crowd what it most wanted from them) and them finally playing their Down Under cover (I say "finally" because I heard them doing this same version waaayyyy back in 2004 during sound check at the LA HOB), it was the same songs to be expected at most any show, no matter if the crowd was or wasn't familiar with them. The tone, however (as much of it as comes through in the videos), did seem rather tailored to suit the desires/inclinations of the cruise audience.

Interesting point about free alcohol and the sailaway show. BNL played the first sailaway show, right? Was the booze free for that show too?

It's not really surprising that there would be a push to sell a lot of alcohol on this kind of a cruise. That has to be a huge money-maker for them ("them" being whoever gets a piece of that particular pie). And if a fool and his momey are soon parted, then a drunk fool and his money will be saying fare-thee-well all the sooner. Sounds like pretty solid business practices.

Nice to hear from you, Barb. Please feel welcome to comment any time at all, and I'm sure I'll be seeing you around somewhere in the future.

Stephen, yes, I am smiling, and I hope Alan is too. He's earned the right to that smile. He's shown some people what he's capable of doing, and I hope they sat up and took proper notice of his accomplishments and abilities. It's about time he gets some of the respect he deserves. Just ask Bob Gainey - now there's a man who knows a class act when he sees one. Who in their right mind is going to disagree with Bob Gainey?

Yes, GBS can still get radio play in Canada - what kind of play and how much on which stations is going to depend on what the release sounds like, of course. The best play would probably come from radio stations involved in show promotions, which there wouldn't be a lot of till they got their own tour going, I wouldn't think. But there should be air time for them associated with the Molson show, and that's their biggest market of all.

Since this CD has so much that's a departure from The Expected on it, and since it's following immediately after GBS's most traditional CD ever, I'd think the choice of first single must be a crucial one. God only knows what the label wants to go with...have I ever said my opinion of label's artistic decisions is very low? But sometimes they do get it right with the pragmatics, and I hope this is one of those times. If it were my call, what I'd do in Canada is release the most "non-GBS-ish" song on the CD and play up the Hawksley angle for all it is worth. Curiousity isn't at all a bad way to catch attention.

Videos are another matter altogether. In the first place, GBS does not have a history of good videos, in my opinion. Way the hell too much jumping around for the sake of jumping around, not enough connection to what the song is actually about. The Shines Right Through Video was painful with the stupid inserted section of the dancing little missus, and the WIAK video was pointlessly frenetic. Alan will disagree, but I stubbornly love the Stumblin' In video because it tells a cute story and it features a cute fellow. The Sea Of No Cares video was catchy enough, but the one really excellent video of theirs has to be the Clearest Indication video. It felt real, and it felt connected to the song. I like their Lukey video, mostly for how it exudes delight, and Ordinary Day and Can't Stop Falling are classics, again with good storytelling visuals. Most of the rest are pretty forgettable, but the same can be said of most band's videos.

I'm not sure how important music videos are these days, especially when it comes to "Music Video" stations ,which sure don't show very many music videos anymore (CMT still does, though, and shows GBS too). Maybe they should put something up on YouTube. If it's good enough for a presidential election...

Festivals really are a good way for them to get heard by new ears in the States. Other options are pretty darn limited. I keep wishing they could get back on some sort of PBS show like they did with film of the Ottawa concert. They attracted a whole lot of people because of those PBS broadcasts, and not the kind of people who think they have to be drunk and/or having a self-inflicted seizure to enjoy a GBS show. As I said, there are festivals, and then there are festivals. I hope they can get booked into some that will attract the sort of people who come to listen to and discover new music. GBS's music deserves that much.

Mari, you are so right. Alan is already a winner, before and after the awards, because of who he is. That was wonderfully well put.

[Barb in Minn.]

Great, even better to have connected with you again Lynda.
I'm watching the concert announcements in hopes that something will work for a summer vacation. I'll have to consult with you regarding venues -- it sounds like you've seen a number of them.

I of course didn't mean fluff in a bad way -- I'm a sucker for the 80s rock they covered. I should have said their were just more covers than I've seen at other shows.

It was my first cruise, but I hear that it's the norm is that the captain's party occurs mid-cruise and means free alcohol. I'm pretty sure that having great music is the exception.

(No idea where I had actually posted -- I was reading archived posts. Glad you found me :-)

Off to read Alan's FTR again. His exuberance made my day.

[Mike]

TRB 06-07 & SD3 vet here. It's a Carnival tradition to serve free drinks (cheap stuff) at the captains party. This happens once a cruise, not like sailaways which are multiple times leaving each port of call. GBS was booked to play the captains party on SD3.

The business practice worked great to seperate this fool and his money. I'm thinking about doing Cayamo this year instead.

Ciao baby!

[lynda]

Hi Mike - thanks for sharing your cruise experience. It sounds like you enjoy these kind of cruises. When I saw the roster for Cayamo this year, I thought that Alan might like finding himself on a cruise with EmmyLou Harris. It would probably be interesting to go on a whole set of artist cruises and compare tone and behaviour, I'd guess. If a person really liked cruising and wanted to spend a whole lot of money.

I get what you mean, Barb, no worries. And I noticed they did End Of The World at one show too, or at least it's on the set list. It's been ages since they did that at a show. Covers do make a lot of sense with a crowd that might be rather unfamiliar with their other music; they work to get a crowd singing along too. Even with "their" crowds, those '80s singalongs have worked so many times to fire up the crowd as they head into the closing songs of the main set. Then there are the particularly silly shows where they keep breaking out into off-setlist tunes; one of my favourite memories of that was the time Alan played both verses of Jesse's Girl on Les...now that was an utter delight.

Some people have objected to the pre-Run, Runaway singalongs at any shows, saying that they'd rather hear more GBS songs in that slot or just that they're sick of them. It's funny...I know some people go on about how GBS tends to do so many of the same songs over and over (of course, this is less of an issue for those who only go to one or two shows a year), and I can certainly understand the desire to see them do songs you've never heard live before, as well as the desire to not hear some songs for maybe a few (dozen) years. Sure, I feel that way about some songs - I bet nowhere near as much as they probably feel about some songs - but even when the set lists are the same over the course of a pile of shows, they still manage to make each show feel unique, and that's because of how they (and by "they" for the most part I mean Alan) work to connnect with each individual audience. Sometimes the differences are so subtle, a wink and charming smile here, a commanding strut there, an outburst of goofiness the next time...components and combinations varying to suit each circumstance. Sometimes it works, sometimes maybe not, but it is always fascinating.

Well, yes, I have been to a show or two or maybe a bit more. I'd be glad to share show/venue info and opinions. Right now, I'd recommend the Molson show. I think every GBS fan should see them play that venue. It's pretty much the largest "came just for GBS" crowd of all, and their shows there are awesome.

The first time I saw GBS at Molson (this July will be #4 for me, I think), I was absolutely blown away by the sound of the thousands of voices singing on command, their voices sweeping down from the farthest seats and crashing up against the stage. And then to turn back around and see that smile on Alan's face. Priceless.

All of this under the stars on a summer night in Toronto. Molson will be their show, their crowd, unlike these summer/fall festival gigs. You really don't want to miss Molson - I hope you can make it to that one.

"Exuberant" is a very good word for Alan. He's a man who invariably acts with exuberance, and that is a very lovely thought.