Looks like my sorry little internet connection here at home can't hande uploading the full-sized Nokia photos I've edited so far. So for now, I'll just edit in this one-and-only smaller shot of Mr. One And Only Himself and stop by some place with a real connection on my way downtown this afternoon if I still can't get anything else to upload.
And it did indeed turn out to be another lovely day today, perhaps the final tryst with ephemeral glory this year...here's hoping it's being properly enjoyed by others (especially those of the One-and-Only variety) as much as I hope to enjoy it as soon as I get everything on my "Must Do" list done...or officially postponed. Sooner or later, more photos here, although I'm feeling pretty darn content with the one I did manage to get up here. Best of all is the glory, as well as the beauty, that endures and abides.
But more is good too.
I've got a few black-and-white versions too, but those will have wait for later. Glory, ephemeral and abiding, awaits.
Then again, carpe a decent connection when you stumble across it too...
There's more to come in time from the Nokia show, but for now these shots do well to express how I responded to a show that was neither their best nor my favourite of the past tour leg - not really sure which I'd pick as best, but Cleveland was my own favourite, though Pittsburgh had the best single moment (Where I Belong) and Chicago was the silliest, soggiest fun I have ever had - but was instead more a show of touching monents that linger in mind and heart. A good show, oveerall, and one I do not think will be soon forgotten.
OK, back to glory.
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It's been spectacularly beautiful here the past few days, one of those fleetingly perfect spells of crystal-clear blue skies and golden warm afternoons we often get this time of year, made all the more lovely by the fiery changing of the leaves. Summer's loving embrace of Fall: It won't last, can't last...the clouds rolled in this morning only to be banished by the sun, but in not too long they will win the battle; the winds will howl and the rain will follow and the leaves will fly and it will truly be Fall As We Know It, maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day. But not today. Soon enough, to be sure, for ephemeral glory to be relegated to a fading but unforgotten memory once again. But for now, glory has endured and I'm hoping this transitory bit of heaven on earth will abide for one last fling with those from the Far East Of The Western World, hoping they have the chance to take some of their own fleeting pleasure in it.
I'd love to believe that for once they'd all choose to come in a bit early and have the whole day tomorrow to spend as they wish - it was especially gorgeous here yesterday and it's presently reasserting that standard today...it could still be the same tomorrow, or so says stubborn hope - love to believe that they'll all not do their usual and wait till show day to make the long trek to this side of the continent, coming in jet-lagged and already weary even before the checkered flag is dropped. So I will hope all the more that ephemeral glory will endure for just one more day, a traveller's mercy.
Those mercies are going to be needed on this tour leg, any and all mercies that might come along. I've taken a long, hard look at that schedule over the past few days as I plan out my own path, and it is, quite frankly, brutal. Miles and miles and miles to go, each and every night. Eleven shows in 12 days sandwiched in-between those miles and miles and miles. An overnight run from Seattle to San Francisco - I'm not a bit sure how they plan to pull that one off; they can fly, but the gear can't. It's the worst run of the schedule, but far from the only arse-kicking, bone-wearying run. They've got an awful lot of bus time ahead of them, which I hope won't become another challenge. They already have challenges aplenty to contend with right now. Thank God for hockey season, though even that is going to be part and parcel of the changes changing as the wheels of the bus go 'round and 'round.
Depending on the route their driver takes, they could get considerable pleasure from the view outside the bus windows; this tour leg passes through some of the most ruggedly scenic terrain on the continent. I want to be on the bus of choice from Albuquerque to Denver just for the route it follows, straight up the gut of the Rockies' western flank, a beautiful drive I have not taken in years. There's not a city on the schedule I haven't spent good times in on some Vacation Past...these are my own (rather widely flung, which is how it goes in The Wide West) Stamping Grounds - the first three shows take place in the three cities in which I've lived - and there's much to see and experience along these roads, some of it fascinating, some of it maddening, all of it enlightening. The culture/attitudes of The Wide West (Stateside and Canada both, but far more intensely ingrained Stateside) make it a place of open-ended potential (seldom totally fulfilled, perhaps, but still brimming with the stubborn hope of such fulfillment) and limitless new beginnings. The land of Today Is The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life. It's a place of change, a place of starting over and re-defining.
It's also a place of longing for all that inevitably gets left behind in the midst of so much changing and starting over and re-defining and new beginning. It's a place to connect with others whose own homes are now far beyond their reach, relegated to a different kind of fading but unforgotten memory. England should resonate well, along with Here & Now and Walk On The Moon and Dream To Live. Straight To Hell could be a Wide West theme song. And if Alan should choose to do Where I Belong as his solo again, a choice I earnestly hope he makes again (and again), he will evoke a powerful response from aching hearts even in the absence of informed minds. The Wide West is filled with people who noisily know exactly where they are going while they quietly long for some notion of where they belong. Which is not to say those same longing folks can't be found otherwhere as well.
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Quick thanks to those who've been so understanding about my pulling the plug on posting comments here over the past few weeks, along with my continuing regrets to those who have not understood at all. I think I managed to contact almost everyone privately, and if I missed a few people, apologies for that too. Perhaps it wasn't the best way to deal with my own discomfort over how many people wanted to talk at length about Sean's private life, but I had no desire to play censor and edit out troublesome (only to me - nearly everyone who commented did so with thoughtfulness and concern) parts of particular comments, and if I'd posted some comments and left others unposted that would have been problematic in its own way. If there's a good way to say publicly "I'm not comfortable discussing this matter publicly" without it turning into the very public discussion you hope to avoid, some way to be honest and kind without looking inconsistent at best and hypocritical at worst, I'd sure love to know about it. Until then, this was the best thing I could do.
I'm not sure how long to keep on this way...to me, this feels like a time for tiptoeing across exquisitely fragile eggshells and speaking in carefully hushed tones, a time for lighting candles and keeping fingers tightly crossed. No matter how circumstances play out, change is inevitable - then again, some would argue that change is nearly always inevitable - and this feels like a time to invest energy and attention into hoping for a Right Change, which to my way of thinking is health and well-being for Sean, perhaps a bit of peace and stability for Bob, and, most of all, a hope that Alan will receive everything he needs and desires. It would be pretty darn cool if Kris and Murray wound up feeling like they were getting paid way more than they're worth too.
Once upon a time, not very long ago - it was around the time a few years back when comments were being made about becoming the "Tim Horton's Band"...the exact same menu/show in every town, with interchangeable members yet - I'd begun to seriously wonder if perhaps Great Big Sea might be reaching the limits of collective creativity; I was afraid they were taking those first few steps along a road travelled by so many other Lifer Bands, many of them once truly excellent bands, who had gone before them: Performing for people who want every show to be exactly the same as all the other shows they've been at, people far more invested in re-living yesterday than in living today. When GBS came out with The Hard & The Easy, it occurred to me that the CD was either a perfect closing bookend to a creative arc...or the frigging bold move of a band that intended to move along with confidence into the future. Time would tell which, I thought at the time.
Time may bring all things to an end, but time also begins each and every brandly new thing. Time speaks loud and it speaks clear, in a voice like the mighty roar of the most kingly of lions: It was indeed a very bold move, one followed by an even braver step forward with Fortune's Favour. This band is alive, and they are taking their one shot to any and all who will hear and listen and embrace. No artists put this much on the line, work this hard and face these challenges, if they do not still love their band and have a burning desire to keep that band together and thriving. That's good enough for me, no more than that love and desire needed to win my hope and belief and support. May they have as many miles and miles and miles to go together as they want and need, wherever the road they follow takes them.
And that's pretty much all I have to say about this, in the Here and Now, that is. There's time for the rest later, after that road winds its careful way across the eggshells and beyond the whispers to whatever destination lies ahead. Time then too for a proper mention of how Newfoundland's Band is yet again on a parallel course with the place they belong...incipient moments of inevitable change and self-directed re-definition all around. Choices and decisions, outcomes and plot lines, all still hanging in the balance. A very good place for stubborn hope.
I did want to say an inexcusably delayed hello to LC and Anita and Perry - welcome to this blog and thank you for your comments, which were definitely read and appreciated. Also a "You're welcome" to those who have said "Thanks" for the videos, both Megaupload versions and YouTubes. More of each will most certainly come, but I can't predict the timing. I'm hoping to go back to posting comments fairly soon too; this is a far more interesting blog with the voices of others sharing space here.
I've been on a bit of a break here the past week or so, mostly because of a lovely (if busy) time here at home and a very good time in TO right after the Altamont show. For a while there I was at a loss as to how to help a friend celebrate her birthday in TO, given that the birthday fell on a Tuesday night, not at all a big entertainment evening in most cities. We did see a hilarious movie, Hamlet 2, which I'd highly recommend; any film that has a soundtrack which includes such tunes as "Rock Me, Sexy Jesus," "It's Like Being Raped In The Face," and "You're As Gay As The Day Is Long" (not to mention the Tucson Gay Men's Chorus warbling Elton's "Someone Saved My LIfe Tonight" during the climactic scene), is my kind of movie. After that, we briefly considered doing something truly silly, such as going to see the male strippers. But then we realised that we'd both just be comparing those poor fellows' performances to the fellow we'd much rather be seeing instead, so we opted for lascivious conversation over pints and sausages and moldable chocolate. By far the better choice.
I haven't been totally lax since I got home: While tiptoeing and whispering, I've put up quite a few new links in the righthand column for videos, a number of which had yet to make it into any prior blog posts here. I finally have all of the Figgy Duff Reunion Show video links up (see "Other Artists"), along with the Newfoundland & Labrador Folk Festival links, which include more Figgy Duff, some Ron Hynes and Duane Andrews, and my own favourite, a Very Reggae Fergus O'Byrne doing a guest turn with The Idlers. I finally found my Art Stoyles video links, and those are now up too. There are also several GBS links that are new as well. I've been wanting to get all the links posted in that column for ages. I can get a lot done when I am hushing up.
I haven't done much with photos yet (did I mention how wonderful the weather has been here the past week?), but I do have a series of NYC Nokia Theatre shots I've been farting around with this afternoon, even though I am supposed to be getting all of my last-minutes-before-leaving shit done first. I was going to wait till I had the photos done to put this entry up, but since my home connection has been so unreliable the past few days, I think I'll not push my luck and just post this now as is and edit in whatever photos I get done before I leave. So if photos wind up appearing here before tomorrow afternoon, that means I got all the necessary shit done. Or maybe that I decided it wasn't so necessary after all. Carpe the ephemeral glory while ye may.
Heaven on earth will have to do.
