ETA: It's all here now, all I can get up. That's it for the videos, but there are a few more photos that I'll try to get up sooner rather than later. We're here in Rome till the 19th on this connection, then on to Paris and connections unknown for two days and then back to St. John's on the 22nd. So it might be awhile before I can get any of the bigger photos to upload.
Alan Thomas Doyle of Petty Harbour, Newfoundland, leads his fellow Merry Men in singing a traditional logging tune which is also a rare Newfoundland love song on the Piazza di Spagna in Rome:
Scott Grimes' lead vocal on Man In The Mirror was next.
Scott gets the crowd to sing along.
Playing to the crowd.
All the players perusing the faces in their crowd, with sweet faces of their own.
Opposite sides of the same coin.
Kevin rocks out on Beautiful Girls.
There is always a world of story in Alan's face, in all three faces here. These men take this seriously, which I think is a very good thing.
A last goodbye and thanks to the cheering crowd. This was supposed to be a video, but too much of it got blocked by scowling-security-dude faces. So this single screen cap instead:
And that will do it for me, for now. I am planning to write about my reaction to Robin Hood, but I do believe I will head over the the Metropolitan Cinema and see it again before doing so. Actually, I'm thinking about combining those Robin Hood responses with what I plan to write this year for Alan's birthday...what's been on my mind in regard to each really does belong together. Until I get that done, probably on Alan's birthday, though I have not decided whether that should be Rome time or Newfoundland time, what I'll say right now about Robin Hood is that it is an intelligent, thoughtful, thought-provoking, exciting, consummately crafted film, one I enjoyed far more than even high expectations had led me to hope I would.
And the same goes for Alan's performance; he did not merely impress me, he awed me - genuine and sincere awe... that quiet, still feeling you get when someone you care about has outdone even your own highest hopes for his success. Of all I knew you capable of, I didn't realise you could do that too. Yes I loved the pub scene and the dance scene and dear God of course the half-naked scene (definitely the need of an adjacent cardiologist during that breath-stealer), and even better were each and every musical moment, his musical moments, but there were also several completely unexpected moments - such as when Allan A'Dayle cocks his head to one side and quietly notes that Robin has now sworn a pact in blood to return Loxley's sword to his father - when he did not only delight me, he surprised me as well. And there are few lovelier combinations in this beautiful life than surprise and delight.
Again, more later. Always, more later.
I fibbed, one more note for now. I just went to Russell's Twitter page, where I saw this most recent message from him:
Just had it confirmed. Robin Hood dominate's the globe, will be world's number 1 movie this week. Around $112m for the weekend. Thankyou.
As it should be. I can wholeheartedly recommend this film to anyone and everyone capable of taking deep and keen pleasure in the art and the adventure of film-making. Go, and then go again. Turn those lambs into lions.
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I have more video and photos on the glacially-paced upload (not very many, sad to say, for reasons I'll explain later), but I know how it feels to want to know how something you wanted badly to see for yourself went, so I'll put what I do have up here as I get it uploaded/edited/written.
Alan Doyle, Scott Grimes, Russell Crowe, Kevin Durand
Beautiful Girls, performed by Charming Men:
They came. They busked. They were whisked away by the somewhat overzealous cadre of stern-faced security dudes. Russsell Crowe and the "Merry Men" (actors/singers Alan Doyle, Scott Grimes, and Kevin Durand) put their Spanish Steps show on in Rone today, right on time, rain or shine, performing 3 tunes together for an appreciative crowd accompanied by a flock of paparrazi: "River Driver," a traditional tune from the logging camps of Newfoundland's West Coast, featuring Alan Doyle on lead vocals; Michael Jackson's "Man In The Mirror," featuring Scott Grimes; and an ensemble cover of Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls," which has more or less become the MM Signature tune...don't even get me going on the irony of that one.
It was so good seeing them being able to pull this one off, to have fun singing together and to share as much of that fun as possible given the interfering constraints of celebrity that create a need for occasionally oppressive security measures - no, you do not push people backwards on steep, rain-slickened marble steps...that is not consistent with the larger concept of the word "security" - but that need is genuine and real and cannot be wished away, not by me and not by the performers.
That they got and they gave as much as they did is what matters to me, that and how amazingly moving it was to hear River Driver - that rare Newfoundland Love Song - being sung by Newfoundland's Troubdadour on the fabled Spanish Steps in the heart of the Eternal City. I have some small awareness of just how much that moment meant to the Sweet Petty Harbour Boy, and the moment of happiness is what matters to me, in any city. In every city.
I mght have been too crushed in the press to get much decent video or photos of the moment, but that moment is in my heart, where it belongs, and where it will live on. How wonderfully strange to see Alan singing Newfoundland songs in Rome.
More to come, when it comes.
And shame on me if I forgot to thank Christina for all of her help, without which not a bit of this would have been possible.
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