[tigerthelion]

Right. Gord has such a huge reputation that the risk of becoming a caricature of himself is always present. As I said in another thread, I really, really don't want Gord to feel that he HAS to get up and 'do his Gordon Downie' impression---ranting and flailing, etc.. :jump The wise thing for him to do is to shift the target, develop new strengths, expand his bag of tricks. I'm sure the guitar is part of that; that way, instead of being FORCED to wriggle around, he has other options, and can save that stuff for when it's really there.

And frankly, watching that Sympatico footage I thought he still makes for a riveting presence---an ominous and surprisingly 'cool' figure up there.

Another point is that he lives 300 kms away from his bandmates. Unless he's able to back himself, how will he get any songwriting done? So I figure picking up the guitar also had to do with his move to TO and the need to create independently of the Hip.

All very good points. I don't know, I guess it's good that he's changing. I mean, everyone keeps saying how much they hate NOIS because of the amount of times it's been played and people don't want it to be played much anymore at concerts. Well, don't these same people get tired of the same rants and dances of Gordo? Maybe not. Should we get tired of them? I don't know.