(Journal excerpt)
4:57pm — Clear skies, light breeze — lots of sun here at The Brickworks this afternoon… just got word that a break in my work schedule will afford me the much needed time to work on ‘Ben Orr’ again — I’ve spent several hours these past few days, and it’s coming together in record time!
To think I was so worked up about “dropping the ball” on this one; so much so that fear prevented me from even attempting to work on it in over three years?! Observing the process — and more to the point, my mental/emotional/psychological head space, and the shifts therein since ’07 and ’08, it makes perfect sense that this would happen now: simply put, I’m no longer “there” — in a bad space; a black hole, where the original idea was birthed in. I’ve transcended that, and am now able to reflect back on all the loss I dealt with point blank and truly write about it — from a safe distance. I was never one for writing about situations — poetically, at least — when I was in the thick of it… I’ve always needed a point of objectivity; to “wide angle” a situation or sentiment, so to speak.
Anyway, I promised some of the Ben Orr/The Cars fans — publicly — that I’d have this ready and available to every one of them by Oct 1st or 2nd, as the anniversary of Ben’s death is fast approaching (Oct 3rd), and I didn’t want to let another year go by without sharing this song with a worthy bunch who will undoubtedly love it and begin to “bond” with it as they grieve Ben’s passing just as I have. I like the idea of having provided them another ‘tool’ by which to aid in the coping process…
RIP Benjamin Orr: Sept 8 1947 — Oct 3 2000
Jon Mychal / Toronto — Sept 25 2011
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