The seventh chapter of The BLOT songbook is "When It's Mine" by DAN WERB and MAYLEE TODD (music) and IRMA KNIIVILA (illustration).
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In the last Chapter The Blot eschewed the waking nightmare of The Wasteland and went deep inside itself in search of more pleasant dreams. Its mind, which had been built in great records of creative and scientific thought, the best the human world can offer, bulked at the destruction and lack of reason that The Wasteland presented. Its body, which had quickened in an evergreen forest, and come into its own while striding free in meadowlands, was inundated by the dusty heat and burning debris of a world in ruin. It seemed that the only recourse was to turn away from the here and now, to thoughts of elsewhere, of green places. But the thin fabric of dreams is made to falter, and the pastoral calm The Blot hoped to achieve proved tenuous.
The beat of the real world returns in Chapter Seven, creeping out of the darkness as a once clear and present refrain returns in a ghostly echo: “Don’t you lose your mind…” Escape is folly, and there is work to do.
In order to live, The Blot must move. In order to preserve its mind it must bolster the vehicle that carries its thoughts along. It must craft “a shipmaker’s masterpiece / to glide above this darkened crime.” It has returned to its body with a new sense of ownership, even pride, acknowledging that “This body’s only body when it’s mine.” But the Blot must work hard, act quickly, and stay focussed, for the threat now comes within.
We realize now that the deadening calm and escapist dreams of the last chapter were an internal analogue to the surrounding Wasteland. The Blot was able to wake itlself from these dreams, but a dangerous void now grows within its magnificent imagination. It seems to exhert an almost physical force upon The Blot: “I can feel his grip on me like fire / hands raised up to pull me down the wire again.”
It is clear that this unnamed destructive presence threatens the domain of the mind. However, as loud as these voices may seem, or as blinding as the fire may be, the Blot knows that these phantoms are merely thoughts seeking to obscure a real world that they cannot touch. Our creature sits down and touches its face, feeling a physical body of flesh and blood. It remembers how it used to be before it happened upon this desert of hopelessness. Although the internal struggle may continue, in finding this new sense of its physical self, The Blot is on top of things for the moment, seeming to have taken control of its destiny once more.
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"When It's Mine" was skillfully crafted by Maylee Todd and Dan Werb, who wrote the words and music. Their excellent new duo project is called Ark Analog (
www.facebook.com/ArkAnalog) and we'll be seeing much more of them in the future. Dan has previously written and recorded with Woodhands, and Maylee's new solo record Escapology comes out April 2nd (preorder at
mayleetodd.com ). The visual component is by the wonderful artist Irma Kniivila, who has paired illustrations with many musical works. Samples of her work can be found at
www.irmakniivila.com
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released March 1, 2013