Monday, December 17th marks the second anniversary of the death of my friend Clifford Doerksen. I hadn't seen Cliff for about six years before he died, which isn't crazy as he lived in Chicago. What is heartbreaking to me now is that I was only in sporadic contact with him. And no, I can't go back and change any of it.
If you're lucky, there are certain people in your life who really matter. Cliff was one of those, for me. I'll never stop loving him, thinking about him, and wishing that I could see him again. His opinions on anything and everything will always be in the back of my mind... "what would Cliff think?" He was also one of the funniest people I've ever known.
I'm only going to include one piece of his writing here- "Birdbrained", which is ostensibly a review of Lou Reed's album The Raven but is actually more of a rant about Lou Reed Of Late, in general. If you're interested, google "Cliff Doerksen", and you'll find lots more!
Birdbrained: http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/birdbrained/Content?oid=911464
Hi, B.A. Another link -- I like this one particularly, because it's got Cliff reviewing a movie made from an Alice Munro story, and I haven't known anyone else who appreciated her writing so well and specifically. She's bigger in the US lit circles than I think he knew, but even so, he's right, she's criminally underread. Comes after the Waitress review, which is rather disturbing, but still all Cliff.
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