Wednesday night
Dream 1: Home Sweet Home
It was November and I had to work late. I got caught up in a snowstorm on the way home, and parked for awhile in a covered garage at some sort of a monument in a city park to wait it out. When the weather finally let up I drove to the family home and walked in carrying a large, lightweight, black plastic stereo speaker over my head. I was confronted in the kitchen by one the members of my family, Janice Soprano, who immediately tried to make me feel guilty for having been away. In a sarcastic tone she said, "So, did you enjoy your Thanksgiving?" She went on to regale me with stories of fights that I'd missed at the holiday dinner table.
I looked around for the family dog and realized that he was outside. I went out to get him, but found that Tony (Soprano) was already out there, leading him back in from the cold. Janice had already tried to get the dog to come back, but had been unsuccessful. I didn't trust Janice, and I got the impression that the dog didn't trust her, either.
Dream 2: Strange Set
I had great seats for a Paul McCartney concert in the 1970s; I was so close to him that I was practically on the stage. McCartney was standing on the left side of the band, playing bass. Soon it became apparent that this wasn't going to be a typical McCartney concert; he was singing cover versions of others' songs instead of his own. His first number was by The Eagles.
*****
Dream 1:
Another dream featuring snow. I am so tired of this heat.
I had this dream while sleeping on the couch in the living room, just after watching the last episode of season 3 of "The Sopranos." Two things in this dream will ring true to any fan of the show: Tony loves animals, and Janice is not to be trusted under any circumstances.
There is another Sopranos episode that features black stereo speakers. Two members of Tony's crew borrow two huge speakers from his house and set them up on his boat in order to blast Dean Martin albums at the home of a lawyer who lives down on the Jersey shore. They continue disrupting his evenings in this way until he decides to let Tony out of a real estate deal.
I had black plastic speakers as part of an early stereo set that I kept in my parents' basement playroom years ago.
I didn't recognize my office building or the family home in this dream; it wasn't the Soprano house from the series, or anywhere I've lived before.
Dream 2:
The Eagles number that McCartney sang was one of the mellow Glen Frey tunes; either "Take It Easy" or "Tequila Sunrise."
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Another Day, Another Theater / Strike Up the Band
Tuesday night
Dream 1: Another Day, Another Theater
I was going to a movie theater to see a film; I think it was some sort of a children's classic, and I got there before it started. As I entered I noticed my friend Preston sitting in the front row, in what looked like a church pew. His friend Jeff sat to his left, leaning against the far left side, and stretching his legs out, as if he was on a couch at home. I didn't see Jeff's face, but recognized the back of his balding head.
I walked up the right aisle; the theater was more crowded than I'd expected. Finally, I found an empty seat on the far right and sat there, but not for long. Soon my brother Andrew walked in, and he came up the same right aisle. I flagged him down and looked around for a place where we could sit together. A Mexican man and his family seated near me pointed out some empty seats half way back in the center section, so I got up and Drew and I sat together over there.
Dream 2: Strike Up the Band
My wife and I were at the home of the neighbor who lives to the left of our house in Nashville, when suddenly we heard some loud music; it was coming from our own backyard. We rushed outside and peered over the chain link fence to see our neighbors from the other side, Jack and Hilda, and a bunch of their friends and neighbors, serenading us with "The Star Spangled Banner," played on brass instruments. They weren't professionals by any stretch of the imagination, and some members of the group hit a few bum notes, but it was a wonderful surprise, and we were thrilled. Once the song was over we clapped and cheered, and then Hilda said, "O.K., on to the next house!" They were taking their merry band to select homes around the neighborhood, playing one song per family.
*****
Last night's dreams were pretty unusual on two counts: I very rarely dream of similar situations in the same week (movie theaters), and I very rarely dream of our home in Nashville, while I dream of my former home in Arlington all the time.
Dream 1: Another Day, Another Theater
My older brother Jimmie and his wife, Dawn, are expecting their first child, and yesterday Jimmie said that I'd be in charge of instructing the kid about old black and white movies. Just before going to bed last night I sent him a list of 20 black and white classic films that would be near the top of my "curriculum." I suppose that's why I was going to a theater to see a children's classic.
I was also e-mailing with Preston yesterday, and I spoke with Andrew on the phone. The three of us will be together in less than a month to play the second round in our yearly poker tournament, and Andrew and I will be staying at Preston's. We always look forward to the reunion. Preston mentioned in one of his messages that he and Jeff are taking part in a fantasy football league. Preston and Jeff knew each other in college, and they were roommates when Jeff moved to Virginia in the 1990s. I visited their apartment regularly, and we had a lot of fun times. Two years ago Jeff played in our poker tournament, had a round of bad luck, got steamed, and decided that he wanted to leave and drive back home to New Jersey that night. (He'd moved there after getting married.) My friend Ed, who runs the tournament, walked in from the table in the other room, with Jeff in tow. Ed turned to me and said, "He wants to leave, so I'm cashing him out." (I'm the keeper of the rules and the stats.) It was against the rules to leave early if you still had money, and nobody had ever done it in the history of the tournament. Without thinking, I said, "That's a violation!" Jeff spat out, "Try to get people to start on time -- see if that's a violation. LATER..." and he walked out. He never spoke to me again.
It's so wierd that it came to that, because Preston, Jeff and I had had a great time at dinner before the tournament that night. I've written to Jeff a couple times since, but he hasn't responded. I don't know if he ever thinks about it, but I really regret that that friendship ended; I never meant to embarrass him. I was just surprised that he was quitting early that night, and was telling the head of the tourney that that's not allowed. Anybody else would calm down later and understand the situation, but apparently not Jeff. Oh, well. Life has it's regrets, and that's one of mine.
I must be trying to tell myself something with these theater dreams, but heck if I know what it is.
Dream 2: Strike Up the Band
This dream must have taken place in the early 2000s, because there were still chain link fences between our backyard and the neighbors; we've since taken them out and repaced them with a nice wood fence.
Jack and Hilda are wonderful neighbors who have been very kind to us; I wouldn't put it past them to learn how to play brass instruments just to surprise their friends with a song.
I think I know the origin of this dream. Back on July 4th I was having a down day, feeling stressed about my new job, isolated from most people in town, and missing my friends back in Virginia. Hilda was out working in her garden, and she happened to mention that there was a July 4th block party that day only four blocks or so away. I walked over there, and was thrilled with the sights and sounds, to say nothing of all of the free food and drinks. There was a parade of kids on all sorts of vehicles decked out in red white and blue; the mayor read the Pledge of Allegiance; somebody else read from the Declaration of Independence, and, to top it off, they had a wonderful brass band in somebody's front yard, playing a mixture of patriotic songs and popular tunes from the 1940s. I felt something like the Grinch did when he realized that maybe Christmas didn't come from a store. The swelling feeling in my heart of buried patriotism just about knocked me out. It had nothing to do with politics; it was love of country.
And is there anything in this world better than a brass band?
Dream 1: Another Day, Another Theater
I was going to a movie theater to see a film; I think it was some sort of a children's classic, and I got there before it started. As I entered I noticed my friend Preston sitting in the front row, in what looked like a church pew. His friend Jeff sat to his left, leaning against the far left side, and stretching his legs out, as if he was on a couch at home. I didn't see Jeff's face, but recognized the back of his balding head.
I walked up the right aisle; the theater was more crowded than I'd expected. Finally, I found an empty seat on the far right and sat there, but not for long. Soon my brother Andrew walked in, and he came up the same right aisle. I flagged him down and looked around for a place where we could sit together. A Mexican man and his family seated near me pointed out some empty seats half way back in the center section, so I got up and Drew and I sat together over there.
Dream 2: Strike Up the Band
My wife and I were at the home of the neighbor who lives to the left of our house in Nashville, when suddenly we heard some loud music; it was coming from our own backyard. We rushed outside and peered over the chain link fence to see our neighbors from the other side, Jack and Hilda, and a bunch of their friends and neighbors, serenading us with "The Star Spangled Banner," played on brass instruments. They weren't professionals by any stretch of the imagination, and some members of the group hit a few bum notes, but it was a wonderful surprise, and we were thrilled. Once the song was over we clapped and cheered, and then Hilda said, "O.K., on to the next house!" They were taking their merry band to select homes around the neighborhood, playing one song per family.
*****
Last night's dreams were pretty unusual on two counts: I very rarely dream of similar situations in the same week (movie theaters), and I very rarely dream of our home in Nashville, while I dream of my former home in Arlington all the time.
Dream 1: Another Day, Another Theater
My older brother Jimmie and his wife, Dawn, are expecting their first child, and yesterday Jimmie said that I'd be in charge of instructing the kid about old black and white movies. Just before going to bed last night I sent him a list of 20 black and white classic films that would be near the top of my "curriculum." I suppose that's why I was going to a theater to see a children's classic.
I was also e-mailing with Preston yesterday, and I spoke with Andrew on the phone. The three of us will be together in less than a month to play the second round in our yearly poker tournament, and Andrew and I will be staying at Preston's. We always look forward to the reunion. Preston mentioned in one of his messages that he and Jeff are taking part in a fantasy football league. Preston and Jeff knew each other in college, and they were roommates when Jeff moved to Virginia in the 1990s. I visited their apartment regularly, and we had a lot of fun times. Two years ago Jeff played in our poker tournament, had a round of bad luck, got steamed, and decided that he wanted to leave and drive back home to New Jersey that night. (He'd moved there after getting married.) My friend Ed, who runs the tournament, walked in from the table in the other room, with Jeff in tow. Ed turned to me and said, "He wants to leave, so I'm cashing him out." (I'm the keeper of the rules and the stats.) It was against the rules to leave early if you still had money, and nobody had ever done it in the history of the tournament. Without thinking, I said, "That's a violation!" Jeff spat out, "Try to get people to start on time -- see if that's a violation. LATER..." and he walked out. He never spoke to me again.
It's so wierd that it came to that, because Preston, Jeff and I had had a great time at dinner before the tournament that night. I've written to Jeff a couple times since, but he hasn't responded. I don't know if he ever thinks about it, but I really regret that that friendship ended; I never meant to embarrass him. I was just surprised that he was quitting early that night, and was telling the head of the tourney that that's not allowed. Anybody else would calm down later and understand the situation, but apparently not Jeff. Oh, well. Life has it's regrets, and that's one of mine.
I must be trying to tell myself something with these theater dreams, but heck if I know what it is.
Dream 2: Strike Up the Band
This dream must have taken place in the early 2000s, because there were still chain link fences between our backyard and the neighbors; we've since taken them out and repaced them with a nice wood fence.
Jack and Hilda are wonderful neighbors who have been very kind to us; I wouldn't put it past them to learn how to play brass instruments just to surprise their friends with a song.
I think I know the origin of this dream. Back on July 4th I was having a down day, feeling stressed about my new job, isolated from most people in town, and missing my friends back in Virginia. Hilda was out working in her garden, and she happened to mention that there was a July 4th block party that day only four blocks or so away. I walked over there, and was thrilled with the sights and sounds, to say nothing of all of the free food and drinks. There was a parade of kids on all sorts of vehicles decked out in red white and blue; the mayor read the Pledge of Allegiance; somebody else read from the Declaration of Independence, and, to top it off, they had a wonderful brass band in somebody's front yard, playing a mixture of patriotic songs and popular tunes from the 1940s. I felt something like the Grinch did when he realized that maybe Christmas didn't come from a store. The swelling feeling in my heart of buried patriotism just about knocked me out. It had nothing to do with politics; it was love of country.
And is there anything in this world better than a brass band?
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Vinyl Days
Monday night
I was in my room downstairs at my parents' house in Arlington, and had decided to cull a large amount of albums and picture-sleeve 45s from my record collection, in order to turn them in for credit at the Record and Tape Exchange. I put an LP on the record player so I could listen to some tunes as I sorted through it all.
Some of the albums belonged to my wife, so I had to be careful not to put any of her records in the "discard" pile; the ABBA album was definitely hers. All of the singles were mine, and there were thousands of them, kept in poly bags and neatly lined up in a wooden cabinet. I proceeded to sort the 45s into two piles; the keepers were on the left; the trade-ins, including some by STYX and other 80s groups, were on the right. The keepers included an extremely rare early solo single by Stevie Nicks, taken from the pre-Fleetwood Mac album "Buckingham Nicks." It featured a cover photo of Nicks with her pre-dyed brown hair.
Later, I brought the large stack of albums and singles to the used record store, and browsed around as they tallied up my credit. Before long, I came across a mid-'60s album by The Everly Brothers. I studied the back cover first, and saw the titles of two of their last hits, "The Price of Love" and "Gone, Gone, Gone." I flipped it over and stared at the photo on the front of the LP; it was a dense jungle scene, focusing on one central tree which was filled with monkeys. Phil and Don were in the tree, too, poking through the foliage on the left and right in the upper part of the tree. They were apparently naked, but all the observer could see through the canopy were their heads and shoulders. Suddenly, as I continued to stare at the album, it morphed into an early, color promotional video for the record, shown in a continuous loop. The camera panned through the jungle, and the only sound that was heard were natural sounds made by the birds and animals. The camera panned up the tree and stopped on the album cover photo, followed by a loud drumbeat; then the video started over again.
*****
I did bunk in my parents' basement playroom during the last few years I lived at their house, and kept a pretty large record collection down there. My wife and I didn't get together until over 10 years later, so her records were never there. For the record, we both like ABBA.
The two Everly Brothers songs mentioned in the dream are real, and were featured on some of my Christmas compilation CDs in the past, but the Everlys album and the Stevie Nicks single are purely fictional. No Everly Brothers album cover features a "jungle" motif, and Stevie Nicks never released a single prior to joining Fleetwood Mac. I did own the "Buckingham Nicks" album, which is now considered a rarity, and gave it to a former girlfriend long ago. (I'm sorry that I got rid of the album, but glad that I got rid of the girlfriend.)
Not long ago I was reminiscing through e-mail with my friends Gordon and Preston about record collecting, and how I miss picture sleeves. I think I told Preston that if I had money to burn, I'd probably get on e-bay and buy every old picture sleeve single that I ever wanted, and proceed to frame them. I've got a start on that project, having bought up every Elvis sleeve I ever wanted already...
I was in my room downstairs at my parents' house in Arlington, and had decided to cull a large amount of albums and picture-sleeve 45s from my record collection, in order to turn them in for credit at the Record and Tape Exchange. I put an LP on the record player so I could listen to some tunes as I sorted through it all.
Some of the albums belonged to my wife, so I had to be careful not to put any of her records in the "discard" pile; the ABBA album was definitely hers. All of the singles were mine, and there were thousands of them, kept in poly bags and neatly lined up in a wooden cabinet. I proceeded to sort the 45s into two piles; the keepers were on the left; the trade-ins, including some by STYX and other 80s groups, were on the right. The keepers included an extremely rare early solo single by Stevie Nicks, taken from the pre-Fleetwood Mac album "Buckingham Nicks." It featured a cover photo of Nicks with her pre-dyed brown hair.
Later, I brought the large stack of albums and singles to the used record store, and browsed around as they tallied up my credit. Before long, I came across a mid-'60s album by The Everly Brothers. I studied the back cover first, and saw the titles of two of their last hits, "The Price of Love" and "Gone, Gone, Gone." I flipped it over and stared at the photo on the front of the LP; it was a dense jungle scene, focusing on one central tree which was filled with monkeys. Phil and Don were in the tree, too, poking through the foliage on the left and right in the upper part of the tree. They were apparently naked, but all the observer could see through the canopy were their heads and shoulders. Suddenly, as I continued to stare at the album, it morphed into an early, color promotional video for the record, shown in a continuous loop. The camera panned through the jungle, and the only sound that was heard were natural sounds made by the birds and animals. The camera panned up the tree and stopped on the album cover photo, followed by a loud drumbeat; then the video started over again.
*****
I did bunk in my parents' basement playroom during the last few years I lived at their house, and kept a pretty large record collection down there. My wife and I didn't get together until over 10 years later, so her records were never there. For the record, we both like ABBA.
The two Everly Brothers songs mentioned in the dream are real, and were featured on some of my Christmas compilation CDs in the past, but the Everlys album and the Stevie Nicks single are purely fictional. No Everly Brothers album cover features a "jungle" motif, and Stevie Nicks never released a single prior to joining Fleetwood Mac. I did own the "Buckingham Nicks" album, which is now considered a rarity, and gave it to a former girlfriend long ago. (I'm sorry that I got rid of the album, but glad that I got rid of the girlfriend.)
Not long ago I was reminiscing through e-mail with my friends Gordon and Preston about record collecting, and how I miss picture sleeves. I think I told Preston that if I had money to burn, I'd probably get on e-bay and buy every old picture sleeve single that I ever wanted, and proceed to frame them. I've got a start on that project, having bought up every Elvis sleeve I ever wanted already...
Monday, August 27, 2007
Videos / Lions / Girlfriend / Groovy Car Ride
Sunday night
Dream 1: Videos
I was enjoying watching new videos that someone had cut together from old footage for the song "Goin' Back" by The Byrds, and for another song by The Monkees. The Monkees video was much more "madcap," and for awhile I seemed to be be back on the set with them, as they ran around a hotel and did silly things, all the time dressed in matching white sweaters.
Dream 2: Lions
I'd heard that a new documentary film about lions was being shown locally, and called my brother Andrew to tell him about it. He agreed to meet me at the venue, which wasn't a local theater; it was a fancier place, such as the Smithsonian, or the National Geographic Society. There wasn't tiered seating in the theater; instead, all of the seats were arranged in a large rectangle on the same level.
I showed up just as the lights went out. While the screen was still dark, the film began with the roar of a lion. I couldn't see, so I called out, "Andrew!?" He didn't answer, but as the first images flickered on the screen, I had enough light to find him. He was seated on the other side of the aisle from where I was standing, and motioned for me to come over there. Our friends Preston and Mari-Jane were sitting in the next row behind him. At first I saw that there were several vacant seats next to them, so I said in a stage whisper, "Oh, I'll sit back there." Preston and M-J both spoke up, and pointed out that there was an empty seat next to Andrew after all, so I sat with him. As I did so, I noticed that Spike Lee was also in the audience.
Dream 3: New Girlfriend
Apparently this dream took place back in the 1980s, when I worked for Crown Books. I'd met up with my friend, Gordon, and I was with my new girlfriend, who had a complicated personal history -- former marriage, etc. (I don't know her name, but she had blonde hair.) I was standing with my right arm around her, and we were facing Gordon and talking. He had met her once before, but either didn't know, or didn't remember all of the details of her personal life. For some reason she thought it important that Gordon did know these details. She said something along the lines of, "If he's going to know me, he'll have to learn all of these things anyway," and started to quiz him about her past.
Later, when we were outside, Gordon said he had some plans, so he couldn't do anything that evening. I got the impression that he was giving me a bit of a brush-off, but couldn't really blame him, after the girlfriend's wierdness. I watched him walk down a steep hill toward his car. I walked down the same hill, and when I got to the bottom, the girlfriend wasn't around. Gordon approached me and suggested another day that we might get together, a holiday. He said, "All the kids will be out of school." I said, "It's going to be a work day for me."
Dream 4: Groovy Car Ride
This dream also seemed to take place in the 1980s. I was giving The Who's Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend a ride home in a small 1960s car, possibly a Volkswagen Beetle, and we were listening to a tape of The Who's most psychedelic album, "The Who Sell Out" (from 1967). They were sitting in the back seat as I drove. Roger was singing along with the tape, and I was watching him in the rear view mirror. I noticed that as the album became more and more far-out, so did Roger's appearance, regressing to his 1960s look. By the time we got to "Armenia City in the Sky" (actually, the first full song on the album) Roger had a bouffant 'do and was wearing what appeared to be dark blue lipstick. I couldn't stifle the urge to make a snarky comment. I said, "Nice HAIR, Roger."
Eventually we got to their neighborhood, which consisted of old, medium-sized red brick apartment buildings, and Roger had reverted to his regular self. He and Pete got out and went into their respective buildings; they lived next door to each other.
*****
Dream 1: Videos
I grew up watching "The Monkees" on TV when I was a kid, and always found them to be amusing. The Byrds' song "Goin' Back" is featured on a CD that I'm giving out to some people this Christmas.
Dream 2: Lions
I wonder if the lion's roar at the beginning of the documentary is a take-off on the roar of the MGM lion, which comes at the beginning of so many of the classic movies that I like.
Dream 3: Girlfriend
The girl in this dream is no girlfriend that I ever had, but may be modeled on the wife of one of my wife's former co-workers. We were talking about that couple yesterday.
Dream 4: Groovy Car Ride
I've watched a few Who performances in YouTube lately; I've been trying to determine for myself when I think they "lost it," or became uninteresting to me. I liked Townshend's solo stuff up through his "White City" album in 1985, but have little use for what came after that. As for The Who's never-ending farewell tour, I saw them a few times in the 90's, but after awhile they seemed to be going through the motions, and there was no point to see them again. The post 9-11 concert in New York does seem to be an exception, however; they were playing for police, fire and rescue personnel, and really rose to the occasion. That was probably the last high point for the band, in my opinion, anyway.
Dream 1: Videos
I was enjoying watching new videos that someone had cut together from old footage for the song "Goin' Back" by The Byrds, and for another song by The Monkees. The Monkees video was much more "madcap," and for awhile I seemed to be be back on the set with them, as they ran around a hotel and did silly things, all the time dressed in matching white sweaters.
Dream 2: Lions
I'd heard that a new documentary film about lions was being shown locally, and called my brother Andrew to tell him about it. He agreed to meet me at the venue, which wasn't a local theater; it was a fancier place, such as the Smithsonian, or the National Geographic Society. There wasn't tiered seating in the theater; instead, all of the seats were arranged in a large rectangle on the same level.
I showed up just as the lights went out. While the screen was still dark, the film began with the roar of a lion. I couldn't see, so I called out, "Andrew!?" He didn't answer, but as the first images flickered on the screen, I had enough light to find him. He was seated on the other side of the aisle from where I was standing, and motioned for me to come over there. Our friends Preston and Mari-Jane were sitting in the next row behind him. At first I saw that there were several vacant seats next to them, so I said in a stage whisper, "Oh, I'll sit back there." Preston and M-J both spoke up, and pointed out that there was an empty seat next to Andrew after all, so I sat with him. As I did so, I noticed that Spike Lee was also in the audience.
Dream 3: New Girlfriend
Apparently this dream took place back in the 1980s, when I worked for Crown Books. I'd met up with my friend, Gordon, and I was with my new girlfriend, who had a complicated personal history -- former marriage, etc. (I don't know her name, but she had blonde hair.) I was standing with my right arm around her, and we were facing Gordon and talking. He had met her once before, but either didn't know, or didn't remember all of the details of her personal life. For some reason she thought it important that Gordon did know these details. She said something along the lines of, "If he's going to know me, he'll have to learn all of these things anyway," and started to quiz him about her past.
Later, when we were outside, Gordon said he had some plans, so he couldn't do anything that evening. I got the impression that he was giving me a bit of a brush-off, but couldn't really blame him, after the girlfriend's wierdness. I watched him walk down a steep hill toward his car. I walked down the same hill, and when I got to the bottom, the girlfriend wasn't around. Gordon approached me and suggested another day that we might get together, a holiday. He said, "All the kids will be out of school." I said, "It's going to be a work day for me."
Dream 4: Groovy Car Ride
This dream also seemed to take place in the 1980s. I was giving The Who's Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend a ride home in a small 1960s car, possibly a Volkswagen Beetle, and we were listening to a tape of The Who's most psychedelic album, "The Who Sell Out" (from 1967). They were sitting in the back seat as I drove. Roger was singing along with the tape, and I was watching him in the rear view mirror. I noticed that as the album became more and more far-out, so did Roger's appearance, regressing to his 1960s look. By the time we got to "Armenia City in the Sky" (actually, the first full song on the album) Roger had a bouffant 'do and was wearing what appeared to be dark blue lipstick. I couldn't stifle the urge to make a snarky comment. I said, "Nice HAIR, Roger."
Eventually we got to their neighborhood, which consisted of old, medium-sized red brick apartment buildings, and Roger had reverted to his regular self. He and Pete got out and went into their respective buildings; they lived next door to each other.
*****
Dream 1: Videos
I grew up watching "The Monkees" on TV when I was a kid, and always found them to be amusing. The Byrds' song "Goin' Back" is featured on a CD that I'm giving out to some people this Christmas.
Dream 2: Lions
I wonder if the lion's roar at the beginning of the documentary is a take-off on the roar of the MGM lion, which comes at the beginning of so many of the classic movies that I like.
Dream 3: Girlfriend
The girl in this dream is no girlfriend that I ever had, but may be modeled on the wife of one of my wife's former co-workers. We were talking about that couple yesterday.
Dream 4: Groovy Car Ride
I've watched a few Who performances in YouTube lately; I've been trying to determine for myself when I think they "lost it," or became uninteresting to me. I liked Townshend's solo stuff up through his "White City" album in 1985, but have little use for what came after that. As for The Who's never-ending farewell tour, I saw them a few times in the 90's, but after awhile they seemed to be going through the motions, and there was no point to see them again. The post 9-11 concert in New York does seem to be an exception, however; they were playing for police, fire and rescue personnel, and really rose to the occasion. That was probably the last high point for the band, in my opinion, anyway.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Portraits
Saturday night
It was winter, and I was walking through the woods; snow covered the ground. I came upon a clearing and found a very large rectangular block of snow, much taller than I was; it was almost like a monument of some kind. The top half of the rectangle had a beautiful framed color painting of a blue jay attached to it. Over time, passers-by had come to love and appreciate the painting, and had begun to hang their own framed blue jay paintings beneath it.
*****
Yesterday my wife and I took her father to Georgia to tour the Chicamauga battlefield, where we saw many large obelisks and rectangular blocks of stone, commemorating the deeds of various divisions involved in the fighting.
Last night I finished putting together a 500-piece circular jigsaw puzzle called "Familiar Birds," which was made by Springbok in 1970. It features a prominent picture of a blue jay, among many other birds. I'd found it on e-bay, so I'm pretty psyched that it has all of its pieces.
It was winter, and I was walking through the woods; snow covered the ground. I came upon a clearing and found a very large rectangular block of snow, much taller than I was; it was almost like a monument of some kind. The top half of the rectangle had a beautiful framed color painting of a blue jay attached to it. Over time, passers-by had come to love and appreciate the painting, and had begun to hang their own framed blue jay paintings beneath it.
*****
Yesterday my wife and I took her father to Georgia to tour the Chicamauga battlefield, where we saw many large obelisks and rectangular blocks of stone, commemorating the deeds of various divisions involved in the fighting.
Last night I finished putting together a 500-piece circular jigsaw puzzle called "Familiar Birds," which was made by Springbok in 1970. It features a prominent picture of a blue jay, among many other birds. I'd found it on e-bay, so I'm pretty psyched that it has all of its pieces.
MaMa / Kids
Friday night
Dream 1: MaMa
I was back in my parents' house in Arlington, in the upstairs bedroom used by my dad's mother prior to her death in 1990. I opened the lower left drawer of her dresser and found that she had kept one of my childhood toys there.
Suddenly I heard a commotion outside, and walked over to the other side of the room in order to look down on the front yard. Her casket was being carried back into the house; there was to be another funeral for her, all these years later. The casket itself was old-fashioned, rectangular and black.
Dad was downstairs, getting prepared for the service. I wasn't sure whether I'd go out to the re-burial or not. My brother Jimmie was also in the house, and chose that occasion to tell me that a novelist from Chile had just moved in to a house around the corner.
Dream 2: Kids
I had a ticket to see the Baltimore Orioles play a home game at Camden Yards, and was to meet some friends there. In the meantime, I needed to use the bathroom, so I stopped by the friends' house, although I knew that they had already left for the ballpark. I knocked on the door and the babysitter answered. I told her who I was, and she let me in. I walked downstairs and found a large circular room filled with retarded and 'slow' children. My father-in-law was there, playing with them and entertaining them. Part of the floor was covered with snow, and he was showing the children how to use a Flexible Flyer sled. He laid down on his stomach and was steering with his hands.
*****
Dream 1:
We called my paternal grandmother "MaMa," with the a pronounced as in the word "back." She died in 1983, not 1990, and she never lived in my parents' house, although she visited there many times. Her bedroom in the dream was actually my parents' bedroom.
I attended MaMa's funeral in South Carolina, and she did not have an "old-timey" coffin.
That funeral was the occasion of one of my favorite family stories. Dad and I were standing together at the graveyard, talking with one of his cousins, when Dad said, "When my time comes, I don't want to have an open casket." The cousin looked at the size of Dad's waist and said, "Jamie, you might have to!"
Dream 2:
I called my brother Andrew last Friday and we had a good laugh about a baseball game the other day in which the Orioles lost to the Texas Rangers, 30-3. I asked him about the pitchers' earned run averages. He said, "Put it this way -- the first pitcher gave up 6 runs, and he had the good outing."
My father-in-law is visiting us here this weekend.
We've been going through an awful heat wave lately in Nashville. The other day a coworker said, "I bet this means we'll have an awful winter, with lots of snow." I said, "That would be great!" I haven't had a reason to take my Flexible Flyer out of the shed for awhile.
Dream 1: MaMa
I was back in my parents' house in Arlington, in the upstairs bedroom used by my dad's mother prior to her death in 1990. I opened the lower left drawer of her dresser and found that she had kept one of my childhood toys there.
Suddenly I heard a commotion outside, and walked over to the other side of the room in order to look down on the front yard. Her casket was being carried back into the house; there was to be another funeral for her, all these years later. The casket itself was old-fashioned, rectangular and black.
Dad was downstairs, getting prepared for the service. I wasn't sure whether I'd go out to the re-burial or not. My brother Jimmie was also in the house, and chose that occasion to tell me that a novelist from Chile had just moved in to a house around the corner.
Dream 2: Kids
I had a ticket to see the Baltimore Orioles play a home game at Camden Yards, and was to meet some friends there. In the meantime, I needed to use the bathroom, so I stopped by the friends' house, although I knew that they had already left for the ballpark. I knocked on the door and the babysitter answered. I told her who I was, and she let me in. I walked downstairs and found a large circular room filled with retarded and 'slow' children. My father-in-law was there, playing with them and entertaining them. Part of the floor was covered with snow, and he was showing the children how to use a Flexible Flyer sled. He laid down on his stomach and was steering with his hands.
*****
Dream 1:
We called my paternal grandmother "MaMa," with the a pronounced as in the word "back." She died in 1983, not 1990, and she never lived in my parents' house, although she visited there many times. Her bedroom in the dream was actually my parents' bedroom.
I attended MaMa's funeral in South Carolina, and she did not have an "old-timey" coffin.
That funeral was the occasion of one of my favorite family stories. Dad and I were standing together at the graveyard, talking with one of his cousins, when Dad said, "When my time comes, I don't want to have an open casket." The cousin looked at the size of Dad's waist and said, "Jamie, you might have to!"
Dream 2:
I called my brother Andrew last Friday and we had a good laugh about a baseball game the other day in which the Orioles lost to the Texas Rangers, 30-3. I asked him about the pitchers' earned run averages. He said, "Put it this way -- the first pitcher gave up 6 runs, and he had the good outing."
My father-in-law is visiting us here this weekend.
We've been going through an awful heat wave lately in Nashville. The other day a coworker said, "I bet this means we'll have an awful winter, with lots of snow." I said, "That would be great!" I haven't had a reason to take my Flexible Flyer out of the shed for awhile.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Buttery Goodness
Tuesday night
My brother Jimmie and I were having dinner together somewhere, and I was disturbed to see that whenever he used the butter knife, he'd lick it before placing it back on the table.
*****
Eew. I'm pretty sure that Jimmie doesn't really do this.
My table manners have been called into question on numerous occasions.
My brother Jimmie and I were having dinner together somewhere, and I was disturbed to see that whenever he used the butter knife, he'd lick it before placing it back on the table.
*****
Eew. I'm pretty sure that Jimmie doesn't really do this.
My table manners have been called into question on numerous occasions.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Escort
Monday night
Bruce Springsteen and I had attended the same indoor event; we weren't friends, but I'd seen him in person enough times not to be awed by his presence. I may have been a plain-clothed security guard employed by the the venue, wherever we were.
When it came time for Springsteen to leave, he began walking up a ramp that led to the outside. I immediately began to accompany him, and he became annoyed. He turned around and said, "I can go by myself." (In other words, he didn't need a bodyguard. He wasn't afraid to be in public.) When he got outside one person asked him for his autograph and another gave him some sort of food in a covered dish.
*****
Bruce and the E Street Band have a new album coming out in October, called "Magic," so Gordy and I have recently been trading some in-depth e-mails, reminiscing about Bruce and his music.
Now that I think about it, sometimes when I fly in to Dulles Airport, I'll end up downstairs, walking up a big inclined ramp to the light, where the shuttle buses wait to take commuters to the rental car area. Maybe I was thinking about my upcoming trip back to Virginia, or maybe Bruce and I were at the airport...
Bruce Springsteen and I had attended the same indoor event; we weren't friends, but I'd seen him in person enough times not to be awed by his presence. I may have been a plain-clothed security guard employed by the the venue, wherever we were.
When it came time for Springsteen to leave, he began walking up a ramp that led to the outside. I immediately began to accompany him, and he became annoyed. He turned around and said, "I can go by myself." (In other words, he didn't need a bodyguard. He wasn't afraid to be in public.) When he got outside one person asked him for his autograph and another gave him some sort of food in a covered dish.
*****
Bruce and the E Street Band have a new album coming out in October, called "Magic," so Gordy and I have recently been trading some in-depth e-mails, reminiscing about Bruce and his music.
Now that I think about it, sometimes when I fly in to Dulles Airport, I'll end up downstairs, walking up a big inclined ramp to the light, where the shuttle buses wait to take commuters to the rental car area. Maybe I was thinking about my upcoming trip back to Virginia, or maybe Bruce and I were at the airport...
Monday, August 20, 2007
Hanging On / War / Busted / G.H.T.
Sunday night
Dream 1: Hanging On
I was reading about small pockets of Indian communities in the upper Midwest of the U.S. and in Canada who were tenaciously preserving their traditional way of life.
Dream 2: War
My wife had fallen asleep on her side, fully clothed in blue jeans and a shirt. My brother Jimmie and I seized the opportunity to use her as a barrier to stage the battle of the red tin robots vs. the silver tin robots.
Dream 3: Busted
I was one of two policemen who were tasked with walking into a crowded schoolroom at night in order to bust a group of renegade artists who were using it illegally. We weren't there to arrest them -- we intended only to tell them calmly that they had to pack up thier artwork and leave the premises. As we did so, I noticed that one of the artists had made some very interesting, large-scale drawings of hands. Each hand consisted of lines within lines, almost like a maze, and reminded me of Aztec drawings that I'd seen in books. The hands weren't traced flat -- they seemed to be three dimensional on the page, in various poses. One appeared to be holding an invisible ball. I continued watching as the artist signed his name. He was Eric T., a guy I knew in high school; I hadn't seen since we were teenagers. I complemented him on his work, and he said "Thank you," but I'm not sure if he recognized me or not.
Dream 4: G.H.T. (Group House Therapy)
I was involved in a complicated and emotional discussion between people who lived in several group houses. Many of the participants had decided to open up and admit that they had been harboring unrequited secret crushes (or even stronger feelings) for each other. One of the participants was Pat H., a coworker from my office.
*****
Dream 1
I'm always interested in learning about American Indians, and about their art in particular. During our recent trip to Chattanooga, I learned that the infamous "Trail of Tears" began there.
Dream 2
My wife found this dream to be pretty disturbing. I, of course, found it to be pretty hilarious. I really do have a few retro-looking red and silver tin robots. They are boxed up among my favorite Christmas ornaments.
Dream 3
I'd be on the artists' side in this scenario.
I met Eric toward the tail end of high school. I don't think that he could draw, but he was an accomplished pianist, and he and I used to go down to the band room and jam on two pianos at the same time. Aside from his musical talent, Eric was impossibly nerdy, and I eventually broke off contact with him for that reason. (I suppose that I was nerdy enough myself, and didn't need to compound the problem.) I've always felt guilty about that. I haven't seen him since about 1981.
Eric was an adult in the dream, and that's why I didn't recognize him until I saw his signature, and didn't know if he recognized me.
Dream 4
I did live in a group house on Hyson Lane in Falls Church for the better part of 10 years, and I'm sure that I had crushes on one or two of the young women who lived there from time to time.
I haven't lived in a group house since 1998 or so, and didn't meet Pat H. until I got my current job in March of '07. I don't know if she ever lived in a group house or not.
Dream 1: Hanging On
I was reading about small pockets of Indian communities in the upper Midwest of the U.S. and in Canada who were tenaciously preserving their traditional way of life.
Dream 2: War
My wife had fallen asleep on her side, fully clothed in blue jeans and a shirt. My brother Jimmie and I seized the opportunity to use her as a barrier to stage the battle of the red tin robots vs. the silver tin robots.
Dream 3: Busted
I was one of two policemen who were tasked with walking into a crowded schoolroom at night in order to bust a group of renegade artists who were using it illegally. We weren't there to arrest them -- we intended only to tell them calmly that they had to pack up thier artwork and leave the premises. As we did so, I noticed that one of the artists had made some very interesting, large-scale drawings of hands. Each hand consisted of lines within lines, almost like a maze, and reminded me of Aztec drawings that I'd seen in books. The hands weren't traced flat -- they seemed to be three dimensional on the page, in various poses. One appeared to be holding an invisible ball. I continued watching as the artist signed his name. He was Eric T., a guy I knew in high school; I hadn't seen since we were teenagers. I complemented him on his work, and he said "Thank you," but I'm not sure if he recognized me or not.
Dream 4: G.H.T. (Group House Therapy)
I was involved in a complicated and emotional discussion between people who lived in several group houses. Many of the participants had decided to open up and admit that they had been harboring unrequited secret crushes (or even stronger feelings) for each other. One of the participants was Pat H., a coworker from my office.
*****
Dream 1
I'm always interested in learning about American Indians, and about their art in particular. During our recent trip to Chattanooga, I learned that the infamous "Trail of Tears" began there.
Dream 2
My wife found this dream to be pretty disturbing. I, of course, found it to be pretty hilarious. I really do have a few retro-looking red and silver tin robots. They are boxed up among my favorite Christmas ornaments.
Dream 3
I'd be on the artists' side in this scenario.
I met Eric toward the tail end of high school. I don't think that he could draw, but he was an accomplished pianist, and he and I used to go down to the band room and jam on two pianos at the same time. Aside from his musical talent, Eric was impossibly nerdy, and I eventually broke off contact with him for that reason. (I suppose that I was nerdy enough myself, and didn't need to compound the problem.) I've always felt guilty about that. I haven't seen him since about 1981.
Eric was an adult in the dream, and that's why I didn't recognize him until I saw his signature, and didn't know if he recognized me.
Dream 4
I did live in a group house on Hyson Lane in Falls Church for the better part of 10 years, and I'm sure that I had crushes on one or two of the young women who lived there from time to time.
I haven't lived in a group house since 1998 or so, and didn't meet Pat H. until I got my current job in March of '07. I don't know if she ever lived in a group house or not.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Panic / Pool / Festival
Saturday night
Dream 1: Panic
My friend, Ann R., and I were taking a trip together from D.C. to New York City. I had stayed up all night anticipating the things we'd see there, so I was already exhausted. We took a series of subway trains to get to the D.C. train station. When we arrived, I turned to Ann and said, "Can you believe we did all that, and we're still only in D.C.?
The train station wasn't like the real one in the District; it was a complicated underground system of many tracks and tunnels, and there were elevators on the platform to take you to other levels. I got out ahead of Ann while we were talking and walking toward the elevators. I turned around, and suddenly she had vanished. I called out, "Ann? Ann!" I had no idea where she'd gone. She must have gotten on an elevator or jumped onto a train, and now I was completely lost.
I looked around to try to get my bearings, and to figure out what to do. No trains were in sight; instead, I saw buses that were paused, ready to run along the tracks. The instructions by the elevators made little sense, and the buses were flipping their destination signs, so nothing was clear; everything was confusing and complicated. I was already worried that I'd missed the first train; therefore, I'd miss later connections and screw up our schedule. I said to myself, "I've got to be more self-reliant."
Finally, I decided to cut in line and ask one of the bus drivers if he or she knew which bus I should take to New York. I peered through the front door and up the stairs, and saw that this particular bus had two drivers. A black woman was behind the wheel, but a smaller, older, balding man from India was sitting on her lap. She was training him, and he was slowly taking the customers' money and recording the sales. I called out, "Is this the bus to New York?" Before either of them could answer, I looked in my wallet. My ticket was gone.
Dream 2: Pool
I was at an indoor public pool, and dove in from the side (not off of the diving board) over to my right, toward a female teenager in a yellow bathing suit. I proceeded to swim all over the pool, mostly near the bottom, weaving in and out of crowds, meandering past legs and feet of people I didn't know. The young woman in yellow got out of the pool to complain to someone that I had been swimming too close to her, and that she was uncomfortable.
Dream 3: Festival
Elvis Costello was playing an outdoor show in a field. The audience was standing in front of the crowded, elevated stage, but a fairly large square of the grounds, about 10 feet in front of the stage, was roped off, so that no one could stand in that space. The crowd gathered where it could, around that area, but not in it.
Costello was in a good mood. He stood at the microphone, and wasn't playing an instrument. He sang a mixture of old and new songs, including some medleys. His black hair was a little long and unruly, and every so often he'd take out a large comb to try to tame it.
During a break between songs, Shannon F. (the organizer of the event) walked up and whispered something to someone on stage. The next thing we knew, a female bus driver walked out into the center of the crowd and hollered, "All right, Cheatham, I've got to get you home!" Apparently nearly half of the audience consisted of students from Cheatham County, Tennessee, who left to board their buses. The rest of the audience quickly filled the breach left by the departing students, including the square which had previously been off-limits. I remember hoping that maybe Elvis would play something special, or extend the show for those of us who remained.
*****
What's the deal with buses last night?
Dream 1
Ann R. is a friend who worked with me in Virginia at The Freedom Forum / Newseum.
This dream nails me in a lot of ways: I am way too reliant on others, for directions and for a lot of other things; I am frequently frustrated and confounded by what I see as the unnecessary complications of the modern world; I frequently don't get enough sleep; and I can't wait to go back to New York.
The underground D.C. train station in this dream resembled Washington-area Metro stations in some ways -- they really do have elevators, for use by the handicapped or infirm -- but the one in the dream was much much darker, gray and gloomy, almost like the tunnels under Paris in "Phantom of the Opera."
Dream 2
I think that I was a kid again in this dream, which would make my actions decidely less creepy, just incredibly annoying. I often did swim near the bottom of the pool when I was young, flitting around like my beloved sea turtles.
Dream 3
I've seen Costello in concert numerous times since 1978. He's great.
Shannon F. is one of the managers where I work. She was the one who organized the pep rally described in the comments after "Get Out of Jail Free Card," August 12.
Dream 1: Panic
My friend, Ann R., and I were taking a trip together from D.C. to New York City. I had stayed up all night anticipating the things we'd see there, so I was already exhausted. We took a series of subway trains to get to the D.C. train station. When we arrived, I turned to Ann and said, "Can you believe we did all that, and we're still only in D.C.?
The train station wasn't like the real one in the District; it was a complicated underground system of many tracks and tunnels, and there were elevators on the platform to take you to other levels. I got out ahead of Ann while we were talking and walking toward the elevators. I turned around, and suddenly she had vanished. I called out, "Ann? Ann!" I had no idea where she'd gone. She must have gotten on an elevator or jumped onto a train, and now I was completely lost.
I looked around to try to get my bearings, and to figure out what to do. No trains were in sight; instead, I saw buses that were paused, ready to run along the tracks. The instructions by the elevators made little sense, and the buses were flipping their destination signs, so nothing was clear; everything was confusing and complicated. I was already worried that I'd missed the first train; therefore, I'd miss later connections and screw up our schedule. I said to myself, "I've got to be more self-reliant."
Finally, I decided to cut in line and ask one of the bus drivers if he or she knew which bus I should take to New York. I peered through the front door and up the stairs, and saw that this particular bus had two drivers. A black woman was behind the wheel, but a smaller, older, balding man from India was sitting on her lap. She was training him, and he was slowly taking the customers' money and recording the sales. I called out, "Is this the bus to New York?" Before either of them could answer, I looked in my wallet. My ticket was gone.
Dream 2: Pool
I was at an indoor public pool, and dove in from the side (not off of the diving board) over to my right, toward a female teenager in a yellow bathing suit. I proceeded to swim all over the pool, mostly near the bottom, weaving in and out of crowds, meandering past legs and feet of people I didn't know. The young woman in yellow got out of the pool to complain to someone that I had been swimming too close to her, and that she was uncomfortable.
Dream 3: Festival
Elvis Costello was playing an outdoor show in a field. The audience was standing in front of the crowded, elevated stage, but a fairly large square of the grounds, about 10 feet in front of the stage, was roped off, so that no one could stand in that space. The crowd gathered where it could, around that area, but not in it.
Costello was in a good mood. He stood at the microphone, and wasn't playing an instrument. He sang a mixture of old and new songs, including some medleys. His black hair was a little long and unruly, and every so often he'd take out a large comb to try to tame it.
During a break between songs, Shannon F. (the organizer of the event) walked up and whispered something to someone on stage. The next thing we knew, a female bus driver walked out into the center of the crowd and hollered, "All right, Cheatham, I've got to get you home!" Apparently nearly half of the audience consisted of students from Cheatham County, Tennessee, who left to board their buses. The rest of the audience quickly filled the breach left by the departing students, including the square which had previously been off-limits. I remember hoping that maybe Elvis would play something special, or extend the show for those of us who remained.
*****
What's the deal with buses last night?
Dream 1
Ann R. is a friend who worked with me in Virginia at The Freedom Forum / Newseum.
This dream nails me in a lot of ways: I am way too reliant on others, for directions and for a lot of other things; I am frequently frustrated and confounded by what I see as the unnecessary complications of the modern world; I frequently don't get enough sleep; and I can't wait to go back to New York.
The underground D.C. train station in this dream resembled Washington-area Metro stations in some ways -- they really do have elevators, for use by the handicapped or infirm -- but the one in the dream was much much darker, gray and gloomy, almost like the tunnels under Paris in "Phantom of the Opera."
Dream 2
I think that I was a kid again in this dream, which would make my actions decidely less creepy, just incredibly annoying. I often did swim near the bottom of the pool when I was young, flitting around like my beloved sea turtles.
Dream 3
I've seen Costello in concert numerous times since 1978. He's great.
Shannon F. is one of the managers where I work. She was the one who organized the pep rally described in the comments after "Get Out of Jail Free Card," August 12.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
The Holy Grail / Red Diamond
Friday night
Dream 1: The Holy Grail
My wife and I were vacationing on a wooded hillside that led down to a lake. My brother Andrew and sister-in-law Susan were there, too. Each couple had their own cabin on the property. One morning I woke up and looked around for my wife; she wasn't there. I walked around the corner into the next room and found her, fully clothed, lying on top of a hospital bed, reading a magazine. She said, "I got up earlier, and didn't want to wake you." She was fine; the hospital bed just happened to be there. A little later I decided to take a walk. At first I met up with Andrew and Susan at a picnic table at a common area on the lawn, and we chatted for awhile. We'd meet up again later. I got up and continued strolling. Soon I came across an old man who owned a very nice house in a young strand of trees near the top of the hill. I complemented him on his home and he said that it was a valuable piece of property. I turned my attention toward the lake, where I saw two nice young people coming toward me from the shore. They were vacationers, too. They passed me, and when I turned around, there was suddenly a high water tower to the right of the old man's house. The two kids had climbed the ladder to the top and had a great view of the entire area. Just then a flock of fairly large black birds flew overhead. I looked up and began counting them. I had gotten past 30 when I noticed that at least three of the black birds had bright white patches that gleamed as they flew by.
Dream 2: Red Diamond
My friend Duncan had invited me to a party at his apartment. I had his phone number and a key for his door, but I didn't know his apartment number. Once I was inside the building I was surprised to see that it wasn't a "normal" set of apartments. There were many tall doors, resembling lockers. A group of people were lined up in the hallway, and were being interrogated by a guard. Apparently they, too, were guests, but didn't have the apartment number or the key, so the guard would have to interview them to determine who was "worthy" of entry -- as if they were going to an exclusive club.
I got out my cell phone and called Duncan. My friend M-J answered; she was already inside. I said, "I don't have the apartment number." She said, "It's the one with the red diamond." (I was supposed to look for the door with the apartment number superimposed on a red background shaped like a diamond.) Soon I became exasperated. I said, "Can't you just give me the number?" She repeated, "Look for the red diamond!"
I hung up the phone and walked up and down the hallway, looking for the door. I finally found it, off to my right, and bent down to put the key into the lock, which was only a few feet from the floor. Once the door was opened, I still didn't have access to the apartment; instead, I was confronted with a series of obstacles, set up to impede the progress of unauthorized guests. I was standing before many layers of retractable metal gates, but, because I possessed the proper key, I was able to pry them apart. That only got me so far. I still didn't know how to get through the other side, so I was standing in a cramped space, about the size of a closet, wondering what to do. The guard noticed that I had obtained "authorized" entry, so he stopped what he was doing, and turned his attention to me. He led another guy my way (apparently he passed the test) and placed him in the tiny room with me. We were crammed together, and it was very uncomfortable; I was beginning to feel claustrophibic. The guard said, "We're gonna have to figure out how many homies we're gonna put in here..." and I woke up.
*****
Dream 1
All in all, this seemed like a nice vacation destination.
My dad is going into the hospital next week for a surgical procedure, so that that's been on my mind. That's probably why the hospital bed showed up.
The "Holy Grail" of the title refers to the black birds with bright white patches; those would be Ivory Billed Woodpeckers, the rarest birds in the United States, and thus the holy grail for American bird watchers. Despite reports that the Ivory Bill was sighted a few years back in Arkansas, I'm not convinced, and keep hoping that someone will come up with conclusive proof that they still exist, such as a decent photo or video. Seeing an Ivory Bill would be a dream come true for me.
Dream 2
Duncan used to work with me in the customer service department at Adcom Art Supplies in Virginia. We shared a townhouse in Falls Church with various other people for several years, starting in 1988. I haven't seen him since attending his wedding sometime in the latter half of the '90s. M-J is a close friend, and is married to another good friend, Preston, who also occasionally appears in this blog. M-J and and Duncan never knew each other. Preston introduced me to her long after Duncan had moved to Atlanta.
The entrance to Duncan's apartment reminded me of the opening of the "Get Smart" TV show, in which Max had to go through all sorts of sliding doors to gain access to headquarters.
I never thought that I was being kidnapped, or that I'd be held in the tiny room for a long period of time; I thought that the guard was figuring out how many folks he could fit into that room before passing us along to the next step. It was almost like an elevator operator assessing how many people he could safely carry during each trip. By the way, I think the guard in the hallway was probably the same guard that I see each morning when I come in to work.
I have a theory about the origin of the "red diamond." The other night I was looking up old stuff on YouTube again, and found episodes from a serial called "The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." These short films were produced in the late 1960s and appeared during the "Banana Splits" show. These "new adventures" combined live action and animation, and the concept was pretty strange: Huck, Tom and Becky had entered a cave, and that led them into some strange animated world(s) that often resembled far-off lands, such as India or the Middle East. I watched clips of one such episode, in which their nemesis, Injun Joe, was running around in what appeared to be India, wearing a turban on his head. He was determined to steal the (single) eye from a giant, many-armed, Buddah-like statue. He climbed up to the top and used his dagger to remove the eye -- a large red jewel. A red diamond, perhaps? OK, it was probably a ruby, but you never know.
Red diamonds are also one of the four suits in poker. Maybe I was thinking about that, and about the poker tournament in which I play every year with Andrew and my old friends, including Preston. The next round is September 15.
Dream 1: The Holy Grail
My wife and I were vacationing on a wooded hillside that led down to a lake. My brother Andrew and sister-in-law Susan were there, too. Each couple had their own cabin on the property. One morning I woke up and looked around for my wife; she wasn't there. I walked around the corner into the next room and found her, fully clothed, lying on top of a hospital bed, reading a magazine. She said, "I got up earlier, and didn't want to wake you." She was fine; the hospital bed just happened to be there. A little later I decided to take a walk. At first I met up with Andrew and Susan at a picnic table at a common area on the lawn, and we chatted for awhile. We'd meet up again later. I got up and continued strolling. Soon I came across an old man who owned a very nice house in a young strand of trees near the top of the hill. I complemented him on his home and he said that it was a valuable piece of property. I turned my attention toward the lake, where I saw two nice young people coming toward me from the shore. They were vacationers, too. They passed me, and when I turned around, there was suddenly a high water tower to the right of the old man's house. The two kids had climbed the ladder to the top and had a great view of the entire area. Just then a flock of fairly large black birds flew overhead. I looked up and began counting them. I had gotten past 30 when I noticed that at least three of the black birds had bright white patches that gleamed as they flew by.
Dream 2: Red Diamond
My friend Duncan had invited me to a party at his apartment. I had his phone number and a key for his door, but I didn't know his apartment number. Once I was inside the building I was surprised to see that it wasn't a "normal" set of apartments. There were many tall doors, resembling lockers. A group of people were lined up in the hallway, and were being interrogated by a guard. Apparently they, too, were guests, but didn't have the apartment number or the key, so the guard would have to interview them to determine who was "worthy" of entry -- as if they were going to an exclusive club.
I got out my cell phone and called Duncan. My friend M-J answered; she was already inside. I said, "I don't have the apartment number." She said, "It's the one with the red diamond." (I was supposed to look for the door with the apartment number superimposed on a red background shaped like a diamond.) Soon I became exasperated. I said, "Can't you just give me the number?" She repeated, "Look for the red diamond!"
I hung up the phone and walked up and down the hallway, looking for the door. I finally found it, off to my right, and bent down to put the key into the lock, which was only a few feet from the floor. Once the door was opened, I still didn't have access to the apartment; instead, I was confronted with a series of obstacles, set up to impede the progress of unauthorized guests. I was standing before many layers of retractable metal gates, but, because I possessed the proper key, I was able to pry them apart. That only got me so far. I still didn't know how to get through the other side, so I was standing in a cramped space, about the size of a closet, wondering what to do. The guard noticed that I had obtained "authorized" entry, so he stopped what he was doing, and turned his attention to me. He led another guy my way (apparently he passed the test) and placed him in the tiny room with me. We were crammed together, and it was very uncomfortable; I was beginning to feel claustrophibic. The guard said, "We're gonna have to figure out how many homies we're gonna put in here..." and I woke up.
*****
Dream 1
All in all, this seemed like a nice vacation destination.
My dad is going into the hospital next week for a surgical procedure, so that that's been on my mind. That's probably why the hospital bed showed up.
The "Holy Grail" of the title refers to the black birds with bright white patches; those would be Ivory Billed Woodpeckers, the rarest birds in the United States, and thus the holy grail for American bird watchers. Despite reports that the Ivory Bill was sighted a few years back in Arkansas, I'm not convinced, and keep hoping that someone will come up with conclusive proof that they still exist, such as a decent photo or video. Seeing an Ivory Bill would be a dream come true for me.
Dream 2
Duncan used to work with me in the customer service department at Adcom Art Supplies in Virginia. We shared a townhouse in Falls Church with various other people for several years, starting in 1988. I haven't seen him since attending his wedding sometime in the latter half of the '90s. M-J is a close friend, and is married to another good friend, Preston, who also occasionally appears in this blog. M-J and and Duncan never knew each other. Preston introduced me to her long after Duncan had moved to Atlanta.
The entrance to Duncan's apartment reminded me of the opening of the "Get Smart" TV show, in which Max had to go through all sorts of sliding doors to gain access to headquarters.
I never thought that I was being kidnapped, or that I'd be held in the tiny room for a long period of time; I thought that the guard was figuring out how many folks he could fit into that room before passing us along to the next step. It was almost like an elevator operator assessing how many people he could safely carry during each trip. By the way, I think the guard in the hallway was probably the same guard that I see each morning when I come in to work.
I have a theory about the origin of the "red diamond." The other night I was looking up old stuff on YouTube again, and found episodes from a serial called "The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." These short films were produced in the late 1960s and appeared during the "Banana Splits" show. These "new adventures" combined live action and animation, and the concept was pretty strange: Huck, Tom and Becky had entered a cave, and that led them into some strange animated world(s) that often resembled far-off lands, such as India or the Middle East. I watched clips of one such episode, in which their nemesis, Injun Joe, was running around in what appeared to be India, wearing a turban on his head. He was determined to steal the (single) eye from a giant, many-armed, Buddah-like statue. He climbed up to the top and used his dagger to remove the eye -- a large red jewel. A red diamond, perhaps? OK, it was probably a ruby, but you never know.
Red diamonds are also one of the four suits in poker. Maybe I was thinking about that, and about the poker tournament in which I play every year with Andrew and my old friends, including Preston. The next round is September 15.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Hungry
Thursday night
I walked into a boardroom that included one long central table. My wife was already there, standing to my right. I don't remember seeing any chairs, but dinner plates were set up on all sides, and each plate included a hunk of bread. They all surrounded a very large, empty bowl. I said, "What, no more cheese dip?" My wife said, "Well, it has been a year..."
*****
There's a going-away party at the office this afternoon for some coworkers who accepted the offer of a buyout. The sendoff will be in a conference room similar to the one in the dream. Hopefully they won't be serving cheese dip. I don't even like the stuff.
Glad I didn't eat any of that bread, if it had been sitting out during a year-long reception...
I walked into a boardroom that included one long central table. My wife was already there, standing to my right. I don't remember seeing any chairs, but dinner plates were set up on all sides, and each plate included a hunk of bread. They all surrounded a very large, empty bowl. I said, "What, no more cheese dip?" My wife said, "Well, it has been a year..."
*****
There's a going-away party at the office this afternoon for some coworkers who accepted the offer of a buyout. The sendoff will be in a conference room similar to the one in the dream. Hopefully they won't be serving cheese dip. I don't even like the stuff.
Glad I didn't eat any of that bread, if it had been sitting out during a year-long reception...
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Inhibited?
Monday night
I was walking through a nice office building and heading for the showers when I passed by one of my coworkers. She said, "I don't know why we can't share a locker room. Guys feel it, too... why can't they show it?"
*****
The "it" in this case is sexuality. The woman in the dream was referring to all employees sharing the locker room, not just the two of us. Her point was, "We're all adults here -- why can't we (figuratively and literally) let it all hang out?"
I'm not that liberal, despite what my subconscious says.
I was walking through a nice office building and heading for the showers when I passed by one of my coworkers. She said, "I don't know why we can't share a locker room. Guys feel it, too... why can't they show it?"
*****
The "it" in this case is sexuality. The woman in the dream was referring to all employees sharing the locker room, not just the two of us. Her point was, "We're all adults here -- why can't we (figuratively and literally) let it all hang out?"
I'm not that liberal, despite what my subconscious says.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Wendy
Sunday night
It was fall or early winter, and I was walking alone along a modified version of the Harrison Street Shopping Center in Arlington, one in which several sections of shops filled both sides of vertical dead-end streets, as opposed to one long horizontal strip. I was thinking about Wendy G., about how we'd had an on-again, off-again romantic relationship. I was married now, and was feeling guilty about how I had left the situation with Wendy inconclusively. Maybe I should contact her and apologize.
*****
This dream is basically wishful thinking. Wendy and I never had a romantic relationship, no matter how much I wished that we had. She was the girlfriend of my friend Jeff back in the early '80s, and after they broke up, she dated his brother, Bernie for awhile. I was the friend and confidant -- same old boring story. We wrote long notes that we passed to each other, which certainly meant more to me than they meant to her. Wendy's dad had some job in the foreign service, so Wendy moved to Europe with her family, and ended up going to college over there. We corresponded for a few years, but eventually the letters stopped coming, and we lost touch.
One day in the mid-1990s I was sitting with some friends in the Metro 29 Diner on Lee Highway and happened to look across the room. There was Wendy, sitting at a corner table, with her family. I hadn't seen her in 10 years, and had always wondered what happened to her. At the end of their meal, Wendy's family got up, and she walked over to my table. She said, "I thought that was you," and gave me a hug. After that, my memory is a little hazy. I know that we exchanged pleasantries, and I said something to the effect of, "We ought to get together." Either I drove her home that day, or we met up the next day, and talked for awhile. In any case, I dropped her off at her parents' house, and she was supposed to call me about going to the movies that weekend. She never called, and I'll admit that my feelings were terribly hurt. In the absence of any other information, I turned the situation in on myself. I wondered, "Did she size me up and think I was stupid? Did I say the wrong thing? Was she turned off by my lousy car?" (At the time I was driving a used red Hyundai Elantra, and one of the front parking lights had a habit of popping out and dangling by the cord. Not too cool.)
Maybe she was just busy, or maybe she lost my phone number. I'll probably never know. I suppose that I could have called her, but I guess I wanted some proof that she was interested in getting in touch with me. I still lived at my parents' house, so she could easily have found us in the phone book.
I haven't seen her since. By now it should be obvious that I spent way too much time in the '80s and early '90s pining after the wrong people.
This dream may have been influenced by an episode of "The Sopranos" that my wife and I watched last night on DVD. Christopher Moltisanti had just gotten out of rehab, and Tony Soprano was asking him how he was doing on his 12-step program. Christopher said that the only thing he had left to do was to contact those he'd hurt along the way, and make amends.
It was fall or early winter, and I was walking alone along a modified version of the Harrison Street Shopping Center in Arlington, one in which several sections of shops filled both sides of vertical dead-end streets, as opposed to one long horizontal strip. I was thinking about Wendy G., about how we'd had an on-again, off-again romantic relationship. I was married now, and was feeling guilty about how I had left the situation with Wendy inconclusively. Maybe I should contact her and apologize.
*****
This dream is basically wishful thinking. Wendy and I never had a romantic relationship, no matter how much I wished that we had. She was the girlfriend of my friend Jeff back in the early '80s, and after they broke up, she dated his brother, Bernie for awhile. I was the friend and confidant -- same old boring story. We wrote long notes that we passed to each other, which certainly meant more to me than they meant to her. Wendy's dad had some job in the foreign service, so Wendy moved to Europe with her family, and ended up going to college over there. We corresponded for a few years, but eventually the letters stopped coming, and we lost touch.
One day in the mid-1990s I was sitting with some friends in the Metro 29 Diner on Lee Highway and happened to look across the room. There was Wendy, sitting at a corner table, with her family. I hadn't seen her in 10 years, and had always wondered what happened to her. At the end of their meal, Wendy's family got up, and she walked over to my table. She said, "I thought that was you," and gave me a hug. After that, my memory is a little hazy. I know that we exchanged pleasantries, and I said something to the effect of, "We ought to get together." Either I drove her home that day, or we met up the next day, and talked for awhile. In any case, I dropped her off at her parents' house, and she was supposed to call me about going to the movies that weekend. She never called, and I'll admit that my feelings were terribly hurt. In the absence of any other information, I turned the situation in on myself. I wondered, "Did she size me up and think I was stupid? Did I say the wrong thing? Was she turned off by my lousy car?" (At the time I was driving a used red Hyundai Elantra, and one of the front parking lights had a habit of popping out and dangling by the cord. Not too cool.)
Maybe she was just busy, or maybe she lost my phone number. I'll probably never know. I suppose that I could have called her, but I guess I wanted some proof that she was interested in getting in touch with me. I still lived at my parents' house, so she could easily have found us in the phone book.
I haven't seen her since. By now it should be obvious that I spent way too much time in the '80s and early '90s pining after the wrong people.
This dream may have been influenced by an episode of "The Sopranos" that my wife and I watched last night on DVD. Christopher Moltisanti had just gotten out of rehab, and Tony Soprano was asking him how he was doing on his 12-step program. Christopher said that the only thing he had left to do was to contact those he'd hurt along the way, and make amends.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Get Out of Jail Free Card
Saturday night
My wife's boss'es family was on vacation, and their son, Jamie P., had gotten permission to get out of jail and join them. The catch was that in order to do this, he had to carry around a helium balloon that contained a card denoting his temporarily free status. Jamie had three chances to put a balloon on the end of a machine and blow it up with the card inside. If he was unsuccessful after three tries, he had to go directly back to jail. He attached the first balloon, a long dark green one, and began to fill it with air, but it exploded.
*****
My wife's boss'es family is on vacation right now, but none of their family members are in jail. Jamie P. was a cool guy who used to work with me at Penguin Feather Records at Bailey's Crossroads in Northern Virginia. He was (and presumbably still is) an Italian-American, with a big black mustache. He was shorter than me, and a few years older. I've always remembered one thing he said to me about the record store: "If you think this is a hard job, wait until you get out in the real world, and get a real job." Maybe he had had a real job, and decided to work in a record store instead. Anyway, I haven't seen him since I quit working at Penguin Feather, circa 1982.
The get out of jail card probably refers to Monopoly, which is one of my favorite games, although I don't get to play it nearly as often as I'd like. I'm lucky if I get in one game a year, with the nieces at Christmastime. I took part in an interminable game with friends Preston and M-J and my future wife on 8/6/2000, and I think that the rest of them have sworn off Monopoly ever since.
I told my wife about this dream this morning, and she reminded me where the card-in-the-balloon thing came from. Not long after I went to work for my current employer, they rented out a meeting room with a stage at the Frist Art Gallery here, and had a pep rally to get people psyched up about a big publication that sales people were supposed to get out and push. Everyone who attended the rally was given a number, so that the crowd was divided up into about six teams, each of which had a team leader. At one point the team leaders were called up on stage, and each had to pick a helium balloon. Once everyone had one, each balloon was popped with a pin, revealing cards inside which contained details of a skit that was to be improvised by the respective teams. Several people in the audience were heard mumbling things along the lines of, "What, are we back in junior high school now?" It was embarrassing. About 3/4 of the way through I cut out and went upstairs to look at some paintings.
My wife's boss'es family was on vacation, and their son, Jamie P., had gotten permission to get out of jail and join them. The catch was that in order to do this, he had to carry around a helium balloon that contained a card denoting his temporarily free status. Jamie had three chances to put a balloon on the end of a machine and blow it up with the card inside. If he was unsuccessful after three tries, he had to go directly back to jail. He attached the first balloon, a long dark green one, and began to fill it with air, but it exploded.
*****
My wife's boss'es family is on vacation right now, but none of their family members are in jail. Jamie P. was a cool guy who used to work with me at Penguin Feather Records at Bailey's Crossroads in Northern Virginia. He was (and presumbably still is) an Italian-American, with a big black mustache. He was shorter than me, and a few years older. I've always remembered one thing he said to me about the record store: "If you think this is a hard job, wait until you get out in the real world, and get a real job." Maybe he had had a real job, and decided to work in a record store instead. Anyway, I haven't seen him since I quit working at Penguin Feather, circa 1982.
The get out of jail card probably refers to Monopoly, which is one of my favorite games, although I don't get to play it nearly as often as I'd like. I'm lucky if I get in one game a year, with the nieces at Christmastime. I took part in an interminable game with friends Preston and M-J and my future wife on 8/6/2000, and I think that the rest of them have sworn off Monopoly ever since.
I told my wife about this dream this morning, and she reminded me where the card-in-the-balloon thing came from. Not long after I went to work for my current employer, they rented out a meeting room with a stage at the Frist Art Gallery here, and had a pep rally to get people psyched up about a big publication that sales people were supposed to get out and push. Everyone who attended the rally was given a number, so that the crowd was divided up into about six teams, each of which had a team leader. At one point the team leaders were called up on stage, and each had to pick a helium balloon. Once everyone had one, each balloon was popped with a pin, revealing cards inside which contained details of a skit that was to be improvised by the respective teams. Several people in the audience were heard mumbling things along the lines of, "What, are we back in junior high school now?" It was embarrassing. About 3/4 of the way through I cut out and went upstairs to look at some paintings.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Goal!
Friday night
I was a member of a small hockey team captained by my friend Eddie M. We were playing a match in an arena and were being watched by an audience. I was an eager participant; too eager, in fact. It soon became apparent that I didn't understand all of the rules.
Ed took part in a face-off with a member of the other team. I thought that they had already touched the puck, so I jumped right in an smacked it away. It turned out that neither one of them had hit it yet, so that was a major foul. A little later I made the same mistake, and shortly thereafter I was looking for Ed, but he was nowhere to be found. It turned out that each time I screwed up the face-off, Ed was sent to the penalty box for an entire period.
Now our team was really short-handed. In fact, I was aware of only one other player on our side, a tall, heavy-set woman who was wearing glasses. Knowing that I had caused Ed to sit out, and that I had cost her a teammate, I really wanted to make it up to both of them. Suddenly my teammate was involved in a scrum, fighting for the puck in the top right corner of the rink. Somehow she managed to pass the puck my way, calling out my name so I'd be ready to receive it. I whirled my hockey stick over my head as if I were a polo player, and hit the puck hard. It made a beeline straight for the opponents' goal, which was pretty far away, and not defended at the moment. Time seemed to slow down as we waited to see what would happen, and the puck slowed, too; it just barely made it over the line.
*****
Yesterday I was e-mailing back and forth with my friend, Preston, and mentioned how much I used to enjoy a table-top air hockey game that used to be in the apartment that I shared with my brother Andrew.
I was a member of a small hockey team captained by my friend Eddie M. We were playing a match in an arena and were being watched by an audience. I was an eager participant; too eager, in fact. It soon became apparent that I didn't understand all of the rules.
Ed took part in a face-off with a member of the other team. I thought that they had already touched the puck, so I jumped right in an smacked it away. It turned out that neither one of them had hit it yet, so that was a major foul. A little later I made the same mistake, and shortly thereafter I was looking for Ed, but he was nowhere to be found. It turned out that each time I screwed up the face-off, Ed was sent to the penalty box for an entire period.
Now our team was really short-handed. In fact, I was aware of only one other player on our side, a tall, heavy-set woman who was wearing glasses. Knowing that I had caused Ed to sit out, and that I had cost her a teammate, I really wanted to make it up to both of them. Suddenly my teammate was involved in a scrum, fighting for the puck in the top right corner of the rink. Somehow she managed to pass the puck my way, calling out my name so I'd be ready to receive it. I whirled my hockey stick over my head as if I were a polo player, and hit the puck hard. It made a beeline straight for the opponents' goal, which was pretty far away, and not defended at the moment. Time seemed to slow down as we waited to see what would happen, and the puck slowed, too; it just barely made it over the line.
*****
Yesterday I was e-mailing back and forth with my friend, Preston, and mentioned how much I used to enjoy a table-top air hockey game that used to be in the apartment that I shared with my brother Andrew.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Consolidation
Thursday night
My brother Jimmie was being forced to (or asked to) move everything out of his already tiny bedroom in my parents house; now he had to keep it all stacked up under a desk. It seemed that part of the reason behind the move was so that others could see what he had kept locked up in there. I was standing in front of the desk, looking at his neatly-stacked mound of materials, and was discussing it with someone else. I said, "He's still found a way to hide some of it," meaning that he had buried some of his more important stuff at the bottom, or in the back of the pile.
*****
Jimmie did have the smallest bedroom in our parents' house, and he was pretty secretive about his stuff. He didn't want anybody going in his room if he wasn't around. That didn't mean that we didn't go in there, of course.
My brother Jimmie was being forced to (or asked to) move everything out of his already tiny bedroom in my parents house; now he had to keep it all stacked up under a desk. It seemed that part of the reason behind the move was so that others could see what he had kept locked up in there. I was standing in front of the desk, looking at his neatly-stacked mound of materials, and was discussing it with someone else. I said, "He's still found a way to hide some of it," meaning that he had buried some of his more important stuff at the bottom, or in the back of the pile.
*****
Jimmie did have the smallest bedroom in our parents' house, and he was pretty secretive about his stuff. He didn't want anybody going in his room if he wasn't around. That didn't mean that we didn't go in there, of course.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Wednesday night
I was standing in Tom Snyder's office and he was cracking a bunch of lame jokes, all the while standing behind his desk and staring right through me. At one point I said, "It sure is crowded in this town," to which he replied, "And they haven't even brought the girls over yet (from the old country)!"
*****
Tom Snyder died July 29 of leukemia. He was 71. I watched his show "Tomorrow" almost every night (actually every morning) following Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" on NBC. I'm sure that this dream was inspired by a particularly bug-eyed photo of Snyder which accompanied his appreciation in Entertainment Weekly magazine.
I was standing in Tom Snyder's office and he was cracking a bunch of lame jokes, all the while standing behind his desk and staring right through me. At one point I said, "It sure is crowded in this town," to which he replied, "And they haven't even brought the girls over yet (from the old country)!"
*****
Tom Snyder died July 29 of leukemia. He was 71. I watched his show "Tomorrow" almost every night (actually every morning) following Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" on NBC. I'm sure that this dream was inspired by a particularly bug-eyed photo of Snyder which accompanied his appreciation in Entertainment Weekly magazine.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Bathroom Humor / Found
Tuesday night
Dream 1: Bathroom Humor
Mike Myers was being interviewed on Ellen Degeneres' talk show. A second guest happened to be an old personal friend of Myers', and chose that moment to tell some wildly inappropriate stories about him, as Degeneres and Myers looked on in horror. At one point he related an anecdote about an occasion when Myers visited (the friend's) family, and spent a very long time in the bathroom. He said, "Now, when we go to the bathroom, we say, 'I'm going to take a Mike!'"
Dream 2: Found
I was back at my parents' house in Arlington, and had heard that our friend, Brent, was missing. Instinctively, I knew where to find him. I walked into the kitchen and opened a cabinet door next to the floor. Brent was curled up inside, hiding, apparently ashamed about something he had done. I encouraged him to step out into the open.
*****
Dream 1
I was in the audience for Mike Myers' appearance on "Late Night with David Letterman," March 25, 1997, in NYC. Myers showed a rather racy clip from the first "Austin Powers" movie, and I remember being a little embarrassed, knowing that my parents were watching.
Dream 2
I met Brent in junior high school, back in the mid-'70s. He has been estranged from some of his old friends for several years now, a situation that I regret deeply. All of my efforts to intervene have come to naught.
I must have crawled into the cabinet space under the kitchen sink a time or two when I was a kid. We used to keep a box of crayons under there, amongst other things. The cabinet that Brent inhabited in this dream wasn't directly under the sink, but next to it, under the kitchen counter, behind a brown wooden door. He was practically wrapped up in a ball when I found him.
Dream 1: Bathroom Humor
Mike Myers was being interviewed on Ellen Degeneres' talk show. A second guest happened to be an old personal friend of Myers', and chose that moment to tell some wildly inappropriate stories about him, as Degeneres and Myers looked on in horror. At one point he related an anecdote about an occasion when Myers visited (the friend's) family, and spent a very long time in the bathroom. He said, "Now, when we go to the bathroom, we say, 'I'm going to take a Mike!'"
Dream 2: Found
I was back at my parents' house in Arlington, and had heard that our friend, Brent, was missing. Instinctively, I knew where to find him. I walked into the kitchen and opened a cabinet door next to the floor. Brent was curled up inside, hiding, apparently ashamed about something he had done. I encouraged him to step out into the open.
*****
Dream 1
I was in the audience for Mike Myers' appearance on "Late Night with David Letterman," March 25, 1997, in NYC. Myers showed a rather racy clip from the first "Austin Powers" movie, and I remember being a little embarrassed, knowing that my parents were watching.
Dream 2
I met Brent in junior high school, back in the mid-'70s. He has been estranged from some of his old friends for several years now, a situation that I regret deeply. All of my efforts to intervene have come to naught.
I must have crawled into the cabinet space under the kitchen sink a time or two when I was a kid. We used to keep a box of crayons under there, amongst other things. The cabinet that Brent inhabited in this dream wasn't directly under the sink, but next to it, under the kitchen counter, behind a brown wooden door. He was practically wrapped up in a ball when I found him.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Country Drive / Team Dispirited
Saturday night, Chattanooga, TN
Dream 1: Country Drive
I was with a group of people who were on vacation in England and we were visiting an old grande dame at her country estate. We were talking about our plans for the day, and she had an idea. She called her neighbor, Pete Townshend, who immediately sent over some sports cars from his collection for the amusement of her guests.
Dream 2: Team Dispirited
Conan O'Brien and I worked for the same employer, and he managed the company baseball team. (I was one of the players.) The employer was being really cheap about paying for the team, however, and Conan had to justify every little expense. At the same time there was a renowned former slugger on our team, who was in a slump. We tried to encourage him when he was at the plate, but it didn't seem to be working out.
*****
Dream 1:
My wife and I stopped in at a big antique mall in Chattanooga on Saturday afternoon, and I happened to pick up a book that was printed in the 1970s. It was called "The World's Favorite Automobiles," and featured a cover photo of many beautiful old cars displayed in the driveway of an old mansion. I know nothing about repairing automobiles, but I love the designs of almost any cars made prior to 1970, particularly the ones prior to 1960.
Pete Townshend is a favorite writer, singer and guitarist.
Dream 2:
My employer is cutting back on expenses wherever they can...
Dream 1: Country Drive
I was with a group of people who were on vacation in England and we were visiting an old grande dame at her country estate. We were talking about our plans for the day, and she had an idea. She called her neighbor, Pete Townshend, who immediately sent over some sports cars from his collection for the amusement of her guests.
Dream 2: Team Dispirited
Conan O'Brien and I worked for the same employer, and he managed the company baseball team. (I was one of the players.) The employer was being really cheap about paying for the team, however, and Conan had to justify every little expense. At the same time there was a renowned former slugger on our team, who was in a slump. We tried to encourage him when he was at the plate, but it didn't seem to be working out.
*****
Dream 1:
My wife and I stopped in at a big antique mall in Chattanooga on Saturday afternoon, and I happened to pick up a book that was printed in the 1970s. It was called "The World's Favorite Automobiles," and featured a cover photo of many beautiful old cars displayed in the driveway of an old mansion. I know nothing about repairing automobiles, but I love the designs of almost any cars made prior to 1970, particularly the ones prior to 1960.
Pete Townshend is a favorite writer, singer and guitarist.
Dream 2:
My employer is cutting back on expenses wherever they can...
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
High Chairs
Tuesday night
When my wife woke me up this morning, she says I rolled over and said, "We were sitting about six feet off of the ground."
?
On to the July Dream Roundup.
*****
The following people showed up in my dreams in July 2007. Let's give 'em a hand.
Family & Friends:
My wife
My father-in-law
Andrew (brother)
Dawn (sister-in-law)
Jimmie (brother)
Mom
Becky H. U.
Brud H.
Denise V. F.
Eddie M.
Gordon S.
Greg S.
Jim B.
Margaret S. (A woman resembled her in "Blue Chair.")
Maurice F.
Mindy S.
Preston W.
Ray B.
Coworkers and Acquaintances:
Kahata M.
Melissa F.
Rod S.
Celebrities:
America Ferrera
The Banana Splits (theme park dedicated to them in "House Party")
Barack Obama
Brian Wilson (documentary film about him in "On The Town")
Bruce Springsteen (his concert tickets traded hands in "Tickets")
Frank Sinatra
George Lucas (portrait bust of him in "Hurry Up")
James Gandolfini (as Tony Soprano)
Jerry Seinfeld (on TV in "Flying")
John Lennon (his artwork was displayed in a gallery in "Grand Opening")
Mike Wallace
Paul McCartney
Prince
Theodore Roosevelt (as my father)
Tim Daly (as J.T. Dolan)
Dreams about Mom & Dad's house: 2
When my wife woke me up this morning, she says I rolled over and said, "We were sitting about six feet off of the ground."
?
On to the July Dream Roundup.
*****
The following people showed up in my dreams in July 2007. Let's give 'em a hand.
Family & Friends:
My wife
My father-in-law
Andrew (brother)
Dawn (sister-in-law)
Jimmie (brother)
Mom
Becky H. U.
Brud H.
Denise V. F.
Eddie M.
Gordon S.
Greg S.
Jim B.
Margaret S. (A woman resembled her in "Blue Chair.")
Maurice F.
Mindy S.
Preston W.
Ray B.
Coworkers and Acquaintances:
Kahata M.
Melissa F.
Rod S.
Celebrities:
America Ferrera
The Banana Splits (theme park dedicated to them in "House Party")
Barack Obama
Brian Wilson (documentary film about him in "On The Town")
Bruce Springsteen (his concert tickets traded hands in "Tickets")
Frank Sinatra
George Lucas (portrait bust of him in "Hurry Up")
James Gandolfini (as Tony Soprano)
Jerry Seinfeld (on TV in "Flying")
John Lennon (his artwork was displayed in a gallery in "Grand Opening")
Mike Wallace
Paul McCartney
Prince
Theodore Roosevelt (as my father)
Tim Daly (as J.T. Dolan)
Dreams about Mom & Dad's house: 2
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