The Backup Singers with Fake Beards / Computer Canvas

Trying to catch up here, and note some interesting dreams over the last few weeks...

Setting up at some kind of club show, with a band. Band includes PJF with lots of old gear i.e. Roland D-50. Someone (sound guy) wants to sound check, but holds guitar and changes amp settings. I'm getting increasingly upset. Breaking point reached and "I'm out", not doing show, I say. RH is there, sitting, very upset, saying if I pull out this time I'll never get another gig. I'm unmoved. Show starts. I'm sitting with PJF on some long vinyl couches near stage - stage is nice, good sound system. PJF voices my regret, asks if maybe we can still play a set. I'm negative, I believe it's too late in the evening.

Band is playing, and they have some cavalcade of girls coming from a side entrance to join them on stage: back-up singers. Supposed to be attractive, but they come out and they are older, acne-riddled, pock-marked, rosacea etc. Two of them are particularly old and short and sport bad auburn colored fake beards on their faces, long as if they are wigs.

Another sequence where I'm in some kind of art class that BP is running, and I haven't been there in a while, and that's my excuse why I didn't bring some new brushes/materials. I watch someone near me drawing/painting, and they seem to be able to manipulate the image digitally at the same time, like the canvas has a computer type interface at the bottom.

Reality TV Haircut / Batman the Musical

Starts off, I'm on some type of reality makeover show, have been given new awkward haircut (or even more awkward than current.) I'm sitting around on a couch, when I'm suddenly embarassed to realize that 4-5 mirrors on opposite wall likely have cameras behind them - not sure what I've said and done and if it will now air on tv.

Later, going to the movies with my parents. Large theater, seat sections are broken up and scattered. For example, there is an area I consider that is just one single file of chairs facing the screen/stage, so we would sit behind one another instead of adjacent. Eventually we sit somewhere else.

What transpires on stage/screen is sort nothing less than Batman the musical. It's a combination of filmed moments from the 1989 film and re-enactments on stage. This becomes a musical with an entirely different plot; a singing family has one sibling who can't really sing. They are all in their late 30's and the bad singing brother is the least attractive also, though it's close. He sings some lines in the group badly. Oddly, this doesn't feel like the famous Brady Bunch episode where Peter's voice is cracking, I only make that connection much later after waking.

There is more but currently forgotten.

A Bad Show / Middle Eastern Firing Squad / Death Experience

I'm part of some big concert show being put on in this large mansion/school auditorium; kids in audience. It's being badly run by a bunch of teenage girls. I'm up the staircase when I hear through the closed curtain that I might be on next. I ask a girl and she confirms this is likely true. I move out to the stage area...well lit, rug, indoorsy feel. I'm hooking up the pedals, though I hear a guitar loop going before I've plugged in the DOD. There are some problems, the loop stops, the curtain opens, I'm not ready. My strap is in sticky tape tatters, it and myself are scattered with some sort of styrofoam; strap doesn't work. CW and AM come up to try and help me get it together. The audience is smaller than I thought before. I realize DY might have a strap backstage. I turn to look and see that back there, at least two people separately (including BL) are repeatedly replaying some embarassing video footage of me and a mirror having a wardrobe malfunction of a sort rarely seen in the waking state (this happened earlier that day in dream.) I get upset and decide right then to walk off and not play the show.

Soon I'm circling around this giant house gathering up my stuff to leave; it takes a while. Encounter with DY in sunglasses; I bring up incident and he turns viciously quiet. I'm gathering up stuff, they happen to be sharp weapons, feels fortuitous, includes my pocket knife and possibly some garden or kitchen tools.

DY sitting at table. A few scenes overlap here. Something about a long journey up a wall. Something about the assassination of a foreign world leader. I'm leaving the house (though I'm back inside shortly) to see the procession of leader's widow and her entourage - I accidentally don't hold the door for her, sign of disrespect. Some other vision overlaps regarding Israel and Palestine and outbreak of nuclear hostilities. I'm reading the paper, amazed and horrified, having been aware of possibilities but disbelieving people would ever be so insane to do it. I realize if there were time, myself and others would go there to forcibly keep peace.

Somehow this impending catastrophe is connected with the indoor execution by a circular firing squad of a man - who may be me and/or CJ or CK but regardless I'm connected, though watching from outside the circle. I'm hoping somehow, due to impending world war, they'll give condemned man a break. They do not - shots and blood, head comes apart.

My consciousness has few moments left before death, firing squad dissolves. Two secondary entities make themselves known before also dissipating - twirling away leaving behind dull multi-colored shrouds. One is some type of "angel", the other represents the "Muse" or art and music inspiration embodied. I have a few seconds left. I decide not to lay down and give up my soul spirit where the executed man's body is, I want to lay and die where the Muse left her shroud behind - feels right and relatively comforting.

I'm on my back ready to give up the ghost. Eyes darken, I see a strange symbol that resembles two swords hanging with hilts on top, hilts touching. Also resembles two crosses side by side. Intoxication feeling, spinning. Strange swirls and then an incredible feeling of dying. Conviction: "I've been through this before, it always feels like this." Feeling is intense but not painful. Deep memory of past death experiences. Profound experience. I hear music, people singing, I try to remember and sing along but I forget the melody now. The words however, sort of say something similar to "he (meaning me) will not be reborn/awakened until called upon by God." I know this feeling, I have been on this threshold countless times before. I'm not afraid but for some reason I do feel the need to come back to earth reality. I try to wake up, open eyes, feel face, with only a little success. I grow a little more desperate.

I eventually do "wake up" in a new version of the original mansion, which is now partially my parents' house. I go to tell my mother what happened. I sense that the beds have strange energies which caused me to have such an intense dream. I'm amazed my parents haven't been through this. I have to explain mess from concert after-party and tell story of my humiliation on stage. My mother mentions that she might have preferred not to be bothered, and refers to "tatto", which she explains refers to her two days off in a row. It is 1:45 pm in the dream and she is just waking up, which is odd.
(In reality it is about 5am.) Cat (Rogue/Kitty/Catsu) is under headboard.

The Supermarket Humilations

NOTE: this dream and journal entry took place the night before the dream described above.

Not much of interest, but want to keep this going...I'm in some type of supermarket with JD, a kid takes my cap and wears it as he walks away, goofing. I decide to let it slide for now. Cap gets passed around, becomes my 35mm camera, so I leap across table/frozen food island and grab camera from girl snapping photos, though I'm interested to see what develops. (Sorry.) Later I'm at the checkout, opening and gorging on a bag of crunchy cheese doodles before the receipt is even printed, stopping all line activity.

The Car Crash and the Practical Joke Store Fronts

Driving with JD, it's flooded or snowing and icy. The car eventually spins completely out of control - certainty of crash.
The back end slams into the front of a parked car with great speed and force; we are ok but car is totaled - front chassis pushed up 3 feet above front tires. In a strip-mall parking lot, figuring out next move. I have to hide some illegal substances that are in the car, though I have trouble discerning the substances from some food JD left behind. Cop/homeless man comes over. Cops say we can't park there, because they are pulling some elaborate practical joke on someone who is arriving shortly. All the cars in the lot currently belong to people in on the joke. They are changing all the signs and storefronts as part of this joke. Since I've become part of it, they "honor" me by naming one of the fake stores after me, though the more I watch them but up the sign, the more the sign changes (Neil --> Neso etc.) I see FW and RC coming out of a bar in the strip-mall, some type of open mic going on, I consider dropping in since I'm stuck there.

The Plane Crash and the Singing Alarm Clock

Some kind of nighttime gathering, plane in the sky is coming too close - crashes in backyard. Must evade explosion quickly.

Another segment where RH is upset with me for playing songs in a certain order during a recent gig.
Another moment from this gig, AF is being introduced for a minute and just as it leads up, the announcer says "please welcome to the microphone...AF" and she grabs the mike and the second she opens her mouth my alarm clock goes off.

So much more that is forgotten, promise to self to make more effort to write here faster.

The Government Building / Wheel of Fire

In some strange government/tourist building, trying not to be seen. I hear my name called in my own mind; discover I'm reading a security guard's mind who finally catches up with me. It appears I dropped my driver's license and he found it and was looking for me so he could return it. Somewhere in this building I'm trying to go down a flight of stairs only to find they change direction and go back up (in a smooth curve) mid-flight. There is an earlier scene in a giant parking lot, outdoors in the daytime.

Strange scene outdoors where EC, thinking no one sees, injures a small child, then pretends to look surprised and take care of wound.

At some point in some type of hotel/dorm room I'm staying in, only to find a dead decaying body.

Vivid and frightening extended scene of "wheel of fire" being visible through everything, everything made of fire with a zig zag wheel turning through the designs. Looking up over mountains.

Strange high school reunion type scene in large movie theater. JS shows up dressed as Darth Vader - bad, cheap outfit with messy mask. I laugh. JS turns and walks, back view reveals as added joke that JS wears no pants under cape. Someone is counting something out for effect, but instead of saying "infinity" at the end, they say "indecency" in a mock serious tone. A bizarre pun, I laugh again.

Another scene of some type of moving out endeavor, i.e. packing to leave at vacation's end. General feeling of end of things.

What's That Not-So-Groovy Sound?

Some type of high school reunion, near a large outdoor tent on a suburban street. Some of the jocks start throwing around a football. A long pass comes to me, I catch it, run to an imaginary end zone and spike it. Proud of myself, decide to quit while I'm ahead. Ball goes near me again but I pretend not to notice as I walk away.

Some concept has come up, like someone's last words or thoughts were "What's that noise?" This leads me to some humorous conclusions, that possibly everyone experiences that at death. I make a joke to the people I'm discussing this with, that "yeah, even Jimi Hendrix, in the weeks just before his sudden demise, was working on a record called 'What's That Not-So-Groovy Sound?' In my mind at first I thought, just 'Groovy', but then remembering it was an omen of death, decided on 'Not-So-Groovy', 'groovy' being a cheap sort of imaginary Hendrix vernacular. In the dream I find this record idea so funny that I wake up laughing hard with tears rolling down my face.

Sisyphus in Hell

Train of thought leads to vision of Hell, though Hell/Satan/Sisyphus are never mentioned in it. The vision of being forced to do the same work over and over again. Some get so tired after 15,000 years they attempt to destroy themselves and split their bodies apart, but they do not die and must continue; now they just look wretched and impossible. But I understand someone might know it's useless but do that anyway, driven to madness.

Slight change to the idea of Iranian musicians pushing glaciers over mountains as part of some selfless task that benefits both their people and music.

Elvis, Mingus, and the Room of Old Toys

Trying to get upstairs in old NYU dorm...IDs are checked - I have mine miraculously. Young female security guard asks entering group for anyone's personal belongings so she can look through them while at her desk and not be bored.

Walking up flights of stairs with group, only to find at one particular landing that the next stairwell doesn't go up, it goes back down. We go back down to find another smaller stairwell going up across the room.

Up to a large space where the center of the huge space is a cavity that allows you to look down and see lower floors. No one wants to go near the edge and look down except for me. Two unidentified people and I check out a side room. There is a huge window; looking out we see a young Elvis Costello out on the balcony. Later I look through some smaller windows to find out that through these particular windows, it is dark out, while at the larger one it is daylight. The room itself is filled with every great old toy and some imagined ones all in pristine condition. Apparently this is the prized archive of a man who died, possibly Mingus. Two people with me are eager to leave room and move on to check out other rooms, but I "break tradition" and decide quite joyously to stay in this room for a while to study the treasures.

Chased by the Hulk

In apartment, Bill Bixby as David Banner from Incredible Hulk 70's TV show is there...he wants to prepare me for his Hulk transformation - eyes go white, he flirts with the transformation...I warn him he's going too far - but he does anyway and begins the full transformation - just like on the old TV show, but being there, it's actually quite scary. He (as full Hulk as played by Lou Ferrigno on old show) chases me out and around the block a few times. I try to get back and lock door, fail. At one point he is running by and I freeze behind a car like a statue and fool him, but he sees me shortly after and is about to overtake me on sidewalk (daytime) when dream ends.

The Post-Heist Battle

In my car with JD, with literally billions of cash dollars hidden in countless duplicate items in the backseat. Money is not mine, I'm en route to deposit it for someone or something. JD wants to stop at the store, wants to borrow $20 from the stash, seems ok if returned later. Convenience store is located in underground parking garage. Considering cash in backseat, I make sure all car doors are locked while leaving, but back left door refuses to lock. I check child safety lock to no avail (or logical purpose.) I'm looking around for someone, "Carlo" maybe, who is helping us, who should be around to help and watch the car while we leave. Eventually come upon him in another area of the parking garage, but he is behind a table and is pulling out two semi-automatics and firing in my direction. I duck down and dodge, realizing he's still on my side, he's firing at some enemies approaching from behind.

Becomes all out battle in parking garage/supermarket. Lots of gunfire, but I'm also throwing nearby items at pursuers. Female companion seems to repeat a previous action and verbal comment identically a few seconds after doing it the first time, which jars me into the vague sense that I am dreaming. As usual, my ability to control the dream takes over, I feel more free, and decide to end this senseless battle quickly by shooting two enemy females in the head, and march quickly towards the nearest exit so I can do what I like best when I wake up in a dream, which is fly.

I get to a high ceiling atrium-type entrance area, but am still pursued. I launch into the air, planning on crashing through the atrium glass, but I find instead it is made of some resilient plastic that cannot be smashed. I exit through the main doors instead and renew flight. Outside skyscraper now, decide to do something new: climb up the building's side, Spiderman style. Works nicely, soon extremely high up, but decide this is the best place to confront any fear of heights. There is another real Spiderman type on the side of the building and we engage in a spectacular mid-air battle that, as I comment to myself during, rivals any imagined in a comic book.

Later, playing on stage at an outdoor, daytime rock festival. I threaten to smash guitar many times but am only teasing audience it seems.

J-Lo's Ranch

Sort of a biographical movie about (and starring) Jennifer Lopez, who, we find out, before becoming well-known, was The Who bass player John Entwistle's girlfriend. She is really just using him for his money and celebrity of course. They are part of some illegal operation that runs out of a ranch-style home near the ocean. Eventually the authorities find out and invade the place. Lopez remarks to a female friend how now she will have to start from scratch again, and I'm impressed with her resilience. I am physically present, not just watching this movie, I see the FBI slowly raiding the ranch. There are two old mafia types in another living room just sitting calmly. I decide to flee out the back glass doors, hoping I'm not spotted through the windows. I am holding a glass of red wine as I walk briskly to a crowded boardwalk where many people are excitedly watching the (very rough) waters. I look and there are hundreds of dolphins (more resembling small black and white killer whales) leaping about in the rough surf. I take some pictures with a camera; a little boy points at me and says "Pulitzer," implying that just taking pictures of this strange aquatic event will garner me a photography award.

Bad Teeth

Only part remembered is some metal retainer type thing affixed to teeth extremely tightly. I'm on a boat of some kind/ferry cruise etc. I go into bathroom to remove metal, eager and anxious to feel teeth finally released...removal....too relaxed...teeth are in bad shape, left front tooth comes off in my hand, general decay...extremely bad feeling.

Applebee's, Toys 'R Us, and George Duke's Limousine

Starts with JD in some Applebee's type restaurant. Leaving, nearly out the door, but realize we've forgotten some stuff in the booth (i.e. shopping bags.) This turns into an angry altercation with some managers. I lose it, shouting obscenities in front of patrons, and tell employees not to be so surprised I'm acting this way due to their obnoxiousness and condescension. At some point, able to return to booth and search underneath for bags; still missing stuff. Leaving again, I give more angry threats towards belligerent male manager.

Outside, meet up with JD and family; I'm embarrassed by previous actions. I move away down the block, decide to prank Applebee's on cell phone (calling 411 first.) I use sort of stroke-victim "Kissel" type voice and ask strange questions to employee who picks up phone, i.e. "do you have pickles?" etc. Cousin Tom shows up, we goof around. I realize I am also missing jacket, wallet, etc. We race back to restaurant; might be closing. Tom runs extra fast to be funny or make a point. Eventually with JD's mom and a relative played by actress Doris Roberts.

Get back, able to enter (not closed) but quickly realize this isn't the restaurant, it's the Toys 'R Us next store. Move next store and gain entrance into closed restaurant (employees cleaning up.) Opposite of previous exchange; friendly at first, I tell them I had left some things behind earlier and was treated badly by staff, but express love for establishment, which they appreciate.

Somehow this discussion changes location to the back of a limousine where I continue to negotiate with the staff, now on their way home. I notice one of the smug young girls actually wearing my jacket and take it back, only to be laughed at when I put it on and realize an inner lining has been removed. Somehow I get my stuff back including cash in wallet, through negotiation with young punk. Suddenly a figure appears from further ahead in the stretch car: it's musician George Duke, looking very friendly - I flip out, telling him how excited I am to meet him. He's also ecstatic as these young kids he seems to cart around in his limo to and from Applebee's don't seem to really know who he is. I start telling him which of his records I like and he finishes my thoughts: "I Love The Blues, She Heard My Cry", "Reach For It", and "Feel It." (All of these are real-life records by George Duke except the last one which is really called just "Feel.") I want to tell him I like a certain ballad called "Someday" (true) but am cut off.

We arrive at Duke's gated mansion; I realize I need to get back somehow to the restaurant (and my car there.) George agrees to take me back as he lets the kids out. The punk who eventually gave me my wallet back - we have a heart-to-heart, where we both reveal our serious financial difficulties. I decide to give him some money to show no hard feelings; I realize his sincere need. I drop a $20 bill but decide to give that to him. We get in the back of the luxury car together as George Duke takes the wheel.

Later, I'm back at Toys 'R Us. RU is there. Walking around, there is music playing, and I realize I am able to sing normally impossibly high notes, so I start improvising in a Middle Eastern style, joyful and laughing at myself, and especially one ridiculously high passage. I'm with some percussionists, moving through the aisles, while we pass another group of indigenous type percussionists playing their own groove. They slow theirs down a bit to match ours, but their downbeat is on our upbeat, which I humorously, visually note to one of the foreign players by moving to the beat in a certain way. He smiles and realizes the discrepancy, but it's all good. Shortly after, a brief discussion with RU on what to check out in the store.

Bee Aquarium and the Dire Wraith / Method Singing

Sorry for the long wait. I'll be better.

In my apartment, walking around living room...there is an large aquarium in the middle of the room. When in the bedroom, I realize I was wrong to remove the glass and mesh grating from the top, because - the aquarium was full of bees that have been escaping for the past five minutes. I attempt to reclose the aquarium. I am stung many times, but it doesn't hurt that badly; I'm kind of glad it happened because then I know there isn't much to be afraid of.

Later, at my parents' house, evidence of a break-in: impossbly large animal droppings accompany back door clues. Hmm. Burglar is not human, possibly a dire wraith from the comic book ROM I read twenty years ago. (Dire wraiths were scary red aliens that were slightly sluglike and had psychic/mystic powers. They penetrated the victim's brain with a long thin acidic tongue and sucked the life out of them, and were able to assume to victim's shape.)

A dire wraith is indeed seen creeping up the stairs inside, but somehow we all (family) end up downstairs. I opt to go up and battle it, bringing poker from fireplace as weapon. Wraith now resembles girl, she pleads innocence; I feel foolish and offensive brandishing weapon. However, she lies down on couch and begins to change: mutating, melting, turning greenish, then red, burning, smoking; it's a horrific display right out of the Exorcist. I lunge and stab creature with poker but it's futile; monster has become supernatural. I go downstairs to warn family - my voice is strangely deep and gruff. I tell them to flee - that the intruder is supernatural in origin, nothing we can do here. They flip out, incomprehensible panic. My father sees the ghostly intruder now moving through the ceiling and wall, out of my vision; my father says that's "illegal"; an odd way of saying it's against man's understanding of nature's laws.

Another short dream much later, in my apartment, talking to someone (possibly FS) about a song I'm supposed to be singing later. I'm getting in the shower and want to think about the part (I don't want to sing in the shower however.) I ask FS about the song, what's my motivation. I mention how I love Scorsese/DeNiro collaborations because you really get the sense that DeNiro's bugging Scorsese all the time about character and motivation, and it's the same thing with music. I can sing it straight, or I can do it "in character." Etc.

A Demon's Holistic View of Time

Very dark and supernatural. Someone is driving a car through a cemetery, causing damage and also somehow interfering/injuring the dead. Bad karma; karma literally mathematically calculated somehow.

Demonic woman is explaining something to someone. The concept of Time is laid out as a large graphic; this is a picture of Time occuring all at once as seen from the outside (though to my eyes it still appears as a linear process on the graph.) Demon explains that from this vantage point, "answers aren't quite so clear" implying morality cannot be defined when looking at the totality of reality at once without the measure of Time. However, she makes clear that the right thing to do can be judged when each second is once again subdivided into past, present, future, and as she says this, Time starts up again as the demon more or less stabs her listener in the heart, implying this is the (awful and terrible) answer in the here and now, or something.

Also, a recurring dream, where I haven't been to school in a while. Late due to strange occurence. Mixed pile of compost and fireworks in driveway, has been set alight in hopes of calling for help. Someone shows up in a car and it's decided the firework display is not needed. I rather uncautiously go about removing the lit fuse before the pyrotechnics are ignited.

Pretzel and the Arab Boy

George W Bush has some type of 'pretzel'-type incident; lets press know he did not mean to scare the nation.

Questions about Iraq war justification lead to scene of Iraq bombing site. The US government has posters up of a now deceased Iraqi; using as a fear tactic to locals - "made an example of."

Arab boy rising from rubble, alive. I'm concerned to help him but I realize the danger, and he has submachine gun. I run with an identified person around a corner to avoid bullets, arrive in parking lot and dodge through parked cars. More bullets are fired, am able to elude injury, action dies down.

At some point there is a Koran, but the 'r' in Koran is replaced with an arrow symbol.

The Matrix Hotel / Ghost Jacket / Conscious Dreaming Into Space

This is a long one, but it pays off.

On some type of extended field trip, college-related, staying in some large hotel complex. Wood paneling. Hotel so expansive, it has its own movie theatre. I go to see new Matrix movie. Kyle MacLachan stars (dressed in black, shades.) Discussion about previous film's characters being robots/programs. I am in the scene, though not of it, able to move around in scene but still watching "movie." Bad guy/Agent Smith-type (very powerful) comes into scene, into elevator with other characters. He immediately shoots up through the roof of elevator in wait of rising lift. Then he magnetically drops down metal links to quickly build cages around Kyle and other protagonist in elevator. I am in the scene, but am still able to move more freely, being just a spectator. However, my capture is also attempted.

Second scene with bad guy firing guns at us; like in Matrix films, this happens in slow-motion and I'm able to dodge the bullets, but one grazes my knee and I feel pain - which is odd since I'm still under the impression I am just watching the film in the hotel theater. I decide to leave theater to evaluate situation and possibly return later.

Later, after encountering some characters from my past and from television (this dream overall is way too long to record here), I try to return to the Matrix film, since I had paid my ticket. But that entrance area is blocked by the filming of a new TV show, a Let's Make A Deal type game show, Bob Barker type host, in hotel lobby/conference area. Many celebrities are in attendance. Eventually the crowd becomes a packed wedding reception for a friend who is not identified. DM appears with high-school era mullet haircut. CM is there, resembling an elf at first, but engages me in conversation. He is a little angry about some things he heard that I had said ten years before, though I try to suggest that that evidence is dubious to begin with. But I try to explain my supposed previous comments to CM. I warn him that this "may sound pseudo-philosophical." But I go on that "THIS is now, everything before this moment is sinking away, like the Titanic; it HAD to be that way. There are always some (free-will) choices but things that have happened happen as part of the circle of life" etc. The analogy is taken further, that the past as such should not focused on, i.e. in music, old forms (pop music) should evolve, though they have not.

CM seems nearly convinced, but later confronts me with some comment I had made about livestock not feeling pain when slaughtered for human consumption, that that was also part of the circle of life etc. So I confess to CM that if I had ever said that, I was totally wrong; the animals do suffer, wrongly. Around this time there is some image, of a telephone, the buttons have anomalies after a certain point, i.e. 6 and 7 are on the same button.

There is at some other point a scene where I am seated at a large table talking with a man who is a priest figure (no uniform.) He has a small stack of communion wafers in his hands, and does a trick on the table where by placing his hand over them, he is able to make them levitate - but I see the black string that he is using to perform this simple hoax. He asks me to try and I try to catch the string with my pinky so I can also do this. He scolds me for trying too quickly without thinking my aim through. I then am able to do it, albeit imperfectly.

There is one more scene where I am moving through another hotel area, and there are some doctor's patient tables. Some tables are empty, others have patients and doctors at them. I make a joke to JM; one bed appears to have two orange dolphins lying in it, peering out from under a cover.

I go back into the wedding reception scene and a huge line is formed; one that appears to be (regrettably in this case) circular, with no beginning or end, it is indeed the line for the food buffet but it spans many rooms and hundreds of people. Eventually I find a way to fit into the line. It leads to a large vent in the wall with large slats that each person must climb through. I find it a bit difficult, my legs feel weak. There are helpers who adjust the slats to help each person through. Beyond it is a brief tunnel. I get through and there is a short old African-American man in a beat up sports jacket attempting to shine my shoes. Though he appears to be employed by the hotel, I still feel this is pretty degrading so I don't let him, and my shoes are suede or something anyway, so he only pretends to shine them.

THEN...he disappears and only his supernaturally-animated sports jacket remains, floating and flying through the air. I can't believe this, similar to superconsciousness/alien activity of a previous dream (sweatsuited - ghost dream.) I am nearly speechless but I ask JM if she is also seeing/believing this. Then I "take control." I am gaining awareness of dream, so I command the jacket to come to me. It flies into my arms with surprising speed and force. It is loose again, there appears to be a lightbulb at the heart of the open jacket, like a symbolic / cheap special effect "soul" or heart, which becomes incendiary and then the jacket flies around wildly. I command "THIS STOPS NOW!", aware that I am in control of the scene.

The scene changes to my parents' house, the den; house is empty except for an unidentified woman who watches me. I am completely awake and conscious of the dream. I examine my arm and hand, which seems to shift and change size with bubbling volatility. I immediately decide, as I do in every conscious dream perhaps, to go outside and fly. I run to the front door and open it, the sky is sort of painted fleshy pastel reminiscent of post-impressionism. This is a brief glimpse because when I do fly it is again with sudden force and I shoot up into space.

"Up there" I lose conscious control as I watch some sort of show on a stage. It appears to be a happy/staged reunion between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in front of an audience. Gorbachev is not real, he is a 'something else,' wearing a large Disney-type costume that resembles Gorbachev. Large red eyes on costume. A spaceship tries three times to 'get up' or through some opening, only seen on third time when it has trouble manuevering and gets 'caught' on something.

The descent from space is fast and literally cartoonish - Daffy Duck meets Porky Pig type of cartoon descent. Cartoon angels with harps on clouds help me down; one makes a lewd comment to me to 'deflate' my situation. Nearing earth, me/cartoon considers smashing part of civilization vengefully on landing, but stop right before hitting and land softly in cartoon manner instead; psyche out.

"Awakening" in a hotel bed with cover up to face. I see a policeman at window about to knock with night stick; he must see me through window also, can't hide. Concerned and think of plan to bide some time.

Half-Dream

Caught in a half-sleep state, and trying unsuccessfully to wake up. Think I've woken up, am walking around the apartment, but things are different, my hair is dyed and the color distribution changes moment to moment. Attempt to determine if this is dream or reality by focusing mind in certain way but - I'm fooled by dream, into concluding it is real. Attempt to float over floor by jumping and 'missing' i.e. not landing, with little success, tried that because have been able to float/fly consciously in many other dreams. Rest is forgotten at moment, but will attempt to write to this journal more often in hopes of regaining memory power.