Ringo's Neighbor / Elliott Smith's Friend / The Bay / The Model

This is a collection of recently remembered dreams.

Walking around my town (amalgam of many towns), slightly lost at times. Leaving an apartment after hanging out with Ringo Starr. Walking, thinking, why haven't I been doing more hanging out with Ringo while I've lived here? Other things I'm missing? Shouldn't move? Call MI to vent. Realize Ringo living nearby isn't very realistic; rationalize that he must just have a little secret getaway place here.

Another dream where I'm in some apartment/dorm, a large old building. Hanging out in elevator/room with Elliott Smith. I don't want to seem too much of a fan to him and freak him out. He talks about last record, says "record company changed it" not to his liking. Says he's been "drinking a lot", with a vaguely desperate smirk.

At a strange cross between the corner of M Drive and P Road, and a sort of beach inlet, daytime. Waves start to crash hard against rocks. I remember I left some equipment and things on short on other side of bay; prepare to swim quickly across (roughly 60 ft) to salvage. Am stopped by friends: "too dangerous." Waters are rough indeed.

A little while later, seeing high school people on M Drive. One woman I seem to recognize from HS (not really), insanely tall African-American. By end of conversation, she is at least 15 ft. tall. Very difficult to communicate distance. Ask her what she's been doing: soda pop model overseas. "Of course, what else could she possibly do."

Terminally Ill Jedi

Dreamed I was on vacation all last week with MI, missed 5 days of driver's ed class. Preoccupied over this. Wondering if I'll still pass. Then thinking, how much material could I have missed?

Yeah, the posts here have been few and far between. The dreams have not. Particularly dreams in which I'm "waking up" from a dream and writing it down in some form, only to wake up for real and then, not actually log it.

Had one dream of some sort of large Jedi Knight training room where activities are ongoing. Paper posted on column, instead of announcing training test results, says I have a terminal illness and not long to go. Thought I was prepared for this, but it hits me very very hard.

The Invasion / The Flood / The Tunnel

Standing inside near a back porch, cross between parents' house and the F's house. Tom is down in yard with unknown others; they spot something apparently frightening in the sky behind the house, out of my vision. I'm afraid to look, but I move forward onto deck so I can turn around and see also. Smoke trails in sky - missiles? No, planes with enemies parachuting down like in Red Dawn. Full-scale invasion. Run inside to tell family, but realize I was dreaming vision (I imagine I've woken up.) I'm telling the story conscious that I'm going on nervous dream-energy i.e. total panic but feel justified because I've only just "awakened."

Some details are forgotten, but the surprising thing that happens is that, long after I think I've woken up from the invasion dream and "forgotten" its content, I step outside the building into the street to find armed enemy soldiers walking the streets rounding certain people up. I'm told to get back inside and I do so.

Later, I'm looking out a side upstairs window seeing massive flooding. A bus (later a smaller utility pickup truck) is being thrashed around, floating in the driveway. At one point I look out the window again and do not see the high water, but then it returns at a later glance.

Then I'm outside in a car (Mercury?) also trapped in the flood, although it is less of a flood eventually, and more just some sort of forces toying with the car. The truck from earlier is finally washed toward houses and it does some damage. My father is in the front seat, I tell him to get into the back and somehow save his life by doing so. The current (water or invisible) is now pulling the car out the driveway and down the block. I try the emergency break to no avail. I try shifting into Park only to find there is no Park option (I notice 1st gear and Neutral, however.) We are moving down the road, pulled by unseen forces.

There is another sequence that involves a strangely truncated physical symbol of the distance from here to California. It's like a (relatively) short tunnel i.e. 30 feet, extremely narrow and misshapen that I need to go through to find myself on the other coast.

Vader's Spirit Passage / The Blues Jam / The Book about the Dream / Desert Monsters

A collection of fragments from the last few days:

In this dark factory location, there are metal doors that open intermittently to this cremation/CAT-scan type of narrow passage that leads to parts unknown. The entrance is also blocked by a piece of glass with an oval opening in the middle. Flames shoot out around entry, white hot. I need to go through so I do. On the other side, my body resembles Darth Vader lying prone, but my visible spirit rises up from the body and can move freely. I'm uncertain, I ask friends back on other side if this is what happened last time too, i.e. did I rise up as a spirit and continue? Answer: yeah. I move on to parts unknown beyond the passage.

Earlier: Some type of festival gig, crowded room. RH wants to show a little line-cliche/guitar lick to all, so a blues jam starts up. People trading solos, but end before RH gets to show the line. Apologies. Shows me. Sort of I7 - IV7 - iv6 i.e. key of A: C# A G C# A G - C A F# C A F# - B A F B A F - A etc.

Even earlier: I'm in apartment, accidentally call Dad at work; I use fake voice to hide identity. Later there is a book called "This is the Dream" that I'm told about. I think I wake up and am writing down the dream, noting the strange coincidental book title, but I'm actually still dreaming. Mom comes over and starts relating a dream of hers, so I start jotting that one down instead.

Also: In a half-dreaming state while staying near the Mojave Desert last week, I had some strange, dream-like images come to mind spontaneously, forcefully. A weird, gelatinous amoeba-like creature about ten inches wide moving in the night from plant to plant in the brush. Other imagery is forgotten, generally involving strange spirit like creatures in the desert night and iconic imagery.

The Beachside Parking Lot Jam

From earlier: At some restaurant, daytime, with family. I go outside to the parking lot to get something from my car. I notice a different car (red) in the spot where I'd left mine. The valet is sketchy and eventually mentions that my car is indeed parked somewhere in [this town's name] so not to worry, and I realize they parked it somewhere very very far away so I get angry, cursing, "I just wanted to get something"...etc.

I notice that the parking lot is right near a small beach, so then I feel foolish that I was impatient, since I can just walk over to the beach; wait and enjoy. I do so. I watch the waves rush in; thoughts too, of California, MI, tsunamis. When I had walked out the door, two female employees were seated outside. Now, they are younger and no longer employees (casual dress.) They are calling me back from the shore, and they use some flute-like instruments to do so. The musical result is the perfectly exact opening to "Watermelon Man" from Herbie Hancock's 1973 record Headhunters (as if I was hearing the record while half-asleep, which I was not.) Eventually the band kicks in (just as on record) so I see a large band playing under/on a patio - Beach Bar vibe. People are complimenting the drummer; I watch him, he's very solid and relaxed - makes it look easy. Someone mentions the drummer is self-taught but is going back to school for music soon. Gig/party is ending, awkward goodbye hugs for all. LIMC people figure.

Later, at parents' house, nighttime after some school function i.e. graduation. MI has also forgotten something in her car out front and goes out to get it. I'm in the driveway and my father is being strangely overly helpful. MI comes back from the car with deep, dried-blood scratches on her face; it seems someone kissed her and scratched/scarred the cheeks badly in the process. We go back up the walkway and this HS teacher whose name I don't recall passes, saying something to me; i'm friendly, feeling popular. MI and I walk up to the front door but it is blocked by a table and some other things placed in some delicate ritual arrangement.

Rock Concert at Bay Terrace

I'm walking around up towards Bay Terrace at night. I overhear some conversations; a man is ordering his assistant around, something to do with gathering written local reviews of his artwork. I finally reach the shopping center. A group of kids are trying to figure out how to get down to the main area, while I see a small stairway between some buildings. The stairway turns out to be all screwed up - each step is a 5' long concrete block about 5 inches high, which isn't weird, but they are twisted in oblique directions making descent a bit tricky. It's not so much "down" as "across."

I finally reach the bottom to find that the main center/parking lot area is full of people preparing a big outdoor concert. There are no regular shoppers and all the surrounding stores are closed. There is a large stage near me and an R&B group is rehearsing their segment. I'm not inclined to stay, especially since I'm not allowed to be there yet. I try going back to the big crooked stairs. A man stops me, he's helping to run the event, but he seems to mistake me for someone else. We sit and talk in the stairs area. He might think I am one of the cue-card holders shirking my duties, and either way, he asks me to go hold them. The cue-cards apparently have song lyrics for the band on them; specifically I'm to hold them for the bass player. The group now has a main lead singer and he's rehearsing a song he plans to sing for his girl.

Meanwhile I try to explain to the man I'm not who he thinks. At some point, he suspects I'm in the band Blink 182 and asks me where the other guys are. He is a little too friendly and after a hand gesture, keeps his arm too familiarly on my knee. I'm concerned, but figure if he is flirting with me maybe he doesn't care I don't belong there, but instead I tell him I'm not the guy, just a civilian, but hey I'll hold the cue- cards if needed, just to have a story to tell. I ask him if all I need to do is read along with the song to know when to change the card. As I say this, I listen to the music the band is currently rehearsing and realizing the vocals are too muddy and muffled to make out any words. The dream ends.

Other recent dream; at parents' house, I find an appropriate moment to tell family about MI.

Falling Woman / The Convenient Biographer / Train to the Afterlife

City scene outdoors, daytime. A woman is seen leaping from a skyscraper (reason unknown.) As I watch, a few seconds after the leap, the scene rewinds and starts again - I deduce at the time that this sight is so traumatic that I am already re-living it, but it seems to be happening in real time again. I am able to fly into the air in front of everyone to attempt a rescue. It's unclear if I'm successful - I do catch "something"; might be a ghost.

Another dream, my father tells me that his friend CW is working on a book about Tim Buckley's voice. He has copious notes and sheet music. Two songs are noted on a piece of paper: "I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain" and "Once I Was." CW has apparently also worked on a book about Charles Mingus. I find this all highly suspicious considering my connection, and my father plainly admits the subject choices were "convenient."

Another dream in which I've reorganized the living room furniture much more intelligently and conveniently, but it resembles more my parents' dining room instead of my apartment. I'm able to move the china cabinet by myself with ease, oddly.

There is another sequence in which I'm with family on some type of train, but the train is crossing over into the next life at some juncture and I have to prepare. Not afraid. Done it before, of course. Crossing over, everything remains relatively similar (in train), but psyche now has ability to alter environment in a subconscious way, for better or worse depending on automatic thought processes/mood.

The Airport

Much is, as usual, forgotten now but here's the end: Leaving some hotel, in Connecticut possibly; some type of elevator scene. Avoiding some people or capture. Late arrival at airport (although cross sound ferry is also implied), racing with others to catch flights. Over the PA I hear a relevant reference to a flight to "Lake Ronkonkoma." Since the terminal is pretty empty of employees and anyone else, I show my ticket to a helpful woman who is also travelling with us. She tells me, much to my chagrin, that my ticket isn't even a ticket yet, but she knows how to fill it out to make it look real. She does this, signing this and crossing out that - she knows her stuff. As she is illegally doing this, I make known my concern as airport personnel start to hover around. The ticket becomes attached to a bunch of papers with personal writing and pictures on them, and sketches; nothing incriminating relating to the airport ticket forgery, but I'm suspect. An older female 'employee' pulls a sketch right out of my pocket and I protest this boundary invasion. There is a discussion with the crowd around if that act was justifiable; consensus is yes.

Heading outside to plane, it becomes a different scene involving vans, but I join a group sitting in the sunlight at a table. I knock my cap off my head. There is a vaguely Superman motif to my clothing, others may be wearing costumes also. I'm thirsty. I have a bag in which I search for a beverage. I find some grapes, eat one or two and they are tasty and momentarily refreshing.

Dream in D Minor

Not of great interest: a scene in which I'm with musicians, playing bass, being taught this repetitive riff. It is in D minor, pentatonic based, a short motif that goes through minor variations. I hear it over and over and play along, but then decide to play long chords underneath the riff instead, first Bb, then C, etc. Someone is transcribing this and writes the chords as "Bb5" etc. I remember all the music on waking, but it is terribly boring.

There is another exciting sequence in a car, where I find someone who normally does not smoke, smoking a cigarette.

Time Travel

Strange-feeling dream. Time travel. At first I'm able to revisit an overview of years from ten years ago and literally leap from year to year like visual steps, 1993, 1994, etc, or like I'm overhead watching my old self leap/go through in sped-up time. I see my past self do something that I don't expect and haven't remembered correctly since; at some point I take a leap in an unexpected direction. I then feel better knowing now. The sequence of years is depressingly viewed as a series of plateaus to drop onto from above, each lower than the next.

Flash forward to sometime 1995-1996 and I'm in the action instead of watching. Supposed to be Boston, looks nothing like it. There is some route to get somewhere (school?) that is very long and complex that I realize CJ and I used to take, not noticing there was a nearby bridge that would have shortened the journey safely. We are there but vaguely aware we are visiting the past. CJ and I meet up (I figure he will be surprised I made it) at an old ferry that we need to take. I'm surprised there is no crowd and the ticket booth is in a strange place, but I think it must be the hour. Maybe we have to wait before leaving so we step outside into a semi-rowdy nighttime gang/smuggler meeting. CJ (possibly someone else now) starts telling a tall tale/cover story to some people and I back him up, until he goes too far and is caught in a lie. We try to cover for it. I'm questioned, I write off any further detailed questions by saying I've been out of the business for sometime.

The most intense part of the dream follows. Is too personal to fully detail here. I'm able to time-travel, back to my own body, 5 months before certain life changes in the not distant past. Very strange to be back in "reality" instead of imagination. Trying to do things differently, and be more aware. Meeting near train station. In some type of dorm room. Another female knocks on the door, asking someone how some movie/show was, but I'm not dressed. TV is on. I sit down again with the person I've come back to talk to. I say that I've had a terrible vision of the next 5 months and I explain it vaguely. Somehow I've travelled back able to pinpoint the exact moment of change, it has something to do with a dance show on TV, so I say to watch, because it's coming up. Artistic show, but at key point it changes to something I don't expect (even though I am supposedly re-living the past.) I mention Whitney Museum of Art may have sponsored the dance, and say the specifics may not be important, but the moment is. I continue with my fantastic story. She's crying. I start to say something I didn't expect to say, but that makes total sense in the context, but it's scary, and this strange shivering feeling washes over the dream, almost visually, before I get to finish saying it.

Pisces Cafe, Beforehand

Pisces Cafe gig, similar look and feel but venue is more than twice its real size - large performing space. Maryann is there already, she's set up the microphones and stands, but the stands are oversized; they jut out at a right angle for about twelve feet - distance - I make adjustments. Excited to play, people shuffling in - Tom P? Much more is now forgotten.

Heavenly Euphoria and Return

The beginning is regrettably forgotten: Eventually driving a car, and somehow I physically die, quickly approaching a cloudy area that is "heaven". I see it coming and let it hit me. Entering the cloud, the car is gone and there is only disembodied consciousness. There is an INCREDIBLE feeling inside me upon entering (soaring up into) what I believe to be "heaven." Visually there is not much to speak of, but the feeling inside is this intense enveloping euphoria bordering - just magically and happily teetering on - the brink of insane unbearability. I can't go on enough about this feeling. Utter intoxicating ecstacy. However, at this point in the experience I was starting to think it isn't "my right time" and that I should attempt to go back to Earth. The feeling of trying to go back feels similar to trying to wake up. I'm trying to move my body again. Eventually I'm successful and I seem to wake up in my bed, but in reality I was still in a deep sleep. There was a sense of regret leaving that other state, but there is a thought that comes from somewhere to me on returning, "I'll get there sometime."

Return to HS

In some sort of hotel event area, possibly for some type of reunion. Lots of people sitting around me having fun. I am very excited to see CD - place arm around him. DA shows up with similar looking partner (resembles him.) CD mocks. Instruments come out. Eventually in side hall outside high school band room. Looking for PB - is not seen in dream. I go into band room to watch the young kids rehearse. In the side room, there is a group of kids playing snare drums in a drum corp rehearsal. In order to get up past the main band podium, I have to undo some type of small fence and then re-attach it.

I'm lead into another side room by a young African-American girl (possibly D.) She can dance (hip-hop/MJ style) and wants to show me. I'm into it; bust some moves. Some people (construction types possibly) emerge from other room and we have to return to main room. D is upset. I wonder how this looks i.e. my fault.

At first a female teacher is leading the band, but soon it is an unidentified male. He makes bitter asides and comments in between music passages. He refers to a period in the 90's when nothing musical could be done without the approval of police - generally "the man is keeping him down" kind of stuff. No one else seems to care but I give him affirming nods in support.

Later, I'm in the back of a school bus. AH is there, talking about at first his divorce, and then later someone else's, and his advice on the matter. He refers to some type of coffeehouse or confectionary, pronounced like Choco-lomo or something.

Even later, a band gig with SBK. Singer not quite Aly. Argument with her. Apparently, the owners are mad because earlier I was concerned that there was a problem with the money (i.e. our fee.) Mid-set, I re-assert concerned position, saying I'm happy to leave right now if we're not getting paid. I'm wrapping up cables, eager to leave.

Another night: dream in which email arrives that JD wants me to meet her on 11/1 at midnight. At first, I'm excited; then near-waking, relieved it was a dream after processing some new information.

Stupidity Tries

Probably the most depressing dream I've ever had, both content-wise and feeling-wise (these two are not always congruent in my dreams.)

At the end it's twilight and in my parents' driveway, people are loading up a car for a long trip. I say something very strange and make an hysterical joke of it, and this signals to others that I am off balance and beyond help. My parents are in the front seat (not sure who is in back) and the car is idling waiting to leave. I am trying to catch their attention so I can wave goodbye and show that I'm ok. I don't get their attention; they are either ignoring me, have forgotten about me, or assume that I've left.

I walk up to the front door, and the mailbox is somehow also a CD player. I shut off the music it was playing crystal clear: Elliott Smith's song "Stupidity Tries." In the mailbox there is a magazine with me on the cover with a reference to something I've been thinking about doing. I'm shocked because I don't know how they found out before I got to do it. Someone gets out of the car for a minute for some reason, possibly my mother, and I hope they see me but they do not and the car pulls away.

Hanging with Superman

Nighttime, outside near corner of M. Drive, Superman (played by Chris Reeve) has offered to take me flying. Very excited. It's a wondrous experience and while we go fast we don't go too far above the ground, strangely - at one point a truck is coming towards us and I wonder if we will clear it. The whole time it seems I have the 12-string strapped around me, and during the flight at one point I have to adjust it more comfortably, letting go of Superman for a second. Surprisingly this works out ok. At certain points I realize how strange this all must look to others seeing it. We are landing and some guy asks Superman how he feels about his favorite McDonald's meal. Surprisingly Supe is positive. The man begins talking about his favorite when he spots the one Superman liked on a drive-thru menu.

Later, Superman is sad after being asked about what it is like to travel at super-speeds (i.e. turning back time speed) I'm surprised to hear it is not at all physically comfortable to him - analogous to motion sickness perhaps.

The Rescue / Another Show

First thing remembered is rescuing a girl (changing identity, SK?) from a house in Commack from some angry big man (possibly JR with long hair.) Running into house next door, part neighbor's house/part dorm. Looking around, realizing that this is the girl's room, she's collecting her most important stuff, so I realize that angry man will probably look here first; have to escape - but too late. Man/JR is running into house. Doesn't know I'm involved yet, I duck down behind bed and, hardly believing myself, stick foot out at last second to trip man up. Somehow, even though I'm not sure I make contact, it works. He falls, I pick up mattress and throw it on top of him. Looking for weapons, nothing good, but I'm considering using some harmless stuff around, out of panic. Instead, I run out of room. JR has an accomplice, random guy, doesn't seem to want to hurt anyone or do much - he lets me run past, down stairs.

Running across lawn outside, see JR, and accomplice finally takes off after me. I feel like I am running hard, but he is closing in just walking briskly - my confidence is shaken. Somehow we strike up a conversation. He's been working on some rap lyrics and he busts a few. I recognize them as some of CD's old lyrics, so I'm able to join in, much to his pleasant surprise. I'm not sure at this point who ripped off who, but it's making me a friend so I don't care. We talk about his writing and his plans. I'm looking for my car in the street, still to escape, but realize we've walked in the wrong direction, so I have to pass by house again (JR still out front) hoping to be ignored, and am, successfully.

Later sequence, start of some show (HS and LI figures, figure.) This sequence, I now remember, starts when accomplice (from previous part) and I reach a building, and I've got my Roland JC-120 amp, and he is moving it and he accidentally breaks off the fuse, and I'm upset. He's sorry, but I make him realize how bad this is before a gig - impossible to fix. This is all used as further ammunition to save me from his original plan to capture me and bring me back to JR - works.

Soon I'm putting a smaller brown amp together with other performers' stuff - VB is also performing, he wants me to move the amp so he can get at his stuff, and we chat. He says "You won't believe who I got for Mr. L" I realize, when he continues "$100", he means he's got Mr. L to accompany him for the show, cheaply. I've got bubble gum in my mouth and can't answer him, chewing waiting to clear...jokingly talk through bubble gum - gobbledygook. I try to pull pink gum out of mouth but some remains in mouth still, stretching, attached like pizza strands. On waking, I realize the feeling I was feeling in the dream was a very dry throat in reality.

Lesson with Belew

Had a guitar lesson with Adrian Belew. Unfortunately I forgot my guitar, but told him I wanted him to tell me about his songwriting process cause I also write songs, and I complimented his lyrics and melodies (i.e. "One Time.") He seemed pleased. I remembered the Hamer guitar was in my trunk so I went out to get it at some point. By the time I got back, the teacher was someone else, but now I've forgotten who it was.

The Revenge of Miles Davis

Long dream involving PF, eventually on my parents' lawn. Miles Davis is there - PF makes an insulting reference to James Brown in front of Miles, and Miles is furious. There is seen an old black & white photo of James Brown, and Miles (early 1960's era) is shown in the crowd trying to get close to him, like a real fanatic.

Miles calls PF out, takes off shirt and is ready to throw it down in the street. PF makes excuses ("You're four feet tall...") but eventually gets into it. I just watch, not feeling any responsibility. Miles is dangerously built, though somewhat strangely, and swinging like the boxer he was. PF is backing up away from his swings. Soon some kind of farm combine is used by PF for attack, and tractors and cars start to enter the picture. Later, Miles is in the back seat of a car driven by friends and they are tearing up my parents' lawn and the neighbors' where the fight took place. I go by the parked car window and plead, saying it's not my parents' fault. Miles is eventually a white female in the backseat, I think. Eventually my parents get home; I forget the rest.

The Attacker, the Policeman, and the Conscious Dream Communication

Sequence where I am walking at night; parents nearby with car. Someone starts walking with me, seems to think I'm someone else - someone he wants to kill. We are walking briskly as he threatens; seems deadly. At some point, somehow, he actually kicks me in the head while walking. There is no desire to fight him (or hope of winning.) Hope to draw him away from my parents. He fears being caught, eventually fleeing past an old policeman into a subway station. The old man pretty much lets him run by. I am very angry at this; cop makes belligerent excuses. I'm walking by and mutter vulgar insults about police department. My father arrives, oddly in full police uniform, but he is also upset. He chalks it up to the idea that "men join the force all eager to be policemen but then they stock up the higher ranks with liberals" i.e. this old man who let criminal go.

At an earlier point, massive fight with my father at parents' house - I am told to move out. It takes me a moment to remember I don't live there any more anyway, and I feel better after loudly reminding everyone of this.

There is another sequence where I am suddenly completely aware I'm dreaming. Everything feels very real - matter seems to have real substance. I'm on a dark top floor of an old city building. I open the window - the handle feels quite real strangely, and resembles school classroom window. It is dreary outside. I shout something (I forget what) out the window to announce my dream-awareness and I note it comes out slightly garbled - implying it is difficult to make conscious acts in the dream world. I am quickly thinking of what dreams I wish to have, since I am now in control, mind turns to certain people and dream ends.

Abandoned France Trip / The Defeatery Eatery

Possibly at parents' house about to embark on family trip to France. Print-out plane tickets resemble movie tickets. Last minute, I've decided not to go.

Previous night, dream Maryann has slept over at my parents' house; holds cat in downstairs hallway in strange manner. Later, vaguely humorous phrase "Defeatery Eatery" comes into play, possibly as bizarre song lyric, or joke name for some sort of (depressing) indie coffeehouse.