On Dreams and Elvis Impersonators
As some people may know, I am one of those hippie sorts who keeps a dream log (i.e. writes down everything I can remember from my dreams). Now, I don't do this for psychological, or fortune-telling reasons - I personally think that dreams don't say much about our actual lives, and when they do it's nothing that we couldn't have figured out while awake. I expect no revelations from my dreams. But what I do expect, and get fairly frequently, are surreal and cinematic short stories (which occasionally seem to stretch into novel length, although I have heard that the mind never sticks with one dream for more than five minutes at a time). So no, I don't think dreams hold the answers to my daily problems - but as far as artistic inspiration goes, I don't think I could ask for a better source.
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of dreams isthe fact that no two people seem to dream the same way. Mine are often epic, sometimes leaning towards science fiction - well, they all take place sometime in the future, at any rate. I never dream about the present, it's always some time 5 to 1000 years away. No one elses dreams seem to share this particular pattern, but they all have elements which make them unique to the dreamer. Rick Vietch, and incredibly accomplished comics artist who publishes his own illustrated dream log as the "Rare Bit Fiends" series, dreams about friends of his and celebrities in bizarre settings, for example: him an Neil Gaiman are making a statue of giant flaming demon skull, which they title "Frank Zappa" - then decide that "Marvin Gaye" would be a more suitable name for it. His dreams are short and often amusing, but have little structure compared to the dreams of, say, Alejandro Jodorowski, a master author/director who uses his own grand, often western-tinged dreams as inspiration. Part of it is just that I enjoy these people's work, but a bigger part of it is that I am simply fascinated by what people's brains come up with behind their backs.
The best dream I have heard recently is one told to me by the roommate's girlfriend, which I had a starring role in. Apparenly I was dressed as Elvis, and when asked if I was running late for work, I replied "I'm hunka hunka calling in sick today." Great punchline. Far different from my dreams, or those of Vietch and Jodorowski, but amusing in a completely seperate way.
And now, a summary of one of my own dreams from the other night. I needed a place to write it down and my blog page had been left open on my computer, so I jotted down everything I could remember. I'll only going to give the short version, though. I think it's very possible that a complete list of tiny details is only really interesting to the person who dreamed it.
I was working as a caterer/DJ, for some sort of wedding party. It was in some sort of an "industrial ballroom," which had a lot of walkways and looked more like a power plant interior than a place for a party. Princess Di and Prince Charles were there too, I remember taking their food orders. A gay man who shops at my work requested I play "A You're Adorable" from that John Lithgow kid's album I have, and then lip-synched it to his lover, who was some guy with a barbershop moustache.
The ballroom was attached to the back of a grocery store, which I passed through as I was leaving. I ran into a guy whom I see every now and then, who recommended I try some stingray meat, claiming it was amazing for healing and tasted just like shark. Since I had never had shark, I asked what it tasted like, and he said "oh, it tastes just like foam."
After reaching the parking lot, I remembered that I had actually parked in the underground parking area. I headed back towards the building but rather than using the elevator inside, I used one right outside the door. It was quite a strange elevator, though - it had a sunken floor and glass walls, and there was an "emergency escape panel" located on one side, which led to what looked like a long dark tunnel. The controls were confusing too. I pushed what buttons I could and went to floor 27.
Sure enough, the thing moved downwards, but didn't take me anywhere near the garage. It took me to the middle of a field, nearby a tree trunk that had four teenagers loitering on it. When I asked where I was they told me that the elevator I was on didn't actually take you anywhere inside of the building, but to one of 27 different bizarre locations. And that once my selection was made, there was no way to travel back, I was trapped. The place where we were was deep underground, and they claimed to be the only people there. They also warned me that the emergency panel in fact didn't work at all, that it just led to an extremely dark room.
However, just then I saw a woman jogging by with her dog, and ran after her to get further info. It turned out that the kids had been partially lying to me - yes, it was a transport elevator and yes we were underground, but there *were* more people besides the kids living there, and the escape panel *would* take me right to floor 27 of the parking garage. I thanked her, went back and gave the kids the finger, entered the tunnel and got back to my car.
A week or so later, I was at my grandmother's house for dinner. I told them my story and they laughed, as if to say "Oh, the elevator in front of the Ralph's building? I remember when they put that thing in, I *always* thought it was a stupid idea... I'm surprised more people don't get lost permanantly on that thing." They asked me if I had gotten off on the Venus or jungle floors, and then I woke up, running late for a very important date.
Is there anything I can learn from this dream? Freudian analysis would tell us that this dream means I am a homosexual who wants to have sex with my own mother (the elevator shaft and escape tunnel signifying a desire to return to the womb). But then, Freud was a twisted pervert who also felt that women were jealous of men's penises. I really don't see much reason to analyse dreams - I've attempted to do so in the past and nothing really came of it. I think I'll stick with my current method of regarding dreams as a sort of "interactive television" for now.
Of course, if anyone reading this has a good analysis of that dream, feel free to share it. I am certain it would be good for a laugh.
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of dreams isthe fact that no two people seem to dream the same way. Mine are often epic, sometimes leaning towards science fiction - well, they all take place sometime in the future, at any rate. I never dream about the present, it's always some time 5 to 1000 years away. No one elses dreams seem to share this particular pattern, but they all have elements which make them unique to the dreamer. Rick Vietch, and incredibly accomplished comics artist who publishes his own illustrated dream log as the "Rare Bit Fiends" series, dreams about friends of his and celebrities in bizarre settings, for example: him an Neil Gaiman are making a statue of giant flaming demon skull, which they title "Frank Zappa" - then decide that "Marvin Gaye" would be a more suitable name for it. His dreams are short and often amusing, but have little structure compared to the dreams of, say, Alejandro Jodorowski, a master author/director who uses his own grand, often western-tinged dreams as inspiration. Part of it is just that I enjoy these people's work, but a bigger part of it is that I am simply fascinated by what people's brains come up with behind their backs.
The best dream I have heard recently is one told to me by the roommate's girlfriend, which I had a starring role in. Apparenly I was dressed as Elvis, and when asked if I was running late for work, I replied "I'm hunka hunka calling in sick today." Great punchline. Far different from my dreams, or those of Vietch and Jodorowski, but amusing in a completely seperate way.
And now, a summary of one of my own dreams from the other night. I needed a place to write it down and my blog page had been left open on my computer, so I jotted down everything I could remember. I'll only going to give the short version, though. I think it's very possible that a complete list of tiny details is only really interesting to the person who dreamed it.
I was working as a caterer/DJ, for some sort of wedding party. It was in some sort of an "industrial ballroom," which had a lot of walkways and looked more like a power plant interior than a place for a party. Princess Di and Prince Charles were there too, I remember taking their food orders. A gay man who shops at my work requested I play "A You're Adorable" from that John Lithgow kid's album I have, and then lip-synched it to his lover, who was some guy with a barbershop moustache.
The ballroom was attached to the back of a grocery store, which I passed through as I was leaving. I ran into a guy whom I see every now and then, who recommended I try some stingray meat, claiming it was amazing for healing and tasted just like shark. Since I had never had shark, I asked what it tasted like, and he said "oh, it tastes just like foam."
After reaching the parking lot, I remembered that I had actually parked in the underground parking area. I headed back towards the building but rather than using the elevator inside, I used one right outside the door. It was quite a strange elevator, though - it had a sunken floor and glass walls, and there was an "emergency escape panel" located on one side, which led to what looked like a long dark tunnel. The controls were confusing too. I pushed what buttons I could and went to floor 27.
Sure enough, the thing moved downwards, but didn't take me anywhere near the garage. It took me to the middle of a field, nearby a tree trunk that had four teenagers loitering on it. When I asked where I was they told me that the elevator I was on didn't actually take you anywhere inside of the building, but to one of 27 different bizarre locations. And that once my selection was made, there was no way to travel back, I was trapped. The place where we were was deep underground, and they claimed to be the only people there. They also warned me that the emergency panel in fact didn't work at all, that it just led to an extremely dark room.
However, just then I saw a woman jogging by with her dog, and ran after her to get further info. It turned out that the kids had been partially lying to me - yes, it was a transport elevator and yes we were underground, but there *were* more people besides the kids living there, and the escape panel *would* take me right to floor 27 of the parking garage. I thanked her, went back and gave the kids the finger, entered the tunnel and got back to my car.
A week or so later, I was at my grandmother's house for dinner. I told them my story and they laughed, as if to say "Oh, the elevator in front of the Ralph's building? I remember when they put that thing in, I *always* thought it was a stupid idea... I'm surprised more people don't get lost permanantly on that thing." They asked me if I had gotten off on the Venus or jungle floors, and then I woke up, running late for a very important date.
Is there anything I can learn from this dream? Freudian analysis would tell us that this dream means I am a homosexual who wants to have sex with my own mother (the elevator shaft and escape tunnel signifying a desire to return to the womb). But then, Freud was a twisted pervert who also felt that women were jealous of men's penises. I really don't see much reason to analyse dreams - I've attempted to do so in the past and nothing really came of it. I think I'll stick with my current method of regarding dreams as a sort of "interactive television" for now.
Of course, if anyone reading this has a good analysis of that dream, feel free to share it. I am certain it would be good for a laugh.
posted by BG | 11:15 AM
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