Everyone should see the movie Paprika. It's playing at Amherst Cinema now.

Last night

I dreamed I went to some South African country and there were hard shelled caterpillars that kept spitting ginger all over the place, which was dangerous for dogs. I was staying in a sort of penthouse that was very very high up. All the white people lived up this high so they could get as far away from the reality of living in Africa.

Well, even if nothing comes of it, at least we can share our dreams.

las night...

i dreamt i couldn't sleep...

last night

last night i dreamed that i was washing dishes. the dream ended with a small knife.

Poop

I have just started school, and feel like I am having some sort of crisis. It may be a little while before I am able to pick myself up again or decide what I am going to do, and then attain a more balanced state. Until then, I am essentially dead. Sorry.

ohhh...

i could give an excuse as to why i have not written anything for today... even though i'm the one who suggested the deadline...

Next meeting

Is Sunday still going to work for people, or should we think about a different day? This week I'm available Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday afternoon/evening, Thursday-Saturday after 9pm, and Sunday. Also, we should still try to get in touch with Caroline and Kyle.

8/2/07

I was with my mom at some hotel. She was doing some job that I can't remember. There was a man there whose job was to test a mechanical alligator suit that crawled through water and chomped.

I was with a group of people, two of whom were brothers (either Ben and Abe Marder or Olin and Lawrence Valby). For some reason ther older one wanted to kill the younger one, and there might have been something else they wanted to do up at the railroad tracks, so we went there. I got there early and there was a train departing. I helped a young woman carry her stuff on board. I think there was a different person we had to kill. The older brother shot him and he stood there mangled but still alive. Some older obnoxious person was making some sarcastic comment to the dying man, and I became the dying man for a moment. I felt an intense headache approaching in the back of my neck. Then I was trying to get the older brother not to kill the younger brother. I said that I couldn't stop them from doing anything, but I wouldn't be a part of it.

6/11/06

I was wearing a wierd, sort of bright denim coat. I was discussing it with my mom and some other people, and they said it was alright for certain contexts, but I might not want to wear it otherwise. We were walking down the hall of a musuem (UArts galleries?), to an installation by Matt Mitchell (my boss at the library work study job). It was kind of dark, and very striking orange. There were a few short Asian women there in costumes with their faces and necks painted orange. Their heads looked very round. On the way out, someone motioned for me to go into another installation. It had a glass door, and it was dark inside. When the door was opened this floating black substance drifted out. Inside, it was terrifying. There was this intensely loud, scary music playing, and a path surrounded by dark, ominous debris and shrubbery. It was too much for me to take. I must have spent only a few seconds inside.

two small ones from the past

5/21/03
I dreamed a sentence last night and then dreamed that I wrote it on my hand. This morning my hand was empty.

The sentence started with the name Dirijeri, except that the r's were a Greek letter.

6/9/03

repeated thoughts, dreams. Half asleep this morning I dreamed of eating a bowl of peanuts. I finally told my dream-self that I could take them to go. I sat up in bed.

Soap Opera

I had a thought that maybe the dreams could constitute episodes of a soap opera, since we already have the TV as a central symbol. This would make the dreams more concrete and easier to write, since there would actually be dialogue and drama. Maybe a soap opera musical? Then the television clips that are shown could be advertisements?
Maybe the dreamer character is a shut-in for some reason- either she simply stays inside dreaming and watching tv or she is confined to one room by an outside force. We had talked about the sort of claustrophobic quality of certain dreams where there is some kind of danger outside and the only way to be safe is to stay inside. I know it sounds kind of corny, but maybe the dreamer's connection with the tv and her dreams is a way of fantasizing about the outside world.
The beginning of a dream could be the detective's knock on her door: an intruder from outside bringing her into a world of intrigue.
Is there a way to justify the Greek, or "gothic" chorus within this idea? Does it have to be justified?

Just some thoughts. Think what you will of them.

truth machine

In a couple of weeks I am starting a new job, it is 2nd shift, Wednesday through Saturday, so my free times will be:
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday

I am also working with a photographer in Easthampton 10 to 15 hours a week, as of yet, undesignated. So, not a ton of time, but those days a wide open for the moment.

I had another dream last night, i don't remember much of it, but it ended with my mom handing me an entomology book, which had a picture of the decidedly ashkenazic author in black and white on the cover. for some reason it made me very anxious when i woke.

a working title?

I've been thinking about "The Truth Machine" as a working title. To me it refers to the tv. I think the tv will be a central fixture in our set, and will have a sort of sacred status. And one idea concerning it is that it shows us the "truth."

TV- idolatry- American Idol- a girl who sings a pop/R&B song?
I have a feeling that people will sing this song (something romantic and optimistic like "Give Love a Chance") at the end, after face lady has shown the dreamer the ultimate reality, which is simply darkness...people float by, only illuminated by flashlights, beginning to sing vaguely a strange reprise of this song (which does not exist, since we will write it).

I know I have been going ahead of people before we've had a chance to talk, but I think this sort of stuff is necessary, and I hope others will begin to do the same. When we finally meet again we can talk about what ideas people like and don't like.

In response to that last post by Clayton, we haven't really decided on a time for the performance. I think October is too early. Something like November would be good, but maybe that's still too early. Probably December or January would be the best, especially for me, since I will probably be having a break from school. I hope this doesn't seem like it will make the whole thing too drawn out.
Also, I would like people to keep in mind that we need to find a good venue, and it will be to our advantage to secure it as soon as possible. Think about this.
It would be good if everyone were to follow Clayton's example and set this blog as your homepage, or at least visit it every time you go online.

meeting times and short thoughts

because i'm short on thoughts,

i am putting the BLAND sight on my homepage so that i can check it when i check my ordinator, which is like every day. christopher and i talked about setting up a meeting this friday(tonight!) or saturday. let's do it! i volunteer my house for hosting if that makes it easier. i know there is a ride situation that i might be able to help ameliorate, let's talk!

i like where chris is going with the story. it sounds to me like a murder mystery to tie the thing together. and some realization of the reality of dreams and the dreaminess of reality.

mmmmhhh...

are we aiming for a show in late October earlier November? let's hash it out. can i run a writing exercise for the meeting; i'll bring cheese...

Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft

There is a Lovecraft story I just read about a scientist who creates a machine that allows our senses to perceive things that exist in our atmosphere without our normally being aware of them. These things turn out to be big sort of shadowy jellyfish that float around and sometimes attack eachother. To me, there is such a machine in our world, and it is the tv screen, or the face on the tv screen. This face is a power that can make us aware of a sort of truth that governs and accompanies our existences. Our main character is a dreamer who happens to come across the tapes of the crazy-lady face, and is led gradually to understand that dreams are a kind of reality, and that figures from dreams do not cease to exist, but simply become invisible when we wake up. Eventually, they begin appearing more and more.

Some ideas

-The premise is a murder investigation, the murderer presumably being the crazy lady on the tv screen, the murdered being perhaps a child or an adult man.
-All the neighbors have their own two cents, and they state it for the record, then become part of the narrating and commenting Greek chorus, which backs them up with repetition of the last line, a la Baroque opera. They say things like "omg" and "jfc" (jesus fucking christ).
-There is a speaking baby who becomes something of a prophet. Maybe the baby becomes possessed.
-Someone wakes up suddenly in the dark and turns on the tv.
-A family on vacation comes to town and swims in the singing bog. This bog is also somewhat prophetic.
-You get the idea that something bad is going on, and these tapes of the crazy lady keep turning up.
-The crazy lady becomes like a god, manipulating everyone who sees her, without even existing in the flesh. Turns out she may not be all that crazy. Just twisted and malicious.
-Someone becomes the lady's slave, through the someone's devotion to the tv screen and deadly fear of the lady.
-The Greek chorus shouts at the characters things like "don't do it!" and makes sound effects.
-Creatures from another world parade around in menacing ways.
-The horror and the tension build to a surprising, passionate climax!

4/29/06 (I have a feeling this one is a keeper)

There was a crazy woman who was stalking a married man. She made a videotape for him of her talking about how she was going to kill each of his children: she was going to cut strips of their skin off all the way around their bodies, and the older the kid, the more strips. The first one to fall victim was the youngest, a toddler, who got two strips. The tot was found lying naked, face down on the floor, which was splattered with blood. On the way to the hospital it was discovered that the child might not be dead after all.
My mom and I and maybe some other people took a trip down to the place where this happened, maybe to try to investigate, or maybe just to visit. We felt like we were putting ourselves in danger- that there was a killer out there somewhere and he (or she) might come after us.
We were at a bog where some people were swimming. The water was somewhat clear, but it made your skin look wierdly florescent, "like a ghost," someone said, to which someone else replied "no, it's really good." The bog was singing sort of a high pitched drone. It was ominous.

re putting in again

July 4th
Finally Dreamy again. The first dream was the usual searching, straining, trying to read the spray paint marks on the pavement. I woke, got up and peed.
The second dream wnded with grandpa DeBoer putting away a dump truck in the garage. My dad complained about all the junk in there. I mentioned that grandpa Salem had managed to fit a crane in the garage. Dad leaned over and grimaced, knocking a tarp off a small white snowmobile. I laughed. "are you gonna keep this one? brawwwww!!!(the sound of it's small eight horsepower motor) Grandpa Deboer stayed silent and raised his eyebrows.

re putting in

okay, i guess this will work. i am going to write out what i put in my journal, word for scratchy word:
An evolutionary dream :
Bad spirit invading the town, the hill towns. Small apartment. My dad speaking with some one about the happenings. As he speaks of birth I step into an old haunted room, a small room, my first room. I step out, as if to demonstrate birth. He nods with sad eyes.
We move to the hill towns in hopes of fiding (safety?). but they are worst haunted. The few people left rapidly change into evil, invaded by spirits.
we go back to shelburne. the police are squinty-eyed and weary. There are few people left and the spirits are strong.
We go to the city and the spirits are strong. Then we've gone very far, to a strange city where everything is familiar - playstations, tv's children. we seem to be at home though not at our home. Then slowly, what was right and good starts turning. the spirits have followed us, or they were always there.
there is a kernel. i start a song, or it plays on a record, "taking a chance on love." i start to sing and to dance, and the spirits sigh in relief. She is filled with happiness and sings. The room, which was gothic and suburban, is realy comfortable and warm. We sing.

Last night

I was getting a tattoo from Tim, the guy who did my ampersand. I got some sort of orb on my back, and then he added this big airplane tattoo across my upper back. I looked at it in the mirror, and thought, well, I didn't really want this. But I guess there's nothing I can do about it now!

I also had a dream two nights ago that Josh Weinstein was gravely ill, and we were all at his house visiting. He was tall and skinny with dark hair though, and I was trying to remember if I knew him. We had dinner. Then there was an earthquake and I left trying to find my car and wondering if I could drive away when the ground was shaking and cracking up. I was thinking as I walked away, that Jacob was Jacob, but Avi's name was Lason in the dream, and they called him Lazy for short.

9/15/05

I was in my room in Buckland with my mom. The window was open and I was telling her how I don't like bugs to get in. Then I saw this wasp that was looking at a bird turn into a miniature bunny rabbit. I pointed it out to my mom, and she said "now all we need is for the penguin to turn into something," and I saw a miniature penguin standing closeby. We both laughed.

9/2/05

A small rock island off a Japanese coast with sea lions or penguins or something. A helicopter flying by playing a song called "HIV AIDS" sung by two African sounding voices. Divine and a fat John Waters in the water trying to catch the shit from the animals as it came out, and Divine diving down to eat the shit floating in the water, and saying "mmm, that was disgusting!"

Here it is...

Post your dreams here. And ideas and junk.

Love,

e