Tell me your dreams

[shereads]

What about these two standbys:

(1) Out in public in your underwear (or worse) and no one seems to notice but me. (I heard somewhere that men have this dream more than women, which seems kind of paradoxical)

(2) Showing up some place for a test and realizing that you haven't been attending class and have no idea what you're doing. In my version of the dream I show up for a band concert and am handed some instrument I've never played before: a french horn or contra-bassoon or something.

---dr.M.

That second one is famous and popular. I used to dream it involving college classes, but in recent years it turned into a work dream: I'm wandering around at a company where I'm apparently employed, but I have no idea which desk is mine or what I'm supposed to do when I find it...Wait a second. Maybe that's not a dream.

Gulp.

Dr. M, since your version is music-related, there's a novel where that dream is taken to a knuckle-biting extreme: The Unconsoled, by the unspellable author of Remains of the Day. The protagonist checks into a hotel in an unfamiliar city where he's greeted as a hero, and gradually discovers that he's a world-famous pianist whose concert is expectged to save the city from cultural obscurity. Except he's not sure he knows how to play the piano, and he can't find time to practice because he's apparently married to the hotel porter's daughter who thinks he's in town to buy a house and settle down. It's as achingly frustrating to read as it is to dream this way, but there are also some sequences that make me laugh out loud. Which I don't do while I'm reading. So maybe I dreamed that part.

Great book, funny and thought-provoking:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...ding=UTF8&no=283155&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER&st=books

 

[Gary Chambers]

First, Merry Christmas! all. Went to bed late, woke up early, no one else awake, here I am. Feel good, a bit joyful.

OK, I have sporadically recurring dreams about being in an opera and in a ballet. It's always "La Traviata" and I am Violetta and I don't know the words (the music but not the words). It always ends before I'm to enter the scene, but the whole dream is both exciting and stressful.

The ballet is "Giselle" and I'm Giselle. In one dream I merely stood center stage, no movement whatsoever. But somehow I embodied the role and the audience went wild. That was nice.

Fave dream: some twenty years ago I dreamed that Oscar Wilde came to my rescue (some banal situation wherein I was being threatened). He spoke to me in such a way that when I awoke I felt as if I had really met the man. To this day I feel as if I did and I think of him as a real friend.

Perdita

I've done a little hoofing, Perdita, and I can assure you before you step into the footlights your mind is often blank. It's a bit terrifying, but you walk out there anyway because others are depending on you, and the words just come. It's part of what makes performing so exciting. If you believe in Freudian psychology as I do, it's also worth noting that Freud considered all performance art to be shared experience between exhibitionists and voyeurs. These days neuroscience is in fashion and Freud gets a bad rap, but I think the father of psychoanalysis could teach the neuroquacks a thing or two if only they'd listen.

 

[damppanties]

Re: reply to dreams

I've had this dream off and on for some time. I park my car in a town i've never been in looking for a street number or something. I get out of the car and start walking down the side walk. I hear this slapping noise behind me like foot steps. I turn around there is a five foot duck standing there looking at me. I try to scare it away but it just looks at me. People walk up to me and tell me I have and nice looking duck. I tell them its not my duck they don't belive they just walk on. Every were I go this duck follows me. If I go into a store it waits for me to come back out. I cann't get rid of this duck. Then a cop comes up and tells me I have to have it on a leash or I'll get a fine. I tell him it's not my duck but he won't belive me. I ask him if he think it odd to see a five foot duck walking around town. He said no.
Any one think this dream is fuck up or is it just me?

*puts Freud cap on*

Oh, that's a perfectly valid dream. The duck you're seeing is just a manifestation of DICK. (dUck, dIck, get it?) Now just substitute dick for wherever duck occurs in your message (eg: People walk up to me and tell me I have a nice looking dick)

Slapping noise represents... ummm.. a slapping noise.

"I tell them its not my duck
I tell him it's not my duck but he won't belive me. "

Oh my God! Denial!! You need to do something about this.

"I cann't get rid of this duck"

Why would you want to get rid of your.. errr.. di.. ?

"a five foot duck walking around town"

five foot!!! You need to do something about THIS too. ASAP!

 

[Gary Chambers]

Re: Re: reply to dreams

*puts Freud cap on*

Oh, that's a perfectly valid dream. The duck you're seeing is just a manifestation of DICK. (dUck, dIck, get it?) Now just substitute dick for wherever duck occurs in your message (eg: People walk up to me and tell me I have a nice looking dick)...

LOL Damppanties. I knew there was a standup comedy routine somewhere in that duck story.

 

[SlaveMasterUK]

Dirt Man,
A very touching story, thank you for sharing.

Dr. M,
I seem to recall that dreams of public nakedness are supposed to be related to a memory of some extremely embarrasing or cringeworthy moment. I've had a few of these in the past - like the time I went to work with no clothes on.

I don't think I've dreamt about turning up for a test and knowing nothing about the subject. I very rarely revised for exams during school or college but passed them regardless anyway; I just seem to be very good at exams.

However I sometimes dream that I'm in a hurry to get somewhere, but never quite seem to make it. I've had a recurring dream that I've arranged to be in the office very early to go to a conference with the boss. I wake up early and head off, but bump into some mates on the way and stop for a beer. Realising I'm late I rush off, but get caught up again by some other friends I haven't seen for ages and get talking to them for a while. For as long as the dream lasts I can never seem to get to where I'm supposed to be going, but in my mind I can see the look on my boss's face and I can hear his curses and feel his annoyance in the air; I can imagine him tearing up my bonus check and throwing it in the bin in disgust. I usually wake up hot and sweaty from this type of dream.

Perdita,
I think I once dreamt that I was performing something, but don't remember what it was. I remember people enjoyed it, and that felt good.

Having performed live on a few occasions though, there is a moment when I step out in front of my audience when everything goes blank and I don't remember what I'm supposed to be playing. But then my fingers hit the keys and it all comes back, like autopilot. The first time I DJed live was in a bar in my local town, it was deadly quiet - just my mates and a few other couples. In many ways that was worse than playing to a huge crowd; if one couple got up and left or complained to the management it would have meant far more in an empty bar than in a packed one. When I stepped up to my spinning decks to take over from my partner, my fingers were shaking so bad I didn't think I'd be able to mix at all.

ax