2 February 2008

Warning: this will be totally random and filled with rabbit trails.

I find dreams enticing and thought provoking. They never quite make sense and always leaving me seeking hidden clues amongst the rubble of nonsense. Last night I watched a bizarre film in my head. Complete with dogs, thanksgiving day parades, swimming pools and friends. Pretty odd. I remember bits and pieces of this dream. Sometimes I remember the entire thing and it never leaves me. At some point we were at my house (which is a house I’d never lived at in real life, but I new it was mine), it was a rather large old mansion type home in the middle of Manhattan, one the Vanderbilts would surely have constructed; uniquely fitted with a large pool on the roof of the home and other levels above it on the backside. We were carrying on in the pool having a splash of a time with some family and friends; as the parade was going on in the streets below. The giant balloons were still higher than the roof of my home and they sailed with ease above us. All of the floats were incredible and far more extravagant then any that have been created in the real world. People rode these. I recall some of the latter floats were characters from the film ‘Ratatouille,’ and the last one… was a floating diaper… yeah… no idea. Soon after the parade had finished my friend Bass jumped out of the pool and ran over to the edge of the roof and was gazing at a blanket that was hanging on the spire of a church across the street. Without hesitation he jumped, a la Spiderman, from my roof to the spire. As he grabbed the end of the blanket it sling-shot him into the air, doing a number of backflips and landing backwards into another pool on my roof - that I had apparently not noticed before. As he was getting out of that pool I looked at him and said, “What the heck was that?” He just looked back and shrugged his shoulders, typical Mike Bass. Hah. I then saw my old childhood dog Comrad about 30 feet away on the other side of the pool. I knew from a previous point in my dream that he was alive and had made his way back to live with me again. This was his first day back at my home (Comrad was a German Shepherd and my best friend through Jr. High & High School, he passed away while I was attending University in another state). I saw that Comrad was struggling to walk and as I called for him he was whimpering and trying so hard to get to me. I then noticed that he had somehow walked thru glass and had giant shards on all four of his paws almost as big as ice blocks. My Mom was out of the water and I yelled for her to run and help him, as I was slipping off the edge of the pool. She made it to him first and I was closely behind. We got him on his side and began to pick each piece out of his paws. I rubbed his belly and kept repeating, “You’ll be alright boy, you’ll be alright.” Then I awoke to the raven calling to me outside my window; as he does most mornings.

I looked at the clock and it was 6:30am. I had just completed my first ‘real-nights-sleep’ in a very, very long time. Over the past 3 months I have pretty much worked ’round the clock on a major project - mixed with various other small projects. Most days I’ve only slept from 10am til 2 or 3pm, as I find my most creative moments come after midnight. And some days I just couldn’t sleep, like Monday and Tuesday where I had back to back 14 hour shoots. Back to the dream… It is strange how a great majority of our dreams stem from things that occurred prior to that night, either during the week or just hours before shut-eye. And I find it rather fun piecing these things together. Two days ago I viewed an episode of ‘Dog Whisperer’ on the National Geographic HD channel. I had really “dogged” on this show when I first saw the commercial months ago, thinking it seemed pretty lame. Buuuuut…. of course now that I have watched it I really enjoy the show. Then yesterday I watched another program called ‘Wild’ on the same channel. This episode was entitled ‘Dog Genius,’ which was about the intelligence of dogs and how astonishing their problem solving skills are. I sat there with my jaw dropped thru most of this show. I highly recommend it if you get the chance. (rabbit-trail) They had a dog from Germany, named Rico, who was so incredibly intelligent. He new over 200 objects by name. As the owner would tell him to go get the object he would look around and find it, then bring it back to her. He was NEVER wrong. Then to show off even more… in this room with over 200 objects they placed one object that he did not know. Then made up a random name for this new object and told him to go get it. This is what really blew me away. The dog used incredible problem solving skills as he searched the room looking over all the objects he did recognize and finding the ONE that he had never seen and brought it to his owner. Unreal. The show then went on to portray various trained animals for the blind and challenged… amazing. And lastly they showed a Doberman, named Donnie, who had been rescued from an abusive home. This dog was an artist. No joke. He had tons of toys in his backyard… and when the owner was gone he would arrange them into pieces of art. He would put them in columns and rows… sometimes triangles, sometimes circles… he also knew to group them by type… he would create a ‘piece’ using all monkeys… or all frogs… just unreal. Because this dog was abused he would not let his owner touch him… until one day he finally let her hug him… that evening he made a ‘piece’ using two stuffed animals and put one of them holding the other… this sounds so strange, hah… but i swear it’s true. ( look for yourself- http://www.sitemaker.umich.edu/barbara.smuts/donnie_ ) It’s so funny to me that we use art to express our emotions… and so does this dog.

WOW, sorry about the rabbit trail… but now you know why I dreamed about the late great Comrad. As for the blanket on the spire… I went to target last night just to browse around and relax. I had thought about picking up a new quilt type blanket because the one I use all the time is reeeeally falling apart. So I searched thru all the aisles at their selection… I found a couple that might serve as a replacement… but left empty handed because I just couldn’t decide and finding a new blanket to sleep with every night is tough, like choosing a new pillow. As soon as I left I spoke on the phone with Bass. So there you have it… I was looking for a blanket then talked to Bass. But I have no idea why he had spiderman skills in my dream. I then picked up a chicken wrap to-go from Red Robin and came home to put on a movie and enjoy my food. A lame celebration for finishing a major project, but to me it was all I needed last night. So you can only guess what movie I watched… yeeep, Ratatouille. Hence the characters in my parade. As for the diaper??? NO children in my immediate future that is for certain. Could it be symbolic… meaning something new is coming my way? God only knows.

Some of the greatest films I have ever seen play only in my dreams, and sometimes, yes sometimes… my dreams are completely animated… as in cartoons. And at times they are only in black and white. Strange, yet true.

Well it is 8:30am and I’m off to grab some breakfast at Noshville and do some reading. Later today I am going to a park to play frisbee golf with this dude I met at a video shoot. Should be filled with humour, as I’ve only tried it once before years ago.Here’s to a normal sleep schedule from today on! (Or at least until the next major project) Cheers,

cB