The only problem I've been having since giving up my addiction has been waking up at 3 a.m. and when I say waking up, I mean it is as if my toe was stuck in the electrical outlet. Bam! No snoozing. And the dreams are what I'd call electric as well.
Last night for example, I found myself traveling the 6 train which gets detoured to Cleveland where there is a marching band that I am enlisted in. I keep telling everyone that I don't belong in Cleveland - and that I didn't know the #6 train went to Cleveland and everyone that is in Cleveland is dressing me in this high-school uniform and I find myself carrying a marching band tuba.
In other words, bam! and boom! Ump Pah. Ump Pah. The parade moves down a wide boulevard where old women are throwing flowers at us as if we are on our way off to war. And I'm puzzled by this until I look ahead and see that the band is going onto a troop ship marked: Middle East Tour of Duty.
I ditch the tuba, and scramble to the sidelines but I'm picked up by the police for illegal disposing of government property (the tuba) and taken to a holding cell in the Cleveland City Hall.
The mayor, a fat little man with an accordian case strapped to his back sits down on the other side of the bars and plays polkas for me, all the while explaining that I'm in deep trouble and that I am being accused of hijacking the #6 local.
Idiotic, I telll him. You can't hijack a subway.
True, he replies. It hasn't been done before - but that's no reason that I can't be the first. And besides, he grins - we've got the pictures to prove it.
He then continues playing a squeeky rendition of Roll Out the Barrel.
Bam. Awake. I try to fall back asleep to see what is going to happen next, but no luck.
6 comments:
Did you ever read Kerouac's "Book of Dreams"?
He kept a pencil & paper by his bed and the minute he woke up, he wrote down everthing...
I have some crazy dreams and I'm usually being chased all over town, like in an action movie such as "The Seven-Ups" or "the French Connection" Last night, no action, just hanging in Brooklyn Heights with a beautiful dame, and I fell for her hard! Also, it was 1947 and there were no yuppies.
Then I woke up on the Upper West Side 2006...
I keep the notebook in hibernation near my bed so I can write this stuff down in the middle of the night. Haven't read "Book of Dreams" but have heard Billy Joels' River of Dreams.
Sometimes I just remember a bit of one, but once I start writing more comes back at me. When I was in psychoanalysis my doctor did his best to make something of them - but we never got anywhere (just like in my dreams) - always meandering, never arriving.
Yeah, waking up at 3 a.m. etc. I've been through the quitting process before. It takes me about two weeks before I'm somewhat comfortable. But then you know how it is, one day something goes wrong; or you're bored; or whatever and the head-games kick in. I have learned one thing: there is no such thing as one cigarette for me. That is a hard lesson, but if I do pick up one, I might as well just go out and buy a pack because the little guy that lives upstairs in the head is ready to screw things up at that point. So far, so good.
Yes, I've had the same exact dream, except instead of playing "Roll Out the Barrel", they played "Haben Sei Gesehn Das Deutches Band?"
Best regards,
SteveR
My father was born in NYC, but at age one moved to Cleveland where he grew up and we were talking about the old days in Cleveland which is how it popped into my dream. Also there is a very good Randy Newman song about the Cayahoga (sp?) river rolling into Cleveland.
"Cleveland city of lights, city of magic..."
"Burn on big river, burn on..." - Randy Newman
When I first heard the Randy Newman song, I just enjoyed it because of the sound of "Cayahoga"
Someday, I would like to make a list of cities that he's written songs about.
"Hate New York city, it's cold and it's damp, and all the people dress like monkeys..."
: Miami
: L.A.
: Cleveland
: Birmingham
Writing songs about cities goes back a long way. There is a very good Al Jolson tune called, "My Miami."
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