Music as Genius

Last night, I was plunged in the middle of a ballet rehearsal as the conductor without having written a single note of the score. As I bumbled and racked my mind for what to do, some of the cellos began a low tremolo. I jumped at the opportunity, frantically imploring them to keep up what they were doing. I asked the violins if they had anything to add, and we started to sculpt a back-and forth between the high and low strings.

The dancers were dressed as red and brown flames and began dancing around a woman in blue. As the xylophone started, I nearly leapt for joy. Screaming at him to keep playing, I started across the stage toward him. Instead of heeding my cues, he instead moved to the piano and began a chordal tirade that provided perfect counterpoint to the fiery dance on the other side of the stage. I came back to my strings and coaxed them to develop and refine their sound and delivery. We were making something incredible, and as the horns began to peal, I couldn't help but water my musical garden with tears of contentment.

Flash forward to the night before the performance. I was being interviewed by a reporter trying to get the latest scoop on breaking musical news. She was asking about my music writing process, and I couldn't take all the credit. I told her:

"I think music in the past was written by too few people. Traditionally, writing music has been for the experts only. Let's forget that by opening it up for everyone. I want the whole music experience to be a community event. That's why I want to make music with my orchestra and my audience. Then we can share the music by making it together."

Flash forward to my elderly parents' apartment later that evening. We were discussing the upcoming show, and I felt an immense sense of purpose and power as I knew my defining moment was just a sleep away. We laughed and chatted and finally conversation turned to the performance, and I explained to my parents that I wanted to make sure it was something new, something different, and something meaningful to everyone in the performance hall. They smiled at me and finally expressed gratitude for the way I had decided to use all the money they had spent on music lessons.

On my way to the performance hall the next morning, I woke up and realized that I am neither a composer nor a conductor.

Papal Grace

Last night, I dreamed that I was in a room. In a chair in front of me was a robed figure with their back turned. In the distance there was a person framed in light. As I got closer, the person at the far end of the room began decrying the actions of Pope John Paul II. I walked up beside the seated figure and looked over at him. It was the late pope. As I kept listening to the distant person's methodical outlying of sins, I saw tears in John's eyes. I interruped the far figure and loudly stated that Pope John Paul II wasn't a bad man. "In fact," I said, turning to the Pope, "a great many people loved him." As I looked down into the face of the man who had called himself God on earth, a smile inched its way across his lips. His teary eyes glistened up at me as he thanked me for my kind words.

I slept on a beanbag last night.

Last night, I was in a grungy hall with a iron cage at either end. There was a young boy in front of me. He was straining against a metal chain coming from each cage. The chains were attached to collars around the necks of two demons. The boy had to keep tension on the chains to ensure that the demons didn't escape their cages and kill him.

Village Road Guitar

A lot of my dreams involve snow.

Last night, I was in a small, snowy village. There was a huge event going on, and here is what I think it was:

There were lots of us gathered together, and at some point, we all started racing each other through and around the village's buildings. I was in a small grey skimmer sled of some kind. I was viewing myself drive from a third-person perspective, almost like a videogame. At one point, I was desperately trying to get into a concrete culvert, as it was the next point in the race. I had to try several times to key a switch with the front of my sled, but finally a tunnel opened and I could pass through.

I can remember some vague village-wide controversy after the race. It involved me and some other guy my age. I think we were trying to capture or injure one another. At any rate, it took both of us all our cunning to outsmart the other.

Whatever happened, I was next walking down a snowless gravel road, with trees on either side. I was with a group of peers, and I think we were trying to find something that had been left on the road. From time to time, we stopped and took group pictures.

The next thing I knew, I was on a huge balcony in a gigantic metal, concrete, and glass building of some kind. There was a huge crowd of people just sitting on the balcony and conversing with each other. I knew most everyone there, and music was being played to us over speakers. I had a guitar in my hand, and was trying to show a friend of mine a song I like ("The Modern Leper" by Frightened Rabbit), but was failing horribly at synchronizing the chords and melody. After awhile I gave up successfully showing him, and moved on to mope and practice a bit. Then I got the melody back, and started successfully performing the song.

After a bit, I got bored of it, and so resorted to absently picking in harmony to the music being played above us. Just then, a real-world girl from my college turned to me and told me that I "play amazing." I grinned sheepishly and sidestepped the praise, gloating inside at my greatness.

I turned away and awoke.

Casino Zombie Parachute

This past semester, my life was so devoted to school that my dream blog and even my dream life suffered. I went to bed late, got up early, and was occupied for an entire day before doing it again. Furthermore, I was so stressed I either didn't dream much or couldn't remember anything I dreamed.

However, now I am on Christmas break. For me that means the relaxation to be able to dream again and remember it. So here goes...

Last night, I was off for an afternoon drive to Dayton, TN. In the real world, I shot a video promo for a small school there, and so in my dream I decided it would be nice to visit again. However, I guess I misjudged the time of day and the distance, because when I got close it was nearing dusk, and I knew that nobody would be around to chill with me. Nevertheless, I thought I might as well just stop in and take a look around, having come all this way. But then I missed my turn. As the road wound through the mountains, I looked for a place to turn around. The road kept winding with no possible alternatives, and so I soon crossed an intersection and saw a sign that said "Dayton Casino." The road was lined with bright green lights, and everything looked very ritzy. As I continued, I found myself behind a slowpoke 4WD vehicle. He eventually pulled over, and I swung my car around for a u-turn. As I blasted away, I heard him call to me that there were often policemen in a roadside RV checking traffic speeds. I slammed on my brakes just before coming to a red light at the same intersection I had passed earlier.

I waited my turn and then pulled forward, reaching a fairly good speed as I decided to abort the school visit and go home instead. Just then, I felt a huge bump and then heard a terrific scraping noise behind me. I looked over my shoulder, and saw the same 4WD vehicle from before narrowly missing my rear fender as it careened down the road in a shower of sparks. I sighed to myself and put on my blinkers, pulling over to survey the damage.

When I got out of my car, I looked around and realized that I was in my old childhood neighborhood. I looked back behind me, and saw a stocky young man standing over my fender. I had ended up next to a tree. I ran over and saw to my dismay that there was a young girl pinned under the fender. We hoisted back the twisted metal, and the young man gasped as we saw the girl's face. It was squashed and bloody. I ran back to my car to get something and cautioned the other guy that, should the girl be disturbed in the least, she would most definitely die. I looked back and saw him accidentally stumble over her in his haste to get away. The girl tipped onto her side, and the guy gently put her back. I was not impressed.

When I got home, I saw glanced at the TV and saw a commercial playing for a movie called "12:14." Apparently, it was a film based on my mishap that evening, and was the sequel to the film "11:14." I thought it strange that I had been so influential as to merit a movie, but then I realized that there was more to the trailer. It told a tale of an accident that lead to a zombie attack. I surmised that the producers had taken their liberties with my stories, and so I left the house again. I got in my car and drove, but at some point I got out because there were people on the side of the road. One of them was the girl that had been injured by my fender. When I tried to talk to them, the girl started gnawing at the neck of an older man that was there as well. Directly after, he started walking around catatonically, and I immediately realized that the zombies portrayed in the film about me were real. As the zombies converged on a third individual, I hopped in my car and left.

Somehow, I came to a school. I went into a classroom, and saw that everyone was going crazy. There was a large remote control being passed around, and it was dictating the behavior of people in cages. I was disgusted with this kind of behavior, and so I left to go outside. Somehow, I then got involved in a vehicle-based zombie hunt, and so I drove around with some other people trying to find zombies. At some point, I heard someone mention something about elephants, and so I asked them to clarify what they meant, but nobody answered. The search for the person talking about elephants soon became more important to me than the search for zombies.

Eventually, we came to a car that was parked in a vacant lot, with forest around. At some point, it had already become daytime, and there was a sparse forest around us. I recognized a few individuals in the car, and asked if any of them had mentioned elephants. One guy in the back said that it had been him. He said he had been referring to a bag of elephant sprinkles he had in his had. I took them and looked at them, and decided my search was over. I disbanded from the rest of my team as the people in the other car started taking pictures of each other.

Having no immediate purpose, I decided to walk on a nearby trail I saw. It looked like the trail had seen better days, and a modern wooden boardwalk with railings had been constructed over it. To me it looked like the old trail had a more direct path, and so I opted to walk down it. As soon as I stepped foot on the trail, a young, unkempt guy about my age asked if he could join me. I said that it was fine, and so he started telling me about his frequent visits to the trail. As we kept going, the boardwalk above got lower and lower, and so we had to crawl. We turned over, and started using chickenwire above our heads to pull ourselves along. He started talking about how he loved to come and do this course, since it always had a certain challenge with its wealth of obstacles. I realized that this pathway was basically a military obstacle course, but kept going.

Eventually we came to the end of the course. Right before it ended, there were two unique obstacles we had to pass. The first was a steep hill with a rubber strip inserted into the path. My newfound companion went first, struggling down it but eventually reaching the bottom. When I went, I bounded down with ease. He congratualed me and I graciously accepted his praise. Next was a game of bowling in the muddy trail. However, this game was different. There were three orange bowling balls. We had to use one of them to hit the far one, without hitting the closer one. The other guy went first, and failed, hitting the closer ball by accident. When I went, I missed the close one and hit the far one, completing the game successfully.

As we walked past the balls, we came to a forest path, with a grassy hill on one side and a pond on the other. As I looked up the hill on my left, I saw buildings through the trees and realized that this was a path I often visited. In my dreams, I sometimes come to this place, trying to find a real-world mountain cabin that my family sometimes goes to. However, in my dreams, my cabin is always hard to find. I asked the guy if he would like to help me find an alternate route to our cabin and the pond that is right beside it. He heartily agreed, and so we set out on our search.

Eventually, we turned a corner, and saw a pond that looked suspiciously like the one I was on the hunt for. As I took a close look, though, I realized that this wasn't the pond I was looking for. Although it was beautiful and inviting, there were people there that I didn't know, and a waterfall at the far end that I knew my pond didn't have.

We decided to go back the way we came and climb the hill. It ended up being much higher than we had suspected, with several switchbacks in the trail. At one point, I looked back and saw a woman walking with a girl. The woman had a sign on her that said "Carrying Letter." I assumed this had something to do with urgency surrounding the zombie hunt, and decided I didn't want to have anything to do with her. We continued up the path, and the guy with me suggested that we look over a ridge in the distance. I walked through the yard of one of the buildings nearby, and realized that it was actually a recreational vehicle. I climbed all the way up to the ridge, and saw that there was a wall at the top. I climbed up it and looked through a window at the valley below.

I was astounded.

It turns out that we had been climbing for a very long time, because the hill had ended up being a mountain, and as I looked over the cliff, I saw the ground several miles below. We were so high that I could see the countryside spread out magnificently beneath me. It seemed to be in the form of a very large, bowl-shaped valley. As I inspected the earth, I saw a tiny pond. I took a closer look, and saw a familiar road leading up to it. I excitedly turned to my friend to tell him that we had found the pond, but as I did the way fell away beneath me. I scrambled to get back, but toppled over the edge. I looked down at my chest and, to my relief, saw that I had a ripcord for a parachute. I pulled it immediately, and somehow floated back up to the ledge. I looked around for my friend, and heard him call to me from inside the RV. I softly opened the door and walked down the hall to see him sitting on the toilet. Not wanting to waste any time, I told him I was leaving and that he had better come with me.

As I left, I saw a small village of RVs in front of me, further up the ridge. I picked my way up the slope, and in the meantime, busied myself with putting my parachute back in its bag. Eventually, I looked back behind me to see if my friend was coming. I saw a figure and waved, thinking it was my buddy. Immediately I knew I had made a mistake, because the person yelled and started running after me. I guess the owner of the RV heard us and had come outside to see what the commotion was about. I didn't want to let him find out. I turned and sprinted to the rocky cliff in front of me. I couldn't run as fast as I wanted to, and so I got on all fours and grabbed clumps of grass to help pull me forward. As I galloped past the last few trees, I put my foot on the edge of the cliff and thrust myself forward into the void. I turned downward, and saw rocky outcroppings and ledges rush past underneath me. After a few seconds, I grabbed my ripcord and my parachute billowed out above me.

I gradually began losing consciousness, but did notice my pursuer falling next to me. He pulled out a machete and chopped of both my arms as we floated down the cliff to the inviting ground below. I guess one of his machete chops missed me and instead hit my parachute, because I resumed freefall. As the ground rushed up, I saw a small me-sized hole and aimed for it. I hit right in the center and tumbled head over heels down into the abyss. As I continued getting more and more groggy, I hit the bottom. I looked around me and saw an earthy tunnel. Behind me there was an orange snake, which I quickly dispatched with a handy nearby shovel. I decided the tunnel wasn't safe for me, and somehow armlessly clambered back up the shaft above me. When I reached the top, I toppled onto the ground, exhausted and alive.

I woke up.

Winter Flight Fright

Last night, I was a student pilot, about to take my first solo flight. However, the aircraft was quite unconventional. It was effectively a huge treehouse with a rocket engine underneath. However, I was getting ready for the trip, readying the machine and double-checking everything.

At one point, my instructor came out to help me, and gave me a flight bag and a bunch of paperwork to fill out. Since I was so inexperienced, I needed a lot of help with the papers. For example, there was one paper, the weight and balace form, that also had some other weird information needed. I had to fill out all the reference airspeeds for different phases of flight. I remember seeing the slow flight airspeed and trying to figure out how to find it. My instructor told me that it was on the back of the paper. I had to look through a lot of terms to find it, but finally I did. I also had to write out the total distance of the trip, which I think ended up being around 6,347 miles.

At some point I finished my paperwork, and was getting ready to be on my way. However, just then, I heard a noise off the balcony of the treehouse airplane, and I looked over the edge to see a girl I like and one of her friends. They were just walking around, but I guess somehow they got invited on the flight because they had some suitcases and eventually were hoisting them up to me. I scurried around for a bit, judging the weight of all the luggage with my arms to ensure that we weren't overweight. As I did this, I took a closer look at my ship. It had two bedrooms and a bathroom, and my copilot was putting luggage and clothing away. Another thing I noticed was that it was winter, and while there was snow on the ground outside, the roads were clear. It was a fairly dry winter day.

As I sat back down at the flight desk, I tried to secure the flight bag by looping some rings on the straps through hooks attached to the underside of the desk. I also looked behind me and saw that this particular aircraft had some accommodations for children, namely some wooden steering columns that kids could pretend to be pilots with. At that point, I realized that I needed to start my taxi down to the runway so I could take off. But first, I needed to make the call to the tower. I wasn't able to reach them on my radio, so for some reason I decided to jump down to the ground to do it. I then did so. On the way down, I realized several things: my instructor was on the ground, yelling at me to get moving or else I wouldn't make my flight, I had the radio in my hand still and it was flashing with red and green lights, and a car was driving up. Just then an invisible force picked me back up, as a suburban drove over the spot where I would have lain moments before. The force swung me all the way up onto the main platform of the aircraft, and I resumed readying myself for the trip.

The next thing I can remember is sitting in some sort of control room inside a building. A bunch of middle-aged pilots were talking about air routes, and I overheard them say that the city of Atlanta was a mere 19 miles away, while my hometown of Kelowna, British Columbia was something like 50 miles away, over the mountains. They were talking about how this flight was really boring and kind of lame, and I felt a little bad, because I thought I remembered loving the trip.

That's it.

Student Survival Shake

I had a greatly bloggable dream last night, but I got lazy and didn't write it down right away. As a result, I have forgotten a large amount of what happened. However, I can still remember a little bit. It is as follows:

Last night, I was on a tour full of young students. We were touring some place with a large group. Many important things happened, but the only one I can remember now is that, at one point, a student walked up to me. I don't know who he is in reference to the real world, but in the dream, he was a friend of mine. Everyone was very relieved to see him, for he was apparently in some sort of grave danger and had managed to survive. He was wearing a black baseball cap and diamond earrings. He was a little bit shorter than me, but was fairly fit. As he walked up to me, he reached out his hand, a huge grin on his face. I grabbed his hand in both of mine, enclosing it in a hopeful grasp.

That is all I remember.