Dinner with Genevieve

MORNING OF MARCH 26, 2011

I remember Genevieve, the lead singer of one of my favorite bands, Company of Thieves, was one of my circle of friends. We had all been hanging out together, but at one point in the dream Genevieve and I were having dinner alone. That's when I realized that we were "dating", and as the reality sunk in and I felt really excited. This is pretty much all I can remember.

Jesus!

MORNING OF MARCH 24, 2011

A new movie had just come out, directed by and starring Ricky Gervais, and titled, Jesus!. Some friends and I went to see this film one night, only now it was a play instead, though it still starred Mr. Gervais.

The venue looked similar to a small venue where I often go to see actual local theater. The small audience sat in folding chairs lined up in front of a stage. When the play began, for some reason, I chose to sit on the edge of the actual stage to watch it. It was a great seat, but I suddenly realized I should probably go sit with the rest of the audience, lest I block someone's view, so I did.

Somehow plush bears factored into the play. They looked like a cross between "Lotso Huggin' Bear" from Toy Story 3 and Care Bears. I was holding one at one point, and I think I'd accidentally carried it with me from when I'd been sitting on the stage.

At one point, former child star Gary Coleman came and sat down near me. It never entered into my mind that he's actually dead now. He climbed up on the stage and played on a piano while singing (I'm sure his appearance in this play stems from the use of a Gary Coleman in the actual play, "Avenue Q").

Suddenly, but without notice, things changed so that it was more like we were watching a movie in a theater as opposed to a live play. There was a scene where the characters went to Disney World. My mom, who was now apparently in the theater with my friends and I, asked me how they could get away with showing Disney World in this movie. I told her because this was a Disney movie.

The next scene in the movie took place at a wrestling event, like WWE or something. One of the wrestlers was named Jesus, and this was the supposed twist of the movie. And from here the movie evolved into some sort of sci-fi action thriller that looked a little like Tron: Legacy.

My next memory comes after the movie. I was sitting at work with my friend Richard (who doesn't work with me) and one of my actual coworkers. We were discussing our likes and dislike about the movie. We generally agreed that it was "okay".

And then I was walking in to my parents house for a visit. My mom was cooking supper, which was huge chunks of what looked like roast beef, each skewered to a giant, softball-sized shrimp. She said they were easy to cook because you just take them out of the packet, skewer them, and cook them.

They actually did look pretty good! Around this time my dad got home, obviously just returning from some sort of lengthy trip. He told me he couldn't believe I'd go see a movie called Jesus! when I don't ever even go to church.

Delinquent Commissions

MORNING OF MARCH 21, 2011

In real life I've recently been enduring a months-long period of the "creative doldrums", in which my usual passion for drawing and cartooning has been hard to muster. Not only does this create a lack of new art for my own purposes, but it slows down commissions people have asked of me, which creates guilt. Plus, I watched a movie with a "RiffTrax" commentary last night. Hence, the following short dream...

I suddenly remembered that the three guys from RiffTrax (formerly Mystery Science Theater 3000), Michael Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, had commissioned some art from me. They'd been waiting so long that I had almost forgotten the project altogether! I couldn't believed I had received the honor of someone I was such a huge fan of commissioning work from me and had just sat on it!

Stricken with combination of panic and guilt, I began hurriedly working on the commissions, some of which had already been in various stages of work. Each of the three guys had commissioned a parody comic book cover, though I can't remember the details. Most of the dream just consisted of me sitting at my desk working away on these things. I knew I had to leave and be at work soon, which created the sense of more need to hurry.

Near the end of the dream, I received an e-mail from a random "fan" who was also requesting a commission. Based on their description, I began roughing out an idea for how I'd draw theirs when I got to it. The weird things is, I was using a canvas. In real life I only draw and ink with more traditional pencils/pens/paper and then color in Photoshop, but here I had a huge canvas and was painting on it with oils--but only a rough outline! This wasn't even to be the final product!

All of this was taking place in the bedroom I had as a teenager.

Zooey's Cake and a Disney World Film Festival

MORNING OF MARCH 19, 2011

In my first dream, my friends and I were all friends with actress/singer Zooey Deschanel. She invited us to her house and served us all a chocolate cake she had made!

We were all sitting on a long, white couch in her mostly-white living room and she brought us each a piece from the kitchen, one at a time. It looked delicious! Eric was one of the first to receive a piece, and I took a picture of it with my phone while I waited for her to eventually bring my piece. I even remember tweeting the picture, along with a comment like, "We're hanging out with @therealzooeyd and she's serving us cake!"

The only other thing I remember is that it seemed like I waited forever and forever to get my own piece of cake, and in fact the dream memory ends before I got to taste it.

In a second dream later on, I was with Richard, Jessica, Lisa and Eric at a place that was a strange combination of Disney World and the Sidewalk Film Festival they have each year in nearby Birmingham, AL. I remember our group would splinter off and go check out different movies.

One theater looked like a cross between the Alabama Theatre (an actual old theatre in town) and the Haunted Mansion ride at Disney. Lisa saved a seat in the theatre while Eric and I went into a gift shop before the movie started.

In real life, during my last trip to Disney World, I began collected the Disney Pins, so that's what I was looking at in the dream. In addition to Disney Pins, there were also, for some reason, "Peanuts" and "Looney Tunes" related pins and merchandise.

I even saw a display of magnets featuring retro versions of Kellogg's cereal mascots. The old cornflakes mascot was a tomboyish little girl. In one Halloween-themed magnet, that little girl was dressed like a zombie and Tony the Tiger was a Frankenstein-like monster, and so on.

Eric and I went back into the theatre just before the movie began. It was proceeded by a spooky vocal greeting, similar to the beginning of the Haunted Mansion ride.

I realized that Eric and I had just sat down in random seats and left Lisa holding seats for us elsewhere.

A Convenient Sitcom Cast

MORNING OF MARCH 17, 2011

I was in a convenience store picking up some food items. The place was full of many unusual and memorable people, and I actually had the thought that it seemed like the cast of a quirky movie or TV show.

As I was waiting in the checkout line, a tall, skinny cop was standing behind me. I can't remember the specifics of anything he said, but I know I overheard his conversation and found it to be really odd. He also had a very peculiar stare and made me uncomfortable.

For some reason I took my groceries to my parents house instead of at home. Then we ate dinner together, which was one bowl of Lucky Charms cereal each. I haven't had that cereal in ages, but it tasted really good in the dream.

I noticed some kind of entertainment magazine lying on the table. The cover of the magazine showcased a retrospective of classic 80's sitcoms. The cover image was the cast of one of those sitcoms...and I soon recognized it to be the cop and all the other strange characters from the convenience store I had just visited! Even in the dream this kind of blew my mind.

The Tiny TV and a Wall of Ice

MORNING OF MARCH 13, 2011

I was at Richard and Jessica's, talking to them and playing with Cailey. A girl was there with me. The house itself was a fictional house I don't recognize, and was much bigger than their real house is.

There was a little 13" analog TV on the floor. Cailey had a video game system hooked up to it, and it was showing a preview for a Toy Story video game on constant loop.

Now our friend Dean was also there, and Cailey had another little girl as a playmate. Dean wanted us to watch a movie he had brought on the little TV, but we couldn't get the Toy Story thing off the screen. The girl I'd brought with me took me upstairs and we kissed at the top of the staircase.

There was another dream in which I was climbing around on a nearly sheer wall of ice in the ocean. I guess it was a glacier or something. Several baby polar bears were following my lead. I think I was trying to lead them to safety. I remember some of them slipping off into the water and I was very scared for them.

Conan's Sketch Show and Big Donations

MORNING OF MARCH 7, 2011

I was at a taping of Conan O'Brien's show. Instead of the usual talk show format of the actual program, this taping was done more like a sketch comedy show. There were several unusual sets in which different scenes took place.

One skit featured Conan and 90's Saturday Night Live alum Victoria Jackson performing together. They were discussing something about having Twitter accounts.

After the show my friends and I were walking on the set as they cleared it out. I realized it was the studio at my job. I thought it was odd that I never realized they taped Conan there after office hours and I never knew it. Still, I had strangely little trouble believing it.

From here, Eric and Richard and I entered a little restaurant to have a bite to eat. We were sitting in a booth and I noticed the unusual decor around us. There were huge doorways in certain places on the wall that appeared to lead to even larger dining areas. Upon closer inspection, these doorways were revealed to actually just be monitors that showed HD footage of other dining areas to give the illusion of size. The real restaurant was tiny.

Conan I'Brien sat down at our table and talked with us while we ate, but I don't remember any of the details. I just remember feeling really nervous and wondering what to say.

There was another dream about the RiffTrax website (current home of the guys from Mystery Science Theater 3000) being forced to go out of business. They were accepting emergency fan donations to try to save them. If x-number of fans would donate $1,000 each, the site would be saved...

So I donated $1,000. Only after I okayed the payment did I realize I absolutely did not have that kind of money to spare, and then I began to panic! This feeling of panic, of wondering if I could get my money back, is really the main thing I recall.

There was also a dream where I was having to have the tip of my thumb pricked for a blood test.

I Want a Window

MORNING OF MARCH 6, 2011

I was in a gift store looking through books. One of them was a childrens' book about owls. It had a very unique layout with beautiful illustrations. The prose was a very Dr. Seuss-ish rhyme that told about all the different types of owls. I was so impressed by the books that I wanted to buy a copy for my friends' six year-old daughter, as well as one for myself, just for the creative value I saw in it.

Outside the gift shop was an area that looked kind of like Downtown Disney in Orlando. They had the coolest decorations on the walls in some of the shops: They were full-sized fake windows, looking very much like the windows of a castle. There were beautiful 3D animations in the window which made it look as though you were seeing a scene from a classic Disney animated movie when you looked "out" the window.

This was such a neat effect that an animation nerd like me really wanted to own at least one of these "windows". I knew they'd likely be more expensive than I could even dream of affording, but I couldn't find a price on any of them (yet somehow I knew they were for sale). I have vague memories of occasionally just seeing a new one (or ones) of these windows hanging in different places throughout the dream, but I could never find out how to get one of my own.

Finally, I remember meeting some different celebrities. Bill Murray is the only one I recall for sure. I remember one room where they let you pose for pictures holding Johnny Cash's guitar and also John Lennon's guitar. Finally I went through a room where some obscure country singers I had actually met in the 90's were signing, and they told me they remembered me.

Adultery, Improv and Tin Foil

MORNING OF MARCH 5, 2011

In the dream, I lived in a neighborhood not unlike the one I grew up in during part of my childhood. There was a family that lived down the street for me. The wife was probably a couple of years older than me, but the husband was several years older than us. I think they might have had a kid, but that memory is vague. At any rate, it was clear that we were all friends.

The husband was a very meek, very short, scrawny guy that sort of reminded me of an older George McFly from Back to the Future (the pre-empowered version). The wife was a tall-ish, blond-ish lady who was very pretty.At one point I was in their living room. The husband was watching TV in his chair. The wife and I were sitting on the couch together. She was wearing flannel sleep pants and a tank top, and we were talking. Things became very flirtatious, and before I knew it, we had begun to make out! Then we realized the husband was right there in his chair and felt ashamed.

Being the meek "George McFly" type that he was, the husband didn't get mad at either of us. He simply told me "I guess you're gonna have to leave now", so, after we both apologized to him, I left. I felt really bad, and wondered what had come over me. Though it had felt good when it happened.

Later, I remember a dream that Eric and I were going to attend another improv comedy class held by the same people who taught the actual improv class that I attended last summer. This time, the class was being held in the back of an RV/camper! There were a few very redneck-y people of all ages--even children--who had shown up, but no teachers.

Everyone decided that since I was the only one who had had classes before, I should teach them. I was reluctant, but enlisted Eric to assist me, and began trying to teach the first lesson to the best of my memory and ability. The thing was, no one would listen. They all just walked around and talked amongst themselves, ignoring me entirely. The kids were overly-energetic and loud and rambunctious. It was so uncomfortably crowded in this little RV!

I decided I needed some supplies, so I left the camper and walked into a store across the street. It looked like a combination head shop/comic book store. But they sold tin foil, which is what I wanted to buy a roll of. They had a roll of 100 feet for $7, and I decided I'd buy it. The little screen where you swipe your debit card at the check out kept giving me weird readings. It was asking me to select either "weather", "blue", or "white". I had no idea what it meant.

Right after I checked out, an elderly black lady came up to me and showed me that she had already bought me a 50 foot roll of tin foil for $5. We politely argued over which one of us should return our purchase and keep the money. I have weird dreams, sir.