Sleep: Dreams & Nightmares 33

Sleep through the Static - Jack Johnson

Who needs sleep when we've got love?
Who needs keys when we've got clubs?
Who needs please when we've got guns?
Who needs peace when we've gone above
But beyond where we should have gone?
We went beyond where we should have gone.

Sleep: Dreams & Nightmares 32

Sucker Punch (2011)
Director: Zack Snyder
Song: When the Levee Breaks / Led Zeppelin


"Afraid? Don't be. What are you imagining right now?You control this world." 


"Begin your journey, it will set you free."


Your mind can set you free.

The potential of the mind is so much greater than people allow themselves to believe. Is it so hard to believe that the key to your freedom is locked in a room of your own making? Imagination is the thing that sparks innovation, not intellect or power. 

This is Sucker Punch. I'm excited for this one. Will you watch? 

-m.

Sleep: Dreams & Nightmares 31

If I could write out my own dream
For the next time that I sleep
You'd be the first one that I see
And I the last one that you keep

And the dream would go on and on
While we sway against all things thrown our way
And the morning would be so cruel
When it came with sunshine and warmth to blame
For announcing the end of my sweet dream
For announcing the end of my sweet dream

Sweet Dream - Greg Laswell


Brilliant dreams become amazing realities don't you think? We all have brilliant ideas of how we want the world to be. Are they possible? Depends on who you talk to about such things. 

This is a lovely song. It once woke me from a beautiful dream. The most magnificent of dreams. But that was so very long ago. Even to this day I know what happened in the dream. How long it was, how it looked, felt, smelt, etc. In the end it was nothing more than a dream. Ever have a dream like that? 

Vivid as they may be in order not be snatched away from our dreams we have to find a way to make them come true. As a dream is never as good as the reality. You see, it's pretty hard to pretend when you want something to be real. You will find it takes a little work to find out how to make the jump. Ah, once you find it... it's always worth the risk. So if you have a REAL dream within your grasp... 

Anyway, I'd always wanted to include this track since the beginning. Actually should have come before Oren Lavie. That was Sleep #3 if you've missed it. And that song like this one always makes me smile. Enjoy the song. Check out the music. kisses. m.

Sleep: Dreams & Nightmares 30

Inception (2010)
Director: Christopher Nolan

"Dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up we realize something was actually strange."

Make the dreams reality. The only reason it is strange is because you haven't experienced it in reality. The only limitations are the ones we impose upon ourselves. Wake up.

If you missed this one in the theaters, it's out on DVD/Blue Ray this week. Have a peek... kisses. m.

Sleep: Dreams & Nightmares 29

Requiem for a Dream
Dir: Darren Aronofsky

The Great American Dream is coming true for many. Obviously, I believe that to pursue the American Dream is not only futile but self-destructive because ultimately it destroys everything and everyone involved  with it. By definition it must, because it nurtures everything except those things that are important: integrity, ethics, truth, our very heart and soul. Why? The reason is simple: because Life/life is giving, not getting.

I am not suggesting we need to give everything to the poor and homeless – the millions of them who are still here in the midst of plenty – put on a hair shirt and go through the streets with a begging bowl. This, in and of itself, is no more nurturing than the pursuit of “getting.” I am not afraid of money and what it can buy. I would love to have a house full of stuff – of course I would need a house first. I have been hungry and see nothing noble in hunger. Neither do I see anything noble in eating high on the hog, though eating is certainly better. But to believe that getting stuff is the purpose and aim of life is madness.

It seems to me that we all have a dream of our own, our own personal vision, our own individual way of giving, but for many reasons we are afraid to pursue it, or even to recognize and accept its existence. But to deny our vision is to sell our soul. Getting is living a lie. Obviously nothing external can truly nurture my inner life, my Vision.

What happens when I turn my back on my Vision and spend my time and energy getting the stuff of the American Dream? I become agitated, uncomfortable in my own skin, because the guilt of abandoning my “Self/self,” of deserting my Vision, forces me to apologize for my existence, to need to prove myself by approaching life as if it’s a competition. I have to keep getting stuff in an attempt to appease and satisfy that vague sense of discontent that worms its way through me.

Certainly not everyone will experience this torment, but enough do and have no idea what is wrong. I’m sure the psychologists have a term for this free-floating anxiety, but the cause is what is destroying us, not the classification. There are always millions who seem to get away with doing the things that we think abominable, and thrive. It certainly appears that way. Yet, I know, absolutely from my experience, that there are no free lunches in this life, and eventually we all have to accept full and total responsibility for our actions, everything we have done, and have not done.

Requiem for a Dream, [this book/film], is about four individuals who pursued The American Dream, and the results of their pursuit. They did not know the difference between the Vision in their hearts and the illusion of the American Dream. In pursuing the lie of illusion, they made it impossible to experience the truth of their Vision. As a result everything of value was lost.

Unfortunately, I suspect there never will be a requiem for the Dream, simply because it will destroy us before we have the opportunity to mourn its passing. Perhaps time will prove me wrong. As Mr. Hemingway said, “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”

                                                                    

                                                                     --Hubert Selby, Jr.

                                                                        Los Angeles

                                                                        1999

*Requiem for a Dream, written by Hubert Selby, Jr and first published in 1978. The book is one of many that I often suggest to others. If you haven’t read it, be warned the subject matter isn’t light. But it is one of the few books out there that will change your life if you choose to read it. Darren Aronofsky’s translation of the book to screen is remarkably poignant and visionary. The film truly needs no recommending, its brilliance resonates loudly. Like the book... you must! Of course the score is absolutely required... absolutely mandatory listening. And by the way... WAKE UP! 


kisses. m.

Sleep: Dreams and Nightmares 28

Vanilla Sky - Cameron Crowe


Open your eyes... Wake up! What is life without the pursuit of the dream? Ever have a dream that was so real you mistook for reality? Wake up. Real is better than the imaginary lie. Instead of accepting a lie, make your own truth. 

Sleep: Dreams & Nightmares 27.

Bedtime Story - Madonna
Director - Mark Romanek
Song - Bjork


Bedtime Story. Sometimes you read a child a story before they fall to sleep. Always thought of this to be the workings of a very elaborate dream as visually the video is surreal and dreamlike with allusions and references to Freud, Artwork, Movement, Travel. Filled with over the top extravagance outside of what is viewed as possible. As in dreams the drive behind them is not to focus on the words, it is the imagery in them. Like the lady sings, "Get unconscious" with someone for a smidge... lose the words. Enjoy. Kisses. m.

Sleep: Dreams & Nightmares 26.

The Night Walker.

Sleep: Dreams & Nightmares 25.

"Sometimes what you wake up can not be put to sleep." unknown. Fringe.

Sleep: Dreams & Nightmares 24.

ALARM CALL

I have walked this earth

and watched people

I can be sincere

and say I like them

you can't say no to hope

can't say no to happiness

I want to go on a mountain-top

with a radio and good batteries

and play a joyous tune

and free the human race from suffering

I'm no fucking Buddhist

but this is enlightenment

the less room you give me

the more space I've got

this is an alarm-call

so wake-up wake-up now

today has never happened

and it doesn't frighten me

-bjork


Will these get back to sleep. I don't know. Everyone needs a good wake-up call wouldn't you agree? Waking up is just as important as falling asleep. Remember think broader. Anyhow... it is Day 5 and the larger project... I think perhaps its best to finish first before discussing. Wait. Please. There's so much more. And I'm still very excited. Which brings me back to the present thought: Without a compass. But not ready to call it. A good work ethic : don't complain, don't give in even when you're tired and get the job done right. For now, enjoy the laughs, the loves and remember you are alive. enjoy. kisses. m.

Sleep: Dreams & Nightmares 23.

Insomniac

The night is only a sort of carbon paper,
Blueblack, with the much-poked periods of stars
Letting in the light, peephole after peephole ---
A bonewhite light, like death, behind all things.
Under the eyes of the stars and the moon's rictus
He suffers his desert pillow, sleeplessness
Stretching its fine, irritating sand in all directions.

Over and over the old, granular movie
Exposes embarrassments--the mizzling days
Of childhood and adolescence, sticky with dreams,
Parental faces on tall stalks, alternately stern and tearful,
A garden of buggy rose that made him cry.
His forehead is bumpy as a sack of rocks.
Memories jostle each other for face-room like obsolete film stars.

He is immune to pills: red, purple, blue ---
How they lit the tedium of the protracted evening!
Those sugary planets whose influence won for him
A life baptized in no-life for a while,
And the sweet, drugged waking of a forgetful baby.
Now the pills are worn-out and silly, like classical gods.
Their poppy-sleepy colors do him no good.

His head is a little interior of grey mirrors.
Each gesture flees immediately down an alley
Of diminishing perspectives, and its significance
Drains like water out the hole at the far end.
He lives without privacy in a lidless room,
The bald slots of his eyes stiffened wide-open
On the incessant heat-lightning flicker of situations.

Nightlong, in the granite yard, invisible cats
Have been howling like women, or damaged instruments.
Already he can feel daylight, his white disease,
Creeping up with her hatful of trivial repetitions.
The city is a map of cheerful twitters now,
And everywhere people, eyes mica-silver and blank,
Are riding to work in rows, as if recently brainwashed.

-Sylvia Plath.


Originally the sleep series begin with a period of my life that marked a dramatic new pattern in rest... And a desire to be able to sleep when I wanted rather than allow it to be uncontrollable as it had become. Often, for most of my life, when I find rest it has been filled by vivid dreams (Dali-like) or horrific nightmares. Much has evolved in that sense. I don't dream much anymore when I'm sleeping. Nightmares are few and far between. What does it all mean? Not the slightest. But it's so much more wonderful and a welcomed surprise when the dreams do come now. Dreams and nightmares are like mirrors, fun-house style to the internal workings of the mind. Can only guess to their true meaning. It isn't what you may think... nothing ever really is. Anyhow, tonight as I'm setting in to write, (mostly type), this poem reminds me that there is more AWAKE and Letters to come. Actually the next few are along a similar path. There is a lot to come this week.  -m.

Sleep: Dreams & Nightmares 22

Under My Bed - Meiko

Oh my!! How ridiculous of me. This has been too long. Did y'all think I was going to stop my Sleep Series? NEVER! Ah... eventually there will be an end to this one. Not yet. This feels appropriate since I just awoke from a sleep bender, Beauty Rest at the advice of a friend. 'Best way to cure a cold,' I was told. Anyhow I saw this video last Fall and had since wanted to include it. There's a few songs out there like that as well. Projects, projects, projects. The list has doubled/tripled in size. Which in a roundabout manner, I should have pics of the dresser and the rooms by the end of the week. Expect a story... I'm going to try to put another up. M.

Sleep: Dreams & Nightmares 21

Sleeping Lessons - The Shins


The Shins will change your life. This is one of my favorite tracks to put on repeat and get lost in. It reminds me of a time in my life when I was fighting. There was once a time when I needed to fight for what I really wanted. There are very destructive people in this life and will work against you. Don't let them. But I digressed... I love the Alice in Wonderland references and in general the language of this one. It's a favorite to scream/sing to in the car! 


Of course! I promised something new! Tonight tonight... It will be today. I warned everyone this isn't going to be like October. I'm not making rules. There will be at minimum 28, and a new project! And I'm resurrecting an old series ('06) that preceded 'the music'. 


Also, y'all didn't like that story so much. Did you? Didn't you? I ended it on a positive note for a reason. Denying that man another day was predictable on my part. You expected it. I wanted to change that. More, more more...  It was inspired by a coin toss months ago (Sept?) that I put down on notes. And I was fascinated with 'The Seventh Seal' and Cory Chisel's 'Death won't send a letter' at the time.  And recently last month 'Meet Joe Black'. So death making an appearance was inevitable. I always loved that "The Seventh Seal" broke life vs. death down to a game of chess. Bergman = Genius. Watch the movie if you haven't seen it! AMAZING! Here's a clip...





Anyhow, there will be more later... kisses, m.

Sleep: Dreams & Nightmares 20

I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?


- Ernest Hemingway


On Dreams:
Awoke from sleep with a bad feeling today. The worst kind of dreams came out with me in the waking sense. It took a couple of hours to shake it. If you're wondering... Of course I'm using it for material. This was too incredibly disturbing not to. It's never too personal. I can't resist.

On Heminway:
I'd been thinking about Hemingway lately. I know, how can a woman love such a misogynistic bastard's work so much? I don't know, but I can tell you where it started. My grandfather lent me a book once, The Sun Also Rises. I instantly adored it and had to read them all. So my thoughts on Hemingway were that perhaps I should try writing under the influence. I've only jotted ideas while sipping wine. What madness would come forth if I were a little bit tipsy? hmmm... I'll keep you posted.


Anyhow, I've added another 1000 words to my current work and it looks like that's not even the halfway mark. I'm thinking it will end up being btw 3800-4500 words when it's done. I'm nervous, but that's a good thing. It's from a place that most people don't know about. I'm exhausted and can barely stay awake. I'm going to keep working until I can't keep my eyes open. I want to get this out before I lose my thought. kisses. m.

Sleep: Dreams & Nightmares 19

Cherry Tulips - Headlights

Believe it or not this video was one of the reasons I started the sleep series. I came across it during one of my more extreme sleep patterns (or lack thereof) a couple years back. At the time it cheered me up considerably. Definitely one of those fun happy videos that makes me smile every time I see it. Anyhow since then it's been a favorite. Had a chance to catch part of the song playing in the air this morning. Enjoy. m.

Sleep: Dreams & Nightmares 18

Henry Fuseli

The Nightmare exhibited 1782
Oil on canvas

Sharing the nightmares should be in order. Correct? I'm a bit apologetic as these last few were so incredibly intriguing and quite frightening that I'm most likely using them as future material.  sweet dreams... waking or sleeping. kisses. m.

Sleep: Dreams & Nightmares 17

I Dream of Love

I do not. Maybe I do? HAHA. I don't know. Actually I still dream in Salvador Dali paintings. Those are my favorites. With the occasional nightmares. And then there's the odd ones...dum dum dum. Latest oddity. I was a man in love with a woman and about to get married. CRAZY huh? Ok. Will share a little. In a train station and we're about to meet her mother. Me for the first time. She's excited. My stomach's in knots. Weirder and weirder and yet oh so normal. We're all walking and talking about the wedding and then having lunch. I win her approval. Sharing time over... are you surprised no one died? Don't be. Anyhow, so maybe I do dream of love... just not for me. I'm an unselfish girl. HAHA. Wouldn't it be nice if dreams were enough. Anyhow this is a picture I came across and thought wouldn't that be a fun thing to use in the sleep series. kisses, m. 

Sleep: Dreams & Nightmares 16

Nightmare Before Christmas - Oogie Boogie Song
Director: Tim Burton

So is this what nightmares are made of?

Somehow this movie always reminds that Halloween is coming up soon... and hopefully this will be playing somewhere in 3-D. Cause its a ritual and I owe a small person a movie right now. Was just gonna share the trailer, but I happen to just LOVE oogie boogie. As a matter of fact I do know all the songs. There's a lovely cover of 'Kidnap the Sandy Claws' by She Wants Revenge that I adore. 

Right now I'm still behind on my end of the writing. But working on a couple tonight. kisses. m.

Sleep: Dreams & Nightmares 15

Awake.

My love, my angel, watching you sleep is possibly the most exquisite sight these humble eyes have had the pleasure to behold. The sun as it weakly finds its way into our room illuminates your skin and dances in your hair. I can not count the ways I am blessed to wake next to such a wondrous creature each day. The soft sounds that escape your lips as you linger in dreams are pleasant music to ears that had only known din before your song. The dreams in your mind surely can not capture half of my devotion for you. Watching you dream is torment to my soul. I can only envy these thoughts that take you away from me. As while you are away, I can only send you my love. Such peace, my love, is in your body at rest. Still eyes, quiet mouth, and calm breathing. My mind is in eager anticipation to embrace you, possess you in this tranquil moment.

What is in your thoughts that you slumber so delicately before these eyes of mine? Is it your lover in dreams that keeps us apart in such cruelty at night? Dreams provide no definition in reality. Could it be true that my only love prefers the company of such phantoms over waking into my genuine arms? Cruel mischief is at hand, for these thoughts take you where I can not follow. I curse the night and the need for slumber. Angel, dream no more. Leave my side no longer. Dreams are foul, cursed distractions that only filled my mind with torment and yours with peaceful joy. Do I dare to believe you dream of me, as I am here waking and watching as your humble servant without the least bit of hesitation. Darling, how it would be heaven if only you could draw me into your mind. We could be alive in a world that knows nothing of boundaries. To embrace every last bit of your soul, eternally. Ah, but I am denied such an unearthly pleasure. Star-crossed lovers must endure eternities apart, and weak fool that I am, mere hours are unbearable. Jealous of a fantasy world that I can not compete with and lost in my own false imaginings of what it truly means when you are there. Angel wake soon for this madness threatens to take hold. Wake again and save me once more.

Oh, but it is a wonder for you to wake and grace the world with your beautiful smile. Thank heaven for that smile that brightens even my darkest hour. Your smile challenges the shadows before me and lays waste to the despair that is determined to pull me under. My darling, don’t let me down. Awake. My soul wages war on these demons in your absence. It is only whole once more when the dreams restore you to this life. I am yours, devoted and true. I will wait through countless nights and battle the phantoms of your mind. The day I leave is when time runs out without your return and the world comes down before me. Wake my love. Wake.


This is the love-esque thing I'd been constructing a while back. Told you it wasn't a love story per se. Just something light-hearted. the fixation with sleep, dreams, and nightmares...as you can see it's because my mind was been in the middle of somethings. As usual, with love and appreciation. kisses. enjoy. M.

Sleep: Dreams & Nightmares 14

Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Director - Wes Craven


"screw your pass"... I love it! Just finished watching the new trailer for the remake... which I'm not a fan of movie remakes at all, but I will be watching this one. Anyhow, I'd been neglecting to include some nightmares lately... huh? I'm reminded by this one, of a time when I was having some pretty scary dreams and avoiding sleep. It was about a year and a half back. No doze and coffee became welcomed companions. Wanna know about it? Bet you do.... I was having night terrors and partially waking up. My body from neck down wouldn't move and it felt like I was being pinned down. Scared me silly. It was a stressful time in my life... can't say more than that. I could. As always ask if you wanna know...

Yes, I have on/off again issues with sleep, which is where the idea for this series came from originally. In all fairness, I happen to love my dreams and would never trade the issues or sleepless nights for the world. Few people cherish the unusual things that the mind creates and I just adore the sick sadistic monstrosities that emerge from my imagination. Cheers to more. m..

New Trailer...


Nightmare on Elm Street '10
Director - Samuel Bayer