Sunday, October 30, 2011

Strange Dreams #1

I have really strange dreams and I almost always remember them, well into the following day. I thought I might start posting the more memorable bits, not only as a record, but also for entertainment purposes. I cannot promise they will always be entertaining, nor make much sense. I just thought it would be an interesting experiment. So here goes the first one:

"I dreamt my boyfriend Ted and I were taking care of a building. We were basically custodial house-sitters for an office building where Dan Rather had an office. I was trying to help Mr. Rather clean his lunch up off the desk when he asked, "Can you manage all that?" I replied, "Yes," just as I accidentally dropped his cherished jar of home-made caesar salad dressing into his leftover vegetable soup. He looked very irritated as he tried to fish the jar out of the soup."

Now I will present a song/video that relates somehow. Since this is the first of my "Strange Dreams" posts I will tell you a little something about those two words. Every time I think of, hear or say the words, "Strange Dreams" I think of the amazing song, "Sharkey's Day," by musician/performance artist/legend Laurie Anderson. I had the vinyl album and the cassette copy of Mister Heartbreak, (that this and many other wonderful songs are from,) as a teenager and never, EVER had seen this video for the song until tonight. I truthfully cannot say I love the video as much as I love the song. In fact, I almost couldn't watch it because it was kind of ruining the song for me. I was in my teens in the 1980's when the video age was born, and I mostly did other things besides sit in front of a fledgling MTV suffering through Poison videos just to occasionally catch a glimpse of something I deemed cool, (although it did happen on occasion!) Life didn't revolve around TV as much back then, and there were no cell phones or computers in everyday homes, (and if there were in some more affluent or technologically advanced homes, they were mostly just word processors and there wasn't an "internet,") so it was really a VERY different life experience. I think that growing up this way has made me prefer to HEAR music FIRST, before I see an accompanying visual. I like to let my mind wander and let my own imagination interpret the music. This is not to say I don't enjoy visuals - I do, totally, yeah,...but for me, some of the magic is lost when I have to see something I might find silly, irritating, goofy or unsettling the first time I hear a song. I would much rather have already heard the song and THEN see whatever they offer for the visuals. This is a strange preference to have while living in the "youtube reality" of today and as I have stated in previous posts I DO love having so many options for visual entertainment so handy ~ it's just that I miss being able to have my own personal experience with the music beforehand. With that long explanation out of the way I will now present a totally goofy video of a song I treasure. I suggest just LISTENING to the audio first, because you might get "put off " by the dated video. Or maybe not. But it is kinda goofy... 


If you made it through that ok, then you might like to see a live version of the song. The visual presentation is much better, more sophisticated in my opinion and you get to see the musicians in action. Again, try to remember the times so you don't judge the clothes or the people's appearances too harshly. This was very daring fare in it's day. Also, remember that a musician doesn't have to be beautiful, flawless or young to be impressive, which I believe excessive focus goes to in today's popular music scene.
The music should speak for itself ~ it is music after all...


Thank you for your time and here's to you and I having more "Strange Dreams"...

***Additional Editorial Comment***  Yeah, I thought the Sharkey's Day video was goofy & then I saw Nicki Minaj's Super Bass video. Seriously ~ What to the Feck, man. Gross. And I liked that song when I heard it on the radio! The video really ruined it for me because now all I can see in my mind is her humping an ice motorcycle, frolicking in a pool of pepto-bismol, the really sloppy pink-haired drunken barbie wanna-be clone dance line and the tacky, black-light neon makeup lap-dance sequence at the end. And I'm sorry to be such a prude but when the HELL did it become COOL to want a guy who sells drugs? This is a song on the mainstream top 40 radio & she's saying she was looking for this type of guy she describes in the song ~ A Drug Dealer! Only someone who is either has no clue about or is in total denial of what drugs actually do to a person, a family, a community, a town, a state, a WORLD, would think that it is something COOL to be involved with. It was all-in-all a very sad sight & realization. See for yourself if you DARE, but you have been warned:


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