I had this dream last spring. Not the "Martin Luther King Jr." kind of dream. It was more like the "I got shit-faced at the Earl and passed out" kind of dream. The dream sealed the deal mentally and emotionally for me to make a huge step. The dream got me off my ass and provoked...wait..."provoked" isn't exactly the right word...prompted...the dream "prompted" me to finish our business plan and make a leap of faith.

The dream was one of my usual weird and random dreams, but I believe in the Jungian concept about cultural folklore...so I listen to my dreams. I'm not trying to get all new age and shit, but I believe that our ancestors do speak to us and guide us while we are in a dream state. (Ok...so much for me not sounding New Age...THAT sounded totally New Age-y)

Anyway....The Dream:

I was in the cast of a Spanish language reality show for Telemundo or something (which is odd, because I don't speak Spanish and I don't watch Telemundo). So anyways...the premise of the show was that a bunch of humans from different backgrounds were put together in this big underground luxury loft that had been built inside a cave somewhere in South or Central America.

It gets stranger, this dream.

So anyways...there were luxury rooms carved out of the caves. In the dream, one floor above the kitchen there was a rocky cliff that overlooked the undeveloped section of the cave. It was like a 50 ft drop off the cliff. In the episode I was dreaming about, I was crouching on the pebble-y cliff looking over at the drop off. Then all of the sudden, this elderly sales rep that I did business with at least 25 years ago was behind me. His name, oddly enough, was uh...Marc. (not MY Marc...but his name was Marc...spelled with a "c" instead of a "k") Just THAT random symbolism was enough, but it gets weirder.

The " other Marc" in my dream started pushing me to the edge of the slippery, pebbley cliff...we struggled and eventually he pushed me off.

I fell to the rocky floor of the pit and...bounced...and kept bouncing. I bounced back up to the top of the cliff and then kept jumping off and bouncing back up over and over.

I became the star of the Spanish language reality show because of my super human bouncing powers.

The next part of the dream was me bouncing around in field of wheat. We were filming a promo spot... based on my new popularity on the Spanish language reality show...for some kind of South/Central American packaged baked goods.

I mean really...How weird is that? Six months after that, I quit my job and opened Heliotrope.

Carl Jung fucking ROCKS.
Dreams fucking ROCK.
The concept of a psycological cultural folklore fucking ROCKS.
Heliotrope fucking ROCKS.
(Something tells me that I need to learn Spanish now.)


T

...I would choose to be functionally illiterate and shallow, but incredibly good looking.



I would choose to be born in Italy and grow up to be a Eurotrash male model. That shit looks fun, yall!



Oh please...I would never touch a book. I would use the time to perfect my abs and my cheekbones. My five o'clock shadow would make me look sexy and manly, not like a homeless person. The three looks I would perfect would be:

A) The pensive, far away look
B) The bored, world-weary look
C) The sporty grin



I would drive around in my Ferrari and look really bored and gorgeous.



I would be incessently obsessed with my runway walk and I would perfect a walk that was WAY more jaunty than all the other Eurotrash male models.

Man...my next life is going to TOTALLY ROCK!



T

This is somebody that I always love to turn people on to. Jean Cocteau was a playwright, novelist, painter, graphic artist, film maker, poet, musician, and boxing promoter. His plays and films are unconventional and amazing.

These two clips are from La Belle et la Bete (The Beauty and the Beast) from 1946. His art direction in this film is interesting and beautiful and surreal...and the imagery "stays with you".

The first clip is a bittersweet conversation between Beauty and The Beast.

The second clip is a famous one that is always shown when documentaries talk about staging and art direction in classic films. A lot of stuff from the animated Disney version was based on Jean Cocteau's staging and his concepts of the magic candelabras and mantle, the talking doors, and the living statues.

(Funny....I've seen this scene 100 times, but I just noticed the laptop on the vanity in the second clip. )





T

This blog is titled "The Dog House". Not often enough, I remember that it's all about Gracie and Rex.

One of the dogs in the disturbing photos from the Michael Vick case looked just like Gracie.

Gracie's little grunts and that deep sigh when she finally settles in for the night and falls asleep next to me is enough music for me tonight.

Who loves ya? Biggie T, that's who.

But I'm just gonna be lazy and I'm just gonna defer to...

http://heliotropehome.blogspot.com/

Marc had a quote in The Atlanta Journal Constitution today.

Our Random House rep told me today that Maya Angelou wants to do a book signing in our store in November.

I walked right onto the south and east trains on the way home from work this evening. I felt as if I had cheated the average twelve minute wait for Marta trains. I naturally thought I was going to have bad luck the rest of the day. It's like when I make the green light at Ponce de Leon Avenue that I only make twice a year. When that happens, I immediately think..."dammit...I just used up all my Chi for the day...now the rest of the day is going to totally suck.

Obviously, I don't process surreal good fortune very well.

process

process

process

(but that seems to be all that I am capable of nowadays)

 later

peace out  

T