h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There is no lack of imagination in my recent dreams

--little Justy on a bluff over the beach

The best car I *ever* had was a blue four-door Subaru Justy. I dreamed that I was driving it on a road that went right down through a beach. It ended abruptly on a bluff at the water’s edge. The sides had eroded away, and it was just wide enough for the car. It was lucky that I had seen the “STOP” sign and had stopped, because the car would have plunged into the sea had I gone any farther. I had to back the car up, turn around, and go back where I had come from. Still, you couldn’t have done this with a larger car, as the sand under the bluff would have crumbled LASH!>

--moonlighting as a car mechanic

I don’t know what possessed me to apply for a job as a car mechanic, as I know nothing whatsoever about repairing cars. Not worry, neither did most of the other men and women who were working at the garage. I just followed them around and did what they were doing, and no one was any the wiser. I got paid regularly. My own car (the cobalt Nissan Versa) was parked in the parking lot next to the garage, but somehow I could never find it. Well, you know what dreams are like: you never can find anything mmore than once.

--driving a new SUV through Fall foliage in the country, to a lecture on the descendants of U.S. slaves after the Civil War.

It’s scary to think that I would drive an SUV, even in a dream. There was some consolation, in that this SUV got 23 miles per gallon, and it was always carrying at least two people. Anyway, I had a busy day going from one engagement to another. I was very liberal about giving people lifts. The last engagement of the day was to be a presentation given at a college by the author of a new book that purported to trace the descendants of all the slaves who were freed by the American Civil War (1860-1865). I was dubious about any one book being able to cover *all* the freed slaves, let alone their descendants. Sure enough, it turned out that they only covered a few ex-slaves, which was just as well, as the ones they covered had at least 15 children apiece .

Much of the dream consisted of driving to the lecture, and not bothering to consult any maps (hey, I’m a guy! Guys never ask for help in getting where they want to go). I ended up way out in the country, driving down long country roads where the Fall foliage was bright orange-yellow, and hung so low over the road that I couldn’t see where I was going. To add insult to injury, I had to get out and push the vehicle for miles, while some woman passenger (probably a fellow student) steered. There was also a huge aquarium in the back of the SUV, but that was never explained, not that I cared. There was plenty of room for it, and the passengers were never cramped.

My KIA Sportage gets 28 mpg, so there. (I miss the old GEO Metro, it got 40, but driving it in NC would have been suicidal.)

I wanted to find you one of my favourite songs by the Austin Lounge Lizards, 'Leonard Cohen's Day Job' (he works in a Jiffy Lube, which he actually did at one time). Unfortunately, it's not on YouTube.

You can listen if you click on the top icon here:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=Leonard+Cohen%27s+Day+Job&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=

I have a CD of Leonard Cohen's songs, from the soundtrack of his movie documentary. I don't think that song is on it (heck, that CD doesn't even have Rufus Wainright sinign "Halleluiah," but it has other goosd stuff...).

I just looked up the lyrics on Google. very funny! Every verse ends with a line from one of Cohen's well-known songs like "I'm your man" or "Tower of song."

The Austin Lounge Lizards are geniuses. Bunch of bluegrass musicians with PhDs. Their parodies are true works of art.

I recommend their album 'Paint Me on Velvet', which, in addition to the title song about sensitive bubbas doing male-bonding in the woods ('with our drums in our hands, and our hearts on our sleeves...'), contains the gem '1984 Blues':

'Ooh, I met my baby, in the Ministry of Love...'

The thinking man's bluegrass.

I'll think about getting that album. Unfortuntely, Amazon.con only has an MP3 version of the day job song. I'm not sure I can get MP3's to play on my stereo system.

Yeah, I don't understand that stuff, either. But the album's worth it.

If I order it, it'll probably come about the same time as the Vivaldi bassoon concertos I have on order.

An excellent contrast. Vivaldi is cool, but I don't think I've heard any bassoon from his neighbourhood...?

I've been meaning to tell you, Paul. I have had some really vivid dreams lately...

The one the other night was about returning from space in a sort of space helicopter. It was far too detailed for me to be able to relate it (the problem with all my dreams, recently). Very vivid and full of action.

The one from Sunday night was sort of "Hiawatha"/"The Last of the Mohicans" mixed with a well-lit "Blade Runner" and "This Old House"....

I cannot possibly relate the whole thing. It started off that I was a Native woman being ritually drowned by some men in a birch-bark canoe in a rapids but I managed to escape by swimming underwater (swimming and particularly swimming underwater are common themes in my dreams, as are flying by flapping my arms though that has evolved into leaping and swinging -- a-la Tarzan -- from object to object) and climbed some trees. For the rest of the dream I was "Tarzan-ing" from trees, buildings and great indoor spaces... I was quite exhausted when I woke up but also wanted to get back and finish the dream.

As with many dreams, this one featured a (usually old gabled and many floored) house with wonderful, homey rooms which I was going to be moving into. As usual, though, I was hiding from someone or some people.

Another theme with these houses is that they are someplace I have lived before in real life but I discover hidden rooms I never knew existed before.

"Leonard Cohen's Day Job" sun live on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASxMKNeB7EU

http://www.youtube.com/user/austinloungelizards

Some of my dreams have hidden rooms that I didn't know were there. Youtube is fine for watching things, but I get no sound at all on my computer.