Sunday, September 26, 2010

Justin Timberlake Wrecked My Piano. And Other Dream Mysteries.

My subconscious is angry that I have only done one big NYFF write up. Last night I tossed and turned -- 3 hours of sleep tops -- and had one of those persistent dreams which recycles stuff you've just experienced. Each time you fall back asleep you return to it and in its relentless disturbance, it becomes a nightmare even though it's not scary.


It took place in a huge empty house in which I'm throwing a party. At some point I was doing an elaborate photoshoot with two actresses. Please don't stop to ponder why they were Franka Potente (!) and Meg Ryan (???) or why they were then Juliette Lewis* and Sandra Bullock. (Was this a 1990s period piece?) Everyone was angry when they discovered the shoot was in black and white. At one point someone wore a Princess Valhalla Hawkwind costume. My dad was suddenly there smiling with approval that I knew famous actresses (This was the "you're dreaming!" moment -- or like that bit in Inception where all the subconcious projections turn to look at you -- whoever the forger was, he wasn't as prepared as Tom Hardy. My dad would never do this.) I went out for coffee since the party was running low.

Then I'm in the atrium and I see Justin Timberlake and Jesse Eisenberg lowering my rented grand piano down through the building and all is chaos. The piano strikes a railing and begins to break into pieces. They claim they were trying to help but they've ruined my life as the cost of a grand piano will bankrupt me.

Then there is no party, and the dream is a mystery about some crime which keeps changing and to which I am not privvy and the detectives (Mills & Somerset, natch) keep asking me if David Fincher did it. How self referential! They also tell me they're investigating "Joe" and Abbas Kiarostrami** and I keep telling them I know nothing but everyone is sure that I do.
We know you've seen them! They were at your party
Nothing makes any sense from moment to moment in the dream's third act. It's all fractured clues, 2 second scenes, filmmaker name-checks. The last image is a shot of dusty footprints leading nowhere. I don't know who did it or what they were supposed to have done but I'm pretty sure that bastard Justin Timberlake who wrecked my piano is guilty.

My dream was edited with a chainsaw. The chainsaw had ADD. I hope your night was more restful and the celebrity cameos less willfully destructive and angry. Feel free to share.

*regularly makes cameos in Nathaniel's REM life.
** I assure you this is a first time appearance.

12 comments:

Agustin said...

I'm so jealous!!!
I wish I could remember dreams like you do!! I wake up and instanty forget about them.
One of the only dreams I do remember was when I was 4years old and dreamt with the ninja turtles villain trying to chopp my head off with my grandmothers pair of scissors
pretty disturbing for a 4 year old!

NATHANIEL R said...

Agustin -- yikes. here's a clue to remembering dreams. If you start writing them down right when you wake up. some things come back to you even if when you wake up you think i only remember A & E.... sometimes writing down A& E will give you BCD

Andrew R. said...

I'm really bad at remembering dreams.

My most vivid dream involves Kermit the Frog, a plummeting elevator, a guitar shaped like a knife, and a talking hat.

I'm still a little fuzzy about what precisely happened in that one. I do remember that it was when I went to Disneyworld. Hey, that explains everything!

Kermit-Muppets 3D
Elevator-Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Guitar-Rock n Roller Coaster (which I didn't even do...maybe I need a new theory)
Talking Hat-The giant wizard hat.

The moral of Nate's dream: A Requiem for a Dream/Dancer in the Dark double feature is not a good idea.

monkey said...

I had a dream it was me, my father, johnny depp, and clint eastwood.
We were driving along and johnny asked me if I wanted to drive and I said yeah so he let me drive
i didn't do well we stoped at a local cvs and somehow I drove on top of someone's car. So we got out and just started walking and johnny said I needed more practice and I busted out crying.

NATHANIEL R said...

monkey -- johnny is so mean!
andrew r -- hmmm. how does dancer in the dark and requiem fit in.

Andrew R. said...

@ Nate-Because if you watched Requiem/Dancer before you went to sleep, that would result in the worst dream ever. (Probably should've made that more clear.)

OtherRobert said...

I've been re-reading Sarah Langan's modern throwback Gothic novel Audrey's Door at night. It's not a recipe for pleasant dreams. I've been invaded by biting red ants and had my kneecap smashed while trying to find the source of a strange noise. That doesn't even get into creepy old people with bad plastic surgery whispering at me through the walls.

Combined with my usual Tyra Banks nightmares, I've had some very strange dreams this past week.

cinephile said...

Have you seen this- it's got nothing to do with this specific topic but is also quite weird / funny.

It's a fight, Julianne Moore vs Annette Bening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5itOimSq2S8

cal roth said...

This is INLAND EMPIRE 2

Anthony Mai said...

Ok, so I read through all that... GOT REALLY CONFUSED! Then I realise it was a dream you had... I thought you were being weird/unfunny when you tried to be funny. I so get it now that I read through it again. Must have missed a few words the first time around.

Volvagia said...

Have you seen An Andalusian Dog recently? That's the only way I could possibly explain having a surreal dream with a piano as a major pivot point.

Love Justin Timberlake said...

HA! This dream is too funny. In my dreams JT is more like Mr. Perfect, not ruining any pianos. But I've had other weird dreams that I forget minutes after I wake up...although as soon as I wake up I think...what the heck? ;)