Tag: sleep

a dream I had about leading the charge against a tyrannical landlady

Imagine my surprise when I came home, or went outside, to see a row of huge sinkhole-like holes in the ground just outside my apartment complex. Each hole was somewhere between three to ten feet in diameter with a car or truck parked next to it. Each vehicle belonged to a tenant who stood beside it.

I could tell by the fact that my immediate neighbor and her vehicle were beside the newest hole that I was up next. I’d gotten the word, perhaps by said neighbor, that we could have whatever came up from our hole; whatever there may have been in the soil beneath after the excavator worker did his thing.

I was somewhat excited; apparently there were valuable items underground; as I walked briskly to my car to pull it around. I was also concerned; hesitant about the fact that I didn’t want all my, or any of my, neighbors seeing what car I drove. I’m a cynical person in general and didn’t trust them.

The next thing I remember is walking back, without my car, and seeing what seemed like dozens of neighbors on the ground. They were now near the middle of the complex. The holes were in the front where the lawn met the sidewalk. They were doing push-ups. Some were past coworkers from real life.

Lisa was there along with Bernadette; both fat women; the latter of which couldn’t even raise her arms, let alone midsection, during the so-called push-ups. She humped the grass as she let out an audile grunt for each rep. I laughed and asked what they were doing. Then I “but seriously” asked them why.

They said they were told to, implying it was more of a command than a suggestion. When I asked by who, they said the landlady. “Man, fuck that bitch,” I retorted, “I thought you were talking about the governor or something.” I may have said “mayor” but meant governor. Not that I would’ve stood for it either way.

As I continued to reprehend the landlady and her authoritarian ways, the others began to express their agreement. They stopped the push-ups and sat up as the momentum of the protest built. “Remember when she said don’t stand over there in the sun,” one woman yelled, “We should all go over there right now!”

There was a roar of agreement from the crowd as they stood up and dusted themselves off. I was leading the charge, with the woman who’d just spoke out, against our tyrannical landlord. I was new there but apparently the abuse had been going on for a while. Well, it was about to end. That’s when I awoke.

2023 [ September 17 ]

video review : Freddy Versus Jason

video review : Freddy Versus Jason

Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees are the two most iconic serial killers in the horror movie world, so the concept of putting them against each other is interesting to say the least. This is the chronological follow-up to Jason Goes To Hell; the ending of which hinted at what was to come.

Who wins the fight is basically beside the point. It’s the mere presence of the two trying to kill each other for a change that fans have been eagerly awaiting. Most of those people won’t be disappointed. There’s plenty of screams, kills, illogical narration, corny dialogue and bad acting to keep them entertained.

my rating : 3 of 5

2003

video review : Wes Craven’s New Nightmare

video review : Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare claws right thru the cinematic fourth wall to bring Freddy Krueger into real life. That’s done via Heather Langenkamp; the actress who plays Nancy Thompson. She, and her annoying son, are having bad dreams about the man who made her movie career a success. This is a horror flick about the horror flick you’re watching; an innovative epilogue for the franchise.

my rating : 3 of 5

1994

video review : Freddy’s Dead [ The Final Nightmare ]

video review : Freddy's Dead [ The Final Nightmare ]

While the series never managed to produce a good movie, this final Nightmare comes back full circle to the decency of the first. The main difference is that this one takes itself less seriously as if it knows the franchise has descended into an illogical mess. It eases on the scares to allow itself to have some campy fun.

Freddy Krueger; “son of a hundred maniacs”; is almost entertaining as he cracks one bad wisecrack after another like a washed-up comedian who laughs at his own jokes because no one else will. He still knows how to kill kids in interesting ways though; listen for the hearing aid scene; and there’s actually a decent plot.

my rating : 3 of 5

1991

video review : Wes Craven’s New Nightmare

video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street 3 [ Dream Warriors ]

video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street 3 [ Dream Warriors ]

Freddy Krueger is better than ever. Powered up on the souls of the children he murdered, his antics and the effects that bring them to life give the franchise a sense of charm. Worse than ever is everything else. It’s as if the characters, who all seem to know they’re asleep when dreaming, also know they’re playing a character in a bad movie.

The story itself is back on track; that Revenge chapter can be totally ignored without any lost of continuity; but it’s easily the weakest and stupidest installment in the series so far. That’s a shame because the concept, which gives potential victims special powers to defend themselves against Freddy, could be quite good in a better movie.

my rating : 2 of 5

1987

video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street 4 [ The Dream Master ]
video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street 5 [ The Dream Child ]
video review : Freddy’s Dead [ The Final Nightmare ]
video review : Wes Craven’s New Nightmare

video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street 2 [ Freddy’s Revenge ]

video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street 2 [ Freddy's Revenge ]

This is an improvement over part 1, but not by much. It relies more on close dialogue and careful pacing than bloody thrills and cheap scares, but, even without Wes Craven around to blame, it doesn’t result in anything more than standard slasher flick fare. By the end, when Krueger is in a psychophysical tug of war with a guy who’s been unwillingly recruited to kill for him, it actually gets kind of silly.

my rating : 3 of 5

1985

video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street 3 [ Dream Warriors ]
video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street 4 [ The Dream Master ]
video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street 5 [ The Dream Child ]
video review : Freddy’s Dead [ The Final Nightmare ]
video review : Wes Craven’s New Nightmare

video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street

video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street

A horror flick about a dead man who kills people in their dreams is an interesting concept, but rather than offering up an interesting narrative, director Wes Craven presents his boogieman almost on the strength of that idea alone. “He wears a weird hat and a red and green sweater,” says the girl with the overbite, “and he uses these knives like giant fingernails.”

It’s mostly to annoy us with the screeching sound they make when he slides them against metallic surfaces before slashing some kid to death. His name is Fred Krueger; the guy from “that old jump-rope song”. After being burned alive by parents angry because he avoided a murder sentence on a technicality, he’s back from the flames of Hell to continue his wrath of terror.

my rating : 3 of 5

1984

video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street 2 [ Freddy’s Revenge ]
video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street 3 [ Dream Warriors ]
video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street 4 [ The Dream Master ]
video review : A Nightmare On Elm Street 5 [ The Dream Child ]
video review : Freddy’s Dead [ The Final Nightmare ]
video review : Wes Craven’s New Nightmare

a dream I had about living in an apartment with a dining room

“Is this really here,” I asked myself as I opened and closed and opened again the little window partition thingy, looking out at what, at least on this particular dawn, looked like an enchanted garden. It wasn’t mine; it was my neighbor’s yard; but the view was, along with the dining room I was standing in. I actually had my own dining room. It seemed too good to be true. That’s why I thought I may have been dreaming.

I used to think I couldn’t ponder dreaming in a dream, that I’d instantly awake at the thought, but there I was, in my new apartment, standing in a room I never knew existed. I say “never”, but I’d only lived there for a matter of days if not hours. It was early morning, still dark outside, and I remembered being there the previous day. I hadn’t yet discovered the dining room, but there was another spectacular view at the back.

That back room served as the main living room slash bedroom and its view was even better than the garden. It was higher up, as if I was somehow on a higher floor there than in the dining room, and I could see not only somewhat of a cityscape but what seemed like a neighbor’s roof patio. I could actually look down and see people; spy on them; cooking, relaxing or doing whatever people do on roof patios.

Aside from the views and dining room; I couldn’t believe I had my own (unshared) dining room; the apartment wasn’t much different than the one I have in real life. It was bigger though and the entrance door wasn’t attached to the main room but the kitchen. I remember observing my next-door neighbor; a slim white girl with long brownish hair; before walking in. I later thought of inviting her to my dining room.

“Is this really here,” I’d asked myself; I could actually hear the partition thingy creaking as I opened and closed it; just before waking up. The answer was no. Not only wasn’t the garden and dining room there, but neither was the apartment. It was all a dream. Awaking in my little, albeit new, apartment, with no dining room or practical views, was a disappointment. Still it’s not bad for real life. In fact I quite like it.

2023 [ August 27 ]

The Berenstain Bears And The Bad Dream ( book ) … Stan Berenstain + Jan Berenstain

Bang : Blue And Yellow Limoncello

The title should be plural because, as the cover illustration suggests, both Sister and Brother Bear have Bad Dreams. Those nightmares are caused by Space Grizzlies; “action figures” Brother and his friends are “just crazy about”.

The overall lesson of the story has to do with how the mind “keeps right on thinking” during sleep, but its most endearing moments come when the Bear siblings are awake; playing together and going to the movies with Mama and Papa.

my rating : 3 of 5

1988

two dreams I had about a new pair of shoes and a dangerous freeway trip

In the first dream, someone left a new pair of white basketball-style shoes, still in the box they were sold in, on the ground at what seemed to be a park. I watched as a group of kids discovered them. I later watched as an older couple; a man and woman a lot older than me; discovered them, unboxed, beneath a shallow pool of water.

The woman commented that they looked “brand new” and suggested it was a shame someone left them there like that as the man held them, or one of them, in his hands. I told them they were in fact new and mentioned for evidence their Styrofoam inserts. The man responded by taking one out and wrapping it around his fist like a boxing glove.

The woman and I began joking that the man; presumably her husband; was, with the makeshift boxing glove on, able to protect her if they were to come across a mugger. He might have even thrown a couple of mock air punches to complement the joke. The three of us had a good laugh about it. I don’t know whether or not they kept the shoes.

The second dream started with me in a car with other people, one of whom seemed to have included my friend Randy. We were speeding on a busy freeway as several other vehicles got into random accidents and collisions around us. I specifically remember a white truck or van barely missing other vehicles before finally coming to a crash.

It was as if were were in some kind of crazy video game except it was happening in real life. Still I didn’t seem to be as concerned (scared) as I would’ve been if that were literally the case. At one point I suggested to the driver we stop or at least slow down, but we all seemed to be a lot calmer than we should’ve been given the circumstances.

Cut to me in some kind of house or building with a girl; she looked and acted like a teenager; and two older women. One of the women was the girl’s mother. We were all naked. The girl and the woman who wasn’t her mother were sitting together in a chair; perhaps the girl was sitting on her lap; as the woman started rubbing on her body.

It wasn’t sexual. At least it didn’t come across that way. The girl was upset; apparently she’d been the one driving; I guess either because of all the people who got hurt around us or because we came so close to dying ourselves. She was also apparently drunk as the woman rubbed her the way a mother would normally do to console her child.

It’s odd, at least in hindsight, that it was the other woman holding her instead of her actual mother who just stood by idly. It’s even weirder that we were all nude. If the woman was secretly getting off sexually, she played it off good. I know I did as I stared at the girl’s pussy lips. How I kept my flaccid schlong in on the act is beyond me.

2023 [ June 14 ]

a dream I had about saving the life of someone also named Marcel

I don’t know how he died or how his heart stopped; he’d presumably had some kind of heart attack; but there he; a guy I know also named Marcel; lay, soon to be dead if I didn’t take action. That last bit was a near certainty based on memories of seeing, on TV and such, hearing about and reading about people being resuscitated by paramedics and the like.

The key, I knew, was to act quickly. Michael Jackson; my favorite dead person; might’ve been saved if Conrad Murray had that mindset instead of trying to save his own ass. Not that I admired Marcel like I admire Michael Jackson. In fact I don’t even like Marcel; not really, though he can be fun to hang around on occasion; but I felt morally obligated to try to save him.

I could go into a psychological introspection on why that is; morals, I’m convinced, are completely subjective and I can be a heartless bastard; but try my best to save him I did. CPR was out of the question; I never learned it, hate the thought of having to press into someone’s chest and could never get past the disgust of putting my mouth on his; but I had another way.

For some reason I had with me what I can only describe as some kind of dreamworld defibrillator, which I actually remembered bringing him back to life with in the past. That time he’d come back quickly, but this time, as I repeated the process of basically shocking his chest to jumpstart his heart and brain, it seemed to no avail. Too much time was passing by.

Still I tried. There was no one else around and I would’ve felt damn guilty if I’d given up without a fight; I’m also convinced morals are inherently selfish; so I continued to shock him as he lay there otherwise motionless. Thoughts raced thru my mind during the process, including whether or not that bastard would work as hard to save me. Probably not, I figured.

It didn’t matter though, especially when, after what seemed like minutes of shock treatment, he finally came back to life. I was ecstatic, audibly so, as “My boy!” opened his eyes and started to regain consciousness. There was an underlining concern in my mind that maybe he’d been gone too long and would never be the same, but at least he was alive.

2023 [ April 29 ]