Recent DJ Posts

1. I go to see Swan Lake at Cincinnati's Music Hall with C.W. We pass a White Castle on the way there, and I remark how it's practically an outpost of my college with the clientele it gets. We arrive at the hall, and as we ascend the escalator we see Dr. L. and give him a salute. We get to the lobby and see a glorious buffet laid out before us; the ballet is already starting, and we hear a flautist fail her solo. I start eating and scarf down hashbrowns, vegetables, and a roll before a frumpy attendant starts asking me questions. I act suspicious and evade her questions, and she starts chasing me down. I run into the auditorium, where I find my family and sit by them. I don't escape the woman, though, and am kicked out.

2. I view a montage of Call of Duty matches, all taking place in some sort of museum. It's a hardcore assault on an elevator, and teams trade places between attack and defense. The terrorists almost win a match, letting only two of the good guys escape before time runs out. Once, when the elevator is nearing the attack stage, a string quartet forms and plays Metallica in the space.

1. I'm attending Cincinnati Opera's production of "The Magic Flute." It seems to take place in a great hall instead of the traditional auditorium, and our seats have rather bad views. However, the ambiance is very nice, a candlelit affair. Plates of food are brought out with appropriate themes for every aria, and each patron is given a book with explanatory notes to the action.

2. I'm playing in a chess tournament at the local library, and I manage to win the whole event. I get $100 from a large roll of cash as my reward; I notice that there are ticket stubs and coupons attached to the end of the roll as well. I start to browse the library, which has recently expanded its collection to include food and wine. Little samples can be "checked out" for tasting purposes. I sample a decent white wine, and as I do the old lady who organized the chess tourney asks me to complete her bridge foursome. I'm reluctant, but I eventually agree and text my mom that I'll be late to meet her.

1. I go to the Cincinnati Art Museum with L.H. and Clinton McK. We're there for a special gallery that I've already visited. It contains primarily works by Normal Rockwell, but there are also cases filled with intricate old clocks. The centerpiece is an installation called the "Wall of Memories," which is comprised of hundreds of small video screens. Sometimes they each show a different scene, but the most impressive moments are when all screens act in unison to create a larger picture. An idyllic country scene starts to play as we leave the gallery.

Clinton stays behind as L.H. and I head out. Unexpectedly, she breaks out into a run, and I have to move very fast to catch her. My movement is like a gliding run, almost a skating motion, but I am only wearing shoes. When we reach obstacles and stairs I vault over them, eventually ending up in an auditorium like that from a previous dream about the Cincinnati Museum Center. I recognize this and go very semi-lucid; sensations are more real but I lack control. For whatever reason I start eating a delicious hunk of Cheddar cheese.

2. I go with L.H. as my date, to a grade school reunion, which ends badly. I distinctly remember myself saying, "These people made me the neurotic wreck I am today," but little else.

3. I'm watching ice hockey, and the goalie is making a series of incredible saves.

1. I'm engaged in a massive pillow fight at the old research station. All of the fellow researchers are there, along with a couple of high school chums. After a while, I jog off into the dark to explore, where I meet one of the researchers, E.D.

2. I run onto the Cincinnati ballpark's right field. No one seems to act immediately; the announcers booms out, "They don't tell us this shit." I make an arc to center field, where there's a wall and a door that lead out to the river. A burly black security guard with glasses makes a move to stop me, but I easily maneuver out of his way. I vault the wall and head for the door. The guard appears again; this time he actually grabs me and I'm forced to punch him. My getaway vehicle is a Burger King delivery car.

1. My friends from a recent RPG campaign have gathered to perform a work of music I've written. I am leading the ensemble with a marimba, while C.W. plays flute, V.W., K.R., and M.G. all play various percussion instruments. The work is energetic and the conductor is very much into it; there's an extended section of dueling percussion soli.

2. I get a bulky letter from a great-aunt and uncle I hardly know, and on the outside is written something like "If you love us, you'll be much more important." We go to visit them at their sprawling southern plantation-type home, approaching through a huge bluegrass field with a great oak tree as a centerpiece. The great-aunt sees me from across the field and beckons to me; I run away, although I'm not sure why and am a bit embarrassed.

3. I'm in downtown Cincinnati with my brother for some reason, when I realize that I'll miss the opera if I don't go home and change into nice clothes. The crowds outside Music Hall are horrible thanks to the traffic of a Reds game and ticketing problems at the venue. As I walk to the ticket window, MB. T. and her friends jump out of a car and begin to walk behind me. I double my pace to avoid them, but she calls me and I turn around to hug her anyway. A random acquaintance from college, Jessica B., remarks "smooth move," but no one else present thinks this remark is appropriate.

4. I again run into MB at a games club/cigar making club?

5. I'm playing pro baseball, which is serious business in the dreamworld. I miss an important catch, which leads our team to a loss. I am summarily expelled from the team and jailed. In my cell, I get a call from another criminal asking if I want to sell drugs. I act like I have some to receive visitors, then take advantage of the open gate to run like crazy. I get shot but keep running anyway.

I'm walking the streets of London at night in my awesome long coat, when I'm suddenly struck with the urge to break off a piece of a building. This I do, and it feels heavy in my arms as I carry it into a nearby library. There I find an excellent book on poker, which I tuck into my backpack along with the building fragment and take without checking out.

I false awaken into an apartment in Cincinnati. I wander down to the riverbank, where a festival has set up. Two massive swings are on either side of a roller coaster shaped like a snake and themed "The Garden of Eden." I choose to swing, and get massive air, clearing the top of the coaster as I flip in midair and throw the metal horns with my tongue sticking out.

My parents and I are at the Cincinnati Museum Center taking in an exhibit on history. Multiple periods are contrasted, from ancient Assyrian engravings to the civil rights struggles in America. The exhibit proper ends with a model of a very pretty African-American girl in pearls and a cocktail dress getting lynched... then opens into a gift shop. People are sitting on benches in the shop with laptops, playing poker on Pokerstars.net. My mom comments on this as rather silly, then goes to discuss some business about layaway.

Poker serves as a transition point to an outdoors scene, where I sit down to a large ring game of Holdem. My mom insists on joining me, and initially the other players are fine with it. However, she is slow at playing and screws up her deal of Omaha when it comes around to her. The game goes back to Holdem and I get AK in the hole. My mom goes all-in, and I look at my cards again (which have become AA, so missed reality check) and call. Other players are disgusted with me for some reason...

I false awaken into my room at home, then go downstairs. My brother and his friend are there and report also dreaming about poker. With some questioning I find that they shared my dream, varying in minor details. I freak out about this and wake up.

1. It's a boring night at the research station, so to pass the time I lean my face against the window of my room and watch people come and go through the courtyard below. CA goes to do laundry, then John L and Joe C go out to find stray animals. They return to the kitchen, where my dad is present to tell tales from the hometown animal rescue. The rescue clinic was apparently so successful that it was able to "hire" concerned volunteers at a dime a pop. After this I false awaken into my bed at home. I get up to brush my teeth, but I don't spit right and swallow the disgusting toothpaste. When I look at the mirror, I see Chinese characters with subtitle translations that say "That toothpaste was disgusting." (A failed text and mirror RC if I ever saw one)

2. I'm walking through Cincinnati with P at night. We have been shooting at an Astro van with our guns to try and get it to explode, but nothing's been happening. We decide to head into a foreigner-owned restaurant for greasy fast food.

A large crowd of kids from my high school have planned to go to a mall, then the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and a ballgame. I am with them, but am rather low on cash and already have the giveaway bobblehead from the Hall of Fame. When they leave for the Reds, I stay to bum around in the mall. I head to a Barnes and Nobel to buy a copy of the Tao te Ching. When I get to the shelf where it's kept, I'm accosted by a clerk who says I tried to shoplift it earlier and thus am not allowed to buy it. I get angry and start to make a scene. I notice that mixed with the books on the shelf is a poorly written journal (text RC failed); its owner, a cute black girl, returns to claim it and takes the Tao te Ching along with it. Now I'm really pissed, and I go to pick a fight with a random customer. I soon realize he outclasses me in every way, but I refuse to back down and lose pretty badly.

1. I'm attending the Cincinnati Bengals training camp as T. O. For some reason I slap my thigh, and the sensation is enough to send me momentarily aware. I lose whatever lucidity I have before anything happens.

2. I am browsing a massive flea market full of books. I find an Unknown Armies monster manual for a cheap price (so much text with failed RCs), but before I can buy it my Mom approaches along with several college friends.

3. I am trapped inside a crumbling barn. As it falls around me, I manage to peel out of the twisted wreckage.

I am walking along the expressway at the Cut-in-the-Hill near Cincinnati. A convoy of Fender guitar trucks passes to my left, each carrying a different model of Stratocaster guitar and each labeled with the make and price of its contents. One of these is called the "Super King" and is listed at $42000 dollars! Somehow I cross the lanes of traffic and open the truck, taking out the guitar. I call my mom, telling her that I'm holding a guitar worth more than all of our cars combined. Soon, however, I put the instrument back and start to walk home.

It's harder to walk up the hill instead of down it. I have to dodge cars, even jumping into a ditch in the median to avoid getting hit. A cop rolls by my ditch and takes a look at me, and I start to worry. My brother then walks out from nowhere and starts to walk with me. Soon, one of my back teeth comes loose and breaks away with a slight pain. I look at it, and am disgusted as it's completely black and cavity ridden.

1. I'm at a football stadium in the desert. The Cincinnati Bengals are playing a game against an unspecified team, and I'm on the field as a Bengal's lineman pushing against the enemy offense. I actually do an OK job, and as the downs progress I get teammate support in a kind of military, "Hoo-ah!" way

2. I'm watching what seems to be a fight scene from an X-Men comic or movie taking place in a desert. The choreography is stunning, as is the skill of the mutants. The fight ends with Jean Grey drawing all the combatants towards her in a massive display of psychic power, then throwing them apart in a sphere of blue light. The Silver Surfer rides by, quipping, "And I thought I was overpowered!"

1. The whole family is going on a visit to the King's Island amusement park. We pull into a far away parking lot shared by a strip mall and several megachurches. My mom expresses concern about all the black men loitering in the lot, but my brother and I don't care and start to wander. We pass a local music shop, which seems to be having a going-out-of-business sale. Outside of the store is a row of basses with prices (failed RC), and I give them a good examination. As I look at them, one of the office ladies from my high school walks by and says "I know you and who's with you!" Cut to my high school's office,, where Mom and the lady are talking. It's the last day of school, and she's complaining about how only one student has wished her a good summer. PV, who she's nicknamed (appropriately) Big Chunky," is that student, and he comes from the back of the office to greet my mom and I warmly.

2. I'm watching a suspended roller coaster that seems inspired by a fight with a dragon. There's a lot of flat preparation at the beginning, followed by a crazy drop and a series of loops. Some bullies from my grade school are riding it, and when they get off of it they start to make fun of me.

1. My brother, dad, and I are at the animal shelter adopting a new cat. For some reason my brother empties his pockets, but all he has in them is a large and unwieldy knife-wallet hybrid with a combination lock. An Asian man grabs the lock and starts cracking it. He soon solves it and tries to leave, but I hook my finger in the lock and pull to make him stay. We struggle for a while and he calls me racist names, then pulls out a pistol. I then proceed to knock him out with my other hand and escape with the family.

2. I'm playing DDR in an arcade with some of my college friends. It only costs two tokens, but the machine has been modified to float and is very unstable on a pool of water. My friend Q starts to bash arrows on the machine, and I try to stop him from messing me up. I lose my balance, however, and fall into what turns out to be putrid water.

3. I am watching a Tupperware container with a hot dog and a bunch of Cincinnati chili. Suddenly the hot dog grows a tiny mouth and starts to eat the chili, eventually leaving the container spotless!

4. I can see my own aura, and it is green. Someone else (unintelligible notes) also sees it and comments.

1. Mom, my brother, and I are driving around downtown Cincinnati, when I notice some interesting graffiti on the side of a tall building. Everyone gets out of the car and starts to climb the building, eventually reaching an outcrop near the tags. One is simple to interpret and just says "Rage," the other is a design that looks like two capital "A" letters that share a leg. I think that the latter symbol is the tagger's way of representing A=A, the Objectivist tenet. This is backed up when I find (and start leafing through, missing a RC) a philosophy textbook. Details afterward are fuzzy, but the conversation among the family turns to something horrible, and I remember a crushing sadness. The textbook falls and shatters as we climb down, and eventually I start to sob.

2. I'm watching a movie-style overview of an epic bike race in Africa. Things quickly go over-the-top; one bike is a robotic monstrosity, one is ridden by an ape-man who carries jungle animals with him, and one is ridden by Spiderman. Crazy hijinks ensue, but details are kind of fuzzy.