Dreams, Dreams, Dreams

And crackpot schemes

Gooood Morning Berklandia!

And Portlandia and all the Landias near and far,

A few quick items before I pile into a busy ThursderCaturFriday.

First a rather hilarious dream, in which, well, my internets and dream state sort of collided, and this tale I must recount.

The night before last, I had a rather vivid (seemingly real) dream that I called an old (actual) friend on the telephone, and when he answered, I started laughing. This seemed reasonable to me, but he responded with “What?! Hello!?” and did not seem amused. So I recounted that amusing (to me) dream on Facebonk, and none other than Ben Eastwood commented there with, “That was me. It was the middle of the night.”

OK, I was stunned and momentarily mortified, because Ben (my fellow UpTones founder and lifelong member) WAS in fact the person I had called, in my dream! Immediately I wondered, did I actually NOT dream that? Did I in fact wake up in the middle of the night and call Ben and laugh and merely think it was a dream, and should I be seeking medical attention? Ah! But these devices, these phones now, they keep a history. So I looked at my recents, and to my relief, no calls to Ben laughing at midnight. Whew! I did of course then call him, to acknowledge, and we had a good chuckle about it. Rather huge coincidence, really. I have an abundance of friends in that wabbit hole, and the one person to chime in with that, the subject of the dream. Are strange forces at work? Methinks yes.

Dreams and waking life have ways of weaving together generally, I find, and it seems to happen more often to me lately. Songs, we have songs about this, naturally! Here’s one from just about a year ago -

More of a poem recited over a beat, really. Beet Poetry, as I have named such adventures.

Earlier, in the very early days of Covid, I woke up one morning with all of my bedsheets somehow launched off of the bed, leading me to compose this testimonial:

Dreams dreams dreams. Oh, in REAL life, to the extent that it is real, I AM expecting delivery of the audio masters of The FAVES full-length album of original songs, sometime in the next few days! Most of these have been released as singles, on Berkeley Cat Records, and as I have celebrated in these pages, it’s been a thrill for me as a lifelong fan of Earth Quake, Greg Kihn Band, Rubinoos, Jonathan Richman and the whole Beserkley Records lunatic asylum, to do some work with Robbie Dunbar and Larry Lynch and their fab friends and colleagues.

SPEAKING! Of Robbie Dunbar, he’s transcribing In Another Life for me, and for fun and publishing completeness, I’m going to share the chord chart and lead sheet out online. Who knows, maybe some kids will give it a go in their rock band summer camps, and why not make it easier for ‘em?

Band camps, band camps. For a few years, 2011 to 2017 approximately, I taught for John Mader’s former rock n’ roll youth academy, and then the marvelous BandWorks program. This led to me releasing some online records from The Recyclists - a marvelous Berkeley ensemble led by Stace Wright and other BandWorks heros.

Things lead to things. Are they dreams? As Hunter S. Thompson famously wondered aloud, “Did I say that? Or just think it?”

I’ll enjoy the mysteries.

THIS long weekend, I’ll likely finish up my latest SKA rockin’ dystopian comedy dreamscape, ominously titled, The McMansion On The Hill.

I’m grateful for all the aforementioned cats and adventures, and for all ye in this wabbit hole, and all the wabbit holes.

Keep dreaming aloud,

Eric Din
Berkeley Cat Records Chief Executive Dream Weaver and Catnip Vendor (CEDWACV)