I hate dreams, .... I hate hearing other people's dreams, ... and I live with a woman who loves to tell me her dreams first thing in the morning, go figure! (She loves morning sex as well, which I'm also not a huge fan of, but hey I'm coming around to that). But back to the topic at hand, I hate dreaming.

Most people go to sleep hoping for good dreams. I go to sleep hoping to not dream. My dreams are rarely satisfying, even the good ones. Last night's was particularly emblematic of this point. I dreamt a great dream about friendship (thanks Pup, for fodder for that!) In my dream I was hanging out with my dear friend D, we were listening to great music, getting ready to go out dancing as we used to do, laughing and enjoying each other's company with innenduos and jabs that only real friends who care about one another deeply can make so freely. It felt so nice to be in his company, seeing the sparkle in his eye as he teased me and made me laugh.

And then I woke to my alarm, to the gentle sound of "bubbles" on my iphone (oh that's a whole other story, of how I was suckered into that purchase!). And it was awful, it was devastating, for D has died, gone from this world 5 years now, and I rememered how wonderful he was, and how much I missed him. I had that pang of recongition, "oh, it was a dream" and I rolled over and dozed off, back to sleep. An hour and a half later I woke with a start from a deep sleep, in the middle of a dream again. I can't remember one detail of it now. Something else about friendship and loss and love and well..... welcome Autumn, eh?

So, in this crazy, chaotic international crash of the markets don't forget that real loss is not in things. Somehow, I find that oddly comforting, call me crazy. This song popped up today, and it speaks to what's going on with me on a lot of different levels. I heard about this band over on a great Chicago blog, The Leather Canary. So, let me introduce you to Blitzen Trapper, (if you haven't heard) they're cool, xoxox

Edit: (Alright, so I didn't want you to get a wrong taste for what Blitzen Trapper is about, so I've included another song for ya, enjoy Sleeptime In The Western World too!)

Edit2: (Ok, so I'm changing the track below. I inadvertently gave you the same track as my friend over at The Leather Canary, ooops!)

Not Your Lover mp3 Blitzen Trapper Furr
Fire & Fast Bullets mp3 Blitzen Trapper Furr
buy their music on their MySpace page

photo credit: patrick dentler

I Like You, Morrissey, Live at Earls Court

buy Live At Earls Court

Here's some Gothic, Sci-Fi, Industrial synth-rock for your Tuesday and welcome back to school kiddies! Where's the Puppet Show been, you might have been wondering? He's busy behind the scenes, don't fret, my musical education has not floundered. I'm currently digesting Xymox, The Verve Pipe, Interpol and Ministry. Tomorrow I'm on to Ben Folds and The Wedding Present in preparation for upcoming shows! The Pup keeps me well informed on what he thinks I should be filling my ears with. But don't think I'm a blank slate either here. We do argue every now and then, and between you and me, I think he's coming around to my idea of actually labeling his mp3's in a coherent manner :)

There's a great post, (and pardon me for alerting you to it so late,) over on Troubled Souls Unite about how two people can hear a song so differently. I immediately thought of the Pup and I. Coming as we do from a history with different musical genres (he with metal and me with folk-rock) but overlapping as we do so much in taste and in just some sort of sense of what's good about music (not in a kind of snobbish, intrinsic, "there is a good kind of music" way, I think), he and I can often hear something and have totally different reactions to it. That's part of what keeps our conversations going, or what keeps me thinking about what he's said about a track long afterwards. I hear Depeche Mode in God Lives Underwater, he hears something completely different (I'll goad him to post on it by not telling you what I think he hears here! hahaha). Of course it helps that we both listen to almost all kinds of music regardless of our "first love."

Anyhoo, I'll leave you with two tracks from Xymox, a group I've not heard until today and at first blush I'm enjoying it immensely and I'll go out on a limb and say.... I'm hearing the Cure in here, and a little bit of, dare I say, INXS, without sounding offensive?

your student,
xoxoxo

Xymox (now going by the name of Clan of Xymox): website buy it there

It's Your Life mp3 Xymox Headclouds

Headclouds mp3 Xymox Headclouds

After yesterdays post on "Fish", I have been playing some of my old Marillion discs and reminiscing to myself. I decided to pour through all my CD's and check out items I haven't heard in a while.