These will appear bizarre to anybody that hasn’t experienced my life, but for me, maybe not so much.
I had two main occupations while I was working. Firstly, I was a professional musician, travelling all over to ply my trade. Then, roughly halfway through my working career, my hobby, live radio, became the main job, and my musician career receded into a hobby. Today, I am almost 13 years away from having to work for a living. But my dreams continue to take the piss, big time.
My last professional broadcast was on May 5th 2012. That’s almost 13 years ago. Still, to this day, I have regular nightmares about my broadcasting career. It’s never nice. There I am, sitting behind the microphone, and then there is silence. A broadcaster’s worst scenario. Nothing is going out on air. I cannot think of anything to say to my audience, and there are no CDs in the studio for me to play. Everything is hopeless. I cannot tell you how bad it makes me feel. Then I wake up, sweating from the experience, but mightily relieved.
Even worse, my brain relives my musical career. For many years, I was the musical director for a summer show on the holiday island of Jersey, a wonderful, if somewhat stressful occupation. The summer season there extended from Maundy Thursday until early November, even entering the Guiness Book of Records for the longest summer season in Britain.
I won many awards while I was there, and you would think I would have nothing but good memories of the decade-long experience. Try telling my brain that!
There I am, with my band, about to play the opening sequence of the show, but my God! Where’s my equipment?? My piano, my synthesiser, my amplifier, my speakers…..where did I leave them, why are they not here???? The audience is getting restless, I am feeling absolutely shit, and then I wake up. Sweating, but oh, so thankful that, yet again, was just a bad dream.
Bizarre maybe isn’t a strong enough word to describe the horror, and that’s what it is to me. A great, and fortunate set of careers for me to enjoy in real life, but wow, once that sleep comes, Vincent Price, or maybe the devil herself, gets to work………
My most bizarre dream
I’ve always been interested in Mars and its exploration. Yep, it may sound weird.
The Viking missions, the unsuccessful Soviet Mars landings, the mysterious Face on Mars, the Cydonia region and its city of pyramids, the possible traces of life, ‘the ancient wet and warm ancient Mars theory, NASA’s ‘follow the water’ strategy, etc.
Back in my childhood years, I remember a disco band, La Bionda. They had a track that I’ve listened to on tape, Deserts of Mars. It was a typical disco song with lots of electronic sounds, but part of their intro was a blowing of the wind, just like on an imaginary Mars desert surface…
The Mars Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, too.
Much later, I was following – and still do – NASA’s glorious Mars missions, from Pathfinder to Spirit and Opportunity to Perseverance.
Anyway, probably because all of that mix of knowledge, interest, and emotions, I once, in 2012 – I remember the year because I am good at remembering dates, but not names – I had a strange dream.
I was walking down a desert covered with rocks, with blue skies up above me, just like the true Mars sky colors are. And I did know I was on Mars. I can’t explain how did I get there, but I knew 100 % I was walking down the Red Planet’s vast and empty spaces.
It was noon, the sun was up. The Centigrade temperature was somewhat above zero because Mars is known for its considerably warm summers though we think it is a frozen hell. Not always.
At some point, I understood that I lost my way in this middle of nowhere and I couldn’t establish communication with Earth to get help. It felt like I had no Mars-based support, I just somehow set foot on the planet alone.
My dream ended in my desperate efforts to reconnect with Earth and I waked up sweaty in turmoil on a Moscow hot summer night.
Still, I remember those bright colors, blue skies, and sharp shadows. And a strange far-away feeling.
My most bizarre dreams
Some people have really, really strange dreams. The President dresses up as a clown and comes to your naked pool party, strange. I am boring. My dreams tend to be more pedestrian.
Last night I dreamed there were four or five little candies, they looked like cough drops. Each one was a different color and each did a different thing. I remember I sucked the orange one but I can’t remember what problem it solved.
Ten minutes after I wake up, I can’t remember what my dreams were about. I suppose I would need to keep a small voice recorder by the bed if I wanted to remember my dreams. I’ve always been that way. It’s such a waste, our brains work on problems we face and we don’t have any conscious recollection of any resolutions.
When I was a child, I had several reoccurring dreams. The one that stood out was that I was in the middle of the road and I couldn’t move. I was just laying there and this big truck was coming. It was a box truck that I now recognize as a UPS van; dark, hulking, and coming. I couldn’t move. The sun is shining and there are a couple of green, oak trees. Tall green-brown grass covers a low hill off to my right. I’m just there. Just… stuck.
Did you ever hear the one where you fall off the cliff and if you hit the bottom, you’ll die? I don’t think that’s true… but I don’t know, I never hit the bottom. I think the truck coming, and falling, are really about the same thing.
I thought it would be interesting to find out what my truck dream means so I found a website to help. No trucks there. It’s a neat website anyway. You can tell us about your dreams below.