More dreams

 I awoke from the first dream around 7am. The setting was a Congressional hearing. A typical older white male Republican  Congressman was pushing conspiracy theories about liberal "spies" to a large audience. My role in the hearing was not clear but I was addressing questions and comments to the Congressman.  "You could be right," I said. "I mean, it's possible I'm a spy, even though people here have known me since I was in kindergarten. Then, again, you could be spy- a Republican Congressman would be a perfect cover." I felt that I had demolished his allegations by demonstrating that anyone can accuse anyone else of anything without evidence but that didn't prove the allegation.

I went back to sleep and awoke after another dream that was more elaborate. What I can now remembrert is I was in Athens several streets down the hill from my parents house trying to figure out how to get back there through unexpected obstacles. It should have been simple but when I tried walking up the block I encountered a recreational lake that prevented me from crossing without possibly going through water that would get my clothes wet. I watched some young people playing in the water. I tried circling around and ended up in a building that seemed to be a department store. I was completely confusing but I somehow  activated an invisible control that caused the scene to close like the end of a video game, leaving me in front of the house. Strange. 

Note to Vince Grashaw

Hi, Vince,

I was just thinking about you when I saw your post about helping keep La Poubelle from going under. I'm happy to be in a position to help. You may recall that besides my day job as a psychologist (now retired) I write and perform music. I was going through my recording archives and it occurred to me some of the instrumental music I've written might be suitable for film background/mood usage. Could I send you links to a few examples to see what you think? My feelings won't be hurt if you aren't interested. Alternatively, if you like my work, you can use my music cheap or free- for me, it's not about making money. It's about creative satisfaction. In any case, best wishes of the season and henceforth!

Regards,

Owen

Getting started on my "Wings of the Muse" project

I had a couple of odd dreams this morning after I went back to sleep. One was a variation of the recurring series where I'm trying to look after an elderly parent or grandparent; except, this time the elderly loved one was Mistah Boux, the sweet cat we had for many years. In real life, we finally had to put him down when his health had utterly failed at an advanced age. That was about 8 years ago. Jenny and I loved Boux very much and it was difficult to make the decision to euthanize him. In the dream, he had a litter box in the big recreational room in the basement of my parents' house that had been neglected. The litter and clumps of cat poop were scattered around the floor. I was there with my sister, Scottie, trying to understand what had happened. My thought was to clean up the area and see if Boux was being fed. I went back to skeep again and in the second dream, I was speaking to a construction foreman who was doing renovations on the same house. I told him I didn't have building and renovation skills but several of my friends were very capable. I instructed him to inform me before any work was started so I would be aware of it. It seems I was concerned that someone else would give him instructions without my knowledge. In a feature that paralleled the other dream, little tacks of some kind attached to thin metal spirals were scattered on the floor so I had to be careful where I stepped. I don't know the function of these odd items.

Later, I spent the afternoon working on my demo of "We are the ones," one of the original songs I'm going to send to Sam, the drummer I've recruited to play on my demos. I hope I can get some momentum going to shake me out of the doldrums.

Our times

We're living in an era where almost everyone adheres to one or another set of simplistic beliefs that don't hold up under close scrutiny. It's called "human history."

Tell me I'm wrong here:

Standard definition of socialist: Person who endorses any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy. (Source) 

Republican definition of socialist: Person who believes government can play a constructive role, no matter how limited, intervening in problems of the American free enterprise based society (except for when government intervenes in ways where I stand to make money or not lose money, in which case it isn't socialism and you're not a socialist if you vote for that).

Sam Robique recruitment letter

Hi, Sam, 

I was glad to hear from Holly that you three are all well and especially that her work doesn't require her to have high risk contact with COVID patients. I didn't mention this to Holly but our youngest daughter, Maureen, who recently moved with her husband, Cody, back to Baton Rouge from Dallas, is expecting their first child and our first grandchild in the next few weeks! They decided not to determine the baby's gender in advance, so we're waiting anxiously to find out. 

As I'm sure you've discovered, having children with a partner you love is the best thing there is (with music being a close second). Mary Lou and I have been living in our own bubble (which includes Maureen and Cody) being as careful as possible to avoid contracting the virus. Since I retired from practice a year ago and am an introvert, it hasn't been difficult for me to avoid social contact. Mary Lou, who has some medical risk factors, has been teaching via Zoom and minimizing other professional work involving close contact. My other two girls who live elsewhere are also ultra-careful and it looks likely we'll all make it through to when vaccines are available to us without anyone becoming a statistic. 

Speaking of music, Holly probably told you I had been thinking about checking with you to see if you'd be interested in a gig as a remote session drummer on the demos of my original songs. I've written and recorded quite a few of them over the years. I think I write pretty fair songs but most of the demos are rough and in need of time and attention to bring them up to a satisfactory state of completion. I've decided to make this a priority project for 2021. I'm not just flattering you when I say of all the drummers I've ever had the privilege of playing with, you're one of my two favorites. The other one is a guy back in Georgia named Calvin "Cal" Hale whom I've known forever and who had a distinguished performing and recording career prior to retiring a few years ago due to back problems. Cal was the drummer on my first studio session (at John Keane Studios in Athens) which produced such classics as "Murder USA" and "Don't mess with Jesus." I'll just add that in my little world, to be put in the same category with Cal is a big compliment. Aside from musical accomplishment, you're both first class human beings, too. 

Briefly, the idea I have is to hire you at whatever fee you feel is fair (e.g., hourly based on time you put in) to create drum tracks for demos I send you. We could decide jointly which tracks you want to work on based on your listening to them first. You would then create your parts, record them as wav files, and send them to me electronically (along with the bill) so I can import them into my recording software. I would, of course, pay you immediately upon receiving each track. 

Because I don't play drums, almost all of my demos utilize drum loops. On some it's the same loop all the way through while on others I use multiple loops that I may edit to a degree; but, the overall effect is on the whole fairly boring for any reasonably sophisticated listener who enjoys percussion. On the positive side, the loops do stay on the beat nicely. But I would much rather have an imperfect human than a perfect mechanical percussionist. Besides, I've been at this a long time and it's easy for me to drag stray notes around to line them up with the tempo. Believe me, I do this extensively on the guitar and bass parts I record which is a lot more efficient than playing the parts over and over again trying to get them to stay within the lines. Bottom line, if you decide to give this a try, I wouldn't want you to agonize over getting your parts perfectly on tempo- I will be happy to clean them up as necessary. I would send you my rough demos with and without percussion so you can hear what I've got but record while listening without the distraction of the original drum track(s). I anticipate accepting your tracks without questioning what you did unless you want me to give you my input on different ideas you may have. 

I'm guessing that your live musical opportunities, like mine, have been curtailed pretty drastically due to the need to stay well during the horrific pandemic we're going through. In any case, I think you would enjoy contributing to my creative musical efforts. I know your contributions would make a difference in upgrading my demos. If you're interested, we can discuss the project further via tele technology. I believe that covers it- let me know what you think! No big rush to get started on the project if you are interested but have other things that need to come first. 

Regards, 

Owen