A week ago something happened that has not happened for nearly 21 years: I had a dream. It seemed rather random to me and I did not really see a meaning in it although I did think about it quite a bit, since it was unexpected and VERY unusual for me. I won't bore any of you with details as no one I know was in it. In relating it to my therapist, she immediately had an interpretation and it made her very happy, firstly because I actually had a dream that I could remember and secondly many of the images she saw as highly positive ones. I haven't had another dream since, but hopefully I will start having them periodically. I stopped having dreams when I made a series of conscious decisions at 12 that included subjugating my creative self for what I thought at the time was a greater good. It was like turning off a light switch and maybe I found the switch again after all this time.

Hopefully all of you have your taxes done. I made a final pass through mine at the end of last week and found a way to double my refund, so I'm getting nearly all of it back, I just should have done it sooner so the money would already be here. I spent several hours walking my dad through his taxes and how to get forms off the internet. For a guy that started out as a computer programmer (albeit with punchcards back when there were only 7 computer in the whole wide world - and that is only slightly exaggerating) he is almost completely computer illiterate at this point. It tries my patience and that is tough to do.

I got 130 cd's of new music and am churning through them now. I am going to have to pick up an Ipod before heading around the world so I can take a small fraction of my music collection with me. This evening I have been very happily listening to "Backwash" a compilation put together by Feio. Reminds me of the "Beaches and Cream" comp Transient put out several years ago. Full on and groovy tracks from Atomic Pulse & Protoculture, Dejavoo, Krunch, Vibra, Talamasca, Wrecked Machines, and Pixel. I was really disappointed in the Serious Porn Collector album "Abuser". More a straight-up techno album where none of the tracks really held my interest. Void's album "Music With More Muscle"is hard to take seriously. Technically there is some amazing editing work on this and you can hear Eskimo's influence throughout, but it is really pushing the cheese barrier. Fine in small doses, but listening all the way through will clog your arteries in no time. The others for the night were Perplex's double album "Electrodelic" with collaborations with TacticMind, Ultravoice, VibeTribe, Oforia, and Apocalypse. Lots of the israeli sound I like without being over the top. Ziki's album "Eliminator" is in the same vein with guest appearances by SestoSento (excellent), System Nipel (also excellent), Xerox & Illumination, and Mitsumoto.

Friday I joined Richard, Dee and Jenn in Sonoma for the Sonoma Valley Film Festival and caught four movies. First was "Captain Abu Raed" which had been at Sundance, but we had not seen. It was fantastic, beautifully shot, and gave me another glimpse at what I have to look forward to in the summer of 2009 in Jordan. I sincerely hope someone picks the movie up for American distribution (it already has worldwide distribution, just not in the US). We also saw "Amexicano" which took a good concept and stretched it to the edge of believability. I have worked with several illegals on projects and know some of their stories so this just did not have the ring of truth to it. Could have been much better and I wish it had been because the topic is an important one. Then we saw "The Cake Eaters", which was very good, but was the kind of movie that makes me sad because I know the characters in the film are able to achieve something I will probably never experience simply because of my personal issues. While everyone else went to dinner I caught the documentary "Riding Solo to the Top of the World" about a motorcycle ride through some extremely remote sections of India and the people encountered on the trek. Fascinating, stark, beautiful imagery, wonderful vignettes with the nomads living in what at first glance seems utterly barren terrain and ultimately a love letter to the nation if India from one of her native sons. I highly doubt that will be an option during our time in India, but it made me hungry to get there and explore.

And finally a line from a book I just finished: "And I thought, I am riding through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, as it says in the Psalm; and I attempted to fear no evil, but it was very hard, for there was evil in the wagon with me, like a sort of mist." Off to bed with me....