I was home, and driving to pick up imaginary friends GKB and JH, because the three of us were going to our alma mater—we’ll call it “Camp”—for a performance at the Ben/son Audi/torium. We got there, and parked, and went inside. Aside from the fact that the BA looked like a giant, cheap church with a big stage, everything was basically the same as it’s always been. The performance was by one of those “How’s your guilty conscience now?”/“Jesus is awesome!” skit troupes that travels to youth rallies. It was lousy, but we stayed until it was over. As we were walking to the car, we saw acrobats jumping, like, a hundred feet high on a trampoline. JH said, “I want to do that.” So he got in line; meanwhile, GKB and I sat on the grass and waited. And waited. JH took hours. Finally, he jumped, and we headed toward the car, but then he ran off again to ride his bicycle, telling us to go on without him, he’d meet us later. So we got in the car.
But we couldn’t leave campus. There was construction everywhere, giant machines moving dirt and blocking roads. I tried to drive one way, and suddenly we were bottoming the car on a giant rut. I tried to drive another way, and we were stuck in foot-thick mud. And I couldn’t back up, because then a bulldozer would block our route. We were trapped.
About the time JH reappeared with his bicycle, I woke up. This was the second Camp dream I’ve had in a month. (The last dream featured the school president admonishing us for something or other until I realized, This has nothing to do with me, and walked out.)
Fascinating.
And mildly frightening, I must imagine, to endure…
by GKB—May 3, 09:26 AM
Indeed. It was a nightmare, though I wasn’t that frightened. Just really, really annoyed.
by greg—May 3, 09:38 AM
your poor, poor, transparent psyche..
by kl—May 3, 10:08 AM
Bicycles are bad ass…with the exception of the Bison bikes. What a terrible idea that was.
I had a really cool/scary dream that took place in the BA once. I described it at length at KB.net, which now appears to be lost to the ages.
“Camp” is a fairly common setting for dreams for me too. It’s practically a Jungian archetype.
by JH—May 3, 10:47 AM
The bison bikes? You are speak some language I do not understand.
It’s only been recently that my dreams have been infiltrated by Camp. I did once dream about being at an awards dinner in which Jesus showed up as MC, but that was about something else, IIRC.
by greg—May 3, 10:56 AM
The Bison Bikes was a program put forward by the Student Association under the sterling leadership of St*ve Cl*er, in 2001. The idea was that there would be about 20 free bikes distributed around campus for people to go from class to class on. When you finished it you put it down somewhere for someone else to use. Every single one of them was vandalized beyond repair within 24 hours.
by JH—May 3, 11:37 AM
Past my time, then. Anyway, that’s a rather stupid idea for such a small campus, but I can appreciate the intent. Iowa City had a bicycle co-op like it a couple of years ago. The bikes were painted bright yellow all the way down to the tires. I saw them about a month, and then never again. Probably the same thing happened to them. Now, there is a bike library, which I hear does pretty well.
by greg—May 3, 11:43 AM
I’m in love with the idea of it. It’s been tried in several European cities. The only places where it works are where you officially join up, get a card, are charged a nominal hourly rent fee, and must pay a deposit. That seems to be the only thing that prevents the bikes from being quickly massacred.
by JH—May 3, 11:49 AM
Is it just the joy of vandalizing something freely utilitarian, do you think? I mean, bikes get smashed here regularly, regardless of their being part of a co-op (drunk students jump on the wheels), yet it seems odd that a normally private commodity, when made into a public resource, would become not just an object of vandalism, but in fact a target of it.
by greg—May 3, 11:55 AM
This may be banal, but I think it’s just an act of agression against the public sphere.
by JH—May 3, 12:09 PM
the camp dreams have obviously come more steadily since we watched Jesus Camp...
by kl—May 3, 12:09 PM
I should’ve added that JH was a skinny, clean redhead, a bit like Wally Cleaver and nothing at all like his RL photos.
by greg—May 3, 03:18 PM
Well, you did get the skinny part right, at least.
by JH—May 3, 03:31 PM
Or did I?
by greg—May 3, 03:33 PM