. . . Tupperware Cities . . .

Monday, December 30

 

DREAM: Murder/Rape down the street, Downtown Apartment on the Platte

I dreamt I was visiting a neighborhood, sleeping at a friend's house. In the middle of the night, in my sleep I kept hearing screaming and pounding, blood-curdling screams followed by silence. Walking into the street, joined by most of the people in the neighborhood, I learned that 2 houses down a woman had been murdered and her children raped. It was gruesome, and so close. The main keyboard player from the band Trans-Am and I became vigilante cops, determined to solve the crime. Next thing I knew we were in a hotel room, directly next to a room the killer was staying at. Both of us had our ears to the wall, venturing into the hallway now and then for a listen. The killer left his room for ice, leaving the perfect window of opportunity for Trans-Am boy and myself to sneak in, saving the sleeping mother (who was not dead now) and her baby (who was unharmed). I shouldn't watch Papillon and Blazing Saddles back to back before I sleep.

In another dream I was walking downtown, in a city I had never been to, but had planned on living in soon (Minneapolis?). Amy, the crackbaby, and Candice, the bitch, were next to me, wandering. I saw a sign posted just off the sidewalk for an apartment for rent upstairs. I looked up to see windows that looked promising, over an empty parking garage. Candice hesitated, after all it was her lunch break. "Three bedrooms downtown, we can't pass it up!", finally convinced her to go upstairs. On the stairs I saw a Rubenesque (read: fat) mannequin, and looking it in the eyes I said, that's a big-un. For a moment I stared at it, then it turned to walk away; it was a human woman who had been standing very still next to a rack of clothing. How was I to know the difference? Upstairs we found a huge three bedroom apartment, sure, but its inhabitants hadn't bought anything to decorate the place since the early 1970s. The carpet was olive green shag, the kitchen was pale yellow and orange. A film of dust seemed to coat everything including my lungs after walking around the place. I didn't know whether they had died or were just selling/renting the place out, but not once did they appear. The atmosphere of the gathering was that of a co-ed Tupperware party, in which everyone wanted to buy, yet nobody gave that impression. I was invited to search all three bedrooms and the hallways, and finally the porch. From behind the glass door the view was the same as the towers out at Platte River State Park, overlooking the Platte River. Green, lush, gorgeous, although in my dream the Platte was blue and not mud-filled brown. I took one step onto the porch and got to my knees. The woman standing asked me what I was doing. "Afraid of heights where there is a low banister," was my reply. (Since when am I afraid of heights, freaky dreams!) In the river below there was a floating garage sale, literally. A man had placed all his furniture onto the river, priced, and set it down stream. The same couch went by three four five times; and I saw he was taking it off the end of the river, loading the furniture and junk onto a truck and resetting them into the river on the top end.

Lynnette 9:58 AM

Tuesday, December 24

 

FINALLY A DREAM: Looper, Smoking Child

I dreamt I was walking down the street with my friend Candice. A busy street, in a big city, at night, during what seemed to be a street festival of sorts. It was late and the festival itself had mostly disbanded. She and I were complimenting each other on our clothes and hair. Somehow on our walk we ended up walking into an auditorium, from the back door. Unbeknownst to us, there was a tour bus with the name of the band LOOPER written on it in big block letters, as well as some Japanese band I can't remember/pronounce. I started whining about how I didn't know Looper was in town (which is funny, because while I enjoy Looper, I would not lose sleep over missing a show). Most of the stands were already full, and we started to climb the stairs to head out. We had nearly reached the top when we saw Julian Hall, a boy Candice and I both know, who was sitting with a couple of his friends. After some chit-chat the house lights when down and the Looper set began. My boyfriend appeared next to me and was holding my hand, while our heads touched one another in some awful cheesey-movie lean-into-your-lover move; it was nice. Candice and I figured "what the hell" and sat down in the empty row of three seats behind them; Steve, Candice and me. I sat in the seat closest the edge, which in waking life makes me feel completely claustrophobic, since I tend to need, no, require open air spaces or at least sit on the outside of the booth. Anyway you look at it, we saw a show for free, and goddamn it was sweet.

After the Looper show I went back to the street where the festival had been. At this point in the evening it was still just people walking around in the dark, Julian and his girlfriend invited me to go on a walk with them. I had a pile of clothes laying on the grass on the corner, so I changed out of my New Kids on the Block t-shirt and into a white one, which didn't please me enough, so I changed into a see-through/mesh type shirt, which also didn't please me so I changed back into the New Kids on the Block shirt and went for the walk. After walking around the block I went back to the place where my pile of clothes were kept. I found a couple of women who were setting up a dorky vintage store and were selling things (that I wanted!) like Nightmare Before Christmas lunch pails and weird stuff I owned as a child. I checked the store and found that the women had kept my belongings in a special drawer, unpriced, so I could pick them up later. Neato.

This dream is less clear since it was the first of the night... I dreamt that I was a child again, in daycare. There were gifts being brought to me: bags of stuffed animals, toys, blankets. With the gifts came huge rolls of money, which I would steal and then burn the toys, ya know, to get rid of the evidence, see. Then I would walk around the daycare like everything was copacetic, smoking a fag. I was an 8 year-old, smooth criminal type. It was like the little boy Ralph in the Chuck Jones cartoons who would daydream he was a pirate or a pilot or a bird. Only in my dream I was a hardened thief and arsonist. Sweet.

Christmas Bullshit

Naturally, my friends, it's not a good olde fashioned family Christmas until you 2 or more family members get into an argument about something stupid. Although isn't it always something stupid? Last night it was 2 members, no more no less, although there was chiming in for either side. The contestants: Me and my step-brother Chris. It started of course because someone mentioned movies, Chris was drunk, and I said that Citizen Kane was probably one of my favorite movies of all time. To which he replied, "That movie SUCKED ASS!!" Surprisingly, I kept my cool and explained to him why the American Film Institute named it the best film ever. Simply put it was a pioneer piece in film production. Gregg Toland's cinematography has been copied ever since its release. Mics around the set, rather than recording sound in a line-by-line fashion, so that all the actors could be heard, making Kane one of the first films overlap dialoge. This was unheard of in 1940, and it set a trend. It was basically the only wide-release film by a director (ever) who had complete control over all aspects of the making of the film. This was unheard of in 1940, and has never been repeated. Long shots with a long focus were never used because people thought it looked weird. Most of the film depicting Kane's later years are shot using this technique to show his alienation from everyone he knew, including his wife. Chris and his parrot wife still insisted that it "SUCKED ASS" and that they had "watched a lot of movies from the 40s and 50s" like the Wizard of Oz. (1933 kids.) I'm anal about it, sure. But it's my life passion, my favorite thing in the world: cinema. Hell, I named my cat after the movie. After all was said and done, Chris insisted I was an idiot for liking the picture. Shortly after that I smiled sweetly, thanked the parrot wife for dinner, and went on my merry way.

Lynnette 9:37 AM

Monday, December 23

 

Asked by agents if he had anything else to tell them, Cusack responded: "Yes, I've got monkeys in my pants." Please click, and read on.

Lynnette 4:52 PM

 

R.I.P. Joe Strummer, from the Clash, died on the Solstice, December 22nd of a heart attack. He was 50.

Lynnette 10:19 AM

Friday, December 20

 

I work at a non-profit. Today an emergency meeting was called, and none of us were told what the point of the meeting was. A small speech was made in which they discussed, in depth the budget, and how we had worked very hard to remain within its boundaries. I expected the worst (layoffs), and was pleasantly surprised when I received a $300 bonus check along with my regular paycheck. It does give one pause.

Lynnette 1:52 PM

 

DREAM: Flying over rivers to the Quinciñera

I had a dream last night that I was wading through a river, which was set between two rocky mountains, although one mountain was settled and had docks and houses along its edge. At first I had a large metal spoon that I was using to poke the riverbed in front of me to test for depth, while still wading. Soon I rested the spoon on the water in front of me and found that I could float, an even fly towards the direction I pointed the spoon, which by this time had shrunk down to a normal size. I went back and forth flying above the river, when I decided to stop onto a dock of my high school friend Shawn Carlson. I stopped and took my medicine; a few large white pills, a smaller navy blue one, and one very tiny bright pink pill, almost unnoticeable in the palm of my wet hand. I took them quickly, not asking what they were and then was told I may see objects in red and green for a few hours. Sure enough as I went back to the river, and began to fly around again, I saw that part of the riverbed, going North from the dock was full of snow-tipped evergreen bushes. Some of the snow was either bright red or bright green.

Later I was flying above a quiet neighborhood. Along the streets, randomly, I saw several young Hispanic women, dressed in formal gowns with flower bouquets in their hands, obviously heading for a Quinciñera. Their dresses were shades of pastels: pinks, baby blues, hints of green. As I floated in the sky, just above the roof line, I saw them heading for a baby shower at a house located on Virgin Drive. There was something overly perfect about the whole scene. It was very clean, and very calculated, and the women seemed to be Stepford-ish.

Lynnette 10:41 AM

Wednesday, December 18

 

This evening I decided it was necessary to find all the 80s songs that could fit on my hard drive. Quote of the evening while on the phone with a friend: "Hold on a sec, I have to download a buttload of Foreigner."

Lynnette 9:18 PM

Tuesday, December 17

 

Drunken Email from Candice

Im drunk. I got home from jana's and drank up some big butt and dang! duders, its like, I felt like an alceeeeholic cuz i walk in to house drunk, and brandons there all in his christian splendor holding his kid and im all.. well not xtian. Man. So now im sitting here lauging my fucking ass off about "goodbye cruel world" oh shit! and then I also thougt what was funny is:
I work with someone who randomly tips over and shits his pants.
Woo hoo Alcoholism.
That guy in that band in chicago who was hot ashell only thats not funny thats sexy
Dogs wincing in pain when they take a giant shit.
Millhouse.
Badgers.
The song "grandma got run over by a reindeer'.
dude, I went on a date with a married man.
dale enjoying the smell of his farts because it "smelled like him"
the term 'ripping it" when refering to flatulence.
Carla Waldbaum.
kids farting on hardwood floors.
blaming kids for your own fartin.
dude. fart.
fart.
fart.
im drunk.

Lynnette 5:00 PM

Monday, December 16

 

Chicago, Chicago, Chicago... it does give one pause

We survived the drive, and didn't get shot (although we came close). Quencher's was a nice bar but small. Despite a few technical difficulties (the soundman should be shot) Acoustic Jackass' show was still great. Most of the people who were paying attention to the acts were, well, the acts. It was nice to have support from such nice people. All in all it went really well. Playing again January 18th at the Prodigal Son, although this time we should have some CDs to give to the people.

Heard a couple new Chicago acts to follow: The Industry, who are huge Poster Children fans and it shows, and Young & Pretty who sound a bit like a cross between the Jam and the Strokes. The Industry has an EP released, Young & Pretty have a few mp3s at http://www.mp3s.com/youngandpretty

New Har Mar Superstar is out on Warner Bros., that bastard. So buy his record, it's a jam yo.

Lynnette 10:30 AM

Friday, December 13

 

Acoustic Jackass live in Chicago!!

Well, kids, this is the last reminder before we head to Chicago. Steve will be opening for our new buddy Charles at:
Quencher's
2401 N. Western
Corner of Western and Fullerton

Be there or be square.

Lynnette 10:15 AM

Wednesday, December 11

 

Stereolab singer Mary Hansen dead at 36.

Lynnette 2:15 PM

Tuesday, December 10

 

DREAM: Movies, movies, movies

I dreamt I was supposed to meet my friend Tom at a movie theatre to watch some Scandinavian film. There were two screens in the theatre and I ended up going to the wrong one. I was sitting in one theatre, but trying to listen to the foreign film. After awhile I got tired of straining my ears to hear so I started for home. On my way out I walked through the room where the foreign film was playing and spotted Tom and some other friends. I stopped for a chat and hugs, and went along my merry way. I made it home and started looking for a room to settle down in. My home was a symmetrical, sterile mansion that had hallways full of identical doors: sheet metal with one small window at eye level. Each door was numbered; I walked as far as I could stand it and only reached 37 in one hallway. Each room was showing a different movie, so it was simply a matter of finding a good movie.

After watching some movies I went to school where I stood in a classroom with a bunch of other adults. The teacher wasn't there yet, but down the hallway we could hear: boing, boing, boiNG, BOING. As the 'boing" got louder, our voices quieted. Roger Rabbit came into the room and bounced around; after all he was our teacher. Two students and myself somehow became involved in a simple Chaplin/Marx Brothers move of guy #1 sitting in my seat, me looking for a place to sit, guy # 2 on all fours on the floor behind me, and naturally as I sat down guy # 2 moved and I tumbled over. The class applauded the effort and Roger Rabbit gave an entertained laugh.

I went back home after class and Katie Steinauer, a girl that went to my high school, stopped by to smoke menthol cigarettes on my porch. I was going to go inside and ask my stepdad for a cig but then realized that he had quit smoking. I asked Katie was she was visiting, since we hadn't talked in nearly 10 years. Back at the theatre she had seen me talking with friends but couldn't catch up with me.

Soundtrack for work today: Merry Christmas with the Beach Boys, Bjork: Homogenic, and some Mexican ska CD Pily lent me

Lynnette 8:52 AM

Monday, December 9

 

DREAM: Prison camp love affair, and subsequent escape

Yeah I already ruined the ending. Big whoop, keep reading, please. And so:

Last night I dreamt my boyfriend was in prison. Mind you he hadn't done anything wrong, he was locked up. It was sort of a camp like in Cool Hand Luke. They had cots indoors, but most of the camp was outside, and surrounded by dirt and muddy hills. Every once and a while, about once a month I think, the partners of the prisoners were allowed to visit. I remember sitting across the street with my back to the prison gate. I had my eyes closed and my head up, my skin soaked up the sun. I had a dirty tattered dress on and no shoes. I realized it was probably a poor decade, the 30s or 40s perhaps. The dress was falling off my legs, and people could probably see my underwear, but I didn't care, that's how good the sun felt on my legs. I remember rubbing the tops of my feet, feeling how warm they were, when Steve came walking up behind me, bent over and kissed my forehead upside down. We chatted awhile, and then walked hand in hand back inside the prison gate to look for a place to lie down together. Inside the cot room there were a handful of prisoners whooping and hollering at us, or rather at him because he had a woman with him. Calling for the foreman he demanded that he had already reserved the room, and had requested privacy time when his visitor came. It was denied, so we walked back outside.

It was then that we decided he needed to escape. Down the hill, before visiting time had ended, we found an axe that had been laying out beside a barn. Steve, after a few swings, knocked the shackles off and we ran.

I just remember feeling as if we were the couple in Steinbeck's The Pearl. I remember in high school that novel blowing me away. The couple in the book was so happy and content together, not saying a word.

Lynnette 8:56 AM

Saturday, December 7

 

DREAM: Ireland, Snakes, Minnesota

A couple of nights ago I dreamt I was headed for Ireland, in a plane, with my boyfriend's digital camera. I t was a small plane, one of those planes that I always end up clutching my good luck charm (my boba fett), and rubbing some of its paint off from worry. When the plane landed it was after midnight. I went into a club nearby to await my next flight on a different airplane. It wasn't until the original plane had taken off that I realized that I had left Steve's camera on board. I became hysterical, and cried my eyes out about losing the camera.

I freaked out for so long that I missed the next plane which would have taken me into Ireland. Instead I chose to walk the rest of the way. I was in a field, situated just next to a row of steep bluffs, a cliff almost. As I walked with my cane (yes, all of a sudden I had a cane) I stepped on snakes. Everywhere I looked in the field were snakes; all different sizes and colors and types. Some were very young and hardly recognizable; I accidentally, but unavoidably killed many of them with my shoes. They were all going in the direction of the bluffs, as if they were lemmings. But they kept coming, snakes and snakes and snakes.

Last night I dreamt that I was in a movie theatre with my friend Candice. I don't recall what the movie was about but it felt like I sat through an entire full-length picture. Afterwards, as we were putting out shoes back on and picking up our trash, the director of the theatre, calling me by my name, asked me to turn the lights on as we left. There were two switches, one by each door, and between us it took a few minutes to coordinate the right combination of movements to turn the lights on to their full capacity.

I exited the theatre into the lobby and found myself on the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. I told Candice to go ahead without me; I wanted to talk with some people I saw. This couple was sitting in the corner chatting it up, and I walked over to ask where I could get some more information about the University. I explained how I was seriously considering going back for another bachelor's degree which would lead me to grad school. They didn't laugh surprisingly, and showed me a stack of papers in the hallway. It was then that I recognized both of them as people that went to my high school. I was facing a mantle with a mirror, and through the mirror I could see the girl come up to me and ask, "Did you go to Lincoln High?" She sounded surprised, as if her own question to me in the mirror was actually my voice asking HER. Then the guy came up and I saw him in the reflection of the mirror as me, "Didn't you used to go out with Johna Berner?" Again, immediately after asking 'me' the question, he was surprised to realize it had been me asking him, through his own voice. They were both shocked that they had been recognized so far from their home town. I guess they were, ahem, "on the lamb".

I had other dreams about water slides, and being 12 years old again.

Lynnette 10:38 AM

Thursday, December 5

 

J.D. 1988-2002

J.D. (Just Dog) was put to sleep today after being a part of our family for 14 years. Don put him in his favorite red sweater and laid him on his pillow. He was buried in the backyard in the corner where the squirrels run around the trees; the same squirrels he used to bark at. Jonas, the younger dog, already misses him, just as we do.

Lynnette 4:10 PM

 

DREAM: House Boat, New Kids, Gas Station

I was working at a gas station and the New Kids on the Block, as adults, stopped by. They were on their way to throw spears, for fun it seemed. I wanted to go along so we hopped on ten-speed bikes and raced down the street. Halfway there I remembered that I was in charge of the register at the gas station, so I turned around and went back. When I arrived I found a phone booth with folding neon lights, and a type of folding door I had never seen. It was diagonal, trimmed with pink neon, folded sideways.... oh I guess you had to be there. Inside there was a large black man who asked for a VISA application and perhaps an American Express one as well. I searched through drawers and drawers of messiness behind the counter; it reminded me of my dad's garage. Everything was covered in either sawdust, oil, or just dust, yet it had a pleasant nostalgic smell, all the same. The man's guitar case was on the ground, barely latched. It practicaly fell open as I went to snoop inside. Plastic kids toys, old clothes, and photographs were all that the case contained.

I was living in a boat house surrounded by a dark ocean. Around the outside of the house was a narrow cement sidewalk, that seemed stationary, despite being on water. I had puppies and kittens that I had to take care of and found myself walking around the house over and over again, barefoot, holding a puppy and kitten in each hand.

Lynnette 9:02 AM

Tuesday, December 3

 

eBay Fraud, Holiday crapola, rabblings of an employee without supervision

Recently we were the victims of eBay fraud. Some fucker broke into Steve's mega-account and changed passwords and secret questions to get your password back. It was an absolute nightmare. Just the feeling of having someone possibly having records to your financial records, business transactions, and personal information was creepy. It was paralyzing. Now it's cleared up, and we can get on with the show.

The timeline for moving to Minneapolis is roughly 10 weeks; I find it hard to believe. In March I will be living elsewhere, finally. I have nothing against this town, in particular. It's inexpensive, crime is low, and it's clean. On the other hand, I am tired of it. Maybe it's my personality, but I need to go somewhere else, I need that change of environment. One thing I've learned in my 27 years is that it's never to late to start over. I saw my mom, my dad, and my stepfather all go through bankruptcy and come out on the other end alive. My mom now owns a house and a car, items which she was previously not allowed to even consider owning. I don't see the point in staying here, even if I changed jobs.

Call me what you will, but I never wanted to pick up and start over in another town by myself. I knew I didn't have the strength in me to go it alone. Finally, Steve came along, and now I have someone to move with. Someone to sit in a new apartment with and say, "Well, shit, we're in a new town, you want to go here tonight?" He's my adventurer, the Jackass of Jacques Costeaus.

Why am I babbling? Because publishing is down and I don't know when this will be posted. All the bosses are gone today which means I have my own agenda for the day. Sure I'll work, just not right now.

I grow weary of the consistency of the convention of Christmas. I enjoy Christmas, but wish I could avoid the religious aspect of it. However, if I suggest celebrating the season, or the end of the year, or solstice even (for those people that require a scheduled date to rejoice), I am labeled hippie shit. How about just "unconventional".

When I leave Lincoln this is what I will miss the most:
*The sidewalk outside the floral shop downtown that has "metallica" scrawled into the cement.
*Screaming off the top of the capital building, and going "oh there's my building".
*O'Rourke's, the bar that always felt like Cheers to me. They don't know my name, but at least they know what I like to drink.
*Thai House on 27th Street, which I found out is closing soon, since the owners are moving back to Thailand.
*Candice. We've known each other for..... nearly 13 years now. Many fights have caused lack of communication between us. The longest pause in our friendship was a year. Then I got bored and called her roommate, who wasn't home. Candice was home, so we didn't something, the pause ended. I'm sure she knows it, but she's my closest female friend in the universe. Fuckin' bitch, I love her. Why do cities have to be so far apart from one another?
*All the rest of my friends. Near and dear, won't be near for much longer.

Lynnette 10:41 AM

Sunday, December 1

 

DREAM: too lazy to elaborate, you get my notes......

1) sleep over camp, popular girls, kiss songs, losing my shoes at my cousin's house... diving backwards....

2)elizabeth taylor porno shots...beefcake/cheesecake photos??, ronald mcdonald in tattered clothes being raised by balloons... hehe... we gave me him push, on an alternate movie set for taxi driver film, i was production designer, people were asking who scorsese was... "who's that?" some typical frat boy took me home, i read a book on the way there... then he said i need to get the ymca camp kitaki pamphlet from you... i know i had thrown it away... he waited, i went through th email.. where is it... uh.. none of this is yours, we don't have the CK pamplhet anymore.. it's proably gone.. chnge yorua ddy...

in mail also received a citation for my dad's ex-fiance for 83.40 fora faulty front tire.

Lynnette 8:35 AM