Last night I dreamt I was helping Zak and some of my other New York friends set up for a party. It was in a giant warehouse sporting goods store with long tall aisles. Olivia and some other kids had a table all set up with t-shirts for sale.
Zak and I decided we'd go to the video store and pick up some movies to project in the background while people danced so we hopped on our bmx bikes and sped off down the aisles. The concrete flooring and shrink wrapped palettes changed to linoleum tiles under florescent tubes and those changed to the narrow streets of a small town. A largely Chinese small town, something out of northern Laos.
The video store had mostly Chinese movies, and we picked a few with good fight scenes to go with the music. The best part of the video store was the noodle counter in back. You could get any kind of noodles, ramen, wide flat Thai noodles, bean thread. Any kind of noodles you wanted. As long as you wanted them with pork. All noodles came with pork... but you got your choice of any noodle. This was the best noodle shop around. I woke up hungry.
I haven’t mentioned it yet but I spent all last week at eg2006 working/volunteering. It was frustrating in a way because there wasn’t really enough work to do, but once the conference started, it was as stimulating as ever. And exhausting. I’ve been volunteering for this guy’s conferences for quite a few years now. This time it was entertainment focused. I saw quite a few famous people in the audience, Sidney Poitier, Herbie Hancock, Quincie Jones, Salma Hayak, Naomi Campbell, and more.
Some of the my favorite presenters tend to be science guys (Bill Nye spoke, and then later spontaneously married his fiancé on stage) and the music. It really doesn’t get much better than seeing Yo Yo Ma from 6 feet away. He is a totally different kind of human from your regular everyday guy. He looks everyone in the eye and treats everyone with respect, just seems like one of the most present and down to earth people you could happen to meet. And he doesn’t play cello too badly either. I normally hate the large strings, but Yo Yo offers sounds that others don’t make.
I totally missed the talk by the DNA guy, Spencer Wells, which is ridiculous because I’m so into the DNA research (Haplogroup J represent), but I was so tired and out of it that I went and had a snack instead.
There were other highlights, Naomi Judd and Dwight Yokum, crazy video games, hilarious clips from new animated movies, selected Simpson’s cuts presented by Matt Groening, Herbie accompanying Jill Sobule on my favorite of her songs (Mexican Wrestler), and hanging out with some old friends.
FWIW I did not drink the Yahootinis. I drank the fine wines.
I dreampt I was running around the black top and play ground of an elementary school just like the one I went to. It had a creek next to it, and flat rows of buildings. Inside one there was a house. I sat on the kitchen counter as I was told they'd have to amputate my entire right leg. There was an abrasion on my shin, but for some reason they wanted to take the whole leg. In the dream I freaked out and sobbed and hammered on the floor with my fists... but when I woke up, I was just a little itchy and had to pee.