play a song for me

Ever have a nightmare then decide to tell somebody about it and then about halfway through the explanation you realize that you're retarded?

-Daniel Tosh

That is precisely what I plan on attempting right now. Last night, for the first time in many years, I actually had a nightmare. Over the years, I have had many dreams that could be considered "scary." I've fought giant lizards, zombies, giant ants, even the devil. I have participated in a fight to the death with swords and matched wits with dinosaurs in a forrest. Even though I felt fear during these dreams, I was always OK in the end and prevailed.

The last time I remember having an nightmare is was in 7th grade after watching Fire in the Sky. At the time, I was obsessed with UFO's and aliens and was constantly reading books about it. From Roswell to the Gulf Breeze sightings, I was a self professed expert in all things extra-terrestrial. However, the scene where the aliens run tests on Travis Walton will forever be etched in my mind as one of the most terrifying things I have ever watched.

As for this dream, it is fairly inconsequential in its own right, full of non sequiturs one would expect during a dream. In it, my brother purchased a new car (my brother did buy a new car yesterday) and drove me around to show it off. It had an in dash DVD player, which consisted of a 13" black and white TV/DVD combo mounted in a hole in the dash.

Apart from that, the majority of the dream took place in a house. There were stories of evil beings that lurked in the shadows, or were even the shadows themselves. Some believed that they were vampires, others said they were something else. One thing everyone agreed on was that they were real. Everyone knew this, but still tried to continue on with their lives, that knowledge always in the back of their mind. We went about our business, while always feeling this ominous presence among us. There was nothing you could do about it, it was a fact of life.

I was exploring the house when I entered an empty room. The house cat scurried under my feet as I passed through the doorway. I watched as the light from the hallway stretched the cat's shadow into the room. The shadow continued to grow, the head growing disproportionally larger than the rest of the body. Then eyes appeared on the head, yellow and vacant, but they seemed slightly misplaced. Too large and too high up on the head. Then a mouth opened in the shadow, revealing a crooked smile of sharp teeth. The shadow, still lacking depth, was no longer confined to the floor or the wall, but started to move toward me.

I felt the blood in my body seemingly heat up and cool down at the same time. Here I was, face to face with the nightmare. I tried to back away, to get out of the room, anything. My limbs were frozen; the harder I tried to move, the less responsive they were. I knew that this was the end for me. I needed to warn the others, to tell them to get away while they still could.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no ..."

I opened my mouth but nothing would come out. My tongue dry, my voice box on mute. Once again, I tried to move backwards out of the room and yell.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no ..."

I could feel my joints creaking - like the Tin Man before Dorothy oiled his joints. The shadow advanced upon me quickly. I put all of my will power into this one last effort. I fell backwards and opened my mouth to yell,

"NO!"

I gasped as my eyes opened. Traces of the whispered "No ..." still lingering on my lips. I lay down in my unfamiliar bed, bathed in the blue glow from my computer monitor. Debussy had long since stopped. I gathered myself ... did that just happened? Did I really just have a nightmare?

Horror stories have never been something that fazed me. I have never been into Stephen King, but I do know for a fact that the book that I am currently reading had a lot to do with the dream. Actually, it is a direct result. I can even pinpoint the passage:

When I was a kid ... at night ... I used to sleep in this big bed in my grandmothe's home. And every night, at midnight, as the bells chimed in the church nearby, I used to see a thing come out from behind a big old armoire. Every night, without fail - it would poke out its black head and long arms and bony shoulders ... an I stare at me ...

It had a jagged mouth, with thin black lips ... and it would look at me, and just ... smile.

from The Strain
by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan

That being said, it will not stop me from reading more from this book tonight ...

Now that we are past the halfway point in the year, here are my favourite albums of the first half of 2009. It is yet to be determined which ones will make the end of the year Top 10, but these are the albums that have caught my attention so far. (Credit to Shley, from whom I stole this idea).

In Alphabetical Order: