A Sunday Kind of Love Note
And a farewell tour for an older headshot
Do you analyze your own dreams? Do you share them with loved ones for their input? Does anybody ask you for insights into their dreams?
I mean this to be about your actual sleepy time dreams as opposed to your waking visions for your career, love life, or health.
I woke up from a strange dream that I’m still musing over. It felt like it contained important information from my wiser self, along with the usual funny pop culture detritus and weird time jumps.
People have different theories about what comes up when we dream. Do you subscribe to the theory that every character in your dream is an aspect of you? I tend to think my mind casts different familiar waking-life characters (say, a famous model or the grocer down the street) to embody different messages or themes. In that way, a dream is like a very strange avant-garde film with an unlimited budget and no clear direction.
Let me know in the comments about your dreams, and your thoughts on them. If you want to share one for my input, understanding I’m obviously just a weirdo and not a trained therapist or anything, go for it. I like that stuff a lot.
Things to Read
I remain a big fan of Block Club Chicago, so here are a few articles I read…
Illinois Black Panther Party Honored In New Exhibit Ahead Of DNC
This Week In Photos: City Prepares For DNC, Street Fests Grossly Underestimate Crowds And More
Former Cabrini-Green Residents Are Working To Preserve Landmark Church As Community Hub
My books are for sale over here on Am*zon and over here on Bookshop.
Sexy Soul & Country Music Info
I was treated to tickets to see Charley Crockett and Lee Fields at the Salt Shed last night. I had enjoyed a couple of Crockett’s songs prior but now I’m a fan. His life story is nuts and he sounds like somebody who should simply pop into storytelling shows in between his bigger and bigger venue dates.
Having known a few folks of this general category in my youth, I did not anticipate a former train-hopping, streetcorner-busking early ‘00s crusty kid to become a big country music star (he calls his style Gulf & Western, which tracks when you hear his broad catalog of stuff) but he’s been breaking big over the past few years. And at 40, he’s certainly put in the work and is an incredible talent. He’s clearly got an endlessly vast library of music information and history in his brain, which may partly explain his prodigious output. Dude is prolific.
North Carolina’s own Elmer “Lee” Fields, 73, is on another level, which Crockett acknowledged a few times over the course of the show. Here’s his Tiny Desk Concert from last year. He’s an electric live performer, and I know that’s an overused phrase when we talk about music, but he really is it.
The venue, the Salt Shed, was excellent. I love its origin story - Morton Salt sold it off after a warehouse wall partially collapsed, burying several cars at the local Acura dealership in salt. (Nobody was hurt.) Like a lot of Chicago stories, it sounds absurd and insane yet is actually true.
Now it’s a big indoor/outdoor event space with a record shop where you can make purchases that they’ll hold for you ‘til after the show. Same thing with the vintage shop and the guitar shop. The food was great. I heard the booze is good, too. Honestly, 10 out of 10 for vibes. The staff was so friendly and chill.
The great MCW has your necessary guide to Mercury retrograde.
Rachel Antonoff has a bunch of cute new shit I cannot currently afford, but you should buy it and send pics.
I did a DNC-themed (sorta kinda) show at the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge called the Paper Machete. I think it was the fifth time I’ve done the show. I love it. It’s every Saturday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
I’m going to a few more events this week, and I hope the atmosphere is good. Who fuckin’ knows. It will be whatever it is. If you’re in town to protest, attend other events or even go to the convention itself, please drink enough water, get some rest and take time to enjoy the beautiful things Chicago has to offer. Garfield Park Conservatory is real nice. So is the 18.5 mile Lakefront Trail, and the 20 public beaches.
Thank you so much for subscribing. I’ve got an essay inside me for paid subscribers but haven’t figured out what it is yet. Paid subscribers get two extra posts per month; everybody else still gets four. I’m thankful you’re here.
Love,
Sara
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My books on Am*zon and Bookshop.
My family always asks me for help interpreting their dreams. Most of mine are fairly obvious. I dream a lot about being able to not so much fly as levitate. I also dream about finding new rooms in houses that I’m familiar with. I’ve had visitations in dreams but I don’t remember ever having a premonition. The dreams I have if I wake up in the morning for a bit and then fall back to sleep are always upsetting in some way and usually involve me fighting with my mother.
A lot of my dreams are either reruns of older dreams, or have very similar settings with minor details differing. That probably means that my brain's writer's room is lazy or smokes too much weed (IRL, I am sober, for reasons) or doesn't believe they're paid enough. Or all of the above. The similar settings are the newsroom of a place where I worked as a news assistant for 22 years of a hybrid of high school/college where I'm up against a deadline and trying to move out of a dorm. I think it all refers to unattainable ambitions. Also, there are the same Special Guest Stars: my late mother, a toxic boss, a narcissistic ex, or a best friend I lost 25 years due to my anger issues then.