Wednesday, March 09, 2011

American Dreaming (Dedicated to The Notorious B.I.G.)

The Almighty Yojo was stalling on this post . . . but it doesn't look like he's going to muster the energy to make another dry-erase animation any time soon. And when he saw the Zman's topic, The Yojo knew it was time to unveil his new sound . . . and his new band name: The Density.


The Almighty Yojo would like to thank Shakespeare, Biggie Smalls, Rage Against the Machine, Martin Luther King, Steve Carrell, Bob Dylan,Tracy Morgan, and-- most importantly-- all the people who volunteered to be interviewed for this half-baked project.

You have all contributed to capturing the collective consciousness of the dream state. While some cynical skeptics are not open to the significance and meanings of dreams, all the Yojo can say to those people is: your loss.
The Almighty Yojo deems this SFW, although the Almighty Yojo's wife was worried that people at work might "think you do a lot of drugs when they hear that."


All I can say is that my fellow colleagues contributed to the song just as much as the I did. The lyrics are transcribed below, but they hardly do justice to what is going on in the song.

 
American Dreaming by The Density



American Dreaming

I have a dream today,
rooted deep in the American Way:
live beyond your means,
magnify your TV screens.

I dreamt of a woman with the head of an otter,
hair slicked back with dripping water.
an old man tried to touch her daughter.
He sang the theme from Welcome Back Kotter.

Egyptians dream of the god Osiris,
head of a gator, body of an ibis--
or maybe that’s Anubis, maybe I’m wrong?
Who cares, like Baal, Haddad, they’re gone.
Monotheistic dreams replaced them
Solaris dreams of Stanislaw Lem.
When you read H.P Lovecraft
you dream about unknown Kaddath.
Tracy Morgan dreams of Tracy Jordan
Tracy Jordan dreams of Tracy Morgan
a drunken baby gives a jailhouse tattoo
a rib cage is a basketball hoop.

I dreamed I was at work,
fixing a big machine.
Took off my pants and shirt.
Heard everybody scream.
My teeth turned loose and brown,
They fell unto the ground.
Everyone stared at me.
They laughed and stared at me.
This is what I dreamed.
You tell me what it means.


I dream I’m falling through my bed,
my wife replaced by a horse’s head,
spiders crawl from the sheets--
I hit the water with my feet.
Then we’re crouched, rolling dice,
Ice Cube, Ice T, and Vanilla Ice.
I roll the snake eyes once, then twice
in an alley full of rats and mice.
the spiders, they boil at my feet
the snakes, they coil in my sheets

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan,
with opium go on and on,
‘til the man from Porlock says he can’t.
Deckard dreams he’s a Replicant.
Dr. Minor believes metallic biscuits
were forced down his throat by pygmy gypsies.
Neo in The Matrix with Bob Newhart,
Floyd and Toto rip the curtain apart.
Unvalued stones at the bottom of the sea,
dead men’s skulls in the slimy deep--
holes where once inhabited eyes.
Clarence and Edward soon to die.
You worry about those princely boys,
try to remember dreams are toys,
but the woman in the pure white robes
melts before you . . . the bear moves close.

I have a dream today . . .
I have a dream today . . .
I’m Bill Murray in Groundhog’s Day,
Your Bill Murray in Groundhog’s Day.
Do androids dream of electric sheep?
Let the chemist put you down deep.
Eternal inception of the spotless mind:
Dicaprio and Carrey fight dream time,
only to find the world unchanged--
except for the passages in your brain.
And if we shadows have offended,
think but this and all is mended . . .




37 comments:

Almighty Yojo said...

having my usual font and spacing problems . . .

Almighty Yojo said...

having my usual font and spacing problems . . .

Geoff said...

At least you got the double posting thing worked out.

Geoff said...

At least you got the double posting thing worked out.

mayhugh said...

That was awesome on various levels.

Clarence said...

It's good to see that LSD has made a comeback in New Jersey.

Clarence said...

Someone oughta call the Dream Police.

TR said...

You are...my density.

TR said...

We need more Samuel Taylor Coleridge around here.

Almighty Yojo said...

i think this will be a good "quality time in the morning with the teej" song at obft.

rob said...

a rib cage!

TR said...

Confrere to the Zman for becoming a Dad earlier today. The noble surname lives on for one more generation.

TR said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rob said...

unto z a child was born, huh?

zman said...

I wanted to name him Biggie Smalls Zman, in light of my post today, but the zwoman wouldn't go for it. So we named him Thurman Thomas Zman.

Mark said...

You could've gone with Wallace. Nevertheless, congratulations!

Mark said...

Melo with the game winner! It's pretty tough to argue against that trade, no?

Danimal said...

z - congrats on the zbaby. it it a zeeboy or zeegirl?

filled up my gas tank yesterday and for the first time ever paid more than $60...$69 to be exact. wuwt.

Geoff said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kxc6kzH-uI

mayhugh said...

For the Wire fans.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-drug-raids-20110310,0,5092225story

rob said...

zman, you've got nothing to do. post something.

Clarence said...

TR, it's funny that you mentioned the word "noble" in your comment about the extension of the surname into another generation. When Dave lived in the whorehouse on Route 18 in Jersey, one of his housemates was a guy who subsequently got married and changed his surname to his wife's. So it's no guarantee that the Zman name shall live on.

The name he changed it to? Noble.

The name he gave up to be a Noble? Packingham. (People understood.)

Danimal said...

dagger oh f'ing dagger!
have to travel to a city near you on st. paddy's day....for a mucho importante presentation on fri morning....with a guy i work with who is scores a 3 out of 10 on the fun meter...my favorite holiday...fuck. fuck. fuck. fuck. fuck.

Dave said...

i wonder what i score on the fun-meter?

congrats zman-- i wish i named my son thurman munson.

and perhaps we should get rid of this whole patronymic naming tradition, and when you get married you just take the cooler sounding name.

rob said...

my wife's maiden name is an homophone for beers. that would've been pretty cool.

rob said...

and yes, i pronounce that ommophone, hence the 'an'. also the homo.

Clarence said...

Homophone call for you, Rob.

Mark said...

I wish I could've placed a bet that the Teej would be done with work and at the bar by late in the 2nd half of UConn-Pitt all the way thru until the end (at least) of Cuse-St. John's.

Danimal said...

i found the teachers union cartoon to be kind of funny. i don't think dave has seen it yet.

Dave said...

just watched the cartoon. yikes. all the teachers in my department definitely have the "madison blues" today-- and if that's the nation's perception, then we may be fucked.

up with productivity! we'll all work 12 hour days until we retire at 75 and then keel over and die.

Mark said...

TJ's boy Fab Melo is killing it today. The Big East tourney never fails to bring it. Sadly, the afternoon games are far more intriguing than the night slate.

TR said...

TiVo alert: Documentary on Stones' 1972 tour on PBS HD at 9:30.

Shlara said...

Do you guys follow Jay Bilas on tiwtter? His tweets about Raftery are really funny. I love Raftery. He probably has a high score on the fun meter too.

Mark said...

It's been of the highlights of my week. I'll get drunk with Raftery and Bilas.

Dave said...

just got home-- am i the hardest partying member of the g:tb staff tonight?

Almighty Yojo said...

no one parties harder than the almighty yojo.

zman said...

If my son had held off for a bit and was born today I might have had to name him Kemba Walker Zman.