mundens | Dreamwatch - Perfomance Art

An alleyway, the remains of some sort of rope barrier, like that used for controlling queues into night clubs, almost trips me as I stumble down wet cobble stones, probably drunk or stoned. I see a thin young guy standing shakily. He starts singing and dancing, and gets more confident and less shaky, until he is spinning around the wet alley like a vaudeville singer. He is familiar.

Eyes go to partially ripped poster on the wall. It is an all-black poster of a stylized cat (similar to the Emily the Strange ones) the cat depicted only by the white reflections from it's gloss fur. It is an advertisement for a band, the guy I'm watching is their lead singer.

Somehow I know that these guys wil be big , but they aren't now, after all the lead singer can warm up in the back alley before a gig and not get noticed.

The dancer/singer makes a mistake. He slips and lands on his knees, he stays there saying :"Shit! Shit! Shit!". I move towards him to help. He looks up and, as if he knew me and that I'd be there, says "I can't do it. I just can't get it right!"

I point out he's in a dark, rain-slicked, cobble-stone alley with no music, and that that is not the most optimal of circumstances for flawless performances. He nod, and agrees. I offer him my hand and help him stand.

I look at him and say "Y'know there is such a thing as too much practice..."

He laughs and claps me on the back, and guides me toward the stage door, "You're right mate, lets get drunk" he says. Now it seems I'm known to him, and we go into a cramped, dark dressing room, probably only big enough for one really, where the rest of the band are sitting on some sort of bed or couch drinking and smoking.

I am surprised to see

amphigori there as well, but then think to myself "Hell, she knows all sorts of musicians and arty types, it's not that surprising". But I'm not fooling myself, why is she here? Somehow I know she doesn't belong to this time and place, and as soon as I think that I realize that neither do I.

We hug hello, but as we hug, she whispers to me "You're not meant to be here. You'll fuck things up."

I reply quietly "What about you then?"

Our hug continues. In the background a couple of band members make lewd comments about us taking so long.

"I'm here to stop you" she says.

"I'm not here to do anything" I say. "I just want to see them. See this performance they're about to make, the one that makes them."

"You don't know, do you?" She looks at me with pity "Look at the singer, man, Look closely, think about it.."

I look. There's something familiar about him. More than that he's the lead singer of a band I've loved all my life. Then it hits me. He's me. He's what I looked like back when I played in a band. This is my band. We were never famous! What am I doing here? why do I remember this band as being famous? Why did I think they were not me?

Things become confused. I'm suddenly bundled into a car by her. How did I get from the changing room to the street? I don't know, was I drugged?

mr_orgue is driving I see him look back from the drivers seat, wearing a Yorkshireman's cap, cackling insanely.

I can see lights on wet glass, big lights, getting bigger, filling all of my vision with whiteness.

mr_orgue, a black silhouette against the white light, turns and whispers something I can't catch, as he fades out of existence and the truck behind the white lights impacts the front of the car

The car compresses in slow motion, the bonnet beginning to crumple from the front, the rear of the car rising, throwing me forward, glass first cracking, and then crazing and then shattering into a million sparkly tinkly beautiful pieces as I hit it with my face., and am then blinded by the white light....

My point of view shifts. Now I am watching myself come out of the wndscreen, face first, arms outstretched as if I am flying. It looks beautiful. I am smiling, and I seem to be wearing a light tan / khaki night shirt, though in this intense light everything is just greys. I watch myself sail through the windscreen, my point of view in turn following different small oieces of glass as they spray outward, zooming in and watching them tumble through the wet, lit, night like glass asteroids in deep space.

I wake up and find that I've slept in, it is an hour later than I normally get up. I remember the alarm going off, this must have all occurred in the sleep I entered after turning off the alarm. .