Feed Icon RSS 1.0 XML Feed available

What? Haven't I heard of Fred Beans?

Date: 3-Sep-2008/11:23+3:00

Tags: , , , ,

Characters: me, roommate, proctor, young man, librarian, girl, guy

I was walking down the hall of my apartment and needed to take a shower. For some reason, I thought the only way to access the bathroom was through my roommate's bedroom.
Note This is not the case, there's a shared bathroom at the end of a common hallway.
me: "Ahhh... dream, wait. So I'm mixing up the floorplan from the house my parents and I lived in Virginia with our apartment. Wonder why I'd do that?"
roommate: "Yeah, I keep making similar mistakes. Weird mappings. I put a whole movie theater in our apartment... a 40 screen cineplex. Except, all the movie theaters were bugged."
me: (sighing) "All of them probably are."
This switched to where I was in something like a train station, and I found a young man scribbling in a book at an area that seemed a bit like a diner. He was seated in a booth. I don't remember much of our conversation, but it was pleasant, and then suddenly interrupted when a proctor for a test walked in and addressed him.
proctor: "All right, pencils down, tests in."
He motioned to get up and leave his book on the table.
me: "Oh, I'm sorry for taking your time, did you not finish your test?"
young man: "Don't worry about it."
me: "Well don't you want to turn it in, for partial credit?"
young man: "Even if I had finished, I couldn't have afforded the grading fees. Few people here can. I was just practicing, it's no big deal"
me: "Oh, that's too bad."
young man: "I'm not actually who you need to talk to. Here, I'll show you."
He took me through what looked like a library to a woman with glasses, seated behind a computer.
me: "Hi, I'm what they'd call in my world a lucid dreamer. Which means I can tell you, y'know, that I'm asleep and went to bed in Los Angeles, and now I'm here and..."
I picked up a piece of chalk out of a box on the desk.
me: "Now I'm here, in ur reality, steelin ur chalk!"
librarian: "You need to get us pictures. Y'know, like... your coke cans, something to correlate with the date and track you."
me: "Oh. Hm. Well, how would I get any of that information to you? I mean, should I post something on the internet... or... hey, hey, I got an idea. Take some notes!"
Note
If it helps anyone, I bought this Coke in August 2008:
...pulled that out of the recycling bin for this entry.
The librarian had a computer in front of her, and started typing what I said.
me: "We've got basically two competing drinks, right? They're colas, the drinks are dark brown, they're sweet. Coke and Pepsi."
young man: "You don't have only two drinks."
me: "Well, no I mean, we have water and orange juice and a lot of things. But the competition between these two is a weird cultural thing and it gets advertised in all kinds of strange places. Once they had a time where Coke changed it's formula for a little while, they changed the cans then... it was New Coke, but there was a public outcry and they changed it back. There are other cola products that are slightly different, like, oh Dr. Pepper... and Mr. Pibb. I think Mr. Pibb is still around, but, not very popular."
I gave some more information but somehow this distorted into a scene where I was in a bedroom with some people, including a girl who was trying to cross-reference songs with me.
girl: "You know the lyrics to that one? It's all about 'you shouldn't have sex if you're non-concentrated'..."
me: "Uh no, that's not how it goes with us. Music is about sex."
girl: "What about Fred Beans?"
me: "Fred Beans? Never heard of him."
girl: "You've never heard of Fred Beans!?"
me: "No, sorry. Ever hear of David Gray?"
girl: "The name is familiar, I can't recall any of his songs offhand."
Note Fred Beans is apparently a popular automotive dealer that I'd never heard of, but if you dig through you'll find some weirdness, like... this question on Yahoo! answers where a girl asks why people keep thinking she's Fred Beans and stalking her.
me: "Okay, does this sound familiar: 'Imagine there's no Heaven... it's easy if you try.... Imagine all the people.... Living... uh... Oh I don't really know the lyrics to this darn song, Imagine by John Lennon, I was just trying to think of something iconic."
Note I actually don't know the lyrics very well. Probably should, but, I just don't care much for the music of that era. Listening to it now. Oddly enough, LiveJournal user "mexgeek" quoted it as his response to my God Criteria Essay.
me: "Do you have the Beatles?"
girl: (singing) "Love, love me do!"
me: "Yeah, there's another band I don't know the lyrics to their songs very well...not my favorite band, again, just iconic. I know the tunes. Um, Sargeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club... that one of their albums?"
girl: "Yes."
There was a guy in the room, I started talking to him.
me: "How about Garbage? You heard of them?"
guy: "Garbage? I was just listening to Garbage this morning... I'm only happy when it rains......"
me: "Yes, that is a song by them I know and sounds correct."
guy: "Let me show you the video."
In the video, a band was dancing around in what looked like a junkyard that was on fire. I couldn't get a fix on the members of the band, but there was a pink guitar. In the background of the video, however, there was a translucent overlay in red of the white house being destroyed, along with various footage of cityscapes being destroyed.
me: "Wait. There's extra information, overlaid on this video. It's in red, of cities being destroyed. Can you see that part?"
My point of view changed to where I was watching some other movie, in a theater. It had two overlays showing different things... one red, one blue... superimposed on top of the footage. In this one buildings were just moving around, not being destroyed. I was reminded of the classic "3-D" glasses.
Note
The Garbage video on YouTube does not feature any junkyards, though it all takes place in dilapidated circumstances...and Shirley Manson wears two dresses, a blue and a red-ish one... although the red-ish one could be interpreted as purple or pink in a couple of the lighting shots:
...and it's interesting to note that in the red version she's in a bathroom. The band members are busy trying to destroy giant reams of celluloid film. Perhaps suggesting that realizing that your life looks ruinous, it is just a video veil over reality. A music-video telling of the matrix tale?
Currently I am experimenting with using Disqus for comments, however it is configured that you don't have to log in or tie it to an account. Simply check the "I'd rather post as a guest" button after clicking in the spot to type in a name.
comments powered by Disqus
copy write %C:/0304-1020 {Met^(00C6)ducation}

The accounts written here are as true as I can manage. While the words are my own, they are not independent creative works of fiction —in any intentional way. Thus I do not consider the material to be protected by anything, other than that you'd have to be crazy to want to try and use it for genuine purposes (much less disingenuous ones!) But who's to say?