Weird Dream Channel

I'm only half asleep when I see clearly an elderly man on a chair, being carried past me. It feels like I am on the front porch and three or four people are carrying what looks like a doctor's waiting room chair with an elderly man in it. They are on the sidewalk, going from my left to right. The chair is a metal square frame, with a square pad on the seat. The scene is very vivid.

I open my eyes and am awake - I'm in my bedroom, it's after 1 am, Domino is curled up on the floor by her scratching post. I close my eyes and immediately:

I see a regular procession of neighborhood people walking past, going in the same direction as the chair carriers had been, the same distance from me (maybe 3 feet), the same speed (moderate walking pace).

I open my eyes again, yup, it's the bedroom. Feels like lucid dreaming. Never have done that before, but have heard a lot about it from Romana and others who did the Stanford sleep program. Decided to close my eyes again and see if I could make particular people walk by.

Nope. In fact, I can't recognize anyone. All this time I've seen no faces. I'm looking at their backs as they already passed me by. I try to look in the direction they are coming from, but it makes me wake up.

You know how, when you go shopping, you know you forgot to buy something?

farmount calls is Surgical Strike Shopping. Today's assignment was to buy the non-perishable items which I'd run out of since my trip. In my hand was the short shopping list:

• Kleenex


• Almonds (roasted)


• Peanuts


• Walnuts


• Enteric Aspirin


• Peanut butter (chunky)


• Jam (sugar-free)


• and something I had hastily scrawled as I went out the door.

Of course I had left the list in the car.

I remembered everything except the last item. Couldn't have been too important. And the shopping had to be done in the half hour before my doctor's appointment, and I was right on time for that. Got to the car and looked at the list, and could not make out the last item. Whatever it was, I didn't get one.

After the doctor, I tried to puzzle it out. Looked like it began with a "w". wulini? wahini? Come to think of it, I really could use a Wahini, but that's one kind of Hawaiian produce they don't stock at Safeway.

Got home, made some lime-ade (just pour seltzer into a tall glass, plop in some ice cubes, squeeze in half a fresh lime), sat in my recliner, and was instantly rewarded with a 20-lb. orange furball on my lap. Pumpkin flounced over to my left arm, sprawled out on it and gazed at the fish tank.

Zucchini! I had forgotten zucchini for the algae-eaters. Zucchini is perishable, it would not have done well sitting in the hot car while I was at the doctor's, I had not forgotten it, I had left it out on purpose. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

The Caucasian Chalk Circle @ Dragon Theater

With two friends in the cast (one playing the biggest role) and a theater whose owner is also a friend, it's hard to say, but I was not thrilled with this production.

Berthold Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle is a satire about Soviet revolution and the feudal system the revolution was fighting, as seen through the eyes of The People. As written, it has a cast of about 100 people, but with multiple casting Dragon did it with about a dozen.

The director chose to make most of the characters caricatures, so the acting was mostly stilted, and the actors changed personas so often it was hard to follow the plot. This translation of the play, which was originally written in German, is stilted and in British English, which made things even harder to follow.

Everything was on a shoestring. The set was just a partial frame of wooden slats and a rear projector screen showing backgrounds which did not usually add anything. Costumes were simple, people changed characters by changing home-made head pieces (I wouldn't quite call them hats), and something like a cross between a necklace and nunchucks, worn around their necks. Doctors had lab coats and the judge and lawyers had judges robes, but that was about it. Props were no-budget as well - lances made from sticks and aluminum foil, for instance.

There were several children in the cast, who played both child and adult roles. Sometimes amusing but usually WTF.

According to the program. music was composed for the production which was supposed to reflect the spirit of the music of "The Caucas" (sic). It's the Caucasus, sweetie. And your music was as evocative of the Caucasus as a tomahawk is evocative of New Delhi.

The acting ranged from superb to mechanical. Sometimes by the same actor. I could be kind and say maybe the director wanted some of the characters to be represented as automatons (it's not too far-fetched an interpretation for this play), but I think mostly the actors did not always understand their lines, or their meaning within the context of the play.

The play is supposed to poke fun at how convoluted both the old and new Georgian governments were, but this production makes the play appear convoluted instead.

Don't take my word for it. See it for yourself. The Caucasian Chalk Circle plays at the Dragon Theater, 535 Alma Street (near the corner of Alma and Hamilton), Palo Alto Thurs-Sun through August 27. 650-493-2006 or www.dragonproductions.net for tickets.