DREAM by Skinns

Occasionally, time passes by so quickly you think you’ve dreamt it. Kings of Leon at the 02 Arena was one such occasion. It was like a drunken stupor, you’re not quite sure if you’ve actually experienced it, although bruised limbs, a sore throat and clothes drenched with sweat tend to give reasonable evidence to suggest otherwise.

Dreams you have in your sleep are really very odd, how my mind conjures up such bizarre tales defies belief. But last night at the 02 was one such occasion where the venue, the band and everything seemed so unbelievably good that it seemed impossible that I wasn’t in a brilliant dream. There were times when I would look up and around, see the vast crowd, look back and see my favourite band of all time, see my flatmate smiling next to me, it was almost gig nirvana.

What rudely awoke me from this dream however was the realisation that my phone had fallen out my pocket and the chances are that it had been propelled along the floor at high speed and crushed. Happily though it took mere seconds for me to slip back into the dream and possibly one of the best nights of my life.

DREAM by Sophie

I love that everyone resigns themself to spend hours in their imagination every night.

“The trick is to combine your waking rational abilities with the infinite possibilities of your dreams. Because, if you can do that, you can do anything.” Richard Linklater

DREAM by Lyall

Do daydreams count as real dreams? This is a matter of wide psyche-debate and some of my friends are convinced they do count as real dreams. One or more of them speak about daydreams as night dreams, confusing me no-end. I sit and listen to an elaborate dream thinking ‘how can an unconscious mind think of such an appropriate scenario for how he/ she’s feeling at this time?’. ‘Oh wait it’s because he/ she is actually awake and thinking it up!’.

On the Sleep.com forum, dream enthusiasts are arguing out of this world and one contributor dreamed up the perfect discussion for my blog post,

“Do daydreams count as dreams? What if you daydream most of your day? Well I do. I have this job at a family company and it gets busy then slow busy then slow and so on. So I spend alot of my time daydreaming. But daydreaming of a better life then here in Michigan. I have been with the same person for almost 9 years and have children but feel like things are just not working anymore. And my d.dreams are starting to be of me happy with someone else living in a completely different state. And I am starting to try less and less at this relationship because of it. It is like they are so real that at that moment i am happy. What do I do about this?”

It could be interpreted that this user is looking for the excuse that his daydreams are dreams, and out of his control, feeling guilty for wondering about his future in such a way. But the responses are endless…

There is an important difference between diurnal (day) and nocturnal (night) dreaming. Diurnal dreaming occurs when one is consciously awake while nocturnal dreaming occurs in sleep. Diurnal dreaming is wishful thinking which we all do and escapism is probably its main feature. Nocturnal dreaming arises from the subconscious and is normally beyond the control of one’s consciousness.

“Those persons who feel trapped in misery or who feel they have lost control over their lives find sanity and escapism in day dreaming. For most of us most of the the time our thoughts are either in the past or in the future but seldom, indeed, are we aware of the present; almost immediately we become aware of the present our consciousness drifts away from it.”

This is an interesting discussion and I throughly recommend checking it out and posting your opinion’s on comments below this post. The same discussion would be very Wandersee.

DREAM by Jade

Image Source: Universe-Review.ca

Do Dreams Really Solve Our Problems?

Do you ever remember your dreams? Do you believe they serve a purpose, or the contrary, that they are down to chance?

Many psychological schools have tried to tackle the fundamentals of these questions. I find the realm of these theories fascinating and believe that, as with everything in life, a balance between them is the answer.

The Psychodynamic School, the fundamental approach to psychology established by Sigmund Freud, suggests that different scenarios and images within dreams have specific meanings.

The Cognitive School, my particular favourite and the approach I will be discussing  in this blog, states that we solve intellectual problems through dreaming.

I find myself looking back to last year when I started work at The Westbury cocktail bar in Kilburn. Learning the combinations of copious cocktails seemed an almost impossible task. I then proceeded to dream of  making them every night.

Of course, back then, I thought this was a waste of dreaming time! But now, when reflecting, I just think of how helpful they were in aiding my mixology skills.

Let’s hope we can dream our way through all obstacles, however ironically, I think that wish will remain a dream.

Image Source: smh.com.au

DREAM by Anika

Image Source: www.fantasygallery.net

The word “dream” has a positive connotation. The first thing that pops into people’s minds might be the dream of freedom, liberty, a family or just something that you are not – yet. However, I don’t think it is my place to talk about the wonderful sides of dreams, as there are much more positive thinking people out there. I am the big, grumpy pessimist so that is why the word “nightmare” lights up in big, red letters in my mind when I hear the word “dream”.

I have nightmares pretty much every night. Yes, you can actually get used to them. It is like taking medicine. It tastes horrible, but you know you have to take it in order to get better. I think it is the same with nightmares. They are not very pleasant, but my psyche needs to deal with my problems at some point. If I don’t deal with them consciously, my psyche will force me to. I guess that is some kind of medicine as well.

Only sometimes I am really scared of going to sleep. But the only scary thing is when nightmares come true.

I just came across a very touching poem by a 14-year-old, named Sylvia Hart. It deals with the unpleasant aspect of dreams and says exactly what I am thinking:

They say dreams never do come true..
But they are wrong, I say they do
I dream of violence, I dream of hurt
I dream of children, they live in dirt
I dream of you, I dream of me
I dream of how this was never meant to be
I dream of my feelings, I dream of my thoughts
I dream of these things, I dream of them lots
I dream of my loved ones, I dream of the dead
I dream of these thoughts, exploding my head
I dream of you yelling, I dream of you crying
I dream of you hiding, I dream of you lying
I dream of you hurting, I dream of you shutting me out of your life
I dream of the of the only one I can trust, I dream of my knife.
They say dreams never do come true,
But they are wrong, I say they do.

TWISTED by Sophie

The most crazed and out of sorts I have felt lately was when food poisoning struck this Sunday night. Oy.
I guess you could say I was inspired by my misery. Or wanted to keep a sense of humor.

My insides have been mashed, twisted and turned upside down
Now they lay inside me aching and thirsty
Tired
Heavy
Virus, when will you let me be?

TWISTED by Skinns

To avoid mental break down my advice would be to become a little bit twisted. All great artists, musicians and writers were or are twisted. Usually because of drugs or because they have grown up a little too isolated from the rest of the world…and have disfigurements…or twitches.

People are obsessed in the twisted. It is the stretching of the creative minds that results in people frowning and mouthing ‘what the f***?!’

Look at the film industry; horror films galore. What people forget when they watch these films is that someone will have written that script and you begin to understand the more twisted people are the more interested people in their work. Francis Bacon for instance, insanely warped, yet he is regarded as one of the greatest artists to have ever lived.

Of course there are levels of what is regarded part of a person’s creative personality, what makes them unique and what makes them mentally ill. For instance I’m not going to start saying “why so serious?” but I willingly drink Baileys. Not all the time of course, I’m not an old woman.

Personally if I’m called twisted it’s because I have been too blatant with a comment. It doesn’t mean I’m mentally deformed. Although I’m sure I have been accused of such a thing.

Everyone has a guilty pleasure which in some way makes them twisted but only in other people’s eyes. And anyway if people didn’t then we couldn’t mock each other. Some people like marmite, Turkish delight, Phil Collins….sick, twisted people.

TWISTED by Lyall

Thinking of  ‘Twisted’ I immediately delved into my darker side and the dark music that is it’s soundtrack.  The one band that came out of there that I thought are incredulously sick and twisted was Cannibal Corpse.

This consistent five-piece has been breathing and bleeding perversion for 20 years now. They have released ten studio albums in this time, with an eleventh due early 2009.

In the context of my Twisted entry today, the only really way to put across this bands cruelty on the ears and eyes is by showing you their lyrics and artwork of the most twisted variety.

In 1988 Chris Barnes lead the band vocally, and his bitter verbal revenge on the women that have walked all over him could not have been more severe in the bands early recordings.  On their debut album Eaten Back To Life, Barnes unleashes wicked scorn through titles such as ‘Shredden Humans’ and ‘A Skull Full Of Maggots’.

Tomb Of The Mutilated 1992 (Image Source: Wikipedia)

It got worse though, as his vendetta against women became very much more evident just before his departure from the band. On 1992’s Tomb Of The Mutilated Barnes describes in great detail on super-shockers such as ‘Entrails Ripped From A Virgin’s C***’ and ‘F***** with a Knife’. This lyricist was truly twisted.

When Barnes left, George ‘Corpse-grinder’ Fisher took the singing helm and the band excelled into their most successful period. However, their twisted lyrics and twisted nature were more diversely explored too.

On the highly acclaimed Gallery Of Suicide album from 1998, the band transcribe sheer dark brutality through songs such as ‘From Skin To Liquid’ and ‘Dismembered And Molested’. Through lines such as ‘Every bone broken is my goal, sucking the marrow from your fractured femurs’ and ‘his blood drips from my mouth, I bit his larynx out’ the band create a feeling of sheer despair and the down-tuned, gruff sound the guitars run with accentuated that sound.

The band continue to shock and horror with their gory sound and words to this day  and recent albums such as ‘The Kill’ and ‘The Wretched Spawn’ have been widely recognised for their imagination and musical accomplishments.

Cannibal Corpse: The epitome of Twisted.

TWISTED by Anika

I had to check the word ‘Twisted’ in the dictionary. Clearly, I have heard it thousands of times, but when asked to write about the meaning of the word, I was not sure what it really meant.

It’s funny, when I think about it. One of my favourite songs is called “Twisted” by Skunk Anansie. I was always wondering why the song is called that.

The refrain goes like this:

Every day hurts a little bit more

And I’ll do anything

Yes, I’ll do anything

To belong, to be strong

To say there’s nothing wrong

Here is the video to check out the whole song:

The song is about a twisted truth, about being seemingly happy, but feeling the opposite deep inside you. I think a lot of people feel like that or twist the truth in that way, because it is just the easiest way not to deal with worries and problems.

The song means so much to me, because I was stuck in such a role play for my whole childhood. My father is a very successful businessman who was working his arse off to earn enough money in order to buy a big house with sauna, pool and a garage for his Mercedes. But he forgot one thing: His family. Even though I was living with him for twenty years, he was a stranger to me all my life. However, he wanted to show people that he can a successful businessman AND a great father. That is why he forced me to attend various events where I had to show everyone how much I love my father.

My mother realized how twisted this was. However, she encouraged me to play the game as it is just the easiest way. The truth is a really complex and difficult thing, never simple and often hard to deal with. So, a lot of people make their life easier by just pretending to be something else. I think, most of them don’t even realize how much they lie to themselves.

How often do people ask you, how you are feeling? And how many times do you say “good, thanks” when you actually feel miserable? Who wants to know that you are miserable anyway? The cashier in Sainsbury’s doesn’t, the taxi driver doesn’t, maybe even the people you work with on a regular basis don’t care if you feel miserable. They just ask you how are you feeling to be polite or to start a conversation.

Or what about gay people? I know a lot of gay people who had a lot of trouble accepting their sexuality. They often have relationships with the opposite sex, even though they are not sexually attracted to them. This is the easiest way to deal with it – not to deal with it at all. But what is that for a life when you have to reject who you are?

That does not only apply to gay people, but to everyone. Everyone twists the truth concerning who they are and what they feel at some point. And I don’t think that this is always a good thing. Since I stopped playing that “happy family” game, my life has become a bit harder, but I feel relieved, free and like myself. I think we should all be more honest to ourselves and behave according to our real thoughts and feelings. It is hard, I know – but in the long run life is so much better without twisted truths.

TWISTED by Tori

Twisted; for many can be a way of describing the state they’ll get into on a Friday night after consuming lots of alcohol and other mind altering substances. It can also be a dark word related to lies and dishonesty.

But on the mention of the word, hoards of child hood memories coming flooding back to me, (not because I was a child drug addict though). Here a few of the objects that spring to mind, and take me back……

Flumps
Delicious twisted fleshy pink and white marshmallow; the perfect sugar rush for children without the weight of a chocolate bar, making it the perfect treat for any time of the day.

Image Source: Crunch Magazine

Twister
A romantic teenage game which lets you get tangled up with the other competitors. If you’re a beginner at the game, removing your socks is the best advice I can give. Also beware of more adult, nude versions of the game.

Image Source: File

Twister Ice Lolly
The Walls Ice- Cream Classic. My favourite ice- cream variety of all time. Cream and ice are twisted around a strawberry center. Pure perfection!

Twisted ankles on the school playing fields, the ultimate excuse for getting out of games or PE! My blessed rural upbringing meant that there were plenty of culprits to blame on such injuries, such as rabbit holes or mole hills!

By Tori