Friday, June 23, 2023

Very realistic record-shopping dream

In the dream, Erika and I are at a record store in Seattle - one that doesn't actually exist, but that I know in the dream to be overpriced, and they have a Specials album she wants to hear, one I have never seen before (because it doesn't really exist, in reality, of course). I offer them $15 and to my surprise, they take it. They try to shortchange me by $5, until I point it out to them, but I'm impressed that they were so reasonable on their price, because I'd expected they would try to charge me $40 for it, vinyl prices being what they are now. Then I see another record by an obscure Jamaican musician named, get this, Leeroy Stagger, whose music I don't know (which is because he's a Canadian alt-country musician - not reggae at all! In the dream he was like Mikey Dread or someone the Clash turned me onto). I am showing Erika imperfections in the vinyl and explaining how you have to look out for vinyl from "third world countries" sometimes, because the quality of vinyl that they have access to varies and you get mis-pressings (something I believe I have actually heard from someone but cannot verify). I point out the "made in Jamaica" to her on the album cover and show her a place or two where the vinyl looks a bit crazed. I'm trying to look it up on Discogs but I'm having trouble with my phone; I offer them $15 for it, too, "because I'm not sure how well it will play," but they aren't interested, as the stack I got it from has yet to be priced. I look around for some other records while Erika is in the washroom, check a couple of sections for things I am looking for (maybe they have Toxic Reasons' Kill by Remote Control?). But they don't, and Erika is done, so we leave.

Lying in bed after we're both up, I play Erika "A Message to You Rudy" to show her the band she wanted me to buy - and she's still humming it a bit now, as she heads for the shower (I don't actually own any Specials on vinyl, just CD). Then I play some Leeroy Stagger, who I discover (only then) is not a reggae musician at all. Doesn't his name sound like a reggae musician's? I don't blame my dream for getting it wrong.

Very realistic dream, otherwise. To the point of being prosaic - details like taking an American $50 out of my wallet, or how Erika was wearing a leather jacket... 

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