Producer's Thoughts

Miley to star in new role concerning dreams

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 01:35:54 GMT

Miley Cyrus attending ‘Wake’ for Paramount? (exclusive)

HWR

By Jay A. Fernandez | June 16th, 2010 at 8:00 pm

excerpt

"On the verge of her 18th birthday, Miley Cyrus may be taking a step into the darkness.

The Disney princess is attached to star in an adaptation of Lisa McMann’s young-adult paranormal thriller novel “Wake” for Paramount Pictures and MTV Films, which are picking up film rights to the property. “Disturbia” co-writer Christopher Landon will adapt the book for the screen."

http://books.google.com/books?sitesec=reviews&id=zUGQI-Zi6-UC
Review on "Wake"

Publishers Weekly vol. 255 iss. 13 p. 63 (c) 03/31/2008

The trick to getting hooked on this highly satisfying first novel is to look past its disjointed opening. The initial chapters consist of flashbacks into which are woven a series of repetitive scenes wherein Janie Hannagan is unwillingly sucked into others’ dreams and nightmares, and suffers debilitating side effects. But as soon as McMann establishes Janie’s strange skill, she throws just the right teen-centric ingredients into the story to propel it forward and grab readers. Tough and strong Janie, now 17, seems totally independent, charting a future that will lead away from her welfare mother’s alcoholism. Her turbulent relationship with Cabel, the unwashed stoner boy-turned-handsome, pulsates with sexual tension—problematized by Janie’s knowledge of his insistent dreams about killing a man. But then Cabel learns to communicate his desires to Janie through lucid dreaming at just about the same time that Janie finds out that she can influence the dreams she enters. The plot twists keep coming, even if one or two are shopworn, and the writing has a Caroline Cooney—like snap that’s hard to resist. Ages 14-up. (Mar.)

Dick Cavett on Dreams

Thu, 06 May 2010 09:20:00 GMT

excerpt from April 30, 2010, 9:00 PM
Dreams, Let Up on Us!
By DICK CAVETT
The New York Times

Some people claim they never dream. There are times when I wish I were one of them.

I’m not sure I’ve ever met anyone who hasn’t had the exam dream.
There are two types of dream that rate, for me at least, the word “nightmare.” The buggers are: The Actor’s Dream and The Exam Dream. If you’ve never endured either of these, count yourself lucky. Maybe I’m getting your share.

The question I can never find an answer to is the one that makes dreams so mysterious. When you watch a movie or read a story you don’t know what’s coming next. You’re surprised by what happens as it unfolds. You know that someone wrote the book or made the movie.

But who in hell is the author of the dream? How can it be anyone but you? But how can it be you if it’s all new to you, if you don’t know what’s coming? Do you write the dream, then hide it from yourself, forget it, and then “sit out front” and watch it? Everything in it is a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant. And, unlike a book or film, you can’t fast-forward to see how it comes out. So where does it come from? And who “wrote” it?

(I apologize if I’ve led you to think I have the answers.)

What shows you the dream and at the same time blinds you to its source? The mechanism has to be ingeniously complex to pull this stunt off. But it seems that the complexity of the human brain is too, well, complex for that same brain to understand.

A nice puzzle.

I’m not sure I’ve ever met anyone who hasn’t had the exam dream. (Do people who haven’t been to school get it, or are they immune to the torture?)

There you are in the classroom, trying desperately to get a peek at someone else’s paper, but they’ve just turned the page as you writhe in the realization that you forgot to study.

Why, this far from one’s education, does one (or at least I) still get the damned dream?

Once I awoke in a sweat from it, walked around a little to shake it off, calmed down, and went back to sleep, only to be blind-sided that same night by the actor’s dream.

Every actor gets it; even people who have only been in the school play. You’re backstage, about to go on, and desperately trying to find a copy of the play to get at least your first line or two, but no one has a script. How did you get to opening night and fail to learn a single line?

You’re plagued with: “How did I do this to myself?” and “Am I even wearing the right costume?” “Do I go out there and try to ad-lib a part I don’t know, maybe getting a few lines right by chance?” and “In a moment I’ll step out there and make an ass of myself, let down and embarrass my fellow actors and probably be fired on the spot as they give people’s money back.” It goes on and on and won’t let up on you.

The merciful release at the much-too-late-in-coming realization, “Oh, thank God it’s a dream!” leaves you limp.

Click here to read more.

Naps and Dreams Boost Learning

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 02:30:00 GMT

By Tudor Vieru, Science Editor

April 24th, 2010, 08:42 GMT

Scientists from the Harvard Medical Schools propose in a new investigation that napping after
learning new information may help consolidate the recently-acquired data to memory. They
add that the correlation appears to be even clearer in the case of people who dream about what
they've just learned while sleeping. In a series of experiments, they demonstrated that not
sleeping or dreaming made people fare worse at remembering tasks or knowledge they
had just acquired hours before.

more here: Click here to read more.

Bristol psychologist seeking tweets about dreams

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 02:25:00 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/bristol/somerset/8643017.stm

A Bristol academic is to take part in a worldwide experiment to collect and analyse people's dreams using the social networking service Twitter.

Dr Jennifer Parker, of the University of the West of England, is asking people from around the world to tweet their dreams to her on Monday.

The 10 judged the best will be analysed by Dr Parker, who is a member of the Association for the Study of Dreams.

Dr Parker, who is from the university's psychology department, said even the dreams that will not be analysed publicly will help her with her research.

The contest is being run by streaming service blinkbox.

'Inception' breaks into dreams Director Christopher Nolan's latest

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 23:50:00 GMT

'Inception' breaks into dreams
Director Christopher Nolan's latest is a heist movie with an unusual target: the mind.
By Geoff Boucher
Los Angeles Times
April 4, 2010

from article

'Inception's' conception

For Nolan, "Inception" was an elusive dream. "I wanted to do this for a very long time, it's something I've thought about off and on since I was about 16," Nolan said during a break in shooting last summer. "I wrote the first draft of this script seven or eight years ago, but it goes back much further, this idea of approaching dream and the dream life as another state of reality."

Nolan split his youth between Chicago and London (he has dual citizenship) but, with his stately, professorial mien and Oxford dress code, he seems far more in touch with the banks of the Thames than the shore of Lake Michigan. Ever since he was a youngster, he says, he was intrigued by the way he would wake up and then, while he fell back into a lighter sleep, hold on to the awareness that he was in fact dreaming. Then there was the even more fascinating feeling that he could study the place and tilt the events of the dream.

"You can look around and examine the details and pick up a handful of sand on the beach," Nolan said. "I never particularly found a limit to that; that is to say, that while in that state your brain can fill in all that reality. I tried to work that idea of manipulation and management of a conscious dream being a skill that these people have. Really the script is based on those common, very basic experiences and concepts, and where can those take you? And the only outlandish idea that the film presents, really, is the existence of a technology that allows you to enter and share the same dream as someone else."

link to the full story
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-inception4-2010apr04,0,6869939.story

No impossibilities....

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:20:00 GMT

Dream about Me

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:13:12 GMT

Holocaust haunts my dreams, survivor tells court

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:20:00 GMT

Irene Preisinger
MUNICH, Germany
Tue Jan 19, 2010 3:02pm EST
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60I3ZE20100119

MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Frail Holocaust survivor Thomas Blatt told a court on Tuesday he still has nightmares about the months he spent at the Sobibor death camp, in moving testimony in the trial of accused Nazi guard John Demjanjuk.

Blatt, 82, whose family was killed at Sobibor, was composed but pale. His hands shook and he spoke quietly and with hesitation. At the age of 15, Blatt was ordered to sort out the belongings of Jews sent to the gas chambers at the camp.

A co-plaintiff in the case against Demjanjuk, who is charged with helping to murder 27,900 Jews in 1943, Blatt was giving testimony for the first time. Prosecutors say Demjanjuk, 89, was a guard at Sobibor at the time Blatt was there.

"My dreams are so real. I cannot escape. I am still there," Blatt, a co-plaintiff in the case, told the court in a confusing mixture of English and German. "We knew we would die, that we would be gassed."

Blatt said he did not recognize Demjanjuk from his time at Sobibor, an extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland that prosecutors say was run by 20 to 30 Nazi SS members and up to 150 Soviet prisoners of war.

Demjanjuk, lying on a bed in the court room did not look at or respond to Blatt and pulled a baseball cap low over his face so his eyes were hidden.

Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk fought in the Red Army before being captured by the Nazis. He is accused by prosecutors of working as a guard for the SS and helping them kill Jews at the camp.

The case, likely to be one of Germany's last major war crimes trials, has drawn major international interest.

Demjanjuk denies a role in the Holocaust and his lawyers dispute he was at Sobibor. His family say he is too frail to go on trial.

Blatt, who had difficulty hearing questions and looked exhausted by the end of the session, said if Demjanjuk was at Sobibor at the same time as him, he was a murderer.

"There were only 17 SS soldiers in Sobibor at any (one) time. The Ukrainian guards carried out the killings. They pushed people into the gas chambers," Blatt told reporters.

Jews at the camp died 20 to 30 minutes after inhaling a toxic mix of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, say prosecutors.

Blatt, who lives in the United States, said he did not know why he was selected to work. He was in the camp for about six months in mid-1943. He took part in an uprising at the camp in October 1943 in which prisoners killed SS guards and escaped.

Demjanjuk emigrated to the United States in 1951 and became an auto worker. Extradited from the United States in May, he could spend the rest of his life in jail if found guilty.

"I'm not looking for revenge. I want justice," said Blatt.

(Writing by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Noah Barkin)

"Don't leave your dreams in the bed"

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 07:30:00 GMT

“Don’t leave your dreams in the bed,” Dr. F.D. Sampson told a full house at the Bethlehem Baptist Church Monday morning.

Sampson, the pastor of the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Houston, was speaking to those who had just completed the annual Freedom March from the Bee County Courthouse to the church in honor of the slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Commenting on the meaning of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., in 1963, Sampson urged his listeners to “allow your dreaming to wake up. If you don’t, your night dreaming will become daydreaming. And daydreaming is nothing.”

Sampson called King a “human rights icon.”

He briefly recounted the life of the man many consider the father of the civil rights movement in America, saying that King was born on Jan. 15, 1929, and died at the age of 39 after being shot by an assassin on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn.

King’s “I Have a Dream” speech was later deemed the “greatest speech in the 20th century,” Sampson said.

Speaking to a crowd of about 200,000 people on Aug. 28, 1963, King said that 1963 was not an end but a beginning.

In the speech, King asked that his fellow countrymen no longer judge people by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

The next year King became the youngest person ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He was only 35.

Sampson reminded those at the church that King originally was named Michael King. Jr.

But after a visit to Germany with his parents, King’s father changed his name and that of his son from Michael to Martin Luther in honor of one of the leaders of the Protestant movement in Europe.

Sampson explained that many historians over the years have tried to identify people who may have influenced King’s thinking. He debunked those theories and said he thought King was mostly influenced by his Savior, Jesus Christ.

Sampson said King asked people to “love thy neighbor as thyself.”

“I encourage you not to just dream but to do more than dream,” Sampson said. “There ought to be an awakening for those who have a dream. Don’t leave your dreams in the bed.”

Although fewer people apparently took part in this year’s march, the crowd at the church was about average for the event.

Those who attended the service heard comments from Bethlehem Pastor Eric Tarver, Rev. Bill Duke of Beeville’s First United Methodist Church, Rev. Dr. Peter Muroko of First Presbyterian Church, Beeville Mayor Santiago “Jim” Martinez Jr., County Judge David Silva and state Rep. Yvonne Gonzalez Toureilles.

Again, one of the highlights of the program was the recital of parts of King’s dream speech delivered by the booming voice of Deacon Charles V. Hodge.

Those attending also were treated to the soul-stirring music provided by members of the Beeville Men’s Chorus and Bethlehem Baptist Church Choir.

Those attending this year’s march once again were accompanied by members of the A.C. Jones High School Trojan Band.

Blogger speculates if "Inception" has to do with the subject of dreams

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:35:00 GMT

Breaking Down "Inception's" Dream Logic and Water Imagery
by Lauren Davis
http://io9.com/5436429/breaking-down-inceptions-dream-logic-and-water-imagery

...."We know so far that DiCaprio is playing a CEO-type who enters people's dreams to steal information from their heads and Page plays his assistant. In the trailer, we get some moments inside the dream worlds as well as hints at how you wake a dreamer from their sleep. In the first shot above, we see Leonardo DiCaprio spinning a top with great concentration. What is the purpose of the top? Later, we see several shots in which the laws of physics appear to be altered. Is the top some sort of test of the physics of a place?..."

hmmmmm.....

Here's the trailer:

http://io9.com/5435686/nolan-floods-your-brain-with-dark-surrealism-in-new-inception-trailer

One man, many dreams

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 11:30:00 GMT

After considering Pharoah's dream for Chanukah I was reflecting on dreams for the Christmas celebration. I thought of Joseph, Jesus' stepfather. He like Joseph, the interpreter of Pharoah's dream also had several impacting dreams.

Then Joseph her husband, being a just [man], and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

BUT first, another dream. Here is the back story, a huge diplomatic mission led by wise men from the east entered into Jerusalem and were sought for questioning by the reigning King Herod. After leaving the city they found the infant they were searching for.

Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him." When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt,

Then Joseph had two more dreams:

Now when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, "Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young Child's life are dead." Then he arose, took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee.

Rembrandt van Rijn - Joseph's Dream

Home Fires: The Night Visitors

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:30:00 GMT

I was encouraged to see the New York Times post the following blog series "Home Fires features the writing of men and women who have returned from wartime service in the United States military."

Brian Turner served seven years in the Army, most recently in 2004 as an infantry team leader in Mosul with the Third Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Second Infantry Division. His 2005 book of poems, “Here, Bullet,” has won several awards.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/the-night-visitors/

"...I’m not sure if I’ve ever met or seen the child before, though somehow within the logic of the dream I know her child was a teenaged boy, maybe 13 or 14. Or maybe the dream is in a different neighborhood?..."

"......The dream suddenly shifts and I’m on a huge stage with tremendously bright sets of lights shining down on us — there is a table with a pitcher of water on it, and glasses, but the table is out of reach and I’m aware of people off in the darkness surrounding us, but all I can see are the lights and the table with the water and empty glasses.....

....."And finally the dream shifts to where it often goes, a dream I started having when I was in Iraq — I’m back home in the San Joaquin Valley, about 20 miles north of Fresno, out in the country, and I’m sort of a disembodied hovering version of myself, floating over my family’s property where I was raised, drifting in and out of the eucalyptus trees, the ground everywhere — for as far as I can see — covered with red bark (like the bark chips you get from a home and garden store for planter boxes and ground cover…). It’s a dream I like, one that I always want to last longer, drifting between those trees. The clarity of this dream is far beyond most of my dreams, which are often murky, convoluted, fragmented, disjointed."

Pharaoh's Dream and Chanukah

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:20:00 GMT

In honour of Chanukah I thought I would post Pharaoh's dream. There are several dreams mentioned if you get a chance to read the link.

Torah Portion: Mikeitz / ??????, Second Shabbat of Chanukah

Miketz or Mikeitz (??? — Hebrew for “at the end,” the second word — and first distinctive word — of the parshah) is the tenth weekly Torah portion (parshah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. It constitutes Genesis 41:1–44:17. Generally, it is read on the Sabbath of Chanukah. When Chanukah contains two Sabbaths, it is read on the second.

Pharaoh dreams of cows and sheaves and demands for someone to interpret his dreams. The wine butler remembers Joseph's ability to interpret dreams. They bring Joseph from the jail. Pharaoh acknowledges the truth of Joseph's interpretation (that there would be seven good years followed by seven years of famine) and raises Joseph to second-in-command of the whole country with the mandate to prepare for the famine.

Adrien Guignet Joseph et Pharaon

Inventions and creations inspired by dreams

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:55:00 GMT

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/05/11/inventions-and-creat.html

POSTED BY CORY DOCTOROW

Famous discoveries and inventions inspired by dreams, like the dream in which Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz discovered the Benzene molecule:

"...I was sitting writing on my textbook, but the work did not progress; my thoughts were elsewhere. I turned my chair to the fire and dozed. Again the atoms were gamboling before my eyes. This time the smaller groups kept modestly in the background. My mental eye, rendered more acute by the repeated visions of the kind, could now distinguish larger structures of manifold conformation; long rows sometimes more closely fitted together all twining and twisting in snake-like motion. But look! What was that? One of the snakes had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled mockingly before my eyes. As if by a flash of lightning I awoke; and this time also I spent the rest of the night in working out the consequences of the hypothesis."

Group meets once a month to discuss their dreams, Whittier, California

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:40:00 GMT

WHITTIER DAILY NEWS

http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_13971397

...."A great help is to be able to share your dreams with others. My preferred method is in a group but a trusted friend is a good start, too. You can also pray your dreams, asking God what they mean or to show you further dreams that will help. There is abundant available literature about dreams which can help.

Here at Whittier Presbyterian Church, we have a dream group that meets every month. We share our dreams and work and play with them, to see what they are telling us that we might have missed.

Contact the church at (562) 692-3748 if you'd like to know more."......

Olivia Wilde dreams of jackets

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:15:59 GMT

Please don't mind the seriousness of this post ; ).

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/3130807/Olivia-Wilde-dreams-of-jackets

Olivia Wilde is on a quest to wear sharp-shouldered jackets.

The House actress loves wearing fashionable, daring outfits so much she dreams about them while she sleeps and is on a mission to continually extend her wardrobe.

She said: "I even dream of buying a Balmain jacket with really sharp shoulders. If I can pull off that look, I will have succeeded, at least partially, in my quest.

"A cool leather jacket is my security blanket. No matter what I have on underneath, I feel more like myself when I'm wearing one."

The 25-year-old beauty also looks in High Street stores for quirky outerwear which she will mix with designer brands.

She explained to Lucky magazine: "Coats from H+M are inexpensive and usually have something extra going on-so even with a simple sheath dress, your outfit is still interesting.

"I own a lot of Helmut Lang. The pieces are practical in the sense that you can wear them every day, but they're not boring at all."

Dream a little dream of me

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:45:00 GMT

Hollywood'ers tweet about their dreams

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 10:30:00 GMT

Posted 12/3/09 5:51 pm ET by Aly Semigran in The Twitter Nation

http://hollywoodcrush.mtv.com/2009/12/03/grammy-nominations-and-tiger-woods-top-todays-tweet-dreams/

@kimkardashian I think I had a dream about Dinosaur's last night. LOL
-Kim Kardashian, Reality Star ("Keeping Up With the Kardashians")

@torianddean had crazy dreams last nite.I woke up more exhausted. It was lk an action thriller in my dreams & I had 2 fight & survive the movie all nite!
-Tori Spelling, Actress, Reality Star ("Tori & Dean: Inn Love")

Sophie Barthe, A writer/director's dream comes to life in "Cold Souls"

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:05:00 GMT

Try to check out this interview, Sophie's story about her dream is fascinating.

"Dreamers" Photography Project

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:30:00 GMT

http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Dreamers/313618

Here is an interesting photography project of the University of Wiesbaden, or Hochschule Rhein-Main, summer semester 2009, Germany. If you link to the site you can check out the other photos, I find them amazing.

Professor: Frau Meike Becker-Lacour