Pac Sun
The Dreamer is inside of a shopping mall with high school friends Cedric and Andy Weber. Cedric is talking with the Dreamer about making music. The Dreamer says a catchy phrase, like “Quick Bite” that Cedric says would make an awesome band name. Then the Dreamer sees that Cedric and Andy have tattoos: Andy curiously has tattoos on his back, the outline of a man: a shadow.
Then the Dreamer is inside a car, driven by Ryan Markham, brother of Rory. It is night and they are driving along a highway across a cityscape that the Dreamer recognizes. The Dreamer sees inside of the city there is a high school friend, Josh, who has a long beard, like he has converted to a religion. Ryan is silent, pensive. The car radio is on. The Dreamer breaks the ice by asking Ryan what he has been up to. Ryan relays that he has not been up to much except he recently won a radio contest.
Then the Dreamer is inside of a bright shopping mall with grammar school friends Rory, Alex, and Richard. The Dreamer points out that all of them are dressed the same: black t-shirts and jeans. Rory says that they are not all the same, he is wearing blue jeans. Then the friends are walking through a clothing store: Pacific Sun. The Dreamer walks right through Massimo clothing racks. Then the friends are walking down stairs. The Dreamer slides down the handrail once, beating the others to the bottom. On the next set of stairs, the Dreamer slides down backwards. Rory is trying to keep up and he slips on his back. The Dreamer laughs before he asks Rory if he is okay. Rory blames the fall on the Dreamer. The Dreamer says the way he walks is his (Rory’s) own responsibility. Then Alex and Chewy are holding Rory up by the shoulders, as if he is injured. Rory kicks his legs toward the Dreamer. The Dreamer avoids the kick. Rory says I wasn’t trying to kick you. The Dreamer says, to himself, I wouldn’t put it past you. Then the friends are walking through the food court. In the middle of the food court, an unknown black male attendant aggressively stops the Dreamer and asks him if he wants food from his stall. The Dreamer physically pushes the attendant away. Then the Dreamer is in line at a frosty kiosk. He orders a frosty and the unknown older female attendant says that it is $2.10. The Dreamer pulls a big wad of money out of his present day wallet, and separates three singles. As he is separating the singles, some money falls out of his wallet. A high school friend, Bill Leiflighter, snatches a $10.00 bill, but then hands it back to the Dreamer. Then the Dreamer is charming the female attendant. The attendant says that no one can guess her password. The Dreamer makes some jokes related to her name. Then it is only the Dreamer and the attendant. The lights are low, as if it is closing time. Everyone else has gone.
Associations: Cedric and Andy, creatives; Ryan, repressed; Pacific Sun and Massimo, punk persona, appropriated or imitated from friends; Bill, competitor.
Feelings: fun (in the mall with Cedric and Andy), awkward (in the car with Ryan), bullying (in the mall with the other friends, against the one attendant), competitive (with money, for attention)
Interpretation: This dream is repeating recent themes around the friends Cedric and Andy Weber; shopping malls; food courts; money.
Cedric and Andy Weber were previously in the grammar school friend Alex’s garage; sorting boxes. In this dream, Andy is literally carrying shadow; it’s tattooed on his back, a place that only others can see. There is some creative attitude that is in the shadow for the Dreamer, in this case related to music. Music is also a theme of the silent car ride with Ryan, the driver, who has just won a radio contest. Ryan is a pensive, seething inside, chronically repressed, tinman type, in his head with no heart, no excitement, except for winning radio contests.
The Dreamer has suppressed his creative personality in exchange for a persona, appropriated from friends. The appropriated persona slides down the railings of the stairs, backwards and forwards, like a trickster. The origin point for this dream places it in early grammar school, when the Dreamer was first allowed to be with his friends alone in a shopping mall, shopping through the “Pacific Sun” store that sold the Massimo brand. Ostensibly this is a personal time that the Dreamer is in the process of discovering, or creating, “who he is” when he is not with his parents.
The present day manifestations of this persona are found in the Dreamer’s attitude toward “having a lot of money”. His wallet is bursting with cash. He sees this as a competitive advantage that he subconsciously believes can be useful, along with his charming humor, in attracting the attention of an unknown female (the attendant). This is not a romantic attention, but one just to be seen.
These are all rather “cheap” aspects of the Dreamer’s personality: shopping malls, food courts, $2.10 that he is overvaluing in his present day personality. The Dreamer would have “wished” that he could have that money back in those days, so he could buy whatever he wanted at PacSun. The Dreammaker is suggesting that it is time to “close down” these aspects of the personality, perhaps to revisit the personality prior to the appropriated events, to investigate the musical, creative, shadows carried by the figures of Cedric and Andy.
