A few weeks ago I dreamed I was hanging out with Robin Williams.
Nothing epic or comedic happened; we were just talking like friends do, and I remember looking closely at his face, and what his presence felt like. I’ve had dreams likes this before where I’m just hanging out with people in my brain.
I checked my email later that day and had a message from iTunes saying, “Thank you for your purchase of Dead Poets Society and The Possession of Michael King … If this order is wrong, please click here..” I didn’t buy these movies and the link didn’t go to the proper iTunes site so it was some kind of scam. Weird.
The next week I was setting up my paintings at the downtown library and saw a notice for a literature seminar series called “Dead Poets”. Also weird. A few days later I decided to re-watch Dead Poets Society, and found out it came out in my birth year. I replayed the scene where Robin Williams is quoting Walt Whitman, looking at the photographs of deceased alumni with the students.
My brother Joshua was working on a new song that week and had an instrumental section he wanted to sample some audio from a movie or famous speech into, something to do with the theme of seasons. I told him about this reoccurring Dead Poets stuff and he said maybe he could use a quote from there.
So, he did. I like the song even more now, knowing the other personal stories behind it too, and really wanted to do the artwork for it. So, I did.
I used four fireworks explosions to signify the four seasons, and it was released on the autumn equinox.
The next day I went to visit Josh and we spent most of the time on the roof or in the basement working on the video. He made the video (and I gave him good ideas) with footage he bought online, and it all fits eerily well. Or, maybe it looks random to you, which is still nice I think..
You can download this song and others my brother has written and/or produced at www.no1cares.net. I am singing backups on one of the other tracks, called “Ghost”. Hmm.. So it goes.