Dream Chasers notes

Recorded 1/2011

My short and simple guide to chasing your dreams.

Recorded 9/2009

One important thing I advocate for is for fat people to get fit - not necessarily lose weight - just get physically active. I mainly stay active by Refereeing Ice Hockey, Umpiring Softball, and Bicycling. My wonderful home of West Seattle provides plenty of opportunity and challenge for bicycling, and I do so for several errands - any chance to leave the car behind. So all you big guys and girls, get out there on two wheels, drive safe and legally, and demonstrate the ultimate in green transportation!

Recorded 8/2009

This is music I heard in a dream on 11/28/2006 at around 2AM, while at a hotel on a project assignment. In this dream, I was in a shoe store trying on shoes and I heard a short bit of music that was pretty much the first half of the sample above. For some reason, I knew that music was all about common sense, so I built a full song around it.

Here is the story of Progressive Hip-Hop as I see it: Stevie Wonder forged the key, Coolio unlocked the door with "Gangsta's Paradise", Rob D opened the door with "Clubbed to Death" from The Matrix Soundtrack. Now I'm stepping into that Progressive Hip-Hop world with this structured jam.

Yes this is a real song that happened in one of my dreams when I put a needle on a square phonograph record album. Well, duh!!!

Recorded 10/2009

Almost as long as I have enjoyed music, I have enjoyed pinball. While I'm not a superstar, I hold my own in tournaments and am nationally ranked. So it's yet another fun experience to depict musically. Be sure to look for PDM on a nearby pinball machine (like this....)

Recorded 3/2011
I always say that sports provide lessons in life. When I was 9 years old, I got an unexpected life lesson in chasing your dreams at a Squirt Ice Hockey tournament in Hershey, PA. Spoiler alert: the trophy we got from it in this photo shows the outcome at the base. :-)

Recorded 1/2010 - 4/2010

This is based on my experiences (personal and collectively among my friends) with phasing out sugar from my life with the help of Radiant Recovery. There is a lot of wisdom there for anyone who recognizes a sugar addiction in themselves. The journey is at times funny and exhilerating, and also difficult and sad.

The music and lyrics reflect that broad experience. That's why I posted the full version that shows my full musical range (although I don't plan on playing it at coffee shops that sell desserts. :-)

Recorded 12/2009

We live in a world where successful business men & women make the news because of evil things they do. There are many more who know that the path to real riches is by giving back.

Uncle John was my Godfather, and I could always turn to him for counsel, help, or just a friendly chat. Despite being quite successful, he seemed to always find time for family and friends. He received a heart transplant 14 years ago (that's not a typo,) and made the very most of it.

Musically, a Yes/Zappa style song didn't seem to fit, so I took a very different approach.

Art used with permission from Dick Whyte, altered to look like my dream

Recorded 9/2010
Instrumental about a very strange dream from 1/26/2004. Never eat excessive carbs right before bed. :-)
I ice skated up a frozen street to join a N.J. Devils Youth Hockey Team in their practice. It was outside in a back yard on a frozen swimming pool. We did some basic skating drills. One crossover drill involved skating out the driveway and into a jughandle across the street. We stopped and then returned to the driveway after the light turned green.

Now it was time for training indoors. We did a few exercises together and then each selected a recumbent bike. I selected one that looked kind of fancy, and would also help with relaxation. I started pedaling but it was difficult to control. Still, I was able to keep the pace slow and relaxed. An unexpected special ability of this bike was that the seat moved up then down, then forward and back to neutral. This was also relaxing, but the seat kept cycling higher up and further forward, soon out of control. The rounded pedals got much bigger too and took on a life of their own. As the seat approached the wall in front of me, I was able to use my legs to avoid getting hurt. As I approached the ceiling, I was able to get a grip on a ridge for a moment in an attempt to stop the machine, but it kept going. I knew the next cycle forward, back and and then up would smash my head into the ceiling in certain death......

I immediately developed the ability to compartmentalize the dream. It was represented on a white circuit board with a small black letter S in the middle with a square around it. In the overlay-dream, I was lying immobilized in my bed observing the circuit board, but still partially experiencing imminent death in what was now the sub-dream. I outwardly braced for impact, nauseous and out of control. The head impact came, I felt myself throw up a little, and I saw the square on the circuit board collapse in on the S. Still immobilized in the overlay dream, it took several more seconds to wake up.

Turns out I didn't throw up, but I knew the best remedy for serotonin overdose due to carb overload: get protein like cheese!

Recorded 7/2009
An unusual experiment combining The Buggles and Death Metal. Between the added calm and confidence of Radiant Recovery, and some of the concepts behind Law of Attraction, the way I respond to bad things happening is quite different than it used to be. Sometimes I slip into that old mindset of being persecuted, and it amuses me in hindsight. So don't take my Death Metal rendition too seriously!

Recorded 5/2009

Back in Bergen Catholic High School, I participated in Cross-Country (distance running) as a Freshman. Let's just say I didn't compete for first place in those races. Our top runner in my class was named Doug. So I contributed what I could to the team in this true story.

Recorded 5/2009 - 6/2009
This is the story of how music entered my life bass-ackwards, and how damaging the removal of school music programs can be.

"Undead High" MP3 sample : That same High School inspired a dream in 2008 that... wasn't quite a nightmare... it was just silly enough not to scare the crap out of me. It didn't even take place at my high school. An old apartment building I lived in on McKinley Avenue in Hawthorne NJ, which was once a school, was the setting for this dream. I walked down the 2nd floor hallway to the end of the corridor and could just FEEL that the large, empty room there was haunted. I walked the other way to an unknown priest who reassured me he could fix it. He shot a dart into that haunted room. It started creaking and groaning. I stepped back, but then several undead high school kids bounded out of the empty room singing in a style similar to Rocky Horror about repressed music and emotions.
"Dormancy": With the Catholic school messages ringing in my head that a music career of any sort was dangerous on so many levels, I stuck to playing CDs. But I couldn't help but tinker with my simple Casio that I got in 1986. Anything I could play from my favorite band Yes, anything I could learn from friends at S.U.N.Y. New Paltz, anything I could figure out on my own.... But the main focus had to be on launching a full time career. My long part time work in sports officiating eventually made me realize that performing music did not have to be an all or nothing proposition - wild success or destitution. I had a few ideas but nothing serious until......
"Surge of the Muse": MP3 sample Moving from New Jersey to Seattle was a nice change of pace as described in my first epic, "The Crossing." An unexpected side effect of that move was seemingly unlimited musical inspiration! The "muse" handed me more ideas than I could write down in my PDA. It's been a huge surge of musical ideas that'll take years to record!

Recorded 4/4/2010

Not sure why I had a dream about parts of these two tunes done with a tin whistle, but I ran with it.

Recorded 12/2008

This is a childhood nightmare come true. In the nightmare, I'm strolling around my house in Butler, NJ. Then I open the door to the basement and it's a seething caldron of smoke and tornadic winds (sound effect in the song is pretty accurate.) A loud chorus from down there sings "Help! Help! America's In Trouble!" I slam the door and wake up shortly thereafter. While my basement in West Seattle doesn't really do that, America really is in trouble in late 2008 into 2009.

Recorded 7/2010-8/2010

Star Trek has inspired my life in many ways since childhood. It helped choose my career, it brought me suspense, laughter and adventure, but most of all, it helped me to have faith in humanity and myself. My favorite entertainment comes together with my favorite style of music in an attempt to convey the true meaning of this multi-generational phenomenon. This will not have references to Capt. Picard or Klingons or the Delta Quadrant, but the overall vision and inspiration from Star Trek crerator Gene Roddenberry.

Recorded 4/2010

This is based on a dream from this past January with very unusual imagery that could have been disturbing, but was really pleasant.

Recorded 5/2010-6/2010

A tribute to my grandparents, who I would consider a template for marriage - together over 60 years, 4 children, 8 grandchildren, and several great-grandchildren while alive. They didn't have it easy, but they made it look easy. The lives of both of them are now in song.

"The Dream Found (Say It Out Loud)" - 12:50 MP3 sample ©2011
Recorded 11/2010-12/2010
This completes the Transitions Trilogy that started with "The Crossing" and "Corporate Dysfunction". It's also the only song on this album with both kinds of dreams. It's a case of life being stranger than fiction as I depict the past 2 years of my office career. Skeptical? Listen to the sample just to hear how a Marimba fits into Speed Metal. That leads into the real-life nightmare segment - a dream I had right after being laid off.
Why I was wandering my childhood home, I'm not sure. But suddenly I was under attack! Remember the James Bond weapon with a buzz-saw on a yo-yo? The one in my nightmare could go sideways! It was a narrow hallway so I had nowhere to go as the walls were being destroyed around me. The loud music during the attack was something I had never heard before, but the words were unclear. The strangest thing in the end... I never got hurt.

A big shift happened when I started clearly stating what I wanted to do (i.e. Law Of Attraction.) As a result, I'm not rich or happy all the time, but my life is going in the general direction I want it to. And the most important thing, I am grateful for my life now.

All music referenced above copyrighted by Philip Mariconda. This music not to be sold in any form nor used in any profit-generating environment without specific permission of Philip Mariconda. The music may be enjoyed for personal use only.