Patchwork Faces of the Moon: May 2008

May 1, 2008

Yesterday, I took my grandson, who just turned five on April first, to an after-school library program. The presentation was a couple of old projector reel movies. The first was called "Stanley and the Dinosaurs," the second reel was called "A Picture for Harold's Room." Both were very cute films, but while watching each, I kept getting those hair raising déjà vu feelings and remembering my dreamku from nights before.

"Stanley and the Dinosaurs" staring Corey Burton, Will Ryan and Directed by John Clark Matthews was one of the first, if not 'the' first clay character animations. In my mind it was well done--better than any recent attempts where digital components are added. It was funny and the messages were clear. To me. Use your head, don't always go along with the crowd so that you are accepted, learn to have fun and last but not least--become a vegetarian. I am just being funny with that last message, but it did seem a real message--to me.

Stanley was always using his mind to improve things and make his life easier and more fun. He invented singing by copying the wolves, and later making he own tunes, and then finally adding words. He was eventually kicked out of the cave for being inventive just as he was going to suggest that they all move beyond the cave to somewhere less dark, damp and insect infested. He also shared his food with the dinosaurs instead of making them his food, much to the disgust of the other cavemen. Stanley eventually saved those cavemen because he had made the dinosaurs his friends.

My first jarring déjà vu came when the dinosaur, a T-Rex, that was telling the story began talking to one of his friend dinosaurs. It was a simple statement that was a prankish wish, but yet an omen of what the dinosaurs would evolve into--according to most modern scientist. He took a few heavy pounding steps, and then he said something like "I wish I knew what it was like to be small and light and even fly like a bird." I am not sure on this last mention of the word 'bird', but the connection was clear--again--to me.

When Ms. Elizabeth, the youth organizer for the library, introduced this film, she made it clear that it was not a true story. "People did not walk the earth the same time as dinosaurs," she had said. "Stanley discovers many things in a short time, and it probably didn't really happen like that. I don't believe that dinosaurs talked or told stories either, but this is just make-believe, as are most movies."

It would seem logical if this dream had come after I attended this program, and even now I would scratch it off as coincidence, but... there is the next movie and dreamku for me to consider.

Here is the dreamku that I had written about a dream several nights before.

Prehistoric Flash
April 20, 2008

I shrink to bird size
lizards and fowls small as fleas
beneath cypress roots

dinosaurs were huge
compared to us now
we were larger then

now we are to birds
as then we were to dinosaurs
largest predators

calcium layers
lie as man's prehistoric bones
earth strata

our skeletons
mix with our banquet of prey
proof too big to see

*****

The second reel, "A Picture for Harold's Room," stars the famous Harold with the purple Crayola from Crockett Johnson's collection of youth books. I say famous, because by the way others acted, I should have remembered him. I didn't. It seems he has been around a long time. In this film, I was at first reminded of the dinosaur dream again when Harold began drawing the winding road on his wall and then he stepped into it. He was giant-- bigger than the village that he drew and taller than the mountains. Then my mind was flashing on the snow topped volcano in the other dream, the perspective all thrown off. I will insert my second dreamku series here, and draw a few inferences after.

April 29, 2008

sunset clouds
point to a dormant volcano
photographic art

a road winds through hills
I'm awed by colors on snow
joy catches my breath

I drive too near
to get a better photo
bending over backwards

I can't focus
too close for the big picture
mountain or sky

*****

Harold draws on and on, more hills, birds, snow caped mountain, an airplane, a boat and then he finds place in between mountains that looks like a good spot for a railroad track. He draws the train tracks closer and closer to the viewer with flowers and birds along side. It gets wider and the flowers get bigger until he is standing beneath a flower and a bird is towering over him. He realizes that he has gone from being very big to being very small. Harold decides he has to get things into perspective, so he draws his bedroom door which has a mirror on it. He draws his reflection smiling back at himself, and goes on to draw a small framed picture for his wall. It ends showing the crayon on the floor.

The dreams happening in advance of me seeing these short cartoons seem to be a message that I should pay attention to the movies. I have yet to figure out the reason or meaning. But... I am sure that it is so big and so 'in my face' that it is out of focus, and maybe it is going to be very hard to believe. Again my dreams and the intuition in my daily life have joined forces to get a message across to me. I guess I should be preparing myself for a big revelation, and I should also be prepared to draw my way out of it, putting my 'self' back into perspective.

-VCW

Additional Information and Photos:

I found the cartoon on u tube while I was trying to find an image of the Harold by the tracks as he drew the flower and bird that were taller than him. I couldn't manage to find that image except in the video form, and couldn't get the image that I wanted. No right clicking on a paused video. I finally took actual photos of my screen with my camera so that folks like me that are very visual could see how the images could really relate to my dreams.

Harold's many adventures with his purple Crayola, and "Stanley and the Dinosaurs" can be checked out from the library or purchased at book stores or online

Some pictures from the cartoon "A Picture for Harold's Room" can be viewed below.

To see the cartoon click on the link below.
A Picture for Harold's Room