A Dog in a Dream: What Does It Mean?

What does it mean when a dog inhabits your dream?

Some of the common themes regarding dreaming of a dog involve loyalty, lack of loyalty, protection, security, faithfulness, intuition, and the need to rediscover a talent that has been neglected.

A person who dreams about a dog could represent someone who has intuitive knowledge and follows their instincts, since a dog sees in the dark and has extraordinary hearing abilities. This person lives from inner feelings and follows directions with an animal-like instinct. The presence of a dog in dreams indicates male energy.

The dog in a dream can also represent danger -- of course this depends on whether the dog is barking, snarling, or attacking you.

If the dream involves you using the dog as a pillow, the dog represents a friend who will prove useful and whom the dreamer will be proud of.

So, a dog in a dream can represent a friend, lover, protector, foe, or potential enemy. It can indicate feelings of warmth, protection, and love, or anger and betrayal. It can point to the dreamer's gifts of intuition and perception, or aggressive impulses. This all depends on the stance of the dog in the dream.  Is he friendly and/or protective, or is he ferocious and on the attack?

Hmmmmm…… I’m glad to say that the dog most recently in my dreams was eerily persistent, but unexpectedly friendly and protective. What about you?

Youtube treat: What do dogs have to do with persistence?

 

Election Protection: Voting in North Carolina

You have the right to vote in North Carolina. Here's what you need to know about voting requirements for this state:
Most voters in North Carolina are not required to show identification. However, if you are a first-time voter and you did not provide your North Carolina driver's license or the last four digits of your social security number when you completed your voter registration application, or one or both of those numbers could not be validated, then you will need to provide ID the first time that you vote. If you are required to show ID, you must provide one the following:

-- A current and valid photo identification; or -- A copy of one of the following documents that shows your name and address: a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document Note: Early voting (also known as One Stop Voting) is available from October 18, 2012 to November 3, 2012.

Have questions or need more information? Call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683)! Visit Election Protection: You Have the Right to Vote! for more detailed information about your right to vote in North Carolina. Source: Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

Alicia's Movies Off the Beaten Path

Here’s a list of movies that I really love, that you probably haven’t seen before. Why not pick one, watch it, and post a comment here or send me an email with your comments about the film. I’d love to hear from you!

1. Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
Directed by: Blake Edwards
Starring: Jack Lemon, Lee Remick, Charles Bickford, Jack Klugman

2. Gloria (1980)
Directed by: John Cassavetes
Starring: Gena Rowlands, John Adames, Buck Henry

3. For Love of Ivy (1968)
Directed by: Daniel Mann
Starring: Sidney Poitier, Abbey Lincoln, Beau Bridges, Carroll O’Connor

4. Without You I’m Nothing (1990)
Directed by: John Boskovich
Starring: Sandra Bernhard

5. Claudine (1974)
Directed by: John Berry
Starring: James Earl Jones, Diahann Carroll, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs

6. The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)
Directed by: Nicolas Gessner
Starring: Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen, Scott Jacoby

7. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968)
Directed by: Robert Ellis Miller
Starring: Alan Arkin, Stacy Keach, Cicely Tyson

8. Birth (2004) Directed by: Jonathan Glazer
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Danny Huston, Lauren Bacall, Cameron Bright

9. Broken Flowers (2005)
Directed by: Jim Jarmusch
Starring: Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Sharon Stone, Tilda Swinton

Broken Flowers

10. Small Time Crooks (2000)
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Tracey Ullman, Hugh Grant, Michael Rapaport

11. The Hairdresser’s Husband (1990)
Directed by: Patrice Leconte
Starring: Jean Rochefort, Anna Galiena

12. State and Main (2000)
Directed by: David Mamet
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin

13. Street Smart (1987)
Directed by: Jerry Schatzberg
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Christopher Reeve, Kathy Baker, Mimi Rogers

14. Three Days of the Condor (1975)
Directed by: Sydney Pollack
Starring: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, Max von Sydow

15. Blood In, Blood Out (1993)
Directed by: Taylor Hackford
Starring: Benjamin Bratt, Damian Chapa, Jesse Borrego

A Slave Narrative: 121-Year-Old Sarah Gudger

Sarah Gudger

Here's an excerpt from Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writer's Project, 1936-1938, which contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves.

Here's Sarah Gudger, Age 121 speaking:

I 'membahs de time when mah mammy wah alive, I wah a small chile, afoah dey tuck huh t' Rims Crick. All us chillens wah playin' in de ya'd one night. Jes' arunnin' an' aplayin' lak chillun will. All a sudden mammy cum to de do' all a'sited. "Cum in heah dis minnit," she say. "Jes look up at what is ahappenin'," and bless yo' life, honey, da sta's wah fallin' jes' lak rain.* Mammy wah tebble skeered, but we chillen wa'nt afeard, no, we wa'nt afeard. But mammy she say evah time a sta' fall, somebuddy gonna die. Look lak lotta folks gonna die f'om de looks ob dem sta's. Ebbathin' wah jes' as bright as day. Yo' cudda pick a pin up. Yo' know de sta's don' shine as bright as dey did back den. I wondah wy dey don'. Dey jes' don' shine as bright. Wa'nt long afoah dey took mah mammy away, and I wah lef' alone.

*(One of the most spectacular meteoric showers on record, visible all over North America, occurred in 1833.)

The Slave Auction

by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

The sale began—young girls were there,  

   Defenseless in their wretchedness,

Whose stifled sobs of deep despair  

   Revealed their anguish and distress.

And mothers stood, with streaming eyes,

   And saw their dearest children sold;

Unheeded rose their bitter cries,

   While tyrants bartered them for gold.

And woman, with her love and truth—

   For these in sable forms may dwell—

Gazed on the husband of her youth,

   With anguish none may paint or tell.

And men, whose sole crime was their hue,

   The impress of their Maker’s hand,

And frail and shrinking children too,

   Were gathered in that mournful band.

Ye who have laid your loved to rest,

   And wept above their lifeless clay,

Know not the anguish of that breast,

   Whose loved are rudely torn away.

Ye may not know how desolate

   Are bosoms rudely forced to part,

And how a dull and heavy weight

   Will press the life-drops from the heart.

VP Biden's Cheshire Cat Grin

Huh?... Ya see? Didn't I tell ya?

Did my homie from Delaware do the d*** thing last night or what? I was so proud and had maybe too much of a good time watching the debates. Here's the New York Times' take on the match.

October 12, 2012

Night of Withering Ripostes, Mostly Delivered by Biden

by Alessandra Stanley

Joe Biden knew Lloyd Bentsen.

Lloyd Bentsen was a friend of Joe Biden’s.

And the vice president made full use of his old Senate colleague’s 1988 debate playbook, shaking his head and scoffing pityingly at Representative Paul D. Ryan, trying to paint his opponent as a latter-day Dan Quayle.

Mr. Ryan was no Dan Quayle, but he did make the mistake of mentioning John F. Kennedy in an argument over whether tax cuts recharge the economy. Mr. Biden flashed a Cheshire Cat grin and said to Ryan, after waiting a beat to let the moment sink in, “So, now you’re Jack Kennedy?”

The vice presidential debate on Tuesday was supposed to be a reboot for the Obama campaign after the president’s dismal performance at his debate with the Republican nominee for president, Mitt Romney, last week. Mr. Biden, clearly delighted to come to President Obama’s rescue, relished his role, addressing his opponent as “my friend” but dismissing his arguments as “malarkey.” He laughed at Mr. Ryan’s remarks so often and so heartily that at times he seemed like a guest at a comedy club roast, not a vice president debating the fate of the nation with his opponent.

It was a sharp and spirited debate, with both candidates delivering some lacerating blows, but Mr. Ryan at times seemed disconcerted by the sheer blowhard intensity Mr. Biden brought to the night. Mr. Ryan tried to be respectful, listening to the vice president with a tilted head, choirboy smile and puppy-dog eyes, but he showed his irritation when Mr. Biden kept interrupting to attack his policy on Medicare. “I know you’re under duress,” he told the vice president, prompting another belly laugh.

For Mr. Biden especially, the night was his chance to relive past debates and unleash his inner barroom brawler. He had to be contained and courteous when he debated Sarah Palin four years ago, lest he look like a bully. This time he let loose. And unlike the courtly Mr. Bentsen in 1988, Mr. Biden turned his temperature up, singeing the young man across the table with patronizing grins, but mostly withering retorts. His interruptive barrage was as relentless as his silent mugging for the camera.

Mr. Ryan held his own, but did look abashed when Mr. Biden mocked him for opposing the Obama stimulus, yet asking for government funds for his own district. “On two occasions, we — we — we advocated for constituents who were applying for grants,” Mr. Ryan said stiffly.

“I love that. I love that,” Mr. Biden said. “This was such a bad program, and he writes me a letter saying — writes the Department of Energy a letter saying, the reason we need this stimulus — it will create growth and jobs.”

When Mr. Biden went after Mr. Romney’s infamous remark at a private fund-raiser about the “47 percent,” Mr. Ryan reminded the vice president of his own propensity for gaffes. “I think the vice president very well knows that sometimes the words don’t come out of your mouth the right way,” he said with a gotcha smile. Mr. Biden was not quite as amused.

Mr. Biden was not the only one in the room intent on rectifying his predecessor’s mistakes. Martha Raddatz of ABC News was the moderator, and she made a point of speaking forcefully, pushing the candidates to be specific and changing subjects abruptly. She seemed determined to be less passive and sleepy than Jim Lehrer of PBS was as moderator of the Obama-Romney debate.

Mr. Ryan made a point of praising Mr. Romney, even trying to soften his image by recounting a time when Mr. Romney gave money and attention to a couple whose children were badly injured in a car accident. It wasn’t the best example to use, because it prompted Mr. Biden to describe his own tragedy, when his wife and young daughter were killed in a car crash.

Here's a good analysis too from The Washington Post Biden Rattles Ryan

Gigi's Performance Art Card

Here's Gigi's contribution to Sheryl Oring's "I Wish to Say" performance art piece, created during the DNC in Charlotte.

Come See Beasts of the Southern Wild, Talk and Eat After

Hushpuppy and her dad brave a
Katrina-like storm in this fantasy film,
"Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Women, young and mature, are invited to view "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and gather after the film to talk about the strength and empowering spirit of the main character and what we can learn from this fiesty little girl named "Hushpuppy."

Date and Time: Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012, 4:30 p.m.

Film Venue: Regal Park Terrace Stadium 6 
Park Road Shopping Center
 4289 Park Road, Charlotte, NC 28209

Meetup after the viewing to talk about the film and eat:
Fuel Pizza, Park Road Shopping Center
4267 Park Road, Charlotte, NC 28209

If you'd like to join us, contact Alicia Benjamin at aliciamichelebenjamin@gmail.com.

Watch the Trailer:

Time Capsule: Joe Biden and Quven-zhané

Quven-zhané Wallis

As I was reading the Sept. 10 Time magazine special convention issue titled “The Democrats,” I was especially drawn to two articles. One is about Vice President Joe Biden and the other is a brief tidbit in The Culture section about the lead character in Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Regarding my Delaware homie, Joe Biden:

This is at least the second article I’ve read about Biden that talks about his ability to warm up the crowd and identify with the everyday man and woman. In his article, “Let There Be Joe,” David Von Drehle discusses how Joe’s ability to schmooze with the people compliments Barack Obama’s coolness  -- in other words, the Obama-Biden ticket is well balanced.

Von Drehle writes:

Biden is Dixieland swing, Obama is Miles Davis. Biden's a banana split, Obama is grapefruit sorbet. Biden's a bubble bath, Obama a dip in a Minnesota lake. In the coming campaign for the hearts and minds of America’s remaining undecided voters, the hearts part is Biden’s brief.

No wonder. Biden, who affectionately calls his wife “Jilly,” and gives her all the credit for healing his family after losing his first wife and young daughter in a tragic car accident, seems to genuinely identify with and care for the hearts of Americans. When a woman at a diner said she might just invite him to visit the Walmart where she works, he tells her, “ I’m like a poor relative. I show up if I’m invited.”

And I bet he would. He’d probably even help to bag some of the groceries.

The very description of Beasts of the Southern Wild is enough to make me want to see this highly imaginative film, directed by Benh Zeitlin. Quven-zhané Wallis plays Hushpuppy, a 6-year-old who lives in a fictional town on the Louisiana coast struggling to survive a Katrina-like storm. The levees break and most of the animals die off in this fantasy tale about a girl whose resilience and imagination help her to not only stay alive, but also to save her ailing father and overcome the devastation. The glimpse of poetic voiceover by Wallis draws me even more to this story:

“When all goes quiet behind my eyes, I see everything that made me, flying around in invisible pieces. Me and my daddy, we stay right here. We who this earth is for.”

Time writer Lily Rothman calls Wallis a breakout star who "could become the youngest actor ever nominated for an Oscar.” I sure would like to see that. I will definitely see this film very soon.

Run-up to DNC 2012: CarolinaFest Photos

Drumming for Obama
at CarolinaFest 2012

Waiting for the
band to play

Checking out the art at the
Bechtler Museum of Modern Art

Dictating and writing as performance art.
Gigi's postcard to Obama

End of performance: Gigi puts her stamp on
her postcard to Obama.

CarolinaFest: Kickin' Off the DNC 2012 in Charlotte

CarolinaFest 2012 kicked off the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte yesterday with crowds so thick, you’d think you were in the middle of rush hour madness in midtown Manhattan instead of uptown Charlotte. Once we found a LYNX Light Rail station that had available parking spaces where we could leave our car before boarding the commuter train uptown, we waited with the crowds on the platform for the train to take us to the excitement. I’m glad we went, as we got to see and feel the vibrancy coming from all the people who flocked to the city from all over the nation and probably other countries.

 Highlights:

-- We got to hear some live music including West End Mambo, Jeff Bridges, and James Taylor. (I’m so sorry that we missed Anthony Hamilton sing the national anthem. I didn’t know until TODAY that he was scheduled to sing yesterday.)

-- Entrance to most of the museums was free and so we ventured into both the Mint Museum (one of our favorites) and the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art.

-- We got lots of exercise! We had to walk from the Park and Ride area to the LYNX, and many blocks to get to the festival and through all the festival events. Phew!

-- Our attendance at CarolinaFest confirmed my decision to watch the DNC activities on TV, like folks in other parts of the country. I wouldn’t want to be in the middle of all that commotion for four days!

-- Gigi participated in a performance art project, staged by an assistant professor of art at UNC Greensboro, Sheryl Oring, at which the public was invited to dictate a postcard to the President. Oring organized a pool of typists at the Bechtler Museum, who asked Gigi and lots of other visitors what they would wish to say to the President if they could talk to him. The visitors dictated their responses as the typists, all dressed in 1960s style dresses and makeup, typed the responses on small sheets of white paper, using manual typewriters. The original copy of the postcards will be sent to the White House. I won’t divulge Gigi’s response entirely, but it had to do with supporting President Obama because of Romney and his policy ideas.

-- We tried to do this Presidential Experience tour on Friday, but it started raining and we couldn’t find the place – we walked for blocks and blocks looking for it. Maybe we’ll have more luck, when the parking ban is lifted uptown and we can actually park closer to the place.

Now, we’ll just sit back and relax at home while we watch the Democrats do their thing and observe President Obama accept the party’s presidential nomination. I’m expecting lots of good speeches, along with some surprises and laughs.

As Mos Def used to say at the beginning of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam – “Let’s Get it Goin’!”

 (Photos to come)