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Posted: Friday, April 04, 2008

Dion McGregor - Sleep Talker (AWESOME!)


I talk in my sleep. Last night, to my absolute horror at the time I had 2 dreams in a row where my macbook pro was destroyed. In the first dream I dropped it, smashed the screen and bent the case, in the second I came back to my parents home and I found my macbook pro had been scratched with a compass all over the case and the insides by my sister, to the point of being destroyed. Very unsettling dreams. In the morning I was telling Sara about them and she mentioned that I was sleep-talking too as I often do.

Today I decided to look up "sleep-talking" on wikipedia to learn more about it.
I found out that sleep-talking is very common and is reported in 50% of young children, with most of them outgrowing it by puberty, although it may persist into adulthood (about 5% of adults are reported to talk in their sleep). It appears to run in families.

While browsing the wikipedia page I noticed this line about a famous sleep talker and was intrigued.
One famous sleep talker is Dion McGregor, a man who became something of an underground celebrity when his roommate Michael Barr recorded his nightly soliloquies (which were often hilariously detailed), which were then released as a series of albums in the 60's.

This would be sooo great to hear I thought and googled his name and found a myspace page for him here, yesss!



Dion McGregor - look at this picture as you listen to his sleep-talking

I listened to this first recording, "The Food And What to do with it" and LOVED it!
In this recording he tells someone to get various fruits, prepare them and then RAM THEM UP THEIR ASS! His pitch and tone is captivating, he is often mean. Sometimes he laughs like a lunatic. While listening to the recordings I picture the scenes as he narrates what is happening.









The Food And What To Do With It (mp3)


The Food And What To Do With It - Lyrics
Brown that banana
Brown it
Brown it
Crust it all over with sugar
Dip it in the sugar pot
Dip it in the sugar pot
Okay, now bend over and ram it up your ass
That's right
Okay
Cut that grapefruit in half
Cut that grapefruit in half
Alright
Sprinkle it lightly with sugar
Okay, now lean back and ram it up your cunt!
Take that honeydew melon
Slice it from stem to stern
Salt it a little bit
Stick it down in your tits
Take that dish of strawberries
Put a few drops of cream in it
Alrighty
Pour it over her head
Take that huckleberry pie
Heat it in the oven
Stick it on a plate
Mash it in his face
Take that mango
Cool it
Peel it
Jam it up your ass
Look at that red rug on the floor
Oh, little dog dancing
Puddles here and there
Puddles here and there
Look out pussycat
It's a pussy
It's a pussy
Do turkeys have tits?

All lyrics from this "The Dream World of Dion McGregor (He Talks In His Sleep)" here.


Another, more manically narrated sleep-talk is this one, "Don't Break The Mailman".








Dont Break The Mailman (mp3)


I went back to the Wikipedia entry on him which said this about him:
Dion McGregor (1922–1994) was a New York City-born songwriter, whose main claim to fame is that he was a voluble dreamer, or somniloquist.

As a songwriter, McGregor's biggest success came when his song "Where Is The Wonder" (cowritten with roommate Michael Barr) was recorded by Barbra Streisand on her hit album My Name Is Barbra (1965). He was unable to find much success afterwards, however, and by the 1980's had given up on songwriting. Critic Joslyn Layne writes that "Despite his lack of success as a song lyricist, McGregor's narration of his vivid dreamlife provided a more unique artistic contribution than any usually recorded."

McGregor talked in his sleep. Not in quiet, barely-comprehensible mumbles: while he slept, McGregor would essentially narrate his dreams at conversational volume. As a narrator of his (often terrifying) dreams, Dion adopted various personas but frequently established a fey, argumentative, insolent approach to the subject at hand – be it a hot air balloon trip to the moon with a group of multi-ethnic children, a frantic journey around New York, or a tattooing job on a woman's tongue. As Phil Milstein notes, the Tzadik LP could just as well be called Dion McGregor Screams Again, as most of McGregor's dream narratives end with him shrieking in terror.

An LP of his dream diatribes – The Dream World Of Dion McGregor (He Talks In His Sleep) – was even released to minor acclaim by Decca Records in 1964. A book of the same name, containing the transcripts of a wider selection of McGregor's dreams, and with illustrations by Edward Gorey, was also published in 1964.

McGregor died in 1994, but researcher Phil Milstein gathered recordings of McGregor's dream-speech considered too risque to be released in the 1960s and assembled them for the 1999 album, Dion McGregor Dreams Again, released on Tzadik Records. A third album, The Further Somniloquies of Dion McGregor: More Outrageous Recordings of the World's Most Renowned Sleeptalker was assembled by Toronto poet Steve Venright and released in August 2004 on the Torpor Vigil Industries label.


Some more web searches returned more interesting information about him:
Dion McGregor was a homeless gay bohemian from NY. He wanted to be a songwriter for Broadway musicals, and while waiting for his big break in show business, he couch-surfed with his friends, lovers, and acquaintances. One of his hosts was fascinated with Dion's habit of talking in his sleep and attempted to document it.
You can hear New York street noises in the background of his recordings, as he slept by an open window.
Taken from here.

The above post also links to an upload of his 1964 recorded album title, "The Dream World of Dion McGregor (He Talks In His Sleep)".


The cover of "The Dream World of Dion McGregor (He Talks In His Sleep)"

Download Link - MEGAUPLOAD


I really, really want to here his 1999 album, "Dion McGregor Dreams Again" and his third album, "The Further Somniloquies of Dion McGregor: More Outrageous Recordings of the World's Most Renowned Sleeptalker". I imagine they would be incredibly dirty.
So if anyone has these albums, could I please get them from you?

Dion McGregor Links


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Posted by Nathan Kowald @ 8:41 PM

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Posted: Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Middle-Aged Men In T-shirts


Tonight a middle-aged man got on the bus I was on, he had grey hair and was wearing a loose-fitting white t-shirt. For some reason it did not seem right.
Seeing him made me think about another older man who I used to work with and how whenever he would wear a t-shirt I would find it off-putting. When I say "middle-aged" I am referring to ages 40-60. The man on the bus would have been about 55.



I think that a man comes to a certain age when it is only acceptable to go out in public in a shirt or polo top. A shirt or polo is dignified and respectable. Whenever I wear a dress shirt I feel great and confident. When I reach the age when I farewell the t-shirt from my daily out of home attire I will welcome it with open arms.

On the bus tonight I was trying to pinpoint why seeing this middle-aged man in a plain white t-shirt made me feel so weird. I was doing that thing where when you want to look at a person but not be rude you look into the bus window at their reflection. I was looking at this man's reflection in the window and trying to figure out why I was reacting in this way. I did not figure it out. I also thought that maybe "the older a man is, the weirder he looks if he wears a t-shirt". Then I thought of this man who I see in the morning sometimes whilst walking to work, he wears yellow shorts and t-shirts. He would be about 60 I reckon and he does not look weird. I am going to start noticing what middle-aged men wear more from now on. Maybe middle-aged mens spouses have a lot to do with their out of work attire, most probably. I think that without wives dragging their husbands into going clothes shopping then it might be more of a common thing to see a middle-aged man in a tee-shirt out in public.

Bouncer Tee
Bouncer-tee. Badass displays of gut -wrenching masculinity.


Middle-aged man at home
Surely though at home is a different story for the middle-aged man?
When I get home, one of the first things I do is change into my comfortable nike track pants (or second skins as I have affectionately come to call them), a comfy tee and kick off the shoes. When you get older you should not lose this comfort and so an older man at home in a t-shirt is acceptable.

Occasions where it is acceptable for a middle-aged man to wear a t-shirt would be:

  • On Vacation

  • Exercising/at the gym

  • At home

  • Playing sport

  • At the beach


Richard Dawkins - Great scientist, great example of vacation tee.

I find myself thinking more often now at the age of 25 that I should gradually fade out my wearing of t-shirts and start wearing more shirts and polos for work and out of the house occasions. I have noticed that when I wear polo shirts or dress shirts people - especially females - treat me well, I get glances where there would not usually be glances and service seems that little bit more respectful.

Before I know it I will be a middle-aged man and will know first hand "the rules" if there even are any to begin with.



Another thing I have noticed quite a bit lately which relates to public transport is that "hot women" or "women who think they're hot" will usually choose seats that face the opposite way to where the bus/train/tram is heading, so that they are facing the passengers. I absolutely HATE facing the opposite way (facing the passengers) on a bus or tram so I tend to notice people who by choice choose those seats.


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Posted by Nathan Kowald @ 9:49 PM

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