I'm taking a state-mandated annual test. Each of us is led off to a desk for a personal interview. I bring forms and... watercolor cartoons I drew! Is it an ART test? Guess so.

My interviewer, a birdlike old woman, leads off with, "Why do your first and final drafts of these comics have the same layout? Didn't you revise as you found better solutions?"

I say "No, I worked out my optimal layout in trial-and-error sketches way before getting to watercolor!"

But really, I want to move on to other art topics. Comix are just one of many media I like--and so many people see cartoonists as gloomy, antisocial auteurs like R. Crumb or Harvey Pekar. Lonely guys in a room. I suspect the mere fact I draw comics at all will get me a low score on social skills.

So I start telling her outrageous lies about the news. "You heard that Jerry Brown approved those new rules in civil trials where over a million's at stake? Or was it two mil? Anyway, when the stakes are big, the lawyers get a fixed fee--10% I think. Everyone expected that reform, it's been long needed.

"But then Jerry added one of his zen things: to get paid, the lawyers must dance. And sing the summation, too. They get docked several per cent if they don't...

"I bet THOSE jurors will stay awake!"

She's laughing by the end. I made it all up, pure wish of course... but it IS very Jerry.

I think I'll get a good socialization score. It's not often you can distract a veteran tester THAT long.

NOTES IN THE MORNING

• Gloomy comix auteurs : I don't read Harvey Pekar much now, or even Crumb. I did just finish Chris Ware's huge book Acme. Masterful technique, but despairing. I think the gloom's not due to indie comix being a solo medium, or even his temperament as such. It's his strictly materialist worldview! We live in a meaningless universe a while, and then oblivion. That'd depress anyone. And for Ware, as for many, the only alternative is an obsolete Christian faith--harps and angels. I disagree. Years of dreamwork experiments in ESP taught me that both traditional faith AND scientific materialism are simplistic. "More things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in thy philosophy..."
• ACTION: email the dream to Jerry Brown. Because lawyers should dance.

World Dream Bank homepage - Art gallery - New stuff - Introductory sampler, best dreams, best art - On dreamwork - Books
Indexes: Subject - Author - Date - Names - Places - Art media/styles
Titles: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - IJ - KL - M - NO - PQ - R - Sa-Sk - Sl-Sz - T - UV - WXYZ
Email: wdreamb@yahoo.com - Catalog of art, books, CDs - Behind the Curtain: FAQs, bio, site map - Kindred sites