Ben Powers

Last night I went to the “Stand With Israel” rally at the North York Centre for the Performing Arts. There were over 8000 people there! Woohoo! It was really emotionally moving, especially when a young Israeli soldier conversed with his tearful brother over the 2-way satellite connection that the rally organizers had set up.

The speakers provided great defences against the media war that’s been raging against Israel and the jewish people. I feel great knowing that I’m not alone, and that Israel is not alone.

My dream was pretty intense. This was one of those in-between dreams. You see, lately, I’ve been waking automatically one or two hours before I set my alarm. I usually look at the clock and go back to sleep… same thing this morning

I was being attacked my crazy people in my own house
The first one was a contractor, short with curly hair and done up in a work uniform, I was home alone, and he wanted to check the foundations or something. I wanted him to come back when mom was home, but he insisted on pushing his way into the house. After chasing him around, I crumpled him up into a piece of paper and stuffed him into a tzedaka box.

The next three crazies were the worse. I can’t remember what they were all there for, but I do remember a black prostitute, although she didn’t look like one. She started off by trying to sell a kiss, and ended up trying to sell sex. There were two men as well, I can’t remember what they were doing, but they were chasing me, and I was getting very anxious.

Earlier in my dream sequence, I had a graduation dinner care of some friend’s parents. I remember worrying about the kashrut of the meal.

Whoa! Drum circle was effin huge today! there were at least 300 people when I got there at 10:15p. I was impressed. There were so many people, though, that the circle could barely maintain a cohesive rhythm. At any given time, there were two, three, even 4 different rhythms happening! Crazyness! I got to play a shakira belonging to a nice guy called Mike. I broke it though, so I offered to pay half of the next one.

I saw so many old and new friends. Kids from contact, Soma, Chris H, and all sort of others. A fun time for sure, I’ll have to make it to the next one earlier.

I had a bizarre dream… I started off as a young child, a girl I think, and I was walking with 2 adults, we were heading somewhere, and we had a tank with a long barrel. Someone explained to me that the tank was one of the best anti-aircraft weapons we had.
It was my job to aim the turret of the tank as I walked along beside it. Strange looking aircraft began to appear on the horizon. They looked like Re/MAX balloons, but they had to basket, instead their bottoms tapered to a kind of spout. They also flew differently than balloons. They were quite fast and seemed to lead with their spouts.
I began to aim and fire at the balloons, and they began to fire back with shells… We both missed consistently for a time, although I had a very close shot. Eventually, just before we got where we were going, I hit two of the balloon-like craft and they went down. We walked through the gates and the woman began celebrating, dancing and singing.
The celebration did not last, though, as we saw more balloons coming. We were in a ditch, and they opened fire… I remember seeing the rocket fall right on top of us, and screaming.

When I woke up, I was in the city with friends… We talked about something, then I went off on my own.. I ended up at a ball, dancing with an older woman, when all of a sudden, it was actually RONatron that I was dancing with…. the older woman was off dancing on her own now.

I decided to explore the city. It was night time, and there were lots of big buildings… I saw Trav in surgical gowns, being prepped by what I assume was a nurse in the marble lobby of a big building. I asked someone where I was and they said Tel Aviv.

A nice day… Didn’t go to work due to scheduling error… oh well I took a walk around the junction with mom. We got my bike fixed, FINALLY! I also had frozen yogurt and a vanilla bean latte from Pascal’s, it was alright!

Later in the evening, Dragonboy came over and we had a nice recording session… a few good takes in there, but mostly it’s just nice to make music with someone.

I had rehearsal with Samba Elegua today. It was at U of T in the music faculty - very fancy! There were so many people who showed up too. We were preparing for Sam and Mike’s wedding next saturday, and I think that is SO GREAT! I ran into Ben Cruchley also, which is kinda nice.

After rehearsal I walked to parkdale. I took my time, and walked with esef a bit. We talked about life and music, and listened to each other’s tracks. I tried to track down Karen and get the money she owes me but no dice… maybe next time.

Talixzen’s birthday jam was nice. The first dj sucked. He obviously thought highly of himself, as he wore a mask, and kept playing jarring hardcore in between rounds of soothing classical.. maybe interesting as a comment on society… not interesting as dance music on a night out. I saw Lori there, who I met last year at Teknival. That was a nice surprise. Hopefully we can make some tracks together.

I must remember to work on the new idea I have for the Samba Elegua design.

I’m beginning to spot common themes and patterns in my behaviour. Take this weekend: I waited until the very last minute to actually arrange the poetry slam with friends (although I did tell plenty of friends). So when I got to the place I went alone and hung around and found out that I couldn’t perform, so what did I do? I left! Next time, I’ll need to make real plans earlier.

Today mom and I are going to sell the old busted-ass iBook and try and get my bike fixed.

I went down to the poetry slam this night at Drake Hotel… I thought I would be able to sign up to compete, but instead I got the shaft. Turns out it was invite only this night… oh poop.

Maybe I’ll sign up next time… probably not. I don’t really like the Drake anyways.

edit: I’m told it was a good time. poop on me. The Drake still sucks, though.

In other news, I had a good shabbes.. I went to Holy Blossom and the youth chapel was packed. There was a young couple there to read Torah, that was nice. I also talked to Jeff Levy from B’nai Brith about Uprising bookstore in Kensington Market. They displayed and sold a copy of “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion”.