If You Build It, They Will Rock

This morning I awoke from a dream. In the dream I was in a class. I had shown up late because I lost the group traveling between classrooms. It wasn't a large class, only two other students. They were people I know and have had classes with. I don't know the correlation with them being in the dream. Before the class left the first room, I was in the hallway and there were pennies on the floor, just a few. I wanted to pick up the pennies, but I didn't want anyone to see me do so. I waited for them to all be walking away in the direction of the new class room, a computer lab to be exact. Once they were facing away I picked up four pennies, thinking it was well worth it. I started walking after the group: one professor and two students. As they turned a corner at the end of the hall, I was passing the water fountains. I rinsed off the pennies, as they were pretty dirty. For some reason, one of the pennies was in my mouth, which I rinsed off by putting water in my mouth from the fountain; the other three pennies were in my hand for the rinse. I spit out copper-colored water in the fountain and continued on my way after the class, but by this point they were out of sight. I turned the corner and passed a girl I used to know, I said hi, but the penny was clenched in my teeth still. I thought she must have thought I sounded weird. I got to a stairwell and there was construction going on and some workers. I went up to the third floor, which was blocked by some "caution" yellow tape. I just went into the room under construction and looked around. The class wasn't there. I turned to leave and some school administrators and a contractor were coming up. I asked if they saw the class and the contractor - who was about two feet tall though still proportionately accurate, just miniaturized - told me that they went by about 14 minutes earlier (I guess I was wandering around that room for a while) and if I hurried I wouldn't miss class. I was also told that they had entered the second floor. I went down to the second floor and found the computer lab. In the middle of the room were 3 computers. The other two students were each at a computer. The professor was angry at me. I told him I got lost. It was the professor I work for. He's never been mad at me in real life, that I know of, so I think it is funny that he was in the dream. I sat at the empty computer, but then the professor was a different one. The professor was now one that I have had for a few other classes. He is a fan of punk rock music, which is why it makes sense that the topic of discussion that I had just missed out on was hardcore rock music, and how it related to some town during a certain span of years. While the professor changed, his demeanor didn't, he was still mad at me. I missed the lesson, but I had arrived just in time for the quiz. I had a piece of paper that was some kind of letterhead. I don't know what the logo was at the top, but there was light blue writing and an image at the top of the page and then half way down in either margin was some light blue-colored symbol. Just below the header I wrote the name of a location and below that, two dates, which is why I think the topic had to do with a span of time. At the level of the symbols, half way down the page I wrote a 1. The first question of the quiz was regarding an image. I don't know how the image was shown to us, I just remember the image. It was of an old Greyhound-style bus lodged broadside in the side of a hill, a gentle slope of a hill. The question was "How would you best describe what is in this picture?" My answer was "hardcore amphitheater." That is when I woke up.
I'm lying in bed with this thought and image fresh in my mind. I looked at my phone to see what time it was, 7:40 something. Time to get up, I've been sleeping in lately, as in this semester. The next thought I had was "if you build it they will come." It wasn't until later that I thought of the line "if you build it, they will rock," which is much more appropriate for this Field of Dreams style punk-rock venue I had dreamed about. With that thought I got right up and grabbed some paper and a clipboard and a pen and got back into bed. I drew out the image I had seen, but with one side wall of the bus missing. In place of this wall was a stage that extended from the bus with a railing around the edge, so performers don't fall off and go rumbly-tumbly down the hill, of course. Safety first. Then I decided that it would be best if along with the railing there was a sloping platform that acted as a slide from the stage down to the ground, just in case anyone went over the rail they could just slide safely down. The back wall behind the stage would be the inside wall of the other side of the bus. The windows would be replaced with lights and speakers, as would the windshield and back window. With this setup, the audience would stand down hill from the bus, but as I think about it now, this is a horrible set up for an amphitheater.
Here's why it wouldn't be so great. First off, the audience has to look up to a level platform above their heads. You'd have to be down the hill and a stretch further back on the level ground to be able to see the stage. Second, the sound is going to be generated mid-way up the hill and projected outward, it would dissipate and drift upward. Originally I thought the inside of the bus would be good for acoustics, but all that would translate down to the audience would be bass that rumbles through the ground. I said first off and second, but I guess that's all I've got as far as dings go. It would be a much better plan for this bus to be positioned at the bottom of the hill, like every other amphitheater in the world. Without looking up the definition, I imagine "facing a hill" is probably part of it. That might just be an association I've made in thinking about the amphitheaters and other theaters I've seen throughout my life. So put the bus at the bottom of the hill and the sound rises up to the listeners on the slope. Much better; only now, why use a bus? That's a small theater and stage. The bus was only useful in this design when it was a part of the hillside. I'm not sure why the bus is there, but I guess I thought that if it was there this would have been the best use for it. I keep waiting for that dream that features a brilliant idea, I thought this might have been it, but it is obvious that upon further analysis this is not the case.
One last story under the "rock" heading. Last night I was at a social gathering at a friend's house. As you know, when someone has a lot of people over to their house they are usually strapped for sufficient chairs and official seating arrangements. You get a collection of chairs that don't match all jimmied into a circle in the largest room in the house, that's just how it goes. Sometimes there is the stack of newspapers bundled up for the recycling pile that is temporarily honored with the title "chair." My favorite is the stack of 15 lb. bags of dog food. Unfortunately, there were enough legitimate chairs available, and some just sat on the floor. There weren't any makeshift seating devices. I was sitting in a rocking chair. We all went around and introduced ourselves: name, major (college students), hometown, such and such and so forth. When it came around to me, I was gently rocking in the chair, as I had been ever since sitting down. I said my name, my major, the much anticipated event of my soon-to-be-realized graduation, my home state and the fact that "I like to rock." Most everyone there knows me and knows that I play the guitar. I thought it was a brilliant word play. It took a second or two, but the reactions came. It was like a wave that slowly washed over everyone there. There's nothing like a well-placed word play. This is the third time I've related the story since I made the joke, less than 24 hours ago, obviously, I have no shame in repeating a joke, or patting myself on the back for a joke well done.
That is all.