Mundaz Wandering Political Thoughts
The Alien Invasion Dream
It began against a scorched black and red sky. I was my current age. The sky was a backdrop as a group of us left one area, heading for a refugee site. We’d been fighting the aliens, and I’d gained experience and insights. My group was small: four. All survivors who had fought.
We arrived at the packed refugee center. An immense aerial battle was underway, with USAF fighter jets fighting invader ships. The AF seemed to be winning. Refugees cheered as invader craft went down with plumes of black smoke.
I knew better, shaking my head, warning the refugees, “It takes more than that to kill the aliens.” I’d fought the glistening white creatures. I knew how they functioned. They needed to be set afire and completely destroyed. If even a small piece survived, it would grow. As it grew, it would attempt to reconnect telepathically with other alien beings. As it grew, it would look for a host human or animal body.
I told the refugees, “We must find and destroy every piece of alien.” I described what to look for. Children rushed up. They’d seen alien pieces and stamped them with their feet. I was horrified. “Don’t stamp on them. Get your shoes off and burn them. The aliens will be clinging to your soles, and they’ll grow and take you over.”
The refugees scoffed. A young, short female survivor in my group said, “Listen to him. He knows what he’s talking about. Do what he says if you want to survive.”
Her words made the difference. The refugees believed me. I went around with people, organizing groups, making certain they had fire. We set up children to look for surviving alien pieces. They walked around in threes. When an alien was found, two stayed there to mark the place while the third went to find an adult to burn it.
The process seemed to be working. Then I saw a small alien piece come up out of the drain in a tub. Although I immediately burned it, more small pieces emerged. I burned them, too, then sent out the warning, the aliens are in the drains. They’re coming up. Check the sinks and tubs. Check everywhere there’s a drain pipe.
I found a tub where a large alien piece had already come up. Approaching it to burn it, it shot out tongue like pieces of itself, trying to hit me. I knew that if it hit me, it would take me over.
Another person said, “They’re going after you. They know you’re a threat.”
I agreed. The conclusion implied scary ramifications about intelligence and awareness of these surviving pieces. Another arrived with the intelligence that more aliens were coming up the drains. “They’re coming up everywhere. We can’t stop them.”
I entered another bathroom. A large, white alien almost filled the tub. In the middle of it was a naked toddler. The child was looking at me and smiling. I said, “The aliens have taken over that child. We need to kill it.”
Intense dream. Really shook me.
On the Stream
Haven’t done a ‘what I’m watching’ update in a few months. I know it’s critically important for others to know what I watch. Actually, I always hope that someone reads it and steers me to something new.
First, a word on Hulu. I don’t think they get the whole ‘cut the cable’ angle. They’re claTiming to be part of that movement but then turn around and do Hulu Live, which is essentially a repackaged cable offering, except it’s streaming. It doesn’t address the element that triggered the cable cutting wave, that you can have a zillion channels and have nothing because — 1, it’s old and you’ve seen it a gajillion times. 2, it’s shite, and does not draw you in. So, Hulu offers Hulu Live for just under $70 a month. Ooh, such a bargain! I don’t watch much Hulu. I have basic. They haven’t enticed me to try more. BTW, Paramount + is following the same pattern. Oh, boy, look at our old NBC stuff. Isn’t it great? No, it isn’t.
- One that my wife enjoyed twenty years ago is a show called Third Watch. She was lamenting at the month’s beginning that she wouldn’t mind seeing that show again. She’s a big Bobby Canavale fan. Well, ‘lo, the streaming Gods heard her because the next night, I checked out The Roku Channel, and they had just added a ‘new’ show, Third Watch. So we inhale one of those episodes each night.
- Likewise, a current favorite has returned for another season. This is a show called The Expanse. We watched the first five seasons. When the new season showed up on Amazon Prime, we started watching the series over again. Featuring a lot of strong female and minority characters, along with a solid hard science fiction plotting, thrilling action, multiple story lines, and politics, it’s an engrossing experience. I finished Ray Donovan, and will watch the movie when it arrives in Feb. I’m also looking forward to the Jack Reacher series. I never bought into Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher. Sorry, but Reacher was supposed to be a lean 250 pounds muscular presence. Cruise was significantly shorter and less muscular. I’d watch Goliath in its initial seasons but it took a strange turn to us in its latest offering, turning us off rather than pulling us in. I’m watching Dexter New Blood, but my wife wants nothing to do with it. Dexter seems off to her, and the villain isn’t villainy enough.
- Just finished Amsterdam Undercover on Walter Presents via PBS via Amazon Prime. Just four episodes to it, but I enjoyed the chemistry between the actors and the fast-paced stories.
- Over on Apple Plus, we’re treating ourselves to Ted Lasso and Mythic Quest. We finished Invasion, which had potential but dawdled too much for my taste. We tried Foundation, but after watching the first one, I thought, that’s not how I remember it. So I pulled out my copy of the novel and confirmed that they’d made significant ‘updates’. I understand and accept some, but it mostly put me off the series.
- On Netflix, we’re watching Bordertown. I’d started it before; when I resumed, my wife expressed interest, so we started it over. We also watched The Unforgiveable because I’d watched the original Sally Wainwright series. Put Sally Wainwright’s name on something, and I’m there.
- We tried Disney Plus (Apple Plus, Hulu Plus, Disney Plus, Paramount Plus — I see a ‘me, too’ pattern) to check out some Marvel offerings. Most Marvel offerings don’t move us. Sadly, that’s the case with Hawkeye. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was okay. We did watch and enjoy Jungle Cruise, because it was campy and silly and didn’t take itself seriously. Hard to go wrong with Dwayne Johnson, though. We watched Red Notice because he was in the cast, but it was with a shrug, some interesting moments strewn along long chase and fight scenes.
That’s all that comes to mind. There are probably other shows and movies, but my coffee cup is empty. Cheers
A Bewildering Dream
My dream began with me searching for things, ordinary things, like canned food. The setting for it was nothing sinister or confusing. It seemed like I was in a pristine housing suburb.
Others began explaining to me that ordinary things weren’t available. Why not? Because of the invasion.
“The what?”
It had to be explained to me that aliens had invaded. Further, everyone was scavenging for supplies because everything was disappearing. I don’t know where I’d been when all of this had happened, but shrugged that off.
While accepting their explanation, I suggested we should still search for food and supplies that could help us. I was confident that we could find things even though everyone else was saying, no, everything is gone.
I couldn’t believe it. There’d been a war here, an invasion? There was no evidence of it. Although I didn’t see many people — I was told that they were all in hiding — nothing was damaged. It was a lovely day, rich with sunshine and warm, fresh air. With so many abandoned houses, I was sure that we could find food and supplies. I coerced a few people into helping me.
Few supplies were to be found, though. I made people take whatever meager stuff we did find, insisting that we could find uses for them. Everyone was downcast and pessimistic; I was being upbeat.
Screams arose. The aliens were coming. People began running in fear. “I see you,” I heard a loud voice.
“Who was that?”
That was the alien giant.
I wanted to see him. He arose above houses, a huge Humpty-dumpty looking balloon. This was the alien threat? “Yes. Hide,” others answered.
Dubious, I took cover with others, ending up in an office building. Continuing to look for supplies, I discovered other people. They’d set up secret camps in abandoned offices and suites. They didn’t want to let me and my group in. “Go away. There’s no room.”
Then, “Aliens are coming.” As that alarm spread, the people in the camps blamed me. “They followed you. You revealed our position. Now we need to find somewhere new.”
Everyone started running up and down the hallways and steps. I remained confused. Who was the alien coming? Humpty-dumpty? He was too big.
“No, the other aliens.”
What? I had to see them, so I waited, lurking by a corner. They entered the hall, angular, tall, and gray, marching two by two.
Seeing them and now knowing more of the threat, I took off, seeking security. Others were still with me. I continued discovering other enclaves of people hiding. Nobody wanted to help anyone else. It dismayed me.
The gray aliens chased us outside where Humpty-dumpty called, “I see you. I’m coming to get you.” We could see him bobbing above the buildings like a giant balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Everyone scattered. There was just me and a red-headed woman now. As we talked about where we could go — she insisted that we couldn’t stay there, but I thought we could find a safe place and start a refugee camp and band together — aircraft flow over.
The alarm went up. Those were alien aircraft. They began shooting people on the ground with red rays that disintegrated them. Everyone scattered anew.
I ended up in a shopping mall, and then a gym. Everywhere I went, the warning was giving that the aliens had entered. Run! Run! People blamed me for being followed.
The woman and I ended up outside. We were running up a lush valley of tall, deep green grass. A stream ran through the valley. Above was the white cement infrastructure of a highway bridge. Others had camped out under the bridge and had fires going.
I was looking ahead, trying to learn where to go. As that happened, like it was taking place on a television screen, and I could see it all, two men ran up and grabbed the woman behind me. I didn’t know. I kept walking. Hand over her mouth, they dragged her away, then leaped onto horses and rode away. That’s when I turned around and realized that she’d been taken.
I was shocked, and I was alone. Going forward to what I thought was safety, a man came out. Half-naked, white, he had a muscular torso and shoulders. His disheveled hair was long and brown.
I said, “They took my friend.” I wanted to go back for her.
He gestured with his hand for me to follow him. I thought for a moment that he was a centaur. Then I realized that he was. As he walked, I followed. I realized that he was going to explain everything and help me.
The dream ended.
His House
Comfortably furnished, he was starting to like his house.
He was less certain that he liked his host. (Hostess?) He didn’t know her and little understood her, or even if it was a female, or if they had sexes. In his words, she was grey-green with yellow eyes. Unlike the invasion’s early day descriptions, though, he saw that they weren’t all the same color. One of his host’s frequent visitors was very light grey while another was forest green. Grey, green, and in between, that’s what they seemed to be. They all had yellow, parietal eyes, and were hairless, of the parts of them he saw. They liked watching him. In the early days, he’d sat motionless, glaring back at them. Once in a while, he shouted at them. He quit shouting at them because he thought they enjoyed that. Now he treated them with indifference and went about his day as if his captors weren’t present.
His house had running water and electricity. Located in a cage that presented him with a large yard all around it, his house was built for a family of five. About twenty-one hundred square feet, the split level featured three bedrooms and two and a half baths, along with a two car garage. There wasn’t a car. A full complement of appliances, dishes, and cookery was made available to him. They liked it when he cooked and ate.
The house’s front had been removed and replaced by a fine screen. He guessed that was so they could see in and watch him all of the time. Food was delivered in a shopping cart once a week. It was funny to see these creatures, twenty times larger than him, push a shopping cart his size into the little secure delivery area. They only opened the outer door on it when the inner door to his area was closed. It was a prison.
Besides frozen pizzas and dry cereals, they gave him cartons of milk and juice, bottles of wine and cases of beer, and fresh meats, snack foods, and produce. He didn’t know where these goods came from.
He didn’t have a phone, but he had two televisions, and a laptop, and he was connected to an Internet. Streaming shows were available, but nothing new. At times, ruminating about his existence, he mourned that he would never know how “Game of Thrones” ended. He posted on a blog every day, and others commented, and he shared emails. None of that helped them understand. All were in cages like him.
From the scenes and events described by others, he was beginning to picture entire human cities in cages.
Michael Seidel, writer 