Listening to Dreams
Dream Auguries is a weekly reflection series for insomniacs, lucid dreamers, oracles and soothsayers, magicians and conjurers of all kinds. It’s bonus content for the film, Dreaming Grand Avenue, now streaming on cable, written and directed by Hugh Schulze.
The Latest Episode:
The Jungle Dreams of Werner Herzog
During the pandemic, filmmaker Werner Herzog, wrote The Twilight World, a novel about Hiroo Onoda's decades in a jungle after World War II. In tonight's episode, we hear how Herzog's own experience in the Amazonian jungles inform the dreamlike experience of Onoda in the Philippines. Listen.
Season 2
Episode 8: Dreams of the Global Pandemic
Have our dreams changed during the COVID-19 pandemic? If the WHO is right and we are “sleep-deprived” how has that affected our dreams? And does changing how and how often we dream alter what we’re dreaming about? Join us for an exploration of some of the latest dream research and insights. Listen
Episode 9: In Harold Budd's Pavilion of Dreams
More than 40 years ago, the composer Harold Budd recorded one of the first "ambient" records on Brian Eno's Obscure Records label. With the Superior Viaduct's re-release of The Pavilion of Dreams, it seemed a good time to reflect on Budd's classic album and the soundtracks that might help us enter our own Pavilion of Dreams. Listen
Episode 10: Dune Dreams
When making his screen adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune, Denis Villeneuve opened the film with a line not in the book -- but at the same time, recognizing the importance of dreams to the story. Both the novel and film rely on dreams in the same way the great texts of world religions have. In this episode, we look at how dreams aid the storytelling of prophets and messiahs, giving glimpses of things to come. (Or in the parlance of Hollywood: sneak previews.) Listen
Episode 11: The Jungle Dreams of Werner Herzog
During the pandemic, filmmaker Werner Herzog, wrote The Twilight World, a novel about Hiroo Onoda's decades in a jungle after World War II. In tonight's episode, we hear how Herzog's own experience in the Amazonian jungles inform the dreamlike experience of Onoda in the Philippines. Listen. Listen
Season 1
Episode 1: What does a dream mean?
In our premiere episode, we consider dreams from the perspective of two psychologists: Mary Watkins and Erich Fromm. We explore the question of: 'What does a dream mean?' What is the difference between imposing meaning on a dream using our waking consciousness to listening more closely to what a dream might be saying to us? Listen
Episode 2: Fellini Dreams
In 1960, after the success of La Dolce Vita, Federico Fellini began keeping a dream journal, a practice he continued for the next 30 years. Here, we read an excerpt from the journal and revisit the opening of the great 8 1/2. Listen
Episode 3: Animal Dreams
Tonight, we consider the cuttlefish. Or more precisely, we consider research on the dreams of the cuttlefish. And dolphins. Listen
Episode 4: Dream Deprivation
The World Health Organization calls it a global "sleep loss epidemic." With more and more people getting less and less sleep, what happens when we dream less? Listen
Episode 5: Chicago Dream
Tonight, we have a musical interlude, taking us back to Mister Kelly's in Chicago 1957, with Sarah Vaughan singing Johnny Mercer's Dream. Listen
Episode 6: Children’s Dreams
In which we discuss the dreams of children and the dreams adults remember from childhood. Do Time and Memory change dreams? Listen
Episode 7: The Silent Dreams of Maya Deren
In which we follow the filmmaker Maya Deren through her dream of beaches, dinner parties and chess in At Land. Listen
About Dreaming Grand Avenue
“A small but ambitious and metaphysical and deeply poetic (in more ways than one) gem with big ideas, stunningly original visuals of Chicago —and beautifully honed performances.”
—Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
Although they’ve never met in waking life, Maggie and Jimmy keep meeting in dreams. Each has been recently devastated by loss and is struggling to find meaning; fate has undeniably tied them together in ways they don’t yet comprehend.
As Maggie and Jimmy navigate their way through Chicago—with help from a dream detective, a sleep scientist and the poet Walt Whitman —they’ll discover more about their shared destinies.