Spectrevision Radio

Welcome to Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast with hosts Phil Ford and J.F. Martel.

For more episodes or to support the podcast, go to weirdstudies.com. Welcome to Weird Studies. This is Phil.

There's a place I go in my dreams. I call it the dream city. I don't go there all the time,

but when I am there, I know it, even in the dream. It's one of those zones we're always talking about,

a place that transforms every time you visit, but with persistent landmarks.

And the most powerful and auspicious of these landmarks, the grand archonym of the dream city,

is the bookshop. The bookshop has changed over the years. The last time I was there, it was all

polished wood cabinets and a curated selection,

but once it was a vast warehouse with miles of cheap steel shelving, strange old books and

records secreted in its endless recesses. In an old dream journal I found this entry recording a

visit to the bookshop. There's an old record, maybe from the

1940s or 50s, to judge from the cover design, which is of a lushe, East European-looking pianist,

all pompadored silver hair and beetling brows, leaning against a piano. I can't remember the name,

but he's supposed to be some sort of occult-slash-mystic guy playing some strange music, like Sarabji, but not really. They're asking $141 for that record. I want it, but not that much.

Damned if I know what that means, but I can tell you how finding that record felt,

like a message from somewhere I needed to go. The persistence of the bookshop in my dream life,

and the fact that I am portentously capitalizing bookshop as I write this intro,

tells me that it is not just a place in my imagination, but an archetype that I share

in common with those who would listen to such a podcast as this one. To us, a real-world bookshop

is an Aladdin's cave laden with treasure, or a temple, a place of transformation where we might

find the book that will twist our minds and lives

...