I've been writing a lot of new songs. One of them is partly in Japanese. I gave myself two challenges a month ago. 1) Write with the inspiration from a conversation, not from reading, which is easier for me. 2) Start writing a lot even if it includes garbage. And, I wrote a song after having an interesting conversation with my friend, Roi. I recorded 4 songs over the past whole month.

A week ago I had a dream like this:

I was standing somewhere at a party. John Lennon walks up from my right hand side. He turns and points at me and says, "...Hey." And, I point at him and say, "Hey." He has short curly hair with dark skin and looks Middle Eastern or Hispanic and looks nothing like him. But, it was him. He says, "Hey, I listened to your music... I liked it a lot, you know." I said, "Oh, yeah? Thanks!" He said, "You should be more confident with your words because I like what you're saying (in the songs)." I said, "Oh, yeah. Thanks." We were all about music and he was not condescending at all. I didn't take anything personal. And, he continued, "And, you shouldn't rely too much on the strings." I wondered, "The strings? The only song that has violins is 'Something I Already Had'..." But, I understood what he meant when he said, "You can be more playful with your guitar (work). It's OK (to do that)." I said, "Ah, thanks," thinking, "Yeah, that's what I've wanted to do." He said he'd be back later and said, "Do you want to hang out later?" I said, "Yeah, sure." He left. Then, my friend, Alex, who's been playing bass with me walked in from my right hand side and said, "Hey, what's up?" I said, "Hey, Alex, I just met John Lennon." He said, "That's cool." I said, "He said he'd be back later so we should hang out." He said, "Yeah." But, then, we realized he wouldn't come back that day but the next day or after. Alex was just visiting Austin from Dallas so I offered him to crash at my place. Then, I woke up.

I felt good when I woke up and told Alex on the phone about the dream. He said, "That's cool. Do you think it was actual John Lennon in your dream?" I said, "I don't think so. He didn't look like him at all." But, a week later I still feel good from John Lennon's encouragement.