The Dream Quest of Unknown Mall

I used to really love shopping malls. Not that I hate them now but they used to have kind of a magic for me. I associate it with Trekkie-hood. I remember when Roger Ebert complained the bridge of the Enterprise stopped looking futuristic and just like a mall security kiosk. The similarity was always there for me and it was something I loved. It was easy for me to imagine a shopping mall, particularly indoor malls, as a space ship with their even lighting and controlled temperature. But I like outdoor malls. I love the feeling of a place that contains many places somehow.

So I'm pretty familiar with all the malls in San Diego county, where I grew up, and a few in L.A. When I was in my 20s, I used to love finding shopping malls I'd never been to and exploring them but I always felt a particular loyalty to the most familiar malls.

Anyway, it's probably due to my urge to find and explore new malls that I started dreaming about finding malls. The strange thing is that the malls I've found in my dreams have remained the same. That is, malls I've discovered in my dreams have consistently appeared in my dreams for around twenty years. I even know where they're located in San Diego. One of them is an unpopular indoor mall with green tiling located around where the 163 freeway merges with the 15--in reality the spot just has an overpass from the 52 freeway. There's a four storey indoor mall a few blocks from a real mall in El Cajon-a Petco holds its place in waking life. That mall has a very large food court but there's something cold about the place, maybe because it looks like an office building from the outside and generally has plain, blocky grey features.

A few nights ago, I dreamt I visited a very fashionable, high-end mall I'd previously visited in other dreams. It's located east of the football stadium near the 8 freeway. It's five storeys (my dream malls seem to be much taller than any of the real ones in San Diego) and has a large Macy's. It's an outdoor mall for some reason surrounded by an empty dirt field where in reality there are several neighbourhoods, parks, and the San Diego river. I generally seem to visit this mall at sunset at a somewhat awkward point where it's starting to get too dark to see but it's not quite time for the automatic lights to switch on. The glass windows on the Macy's, too, tend to catch the sunset. Since it's a high-end mall, it sometimes has fashion shows and art exhibits, though less often now due to the higher rent prices. In my dream from a few nights ago, I discovered this mall had a library where something sinister was happening. I suppose it was because of the episode of The Magicians I'd watched that evening. I'm not sure what happened, though. I always feel like I'm trying to find something out at that mall but it's hard to investigate because of how difficult it is to see.

The Mall of Strange

I've been watching the new season of Stranger Things for two days and so I'm two episodes in. So far I like it, particularly since the story partly revolves around a shopping mall. I always loved malls when I was a kid, especially indoor malls, like the one depicted on the show. I loved the feeling of a world created and contained in this space with its own lighting and atmosphere. It's been kind of depressing hearing about malls dying off due to online shopping so it'd be nice if Stranger Things helps make them trendy again.

Two episodes in, the season's not bad. I like the music though I feel like there's a bit much of it and the Fast Times at Ridgemont High gag at the pool with the gender reversal feels a bit much like a recycled joke from Family Guy. There are few recycled formulae that I think may have been intentional, like the "will they or won't they" romantic subplot between David Harbour and Winona Ryder--the story makes a direct nod to it with a clip from Cheers. This may also be some indirect influence from The Orville and its retro romantic plot between Ed and Kelly. So far, though, there's more that works in the two episodes than doesn't.

I'm still trying to decide if Suzie, Dustin's (Gaten Matarazzo) girlfriend, is real or not. He claims she's hotter than Phoebe Cates which just doesn't seem possible. But the other characters are saying she's made up so much that I figure she might have to be real.

I don't feel much enthusiasm for the Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) subplot. I doubt I'm alone with my attention being completely transferred from Jonathan to Steve (Joe Keery) and Nancy's need to prove herself as a reporter seems nowhere near as exciting as when she was dealing with weird sexual issues. But maybe things will go somewhere I don't expect.

I liked the shopping montage in the second episode with Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Max (Sadie Sink), especially for using Madonna on the soundtrack. I generally like all the music on the show but too often they seem to be songs I don't think were particularly popular in small town 80s America.

The subplot about local businesses protesting the mall makes me wonder if the Duffer Brothers drew inspiration from this old, 1982 special report:

You can see the bit about small businesses struggling at 11:55.

I'm so torn. I love malls but I hate seeing the small businesses hurting. Sometimes issues aren't black and white, I guess, which is a good thing to keep in mind with a story like Stranger Things.