Feb 29, 2012

Memory Fail

I generally have a pretty good memory for the important things. And for the not-so-important things. As in anything to do with the movies. The other night on our radio show, my co-host was shocked when he asked me who was the other actor to play Shoeless Joe Jackson in a film besides Ray Liotta. I replied that it was D.B. Sweeney without a moment's hesitation.  That kind of shit, I'm good at.

But sometimes my memory fails me in craptastic ways.

Two recent examples of my that happened just yesterday.

First, I was watching TV late at night and the film Resident Evil: Afterlife (don't judge me!) was just about to start on one of the movie channels.  I looked at the brief plot description on the screen, did a mental inventory and decided that I hadn't seen it yet.  And for the first five minutes of the film, I was happy as a pig in shit. A pig in shit watching an awful movie, but I was in the mood for an awful movie.  So there.

Then the prelude ended and our hero was flying a WWII era Russian fighter plane up to Alaska to meet her friends and I was like "Wait a minute here...".  Yup, I had seen this shit.  And I remember it was awful.  Everything came flooding back at once.  The brief scene in Alaska.  The prison in LA. The huge axe-wielding mutant zombie. The finale on the ship.

But that first 5 minutes?  Nope...none of that was familiar at all.  And (since it came out in 2010) I had, most likely, watched this film less than a year ago! Maybe I was watching it while I was futzing around on the Internet late at night while drinking bourbon or something, but I don't remember that first 5 minutes at all.  So weird.

Then I sat down to right a post about something I found on Youtube! a while back.  I have a sticky note application on my laptop, and one of them is for blog post ideas.  I had jotted this one down a long time ago.  Maybe as long as a year ago.  But I suddenly got jazzed to write about it.  So I did.

About a third of the way through the post, I started getting this deja-vu feeling.  Did I write about this already? Nah...I would have deleted it off my sticky note. But these words do feel pretty familiar.  Hmm...lemme check.  And, sure enough, I had written about it before.  A little over a year ago.  Ur-dur!

So you get this post about that failed process instead. 

"You're a handsome devil.  What's your name?" - Mary Blank

6 comments:

Heff said...

I've noticed my memory is starting to slip a bit, and not just about movies.

I'm actually having to incorporate spell check into my daily grind from time to time as well....

Maybe you just missed the first 5 minutes of the movie last time.

Yeah, that's it.

As far as the blog re-post, you're ON YOUR OWN, lol.

sybil law said...

I was going to suggest what Heff said.
I go out and BUY books, all excited to read them, only to get a chapter or so in and think, "Hmmm... I think I've read this, or it seems crazy familiar", and then, finally - it becomes evident that I have. Sucks!

Verdant Earl said...

Heff - I'm hoping that I missed the first 5 minutes last time. Because that shit was like brand-new to me. No other real instances of memory fail...THAT I CAN REMEMBER! ;)

Sybil - I think part of the problem with recent movies and shows is an ADD one. A lot of times I watch stuff with my computer in my lap. Surfing the web while I should be watching. Stuff doesn't get absorbed as well that way. Um, yeah.

badgerdaddy said...

Weirdly enough, I would have known it was DB Sweeney too. Eight Men Out, right? Not a baseball fan, but that is easily my favourite movie about baseball.

Mind you, I just read Moneyball and loved it. Maybe I should give the game a try.

Slyde said...

thats ok... we don't really read your stuff either...

Verdant Earl said...

badger - You should. Much better than footie. ;) Moneyball was great, wasn't it? The film is really good too. My favorite baseball film is Bull Durham, for what it's worth. Tim Robbins couldn't throw worth shit, but Kevin Costner sure looked like he could hit like a minor-league catcher.