Thursday, April 06, 2006

Farts of the Brain


Brain Farts. The older you get - the more gaseous your brain becomes. My Brain Farts materialize in bits of information I'm no longer able to call up at a moments notice. It's a face on TV - or in a movie. Who is that guy? It's on the tip of my tongue. Some people can let it go. I can't. I obsess about it. A few years ago I'd go through many of the reference books I keep on hand (for moments like these) - until I got the answer I was looking for. You know, the woman who was in the movie with the dog. I'd think of it all day - sometimes sitting straight up in bed at 3am and blurting out BONNIE HUNT!!!! I do this with game show questions - comedians - even jokes comedians told 40 years ago. Remember that bit with the phone and the stick of butter? Sometimes weeks go by before I get to the bottom of these Brain Farts. I used to have a great brain for trivia. Oh, I still do - just not as good as it used to be - because the information is locked away behind 30 years of BS. Thank God for the internet. Rarely a day goes by that I don't almost run to a computer to solve a Brain Fart. Just the other day it was: You know - the concert promoter that ran the Fillmore in San Francisco? Oh God, he was huge - the posters - the rock shows - he just died I think. Yep - he just died - Bill! Bill Bill Bill Bill Bill - uhhhhhhhhhh.

Music is a problem too. Specifically when I know a tune - and can't produce the title. I can name any song almost instantly from just a one second clue. I really can. I haven't lost that ability. What I can't do is - do put a melody in my head to a song title. A few years ago I had a song in my head. It drove me nuts. I told everyone about my dilemma. I hummed it for people all day. I couldn't name the song. I couldn't let it go. I mumbled to myself for hours - with the melody running over and over and over in my mind. Then - without warning - TOWN WITHOUT PITY BY GENE PITNEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I need medication. Help me.
By the way, Gene Pitney just died - and the promoter from above is Bill Graham.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're just like your father. He couldn't think of a song and he hummed a few bars and I asked "Love is Strange"? And he instantly knew that was it.

I'm glad I can be the equivalent of the internet for you sometimes.

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah - P.S. I totally have these moments all the time, too. The other night I was lying down to go to sleep and for some reason the theme song to "Tiny Toon Adventures" popped in my head, but I couldn't remember how it started. It drove me bonkers and I stayed awake another 10 minutes before I figured it out.
But I went online the next day to confirm that I was right.