Brains! Brains!

I like these thematically linked posts. Tonight's theme is brains. Just so you don't strain yourselves trying to figure it out.


This evening I saw, apparently for the second time, that classic of American cinema, The Atomic Brain. I didn't remember that I'd seen it before, but my eerie prescience throughout the film indicates that perhaps this was not my first experience with Dr. Frank, Mrs. March, and their various victims. My biggest problem with the movie, oddly, was probably that the "Austrian" girl is named Nina Rhodes. Pronounced 9-uh. Really. Other than that, Atomic Brain is pure gold.


The second feature at tonight's film festival was 1978's The Alpha Incident. Microorganisms from Mars make your brain explode when you fall asleep. Charlie is irretrievably boring. That's pretty much all you need to know about it. The 70s were an unfortunate decade in many ways.


Moving from literal explosions of fictional brains to metaphorical explosions of real ones, mine exploded yesterday when a group of Austrian tourists asked me for bus directions and a couple of "helpful" Russian ladies chimed in. My rudimentary German vanished in an instant, replaced by rudimentary Russian. I found myself unable to communicate. I'm grateful the Latina women in the next seat forward didn't add their two cents. I would've had some serious Alpha Incident going down. If an Orthodox monk had shown up and started speaking in Church Slavonic, I wouldn't have been responsible for my actions.


Also, my brain is in hyperactive mode right now. Masters exams this weekend. CA Supreme Court decision rumored to be coming on Thursday (tomorrow). Too many things at once and I can't focus on any of them. Rather like yesterday's linguistic experience, but with lives instead of languages.


I will now try to fall asleep listening to "Elaine Stritch Radio" on last.fm. Even if I fail, it'll be delightful. And my brain will remain intact.