November 26, 2010 – “Blow”: the word can mean many things as
in “blow your mind”, or “blow a hole through everything you thought you knew”, or….
Background – Thanksgiving family visit up north and I’m hanging out in front
of the TV with my brother-in-law. We
start talking about our favorite actors and settle on someone we have in
common, Johnny Depp. That naturally led
us to our favorite “Depp” movies, mine being “Chocolat”. My brother-in-laws favorite movie was one of
the less popular ones – so much so that he couldn’t remember the name of
it! He just kept saying “you know the
one, with Al Pacino”… this was absolutely no help at all in retrieving the
title of this movie. About this time, my
son wandered through the room (much to my relief) and I recruited him to help
his uncle with the obsessive mission of figuring out the name of this movie. He came up with the title “Blow”, also a good
movie, but not my brother-in-laws favorite (you get that if you saw “Chocolat” ;)!! I finally picked up a magazine in order to
end the co-dependency that I had been saddled with in my brother-in-laws
pre-occupation with solving this memory Charlie horse. I didn’t really care all that much and
therefore left him to his brooding and muttering “… Al Pacino…not one of the
more popular ones…come on, it was “Jimmy” or “Johnny” somethin…”
S.C.O.U.T. – A few moments passed (maybe 10-15 min) and my brother-in-law
thankfully became distracted by looking for a movie to watch on the cable
guide. He was scrolling through when he
stopped and gave a little laugh “huh! That’s
it! That’s the movie, “Donnie Brasco” I
dropped my magazine and looked at the TV screen, that old familiar tingle
creeping up my spine. Sure enough, there
on the guide, playing at 10:30 am was the Johnny Depp movie “Donny Brasco”, the
one with Al Pacino. Uncanny
right?!! I mean, go to your TV and check
the guide for this movie right now. I
would bet cold hard cash that you can’t find it. The tingle creeping up my spine hit my scalp
and carpeted my head, making my hair stand on end…the movie playing two slots
above “Donnie Brasco” was the movie “Blow”.
Now, there was no sign of “Chocolat”, which made me
wonder. Perhaps I wasn’t observed in
this Strange Case Of Uncanny Timing
because I didn’t really care. It was my
brother-in-law and my son who put the mental muscle behind the search. Perhaps.
“I am a collector of notes upon
subjects that have diversity, such as the sudden appearance of purple
Englishmen, and a reported growth of hair on the bald head of a mummy. But my
liveliest interest is not so much in things, as in the relations of things. I
have spent much time thinking about the alleged pseudo-relations that are
called coincidences.”
“What if some of them should not be
coincidences?”
Charles Fort (1874-1932) in: Wild Talents.
