Chain of Memories

I have a web of memories. If I think of one, inevitably I will think of five more. And since this process takes place over the course of a couple seconds, my memories end up jumbled and I can't remember which one took place when. It might explain my terrible memory, but I don't wish this memory-web away -- some of these connections are just too fun, and it's more fun to try to figure them out.

Normally the first memory comes from a time of year, or a big event. Let's start with Halloween. When Halloween comes around, several threads appear. The most prominent begins with Bunnicula, an old cartoon about a vampire rabbit. From there we get to Hellsing, an anime about a vampire. Sound enough, right? Not for long -- from Hellsing, it goes to Mardi Gras. An episode of Hellsing took place in some apartment on an empty Spanish street that looked suspiciously like New Orleans. I got it in my head that everybody in Spain was partying it up a few blocks down the road, and this apartment was on the outskirts, where some unlucky victims were looking to enjoy each other's company.

Now, from Mardi Gras we go to Girls Gone Wild. Not too big of a leap, especially if you remember the Girls Gone Wild Mardi Gras special that aired at 3 am years ago. After Girls Gone Wild, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. All I can think of is that both have scantily clad ladies, GTA typically poking fun at the sex industry. GTA:SA goes to bestiality. A few years ago, at an overnight birthday party, those of us awake at 4 am were taking turns playing San Andreas. Earlier in the night, the friend of mine who gave me my copy of the game was browsing Beast Tube on my Wii. We especially enjoyed the video of a turtle with (what we all saw as) a penis longer than its own body, flopping around on a plastic ball. I still remember the way it repeatedly opened its mouth, as if desperate to explain its horrific growth.

Enough on Beast Tube, time for Spider-Man. Even earlier that night, my friends had gotten me a Spider-Man web shooter that I shot onto my friends' faces. This takes me back to my PS1 days, when I was playing Spider-Man with a friend of mine. With the same friend I often played a demo of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. That obviously takes me to THPS2, then to Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory, to Howard Stern, to Massawepie, etc. etc.

Of course, that was only one thread. There are sometimes branches that the memories go down instead -- for instance, I didn't have to think of Tony Hawk, I could have thought of Spyro the Dragon, gone to Christmas, then started an entirely new chain of memories. And it doesn't always start with Bunnicula -- it could start with more typical Halloween fare, like cider and donuts, or a haunted hay ride. But inevitably it would end up at something completely different, just a few seconds later. And I would have trouble deciding whether or not I watched bestiality when I was 10.