WEBVTT - Listener Mail: Pinball Wizard 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:06.080 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:12.280 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. Listener 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:15.240 mail This is Robert Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:17.320 And it's Monday, the day of each week that we 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:21.480 read back some messages from the mail bag. If you 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:23.439 are a listener to Stuff to Blow your Mind and 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:25.880 you've never gotten in touch before, why not give it 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:29.280 a try. You can email us at contact at stuff 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:32.400 to Blow your Mind dot com. All sorts of messages 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:34.960 are welcome. If you've got feedback on a previous episode, 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:37.760 if you want to add something to our comments, or 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:40.639 you know, share a thought you had if you of course, 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:42.640 if you have corrections, you can send them on in. 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:44.800 But also just if you want to share something you 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:47.599 think we'd be interested in, send it our way. And 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:50.879 also just saying hi is fine too. Yeah, and if 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:53.600 you want to connect with us otherwise, I should point 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:56.720 out that we do have a discord server discord page 0:00:56.800 --> 0:00:59.480 whatever you want, I guess is a server. So if 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:03.840 you would like to appear on that and to interact 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:07.200 with other listeners there, we'll just email us. We'll send 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:09.600 you the link for that. We're also on the Facebook 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.480 group the Stuff to Blow your Mind discussion module, and 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:16.520 you can if you're on Facebook, you can easily obtain 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:20.320 access to that. And then just for Weird House Cinema, 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:24.199 we're on letterbox dot com. It's ltt r boxd dot 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:27.480 com and that's mostly we just use an account there 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:30.440 Weird House to log all of the movies we've watched. 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:33.400 For Weird House Cinema, not a lot of commenting going 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:35.680 on there for us, but if you comment there, I'll 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:39.120 probably see it. Oh hey, one more administrative note, because 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:41.920 why not. Not too long ago, we were told by 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:44.760 our people here at the company that some of you 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:48.360 out there, some listeners, may have been subscribed to Stuff 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:51.760 to Blow your Mind and had auto downloads enabled, so 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:53.840 you thought you were supposed to get new episodes, but 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:57.440 for various reasons, one of them maybe being if you 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:00.280 hadn't listened to one of the newest episodes in the 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:03.000 feed for a while, maybe the five most recent episodes 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:06.520 the platform you listen through may have turned off your 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:09.400 automatic downloads, in which case you're no longer getting our 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:12.200 new shows, even though we are still publishing. If you 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:14.080 think that may have happened to you, go in and 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:16.280 check just to make sure that you do have auto 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:19.120 downloads enabled, of course, if that is what you want. 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:22.960 And one way to try to avoid that happening in 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:27.280 the future is too if you can be relatively current 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:29.680 on listening, to try to listen to at least one 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:32.320 of the five most recent episodes at any given time. 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:34.560 But then again, I mean, you know, we're not trying 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:36.120 to constrict how you listen to the show. If you 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:39.680 listen at all, we're grateful and we really do appreciate it, 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:41.799 so do it the way you want it. But to 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:45.040 try to avoid weird technical glitches, that is apparently one 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:48.000 thing you can do. And before we get into the 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:49.880 listener mail, I'm also going to note that we're recording 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.960 this on March fourteenth, so a lot of times we 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:56.200 end up recording far closer to the publication date, So 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:58.560 just bear that in mind. If you've sent in an 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:02.160 email March fourteenth, or even just late in the day 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:04.359 on March fourteenth, we probably haven't seen it yet, and 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:07.000 that's one of many reasons we may not be reading 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:09.000 it in this episode. The other reason could be all 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:12.200 the cursing, so you know, try and keep the language clean, Okay, 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:14.680 I think that does it for preliminary business. I'm going 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:17.600 to kick things off with a message from Jeremy which 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:20.160 is a follow up to a message featured on last 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:23.720 week's episode. So on last Monday's Listener Mail, Jeremy got 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:26.760 in touch to share with us that just as he 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:30.280 was listening to our episodes on Finn McCool, during a 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:34.680 passage in which we were describing the Giants Causeway, he 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:38.760 drove past an art installation that appeared to be modeled 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:42.560 on the Giants Causeway, raising questions, of course, about whether 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.520 we were sort of a lay of heavening Jeremy's environment 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:48.960 through the Internet. Anyway, we tried to figure out from 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:52.440 Jeremy's photo, which he attached in the email, where the 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:55.800 sculpture was and who made it, but no luck, so 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:58.400 Jeremy wrote back in to fill us in. Turns out 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:02.640 the photo was from the Babraham Research Campus, which is 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:07.280 a laboratory campus south of Cambridge in England, and Jeremy 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:14.920 writes as follows, Hello, Robert and Joe, thank you for 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:18.360 reading out my emails since you appeared fascinated. I investigated 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:22.440 further and found the following about the columns the referring 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:26.120 to the sculpture. Apparently, the artwork is called Hive and 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:30.279 is designed to represent honeycomb rather than the basalt columns, 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:34.040 and is linked to the bioscience nature of the research 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:37.800 going on at the campus. Best regards Jeremy Ps, no 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:41.760 gray whales were cited, unfortunately, so I looked into this 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:45.120 a little more. The sculpture, it's called Hive. It is 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:50.080 made to resemble honeycomb or beehive, but it also apparently 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:52.080 is modeled on the Giants Causeway, so it's both at 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.800 the same time. It's by an artist named Tanya Covots, 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:58.919 and I was reading from the website for the installation, 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:03.159 which says quote from her studio in Devon. Covots cast 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:06.600 more than two hundred and fifty concrete hexagons that resemble 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:10.680 the basalt formations of the Giant's Causeway, as well as 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:14.159 the shapes crafted in bee hives. The work is completed 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.720 by a wildflower meadow and ribbon orchard of fruit trees, 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:20.359 all of which work together to attract solitary bees with 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:24.080 places to rest and feed throughout the growing calendar. So anyway, 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:27.320 very nice sculpture. I like that it's trying to be 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:31.360 a little bit geological and biological at the same time. Yeah. Absolutely, 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:34.160 it's neat to know the I guess. I mean, even 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:37.359 in my experience, sometimes you drive past some sort of 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:41.440 cool roadside art and you never really know the details 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:43.080 on what's going on there. You don't know what the 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:46.799 artist's intent is. So here we seem to have finally 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:48.919 received the full story. I mean, I guess it wouldn't 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:51.960 be advisable to start trying to like google art installation 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:56.920 details while you're driving past. Oh no, no, no, All right, 0:05:57.080 --> 0:06:04.719 here's one that comes to us from Kim. Tim writes 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:07.400 in and says, dear Joe and Robert. First of all, 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:10.840 thank you very much for everything you do. I've been 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:13.200 listening for years and it's always a delight. I'm writing 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:15.240 to you today because of your episode on the Gray Way. 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:18.640 You mentioned a book by Mark Carwodeen quite a lot, 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:20.760 and I just wanted to inform you that he is 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:24.120 best known for his work with the incomparable Douglas Adams. 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:26.760 Together they traveled the world trying to find some of 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:30.520 the rarest still living animals. I remember the Kiwi and 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:32.560 the bay Gee. This is would be the bay Gee. 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:36.600 This is the yang Ze River Dolphin. The resulting book 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:39.640 is Last Chance to See and I highly recommend it. 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:42.800 They even made a TV show where Carboden visited some 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:44.680 of the animals a couple of years ago in the 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:48.600 company of Stephen Fry. Very watchable obviously. Thanks for all 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:51.920 you do, Please keep it up. Greetings from Germany. Tim. Now, 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:54.839 if I understand correctly, I think the original book by 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:58.760 Carwardine and Douglas Adams was from maybe like the late 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:02.080 eighties or something. But then there was this follow up 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:06.120 television show from the more recently, certainly twenty first century, 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:09.840 and the main thing I remember, though I haven't seen 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:12.400 it in full, there was at least one viral moment 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:18.000 from the show with Stephen Fry because one person involved 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:19.880 with the show it might have been Mark Carwardine himself, 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:24.480 they found a rare tropical bird that was trying to 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:27.920 mate with his head. Oh yes, I do remember this 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:33.440 going viral. Yeah yeah. Mark Carwardine is as a British 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:36.880 zoologist and if you want to learn more about his work, 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:39.880 he has a website Mark Carwardine dot com that's cr 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:43.960 W A R D, I N E and H. Yeah. 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:45.600 It has some links to the book to some of 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:48.200 the books, including the Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises books, a 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:50.760 book that I was referencing. It looks like there's a 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:53.800 relatively new edition of Last Chance to See out with 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:57.280 a forward by Stephen Frye. So yeah, he's been involved 0:07:57.280 --> 0:07:59.200 in a number of great projects, a lot of great 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:01.760 wildlife to talk or Fean Moore. I just looked it 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:04.119 up and I think the rare parrot that was trying 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:07.960 to mate with his head was the caca po oh. Okay, yes, 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:15.840 a very spirited animal also known as the owl parrot. Yeah, 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:18.320 this bird came up fairly recently on the show. I 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:20.040 think we were talking back he remember as a listener 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:21.440 mail or if it came up in the context of 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:24.920 another episode, but highly intelligent parrot species sometimes Rex cars. Yes, 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:26.880 it was a listener mail someone had written in about 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:31.240 one of these animals tormenting their parents. I think, Okay, 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:34.960 this next message is from Mike. This one's long, so 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:36.840 I don't know, we might want to break this up 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:39.920 part way through or something, but this is a fantastic 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:43.360 message about firsthand experience with whales, so I wanted to 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:50.760 feature as much of it as we could. Mike says Hello, 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:54.199 Robert and Joe. Apologize for the length here. After listening 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:56.520 to your whale episodes, I wanted to write in about 0:08:56.559 --> 0:09:00.360 my whale experience. I live in Santa Cruz, californ, Ornya. 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:03.040 We are located right on the northern edge of the 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:07.480 Monterey Bay. Our waters host many marine mammals, including various pinnipeds, 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:11.360 sea otters, and of course whales were a major hub 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:13.920 for gray whales, and I've seen them as well as 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:17.440 a blue whale, humpback whales in orcas nice. I am 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.560 an avid surfer and that puts me in close proximity 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:23.240 to many of these creatures. On a daily basis. It's 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:26.360 not uncommon for me to find myself next to otters, 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:29.360 sea lions, possibly even an elephant seal in the water. 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:33.000 As for whales, the blues and orcas don't really come 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:35.439 in that close to shore, but the humpbacks and grays 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:38.160 can get very close to the surf zone At the 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:40.560 right time of the year. It's quite common to see 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:44.360 them feeding or just engaged in whale leisure just offshore. 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:48.840 On one occasion, I was outsurfing when significant whale feeding 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:52.520 was taking place. These were clearly humpbacks engaged in what's 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:56.160 known as lunge feeding, unlike the way that gray's scoop 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:59.080 food out of the bottom, and that's referring to the 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:02.120 feeding behavior we talked about in our gray whale series 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:05.200 where they'll like slam their head down into the ocean 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.439 floor and scoop up sediment to filter organisms out of it. 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:13.560 Back to Mike's message, the humpbacks engage in more active 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:17.920 pursuit of free swimming food. Lunge feeding involves the whales 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:22.080 cooperating with each other to herd small fish like sardines 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:26.320 into a tight bait ball. Then they take turns swimming 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:29.760 up through the bait ball from below with their mouths agape. 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:32.760 It's a real spectacle as the feeding whale will breach 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:36.440 the surface, often to great heights with their mouth agape. 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:39.199 You really get a good look at these massive creatures 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:44.360 as they slam their mouths shut, simultaneously ejecting vast quantities 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:48.560 of water and crashing back down. As the feeding whale breaches, 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:51.319 they tend to push a lot of the bait fish 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:54.679 to the surface. This draws in seabirds by the hundreds, 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:57.719 as the fish are easy pickings for them. On this 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:01.880 particular day, multiple whales were breach over and over from 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:03.880 where I was sitting in the water. I had a 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:06.880 good view, but still felt quite a safe distance from 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:09.680 the activity. For the most part, all this activity takes 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:13.320 place in deeper water outside of the surfing area. At 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:16.040 one point, however, I noticed that the birds had all 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:20.040 taken up a position directly overhead. I am well aware 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:23.280 that the birds know exactly where the whales are at 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.400 all times. The birds above surely meant the whales were 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:29.560 below me. I definitely did not want to be there. 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:32.320 I moved to paddling closer to shore, but it was 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:35.640 too late. I felt a strange disturbance in the water, 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:39.959 unlike anything I had felt before. The water started swelling up, 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:43.600 as though the ocean was filling up from below. The 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:47.479 birds rained down from the sky all around me. Sardines 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:50.440 began to explode from the water by the hundreds. I 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:53.840 was in the worst possible position. I imagine that whale 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:57.160 charging up from the depths with its huge mouth gaping. 0:11:57.720 --> 0:11:59.800 I didn't think it would eat me, as I've heard 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:02.880 that humpback's throat is actually only wide enough to smallow 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:05.640 a few small fish at a time. I was very 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:08.640 worried that it could violently thrash me around, should I 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:11.680 accidentally end up in its mouth, or that it could 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:16.000 breach near me and come crashing down on me. Miraculously, 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:21.439 the chaos stopped, The water calmed down, the sardine stopped emerging, 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:26.520 the birds relaxed. No whale lunged out of the water. Okay, intermission, 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:29.200 rob Do you want to take over at this point? Yes, 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:33.160 hands on attack rope, here we go. Okay, all right. Instead, 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:36.320 three whale surface not far from me. One aimed directly 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:39.440 at me. It advanced and, with seeming intent, pushed me 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:42.839 aside with its snout or bow. I don't know what 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:45.040 the proper term for the front of a whale is. 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:48.280 It's not the nose, that's right. A humpback whale swam 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:50.640 out to me and gave me a shove. It was 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:53.760 similar to having a good sized boat passing too close. 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:56.000 There was enough wake from the whale to kind of 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:59.720 drag me along in the same direction. As the whale 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:02.600 brushed past, it rolled a bit so that it could 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:05.319 align its eye with my face. There I was sitting 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:08.560 in the water face to eye with this whale. Now 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:11.960 I may be bringing my own preconceptions to the situation, 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:14.480 but it feels like there's something deeply powerful in that 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:18.240 gaze behind those eyes burned and intellect that seems curious 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:21.960 and analytical. It seemed more knowing than say, a sea 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:24.560 lion that might be looking at me. No disrespect to 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:26.719 sea lions, as they are amazing in their own right. 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:29.520 I felt like I was being sized up, and it 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:32.160 felt like the whale was intentionally looking me in the face, 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:34.520 as if to make sure that I noticed it. I 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:37.400 really got the distinct impression that it was, on some 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:39.960 level trying to reason with me. Its reasoning was do 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:43.520 you mind we're working here? Or something similar. It was 0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:47.000 simultaneously the most magical and terrifying thing I've ever experienced. 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:50.000 It's hard to really understand how huge and powerful these 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:52.160 animals are until you were in the water with them 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:55.440 and totally at their mercy. As Robert noted recounting his 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:59.280 experiences in Mexico, they are surprisingly fast and agile, and 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:01.680 you really have to see them in person to fully 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:05.360 appreciate the power. Likewise, it's hard to really understand that 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:08.080 that weird connection that one feels when they look into 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:11.600 the eyes of another intelligent species until you were there. 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:14.400 Note I don't recommend that people try to get in 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:17.040 the water with the whales and replicate this experience. I 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.520 was there accidentally. I now moved back towards the shore 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:23.480 a lot sooner when I see this feeding happening. Clearly, 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:26.800 my presence disrupted the feeding of this whale. I don't 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:28.960 know if it got another turn or the other whales 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:30.520 were like, sorry, back to the end of the line. 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:32.760 It's my turn to lunch the bait ball. For all 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:35.520 I know, I might have ruined this whale's day. However, 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:37.280 as much as I try to stay out of their way, 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:39.680 I still seem to cross pass with them pretty regularly. 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:44.080 Since that experience, whales have unexpectedly surfaced right next to 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:46.320 me many times. It's quite possible that some of the 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:48.840 whales I've seen were the very same whales. Robert Sell 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:51.520 in Mexico, thanks for reading and putting out such a 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:54.520 great show. Mike. Oh and then Mike has a ps 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:58.200 here ps. The Monterey Bay, as seen from Santa Cruz, 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:00.880 is home to one of the most incredib and persistent 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:05.000 displays of Fata morgana around, especially in the summer when 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:07.840 we have warm, still air and cold water. The distant 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:11.000 shores often consist of these phantom shapes that rise and 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:13.880 chains throughout the day. It's quite common to see distant 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:17.680 structures on the far shore repeated and inverted. Just one 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:20.640 more bit of stuff to blow your mind. Magic that's here. Wow, 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:24.920 what a fantastic message. Thank you, Mike. Yeah, that was wonderful. 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:30.320 Yeah I agree with I did not obviously I did 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:32.320 not have the exact same experience here, but yeah, to 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:34.840 the extent that our experiences line up, I totally agree 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:39.640 with everything that Mike shared about looking into the whale's eye, 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:43.360 being in close proximity to one of these magnificent organisms. 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:55.200 It's amazing. Okay. This next message is in response to 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:59.160 our episodes on Horror Vakay and some previous listener mail. 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:03.080 This is from Gary and it's about well we got 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:05.400 We got a message from a listener a couple of 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:09.760 mondays ago about pages in documents and books that are 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:14.920 labeled this page intentionally left blank. So Gary says, Hi, 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:18.400 Robert and Joe, just listening to your listener mail episode 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:21.360 where you talked about blank pages, I was instantly reminded 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:25.560 of the novel Tristram Shandy by Lawrence Stern, published in 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:29.440 seventeen fifty nine, which famously has a blank page in 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:33.000 it where Stern invites the reader to use it to 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:36.280 describe a character. Big fan of the show, many thanks 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:40.840 for making such a fun and interesting podcast. Best wishes, Gary. 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:44.560 This is a great find. Gary, Yeah, a good literary reference. 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:47.120 And by the way, I know when people talk about 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:50.040 this book, they always shorten the title to just the 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:53.560 name Tristram Shandy. But for humor's sake, I do like 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:56.800 the full title, which is the Life and Opinions of 0:16:56.840 --> 0:17:02.520 Tristram Shandy. Gentleman, You've got to know the opinions. But anyway, 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:06.040 I'm going to read the paragraph that leads straight into 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:08.679 this blank page. I think what's going on here in 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:12.920 the book is the narrator here is describing a character, 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:15.600 a character that somebody is falling in love with, so 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:19.919 they are smitten. And it says chapter thirty eight to 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:23.560 conceive this right, call for pen and ink. Here's paper 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:26.760 ready to your hand. Sit down, sir, paint her to 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:29.880 your own mind, as like your mistress as you can, 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:33.000 as unlike your wife as your conscience will let you. 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:36.720 Tis all one to me, please put your own fancy 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:39.760 in it. And then there's just a blank page, this 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:43.159 page one forty seven of this volume. I wonder to 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:48.920 what extent this is adapted in the film. Maybe it is, Well, 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:51.840 they just show a blank page, just like picture as 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:54.720 unlike your wife, as your conscience will allow. Yeah, you 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:57.480 kind of have like a little intermission there, like, I 0:17:57.480 --> 0:17:59.359 don't know they might have. It seems like a clever 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:02.520 sort of movie. Maybe they did. It's interesting that this 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:05.679 is a very experimental kind of thing to occur in 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:07.840 a book from the middle of the eighteenth century. But 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:10.200 I know that though I've never read it in full, 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:13.800 trust from Shandy does have that reputation. In general, it's 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:16.439 sort of consider to be a kind of ahead of 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:20.920 its time book in terms of weird experimental forms and 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:24.520 literary conventions. And I think it has like a lot 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:27.480 of stream of consciousness stuff in it, which was obviously 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:30.160 not common of the novels or romances of the time. 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:32.680 It's sort of, I think thought of as a proto 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:37.199 modernist novel. But I also like how this looks ahead 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:41.320 to to the way characters are realized in many video 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.119 games of today, where you can like build your own characters. 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:47.439 You just you know, Yeah, they don't come pre written 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:50.640 for you. You draw him for yourself. Yeah. Yeah, And 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:52.679 I mean, and of course you still see games go 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:56.000 both ways, but yeah, there's there's a certain power and 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:58.359 being able to decide exactly what a what a character 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:01.280 looks like. You know, And I think I've probably mentioned 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:05.399 this before, but obviously I think we often do this ourselves. 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:06.879 And I know I did this more when I was 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:09.399 a younger reader, where I would sort of decide for 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:13.160 myself what a character looked like and then go with it. 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.200 But then I would get irritated, you know, halfway through 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:19.639 the book the author just casually mentioned, oh, this character 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:23.120 has a mustache, or this character had you know, any 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:25.160 description like that. Well, now you've completely thrown me off. 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:27.600 I already had a certain I had to already had 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:31.000 this part cast and now you're giving me additional information. Yeah, 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:34.240 you rebel against the author. This is not your character anymore. 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:37.360 It's mine. Now I get to decide what they look like. 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:40.560 I'm curious. I hadn't thought about this in a while, 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:42.719 but yeah, I used to when I was a young reader, 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:45.840 like reading like full length novels for the first time, 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:48.560 I would kind of go through it. I would actually 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:52.760 cast the characters, often like with particular actors, and I 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:55.040 would decide ahead of time who was playing what part. 0:19:55.880 --> 0:20:00.520 And I don't really do that anymore. Occasionally I'll catch 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:05.480 myself kind of casting and character or sort of course correcting, 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:08.960 and maybe even at times if there's some confusing characters 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:10.720 going on, I'll do a little bit of that to 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:13.360 try and keep things straight in my head, but not 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:15.680 not like I did when I was younger. And of course, 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:19.640 if you're reading a book that there's already a movie version, 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:21.359 and they're kind of doing that for you, and maybe 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:24.440 that's where that activity came from. All right, Well, it's 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:28.399 Pinball Wizard time because we have a great bit of 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:31.440 weird house cinema. Listener mail, this is gonna be the 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:33.119 last one to read in this episode, but it's a 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:35.760 it's a weighty one. So here we go from Zach 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:43.600 Dear Joe and Robert. I've been meaning to get in 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:45.520 touch for a while. I'm a massive fan of weird 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:48.119 house cinema, and I just love the verbal imagery you 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:51.119 can cock for old and weird movies. I must admit 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:53.240 I haven't seen half of the films you talk about, 0:20:53.600 --> 0:20:56.159 but your elegant descriptions make me feel like I have. 0:20:56.880 --> 0:21:00.159 I was inspired to experience the Super Inframan with my 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:04.480 family because of the revered tones expressed in your podcast. 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:07.480 I can't thank you enough for the recommendation. Not only 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:09.919 did I personally delight in the colors and textures of 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:12.879 that masterpiece, but my family all gains something special from 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:16.160 the experience. My two little ladies still talk about seeing 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:19.320 the zippers on those amazing rubber suits, a nuance that 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:22.840 is lost with the day's seamless computer wizardry. Well, that 0:21:22.920 --> 0:21:26.040 fills my heart with gladness. You know, not many of 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:28.080 the movies we talked about weird on Weird House or 0:21:28.119 --> 0:21:31.560 not for everyone, but in for Man, I think that 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:33.840 that's the exception. That's just a movie that I think 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:38.880 everybody should see and nearly everyone would love. Yeah, yeah, 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:41.159 and it is great to see. I see this night 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:43.760 in my own son. I've I've talked about this several times, 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:46.280 I'm sure, but you know where they're they're seeing through effects, 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:49.040 but sometimes they're able to experience effects that are not 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:56.440