Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
Speaker 1: Listener Mail. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick,
Speaker 1: and today we're bringing you the messages that you have
Speaker 1: sent to us to start us off today. We've actually
Speaker 1: got a straggler that I think was originally sent like
Speaker 1: last September or October. But as we mentioned on the
Speaker 1: show a few times, I think we lost some mail
Speaker 1: from that period. Something happened to it. And so Caroline
Speaker 1: recent this one. You want to start with this one, Rob, Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's do it. Okay, This is from Caroline about the leshy.
Speaker 1: You remember the creature of the forest in Russian mythology.
Speaker 1: Caroline says, Hi, Robert and Joe, I just finished your
Speaker 1: episode on the leshy. Once you described the creature, I
Speaker 1: kept expecting you to bring up similarities it has with
Speaker 1: the wolf in the Little Red Riding Hood tale. I
Speaker 1: had never heard of creature before, but that was the
Speaker 1: first thing I associated it with. You mentioned one of
Speaker 1: its usual forms is that of a wolf, and that
Speaker 1: it likes to lead unwary travelers off the path. Other
Speaker 1: parts of the character that seemed to correspond were when
Speaker 1: it disguises itself as the grandmother, there is something off,
Speaker 1: and Little Red riding Hood's mother specifically warns her not
Speaker 1: to talk to strangers or stray from the path. Could
Speaker 1: the wolf in this tale be a version of the
Speaker 1: leshy that traveled from the folk tales of Russia to
Speaker 1: the folk tales of Germany. Regardless, from now on, I'm
Speaker 1: going to think of the wolf from that tale as
Speaker 1: a leshy in disguise. It makes a lot more sense
Speaker 1: as a lushy than as a random wolf interested in
Speaker 1: a quick two course dinner. Caroline, Well, Caroline, this is
Speaker 1: an interesting idea. I don't know if it would go
Speaker 1: exactly as as direct a line as that, Like you
Speaker 1: have leshy and then that turns into the wolf in
Speaker 1: Little Red riding Hood. But I can absolutely uh see
Speaker 1: that this could come out of similar uh sort of
Speaker 1: myth or folk tale archetypes that are kind of banging
Speaker 1: around throughout folk tales of of of the whole world. Actually,
Speaker 1: because I remember reading in the past that the Little
Speaker 1: Red riding Hood folk tale is thought too is thought
Speaker 1: to sort of be influenced by myth themes or bits
Speaker 1: of stories and story elements that you find all throughout
Speaker 1: the world, You find all throughout the folk tales of
Speaker 1: ancient Europe, in North Africa, even in Asia. Um, and
Speaker 1: it's uh yeah, so it it seems to be one
Speaker 1: of those things that's kind of a stew of different
Speaker 1: elements that you can find in bits and pieces for
Speaker 1: myths going way way back. Yeah. I mean Robert Frost
Speaker 1: was right about one thing. The woods are deep and
Speaker 1: they are dark, and uh, you know that has a
Speaker 1: lot of things have crept out of that imagined darkness
Speaker 1: in human myth making and legend over over time. So
Speaker 1: I feel like they these two creatures, even if there's
Speaker 1: not any real connective tissue, they both emerge from that darkness. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I seem to recall that I don't know if this
Speaker 1: is actually a legitimate connection, but I seem to recall
Speaker 1: there's some kind of idea that there's like a very
Speaker 1: ancient myth archetype about like a fire maiden, like a
Speaker 1: young woman or girl who is somehow associated with with
Speaker 1: fire or redness in a way, who is attacked by
Speaker 1: a wolf and then rescued by a hero of some kind.
Speaker 1: And then that I think is also paired somewhat with
Speaker 1: like the classic sort of restoration from the dead or
Speaker 1: restoration from the belly myth part that you get in
Speaker 1: the story of Jonah being swallowed by the whale and
Speaker 1: then spit back out, but you can even get in
Speaker 1: directly in Russian folk tales where somebody's eaten by a
Speaker 1: wolf and then survives after being cut out of the belly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, we got another one. This is also I
Speaker 1: guess a straggler, but as we always say, stragglers are welcome.
Speaker 1: This goes back to our episode on fingernails and it
Speaker 1: comes from Sicily Rob. Do you want to read this one? Sure? Go.
Speaker 1: This is what it says. I am a new listener
Speaker 1: and I am currently listening to your two part episode
Speaker 1: from September on Fingernails. I'm someone who regularly has enhanced
Speaker 1: with hard gel or alic very long fingernails. Attached a
Speaker 1: picture for reference. You asked for stories about living with
Speaker 1: long nails, and I thought you might be interested to
Speaker 1: know that tool use and knuckle use are important for success.
Speaker 1: There are very few things I cannot do with long nails,
Speaker 1: and mostly turn my knuckles into fingertips to do things
Speaker 1: like pop soda tabs or remove contact lenses. Now that's
Speaker 1: impressive as a contact where Um, yeah, I have never
Speaker 1: attempted to use my knuckles to get them out. I
Speaker 1: guess it's possible. Wait which knuckle? Would it be? Your
Speaker 1: first knuckle or second knuckle? I don't know. I'm just
Speaker 1: imagining all knuckles. Maybe I'm envisioning it wrong, but I'm
Speaker 1: just imagined just going in there just like tin knuckles, uh,
Speaker 1: and removing the contact lenses. You know, it would be
Speaker 1: a really interesting cyberpunk enhancement would be fingertips on your knuckles,
Speaker 1: so you get like separate finger pads extending out from
Speaker 1: I guess your your first your large knuckle. Have I
Speaker 1: seen that before? I feel like I've seen something like that,
Speaker 1: and maybe not cyberpunky, but something like fleshy you know. Uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know it rings a bell anyway, they continue.
Speaker 1: Tools like tweezers can be helpful for things you might
Speaker 1: use the edge of your nail for. Certain styles of
Speaker 1: common objects are also more nail friendly, like a keyboard
Speaker 1: with flat than keys to allow typing with fingerpads instead
Speaker 1: of fingertips, though I still often use pencils with the
Speaker 1: racers to type on other types of keyboards. The hardest
Speaker 1: routine task I encounter is actually putting an earring back
Speaker 1: onto an earring, as the nail tends to get in
Speaker 1: the way of both a very small object and a
Speaker 1: very specific motor movement. Oh maybe that's supposed to be
Speaker 1: putting an ear ring on an ear Okay, yeah, I
Speaker 1: could see that being difficult. Uh, anyway, they continue. An
Speaker 1: additional layer to note about nails is that there is
Speaker 1: a tendency, at least for me to try to use
Speaker 1: them as tools, but doing so will cause them to
Speaker 1: break despy fortification. So much of the tool and knuckle
Speaker 1: uses not because I cannot do the task with nails,
Speaker 1: but rather to preserve their integrity. Lastly, I enjoyed hearing
Speaker 1: the supernatural, slash scary aspects of long nails that you
Speaker 1: described in your episode because I specifically like having long,
Speaker 1: pointing nails that reference demonic or witchy aesthetics. I'm greatly
Speaker 1: enjoying the episodes I've heard so far, and I'm excited
Speaker 1: to keep listening. Thanks Cecily, Well, Cecily, welcome on board.
Speaker 1: We we hope you keep enjoying and thanks for sharing
Speaker 1: your experience. With long nails. I'm glad to hear that
Speaker 1: you are specifically trying to be demonic or witchy. You know,
Speaker 1: I was just appreciating nails the other day because I
Speaker 1: was working on some miniatures, and you know, I use
Speaker 1: like a little file and I use a little razor
Speaker 1: blade to remove unwanted portions of the plastic. But then
Speaker 1: there are times where I realize, you know, what works
Speaker 1: better than either of these fine instruments, the fingernail itself.
Speaker 1: You know, It's like fingernails are just so so useful
Speaker 1: for fine manipulation, often in ways that we just take
Speaker 1: for granted. I don't know how gross to get on
Speaker 1: the show here, but I think some people would say
Speaker 1: that that fingernails are sort of like perfect tools for
Speaker 1: pimple popping, perfect Griny's written tools. Yeah, yeah, that that
Speaker 1: that can lead to some skin infections. I've bet Wait,
Speaker 1: I guess a pimple already is a kind of skin infection,
Speaker 1: right or am I right about that? I don't really know.
Speaker 1: I guess we'll have to sort that out later. Okay, Next,
Speaker 1: we've got a short message about the Bondsai episode where
Speaker 1: we talked about Tate's hell the Forest in Florida where
Speaker 1: the dwarf cypress grow. And this is a short message
Speaker 1: from Sammy. She says, Hello there, guys. I have been
Speaker 1: in the Florida Panhandle my whole life, which would be
Speaker 1: thirty five years. I knew not of this Tate and
Speaker 1: his personal hell. That is a Florida forest, So thank
Speaker 1: you guys for bringing it to my attention. I've googled
Speaker 1: it and live about an hour and forty five minutes away,
Speaker 1: So now I have a new place to take my
Speaker 1: son camping. No, don't do it, Sammy, Uh, he will
Speaker 1: have fun with the name if nothing else. Thank you, Sammy.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's safety these days if you, you know,
Speaker 1: have navigation devices and all that, it's more Tates heck
Speaker 1: these days. This next message comes to us from Mark
Speaker 1: and it is about our episode on Gold. I guess
Speaker 1: I'm going to read this one because Rob After this
Speaker 1: there's some about Avatar the Last Airbender, and I assume
Speaker 1: those are your territory. Okay, Mark says, Hi, Robert and Joe,
Speaker 1: huge fan of your podcast. My favorite bits are when
Speaker 1: you connect the central topic to some other esoteric piece
Speaker 1: of knowledge deep in the recesses of your minds. When
Speaker 1: the pandemic is over, you should have a contest to
Speaker 1: win lunch with Robert and Joe. I expect the conversation
Speaker 1: would lead to some interesting places. Well, that's very nice
Speaker 1: of you to say, Mark, but I suspect I am
Speaker 1: much more boring in person. My wife and son have
Speaker 1: been winning that contest every day for over a year now,
Speaker 1: and uh yeah, they they would prefer to to watch
Speaker 1: episodes of Avatar during during lunch. Take that for what
Speaker 1: it's worth. Mark goes on. In your Gold Medal episode,
Speaker 1: you talked about how gold did not have many practical
Speaker 1: applications beyond its use as jewelry or coinage and then
Speaker 1: later in electronics in medicine. But the studious high school
Speaker 1: chemistry student in me would be remissed to forget Rutherford's
Speaker 1: gold foil experiment. This is great to bring up, Uh so,
Speaker 1: Mark Rits. At the time of the experiment, scientists did
Speaker 1: not know the structure of the atom. We know today
Speaker 1: that it consists of negative electrons orbiting a positive nucleus
Speaker 1: of protons and neutrons. Back then, after the electron was discovered,
Speaker 1: someone theorized the quote plum pudding model, which conceived of
Speaker 1: the electrons surrounded by a field of positively charged plums.
Speaker 1: Rutherford's experiment was to shoot an alpha particle beam through
Speaker 1: a thin piece of gold foil and see what happened
Speaker 1: to the particles. The result was that the articles deflected
Speaker 1: off at sharp angles, some even bouncing backwards. From this,
Speaker 1: he deduced that the positive charge was not spread out
Speaker 1: around the electrons, but rather packed into a tight compact
Speaker 1: to nucleus. So why was gold used. Because it was
Speaker 1: so soft and malleable, they could compress it into an
Speaker 1: extremely thin layer. In an ideal experimental state, the foil
Speaker 1: would only be one atom thick. Obviously this was not possible,
Speaker 1: but they got it thin enough. Thanks for all the
Speaker 1: great episodes, keep them coming, Mark. Well, thanks for pointing
Speaker 1: that out, Mark, that was a great, great historic example
Speaker 1: to bring up. Awesome. Yes, uh, now we're about to
Speaker 1: get into some some Avatar the Last Airbender content, because
Speaker 1: I think in the Gold episode we ended up talking
Speaker 1: about gold bending in avatar. So if you have no
Speaker 1: idea what this stuff is about, I will try to
Speaker 1: be your avatar in the conversation. Alright, Yeah, we we
Speaker 1: received some avatar listener mail from I think three or
Speaker 1: four different people, but we have two of them included here.
Speaker 1: So this one comes to us from Emily, Hi, Robert,
Speaker 1: and Joe. I'm a long time listener, and I am
Speaker 1: very grateful for the many hours of learning and entertainment
Speaker 1: you've provided me. I also love the new Weird House
Speaker 1: Cinema episodes, so thank you so much for that. I
Speaker 1: reached out to my avatar Legend of Corus super fan
Speaker 1: friend Andy with your question about metal benders bending gold.
Speaker 1: This was her response. In the scene where Kuvira crushes
Speaker 1: the Kiyoshi Medal of Freedom during Prince Wu's coronation, you
Speaker 1: can see from the coloring of the metal that there
Speaker 1: is likely gold in it. Additionally, when looking at the
Speaker 1: royal brooch, one can see it is meant to be gold,
Speaker 1: which would signify that royal artifacts in the Earth Kingdom
Speaker 1: have a large gold component. It would also be reasonable
Speaker 1: that if metal benders are able to bend meteorites, that
Speaker 1: there would be nothing stopping them easily bending a soft
Speaker 1: metal such as gold. Hope, this is interesting to you.
Speaker 1: Keep it up Emily in Vermont, Okay, Rob, can you
Speaker 1: explain the context here? What's this about? Um? This was
Speaker 1: So I watched this episode not too long ago when
Speaker 1: we're going through, uh, the Legend of Cora, and yeah,
Speaker 1: it's basically someone who has the metal bending ability they
Speaker 1: crush something that has gold in it. But so so
Speaker 1: so yes, that's that's a good example from the show.
Speaker 1: But then we also heard from a listener named Hannah
Speaker 1: and she points out something even uh even more on
Speaker 1: point here. So Hannah writes in and says, I was
Speaker 1: so excited when you mentioned Avatar the Last Airbender in
Speaker 1: your latest episode on Gold. I'm a huge fan of
Speaker 1: Avatar the Last Airbender and consider it one of the
Speaker 1: most formative pieces of media in my of my life.
Speaker 1: I was smack dab in its target age group. I
Speaker 1: think I was ten or eleven when it premiered on
Speaker 1: Nickelodeon and watched every episode when it aired. I have since,
Speaker 1: at various points rewatched the entire series three or more
Speaker 1: times as I got older, as well as watching the
Speaker 1: Legend of Cora twice and reading all the comics. Watching
Speaker 1: it as a child, I just love the epic plot,
Speaker 1: exciting fights, and fun humor. Coming back to it as
Speaker 1: an adult, however, I'm able to appreciate how well developed
Speaker 1: the characters are, and how nuanced the treatment of some
Speaker 1: heavy subjects are, like war, imperialism, genocide, and grief, especially
Speaker 1: how they impact children and families. I always appreciate media
Speaker 1: that treats its young audiences as the intelligent beings that
Speaker 1: they are and and knows that kids can handle complex
Speaker 1: and challenging subjects if they're presented with enough patients. Anyway,
Speaker 1: the real reason I wanted to write in is that
Speaker 1: I think I know why we never see any Earthbenders
Speaker 1: bending gold. I'm going to avoid as many spoilers as possible.
Speaker 1: Metal bending is invented in Avatar, the Last Airbender by
Speaker 1: an extremely powerful Earthbender who realizes that because metal is
Speaker 1: quote Earth that has been purified and refined, they can
Speaker 1: use their unique ability to see the impurities left in
Speaker 1: the metal and bend that. By the time of Avatar
Speaker 1: Legend of Corau seventy years later, metal bending is a
Speaker 1: technique is far more widespread in this areas. It is
Speaker 1: revealed that metal benders cannot bend platinum as it is
Speaker 1: too pure and there are not enough trace amounts of
Speaker 1: Earth for them to detect and bend. Given the associations
Speaker 1: of gold and purity. I think it would not be
Speaker 1: bendable in the same way that they treat platinum in
Speaker 1: the universe of the show. I cannot possibly gush enough
Speaker 1: about Avatar soul In by mentioning the fun fact that
Speaker 1: each bending style is inspired by different real life martial arts.
Speaker 1: For example, water bending is based on tai Chi. I
Speaker 1: remember as a child seeing the short behind the scenes
Speaker 1: snippet during ad breaks on Nickelodeon where the martial arts
Speaker 1: consultants of the show would explain why certain styles were
Speaker 1: chosen with side by side comparisons between the animated scenes
Speaker 1: and himself demonstrating the movements in real life. It was
Speaker 1: really interesting and beautiful. Anyway, thanks so much for the podcast.
Speaker 1: I always look forward to its showing up in my
Speaker 1: feed Well. Thanks so much, Hannah. Um Okay, so this
Speaker 1: this raises more questions for me. So the idea is
Speaker 1: that the the the natural earth bender person in the
Speaker 1: show can can manipulate earth in like a telekinetic typeways
Speaker 1: that basically it um but the earth must mean something
Speaker 1: than just like any solid material that comes out of
Speaker 1: the ground, because of course, you know, gold and platinum
Speaker 1: would be would be metals that can be found in
Speaker 1: the earth. So what is the actual earth that can
Speaker 1: be bent and what are the kind of impurities you're
Speaker 1: looking for in gold or platinum in order to bend it. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean basically the main earth bound inc is just
Speaker 1: like rocks, you know, like causing the rocks in the earth,
Speaker 1: whatever minerals happen to be there, and using those like
Speaker 1: making shields rise up, you know, throwing rocks at people
Speaker 1: with it, that sort of thing. Um, And you know,
Speaker 1: it gets really elaborate, and later you see people using
Speaker 1: like stone constructs as well. Um. But uh, yeah, the
Speaker 1: idea here is I guess that perhaps gold in and
Speaker 1: of itself is just too pure to bend. Uh, you
Speaker 1: need something with it. If you're going to bend to metal,
Speaker 1: it has to have impurities and it so you're actually
Speaker 1: bending the impurities, are using the impurities as kind of
Speaker 1: the the you know, the the handle by which you
Speaker 1: you bend the other material. In a similar way, there's
Speaker 1: a variety of water bender that pops up called a
Speaker 1: blood bender, where and it's you know, this is like
Speaker 1: the dark side of water bending, where you can manipulate
Speaker 1: a human being by bending the water in their body.
Speaker 1: So you're not bending the human you're bending the water
Speaker 1: in their flesh, and this is would be similar. You've
Speaker 1: bend the metal by bending the impurities in the metal. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's like that thing we already mentioned the scene and
Speaker 1: X Men two where somebody gets injected with a bunch
Speaker 1: of iron and their blood and then Magneto messes with them.
Speaker 1: And you know, hey, if you go with the theory
Speaker 1: of of of gold's origin of it being ultimately extraterrestrial
Speaker 1: and nature, maybe you can you can heat that uh
Speaker 1: in there as well. You know, it's like you're an
Speaker 1: earth bender, not a you know, space mineral bender. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I just looked it up. I was trying to
Speaker 1: find what are the main elemental impurities that are found
Speaker 1: in high purity gold, and according to a paper by
Speaker 1: dj Hinneberg called Origin and Effects of Impurities in high
Speaker 1: Purity Gold in uh, the majority of the impurities in
Speaker 1: gold were silver, followed by iron, copper, and lead. So
Speaker 1: maybe if you're trying to bend gold, you're you're looking
Speaker 1: for one of those things. I mean, i'd imagine if
Speaker 1: you're able to, if you're an earth bender and you
Speaker 1: can move rocks around, probably one of the things you
Speaker 1: can move is iron right? Yeah, yeah, I would imagine so.
Speaker 1: So anyway, interesting interesting to think about it all into
Speaker 1: sort of. It's always interesting exercise to take the world
Speaker 1: of fiction and magic and then compare it with the
Speaker 1: world of metallurgy and see where you go. Okay. This
Speaker 1: next message comes from Sophie and it is a follow
Speaker 1: up from a previous email she sent about our episodes
Speaker 1: on head and brain theft. Now. In Sophie's original email,
Speaker 1: she compared the repeated student prank theft of Jeremy Bentham's
Speaker 1: nasty jerky head to something called the gavel goat. We
Speaker 1: didn't know exactly what that was off off hand and
Speaker 1: were forced to do some rapid googling. But she follows
Speaker 1: up on that subject. So Sophie says, dear Robert and Joe,
Speaker 1: all that time agonizing over sentence phrasing and making my
Speaker 1: contextual sidebars easy to cut around for anecdotes shortening, and
Speaker 1: not once did I think, hang on, they might not
Speaker 1: know what that is. Memory is so faulty, face palm.
Speaker 1: The gavel goat in Sweden, aside from seeming like a
Speaker 1: lovely annual tradition, has organically gained an unasked for tradition
Speaker 1: where the large goat raised for admint in Gavel, Sweden
Speaker 1: gets burned down or otherwise destroyed nearly every year. She
Speaker 1: attaches a couple of articles. Um, Basically, it's become an
Speaker 1: embedded arms race between people trying to fireproof and protect
Speaker 1: the statue while others attempt to destroy it to extreme lengths,
Speaker 1: involving cameras, flaming arrows, confused foreigners. Um. I don't know
Speaker 1: what all those references are, but she goes on the
Speaker 1: fact that it's illegal vandalism does little to challenge the
Speaker 1: fact that it's now an organically established socio cultural phenomenon.
Speaker 1: Once it becomes a globally known thing, watched annually to
Speaker 1: see what protections are added or how long it lasts,
Speaker 1: it's much harder to stop. Thus, what I meant to
Speaker 1: reference was the fact that if stealing Jeremy Bentham's head
Speaker 1: became a routine occurrence with momentum behind it, like the
Speaker 1: unintentional tradition of burning the lovely goat has, it goes
Speaker 1: from an aberrant side note slash periodic problem to a
Speaker 1: constant battle that begins to feel inevitable and likely one
Speaker 1: that University College London wishes to avoid, unless, of course,
Speaker 1: Bentham had some sort of expressed wish somewhere that he
Speaker 1: would like his head to be periodically stolen. That would
Speaker 1: be wild. Anyways, with the opportunity to once again compliment
Speaker 1: you on your work, your Friday features are the closest
Speaker 1: I will ever come to being able to watch many
Speaker 1: of your favorite movies, like horror films. But I get
Speaker 1: to hear you talk about things with passionate enjoyment, and
Speaker 1: better wrap my head around the cult important yet mystifying
Speaker 1: troll to sausage Man synthetic flesh, synthetic flesh, and assure
Speaker 1: you that I'm not holding my breath on a website
Speaker 1: and writing this from the grave. But you can't receive
Speaker 1: that for which you do not politely ask. No, pretty sure,
Speaker 1: I still have my head and brain and everything. Already,
Speaker 1: this looks so much longer than it felt in my head.
Speaker 1: So I shall away lest I conceive more syllables. Hope
Speaker 1: y'all are safe and well as that looks for you. Sophie, Well,
Speaker 1: I have to say I don't think there's really a
Speaker 1: cult following behind Sausage Man. No, I think that's just us.
Speaker 1: Just that's that hey, and maybe the cult is growing.
Speaker 1: Maybe we have three members of the cult. Now. I've
Speaker 1: never heard anybody else really make much cult reference to
Speaker 1: synthetic flesh either. Weirdly, because it seems like that should
Speaker 1: inspire you think, like we're saying that should be DJ
Speaker 1: should be dropping that sample um like crazy. I would think, yeah,
Speaker 1: sinthetic flesh, sin that flesh, synthetic flesh k car um.
Speaker 1: But then again, even if the even if the actual
Speaker 1: phrase synthetic flesh and that and that the line from
Speaker 1: the film isn't worshiped, I feel like that's the use
Speaker 1: of special effects in that film definitely influenced a lot
Speaker 1: of people. So at least the spirit of synthetic flesh
Speaker 1: has traveled far. Troll Too absolutely has its own organic
Speaker 1: cult following. But I think Sausage Man is all stuff
Speaker 1: to blow your mind, all right. This next one comes
Speaker 1: to us from Justin. This one says, hello, Rob, Joe,
Speaker 1: and Seth. I've been listening for approximately five years now,
Speaker 1: and this is my first time writing in. I have
Speaker 1: really enjoyed the new format. I realized it takes a
Speaker 1: lot of effort for everyone on the stuff to blow
Speaker 1: your mind team to pull together and put out quality
Speaker 1: content consistently. But you really have been and continue to
Speaker 1: deliver the goods each day and every day. But I
Speaker 1: must insert that I was perfectly fine with how it
Speaker 1: was before. As a consumer, your program has truly become
Speaker 1: a five course meal. I enjoy having a listener mail
Speaker 1: episode to kick the week off. It adds a real
Speaker 1: time element and offers a consideration on the perceptions of
Speaker 1: the audience with the topic while the topic is still
Speaker 1: fresh in my mind. While many of the listeners can
Speaker 1: offer expertise on subjects covered, I do not have anything
Speaker 1: new or exciting to offer at this time, and that's okay.
Speaker 1: I think I figure my input is just as valuable.
Speaker 1: I was concerned when Invention was absorbed. Invention episodes are
Speaker 1: a delight, and I'm happy to see core episodes of
Speaker 1: stuff to blow your mind include Invention. I feel that
Speaker 1: the Artifact episodes show if your writing skills. I would
Speaker 1: say your conversational tone has been what keeps me listening,
Speaker 1: and Artifact episodes might lack that tone but have the
Speaker 1: same DNA incorporating curiosity and wonder all the while acknowledging
Speaker 1: some topics are short and Sweet Weird House. I was
Speaker 1: talking with my wife about this new portion. She mentioned
Speaker 1: that it seems like this show is Taylor specifically for me.
Speaker 1: I happen to love movies found off the beaten path.
Speaker 1: I have often called them winners. I have a few
Speaker 1: personal favorites. I would love for you to explore Redline.
Speaker 1: If you only cover one animated feature, consider this film
Speaker 1: Creatures Speedsters an Invasion. I've watched this movie with the
Speaker 1: same group of friends several times, and I am always
Speaker 1: in awe. Funky Boy Awoken on Robo World. I don't
Speaker 1: know how to explain this movie. It's like a mashup
Speaker 1: of tropes and pop culture with an excellent artistic direction.
Speaker 1: Uh dr Otto and the riddle of the gloom Beam.
Speaker 1: I stumbled upon this. It plays off the zany characters
Speaker 1: developed by Jim Varney, a k ernest um, a low
Speaker 1: budget sci fi delight. It hits all the weird notes. Lastly,
Speaker 1: I'm a sing of praise and admiration. You folks are
Speaker 1: my travel companions and always with my spirits. You should
Speaker 1: know how much your work and your integrity means to
Speaker 1: me and my fellow listeners. Often your work is the
Speaker 1: best part of my day. Thank you. Oh well that
Speaker 1: is far too kind, justin Uh yeah, thanks for getting
Speaker 1: in touch, you know. Um, yeah, we appreciate the feedback,
Speaker 1: and thanks for bringing Redline to my attention. Uh. It
Speaker 1: was totally off my radar, but after watching a clip,
Speaker 1: I actually ordered a copy of this because it looks
Speaker 1: absolutely insane. So um, I don't know yet if it's
Speaker 1: definitely weird house material, but I'm looking forward to checking
Speaker 1: it out on my own at the very at least.
Speaker 1: As for dr Otto, I've never seen it, but I
Speaker 1: grew up watching all the Earnest movies of course, and
Speaker 1: weirdly enough, I was childhood friends with director Earnest, director
Speaker 1: and co creator John our Cherry the Third's nephew, and
Speaker 1: so I remember distinctly he had some his nephew had
Speaker 1: some art on his wall in his room. Uh that
Speaker 1: had that Dutch that his uncle had drawn or painted
Speaker 1: for him, and I remember it was like, you know,
Speaker 1: weird almost kind of psychedelic art. It was. It was
Speaker 1: pretty neat. Wow. I just looked up the VHS box
Speaker 1: for Doctor Otto and it is alive. Is this also?
Speaker 1: So it looks like Jim Varney as Earnest on the
Speaker 1: cover in like a little box, maybe just showing you like, hey,
Speaker 1: remember Ernest, it's this guy. But then the bigger picture
Speaker 1: is I think also Jim Varney, but more in a
Speaker 1: kind of psychedelic Elvis look. Uh. Yeah. He had several
Speaker 1: characters that he played. You know, he did the Arnest
Speaker 1: character at an old woman character, and then this gloom
Speaker 1: beam character who it was like him as some sort
Speaker 1: of maniacal, you know, creature with a hand on the
Speaker 1: top of his head. Um. I seem like I saw
Speaker 1: saw that character pop up on some TV show or
Speaker 1: another when I was a kid as well. You know
Speaker 1: what he looks like a character who could fit in
Speaker 1: and Phantom of the Paradise. Yeah, yeah, probably so Varney.
Speaker 1: Varney was a great performer. I enjoyed him and then
Speaker 1: pretty much everything I saw mostly it was Ernest films though,
Speaker 1: uh and I do remember Ernest Scared Stupid as being
Speaker 1: quite enjoyable, at least when I was a child. I
Speaker 1: gotta confess, I think I was scared by that movie
Speaker 1: like it had that was it had some legitimately scary
Speaker 1: stuff in it. As I recall, it's been a long time,
Speaker 1: but there's some sort of troll creature that is a
Speaker 1: central threat is like legitimately a bit scary. I think
Speaker 1: that it could turn people into wood by looking at them,
Speaker 1: and that prospect scared me. I did not want to
Speaker 1: be turned into wood. Yeah, it delivered more horror than
Speaker 1: an earnest film, uh had to, you know, but I
Speaker 1: guess it was you know, for a for creators like
Speaker 1: that was probably you know, one of the things. It's like,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna make just a whole bunch of earnest
Speaker 1: movies in your career, when you do a Halloween, when like,
Speaker 1: that's your excuse to let let loose and fit in
Speaker 1: as much like horror stuff as you possibly can. So
Speaker 1: I applaud them for that. Okay, now we got some
Speaker 1: straight up weird how cinema messages. So this first one
Speaker 1: comes from Brenda. Brenda says, hello, just listen to your
Speaker 1: ghost in the Machine episode. I remember that was the
Speaker 1: nineties cyber panic one that was like the haunted computer movie.
Speaker 1: And Brenda says, was wondering if Johnnynemonic from nineteen nine
Speaker 1: would be a movie you would consider for weird house cinema.
Speaker 1: It's based on William Gibson's story with the cast including
Speaker 1: Keanu Reeves, Dolf Lundgren, Ice Tea and Henry Rollins. And
Speaker 1: don't forget the Yakuza uh a must at the time
Speaker 1: for futuristic cyberpunk and Jones a military trained dolphin and
Speaker 1: it's set in one Thank You and stay well. Saying
Speaker 1: be well is a little too demolition man Brenda. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I've I've never seen Johnny Nemonic. Um so
Speaker 1: I'm well well aware of it. I mean it was
Speaker 1: based on a William Gibson short story, as I recall,
Speaker 1: and yeah, it's loaded with with fun performers, so I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe we'll check it out. We had it's
Speaker 1: a it takes place this year, so this would be
Speaker 1: the year to do it, I guess. So. Oh and
Speaker 1: then by serendipity, right around the same time, might maybe
Speaker 1: even the same day. We got another note from a
Speaker 1: listener about Johnnynemonic. This one was from Chris. Chris says, hi,
Speaker 1: Robin Joe queued up quite the interesting film this evening
Speaker 1: on Prime. I'm a big keyan New Reeves fan but
Speaker 1: had never seen Johnnynemonic. Not sure if it's weird enough,
Speaker 1: but it's quite interesting as there is a strange and
Speaker 1: nineties mashup of technology. There was talk of sending facts
Speaker 1: is having a brain capacity of three and twenty gigabytes,
Speaker 1: and some sort of device that looks like a mini
Speaker 1: CD player remember those. There is a wild device that
Speaker 1: looks sort of like a laser floss that can cut
Speaker 1: through anything. There's a cut scene of a concord jet landing.
Speaker 1: Dina Meyer, who plays uh I guess a character named
Speaker 1: Jane has a quite manic energy during some moment. Oh
Speaker 1: and Dolph Lundgren is in this movie. There's a dolphin
Speaker 1: that can scan sound waves and Kiano refers to it
Speaker 1: as a fish. To be honest, I feel bad for
Speaker 1: the dolphin. Iced Tea shows up as a character. Well,
Speaker 1: it's really something else best Chris, Well, there you go.
Speaker 1: I mean it sounds like we should probably add it
Speaker 1: to the list. I've got enough people asking for it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh and one last thing. Chris also wrote to us,
Speaker 1: like right around the same time to say that they
Speaker 1: were going to watch Boggy Creek two, and they said,
Speaker 1: thank you for always expanding my horizons. That's what That's
Speaker 1: what Boggy Creek two does, expands horizons. It's about learning,
Speaker 1: all right, here's another one that one comes to us
Speaker 1: from Wonko Wonco writes in and says, hello, Robert and Joe.
Speaker 1: I was getting caught up on this week's cast and
Speaker 1: listening to Weirdout Cinema episode on Demon Night, I was
Speaker 1: struck with inspiration to write in. You mentioned that each
Speaker 1: successive Chosen One adds their blood the key and possibly
Speaker 1: dilutes the blood of Christ in the process. But many
Speaker 1: Christian faiths believe that when normal water is added to
Speaker 1: holy water, then it too becomes holy. Perhaps the chosen
Speaker 1: One's blood is similarly transubstantiated when added. Thank you for everything,
Speaker 1: Wonko Odd, this is very good point. Yeah. So like
Speaker 1: the thing in the movies that Billy's aane, I guess
Speaker 1: is trying to pour all of the christ blood out
Speaker 1: of this bottle key thing. It's the mcguffin in the movie. Uh.
Speaker 1: And somehow the Chosen Ones, which originally is William Sadler,
Speaker 1: the guy who's doing like naked martial arts in his
Speaker 1: hotel room and die hard to uh and then later
Speaker 1: Jada Pinkett, Uh, they put their blood in there and uh,
Speaker 1: and I guess that somehow mixes with the blood of
Speaker 1: Christ and yeah, it does some kind of magic. But
Speaker 1: this is a good point though. I wonder if like
Speaker 1: by that logic, if the holy thing always like spreads
Speaker 1: its holiness basically infinitely, by almost the principle of like
Speaker 1: homeopathic medicine, you know, the things can just be like
Speaker 1: infinitely diluted. If it works like that, why couldn't you
Speaker 1: just like pour a drop of holy water into the
Speaker 1: ocean and then make all the water on earth holy
Speaker 1: m I don't know, because it eventually runs into uh fish,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Um, would that not have the with
Speaker 1: would the holy water not have the power to overcome
Speaker 1: the p the p enos um? I don't know, or
Speaker 1: maybe maybe any animal that's not specifically mentioned in the Bible.
Speaker 1: If the holy water encounters it's your and then it stops,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Um, maybe there's a range of effect.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like dungeons and dragons. We'd have to
Speaker 1: look at the spell, the exact text of the spell,
Speaker 1: and go by that. You know. This raises a good issue.
Speaker 1: I was just wondering about about the similarities between dungeons
Speaker 1: and dragons and constitutional law, and that could could you
Speaker 1: have like similar philosophy styles like are there dungeons and Dragons,
Speaker 1: strict constructionists versus original intent versus like living doc meant
Speaker 1: I guess you know, as I guess that the thing
Speaker 1: is in Dungeon and Dragons, you always have that dungeon
Speaker 1: master that their their word is the final word. I
Speaker 1: guess that also has theological connections, right, Like that's the
Speaker 1: debate between solo script tour of versus like does the
Speaker 1: church have a say yeah, yeah, I mean all the Ultimately,
Speaker 1: the bottom line is ask your dungeon master, because they
Speaker 1: are they are the divine will on earth. They are
Speaker 1: your pope. Alright. This next message comes from Dan, and
Speaker 1: it is also about Tales from the Crypt Demon Night.
Speaker 1: Dan says, and this is a this is a Crypt
Speaker 1: Keeper reference. So I'll try to do the voice. Hello, kitties.
Speaker 1: Oh that's pretty good, was it okay? Uh? Dan says,
Speaker 1: Hello kitties. I'm writing in regarding your weird House cinema
Speaker 1: episode on Demon Night. I never knew that it was
Speaker 1: a feature film that played in theaters and always thought
Speaker 1: it was a made for TV movie due to the
Speaker 1: fact that it was the Tales from the Crypt production.
Speaker 1: And I first watched it on HBO back in the
Speaker 1: late nineties. Personally, I thought the title never really fit,
Speaker 1: as Billy Zane is less a night and more like
Speaker 1: a drifter or hitchhiker. It is, it is a movie
Speaker 1: with with a very high drifter quotitioned Dan goes on. Still,
Speaker 1: I enjoyed it. I'm glad that you decided to cover
Speaker 1: Demon Knight and not Bordello of Blood because that movie,
Speaker 1: even by late nineties horror standards, is terrible. Why would
Speaker 1: anyone ever cast Dennis Miller as the snarky protagonist in
Speaker 1: a horror movie? Quick fun factor Regarding Demon Knight, I
Speaker 1: remember watching an interview somewhere with Jordan Peel who was
Speaker 1: asked his favorite final girl and he said it was
Speaker 1: Jada Pinkett and Demon Knight. Loving the Weird House Cinema episodes.
Speaker 1: Favorite Dick Miller rolls are in The Howling Gremlins and
Speaker 1: Terminator Dan Oh, Dan, Well, this was a great bit,
Speaker 1: and somehow this fact about Jordan Peel seemed familiar to me.
Speaker 1: I wasn't sure if we had mentioned it in the episode,
Speaker 1: but I assume not a uh, since you brought it
Speaker 1: up in the email here, So so I looked this up.
Speaker 1: I found the actual video. It's apparently an interview with
Speaker 1: The Wall Street Journal, which seems like a kind of
Speaker 1: strange venue for Jordan Peel to discuss his thoughts about
Speaker 1: horror as a genre. But it was a good interview
Speaker 1: where they're asking some kind of quick direct questions about
Speaker 1: like his favorite examples of things in horror, and he
Speaker 1: was giving his answers, and uh, there are some write
Speaker 1: ups you can find on the internet, like articles that
Speaker 1: summarize it, but I just wanted to talk about a
Speaker 1: few of the things, he says. Oh, and by the way,
Speaker 1: I guess I should should just say yeah, I'm a
Speaker 1: big Jordan Peel fan. I love Key and Peel. It's
Speaker 1: one of my favorite uh comedy shows of recent years.
Speaker 1: And Jordan Peel's horror movies are really good. Absolutely, But anyway,
Speaker 1: on the subject of horror, he talks about how the
Speaker 1: first movie that scared him was The Fly, and he
Speaker 1: says that it scared him because he watched it in
Speaker 1: an age that was really inappropriate. He's I think he's
Speaker 1: talking about the David Cronenberg Fly, not not the one
Speaker 1: with Vincent Price. And so I would mess you up
Speaker 1: that I would mess yet not a movie for kids
Speaker 1: to see. I don't know who should see that. I mean,
Speaker 1: like I respect that movie, but uh yeah, fun for
Speaker 1: no ages. Yeah, that's like with me. I saw RoboCop
Speaker 1: way too early and it's just like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: really really did off more than I could chew with that.
Speaker 1: But he also talked about a thing with reference to
Speaker 1: The Fly. That's something I definitely feel. He says, you know,
Speaker 1: part of what's good about horror is that, like he said,
Speaker 1: he watched The Fly and it really messed him up,
Speaker 1: like it scared him, but then once it was over,
Speaker 1: he got through it and he was less scared because
Speaker 1: he'd made it to the end. And it does give
Speaker 1: you a kind of feeling of mental fortification to like
Speaker 1: make it through a simulated scary experience in a horror
Speaker 1: movie and then you come out the other end safe. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But he also talks about how his favorite musical score
Speaker 1: from a horror movie is not Mere on ELM Street.
Speaker 1: I think that's a good choice. Yeah, I don't remember
Speaker 1: it at all. I would not go in that direction.
Speaker 1: I'd obviously go with with you know, some sort of
Speaker 1: Carpenter score I imagine. Yeah, I lean very on, very
Speaker 1: much on car Pender for for horror scores. But no,
Speaker 1: the now we're on ELM Street team is good as
Speaker 1: a do Do Do Do? Do Do? Do do do? Do you know? No? Okay,
Speaker 1: vaguely yeah. He says his favorite B horror movie is Critters.
Speaker 1: It's so good. That's that one that sounds that's on
Speaker 1: the potential list for weird House. Critters is good. I
Speaker 1: need to revisit Critters. I basically don't have memories of
Speaker 1: this movie. I think I think I've only sort of
Speaker 1: half watched it. Yeah, I mean it's another Gromlin movie,
Speaker 1: so we gotta get in there. He says the scariest
Speaker 1: horror villain is Michael Myers because he says he's not
Speaker 1: even evil, he's just curious, which I see what he's
Speaker 1: saying about that. But that's funny because that's a direct
Speaker 1: contradiction to what Loomis repeats over and over in Hewween
Speaker 1: and the whole series. The evil has escaped, He's the evil.
Speaker 1: Why are you not listening to Nick Jordan? Pe Uh.
Speaker 1: There is one part where he's asked to assemble an
Speaker 1: Avenger style team of horror villains. This is a really
Speaker 1: good mix, he says. Okay, Freddy Krueger, Candy Man, the
Speaker 1: silver Ball from Phantasm, Chucky from uh from the What's
Speaker 1: the Doll Movies, Child's Play, and one of the grab
Speaker 1: boids from Trimmer's. Now that is a team. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess so, I guess I could go with that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: come on, that's funny. Only three of them talk, and well, yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know Freddie's going to do most of the talking. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Chucky, Chuckie and Freddy both really talk
Speaker 1: a lot, so it's going to be mostly them with
Speaker 1: the silver Ball kind of going around in the background. Yeah. Oh,
Speaker 1: but then the last thing is that. Yeah. In that interview,
Speaker 1: Jordan Peele absolutely does say that he he's asked his
Speaker 1: favorite final girl and he says Jada Pinkett and Demon Knight.
Speaker 1: He says that, h she was the first black final
Speaker 1: girl that he could remember from a horror movie and
Speaker 1: and he identified with her. I think she's a great choice.
Speaker 1: I mean Demon Knight, as as we've said, is pretty wonderful. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's a solid horror flick. And yeah, and it
Speaker 1: it also goes to show, you know, the representation matters,
Speaker 1: you know, having having diversity in your cast matters because
Speaker 1: people are watching this and they grow they're you know,
Speaker 1: they're growing up. You know, we shouldn't get ourn entire
Speaker 1: view of of reality from horror films, but like that's
Speaker 1: part of the media we consume, you know. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: characters of horror films are not usually I don't know,
Speaker 1: aspirational figures or role models. But but be horror is
Speaker 1: a genre where I don't know, admirable levels of diversity
Speaker 1: are still not often achieved. Absolutely. Here's a question that
Speaker 1: what would an Avenger style team of horror villains like this,
Speaker 1: What would they be trying to achieve? What? Why would
Speaker 1: they come together? Like? What would they be a post?
Speaker 1: I imagine it's like suicide Squad or something right like that.
Speaker 1: We've got a we've got an even batter. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've never seen suicide Squad. I'm what I assume the
Speaker 1: plot of suicide Squad is is we've got a villain
Speaker 1: who's so bad they can only be defeated by people
Speaker 1: who are themselves bad. Oh man, what have it become?
Speaker 1: You could do it as like a generational thing, like
Speaker 1: to like there's a super team of of boring modern
Speaker 1: horror icons. You know, so it's like ghost Face and
Speaker 1: Uh and Jigsaw. I don't know. I realized those are
Speaker 1: probably not modern anymore. But it's like those guys, that
Speaker 1: generation of horror villains, and opposing them that the previous
Speaker 1: generations of generation of horror villains. So it's like generation
Speaker 1: versus generation. Who's gonna win? Okay, Actually we just got
Speaker 1: a suggestion from Seth about what the modern horror icons are.
Speaker 1: These are good. I couldn't think of them. So you've
Speaker 1: got Annabelle from the annabel movies that messed up doll.
Speaker 1: And then you've got I hate that thing. I tried
Speaker 1: to watch one of those movies. It was awful. Um,
Speaker 1: and then Uh, and then the guy from Sinister, which
Speaker 1: I also have not seen those movies, but Seth compared
Speaker 1: him to a member of slip Knot, and I think
Speaker 1: that's appropriate. That's exactly what he looks like. Now, they're
Speaker 1: often the same universe, right, is that the Conjuring universe
Speaker 1: that I've heard talk of? Well, Uh, annabel is the
Speaker 1: Conjuring universe. I don't think the Sinister guy is. I
Speaker 1: think he's just new Metal Demon universe. Okay, alright, I'm
Speaker 1: just not up enough on my my current horror I think. Okay.
Speaker 1: But anyway, so those are the villains, and then you
Speaker 1: need a team like a crack Avenger style team of
Speaker 1: traditional horror movie monsters, demons, and ball technology to go
Speaker 1: up against them. All right, sign me up? Okay, Phantasm
Speaker 1: ball versus Blair Witch, how about it? Right? The question
Speaker 1: is does the ball get lost in the woods? It's
Speaker 1: zooming around, but is it zooming in circles? Okay, I'll
Speaker 1: give it a shot. All right, Well, I guess we're
Speaker 1: gonna go ahead and uh put a stake in this
Speaker 1: one as well. Um, this is your weekly listener mail,
Speaker 1: but we'll be back next week, most likely with more
Speaker 1: listener mail, so keep it coming. If you have thoughts
Speaker 1: on content from this episode, If you have thoughts on
Speaker 1: recent episodes of Stuff to Blow your Mind, recent weird houses,
Speaker 1: recent artifacts, or older episodes of Stuff to Blow your Mind,
Speaker 1: ideas for future episodes, all that is on the table. Uh.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, if you want to check out any
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Speaker 1: A quick way to get to it is to go
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Speaker 1: And if you go there, you can also click on
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Speaker 1: where we have it like a t public shop where
Speaker 1: you can buy some some logos on T shirts and
Speaker 1: stickers and whatnot. So you know, that's kind of fun.
Speaker 1: Check it out if you want. Huge thanks as always
Speaker 1: to our excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you
Speaker 1: would like to get in touch with us with feedback
Speaker 1: on this episode or any other, to suggest a topic
Speaker 1: for the future, or just to say hello, you can
Speaker 1: email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind
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