Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. Listen
Speaker 2: your mail My name is Robert Lamb.
Speaker 3: And I'm Joe McCormick. And it is Monday, the day
Speaker 3: of each week that we read back messages from the
Speaker 3: Stuff to Blow your Mind mail bag. If you want
Speaker 3: to put your own entry into the mail bag, why
Speaker 3: not contact us. You can write a set contact at
Speaker 3: stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Whatever you want
Speaker 3: to send is fine. Of course, we always appreciate feedback
Speaker 3: to recent episodes, especially if you have something interesting to
Speaker 3: add to a topic we've already talked about. One example
Speaker 3: of that would be we recently did a couple of
Speaker 3: episodes that were called Oil over Troubled Water that were
Speaker 3: about the history of beliefs and scientific investigation of what
Speaker 3: happens when you pour oil on top of water, especially
Speaker 3: the idea that pouring oil on water can still the waves.
Speaker 3: There are folk tales of this going way way back
Speaker 3: hundreds of years, and then it turned out in the
Speaker 3: eighteenth century Benjamin Franklin did experiments on this very subject.
Speaker 3: He ended up walking around the world with a hollow
Speaker 3: cane that was full of olive oil that he would
Speaker 3: like pour in people's ponds to show them how the
Speaker 3: oil would spread out over the surface.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had like a James Bond cane with a
Speaker 2: little bit of oil in it.
Speaker 3: Anyway, Stephan writes in to add to this subject, Stephan says,
Speaker 3: thank you for your inspiring episodes about oil and water.
Speaker 3: As a chemist, I am particularly interested in everything concerning
Speaker 3: liquids and surfaces, no matter if they are muddy or oily.
Speaker 3: With water and a drop of oil, just regular stuff
Speaker 3: from the kitchen shelf, no special oil is needed. You
Speaker 3: can demonstrate the principle of a jet propulsion drive. It's
Speaker 3: a funny experiment, especially suitable for children. All you need
Speaker 3: is a bowl of water, not too big, even a
Speaker 3: soup plate will do, and a small piece of cardboard
Speaker 3: in the shape of a two D boat. Now cut
Speaker 3: out a piece of cardboard at the blunt end of
Speaker 3: the boat's silhouette. Make a hole in the shape of
Speaker 3: an old fashioned key hole. So Stefan explains a spoiler alert,
Speaker 3: I did this so, Yeah, you have kind of like
Speaker 3: a house shape and elongated house shape. It's like a
Speaker 3: box with a point on one end. And then at
Speaker 3: the back of the boat. You have this key hole
Speaker 3: cutout shape creates a circular hole and then a funnel
Speaker 3: shape leading away from it, leading out into the back
Speaker 3: of the water. Stephan attached to drawing for us, But
Speaker 3: that doesn't help you, the listener out there. But Stephan says,
Speaker 3: put this two dimensional boat flat on the surface of
Speaker 3: the water in your bowl slowly because you'll need a
Speaker 3: calm surface, and let a drop of oil fall into
Speaker 3: the circular part of the key hole shaped cut off.
Speaker 3: The oil will immediately spread out on the surface of
Speaker 3: the water, thereby pushing the small boat a little bit forward.
Speaker 3: Have a try. Thanks again for your work and for
Speaker 3: many greetings to the entire Stuff team. Stephan, well, I
Speaker 3: can report I, just before we recorded, tried this experiment
Speaker 3: in front of Rachel and the baby and it worked,
Speaker 3: though it took a couple of tries for some reason,
Speaker 3: I'm not sure exactly why. The first time I tried it,
Speaker 3: I did it in a plate with a full of water.
Speaker 3: I did the cutout in the cardboard, and then the
Speaker 3: first time it was a complete failure. The second time
Speaker 3: I tried it with a different cardboard boat after the
Speaker 3: first one got soaked through. But I dropped the oil
Speaker 3: in the hole and then the boat zipped across the
Speaker 3: surface of the water, and I guess what's going on
Speaker 3: here is Yeah, so the oil wants to spread out
Speaker 3: in as thin a layer as possible on the top
Speaker 3: of the water, and it can't do that when it's
Speaker 3: in the little circular hole at the top of the
Speaker 3: key hole at the back of the boat. So then
Speaker 3: it wants to spread out continuing across the water, and
Speaker 3: must do so by spreading through the funnel shape at
Speaker 3: the back of the boat. And it pushes the cardboard
Speaker 3: boat forward as it continues to spread going.
Speaker 2: Out the back. Oh, very cool.
Speaker 3: I wonder if the difference, because it did work the
Speaker 3: first time I tried it, and it did the second.
Speaker 3: I wonder if it's that the cardboard was thinner on
Speaker 3: my second run. That may have something to do with it.
Speaker 2: Well, that is neat. We don't often get to conduct
Speaker 2: science experiments based on listener mail, so this this was fun.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we read about them a lot, don't get to
Speaker 3: do them often enough.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sometimes we shouldn't. Definitely should not do them, because
Speaker 2: I was they're a little more on the dangerous end
Speaker 2: of the spectrum. All right, This next one comes to
Speaker 2: us from Levi. Levi says, Hello, Joe and Rob. I
Speaker 2: just wanted to send you both a quick email to
Speaker 2: say thank you from the bottom of my heart for
Speaker 2: your dedication to what you do. The shows you produce
Speaker 2: are thoughtful and well crafted and really unlike anything else
Speaker 2: out there. Please also pass my thanks onto the engineer
Speaker 2: and others who work so hard to make the podcast happen.
Speaker 2: I've been listening since twenty fifteen when I discovered your
Speaker 2: episode about Earth being the planet of fire, and I
Speaker 2: was hooked. Your show was a welcome bright spot through
Speaker 2: a really awful period in life, and you have both
Speaker 2: become familiar comforts. I'm sure you are inundated with quote
Speaker 2: unquote helpful suggestions for topics. Well, they're always helpful, but
Speaker 2: I had the notion the other day while playing music
Speaker 2: that electric guitars could potentially be an interesting deep dive
Speaker 2: all the science and innovation behind creating them, but also
Speaker 2: the utter chaos and weirdness of effect pedals and the
Speaker 2: endless array of sounds possible with them. Feel free to
Speaker 2: file this away in the eye roll, Ben if you'd like.
Speaker 2: Sincere best wishes and warm regards. Levi.
Speaker 3: Oh, well, first of all, thank you very much for
Speaker 3: the kind words, LEVI. Also, I would say, you know,
Speaker 3: I have a mixed reaction to this, because on one hand,
Speaker 3: I think an Invention episode on electric guitars and effects
Speaker 3: pedals would be a wonderful idea, though I ended up
Speaker 3: having a kind of curious reaction the more I thought
Speaker 3: about doing this on the show, and then I kind
Speaker 3: of became more interested in my reaction than in the
Speaker 3: topic itself. But this is what I ended up thinking.
Speaker 2: Rob.
Speaker 3: So the electric guitar is a topic that I have
Speaker 3: a hunch I would have a frustrating time preparing an
Speaker 3: episode on and would ultimately do a bad job of
Speaker 3: explaining in the episode because it's a topic that I
Speaker 3: already know a good bit about. But I feel like
Speaker 3: the knowledge I have is not the right kind of knowledge.
Speaker 3: So I play electric guitar, and I have a lot
Speaker 3: of thoughts and feelings about electric guitars, but I don't
Speaker 3: have like deep technical knowledge about how they work or
Speaker 3: much about I don't know that much about the history
Speaker 3: of their invention, and I could be wrong, but I
Speaker 3: feel like this is the wrong position to be in
Speaker 3: this is the position where it actually makes it harder
Speaker 3: to cover a subject than if you started off knowing
Speaker 3: nothing at all, if you were totally unfamiliar, because I
Speaker 3: feel like there may have been things sort of in
Speaker 3: this category before where I already had a sort of
Speaker 3: personal familiarity, and it creates a feeling that one should
Speaker 3: have lots more to say and lots more to share.
Speaker 3: But then if you start trying to say those things,
Speaker 3: it feels like you have to say it turns out
Speaker 3: you've never tried to put them into words before, and
Speaker 3: ultimately maybe they're not very insightful or not very generally interesting.
Speaker 3: I think topics like this lend themselves to an illusion
Speaker 3: of having more to say than you do, and that's
Speaker 3: not a good place to be in when you when
Speaker 3: you're recording a podcast, you know that's supposed to be
Speaker 3: interesting for other people. Rob does that make any sense?
Speaker 3: And have you ever had this experience when making the show?
Speaker 2: I would say maybe sometimes, not often, but sometimes I
Speaker 2: feel like this within a weird house selection, Like there
Speaker 2: might be a film that I have a lot of
Speaker 2: maybe a lot of history with, and then I realized that, yeah,
Speaker 2: a lot of my knowledge about the film is more like,
Speaker 2: it's more like feelings and internalized things, and I haven't
Speaker 2: really stopped and sort of even put them in words
Speaker 2: in my head before. And sometimes it's just part of
Speaker 2: the exercise of getting ready for the episode. But other times,
Speaker 2: you know, there might be some detail about it where
Speaker 2: we actually get into recording and I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: I don't think I've actually, you know, attempted to explain
Speaker 2: how I feel about this before, and it's probably come
Speaker 2: up with some topics before when I'm just nothing, I'm
Speaker 2: struggling to come up with an example from a stuff
Speaker 2: to blow your mind episode.
Speaker 3: I know exactly what you're talking about. With Weird House,
Speaker 3: there are I feel like, some of the hardest episodes
Speaker 3: to do, and some of the ones where I've felt
Speaker 3: the least like I did a good job of making
Speaker 3: an interesting and entertaining episode were the ones where I
Speaker 3: had kind of a history with the movie and I
Speaker 3: already had a lot of feelings about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, Like if I'm if I'm going to try
Speaker 2: and share my excitement about, say, George Eastman popping up
Speaker 2: in a film, you know, it's like I need to
Speaker 2: be able to say more than like and it's George Eastman,
Speaker 2: and like as if you already have the same emotions
Speaker 2: that I do when his name and his grinning face
Speaker 2: comes up, Like, you know, I need to I need
Speaker 2: to actually explain why this is noteworthy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think you can get there. But this
Speaker 3: is one of the to come back to a topic
Speaker 3: I've also talked about on the show before, the idea
Speaker 3: that I feel like I often don't know what I
Speaker 3: think about a subject until I've tried to write about it.
Speaker 3: I feel like maybe it's episodes where you know you
Speaker 3: already have some kind of relationship with the topic and
Speaker 3: feelings about it that really benefit from a good bit
Speaker 3: of pre writing. Otherwise, you go in with the impression
Speaker 3: that you're going to be able to talk extemporaneously about
Speaker 3: a subject in a compelling way, and then you oops,
Speaker 3: you can't. Actually you just kind of get mushmouthed and
Speaker 3: realize that the things it feels like you have to
Speaker 3: say are not actually things that are worth saying, and
Speaker 3: you should have tried to write about it first. At
Speaker 3: least that's my feeling about myself now.
Speaker 2: As far as electric guitars specifically goes as a topic
Speaker 2: in a way This would be perfect because you have
Speaker 2: some experience and some knowledge. I have very little experience
Speaker 2: with with guitars. Even I have no idea how electric
Speaker 2: guitar works really, so I know what I like when
Speaker 2: I hear it, but yeah, I don't know anything about
Speaker 2: actually how they function. So we could do an episode
Speaker 2: where I ask questions about how an electric guitar works,
Speaker 2: and then you answer, but not with words, but by
Speaker 2: noodling on the electric guitar. Yeah, and we do that
Speaker 2: for about, like, you know, an hour and a half.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm gonna give you a little slightly out of tune,
Speaker 3: slightly off tempo lick here to think about. But anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 3: so thank you again, Levi for suggesting this topic. I
Speaker 3: think it could be a really interesting subject, and I
Speaker 3: just have to recognize that it would probably be more
Speaker 3: difficult and require more intensive preparation than it feels like
Speaker 3: it should than my you know, than the illusion my
Speaker 3: familiarity might might create in my brain about what I
Speaker 3: already know. And anyway, if this hunch is correct, I
Speaker 3: think it's kind of interesting that it manifests this way.
Speaker 3: Sometimes that like the ideal stance from which to talk
Speaker 3: about a subject in a compelling way is to either
Speaker 3: have like a genuine mastery or expertise in a in
Speaker 3: a linguistic sense, like this is something you've already read
Speaker 3: and written a lot about and so you can form
Speaker 3: what is interesting about it into words quite readily. Or
Speaker 3: you need to be a kind of outsider who's just
Speaker 3: done a bunch of research for the first time on
Speaker 3: that subject. There's kind of a danger zone in the
Speaker 3: middle where you're already overly familiar with something on the
Speaker 3: basis of direct private personal interest, but you've never you know,
Speaker 3: you've never turned that into a communication before.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we've mentioned before, like that's that's the place,
Speaker 2: at least for my case, that's where I run a
Speaker 2: greater risk of getting something wrong on the podcast, where
Speaker 2: it's just something that I think, I know, it's not
Speaker 2: directly related to what we're researching and recording. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: these are these are good points, and I think that Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think one of the strengths of the show is
Speaker 2: that is that you're you're listening to curious general us
Speaker 2: who are not experts in the topics they're covering. They
Speaker 2: are going in and exploring these topics for you. Slash
Speaker 2: with you. However, you want to interpret the experience of
Speaker 2: listening to an informative podcast.
Speaker 3: Right, And I think one thing we tried to do
Speaker 3: to help drive that home always is we talk about
Speaker 3: our research process a lot. Instead of just like here's
Speaker 3: the encyclopedia entry. We like talk about our experience of
Speaker 3: learning about the issue.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, shall we dive into a little Weird
Speaker 2: House Cinema mail? Ah? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, how about this message from Christopher. Christopher says, Hi,
Speaker 3: longtime listener to your podcast, especially a fan of Weird
Speaker 3: House Cinema, which is my favorite thing to see coming
Speaker 3: up in my podcast feed. I recently watched the tabletop
Speaker 3: RPG spinoff movie Mutant Chronicles with some friends. Preparatory to
Speaker 3: the email, here says staying off a campaign of the game.
Speaker 3: I think maybe Christopher means starting off a campaign of
Speaker 3: the game. That would make sense, and we all agreed
Speaker 3: that it is awesomely weird. I've been meaning to mail
Speaker 3: you guys as a suggestion and only now realized how
Speaker 3: new it is. Two thousand and eight is maybe too
Speaker 3: recent for weird House, but otherwise I think it's a
Speaker 3: good fit. Failing that, perhaps one of my old favorites,
Speaker 3: also starring Ron Pearlman The City of Lost Children from
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety five. Keep up the good work, Christopher ah Well.
Speaker 2: Thanks Christopher Well. First of all, this year we did
Speaker 2: expand our range on Weird House Cinnam into the twenty
Speaker 2: first century, at least a little bit. So as of
Speaker 2: right now, from the nineteen twenties through the twenty twenties,
Speaker 2: we've covered films from every decade except the dreaded twenty tens,
Speaker 2: which I'm kidding. There's definitely some stuff from the twenty
Speaker 2: tens we could cover, but thus far we have not
Speaker 2: done it. Now. As for two thousand and eights, Mutant
Speaker 2: Chronicles in particular, I do remember when this one came out,
Speaker 2: I don't, I guess I saw the trailer. I remember
Speaker 2: seeing stills. I know I've picked up the box at
Speaker 2: Video Drome, the rental store here in Atlanta, but I've
Speaker 2: never seen it. I looked it up again. Yeah, it
Speaker 2: has a solid cast. I like a number of the
Speaker 2: individuals that are in it. And I was vaguely familiar
Speaker 2: with Mutant Chronicles the RPG from seeing the materials for
Speaker 2: it in bookstores over the years. Mostly, you know, looking
Speaker 2: at the cover art, which tends to have this kind
Speaker 2: of colorful euro comic vibe, reminds me a little bit
Speaker 2: of like two thousand and eighty, a little bit of
Speaker 2: various Warhammer covers, especially the older Warhammer covers an yea
Speaker 2: and some nice splashes of color. I look at stills
Speaker 2: from this film and I just don't see that same
Speaker 2: visual vibe. It looks all a little dreary, and I
Speaker 2: think that's the reason I never picked it up and
Speaker 2: never gave it a chance. But who knows that. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, if Christopher thinks it's weird and worth a
Speaker 2: second look, then maybe I should check it out.
Speaker 3: I mean, Rob, I think one fair thing to consider
Speaker 3: is this kind of dreary looking color palette, the kind
Speaker 3: of gray, brown and orange color palette there was common
Speaker 3: to many movies in the two thousands, is also right
Speaker 3: there in one of your favorites. That's sort of the
Speaker 3: vibe of Chronicles Riddic.
Speaker 2: True, True, Chronicles of Ritic does have that that basic
Speaker 2: color scheme or lack thereof, But I don't know, Yeah,
Speaker 2: this one might have to just really bite the bullet
Speaker 2: and give this one a go, because again, I like
Speaker 2: like all the folks in this. You got Thomas Jane,
Speaker 2: you got Ron Pearlman, you got Bino Fuhman, who I've
Speaker 2: grown to really love on Babylon Berlin the German. It's
Speaker 2: a historic crime series. It's really good. You got John
Speaker 2: Malkovich in there. So yeah, a lot of solid actors,
Speaker 2: and I'm generally down for some sort of weird post
Speaker 2: apocalyptics type thing. So I don't know. I wonder if
Speaker 2: they'll ever be an effort to put films off this
Speaker 2: Nature Grant technic color with like they're so fat and
Speaker 2: let's get some color in there. Yeah, because you see
Speaker 2: a lot of the reverse like where they're like, this
Speaker 2: is so good, let us do it in black and
Speaker 2: white as well, and this like yeah, the miss they
Speaker 2: did on an episode of one of the episodes of
Speaker 2: Cabinet of Curiosities too. I noticed the one about the
Speaker 2: rat episode, the grave robber episode, that is rather good.
Speaker 2: But yeah, they also put it in black and white.
Speaker 2: I wonder if we should get back into doing some
Speaker 2: sort of some of the color colorization and the weird
Speaker 2: colorization once more.
Speaker 3: I do feel like this has kind of been a
Speaker 3: force pushing me away from selecting movies from the two
Speaker 3: thousands for weird House Cinema because a lot of the
Speaker 3: like sci fi and horror type movies of this period,
Speaker 3: movies in our kind of genre zone have this this horrible, murky,
Speaker 3: dreary look. They've got you know, cgi that just wasn't
Speaker 3: quite there yet, but the movie is full of it,
Speaker 3: and they've got this you know, earth tones, but not
Speaker 3: the nice kind. It just kind of just gloomy, dreary,
Speaker 3: unexciting color palettes and and not enough actual props and sets.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think again. It's one of the reasons
Speaker 2: I love Panos Cosmnics's stuff so much, because, yeah, the
Speaker 2: sets are there and the color is definitely there. Say
Speaker 2: what you will about Panos Cosmonics films, but they are colorful.
Speaker 3: Yes, But I don't know, I'm here, I'm just judging
Speaker 3: off of like a few screenshots in the posters, so
Speaker 3: maybe that's not yet representative. I'd give it a shot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, plus, we love some black and white films,
Speaker 2: so yeah. Now, as far as The City of Lost
Speaker 2: Children specifically goes, oh, I mean that obviously is a
Speaker 2: great film. I haven't seen it in a number of years,
Speaker 2: but for a while it was one of my favorites.
Speaker 2: I think when I was first turned on to it,
Speaker 2: you know, I was like, oh, well, this is great.
Speaker 2: It's French cinema from here on out, and we do
Speaker 2: need to watch some French cinema on Weirdelse Cinema. In
Speaker 2: addition to keeping track of the decades we've covered, we
Speaker 2: have yet to cover an actual French film. We've you know,
Speaker 2: covered some stuff with French talent in it, but nothing
Speaker 2: you could really say, you know, this is this is
Speaker 2: French cinema.
Speaker 3: Well, as long as we're talking about Jean Pierre June,
Speaker 3: I know you're you're trying to needle me into talking
Speaker 3: about Alien Resurrection.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, obviously that's a that it as one of
Speaker 2: the films he directed. I don't know if it's a
Speaker 2: great example of French cinema per se. It does have
Speaker 2: his fingerprints on it. It has a lot of people's
Speaker 2: fingerprints on it. And Ron Pearlman, Yeah, Ron Pearlman's in there.
Speaker 2: I mean, Brad Doro, I mean, you got you got
Speaker 2: a tremendous cast in that film. You've got some you've
Speaker 2: got monsters, you've got a daring take on the franchise.
Speaker 2: But also I guess a lot of stuff that just
Speaker 2: really doesn't quite work. This is a film you famously
Speaker 2: hate too, you.
Speaker 3: Know our attitude, we try to find things to like
Speaker 3: and appreciate, even about you know, b movies and stuff
Speaker 3: that's not not great in a traditional critical sense. But
Speaker 3: oh yeah, that's one I can't really mask. I just
Speaker 3: don't like it. It's it's gross and it's ugly, and
Speaker 3: it's just I don't know that. The sights and the
Speaker 3: sounds are not what I want in my brain. It
Speaker 3: just and I think it also maybe maybe part of
Speaker 3: it's just emotional to me because I love the early
Speaker 3: Alien movies so much, you know, the first two are
Speaker 3: are some of my favorites, and seeing it go to
Speaker 3: go to that place just causes pain.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, maybe maybe City or Lost Children or
Speaker 2: Delicatessen would be something to consider. And I know, as
Speaker 2: far as French film in general goes, eyes without a
Speaker 2: Face has been kind of like up there as a possibility,
Speaker 2: but we've we've yet to really pull the trigger. So
Speaker 2: we'd love to hear from folks out there. If you
Speaker 2: are an officionado of weird French cinema, hit us up
Speaker 2: with some recommendations because we need to check that one
Speaker 2: off the list.
Speaker 3: You know, there's one I was looking at just the
Speaker 3: other day, a French fantasy musical that is in Michael
Speaker 3: Weldon's collection called Donkey Skin. I've never seen it.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I'm I'm familiar with the listing, but I
Speaker 2: haven't s this one either.
Speaker 3: I don't know how weird it actually is. But it
Speaker 3: made the Psychotronic Guide and it's got a reputation for
Speaker 3: being quite good. But yeah, I don't know anything else
Speaker 3: about it. It's got donkey in the title, it's French.
Speaker 3: They sing songs.
Speaker 2: Well, next time I go into video drama, I'll ask,
Speaker 2: dear sir, do you have Donkey Skin? All right?
Speaker 3: One last message today. This is from Lee. Lisays, good day, Rob,
Speaker 3: Joe and JJ, replying to your request for feedback from
Speaker 3: first time viewers of The Maze. I will echo your
Speaker 3: feelings that the film had a tendency to drag a bit.
Speaker 2: Yes it did.
Speaker 3: Oh and a brief spoiler. If you haven't actually watched
Speaker 3: The Maze, watch out here we go. Lisays, honestly I
Speaker 3: missed the telltale toad, but not that it was a creature.
Speaker 3: Somewhat obscured by the darkness, but the toadiness got by me,
Speaker 3: most likely because I had been lulled a bit by
Speaker 3: the overall pace of the film. This refers to a
Speaker 3: part later in the movie where characters see a gigant
Speaker 3: toad or frog scampering into a secret passageway and you
Speaker 3: sort of see the back half of it. The spoiler
Speaker 3: for the ending of the film is that it turns
Speaker 3: out the entire movie is about the master of a
Speaker 3: Scottish castle being secretly a giant frog.
Speaker 2: Yes, and part of our discussion in the episode was, well,
Speaker 2: what would it be like for a first time viewer?
Speaker 2: Would you really notice the toad butt Because we were
Speaker 2: looking for it. We knew that what the spoiler was
Speaker 2: going to be. We knew there was going to be
Speaker 2: a giant frog or toad at the end of the
Speaker 2: of the of the movie, and we were wondering what
Speaker 2: would it be like for everyone else.
Speaker 3: Now, there's another thing that we couldn't quite explain, which
Speaker 3: is that when they go up to the giant frog's
Speaker 3: secret chambers, when our Holmes and Watson of the film
Speaker 3: what's her name? Kitty and Aunt Edith?
Speaker 2: Is that right? Yep?
Speaker 3: They go up to the chambers and they find a
Speaker 3: bowl of tomatoes. So what's the significance of that. I
Speaker 3: don't know. Tomatoes. Is that what giant frogs are just
Speaker 3: known to eat? We had no idea, but Li says
Speaker 3: one comment about the bowl of tomatoes. About the tomatoes.
Speaker 3: At first thought a tomato consuming creature had me flashing
Speaker 3: back to the children's story Bunicula. Is this about a
Speaker 3: vampire rabbit that eats vegetables?
Speaker 2: I think so. I didn't know anything about this till
Speaker 2: I noticed our coworker, Laren Vogelbaum, wearing a T shirt
Speaker 2: that had this rabbit and this slogan or this franchise
Speaker 2: title on it. I'd never heard of it.
Speaker 3: The wiki says Binicula is the titular character, a harmless
Speaker 3: rabbit with unusual eating habits and minor vampiric qualities. All right,
Speaker 3: fair enough, But Lee's email goes on A second thought
Speaker 3: had me wondering if the tomatoes were not so much
Speaker 3: the primary food of the creature but bait to attract
Speaker 3: flies all the like. Just a thought, Hey, yeah, that's
Speaker 3: an idea.
Speaker 2: There we go, there we go. Of course, this is
Speaker 2: a pretty big frog er Toe you might be going
Speaker 2: after rats and mice, which you know, it still makes
Speaker 2: still stands. Put some rotten tomatoes out there and get
Speaker 2: the rodents in and then his lordship can feased.
Speaker 3: Rats and mice. I mean that's that's like finger foods
Speaker 3: that it's going after, like goats and donkeys and stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not that we see anything like that in the film.
Speaker 3: No, but sorry. Even just this line about attraction flies
Speaker 3: just briefly sent me into a rage because we I
Speaker 3: bought some fresh fruit earlier this week and we've had
Speaker 3: it sitting out on the counter as we've been eating
Speaker 3: through it. But now it's start. The fruit flies have attacked.
Speaker 2: Time to bust out the vinegar and the dish up.
Speaker 3: Does that work for you? I've had it work a
Speaker 3: little bit occasionally, but overall it's a bust for me.
Speaker 2: I've had it work very well for me if I
Speaker 2: but but two things. I have to buy the specialized
Speaker 2: little container that doesn't tip over, that looks like a
Speaker 2: little fruit or something that has been surprising helpful. And
Speaker 2: I have I look up a recipe and I'd be
Speaker 2: very I try to be very precise in how I'm
Speaker 2: doing it, because where when I haven't had any luck
Speaker 2: with it. Is when I thought I could just sort
Speaker 2: of throw it together.
Speaker 3: Okay, interesting, I think I have tried to throw it
Speaker 3: together and that that didn't work. So maybe maybe i'll
Speaker 3: I'll stick to the recipe and see.
Speaker 2: If it works.
Speaker 3: But anyway, sorry. To finish out Lee's email, Li says
Speaker 3: about the Maze overall a fun watch and would recommend
Speaker 3: That's very generous of you, Lee, But Lee also says,
Speaker 3: I watched Invaders from Mars upon your recommendation. I found
Speaker 3: it to be pretty cool film as well. Wow those costumes, Yes,
Speaker 3: there are some really stunning, super weird costumes in that.
Speaker 3: Li says, love the podcast regards.
Speaker 2: All right, and here's one final one. This one comes
Speaker 2: to is from Kenny. Kenny says, Hi, Rob, Joe, and
Speaker 2: JJ I would love for you to consider Star Trek
Speaker 2: to the Wrath of Khan for weird house. First off,
Speaker 2: it's my favorite Kirk era movie. I assume that's Trek movies,
Speaker 2: but it could be just Kirk Era movies in general.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is a highly regarded film, no joking.
Speaker 2: It's a proper swashbuckling yarn filled to the brim with
Speaker 2: the sort of ponderous yet thrilling naval action you might
Speaker 2: find in Master and Commander or Hornblower. It has William Shatner,
Speaker 2: somehow playing second fiddle in the scenery chewing department to
Speaker 2: Ricardo Montaban's gloriously mad khn Noonan Singh, a bare chested
Speaker 2: moby Dick quoting genetically enhanced superhuman on a quest for vengeance.
Speaker 2: It has a wonderful score by none other than James Horner.
Speaker 2: It has brilliant practical effects and an ill judged immersion
Speaker 2: breaking CGI sequence. It has a hero and antagonist who
Speaker 2: not only failed to have a punch up at the
Speaker 2: end of the movie, but are never even present in
Speaker 2: the same room. It's a brilliant story of revenge and
Speaker 2: loss of unwei than the rediscovery of one's calling. This
Speaker 2: is the original Star Trek cast at their best, as
Speaker 2: director Nicholas Meyer crafted a follow up to the terminally
Speaker 2: slow paced motion picture Ak Star Trek, the motion picture
Speaker 2: in the first example of the even numbered Trek movies
Speaker 2: being better. Keep up the amazing work.
Speaker 3: Kenny, Oh yeah, Kenny, Well, I gotta gotta agree with that.
Speaker 3: I'm I'm a big fan of Wrath of Khan it's
Speaker 3: it's super solid.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like even if you're not a big big fan
Speaker 2: of like Kirk Era Trek, I mean, it's wrap to
Speaker 2: con it's it's the it's the best of those movies
Speaker 2: by far. I think.
Speaker 3: I said when we were covering uh, what, oh, what's
Speaker 3: the cult melting movie? The melting movie train, Well, we
Speaker 3: were talking about that and I was saying, you know,
Speaker 3: of course William Shatner can be a total hand, but
Speaker 3: sometimes he's quite good. And the example I gave was
Speaker 3: the the Nicholas Meyer star Trek movies. I think he's
Speaker 3: totally good in those.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, strong cast. I mean you get the traditional cast,
Speaker 2: but then you have you have some great players in
Speaker 2: it as well, especially Ricardo Montmt.
Speaker 3: Only change I would have introduced is have uh, have
Speaker 3: con quote Moby Dick even more. Do the whole monologues
Speaker 3: about like it was looking in a mirror and seeing
Speaker 3: steam rising off of his head in the summer, and
Speaker 3: about the like the blast out of the blowhole, and
Speaker 3: then do the chapter about the guy cutting out the
Speaker 3: skin of the whales penis and turning into a coat
Speaker 3: and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the extended director's cut.
Speaker 3: Okay, I think that's got to do it for today.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, we're going to go and close up
Speaker 2: the mail bag then, but hey, we'd love to hear
Speaker 2: from everyone out there. If you have thoughts on recent
Speaker 2: episodes of Stuff to Blow your Mind, Weird House, Cinema, Artifact,
Speaker 2: Monster Fact, other episodes of Listener mail, write in let
Speaker 2: us know I I mean, write in about older episodes,
Speaker 2: write in about potential future episodes of all of these shows.
Speaker 3: All of that is fair game huge thanks to our
Speaker 3: excellent audio producer JJ Posway. If you would like to
Speaker 3: get in touch with us with feedback on this episode
Speaker 3: or any other, to suggest a topic for the future,
Speaker 3: or just to say hi, you can email us at
Speaker 3: contact at stuff to blow your Mind dot com.
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