Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind Listener Mail.
Speaker 2: My name is Robert.
Speaker 3: Lamb and I am Joe McCormick, and hey on our
Speaker 3: listener mail episodes of Stuff to Blow Your Mind. What
Speaker 3: do you think we do? Can you guess read messages?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, we got to get into the old mail bag
Speaker 3: messages from the Stuff to Blow your Mind email address.
Speaker 3: If you are a listener or a watcher on Netflix
Speaker 3: and you have never gotten in touch before, it's always
Speaker 3: a great time for it to be the first time.
Speaker 3: You can reach us at contact at stuff to Blow
Speaker 3: your Mind dot com. Whatever type of message you want
Speaker 3: to send is fair game. We do our best to
Speaker 3: read all of it. We often don't get a chance
Speaker 3: to reply to all of these messages, but if you
Speaker 3: do send something into the show, there's a chance it
Speaker 3: could be featured in a listener mail episode like this one.
Speaker 2: That's right, and since I think it's going to come
Speaker 2: up pretty early in this episode, will also go and
Speaker 2: mention that, yeah, we're on some of the socials. We
Speaker 2: also have a discord server for the show. To join
Speaker 2: that Discord server, you just need to email us and
Speaker 2: we'll send you the link. You know, maybe it's not
Speaker 2: the most efficient way to do that, but it's the
Speaker 2: way we keep doing it. I don't know. It makes
Speaker 2: it feel a little more special when people actually join,
Speaker 2: like you've got to want it enough to actually email
Speaker 2: us and ask for the link. They actually have to
Speaker 2: have a handoff of information.
Speaker 3: Does that make it less likely that the discord is
Speaker 3: infiltrated by bots? I don't know how Discord works.
Speaker 2: I guess so, I don't know. I don't know the
Speaker 2: current state of bots. It's possible they are all bots
Speaker 2: in there and they just all have me fooled. But
Speaker 2: they're nice bots on the whole, so I guess I'm
Speaker 2: not opposed to it.
Speaker 3: Well, maybe we should start off with a message from
Speaker 3: Discord today. So this is our first message. It's going
Speaker 3: to be from Taylor, and it is in response to
Speaker 3: our series from a few weeks back on the theme
Speaker 3: of being upside down. So this message it actually relates
Speaker 3: to multiple things we got into in that series. One
Speaker 3: topic is what are called inversion illusions among astronauts in microgravity,
Speaker 3: So you know, astronauts when they're in orbit around the
Speaker 3: Earth and the space station or on the way up
Speaker 3: sometimes report these these strange kind of sensations where they
Speaker 3: will be in microgravity and then suddenly just like their
Speaker 3: subjective vertical flips, and they suddenly think, Oh, I'm upside down,
Speaker 3: I'm hanging upside down. So we talked about that and
Speaker 3: some interesting effects of inversion illusions, like how can it
Speaker 3: can like disrupt your perception of objects and things like that.
Speaker 3: The other idea from that series is the Thatcher illusion.
Speaker 3: That's this interesting psychology discovery about what happens when you
Speaker 3: make grotesque alterations to a picture of a human face,
Speaker 3: like if you flip the eyes and the mouth upside
Speaker 3: down relative to the rest of the head. The Thatcher
Speaker 3: illusion finding is that while these modifications are immediately obvious
Speaker 3: and usually quite funny when looking at a picture right
Speaker 3: side up, they become to most people virtually invisible when
Speaker 3: the picture is turned upside down, and we get into
Speaker 3: some theoretical reasons why that could be the case. So
Speaker 3: on to Taylor's message here. Taylor writes have an interesting
Speaker 3: tidbit to add to the upside down discussion. Turning illustrations
Speaker 3: and reference images upside down is a tried and true
Speaker 3: mind hack artists use to help reproduce those images more accurately.
Speaker 3: To paraphrase an art instructor's explanation, our minds develop heuristic
Speaker 3: concepts of what certain categories of things look like. When
Speaker 3: illustrating a subject, the brain supplements sensory information from the
Speaker 3: eyes with the heuristics offered up by our inner eye. Consequently,
Speaker 3: an illustration of a subject is often skewed by what
Speaker 3: we think the subject ought to look like. Inverting the
Speaker 3: reference image slash subject makes it unfamiliar parentheses, we do
Speaker 3: not have heuristic concepts of what most things look like
Speaker 3: upside down, forcing the mind to abandon heuristic data and
Speaker 3: focus on visual sensory information, helping an artist replicate the
Speaker 3: image more accurately. I have to imagine something similar is
Speaker 3: happening to astronauts experiencing inversion hallucinations and seeing familiar objects differently.
Speaker 3: Perhaps the inversion is forcing them to observe the objects
Speaker 3: more actively than they would at their typical vertical, where
Speaker 3: mental heuristics might be supplementing their image processing. Well, thank you, Taylor.
Speaker 3: That is a really interesting thing to add to this discussion.
Speaker 3: I don't think I've ever used this technique myself, but
Speaker 3: I should give it a try. I think I've talked
Speaker 3: about this on the show before, but to my family
Speaker 3: and friends, I am notoriously a terrible visual artist. Of
Speaker 3: the things I draw attend to provoke the storms of
Speaker 3: laughter from onlookers. So yeah, maybe this will finally help
Speaker 3: me with my artistic breakthrough.
Speaker 2: Well, I just always doodle goblins and the like, because
Speaker 2: that way you always nail it one hundred percent. There's
Speaker 2: no messing that up.
Speaker 3: That's true.
Speaker 2: All right, Here's here's another one. This one, I guess.
Speaker 2: This one came in via email. Am I correct on this?
Speaker 2: From matt yep Ye subject line I am upside down? Hi, guys.
Speaker 2: Listening to your upside Down episodes made me remember something
Speaker 2: from my childhood. In the front yard, we had a
Speaker 2: tree that had branches forked in just the right way
Speaker 2: to be perfect for hooking your legs over to hang
Speaker 2: upside down. So naturally that was something me, my siblings,
Speaker 2: and many of the neighborhood kids all did on a
Speaker 2: semi regular basis. Now, the specific memory that the episodes
Speaker 2: brought up was about a time that a friend was
Speaker 2: hanging upside down and he commented how it looked like
Speaker 2: I was walking on the ceiling. This struck me at
Speaker 2: the time because such a thought had never occurred to me.
Speaker 2: I think it has something to do with me having dyslexia.
Speaker 2: But to me, the people around me still seemed right
Speaker 2: side up even when I was upside down. I'm tempted
Speaker 2: to use the words that they looked right side up,
Speaker 2: but I think that isn't exactly right. It's more they
Speaker 2: felt right side up, and the orientation of how they
Speaker 2: looked didn't really matter to my brain. They were just
Speaker 2: right side up. I don't know, but maybe you can
Speaker 2: pull some discussion points from that. But in any case,
Speaker 2: I hope you at least find that interesting. I also
Speaker 2: wanted to mention something that came to mind while listening
Speaker 2: to the Weird House episode about I Am Legend. This
Speaker 2: would have been about the movie The Last Man on Earth,
Speaker 2: but we also talked a little bit about I Am Legend,
Speaker 2: that being the source book and also the name of
Speaker 2: the third adaptation of the novel, and I continues me
Speaker 2: as noteworthy how air seems to be the major weakness
Speaker 2: of the bacteria, but the bacteria also spreads quote on
Speaker 2: the wind. The bacteria propagates using the element that is
Speaker 2: most dangerous to it, which seems to imply two distinct
Speaker 2: phases of life, a spore phase where it is dormant
Speaker 2: enough to survive air travel, and a more active phase
Speaker 2: where it can infect its victims. Anyways, I thought you
Speaker 2: might find these thoughts interesting. Love the show. I always
Speaker 2: learned things I would never have even thought to look into. Matt.
Speaker 2: Thank you Matt Well on that the first account this
Speaker 2: childhood experience of hanging upside down and having kids discuss
Speaker 2: their perceptions. I mean, yeah, it's I think we all
Speaker 2: have maybe similar experiences, you know, where we just have
Speaker 2: this there's this place where perception, you know, the pure
Speaker 2: sense perception of things, and then the interpretation of sense
Speaker 2: data meets and you know, there are different points in
Speaker 2: our life where we're forced to really analyze how these
Speaker 2: things lie up. And this sounds like, you know, perhaps
Speaker 2: an early example of that, where you may maybe don't
Speaker 2: have all the terms in your mind or you know,
Speaker 2: certainly all the angles on it you'll get later on,
Speaker 2: but you're beginning to wake up to the idea that, yeah,
Speaker 2: something weird is going on. How is it that I
Speaker 2: can see something and I also feel something about the
Speaker 2: things I see that may be, you know, in opposition
Speaker 2: to the way things are.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think it's very valuable when you're young to
Speaker 3: have experiences of seeing the world a different way, or
Speaker 3: having some kind of challenge to naive realism or challenged
Speaker 3: to just the assumption that all of the properties that
Speaker 3: you perceive about reality are are unchanging and objective, which
Speaker 3: many of them are not.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So thanks for that childhood field report there, Matt.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Okay, here's a short message from Eric on the
Speaker 3: subject of upside Down. A warning that this has spoilers
Speaker 3: for a Star Wars Expanded Universe novel.
Speaker 2: So okay, they don't name which novel it is, so
Speaker 2: just it's one of them. If you're looking to read
Speaker 2: one to all of them, then just maybe have your
Speaker 2: guards up.
Speaker 3: Eric says, Hey, gents, thanks for the fun episodes about
Speaker 3: upside Down. This your conversations reminded me about a Star
Speaker 3: Wars Expanded Universe novel I read when I was a kid.
Speaker 3: The hero of the novel was imprisoned in a subterranean
Speaker 3: prison camp. Eventually he learns spoiler that the entire prison
Speaker 3: is actually upside down through the use of artificial gravity
Speaker 3: so that prisoners go the wrong direction if they attempt
Speaker 3: to escape. It seemed a bit more effort than was
Speaker 3: really worthwhile, but it was an interesting idea. Thank you,
Speaker 3: thanks again for the great show.
Speaker 2: Eric.
Speaker 3: This reminds me of the superstitious practice of burying suspected
Speaker 3: vampires upside down.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Plus, I don't know that I I've run
Speaker 2: across a use of artificial gravity like this in sci
Speaker 2: fi before. I mean, generally you're encountering artificial gravity for
Speaker 2: one of two reasons, one because you actually want to
Speaker 2: figure out how gravity attuned beings are going to live
Speaker 2: in outer space, or generally, more to the point, you're
Speaker 2: shooting a sci fi film and you don't want to
Speaker 2: attempt to replicate micro gravity the whole time. You just
Speaker 2: want gravity. And we're just gonna go ahead and say
Speaker 2: that there's something under the floor or in the ship
Speaker 2: that is making that happen. But this would be a
Speaker 2: case of exploiting it planet side, which I pretty much
Speaker 2: I don't think I ever encounter. I guess it would
Speaker 2: make sense that in some of these sci fi scenarios
Speaker 2: you would have it, just because not every world's going
Speaker 2: to have the same amount of gravity that might be desired,
Speaker 2: but in this case especially, you would have to really
Speaker 2: have it cranked up. Right. This is like running the
Speaker 2: air conditioner in the desert, right, because you're not only
Speaker 2: creating gravity a strong gravitational pool where there isn't one
Speaker 2: or there's a very weak one. You're creating the opposite
Speaker 2: gravitational pull on a place where there is gravity. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I agree, it sounds like maybe it was more more
Speaker 2: work than was necessary, but hey, when you have presumably
Speaker 2: a cruel empire behind something, they sometimes the budget goes
Speaker 2: a bit out of control.
Speaker 3: This would have been a great plot point in Star
Speaker 3: Crash if only we could go back in time and
Speaker 3: get Luigi Kotzi to do this one. Can you just imagine,
Speaker 3: like Stella and l they end up going to the
Speaker 3: center of a planet because the prison was upside down.
Speaker 3: I think it would work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's Grit's great. Like I love what
Speaker 2: they did in and Or with the prison, But if
Speaker 2: they had used this concept instead, that would have totally worked.
Speaker 2: I don't know, it would wouldn't have worked in the
Speaker 2: same way. They'd have to change a few things, but
Speaker 2: I think it's a cool idea.
Speaker 3: Well, I feel like it would have changed the tone
Speaker 3: of the prison in and Or was pretty dark and terrifying.
Speaker 3: This would make it significantly funnier.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean, it depends how you play it out.
Speaker 2: I mean, the idea of I guess it would have
Speaker 2: been more of a dead end, because it's that seems
Speaker 2: to be the where this ends up. As you think
Speaker 2: that you're reaching the surface of your suptrane in prison,
Speaker 2: but you've climbed the last rung of the ladder and
Speaker 2: you emerge like deep below the prison, like you're even
Speaker 2: more underground and buried than you were initially.
Speaker 3: So just just more locks down here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, well, yeah, thanks for sending that in. Yeah,
Speaker 2: don't know which book that is, but I'm sure if
Speaker 2: one does the right searches, it'll it'll turn up. All right,
Speaker 2: Let's see, here's another one. This one comes to us
Speaker 2: from Uncle Bosco. I don't think we've heard from Uncle
Speaker 2: Bosco before. I don't recall, but this is more discussion
Speaker 2: of upside down. Hello, gentlemen, your discussion is about upside down.
Speaker 2: Immediately made me think of the scene from Big Trouble
Speaker 2: in Little China, and the scene depicts a jack and Weighing,
Speaker 2: saying a series of corpses hung upside down in chains
Speaker 2: in water, and Weighing explains that this is the hell
Speaker 2: of the upside down centers. I had an experience with
Speaker 2: a little upside down weirdness. Oh wonder, this is the
Speaker 2: point that I was wondering. Is he did he have
Speaker 2: an experience where he was in a like he was
Speaker 2: on an elevator and it began to flood with water
Speaker 2: and he escaped into a hell of skeletons and chains.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I spent eighty thousand years in the prison of unchained.
Speaker 3: What is it upside down centers? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Uncle Bosco continues so and says, in twenty fifteen,
Speaker 2: I had an accident with a lawnmower and the big
Speaker 2: toe on my right foot was severely damaged. However, almost
Speaker 2: all of the soul of that toe was intact. The
Speaker 2: surgeon flipped that flap of skin up over the wound
Speaker 2: and stitched it closed. Throughout my recovery, the surgeon would
Speaker 2: cover my foot with a towel and use a needle
Speaker 2: to test if my nerves were he and rewiring. For
Speaker 2: about five months. When the surgeon would poke the needle
Speaker 2: into the skin that was now on the top of
Speaker 2: my toe, but which had been the bottom of my
Speaker 2: toe for forty five years. My brain would usually signal
Speaker 2: me that the needle was poking the bottom of my toe.
Speaker 2: After about four months, I started to feel it correctly,
Speaker 2: and around the end of the fifth month, my brain
Speaker 2: had completely rewired itself to indicate the poke was on
Speaker 2: the top of the toe. Be safe and have fun,
Speaker 2: Uncle Bosco.
Speaker 3: That is awesome. That is really interesting. It makes me wonder, like,
Speaker 3: what how is that process regulated? Does the nerve reorientation
Speaker 3: there to feel the bottom of your toe as the
Speaker 3: bottom again when the flesh has been relocated? Does that
Speaker 3: require continuous visual conditioning? Like do you have to be
Speaker 3: looking at your toe while you're touching it over a
Speaker 3: long period of time or does that just happen naturally
Speaker 3: somatically over some type of period.
Speaker 2: Of re growth. Yeah, it makes me think of the
Speaker 2: you know, some of the treatments for phantom limbs syndrome
Speaker 2: that involve the use of a mirror. Yeah, yeah, fascinating.
Speaker 2: All right, I think we have another one here for
Speaker 2: us from another cleverly named listener. They keep coming up
Speaker 2: with them.
Speaker 3: Do you want me to do this one?
Speaker 2: Oh please do?
Speaker 3: Okay, this is from the Wandering Wizard. Wandering Wizard says,
Speaker 3: listening to The Upside Down part one and have only
Speaker 3: made it to the part where you talk about Dante
Speaker 3: going through Hell and coming out the other side and
Speaker 3: having the flip in the middle. Yeah, that was what
Speaker 3: we started talking about there, Wandering Wizard says, I know
Speaker 3: you guys love quote interesting movies. I also know you
Speaker 3: guys prefer the older movies, so you might not have
Speaker 3: seen this one. In twenty twelve, someone decided to remake
Speaker 3: the classic Total Recall. In the twenty twelve version, the
Speaker 3: post apocalyptic Earth has a giant gravity elevator of sorts.
Speaker 3: The movie calls it the Tube or the Fall. This
Speaker 3: is a gravity driven transportation system that goes from one
Speaker 3: side of the Earth to the other through the center,
Speaker 3: and if I remember correctly, flips people halfway through. Oh
Speaker 3: very nice. I'm skeptical that the reason Dante put the
Speaker 3: flip in was because of the Earth centric universe view,
Speaker 3: but that may just be me projecting because I know
Speaker 3: the same things happen because of gravity. Keep up the
Speaker 3: good work, Wandering Wizard.
Speaker 2: Now I will say twenty twelve's Total Recall, directed by
Speaker 2: Lynn Wiseman. It is a movie I had seen. I remember,
Speaker 2: really yeah. I remember watching it, and I remember enjoying
Speaker 2: it because I went into it knowing this was going
Speaker 2: to be a different take on Total Recall, and this
Speaker 2: was not going to be the Total Recall that I
Speaker 2: that I loved. But you know, it was made by
Speaker 2: a director whose films I have enjoyed before and featured
Speaker 2: pretty cool cast, so it was like, it'll have some
Speaker 2: fun action, and I remember having a good having a
Speaker 2: good time with it. But I mean, this was also
Speaker 2: one of the many films where this strange Martian phobia
Speaker 2: comes into play with particularly you know American bigger budget pictures,
Speaker 2: where there was just some sort of idea that seemed
Speaker 2: to last way longer than it needed to that you
Speaker 2: could not or you should not have a movie set
Speaker 2: on Mars because it would be a box office failure.
Speaker 2: You know. This was one of the reasons that they
Speaker 2: made at least one of the Doomdom not Doom Doom movies,
Speaker 2: and they were like, it's not set on Mars, and
Speaker 2: then I think maybe they retro actively changed that. It's like,
Speaker 2: actually it is Mars, like they backtracked a little bit,
Speaker 2: but like, this is such a pervasive feeling. It's like, no,
Speaker 2: you can't have a movie set on Mars. People will
Speaker 2: not view it. It will not be a hit. Well,
Speaker 2: what was it.
Speaker 3: I remember sometime in the nineties or was it the
Speaker 3: nineties or the early two thousands, that were who movies
Speaker 3: about Mars that came out around the same time, and
Speaker 3: there was like Mission to Mars and Red Planet.
Speaker 2: I think that was it, and I think those, if
Speaker 2: I'm not mistaken, those were not successful. My memory could
Speaker 2: be off of that, but I think those films, or
Speaker 2: at least one of those films, contributed to this bit
Speaker 2: of wisdom in the film production world that Mars was
Speaker 2: instant death for a film, and I imagine probably the
Speaker 2: John Carter film that came out in recent decades was
Speaker 2: also also contributed to this feeling. But yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: The producers are hard on Mars. It's rare you see
Speaker 2: a strong Martian film poked through to the surface. So
Speaker 2: I imagine the scenario here is they're like, okay, we
Speaker 2: want you to remake Total Recall, but it cannot be
Speaker 2: set on Mars. And he's like Okay, can I have
Speaker 2: an elevator that goes to the center of the Earth
Speaker 2: to Australia And they're like, sure, that's great. God, people
Speaker 2: will love that. People can connect to that.
Speaker 3: They don't go to Mars in this one. That was
Speaker 3: the point you're building to. They actually never go.
Speaker 2: I don't think there's Mars in this one. Let me
Speaker 2: do AI a quick Yeah, yeah, it's not on Earth,
Speaker 2: not Mars.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, I gotta say I find that offensive. I
Speaker 3: think I think that I think total recall movies should
Speaker 3: go to Mars. I've only seen the first one, but yeah,
Speaker 3: that just seems like that's part of its soul. It's
Speaker 3: got to.
Speaker 2: Go there, all right. We had numerous folks write in
Speaker 2: about this next bit and our when we were talking
Speaker 2: about pop culture examples of walking on the ceiling, monsters
Speaker 2: on the ceiling. I don't even remember how it came up,
Speaker 2: but this idea of there being some sort of image
Speaker 2: from a film in which there's a baby crawling on
Speaker 2: the ceiling that had disturbed us, but in the heat
Speaker 2: of the moment, neither of us to remember what film
Speaker 2: it was. Numerous folks wrote in to tell us that
Speaker 2: we were probably remembering nineteen ninety six's train Spotting. So,
Speaker 2: for instance, I'll read at least one of these here. Well,
Speaker 2: let's see we've got we heard from a couple of people.
Speaker 2: Let's see which one should I read. Let's go with
Speaker 2: Let's go l rode in. But we also heard from Mike.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna read Mike's just because Mike mentioned something else
Speaker 2: I did as well. Mike says, Hey, guys, I'm a
Speaker 2: little behind in the pod lately, but I'm in the
Speaker 2: middle of upside Down number two and have your answer
Speaker 2: to where you were remembering a baby on the ceiling
Speaker 2: from Trainspotting. When you and McGregor's character is going through
Speaker 2: with draws, he has visions of a friend's baby crawling
Speaker 2: along the ceiling towards him, a truly terrifying scene that
Speaker 2: is made much worse by the uncanny valley robotic baby used.
Speaker 2: I am guessing this answer was already given, but on
Speaker 2: the off chance that it wasn't, here you go. Ps
Speaker 2: still waiting for you guys to cover Johnny mnemonic in
Speaker 2: Weird House. Thanks as always, Mike.
Speaker 3: All right, not the first time we've had a request
Speaker 3: for Johnny mnemonic. So I never seen that one.
Speaker 2: I've seen parts of it and it's got a wildcast,
Speaker 2: so it's very much on the list. It's just sometimes
Speaker 2: these things, you know, we have a list to draw
Speaker 2: from and sort of in the heat of the moment
Speaker 2: inspirations to draw from, and we just kind of see
Speaker 2: which way the wind is blowing when it comes time
Speaker 2: to pick a movie. But this one's very much on
Speaker 2: the list. I think we'll get to it in time.
Speaker 3: Okay, are you ready to do some responses to the
Speaker 3: Star Wars episodes?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, yeah, I'm going.
Speaker 3: To read this message from Jonas in reaction to the
Speaker 3: first Star Wars episode that we did about Hath where
Speaker 3: we talked about the Tonton sleeping bag, among other things.
Speaker 3: Subject line of this episode a literary parallel to the
Speaker 3: Tonton moment. Jonas says, Hi, Rob and Joe, I really
Speaker 3: enjoyed listening to your discussion about the Star Wars episode
Speaker 3: where Luke takes shelter inside to Tonton. It reminded me
Speaker 3: of a similar story. In one of my favorite books,
Speaker 3: The Settlers by Wilhelm Moeburg. One chapter tells the story
Speaker 3: of a trip to the mill by the antagonist karl
Speaker 3: Oscar and his young son Johann. They're traveling in a
Speaker 3: cart pulled by an ox, and on their way home,
Speaker 3: are caught in a fierce snowstorm. The situation becomes increasingly desperate,
Speaker 3: and the boy is close to freezing to death. In
Speaker 3: the end, karl Oscar makes the difficult decision to slaughter
Speaker 3: the ox so he can place his son inside it
Speaker 3: to keep him warm and save his life. I highly
Speaker 3: recommend the book, as well as the entire the Immigrant
Speaker 3: series that it is part of. This particular episode is
Speaker 3: very intense and moving, and it has stayed with me
Speaker 3: since I first read it many years ago. The book
Speaker 3: was published in nineteen fifty six, so it's possible it
Speaker 3: may have inspired Star Wars, although I'm sure similar stories
Speaker 3: exist in many forms. It's always a pleasure listening to
Speaker 3: your insightful discussions. Thank you, and keep up the great
Speaker 3: work Jonas well. Thank you, Jonas. Yeah, that book sounds
Speaker 3: really interesting. I was not previously. I've never read it, obviously,
Speaker 3: and I was not familiar with this author, but I
Speaker 3: looked up wil Moburg and seems like an interesting guide.
Speaker 2: Cool cool, all right. In relation to the second of
Speaker 2: those Star Wars episodes, the one dealing with the Sith
Speaker 2: we heard from longtime listener p K, and PK chimed
Speaker 2: in on Discord to talk specifically about the Sith transition situation,
Speaker 2: the whole rule of two in the the The The
Speaker 2: thing here is that p K has read a number
Speaker 2: of these Star Wars books or listen to the audiobook
Speaker 2: versions and wanted to point out some of their well,
Speaker 2: what they learned from these books.
Speaker 3: Can you refresh the listeners on how the Sith succession
Speaker 3: rule of two.
Speaker 2: Goes always two? There are a master and an apprentice,
Speaker 2: and yeah, and so the master is always killed by
Speaker 2: the apprentice. The master holds and withholds power and knowledge.
Speaker 2: The apprentice wants power, but there can only be two
Speaker 2: at a time, and eventually the apprentice will kill the master,
Speaker 2: becoming the news and taking on a new apprentice. Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 2: And we get into it and we discussed the practicality
Speaker 2: of all this. But Pete Ky says that I'm gonna
Speaker 2: I'm going to quote them here. I'm not going to
Speaker 2: read all of their thoughts. That they had a number
Speaker 2: of thoughts here, but they wrote. My impression was that
Speaker 2: they didn't necessarily think the new Sith would be the
Speaker 2: exception to the rule, except at least a couple seriously
Speaker 2: attempted to find a way to extend their lives indefinitely,
Speaker 2: and even then it sounds more like they wanted much
Speaker 2: longer lives and they often weren't happy with their apprentice
Speaker 2: not making a valid challenge, like with Baine Darth Baine,
Speaker 2: he thought it unhonorable to wait for the apprentice, to
Speaker 2: wait for him to get old and slow, that wouldn't
Speaker 2: sharpen the syth. So that's when he went to find
Speaker 2: a way to live forever and to find a replacement.
Speaker 2: So it sounds like, you know, some of these these
Speaker 2: books dealing with the Sith and getting into these master
Speaker 2: apprentice relationships, they have of course chewed on some of this,
Speaker 2: you know, like, what's what's the master thinking as he's
Speaker 2: watching this apprentice growing, you know, stronger and yet just
Speaker 2: as hungry as before, and then what does that mean
Speaker 2: for the long time learn long term future of their
Speaker 2: religion slash organization.
Speaker 3: This also sounds like PK here is answering a question
Speaker 3: that we brought up in the episode, which the question
Speaker 3: was like, are the Sith lords and apprentices aware of
Speaker 3: this rule that the right that the apprentice always kills
Speaker 3: and replaces the master. Is this just like meta that
Speaker 3: we we know looking in on this world or are
Speaker 3: the characters in the world aware of it? And Rob
Speaker 3: your answer was sort of that it seems like maybe
Speaker 3: they are aware of it, but the masters often think
Speaker 3: that they're going to be the exception.
Speaker 2: Well, one thing that that PK did argue was that
Speaker 2: given how secret of the organization is, the apprentice doesn't
Speaker 2: necessarily know about this whole rule of two things when
Speaker 2: they dart, like they just know that they're like some
Speaker 2: sort of dark Jedi out there, and then they meet
Speaker 2: somebody that's very powerful and you know and probably quite
Speaker 2: scary as well, you know, and just how powerful they are. Uh,
Speaker 2: and then they fall under their control their power. Uh,
Speaker 2: And it's maybe not till much later that they realize, oh,
Speaker 2: this is this is a thing, this is this is ah,
Speaker 2: this is going to be my master's fate and my
Speaker 2: MultiMate fate as well. Okay, Uh. But then p K
Speaker 2: also points out quote the third main book is all
Speaker 2: about this secession struggle. By the way, the Palpatine book
Speaker 2: is also one of the better in the Star Wars series.
Speaker 2: The Secession here there is shorter but also fascinating. If
Speaker 2: you haven't read it, it makes Palpatine much more of
Speaker 2: a full fledged character and you end up liking him
Speaker 2: for the most part.
Speaker 3: Interesting.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, So anyway, I'm just sharing a little bit
Speaker 2: of what they shared in Discord. But I found it.
Speaker 2: Found it pretty fascinating. Uh. And it makes sense of
Speaker 2: course that these books would would really get in there
Speaker 2: and discuss, you know, tease a part of the relationship
Speaker 2: between these masters and these apprentices.
Speaker 3: Okay, the next message I'm going to do has images
Speaker 3: with it. This comes from Christopher subject line heck in Chonker. Greetings, Robert, Joe,
Speaker 3: and JJ. Thanks for the great episodes on Goldfish Slash
Speaker 3: carp slash Coyfish. Loved learning about the history of these fish.
Speaker 3: Wanted to share some pics of my neighbor's goldfish Nemo.
Speaker 3: Oh that's that's Brutal. A goldfish named Nemo who started
Speaker 3: life as an eighteen cent feeder goldfish from Petco eight
Speaker 3: years ago. The second spring they had him, the owner
Speaker 3: decided to put him outside in a backyard pond slash
Speaker 3: water feature to enjoy the outdoors. When late fall rolled around.
Speaker 3: It was time to bring Nemo back in the house
Speaker 3: to shelter from the cold Chicago winter. I know you
Speaker 3: had mentioned the episode that the myth of a goldfish
Speaker 3: growing to the size of its container is just that
Speaker 3: a myth. But I have seen with my own eyes
Speaker 3: the anecdotal evidence as he went from a small fish
Speaker 3: in an indoor tank to a much larger outdoor habitat
Speaker 3: and came out significantly came out the significantly larger fish
Speaker 3: you see in the photos here now residing in a
Speaker 3: fifty gallon tank all to himself. And then Chris attaches
Speaker 3: some images of this. It's one of these goldfish that
Speaker 3: has kind of bulging out eyes that are coming out
Speaker 3: to the sides, kind of Admiral Acbar a little bit
Speaker 3: to come back to Star Wars, and has some very
Speaker 3: nice golden orange color. But it does. Oh, Chris's holding
Speaker 3: is hand up for comparison. The fish is bigger than
Speaker 3: his whole hand.
Speaker 2: Nice. Nice, Yeah, it's a beautiful fish.
Speaker 3: Chris continues. Other than his size, he's a very interesting fish.
Speaker 3: He will watch you when you enter the room and
Speaker 3: go about. Additionally, he will loudly slap the sides of
Speaker 3: the tank at the waterline when his owner is about
Speaker 3: and he wants some additional feeding. Thanks again for the
Speaker 3: deep dive into these fish, Chris. I don't think i'd
Speaker 3: ever heard before of fish communicating like this, slapping the
Speaker 3: side of the tank to communicate with the owner and
Speaker 3: express their desire for food, though I did have a
Speaker 3: kind of similar experience, not with slapping, but just recently, Rob,
Speaker 3: you and I were actually in the same place we
Speaker 3: happened to we recorded an episode together on location, and
Speaker 3: we were walking around this hotel and saw they had
Speaker 3: a koi pond with some beautiful fish in it swimming around.
Speaker 3: And when I was standing there beside the koi pond,
Speaker 3: I noticed suddenly all of the fish were gathering in
Speaker 3: my shadow. They were kind of over to me, and
Speaker 3: I was like, what is this all about? And I realized, like, oh,
Speaker 3: probably when somebody stands here, that's when they're about to
Speaker 3: get fed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, koi will do that for sure. They see
Speaker 2: the shadow, they know you're human, and like you know,
Speaker 2: a pet cat or dog, they come up and they're like,
Speaker 2: you human, do the thing that you were supposed to
Speaker 2: do for me. Dogs do this too, you know. I
Speaker 2: go over to somebody's house. They have a dog, and
Speaker 2: the dog is like, I need you to let me outside,
Speaker 2: and I just have to say, I am not authorized
Speaker 2: to do that. That's not my job. You have the
Speaker 2: wrong human, But yeah, yeah, in this case and others
Speaker 2: you have, the Koi will come up and they just
Speaker 2: kind of regard you. And you can see why we
Speaker 2: discussing the episodes of how you'll have anecdotal evidence of
Speaker 2: Koi and or other carp having a sort of personality
Speaker 2: and even even a relationship with their human or their
Speaker 2: human observer where the human you know, sees them as
Speaker 2: an individual who also regards them in return.
Speaker 3: Anyway, Thank you, Chris.
Speaker 2: All right, let's skip on ahead to some weird house
Speaker 2: cinema messages here. This one comes to us from Column
Speaker 2: and the subject line is I Am never going to
Speaker 2: a spa again. Colin says, hi, guys, I thought these
Speaker 2: were places where people went to relax. Obviously not, and
Speaker 2: includes a classic poster to the film Death spa tagline
Speaker 2: you'll sweat blood, and Colin says, am liking the Cactus episodes,
Speaker 2: just moving straight on to this poster. Yes, and also
Speaker 2: you are available here now on Netflix in Ireland. There
Speaker 2: was a bit of a delay all the best column.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Calum. I long have admired this poster. Actually,
Speaker 3: I've actually never watched the whole movie. I think I
Speaker 3: watched maybe the first five minutes of it one time.
Speaker 3: But I'm gonna have to try to do the whole
Speaker 3: thing because the poster it's just earned my business.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's like a guy being tortured by exercise equipment
Speaker 2: from hell. There's a hot lady in a swimsuit with
Speaker 2: a skullhead. Skullhead, great elements. It's come up on the
Speaker 2: show before because it it features some actors we've covered before,
Speaker 2: and it's been on my list for a while. I
Speaker 2: think sometimes I end up skipping over it because in
Speaker 2: the heat of the moment, I confuse death Spa about
Speaker 2: a spa that kills with was it deathbed, the bed
Speaker 2: that kills, the bed that eats, the bed that eats?
Speaker 2: And I think you had mentioned that deathbed, you didn't
Speaker 2: think it was one it would be a good pick,
Speaker 2: So so I kind of like end up accidentally putting
Speaker 2: death Spat onto the past list without remembering that it's
Speaker 2: actually a separate film.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's been a long time since I saw
Speaker 3: Deathbed The Bed That Eats, but I recall it being
Speaker 3: kind of underwhelming.
Speaker 2: Actually, yeah, sometimes it's a lot for a movie to
Speaker 2: live up to a great title and or a great poster,
Speaker 2: for sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but the Death spa poster. The lady on this poster,
Speaker 3: who's in her like aerobics outfit, has the skullface reminds
Speaker 3: me of the skullface monster from Empire of the Dark
Speaker 3: that wanders into the kitchen in her underwear and starts
Speaker 3: kissing the guy but has the monster mask.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, so good. Yeah, all right, we'll just have
Speaker 2: to we'll have to make sure it's on the considerations
Speaker 2: list for sure.
Speaker 3: Uh okay, Rob, do you mind if I read this
Speaker 3: one from Larry Goes for It? This one has to
Speaker 3: do with Last Temptation of Christ. Subject line Josh Judas
Speaker 3: and the Church nineteen eighty nine. Hi, guys, thanks for
Speaker 3: the weird House episode on Last Temptation of Christ. I
Speaker 3: worked in one of our country's oldest episcopal churches and
Speaker 3: recently began studying early Christianity. I wasn't raised religious per se,
Speaker 3: so I didn't realize Jesus wasn't Jesus's historical name the
Speaker 3: savior of humanity was Josh. Anyway, Larry goes on, I'm
Speaker 3: making reference to another ancient book that is not part
Speaker 3: of the Bible. It's one of these apocryphal Christian texts
Speaker 3: called the Gospel of Judas. Larry says in the Gospel
Speaker 3: of Judas, Jesus tells Judas to turn him in. It
Speaker 3: was found in nineteen seventy eight. Do you wonder how
Speaker 3: much influence it may have had on the movie, or
Speaker 3: if it was coincidentally, what the author of the novel
Speaker 3: included too? Would you consider covering some of the famous
Speaker 3: or strangest non canon gospels or sayings Bibles. It's cool
Speaker 3: that the early days of the faith are full of
Speaker 3: all different types of Christianities or Jewish sects, not two
Speaker 3: distinct faiths. Well, Larry, you're speaking my language. I don't
Speaker 3: think we've ever done an episode fully just devoted to
Speaker 3: non canonical early Christian texts, but they've definally come up
Speaker 3: here and there in other topics. I know we've talked
Speaker 3: at some length about some various gnostic Gnostic Christianities and
Speaker 3: other books. Actually, there was one episode years back now,
Speaker 3: I think it was probably in like twenty twenty where
Speaker 3: I interview viewed a biblical scholar named bart Erman about
Speaker 3: it was for his book on Heaven and Hell, sort
Speaker 3: of the origins of how Christians came to believe in
Speaker 3: the modern versions of heaven and hell, where those ideas
Speaker 3: come from, and how they developed. But one of the
Speaker 3: things I talked about with him also was some of
Speaker 3: these early books, these Christian books that give visions of
Speaker 3: heaven and hell, like long before Dante. There are books
Speaker 3: that like The Apocalypse of Peter, that go into extreme
Speaker 3: detail talking about the tortures of the damned and like
Speaker 3: what parts of the body people are being hung up
Speaker 3: by and stuff. Yeah, so it gets pretty gnarly, but
Speaker 3: I do generally agree they are just all kinds of
Speaker 3: interesting things going on in early Christian history that are
Speaker 3: I think fascinating no matter who you are, but also
Speaker 3: really strange, probably to a lot of modern Christians, like
Speaker 3: won't recognize a lot of the theology and stuff anyway.
Speaker 3: So Larry goes on to say, this recent interest is
Speaker 3: why I finally watched The Church. Really we went from
Speaker 3: genuine went from like Christian theology to the movie The Church.
Speaker 3: Would you do it for a weird house. I don't
Speaker 3: think I've ever seen something so delightfully baffling in so
Speaker 3: many different ways. I felt like I was watching someone
Speaker 3: else's dream played backward. Felt nostalgic after spending some wonderfully
Speaker 3: spooky days working in a historic church. Keep up the
Speaker 3: great episodes, Larry. Uh. Yeah, Wow, It's been a while
Speaker 3: since I've seen the Church, but I remember loving it.
Speaker 3: It is nuts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, same here. It's been It's been way too long
Speaker 2: since I saw it, but I loved it back in
Speaker 2: the day. And we've been talking about we've never we've
Speaker 2: certainly mentioned Michael Suave on the show before, but we've
Speaker 2: never because he pops up. He and his motorcycle popped
Speaker 2: up in a number of you know, Italian films, so we've.
Speaker 3: Been around an absurd I think.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he in his motor cycle show up and absurd,
Speaker 2: you know, and he's you know, he helped out and
Speaker 2: he learned the trade. He was an eager learner on
Speaker 2: the sets of many a horror film. But we haven't
Speaker 2: talked about any of the films that he actually directed,
Speaker 2: and he's directed some fun ones.
Speaker 3: Did he play a creep in City of the Living Dead?
Speaker 3: I think he did. Did he not the main creep
Speaker 3: in the movie? I think another creep in it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, or I can't remember if he showed up or
Speaker 2: if we just saw a motorcycle and we were like,
Speaker 2: where's Soave? But it's I guess. One of the things
Speaker 2: with that is that much of it was filmed, the
Speaker 2: outdoor stuff. Anyway, it was filmed in Georgia, so I
Speaker 2: don't know if Swami made the trip or if he
Speaker 2: was just on the like for the sets.
Speaker 3: In Rome, he's everywhere.
Speaker 2: But all right, another vote for the Church. We'll push
Speaker 2: it up the list. All right, here's one from Wade.
Speaker 2: Wade is riding in in response to a much older
Speaker 2: episode of Weird House Cinema that we recently re aired
Speaker 2: as part of our Star Wars week because we were
Speaker 2: talking about one of the early spaghetti Star Wars films,
Speaker 2: The Humanoid. Wade says, Hi, guys, I don't know if
Speaker 2: this came up when the Humanoid episode originally aired, and
Speaker 2: indeed I do not remember, but I wanted to comment
Speaker 2: on the memory of Jaws in Moonraker, the James Bond film,
Speaker 2: Jaws falling in love with the woman after she smiled
Speaker 2: and he saw her braces. I saw Moonraker in the
Speaker 2: theater with my dad when I was a kid, and
Speaker 2: I have a very clear memory of the same scene. However,
Speaker 2: pretty recently, I've seen evidence that this memory of the
Speaker 2: woman having braces is an example of the Mandela effect,
Speaker 2: the so called Mandela effect, and is basically a false memory.
Speaker 2: All examples of the film available clearly show she didn't
Speaker 2: have braces. Here is a link included to a Skeptical
Speaker 2: Inquirer article about I Mean by author slash skeptic Mick West.
Speaker 2: It discusses the scene and gives some other examples of
Speaker 2: the Mandela effect. This one really got me because I
Speaker 2: have a very clear memory of the braces from when
Speaker 2: I saw the film. I guess it's just another example
Speaker 2: of how our memories can change and be manipulated over time.
Speaker 2: I enjoy the show. Thanks way, well, yeah, thank you, Wade.
Speaker 2: So it's been so long since we recorded the episode on.
Speaker 3: The Humanoid, I genuinely don't remember what we said about it,
Speaker 3: So I hope I don't issue some bizarre contradiction now.
Speaker 3: But what my memory now is is that when I
Speaker 3: saw this movie as a kid, that lady had braces.
Speaker 3: I know that's not true. I don't believe in parallel
Speaker 3: dimensions or anything. I don't think there's anything actually spooky
Speaker 3: going on with the so called Mandela effect. I think
Speaker 3: it's just, you know, there are common misconceptions. You remember
Speaker 3: things a certain way because it seems like it would
Speaker 3: have made sense for it to be that way, Like
Speaker 3: it would have been a kind of perfect thing for
Speaker 3: her to have braces and jaws, to have his metal teeth,
Speaker 3: But that's just not what it was. For some reason,
Speaker 3: lots of people remember it wrong that way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like we mentioned Total Recall earlier. I know we've
Speaker 2: discussed this, but there's a scene where one of the
Speaker 2: Mars people, a short lady with a sword, stabs one
Speaker 2: of the villains, and in my memory from watching Total Recall,
Speaker 2: the first time, I thought, she like stabbed the dude
Speaker 2: in the crotch with the sword.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 2: But it's apparently not the crotch that she stabs him.
Speaker 2: She stabs him somewhere else. She still stabs him to death,
Speaker 2: but it's you know, I have this very clear memory
Speaker 2: of how I thought the scene was, and then it's
Speaker 2: different later on. And we've also encountered like less specific
Speaker 2: versions of that where there'll be some film and you
Speaker 2: or I have like a memory of it being glorier
Speaker 2: or more upsetting than it actually really is. And part
Speaker 2: of that is, you know, just like you know where
Speaker 2: we were when we watched it, and how we perhaps
Speaker 2: reflected on it afterwards. And again, just coming back to
Speaker 2: what we've mentioned many times before, the more you you with,
Speaker 2: the more you withdraw that particular memory, the more you
Speaker 2: get your fingerprints on it, the more you manipulated. So
Speaker 2: the memories that we and this goes beyond movies, this
Speaker 2: goes to everything in life, but the memories that we
Speaker 2: utilize the most are also the ones we can trust
Speaker 2: the least. Yeah, broadly speak, don't let that. Don't trouble
Speaker 2: yourself too much over that.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I mean there are exceptions to that. Obviously.
Speaker 3: There are different ways that a memory can be preserved.
Speaker 3: Like if you're recalling a memory many times with the
Speaker 3: aid of video footage every time, obviously that's going to
Speaker 3: be a different relationship to that memory than something that
Speaker 3: you're you don't even remember all that well the first time,
Speaker 3: and then you start remembering it a lot, you know,
Speaker 3: then you're really probably going to be narrativizing. So yeah,
Speaker 3: but it is certainly true that you never want to
Speaker 3: fall for the illusion that our memories are a video camera,
Speaker 3: no matter how much it might seem that way.
Speaker 2: Right right, Yeah, for that to be the case, we
Speaker 2: would have to be cyborgs.
Speaker 3: Yes, so it is time to do some borg stuff.
Speaker 3: So a rob you pulled in a message from Discord
Speaker 3: from a shadow Rat. This is about the Albert Pune
Speaker 3: movie Nemesis, which we covered on Weird House Cinema. It's
Speaker 3: a movie that I think it had some cyborgs in it,
Speaker 3: and so here shadow Rat is going to reference a
Speaker 3: character named Alex Rain. Alex Rain is the main character
Speaker 3: of Nemesis. A lot of Nemesis is people arguing about
Speaker 3: who is and is not a cyborg, and in a
Speaker 3: lot of cases it's not actually clear except our main
Speaker 3: character is a cyborg, but a lot of times he
Speaker 3: talks about how other people are cyborgs and he's not
Speaker 3: a cyborg. Anyway, Shadow Rat says, I noticed a lot
Speaker 3: of similarities between Alex Rain and Blade, like where you're
Speaker 3: going here, shadow at So in Blad's world, you've got
Speaker 3: vampires and humans at war. There are humans that seem
Speaker 3: perfectly capable of fighting the vampires. But what they really
Speaker 3: need is a human vampire hybrid, because I guess that
Speaker 3: person gets all the strengths of both humans and vampires.
Speaker 3: Alex's rain is kind of the same trope in Nemesis.
Speaker 3: You have some kind of human slash cyborg conflict going on.
Speaker 3: It's true, it is quite vague in the film. But
Speaker 3: Shadaat says, although it doesn't seem like the humans eat machines. Okay,
Speaker 3: So that that right, So that parallel to Blade does
Speaker 3: not hold. It's not like the humans are going out
Speaker 3: sucking the cyborg's blood. But yeah, so it doesn't seem
Speaker 3: like the machines eat the humans or the humans eat
Speaker 3: the machines. Alex is the savior of humans that is
Speaker 3: half human half machine. But I thought, in the context
Speaker 3: of the movie, isn't that sort of what cyborg means anyway?
Speaker 3: It's like a half human half machine. Okay, So Shadarat
Speaker 3: goes on. Actually, now that I type that out, I
Speaker 3: realize that Jesus also kind of fits that trope. He's
Speaker 3: the same of humanity that's human and vampire slat and
Speaker 3: then crossed out vampire and God, Jesus, Blade, and Alex
Speaker 3: rayn Oh. Also, both Blade and Alex seem to have
Speaker 3: this inner conflict thing going on. Blade worries about giving
Speaker 3: into his vampire side, Alex worries about his machine percentage
Speaker 3: getting too high. I'm pretty sure that the Gospels depict
Speaker 3: Jesus as wanting to stay human a little longer. I
Speaker 3: don't well, I think what you're probably thinking of, Shado
Speaker 3: Rat is the scene in the Garden of Gethseymone where
Speaker 3: Jesus says, in at least some of the Gospel tellings,
Speaker 3: Jesus praise if God will allow this cup to pass
Speaker 3: from him, essentially like, can I get out of this?
Speaker 2: I want more life Father, Yes, exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So shadow Rat says he's sort of resisting getting
Speaker 3: his God percentage to one hundred.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Well this is applause. Several rounds of applause please for
Speaker 3: Shadow Rat.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, very good. And now also, yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: not that, not that every work that we've referenced here,
Speaker 2: or certainly that that gets into this territory. Not not
Speaker 2: every work is going to be, you know, intentionally going
Speaker 2: deep on any of any of these concepts. But I
Speaker 2: think you know, obviously a lot of these stories appeal
Speaker 2: to us because you know, we live in a world
Speaker 2: where there are a lot of like like firm strict
Speaker 2: labels for what we're supposed to be, and most people
Speaker 2: will find themselves, if they're truly self aware, they'll find
Speaker 2: themselves not completely lining up with these various labels, right,
Speaker 2: And so, you know, everybody feels a little bit like
Speaker 2: a vampire or human hybrid at times. And also it
Speaker 2: seems like what we need is somebody that can bridge
Speaker 2: some sort of division. You need somebody who's an individual
Speaker 2: of both worlds. And of course, you know there are
Speaker 2: examples of very much realities like that doesn't always doesn't
Speaker 2: always work out. Sometimes your half human vampire just ends
Speaker 2: up being hated by both vampires and humans, or have
Speaker 2: not hated, at least treated at times with the same
Speaker 2: sort of hostility or more alienation. But you know, it's
Speaker 2: a you know, it's a you know, we're highly social
Speaker 2: creatures and we're very very tuned in to how you know,
Speaker 2: others perceive us and whether we're fitting in or not
Speaker 2: fitting in. What does it mean to fit in or
Speaker 2: not fit in with a particular group, What does it
Speaker 2: mean to be an outsider. So stories like this are
Speaker 2: always going to resonate with us.
Speaker 3: It's true. I mean. The crazy thing is that reminds
Speaker 3: me of that quote we read from Albert pew And
Speaker 3: where despite the fact that he kept making cyborg post
Speaker 3: apocalyptic cyborg movies, he apparently said, I'm not really all
Speaker 3: that interested in cyborgs. It was just a way to
Speaker 3: tell the stories I wanted to tell. So I don't know.
Speaker 3: I think he was maybe interested in some kind of
Speaker 3: more deeper, more universal or generic theme about blended or
Speaker 3: altered types of humanity that and the cyborg was just
Speaker 3: one way you can make that into a story.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm all for it. We should
Speaker 2: have more. We're not making enough cyborg films, is what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, and I want to see more. Go make
Speaker 2: them please? All right. Finally, obviously, we were always asking
Speaker 2: for recommendations for weird House Cinema what we should consider
Speaker 2: covering in the future, and I think in one week
Speaker 2: we heard like from three different directions people mentioning the
Speaker 2: five thousand Fingers of Doctor T. So I want to
Speaker 2: acknowledge that Dexter wrote in about this independently. My wife
Speaker 2: happened to send me a clip from the same movie.
Speaker 2: But I'm going to read a message here from Carrie. Carrie,
Speaker 2: says Robin Joe on your April twenty third, twenty six podcasts,
Speaker 2: you requested listeners to not let you forget films that
Speaker 2: have been suggested for Weird House. The door having been opened,
Speaker 2: I will shamelessly remind you of the three I have
Speaker 2: suggested in the past. The Five Thousand Fingers of Doctor
Speaker 2: t a musical fantasy with story and screenplay by Doctor Seuss.
Speaker 2: This giant mutant ants run them up, threatening a great
Speaker 2: cast including James Arnez Island of Terror silicate based monsters
Speaker 2: accidentally created in a laboratory that sucked the bones out
Speaker 2: of people, starring Peter Cushing.
Speaker 3: What do people look like when the bones are gone?
Speaker 2: Hopefully a big old, big old pile of flesh? Right?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: That. There was a great Ray Bradberry Theater episode like
Speaker 2: that that had Eugene Levy in it, where he goes
Speaker 2: and ends up getting his bones all sucked out, and
Speaker 2: Eugene Levy's character is reduced to just a pile of
Speaker 2: Eugene Levy flesh.
Speaker 3: Hanging on a clothesline or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's just crumpled up on the floor
Speaker 2: like a pair of old pants, but still alive. It's disturbing.
Speaker 2: And then Carrie continues. He says, and one more that
Speaker 2: I haven't mentioned before. Doctor Who and the Dalks, a
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty five theatrical release of the Doctor Who Origin
Speaker 2: story starring Peter Cushing. I'm not a big Who fan,
Speaker 2: but I know people who are who had not of
Speaker 2: this film. I hope you can get around to somebody sometime.
Speaker 2: Thanks for doing such an entertaining and enlightening podcast, Carrie,
Speaker 2: Thank you, Carrie. Yeah, so five thousand fingers definitely on
Speaker 2: the list. Enough people have recommended it that can't ignore
Speaker 2: it forever them. Yeah, we always love giant creatures, giant ants,
Speaker 2: and in general, anything that has Peter Cushing in it
Speaker 2: is at least worth a glance. I have looked at
Speaker 2: Peter Cushing films that just were not a good fit before.
Speaker 2: He was in a lot of things, not all of
Speaker 2: them worth that good, but he's always a nice presence
Speaker 2: in a film.
Speaker 3: I think some of the worst movies we've done on
Speaker 3: Weird House have been Peter Cushing movies, but it wasn't
Speaker 3: his fault. No, he was in that movie with the
Speaker 3: minotaur that it wasn't actually a minotaur. It's called Devil's Men.
Speaker 2: Yes, that was one of the dullest films we ever
Speaker 2: watched for a weird house. But Brian Eno did the music,
Speaker 2: so it's like, I'm glad we did it. There was
Speaker 2: no way I was going to say no to I think,
Speaker 2: if memory serves, like, the only film that has a
Speaker 2: dedicated Brian Eno score, not counting movies that have utilized
Speaker 2: Brian Eno tracks or he contributed or something like, this
Speaker 2: was the only one where a very minimal, minimal and
Speaker 2: very minimally heard score is actually by Brian Eno. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's the most interesting thing about that movie. I think.
Speaker 3: Didn't that also have Donald pleasance in it?
Speaker 2: It did, yes, yes, But I remember really reaching for
Speaker 2: things that were legitimately interesting about the film. I remember
Speaker 2: we discussed what was on a dinner table for a while.
Speaker 2: It was still a fun episode though.
Speaker 3: No, that one did to have. It had some good
Speaker 3: bad food in it, and as we talk about on
Speaker 3: the show pretty often, I like to pause the movie
Speaker 3: when there's a table with food and just see what's
Speaker 3: going on there. Yeah, whether they got on the set. Okay,
Speaker 3: does that do it for today?
Speaker 2: I think that does it for today, But hey, write
Speaker 2: in about any and everything. We're game for it. We
Speaker 2: already mentioned how to get in touch with us, but
Speaker 2: we'll lay that up again here at the end. Just
Speaker 2: a reminder that Stuff to Blow Your Mind is primarily
Speaker 2: a science and culture podcast, with core episodes on Tuesdays
Speaker 2: and Thursdays, and maybe once a month one of those
Speaker 2: Tuesday or Thursday episodes will be listener mail and we
Speaker 2: try to catch up. Wednesdays we do a short form episode,
Speaker 2: and then on Fridays we set aside most serious concerns
Speaker 2: just talk about a weird film on Weird House Cinema.
Speaker 2: And if you're wondering, have they done this film before?
Speaker 2: Have they done that film? We'll certainly look in the
Speaker 2: audio vault wherever you get your podcast, look up Stuff
Speaker 2: to Blow your Mind, or look up dedicated Weird House
Speaker 2: Cinema playlist, and you can see all those episodes. But
Speaker 2: also you can go to letterbox dot com. Our username
Speaker 2: there is weird House, and we have a nice list
Speaker 2: of all the movies we've covered over the years, and
Speaker 2: sometimes a peek ahead of what comes up next.
Speaker 3: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Jjposway.
Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest
Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,
Speaker 3: you can email us at contact at stuff to blow
Speaker 3: your Mind dot com.
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