Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
Speaker 1: Listener Mail. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick,
Speaker 1: and it's Monday. We're bringing you messages that you sent us.
Speaker 1: Now we're reading them back to you. Rob do you
Speaker 1: want to start off today with a couple of these
Speaker 1: emails related to our end of December episodes? Yes, let's
Speaker 1: let's call Carnie the mail boat over here. He has
Speaker 1: he's decked out in the last of his Christmas regalia. Here,
Speaker 1: he needs a bath. That that Santa suit really needs
Speaker 1: to be washed. It's getting kind of oily now, but uh,
Speaker 1: but we're I think he's almost over it for the
Speaker 1: year and we'll be ready to move on to Valentine's
Speaker 1: Stay soon. Yeah. Yeah, this this will hopefully round out
Speaker 1: the Christmas feedback here. So this one comes to us
Speaker 1: from Andrew Andrew Rides. First, i'd like to say thank
Speaker 1: you for putting on a great podcast. As one of
Speaker 1: your fellow I Heart hosts might say, it's real aces
Speaker 1: that maybe Josh and shot Either way, I'll take it.
Speaker 1: I must admit I am a few episodes behind on
Speaker 1: your show, as I follow a lot of different pods,
Speaker 1: and a deleting an unlistened to pod hurts just a
Speaker 1: little bit deep down, even if it's a few weeks old.
Speaker 1: I was recently listening to your Christmas Tree episode and
Speaker 1: had to write in concerning bubble lights. My grandmother was
Speaker 1: the proud owner of many beautiful and some not so
Speaker 1: beautiful antique Christmas decorations, among which were several bubble lights.
Speaker 1: These did not decorate the tree, but we're instead standalone
Speaker 1: decorations which could be directly plugged into an outlet. They
Speaker 1: were most commonly used as night lights in the bathrooms
Speaker 1: and bedrooms around the holidays. The lights were shaped more
Speaker 1: or less like an inverted cartoon toadstool, with the red
Speaker 1: and green plastic cap covering a small light bulb and
Speaker 1: a thin glass cylinder extending upward, ending in a rounded point.
Speaker 1: The glass was colored red or was filled with a
Speaker 1: red liquid. I can't recall which. I can remember being
Speaker 1: mesmerized by these as a little kid, even and even
Speaker 1: touching the liquid containing tube. That thing was pretty dang hot,
Speaker 1: and I'm glad I didn't come in contact with the
Speaker 1: liquid inside Sadly, Grandma passed away a few years ago,
Speaker 1: but for all I know, these decorations are in a
Speaker 1: box somewhere in the house where my grandpa still lives.
Speaker 1: I will have to mention it next time I talk
Speaker 1: with my family. Thanks Andrew. PS. Absolutely loving the Weird
Speaker 1: House Cinema episodes and have actually seen two of the
Speaker 1: movies you've covered so far. In pre COVID times, I
Speaker 1: would gather around twice a year with friends for B
Speaker 1: movie nights. One of the attendees is a self proclaimed
Speaker 1: B movie buff and owned a DVD, yes, an actual
Speaker 1: DVD of troll Too. It was a delight to watch
Speaker 1: and I loved your inside. Furthermore, my wife and I
Speaker 1: were happy to find shopping mall on Voodoo. That's vu du.
Speaker 1: That's a like an online film rental thing. I believe
Speaker 1: this past October during our annual binge of campy horror movies.
Speaker 1: This did not disappoint. I know Christmas is now passed,
Speaker 1: but I would love to suggest the holiday B movie
Speaker 1: Silent Night, Dead Night Too. It is definitely one of
Speaker 1: my favorite crap films and I still quote it often
Speaker 1: when the trash needs taken out. I think that's referring
Speaker 1: to a to an iconic scene from the film where
Speaker 1: a killer walks up to someone who's taking out the
Speaker 1: garbage and just says garbage day and then shoots him dead.
Speaker 1: Have you seen that one? Uh? No, I think the
Speaker 1: only ones I've seen were the later weirder ones, the
Speaker 1: one that was at Brian Jonza did where Nicky Rooney
Speaker 1: is a demented toymaker. Oh, yes, yes, yes, I think
Speaker 1: we did watch that. We did watch their trailer talk
Speaker 1: or something for trailer talk on on YouTube back in
Speaker 1: back in the day. Yeah, so, I don't know, we
Speaker 1: could always re explore. There's some of those trailer talk
Speaker 1: movies I'd love to to come back and give more
Speaker 1: attention to. I'm not sure if that's the one, but
Speaker 1: it definitely stands out as a weird Christmas movie. Andrew,
Speaker 1: I'm interested in this tradition of using bubble lights as
Speaker 1: night lights for trips to the bathroom, and that sounds
Speaker 1: like it would induce some serious hypnogogia as you're like
Speaker 1: going back to bed and you've had a psychedelic experience
Speaker 1: while urinating. Yeah, yeah, it's certainly if you uncover more
Speaker 1: about your your late grandmother's bubble lights. We'd we'd love
Speaker 1: to see some pictures of them or some footage of
Speaker 1: them in action. Uh. And then also on the point
Speaker 1: about being backed up on pods, I just wanna uh say,
Speaker 1: to everybody out there, you know, we realize there are
Speaker 1: a lot of podcasts out there to listen to, especially now,
Speaker 1: I mean more than ever, every every celebrity has one
Speaker 1: in addition to all the podcasts that existed before, and
Speaker 1: so there's just a lot to listen to. So we
Speaker 1: feel honored that that any of you, you know, still
Speaker 1: keep us in rotation, that we're still a part of
Speaker 1: your your you know, gaily, weekly or monthly listening life,
Speaker 1: whatever that consists of. And however technology is forcing you
Speaker 1: to interact with us. It truly warms my heart every
Speaker 1: time someone would give us an hour that they could
Speaker 1: be spending listening to the reunion of the cast of
Speaker 1: Hawaii five. Oh, it's probably a great podcast. All right,
Speaker 1: Let's move on to the next one here. This one
Speaker 1: is titled Lock and Key, and it comes to us
Speaker 1: from Jim. Hey, guys, I've been listening to your show
Speaker 1: for about a year and love it a great blend
Speaker 1: of educational and nerd humor. Speaking of nerds, I played
Speaker 1: D n D back in the late seventies early eighties.
Speaker 1: I have a first edition of Deities and Demi Gods
Speaker 1: with the UH male Nibonian. I believe that's been reference
Speaker 1: in reference to UH. But Michael moorecox elric stories uh melanimity.
Speaker 1: I'm never sure how to had pronounced the name of
Speaker 1: that that world. But then also the Cathulhu mythhoust He
Speaker 1: mentions UH continues, and I am now playing the latest
Speaker 1: version with my kids twelve, seventeen and twenty. My daughter
Speaker 1: told me about a class called an artificer. Uh. And
Speaker 1: when you mentioned coming up with the d n D
Speaker 1: character for rain Borg, the Swedish lock collector, I decided
Speaker 1: to let you know about this class. Quote masters of invention.
Speaker 1: Artificers use ingenuity and magic to unlock extraordinary capabilities in
Speaker 1: objects jim Ps. My mother grew up in St. John's, Newfoundland,
Speaker 1: and I've been there several times. If you ever visit,
Speaker 1: you should hike the East Coast Trail. Much of it
Speaker 1: is along gorgeous cliffs. I saw a whale and an iceberg. Uh.
Speaker 1: Now this is numerous great points in here so that
Speaker 1: that particular new class I have only a little bit
Speaker 1: of experience with that. We briefly had somebody in our
Speaker 1: d n D group that used that class. They were
Speaker 1: like a gnome that had some sort of a high
Speaker 1: tech cannon that marched around with him or something. Um,
Speaker 1: but that's all that I've run into on that front.
Speaker 1: But I know you could also, I guess you could
Speaker 1: also with rainboard. You could go with a like a
Speaker 1: you know, you could still go with the traditional rogue
Speaker 1: build and just really dedicate yourself to certain like traps
Speaker 1: and locks, special specialties like dungeon delver and so forth.
Speaker 1: As for Newfoundland, UM, yeah, I haven't been back since
Speaker 1: I was a child, But if I ever do, I'll
Speaker 1: have to look up that trail. I'd love to return
Speaker 1: at some point. I know. I laughed at the sentence
Speaker 1: where Jim said I saw a whale in an iceberg.
Speaker 1: But uh, but but actually I get it. If you
Speaker 1: if he just happened to see, um, a marine mammal
Speaker 1: in the wild in a place, especially if you're not
Speaker 1: used to seeing them normally, it is a very powerful experience.
Speaker 1: I I still sometimes just think about not too long ago,
Speaker 1: when I happened to unexpectedly see. I think they were dolphins.
Speaker 1: I guess they would have been dolphins or porpoises, but
Speaker 1: probably dolphins splashing around in this kind of marshy estuary
Speaker 1: way back from the coast along coastal Georgia that I
Speaker 1: totally didn't expect at all. I was, you know, so
Speaker 1: this is a place with like, you know, a tall
Speaker 1: grass and mud and the water that's there, especially at
Speaker 1: low tide, is probably not more than a few feet deep. Um.
Speaker 1: But but yeah, for some reason, there were there were
Speaker 1: dolphins making a ruck us. Yeah. Yeah. Anytime you get
Speaker 1: to see creatures like that in their natural habitat, it's
Speaker 1: it can be a real magical experience. And as far
Speaker 1: as icebergs go, I'd love to to see one as
Speaker 1: an adult, because when I was a kid in Newfoundland,
Speaker 1: you know, there'd be icebergs. It seems like all the time.
Speaker 1: I remember adults pointing icebergs out to me, and um,
Speaker 1: you know, at the time, your kids you don't really care.
Speaker 1: It's like taking a kid to see the Grand Canyon.
Speaker 1: They don't they're not really that connected with checking it out. Um.
Speaker 1: So I'd love to to see one again. As an
Speaker 1: adult that would be neat. I was about to say,
Speaker 1: I mean, I wonder, with with warming climate, if they're
Speaker 1: becoming less common. But actually, if anything, I wonder if
Speaker 1: actually would go the opposite way, if they would become
Speaker 1: more common because more ice is calving off of the
Speaker 1: fixed shelves and floating away. Yeah, a good point. I
Speaker 1: don't know, we should look into that. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: icebergs alone could be a great topic. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of science there, there's a lot of history, and we've
Speaker 1: got it. I guess we touched on it a little
Speaker 1: bit when we were doing pi Crete because there was
Speaker 1: the idea of like, well, let's just get a what
Speaker 1: if we tried to make ships out of iceberg, etcetera.
Speaker 1: All right, now, A couple of people responded to the
Speaker 1: part of our lock and key episode where we were
Speaker 1: asking the question of like, wait a minute, so if
Speaker 1: you're just talking about like mass produced commercial locks and keys,
Speaker 1: how unique are they? You know, like to what lengths
Speaker 1: do they go to make sure that one key they
Speaker 1: manufacture doesn't accidentally open the wrong lock? Well, we heard
Speaker 1: from a couple of people about this, and the messages
Speaker 1: we heard were not the most reassuring um Marsh. Marsh
Speaker 1: writes in to say about locks when it comes to
Speaker 1: forward cars and trucks. On more than one occasion, I
Speaker 1: locked my keys in the car and the key of
Speaker 1: a random passerby opened my door. A lot of factors
Speaker 1: play into the equation. Where on the key, where on
Speaker 1: the lock? And how much giggling You do love the show, Marsh?
Speaker 1: Uh that had they had jiggling right, Yeah, as they said,
Speaker 1: gig like that really gets it open. I mean sometimes
Speaker 1: giggling makes a mad thief, right, it's very suspicious if
Speaker 1: you're the person at this door that is clearly not
Speaker 1: your own, and you're just laughing maniacally while you jiggle
Speaker 1: your key around inside your rogue thief class. But you've
Speaker 1: been hit with the joker gas and so you're just
Speaker 1: NonStop giggling all the way to the grave. Ye, indefinite madness. Well, Marsh,
Speaker 1: I do not know how accurate your claim is here,
Speaker 1: but if you are right, that is a little worrying alright.
Speaker 1: This next one comes to us from Mitch. Mitch is
Speaker 1: responding on the discussion module, which I don't think we've
Speaker 1: mentioned very recently. But if you still go to the Facebook,
Speaker 1: there is a group called the Stuff to Bow Your
Speaker 1: Mind Discussion Module, and that's a place where a listeners
Speaker 1: can gather and discuss stuff to blew your mind and
Speaker 1: weird house and I popped in there from time to time. Still, um,
Speaker 1: you know, despite my deeper desire to leave Facebook behind,
Speaker 1: I still go there. Uh. So anyway, it's a place
Speaker 1: you can go and uh and comment. And this is
Speaker 1: what Mitch had to say over at the discussion module quote. So,
Speaker 1: I was just listening to the recent key and key
Speaker 1: and lock podcast, I said, key and peel podcast. Uh.
Speaker 1: And when they mentioned the uniqueness of modern key locks,
Speaker 1: it reminded me of a very funny story about my
Speaker 1: first apartment. I moved out of my mom's house, and
Speaker 1: when I got the keys to my apartment, I kept
Speaker 1: them on my set of car keys, separate from my
Speaker 1: mom's house keys, which was on my set of work keys.
Speaker 1: A week after moving in, I just through habit I
Speaker 1: used my mom's key on my apartment and the lock opened.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize until I changed and felt my car
Speaker 1: keys in my pocket that I had used my mom's
Speaker 1: keys to open the door. Very confused, I compared the
Speaker 1: keys and they were identical. I did some research and
Speaker 1: it turns out that this particular lock had a set
Speaker 1: of something like sixty four different keys, and it just
Speaker 1: so happened that my first apartment had the same identical
Speaker 1: lock as my mom's house. See. Now this is interesting
Speaker 1: because you start getting into sort of the the chances
Speaker 1: that one key, the key to one lock would open
Speaker 1: another lock. And I feel like, if you were playing
Speaker 1: Dungeons and Dragons, your dungeon master might just completely shut
Speaker 1: you down. If you were like, I want to roll
Speaker 1: see if my key opens this lock. You know there's
Speaker 1: got there's there's gonna be a chance, at least give
Speaker 1: me like a one and a chance, and they might
Speaker 1: be like, no, no, no, you've got the wrong key.
Speaker 1: It that never works in video games. That's a good point.
Speaker 1: What what if it did work in video games? That
Speaker 1: that would be kind of great, Like you could just
Speaker 1: roll the dice with trying random keys on the wrong doors. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it it would probably break the order of a
Speaker 1: lot of games, right, this idea that the keys have
Speaker 1: specific locks and locks have specific keys, and if that
Speaker 1: is not true, then you know, it's like the order
Speaker 1: falls out of this. Uh simulated universe, but it's kind
Speaker 1: of a false order. It's like it's not an order
Speaker 1: that we have in in in the real world. Uh oh,
Speaker 1: this is actually this raises something that I have thought
Speaker 1: about talking about on the podcast before, which is a
Speaker 1: a question about narratives that comes up specifically in video games,
Speaker 1: which is that um video games will often use different
Speaker 1: kinds of lengths to go to different kinds of lengths,
Speaker 1: and use different kinds of devices to ensure that you,
Speaker 1: to some degree stay on the correct path of the narrative. Right,
Speaker 1: if it's a video game where you can go to
Speaker 1: different places, they want to try to keep you from
Speaker 1: going to the place you need to go at the
Speaker 1: end of the game first, Right, you know that they
Speaker 1: want you to follow a certain kind of story. And
Speaker 1: and I wonder about how that affects the idea of
Speaker 1: narrative and how narrative sinks in with us, and how
Speaker 1: that's different from you know, just a book where you
Speaker 1: assume somebody will just read one page at a time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because you still you know, you want to create like
Speaker 1: a wide open feel for a world. But then also
Speaker 1: you have a story that needs to be uh followed,
Speaker 1: or even you have characters that need to be engaged
Speaker 1: with or developed, and so yeah, you create lot of
Speaker 1: sort of artificial choices a lot of the times, or
Speaker 1: or sometimes it takes the form of speaking of locks
Speaker 1: and keys. Whether you're playing something like like that new
Speaker 1: cyberpunk game or if you're playing something like you know,
Speaker 1: Classic Silent Hill, you know, you encounter locked doors, they
Speaker 1: clearly cannot be unlocked because they're not truly doors. They're
Speaker 1: just a tend doors to create the idea that there
Speaker 1: are other rooms in this compound or other businesses in
Speaker 1: this city, but really there's nothing there. Well, yeah, and
Speaker 1: that highlights the issue that whenever we experience a story,
Speaker 1: whenever we engage in a story, we're having to do
Speaker 1: so sort of by consent, like we're agreeing mentally to
Speaker 1: be a part of this narrative, to take it as real,
Speaker 1: to suspend disbelief and all that kind of stuff. But
Speaker 1: that gets into funny territory where if you're if you're
Speaker 1: sort of doing that every time you play a story
Speaker 1: driven video game, but you're also testing the limits, so
Speaker 1: you're sort of like going both ways, negotiating your own
Speaker 1: level of engagement with the story on its terms. If
Speaker 1: you're kind of trying to like and I get in here,
Speaker 1: this place I'm not supposed to go, you know where
Speaker 1: the elder stage did not tell me to travel. Next. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it gets it gets interesting. I don't know. And of
Speaker 1: course it depends on the world that's being created, like
Speaker 1: I don't know this in like Silent Hill too, which
Speaker 1: was a game I really loved back in the day.
Speaker 1: And in a way in that world locked doors that
Speaker 1: go nowhere, that where there's nothing on the other side,
Speaker 1: that that feels kind of fitting because you're in this
Speaker 1: this strange reality that is kind of wedged between our
Speaker 1: world and another. So that kind of setting, it makes
Speaker 1: sense that you have false doors to nowhere nightmare logic. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: are you ready for this next message from Fritters, Let's
Speaker 1: do it. Fritters writes in about Pucci, Guys, when you
Speaker 1: were discussing Pucci's in the wild, I'm surprised no one
Speaker 1: thought of scrappy Doo. He may not have been a
Speaker 1: complete amalgam of what the kids are into, but he
Speaker 1: was a rebellious kid. Care Arcter added, for no good
Speaker 1: reason that everyone universally dislikes. Uh. And then here's the word.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm not familiar with this expression again BATA G
Speaker 1: A N B A T T E S. I think
Speaker 1: that might be in another language. Fritters, Well, Fritters, I
Speaker 1: I absolutely recall Scrappy Doo, and even as a child,
Speaker 1: I remember loathing Scrappy do If. Like you know, I
Speaker 1: was watching Cartoon Network when I was in elementary school
Speaker 1: and and a Scooby Doo episode with Scrappy Doo came on,
Speaker 1: I remember that sinking feeling of like, oh no, yeah,
Speaker 1: because I remember this as well because I never knew
Speaker 1: what Scooby Doo episode I was going to be treated to.
Speaker 1: Would it be the old the old episodes or would
Speaker 1: it be the Scrappy Doo episodes? And yeah, scrappy Doo
Speaker 1: was just awful, like he added nothing to it. He
Speaker 1: just took away from all the other characters. And he
Speaker 1: just looked dumb too. So I would agree that Scrappy
Speaker 1: Doo is is perhaps one of the purer examples of
Speaker 1: Pucci that we could we could probably point to. All right,
Speaker 1: here's another one. This one comes to us from Scott
Speaker 1: responding to the artifact episode that I did about the
Speaker 1: Dr John d and his mirror or Mirrors. Scott writes, Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: I enjoyed your show and Dr D and His Mirror,
Speaker 1: as I do all of your shows. Just thought you
Speaker 1: might find it interesting that his story was included in
Speaker 1: the music lore of the band Blue Oyster Cult. Their manager,
Speaker 1: Sandy Pearlman, had written a long sci fi mythos about
Speaker 1: love crafty and ancient beings, probably of alien origin, who
Speaker 1: interfered in Earth's destiny. One of the characters in the
Speaker 1: story was actually Dr D, who's obsidian mirror or black
Speaker 1: telescope allowed him to communicate with these beings. At first,
Speaker 1: Perlman wanted to release a series of concept albums to
Speaker 1: tell the entire story, but their record company, probably rightfully so,
Speaker 1: would not let him because they thought it was not
Speaker 1: commercially viable. But the story of Dr D and His
Speaker 1: Mirror made it to their first album and There, and
Speaker 1: the later Imaginose album, which did attempt to tell the
Speaker 1: entire story. Pearlman had written, You can and he includes
Speaker 1: some links to where you can listen to it and
Speaker 1: where you can look at the lyrics as well as
Speaker 1: the entire story. Um is apparently featured on on wiki.
Speaker 1: If you just look up the imaginose anyway. They closed
Speaker 1: by saying, just thought this was something you might find interesting. Wow,
Speaker 1: I did not know that Blue Oyster Cult went like
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess I've never explored Blueish Blue Oyster
Speaker 1: Cult much beyond the singles, though I did see them
Speaker 1: live one time when I was a child. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: I was taking I was taken by my dad to
Speaker 1: see them like a festival when I was a little kid.
Speaker 1: So I I have felt of the Oyster shoals, but
Speaker 1: they I don't know. I I didn't expect that they
Speaker 1: would go this direction. I always thought of them as
Speaker 1: just kind of like a cheesy seventies classic rock band.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize they had like deep connection with with
Speaker 1: like sci fi and horror lore. Well, you know, I
Speaker 1: think I used to be the same way like I've Sally,
Speaker 1: I knew I don't Fear the Reaper, which is which
Speaker 1: is a great track. I'm not as into the what
Speaker 1: the middle part that doesn't sound like the song but
Speaker 1: but because it has whole deviation in the middle that
Speaker 1: that has yet to grab me. But but I love
Speaker 1: the rest of it. You know, it's a very snappy
Speaker 1: tune and they have a song about Godzilla. They do.
Speaker 1: They have the Godzilla song. Um. But earlier this this year,
Speaker 1: actually I started looking around at Blue Oyster Colt a
Speaker 1: little bit more, mainly because I just I don't know,
Speaker 1: I guess they had a moment where I was just
Speaker 1: like curious, like what else did they do? They clearly
Speaker 1: did a lot of stuff. So first of all, I
Speaker 1: have to say they have some of the most intriguing
Speaker 1: album covers I've ever seen. Like, there's some very beautiful
Speaker 1: album covers. I'm sure record collectors are are super into
Speaker 1: the Blue Oyster Colt in some cases. And uh, I
Speaker 1: started listening in particular to an album titled Fire of
Speaker 1: Unknown Origin, which does indeed have just a wonderful bit
Speaker 1: of cover art by the artist Greg Scott and is
Speaker 1: it's a pretty interesting album. It's got Burning for You
Speaker 1: on there, of that would be I guess the big single.
Speaker 1: But then it also has a track that caught my
Speaker 1: eyes titled Veteran of the Psychic Wars, because clearly there's
Speaker 1: some sort of world building going on here, and one
Speaker 1: of the writers on the song is Michael Moorecock. Uh,
Speaker 1: the author that, interestingly enough, came up in an earlier
Speaker 1: Listener mail in this episode the author of the l
Speaker 1: Eric books. And also, yeah, I think my understanding is
Speaker 1: that there is a very um you know, the nerddom
Speaker 1: in Blue Oyster cult runs deep. So I haven't gone
Speaker 1: back in to explore their discography more, but I I
Speaker 1: certainly have the mere marked for, you know, a return
Speaker 1: journey the next time I'm in the mood for for
Speaker 1: that era of rock and roll. Well, I will say
Speaker 1: when I saw them live, I was very young. I
Speaker 1: don't remember it's super well, but I remember number one
Speaker 1: that were heavy. Number two I remember that was the
Speaker 1: first time I ever recalled the feeling of being at
Speaker 1: a concert and feeling the base from the from the
Speaker 1: audio in my chest. Like that's a unique to kind
Speaker 1: of feel in your heart and your lungs. And it's
Speaker 1: a little bit creepy. Yeah, yeah, and if you and yeah,
Speaker 1: and I guess as a kid, you know, you you
Speaker 1: know it's not you know, the caffeine or the alcohol
Speaker 1: or what have you. You know, you're like, oh, this
Speaker 1: is just the music. I'm not having a heart attack. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean there's a lot to explore with
Speaker 1: the with Blue Oyster called they I read that they
Speaker 1: said they have their their members. You look at they
Speaker 1: have their names, but one of them has the name
Speaker 1: Buck Dharma. That's the like lead guitar vocals. And apparently
Speaker 1: at one point, like their producer the record labor label
Speaker 1: was like, you guys all need some unique names. Let's
Speaker 1: get you some some trindy names. And so they all
Speaker 1: had to come up with their names, and this guy
Speaker 1: Donald what Royster came up with Buck Dharma, and everybody
Speaker 1: else came up with the name. But they we're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're not using that, but he's stuck with Buck Dharma.
Speaker 1: So I kind of like the sort of implied comedy
Speaker 1: of that where he's like the only one who shows
Speaker 1: up in costume or something. Yeah, but it's a cool name,
Speaker 1: Buck Darma. I like it. Like you imagine if Slipknot
Speaker 1: as a band where only one member wore the costume. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's sort of thing. Yeah, Okay. This next message is
Speaker 1: about our Weird House Cinema episode on dr X. This
Speaker 1: comes from Alberto Albert. Alberto says, greetings from Mexico. Hello,
Speaker 1: Robin Joe. My name is Alberto. I'm forty nine in
Speaker 1: an I T professional working for Amazon. I listened to
Speaker 1: your January eight podcast about dr X and you had
Speaker 1: a discussion about how to pronounce and then here the
Speaker 1: xavier I guess as the standard American pronunciation, or at
Speaker 1: least the x men pronunciation. Um, but Alberto says, I
Speaker 1: figured i'd tell you additional ways we pronounced X in
Speaker 1: Spanish and contribute to the confusion one clarification before I
Speaker 1: start the explanation, otherwise it will be even more confusing.
Speaker 1: In Spanish, the letter J sounds like the beginning of hanuka,
Speaker 1: for example, and I think by using hanak means kind
Speaker 1: of a guttural H sound. But then he also says,
Speaker 1: or the beginning of hot or hero, so that's just
Speaker 1: like a standard English pronunciation H sound, or in the
Speaker 1: German number eight the in oct so I so I
Speaker 1: guess it could be like kind of like an an
Speaker 1: H e K sound, or just like a ha sound
Speaker 1: or a ha sound. Okay, so Alberto says, English speakers
Speaker 1: pronounced the X in Mexico as any other word with
Speaker 1: X in Spanish, the X can sound as in English,
Speaker 1: but also as the J in Spanish. As a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, Mexico used to be spelled Mexico with a
Speaker 1: J and nowadays, even though it's written with an X,
Speaker 1: sounds like the Spanish J. In Spanish, there's also Javier,
Speaker 1: which is written Xavier sometimes as in Francisco Xavier or
Speaker 1: Xavier or Xavier Catholic missionary from the sixteenth century x
Speaker 1: v I, but is pronounced as a regular J. Many
Speaker 1: words inherited from pre Hispanic cult yours e g As
Speaker 1: texs Aka, Mexica's Maya's ole Max have the letter X
Speaker 1: written and mostly pronounced as S at the beginning of
Speaker 1: a word, or s h in the middle. For example,
Speaker 1: Sotel a woman's name, uh mihote some pit barbecued dish, Soshimilco,
Speaker 1: a place near Mexico City. I discovered your podcast while
Speaker 1: looking for science related ones and love your science discussion,
Speaker 1: but even more the non science talks about literature, movies, artifacts,
Speaker 1: et cetera. Really awesome content. Congratulations. I live in a
Speaker 1: city called Cholula in the state of Puebla. I always
Speaker 1: listen to your podcasts while I'm out running in the morning,
Speaker 1: so as a Pavlovian dog, I now relate your voices
Speaker 1: to the need for exercising. An interesting fact. I usually
Speaker 1: go to run around a pyramid near my house. The
Speaker 1: pyramid is buried and has a church at the top,
Speaker 1: built by the Spaniards during the conquest. Seemingly it is
Speaker 1: the largest volume pyramid in the world. And this is
Speaker 1: he attached a picture for us to look at, which
Speaker 1: is it's gorgeous and I would love to visit this
Speaker 1: pyramid someday. But it is it's known as the Great
Speaker 1: Pyramid of Cholula or Um. I'm gonna try to say
Speaker 1: then waddle or word tolachi hual to pedal. I hope
Speaker 1: I got close there. Whether the image that they included
Speaker 1: is quite captivating. I love hearing that our voices are
Speaker 1: now your your your Pavlov's bell for feeding the dog
Speaker 1: except its exercise. I feel honored. Yeah, that's that's in
Speaker 1: start contrast to the people who listen to the show
Speaker 1: to go to sleep at night. Yeah, all right. Here's
Speaker 1: another bit of listener mail. This one comes to us
Speaker 1: from Danny, Hi, Robert, and Joe, thanks for your recent
Speaker 1: Weird House Cinema episode about shopping Mall. My wife and
Speaker 1: I were turned onto this movie because one of our
Speaker 1: favorite bands has a song called Kilbot two thousand. After
Speaker 1: we learned that it was a reference what it was
Speaker 1: a reference to. We watched the movie and it has
Speaker 1: remained a cult classic of ours ever since. The band,
Speaker 1: by the way, is called or by Death, another classic
Speaker 1: movie Nod and you should definitely check them out. Dark
Speaker 1: and broody, but kind of folksy, western Ish piano cello rock.
Speaker 1: It's a genre. Are you familiar with this group, Joe,
Speaker 1: I've heard of them, and I don't think I've listened
Speaker 1: to them. Okay, yeah, I mean either off to check
Speaker 1: them out. They continue. I also had a general question
Speaker 1: about your tastes in movies. I wonder if either of
Speaker 1: you have ever reflected on why you're drawn to the weird,
Speaker 1: sometimes not great films that you love. Do you like
Speaker 1: modern mainstream cinema at all? Can you get into the
Speaker 1: m c U or Academy Award nominees? Not saying you should,
Speaker 1: just curious what it is that brings you back to
Speaker 1: these sorts of films time and time again. I first
Speaker 1: questioned this while listening to your episode about Medusa and Perseus,
Speaker 1: and you kept referencing Clash of the Titans, but not
Speaker 1: the modern two thousand and ten remake, but the one
Speaker 1: cheesy version. I'm not saying the newer version is better,
Speaker 1: but it holds pretty true to the original mythical stories
Speaker 1: and has much better production value. Is there any reason
Speaker 1: you were drawn to the original in this instance? Is
Speaker 1: there may be a scientific study that tries to demonstrate
Speaker 1: why some of fall in love with these weird movies
Speaker 1: or why we develop our case in art at all,
Speaker 1: or do we just chalk it all up to nostalgia.
Speaker 1: Whatever the reason, keep it up. I love listening to
Speaker 1: your analysis of the old weird stuff. If I've seen
Speaker 1: the film you're talking about, I can revel in the
Speaker 1: fact that somebody else enjoys it, and if I haven't
Speaker 1: seen it, it immediately goes on my to watch list.
Speaker 1: Thanks Danny. I think this is a really interesting question
Speaker 1: about why some people are drawn to I don't know
Speaker 1: why different people are drawn to different kinds of movies.
Speaker 1: With the example of the Clash of the Titans two
Speaker 1: thousand ten remake versus the original one, and like what
Speaker 1: represents the difference in taste there? I think you have
Speaker 1: absolutely at least for me, and I think I'm sure
Speaker 1: for you to Rob. I identified a strong tendency of ours,
Speaker 1: which is too prefer movies that are more like the
Speaker 1: nine eight one version. And I think for me that
Speaker 1: difference is I just am more interested in paying attention
Speaker 1: to movies that, however flawed, fell more handmade as opposed
Speaker 1: to feeling slick. I feel like I would rather watch
Speaker 1: something that is imperfect but uh kind of I don't know,
Speaker 1: interesting labor of love where I can kind of uh
Speaker 1: where where if we're talking about special effects, that I
Speaker 1: can I can see the art going into it, as
Speaker 1: opposed to something that looks very realistic and professionally done
Speaker 1: and high budget and you can't see any of the
Speaker 1: zippers or seems. Yeah, I think I think that makes sense. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's hard to draw a fine line
Speaker 1: sometimes on on what one likes and doesn't like. I know,
Speaker 1: for my own part, I do. I am drawn to
Speaker 1: a lot of these old movies, and certainly nostalgia is
Speaker 1: a is a big part of it. There are these
Speaker 1: films that I'm nostalgic for, or even if I have
Speaker 1: never seen it before, I I oftentimes remember the VHS
Speaker 1: box or something, you know, so I have some connection
Speaker 1: to it. I have some versions in and of its
Speaker 1: stuck in my mind. Um. But yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: like I agree with the the sort hand Maine qualities.
Speaker 1: You know, they there's something about you know, about feeling
Speaker 1: about being able to to feel the craftsmanship of the piece,
Speaker 1: and and and and often oftentimes it's uneven craftsmanship, you know,
Speaker 1: and you get to sort of focus on the things
Speaker 1: that that really work in the things that don't. I
Speaker 1: find that sometimes pictures like this they allow me more
Speaker 1: room to work my imagination as opposed to something that
Speaker 1: is slicker and more like structurally whole to a certain degree. Yeah. Um, well,
Speaker 1: so another example that comes up in in Danny's message
Speaker 1: here is, um, Danny asks about whether we get into
Speaker 1: like the m c U. I think that's Marvel movies, right,
Speaker 1: the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And my feeling about the Marvel
Speaker 1: movies I've seen is that, uh, there's some that I've
Speaker 1: seen that I, you know, really enjoyed watching, Like uh,
Speaker 1: I like the Iron Man movies. I like Black Panther,
Speaker 1: like other ones I didn't like as much. And just
Speaker 1: see like I watched one of the Avengers movies one
Speaker 1: time and I just honestly found it rather boring. But
Speaker 1: in gen or all, I feel like that whole class
Speaker 1: of like high budget, slick production. Uh, lots of lots
Speaker 1: of c G. I that looks good in the sense
Speaker 1: that it looks realistic, I guess, or it blends seamlessly
Speaker 1: into the action of the film and you don't have
Speaker 1: to think about the effects as special effects. They just
Speaker 1: sort of automatically happen. I feel like when I watch
Speaker 1: a lot of those movies, they're just like, you know,
Speaker 1: I watched them and they're okay, and I don't hate them,
Speaker 1: but I don't really have any thoughts about them. It's
Speaker 1: just kind of like, well, that happened. But when I
Speaker 1: watch one of these old, flawed movies, my brain just
Speaker 1: kind of lights up with all kinds of thoughts and
Speaker 1: I find them interesting. Yeah. Yeah, I can definitely relate
Speaker 1: to that. Um. I mean, I'm into some of them.
Speaker 1: The m c U titles. I liked the I like
Speaker 1: thor Ragnarok. I thought that was a lot of fun. Uh.
Speaker 1: It certainly had more weirdness to it than some of
Speaker 1: these other films that they've put out. I'm I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm definitely down for the forthcoming Blade movie. I'm always
Speaker 1: always uh in for a good Blade movie, no matter
Speaker 1: who's playing. Um. And then of course, I'm I'm super
Speaker 1: into Star Wars films, which are you know, you can
Speaker 1: certainly compare them to the m c u uh certainly
Speaker 1: the modern Star Wars films anyway, because they're you know,
Speaker 1: very much this industry of creating content. So you know,
Speaker 1: I like modern mainstream films as well. Um So, anyway,
Speaker 1: I mean, we could basically go on and on about
Speaker 1: all this, and I guess we in a way will
Speaker 1: continue to go on and on like this in our
Speaker 1: Weird House Cinema episodes as we often consider these, you know,
Speaker 1: weirder films or films from the past, though I I
Speaker 1: do hope that will also cover some more recent weird
Speaker 1: films on on that series, and I'm sure we will
Speaker 1: as we proceed. Yeah, alright, This next one comes from Joe,
Speaker 1: and this is also about weird how cinema. This goes
Speaker 1: back to the Not of This Earth episode. Joe says, Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: I've been quite enjoying your Weird House Cinema episodes. It's
Speaker 1: been a fascinating exploration of both the creativity of and
Speaker 1: limitations faced by low budget filmmakers. As you described the
Speaker 1: bio guillotine assassin monster deployed by the villain and not
Speaker 1: of this Earth. I immediately recalled one of the stranger
Speaker 1: beings which is of this Earth, or more precisely, this
Speaker 1: abyssal plane, the vampire squid. This gelatinous, bioluminescent creature is
Speaker 1: neither quite a squid nor an octopus, but is a
Speaker 1: curious in between evolutionary remnant. Uh. It was discovered as
Speaker 1: part of a fascinating early twentieth century expedition to detect
Speaker 1: deep sea life. It may or may not have been
Speaker 1: the inspiration for the creature in the movie, but the
Speaker 1: resemblance is uncanny. The history of deep sea exploration could
Speaker 1: make a fascinating subject for an episode. All its own
Speaker 1: beliefs have evolved over the centuries and been confronted with
Speaker 1: reality as technological breakthroughs have permitted more and more thorough exploration.
Speaker 1: The vampire squid is a suitable mascot for the eerie, alien, dangerous,
Speaker 1: and little understood ecosystem that persists thousands of meters below
Speaker 1: the surface. Keep up the great work, Joe. Well, Joe,
Speaker 1: if you are interested in in us doing episodes about
Speaker 1: the history of deep sea exploration, I feel like you
Speaker 1: should go a few years back into our archives where
Speaker 1: for for a year or so we were doing a
Speaker 1: lot of that. Yeah, we did. We're looking at the bathmosphere,
Speaker 1: looking at you know, various uh uh, you know, mythological
Speaker 1: takes on the undersea world, and you know, I'm sure
Speaker 1: we'll go back as well. We also conducted an interview
Speaker 1: with a deep sea marine biologist, uh Diva Amon uh
Speaker 1: a couple of years back, and that was a really
Speaker 1: insightful uh interview, you know, getting to talk to somebody
Speaker 1: who's whose work is devoted to deep sea environments and
Speaker 1: has actually descended in submersibles into the depths. I highly
Speaker 1: recommend that interview. Yeah, she's involved in deep sea conservation
Speaker 1: and uh, she was a really wonderful guest, and maybe
Speaker 1: we can have her back on the show someday. Yeah. Yeah, alright.
Speaker 1: This next one comes to us from Adam Dear Joe
Speaker 1: and Robert. I've been listening to your podcast for years now,
Speaker 1: and today finally had something to add when listening to
Speaker 1: your Weird House Cinema episode. Absolutely look forward to it
Speaker 1: every week on dr X. I nearly jumped out of
Speaker 1: my seat when I heard the first two quotes from
Speaker 1: the movie. I immediately recognized them from a song No
Speaker 1: Awareness on one of my most beloved albums, Doctor Octagon.
Speaker 1: I don't listen to as much hip hop now as
Speaker 1: I did in my youth, but the joy of coming
Speaker 1: across a famous sample of for a well known song
Speaker 1: is intense. Uh are you that familiar with the Doctor Octagon? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean it's been a long time, but yeah, I
Speaker 1: I've listened to this. Okay, I know Doctor Octagon has
Speaker 1: come up in mixes for me, but I haven't done
Speaker 1: a lot of I think specific diving on on this
Speaker 1: particular album. Anyway, they continue cool. Keith, if you're not aware,
Speaker 1: is the weird house Cinema of rap. Prolific in albums
Speaker 1: and word usage. He's completely self aware and weird. Almost
Speaker 1: every album he releases with a new nomda Bloom. This
Speaker 1: includes an such as Dr Octagon, Dr Doom ten by
Speaker 1: forty seven on the Cinembyites album Black Elvis, Jimmy Steele, Uh,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Steel, Time Too, or Jimmy Steele, to name a few.
Speaker 1: They are often genre heavy. His album dtr Octagon was
Speaker 1: my first introduction to his music, and I've been a
Speaker 1: fan of his strange music ever since. Uh So Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to uh dive into Dr Octagon's work
Speaker 1: a bit more, because, certainly when it comes to hip hop,
Speaker 1: I really do enjoy some of the weirder stuff out there.
Speaker 1: Um you know, I love the work of the late
Speaker 1: um m F Doom Uh did a lot of really
Speaker 1: interesting stuff. I like Our Faces another act that I've
Speaker 1: I've enjoyed. So this is right up my alley. Anyway,
Speaker 1: they continue on a different note. If you ever do
Speaker 1: an episode about the Kalavala, as mentioned a month or
Speaker 1: so ago, please check out the Klavalle Pug and Eastonian
Speaker 1: epic tale. It has the same Balto Finnic origins, but
Speaker 1: since the cultures and the languages split thousands of years ago,
Speaker 1: the tales are quite wildly different and are fun to
Speaker 1: compar I know, I'm rambling one last thing. In the
Speaker 1: previous episode, you mentioned the sampo or sampo in the Kalavala. Apparently,
Speaker 1: the sampo is a mythical weapon in the Chinese tradition
Speaker 1: as well, and the fact that this mysterious magical tool
Speaker 1: is found in both cultures is explored in the two
Speaker 1: thousand six finished Chinese film The Jade Warrior. It's Crouching
Speaker 1: tiger meets Northern European cinema and is a real delight.
Speaker 1: Always looking for to your content, be well, adam, Well,
Speaker 1: that sounds exciting. Um, yeah, that I'm gonna I think
Speaker 1: I am vaguely aware of the like. I remember seeing
Speaker 1: some promotion of this online. I don't know if it
Speaker 1: had a US release or or what, but it's it's
Speaker 1: ringing a bell, but I don't think i've seen it.
Speaker 1: You have my attention. I may have to look that up.
Speaker 1: All right, we're out of time here, We're past time. Um.
Speaker 1: The mail is beginning to melt down a bit, so
Speaker 1: we need to unplug in from the wall and cool
Speaker 1: off for about a week. But we'll be back with
Speaker 1: more listener mail in the meantime. If you want to
Speaker 1: listen to other episodes of Stuff to Blow Your Mind,
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow your Mind, Listener Mail, Uh, Weird Out, Cinema, anything,
Speaker 1: it's all in the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed,
Speaker 1: which you can find wherever you get your podcasts and
Speaker 1: wherever that happens to be. Just write review and subscribe
Speaker 1: a great way to support the show. Huge thanks as
Speaker 1: always to our excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If
Speaker 1: you would like to get in touch with us with
Speaker 1: feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest a
Speaker 1: topic for the future, just to say hello, you can
Speaker 1: email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind
Speaker 1: dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio,
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