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 on. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm
Speaker 1: Joe McCormick. And bells are ringing, but they are the
Speaker 1: bells of doom. Because today we're going to start off
Speaker 1: with some responses to our rerun of the Crampus episode
Speaker 1: from a few years ago. Are you ready to jump in, Rob, Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's do it, okay. So this message comes to us
Speaker 1: from Colleen. Colleen says, hi, I listened to your episode
Speaker 1: about Crampus the other day and since then have seen
Speaker 1: several posts about it slash hymn slash her on Facebook.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately I missed the event. But here's a story from
Speaker 1: NOLA dot com. So I guess Colleen must be must
Speaker 1: live somewhere around the New Orleans area. And uh. She
Speaker 1: attached a link to a NOLA dot com article told
Speaker 1: by Doug mccash from December six that I looked up
Speaker 1: and was pretty great. So, so I want to read
Speaker 1: some parts from this article. You ready, Rob, Yeah, let's
Speaker 1: do it okay. So uh, the article begins. A reverse
Speaker 1: parade took place in Gentilly on Saturday night. Instead of
Speaker 1: costumed marchers passing a curbside crowd, eight performers covorted on
Speaker 1: the side of the long curving driveway at the New
Speaker 1: Orleans Recreation Development Commission headquarters on Franklin Avenue while a
Speaker 1: steady stream of four hundred cars rolled slowly past. It
Speaker 1: was a Christmas time event with a twist because the
Speaker 1: star of the show wasn't Santa, it was Crampus. So
Speaker 1: apparently New Orleans has been having Crampus events since maybe
Speaker 1: ten or so. Yeah, this was something we talked about
Speaker 1: in the Crampus episode. We talked about sort of the
Speaker 1: Crampus revival that has been sweeping the world and uh
Speaker 1: And in particular, I think at the time I this
Speaker 1: was in I had just come back from New Orleans
Speaker 1: because up until for several years there it was my
Speaker 1: family's tradition to go down and visit some family in
Speaker 1: southern Mississippi and then go over to New Orleans for
Speaker 1: a couple of days, you know, go to uh beach Bumberri's,
Speaker 1: get a get a tiki drink, etcetera. And at the
Speaker 1: time I remember seeing like, oh, there's gonna be a
Speaker 1: Crampus parade oh, and it either begins or ends. I
Speaker 1: forget which at this this German restaurant that looked pretty interesting,
Speaker 1: and so I was talking about that in our Crampus episode.
Speaker 1: A German restaurant in New Orleans. Well, yeah, no, okay,
Speaker 1: I can see it. I mean New Orleans has amazing restaurants.
Speaker 1: New Orleans is if wherever back in the Traveling Times,
Speaker 1: New Orleans is such an amazing city to visit. It's
Speaker 1: like it's got to be like the most unique city
Speaker 1: in the world, right, I mean it's just like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's there are a few places like it for sure,
Speaker 1: especially in the United States. I mean it is New
Speaker 1: Orleans is New Orleans. Yeah, But so anyway, going on. Uh.
Speaker 1: The annual crew of Rampus Foot Parade couldn't take to
Speaker 1: the streets as usual this year because of coronavirus concerns,
Speaker 1: but founder Mike as Sordi, a director of web strategy
Speaker 1: for the University of New Orleans, and fellow crew members
Speaker 1: figured out how to conduct a COVID conscious alternative. The
Speaker 1: Crampus Drive through Parade blended elements of the Yule Tide
Speaker 1: season with Halloween and Mardi Gras. The experience for passing viewers.
Speaker 1: Began with rows of dancers from the well known pussy
Speaker 1: Footer's Carnival Troupe and a cluster of led lit drummers.
Speaker 1: Then came a lavishly costumed st Nick surrounded by members
Speaker 1: of the Crescent City Faye Marching Club, followed by strange
Speaker 1: snowy witches known as the Silent Sisters of s. After
Speaker 1: that appeared one incarnation of Crampus after another, with glowing
Speaker 1: red eyes, unkempt coats of fur, serpentine tongues, and malevolent intentions.
Speaker 1: The Christmas Tree decorated with human skull, the Bad Child,
Speaker 1: the Bad Child pleading to be freed, and the eerie
Speaker 1: shadow puppet show. We're all uh nice touches. I liked
Speaker 1: the momentum, said automobile born audience member Gina Murphy. At
Speaker 1: first you said, oh, this is going to be fun
Speaker 1: and light, but then it got heavy quick uh And
Speaker 1: then later in the article, UH. Car passenger Carly Frankitch
Speaker 1: said her favorite part of the presentation were the weird fairies. Sure,
Speaker 1: she said, they were taking souls, but they looked pretty
Speaker 1: well they were doing it. Frankitch's young son, Miro coats
Speaker 1: safe in his car seat, said that the ride had
Speaker 1: provided a mixture of fun and fright. This is awesome.
Speaker 1: I really have to salute the Crampus crew based on this,
Speaker 1: because I have to say it's as it was, suddenly
Speaker 1: cramps knocked here in. I was initially was like, oh great,
Speaker 1: it's Crampas time again. And I was like, oh wait,
Speaker 1: I hope I hope that the Crampuses of the world
Speaker 1: can handle it, because sometimes, as we discussed in that episode,
Speaker 1: Crampus traditions can get a little out of hand. They
Speaker 1: can they can create the sort of like animalistic, lawless
Speaker 1: uh sort of atmosphere that might encourage rule breaking, and
Speaker 1: I really didn't want that for the cramps um Uh
Speaker 1: devotes this year. So it's nice to see that the
Speaker 1: Crampus crew was keeping it safe but also keeping it
Speaker 1: authentically disturbingly weird. You know. I gotta say, normally I'm
Speaker 1: kind of a fan of rule breaking, but I guess
Speaker 1: not when it's public health rules. Yeah, and you and
Speaker 1: with the and also you know that big tongue and
Speaker 1: you know, a wide mouth. You know, Crampus needs to
Speaker 1: to mask up if he's actually going to go out
Speaker 1: among the people. So it's good that there's a car
Speaker 1: window between what he's doing and what we're doing. I mean,
Speaker 1: Crampus is inherently unsanitary, like can you imagine Crampus wearing
Speaker 1: a mask, keeping his distance, wiping down the basket between
Speaker 1: each child. Yeah, spraying the this is the switches and whatnot?
Speaker 1: All right? Should we go into this message from Chris. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is Chris Chris Wrightson and says, high fellows, just
Speaker 1: listen to your great Crampus episode. Here's the topic you
Speaker 1: may find interesting in the future. Many cultures have a
Speaker 1: creature like Crampus or St. Nicholas that visits every house
Speaker 1: at the end of the year with different purposes. Gumang
Speaker 1: from China, uh, Sylvester Clause from Switzerland, Olga Namahanga from Japan.
Speaker 1: Japan has many different haga. I said, Hey, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if it's hajor hag a um but anyway, but
Speaker 1: all with the same purpose. And Kukiri from Bulgaria. Just
Speaker 1: a thought, take care and keep up the great work, Chris.
Speaker 1: I wanted to include this email because I had to
Speaker 1: look up images of what Sylvester Klaus looks like, and
Speaker 1: Sylvester Claus is scarier than any crampus at least the
Speaker 1: versions I found are a guy with some buckles almost
Speaker 1: like uh like a like a a slip knot member
Speaker 1: number of buckles on his costume, and then foliage all
Speaker 1: over his body, on the top of his head like
Speaker 1: a big wreath of some kind of evergreen limbs. But
Speaker 1: then just the face of rattle shirt, just bone bone
Speaker 1: lord face with weird bone teeth and googly eyes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I get it's kind of a sense of a pagan
Speaker 1: holiday gar cost him from the Yeah, you know. Our
Speaker 1: next listener mail that our our mail body here has
Speaker 1: for us also happens to relate to a forest dwelling
Speaker 1: be steel creature. Very nice transition. So this is a
Speaker 1: straggler message that we found. I think this actually did
Speaker 1: come in back in October, but this is about our
Speaker 1: Halloween episode on The Leshy and it comes from Laura.
Speaker 1: Laura says, hey, guys, longtime fan of your show. I
Speaker 1: recently listened to The Leshy and I'm taking you up
Speaker 1: on your offer to share my own, luckily brief experience
Speaker 1: of being lost in the woods. It was during a
Speaker 1: solo through hike of the Pacific Crest Trail. I was
Speaker 1: halfway through Oregon, when a handwritten sign on the trail
Speaker 1: notified me of a ground nest of wasps up ahead,
Speaker 1: so I scrambled up the steep mountain side about ten
Speaker 1: meters off the densely wooded trail to avoid it. Because
Speaker 1: of the steepness and thick vegetation, I immediately lost sight
Speaker 1: of the trail only a few paces into the woods.
Speaker 1: Not wanting to get stung, I kept moving off a
Speaker 1: little ways until I felt safe from the hornets and
Speaker 1: started to parallel the trail. What I didn't realize was
Speaker 1: that at some point it switched back beneath me and
Speaker 1: went downhill in the opposite direction that I was traveling.
Speaker 1: It was only after bushwhacking for five minutes that I
Speaker 1: realized I had missed the trail. Even though I had
Speaker 1: a sense of where I was on the slope by
Speaker 1: referencing my map, I could not find the trail. Given
Speaker 1: the rolling and forested nature of the mountain side. I
Speaker 1: knew that it would be difficult to know where even
Speaker 1: my relative position was if I kept moving, and it
Speaker 1: would be easy to follow the wrong drainage that would
Speaker 1: take me deeper into the back country. So I think
Speaker 1: the idea there is if you just try to like
Speaker 1: follow a ditch or a stream or something downhill, it
Speaker 1: might be leading you down the wrong side of the mountain.
Speaker 1: I guess Laura goes on. Once I realized I was lost,
Speaker 1: I had a wave of panic hit me that had
Speaker 1: my legs twitching to run as fast as I could,
Speaker 1: so I tried to calm down and listen for other
Speaker 1: hikers that might be in the area. Within minutes, I
Speaker 1: realized that I could convince myself that I heard faint
Speaker 1: voices in every direction. I think my brain was so
Speaker 1: desperate for a human voice that it was trying hard
Speaker 1: to interpret the sounds of the forest as voices. At
Speaker 1: that point, my reason kicked in and I did an
Speaker 1: inventory of my food and water. I had about two
Speaker 1: days worth, but could stretch it to a desperate week
Speaker 1: if I didn't move. Knowing that I was probably within
Speaker 1: earshot of the trail, I knew my best bet was
Speaker 1: to stay as calm as I could where I was,
Speaker 1: so me being a religious person, I got down on
Speaker 1: my knees and prayed as hard as I could for peace.
Speaker 1: When I opened my eyes, I told myself that I
Speaker 1: was going to only move a dozen feet downhill from
Speaker 1: where I was, so that I could try to find
Speaker 1: a flatter spot to set up camp, at which point
Speaker 1: I was going to blow on my whistle and hope
Speaker 1: that someone would hear me before my food ran out.
Speaker 1: If I hadn't been found by then, I would activate
Speaker 1: my personal locator beacon as a last resort. LO and behold,
Speaker 1: only about three steps downhill had me back on the trail.
Speaker 1: I was truly terrified for the rest of the day.
Speaker 1: From that point on, whenever I camped or napped off
Speaker 1: the trail, I kept one of my trekking poles pointed
Speaker 1: back towards it. In total, I was only lost for
Speaker 1: about an hour, and it was by the grace of
Speaker 1: God and dumb luck that I managed to cross the
Speaker 1: trail again. I had considered myself an experienced hiker up
Speaker 1: until that point, but since then I am humbled by
Speaker 1: my experience. Laura, excellent. I mean that lines up with
Speaker 1: a lot of what we were talking about, um and
Speaker 1: also getting into some of the sensory deprivation shoes that
Speaker 1: we we didn't really dwell on. Yeah, it ends up
Speaker 1: with a ton of the things like from some of
Speaker 1: those studies about how just people are have trouble anticipating
Speaker 1: how disorienting being lost in the woods can be. You
Speaker 1: you think, not actually being in the situation, it would
Speaker 1: be easy. I just walked back the direction I came,
Speaker 1: you know, But but yeah, often doesn't work out that way.
Speaker 1: So glad you found your way back, Laura. Yeah. Oh,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know earlier we mentioned a straggler email.
Speaker 1: I do want to drive home never hesitated to send
Speaker 1: us a straggler email. If you listen to an old
Speaker 1: episode or you know, even if it's not one that's
Speaker 1: been featured in the Vault, and you have something interesting
Speaker 1: to share, do reach out to us because, especially now
Speaker 1: that we're taking uh stuff to blew your mind listener
Speaker 1: mail more of a more of a weekly route, we'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from everybody. We have more space now
Speaker 1: than ever before to share interesting listener mails with everybody totally.
Speaker 1: And actually I think we were straggling on this one,
Speaker 1: not not Laura. So I think this one came in
Speaker 1: during October or something and we missed it until I
Speaker 1: went back and found that got you. Yeah, we we've
Speaker 1: managed to trace our way back to the path. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: so many of you know, we're also putting out these
Speaker 1: weird House Cinema episodes on Friday's. Uh it's you know,
Speaker 1: normally the show is science and culture, but they're on
Speaker 1: on Friday evenings. I like to think of it as
Speaker 1: a midnight Friday show and we talk about weird movies
Speaker 1: and maybe we talk a little bit about science and culture,
Speaker 1: but mostly it's about the film. So we've heard from
Speaker 1: people about these episodes, and most of it's been very positive.
Speaker 1: Here's one that comes to us from Jesse. Okay, guys,
Speaker 1: you will have to first put up with some gushing.
Speaker 1: I cannot tell you how much I love you guys
Speaker 1: and your show. I recommend you at every opportunity. I
Speaker 1: work a lot in life, and for years now, you
Speaker 1: guys have turned what would otherwise be excruciating commutes to
Speaker 1: absolute pleasures. I have wanted to email you just just
Speaker 1: this for a long time, but I figure you get
Speaker 1: mail like this all the time, So finally I have
Speaker 1: a real good reason to write in. I was about
Speaker 1: to start the dishes when I saw you were covering
Speaker 1: the Battle for Indoor and I almost dropped my phone.
Speaker 1: Such a random, crazy thing for you to cover, and
Speaker 1: it happens to be a super important movie to me.
Speaker 1: Like Robert was saying, I was one of those kids
Speaker 1: who had it on a recorded VHS, one possible difference
Speaker 1: being that it was one of only maybe five or
Speaker 1: six VHS tapes that I had, one of them being
Speaker 1: Caravan of Courage. I was born in eighty two, so
Speaker 1: the Ewoks movies fell perfectly into my wheelhouse. While I
Speaker 1: was all but ignorant of the Star Wars movies themselves.
Speaker 1: I must have watched Battle for Indoor a hundred times,
Speaker 1: but I didn't notice the reason why I am writing
Speaker 1: you until recently. Passing the Ewoks movies onto my four
Speaker 1: year old just this year was such a pleasure. I digress.
Speaker 1: None of this is why I am writing. I have
Speaker 1: a really cool little tidbit. See. I am not a
Speaker 1: Star Wars fan by any real measure, even loving the
Speaker 1: Walks and of course having seen all of the Star
Speaker 1: Wars movies. I also live and grew up in Marin
Speaker 1: in Lucas Valley, so I do not partake in the
Speaker 1: meticulous Star Wars fandom. But I do have something that
Speaker 1: I don't think many people have realized. Battle for Indoor
Speaker 1: is special in that it is the only Star Wars
Speaker 1: movie that I am aware of that contains a swear word.
Speaker 1: I lift it up before writing you, and fandom says fandom.
Speaker 1: I think they're referring to like the the Wikipedia realm quote.
Speaker 1: A rumor circulated that Noah swears under his breath while
Speaker 1: trying to power up his star Cruiser during the movie's climax. However,
Speaker 1: it was debunked in the eighty nine issue of the
Speaker 1: Star Wars Insider magazine, which cites the subtitles of two
Speaker 1: thousand four Walks the Battle for Indoor DVD release as
Speaker 1: proving that the that the line is in fact, Ah,
Speaker 1: come on now, Just to be clear, the character know
Speaker 1: what we're talking about, For a reminder, is played by
Speaker 1: Wilford Brimley in the movie. Did we not mention that already? Uh?
Speaker 1: We did not mention that in this listener, So imagine, yes,
Speaker 1: it's it's Wilfred Brimley. Uh. And Wilfred Brimley is in
Speaker 1: the scene like struggling with the controls of his spaceship
Speaker 1: that's up on cinder blocks in his yard. He's trying
Speaker 1: to get it going again. Yeah. I have to admit
Speaker 1: when I watched it. There were a couple of times
Speaker 1: when I kind of had this this feeling like I
Speaker 1: feel like things are being said that are very close
Speaker 1: to curse words, either things that are grumbled by Wilford
Speaker 1: Brimley's character or things that you know, are yabbered by
Speaker 1: e Walks. Then and then they're clearly you know, not
Speaker 1: supposed to be um, you know, English or basic, but
Speaker 1: but certainly sound a little cussy. You know, Wicket is
Speaker 1: swearing up a storm, but you wouldn't know it. But
Speaker 1: what Jesse is saying here is that it apparently the
Speaker 1: Star Wars Insider magazine says no, Wilfred Brimley does not
Speaker 1: swear in this movie. And it's based on the subtitles
Speaker 1: from one DVD release of this which I did not
Speaker 1: know there had been. They're not really readily available right now,
Speaker 1: but there there was like a DVD double pack of these. Okay,
Speaker 1: I see and what again? What they said Wilford Brimley's
Speaker 1: actual line was was all come on, um. They continue. However,
Speaker 1: in the version I have you, and very clearly and
Speaker 1: naturally hear him saying the F word in reaction to
Speaker 1: the sparks. It's so funny because he's Wilfred Brimley. I
Speaker 1: invite you to check the version you have at this
Speaker 1: scene and decide for yourself. Though I could easily see
Speaker 1: the DVD and subsequent releases being quote unquote fixed. I
Speaker 1: am not sure this is a this is listener mail worthy,
Speaker 1: but I thought it was at the very least an
Speaker 1: excuse to give you my thanks and tell you how
Speaker 1: much YouTube can really mean to someone who doesn't always
Speaker 1: have a good time. Please keep doing exactly what you
Speaker 1: were doing, exactly the way you were doing it, forever
Speaker 1: and ever. All my best and keep at it. Jesse ps.
Speaker 1: My favorite episodes are the Boltzman Brain episodes. Well, thanks
Speaker 1: so much, Jesse. I really appreciate the kind words. And no,
Speaker 1: this is absolutely listener mail worthy because we always want
Speaker 1: to hear about Wilfred Brimley swearing in children's movies. It
Speaker 1: also does seem like the kind of thing that if
Speaker 1: they ever give this a proper, real, you know, remaster rerelease,
Speaker 1: they're gonna edit it out and that's just get out
Speaker 1: of here with that. Yeah. Um, but I do hope
Speaker 1: they make it widely available again, because a lot of
Speaker 1: us are nostalgic for this film and it's it's predecessor,
Speaker 1: and I think I think it should be out there.
Speaker 1: I mean the same with other important Star Wars UM
Speaker 1: pieces of media, such as um the original Clone Wars
Speaker 1: animated version that came out prior to the computer animated version.
Speaker 1: Like that's that's great fun, and it should be available
Speaker 1: to people in formats that are not just random YouTube
Speaker 1: uploads in my opinion. Uh. Somebody did right in and
Speaker 1: mentioned the Star Wars Holiday special though, and I do
Speaker 1: have to say I'm kind of I'm cool with that
Speaker 1: one remaining lost. Uh for the most part, it's I
Speaker 1: tried to rewatch it this year and my eyes were
Speaker 1: bigger than my stomach on that one. We'll save it.
Speaker 1: This is coming up in a in a couple of
Speaker 1: males from now. Okay, okay, we'll talk about it then.
Speaker 1: Next one here from Eric. Eric says, Hey, Robert and Joe,
Speaker 1: longtime listener, first time writing in. I wanted to chime
Speaker 1: in on two recent topics. First, gravy. I was fascinated
Speaker 1: by the gravy death ritual in the recent Turkey episode.
Speaker 1: Robert mentioned not knowing of any religious ritual involving gravy,
Speaker 1: but I think at least for myself. The making of
Speaker 1: the gravy on Thanksgiving is a spiritual exercise in its
Speaker 1: own right. This year, due to COVID nineteen, my wife
Speaker 1: and I stayed home and didn't cook a whole turkey,
Speaker 1: so I didn't get to perform my sacred duties. For
Speaker 1: some good gravy is all about the giblets, meaning the liver, heart, kidneys,
Speaker 1: and gizzard, which reinforces Joe's point about gravy being the
Speaker 1: essence of the animal it's made from. It's a celebration
Speaker 1: of this awesome bird. Just like a good rare steak
Speaker 1: can give you that primal zing up the back of
Speaker 1: your brain stem, the organs of an animal can carry
Speaker 1: the same effect, and that's why a true giblet gravy
Speaker 1: is so good. Making gravy is a methodical, ritualistic process
Speaker 1: with several steps that you have to time properly. It
Speaker 1: can be stressful will there be enough juices? Do I
Speaker 1: have enough time? Will the rue come out right? But
Speaker 1: completing each step is a triumph leading to the transcendent
Speaker 1: experience of the final product that literally parentheses figuratively uh
Speaker 1: ties it all together. All the food on your plate
Speaker 1: and all the people at your table, it can be
Speaker 1: mind blowing. This is this is a great point. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was just gonna say, I just a brief thought
Speaker 1: here is that. Yeah, when food is meaningful, Like, there
Speaker 1: are a few things like it. You know, like when
Speaker 1: food doesn't have meaning, when it's just fast and and
Speaker 1: you're you're not thinking about it and you're not like
Speaker 1: really experiencing it, you know, that's one thing. But when
Speaker 1: you when you do get to have this real attachment
Speaker 1: to the organisms that you're consuming and to the practices
Speaker 1: and the history of what's going into it. Yeah, there
Speaker 1: there are a few things like it. Oh yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean food. Food is obviously so much more than just
Speaker 1: the experience of eating it, the taste and the nutrition
Speaker 1: for your body. It's it's very, ah, a deeply interwoven cultural,
Speaker 1: traditional thing. And this is why, like if you watch
Speaker 1: recipe videos on the internet, you'll often see in the
Speaker 1: comments people freaking out that somebody didn't do it right.
Speaker 1: You know, like if if you want any Italian recipe
Speaker 1: or something, people will be saying like, that's not how
Speaker 1: you make that, saw us or something, And and you
Speaker 1: get sense that it's because people's memories of the traditions
Speaker 1: of their their their dishes are often tied up in
Speaker 1: people's like family and cultural identity, to the point where
Speaker 1: when somebody does it a different way, it almost feels
Speaker 1: like a violation of some sacred ritual. You're not doing
Speaker 1: it right, and this is a blasphemy. Okay, Eric goes
Speaker 1: on before I lose it talking about gravy. Here's the
Speaker 1: other thing. I loved Robert's postulating about the Force and
Speaker 1: the lore of Ewok's Battle of Indoor. As a kid,
Speaker 1: one of the things I loved about Star Wars was
Speaker 1: that it was fantastic but believable. It felt real, tangible,
Speaker 1: and immersive. Even the Force, essentially space magic, felt plausible.
Speaker 1: So when I think of the Ewoks movie, the thing
Speaker 1: I remember most was what my seven year old self
Speaker 1: was thinking while seeing it. I laugh at how even
Speaker 1: then I was really hung up on things feeling real
Speaker 1: and believable. I remember taking issue with the horses of
Speaker 1: all things, even with no established canon for what the
Speaker 1: Force can do. I remember thinking that it was too
Speaker 1: fantastic and magical, that it felt like an Earth movie,
Speaker 1: shape shifting, magic, rings, turbo running, not in Star Wars.
Speaker 1: And it may be a testament to the purity and
Speaker 1: greatness of the original trilogy that even then, the style
Speaker 1: and feel of Star Wars had permeated me so thoroughly
Speaker 1: that my standards as a seven year old were really high.
Speaker 1: Or maybe it's just a funny note on memory. We
Speaker 1: remember the thing itself less than what we remember thinking
Speaker 1: about the thing. Thanks for all your good work, Eric, Oh,
Speaker 1: that's that's all very resting. Yeah, I can definitely relate
Speaker 1: to feeling that way about the magic versus the Force
Speaker 1: as presented in the Battle for Indoor. Uh. Though I
Speaker 1: feel like some viewers had a similar issue in the
Speaker 1: sequel trilogy, especially um The Last Jedi and The Rise
Speaker 1: of Skywalker, because the Force suddenly they're they're sort of
Speaker 1: new force abilities that become evident, like like physical matter
Speaker 1: transferring from one point to another in space and time,
Speaker 1: stuff like that, which maybe leans even more heavily into
Speaker 1: the magical interpretation of the Force. Yeah. Wait, when we
Speaker 1: talked about e wats did we talk about horses? I
Speaker 1: don't know if I remember that coming up, but yeah,
Speaker 1: why are their horses? I don't think there were any
Speaker 1: horses in the original trilogy, were there? There were not
Speaker 1: that I remember. No, I don't think there were horses
Speaker 1: in the original trilogy. Some horses show up in the
Speaker 1: sequel trilogy, but they've been kind of like augmented with
Speaker 1: computer effects to make them like alien horses, which is
Speaker 1: pretty cool. But I don't know. I didn't really have
Speaker 1: any problem with horses in the Indoor movie. I figure
Speaker 1: at some point somebody introduced the indoor pony, and it
Speaker 1: makes as much sense as humans being all over this
Speaker 1: distant galaxy, so I will allow it. Okay, do you
Speaker 1: want to go onto this message from Raj? Yeah, let's
Speaker 1: do it, all right. Raj writes, Hello, stuff to blow
Speaker 1: your mind. In the Star Wars edition of Weird House Cinema,
Speaker 1: you were talking about the notion of Star Wars canon.
Speaker 1: You mentioned that the three films of the then original
Speaker 1: trilogy plus the two Indoor movies constituted as part of
Speaker 1: the Star Wars canon, meaning that the two Indoor movies
Speaker 1: make up the Star Wars films. I am curious about
Speaker 1: how the Star Wars Holiday special fits into this. You
Speaker 1: hadn't mentioned this film in the podcast. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: it was intentional, since many regard that film to be
Speaker 1: not good, or if it's something you just happened to forget.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to start a fight or anything like that.
Speaker 1: I'm just wondering if you consider the Holiday Special canon
Speaker 1: or not love the podcast cheers Raj. I mean, so
Speaker 1: if the if the main films are a cannon for me, um,
Speaker 1: Holiday Special is like a prime canon. It's it's like
Speaker 1: the cannon above all other cannons. If something doesn't agree
Speaker 1: with the Holiday Special, then it's not cannon. Which which
Speaker 1: cannon grade is mostly circus animals, because that's that's kind
Speaker 1: of the grade. I think the Holidays the Star Wars
Speaker 1: Special probably fits in a um. Yeah. As I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: I tried to rewatch this with the riff tracks um
Speaker 1: this year and I ended up turning away for a
Speaker 1: couple of reasons. One I I love riff tracks. I
Speaker 1: love those guys. I think they do great work. But
Speaker 1: the riff on this one was like an earlier riff
Speaker 1: and just felt a little mean spirited a lot of
Speaker 1: the time. UM So I didn't love that. It just
Speaker 1: it felt like it wasn't having as much fun as
Speaker 1: it was. Just kind of grumpy with the picture, uh,
Speaker 1: which you know isn't the case in a lot of
Speaker 1: their other work. Again, I love riff tracks, but the
Speaker 1: Holiday Special makes people unhappy. I mean I've watched it
Speaker 1: many times and showed it too many people, and it
Speaker 1: it has a tendency to kind of send people into
Speaker 1: a into a dark spiral. Yeah, yeah, I think that
Speaker 1: is That is a valid point because the the other
Speaker 1: part of not digging the experience is that it is
Speaker 1: dreadfully boring and irritating. Uh with with the only with
Speaker 1: only a few really bright spots. For instance, the original
Speaker 1: the introduction of Bob a fette in that wonderful like
Speaker 1: sort of I think it was a Canadian production, but
Speaker 1: it has this kind of French animation feel to it,
Speaker 1: like that is a great little segment. Um. I love that.
Speaker 1: The cartoon. Yeah, the cartoon. I also enjoy some of
Speaker 1: the Wookie stuff, you know, getting to see their little world. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because you know, it's it certainly creates a world and
Speaker 1: and it is like a setting like in this small respect,
Speaker 1: it is cannon because the version of Kashik that they
Speaker 1: create in this Holiday Special is essentially the same version
Speaker 1: that pops up again in um um Um in Revenge
Speaker 1: of the Sith that pops up in various video games
Speaker 1: such as um Um, you know, like the Battlefield what
Speaker 1: is it, uh not Battlefield, maybe it is Battlefield whatever
Speaker 1: the shooter is that they play, also the recent Jedi
Speaker 1: Outcast game. Basically they're all using the same version of
Speaker 1: kik that the Holiday Special gives us. Yes, I mean so,
Speaker 1: I've probably seen the Star Wars Holiday Special at least,
Speaker 1: you know, ten or a dozen times, but I will
Speaker 1: admit it is brutally boring and grading, and it has
Speaker 1: these repeated comedy skits with Harvey Corman that are interminable.
Speaker 1: There's one where he's, uh, where the gag is that
Speaker 1: he is, I guess some kind of robot and he's
Speaker 1: like repeatedly breaking down and going into slow motion. And
Speaker 1: that skit lasts about ten billion years. It is, it
Speaker 1: is older than the Earth. The weird thing is that
Speaker 1: you can look back at it and see how it
Speaker 1: made sense, like you. I think that one of the
Speaker 1: key things you have to keep in mind is that
Speaker 1: this was the heyday of the original Muppet Show, and
Speaker 1: on paper, it sounds great like the Muppet Show is
Speaker 1: doing this great variety show with puppets and fantastic characters
Speaker 1: and and celebrity cameos. We could do that with the
Speaker 1: Star Wars universe and it would We could do it
Speaker 1: in a way that wouldn't hurt anybody. It's be Arthur
Speaker 1: and Art Carney. Yeah, but yeah, the result just doesn't
Speaker 1: really work. There's just so many, so many things wrong
Speaker 1: with it. They really should have brought in Tim Conway
Speaker 1: and Paul Lynde. I would start, oh wait, wait, wait, okay,
Speaker 1: here's my idea that they could take it to the
Speaker 1: next level. They should have just done Hollywood squares in
Speaker 1: universe Star Wars and it's cannon So like the squares
Speaker 1: are Chewbacca and Chewbacca's family, the really nasty old Wookie,
Speaker 1: Han Solo looking sad, Princess Leia on a mystical journey
Speaker 1: like all of them doing the tic tac toe. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't forget the look Skywalker wearing an absurd amount
Speaker 1: of makeup where he looks like he's basically in kabuky
Speaker 1: makeup in that one. It's huge amounts of makeup. It
Speaker 1: is astonishing. However, I will say I might feel differently
Speaker 1: about it if I had actually watched this back in
Speaker 1: the day. But the Star Wars Holiday Special is something
Speaker 1: I wasn't even aware of until I was an adult.
Speaker 1: So wait, wait, wait, wait, sorry, I have one more,
Speaker 1: one more Star Wars Holiday special thing to bring up,
Speaker 1: which is that there's a great scene where where Han
Speaker 1: Solo saves Chewy's family by faking out an Imperial stormtrooper
Speaker 1: who's approaching their house on the you know, like wooden catwalk,
Speaker 1: I guess, up to the front door. He fakes them out,
Speaker 1: the stormtrooper falls over the edge, presumably falls to his
Speaker 1: death on the ground below the house, and then it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: pblem solved. But if you think about the logic of it, Okay,
Speaker 1: so now the Imperial troops are marching around and there
Speaker 1: is a dead one of them on the ground below
Speaker 1: your front door, and then they just don't seem to
Speaker 1: regard this as a problem. Well, you have to remember
Speaker 1: the the the amount of training that your average stormtrooper
Speaker 1: is probably receiving. Uh, it's not great. They're not really
Speaker 1: going to be good detectives in that respect, right, And
Speaker 1: plus they're occupying a planet occupied by um you know,
Speaker 1: with the with the dominant species are these enormous fierce
Speaker 1: um wookies, So you know, it makes sense that you're
Speaker 1: probably losing a like there's an acceptable loss for Stormtroopers
Speaker 1: per day, and they're just like, well, you know that
Speaker 1: that guy clearly is an acceptable loss. All right, we
Speaker 1: got one more message. This comes in from Ali. Ali says, Hi, Robert,
Speaker 1: and Joe. I have listened to Stuff to Blow your
Speaker 1: Mind for many years and have really enjoyed the podcast.
Speaker 1: I just finished listening to the Weird House Cinema episode
Speaker 1: on Ghost in the Machine, and I loved it. I
Speaker 1: watched the movie over the weekend before listening, and I
Speaker 1: enjoyed that movie immensely. It was so awesomely bad, with
Speaker 1: so much nostalgic nineties style. I don't know if I
Speaker 1: ever would have known that that movie existed if you
Speaker 1: guys hadn't decided to watch it. Well, I'm glad we
Speaker 1: could bring that weirdness into your life. Over the years,
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind has taught me so much
Speaker 1: and got me thinking about so many different things. There
Speaker 1: was an episode where, if I remember this correctly, you
Speaker 1: tried to get listeners to remember to fact check things,
Speaker 1: especially if the things feel almost right. You guys repeated
Speaker 1: the phrase if it feels familiar, check the facts over
Speaker 1: and over and whenever my BS meter goes off for
Speaker 1: some fact doesn't feel quite right. I hear you tube
Speaker 1: repeating that phrase, and it reminds me to look into stuff. Anyway.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to say hi and thank you. Happy holidays, Ali.
Speaker 1: I think that was from the Illusory Truth Effect episode
Speaker 1: where we talked about the dangers of thinking something is
Speaker 1: right because it's sounds Yeah, that sounds right. That that
Speaker 1: that that's often the danger zone. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: All right. You know, we've I think we've reached the
Speaker 1: end of this particular episode of listener Mail. We have
Speaker 1: more listener mail to do, and we will do that
Speaker 1: in future episodes. But you know, I thought I also
Speaker 1: might we might just occasionally just throw out a question
Speaker 1: here to to see what everyone out there thinks. One
Speaker 1: thing that was on my mind is that during twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: due to the pandemic, I think a lot of us
Speaker 1: have spent spent more time by ourselves, perhaps more time
Speaker 1: with ourselves. So here's the here's a question. What have
Speaker 1: you learned about yourself in UH? And then how do
Speaker 1: you think you're going to bring that knowledge into one um?
Speaker 1: If you have any thoughts on that we'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. In the meantime. If you want to
Speaker 1: check out other episodes of Stuff to Blow your Mind,
Speaker 1: you can find us wherever you get your podcast, wherever
Speaker 1: that happens to be. Just rate, review, and subscribe. And
Speaker 1: I don't even care what order you do those things in.
Speaker 1: Um you know, if you can even do them wherever
Speaker 1: you're listening to this podcast. Sometimes you don't have all
Speaker 1: those powers at your disposal. But yeah, let us know.
Speaker 1: Listener mail episodes will continue to go out on Monday's
Speaker 1: unless we run out of listener mails, and then I
Speaker 1: guess we'll do something else on on a Monday here
Speaker 1: and there. I don't know. We'll see. It's a grand
Speaker 1: adventure and you guys are long for the ride with us.
Speaker 1: We will be having flaming barrel chats with or without
Speaker 1: your help, but we assume the help will keep coming in.
Speaker 1: Um okay, So anyway, huge thanks as always to our
Speaker 1: excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like
Speaker 1: to get in touch with us with feedback on this
Speaker 1: episode or any other, to suggest a topic for the future,
Speaker 1: or just to say hello, you can email us at
Speaker 1: contact That's Stuff to Blow Your Mind dot com. Stuff
Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind is a production of I heart Radio.
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