Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
Speaker 1: Listener Mail. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick.
Speaker 1: And today we're reading messages that you've sent in over
Speaker 1: the past couple of weeks. So most of them concern
Speaker 1: episodes that played in that time period. Occasionally there will
Speaker 1: be one or two that reaches deep into the archive,
Speaker 1: but that's okay. We're always happy to hear about stuff
Speaker 1: that came out a while ago. Today our mail bought
Speaker 1: Carney smells heavily of of not just eggs, not just sulfurous,
Speaker 1: but like burned eggs, and I think that's that's a
Speaker 1: bad sign of things to come. But rob do you
Speaker 1: mind if I jump right in with this message from
Speaker 1: Derek go for it? Okay. This is from the replay
Speaker 1: of our episode Into the Egg Chamber, in which we
Speaker 1: did talk about various not just the biology of egg
Speaker 1: laying an egg incubation, but also how cooked eggs can
Speaker 1: some times explode and so oh and one more thing
Speaker 1: before I start this, I I edited this message to
Speaker 1: remove various apologies for the length of the email, And
Speaker 1: here I want to issue a public service announcement. Folks.
Speaker 1: If it's too long to read, that's okay. We either
Speaker 1: we just won't read it, or we'll pare it down
Speaker 1: before we read it. Either way, there is no need
Speaker 1: to apologize about the length of email. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: try to try to avoid that in the future. When
Speaker 1: you know, one sentence here there might get through, but
Speaker 1: I'm trying to dance around it. We'll see how well
Speaker 1: we do so, Derek says, Hey, Robert and Joe, I'm
Speaker 1: writing in regards to your recent vault episode into the
Speaker 1: egg Chamber. The strangest thing happened about a week after
Speaker 1: listening to the episode. I came back from work late
Speaker 1: at night to discover that someone had left something burning
Speaker 1: on the stove. Rushing to check what it was, I
Speaker 1: found they had been trying to boil two eggs. I
Speaker 1: don't know how much time had passed by the time
Speaker 1: I got to it, but all the water had evaporated
Speaker 1: from the pot, even though the lid was still on.
Speaker 1: You can imagine what happened next. I went rate for
Speaker 1: the lid, and what followed was a loud bang, with
Speaker 1: the lid flying out of my hand and what I
Speaker 1: can only describe as egg shrapnel flying everywhere. Anyway, no
Speaker 1: one was hurt, and no one is owning up to it.
Speaker 1: This is this? Is this a family situation or a
Speaker 1: roommate situation? I wonder I like to imagine that this
Speaker 1: is just Derek and one other person. He's being very
Speaker 1: polite in his vagueness about placing Blaine. H No, it
Speaker 1: was you, man, But why did I have the bowl
Speaker 1: bart um? Anyway, Derek goes on to say, I've been
Speaker 1: listening to your podcast for almost five years now and
Speaker 1: have been loving every minute of it. The topics you
Speaker 1: cover have something for everyone. I recently started a new
Speaker 1: job and for someone who is as socially awkward as
Speaker 1: I am, your podcast to save me many times because
Speaker 1: I can always bring up a different, interesting or weird
Speaker 1: topic of discussion. Thanks for all your hard work. And
Speaker 1: I've tried to attach a picture of the eggs so
Speaker 1: rob I feel scrolled down in our document here these
Speaker 1: are Derek's eggs. I think this is a it occasion
Speaker 1: to use the thanks I Hate It meme. This truly
Speaker 1: does look absolutely revolting, and it looks like it smells
Speaker 1: like stomach churning Yeah, this is thanks for sending. Now.
Speaker 1: I guess this would go in line with what we
Speaker 1: talked about in the end of the Egg Chamber episode,
Speaker 1: where there was the phenomenon of hard boiled eggs. I
Speaker 1: think often having been reheated in the microwave, that when
Speaker 1: somebody pierces them with a fork or bites into them,
Speaker 1: they will suddenly explode. And it's not known for sure
Speaker 1: why that happened, but the best hypothesis seems to be
Speaker 1: that there are little pockets of superheated steam that form
Speaker 1: inside the matrix of the oolk and when those pockets
Speaker 1: get released, they rapidly expand and kind of turned the
Speaker 1: egg into a bomb. Yeah, and that seems like that
Speaker 1: maybe what happened right here in this picture. Yeah, maybe
Speaker 1: moving the pot disturbed it or something, but I wonder
Speaker 1: that anyway. That's uh. I'm glad no one was harmed.
Speaker 1: I hope the culprit is found. Yeah, all right, here's
Speaker 1: another bit of listener mail. This one comes to us
Speaker 1: from the Home dat Abroad um Home dat Abroad Rights. Greetings,
Speaker 1: Joe and Robert. There are many aspects of your two
Speaker 1: partner on numbers that sparked great interest in thoughts for me.
Speaker 1: But what inspired this note was your query concerning different
Speaker 1: finger counting systems back in the seventies. Until third grade,
Speaker 1: I was segregated from the larger student body and experimental
Speaker 1: class that combined four years of interacting students and three
Speaker 1: shared teachers. When the time came for educational seminars and conventions,
Speaker 1: one of the three would rotate out to attend and
Speaker 1: invariably return with new ideas and approaches to test on
Speaker 1: our captive minds. One such convention during my first grade
Speaker 1: year produced a new methodology for finger counting, which was
Speaker 1: implemented immediately in the classroom. It consisted of using both hands.
Speaker 1: The right represented single digits and the left was double digits.
Speaker 1: The four right fingers were one and the thumb was five.
Speaker 1: The left fing ers were each ten, with the thumb
Speaker 1: as fifty. Just using the two hands, one could easily
Speaker 1: count to If one extended from the left hand two
Speaker 1: fingers and the thumb, while extending four right fingers, it
Speaker 1: would produce the number seventy four. By shifting the fingers,
Speaker 1: it became possible to quickly add, subtract, multiply, and divide.
Speaker 1: It would take a much longer email to adequately describe
Speaker 1: the various techniques that I still barely remember. But it
Speaker 1: was smooth and easy and would often result in the
Speaker 1: dropping of pencils. This became our go to method in
Speaker 1: class for counting and learning the multiplication tables. Subsequently, it
Speaker 1: allowed me to teach myself how to divide at least
Speaker 1: a year before it was covered in the curriculum. The
Speaker 1: system was not adopted outside of that class, which was
Speaker 1: sadly disbanded when I entered fourth grade, and I have
Speaker 1: never been able to track down information online about this method.
Speaker 1: Despite it all, I default to that method to this
Speaker 1: very day and risk the dropping of my phone in
Speaker 1: lieu of pencils. Sheers the home down I brought. This
Speaker 1: is really interesting. I've never heard about this before. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this I would I would be very interested if anyone
Speaker 1: out there listening knows what this counting system is. This
Speaker 1: number system happens to be and uh, yeah, we need
Speaker 1: to to to put a name to it. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: number one. I don't know. Well, Rob. There is an
Speaker 1: email we also got from longtime correspondent Jim in New
Speaker 1: Jersey about a finger counting system that sounds kind of similar. Actually,
Speaker 1: do you want to read this one too. Sure? This
Speaker 1: is from Yes, from Jim in New Jersey, Robert and Joe.
Speaker 1: Anyone with four fingers in a thumb on each hand
Speaker 1: can easily count into basic arithmetic with number zero to
Speaker 1: using a technique called chiss and bop. You use the
Speaker 1: fingers on each hand mimicking one rod with a five
Speaker 1: bead the thumb and four one beads the fingers. The
Speaker 1: right hand represents units, the left hand represents tens. Jim
Speaker 1: in New Jersey PS a podcast on non electronic computing
Speaker 1: devices such as the Abbicus and slide rule would be
Speaker 1: a good addition to this series. I just open this
Speaker 1: up in another tab to look at it. Chisenbop is
Speaker 1: a Korean finger counting system. Actually the word comes from
Speaker 1: the Korean for finger calculation chi or chichi meaning finger
Speaker 1: and scent pop or send beyop. I think for calculation. Oh,
Speaker 1: very interesting and uh and I agree with Jim. I
Speaker 1: think I think it would be great to do an
Speaker 1: episode on non electronic computing devices. There's some really really
Speaker 1: really fun stuff absolutely so I was just trying to
Speaker 1: think about something funny, like what is the correct technological
Speaker 1: analogy for the mental skill you learn that allows you
Speaker 1: to better or more efficiently perform numerical and mathematical tasks
Speaker 1: with the aid of body parts like fingers or external tools,
Speaker 1: like the way that the Ashango bone might have been
Speaker 1: used if the if the hypotheses about it are correct,
Speaker 1: I guess what I'm looking for is something that is
Speaker 1: neither quite software nor hardware, but the or maybe it
Speaker 1: is a kind of software. Be the mental software upgrade
Speaker 1: that makes better use of the existing hardware. Would that
Speaker 1: be like the device drivers in your head? M yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm not sure what the what the
Speaker 1: actual terminology for this would be, but as we explored
Speaker 1: in those episodes, it goes way back. You know, this
Speaker 1: actually makes me think about how while there are standard
Speaker 1: finger counting systems, I guess there's nothing to prevent somebody
Speaker 1: from coming up with a totally idiosyncratic finger accounting system,
Speaker 1: right like just making up some system on their own
Speaker 1: and using that. I wonder is anybody out there ever
Speaker 1: did anybody do that? Did you go your own way
Speaker 1: with finger counting, some sort of self taught uh finger
Speaker 1: accounting system? Like you know, what kind of system would
Speaker 1: we come up with if if one wasn't presented to us. Maybe,
Speaker 1: like you know, each wrinkle on the back of your
Speaker 1: knuckle means something. I'm not sure. Yeah, okay. We also
Speaker 1: got some messages in response to the episode that Seth
Speaker 1: and I did about musical free san Uh, Rob, do
Speaker 1: you want to read this one from Hannah or should
Speaker 1: I just I can jump in in Hi, Robert Joan
Speaker 1: Seth loved the episode on musical Frissonne and although I'm
Speaker 1: sure you're getting tons of emails like this one, I
Speaker 1: wanted to share something that tends to set off my
Speaker 1: own musical frisson. Crowds singing together. I think it is
Speaker 1: a combination of a couple of things. First, is the
Speaker 1: pure volume of that many people singing in unison and
Speaker 1: probably at the top of their lungs. Second, I think
Speaker 1: it is the almost magical feeling that comes from communal singing.
Speaker 1: If I'm witnessing it in person, especially if I'm joining in,
Speaker 1: I'm obviously feeling that magic directly. And even if I'm
Speaker 1: listening to a recording of a sound of a crowd singing,
Speaker 1: I can still get those chills because I can imagine
Speaker 1: how awesome that moment must have felt. The last aspect
Speaker 1: that does it for me, which I'm sure not everyone appreciates,
Speaker 1: is that I love, love, love imperfect vocal performances, not
Speaker 1: so much like wasted karaoke level, but maybe someone who
Speaker 1: is untrained but giving it their best shot, or a
Speaker 1: highly skilled vocalist who maybe loses control for a little bit.
Speaker 1: I think it may tie into the performance, subverting my
Speaker 1: expectations with things like a breath taken in a weird place,
Speaker 1: a quick vocal crack, or a half second where they're
Speaker 1: slightly out of tune but then lock in. I know
Speaker 1: a lot of people are not really fans of the
Speaker 1: crowd singing along during a concert quote I paid to
Speaker 1: hear so and so singing, not their fans, which I
Speaker 1: understand to some extent, But for me, it's one of
Speaker 1: the things I love most about a live performance, and
Speaker 1: something I've grown to appreciate even more since the pandemic
Speaker 1: took it away. Not just experiencing something you love, but
Speaker 1: experiencing the way other people love the same thing. Just
Speaker 1: my two cents love the show so much. Hannah p s.
Speaker 1: After Joe mentioned chrono trigger in a listener email episode,
Speaker 1: I gotta know if any of you have played Zeno Gear.
Speaker 1: Zeno was Zeno Gear Gears, Zeno Gears Gears? You know gear?
Speaker 1: What was Alien Pinball Machine? Is this what we're we're
Speaker 1: talking about? Alien Invall Machine, Zeno Gears? Or is it racing?
Speaker 1: It's like Mario cartl really have no idea. Well, I
Speaker 1: would guess it's an RPG from what Hannah is saying here. Okay,
Speaker 1: she says I was a little too young to play
Speaker 1: it when it first came out, but played it out
Speaker 1: emulated last year, and there's a lot about it that
Speaker 1: seems right up this show's alley, lots of max and gnosticism. Well,
Speaker 1: obviously from what we were saying. No, I have not
Speaker 1: played you Know Gears. I'm not like a big like
Speaker 1: JRPG or even RPG in general. Guy, I just happened
Speaker 1: to have at some point played Chrono Trigger, which is
Speaker 1: a wonderful game for the Supernintendo. Um that is definitely
Speaker 1: worth going back and revisiting on emulator or whatever if
Speaker 1: you can. But but beyond that, I don't know a
Speaker 1: lot about RPGs of that era. Well. Um, Hannah makes
Speaker 1: some some great points about communal singing. Um, I don't
Speaker 1: know if if I am necessarily is moved by just
Speaker 1: choral performances so much. But I do appreciate the experience
Speaker 1: of communal singing like I I enjoy singing as a
Speaker 1: part of like a church congregation or um, you know,
Speaker 1: doing like Elizabethan Christmas carols whilst begging for wassaal that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. Uh. You know. Part of it is
Speaker 1: like growing up with these songs and the shared culture
Speaker 1: of these songs. But there's just something also fun about everybody, um,
Speaker 1: you know, everybody singing these songs. At the same time,
Speaker 1: you're getting your your sinking up your neural networks to
Speaker 1: a certain extent and engaging in this sort of you know,
Speaker 1: communal you know, uplifting of music. Yeah. I mean this
Speaker 1: very much reminds me of stuff we talked about in
Speaker 1: our episode on the the emotion of Kama Muda, which
Speaker 1: has to do with, you know, the these sort of
Speaker 1: communal emotions, and I I feel that very much with
Speaker 1: crowds singing along to music that that they love. So
Speaker 1: I love crowd singing along to music, though I have
Speaker 1: the exact opposite reaction about something. Rob. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've ever been to a show like this where
Speaker 1: the crowd just cannot shut up during rest sore pauses
Speaker 1: in the music. So like anytime there's a rest or
Speaker 1: anytime a song gets quiet, people start going whoa. It
Speaker 1: drives me nuts. I hate really, I don't know. Sometimes
Speaker 1: that's the time to woo. That's that's when you let
Speaker 1: them know, like the song has been really hot and heavy,
Speaker 1: and then you know, it goes down a little bit,
Speaker 1: and and that's when you can get through to the
Speaker 1: musicians on stage. Well maybe if it happens once in
Speaker 1: a concert, okay, but I've been to concerts that literally
Speaker 1: every quiet moment was filled with woo's and unacceptable. I
Speaker 1: think sometimes I'm thinking particularly about well, I guess like
Speaker 1: tool songs come to mind. That was the last concert
Speaker 1: I went to. UM is that sometimes like the you're
Speaker 1: you're on a ride with this song, and it can
Speaker 1: be a rather long song, you know, and it's it's
Speaker 1: it's hitting me hard, and then you finally get to
Speaker 1: the part where things quiet down a little bit and
Speaker 1: there's a short break, and you know, part of it
Speaker 1: is it's quiet and I can yell and be heard,
Speaker 1: but also it's it's it's like you've you've come out
Speaker 1: of the tunnel, right you've you've you've reached be not
Speaker 1: the end of the roller coaster, but like this is
Speaker 1: your your chance to uh to express what you've been
Speaker 1: feeling the last five minutes. I don't know now in
Speaker 1: terms of people singing along with songs, I probably have
Speaker 1: found it uh slightly annoying at times, but I tell
Speaker 1: you I will take it every concert for the rest
Speaker 1: of my life. Over anybody, UM, like visibly filming a
Speaker 1: show using their their phone or essentially but like watching
Speaker 1: the performance through their phone screen. That is the absolute worst,
Speaker 1: because I'm trying to focus on the performance and instead
Speaker 1: like your gooney face is illuminated by your phone, and
Speaker 1: and there's the footage of the thing we're trying to
Speaker 1: watch in real life, and uh and I have to
Speaker 1: like look at that as well. Um that that gets
Speaker 1: on my nerves to no end. Musicians love it. Look
Speaker 1: out in the audience and just see a sea of phones.
Speaker 1: But another thing, Hannaman shad this is the certain types
Speaker 1: of imperfect vocal performances UH caused causing frees on for her,
Speaker 1: and I can definitely identify with that. In fact, one
Speaker 1: of the best examples of a frees on trigger of
Speaker 1: in Like All of Music, which we played briefly in
Speaker 1: that episode, is the backing vocal track from the Rolling
Speaker 1: Stones song Gimme Shelter, which is sung by a singer
Speaker 1: named Mary Clayton, who is a fantastic singer. But there's
Speaker 1: a part where she's singing so hard that her voice
Speaker 1: just kind of cracks, and and it's those cracking moments
Speaker 1: where like the person who is a great singer is
Speaker 1: singing with such intensity that like they're they're singing falters
Speaker 1: that that's like incredibly powerful. Oh yeah, Mary and Faithful
Speaker 1: is wonderful. Um, she's no, No, Mary, Mary Clayton is well.
Speaker 1: I still stand by the fact that Mary and Faithful
Speaker 1: is pretty great. She's great too. Didn't she have some
Speaker 1: connection to the Stones? I think she was. She may
Speaker 1: have sung with them. I think she and Mick jaggerbick
Speaker 1: together at some point. Maybe that's where. Yeah. Anyway, yeah,
Speaker 1: Mary Unfaithful. Uh, I really like her as well. The
Speaker 1: memory remains. I'm gonna say it, great Metallica song. I
Speaker 1: like that. I like that song. I'll put that I'll
Speaker 1: cue that one up sometimes and listen to it. A
Speaker 1: divisive pick I know load. Well, let's reload. I can't
Speaker 1: remember it's unload unload. What's the other one? Yeah? But no,
Speaker 1: this is Mary Clayton, but Mary unfaithful? Also very good? Yes, okay.
Speaker 1: A few more messages about free soon. One comes from James.
Speaker 1: I think this might be the same correspondent who we
Speaker 1: were getting back and forth with about GEX at some point,
Speaker 1: unless I'm mistaken anyway, James says, good day, Joe and
Speaker 1: Seth and Robert Um was excited to see your recent
Speaker 1: episode on the subject of musical free song appear in
Speaker 1: my podcatcher. It's a sensation I've experienced for many years,
Speaker 1: but only recently learned its name game, which I've been
Speaker 1: pronouncing incorrectly. Whoops. I wouldn't worry about. I mean it
Speaker 1: sounds like people just say different ways. Uh yeah, say
Speaker 1: however you want. I most frequently feel it when I
Speaker 1: have a strong personal memory tied to a song, such
Speaker 1: as pop punk tunes by the Atari's that I listened
Speaker 1: to endlessly while daydreaming about early crushes in high school. Additionally,
Speaker 1: I've often found remixes of classic video game melodies trigger
Speaker 1: frees on is they rekindle fond memories of a blissfully
Speaker 1: wasted childhood. One that always does it for me is
Speaker 1: the nerd core artist Mega Rand's track for the Gamers,
Speaker 1: which features samples and lyrics related to many beloved games.
Speaker 1: I'm curious if this song elicits frees on when the
Speaker 1: build up completes uh and gives a gives a time
Speaker 1: stamp here for others who grew up loving these games.
Speaker 1: While I'd always assumed it was just a subjective feeling
Speaker 1: based solely on personal memories and anticipatory dopamine release resulting
Speaker 1: from rhythmic pattern recognition and prediction, makes sense too. I
Speaker 1: noticed your examples of the replacements Alex Chilton and Mary
Speaker 1: Clayton's singing on Give Give Me Shelter, both causing the fun, fuzzy,
Speaker 1: warm feeling for me. So it's hard for me to
Speaker 1: argue on the subject of the feeling itself. I associate
Speaker 1: it more with a warm tingle than a cold shiver,
Speaker 1: and the the term this is a term that was
Speaker 1: cited about it skin orgasm. Though it's obviously not a
Speaker 1: sexual experience, doesn't seem too far off problematic, though it
Speaker 1: may be at any rate, this episode really hit home,
Speaker 1: and as your recent video game correspondent. If you'd do
Speaker 1: me the honor of bestowing such a title, I couldn't
Speaker 1: resist replying to this one. Please keep up the great
Speaker 1: work with one of my favorite podcast Cheers, James. I
Speaker 1: love what what James brought up here about for some
Speaker 1: and it's in its connection to two things where it's
Speaker 1: not just the music that you're that that is in
Speaker 1: your mind when you're experiencing this, but it's something that
Speaker 1: has become immersed with the music, particular memories or in
Speaker 1: my case, it will often be a song that I
Speaker 1: was listening to while I was reading something that made
Speaker 1: had a big impact on me, you know, a work
Speaker 1: of fiction or or um a piece of music. I
Speaker 1: was listening to a lot whilst envisioning a Dungeons and
Speaker 1: Dragons campaign, that sort of thing, you know, where the
Speaker 1: two becomes so uh linked together and then they also
Speaker 1: there's like this feedback loop, I guess, or this uh
Speaker 1: the system where each one makes the other more potent.
Speaker 1: Like the music is more effective because it makes me
Speaker 1: think of the Dungeons and dragon setting, and then you know,
Speaker 1: thinking about the Dungeons and dragon setting is more, uh
Speaker 1: more of an experience because of the music that I'm
Speaker 1: listening to while I'm doing it. Music and a vacuum
Speaker 1: can definitely elicit it, though. I think some of the
Speaker 1: studies we were looking at found it was especially common
Speaker 1: with things like film scores, and I think that there
Speaker 1: may well be a reason to that. It's not just
Speaker 1: that film scores are particularly free so on inducing in
Speaker 1: sonic terms, but that they are paired with scenes in movies,
Speaker 1: and these scenes bring their own emotional heft and sort
Speaker 1: of compliment the song in various ways that they create
Speaker 1: these emotional associations. Yeah, to just crank it up to
Speaker 1: where it's just absolute emotional manipulation. Yeah, you know. A
Speaker 1: quick example that comes to mind is the Hurdy Gurdy
Speaker 1: Man song, which which I don't think I ever had
Speaker 1: a real effect, right, Yeah, I don't think it ever. Really.
Speaker 1: I always appreciate it as a nice song, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't until I saw it used in the Fincher's Zodiac
Speaker 1: Zodiac where it's like it's it took on a new
Speaker 1: quality for me, and uh, and it just gives me
Speaker 1: the shivers when I hear it now if it's used
Speaker 1: in another I saw it recently in a TV show Um.
Speaker 1: That was also had had a great sense of style
Speaker 1: and in setting, but it instantly brought me back to Zodiac. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's funny how really good use of a pop song
Speaker 1: in a movie can sort of change that song forever,
Speaker 1: Like you can't think about it without thinking about the movie.
Speaker 1: For for me, it's both sides now. I can't hear
Speaker 1: it without thinking of Hereditary. Oh yeah, I haven't seen
Speaker 1: Hereditary yet. Oh wow. Okay, well, I don't know if
Speaker 1: I know this song either, so I'm really look it up.
Speaker 1: Joni Mitchell. Wait, wait, wait, how's it go? I've looked
Speaker 1: at clouds from both sides now, from up and down?
Speaker 1: I mean cheese if I do too much? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. No, Okay, I know the song. Yes, Moons
Speaker 1: and Junes and Ferris Wheels, the dizzy dancing way you
Speaker 1: feel and pieces on the ground. So think that's a
Speaker 1: different Sweet dreams and flying machines. Getting back to listener mail, Okay, uh,
Speaker 1: let's see Rob, do you want to do this one?
Speaker 1: From Robin here? Absolutely all right? From Robin Um. Also
Speaker 1: addressing the Comfort in the Box episodes, Hi, Rob, Joe
Speaker 1: and stuff, I am catching up on some of your
Speaker 1: episodes from the latest round of work from home disruption,
Speaker 1: and I tend to listen to more podcasts during regular
Speaker 1: work than when working from home anyway, listening to your comfort.
Speaker 1: In a cat addition episode, I had a short comment
Speaker 1: on the idea of some kind of a three D
Speaker 1: social chess that cats undergo with their square sitting behavior.
Speaker 1: The young adult fiction author Diane Dwayne, in her on
Speaker 1: her Majesty's Wizardly Service series about cat wizards, introduces the
Speaker 1: concept of haish. It is essentially an ongoing game of
Speaker 1: three D social chess where postures, sightlines, attention, position, actions,
Speaker 1: et cetera all play a part. I found it a
Speaker 1: particularly delightful and satisfying way to explain in fiction what
Speaker 1: all cat owners or cat observer's notice exactly what you
Speaker 1: were discussing? Uh, there sometimes inscrutable behavior. On a separate note,
Speaker 1: for the experience of musical Frozen that was discussed in
Speaker 1: the episode with Joe and Seth, the piece that always
Speaker 1: gets me even now thinking about it as I type
Speaker 1: is Mountains from the Interstellar soundtrack by hand Zimmer, crank
Speaker 1: that baby up, and get ready to shiver. The entire
Speaker 1: organ music content of this soundtrack is extremely evocative. Cheers
Speaker 1: Robin film scores again, Yeah, and hand Zimmer. Hand Zimmer
Speaker 1: is one of those artists that, Yeah, sometimes I barely
Speaker 1: notice his music, but when he's a when he's working
Speaker 1: at the right score and it's the right picture, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's he's amazing. I mean I tend to, I think,
Speaker 1: over associate him with the way his Batman score sounded
Speaker 1: was so very heavy on, like the brass part of
Speaker 1: the orchestra, the kind of rang thing. But but yeah,
Speaker 1: he's got more range than that. I believe other other
Speaker 1: movies are more melodic. Maybe. Yeah, I think sometimes I
Speaker 1: set myself up to dislike his his music just because
Speaker 1: he's such a huge name that I forget that the Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's he's got this terrific range and he's a he's
Speaker 1: a famous composer for a reason. I think. I know,
Speaker 1: I'll have to look it up after we record, but
Speaker 1: I think I know this one from Interstellar and it
Speaker 1: is it is moving, all right? Do we want to
Speaker 1: wrap up and mentioning a couple of weird house cinema messages.
Speaker 1: Let's do it, Okay. This first one comes from Scott.
Speaker 1: Scott says, dear Robert and Joe I was delighted by
Speaker 1: the subject of this week's Weird House Cinema episode, Death Moon,
Speaker 1: because I happened to be moving to uh is it Kauaii?
Speaker 1: Is that how you say it? Um? Kawaii for a
Speaker 1: job opportunity. With that in mind, it would be very
Speaker 1: interested in an episode dedicated to Hawaiian mythology. Per Robert's
Speaker 1: request for listener feedback on the subject, best Scott, Okay,
Speaker 1: we got we got a thumbs up for coming back
Speaker 1: to Hawaiian mythology, and I imagine that would get heavily
Speaker 1: into Hawaiian monsters, right, That's that's often our entry way
Speaker 1: into such discussions. Um, I think you know, a little
Speaker 1: a little of it might be coming a We have
Speaker 1: some upcoming episodes that deal with with Polynesian culture, So
Speaker 1: I don't know if we're going to get into any
Speaker 1: mythology and those or not, but but certainly down the line,
Speaker 1: I think we could do something that involves monsters that
Speaker 1: gets into Hawaiian mythology. Those upcoming episode well, I don't
Speaker 1: want to spoil too much, but they're a little bit
Speaker 1: more Polynesian science and technology focused. But but yeah, we should,
Speaker 1: we should definitely do Polynesian Beasts and Wonders and stories
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, all right, here's another weird house cinema
Speaker 1: listener mail. This one comes from Country. Hello guys, if
Speaker 1: you're in search of a genre bending weird house film,
Speaker 1: try to fine British space vampire flick Life Force from Yes.
Speaker 1: It is streaming on Amazon Prime. I recommend it for
Speaker 1: both the extremely dry line delivery by all the actors
Speaker 1: and the improbably great uh special effects, some of which
Speaker 1: are definitely practical, which I love. I clicked on this
Speaker 1: flick thinking it would be a good, forgettable be movie
Speaker 1: to play in the background while cooking, but it turned
Speaker 1: out to be far too strange and original not to
Speaker 1: actively watch. And also I vote yes to an episode
Speaker 1: on cross cultural man beast myths. Thank for the hours
Speaker 1: of free brain massaging Country. Oh and ps, the movie
Speaker 1: staceships and creatures look a lot like the entities in
Speaker 1: Watts blind Side. Oh. I never would have made a
Speaker 1: connection to blind Side, but oh yeah, you you know us,
Speaker 1: well you I think we I can say we both
Speaker 1: love Life Force, right Oh yeah, I mean now, I
Speaker 1: have to admit it's not a film that I've seen
Speaker 1: in recent decades, but but it has I finally look
Speaker 1: back on it, so I would be up for watching
Speaker 1: it again at some point. It has so many bonkers
Speaker 1: elements in it, some great practical effects. Toby Hooper. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Toby Hooper at the Helm though, wasn't it was? It was?
Speaker 1: Was somebody else involved in well as well in this?
Speaker 1: Or was it Toby Hooper was the I know he
Speaker 1: directed it, but I'm trying to remember if this was
Speaker 1: like a big studio venture that had other fingers in
Speaker 1: the pot. I'm looking it up now. Terrific cast though.
Speaker 1: Oh well, it was written by none other than Dan O'Bannon,
Speaker 1: who is Oh, that's who I was the Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: also a Dan O'Bannon picture. Some of the great horror
Speaker 1: inside by movies. Dan O'Bannon behind, of course, the writer
Speaker 1: of Alien and Umtal writer. Yeah. Was he Total Recall? Okay?
Speaker 1: He was involved in Total Recall? Yeah, well, if so,
Speaker 1: that's a great movie. Also a writer director of Return
Speaker 1: of the Living Dead, which is maybe my favorite zombie movie.
Speaker 1: That's a great one. Yeah. I'm getting repped up into
Speaker 1: some We're gonna have to do some zombie stuff for
Speaker 1: Weird how Cinema going forward, because I I don't know
Speaker 1: that we've done a proper zombie film yet, and there's
Speaker 1: so many good ones and I'm I'm starting to fill
Speaker 1: myself get into zombies again. It's coming back. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: still weary. I mean, zombies were sort of my first
Speaker 1: love when I was getting into horror movies, and really
Speaker 1: I don't know, having having just total cinema geek outs,
Speaker 1: I started with like Dawn of the Dead and all that,
Speaker 1: and it was I for some reason, it felt unique
Speaker 1: to me at the time, but I realized I was
Speaker 1: part of a cultural zombie craze that took place in
Speaker 1: the two thousands. I still don't know exactly why that
Speaker 1: happened to be interesting to analyze culturally, like in terms
Speaker 1: of what trends contributed. That may have just had to
Speaker 1: do with things like they're being remakes of Dawn of
Speaker 1: the Dead coming out then and stuff which I never
Speaker 1: never actually saw. But yeah, I went zombie crazy, just
Speaker 1: like everybody did in the two thousands, and then I
Speaker 1: got so burned out on zombies I thought I never
Speaker 1: wanted to see a zombie movie again. But but I'm
Speaker 1: coming back around. Yeah, I think I was pretty burned
Speaker 1: out on on um as well. For some reason, I
Speaker 1: watched the news exc Snyder Army of the Dead picture
Speaker 1: on the airplane on my recent trip, and uh, you
Speaker 1: know it's it's and depressing. You know, it's a movie.
Speaker 1: It's a If you're gonna watch an it really zombie
Speaker 1: film on an airplane, then go for it. Um. I
Speaker 1: skipped around in it. But then on the trip I
Speaker 1: was reading the new Raven Loft Book for Dungeons and Dragons,
Speaker 1: the fifth edition, and their use of the use of
Speaker 1: zombies in one of the particular domains of dread in that. Uh,
Speaker 1: that really captivated me. And now that I think that's
Speaker 1: what has has has got me interested in zombies again.
Speaker 1: It's it's Dungeons and Dragons. It's it's done it once more.
Speaker 1: But I guess we did watch a zombie movie, didn't wait,
Speaker 1: we watched uh we watched the Shockwaves movie. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that was zombie light there. Um. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: coming back to Tontry's recommendation here, Yeah, Life Forces is
Speaker 1: absolutely bonkers. It is. It's funny. I've never thought about
Speaker 1: it this way, but yeah, I think some of the
Speaker 1: strangeness comes out of the out of mixing how bonkers.
Speaker 1: The premise is with some of the extremely dry, very British,
Speaker 1: you know, almost Charles Gray level of dryness, uh, performances
Speaker 1: by some of the main actors. Yeah. And and then
Speaker 1: also there are some very I don't know how juvenile
Speaker 1: the plot is, but there were elements of it that
Speaker 1: definitely appealed to juvenile viewers. Um. You know, there's the
Speaker 1: silliness with the you know, some of the silliness of
Speaker 1: the monsters and the basic concept. And then I think
Speaker 1: there was a lot of arguably unnecessary female nudity in
Speaker 1: the picture. Um. And then yet I have this sort
Speaker 1: of this this very very dry British dialogue on top
Speaker 1: of all that. But yeah, i'd be I'd be up
Speaker 1: for looking at that movie again. Is that the second
Speaker 1: movie that Dan O'Bannon made that was in some way
Speaker 1: inspired by A Planet of the Vampires? I guess so, yeah,
Speaker 1: because you can draw lines from Planet of the Vampires
Speaker 1: to um to both Alien and this film. Um. So
Speaker 1: that the Planet of the Vampires. That's another film I
Speaker 1: watched on the airplane. Uh, that that one? Uh what
Speaker 1: that was a streaming on the plane. Wow. I brought
Speaker 1: it with me on my phone pre downloaded off of Prominent. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh, and I've been meaning to watch it in
Speaker 1: full and I finally did. Um and I think I
Speaker 1: was telling you about this. It's it's It's not an
Speaker 1: exciting movie in terms of plot or performance, but absolutely
Speaker 1: breathtaking to look at, just wonderful visuals and colors and
Speaker 1: sights and sounds. Well, speaking of movies that are right
Speaker 1: to put on while you're cooking, as Tantry says, uh,
Speaker 1: she did here, I I sometimes also put on movies
Speaker 1: while I'm cooking or just while I'm hanging out with people.
Speaker 1: Playing The Vampire is a fantastic movie to do that with. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, Well we're gonna go ahead and close up
Speaker 1: the mailbag here. I do have one last bit here,
Speaker 1: and that is a plug for Corridor Magazine. As many
Speaker 1: of you may remember, our former co host, Christian Sager,
Speaker 1: masterminded a weird art fiction and non fiction publication called
Speaker 1: Corridor last year. Uh, they ran a kickstarter that was successful,
Speaker 1: and I'm I'm to understand that physical copies are currently
Speaker 1: making their way to the owners. And if you didn't
Speaker 1: get in on the kickstarter, you can pre order yourself
Speaker 1: up a copy as well. Um, I think you just
Speaker 1: go to the Kickstarter page for Corridor, but if you
Speaker 1: want to go to their social media accounts to get
Speaker 1: more of like a definite link to where you need
Speaker 1: to go. On Facebook their Corridor Publications. On Twitter they
Speaker 1: are Corridor Pubs, and on Instagram Corridor Publications. Uh so
Speaker 1: pick it up. I've I've I have reviewed. I have
Speaker 1: not had my hands on the physical copy of but
Speaker 1: I've looked at a PDF, very colorful, full of all
Speaker 1: sorts of exciting written works, and i even wrote a
Speaker 1: futuristic shark short story in there that has a really
Speaker 1: cool illustration. So check it out. If that's your thing,
Speaker 1: it sounds great. I'd love to read it. Yeah, I'll
Speaker 1: get you a copy, all right. Well, if you want
Speaker 1: to write into us, do so. We'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you. We do stuff to blow your mind listener
Speaker 1: mail every Monday, Tuesdays and Thursdays are our core stuff
Speaker 1: to blow your mind episodes. On Wednesdays we do an
Speaker 1: artifact and on Friday's That's Weird how Cinema. That's our
Speaker 1: time to set aside most of the science and culture
Speaker 1: and just focus on some sort of a weird motion picture.
Speaker 1: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Seth
Speaker 1: Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch
Speaker 1: with us with feedback on this episode or any other,
Speaker 1: to suggest a topic for the future, or just to
Speaker 1: say hi, you can email us at contact at stuff
Speaker 1: to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your
Speaker 1: Mind is a production of I Heart Radio. For more
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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.