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: A listener male. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm
Speaker 1: Joe McCormick. And Carney is just spilling dry beans out
Speaker 1: of his body today. That must mean that the first
Speaker 1: messages we're gonna read are in response to our two
Speaker 1: parter on the Humble being. All Right, what do we
Speaker 1: have first, Joe, Well, let's see. The first note is
Speaker 1: we received a very brief communic a from the food
Speaker 1: historian Ken Albola, the author of the book Beans a History,
Speaker 1: which we talked about a lot in those two episodes
Speaker 1: on beans Can, contacted us to say, very nice episodes.
Speaker 1: That's it seems Ken is into the whole brevity thing.
Speaker 1: But thanks so much for the kind words and and
Speaker 1: your book was a big help. Awesome all right, This
Speaker 1: next one comes to us from Hannah. Hannah rides Hi,
Speaker 1: Robert and Joe. I loved your reconsider the being episodes
Speaker 1: this week. As a long time vegetarian, I am something
Speaker 1: of a bean stand. Uh it's like a fan, right,
Speaker 1: that's yeah, it means like a fan. I think a
Speaker 1: stand is not just a fan as in somebody who
Speaker 1: likes it, but a fan who like puts effort into
Speaker 1: their appreciation of something. All right, and one of my
Speaker 1: favorite things of stuff to blow your mind episodes are
Speaker 1: deep dives into seemingly mundane things. To answer the question
Speaker 1: of favorite beans, I must admit that my heart lies
Speaker 1: with the humble black bean that being has range. I
Speaker 1: wanted to write in to mention an interesting fictional treatment
Speaker 1: of beans relating to the Jack and the Beanstalk fairy
Speaker 1: tale and Stephen Sondheim's musical Into the Woods. I know
Speaker 1: there was a movie version that came out a few
Speaker 1: years ago, but I personally have not seen it and
Speaker 1: have little interest in doing so, as it is, from
Speaker 1: what i've heard, a sanded down, pretty mediocre adaptation. I'm
Speaker 1: perfectly satisfied with the p BS filmed on stage version.
Speaker 1: I think most people familiar with it are so because
Speaker 1: it's a popular choice for high schools and local regional
Speaker 1: theaters to put on. Anyway, the story and is a
Speaker 1: bunch of fairy tales, including Jack and the Beanstalk, interweaving
Speaker 1: until eventually the story spins out of control. The score
Speaker 1: reflects this, creating a complex web of musical motifs and
Speaker 1: ideas that not only helps the audience orient themselves among
Speaker 1: the many characters, but also helps create a through line
Speaker 1: to make all of these different storylines form a cohesive
Speaker 1: piece of theater. This is something that Sondheim is very
Speaker 1: good at, taking little phrases and musical ideas and shifting
Speaker 1: them around, inverting them, combining them, etcetera, so that the
Speaker 1: narrative and thematic concepts are also baked into the score.
Speaker 1: Oh much like baked beans, uh, they continued. One character
Speaker 1: that gets its own musical motif is the magic beans themselves,
Speaker 1: and this bean theme or bean motif as it is
Speaker 1: usually called, is all over the music zical. In this
Speaker 1: version of the story, the beans were originally stolen by
Speaker 1: the Baker's father from the Witch's garden, tying into the
Speaker 1: witchy associations from English folklore, and as they change, various
Speaker 1: hands bring if not outright bad luck and curses sort
Speaker 1: of monkeys paw esque quote unquote good luck that eventually
Speaker 1: causes a lot of chaos and destruction and related to
Speaker 1: the association of beings with genitals discussed in these episodes
Speaker 1: of the Witch reveals to the Baker that she cursed
Speaker 1: his whole family to be infertile as retribution for his
Speaker 1: father's being theft The baker is later the one to
Speaker 1: trade the beans to Jack for his cow in a
Speaker 1: quest to reverse the curse. In this way, the beans
Speaker 1: themselves come to represent the central conflict of the show,
Speaker 1: which ends up being all of the characters unwillingness to
Speaker 1: change and take responsibility for their own actions. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if this is necessarily explicitly intended, but the hardy
Speaker 1: and long lasted dry beans seems like a good symbol
Speaker 1: for being static and stubborn and for bad luck you
Speaker 1: can get rid of. Huh, I've seen into the woods.
Speaker 1: I did not think to make any of these connections.
Speaker 1: The beans always seemed incidental to me. But I see
Speaker 1: everything you're saying, Hannah. Yeah, these beans go deep, Hannah continues.
Speaker 1: The second to last song of the show is largely
Speaker 1: about how complex and difficult morality really is, and how
Speaker 1: even though there is no one there to guide the
Speaker 1: remaining characters, perhaps they will be able to figure it
Speaker 1: out together. This is just before the story resolves, and
Speaker 1: in this song, the bean motif is inverted. When this
Speaker 1: is applied to melodies. This means that if you were
Speaker 1: to picture the phrase written on sheet music, you would
Speaker 1: then flip it upside down, so the direction of the
Speaker 1: intervals between notes is reversed. For example, instead of the
Speaker 1: interval between the first two notes going down a perfect fifth,
Speaker 1: it now goes up a perfect fifth. Crucially, the inversion
Speaker 1: happens on the lyric people make mistakes where these characters
Speaker 1: are finally admitting their own fault, something that just two
Speaker 1: scenes earlier they were frantically thrusting onto one another. They
Speaker 1: are finally ready to admit when they are wrong, to
Speaker 1: grow and learn, they have canceled out the beans. Sorry
Speaker 1: that this got so long and that I felt compelled
Speaker 1: to do music theory at you. Here is a link
Speaker 1: of Sonheim himself talking about this motif so that you
Speaker 1: can hear what it sounds like, and they include a
Speaker 1: link and then in this video at about the three
Speaker 1: minute mark at four forty five talking about resolution inversion
Speaker 1: of this theme. Endless thanks for this awesome show. It
Speaker 1: always gives me something new and interesting to think about.
Speaker 1: And here are the clips Hannah was talking about. And
Speaker 1: also I would like to point out that when you're
Speaker 1: singing the release of the second part when they're all
Speaker 1: singing together, people make mistakes. It's going like this, and that,
Speaker 1: of course, is the inversion of the bean thing. It's
Speaker 1: the upside down version, so that everything finally comes together
Speaker 1: in in one song. Well, thanks Hannah, interesting stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this connects to a bunch of things we talked about.
Speaker 1: The Yeah, the cursed beans from English folklore, the beans
Speaker 1: and reproduction. I did not see any of this coming,
Speaker 1: so so thank you very much. Anyway, This next message
Speaker 1: comes from Greg. Greg says, I enjoyed listening to your
Speaker 1: two part episode on beans. Fascinating stuff. My favorite bean
Speaker 1: encounter was at a dinner with a friend of mine
Speaker 1: from Mexico. I'm on a restricted diet that does not
Speaker 1: allow chocolate, but he served what appeared to be a
Speaker 1: chocolate cake for dessert. When I saw it, I reminded
Speaker 1: him that I couldn't eat chocolate, and he told me
Speaker 1: there wasn't any in the cake. He asked me to
Speaker 1: guess what the cake was made from. I had no idea.
Speaker 1: He revealed it was black beans, no chocolate whatsoever. I
Speaker 1: was blown away. The cake was great. It really fooled
Speaker 1: the mind into thinking it was chocolate. I'll have to
Speaker 1: get that recipe and make it again. Keep up the
Speaker 1: great work. Always entertaining and fascinating podcasts, including the Weird
Speaker 1: House Cinema ones Still trying to Find Frall from nineteen two. Greg, Oh,
Speaker 1: I've never heard of this, or Rob if you had
Speaker 1: a black bean cake? Uh, you know, it sounds vaguely familiar.
Speaker 1: I feel like I've had I may have had some
Speaker 1: sort of a baked good that was ultimately made from
Speaker 1: beans and had kind of a chocolate consistency to it.
Speaker 1: But but but I don't have a specific memory of it. Now,
Speaker 1: this is funny. I forgot to bring this up in
Speaker 1: the other episode. But I've been cooking with something that's
Speaker 1: often called black beans. It's not the same as the
Speaker 1: black bean you would usually have in like the like
Speaker 1: the version of fassiolas that that is called black beans.
Speaker 1: That they're the fermented black beans that are often used
Speaker 1: in uh some regional dishes of Chinese cooking. And uh,
Speaker 1: I got a pack of those that I ordered off
Speaker 1: to the internet. They're actually soy beans and they're really
Speaker 1: good as for frogs and where you can find a
Speaker 1: copy of it? Um, I said, just keep looking look
Speaker 1: at look, look, look around online, because I think you'll
Speaker 1: at least find some scenes from it that have been uploaded.
Speaker 1: All right, here's another bit of listener mail. This comes
Speaker 1: to us from Peggy. Peggy writes in and says hi,
Speaker 1: Rob and Joe enjoyed your discussions on beans this week,
Speaker 1: especially part two where you talked about particular traditions and
Speaker 1: beliefs about beans. My love of a good bean dish
Speaker 1: refried black beans please, has unfortunately been ruined by my
Speaker 1: body's decision not to digest them properly, causing more than
Speaker 1: a few guttural hauntings. Maybe Pythagoras had ibs. I lived
Speaker 1: in Japan for a year fifteen years ago and participated
Speaker 1: in sets A Bun festivities that February. There could be
Speaker 1: uh different traditions and other regions of Japan, but in
Speaker 1: Kansai Osaka, Kyoto region, you're supposed to clean your house
Speaker 1: and yell only sato demons out while emptying the dirt outside.
Speaker 1: It's also traditional to eat timaki, an uncut sushi roll,
Speaker 1: while sitting in a certain direction, though I can't remember
Speaker 1: which direction. I went to a ceremony at a local
Speaker 1: temple where a full of demons were banished. With the
Speaker 1: help of the crowd, we all threw soybeans at them,
Speaker 1: yelling on a sto until they were defeated. I have
Speaker 1: a feeling this ties back to the old Lunar New
Speaker 1: Year with the idea of starting out with a clean,
Speaker 1: demon free house. And yes, I believe that is the
Speaker 1: case as well, based on some material I was looking at.
Speaker 1: But they continue. You were trying to remember when you
Speaker 1: talked about driving evil spirits out of the house. I
Speaker 1: think it was in your episode from early last year
Speaker 1: about animate objects in Chinese and Japanese culture. In Japan,
Speaker 1: New Year's celebrated January one, but I remember it's also
Speaker 1: traditional to clean the house beforehand and get some new clothes,
Speaker 1: starting the year off fresh. I hadn't heard of throwing
Speaker 1: used objects out of the house as you mentioned in
Speaker 1: the episode, but maybe that's an older edition. I did
Speaker 1: get a kick out of the story about a religious
Speaker 1: scroll trying to convert a bunch of discarded objects, uh
Speaker 1: to Shingon Buddhism. I'm biased, but the scroll was right.
Speaker 1: It is the best school to convert to. Apologies for
Speaker 1: sounding like that religious scroll, but you might find Shingan
Speaker 1: interesting from his story and cultural perspective. It comes from
Speaker 1: the same roots as Tibetan Buddhism, incorporates a lot of
Speaker 1: Shinto beliefs, and is colorful and complex compared to the
Speaker 1: simplicity of zin. It's founder, known as Koboda, actually lived
Speaker 1: during the Hayon period of tenth century and developed the
Speaker 1: hiragana and u kata kana writing system still used today.
Speaker 1: There are all kinds of legends about his life and
Speaker 1: is believed to have preserved his own body after death.
Speaker 1: Might be of interest to look up into his life
Speaker 1: an impact on Japanese culture. You know, I think, um,
Speaker 1: back when Christian was on the show, I think uh,
Speaker 1: I think we I discussed this with him at one
Speaker 1: point when we're doing a series on various mummification rituals
Speaker 1: self mummification. Uh. They continue. This also calls back to
Speaker 1: your episode a while ago Unsacred Mountains asking about personal
Speaker 1: or lesser known spots. Mine is uh mount to Koya
Speaker 1: or Koya San in Japan. When I first read about it,
Speaker 1: it sounded like some spiritual for your land, but no.
Speaker 1: It's about an hour east of Osaka. It's not very
Speaker 1: high or notable, but in the center of Shingon Buddhism,
Speaker 1: home to dozens of temples, some originally built over a
Speaker 1: thousand years ago. It also has Japan's largest cemetery, a
Speaker 1: beautiful area full of huge cedar trees and countless monuments
Speaker 1: uh from a tiny moss covered Stupa's two giant memorials,
Speaker 1: including Kobodaishi's tomb. I visited twice, and it's one of
Speaker 1: the most significant places in my early introduction to meditation
Speaker 1: and Buddhism. It's an amazing place to visit, regardless, and
Speaker 1: I hope to go back one day. All that said,
Speaker 1: I've been listening to stuff to blow your mind for
Speaker 1: a few years now and love the strange and unexpected
Speaker 1: corners of science and culture you look into and weird
Speaker 1: how cinema is fantastic. I could listen to you guys
Speaker 1: talk about movies all day. My suggestion, Hobo with a shotgun.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's two tongue in cheek to be true. Weird house,
Speaker 1: but it's got Rutger howerd was inspired by one of
Speaker 1: those Tarantino Grindhouse trailers and has some cameos only a
Speaker 1: Canadian would appreciate. Thank you both of your continued work
Speaker 1: to inform and inspire. It's been especially appreciated through a
Speaker 1: year of working from home. Hope you and your families
Speaker 1: continue to stay healthy, eat your beings. Cheers, Peggy. Oh,
Speaker 1: thanks Peggy. Well, you know, I would not have expected
Speaker 1: a single email to be as as tightly focused about
Speaker 1: shingon Buddhism and Hobo with a Shotgun. Uh. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: really appreciate the thoughts on on on Japanese culture there,
Speaker 1: but also Hobo with a Shotgun was a lot of
Speaker 1: fun when I watched it years back. I remember it
Speaker 1: ultimately went places that were weirder than than anticipated. So
Speaker 1: I I don't know for sure that it would be
Speaker 1: something we would cover on Weird House, but I would
Speaker 1: say that it's at least a possibility, given on on
Speaker 1: how weird that film ultimately is. Like it, it takes
Speaker 1: its initial, you know, grind housey concept and then goes
Speaker 1: in some unexpected directions. All right, This next message comes
Speaker 1: from Travis. Travis says, Dear Robert and Joe. Hello, I've
Speaker 1: listened to your podcast in the past, probably since, but
Speaker 1: recently got earbuds to where during work I pretty much
Speaker 1: get six hours a day of YouTube or Chuck and
Speaker 1: Josh on some occasions. I have consumed much of your
Speaker 1: content in a very short period of time. I'm running
Speaker 1: low on episodes. Travis goes on, Anyway, I've been meaning
Speaker 1: to write in for a while, but have been occupied
Speaker 1: with school. I just graduated with my bachelor's. During school,
Speaker 1: I worked stocking produce and continue to while I do
Speaker 1: the deadly job hunt. Since listening to your tomato episode,
Speaker 1: I have so much useful knowledge for work and home.
Speaker 1: I now almost subconsciously stocked the tomatoes with the stem
Speaker 1: facing down to seal in moisture. I've been questioned by
Speaker 1: co workers and had a logical explanation. Thanks well, Travis.
Speaker 1: I know that grind I have worked in a grocery
Speaker 1: store as well. That I didn't do produce. I worked
Speaker 1: in dry grocery and stocking stocking dairy. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: know that world. Uh and I don't think I ever
Speaker 1: got to listen to podcasts while I was doing it,
Speaker 1: so so so I hope that makes it more fun. Um.
Speaker 1: But anyway, back to the message, Travis says about your
Speaker 1: leshy episode, I love mythology and the lushy is my
Speaker 1: new favorite creature after you to introduced it to me.
Speaker 1: There's a Cartoon Network mini series I love called Over
Speaker 1: the Garden Wall. If you're not familiar, I highly recommend it.
Speaker 1: I watch it every October so I won't spoil too much.
Speaker 1: There's a creature in the episode named the Beast. Once
Speaker 1: I heard your Leshi podcast, it made me think of him.
Speaker 1: He's a forest creature who tricks and lures people who
Speaker 1: wander into the woods. He keeps himself hidden. You never
Speaker 1: see him until the last episode, when you get a
Speaker 1: very brief shot. I will attach an image. It's not
Speaker 1: really a spoiler to see him. Maybe he's based on
Speaker 1: the leshy and Robbi attached the image that Travis attached
Speaker 1: so you can have a look here. Oh yes, it's very,
Speaker 1: very frightful. I actually watched I think the first episode
Speaker 1: of this and remember remember thinking it was pretty cool
Speaker 1: at the time. But yeah, it looks like I'll have
Speaker 1: to go back and explore it for real. Travis attached
Speaker 1: a link to a video that's like a song from
Speaker 1: the show. That's a song about being a highwayman who
Speaker 1: does crimes or something. It seemed fun, but anyway, Travis says,
Speaker 1: just a couple of fun tidbits for you, seriously, over
Speaker 1: the garden Wall is great with an amazing soundtrack. Thanks
Speaker 1: for taking the time to read. I love your podcast
Speaker 1: and how much I learned. You guys are the reason
Speaker 1: I got so into mythology and folk tales, and I
Speaker 1: love Weird House cinema. I'm a film buff, So thank
Speaker 1: you so much. Stay chatty and keep reading. All the best, Travis.
Speaker 1: All right, here's another bit of listener mail. This one
Speaker 1: actually comes to us off of the stuff to Blow
Speaker 1: your Mind discussion module, which is of course over there
Speaker 1: on the Old Book of Faces. And this comes to
Speaker 1: us from Cliff. Cliff writes in and says, I noticed
Speaker 1: on the Weird House anema today and this is referring
Speaker 1: to the episode we did on the Humanoid Um. The
Speaker 1: fellows mentioned Moonraker and the girl that smiles at Jaws
Speaker 1: that had braces on, well she did until September two
Speaker 1: thousand eight. That's when the the Hadron collider was fully
Speaker 1: functional and it shifted us into this reality. And then
Speaker 1: there's a like a winking emoji that's included and um,
Speaker 1: Cliff includes this um this little screenshot UH from a
Speaker 1: website of some sort that has a picture of Jaws
Speaker 1: in the movie with the character Dolly, and the text
Speaker 1: reads in the case of Dolly and Moonraker. It is
Speaker 1: perhaps the way the sequence is edited that after Jaws
Speaker 1: smiles and exposes his metal teeth, Dolly then smiles in
Speaker 1: the next shot as the music hits its crescendo. The
Speaker 1: actress who played Dolly, Blanche Ravallek, did not wear braces
Speaker 1: in the film WHOA, Well, that's on me. I'm the
Speaker 1: one who said that, so I this is one of
Speaker 1: those things. This is uh. This is cited as one
Speaker 1: of the many examples of the so called Mandela effect,
Speaker 1: to the effect where huge numbers of people apparently all
Speaker 1: misremember events in the same way, and it very often
Speaker 1: happens with scenes in movies. Lines in movies, for example,
Speaker 1: like everybody thinking that the movie The Empire Strikes Back
Speaker 1: has the line Luke, I am your father. The Darth
Speaker 1: Vader never says that, uh, he says, he says, no,
Speaker 1: I am your father. And despite you know, the millions
Speaker 1: and millions of people who remember it the wrong way.
Speaker 1: So apparently I'm not the only one who remember Dolly
Speaker 1: in this movie as uh, you know, the the girl
Speaker 1: that Jaws falls in love with as having braces. Maybe
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm not sure quite what it is
Speaker 1: that created that misimpression. I mean I didn't specifically remember it,
Speaker 1: but when you described it as such, I I instantly
Speaker 1: saw it in my own head like I I then
Speaker 1: like altered my memory of it, which is kind of
Speaker 1: faint because I haven't seen Moonraker in a very long time.
Speaker 1: But you you're misremembering of it, like change my memory
Speaker 1: of it. So perhaps that's you know that we can
Speaker 1: sort of think about. That is like a way that
Speaker 1: that these sort of things end up spreading from person
Speaker 1: to person. I've got no excuse. I watched Moonraker once
Speaker 1: a week. No, I mean I don't, but I I have.
Speaker 1: I've seen it way too many times to have that excuse. Well,
Speaker 1: it also just it sounds correct. It sounds like exactly
Speaker 1: the kind of visual joke that this film would perpetrate.
Speaker 1: It has a it has a pigeon doing a double take,
Speaker 1: so you think it also it would have Dolly with braces.
Speaker 1: That would make sense. You know, of course that that's
Speaker 1: what they've got in common. They both have metal in
Speaker 1: their mouths, but in fact, what they have in common is.
Speaker 1: I don't know, They're both just awkward and don't say much. Well, Cliff,
Speaker 1: thanks for bringing that to our attention. Um, it's interesting
Speaker 1: how our memories of of movies, particularly on Altar, like this. Okay,
Speaker 1: we've got another message about weird house cinema. This one
Speaker 1: comes from ian Ian, says hile thoroughly enjoying the new
Speaker 1: directions you're taking the podcast in, and I have a
Speaker 1: viewing suggestion. Frogs are just me too cold. What you
Speaker 1: really need is something with a little more warm blood.
Speaker 1: Have you ever come across? Two is Night of the
Speaker 1: leapis also released as Rabbits. I haven't seen it for
Speaker 1: twenty years, but I still bear the mental scars, the
Speaker 1: poor acting. Although we do get DeForest Kelly, people in
Speaker 1: furry suits, padding with stock footage, dubious miniature sets, crawling
Speaker 1: with petting zoo extras, stomping on cardboard. This film has
Speaker 1: it all, along with the failure to realize that rabbits
Speaker 1: just don't work as monsters. With the possible exception of
Speaker 1: Frank maybe if it had just been James Duval in
Speaker 1: the rabbit costumes. I'm not sure who the James Duval
Speaker 1: there is referring to is that is that an actor
Speaker 1: who is in Donnie Darko. I think that's the creepy
Speaker 1: franc that's being referred to here, is it? I don't
Speaker 1: remember on that front. Unless this is supposed to refer
Speaker 1: to Robert Duval, I don't know. Uh well, I'll check
Speaker 1: on that later. Anyway, Ian goes on it truly is
Speaker 1: worth a watch as a shining example of how not
Speaker 1: to make a horror film. Keep the wonderful episodes coming
Speaker 1: your regular companions in my dark underground laboratory. Ian, Well,
Speaker 1: you know two so that movie is right in there,
Speaker 1: the same year as Frogs. So yeah, I wonder if
Speaker 1: the rabbits are created by pollution or by animal experimentation
Speaker 1: gone wrong. Yeah, I've never seen it in its entirety,
Speaker 1: but this is one I remember, I think catching part
Speaker 1: of on T B S or t n T, like
Speaker 1: in the lazy middle of a Saturday or Sunday afternoon
Speaker 1: and just seeing the rabbits stampede across the Minitri city.
Speaker 1: If I am not mistaken, I believe it was featured
Speaker 1: on t n T is recurring segment Monster Vision. Do
Speaker 1: you remember this thing? Oh? Yeah, yeah, with Joe Bob Riggs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but anyway, I remember this being basically frogs but with
Speaker 1: rabbits instead of all the amphibians and reptiles. All right,
Speaker 1: here's another one. This one comes to us from Riley
Speaker 1: with the subject heading shock waves seven. Great job, guys.
Speaker 1: Loved this movie since seeing it as a kid. Great
Speaker 1: to revisit. I've always felt like this movie inspired one
Speaker 1: of the of Lord Humongous is Dogs of War from
Speaker 1: The Road Warrior. In one watched the boomerang scene you
Speaker 1: will know of whom I right to keep up the
Speaker 1: great work, Riley. Well, I did not. I was not
Speaker 1: able to go back and rewatch this. But what I'm
Speaker 1: guessing Riley saying is that there's a character in The
Speaker 1: Road Warrior who is wearing goggles like the goggles the
Speaker 1: Nazis the Nazi zombies are wearing in chock Waves. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: It's been a long time since I've seen The Road
Speaker 1: Warrior as well. Um, I don't know, may maybe I
Speaker 1: need to give it a revisit. Maybe it's just too
Speaker 1: too much, too much time has passed, I don't know. Alright.
Speaker 1: This next message comes from Chris. The subject line is
Speaker 1: waxy looking old movies. Chris says there's a setting on
Speaker 1: h D t vs that causes this, and it can
Speaker 1: be reversed. It's generally called motion smoothing only beneficial really
Speaker 1: in sports, you can go to your settings and turn
Speaker 1: it off. You could do a story on it too.
Speaker 1: Even Casablanca looked like crap. I know what Chris is
Speaker 1: talking about here. I think I was actually talking about
Speaker 1: something different. I believe I was. Uh. I believe what
Speaker 1: I was witnessing on like a DVD of Predator that
Speaker 1: looked really bad, was not due to the setting on TVs.
Speaker 1: But Chris is absolutely correct that a lot of times,
Speaker 1: if you get a new TV, everything on it will
Speaker 1: look terrible until you figure out how to turn off
Speaker 1: this setting that is turned on by default. I have
Speaker 1: no idea why. I think it's for sports. I think
Speaker 1: that's where it becomes most important. Yeah, I guess so.
Speaker 1: I mean so, but I never watched sports. And it
Speaker 1: makes movies and TV shows look not just bad, but
Speaker 1: like like hilarious. It makes it makes everything look like
Speaker 1: a bad sort of daytime TV production that somehow manages
Speaker 1: to make everything look cheap. Uh, it make it totally
Speaker 1: ruins the immersion of all fictional film media. It just
Speaker 1: makes everything look fake and like a set of people
Speaker 1: wearing goofy costumes. I'm not sure exactly why, but that
Speaker 1: that's the effect that it has. Uh and uh and yes,
Speaker 1: sometimes it's called motion smoothing. I think on my TV
Speaker 1: it was called jutter reduction or something like that, whatever
Speaker 1: it is. If you get a new TV and everything
Speaker 1: looks terrible, you've got to find the setting and turn
Speaker 1: it off. I watched the entirety of Black Panther television
Speaker 1: like this. We were staying at a relative's house and
Speaker 1: I didn't want them us with their TV settings, so
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, we'll just stick with it. And you know,
Speaker 1: on one level, it was bad because it made a
Speaker 1: you know, the last kind of movie you want to
Speaker 1: see reduced is going to be a big budget summer
Speaker 1: blockbuster like that. But on the other hand, it kind
Speaker 1: of made the whole movie into like a classic Doctor
Speaker 1: Who episode, okay, and it kind of forced me to
Speaker 1: focus on the performance is a little bit more so.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Yeah, I know what you're saying. We
Speaker 1: we actually have watched a number of movies like this,
Speaker 1: like sometimes we've actually sometimes turned it on just for laughs.
Speaker 1: Speaking of James Bond, we watched part of a James
Speaker 1: Bond movie one time with this on, and it's really
Speaker 1: funny because it makes even big budget movies look like
Speaker 1: a community theater production. Yeah, it does, all right. Here's
Speaker 1: another one. Boy Carney is just frothing with schlock today.
Speaker 1: This one comes to us from Raj Dearest to have
Speaker 1: to blow your mind. I know I am tardy to
Speaker 1: the party, but thank you for reading my listener mail
Speaker 1: about Weird House Cinema, the episode on Battle for Indoor.
Speaker 1: I was not expecting that, so it was a pleasant surprise.
Speaker 1: I also have some more feedback on yet another episode
Speaker 1: of Weird House Cinema. In one of the recent ish episodes,
Speaker 1: you discussed a film with a character named uh Thorkell
Speaker 1: or Thorkel. I think that was the thing. We couldn't
Speaker 1: remember how to say it, Dr Thorkell. I would know
Speaker 1: this was um, the one about the giant um. Oh
Speaker 1: Dr Cyclops, doctor cyclops um. Anyway, Roger continues, sorry, I
Speaker 1: can't remember the name Gunhead. Perhaps Vandanama doctor Cyclops. You
Speaker 1: were discussing how to pronounce that name. From my understanding
Speaker 1: based on the British History Podcast. Uh, there were several
Speaker 1: historical Scandinavian figures um from the eleventh century that were
Speaker 1: named Thorkel, including Thorkell the Tall. It's pronounced the war
Speaker 1: as in the Norse god Kel. Okay, I thought i'd
Speaker 1: share in case you were curious to know. Keep up
Speaker 1: the great work, raj PS. Is exciting to see episode
Speaker 1: topics that here that relate to topics covered in the
Speaker 1: British History Podcast, including the Hornet Helm, Ragnar Lodbrock, et cetera. Oh, thanks, Ross,
Speaker 1: I don't know this other podcast. Maybe I'll check it out. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: when did we talk about Ragnar lad Brock. What's that from? Ah? Well,
Speaker 1: I just had to look it up to confirm, but
Speaker 1: that was from the Pit of Serpents episode. I think
Speaker 1: there's a there was a story about Ragnar having to
Speaker 1: like he got sent into a pit of snakes for
Speaker 1: some reason. There really got executed in a pit of snakes,
Speaker 1: I think or did was that the one where the
Speaker 1: snake like crawled inside him and ate his hard or
Speaker 1: it was it was about like being bit in the
Speaker 1: in the liver or something. Yeah, yeah, yes, now now yeah,
Speaker 1: it's fuzzy now but it was it was good stuff. Well, anyway,
Speaker 1: if you're curious to go back to the Pit of
Speaker 1: Serpents episodes, that will Yeah. All right, well that's the
Speaker 1: end of our mail bag for today. It was a
Speaker 1: good one. Yeah, beans, weird movies. Uh, lots of good stuff.
Speaker 1: So hey, if you would like to write in as well, Uh,
Speaker 1: send in your listener mail, send them in. Let's talk,
Speaker 1: let's chat. You have a ping us, so they say
Speaker 1: yes at us? Uh, I mean, you know, don't I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess there's an act in the email address, because
Speaker 1: the email that's the main way to get in touch
Speaker 1: with us. We're not really on the social accounts that
Speaker 1: we are. We we still have a Twitter account. I
Speaker 1: don't know if anybody's messaging us m I don't know,
Speaker 1: but we there's Yeah, the account still exists. I think
Speaker 1: we're locked out of the Instagram one because somebody else
Speaker 1: was doing it for us and then it was deemed
Speaker 1: suspicious and so now we just have no access to it.
Speaker 1: Very cool. So it's just setting there, uh, and nobody
Speaker 1: knows that access it, so sitting there looking awesome. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but but the email address is, as of this recording,
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Speaker 1: It's all fair game, huge things. As always to our
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