Speaker 1: It's nine pm in Mitchell, South Dakota, and you're listening
Speaker 1: to Night Call. Welcome to nine Call, a podcast for
Speaker 1: your strange days and lily nights. My name is Emily Rachida.
Speaker 1: I am in New York and with me on the
Speaker 1: other line all the way over in Los Angeles, Molly
Speaker 1: Lambert and Oh that Mind Melt, Tess Lynch and also
Speaker 1: the Anglers Richard rush Field on the podcast today. Hello Richard, Hello,
Speaker 1: I want to get in on the A thing you can.
Speaker 1: Our producer Roy Tests wrote an intro for Richard with
Speaker 1: information about you. I mean, I do want to mention.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned to Molly, and this was news to
Speaker 1: her that Richard, you were a producer on one of
Speaker 1: my favorite shows of all time, the only, the only resume,
Speaker 1: Adam I have that anyone wants to talk about so exciting,
Speaker 1: which means that you are. I am now one degree
Speaker 1: of separation from Roger Lodge. You are Roger Lodge. We were,
Speaker 1: We were close for two and a half months. I
Speaker 1: feel like a whole separate episode just about Richard's experiences
Speaker 1: on Blind Date. She signed an n D. A is
Speaker 1: with his face is telling me right, No, I'll tell
Speaker 1: somebody did some kind of tell all about being on
Speaker 1: um Blind Date recently? Is that what the show was?
Speaker 1: They're rebooting it right now. The new Blind Date is
Speaker 1: being filmed right The old Blind Date was the best.
Speaker 1: It's a timeless format. Yeah. It was the pop up
Speaker 1: video of love. I saw it being filmed once in
Speaker 1: Venice Beach and they the couple had run into the
Speaker 1: ocean naked together, and I asked the PA how it
Speaker 1: was going, and he was like, well, she took her
Speaker 1: shirt off. That's as good as it can get. It
Speaker 1: was a different time. It was a different time. I'll
Speaker 1: just did so. I had this job as a producer
Speaker 1: on Blind Date, where my job was to watch people
Speaker 1: on dates and make fun of them. Uh. And I
Speaker 1: sat there the entire time saying like, I'm an artist,
Speaker 1: I'm a group. It's not even my own name on
Speaker 1: this I and people think they could rewrite my jokes.
Speaker 1: And I was just cranky and crotchety. And I walked
Speaker 1: away from that job to to return to journalism, and
Speaker 1: about two seconds out the door, I said, what the
Speaker 1: what the hell have I do? Don't ever any time
Speaker 1: your principals tell you you need to walk out a
Speaker 1: place just just just take a few nights to sleep
Speaker 1: on that. So you had a diva attack on Blind Date.
Speaker 1: I left Blind Date after one season. Did you go
Speaker 1: to the l a times after Blind Date or no?
Speaker 1: I went to be a freelance freelance journalist. And we
Speaker 1: all made choice to go into journalism. I didn't make
Speaker 1: the choice. We didn't make my choice, I maintained my narratives.
Speaker 1: I never made the choice. The choice made me. I
Speaker 1: maintained that too. I agree, I got out. I wasn't
Speaker 1: trying to get into journalism. I just accidentally did, and
Speaker 1: we all, you know what, it's an important thing that
Speaker 1: people should do, and but advised a millennial, not anything
Speaker 1: that I do. If I was if I was doing
Speaker 1: hard hitting reporting about like the city or or housing
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles or something like that, I would I
Speaker 1: would be like, you know what, I can't take myself
Speaker 1: away hitting work. There's movie criticism is is useful in
Speaker 1: its own way. There are things. My feeling about the
Speaker 1: Internet was always like people are bored at work, and
Speaker 1: they like having like a little thing to read that
Speaker 1: gives them like a little vacation in their mind from
Speaker 1: how bored they are at work being on their computer.
Speaker 1: Then that became the entire internet, Like that became the
Speaker 1: model of the Internet. Exactly. Bring back narrative, long form
Speaker 1: programming like blind Date. Yes, exactly, the important stuff, the
Speaker 1: cultural touchstones. Yeah. Wait. Richard also wrote the book on
Speaker 1: American Idol, The Untold Story. So now I've done. But
Speaker 1: I just have to say, like Richard is, that's how
Speaker 1: Richard and I met. Richard and I met while we
Speaker 1: were in the trenches of idol coverage circa or so um.
Speaker 1: And it was around the time the book came about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it wasn't It was not prime idol time. It's true,
Speaker 1: it was. It was the kind of gold on Golden Pond.
Speaker 1: It was like the Philip Philip Phillips era. Didn't you
Speaker 1: like Philip Phillips, very charismatic, young gentleman a name. Absolutely, Wait,
Speaker 1: that's a good that's the best look. And Emily, do
Speaker 1: either of you still watch American Idol if you want
Speaker 1: to come and hate a topic, write a book about it.
Speaker 1: Spent a year where with nothing but American Idol in
Speaker 1: my life. I don't think I've watched the whole episode
Speaker 1: that feeling, for sure, smoke the whole pack exactly after that,
Speaker 1: we want to take just a moment to do a
Speaker 1: night call emotional well being check in, uh, because it's
Speaker 1: been a really awful week, month, year, just you know,
Speaker 1: especially feels bad. So we wanted to say that, like,
Speaker 1: we would also like this podcast to serve as a
Speaker 1: place where people feel like it can be a nice
Speaker 1: bubble bath away from reality, but we also acknowledge that
Speaker 1: reality sucks right now, and we hope that in between
Speaker 1: listening to us talk about ghost hunting, you are making
Speaker 1: the calls you need to make, both to your representatives
Speaker 1: and also to the loved ones in your life that
Speaker 1: might need you right now, and just generally taking care
Speaker 1: of yourself and the people in your life because and
Speaker 1: taking it offline is the thing we've all been talking
Speaker 1: about a lot group about this is that you gotta
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's fine to be frustrated on the internet,
Speaker 1: but ultimately that has to lead to action in real
Speaker 1: life and go in to real places. And definitely feels
Speaker 1: like things will have to happen if other things happen
Speaker 1: right now, I won't go any further than that. Also,
Speaker 1: the week between when we record and when we post
Speaker 1: is um has has been, I think on all of
Speaker 1: our minds because they're you know, from week to weeks
Speaker 1: it's years and years and years of garbage news unfolding. Um,
Speaker 1: but we're recording on Monday, and uh, this is the
Speaker 1: you know, we just had the weekend following the Kavanaugh testimony.
Speaker 1: So yeah, if you are having, as they say, big feelings,
Speaker 1: we hope that you're taking care of yourself and we
Speaker 1: are here to listen. Uh, the world is going to
Speaker 1: be so much worse by the time that's post. You what,
Speaker 1: I know, it's really or or well take some buildings over.
Speaker 1: My feeling is like all the people who came out
Speaker 1: to the Women's March, like, now is the time to
Speaker 1: come back out and you know, maybe blog off some
Speaker 1: freeways and stuff because society shouldn't function if Kabanagh gets
Speaker 1: yeah agree, you know. Um, so that is our that
Speaker 1: is our night call, emotional well being check in and
Speaker 1: now we'll get back to the demon stories. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: we wanted to have Richard on not only because he's
Speaker 1: a great friend and um, a good talker about all
Speaker 1: things and worked on blind Date, but also because I
Speaker 1: feel like Richard has seen and had more paranormal and
Speaker 1: our ghost related experiences than maybe anybody else I know.
Speaker 1: And it just seemed so like such a no brainer.
Speaker 1: Last time I was in l A, we kind of
Speaker 1: got to talking about some of his experiences and I
Speaker 1: was like, what, you just have to come on the
Speaker 1: show and tell everybody I've lived a rich paranormal life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it feels like you won the ghost lottery. Well,
Speaker 1: I'll just keep coming to you, Okay, It's kind of
Speaker 1: seek and you shall find. Uh. It's I I went
Speaker 1: through a long period where it's very interested in ghosts
Speaker 1: and pretty much asked every person I met everywhere, have
Speaker 1: you ever seen a ghost? Or or or alie. I
Speaker 1: was open to alien stories also, and you have phoe stories. Uh.
Speaker 1: And if you ask everybody you meet, you'll get and uh.
Speaker 1: And I was young, so I was still going out
Speaker 1: and meeting people at encountering people in my life. Uh,
Speaker 1: you'll you get a lot of good stories. And I
Speaker 1: think you also open yourself up to a to an
Speaker 1: extra dimensional experience in other ways that that I'm probably
Speaker 1: not very there. There might be ghost tapping me on
Speaker 1: the shoulder all the time right now and and and
Speaker 1: I'm just missing them. But it's been a long time
Speaker 1: when you've opened your heart up as a seeker. In
Speaker 1: other words, exactly without without judgment. I feel like we
Speaker 1: don't have enough time to go overall, which is really
Speaker 1: saying something like that's impressive in and of itself. But
Speaker 1: we had a few that we definitely wanted to hear
Speaker 1: from you. Maybe in ascending order of spookiness, maybe we
Speaker 1: can get some spooky sound effects under this. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: didn't bring my own. Well, shall we start with the
Speaker 1: inappropriate ghost this? This this is a pretty straight forward
Speaker 1: ghost story. But I was back in my college days.
Speaker 1: I went to school in western Massachusetts and at Smith College,
Speaker 1: which was a neighboring school, there was a house that
Speaker 1: was a pre revolutionary house, and every woman that lived
Speaker 1: there had had some sort of experience. Um, they saw
Speaker 1: things fly across the room, they heard their names, said,
Speaker 1: I do. Two roommates that woke up in the middle
Speaker 1: of the night and saw this man standing standing between
Speaker 1: their bed looking down at them. My experience in the
Speaker 1: house wasn't as dramatic as that. I stayed one night
Speaker 1: in the guest room of of this house, and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, the middle of the night, I woke
Speaker 1: up with a start, and just as I woke up,
Speaker 1: the door to the room creaks open, just doesn't doesn't
Speaker 1: just open, a type of opens up all the way
Speaker 1: and then I feel on my back with the pressure
Speaker 1: of a hand ice cold fingers slowly runned down. Uh my,
Speaker 1: my entire spine, all the way all the way down
Speaker 1: to the base. Yes, and no one was there, no one,
Speaker 1: did you hear it was? It was about three or
Speaker 1: three in the morning. My, it was a very cold night.
Speaker 1: My house was about two or three miles away, and
Speaker 1: I got up and walked home through the snow those
Speaker 1: two or three miles. I'm not the person that stays
Speaker 1: in the Amityville house after Yeah, um, what does it mean?
Speaker 1: What's the significance? I can't say, But yeah, what do
Speaker 1: you think they were trying to tell you? You said?
Speaker 1: You said it was a desirous BackRub, lascivious intent. Was
Speaker 1: my takeaway? That that was? That was how it felt
Speaker 1: to me. It was. It did not feel like a
Speaker 1: like a kind of just friendly pat on the back,
Speaker 1: you feel violated. It was aub throwing, paranormal, creepy back rub.
Speaker 1: And see how see how you like that? Well? You know,
Speaker 1: I could be like if some person might be into it,
Speaker 1: they might be like, oh, a free BackRub, um, if
Speaker 1: it could be the beginning of a teen like y
Speaker 1: a novel. There's like some people who have had consensual
Speaker 1: sex with ghosts. I think maybe that's impossible. Reget Nielsen.
Speaker 1: I want to say, how does she know it's consensual?
Speaker 1: Because the ghost tried to have sex with her and
Speaker 1: she was like, la la cool. I don't I don't
Speaker 1: know that this ghost had unpleasant hands. I mean I
Speaker 1: think it was strong, powerful hands. I called, yes, access
Speaker 1: your back for a background. It's so close to your
Speaker 1: neck and you can throttle you. Yeah, that's true. It
Speaker 1: gives me to create. Let's move on. So story number two.
Speaker 1: Uh so, my, we're in college still. My friend of mine,
Speaker 1: Sam had his mother had a ranch at in Malibu
Speaker 1: where she had a Brazilian mystic visiting. Um, and we went.
Speaker 1: We we drove out to to see this Brazilian mystic.
Speaker 1: The story has two parts. What they have to do
Speaker 1: with each other you be you be the judge. But
Speaker 1: it doesn't seem that they are unrelated. Um, this this
Speaker 1: Brazilian mystic. We get there. He's a he's an older gentleman.
Speaker 1: Probably about sixty said it there, drinking beard, smoking cigarettes
Speaker 1: doesn't seem that holy. But he takes us to this
Speaker 1: room one at a time and we lie on a
Speaker 1: bed and uh, and he walks around the rooms are
Speaker 1: huffing and puffing, and it's like little flashbulbs come out
Speaker 1: of it and like purple or green or different colors.
Speaker 1: And he did that and I said, well, Rizio, what
Speaker 1: was that about? And he said, oh, good for the
Speaker 1: nervous system. Uh? And which which is? Which was the
Speaker 1: only explanation he had. Uh. And then after after we
Speaker 1: all had done that, we were sitting outside at this
Speaker 1: table and the about ten of us there, and Rizio
Speaker 1: said to uh, one of the people, he said, I
Speaker 1: I think I feel something out in the field. You
Speaker 1: come with me. And they walk out to the field
Speaker 1: and they're they're they're walking, they're they're about a hundred
Speaker 1: yards off and we just see them because every time
Speaker 1: he steps, sparks come out from under his feet. But
Speaker 1: this is what happens when you're a mystic. And they
Speaker 1: get to a place two hundred yards away or something,
Speaker 1: and and all of sudden, this huge burst of light
Speaker 1: comes out of Marittio's chest and you can sort of
Speaker 1: see him illuminated that immediately after in the sky, this
Speaker 1: cold orb picture the harvest moon about fift larger than that,
Speaker 1: blinks on and the sky and then blinks off. Then
Speaker 1: about fifteen seconds as in another huge uh flashlight comes
Speaker 1: out of Ritio and then the gold or flashes odd
Speaker 1: flashes off and that happens a couple dozen times over
Speaker 1: over the course of about ten minutes. And then Ritio
Speaker 1: comes back and we say, Marazio, that was amazing. What
Speaker 1: was that? He says, So, I didn see anything, I thought,
Speaker 1: So that was our explanation. So we're driving home from that.
Speaker 1: Uh here, we'll get to it. So that was an
Speaker 1: extra dimensional part. Uh. Someone there suggested he had opened
Speaker 1: up a portal to another dimension. Maybe Ritio didn't confirm that,
Speaker 1: but but given what's coming, you may look back on
Speaker 1: that as a as a credible explanation. Uh. We're in
Speaker 1: Sam's Broncho driving down Sunset, driving driving eastbound, and we're
Speaker 1: going we're just passed Rusted Canyon. And what we're approaching
Speaker 1: what you folks who grew up around here, no, as
Speaker 1: dead Man's Curve, you know that big. So we're we're
Speaker 1: going into that, and all of a sudden, the power
Speaker 1: to Sam's car just dies's career as we're approaching it.
Speaker 1: We're about a hundred fifty yards out, we're approaching it,
Speaker 1: and the power is just God, it's just like it's
Speaker 1: it's just as though someone just turned it off. And
Speaker 1: we're coasting to a stop up ahead of us, going westbound.
Speaker 1: Coming towards us, this car comes screeching around the herb.
Speaker 1: Herb spins out, does a three sixty. It crashes into
Speaker 1: a phone pole. Yes, exactly where we would have been,
Speaker 1: the exact spot where we would have been had the
Speaker 1: power not knocked gone out. So are those two halfs
Speaker 1: of the story port we give me be a good maybe?
Speaker 1: Or maybe it was a demon with bad aim, or
Speaker 1: maybe it was Hitler driving the other car and he
Speaker 1: was being saved to go. Hitler didn't die on dead
Speaker 1: Man's Curve the next because I spent like a week
Speaker 1: reading about and this is all I would talk about
Speaker 1: last week before the podcast. Well, you know, you know
Speaker 1: where that curve actually is, but have you actually seen
Speaker 1: that's the lamest dead Man's curve, That that curve is
Speaker 1: like sort of just like, yeah, I always imagine I'm
Speaker 1: confused which one you're talking about. What's what is it?
Speaker 1: Is it like in like your Beverly Glenn or something no,
Speaker 1: between Rusta Canyon and the Riviera Palisades. But it's a
Speaker 1: it's a pretty, a pretty baby dead Man's curve, right
Speaker 1: that that one is amazing. The one I was at
Speaker 1: was a major den Man's curve. The Jan and Dean
Speaker 1: one is on it's right. Jandane one is interesting because
Speaker 1: it's about three doors down from the house Buzzy Seagull
Speaker 1: was shot in, so it's uh so, it's it's an
Speaker 1: interesting little neighborhood there. Plus, I was reading about Jan
Speaker 1: and Deane and she was like, oh, because one of
Speaker 1: them was hot, and I was like, yes, correct, And
Speaker 1: then I remember which one. Well. I found out that
Speaker 1: they were you probably know this already, Richard, but that
Speaker 1: they were all on the football team like Hollywood High.
Speaker 1: That's how they became a group, and that the other
Speaker 1: guy in the group was James Brolin. They were the
Speaker 1: football team because I just thought they were going to
Speaker 1: be dorks, and then I was like, wait, Jane and
Speaker 1: Dean were hot, and then it was like they were
Speaker 1: football players who harmonized in the locker room. Don't ever
Speaker 1: go look at that at that curve, You're gonna be
Speaker 1: so let down. Well then also one of them was
Speaker 1: in a car accident later, but not at that dead
Speaker 1: man's curve, but like not too far from well that
Speaker 1: that's that's where the accident where the the real life
Speaker 1: accident was that what wasn't the wasn't They were conflated later.
Speaker 1: I always imagined being like in Palace fair days on
Speaker 1: like a little twisty like canyon. I always a was
Speaker 1: on Mulholland until I knew better, because the Holland is
Speaker 1: just one big dead man. To be honest with you,
Speaker 1: the one the Palisades is uh is is a true
Speaker 1: people were killed all the time. Can we get another
Speaker 1: demon story? Yeah? Number three? So I was not the
Speaker 1: one that I thought you were going to tell. So
Speaker 1: I'm very curious. The one I remember you telling me
Speaker 1: at Italy was about um. It was like somebody said
Speaker 1: that you had Somebody said that you had opened up
Speaker 1: your your soul to a ghost letter the wig board.
Speaker 1: The wig board one was a story that was a
Speaker 1: very good story. It didn't actually happen to me. It
Speaker 1: had to happen to a bunch of friends of mine.
Speaker 1: You should tell it anyway, because a perfect ghost story?
Speaker 1: Is this the one I'm thinking of? Though I can't remember. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So if you go to the Brand Library in Glendale, UM,
Speaker 1: and there's a path if you go there at night,
Speaker 1: there's a path that leads up into the hills behind
Speaker 1: it UM and if you get you go up. You
Speaker 1: walk up that path about fifteen minutes and you'll see
Speaker 1: a small a little trail that goes off it. And
Speaker 1: you'll notice when you go down the trail that the
Speaker 1: temperature suddenly drops when you come to a wrought iron
Speaker 1: gate enclosing maybe Puritan way up in the mountains, there's
Speaker 1: a pyramid. There's a stone pyramid about fifty ft high,
Speaker 1: uh in the hills above above Glendonale. It is the
Speaker 1: Brand family, and I believe Brand family built Glendon Lit
Speaker 1: there mine. Have you guys been there? It is so spooky.
Speaker 1: Have you been there? Know? How about when you come
Speaker 1: soon we will go and there's a pyramid, is what
Speaker 1: we're going to get to. I've heard of it, but
Speaker 1: I've never been there yet. I was driving around Glendale
Speaker 1: one day and I like found it and I was like,
Speaker 1: where did this come from. It was totally like a
Speaker 1: spooky place that was suddenly planted there that I've never
Speaker 1: noticed before. And it has like the library a building
Speaker 1: is this sort of fake Moroccan style building, and it
Speaker 1: was apparently built by the person who built the Chicago
Speaker 1: World's Fair. And then it inspired a lot of the
Speaker 1: sort of fake Spanish stuff in Glendale because it was like,
Speaker 1: you know, a fancy person's building, and the people were like,
Speaker 1: build me a little Spanish billa also. But it looks
Speaker 1: very like a weird movie set um. It has like
Speaker 1: and everybody I know who goes there says it's like
Speaker 1: the weirdest place and what this is? How weird it
Speaker 1: was for my friends for whom I went there and
Speaker 1: told me the story together and swear by it. Uh
Speaker 1: So you go there at night and the the gate
Speaker 1: is closed. You have to climb over it. And they
Speaker 1: came in and they brought a Luigi board, so they
Speaker 1: climb over it. They feel very weird. They sit down,
Speaker 1: they put the disc on the Luigi board and it
Speaker 1: just starts spitting by itself and starts spitting wildly, and
Speaker 1: then they are in the car in their car on
Speaker 1: the freeway, driving home, just like a time leap, they
Speaker 1: all lost the time in between. Yes, didn't they get
Speaker 1: rid of the Wegi board. I don't know if the
Speaker 1: weigi if the Weiji board was with them still interesting,
Speaker 1: it might still be there. Yeah, I'll go getting you guys.
Speaker 1: Let's go, or let's just bring another one. That offering
Speaker 1: was that the Wegi board? So I have another week?
Speaker 1: Was that the one you were thinking of over youthinking? No,
Speaker 1: that wasn't the one I was thinking of either. Okay,
Speaker 1: well the other one is quick. I was at the
Speaker 1: haunted coffee shop and wait, wait, the All Star Cafe
Speaker 1: that used to be in the Knickerbocker Hotel in front
Speaker 1: of which d W. Griffith died. Umu the Knicker. I
Speaker 1: think the hotel has been bought by Scientology. Now in
Speaker 1: the cafe doesn't just anymore? But wait, is it the
Speaker 1: one where they used to have a lightly star trek
Speaker 1: scemed coffee shop in that in that space called ten
Speaker 1: forward possible? The All Star Cafe was a brief incarnation
Speaker 1: there in the and and never quite came together. But
Speaker 1: uh they claimed it was very haunted and they had
Speaker 1: a Wigi board, and my friend and I were Uh,
Speaker 1: we're playing with the Ouiji board and the boards we
Speaker 1: start telling us things, horrible things we're gonna happen to
Speaker 1: our friends. It's sort of it was. It was spelling
Speaker 1: very It was the quickest of Wegi board has ever
Speaker 1: worked for me. I was saying like one front of
Speaker 1: hers is going to die in a car accident and
Speaker 1: other it was like but it was it was kind
Speaker 1: of like jokey horrible things. But uh. We asked him
Speaker 1: who he was and he said he was a nine
Speaker 1: year old boy named named Max and he spelled that.
Speaker 1: And as we were leaving, Um, we said to the
Speaker 1: owner and he says, so you get anything on the
Speaker 1: Weigi boards. So yeah, someone was really great. And they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: was it Max the nine year old? What wait, we're
Speaker 1: a ton of people bringing Weigi boards to the coffee shop.
Speaker 1: There was never a ton of people and that they
Speaker 1: had a Wegi board there Swigi so it might have
Speaker 1: been weird. Yeah. At around the time that that that happened,
Speaker 1: and uh, talking about friends with their brand cemetery experience,
Speaker 1: I was at a dinner, a group dinner, and there
Speaker 1: was this, uh, there was this old Native American gentleman,
Speaker 1: this is the story. I think that you was sort
Speaker 1: of sort of a shaman type uh self styled shaman,
Speaker 1: but a lot of people held him in very high regard.
Speaker 1: But I started chatting about these ghosts experiences and he
Speaker 1: looked at me and he said, he said, you shouldn't
Speaker 1: be fooling with this, and and I was like, uh,
Speaker 1: it's not, you know, just having fun with the work.
Speaker 1: Kids will be kids. What are you what are you
Speaker 1: gonna do? And he kind of looked it was like
Speaker 1: looking in the space around me, and he's like, you're
Speaker 1: opening yourself up to the spirits and I was I said, wow,
Speaker 1: they're welcome to come visit. I don't don't know anything
Speaker 1: against them. He looked at me more and he slammed
Speaker 1: his town. No, you are a coffee cup. Your coffee
Speaker 1: cup is empty. The spirits are coffee that coffee wants
Speaker 1: to be in a cup. What you're doing, it may
Speaker 1: have been you. I also did hear the story. Didn't
Speaker 1: you say that you had also just been like messing
Speaker 1: with some sort of like like a coven. No, it
Speaker 1: was when you went to go you were doing research
Speaker 1: on the real covens of Hollywood. Because it wasn't this
Speaker 1: around the time of the Craft or it was around
Speaker 1: the time the Craft. Yes, and I wrote my my
Speaker 1: first my first cover story in journalism. Uh maybe the
Speaker 1: first feature story for Black Book magazine about about which
Speaker 1: is in Los Angeles. Uh. So I went to visit
Speaker 1: a coven in North Hollywood. UM, don't let them tell
Speaker 1: you that. Um, they all they all have that stuff
Speaker 1: out there, like, oh, we don't. We don't cast spells
Speaker 1: or people because everything you do comes back to it
Speaker 1: comes back to get you three times. And so they
Speaker 1: cast Believe me, they did. They cast one on you.
Speaker 1: Possibly after it came out you opened the barrier. And well,
Speaker 1: the one thing I've I've used is they taught me
Speaker 1: a lost things a spell how to find lost things?
Speaker 1: Can you share? It's not Saint Anthony, a Catholic one
Speaker 1: she taught me and we both new all the time works.
Speaker 1: If you say a spell on the radio, does that
Speaker 1: dissipate its power? Or like? Does that does that? Emily? Emily,
Speaker 1: you've done my lost Yeah? I think you feel me?
Speaker 1: Ever teach that so I don't feel like it's that
Speaker 1: much more. I'm afraid of can you outline it without
Speaker 1: telling us? Like the words that you chant er, and
Speaker 1: so you think you picture yourself finding it, and you
Speaker 1: you do something to an object of clothing and then
Speaker 1: leave it in a certain place until it worked every
Speaker 1: time miraculously. Yes, all right, I'll get the notes afterwards. Uh, guys,
Speaker 1: what are your personal scariest moments from horror movies? Oh? Yes,
Speaker 1: I have one that I watched just before I got
Speaker 1: here and it's been giving me the creeps ever since,
Speaker 1: which is from the eight I think remix of Invasion
Speaker 1: of the Body Snatchers, where, Um, it's been a while
Speaker 1: since I've seen the movie, but I remember the scene
Speaker 1: of the dog with the man's face and the banjo
Speaker 1: music that happened that the part it's so scary because
Speaker 1: the man is like licking his mouth in a way
Speaker 1: that looks like a dog, and everybody's reactions are like
Speaker 1: really realistic. It's never explained how that happened, never explained
Speaker 1: that they got me. It's the only one that got
Speaker 1: mixed up exactly scariest movie. It is a very scary movie,
Speaker 1: but that's the scariest part. I I never feel safe
Speaker 1: in San Francisco because of that movie. Yeah. That movie
Speaker 1: also now is like sad because it's all like beautiful
Speaker 1: pre gentrification, like real San Francisco. You're like, oh, it
Speaker 1: got city snatched. Yeah, Emily, do you have a scariest
Speaker 1: movie moment? I'm so bad at this one. I've been
Speaker 1: honestly thinking about it since you guys pose the question,
Speaker 1: and I'm you know, I know I'm sound like a
Speaker 1: broken record when I talk about this, but it's there
Speaker 1: aren't that many movies that really scare me, but there
Speaker 1: are ones that, like kind of animated movies. Um, I
Speaker 1: feel like some of the scariest things that have ever
Speaker 1: scared me have been like anime that I saw as
Speaker 1: a child. Well, I think that one of the scarier things, um,
Speaker 1: Princess Mononoke, like the face on O god On that
Speaker 1: this like the Dear Spirit I always confuse it with
Speaker 1: the Patronis from Hierry Potter's very similar the way it's presented,
Speaker 1: but it's like this dear spirit in the water, but
Speaker 1: it has a human face. There is something very eerie
Speaker 1: about human faces on. I think that's the scariest. I mean,
Speaker 1: I I just in general in general, like mask like
Speaker 1: faces are very terrifying to me. I've been more scared
Speaker 1: like my closest thing that I have to like a
Speaker 1: um uh paranormal experience or like one of Richard's stories
Speaker 1: is that I used to play this game called four
Speaker 1: Doors with like friends growing up, like since I was
Speaker 1: in you know, middle school or something. It would be
Speaker 1: a sleepover game, like like kind of like a light
Speaker 1: as a feather stuff as a board type thing. Do
Speaker 1: you know this game? Oh, it's it's it's it's sort
Speaker 1: of takes a while to explain, but basically it just
Speaker 1: like you your you guide your friend through like one
Speaker 1: person is lying down in the middle of the group
Speaker 1: and you guide them through like kind of of semi
Speaker 1: conscious um like journey through all these doors. Um. And
Speaker 1: and the one that I remember doing or like saying
Speaker 1: and like everybody in the room just freaking out is
Speaker 1: like walking into one of the doors and it was
Speaker 1: just like a room like a full of people wearing
Speaker 1: like blank masks and all like turned around and stared
Speaker 1: at me. That's trying. Yeah, that's like the scariest thing
Speaker 1: to me. So anything with masks and movies, yeah, stuff
Speaker 1: in like I mean, like this isn't even movies, but
Speaker 1: like some of that just conceptual stuff in like ginge
Speaker 1: Eto just like, yeah, scares me more, doesn't really. I
Speaker 1: find I delight in Juneto like I I find it
Speaker 1: so fun, makes me feels so gross and fun like yeah,
Speaker 1: like all like you know, I don't know it does.
Speaker 1: It feels more like a like a grotesque form of
Speaker 1: comedy too than like actually getting scared to me. But
Speaker 1: I love it sometimes when it moves into comedy, that's
Speaker 1: the scariest I think too, because like I was always
Speaker 1: very freaked out by eighties practical effects stuff. It took
Speaker 1: me forever to watch The Nightmare on elm Street movies
Speaker 1: because I was so scared of like Freddy as a
Speaker 1: just as like a scary looking thing, and like masks
Speaker 1: of Freddy are so scary to me, I think, more
Speaker 1: so than Michael Myers, even though he's a scary blank face. Yeah, Richard,
Speaker 1: what's your scariest movie moment? So the the one scene
Speaker 1: in movies that as I get older, I'm scared, like
Speaker 1: I cry in Hallmark commercials. But also they also scared
Speaker 1: the hell out of me. So I'm scared of everything
Speaker 1: now um and and really can't watch scary movies anymore.
Speaker 1: But the the scene and poulter Geist where She's taught
Speaker 1: the girls talking to her mother in the kitchen and
Speaker 1: then and they're at the kitchen table and they look away,
Speaker 1: and then they turned back to the kitchen table and
Speaker 1: the chairs are stuck. The stack chairs is so scary,
Speaker 1: like Molly's Older Guys. Is one of the scariest movies
Speaker 1: because it tricks you into thinking gets a different kind
Speaker 1: of movie at certain just like I was, like seventies
Speaker 1: movie that's about like families. Yeah, and spend a billion
Speaker 1: dollars on effects, you won't get anything scarier than these
Speaker 1: damned kitchen chairs. Yeah, yeah, I agree. Um. A friend
Speaker 1: of the podcast, Muctamohan has talked about how her biggest
Speaker 1: fear is like furniture being moved around while she's asleep. Yeah,
Speaker 1: stuff like that, because it's really the fear of being insane. Guys,
Speaker 1: do you want to take I stepped on your segment
Speaker 1: the Yellow Wallpaper. Let's take a night email from Brian.
Speaker 1: I wanted to draw your attention to this Fox interview
Speaker 1: with a pair of Harvard Divinity School researchers who published
Speaker 1: a paper in that suggested that millennials are substituting CrossFit
Speaker 1: and soul cycle for traditional organized religions. I know you
Speaker 1: have a particular affinity for the occult, and while this
Speaker 1: maybe it's exact opposite, it may hold some interest for
Speaker 1: you for that very reason. It feels like another instance
Speaker 1: of new businesses filling the vacuum created by the loss
Speaker 1: of old institutions. Guys, well as a person who's as
Speaker 1: I was saying, my favorite, um, my favorite hot take
Speaker 1: on everything is it's church. Yeah, yeah, I I feel
Speaker 1: like I've I've heard this at least said casually by
Speaker 1: people who have you know, who subscribe or don't subscribe
Speaker 1: to this particular religion, especially for I think, especially for
Speaker 1: soul cycle. Well you were cycles, you just got class
Speaker 1: pass I did. Yeah. I I have been out of
Speaker 1: the the group Fitness World for a while, which I
Speaker 1: was very into in Los Angeles and kind of stopped
Speaker 1: doing as much here and it's very interesting to come
Speaker 1: back to it. Does anyone like have you guys? Has
Speaker 1: anyone in this room tried what is it called, like
Speaker 1: soul cycle? I've done soul cycle. Um, I haven't done CrossFit.
Speaker 1: I was forced once. You were one time? But what
Speaker 1: did they play? Oh? God? It was horrible, I mean
Speaker 1: it was it was very It was dark, like we
Speaker 1: were it should be dark. It reminds you of being
Speaker 1: in church, because you were like, get me out of here.
Speaker 1: No church is better for me than that, because it
Speaker 1: hurts so badly to sit on that sharp seat, and
Speaker 1: I had the gel cover that I was like, look,
Speaker 1: I'm not like a pro. I'm not going to sit
Speaker 1: on a chair that feels like a knife. So I
Speaker 1: got like this gel cover. But even then it was
Speaker 1: so horribly painful that it feels like punishment to sit
Speaker 1: and like your legs hurt so bad, and they were.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's to me, I have a hard time
Speaker 1: with someone like coaching you through feelings and also to
Speaker 1: be like it's painful but you have to do it.
Speaker 1: But it's like the part of it is forcing your
Speaker 1: body to release these endorphins that forced you to feel.
Speaker 1: It feels manipulative to me, But that's just me. This
Speaker 1: is just me. I only exercise alone. If ever, well,
Speaker 1: I want to say that I've never done one of
Speaker 1: these group ones, and I really only learned about how
Speaker 1: churchy it was from seeing the movie I Feel Pretty
Speaker 1: with Emily, which is framed around soul cycle. I guess
Speaker 1: also on Broad City they like do it parody of
Speaker 1: it but like fake equinox. Yeah, I has that vibe.
Speaker 1: It's like a combination life coaching and exercise class. People
Speaker 1: get obsessed with it. I don't know if you guys
Speaker 1: have followed Ben Dryfe as his journey with Soul Cycle.
Speaker 1: He wrote about it at mother Jones. No, I've known
Speaker 1: some people who get really obsessed with bicycling. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: this is different. What do you feel about it? Richard?
Speaker 1: As much as I fear a demon strangling me to
Speaker 1: death in my sleep, uh, even more fear someone ever
Speaker 1: speaking to me while I'm trying to exercise exactly going
Speaker 1: I I don't understand religion should be between you and
Speaker 1: your soul Cycle trainer and private and should not be
Speaker 1: done in the presence of other people. But I guess
Speaker 1: it's crazy that that I've realized about these classes like
Speaker 1: and and sort of has to do with the religion thing.
Speaker 1: But it's also like I think maybe because this idea
Speaker 1: of you know, like the sort of use of cycles
Speaker 1: and stuff have been so much in the public discourse lately,
Speaker 1: and especially like how like abuser logic and stuff, that
Speaker 1: I started to realize that a lot of the classes
Speaker 1: are kind of structured. Um, Like you're an abusive relationship
Speaker 1: with yourself. Um because especially like I've been going to
Speaker 1: like Physique fifty seven and bar classes and stuff, and
Speaker 1: they the language they use is really like we're just
Speaker 1: gonna like we're just gonna like burn out this this
Speaker 1: glute or whatever. We're gonna like do it till till
Speaker 1: do it till you kill it kind of and then
Speaker 1: and then at the end or like in between all
Speaker 1: these like intervals of really really intense exercise and then
Speaker 1: you like are like you know, spinning, and they and
Speaker 1: then they do a stretch and they're like, honor your body.
Speaker 1: Your body is beautiful and what is and it's what
Speaker 1: has brought you here today to give you this gift?
Speaker 1: And yeah, that sounds like triumph of the will. And
Speaker 1: I wait, Emily, what do you it out of? Like
Speaker 1: what what is it that draws you to this? Well, lately,
Speaker 1: I've just been like I've been doing stuff by myself
Speaker 1: for a very long time now. And I had a
Speaker 1: personal trainer for a while when I was making more money,
Speaker 1: and uh, and now I just kind of sunk around
Speaker 1: a Y M C A. That's the best. Also, have
Speaker 1: a friend Leslie Moon, who a personal trainer weightlifting coach
Speaker 1: who's so cool because she does it in the opposite way.
Speaker 1: She has the best. Yeah, she's like the best at
Speaker 1: kind of the more holistic like a like a saying
Speaker 1: I would love her her vibe because it's like I'm
Speaker 1: going to teach you the safe way to pick up
Speaker 1: the heaviest thing you can. Yeah. Yeah, that yeah, and
Speaker 1: which is like and being around her and like kind
Speaker 1: of picking up a lot of the stuff that she's
Speaker 1: been learning and like kind of this sort of philosophy
Speaker 1: she's been honing then going back to this very yeah,
Speaker 1: like I feel pretty esque form of exercise feels especially
Speaker 1: like a cultural clash. But I do like I do
Speaker 1: I I have to differ from you, guys. I do
Speaker 1: like I like stuff and it's like somebody yelling at you.
Speaker 1: I do like somebody yelling at me. I mean, I've
Speaker 1: had some amazing experiences with Soul Cycle at south By Southwest. First, No,
Speaker 1: it is it is a total kink. I will own
Speaker 1: up to that. But like, but I know, I've never
Speaker 1: really gotten hardcore into soul Cycle before, but it's south
Speaker 1: By Southwest. They do like they'll have like guest DJs,
Speaker 1: um like like famous like Hudson Mohawk like like guest DJE.
Speaker 1: I can also see something to just like sweat your
Speaker 1: brains out in that situation to stay saying, oh it
Speaker 1: smells like beer. When when you see people that we're
Speaker 1: in your soul cycle class somewhere else, do you feel
Speaker 1: like you have a spiritual bond with them? Um? I
Speaker 1: always feel like you just don't acknowledge it. It's like
Speaker 1: you all went to an orgy or something or like
Speaker 1: a or something. Right, Yeah, exactly, I guess like a
Speaker 1: better like head to exact, don't show your hand. Uh.
Speaker 1: There's something about workouts where it's like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I like a gentle cult leader. Um. But my personal
Speaker 1: favorite is yoga with Adrian on YouTube, which I've probably
Speaker 1: plugged before. But like, if you want the opposite vibe
Speaker 1: of somebody yelling at you, of someone who's like Sesame
Speaker 1: Street just being like, stretch whatever is good for you.
Speaker 1: She's so wishy washy, though, Man, I need a little
Speaker 1: more like if you were just sitting there, she'd be like,
Speaker 1: it's fine, you can just sit. I've done like the
Speaker 1: shred also, and I didn't like Jillian Chance and yelling
Speaker 1: at me. I was like, no, I'm not a jock,
Speaker 1: so um I am. It feels like I was just
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles and Tess was just in New York.
Speaker 1: We've been so bicoastal, like the Kardashians franchises all over
Speaker 1: the country. We're taking New York and we're open and
Speaker 1: night dash and yeah, night dash, night dash. Um. But
Speaker 1: I'm going to be back in l A soon. I
Speaker 1: think when you hear this, it'll be like a week later. Yeah,
Speaker 1: um for the first ever UH Female Filmmakers Festival in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, which I'm super excited to be a part of.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be doing a couple of panels there
Speaker 1: and you should definitely check it out and get tickets
Speaker 1: at f f fest dot org. Yeah, Emily will be
Speaker 1: there and I will also be there. Maybe TuS will
Speaker 1: be there, who knows. You never know where I'll be
Speaker 1: wild card I am. I am going with my mom
Speaker 1: to see a documentary called Left on Pearl that is
Speaker 1: about the nineteen seventy one takeover of a building by
Speaker 1: women in Boston. Uh. They took over a building that
Speaker 1: Harvard was like trying to buy up a lot of
Speaker 1: working class neighborhood housing in a Cambridge and so a
Speaker 1: bunch of women women took over a building and turned
Speaker 1: it into an affordable women's health center. And obviously that's
Speaker 1: something that I think is cool and I would like
Speaker 1: to learn how to do more stuff like that. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a really amazing program. It's not it's not UM.
Speaker 1: I think they have win premiere, but the rest is
Speaker 1: just kind of a really good selection of uh boast
Speaker 1: stuff that you might have seen. Like they have an
Speaker 1: American Psycho there, Mary Heren's American Psycho. UM, they have
Speaker 1: UM a Chreeless Mountain, which is like one of So
Speaker 1: Young Kim's earlier films, and like some Barber Hammer shorts. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just like a really good mixing like international to UM.
Speaker 1: And I think it's going to be a cool weekends
Speaker 1: at the Independent Downtown Independent in Los Angeles. And this
Speaker 1: is the weekend of the the twelfth through the fourteen,
Speaker 1: twelve through the fourteenth in l A at ff S
Speaker 1: dot org. The fourteenth of October. Yes, it is halfway
Speaker 1: to Halloween. Halfway. We almost made it. And now that
Speaker 1: Richards here, you feel that Halloween creepy vibe his coffee
Speaker 1: cup of ghosts. Your coffee cup overflowid do not do
Speaker 1: not fill your coffee cup with Now you gotta put
Speaker 1: one of those lids on it with a little tiny
Speaker 1: hole so only the really important ghosts can come in. Well,
Speaker 1: it's been good the last ten years or so because
Speaker 1: ten twenty years, because I haven't been messing with it,
Speaker 1: so I haven't felt it, and and and I haven't
Speaker 1: been spreading these stories around until now. So welcome to
Speaker 1: the coven, Richard. Watch out for those chairs stacking. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if any chairs are stacking in your home, give us
Speaker 1: a call and tell us about it at two four
Speaker 1: oh four six night or you can email us at
Speaker 1: Nightcall podcast at gmail dot com. And if you're enjoying
Speaker 1: the podcast, please review, rate and subscribe, and be sure
Speaker 1: to check out Richard's newsletter at the Akler dot com
Speaker 1: and also follow us on social media. We're on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Nightcall pod uh, Instagram at Nightcall Podcasts, and Facebook
Speaker 1: at Nightcall Podcasts. Thank you so much for joining us, Richard,
Speaker 1: my pleasure. That's great, and we'll see some of y'all
Speaker 1: at the Female Film Lookerphiones. Bye, come back soon