Listener Mail: Said The White Rabbit

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your
Mind listener Mail. This is Robert Lamb and Seth Nicholas Johnson.
That's right, Joe is still out on parental leave and
we're still doing listener mail. And since we have a
few bits of listener mail on this one that have

(00:23):
to do with an episode of Weird House Cinema that
Seth joined me for, I've decided, well we should have
Seth in here on this episode of listener mail as well.
Happy to join. All right, well, let's jump right into
the mail bag here, we're gonna kick off with one
that's another bit of goat listener mail. Uh. The goat

(00:46):
mail keeps coming, and it should keep coming. This one
comes to us from Chris from Chicago. Hi, Robert, Seth
and Joe in absentia. Congratulations on the new arrival. I
have been ruminating on this email since the first Goat episode.
I was surprised by all of the goat lore and
history across so many cultures. One culture of goat content

(01:07):
that I enjoy is beer culture, more specifically German beer culture.
Bach beer is a staple of Old World brewing styles.
Here is a link to a quick summary, and that
they included a link that goes to a brewery. And yes,
there there's some posters and images and some labels that

(01:28):
that that definitely featured goats with with large curling horns.
Chris continues from the web page quote Bach originated in
the northern German city of Einbeck, probably as far back
as the fourteen hundreds. By the sixteen hundreds it was
being brewed in the Munich area of southern Germany. The
name Einbeck was pronounced as Einbach in the Bavarian accent

(01:52):
of the region, and Einbach means billy goat. I never
knew that. With that being that, a quick Google search
we'll find you a plethora of goat and beer label images.
One of my favorite box styles is that of the
double box or double box slightly darker, multier, and higher
in a b V. My favorite example of the style

(02:13):
is eyeinger celebration. Include a link to this. I'm clicking
on it. It's pulling up the image slowly from Germany,
and it's kind of stalling it. No, no, it's back, Okay, yes, alright,
I see this wonderful label here with a giant it's
either a giant frothing grail of beer or it is

(02:35):
a very small one um or I don't know, or
maybe it's regular size and the goats are small, but
there are two horned goats on either side. Um, sort
of dancing or rearing up against the beer. Well, if
it's a double box, you need double the goats. Makes sense. Yeah,
it does look delicious. It's almost like a root beer float.
But I think I just I prefer a root beer

(02:58):
to an actual beer. So so maybe it's just where
my mind wants to go. And Chris continues here. One
of my favorite American and local breweries, Revolution Brewing here
in Chicago, has a seasonal beer called Baham, a a
bock beer coming in at six point six six percent
ABV and featuring a great label with a rendition of

(03:22):
the goat of Mindy's featuring some additional beer specific changes
please see the attached that's wonderful a six point six
six a b V and the beer is called bah
that's a hilarious round of applause for them. And uh yeah,
I'm I'm pulling up a link to this here to

(03:43):
see the cover. Oh yes, this is very This is
very nice. I'm not really a beer person, but if
if you've offered one of these, I might have to
try it out, just because it has a very very
metal looking label on it. Very nice. Yeah, I'm looking
at the image here and at first I was thinking,
is this an artichoke floating over the goat's head? I'm

(04:03):
gonna guess it's probably a hop. I'm not a brew master,
but I believe hops look similar to artich chokes, especially
if it's zoomed in. So once again we're getting into
the idea of scale, just like with the previous label.
Is this a very large hop or a very small
baffo a? I don't know either way, though great label,
I applaud it. I'm also not entirely sure what a

(04:24):
hop is. Do you think you know? Like, I know,
it's like a like a you know, a barley thing
of a jig, but like, like, is is it the flower?
I I genuinely don't know. I'm I'm very ignorant on beer,
No I am. I've I've been straight edged for like,
holy cow, um, over a decade. I can't I literally

(04:45):
can't remember the last time I had alcohol. So yeah, sorry,
these are beautiful labels, though it would Beer is also
something that I don't think Joe and I have covered
on the show before as a devoted you know, like
that how to beer or or the invention of beer
and so for the beer comes up now and again,
but we've never really done an episode that dives into it.

(05:07):
That would be that would be interesting to do in
the future though. Yeah. Anyway, Chris winds it up here
with thank you for all the consistently great content, Chris
from Chicago right our next messages from Keith goes As. Thus,
I listened to your conversation about anti witchcraft practices this week,

(05:28):
and the part about shoes made me think of this
meme that is all enjoy. Memes are of course visual,
but I'll explain them to the audience. Here we have
the image of let's see it looks like the end
of a bench or a bed, and we have two
boots sitting on the floor. It looks like to Doc
Martin's and they're very widely spaced apart, like got to

(05:49):
be at least what two and a half three feet
as the two boots sitting on the ground space apart.
And this is the text on said meme, I leave
my shoes far up heart so if a burglar comes in,
they think I'm big a f ah fair fair absolutely
and know that this doesn't make sense. There there is

(06:09):
something going back to that episode that that you did.
It was the interview where it was about things found
in the walls, whether it be you know, shoes, etcetera, etcetera.
And man, there is something spooky about a shoe by itself.
I have no idea why it is. I I perhaps
maybe like gives us like the vibe of like an
invisible person or something. Maybe it's got something to do

(06:33):
with like just the amount of life that goes into
an average pair of shoes that it is like even
more so than like something like a hat or a
shirt or even something like a pair of jeans. A
pair of shoes really has gone places with a person.
So it does feel almost like a fingernail or something. Yeah, yeah,
there is. Yeah, there's something. There's something strange about finding

(06:54):
the one shoe if you're out on a walk mirror
be it in on an urban or rural environ meant,
of course, there are various traditions with the throwing of
the lace together shoes over a power line or a
telephone wire, or a tree branch and so forth. This
is all from that Brian Hoggard episode recently people should

(07:15):
listen to if they haven't. My favorite part from that
interview something that's so obvious but I never thought about
until it was settled out in that episode, the idea
that shoes were not made for left or right feet.
You just made shoe and it was just you wore
two shoe and ultimately it would form to your foot.
And perhaps that's why the idea of Cinderella's you know,

(07:36):
shoe fitting her perfectly was such like an individual notion.
And it's like, oh, of course, because like you know,
I've I've I've heard that story million times in my life,
and I thought, so many people are going to fit
into that shoe if it's just a shoe. But no, no,
if if it really was like you know, her, like
old leather shoe that had magically turned into this glass slipper,
then no, it would be like exactly her foot. It

(07:59):
would be like a love not to you know, confuse
my articles of clothing here. Yeah, I know, this is
a great point. Yeah, because the leather shoe, obviously is
this thing that's already kind of flesh, and then it
slowly becomes more in tune with your body. But yeah,
I didn't evenin about the Cinderella comparison here, but that's
I think that's that's right on there. It makes that
story feel a bit more concrete that than it used

(08:22):
to in my head by by adding that extra little
wrinkle of like, no, no, no, shoes weren't like shoes now.
Shoes were these very specific things that fit only your feet. Yeah,
And I think that's that's probably a layer to it
that definitely would have spoken to people in olden times
when they heard the story, read the story, or had
the story told to them. I also bet, because you know,

(08:44):
I mean we here, we are in the modern age,
a couple of pairs of shoes that I by regularly,
A standard pair of Converse high tops and a standard
pair of Doc Martin boots, just two pairs of shoes
that I always have on hand. You know, you got
to wear them in for a couple of days. And
those are modern, made for left, made for right shoes.
I can't imagine how long it took to wear in

(09:05):
a pair of shoes that were two nondescripts, just pieces
of of of of of formerly cow flesh, you know,
like I can't even imagine. Yeah, uh, that episode definitely
had me thinking more and more about shoe placement in
the house. My household is a is a shoes off
once you enter the house household, so we have all

(09:26):
the shoes lined up in trays right when you enter
the house. And so after that interview, I kept thinking
about it when I look over and see all those
shoes and think of them collecting demons. And weirdly enough,
it was either right about the same time we recorded
this or a little afterwards, our cat started sleeping on
the shoes. So now sleeping on the shoes is one

(09:49):
of her favorite spots that she'll you know, get around
too during the course of her travels through the house
in the day, and she'll sleep for hours on the shoes. Well, well,
the next time you took up your shoes in your house,
do like this meme says, and leave your shoes far apart,
so if a burglar comes in, they think your big
a f Yeah, here you go. All right, now we're

(10:14):
going to get into some of the weird house listener mail,
and this is delightful because at least a couple of
them have to do with our discussion of the Alice.
This first one comes to us from Joe. Joe rides
then and says the following, Dear Robert and Seth. First
of all, hearty congratulations to Joe, are Joe on the
new baby. Best wishes to the family. This is a

(10:36):
little off tangent, but after seeing the weird puppets in Alice,
I feel the need to tell you about some other
weird and maybe awesome puppets, particularly the puppets in Pee Lee,
a puppet series that started in and hasn't ended yet. Yes,
you heard that right. The show is still ongoing. There

(10:58):
are some two thousand, six undred episodes and counting. I
don't know if this number includes the multiple spinoffs that
are supposedly set in the same universe that follow different characters,
but I'm a little afraid to find out. That's even
longer than The Simpsons because the Simpsons, so that this
this pre dates the Simpsons and it is still going
very impressive. Yeah, I mean, it's got to be up

(11:20):
there for like, the longest puppet show on the air
in general has to be Yea. They continue. The show
is produced by pe Lee International Multimedia, Taiwan and in
my opinion, has some really beautiful puppets. Unfortunately, the main
series is in Taiwanese hot Keen and the subs are
in Traditional Chinese, so they're pretty inaccessible to anyone who

(11:43):
can't read Traditional Chinese. However, the collaboration with Good Smile
Thunderbolt Fantasy has English subs on YouTube. The show is
a Chinese C and C series which revolves around cultivation Taoism,
flying around, super secret manuals and techniques, flashy attacks, big swords,

(12:06):
and lots of instances of honor being impugned been avenged.
They also have a YouTube channel and has a ton
of edits and compilations. They've come a long way since
the ninety nineties and I hope you get a kick
out of seeing the difference in cinematics. Thanks for reading.
These are beautiful. I'm looking at these right now, and
not only are the like primary figures like like there

(12:29):
seemed to be some humanoid esque figures, but man that
I'm seeing some creatures here. Um, Like wow, there's like
this some giant bear like creature with antlers that is
so beautiful looking. Yeah. Yeah, I'm glancing at some of
this footage as well. On an epic sword fight here
battle on the shores of the Sticks. This is amazing looking. Yeah.

(12:53):
The one I'm talking about is Demigod the legend begins
and it looks gorgeous. Yeah. Anyway, thanks for some of
the into us. Yes, absolutely, all right. Next up we
have a message from Tantry. They write the following, Hey, guys,

(13:15):
love the show as always. I wanted to let you
know about the tarts in Sphank mars Alice. Those are
poppy seed colatches. Is that you think that's the correct
pronunciation colches? Yeah? Or co colaches? Yeah, spelled k O
l A c h e s. Just in case you
at home were wondering and want to look these up,
I'll say colaches for now, just going phonetically. Uh. Colaches

(13:38):
are the most quintessential of all check pastries, and poppy
seed is the most check filling. Poppy seed. We did
not say poppy seed, but now now that now that
we're saying it out loud, I can definitely see poppy seed.
So that's that's interesting. Thank thank you for for clearing
up this mystery for us. So continue with the message.

(14:00):
Sometimes they are topped with strussel, or sometimes like an
alice with almonds, So there we go, there we go. Yeah,
we had a big discussion about what these were, if
they were teeth, whether or not they were just mud
filled with baby teeth, but no poppy seed with almonds.
Back to the message. Uh, it's funny that without context

(14:21):
they do come off looking rather unappetizing in the film,
particularly in a film where everything edible is made to
look upsetting, especially since in context they're the only thing
in the film that seems like it's supposed to be delicious.
Then they sent us an example image, and you're absolutely correct,
this looks wonderful. I would absolutely take a bite of this.

(14:43):
Um yeah, absolutely yeah. Yeah. Well, out of the context
of Johns funk Myers alice, this looks rather delicious. So um.
So yeah, I'm I'm glad to to define out exactly
what this this was supposed to be. And uh, and yes,
Country makes some some great points to about you. Could
you could basically put anything, any food item in its

(15:05):
place in alice, and you would be a little suspicious
of it. You have only because it might contain thumb
tax in the context of alice. Yeah yeah, because if
this uh and as far as I can tell, this
is one for one exactly what is in this movie.
I mean, it seems exactly correct. If that's the case.
It's the only food that is not suspicious in one

(15:28):
way or another, whether it be the bread with the nails,
and it's the marmalade with the thumb tax this one
never appeared to have anything foreign inside it at all.
It was always food throughout the film. So yeah, yeah, anyway,
no baby teeth and mud, poppy seeds and almonds. All right,

(15:50):
here's another weird house cinema message, and this one comes
to us from Kate. Kate rides in and says, Dear
Robert and Joe, thank you for all your incredible programming.
You are my favorite companions for running and you always
make the time fly by, even on days when I
don't really want to be slogging up hills. You guys
do such a wonderful job of science communication. I wanted

(16:10):
to write in to comment on your discussion with David
Streepy on The Gate, particularly your comments on the use
of problematic language in the film and how that might
impact your choice to watch it with kids. I had
the experience of showing my kids seven movie Monster Squad. Oh,
I know exactly where this is going. This I adore
this movie, and man, there's some hate speech in the

(16:32):
beginning that makes it real rough. Uh sorry, I haven't
read this in advance. I'm just reacting in real time.
Please continue, Rob, No, no, no, that's I'm I've been
in a weird spot with Monster Squad as well, because
I fondly remember it from from my childhood. Because the
monsters are incredible. Yes, it's it's a kid's, you know,
kick butt kind of a movie, so it has that

(16:54):
going for it, but I've always been hesitant to revisit it,
and certainly to view it with my child Now. I
didn't remember the problematic language, but I remembered the whole
the plot point about needing a virgin to do something
to close or open a gate. And even at the
time as a child, I remember finding this weird and
had at least had plot holes in it because I'm like, wait,

(17:17):
they keep saying that, like, Okay, the old man's not
a virgin, he can't open it. It has to be
the girl. But then it's like, does that mean that
all the male children are are no longer virgins in
this movie, like there's there. I had questions and had
issues with it, and like I don't I don't want
to have to explain all this too much of my son.
And even more so, I would say even more problematic
than that, because even hocus Pocus goes down that route

(17:40):
of you know, virgins being necessary for things to work
with magic spells um. I. My other least favorite part
about this from just you know, a modern sensibility and
I'm an adult so I can look at this with
adult eyes, is there's a lot of peeping on a
woman while she is not consenting to be peeped upon,
with photos being taken ever, and stuff not cool, you know, like,

(18:03):
oh wow, I don't remember that at all from this film.
It was a different time. I get it, but now
it was wrong then and it's wrong now. But anyway,
back back to this message, I I can't wait to
hear more about the Monster Squad. Okay, Kate continues. What
I had completely forgotten was the liberal use of hateful
language early in the film, particularly the use of homophobic
slurs by the bully characters. It was a huge shock

(18:24):
while watching, and my kids picked up on my discomfort immediately.
I would have preferred they not hear that kind of
hateful language. However, we ended up having a very long
conversation about words and how some words take on a
broader and more harmful meaning than mere insults. We also
talked about how the world I grew up in was
more open in using those words, but they are still

(18:45):
wielded as weapons now, and that it does real damage
to people overall. And it ended up being an opportunity
to talk with them about these issues and the movie
provided a context for them to understand. My oldest even
referenced our Monster Squad discussion when he found my copy
of Huckleberry Finn and I told him why I had
very mixed feelings about him reading it. I wanted to

(19:05):
share my experience for any other parents who might show
their kids a movie from their eighties childhood and they
that they did not expect to contain casual hate and
words they don't want their children to hear. I would
not have done it on purpose, but it can be
a chance for a real talk about the power and
gravity of hateful words. Thanks so much for all you

(19:27):
guys do. Cheers, Kate. I think that's a wonderful, wonderful sentiment.
And um, I'm really grateful that you did that with
your kids. I think communication with children is h an
overlooked art form, so I really appreciate that you did that.
And also I do think it also opens up the
world to a broader place that once a child does
understand the difference between something that happened in the past

(19:49):
and something that happened today, not only can can they
now hopefully enjoy a broader range of entertainments like, for example,
watching like old Looney Tunes, shorts and stuff like that.
But but in addition to that, I think it's really
really helpful for thinking about the things we do today,
thinking about it from a future perspective and going, hey,
in the future, what am I doing right now that

(20:11):
I will probably regret? What words should I stop using? What?
What what attitudes should I please drop? You know? So,
so I think that is very valuable, Kate, So, so
way to go with that. And also I know how
important it is to find really good um podcast listening
for jogging, so I'm glad we can provide that for you.
It's a it's it's it's a balancing act. It's gotta

(20:31):
be interesting, but it can't be too interesting, you know,
it's got to be like just right, you know. So, yeah,
I'm with you. Yeah, yeah, these are all great points. Um.
I know. Also racial stereotypes or something that also comes
up in a lot of films from yesteryear and they
those two will jump out when you least expect them.
And um and yeah, I have found that to be
an opportunity for my wife and I discuss those things

(20:54):
with with our son. Oh and by the way, Kate
also uh suggested that Joan return to the topic of
the electric microbe land episode. Apparently there have been some
some more recent studies that have come out, uh that
that suggests that there there might be more that we
need to discuss in the future. So I appreciate that. Obviously,

(21:15):
anytime you're out there and you you hear of new studies,
new findings, new angles on things that we've discussed in
the past on the show that could be explored in
the future. Yeah, shoot him our way. We we would
We would love to hear from you. Absolutely. We've got
one more message. This is from Adam says, hey, y'all,

(21:39):
quick suggestion on some films that I've seen on the
mission channel on my videos TVs watch free app. I
don't think I know what that is? Do you do?
You know what a mission channel is? This my my
so my understanding, mostly from being in like Airbnb houses,
is that some of these modern TVs have like their
own little you know, they had a little apps for

(22:00):
the different viewing uh services, and some of them have.
It seems like there are a number of different services
that maybe have more or less the same assortment of
films that they offer up for I think usually quote
unquote free, so it's usually advertising supported. I get that. Yeah, yeah,
my my TV has something like that, just like that,
like a random movie channel that forces itself on me

(22:22):
as often as it can. It's almost always showing Father Goose. Okay, okay,
I got that. So so um from Adam, these are
the suggestions that Adam is is making black Star uh
Saturn three, and if I remember correctly, Adam also wrote
in it suggested Ice Pirates a while ago and uh.
Adam ends with I'll probably return with more. So yeah, yeah,

(22:44):
I don't know what black Star film they're referring to here. Um,
I know there's like black Star in the Golden Bat
from nine. Uh, there's some other films that have the
the title black Star, but I'm not sure what this
is a reference to. One thing I love and thank
you Adam for writing in with these suggestions. I mean,
one thing I love about weird house cinema is how

(23:08):
easy it is to find movies to do in weird
house Cinema. Like it's just it's just a never ending list, Like, um,
should we kind of spill the beans a bit about
the next episode that we're doing, would you hear that? Yeah?
Absolutely gives people a chance to watch ahead time at
the one. Yeah. So so, so this is for this
upcoming Friday, I will be the co host again. And

(23:29):
Rob was saying to me, Hey, I'm kind in the
mood for like a seventies eighties fantasy science fiction, e
kind of animated film. Since since Rob knows my background
and love for animation, then you know, I'm like, oh,
I'll happily oblige with that. So I sent four examples
in and uh, one of them is is this wonderful,

(23:49):
wonderful film from Eastern Europe called The Treasure Planets, not
the Disney one. This one's from two It's called the
Treasure Planets so good. You can find the whole thing
on YouTube very easily. Um, if y'all didn't know Brian
Cranston before he was famous, used to use a fake
name and just make money by doing um anime voiceovers
and and just various dubbing. He is the star of

(24:12):
this film, a very young Brian Cranston's that's a lot
of fun but also just some of the greatest animation.
I also brought up UM the v one filmed The Point,
which is great. It stars Bobby Brady from The Brady
Bunch and Ringo Star and it's made by um Fred Wolfe,
the guy that made that UM one to who three

(24:36):
roll Pop commercial in addition to being instrumental in the
creation of the studio that brought us The Ninja Turtle's
animated series. And then another option that I really hope
you do someday. It's high fantasy Santa Claus mythology from L.
Frank Baum called The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus.

(24:57):
It's a stop motion extravaganza. Uh, it is so strange.
It's all about basically a demigod finding this abandoned baby,
and so all the gods need to come together and
have a meeting about whether or not they can turn
Santa Claus immortal, whether or not that's allowed based on
the tasks that this human Santa Claus has done in
its life. And it's it's a trip, it's ranking bass,

(25:19):
it's stop motion, it's beautiful. But then the one we
settled on because coincidentally, other than my suggesting it, you
told me you had just looked up the trailer recently.
It's it's another ranking bass to the animated The Flight
of Dragons that will be this Friday's movie. Yes, I
am excited to talk about this one. I watched it
the other evening with my son, and yeah, we both

(25:42):
really enjoyed it. I thought it thought it held up
really well. It's message is ultimately just as important today
as it as it was back then. So it'll be
a fun one to discuss. And it is. It's it's
it's easy to find. You can. I think we ended
up doing a digital rental on it. So if you
want to be the right there at the cutting edge

(26:02):
as we published this episode, then you can you can
watch ahead of time. Man, you should be able to
find it anywhere you get your digital movies and if
you're a physical media person, I know I bought my
DVD off of the Warner Archives collection. Have you ever
bought anything for the Warner Archives before, Rob, I don't think.
I think I may have rented something that was part
of that that collections. It's so cool what the Warner

(26:25):
Brothers does this thing where basically, um, they haven't obviously,
Warner Brothers has an enormous back catalog, not only with
the movies that they own, but a bunch of movies
that you know, they've bought a company and now they
own that whole catalog as well. Like think about like
you know, the whole hand of bar Bearer back catalog
stuff like that. So what they'll do is for all
of the properties that are kind of popular but not

(26:47):
popular enough for them to print five thousand copies of
what they'll do is they'll just have it on demand.
You can order one copy, they'll burn it for you,
put it in like a printer, you know, a piece
of paper in like a plastic box in to ship
it to you. It's it's like the cheapest, flimsiest physical
media you can buy, but you can buy it, and
that's the important part. And that's how I got the

(27:09):
Flight of Dragons. Oh wow. Yeah, as far as I know,
that's not one that has had a like robust physical release,
but but but it deserves one. Yeah, it's it's it's
a great one and I recommend people watch it and
we'll be talking more about it this Friday. Absolutely. All right, Well,
we're gonna go ahead and close it out there, but
keep the listener mail coming. If you have any any

(27:31):
thoughts about the episodes that have published recently, thoughts about
episodes that should publish in the future. Everything's fair game. Uh,
let's see what's going on. What have you got going
on with Rusty Needles Record Club. Let's see here. Um,
we just wrapped up a month of requests and I
believe by the time this episode comes out, we may

(27:55):
be just starting our full December of holiday albums. So yeah,
I guess I'll say it. In case of no one,
no one's heard, I host a podcast called Rusty Needles
Record Club. Find it wherever you find podcasts. You know
it's um, it's a book club, but for music instead,
that's what we say. And if you're just looking for
some good music conversation or some good music recommendations hop

(28:16):
on by we'd love to have you all right, and
remindered everyone that listener mail publishes in the Stuff to
Blow Your Mind podcast feed every Monday, Core episodes on
Tuesdays and Thursday, Short Form Artifact or Monster Fact on Wednesdays,
and on Friday's Weird House Cinema. Thanks again to Seth
for producing the show and of course co hosting this episode.
Uh and if you want to get in touch with us, well,

(28:37):
just email us at contact at stuff to blow your
Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my
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