March 25, 2024 • 26 mins
Once more, it's time for a weekly dose of Stuff to Blow Your Mind and Weirdhouse Cinema listener mail...
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. Listener mail.
My name is Robert.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Lamb and I am Joe McCormick, and it's Monday, the
day of each week that we read back messages from
the Stuff to Blow Your Mind email address. If you
have never gotten in touch before and you'd like to
give it a shot, do give it a shot. This
is the time you can reach out to us at
contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. We
accept mail on all kinds of subjects, whatever you want
(00:36):
to send us, but we are especially pleased when we
get feedback to recent episodes. And if you have something
interesting you'd like to add to a topic we've talked about.
Get in touch. It is contact at stuff to Blow
your Mind dot com. Let's see Rob, I think I'm
going to kick things off here with this message from
Chris in response to our series on cave biology.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
All right, let's have it.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Chris says, Hi, Robert, Joe and JJ really enjoyed the
first episode of the Hypogean World and the discussion about
the potential for the adaptations that selected for sightlessness and
the fact that the one fish you had described does
technically still have eyes during development, but then they lose them.
(01:23):
Did not realize this? Well, The first thing I see
when I open my browser this morning is a suggested
story on none other than blind cave salamanders coming to
the surface. So the article that Chris links here is
from Gizmoto from March thirteenth, twenty twenty four by Isaac Schultz,
and it is called Scientists caught blind cave Salamanders sneaking
(01:45):
to Earth's surface. So here's the gist of the story.
This concerns recently published research about the om, the cave
adapted salamander from the dynaric karst of Europe, which we
talked about in one of the later parts of the
Cave series. So it's possible that when Chris sent this email,
we hadn't actually published our stuff about olms yet. So
(02:06):
nice coincidence. The olms are very cool animals because they
sort of live life in slow motion. They're thought to
sometimes live for a century or more. They can apparently
go years at a time without eating. Their cycle of
mating and reproduction is very slow. I seem to recall
it maybe like a decade or more in between their
(02:27):
breeding cycles. And we also discussed a study that found
that they can go for years at a time barely moving,
maybe moving no more than a few meters from their
starting location. And we also talked about how these animals
were first observed in village springs hundreds of years ago,
leading to these Carniolean peasants believing that they were baby
(02:51):
dragons that had been spit up by a big adult
dragon underground. And then of course came the developing biological
understanding that these were subterrean cave adapted amphibians. And the
idea was that, well, when there are heavy rains and
there's suddenly a lot of water flowing through these underground waterways,
these animals get washed up to the surface in these springs,
(03:14):
they are washed out of their underground homes. But the
researchers who conducted this new study were handling olms found
in springs in surface springs in eastern Italy, and they
found that in some cases when these olms were handled,
they would like vomit up earthworms that they had previously eaten.
And these earthworms are not prey that you would find
(03:36):
in the subterranean waterways where the olms are thought to
spend most of their lives. You would find them in
the soil on the surface, like up in the Epigean
world up above. And they said that many of these
surface olmes were in fact plump with earthworms they had
been eating very well on the surface. Here the researchers
also found evidence of olme activity in the surface springs
(04:00):
at a time when there was no preceding weather or
water activity that would have been likely to flush them
up to the surface against their will. So instead, the
researchers say, you know, these olmes are probably adapted to
live the vast majority of their lives in these subterranean
caverns and the underground waterways, but it seems they sometimes
(04:20):
probably make deliberate journeys to the surface, come up to
these surface springs to eat and maybe sometimes to breed.
So there are like so you can be mostly adapted
to a totally underground, lightless way of living, but for
certain types of activities come all the way up to
the surface where you know, it was previously thought that
(04:42):
the vulnerabilities of the cave adapted animal on the surface
would make that kind of journey very unlikely. Because you know,
suddenly you're up here and you're vulnerable to predators. You
don't normally have to worry about predators and your underground habitat.
You might be just generally not well adapted to a
place where there's a bunch of light. But it seems
like maybe the rewards in some cases make it worth
(05:03):
it for the olm to to come up and eat
a bunch of earthworms or whatever.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, maybe heed that call to adventure perhaps, But that's
fascinating because it does turn some of what we thought
we knew about the olm on its head, you know,
considered concerning their their obligate subterranean life, their their tendency
to stay in just one very small area for the
duration of their very long life. So, yeah, fascinating information.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I'm trying to think of the equivalent. It would be
like if us surface adapted organisms. You know, we live
almost our entire lives on the surface, but we know
that maybe five hundred meters down in the in the
total darkness of a deep cave, there's like a really
good buffet. So if we get really hungry, we go
down there sometimes.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, yeah, or you know, it's not completely out of
keeping with what we know about, you know, some ancient
peoples that would have maybe gone to do certain caves
for sacred purposes, you know, be it some sort of
like funeral ride or so forth. So yeah, fascinating to
think about.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Anyway, if you want to check out the underlying paper
that this Gismoto article was about, it was published in
the journal Ecology twenty twenty four by Minetti at All
and it is called Wandering Outside of the Sticks, a
surface activity of an iconic subterranean vertebrate, the OLM. All right,
ohen to come back to Chris's message, that was the
first half. Chris says, thanks again for all the fascinating
(06:30):
content on the subject of caves. I took a family
trip last fall to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.
What a great experience. We were lucky enough to be
able to take the Dome and drip Stones tour, and
during one part of that tour, they killed the lights
and had us in utter darkness, only to be broken
thirty seconds later by a single small lighter. It was
(06:53):
quite dramatic and a really fun experience. Highly recommend regards
Chris Awesome.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, yeah, I think we alluded to this sort of
experience in the cave where you can you can experience this,
you know, deep true darkness like this.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Yeah, the one time I've done this, it was it
was in caves in Oregon. It was an incredibly memorable experience.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
All right. This next one comes to us from pav
Have rites in and says Hello, Joe and Rob wanted
to drop you a quick note to say how much
I enjoyed the recent four episodes about the caves. The
exploration and mysterious atmosphere really captivated me. I'm hoping that
the next Weird House Cinema movie will continue this trend
(07:36):
with a cave themed horror flick. There are so many
possibilities to explore in that genre. Looking forward to what's next.
Thanks pav Rob.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Do you have cave movies in mind?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I mean we have a few on the list for
the potential future that involved caves. I think the one
that we did right after the Cave Special had no caves,
and the next one coming up also has no true caves.
But I mean, on one hand, I was looking into it.
You know a number of films that we've covered already
(08:07):
feature Bronson Canyon in the Bronzon Caves in Griffith Park,
Los Angeles. These were featured in such films that we've
watched as Let's see the Return from nineteen eighty Let's see.
Also there was let's see, we haven't done it conquered
the world yet, but that's that's certainly one that's potentially
(08:28):
on the list.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Choke.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah, yeah, The Magic Sword apparently shot some scenes there
as well. I don't know if they did the full
cave or just sort of that neat canyon environment that
often feels like another world. And oh, robot monster of course.
So it's it's been a favorite spot to either create
another planet or to just have a haunting cave in
(08:51):
which may lurk a monster or a robot, or some
sort of combination of robot and monster.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
It's a great place to learn, too late that man
is a feeling creature.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, but yeah, we have a number of films. I mean,
caves pop up in all sorts of fiction and all
sorts of genre pictures, those genre pictures that we may choose.
But offhand, I know that we've talked about potentially covering
the Gargoyles movie from the nineteen seventies. Yeah, seventy two.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Oh, the made for TV one with Bernie Casey.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah, that one prominently features some caves sets. And there
are a few other in this genre as well that
are on the list. A lot of bat people movies,
troglodyte movies, and so forth. I mean, you can get
a good cave in there. There's some Paul Nashy films
that have some caves that I've batten around in my head.
So yeah, we'll definitely get back to some cave flicks
(09:45):
on Weird House Cinema.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
I can't wait. Okay. Another short message, This one comes
from Emma in response to previous listener mail that brought
up the Encyclopedia Brown book series. I think somebody mentioned
it because they found out what Ambergris was from reading
Encyclopedia Brown books as a kid. Emma says, live from Victoria,
(10:10):
British Columbia, Canada, Grade three classroom. My son doesn't read them,
but I instantly thought of you all. And then they
attach a picture of a like a collection of classroom
reading material. The very first book in the stack is
Encyclopedia Brown's Book of Strange but True Crimes.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah, there it is in the bin I wonder what
those strange crimes were. I assume mostly serial murders.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yeah, what is what is true crime that's appropriate for children?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I know you're kind of limited to diamond heist and
so forth.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Right, Yeah, true nonviolent crime.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, but I mean, now, this is this is this
is fine. I have no again, I have no experience
with Encyclopedia Brown myself except it just vaguely remember the title.
But that's about it. So I think it's great that
people can still connect with this stuff.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Okay, here, I think we're gonna have to switch over
and do some weird house cinema messages because we've got
a lot of them in the bin. Many people have
been writing in, especially about Dune, but about other episodes
as well. Maybe we should do all of the Dune
messages in a block. And before that, maybe I will
read this response from Bruce on the episode that I
(11:28):
did with Seth Nicholas Johnson while you were out about
the Monkey's movie head.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Oh yeah, I listened to this episode. I wasn't able
to get a hold of the movie at the time
because I believe I was traveling, but yeah, I did
listen to the episode.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Oh you should watch it sometime, Rob, I think you'd
appreciate it. Bruce says, stuff to blow your mind, folks.
I wanted to thank you so much for the latest
episode of Weird House on Head. I am also a
huge Monkeys fan, and this movie has always been a
favorite of mine. To demonstrate how much they were in
the middle of the whole sixties experience. For example, something
(12:05):
that isn't connected with the movie, but shows how much
influence the group had on the culture. The character of
Chekhov on the original Star Trek. I guess the original
TV series was added in season two as a direct
result of Davy Jones' popularity.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
I had no idea we got to get a Russian
monkey in there, Okay.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
So Bruce says, the thinking was, quote, we need our
own younger international character. Oh that's right, because the other
three monkeys were American. They're from the United States. But
Davy Jones was British and was the cute one and
had shaggy hair. But Bruce says, yeah, they were thinking,
we've got to get our own international character to capture
(12:50):
our fair share of the teeny bopper audience. And Bruce
says that's why Chekhov's hair was shaggier than anyone else's.
Bruce goes on to say, the real reason writing is
to pass along some quotes from the twenty seventeen autobiography
of Michael Nesmith called Infinite Tuesday, where he shares first
hand riffs on head. I was somewhat surprised that the
(13:12):
book didn't make it into your narrative, as it has
some pretty interesting views. According to Mike. Quote and there
are a few substitutions in here for clarity. With the
Monkey movie, Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson had decided to
kill the monster they thought they had created, and they
asked Jack Nicholson to help. They also asked the four
(13:33):
principal cast players Davy, Mickey, Peter, and Me to participate.
At first, I thought the suggestion was simply for the
four monkeys to join in on a trip to Ohi
and smoke dope, hang out with Bert and Bob and
Jack and race golf carts around the hotel. But no,
they were serious about the four of us actually contributing
to the screenplay. But then Bruce says He goes on
(13:55):
to say that it didn't work out because quote, we
were not drawn together. And then Bruce says, there is
a great quote about what Bert Schneider thought about the
screenplay quote. He Bert described it to me, Mike as
a wild gamble. He said he thought it would either
be recognized and revered or reviled and unsung. There would
(14:16):
be no in between and no ambivalence. Millions would attend
or no one would attend. He was right.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Then.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Bruce shares that Mike Nesmith's take on Head is this
quote drug addled, bizarre, obtuse and ignored as it was,
the movie still became an actual driving force. Instead of
destroying all things monkeys, it emblazoned them on pop culture permanently.
Also an interesting take on the title. One of the
(14:44):
parody elements of the film, according to Mike, was that
Bob Rafelson wanted to include quote all his favorite genres
from Westerns to David Lean type epics two quote the
darkest thing on the planet. When Jack asked what that
would be, Bob said, Victor Mature's hair. Victor Mature is
the old Hollywood actor, like a you know, the sort
(15:07):
of dashing leading man with always very very well quaffed hair.
And yes, parts of the movie do take place within
his hair. And so Bruce explains how, yes, they seized
on that moment and they said, yes, that's it, that
the movie must take place in Victor Mature's hair. Bruce says,
as drug riffs go, it is one of the greats,
(15:28):
and it would serve the serve as the magic carpet
for the film. The serene fantasy behind the panicked psychedelia
Victor Mature's hair would be heads quote Dia Jesus, and
he says. Mike follows that with a cool story about
how he unwittingly provided the solution to getting Victor Mature
(15:48):
to participate in true Mike Nesmith's storytelling brilliance. The incident
is hilarious. I would share it here, but it goes
on for a number of pages and I couldn't do
Mike justice by condensing it. Find a copy of the
book can read it for yourself. Infinite Tuesday is about
so much more than the monkeys, though. Mike was such
an unrecognized talent, and he doesn't shrink away from as
many faults as he tells the story. But that's a
(16:10):
subject for another time. Thanks for shedding a spotlight on
the seminal film and reminding me why I'm such a
fan of these four guys. They truly do transcend pop
culture of the sixties and music. Bruce Well, thank you,
Bruce Well.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Actually, after Seth's recommendation to me in this episode, I
did spend the following weekend. I was actually on a
road trip and I listened to a bunch of Mike
Nesmith's solo albums. At the first one, I think it's
called Magnetic South maybe, but then also Nevada Fighter. There's
(16:45):
one called pretty much your Standard ranch Stash, and I
really enjoyed these. They're great sort of country rock, much
like Graham Parsons or the Flying Burrito Brothers, similar kind
of stuff, and it was really good.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Very cool. Go ahead, let's go ahead and dive into
some Dune feedback here.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Oh boy.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
The first one comes to us from Lorenzo. Lorenzo says, Hi, Robin, Joe,
I'm very pleased you're covering Dune two episodes. No less,
I wanted to write to you regarding the sound design
of the films of David Lynch, which I've been watching
since I was a kid. Joe, you were looking to
(17:25):
link Dune to subsequent Lynch films. Those soundscapes that persist
in hum that made the air heavy. I would have
propose that you could hear those films without seeing them. Thanks, Lorenzo.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Oh, Lorenzo, So you're saying that you could almost like
you could watch the movie without looking at the screen,
just like by the sounds creating the atmosphere and all that.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah, I believe that's what he's saying here. And yeah,
that seems like a strong case to be made there.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
I agree. Yeah, I love those David Lynch sounds. Wait,
but you've been watching the sound the movies of David
Lynch since you were a kid.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Well, I mean you'd start with Dune as a kid, right, Okay, yeah,
and then branch out of the other things. I think
that would that would be the best way to go.
Like if I were to start my son on David
Lynch and I was like really obsessed with getting him
literate in David Lynch, Like that's that's where we would
start at his age. Yeah, and even then I would
be like, this is gonna be a lot.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
I'm just imagining like eight year old's watching Eraserhead.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah no, not not appropriate? Not appropriate?
Speaker 3 (18:26):
All right, Next one, I'm gonna do is this message
from Steph. Steph says, Hi, Joe and Rob. I was
playing Listener Mail today and it unlocked a core memory
for me. My dad would rent a VCR when HBO
had their free preview weekends to record whatever movies he
(18:48):
could for free. One of our VHS tapes had the
combo of National Lampoon's Vacation, which segued into the first
part of Dune. In order to finish Dune, you had
to put in another VHS tape, which then segued from
the second part of Dune to Muppets Take Manhattan. Amazing.
(19:11):
I don't think you could plan a more jarring transition
from one style of movie to another. We had about
a dozen tapes like that that would abruptly change from
one genre to another with almost no warning. It was
a wild time in home entertainment, but I remember but
one I remember with such fondness. We eventually bought our
very own VCRs, so then we always had something cool
(19:31):
to watch if we were homesick from school. Because a
kid could only take so much. Price is right when
you weren't feeling well. Always enjoy your shows, but especially
love weird house cinema. You have introduced me to so
many great weird movies and reminded me of others that
I had forgotten. When I saw that you were doing
a two parter on the nineteen eighty four version of Dune,
(19:52):
I let out an audible yes while making dinner that
caused my husband to wonder what was going on. Thanks
for all you do, staff.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
That's great. I'm glad I'm not the only one who
had those tapes with like the three movies taped off
of HBO on them. I was I was thinking a
little bit more on this, and I could be wrong
about like what each individual tape, you know, contained, but
I vaguely remember there being a tape that maybe had Poltergeist,
which I was terrified to watch, terrifying film, and I
(20:22):
think it's still the effects hold up, Yeah, not get
appropriate in my opinion. And then it had Raiders of
the Lost Arc, which was one of my favorites. And
then I think it also had the nineteen eighty four
Robin Williams drama Moscow on the Hudson, which was not
appropriate for children or even like interesting to children, but
(20:45):
it was there.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
I had tapes like this as well, not from HBO.
I don't recall us ever getting free free trials of
HBO or anything. I guess I don't know. That must
have been the thing somewhere else or something, but we
didn't have that. We had stuff that was taped off
of TV, sometimes with like jarring transitions where I got
really good at doing this thing when I was a kid,
(21:06):
where I would try to hit stop recording during the
commercial breaks on the TV things and then started back up.
But sometimes you'd miss your queue and then so like
part of the movie would be gone, and then sometimes
you'd accidentally tape over something. So yeah, my tapes were
a mess, but I cherished them. Nonetheless.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
It's crazy looking back on how we use VHS technology
at times to try and capture some sort of pristine
cut of a film off of a television broadcast, like
it was never going to be, like the video quality
wasn't going to be good. You probably weren't going to
have like the actual theatrical cut to any extent, and
(21:45):
it's not like your removal of the advertisements was going
to be seamless. And then fast forward till today, those
sorts of tapes they're mostly only interesting if you have
the commercial still on there if you still have studio
not studio, but you know, TV station material on there,
(22:07):
things other than the movie, which is gonna be in
dreadful quality to begin with.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Yeah, and also the way they used to edit things
for TV, not just for content, but just for run time,
so there'd just be stuff cut out randomly to you know,
to get it down to fit. Nothing's in the original
aspect ratio.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
It's hilarious, Yeah, except in rare exceptions where you have
films that have never come out in better quality, and
there are there are still those out there for sure.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Let's see Rob. Do you mind if I do this
last message from Constantinos here? Oh?
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Yes do?
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Constantinos says so apropos of nothing in particular. Here is
a twenty ten fat Boy Slim video of Christopher Walkin
dancing to the song Weapon of Choice. Note the lyrics
at about two minutes into the song. The lyrics are
walking without rhythm, it won't attract the worm. Uh, And
it just keeps repeating that until finally it says, if
(23:06):
you walk without rhythm, you never learn.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Just a little note. I don't think I realized this
until I looked the song up. But the vocals on
this song are by Bootsy Collins.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Mm hmm, yeah, I think they're altered a little bit,
but yeah, that's that's Bootsy in there.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
But this is a This is a classic fat Boy
Slim video directed by Spike Jones, I believe with yeah,
with Christopher Walkin dancing, and Christopher Walkin of course was
a dancer, so you know he can he can handle it.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah. Yeah, you also see him dancing and What Pennies
from Heaven? I believe he dances in that film as well.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
I've seen it.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Oh it's pretty good as racllp in a while, but yeah,
he definitely cuts a rug in this in this Fat
Boy Slim video. I I I do vividly remember it
when it first debuted on MTV, and uh it's it's
a great track as well. I mean, fat Boy Slim
had some real some some really good hits. Album Better
(24:00):
Living Through Chemistry from nineteen ninety six was pretty phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Anyway, coming back to Constantinos's message, I'm pretty sure that
this is video evidence that Christopher Walkin manifested the newest
Dune movie just by sheer force of will or can
you just believe it is a happy coincidence that this
man happened to be cast in Dune a decade after
this wonderful jazz somba fusion dance ode to Shi hulud.
(24:27):
Because there is no Illuminati and birds are real, just
trying to keep doing weird Thank you for a fun
edition of Weird House Cinema. Now do the series, and
then Constantinos includes a link and says regards, well, thank
you very much for the message, and thank you for
giving me an excuse to watch this video again. I
(24:49):
really enjoyed it, and I truly I don't think I
had ever noticed the quote from Dune in it before.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Oh yeah, yeah, walk without rhythm so you don't attract
the word yeah. Apparently someone asked him about this in
a recent interview, and he said that he never realized
there was a Dune connection in it until he was
cast in the recent Dune Part two film, and then
someone pointed it out to him.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Must be magic.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yeah, but absolutely great track, still holds up, great music video.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Okay, should we wrap it up there?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Yeah, let's go ahead and wrap it up. But we'd
love to hear from everyone out there if you have
more thoughts about Dune, If you have thoughts about any past, current,
and potential future episodes of Weird House Cinema Stuff to
Blow Your Mind Core episodes, of course, also any of
our Wednesday episodes and Amelia stipendium, The Monster Fact the Artifact.
(25:43):
Just hit us up. We'd love to hear from you.
Just a reminder that if you haven't rated and reviewed
the show wherever you get the show or go and
do that. That helps us out in the long run.
And you can find us on most social media places
where whatever you're using, look us up. We're probably there.
Also find our discord server. If you need a link
(26:05):
for that, just email us and we'll send it to you.
If you use the Facebook, there's a Facebook group called
the Stuff to Blow Your Mind discussion module. You can
join there as well. In both places you can interact
with other listeners to the show.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway.
If you would like to get in touch with us
with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest
topic for the future, or just to say hello, you
can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your
Mind dot com.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts, from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. Listener mail.
My name is Robert.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Lamb and I am Joe McCormick, and it's Monday, the
day of each week that we read back messages from
the Stuff to Blow Your Mind email address. If you
have never gotten in touch before and you'd like to
give it a shot, do give it a shot. This
is the time you can reach out to us at
contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. We
accept mail on all kinds of subjects, whatever you want
(00:36):
to send us, but we are especially pleased when we
get feedback to recent episodes. And if you have something
interesting you'd like to add to a topic we've talked about.
Get in touch. It is contact at stuff to Blow
your Mind dot com. Let's see Rob, I think I'm
going to kick things off here with this message from
Chris in response to our series on cave biology.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
All right, let's have it.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Chris says, Hi, Robert, Joe and JJ really enjoyed the
first episode of the Hypogean World and the discussion about
the potential for the adaptations that selected for sightlessness and
the fact that the one fish you had described does
technically still have eyes during development, but then they lose them.
(01:23):
Did not realize this? Well, The first thing I see
when I open my browser this morning is a suggested
story on none other than blind cave salamanders coming to
the surface. So the article that Chris links here is
from Gizmoto from March thirteenth, twenty twenty four by Isaac Schultz,
and it is called Scientists caught blind cave Salamanders sneaking
(01:45):
to Earth's surface. So here's the gist of the story.
This concerns recently published research about the om, the cave
adapted salamander from the dynaric karst of Europe, which we
talked about in one of the later parts of the
Cave series. So it's possible that when Chris sent this email,
we hadn't actually published our stuff about olms yet. So
(02:06):
nice coincidence. The olms are very cool animals because they
sort of live life in slow motion. They're thought to
sometimes live for a century or more. They can apparently
go years at a time without eating. Their cycle of
mating and reproduction is very slow. I seem to recall
it maybe like a decade or more in between their
(02:27):
breeding cycles. And we also discussed a study that found
that they can go for years at a time barely moving,
maybe moving no more than a few meters from their
starting location. And we also talked about how these animals
were first observed in village springs hundreds of years ago,
leading to these Carniolean peasants believing that they were baby
(02:51):
dragons that had been spit up by a big adult
dragon underground. And then of course came the developing biological
understanding that these were subterrean cave adapted amphibians. And the
idea was that, well, when there are heavy rains and
there's suddenly a lot of water flowing through these underground waterways,
these animals get washed up to the surface in these springs,
(03:14):
they are washed out of their underground homes. But the
researchers who conducted this new study were handling olms found
in springs in surface springs in eastern Italy, and they
found that in some cases when these olms were handled,
they would like vomit up earthworms that they had previously eaten.
And these earthworms are not prey that you would find
(03:36):
in the subterranean waterways where the olms are thought to
spend most of their lives. You would find them in
the soil on the surface, like up in the Epigean
world up above. And they said that many of these
surface olmes were in fact plump with earthworms they had
been eating very well on the surface. Here the researchers
also found evidence of olme activity in the surface springs
(04:00):
at a time when there was no preceding weather or
water activity that would have been likely to flush them
up to the surface against their will. So instead, the
researchers say, you know, these olmes are probably adapted to
live the vast majority of their lives in these subterranean
caverns and the underground waterways, but it seems they sometimes
(04:20):
probably make deliberate journeys to the surface, come up to
these surface springs to eat and maybe sometimes to breed.
So there are like so you can be mostly adapted
to a totally underground, lightless way of living, but for
certain types of activities come all the way up to
the surface where you know, it was previously thought that
(04:42):
the vulnerabilities of the cave adapted animal on the surface
would make that kind of journey very unlikely. Because you know,
suddenly you're up here and you're vulnerable to predators. You
don't normally have to worry about predators and your underground habitat.
You might be just generally not well adapted to a
place where there's a bunch of light. But it seems
like maybe the rewards in some cases make it worth
(05:03):
it for the olm to to come up and eat
a bunch of earthworms or whatever.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, maybe heed that call to adventure perhaps, But that's
fascinating because it does turn some of what we thought
we knew about the olm on its head, you know,
considered concerning their their obligate subterranean life, their their tendency
to stay in just one very small area for the
duration of their very long life. So, yeah, fascinating information.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I'm trying to think of the equivalent. It would be
like if us surface adapted organisms. You know, we live
almost our entire lives on the surface, but we know
that maybe five hundred meters down in the in the
total darkness of a deep cave, there's like a really
good buffet. So if we get really hungry, we go
down there sometimes.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, yeah, or you know, it's not completely out of
keeping with what we know about, you know, some ancient
peoples that would have maybe gone to do certain caves
for sacred purposes, you know, be it some sort of
like funeral ride or so forth. So yeah, fascinating to
think about.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Anyway, if you want to check out the underlying paper
that this Gismoto article was about, it was published in
the journal Ecology twenty twenty four by Minetti at All
and it is called Wandering Outside of the Sticks, a
surface activity of an iconic subterranean vertebrate, the OLM. All right,
ohen to come back to Chris's message, that was the
first half. Chris says, thanks again for all the fascinating
(06:30):
content on the subject of caves. I took a family
trip last fall to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.
What a great experience. We were lucky enough to be
able to take the Dome and drip Stones tour, and
during one part of that tour, they killed the lights
and had us in utter darkness, only to be broken
thirty seconds later by a single small lighter. It was
(06:53):
quite dramatic and a really fun experience. Highly recommend regards
Chris Awesome.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, yeah, I think we alluded to this sort of
experience in the cave where you can you can experience this,
you know, deep true darkness like this.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Yeah, the one time I've done this, it was it
was in caves in Oregon. It was an incredibly memorable experience.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
All right. This next one comes to us from pav
Have rites in and says Hello, Joe and Rob wanted
to drop you a quick note to say how much
I enjoyed the recent four episodes about the caves. The
exploration and mysterious atmosphere really captivated me. I'm hoping that
the next Weird House Cinema movie will continue this trend
(07:36):
with a cave themed horror flick. There are so many
possibilities to explore in that genre. Looking forward to what's next.
Thanks pav Rob.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Do you have cave movies in mind?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I mean we have a few on the list for
the potential future that involved caves. I think the one
that we did right after the Cave Special had no caves,
and the next one coming up also has no true caves.
But I mean, on one hand, I was looking into it.
You know a number of films that we've covered already
(08:07):
feature Bronson Canyon in the Bronzon Caves in Griffith Park,
Los Angeles. These were featured in such films that we've
watched as Let's see the Return from nineteen eighty Let's see.
Also there was let's see, we haven't done it conquered
the world yet, but that's that's certainly one that's potentially
(08:28):
on the list.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Choke.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah, yeah, The Magic Sword apparently shot some scenes there
as well. I don't know if they did the full
cave or just sort of that neat canyon environment that
often feels like another world. And oh, robot monster of course.
So it's it's been a favorite spot to either create
another planet or to just have a haunting cave in
(08:51):
which may lurk a monster or a robot, or some
sort of combination of robot and monster.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
It's a great place to learn, too late that man
is a feeling creature.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, but yeah, we have a number of films. I mean,
caves pop up in all sorts of fiction and all
sorts of genre pictures, those genre pictures that we may choose.
But offhand, I know that we've talked about potentially covering
the Gargoyles movie from the nineteen seventies. Yeah, seventy two.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Oh, the made for TV one with Bernie Casey.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah, that one prominently features some caves sets. And there
are a few other in this genre as well that
are on the list. A lot of bat people movies,
troglodyte movies, and so forth. I mean, you can get
a good cave in there. There's some Paul Nashy films
that have some caves that I've batten around in my head.
So yeah, we'll definitely get back to some cave flicks
(09:45):
on Weird House Cinema.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
I can't wait. Okay. Another short message, This one comes
from Emma in response to previous listener mail that brought
up the Encyclopedia Brown book series. I think somebody mentioned
it because they found out what Ambergris was from reading
Encyclopedia Brown books as a kid. Emma says, live from Victoria,
(10:10):
British Columbia, Canada, Grade three classroom. My son doesn't read them,
but I instantly thought of you all. And then they
attach a picture of a like a collection of classroom
reading material. The very first book in the stack is
Encyclopedia Brown's Book of Strange but True Crimes.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah, there it is in the bin I wonder what
those strange crimes were. I assume mostly serial murders.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yeah, what is what is true crime that's appropriate for children?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I know you're kind of limited to diamond heist and
so forth.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Right, Yeah, true nonviolent crime.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, but I mean, now, this is this is this
is fine. I have no again, I have no experience
with Encyclopedia Brown myself except it just vaguely remember the title.
But that's about it. So I think it's great that
people can still connect with this stuff.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Okay, here, I think we're gonna have to switch over
and do some weird house cinema messages because we've got
a lot of them in the bin. Many people have
been writing in, especially about Dune, but about other episodes
as well. Maybe we should do all of the Dune
messages in a block. And before that, maybe I will
read this response from Bruce on the episode that I
(11:28):
did with Seth Nicholas Johnson while you were out about
the Monkey's movie head.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Oh yeah, I listened to this episode. I wasn't able
to get a hold of the movie at the time
because I believe I was traveling, but yeah, I did
listen to the episode.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Oh you should watch it sometime, Rob, I think you'd
appreciate it. Bruce says, stuff to blow your mind, folks.
I wanted to thank you so much for the latest
episode of Weird House on Head. I am also a
huge Monkeys fan, and this movie has always been a
favorite of mine. To demonstrate how much they were in
the middle of the whole sixties experience. For example, something
(12:05):
that isn't connected with the movie, but shows how much
influence the group had on the culture. The character of
Chekhov on the original Star Trek. I guess the original
TV series was added in season two as a direct
result of Davy Jones' popularity.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
I had no idea we got to get a Russian
monkey in there, Okay.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
So Bruce says, the thinking was, quote, we need our
own younger international character. Oh that's right, because the other
three monkeys were American. They're from the United States. But
Davy Jones was British and was the cute one and
had shaggy hair. But Bruce says, yeah, they were thinking,
we've got to get our own international character to capture
(12:50):
our fair share of the teeny bopper audience. And Bruce
says that's why Chekhov's hair was shaggier than anyone else's.
Bruce goes on to say, the real reason writing is
to pass along some quotes from the twenty seventeen autobiography
of Michael Nesmith called Infinite Tuesday, where he shares first
hand riffs on head. I was somewhat surprised that the
(13:12):
book didn't make it into your narrative, as it has
some pretty interesting views. According to Mike. Quote and there
are a few substitutions in here for clarity. With the
Monkey movie, Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson had decided to
kill the monster they thought they had created, and they
asked Jack Nicholson to help. They also asked the four
(13:33):
principal cast players Davy, Mickey, Peter, and Me to participate.
At first, I thought the suggestion was simply for the
four monkeys to join in on a trip to Ohi
and smoke dope, hang out with Bert and Bob and
Jack and race golf carts around the hotel. But no,
they were serious about the four of us actually contributing
to the screenplay. But then Bruce says He goes on
(13:55):
to say that it didn't work out because quote, we
were not drawn together. And then Bruce says, there is
a great quote about what Bert Schneider thought about the
screenplay quote. He Bert described it to me, Mike as
a wild gamble. He said he thought it would either
be recognized and revered or reviled and unsung. There would
(14:16):
be no in between and no ambivalence. Millions would attend
or no one would attend. He was right.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Then.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Bruce shares that Mike Nesmith's take on Head is this
quote drug addled, bizarre, obtuse and ignored as it was,
the movie still became an actual driving force. Instead of
destroying all things monkeys, it emblazoned them on pop culture permanently.
Also an interesting take on the title. One of the
(14:44):
parody elements of the film, according to Mike, was that
Bob Rafelson wanted to include quote all his favorite genres
from Westerns to David Lean type epics two quote the
darkest thing on the planet. When Jack asked what that
would be, Bob said, Victor Mature's hair. Victor Mature is
the old Hollywood actor, like a you know, the sort
(15:07):
of dashing leading man with always very very well quaffed hair.
And yes, parts of the movie do take place within
his hair. And so Bruce explains how, yes, they seized
on that moment and they said, yes, that's it, that
the movie must take place in Victor Mature's hair. Bruce says,
as drug riffs go, it is one of the greats,
(15:28):
and it would serve the serve as the magic carpet
for the film. The serene fantasy behind the panicked psychedelia
Victor Mature's hair would be heads quote Dia Jesus, and
he says. Mike follows that with a cool story about
how he unwittingly provided the solution to getting Victor Mature
(15:48):
to participate in true Mike Nesmith's storytelling brilliance. The incident
is hilarious. I would share it here, but it goes
on for a number of pages and I couldn't do
Mike justice by condensing it. Find a copy of the
book can read it for yourself. Infinite Tuesday is about
so much more than the monkeys, though. Mike was such
an unrecognized talent, and he doesn't shrink away from as
many faults as he tells the story. But that's a
(16:10):
subject for another time. Thanks for shedding a spotlight on
the seminal film and reminding me why I'm such a
fan of these four guys. They truly do transcend pop
culture of the sixties and music. Bruce Well, thank you,
Bruce Well.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Actually, after Seth's recommendation to me in this episode, I
did spend the following weekend. I was actually on a
road trip and I listened to a bunch of Mike
Nesmith's solo albums. At the first one, I think it's
called Magnetic South maybe, but then also Nevada Fighter. There's
(16:45):
one called pretty much your Standard ranch Stash, and I
really enjoyed these. They're great sort of country rock, much
like Graham Parsons or the Flying Burrito Brothers, similar kind
of stuff, and it was really good.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Very cool. Go ahead, let's go ahead and dive into
some Dune feedback here.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Oh boy.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
The first one comes to us from Lorenzo. Lorenzo says, Hi, Robin, Joe,
I'm very pleased you're covering Dune two episodes. No less,
I wanted to write to you regarding the sound design
of the films of David Lynch, which I've been watching
since I was a kid. Joe, you were looking to
(17:25):
link Dune to subsequent Lynch films. Those soundscapes that persist
in hum that made the air heavy. I would have
propose that you could hear those films without seeing them. Thanks, Lorenzo.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Oh, Lorenzo, So you're saying that you could almost like
you could watch the movie without looking at the screen,
just like by the sounds creating the atmosphere and all that.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah, I believe that's what he's saying here. And yeah,
that seems like a strong case to be made there.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
I agree. Yeah, I love those David Lynch sounds. Wait,
but you've been watching the sound the movies of David
Lynch since you were a kid.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Well, I mean you'd start with Dune as a kid, right, Okay, yeah,
and then branch out of the other things. I think
that would that would be the best way to go.
Like if I were to start my son on David
Lynch and I was like really obsessed with getting him
literate in David Lynch, Like that's that's where we would
start at his age. Yeah, and even then I would
be like, this is gonna be a lot.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
I'm just imagining like eight year old's watching Eraserhead.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah no, not not appropriate? Not appropriate?
Speaker 3 (18:26):
All right, Next one, I'm gonna do is this message
from Steph. Steph says, Hi, Joe and Rob. I was
playing Listener Mail today and it unlocked a core memory
for me. My dad would rent a VCR when HBO
had their free preview weekends to record whatever movies he
(18:48):
could for free. One of our VHS tapes had the
combo of National Lampoon's Vacation, which segued into the first
part of Dune. In order to finish Dune, you had
to put in another VHS tape, which then segued from
the second part of Dune to Muppets Take Manhattan. Amazing.
(19:11):
I don't think you could plan a more jarring transition
from one style of movie to another. We had about
a dozen tapes like that that would abruptly change from
one genre to another with almost no warning. It was
a wild time in home entertainment, but I remember but
one I remember with such fondness. We eventually bought our
very own VCRs, so then we always had something cool
(19:31):
to watch if we were homesick from school. Because a
kid could only take so much. Price is right when
you weren't feeling well. Always enjoy your shows, but especially
love weird house cinema. You have introduced me to so
many great weird movies and reminded me of others that
I had forgotten. When I saw that you were doing
a two parter on the nineteen eighty four version of Dune,
(19:52):
I let out an audible yes while making dinner that
caused my husband to wonder what was going on. Thanks
for all you do, staff.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
That's great. I'm glad I'm not the only one who
had those tapes with like the three movies taped off
of HBO on them. I was I was thinking a
little bit more on this, and I could be wrong
about like what each individual tape, you know, contained, but
I vaguely remember there being a tape that maybe had Poltergeist,
which I was terrified to watch, terrifying film, and I
(20:22):
think it's still the effects hold up, Yeah, not get
appropriate in my opinion. And then it had Raiders of
the Lost Arc, which was one of my favorites. And
then I think it also had the nineteen eighty four
Robin Williams drama Moscow on the Hudson, which was not
appropriate for children or even like interesting to children, but
(20:45):
it was there.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
I had tapes like this as well, not from HBO.
I don't recall us ever getting free free trials of
HBO or anything. I guess I don't know. That must
have been the thing somewhere else or something, but we
didn't have that. We had stuff that was taped off
of TV, sometimes with like jarring transitions where I got
really good at doing this thing when I was a kid,
(21:06):
where I would try to hit stop recording during the
commercial breaks on the TV things and then started back up.
But sometimes you'd miss your queue and then so like
part of the movie would be gone, and then sometimes
you'd accidentally tape over something. So yeah, my tapes were
a mess, but I cherished them. Nonetheless.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
It's crazy looking back on how we use VHS technology
at times to try and capture some sort of pristine
cut of a film off of a television broadcast, like
it was never going to be, like the video quality
wasn't going to be good. You probably weren't going to
have like the actual theatrical cut to any extent, and
(21:45):
it's not like your removal of the advertisements was going
to be seamless. And then fast forward till today, those
sorts of tapes they're mostly only interesting if you have
the commercial still on there if you still have studio
not studio, but you know, TV station material on there,
(22:07):
things other than the movie, which is gonna be in
dreadful quality to begin with.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Yeah, and also the way they used to edit things
for TV, not just for content, but just for run time,
so there'd just be stuff cut out randomly to you know,
to get it down to fit. Nothing's in the original
aspect ratio.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
It's hilarious, Yeah, except in rare exceptions where you have
films that have never come out in better quality, and
there are there are still those out there for sure.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Let's see Rob. Do you mind if I do this
last message from Constantinos here? Oh?
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Yes do?
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Constantinos says so apropos of nothing in particular. Here is
a twenty ten fat Boy Slim video of Christopher Walkin
dancing to the song Weapon of Choice. Note the lyrics
at about two minutes into the song. The lyrics are
walking without rhythm, it won't attract the worm. Uh, And
it just keeps repeating that until finally it says, if
(23:06):
you walk without rhythm, you never learn.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Just a little note. I don't think I realized this
until I looked the song up. But the vocals on
this song are by Bootsy Collins.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Mm hmm, yeah, I think they're altered a little bit,
but yeah, that's that's Bootsy in there.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
But this is a This is a classic fat Boy
Slim video directed by Spike Jones, I believe with yeah,
with Christopher Walkin dancing, and Christopher Walkin of course was
a dancer, so you know he can he can handle it.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah. Yeah, you also see him dancing and What Pennies
from Heaven? I believe he dances in that film as well.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
I've seen it.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Oh it's pretty good as racllp in a while, but yeah,
he definitely cuts a rug in this in this Fat
Boy Slim video. I I I do vividly remember it
when it first debuted on MTV, and uh it's it's
a great track as well. I mean, fat Boy Slim
had some real some some really good hits. Album Better
(24:00):
Living Through Chemistry from nineteen ninety six was pretty phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Anyway, coming back to Constantinos's message, I'm pretty sure that
this is video evidence that Christopher Walkin manifested the newest
Dune movie just by sheer force of will or can
you just believe it is a happy coincidence that this
man happened to be cast in Dune a decade after
this wonderful jazz somba fusion dance ode to Shi hulud.
(24:27):
Because there is no Illuminati and birds are real, just
trying to keep doing weird Thank you for a fun
edition of Weird House Cinema. Now do the series, and
then Constantinos includes a link and says regards, well, thank
you very much for the message, and thank you for
giving me an excuse to watch this video again. I
(24:49):
really enjoyed it, and I truly I don't think I
had ever noticed the quote from Dune in it before.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Oh yeah, yeah, walk without rhythm so you don't attract
the word yeah. Apparently someone asked him about this in
a recent interview, and he said that he never realized
there was a Dune connection in it until he was
cast in the recent Dune Part two film, and then
someone pointed it out to him.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Must be magic.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yeah, but absolutely great track, still holds up, great music video.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Okay, should we wrap it up there?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Yeah, let's go ahead and wrap it up. But we'd
love to hear from everyone out there if you have
more thoughts about Dune, If you have thoughts about any past, current,
and potential future episodes of Weird House Cinema Stuff to
Blow Your Mind Core episodes, of course, also any of
our Wednesday episodes and Amelia stipendium, The Monster Fact the Artifact.
(25:43):
Just hit us up. We'd love to hear from you.
Just a reminder that if you haven't rated and reviewed
the show wherever you get the show or go and
do that. That helps us out in the long run.
And you can find us on most social media places
where whatever you're using, look us up. We're probably there.
Also find our discord server. If you need a link
(26:05):
for that, just email us and we'll send it to you.
If you use the Facebook, there's a Facebook group called
the Stuff to Blow Your Mind discussion module. You can
join there as well. In both places you can interact
with other listeners to the show.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway.
If you would like to get in touch with us
with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest
topic for the future, or just to say hello, you
can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your
Mind dot com.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts, from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff To Blow Your Mind News
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Robert Lamb
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