May 6, 2025 • 41 mins
Once more, it's time for a dose of Stuff to Blow Your Mind and Weirdhouse Cinema listener mail...
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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 a
listener mail. My name is Robert Lamb.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
And I am Joe McCormick, and Hey, today we're going
to be reading back a batch of messages from our
email address. If you have never gotten in touch before,
why not give it a try sometime. You can always
email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind
dot com. We love messages of all kinds of feedback
to recent episodes, especially if you have something interesting to
(00:37):
add to a topic that we've talked about on the show.
Of course, if corrections are ever necessary, you can reach
us at contact at stuff to Blow Yourmind dot com.
You can also just write in to say hi, tell
us where you listen from, how you listen to the show,
how you found out about us, that sort of thing.
That's always stuff we like to learn. Anyway. Again, contact
at Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com always free
(01:00):
to get in touch, and your message may end up
being featured on a listener mail episode like this one.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yeah, Yeah, and hey. We also have a discord server.
If you want to join that, email us at the
same address and we'll send you the like.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Let's see, Rob, how about we start off with this
response to our shield Wall episodes from our listener, Ahmed,
do you want to read this or should I?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Sure? Sure, I'll read this one, Ahmed says, Hey, guys,
Ahmed again here. I just listened to your first episode
about the speculation around captured Roman legionarias in Western China
and thought of another firmer example of different cultures meeting
and our knowledge of that via armor cling it coin
(01:46):
armor Here's one example, but you can easily find others online.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
And then Rob, I pulled in a couple of images
of what Ahmed linked here into the outline, but I
think it's some kind of hide or leather base. And
then on top of that, there is just this array
of metal coins, all side by side, sort of strung
together that creates a scale like formation. Actually, to come
back to the image of fish scales.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, yeah, it's quite impressive. You know, I believe I
had read about this at some point in the past,
but I don't know that I've ever seen an example
of it in person, and for that matter, I'm not
even sure i've seen a photo of it before. I
think I just read like a casual mention somewhere or another.
But Ahmed continues and says the Tlinket of Pacific Northwest
were involved in both conflict and trade with Russians looking
(02:36):
for fur in the sixteen hundreds of the eighteen hundreds,
and through them were exposed to Chinese Chian coins, whose
central doughnut hole made for an easy way to secure
the coins into a layer. This is one of those
examples that exist squarely in the historical record, But I
often think about how nuts it would seem if it
did not, and we had to guess that the links
that brought Chinese currency into this use in North America.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Even beyond this example, I think the Tlingett and other
Pacific Coast people like the Hata had some of the
coolest and most unique armor in North America, with elaborately
carved heavy wooden armor, often covering the trunk as well
as the neck and head, leaving just a slit for
the eyes.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
And again here rob I pulled in a picture that
Ahmed linked into the outline. This is of armor, the
armor he mentioned in a museum collection today and this
also looks very interesting, very cool, Like the armored part
on the torso is composed of kind of ribs, like
vertically aligned ribs that all all go side to side
(03:37):
around the lower part of the torso, and then a
narrower plate of ribs like that coming up through the chest. Yeah,
and then the helmet part of it is fascinating. It's
sort of bullet shaped, coming up into a cone on
the top with beautiful like red and orange decorations, and
then below that the carvings on the face have a
kind of monstrous marine mammal face kind of design. Is
(04:01):
that what you're seeing too?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's very cool. Ahmed continues
here and says, for anybody interested in this, I highly
recommend the book Native North American Armor, Shields and Fortifications
by David Jones. It makes it clear that while we
do not typically think of the indigenous people of North
America being armored, that's because we imagine them largely in
the firearm age. Just like contemporary European armies who came
(04:26):
from a tradition of heavy armor. Think of a medieval
versus a Napoleonic soldier, Indigenous Americans put protection aside in
favor of mobility. Once firearms made heavy armor and shields obsolete,
with some interesting exceptions in areas like the Great Plains
and the Pueblo cultures where shields had spiritual significance. It's
a great look at the very diverse cultural spheres in
(04:47):
pre colonial North America seen through the lens of military defenses. Anyways,
keep up the great work, Amed.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Well, thank you so much, Ahmed. Yeah, this was really interesting.
Thank you for sharing with us. In fact, you always
write such great emails. Please get in touch after every
series we do.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
All right, looks like we received some listener mail related
to our series on cynicism.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Yes, let's see, Rob, you want me to do this
one from Tea? Yeah, Tea says morning fellas loved the
series on cynicism. If you'd be so kind to throw
it back into the Saturday Mix in a few months,
I'd like to listen to it again after some time
to reflect. Can't promise anything, Tea. Usually we let it
(05:33):
around a year ago by maybe before we do a rerun,
but it varies some but you will probably hear it
again anyway. Of course, you can listen to it anytime
you want, right, Yeah, yeah, the magic of asynchronous media,
So Tea goes on to say, one thing I did
want to point out is that legitimate companies are training
their customer base to be cynical to anything that seems
(05:57):
to be communication from them. The fish and the smishers
have gotten so good. I'm not sure if I know
the phrase smishers fishers of course, is you know, people
fishing for information through like emails and stuff smishers? Would
that be SMS fishers.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Text message pad too that I just I know from
context of the sentence that they're bad as well, and
I don't trust them. Actually, JJ just confirmed for us
that smishers does in fact mean that, which is nice
because now I have a nicer name for them than
the one I usually call them when when I get
one of these messages on my phone.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
But if it's SMS, why are they smishers and not smissshers?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I think you answered your own question there.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Anyway, Tea Rights, I'm adjacent to the mortgage industry, and
part of our product sends out emails about paying your
mortgage or things that happened on your account. We actively
avoid putting links to anything in those emails, simply so
the instructions to the customers can be to never click
on links and emails that seem to be about your mortgage.
(06:59):
Always go log into the portal. The text messages we
send out never have an actionable link in them. They're
all essentially this payment was made to your account. If
you have questions, log into your portal. And this is
also the customer service can reiterate to the customers to
not click on things about your mortgage. If you've bought
(07:20):
a house recently, likely there are footers at the bottom
of your agent's emails, your lenders emails, your title attorney's emails, etc.
Saying to not trust any wiring instructions without verifying first.
There are some real horror stories of fishers getting to
a buyer at just the wrong time and having them
wire their down payment for the house to them instead
(07:41):
of the Escro agent. Thanks as always, Tea from Florida. Yeah,
te this is really interesting and I have a number
of thoughts here. This actually connects to something I've said
on the show. I think months or even years ago
before we did the Cynicism series, and so I'll come
back to that in a minute. But I remember when
I was not too long ago going through the mortgage process,
(08:03):
we got lots of warnings exactly like this, that we
would likely be hammered with attempted scams, you know, while
you're involved in getting a mortgage, or when you've recently
gotten a mortgage, Just be aware of that. Also, all
this stuff you're mentioning, don't wire money except to this
exact account. Ignore emails giving you a link to click on,
or saying that account details have changed, stuff like that.
(08:27):
And I would argue that this kind of particular preparation
within the mortgage lending scenario falls more under the reasonable
social skepticism umbrella than under social cynicism. And remember in
the series, we made the distinction that, at least as
we were using the terms, skepticism is like doing your
(08:47):
best to either grant or withhold trust on the basis
of evidence. You're looking for objective clues, objective information about
the trustworthiness of a person or situation, whereas cynicism is
a bias, it's an evidence neutral bias against trust. So
another way I'd put it relevant to your example t
is that I would not call it cynical to be
(09:10):
cautious of scams in a situation where scams are very
common and very dangerous. It would be cynical to be
cautious of scams in a situation where you have no
good reason or evidence to suspect a scam is taking place.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, Like, it's cynical to assume everyone is Jason Vorhees,
but it's it's healthy to assume that anyone wandering through
the woods in a hockey mask with a big old
machete is Jason Vorhees. And that's what and that's the
thing most of these sketchy emails and texts are. They
are very sketchy for a reason, you know. I mean,
(09:47):
I guess some are more convincing than others, obviously, But yeah,
this is a healthy amount of skepticism that people are
employing here.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Great analogy, exactly right. So yeah, so I would call
this like reasonable situation skepticism rather than cynicism. On the
other hand, tee, I think I get exactly the point
you're driving at. We looked at a bunch of studies
in the Cynicism series pointing to the fact that a
person's level of social cynicism is I think partly an
(10:18):
aspect of their fixed personality, but it's partly, not partially.
It is something that can fluctuate, According to our experiences,
and so I would suspect that having to deal with
a lot of situations in which a reasonable evidence based
approach is to be very wary and stingy with trust,
(10:39):
that having those sorts of experiences could sort of bump
up your general cynical biases in unrelated areas of life,
whether or not those biases are actually protecting you the
same way they would in these situations rife with scams.
And another thing is beyond just like the mortgage process,
(10:59):
certain things about modern life I would say, especially about
communications technology, I think have the toxic effect of creating
a digitally ever present threat of scams because the Internet
and also various forms of computer based automation have made
scamming so much more efficient in the last couple decades.
(11:21):
Like you can you know, it used to be real
work to develop each scam lead, you know, back in
the day, and now you can just spam millions of
people with attempts to initiate an email or text message
scam at extremely little cost. And even more, sort of
customized or targeted scams are easier to confect with the
digital tools available today. So even though in most aspects
(11:45):
of life, most people most of the time are still
very trustworthy. The fact that you are always digitally a
few clicks away from an ever present threat of having
your identity still in or having somebody steal your life savings,
that the proximity of that threat throughout your entire life now,
(12:08):
I think, just kind of waters the weeds of cynicism
so that they grow everywhere in your mind, not just
where they belong, like which is like on sketchy looking
emails and text messages. And so given all this, I
think I've said this on the show before, I believe
that it is underappreciated how maliciously influential internet and phone
(12:30):
based scams are in our culture today, not just because
of people's material losses. I mean, I think almost everybody
knows somebody or has a has a close relative who's
lost a bunch of money to some like, you know,
to an email or phone scammer. But it's not just
the material losses which can be devastating. It's because the
presence of these types of scams viciously undermines general social trust,
(12:56):
which I think we now have even better reason to
believe and a better underst standing of how that kind
of generalized cynicism is a really really bad thing for
each individual and for the culture.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah, I mean I feel like it's honestly ruined some
forms of communication, Like I don't answer my phone. Like
if someone calls me, I just assume that it's some
sort of at worst nefarious force, but perhaps just some
sort of like a cold call, you know, trying to
get me to donate money and sometimes to a good cause.
But I'm not going to do that over the phone
because of all the scammers. So you know, I just
(13:31):
been like, all right, let it go to voicemail and
I will probably delete it there.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Yeah, our digital and communications environment has created an asymmetrical
scam thread where it's weird that I think it really
still is the case that you can trust most people
most of the time, but at the same time, through
electronic communication, a scammer is always just is right there
waiting for you. You know, they're like a picked up
(13:58):
phone call or a text message reply away.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah, we've made the world smaller in a lot of
wonderful ways, but also in a lot of terrifying ways.
So I might not put my faith in phone calls anymore.
Maybe I should put my faith instead into mystery cults.
We of course did a series on mystery cults, and
we continue to hear back from some folks about this topic.
This one comes to us from Lex like says, super
(14:28):
short message, but this was too funny and on point
not to send your way. In your episodes about mystery cults,
you discussed that certain techniques or special special effects might
be off putting because they seem deceptive or irreverent in
some way. Looks like some churches are really towing that line,
and they included a link for us to check out here.
And I'm not going to tell you how to define this.
(14:51):
I don't know. Maybe you're sure familiar with this already,
but it involves some sort of a church environment where
there's like a big drop cloth that presents the this
kind of like puppet Jesus that rises up from the tomb.
Am I interpreting this correctly? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Yeah, So there's like an altar and then behind it,
by the way, it looks to me like it's an
Easter service, but I can't tell for sure, and I
don't know where or what church this is, but yeah,
there's like a tapestry in the background showing a golden
archway and a sunrise landscape. Also electronic dance music is thumping.
It's like a four on the floor beat. But then
(15:27):
suddenly the tapestry falls away and it reveals a different painting.
It's like a blooming garden and a blue sky. And
then a spring loaded Jesus statue launches up out of
some hidden device in front of the painting, so that
his head is framed by like a big painted halo
on the backdrop. Jesus is also holding a flag looks
like a red velvet flag. And no judgment by the way,
(15:48):
you know, religious art and special effects. It's a matter
of taste to some degree at least, But the switchblade
Jesus was indeed funny to me. I think the funniest
part was the speed at which Jesus rises up. He
had just risen slower, it would have been less funny.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
I mean, I'm all for it. Yeah, throw some production
into it, you know. Puppet Jesus'. Like I say, puppetry
is a legitimate and very ancient medium. It is an
art form. Therefore, I think it's perfectly fine. It's great
that it should be involved in religious rites. It has
(16:25):
been since time out of mind anyway, Le says, love
the show and appreciate your hard work to bring it
to us.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Happy Friday, Lex, Okay, general call the listeners here, please
send us more examples of puppetry, animate statues and automata
used in earnest not for laughs, in religious services. I
want to see more of that.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah, yeah, I mean there are some terrific example. You know,
very recently my family went and saw a performance of
Javanese puppetry here at Emory here in Atlanta, Emory University,
and you know, these are generally they're telling retelling Hindu epics,
you know, and it is a very traditional and like
(17:10):
sacred performance. So yeah, I'd love to hear more examples
of that sort of thing, as well as like contemporary examples,
like there's a lot of church puppetry out there, like
in Protestant services, and yeah, that that stuff can be
can be interesting in its own right as well.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
All right, let's see here we got a message from Carlos.
This is in response to our series on pretend play
subject line in defense of Vygotsky. So, Rob, it's been
a little while since we did this episode, so I've
kind of forgotten the context of The person here that
Carlos is talking about is the twentieth century Russian psychologist
(17:56):
Love Vygotsky. Can you can you remind me what the
context was in the episode that Vygotsky came up.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Basically, I think we were talking more about the ideas
of doctor Sandra Russ. There's a paper talking about her
ideas and also comparing some of her ideas to those
of Viogotsky. If memory serves though, I don't think any
of Russ's ideas were like necessarily tearing down Vogotsky, but
you know, kind of like building upon them. But then again,
(18:22):
I think that the comments here that Carlos wrote in
about it are fair. So yeah, let's good and hear him.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Okay, Carlos says, Hey, y'all just wanted to write in
to defend Vygotsky, whom you featured in your recent episodes
on imagination and play. In your episode, he came off
as stodgy and anti play, but I'm not sure that's fair.
I was already acquainted with his work as it pertains
to art and literature, especially his the psychology of art.
In this work, he seems to really appreciate the value
(18:50):
of art. While this isn't quite the same as play,
it definitely gets into the importance of the imagination. Just
a couple of quotes from the Mit Press Edition nineteen
seventy one. Quote, Thus, poetry or art is a special
way of thinking which, in the final analysis, leads to
the same results as scientific knowledge, but in a different way.
(19:12):
And then also quote, psychological investigation reveals that art is
the supreme center of biological and social individual processes in society,
that it is a method for finding an equilibrium between
man and his world in the most critical and important
stages in his life. And then Carlos picks up again,
(19:32):
not directly related to play, but he does seem to
have a great appreciation for the role of creativity, perhaps
above and beyond productivity in society.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Thanks Carlos, Yeah, yeah, well, thanks for writing in, Carlos,
A point well taken. And these are also some wonderful
quotes here. All right, let's get into a little weird
house cinema listener mail. It looks like we're continuing to
hear from folks about the telephone box. This one comes
to us from Bo. Bo says, Hi, guys, I love
(20:08):
your show and have listened for years. I'm a little
behind in the moment, but I was thrilled to hear
your episode on La Caabina. This struck a chord with me.
You mentioned that some films or movies viewed as a
child may leave a lasting impression, and for me this
was the one. I'm Norwegian but lived a few years
in Spain as a child in the seventies. At the time,
there were only two TV channels there, both controlled by
(20:30):
the regime. TV one was the news propaganda channel and
TV two was a bit more for entertainment. Mind you,
no channels apping, as you had to go over to
the TV and push a button to change the channel.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Good old days.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, So, one day, watching whatever was on TV two,
this film was shown. This was in seventy three or
seventy four, so it was a rerun. I was twelve
or thirteen, and it started out as funny, that is
until the end, which scared the Bejesus out of me
and gave me nightmares for some time, and it definitely
became unforgettable. At the same time, of course, I had
(21:04):
no idea about the symbolism of the film. The director
says that the film can be interpreted in many ways,
which is true, but for me, in the grown up hindsight,
it is clearly a political statement. Remember that disappearances actually
happened at this time under the Franco regime. What happened
to those people, Well, obviously they did not end up
in telephone boxes in a bunker. But this is what
(21:24):
the film carefully addresses. And then we get a bullet list. Here.
The surveillance view of the plaza may may be someone
pushing the button. If someone suspicious enters the box, the
tie is key as a symbol of nonconformity, a slash suspicion.
The other guy caught in a separate box also has
an unusual tie. We talked about the pattern a bit above,
(21:46):
all these times with a dotted pattern. On the other hand,
there is a short scene during the transport where a
guy who exits a red telephone box with no problem.
He wears a nice neutral gray tie.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
H I didn't notice that.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Yeah, the mindless telecompany workers, non thinking and just doing
their job, actually symbolizing normal people not wanting to upset anything.
The apartment complex building, the uniform, the uniform frame for
the followers, and the circus performers are the marginalized weirdos
that are non threatening to the regime, providing plausible excuse
(22:22):
for openness. I could go on, the bottom line is
that this film deeply touched me and I am glad
that you covered it. Bes regards Bo now living in Copenhagen.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Well thanks, Bo, I think, yeah, you make some great
points there. I think we talked about this in the episode.
But my take on it was despite the director saying that,
you know, the film could be interpreted as being about
whatever kind of box metaphorically you are trapped in, it
just struck me as that it had to at some
level be a political analysis like that it was a
(22:51):
political comment, especially when some of the comments the director
made about it not being a direct critique of the
Franco regime were made early on, where it seems like
he may have thought he had to say that, right,
you know, in order to actually get it out, he
had to say no, no, no, this isn't a threatening
piece of art. It seems to me like it obviously is.
It's clearly supposed to be politically subversive, though I can
(23:14):
also believe that it had these secondary meanings as well,
that it's not just a political allegory. It's just like
it can mean a lot of things, and there is
one thing especially that it seems to mean.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting thinking about how repressive regimes take
art that is open to interpretation, because I think, you know,
there are plenty of examples of skilled artists being able
to sneak something by them sneak commentary and criticism and
(23:46):
so forth past the sensors. But then there are, you know,
any number of cases where the sensors are latching onto
things that maybe do not have a political intention, but
since you know, they're vague enough, since they are open
to interpretation, they are open to criticism from any given
regime anyway, Both, thanks for writing in. I do always
(24:06):
enjoy hearing about how listeners encounter these different movies and
shows in the wild in their lives and the influence
of those films had over their lives. So yeah, thanks
for writing in.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Totally Thanks both, all right, This next Weird House Cinema
message is from Megan. Meghan says, Hello, I would like
to recommend a film for Weird House Cinema. The nineteen
eighty eight Canadian horror film called pin Pi. In Canadians
(24:39):
around my age of forty nine, may remember it, however,
I know I always conflated it with The Changeling, a
more well known Canadian horror movie, since the box ard
for both films use imagery of a spooky wheelchair both movies. Also,
both movies always looked very frightening to me, so I
only recently decided to finally watch Pin. I would classify
(25:03):
it as odd and uncomfortable and having some Freudian slash
adult themes, but not really scary. Two fun facts, the
male protagonist acted in a Canadian classic you've just talked
about in listener mail, and that is Cube, not Jim
Henson's The Cube, but the Canadian I don't know puzzle
horror movie Cube, where people are in a bunch of
(25:24):
cubes and most of the cubes have like a razor
that cuts you apart or something.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Yeah, yeah, we may coming back to that one in
Weird House Cinema. It's become a classic in its own way.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Did I mention this last time that Cube is one
of those movies where I saw its terrible sequels before
I saw the original.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Oh no, I don't remember if you did.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yeah, I think I first saw Cube two Hypercube. I
don't know if i'd say that one's worth it, but
I worked my way back to the original and it's
been many, many years, but I remember liking it at
the time.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
I remember the scene in which the dude is cut
into little cubes by wires being like just super impressive
at the time. I think the cubes within cubes. Yeah,
that was the main thing I connected with back then,
was that that was a really cool that was a
quality kill, not so much some of the the ideas
bound up in the concept, so that one would be
(26:15):
a fun one for me to revisit, for sure.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Let's see. Megan goes on to say, I have a
personal connection to pen because a second cousin of mine,
Bronwyn Mantle, plays the mother. Okay, anyway, this film isn't
as wild as my previous recommendation, treasurer of the Four Crowns,
but it might be a good one to watch if
you like, if you'd like to explore some Canadian content. Megan,
(26:38):
that was you. We actually took your recommendation and covered
Treasure of the Four Crowns on Weird House. Absolutely not
one of the better movies we have watched, but I
have very fond memories of covering it on the show.
That one often comes to mind when I think about
how the quality of our Weird House episode seems to
be kind of unrelated to the quality of the films.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah. Yeah, you never know what's gonna Sometimes it's just
great to talk about a great film. Other times, you know,
maybe more often than not, the ones I really get
into are films that are rougher around the edges, but
have those gems embedded in them that he's kind of
have to dig out with your fingernails. I don't call
what the real gems inside that particular movie were, but
(27:22):
I think we did find a few.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Yeah, it had fewer gyms than most I think, but
it was still. Like I've said about several things recently,
it is not good, but it's a good time anyway.
Megan says, as always, thank you for all the wonderful content,
both the regular science episodes and all the fun bonus content.
I love it all. Smiley face emoticon Megan.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, I have not seen Ken, but it is notable
that it's based on a novel by and Andrew Niederman,
who also wrote the book that the Devil's Advocate is
based upon the al Pacino Devil Lawyer movie from the nineties.
Uh huh.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Yeah. We were just talking about that movie off Mike
before we started here today, and I have a very
specific memory of being a kid in the nineties and
thinking about the Devil's Advocate. This is a serious movie
for grown ups?
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Yeah, yeah, I think it did have that air at
the time. I have not seen it since it came out,
though I have.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
I don't know if it's a serious movie for grown ups,
but anyway, looking at Pin, it looks to me so
it's like a kind of bizarre psychological horror thriller. It's
got like weird family relationships and murders. The main premise,
from what I can tell, is that there's a doctor
played by Terry O'Quinn who creates an anatomically realistic human
(28:40):
dummy named Pin to use in educating his small children
about medicine and the human body. Unfortunately, I think at
least one of his children sort of turns into Norman Bates,
but sub in this dummy instead of Norman Bates his mother.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Hmm, all right, that doesn't sound good.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Also, Robie attached a screenshot of what the dummy looks
like there appear to be a couple of varieties. There's
a skin on and skin off variety, and yeah, super creepy.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yeah, I agree. I agree, this is a very creepy
looking dummy for sure. Skin on also it's pretty bad
skin skin off is creepier skin but I don't know,
skin on is also kind of creepy, So yeah, I agree.
You know, I've actually been very interested in doing some
sort of ventral equos dummy horror film at some point
or Another one that I had been considering already is
(29:29):
the film Devil Do all black and white picture that
some of you remember from Mystery Science three thousand. But
then we also had listeners. A listener write in with
a recommendation for another one that's kind of been on
my radar.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Oh yeah, right, So our listener, Chris says, Hey, Joe
and Robert, I would like to recommend the nineteen seventy
eight film Magic, starring Anthony Hopkins and Burgess Meredith. It's
sort of an evil dummy made Me do it movie,
though there's more to it than that, Chris says. Hopkins
does an outstanding performance for what is this essentially a
ninety minute episode of Tales from the Crypt to keep
(30:02):
up the great work, guys, Chris.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Yeah again, Yeah. Attenborough screenplay by William Goldman, based on
his novel So yeah, it's there are a number of
attractive elements here. You know.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
I think I was just browsing recently and there's a
vinegar syndrome blu ray of devil doll.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Ooh okay, yeah that's right. I think I got an
email about that. Yeah, have to check that one out.
That's one that I remember, even in its Mystery Science
Theater three thousand and form, I found pretty unsettling, just
something about it. Its tone, and there's kind of like
a dead pan uncanniness to it. This next one comes
(30:47):
to us from Oh it's another Robert. That's why I
was thrown off guard there this Robert says. Dear Robert
and Joe. First, thanks for a wonderfully varied podcast. I
listened regularly on my walk to and from the university,
where I can each creative writing. I just heard the
listener Mail episode from April third, twenty twenty five, and
noted one of the suggestions for the upcoming anniversary is
(31:08):
the Japanese film Wild Zero. Hearing it brought me back
to seeing the film in grand style at the Fantasia
Festival in Montreal in nineteen ninety nine. The director Tatsuro
Takuci was in attendance, and I recall him looking fab
in a silver sequin blazer and a feather boa, along
with an entourage of twelve or fifteen comrades, all dressed
(31:31):
in the over the top Shibuya chai style popular in
Tokyo at the time. The film's a science fiction rock
and roll, zombie apocalypse comedy romance gender bender, and it
holds a very special place in my heart. The real
life band at the center of the story, Guitar Wolf,
was the inspiration for a fictional band that appears in
one of my children's novels, The Creature Department, a band
(31:53):
with a name I know you'll enjoy, Boris Minor and
the Carlofs. It might not make the anniversary episode, but
I'd love to hear Wild Zero get the weird House treatment.
Very kind regards Robert.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
As I think I said last time, I saw this
movie way back when I was in high school, and
I remember it made a very positive impression on me
then it I remember it had the feeling of a
movie with a real zest for life.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Yeah, I actually never saw it, but I'm very familiar
with seeing it's poster art, you know, definitely, you know,
going to places where I could rent or see movies
or learn about movies. I do remember seeing this box
art a lot.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
All right, This next message is from uber Cthulhu. Uber
Cthulhu says, And by the way, you know, friends, you
can always write in with the pseudonym. Just specify. We'll
use whatever name you give us, and if you use
your real name, we'll just use your first name. Uber
Cuthulhu says, Hey, guys, I absolutely love your shows. I
(32:55):
listened to them regularly. You have a masterful way of
dissecting and appreciating the films you feature. Thank you. I'm
curious if you have ever done a show on the equinox.
It is a film that I saw once at about
age eight and never came across again for many years,
but it really made an impression on my youthful, malleable brain.
(33:17):
Fast forward about thirty five years and I was having
a conversation with a great, dearly departed friend of mine
about strange films that we had seen. He turned out
to be the only other person I had ever met
that had seen it. In any case, I sought it
out and after a long search in almost eighty dollars,
I procured it. Wow, it's just as strange as I remember.
(33:38):
In a few words, I will describe it as young
couples in a woodsy area trying to picnic, beset by
demonic possession, other dimensions, and Ray Harryhausen type creatures. Oh boy,
you know how to get our attention, Uber Cuthulhu says,
and get this. It features a young young Herb Tarlik
from WKRP in Cincinnati. Anyway, sorry to be long winded,
(34:02):
love your shows, please feature it. Uber Cthulhu out peace,
Love getting tidings of peace from uber Cuthulhu. But also, wow,
I was not previously aware of this movie. I looked
it up and it looks good. According to what I've read,
it sounds like a combination of the original Evil Dead
and a movie that I've seen called The Daytime Ended One. Yeah,
(34:26):
it's like where a family goes to a house in
the desert to be repeatedly subjected to encounters with special
effects reels. It's mostly stop motion dinosaurs, but also there's
like a looks like a Betamax camera that floats around
in the air.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
Yeah, but I compare it to that because so, like
Uber Cuthulhu said, Equinox is about a group of young
people who go up for a picnic. I think they're
in southern California. But the Evil Dead comparison is, I
think they find a book which allows them to summon
various demons. And then the other element is these demons
are of a of Harry House in Persuasion. So I've
(35:02):
found a stream of it online and I was just
like skipping through to various parts. There's one part in
the middle where a cabin in the woods is being
attacked by a giant land squid with green thorny arms.
Then there's another section that's got a monster with like
three fins on his head and big ribs protruding out
of his body. Also, at some point, the human characters
(35:24):
are fighting a big green guy in a pelt who
looks like a combination of Ega and the Incredible Hulk.
You see this guy here?
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Yeah, I've seen some clips from this film. I've never
watched it in full. It's my understanding that it's that
the effects are largely the work of David Allen, who's
come up on the show before because he's had his
hand in stop motion effects for so many films, including
two that we've watched before, The Dungeon Master and Robot Jocks.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
There we go.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
So yeah, I'd be up for Equinox at some point.
One I've never seen, but it's kind of been on
the list for a long time.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
All Right, we're going to close things out here with
a message from our discord server. This one comes to
us from hot Nae Palm Death, who writes and it says,
I was thinking you guys might consider doing the Denzel
Washington trilogy since you did Virtuosity, Fallen, and Ricochet complete
the triumvirate of Denzel versus Psycho. You did the sci fi.
(36:29):
Ricochet is hard drama, but Fallen is supernatural. Otherwise, basically
the same idea Denzel versus super smart Psycho all came
out in the nineties.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
I remember Fallen was like a movie that a bunch
of my friends in high school thought was really cool,
and I never saw the whole thing. I think I
saw like a few minutes of it on TV and
that's it.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Yeah, I think it was on in the background, like
when I was in school or something. Now. Ricochet. I
do remember seeing that one, because this is something that
the listener here gets into. But John Lithgow is in
it playing the villain, and he's a deliciously over the
top psycho villain in that picture. All right, So they
(37:09):
continue in there, right. Also, The Quick and the Dead,
which we mentioned, is particularly good and provides connections to
so many other things. Russell Crowe, Gene Hackman, Sharon Stone,
Leonardo DiCaprio, Lance Hendrickson, Keith David All directed by Sam Raimi.
I fully believe John Lithgow is the most versatile actor
of his generation. He is great as a villain, both
(37:31):
subtle dexter realistic but extreme Ricochet and completely over the
top Buckeroo Bonzai.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Oh where he's doctor Lizardo in Buffer Bonzai.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Yeah, but he is equally at home in subtle comedy world.
According to Garth, a normal comedy third Rock from the
Sun to Zany Buckeroo Bonzai again, or dramatic roles like Footloose,
Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Terms of Endearment
and so forth. Yeah, I think that's a solid read
on John liftgot he he has such a wide range
(38:02):
and he is He's proven himself believable in so many
different sorts of roles. I don't know that he's played
a or I haven't seen him in a villain role
in a while. So it's at times it's almost it
almost shakes me to remember that, Oh yeah, this guy
playing like the sweet old man character has played some
just vicious psychopaths in his past.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
This is funny. I'm like apparently unusually underexposed to John Lithgow,
so I know him from Buckaroo Bonzi, where of course
I love him as he's the villain there. He's got
like sharp teeth and he's usually got electricity coming out
of him and stuff. But I never made it to
his season on Dexter. Never seen Ricochet, never seen the World,
according to Garp, never seen Third Rock from the Sun
(38:43):
or Footloose or terms of endearment. I'm just all behind.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Harry and the Henderson stuff.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
I think I have seen that. It's been a while.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
The most recent thing I think I saw him in
is the the what they did the two seasons of
of an new Perry Mason series on HBO that I
think was underappreciated. I thought it was excellent. John Lithgott
plays Perry Mason's this this lawyer that he looks up
to and works for early in his career, and it's
(39:13):
just it's it's a great performance.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
Oh wait, I did catch him in he was in Conclave.
I don't want to spoil any spoil anything about Conclave,
but he's got an interesting role in that.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
That's the movie where they picked the next pope, right,
that's where they picked the next I don't want to
spoilers on the pope selection, so I'm not gonna watch
it until until we get a new Pope.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
I guess actually quite enjoyed Conclave.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
All right, Well i'll have I'll have to give it
a look. I'll put it on the list of new
releases right under Death of the Unicorn, Death of Unicorn Conclave.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
For a second, I was mixing up characters though, because
I was like, wait a minute, is John lithgow the
the pope candidate who vapes? No, he's not. That's a
different pope candidate in it. It's got a vaping, perhaps Pope.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Is this a part of the Jude law? Young Pope
Hot Pope universe or is this separate?
Speaker 3 (39:59):
No? No, oh, it's not hot. No, it's not especially
hot or young or hip, but it is interesting.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Okay, all right, We're gonna go ahead and close up
the mail bag for this episode, but we'd love to
hear from you all of your Conclave related thoughts and more.
You can write into us at that email address that
we reference to the top of the episode, and Joe
will throw it out again here in a minute as well.
Let's see other places you can find us on Instagram
(40:26):
where stbim podcast. If you're on letterbox dot com, you
can follow weird House there. Use your name weird House.
We got a nice list of all the movies we've
covered over the years, and sometimes a peek ahead at
what comes next Huge things.
Speaker 3 (40:38):
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 a
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 (40:58):
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, 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 a
listener mail. My name is Robert Lamb.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
And I am Joe McCormick, and Hey, today we're going
to be reading back a batch of messages from our
email address. If you have never gotten in touch before,
why not give it a try sometime. You can always
email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind
dot com. We love messages of all kinds of feedback
to recent episodes, especially if you have something interesting to
(00:37):
add to a topic that we've talked about on the show.
Of course, if corrections are ever necessary, you can reach
us at contact at stuff to Blow Yourmind dot com.
You can also just write in to say hi, tell
us where you listen from, how you listen to the show,
how you found out about us, that sort of thing.
That's always stuff we like to learn. Anyway. Again, contact
at Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com always free
(01:00):
to get in touch, and your message may end up
being featured on a listener mail episode like this one.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yeah, Yeah, and hey. We also have a discord server.
If you want to join that, email us at the
same address and we'll send you the like.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Let's see, Rob, how about we start off with this
response to our shield Wall episodes from our listener, Ahmed,
do you want to read this or should I?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Sure? Sure, I'll read this one, Ahmed says, Hey, guys,
Ahmed again here. I just listened to your first episode
about the speculation around captured Roman legionarias in Western China
and thought of another firmer example of different cultures meeting
and our knowledge of that via armor cling it coin
(01:46):
armor Here's one example, but you can easily find others online.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
And then Rob, I pulled in a couple of images
of what Ahmed linked here into the outline, but I
think it's some kind of hide or leather base. And
then on top of that, there is just this array
of metal coins, all side by side, sort of strung
together that creates a scale like formation. Actually, to come
back to the image of fish scales.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, yeah, it's quite impressive. You know, I believe I
had read about this at some point in the past,
but I don't know that I've ever seen an example
of it in person, and for that matter, I'm not
even sure i've seen a photo of it before. I
think I just read like a casual mention somewhere or another.
But Ahmed continues and says the Tlinket of Pacific Northwest
were involved in both conflict and trade with Russians looking
(02:36):
for fur in the sixteen hundreds of the eighteen hundreds,
and through them were exposed to Chinese Chian coins, whose
central doughnut hole made for an easy way to secure
the coins into a layer. This is one of those
examples that exist squarely in the historical record, But I
often think about how nuts it would seem if it
did not, and we had to guess that the links
that brought Chinese currency into this use in North America.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Even beyond this example, I think the Tlingett and other
Pacific Coast people like the Hata had some of the
coolest and most unique armor in North America, with elaborately
carved heavy wooden armor, often covering the trunk as well
as the neck and head, leaving just a slit for
the eyes.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
And again here rob I pulled in a picture that
Ahmed linked into the outline. This is of armor, the
armor he mentioned in a museum collection today and this
also looks very interesting, very cool, Like the armored part
on the torso is composed of kind of ribs, like
vertically aligned ribs that all all go side to side
(03:37):
around the lower part of the torso, and then a
narrower plate of ribs like that coming up through the chest. Yeah,
and then the helmet part of it is fascinating. It's
sort of bullet shaped, coming up into a cone on
the top with beautiful like red and orange decorations, and
then below that the carvings on the face have a
kind of monstrous marine mammal face kind of design. Is
(04:01):
that what you're seeing too?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's very cool. Ahmed continues
here and says, for anybody interested in this, I highly
recommend the book Native North American Armor, Shields and Fortifications
by David Jones. It makes it clear that while we
do not typically think of the indigenous people of North
America being armored, that's because we imagine them largely in
the firearm age. Just like contemporary European armies who came
(04:26):
from a tradition of heavy armor. Think of a medieval
versus a Napoleonic soldier, Indigenous Americans put protection aside in
favor of mobility. Once firearms made heavy armor and shields obsolete,
with some interesting exceptions in areas like the Great Plains
and the Pueblo cultures where shields had spiritual significance. It's
a great look at the very diverse cultural spheres in
(04:47):
pre colonial North America seen through the lens of military defenses. Anyways,
keep up the great work, Amed.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Well, thank you so much, Ahmed. Yeah, this was really interesting.
Thank you for sharing with us. In fact, you always
write such great emails. Please get in touch after every
series we do.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
All right, looks like we received some listener mail related
to our series on cynicism.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Yes, let's see, Rob, you want me to do this
one from Tea? Yeah, Tea says morning fellas loved the
series on cynicism. If you'd be so kind to throw
it back into the Saturday Mix in a few months,
I'd like to listen to it again after some time
to reflect. Can't promise anything, Tea. Usually we let it
(05:33):
around a year ago by maybe before we do a rerun,
but it varies some but you will probably hear it
again anyway. Of course, you can listen to it anytime
you want, right, Yeah, yeah, the magic of asynchronous media,
So Tea goes on to say, one thing I did
want to point out is that legitimate companies are training
their customer base to be cynical to anything that seems
(05:57):
to be communication from them. The fish and the smishers
have gotten so good. I'm not sure if I know
the phrase smishers fishers of course, is you know, people
fishing for information through like emails and stuff smishers? Would
that be SMS fishers.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Text message pad too that I just I know from
context of the sentence that they're bad as well, and
I don't trust them. Actually, JJ just confirmed for us
that smishers does in fact mean that, which is nice
because now I have a nicer name for them than
the one I usually call them when when I get
one of these messages on my phone.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
But if it's SMS, why are they smishers and not smissshers?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I think you answered your own question there.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Anyway, Tea Rights, I'm adjacent to the mortgage industry, and
part of our product sends out emails about paying your
mortgage or things that happened on your account. We actively
avoid putting links to anything in those emails, simply so
the instructions to the customers can be to never click
on links and emails that seem to be about your mortgage.
(06:59):
Always go log into the portal. The text messages we
send out never have an actionable link in them. They're
all essentially this payment was made to your account. If
you have questions, log into your portal. And this is
also the customer service can reiterate to the customers to
not click on things about your mortgage. If you've bought
(07:20):
a house recently, likely there are footers at the bottom
of your agent's emails, your lenders emails, your title attorney's emails, etc.
Saying to not trust any wiring instructions without verifying first.
There are some real horror stories of fishers getting to
a buyer at just the wrong time and having them
wire their down payment for the house to them instead
(07:41):
of the Escro agent. Thanks as always, Tea from Florida. Yeah,
te this is really interesting and I have a number
of thoughts here. This actually connects to something I've said
on the show. I think months or even years ago
before we did the Cynicism series, and so I'll come
back to that in a minute. But I remember when
I was not too long ago going through the mortgage process,
(08:03):
we got lots of warnings exactly like this, that we
would likely be hammered with attempted scams, you know, while
you're involved in getting a mortgage, or when you've recently
gotten a mortgage, Just be aware of that. Also, all
this stuff you're mentioning, don't wire money except to this
exact account. Ignore emails giving you a link to click on,
or saying that account details have changed, stuff like that.
(08:27):
And I would argue that this kind of particular preparation
within the mortgage lending scenario falls more under the reasonable
social skepticism umbrella than under social cynicism. And remember in
the series, we made the distinction that, at least as
we were using the terms, skepticism is like doing your
(08:47):
best to either grant or withhold trust on the basis
of evidence. You're looking for objective clues, objective information about
the trustworthiness of a person or situation, whereas cynicism is
a bias, it's an evidence neutral bias against trust. So
another way I'd put it relevant to your example t
is that I would not call it cynical to be
(09:10):
cautious of scams in a situation where scams are very
common and very dangerous. It would be cynical to be
cautious of scams in a situation where you have no
good reason or evidence to suspect a scam is taking place.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, Like, it's cynical to assume everyone is Jason Vorhees,
but it's it's healthy to assume that anyone wandering through
the woods in a hockey mask with a big old
machete is Jason Vorhees. And that's what and that's the
thing most of these sketchy emails and texts are. They
are very sketchy for a reason, you know. I mean,
(09:47):
I guess some are more convincing than others, obviously, But yeah,
this is a healthy amount of skepticism that people are
employing here.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Great analogy, exactly right. So yeah, so I would call
this like reasonable situation skepticism rather than cynicism. On the
other hand, tee, I think I get exactly the point
you're driving at. We looked at a bunch of studies
in the Cynicism series pointing to the fact that a
person's level of social cynicism is I think partly an
(10:18):
aspect of their fixed personality, but it's partly, not partially.
It is something that can fluctuate, According to our experiences,
and so I would suspect that having to deal with
a lot of situations in which a reasonable evidence based
approach is to be very wary and stingy with trust,
(10:39):
that having those sorts of experiences could sort of bump
up your general cynical biases in unrelated areas of life,
whether or not those biases are actually protecting you the
same way they would in these situations rife with scams.
And another thing is beyond just like the mortgage process,
(10:59):
certain things about modern life I would say, especially about
communications technology, I think have the toxic effect of creating
a digitally ever present threat of scams because the Internet
and also various forms of computer based automation have made
scamming so much more efficient in the last couple decades.
(11:21):
Like you can you know, it used to be real
work to develop each scam lead, you know, back in
the day, and now you can just spam millions of
people with attempts to initiate an email or text message
scam at extremely little cost. And even more, sort of
customized or targeted scams are easier to confect with the
digital tools available today. So even though in most aspects
(11:45):
of life, most people most of the time are still
very trustworthy. The fact that you are always digitally a
few clicks away from an ever present threat of having
your identity still in or having somebody steal your life savings,
that the proximity of that threat throughout your entire life now,
(12:08):
I think, just kind of waters the weeds of cynicism
so that they grow everywhere in your mind, not just
where they belong, like which is like on sketchy looking
emails and text messages. And so given all this, I
think I've said this on the show before, I believe
that it is underappreciated how maliciously influential internet and phone
(12:30):
based scams are in our culture today, not just because
of people's material losses. I mean, I think almost everybody
knows somebody or has a has a close relative who's
lost a bunch of money to some like, you know,
to an email or phone scammer. But it's not just
the material losses which can be devastating. It's because the
presence of these types of scams viciously undermines general social trust,
(12:56):
which I think we now have even better reason to
believe and a better underst standing of how that kind
of generalized cynicism is a really really bad thing for
each individual and for the culture.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah, I mean I feel like it's honestly ruined some
forms of communication, Like I don't answer my phone. Like
if someone calls me, I just assume that it's some
sort of at worst nefarious force, but perhaps just some
sort of like a cold call, you know, trying to
get me to donate money and sometimes to a good cause.
But I'm not going to do that over the phone
because of all the scammers. So you know, I just
(13:31):
been like, all right, let it go to voicemail and
I will probably delete it there.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Yeah, our digital and communications environment has created an asymmetrical
scam thread where it's weird that I think it really
still is the case that you can trust most people
most of the time, but at the same time, through
electronic communication, a scammer is always just is right there
waiting for you. You know, they're like a picked up
(13:58):
phone call or a text message reply away.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah, we've made the world smaller in a lot of
wonderful ways, but also in a lot of terrifying ways.
So I might not put my faith in phone calls anymore.
Maybe I should put my faith instead into mystery cults.
We of course did a series on mystery cults, and
we continue to hear back from some folks about this topic.
This one comes to us from Lex like says, super
(14:28):
short message, but this was too funny and on point
not to send your way. In your episodes about mystery cults,
you discussed that certain techniques or special special effects might
be off putting because they seem deceptive or irreverent in
some way. Looks like some churches are really towing that line,
and they included a link for us to check out here.
And I'm not going to tell you how to define this.
(14:51):
I don't know. Maybe you're sure familiar with this already,
but it involves some sort of a church environment where
there's like a big drop cloth that presents the this
kind of like puppet Jesus that rises up from the tomb.
Am I interpreting this correctly? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Yeah, So there's like an altar and then behind it,
by the way, it looks to me like it's an
Easter service, but I can't tell for sure, and I
don't know where or what church this is, but yeah,
there's like a tapestry in the background showing a golden
archway and a sunrise landscape. Also electronic dance music is thumping.
It's like a four on the floor beat. But then
(15:27):
suddenly the tapestry falls away and it reveals a different painting.
It's like a blooming garden and a blue sky. And
then a spring loaded Jesus statue launches up out of
some hidden device in front of the painting, so that
his head is framed by like a big painted halo
on the backdrop. Jesus is also holding a flag looks
like a red velvet flag. And no judgment by the way,
(15:48):
you know, religious art and special effects. It's a matter
of taste to some degree at least, But the switchblade
Jesus was indeed funny to me. I think the funniest
part was the speed at which Jesus rises up. He
had just risen slower, it would have been less funny.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
I mean, I'm all for it. Yeah, throw some production
into it, you know. Puppet Jesus'. Like I say, puppetry
is a legitimate and very ancient medium. It is an
art form. Therefore, I think it's perfectly fine. It's great
that it should be involved in religious rites. It has
(16:25):
been since time out of mind anyway, Le says, love
the show and appreciate your hard work to bring it
to us.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Happy Friday, Lex, Okay, general call the listeners here, please
send us more examples of puppetry, animate statues and automata
used in earnest not for laughs, in religious services. I
want to see more of that.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah, yeah, I mean there are some terrific example. You know,
very recently my family went and saw a performance of
Javanese puppetry here at Emory here in Atlanta, Emory University,
and you know, these are generally they're telling retelling Hindu epics,
you know, and it is a very traditional and like
(17:10):
sacred performance. So yeah, I'd love to hear more examples
of that sort of thing, as well as like contemporary examples,
like there's a lot of church puppetry out there, like
in Protestant services, and yeah, that that stuff can be
can be interesting in its own right as well.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
All right, let's see here we got a message from Carlos.
This is in response to our series on pretend play
subject line in defense of Vygotsky. So, Rob, it's been
a little while since we did this episode, so I've
kind of forgotten the context of The person here that
Carlos is talking about is the twentieth century Russian psychologist
(17:56):
Love Vygotsky. Can you can you remind me what the
context was in the episode that Vygotsky came up.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Basically, I think we were talking more about the ideas
of doctor Sandra Russ. There's a paper talking about her
ideas and also comparing some of her ideas to those
of Viogotsky. If memory serves though, I don't think any
of Russ's ideas were like necessarily tearing down Vogotsky, but
you know, kind of like building upon them. But then again,
(18:22):
I think that the comments here that Carlos wrote in
about it are fair. So yeah, let's good and hear him.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Okay, Carlos says, Hey, y'all just wanted to write in
to defend Vygotsky, whom you featured in your recent episodes
on imagination and play. In your episode, he came off
as stodgy and anti play, but I'm not sure that's fair.
I was already acquainted with his work as it pertains
to art and literature, especially his the psychology of art.
In this work, he seems to really appreciate the value
(18:50):
of art. While this isn't quite the same as play,
it definitely gets into the importance of the imagination. Just
a couple of quotes from the Mit Press Edition nineteen
seventy one. Quote, Thus, poetry or art is a special
way of thinking which, in the final analysis, leads to
the same results as scientific knowledge, but in a different way.
(19:12):
And then also quote, psychological investigation reveals that art is
the supreme center of biological and social individual processes in society,
that it is a method for finding an equilibrium between
man and his world in the most critical and important
stages in his life. And then Carlos picks up again,
(19:32):
not directly related to play, but he does seem to
have a great appreciation for the role of creativity, perhaps
above and beyond productivity in society.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Thanks Carlos, Yeah, yeah, well, thanks for writing in, Carlos,
A point well taken. And these are also some wonderful
quotes here. All right, let's get into a little weird
house cinema listener mail. It looks like we're continuing to
hear from folks about the telephone box. This one comes
to us from Bo. Bo says, Hi, guys, I love
(20:08):
your show and have listened for years. I'm a little
behind in the moment, but I was thrilled to hear
your episode on La Caabina. This struck a chord with me.
You mentioned that some films or movies viewed as a
child may leave a lasting impression, and for me this
was the one. I'm Norwegian but lived a few years
in Spain as a child in the seventies. At the time,
there were only two TV channels there, both controlled by
(20:30):
the regime. TV one was the news propaganda channel and
TV two was a bit more for entertainment. Mind you,
no channels apping, as you had to go over to
the TV and push a button to change the channel.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Good old days.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, So, one day, watching whatever was on TV two,
this film was shown. This was in seventy three or
seventy four, so it was a rerun. I was twelve
or thirteen, and it started out as funny, that is
until the end, which scared the Bejesus out of me
and gave me nightmares for some time, and it definitely
became unforgettable. At the same time, of course, I had
(21:04):
no idea about the symbolism of the film. The director
says that the film can be interpreted in many ways,
which is true, but for me, in the grown up hindsight,
it is clearly a political statement. Remember that disappearances actually
happened at this time under the Franco regime. What happened
to those people, Well, obviously they did not end up
in telephone boxes in a bunker. But this is what
(21:24):
the film carefully addresses. And then we get a bullet list. Here.
The surveillance view of the plaza may may be someone
pushing the button. If someone suspicious enters the box, the
tie is key as a symbol of nonconformity, a slash suspicion.
The other guy caught in a separate box also has
an unusual tie. We talked about the pattern a bit above,
(21:46):
all these times with a dotted pattern. On the other hand,
there is a short scene during the transport where a
guy who exits a red telephone box with no problem.
He wears a nice neutral gray tie.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
H I didn't notice that.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Yeah, the mindless telecompany workers, non thinking and just doing
their job, actually symbolizing normal people not wanting to upset anything.
The apartment complex building, the uniform, the uniform frame for
the followers, and the circus performers are the marginalized weirdos
that are non threatening to the regime, providing plausible excuse
(22:22):
for openness. I could go on, the bottom line is
that this film deeply touched me and I am glad
that you covered it. Bes regards Bo now living in Copenhagen.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Well thanks, Bo, I think, yeah, you make some great
points there. I think we talked about this in the episode.
But my take on it was despite the director saying that,
you know, the film could be interpreted as being about
whatever kind of box metaphorically you are trapped in, it
just struck me as that it had to at some
level be a political analysis like that it was a
(22:51):
political comment, especially when some of the comments the director
made about it not being a direct critique of the
Franco regime were made early on, where it seems like
he may have thought he had to say that, right,
you know, in order to actually get it out, he
had to say no, no, no, this isn't a threatening
piece of art. It seems to me like it obviously is.
It's clearly supposed to be politically subversive, though I can
(23:14):
also believe that it had these secondary meanings as well,
that it's not just a political allegory. It's just like
it can mean a lot of things, and there is
one thing especially that it seems to mean.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting thinking about how repressive regimes take
art that is open to interpretation, because I think, you know,
there are plenty of examples of skilled artists being able
to sneak something by them sneak commentary and criticism and
(23:46):
so forth past the sensors. But then there are, you know,
any number of cases where the sensors are latching onto
things that maybe do not have a political intention, but
since you know, they're vague enough, since they are open
to interpretation, they are open to criticism from any given
regime anyway, Both, thanks for writing in. I do always
(24:06):
enjoy hearing about how listeners encounter these different movies and
shows in the wild in their lives and the influence
of those films had over their lives. So yeah, thanks
for writing in.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Totally Thanks both, all right, This next Weird House Cinema
message is from Megan. Meghan says, Hello, I would like
to recommend a film for Weird House Cinema. The nineteen
eighty eight Canadian horror film called pin Pi. In Canadians
(24:39):
around my age of forty nine, may remember it, however,
I know I always conflated it with The Changeling, a
more well known Canadian horror movie, since the box ard
for both films use imagery of a spooky wheelchair both movies. Also,
both movies always looked very frightening to me, so I
only recently decided to finally watch Pin. I would classify
(25:03):
it as odd and uncomfortable and having some Freudian slash
adult themes, but not really scary. Two fun facts, the
male protagonist acted in a Canadian classic you've just talked
about in listener mail, and that is Cube, not Jim
Henson's The Cube, but the Canadian I don't know puzzle
horror movie Cube, where people are in a bunch of
(25:24):
cubes and most of the cubes have like a razor
that cuts you apart or something.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Yeah, yeah, we may coming back to that one in
Weird House Cinema. It's become a classic in its own way.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Did I mention this last time that Cube is one
of those movies where I saw its terrible sequels before
I saw the original.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Oh no, I don't remember if you did.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yeah, I think I first saw Cube two Hypercube. I
don't know if i'd say that one's worth it, but
I worked my way back to the original and it's
been many, many years, but I remember liking it at
the time.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
I remember the scene in which the dude is cut
into little cubes by wires being like just super impressive
at the time. I think the cubes within cubes. Yeah,
that was the main thing I connected with back then,
was that that was a really cool that was a
quality kill, not so much some of the the ideas
bound up in the concept, so that one would be
(26:15):
a fun one for me to revisit, for sure.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Let's see. Megan goes on to say, I have a
personal connection to pen because a second cousin of mine,
Bronwyn Mantle, plays the mother. Okay, anyway, this film isn't
as wild as my previous recommendation, treasurer of the Four Crowns,
but it might be a good one to watch if
you like, if you'd like to explore some Canadian content. Megan,
(26:38):
that was you. We actually took your recommendation and covered
Treasure of the Four Crowns on Weird House. Absolutely not
one of the better movies we have watched, but I
have very fond memories of covering it on the show.
That one often comes to mind when I think about
how the quality of our Weird House episode seems to
be kind of unrelated to the quality of the films.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah. Yeah, you never know what's gonna Sometimes it's just
great to talk about a great film. Other times, you know,
maybe more often than not, the ones I really get
into are films that are rougher around the edges, but
have those gems embedded in them that he's kind of
have to dig out with your fingernails. I don't call
what the real gems inside that particular movie were, but
(27:22):
I think we did find a few.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Yeah, it had fewer gyms than most I think, but
it was still. Like I've said about several things recently,
it is not good, but it's a good time anyway.
Megan says, as always, thank you for all the wonderful content,
both the regular science episodes and all the fun bonus content.
I love it all. Smiley face emoticon Megan.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, I have not seen Ken, but it is notable
that it's based on a novel by and Andrew Niederman,
who also wrote the book that the Devil's Advocate is
based upon the al Pacino Devil Lawyer movie from the nineties.
Uh huh.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Yeah. We were just talking about that movie off Mike
before we started here today, and I have a very
specific memory of being a kid in the nineties and
thinking about the Devil's Advocate. This is a serious movie
for grown ups?
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Yeah, yeah, I think it did have that air at
the time. I have not seen it since it came out,
though I have.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
I don't know if it's a serious movie for grown ups,
but anyway, looking at Pin, it looks to me so
it's like a kind of bizarre psychological horror thriller. It's
got like weird family relationships and murders. The main premise,
from what I can tell, is that there's a doctor
played by Terry O'Quinn who creates an anatomically realistic human
(28:40):
dummy named Pin to use in educating his small children
about medicine and the human body. Unfortunately, I think at
least one of his children sort of turns into Norman Bates,
but sub in this dummy instead of Norman Bates his mother.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Hmm, all right, that doesn't sound good.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Also, Robie attached a screenshot of what the dummy looks
like there appear to be a couple of varieties. There's
a skin on and skin off variety, and yeah, super creepy.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yeah, I agree. I agree, this is a very creepy
looking dummy for sure. Skin on also it's pretty bad
skin skin off is creepier skin but I don't know,
skin on is also kind of creepy, So yeah, I agree.
You know, I've actually been very interested in doing some
sort of ventral equos dummy horror film at some point
or Another one that I had been considering already is
(29:29):
the film Devil Do all black and white picture that
some of you remember from Mystery Science three thousand. But
then we also had listeners. A listener write in with
a recommendation for another one that's kind of been on
my radar.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Oh yeah, right, So our listener, Chris says, Hey, Joe
and Robert, I would like to recommend the nineteen seventy
eight film Magic, starring Anthony Hopkins and Burgess Meredith. It's
sort of an evil dummy made Me do it movie,
though there's more to it than that, Chris says. Hopkins
does an outstanding performance for what is this essentially a
ninety minute episode of Tales from the Crypt to keep
(30:02):
up the great work, guys, Chris.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Yeah again, Yeah. Attenborough screenplay by William Goldman, based on
his novel So yeah, it's there are a number of
attractive elements here. You know.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
I think I was just browsing recently and there's a
vinegar syndrome blu ray of devil doll.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Ooh okay, yeah that's right. I think I got an
email about that. Yeah, have to check that one out.
That's one that I remember, even in its Mystery Science
Theater three thousand and form, I found pretty unsettling, just
something about it. Its tone, and there's kind of like
a dead pan uncanniness to it. This next one comes
(30:47):
to us from Oh it's another Robert. That's why I
was thrown off guard there this Robert says. Dear Robert
and Joe. First, thanks for a wonderfully varied podcast. I
listened regularly on my walk to and from the university,
where I can each creative writing. I just heard the
listener Mail episode from April third, twenty twenty five, and
noted one of the suggestions for the upcoming anniversary is
(31:08):
the Japanese film Wild Zero. Hearing it brought me back
to seeing the film in grand style at the Fantasia
Festival in Montreal in nineteen ninety nine. The director Tatsuro
Takuci was in attendance, and I recall him looking fab
in a silver sequin blazer and a feather boa, along
with an entourage of twelve or fifteen comrades, all dressed
(31:31):
in the over the top Shibuya chai style popular in
Tokyo at the time. The film's a science fiction rock
and roll, zombie apocalypse comedy romance gender bender, and it
holds a very special place in my heart. The real
life band at the center of the story, Guitar Wolf,
was the inspiration for a fictional band that appears in
one of my children's novels, The Creature Department, a band
(31:53):
with a name I know you'll enjoy, Boris Minor and
the Carlofs. It might not make the anniversary episode, but
I'd love to hear Wild Zero get the weird House treatment.
Very kind regards Robert.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
As I think I said last time, I saw this
movie way back when I was in high school, and
I remember it made a very positive impression on me
then it I remember it had the feeling of a
movie with a real zest for life.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Yeah, I actually never saw it, but I'm very familiar
with seeing it's poster art, you know, definitely, you know,
going to places where I could rent or see movies
or learn about movies. I do remember seeing this box
art a lot.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
All right, This next message is from uber Cthulhu. Uber
Cthulhu says, And by the way, you know, friends, you
can always write in with the pseudonym. Just specify. We'll
use whatever name you give us, and if you use
your real name, we'll just use your first name. Uber
Cuthulhu says, Hey, guys, I absolutely love your shows. I
(32:55):
listened to them regularly. You have a masterful way of
dissecting and appreciating the films you feature. Thank you. I'm
curious if you have ever done a show on the equinox.
It is a film that I saw once at about
age eight and never came across again for many years,
but it really made an impression on my youthful, malleable brain.
(33:17):
Fast forward about thirty five years and I was having
a conversation with a great, dearly departed friend of mine
about strange films that we had seen. He turned out
to be the only other person I had ever met
that had seen it. In any case, I sought it
out and after a long search in almost eighty dollars,
I procured it. Wow, it's just as strange as I remember.
(33:38):
In a few words, I will describe it as young
couples in a woodsy area trying to picnic, beset by
demonic possession, other dimensions, and Ray Harryhausen type creatures. Oh boy,
you know how to get our attention, Uber Cuthulhu says,
and get this. It features a young young Herb Tarlik
from WKRP in Cincinnati. Anyway, sorry to be long winded,
(34:02):
love your shows, please feature it. Uber Cthulhu out peace,
Love getting tidings of peace from uber Cuthulhu. But also, wow,
I was not previously aware of this movie. I looked
it up and it looks good. According to what I've read,
it sounds like a combination of the original Evil Dead
and a movie that I've seen called The Daytime Ended One. Yeah,
(34:26):
it's like where a family goes to a house in
the desert to be repeatedly subjected to encounters with special
effects reels. It's mostly stop motion dinosaurs, but also there's
like a looks like a Betamax camera that floats around
in the air.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
Yeah, but I compare it to that because so, like
Uber Cuthulhu said, Equinox is about a group of young
people who go up for a picnic. I think they're
in southern California. But the Evil Dead comparison is, I
think they find a book which allows them to summon
various demons. And then the other element is these demons
are of a of Harry House in Persuasion. So I've
(35:02):
found a stream of it online and I was just
like skipping through to various parts. There's one part in
the middle where a cabin in the woods is being
attacked by a giant land squid with green thorny arms.
Then there's another section that's got a monster with like
three fins on his head and big ribs protruding out
of his body. Also, at some point, the human characters
(35:24):
are fighting a big green guy in a pelt who
looks like a combination of Ega and the Incredible Hulk.
You see this guy here?
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Yeah, I've seen some clips from this film. I've never
watched it in full. It's my understanding that it's that
the effects are largely the work of David Allen, who's
come up on the show before because he's had his
hand in stop motion effects for so many films, including
two that we've watched before, The Dungeon Master and Robot Jocks.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
There we go.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
So yeah, I'd be up for Equinox at some point.
One I've never seen, but it's kind of been on
the list for a long time.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
All Right, we're going to close things out here with
a message from our discord server. This one comes to
us from hot Nae Palm Death, who writes and it says,
I was thinking you guys might consider doing the Denzel
Washington trilogy since you did Virtuosity, Fallen, and Ricochet complete
the triumvirate of Denzel versus Psycho. You did the sci fi.
(36:29):
Ricochet is hard drama, but Fallen is supernatural. Otherwise, basically
the same idea Denzel versus super smart Psycho all came
out in the nineties.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
I remember Fallen was like a movie that a bunch
of my friends in high school thought was really cool,
and I never saw the whole thing. I think I
saw like a few minutes of it on TV and
that's it.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Yeah, I think it was on in the background, like
when I was in school or something. Now. Ricochet. I
do remember seeing that one, because this is something that
the listener here gets into. But John Lithgow is in
it playing the villain, and he's a deliciously over the
top psycho villain in that picture. All right, So they
(37:09):
continue in there, right. Also, The Quick and the Dead,
which we mentioned, is particularly good and provides connections to
so many other things. Russell Crowe, Gene Hackman, Sharon Stone,
Leonardo DiCaprio, Lance Hendrickson, Keith David All directed by Sam Raimi.
I fully believe John Lithgow is the most versatile actor
of his generation. He is great as a villain, both
(37:31):
subtle dexter realistic but extreme Ricochet and completely over the
top Buckeroo Bonzai.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Oh where he's doctor Lizardo in Buffer Bonzai.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Yeah, but he is equally at home in subtle comedy world.
According to Garth, a normal comedy third Rock from the
Sun to Zany Buckeroo Bonzai again, or dramatic roles like Footloose,
Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Terms of Endearment
and so forth. Yeah, I think that's a solid read
on John liftgot he he has such a wide range
(38:02):
and he is He's proven himself believable in so many
different sorts of roles. I don't know that he's played
a or I haven't seen him in a villain role
in a while. So it's at times it's almost it
almost shakes me to remember that, Oh yeah, this guy
playing like the sweet old man character has played some
just vicious psychopaths in his past.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
This is funny. I'm like apparently unusually underexposed to John Lithgow,
so I know him from Buckaroo Bonzi, where of course
I love him as he's the villain there. He's got
like sharp teeth and he's usually got electricity coming out
of him and stuff. But I never made it to
his season on Dexter. Never seen Ricochet, never seen the World,
according to Garp, never seen Third Rock from the Sun
(38:43):
or Footloose or terms of endearment. I'm just all behind.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Harry and the Henderson stuff.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
I think I have seen that. It's been a while.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
The most recent thing I think I saw him in
is the the what they did the two seasons of
of an new Perry Mason series on HBO that I
think was underappreciated. I thought it was excellent. John Lithgott
plays Perry Mason's this this lawyer that he looks up
to and works for early in his career, and it's
(39:13):
just it's it's a great performance.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
Oh wait, I did catch him in he was in Conclave.
I don't want to spoil any spoil anything about Conclave,
but he's got an interesting role in that.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
That's the movie where they picked the next pope, right,
that's where they picked the next I don't want to
spoilers on the pope selection, so I'm not gonna watch
it until until we get a new Pope.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
I guess actually quite enjoyed Conclave.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
All right, Well i'll have I'll have to give it
a look. I'll put it on the list of new
releases right under Death of the Unicorn, Death of Unicorn Conclave.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
For a second, I was mixing up characters though, because
I was like, wait a minute, is John lithgow the
the pope candidate who vapes? No, he's not. That's a
different pope candidate in it. It's got a vaping, perhaps Pope.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Is this a part of the Jude law? Young Pope
Hot Pope universe or is this separate?
Speaker 3 (39:59):
No? No, oh, it's not hot. No, it's not especially
hot or young or hip, but it is interesting.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Okay, all right, We're gonna go ahead and close up
the mail bag for this episode, but we'd love to
hear from you all of your Conclave related thoughts and more.
You can write into us at that email address that
we reference to the top of the episode, and Joe
will throw it out again here in a minute as well.
Let's see other places you can find us on Instagram
(40:26):
where stbim podcast. If you're on letterbox dot com, you
can follow weird House there. Use your name weird House.
We got a nice list of all the movies we've
covered over the years, and sometimes a peek ahead at
what comes next Huge things.
Speaker 3 (40:38):
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 a
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 (40:58):
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
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