Listener Mail: Beans and Babel

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

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My
Heart Radio. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow Your
Mind listener mail. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm
Joe McCormick. And today it is Monday, the day of
the week. We readback some messages you've sent into the
show account. Which we often say at the end of
the show, but we should say it up front. It

(00:25):
is contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com
if you ever want to get in touch. Let's see.
So I'm going to start off with this message from Josh,
which has to do with your interview on story Machines
and UH and our episodes own document duplication. All right, Well,

(00:47):
just a reminder when we get into these stories, if
you want to create one yourself, you can go to
story hyphen Machines dot net UH and you can try
it out for yourself. Josh says, Hey, Robert and Joe. Oh,
I've been having so much fun playing around the story
generating AI you guys recently talked about. I used this
as an opportunity to throw back to one of my
favorite episodes that you guys have done, discussing the Library

(01:10):
of Babel, the mind bending thought provoking nature of the
whole concept of stuck with me. Since I heard the
episode years ago. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to
know what would happen if one could actually find the book,
the one that holds the key to the mysteries of
the library. I give you title the book, and then
if I'm reading the punctuation here right, I think Josh

(01:33):
begins with the with the the feed incidents. After wandering
for countless years in the library of Babel, I had
finally stumbled upon the book. From here, the Machine rights
a tone of unimaginable knowledge and power. It contained the
secrets to all things. I could control the elements, some
in spirits, and even travel through time. With this book,

(01:57):
I could become the most powerful being in the Uni Verse.
But the book had a price. In order to read it,
I had to sacrifice my own soul. I hesitated for
a moment, but then decided that it was worth it.
I opened the Tone and began to read. But as
I did, something began to change within me. The power

(02:17):
of the book was intoxicating, and I began to feel
like I was in control. The longer I read, the
more I became consumed by the magic of the tone.
I didn't notice when the other library patrons began to
disappear or when the police arrived to take the book away.
All I could focus on was the knowledge contained within
the pages. And then suddenly the book was gone. I

(02:41):
was alone, naked and exposed to the elements. The price
of the book had been my soul. Josh says he
left the story as it was generated on the first attempt,
but was very attempted to change the word police into
the word inquisitors to fit more with the original story.
But he says it, but oh well, I'm still satisfied.

(03:02):
Thanks and keep up the good work. Josh. PS. If
you want to throw in another thought of mine, as
this is my first time writing in I briefly wanted
to touch on the document bloat that you guys mentioned
in your fact similar episodes. I work in healthcare and
the documentation slash note writing burden is definitely one of
the largest contributors to healthcare worker burnout. This is made

(03:26):
worse by the fact that certain notes are required to
have certain content for insurance and billing purposes, even if
not exactly useful to the readers. Slash other healthcare providers.
To be efficient in reviewing a patient's chart, one has
to become very good at skimming and inordinate volume of
text in order to identify and use some small piece

(03:47):
of actually useful information. With the ease of electronic charts,
digital copying, etcetera, it has certainly paved the way for
medical documentation to explode in terms of the amount to
write and a few. While there are definitely benefits to
electronic charting, the note bloat that has overtaken the system
is certainly a barrier and burden for much of day

(04:09):
to day practice. That's all for now, Josh, Well, thanks
for writing in, Josh. Uh. I enjoyed the note bloat
note here, but as as I've been enjoying, I really
enjoyed this UH, this bit of AI assisted text here.
I think the the impulse to go back and change
just a few things to perfect it, I think that

(04:30):
that probably speaks volumes regarding where we're going to be
going with AI human creative endeavors in the future. Well, yeah, Robert,
I don't know exactly how this UH meshes with your thinking,
but it seems to me unlikely that at any point
and even the middle distant future that AI is going

(04:50):
to be able to write stories that are truly compelling
from beginning to end in a way that you know,
would be like the stories humans could tell. But I
can certainly see how they could be a tool for
human writers. There's sort of a way of generating interesting
ideas that can fuel the real creativity that takes place
in the human brain. Yeah, yeah, it's it'll probably what's

(05:13):
the name of the little paper clip that used to
pop up on computers clippy clippy like clip, you will
pop up and instead of saying, oh, I see your
writing a letter, and be like, oh, I see your
writing a sci fi thriller involving robots and pets. I
have a few few ideas for how we might devolve
the plot. Yeah, I see that your story has an

(05:34):
infinite book. Would you like to have your protagonists lose
their soul? Absolutely? All right? Well, you know next we're
gonna we're gonna get into some leftovers, and you know
what's better when it comes to leftovers than beans uh.
This is a response to our Vault episode on beans uh.

(05:57):
This is a fun exploration in which we we got
to really get into some of like the supernatural ideas
around beans uh continues to fascinate me. But this is
what ghost Rock had to say. Hello Robert and Joe.
Longtime listener, first time emailer. Thank you to you and
your whole team for the excellent podcast. I love thinking
about the topics you've talked about in ways I had

(06:18):
never considered, as well as just the sheer fun of
your lighthearted approach. On listening to the rebroadcast or re
podcast of reconsider the Being Part two, a funny memory
resurfaced in my brain. Many years ago. David Letterman had
a daytime talk show predating the late night TV show.
Wow that Yeah, that would have been many years ago

(06:40):
for sure. For some reason, yeah, yeah, for some reason.
The only memory I have of it was an ad
for the show featuring a fake cooking segment, and it
went something like this, Today I'm cooking with David Letterman.
I'll show you how to make three bean salad with
only one kind of being and magic markers. Thanks again

(07:01):
for all you do and keep up the good work.
Ghost Rock. I've never seen this show, but that sounds
funny because who doesn't want to taste a magic marker?
You know your kids all have that experience. You're sitting there,
You're looking at the colors. You're like, these markers have
different colors, just like skittles have different colors, and the
different colors on the skittles are flavors, So the markers

(07:23):
must have flavors too, right, It's it's logic. Well, this
implies to there's really no taste difference in the beans
that say business like Rancho Gordo is just one guy
with a magic mark with a few different magic markers
and one type of bean, and and he's just coloring
them with different markers and sending them out as different varieties.
This actually got me thinking about something, the three beans

(07:44):
salad joke. I was talking to Rachel about this before
we recorded. Uh. I must admit that as much as
I respect beans and I love beans, I enjoy eating them,
I find the phrase three beans salad immensely unappealing. And
perhaps this is related to the fact that I also
love pasta, but generally experienced revulsion that the idea of

(08:07):
pasta salad and just personal preference. If you like these things,
that's great, but for me, like there are some things
that work great tossed in a vitigrette, and served cold.
And those things do not include feusily noodles and kidney beans. Well,
I have to agree to disagree. I do love a
good bean salad. I love a good pasta salad. I

(08:27):
guess three beans salad. It also kind of implies there
just three beans in there, which which is also not accurate.
I think it's often like, I don't know, it's like
green beans. That's a little misleading, even though it is
the same species. That's still your old fazziolist. That's just
you know, without being shocked from the contato. Yeah, so
fresh green beans. And then I think usually kidney beans

(08:47):
and one other thing I don't know, candellini beans or something,
but I don't know. Again, I love beans, but I
think when they're cold that they have a kind of
more um merely kind of crystallized starch texture that I
do not enjoy as much as I enjoy the creamy
texture of a hot bean. That's my take. All right, Well,

(09:14):
let's move along. Looks like we have a little bit
of weird house cinema correspondents to get into here. Yeah,
let's see. Oh well, so before we get the weird
house cinema, there's one that's about previous listener mail, but
then sort of trending in the weird house direction. So
this concerns the previous listener mail about local horror hosts.
Remember the talk was about, you know, they used to

(09:36):
show like old horror movies on TV and it wouldn't
be just the movie. You'd have Al Lewis or Al
Elvira or somebody there like introducing the parts of the movie,
making jokes about it, doing the commercial breaks and so forth.
And and we were talking about the you know, distinct
pleasures of watching a movie that way, especially wanting to
find out about all the local media market horror hosts

(09:57):
that were less familiar with uh So here we heard
from Pat. Pat says enjoyed the listener mail today. I
got the impression you were unaware of the quote shock
package sold to local television stations by screen Jim's in
the late fifties. The horror hosts you mentioned were in
many cities. Mine was Zacherle, So I looked up Zacharly.

(10:18):
I was not previously familiar. I think this is somebody
named John Zacherley who did work as a horror host
but also had like a horror comedy novelty rock and
roll songs from the fifties, including one called a Dinner
with Drack in ninety eight. Rob, I think we should
listen to that for a moment and then comment on
it or dessert there was batwing confetti and the veins

(10:44):
of a mommy named Betty. I first frowned upon it,
but catch up on it. It tasted very much like spaghetti.
I just want to point out that Dinner with Drack
does predate the Monster Ash, so if one is a
rip off of the other, it's it's Monster Mash that
came later. Yeah. It definitely lands in the expected zone

(11:07):
for what novelty hard track should be. But it's pretty
fun too. It has like a little bit of um
what a screening Jay Hawkins kind of vibe to it
without being that outlandish and bad in your face. Yeah,
it's got a real ripping saxophone lead. Uh, and the
lyrics are like we I was dining with Drack at

(11:29):
his house by the sea, and but I choked on
my wine when I discovered the main course was me classic, classic, good, good,
but not quite as good as lay Law as monster rapping.
Is that the first time we've mentioned Monster rapping on
the show Monster Rapping. Uh, No, we definitely talked we've

(11:49):
I think we've talked about it a little bit, um
Monsters wrapping, the crypt Keeper rap and so forth group
Keeper jam. Was it? No? No, no, the song Monster Rapping?
Remember the law a Monster rapping? Oh, the one that
is a very early dr dre worked on. Yeah. I
don't think we've talked about it on the show, have we?
But Oh, that's a that's an obscure but wonderful track

(12:10):
that everyone should, well not everyone, some people should look
up if you want, you know, everyone should. It's awesome
lay law l A y l a W Monster Wrapping.
It's beautiful, it is, it's it's one of the best
novelty Halloween tracks you could possibly find. Oh anyway, But
to finish Pat's message about the shock package sold by

(12:34):
screen Gems in the late fifties, um Pat says the
package included many of the Universal Studios classic monsters. My
family made a Saturday night for many years with these movies. Hey,
that's good family time. Often the print was very bad,
poor sound, crazy edits scratches. When these films were remastered,

(12:54):
many seemed like a new film. Thanks again, Pat. Yeah, yeah,
thanks for pointing this out. Yeah, the Shock Theater or
Shock package a bunch of what pre nineteen horror films
and you can pull up a list of these online.
There's a wicky about them. Uh yeah, some great stuff
on that list. I don't know the whole story that.
It makes me wonder, like, did they send out a

(13:16):
like a a daytime horror host kit. Uh, They're like,
you're gonna have to develop your own host. We can't
supply that. Here are some useful props to consider. Here
is some Google makeup to put on. Somebody. Find someone
in your organization that can do this. All right, here's

(13:38):
another one that someone comes to us from Jason. Jason says, Hi,
guys love the podcast, particularly the Weird House Cinema episodes.
I thought your review of Robot Jocks was great and
wanted to let you know I saw this film in
the theater at least half a dozen times in my
early teens. Yes, I was a total nerd, and I
don't regret it for a minute. I was surprised, though,

(13:59):
that you didn't mention Gary Graham appearing in Star Trek
Enterprise alongside one of the greatest ever wait for it,
the one and only Jeffrey Combs playing an and Dorian
commander with one broken antenna, which was never explained. Of course,
Mr Combs is absolutely one of the most underrated actors ever,
and if you were a fan, you should buy all

(14:20):
means check out the Justice League Unlimited animated series where
he does the voice of the question a hardcore conspiracy
theorist who holds nothing back. Hearing him explain that the
plastic tips of shoelaces are called aglets and that they
serve quote a far more sinister purpose is pure gold.
Thanks again for all the great content you put out there,

(14:41):
and keep up the good work, Jason ps. Including this
pick that I thought Robert would enjoy, and it is
uh a trio of images. We have the Enterprise here,
the U. S. S Enterprise, and it's as faster than
light travel in fiction. Uh, Star Trek we use warp engines,
and then we see a star Destroyer to the Star
Wars we use hyper drives, and then we see a

(15:03):
ship from Warhammer forty thousand and it says, uh, we
traveled through Hell, which is true. That's that's how they
got to get around. Basically that I think that's come
up on the show before because we commented that must
have been the inspiration for Event Horizon. Yeah. Yeah, a
lot of people have have connected those two, and again
Event Horizon was not shy about taking, uh, borrowing ideas

(15:26):
from other properties and sort of stitching together into into
into the movie. Um, so yeah, they might have. They
might very well have been inspired by by Warhammer to
create their what turned out to be a hell Drive
in that movie. So I've never heard of this DC
character the question before this is the one that was
voiced by Jeffrey Combs in the cartoon. But that sounds

(15:47):
like a great idea. I've always thought we should have
a superhero version of Dale Gribble. Yeah. I wasn't failiar
with this guy either, but I even I mean, DC
has been around for so long. Yeah, they a rich
rogues gallery. Uh and then they're always getting retooled and
rediscovered and recreated to uh to to to to re

(16:09):
debut in comics and in comic book related properties. But
I agree Jeffrey Combs, there's nothing like a Jeffrey Combs performance.
I guess um he was in The Giver. Remember he
shows at the very end as the scientist who's doing
some kind of unethical experiment. Then he suddenly turns into
one of the big jiggling monsters, and then I think

(16:31):
it's uh disemboweled because the mcguffin gets thrown down his mouth. Yeah,
we haven't watched a pure Jeffrey Combs movie yet, like
something in which he stars, So I don't know. I
don't know if there there's one out there that would
be the right fit. Well, I don't think it's a
good movie at all, but I just do want to
remind you that the third Reanimator movie is the one

(16:54):
with that techno that euro disco song in it where
the chorus is reanimate your feet. Oh yes, yes, all right, Well,
on that note, we're gonna go ahead and close out.
But if we'd love to hear from everyone out there,
if you have responses to any of the listener mails
in this episode, right in, if you have responses to oh, current, past,

(17:15):
future episodes of Stuff to Blow your Mind, a Weird
how cinema, right in, we'd love to hear from you.
In the meantime, you'll find core episodes of the show
on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the Stuff to Blow your
Mind podcast feed on Wednesday's We Do Short Form artifact
or monster Fact on Monday's We Do Listener mail, and
on Fridays we set aside most serious concerns to just
talk about a weird film. Huge thanks, as always to

(17:36):
our excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. 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.

(17:57):
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