Twas The Night Call Before Christmas

But I wanted to pose a question much like we original We started our show deciding which of the members of the movie Zodiac we are, um, which we can maybe cut to a clip of here, even what are you guys feeling right? What's your sign? What's her Zodiac? Well, I said, because tests just showed up here today with a stack of papers printed out from the Internet, and I decided that means that she's the Robert Gray Smith.

And I just took that well, because he's the one who like does all the research and has all the papers, all the files. He's a doodler. Yeah, he's a doodler. I'm a doodler. And Molly, Emily you expressed an affinity for Ruffalo. Well, I feel like I'm I'm Mark Ruffalo in most movies if he shows up. I do think in this case too, especially when I was an editor, I feel like you have to be the no fund

person a lot. And so I had sympathy for for Tasky because he's like a detective and he's not like he doesn't get to have crazy conspiracies or like go on crazy benders like like Grabbertanny Junior does. He kind of has to just like be a regular detective and like carry out the you know, he gets to wear a cool side arm though right like he does like a cool gun holster. Yeah, and he has good ties. He has bow ties. I like his style a lot,

probably of all of them. Um. I do like how he kind of as as things go on and as Gray Smith kind of takes the case into his own hands. I love the way that he sort of secretively aids him by like saying, well, I didn't tell you this, but blah blah blah. Um So yeah, So I don't know, I have a soft spot for Tasking and I feel like nobody else would pick them. Also, so my friends have a Colombo party Apparently every year it's a Columbo Halloween party where everyone just comes dressed as Colombo, and

this year it was apparently Colombo or Mark Ruffalone Zodiac. Um. I feel like this is all pointing towards Molly being Avery, which I think is uh. I mean, I know you at that house boat. You know I want to be the Robert Downey junior character in anything. Yeah, I mean me too, but when I'm honest until up until Iron Man, at which point I don't care anymore. You don't want to be an arms dealer. No, I don't want to

be an arms dealer superhero. I mean, there's just a string of performances where he's so amazing starting with less than zero zero. R d J is not too shabby himself. Um, and uh, you know Chaplain is a good movie. I enjoyed him in Wonder Boys. Yeah, there's just you know, I love Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. There's just a long, a long period where he's really great and everything, and then you had that last little come back and now

he makes Marvel movies. That's our our final answer. Molly is Avery, Test is Gray Smith and I'm Tasky and that's it. There's no more argument that it's settled. Um. I was thinking maybe we could decide which of the ghosts of Christmas past, present or future do you identify with. But so, the ghost of Christmas Present is like the big, like fat guy with the fruits and all the like plentiful like a turkey around him. I think, so, yeah, he's a jolly man. Um. And then the ghost of

Christmas future is like the devil. Basically, I believe it's like the ghost of Christmas past is Jacob Marley. Um no, No, the ghost of Christmas past is like a little boy or girl. I feel like it's a child spirit and it brings you to your own Christmas in the past. Yeah, you get to look at Christmas in the past. And then the Christmas present is you go to your nephew at already that you didn't actually go to and they're like, where is Uncle Scrooge. We all love Scrooge. Everyone misses him.

And then his wife is like, isn't he kind of a horrible person? And they're like, oh, he's a Emily Holidays sing, don't they sing? Thank you very very much? Or no, no, no, that's when he died. That's in the future. One the Future, and then everybody's celebrating his death. Everyone celebrating his death because he wouldn't let anyone have time off for Christmas from work. Um, I feel like

the Ghost of Christmas Future is pretty cool, pretty metal. Wait, that's the one who's like the scary your grave and it's like, this is what happens if you don't repent. Yeah. I really liked Christmas Carol. Did you guys get into like Dickens and stuff? I really liked it. I haven't read it or seen it in such a long time. I just love anything where there's like a million iterations of it. It's like in the public domain, so anyone

can do it. You were trying to get us to do a scrooged episode, and I feel like we both vetoed that. Well. If there are some other good Christmas Carol remakes, there's like a Muppet one that's good. Them up at one is good. There's a Mickey Mouse one that I watched a zillion times as a child. Right, They're all just like wedged in that weird part of your brain, and there's something really nice about the format. Yeah. Um, I love when I realized anything is going to be

either a Christmas Carol themed or it's a Wonderful life themed. Um, are you guys it's a wonderful life heads? Absolutely, I love it's a wonderful life. I'm too fragile, man, You're too fragile. I'm really fragile about it. It's very dark. It's like the darkest movie. I remember there was one winter when I when I watched it and just thought like I kind of just made myself like I midway through, I was like, I don't think you can handle this, And by the end, I was just crying so hard.

I don't do this to yourself. Test that's why people like it, though I know, I know gives you the you can just ventilate all your tears, your holiday tears. As Jimmy Stewart just like, yeah, I'm Jimmy Stewart. That's my answer to this question. Uh No, I guess. I guess I'm the ghost of Christmas past. Um, if we have to choose, I'm an angel e spirit, You're you're the A. I think I'm present, like I like that.

I think I'm I think I'm very paranoid. It's all about, like, you know, here's what everyone thinks of you should feel terrible. Oh no, but you also just talked about how you like a bounty of sauces, which is what I feel like. But it's also paranoia. It's like, well, you also have strong negative feelings that you wish to express recently about holiday food that you realize you actually hate holiday holiday food. I pumpkin pie has been spared my wrath, but the

rest of it fu itself to be honest, Happy holidays. Yeah, you know what it's It's one of these weird contracts that you sign into as a human being where you agree to make the same thing everyone else. I mean, you don't have to, but I did this for a long time. You have to make it and then you have to eat that. You have to sit down and eat it for as long as it takes to finish it. And it's it's just a terrible soul crushing exercise and like being a lemming, you know, don't do it. Question reality.

Make your own Christmas meal next year. I'm having duck coffee there. That sounds great with dipping sauce. Duck alla sauce exactly. Uh. This is all to say that we are doing a little bit of a clip show this week, um and going through some of our favorite nightcall moments PLO plot lines, themes, recurring recurring issues that we visited over this first year of doing our podcast, and a lot of that comes courtesy of our wonderful night callers

and night calls that we get. So I think we are We all want to say thank you to our listeners. Thank you your weird stories and questions and stuff, because a lot of them went to unexpected and fun places. I think we genuinely have some of the best listen

as of any podcast. They're just the most interesting. There's very little like everyone seems to have something that's so vague in common, where it's just kind of like a weird vibe that we all have in common, and it's led to super interesting discussions across I would also like to do we did a live event close to Thanksgiving this year. Maybe we can make it a Night's Giving tradition and that would be great. Have Emily next time and we'll all eat something that's not holiday food, sauces.

We're gonna do sauces at every night Call event. There will be sauce. Uh, So we're gonna kind of take a little I don't. I don't think it's definitely going to be uh linear time wise, but just sort of meander through night calls, passed uh some of our favorite murder boards, ice cream trucks, and other uh familiar faces that we that we uh that we have fun with over the year. So so yeah, meditate on the past, enjoy the present, and think about the future. Hey, and

I call ladies. It's eight forty four pm in Hot Austin, Texas, and I've got a question for you. My name is Maggie, and I just found out what muck bang is in the UK d A n G. It might be muke thing, and I want to know what you girls think of it because I think it's horrifying and I also feel that it's a tool that anorexics could use to you know, essentially get their fixed without eating food. UM. Yeah, So if you guys can weigh in on muck bang or

muke thing, I appreciate that. Thanks by UM. I have to say that mayonnaise being killed by millennials is awful. It's a travesty. Somebody on Twitter recently UM called out the fact that like when people don't like mayonnaise and they try and put other stuff on their sandwiches. It's beyond disgusting. I think some of the substitutions that he listed were hummus, pasto also wrong. I mean, there were

so many things that just can't replace mayonnaise. I would put all these things on a sandwich over mayonnaise, hummus. I mean, if it's a peda Okay, the thought of me and a peter bread just made me like throw up. I love it and seek, which is like Mayonnai's adjacent. So I know. Taziki is fine because sziki is yogurt. It's just a mayonnaise. So it's the fact that it's not dairy. It's like Uncanny Valley for a texture. It's like that. It's like gross, It's like I hate the

taste of it. What about tartar sauce. It's that's the exception. That's my thing, a tartar sauce. If it's in something and I can't taste it, it's like, you know, good direction, Okay, okay, if I notice it, it's bad. It's this bias that you have against what mayonnaise stands for. It's like, no, it's not It's like literally sometimes I'll try something and be like, oh no, there's mayonnaise in this. I'm out

like a dip. Ruins a lot of dips for me. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely better to air on the side. I think of yogurt or sour cream in a dip. I bet I could make you a dip with those ingredients. Sneak in some mayonnaise and you have no idea. I'm saying if you sneak in and I have no idea, that it's fine. If it's in like a deviled egg, yeah, maybe it's fine. Mix up in a yoke if there's something else to like. So if you make it more mayonnaisy by adding yolk, but again, it's like something it's

like swimming in mayonnaise. I'm just like swimming in anything's a bad idea. Other than the sauce. They have a dent Tai fung, which is the black vinegar and the soy sauce. And I'm just saying, there's so many other sauces that are better than your sauces. Mayonnaise like a spread, there's no time the I don't want mustard more. What kind of mustard do you like? Just like any kind really. Yeah. My parents think I'm crazy because I'm into yellow mustard. I think that's like like a like a hot dog

or something. It's trashy people's mustard. They mustard. So the five mother sauces, I don't know if you have any feelings on these in French cooking on basamal, velute espanol, French tomato, sauce that has a name that I forget, and hollandaise. I mean, are you going to nix hollandaise because it's too much like mayonnaise? No? I like hollandaise. You're such an enigma. I don't know where you're coming from. Half I have it on eggpned act. I've made it. I feel like I went through a so you can

make it in the microwave. Um. I like mustard the most. I think mustard does the most. Word limited capacity for mustard. I did you turn on soy sauce? Thought that was your favorite favorite sauces? My favorite sauce, but also ponds. When you have pondzo, all of a sudden, you're like, soy sauce is pretty basic. Where do you fall and catch up? I like catch up, okay, but I do not accept any ketchup, but Hines every other ketchup tastes whack.

I don't know why. It's something they're sweetness. Sugar ratios are off on other people's Can I mention for anyone in l A that one of the sauces that I'm really addicted to right now is from Dave's Hot Chicken, and they have like this really it makes your heart race, though, which is like, I'm sure because there's a lot of salt in it, it must be that. But well I was I wasn't going to bring it up, but yeah,

you did. You you drank a bunch of Sayce shauce and then you get really concerned that you were going to die, and you you get too sliders and they're huge, and then you get like a bunch of tubs of sauces because you take and take, and then you go home and like fifteen minutes later, you're sweating your heart. Is a lot of salt in everything good, It's true. I love the Zancou garlic sauce, the Zancu chicken they have that. It's like basically the same thing that you

can get a trader ship Si garly spread. Well, that's like when you get fried clams, and you have the cocktail sauce and the tartar sauce, and you can like alternate. I always go for the cocktail sauce though, and that now you got alternate, yeah, or because the cocktail sauce eventually it's too if you just alternate with the cocktail sauce and like vinegar vinegar, you need to like I like to like pickly, the pickly smooth, you know what

I mean. The pick smooth get sponsored by Hines Tartar sauce. Seriously, No, well honestly, so he just Hi, I'm very behind and I'm just now listening to you guys talk about whales and how whales came from the land, which is creepy. But then he talked about hippos and had to call in because, um, I'm obsessed with the story of hippos moving to Columbia, so you should definitely look it up. But Pablo Escobar had a weird zoo on his property and he had all these hippos brought from Africa, and

when he was arrested, they started escaping. And now Colombia has all of these hiccos and it's like exactly the same climate of Africa, but without the drought. So they're becoming the dominant predator. And everyone thinks HIPOs are cute and cuddly, just like Carvel died, but actually they are dangerous and terrifying. And I think like the second or

third most like deadly credittor. So it's a huge problem and Columbia doesn't want to kill them because Columbia has reputation problems, and so it's just becoming this like epic problem and they're just everywhere and it's an amazing story. And I just thought you guys should know, so happy

nightcall the side note. UM. Like very shortly after I got married, UM, I bought my first pair of Teva's UM and I feel like this, like this transformation took place over the course of one week where I'm like, I love my Tevas. I'm gonna go be a tourist and wearing my squashy sandals. You entered the mode seriously because like when it's raining that much, you can't even really wear boots because they'll just get inside the boot. So I just thought, why fight it, Just be barefoot

and let the water wash over. You became a forest crab. Yourself. I did. Yeah, I I became slightly amphibious. So we were leaving non Zenji, which is this huge Buddhist temple, and of course as we're leaving, like the five pm was the closing time, so we couldn't be inside anymore,

and then it just starts pouring down rain. So we were just like running, like bolting down this path um trying to get back to the subway, which basically took an hour because it would start to lighten up and then we'd start walking and then I would start pouring again and we'd like find shelter under the nearest thing.

But we're staying outside of Kyoto in this um like a yokam which is like the kind of a bed and breakfast, like the Japanese version of a bed and breakfast, and the one we stayed as like they had this river side thing where they turned off all the lights at a certain points so you could see the fireflies, which was so funny because it reminded of you me, of you, Molly, because there were like three fireflies on the river when I saw the firefly in New York.

And yeah, well I think I've said this before, but this is like a lot of l A kids I know have this thing. We're the only place we've ever seen fireflies is on Pirates of the Caribbean. Yes, you know at this bed and breakfast, did you have to have communal breakfast and dinner? Um? Yes, it's very old school. Communal tables are tests worst nightmare. You don't have to

talk to anybody else there except this this place. Like many of these types of super traditional like I would say, like fancy Rio cons had Geisha's, Like they come through and they like perform some kind of dance or whatever. But then they come through and they talk like to each table and you have to talk to them and

you have to talk to them. It's like one of them that came through and talked, she spoke a little more English and it was okay, But then those of them mostly don't, and so I was speaking to them in Japanese and my Japanese is really bad. I would rather be at a communal table with other people who are staying than than with what did you guys talk about? Like, oh, where are you from? And I found it to be supremely awkward. But like the drunk businessmen who were there

for dinner, gotta gotta kick out of it. So this campaign was started a few years ago in Kyoto to get more people to use public transportation and to use the subway. They decided like the best tactic to attract people to the subway would be to make like cute anome girl mascots for the train. And so it's called like the Moe Moe Kyoto like campaign. UM, and they

have like they have this full cast of characters. UM. And there's uh, like the main or all she has like a brother, and then another one of her friends as a brother, and they're all these bios for them. And I think they made some kind of short animation, but it's just hilarious because like all of the subways are plastered with these ads of like these cute autome girls like holding their their subway passes and like showing how cool and cute it is to have a subway.

Doesn't work? Did people ride the subway more? I guess. I guess it's been successful because they've kept it up. Somebody at this who works for the city get characters. But there's one of the guys who's like kind of like a jockish guy wearing a pink Cootie is named Takeru and says Takara attended the same high school as Rio and his best friend, who's like the other boy there. He has an easy going and optimistic side. After graduating from high school, his desire to become a breadmaker let

him to study at a bakery in Kyoto. He likes how people can buy bread around Kyoto's subway stations. Now I'm just picturing somebody riding the train and falling in love with one of these characters. Hey, I think I called the right number. Dylan leaving you and night call Um so something about targeted ads. I said something about how I was very exset that there's a new Coke.

It's Coke zero, replacing the old perfect Pope zero. And then I got an ad on Twitter that was like, Dylan, there's someone else in Austin had an Austin, Uh, someone else not and named Chris or something who also didn't. I wasn't writing for the new Coke zero to come out, but look at this video we made that convinced them. And that was when I threw my phone into the ocean,

and uh, I'm calling you from a tin camp. No, but you know it's like the things I find charming up at it are like the fandoms and stuff like that. Fandom for Disneyland has always been like, by far the best Disneyland fandom. Yeah. I've never been a bad stay, but I did. I did grow up golf. I started dyeing my hair black at like twelve, and my have very curly hair, and my sisters would sing share songs to me to Tommy and I was like, no, Ali,

why were you so golf? You know, I grew up in this town that was wealthier than we were but had good schools, and so there were people like like Hill the guard in my high school and I transferred there in sixth grades and I's like, you've never been to a Benetton store. You don't have anything Benetiti Like no, And so I think I just was like, well fucked, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna assimilate that way. So

I'm just gonna go head the other direction. So I was like, all right, I only wear old military things I get from just from thrift stores. Before you know, it's a slippery slope. You're wearing black eyeliners, lips it you guys, how long? How long? Was this period of your life, probably like thirteen to like two commitment. I know, I went to l A and was like, oh, I guess it doesn't work here. It's just it's the best place to be a goth. I didn't know that I

didn't find my people yet. I I remember I drove down to like go to Helter Skelter a couple of times when I was like in college, but I never went to a bad day, but it always I found it very endearing that so many goths would congregate in the daylight, because that is not what of course, that's not so many parasols. Yeah, I love that picture of the Cure at the beach. I've never stayed it. It's so funny. They're the Cure, but they're at the beach

and they look so uncomfortable. I think it's so amazing. Yeah. Yeah, And that to me is like the so called so because I'll go I think there is a thing where people go in this beach goth direction where you're like, I'm going to wear all the clothes, because who expects that in a hundred degree at least of all you wearing all the clothes. That's what I mean. It's hard to be golf here because it's like, what do you do?

Like the black tank talk just like pastel goth. I mean, my real the real reason I could never be a golf because I tried. I tried in seventh grade. I was like, I'm gonna be golf, but I like, I don't like wearing black, And every time I wear black, I'm like this is I always feel like I'm gonna have to go to a coral performance. Yeah, there's some

of that. I mean I was like a closet goth kind of in a very literal sense, Like I had a closet that had a bunch of goth stuff in it that was no, by no means my daily wardrobe. But everyone but I had a closet. I did have a goth closet. I had like knee high lace up boots that were like pointy and had like a heel that I couldn't walk in. I had all these like black petticoats and like, uh, like anything that my grandma had that I could take, like inherited from her that

was black. I would take so all this sort of like decrepit lacy ship and every once in a I would have a Goth Day, which was always a great uh source of self expression. I think I wanted to be able to commit more to being a goth, but I also wanted to like do other things too. But gods hate Halloween just because there are a lot of people who are like looking gods today and you're like

every day. It was always like I remember I was in college, my first year of college, and I walked into my dorm room and my not gothroommate was wearing all of my clothes and she's like from Lueena, I'm you but sexy, and like, well, I wasn't burgit and I did gathering a lot, so she had a point. I was no way, I wore a lot of Nobody got laid more in college than the people who played magic the gathering, at least in our calls true. The Larbers had like the biggest sex scene. They were all

every weekend too. It was like, you have no plans, but the Larbers do are not invited. That's exactly what you lar people is like the most uninhibited thing you can do in public in a group. I feel like it's a really good pre cursor to sex. Hey, guys, so it's Nicole from It's Happening with Snooky and Joey and I have a night call for you guys. So I totally believe in aliens and I always have this

presence of aliens in my house. I know it sounds crazy, but um, the Grays I've always been not like attracted to, but always like interested in UM, and I always feel like there's alien presence around me ever since I was little. So can you tell me about the Grays and what

I've been feeling. Some people preprogrammed their mixes, especially people who play like big shows like that all the time, but also you know more to just have the ghost DJ just like personally, I'm going to keep the dream of DJ polly D alive because, like I could, Poldy might really know how to spend I think, you know, listen, he has that Italian flag laptop, like I think he knows what's going on. You all love DJ Poldy, and

then he knows how to beat match. I would have sex with him, like it wouldn't take anything, It would take no effort on his I'm just saying, you know, Nicole called into the pod, so we do have a I saw that I need to listen to that. I'm a poky Tell your aliens to send DJ pod to night call. Yes, tell um snooky. You can tell pold that I have been to Italy. And even though I'm not Italian, I was raised Catholic and I am d t F. I live in Los Angeles. I'm easy to find. Hey,

and I call. This is Kate. I'm calling with a spooky story for you. That's something that has happened to me recently, in the past couple of weeks, probably two weeks. Uh, I've been getting calls from a private number, so I assume someone who has I think Stars sixty seven the number, so I can't see the numbers. It's private blocked. And the first couple of times I missed it or ignored it because who answers private numbers? Um, it never left

a message. Uh. Then finally I picked it up. I was in a car with some times and I put on speaker just to be like, what's going on. And the first thing I hear is Hello, like the ice cream truck thing. That voice that like Hello, and then it starts with an ice cream truck song. I can't remember if it's the Scott Joplin song or um, do your ears hanging low or whatever? But anyways, the recording of ice cream Truck and it just loops. Um. So

obviously I was pretty freaked out. UM. And I kept getting the calls for the next couple of days and I only answered it like one or two more a few more times um, but each time it was the exact same thing, and luckily it just um. So then I just started ignoring them obviously UM. And it never left a message. Uh. So that was the biggest blessing because I hate voicemails, especially creepy I scream truck loops um.

But so this got me thinking, Uh, if you all have ever had an experience that made you feel like you are actually trapped in a horror film? Um. But luckily the calls had actually stopped. UM. I almost hesitated to make this call because I didn't want to drink for anything. So anyway, that's my spooky story. UM, and

let me know what you think. Okay, bye. He called us with a night call about how she was getting mysterious calls from ice Cream Truck that would say hello, Hello, Hello scary ice cream truck and she didn't know why. And we heard about it a lot. A lot of people suggested to reply all article episode that implied it was a scam. We were waiting to see if we would ever find out, and now we found out, Tess, would you like to do the honors? I would love to.

This comes from Kate. Hey nightcall per your request. I called back and left another message explaining what happened. Here's a backup email in case my call cuts out again. I'm in a rural area sometimes services bad. We're relying on the email because right because she called back and it got cut off. That's why we were like, oh, we're never going to find out. But no, Okay, go on, Okay, okay, back to Kay. The big reveal came as I was

leaving New Orleans a few weeks ago. Some friends came over to say goodbye, and when they said we have something to confess, I realized immediately the day where the ice cream truck ghost. They would call me number blocked and hold the phone up to this YouTube video which she links. I had apparently mentioned to them in passing several months ago that I used to live near an ice cream truck deep depot in Brooklyn in Bushwick, off the Morgan l stop, so I would often hear the

hello and the songs from my window. I probably should have placed this together, but instead I spun out an elaborate and terrifying theory in my head story of my life. Anyway, I'm relieved it was just my friends being goofy. However, I still believe that ice that ice cream trucks are

deeply haunted. Wow, so it's interesting. Yeah, everybody, we got like fifteen emails or something UM suggesting we listened to this reply All episode, but there were differences between what Keith had originally described and this scam that they looked into on reply All, which I obviously is such a good podcast and you should listen to um. But yeah, it was it was just a friends punking her right,

which is also scary. It is kind of scary. But it's funny that you would mention something haunting and then forget it, because that's totally something that I could picture. It's really funny you would forget mentioning that you lived next to an ice cream truck depot. Yeah, that's awesome because hilarious and awesome, but also it makes more sense that way because it's such a specific Brooklyn everybody in Brooklyn is like, oh, yes, the ice cream truck that

goes hello. This next night call is from a true stand Hi. I'm Emily's mom, and I remember two thousand eight because Emily and I went on a road trip across the country from Arkansas to Washington State. So that's all I was going to share some details about that. Followers that know us from the hoodies days have definitely heard us at least make threats to a big chill uh special. I liked this movie. It was sad. Why sad? Well,

I mean, maybe it wasn't sad. I don't know. It was definitely less like peak eighties than I was expecting. I realized, like as I was watching it, I was like, oh, this is like three this is kind of like almost still a seventies movie. It's just kind of like a story about some people with some problems. It's very much like Play. Yeah, it is a it's a total play. And I thought it was also it's kind of like

a loose remake of Rules of the Game. He said, Oh, it's like a French country estate, but it's just like a you know, a country house and some white yuppies who are having a lot of issues, but having fun having their issue. Well, Okay, this is what I'm gonna say is I thought the reason I thought it wasn't maybe depressing because I was like, is this like an upbeat ending spoiler alert, like everybody has sex at the

end during like a lightning storm. This movie is very horny. Um. But yeah, I was like, this movie is sort of like it's like, at first, it's all sad about like you've made all your choices and you're stuck now in your life forever with your like boring life that you chose. Um, nothing like the fun life you thought you were going to have when you were a hippie living in a co op with your cool friends, and now you're confronting

it in a funeral scenario. But then at the end, it's like everybody kind of is like, oh, actually, we still can change our minds about stuff still and like let your friend's husband knock you up, which is yeah, that is one of the few really wild plot points. I think that's is that the transformative moment though, that like when when everybody realizes they still have that good old hippie community, like we're going to make a baby

together as like a friend. But then there's also the fact that Nick, who's William hurt Um, decides to stay in the house with Chloe's. It is the Haunting of Chill House. Yep. Is make Tilly like always always doing stretches and like like doing contortions and a leotard because she's young and flexible. Yeah, of course, because it's to show that it's the eighties. Well, I mean like flexible metaphorically she's doing more like you know, Well, they don't really,

It's funny. They feel like they include her. They're not like mean to her just because she's like the young I mean, Glenn Close is giving her some side eye. But I think at one point Meg Tilly's character Chloe, they're all like waxing nostalgic, and then they asked her about her past and she's like, oh, I don't really talk about the past because I right about it as

much as you guys. So she kind of represents the like she's not nostalgic yet because she's still at a point where she's still like idealistic and anything can happen in her life and like she's just enjoying her twic. It feels like she's more she doesn't have a tight group of friends though like they do. She's yeah, she's a drifter. She's like seems like she's just dated a series of older men, and like she says something to the effect of, I don't know that many happy people

or something like that. I think she's secretly the greatest character. But she is a great character. And like the leotard that she's doing, the stretches and at the beginning is like very specifically such an eighties leotar, like put me in a weird state of mind. Can you imagine how hard it would be to pee if you were wearing a leotard overtights? I mean, I remember how hard it was, and yet everyone did. Um. I was saying to tests, I found all of the men in this movie very attractive.

Who most? Who most? Uh, Well, you know I know that it's just like a basic take to be attracted to Jeff Goldbloom, But I was never a person who was attracted to Jeff Goldbloom for many years, and like suddenly I was like, Jeff Goldbloom, Wow, what a charming guy, very good at taking imaginary phone calls and movies. Yeah, I'll tell you who I was most attracted to, and that would be Mary kay Place. Oh well, Mary Kay Place, Mary Kay play is the Mary Yeah. And then there's

William Hurt obviously Nick Carleton, who's a veteran. He is a Vietnam vet. He he cannot get a boner or something or or doesn't I don't know my humpand is like his dick was blown off? Is that it is not really, but I was envisioning the like born on the fourth of July, like pulling your tube out. Yeah, there's something, that's what I imagine. And chee um. He also does a lot of drugs and oh yeah. I find him to be the least attractive in this film.

He's a babe though still u mannerisms wise and the dryness of his his sense of humor. He is number one babe. Not not exactly, but I like st interesting, stoic babe. So hey, friends, it's one fifteen in the morning on a Tuesday, which in my life means them just finished up with tabletop RPG night during the week and return home, occasionally scouring the Internet for new ideas

or games we might play in the future. H and stumbled upon a post from a ready user of funnel that is a Frazier RPG tabletop RPG entitled Boss, Dragons and Scrambled Eggs. Obviously, I thought the three of you and whether or not you've had any experience with tabletop arges, and if so, if you'd be interested in playing an RPG with Niles Frasier, Lilith and Daphne have a have a good e thing. What guys would you like to read some passages from Kelsey Grammer's So Far And thank

you very much to Ben for compiling these. This is this is he is our ros. He just spent like two hours skimming through this book, the Book of so Far dot dot dot. Years after my sister had died, a friend of hers told me this story. One night. She and Karen had been talking of life and family and where we all were going. Karen stopped and thought for a minute and then said, I'm not so sure about myself, but I do know this Kelsey's to do it all. So I dedicate this book to Karen A

Lisa Grammar. Karen, if I haven't done at all, I promise I will still keep trying. That's pretty that's pretty exemplary. He was like it's like everyone in his life is like Kelsey, you are the greatest man, who were the Golden Child? Like I know, I know, I'm wondering. Here's here's the story of how Kelsey got cast on Cheers, and it's called Weirdness in Kelsey's Life by our producer band. They looked at stand up comics, and they looked at actors,

and then they found me. They found me because every moment of my life led them to finding me where the strands of causality are most visible. They found me because I had been in the Stephen Sondheim musical called Sunday in the Park with George, and that was weird.

I use this word advisedly to the to that point my life had included had such weirdness as the murder of my father, the rape and murder of my beloved and only sister, the drowning deaths of my two half brothers, and a marriage that went south even before the ceremony. But it was definitely weird that I ever got to sing on stage in New York because the thing of it was when I was chosen for Sunday in the Park with George, I was in my late twenties and

I hadn't sung since I was in high school. What weird? Anywhere near what? I was looking that my friend listened to the rest of the book on her drive back. You want to, I want to hear everything, just that it was bananas. Yeah, I recommend uh listening to the audio book. I wanted to draw your attention to this Fox interview with a pair of Harvard Divinity School researchers who published a paper in that suggested that millennials are

substituting CrossFit and soul cycle for traditional organized religions. I know you have a particular affinity for the occult, and while this maybe it's exact opposite, it may hold some interest for you for that very reason. It feels like another instance of new businesses filling the vacuum created by the loss of old institutions. Guys, well as a person who's as I was saying, my favorite, um, my favorite hot take on everything is it's church. A Star is Born.

We all saw Stars Born. Emily saw it first at a film festival, and then we all saw it when it came out in theaters. And the only moment that made me feel something very deeply in that film spoiler spoiler was when he wet his pants at the Grammys and I got down in my seat, I like hunkered down, and I didn't know I was going to cross. I was just very I was like really disturbed, and it

was a good, good scene. It's funny because, like, having watched all the other versions, like I knew that was coming, and yet when it happened, when they got up to like, oh, I was like, Oh, she's going to win the Grammy and then he's going to get on speed on stage and make the speech, because that's what happens in every version. Um. And then when he wasn't talking, he just kind of stood there. I was like, it started falling asleep. He's going to piss himself. You knew you, Yes, I did.

There's there's a lot of foreshadowing in that movie. There's there's a there's an actual shot drink like a whole bottle of water before he went on, you know, she said. As he sits down, He's like, I was trying to go to the bathroom, but somebody like rushed me down to the seat. I didn't know that. Yeah, he was like they pulled me out of the bathroom or something, Molly, how does that play out in the other versions? Like,

what's that scene? Like? In every version, it's that she finally gets like, you know, she's becoming a star, and she went toward her career the award of her career and he's won it before and then he gets up there and just like like ruins it by being so embarrassing. Hey, and i'd call. It's five fifty one in upstate New York and I'm doing one of my favorite things, which is walking my dog and listening to your podcast. And the one I'm listening to today is the discussion about

that cremins cookies. And it made me think of something my wife has joked about for the last five years, ever since are previous dog died, which is eating his cremains and not you know, like a whole bowl of ask like a GPS thinking into it and be done with it. She's joking she hasn't done it yet, but you can all discussed whether it's better or worse if it's the family member or not. And I'm asking if

it's better or worse if it's a pet. So anyway, happy nightcall there there might be ghost tapping me on the shoulder all the time right now, and and I'm just missing them. But it's been a long time. I feel like we don't have enough time to go over all of which is really saying something like that's impressive in and of itself, But we had a few that we definitely wanted to hear from you. Maybe in ascending order of spookiness, maybe we can get some spooky sound

effects under this. Yeah, I didn't bring my own. So if you go to the Brand Library in Glendale, UM, and there's a path if you go there at night, there's a path that leads up into the hills behind it UM and if you get you you go up you You walk up that path about fifteen minutes and you'll see a small, a little trail that goes off it and you'll notice when you go down the trail that the temperature or suddenly drops and you come to a wrought iron gate enclosing the purity way. Up in

the mountains, there's a pyramid. There's a stone pyramid about fifty high uh in the hills above above Glendale. It is the Brand family, and I believe the Brand family built Glendene there. I have you guys been there it is so spooky. Have you been there? Know? How? When you come soon we will go and there's a chair amid is what we're going to get to. And everybody I know who goes there says it's like the weirdest place,

and what this is? How weird it was for my friends, for whom I went there and told me the story together and swear by it. Uh So you go there at night and the gate is closed, you have to climb over it. And they came in and they brought a wigie board, so they climb over it. They feel very weird. They sit down, they put the disc on the wigie board and it just starts spitting by itself. It starts spitting wildly, and then they are in the car in their car on the freeway driving home. Just

like a time leap. They all lost the time in between. Yes, didn't they get rid of the Wegi board. I don't know if the wei if the Wegi board was with them still interesting, it might still be there. Yeah, I'll go getting you guys. Let's go, or let's just bring another one that offering another demon story. Yeah, number three, So I was not the one that I thought you

were going to tell, so I'm very curious. The one you I remember you telling me at Italy was about um, it was like somebody said that you had somebody said that you had opened up your near soul to a ghost flotter. The Wegi board that was at the haunted coffee shop, and wait, wait, the All Star cafe that used to be in the Knickerbocker Hotel in front of which d W. Griffith died. Um uh the Knicker I think the hotel has been bought by scientology now when

the cafe doesn't just anymore. But uh uh. They claimed it was very haunted, and they had a Wigi board, and my friend and I were, uh, we're playing with this, the Ouiji board, and the boards we started telling us things, horrible things we're gonna happen to our friends. It's sort of it was. It was spelling very It was the quickest Ofuigi board has ever worked for me. I was saying like one front of her is gonna die at a car accident and other it was like but it

was it was kind of like jokey horrible things. But uh. We asked him who he was and he said he was a nine year old boy named named Max and I spelled that and as we were leaving, um, we said to the owner and a he says, do you get anything on the weigi boards? So yeah, someone was really great and they're like, oh, was it Max the nine year old? What wait, we're a ton of people bringing gigi boards to the coffee shop. There was never a ton of people in that they had a Weiji

board there, so it might have been weird. Yeah. At around the time that that that happened. And uh, talking about friends with their brand cemetery experience, I was at a dinner, a group dinner, and there was this, uh, there was this old Native American gentleman. This is the story I think that you know, it was sort of sort of a shaman type, uh self styled shaman, but a lot of people held him in very high regard.

But I started chatting about these ghosts experiences and he looked at me and he said, he said, you shouldn't be fooling with this, and and I was like, uh, it's not you know, just having fun with the work. Kids will be kids. What are you what are you gonna do? And he kind of looked it was like looking in the space around me, and he's like, you're opening yourself up to the spirits and I was. I said, well, they're welcome to come visit. I don't don't know anything

against them. He looked at me more and he slammed his fifth pounds. No, you are a coffee cup. Your coffee cup is empty. The spirits are coffee that coffee wants to be in a cup. That is what you're doing. So you guys finally got around to seeing Phantom Thread. Um, tell me about your experience. Well, now I have an excuse to post the caption give me thread till I'm dead that I've been planning. I'm gonna let test take it.

Don't do this test encouragement. Um. I have a lot of good things to say about Phantom Thread, things I liked, But in the end, I'm going to say that I probably liked it the least of all of us. Um. Two of my favorite scenes that I thought made it a great movie for me alone was the dunking of a spear of asparagus into congealed butter, the sound effects of eating. I love all of these things. And then, um, there was an exchange between between the House of Woodcock

get it together together the look. I thought it was a very very funny movie. I thought it was beautiful and very luscious. And I also was kind of like, I don't care that I don't care very much about the relationship between a narcissistic artist and his muse. Molly's sitting here like gleefully. She loved I loved. I loved it. And then I went home and I made a list of the first time I've taken notes for the podcast. Like to read, like to read my notes Phantom thread notes. Uh,

eyes wide shut is my first note. My second note is Sam and Diane Um The Phantom of the Opera, Preda Porte, Wuthering Heights. Those are my notes, Preda Porte, the Altman film. Yeah, oh my god, let's bring it back the most. It's so good. Yeah, no, it is what it is. How would you describe your your your feeling after leaving the movie, because I had a very particular one. I mean, you said you really needed a stiff drink. We really needed a stiff drink in like

the middle, a stiff drink break. It does make you. I mean we're talking about it in terms of mother a lot too. Because I was like are you more less stressed out than you were? Ordering Mother and Das was like, I'm less stressed out, but I'm also like

less engaged. Huh interesting, So I see. I think these two movies are so like they hit a lot of the same themes in a way that I think it's like it's very fortuitous that we are doing them back to back, um, because yeah, it's like this this very particular the this domineering creative male persona and his wife slash partner slash muse living with him. But who else

relates to the dominating male persona? Why? That's one of the reasons why I had to like go take a drink afterwards, because I was like, I'm both of them at the same time. I don't know which one I like. I don't know how to feel about this movie. I don't know how to feel about what it portends. Tess is like, what do you think it was about? I was like, it's about how like marriage is like mutually agreeing to like kill each other slowly over a long period of time, and like a little bit of poison.

Well do you know the story that um Paul Thomas Anderson has told about it? As far as its origins as an idea, Yes, because I read everything. Yeah, I don't, I don't. I mean it's kind of love. So it's it's that, you know, he is married to Maya Rudolph, and it's one of the most enviable, I would say, one of the more enviable show business marriages. And um, it's an artistic man, and I'm sure that he's maybe

not always the easiest person to live with. Um. And there was some point at which he got really really sick and was laid up in bed, and Maya Rudolph was like feeding him and taking care of him and like realizing that, you know, when he's kind of taken off of his game or like forced into into physical submission via illness, that like suddenly their relationship was so much more tender and loving. And uh, that was the that was the beginning of the movie. Well, Molly found

an interesting quote from Jennifer Lawrence on Phantom Threat. She said, I got through about three minutes of it. I put in a in a good, solid three I'm sorry to anybody who loved that movie. I couldn't give that kind of time. It was three minutes and I was just oof. Is it just about clothes. Is Reynolds Woodcock kind of like a narcissistic sociopath, and he's an artist, So every girl falls in love with him because he makes her feel bad about herself, and that's the love story. I

haven't seen it, so I don't know. I've been down that road. I know what that's like. I don't need to watch that movie. First of all. Queen Jennifer Lawrence doing the thing I always do, which is to tell you a whole opinion about the movie you haven't seen. Uh. I have a private wood shop, um, mostly a hobby. I do some side work. I've been doing it for years. Uh. This friend of mine this weekend introduced me to a friend of hers who had a job they wanted done.

And I should preface that by saying that over in a suburb of the city near where we live, back in I think it's two thousand fourteen, there was this horrible crime. It was like a murder scene literally where a person was killed and other people were injured, and it was really bloody, and they've had no ability to like sell or rent the property since then, and people go in there and sneak in there sometimes, mostly kids

and stuff. Anyway, this young woman, she has a piece of wood which she claims and I have no way to prove this, that she and a couple of her friends pried this piece of wood out from where all the bad things happened. And again I don't know if it's true. It's a nice, big, heavy, uh piece of wood that has some weird discoloration on it. Anyway, they wanted to know if I would make them a ligia

board and a plan chet out of it. Um. I'm not saying I believe in all that stuff, but I'm also in no way saying I don't believe in it to the point where I think about it. And I know that some people who play with spirit boards and things, um, and they have like pictures of the kind they wanted, just like this Eastern European really Gothic style one. I know people who use it. You always hear stories like they get like maybe entities attached to them or something

like that, and it never ends well. But what about the person who's like the carpenter who just makes it. I mean, if they're not using it, they're not playing with it, they're not trying to talk to anybody or communicate with anything. I guess My question is, if you were my position, would you just say stop overthinking this and go ahead and take the job, because I could definitely use the cash and it does sound like kind

of a cool project. Hey guys, this is the woodworker who apparently has now become known as the guy with the murder board. Um cralling to give you an update, I guess. Uh. I listen to the show and all the advice you had in the commentary, there's a lot to think about. I really appreciated that I had no idea that you're fans were going to get so interested in start having polls and things. But anyway, just to clear up a couple of things, UM, A lot of

people asked about it. Was it unsolved? Uh No, the murder was not unsolved. The person who did it was in the house when the police are. They were found like immediately. So it's not a thing where you can, you know, solve the mystery and be like Nancy true or whatever. UM. I guess the other update is that I did decide to take the job. Uh after listening to a lot of feedback, including yours. UM, So that's

pretty much it. I got a couple of things in front of it, and I already told them it's going to take a probably at least two months, but I will try to email you some pictures when it's done. No, I do not think I am opening a portal of death to anything I you know. And as far as the questions about the wood that was used, no, I I cannot prove that that would had blood on it. It has weird discolorations. I'll send you a picture. Uh, But again, you know, it's a paying customer, and how

much I believe in it, I don't know. Hopefully my next call will not involve my basement turning into like an Indian gerald ground with you know, tombstones coming up to the floor. But that's pretty much it. And you know, thanks for answering question and take care. Since you mentioned this week about wanting to hear updates on any weirdness going on and my dreams, i'd figure i'd get it out of the way in two parts. I've been trying to stay aware of anything odd going on besides these

recurring dreams, which I'll get to in a moment. For some reason, my phone's camera has been blurring out or going dark taking these shots. It doesn't do that normally, but the lighting in my shop isn't great so that it could account for it. The only really weird thing that happened took place Friday night. My neighbor Mark was over and we were in the kitchen talking about the board. While we're talking, all of a sudden, we both heard

this loud sound. The only way I can describe it is like the sudden burst of wings and a lot of birds. I swear it sounded like it came from downstairs in the shop. Mark said he thought the sound came from outside, but the window was closed. Like an idiot, I grabbed a baseball bat and went down the stairs, creeping and peeking around corners, like the guy in a horror movie that you just know is going to be the next one to die. I got down there and

saw no thing. As to the dreams you mentioned, it's really only just the one dream, but I've had it at least five or six times. In the dream, I'm in a house, but it's not my house. The murder board is there, and it's completely finished and beautiful, but it's grown gigantic, so it's the size of the entire

wall of the room. I'm in I somehow know they're supposed to be a door there and they need to go through it, but the murder board has no door in it, and I'm frantically trying to find a way to get wherever it is I'm supposed to go, but I can't. And one of the dreams, the ink on the board was running down across it. Then I wake up. Thank you so much for that update. This has been

a wild ride. So we had an email proceeding this that said that, um, the person who had ordered the murder board, she was kind of shamed on social media, called which all of this stuff, and then her parents found out and they're religious. How did how did they find her? I think ours? No, no, no, I think she was talking about this. I think she told her parents or something. No, she I think she told some of her friends, and then her friends started like giving

her ship on social media. And then her parents found out, and her parents were are very religious, and they were furious. They forbade her from finishing the purchase of the murder board. So our woodworker was allowed to keep the deposit, but that wasn't very much money. And then she said, you know, she wouldn't take the murder board, So now he's left trying to figure out what to do with this thing if he wants to. I think the options were kind

of like burn it, get rid of it. The other one was to keep it as kind of like a showcase, because he said as pictures and it actually is like gorgeous, it's really so he could keep it as an example of what he can do, which I think is probably a pretty good choice other than it means keeping a cursed object. And then the third one is finding a different buyer but won't or no. Well, I think he was asking if that's ethical. I actually don't think that is.

I think you have to tell people. Yeah, he was saying he would he wouldn't feel comfortable selling it to somebody without telling them it's curse. But he also doesn't want to sell it to someone who knows it's curse and wants Hey, my name's Andrew. There is a traveling museum of the paranormal. And my understanding is that, Um, it's a it's a husband and wife who run it. Um she is I believe a medium or some kind

of psychic. Um. No, she's a witch. She is like a wicked witch and he is just like, I don't know, either fucking husband whatever. I think he's also like a journalist but not whatever. The point is they have a Traveling Museum of the Paranormal UM, and they have all kinds of haunted and cursed projects, so when there is some kind of concern, um, people can call them uh and come by to take a look figure out what

the deal is. So I think that if they were willing to, you know, like swing by and potentially phony up a little, that um, the Traveling of the Paranormal would be a great home for the Murder Board. So I just wanted to throw that out there. Seems seems like a great idea, seems like a I think this is I think it solves it. I think that's like this was all meant to be, because that would be the perfect ending to this story. Yeah, but we got

a final update. I know I said last final update was the final update, but this is really the final update from the woodworker who made the murder board. So um, the Woodworker contacted the Traveling Museum of the Paranormal and occult, which was a suggestion that one of our listeners called in and said, maybe that's the best place for the murder board. Uh, he says. I didn't have much hope that they would be interested, but I sent an email

to the curator, Greg Newkirk. To my great surprise, he got back to me within a day and was very interested. He listened to the podcast and knows the history of the murder board. He immediately requested more background information and pictures, but made it clear they would like to have it. He was very informative and helpful. Long story short, the board was mailed out today and they will begin whatever

study they do on such things when it arrives. A couple of days later, there was a tweet from the Paranormal Museum. This this just like made our day. So we got a tweet from at the Para Museum the Paranormal Museum's Twitter account, and they said, hey, night call pod. We received a package at the museum p O box this afternoon. Take one guess what was inside And then a little picture of the note that the woodworker attached to it that says, as discussed, please find and closed

the murder board. As much as I almost don't want to know, Please keep me updated with what, if anything you find and what the future holds for the piece. Yeah, all's well that ends. Well, it's a really beautiful story.

That's so great about our l is that, Yeah, it didn't matter if you really believe in the conspiracies or not, because it's about just sort of going to those weird places of the mind of like what if all you know, I think to most people, it's like satisfying to make connections where there are none, you know, because like, wouldn't it make more sense if everything did have all these weird interconnections and the world all was a universal theory

of lizard people. Um, it can just get politicized so easily, but when it's just like I wonder why that is the way it was? Is just like a weird like imaginary playground of Caleb Horton wrote a really great thing about art Bell that he reposted on his Twitter uh that he wrote a while ago, but it was just about art Bell and about how like art Bell is

the perfect thing to drive long distances to. Yes, no, that's my that's my relationship with you saying it's also because it's like that's when you really have time to meditate on like what are those lights in the distance? Like, what's that weird grain silo I just passed? And that aren't Bell really just you know, creates this environment where you're allowed to just like indulge in wondering about those things like what if it was planted there by the aliens?

And just the call in aspect too is I mean, it just creates this sort of it kind of feels like the radio equivalent of the kind of Internet that we talk a lot about that I've lost, the kind of ungentrified weirdos only message board. Yeah, yeah, totally, Like it is a message board radio show people who care about aliens and who aren't like trying to get the biggest audience possible, but are just like I have to find all the other people. Needs to wave my freak

flag so that I can find my people. So that was a big reason we wanted this to be a call in show. Yeah yeah. And the other thing is like I think that the the long drive thing is totally I mean that is like that is my It's not like I listened to Coast to Coast all the time, but definitely if I was on a road trip, I did. What also is interesting about Urt Bell is obviously the ways it overlaps with like Philip K. Dick and people like that, where you're like, how much of this might

even just be in your head? But also like it's very interesting in your head and I want to know, but it might be scary in there. Seems a little scary in there. Sometimes it's like, what are you experienceding? You know, there's enough to make you feel paranoid, but to actually like uproot your life and take action in that. Well, that also shows that maybe it's not like just a character, because obviously some radio personas are No, I don't think character.

But the voice, it's like, it's such a good voice he has. I mean, he's so great at what he does that, you know, George Nori sort of demonstrates what is so great about Urt Bell that is not just immediately replicable by anyone else. So it's interesting to talk and we talked about this. This is what the podcast is. It's like we're like leftist conspiracy there and unite radical feminist conspiracy theories, but like radical conspiracy theories you know

are real, They're all true. Valerie Salanis was just writing what she knew. Yeah, please make that the title today. Um, well, rest rest and rest and recipe if you are so. That does it for ouren clip show here on Nightcall. Again, thank you so much to all of our listeners and all of our all the people who called in an emailed and texted us and posted on our Facebook and tweeted at us. You are the engine that keeps the Nightcall car go Queen through the night. We also wanted

to thank all of our guests. We had such amazing guests this year, so thank you to Claire Evans, Carvel Wallace, Richard Lawson, Richard rush Field, Andrew t Jen Ramlini, Brooke Baker, Ali Ward, Leslie Moon, Darcy Wilder, Jack O'Brien and Ryan Johnson at our secret live show and also the Magic of Emma and in a Noope. We'd also like to thank our amazing producers Rachel Jacobs and Ben Hosley the pro duer. We'll see you all next year in twenty nineteen. UM,

it's going to be a good one. We already have like ten things we need to talk about, so I'm excited. It's what it's wet. Oh. Also, if you have recommendations for things that we should talk about, please give us a call at two four oh four six night or an email at night called podcast at gmail dot com. We're back like we never live. We never lived, never lived, never left to the best. We have a job, thank god. We go n research and she on plan for disasters.

Molly love the Valley, send you articles to freaking out emlik at the remedy from the music critics. She could be Africans acraeah. We just tell it like it's gonna be