Listener Mail: Before in the Beginning

corrections are welcome. We have a correction at the top of today's episode, but also just feedback thoughts, anything to add on previous episodes, if you want to suggest a topic for us to do in the future, if you just want to share something that you think we would find interesting, or if you just want to say hi, tell us your story, tell us I don't know how where when you found out about the show or what you listen for. Any of that's fair game right in

contact at Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Let's see. So when we do get corrections, we try to put them near the top of the listener mail episode. I've got one about last week's listener mail where we made a bird error. So well, if you don't mind, I'm going to kick us off with the New Zealand bird correction here. Ok okay, So we accidentally last week conflated

two different bird species. We were discussing the animal conservation series called Last Chance to See, which was I think both, I believe, both a book and maybe a series for the BBC or something. But it had a couple of runs and a later one of the runs here was hosted by Mark Carwardine, who is a British zoologist who wrote a book about whales that we consulted a lot

in our Gray Whale series, and also Stephen Fry. But in this series there was a male specimen of an endangered species of New Zealand bird which decided on camera to start mating furiously with Mark Carwardine's head, and I mentioned that I thought this was the cacapo. That was correct, but one of us incorrectly connected it to a specie to a species of bird that came up in another older bit of Listener mail in which a bird attacked a car in New Zealand and started dismantling it. I think,

like removing the gasket around the window or something. I think there was also a mother in law in this story. Do you remember more of the details, Rob, I do not, did kind of a vague memory of this one. Anyway, To clear up the confusion, we heard from Peggy on Facebook who said, just listen to this week's mail. I have to correct, as I hope some actual Kiwis will do. The cacapo is a rare, flightless New Zealand parrot, of which the most famous Sirocco has indeed humped a head

or two, I guess a human head. And then the other bird is the Kia, a not so rare New Zealand parrot that likes to tear cars apart. And then finally Peggy says, maybe a weird extant New Zealand birds episode is in order. Yeah, I mean the birds of New Zealand are pretty fascinating. Um, yeah, these are. These are both interesting species, same family, different genus. Uh. The the CACAPOAH believe, is critically endangered, whereas the Kia is just endangered. So yeah, I'd be up for any any

sort of avian exploration in future episodes. All right, Rob, do you want to do this message from Angelo about your artifact episode on the pinata. Yeah, this was a response to an artifact episode talking about the pinata. Angelo says Hi Robin Joe. I was listening to the artifact episode on the pinata possibly having its origin in China

and making its way west to Spain than Mexico. What's interesting to me is that growing up in the Philippines, we have a combination of things related to the pinata. The first is the use of a suspended clay pot filled with candy and even coins at fiestas and birthday parties. Kids are usually line folded and have to swing to break the pot to release the goodies within. The other is the parole, a Christmas lantern usually shaped as a star, made of Japanese paper with bamboo. We don't try to

break these. Instead, they're lit up, originally with candles, but now with electric lights. If tradition is true that these were brought by Spanish colonizers to the Philippines and not part of indigenous Filipino traditions, it's fascinating to think that's something that the Chinese could have brought on a shorter trip across the sea. Instead circumnavigated the globe to finally end up in the Philippine Archipelago. Thanks for all the great podcasts. You guys are always so informative and fun

to listen to on my commute. Angela, that is a fascinating possibility if it is true in this case, Yeah, it's it's amazing, an amazing example of how cultural memes really make it around. Yeah, okay, So thank you for the message, Angelo. So I'm going to do a message about our series on t This one comes from a listener named Joe. Joe spelled just Jo without the E. In fact, they call themselves Joe without the E but

with some Tea for the purpose of this message. So Joe without the E, but with some Tea, says dear Joe and Robert. Hello, once again, I binged the Tea episodes recently and would like to tell you about Malaysia's national drink, Tataric. The name Tataric comes from ta, the hockey and name for tea, while Tarik means pull in Malay. Invented by the Indian Muslims on the Malay Peninsula after World War Two, this drink is made with a strong

black tea and condensed milk. It's mixed by pouring it rapidly and repeatedly between two mugs or containers, often at great heights, and with some degree of showmanship. This produces a lovely froth on top and ensures the drink is very well mixed. It's a popular drink, suitable for all hours of the day, and it's quite a treat to watch, I guess, meaning watching the preparation if you've never seen it before. And then Joe attaches a link to a video of like a vendor in a marketplace doing these

tea pouring stunts that are true quite amazing. They seem to defy physics. So I guess this dude in the video is just so skilled at pouring between these metal pictures that the only way I could think of just to describe it is it looks more like a mass of dough being stretched between the pictures than actually a liquid pouring freely through the air, which though it is, it is the latter. Another funny thing about this video is that Leanne Rhymes is just blasting in the background

and that how do I Dream? Or how do I whatever? And that's a song I associate so powerfully with getting haircuts. When I was about twelve years old that it literally makes me experience phantom smells. So like I'm watching the video of the tea preparation and I'm smelling hairspray and you know that burned smell of like a hair dryer that's been used a lot. Interesting. Yeah, I didn't get notes of that from this because I watched it with the SoundOff, but it is an impressive feat of performance

beverage preparation. Wait, I just realized, I don't know if this is a universal experience. I deeply associate like radio soft rock hits with haircuts. Is that unique to me? Or is that a common thing? Um? I guess it depends on where you're getting your hair cut, right, I mean yeah, different different salons are going to have a different sort of musical ambiance going on. Yeah, I guess it varies. I guess I went to a soft rock salon,

not just soft rock. It's like it's like Leanne rhymes, that song Unbreak my Heart, say You Love Me Again? All those are haircut songs to me anyway. Sorry, Let's go back to Joe's message. They write there are tataric competitions. While most tea lovers agree the whole leaves are better for brewing. Tea. Dust is usually used to make tataric because it produces a stronger flavor. Another tea related drink you might be interested in is cham peng iced tea

plus coffee. The word chem means mix in Hokien. This drink originates from Hong Kong, where it is called yinyong. This name itself is a reference to Mandarin ducks, which are called yun yong in Mandarin, and refers to how two dissimilar things can come together in harmony. In Malaysia, the ratio of tea to coffee is usually one to one, whereas in Hong Kong it can be seven to three.

Although Malaysians use the phrase champing more often, It's Cantonese name yin Yong is also well understood at most Chinese coffee shops. Sarawak, located on the Borneo side of Malaysia, has three layer tea. Here, it's usually called tacy Ping or tacy Ping Special. It's made of black tea, the tay, evaporated milk, the sea and palm sugar. The special the word pang refers to ice. Palm sugar is carefully added to the bottom of the cup, followed by evaporated milk

and then black tea. The drink is left unmixed, which produces a three layered effect. You're supposed to mix it with a straw before you drink, but you can choose not to. Fascinating. Yeah, yeah, that parallels some other drinks, alcoholic and non alcoholic in other cultures, where you have some sort of a layering situation going on, and sometimes it is frowned upon. Yes to stir those layers up,

Joe continues. The three layered version is most common in the state, but there's a four layered version where pand and sugar I believe you might know it as screw pine is poured in after the palm sugar, creating a green layer. The five layered version includes the panda sugar and a layer of herbal grass jellies called ching chow that float on top. In Malaysia, most shops will make drinks with condensed milk by default, meaning that our drinks

here are all super sweet and super milky. To customize your drink, you'll need our special code. You've got O C and cosong O means no milk. C means use evaporated milk instead of condensed, and cosong means no sugar. It means empty in Malay. So if you ordered a tao that would mean tea with no milk but yes sugar. A Tao coo song you would get a tea no milk, no sugar, whereas a t C cosong you would get tea with evaporated milk no sugar. Hope you enjoyed reading

about these tea concoctions. Do give them a try if you ever get the chance. As always, keep up the great work, Live long and prosper. Joe without the E but with some tea. Ah, this is awesome. Yeah, yeah, I'd love to try some of these out. Sometime. I will be on the lookout for a Malaysian tea house. All right, here's one that comes to us from Dick. Dick writes and then says, this anecdote was presented to me as a coon many years ago. While I do not presume to be enlightened, it has had a long

lasting effect on my worldview. I'm posting from memory, so forgive me if I get it wrong. Quote. In the olden times, four wealthy gentlemen met regularly to drink tea and discuss lofty matters of philosophy and politics. Over the years, they each competed to provide the best tea to their guests as they visited each other's homes. As they were wealthy beyond concern, vast fortunes were spent upon quietly outdoing

each other in this competition. They paid for ships to be built to carry expeditions to the furthest corners of the world to find the rarest tea. Hundreds of strong men were employed just to carry the chests of gold they spent over the decades. Finally, one day, when the hosts serve the tea, the three guests cried out, you have won. The competition is over. The tea is beyond compare. We cannot imagine anything to equal it. Please tell us where it comes from. The host said, this is called cha.

The peasants who work in my rice patties drink it every day. Boom, all your pretensions laid waste. Yeah, I mean that's how the coons work, right, They're supposed to just flip the script on you. But I like, I mean, this is a this is a good message. This is I do like this one. I think it's absolutely true. That's certainly not all, but many sort of quests for nuances in minor variations of sensation, and you know, in like a taste to domains, whether that's food or drink

or I don't know, audio fidelity or something. Things like that are a lot of that might be kind of placebo effect, and those differences aren't as great as the people spending vast fortunes doing them might think they are. Yeah, there are a number of different triggers that come into play when when it comes to the valuely place and

even just a food product. You know, stuff like branding, stuff like prior knowledge of where the food or part or ingredients in the food or sourced from that sort of thing, the experience and making it or preparing it. You know, all these things come into play, and I don't think that that that distracts from it at all. If anything, it just adds the complexity of anything we

engage in. But this particular con also touches on a very common trend you see throughout the world, and that is the upper classes discovering something that the working class does and then co opting it for their own enjoyment. So it works on several levels. Yes, this tea has the taste of authenticity. Now, all right, let's see this next message comes from Chuck five. It's from the Vault episode on the three pupiled eye. Chuck five says, greetings,

always love the show. I hope my writing in means more than flattery. Two notes on your show on multiple pupils or irises. The first is the tradition of a Japanese luck doll called the Druma. When you buy one, only one pupil is painted. You make a wish, and when that wish comes true, you paint. In the second, and the purpose of the Druma is complete. Now, in a second note I'm not going to read directly, Chuck mentions a specific tattoo artist in Tokyo who does a

lot of dragon designs. Apparently, says this person paints or tattoos the eyes of the pupils last when making a dragon. And then finally, Chuck five says, bonus, this is just my observation. But going back to your fear of the Void episode, I find it curious that the thing that brings these depictions to life, or that gives them souls, is actually the absence of something the pupil, which is an aperture or whole. It makes me think of the

saying the eyes are the window to the soul. A window is a whole, or at least a clear barrier that lets you see into a hole. So what's inside and not seen is what is mystical or poignant. Cheers Chuck. Five mm. I'd kind of forgotten this about Daruma dolls, but yeah, they're very these are these are very interesting little artifacts. And also just the idea of the painting

of the eye makes the thing real. I can't remember if we got into this at all discussed in these episodes, but you know, this brings to mind various I believe Chinese folk tales about magic paint brushes or individuals with a power to bring paintings to life, And at least in some of these accounts, one can prevent the painting from coming to life by not painting the eye. But once the eye is painted, well, then it will take on life allow its own. Oh, it's like the left

inscription that animates the golem. Oh yeah, yeah, the finishing touches. Yeah, all right, here's one that comes to us from Chuck. This is a different Chuck. There's not Chuck five. This is just Chuck no number on this one, no version number. Chuck writes in this and says, dear Rob, Joe, and JJ, Hello again. I hope all of you are well. Thanks once more for the informative and dry, lee hilarious episodes.

I stand by the sentimental comments I made about stuff to blow your mind when you graciously read a previous email of mine back in early January, about which I was surprised and humble to be included in listener mail. I'm writing this time primarily because if you're Washing of the Waters episodes, you had a brief aside about the custom of communal Roman public toilets, and now odd that

would be to our modern sensibilities. Romans doing one's business while doing one's business was shown to humorous effect in the first season of the Spartacus TV series. However, I can share that I have unfortunately been part of having to use essentially a communal line of toilets, and it is a strange, awful experience. While it may not be

done anymore. When I went to Navy boot camp in the nineteen nineties, our eighty person training company all had to use the bathroom at the same approved time between other training exercises and orientation lessons. The line of ten or so toilets had no doors and minimal barriers between, and a leader of the company had to stand watch

while the other recruits went. We found out later that this was done to break down personal barriers, remind the recruits that privacy was a luxury, and to prevent recruits from, let's say, smuggling items like drugs or food on or in their bodies. Appreciate private toilets, folks, but we should pause to I guess, appreciate that and let that. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds like you would break down barriers. Yeah, done,

I appreciate them. Okay, Chuck continues. Secondly, I wanted to comment that I, being a kid who loved mythology and monster movies, did see Clash of the Titans and a packed movie theater as a nine year old kid in nineteen eighty one. I'm also pretty sure I saw the movie with my best friend, also nine, with no parents around at all. I can definitely attest that the Medusa's

scene was absolutely terrifying to everyone in the theater. Hundreds of people held their collective breadth as the creature hunted down each hapless Greek red shirt. I had nightmares about Medusa for months. That scene, followed up with the Calaboss fight, was a fantastic one two punch. Absolutely agree. The Kracking fight at the end was almost anticlimactic. After that, my best friend loved the movie so much he decided he

wanted to be a fantasy artist. After that, he's been illustrating comics and providing art for fantasy games for years now. Oh wow, that's cool story. I also agree about the anticlimacticness of the Kracking confrontation. Yeah, though at least it's a different sort of confrontation and it's over pretty quickly. But but yeah, there's no being that Medusa fight. And then Chuck says, lastly, I can't remember the exact context, but it was an episode of Weird House Cinema regarding

I think some insane character changing jobs. But Rob said the hilarious phrase quote, maybe this is where I'll apply myself. This is a perfect T shirt slogan. May I use it? And if so, may I get your T shirt sizes so I can send you your own. Ha Keep up the great work and take care It's fine with me if you use it. I don't know what your opinion is, Rob, but you will never take my T shirt size. Yeah, still feel free to put this on a T shirt. Sincerely,

Chuck from San Diego. Yeah. I was recently in San Diego. Really loved spending a week in that town. I've only been there overnight one time, but it did seem like a cool place. I'd like to spend more time there. Yeah. All right, we got one more message about weird House cinema. This comes from Daniel, subject line Child of Peach. Hi, this is Daniel from Australia. Did you notice that the music featured in the clip you play from this episode? I guess from Child of Peach is from the nineteen

eighty six album Fourth Rendezvous by Jean Michel Jarre. Is that how you say his name? I believe it's jar Oh, I definitely. I definitely had to look it up, okay, Jean Michel jar I wonder was this used with permission? I doubt it. I remember that the old Japanese TV show Monkey Magic in the late seventies and voice dubbed in English, used mini samples from well known and lesser known movies, and I found this distracting as my mind went straight out of the story and into the movie.

The sound effects originally came from Cheers Daniel, great catch, Daniel. I didn't recognize Jar's work in this film, But now that you pointed out yet, this totally matches up with some of what I've read about unlicensed use of music and other Hong Kong and Thaiwanese films of this era. I know Master the Flying Guillotine instantly comes to mind as a film that a lot of fun has a great soundtrack that, if memory serves, is probably not legit.

I think there's a lot of cool crowd rock that's sampled and used in that film, and I don't know that there was any kind of licensing involved in that. I was also reading at some point in the past year about a particular Taiwanese film that I think just straight up uses some Morriconey Carpenter tracks from the thing. Wait didn't somebody also write in to tell us that The Thrilling Bloody Sword was using music that's either sounded a lot like or was directly taken from a Japanese

TV show that sounds familiar. But I don't remember it specifically. Yeah, it's my understanding that this sort of thing, you know, happened. But but yeah, I didn't catch this. Um, I'm not super familiar with all of jars work. I've I've definitely listened to some of his releases, and his father scored some pretty big movies. I think he scored Eyes without a Face oh wow, but did not write the Billy

Idol song. I don't think so now. But but but again, I'm not sure of all his various collaborations over the years, but I don't think John Michelle Jar has actually scored a film. I was looking this up like I had this false memory in my head that he had scored something, But he has not to my knowledge. I could be wrong on that, but I don't think he's He's ever

really gotten into scoring of films like his father. Anyway, I love it when listeners catch things like this, so oh yeah, so yeah, great, here, Daniel, you know, we had another. I don't remember who pointed this out, as may have been on our discord, but Thrilling Bloody Sword is apparently being remastered like that one is actually going to come out in an even better looking form at some point in the future. I don't know if I would want it, yea quote improved from the version I have. Yeah,

I know. It's that you get kind of attached to the to the flaws, right, It's kind of like, do you dare restore a classic org of art and you know, will the will the restored piece feel more magical or will some of the aura be degraded in this transformation. I believe it's Air four four four four is the company that's going to put it out. Yeah, with thrilling, bloody sword. The grime and the hard baked subtitles are definitely part of the appeal. But maybe that's just because

that's the way I'm used to it. So yeah, yeah, I'm I'm excited to check it out and then maybe again somebody will get around to restoring pot people if you work in film restoration. The one that I would love a really, really great Crisp New take on is a Ship of Monster Is. It seems like there's no really good disc out there of it, and it's it's crying out for a restoration. Yeah, I mean, it's kind

of the story of some of these movies. It's like, sometimes sadly, the better footage is lost, and there's just doesn't exist anymore. But there have been plenty of spectacular stories of supposedly lost of footage being found. Santo and the Treasure of Dracula being one such example, where they didn't think they had had any other foot to fall back on, and then they found found something in the vault somewhere, and so it's all the light of day again.

All right? Should we wrap it up there for today? Yeah, let's go and wrap it up. This has been listener mail for this week. We do these on Mondays and the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed core episodes on two season Thursdays. On Wednesdays we do a short form artifact or monster fact, and on Fridays we set aside most serious concerns to just talk about a weird film on Weird ou Cinema. Huge thanks to our audio

producer jj Pauseway. 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. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.