Listener Mail: Blue Öyster Cult

he needs a bath. That that Santa suit really needs to be washed. It's getting kind of oily now, but uh, but we're I think he's almost over it for the year and we'll be ready to move on to Valentine's Stay soon. Yeah. Yeah, this this will hopefully round out the Christmas feedback here. So this one comes to us from Andrew Andrew Rides. First, i'd like to say thank

you for putting on a great podcast. As one of your fellow I Heart hosts might say, it's real aces that maybe Josh and shot Either way, I'll take it. I must admit I am a few episodes behind on your show, as I follow a lot of different pods, and a deleting an unlistened to pod hurts just a little bit deep down, even if it's a few weeks old. I was recently listening to your Christmas Tree episode and

had to write in concerning bubble lights. My grandmother was the proud owner of many beautiful and some not so beautiful antique Christmas decorations, among which were several bubble lights. These did not decorate the tree, but we're instead standalone decorations which could be directly plugged into an outlet. They were most commonly used as night lights in the bathrooms

and bedrooms around the holidays. The lights were shaped more or less like an inverted cartoon toadstool, with the red and green plastic cap covering a small light bulb and a thin glass cylinder extending upward, ending in a rounded point. The glass was colored red or was filled with a red liquid. I can't recall which. I can remember being mesmerized by these as a little kid, even and even

touching the liquid containing tube. That thing was pretty dang hot, and I'm glad I didn't come in contact with the liquid inside Sadly, Grandma passed away a few years ago, but for all I know, these decorations are in a box somewhere in the house where my grandpa still lives. I will have to mention it next time I talk with my family. Thanks Andrew. PS. Absolutely loving the Weird House Cinema episodes and have actually seen two of the

movies you've covered so far. In pre COVID times, I would gather around twice a year with friends for B movie nights. One of the attendees is a self proclaimed B movie buff and owned a DVD, yes, an actual DVD of troll Too. It was a delight to watch and I loved your inside. Furthermore, my wife and I were happy to find shopping mall on Voodoo. That's vu du. That's a like an online film rental thing. I believe this past October during our annual binge of campy horror movies.

This did not disappoint. I know Christmas is now passed, but I would love to suggest the holiday B movie Silent Night, Dead Night Too. It is definitely one of my favorite crap films and I still quote it often when the trash needs taken out. I think that's referring to a to an iconic scene from the film where a killer walks up to someone who's taking out the garbage and just says garbage day and then shoots him dead.

Have you seen that one? Uh? No, I think the only ones I've seen were the later weirder ones, the one that was at Brian Jonza did where Nicky Rooney is a demented toymaker. Oh, yes, yes, yes, I think we did watch that. We did watch their trailer talk or something for trailer talk on on YouTube back in back in the day. Yeah, so, I don't know, we could always re explore. There's some of those trailer talk movies I'd love to to come back and give more

attention to. I'm not sure if that's the one, but it definitely stands out as a weird Christmas movie. Andrew, I'm interested in this tradition of using bubble lights as night lights for trips to the bathroom, and that sounds like it would induce some serious hypnogogia as you're like going back to bed and you've had a psychedelic experience while urinating. Yeah, yeah, it's certainly if you uncover more

about your your late grandmother's bubble lights. We'd we'd love to see some pictures of them or some footage of them in action. Uh. And then also on the point about being backed up on pods, I just wanna uh say, to everybody out there, you know, we realize there are a lot of podcasts out there to listen to, especially now, I mean more than ever, every every celebrity has one in addition to all the podcasts that existed before, and

so there's just a lot to listen to. So we feel honored that that any of you, you know, still keep us in rotation, that we're still a part of your your you know, gaily, weekly or monthly listening life, whatever that consists of. And however technology is forcing you to interact with us. It truly warms my heart every time someone would give us an hour that they could be spending listening to the reunion of the cast of Hawaii five. Oh, it's probably a great podcast. All right,

Let's move on to the next one here. This one is titled Lock and Key, and it comes to us from Jim. Hey, guys, I've been listening to your show for about a year and love it a great blend of educational and nerd humor. Speaking of nerds, I played D n D back in the late seventies early eighties. I have a first edition of Deities and Demi Gods with the UH male Nibonian. I believe that's been reference in reference to UH. But Michael moorecox elric stories uh melanimity.

I'm never sure how to had pronounced the name of that that world. But then also the Cathulhu mythhoust He mentions UH continues, and I am now playing the latest version with my kids twelve, seventeen and twenty. My daughter told me about a class called an artificer. Uh. And when you mentioned coming up with the d n D character for rain Borg, the Swedish lock collector, I decided to let you know about this class. Quote masters of invention.

Artificers use ingenuity and magic to unlock extraordinary capabilities in objects jim Ps. My mother grew up in St. John's, Newfoundland, and I've been there several times. If you ever visit, you should hike the East Coast Trail. Much of it is along gorgeous cliffs. I saw a whale and an iceberg. Uh. Now this is numerous great points in here so that that particular new class I have only a little bit of experience with that. We briefly had somebody in our

d n D group that used that class. They were like a gnome that had some sort of a high tech cannon that marched around with him or something. Um, but that's all that I've run into on that front. But I know you could also, I guess you could also with rainboard. You could go with a like a you know, you could still go with the traditional rogue build and just really dedicate yourself to certain like traps and locks, special specialties like dungeon delver and so forth.

As for Newfoundland, UM, yeah, I haven't been back since I was a child, But if I ever do, I'll have to look up that trail. I'd love to return at some point. I know. I laughed at the sentence where Jim said I saw a whale in an iceberg. But uh, but but actually I get it. If you if he just happened to see, um, a marine mammal in the wild in a place, especially if you're not used to seeing them normally, it is a very powerful experience. I I still sometimes just think about not too long ago,

when I happened to unexpectedly see. I think they were dolphins. I guess they would have been dolphins or porpoises, but probably dolphins splashing around in this kind of marshy estuary way back from the coast along coastal Georgia that I totally didn't expect at all. I was, you know, so this is a place with like, you know, a tall grass and mud and the water that's there, especially at low tide, is probably not more than a few feet deep. Um. But but yeah, for some reason, there were there were

dolphins making a ruck us. Yeah. Yeah. Anytime you get to see creatures like that in their natural habitat, it's it can be a real magical experience. And as far as icebergs go, I'd love to to see one as an adult, because when I was a kid in Newfoundland, you know, there'd be icebergs. It seems like all the time. I remember adults pointing icebergs out to me, and um, you know, at the time, your kids you don't really care. It's like taking a kid to see the Grand Canyon.

They don't they're not really that connected with checking it out. Um. So I'd love to to see one again. As an adult that would be neat. I was about to say, I mean, I wonder, with with warming climate, if they're becoming less common. But actually, if anything, I wonder if actually would go the opposite way, if they would become more common because more ice is calving off of the fixed shelves and floating away. Yeah, a good point. I don't know, we should look into that. Yeah, I mean,

icebergs alone could be a great topic. There's a lot of science there, there's a lot of history, and we've got it. I guess we touched on it a little bit when we were doing pi Crete because there was the idea of like, well, let's just get a what if we tried to make ships out of iceberg, etcetera.

All right, now, A couple of people responded to the part of our lock and key episode where we were asking the question of like, wait a minute, so if you're just talking about like mass produced commercial locks and keys, how unique are they? You know, like to what lengths do they go to make sure that one key they manufacture doesn't accidentally open the wrong lock? Well, we heard from a couple of people about this, and the messages

we heard were not the most reassuring um Marsh. Marsh writes in to say about locks when it comes to forward cars and trucks. On more than one occasion, I locked my keys in the car and the key of a random passerby opened my door. A lot of factors play into the equation. Where on the key, where on the lock? And how much giggling You do love the show, Marsh? Uh that had they had jiggling right, Yeah, as they said,

gig like that really gets it open. I mean sometimes giggling makes a mad thief, right, it's very suspicious if you're the person at this door that is clearly not your own, and you're just laughing maniacally while you jiggle your key around inside your rogue thief class. But you've been hit with the joker gas and so you're just

NonStop giggling all the way to the grave. Ye, indefinite madness. Well, Marsh, I do not know how accurate your claim is here, but if you are right, that is a little worrying alright. This next one comes to us from Mitch. Mitch is responding on the discussion module, which I don't think we've

mentioned very recently. But if you still go to the Facebook, there is a group called the Stuff to Bow Your Mind Discussion Module, and that's a place where a listeners can gather and discuss stuff to blew your mind and weird house and I popped in there from time to time. Still, um, you know, despite my deeper desire to leave Facebook behind, I still go there. Uh. So anyway, it's a place you can go and uh and comment. And this is

what Mitch had to say over at the discussion module quote. So, I was just listening to the recent key and key and lock podcast, I said, key and peel podcast. Uh. And when they mentioned the uniqueness of modern key locks, it reminded me of a very funny story about my first apartment. I moved out of my mom's house, and when I got the keys to my apartment, I kept them on my set of car keys, separate from my mom's house keys, which was on my set of work keys.

A week after moving in, I just through habit I used my mom's key on my apartment and the lock opened. I didn't realize until I changed and felt my car keys in my pocket that I had used my mom's keys to open the door. Very confused, I compared the keys and they were identical. I did some research and it turns out that this particular lock had a set of something like sixty four different keys, and it just so happened that my first apartment had the same identical

lock as my mom's house. See. Now this is interesting because you start getting into sort of the the chances that one key, the key to one lock would open another lock. And I feel like, if you were playing Dungeons and Dragons, your dungeon master might just completely shut you down. If you were like, I want to roll

see if my key opens this lock. You know there's got there's there's gonna be a chance, at least give me like a one and a chance, and they might be like, no, no, no, you've got the wrong key. It that never works in video games. That's a good point. What what if it did work in video games? That that would be kind of great, Like you could just

roll the dice with trying random keys on the wrong doors. Yeah, but it it would probably break the order of a lot of games, right, this idea that the keys have specific locks and locks have specific keys, and if that is not true, then you know, it's like the order falls out of this. Uh simulated universe, but it's kind of a false order. It's like it's not an order

that we have in in in the real world. Uh oh, this is actually this raises something that I have thought about talking about on the podcast before, which is a a question about narratives that comes up specifically in video games, which is that um video games will often use different kinds of lengths to go to different kinds of lengths, and use different kinds of devices to ensure that you,

to some degree stay on the correct path of the narrative. Right, if it's a video game where you can go to different places, they want to try to keep you from going to the place you need to go at the end of the game first, Right, you know that they want you to follow a certain kind of story. And and I wonder about how that affects the idea of narrative and how narrative sinks in with us, and how that's different from you know, just a book where you

assume somebody will just read one page at a time. Yeah, because you still you know, you want to create like a wide open feel for a world. But then also you have a story that needs to be uh followed, or even you have characters that need to be engaged with or developed, and so yeah, you create lot of sort of artificial choices a lot of the times, or or sometimes it takes the form of speaking of locks

and keys. Whether you're playing something like like that new cyberpunk game or if you're playing something like you know, Classic Silent Hill, you know, you encounter locked doors, they clearly cannot be unlocked because they're not truly doors. They're just a tend doors to create the idea that there are other rooms in this compound or other businesses in

this city, but really there's nothing there. Well, yeah, and that highlights the issue that whenever we experience a story, whenever we engage in a story, we're having to do so sort of by consent, like we're agreeing mentally to be a part of this narrative, to take it as real,

to suspend disbelief and all that kind of stuff. But that gets into funny territory where if you're if you're sort of doing that every time you play a story driven video game, but you're also testing the limits, so you're sort of like going both ways, negotiating your own level of engagement with the story on its terms. If you're kind of trying to like and I get in here, this place I'm not supposed to go, you know where the elder stage did not tell me to travel. Next. Yeah,

it gets it gets interesting. I don't know. And of course it depends on the world that's being created, like I don't know this in like Silent Hill too, which was a game I really loved back in the day. And in a way in that world locked doors that go nowhere, that where there's nothing on the other side, that that feels kind of fitting because you're in this this strange reality that is kind of wedged between our world and another. So that kind of setting, it makes

sense that you have false doors to nowhere nightmare logic. Yeah, okay, are you ready for this next message from Fritters, Let's do it. Fritters writes in about Pucci, Guys, when you were discussing Pucci's in the wild, I'm surprised no one thought of scrappy Doo. He may not have been a complete amalgam of what the kids are into, but he was a rebellious kid. Care Arcter added, for no good reason that everyone universally dislikes. Uh. And then here's the word.

Maybe I'm not familiar with this expression again BATA G A N B A T T E S. I think that might be in another language. Fritters, Well, Fritters, I I absolutely recall Scrappy Doo, and even as a child,

I remember loathing Scrappy do If. Like you know, I was watching Cartoon Network when I was in elementary school and and a Scooby Doo episode with Scrappy Doo came on, I remember that sinking feeling of like, oh no, yeah, because I remember this as well because I never knew what Scooby Doo episode I was going to be treated to. Would it be the old the old episodes or would it be the Scrappy Doo episodes? And yeah, scrappy Doo was just awful, like he added nothing to it. He

just took away from all the other characters. And he just looked dumb too. So I would agree that Scrappy Doo is is perhaps one of the purer examples of Pucci that we could we could probably point to. All right, here's another one. This one comes to us from Scott responding to the artifact episode that I did about the Dr John d and his mirror or Mirrors. Scott writes, Hey, guys, I enjoyed your show and Dr D and His Mirror,

as I do all of your shows. Just thought you might find it interesting that his story was included in the music lore of the band Blue Oyster Cult. Their manager, Sandy Pearlman, had written a long sci fi mythos about love crafty and ancient beings, probably of alien origin, who interfered in Earth's destiny. One of the characters in the story was actually Dr D, who's obsidian mirror or black

telescope allowed him to communicate with these beings. At first, Perlman wanted to release a series of concept albums to tell the entire story, but their record company, probably rightfully so, would not let him because they thought it was not commercially viable. But the story of Dr D and His Mirror made it to their first album and There, and the later Imaginose album, which did attempt to tell the

entire story. Pearlman had written, You can and he includes some links to where you can listen to it and where you can look at the lyrics as well as the entire story. Um is apparently featured on on wiki. If you just look up the imaginose anyway. They closed by saying, just thought this was something you might find interesting. Wow, I did not know that Blue Oyster Cult went like I mean, I guess I've never explored Blueish Blue Oyster Cult much beyond the singles, though I did see them

live one time when I was a child. Yeah, well I was taking I was taken by my dad to see them like a festival when I was a little kid. So I I have felt of the Oyster shoals, but they I don't know. I I didn't expect that they would go this direction. I always thought of them as just kind of like a cheesy seventies classic rock band. I didn't realize they had like deep connection with with

like sci fi and horror lore. Well, you know, I think I used to be the same way like I've Sally, I knew I don't Fear the Reaper, which is which is a great track. I'm not as into the what the middle part that doesn't sound like the song but but because it has whole deviation in the middle that that has yet to grab me. But but I love the rest of it. You know, it's a very snappy tune and they have a song about Godzilla. They do.

They have the Godzilla song. Um. But earlier this this year, actually I started looking around at Blue Oyster Colt a little bit more, mainly because I just I don't know, I guess they had a moment where I was just like curious, like what else did they do? They clearly did a lot of stuff. So first of all, I have to say they have some of the most intriguing album covers I've ever seen. Like, there's some very beautiful album covers. I'm sure record collectors are are super into

the Blue Oyster Colt in some cases. And uh, I started listening in particular to an album titled Fire of Unknown Origin, which does indeed have just a wonderful bit of cover art by the artist Greg Scott and is it's a pretty interesting album. It's got Burning for You on there, of that would be I guess the big single. But then it also has a track that caught my eyes titled Veteran of the Psychic Wars, because clearly there's some sort of world building going on here, and one

of the writers on the song is Michael Moorecock. Uh, the author that, interestingly enough, came up in an earlier Listener mail in this episode the author of the l Eric books. And also, yeah, I think my understanding is that there is a very um you know, the nerddom in Blue Oyster cult runs deep. So I haven't gone back in to explore their discography more, but I I certainly have the mere marked for, you know, a return journey the next time I'm in the mood for for

that era of rock and roll. Well, I will say when I saw them live, I was very young. I don't remember it's super well, but I remember number one that were heavy. Number two I remember that was the first time I ever recalled the feeling of being at a concert and feeling the base from the from the audio in my chest. Like that's a unique to kind of feel in your heart and your lungs. And it's

a little bit creepy. Yeah, yeah, and if you and yeah, and I guess as a kid, you know, you you know it's not you know, the caffeine or the alcohol or what have you. You know, you're like, oh, this is just the music. I'm not having a heart attack. Um. But yeah, I mean there's a lot to explore with the with Blue Oyster called they I read that they said they have their their members. You look at they have their names, but one of them has the name

Buck Dharma. That's the like lead guitar vocals. And apparently at one point, like their producer the record labor label was like, you guys all need some unique names. Let's get you some some trindy names. And so they all had to come up with their names, and this guy Donald what Royster came up with Buck Dharma, and everybody else came up with the name. But they we're like, yeah, we're not using that, but he's stuck with Buck Dharma.

So I kind of like the sort of implied comedy of that where he's like the only one who shows up in costume or something. Yeah, but it's a cool name, Buck Darma. I like it. Like you imagine if Slipknot as a band where only one member wore the costume. Yeah, yeah, that's sort of thing. Yeah, Okay. This next message is about our Weird House Cinema episode on dr X. This comes from Alberto Albert. Alberto says, greetings from Mexico. Hello, Robin Joe. My name is Alberto. I'm forty nine in

an I T professional working for Amazon. I listened to your January eight podcast about dr X and you had a discussion about how to pronounce and then here the xavier I guess as the standard American pronunciation, or at least the x men pronunciation. Um, but Alberto says, I figured i'd tell you additional ways we pronounced X in Spanish and contribute to the confusion one clarification before I start the explanation, otherwise it will be even more confusing.

In Spanish, the letter J sounds like the beginning of hanuka, for example, and I think by using hanak means kind of a guttural H sound. But then he also says, or the beginning of hot or hero, so that's just like a standard English pronunciation H sound, or in the German number eight the in oct so I so I guess it could be like kind of like an an H e K sound, or just like a ha sound

or a ha sound. Okay, so Alberto says, English speakers pronounced the X in Mexico as any other word with X in Spanish, the X can sound as in English,

but also as the J in Spanish. As a matter of fact, Mexico used to be spelled Mexico with a J and nowadays, even though it's written with an X, sounds like the Spanish J. In Spanish, there's also Javier, which is written Xavier sometimes as in Francisco Xavier or Xavier or Xavier Catholic missionary from the sixteenth century x v I, but is pronounced as a regular J. Many words inherited from pre Hispanic cult yours e g As texs Aka, Mexica's Maya's ole Max have the letter X

written and mostly pronounced as S at the beginning of a word, or s h in the middle. For example, Sotel a woman's name, uh mihote some pit barbecued dish, Soshimilco, a place near Mexico City. I discovered your podcast while looking for science related ones and love your science discussion, but even more the non science talks about literature, movies, artifacts, et cetera. Really awesome content. Congratulations. I live in a

city called Cholula in the state of Puebla. I always listen to your podcasts while I'm out running in the morning, so as a Pavlovian dog, I now relate your voices to the need for exercising. An interesting fact. I usually go to run around a pyramid near my house. The pyramid is buried and has a church at the top, built by the Spaniards during the conquest. Seemingly it is

the largest volume pyramid in the world. And this is he attached a picture for us to look at, which is it's gorgeous and I would love to visit this pyramid someday. But it is it's known as the Great Pyramid of Cholula or Um. I'm gonna try to say then waddle or word tolachi hual to pedal. I hope I got close there. Whether the image that they included is quite captivating. I love hearing that our voices are now your your your Pavlov's bell for feeding the dog

except its exercise. I feel honored. Yeah, that's that's in start contrast to the people who listen to the show to go to sleep at night. Yeah, all right. Here's another bit of listener mail. This one comes to us from Danny, Hi, Robert, and Joe, thanks for your recent Weird House Cinema episode about shopping Mall. My wife and I were turned onto this movie because one of our favorite bands has a song called Kilbot two thousand. After we learned that it was a reference what it was

a reference to. We watched the movie and it has remained a cult classic of ours ever since. The band, by the way, is called or by Death, another classic movie Nod and you should definitely check them out. Dark and broody, but kind of folksy, western Ish piano cello rock. It's a genre. Are you familiar with this group, Joe, I've heard of them, and I don't think I've listened to them. Okay, yeah, I mean either off to check them out. They continue. I also had a general question

about your tastes in movies. I wonder if either of you have ever reflected on why you're drawn to the weird, sometimes not great films that you love. Do you like modern mainstream cinema at all? Can you get into the m c U or Academy Award nominees? Not saying you should, just curious what it is that brings you back to

these sorts of films time and time again. I first questioned this while listening to your episode about Medusa and Perseus, and you kept referencing Clash of the Titans, but not the modern two thousand and ten remake, but the one cheesy version. I'm not saying the newer version is better, but it holds pretty true to the original mythical stories and has much better production value. Is there any reason

you were drawn to the original in this instance? Is there may be a scientific study that tries to demonstrate why some of fall in love with these weird movies or why we develop our case in art at all, or do we just chalk it all up to nostalgia. Whatever the reason, keep it up. I love listening to your analysis of the old weird stuff. If I've seen the film you're talking about, I can revel in the fact that somebody else enjoys it, and if I haven't seen it, it immediately goes on my to watch list.

Thanks Danny. I think this is a really interesting question about why some people are drawn to I don't know why different people are drawn to different kinds of movies. With the example of the Clash of the Titans two thousand ten remake versus the original one, and like what represents the difference in taste there? I think you have absolutely at least for me, and I think I'm sure for you to Rob. I identified a strong tendency of ours, which is too prefer movies that are more like the

nine eight one version. And I think for me that difference is I just am more interested in paying attention to movies that, however flawed, fell more handmade as opposed

to feeling slick. I feel like I would rather watch something that is imperfect but uh kind of I don't know, interesting labor of love where I can kind of uh where where if we're talking about special effects, that I can I can see the art going into it, as opposed to something that looks very realistic and professionally done and high budget and you can't see any of the zippers or seems. Yeah, I think I think that makes sense. Um. I mean it's it's hard to draw a fine line

sometimes on on what one likes and doesn't like. I know, for my own part, I do. I am drawn to a lot of these old movies, and certainly nostalgia is a is a big part of it. There are these films that I'm nostalgic for, or even if I have never seen it before, I I oftentimes remember the VHS box or something, you know, so I have some connection to it. I have some versions in and of its stuck in my mind. Um. But yeah, I mean I like I agree with the the sort hand Maine qualities.

You know, they there's something about you know, about feeling about being able to to feel the craftsmanship of the piece, and and and and often oftentimes it's uneven craftsmanship, you know, and you get to sort of focus on the things that that really work in the things that don't. I find that sometimes pictures like this they allow me more room to work my imagination as opposed to something that

is slicker and more like structurally whole to a certain degree. Yeah. Um, well, so another example that comes up in in Danny's message here is, um, Danny asks about whether we get into like the m c U. I think that's Marvel movies, right, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And my feeling about the Marvel movies I've seen is that, uh, there's some that I've seen that I, you know, really enjoyed watching, Like uh, I like the Iron Man movies. I like Black Panther,

like other ones I didn't like as much. And just see like I watched one of the Avengers movies one time and I just honestly found it rather boring. But in gen or all, I feel like that whole class of like high budget, slick production. Uh, lots of lots of c G. I that looks good in the sense that it looks realistic, I guess, or it blends seamlessly into the action of the film and you don't have to think about the effects as special effects. They just

sort of automatically happen. I feel like when I watch a lot of those movies, they're just like, you know, I watched them and they're okay, and I don't hate them, but I don't really have any thoughts about them. It's just kind of like, well, that happened. But when I watch one of these old, flawed movies, my brain just kind of lights up with all kinds of thoughts and I find them interesting. Yeah. Yeah, I can definitely relate to that. Um. I mean, I'm into some of them.

The m c U titles. I liked the I like thor Ragnarok. I thought that was a lot of fun. Uh. It certainly had more weirdness to it than some of these other films that they've put out. I'm I mean, I'm definitely down for the forthcoming Blade movie. I'm always always uh in for a good Blade movie, no matter

who's playing. Um. And then of course, I'm I'm super into Star Wars films, which are you know, you can certainly compare them to the m c u uh certainly the modern Star Wars films anyway, because they're you know, very much this industry of creating content. So you know,

I like modern mainstream films as well. Um So, anyway, I mean, we could basically go on and on about all this, and I guess we in a way will continue to go on and on like this in our Weird House Cinema episodes as we often consider these, you know, weirder films or films from the past, though I I do hope that will also cover some more recent weird films on on that series, and I'm sure we will as we proceed. Yeah, alright, This next one comes from Joe,

and this is also about weird how cinema. This goes back to the Not of This Earth episode. Joe says, Hey, guys, I've been quite enjoying your Weird House Cinema episodes. It's been a fascinating exploration of both the creativity of and limitations faced by low budget filmmakers. As you described the bio guillotine assassin monster deployed by the villain and not of this Earth. I immediately recalled one of the stranger beings which is of this Earth, or more precisely, this

abyssal plane, the vampire squid. This gelatinous, bioluminescent creature is neither quite a squid nor an octopus, but is a curious in between evolutionary remnant. Uh. It was discovered as part of a fascinating early twentieth century expedition to detect deep sea life. It may or may not have been the inspiration for the creature in the movie, but the resemblance is uncanny. The history of deep sea exploration could

make a fascinating subject for an episode. All its own beliefs have evolved over the centuries and been confronted with reality as technological breakthroughs have permitted more and more thorough exploration. The vampire squid is a suitable mascot for the eerie, alien, dangerous, and little understood ecosystem that persists thousands of meters below

the surface. Keep up the great work, Joe. Well, Joe, if you are interested in in us doing episodes about the history of deep sea exploration, I feel like you should go a few years back into our archives where for for a year or so we were doing a lot of that. Yeah, we did. We're looking at the bathmosphere, looking at you know, various uh uh, you know, mythological takes on the undersea world, and you know, I'm sure

we'll go back as well. We also conducted an interview with a deep sea marine biologist, uh Diva Amon uh a couple of years back, and that was a really insightful uh interview, you know, getting to talk to somebody who's whose work is devoted to deep sea environments and has actually descended in submersibles into the depths. I highly recommend that interview. Yeah, she's involved in deep sea conservation and uh, she was a really wonderful guest, and maybe

we can have her back on the show someday. Yeah. Yeah, alright. This next one comes to us from Adam Dear Joe and Robert. I've been listening to your podcast for years now, and today finally had something to add when listening to your Weird House Cinema episode. Absolutely look forward to it every week on dr X. I nearly jumped out of my seat when I heard the first two quotes from the movie. I immediately recognized them from a song No Awareness on one of my most beloved albums, Doctor Octagon.

I don't listen to as much hip hop now as I did in my youth, but the joy of coming across a famous sample of for a well known song is intense. Uh are you that familiar with the Doctor Octagon? Yeah? I mean it's been a long time, but yeah, I I've listened to this. Okay, I know Doctor Octagon has come up in mixes for me, but I haven't done a lot of I think specific diving on on this particular album. Anyway, they continue cool. Keith, if you're not aware,

is the weird house Cinema of rap. Prolific in albums and word usage. He's completely self aware and weird. Almost every album he releases with a new nomda Bloom. This includes an such as Dr Octagon, Dr Doom ten by forty seven on the Cinembyites album Black Elvis, Jimmy Steele, Uh, Jimmy Steel, Time Too, or Jimmy Steele, to name a few. They are often genre heavy. His album dtr Octagon was my first introduction to his music, and I've been a

fan of his strange music ever since. Uh So Yeah, I'm gonna have to uh dive into Dr Octagon's work a bit more, because, certainly when it comes to hip hop, I really do enjoy some of the weirder stuff out there. Um you know, I love the work of the late um m F Doom Uh did a lot of really interesting stuff. I like Our Faces another act that I've I've enjoyed. So this is right up my alley. Anyway,

they continue on a different note. If you ever do an episode about the Kalavala, as mentioned a month or so ago, please check out the Klavalle Pug and Eastonian epic tale. It has the same Balto Finnic origins, but since the cultures and the languages split thousands of years ago, the tales are quite wildly different and are fun to compar I know, I'm rambling one last thing. In the

previous episode, you mentioned the sampo or sampo in the Kalavala. Apparently, the sampo is a mythical weapon in the Chinese tradition as well, and the fact that this mysterious magical tool is found in both cultures is explored in the two thousand six finished Chinese film The Jade Warrior. It's Crouching tiger meets Northern European cinema and is a real delight. Always looking for to your content, be well, adam, Well, that sounds exciting. Um, yeah, that I'm gonna I think

I am vaguely aware of the like. I remember seeing some promotion of this online. I don't know if it had a US release or or what, but it's it's ringing a bell, but I don't think i've seen it. You have my attention. I may have to look that up. All right, we're out of time here, We're past time. Um. The mail is beginning to melt down a bit, so we need to unplug in from the wall and cool off for about a week. But we'll be back with

more listener mail in the meantime. If you want to listen to other episodes of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Stuff to Blow your Mind, Listener Mail, Uh, Weird Out, Cinema, anything, it's all in the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed, which you can find wherever you get your podcasts and wherever that happens to be. Just write review and subscribe a great way to support the show. Huge thanks as

always to 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, 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 I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.