Listener Mail: Sole Survivor

have first, Joe, Well, let's see. The first note is we received a very brief communic a from the food historian Ken Albola, the author of the book Beans a History, which we talked about a lot in those two episodes on beans Can, contacted us to say, very nice episodes. That's it seems Ken is into the whole brevity thing. But thanks so much for the kind words and and your book was a big help. Awesome all right, This next one comes to us from Hannah. Hannah rides Hi,

Robert and Joe. I loved your reconsider the being episodes this week. As a long time vegetarian, I am something of a bean stand. Uh it's like a fan, right, that's yeah, it means like a fan. I think a stand is not just a fan as in somebody who likes it, but a fan who like puts effort into their appreciation of something. All right, and one of my favorite things of stuff to blow your mind episodes are

deep dives into seemingly mundane things. To answer the question of favorite beans, I must admit that my heart lies with the humble black bean that being has range. I wanted to write in to mention an interesting fictional treatment of beans relating to the Jack and the Beanstalk fairy tale and Stephen Sondheim's musical Into the Woods. I know there was a movie version that came out a few years ago, but I personally have not seen it and have little interest in doing so, as it is, from

what i've heard, a sanded down, pretty mediocre adaptation. I'm perfectly satisfied with the p BS filmed on stage version. I think most people familiar with it are so because it's a popular choice for high schools and local regional theaters to put on. Anyway, the story and is a bunch of fairy tales, including Jack and the Beanstalk, interweaving

until eventually the story spins out of control. The score reflects this, creating a complex web of musical motifs and ideas that not only helps the audience orient themselves among the many characters, but also helps create a through line to make all of these different storylines form a cohesive

piece of theater. This is something that Sondheim is very good at, taking little phrases and musical ideas and shifting them around, inverting them, combining them, etcetera, so that the narrative and thematic concepts are also baked into the score. Oh much like baked beans, uh, they continued. One character that gets its own musical motif is the magic beans themselves, and this bean theme or bean motif as it is

usually called, is all over the music zical. In this version of the story, the beans were originally stolen by the Baker's father from the Witch's garden, tying into the witchy associations from English folklore, and as they change, various hands bring if not outright bad luck and curses sort of monkeys paw esque quote unquote good luck that eventually causes a lot of chaos and destruction and related to the association of beings with genitals discussed in these episodes

of the Witch reveals to the Baker that she cursed his whole family to be infertile as retribution for his father's being theft The baker is later the one to trade the beans to Jack for his cow in a quest to reverse the curse. In this way, the beans themselves come to represent the central conflict of the show, which ends up being all of the characters unwillingness to

change and take responsibility for their own actions. I'm not sure if this is necessarily explicitly intended, but the hardy and long lasted dry beans seems like a good symbol for being static and stubborn and for bad luck you can get rid of. Huh, I've seen into the woods. I did not think to make any of these connections. The beans always seemed incidental to me. But I see everything you're saying, Hannah. Yeah, these beans go deep, Hannah continues.

The second to last song of the show is largely about how complex and difficult morality really is, and how even though there is no one there to guide the remaining characters, perhaps they will be able to figure it out together. This is just before the story resolves, and in this song, the bean motif is inverted. When this is applied to melodies. This means that if you were to picture the phrase written on sheet music, you would then flip it upside down, so the direction of the

intervals between notes is reversed. For example, instead of the interval between the first two notes going down a perfect fifth, it now goes up a perfect fifth. Crucially, the inversion happens on the lyric people make mistakes where these characters are finally admitting their own fault, something that just two scenes earlier they were frantically thrusting onto one another. They are finally ready to admit when they are wrong, to

grow and learn, they have canceled out the beans. Sorry that this got so long and that I felt compelled to do music theory at you. Here is a link of Sonheim himself talking about this motif so that you can hear what it sounds like, and they include a link and then in this video at about the three minute mark at four forty five talking about resolution inversion of this theme. Endless thanks for this awesome show. It always gives me something new and interesting to think about.

And here are the clips Hannah was talking about. And also I would like to point out that when you're singing the release of the second part when they're all singing together, people make mistakes. It's going like this, and that, of course, is the inversion of the bean thing. It's the upside down version, so that everything finally comes together in in one song. Well, thanks Hannah, interesting stuff. Yeah, this connects to a bunch of things we talked about.

The Yeah, the cursed beans from English folklore, the beans and reproduction. I did not see any of this coming, so so thank you very much. Anyway, This next message comes from Greg. Greg says, I enjoyed listening to your two part episode on beans. Fascinating stuff. My favorite bean encounter was at a dinner with a friend of mine from Mexico. I'm on a restricted diet that does not allow chocolate, but he served what appeared to be a

chocolate cake for dessert. When I saw it, I reminded him that I couldn't eat chocolate, and he told me there wasn't any in the cake. He asked me to guess what the cake was made from. I had no idea. He revealed it was black beans, no chocolate whatsoever. I was blown away. The cake was great. It really fooled the mind into thinking it was chocolate. I'll have to get that recipe and make it again. Keep up the great work. Always entertaining and fascinating podcasts, including the Weird

House Cinema ones Still trying to Find Frall from nineteen two. Greg, Oh, I've never heard of this, or Rob if you had a black bean cake? Uh, you know, it sounds vaguely familiar. I feel like I've had I may have had some sort of a baked good that was ultimately made from beans and had kind of a chocolate consistency to it. But but but I don't have a specific memory of it. Now, this is funny. I forgot to bring this up in the other episode. But I've been cooking with something that's

often called black beans. It's not the same as the black bean you would usually have in like the like the version of fassiolas that that is called black beans. That they're the fermented black beans that are often used in uh some regional dishes of Chinese cooking. And uh, I got a pack of those that I ordered off to the internet. They're actually soy beans and they're really good as for frogs and where you can find a

copy of it? Um, I said, just keep looking look at look, look, look around online, because I think you'll at least find some scenes from it that have been uploaded. All right, here's another bit of listener mail. This comes to us from Peggy. Peggy writes in and says hi, Rob and Joe enjoyed your discussions on beans this week, especially part two where you talked about particular traditions and

beliefs about beans. My love of a good bean dish refried black beans please, has unfortunately been ruined by my body's decision not to digest them properly, causing more than a few guttural hauntings. Maybe Pythagoras had ibs. I lived in Japan for a year fifteen years ago and participated

in sets A Bun festivities that February. There could be uh different traditions and other regions of Japan, but in Kansai Osaka, Kyoto region, you're supposed to clean your house and yell only sato demons out while emptying the dirt outside. It's also traditional to eat timaki, an uncut sushi roll, while sitting in a certain direction, though I can't remember which direction. I went to a ceremony at a local

temple where a full of demons were banished. With the help of the crowd, we all threw soybeans at them, yelling on a sto until they were defeated. I have a feeling this ties back to the old Lunar New Year with the idea of starting out with a clean, demon free house. And yes, I believe that is the case as well, based on some material I was looking at. But they continue. You were trying to remember when you

talked about driving evil spirits out of the house. I think it was in your episode from early last year about animate objects in Chinese and Japanese culture. In Japan, New Year's celebrated January one, but I remember it's also traditional to clean the house beforehand and get some new clothes, starting the year off fresh. I hadn't heard of throwing used objects out of the house as you mentioned in

the episode, but maybe that's an older edition. I did get a kick out of the story about a religious scroll trying to convert a bunch of discarded objects, uh to Shingon Buddhism. I'm biased, but the scroll was right. It is the best school to convert to. Apologies for sounding like that religious scroll, but you might find Shingan

interesting from his story and cultural perspective. It comes from the same roots as Tibetan Buddhism, incorporates a lot of Shinto beliefs, and is colorful and complex compared to the simplicity of zin. It's founder, known as Koboda, actually lived during the Hayon period of tenth century and developed the hiragana and u kata kana writing system still used today. There are all kinds of legends about his life and is believed to have preserved his own body after death.

Might be of interest to look up into his life an impact on Japanese culture. You know, I think, um, back when Christian was on the show, I think uh, I think we I discussed this with him at one point when we're doing a series on various mummification rituals self mummification. Uh. They continue. This also calls back to your episode a while ago Unsacred Mountains asking about personal or lesser known spots. Mine is uh mount to Koya

or Koya San in Japan. When I first read about it, it sounded like some spiritual for your land, but no. It's about an hour east of Osaka. It's not very high or notable, but in the center of Shingon Buddhism, home to dozens of temples, some originally built over a thousand years ago. It also has Japan's largest cemetery, a beautiful area full of huge cedar trees and countless monuments uh from a tiny moss covered Stupa's two giant memorials,

including Kobodaishi's tomb. I visited twice, and it's one of the most significant places in my early introduction to meditation and Buddhism. It's an amazing place to visit, regardless, and I hope to go back one day. All that said, I've been listening to stuff to blow your mind for a few years now and love the strange and unexpected corners of science and culture you look into and weird how cinema is fantastic. I could listen to you guys

talk about movies all day. My suggestion, Hobo with a shotgun. Maybe it's two tongue in cheek to be true. Weird house, but it's got Rutger howerd was inspired by one of those Tarantino Grindhouse trailers and has some cameos only a Canadian would appreciate. Thank you both of your continued work to inform and inspire. It's been especially appreciated through a year of working from home. Hope you and your families continue to stay healthy, eat your beings. Cheers, Peggy. Oh,

thanks Peggy. Well, you know, I would not have expected a single email to be as as tightly focused about shingon Buddhism and Hobo with a Shotgun. Uh. Yeah, I really appreciate the thoughts on on on Japanese culture there, but also Hobo with a Shotgun was a lot of fun when I watched it years back. I remember it

ultimately went places that were weirder than than anticipated. So I I don't know for sure that it would be something we would cover on Weird House, but I would say that it's at least a possibility, given on on how weird that film ultimately is. Like it, it takes its initial, you know, grind housey concept and then goes in some unexpected directions. All right, This next message comes

from Travis. Travis says, Dear Robert and Joe. Hello, I've listened to your podcast in the past, probably since, but recently got earbuds to where during work I pretty much get six hours a day of YouTube or Chuck and Josh on some occasions. I have consumed much of your content in a very short period of time. I'm running low on episodes. Travis goes on, Anyway, I've been meaning to write in for a while, but have been occupied

with school. I just graduated with my bachelor's. During school, I worked stocking produce and continue to while I do the deadly job hunt. Since listening to your tomato episode, I have so much useful knowledge for work and home. I now almost subconsciously stocked the tomatoes with the stem facing down to seal in moisture. I've been questioned by co workers and had a logical explanation. Thanks well, Travis. I know that grind I have worked in a grocery

store as well. That I didn't do produce. I worked in dry grocery and stocking stocking dairy. But yeah, I know that world. Uh and I don't think I ever got to listen to podcasts while I was doing it, so so so I hope that makes it more fun. Um. But anyway, back to the message, Travis says about your leshy episode, I love mythology and the lushy is my new favorite creature after you to introduced it to me. There's a Cartoon Network mini series I love called Over

the Garden Wall. If you're not familiar, I highly recommend it. I watch it every October so I won't spoil too much. There's a creature in the episode named the Beast. Once I heard your Leshi podcast, it made me think of him. He's a forest creature who tricks and lures people who wander into the woods. He keeps himself hidden. You never see him until the last episode, when you get a very brief shot. I will attach an image. It's not

really a spoiler to see him. Maybe he's based on the leshy and Robbi attached the image that Travis attached so you can have a look here. Oh yes, it's very, very frightful. I actually watched I think the first episode of this and remember remember thinking it was pretty cool at the time. But yeah, it looks like I'll have to go back and explore it for real. Travis attached a link to a video that's like a song from the show. That's a song about being a highwayman who

does crimes or something. It seemed fun, but anyway, Travis says, just a couple of fun tidbits for you, seriously, over the garden Wall is great with an amazing soundtrack. Thanks for taking the time to read. I love your podcast and how much I learned. You guys are the reason I got so into mythology and folk tales, and I love Weird House cinema. I'm a film buff, So thank you so much. Stay chatty and keep reading. All the best, Travis.

All right, here's another bit of listener mail. This one actually comes to us off of the stuff to Blow your Mind discussion module, which is of course over there on the Old Book of Faces. And this comes to us from Cliff. Cliff writes in and says, I noticed on the Weird House anema today and this is referring to the episode we did on the Humanoid Um. The fellows mentioned Moonraker and the girl that smiles at Jaws that had braces on, well she did until September two

thousand eight. That's when the the Hadron collider was fully functional and it shifted us into this reality. And then there's a like a winking emoji that's included and um, Cliff includes this um this little screenshot UH from a website of some sort that has a picture of Jaws in the movie with the character Dolly, and the text reads in the case of Dolly and Moonraker. It is perhaps the way the sequence is edited that after Jaws smiles and exposes his metal teeth, Dolly then smiles in

the next shot as the music hits its crescendo. The actress who played Dolly, Blanche Ravallek, did not wear braces in the film WHOA, Well, that's on me. I'm the one who said that, so I this is one of those things. This is uh. This is cited as one of the many examples of the so called Mandela effect, to the effect where huge numbers of people apparently all misremember events in the same way, and it very often

happens with scenes in movies. Lines in movies, for example, like everybody thinking that the movie The Empire Strikes Back has the line Luke, I am your father. The Darth Vader never says that, uh, he says, he says, no, I am your father. And despite you know, the millions and millions of people who remember it the wrong way. So apparently I'm not the only one who remember Dolly in this movie as uh, you know, the the girl that Jaws falls in love with as having braces. Maybe

I don't know. I'm not sure quite what it is that created that misimpression. I mean I didn't specifically remember it, but when you described it as such, I I instantly saw it in my own head like I I then like altered my memory of it, which is kind of faint because I haven't seen Moonraker in a very long time. But you you're misremembering of it, like change my memory of it. So perhaps that's you know that we can

sort of think about. That is like a way that that these sort of things end up spreading from person to person. I've got no excuse. I watched Moonraker once a week. No, I mean I don't, but I I have. I've seen it way too many times to have that excuse. Well, it also just it sounds correct. It sounds like exactly the kind of visual joke that this film would perpetrate. It has a it has a pigeon doing a double take, so you think it also it would have Dolly with braces.

That would make sense. You know, of course that that's what they've got in common. They both have metal in their mouths, but in fact, what they have in common is. I don't know, They're both just awkward and don't say much. Well, Cliff, thanks for bringing that to our attention. Um, it's interesting how our memories of of movies, particularly on Altar, like this. Okay,

we've got another message about weird house cinema. This one comes from ian Ian, says hile thoroughly enjoying the new directions you're taking the podcast in, and I have a viewing suggestion. Frogs are just me too cold. What you really need is something with a little more warm blood. Have you ever come across? Two is Night of the leapis also released as Rabbits. I haven't seen it for twenty years, but I still bear the mental scars, the

poor acting. Although we do get DeForest Kelly, people in furry suits, padding with stock footage, dubious miniature sets, crawling with petting zoo extras, stomping on cardboard. This film has it all, along with the failure to realize that rabbits just don't work as monsters. With the possible exception of Frank maybe if it had just been James Duval in the rabbit costumes. I'm not sure who the James Duval there is referring to is that is that an actor

who is in Donnie Darko. I think that's the creepy franc that's being referred to here, is it? I don't remember on that front. Unless this is supposed to refer to Robert Duval, I don't know. Uh well, I'll check on that later. Anyway, Ian goes on it truly is worth a watch as a shining example of how not to make a horror film. Keep the wonderful episodes coming your regular companions in my dark underground laboratory. Ian, Well, you know two so that movie is right in there,

the same year as Frogs. So yeah, I wonder if the rabbits are created by pollution or by animal experimentation gone wrong. Yeah, I've never seen it in its entirety, but this is one I remember, I think catching part of on T B S or t n T, like in the lazy middle of a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and just seeing the rabbits stampede across the Minitri city. If I am not mistaken, I believe it was featured on t n T is recurring segment Monster Vision. Do

you remember this thing? Oh? Yeah, yeah, with Joe Bob Riggs. Yeah, but anyway, I remember this being basically frogs but with rabbits instead of all the amphibians and reptiles. All right, here's another one. This one comes to us from Riley with the subject heading shock waves seven. Great job, guys. Loved this movie since seeing it as a kid. Great to revisit. I've always felt like this movie inspired one of the of Lord Humongous is Dogs of War from

The Road Warrior. In one watched the boomerang scene you will know of whom I right to keep up the great work, Riley. Well, I did not. I was not able to go back and rewatch this. But what I'm guessing Riley saying is that there's a character in The Road Warrior who is wearing goggles like the goggles the Nazis the Nazi zombies are wearing in chock Waves. Okay, yeah, It's been a long time since I've seen The Road Warrior as well. Um, I don't know, may maybe I

need to give it a revisit. Maybe it's just too too much, too much time has passed, I don't know. Alright. This next message comes from Chris. The subject line is waxy looking old movies. Chris says there's a setting on h D t vs that causes this, and it can be reversed. It's generally called motion smoothing only beneficial really in sports, you can go to your settings and turn it off. You could do a story on it too. Even Casablanca looked like crap. I know what Chris is

talking about here. I think I was actually talking about something different. I believe I was. Uh. I believe what I was witnessing on like a DVD of Predator that looked really bad, was not due to the setting on TVs. But Chris is absolutely correct that a lot of times, if you get a new TV, everything on it will look terrible until you figure out how to turn off this setting that is turned on by default. I have no idea why. I think it's for sports. I think

that's where it becomes most important. Yeah, I guess so. I mean so, but I never watched sports. And it makes movies and TV shows look not just bad, but like like hilarious. It makes it makes everything look like a bad sort of daytime TV production that somehow manages to make everything look cheap. Uh, it make it totally ruins the immersion of all fictional film media. It just makes everything look fake and like a set of people wearing goofy costumes. I'm not sure exactly why, but that

that's the effect that it has. Uh and uh and yes, sometimes it's called motion smoothing. I think on my TV it was called jutter reduction or something like that, whatever it is. If you get a new TV and everything looks terrible, you've got to find the setting and turn it off. I watched the entirety of Black Panther television like this. We were staying at a relative's house and I didn't want them us with their TV settings, so

I'm like, okay, we'll just stick with it. And you know, on one level, it was bad because it made a you know, the last kind of movie you want to see reduced is going to be a big budget summer blockbuster like that. But on the other hand, it kind of made the whole movie into like a classic Doctor Who episode, okay, and it kind of forced me to focus on the performance is a little bit more so.

I don't know, Yeah, I know what you're saying. We we actually have watched a number of movies like this, like sometimes we've actually sometimes turned it on just for laughs. Speaking of James Bond, we watched part of a James Bond movie one time with this on, and it's really funny because it makes even big budget movies look like a community theater production. Yeah, it does, all right. Here's another one. Boy Carney is just frothing with schlock today.

This one comes to us from Raj Dearest to have to blow your mind. I know I am tardy to the party, but thank you for reading my listener mail about Weird House Cinema, the episode on Battle for Indoor. I was not expecting that, so it was a pleasant surprise. I also have some more feedback on yet another episode of Weird House Cinema. In one of the recent ish episodes, you discussed a film with a character named uh Thorkell or Thorkel. I think that was the thing. We couldn't

remember how to say it, Dr Thorkell. I would know this was um, the one about the giant um. Oh Dr Cyclops, doctor cyclops um. Anyway, Roger continues, sorry, I can't remember the name Gunhead. Perhaps Vandanama doctor Cyclops. You were discussing how to pronounce that name. From my understanding based on the British History Podcast. Uh, there were several historical Scandinavian figures um from the eleventh century that were named Thorkel, including Thorkell the Tall. It's pronounced the war

as in the Norse god Kel. Okay, I thought i'd share in case you were curious to know. Keep up the great work, raj PS. Is exciting to see episode topics that here that relate to topics covered in the British History Podcast, including the Hornet Helm, Ragnar Lodbrock, et cetera. Oh, thanks, Ross, I don't know this other podcast. Maybe I'll check it out. Yeah, well, when did we talk about Ragnar lad Brock. What's that from? Ah? Well, I just had to look it up to confirm, but

that was from the Pit of Serpents episode. I think there's a there was a story about Ragnar having to like he got sent into a pit of snakes for some reason. There really got executed in a pit of snakes, I think or did was that the one where the snake like crawled inside him and ate his hard or it was it was about like being bit in the in the liver or something. Yeah, yeah, yes, now now yeah, it's fuzzy now but it was it was good stuff. Well, anyway, if you're curious to go back to the Pit of

Serpents episodes, that will Yeah. All right, well that's the end of our mail bag for today. It was a good one. Yeah, beans, weird movies. Uh, lots of good stuff. So hey, if you would like to write in as well, Uh, send in your listener mail, send them in. Let's talk, let's chat. You have a ping us, so they say yes at us? Uh, I mean, you know, don't I mean, I guess there's an act in the email address, because the email that's the main way to get in touch

with us. We're not really on the social accounts that we are. We we still have a Twitter account. I don't know if anybody's messaging us m I don't know, but we there's Yeah, the account still exists. I think we're locked out of the Instagram one because somebody else was doing it for us and then it was deemed suspicious and so now we just have no access to it. Very cool. So it's just setting there, uh, and nobody

knows that access it, so sitting there looking awesome. Yeah, but but the email address is, as of this recording, still good. So you know right in let us know. Respond to episodes we've recorded of any of the shows that are popping up in our feed ideas for future episodes, Responses to stuff you heard in this listener mail episode. It's all fair game, huge things. 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.