Prepare yourself for: sound effects, Tim Burton, murder, and Ruby
The Skinner Co. Network
FC60 - 200 Spoilers
[Music] Hello, and welcome to Flashcast 60, a Skinner Co presentation. Skinner Co, now with 24% less sodium. This episode is also brought to you by generous donations from Juju Click and Scott Roche. Prepare yourself for sound effects, Tim Burton, Murder, and Ruby. Beware that the episode contains spoilers for episode 200. [Music] Hi, I'm a Popen X, and within my arcane aura are Jessica May. [Music] And Jaredie. Hello. Wow, that's good. I like that, Jaredie. Yeah, well. It's a gift you have. I know. That is. I'm still trying to clear this ice cream out of my throat. It's a little ice cream truck. Yeah. Well, we didn't actually eat the ice cream truck, but it drove by. I had a banana split. It was very nice. Banana boat, if you will. Banana boat. Banana boat. I found it interesting. He had three settings on his soft serve ice cream machine. Oh, yeah. Tell me about it. Vanilla. Okay. Chocolate. Yeah. And then a nozzle that was vanilla and chocolate at the same time. Very nice. Let's do it. I didn't have a strawberry. I was kind of looking forward to that. Yeah. That's all right, though. That gentle ice cream man can only have chocolate. He's one of a dying breed, really. Honestly, I've never seen a chocolate soft serve ice cream. He had a variety. He had pre-made stuff, as well. Yeah. I have to admit, I was almost looking more for one of those weird, like, Mr. Nine-gott, a Sonic the Hedgehog. Oh, he's like, "I don't even want to eat it." He just thought it was so beautiful. But at the same time, it's the same goo-faced cartoon characters they've been doing since we were kids. It's almost like a sherbet, you know? Those ghosts with the little yellow nose. Oh, yeah, the nose. Yeah. Or the catcher's mitt. Mm-hmm. He had gum and gumball in the middle. You know, through the days, man. Some people will discuss jaws and how they couldn't go swimming after they saw jaws. For me, it's all done pre-sate 13. Mm-hmm. Kind of a counter to me. But I was, I didn't get a twist. Yeah. Well, they would have been happy with this ice cream truck, then. They had to be in the twist. Jessica, why don't you play us with a little taste of that while we move into popular stress? Please, can I get a nice clean? What flavor? The little twist. Hey. This is regular vanilla. I want to be a little twist. So I was, uh, I want to say flipping through the internet as though I had a remote or something. No, I don't know whether this is what happens. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And I came across this really interesting, kind of horrible, but also kind of cool fact about one of my favorite movies, The Abyss. Do you remember that movie? Ed Harris. And I don't remember what her name is, but she was, she was made Marianne, you know? That lady. She was on it too. Brizzy Herod. Why? Yeah, exactly. So, uh, do you remember the scene where he has to like go defuse a bomb or something like that, but he can't go down that deep because you would like make him explode or something. So then they get him to breathe this goo. Yes. Oh, yeah. Well, that's the, that was one of the big things about that movie right at the beautiful goo. Yeah. Well, did you know that it actually got like an unacceptable rating from the Humane Society of the US because of that? Because when they were shooting that scene and they had the little, like, look how we do it, Ed. His name was Bud, but they had a rat and they submerged the rat in goo. Well, it was a real rat and they really did that to the rat. And so the Humane Society was like, oh my God, this is horrible. And they said that it hadn't been acceptable rating. So it actually got to, I think it got censored and in some places. And that would make me feel uncomfortable. But yeah, I mean, the rat was fine. It's a perfectly acceptable technology. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, it's, um, it works for realsies. Yeah, it works for realsies for realsies because it's like a fluorocarbon liquid. It's oxygenated fluorocarbon liquid. So because it's denser, your lungs won't collapse. Well, it's got like oxygen, more oxygen in it. They were talking about how when you drown, it's not actually getting water in your lungs that kills you, but that you can't get the air because the water is in your lungs. Yeah. So it's the lack of oxygen that kills you. In the water. Yeah. Yeah. That, uh, that rat wouldn't want to be in its shoes though. Yeah. Yeah, it's little rat shoes. The most tiny, tiny, baby rat shoes. Yeah. No, no, listen, I'm following up on this because I found this fascinating and I'm easily, uh, fascinating. I'm easily stunned by technology. Yeah. From that same article, it's crack.com article in 2010 a guy called Arnold land patented a scuba suit, just like the one in the abyss, breathing liquid solves the three most dangerous medical issues associated with scuba diving, baratrama, barotrama, and decompression sickness, which are caused by pressurized gases expanding as the diver rises. And what's the third? And alien killing underwater nukes too deep to deactivate by other means. There we go. Thank you. Fascinating. I didn't realize that. Yeah. That was for real. Yeah. I've been sitting on that for a while because that was really cool. Uh, in other dense scene. In other real life movie news, you guys hear about the George Lucas thing that Savage Glenn brought up in the mob? No. You read that George Lucas being kind of a dick, but this time he's using his powers of dick-ishness for good. For good, not evil. Really? How so? Uh, his, so he's been trying to build like a massive movie studio in his area for a long time, like by Skywalker ranch or whatever, and it's called Lucas Valley. And you know it's named after him because he's obviously like developed all of this land, but his neighbors who have also invested quite a bit of money to live out there, I mean, you know, rich folks with large tracks of land, essentially. Who were there before Lucas? So how dare it take his name? Well, no, you know, anyway, I think he's probably dumped a lot of money into that community. But anyhow, he, he wanted to open the studio, but everyone got mad at him because, uh, they didn't want to have this noisy movie lot in their backyard, essentially. Yeah. So for years and years, he was back and forth trying to open this thing up and was going to create all these jobs and do all this other, you know, fairly, potentially positive stuff for the neighborhood, but they just fought it and fought it and fought it. So finally he was like, fine, I've already invested a bunch of money in this land though. So I got to do something with it. So I'm going to make it, uh, low income housing. Wow. That's great. And I'm sure all the rich for the real, real, real thrilled about that. So I thought that was pretty helpful. Not a little f-u to them, you know, well, screw them if they don't know any better. Yeah. Screw those guys. Low income housing is a great idea. Mm hmm. Strasburg also mentioned something fantastic. What's that? Uh, there was an auction recently in the UK of high tech, as it, as the article states, high tech forensic gadgets, what, what's a high tech forensic gadget? Um, clones people. It's really expensive though, yeah, we have to sell 2.5 of the children. The kit ranges from DNA workstations and electron microscopes to kevlar gun bags, water coolers and a coin-operated coffee machine. I want a coin-operated coffee machine. Can you imagine all the money I'd save? I would just save it up and save it up from all the coffee. The high-speed on a 2005 scanning electron microscope with edax for compositional analysis and an infrared chamber scope is only 15,000 pounds. Infrared chamber scope sounds really cool. What do you think that really is? Why don't I have an infrared chamber scope? A PCR system for magnifying small amounts of DNA is going for 150 and a genetic analyzer for 6k. Cool. What's a genetic analyzer? And how do I know if I need one? Well, you know. It's like one of those menus, you know those menus where if you've got to like ask how much it is, you probably can't. If you've got to ask what it is, you probably don't need it. You can't afford it. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks a lot to stresswork. That was fantastic. So, I was actually going to put something into the show notes and I may have read ahead in somebody else's article. We generally try to avoid other people's stuff in the show notes so that we don't know everything of what the other person's going to say when Flashcast comes around but I kind of peaked in this because it was called saving Alex. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it was pretty sad article. It's a sad little tale about a boy with pretty vicious autism. Yeah. He is really violent and he's been very violent since he was a young young child. And the trouble is although he's often hit and kicked his mother, he's now getting older and he's 12 and he's big for a 12 year old. Yeah. And being at a school with other kids and stuff so his parents were looking to put him in a residential program but things just were now working out. Well, here's the problem. They moved from an area that had a residential program. Well, yeah. They moved from Southern California to be closer to family but when they moved they discovered that there's a lot less of a support system for their son and essentially what it came down to was they went broke. Like they were both working, both the mother and father were working over time but they just couldn't make it work. Yeah. They couldn't afford like home care for him or anything like that. Eventually, it was like a school social worker type thing. She came up with the solution that ended up being the best course of action but it's really quite horrible. I asked J.R.D. why he would even put this in the show now and he was saying it sounds so similar to something that Mulligan would end up having to do. Unfortunately, something Mulligan would have to do. Okay, there's a flip side of this too, right? The boy is becoming increasingly suicidal as well which is a very difficult thing to deal with and so they got to a point where they were reaching out and the school resource officer suggested that the next time he hit her. Did she hit him back? That he had him arrested and then when they come to court, she say that she can't deal with him anymore. Well, no, not, not, he's, she feels unsafe with him around. Yeah, not when they come to court but they would call her to pick him up after a while and then she would have to say no, I can't take him and they would call an emergency hearing the next day to be put in front of a judge and if the judge was empathetic enough then hopefully he would help out but basically they had to give up custody of their son to the state in order to pay for it. Yeah, so that the state was ending up paying for it. And she has absolutely no rights to him and it really sucks like the judges still in most cases let the mother like make some decisions and stuff but I think they're in Arizona. Because it's surprise Arizona and he's off in Austin, Texas and they're you know lying back and forth just to be up to Sam and it's the best thing for him really. Yeah, but because it's, you don't want him dead or killing somebody. Yeah, like they realized that he needed something more and they found a way to get it. It just, it does not feel like the best solution. Yeah. It feels like a solution but not the best solution. Yeah, I remember one part of the interview where the lady she is on a plane with Alex like the mother and also the social worker that goes with them back and forth and the social workers asleep and Alex is asleep and she's talking to the interviewer and she starts to cry because she's like I'm so like horrified that she had more paperwork to fill out than I did. And like she's his mother, you know, yeah it's just heartbreaking. Good times. Good times. Anyway, yeah, I don't know why I threw that bummer in the notes anyway, so poppy. On more upbeat note, possibly, have you guys heard about this MIT brain put situation? No, no. Supposedly boosts your brain power by offloading multitasking to a computer. What? Now, of course, it's in a very controlled situation right now. They're basically giving you a simple task to do and then the computer can guess at ways to assist you in that task. Yeah. And I mean, I think we've discussed this before. I want to delegate to robots. People don't use certain parts of their brain in a way. No, okay. There's actually two schools of thought here that you don't use certain parts of your brain anymore because everything's in your cell phone and you don't have to remember your home phone number anymore or what MIT here is essentially positing. It's not that you're not using your memory as much. You're still using the same amount of brain power, but you're focusing on different things. You're not wasting it on having to remember a series of digits. You can use it for something you might find more useful, but this is interesting because although we're not at a point yet where we're able to implant chips and memory that can directly affect us into our brain, I do feel like at some point we're going to get, you know, the quote unquote, "neural implant of cyberpunk history" and you'll be able to have a certain amount of built-in computer hardware and they're working on it. It may not be, you know, right now it looks really goofy in early stage and it doesn't really have a lot of applications outside of the lab, but it's starting. That's awesome. I could see one day, you know, people refer back to this as. When they started trying to figure that out, this'll be the marker that, you know. When it might too, it was first. Yeah. Ken Burns will be painting across still pictures. It'll be like, I was in the end, remember? Speaking of sentimental value, we watched people under the stairs the other day. Yes. Yeah, man. I was... I've been afraid of that movie forever. Maybe it'll be. Because I didn't watch the end. Oh, yes. It was like the movie I could not watch. Yeah. There was some terrifying concepts. I'd never seen the movie until last night. And because I didn't finish it, like it was just, it was way too terrible. No closure. Yeah. Yeah. It reminded me a lot of the Goonies. Yeah. It was very Goonies-esque. Yeah. But yes, we watched it again and man, it really could, and it was a lot of fun. Yeah. Like, there was so much more humor in it than I recall, plus, oh man. Both intentional and unintentional. Yeah. Absolutely. It was a lot that was intentional. But yeah. I think everyone should watch it. It's required viewing. It was a really great movie. I would totally watch that again. It was goofy fun. Yeah. Some things I did to like, what? No. No one would ever make that choice. That is the most ridiculous choice, but I guess that's every movie like that. They do throw them in a few situations. Are you implying that an entire neighborhood isn't going to show up at your door at the climax of the film? What are you going to do? Shoot all of us? And then somebody flies through the ceiling and punches her head to the floor? I wish there was a way we could convey that scene because it makes no sense. They essentially have the main villain, like, relatively under control. And then suddenly this girl shoots out of a ceiling vent for no reason. Drop kicks her, essentially. And then slams her skull into the pavement. A couple of times. Good measures. Damn, bam. But it was just like, it was so the last thing you expected. Yeah. Because it was really starting to remind me of the end scene and the movie witness with Harrison Ford and all the Amish guys you can shoot us off. And then somebody drop kicked him. Yeah. Yeah. It was almost a reversal of that old cliche where like the villain is defeated, but rises again. It was like the villain was defeated and then they were really defeated. Mm-hmm. Yeah. We kind of forgot about that villain in the basement for a little while. Oh, yeah. And then the leather suit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I loved how he would get hit and abused and so forth. Yeah. There's a certain, like, Sam Raimi slapstick to that. Mm-hmm. And none of the cops knows the giant bullet holes in the walls. Yeah. Or... The constant shooting. Yeah. The robbers, they can tell instantly that the windows are padlocked from the outside, but the police are like, "Oh, no, everything looks great." They look real normal here. It's van. Yeah. You know what? We're just going to leave this van here that was used in the commission of a crime and just walk away because your word is really good with us because you're white. And the cash explosion at the end. Yeah. It was great. Yeah. I went dancing around. Yeah. Can't handle movies like that anymore. This is how I want to see... This is how I want to see the final Batman, the final Nolan Batman movie, and there's just a cash blow to the Batcave and... Yeah. So, there already was a cash explosion with Jack Nicholson and Batman. Oh, yeah. You're right. You're absolutely right. Except he's killing them while they're accepting all the cash. Remember? Yeah. Oh, I remember Batman. I remember 1989's Batman. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I still maintain that Keaton as better than the other guy. Yeah. Yeah. He was a great Bruce Wayne, too. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's... That's what a... You're talking about Buster Keaton, right? His balance of boyish charm and... I've read the argument and I'm trying to recall who made it. I think it might have been Zack Mann, actually, mobster Zack Mann, who was saying, "Once you get Batman in the suit, it's not that hard to make him awesome." Yeah. You've got a guy in a pretty badass suit and he's punching people. You're pretty much there to begin with. And what really sells the Batman character is the actor's portrayal of Bruce Wayne. And I really felt like Keaton did a much better job. Yeah. He was fun and quick. But he always felt like he was a little distracted. He's always kind of... It felt more like Bruce Wayne was the mask he put on. He was Batman. He was always thinking whatever. He was always kind of thinking about Batman business, even if he was in the party scene. Whereas Christian Bale, man. It was like Batman was just something he did, you know, in his outfit. Yeah. Batman is what he does between snowboarding and... Yeah. He takes it really seriously, though, like he'll wear it for a whole week and he won't take it off. Oh, I'm Batman. Because he's been bat by his frat brothers, not because he's Batman anyway. Now we do have big news this week. We finally released 200. I know what happened, oh my God. But I want to save the majority of that for the back end of the show. So for now... In the trunk, dump it in the trunk. What are you going to do with all that junk? All that junk inside this trunk. You're still working on it, aren't you? I actually kind of got sidetracked thinking about Mulligan Smith in the trunk. Yeah. That's one of my favorite episodes. What are you going to do with all that junk? I guess you're going to shoot a man. Yeah. Spada vada. Spada vada. Hi, monsters. If you use a mobile phone, then inevitably, at some point, you've experienced a dropped call, right? What's especially frustrating for me are those times when I'm blathering along confident that the person I'm talking with out there in the ether is hanging on my every word only to get an incoming call signal in my ear from that very person. Upon answering, you discover that unbeknownst to you, the call was dropped and the other person has no idea what you have said for the past minute or so. Frustrating, right? Deadly? Not usually. Unless you just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and AT&T lets you down one final time. Thunderstorms kept Arthur Morris 88 and his devoted wife of 50 years, Madeleine 89, inside their upstate New York refuge for much of May 3. But the sun had emerged by the time they ventured out around 4.30 p.m. Arthur guided the sedan down the long driveway of the Cascals and was negotiating a hairpin turn at the end when he slid off the road and into a ditch. The car rolled less than 15 feet down a steep embankment, hit a sapling and then came to rest a tilt on the driver's side. The slow speed crash caused little damage to the car, where it's occupants, who tried five times in quick succession to call someone for help, with no luck. At that point the family believes Arthur tried to get out, but because of the car's steep angle when he opened the door he fell. His torso was wedged in an 8-inch space between the bottom of the door and the ground. He was asphyxiated, probably within 10 minutes, the family said. His wife picked up the phone, and again, dialed four more times, trying to reach a neighbor, as well as 911. Again and again, the calls did not go through. Madeline crawled out of the car, leaving the phone behind, and went for help on foot. She trudged through brush on a dirt road, then struggled uphill with her cane. She walked a quarter mile to the neighbor's house, and there was no one there. Their grandson, Jane Techfield, said, "It was a vacation house, and the reservation students had left the day before." Madeline covered herself with a blue plastic tarp from the wood pile, and settled down on the patio as temperatures dipped into the low 50s. By morning, she was dead. The avoidable tragedy was uncovered when some turkey hunters found the wreck about 10 a.m. the next day, said investigator Alan Ferreira of the state police. Jane Techfield said he had given his grandparents a cell phone on the AT&T network, because he thought that would give them the best shot at a signal. Police and local residents say cell service is virtually nonexistent in Andes and other small mountain towns with no towers, an annoyance and a danger. Two years ago, then Congressman Scott Murphy sent a public appeal to cell phone carriers to cover Delaware County, but it never happened. Margaretville Telephone Company, which provides landline service in the area, has been trying to get the ball rolling. All manager Scott Faulkner said it's difficult to lure big carriers like AT&T or Verizon to sparsely populated Hamlets. Nevertheless, his company has secured several sites where towers could be built and is working to get commitments from carriers. One tower could go up in nearby Margaretville within a year. A site has been identified in Andes, but it will probably take two years to get service there. Now, I'm probably going to come off as a politically incorrect ageist, just by suggesting this but should two 90 year old really be out driving around in the woods of New York at the first place? Sure, it's easy to hang this on AT&T, but if they had been in flat sunny Florida, they would have been able to leave their cabin and drive off safely into the Verizon. I'm Jeffrey Lynch and that's this week's spot of bother. As pleasant as ever Jeff, thank you, and in the morning she was dead. Quick pull, more bothersome not getting the call through when you are slowly going to dive exposure or getting the call through and answering it into your daughter being eaten by a bear. Bear. Always. I think we have yet to top the bear. You know what, it would really annoy me if I was that old lady and I was like, I'm going to die here. That I had like walked all that way and I was like, yeah, okay, you walked to your neighbor's house. No one's there. You sit on the porch. I would break in and get in there. Okay. Yeah, you have a cane. Take out a window. Yeah. Yeah. Come on. You're eating something. Heat. Anyways, yeah, that sucks. Yeah. Well, she was. She's dead now. Yeah. Well, she's dead. You know what? That's the problem. How would she probably was? She was probably thinking, oh, I don't want to bust these people's windows. Somebody's going to come home and find me. Yeah. That's true. That is true. She had just been like, screw it. Yeah. Dead lady. Why don't you do that? That's your fault. Take our suggestion. You wouldn't be dead. Dead lady. Oof. Rough. No, I'm very sad for her, but I would like to keep my show free from tears. So I'm making later for death. Look how you cheapen me, Jeffrey. Fresh fish, a new batch of cinematic pulp with the always listening, three day fish. 80 flash cast, three day fish, with a review of dark shadows. Now, before I get to my review, fish just has a little something he needs to say. We all have our guilty pleasures. We all have things that when other people find out we like them, we kind of have to defend it. Saying, well, you know, et cetera, et cetera, much like soap operas. Many of people can just look down on the overdramatizations of the soap opera. Fish is here to tell you that he often has to defend the fact that he enjoys a Tim Burton movie. And Tim Burton does not make it easy for us. As you can tell, I have mixed feelings about dark shadows. If you know Tim Burton, then everything you see in this movie should be as you expect. He has a hint of dark, a hint of humor in this. There's quite a bit more sex than he usually has, but perhaps that's just part of the soap opera that he is portraying in this film, but there's one scene and I know this scene will be the tipping point for everybody who watches it. There's this scene where Barnabas and Angelique are duking it out, ready to throw down immortal style and Angelique vomits. Now, it's not like, you know, extra system vomit, like horrifying demon vomit. No, this vomit looks like freaking Nickelodeon slime. Okay. And when I saw this, I was just like, why? Why, Tim Burton? You are busting my heart. Now, the real reason anyone should watch this movie is because they are a Tim Burton fan. The one truth any Tim Burton fan is aware of is that we don't really watch Tim Burton movies because we enjoy the plots. In general, I'm not talking about all of these movies. We watch Tim Burton movies because we like how they look. That is what this movie excels at. It looks good the whole way through, except for of course, the Nickelodeon slime, but you get a great sense of Maine, the trees, the ocean, the rocks, the harshness of New England. This is probably the most solid yellow light I'll ever give. I mean, it's in my whole description of this movie. I mean, if you like Tim Burton, you'll be able to sit through this movie and pretend that one scene didn't happen. There are other flaws to this movie, but honestly, this one was just so glaring that I don't really feel any need to mention any other because compared to that, that one awful mistake, everything was free. So it is with a heavy heart that fish signs off, always listening. A bunch of Batman earlier, some more Tim Burton action. And sex, apparently, Tim Burton, sexiness. Yeah, that's a little odd. This is definitely a film I'm going to see. I see all of the Tim Burton movies. I just don't enjoy them all, unfortunately. Yeah, for real. I feel, where did that problem start? Was that Planet of the Apes the first time you were really kind of disappointed with the Tim Burton movie? We're like, what the hell, Tim Burton? Yeah, that was my first experience with being super angry with Tim Burton. Everyone knows the first time that they were really upset with Tim Burton. When did Tim Burton let you down? Well, it was 63. If we could go back to, this was your life or whatever, this is your life, and it was just people coming and trotting out various-- God, would not be depressing for him. When Disney was finally too disappointed with him and they kicked him out, maybe. Why? Why? I kind of wish he had given-- and I haven't seen it. This is the first time I think we've gotten to the end of one of Fish's reviews, where I really wish I had him on hand to ask him a few questions about the film. I really feel like there's a certain 70s styling that is portrayed in the trailers, at least, that felt-- it made the whole thing feel a little extra comedic. And maybe that's wrong, because he's saying there's a lot of mane in that, and that'd be interesting. I could see the harshness of mane making for an interesting vampire occult soap opera kind of situation. Nice backdrop for it. But I do wish he had approached it maybe not with the entire seriousness of something like Sleepy Hollow, but that kind of gothic eye that he brought to that film. Do you have a problem with Sleepy Hollow? No, I just-- I can see how that would be preferable to-- That 70s show? 70s style, yeah. Dazed and confused with vampires. But I mean-- I'm sure it's not, but-- I mean, the-- The show came out. The show came out. The show came out. They-- Anyway. They keep staying the same age. Yeah, except it's Barnabas, and he's like 1,000 years old or whatever. That's so horrible. But didn't the show come out in the 70s? Yeah, and I understand that. It's just-- It's a bad fact. It feels like he's using it as a vehicle for 70s nostalgia, and not-- And that's not cool, man. Well, no, no. Amen. It's just not what I expect of the franchise, I suppose, is what I mean. Well, you call the franchise, you tell them what you expect. There are enough Jessica mane. Thank you. But while you write your strongly worded letter to them, why don't we listen to our New York minute? Sounds good. Hollywood Russell and the case of the virtuous Vixen, part six. Hollywood Russell, who ironically had never been west of Cleveland, stood expectantly and waited. The object of his patience was a mysterious woman in a red dress. Who was she? What did she want to be continued? Hi, I'm Barry, and this is your New York minute. Doing it without a script this week, off the cuff, and hopefully I won't go all red fox on you. Don't want to have to believe me this week. Not again. I can't go through that again. Anyway, everybody, this is sort of a follow-up to last week when I was telling you about my friend Marvin. That's not his real name. He is not going to sue me over this. He brought me and my other friend Mark to this house where there was a party going on, quote, unquote, for a stranger that I didn't know. And I just spent the night listening to his father explain to me how he wrote Everything in the World from Shakespeare to those famous cave paintings in France. This story takes place back when I was in high school. And back when I was in high school, one thing I wanted to do was solve a mystery. I don't mean like DB Cooper or why people think Paul is sure it was ever funny. I'm talking about a mystery like a Scooby mystery. I wanted to be one of the Scooby Gang. I don't know. Maybe I'd have been Fred. Who is that? A crush on Velma. But anyway, I wanted to solve a mystery. My friend Mark was kind of the same way. We were these goofy high school guys, and the less said about that, the better. And our other friend was Marvin, who had his own set of dimensions that maybe I'll tell you about some other time, or over at Marvin's house. And he tells us about the secret underground club that he somehow found out is going on in the Brooklyn Public Library. This was many years ago. The internet wasn't like it is now. You couldn't just type in secret public library and find stuff. This is a real mystery. Now I got a warning beforehand, the thing that I'm about to talk to you about pornography. Now don't worry about it. I am not going to be dirty. I'm not working blue. This is going to be the cleanest story about pornography you have ever heard. Don't worry about it. It's clean, suitable for the kids. There's no problem, well maybe just a little bit. Anyway, he'd been to the library, he said, and he took out a book, and in between the cover of the book and the dust jacket he noticed there were some papers, like three sheets of paper. He showed them to us. They were all typewritten. And basically it was a catalog of pornographic stories that we could request. You name it, it was on there, all kinds of weird stuff. I'm not going to get into it. Keeping it clean. The upshoot of it was, if we wanted to get these pornographic stories, we just check a box right down what we want, slip it back into the book, and then we come back in a week and we would get a paper telling us what book to look in. It wouldn't be in the same book, that was like the master drop box book I guess. We'd have to go to another book, and that book would have our pornographic story. Three kind of nerdy high school kids, pornography, you know where this is going, right? No, no you don't you dirty guys, you have no idea where this is going. Take your mind out of the gutter, it's not going there at all. Because while Marvin was very much into this, and he had some very odd and very specific pornographic requests, not going there, but I'm not going there. Yeah, all that me and Mark were interested in is what the heck is going on, who's behind this, and how are they doing this at the library? So we went all Scooby on this while Marvin went all Ron Jeremy on this. So we're doing this, and Mark and I decided we're going to try it out, so David didn't request something. He slips the book back and sure enough, next week there's a story. Interesting. It's all typewritten. It wasn't printed out, it was clearly typewritten. There were some typos on it, allegedly it was like professionally done, there was some name attached to it that I can't recall anymore that I think Marvin said he recognized. So he's got this story and he's very happy, him and his little oddity there. But all Mark and I are thinking about is, well, we've got to stake out the library and we actually do that. I was working after school at the time at a store and I have memories of riding my bike to the library and I chained it up outside and I go in and I just stand there and watch the book to see who would come and take the book. Obviously, I couldn't be there all day. I never did catch the person who came and got the book, but we'd come back and sure enough there was a story and again, Marvin was very happy and at this point, Mark and I are beginning to suspect that it's Marvin who is doing all of this. He is getting some sort of weird thrill, not just from the stories, but from the act of Mark and I being somehow involved in getting these stories. I don't know, I don't want to know, it's beyond my pay grade, I'm not interested. So Mark and I decide, and of course, Marvin goes along with this, otherwise it's going to look suspicious, I guess. We want to overload this person. We're not just going to ask for one story. We're going to ask for, I don't know, five, ten, a hundred stories as many as we can. So now we go back to that main book, we get the checklist and we start checking off everything and then we put in a request, more stuff and while we're there, we start looking through all the other books and in 99.9% of the books we picked up, there was nothing, but we did find some other stories hidden in other books which we noted to check later. We were really interested in what was going on and we would, as I said, stake out these books and there were some times where we saw some pretty sketchy people who seem to be eyeing these books, but now they think about it, they could have been eyeing us because we were acting pretty sketchy ourselves at this point. So I don't really know what was going on. So we decided that we were going to overload this person and that was unfortunately the end of it. We went back, never again found another story. We never even found that main book that had the checklist in it. It all just sort of stopped and I just figured it's because Marvin stopped doing it. It was weird. Me and Mark were never into this at all. We were always into the Scooby mystery sort of thing and trust me, Scooby-Doo never handled a case like this. It was just so strange to have this underground pornography ring operating out of our local branch or the Brooklyn Public Library upon requests putting pornographic stories into library books. And it's not really like a kid could stumble upon them. They were tucked inside the dust jacket of the book. They might have actually been taped there. So they weren't likely to fall out and if you're flipping through the book, you're not likely to see it. It's not the sort of thing that you're likely to come across by accident. Although that's how Marvin claims he came across it and it's just weird. We never did find out what was going on with that. But I like to think this is only in New York. One of those only happen here kind of stories. Because if it happens in your hometown, I'm kind of afraid. I'd like to think that your hometown is a little better than this because this isn't one of New York's greatest claim to fame. But that's what makes New York New York and that's what makes this your New York minute. I have to admit this is exactly the sort of thing that would have obsessed me if I had found out. For real. I would have had a terrible need to know. Yeah. Whatever the subject matter, when you're presented with an opportunity to scooby about it. Yeah. It's hard to resist scooby. Seeing something that nobody else does, knowing that it could be all around you. Yeah. Knowing that you know something that other people don't. Yeah. And you don't really want to share it because you're like, "Hey, guess what I feel?" I've found. Yeah. Now, the question is, "All right, now I have to assume that because he didn't say so, he didn't end up solving a mystery?" Yeah. Yep. But, perhaps one day he'll run into Marvin again and he can ask him, "Hey, Marvin. What's up with that?" Were you that guy? Were you the guy? Mm-hmm. And did you manage to somehow rope other people into this weird little ring? Yeah. The mystery of it is half the fun. Yeah. The mysterious porn. If you're interested, which I know that you all are, if you would like to see some more of Barry's work, you can go to bmj2k.com and there it will be for you and your eyes. Thanks a lot, sir. Mm-hmm. Yes. Stellar work once again. As always. Mm-hmm. Even off the cuff. Yeah. Which is really great, super conversational, excellent work. And I think now it's time for some horrible history. Come from beyond to save us from our own past, Gibraltar has found only one solution to protect us. Here now is your horrible histories. Scientists, my fellow monsters, I'm Gibraltar, and I book me again to your horrible histories. I do ask that you ignore any background noise because I totally didn't put the Chronoengineers to keep the inspect histoscrope into the room with moverins. Moving on. Anyway, we're going to trap the new stealth settings on the histoscope and here we go. Our lap kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit kit. You said everything the pirate did, didn't you? Yeah. I knew he would have kept a big heart, but isn't he going to be a little pissed if he stole his land in sight and the curve in the earth is very apparent. Wherever you are, you feel like you're on top of the world, sliding on a huge goal. Yeah. The time out of sea is recorded by the passing of a ship. First the mass appears, then the entire percent. It sails past and eventually disappears again behind our sinking horizon. Land lovers reach most of E.B. Very often our surprise that the great part of our planet really looks right beyond the span of our games. So much of this hydro sphere, so much potential on tap, so much mysteries. Yup. Its mysteries are often underscored by the mysteries discovered on it. One such thing befell, the American scooner Ellie posted. She was one of Grebel, Mentor, and companies. Blue Swell Day Lion from London to New York. She was a big ship. E.T.N. half tiny sheep. 210 feet in length. Built a white oak from me. In the year 1854. As they landed in New York, I could chuff and sail the southern route toward London. The Gulf Street even north of the Sargasso Sea to hasten her feet. While in this vicinity at 1881, she came upon a derelict. She's shaped, but apparently deserted. She holed up and the captain sent over a prize crew to investigate. Shortly after confirming the ship vessel was strangely deserted, the prize crew was awarded to sail the vessel in tandem with the aliens. After two days, the Ellie Austin and the name of a scooner were planted in a mighty squall, the yarder. When the squall of the Persian, the scooner vanished along with the Ellie Austin's prize crew. No trace was ever found to the vessel. The Ellie Austin's crew teamed with superstition, landed, and sailed on for a landing. Although the actual sailing record of the incident has not been found, this incident was first recorded by a rubber tea crew, a retired British naval officer, who recorded many mysteries about the sea. The yard, skipped except "cool pool" with the story "hickey". Mostly because it became even more embellished over the years since Commander Groot first read it out in 1944. In these returnings, the scooner was indeed sighted again by the Ellie Austin, sailing erratically. Investigations proved she was once again deserted, with the prize crew having much damage that they vanished. The captain, as it is said, smelled the sweet saver of salvage rights and refused to let the ship grow. He insisted and forced another crew aboard. This time, within days, the vessel vanished along with the second prize crew. While there is nothing impossible to tell you the story, there is nothing implausible to tell you the story. Though the second story is no doubt fishing. Before the idea of aliens kidnapping people, a cult is believed in teleportation of matter, and the areas, or funnels, to which the supernatural doors would open to other places. It was often in this night that people were intimidated by such misresidency. Though after a UFO has came into fashion, the idea of alien abductions quickly had brushed aside such old life states. A further reason why skeptics would not believe the story of its effect that the ship could not be verified as having even existed. A letter to the Guildhall Library in England, where lawyers lists are maintained, and to the New York State Historical Society revealed a particular ship that had last sailed under the American Front, an American flatic under a Captain A.J. Grigit. Here, boogled himself most likely if he was just repeating a tale he was told by an old hat long before, and there is no reason to assume he even embellished anything. However, as for the second and third-hand information, there is always room for mistakes. The other else had sailed only once in 1881 under that name. Afterwards, the ship was renamed "The Meta", although it occurred years before, so either this mysterious incident occurred years before, or it happened afterwards when the ship was indeed named "The Meta". Traditional date of this incident was claimed to be August 1881, but the name of the ship was changed from "The L.A. Boston" to "The Meta" on February 11, 1881, so whoever told the story to come. I don't know if it's forgotten right here, or it recognized the ship's important tradition in the sea, but to recognize the special lights, be shed. The old sailor may have told Gould that he recognized as "The L.A. Austin" when in fact, been reading. Yeah, middle mobsters, he might take while to get this thing fixed. Till next time, I admit, maybe knew you can't have any code. Yeah, remember last year's Christmas party fair. Yeah. I don't care if the name sheet was funny. Oh, no, sounds like the movies are full. The whole, like, idea of the ship never being found or whatever totally made me think of the Merry Celeste. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, you know, of course it was found. It was the crew that was never found. But yeah, I love the idea of relocating it and then forcing aboard another crew. Yeah. Interesting. And lab cat. And lab cat, yeah, that whole. Yeah. Now listen, listen, this is very serious. I happen to know that the histoscope is not in any way guaranteed to be watertight. So be very careful with where exactly you are pirating. Mm-hmm. Skinnaker will only cover up to 8% of damages. You need to take some liability when you bring the histoscope on the water. Jeez. Solid work, though. Mm-hmm. Well done. Mirror. Solid pirate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. As opposed to soft pirate. I hope they don't run afoul of pig hurt, though. That can get messy. Mm-hmm. No hands make, doesn't fight fair. Mm-hmm. Yeah, he gets all of his feet. That little blade between his toes. Ouch. We missed him last week, but this week we have another entry in the ongoing saga of Doc Asriel. Angel of death. Grude yourself for another entry in the Tale of Murder. Mystery. And dark motives. That is the ongoing saga of Doc Asriel. Angel of death. In the last episode, Sergeant Parr encountered a pair of would-be muggers in the rain. And now, the latest chapter of Doc Asriel, Angel of death. Keep moving. We are on a schedule here. A thin man in an expensive suit, watched a team of burly men unloading a panel truck. Several technicians and lab coats hovered around them nervously. Hey! Look out! Be careful! Admits shouts of caution, a large great slam for the moor. Be careful, you fools. That equipment is worth more to me than you are. One of the laborers started to grumble. Well, maybe if your importer hadn't backed, I assure you that I've sent someone to express my disappointment regarding that matter. Now, unless you wish me to express disappointment with you, I suggest you work more carefully. Later that day, a pair of large trench-coated wearing men fell into step with Jimmy Keenan. Mr. Keenan, a word, please. Our employer is concerned that you do not take his business seriously enough. Jimmy was familiar with the sort of discussion these men had in mind. He decided that his best strategy was to talk quickly and hope for a chance to make a getaway. I'm sincerely sorry for any inconvenience, but my business model has recently undergone a radical transformation, you see. My organization will unfortunately no longer be able to spore! The thugs silenced Keenan's explanation with a meaty fist, there was not going to be any chance to get away. Still later that evening, the thin man stood on a balcony overlooking the team of scientists working diligently below. His two messengers returned from their conversation with Jimmy Keenan, approaching him from the top of the stairway on his left. Your message has been delivered, boss. Good. Very good. The Hawkface man turned to look at his minions. You weren't followed, were you? It would not serve to reveal our purpose here ahead of schedule. No, no, of course not. We were very careful, boss. Very, very good. Their boss returned his attention to the technical endeavors on the floor below. While you were out, we were able to get things back on schedule here. In fact, we are about to test the device. With a nod, he raised his hand to signal the man waiting below. At the affirmative gesture, a lab-coded man flipped a heavy toggle. With a loud whine, the large machine spun to life. Arcing electricity cast a flickering light blue light about the cavernous room and through the warehouses windows. Outside, a shadowy figure watched the newly generated blue glow with much interest. Ooh, good cliffhanger. I have much interest. Much interest. I have to say, may not be something that everyone has had an opportunity to experience, but there is a special moment where you are standing on a balcony overseeing a team of scientists. A special feeling that maybe not everyone gets, but makes you feel alive. Anything is possible. They could cure something or make you explode right there and then. Or make something else explode. Yeah. I like the little bit of Foley in there too, that was nice. Yes, very nice. Everybody is being inspired by your sounds. Or will assume that. This actually came in before 200, but yeah, absolutely. Yeah. No, David, he's inspired by me. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well done, sir. Yes. Thanks. And now I believe it's time for mailbag. Wow. You knew it was coming. You were ready and you said the right words together. Mm-hmm. I'm very proud of you. Hey, J.R.D. 3-Day Fish here. Commenting on episode 200. I thought it was really well done. The delivery was nice. J.M.A.'s new song was nice. The multiple voice actors was very nice. Along with the sound effects. Everything that if you guys had money. If you guys could do this every episode. Because you had money or something. That would be super sweet. But you guys still do a great job. And episode 200 is just our little treat. The Ruby going to Valhalla wasn't a big surprise to me. Like I kind of figured that would happen. But finding out that black hole is now in charge of Valhalla. I was like, "Wait, what?" And I don't mean to question black holes on her. But did he earn his place in Valhalla? Or did he magic himself there to obtain power to fight some other evil? Because he seems to do that a lot. If you can answer this question, please do. That is all. Always listen. I wish that you could see Jaredie's face when you're asking these questions. His face got tighter and tighter with a bigger smile. I was adorbs. Thank you for saying nice things about us. I really like it particularly when people say nice things about us. We wish we had lots of money and we could do this as our for realsiest jobs too. Because if we just had this to do all day, you could have a 200 everyday guys. We totally do that, right? Yeah. I'm not sure my heart could take writing it. Okay. Three times a week. Yeah. Yeah. Those are some very interesting questions, Fish. I like how he thinks that black hole often magics himself into situations to deal with. To deal with things? To deal with bigger things. But black hole just wants his wife back. Anyway. He'll do anything. You're such a romantic Jaredie. Hey, I don't know that that's all I do know what the solution is. But anyway, we'll discuss that some of the time. It is an interesting question, Fish. I think that's almost like you. You're not going to answer it though. It's like you're always listening or something. So, I think we have a little something in from Joe as well. Which is exciting. It's been a while. Yeah. He's super, super busy, but 200 came and went. So, he wanted to mark the occasion by sending us in something, which is so awful. He's a cup of Joe for mobsters at home. It's Colorado Joe. Hello Flashcast crew and fellow mobsters. Hope this finds everyone doing well. A belated Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in the mob. And one more belated Happy Birthday to Jay May. I was aware of the zombie crawl, but given the fact that I don't run, there was never any possibility I would enter the race. I hadn't considered being a zombie. Of course, I would redefine the term slow zombie. Or even more likely, a new term would be invented. Couch zombie. Not much of a threat, but look out any runner that stops for a quick rest break on my bark-a-langer. I know the mob discussed this in detail, but I want to throw a plus one in for the Avengers. Joss Whedon is a shining light in the darkness that is Hollywood. Humor, action, great acting, and a plot on the opposite end of the spectrum. The news that Abrams is going with a con story in the upcoming Star Trek is not surprising, but is disappointing. Not sure what the point of the reboot was. I mean, they only had a complete galaxy full of unknowns to go with, so I suppose they were a bit limited. Have you heard about the flap with the Hobbit? Jackson is using a 48 frame per second camera, and what on the street is that the first teasers appear to be lacking something. Now, admittedly, this is pre-post-processing, so it's too late to know for sure. It will be interesting, as this will either advance the state of filmmaking or wind up a dismal flop. Yep, you heard it here first, I called it. Decisive is my middle name. I won't throw any spoilers out, but kudos on both the Ruby Six-parter and Episode 200. I know I teased a lot, but you all did such an amazing job. From the writing to the narrating, I loved hearing Peter and Ingrid, both sounded great. A pope, awesome as always. And JRD, you were in there too. To the rocking sound effects, I love the horse who's in the distance. The soundtrack, great scene, JMA, and the mix. Basically, it doesn't get more professional entertaining than this. You set the bar high for 300. Well, other than with respect to deadlines, but it was so worth the wait. And although the focus is on 200, I want to mention wasting time. Ruby's thoughts at the end of this arc really hit home. Powerful. Thanks again for everything you do and for sharing your creation. You guys rock. Take care. This is clearly why I like when Joe calls in. No, it's not just the flattery. But my goodness, professional entertaining. That was really, really nice. Yes, thank you, Joe. My heart's swelling. Mm-hmm. Quick, get me to a hospital. It's going to be waste. Look at you, did Joe. I am a little disappointed about the Abrams-Con situation, and I have to admit. I mean, I expected it to come. There's a weird shadowing of the original franchise. What's really going to be interesting is beyond here where they go, because they're not going to do the same. Because you know they're not going to do number three again. They're not going to do, yeah, there's so many throw away moments. They're not, I enjoyed undiscovered country, they're not going to return to that. I liked that movie. Yeah. It was awesome. Weird political plot. They're just never going to do that with lens flare Star Trek. Mm-hmm. Sorry, I loved Joe's idea of just introducing a ship of unknowns. Maybe they're on some sort of interesting mission. Yes. It's in the normal Star Trek space. There's no reason to, you know, entirely break away into the universe that we've already known. Frankly, we got into this weird situation recently where we've been watching Voyager every now and then. And it's because we're already familiar enough with the Star Trek, the next generation run that there's not really going to be any surprises there. Like you can't just sit down and turn the brain off for an hour and watch an episode because you've already seen it and you're expecting, "Oh, this is going to happen, this is going to happen." I noticed that there's a really big difference with Voyager in, like, the sets and people's makeup and stuff. So, the next generation, when we look back at that, because we saw next generation just after we watched Voyager one night. And the sets, I remember, they used to seem so, like, sleek and busy to me, but they looked so minimalist and simple. Like, the upper floor to deal with, like, the main core thing in the Enterprise. Yeah. Whatever it was. Yeah, the second level is just basically, like, a shell made out of metal. Like, it was just the cheapest, crappiest looking thing ever. And I remember at the time thinking, like, "Wow, this is badass man." Space age. Yeah. So, I've been enjoying Voyager because I never ever watched it, and so it does look like a step up at least. I don't know, like, plot-wise because I've never seen it. The thing is, about next generation, it really depends when you watch it. Because, yeah, the run was so long. And by the end, it looked quite great. The quality varied over that run, definitely. But, yeah, I absolutely agree. There were certainly sets that were just ridiculous. Tashiar killed by a trash bag, as everyone knows. Yeah, garbage. Oh, man, I remember so well how that broke my heart. I couldn't believe it. Yeah, you were a big Tashiar fan. Oh, yeah. I remember when she died, and it just being like, "Oh, my gosh!" A man character is dying. And it seems so throwaway. I bet you he wishes he was sad. Yeah. [laughter] If I could name the episode that I would, I bet he wishes he was sad. Anyway, speaking of sad, yeah, this Peter Jackson situation, it's really rough when you bet an entire film on a change in tech like this. Yeah. And I understand what he's trying to do. He's trying to do something new and different. Of course. It looks rough. Yeah. No, when home video and that situation came out and that was, what, 60 frames a second? And it has that look, right? And people wouldn't accept that. You see that sometimes in television recording, too, where it looks to fluid almost. Yep. So I could see why people would complain, but at the same time, I want that. I want higher definition, better experience. People are always complaining with new things. Let's give it a shot, people. We're of the future. I feel like we could do a Batman wipe now and it would be us coming out of the movie going, "What the..." Peter Jackson. On the other hand, the worst thing is kind of the best thing that could happen to Peter Jackson's career because it would be hilarious to see him return to the movie. To see him return to making films like Dead Alive at this point. Just ridiculous shlock. Everyone's following him because of Lord of the Rings and all of a sudden he just puts out the most. You know what? He could play it safe, but instead he's bringing forth... No, don't go at all. Yeah. Well, it's interesting because he's so... with Weta in that whole situation, he's kind of the new George Lucas. Like, he's trying to push special effects forward in a certain direction. Well, and he has his hand both in filmmaking ended in technology, it feels like. And because he's got such a big, like, resume behind him now, he can kind of make a big bet on this movie, fully knowing that, like, zillions of people are going to come see it just because it's the Hobbit. It would be interesting if we look back at this in ten years and thought of the Hobbit as the first time, you know, the Jazz Singer or whatever where it was the first year. We'll see. Just to come back to 200 for a moment. And this is something I was going to mention in the back end, but Joe mentioned it briefly, so I figured I'd come back to it. I was briefly in 200. Specifically, I played the murderer. And I just thought that was a nice little meta moment. It was so much fun having you in the little box, and you're doing it. It was like so long before you would just say Angie. You talked about what you do, you're like, "I've got to think about it for a minute." You know, and then I wish you'd got pictures. And then he got totally into it, and it was great, and I got him to do, like, various distances from the mic until I found the one that I liked. And he was just like, he was on fire by the end of it. It's just hard to start being angry, like you're just pretending. Huge props, and I'll probably laud him more in the back end, but huge props to Peter and his job. Yeah, great job, Jello. Thank you. Yes, very nice. Very appreciated. Plus, I loved the videos. That was so great for the mob. No one knows he had sent videos, talking about how he would be loathed for killing Ruby in the mob. Thank you so much, too, to Angred, whose voice was excellent. Yes, and there was a hiccup and a line that we needed, and she got back to us incredibly quickly. And she delivered her lines so creepily and wonderfully. Like, I kept telling J.R.D. that she did such a good job. I just shattered it. But yeah, his smile was just like, wow, like, she totally, when she said very quietly or whatever, it was so perfect. We don't often or really ever sit down together and listen to the episodes, and we did this time when it was all done. There's always people who check and double check, but never at once altogether. J.R.D. is pretty much sick of the story by the time, and he doesn't want to hear it. He's just like, I'll find things wrong with it. I don't even want to know. You can listen to it like a day or two later or something. Usually, I'll end up listening to it when it's the next time I have to come back to that character. So, like, the Ruby stories, I usually know what I want to do with her, whatever, but to make sure that all my details are correct. I'll go back and listen to it then. I felt so, like, through the process, and then finally when we're listening to it, I'm like, at some point, I need to relax my slacks and enjoy this. Like, this is the point where we're supposed to be sitting down enjoying this, but all I kept thinking was the timing of everything, because there was a lot of things I did differently with 200 than I've done with everything else, so I thought, like, maybe he would hear it and hear, like, different, quiet spots and think, oh, maybe it sounds wrong or something. So, I was just constantly, you know, looking down, waiting for that intro and that exit to the next sound or whatever to see if it was okay with you. I thought you did a fantastic... Oh, man, since that whole week that we were dealing with it, my hands would not stop sweating, I had to, like, drink extra water. I was so parched. Ridiculous. Well, I have more I want to discuss about 200, but we'll do it. Yeah, later. Momentarily. Three hundred. When do you think we're going to get 300 out? Oh, God, we need to start earlier or less ambitious projects. Oh, my goodness. Thanks for your kind words about wasting time to you, Jo. Hopefully, it isn't a spoiler. We're not, we haven't obviously seen the last of Ruby. There's still, her story is not done. Mm-hmm. She's just dead. She's just dead, but that doesn't mean it's over in the flashback universe. Exactly. And thanks for liking my ditty. It's kind of weird when you arrange what you're going to be doing vocally in a bedroom, and no one hears it. Until finally, people around the house are like, "I can hear you, and it's good!" Oh, my God, it's afraid. So... You have no problem playing in front of crowds, but you can't play in front of me. Oh, I have problems with crowds. I'm going to be doing it soon. Just you saying that, I'm starting to sweat. But I'm practicing. I'm working hard. It's going to happen. Oh, my God. I'm freaking out. Okay, well, maybe then we should move over to... [Music] Hello, Flashpulp crew and fellow monsters. Rich the time traveler here, coming to you from three and a half seconds in your future. I want to give Big Kudos to Bryant Johnson with his coffin guestesode. Nicely written, and it was certainly cool to see a view into coffin's world from the outside. It would be an interesting perspective to see visited more, either in canon stories or other guestesodes. Spoiler warning, if you haven't listened to 200 yet, skip ahead. Episode 200 was well worth the wait. I'm glad that Ruby got to live a full life, but in the end did not go gentle into that good night. The twist of tying it into the glorious was unexpected, but worked so well. And Blackhall is in charge of Valhalla, huh? Are there any other Flashpulp protagonists kicking around in there? It was also a nice follow-up to the previous six-part arc where she was set up to start the long task of leading the recovery. Now I know that she got to see the fruits of that labor. Also, you mentioned escalating violence in Ruby stories with regard to what happened in Conan, was it? I think you're handling it well. Sure, there might be some times where violence is necessary to the plot, but it doesn't have to be every time. I don't think the folks listening expect that. The way you tried to give every zombie a bit of personality helps, and gives a bit of comic relief at times. Though I could see the occasional rising, perhaps, where Ruby might have to deal with too many and no longer be able to recall and record them all. Over the last couple episodes, you guys and Nutty both mentioned Hobo's setting up locally. We happen to have our own group of them on the exit off the interstate. Apparently, they have set up a small community back in the woods. You can see some shelters and clotheslines. And it worked out a shift schedule they used to timeshare the panhandling. There is a small permanent station at the end of the exit with a place to sit down and store their stuff as well. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if they actually started growing crops to sell to motorists and came up with their own busking routine. The career day comment about the radio DJ who was a bit, hmm, odd looking, reminded me of a friend of a friend in high school. One night, we were all hanging out, and she suddenly said to me, "You have a voice for radio!" I wasn't quite sure if it was a crack on how badly we all sounded singing along with the radio in the car. Or it was more of the "face for radio" comment. I never really got up the nerve to ask which it was. I'm going to take a little break here from the zombie fiction and review the fruits of a Kickstarter I backed. Recently, Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer did a multi-city tour and, while he didn't come to a location near me, I backed the project and was able to get a compilation recording of the event. The performance is a combination of music, poetry, spoken word, and personal anecdotes. It is a fabulous listen, and rather long too. Funny, moving, full of geekery, raunchy, and intimate. Of course, any presentation of this type is intimate, but given Amanda Palmer, there are times when it is almost uncomfortably intimate and raw. Especially the peak she and Neil give into their love for each other. Which isn't to say it's bad. Uncomfortable is often the motivator for introspection, examination, and growth, and I think those moments are uncomfortable in a good way. The only bad thing? I don't know how you can get a copy. It isn't available on her website, amandapalmer.net, and it isn't in iTunes. So if you know someone who has a copy, beg them to let you borrow it, and give it a listen. Oh, oh. It seems that something was just up there in my drawer. I'm a Skinner Co. legal, histoscope, prasment. Hmm. Sounds like it's time for a Class III Chrono Division intervention. I'm just going to nip back about 25 years and have a little conversation with the legal department's parents about the benefits of their kids getting an art history major. Much easier than dealing with the red tape. Tell Carwick Rises this is rich. You know, I'm pretty sure time learns they're supposed to use their powers for good rich. Most of the time. Good is a relative term. Yeah, it depends on who goes back in time and rewrites the rules. Well, I mean, whatever the effects may be, is undoing a lawyer or not sort of inherent... Well, anyway. You were saying you saw the Nouveau hobo. I saw her today, Nouveau hobo, the one who's got the pink face and the smile. And it's like she just knows who's going to look at her and she smiles. Anyways, she was not in front of the Bank of Montreal today. Maybe they shoved her. Her usual bench. Maybe. She was on the bench in front of the giant tiger. Well, that's sort of the other likely location. That's like the bus stop bench. Yeah, she gets to see the corner. It's a little busier. Lots of people come by there. She looked pretty glossy and happy today. Do you think she's killing people and eating them somewhere? Yeah. That's what I'm saying. You're trying to spite her whole... What else could she be doing? I don't know. I do... Well, I'm kidding, of course. But I do find it interesting to see, as Rich mentioned, the backwards community where they're sort of creating another little subculture. Yeah, they're looking after each other better than regular society folks do. Well, I'm going back to read the ghost map. You guys remember the ghost map at all? No. It's about the spread of plague across London. Anyway, the thing is that it takes place around 1850, I believe. Okay. And it's dealing with the fact that there was no real waste collection at the time. Especially in the start of the book. Yes, yes, yes. But the society sprung up. I remember now, yes. Yes. This society sprung up and it's layers of society really where people would break things down. Like, there were people who would go around and collect the dog poo. And they would sell it to tanners. And that was like all they would do. They would just go around all day and collect dog poo. And then there were people who were by the river side. And they would try to collect whatever was useful, floating down river essentially. And then there were orphan children below them who would essentially collect whatever they thought wasn't worth collecting. And there was all of these various trash movers is what it boiled down to. Yeah, I prefer everyone just picking up after themselves. But that's just me. Well, modern recycling though, right? Like we're talking about recycling as a cultural need. Basically, they had no other way. There was no welfare. They had no other way to make money. Yeah. No, good for them. But at the same time, they were instituting like a recycling program. Yeah. Yeah. No, good on them. Like it's the work that nobody wants to have. Well, it's just, it's interesting because that's what crops up, right? Like the work, as Richard was mentioning, you know, soon they'll have busker routines. And they'll maybe be farming a little bit. Mm-hmm. They're not that far off from something black hole, you know? The old hair or something black hole might encounter in the backwoods. Mm-hmm. And why the fuck not? We all don't have to have the same dream. And it's interesting, in that same sort of economic downturn sense, because obviously this is. Yeah, that may not be a dream, but. Yeah. This is a, well, no, I'm sure it's kind of the results of the economy being in the can. Yeah. And it, another one of those weird results is that we get weird poetry art uprises. Art uprisings, like the Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer situation. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Where you wouldn't see a relatively popular, like, not, not, no knock on the poetry world. I love it, but you wouldn't see a relatively well-known entertainer standing up and doing poetry in front of a crowd or whatever. Mm-hmm. Or putting together an eclectic evening of semi-nonsense. I think that's also coming out of geek culture, though. I think we have a little bit more tolerance for the bizarre and the offbeat. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and not judging it. Mm-hmm. Having a more open mind for broader, interesting things. Anyway, it does sound fascinating, thanks for showing the heads up on that. I do think he has a radio voice too, frankly. Yeah. It's very, it's hard to, I'm excited to meet him at Fan Expo, because I don't think my mental picture is going to match up with the actual picture. Which is funny too, because we've seen actual pictures of the bridge. Yeah, but it is. The only thing that throws me off when I consider meeting Rich is, like, I pretty much, is like, if his vibe was wrong, because I got a pretty good sense of who he is, you know? Mm-hmm. So, to, like, to meet a guy who, like, you know, was all, like, sweaty and weird and couldn't look us in the eye. [laughs] But, like, to hug all the time. Yeah, all the time. You have to hug all three of us all the time. Don't stand around you and wiggle places. [laughs] I'm the wiggling company. But that generally doesn't happen. Usually when you meet people, they're exactly what you pitch them to be. Like, when we met Alan Burns, he was totally Alan Burns. Like, the moment I walked up to him, he was, like, seeing an old friend. Yeah, that's true. So. Yeah, and it's just my worst fear when, you know, you don't feel relatable to somebody when you have so much on the internet. But it just doesn't really happen like that. You know, it's been long enough. I'm pretty sure that we've got a handle on. Yeah, Jeff is definitely the person I've talked to probably the most and longest out of the group. [laughs] Well, it's actually from Jack Andor. Yeah, well, I'm excited for Jack Andor. Yeah. But, uh, it's going to be interesting to meet him, I think. Oh, we're going to have such a good time. Anyway, yeah, I'm excited. Such a good time. It's going to be very exciting. Everyone seems, like, just pretty personable and low-key and not fussy. Low-key? No. Low-key. Um, yeah, it's actually talking to Juju Click, and she's confirmed that she will be at the hotel. And she's very eager to meet the other mobsters as well. Good. And we were talking about my love of trains, and I was telling her that, uh, we were really awesome train station right across from the hotel. So beautiful. Yeah, she was saying we should go on a little, uh, a little photo-taking excursion to the train station. Yeah. That'd be super pulpy. We should annoy every pedestrian and be like, "Yo, can you take a picture of this, you know, this crowd of people?" For yes. But yeah, it's, we have lots of flash pulp stickers sticking around that beautiful, beautiful. Yeah, 'cause we're out there pretty often now. Yeah. And, yeah, you got some good places where lots of people will see it, but they don't seem to remove them. Which is nice. But never, never on the sides of old pretty buildings or things like that. I put it on something that's been like painted over a million times, or like a garbage can, and it's always nice and prettily done. You must consider these things hooligans, little ninjas, sticker ninjas. Always be aesthetically pleasing, because it's more likely to keep it there. Yeah. And you do something that looks nice. Mm-hmm. Yes. I've also learned, not that I get around to vandalizing places, but I've learned that the best place in a restaurant, if you feel a need for whatever reason to stick a sticker in a restaurant, the best place is the upper corner of the, the interior of the bathroom stall, because the employees never go there. Even when they clean it, they push the door open, but they never clean that spot. Yeah. So stick a sticker there, and then wash your hands. Yeah, well. Yeah, because our stickers are like dipped in hepatitis. Yeah. Which hepatitis? I'm not gonna tell you. One of the fun ones. Thanks, Rich. Thanks, Joe. Yes. Thanks, bitch. Thanks to everybody. Mm-hmm. I can't believe it. Fan Expo, guys. I know. I can't believe it. Can't believe it. And thanks for all the well wishes on 200. Yeah. Yeah, and birthdays, man, I'm just drawing out this birthday, like, I'm never gonna have one again. Are you a dassy, oh, ho? So you clearly know what I have done this week. Yeah. I recorded, oh delicious, daughter, who I believe I originally was, it was, it was recommended to me. I think it was Dave's, so, yeah, Dave's so asking, I like to call him so by asking you. No, David's. See, so by react, I know it's so much easier than we make it sound, man, but we just don't know. We're ignorant, nor their nerves. I don't want to, I don't want to get into this. We should just. No, because it's not out of disrespect. It's out of our ignorance, and I think he'll be okay, and he'll appreciate that. You know what you should call in, and just say it really slowly three times for us. Anyway. And then there's some in the candy man. So he's been silent on the subject the whole time, because I've been bugging him about that for like ever, and then I changed the pitch of it and messed around with it in audacity, and so it was still exciting. Yeah, anyways, it was really fun to do. It sounded so great, normally I don't sing that loud and boisterous, so that was interesting. And yeah, yeah, I'm busy doing birthings, and yeah. So you're going to remaster all this? No, I'm not going to remaster all of the songs for all of the serials, for all of the flash pulses. Oh, it was so cute. Speaking of what? Mine, when I showed her the revamped intro that I did, the gloomy Sunday one. She's like, "Oh, wow, you should use this intro for all of the hundreds." He kept talking about the 200, so I thought that was adorable, because normally she talks like such a genius MFR, and this time it just, she sounded her age in adorable and innocent sweet. We all have our tired moments. And yes. We are all never racing. So everybody really has been liking 200, and that's so super great and I'm glad that you like my wonderful contribution in the voice work, because the art's not done. And it looks great as it stands, you just need to finish. As it stands? That's funny. Unfortunately, it's not 200 specific. Yeah, yeah, it's really more just... General flash pulp. Yeah, it's just a general pulp work. So I think I'm calling it the pulp hotel. So that's a little teaser for you guys. I know Jay May has put some pictures out there. I've had to rethink a couple things, because I'm having some technical issues. Yeah, some adhesive problems, and trying different clues. Yes, adhesive problems. I discovered that my glue is eating away at my hurt mark, so that wasn't very helpful. So I'm having to get a couple of more materials, but nothing to be too worried about. Just a few more steps, and you'll have a beautiful pulp hotel. You know what? Just enjoy it when it happens. No, seriously, because you get so stressed about it, we'll make it happen, but try to enjoy it. You know? For real. Yeah. Totally. Backroom plot. Okay, right off the tap, I've been listening to a lot of the Dracula soundtrack. Which is good. I approve of this message. The intensity of it certainly helped. Round out 200. Now, I had a good chunk of 200 written for a long time, and I ended up going down a different path with this, the quote unquote, second half. The original second half was much longer, but unfortunately, much like NASA, it tried to cram too many component parts into one script, and it became unwieldy. And I think that I ended up just basically chopping it, rewriting the parts that I liked. It crashed on launch, make it alive. Yeah, essentially. It was a sad day. There was another character that figured very, very prominently in the second section that entirely does not appear. Like a mainstay flash pulp character. Or no, that's not quite fair actually. I would say more of a second tier flash pulp character, but certainly recognizable, recurring character. Hmm. I'm wondering where that is. Teaser teaser. Yeah. I don't even know. Anybody have any guesses? I have a few guesses. But in the end, I'm pleased with how it came out. I have to say that I wrote Ingrid's character with Ingrid in mind. Yep. I remember that. There's a purpose to the character. We haven't frankly seen the last of her. The butcher. The butcher. But I've never been shy about jumping around. Wait, if you haven't seen the last of her, we're going to have to get Ingrid to do the rest of her lines. Yeah, she's already agreed to do it. Woo! Yeah. That's awesome. Stamped it. I've never been shy about jumping around in the chronology of flash pulp. I think maybe that's why we've attracted so many time travelers. It's a little less noticeable. Yeah, we do have our share of time travelers, which is good for a company. But yeah, I have thought that it isn't necessarily as obvious as it could be that the chronology kind of bounces around. Ruby is very structured. The main Ruby thread, I should say, is very structured and that everything is in order. It's hard to tell when things are happening and what's happening while other things are happening. That sounds so obscure, but meta. Yeah. Well, when we hit 600, I'm going to go back and put up a retrospective timeline and I'll peg each episode and when exactly it happened. It's disgusting. I'll, and it's, I can't even now, I'll, don't judge, wait a minute, what do you, I'm finally coming around. If he wants to find 600 plugs, I'll go back and deal with the chronology if I don't think it's clear. But at the same time, by being able to jump around, I can feed information like, yeah, Ruby survives, but I don't think, the truth is, and I mentioned this, I believe, to Peter, if I had written Ruby to a point and then she just died, I think people would be quite upset. So I'm, I don't feel like I'm giving anything away by. I'm happy to know that she survives old age, because I had my doubts for a while, that she was going to ever, well, I mean, it's funny because I say, I was going to say that I had my doubts that she would ever see Ben again, but there's no guarantee that she sees Ben again only that she lives. I would be interested to hear other people's theories about some of the aspects of 200, because there were things in there that no one's mentioned yet, and I'm not sure if they've put together or they just haven't mentioned. So, hmm, although fish, oh, so, so, I don't want to spoil anything, but I remember you said something about the maid, yeah, Maggie the server, Maggie the server, Maggie the server, oh yeah, that's kind of familiar. I did also want to briefly mention 266, all things being equal, oh yes, yes, I've gotten some nice feedback about that as well, there's also a connection in that story that I don't know anybody's ID yet, I love checking back in the wiki, I love poking around the wiki and seeing what people have posted, I really appreciate that too, but messing around with it. I don't know if that connection's actually listed in the wiki just yet, I need to have like a locations section. I need to post a map of capital city because I do have a fairly definitive, like, I mean, I don't have every household filled in or anything, but I have a fairly concrete layout of the city in my mind. Concrete city. So solid. Thank you. Thanks Jim for hosting a wiki.flashpop.com and Flashpop.com. Thanks. Enjoy the show, tell a friend, really enjoy the show, we'll get a donate button on the site. If you have comments, questions, or suggestions, you can find us at flashpop.com or email us text or mp3s to comments@flashpop.com. Ask a maze of vocal talents and musical stylings can be found at maintenance.com sometimes. The entire run of flashbulb can be found at flashbulb.com or via the search for our iTunes. Flashcast is released under the Canadian Creative Commons attribution information in October 25th. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Sometimes I really want to lick the microphone, do it. [BLANK_AUDIO]