Hello, and welcome to FlashCast 55 - Prepare yourself for: Actor & shaman, Nick Cage; mistreated elephants; horrifying soap; Method 3; and Thomas Blackhall.
Read the full show notes at http://flashpulp.com
The Skinner Co. Network
FC055 - Three New Gerbils and a Microphone
[music] Hello, and welcome to Flashcast 55, a Skinner Co. presentation. Skinner Co. The tingling means it's working. Prepare yourself for actor and shaman, Nick Cage. Mistreated elephants. Horrifying soap. Method 3 and Thomas Blackhall. Hi, I'm Opoponax, and if I wanted to, I could kick Jessica May. Hi, and JRD. Hello. I'm actually trying to figure, I can't kick you. It's because I have my legs tucked up under me, my little bird legs. Suspension of disbelief over here, I'm writing these things on the fly. No, I could probably kick both of you easily, but you're not going to write. This is going to just devolve into some sort of wacky kung fu action sequence. Jackie Chan style, things flapping around. I'm just waiting for it. Jessica May, in a considerably less humorous note. Yeah. You had some interesting news you wanted to throw out up front. Well, it was just, it was so ridiculous. Like, I've heard about these things before, where people go hunting on reserves, where things are very easy to kill. And I don't know how easy it was for these particular animals to be killed. There were so many different kinds. And it was Trump's son or sons. I think there were several relatives there. Oh God, I'm not going to keep track. The latest is Baron, I believe, I don't know. So, yeah, the Trump boys were there, and they had so many animals they had killed. But it was just like, it was so romanticized and ridiculous. Like, one of the Trump's had this ridiculous, like, bullet belt, but it was like kind of hanging off him. He wasn't wearing it right. And he was standing all like super, like he just, you know, won a race. And he had this small knife in his hand. That wasn't bloody at all. So, it clearly wasn't the knife that he had in his hand. But in his other hand, he had an elephant's tail, but it had been removed from the elephant. Yeah, and I'd seen the picture. There was some gore on the elephant's tail. It was obviously freshly cut off. It just wasn't by him. It was the tiniest little knife, too, so ridiculous. And there were shots of him with the animals, like, that they had posed by the fire and in various environments. Well, I don't want to sound like we're hating on hunters, but there's certain... There's a certain sense of sportsmanship that you have to maintain, I think. But you have to actually hunt it. Do the work? Yeah. It's like that Mulligan that you wrote. Episode 223, 224. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's the name of it now? The Master of the Wild King. Yeah, yes, yes. Yeah. We actually, it's weird that that comes up again because we'll be seeing certain characters from that story reoccurring, actually, almost immediately after this black hole on his tail. That was fun. Oh, that same story, the appearance of our own Jeffrey Lynch in the form of Mr. Jeff. Mm-hmm. That's right. Which was the trivia question that we had held not too long ago. Yeah. Yeah. Because... The contract bearer. Mm-hmm. Ew. Well, kind of a horrible way to open the show, but interesting. It was so gratuitous and ridiculous. I know. I think. So stupid do you get when you make that much money, and if so, I never want to have that much money. Yeah. Now, I'm under the impression that what irks me is that our elephants, all elephants protected as an endangered species, aren't they so over-hunted? I don't know. I was reading this other thing just before we started the show, and it was a reserve in Africa, and half of the elephants were killed by poachers. Mm-hmm. They didn't have a sufficient amount of security to get after the poachers. That's so sad. I ended up killing half of the animals. Well, on the flip side of that, I know there are certain nations that essentially hire, like mercenaries who do nothing but kill poachers, which is an interesting, if a little bit insane kind of proposition, like they're essentially man-hunting against people coming in for ivory. Yeah. It's a weird sort of lawlessness. Mm. Oh, jeez. To lighten the mood a little after such an uplifting tale, let's have a little check-in with Nicholas Cage. Having been in the first Ghostwriter film, how was being in spirit a vengeance different for you? Entirely different. It's a uniquely original experience. I don't consider it to be a sequel. The presentation has the Daredevil camera work of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. These guys are literally risking their lives to entertain us. There's very little CGI and some thought went into how I can move to create a kind of an aura of a bad dream, something enigmatic, something you couldn't fully understand. Some thought went into the walk or the head movements and just to try to mess with Ghost Writer's victims minds and also with the audience's minds. And I've heard that you've had an interesting process of sort of preparing for that role. Ghost Writer is such an unconventional character. I think he requires more unconventional acting processes to get there. And I had been reading a book by Brian Bates called The Way of Weird and also The Way of the Actor. And he put forth a notion that all actors, whether they know it or not, stem from a long line of shamans. They were the medicine men in the village and they would go into these flights of the imagination to find answers to solve problems for the village. So I was thinking like okay, well how can I stimulate my imagination as the Ghost Writer? And shamans use like power objects to gather bits of rock or ancient artifacts. So I would sew them into my costume and put them on my leather jacket. Just, you know, who knows if these things really work, but it's a matter of just augmenting your imagination so that you don't have to act. And then at the end of the day, was that hard to sort of put away? Very. I mean, especially when they're inviting you to Christmas parties in Romania at two in the morning after you've been Ghost Writer, taking out a whole gang of thugs with a hellfire chain. And I would take the makeup off and have a couple of schnapps to be sociable. And then it's very hard to shake the psychology of it. And it's very probable that all hell would break loose. And it did. And also we know that you are a big comic book fan. Could you tell us a little bit about your passion for the comic and the character? Well, my passion for comics is not unlike Rosebud and Citizen Kane. I'm loyal to the influences of my childhood. I like the monsters. A marvel more than any other comic book has really embraced that. Ghost Writer, I could not get my head around. Something that terrifying to look at using forces of evil could also be good. And this is when I was eight years old. I would spend hours staring at that cover in my living room. I mean, if you look at my filmography, I like characters who are flawed. Whether they have obstacles inside of them or around them that they have to overcome to achieve some level of contentment. And it began reading the Ghost Writer comic. Well, you are absolutely fantastic in the film. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks for having me. We'll see you soon. Oh my God. How embarrassing. Do you think it's embarrassing to be him? There's a few things I want to address before we get into the actual mocking of Nicolas Cage. First up I want to thank J. Strasburg on the Twitter, although he's in the mob as well, for passing this along because this was such a perfect little piece to remedy so much of my fatigue during this week. Anyway, I think it's interesting that he mentions that the people running the camera were risking their lives. Everything about this seemed to emanate, like the subtext to this interview seemed to be we were in an eastern block country and we were doing a lot of illegal crap in the background. Like, we weren't really worrying about the life of the crew. We didn't have proper equipment. We decided to get really drunk a lot. Little shnobs after you take off the makeup. I was beating up hookers and claiming it was Ghost Rider. You can't blame me. I'm in the role. I mean, during the day you're like beating up thugs and whipping around a chain, man. How am I supposed to go to a Christmas party? Seriously, he sewed trinkets into his outrocks. Oh, the shaman situation was so funny. And, man, at first I was thinking, whatever he says, she's going to be nice to him. It's Nick Cage, but you could see that he lost her. Yeah. That was horrific. I kept thinking she was going to laugh, but, you know. I did not think that Nicholas Cage could take himself this seriously at this point in his career. Actors were shaman. Who could help the people? I don't know. I don't know, man. He's gone off some end. Well, I mean, they're... No, listen. Studying drama, you can see a connection between drama and religion, but by no means would I be like all actors, whether they know it or not, or, you know, from a long line of shaman. Yeah. I suspect if we were to dig a little deeper there, consider the audience for this book, right? This is really a guy who, whoever wrote this book, is really just trying to sell the tiny, tiny slice of rich, Hollywood folk. And obviously they're buying it, because Nicholas Cage got ahold of this book somehow, where he can now be seen as a guru on this topic, and anybody who's heavily into this ridiculously over earnest kind of mind frame will now hire him to show up at their house or whatever. Yeah. He just makes a bunch of money, so. Well, he needs it, so... I'm going to actually write a book about how all actors are descended from Sky Angels. Ooh. Yeah. And if they just work on it a little bit, they can unleash their secret mind. They'll fly. Yeah. But they just won't be aware of it. Yeah. If you only believe... Well, we're talking Hollywood, actually. Do you guys hear about this Tofur Grace cut of Star Wars? Yes. Yes, I did. I actually did. That was kind of surprising. Yeah, we really need to watch that. Well, no, you're not going to be able to. To be clear to those who aren't aware already, Tofur Grace, he of that '70s show fame really, I feel kind of bad reaching for that, but I don't know what else I could attribute. Um, wasn't he also in traffic? Traffic? Oh, yes. Yep. I'm sure he's done things since then. Yeah. Well, I get the impression that he's becoming more of a behind the scenes fellow as, uh, an example by this recent cutting of Star Wars, which he... He made the three prequels into a single 85-minute film. He cut out basically all of the politics. Jar Jar gets one line in the entire thing. Nice. Um, most of Phantom Menace is missing. The movie opens with the fight between, uh... Darth Maul and Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan. Right. And then with the death of Qui-Gon, that sets up for why Obi-Wan is trying to take in this apprentice and, uh, help him along. So it sounds really good, even though we're never going to get a chance to see it because he in no way had the license. Yeah, that's really too bad. But apparently he set up a viewing and he had a bunch of friends come over, you know, Hollywood folk. Yeah. And they rented a theater and, you know, watched it once and then it... It's in a, uh, password-protected Vimeo account. So you know it's there on the internet, but no one can touch it. Damn. Yeah. George, let him have it. Of course he went but... All right. Well, he did what he wanted to do. Mm-hmm. That must have been fun too. Yeah. Because I heard that he's like a big movie buff, but he's also really in love with Star Wars. Yeah. And he wanted to do some editing work, or to try his hand at, like, you know, doing some editing and stuff, so. My guess is that he's probably got enough money from residuals on that 70-show investigation money that he doesn't really need to work, and he can just be like, "Hey, you know what would be awesome?" And then... If I were to edit Star Wars, it would be so much better. I would do this, and you know what? Give me a camera. Well, I guess he wouldn't even... Yeah, give me a camera. It was just not reshooting stuff. Editing software. Yeah. No, he got all the original actors. It was really, really big. I can't recall if he mentioned it in response to this particular article, but Rich, the Time Traveler, mentioned an article on fanpop.com that brought up a series of suggestions on how to watch the entire Star Wars series. Now, the simplest way is obviously one through six, just watch 'em in order. Some of the suggestions are pretty simple, like just alternating trilogies. You know, one, four, two, five, three, six. But the one that I really liked, called Method Three, is to utilize the prequels as a flashback. So what you do is you watch a new hope, you watch Empire Strikes Back, and then you break from that, and you go back and you watch Phantom Menace and the three original films in a row. And then you come back and you finish off with Jedi. And this way you haven't ruined some of the really major cinematic moments, like... Luke's learning that he is the son of Darth Vader in the second one. Like, there are so many little items that the prequels explain and kind of take the magic out of the League of Movies that, by handling this, is sort of a flashback situation. It's not so rough, and apparently the other aspect that works really well is that... part of the problem when watching the movies in a row right now is that when you go from three to four, never mind the quality issues with the first three films. When you go from three to four, all of a sudden everyone's going from hyper speed, you know, Kung Fu fighting to one arm hackery with the light sabers. You know, there's definitely a noticeable difference in the combat. So apparently using it as a flashback, it's known as bad because a lot of the special effects and a lot of the issues addressed seem more minimized by doing so. That's really interesting. Yeah. You should do that method number three or whatever it was called. Yeah, method three. I think I've seen each of the first three movies, not the original three, but the Phantom Menace and the other two. I think I've seen them each only, like, once. Yeah, well, I figured for the longest time that was enough. I've seen the other ones like countless times, but it would be cool to watch them on. Yeah, I would give it a shot. While we're talking films, I saw an interesting article by Mike Ryan over at Movie Phone. And I was just talking about why exactly Bill Murray turned down Ghostbusters III. Mmm. And we had discussed this previously. Was that last episode? It was just last episode, yeah. But we had mentioned that he claims Bill Murray kind of looks like a dick, right? Because he claims he never even read the script. But the truth is probably... There's a way that he could look much more dickish. And he's saving himself from that. Well, I don't even think it's that. I think he's... That and the franchise. I think he has respect for his friends. Yes. Maybe not so much Dan Aykroyd, but everyone else involved in the project. Did they not like each other? Did we go over this before? Dan Aykroyd has been kind of taking these little swipes like... Yeah, I remember you saying that. Oh, Bill Murray would rather do his golf tour situation and not... But if you look at what Bill Murray actually does, and the point that Mike Ryan makes in his article is that... When he started acting, if you look at his early work, he kept trying to make these sort of indie films that show up more in his catalog later. Like he was trying to make stuff like Rushmore and Lost in Translation and all of that sort of business much earlier in his career. And it wasn't going anywhere because it's very hard to make money off that sort of thing. So, you know, he made Ghostbusters to get another movie made. The Razor's Edge. He... I believe he had already filmed it or it was mostly in production, but it wasn't going to be released. And he agreed to do Ghostbusters as long as the studio would release the Razor's Edge. Mm-hmm. And then it didn't... it tanked. So, he made a bunch of money off Ghostbusters and he made a few other films like that, but then... But at least he was doing work that he enjoyed. Mm-hmm. And the thing is, if you look at the movies he made, they really shouldn't be as good as they are. Almost invariably, like, you look at Scrooge, that should be more of a schlock fest than it is. You look at Groundhog Day, that should be a forgettable comedy. You know what I mean? And somehow these things turn out just a little better. I'd like to believe it's because he's got a little... He's Bill Murray, yeah. But so the point is that perhaps he basically said that he hadn't read the script and took that hit so that he didn't have to say he had read the script and it was crap and he didn't want to do the script. And that he knew... Because he wasn't looking for the money now. Yeah, he doesn't want to look like he's... Well, that, he doesn't want to put a cibosh on the project that everyone else is going into now. And he, you know... He can't do the scripts without looking like a seller, but he can't do... He just let it, you know, flop and let it go. Mm-hmm. What should happen is everyone holds up for a good script, but we can't have everything we want. And maybe it'll turn out great. Our kids will look at whether the script is good or not. Mm-hmm. But it would have been... I would have gone if Bill Murray was in it. But if he doesn't want to go, then neither do I. Yeah. We'll stay at home and watch the Royal Tenant Bombs. Yup. I'm going to take us on a little right turn here. I got an interesting article. Okay, we'll go. Uh, from technologyreview.com. Have you guys seen this about overclocking your brain with direct current? Uh, no, but it sounds painful. It sounds like something the hippies say. Uh, you're familiar with the process of overclocking? No, no. Is this something you're... No, feel the end, please. Uh, the idea is, uh, you essentially force your processor to run faster than it is currently set for your computer processor. Oh, okay. And by doing so, you manage to get greater speed out of your computer, but there is a possibility that you're going to burn it out. You're with me? Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Apparently, somebody has discovered that, uh, if you just essentially slap a, uh, big... I was like, what would be the proper? Box over it. Turn it off. That it doesn't take any power at all. Okay. That's what I hear. You don't get as much speed. Apparently. But at all. I just can't move at all. Apparently, somebody figured out that if you apply electrical current to your brain for 20 minutes or so, you will be able to essentially... Reboot your computer? Uh, you'll bring... Make your brain run faster. Yes, essentially, your brain will run faster. Air force or... Or you might burn it out. Or you might die. Air force researchers were delighted recently to learn that they could cut the time required to train drone pilots in half by delivering a mod electrical current. Two miller amps of direct current for 30 minutes to pilot's brains during training sessions on video simulators. There's also evidence that TDCS can induce the state of creative nirvana known as flow. I want this. Wow. Who's gonna hook me up? Go flow. Okay, I'll put a wet fork into the... Yeah, I was gonna go say, get the forks and I'll get a wet towel. From the same article, Go flow is a startup planning to offer TDCS kits for as little as $99. Ooh, I'd shock myself for doing that. Yeah, here's a question. Are you willing to just basically tape a bunch of electricity to your brain? Yes. The article does go on to mention that long-term effects of TDCS are unknown and if you mess up and put orders of magnitude more current through your brain than is typically used, you can get it. How much is typically used? Two milliamps, I told you that already. So you can, like, give yourself more than that. We want to make sure that people don't harm themselves. No, they're saying if you just decide to, you know, rub your head against the exposed wires from your toaster. Mmm. That this is not going to. Yes. Well, pick up my plans for tomorrow's breakfast. So I guess my question was going to be, would you guys go forward with this? Yes. Would you... Yes. Absolutely would, yes. But you don't know what the end results are. There hasn't been enough scientific testing. What, just being constantly jacked up on electricity... Well, it's not... Would you do it? Of course you would. I know. He wants to be able to just... He wants to be able to... Jack right into computer. While I do like being on the cutting edge of innovation, I do also believe in a little bit of long-term testing. This is the first time I've even heard of this concept. A little long. And I'm a little bit concerned. Yeah. But drone pilots. The drone pilots. Yeah, but listen, they used to feed Air Force pilots... In simulations. Dexy to keep them awake for 48 hours at a time. Frankly, they still do it. I know they'd just call it something different. But they feed... They used to feed Air Force pilots' speed so that they could fly long-term... Yes. Or long-distance reconnaissance flights. What totally happened in Battle of Starcholastica 2? I thought it was really unfair. That's all I'm saying is I'm excited to see what happens with this. Yeah. This might be a good time to mention our guests in the studio this evening. Actually, it might be a good time to mention the studio. Oh, yeah. We've got a studio. Isn't that great, guys? It's got a fireplace in it. Well, we just... We didn't, like, just put a fireplace in it. We've got a peony in here. Yeah. It used to be our den, but we've decided we never really... Use it? Yeah. Just the babies would come in and mess it up. So we put a lock on it and we just got a table. And we've got a kick-ass cloth on it. And this is where we're going to be. Now, J.R.D., I don't know. We're trying to convince him that all of our recordings should be down in here. So I don't have to sit in a closet anymore. But the sound of the closet is so clear that I'm sure he's going to take a listen to this and see if it is up to snuff. Everyone be quiet and listen if there's noise. It might just be your family listen. That's so funny, 'cause the moment I said that, our new mascots stopped spinning. And who are the new mascots? They're gerbils! Yeah. We each got a gerbil. A couple gerbils. Yeah. Mine is Hitchens for Christopher. And Mine's Einstein, 'cause he was so smart. And he is. He's the sweetest. He'll come up and say hi to you. And yours, J.R.D.? Uh, I named Mine Jones No. 'Cause I'm the sort of insufferable jerk who will name his rodent after a epidemiologist. Yep. And they're lovely. And we've been looking on the YouTube. How to tame them. And we've talked for quite a while at the Pet Store. And, yeah, we have some dried strawberries. And they have the loveliest of food. And I can't stop looking over to see how they are. And gerbils have nice long tails. And apparently they're very good with children. They're better than hamsters. Yeah. J.R.D. really doesn't like the idea of rat tails, which I think is horrific because rats are wonderful. But he doesn't seem to mind the gerbil tails because they have a little bit of hair on them. And I'm hoping that the gerbil tail will get him used to the tail and then won't mind the rat tail so much because they're really what I want. You know, they're super smart and they're like hanging out with you. They always hear wonderful things about them, but I've never had one. Largely from our fellow Jello who is deeply into rat. Well, no. Well, no, no. I don't mean large bears. Like lately? Well, I've had a couple of rats. Yeah. I've had rat people friends. Like when you get rats, you become a rat person. Yeah. You know things that other people just don't know. I'm not a big fan of hairless cats and I don't think I'm going to. We saw the hairless rats too. Hairless rats. That is the worst of all possible worlds. It was so cute. Oh. I probably wouldn't get myself a hairless rat. I want a hairless cat. I want everything that comes in hairless. I think it's adorable. I don't understand why. To me, hairless isn't a sign that this is a sick animal that has the main dreams about to kill you with rabies. It is a sign that it just needs a nice sweater. Yeah. Okay. It doesn't wear fur. No, I'll knit it like a wool little outfit. Yeah. A footy fur. Exactly. Her little rat. That's right. Well, if you needed to clean your little rat, you could go to soapyshopbeforeus.com. And this isn't an ad. It's just a bad transition. Where I noticed a series of really awesome and fairly cheaply priced soaps. Yeah, I was just browsing through there. It's pretty cute. They are all horrific. No, no. Is it the ingredients or what it looks like? What they look like. They have vampire fangs, skulls. They have very zombies. But they also have ones with butterflies and hearts and his and hers. That would be cool for Christmas and stuff. Mm-hmm. We should start ordering. It's never too early to start. I'd love to make some chocolates in molds. Some of my favorites. They have little brains that come in two packs. Yeah. Oh yeah. But yeah, we should make some Christmas presents. Yeah. Chocolate molds. Yes, let's ruminate them. I think we could make some pretty awesome chocolates. Because I know Gigantor had put it on the model a while ago. Or maybe it was on Instagram. I can't remember. But he took note of our chocolate hans that we had. And we were at the same place where we had picked up that mold today. And I noticed that they have a Batman one and a Superman one. I really like the awesome for the boys. I really like the Han one because it was pink. It almost looked like skin. It almost like it had a whole level of yucky. Yeah. Painting room was fun. We had a sleepover over a little girl. And she felt sick when it was time to make the gift for her mom. That was like a bunch of chocolates. I was like, "Don't you worry about a honey." And I took her chair. And I just made chocolate after chocolate after chocolate. And I put it in a box and I'm like, "Here you go. Tell your mom you made it." I'd such a tiny. Speaking of molds, back to the soap, where was it again? Where can we find it? Soapyshopahores.com. Soapy shop of horrors. You're like, "Soapy shop of horrors." I was like, "Ah." Soapy shop of horrors? No, that's an entirely different place. Soapy shop. Soapy shop. Soapy shop. Soapy shop. Soapy shop. Soapy shop. Soapyshopahores.com. Excellent. Oh, so I just wanted to put a quick note out to the mob and all of the listeners. If you happen to note flashpops somewhere in the wild, if you originate from parts unknown, just let us know. Sometimes people mention us in other locales and we don't hear back about it. And we like to give people props when we came. Yeah, especially on days like today where we get big numbers and we don't know why. And we're like, something must be happening in the internet. But we can't track it down. You're an origin story. Yeah. All right, our stats sometimes do not drill down as far as we like. You guys probably don't remember this, but way back in the mid 90s, well, late 90s, it was really easy to track down somebody's like visiting info to like their house nearly. It was just one of those things like website information was so much more generalized. I think there's some sort of American law now where you can't actually collect that depth of level of info. Probably a good thing. It's probably something to do with privacy laws. But sometimes we just don't know where things are coming from. Yeah. And sometimes it's wildly inaccurate. And it's not your fault. It's the company. Yeah. Well, Libson does their best, but sometimes robots show up and make it without our note. It's an interesting time on the internet. Either way, let us know. And actually on that note, I just wanted to throw a quick shout out to Zach Mann, who I don't know if you've probably encountered in the mob. Mm hmm. Yes. He's one of those guys. He's one of those fellows who just seems to be everywhere. He seems to be familiar, sort of, with every podcast. Mm hmm. And he's always seems to be mentioning us in relation to somebody else. So a lot of appreciation for him. Yes, yeah. And finally, if the last of the Flash pulp housekeeping, if you've picked up the Android app and you like it or don't like it, please let us know. Yeah, if there's things about it that you do or don't like. It's another one of the situations where we don't maybe get as much feedback from the company as we should, so we don't really know where the numbers are too much. And it's not like we can download the app ourselves. Yeah, unfortunately, none of us have an Android device in the household. Yes. So, yeah, let us know. Oh, actually I lied. There is a bit more housekeeping. Lying liar. Last week for posting your pictures in your listening environment. Yes, yes, yes. I would like to see your face. That would be nice. Mm hmm. If you could be in the picture. That would be best. Email us, comments@flash pulp.com. Come around to the mob on Facebook. The flash mob search for it. Or always in the show notes. And we're going to post up a video of us randomly drawing it. I don't know if we're going to get a child to do it or something, but. Ooh, this sounds unplanned. Oh, all of that except for the children picking it. Oh, really? Yeah, we were going to do a video of us. I wasn't aware. That's interesting. Well, that's what's happening. No, I'm well aware that I do what I told. What I'm told. Good. And one of my favorite parts of the show, I guess we'll start now, is Mr. Jeff Relinch for the spot of bother. Ah, there's nothing quite like the taste of an ice cold coke on a hot summer today, right? I don't mean the fake diet stuff with a funny taste, but the original recipe. Oh wait, that's chicken. Anyway, I must admit that I'm a bit of a soda snob. I absolutely renounce those silly newfangled sweeteners such as aspartame and high fruit toast corn syrup. According to conspiracy theorists everywhere, they cause both dementia and cancer and I trust and support the beliefs of my fellow parenoids. No, I want my soda sweetened with good old fashioned sugar. Finding this type of product is actually harder than you might think. I don't know about Canada, but here in the States, all of the coke products are sweetened with corn syrup. The only way to avoid this is to drive across town to our local fresh market and buy the original stuff in glass bottles imported from, of all places, Mexico. It's sweet, delicious twice the price and worth every penny. Alas, my attempts all these years to avoid cancer coke may have been in vain. For the very color of the soda itself may be killing us with just as much of a vengeance as the faux sweeteners. Here's more from NPR. When the state of California added the compound, four methyl limonazole, also known as four MI or four MEI, to its list of known carcinogens in 2011, it created a problem for the soda industry. The caramel color they used to give colas that distinctive brown hue contained levels of four MI that would have warranted a cancer warning label on every canned soul in the state. And this wasn't the industry's only challenge. The Center for Science and the Public Interest petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to banned ammonia sulfide caramel color. It's a request the CSPI repeated this week after finding four MI in samples of coke and Pepsi. This is nothing more than CSPI scare tactics, and their claims are outrageous, writes the American Beverage Association in a statement released to the media. The science simply does not show that 4 MEI foods or beverages is a threat to human health, the statement continued, and the FDA seems to agree. FDA spokesperson Douglas Carras wrote in a statement that the FDA is currently reviewing the CSPI petition, but it is important to understand that a person would have to consume well over a thousand cans of coke a day to reach the doses administered in the studies that have shown links to cancer in rodents. But in order to meet the requirements for a California law and avoid cancer warning labels on cans of soda, manufacturers have come up with a solution, switch to a new low 4 MI formulation of the caramel coloring. The company did make the decision to ask its caramel suppliers to make the necessary manufacturing process modifications to meet the requirement for the state of California, a Coca-Cola spokesperson wrote in an email. Coke's spokesperson also said, "The fact is, the body of science about 4 MEI in foods or beverages does not support the erroneous allegations that CSPI would like the public to believe." Outside of California, no regulatory agency concerned with protecting the public's health has stated that 4 MI is a human carcinogen. "Caramel color is now and has always been safe and harmless," says Ted Nixon, CEO of DD Williams, the world's largest supplier of caramel color. He explained that in order to modify the caramel color to reduce the levels of 4 MI, he sent a scientist back to the drawing board to change the manufacturing process. "We did have to change these various inputs of temperatures, pressures, and the various ingredients we're using in order to change the 4 MI concentrations," Nixon says. And Nixon says he'll be able to meet the demand of all the soda clients in rolling out this modified caramel color in products nationwide and worldwide. My only question is this, what exactly are those ingredients used to produce the caramel color? If you really think about it, brown liquids are a bit suspect in the first place, don't you think? Lots of things can be hidden in there. I think this year I may just stick with my other favorite brown beverage, beer. I'm Jeffrey Lynch, and that's "This Week's" spot of bother. I like to teach that, well, do sing. I like to teach that, well, do sing. I like to double build a home, and finish it with love. I pull trees and pranks. That's interesting because, uh, the whole reason caramel is in Coke is to hide imperfections. That was why it was originally put in when it was essentially hand brewed in pharmacies or whatever. The fellow who created it included Coke to, uh, there included caramel to cover up the imperfections. It's funny when he cracked open his beer there, the sound, it just made me think pop because we generally drink our beer in bottles. Oh, yeah, true that. I do get pretty paranoid about mass production in the sense. One of the early episodes, Beefpocalypse, was actually kind of inspired by that. The idea, well, also mad cow disease. The idea that there might be these lurking dangers that wouldn't be revealed until a decade or two later. It turns way too late. Now, we have to do the same thing if we want sugar coke, right? We barely actually had the real sugar coke. Have you ever heard of sodafinder.com? No. Sodafinder.com will ship real coke to your door. Really? Yeah, actually, it's one of those odd niche sites that will cater to fans of a certain thing. So you can get Mountain Dew and glass bottles, which I guess is hard, and you can get, uh, people think that Mexican coke is actually what real sugar coke tastes like, which isn't quite right because it tastes a little more brown sugary than real coke with sugar. If you've ever had the real thing, the real thing, then you will know it, and it is delicious. Mm-hmm. I haven't actually purchased anything from sodafinder.com, but I am on that edge, the precipice of laying down 15 bucks plus shipping for a 12 pack. Yeah, well, I remember when I was a kid, like if things went out of stock, you were, that was it. You didn't have any more. Yeah. So it's kind of cool. Thanks, Internet. Yeah, we're covering all the bases. I think, honestly, maybe it's not something that we want to get a regular shipment of, but it would be nice. And you know, there's some people out there doing that. We should drink it on the flashcast instead of our red bowls. Mm-hmm. It's my red bowl now. It's your fault. You hooked me. Yeah, I hooked her, and then I stopped drinking it, and then she just kept on going. Yes. Yeah. Geez. Well, thanks, Jeff. It's always a weird thank you with Jeff, because it's like, thanks for kind of making me feel weird. Thanks for that horrible news. Yeah. But you can find all of Jeff's bothersome bits over at bothersomethings.com, and he has his ongoing spot of bother podcast. You definitely should check that out. Mm-hmm. Much bother throughout the week. He's a really bothersome guy in that way. No way. But he says it very nicely. Oh, yes. He does a wonderful job. He's eloquently bothersome. We do enjoy our Mr. Jeff. Mm-hmm. Fish. I don't think we have an entry this week. That is indeed true. Yeah. It's a little unfortunate, but kind of okay, because although I have managed to procure psychic, tire, mind-killing death ray film, Rubber, I have not yet had an opportunity to watch it, so we'll have both Fishback and Rubber reviewed next episode. Fortunately, however, Gibraltar has managed to fix the histoscope. Nice. Rock on. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. What the hell just happened? Well, um, everything seems to be back to normal. Thank you, Mr. President, for helping me get back. Anyway, salutations fellow monsters and both of you again to horrible histories. So the histoscope is still on, and nothing's exploded. Okay, well, let's see what it's got on the... Well, for the week of March 2nd. Well, maybe we'll tune it back a little bit, get it somewhere so it's not putting so much stress on the whole girl. Maybe. In this week in history, one of the most famous cases of body snatching ever. Two men stole the corpse of a revered film actor, Transur Charles Chaplin, from a cemetery in the Swiss village of concierge sur velve. Located in the hills above Lake Geneva, Louisiana, Switzerland on this day, March 2nd, 1978. The comic actor was perhaps most famous for his alter ego, the Lowell Tramp. Charles Chaplin was also respected filmmakers, whose career spanned Hollywood silent film era and the monumentist change into talkies in the late 20th. Chaplin died on Christmas Day in 1977, at the age of 88. Two months later, his body was stolen from the Swiss cemetery, sparking a police investigation, and hunt for culprits. After Chaplin's widow, Una, received a ransom demand of $60,000. Police began monitoring her phone and watching over 200 phone kiosks in the region. Una had refused to pay the ransom, saying that her husband would have thought the demand to be ridiculous. The callers later made threats against Una's two youngest children. Una Chaplin was... was Charles Chaplin's fourth wife. She and Chaplin were married in 1943 when she was 18 and he was 54. They ate children together. The family had settled in Switzerland in 1952, after the controversy of Chaplin, whose enemies had accused him of being a communist synthesizer. Learned he would be denied a re-entry visa into the United States and wrote to the London premier of his film, Line Light. After a five-week investigation, police arrested two auto-mechanics. Roman Huardes of Poland, and Grenso Cardiv of Bulgaria, who on May 17th led them to Chaplin's body, which they buried in a cornfield, about a mile from Chaplin's family home in Cossier. That December, Valdez and Cardiv were convicted of grave robbing and attempted extortion. Political refugees from Eastern Europe, Huardes and Grameez, apparently stole Chaplin's body in an attempt to solve their financial difficulties. Huardes was identified as a match, mind of the blind, with sentenced to four and a half years of hard labor. As he told to he was inspired by a similar crime he had read about in an Italian newspaper. Cardiv was given an 18-month suspended sentence as he was believed to be of limited responsibility in the crime. As for Chaplin, his family reburied his body in a concrete rape for any future attempts. Well, the histoscope is going dark on me again. Thank God. Well, monsters, I'm going to be shutting this thing down for a while and hanging the bed. Feels like I've been up for an entire week. I'll do repairs later. Time travel is such a bitch. I have to reach to do this. Well, you know what, before that I'm going to get some to eat. I'm kind of hungry. Hey, where's my wallet? He stole my wallet. That bastard! Teddy Roosevelt owes me money! A huge, huge shout out to all of our contributors. But I must say that I have really been enjoying the horrible histories. Yeah, absolutely. Really great. Interesting about Chaplin. And weird. And that his wife was like, "No, he would think this is ridiculous." Yeah. You kind of want to sit down and make a weekend at Bernie's film out of it somehow. I hope you get your money out of Roosevelt. Yeah. Yeah. Suggestion. You might want to send Rich back. And then do that old schoolyard thing where he sort of like kneels down. And then, you know, sort of back Roosevelt over him and trip him. Yeah, totally. That's not very friendly at all. I hear you spend a lot of time in Africa. Yeah. Bring the Trump boys. Ew. They know what they're doing. Or they at least know how to pose and look like what they know what they're doing. Disgusting. I thought it really interesting that he was denied re-entry into the state store that he was about to be. There was a weird sort of period there. Charlie Chaplin, man. Yeah. One of your national icons. He's like a staple to comedy and acting. Mm-hmm. He was beloved and copied so very many times. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. A month in a corn field. Yeah. I can't do very well. Yeah, that's no fun. So on that pleasant note. Yeah. On that pleasant note, let's see what Barry's managed to dig up in the New York Minute. Hi, I'm Barry and this is your New York Minute. Before the New York Minute begins, I'd like to take some time and jump on the bandwagon and begin my own serialized pulp drama. Ladies and gentlemen, introducing Hollywood Russell in the Case of the Virtuous Vixen, Chapter 1. Hollywood Russell entered the room, his steely eyes twitched to the left, then to the right. To be continued. And now your New York Minute. Hollywood may be the movie capital of the world, but New York might be Hollywood's favorite city. In 1908, the feaving hand was shot in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and the upcoming Avengers will be set in New York, though mostly filmed elsewhere. In the years between, Hollywood has taken us to New York's past in Gangs of New York, New York's future in Escape from New York, and gave Charlton Heston the surprise of his life in New York in Planet of the Apes. New York's trains have been hijacked in the taking of Pelham 1-2-3, chased in the French connection, helped a gang escape to Coney Island in the Warriors, and crashed in Die Hard with a Vengeance. Yes, Hollywood has made its fair share of New York films, and more than its share of fair to mediocre New York films. And that brings me to the Bowery Boys. During the 1940s and 1950s, Hollywood cranked out dozens of B movies featuring a rotating cast of juvenile delinquents from New York. Since these films are comedies, these youthful offenders, led by the increasingly not so youthful Huns Hall and Leo Goresy, never smoked dope or ripped off a liquor store. The Bowery Boys were more likely to get mixed up with Nazi spies, spend a night in a haunted house, accidentally break up a crooked boxing syndicate, or somehow help the police track down a foreign princess. They are also known at various times as the East Side Kids, the Dead End Kids, and early on in their history, the Little Tough Guys. People usually only change their names that often to avoid creditors. In at least two quote-unquote memorable films, they met Bell Lagosi, demonstrating in just which direction his career was moving. Of course, any student of history will tell you that history lies, and any student of the movies will tell you that Hollywood lies with every agent's breath, so it is a sad fact that the real Bowery Boys were nothing like the bunch of clumsy nincompubes featured on screen. The Bowery Boys were an anti-Catholic, anti-Irish gang based north of the five-point section of Brooklyn in the mid-19th century. This was a time of great Irish immigration. The gang was based in the Bowery section of New York, hence their name. It was said that the gang was so strong, and even popular during its time, that many of the smaller or weaker gangs in the Bowery follow their lead, not often by their own volition. One of their main rivals was a gang called the Dead Rabbits. I don't know about you, but I think the Dead Rabbits is a lousy name for a gang, but I would never say it to their faces. The Bowery Boys were young men who frequented the saloons and brothels of the Bowery, and dressed in black stovepipe hats, red shirts, black flared trousers, high-heeled boots, and black vests with slick hair. I mention this because they were generally well-dressed, and most of them even had respectable jobs. One famous member of the Bowery Boys was William Poole, also known as Bill the Butcher. As far as I know, none of them were named Sag Slippurk Limpy. It took Hollywood to come up with those brilliant names for the Bowery Boys films. Their most famous leader was known only as "Mose the Fireboy", and some research suggests that he may have simply been a tall tale or an urban legend. Ballads and songs were sung of him in the Bowery, and his name was a common battle cry among the Bowery Boys throughout their existence. He was supposedly eight feet tall and had the strength of ten men. It was sort of like if Paul Bunyan joined the Crips. At this point, I would like to mention that I never saw and refused to see Gangs of New York, despite hearing how good that movie is, but I digress. Some odd facts popped up while researching the Bowery Boys. For example, they ran their own local fire department. They were fiercely patriotic and were actually allied with the Metropolitan Police Department. Now, this makes sense when you realize that New York had two competing police departments. The Metropolitan Police Department had a feud with the municipal police. Don't ask me the difference between the two. Over the course of two days in 1857, fighting between the two police departments, the Bowery Boys, the Dead Rabbits, and several smaller Gangs left eight people dead. And that was only the official number. Unofficially, the body count may have been much, much higher. The gang was cruel and violent. During the New York draft riots of 1863, the Bowery Boys took part in much of the looting while fighting with rival Gangs. The brawling was so bad that the military was called in to stop it. Eventually, in fighting and other disputes caused the gang to splinter and weaken, and they eventually disappeared into history, with only their name carried on in such films as "Spook Busters" and "Dig the Uranium." History may forget you, but it takes Hollywood to insult you. This has been your New York Minute. Let's hear it to New York, New York, New York, New York! Oh, I really liked that a lot, Barry. I was actually just thinking the other day I'd really like to watch the movie Gangs in New York with both Jaredie and Jamie, because they haven't seen it before. Mm-hmm. And it's an OK movie, and it's like the conflict between the Dead Rabbits and the Bowery Boys. And Bill the Butcher is Daniel Day-Lewis's character. It's really good. I would like to actually put in a bit of a word of defense for the Bowery Boys, also known as the little tough guys. And once upon a time, in the 30s, well before he's talking about them, they were known as the Bowery Boys. I think in the 40s, they began as the dead-end kids. Yeah. Which you guys may be familiar with, even though you're not looking at me quizzically. They were the kids from Angels With Dirty Faces. Yeah, I was going to say, I know you've mentioned it before, and I want to say in relation to... Shoot me, I lost the guy's name. Jimi Kagnie? Yes. James Kagnie. Yeah, James Kagnie. Yeah. Pat O'Brien. James Kagnie plays a tough guy, Pat O'Brien plays the priest. Yes. And they're both sort of, well not warring, but the idea is that one is leading the children, you know, the righteousness and the other one is... leading them to a life of crime. Ba-ba-ba! But when they began, before they just became a rotating... Basically, before they became an old-school manudo, they were a quality bunch of actors playing tough guys, but they had their place, and I do enjoy their work. I'm not the Bowery Boys, the 40s stuff, the 50s stuff, I can... is indefensible. There's nothing that can be said for that, but the work in the late 30s as the dead-end kids is largely very quality. So, I'm worth checking it. Interesting factoid, actually, since he brought up Escape from New York as well. Did you guys know that the cityscapes in Blade Runner are actually the same models as used in Escape from New York, except repainted? That's amazing. Because, I mean, Blade Runner seems so much more futuristic, you know? Yeah, well, I guess they just painted everything black and added some extra lights, and bam. Anyway, thanks a lot, Barry. Great to have the New York Minute back. You can find all of Barry's brilliance over at bmj2k.com. He's on a bit of a reality TV glitch at the moment. Although, he makes it a little more palatable. Bearable. Yeah, bearable. Anyway, thanks, Barry. Finally, we do have a bit of pulp cereal fiction in the form of Doc Asriel in the return of The Angel of Death. [Door opens] [Door closes] [Music] [Door closes] [Door closes] In the last episode of Doc Asriel, Angel of Death, we rode along with Officer Corley as he investigated Sartrepar's evening activities. After a turn into a dark alley, we discovered that perhaps Corley was the hunted, as well as the hunter. [Door closes] Jimmy Keenan sat uncomfortably on the edge where he was supposed to pass for a bed, grinding his teeth in annoyance at the snores emanating from the upper bunk. It was bad enough that power had the audacity to have him locked up, but expecting him to share a cell with this Cretan was unforgivable. When he got out of this jail cell, Keenan would put plans for a very special punishment for the old cop into action. At Keenan, you got a visitor. The trailer seemed annoyed to be bothered at this late hour. He unlocked the importer's cell. Special orders to allow you out at this time of night must be someone special. Jimmy didn't dignify the man's comment with a response. Instead, he straightened the collar of his orange jumpsuit and walked down of the cage as if this was part of his plan all along. If you were honest with himself, Keenan was surprised by the visit. When he had spoken to his attorney earlier in the day, the lawyer had said there was nothing he could do until morning. Clearly, something had changed. The officer didn't lead Keenan to the public meeting room to which the smuggler had become accustomed in his previous visits to the institution. Instead, Jimmy was escorted to a private office on the administrative floor. "I've been told to give you 20 minutes, Keenan." The cop opened the door and ushered the heavy-set man into the room. It was a small conference room, dominated by a heavy table and tall chairs. There were two men in the room. The first Jimmy recognized. It was his mouthpiece. The man was dressed in his standard cheap suit, though perhaps it looked a bit more wrinkled than normal. He also looked tired, and perhaps just a little nervous. The second man was new to Jimmy Keenan. He wore an expensive suit, possibly European, and definitely brand new. He was broad-shouldered, and even though he was sitting, Keenan could tell he was quite tall. It was a glint in the new man's eyes that told Jimmy that he wasn't hired muscle. This was an educated man. Jimmy tried to take the upper hand. He addressed his lawyer, ignoring the other man as if he were beneath his notice. "What's this all about? Isn't it bad enough that you haven't gotten me out of this hole yet? You have to disturb my beauty rest, too?" "I--I-- Keenan's lawyer stammered--he--I--will be representing your case from this point forward, Mr. Keenan." The dark man spoke without hesitation. At the instruction of my employer, I consulted with your attorney, and the two of us agreed that would be best for all involved if I handled your concerns exclusively. Isn't that so? Keenan's former lawyer nodded and stammered a reply. "Yes, it's--it's all about arrange, Jimmy." Command seemed from one man to the other, the mouthpiece stood. "I--I should be going." He rapped lightly on the door and was let out by the officer on guard. "Perhaps you would like to sit, Mr. Keenan. We have a lot to discuss and limited time." "Ooh." "Thanks a lot, Doc. It was great." "Mm-hmm." "I love your snore. That was so perfect." "Yeah, that was nice." "That was well done." "Your voices are very entertaining." Mm-hmm. You can find more work by Doc Blue. Dave went over at thesecretlayer.com. Guess what? What? What? Mailbag. No! Okay, just a quick mailbag today, but before we get into it, I'd like to mention that if you have comments, questions, or suggestions, you can send them over to comments@flashpulp.com. I know most of you have your fancy phones, or iPods, or whatnot. Feel free to just flip them over. Most of them have mic, so record on it. Just email it to us. "You can do it. We believe in you, and we want to hear your audio comments now." "The magic is inside you all along." Mm-hmm. So spit it out. Let it seep from your pores. Now, speaking of magical, this is a piece from Fish. It's really, it could have been included in the popular press, but I didn't want to mistake this with an endorsement, because I think Fish is obviously putting this up as ridiculous and hilarious. Okay. Not that Nicholas Cage isn't, but usually when Fish mentions something, it's because he's excited. I think this time he's excited because they use so many clichés in the trailer. Great. Excellent. It's the world's most secure prison. It holds the planet's deadliest criminals. It's impenetrable, because it's not on Earth. I'm going to ask you a few questions. Do you dream while you're under? I'm going to dream about you. You want to test me? Sit down! You've got a gun! Mr. President, there's been a massive take-over on MS-WALK. My daughter is on a goodwill mission on that station. There's only one man who can get around. Oh, Snow. He's the best there is. But he's a loose cannon. Don't get me wrong, it's a dream vacation. I mean, I go into space, I get inside the maximum security nut house. Get past all the psychos. Save the president's daughter if she's not dead already. I'm thrilled that he would think of me. Get in there. God, I hate that. The gravity generator will hold you up. He got to trust me on this. Really? What the hell are you doing? I am bringing you back from the dead. I'm having your attention. Our milk again is a woman. We need her to leave. What the hell is happening here? It's falling out of the sky. We call back to me. Something you should see born in eight minutes. You're going to get out of here? What if this doesn't work? Well, I'm probably going to die. Don't worry, it's perfectly safe. The simple thank you is enough. You know, the first, very first part, I'm like, I hate this already. Perpetuating stereotypes about those penitentiaries. And then it just gets so ridiculous from there that it really is so fantastical that it really doesn't bother me at all. But he's a loose cannon. Yeah. Well, a guy pierce if anybody can save it. Really guy pierce is your hope because I'm trying to... Oh, God. No, it's going to be horrific, but I'm just saying. But there was a positive point. As the mob pointed out when Fish posted this, this really is escape from New York in space. And only one man. And what I mentioned when Fish brought it up was that this makes me think of the old arcade game Bad Dudes. Do you guys remember that game? I don't know. It was one of the ones that was always blaring at you when you walked into the arcade. It was essentially two kung fu fellows having to save the president. And it was always, the president has been kidnapped. The president is in another castle. Yeah, exactly. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue him? Yeah. Great. Anyway, Bad Dudes. And they cap it all off with a blowjob joke. Yeah. Yeah, classy. Super classy. Yeah, tasteful. Yep. Well, it will be watched by many. Some people are really into that joke. Okay. Well, on a much better note, I am very pleased to see more positive. Well, there seems to be a split amongst geeks. There's a lot of love for the Carter movie. Okay. Yeah. But I've seen a lot of bad mainstream reviews, so I don't know what to believe. Maybe people just don't get it unless they're geeks. Yeah, feasibly. But we did get a lovely article from one of our mysterious benefactors, Juju Click. Indeed. Related to your book? Yeah. The article she passes along is from the New York Times. I'll definitely link it in the notes. And it's hard to explain. It's a very loving look at the books and sort of the franchise. From the sense of it always having been a bit out of style, even when it was originally released. It didn't, he doesn't use, as we've mentioned before on the show, actually. He didn't use rocket chips or any sort of high class, or any sort of high tech solution to get his main character to Mars. He just decided, "May I wander out with side one day?" And zap, he was on Mars. Okay. Or he died. Maybe? I don't know. There you go. It's a very sort of romantic view of the whole thing. I love the article. It looks at the franchise's soft spots gently and touches on a lot of how it... This is really a story that touches people and their kids mostly. You know what I mean? It's the kind of thing. If you encounter it at just the right age, it can really ignite your imagination. And you may not notice that certain parts of it are dated or certain parts of it are frankly maybe a little racist or anti-communist in a weird sort of way. But you can still get a lot of adventure out of it. And that's what people are really looking for. When they're going to go see a Carter movie. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So thanks a lot, Juju Click. That was a fantastic article to pass along. Yeah, thanks. Finally, to close up the mailbag. It's a very brief mailbag this week. Because of the mailbag, we have a fantastic bit of fan fiction from Zack Mann. Now, what's interesting about this, he wrote it for the 100 word challenge over at podcasting.isfullofcrap.com, which is a weekly challenge. I don't know if you guys are familiar. Yeah. They put it like well over 300 of these things now. There's just 100 word stories people submit to their own interpretations of sort of the topic for the week or whatever. Very nice. So Zack Mann, he wrote one about SkinnerCo. Not about specifically about Mulligan or, you know, coffin or something. It's about SkinnerCo the organization. Wicked. I can't wait to hear that. I recorded himself, which was really nice. Nice. Soon as I saw this week's topic, I thought of SkinnerCo at flashpulp.com. That was what Lauren Simon, who runs the 100 word stories weekly challenge at podcasting.isfullofcrap.com, calls a blatant plug. Lady Fingers by Zack Mann. "I wish I ate before we started cleaning the building," said Sarah. "I will buy you some lunch after we are done cleaning," replied Jan, the lead housekeeper. "Look, this box has Lady Fingers written on it. I think they won't mind if I only take one," Jan said. "I read in the newspaper that Mulligan Smith and Thomas Blackhall get packages here at SkinnerCo, so don't even touch that box." Sarah opened the box and said, "I feel sick." Then held up a mason jar. Jan said, "What do you know?" This box's label says, "Ladies Fingers." Very nice. That's fun. Yeah, thank you very much. Speaking of a bit of narration. "I am narration." So I don't really have a lot of narration news this week or anything, but... Well, I mean, I guess it's kind of narration news that I'm sounding a little better. Yeah, well, we had to take a little break due to your illness. My respiratory infection. I had an infection in my respiratory. But that's getting better now. But... You do sound much better, though. Yeah, so I'm feeling a little better. You're still sounding a little rough. Yes. "Are you a dassy?" Oh, Paul! I didn't do what I said I was going to do, but it's all Jaredie's fault. Oh. So... As so often is the case. Hmm, indeed, I am waiting on some wordage for some intros that we have. Indeed, it all comes together. I saw the light bulb go on over his head. They'll look if you're suddenly into my ass. Yeah. I'll get right on that. Yeah. Only have yourself to blame, sir. Anyways, because you're so lazy. Yeah. You're not doing anything. Yeah, you never do anything. It's terrible. Yeah, I haven't touched my guitar this week. We made a studio. That was pretty awesome. But that has nothing to do with audio. Sure was. The illness ran throughout the house. That was really... Pardon? There was just illness throughout the house. It's difficult to get a lot done. Yes. But we did get tons of flash bulbs stuff done. But nothing extra from me. So it was actually... We have this lovely space that we're recording in. Absolutely. Thank you. Yeah. I will take all the credit. Thank you. Good. Backroom plots. So we're in the middle of a black hole six-parter. Indeed. Right in the middle. We had to take a brief intermission for a urban legend. Yeah, special episode. Yeah. My first ever. Yeah. It was so crazy. Oh yeah, I should've discussed some fun with Silly. Maybe I'll just mention briefly. I... Oh man. I was just a wreck. I was just a wreck. I was a sweaty, sweaty mess. And Jaredie kept coming to the door. And I'm like, "You can't come to the door when I'm recording. What don't you understand?" And then I completed it. And then I did it again. All the way through. And then I did it again. All the way through. I was so picky with myself. And so angry. And it was really funny. Being on the other side of things. Who produces the producer? The producer does. That was my little bit about doing it. It was great at the end. I really appreciate the feedback that I got. But I'm glad to be on this side of the... And it's funny because I record music. But I feel so much more relaxed about it than I do with my speaking voice. Yeah. I understood. Well it was fun to throw out a quick urban light and haven't done that before. Yeah and I listened to it. I got to do the listen through for that one. That was fun. That was cool. I think he did a good job. Thanks. But we've also had the larger arc of the black hole. A lot of items coming together and closing up in this six-parter. People are dropping like flies. A lot of the blood everywhere. Honestly it's only getting a bloodier before the end. But with good reason. And then black hole will be on his way. Yeah. You keep saying that he keeps not happening. No this is... That place is to stop. He needs somewhere to eat and sleep. He's got to get his... She's not a machine. Yeah. It's interesting because in looking at this one, the town that black hole is technically in at this point is a place that we lived relatively near for a while. Although I'm not super familiar with the town. It's just that it has an interesting history. It's a military town and I've read quite a bit about it. But while I'm doing black hole, there are certain things, like I've mentioned before, that I like to go back and listen to sort of old timing music. But at the same time it's fun to go to sites sort of of the era, which conveniently there's a lot of in our new... Yeah. You know what he burst out in anger saying today? You know what I hate? Maps without dates. I do hate maps without dates. If you're going to make a map, put the date on it. You also never thought you would say that, did you? No. There's certainly a time in my life where I never thought I would be so irate about cartography. Yeah. But it's true. Maps change so quickly. People need to indicate what time of their life they're... No, for real. Look at Google. It still has like half our neighborhood missing on Google Studio. Yeah, and that's true. And we've been here for like two years. Oh, as an excuse to get out to these various locations, we've been doing a lot of geocaching. Yeah, that's right. But it's fun to go to a building and think, "Okay, this building was built two decades after black hole. Would have left this area." Yeah, we were walking down the main street and we passed a Baptist Church and there was a date. I think it was 1899. You were like, "Oh, that was... Probably '70s. I think it was probably the '70s. Oh, yeah, 1870. Oh, that was such and such many decades after Thomas Walk would have passed through. About three decades after Thomas wandered by. Yeah, so that's been a lot of fun and an excellent source of inspiration. And another spot has been an excellent suggestion by our fellow Jell-O. The LA North soundtrack. Yeah, yeah. That's a game, right? An Xbox game? Yeah, it's the detective one. I'm quite enjoying the game, but at the same time, the soundtrack as a standalone is so moody and atmospheric that... So great. As much as I enjoy the game when I'm writing, it's not, you know... You're not thinking of the game. The game is the game at all. I'm just enjoying some moody saxophone. I can just sit there and listen to the title screen all day. But I think I'd have to have a gin. It does make me want to start a new character of the era. Start exploring a little more Sergeant Smith business. And gin. And gin. Anyway, speaking of Sergeant Smith, our Sergeant Smith is one retro gin. Indeed. Jim. Let's not forget Jim. Over at relicradio.com. Mm-hmm. Unforgettable. Also, hosts wiki.flashpop.com and flashpop.com. Mm-hmm. Thank you kindly for that, sir. It's going to be interesting finding the little tidbits from this story that I'll be able to pop into the wiki. Yeah, well, there's actually going to be a lot. Uh-huh. Well, not only just in the episodes that have passed already, but you said, I seem to recall, you said, that we would be seeing a certain somebody from episode, what was it, 223, 224? That was the master of the Wild Kingdom. Oh, that won't be this black hole arc. That'll be after. That'll be shortly after. Yeah, immediately afterwards. But there's another surprise in here that you're entirely unaware of. All I'm going to say is... Montgomery. But... Montgomery. The secret password is... Montgomery. Enjoy the show? Tell a friend. Really enjoy the show? We've got a donate button on the site. Few of comments, questions, or suggestions, you can find us at flashpop.com, or email us text or mp3s to comments@flashpop.com. Jessica May's vocal talents and musical stylists can be found at madetunes.com. The entire run of flashpulp can be found at flashpulp.com, or via the search bar in iTunes. Flashcast is released under the Canadian Creative Commons attribution on the Internet. The Internet is released under the Internet. The Internet is released under the Internet. The Internet is released under the Internet. The Internet is released under the Internet. 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