Prepare yourself for phantom stories, Lance Henriksen, new old New York, Pigheart, advice for baby vampires, superstitions, and Free Alaska.
Find the full show notes at http://flashpulp.com
The Skinner Co. Network
FC39 - Drone War
[Music] Hello, and welcome to Flashcast 39. Prepare yourself for a phantom stories, Lance Henriksen. New old New York. Pick heart. Advice for baby vampires, superstitions, and free Alaska. [Music] Tonight, we have myself, oh, Poponex. Recountress. Just give me a hilly, hilly, hilly, hilly, hilly. Lady of production. Yes, yes. And Jerry. Hello. Let her arrange her. I heard this fascinating story the other day. Actually, I read it, I suppose. In China, you're well aware, I'm sure, of the sort of population imbalance between male and females. Yes. Yeah, well aware. OK, well, apparently, there are marriage brokers, because that's the extent to which people have to go now for a male to be able to find a female. I guess the woman actually has sort of the pick of the litter as far as it goes. And a lot of the time, the determining characteristic is money. So what ends up happening is because they can't just ask for a bank balance. They look at the person's house. So now, there's this huge proliferation of what they're calling phantom stories in China, where they're building this sort of false third story on their house to make it look like they have a big house so that they can be considered eligible for the female. Wow. It's so crazy how different people live. It makes me think of peacocks. It's so basic as a display of-- Yeah, it's like dropping your trousers. I love those little weird cultural corners that we work ourselves into when we build and break systems. That we do here, that would be similar. But we just don't have all those issues, you know? I think we're just not those sort of people. But if you think about it, there's plenty of people spray tanning and doing all sorts of fakery. It's just we don't think of it as putting a third story on the house. Don't talk about my diamonds. I don't mean to dirty talk the diamonds, Jamie. But I don't want to love them like I love them. But I do. I just do. Get off my back. Soon. [MUSIC PLAYING] So it actually hasn't been that long since the last time we did a flashgassed in some ways that's going to mean that, for example, the October 31 list is quite short for this episode. But unfortunately, we've been very distracted or just actually trying to turn out content. Not so much distracted as on topic, but to the detriment of fun. Although we have had one man on our mind recently. [MUSIC PLAYING] If you don't know who Sergio Flores is, you can definitely check out the notes for this episode. If you're in the mob, you're probably already aware. I've had that tune stuck in my head since I saw it. It's obviously not like the original song. Yeah. He doesn't like George Michaels. Anyways, you need to watch this video. Go to the show notes and watch it because it is so funny. Indeed. If you haven't already, it's been floating around for a while, but it's just recently re-grabbed my brain. Speaking of videos that have grabbed my brain, the October 31 is a little thin this week. We did get a few under our belt, though, fortunately. And I actually want to loop back a little bit and talk about Troll at the end of this. But the big one we watched-- OK, I know we said we were going to watch Insidious. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a hold of a copy in time. I've got one now, but we didn't have an opportunity to watch it before the show. So we're going to watch it almost essentially right after we record this. But we're not going to talk about it until next week. So that goes mobsters and other chance to-- grab a look if they haven't already. So why don't you tell us what we did watch this week? The Pit and the Pendulum with Lance Hendrickson. Whom I love. Playing Torcomata. Apparently, I looked up some trivia on this one. OK, no, I guess I should set the larger scene. This movie's essentially about Lance Hendrickson coming up with ever more devious torture devices, which eventually culminates in the Pit and the Pendulum. But it has very little-- well, here's the thing. There are all of these nods to Poe throughout the story. Like, there's a fellow who gets walled up. And there's a few other little things. But at the same time, none of this has anything to do with anything Poe wrote ever otherwise. So it's an interesting story. It was kind of fun to see Hendrickson be so on screen all the time. Yeah, I got to say, I'd never seen this movie before. And it was kind of surprising. It wasn't anything I thought it would be. They had a lot more budget than I was expecting them to have, actually. He was pretty good and creepy and gross. Yeah, I like him when whatever he does, even if I feel like the script was a little weak in this one. I loved his hair. His hair was pasty. I will never forget that. Peter O'Toole was apparently supposed to play his role, originally. That would have been interesting. I could see it, though. But the right-hand man, the guy who basically tortures everyone to death, would have been Billy D. Williams. I don't know who that is. Billy D. Williams is Lando Calrissian. Oh, my gosh. OK. [LAUGHTER] That would have been great. Who paired those two up? Yeah, at what point? O'Toole. Yeah, OK, great. But we need another-- we need a great secondary. Back him up, because he's got a little drink-a-roo problem. Billy D. Williams. No, listen. Peter O'Toole has a drinking problem. Who do we break on, boy? So let's bring him, yes. Billy D. Williams. Cold '45, looks every time. Also managed to watch the loose ends for the hammer horror films that we had outstanding last week. Not really much more to add there. And watched something that I had never seen before, Spider Baby, which I know you guys didn't see. That was sort of a solo flick on my part. It was interesting to see Lon Chaney Jr. So long after anything I'd seen him in before. After Wolfman-- OK, Lon Chaney Jr. for anybody who isn't aware is the son of Lon Chaney, who was essentially the largest horror silent era star. So when he came along, he was supposed to be this big air. And he had the Wolfman, which was a big deal. But after that, his career tanked a bit, and he ended up being a drunkard and essentially doing a bunch of B-films. I suspect that they picked him up cheap for this one. Oh, the American dream right there, everybody. It has the guy who would eventually become Captain Spalding for anybody who watches Rob Zombie's films, or who is sat through one of those. I've been too afraid myself. It was an interesting film in some ways. It was-- it felt a little bit high school art project in some places. But anyhow, always been told it's a classic. And it was interesting. It was a good watch, but it wasn't-- I don't know. Fantastic. Yeah, it wasn't what I had been told to expect, essentially. Anyway, to close this little chapter up, I'd like to loop back to Troll, because I feel like I didn't really finish talking about a couple of items last week that I wanted to mention. They are making an American version of Troll. That doesn't surprise me at all. They seem to be finding a lot of Scandinavian movies and bringing them over to the states and North America. Apparently, the rights were snapped up before the film was even finished distribution, like production. So-- but here's the thing, here's why this film isn't going to work, even though we haven't seen it yet. There are two aspects to this movie, in my mind, that stood out after watching it. One was the mythology that sort of held the whole thing together. All of the little aspects that were believable to their native area. OK. That it really felt like repelled that. And then the other thing was, honestly, the beauty of Norway. Well, I've always known it's a beautiful country, but there's a lot of just scenery shots in that film. And really, that sets it. You get this feeling of nature and rural areas. You get this feeling of isolation. And then that's what convinces you when the monsters show up in the end, is my feeling, anyhow. I just love that monster and the way it moved. Oh, the fruit? Yeah. Yeah. Sure, it won't be the same. Anyway. Yeah, we'll have to wait and see. We'll see. And, you know, I suspect it'll be good in its own way. It'll have a budget enough to carry it through because they know what they're doing. It probably won't be changed that much. Plot-wise is my suspicion. It's going to feel actually I bet a lot like the ring versus ringu or whatever the original was pronounced. Anyhow. Oh, one were actually October 31 related item. A couple of people pointed out to me that life force was actually the beginning of the end for Toby Hooper. Really? I knew it was some sort of transitionary movie for him. I didn't realize it was all downhill from there. What came right after life force? OK. So Toby Hooper's career. He makes it big with Texas Chainsaw Massacre in '74, does a couple films, does the Salem's Lot miniseries on TV, which is known as an epic classic in sort of the understated horror genre? Does a couple more be horror films comes out with Poltergeist? Hmm. OK, Poltergeist, I still maintain stands as a classic, even with coach in it. Then, next film after Poltergeist-- now here's my belief. I suspect that he got a lot of money out of Poltergeist. It was the early '80s. His nose. I'm just saying-- He was really left wanting. I think he had a lot of coke, because all I'm saying. So life force comes out. It's crazy. And then it just goes downhill from there. And Vader's from Mars, which I did not enjoy. The second Chainsaw Massacre-- Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie, which is interesting, but essentially features Denis Hopper wandering around with dual wielding chainsaws in a cowboy suit while singing, "Bringing in the Sheaves." There's no problem with that. Well, yes, I love it. But at the same time, it's not exactly a mainstream mass market appealing film. Yeah, absolutely. He does a couple more horror movies, does some tales from the Crip TV work, and that it's just nothing. It's downhill from there. I'm trying to find something in this listing that might stand out. Was he old and tired and just well-looked after? I suspect he's getting a lot of royalty money out of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist. And he just doesn't really need to worry about it so much. Yeah, I know. That's not fair, I suppose. But maybe he's happy with what he's doing. I saw the toolbox murders a couple of years ago, and that seemed fairly good. But the budget didn't seem intensely huge, which is strange, because the budget for life force must have been rather large. Pretty good. They had some pretty nice effects on that. Yeah, it was a big-budget Hollywood film, which I would not call the toolbox murders. Hey, you want to hear something cool? Sure. Couple of weeks back, I was hanging outside with the Klan. And-- You were hanging out with the KKK? No, the family I meant. And we saw this really cool-looking caterpillar on a leaf, me and Mr. 3. And so we were hanging out with the caterpillar, because he was so cool. He was all white and fuzzy. And he had these big, like, you know how a snail has those, like, they're not like tentacles. What do you call them, antenna? Are they really antenna when they're off snail? I don't know. I don't think my socks. Yeah, something like that. Anyway, they kind of looked like that. The pointy bits. Yeah, there were like little pointy, eye-stalk things. Are you telling me this caterpillar had a series of eyes all over its back, my tiny stuff? It's disgusting. That's disgusting. No. So there was this really cool caterpillar. And we were hanging out by it, and we named it Maurice. And it had a whole story. Can't really recall what the story was. But we were really enamored of this caterpillar. And we wanted to pet it. And Mr. 3 kept trying to kiss it, although I told him that Maurice would really not like that. And so we tried to discourage that as much as we could. All this to say that a few weeks later, I can't even remember how it is I came across the information. But I think maybe it was J. May brought me a picture on the internet and said, hey, doesn't this look like that caterpillar that you were playing in the other week? And I read the article, and it was talking about how there was a warning in our particular area for this particular type of caterpillar called a Hickory Tussock Moth Caterpillar. It's adorbs. It's such a cute little caterpillar. Kind of venomous. Not very good to touch. Yeah. If you were to kiss it, that would have really really hurt. Yeah, blisters, rash. Definitely not something you want to cuddle with. But it was the cutest little caterpillar ever, though. But it was kind of a shock to be like, oh, hey, that's the caterpillar that we were playing with. That's Maurice. Maurice, Maurice, Maurice! Murderous Maurice. That's right. That was kind of fun. Speaking of items that come out of cocoons and don't necessarily look all that brilliant, I recently saw a picture on the intertubes of Nolan's new Batwing for the new Batman film. OK. I am not impressed. Like his weapon, the Batwing? The Batwing is like his jet, which, frankly, I could have dealt with him because-- Oh, I'm thinking the battering. If you're trying to keep this in sort of a semi-reasonable world, giving him this crazy jet just-- anyway, I know he's got all this money and whatever. Remember that car that shot out a motorcycle? Fair enough. Where does he get these wonderful toys? Actually, this film could probably use a little Jack Nicholson. Every movie can use a little Jack Nicholson and more cowbell. And just to round off the movie news, so I don't know too much about the film. But I have to tell you the promotional materials for this film coming out devil inside. I saw a blog post, including both the new movie poster for it, which is essentially this-- it's a very simple picture, but it grabbed me, where it's a girl who has her lip flipped forward, if you will, away from her lower jaw. And there's a cross carved on the inside of her mouth. Oh, creepy. It looks quite quality. And-- That name rings a bell. The devil inside. I haven't heard much about this film. Now, I do find it interesting, it's set. OK, they released a 911 call, and maybe what I'll do, Jessica May, is just get you to play that now before we discuss the rest of this. [MUSIC PLAYING] South Hartford, 911. What is your emergency? Three. Three people. Three people. Ma'am, what's the problem? Are you injured? Three people. Three people are dead. Did you say dad? I need to see the police. Ma'am, excuse me. Who did you kill? I killed everyone. Ma'am, ma'am. Gigantor, he's a first response call guy. I don't know what you call them. A good 911 operator? Yeah, yeah. Imagine being him and getting that call. No, that would be so ridiculous and terrifying. The video includes a little bit of text, like it has the on-screen subtitles, if you will, done very much in the old school emergency 911 style. Yeah, oh, God. I remember that. That'd be so realistic and creepy. That's so good. I thought it was very effective. It was a very simple thing to do, but I thought it was really-- it really grabbed me. I also thought it was interesting. The film is set in the '80s. If you recall, Paranormal Activity 3 is also set in the '80s, although I'm hearing some bad vibes out of that one. But I think people are going back to try to mine the sort of whimsy of the '80s, maybe. Yeah, the nostalgia of it. It's been long enough now where people can laugh about it and not be able to appreciate the decade. I think-- I have to say, I think there's also something to be said for the world pre-internet. I think that information distributes too quickly now. Hoaxes are quashed immediately. I don't say too quickly in the sense that it's a bad thing. I say too quickly in the sense that these things can't take, like-- Take root, take root, yeah. If you hear-- if there was an actual 911 call like this and somebody had a hold of it, you would see it on YouTube within a day. But back then, you could think that somewhere there's some 911 call that's super weird that's just sitting in the bottom of a municipal building because no one knows about it and whatnot. Yeah. Anyhow, I'm really enjoying the lead up. And I'm going to definitely check out the film when it comes out. It's definitely done its job as far as selling itself. Yeah, creeping definitely. Maybe too good. I don't know if I can do it. I'll try my best for you. Speaking of not selling itself, our fellow Jello from over at radiosrevenge.com, which actually has some new episodes. I hope you guys should go check that out. But he mentioned the AMC Walking Dead web episodes. Did you guys check this out at all? No. Yeah, I haven't said. There's six little two-minute, three-minute clips that tell the backstories of some of the zombies from the show that are kind of recognizable. Oh, cool. OK. It's a very neat concept, but I have to tell you, I actually sat down and watched them earlier. It kind of underwhelmed me. There were parts that I really enjoyed. But overall, the acting was a little jinky, and the way it was filmed felt a little amateurish. Yeah, well, web episodes, they're new, you know? No, I absolutely agree. And I do applaud AMC for having the-- Giving it a go. Extra content. I don't want to use to go with it. But at the same time, it didn't feel like it was necessarily up to the quality that I expected from the Walking Dead as a show. But to get that bad taste off-- and huge thanks, Jell-O, for throwing that our way in the mob. To get that bad taste off our tongue, though, however, I would like to introduce you to, if you haven't already seen it, the Walking Dead. No one knows where they came from. No one knows why they're here. Wow. But they only want one thing. I got a fever. And the only prescription is a more cowbell. Coming to TV this fall-- Whoa. Wow. It's a harrowing tale of survival you won't want to miss. They say it's a virus. Destroyes every part of your brain, except for basic motor functions, and also the part that stores Christopher Walkenquothes. You're a cantaloupe. Five long years, you wore this watch, up his ass. Watch as the last remnants of mankind fight for their humanity. We just had a party. Everything was going fine, and then it happened. Two little mice fell into a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned, with the second mouse. It was horrible. The strange conversation that forced courtesy laughs. There's actually another minute or so that clip, minute and half, and it's all quite good. So if you want to check that out, it'll be in the show notes, where you can just YouTube the walk-in dead. I thought that was awesome, though. Very good calling. I quite enjoyed that. Basic motor function, and Christopher Walkenquothes, yeah. I find it interesting, however, these webisodes, because you guys also watch True Blood quite religiously. And they do-- Jessica May, you were telling me the other day about the blogs that are maintained by the characters of the show. Is that right? Yes. That's cool. Well, it's cool. And then it's really not cool. Or, OK, I don't dig it. I wouldn't personally do it. But there are, like, there's the blog for this baby vampire, Jessica. And she periodically has videos and blog posts. So it's the actress who plays baby vampire. And then somebody, presumably, whoever writes the script or whatever, is writing these messages in text format. But people are responding to her, like, in your characters for real Z's. Or she's complaining of something about Bill, her maker, someone basically like her father. And people are saying, oh, don't worry about it, honey. Your maker Bill will look after you and make sure that you're on the right path. And I'm like, but they're not real. But they're not real. I can understand why it's talk to the actors or whatever. But having a conversation with someone from TV, that's weird. That's interesting. That's different to me. What do you think, Po? I can understand it in a context if that's what they were looking for. They were looking to interact with that character, like if that was the purpose for it. But it seems to me like it's more of a media thing. It's more just there to attract people to-- Promo style. I find it interesting, too, because you make a good point, Jessica, but back in the day, you could get away with Bob Hope seeming like a stand-alone personality, although he may not be the best bet I don't know what his writing team was like. But a lot of those guys would have the appearance of being a one-man comedy machine, when, in truth, they would have a whole room of writers in the back who would never get credit, but would obviously be coming up with the majority of the jokes. And I think your point is that it seems very hard to believe this character when it's not like the actress goes around in public pretending to be-- Yeah. Like vampires aren't real guys. Super damn. Like you don't have to worry about Bill, your maker. Like seriously, like somebody said, Bill, your maker, because-- Oh, god. I just-- I had so many-- I'm not-- I generally will just let the internet be. But I was just-- I was like-- I was a little put back when I was reading all of those. Anyway, so you can go try to check it out if you want. Yeah, I'll find the link and put it in the show notes. Yeah. More real-life style. Phoenix Jones. Real-life superhero. Yes. Arrested. Oh, no. Briefly. Just like Batman. He's a vigilante. He had to unmask to win his freedom. So his identity now is public. Oh, no. Which is problematic. I can understand why he'd want to remain anonymous. But at the same time, vigilante justice is what it is. Apparently, the story that I heard was-- or the story that I read was that he had maced some folks at Nightclub. But he was apparently trying to break up a fight and may have been accosted himself. So it's hard to know exactly what happened. It doesn't seem like a good enough reason to unmask. Unmasked superhero. Yeah. OK, listen. He's superhero. He claims to be a superhero. I appreciate what he's doing. And I find a certain interest in it. But at the same time, he is just a dude in a costume. Actually, he's a dude in a costume with a kid haircut from Kid and Play. So oh, let's have an old reference. Anyway, he's got a flat top, a very large flat top, as far as I can tell. So superheroes in our land have flat tops? No, actually, it was an awesome haircut. I'm just saying that he's just a guy who shouldn't necessarily get special dispassioned. He's just a guy, too. He's invested a bunch of money into a latex suit. Batman. I'm just saying, if you're going to be a vigilante, don't get caught by the cops. Yeah, well-- If you're going to choose to live on that side of the law, do it properly. Don't get caught. Or make friends with the police chief commissioner. Yeah, actually, you've got to get your big moustachioed commissioner going, and you'll be fine. Or meet up with Gary Oldman somewhere. Speaking of Gotham, Jimbo_OTR on Twitter, who has a OTR blog, full-time radio, for those not in the know. OTRbuffay.blogspot.com. He posted an article on Twitter anyway that was discussing Times Square's undertaking a remodeling project, and they're investing quite a bit of cash into apparently redesigning the area to look like a 1940s noir. Oh my god. That sounds beautiful. Now, I love the idea of intentionally resurrecting the mythology of New York. I do wonder Barry's reaction, Barry, of the New York minute, immediately asked, is this the best use of our money right now? And he might have a point. That's a good point. But at the same time-- That sounds so nice though, Barry. The amount of money New York must make through tourism and the sort of revitalization that would bring. Because here's the thing. I think Times Square, for people outside of New York, has lost some of the magic. I think there was a time when you might get killed there that it seemed to be more of a thing to see. Nowadays, you just feel like it's a big tourist trap. Yeah. I think they need something to sort of bring its image back up. OK, well, we'll close up with book news. Just a reminder for everyone. Tammy has suggested our book, Club Book, Bimbos of the Death Sun. Yes, that's right. Get it in any format you prefer. Used bookstore, apparently widely available. Five weeks left to read the book. In other book business, apparently, Margaret Atwood's new book will have a limited release. Margaret Atwood is a Canadian writer for anybody who's not really aware. She writes a lot of serious literature, but she has been known to dip into the genre kind of fiction business a little bit. But I thought this was interesting. She's putting out a limited series of books. There's going to be 300 of them. 100 bucks a pop. Wow. They're made of straw paper, as opposed to normal pulp paper, like paper pulp. And what's her intention? Like what's-- These books apparently have zero environmental impact overall, somehow every-- Yeah, because you're not cutting down trees, you're just using straw that you can grow. Now, why only 300? I'm going to loop you back to the price point, $100 a book. So I thought that was interesting. The book itself doesn't excite me all that much, but I thought this as a marketing technique was kind of-- You almost want to encourage just buy it, even if you're not interested in reading it. Yeah. Not at 100 bucks pop, though. No. Unless she does a little dance for me, too. Now I had a question. We were discussing the John Carter movie, Carter of Mars, that they're making. OK. Now, the first few books of John Carter are in public domain now. I think the first five of the Carter of Mars series are in public domain. At this point, is he a public domain character? Can you-- because my feeling is this, they're going to come out with that movie, and there's just going to be a glut of cheaply made-- if that movie is-- at least, if that movie is successful. Now, at the same time, you know what that reminds me of? A little bit of the Hercules pile on we had for a while there, where everyone and their dog had a Hercules show or movie going on. Mm-hmm, yeah. So let's make it. We can do it cheap. Turn it around. But the flip side of that is that there's still a number of them, seven or so, that are not public domain. So could you write a book that's almost identical to, say, Carter and the skeleton men of Jupiter or whatever, but just make it slightly different? Yeah, it's Carter and the skeleton men of Neptune. The skeleton men of Uranus. [LAUGHS] Ouch. Oh, shit. [LAUGHS] Now, this is just sort of some true life pulp business. I noticed over on blog.retrogym.com, the Charlie to our Angels gym. He was discussing Russia's first woman military pilot, Eugenie M. Name that I can't pronounce. And the thing is, she was a fascinating lady, not just the first woman military pilot, but she was also-- she attempted to flee Russia. She failed. She was sentenced to death by firing squad. Somehow, her sentence was commuted to life. She was in prison for a while. She was freed during the revolution, but then she became the chief executioner for general, Cheka. I don't know if that's proper pronunciation. Wow. Then she became a drug addict, and while she was stoned out of her mind, she shot one of her assistants and then was shot herself. Oh, my god. Dead? Whoa. Dead by the age of 31. Whoa. Oh, my god. That's perfect. That is some serious real life pulp action right there. Yeah. Yikes. My hat's off to a life lived intensely. Ooh, Carrie's coming on. It is. Now, I think it's time for something I'm quite interested to discuss. Fresh fish, a new batch of cinematic pulp with the always listening 3-day fish. Hey, Flashgast. Today, we're going to review the thing. Don, don, don. I was surprised to learn that this is actually a prequel to the 1982 version that John Carpenter directed, I believe, I could be wrong. And it is really well done, I have to say, the John Carpenter version had like conventional effects for the monster at one point when they're like torching it. And that was always-- that was just awesome. But this one, of course, went with the CGI, which isn't bad. It's just-- I guess it's just not good enough for me. So that's the one thing I bother me. And also, the twist they had, or it's like how to find out which one of them is the thing, kind of. Like, you could tell they really thought like, oh, my god. It's so clever, but I don't know. Like, it was-- it just didn't come across that way, I guess, would be the best way to put it. So yeah. Honestly, though, the best part is at the very end because it is essentially the beginning of the 1982 movie, like, spot on the helicopters painted the same, the lines are exactly the same, the dog comes out, he shoots the dog. Oh, my gosh, he's shooting a dog from a helicopter. What's going on? Basically, the only thing they didn't have was the original actors acting out this very last part of the movie. And that was just really cool to see them pay homage to the original. So yeah, another green light. Enjoyed this movie. And honestly, don't feel like you have to go see the 1982 version before this, because it might be a little cooler, because you're just like, whoa, I just saw it pretty cool. Never watched the movie. I remember this scene from the end. So yeah, that's all. Always listening. OK, so wait. Fish, you're going to have to clarify this for me. Did they have alternate actors at the end of the film playing McCready and the rest of the crew? That's what it sounded like. Yeah, that's what it sounded like. Does that not sound like they're just directly leading into making a sequel to this one already? Like, they're just going to take whoever they cast in that role and essentially remake that thing again? Well, yeah, you know, I had been speaking to my dad about this a little while ago, and he had told me that they were planning on making a new version of the thing. So I don't know. Anyway, I'm glad to hear he enjoyed it. I'm definitely going to have to check it out. Reviews seem pretty mixed. Although, to be fair, when the original came out, the reviews were pretty mixed, too. And it's kind of interesting, he spoke about the practical effects versus the CGI. Barry actually sent us an email a while ago, and he was just discussing a bunch of various items. But one of the things he noted was the-- what's that? Terra Nova, Terra Evo, the new shoot. The new sci-fi show where they all hop through a time gate and end up in dinosaur time, Terra Nova. Terra Nova, that must be it. That feels right. Pizza Nova. Pizza Nova. Chevy Nova. I don't know, anyway. Nova. Nova Nova. PBS. Dinosaur time gate show good go now, yes. So-- There's definitely an ova in there somewhere. Anyway, Barry was mentioning that although the scenes were really well done and beautifully done, you still could feel the CGI-ness. Whereas if you watch something like "Star Wars," I don't remember his exact reference. He had a movie in mind. But that does model work. You can at least see that there is a real-ness to that. Because it is a real object, even if you're doing camera tricks to make it look larger than it is. And I totally believe that. I think that totally holds up if you look at aliens and the ship shots from that, the exterior shots and the model shots in that. Even though they could probably do a better job in CG, technically, I still believe those hold up way better because of the models than they would. Even if they were in the late '90s, early 2000s CGI, we're just not there yet. We're not to that level. Yes, it will be one day. But it is exciting to see what is essentially a Spielberg-produced science fiction television show using pretty high-end CGI graphics. That's kind of nice. Like I said, the more they get into-- the more that technique gets into reach of television makers, the better the shows we're going to see come out of it. Agreed. I hope so. Although, do you guys remember Earth 2? Because wasn't that another Spielberg joint, and that was lost after a season? Well, I shouldn't say I don't remember. I never watched it. I do remember it being out there. Did you actually see it? Oh, yeah. I watched quite a bit of Earth 2 in my time. Well, I wasn't. Like C-Quest, I was sort of-- basically, and there was a point in my life where any sort of science fiction television show or fantasy television show, even if it was terrible, I would sort of latch on to it. And I would be able to recognize it was terrible, but at the same time-- It's all you had. Yeah. My brother got really into Lex. And that drove me nuts. See, that was towards the tail end of my-- because at that point, I had just gotten sick of television. It wasn't just anything. It was all television. Lex wasn't a bad series, though. There were some parts to that were really enjoyable. It was a little low budget in places, but Malcolm McDowell's role in that show was excellent. Anyway, thanks a lot, Fish. I'm definitely going to check out the film. I'm definitely interested now in this, even though you've kind of stayed at the ending. Now, I'm extra excited to see it just to see what it looks like. And I'm kind of a little bit more excited about the new thing that's going to be made, because if they're doing a prequel to it, maybe they're going to actually do it some justice, you know? Yeah. I don't know. I'll have to see who actually plays in it, you know? Yeah, exactly. You guys can find fishes on Facebook. I mean, he's got a page, "Three Day Fish." I don't like him. Yeah, do so. [MUSIC PLAYING] Smaller of bother. Several years ago, I took a trip to London, purely for pleasure, to briefly experience life on the other side of the pond. I made a point of chatting up the natives in hopes of getting a little knowledge of a local customs, points of interest, and food. One of the food items I was encouraged to try was something called black pudding. You're thinking chocolate, right? Yeah, me too. Boy was I in for a surprise. Wikipedia gives us this brief description of black pudding. Black pudding, or blood pudding, blood sausage, is a type of sausage made by cooking blood or dried blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled. Sound disgusting? You betcha. Truly one of the most disturbing things I've ever put into my mouth, let alone swallowed. All day long, no matter how many pints of local brew I consumed, I just couldn't rinse the metallic taste of blood from my tongue. It made me think of the folks out there who fancy themselves vampires and actually drink the fresh stuff fresh from the tap. I can only imagine how their breath must smell. As it turns out, there are serious risks involved in drinking blood. Since the Halloween season is upon us, I thought it might be fun to explore this topic a little further. Here's a story just in from LifesLittleMystries.com. Recently, a 19-year-old Texas man named Lyle Bensley allegedly broke into a woman's apartment and bit her on the neck. This was not bedroom play-acting between lovers. Oh no, Bensley claimed to be a centuries-old vampire who needed blood to stay alive. The woman escaped and called police, and Lyle, the would-be vampire, was arrested for assault. With such a high interest in vampires these days, they're all over television, movies, and bookstore shelves, many people may be wondering if humans really can survive as vampires. But is it safe to drink blood? In very small amounts, say a few teaspoons, and if the blood is free from pathogens, such as the many blood-borne diseases, blood might not harm you. Beyond that, watch out. The strange fact is blood, when drank, is toxic. When confined to small places where blood is supposed to be, such as the heart, vessels, and so on, it is a central full life. But when ingested, it's a very different story. Of course, all toxins have doses, and just as a tiny bit of poison won't necessarily harm you, the more you eat or drink, the greater the danger. Because blood is so rich in iron, and because the body has difficulty excreting excess iron, any animal that consumes blood regularly runs a risk of iron overdose. While iron is necessary for all animals, and indeed most life, in high doses, it can be toxic. This condition, called hemochromatosis, can cause a wide variety of diseases and problems, including liver damage, build up of fluid in the lungs, dehydration, low blood pressure, and nervous disorders. The bodies of animals that digest blood have adapted specialized digestive mechanisms. According to Catherine Ramsland in her book, The Science of Vampires, the vampire bat requires an enormous intake of iron, which helps make hemoglobin for carrying oxygen from the lungs to the body tissue. Yet the iron intake is generally higher than what the bat needs. So it has a special process for excreting the excess. When ingested, the blood goes through a tract that's adapted for extracting nutrients. Research on this system suggests that bats have a mucous membrane along the intestinal tract that acts as a barrier to prevent too much iron from getting into their bloodstreams. You, however, are not a vampire bat, because humans did not evolve such an iron extracting mechanism, drinking blood can kill us. Feel free to participate in the vampire craze and goth subcultures, but if you're thinking of sampling human blood, make sure there's a doctor handy for you, not your victim. And here's a shout out and a special Halloween well wish to all the folks out there. I'm just gonna, oh man, that stuff is so bad. I'm Jeffrey Lynch, and that's this week's spot of bother. - You know what this really reminds me of? And it's a little bit off topic, but it's the goth vampire thing. JRD showed me a video, like a sample video of some people goth dancing the other day. I've heard about this goth dancing, but I never actually saw it. - It was like sad, angry, line dancing. - Like were they all doing the same dance at the same time? - Yeah, well there was only two of them, but they were really angry. - Was it like an angry song? - Yeah. - It was kind of a nihilistic song. Listen, I have a little respect for those people that you can say what you like, but they're getting out there, they're exercising, they're dancing. Can you say you get to dance every now and then? - Yeah, do you dance? - Do you dance on video? Do you have the-- - Dancing for money, do what you want me to do. - Do you have enough makeup on to take a recording of yourself and put it on YouTube while you're dancing to a song that-- - No, I don't. - Frankly, I would be a little bit chain-based to listen to in public. - Yeah, shut your mouth. - But now, I do believe after Jeff's helpful segment, we do know who is commenting to the True Bloodcast as if they were real people. I do, I love the way Jeff sets up his segments. You always kind of have this moment where you're not quite sure where he's going with this. He has some sort of minor ramp up to the actual disturbing moment, but at the same time, the PBGBs can settle in nice and early and-- - Yeah. Yeah, can you yield blood when cooled and has fillers in it? - Yeah, you know what? I hope we get some feedback from Nick/Captain Pighart indicating that blood pudding is fantastic and we're all a bunch of-- - Yeah, maybe the British have mucous membranes. Maybe that's where all the vampires come from, Britain. Yeah. - Look how pale they are. Thanks a lot, Jeff. We really appreciate it, that was fantastic. - It was, it was awesome. - You can find more of Jeff's business as well as text versions of every one of these spot of others at bothersomethings.com and you can find Jeff on Twitter @pleaselynchme. Now I don't anticipate it being a recurring item, but we do have something a little special this week. - Rather a moment from across the pond, yeah. I mean, if it were a regular thing, we might like that, but if this is all we can have, then this is what we'll take. - I'll take my shanties as I can get 'em. - Arr! Greetings, Flashcasters. I cannot tell you just how much I enjoy the both the Flashcasts and the wonderful, delirious Flashpulp joy. I could, but I'm not going to. Instead, I'm gonna come closer to fulfilling a promise that I made a long time ago, which was to contribute something to the Flashcasts. I was gonna contribute something new, but I haven't done anything new, so I'm gonna leave you something old. I'm gonna record one of my Captain Pighart stories for you, which I hope you'll enjoy. It certainly makes me laugh and I find it hard to read out loud. So this is Bantka brilliantly. (dramatic music) - Arr! - Gar, 't was a dark and stormy night. Two men sat upon the waves. Not literally like for we be in a boat. Arr! Little Bo Peaton and myself had been cast adrift by that swine whose name brings me to come to us with rage. Hi, last time I thought his name, I near tore myself a new Arrifice. Arr! I'm beginning to rant. This be a tale for another time. For now, he must know that me loyal crew and I, that is, myself and Little Bo Peat, we'd been cut loose in the spare dinghy at the mercy of Madame Merr. I never saw me good ship Lollipop again. Arr! I regret your loss bitterly. We drifted lonesome upon the open sea. It was gentle withers at first and we passed the time with the game of I Spy until Pete grew maddened and violent. You see, you know being sailors. You probably think that being upon the seas, there's no shortage of water and G.B. not wrong. But you may not have heard the ancient sailors' point. Water, water, everywhere, but GAH! There may not have dropped to drink. You see, young Pete had no more knowing of the sea than a sheep tossed off a cliff. We grew frightful thirsty and for a laugh, I bet Pete that he'd die within a day if he drank of the sea. Being a gambling man, which had led him to me crew from his promised Oxford school in, he upped the stakes, written in on two days of sanity before him. An inveterate gambler, I could not dissuade him from his course, the fool. I myself drank only at night while Pete slept. From the pigskin I always have strapped to me peg-leg in case of such like occurrences. By the fourth day we was blistered red, or rather a Pete-well-obstered since he'd left his bonnet upon the Lollipop. I had me find Captain's crown with his broad, shady brim, which I'd borrowed from the noble Admiral Nihor in some months before. And by noon that day I had judged that Pete had won the bet indeed. For he lived still, though he were reduced to the level of the beasts. Ha ha, the brined medium frothy about the lips, as he hired his nonsense at the goals. His high education came through his madness as he explained to me the geometry at Euclid, and he waxed lunatic Shakespearean speeches at the fishies. Ha ha, he was becoming a pain to me ears, and so I clubbed him with me peg-leg, got a few hours apiece. As he slept a-twitching, the sea began to see them out as, and I caught glimpses of a vast beast, flashing round and round the boat. Its scaly humps pierced the waves and sank out of sight again and again. I must confess to being somewhat a-feared, for the Baltic Straits into which we'd veered and have many tales of terror about him. Ha ha, a great tale rose up out of the water, studded with spikes like the great pointy spikes and the Caribbean sea mongoose. It tripped salt water upon us for a moment, and then fell and smashed the dinghy in twain. Bo Pete and I was tossed into the sea, naked to the beach circling below. I clung to a plank like a desperate limpet, Pete dangling from his shoulder, as I slapped him into wake. The creature reared up before us, revealing its brilliant green and crimson crest, and blazing eyes with evil feline pupils. Its nostrils were agape with rage, and his jaws open to show two dozen rows of teeth, the size of cutlers is wielded by a Prussian giant. Ah, we're terrible. Me guts turned to a dribbling jelly, and me face were numb with fear. Not so poor brave Brian Berserk little Bo Pete. He lashed out at the brute, splashing water into its demon eyes. The beastly struck at him, engulfing Pete with his fearsome maw. Poor Pete, the monster vanished under sea with him, leaving me floating cold, and alone. Stunder was, but a moment later, though it felt a lifetime, the beast's head appeared again, gazing at me. It's a mouth of bubbling wrathful like. Its jaws slowly opened, prized apart by Pete, who stood upright, a bracing its gov as he stood proud on the brute's gums. For a moment, I thought him victorious, and made as if to cheer, and then there were a sickening crack, the likes of which I never wished to hear from my own bones, as the beast bit down. Now, through some quirk or other, perhaps it were the great Neptune himself, seeking to lay blessing upon an honest pirate. It seemed that Pete's flopping corpse had somehow become lodged, and the creature could no more close its mouth than I can snap the fingers of me left hand. I wasted no time, and courageously plunged me plank into its gills, and hauled me self as stride the beast. Ah, with the wood on me right, and me hook in his eye, I turned the beast toward land and urged him onwards. Whenever I'm adrift on the open sea, following some mutiny or other, I often wish I had little boat Pete for company. No doubt he's somewhere upon the ocean wide, a grizzly port callist to the Baltic beast belly, a scholar, and a gentleman, I drink to ye. - Oh, that was so fantastic. - We were so lucky to get that. Thank you so much. - I love it. - Thanks, Nick. - I love pig heart. - You can find all the Captain Pig Heart business at captainpigheart.com, and Nick does a lot of improv stuff as well, although, unfortunately, that's limited to his locality. I believe he operates with a group called Miss Imp in nodding him, or nodding ham, or however you want to pronounce it. So, thanks a lot, Nick, fantastic. - That was lovely. - I find the pig heart tales a perfect balance of comedy and sort of the classic whimsy that he's aiming for of those old tales. So, he does a great job. - He really conveys the moments of motion in his hours. There's so many. - Like, wow. - The many hours of pig heart. - Yeah, for real. - Lovely. - Before we get to the calls, I just wanted to put a quick shout out for-- - I think it was a good update for-- - It's a good item. - Who's read the black hall or coffin stories know that I have maybe a personal fascination with superstitions? I grew up in a French Roman Catholic household. That essentially meant that any time a silverware hit the floor, it was a signal that somebody was going to be coming over recently, or coming over soon. There's all these weird superstitions that especially the French Roman Catholics like the Quebecois, they just-- - Yeah, I remember the baby shower for Mr. Eight. Couldn't happen until after he was born. - Because of-- - He was bad luck, yeah. - So, what I want to hear is the little superstitions that other people have run across. The ones that your parents are your weird aunt have. I love those little items, and there's so many odd personalized home ones. - Yeah, like to throw the pinch of salt over your shoulder and spill some. - In the Indian lady across the street, she was saying to a pope that she should get her iPod screen fixed because it was cracked. - But then I shouldn't carry it. - Yeah, that was bad luck. She shouldn't even fix it, though she should just get rid of it because it's not worth it, and it's really a bad luck. - Bad luck to have something that's broken. - Yeah, yeah. - So you can hit me up with those items at @jaredyskinner on Twitter, or actually you can hit the Jessica Maya at the Jessica May, or Opoponax at Opoponax with a zero at the start. Not that you'll be able to spell Opoponax because, anyway. - My phone, yeah, guys. - Or you can call them in at 206-338-2792, or email me at text or mp3s to comments at flashpops.com. We definitely appreciate it. - You know what, my email address is actually Opoponax with an O at the beginning of it at skinner.fm, so. - So, it's sort of an encouragement. I also learned an interesting fact that I thought I'd share. This may be obvious to some, but it was something I'd read in Ministry of Fear, which is a book by Graham Greene that really had a large effect on how I write, oddly. But in the opening scene, the main character visits Gypsy, and he has a silver coin, and he crosses her palm with it. You know the old saying, "Cross her palm with silver." But he doesn't just give her silver. He makes the sign of the cross over her palm because apparently fortune telling is a sin and it's associated with evil. And by crossing their palm with the silver coin, it dispelled the evil around giving the money to have your fortune read. - Naturally, naturally, yes. - I thought that was really interesting, though. - No, totally. - So, yeah, we definitely appreciate your calls. - Speaking of calls, here's one from Gigantor. - Hey, guys, sneaking in a flashcast already. I wasn't expecting that. Just wanting to suggest a movie for the 31 and 31 this time around. It's called Behind the Math, The Leslie Vernon Story. They try to make it look like half documentary and half actual movie, which is actually pretty well executed. There's a couple of hokey parts along the way, but it's a pretty good movie. There's no real big names other than maybe like one of the random sisters of Mccully Culkin in the Home Alone movie that she's not that recognizable, I don't think, unless you're looking her up. But, well done movie, very entertaining. What it does is it's a film crew, I guess college kids, or documentary makers that are following around a murderer who purportedly is of a class like Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers. And there's a lot of name drops along the way and a few cameos along the way. So I guess, yes, there is one or two actors that are bigger named than the Mccully Culkin sister of Home Alone. Anyway, I digress. I highly recommend it because the writing is pretty intelligent, how they try to make everything kind of click as to how all these killers pull off their tricks and stuff. That's a fun watch. Thought I'd recommend it if you guys can find a copy. I know it was a long time coming before I found a copy. That's my suggestion. I hope you guys enjoy the movie. For you guys to get a chance to watch it. And I hope everyone's having a good time. And see you guys later. Bye. Excellent suggestion, Jack Antoy. - Mm-hmm, yeah, thanks for coming in. - I definitely put it on the list. I will see if I can find it. Unfortunately, I'll definitely see if I can find it. Sounds like it's a little bit tough, but I think we may be able to manage it. So hopefully we'll have a watch by the next Flashcast. J.R.D. is really good at finding movies and obscure things, so I'm not too worried. - I have to admit, I'm a little more open to this than I might've been even before we began in October 31. Patrol Hunter has really given me sort of a hope about how, some optimism about how you can do a documentary slash found footage film without it being terrible. - Mm-hmm, yeah. - So I would definitely like to see this because I'm also a sucker for all those classics named Voorhees and Career. Those are my, those are my youth. Those are my childhood for some reason. - Mind you, twisted childhoods. - Now, I think the short time window threw a few people off and getting back to us, and also because our schedule has been a little up in the air, so. You know, no joke this week, it's a little sad, always happy to hear his recommendations and his thoughts. - But, but that's okay, Joe. - Yeah, absolutely. - Yeah, I don't want anybody to feel bad. I certainly know the obligation we'd just like to hear from you. - Are you a dassy, hope? - So it's nearly Jaredie's birthday. Halloween, in fact, is his birthday. And as a surprise, me and a Pope took him to Canada's Wonderland, and it's like a theme park, and it has roller coasters. And right now, there is a special event going on. It's like for, it's Halloween-y, and there was mazes. - Haunted houses. - Yup, and people dressed up really cool. They were like actors walking around and talking and dancing creepily and chasing after you and stuff. It was really, really cool. But it's like his favorite thing to do, and we just, we got him in the car and took him there. No babies or nothing. - Yeah, it was very exciting. In recent years, we've been able to do items like haunted hayrides, as we were living a little more really. But this was quite, quite a thing. We got to ride quite a few coasters. The lines were very minimal. It was very exciting for me. - Yeah, we also got like VIP status. So we were able to get into the things before other people did. And in fact, we saw like the wave of people were like, "Dude, we got to go and get on some stuff." 'Cause there was like a rush of people at one point, but the wait was never long. I think the longest wait was probably like 15 minutes. - Yeah, it was a fantastic evening. - And it scared the bejesus out of me, and I wasn't feeling so well at a couple of points, but we won each other presence and our meal was okay. It was an awesome bit. - Some items I thought were, something I thought definitely worth mentioning, they used this 3D paint stuff throughout certain haunted houses. And that was really interesting. They gave you like, you'd have to buy goggles for, or buy glasses for a buck. And then as you're going through all of the painted items, really stand out. I'm not sure quite how that works, but. - Even if you didn't buy it, I think it still looked pretty cool because everything was painted different colors, but it really popped out if you had the 3D glasses. - There was a section called Mother News, which was done very much in sort of a twisted, child fairy tale sort of sense. - And the first haunted house freaked me out so bad that I didn't actually go into Mother News. - Which is unfortunate because it was the best of them. - Yeah, they kept going on about it. - It was very much, you wanted to have Jefferson Airplane playing in the background. It was very psychedelic in its presentation. - Yeah, it does sound pretty cool. And honestly, when I just like started going through, it wasn't as bad, but. - Yeah, you gotta remember it's just a bunch of poorly paid college students. - Oh, the first one just scared me so bad, my head was plowed into Jaredie's back and I had like was grabbing a poke and I just had my head buried into them and I'm like, just go, just go. And people would like whisper into my ear. - That's the thing, as soon as they know you're-- - That you're scared. So my tactic later on was just like, we were like, her, I was like, smile at her. And then they wouldn't, but sometimes they just like knew, like they had a sixth sense. There was a certain area that was like all gravestones and he kind of in order to access a certain area had to go through this place and there was lots of fog. - I'm just trying to go to the bathroom. - Yeah, like, 'cause these people would follow you around these women who looked like their-- - The screepest. - Oh my God, it was a guy who had-- - Chishelle chainsaw or something. Yeah, but he would scrape along the ground and it would have like-- - On the stones, it would cause a lot of sparking which looked quite impressive. - Yeah, and creepy sand. - We went by him and it scared the bejesus out of me and then we went back and I'm like, oh my God, not the guy. I called him the scraper. - The scraper? - The scraper. Well no, that was a riff that Jarrity was doing afterwards but I'm like, no, not the scraper. And I just like bolted. I ran so fast. There was so many times where I screamed at a fear and ran away. (laughing) - She started to run and one of the ladies started to run after her. - Oh yeah, and one of the dresses, like they hold their dolls and they just run but they don't like change the way their upper body looks so it's just they're soaring towards you and like ballerinas with painted faces. - Wow, crazy looking clowns. - Just laying on the ground and then popping up and it was so awesome. They did such a great job. - There was this sad, I can't remember the name of the type of clown. - But he was very serious. - But there was like a sad black and white clown with a tiny little ukulele. - Yeah, and we took, yeah, you guys, I took a picture of you with him. He was very nice. Oh yeah, and we went through that one haunted house and Sherlock Holmes was there and he gave you crap, didn't he? - Yeah, it was a Jack the Ripper-themed haunted house. But then in the middle of it, suddenly we were approached by the zombie of Sherlock Holmes. - Yeah, who yelled at me for walking through his crime scene called us dirty little blighters. (laughing) - Which was great. I wanted to hug him. - Yeah, she's like, "Did you hear, did you hear him?" You must have like made his night. - Yeah, it was fantastic. - Yeah, if somebody like really did a good job, I was like, "Wow, you did a great job." - Oh my God, I don't know what you're saying. - I was so scared just now. - Yeah, there was this one point where there was this ghost or some ghoul or zombie or whatever, and he had a hat and I saw that people, well, somebody put a wrapper in there, but a few people put loonies and tunies in there, so I figured I'd put like some money in, so I did. And then he lunged towards me and put his face on my face. I'm like, "Ah, I paid you money!" (laughing) She runs away. - Yeah. - Yeah, even as we were heading out the door, we were just like, it would always get you one more time. - The end of the evening, you know, we were just walking out. I was talking to JRD out of my left, and then somebody whispers in my right ear, and I turned around, there's this guy with only like half a face right there, and it just made me jump, and then he was, "Oh, sorry," and just walks away. - Or that woman who ran by us, who was like totally angry, but she was acting, obviously, and she had a doll, and she's like, "Scuse me!" (laughing) That's weird. - My favorite of the tricks they pulled were to fall in behind a crowd of people who didn't notice. You know, they already have quite a few people right beside them, and they don't notice that this fellow's right there, and then they would somehow-- - They're following them. - Yeah, or I would just like enter, like the sidewalk pretty quickly, and then just stop and kind of stare at you from underneath his hat. And you kind of look like, or like bump into him, but then you'd realize that he was one of these guys. - Yeah, or they'd just stop right in front of you. - Yeah. - Oh, yeah. Like they were so good, they were so-- - One of the tricks they would do is, as you were in the funhouse, like a haunted house, like turning the corner, right around head level, they'd slam on the walls, so it'd be really loud. - Yeah, you saw this lady, she was creeping you out, and then she followed behind you for a while, and then screamed really loud. - Yeah. - It was great. (laughing) - Yeah, it was a brilliant evening. - The coolest people, I thought, were the ones that were dressed in costumes, and they had like these face masks on, they just didn't say anything. - Like blank faces. - Yeah, they just sort of stood there and looked. They were like walked by really quietly. - You can see some photos from the event. - That's right. - The evening on our, on my Twitter stream. - Yeah, on our Instagram feeds. - Mm-hmm. - Yeah, I should actually just put some up in the mob. - So what would your Instagram feed be, a pope? - Well mine is just a Popon X, all lowercase. - Oh, a Popon X. - O-P-O-P-O-N-A-X. - Yeah, O-P-O-P-A-N-A-X. - Oh, that's not it. - O-P-O-P-A-N-A-X. - Right. - O-P-O-P-A-N-A-X. - And we'll see it misspelled a wrong tomorrow. - Up, up, up, up, up. - A Popon X. - A poop, a poop, a poop. - A poop, a poop, an X. - That's only one of six. - A poop, a six. (laughing) - That's only one of six. - Jessica May, or the Jessica May on Instagram, is that right? - Yes, I am. The Jessica May. There are others, but I am the Jessica May. - And I'm just at Jaredy Skinner. Okay, well, I do have a question for you unrelated to our fantastic evening. - Okay, shoot. - We put it in an episode today. - Oh, yeah, yeah. - Now often, usually I would say, I hear them before they go out the door. - That is correct, sir. - Because like Orson Welles, I throw temper tantrums, and you may hear if things aren't right. Oh no, oh no, okay, you have to be recorded. Just get the closet, go, go. Also, ironically enough, like Orson Welles, you use ambulances as a cab service as well. - Mm-hmm, true. - Yeah. - So tonight, however, we released an episode and due to constraints on our time, you were actually the one who did the final check on the episode. - Yes. - Now, I learned after posting a very interesting fact about this episode. - Who's that, Jandy? - Apparently, we had sound effects in this episode. - We did. It was my gift to you. I knew that you were busy, and I knew that we already had sounds that were appropriate. And yeah, it's just when I was listening, I'm like, oh, that would be really good if that was there. And then I thought, you know, we need some more. And so yeah, I remembered, I felt kind of guilty, like when I was tacking on the end, I realized that we changed the ending to also include a shout out to the people who we get sounds from. And then I remembered that we hadn't been doing sounds lately because it really takes up a lot more time and we don't have any more of that. And then I realized at the end of editing it that I did have enough time. All my flash cast stuff was nearing the end and I was good to go. - Very nice. - So don't expect it all the time, but I will do my best to do my duty to serve the mob. - Backroom plots. - I'm hoping on Monday to hear a lot of crying. - Oh yeah, you told me I need some light sobbing for the next episode. - Mm-hmm, we're going to be going into a black hole slash coffin crossover. - I'm really enjoying writing this. - What is that game left for dead or whatever? Where there's witches and they sob? That's what I think when you have to say light sobbing. - Yeah, that's about right. I would say that's generally. - Speaking, just a little off topic here, left for dead too. I could not help myself in the theme park yesterday. Chew. Every once in a while, turn to JRD and be like, this is where we flip the switch, the alarm goes off and we shoot all the zombies, right? Which way we run up the coaster. - The confusion wasn't helped by the zombie clowns being around you. - Yeah, that was a lot of fun. - Sometimes they get like little crowds with each other. - Lots of mist. - And they start running around crazily. - Yeah. - Missed so much mist. - And all the light bulbs have been replaced by like red or green, blue and some places. - Totally. - We're really cool looking. There's a lot of light. - We could talk about this forever though. - Yeah, and then we'll finish up the week with the Ruby Departed, which is a lot of fun. - Mm-hmm. - Everybody loves Ruby. - Mm-hmm. - ♪ Zombies ♪ - I'm lucky at the moment to have a buffet of possible choices for which I wanna write next. Unfortunately, I feel like we've all almost been too long from the murder plague even. I have a great tale that I'd like to tell there, but I just haven't had an opportunity. - Which is good. It's nice to have some ideas to know, you know, that you're gonna have some meat to work with, but not actually having the time yet, so. - You know, it's interesting, kind of in that vein, how ideas will morph over time. On Friday, I thought I'd be putting up a coffin story, and what ended up happening was I wrote something called Free Alaska, which in a weird way is like a background story from, you know, I've mentioned in the past that there are two threads that I haven't introduced yet that will fill in a large portion of the sort of flashback universe timeline. Well, this is almost background story for one of those threads. It would be sort of a background detail item and not necessarily something touched on a lot, but yeah. Think of this as a weird teaser trailer. - Very nice, very nice. - And at the same time, this is also me finally pointing out that I think there's going to be a time when the current tendency towards drone war is no longer, and that's gonna be un-maintainable. Unfortunately, anything that you can, even over a distance that far, anything with direct line of sight, is gonna be vulnerable to laser fire. So I think in a weird way, high-powered lasers, and specifically an increase in our ability to output huge voltages to those lasers, which is what we need. It's really, we can, we have the ability to build sweet death star lasers, but we don't have the power to back them up essentially. But when we finally get to a point where we have the technology for that, I believe it's really gonna change how we fight each other. We're gonna go back to poking each other with sticks and guns, because planes are just gonna be untenable. - Great, or we'll just nuke each other. - Yeah, well, here's the thing though, if we do get to that point, then all of a sudden, Regan, who was insane, stops looking as insane, and has his laser system in the sky, and that might be the start, oh, this is getting way ahead of myself, but that might be the start of space warfare, right? Because suddenly, if we have orbital lasers, there's a reason for to go up there and fight each other, you know what I mean? In space itself, and that becomes its own problem. But how do you fight laser warfare? That's just a whole, that's a can of worms, I don't think belongs at the end of this episode. (laughing) - See ya, folks. - Ruminate on that. - Yeah. - Gonna discuss amongst yourselves. - No, I hope I haven't spoiled the episode for anybody, but definitely check out Free Alaska. Walmart Mike, we also recently introduced. - Yes, who apparently has been around a lot longer than I've ever known, apparently. - Yeah, well, he was an idea that I had months and months ago. My sister used to work at Walmart, and I had some time in his Ehlers, and there's this interesting class of older person who has had an interesting life. They've often got very fascinating stories, but whatever they've done hasn't necessarily lent itself to a secure retirement. And they end up working these jobs just to fit the bill and keep the matlock on TV. And if you can actually sit around and talk to those people, some more beyond the veil of their despair, they often tell you something interesting. So Walmart Mike is-- That was beautiful, hmm, wasn't that nice? - Beyond the veil of their despair. - Walmart Mike is sort of that guy but brought into a pulpy universe 'cause that's the other thing up. Anyway, I don't wanna talk too much about the character, but I do believe there is a place for mistakes and making up for them. And Mike is sort of that character, like you might not be able to drag yourself entirely out of the hole, you may never be, you know, a rich fellow in a fancy car, but you can at least leave a decent life anyway. Also, I did get a couple of quick Twitters from people which are tweets, if you will, from people mentioning the Darren Lennox connection. And to those people who know what I'm talking about, huge props for figuring out the connection between the drunken this last episode. - Oh, yes, yes. - Oh, oh, never race out. - Well, again, if you wanna go check out my Instagram feed, I just put out, what did I call my tentacle teaser? Yes, yes he did. - For my super secret project. So, if you wanna see any pictures I have of that man. - I also find it funny how often your feed is accidentally Game of Thrones themed. (laughs) - Yes, that's true. I just recently put out an image that I happened to doodle that I was all, hey, Game of Thrones. So, I put that at there too. - Yeah, I think that's why your blog doesn't see many updates. I think if the interface was quicker for you and you could just put up pictures without having to monkey around too much, but there's just too much involved. - See, for Instagram, I can draw it and then I can just take a picture of it and poof, it's up. - Right. - But for my blog, I have to press more buttons. - Yeah, press more. (laughs) (mumbles) - So, that's why that hasn't been updated in over a year. - But, thanks for listening and if you guys wanna support our little efforts here, there's basically three levels. You can tell a friend, which is always appreciated, telefarad of the show. You can work in the wiki, which would definitely be appreciated. - Yep. - All wiki miners are appreciated. Spammers not so much though. - Nope, they live in the van. - And then if you really love us, there's always the donation jar on the e-flash-pelt.com website. Speaking of kindly donated items, big thanks to Jim. - Yes. - Thank you, Jim. - I want to especially thank you, Jim, from the bottom of my little bird heart for crushing those spammers with your hand of justice. - Yes. - Appreciate it. - Also, I should just make a quick note that on our way to Wonderland, we listened to an episode of The Horror, which I thought-- - The Horror. - Perfectly one of Jim's relic radio shows. - Bands in Price. - Oh yeah, it was a price of fear episode. It was great. So yeah, huge thanks to Jim from relicradio.com. Go over there, check out his podcast. - You keep us eternally entertained. - Thanks to Jim for hosting our Wiki.flash-pelt.com and flash-pelt.com. If you have comments, questions, or suggestions, you can find us at flash-pelt.com. Call our voicemail line at 206-338-2792 or email us, text her at v3s to comments@flash-pelt.com. The entire run of flash-pelt can be found at flash-pelt.com or via the search bar at iTunes. Flashcast is released under the Canadian grain of comments, attribution, non-commercial, 2.5 lessons. ♪ Oh, dear, I'm the very ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ On day to day, I'm weary of bending ill ♪ ♪ This is the last time ♪ ♪ And then I am bending ill ♪ ♪ To meldy time goes and treads at us ♪ ♪ And I know why to take time ♪ ♪ When they know that I'm glad to go ♪ ♪ It's the dead dream ♪ ♪ Then I'll dream, I'm suppressing you ♪ ♪ On the long journey ♪ ♪ I know I'll be blessing you ♪ ♪ Oh, dear, come here ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ Oh, dear, come here ♪ ♪ Oh, dear, come here ♪ ♪ Oh, dear, come here ♪ ♪ Oh, dear, come here ♪ ♪ Oh, dear, come here ♪ ♪ Oh, dear, come here ♪ ♪ Oh, dear, come here ♪ ♪ Oh, dear, come here ♪ ♪ Oh, dear, come here ♪ (upbeat music)