Hello, and welcome to FlashCast 35 - prepare yourself for decapitation, King Kong, a giant tale, and The Phantom Suburb.
Read the show notes at http://flashpulp.com
The Skinner Co. Network
FC35 - Giant
[music] Hello and welcome to Flashcast 35! Prepare yourself for decapitation, King Kong, a giant tail, and the Phantom Suburb! [music] Tonight we have myself, Opopadex, Darth Nairator. [snoring] Deskime! Hello! Audio Grand Moff. Oh, take it. H-A-R-D. Hello. Verbed herder. You hurt? Oh, I'm like Verbed herder. Not Verbed herder. Herder. Herder. Slappin' around those verbs. [laughs] Only if they had talked back to me. Alright, we've got a lot of news to cover today, so I think we should go directly into... [music] So let's get the sad news out of the way up front. Wuh-wuh. Parsecs came. And they went. Yeah. And we weren't on that ship. We weren't on the parsec ship. Congratulations to the Travelcast, though. Yeah, for sure. It's got to be worth checking out if they beat us. I was a little sad to see a lot of our... Another theater. A lot of our pod friends didn't make their categories, so... Well, we were nominated. That's awesome. We were on the Twitter's right when it was being announced, and everyone was in the car, and we're like, "Everybody wait, everybody listen." Yeah, that was pretty fun. But it was still... Yeah. I'm Robert Lestay. We went shopping. Mm-hmm. That was fun. And we did get a fantastic consolation prize in the form of some great craftiness on the part of Nutty. I know, I love it. It's so great. I know. It's so trophy. If you'd like to see it, you can check out a picture in the mob. Mm-hmm. I keep thinking of it now as the forum, but... The mob. Yeah. The flash mob on Facebook. Mm-hmm. You have to become a member, so you have to look for us and ask to be invited. But don't be shy. Yeah, no seriously, come in. We're super nice, and everyone has a good time. Speaking of things that weren't such a great time, though, Jessica May has a little story, I believe she wants to relate. Oh, very short story, because we actually made some pretty hilarious outtakes. Just before we recorded. And I was smiling a lot, which made my face hurt quite a bit, so I'm gonna... Anyways, my face hurts, because I went and got my face pierced. I got a Marilyn or Monroe or Madonna or... Or whatever you wanna call it. Yeah. Crawford. I believe I've heard that one before. Oh yeah. Anyways, it's a type of piercing that you get on your face. It's like a beauty mark, but it's a piercing. Anyways, one one for a long time, finally got it. I went to the place that I like to go to, assuming... Well, I was calling, assuming I was gonna get somebody like my regular. And they're like, "Well, Harry, there's this guy from Tennessee." And he's a guest piercer, "Would you like to go with him?" I'm like, "Oh, for sure, yeah." I'm like, "Woot to Tennessee." So we signed up for that, a pope came with me, we went there, everything was gravy. Very brief conversation that started out really cool. He had some medical background, right? Yes. He worked in a hospital. Now, not too interrupt, but you kind of make it sound like you're in there constantly with your, quote unquote, your regular. No, no, like, not really, sometimes I get weird allergic reactions to lots of different sorts of things, and I find that certain places on my body are more prone to infections. So I tend to get one, and then it sometimes just doesn't work out. Like, it never really heals nicely. Even though I do all the steps, and like, I never touch it with my fingers. I do all the preventative measures, but sometimes it's just like endless... You are very painstaking about your measures. Mm-hmm, yeah. Yes. I really do. I love... I like getting a particularly... Ridiculously... Took care of it. Yeah, yeah, you like, you'll bash yourself around, you'll switch it along before you're supposed to. Oh, yeah. You'll always follow the rule of law, but sometimes it just doesn't work out, so I end up getting pierced somewhere else, something else that I've seen that I like, and you know, it's not permanent, so what else? You know? Anyways. Mm-hmm. So, turns out I got a place I like. Went, new guy, light conversation, a pope was with me, we were discussing, you know, something that she wanted to get done, but I don't know, 'cause she's got this day job, and it would require surgery to take out. Yeah. Well, and it doesn't cost very much, but we see in the procedure online, what is it called? It's called the dermal, right? Dermal, yeah. And it's... Anyways, look it up in the Google, go for it, but... But I want diamonds on my face. Yeah. I think it's really pretty. Yeah. If I'm going to get anything planted subderminally, I want it to either give me night vision or 10 gigs of memory. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Yeah, I can understand that. But sparkles, you know. Oh, yeah. Anyways. So we're in there. Everything seems gravy, and we're talking a little bit about America. He's like, you know, I'm from the streets or whatever, and while he's talking about it, he's sterilizing my face and stuff and getting his clamps all in order and stuff. And then, when you say getting the clamps in order, you mean clamping your face. Yeah. Your face is now... And he's in a metal clamp in his hand. Well, not quite yet. Yeah, we were deciding where it would go on blah blah blah. So then, yeah, we're having this discussion about America, and then he's saying, you know, he clamps down on my face and says, "Oh, I think it's because our prey is a dant." He's a, like, MF and N-word, and, like, it totally, totally blew me away. And he's like, "Yeah, we were both kind of standing there shocked." And he's like, "And if you don't like that," and he's like, "Look in my eyes, if you don't like that, that's the way we talk around here." And I'm like, "You have my lip," and he's like, "Yeah, no." And then, the piercing. And then, you know, take a hand-to-date breath, blow out. And, you know, that maybe it was earlier in the process, maybe I would have just left. I seriously was considering it, like, dude, I do not want to support a racist. That sucks. He knows my first real experience with somebody. Yeah, and he seemed so, like, so enraged, so very quickly in the conversation. Yeah. It was just, like, this one thing to-- To go from, like, one thing to racism. To racist and anger. Yeah. Now, I suspect that your saucy upbringings have sort of shielded you from a lot of that, but-- Canadian saucy. Yeah. We're going to confuse the Americans. Because I'm not a saucy. I'm from Canada, but really low down in the Canada. In the Canada. There's, you know, there's the 100-mile rule, or whatever they call it, where most of Canada's population is in a thin line along the border. Yes. And that sort of civilization. So if you're above that line, I consider you a Northie. Yeah. And you sort of have a different upbringing, I think, than-- Less people up there, a lot of woods, and a lot less diversity. Well, and really, you're not getting a lot of the stores, they're all mom and pop shops. Yeah. You don't have a lot of experience with outside the country. Well, that was definitely my upbringing, although nowadays it's much more Walmart territory. Mm-hmm. Well, now you're a-- well, you live in Southie land. No, I-- yeah. I have moved to the south. But the thing about that sort of insular society is that you will get a lot of racists, and I was a lot more familiar with that, I guess. And I-- yeah, I had very limited experiences with racism. I knew what it was early on in my life. I called people out on it early in my life, like I'm not a person for confrontation, but I can't-- I would want somebody to stick up for me, and I just-- I can't understand how people want to-- or feel like they're better than other people, like I can't get that. And just his rage, and to know so little about their politics, to even understand that it's not President Obama who's the issue, whatever your politics are, it just seemed like he really didn't know what he was talking about. It was just this-- from this position of anger that came out so quickly, and it was really freaking uncomfortable. And whatever you believe, just please don't do that while you're inside my body, but just show something through it. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, it was creepy. And at first, I just took it, whatever, like I've had lots of experiences with different kinds of people, even if they weren't racist, and I can handle myself and cool, but it just seemed like the more time went on, and that I had, like, separating me from the event, I got more annoyed with it, and I was just like, "That is so not cool." Mm-hmm. Now, on the flip side, I believe, though, that he also suffered from the George C. Scott problem. And what's that? I don't know. Another call from the blog I wrote about the George C. Scott problem a while ago is essentially that George C. Scott, although a fantastic actor, possibly one of the greatest actors of the last century, kind of a jerk in real life. Not very pleasant to be around, apparently. Went through a number of wives, had very little compunction about cheating on them. Who is the guy who played Atticus Fitch? Gregory Peck. Yes, apparently, it was some turn of classic movies moment thing, which I'm not putting down in anyway, because they're awesome, but one of his children was saying that she never saw him have tender moments like he did on screen, and he was able to display a warmth that he couldn't at home. That's very interesting. Mm-hmm. But then again, Peck has never struck me as an exceptionally warm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Well, the piercer guy really was so gentle, so great at what he did, so great at describing aftercare without overwhelming you. He was really, really great. Well, except for, okay, there were other things besides the racism, but, you know, his technical skill was very good, but it was just like, you know, everything else, which really, you know, takes away from the situation that, and he didn't tighten it to the ball full of the next day, and I'm like running to our local shop, and anyways, that was not cool. That's never happened to me ever, but what else? But you're beautiful. So now I'm super puffy. Super duper puffy. It's ridiculous. Actually, she's overstating the puffiness. Oh, it's so puffy. You wouldn't be able to notice it unless you were really looking for it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And slightly happier news. I caught a, it's not really populated, but I caught a little article from the AP earlier that I thought was pretty neat. It's regarding a heavy equipment playground for adults in Las Vegas. Mm-hmm. It's essentially a large open dirt field in which they give you a brief training tour on how to operate heavy machinery, like extremely heavy machinery, and then you just get to go around and dig holes and push dirt around. So, did you see how much it was like an hour? That's so exciting. But I want to know if you'd need a license for any of those things. I don't think so. I think they just give you a temporary sort of password. You just sign a waiver. So is it like all the space that they had dug out in the recession about to build like casinos? I was thinking something. Like, well, we've got to do something like that one time, that driving range then became the paintball place that was just like a broken down RV in like the middle of a good brown grass. How many different things can you call just a field? Like an open field. And they used to have crazy signs like want to shoot your husband in the face or something crazy like that. Come and do our paintball on Tuesday nights. Oh yeah. So, false kicking in. Yes. Getting chillier outside. Very rapidly. Yeah. And do you know what that means for the rapid approach of October? Wearing more hats, starting a month with the letter O. We have to start climbing the long ladder that is the October 31. Okay, yes. We generally try to watch 31 horror movies in October. But I don't know, I don't know, man. It's so hard. We got so much going on this year. We haven't nailed the October 31 in a while. Not entirely anyway. It's more of just an excuse to watch as many horror movies as possible during that month. And sort of mark off how close I get. This time we'll do it a little publicly. I'm going to post the list ahead of time that I'm going to be watching the movies in and the order that I'll be watching them in. Oh, that's so hard. Sometimes you can't watch them. It'll be. Post it like the night after you watch it. No, I'm not. I'm not posting a schedule. I'm posting a list of the 31 films that I'll be watching in the order that I'll be watching. Yeah, so it'll be like a book club only with movies. Exactly. People can play along at home. The mob can play along. I'll post up when I begin the film so people will especially know that it'll be mentioned on the next Flashgaff. And let us know if you get through them all. Yeah, let us know if you get through any of them. That'd be fun. Yeah. We want to hear. So, by the way of warning, it will be a pretty movie-heavy bit of time ahead. And that includes this show, frankly. We have quite a bit of movie news to run through. But before that, I wanted to do a little thought experiment. We have been discussing previously, Claude Raines. Yeah, that's right. I absolutely loved Claude Raines in many, many of his films. And I'm really saddened that he is no longer with us. And I was thinking that I read a lot of Game of Thrones. Well, I shouldn't say Game of Thrones, but Song, Rice, and Fire books recently. And I was thinking if there was somebody better to play Littlefinger, it would have been Claude Raines. And that got me to thinking, "Well, I wonder how the guy that actually plays Littlefinger would do playing Casablanca if they were to make a remake." And it made me wonder why, after all this time, there hasn't really been a prominent remake. And I wonder if it's because it's such an iconic movie. Do you think the ground is just too sacred? Yeah. And, you know, who could they cast as Humphrey Bogart? And it's not even, I mean, yeah, sure, it's casting them as Rick, but at the same time, it's casting them as Humphrey Bogart, you know? I have a terrible feeling somebody like Bruce Willis would end up playing the Rick character, and it would just feel wrong. No, it would have, I don't know. I always thought Isabella Rosalini, I don't know if she is related. I know that I've asked this question a million years ago. I believe yes, she is Ingrid Bergman's daughter. Really? But they look so much alike, and she has so much depth in European-y goodness. But yeah, you would need like a darker-haired gentleman who's like, who has a couple years on him. Yeah, and he's got to have that cool demeanor, you know? Like he's lived a life, he's not going to be screwed around with it. Yeah, I don't stick my neck out for no one, you know? But I know how. I just don't. I don't believe there is a Bogart out there in Hollywood right now. I don't think there is a Bogart. Yeah. I would say maybe Leonardo DiCaprio would come close. I'm really excited about seeing him in the Great Gatsby, but I don't think he has enough years on him, first of all, to play Rick, but at the same time, he just doesn't have that dark breeding. That's the issue. Neither he, despite his acting shots. What about Johnny Depp? No, hold on. Nor Sheila LaBouff will be able to ever play that sort of role because they will never look old enough. They will always have some babyface element that will prevent them from ever playing a even a Harrison Ford role properly, which is why he was a ridiculous choice to try to pass the indie idol down to. I don't know who you would have passed the whip to, but it certainly was not Sheila LaBouff. I have a bad feeling that you're going to take another stab at that bad boy, and pretty soon too. I don't know who they're going to choose this time, but I doubt he's going to be in that film. We'll see. We can only hope not. Yeah. In other movie news, speaking of touching classics that they shouldn't, Star Wars changes announced recently. I don't know if you heard the hubbub on the web, but I heard I did indeed. They've inserted a new, no, and they've changed the, you know, at the first meeting of Ben Kenobi and a new hope, the original film, he scares away a bunch of the same people. They've changed the call that he uses at that point, and it sounds ridiculous. It sounds like he's a frat boy cheering at a sports event. Anyway. Why would they go and change that? I believe it's to try to weave in a little bit of the prequel sound effects into the later ones to sort of make it seem as a little more as if they're all integrated together, especially the no, you know, kind of slip that in there. So they released some new pictures from the Avengers film, which is shooting. They've been putting up a lot of Thor and Captain America pictures, probably because that's going to be the stuff that's most recognizable to the public. But what really struck me, especially I saw a shot with a guy who's playing Hawkeye. I don't remember what his name is. I don't remember who it is exactly, but what struck me was how much when there isn't movie filter like camera, high-end camera filters applied, these guys look like the fellows from the superheroes documentary we saw. They look like real-life superheroes in costume. There's not a line between the two. Yeah. And I noticed, especially with their hair and stuff, I guess it's just, I don't know if it's a speed of the cameras or the color or what, but things that would not be sellable, you know, just walking around. Well, you look at those on set candidates and it looks like one of the goofy 70s superhero costume flicks, you know what I mean? The Captain America with a puffy latex or whatever he was wearing, but they make it work. Like, I mean, I watch Iron Man, I watch the films and they seem really convincing. Anyway, I wanted to just bring that up briefly. I mean, I really hope they pull it off. It would be really funny if it all just looked like- Goofy? Yeah. Boy, you're sick. Sort of. That'd be hilarious. I just wanted to note briefly that romancing the stone may be coming to television as a series, which would be, for those who may be unfamiliar with the film romancing the stone, it's essentially an Indiana Jones repuff, but with the uppies. That's how I remember it anyway, but somebody can correct me. So if we could tone down the uppiness a little bit, it would be fantastic to have essentially an Indiana Jones television series on. I think we're ripe for that. Yeah, if it's done, all right. Yeah, I recall young Indiana Jones. Not such a hot series. Well, it all depends if they have a budget, right? If it was all HBO style, now that would be a badass. Mm-hmm. I wonder if that's something HBO would really pick up the- Mm-hmm. Yeah, it depends on what network they made for. If it's going to be like an NBC show, I'm not sure how that would play out. Although, hmm, something in the style- a vague style of lost. 'Cause I can't help but think of the Tomb Raider TV show and how ridiculous that was. Oh, yeah. What was that called again? And the Highlander one. But the lady- It could definitely go wrong. Yeah. But, you know, I wish as much fantasy fun on TV as possible. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I like as much pulp on my television as I can get. Mm-hmm. Speaking of, Dan Accharide says "Ghostbusters 3" is going to begin filming in 2012 with or without Bill Murray. Yeah, I didn't realize that there was a question as to whether Bill Murray would- Yeah, I didn't know it was being held up because of him. Well, here's my feeling, and people are kind of coming down on Bill for being a problem. But I suspect he may be the only one at this point with quality control in mind. He's sort of the only one who continues to have a fairly successful career. Or maybe really busy. No knock on Dan Accharide. I love the man, but he hasn't put out quality working a while. His radio show for "Has a Blues" is okay. That's about it. His idea recently to launch "The Blues Brothers" is a television show, sort of in the style of "Glee". Really? Yeah. I don't know. No. And my feeling is that they're going to make this "Ghostbusters" film. I know I've already read the description of what the film is, and they're doing the Indiana Jones Crystal Skull situation. They're doing the same thing they did with Blues Brothers 2000. They're going to try to hand it off to a new cast to rekindle the franchise without having to reboot it. Oh, no. Yep. That's exactly what they're doing. Apparently, they're too fat to put on their proton packs, and they've got bad knees. They're going to do instructors to a new school. I'm going to pass it down to someone like Jessica Alba or Megan Fox. Well, oh, God. If they could find another really funny cast or something, you know who I would love to see in that movie? What? Who's that guy from Saturday Night Live? Oh, yeah, the guy, he's got big teeth. He's awesome. Squared, jaw. Feel harder. Hilarious. And yeah, I would love -- see, but that's the thing, I don't believe that they would take that kind of risk and get four really solid comedians in there. Who wouldn't you pick as a female? Because I've also read that their choices are going to be three males and a female for the team. I would pick Janine Garofalo, but I would pick her for a lot of things in which you would need a female comedian, because she's like my totally favorite female comedian in the world. Hm. That's an interesting choice. Yeah. I completely agree. I think she'd do really well, too. She would be the hard ass. Yeah. She wouldn't be afraid of no ghost, no way. The odd thing is that moving forward without Bill Murray would mean to me, he really was the lead character. Yeah. Yeah. So what are you going to do? I know Sigourney Weaver is on board. Yeah. He does. It would be so great. I love him in everything. What were we watching? Was that yesterday? What movie was that with Bill Murray and the Japanese? Oh. Lost in translation. Yes. Thank you. It was great film. Yeah. I didn't even enjoy it. I didn't get to see the end, but I've seen the end. Yeah. I didn't get to see the whole movie, but what I did see, I really dug. It was cool. Just a brief mountains of madness update. I know we've been sort of keeping an eye on this one, Del Toro. We're mad for it. Yeah. Galen Road Del Toro had recently been told it wasn't going to happen due to budgetary constraints, but the thing is he says he's been releasing comments that this is one of his sort of lifelong objectives. He considers this one of the greatest works of horror. That's awesome. And so he's going to keep going for it, and he's going to do it when he doesn't have to bow to sort of PG-13 R-rating situation, which is really, I believe, why he wants to avoid it. He wants it to be an adult film, not a kitty water down flick. Yeah. And you know how hard it is to get slapped with an R-rating for a theater, you know? Mm-hmm. Yeah, well, that's a death knell for many people. It really hurts the box office recently, so there is going to be a new Frankenstein film soon. Apparently there are six projects currently in motion, and there are two, which both, I believe, sound like modern sort of tellings are very close to production. That'd be really awesome. Fast Frankenstein. Well, you know what? You might get that kind of goofiness because the guy who is tapped and actually on board to direct it is the same guy who directed real steel. What's that? You know the new Hugh Jackman Rock 'Em Suck 'Em Robots movie? No. But I'm not really the demographic, I think. Mm-mm. Well, there's a new Hugh Jackman Rock 'Em Suck 'Em Robots movie. Good for him. And also his other great work, Levi, the director, Knight at the museum, which, not a terrible film, but not the sort of tone that I'm hoping to approach a Frankenstein project in. Yeah. And kind of, I don't want to say we're still, but more concerning, even still. Max Landis, who I only know from having written a Masters of Horror episode. Wait, that sounds like a pretty epic name, doesn't it? Max Landis. Well, it's the son of John-- I'm Max Landis. Max Landis. And I've come to conquer your-- Max and Miss Landis. The son of John Landis. That's not so impressive. Mm. That's like Timothy Landis. So I believe universal is going on it. There may be a Galermo del Toro version, which would be interesting. We'll see what happens. Fish was saying in the mob that we should start calling the woman in black the eighth Harry Potter novel, the unpolished Harry Potter novel, where he just becomes the head of the Ministry of Magic's Ghost Relations department. Yeah, right. I'm so excited to see that. That should be exciting. Mm-hmm. All right, but now to round off this movie, Bananza. Freshfish, a new batch of cinematic pulp, with the always listening, three day fish. Hello, Flashcast. It's Freshfish, here with a review of Apollo 18. Might I add that this segment of Freshfish is going to be sound effective? Apollo 18 is a sci-fi flick. There's no real way to talk about this movie without comparing it to paranormal activity. It is the same scary style of paranormal activity, lots of cameras. You see weird stuff happen, and it makes you tense, and you're like, "Oh, my God." And it's all going to accumulate into one horrible event. Yeah, that's essentially the movie, except this time it's in space. Whoa. That's pretty much as far as the plot and style of the movie. I feel like this is the beginning of the rip-offs of paranormal activity. I haven't seen the profit that this movie has been making on such a low budget, and now people are ripping off it, and perhaps it'll leave the integrals into its own tired genre. The pros to this movie, if you like paranormal activity, you'll like this movie. I liked the ending. I thought the ending was really well done. And this is rare for me, because I'm real picky, but I liked the alien. That is very, that's kind of specific to me, so it could be you don't like the alien. But for once, I liked the alien. So all in all, this movie is a yellow light. If you like paranormal activity, go see it. If you like sci-fi, go see it. If not, stay at home, watch paranormal activity, or maybe even fourth kind. It's a better alien movie, in my opinion. At the end of the movie, they mention lunartruth.com, save your time. Lunartruth.com has already been taken down by the government, all the footages on the movie, so go see the movie. Yeah, that's all, always listening. I understand Fish's Compunctions regarding the alien. Sometimes a goofy alien will just throw me right off. For example, I wasn't super hugely into Cloverfield. I felt like that was a little bit of rip-offy. And actually, speaking of Cloverfield, this falls into an interesting bit of found footage film for me. Usually what makes found footage such an effective item, by being presented a very familiar surrounding via a sort of home movie personal style, you're able to theoretically draw the viewer in without having to necessarily expend as much budget, which I understand. But when you set it on the moon, I don't think anybody's particularly familiar with shooting home film on the moon. So I'm interested to see how this plays out. It is good to hear, though, that Fish enjoyed it. And yeah, aliens are tough, man. You get a bulb-ish-headed dude running around and you're just going to be taken out of it immediately. I think the bar for these found footage films, I think there was a period right after Blair Witch came out in the first sort of round of this, that there was a number of imitators, none of them really lived up to it, none of them was terribly successful. The idea faded away, paranormal activity came around. Most of the scares in paranormal activity are fairly, the first one at least, are fairly easy to pull off. It had a bit of a nice little timing knack to it and it was successful, but even paranormal activity too, for example, I was kind of disappointed by. So although a lot of people consider it a shortcut to a cheaper film, it's a lot tougher to do, I think. You need to script very tightly to be able to pull off that sort of film. Anyway, thanks a lot, Fish. Always appreciate the segment and it was a good one. On April 25, 1792, a strange new contraption designed by French doctor Joseph Guillotine was used for the very first time to execute one Nicholas Jacques Peltier in France. The Guillotine was perceived to deliver an immediate death without risk of suffocation and thus became the state-sanctioned method of execution until France abolished the death penalty in 1981. Over the years, many tales have been told of freshly disembodied heads, fresh from the Guillotine's blade, rolling their eyes, trying to speak and otherwise presenting signs of continued life, for a brief period of time, before finally falling into the darkness of death. As it turns out, perhaps these gallows' tales aren't as far-fetched as once believed. Here's an interesting story from CBS News regarding a new study on mice that may in fact prove that the old legends were, in fact, true. A burst of brain activity dubbed "the wave of death" may not signal the end after all a new study finds. This burst, seen in the brains of rats about one minute after decapitation, is a result of brain cells suddenly losing access to oxygen and energy, but it is not necessarily irreversible according to the research published online July 13 in the Open Access Journal +1. Earlier this year, another group of researchers had suggested that the wave of death might signal brain death. In fact, researchers wrote in the new study, this wave does not imply death, neither of neurons nor of individuals. The study highlights the difficulty of pinpointing the moment of death. Doctors now think of death as a process. The brain and heart must cease as must brain activity. Normally these three events take place in relatively quick succession, but that doesn't mean that all of the cells of the body are dead. For example, a 2002 study published in the Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine found that brain cells taken from a person several hours after death could survive for weeks in a lab. Of course, brain cells surviving in a dish aren't the same thing as a live conscious brain. In a study published in January in +1, Dutch neuroscientist Anton Conan of Radbund University, Nagmagen and his colleagues were concerned about the ethics of killing lab rats via decapitation. The question, the researchers wrote, which whether awake rats suffer from a swift beheading or they quickly lose consciousness and avoid much pain. To find out, the researchers decapitated both awake and anesthetized rats while measuring the electrical activity in the animal's brains with an EEG. In both awake and anesthetized rats, the EEG went dead for about 17 seconds after decapitation. Though the researchers noted that it was at a low enough level to suggest a lack of consciousness within 3.7 seconds, then they noticed something strange, about a minute after decapitation, a slow, large electrical wave roiled through the rat's brains. Point of no return, Conan's team speculated that this wave was the brain finally giving up the ghost. Neurons communicate with electrical signals, which they generate thanks to an imbalance of positive and negative charges along their cell walls. This imbalance called a "membrane potential," Conan said and his colleagues speculated that the wave of death they saw on the EEG was the final loss of the membrane potential and a sign of irreversible brain death. In the new paper, neurologist Michael Van Putin of the University of Twent and the Netherlands and his colleagues used a computer model to simulate the chemical changes that happened in the brain during the death of rat. They too found the wave of death, but Van Putin and his colleagues don't agree that the wave represents a point of no return for the brain. Even after the wave of death, the researchers wrote the brain cells could still theoretically rally if resupplied with oxygen and glucose, the sugar that drives the brain. As evidence, the researchers point to the brain cells taken from the deceased humans living on in the lab as well as to a 1981 study published in the journal Stroke, in which scientists saw electrical activity return to brain cells after 15 minutes of oxygen deprivation. Conan was reportedly pleased that the results of the modeling experiment matched his real-world observations and beheaded rats. However, Conan told Science News Magazine he still believes that the damage reeked by the wave of death is irreversible. He plans to investigate further. I'm Jeffrey Lynch, and that's this week's spot of bother. It seems to me with the right amount of engineering, if you will, brain death should be reversible right up to the point where sort of rot starts to hit down the cells, right? Does that not seem logical? Shouldn't you be able to, with the right amount of science, be able to spark that back into existence so long as the integrity holds? That's great that your body is still trying to work things out. Like if we were to get this and this, let's, you know, let's work on this. Which reminds me what you always tell me and what I agree with you with is that we should always resuscitate. We should stay alive as long as possible until science is good enough where we can stay around longer. I believe people have the right to choose when they die personally. Yes. It's your life and you can do what you want with it, but at the same time, I personally believe in hanging on with every tooth and nail right to the last possible second. I don't care if I'm pooping myself. I have children. They will clean me. I've cleaned them long enough. They can clean me awhile and science happens to show up one day with a robot chassis that they can transport my brain to. Fantastic. Exactly. We don't know the options that will be available, but. I should also note that everything that Jeff puts up into his posts, he transcribes and you can read the full text if you're looking to, you know, delve a little deeper into this researcher that study or whatnot, read it all at blossomthings.com. Fantastic little blog. Sometimes he puts up little side items that relate to things he's talked about previously. So definitely mobster required reading. Absolutely. Speaking of mobster required reading, time for a little bmj2k.com style berry with the New York minute. Hi, I'm Barry and this is your New York minute. Go tell the neighbors. New York has a lot of famous residents from Donald Trump's hair to the giant inflatable rat that unions put up outside of non-union construction sites, but the most famous one of all arrived in 1933 and still holds a place in our hearts. Of course, I'm talking about the original big ape, King Kong. We all know the story. Carl Denham, played by Robert Armstrong, traveled to Kong Island to make a movie but ended up bringing Kong back to New York where the giant ape tore up some train tracks and wrecked some buildings before finally climbing the Empire State Building refelt to his death. And in true New York fashion, in the sequel, Son of Kong, Denham had to dodge about a thousand lawsuits. The film was a hit and is considered a cinematic classic, the 1976 version, not so much. In 1976, Dino De Laurentis made a big budget remake which the movie poster somehow called the most exciting original motion picture event of all time. It kept the same basic plot but changed some key elements. Kong was found not by a movie producer but an oil company, but the biggest change was that Kong climbed the south tower of the World Trade Center which had beat the Empire State Building as the tallest building Manhattan since the original movie came out. The film got mixed reviews. Personally, I think it isn't horrible on the one hand but not too good on the other. But it has one huge drawback. In most scenes, King Kong was played by a man in an ape suit. And it didn't go over very well when Dino De Laurentis put out an ad looking for and I quote "a well built black man" to play the ape. Even Rick Baker, a special effects man known for Hollywood makeup, said that the suit was at it all convincing, and he should know he wore it. However, they did make and highly publicized a 40-foot tall mechanical Kong. It cost $1.7 million but didn't convince anyone and it ended up appearing in just 15 seconds of footage. Yes, I said seconds, $1.7 million for 15 seconds. However, there were some other giant ape props like giant King Kong heads, hands and arms and that's where I come in. In 1976, my father had an office on the 15th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center and his offices overlooked the plaza where King Kong was being filmed. This was the World Trade Center's first brush with heightened security. People who worked in the building had to have special passes. Certain parts were blocked off for filming. Notices warned everyone that they might be filmed as they went in or out. And extra security and police had to be brought in to keep back the crowds who wanted to get a glimpse of the filming. Although I was very young, I have vague and fuzzy memories of looking down from Dad's office and seeing some of the filming and especially some of the props. Most of the filming at the Trade Center was done at night but there were always things going on on the set. Even though it was 35 years ago, I'm pretty sure I'll never forget looking down and seeing a giant ape being laid out on the plaza below the World Trade Center. Some things are unique and the age of CGI probably never to be repeated. Kong has been remade and reimagined over the years, from Peter Jackson's overly long period piece to the Japanese made battles with Godzilla and Robo Kong. But I'll always thank the King Kong as the giant gorilla who crushed Charles groaded under his hairy foot. I'm Barry and this has been your New York Big Eight Minute. That hit me really right in my pulpy heart, that was fantastic. Yeah, absolutely, especially your personal connection to it. Thanks a lot Barry. Yeah, that was pretty cool. Yeah, that would have been so magical as a child. I have to admit, the man in an ape suit really throws me off from that film, Jeff Bridges big thumbs up almost in everything he does, but my goodness. Well sometimes it sounds like a good idea and sometimes there's a man in an ape suit. Yeah, I don't know what you would have done, even I'm trying to think something that would be contemporary. Wasn't the original Clash of the Titans about then? I loved that movie. Stop motion, claymation, animation. Just like Jason and the Argonauts. Yeah, but the thing is you look at that and you know, I love it because of what it is, but it isn't selling me as reality. You know what I mean? I do prefer model work as we mentioned in practical effects over computer effects because I still find we're not at that point yet. Although I haven't seen the new Rise of the X film yet and I've heard a lot of great things about that. When I think of model work, I can't help but think of Thunderbirds. I used to watch that every Sunday. Yeah, yeah. Well I think of the Star Wars films, I think those starships still hold up. Right. Well, thanks again Barry. I'm very pleased to be able to say that we have another giant tale on tonight's flash cast, the return of our Fantastic Ingrid, although this is a original V&E's not just a translation but a tale by Ingrid herself. I really enjoy the story and she's seen fit to send it along. Thank you. Thank you very much and Ingrid. The curious tales of Vienna. The Giant and His Destiny, a story by Ingrid Pohaska. Once upon a time they lived a giant. He was very warm-hearted and extraordinarily good-natured. The giant loved people and he wanted to communicate with them. He wanted to listen what people were talking about and he wanted to speak with them. But he was afraid that he could frighten people because of his size and also because of his voice. So whenever he spoke he used a much reduced voice. He never allowed himself to speak in his natural given loudness. But because he was that tall, people weren't able to hear him and so it was very hard for him to be in touch with common people. This made him sad, more and more. One day his heart was already that heavy and so full of pain. He fell down on his knees and he started crying, "Why am I such a damn giant? What did I wrong? Why am I punished in this way?" Suddenly he noticed that he could hear people talking. And he thought by himself, "Hey, being on my knees makes me shorter." And so he didn't stand up again. He was happy about his idea that he could listen what people were talking about and that it would be possible to talk to people now. But the people didn't react as he hoped. Just so that he was moving on his knees and then looked at him with suspicion. They avoided to be in touch with him, he still was too different. So he saddened again. He felt alone and with every single day his pain grew bigger and bigger. One day the child was already so desperate and at the same time so angry about his tragic fate that he jumped up to his feet again and an incredible loud cry left his giant body. He cried out all his fury, all his pain and all his sorrow. For the first time in his life he allowed himself to be himself and without thinking what would be the next to his cry, his voice started to sound like a melody. And this melody sang by the child's powerful voice made the people stunned. The sound of the child's voice filled the air and his song moved around the world. And then something very special happened. His song touched people's hearts, stressed people felt relaxed, sick people felt healthy, soldiers laid down their guns. The people looked up to the child and for the first time in his life he was recognized and respected. And for the first time in his life he really felt happy and completely satisfied. And if the child isn't already dead I'm sure he is still singing today. And in silent moments when you look up to the sky and watch the clouds moving and when you think you can hear the wind then listen twice because then it is possible to listen to the giant songs. I really love stories about giants. It was a fantastic tale. Yeah, you said that you've read this before. Oh yeah, I've heard it before. Ingrid has posted it up at oh nuts. I can't remember which of her websites. You can find her at both vneaslegends.blogspot.com and dancingla.blogspot.com. Thanks a lot Ingrid. It was great to hear you again. Yes. Thank you. It was nice for you to be back. Thank you. I hope no pressure, no pressure, but it would be great to hear you again next week. But do what you can. Before I forget I'd also like to thank Barry over at BMJ2K.com. A lot of the items that end up in the show find their seat on his blog over there. So it's definitely worth checking out and he has a lot of great other content. Go Barry. And I would be remiss without mentioning three day fishes, Facebook page, which for some reason just hasn't caught on as much as it should. I don't know why everyone isn't joining up, but we appreciate those who do and so does fish. And he puts up a lot of extra movie content in there. And to be fair too, we haven't had any ads in the longest time and I wonder if it's just like people getting all the summer and then back into the fall drive so I completely dig that. Fair enough. Anyways, go there. Take him. You've been told. Alright, but I think this will be a good time to open the... Mile byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. First class male on Twitter, which I thought was a pretty clever little name. That's male like man not like the postal, was reminded of the Teddy Barry picnic episode, well, flashgassed episode 33, when he read that Russia has actually recently had quite a bit of success in reintroducing Barry's into the wild. Did they have a problem with the species losing out? Yeah, it was. I guess bear populations are down all over, but Russia, who has a obvious special connection. Was it all the circuses? Yes, they definitely have a love of bear. So, and it was funny, the article, I'll link it in the show notes, the article he sent has just the most cute picture of a bear on the front, but at the same time, you can't help but remember Eric reading. She brought back her cubs and they're eating me. Yes. Anyway. If we could like genetically engineer bears to be super tiny and domesticated like dogs, I would for realsies by one. Do you recall the article I had up on the blog a while ago about Pakistani bear baiting? No, no. They're creating a still an issue in Pakistan, still haven't fairly regularly. And to prevent the dogs being killed constantly, what they do to the bears is they smash out all their teeth with hair and they rip out their claws, which often leads to infection. And they're just, yeah, they look really brutalized. They are really brutalized. Please don't put that in the show notes. I'm well, I may link, when I posted it originally, I had actually linked to a society working to stop it. Good. All right. On a lighter note from the mob are fellow Jello, who frankly, there's always room for. He mentioned that the boy who lives is actually back on Broadway as the boy who sings. And he included a clip, which I will include in the show notes of Harry Potter singing and dancing. So I wonder how I feel about that, because already I'm seeing the woman in black and thinking, wow, this is a really good step forward for Harry. Yeah. So I wonder if I'm just gonna, like, I'm not really thinking of him as Harry Potter. For the woman in black, I mean? Yeah. But I part of me kind of expects him to pull out of one. I don't know. Yeah. But, you know, he wouldn't be Harry Potter in the movie. He would just be another wizard, maybe. Why? I don't think the woman in black was written as a Harry Potter fan. I don't think so either. The clip is kind of interesting. I don't know what the show is. I should have done a little more research on it, and I apologize. But it appears to be sort of a classic, I don't even know what you call it, Mad Men style dance show. No, that's not quite right. What fellow's in business suits? All singing about business? Yes. Yes. That sounds fun. Of course. Yeah. There's nothing wrong with musical theater. I love musicals. But now that we've mentioned Jell-O, I require Cosby. When I was a kid, I used to go to a movie every Saturday, and to start off the guys that frighten me the most were the monsters, Frankenstein and the mummy and Wolfman. And I'd watch the movie and then run home and jump in there with my mother because she'd protect me. And today, now I look at my mother, she's only four-one, and I think she'd have trouble trying to punch out Frankenstein, you know. Friends, make up. That's not a thing. But now that I look at these guys as a grown up, I think that Frankenstein and a mummy are about the two slowest guys in the world. I don't understand how they could even catch me. I'd have so much fun with guys like, "Yeah, come on. Yeah, look how I reach up and pull this tape." No, no, no. But I actually feel sorry for the Wolfman. Now here's a guy that can't remember when the moon's going to come up on him. And he must be awfully embarrassing to his family. You know, he's sitting around the table, leading in on him, up comes the monkey. Nutty was also commenting, actually, in Flash Class 34, which we discussed the aftermath of Irene. She says, "I was without power for three days, but I have friends on Long Island," which is quite a long time. Sorry, Nutty, "but I have friends on Long Island." You know, the big one Barry mentioned in this New York minute? The long one? A little disdain there, I think. But still without power, sure this a few days ago, hopefully they've been fixed up since then. And many friends in Southern Connecticut that have been told it could take a month to get power back. I wish I could share my power with them. Yeah, if we could all just share a little bit of our power, we could give them lots of power. The sun. You know what I was going to go with? Buy your Paris Kumbun. I kind of love the sounds of outside on the cast and the train sounds. You should always record Flashcast with a window open. Is the window open? Oh, very slightly. It is. As winter comes on, it's going to be coming, increasingly difficult. Oh, come on. Ooh, freeze for, you guess? Yeah. It's for our public. It's for the mob. Now it's time for the most endangered species, the honest man. He's a cup of Joe, four mobsters at home. It's Colorado Joe. Hello, Flashcast crew and fellow mobsters. So first, want to say I'm bummed you didn't win the parsec, but equally proud of the fact that you were in the running. You have produced and continue to produce amazing stories that never failed entertain. So my mantra is next year for the win. I'm not intimately familiar with the parsecs, I have a question. You were originally nominated in a couple of categories. I was curious about why you weren't in the finals for Best New Podcast. In the Best category, you were competing against some pretty big podcasts, including the winner. Out of a David and Goliath thing, and contrary to popular conception, David doesn't always win. Correction from my last submission, I called the movie Little Red Riding Hood. The title was actually just Red Riding Hood. Daniel Radcliffe's starring role in Equus actually caused quite a stir, as several boycotts of the Harry Potter series were organized in protest over the role in which he wore a horse's head and his birthday suit. It makes sense. Who knows how many young, impressionable Harry Potter fans are also aficionados of British theater? When my kids were growing up, the whole family watched Are You Afraid of the Dark Religiously? The kids loved it so much that when we went camping, I would prepare small tissue-wrapped packets of black powder, and when telling a story at the campfire, would start with traditional, submitted for the approval of the campfire, I give you the tale of, and whoosh, it was a big hit with everyone. When DS9 was first announced, I didn't think I was going to like it very much, but it quickly became my favorite spin-off of the Star Trek franchise. When people ask Kirkropa Card, I always say, "Sisco." Enjoyed the latest urban legend, I chuckled at the impending metal concert line. I'll have to be careful, because an ad like that is likely to entice me onto the bus whether I need to go anywhere or not. Had I not been warned, I would not have been smart enough to go back to the bus stop. My author spotlight this week is probably a bit more well-known than the past couple. Richard K. Morgan is another English author. He is probably best known for his novel, Altered Carbon. The protagonist, Takeshi Kovach, is a futuristic Philip Marlow who uses stack technology to move his consciousness from one body, or sleeve, to another, as he tries to solve a suicide mystery. There are two follow-up novels where Takeshi leaves the private dick role behind and takes up more of a mercenary role. Through all of the books, a background thread regarding the enigmatic Martians is woven. I would be surprised that these books aren't already optioned. If so, get on the ball, Hollywood. Morgan also has two other sci-fi books. Thirteen has a genetically modified Superman as its protagonist and is hopefully the start of a series. Private Forces is a bizarre look at where climbing the corporate ladder is taken to extremes and motivated executives duel each other on highways and armored sports cars. He's currently working on a fantasy series that I haven't read yet. I would be remiss in my role as solar subjugator if I didn't point out that with solar, you could run your AC more. Yeah, I'm gloating a bit. Take care. I'm always quite impressed with the stats that Joe posts on Twitter regarding his home efficiency. Yeah, energy consumption and output. I believe he's been putting more into the grid for the last thirteen months. I'm sorry if that's a little off Joe, but that's a really impressive stat if you think about it. If every house was putting energy back onto the grid, that'd be amazing. If it's all blackouts or weird, crazy things, well, and clean energy, everyone who has to install those solar panels, a whole host of things. Just energy available for everyone. Energy free energy. I believe next year for the win should be the motto. Yeah. We'll do what we can, you know, it was an honor to be nominated, et cetera. Yeah, why weren't we new podcast? That's an interesting question. They really, during the nomination phase, they really encouraged us to pick a single category that we felt strongly about. So I actually said, okay, well, I don't think we should, I think best podcast is punching above our weight. We should go with best new. But when the numbers shook out for whatever reason, we ended up in best podcast. Like best spec fiction anthology. I like to speculate. It's because we're awesome. So you know, um, to have even been in the company of some of the people that are up in that category, the Java cast, but we, we totally have the magic to win. Yeah. Next year, guys, for real Zs. Mm hmm. So maybe next year we'll go when we're nominated, maybe next year we'll have mobsters meet us. And we can all celebrate together. Actually, at the moment, if there's a con, we have to try to make it to you. I believe it's bolt of con. The thing about bolt of con and the thing that makes me a little concerned is that as I understand it Baltimore's chief export is murder. Mm hmm. So. That's right. We are. Yeah. Yeah. That's not too near. I want to bring home with me. It was just like an episode of the wire. Anyway, we'll see, we'll see what the con schedule is like next year. The truth is at the moment, we, we'd be just going as fans and to travel that distance for that sort of thing, we'd be much better to just go into Toronto proper and see something there. With the two smaller children, it's very hard to get somebody to, to look after them. So as they become older, it's easier for, yeah, other people to watch them. Yeah. Some of them are kind of fussy and may take a while to go to sleep. So we just don't do it. You never know. You never know if the babysitter is going to put on a video of Harry Potter dancing around naked with the horse's head on the neck. Oh, no. Yeah, that happened so many times with the last one. That sort of boycott is such nonsense. Mm hmm. Well, yeah, like he's not signing up for a role and saying I will never play anything else again. Who's the fellow who played Frodo again? Elijah Wood. No one boycotted Elijah Wood after he did his turn in Sin City as a silent serial killer. That's because nobody saw his wane. Hmm. Yeah. It's all about the sexuality. If Harry Potter were blowing guys' faces up, it would be fine. It's the concept of him blowing anywhere else. Harry Potter has the problem. But wait. I don't know. Isn't Quidditch some sort of metaphor for sexuality? Did you just make that up? He never makes anything up. Benjamin Cisco was also my favorite captain I must admit. I'm a big fan of Kirk, but right behind there. And I love Picard. I don't want to sound like I'm nay-saying them, but Cisco, man. I love y'all. I love Captain's. Especially later season Cisco. I'm not such a fan, maybe first season. I'm a little bit off, but... You know what? I've got to say, all captains have been really great, but I didn't like Janeway. Really? Janeway was... First I was a little off because it was Mrs. Colombo, and I just felt a little weird. But I really got into it after a bit. There was other elements of that show that kind of drove me away, and I didn't watch a huge amount of Voyager. But for me, the one that was a real fail was Scott Bakula. Gassy, I never even bothered to watch that show. I got two episodes in, and I just could not continue. It was horrible. I couldn't even remember if Scott Bakula was actually in it or not. Damn. Richard K. Morgan, I have to admit. Great choice. I do have Altered Carbon sitting on my bookshelf, borrowed from my sister, haven't actually read it yet. Good call. Good call. Nicely done. I do. It actually sort of reminded me. I wanted to mention... I don't know if I brought it up before, but while we're speaking of book recommendations, Berlin Noire is actually a trilogy of stories by Philip Kerr, K-E-R-R. And it is a detective tale told around the time of Nazi Germany, the three stories. And they take place at different points in the war, and they are fastidiously researched, fantastic stories, and very much of the sort of, you know, it's Marlowe in Nazi Germany. It's fascinating. Hmm. That doesn't matter. Imagine trying to find a missing person in Nazi Germany. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, right. So, it's very interesting. Anyway, great call, Joe. It's always nice to hear from you. And thanks for the... Absolutely. Urban Legend comments. You know what we should do? We should start a discussion group on the Flash mob, and we can have like a book club. I think that'd be worth it. I don't know. I'm just saying that 'cause for years I've wanted to have a book club, and I don't... And now she's able to... Yeah. Maybe once... Now she has a mob. Yeah. Maybe once every four episodes we should have a recurring book club segment. Yeah, that'd be nice. 'Cause I think once a month is about fare for people getting stuff done. Yeah, except we have to wait until I'm done reading all my other books. Yeah. Well, we'll try to find something that would be relatively easy to get through. Mm-hmm. I like the idea, though. The I. Oh. Never raised you. You know what? I have a bone to pick with you, J.R.D., because that last Urban Legend was so not an Urban Legend. The mean in that it really happened to us one time, and I was just recounting something that happened. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. No. Of course not. No. The first time I went over it, like the first draft editing, it seemed so long. It wasn't even really that hugely long. It just seemed like it was written to be long. It seemed like you almost could have made it much longer and more detailed, except then you would have had to call it an episode, and you needed to drag it out, because 200 isn't ready yet. Exactly. Not entirely through J.R.D.'s own fault. I am so very, very behind on my project. Yeah. It is mostly her fault. Yeah. It's totally me. Totally. But yeah. We'll say this come car wicker high water, episode 200 is going up on Friday, which is also odd because we will not be posting another episode of Flashcast or anything until episode 200 is up. And then we'll do the Flashcast on Sunday, and back to a three day schedule, which would be kind of nice. Mm-hmm. Listen, I think this would actually be a good time to move into back room plots. You might have a point there. I do think that it counts as an urban legend. I would define that as sort of a, you know, tale told amongst the people of whatever. But at the same time, it may be feasible that this one sat around on my plate for a long time. Hey, it just is a little bit. As a Wilkoff an episode, I just never really had a point, because what's the point of sending Wil to an empty neighborhood? So I hope we haven't blown too much of this one. And we're actually talking about Special Episode 7, the Phantom Suburb. Yeah, I think it counts as an urban legend, even if it is a little bit more tale style. How many ghost stories did you hear as a child that were told more of a... Yeah, I guess. That looks like a point. It seems like it could have been a much bigger story. That's where I deny you, because there was nothing more to tell there. It's very difficult to russle up action in a place that's main characteristic as that isn't really good. It was an empty somewhere. There is that. Yeah, unless I was going to get all inception and put some world destroyers in there or something, it was just going to be really boring. Although on that note, I am kind of considering starting when I was a boy, when I was a boy. I read a lot of these ghost story collection books. I still do, I guess, I really enjoy a spook house style and roast-pier style collection of short ghost tales. But when I was a kid, it was more the hauntings of London, and it would be some bullpucky guy who would say, "I'm Sir Winston Churchill file of the third." Winston Churchill. And these are the tales of my ghostly experiences. It's wonderful. And it would be like January 5th, 19XX. I met a lady who showed me her petty coat, or whatever it would be. And it was a ghost. Exactly so. And the best of those books always had a hook to the ghost. There would be some sort of hook either to somebody within the household learning a lesson based on the ghost or the ghost having some sort of neat feature that was only revealed right at the end of the story. And it was their daughter. Which in a weird sort of way if you think about it is almost a precursor of the later slasher styles tales that we're told. That's true. Because the only difference between the first six or seven Jason movies is that the way in each person is individually killed. To such an extent that there's actually one of those films, is it number five? Hmm. Possibly number three actually, in which Jason doesn't appear at all. He's being essentially, he's being imitated by a local hooligan who's out to kill a group of folks that he does not like very much. There you go. He blames I believe for the death of his son which is sort of funny. While we're here in the background plot section, I wanted to talk about a few other little items. Teaselines, since beginning writing these, at the start of each episode I include a little tease caption that usually ends up being the text that appears wherever the link appears. And at first I have to admit I was a little bit, not necessarily generic, but it's an odd mix to try to hide the nature of the tale to such an extent as not to give anything away. You know, in the same way that you would see a movie trailer and be like, I've seen all these ghosts, I've seen the monsters, seen the whole thing. But at the same time entice the potential reader into actually coming in and spending their time on it. Because that is definitely the most difficult part of this business that we've encountered as far as trying to get that first time fellow through the door to check out our wares. Because once they do, they're grabbing the backlog, you know. Which is nice, but it's, you know. It can be like pulling teeth. Mm-hmm. Let us entertain you freely. I do feel like I've managed to work the tease lines into a bit more of an art though, I'm getting better at them. And I'm pleased to see that advancement. It's an area I need to spend a little more time on, but- It's less precise, you know, the more you do it, the better you get. I feel increasingly like I'm gaining some of the skills of a carnival pitchman. Hehehe. Good for you. I'm coming handy in the future, I'm sure. Before we close up the episode, I just wanted to briefly touch on Cav again, I think I'm going to mention it every episode now. I'm still in that weird embryonic period of just rebooting it over and over and over again. I'm still not happy with how the book opens. I need a very- You might want to remind people what Cav is. Oh, sorry. Kill All Vampires is the novel that I'm writing. It's a vampire, sorry. The entire vampire story. Well, yes, technically an anti-vampire story. The thing is that I have a very definitive end game in mind for the first scene, but I have yet to grapple with how it opens in such a way as I'm going to be pleased with. Every time I've written it thus far, I've read over what I've done and just felt like it was garbage and trashed it. You know, maybe you should just try to go beyond that very first page or whatever because it seems to be a point of frustration or anxiety and maybe if you just proceed to it, yeah, you could go back and understand better what you need from the rest of it. You have a good point there. Once you start getting like a tone to it and then, you know, once you've established that, you can go back to the part that you feel didn't really fit and, you know, tweak it. Yeah, that's probably a good point. I just wanted to feel like I'd gotten my feet under me, but I think you might be right. I think I might just have to push through and... Well, it sounds like you've gotten your feet under you a couple of times. You just refuse to stand. Oh... I need some violin music for the back of that. Some Casio violin. Thanks to Jim for hosting, wiki.slashbalt.com/balt.com. Thank you, Jim. Thank you. We really appreciate it. And you should check out all the contributors, BMJ2K.com/forberry. Yeah. Ballersonthings.com/forjef. For reals. Vieni'slegends.blogspot.com. Absolutely. And dancing on loadupblogspot.com. Indeed. Both were injured. And the three day fish, Facebook page. Yeah, go there. Like it. And everybody else who regularly contributes to our show. Thank you. We love you all. Yeah, thanks, Nudy. Thanks everybody. Yeah, thanks for the trophy that made us feel so awesome. It was like we won. If you have comments, questions, or suggestions, you can find us at flashbalt.com/colorvoicemail.com. Call our voicemail line at 206-338-2792 or email us text for MP3s to comments@flashbalt.com. I might also mention at this juncture that I tend to go back to the mob posting for the last episode and see if anyone's left any comments that might make interesting fodder. So even if you don't feel like opening up an email window, you can go to the mob and just say whatever. Ask me, vocal talents musical stylings can be found at metunes.com as possibly her missing audio, a dacity of hope segment. The entire run of flashbalt can be found at flashbalt.com or via the search bar for iTunes. Flashcast is released under the Canadian creative comments, attribution, and commercial 2.2 advice. We're here to celebrate a different way to eat jello gelatin. With our bear, all we need is cookie cutters, a cheesy recipe, and we've got jiggles. The recipe's on the box, jiggles, and full of fun. ♪ Go, go, go ♪