Would morning and welcome to BP in the AIA. I'm Regis Bought and I'm
Kelly Bunyipa. We hope your morning is nice and mysterious already. I gotta
tell you, Kelly, I had a couple of day unknown already this morning,
and I have to say I feel great. Oh, reg you much
boy. We do have a great spooky show for you, We sure do.
I gotta tell you it was tough getting here today. Traffic was a
mess. Oh. It took forever because they closed the outloft pass for who
knows why? Oh no, And I'll bet that was a Jersey devil of
a time. He just sit in traffic and the time slips away. Huh
rege. Well, it's okay because we have some great segments for you today.
Later in the show, we have a very old mad chef Rasputin,
who will be showing us the recipe for his favorite dessert, death by chocolate
bullets, poisoned and ultimately drowning cake. Oh I hear it's to die for
almost almost. Well, we'll see what the boys in the GMO labs are
cooking up for us. A nice juicy protein recombinant beef patty smothered in low
cow cheese made right in the lab, and some round up ready corn on
the cob with built in handles. I heard those cows couldn't even support their
own body weight. You bet that's gonna taste so great on the summer grill
It show will, And we're gonna check in with our gift expert Jin,
who's got some great ideas for your Christmas wish list. It is never too
early to start shopping. I just can't wait to see that. And we'll
check in with our spring heeled health correspondent, doctor Jack, who's going to
talk to us about the importance of random breast exams. Look out, he's
checked you twice today already, he sure has. But right now, our
first guest needs no introduction. You've heard about it, you've wondered about it
briefly. Hanks and Tickets put your hands together. Voo doo. Who do
we're canceled? Hey, everybody, I am David Flora and I am David
Stack. Wait wait, I'm not done. Okay, oh now I'm done,
And this is blurry photos. It was worth it, right, yep,
sure was you? So I hope everybody's doing Okay, got a good
one for you. Better than okay, better than okay. M senator,
I love your suit. I don't know. I just that sparked that.
Yep, yep, Stacco. What have you been up to this week?
Oh man, I've been into the outdoors. Went camping. You've been into
the outdoors? Yeah, I went out into it. That's great, it
was awesome. I haven't been. I don't get to camp as much since
I moved to Chicago as I would like. And it's it's fun to get
to put all your stuff in a backpack and then that's what you have.
Yeah, go figure. Yeah, I would. I want to go camping
soon. Yeah you should. We should. Yeah, in fact, I
might. I might try to get something together, although if I do,
it'll probably be all messy and last minute and stuff, and that's what camping
is all about. I did have a great awkward moment when someone mentioned campfire
stories. Yeah, and one of the people I was camping with is Lolo
RockA. That's that's our official designation, one of our one of our most
ardent fans, I might add. Nice. She was like, Dave Stacco,
you you know campfire stories, And I had to say like, you
know as well as I do that they all suck, and she's like,
oh yeah they do. Yeah, it was tough funding a good story.
Yeah there, cool? And what are you about to this week, Flora?
I actually went to a Buddhist temple for a ginza festival. Sweet,
that's the uh kind of tin can as easily as a tomato knife festival,
right, what it was like? Gin sue ginza? Oh my bad,
I didn't. I'm sorry. Who laid a tomato no? Like kinzu knives?
Yeah, yeah, I know what a ginsu knife is, but I
was pretending that you went to a festival that was all about the ginsu knife.
Oh, I see, that's awesome. What did you see there?
Well, I'll i'll tell you what it was. It sounded like I was
like, you're you're really setting me up for I know, it better be
good. Well in this clip, you see they had some kindo demonstration there.
Sweet. Uh. They had some traditional dancing going on, and then
my favorite taycho drumming. Wow. I love tycho drums, but I don't
know if I could put tycho drums ahead of kendo demonstrations. I'm not a
big fan of kindo because it's just too quick for me. Yeah. I
like a good good I like good sword play. It's like lunch smack.
Okay, yeah, we set it's like and done. Did they did they
ask if anyone from the audience wanted to come up and give it a shot.
No, you know what they did. They plugged you know, a
class that they have or something. But no they didn't. Is that that's
over in your neighborhood? Yeah, yeah, you should do it. Yeah
I might, but I I'd be more into looking to see if they have
tycho auditions to join there. You don't have to pick man, you can
do both. That's true. They both involved sticks. Yep, not the
same sticks. Make sure you don't like screw that up, because if you
show up with just a drum mallet, you're gonna get whaled on. They're
not gonna take to drum in a mask and body suit. Yeah. So,
so it was really neat. That's that's why. That's how I haven't
hadn't been to that in the years I've been in Chicago, and I've always
wanted to go. What does the what is the Ginza Festival? Like?
What what what is ginzas? That is that the name of a of a
holiday or well, we looked it up. Actually I wasn't sure. So
it's actually a district in Tokyo that's known for entertainment and they they do this
as a fundraiser for the temple. Oh cool. So it's not part of
like the Buddhist tradition. This is just for that. It's a thing that
that particular temple does. Yeah, it's a summer thing. They do it
every year, and they've been doing it for a while. Yeah, since
fifty six. Yeah, that's awesome. I wish I had checked that out,
but I was elsewhere. I That's That's what has happened to me every
every year so far that I've been in town here. It's always like,
oh, yeah, this this is happening this weekend in August. I'm gonna
go check it out, and then all of a sudden, I'm like,
wait a minute, that was last weekend, No, Sava, you know.
Today, for work, I went to the Sandwich, Illinois antiques fair
mentioned before in the beautiful town of Sandwich. Um I mentioned before. I
worked for an auction house, for an art and antique auction house, and
we were going out there to talk to people and I scored something that I
feel like like like we we paved our own future here because I scored a
completely badass belt buckle. It's an antique belt buckle. It says it's it
says CB on it, and it's got a little radio it says breaker Breaker
ten four convoy. Come on. Um. I feel like like this was
the universe rewarding us for a really good show. Intro. Yeah, that's
great. I'm gonna have the back engraved with the sidewinder. Nice. We'll
have to take a picture of that and put it up. Yeah. So
that's why I didn't get to go to the Gainza Festival excited to work.
Well and clearly you you got you got something to take home. Yeah,
yeah, I'm just going to yeah, and the fun to take home.
Yeah. It's it's as though, I uh, I don't know, maybe
I engaged in something. Maybe I an unwittingly pleased some deity and sort of
paid the path for me to get that belt buckle. It's it's as though
I had engaged in some sort of ritualistic h series of religious practices in order
to shape the course of my own destiny. That's that's interesting. And now
you've got this this item here that you can take with you talisman of sorts.
Yeah, and stuff and oh and this morning, um, I cut
the throats of three goats. Does that matter? That'll do it too,
that'll that a part of it. That'll Today we're talking about voodoo, everybody,
dude, it's spooky stuff. You go, lounge lizard. I go
godsmack when I think of it. Yeah, you know what, I godsmack?
Really after my research, Oh yeah, I was real sick of seeing
that. I don't even know what the godsmack song is. No, you
don't. Is that the one that goes oh wow? No, okay,
I tried. I took a swing at it. I know. I'm not
sure that that's God's back either, So disconnect that neuron. Okay, you're
fired. No, that's the one that goes fooder foot No, no food
trying to get vood? Is that the only words? No? Okay,
I'm not gonna I'm not gonna go through it. If it hasn't rung a
bell yet, the belfry is empty. Quiet. Today we're gonna talk about
what the what voodoo is, what the what its history is, and some
of the myths and stereotypes that go along with it. Yeah, because there
are a whole bunch, man, there are and and voodoo is a very
complex religion which a lot of very specific it's. It's it's as old,
potentially far older than Christianity, m and much like a modern Christianity, there
are a lot of subdivisions that are very important. Yeah. Yeah, And
throughout the history, because of its age, it has evolved quite a bit,
and we'll get into some of those evolutions and we'll talk about how that
that happened and all kinds of fun stuff with this one. That's right and
no one thing. Well, we'll kick this off with ish. If you
say voodoo, you're doing it wrong. Yeah, it's it's pronounced more accurately
vo do vodou, although the term voodoo generally refers to a type of religion
practiced by millions of people all over the world. More specifically, though,
as as Dave just mentioned, it's incorrectly used for the religions of Louisiana Voodoo,
Haitian voodoo and who do. Yeah, that's who would have thought that
Credence Clearwater Revival was actually trying to teach us something. It's it's been in
a lot of people. We're chasing down the who do there? Yeah,
they really were of those. Each each of them is a bit different,
but they all have roots in the West African religion of Vodoon. Voodoo is
generally defined as spirit and as a religion, it's loosely defined as the belief
that humans and spirits share the world, that everything is connected, and that
spirits can sometimes interact with the human realm. That's not all that there is
to it. That's very very basic tenants. There's no scripture or main world
authority, no, though there are ordained clergy in Voodoo communities. And the
thing that I found was really interesting is one of the common threads through this
is the I don't you know, because it's one of them more familiar with
contrast with Christianity, probably a lot over the course of this episode. But
whereas Christians go to church to commune with God and to kind of share like
their community and learn that way, the practitioners Vodou go to become God temporarily.
In some cases, they go to be to become possessed and to fill
it, to feel it, and it's it's not necessarily their their single god
like for example, a Haitian voodoo has a bondie. Yeah, as as
the the the overarching deity. And the thing that I find fascinating is that
they're like, oh, yeah, that's the name of God. He will
not help you. Yeah, he does not care who you are or what
you're doing. He built a good guy, yeah, built it all,
and he's not going to intercede. However, he's got like a whole bunch
of secretaries. And you can bribe, you can't. I mean, it's
like it's like a bureaucracy. You'll never get to the CEO's office. But
I know his assistant, and I know he's looking for tickets to Book of
Mormon next work. You know, it's it's it's kind of interesting. Transactional
idea is his assistant, and he likes fried chicken and rum, right,
yeah, and so you can you can. You can barter with his his
lesser deities and and and and entreat them, and they will intercede for your
benefit or for the uh, the punishment of others, however you like it.
And they yeah, they they they want sacrifice or they there are things
that they're they're each individually interested in getting. And you can bring that to
them in order to earn their favor. And I think that's that's such an
interesting concept. Yeah, and and different from from lots of other stuff that
that we have talked about before in other religions. And you you even get
a little sniff of that in in Christianity in some of like sects um where
you have people praying to marry and say, yeah, the the intercessionist idea
of yeah, praying to saints. Yeah. And we'll talk about a lot
of the Catholic elements that get integrated and mixed in and stuff with the voodoo.
There is no devil or hell. There is a creator God that Dave
mentioned earlier, referred to as Bondier, said it way better than that.
I was like, his name is Bondo, y'all meet him. I'll see
Rojon Bondo place for the Celtic thought it was Bondie. Oh. I like
that. You you you got it. But then again, you're the one
that can do the creole accent and I can't. So you have the tools.
Bonier is genderless, neither good nor evil, and is removed from people.
Like we said, there's no communication, no contact, but he's busy.
But it's busy. As far as anybody can tell. He's he's still
a loving guy a girl, which which at that point, I mean,
you might as well think the best of them. Sure, her man,
that's never gonna stop effing us, is it. No, Well, we'll
refer to Bondier as he from now on, just for the sake of ease.
You know, we're not anybody. We will be here all night.
Now, let's get into a little bit of these the hundreds of intermediary spirits
which can interact with humans. These they're called the loa, and they can
be prayed to and have rituals performed for them to assist with everything from health
and wealth to whether or like we said earlier, doing some harm to somebody.
Yeah, they sometimes sometimes you need somebody whacked. Maybe sometimes you gotta
send the message and somebody that doesn't have any tricks behind them can cover things
sometimes. Sorry, office, if it would seem a supernatural power, it
took issue with this guy being a complete douchebag, and maybe did something about
it. As you can see, my hands are clearly clean, by the
way, paying no attention to the goat caucus that is in the back of
my trunk. I am on the Atkins diet and it is a smack goat.
Music and dance are huge parts of ceremonies. Herbalism is important, as
is the respect for the natural world. A lot of this, I guess,
I'll au gus, I'll don't you shake your notebook at I'm gonna shake
real quick here. A lot of the stuff sniffs of other things, which
I'm not going to say the W word, but it only sniffs at it
because I went and looked it up just to compare, and it's different enough
to where I'm not even gonna say the word. I was gonna guess.
I would say there were certain things co opted because being as old and venerable
a religion as it is, it's got cred by a lot of people.
And if you're a board private school college student, you know, maybe credit
is something that is in short supply. Yeah, I did contact us,
A good thing. We have a Wharton filter. Anything from Wharton or Brown
does go straight to spam. Sorry kids, no Vassar emails here. Vodoo
is embraced by those who understand their imperfections, basically, and it supports individual
empowerment, experience and responsibility. Those are those are some major tenants that run
throughout all these different shoots of the tree here. Yeah, I think I
think is sect is the right word though, wasn't it? It seems negative,
but it denominations because I mean, this is this is how fuzzy it
is, you know, because there's no real hierarchy. Yeah, I think
it is sect. Okay, well, because if the Haitian voodoo practitioners decided
to go to war with Louisiana vodoo, it would be described as sectarian violence.
Okay, we'll go with sect when we need to write it will probably
not come back up again. I will steer this boat away from those rocks
there are going back to the ordained clergy that we that we talked about.
There are what's called hungen who are male priests and mambo, yeah, who
are female priests. Yeah. I didn't think we could get away with Mambo
number five. I know, I know, I got it from your The
trumpets, they Hungan and the mambo lead the services. They also serve as
mentors and advisors to the followers in their community. There are also what are
called bokor, which are sorcerers who sometimes are also the priests. A bokor
could be a hungan or a mambo. They serve the loa with both hands.
That's the term for it, which means they practice light and a dark
magic. Oh okay, so they're the ones. If you want to put
a curse on someone, you go find a bocor. Also, if you
want to bless somebody, give them somebody some good luck, you could find
a bocor. They practice with both hands. And you know what, it
really helps the relationship with the bokar if you're not just just don't always bring
the negative stuff to them. They'll know that you value them a lot more
if you bring the positive stuff and the negative stuff in equal and try to
give them like two weeks warning if you really need to bring up something bad.
It's important to maintain fostered good relationship with your boor. They're not just
they're not just curse machines. I hate that. They hate that. I've
got this sound effect from a prior episode and I'm gonna pull it out now.
Okay, thank you, Yeah you're welcome. One source of of researching
vodoo and all this fun stuff. Yeah, who answers? Not not that
one that one does have some fun stuff. Uh, one source that I
read made it seem very fatalistic, really saying there are no accidents that you
know, everything's connected, no event has a life of its own. That's
that's pretty fatalistic, you know. And also, uh, not to be
forgotten, the ancestor worship is very important in vodou voodooism. They revere their
elders. Well, that's that makes sense. I mean, Uh, most
of the practitioners that that I've seen that there's and there's actually a fair number
of really great documentaries online, yeah about voodoo in different parts of the world,
and they you know, it's it's it's a it's a family event.
Everybody comes out. Yeah, the stuff that goes on with rituals and ceremonies
and stuff, it's definitely the event to go to. Now, it's not
like to say that only happens, you know, once or twice a year
for each community. These things happen, you know, all the time,
if not every at least what's a week, you know. Yeah, So
in seeing footage of them, it's fascinating. Um, not only are there
is the ritual very interesting and then the reasons behind it. And I really
would encourage you to look it up because, uh, you know a lot
of these documentaries they discuss the importance of blood and why blood sacrifice is used.
Um. There was one a really great interview with a mambo and she
was talking about how, you know, the animals aren't tortured, it's not
it's indistinguishable from slaughtering for the purposes of consumption of meat. But it's also
interesting to see how much of these, uh, these ceremonies have in common.
Um. You'll see that between uh, those ceremonies or for example,
like like you mentioned dancing earlier, the dancing into sort of a trance like
state than chanting. Um. So it brings to mind things like the whirling
dervishes, yeah, the Sufi, Yeah, the Sufie. Also, um,
some of the really charismatic Christian sect the Southern Baptist the snake handlers than
Shakers Quakers exactly. I mean this, this, these modes of communication with
God, whoever you choose that to be, are all very very similar,
and I think it's it's interesting to see that. Oh yeah, totally.
Let's talk a little bit about the history, uh, and then we will
go into parsing out the Haitian voodoo, Louisiana voodoo. Some who do will
go into a little bit more detail on on those. I love it very
much, is Yeah. So anyway, it's been said, and and we
have mentioned it that vodu has roots in some of the world's oldest religions,
and some estimate that it has continually evolved for almost ten thousand years. We
mentioned it earlier, but ten thousand years. It may have had some roots
that long ago and been growing and changing ever since. Its origins have been
traced, like we said, to West Africa around the present day benin Togo
and Nigeria during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, when many Africans
were forcibly shipped to the West Indies in the horrible slave trade, right,
they brought their religion with them to places like Haiti and the Caribbean. Vodu
was suppressed by the colonials, mostly French colonials at the time. Oh man,
you think about think about that in a historical context. I mean,
these are the people from darkst Africa worshiping their dark demon lords right using blood
and you know, I mean this is like the their nightmare. Yeah,
and it's because they didn't understand it. They feared it. It didn't fit
with their Christian beliefs, ignoring the fact that every Sunday they drink the blood
of Christ, well just you know, gloss over that. And because of
this practice of vodou was done secretly, even while the slaves there were forced
to go to Mass every Sunday, they would still go to Mass, but
it's like they did it with their fingers crossed. And then they came back
and were like, now it's time to go to tough guy at church,
bring the goat. Did you hear about the Code Noir from Louis the fourteenth
No Louis the fourteenth issued this decree called the Code in War or the Black
Code, to the colonies there, which said that they the colonials had to
force the Africans to adopt Christianity. They had to baptize them, they had
to make sure that they erased, you know, their past, because until
then they'd had it so easy. Yeah about it might as well. Damn,
that's just terrible. Yeah, that's a yeah. Code and war.
With doing the ceremonies in secret and practicing their you know, their own religion.
Many of the practices were blended with the Christian ones to disguise them.
Right, they didn't want to get in trouble, but they still wanted to
worship the way they wanted to. And if someone is playing alonging at home,
I hope that they finally get to shout bingo for the seventh or eighth
or twelfth episode where we talk about the Christian practice of co opting regional religions
in order to slowly subvert them. Oh two, the lowest spirits that we
talked about, they were replaced with the Catholic Saints. So you get whatever
LOA had. That's when the Saints came marching in. Yeah, and yeah,
it was fine. I was okay with it. I knew what I
was doing, all right. You like to play with fire. The individual
la will correspond to something different, one of them, maybe for weather one
of them, maybe for wealth, one of them, maybe for love or
something in a sense. The Catholic Satans do this as well, and so
they kind of took whatever saint represented the those qualities and put that name on
the loa they that they were. So you know, uh, and we'll
have I think I've got a couple of examples of this a little later,
for a little bit more detail than me just saying, oh, they did
this with somebody else. In seventeen fifty one, there was a one armed
slave named mccandle that escaped his captors and fled to the mountains in Haiti.
It wasn't me, it was the one armed man, a Vodou Hungan.
He united other escaped slaves and they raided plantations for six years before he was
caught. And then he was burned at the take in seventeen fifty eight.
But some people say, and by people, I mean some witnesses maybe say
that he transformed into a bird as he was burning in flew away, which
proved to them that he was a devout voodoo priest. Wow, pretty weird
home. I mean, what do you what do you happens when you're like,
we caught him burning him problems though, now he's a bird. Yeah,
you'd think that would shake some of your beliefs, right that? And
then does the guy who said burn him did he sleep well that night?
Yeah? I don't know. If if you're a surviving men, if you're
a highlander who happened to be in the Caribbean around this time, please send
us an email. We know there can be only one anyway. Haitian refugees
fled to Southern America, mostly to New Orleans around that part in Louisiana down
around there, and vodoo practices continued to evolve. To survive, they had
to, you know, kind of adapt wherever they went, and they melded
beliefs of African vodoo, the Haitian vodoo, Catholicism, and some Native American
spiritualism in what is now known as Louisiana Voodoo. Then more evolution, coupled
with late nineteenth and early twentieth century migrations out of the Mississippi Delta region produced
the folk spirituality known as Who Do. Today. It's hard to know just
how many practice voodoo voodoo who Do all that stuff. It's really hard to
estimate because there's no real world authority. Yeah, And the nature of it
is that it does sort of exist very quietly. Yeah, that it not
as personally so exactly it is. It has been a religious belief that has
been extremely persecuted in the New World anywhere outside of West Africa. Um,
it's always been the kept on the on the down low. It's always performed
almost in secret, like you said, people going to you know, Christian
Mass and then being like, okay, it's doing to really go do something,
um. And so that there's a tradition of secrecy that that comes with
that. Yeah. And uh. And you see that difference very very quickly
when you see the way that ceremonies are performed in the New World as opposed
to the way ceremonies are performed in West Africa to this day. I mean
in West Africa, I mean it's you know, middle of the street,
everyone comes in, it's a big deal. Um. But even even in
the United States or or in Haiti, still performed in in quiet, small
rooms. You know, there's you see, there's that that that almost a
cultural secrecy to it. Because it's been attacked for hundreds of years, hundreds
of years, people are are still afraid to practice it openly, you know,
in the the America's around in here anywhere pretty much out of outside of
West Africa because you know, for fear of the ridicule that they'll get from
the misrepresentation that has happened and the straight up repression that that has happened of
it. So let's let's talk a little bit about Haitian vodou, Louisiana voodoo
and who do Let's see what we got in these these things put them in
their respective categories. Haitian vodou originated the French slave colony of Saint Domingue.
Practitioners avoid spelling at voodoo because of the misconceptions. And we're going to get
into these these stereotypes and these myths that go along with with this. Uh
in just a little bit. But like we said, they believe in Boondier
and Loah. Some of the popular loa include Papa Legba, who is the
gate keeper or guardian of the crossroads. This is one of the ones that
I I said earlier. If you want a related saint, it would be
Saint Peter who guards the gate to head right, Papa legged to Saint Peter,
that would be you know, Erzuli Frieda is the loa spirit of love
and beauty. And then we hit my favorite, Baron Samadi, who is
the guardian of the grave. Sound familiar, Yeah, any any James Bond
fans out. Yeah. He's often pictured as a tall, slender, but
muscular black man with a skull face, either either a skull or a painted
skull. He wears a black top hat and dark glasses, and he's he's
very powerful and uh he's also a very staunch protector of children. Uh he's
he's a popular image. But in terms of voodoo and vodoo and all that
good stuff and not not even I mean, obviously there's the James Bond reference
that's a very big deal. But also this is like, this is the
kind of stuff that like goth's just Inhale. I mean, he's got like
a steampunk top hat, I don't on a skull on his face, and
he's like the guardian of the underworld. I mean, where do you That's
the longest line there is at you know, goth fascination sometimes wears dark,
dark glasses and tuxes. Yeahs in tuxedos. Everything about this guy is Taylor
made. I like his style though. Yeah, no, he's cool.
But I'm just saying, you know, if you want to want to get
the goths on your side, he knows he hit every switch he could.
Haitian Vodou disapproves of greed and dishonor they're real bad news for practitioners. Generosity
and love is highly valued that's good stuff, which again I'm so glad to
have that spoken because, like so many things that were done as a part
of the Christianization of the New World, there is like this kind of cultural
bias against it, Like if you I don't know anything about it, but
I know it's pretty bad news. Yeah, you know, that's it just
isn't It's not it's not bad news. It's it's just so much job.
It's a it's a different religion, you know. Yeah, yeah, it's
it's just not the one that you have. Yeah. Yeah. During a
ceremonial service, which by the way, can take days to prepare, the
LA can possess individuals and speak or act through them, which we mentioned a
while ago. But you get the dancing people work up into a fevered dance
and then you know, they they shake and they become possessed by the LA
who they are invoking, and then the loa through that body will take on
whatever is is, you know, offered at the time. They might partake
of the sacrifice that is being given. They might taste the blood or yeah,
they might drink the rum, they might smoke the cigar. They basically
become the spirit there for for a little while, not long, and then
they leave. Even then, the person who has been possessed claims no memory
of what just happened. Yeah. The official belief is that only one consciousness
can inhabit a body at the time, and so while while the loa is
in town, you're out on the street, buddy. Yeah. Yeah.
There are things called vevais which vas kids, yeah, which are symbols or
patterns that are drawn onto the floor, often with corn meal, and they're
used as a beacon for loa and each one is specific depending on which loa
you want to invoke. They're they're very pretty and they're very elaborate. If
you were to look up it's spelled vv e. If you were to look
them up online, you might see a few on there. The designs are
are pretty neat. But they'll put these patterns on the floor and they just
they draw the loa to the ceremony there they see that. To me,
that that sounds a sort of like the Tibetan mandalas that the sand the very
elaborate sand paintings that they spend you know, up to a week working on
them and then they destroy them completely. Is that anything like u Zen gardens
rock gardens. Uh No, only in that the mandalas are. They're an
active worship almost not worship per se, but um, it's the intense focus
that it takes to create one and then and then the transient nature. They
create it with sand and when it's done, they sweep it away and I'll
spend a week working on It's just like improv. But whereas the zen garden,
the point is the permanence, the slow evolution of a of a perfect
harmonious system. Got cool, something that that I think we should look at
sometime in the future. Agreed, very cool. So those are vaves.
Uh So, those are some real basic things that go along with the Haitian
vodou. Let's talk about Louisiana voodoo. Okay, it's all snickabas and rianna
sausages. I want to call on a spirit of the swamp Alpha da snuga
balls and as FIFA Jack Daniels wow target. Uh So, it's it's similar
to, but not the same as the Haitian food right because it evolved from
that. There's more influence from Native American, Spanish and Creole folk ways.
There's an emphasis on what's called greegree Yeah, and paraphernalia and voodoo queens.
That's a popular thing that that happened. This is this is the part of
the story where the ignominious voodoo doll shows up. Also oh yeah, but
but also very important to point out again the Louisiana of voodoo is much more
a tangible like just like like you said, is a lot more paraphernalia,
and the Voodo doll is just another tool in the in the toolbox. It's
not well, well we'll get to that one in in our stereotypes. That's
one of the big ones that people when you when you think of voodoo,
yeah, I think voodoo doll. Right, And again we're all one thing
we're really not going to go into aside from acknowledging it is the idea of
like the voodoo zombie, so aside from acknowledging, and maybe at some point
in the future will do a zombie episode or something. But discussing the zombie
as a part of a discussion of voodoo is like discussing exorcism as a part
of a treatise on the Christian religion. It doesn't really you see it like
it. It drags it kind of off to an area that we're not really
going into. But yeah, we'll takes a few heads off though with nice
some of the stereotype bunking though. But let's talk about the Greegree real quick,
Okay, okay. This is This is an amulet of protection in the
form of a small cloth or a leather bag containing a ritual number of small
objects in it. The term may come from an African term juju to hear
that a lot, and it's sometimes inscribed with verses from the Qoran because it
was originally associated with Islamic tradition to ward off gin whoa, I like that
little yarn. Voodoo queens These were nineteenth century female voodoo leaders. They were
the go tos for spells, charms, you know, whatever you need.
The most famous was Marie Lavaux in the eighteen thirties. She was renowned for
her skills as an oracle, spellcaster, spiritual leader and if you go to
New Orleans, her name's all over the place. Yeah, mostly because they've
taken they've taken this larger than life persona of Marie Lavaux and they have turned
it into an industry. Yeah. Voodoo. Yeah, and voodoo is a
part of the New Orleans tourist industry. Yeah, and a lot of people
will tell you, if that's where you're going for your voodoo needs, you're
probably going to the wrong place, right, because that's that's tourist industry,
that's not the real religion. But Marie Lavaux had an interesting, interesting life
down there, and I saw something that said her grave may be more visited
than Elvis's grave. Really, yeah, well that you know what though,
that doesn't that doesn't terribly surprise me, especially, you know, given the
religious nature of one's ancestors and things like that. So why would that not
be an important true And people still kind of invoke or call upon her to
help them, you know, in their in their voodoo needs. So,
last, but not least, let's talk about who Do. Oh, Yeah,
Who Dos a folk spirituality which evolved from the Louisiana voodoo in the Mississippi
Delta. It focuses on root work, folk magic, and a biblical perspective
and a sort of form of karma in the sense that whatever you do is
going to come back to you. Yep, right, But they use the
Bible quite a bit, mostly as as a guide. They also it's it's
also used as a talisman in hohodo. And it's not necessarily like using it
in the literal sense, or it's more like, here are some good you
know, things to follow and you can find if you have a problem,
you can find find solutions to it in the pages here. If you need
something to help ward off, you know, hold it up, use it
whatever you need. But they don't get all. You know a super fundamentalist
about you know a lot of the beliefs and stuff. So if you've got
a problem, you know they'll solve it. Just wear this greed, greed
while my looa resolves it. You burned it, you keep burning every oh
man, I burned everything. Who do allows people to access supernatural forces for
help in the form of homemade potions and charms and whatnots, And it gets
doodads and googas, flip flops. Jim James, Oh you got Jim James,
I wanted that one. Uh. It doesn't require minister though, Nope,
this is uh. This is kind of the ultimate form of a personal
religion. You know, you get the stuff that you need from whoever's whoever
knows you know and distributes the stuff, and then you go home and uh
ritualistically you utilize it. And I think I think that the basis for this
is uh geographic isolationism. I think that as these beliefs, these people,
like you said, the dasp are out of the Deep South in the early
nineteenth century, and people moving into the Appalachian Mountains, people getting into more
remote areas and the swamps and the swamps, yeah, even within the swamps,
and they're less inclined to run into other people. There's not a regular
community of practitioners, and so everyone is. It is a very self driven
thing, and I think that that leads to that. Just think about how
quickly these different sects have broken off, you know, just since the the
you know, the beginning of the slave trade, you know, four hundred
years ago. Because all of the voto is such an internalized belief system,
people carry it with them wherever they go, and then it does change,
it incorporates other things, and and finally, you know where it's at now.
With the folk who do that, it makes sense these people are they're
they're more isolated, they don't see each other as much, and so they
just kind of kind of wing it. They kind of they give to it.
What they need and and then that's that it helps that that interesting evolution
of this religious system. Yeah. So so those are are real quick breakdowns
of three big vote sects, I guess. Yeah, going with that.
So let's close out by talking about the stereotypes. Yeah, and by stereotypes,
I mean this, what has happened to this religion is Hollywood, right
and uh and like we said, the early Christian colonies Hollywood, which was
informed by the Christian you know viewpoint Christian agenda really, I mean in a
pretty oblique agenda at that. I mean they poisoned the name of of voodoo
because of you know, a couple of films talking about Hollywood, because of
a couple of films. Some books that were written about it really made it
seem like it was just Satan worship. It was nothing but sacrifice, evil,
cannibalism, you know, you name it if it's bad, and voodoo
does it. And one of one of the ones that we mentioned zombies,
bocres the sorcerers. It was said can revive the dead and control them and
that's completely false. Yeah, Serpent in the Rainbow, Yeah, did you
ever see that? Yeah, I'm not dead. It was about the uh,
Clarivius Narcis, Is that right? I mean I saw it when it
came out, so that was like the eighties. Okay, Well that that
was a book that was that was written, and this film, I guess
was it was based on it. But like, there is a story of
this Haitian named Claris Narcisse that was apparently he went to the doctor one day
and said he, you know, was having the stomach pains and I ain't
feeling good. Yeah, he's not feeling good. And then a couple of
days later he dies, They hold a service, they bury him, and
then eighteen years later he grabs his sister on the street and says, I'm
I'm your brother. Let me tell you my story. I have been a
zombie for the past eighteen years. And according to him, a bocor had
sprinkled him with some powder and dug him up three days later and then forced
him to work on his sugar plantation until somehow one of the other workers killed
the bocor or whoever was overseeing them with a with a hoe and then that
allowed them to escape. Now that story, they have done research on it,
you know, and tried to see what's what's going on, if it
was just a real tall tale that he's he's spinning, or if there's something
to it. And what they found is that some people can be under the
influence of powerful drugs, namely to try to toxin which comes from the pufferfish.
And it's been said that some bocors or general jackasses can mix together some
powder which includes maybe like ground up human bone, some of this toxic stuff
from pufferfish, some you know, plants, some showmanship junk, some showmanship
maybe painted a skull on the face and uh, and they sprinkled on people.
These people, for all intents and purposes, die because they're shuts down
just long enough for people to think they're dead and do their final farewells.
And then the bocore goes claims the body and then has an antidote that revives
them to where the brain can take either no damage if he gets there in
time up to you know, a fair amount of damage. But what happens
is that this antidote and all all the stuff that they're doing to the to
these people leaves them in the zombie like state to where they are compliant,
but they're in a haze. They don't know what they're doing. All they
knowed to do is to breathe, and I guess follow direction. But the
but the important thing about that is though that's a case of pharmacology and in
pretty direct affront to the Vodu religion. Sure, I mean so so it's
it's it's a it's an awful thing that they gets flung on there. Um
And I would I would say of sort of the same thing in the way
it um Right now, it's really popular to make pedophile jokes about Catholic priests.
It's not part of the religions, you know, but the two end
up getting oh that's what happens now, and it's and it's it's it does
a disservice in the same way it does to the Catholic faith, in the
same way it does to the Voto faith. Yeah, and these these bookhors,
they don't necessarily have to be practicing vodooists, or if they are,
they're obviously doing it for their own ends, you know, in their own
Yeah, there's nothing there's nothing in vodo that says get slave labor for your
plantation, right, So, uh so, anyways, but the straight up
zombie you know, the films that you see where a priest does it,
you know, shakes a stick and dances around and then zombies shoot up through
the graves. That that's that's hooey, that's maliarchy. Let's talk about the
voodoo dolls. Dolls representations that can cause harm. That's what that's what the
classic voodoo doll is. Right. You you take a likeness of someone,
maybe you take a lock of their hair, or you take something that belongs
to them, uh and tied on there, do do some incantations and then
stick pins in it. Whatever you do to the doll happens to the person.
False, so false. This is not a part of voodoo. There's
an origin in folk magic of things that are like voodoo dolls, and this
you find in European witch folklore. These are called poppets. Yeah, but
they're not part of the vodoo religion. No. Some some money makers,
the industry, the tourist industry, have adopted them to sell. I think
this came through one of the Hollywood movies, you know. But in vodou,
if anybody makes a doll that's a representation of anything, it's for a
loa right, yeah, exactly. It's something that goes as as a gift
to the loa as it goes on the altar. It's never it's never your
neighbor. It's it's a it's it's the spirit that you want to invoke,
and you treat it like you would treat if the spirit were standing there in
front of you. Right. It's the equivalent of calling a crucifix of voodoo
doll. Yeah. So, uh, sacrifice people and or animals sacrificed in
rituals. This is halfway true, right. There aren't human sacrifices, no,
but they're there's surely animal sacrifices that are going on. And they sacrifice
animals for certain loa, not all of them, but certain ones in the
rituals require sacrificial animals in there. Once they sacrifice an animal, though,
they immediately cook it and they they eat it. They use up um,
you know, just as if, like you said, they had slaughtered it
for you know, consumption, right, And they the phrase they use is
that the the blood is for the loa, the meat is for the people.
Yeah, And and then that is part of the tenet of the of
the ritual. It's that it binds both the loa and the people together.
Through this sacrifice that they are all sharing in the same thing. So while
you know animals sacrifice in itself is bad news, at least they are doing
what they what anybody would do if they were just raising animals for consumption exactly.
And that's and that's no different honestly than say, for example, the
preparation of uh steakums, that those things are born out of Satan's ass No,
unless you want to sponsor us balls in your court stakm um, your
move. No, it's but it's no different. It's it's a ritualistic preparation
um that is not dissimilar from say, how you would prepare kosher beef.
Okay, you know, like the animal is being prepared under a religious set
of rules to be consumed. Yeah, right, that's it. How about
devil worship voodoo, that thought that voodoo equals Satanism. Uh, this is
so false. It's dumb, right, It's it's doubly laughable in that the
practitioners the voodoo do not believe in a devil. There's no devil or hell.
Yeah. Yeah, but but I will say this, uh, and
I this is not upon but in the devil's advocate category that under the teachings
of the Bible being that there's only one true God, and if these people
are not worshiping that one troupe God, then they have been deceived and are
unknowingly worshiping a demon or the demon. Yeah well, well, well did
you ever see which point you say, why don't you get back in your
own backyard there, churchy? What were we asking? Did you ever see
The Devil's Advocate the Keanu Rio. Yeah, dude, that movie was awesome
and I will tell you why. One. It actually is a really cool
characterization of sin and temptation and how that would work in a Christian's life.
Also full frontal hot checks. Uh yeah, I really like that movie too.
Also, though very bad voodoo stereotype right yeah, um so, so
check that out seriously frontal hot chan. One final stereotype for you, the
use of snakes in voodoo, snakes being a big part. Right, This
is a true to a degree. Snakes are are used again in rituals,
as they are in some Christian sects, right right. The snake is tied
to loa in in some cases as well, either in form or in thought.
But yeah, there there are uses of snakes, but it has.
It has a completely different context from Satan or the Garden of right, right,
I get you that junk so uh so uh Dave, Yeah, Dave,
that's uh, that's voodoo for you, oh man, in a very
small in an intercontinental ritualistic evolving nutshell. That's awesome. Yeah, voodoo very
cool, very cool, a lot very uh misrepresented. Yeah. Really a
really rich, interesting religious system that um got. It got a really bad
shake. Yeah. And when you think of the religions of the world,
you I bet you don't think voodoo. Right, But that's it's up there.
It's there, man. It doesn't have all the glitter and polish of
Hinduism, but it's it's it's fighting, it's a work. It's work,
keeping on, keeping on. Speaking of keeping on, keeping on, what
I donna, I'm gonna cast a little little hoodoo voodoo on you right now,
don't It's called the ponds. Oh, I'll take that, Yeah,
and I'll give I'll give back to you tinfold. Oh nice. Well I
went first last week. I always have to go first, So why don't
you go first? Bit? All right? I got a product for you
to start out with. Okay, if you're ever you know, celebrating Thanksgiving.
Let's say, um, you you need something to invoke the spirits of
the holiday and h maybe cast some good luck over your house, or if
you just need to draw those spirits into your home, you can pour some
symbols on the floor in a in a very tasty, thick sauce called grave
a. I like that grave not the baby. All right, I got
I got one for you. Picture pictures are intricate and delicious. One thing
that has actually been bothering the leaders of the various um vodu sects is is
this separation between them when really they share such a common ancestry and they should
be getting together, They should be trying to rejoin them. Um, and
they've they've been really working to try to achieve sexual healing between the three of
them. Winning. Won't see? Uh, sir? Can I look in
your bag for a second. Almost snuck that into the stadium. Yeah,
I was like, wait, when is he going to tell the Joe sexual
healing? Yeah? What a jackass? All right, aren't you just a
dick? Alright? Alright, I've got I've got a Haitian store for polos,
khaki shorts, flip flops, baseball caps. It's called bro do.
Oh God, well, look good bro do? Did you practice some brod?
Uh? It's actually properly pronounced broad do. All right, I got
one for you good. Uh. So the US government is part of their
uh, their their census data. They're trying to determine, because it is
a hidden faith system, how many people are practicing um and so they they've
actually issued a report on the results of their census findings in the twenty ten
census, and it's called who do who don't? Yeah? Wow, Yeah,
I got a bonus one for you. Do you really do I do?
Uh. It's a it's a romantic comedy, uh, set back in
the fifties about a guy who on business has to move to Louisiana, UM,
and his wife had died and he's got uh two adorable daughters and they're
trying to fix them up with the woman next door who has an interesting religious
system and uh. The movie is called Papa Loves mombo Ah. Why is
everything I do musical? All of a sudden, I don't know, but
yeah, although it's uh not godsmack apparently, Yeah, I'm on the island
alone on there, I would argue that God's Mike maybe doesn't qualify as music
I got. I got a bonus one for you too. Oh look at
yeah, look at Yeah, I've got the hottest new DJ straight out of
New Orleans. Oh really, Yeah, she spends records that will cast a
spell on you. Okay, yeah, she is a DJ Marie La Flow.
Oh I like that all right. I think I think that's uh,
I think that's enough. I think the quota has been filled, and we
even got ahead start on tomorrow. Yeah. What's under your desk there?
That's some fancy drawing. What is that? Wait a minute, it's just
my shapely legs. No, no, on the floor looks like there's cornmeal
scattered everywhere. I don't I don't draw cornmeal. That's a Vevey. No,
No, that's copy of Babes Kids. No, no, it's not.
There's a little doll setting on your computer. Yeah, but in the
shape of a listener ive is gonna call some listener puns, you know,
listener fucking pun explosion in your damn faces. Holy crap. Oh man,
you uh that that led listeners here like a beacon. Yeah, and uh
and we got a ton of feedback this really you know how you know how
I really know how electro metal listener pun sound Wow, the souls of the
innocent done to us. That is how much the email we got. And
that's how hard it rocks. You get. You get a punch bloition and
you get an electro pun and sound. God, it's a good thing.
We just had that on deck and you don't have to do any work.
That's true. Wait, no it's not. Oh man, Well let's dig
in. Let's you know, what do you mind? Do you mind if
I just I just lead into this? You want to lead in very badly.
Okay, because our good friend Bob Yeah has hit us with a novella
of a punt Oh nice? Yeah, yeah, I love backstories. Yeah.
This is from our our Go Beckley Teppie episode Nice. He supposes that
the large multitude of people building Go Beckley Teppie needed a staple food supply,
and unwittingly invented farming. Their main crop was the world famous sugar beat.
These same sugar beats were refined down to pure sugar, which was used to
make the Go Bay teas favorite food, Go Beckley Tepioca pudding. Yeah.
Unfortunately, things didn't go so good after the pun dropped their poor farming techniques
used up all the new treats in the soil, forcing the go Beckley Teas
to pack up their rock tools and head on over to stoneheand region of England
boush, And thus a legend was born. Wow, thank you, Bob.
I love it when a pun can take us on a journey, you
know what. Also special award to Bob first Ton with an epilogue, because
how many times have we wondered? Yeah, but what happens after them?
Yeah? What happened? And that guy didn't go knocking on that van that
was rocking? Yeah, finally answered it. Thank you Bob. That was
nice, nicely done. Good to hear from you again, Bob. Very
good. We got a we got another pun here for you from who from
gray Head. The it's a cat is a very special fenline g r Ae
underscore cat. That's who we got And that's a that's our fancy feast so
great cat hits us with a brand of sweet potatoes called Springhilled Jack Sweet Sweet
Tatters. That's awesome. I am actually going to i officially here by rename
not that in my life I've ever made like a sweet potato cast role for
Thanksgiving, but this time I'm going to and it won't be called sweet.
Sweet tatters him to say, great cat doesn't stop there. What Yep,
the feast keeps getting fancy, rolling, kitty keep rolling. Great kid actually
asks us a question Nonpunuler wants to know, wants to know about us?
Oh one wants to get a little little personal. Those records are steal great
Yad asks how did you guys meet and why did you decide to do a
podcast together? Well, that's an excellent question. Yeah, two of them.
Yeah, well, uh, I'll you'll cover the first part. Okay,
there's a two parter. Yeah, um, we met. We are
both Chicago improvisers. We both worked through Second City and uh, and it's
it's it's a there's a lot of improvisers in Chicago. It might be the
number one industry, but it's not so big that you don't know other people.
And I was actually in an improv group with mister Flora's girlfriend. And
then uh, some time later, and I'd seen you, I've seen you,
I'd seen your perform I was aware of you being existing. Yeah,
and then uh, a few years later we were both on the same team
a Damascus Steel and uh, that's formed together quite a few times for for
some time. And then mister Flora made the exalted switch up to director,
Yeah and uh direct me and a really great musical written by another friend of
ours, Jay Gish called Yojoe a real American hip hop musical stuff awesome,
and uh yeah, so that's how we met, that's how we knows each
other. Yeah. And when we were on Damascus Steel together, we did
a podcast with the team which I kind of organically evolved a section section yeah
of the podcast where I would bring a weird topic and we would discuss it.
And I mean, if if you're really interested in sifting up the DNA
of our podcast, I think it's on it's still on iTunes. It's called
the Steel Cast. Yeah yeah, and you'll you'll hear both of us as
long as as well as the other talented members of our our improv group,
Damascus Steel, and yeah, you'll you'll see Flora bringing the weird, yeah,
bringing that, and that sort of planted the seeds and then um,
we kind of all all got busy with that podcast and stopped doing it.
So we so busy we stopped it. We got busy with other other stuff
like life and uh. And I was like, hey, Dave, do
you want to keep talking about where? And I was like do I?
So six months later we we we finally got stuff rolling. So that's that's
what brings us here, that's right. And now you're the reason we do
it. Yeah, that's all right. We've transferred all of our love for
each other onto you. We hate each other, that's not true. So
so that hopefully that answers your questions. And thanks for thanks for accent about
us. I'd like to know a little more about you, Greg Hat.
How'd you get so fancy? What else we got sto? The explosion keeps
building? It does? I just keep digging through this awesome boxwome Um,
I've got another pun? Oh what? Yeah? We got a pun and
a really great letter from a listener, JW um who I'm gonna put it
out there. This guy went above and beyond the call of duty. Sure
did oh Man now serve as a as a model Yeah exactly, j W
be it man or woman is a model citizen of our community. Because JW
lives off the grid. No Facebook, none of those things, no Amazon,
none of that craziness created an Avatar on iTunes just to get just to
leave a review, call blind. That's a ton of work and they did
it just for us. Thank you, JW, thank you very much,
really appreciate it and left. I actually had to stop reading this because I
started laughing so hard. J W and I are going to be great friends
because I love just just what starts is just a normal pun and then just
just the non specific rage and then right back to the pun again. It
was great and I we're besties from here on out. Here we go.
This is uh from our podcast where we're talking about the Book of Enoch Ye
Fallen Angels. It's a niche clothing and footwear outfit for those furry things in
Return of the Jedi for when they're shooting hoops are just getting dolled up.
Enochs foxy niche socks and rebox for Ewoks. May the Farst be with you.
And he finish it with a shout out to dig it too. Oh
wow, well played. That is. That is one of the greatest things
on earth. Because anyone who hates an Ewok is a friend of mine.
That's awesome. He's also he was also a fan of our dramatic reading of
Jimmy Tepper versus the Goatman of Booie. Oh yeah, and he suggests we
we do some reviews of other low budget films. That's a brilliant idea,
which and yeah, I love. I think we're absolutely gonna do that.
We'll have to have to find him. Yeah, I'm sure they're out there.
We just talked to we we've seen Sharknado, right, you know they're
out there. Yeah, So thank thank you JW. We get a returner.
Yay. Jerald writes us back. It's like it's like a nice volley
It's like it's like in volleyball. Yeah, the ball keeps going back and
forth. That's the fun. Yeah. Gerald actually actually tells us a little
bit of about our supposed Greek friend we know and love so much. Yeah,
I did you know what? You know what? You know what,
Gerald, Tommy, I thought his name was Greeky. It's not act it's
uh. He says, you know that Georgio Suklos is ethnically Greek, sounds
like sucralos. Look out, he's bad for you. But he says,
were you aware that he was born in Depending on the source, either Switzerland
or Belgium. M hmm and stir. Yeah, how how cool. Thanks
thanks for passing that little nugget on. Yeah, and thank you for listening.
Uh, thank you very very much for that. And also listen,
get in some trouble with the cops. All right, that's just doing my
business. And I appreciate your concern, but I've got some cash stacked away
for bail money. Um stecco, does that? Does that change your stance
on mister Elians at all? Nope? So you're you're just you're just in
it for the ethnicity. Man. You know what, it doesn't matter where
he comes from. He's crazy's crazy, and bad decisions are bad decisions,
you know. It's just it's just easiest to blame the Greeks. That's what
I like about it, is that it's easy. Yeah. Um, fun
fact about me. My one of my favorite writers of all time is Jack
Handy, former SNL writer who everyone would recognize from deep thoughts. Sure,
but he's a real person and he writes books and uh, one of my
favorite deep thoughts of all times is, you know, it's it's easy to
sit there and want and want more money. And that's what I like about
it. It's so easy, just sitting there wanting that money. All right,
thank you, thank you, and let's see what there's so much male
and man, we got one more, yeah, we got We got a
great letter from a friend, Dylan. Dylan has one of my favorite opinions
in the world, and it's that, um he likes our podcast. Oh
that's a good opinion. Yeah, I'm a big fan of that. Has
a great shell suggestion. So about Black Eyed Kids, Oh hell yeah.
Not a fusion hip hop techno group. Nope. By the way, I
do have a conspiracy theorist about the Black Eyed Peas. I'm not the originator
of this. I think I read it on the internet somewhere that they're actually
the time traveling children of Angelina, Jolie and Brad Pitt come back to somehow
subvert the Earth in the future. It all adds up and it all matches.
Okay, I'm just all I'm saying boom, But yeah, black Eyed
Kids really creepy thing. This is. This is sitting in our quiver,
right, yeah, absolutely, this is an arrow and you're gonna get shot.
Get one to the butt on this right. I don't like releasing doves
too early because people just get feathers. Then there's there's all kinds of mats
that might get on you're telling me, but black Eyed Kids might be part
of blurry photober. Oh, blurry photober. It's spooky and crazy, along
with a few other suggestions that we have gotten. Uh and and you know
who you are. Maybe we'll make sure we can find out who you are.
But that does sounded like a threat. I didn't mean it that way.
We have we do, We do have have some arrows that that have
blurry photober U on them. Yeah, we're gonna shoot them at the month
and not at you and not at you. And and you're you're going to
reap the rewards of of this archery competition. Black Eyed Kids. I'm there,
ready, ready to go. So thank you, Dylan. Yeah,
and and thanks for listening, Thanks for coming to us and finding us.
And we appreciate all of you, like the literal snowflakes, so that you
are each of you are perfect in mine eyes. Keep sending stuff in sending
whatever you want, you know what, we can handle explosions. Yeah,
we just did, like like really well, yeah, we're were great.
Yeah, I mean and I mean more emails means that I get to pimp
Flora into making a more elaborate listener mail sound. We'll see. Let's see
how far we can push this guy. You know, maybe maybe sit back
and just smile and nod. Maybe that's how you enjoyed this podcast. Ah,
yes, awesome. Indeed you guys, what what you need to do?
And uh, I don't have to cast spell for you because I will
know I know that you will do this. Yeah, yourselves. But you
could head on over to iTunes and subscribe on there and rate us and put
us stars and a review, po pour a little praise over the poor,
a little praise over the altar on iTunes. Oh yeah, it's great.
Thanks thanks to those of you who I'm sure who have rated us lately.
We really appreciate that we've got a new review on there. Oh great,
wet, Yeah, it's it's well. I'd like to change this. I'd
like it to be something that happens so much that we can't possibly track each
of We can't keep up with it, but right now we can keep up
with it. So far, it's it's very manageable, and I'd like to
see that change. Do us a favor if you're on the Facebook's. Head
on over to Blurry Photos podcast on Facebook and give us a like. Yeah,
we're over one hundred. Now. Hey, hey, we got that
lock of hair coming to us from the royal family, so so go on
do that. Go over to YouTube and subscribe to us on there. Yep,
we'll be we'll be hopefully getting some good stuff there soon besides the podcast.
Yeah, we got some, we got we got some some frogs in
the pot. Yeah that's not even a phrase, it is. It felt
good to say it. Head over to stumble Upon, create an account,
learn how to do it, and then go and thumbs us up all of
those things. Go go follow us on the twitters, blurry underscore photos.
That's fun stuff. Yeah. Let me ask you this, Flora, is
it was it worth it for the sake of of delicious sarcasm to create a
MySpace for us? Probably? Not? No, Okay, I was just
wondering. I mean, apparently my space, if you even do it now,
is mostly for bands. Right, Oh, you have you heard the
sweet tracks we've kicked out? Do you remember the Fallen Angels episode? It
was practically a musical man, You're right, we did. I think we
did. Disney and top Gun. Yeah, and we did the crap out
of it, So I will do that. Maybe maybe we'll look into my
space. I've missed tom so very much. Here's the deal. If if
you want to make your people in your lives listen to us and they don't
know what a podcast is, take a few minutes and teach them. Yeah,
I don't lose your cool. It can be frustrating, but just walk
them through. And you know what, I'm not even saying that just for
our podcast. I'm saying that for podcasts in general. You listen to podcasts,
We're not the only ones you listen to and let other people know how
cool they are. Yeah, a lot of people don't understand either what a
podcast is, or how it works or anything like that. You've done that.
We're in new territory right now. Yeah, and it's and everyone who's
listening to this at some point it's had to try to explain a podcast to
someone, right um, And it's it's as easy as saying, just hand
me your damn phone, the idiot, and then boom, you just like
set them up with four or five podcasts and be like you don't have to
listen and all of them you just listen to something that sounds interesting. Yeah.
Um, but we're doing a service. We're fighting for all podcasts.
You can teach your friends to fish and then they will be fed off off
of our podcast from then on. This is what I'm trying. They won't
be bugging you for fish anymore. Dude. That way, it's not just
like, hey, listen to these guys and then they're like okay, because
yeah, but they're there. I don't see them. And the CDs at
the store not yet there. They're not the bargain band. There's no stores
that sell so anyways, Uh, do do a community service to teach people?
Uh? Man, that's that's all. Can we get that? Can
we get that sound effect again? Thank you? Yeah see, we're here
for you. So for this episode of Blurry Photos, I have been Davey
Laflow nice and I am David the whiskey Loa Stecco. Make your offerings.
I'm not the one who's so far away. When I feel the snackburder,
I don't want I cry. I don't remember. By man, it's like
it's like you keep trying to pull the ebreak to stop the call. Nick
just keeps going snaps off