Cosmic Curse - EP001 - Jojo Curious

It’s time to grease yourself up and put on your safety goggles, because Sam Supa and Farron Loathing are going to rip open a portal that will drag you screaming into another world. A world of strange movies, eye-melting animation, incredible comic books, cult toys, music, and more! Join these weird warlocks as they discuss and ponder the great mysteries that inspired it all. UAPs, the occult, cryptids, and all manner of black science on the fringe. Is it all connected to the COSMIC CURSE?? Let’s find out..

In this Episode:

Farron teaches about JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Farron's Japan Trip and Toy Shopping 
Sam with the Current  UAP / UFO news and general hot takes

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:58

The Cosmic Curse podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

Alright, and welcome back to the Cosmic Curse Podcast. Woo! Fair and Lothing, what's going on, my friend?

SPEAKER_04 1:13

I am dealing with being back in the States after an extraordinary visit to Japan. I was hoping that TSA, who I had forgot was no longer there, would ask for my phone, read my comments, and not let me back in the country, and that I would have been forced to go back to Japan as a refugee, a political refugee, and they would have to accept me and I'd be still there, and I'm not, and I'm here, and it sucks. Not like that dumbass Paul McCartney. No, differently. I've tried that route and didn't work.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

Yeah, you know, it's it's uh I remember talking to you while you were gone, and it was just so hilarious because it's literally like you were joking, it's like Malcolm X going to Mecca.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

And we were all brothers, true, people of all colors and races believing in one God, in one humanity.

SPEAKER_05 2:08

It's Godzilla.

SPEAKER_04 2:10

It was, it was the closest I could get to a religious journey to the the the motherland, you know, even though I'm I'm not Japanese. Come on from an atheist, that's a big deal. It is, it is. I guess Godzilla is the closest thing to a godhead that I have. Yeah. And uh, you know, his embrace or their embrace, who knows what the hell Godzilla is, it was loving, endless love forever. Yeah. And it was there at every point. Like when I went in '99, once in a while you'd see a Godzilla thing, and you'd be like, ooh, Godzilla. Now you get off the plane, and there's a fucking giant Godzilla sculpture waiting for you, and you're like, Oh my god, that's incredible. They they know where the tourists are here, and then you turn another corner and there's a fucking mural that's not just Godzilla, but it's like literally every Toho monster welcoming you.

SPEAKER_03 3:07

Yeah. Yeah. I remember uh you sent over that picture and you posted a bunch of pictures, and I'm like, that's wild. I mean, what there's no United States equivalent of that, unless you had like welcome to Miami. Here's a bunch of Fast and the Furious like statues waiting for you at the airport or some shit. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:24

I mean, I I just I I I guess Mickey Mouse is what people associate with. I I guess, I guess, yeah, I guess. Captain America, probably, but superheroes are still popular now. But uh, it's not as fun as a big monster. How long were you out there? Uh 10 days. 10 days. That's a long time. Not long enough. Really, really. Well, you're gonna go and you're gonna you're gonna go for almost a month, right?

SPEAKER_03 3:51

Yeah, Penny Lane and I are planning to go for like, I think 15 days at least. That's gonna be a beautiful trip. Yeah, I'm very if the world is still here by then, that'll be great.

SPEAKER_04 4:02

I would say comment more furious. If you can you if I'm I mean, I I'm sure you'll want to come home at some point, but if you can get denied access in in a fascist way, uh that would be incredible.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

Yeah, stay in Japan forever. Yeah, that'd be hilarious. So, one thing that I really enjoyed about looking at your your pictures of your trip is um how overwhelmed you seem to be by the scale and mass amounts of amazing stuff that you probably like, I can just fill my house with this and it would be no end.

SPEAKER_04 4:38

We will circle back eventually this broadcast to the toy thing, but the the the when you go to a store and you see an object that you want, and maybe another object you want, you're forced to decide which of these two things do I like. I had never been in a multiple rooms, actually, fuck it. Let's say a mini mall mall. Yeah, and you want everything. Like there literally, I couldn't look at a corner of this place. I'm talking about a place called Nokano Broadway, and it is a mall for all the great crap that you want to fill your house with, and it's everywhere how many stories is it like seven? Uh something like that. Yeah, it just went on and on and on, and and it was uh my my wife, she was she she kind of Homer Simpsoned away into the bushes. She was like, I'm gonna leave you two alone and I'm gonna go get a massage, right? And it wasn't enough time. Like, I two hours was not enough to wander that place. Wow, I needed a day.

SPEAKER_03 5:52

So, one thing you told me about we were talking about this last night. Um you tried to go to the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure ramen spot.

SPEAKER_04 6:02

Yes, good segue, by the way. Um, yeah, there's a ramen, an un unofficial Jojo's Bizarre Adventure ramen place, which is basically a ramen shop, if you will, that uh is owned by a Joe Bro, which is what they call a fan of the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure manga and anime. And he his entire collection fills the ramen spot, and he he's decorated the uh the place. Uh it instead of having a name on the awning, it's the I wish I had the right name for what this is, but there is a kanji that represents, I've been told by people that it means literally uh, which is supposed to be like suspense. Right. I swear to God, I'm gonna get the tension kanji. It's a tension kanji. Uh, I'm gonna get this tattooed on my knuckles at some point, but uh in in the literal name of the place, although it has a name that it's not on the awning, on the awning, it just has the tension kanji, and it's it's great. We he he makes when he's whipping some eggs up, he he makes the noise of the uh standy oh roo roo roah ro and people love to watch him spaz out an odaku over Jojo while they eat and so churn churn the ramen, huh? We couldn't get in because there was a two-hour wait.

SPEAKER_03 7:31

For those listening at home, what is Jojo's Bizarre Adventure?

SPEAKER_04 7:36

Oh, I'm so glad you asked. It's it is a very unique anime or manga that inspired multiple animes, and it inspired more than just that. Street Fighter 2, as we know it, those characters were largely inspired by this manga by Hirohiko Araki. And what what makes it so unique is his zero fucks approach to storytelling and character design. He literally wanted to design it. This is just my take on it. He wanted to push away everyone that would like it. So it's a shonen tough guy manga with a bunch of muscle-bound characters that fight that fight, but uh he in he wanted to repel the manosphere at the same time while while doing this, in the sense that he takes all these characters and he dresses them in the gayest outfits possible, yeah. Uh, and now it because he has to up himself every single fucking time he puts out a new comic book, uh, now that the characters are are literally wearing lipstick, yeah, right? Like like dangle earrings and belly shirts was not enough.

SPEAKER_03 8:59

Now look like extras from like a George Michaels video.

SPEAKER_04 9:01

Yeah, yeah. And I I I I have a theory that the name is is a clue. So uh I've watched him draw, and he and and and by the way, if you're sit if you're sitting at home right now going, well, I'm not gonna watch this, no, you're gonna watch this. You're gonna read it. Uh I'm selling it to you by telling you this. He he sits around with a bizarre fashion magazine, right? And pulls poses from that. So uh the fans get really into like, I guess, uh I mean like posing. Yeah, posing. And the reason that for the pose is when we'll get to what these characters do, but when they use their power, they kind of strike a pose because they stand still mostly, and their power uh materializes in a kind of weird ghost, like an aura, like an aura that looks like some kind of uh lawless superhero. And I say lawless because like their their anatomy doesn't always make sense. Sometimes they're they're not connected. It's oh man. So let's let's just rewind. Let's just rewind. When when when you s when you create a manga, Sam, a lot of times these guys they start their comic book before they even know what the hell it's about. Like there's such a demand to get your art out there and to get the pages done that sometimes the actual concept of what the manga is about is secondary, and they just start drawing. So when Hirohiko Oraki started uh Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, uh he was a huge fan of Fist of the North Star, Hokoto no Ken, right? That's what it reminds me of. Yes, they call long buff guys exactly fighting. Remember how homoerotic and Tama Finland-ish? What's the other one? Bao.

SPEAKER_03 10:58

Yes, Bao is uh what he did before Jojo. So, like you say homoerotic, absolutely, because I remember before I really knew what it was, you were really curious about it, and you always said that you were JoJo Curious.

SPEAKER_04 11:12

I might be a little Jojo curious curious, uh yeah, it's always been that way, but but so when he started the comic book, it actually began as a kind of hammer horror period piece about vampires, right? And then the series that followed that series.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

You're not Japanese.

SPEAKER_04 11:35

The first part is called Phantom Blood, and the second part is called Battle Tendency, and all these comics they involve this is from the first series, they all involve this family bloodline called the Joestars. And so the first story is the great-great-grandpa, uh Joseph Joestar, and then the second is his great-grandson, and it it takes place during like uh World War II, I believe. But when you when when it gets to part three, okay, which is called uh Star uh Stardust Crusaders, is when it becomes what Jojo becomes. And a lot of people, yourself included, are tempted to like skip over, and you can totally skip over the first and second part. Well, because I felt like it was kind of had a like a Dracula vibe. Yeah, well, the first part has a very Dracula vibe. Yeah. He the uh this oh man, see, this is the thing. There's so much Dracula, is he a fighting Dracula? And what do you know the name of the Dracula character? What is it? It's Dio. Okay. Do you know why his name is Dio? After Roddy James Dio? Yes. Because Hirohiko Iraki, just to make it even harder to release this manga in America, decided to name all the character most of the characters and their powers after famous rock bands from America or uh songs from famous rock bands, right? Okay. And so there's like a fucking SoundGarden guy. There's like a there's probably a Fleetwood Mac guy. I mean, there's so there's all these characters, and what we're getting to right now is, and there's stands. Okay. So a stand is what they call that ghost aura thing. The weird ghost aura thing that flies out. Anybody any of our listeners that remembers the movie Big Trouble in Little China? I I I really hope they've seen this movie. If not, we'll have to talk about it later. But there's a scene in Big Trouble in Little China where the two wizards, the good wizard and the bad wizard, Eggshen and Lopan, they have a fight, but instead of fighting, they they they have these like energy characters come out of them and fight for them, right? Do you remember that? Yeah. That is essentially what Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is about. So it's like a Pokemon thing, kind of. To put it in a lane term. Yeah, it's kind of like if Pokemon, instead of being cute dinosaurs, were sort of gay-looking ghosts. Right.

SPEAKER_03 14:16

Like if, you know, uh, yeah, I get you. Say no more. Say no more.

SPEAKER_04 14:21

And I mean, it's it's it's it's about a whole lot more, but this is the this is the theme that he has stuck with. They're I think they're on part eight now. So if like liberacci, liberacci would have made a good stand. Liberacci would definitely be either a stand or a stand wielder. That's the other thing, is it's not a world where everyone dresses like uh they're from uh the club scene from New York in uh they're weirdos in their in the universe are weirdos. They are. They are like there's normal people that dress pretty simple, everyday Joes are walking up and down the streets, but the only people that seem to develop a standability, and there they kind of talk about why they have standability. It's not because they're they're extreme fashion divas, but it just kind of this weird coincidence. You know what I mean? Like often in the characters, like, wow, I hope there's no stand users here, and they're gonna know who the stand user is immediately. It's the guy in the uh fishnet shirt with the nipple rings and the and the foot-long dangle earrings and the seven-foot flat top and the fucking wraparound sunglasses. That's probably your stand user right now.

SPEAKER_03 15:41

Right, you're gonna probably get into a fight with that guy.

SPEAKER_04 15:43

Yeah, they're probably gonna fight later on. Uh, but I can't recommend it more. I mean, I was I was JoJo Curious, as you said, for a very long time, and I when I finally had someone just literally grab me and say, You're going to fucking love this manga. I finally gave in, but I had to do it in a way that was very challenging. Uh, and I I I recommend to anyone listening to this, you're not gonna spoil Jojo. Jojo is so convoluted, so dense, but don't let this push you away. That I actually recommend opening up the Wikipedia. Read the entire Wikipedia on Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, and I and it's not gonna turn you off. You're just gonna be like, what the fuck? There's there's dimensions of this that I haven't even mentioned. The guy that writes this has not aged since he started writing it. Uh-huh. There are people that believe that JoJo predicted the 9-11 uh terrorist attack. Wow. Because there is a stand user pre-9-11 whose power was in it in there's actually a few of them that use manga and comics as a weapon against people. But this one character had like a uh I I it's been a while, but he had like a he had a it was a story within the story, okay, like a children's book. And in that book, there is a very detailed drawing of like two towers and a plane coming towards it. And it was completely it's a psychic thing. I mean, I I I'm going to say that like I don't think Grant Morrison reads Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, but he should, because he would see that there is some strange chaos magic shit going on unconsciously in the book.

SPEAKER_03 17:46

It's wild. Yeah, levels of projection is something you always uh when I read certain books or see certain movies or have certain experiences, there's a level of my personal projection that I put on something to go like, oh, I see the lines connect. Why don't that makes total sense to me? Now let me ask you, for the listeners at home, would you recommend this book to people who are depressed?

SPEAKER_04 18:13

Absolutely. Well, I mean, I recommend anyone that's depressed to be interested in things because uh lack of unfortunately depending on what kind of depression you're you're referring to, I believe that lack of interest in things is one of the problems that that happens to people that are clinical. It sounds very busy, it's very busy, and you can busy your mind with it for sure.

SPEAKER_03 18:40

So I I have tried to watch and read JoJo for years because fans recommended it to me. And I watched a bunch of the ones that were earlier where I'm like, yo, this is just a bunch of Draculas walking around being all fabulous. Bunch of fabulous Draculas, but like Fabulous Draculas. But it's not only until this last week where on Netflix, Netflix has all the JoJos there, and or most of them. Yes. And a new series has come out called Steel Ball Run. Steel Ball Run. It's on Netflix. They've only released one episode. It's a big chunky long episode, and uh 47 minutes. I picked up the the collected volume one, uh, which is really cheap, um, hard beautiful, hardbound book for uh uh look would look on on the shelf. But I started reading that in the toilet one day when I was trying to just kill some time. And after watching the entire episode of that episode of uh Steel Ball Run, uh and then reading what I just watched, it was almost pretty much frame by frame close. A little bit. A little bit. Uh but the the story behind Steelball Run, the way I've come to understand it, is some rich German philanthropist is throwing the first American cross-continental race, basically like the cannonball runners.

SPEAKER_04 19:56

In like 19 1897.

SPEAKER_03 19:58

In 1897. So everybody's on horseback or carriages, and the the story starts out with this young Native American brave who just runs. Yes. And he's outrunning his tribesmen because he And what is his name? Oh, Poco Loco, or no, no, no, that's that's the black guy.

SPEAKER_04 20:16

Oh, what what was his name? Just to bring it back to uh the fact that he names all these characters after songs, he is Enter Sandman, he's Sandman.

SPEAKER_03 20:25

That's right, his name is Sandman. Yeah, that's right. Get the Sandman, so yeah, so Sandman is running away from his tribesmen and they're chasing him because, like, we found a bunch of like white man's books in his tent, and he's not riding a horse, he's running like white men do for sport. And so that's how it kicks off. And so I watched the episode, it was great. It was very uh, it kind of had all the fabulousness you find in other JoJo stories, but it what really grounded me was it's a race, it's in the 1800s. It's like things that I don't have to think too much about to enjoy the premise. I get it now. So that's been really fun. I'm looking forward to the next episode. I can't wait to finish this volume one. So thank you. I finally am now uh Jojo Curious, potentially JoJo involved.

SPEAKER_04 21:15

Um thing that we need to mention is that this is even though this is called part seven, right? Jojo, have there been seven parts? It's a full reboot because all the everything we were talking about up to now about Jojo's bizarre adventure was how how inaccessible it is. How regular people how how a gaijin has to like really like make a commitment and be like, I am going to read a Wikipedia, I am going to read the manga, I'm going to figure out what this shit's about. Because I think Hirohiko Araki realized that I have created this unimpress un un unbreachable uh world. And so he he. Rebooted the whole thing at seven so that new readers and new watchers could could access it. And that is why uh when you go on Netflix, the first story is over. Like there's two, there's I if I'm not mistaken, there's now two JoJo Steel Ball Run is a separate link on Netflix. It's it's its own thing. It's not another episode in the series.

SPEAKER_03 22:25

No. Yeah, and that's that's great. You know, like Netflix has done a really good job of of bringing stuff over and producing stuff. Like what they do with the One Piece has been fantastic. Like One Piece is something I was always curious about, and I read some and then I watched the anime. Wait, you can do that on what? Are you talking about the the movie?

SPEAKER_04 22:42

The the live action show.

SPEAKER_03 22:43

The live action TV shows.

SPEAKER_04 22:44

Oh, yeah. Yeah, but I was I was gonna say, like, I I I toyed with the idea of of watching One Piece. Well, here's the thing, is I just And I'm like, it seems like a JoJo thing, it's so old.

SPEAKER_03 22:53

Well, I just watched it because it but it was really interesting, and I thought it really was faithful to the Mac for the manga. But the the point uh the point I'm making is that they're doing a really good job of supporting and translating, pushing that out because it's very, very popular. My my nephew's young daughter is literally an anime, it's so into anime. Like it's totally like part of her personality, it's what she's really into. She's like, you need to watch Death Note, you need to watch this, this, this, this, this. So I'm excited to like that. Jojo is something that now is in kind of my my uh on my radar, and I'm checking out. I'm so happy that you like it. Yeah, and and it's it's this is this is really relevant because also I started watching Sakamoto Days, which is also uh it's a it's another manga series that they made into a cartoon and they're making a live action, but it's also on Netflix. And I found that because when you were in Japan and you were going to all these stores, I would go to the websites of the stores you were at and shop. I'm like, oh, that's crazy. This one section is just all die cast metal, this one section is all anime figures, this one section is all Sofubi kaiju stuff. And then I was looking at figures, and then I found a figure of the main character from Sakamoto Days, the dad.

SPEAKER_04 24:16

He's not your usual hero looking character.

SPEAKER_03 24:18

He's not your usual badass hitman. He's like a he's like he looks like a fat dude who works at 7-Eleven with like an apron and he's all sloppy. And I'm like, what is this? So then I started, I found out what that was. I went to the wiki, I dug into it, and I it's a pretty good anime and a pretty good manga. So it's kind of neat because I have a really hard time watching new anime and manga. It's really hard for me to connect and enjoy because I just don't care. It's just like it seems kind of silly. Like people are like recommended, people I respect recommended like Death Note to me, left and right, and all these shows. And I'm like, eh, you know, if something that's like a reboot of something we like, like old Japanese robot stuff, or uh like I went back and started rewatching the old Macross stuff, that's cool. But it's really hard to connect with stuff like that. Just kind of like how you uh I had to like you know, drag you kicking and screaming to watch like Clone Wars. And I'm like, once you get over the animation, yeah, it all kind of clicks the animation.

SPEAKER_04 25:15

Yeah, telling me like one thing that I want to say is I mean, you and I have been reading comics since we were babies, yeah. And a lot of people, this is how I've gotten a lot of people to get into JoJo, a lot of people like roll their eyes and they're just oh my god, when is superheroes gonna be over? I'm so tired of superheroes or I'm so tired of Star Wars like shit. And there's as soon as I hear about someone's fatigue about these tropes, I'm like, come here, bitch. You're like going door to door. What if I told you that there was this comic book about a fucking horse race in the old west and they're gonna get powers during this 3,000 mile race? Like, there's nothing like that, or a retired fucking hitman that an oh uh that that got fat. Yeah, but it can still kill people, but it can still kill people. I mean, like I think that manga, because there's so much of it, has already gotten over the things that we're bored of.

SPEAKER_03 26:18

Comics did that. Most original ideas are coming from manga. Yeah, I mean, that's why like uh comics, manga books is always the source of for great storytelling that eventually becomes visual, which this generation, the current generation, seems to be really bored, and their attention span is like tiny to where like it's crazy how they format stuff for TikTok. They'll take like a movie and cut it up and just put it out on TikTok so you can watch it like one minute at a time. The attention span has been yeah, and for people who have bad attention spans their entire life, it's bad. This is bad. Well, anyways, uh, so yeah, welcome back to Cosmic Curse. Uh, we're gonna go ahead and take a little coffee break and we'll be right back.

SPEAKER_05 27:07

Oh, I get it. You're one of those strong silent types, right? Ever thought about modeling? You've got a nice look there. Come on, let's see what you got. Give me a smile. Oh, I know you can do it. Show me some vulnerability. Work with me here. Make some love to the camera. Ready? Set? Give me happy. How me silly? Show us those pearly whites.

SPEAKER_03 27:29

The finish up with Jojo, do you collect any Jojo merchandise?

SPEAKER_04 27:35

You know, I don't. There's there's really beautiful uh there's a company called Medicos that's been making these exquisite, severely posable uh figures, figures from uh JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. I think they're around like seven inches tall. Uh and and they're they're great. They're great. But I'm I made a decision, uh, and this will probably be coming up over and over again with me, but I made a decision to uh stick with Sofubi now, with the occasionally if something makes me break edge, but uh the reason for that is because of storage. Like I'm a weirdo, it's hard for me to throw a box away because the packaging, especially when you're only buying Japanese toys, is gorgeous, super collectible, yeah. And and and and you and it, you know, as the whole if I ever sell, which I never do, like I you you you throw away the box and it becomes less valuable. But I the idea that Sofubi, which is a vinyl uh toy, which I have a uh a sarcastic friend that calls them my expensive bath toys, and I guess that can't be argued against, but they they don't lose value, they're harder to break than any other toy. I've had them fall off the shelf and not even take a scrape on the paint. Uh they come generally in a plastic bag with a little cardboard staple uh tag on it, and you you easily remove the staples and fold up the bag and and and tuck it away. But yeah, no Jojo's because if maybe if they made a Sofubi Jojo, I'd I'd I'd I'd buy it. But uh to anyone loves action figures and falls in love with uh Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, they're gonna find uh there are shelves full of exquisite Jojo toys if they choose to go that way.

SPEAKER_03 29:46

So when you went to Japan, like you hit me up once you got there, and you're like, I'm having a panic attack. This is too much rad shit. Yeah. So what was that like? What did you end up picking up there?

SPEAKER_04 29:57

Well, uh is the premier uh secondhand toy store. Yeah, it's like it's like Imagine if Amoeba sold toys. Yes, that's a great, great comparison. It's like Amoeba for toys. Uh and there's one or two in every city that I went to. So I I I made it a a mission to go to everyone and buy a little something at each place. But you know, I I to not focus too much on just Mondoraki, I wanted to mention the different stores I saw in uh Nakano Broadway. Uh do you know what Keshi is?

SPEAKER_03 30:46

Yeah, Keshi's like the little rubber pencil eraser type figures. Yes, sir. In the in in uh, you know, we had them, we had muscles. Kiniku Man that came out in the 80s, and uh they made it up over here as muscles through Mattel. They came holding those little garbage cans. Yes, yeah. They had a whole store that was just Keshi. Of but like all different kinds of properties, right?

SPEAKER_04 31:07

Yeah. I mean they had all the muscles, but they had Keshi, it was a Keshi-centric store. Yeah, it was just too much. It was just I was just overwhelmed. I'm the you know, mandarake also sells manga, and so the the Nakano Broadway mandorake, the mall was full of other stores, but there was like multiple mandarake's in the mall. So you'd have to go to one floor if you were like a Sofubi's man like myself. You go to another floor if you wanted like die-cast Japanese posable robots, which I also like, and so I had to go up there. And they had a one store that was just manga, which was amazing, and they also had the weird erotica. There was a weird error, a Mondorake Weird Erotica store that had like all the the more horny comics, but also like all the statues. Um no, those got put in the statue store. Yeah. Oh man, there was so much to talk about. Like, so another thing that Mondorake sells, and it's kind of like the back room type of item, are these weird dolls. I don't, I I I I I wish I could tell you what they're called.

SPEAKER_03 32:30

I used to see them in like maybe Hobby Japan once in a while, or maybe uh that other the the SMH, which was a a more the Japanese collectible, uh monthly collectible, like big Bible books of pictures. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 32:46

But they're anatomically correct dolls that are like hyperposable and and and and and modular and set or not modular, but segmented. Really weird. But in the back display case, they had those. It was just uh it was mind-boggling. Like it was just so much to look at. Uh there's something for everybody, and and I again two hours was not enough. So when you and Penn go to Nakano Broadway, you need to find a place for her to go. I think you should buy her a massage and send her in. There is an outdoor mall, which you find a lot of those in Japan, where you where where there's all the like tourist gifts and stuff, tons of kitchenware and stuff, and not not whatever she's into, like like alcohol or or or or or or bar accessories, they're gonna have that, but you're gonna you're going to need a whole fucking day. Because running through it, like okay, this is I I know I'm jumping around a lot, but another thing that's weird about Japan is is uh they they keep the heat on. There is a belief that we discovered later on because we were like, even in the airport, we're like taking off our clothes. Like, what is going on? Why is the heat so so it is believed in Japan that the heat kills germs and bacteria? I think it might be something that that rose from a post-COVID perspective, but you know, I'm I'm in this these toy stores, and like I probably would have been sweating, perspiring intensely anyway, just from like the the Sophie's choice that I had to make between items of like, oh god, I know this is only the first mandarake I'm in in this trip. But then the heat is on, so I'm like literally pulling off my clothes and just dripping with sweat, like a total like sweaty pervert. Oh my god, I'm like, it's not because of these segmented dolls, I swear. I'm just I just don't know which of these pigmons to buy.

SPEAKER_03 35:02

Yeah, yeah, it's it's uh I went to the website for some of these stores, and I was blown away by the quality of the youth stuff because in Japan, um, I watched this one YouTubers, Mexican YouTuber. I sent him, I sent him, I sent you some of his videos. He just goes to all these use stores all over the suburbs of Tokyo and goes shopping for everything. He collects like Supreme clothing, he collects jackets, he collects hats, he collects toys, he collects all he just collects everything. And I was blown away by like he went to this one store that was like the Walmart of U stuff, and they had used Supreme hats, jackets, they had used Jordans, they had used Gucci, used Snow Gear, uh used uh matchbox vehicles. But out there, matchbox Hot Wheels, no, they got Tonica. Is it Tonika who makes the little uh die cast cars in Japan? I think it's Tonic. Oh, yeah, yeah. So there's a Mandarake for that too. Of course, of course, always. But so it's uh I was just blown away by how the quality, because these people in Japan, they got small spaces, they get rid of stuff all the time, and it's all really well taken care of. Very well taken care of. Like when you think about the quality of used toys when you go to like a used, when you go to like a toy show out here or you go to a comic book shop, it's not perfect. Nope. Like there's always a little dent, there's always a little whatever. But man, like the stuff they had online to sell, I was just blown away by like, oh my gosh, the box is perfect. The box is in a perfectly wrapped plastic, acid-resistant bag. Yeah, so you know, you saw a lot out there. What were what were some things? I saw the devil man jumbo machinder that you wanted. Yeah, so one thing that Farron and I collect, we collect what you know what people know as the Jumbo Shogun Warriors that are 24 inches that made out of they're made out of like the soap or shampoo bottle material. Polyurethane. Polyurethane, yeah. Um, they put out a Devil Man one that was really, really cool because it was just Devil Man, uh, but he just didn't move. He was just like Yeah. But it scaled with like the Mazinger, yeah. It's a little bigger.

SPEAKER_04 37:16

Yeah, it's like 26 inches or something. 26 or 27 inches, no wheels on the feet. Most of these toys, the Jumbo Machinders that were released in America as the Shogun Warriors, had wheels on the feet. Uh, this one does not, but it's packaged in the same way in a jumbo machinder style box. And uh it's actually kind of a Shogun Warriors style box, yeah, but it's whiter. So I was gonna tell you if you if you if you decide, yes, if you decide to go l hunting for this thing, it's very possible this motherfucker could be still at the uh Osaka uh Grand Chaos, is what the name of this Mondorake is called. It's called Mondorake Grand Chaos.

SPEAKER_03 37:58

But I'm gonna have to buy it a seat home.

SPEAKER_04 37:59

You're gonna have to send it home because the box is I'm gonna say it's twice as wide as a normal jumbo machinder box.

SPEAKER_03 38:08

So it's probably our jumbo machinder box is what, like I'd say 10 inches, 12 inches across max. In the ballpark, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:16

It's crazy. It was so huge. I looked at it on my way out, I was like, whoa, I didn't see that when I walked in.

SPEAKER_03 38:21

And that when that came out, and it just came out recently, it was 400 bucks, 300 bucks. Was it? Yeah, it was not that expensive.

SPEAKER_04 38:28

This thing is like six or seven hundred bucks.

SPEAKER_03 38:31

Maybe 500. I don't know. I have to compare. I saw it, I saw it online at Mandrake, but it was sold out at one of the locations. Probably not the one you were at. Anyways, sent me down a rabbit hole to try and find that. Uh, but so yeah, so you collect the the soft vinyl toys, the sofubi's uh definitely Godzilla heavy, obviously. I mean, what did you what did you get?

SPEAKER_04 38:51

Well, I I got a few grail items. I've been looking for a ball mark Garamon. If you don't know who Garamon is, I would say that Garamon is Pygmon, only bigger, Godzilla size. And if you're in here now, you're like, who's Pygmon? He is a the the goofiest looking kaiju. He has an eternal pout. Uh his arms are like set into his chest, hanging limp-wristed. Yeah, he looks kind of like he's made, he's like a giant pouty sponge-looking creature. And I don't know, he's if I uh he's a kind of like a spirit animal in this house. But uh he showed his original appearance is a movie called uh or from a TV show called Ultra Q, which is essentially like X-Files with uh Kaiju. Not in every episode, but most of the problems on Earth were caused by Kaiju. And uh the show evolved into Ultraman, but it in the they introduced this character, Garamon, which crazily enough is a robot, it's just like a biomechanical robot. Again, Japan more original than anything ever, uh, with this coming up with biomechanical monsters when we were still just coming up with Robbie the robot. Uh he's great. I've been looking for this thing, it's like nine inches tall, it's electric blue, uh, and and it and it's hilarious. If you if you're a toy collector of like G.I. Joe's or or American toys, you if you saw this thing, you'd be like, You've been looking for that your entire life? The answer is yes.

SPEAKER_03 40:35

This bath toy, I needed to be complete. No bath would have been complete without it.

SPEAKER_04 40:40

Um, another thing that I found was uh my favorite movie series is uh Frankenstein Conquers the World and War of the Gargantuas. We're gonna have an episode dedicated to this movie.

SPEAKER_03 40:56

From an out from an outsider perspective, it's like if a bunch of giant cavemen that were stories tall fought. That is a terrible description. They look like cavemen to me.

SPEAKER_04 41:05

Japan made a movie about a Frankenstein that is Godzilla size. And this Frankenstein is misunderstood and ends up wrestling a dinosaur that breathes fire, whatever, that burrows underground named Barragon. And then they made a sequel where chunks of this giant Frankenstein evolved into two giant Bigfoot looking things. One grew up in the water, and one grew up in the mountains, one's evil and one's good, and they wrestle, and it's the greatest thing ever, and I love it. And I I will die on that mountain. That's like you're in your brother's favorite thing, isn't it? It is. We still call each other like brown gargantua and green gargantua. That's ridiculous. Bandai released an internet only. That is my wife laughing at this fact, if you'd heard her. Uh Bandai released Bandai released this premium set of vinyl toys, Sofubies. Could only get them online, and they gave him the full treatment, which they had never done in the in the Fantasy Monsters scale. I remember when you're trying to order these off eBay, you're like, I don't know, are they gonna take my money?

SPEAKER_03 42:21

What is this weird website? I'm ordering it off.

SPEAKER_04 42:23

It was weird. It was the first I because I had to order off a Japanese website, and it was a little it'll a little sketchy because I had never done that before, but it worked, and I got the green one, and I got the brown one, and I got Frankenstein, and I had it. I I've a couple of my friends ordered these, they look fucking beautiful, yeah. And the missing piece of this series of premium bandai toys was the Baragon, which is the big-eared kaiju dinosaur that Frankenstein fights, and like I didn't know the series was complete, I didn't know they were making him, and they pop him out and it's sold out immediately. It was way overpriced on eBay, and uh, I never got my hands on one. It I I kept telling myself it was gonna show up in Little Tokyo, never shows up in Little Tokyo, and at the same at the Grand Chaos in uh which you're gonna lose in Osaka, uh, where I saw the Devil Man jumbo, there he is. And it's rare that you find a toy that you're looking for and are surprised by it. All this time I'd been looking for it, I had no idea that it that this toy comes with two toys. It's not just Baragon, it's Baragon and Frankenstein's severed hand. And that's life size. It's not it's it's it's like about the size of like a like an eight-year-old's hand, and and uh which is kind of a grim thing to say, but it's true. Um and the reason is because in the movie, which I I'm going to force all of you to watch at some point, uh Frankenstein's hand gets chopped off, and it's still crawling around because all of his cells are independent. And it's the size of like a small bicycle or a car. No, no, no. This is before he got huge. Oh, okay. He starts growing. See what the story of Frankenstein conquers the world, which again we're gonna do an episode on, is that uh during World War II, the Nazis sent Frankenstein's still beating heart to uh uh Hiroshima to be studied, and then it gets nuked. So the hand or the heart grows a whole new body. Yeah. And though and it's they find a Caucasian boy running around naked in Tokyo, but what they don't know is that he's still growing, and so he escapes the lab before getting his hand chopped off. And by incidentally, that hand turns into the brown gargantua. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 45:18

So that was a toy that you got out there. That is this this is I looked in the case when I came over last night and I'm like, that's cool. I recognized the all the the gargantuas, the Frankenstein, and the Baragon. I'm like, what is this hand?

SPEAKER_04 45:32

You didn't see the hand?

SPEAKER_03 45:33

I saw the hand. Oh, but you were like, why is there a hand in display case? It's like, yeah, and I got this baby hand while I was out in Japan. I'm gonna use it to whatever. Um oh, I'm definitely gonna use it to whatever. Yeah. Yeah, so okay, so you got you got the um the ultraman guy, you got the you finished out your collection of the Frankenstein, yes, sir, Hanger's World. What else?

SPEAKER_04 45:59

Uh, one of my favorite Godzillas is uh the one from Godzilla Matha Kingidra, A Monster's Attack, which actually has Baragon in it. Again, that's the only other movie that he's been in a featured role. He was in the background of Destro Monster. He's got like a big reputation for only being in a few things.

SPEAKER_03 46:18

Yeah, yeah. But he's a fan favorite. Yeah, I mean, he kind of reminds me, he's on the same vibe as uh and Angelis. They are both kind of canine-ish in there. Yeah, they're kind of dog like they're on their bellies almost. They kind of salamander-ish, you know. But man, I love Angular. Angelus is my favorite guy. I love that guy. He he's Godzilla's like road dog. Yeah, yeah. He's like, yo, what's going on in Tokyo? What you go find out.

SPEAKER_04 46:43

So, in that that movie was directed by uh Shusuke Kaneko, who directed the 90s gamma movies, which I'm always trying to push up. That's interesting. No wonder. He proved his his his steel on those gamma movies, and they gave him a Godzilla movie, and he made that movie. And it is one of my favorite Godzilla movies. Yeah. And another little detail, besides the fact that he has milky eyes, make Godzilla even more evil and scary looking, yeah. He is a he is the dickhead Godzilla. Like, let's say you're run Godzilla, if you're running from him on the street, he's not gonna chase you if you duck down an alley. This this Godzilla will literally like go, oh, you try to get away, and and just step on you. He's a hateful, pissed off, asshole Godzilla. And uh another thing about that movie is uh that you should look up is have you ever seen uh the making of it? The the the girl that's in the Baragon suit? No. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:50

So there's a uh So are you talking about the Baragon suit from the Frankenstein? No.

SPEAKER_04 47:56

From the the movie that I bought the toy from. Which is Godzilla, Mothra, Kingra, All Monsters Attack. All Monsters Attack. So in that movie by Kaneiko, they had Baragon's like substantially smaller than Godzilla. And uh they needed somebody of very short stature to play Barragon. And there's all over the internet there's these videos that surfaced from the making of that movie of this blonde-haired Japanese woman, and she's adorable, she's like tiny, and she gets in the suit, and every time she makes the mouth open, she she makes a roar. So I don't know. When I get my Baragon tattoo, I'm probably gonna have a little word bubble going, yeah!

SPEAKER_03 48:58

Yeah. Man, that's uh that that's cool, man. I I like that you were able to find stuff that you wanted because sometimes that happens, you know, when you go to like a con or you go shopping or you, you know, you go online, you're like, oh, I got a little money, I can, and then you never find what you want.

SPEAKER_04 49:15

That's the worst. There was no doubt that we were gonna find what we what you wanted. Look, the the I had increased the odds. But the problem is, like I said, you know, I I had like ideas about what I wanted, but you know, you walk in, you're like, I want everything.

SPEAKER_03 49:32

Yeah, Japan is other ideas. So another piece, because he's my favorite guy, is the smog monster, Hedero. You got this beautiful, he's like a foot, a foot and some change tall. He's got the big spread arms. He's like Jesus Christ pose smog.

SPEAKER_04 49:49

He's like what, like yellow and orange? Yeah, beautiful. There's something I haven't told you about that. What? Something that I I bought it and I didn't know about, and then I'm I'm sitting in the hotel, I'm looking at it. It's actually a bath toy, you bought it like bed bathroom. This bath toy stuff. By the way, I'd like you all to know that like you know, it doesn't matter how expensive it is or how rare if you if I buy Sam a fucking Sofubi, it goes in his bathroom.

SPEAKER_03 50:21

Yeah, that's why I keep all my Sofubies. Yeah, this is the And you know what? Uh it's funny because I didn't connect that because I never considered bath toys.

SPEAKER_04 50:27

Right. I think sub subconsciously we thought it was a bath toy. But back to the smog monster. Uh so I'm sitting in the hotel looking at my bath toy. It's huge, it's like 11 inches tall, 12-inch wide arms spread out, and it's bright orange, and I'm looking at the eye because it has like a very like almost like a taxidermy eye in it. Only one, because uh in the movie, Godzilla like pokes out one of the eyes during the fight, and so they they they only gave him one eye and one swollen one. But I'm looking at it, I'm like, what the what the hell? And I get up closer, and I have failed to mention that uh in Japan, Tower Records never went away. A Japanese company, I believe, bought tower records and kept it going. So we saw Tower Records when we were out there. I saw them the first time I was there in '99. They've never gone away as a thing. And and I did know that this hijra was a tower records exclusive. That's why it's yellow. That's why it's yellow and orange. That's hilarious. Like the logo. Yes. But did it have a it's not over? Let me finish. So I'm looking at the eye and I get closer to it, and I get closer to it, and then I realize that the iris is made up of words, and the words say, music is life.

SPEAKER_03 51:54

No way, way, I gotta go look at that thing right now.

SPEAKER_04 51:57

Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna let you examine it. It's crazy. That's hilarious. Are we still recording? Yes. Okay, I saw you touch the button.

SPEAKER_03 52:08

I didn't touch it. Um man, music is life. Music is life, Hydra. That's awes well. That's kind of funny because that movie, you know, Godzilla vs. Smog Monster Hydra is very musical. Extremely. It's about like the youth upright like rising up against smog. That's right. And there's a lot of psychedelic 70s.

SPEAKER_04 52:29

It's it is the psychedelic Godzilla movie. Yeah, I think that's why I like it so much. Yeah, I like it. And have you you've have you watched the Japanese version or the AIP version? No, I I saw it in the theater in Japanese. Remember? I want to go see. Oh, yeah, right, right, right. Because uh I could be wrong, but there's some moments that are cut out of the American version. Like uh when when when the dude's like they don't say that he's on acid, but he he's definitely on acid, and everyone in the club turn into fish. Yes, like that's I don't remember that in my my copy. Yeah, that's in the jab.

SPEAKER_03 53:04

That's in the version I saw in the theater. I made I made Penny sit through that bless her heart. Uh, you know, just sidebar uh Penny Lane. Uh she does a real bang up job of trying to buy me stuff for Christmas. And you know, she knows you can't buy me toys, you can't buy me music, whatever, whatever. But she did happen to get me um Aloha Draft House, did had a Godzilla collaboration, and they had a Shoah era Godzilla head pizza popcorn bucket. I sent you a picture of it. It's it's like big it's your favorite Godzilla head, too, isn't it? It's the it's the cute one, it's the cute one, and it's the size of your head or my head. It's huge. And you can open it, it's got the jaw that opens, you can stick your hand in there. It's beautiful. And she got me that for Christmas, and I was pretty blown away because I don't know where I'm gonna put it. At work, I have a little Godzilla shrine that has the jumbo machinder, and it has some of the Super 7 ones and some smaller ones. I think I'll just put it in the office on top of the fridge.

SPEAKER_04 54:08

Hey, I was gonna ask you if you're gonna put it with other Godzilla merchandise or are you gonna put it next to your Dune Bussy?

SPEAKER_03 54:14

So the Dune Bussy is uh the Dune popcorn bucket is in my office and it has its own like cube. Okay. It just sits there like a relic. Uh I was going to like this popcorn. I was getting strung out on going to the movies eating popcorn fair. I would buy like the popcorn buckets. I got like the alien one from Romulus, I got the Jaws one from the Jaws 15th anniversary. After I got like my third one, I'm like, you know, I really don't need these. And I flipped them on eBay, and that worked out pretty well.

SPEAKER_04 54:42

Yeah, I was gonna tell you, I I find, and by I I mean, you definitely that popcorn bucket got Zoe as a keeper for sure. But the the reason I never got the popcorn buckets, because they sell them at the AMC over here, is because I feel that those items are not for us. They're for people that don't already fill their fucking shelves with plastic die cast.

SPEAKER_03 55:07

Exactly. Like my my uh my barber, uh I got a barber in San Luis Obispo that I see every couple months, apparently. Does a great job. He c he collects popcorn buckets and he has them in his kitchen on top of his cabinets. And he's really into them. That that that checks out. That that makes sense. But this Godzilla bucket is just it's it's like if you just you could just sell it as a head. Yeah, you know, and it comes in a beautiful box, which I'm gonna keep. And uh yeah, pretty awesome. And uh I I really appreciated it. Now, granted, Alvo Draft House is going down the tubes, apparently their their quality is so bad now. And it used to be really cool to be able to go to a movie and get food served to you. Very, very, very gluttonous, but still.

SPEAKER_04 55:49

Can I can you explain something to me about them? Yeah. So I don't know if our listeners, uh you probably know this, but if you don't, uh there's a it one of the controversies is like, you know, if you love this, if you love films and people that go to Alma Draft House love films, yeah. They they they had a no phones rule, and then all of a sudden they became pro phone but low, dark phones, so that you could order the food. It's and it it's it seems like you should just order your fucking food before you go in the theater, right? Like, why is that why do I have to know this and they and they don't know this?

SPEAKER_03 56:30

Yeah, that was the whole charm of that place, and I think it it makes sense because there's other food eat theaters in like the valley which do a better job uh-huh where you just bring your food in. Yeah, it's got the nice recliners, but they could bring the food, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:45

We have assigned seats, right? You buy your fucking ticket, yeah, you go to the to the the the counter and you tell them what you want, and they know where your seat is because you're there's they have you in the computer, and then they just know you could literally order your whole shit online before even walking into the theater, yeah. But instead they're hunting up on this like, is it because they want you to be able to order more food if you're sitting there?

SPEAKER_03 57:10

I I think that's what it is, but that whole model has is been messed up. And I think like the reason they use the phone now, and I want to make sure that we spread this rumor, is that some like zenny old kid who worked there probably twisted his ankle, bringing somebody their goddamn margarita and popcorn, sued the company, and they had to switch the phones.

SPEAKER_04 57:28

They're still gonna yeah, but they that that I don't think that's what it is because uh they still gotta bring your food, they still gotta bring your food. They're not they're not turning on the lights in the theater. I I'm I'm pissed at them for so many reasons. I I really want to love them, but uh they keep they they sell out a show and then they won't get out of my feed. They're doing a Godzilla thing, and uh every day I'm reminded that hey, guess what? Sold-out shows. Hey, guess what? We have we have three completely sold-out in one in one hour uh Mecha Godzilla show that you can't go to. Enjoy. Do they add more shows? Do they say we're gonna we've added a midnight? Nothing. Yeah, and they they already know it will sell out, and you know, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 58:14

Well, the best the best thing they did is team up with the Godzilla Toho people and make this popcorn bucket. That's that's it. That's it. After that, they're only saving grace. They can be consumed by a giant multinational that parts, but you know, sells them off for parts or all like ours looks is ours is busted.

SPEAKER_04 58:29

Yeah, the seats, all the all the all the the recliners, holes in them, the fucking the foam's falling out of it. It it looks like shit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 58:39

You know, I every time I come to visit you in Los Angeles, um, I always want to go to the Quentin Tarantino theater. I always want to go to the New Beverly to see a movie. I looked up what was playing, it was like some Italian hellhouse, some like Italian Giallo situation last night that was playing. They've been doing an erotic thing for a few days. Or like a few months. Like, yeah, yeah. I I noticed that. I th they're like trying to get back to the roots of it being a porn theater or something. Um I I don't know if that's the uh yeah, listeners at home, Newf Beverly is Quentin Tarantino's uh movie house. That's right. And it's it's cool because I I follow them online. And if I lived in Los Angeles, I'd be there like every week watching something. Because I'd love to see all these old movies in a theater.

SPEAKER_04 59:25

Um yeah. They I almost went because I'm a huge fan of uh I love porn! No, uh, I'm a huge fan of the Italian Emanuel movies. Right. Right?

SPEAKER_03 59:39

I think it's Emanuel rides a horse, Emmanuel is a pirate.

SPEAKER_04 59:43

Well, there's you know, there's there there is the Sylvia Crystal British Emmanuel movies, and I wasn't into those. I liked the the uh Laura Gemser Italian ones, and they spelled Emanuel a little different, and these movies are they're they're they were sexy, but then they they quickly went ghoulish. Like it wasn't fun enough just to have her like make out with chicks and and and go on adventures as this like her power her superpower is nymphomania, like she could nympho her way through any situation, and eventually they just had her nympho her way through like uh uh like uh sex trafficking and nympho her way through cannibalism is the is the crazy one. They so she said they started mixing it with horror.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:32

So there's British, there's British Emmanuel, Emanuel, and then there's Italian Emmanuel, which would be Hey Emanuel, hey Emanuel, yes, she luck at the girls, she luck at the boys. Yeah, I'm telling you, man, like I remember those from from you know going to the video store and being like, What is this? Yeah, you know, I never saw them in the video store.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:53

Yeah, you must think you move you went through the beads.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:58

Um yeah, I mean, I remember the short time I did run a video store in San Francisco in the 90s, it was really always funny to see who walked through the beads. Uh local local councilman Tom Amiano uh would always go through the beads to be able to do it. Oh, yeah. And he liked he liked his boys at sports. Uh I don't know, man. It's I'm really glad that you went to Japan. I'm really glad that you got to see all these wonderful toys. I'm really glad that you got to find some grails. That's pretty awesome. It's really hard to be like, I found some awesome stuff.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:34

You know, I went through the beads in Japan. Oh, did you? Yeah. Uh I there was a few stores in Akihabra that I I'm like, wow man, there's so many floors. And I was like, gee, what's what's in the basement of this store? And so I I go down to the basement and it was anime titties forever. Like they had it on the floor, they had it on the ceiling, they had it on the walls, like everything hentai. Like basement rock bottom, literally. Yeah, wall-the-wall hentai. Hentai basement. Yeah. And uh I I was trying to get Courtney to go down.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:18

Uh, but I think she was too tall for for the uh I love that if you look in the pile of stuff, you just see like white eyes come out of the shadows and who've been down there forever.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:28

There were there was a certain kind of fan down there. Yeah, I have to think about it.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:31

And also because of the heat, definitely sweaty.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:33

They were sweaty, and you know, the basement is extra sweaty, and it's it was a sweaty anti basement.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:40

Yeah, it's funny to go to like you know, uh the Japanese toy stores uh here in in LA, uh, anime jungle, and you go to the one, you know, they have one store for like models and robots and Godzilla, then they have the other store for like anime stuff. And I always look in the back display case of all these like extremely insanely bucksome, weird, gravity-defying anime chicks, the hentai chicks. And it's funny because like people, there's just people who just that's what they like. They order these statues. Like on the Reddit, the subreddit on you know, Reddit Online, there's a subreddit for action figures or toys. There'll always be some weirdos, like, oh, I just got a new this, that it's like some kind of weird hentai. People are like, Yeah, dude, wrong subreddit, weirdo.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:22

Have you ever been in the presence of a Takashi Mirakami fiberglass sculpture?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:28

No, um I I don't think I have. I've only seen pictures.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:33

I went to the uh guest like headquarters, the guest headquarters in Japan? Not no, not in Japan, uh in in LA for for work. And uh in their lobby, they have one of these Takashi Mirakami sculptures, and it's if I recall, it's the one it's an anime girl with uh indescribably uh exaggerated breasts, and she is and there's m uh milk coming out of the titties and it circles the figure. It's it's it's incredible, it's all fiberglass, but like it's it's taking it's taking that uh hentai aesthetic and uh and and turning the volume to 11. Crazy. How big was it? Oh, it's it's taller than me. It was like huge, yeah. Like up to the ceiling. That's crazy. It's this room that we're in right now. That's hilarious. That's like you know, nine feet tall. Because she's like kind of like suspended, yeah, like floating anime powers style. And and by the way, that the the the little like like French made gigantic buxom anime character, they they're not just in the basement, you know, as long as they're top, if they're covered up. When we got to Akihabra, they were there were billboards with these girls all over the place. And that's the other thing is uh the girls dressed up as these characters. You know, when you go to Vegas and people are soliciting prostitutes?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:10

Well, I was just in Vegas and I was walking down the strip and I'm like, you know, guys, and I was with a group of like 10 people. I haven't seen any of the like hooker baseball cards they usually hand out. Yeah, right. Couple minutes later, small Mexican woman starts handing, like starts handing our group like these little cards that chicken gets audit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:27

There are girls and it's freezing in no pants, just like tiny skirts, and they're they're hand they're doing the same thing. They're they're doing the the card tap tap tap and they're trying to get guys' attention. And Courtney was my wife, she's like, are these are these like Odaku prostitutes? And and I had to explain, no. I mean, some of them might be. I I don't I I have never followed them up to one of these rooms, but they're there are these like maid bars, lounges, yeah. Lounges, yeah. And it's It's different than a hostess bar. Because at least when my first time in Japan, hostess bars were not for Gaijan. Yeah. I've heard that that has changed now. And I guess uh they let foreigners go into the hostess bars. But these this was uh a made bar. And it's where you have it's like a I don't know if it's food and drink or if it's just drink, but there is just anime style French maids everywhere. Just milk. Yeah, just milk bar. It's very anime oriented and uh it's all young girls and it's weird. Yeah. And but they keep these girls soliciting these bars and trying to drag you in from the street working on this on the sidewalk all night. Like they were out there all night, and I'm I'm got like layers on because it's cold in Japan at the moment, you know? Yeah, and uh that not much for them. And another thing that's weird. And shut me if I'm going off too much too too long, but so there's a style that's very popular in Japan right now amongst young women. And I'm gonna tell you exactly what the style looked like to me. Do you remember the episode of Facts of Life? This is such Gen X talk. Sorry, everyone younger than us, but do you remember the episode of Facts of Life where Tootie goes to New York? She likes runs away to New York and uh because she wants to see the big city, and she meets a prostitute and doesn't know that she's a prostitute and almost gets turned out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:39

You're not an actress, are you? Sure I am. Come off of it, Christy. I know what you are. You work for Mike. Tootie, I told you he's just a friend of mine. I'm not that dumb.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:51

That's kind of the style of like leg warmers, super mini mini skirt, and a fur coat is the style that is very popular in Japan, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:03

Yes, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that is hyper-stylized anime style. This this all checks out, man. It all checks out. Did you know water is wet in Japan? It's fucking super wet water. Super wet water. Yeah, yeah. Well, man, it sounds like you had such a good time. Um, I'm really, really happy you went. I think that uh, like I told you, it's gonna be a very inspiring trip. We're going to.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:29

I'm proposing Cosmic Curse Podcast, episode 100.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:38

In Japan. In Japan. Ah, let's see. Let's let's see if we can reach that goal, my friend. That'd be great. That'd be really, really great. Well, uh, we got some business and papers to attend to. We'll be right back.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:55

They've been reported at dusk or in the dead of night, in clearings, amid still woods and fields in lonely farm country. Sometimes they come in silence, sometimes with quiet thunder. Often they leave marks in the earth, signals of their passing. They've been seen but fleetingly, and their extraordinary presence creates a frightening mystery. In fields from West Virginia through Wisconsin to Oregon are the beginnings of answers.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:38

I get back into America and disappointed. I I I I I I watched the new uh Age of Disclosure trailer dropped, which looks pretty cool. Spielberg coming back to aliens to try and convince me it's not a sequel to wait a minute. It's not called age of disclosure, it's just called disclosure, disclosure day, day of disclosure, disclosure. I don't know. Disclosure, disclosure, disclosure. Triple D? Triple D. That's right. That's why we call it triple D all the time. ET2. Okay, yeah, ET2. So ET2 trailer dropped, and I saw that there was a lot of alien shit in the news right now. What's what fill me in? What's going on?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:21

That's one thing that there always seems to be alien news now. Like, I have a co-worker who uh I don't we don't really have the same political leanings at all, but we find middle ground talking about UFOs and the phenomena. Um and you know, it seems like he was all happy because Trump was all like, oh, you know, we're gonna we're gonna tell you all about the UFOs and JFK and and disclose this stuff. Like he he was like trying to maybe he was just having a stroke that day, but he was like talking about how he wanted to like disclose the UFO information to the public. There was um like the India Times, kind of skeptical occasionally, but sometimes they have good news, and other foreign news agencies were picking up that he was gonna reveal some alien stuff or talk about UFOs.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:14

Anything to get to get people off the Epstein files.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:17

Yeah. Um, and the biggest thing that people are considering is that potentially he was just gonna reveal that Roswell happened, there were bodies, there was backward and you know engineering, and that's it. But once you open up that can of worms and have an American president state that it's he can't really turn back from that. So just today, on Saturday, March uh I think it's the 28th today, uh JD Vance was interviewed, I think, yesterday, and he was asked about the UFO thing, and he was very, you know, kind of almost like, oh yeah, you know, he's like the UFO thing. Uh it seemed like he was really interested in it. And he said, Um, you know, I don't think they're aliens, I think they're demons. And you and I have discussed about this at length that there's a whole part of the the internal Pentagon military industrial complex, which are old Christian dudes.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:17

Well, that within the Pentagon, yeah, I forget what they're called. It's it sounds like the the column column of eight or something like it. It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie. Yeah. But they're a bunch of hardcore Christian national generals, yeah, and they they don't like talking about aliens and they they're they're they can get the can of worms and you can open up a a like demonic dimension.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:40

Yeah, yeah. And it's kind of crazy that that is what is preventing disclosure in a lot of ways. Another thing that I remember uh you and I spoke about is the fact that the government has the government and all the aerospace companies that have potentially backward engineered UAPs and UFOs and stuff, are hiring the bare minimum people who can barely do the job right. They're not hiring the best of the best of engineers, physicists, scientists to work on backward engineering that we know of.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:13

I'm a fan of this physicist. He's you know, he's he shows up everywhere. He's yeah, he's been on Rogan, he's been on uh Jesse Michaels, I think. I just saw him on, but uh his name is Eric Weinstein, and he's he's you know, he's a top, top physicist theoretical physicist. And he when you're that at that level, you know all the other top theoretical physicists in the field and and and and mathematicians and whatnot. So he knows all these guys, he knows where they work. And he he says often that he I should say that Eric admits that there he has seen enough evidence and he and and listened to speak enough people that he trusts where he's definitely believes that something weird is going on. Now, what that weird is, he won't say. He he knows, he doesn't know, uh, but there is something strange. These pilots, the the the what their sensors pick up on, what what what is being witnessed is something that begs for further investigation and a need for more data in a real scientific fashion. In a real scientific fashion. But when he meets people from these uh uh rever that these people that are supposed to be part of the program to re-uh reverse engineer reverse engineer alien technology alien technology, none of the guys that he knows that should be, if you want to crack this egg, you have these top people in uh in the field working on these projects, they're not there, yeah. They're not anywhere near it. They want to be, but they haven't been contacted. And something that occurred to me uh he they didn't he I don't he hasn't actually arrived at this yet. But when you think about the Christian nationalist point of view, I'm gonna say that most theoretical physicists are probably not Christian nationalists. No, they're probably agnostics, they're probably agnostic at best, okay? But believing in in in the Bible verbatim is probably not in the in the toolbox of of uh which is an ironic way of putting it, of a theoretical physicist. And this is probably the reason that they're not there, is because there is this Christian perspective that is keeping the the concept of of of even embracing what these things are and where they're from. It it's it's it's it's like blinders, it's like putting on uh goggles.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:56

And I think that maybe that's why the privatization of research of potential UFO technology has been so so rampant, is because I almost feel like these guys don't want anything to do with it, have the government handle it, they want to have have control over it or be able to police it, but let somebody else actually do the work. Like the aerospace companies allegedly that are working, that have this ancient technique. Boeing, lockhead, yeah, Raytheon. Yeah, yeah. And and I don't know, it just really seems to me that people, you know, I could have believed that that object that was flying through our solar system, Atlas III, was something because they kept NASA kept obscuring images of the of the of the trail it was leaving, images, key images when we got close to it. And a lot of people were speculating that that was some kind of um uh intelligent created probe that was just probing our galaxy or our you know our our part of the universe. It could have been naked vampires in that thing, naked vampires, could have been Emanuel in space. No, seriously though, um, so I don't know. I just I think that like, and I say this to Farron all the time. Listen, if there's aliens or UFOs, I don't give a fuck about that. How can this lower my taxes? How can they save me money in this daily wretched life here on the planet? And the answer is I don't know. I don't know. 100%.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:25

No, I mean, like I am a fan of chaos, and I love the words catastrophic disclosure of the undigestible truth about humanity. I want to rip the fucking band-aid off because uh, you know, tribalism and religion, in in my opinion, you know, send all we'll we'll provide an email for you to send all your hate letters, too. But it's it's it's the reason why we fight, it's the reason we hate each other, it's and it's it's stupid. And realizing the how big the universe is and how small we are, I think would be the first steps of uh of of getting over it. I mean, maybe I just watched too much original Star Trek, but I I do feel that well, not even necessarily a common enemy, but if you just found out that yeah, yeah, we're a shake, shake and bake experiment, we're an ad farm. I don't know if I I it couldn't be worse than where we're at now, you know?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:34

I agree with you. And also think about this potential reality that if we are in a cosmic zoo or if we're some sort of lab experiment, why would you expect the custodians or the scientists to talk to us and tell us what we are when they don't even think we can actually fathom that reality? You know, it's like you talk to like you talk to a cute kitty cat, you talk to a dog, you talk to an animal in in in in a cage in a zoo. And granted, since we're all kind of on the same planet as a speech different species, maybe you could communicate with them more. But there's some people who run zoos, who run labs, who do experiments for humans who don't give the subject or whatever they're experimenting or looking at the respect of understanding, like, oh, why would I care what an ant farm is? It's here to be observed.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:30

What if what if you and Penny came home uh one one night and uh the little cat Nika? What if Nika had uh built from scratch a fishing pole or a mouse trap? Like literally figured it out or or or or picked the lock. Let's just say she bit made a skeleton key and picked the lock of your house. How would you treat her after that?

SPEAKER_03 1:20:05

Probably closer to I'd probably, I mean, I already love her. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:09

Or no, no, no, let me continue. What if, what if, what if, and so you look at it and you're like, okay, that's a that's a freak thing. She got it, she must have copied some things that she saw, that she's not gonna do it again. And the next time you see her, she has she hasn't built uh an iPhone, but she made a flip phone. Okay. Okay. All right, so break it down for me. I'm asking you, what would what would what would your how would your relationship change with your cat if your cat is now building complex electronics when you're gone?

SPEAKER_03 1:20:44

I would definitely uh it would change my understanding of what cats can do. And my cat being an example of like, if they can do this, imagine it. What are the cats going to find?

SPEAKER_04 1:20:55

Yeah, I would it would change. It would change. Yeah, you might have more interaction with the cat. Yeah. You might start talking to the cat. Maybe instead of going, you'd be like, what are you gonna build next? Yeah. Can we talk about it before you do it? And what are you using to build these things? And by the way, building that particular device is going to fuck up the the gears of my plants. And I think that a little of that has happened because I mean, this I'm by this is not the first time this sentence has been uttered, but it does appear that we started getting more UAP after we started splitting atoms.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:34

After we started splitting atoms, yeah, and and because of the atmospheric particles and the chemicals released and that explosion on an atomic level kind of acted as like a you know, like you're the smoke alarm in the universe. It it let off the alarm. I don't know. See, part of me feels like, you know, you start getting into yes, the universe, but also the the dimensional aspects of this technology and these people who are creating it or using it. I mean, uh the people in the government, the Congress people like Mace and them, they they're openly talked about over the last year that this is an interdimensional situation. They've said on record, when they're in the skiffs talking about stuff, they have said there's an interdimensional aspect to the UAP phenomenon and the what we call perceived as the alien phenomenon.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:22

That just these people generally that use that term don't have any fucking idea what that means. And uh I'm I'm not gonna pretend that I do, but uh, I've heard the discussion about there there there is there is the idea that we're being visited by something from another dimension, like you, like another plane, like you see in the movies, right? Like demons, but there's also the fact that uh a lot of scientists, a lot of physicists will tell you that our notions of uh traveling extraordinary distances. You have the shills like uh uh uh Miles, what's his name? DeGrasse Tyson. Like I don't he's I a lot of people are gonna hate me for saying this. He's I find him to be kind of a bullshit artist. He doesn't have the imagination required to do great science. He's really good at at at being smug, but yeah, uh there are other ways. If we get into theoretical physics, there's other ways to travel that we haven't even pondered. We don't know everything, and one of the means, and I am do not have a brain big enough to explain this, is it while you cannot travel great distances using fuel or something in in this dimension, it's possible using other dimensions to travel. Pass-throughs, yeah. Exactly. And so that's that's I think that's what they mean by that or are intending to mean. Or who knows, maybe maybe there is things from other planes visiting us, although it if if you come from uh you know the the sixth dimension, I don't know if you can exist in the third dimension.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:14

Well, it's the it's the classic theory of theoretical uh theory of theoretical physics. It's we're like, you know, what you see, what you know, what you look when you look at a piece of paper and you draw a picture on it, it's two dimensional. Then if you were to take that thing and make an origami that's three-dimensional, then we can't uh really perceive what a fourth-dimensional aspect of that would be. So imagine higher-dimensional beings leaking into our third dimension, and that's what that's that's the kind of that kind of material, that kind of gray area of interdimensionality is what's being used. They're phasing out of this dimension, writing the energy and space of that upper dimension to disappear, travel, move fast, whatever, whatever it may be.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:05

Can we have Matthew McConaughey explain it real quick? Sure, why not?

SPEAKER_07 1:25:10

In this universe, we process time linearly forward, but outside of our space-time, from what would be a fourth-dimensional perspective, time wouldn't exist. And from that vantage, could we attain it? We'd see our spacetime would look flattened. See everything outside our dimension. That's eternity. Eternity looking down on us. Uh, to us, it's a fear. But to them, it's a circle.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:47

Like we like we said when we started talking about this, it's we want catastrophic disclosure. I want to see everything. Rip the band-aid off. I want to see everything where the, you know, where the uh where the chips fall where they may, as long as we are faced with an absolute dark truth which may shatter and change this world, hopefully for the better. Yeah, people will stop crying eventually. Yeah, man. Well, so thank you for for hanging out with us on this uh inaugural episode of Cosmic Curse Podcast. We're gonna try and get uh get an episode to you uh as soon as possible in a timely matters as much as we can. Um we'll get on a whole schedule. Yeah, sometimes we'll do it live like we're doing it here. Sometimes we'll do it uh using the internet, but we'll always make sure to definitely leave you asking questions. I hope everyone dives deep into Jojo. I think you I want you to get please become Jojo Curious out of your Jojo phobia.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:46

Become a Jojo ally, and become a Jojo ally. What a giant pain in my ass. You can get a lipstick and some dangle earrings.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:57

You can be Grace Jones for the day. 100% mesh, I've sent you those pictures of like Grace Jones and Val Kilmer when they dated in the 80s, how amazing they looked together. Val Kilmer. Sorry, Kyle Drago, yeah. Dolph Lundgren. Dolph Lundgren. Sorry, I get all my I mean I I I I wanted that. I that would be a weird couple, yeah. It would, but I mean, Dolph Lundren and Grace Jones dating, those photographs are just amazing.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He he would have been a great Joe Bro.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:26

He would have he would have been a great Joe. Jojo, Jojo Bro, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:30

Like you look at those two in those clubs at Studio 54, and you're like, oh, I think we've got a couple stand users over here. Yeah, exactly. You know who else would be a stand user? This is all bonus material, probably. Uh, do you remember the band that Richard Dreypus's kid had in Down and Out in Beverly Hills? No, you don't? I don't. I remember the movie. I don't know the band. They should he he like reveals himself to his family. They don't know because they're like, our son's a Little weird, and he's in a total like gender bending uh rock group, kind of like playing off the dead or alive or boy George vibe. Uh, and uh it's pretty funny, but they all definitely look like stand users.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:15

You know, just talking about Boy George, there was a funny thing you mentioned to me, which I heard it abuse. So apparently Boy George was always extremely physically violent around to people around him. No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:28

I was not like abusing, but he was into boxing, he was into boxing, he was into boxing, and he was a very tall person. He is and when when when shitty people would say stuff about him, which you know, at that time, dressing up uh uh creatively like a Jojo, like a Joe bro, you're gonna get some comments from some like uh hooligans, they would get their fucking asses handed to them because he'd spin around and be like, I'm a man without conviction, and just start smashing their faces in with his mitts because he was a box, a trained boxer. That's amazing. I kind of wonder when Hirohiko Araki was because he's a huge fan of pop music, yeah. And it's very possible that boy George might have might have influenced Jojo influenced JoJo from the beginning. Beginning, yeah. What if I had glammed out muscle men as heroes? And the more flamboyant their dress, the more powerful they were.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:36

Absolutely. That's that's an amazing theory. I dare you to not get it to try to. I'm gonna dig into the whole uh fighting, fighting handsome boy George. So, anyways, this has been the Cosmic Curse Podcast. Remember, it's a big universe, and we're cursed not to know everything. Indeed.

SPEAKER_07 1:29:56

Perfect. The wrestlings will certainly be confused. Oh, I can see that.