The gang discovers YA is a scam, there are too many songs about terrible American chain restaurants, and everybody has their own personal ghost encounter - OOOoooooOOOoooOOOooo! Welcome to Whiskey and the Weird, a podcast exploring the British Library Tales of the Weird series! This season, we're bowing in reverence to our eighth book in the collection, ‘Holy Ghosts: Classic Tales of the Ecclesiastical Uncanny’ edited by Fiona Snailham. In this episode, our featured story is: A Story Told in a Church by Ada Buisson.
Bar Talk (our recommendations):
Jessica is reading A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletchere; drinking a Blind Tiger's Bees Knees.
Damien is reading The Haar by David Sodergren; drinking a Larceny bourbon whiskey.
Ryan is watching "Adolescence" (Netflix); drinking and Old Forester 86.
If you liked this week’s story, watch Black Swan (2010; dir. Darren Aronofsky)
Up next: "An Evicted Spirit" by Marguerite Merington
Special thank you to Dr Blake Brandes for our Whiskey and the Weird music!
Like, rate, and follow! Check us out @whiskeyandtheweird on Instagram, Threads & Facebook, and at whiskeyandtheweird.com
Damien: [00:00:00] do you remember when we were recording and Jess's, like I hear something outside my door and I
Jess: Yes.
'cause it's happening right now.
Damien: But you don't actually believe wholeheartedly that there's somebody outside that door. Right. But you don't disbelieve that. It could be.
Ryan: Is this Schrodinger ghosts
Damien: outside your door? Yeah, it's a little bit of sch Schrodinger's ghost.
Ryan: Welcome back everybody. I'm Father Ryan Whitley.
Jess: I am. Mother Jessica Berg
Damien: and I am faithful, parishioner and swinger of the incense ball, Damien Smith
Ryan: and together
this Trinity. Gotcha. Unholy, though it may be is whiskey and the weird, the podcast that for the past seven seasons has been delivering you detailed and yes, sometimes even correct analysis. Of the best spooky stories from times gone by each season, [00:01:00] we've prayed that you have been enlightened by our disputations on these themed selections from the British Library's Tales of the Weird Series.
As you know, we cover one volume of these canonical classics every season and each episode we provide careful exegesis of one story. Please make sure you read the story before listening as we always give a full spoiler summary. This season we turn to a testament of terror as we explore holy ghosts, classic tales of the ecclesiastical, uncanny, and now hark.
I hear the cathedral bells calling us to vespers. Hasten to Reviere. Scoop more incense on the coals and join us in the pews before the last candle flickers out for tonight's reading. Comes from an all together different lectionary and [00:02:00] our master story planner, Jess is here to tell us what it is.
Jess: Yeah, we're going get Christmasy here, folks, with a story told in a church by Ada al.
Ryan: Yeah. Yeah. But what's the title of the story, Jess?
Well, before we get to a story told at a church about a story told in the church, we've got a little bar talk to do.
Jess: Mm-hmm.
Ryan: Jessica, what are you drinking?
Jess: Not enough folks.
Ryan: We know. We know, we know.
Jess: Oh, and, okay, so I picked up another tonight. She's
Ryan: got some dehydrated water.
Jess: I picked up a another little canned cocktail.
This one is Blind Tigers Bees knees. And I picked it up 'cause it had a cute little retro we can,
Ryan: oh, it's very nice looking.
Damien: Wait. Is, is
Ryan: more deco there?
Damien: That is a very cool can. Is it Blind Tiger is in from the New York bar? I think it's like a Manhattan bar called the [00:03:00] Blind Tiger.
Jess: Nope.
Damien: Nope. Okay.
Jess: This is from Erie, Pennsylvania.
And bad
Damien: movie even close. Damien swinging a miss
Jess: and, uh, bad news. This one sucks.
Damien: Oh no,
Jess: it's really bad. Okay, so we
Damien: were just talk, we were just talking about how gin allegedly is easy to duplicate.
Jess: Okay.
Damien: So 'cause it's so floral and aromatic and like herbal.
Jess: Here's what I think. Where I messed up is this is, yeah, buying it.
Number one is that you are supposed to be able to just drink it, sit back, and sip and enjoy. Or you can use it as a mixer and put gin in it so they didn't replicate any gin flavor. Just maybe that's your,
Ryan: yeah, that was your first sign.
Jess: Yeah, well I didn't read it. That's rude. Just bought it because whatever.
But so it says it's a bright lemon flavor with honey and juniper, but it also has monk fruit as the sweetener. So it's [00:04:00] honey and monk fruit and juniper berry. And it's really sweet and has a really weird aftertaste.
Damien: So juniper is the only thing you add juniper to a distilled clear spirit.
Jess: That's
Damien: right.
Jess: But it's not enough. Juniper. It's a lot of honey and a lot of monk fruit.
Damien: Oh, that's
Jess: lemon and some lemon.
Damien: Sickly. Sweet.
Jess: Yeah. Would it be better with gin? I don't like gin, but yeah, probably it could be worse. So anyway, we struck out with this one. Sorry. Yes, these knees. But in better news, I did finish a book that.
Was something I really liked and it was unusual that I really liked it. It's called a Boy and his Dog at the End of the World by Ca Fletcher, and it is absolutely something I normally would not pick up. I think it's potentially a YA novel. The protagonist is at least like a teenager. I saw it listed as both teen and just sort of like regular.
It is about like missing [00:05:00] dogs, which is never my cup of tea. And it is, I assume, named after, so there's a 1975, I need to look up the year. Harlan Ellison story called a Boy and His Dog, and it's this like, oh. Incredibly awful, horrible end of the world story. That's like,
Damien: geez,
Jess: It's real gruesome. It's like cannibalism.
Lots of things. In worse. Well, I
Damien: don't think Harlan Ellison is known for his soft. Storytelling.
Jess: No, but it's like, like it's a psychic dog who helps a young boy find young girls at the end of the world and it gets worse from there. So I kind of picked this one up being like, oh God, okay. I don't know what I'm getting into.
This novel is like the opposite of that short story. It's like incredibly well written, but also just like charming. And the narrator is, you know, trying to live with his family kind of after the world has ended. With his dogs and one of his dogs goes missing, so he has to go and [00:06:00] find it. But the narrator is a big reader, so all the time he's like traveling through Europe, like through Scotland.
He's also talking about all the books that he's finding and how these books have like changed his life and it's just like a very
Ryan: Are they real books or are they Fiction?
Jess: Yeah, real books. Yeah. So he's talking about like, it's the end of the world and he's, you know, been living in it with just his family and he's reading like.
Post-apocalyptic novels because he likes to see how people who existed before thought the world would end. Mm-hmm. So it's just like a very, like smarter, more charming than I thought it was gonna be. Little book.
Ryan: That's fun.
Jess: And so read that one. A Boy and his dog at the End of the World by Ca Fletcher.
Don't read the Harlan Ellison one unless you're really, are really ready to feel bad and grim. I also think they made it into a movie. Don't watch the movie either, I guess. I don't know.
Damien: All right. Thanks for anti [00:07:00] recommendations for both your beverage and a film.
Jess: Yeah, yeah. Read this one book. Don't drink anything.
Don't read anything else. Never watch a movie. Ryan, what are you drinking?
Ryan: Thank you for asking Jess. Tonight I'm drinking the Old Forester Bourbon, the 86 proof version, which is their standard offering. This is becoming quickly. My house whiskey these days for bourbon. Uh, I really like the old Forester. I like a lot of their offerings.
I have a couple bottles, but for an everyday drinking whiskey. This is smooth. It's got a nice caramel base to it. It's got a sweetness to it that I really enjoy, but it's not too sweet. It's a great everyday bourbon, old Forester 86. Highly recommend, and it's not gonna set you back very deep in the pocketbook either.
As for what I've been doing, my wife and I just binge watched this amazing Netflix series that I'm pretty sure the whole world is going to have seen. If not already, then by the time this airs, which is the British Limited Series [00:08:00] Adolescence, have either of you seen that? Heard
Jess: of it, not
Ryan: watched it.
Jess: Yeah.
Damien: Yeah. Same. It's, it's one of these things where everyone who watches it is like, it's gonna win every award. It's gonna sweep acting, it's gonna sweep direction, it's gonna sweep. Like screenwriting everything.
Ryan: Yeah, I, I can see all that. It was stunning. It was gut wrenching. It is not an easy watch at all, but it also is much more than what it's being advertised as.
It's being advertised as a story of a young boy, a 13-year-old boy who's been accused of a murder. And the first episode indeed sort of starts off. F quite like you would think it would start off for that type of a show, but it quickly moves in a couple of different directions. This is not at all a show that is a police procedural or a courtroom drama or anything as pedestrian as that.
This is a show about. The community in which this terrible crime happened and the effect on certain groups of that community, certain people within it, just [00:09:00] the raw emotion of this. There are no easy answers in this show. Am not ashamed to say that I probably wept more than I didn't while watching it.
It's really, really good and I think from a film standpoint, it's four episodes long each about an hour. They are all, each one is filmed in one continuous shot. That's the amazing direction, amazing cinematography aspect of it. Hmm. Of that, the boy that plays the main character, I guess you can't even say.
It's the main character, the boy that plays the accused, I'll put it that way. Stunning. Stunningly good actor that has a bright future ahead of him. Nice. But other standout performances included those from the psychologist and particularly the father. I was incredibly moved by the father's performance.
So if for some reason you've been living under a rock by the time this airs and haven't been adolescence on Netflix, check it out. It's worth your time. Have a box of tissues handy.
Damien: Nice. Damien, whenever I think of continuous takes, I always think of Alfonso Cue [00:10:00] in movies.
Jess: Yeah. Okay. Sure.
Damien: Like he, he does that a lot.
This is, this is a
Ryan: little bit different than the way he does it, but I see your point.
Damien: Okay. Like children of men gravity. Mm-hmm. It's just those movies to me strike as like some of the most memorable continuous mm-hmm. One take scenes, you know? Very cool. Uh, looking forward to it. And that'll just bump up where Adolescent says on my to watch cue.
So Thanks. Ry Bourbon. I'm drinking tonight is larceny. It's a weed bourbon. Oh,
Ryan: I love that
Damien: bourbon. Small batch. You were talking about how. You know, the old Forester has become sort of your house bourbon. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. This is what's in my decanter at any given time. It's between 30, $35 for a seven 50.
It's really delicious. It's, it is, it's obviously won some awards and it's
Ryan: starting to get recognized, so the price is ticking up.
Damien: It is maybe, but you know, that, that hasn't trickled down to good old New England yet. So they're still putting it at a, at a reasonable, attainable price. It's delicious.
Uh, a little on the sweeter side, I would say. Definitely. I would call it honey toast when I drink it. Hmm. It tastes like a lightly toasted wheat bread. Maybe a [00:11:00] sourdough with just a drizzle of a very light, like a blossom honey or something. It's just lightly sweet, very toasty, very yeasty on the nose, but just delicious on its own.
And I would 100% because of its price point. Use this as a mixer Bourbon as well. Easy drinking larceny, bourbon. Check it out. If you haven't tried it yet it's worth. It's worth
Ryan: the model. I love it. It's a really great, yeah, really great bourbon. Good choice.
Damien: Yeah it's a good standby. It's a good old faithful, as it were.
As far as stuff that I'm reading. Look, I had a really good time reading, speaking of ya by the way. I just read that the third and maybe a trilogy, maybe a continuous of the Friend o series clown in a cornfield. Only for the third one, which is the cult of, or the church of friend o did they label this as young adult.
So I feel a little bamboozled. I read this thinking it was just typical slasher horror. It isn't. There's a young adult tilt and now I feel like I'm a child. Even though it is, but
Jess: like I think it's fine if you can't tell [00:12:00] It's
Damien: fine. I mean it's fine but come on. Like is it, was that a marketing ploy? Yes. To all of a sudden pivot to be ya?
Yes.
Jess: Yeah.
Damien: Is
Jess: it like I don't read a ton of ya and I was surprised that I liked this one, but then maybe it wasn't ya. So all
Damien: right, well anything
Ryan: being labeled YA is marketing
Damien: the thing that I read that isn't labeled ya but was a rock solid rockstar. Rock and roll, lots of rock, easy, short. Like paperback from Hell type book was The Har by David Sogan.
Ryan: Oh, I've wanted to read that one.
Damien: So it is, it's really cool. It's got a, it's got a, it's got a Manhattan project. What's his name? Dr. Jupiter or whatever from the Watchman cover, where it's just like he's, his body's recreating, it looks like a semi-transparent humanoid figure with the circulatory system, Dr.
Manhattan. Yeah. Right. And the brain is coming in, doesn't tell you at all what this story is about. No, it
Jess: really, it's a good
Damien: cover. It really, it really doesn't, I've read this one too, doesn't, it really doesn't, but basically a har, [00:13:00] HAAR is an Irish fog that rolls in on the coast of Ireland. And essentially what this story is in a nutshell is stoic old woman won't leave her Irish home for a mega rich developer to come in and like, you know, retreat.
So she wants to maintain her way of life and it's in the way of progress and development and it's, you know, common. Country folk up against the big corporate machine, but also there is a blob like shape-shifting creature that comes in with the Irish fog and obliterates all her enemies because somehow how they sort of fall in love it's the shape of water meets the blob, meets dissolving humans.
Irish movie. Yeah. There's a lot of dissolving humans. I mean, the body horror is. Strong in this book. It is a hell of a ride. It. It was a very easy read for me. I know Jess wasn't as big of a fan, but I give it
Jess: what a surprise,
Damien: A wholehearted like five fingers of whiskey. [00:14:00]
Ryan: Nice.
Damien: Go out and pick up the Horror by David.
By David Soder. Grand. If you like the things that I had mentioned it's a real trip.
Ryan: He's got a whole bunch of books that are kind of on my to read list, really. But that's, that's definitely one of them.
Damien: It was just, super fun. It was very fast-paced, even though the story itself doesn't feel like it should be fast-paced.
Mm-hmm. And very simple. There's not a lot of headiness to this. I mean, it's where's its. Characters on its sleeve.
Jess: Yeah. The good
Damien: guys are
Jess: Are the good guys.
Damien: The good guys are the good guys. The bad guys are the bad guys and they embrace it wholeheartedly. Yeah. Mm-hmm. But like the central figure being this like aging Irish woman who is just stoic as hell and is really quick to grab her shotgun if anyone steps on her property.
But all of a sudden she's reinforced by some blob mythical figure who is dissolving humans, genitalia left and right. Listen, there is a lot of genitalia out to those
Ryan: ladies.
Damien: Yeah. I mean, you really gotta friends in low places. But it was just a super fun read, uh, definitely like refresher and I was pleasantly, pleasantly [00:15:00] surprised.
So check out the Harb by say David Sorin.
Ryan: I will. Thank you.
Damien: You are welcome.
Ryan: All right. That's gonna take us to our author and publication info for tonight.
Our editor, Fiona Snam declares in her intro to this story that Ada Salm is one of the less discussed writers among those who appear in the anthology, and this appears to be for good reason, at least as far as her biography is concerned. Not much is known about dear old Ada. She was born on. March 26th, 1839.
So her 186 birthday. Oh, happy. Happy.
Damien: Belated birthday
Ryan: was just a few days ago. Happy at the time of recording. Yeah. Yeah. 186 was looking good. She was born in Surrey to a French father and an English mother. Her family experienced bankruptcy and were required to move during her childhood. Her mother died while Ada was still a little girl.
Her two sisters and her [00:16:00] attended Bedford College in London where they studied moral philosophy and natural history. During her brief life, ADA wrote two novels publishing one of them. She also published several short stories including six Ghost stories, but sadly at the age of 27, she died, and that's really all I could find out about her.
There was, it seemed like much ado about nothing. A brief confusion of identity in the publishing world. A story of hers was misattributed to somebody else. And
Damien: But not intentionally looking at
Ryan: you intent.
Damien: Yeah. Daphne de Lar or whatever.
Ryan: DeMar. Yeah.
Damien: Yeah.
Ryan: DeMar. No, our editor makes reference to it in the introduction, but everything I found about it seems like it was a pretty honest mistake and really not a big deal.
Anyway, our story tonight was first published in the Belgravia Annual. Belgravia was a magazine funded and edited by Mary Elizabeth [00:17:00] Braden, a ghost story and horror writer of her own. Greatest esteem. In fact, it was known for publishing sensational fiction essays on fashion, history and science, and also serialized novels.
So a little bit of everything. Some of the bigger names to appear in its pages were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Wilke Collins, mark Twain, and Thomas Hardy.
Jess: Oh, that
Ryan: Brandon sold the magazine to new owners who immediately quit publishing the sensational fiction, precipitating a severe decline in subscriptions.
Jess: Yeah.
Ryan: Fair. And uh, the magazine was never, again, what it once was, it went from something around like 21,000 subscriptions annually to 3000 in about a year and a half. Oof. Oops. Bad business decision fellas. Even though Belgravia was a monthly, this story was published in one of the special annual editions that came out at the end of the year.
And if somebody out there can find out more about [00:18:00] Ada Buon, I am all ears. But until they do, Damien's got our summary for tonight.
Damien: Yeah, thanks Ryan. And for those of you curious Buong in French means bush. Thanks Ada Bush.
Ryan: I was curious.
Damien: So this is a story told in a church by Ada Weisel. Those pesky boys have really done it again this time.
Oh my God. They locked every door to the parsonage, thus keeping Katie, Ella, and the other girls under the watch of Miss Dora Mon. Ella's governess because their cell phones were dead obviously, and landlines hadn't been invented yet. The small group resigned themselves to being rescued. Once a member of their family begins to panic at them being missing on freaking Christmas Eve, oh, I dislike being in a church after dusk.
Shivers, miss Monto. How shall they pass the time then? Let's tell stories. Ms. Bonam gets volunteered to explain her post NOC turn phobia, to which she explains with. A story within a story. Fine. Here we go. A decade ago, as a last [00:19:00] of 17, which is interesting because basically that places her at 27, right?
Which would be the year in which, that's right. Miss. We saw had passed Monto and her all female classmates from Miss Morris's school at Mount Silver experienced the storm of a century with fierce snows blocking pretty much all travel in and out of the rail. Of those who could retreat to London, only two classmates stayed on their own accord.
That would be Millicent Power and her cousin Irina DuPont. These co-leaders of the PAC had their distinct alpha traits. Millie was rich, proud and confident while Irina was more humble in her wealth, kind, in her friendships, and also drop dead. Gorgeous.
Jess: Ooh, la la.
Damien: Ooh, la la. So they're all passing time in their boarding school when Mrs.
Morris tells Millie. Her cousin and betrothed, ew. Arthur Power has just arrived by way of her [00:20:00] manor house where only her aunt and guardian lady Jane remained plain, sane, and upon being told Millie was blocked in its school, he made his way to. Silver to visit, but continued. Mrs. Morris weather is too bad to send him off, so rooster in the hen house.
Ladies. Hey,
Jess: everyone's hottest cousin is
Damien: coming. Everyone's hottest. Cousin Arthur is in the house. Monto notices Millie is both thrilled and panicked at the prospect of Arthur Crashing. They're all femme frozen fat and can't help but believe Irina's Beauty. Is the cause. So Christmas Eve rolls around and Mrs.
Morris invites folks from the vil, I guess, within regional proximity to the school to join in at a party. And upon hearing word of such party, Arthur shows up as well. So they're all playing games and getting silly and drinking LaSalle maybe. Who knows?
Jess: Sure.
Damien: It's Christmas. It becomes, it's Christmas. It becomes quite obvious that Arthur is indeed entranced by the [00:21:00] lovely arena, DuPont and Millie.
Well, Millie ain't having it. That's her cousin slash fiance.
That's my man. So the night drags on and the party dies down to a point of mostly juvenile games until, well, you know it. I know it. Truth or dare gets dropped. Arthur says, I challenge anyone here to cross the fields and the graveyard to retrieve a branch from the Cyprus tree by the broken tomb in front of the church.
I've even got a gold locket to the first person who does it. All right, cool. Monto. So that's Dora, Millie and Arena all accept. And after donning and worn coats, they leave on their quest at 10 minute intervals. So Monto leaves first, followed by Millie, followed by Arena. Dora makes her way through the Churchyard into, uh, blinding midnight snow to basically snag a stick from this tree and get back to the main house.
And. Practically record time. They're all impressed by how quick she makes it back. Millie follows soon [00:22:00] after frozen and seemingly despondent, and then pretty shortly after her, nobody arrives. The clock strikes 1:00 AM and everyone stares into the void of the blizzards. Slowly coming to the realization that arena will never.
Return.
Ryan: Yeah, that's one person. Short.
Damien: Yeah that's two A three. So at this point in the story, we jump forward a year to discover that Manto has switched schools. To be a junior teacher at a German school and thinking her past is behind her is absolutely shocked. Shook it. I say to receive a letter from Millie announcing her engagement.
Real engagement to Arthur, her cousin, and a request that Monto be a bridesmaid in the wedding. Dora arrives to discover Lady Jane. Her, you know, Millie's supervisor slash ward is dead, but her old teacher, Mrs. Morris, is still kicking it and she has got some T two [00:23:00] spill. We think that insanity runs in the power family and Millie might be touched.
Jess: She's such a line.
Damien: Yeah. So, uh, Millie was in fact weird upon Monte's arrival. She never wanted to be alone. She was talking to herself pretty regularly. She rang Service Bell so much that she snapped its cord. A horror, a snap cord, and a service bell. Whatever shall I do, my God. And on the E before wedding, speaking of never wanting to be alone, she insisted that Dora sleep on the couch at the foot of her bed in her chambers, which as a good friend Dora did.
And she happened to Bo bear witness to the closure of a mystery that was a year in the making. At some undisclosed time, Milia rose in the middle of the night and an asom ambulant mania rushed out towards the church. Monto discovers this and follows Millie only to see her clawing at the broken lid of the tomb by the cypress.
The same cypress that they went and extracted those sticks from. [00:24:00] The same one. The same one, the same broken tomb. Jess, upon the loud closing of the church's chance door. Which is a door to the altar. I looked up. Millie awoke from her sleepwalking state, held her hands to her ears and collapsed bleeding from the mouth.
And as she gasped her final breaths, she could only repeat, God, forgive over and over and over. Of course, when the lid was lifted from that tomb, she was clawing at. We know what was in there. It was the desiccated corpse of one Mrs. Or Miss Arena DuPont. We then jump forward to the present as the girls still trapped in the lock parsonage.
Watch their governess as she echoes the prayer. God forgive to close her tail over and over again. The end.
Ryan: The end,
Jess: the end,
Damien: the end. Question mark.
Ryan: Well, friends, what did you think was scarier about this tale, [00:25:00] the ghost story itself, or the frame narrative featuring wrongful imprisonment? Uh, that was pretty terrifying
Jess: that we don't even get resolved.
The end of the story is just like, we're still stuck
Damien: and it's so pretty. They're true. It like the actual line is something like, well, I guess we're just stuck here until the people at our household get panicked and worry about us and then send out a search party to look for us. It's
Ryan: a frozen adventure.
What
Jess: boys,
Ryan: We've encountered a lot of stories that have these framing devices around them. What's your take on them in general? Are they useful for storytelling? Do you get tired of them? What do you think about these kinds of devices in general?
Jess: I always feel like I'm supposed to be learning slightly more of a lesson than if I were just told the story.
Ryan: Okay.
Jess: Like there, it seems like there should be a reason that someone needs to tell me this story and the frame. Just makes it seem like, okay, students gather round, here's an [00:26:00] important lesson. And it's not always true. Like we sure have read a lot of stories where something weird on a boat happens, you know, like that's fine.
But that's my initial like reaction when they're like, okay, now the old nurse is gonna tell you a story
Ryan: except the old nurse in this case I think is 27, is
Jess: yes. She's not old.
Damien: She was a young and old nurse. I don't know. I think back to, uh, some of the other stories, and there was a lot of framing around during the season that we covered.
Like media, haunted media.
Jess: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Damien: And I thought that at that point, because the concentration of stories were so high with that framing device that I was like, I'm kind of getting sick of this.
But I understood its necessity and that you can't really tell a cohesive story that takes place over a day and a half unless you have a framing device that talks about it retroactively.
The same thing with the haunted detectives, right? A lot of
Jess: times you need someone who knows those like family history bits that
Damien: can, right? And we're also there for like five days so that they could summarize the piece into a short [00:27:00] story. For this, it didn't detract or add to the story, I think, except for the fact that the person who is telling the story and regaling it, like on a night similar to this during Christmas in a church after dark.
Mm-hmm. It, I guess it offered something towards why the narrative was, you know, relevant at the time.
Jess: And it makes it more like, more Christmasy like, okay, we're sit, sitting, sitting
Damien: around. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's like Halloween, Christmas. The concept of telling Tales is sort of, you know, a holiday.
Exactly. So, mm-hmm. It didn't, pull or add to the story, but I understood why it happened, and to me, it, it was like a nothing burger. It was a non-factor in my criticism of the stories all.
Ryan: Well, this Ghost story centers on jealousy. How effective is Buong wielding that theme?
Jess: it was good.
And also so weird just because we no longer marry our cousins or [00:28:00]
Ryan: speak for yourself, Jess.
Jess: Well, I mean, generally, and even, like, I realize this is probably not first cousins, it's just a shortened way to say family member or mm-hmm. Sure. Something. But when someone
Ryan: of the blood,
Jess: yes. Well, yeah, one of the, one of someone mentions like, oh, Arthur's here, and he might swing by Millie is like, well, but he's my cousin, not arena's cousin, so why would he wanna be?
And it is just like, well, maybe he'd like to meet someone he is not related to, I guess. So I think that was perhaps slightly more distracting, where the jealousy. Is like family based because Millie and Irina were also cousins.
Ryan: Yeah. We're of the wrong age to appreciate
Jess: Yes.
Ryan: We're the wrong era to
Jess: appreciate that.
Yes, I understand. I'm getting. Caught up on, on just sort of the differences. Say
Damien: it was pretty common. [00:29:00] And you know, at that point, like the bloodline wasn't so overlapping that it was seen as being like socially unacceptable.
Jess: Right? This could be some long lost great uncle's, right? Fourth nephew on the other side, you just,
Damien: yeah.
it was a little distracting. And you know, in, in my recap, I like to harp on the fact that they were cousins, but that's just to get a little bit of a laugh. But overall, like, I think that the reaction from Millie I thought was pretty legit. Like, you know, we're talking about like teenage girls.
Ryan: Yeah.
Damien: Who, or just teenagers in general, rather cavalcade of emotions and hormones swimming through. It's obvious that one of her closest bosom buddies is also, you know, this beautiful goddess that she is probably sitting there, you know, like. Oh, I ruined the day. And she thought that Arthur, because out of sight outta mind was safe from her.
And then all of a sudden their worlds collide. And she's facing this reality. And I think the [00:30:00] observations from a young manam, like looking at how Millie is responding to the situation. We're pretty accurate and carrying even, even those nuanced like reactions. Mm-hmm. Not only what she said, but just how she acted and how she was staring when everyone was playing games and Arthur was sitting there like dancing around with Arina.
Like it was pretty interesting to see 'cause you could probably feel the jealousy rising and that monster rising. Mm-hmm. To the point where when you know the story ends, how it ends, you're like. We obviously know what happened. We obviously see her reaction, her haunting , when Monte arrives for her wedding, like the way that she's responded, the way that she responded that night when she came in, she's like, oh, it's so cold outside.
But she was like staring off into the distance. There was just something off about her from that day on. So I thought it, I thought it was solid.
Ryan: I wrote down that I think. If I were younger, I'd have been more drawn in by this teenage love drama.
Damien: You're not into the ya, [00:31:00]
Ryan: but I'm not into the ya and just, I didn't know enough about these characters.
I wasn't invested enough in their lives. I appreciate, Damon, you pointing out sort of the nuances and the writing of getting all the little signals of jealousy. Right. I didn't have that appreciation. That's fine. When I read it the first time. But I'm glad you pointed that out to me. 'cause I, I think that's true, but this was like a ghost story as brought to you by the cw, you know, the Victorian C
Damien: That's fair.
That's fair.
Jess: Yes,
Ryan: because
it's,
Ryan: and I just was rolling my eyes.
Jess: It's not quite lifetime level. Right, right. Like, because they're younger, but the production value of Yeah. This could definitely be a, a subplot on a CW show.
Ryan: Mm-hmm. So on page 130, there was a very interesting quote
in the words of the governess. Boan writes, I do not understand how one can fear that, in which one does not believe, and I wanted to see what you thought about that. Do you think you have to believe in ghosts to be afraid of [00:32:00] them?
Damien: I think that's interesting because the visceral reaction that you have indicates some element of belief.
Ryan: Uh, yeah, yeah.
Damien: Like if you were truly, truly a nonbeliever.
Ryan: Mm-hmm.
Damien: When it came to some entity and yet the idea of that entity still scared you.
You're not truly a nonbeliever. Right. There has to be some iota of belief that's there.
Ryan: I think that's probably true. I What do you think Jess?
Jess: Yeah. I dunno. I feel like there's a, a lot of discussion around. I guess to tie it back to religion of like, I lead a good and sin free life because I'm afraid of punishment,
Damien: but theoretically that's not the driver.
Right? The motivation isn't avoidance of hell, it's entrance to heaven for like, let's say in a religious context.
Jess: I don't know. I feel like there's a lot of people who would really murder people if they [00:33:00] could, but then like you're, yeah, I I think I agree with Damien. You have to have some level of belief in mm-hmm.
The thing you are scared of, or at least an understanding that. You don't fully not believe.
Ryan: Yeah. 'cause if you're like, if you're confronted with the
Jess: right, like if you're
Ryan: very, you'll know. You'll know in a hurry where you stand.
Jess: Yeah.
Damien: But even if it's behind a closed door, like do you remember when we were recording and Jess's, like I hear something outside my door and I
Jess: Yes.
'cause it's happening right now.
Damien: Is it really?
Jess: Yes, but I think this time it's Gus, but last time it was not.
Damien: But you don't actually believe wholeheartedly that there's somebody outside that door. Right. But you don't disbelieve that. It could be.
Ryan: Is this Schrodinger ghosts
Damien: outside your door? Yeah, it's a little bit of sch Schrodinger's ghost.
It's Schrodinger's knife. Murderer is outside Jess's door right now.
Jess: There it was. Was it last week? It was last week where one [00:34:00] day we were like upstairs working on something and came downstairs and the front door was open. Yeah. And then the next day we came downstairs and the back door was open. So folks,
Damien: it, whoever came in, went out.
Jess: It could be a murderer, and they just let themselves out. It was a little weird, like, I don't know. Our doors are usually locked apparently this time they weren't.
Damien: And this idea of like, this idea of being afraid of something, to be honest, is sort of an interesting concept because let's say someone is, is atheistic, they're non-religious.
Ryan: Mm-hmm.
Damien: And then they're facing the moment of their death. And then as like a hail Mary, no pun intended, they start praying to God. Like all of a sudden there's like a precise, precise means. There's like, there's like a flash belief just in case, right?
Jess: Just in case.
Damien: That's not actual belief. That's not belief.
That is I'm covering my bases even though I don't believe's
Ryan: CYA religion.
Damien: Right, exactly. It's CYA religion. But in the event where you are actually fearful of something that you weren't. Cognizant of like believing in, [00:35:00] I think that indicates a subconscious belief. Mm-hmm. At minimum, like, I think fear is a very powerful emotion and you can't fake fear if you were feeling fear that indicates belief.
Ryan: I'll tell you, I had an encounter maybe two or three years ago, this is the only time this has happened in my life where I thought that was a ghost. I'm not a, I'm not a believer in ghosts. But to Damien's point, I'm also not, not a believer. So we were staying. But are you
Damien: not, not, not a believer is,
Ryan: yeah.
It gets, it gets confusing. At that point, we were staying at a friend's condo on the beach, and I got up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, and the door to the bedroom was closed. So I went to open it and it was a door that in order to open it, I had to pull it into the room.
It didn't open out, it opened in. So I turned the knob. And I pulled it into the room and I had the distinct sensation of it being pulled back against my force that I had applied to it. And then I couldn't [00:36:00] open the door. I could turn the knob, but I could not move it out of the frame. And again, the whole time I had the distinct sensation that something was holding it closed.
Here's how I felt about it. I was pissed off. It wasn't I, I was like, this is a ghost, and I wasn't scared. I was frustrated.
Damien: Sure.
Ryan: And when I woke up and I told, you know, in the morning and I told my family the story, like they were nervous. They're like, really? You really think it was a go?
I'm like, yeah, it was annoying. So I don't know if that applies, it's to the ghost on stage one 30, like keeping you out. The ghost was not hurting me. It was like preventing me from. Peeing,
Jess: but it was, yeah, just keeping you out of the bathroom. That's a very funny, specific
ghost.
Damien: That's a true Poltergeist though.
Jess: Yeah.
Damien: If you wanna talk about an invasive, troublesome spirit. Right.
Ryan: It was a troublesome
Damien: spirit. It's the ghost that won't let you tinkle.
Ryan: It was so annoying. Would I stay there again? Absolutely. But I'm gonna have a word.
Damien: Sure. I know that Jess has mentioned a few times about some pretty, you know, [00:37:00] spectral encounters and I had one that.
And I'm still on the fence, right? But like, I'm also a pretty logical thinker. So you're not, not, not a knot, not, not, not a, not a, not a knot. I'm a pretty logical thinker and I love the idea of like cryptids. I want all cryptids to exist. I think that Lochness does, I think that most other cryptids don't.
But anyway, and one time when I was in high school, and Ryan, you know this area well, there was a park in southwest Florida called Ruttenberg Park.
Ryan: Oh, I even know this story.
Damien: Yes. And we would go there just on occasion 'cause we were young kids because there was nowhere
Ryan: else to
Damien: go punks and Sure. We didn't go anywhere else.
We didn't drink at each other's houses or anything like that. So we were just like rap scallions that would go to public parks and just sit around and swing on the swings and be dorks. Right.
Ryan: Oh, there was a cool sculpture there to hang out on.
Damien: There was a cool sculpture. But we went and we were like sitting on a playground and we were all just like doing dumb teenage things.
And then all of a sudden we heard like kids laughing. And I say we, because I was there with a couple other friends and we didn't [00:38:00] independently say, do you hear kids laughing? We all stopped at, we were doing and looked at each other and then said, did you hear that? Did you hear that? Did you hear that?
And then summarily. Announced that it was, we heard kids laughing and this is like 10:00 PM at night. There's no one else in this park, no one. So we all get up and leave out of the back side of this playground to this bush line. There's a break in the bush line, and as soon as we walk back the bushes, all of us stop, and we get this chill.
We get this really severe chill and all look at each other because we all felt the chill at the same time. Panicked didn't say a word to each other. After that, ran to our cars and drove away. That was the only time I had a, not only a pretty like spectral experience. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. But a shared spectral experience.
Yeah. That afterwards we all went back and all had the same experiential story. So it hasn't sold me on ghosts entirely, [00:39:00] but it was definitely something that sticks in my It's prevented
Ryan: you from writing them off though.
Damien: Yeah, 100%. 100%.
Jess: Yeah.
Damien: That was super spooky.
Jess: That's funny. Well,
Damien: maybe just meanwhile, it's like every other day, different ghost,
Jess: right?
It's not that often, but it is just like, I fully understand it's just my old weird house, but it'll be like the middle of the afternoon when Josh is at work and I'll hear the front door open. His keys will jangle and then someone will sit like either in the chair or in the couch. So it makes like the specific like flu kind of creaking noise.
Damien: Sure.
Jess: And if
Damien: at least your ghost is tired.
Jess: It's, it's just, well, it's, it's also like,
Damien: I ain't got time to like haunt you. I'm not gonna poulter your ghost. I am gonna sit here and just relax. Just give me till the morning and I will leave.
Jess: But if Josh we're really coming home in the middle of the day. I couldn't hear that from upstairs where my office is.
Mm
Damien: [00:40:00] sure.
Jess: And so it's just like, it's slightly louder than what would normally happen, but at the same time, it's such familiar sounds that I just start walking downstairs, like already talking to Josh, who is definitely not here and is still at work,
Damien: who is definitely not there.
Jess: Yikes. Yes. But it's such a specific, it sounds like you're used
Damien: to it.
You're just like
Jess: couching a ghost. Would you think that? I still come down mid-conversation with myself every time. That's wild. But it's like, yeah, it's like his specific, like as he sets his keys down as the door closes, right. And then he sits down. But it's not Josh. Nobody here.
Damien: Do you think that's like phantom sensory perception?
Because you know when you're like, you feel your phone buzz or you hear it ring? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And it's not actually happening, but you're just like, it's such a common occurrence that you sort of manifest it. Do you thinks that could be the case or is
Jess: it Potentially but it's
Damien: sort of like ghost
Jess: Josh.
It's not a sound that I would hear. [00:41:00] So it's just like my cell phone buzzing. I imagine it because my cell phone buzzes, like I don't ever hear Josh come home.
Ryan: Mm-hmm. Right
Jess: From work. 'cause I'm usually upstairs. So it's like a little bit, it's, it's close, but it's like a little bit off of like what would really happen.
Mm-hmm.
Ryan: Fair enough. So a lot of good ghost stories, horror stories in general perhaps are really about cultural anxieties. What anxieties do you see at work in this story?
Jess: Not being hot.
Damien: Yes. Yes. Self-image. Self-worth and confidence.
Jess: Having your one cousin marry your other cousin, would you wanna marry that cousin?
Ryan: Well, I mean, but on that note, like more to the point I think not being married. Yeah. Not, yeah. Like not being married off. Yeah.
Damien: Like there's just, there seems to be a lot of teenage angst. Mm-hmm. That manifests itself. Like it escalates quickly. You know, there are some [00:42:00] moments, contemporary fiction.
Historic fiction, like where something is built up to, but then other things like just sort of
Jess: other things are a big twist.
Damien: Yeah. Like happen and they happen so immediately that it feels like a twist. Exactly. So I think this was something where it wasn't surprising the arc of the story as it went.
Because all those anxieties were pretty much, that's the way it had
Ryan: to go.
Damien: You're right.
Ryan: But is it even a ghost story or is this just a murder? Or is it even a murder? Is it just the girl got trapped murder?
Jess: Nah,
Damien: I think it's, it's a, it's a murder. Yeah. It's a murder. It's a murder in the same, like, in the same era as the telltale heart, right?
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Like she's being plagued by guilt in what she's done. And it's persevered through the year and she's tried to there conduct, conduct her life as normal. And I'm talking about Millie. Right. And obviously she can't,
Ryan: if there's a spirit, it's a self-inflicted one. And it's guilt. Yeah. It's not a, not
Damien: an actual ghost.
Correct. [00:43:00] There's no evidence of a haunting. There's just evidence of a death and the impact that it had on the offender.
Ryan: What about the monk? The No, no Ghost Monk.
Damien: That was part of story. Yeah. That was so funny. I almost put that in the recap because there's that one line that's like, oh, did you see the monk?
And that's it. That's the only thing they talk about. They say it once and it's like, oh, is this the ghost? No, it's not the ghost. No. All right, let's move on.
Jess: Yeah. Could have been a monk around good,
Damien: but I thought maybe the monk was. Jason, there's another time where they're describing the inside of the church or the parsonage or whatever, that they could see two structures that were like two saints, the sculptures of the two Saints.
And I was like, oh, are they involved in this story? Is that the monk that they're talking about? But it wasn't,
Ryan: I thought that was, that reminded me of, uh, man sized and marble.
Damien: Yes. Yes, exactly.
Ryan: Yeah.
Damien: Maybe a little head nod.
Ryan: Well, let's talk about the writing then for a second. I felt that the writing was surprisingly free of stuffy Victorian style, but still without distinction, there was nothing that jumped out at me.
Nothing that stood out. Nothing that I wrote down as worthy of [00:44:00] quoting aloud here.
Jess: Yeah, the opposite of last week's story where the writing was interesting and complicated and was
Ryan: such a, and such a point of the, such a part of
Jess: the story. Yes. This one was just sort of, yeah. We get the ideas in a linear and concrete manner.
Damien: Right? Yeah.
Jess: The lady who's telling the story is not a great storyteller.
Damien: It was a bit technical it felt like a screenplay. Mm-hmm. It was very to the point. There was no subtext.
Jess: This person is coming here, now they're here now we're going over here. Yeah. Yeah.
Ryan: And none of that is untrue.
Jess: Yes. Yeah.
There's no, there's no red herrings, there's no real mystery even of. Oh the one hot cousin disappeared. I wonder what could have happened. That's,
Ryan: I wonder what happened.
Damien: Yeah. That said, it wasn't bad writing, it was just nondescript.
Ryan: Oh, it wasn't bad. It was fine.
Damien: Yeah, fine. I wouldn't be able to pin this writing style to Ada Wol [00:45:00] in the future.
Right. Like it would just be in for sure the gray. Yeah,
Ryan: I agree. I agree with that. Alright. Did it church, how many cathedral bells.
Damien: Seven and a half cathedral bells out of 10.
Jess: God, I was gonna go like two. Ooh, ooh.
Damien: Well, you obviously dunno where the dang tomb exists.
Jess: I mean there,
Damien: especially given five. Cathedral bells from last week's story, or, I
Jess: don't think I gave five. I think I
Damien: No, Ryan did though, and I'm, I did, I'm still bitter about that.
Yeah. There was no church whatsoever and he gave
Jess: five. I feel like there was ju like there was the same amount of church in this one. There's a graveyard.
Damien: You're foolish. You are a fool.
Jess: And we are in a church, but the church doesn't matter. We're just in it. 'cause it's some boys traffic. It's
Damien: a tomb. The church matters.
Ryan: I gave it six bells. I gave it one more than last week. They're in a tomb. They're in a church. It's taking place in a church. It is a story told in a church. Yes,
Jess: yes. Literally, it is a story told in a church. But
Ryan: to Jessica's point, the church doesn't matter.
Jess: It doesn't matter. Sue,
Ryan: right?
Jess: Yeah.
Damien: God forgives [00:46:00] God, forgive God, forgive God.
Forgive the lamenting prayer of a dying murderous.
Jess: P even if you're non-religious,
Ryan: cheap, cheap
Damien: geology, you're gonna throw one of those out. Your, your pad drops me down to a six and a half, but I'm still giving it six and a half.
Jess: Yeah.
Damien: Bells out of
Jess: I'm going low. 'cause there is a church and it doesn't matter.
It could have been a barn, it could have been a hotel,
Damien: it could have been a Applebee's.
Jess: It probably would've been a better story if it was an Applebee's. They had to run outta the parking lot and touch a tree.
Damien: Is there a salad bar? I don't even know what Applebee's has. Jack Daniel's wings are for Fridays.
I think that's
Ryan: Fridays
Damien: bankrupt. I was gonna
Ryan: say something about fajitas, but I also
Damien: think Ruby Tuesdays has the salad bar bankrupt. Has a salad
Jess: bar.
Damien: Applebee's has dollar like
Jess: maybe back
Damien: into beverages, baby
Jess: back.
Damien: That's chilies and you bite your finger. No. Really? Yes, baby. Back ribs is chilies.
Jess: Okay. Well, [00:47:00] Applebee's has no cultural impact.
Damien: Applebee's has zero impact to our
Jess: mother. I think there's a bad country song about going to Applebee's.
Damien: Applebee's on a Sunday night.
Jess: Yeah, it's like that. My God. If that's also about TGI Fridays, I'm gonna lose it. No Applebee Apple's, Apple's Country song.
Ryan: No, we don't need to look it up. We really don't.
Jess: Yes we do. 'cause it's called fancy like
Damien: Yeah. '
Jess: cause it is by Fancy
Damien: like an Applebee
Jess: Walker Hayes,
Damien: Barbara.
Jess: Well, okay, so here's the quality of the song. The first Google result is, is fancy like Applebee's, a real song?
Damien: Is this satire? Is that weirdo Yankovic?
Jess: All right, well that was a tangent.
Ryan: I wonder how this plays in the uk. Like what is your, yeah, what is your cheap.
Damien: What is your Applebee's?
Ryan: Yeah. What is your Applebee's? Nandos?
Damien: Hello? Members of of Europe and the United Kingdom. What is your Applebee's? [00:48:00] Oh, God.
Jess: I'm gonna say it's Nandos.
Damien: I don't dis Nandos. I, I'm not, I love Nandos given day.
Jess: It's a little lummi wrap. I
Ryan: hate to even ask this next question, but did the scare hold up?
Damien: this story was not scary whatsoever
Ryan: except for the whole cousin thing.
Damien: I mean the cousin loving, no. Ryan, did you find this scary?
Ryan: No.
Jess: I liked
Damien: Jess, did you find it?
Jess: No, I liked that she was crazy And
Damien: Jess, answer the question. It's not
Jess: scary,
Damien: but okay, so zero out of 10 scare bells.
Jess: Yep. This ghost.
Damien: That said, I did like the story. I feel weird because I'm like downing it on everything having to do with the thematic relevance and yet at the end of the day, I still liked it.
Jess: Yeah.
Ryan: All right. Well that's, we've read worse to our whiskey rating. So this is how we rate our stories here on whiskey and the weird from zero Fingers to the coveted full fist or five fingers of whiskey.
Damien, where are you coming in at?
Damien: Oh, you're starting with me. Well, yeah, I'm gonna come in the same as last [00:49:00] week, which is three and a half Fingers in that.
Ryan: Okay.
Damien: It wasn't. Unenjoyable, and I'll tell you this also that I don't like. Tell us the CW like approach to storytelling. You
Ryan: know that Sarah Michelle Geller is in the movie.
Damien: I don't like the teenage age. Yeah, but she'd be a mom now. Like emotional whatever, roller coaster, falling in love with your cousin, blah, blah, blah. This isn't my genre pre fair, but I. I did actually enjoy the story, and while it did give a lot of man sized marble and it gave a lot of that other story where they entombed the mm-hmm.
Spectating couple and the open crypt, but also that story where someone was buried by a tree, I think last season. Yep. Yeah. It gave a lot of that, it wasn't like a unique trope or anything like that. I still read it a couple times and was like,
Ryan: okay,
Damien: you know, this isn't a terrible story, so. Even because it was genre breaking with [00:50:00] regards to what I actually enjoy and kept my attention.
Mm-hmm. I probably bumped it up a half finger to a full finger for three and a half.
Ryan: All right. Three and a half
Damien: about you, Jess.
Jess: I actually wrote down three and a half.
Ryan: Okay. Three and halfs.
Jess: Yep. I think it is. A fine story that I enjoyed reading, but it was also, I've read 50 versions of this story that are better.
Sure.
Ryan: Mm-hmm.
Jess: Even, what was it? Our last like Christmas episode where it was the uh,
Ryan: yes. Yeah.
Jess: A sister hiding a baby who gets the
Ryan: nurse's story. Yeah.
Jess: Yes, yes. Like this was that, but the nurses' story was better 'cause it had a more better, exciting ending.
Ryan: Yeah.
Jess: And this is also kind of like a lot of the other story, so.
It was fine had I, I think had I not read it in this collection, I maybe would've liked it a little bit more.
Ryan: Oh, interesting.
Jess: But I think because it is so kind of in between better [00:51:00] stories
Ryan: mm-hmm.
Jess: And a better take on kind of the same thing that bumped it down a little bit. I also didn't like that we just ended with them still trapped,
Ryan: trapped
Jess: by the boys
Ryan: to the.
What the boys are.
Damien: They're like, what happened? Did you die in that parsonage? What
Jess: is the story? Wait, are you still trapped in there or are there still terrible boys out there?
Ryan: With my last breath, I write these pages.
Jess: Yeah, I've been in, we've been in here for weeks. The boys won't let us leave.
Ryan: Well,
Damien: yeah,
Ryan: true.
Jess: Ryan,
Ryan: one finger of whiskey. I hated the story. I hated the story. I hated everything about it.
Jess: You need? Dang.
Damien: All right. Look man.
Ryan: No,
Damien: not the story. I could detect a, like, I could detect when Ryan's coming in. Either of you, when you come in with a lower, higher rating. Yeah, yeah. I can tell. I can feel the ions in the room.
I did not think you were coming in with a one banger. I was trying, trying hide it. That is [00:52:00] hard.
Ryan: This was a juvenile story. It was written by a fairly young person, idiot. It told a story. I was uninterested in. I'm I don't care about these people. I don't care about who they marry. I don't care if they are married.
I don't care if they get out at the end of the day. I, I hope they're
Jess: still in there.
Ryan: I, I don't necessarily hope they're still in there, but, I mean, who gives a rip? What happens? Who gives a ripple? This was, this story was so dull as I was reading it, I was like, looking at my phone looking, I was like, is it time for me to go to work yet?
Jess: Oh God.
Damien: Holy cow. Anxiously
await
Ryan: word. It just, it did not hit for me one finger of whiskey for the story told in the church. Also a dumb title.
Damien: Okay man. And another thing, somebody's been drinking a full container egg haterade here. I'm kind of liking it. It's
Ryan: the old forester. It makes me grumpy
Jess: apparently.
Ryan: All right. If you liked this story you're gonna have to talk to somebody else, [00:53:00] but, uh, fair. If you did Damien, what might something be that they would also enjoy?
Damien: Sure. If you want a story about vengeance between two females who are essentially vying for something, one with a little more nefarious approach, the other probably a little more innocent, and yet there's not a guy at the center of the battle, then you might want to check out.
Darren Aronofsky's, black Swan 2010. Psychological Horror. You've probably seen it. This is not news to you.
Ryan: Such a good movie.
Jess: It's such a
Damien: good, good
Jess: movie. It
Damien: doesn't matter. It's go
Jess: watch it again.
Damien: Well, it's a visual treat starring Natalie Portman. Mila Kuni. Winona Writers in it, Barbara Hershey.
Ryan: Isn't Aronofsky also in it?
Isn't he the dance instructor?
Damien: Oh, I don't know. You're really going back from me. I
Ryan: think I'm thinking he puts himself in it. I can't
Damien: remember, but it's basically a battle of two ballerinas fighting for prima ballerina position, one of which is [00:54:00] doing it aggressively. The other is sort of relying on natural god-given gifts, tragedy ensues, violence ensues,
Ryan: metamorphosis.
Damien: Mania ensues. Hallucinations and other tip symptoms of insanity. So if you haven't seen Black Swan, I don't want to go too deep into it. It's a visual treat. It probably won some awards. Who knows? Darren Aronofsky's, a visionary filmmaker. Go check it out. 2010s Black Swan by Darren Aronofsky.
Ryan: It's like the darkest thing.
Both Mila Kuni and. Natalie Portman have done
Damien: this. No, no. Mila Kuni is still voicing a character on family guy, so that's pretty dark.
Ryan: Yeah. Fair. Well, that's gonna do it for us on this episode of Whiskey and the weird, thanks everybody for joining us. If you enjoyed listening, would you please drop us a rating or even a review wherever you catch your podcast?
We would be grateful. We always want to thank Dr. Blake Brandis for providing the music for whiskey and the weird, and Damien, if they'd like to tell us about their cousins, where can they do that? [00:55:00]
Damien: Man, don't keep it to only farmers.com. But if you're gonna go over to the social realm, we're at the all the meta properties and on Blue Sky at Whiskey and the Weird at Whiskey, in the Weird on Threads.
Facebook, Instagram, and Blue Sky. We spell our whiskeys with any, we hope you do too. If not. Go hump your cousin,
Ryan: get, go, get trapped in a tomb. I mean, anything would've worked. You
Damien: cousin Humped, you were thinking it follow us. Hump your cousin.
Jess: Don't think people were thinking that.
Ryan: Just redeem us. What are we
Jess: reading? Oh God. I dunno. I forgot how to read
Damien's dying. Okay, well let's pick an Evicted spirit by Marguerite Marton
Ryan: and may it be a better spirit. I'm Ryan Whitley.
Jess: Uh, I'm Jessica Berg.
Ryan: [00:56:00] And I am Damien Smith. And together we're whiskey in the weird, somebody send us home.
Jess: As always, keep your friends through the ages and your creeps in the pages.
Ryan: Goodnight. Everybody
Damien: Jess snorted.
Jess: Yeah, I did. It's been a long day.