Monthly Archives: March 2022
Tea’s Weird Week: Quest for the Weirdest Movies
There’s a Tea’s Weird Week Facebook group that is a clearinghouse for weird news that we often get our Tea’s Weird Week podcast news from. With the Oscars approaching this weekend, I wondered who would take the Oscar for best weird movie of all time. I decided to set up a poll in the Facebook group and as of this writing, there’s over 60 nominated films.
The frontrunners in the poll as of this writing:
1) Eraserhead, David Lynch’s 1977 weird masterpiece, his first film. I haven’t seen this one in many years, but I do remember seeing the trippy, dream-like black and white film. I also nominated my favorite Lynch movie, 1990’s Wild at Heart. But every Lynch movie could be on this list.
2) Tatsuo the Iron Man. I haven’t seen this one– Billy (who also nominated Eraserhead) says this 1988 movie, by Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto, is like “Eraserhead crossed with Terminator and Akira in the body horror style of David Cronenberg.” Yikes! Akira also made it to the 10 spot of this poll.
3) Howard the Duck. Long before the Marvel Universe became a million jillion dollar juggernaut, there was this incredibly strange 1986 adaptation of a Marvel property. Andrew, our podcast sound engineer, nominated this one, which was directed by Willard Huyck (and executive produced by George Lucas). It was a commercial and critical bomb, but has been quickly rising in out poll.
4) Swiss Army Man. Stephen nominated this 2016 film directed by Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan. I haven’t seen it and only know that it stars Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe, the latter of whom plays a corpse.
5) a tie between Terry Gilliam’s beautifully weird 1985 film Brazil, nominated by Alicia and Todd Browning’s taboo 1932 movie Freaks, which starred actual sideshow performers, nominated by Christina.
So there’s the top noms if want a weird movie night. I’ll be announcing the poll winners in the Facebook group when red carpet coverage starts for the Oscars on Sunday.
Please Clap Dept.: Thanks Bubbler Talk for tapping into my expertise on extraterrestrial parking structures/ It’s a fun and interesting short piece: Art? Landing site for aliens? The story behind the giant metal circle at Milwaukee’s Cupertino Park | WUWM 89.7 FM – Milwaukee’s NPR
SEE ALSO: More weird film related writing on the wild life of Werner Herzog: TWW: High on the Herzog.
Tea’s Weird Week, S4 ep08: Quest for the Weirdest Movies: I set up a Zoom with the people who nominated the top weird movies in the poll, me and Heidi discussed more weird film and other news, a Psycho trivia question from Miss Information, and a closing track by Xposed 4heads, “Suggestion Box.”
Listen here: Tea’s Weird Week, S4 ep08: Quest for the Weirdest Movies (podbean.com)
Spotify//Soundcloud//Google Podcasts//iHeartRadio//PlayerFM//Apple//Stitcher//Pocket Casts
Follow me on: Substack//Facebook Group//Twitter//Instagram
My latest books are:
Brady Street Pharmacy: Stories and Sketches (2021, Vegetarian Alcoholic Press)
American Madness: The Story of the Phantom Patriot and How Conspiracy Theories Hijacked American Consciousness (2020, Feral House)
Tea’s Weird Week: Rollin’ with Baba Yaga
For this week’s TWW podcast me and my co-host Heidi Erickson wanted to talk about some war mythology/ folklore. We’ve already seen these stories emerge from the war in Ukraine– some based on truth, others that are at the least greatly embellished. There is, for example, the video of a Ukrainian woman offering Russian soldiers sunflower (Ukraine’s national flower) seeds to put in their pockets so they can sprout from them when they die. ICE COLD (and caught on video)!
Then there’s the story of the “Beastmaster of Kyiv” who is allegedly a former Kyiv zookeeper that is stalking the warzone with one of the zoo’s panthers or tigers, ambushing Russian soldiers. I couldn’t find anything that would substantiate this as a true story, but as I said on the podcast, in times like these people need this kind of folklore, propaganda, whatever you want to call it, to steel their resolve. Vastly outnumbered, outgunned, it’s easy to see why a story of a fearless maniac and his tiger companion ripping through the Russian forces would become popular.
Another similar tale is the “Ghost of Kyiv,” an alleged rogue fighter pilot, flying his MiG-29 solo against Russian Air Forces, who has since taken out six Russian fighter planes. True or not, the Ghost has become an Internet myth.
Me and Heidi discussed these Ukrainian war folklore stories as well as ones from wars past– the Nazi “Werewolf Division,” those pesky Gremlins, and Wojtek, the Polish war bear. For the show open, Heidi took a step back and told an old Slavic tale of folklore– Baba Yaga (aka Baba Jaga or Baba Roga), a story shared throughout Ukraine, Russia, Poland, and other surrounding countries. Baba Yaga is a powerful sorceress who lives deep in the woods in a hut (often depicted as having chicken legs).
SEE ALSO: I wrote this piece on Milwaukee’s Lakefront Brewery, which has raised over $50,000 (and counting) with their “Putin is a Dick” crowler and T-shirt for Ukrainian refugee aid:
How Lakefront Brewery’s Showing Support to Ukraine After Years of Selling Beer There (milwaukeemag.com)
Tea’s Weird Week, S4 ep07, Baba Roga: Heidi Erickson tells the story of Baba Roga. In the TWW News segment, Tea and Heidi talk about modern war folklore like the “Beastmaster of Kyiv” story circulating on social media. Plus new trivia from Miss Information and we close with a trad Irish song from Wendy Lynn Markus, “The Lilting Banshee.”
Listen here: Tea’s Weird Week, S4 ep07: Baba Roga (podbean.com)
Spotify//Soundcloud//Google Podcasts//iHeartRadio//PlayerFM//Apple//Stitcher//Pocket Casts
Follow me on: Substack//Facebook Group//Twitter//Instagram
My latest books are:
Brady Street Pharmacy: Stories and Sketches (2021, Vegetarian Alcoholic Press)
American Madness: The Story of the Phantom Patriot and How Conspiracy Theories Hijacked American Consciousness (2020, Feral House)
Tea’s Weird Week: Hey, I Invented a Batman Villain Based on an Obscure Myth About Bingo
This column, as many Tea’s Weird Week columns tend to be, is just another ride on the Universal Randomizer. My friend Vonnie messaged me about her group, the Milwaukee Pagan Unity Community, hosting a Bingo and benefit raffle night. I really wanted to play Bingo with the pagans BUT I had to get to Door County for an article I’m working on (that’s a whole ‘nother story). Dammit! Next time, Vonnie.
It’s been many years since I’ve played Bingo, but it reminded me of a random “fact” I read many years ago.
In 1929 a toy salesman named Edwin Lowe was developing playing cards for Bingo, a game he was basing after he saw people playing a similar game called “Beano” at a carnival (which was in turn, probably inspired by an Italian game named Lotto). To make the cards, according to an article titled “The History of Bingo“:
(Lowe) commissioned an elderly mathematics professor named Carl Leffler and requested the professor create 6,000 new Bingo cards with nonrepeating number groups. The cards were increasingly difficult to produce as the number combinations dwindled. By the time the task was completed, Professor Leffler had gone insane.
Good story– if it’s true. The Wikipedia entry for “Bingo card” says this story is a “myth” and I didn’t find anything that would add credence to this, just the same line recycled over and over without a source. But does this not sound like the origin story of a Batman villain? I think it does, so I took the liberty of creating one. Good timing, too, with that new Batman movie everyone is talking about!
Here’s the backstory: Prof. Carl Leffler is under a tight deadline to find 6,000 Bingo card combinations by the end of the week for the game release. As he stares at the cards filled with dots containing numbers spread throughout his office, they begin to swirl around his head, overcoming his brain. The hallucinations of rolling numbers overtake him and he decides to give himself electro-shock treatment to try to get them out of his head, but the shocks push him over the edge.
Breaking into the toy manufacturing plant who hired him to create the Bingo cards, Prof. Leffler, now calling himself BINGO MASTER, creates giant Bingo balls of death, a stunning Bingo stamp gun, and a giant flying Bingo card that he rides like a flying carpet. After a crime spree of robbing museums (and Bingo halls) he is caught by Batman and Robin and sent to Arkham Asylum, which he breaks out of periodically with relative ease (as all Batman villains do).
My friend David Gloyd II mocked up some art of the Bingo Master in action (he based it on the cover of Detective Comics #140 (1948), the Riddler’s first appearance).
It’s a no-brainer, right? DC, if you’re reading, I’ll sell you the character rights for 1 million dollars. And hey, I’m not a greedbag like Bob Kane, I’ll pay David half for the character design. Let’s make it happen!
Please Clap Dept.: The Shepherd Express reviewed my book Brady Street Pharmacy: Stories and Sketches, comparing the tone to a Tom Waits song. Hey, I’m not drunk, the piano is! I’m currently working on an audio version of the book. Author Tea Krulos Remembers the Brady Street Pharmacy – Shepherd Express
Tea’s Weird Week Season 4 ep06, Scenes from Paranormal Chicago Con: Me and Heidi Erickson report live from the Paranormal Chicago Conference, interviewing paranormal investigator (and conference host) Jack Chavez, tarot reader Coco La Bruja, author Dan Guzman, Dale Kaczmarek (Ghost Research Society) and Bob Anderson (Bob After Dark). Plus weird news, trivia answers from Miss Information, and we close with a track by our sound engineer, FlatlineAudio138, “Fatal Error.”
Listen here: Tea’s Weird Week, S4 ep06: Scenes from Paranormal Chicago Con (podbean.com)
Spotify//Soundcloud//Google Podcasts//iHeartRadio//PlayerFM//Apple//Stitcher//Pocket Casts
Follow me on: Substack//Facebook Group//Twitter//Instagram
My latest books are:
Brady Street Pharmacy: Stories and Sketches (2021, Vegetarian Alcoholic Press)
American Madness: The Story of the Phantom Patriot and How Conspiracy Theories Hijacked American Consciousness (2020, Feral House)
teakrulos.com 