Episode 29: Kilt Weasels and Other Charismatic Macrofauna

Windy’s chest is also a creature. Good tidings, dear listeners! This week, we are joined by Jennifer Menken of the Bell Museum of Natural History for an episode all about movie critters! That’s right, we’re bringing SCIENCE to creature features! SCIENCE also brought us the tasty Protocolo 2011 Tempranillo that we drank while recording this episode. Please feel free to sip along! Now, before we go to the show notes, we have a couple of corrections for this episode: Melissa was mistaken in how she pronounced H. R. Giger. It’s actually “GEE-ger,” as heard in videos where the man pronounces his own name. Melissa knows this, but she had some wine and old habits kicked in. Melissa is also fully aware in her current sobriety that Peter Capaldi’s kilt was full of mongoose, not weasel. While mongeese look like weasels, they are in suborder Feliforma (like cats and hyenas), not Caniformia (like dogs and weasels). We deeply apologize to any weasels to whom we gave false hopes about inhabiting Peter Capaldi’s kilt. Show notes and links behind the cut! Movies mentioned: Alien Aliens Alien Resurrection Spaceballs Alien vs. Predator Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem Prometheus Predator Lord of the Rings trilogy The Fly The Blob The Thing The Mist Dune Tremors Signs Pitch Black Dune Dark Crystal Flash Gordon Godzilla 2014 Godzilla 1998 Cloverfield Them! 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea People mentioned: H. R. Giger Sigourney Weaver Ron Perlman John Hurt Veronica Cartwright Kevin Peter Hall (Guy in the Predator suit) Doug Jones Andy Sirkis Joaquin Phoenix Vin Diesel Harper Goff Links: Here’s a link to the video of Sigourney Weaver actually making that basket: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjTWN7SMLkU Zombie ants with fungus: http://io9.com/5335833/parasitic-fungus-turns-carpenter-ants-into-its-own-personal-zombie-army Sadly, the Dark Crystal “Director’s Cut” has been taken down, per the Jim Henson Company. However, here’s a good interview with the creator of the video, which describes what he set out to do: http://mentalfloss.com/article/54077/watch-restored-original-cut-dark-crystal The post Episode 29: Kilt Weasels and Other Charismatic Macrofauna appeared first on Xanadu Cinema Pleasure Dome.