HBM159: Final Haircuts

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Scissors in front of a pile of grey and black hair.  Digital render by Jeff Emtman. Scissor model by sweedboy69 used under a Creative Commons Attribution license.  

 

Rocky Villanueva in his Berlin apartment. Photo by Jeff Emtman.

During a moment of personal turmoil, Rocky Villanueva gets an email from a long-time client.  His client is in his final weeks of life, and is getting his last wishes taken care of.  One of those wishes: to look like himself when he dies.  

Rocky says that many hairdressers and barbers have similar experiences: helping their clients through the last stages of life and letting them look the way they want to look for a final time.

Rocky packs his haircutting tools and bikes across Berlin to spend an hour with his client, giving him a haircut and receiving advice on love and grief. 

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Producer: Jeff Emtman
Music: The Black Spot, Serocell, Phantom Fauna

Sponsor: The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist

The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist is a fictional illustrated diary of an artist navigating love and hatred.

The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist is now available at all online book stores.

 

The Thaw & Die Grenze

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Ice cubes fall from a tray in the clouds. Digital render by Jeff Emtman.

 

Jeff walks to the edge of Berlin and explains why the Here Be Monsters feed has been quiet for so long. 

On the way, Jeff talks about plans for upcoming episodes, looks at the ways that moving to Berlin has changed him, and discusses a pair of films featuring Tilda Swinton: Cycling the Frame (1988), and The Invisible Frame (2009). Both movies feature Swinton riding a bicycle around the entirety of the Berlin Wall—or, in the case of the latter, where the Berlin Wall used to be. 

Please follow Here Be Monsters on Patreon: patreon.com/HBMpodcast

Field recordings heard in this episode (starting around 17:20) : a former site of the Berlin wall in Marienfelde  ~  birds and insects near Portbou, Spain  ~  canoe paddling near the in Germany’s Spreewald  ~  geese and peacocks calling on Peacock Island (Pfaueninsel)  ~  dusk crickets near Locarno, Switzerland  ~  a massive pipe organ that was part of Italy’s submission to the 2024 Venice Biennale  ~  public transport boats in Venice revving their engines  ~  Jeff singing in a bathroom while a faucet drips  ~  Water splashing against cement in Banyuls-sur-mer, France  ~  Hiking the Walter Benjamin memorial trail on the France / Spain border  ~  Baby goat at the peak of a mountain on the France / Spain border  ~  A canal boat passing in Amsterdam, Netherlands  ~  An announcement bidding visitors to be quiet while visiting France’s Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg.  

Producer: Jeff Emtman
Music: The Black Spot

 

HBM158: An Illusion

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3 microphones swinging by their cables.  Digital render by Jeff Emtman.  Microphone model by evilvoland.

 

In the midst of a stressful move, HBM producer Jeff Emtman finds comfort in the phasing techniques developed by minimalist composer, Steve Reich. 

Note: this episode contains sounds that cannot be accurately represented by speakers.  Please use headphones.  

Here Be Monsters is an independent podcast supported by listener donations.  If you’d like to make a small monthly contribution, visit patreon.com/HBMpodcast. 

Producer: Jeff Emtman

 

Steve Reich compositions excerpted in this episode: 

 

Clapping Music, performed by Steve Reich and Wolfram Winkel

Violin Phase, performed by Jonathan Morton

Pendulum Music, performed by Joan Cerveró, Víctor Trescolí, Isabel León, and Estefanía Sánchez

HBM157: The Raw Whatever

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Light pours out of a cabinet onto the floor, illuminating three tarot cards. Digital render by Jeff Emtman. Cabinet model by Kirill Sannikov via Poly Haven.

 

Allen H Greenfield is a UFOlogist and occult researcher.  He’s also a father of three.  His first child, Alex was the subject of HBM155: Ghosts Aliens Burritos.  In that episode, Alex tells stories from his childhood of chasing strange phenomena with his father. 

Content Note: Language

In this episode, Here Be Monsters host Jeff Emtman talks to Allen to get the “fatherly perspective” on UFOs, black lodges, tarot, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and (most of all) how to be a good parent. 

Prince(Knight) of Wands, 9 of Wands, 3 of Swords. Three cards that Allen pulled from a deck in his mind after Jeff asked the question “Should I have children?” Card images from the Rider—Waite Tarot deck, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Allen Greenfield is currently working on the final installment of a trilogy whose first two entries are Secret Cipher of the UFOnauts and Secret Rituals of the Men in Black.  The forthcoming book is yet to be titled. 

Also heard in this episode: Jeff’s dad, Rick Emtman.

Producer: Jeff Emtman
Music: Serocell,The Black Spot

 
 

Sponsor: Pal’s Plants

Pal’s Plants is a Flatbush, Brooklyn based subscription service for potted plants and intriguing zines.  

Plants can be delivered to the 5 boroughs of New York City. Zines can be delivered anywhere in the USA.  

Use offer code HBM50 at signup to get half off your first month’s subscription.  

Get Plants & Zines

via @pals_plants_etc on Instagram.

HBM156: Heavy Load-Bearing Body

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Four model cows examine a depression in the ground. Digital Render by Jeff Emtman.

 

Berlin’s Schwerbelastungskörper is a massive concrete structure that, today, is hidden in plain sight between a railroad and an apartment building.  It’s one of just a dozen remaining pieces of Nazi Architecture in Berlin.  And it’s not much to look at. It was built in 1941 as a test structure for a triumphal arch that Hitler wanted to build in that spot. 

Content Note: Language and discussion of war / genocide

The Schwerbelastungskörper (“heavy load-bearing body”) is the arch’s test structure.  It weighs about 12,650 metric tonnes, or about 28 million pounds, and it’s the equivalent weight of one of the four massive legs of the never-built arch.

This plan was abandoned as World War 2 accelerated.  And the structure remained, slowly sinking into Berlin’s marshy soil, providing proof of the arch’s impossibility. 

In this episode, HBM host Jeff Emtman visits the Schwerbelastungskörper, records some impulse responses in the structure’s single room and reflects on his discomfort in finding beauty in another Nazi structure nearby, Tempelhof Airport (now a public park and refugee camp). 

Also mentioned on this episode: The Berlin Airlift, Austrian Tyrol, The Little Mermaid (1989), and Der Herr Der Ringe (Lord of the Rings movies dubbed in German).  

 
 

Here Be Monsters is an independent podcast supported by listener donations.  If you’d like to make a small monthly contribution, visit patreon.com/HBMpodcast. 

Registration for the Here Be Monsters Art Exchange is open until November 10th, 2022. 
Sign up here: https://HBMpodcast.com/art/

Producer: Jeff Emtman
Music: The Black Spot

 

The HBM Art Exchange is Back!

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Digital render by Jeff Emtman. Source image from the HBM Art Exchange promotional animation made by Endless Want, which features Devon Sherman’s illustrations of The Anatomy of Melancholy

 

The Here Be Monsters Art Exchange is back!

It’s a really simple and wonderful thing where you, gentle listener, can mail a piece of art to a stranger and get a piece of art in return. It’s open to artists of all experience levels from around the world.

The deadline to sign up is November 10th, 2022. Sign up and more info here: https://www.hbmpodcast.com/art

The art exchange is made possible this year by HBM listener Devon Sherman, who’s offered her time and expertise to help with communication between artists. Thank you Devon. Devon is a past participant in the art exchange, and has an ongoing project where she illustrates Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy. Another listener, known as “Endless_Want”, also helped out by making the Art Exchange’s promotional video, which you can see on the sign-up page and on our Instagram and Twitter.

Music: The Black Spot, Robbie Quine—Glitter Rock Werewolf