Kaiju Coffee Break

Rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated! We’re back for our between-season intermission sabbatical miniseries covering Netflix’s Godzilla: Singular Point, a weird anime about a graduate student and a computer whiz investigating a signal from space that seems to portend the apocalypse. Lee appreciates the design of the monsters while Sarah spends too much time speculating about Shoebills. Plus; hopefully better audio quality, the foremost Godzilla experts (in town), and why Japanese technology always reminds Sarah of a pulp science fiction novel.

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For the Showa Season finale we watched Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975), Ishiro Honda and Akihiko Hirata’s last Godzilla movie. Lee wants more of Mechagodzilla while Sarah reminisces about her memories from ‘nam with our Patron of the Week. Plus; hot robot babes, FDR being a drama queen, Very Important Marine Biologist, Interpol helmet hair, and the return of Sarah’s Science Hour to discuss Artificial Hearts, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), and how Charles Limburgh might have been a Nazi?

Thank you to all our patrons and listeners! We are so excited to be wrapping up Season 1 of KCB. Before we dive into the Heisei-era Godzilla films we will be taking a detour to discuss Godzilla: Singular Point, an anime currently available on Netflix! Check it out and watch along with us. See you soon!

The long wait is over! Mechagodzilla makes its debut in 1974’s Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla, and hey- it’s pretty good! Lee geeks out over Mechagodzilla’s reveal while Sarah just wants to break free of the stranglehold of big candle. Plus; SPACE TITANIUM, Ryukyuan representation, Mechagodzilla’s weird scream, King Shisa just wants a nap, unnecessary sunglasses use, and the return of Sarah’s Science Hour to talk about magnets and how do they work?

See also:

The Okinawa Problem: The Forgotten History of Japanese Colonialism and Ryukyuan Indigeneity (https://www.risingpowersinitiative.org/publication/the-okinawa-problem-the-forgotten-history-of-japanese-colonialism-and-ryukyuan-indigeneity/)

Sarah’s Science Hour Sources:

Diamagnetism and Paramagnetism (https://courses.lumenlearning.com/introchem/chapter/diamagnetism-and-paramagnetism/)

The Unfiltered Truth Behind Human Magnetism, Vaccines, And COVID-19

(https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2021/06/23/the-unfiltered-truth-behind-human-magnetism-vaccines-and-covid-19/)

Text your zipcode to 438829 or visit vaccines.gov to find a COVID vaccination site near you! Got your shot? Email us and let us know!

We’re still alive, we swear! Programming delays brought to you by the Delta variant and impending collapse of the US healthcare system be darned, we’re here and ready to talk Godzilla vs Megalon (1973). Lee is impressed by the work ethic of nudie-poster wielding truck drivers while Sarah brings the Greenpeace facts and just wants to watch Kamen Rider. Plus: Jet Jaguar’s creepy face, a bad guy pit, Godzilla owns a timeshare, sweet car tricks, and a reminder of the time when questionable LGBT representation was the best we could hope for.

Text your zipcode to 438829 or visit vaccines.gov to find a COVID vaccination site near you! Got your shot? Email us and let us know!

Featured Roaster: SteamDot Coffee, Anchorage AK (https://steamdot.com/)

One year of Kaiju Coffee Break! For this very special birthday episode Lee watched, and Sarah fell asleep while watching, 1972’s Godzilla vs Gigan. Lee ponders the meaning of absolute peace while Sarah has maybe had a little too much to drink to be recording. Plus; tangents galore, Sarah dabbles in character work, corn guns, 360 degree rotating bad-guy chairs, and what to do if your microwave gets infested with cockroaches.

Sarah’s Science Hour Sources:

Scientific American: Can a Cockroach Live Without Its Head

(https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-a-cockroach-live-without-its-he/)

BBC: Cockroaches are not Radiation Proof and Most are not Pests 

(http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160926-cockroaches-are-not-radiation-proof-and-most-are-not-pests)

Smithsonian: Cockroach Genome Shows Why They are Impossible to Kill

(https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/cockroach-genome-shows-why-they-are-impossible-kill-180968554/)

University of Melbourne: Would Cockroaches Really Survive a Nuclear Apocalypse?

(https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/would-cockroaches-really-survive-a-nuclear-apocalypse)

In this episode, we discuss 1971’s Godzilla vs Hedorah, the trippy-yet-grisly environmentalist tale of the pollution monster Hedorah. Lee still has the music stuck in his head, while Sarah envisions a future career as a trunk scientist. Plus; Shroedinger’s gatchapon, fish-face raves, eggshell coffee for homesteaders, puke-flying, and the return of Sarah’s Science Hour to talk about the use of high frequency electric currents to dry lumber.

Sarah’s Science Hour References:

Helmuth Resch: High-Frequency Electric Current for Drying of Wood – Historical Perspectives (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240990482_High-frequency_electric_current_for_drying_of_wood_-_Historical_perspectives)

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Featured Roaster: The Green Coffee Bean Company, Ketchikan AK

It had to happen eventually: we review the clipshow of Godzilla movies, 1969’s (nice) All Monsters Attack. Lee bemoans the Toho Champion Show for its role in the loss of precious King Kong vs Godzilla footage while Sarah thinks good guy neighbor Shinpei Minami looks awfully familiar. Plus: we review New Pokemon Snap, an exciting new Patreon opportunity, accidental car theft, Japanese cowboys, and the history of the 1968 300 million yen robbery.

Featured Roaster: Little Goat Coffee Roaster in Newark, DE (https://www.littlegoatcoffeeroasting.com/)

Thanks for the coffee, Chloe!

The year is 1985, and the son of North Korea’s supreme leader has aspirations of producing a kaiju movie to compete with Godzilla and to propagate North Korean values to the world. To that end, he has kidnapped a famous South Korean director and a plane-ful of Japanese effects artists. The end result is Pulgasari: a little known and completely campy cautionary tale which imagines unfettered capitalism as a literal insatiable monster. Lee fell asleep while watching but is grateful for the chance to learn more about Korean history while Sarah finds it all to be a bit of a bummer. Plus: feudal hwacha rockets, bowhead whales, tucking your kaiju in for bed, and an exciting opportunity for our listeners: donate $20 to the show or Pants Pending Studios and we’ll watch and review a movie of your choice!

Thank you Austin for the listener letter!

Source:

Vanity Fair: How Kim Jong Il Kidnapped a Director, Made a Godzilla Knockoff, and Created a Cult Hit (https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/04/pulgasari-north-korea-cult-hit)

It’s finally here! After COVID delays and a streaming launch, Godzilla vs Kong has arrived. And it only took us 21 hours to download it from HBO Max! Sarah rants about TV portrayal of CPR and defibrillation while Lee questions digging a hole to China. Plus: why is Ren Serizawa, whose scale is that, amazing Deaf representation, and Sarah’s Science Hour is here to tell you the whacky story of the self taught scientist who believed that Alaska is actually on the inside of the Earth.

Sarah’s Science Hour Sources:

Fantastically Wrong: the Real Life Journey to the Center of the Earth that Almost Was, Wired (https://www.wired.com/2014/10/fantastically-wrong-journey-to-the-center-of-the-earth/)

10 April 1818: John Cleves Symmes’s ‘No. 1 Circular', Peter W. Sinnema (http://www.branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=peter-w-sinnema-10-april-1818-john-cleves-symmess-no-1-circular)

There goes Tokyo, Go-Go-Godzilla! This episode we watched 2019’s “Godzilla: King of the Monsters”, the Legendary MonsterVerse’s latest offering. Lee reminisces about seeing System of a Down in concert while Sarah presents an especially asthmatic Science Hour on the emerging field of Bioacoustics. Plus: the main character is a marty-stu, pointless oxygen destroyer weapons, incorrect wolf pack dynamics, familiar lakeside cabins, and the return of the Shobijin.

Sarah’s Science Hour reference:

Yale: “Listening to Nature, the Emerging Field of Bioacoustics” (https://e360.yale.edu/features/listening-to-nature-the-emerging-field-of-bioacoustics)