Eyes without a face update

Yesterday I posted about the face-less people:



Turns out it is a viral marketing campaign for a fucken car or something. Yawn. Like dlisted sez,

They're lucky that they haven't creeped up on the wrong crazy bitch who would take that faceless mask and shove it up their faceless ass.

Yerp.

Logo WTF x 2

This morning I got all testy on The Wellingtonista about a shitty logo and some awful copy which got up my nose. About 20 minutes earlier I had also noticed this:

Yup, that's the logo for the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind. Cute, I guess, that it's in the shape of an eye and depicts impediments to seeing clearly; awful awful awful that the impediment looks like... a blind. WTF, RNZFB?

Awful, awful, awful. Hence today was Logo WTF x 2 day.

I'm a bad man, you're a penis, and your whole crew stink like faeces

You can often get a really accurate idea of if I'm having a little period of out-of-control moodswings by whether or not I post little rants here which are barely coherent and generally come across quite poorly. So, to try to answer all the comments and questions received by emails and so on:

[1] I like Newtown. There are crazy people who wander around and they often have amusing slogans on their clothes. So do I. So am I, for that matter. I'm right at home!
[2] I wish that a lot of them were being taken better care of than I suspect they are. I also wish I took better care of myself, as well.
[3] I Am A Soldier In Christ's Army is, well, a pretty full-on thing to be walking around proclaiming, especially to anyone who's read some of the more obscure, extreme passages in the bible.
[4] Some other interesting slogans to wear on one's shirt might be :

• I Am A Soldier In Allah's (or Muhammed's) Army: this could potentially cause the wearer to be the target of everything from fear to disgust and even attract the attention of people like police and airport security.
• I Wish I Was A Stormtrooper In Hitler's Elite Schutzstaffel Units: you see these guys around occasionally. Usually they look like the sort of knuckle-draggers that would've been gang-raped and then killed by the real SS. And why do they shave their heads? They should grow it out, dye it flaxen-blonde and style it into really sharp haircuts using brylcreem or something.
  
• I Am A Veteran Of The New Zealand Army's Presence in Vietnam 1967-75: quite a topical one.
• I Am A Slave In the Nike Army: you see this sort of thing a lot, though not so much the slogan, just the icon. Also, for Nike substitute any sweat-shop child-labour exploiting global clothing franchise.

And so on.

Mould

Mould   mould  mould  mould  mould  mould  mould  mould  mould    mould  mould  mould    mould  mould   mould mould   mould  mould   mould   mould   mould  mould mould   mould   mould mould    mould  mould   mould  mould   mould  mould mould     mould mould   mould  mould mould    mould   mould   mould   mould   mould   mould    mould   mould mould   mould  mould  mould     mould mould    mould  mould   mould    mould  mould  mould   mould   mould  mould   mould  mould   mould  mould  mould   mould  mould  mould   mould  mould     mould mould   mould  mould  mould   mould  mould  mould    mould mould    mould  mould  mould   mould  mould   mould   mould   mould   mould  mould  mould  mould  mould  mould    mould  mould  mould  mould  mould     mould  mould mould   mould mould    mould  mould  mould mould   mould  mould  mould   mould mould    mould  mould  mould mould   mould  mould    mould mould  mould   mould   mould   mould   mould  mould   mould  mould 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  mould  mould   mould   mould  mould   mould  mould   mould  mould   mould   mould   mould  mould  mould  mould    mould   mould mould   mould mould     mould mould   mould mould   mould mould  mould mould    mould mould    mould mould   mould mould   mould  mould    mould mould  mould    mould  mould    mould   mould  mould   mould  mould   mould   mould   mould  mould   mould mould   mould  mould  mould  mould   mould  mould mould    mould  mould   mould   mould   mould  mould   mould  mould  mould  mould  mould   mould   mould   mould mould    mould  mould   mould mould  mould   mould  mould   mould   mould mould mould   mould  mould  mould   mould   mould  mould mould    mould mould mould    mould mould   mould  mould mould    mould   mould  mould   mould  mould   mould    mould  mould mould    mould  mould  mould     mould mould   mould  mould  mould    mould  mould   mould   mould  mould   mould   mould mould    mould  mould   mould    mould  mould   mould  mould  mould   mould 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 mould  mould  mould   mould  mould   mould  mould  mould   mould   mould   mould   mould   mould.. and a little bit of dusty lichen.

Vangelis - Bladerunner theme (end titles) (3.26 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

FAIL Out Boy

Fuck Fall Out Boy. Srsly, fuck them. Fall Out Boy, when yr old(er) and fucken burnt out and fucked up and shit, I hope you google yourselves and somehow find this. Remember, get fucked. Get fucked, alot. And I don't mean "get laid". That would be a blessing, not a curse. I mean GO AND GET FUCKED YOU ASSHOLES.

...

What, you may ask, the hell are you on about, drinks-after-worker? Ok, let's do this in bullet-points:

• I love David Bowie. A lot.
• I hate your band.
• I love David Bowie's album Station To Station.
• In the opening, title track on Station To Station there's a lyric which goes It's not the side-effects of the cocaine / I'm thinking that it must be love.
• Fall Out Boy -- your band, whom I hate (above) (I mean, they're so bad it's comical) released an album (or was it an EP? Who fucken cares) in 2004 called My Heart Will Always Be The B-Side To My Tongue. Stupid, stupid name. It gets worse (what, you hadn't guessed?)
• On MHWABTBSTMY there is a song called It's Not A Side Effect Of The Cocaine. I Am Thinking It Must Be Love.

I don't really need to go on, do I?

Here is a "fan video" for the song, which is insipid crap (the song, not the video.) (Although the video is not shit hot either.)

This is much better. It's a (seemingly impromptu) a capella rendition of the section of Station To Station that is in question:

I've heard that if you so desire, you can download a copy of the Fall Out Boy release here: I appreciate comments left! DO NOT STEAL MY LINKS D: \

FAIL Out Boy, if you read this: Fuck You! Also don't forget to GO AND GET FUCKED YOU ASSHOLES.

Ta to Robyn for inspiration.

S.U.V. wheelcover & Tasmanian Devil misanthropy

Ah well, it's gotta be better than the standard Tazzie Devil ones, right?

Stoopid Xians

Oh Lordi ... Christians take on fiends of rock

A crusade is looming as church groups prepare to take on heavy metal heavyweights poised to play in Wellington over Easter.

(from Stuff.co.nz):

Wellington pentecostal church Lifepoint says the lineup of bands - including former bat-biter Ozzy Osbourne, Kiss and Finnish Eurovision-winning panto-metal kings Lordi (pictured) - are "not appropriate" and will have "negative influences" on the city during the two-day Rock2Wgtn festival on March 22 and 23.

They plan to lobby other church groups and will look at taking their concerns to Wellington City Council.

"It's not appropriate from our angle of things," said pastor Karen Crawshaw.

"I don't think we can force our views on others but at the same time we think it's a very negative influence on our city.

"It'll put a damper on the things the church traditionally focuses on at the Easter season."

I dunno, what do you say? How can so may people be sooooo fucking stupid.

Personally I am hoping that Lordi and Ozzy collaborate to put on a right-old pantomime which culminates in the enacted ritual slaughter of a life-size Jesus dummy on a cross -- preferably upside-down -- surrounded by a huge number of partially dressed heavy metal sluts writhing around having a good ol' orgy in a pit of fake blood.

O for awesome.

Puke!

Billy Idol - Happy Holidays (2006)

Someone fucken kill me now.

Bye bye baby, bye bye

One positive aspect of the weekend's local body elections, however, was the dumping from council of Alick Shaw -- scratching a 3+ year itch for this writer.

Piss off, Shaw.

This picture* by Andrew Gorrie appeared both on the front page of Monday's DomPost and online, briefly -- one speculates as to why it has disappeared again -- and if you check the caption you will read "Alick Shaw gives mayor Kerry Prendergast a congratulatory hug".

Really? Could've fooled me.

My attempt to caption this picture would more run along the lines of "Kerry Prendergast, having been rid by the voters of toadie Alick Shaw from council, attempts to disengage herself from his clutches as quickly as humanly possible".

Either way, a charming pic.

The disheartening thing about this is only 21,603 people voted for her to continue as mayor, more than twice the tally of her nearest challenger. I can't tell you Wellington's voting-eligible population (though I bet Tom could), but that's not a lot of people voting.

Grr.

* Note: actually, this pic has been cropped -- the original also showed Prendergast's husband Rex Nicholl shaking his fists in glee, presumably at the prospect of three more years of unfettered money-making urban development.

Ha ha ha fuck Che Guevera

This day in murderous thug history.....

Bob Dylan live

As previously indicated, Bob Dylan has a new album out this month -- it's called Dylan. I'm not about to show you where you can download mp3s of the new Bob Dylan (helloooooooo RIAA), but instead I wanted to share this great live bootleg with you.

Bob Dylan Color Line Arena 2007 (bootleg)

It's a really good-sounding audience-recording boot from earlier this year. Well, it's not THAT good-sounding -- I took it upon myself to clean up the audio a little on my copy -- a little stereo separation, a little loudness, a little compression never hurt anybody -- and you may find your way to doing the same.

It's got a bunch of new tracks as well as classics to which he has done that thing that he does where he completely reworks a stone-cold Dylan classic -- putting it into different keys, different time signatures, different vocal meter, acoustic originals --> rockin' out reworkings -- to the extent where it often takes the audience a wee while to work out what tune he is playing, and respond appropriately.

Bob Dylan - It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) (live) (4.08 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

This is the original:

Bob Dylan - It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) (3.81 MB mp3)

That's pretty much it for this post, except, I wanted to draw your attention to this.

This is the introduction. This is what the emcee says as he introduces Bob Dylan and the band. My question is: what kind of a cunt would say some of this stuff when introducing ANYONE, let alone Bob Dylan, to the stage.

some random fuckwit - How Not to Introduce Bob Dylan (1.35 MB mp3)

This, in case you can't work it out, is what he says:

ladies and gentleman
please welcome the poet laureate of rock and roll
the voice of the promise of the sixties counterculture
the guy who forced folk into bed with rock
who donned make-up in the seventies and
disappeared into a haze of substance abuse
who emerged to find jesus
who was written-off as a has-been by the end of eighties
and who suddenly shifted gears
producing some of the strongest material of his career
beginning in the late nineties
ladies and gentleman
columbia recording artist
bob dylan

Now I'm possibly going to go right out on a limb here, but I have to say that everything struck out is completely superfluous, and not only that, but it's utterly inappropriate rubbish as well. I think that this fella should be ashamed of himself. What a fuckwit.

Fella -- whoever you are -- fuck you. You're a cock.

no damage ever, no rough stuff ever

Whaddya say when the mother of the five-year-old girl you are arranging to have sex with expresses concern that her child will be hurt during procedings?

I am always gentle and loving; not to worry, no damage ever, no rough stuff ever. I only like it soft and nice.

Apparently that clinches the deal.

New Sex Charge Against U.S. Prosecutor

After reading this, I wish I hadn't got out of bed today.

Political science

In 1972, Randy Newman put out an album called Sail Away and on it was the song Political Science -- the blackly humourous railing of a patriotic American against the state of the world and the negative perception held by the rest of the inhabitants of the planet about his "great" nation:

Randy Newman - Political Science (1.87 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

Here're the lyrics, in case you're hard of hearing:

No one likes us-I don't know why
We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try
But all around, even our old friends put us down
Let's drop the big one and see what happens

We give them money-but are they grateful?
No, they're spiteful and they're hateful
They don't respect us-so let's surprise them
We'll drop the big one and pulverize them

Asia's crowded and Europe's too old
Africa is far too hot
And Canada's too cold
And South America stole our name
Let's drop the big one
There'll be no one left to blame us

We'll save Australia
Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo
We'll build an All American amusement park there
They got surfin', too

Boom goes London and boom Paris
More room for you and more room for me
And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town
Oh, how peaceful it will be
We'll set everybody free
You'll wear a Japanese kimono
And there'll be Italian shoes for me

They all hate us anyhow
So let's drop the big one now
Let's drop the big one now

Comical stuff, huh. Laugh? I nearly cried.

So today's comment to America, the so-called "Land of the Free, Home of the Brave": 35 years later, do you think anyone likes you any more? Any less? Got any ideas why?

Tom Cruise is such a gimp

Just now reading Stuff, you can't escape the embarrassing conclusion that Tom Cruise is a fucking idiot.

Cruise plans underground bunker

Tom Cruise is allegedly planning to build a bunker underneath his house in preparation for the end of the world. The Top Gun star, who is a devout follower of Scientology, is said to believe evil intergalactic ruler Xenu will attack Earth and so has designed a place to hide underneath his Colorado mansion.

Tom Cruise fumes over inappropriate fart

Hollywood star Tom Cruise was left furious after a crew member on his latest film set passed wind during a minute's silence. The actor - who is shooting World War II drama Valkyrie in Berlin - had paused filming to honour the anti-Nazi heroes portrayed in the movie when one employee decided to break wind during the tribute.

And get this:

The silence* was filmed and now Cruise and the producers will go through the footage to identify the culprit, who is likely to be fired.

Fuck me, what a gimp.

He also makes unwatchable films that might otherwise have been bearable. And as for what he's done to that sweet little angel Katie Holmes; doesn't bear thinking about.



* should that be "silence"? cos apparently it wasn't, y'know, silent.

Again, I beseech you... God Bless America

Fuck me, it just gets better and better. Appalled to read on Uncommon Sense that apparently, lethal force can be used by cops in America to end low-speed chases that follow from minor traffic infractions.

Appeals Court Authorizes Lethal Force in Low Speed Chases
A cop got away with murdering a motorcycle rider -- by chasing him down, ramming him and then driving over him when he refused to stop.

After turning onto Mount Shepherd Road, however, Deputy Sheriff Rodney Coe rammed the motorcycle a second time, knocking Gerald "Tiny" Abney off his bike and killing him. Abney's family filed a lawsuit claiming Coe used unreasonable force. In its July decision, the federal appeals court rejected the family's argument by asserting the low-speed chase was, in fact, dangerous.

Awesome. Truly awesome. "Don't Ram Me, Bro!"

Friday Farce: Are you having a good day? Really?

We've had Albert Kuvezin and Yat Kha, his Tuvan throat-singing rock band, before -- but that's no reason not to have him again.

Albert Kuvezin and Yat Kha - Orgasmatron (1.76 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

Like I said:

.. at least is as comical as a drunk Irish pub band featuring a retarded Rumanian vampire/Dr. Frank-N-Furter-wannabe on vocals. Or something ..

...

And now for the rest of the news:

"Don't Tase Me, Bro!"
University of Florida student Andrew Meyer barges in line to harangue Massachusetts senator John Kerry during a campus talk that day; he refuses to pipe down after being asked to by the forum's organizers, police haul him off, force him to the ground and taser him.

Tom: Someone (I think it was either Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert) apparently described the incident as "a unique combination of police brutality and student douchebaggery". While it's an appalling example of the taser-happiness of the US police (here's another example: a guy tasered for the unforgivable crime of riding a bike), it's hard not to be reminded of Eric Idle in The Holy Grail: "Help, I'm being oppressed!", "Come see the violence inherent in the system!"

God Bless America!

Art or Bio-Terrorism? Justice Department makes big mistake
When a New York professor called 911 for his wife's heart attack, they mistook his science equipment for bioterrorism supplies. He was detained for 22 hours, they cordoned off his block, and searched his house in hazmat suits. When they realized there was nothing harmful there, they decided to prosecute him for "mail fraud" for buying the supplies!

No, god Bless America!

...

Busty tourist 'humiliated' at casino
A night of celebration turned to humiliation when an English tourist's "offensive" breasts upset fellow punters at the Christchurch Casino.

In all seriousness, though, DO bless women with colossal boobs -- god knows they don't have an easy time of it.

...

There's been another installment by The Commonsense Nihilist to his graphic novel, as well as some more notes.

Suck it, Jesus

Diminutive loudmouth Kathy Griffin annoys the piss out of me, but I gotta give her serious props for her acceptance speech at the recent Emmy award show:

A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. Suck it, Jesus.

Griffin was collecting her Emmy for best reality program, for her Bravo channel show My Life on the D-List.

The outburst drew laughs from the crowd, and predictable outrage from stupid Americans, and other dumbfucks.

Eddy Vinsin - Juice Head Blues (2.46 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

Friday farce: The Subject was Faggots

Street poet Gil Scott-Heron (wikipedia) gets a lot of props for being a right-on brother and so on; his 'song' The Revolution will not be Televised is played and covered and referenced and quoted often, and rightly so -- it's a cute li'l slice of invective -- although to be honest it has become a little too much like a Ché Guevera tshirt/poster to carry too much cultural significance any more.

The album that track is taken from -- Small Talk at 125th and Lennox (allmusic) -- was recorded live in a New York nightclub with only bongos and conga as backing, and it's regarded as "a volcanic upheaval of intellectualism and social critique". However it is blighted by the inclusion of a stupid, confused, and rancidly homophobic track called The Subject Was Faggots.

Gil Scott-Heron - The Subject Was Faggots (1.91 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using player below)

...

A guy called Chris Crocker got pretty (in)famous pretty damn quick for his Youtube video slating the critics of Britney Spears after her MTV VMAs debacle.

God, check out some of those comments. 40 years older, nothing's changed. (It was even worse in the comments on the follow-up video, which was pulled down by Chris after only a few hours.) And even worse was that when Fox news covered it, a good deal of time was spent making derogatory remarks about Chris' sexual androgeny.

My comment to America, the so-called "Land of the Free, Home of the Brave": shut the fuck up about freedom, until gay people are safe from your hateful "freedom-loving" "christian" "patriots".

...

Check out and even download the Gil Scott-Heron album here.

Twenty-Two Things We Now Know Six Years After 9/11

From Scoop -- Twenty-Two Things We Now Know Six Years After 9/11.

I've summarised the article; the actual text is much more thorough. Read it at your own peril; sometimes ignorance really is bliss.

9/11 and "the War on Terror"

1. Iraq Plan Preceeded 9/11
Planning for an attack on Iraq already had begun at the first cabinet meetings after Inauguration Day in early 2001; after 9/11, those plans proceeded apace...
2. Unanswered 9/11 Questions
There still are unanswered questions about the horrific events of September 11, 2001...
3. The Facts of 9/11
Bush & Co. had to be dragged kicking and screaming into agreeing to the appointment of the official 9/11 Commission, and they named one of their own 'made' men as the executive director...
4. PNAC & the Neo-Cons
The key neo-con leaders in charge of U.S. foreign/military policy were founders of, and affiliated with, The Project for The New American Century (PNAC), a Far Right segment of the conservative movement was dedicated to using America's sole superpower status to move aggressively in the world while, they believed, no other country or international force could put up much resistance...

The Iraq Invasion and Occupation
5. Sexing Up the Intel
Among the first moves by Rumsfeld following 9/11 was to somehow try to connect Saddam to the terror attacks. The various intelligence agencies reported to Rumsfeld that there was no Iraq connection to 9/11, and that it was an al-Qaida operation, but those findings were merely bothersome impediments...
6. The Big Lie & the Downing Street Revelations
Advisers warned Tony Blair that he was about to involve the U.K. in an illegal, immoral and probably unwinnable war that would put U.K. and U.S. troops in great danger from potential insurgent forces...
7. Iran Is Beneficiary of U.S. Policy
The real reasons for invading Iraq were to do with American geopolitical goals in the region involving oil, control, support for its ally Israel, hardened military bases and keeping Iran from having free rein in the region.
8. Iraq As a Disaster Zone
Bush's war in Iraq has been a thorough disaster, built on a foundation of lies, and bungled from the start...
9. The Stretched-Thin Military
Bush's Middle East agenda is suffering because the U.S. military is spread way thin in Afghanistan and Iraq, the desertion and suicide rates are high, soldiers are not re-enlisting at the usual clip, recruitment isn't working and deceptive scams are being used to lure youngsters into signing up. In short, there are no forces to spare on the ground...
10. Hiding Facts from the Public

Bush&Co. made sure that there would be no full-scale, independent probes of their role in using and abusing the intelligence that led to war on Iraq...

The Turn to Tyranny at Home

11. Perilously Close to Dictatorship
Legal philosophies devised that permit Bush to do pretty much what he wants -- ignore laws on the books, disappear U.S. citizens into military prisons, authorize torture, spy on citizens' phone calls and emails, declare martial law and rule by decree, etc. -- whenever he says he's acting as "commander-in-chief" during "wartime"...
12. Torture As Official U.S. Policy
Bush-loyalist lawyers devised legal rationales that make torture of suspects official state policy, greatly widened the definition of what is acceptable interrogation practice -- basically anything this side of death or terminally abusing internal organs -- and authorized the "rendering" of key suspects to countries specializing in extreme torture...
13. The Bill of Rights Goes "Quaint"
The Bush Administration has been able to obtain whatever legislation it needs in its self-proclaimed "war on terror" by utilizing, and hyping, the understandable fright of the American people...
14. Outing CIA Agents for Political Reasons
The Bush Administration, for its own crass political reasons, compromised American national security by revealing the identity of two key intelligence operatives...
15. Do You Know If Your Vote Is Counted?
Sophisticated statistical analysis along with wide-scale exit-polling suggests strongly that the 2004 election results were fiddled with by the private companies that tally the votes -- companies which are owned by far-right Republican supporters...
16. No Privacy Anymore
Shortly after 9/11, CheneyBush authorized massive data-mining of Americans' phone calls and emails, along with other domestic spying operations, many of them in clear violation of the FISA law establishing a separate, secret court to rule on requests for eavesdropping warrants...
17. Purging the Body Politic
CheneyBush, angered by the unwillingness of the intelligence analysts at the CIA and State Department to cook the intel books for political reasons, conducted purges of recalcitrant analysts at CIA and State...
18. There Is No Real Economic Plan
The Bush Administration paid off its backers (and itself) by giving humongous tax breaks, for the next 10 years, to the already wealthy and to large corporations. In addition, corporate tax-evasion was made easier via offshore listings and by laying off thousands of IRS auditors of high-end returns...
19. Drowning Government In a Bathtub
The HardRight conservatives who control Bush policy don't really care what kind of debt and deficits their policies cause; in some ways, the more the better since they want to shrink government "down to the size where they can drown it in the bathtub"...
20. Privatizing Government Functions
In addition to trying to privatize Social Security and other government programs, CheneyBush have begun privatizing the military, partially through its all-volunteer army and by employing mercenaries ("independent contractors")...
21. Who Cares What You Drink or Breathe?
Bush environmental policy is an unmitigated disaster, giving pretty much free rein to corporations whose bottom lines do better when they don't have to pay attention to the public interest...
22. It's Faith Over Science, Myth Over Reality
How science is disregarded by the Bush Administration in favor of faith-based thinking...

I really, really do not want this horrowshow to be anywhere even approaching the truth.

I asked her for a peppermint

More about the Judas Priest suicide thing..... on the left is how Ray Balknap and James Vance looked some time prior to this:

Two days before Christmas in 1985, 20-year-old James and 18-year-old Raymond Belknap spent hours listening to Stained Class in Raymond's room. They drank a twelve-pack of beer and smoked marijuana. They made a suicide pact, then went on a rampage, tearing at the room's walls and smashing belongings.

"The only things not broken in the room were the turntable and the albums," says Phyllis Vance.

Near dusk, the two went to the playground of a local church with Raymond's sawed-off 12-guage shotgun. Raymond Belknap, seated on a merry-go-round, placed the end of the shotgun under his chin and pulled the trigger, killing himself. A few minutes later, James pointed the same gun at his chin and fired. Somehow, the blast missed his brain and he lived.

On the right is what James looked like after surgeons had tried (and failed) to reconstruct his face.

Apparently he would ride his bicycle around town shocking people with his grotesque disfigurement. He later died in somewhat mysterious circumstances before the trial reached court.

Somewhere in the middle of this colossal page (scroll down to JULY 1990: Metal on trial), there's a comprehensive and entertaining account of the trial.

Some choice quotes:

It was originally about the track Heroes End - they tried to say the band were saying you could only be a hero if you killed yourself, till I had to give them the correct lyrics which is "why do heroes have to die?"... Then they changed their plea to subliminal messages on the album.

- Jayne Andrews, Management Co-ordinator for Judas Priest

It's a fact that if you play speech backwards, some of it will seem to make sense. So I asked permission to go into a studio and find some perfectly innocent phonetic flukes. The lawyers didn't want to do it, but I insisted. We bought a copy of the Stained Class album in a local record shop, went into the studio, recorded it to tape, turned it over and played it backwards. Right away we found "Hey ma, my chair's broken" and "Give me a peppermint" and "Help me keep a job".

- Glenn Tipton, Judas Priest

I took the two-track master tape of Stained Class with me to a studio near the courthouse and played it backwards till I found something. It took about two minutes... On the track Exciter, during the chorus where it says "Stand by for Exciter / Salvation is his task", played backwards it said "I-I-I asked her for a peppermint / I-I-I asked for her to get one".

- Rob Halford, Judas Priest

The only subliminal message I would put on an album would be, "Buy seven copies".

- Bill Curbishley, Manager

We had to sit in this courtroom in Reno for six weeks. It was like Disneyworld. We had no idea what a subliminal message was - it was just a combination of some weird guitar sounds, and the way I exhaled between lyrics. I had to sing Better by You, Better Than Me in court, a cappella. I think that was when the judge thought, "What am I doing here? No band goes out of its way to kill its fans".

- Rob Halford

It's a sad that two people died -- even though they wanted it that way -- but it's quite offensive that these retarded Americans tried to hoist blame on to someone else. Americans and Christians should fuck off and leave heavy metal alone. Bah.