Sunday, November 27, 2011

Off Topic: Jack Chick's "Lisa"

Chick Tracts. Those little comics that you find in laundry mats, and tucked away in bathrooms in college campuses. They tell stories of how evolution is a lie created by Satan, and how sitting in a basement pretending to be a wizard is a one way ticket to hell. In fact there are a lot of ways one can be sent to hell in Jack Chick's world. Here's a short list of them:

1. Being Catholic. This seems to be a big one. In fact I could compile another list of everything Chick blames the Catholic Church for. But that's for another post.



4. Being a part of that group that wears those funny little hats




8. Having sex out of wedlock (oh, yeah, AIDS? God's punishment, of course)

Essentially Chick's website is one stop shopping for "you're going to hell" type preaching. But there's one tract you won't find on his website. Lisa. It's a legitimate Chick tract, but let's just say it's message isn't easily welcomed. Despite Chick's attempts to erase it from history, it can easily be found with a simple google search.*

I would post it here, but Jack Chick Publications is know for zealously defending it's "intellectual property". So instead, I shall post links. Those will probably be taken down as well, but hey, "enjoy" them while they last!

Let's begin.

Henry is a bad man. He doesn't have a job.  His poor, long suffering wife is forced to work as a waitress in some slimy dive.

His wife, as one might expect, isn't happy about the situation and tells him so. Henry's response?

"Get off my back Linda".

Henry stumbles off to get beer, picking up some porn along the way. He makes his way home to indulge and is soon joined by his pervert neighbor. As Henry and his neighbor indulge in the oh so heterosexual activity of watching porn together, the neighbor reveals some "juicy gossip". Apparently Henry is sexually molesting his daughter Lisa.

Fortunately for Henry, and unfortunately for Lisa, the neighbor is willing to keep a secret as long as he and Henry "share and share alike".


Feeling ill yet?


Two months later, Lisa is at the doctor's for a rash. But it isn't just a rash, it's herpes. And what's "worse" the doctor knows. 


Henry screams "SHE LIED" but the doctor isn't buying it. Henry then resorts to blaming his wife. Her lack of respect is what made him want to diddle his daughter and treat her like the neighborhood pedophile bike. The doctor doesn't contest this of course, because along with not accepting Jesus Christ as their personal savior, the other cause father/daughter incest is lack of proper respect from ol' wifey.

What follows is the typical Jack Chick styled "you're going to rot in the pit-fires of hell if you don't accept Jesus Christ, blah, blah, blah . . ." 

Because of the good doctor's wise, Jesus loving' ways. Henry repents and accepts Jesus Christ as his personal savior. Of course the doctor tells him that he's still going to have to call the cops on him, because, you know he's got to render unto Caesar what is . . .

WRONG!

Henry is let go. Because that whole born again thing Henry will never have to worry about prison, and getting shanked in the rectum. His soul is clean (unless Lisa tells an adult who isn't insane, or some kind pharmacist becomes concerned about the fact he's dispensing Valtrex for a six year old).

So Henry merrily returns to his wife to spread the good news.


Apperently she had her suspicions that he was raping her daughter.  Now, she has proof, so she'll be the one to call the cops on him. Now that he's a Christian, he can't lie, right?

Wrong!

They pray, and that makes everything better! In the final panel we finally see Lisa. Her mother tells her that her that "[her] daddy and [her mommy] will never hurt her again."

THE END

I'm pretty sure that anyone with a hint of common sense has already figured this out, but this tract is pretty, well, fucked up.

Sexual abuse wrecks lives, and I don't think "I love Jesus now, so daddy's sorry" would cut it. Plus Henry being saved doesn't get rid of Lisa's herpes.

The neighbor? He's still free to run around and wreck the lives of other children. Granted, snitching on him would probably get Henry in trouble as well . . .

Police: So your neighbor raped your daughter and gave her herpes.

Henry: Yes.

Police: Was there any time that he could have had access to your daughter, been alone with her?

Henry: Well . . . uh, you . . . see I was . . .I'm saved ok? Jesus in all his glory has changed me so I no longer do that to her . . .

Jail. Rectum. Shank.

Yes. These are fictional characters, but Jack T. Chick is suggesting this is ok. That if you rape your child, Jesus will make it all better. As I previously stated, that the tract is no longer available on the official site.  Is that because Chick realized how fucked up it is, or because enough people, even the ones who regularly dispense his tracts on street corners, called him on it?

Suffer the little children indeed.







*God Bless the internet, huh Jack?


Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Psycho



 A brilliant piece written by legendary songwriter Leon Payne, and performed by Jack Kittel.  I managed to dig up some info on it here and here.
What I can unravel is as follows: 'Psycho' was written in 1966 by a prolific blind songwriter Leon Payne, who's music career stretched back to the 1930s and who's writing credits include such classics as 'Lost Highway' (Hank Williams) and 'I Love You Because' (Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash). Depending on who you believe, Payne wrote 'Psycho' in response to a notorious mass shooting spree at the University Of Texas and the strangely affecting letter the shooter left next to the bodies of his mother and wife, or to the story of murderer and grave robber Ed Gein (who also inspired Bloch's book/Hitchcock's movie of the same name), or possibly both.   - Record Hunting in Australia  

Speaking of Australia, Beasts of Bourbon also recorded a great version:






Wednesday, November 2, 2011

The Past Few Days (In Pictures and Video)


Shuster Nights of Horror-6   








I'm pretty worn out.  I hope to get back to normal after the end of this week, but for now, I'm going to rest.



Wednesday, October 19, 2011

By A Serial Killer's Request: Carnival




The song has nothing to do with murder and mayhem, and this isn't a "Day of Rest" entry.  So why is it here?

Serial killer Aileen Wurrnos requested this tune be played at her funeral.  

(Link)

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Quote of the Week







"I'd just like to say I'm sailing with the rock, and I'll be back like Independence Day, with Jesus June 6. Like the movie, big mothership and all, I'll be back."


- Aileen Wuornos, Final Statement, October 9, 2002

NCBS Murder Ballads Project. 2. Stagger Lee pt 2

If you're not a fan of "foul" language you might want to skip today's post.

Sing a Song of Murder, has talked about the lore surrounding "Stagger Lee" before, but Nick Cave's version takes it to a different place entirely.  A forced homosexual act was probably not what the original writer of "Stagger Lee" probably had in mind.  I'm sure these lyrics never popped into his head either:

I'm a bad motherfucker don't ya know
And I'll craw over fifty good pussies 
Just to get to one fat boy's asshole






Love the Take That shirt.


From what I've read Cave took lyrical inspiration from The Life: The Lore and Folk Poetry of the Black Hustler.  I'm currently trying to search out a copy that won't cost me 59.99 (used).

I think that "Stagger Lee", like "Delia's Gone" might have taken some inspiration from gangster rap, which was huge at the time of Murder Ballads.  If you don't remember the glory days of Snoop Dogg, Tupac, and uh . . .others* it involved a little of this . . .







Some of this . . .

 


And a lot of this





A lot of violence,  a lot of "motherfucker/motherfucking/motherfuckers" and the phrase "suck my dick".


Of course Eazy-E wasn't really suggesting that Dr. Dre get down on his knees and unbutton his fly.*1 It was more of an expression of dominance; "I'm the alpha male. You're a woman compared to me."*2


Lyrically, and through Cave's spoken word performance, "Stagger Lee" seems to be poking fun at rap's hyper-masculinity.  When Cave's Stagger Lee says "suck my dick" he really means "suck my dick."  


I stated in the previous post that Stagger Lee is the quintessential American song.  So does a "foreigner" have any right to sing it?  There's something to be said for being outside looking in.  Conservatives ranted and raved about gangster rap, and yet violence is so much at the heart of America, and American music.   It seems that only Americans have yet to accept that.








* Sorry, I'm hopelessly white.
*1 I'm really white.
*2 Lilly White

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Day of Rest - Boulder to Birmingham



I would rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham 
I would hold my life in his saving grace. 
I would walk all the way from Boulder to Birmingham 
If I thought I could see, I could see your face.
 


Tomorrow it will be five years.  I'd still walk from Boulder to Birmingham to see you again.  Miss you beautiful girl.