Hey, kids, welcome to the Phile for a Sunday. How are you? If you've seen the new documentary Leaving Neverland, it tries to makes a pretty persuasive argument that Micheal Jackson was a pedophile who used his fame to sexually abuse young boys. Barbara Striesand was asked about this during an interview with The Times of London, and her responses left people astounded. Some highlights... "His sexual needs were his sexual needs, coming from whatever childhood he has or whatever DNA he has." "You can say ‘molested’, but those children, as you heard say, they were thrilled to be there. They both married and they both have children, so it didn’t kill them.”
I feel bad for the children. I feel bad for him. I blame, I guess, the parents, who would allow their children to sleep with him.” Backlash ensued. Some people thought the parents did deserve some or all of the blame. And one person had this idea...
Barbara responded to the backlash with this statement, “The stories these two young men shared were painful to hear, and I feel nothing but sympathy for them." I haven't seen the whole documentary but I am very cynical about the whole thing. I'm also trying to get an interview with the producers or someone associated with the the film. I'll let you know how that goes.
She's just being Miley. Miley Cyrus has been through a lot of transformations in her decade-plus in the public eye. From Hannah Montana to Naked McStoner, she's been experimenting with different identities, and her latest one is "Mr. T cosplayer." MiCy teased new music with pictures of her in a pool, and it's a change from her more recent, country-style tunes. Here's one of the pics...
Within the first few months in office, congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has already cemented herself as one of the best representatives to follow on Twitter. Whether she's laying out the issues with America's gun violence, summing up the Left's collective feelings about political moderates, or ripping into Fox News for yet another racist jab, Ocasio-Cortez's online presence manages to make politics both accessible and exciting to people who have long tuned out the talking heads. While Hillary Clinton's online presence has been relatively quiet since since the election, she's still piped up when it felt fitting. Once, to dole out a long overdue I told you so, another time, to call out Trump for stealing her campaign slogan. So, when Clinton logged on to respond to one of Ocasio-Cortez's recent tweet calling out Jared Kushner, it was an unexpected and perfectly timed cameo. Ocasio-Cortez tweeted out a recent video clip that showed the Democrat representative Ro Khanna calling out the irony of Jared Kushner using Whatsapp to contact foreign officials. The irony, of course, laid in the fact that Trump's election campaign fixated on Clinton's use of a private email server. Her caption satirized the chorus of people asking "but her emails." And Clinton herself apparently took note, because she chimed in to echo Ocasio-Cortez's sentiment. The exchange immediately lit the thread on fire with email-related GIFs and puns, and of course, impassioned arguments about policy. While this may be the first big Twitter exchange between the Ocasio-Cortez and Clinton, given just how much dirt is being dug up about the current administration, I doubt it'll be the last.
When she's not making fun of school shooting survivors, Fox News host Laura Ingraham is stirring up hatred for anyone who isn't a Trump-programmed Stepford Wife, specifically Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Ingraham and her guest's latest gripe with the congresswoman is how she has the gall... nay, the AUDACITY... to pronounce her own name properly, a form of "showboating" if there ever was one. She described the lawmaker as "the It Girl, and I mean girl in a very mature way," being sarcastic about her sarcasm. Ingy's guest, conservative lawyer and second civil war advocate Joe DiGenova, used an exaggerated accent and mispronounced Ocasio-Cortez's name. "She does the Latina thing where she does her, you know, 'Anastasio Ocasio-Cortez,'" he said, implying "the Latina thing" is bad. AOC chose not to let the network get away with racism, and called "The Ingraham Angle" out for an angle that is insulting and dangerous. AOC also pointed out that Ingraham's racism against people of color is also remarkably inconsistent. Many conservative pundits are so inherently outraged by the existence of people of color, they first take it out on the ethnic last names. Ocasio-Cortez (yes, that's her name) hypothesizes that Fox News likes to pick and choose which syllables to say as to inspire the maximum amount of "anxiety," and to Fox News, "anxiety" means racism. Her name is Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, and there's a million things she hasn't done, but just you wait, just you wait.
A woman in central China did not have the Chinese New Year of her dreams when a trip to meet her boyfriend's family brought about a devastating revelation: her lover isn't rich. The Daily Mail reports that a 37-year-old woman surnamed Yu wanted to break up with her cash-deficient boyfriend but worried he would become "clingy," so took the easy way out by faking her own death. "Come and save me, my ex-husband has kidnapped me, come quickly. I think I'm on the highway already," Yu told Yu then pretended to be her ex-husband and sent threatening message to the boyfriend, saying, "call the police and your wife is dead." Well, the BF called the police, and his wife was still alive, hanging out in a hotel room, watching TV. The non-kidnapped Yu reportedly believed that the poor, poor guy would have just given up. While her kidnapping was faked, Yu is now somebody else's ward, and has been detained by the police for ten days for "disrupting social order."
It's Sunday and I am sure some of you are going to church. Not me. But some church's sure have a sense of humor...
Epic subtweet. If I had a TARDIS I would go to May 6th, 1937 to the
Naval Air Station Lakehurst and see one of the most well known aerial disasters of the 20th century.
Nintey-seven people were on board the Hindenburg on its tragic, final voyage... only half of its actual capacity. Okay, maybe I wouldn't go there on that day. Speaking of time travel, say what you want about Michael Jackson, but I didn't know he traveled through time and met his younger selves...
I don't know about manscaping that much but maybe I'll get this done...
Maybe not. I don't have that much hair. They say if I go to Walmart I'll see some crazy sites. I didn't believe it until I saw this...
I wish I saw her face. Hahahaha. Maybe not actually. The other day in a show-and-tell outside the White House, President Donald Trump whipped out maps to tell the press that ISIS has been defeated. That would be awesome if true, but according to The New York Times, Trump is... wait for it... lying. Well, that map wasn't the only thing that Trump showed off...
Awe. That's sweet.
If you spot the Mindphuck let me know. Okay, so there's this magician who likes to come on and talk about his shows. I don't know why, his shows never work out well. Anyway, he did a show last night and I wondered how it went. So please welcome back to the Phile...
Me: Hey, David, welcome back. How is it going?
David: Okay I guess, Jason.
Me: So, what happened at your show last night?
David: Well, I tried hypnotism for the first time.
Me: You did? I always wanted to be hypnotized. How did it go?
David: Well, I brought a lady on stage and hypnotized and convinced that a handful of napkins were $100 bills. She was told that people would try to steal them, so she should hide them in the best place possible.
Me: That's good. Did it work?
David: Well, I expected to get a laugh with people stuffing them in their bra or underwear. Not this lady, though. She took her shirt off, exposed her breasts to a room full of about 100 people, tucked the napkins under her tits, then pulled her bra back down.
Me: Man! Ha! That's a trick alone.
David: And, Jason, she was cute.
Me: And you don't have a pic?
David: Ummmm... no. I was on stage.
Me: Good point. Ha! Good job, David. Come back again after your next show.
David: I sure will.
Me: David Coppafeel, the world's worst magician, kids. It's all about those fake fat stacks.
From duck face to welp face. Haha.
It's hard to forget that President Donald Trump has been accused of sexual misconduct, as he constantly reminds you with his judicial nominees and his endless parade of creepiness. At a signing ceremony for an executive order threatening to withhold federal funding from colleges if they don't let his friends speak, Trump greeted props... I mean students... with handshakes, except for a young blonde woman, whom he rubbed up against.
Trump's weird kiss will likely remind you of Joe Biden...
But it will also remind you of Donald Trump. Much like The Wizard of Oz and Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon," the video syncs up perfectly with the "Grab Them By The Pussy" tape.
I'm sooo excited. The 95th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club is...
Michael Caine will be the guest on the Phile next Monday... a week from tomorrow. Bloody crazy, right? So, there's this inventor who likes to stop by the Phile and tell us some of the latest inventions he's working on. So far he had nothing but shitty ideas. He said he has some really, really good inventions this time so I invited him back. So, once again, here is...
Me: Hey, Mak, welcome back.
Mak: Thanks, Jason.
Me: So, what have you been working on?
Mak: How about a cell phone with access to your favorite social networking pages that you use to keep in touch with the same people on your cell phone?
Me: Ummm... doesn't that exist?
Mak: Hmmm... I don't know. I know what doesn't... until I came up with it... a warning alarm that tells you to "Stay Calm."
Me: That maybe is a good idea. I know some people who would like that. Any more?
Mak: Yeah, I have one more. A learning sign language book written in Braille.
Me: Ummmmm... I need to think about that one. Maybe. Thanks, Mak, keep working and come back soon.
Mak: I sure will, Jason. The sign language book will be a hit.
Me: Mak Asterborus, the world's greatest inventor, kids.
A guy is horny a hell... but broke. He goes to a whorehouse with $5.00, and begs the Madame to give him whatever she can for it. She says, "I'm sorry, but that will only cover the rent for ten minutes, and none of my hookers work for free!" The guy gets the room, but has nothing to fuck. He looks out on the ledge of the building and sees a pigeon. Quietly, he opens the window, grabs the poor bird and just fucks the living shit out of it. Satisfied, he goes home. Next week, he returns to the whorehouse, with his pay check. He says to the Madame, "I got lots of money now... give me a hooker!" The Madame replies, "All of them are busy now, why don't you go to the peep show and get yourself in the mood?" The guy does, and is enjoying the show, when he turns to the guy next to him and says, "Hey, these chicks really know what they're doing, huh?" The guy responds, "Yeah, but you should have been here last week, there was this guy fucking a pigeon!"
Today's guest is the co-founder, writer, lead guitarist, lead singer and front man of the Christian metal band Stryper. Stryper's latest album "God Damn Evil" is available on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify. Please welcome to the Phile... Michael Sweet.
Me: Hello, Michael, welcome to the Phile, sir. How are you?
Michael: I'm doing good, man. I liked how you called me "sir."
Me: Ha. You're welcome. You have a brand new album out, which you must be very happy about, right?
Michael: Yeah, I can't believe how fast time goes. Four months we started talking about it and then here we are.
Me: I read people are referring to the new album as controversial. What's so controversial about it and what do you think of that?
Michael: Surprisingly in a good way it's getting a lot of attention. I think we knew the controversial part of it would be the title. I don't know if it's as much as on the mainstream side but certainly on the Christian side of our fan base, which is a good amount. A lot of them are up in arms about the title because they think it's blasphemous, a swear and taking God's name in vein. It's none of the above.
Me: I have to ask you about the title... I definitely can imagine a lot of Christian's getting upset about it. Where did the title come from?
Michael: My brother threw the title out a few years ago and we didn't go with it because we felt it wasn't the right time. Then we fast forwarded to 2017 and all the stuff we see, like the Las Vegas shooting with at that time was the most recent and it's just felt like, man, things seemed to be escalating in terms of the hype and level of evil we see on our news or Internet. We felt like it was a great time to release such an album with such a statement.
Me: Okay, so, I know people that get offended if I said "goddamn." So, you can't be surprised your Christian fans would get pissed off, Michael. What is the meaning of what you're saying with the title?
Michael: It's a pray request really. Us asking God to damn evil. Put away this evil that we see every day.
Me: Can you explain the cover with Moses coming through Wall Street? Who was responsible for that, were you guys?
Michael: We were. We gave some ideas what we wanted to do. It's supposed to be God, not Moses. It's okay, I get it, it looks like it could be Moses. Some people said it looks like it could be Zeus, somebody people said it could be... who's the God of the sea? Whoever the Greek God of the sea is. Some people said it looks like New York. It's not New York but it'a a big city. Times Square whatever city. God's coming back, basically slamming his staff down on the ground and saying, "I've had enough." Then you see alllll the things around that he had enough of, pornography, the love of money, the love of food, dollar tree and all. All this stuff going on that God must be sitting up there asking his head at because we seem to over indulge, we never have enough.
Me: I listened to the album and on the first song, "Take It to the Cross" there's a lot of screaming which I wasn't expecting, considering that was the first song I ever heard from you guys. That's not normal for you guys to have that heavy music, right?
Michael: Sure. We've been asked many times over the years by a number of fans to do something heavy that boarders on thrash. That was basically our answer to that. We wanted to do it and thought about doing it on the last album even. It was something that was really different for us. "Take It to the Cross" is the solution to that and for that.
Me: You have someone else singing with you, right? Who is that and what was the decision over it?
Michael: When I wrote the song and wrote the chorus I was thinking of someone coming in and doing the death growl. We started reaching out to people and ended up discovering Matt Blanchard, my wife knows Matt very well. We went and YouTubed Matt and heard him and I thought wow, this is perfect. It's so happens he's a local guy and lives ten minutes from the studio where we record at. That worked out perfectly. He came in and fifteen minutes time banged it out and it sounds phenomenal. We were all high fiving each other and had a party in the studio. That was probably the most funnest song for us to record on the entire album.
Me: What have you heard from your fans about that song?
Michael: Some said it probably would be better without the high voice. We could of gone down that road. It's interesting, we did the low voice first, it was great but it was lacking some energy. So I added the high part and everyone was "oh, wow, yeah." It's hit or miss. That's the kind of some that's not going to have a middle ground. People are either love it or they're actually going to hate it.
Me: How are you guys going to do that song live?
Michael: We're not doing the growl. We did not track the growl and play to a track or anything. It'll be odd to have Oz standing up there faking it. We just don't do the low part, that's all.
Me: Okay, so, I have to be honest, when I got the interview request to interview you I thought at first, "ugh, the Christian band." This might not be good. But I was told that I should just listen to the guitars on the album, not so much the lyrics. So... two of you play guitars... is there a formula you use to split up the guitar playing?
Michael: Not really, no. It's simple, once we start doing the songs and we start recording them, the keeper tracks, the songs really determine whose going to play it. Usually, most of the time, it's both of us. It's a back and forth solo or harmony solo, in that case it's probably seven or eight times out of ten. If there's a song that's real heavy or kind of crazy that might be an Oz solo. Or if it's a song that's more melodic mid-temp straight ahead kind of thing it might be my solo. Our styles are similar but they are different. I'm more a melodic player, I write my solo's more like a vocal almost. Oz gets a little more crazy with his stuff. Then when we play together we are very similar.
Me: Are you the main songwriter, Michael?
Michael: Yeah, I'm the primary writer. When I write the songs once it's in there it's in there. I'll teach the guys and they're writing stuff out and charting stuff out.
Me: Do you work out the solos or are they spontaneous?
Michael: Oz and I are the kid of guys that have to work out our solos, and want to work out our solos. This spontaneous stuff I can do that, and I have done that before for other people who had me play guitar solos on their songs. I just go into the studio and say "alright, roll." I don't prefer doing it that way because I like what comes out of me when I give a little more thought to it and put a little more time into it.
Me: Who are some of your favorite guitarists, Michael?
Michael: John Sykes, Michael Schenker, Randy Rhoads, they were all melodic players and their solos were so memorable. Especially Michael Schenker, man, he's probably my favorite of all time.
Me: I had him on the Phile not long ago. When did you start playing guitar, Michael?
Michael: Back in the day, when I was fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen... I really started seeking out my guitar tone. That's my personality. I started playing when I was five, got real serious about it when I was twelve. When I first heard the first Boston album it really steered me to find my own tone. So I tried experimenting all different things. Later on in life when I was about 18-years-old I stumbled upon a lab series, L11 head in a pawn shop. I plugged it in and I loved it. I took it home, and I bought it for a couple hundred bucks. After a few days of experimenting I came out of the pre-amp out of that into a Marshall and that was the Stryper tone birth right there and then.
Me: I have no idea what that means. Hahahaha. So, whats next for the band?
Michael: Well, we're working on a documentary throughout last year and this year as well. We're also working on a acoustic album that we are about three quarters of the way finished. We've got to get Perry's bass on there and vocals and then mix it. We'll release that hopefully at the end of this year. I'm going to start work on a solo album and going to start work on an album with Joel Hoekstra. We're going to begin writing at the end of this year and into next year. We're really excited about that so there's a lot of stuff coming up, man.
Me: With the acoustic album, is it going to be new songs or reworks? Like Bon Jovi did with their acoustic album many years ago?
Michael: Reworks of the classics basically. It's an interesting way and an interesting translation of those songs acoustically. We do acoustic sets on occasion and they go over really well, and people love them so we thought why don't we do an acoustic album?
Me: Michael, thanks for being on the Phile. Come back again when your new music comes out if you like.
Michael: Thank you, my friend, it was a pleasure to be on the Phile. I'll be back here soon.
That about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to my guest Michael Sweet. The Phile will be back tomorrow with musician Johnny A. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye.
I don't want you, cook my bread, I don't want you, make my bed, I don't want your money too, I just want to make love to you. - Willie Dixon
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