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Tangled Cassette Tape Beside Roads

SmirnoffMule

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
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Jan 22, 2002
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Is it witches, or just one boyband too many??

This strikes me as a FOAF tale, because it was told to me by my best friend, who was told by her brother, who no doubt heard it from someone else, but anway;

You know how you often see audio tape from cassettes lying by the edge of the road, tangled up in hedges and all sorts? Ever wonder how it got there? APPARANTLY, it's not just frustrated record industry employees, it's actually witchcraft. This is how a witch marks their territory OR you can sometimes find spells attached to them. Members of the Christian Union at her brother's university (Leeds) go round clearing it up, and sometimes they come over all sick and dizzy as they handle it.

At the time I believed it entirely, because I've often wondered exactly how audio tape can end up on the pavement in such large quantities. (I had images of irate commuters screaming "Not Alannis bloody Morrisette AGAIN!", ripping it out the tape deck and chucking it out the window.)

Does anyone know? Is it witchcraft, or is it, in fact, bollocks?
 
It's b*ll*cks. FOAFs like this have been going around the fundie Xtian circuit for years - I read a Christian book called "Pigs In the Parlour" about 10-15 years ago that stated that a group of devil-worshippers in Notts used this method to spread curses. Black Masses were recorded on the tape, y'see, and then it was spread around churches and other buildings they didn't like. The Christian group that was finding all this tape didn't risk their immortal souls by actually listening to it - they prayed hard and God told them what was on the tape. God also told them that there were whole covens of Black Witches in the streets around who were sacrificing babies and such, so this group asked God to curse them. Which He did, being a very obliging bloke.
Whatever became of some of those crap bands that were around at that time?
 
Absolutely what Annasdottir says. Bollox, pure and simple.

It will however be interesting to see if the phenomena of abandoned tapes becomes less common as audiotape is superseded by digital forms of data storage.
 
Yes, as Annasdottir says, it's bollocks.

Sorry, I'm not feeling very talkative today :mad:
 
therion said:
Absolutely what Annasdottir says. Bollox, pure and simple.

It will however be interesting to see if the phenomena of abandoned tapes becomes less common as audiotape is superseded by digital forms of data storage.
It's already happening, there's a tree near where I live with a cd stuck between the branches, been there for a couple of months.
 
Imagine it grows into the tree and then 50 years from now someone will cut it down and be very baffled as to why there is a silicon disk in a tree.
 
Yeah, it's a pity they deteriorate. Just think of the info' that future generations could dig up in their back yard!
 
Yeh, all those free AOL upgrades . . .

Carole
 
Yeah! And Great Great Great (add some more) Grandads porn collection. :D
 
I know how audio tape gets strewn about in the streets - i used to do it as a kid. If you smash a tape and pull the reels out you can chuck em like streamers - there is yards and yards and yards of tape in them and the reels are lights so you can throw em a long way. it is great fun , in a naughty childhood kinda way. I have also seen the following .... car with broken window parked at the side of the city street, broken glass on the pavement ... a few hundred yards on the smashed cassette bodies of tapes by AOR artists ... Phil Collins etc ... a few yards further, huge quantities of audio tape spooled about in the trees etc ..... "obvious" interpretation .... car thief breaks into car, nicks everything he can reach, checks out his haul at a safe distance, discovers amongst his loot is a load of music which, being a teenaged scally he knows is awful and worthless to him, so he decides to have a what fun he can with it by cobbing the fun tape streamers.
 
I'd Plonk for Bollocks

Tape machines eat tapes. Being largely irresponsible and at that point upset, many folks toss the tangled mess they're raking from their cassette player right out the window.

Incidentally, witches don't mark territory. That's dogs. Revealing of how certain xtian minds work, isn't it?
 
Also there is the fun game which involves tieing an unravelled tape to all the doorknockers in a street in a zig zag.The next time a car drives up the street all the doors get knocked on . Unfortunately I havn't seen it done .
Marion
 
Marion said:
Also there is the fun game which involves tieing an unravelled tape to all the doorknockers in a street in a zig zag.The next time a car drives up the street all the doors get knocked on . Unfortunately I havn't seen it done .
Marion

We used to do it with string, when I was a kid... Not many cars in those days, so you needed to start it off yourself, then watch everyone try & get their doors open, which in turn slams others across the road!!!!

Oh! For a misspent childhood!!!!!!;)
 
therion said:
It will however be interesting to see if the phenomena of abandoned tapes becomes less common as audiotape is superseded by digital forms of data storage.
Now I know what to do with all those junk-mail CDs!

Yes, the trees will probably grow round them. Opposite me we had tree surgeons recently surgically removing a Car Park sign from a tree which had gradually engulfed it.
 
This whole thing takes on an even wierder aspect if you consider the way that the Taliban decorated Afghanistan with cassette tape (as well as dead TV's etc). Will the fundies now be showing pictures of tape covered trees in Kabul as evidence that the Taliban were actually witches?

I wouldn't be suprised if, given that this UL has obviously been around for a few years, if some daft teen 'satanists' hadn't actually gone out and 'marked their territory' in this way, as there seems to be a certain type of inadequate heavy metal fan who believes that conforming to the cartoon version of 'witchcraft' that the fundies propagate is an act of rebellion.
 
Originally posted by rynner

Now I know what to do with all those junk-mail CDs!

I find they make attractive and functional coaster for drinks:)
 
What Are These?

I thought they were xmas tree decorations, they slide on just right and sure reflect the lights nicely.
 
rynner said:
Now I know what to do with all those junk-mail CDs!

I've seen several instances hereabouts, where people have tied a few dozen CD's (usually freebies) to their fruit trees. This is to (hopefully) deter the Bullfinches from eating the young buds.
Some wag told the local kids they were CD trees, they start out as mini-discs, then ripen into CD's!
Related to the bushes that produce electric-currants, probabley :)
 
Is it also witches who insist on going to any availabe woodland and dumping piles of ripped-up porno mags?
BTW- what does xtian stand for ?
 
A Ready-made Market

Xtian = Christian, Xmas being the parallel.

And it was likely xtian kids who ripped up perfectly good porn mags in the woods, after having had a hot wee gander. LOL

I've heard it said that the pornography and "marital aids" businesses do most of their business by purchasing subscriber lists from right-wing xtian publications, as they know these folks are repressed sexually and will respond with alacrity to the slightest offer of naughty bits.
 
A friend of mine used to bring this one tape into my car to play on short trips around the town. I do not like pop music so no doubt I was kinda disgusted by her choice of music...Roxette! YiKeS!
There are only so many times one can be subjected to this form of punishment before they do something about it.
I pushed the eject button after hearing the words "...all that she wants, is another baby..." for the 1500th time, threw the tape out of the window at 100kmh and i can only suppose it came to be hedge tinsel after that point.
How many other cassette tapes have been freed from a life of ever revolving enslavement in this way?
One of lifes little mysteries solved perhaps. (!?):confused:
 
Tsk tsk, I am sitting listening to Roxette's greatest hits right now. But that song you describe sounds more like All That She Wants by Ace of Base. Another Swedish band, but not as good as Roxette.
 
Yes...you may be right, in fact I bet you are.
Is an apology in order here?...If so, I can't force myself to feel sorry for getting the name of one crap pop group mixed up with another.
lol

OK, no offence intended...just my opinion, thats what these boards are all about...expressing an opinion. heh!


:cool:
I'm (not) sorry that's all there is to it, I'm (not) sorry that's all. That's all. heh!
 
I don't think you can mix Roxette in with all the other pop groups. They are far from as bland as pop groups usually are. The lyrics are actually poetic and such, and the melodies are not just the usual careful stuff.

While Ace of Base, even though I like the songs they are quite lala.
 
If we are debating the merits of Scandanivan music, am I the only one to give a shout out to Aqua?
That bald bloke in it is a fortean experience, all by himself
 
Aqua are great!

*ducks the flak*

No, they are... the video for "Dr Jones" is possibly the funniest thing ever put to video.
 
We were discussing Swedish music. Don't start talking about Danish music, all of what becomes famous of it is crap. There are a few Danish bands that are good, but they never become known outside of Denmark.
 
Abba weren't bad, under the right conditions (on TV, sound turned down.....)
;)
 
So It's Littering from the Dark Heart?

So we've decided it's littering, not witchcraft or satanism, when one finds those unraveled tapes. The question is, perhaps, why, then, was there ever a rumor about them? What dark paranoid minds came up with such a silly explanation for such a mundane thing?

There lies the dark heart of this otherwise whimsical topic.
 
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