how to distress a vector image?

[Monster Maker]

Im wondering if anyone knows how to distress a vector image? I have posted a sample that I took from istockphoto.com (im interested in the distressed background in the image)...I would like to know how to achieve this effect on my own...any suggestions?

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g268/PinkLincoln/Untitled-1-1.jpg

[triple one]

i have a small collection of stock photography such as rusty metal, old painted wood, etc, that ive edited in photoshop, sometimes just making it high constrast b/w images, dropped into illustrator, and lived traced and used different blending modes to get the effect i wanted, similar to you samples.
Im sure there are many other ways, but thats a good place to start.

http://mayang.com/textures/
has a ton of free high res textures to play with

[Monster Maker]

Im also just wondering how to distress my text while keeping it a vector. I want to incorporate that same weathered, scratched up look to my text...but I dont want to rasterize....

any ideas?