Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at another college whose sports teams use a name more colorful than the overused Eagles, Tigers, Bulldogs and Wildcats.
POTOMAC STATE COLLEGE Continue reading
BAD MOVIE HOSTS: CHRISTOPHER COFFIN (1961-1967)
Christopher Coffin, AKA Reed Pasternak AKA Reed Farrell, deserves to be mentioned with the biggest names in the history of B- Movie Hosts.
As you can see in the photo at left Coffin hosted his movies from a wheelchair and when you combine that with his wry, erudite sense of humor and his aristocratic manner I think the best way to describe him would be as a combination of Sheridan Whitehead in The Man Who Came to Dinner and Ghoulardi. Or maybe I should make that a pre- Ghoulardi version of Ghoulardi, depending on what year you accept for CC’s premier.
I want to address the ongoing debate over exactly what year his program debuted. The advocates of a Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies, Movie Hosts
FEBRUARY EIGHTEENTH NEWS ROUNDUP
Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog is back with a mid-week current events roundup.
IN DEMOCRAT-HELD CHICAGO ANTI-ICE FASCISTS ARE PUTTING BOUNTIES ON THE HEADS OF ICE AGENTS.
DERANGED HATEMONGER WHOOPI GOLDBERG IS THE LATEST TRUMP-HATER TO BE EXPOSED IN DEEP WITH JEFFREY EPSTEIN. It may be that the best way to know if someone had ugly ties to Epstein is to see how deep their Trump Derangement Syndrome goes.
ANOTHER CALL OUT REGARDING ILHAN OMAR’S MISLEADING FINANCIAL DISCLOSURES.
AND YET ANOTHER ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHARGED WITH DISTRIBUTION AND POSSESSION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY. Always remember that Democrats canonize such people.
JOURNALIST NICK SHIRLEY UNCOVERS MONUMENTAL VOTE FRAUD IN CALIFORNIA. More HERE. Continue reading
ROBERT DUVALL: MY FAVORITES AMONG HIS OVERLOOKED STARRING ROLES
R.I.P. Robert Duvall. This year we say goodbye to this monumental actor like we said goodbye to his friend and fellow thespian giant Gene Hackman early last year. Most tributes will cover Duvall’s roles in his many, many films whose titles are household words. This being Balladeer’s Blog I’ll instead look at some of his overlooked gems.
TOMORROW (1972) – Robert Duvall – who called this one of his favorite performances – plays poverty-stricken farmer and sawmill operator Jackson Fentry of Mississippi. One cold December evening he comes across the pregnant Sarah Eubanks, a poor woman whose abusive husband has abandoned her because he wants nothing to do with raising their child.
The lonely Fentry nurses Sarah back to health and supports her through her baby’s birth. He promises to raise the child as his own and keeps his word even when his and Sarah’s relationship is cut short by her poor health. Fentry’s fundamental decency rubs off on the boy, who shows signs of being as compassionate as Jackson himself.
SPOILERS: Unfortunately, Sarah’s violent brothers eventually learn that “Jackson Jr.” (Johnny Mask) is their sister’s child and take him from Fentry by force. From then on, the boy grows into the same kind of violent criminal that his uncles are. Ultimately, the young man is murdered, and his killer is let off because the jury views the slaying as a public benefit given what a depraved criminal the late Jackson Jr. was.
Horton Foote (who adapted the screenplay for To Kill a Mockingbird in which Duvall played Boo Radley) expanded one of William Faulkner’s short stories about lawyer Gavin Stevens into this film’s screenplay. A shorter version was first performed on tv’s Playhouse 90.
The film drags, but Robert performs brilliantly as a downtrodden man whose dignity and character shine through despite the deficient vocabulary his lack of education has left him with. Continue reading
Filed under opinion
MARDI GRAS MASSACRE (1978) BAD MOVIE REVIEW
MARDI GRAS MASSACRE (1978) – Category: A neglected Bad Movie classic, but its hard-core gore will prevent it from ever having a Plan 9-sized cult following
It takes a twisted sort of genius to make multiple disembowelment murders look boring, but that’s exactly what Jack Weis accomplishes in Mardi Gras Massacre! Today may be Fat Tuesday, but let’s rechristen it “Splat Tuesday” in honor of this late 70’s splatterfest.
The actual “massacre” part of this movie is an incredible disappointment. An insane, hate-filled man with a knife is roaming around New Orleans during Mardi Gras targeting prostitutes as sacrificial offerings to the Aztec deities he worships.
That sounds promising for a horror film but the disembowelment ritual is reenacted word for word and movement for movement for EACH VICTIM! There is no variation and also no suspense because after the first killing we know exactly how all the subsequent sacrifices will play out. The only chills come from listening to the awful disco music that plays during the Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies
ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: THE LUNARIAN PROFESSOR (1909)
THE LUNARIAN PROFESSOR AND HIS REMARKABLE REVELATIONS CONCERNING THE EARTH, THE MOON AND MARS TOGETHER WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE CRUISE OF THE SALLY ANN (1909) – Written by James B Alexander back in the glory days of titles so long they might not fit in a 140 character limit.
The story is set in 1892, when James Alexander pretends that, while on a fishing trip he encountered a humanoid with a head like a globe, six limbs, large eyes and six wings. The being claims to be a “Lunarian,” a man from our moon.
He is a professor and informs Alexander that he and his fellow Lunarians travel from planet to planet by manipulating gravity. They live in vast underground caverns on the moon, caverns with a breathable atmosphere. Their mastery of gravity is the key to their advanced technology.
The professor’s people have been observing Earth for an untold amount of time. James Alexander even learns that in the distant past humans had to fight intelligently evolving reptiles for planetary supremacy. The cavemen won.
The Lunarians grow vegetation in hydroponic trays and dispose of their dead through a disintegration process that breaks the bodies down into their base elements, thus nothing gets wasted. Though their own culture is socialistic the Lunarians have no shyness about earning profits by selling their advanced technology to other inhabited planets.
The Lunarians have even developed methods of predicting the future. Alexander asks about Earth’s future and the professor from the moon is happy to lay it all out for the Earthling. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
NEWS ROUNDUP: FEBRUARY SIXTEENTH
It’s a Monday current events roundup from Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog.
PRESIDENT TRUMP AGAIN LAUDED AS THE PERSON WHO DID MORE THAN ANYONE TO BRING DOWN JEFFREY EPSTEIN. And all while many people who hate Trump have been exposed for their complicity in Epstein’s activities.
TRUMP HATER REID HOFFMAN REVEALED TO BE MENTIONED IN THE EPSTEIN FILES TWO THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED FIFTY-EIGHT TIMES. “Gifts for the girls” and other references. And more HERE.
MARYLAND DEMOCRATS CONTINUE TO DISCARD CITIZENS AS COLLATERAL DAMAGE.
MARYLAND SHERIFFS COURAGEOUSLY VOW TO IGNORE THE STATE’S DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR’S ORDERS NOT TO COOPERATE WITH ICE. Public safety should take priority over the Democrat motto “Illegal immigrants uber alles.”
DEMOCRAT BOOSTER CENK UYGUR BLASTS THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AGAIN. Hopefully he’ll follow so many of us in leaving behind The Party. An excerpt of what he had to say – “I was just in Washington and here’s my read of Democratic Party right now. 98% of them think they are the most important people on earth. 98% of them have done absolutely nothing. They demand respect, which they haven’t earned at all. They have an unbearable entitlement complex.”
ANOTHER MINNESOTA WOMAN TRIES TO IMPEDE ICE’s SEARCH FOR AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHILD RAPIST AND MURDERER. Sanctimonious fools continue to delude themselves that they are justified in helping to keep illegal immigrant child rapists and murderers at large.
BIDEN REGIME REVEALED TO HAVE LET BIG-MONEY DONORS SPONSOR DOJ INVESTIGATIONS INTO THEIR POLITICAL ENEMIES. If only the clueless Republican Party had kept up with the Democrats in the Media Arms Race this could be as prominently featured as the Democrats’ pet news stories of the moment.
ANTI-ICE ACTIVITIES WITH STUDENTS LED BY DEMOCRAT “TEACHERS” BECOME MORE AND MORE VIOLENT. More HERE. Do Democrats hope that a student or two will be harmed or worse just so they can make propaganda about it?
DOLTISH ANTI-ICE DEMOCRAT WOMAN HARASSES A POLICE OFFICER BECAUSE SHE MISTAKENLY ASSUMED HE WAS AN ICE AGENT. Renee “Darwin Award” Good syndrome spreads.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT KILLS INNOCENT WOMAN WITH VEHICLE WHILE TRYING TO ESCAPE JUSTICE. Will he be the latest Democrat media darling like Darwin Award Renee Good and Alex Pretti?
FLASHBACK: CBS/ QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY POLL NAMES OBAMA THE WORST PRESIDENT OF THE POST-WORLD WAR TWO ERA
FROM JULY THIRD OF 2014.
THE WORST U.S. PRESIDENT OF THE POST-WORLD WAR TWO ERA
In the recent CBS News/ Quinnipiac University Poll Americans quite correctly voted Barack Obama the worst U.S. president of the post- World War Two era. How appropriate that, just in time for the July 4th holiday Little Barry Obama won this distinction since he is exactly the type of pompous, clueless, corrupt and self-satisfied ass that we declared our independence from back in 1776!
Congratulations to the poll respondents for absolutely nailing Obama, the quintessential Hollow Man. And the repulsive George W Bush was in 2nd place so that’s equally enjoyable, too! Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, opinion
U.S. PRESIDENTS IN THE MILITARY (A. Johnson-Hayes)
Tomorrow is Presidents Day, so here’s another seasonal post.
ANDREW JOHNSON
Conflict – U.S. Civil War: Service – From 1862-February 1865 Johnson held the rank of general in the Union Army. He held that position as Military Governor of Tennessee and saw no action in the field.
ULYSSES S. GRANT
NOTE: As I observed previously, Washington, Grant and Eisenhower would require thousands of words to capture their full military careers. I will write such blog posts in the near future but for this post I’ll be very brief.
Conflict – Mexican War: Service – From 1846 to 1848 Lieutenant Grant served in Zachary Taylor’s campaigns in northern Mexico and later in Winfield Scott’s campaign to take Mexico City to the south.
Conflict – U.S. Civil War: Service – The heroic Grant rose to command of all the Union’s armies during the 1861-1865 conflict and defeated Confederate General Robert E. Lee. A future blog post will cover his extensive service in the war. Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History
COLLEGE BASKETBALL RESULTS FROM BALLADEER’S BLOG: FEB 15th
NJCAA DIVISION THREE
NUMBER ONE ROLLS – The nation’s top ranked RICHLAND COLLEGE THUNDERDUCKS took it on the road against the DALLAS COLLEGE AT CEDAR VALLEY SUNS. By Halftime the Thunderducks had compiled a 39-24 advantage and after the break maintained distance from the Suns for an 80-65 win. Jase Tarver led Richland College with his Double Double of 24 points and 12 rebounds.
CENTURY CLUB – Teams scoring 100 or more points in Regulation: The (2) SALEM (NJ) COLLEGE MIGHTY OAKS downed the visiting SUSSEX COUNTY COLLEGE SKYLANDERS 104-69 ### Meanwhile, the OWENS COLLEGE EXPRESS won 110-86 at the HOCKING COLLEGE HAWKS ### And the ONONDAGA COLLEGE LAZERS defeated the CAYUGA COLLEGE SPARTANS 102-73. Continue reading
Filed under College Basketball
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