Yes, as if I wasn’t boring enough already I’m also into opera! Now, I know traditionally “the” Halloween Opera has always been Don Giovanni , but I’ve never bought into that notion since there’s really only one scene in the whole opera that qualifies as spooky and supernatural. At this time of year I prefer Offenbach’s Tales Of Hoffmann. Not only is it full of appropriately eerie and menacing elements, but it’s also 
the perfect opera for you to share with someone who’s seeing their very first opera. One of the reasons for that is that Continue reading
Monthly Archives: October 2011
HALLOWEEN OPERA: TALES OF HOFFMANN BY OFFENBACH
Filed under A CHRISTMAS CAROL
COOL COLLEGE FOOTBALL HELMET: CONCORDIA (AL) HORNETS
Location: Selma, AL
Comment: That is one buff hornet! Not at all like those Continue reading
Filed under Cool Helmets
HALLOWEEN TREAT: AN ENCORE SALUTE TO THE KING OF THE B-MOVIE HOSTS
Rich Koz aka Son of Svengoolie, aka just plain Svengoolie is, in my opinion, the one man whose work would go into a time capsule if I had to pick just one example of the American folk-art form of movie hosting. I know he wasn’t around before Vampira or Zacherle but his work is pretty much the Gold Standard when it comes to those wonderful old local and/or syndicated movie host shows of the past.
As Son of Svengoolie, Rich Koz was the official “inheritor” of Jerry Bishop’s original Svengoolie, the Hippie Vampire, who starred on Chicago’s Screaming Yellow Theater in the very early 70’s. With Bishop’s blessing, (and Bishop even did the very first voice-over introduction for his succesor’s new show) Koz debuted as “Son Of Svengoolie” in the Windy City in 1979. The show won multiple Continue reading
Filed under Movie Hosts
COLLEGE FOOTBALL POLLS WEEK OF OCTOBER 17TH
The Blinn College Buccaneers (helmet at left), the team for which Cam Newton played before transferring to Auburn, are still ranked number 1 in the NJCAA Poll after holding on to win a 30-27 nail- biter with Trinity Valley this past Saturday. As expected the Delta State Statesmen are the new number 1 in D2 after they took down the previously top-ranked North Alabama Lions (coached by THE Terry Bowden) in last Thursday night’s overtime classic. No change to the number one teams in the other divisions covered by Balladeer’s Blog.
NAIA – 1. ST XAVIER UNIVERSITY COUGARS … 2. MARIAN KNIGHTS … 3. CC FIGHTING SAINTS (defending champs) … 4. GEORGETOWN (KY) TIGERS … 5. MIDAMERICA NAZARENE PIONEERS … 6. MORNINGSIDE MUSTANGS … 7. BENEDICTINE RAVENS … 8. AZUSA PACIFIC COUGARS … T9. MISSOURI VALLEY VIKINGS … T9. WILLIAM PENN STATESMEN … 11. ST FRANCIS (IL) FIGHTING SAINTS … 12. ST FRANCIS (IN) COUGARS … 13. ST AMBROSE FIGHTING BEES (love that name) … 14. BETHEL (TN) WILDCATS … 15. OTTAWA (KS) BRAVES … 16. VCS VIKINGS … 17. CUMBERLAND BULLDOGS … 18. DOANE TIGERS … 19. DAKOTA WESLEYAN TIGERS … 20. BETHANY SWEDES … 21. SOUTHERN NAZARENE CRIMSON STORM … 22. EASTERN OREGON MOUNTAINEERS … 23. NORTHWESTERN (IA) RED RAIDERS … 24. LANGSTON Continue reading
Filed under college football
BAD MOVIE PAGE: HOMEBODIES (1974) – THE INFAMOUS “OLD FOLKS ON A KILLING SPREE” MOVIE
HOMEBODIES (1974) – Category: Enjoyably bad movie with a weird premise This is the film that is always known to me and my fellow bad movie geeks as “the killer fogies movie”. When a group of elderly citizens in their 70’s and 80’s face eviction from their decrepit neighborhood to make way for high- rises they strike back under the leadership of feisty and frightening Mattie, played by Paula Trueman, seen at left.
Homebodies has that nice blend of badness and tastelessness that I love in a horror film. I’m not trying to sound hostile to the elderly, since we will all end up facing the same problems some day, but the Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies
NOTEWORTHY COLLEGE FOOTBALL RESULTS FROM OCTOBER 15TH
AZUSA PACIFIC RULES THE WORLD YET AGAIN – The NAIA’s AZUSA PACIFIC COUGARS went on the road and eviscerated NCAA Division 2’s DIXIE STATE RED STORM by a score of 48-19. Over the years Azusa Pacific has wracked up an impressive number of wins against upper division teams, even taking down Division 1’s San Diego Toreros in their own house in the 2010 season. And so far this season every Saturday has found at least 1 NAIA team upsetting a D2 team. Add to that the sheer number of D3 teams who have had their butts kicked by NAIA teams this year and you can easily say the NAIA has owned the NCAA this season.
WAYNE STATE’S WORLD – Both D2 teams called Wayne State were ranked and both were upset yesterday. The 4th ranked WARRIORS fell to the ASHLAND EAGLES 20-17 and the 25th ranked WILDCATS were knocked out of the rankings by the CONCORDIA-ST PAUL GOLDEN BEARS 27-24.
TOP 25 UPSETS – NAIA – Yesterday I had put the 4th ranked MISSOURI VALLEY VIKINGS on upset alert as they took it on the road against the number 9 BENEDICTINE RAVENS. For the 2nd week in a row number 4 took a fall as the Ravens handed MVC a 35-19 smackdown … The unranked BACONE WARRIORS knocked the number 23 NORTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA STATE RANGERS out of the rankings with a 35-28 victory, just one week after the Rangers upset the then- number 10 SOUTHERN NAZARENE CRIMSON STORM.
TOP 25 UPSETS – D3 – The Continue reading
Filed under college football
COLLEGE FOOTBALL SCOREBOARDS FOR OCTOBER 15TH
Close games were an unknown concept in last night’s matchups. Starting off with Centennial Conference action, the Johns Hopkins University Blue Jays (helmet at left) decimated the Dickinson Red Devils 47-6. D3’s top ranked defending champs, the Whitewater Warhawks, doubled up on the Stout Blue Devils 42-21. The Assumption Greyhounds crushed the Merrimack Warriors by a score of 44-24 and the only road team to win last night, the Bowie State Bulldogs, beat up on the Lincoln (PA) Lions 22-10. Thursday night brought us a new number 1 ranked team in D2 as the 2nd ranked Delta State Statesmen won in overtime 30-24 at the top ranked North Alabama Lions.
Looking ahead to today’s action the NAIA has no less than five clashes between Top 25 teams on the menu. The 2nd ranked and 7-0 Marian University Knights (insert my usual self-congratulatory remark about my predicting the explosion for MU football in my 2010 – yes, 2010 – preseason assessments) are on the road against the 6th ranked St Francis (IN) Cougars. The 3rd ranked CC Fighting Saints, who are also the defending champs of NAIA college football, host the number 21 Rocky Mountain College Battlin’ Bears. The Missouri Valley College Vikings, ranked at number 4, are visiting the 9th ranked yet perennially underrated Benedictine Ravens. The number 15 Southern Nazarene Crimson Storm (love that name) take on the 7th ranked MidAmerica Nazarene Pioneers and the 8th ranked Morningside Mustangs are at the number 13 Dakota Wesleyan Tigers. Meanwhile the 11th ranked William Penn University Statesmen try to avoid 2 losses in a row, this week at the hands of the visiting St Mary Spires, the road warriors who stunned the 14th ranked Bethany Swedes last Saturday. And Continue reading
Filed under college football
ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY: DEMOI (C 417 BCE)
FOR BACKGROUND INFORMATION IF YOU MISSED MY FIRST POST ON ANCIENT GREEK COMEDIES CLICK HERE: https://glitternight.com/2011/09/22/at-long-last-my-ancient-greek-comedy-posts-begin/
As promised this time around I’ll depart from the works of Aristophanes to examine the fragmentary remains of a work by another genius of Ancient Greek Comedy, in this case Eupolis. Eupolis was part of the Big Three of Ancient Greek Comedy (henceforth AGC) along with Aristophanes and Cratinus. Some people confuse Eupolis with the later Greek comedian Eubulus but manage to lead fairly normal lives just the same. (rimshot)
THE PREMISE
Demoi is considered to be Eupolis’ greatest political satire. The premise is simplicity itself. An Athenian named Pyronides, like many of his fellow citizens, is disgusted with the pettiness, corruption and incompetence of the current crop of political and military leaders in the great city-state. Thus motivated, Pyronides retrieves four of the greatest figures of Athens’ storied past from the Netherworld and brings them back with him so they may set things right.
THE PLAY
In my introductory post about AGC (see above) I illustrated the similar problems faced by the Athenians’ ancient experiment in popular rule and our own often teetering enterprise. Corruption, partisanship and a tendency to subordinate the general good in the name of personal gain were as rampant then as now.
As all Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Greek Comedy
ONE VERSUS TWO IN D2 TONIGHT: DELTA STATE AT NORTH ALABAMA
What is it with this college football season? Tonight will be the THIRD regular season clash between the number 1 and number 2 teams in the divisions covered by Balladeer’s Blog. A few weeks ago we had two such matchups in one afternoon as the NAIA’s Top 2 teams and the NJCAA’s Top 2 teams collided. This latest gridiron Armageddon takes place in Florence, AL as the Delta State Statesmen travel to face the North Alabama Lions. The Statesmen played in last December’s D2 Title game but lost to UMD and the Lions are coached by THE Terry Bowden, the Continue reading
Filed under college football
PASSION’S FINE
Let’s try this again. I understand strong feelings regarding my statements about religion and violence in my review of the 1991 bad movie Ghost Busting, but I’m not going to okay comments that are either threatening or that consist of nothing but obscenities. I’ll give nutjobs one final chance to express articulate, civil disagreement. Here again is that controversial review. Play nicely and we can all have fun arguing.
GHOST BUSTING (1991) – Category – More weird than bad, but butt-kickingly weird I first saw this little honey more than a decade ago, but it’s pretty much timeless. It comes to us from Hong Kong, the land of killer fetus movies plus films with such Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies, Milestones In Stupidity
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