Welcome back to Balladeer’s Blog, the only site on the web that criticizes both Liberals and Conservatives equally. As Little Barry Obama’s list of debacles grows ever longer CNN informs us that even other Democrats are breaking omerta to discuss how clueless and incompetent he is. Plus usually reliable Democratic party house organs like the Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times have chimed in with disgust on Obama’s rather pathetic performance when it comes to anything outside of reading speeches off a teleprompter. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: May 2014
COLLEGE WORLD SERIES RESULTS
If it’s Memorial Day that means the usual orgy of college baseball action! Yesterday the NAIA had a day off but action continued in the College World Series for the NCAA Divisions Two and Three as well as all three divisions of the NJCAA.
* NCAA DIVISION 2 *
DAY TWO – GAME ONE – The SETON HILL UNIVERSITY GRIFFINS got cooking immediately in this game, taking a 3-0 lead in the 1st Inning. Their opponents – the MINNESOTA STATE MAVERICKS – made it a 3-2 ballgame in the 2nd Inning bringing an end to the scoring until the Griffins added an insurance run in the bottom of the 8th. Seton Hill’s Mike Bittel was the winning pitcher in this 4-2 affair. Continue reading
Filed under College Baseball
A SELECTION OF MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS FROM THE PHILIPPINE WAR (1899-1902)
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY FROM BALLADEER’S BLOG! It’s a day for remembering the people who go out and actually DO something and acknowledge their service along with the physical risks and the political abuse heaped upon them. In keeping with my blog’s theme of addressing items that slip through the cultural cracks I’m showcasing a few of the Congressional Medal of Honor winners from the neglected war fought in the Philippines from 1899 to 1902.
HIRAM BEARSS (Correct spelling) – This Captain won the Medal for his actions on November 17th,1901 during a battle at the confluence of the Sohotan and Cadacan Rivers in Samar. Bearss led his men in a surprise attack on the enemy positions in the fortified cliffs. Relying mostly on bamboo ladders the Captain and his troops drove their opposition from their entrenched positions, literally “charging uphill” against enemy fire.
They also had to contend with the countless booby-traps lining the hills, many of which had been in place since the Spanish- American War of 1898. Those deadly traps took the form of pits, poison- tipped spears, trip-sprung vine nets loaded down with literally tons of stones and many others. The opposition in the caves honeymooning the cliffs needed rooting out as well with various forms of death lurking around every twist and turn in the caverns. Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History
COLLEGE BASEBALL: WORLD SERIES ACTION IN THE NAIA, NCAA DIVISIONS TWO AND THREE PLUS THE NJCAA AND CCCAA
* NAIA *
DAY TWO – GAME ONE – The 8th seeded SOUTHERN POLYTECHNIC RUNNING HORNETS faced the 5th seeded GEORGETOWN (KY) COLLEGE TIGERS in the first elimination game of the 2014 World Series. A 1-1 tie in the 3rd Inning became a 3-1 lead for the Running Hornets in the 4th. That grew to a 4-1 advantage in the top of the 6th but the Tigers tied things up at 4-4 in their half of the Inning. Southern Polytechnic added another run in the top of the 7th and rode that to a 5-4 final score. Pitcher Brantley Burton got the win. Continue reading
Filed under College Baseball
TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY GOLEM: OUR HERO MOPS THE FLOOR WITH BOKO HARAM
Last night’s episode of Twenty-First Century Golem, the highest- rated cable show in history, was an all-out action extravaganza! In last week’s cliffhanger ending Barack Obama, the blustering comic- relief villain of the series, had ordered all of America’s satellite weaponry targeted on the Golem. As always props to the show’s creative team for being courageous and irreverent enough to target an American president for such savage satirical treatment. Continue reading
Filed under Fantastic Movie Reviews
COLLEGE WORLD SERIES RESULTS FOR THE NAIA AND NCAA DIVISION THREE
* NAIA *
DAY ONE – GAME ONE – The opening game of the 2014 College World Series for the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) pitted the 9th seeded TABOR COLLEGE BLUE JAYS against the 8th seeded SOUTHERN POLYTECHNIC RUNNING HORNETS. The Blue Jays pulled off the mild upset with a run in the 2nd Inning that wound up being all the scoring in the entire game! The Running Hornets left six runners stranded on base. Junior Mustain pitched the 1-0 victory for Tabor college. Continue reading
Filed under College Baseball
PULP HERO NORTHWEST SMITH: STORIES ELEVEN AND TWELVE
Even though Northwest Smith always used ray-guns but NEVER a sword this artist drew him holding one anyway. Go figure.
Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of another neglected pulp hero – in this case Northwest Smith. Created by the female author C.L. Moore in the 1930′s Northwest Smith was a ruthless outer-space smuggler and mercenary decades before Han Solo. With his Venusian partner Yarol at his side and armed with a trusty blaster Smith roamed our solar system in his deceptively fast spaceship The Maid. In the course of their criminal pursuits the two often found themselves in the role of reluctant heroes, sometimes with the fate of entire planets at stake. For more on Northwest Smith and other neglected pulp heroes click here: https://glitternight.com/pulp-heroes/
11. QUEST OF THE STAR STONE (1937) – It’s crossover time! C.L. Moore decided to do a story in which her two most famous pulp creations – Northwest Smith and Jirel of Joiry – meet each other. Trouble is Jirel’s adventures take place around the year 1500 while Northwest Smith’s stories are set over 1,000 years later. Any reader of pulp fiction knows that’s no real obstacle so let’s dive in.
The story opens in Jirel’s time. She is leading her obedient band of male outlaws in an assault on the castle of a sorceror named Franga. Our sword-wielding heroine battles her way through to Franga’s chamber where she seizes a mystic gem called the Star Stone. That jewel is so powerful but so unfathomable that even Franga was still trying to discover how to harness its arcane energies. Jirel defeats Franga and forces him to flee between dimensions, but as he leaves he promises Jirel that he’ll return to get revenge on her and get the Star Stone back – just as soon as he finds a champion capable of matching Jirel’s courage, cunning and force of will. “No matter what world or what time I find them in” he adds, letting the reader know what’s coming up. Continue reading
Filed under Pulp Heroes
2014 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES TEAMS FROM THE NJCAA (ALL THREE DIVISIONS)
May 24th will see the opening pitch in the College World Series for all three levels of NJCAA baseball. Here’s a look at the participating teams.
* NJCAA DIVISION ONE *
NORTHERN DISTRICT
IOWA WESTERN COLLEGE REIVERS
2014 Record: 51-11
District Title Game: Defeated the Wabash Valley College Warriors 9-3.
Other District Teams: Kaskaskia College Blue Angels, Triton College Trojans and Marshalltown College Tigers.
Continue reading
Filed under College Baseball
HORROR OF PARTY BEACH (1964) ON THE TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT
The Cute Mascot for Vibrators-to-Go
In the middle 1980’s/ Way down on Level 31 …
Before MST3K there was The Texas 27 Film Vault, hosted by Randy Clower and Richard Malmos. Balladeer’s Blog’s examination of this neglected 1980’s cult show continues. Here’s another review of an episode where an original broadcast date can be determined.
EPISODE ORIGINALLY BROADCAST: Saturday May 25th, 1985 from 10:30pm to 1:00am.
EXTRAS: With 2 1/2 hours to work with every episode our machine-gun toting “Film Vault Technicians First Class” Randy and Richard had plenty of time to show (and mock) episodes of old Republic serials before showing (and mocking) the night’s bad movie. Before Horror of Party Beach our boys showed an episode of The Phantom Empire, in which Gene Autry played a singing cowboy who saves the world from an advanced underground civilization complete with killer robots.
Yeah, most atomic beasts live off human brains!
Also, a comedy sketch (which Randy Clower told me he still has footage of) from the episode featured Richard jamming a bunch of hot dogs in his mouth to resemble the absurd, multi-tongued sea creatures in Horror of Party Beach.
FILM VAULT LORE: Special thanks to my fellow Texas 27 Film Vault fan Jana for the date of this episode and which serial preceded the movie. She did not remember which chapter of the serial Randy and Richard were on, but you can’t have everything!
Here’s more in Jana’s own words: “My boyfriend and I at the time were at SMU and on Saturday nights everybody on Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies, Movie Hosts
2014 COLLEGE BASEBALL WORLD SERIES TEAMS FROM DIVISION THREE
Here are the eight teams competing for the 2014 College Baseball Championship in D3. The games begin Friday the 23rd.
NEW YORK REGION
CORTLAND STATE RED DRAGONS
2014 Record: 35-8
Story: Pitching for the Red Dragons Brandon McClain played an Iron Man baseball 9 Inning affair in Cortland State’s 10-1 thrashing of the Kean University Cougars. After a scoreless 1st Inning the Red Dragons led 2-1 after the 2nd and 7-1 after the 3rd to seize control of the game. Continue reading
Filed under College Baseball
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