Balladeer’s Blog continues its retrospective of The Best of 2018 with this look at July’s Best.
MAVERICK (1994): MOVIE REVIEW – Frontierado was fast approaching when I posted this review of the 1994 film version of the James Garner television series Maverick.
Virtually no movie adaptations of tv shows do real justice to their source material but this flick is a major exception! Mel Gibson plays Garner’s original role of Bret Maverick and is terrific. Jodie Foster and James Garner himself are along for the ride as co-stars in this gambler/ gunslinger classic. CLICK HERE
#WALKAWAY MOVEMENT: DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE FROM THE DEMOCRAT PARTY – Gay man Brandon Straka became a dissident hero as he launched the #WALKAWAY movement. Straka provided organization to the ’til now random exodus from the increasingly fascistic and intolerant Democrat Party. (I myself went Independent years ago.)
#WALKAWAY became a viral online phenomenon with video testimonials from many of us who have left the Democrats in disgust. The Democrats in the media, hilariously enough, tried to pretend it was all the work of Russian Bots! I’m not joking! Anyway, there was even a #WALKAWAY March on Washington and the group spawned offshoot organizations like #Blexit and #BlackLivesMAGA. CLICK HERE
TUILAKEMBA: FIJIAN DEMIGOD – Balladeer’s Blog’s examination of the saga of Fiji’s heroic demigod Tuilakemba was a hit. I covered not just the original myths but the way Tuilakemba’s tale evolved over the centuries.
The heroic figure supposedly conquered all the islands of Fiji then departed in search of fresh conquests in the distant past. When French Missionaries made contact with Fiji the Fijians identified Napoleon with their departed conqueror Tuilakemba. CLICK HERE
ASK BALLADEER: WHY DID I LEAVE SICILY OUT OF MY EXAMINATION OF THE ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY THE BIRDS? – Many readers were curious why I left out the usual academic speculation about the invasion of Sicily in my look at Aristophanes’ comedy The Birds.
I laid out my many reasons in this blog post HERE
FLASHMAN: THE LOST ADVENTURES – I took advantage of the heavy interest in the reviews of my Top Five Harry Flashman Novels to go into total fanboy mode.
Using hints from George MacDonald Fraser’s offhand references to Harry’s unpublished adventures combined with research into potential Flashmanesque situations in various countries during the anti-hero’s 19th Century travels I speculated on Flashman Down Under, Flashman in the Opium War, Flashman and the Kings and The Battle Cry of Flashman. CLICK HERE
THE CLONES (1973): MOVIE REVIEW – Balladeer’s Blog reviewed this neglected science fiction suspense movie.
The storyline was dealing with what was back then the still fairly new topic of cloning.
To read the review of this hit and miss film click HERE
CLIVE BARKER’S THE SCARLET GOSPELS (2015) – What Ridley Scott did to his Alien saga with Covenant, Clive Barker did to his Hellraiser series with his novel The Scarlet Gospels.
Readers were excited to see what Barker would do with a story that pitted his Hellish masterfiend Pinhead against occult detective Harry D’Amour. This novel was a disaster in my eyes. CLICK HERE
THREE NEGLECTED GUNSLINGERS – Cash Hollister, Zip Wyatt and Black Ike don’t get as much love as names like Wild Bill Hickok, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid but they had eventful lives nonetheless.
To check out their Old West antics click HERE
“Welcome to the party, pal!” as John McClane said in Die Hard. The revolution going on in people’s minds continues! In lieu of my usual Transgress With Me items this time around we’ll look at a brilliant piece by Kurt Schlichter. 
Most enjoyably, the fact that master capitalists and robber barons now use their influence for the left instead of the right has made people who used to swoon at the mere thought of “the Free Market” realize that acquiring a fortune does not automatically make someone admirable or noble. 
A DIVA’S CHRISTMAS CAROL (2000) – Balladeer’s Blog’s Ninth Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues with a look at this Vanessa Williams venture. Due to the nature of this adaptation of the Dickens classic it is often categorized as one of the “African-American versions.” Among other such Carols I have reviewed are Christmas is Comin’ Uptown with Gregory Hines and John Grin’s Christmas starring Robert Guillaume. 
NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) 
NCCAA (National Christian College Athletic Association) 
Time for more Christmastime kid-friendliness with the 6th installment of the FIRST superhero team in history: DC Comics’ Justice Society of America. 
ALL-STAR COMICS #8 (December 1941) 
GODS OF FIJI – Balladeer’s Blog’s examinations of neglected pantheons of deities from around the world are always a hit. 
MOTHER JONES: RECOMMENDED TRUMP LINKS – Balladeer’s Blog once again posted a roundup of links to the most thought-provoking articles about President Donald Trump. 
HAMMETT (1982) – I reviewed this 1982 Wim Wenders film that was produced by Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope Studios. Frederic Forrest (Chef from Apocalypse Now) plays real-life mystery writer Dashiell Hammett as he gets caught up in a real-life mystery. 
PHELIM MCALEER ON THE AMERICAN LEFT’S TOTALITARIANISM – Like me and so many others, Phelim McAleer used to consider himself part of the political left but was driven away by the left’s growing fondness of censorship, blacklisting, totalitarianism and their support of ONLY reactionary Muslims, not Muslims who seek reform in their faith to bring it into the 21st Century. 
HELLRAISER: ORIGINS TRAILER – My love of Clive Barker’s horror novel The Hellbound Heart and the subsequent Hellraiser film series is well known. 
SNOPES CONFIRMS BARACK OBAMA’S ADMINISTRATION TURNED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHILDREN AT THE BORDER OVER TO HUMAN TRAFFICKERS – Just one of the many, MANY scandals of Obama’s presidency ignored by the Democrats in the media. 
SILAS TALBOT: REVOLUTIONARY WAR HERO – Balladeer’s Blog took a look at the Revolutionary War career of Silas Talbot. 
TRUMP-HATERS: ARE THEY INSANE OR ONLY PRETENDING TO BE? – A look at the slobbering, psychopathic behavior of those bizarre people who devote their every waking moment to drooling hatred of de facto Third Party President Donald Trump. 
THE INDEPENDENCE DAY SPEECH THAT NEVER WAS – This item examined a much-discussed speech during the deliberations over the Declaration of Independence. 
De facto Third Party President Donald Trump has done more for the working class and poor OF ALL COLORS than any other President in decades. As I’ve often mentioned, financially comfortable Democrats are every bit as callous toward the plight of the working class and the poor as the most bloated rich pig Republicans ever were. 
Remember, Donald Trump is a former Democrat like me and so many others who were driven away by the Democrat Party’s emerging contempt for the working class. And as Republicans ALWAYS remind us, Trump is not a “real Republican.” (Which is why he got elected, actually.)
HODADEION PART 11: THE WRATH OF HODADEION – As the demigod Hodadeion stalked angrily toward the large longhouse lodge in which the cannibal wizards and their women were tormenting his younger brother Otgoe, he had but one regret. That was that the Chief of the cannibal wizards, Dagwahgweoses, was away at his private lodge and would need to be dealt with separately. 
Not only does Mexico already have harsher conditions for immigration than the United States, but it has been interesting to watch Mexico’s increasing frustration with the destruction and mayhem caused by the most recent illegal immigrant mob. 
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