Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead becomes Give Them A Shoutout Before Andrew Ridgeley’s Dead this time around. It’s the Wham! song titled Freedom.
Monthly Archives: May 2019
COLLEGE WORLD SERIES RESULTS: NAIA AND USCAA
USCAA
DAY ONE: GAME ONE – The 4 seeds – the WRIGHT STATE AT THE LAKE LAKERS – took the diamond against the 5th seeded MISSISSIPPI UNIVERSITY FOR WOMEN (now co-ed) OWLS. The Owls went up 1-0 in the 1st Inning following which neither team scored in the 2nd through 4th.
In the 5th Inning the Lakers grabbed a 3-1 advantage then added 2 more Runs the rest of the way, compared to the 1 mustered by MUW. Wright State at the Lake won the game 5-2 for Pitcher Cross Youtsler.
DAY ONE: GAME TWO – The top seeded NEWPORT NEWS APPRENTICE SCHOOL BUILDERS (Shipbuilders) faced the 9 seeds – the SELMA UNIVERSITY BULLDOGS. The Builders parlayed a 2-0 1st Inning edge into an 8-0 lead in the 2nd.
Each team notched a Run in the 4th Inning to make it a 9-1 game with Newport News Apprentice School on top. From there the Builders put up 2 more in the 6th for an 11-1 blowout win. Pitcher Paul Jones was on the Mound for the entire game for NNAS. Continue reading
Filed under College Baseball
THE HISTORY OF TIME TRAVEL (2014)
THE HISTORY OF TIME TRAVEL (2014) – This is not a bad movie, it’s simply a weird movie and I mean that in the best possible way. It’s a low-budget affair done as a faux documentary and since those have been done to death this film has not gotten the kind of attention it deserves.
Writer and director Ricky Kennedy has managed to combine the fake documentary approach with well-established time travel motifs to tell a story that is so touching I was literally in tears at the end. I’m not going Kevin “The Kryer” Smith on you readers, I’m just saying that if you pay attention to the tale unfolding in this enjoyable but challenging movie you can’t help but feel very moved.
The emotional impact has caused me to elevate The History of Time Travel above my previous favorite time travel film, Primer. Just like Primer, this Ricky Kennedy creation requires a viewer’s full attention to be appreciated. If you’re not in the mood to devote as much focus to THOTT as you would to reading a book then save it for a time when you ARE in such a mood.
The movie begins as a seemingly straightforward documentary about a scientist who pioneered actual time travel but that’s just the narrative device for examining the way time travel would enable changes to “history” without the larger world even being aware of what changes have been made. And yes, I know plenty of time travel stories have addressed such issues but THOTT combines it with a powerful emotional punch that sets it apart. Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies, opinion
COLLEGE BASEBALL: MORE NCCAA REGIONAL CHAMPIONS CROWNED
Here are those Regional Champions who have joined Concordia (MI) so far in punching their tickets to the College World Series in the NCCAA (National Christian College Athletic Association):
NORTH CENTRAL REGION
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: The top seeds – the TRINITY CHRISTIAN COLLEGE TROLLS – did battle with the 2nd seeded HANNIBAL-LAGRANGE UNIVERSITY TROJANS. After 2 scoreless Innings the Trolls went on top 2-0 in the 3rd.
The Trojans knotted things up at 2-2 in the 5th Inning, then neither team scored again until Trinity Christian College won it 4-2 in the 9th. Bryan Vanderlee pitched for the win. * THE TROLLS ARE CHAMPIONS OF THE NORTH CENTRAL REGION * Continue reading
Filed under College Baseball
POLITICAL CARTOON ROUNDUP: MAY 13th
First off another look at the delusional fascist Stacey Abrams, who is still playing the Democrats’ irrational game of refusing to accept election results … unless a Democrat wins. Abrams is part imbecile and part Hillary.
And here’s a nice reminder that de facto Third Party President Donald Trump – the new FDR and new JFK – has many leadership qualities that the weak, inept and crooked little man named Barack Obama lacked.
This next one nicely points out how Obama’s politicization of the FBI, NSA and CIA far surpassed the abuses of even the worst presidential administrations of the past. Obama’s scumbags made even the Watergate crooks look almost honest by comparison.
A look at Democrat hypocrisy, one of the constants in life. (Biden the criminal and Bernie the sellout.)
Filed under humor, LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
FOOL KILLER: PART SEVENTEEN – AUGUST OF 1919
Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE
PART SEVENTEEN: Resuming my look at James Larkin Pearson’s Fool Killer (Or Fool-Killer as he wrote it). In August of 1919 Pearson brought the Fool Killer (I prefer no hyphen) out of his latest hibernation with the words “After resting for two years the Fool-Killer goes on duty again.”
This time around the figure had nationwide exposure and with the enormous number of railroads criss-crossing the country by now he could get around more quickly than ever.
In the previous installment I provided the background information on Pearson and his Fool Killer. This time around we can jump right into the “fools” who were the fictional figure’s August 1919 targets:
*** People still pushing Democrat President Woodrow Wilson’s claim that the World War (1914-1918) was fought to “Make the world safe for Democracy.” The Fool Killer would swing away at such people while pointing out the less-than-democratic nature of some of the Allied Powers governments from the recent conflict, especially England, Italy and Japan.
*** Bloated rich pigs – “plutes” as this Fool Killer called them, short for plutocrats – who try to blame the “class consciousness” of American laborers wanting better working conditions on the fairly new Bolshevik government in the emerging Soviet Union. (An especially idiotic claim by the plutocrats, since American workers had been striking, etc, for decades before the Bolsheviks took power.)
*** A preacher who publicly said that he “almost wishes sometimes that Jesus would come already.” The Fool Killer added a joke wondering how that preacher would feel if he was on a trip and his wife said that she “almost wishes sometimes” that he would come back from his trip already. (Pearson was, sad to say, very religious and often took shots at clergy members he found insufficiently “devout.”)
*** White Russians (The fallen Russian aristocrats and their supporters).
*** Mossbacks (Narrow-minded conservatives. Think of the clueless, stuffy white guys in suits at National Review for just one example.) Continue reading
Filed under Mythology, Neglected History
PUCK: ROBBER BARONS THEN AND SILICON VALLEY ROBBER BARONS NOW
Puck magazine (1871-1918), the well-known political humor magazine, was at its height under original founder and creative director cartoonist Joseph Keppler. Here is a February 23rd, 1881 Keppler political cartoon depicting Jay Gould, the telegraph monopolist, and Cornelius Vanderbilt the railroad baron.
The point of the cartoon is the way those two Robber Barons – allied with like-minded newspaper tycoons whose papers were represented by the bonds around Uncle Sam’s arms and torso – abused their wealth and political influence to bind the United States (represented here by Uncle Sam) to their will.
Joseph Keppler was outraged at the power so unethically wielded by such figures to cloak themselves in righteous, philanthropic public images while in reality they – in Keppler’s words – clutched “the United States and all its institutions by the throat.”
This is similar to the way the Silicon Valley and Social Media Robber Barons of today cloak themselves in “socially conscious” public images while in reality clutching the United States and all its institutions by the throat.
The Robber Barons criticized by Puck magazine exerted their ugly influence on behalf of right-wing politicians. The Robber Barons of the 21st Century tend to exert their ugly influence on behalf of left-wing politicians. The end results are equally totalitarian. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion, Puck Magazine
HOMBRE (1981): SPAIN’S POST-APOCALYPSE HERO
AT THE END OF THE RIVER – More Weirdness at the End of the World, this time with an adventure featuring Spain’s answer to Mad Max: Hombre himself. This character was created by Antonio Segura and Jose Ortiz in 1981 in the Spanish publication Cimoc. Hombre went on to appear in notably “adult” comic books and magazines around the world, including reprints in Heavy Metal here in America.
In this age of non-stop comic book adaptations for movies and television I’m amazed that the excellent Hombre series hasn’t been tackled in some form. The adult sexuality, graphic violence, Alien-style mutated life-forms, relentlessly grim storylines and gratuitous nudity are tailor-made for a cable series or R-rated films.
The title character Hombre roams our post-apocalypse planet armed to the teeth and ready to kill or be killed on a daily basis. His first-person narration echoes the best aspects of hard-boiled Film Noir detective stories while the action and mis en scene combine the best elements of Spaghetti Westerns, Post-Apocalypse movies and Martial Arts flicks. Think Six-String Samurai but without the rock and roll samurai.
There is no optimism in the world inhabited by Hombre. Antonio Segura’s writing features often tragic endings which must have put 1980s readers in mind of the downbeat stories on Hill Street Blues and Saint Elsewhere.
Segura mostly avoided easy narratives and my least favorite storyline involved Atila, the badass woman warrior. The character was great, but the tale seemed very UN-Segura-like to me. I probably would have liked her in her own spin-off story but having two such nigh-indestructible figures in one tale put things too far into the realm of upbeat fictional tropes to me. I’m virtually alone on that, by the way, since most fans LOVE the Atila story.
AT THE END OF THE RIVER – Back to the main topic of this blog post, one of the Hombre tales that best exemplifies the series’ aesthetic sensibilities. Our protagonist is the best there is at what he does, but in a much grimmer and more adult way than Wolverine ever managed. Continue reading
Filed under Future History, Neo-Pulp, Superheroes
USCAA COLLEGE BASEBALL TEAMS IN THEIR WORLD SERIES
Here are the 10 teams competing in the World Series for the USCAA (United States Collegiate Athletic Association). First game is on Monday, May 13th.
TOP SEED
Institution Name – NEWPORT NEWS APPRENTICE SCHOOL
Team Name – BUILDERS (Shipbuilders)
.
SECOND SEED
Institution Name – UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI AT CLERMONT
Team Name – COUGARS
THIRD SEED
Institution Name – PENN STATE AT DUBOIS
Team Name – LIONS
.
FOURTH SEED
Institution Name – WRIGHT STATE AT THE LAKE
Team Name – LAKERS
Filed under College Baseball
TECHNO-FASCISTS OF SILICON VALLEY STRIKE AGAIN
Privileged white one-percenter and capitalist scumbag Jack Dorsey of Twitter (right) is just one of the Techno-Tyrants or Techno-Fascists who have been abusing their influence to the degree where breaking up their monopolies or suing them for being publishers and not platforms are two options that keep getting discussed … and with good reason.
For right now here’s an appropriate rerun of my 2018 blog post DYSTOPIA NATION: TECHNO-TYRANTS OF SILICON VALLEY –
THE TECHNO-TYRANTS OF SILICON VALLEY – The modern-day versions of the disgusting old Robber Barons might well be the corporate fascists aka techno-fascists in assorted tech industries, not just regarding Silicon Valley but also privacy-violating rich pigs at Facebook and elsewhere.
In fact, you could make the case that people like Mark “Skippy” Zuckerberg and his fellow corporate fascists are even worse since I don’t recall bloated rich pigs like E.H. Harriman or Cornelius Vanderbilt trying to police other people’s every thought, word and deed. The invasive and ever-expanding tentacular reach of techno-fascists or in this fictional case Techno-Tyrants would make these villains a very credible threat to political freedom and freedom of expression.
In recent years outfits like Twitter, Facebook and others even made public noises about banning customers based on their conduct UNRELATED TO THOSE UTILITIES! Can you imagine the old, old Ma Bell monopoly cutting off people’s phone service because their operators caught those users discussing voting for political candidates disapproved of by Ma Bell’s upper echelons or expressing opinions frowned upon by Ma Bell?
Even worse, places like Google and others have made it firing offenses to be caught holding opinions at odds with the one percenters and bloated rich pigs who run those tech-related outfits. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, opinion
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