Monthly Archives: October 2021

COLLEGE FOOTBALL RESULTS FROM OCTOBER 30th

HEADLINES

HELMETWASHINGTONLEEGENERALS CONQUER DIVISION TWO – NCAA Division Three’s WASHINGTON & LEE UNIVERSITY GENERALS took it on the road to face NCAA Division Two’s EMORY & HENRY COLLEGE WASPS. (This is like when an FCS team upsets an FBS team) A 7-7 1st Quarter tie became a 21-14 edge for the Wasps at Halftime. The 3rd Quarter ended with the Generals up 24-21 before winning the game 30-28. 

Valdosta_StTUSSLE IN THE TOP FOUR – Up in NCAA Division Two the number 2 team in the nation – the VALDOSTA STATE BLAZERS – welcomed the 4th ranked UNIVERSITY OF WEST GEORGIA WOLVES. The Blazers held a 27-13 lead by the Half. The Wolves pulled to within 33-27 in the 3rd Quarter, with their rally falling just short in the 4th as Valdosta State held on for a 36-34 victory.

Lindsey_Wilson_KYEASY AS ONE, TWO, THREE – Over in the NAIA the (1) LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE BLUE RAIDERS won 41-30 at the (22) BETHEL (TN) WILDCATS   ###   The (2) NORTHWESTERN (IA) COLLEGE RED RAIDERS obliterated the visiting (20) DORDT UNIVERSITY DEFENDERS 63-28   ###   And the (3) MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS utterly annihilated the UNIVERSITY OF JAMESTOWN JIMMIES 70-7. Continue reading

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THE GHOST PIRATES (1909): HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

ghost piratesTHE GHOST PIRATES (1909) – HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Balladeer’s Blog wraps up another Halloween Month with a look at this novella written by William Hope Hodgson. Just a few years ago my review of Hodgson’s 1908 The House on the Borderland closed out October here. That excellent novel was a forerunner of Lovecraftian cosmic horror combined with traditional haunted house elements.

The Ghost Pirates, published a year later, combined haunted ship tales with ghost stories and themes of the living dead emerging from the sea to swell their own ranks with more doomed men. In addition there is some nice theorizing about the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead.

The story begins in turn of the century San Francisco, as a seasoned sailor named Jessop signs onto an outgoing ship called the Mortzestus. When it had arrived in San Francisco all but one member of the officers and crew fled the vessel, refusing to return and even forsaking the pay they would have received for sailing the ship back to its home port in Great Britain.

ghost pirates picThat sole member of the original crew, Williams, tells Jessop and other new crew members about the ship being haunted and worse, but Jessop, like the other replacement hires, dismisses such claims. Williams seems a bit unnerved and maybe even unhinged by whatever happened on the original journey to San Francisco. He is bitterly obsessed with completing the round trip and collecting his pay despite horrific incidents that he is obviously hiding. Continue reading

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SPIDER-MAN: 1970s CLASSICS 9 – HARRY BECOMES THE NEW GREEN GOBLIN

Here’s Part Nine of Spider-Man 1970s Classics. For Part One click HERE.

spider man 136SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #136 (September 1974)

Title: The Green Goblin Lives Again

Villain: Green Goblin II

Synopsis: This issue picks up an unspecified amount of time after the previous one. It is late afternoon and Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson are walking along after having spent the earlier part of the day, in their own words – “riding horses in Central Park, taking a boat to the Statue of Liberty, and catching a Kung Fu flick on Forty-Second Street.”

spider 136 splash pageNOTE: Not only would that have been a Kung Fu flick from the still-flowing initial wave of Bruce Lee-inspired Martial Arts Mania here in the U.S. but it would also have been when Forty-Second Street theaters showed everything from grindhouse movies on up.

Peter and MJ have not fully started their romance yet, since Peter is still recovering from Gwen Stacy’s death, but Mary Jane is making it clear she wants it to go that way in her usual flirty way. As the couple approach the apartment that Peter shares with Harry Osborn, MJ expresses concern that things may get awkward if Harry is inside, since she and Harry used to date. Continue reading

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“LET’S GO BRANDON” GOES TO THE WORLD SERIES

lets go brandonThe courageous defiance toward senile yet corrupt Joe Biden and his regime continues as “Let’s go Brandon” showed up at the recent World Series game and in the postgame show. Continue reading

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TWENTY-FOUR GREAT SILENT HORROR FILMS

Halloween month continues at Balladeer’s Blog with this look at two dozen of my favorite silent horror films.

The Crimson Stain MysteryTHE CRIMSON STAIN MYSTERY (1916) – This was a 16 chapter silent serial that contained multiple horrific elements. The fact that it is so little remembered these days makes it perfect for this list, given Balladeer’s Blog’s overall theme. A mad scientist calling himself the Crimson Stain experiments on human guinea pigs in an attempt to create an intellectually superior race. His experiments all fail, producing hideous, mutated monsters. The Crimson Stain organizes his misbegotten menagerie into a villainous organization and wages a campaign of terror on the world at large. A heroic detective leads the opposition against them and tries to learn the identity of the Crimson Stain. Chapters in this serial boasted wonderfully campy titles like The Brand of Satan, The Devil’s Symphony, Despoiling Brutes and The Human Tiger.  

THE MAN WITHOUT A SOUL (1916) – A man returns from the dead bereft of any trace of morality or humanity. He now views the people around him as victims and prey. 

THE GOLEM AND THE DANCER (1917) – In the very first known horror movie sequel Paul Wegener starred and directed himself once again as the clay monster called the Golem. In this enjoyably “meta” production decades before Scream or The Human Caterpillar II, Wegener played himself. Continue reading

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JON MALIN’S GRAVEYARD SHIFT

Halloween Month is racing toward its end so here’s another seasonal post. It’s a review of the first three volumes of Graveyard Shift, the “monsters as superheroes” series by Jon Malin, Mark Poulton and Aaron Alfeche.

graveyard shift vol 1GRAVEYARD SHIFT Volume 1 (2019)

Professor Blood, the Monster, the Bride, Monster Girl, Sea Urchin and Ghost in the Machine. I’d call this team the greatest heroes alive … except they’re all dead. This initial Graveyard Shift installment was a critical and financial triumph, blending horror, science fiction, superheroics and OUTSTANDING artwork into one of the most acclaimed independent comics ever. (Yes, these sequential art visionaries left the creative suffocation at the Big Two publishers to pursue their own projects.)

Each volume is the length of almost 3 regular comic books. The unfolding story in Graveyard Shift also pays homage to many horror classics through the names of several characters and organizations.

Atlantis Corporation, a subaquatic base for scientific research run by a man named Abraham Van Helsing is pursuing many projects for its charming but nefarious founder. One of those projects is an enormous spaceship that is being readied to transport thousands of scientists and colonists into space to explore distant planets.

graveyard shift t shirtAnother undertaking (as it were) is Project Wormwood, which involves Regen Chambers to restore life to newly slain soldiers in order to form an unbeatable army, and Mind Wipe technology to reprogram the revived dead to know nothing but their new existence as servitors of whatever nation buys them (but really as servitors of Van Helsing himself). Continue reading

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NEW YORK TIMES: BIDEN’S INFLATION FURTHER CRUSHES THE WORKING CLASS AND THE POOR FOR THANKSGIVING

biden and itEven the Democrat media outlet the New York Times is forced to admit that Joe Biden’s inflation has made this coming Thanksgiving the most expensive ever. The Times admitted that every item for a Thanksgiving meal costs more than ever before as Biden’s inflation and supply chain crisis further crushes the working class and the poor. The Democrats stopped being the party of FDR and JFK long ago. Join so many of us and #walkaway from them to become Independent Voters.

A great piece tracks NINE MONTHS OF BIDEN DISASTERS AND FAILURES.

By the way, even Democrat-dominated Austin, TX has put a measure on the ballot to restore lost funding to its police because of the wild increase in crime after the city foolishly followed the irrational Democrat demand to DEFUND THE POLICE last year. Continue reading

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DUNE IN OPERA FORM

Here at Balladeer’s Blog I love sharing my enthusiasms. My blog posts where I provide contemporary slants to Ancient Greek Comedies to make them more accessible have been big hits over the years, so I’ve been trying it with operas, too. Previously I wrote about how Philip Wylie’s science fiction novel Gladiator could be done as an opera. Then I looked at how an opera version of the 1966 Spaghetti Western Django could be done and then an opera based on the novel Venus in Furs.

This blog post starts a look at how the original Dune novel could be done as an entire cycle of operas. If you’re not familiar with the story it is set over 20,000 years in the future, when humanity has colonized many Earth-like planets. 

DUNE

LANGUAGE: Spanish. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that most of my fellow English-speakers find English-language operas to be silly. The prosaic nature of the forced rhymes in a language we are well-versed in does seem to rob opera of its mystique and its grandeur.

mascot sword and gun pic

BALLADEER’S BLOG

SINGERS: Two Baritones, two Bass-Baritones, two Sopranos, one Mezzo-Soprano, four Tenors, a contralto and a Bass.

ACTS: FOUR ACTS 

STORY: My fellow Dune geeks may get annoyed with this change, but remember, adaptations for staged performances have to be made very tight. I would start out at the Arrakeen Great Hall as the family and court members of House Atreides have just arrived on Arrakis/ Dune, the desert planet. All the scenes that the book covered while the Atreides family were preparing to depart their home on Caladan would instead play out shortly after their arrival on their new planetary fiefdom. Continue reading

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THE BLACK REAPER (1899) – GOTHIC HORROR

Black ReaperTHE BLACK REAPER (1899) – By Bernard Capes. Balladeer’s Blog’s month-long celebration of Halloween continues with this neglected horror tale. The story takes place in 1665 in a secluded British farming town called Anathoth.

The Black Reaper of the title is an interesting humanoid monster. Religious superstition and human evil mingle in this tale, just like in so many other great horror stories. And it seems Stephen King must have been, uh … “inspired” by The Black Reaper.

masc graveyard smallerThe citizens of Anathoth are described in the narrative as the kind of religious people who merely pay lip service to their beliefs but don’t live by them. They even treated their previous Vicar like a joke.

Now the plague is once more at large in the land and a new fire-and- brimstone preacher has replaced the disrespected man in Anathoth. The new “holy” man  frequently rails at the citizens, telling them that they are all horrible sinners and that God will one day mow them down like ripe corn.

All of them, that is, except the children. Continue reading

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JOE BIDEN ATROCITY ROUNDUP: OCTOBER 25th

biden supply chain nightmareJoe Biden continues to demonstrate that he is easily the creepiest, most deranged figure to stay in the White House. His unhinged behavior at last week’s softball make-believe “Town Hall” was a source of ridicule around the world. The accused rapist’s disturbed whispering and repeated lies are just part of the reasons why his approval rating was down to 36% in last week’s Zogby poll.  

“HE’S NOT ALL THERE”. Australia’s news media looks at Biden’s obvious mental deficiencies.

BIDEN’S SUPPLY CHAIN CRISIS CONTINUES TO DAMAGE THE WORKING CLASS AND THE POOR. More HERE. And HERE. And HERE. Biden is a disaster all around.

biden faceJEN PSAKI’S CALLOUSNESS TOWARD THE HARM BIDEN HAS DONE TO THE WORKING CLASS AND THE POOR IS SUMMED UP BY NOT THE BEE – “For rich elites like Jen – who have the institutional privilege they keep accusing others of – it is just a matter of inconvenience. If food prices keep skyrocketing (which they will) and essential items disappear off shelves completely (which they are), it’s not going to affect Jen.

BIDEN STILL HAS OVER 360 AMERICAN HOSTAGES IN AFGHANISTAN. He also has more KIDS IN CAGES than either Obama or Trump did, but we all know Democrats never really cared about those kids. They just used them as political sticks. More HERE and HERE. And HERE.

HEROIC RESISTANCE TO BIDEN REGIME CONTINUES VIA “LET’S GO BRANDON” AND PLENTY OF “F*CK JOE BIDEN” CHANTS. More HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

THE DEMOCRATS AT THE WASHINGTON POST ADMIT THEY LIED – CROWD WAS NOT CHANTING “LET’S GO BRANDON” BUT RATHER “F*CK JOE BIDEN!”

HUNTER BIDEN STILL FUNNELING BRIBE MONEY INTO THE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY THROUGH HIS ONGOING SCAM OF “SELLING HIS ARTWORK.” Want to get in good with the regime? “Buy” some of Hunter’s “artwork.” (wink)

RASMUSSEN POLL: ONLY 28% BELIEVE JOE BIDEN IS UP TO THE DEMANDS OF HIS JOB. Continue reading

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