HAPPY FATHER’S DAY FROM BALLADEER’S BLOG! Over the years my review of the 2011 horror film Father’s Day has been the most controversial. Reader reaction has been split between requests that I run the review every single Father’s Day and requests that I never run it again. Continue reading
Author Archives: balladeer
FATHER’S DAY (2011): MY MOST CONTROVERSIAL MOVIE REVIEW EVER
Filed under Bad and weird movies, Halloween Season
BRANDON TATUM, A MARTIN LUTHER KING PERSON OF COURAGE, SPEAKS OUT
Brandon Tatum, one of the most courageous and iconoclastic voices in the nation, spoke out recently on the insane attempts to defund the police AND on the police officers in the Rayshard Brooks shooting.
By the way, things have gotten so bad in the anti-police witch-hunt that ONE OF THE OFFICERS’ STEP-MOTHERS WAS FIRED RECENTLY SIMPLY BECAUSE OF HER RELATION TO THE POLICE OFFICER. The company claimed the woman’s presence on the staff made others “uncomfortable.” And as we all know these days, if a Democrat claims they feel “uncomfortable” or “unsafe” then they expect everyone else’s rights to go out the window.
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
PULP HERO NORTHWEST SMITH: STORIES ELEVEN AND TWELVE
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. 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
THE DAY DEMOCRATS LOST THEIR SLAVES: PEOPLE OF COLOR SPEAK OUT
African-Americans continue fighting for their freedom from the Democrats, who today treat people of color like they still own them and that they MUST vote for Democrats and ONLY Democrats. Here are some Martin Luther King People of Courage who will inspire you:
DAMANI FELDER – Damani and his brother have started their own YT channel recently and are fighting back against racism and oppression.
As Michelle Obama said, “Don’t let anyone tell you you’re too angry.” Damani points out some necessary truths in the above video.
TERRY CREWS – Terry spoke out recently about Democrat Joe Biden’s bigoted claim that if you don’t vote for him “you ain’t black.” “…black people have different views,” Crews said on the CBS show The Talk. “When you’re white, you can be Republican, Libertarian, Democrat. You can be anything. But if you’re black, you have to be one thing. Even Joe Biden said, ‘Hey man, if you don’t vote for me, you ain’t black.’”
The actor warned against such “gatekeepers” of blackness. “Blackness is always judged,” he explained. “It’s always put up against this thing, and I’m going, ‘Wait a minute: That right there is a supremacist move … “We have people who have decided who is going to be black and who’s not,”
“MY BLEXIT” – There is an entire YT Channel filled with video testimonials from courageous people of color discussing their fight for the right to leave the Democrats and vote for whoever they want to vote for.
Sad that this still has to be done here in the 21st Century – CLICK HERE
LLOYD MARCUS – Balladeer’s Blog has previously showcased items by the courageous Lloyd Marcus. Here he is absolutely nailing it when it comes to the rot and sickness which have driven so many of us away from the Democrats.
The link is below, but first some excerpts: Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
DEMOCRATS HAVE A PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE … WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT
DEMOCRAT PARTY
It’s no secret that Democrats have become the most intolerant and oppressive totalitarians imaginable. Democrats want to dictate to the rest of us what shirts we should be allowed to wear, what schools children must attend, what entertainment we should be allowed to enjoy, what words we are allowed to use, what Halloween costumes we are allowed to wear and the list goes on and on.
ONLY people who express opinions with which Democrats agree are to be permitted to speak at public institutions, the ONLY election results that are to be considered legitimate are the ones won by Democrats and Democrats want people fired and rendered unemployable for expressing ANY opinions with which Democrats disagree. If Democrats didn’t vote for your candidate – even if your candidate won – they want it considered Hate Speech to display any support for that candidate. And they’ll use violence against you if you disagree.
Democrats spew nothing but hatred and division yet lecture the rest of us about “love” and “compassion” and “tolerance.” Democrats want to defund the police and replace them with “Reconciliation Counselors” who will respond to crimes politically rather than by the law.
DEMOCRAT SLOGANS:
DEMOCRATS: WE ARE THE FASCISTS WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR!
DEMOCRATS: ALL OF OUR OPINIONS SHOULD CARRY THE FORCE OF LAW!
DEMOCRATS: WE’LL KEEP FILING COMPLAINTS ABOUT OTHER EMPLOYEES UNTIL ONLY PEOPLE WHO AGREE WITH US WORK HERE!
DEMOCRATS: THE CAMPAIGN NEVER ENDS … AND NEITHER WILL OUR DISCOVERY OF BOXES FULL OF “UNCOUNTED” VOTES!
DEMOCRATS: BYPASSING THE BALLOT BOX TO ENSLAVE YOU VIA CORPORATE FASCISM!
DEMOCRATS: ANY SYSTEM IN WHICH ANY OF OUR CANDIDATES CAN LOSE IS AN UNFAIR SYSTEM THAT NEEDS CHANGED, DAMMIT!
DEMOCRATS: WE WARNED YOU THAT IF ANY MORE ELECTIONS DID NOT GO THE WAY WE WANTED THEN WE WOULD IMPOSE VIOLENT FASCISM AND NOW WE’RE KEEPING THAT PROMISE!
DEMOCRATS: WE CAUSED THE DOMESTIC SPREAD OF SLAVERY, THE TRAIL OF TEARS, THE JAPANESE INTERNMENT, THE SPOILS SYSTEM AND THE KKK, THEN PASSED THE BLAME ON TO THE REST OF YOU! Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
SUPERHERO PANTHEON OF SPARK COMICS
Superheroes still dominate pop culture right now and readers just keep demanding more and more articles about them. Here is a look at the heroes from another defunct comic book company, in this case Spark Publications.
ATOMAN
Secret Identity: Barry Dale, nuclear scientist
First Appearance: Atoman #1 (February 1946)
Origin: While working at the Atomic Institute, scientist Barry Dale was exposed to so much radium and uranium that he absorbed “the power of the atom.” Barry’s powers manifested themselves when agents who wanted to sell America’s nuclear secrets to the highest bidder tried to kill him over his refusal to help them. With his new superpowers he donned a costume and fought the forces of evil as Atoman.
Powers: Atoman possessed massive super-strength, could fly, run at super-speed, was invulnerable and had “atomic vision” (x-ray vision). In addition he could heat his body to such a degree that he could weld objects together with his bare hands.
Comment: This hero boasted that he could “smash mountains, wipe out whole cities” and “travel for thousands of miles in one leap.” He was also convinced he was just the first of many atomic-powered beings which the nuclear age would spawn. I guess to prove he wasn’t just another Superman imitation, Atoman claimed he would “help all people, regardless of race or creed or nationality” instead of fighting for “truth, justice, and”… you know.
GOLDEN LAD
Secret Identity: Tommy Preston, student
First Appearance: Golden Lad #1 (July 1945)
Origin: Young Tommy Preston was working in his grandfather’s neighborhood antique shop when he discovered an ancient relic called the Aztec Heart of Gold. Yes. In an antique shop. (WRITER: Hey, Editor, do items like Aztec artifacts wind up in antique shops or in museums? EDITOR: You’re joking, right? WRITER: Yeah, uh … joking. Who wouldn’t know the answer to that, right? Ha, ha, ha!)
Anyway, the Aztec Heart of Gold holds the mystic power of “the blood of a thousand martyred Aztecs.” This relic bestowed superpowers on “pure hearted” people who were “devoted to justice.” And so Golden Lad was born! Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
FOOL KILLER FORTY-SIX: MAY 1911
Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE
PART FORTY-SIX – Items of note in the May of 1911 issue of James Larkin Pearson’s version of The Fool-Killer:
*** Pearson’s Fool Killer figure targeted money-obsessed clergymen and pretended they wanted a new version of the Ten Commandments emphasizing profits.
*** The Fool Killer targeted the way so many corrupt millionaires were suddenly overcome with “medical ailments” when they were being investigated or after getting sentenced to prison time.
*** In another of the surreal satirical bits which Pearson was writing more frequently, this month he had the Fool Killer encounter a medical abomination called the Composite Man. The Fool Killer visited the Rockefeller Institute in New York (called the Rocky D Oilyfeller Institute in Pearson’s odd stylistic blend of Frank Baum and Walt Kelly with Bullwinkle & Rocky).
The reason for the visit? Our title character wanted to check in on the latest work on medical transplants. The doctors at the institute surgically removed the lone healthy body part on a variety of their most far-gone patients and sewed them all into a lone figure called the Composite Man and the Pieced-Up Man interchangeably.
The Composite Man had the head of a preacher, the chest of a drummer, the heart of a lawyer, the stomach and bowels of a farmer, the left arm of a blacksmith, the right arm of an editor, one leg of a dude and the other leg came from a tramp. The competing portions of the Composite Man’s anatomy not only prevented him from accomplishing any one undertaking but resulted in him breaking into his component parts and dying within one day of his release. Continue reading
Filed under Mythology, Neglected History
THE BLACK LIVES MERCILESSLY DESTROYED BY THE DEMOCRATS’ RIOTS
Democrats have proven that their sympathies will ALWAYS lie with rioters and never with their victims. It’s the callous worldview of uncomprehending fools who romanticize looting and violence because they are always safely removed from the consequences.
#WALKAWAY from the Democrats and become an Independent Voter like so many of the rest of us have. That political party is a vile pack of repulsive hypocrites, pompous snobs and pretentious asses. Democrats are really everything they pretend to oppose.
The latest Democrat riots have destroyed so many of those Black Lives that Democrat hypocrites say “Matter.” Below are just a few examples. AND BY THE WAY, YOU’LL NEVER SEE ANY DEMOCRAT POLITICIANS MAKING PUBLIC APPEARANCES WITH BLACK PEOPLE WHO FEEL LIKE THESE PEOPLE DO. DEMOCRAT POLITICIANS WILL ONLY APPEAR WITH PEOPLE WHO PREACH HATRED AND DIVISION.
More …
.
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
HAPPY BLOOM’S DAY 2020!
Yes, it’s the 16th of June, better known to James Joyce geeks like me as Bloom’s Day. The day is named in honor of Leopold Bloom, the Jewish advertising sales rep and Freemason who is one of the major characters in Joyce’s novel Ulysses. The novel also brings along Stephen Dedalus, the protagonist of his earlier novel Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
For those unfamiliar with this work, Ulysses is Joyce’s stream-of-consciousness novel in which he metaphorically features the events from the Odyssey in a single day – June 16th, 1904, in Dublin. (The day he met Nora Barnacle, the woman he would eventually marry after living together for decades)
Bloom represents Ulysses/Odysseus, Stephen represents Telemachus and Leopold’s wife, Molly Bloom, represents Penelope. Continue reading
Filed under Mythology, Neglected History
PULP HERO NORTHWEST SMITH: STORIES NINE AND TEN
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 1930s 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 the solar system in his deceptively fast spaceship The Maid. For more on Northwest Smith and other neglected pulp heroes click here: https://glitternight.com/pulp-heroes/
9. LOST PARADISE (1936) – A smuggling job has taken Northwest Smith and Yarol to Earth. Afterward the pair find themselves relaxing in New York City which, in their era, is a multi-leveled metropolis reaching high into the sky.
The pair witness the theft of an enigmatic parcel from a very small and fragile man. That man turns out to be a member of the Seles race; a people who have secretly lived among humans for millions of years. The Seles are so ancient in fact that they lived on Earth long before the continents had their present shape. The tectonic shifts that created the modern-day layout of the planet destroyed the cities of the Seles, who established subterranean bases where they have lived undetected by humanity since then. Continue reading
Filed under Pulp Heroes
Balladeer's Blog 