NCAA DIVISION TWO
DAY TWO, GAME ONE: The 6 seeds – the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT SAN DIEGO TRITONS – took on the 3rd seeded CATAWBA COLLEGE INDIANS. Neither team scored during a Pitcher’s Duel that lasted the first 4 Innings.
The 5th Inning saw the Tritons drive in 5 Runs, which also wound up being the last of the scoring for either team. When all was said and done UC-San Diego won the game 5-0 behind Pitcher Preston Mott. Continue reading
Filed under College Baseball
De facto Third Party President Donald Trump, still standing and smiling despite the ugly attempts to bring him down by the career criminals called Democrats and Republicans, marked LGBT Pride Month. It was a nice reminder that Trump – since he’s NOT a real Republican – has attracted high levels of support from LGBT voters as well as voters of color for an (R). This is why Republican trash like the Bush Family, Mitt Romney, Justin Amash and the clueless white guys at National Review hate Trump.
(WE NEED THIRD PARTIES.) I don’t trust the polls, especially after how wrong they were in 2016 and most recently in Australia’s elections, but America’s Democrats eat, sleep and breathe nothing but polls so it is HILARIOUS that those polls are showing Trump at two-year highs for approval rating, also showing Trump ABOVE OBAMA IN ESTIMATION OF HIS PRESIDENTIAL CONDUCT (Now THAT’s gotta hurt delusional Obama worshippers) AND showing Trump higher than Obama’s presidency in terms of “Caring about the issues that impact my life.”
Remember, my view is that polls have become meaningless with so many people not answering their phones for unfamiliar phone numbers, but Democrats LIVE by polls … well, as long as the polls say what they want to hear. Otherwise they froth at the mouth and snivel about how “stupid” they think everyone is. LMAO!
BY THE WAY, ANTI-TRUMP FASCISTS – There are lessons to be learned regarding Trump supporters and growing acceptance of public LGBT issues. Just as many people have LGBT folks in their family or circle of friends and THAT made them come to resent openly-expressed hostility toward those family members or friends, so too do many people have Trump supporters in their family or circle of friends and THAT has made them come to resent openly-expressed hostility toward Trump and his supporters from the pretentious asses of the American Left.
Speaking for myself, too, even if I didn’t support Trump I would have grown to despise the non-stop hostility toward his supporters from Democrat fascists, politically biased “educators” (LMAO), brain-dead professional athletes and shallow, uninformed, emotionally unstable entertainers.
If forced to choose between loved ones and friends or the increasingly violent and irrational anti-Trump loons I will ALWAYS side with loved ones and friends against the Trump-haters. And that would be true no matter if I had ever liked Trump or not. Democrats, having absolutely no identity outside of their political opinions, may be incapable of understanding that.
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
Balladeer’s Blog’s recurring bit Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead is back with Jackson Browne and his song Somebody’s Baby:
Filed under opinion
NJCAA DIVISION ONE
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: The CENTRAL ARIZONA COLLEGE VAQUEROS took on the IOWA WESTERN COLLEGE REIVERS yesterday. The 1st Inning was an embarrassment to both defenses and ended in a 7-4 Reivers lead.
From there the Vaqueros would only permit Iowa Western College to drive in 1 more Run in the 6th Inning while keeping their own bats red-hot. Central Arizona College won the game by a final score of 13-8 behind the pitching of Mitchell DeCovich. * THE VAQUEROS ARE CHAMPIONS OF NJCAA BASEBALL *
NCAA DIVISION TWO
DAY ONE, GAME ONE: The 5 seeds – the UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL MISSOURI MULES – clashed with the 4th seeded ASHLAND UNIVERSITY EAGLES. The Mules parlayed a 1-0 edge in the 1st Inning into a 5-0 advantage by the 2nd.
The 4th Inning ended with the University of Central Missouri on top 7-2 and the 5th in a 9-2 Mules lead. The Eagles would trim that to 9-4 in the 7th Inning but that ended the scoring as 9-4 also wound up being the final tally. Ben Kelsch pitched for the win. Continue reading
Filed under College Baseball
Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE
PART TWENTY-TWO: After a two-part examination of the newest Fool Killer Letter (CLICK HERE ) and the revelation of the vigilante’s activities in Texas in December of 1899 it’s back to looking at the 1919-1929 Fool-Killer presented by THE James Larkin Pearson.
The targets of the Fool Killer (I prefer no hyphen) in the January, 1920 issue:
*** Major newspapers which chided American Labor for bringing attention to the unscrupulous activities of the bloated rich pigs who ran the management side of America’s industries.
It’s reminiscent of today’s battles with the Robber Barons of Silicon Valley, like Mark “Skippy” Zuckerberg, Jack “White Male Privilege” Dorsey and their fellow corporate fascists at Google and elsewhere. (And check out the documentary The Creepy Line which exposes Silicon Valley fascists at their worst.)
*** Ever since aircraft were proven to be workable the fictional Fool Killer seemed to have moderated his instinctive assumptions that people trumpeting scientific breakthroughs were fools and/or liars. By 1920 if an inventor or tinkerer boasted about their amazing discoveries or devices the homicidal vigilante had shifted to a policy of investigating the claimant and their scientific breakthrough.
If the claims held up to the Fool Killer’s scrutiny he took no action. But if the claims seemed ridiculously wrong OR like a con or scam to trick people out of their money the folk figure unleashed his weaponry on the “fool” …
*** The Fool Killer investigated a recent claim from “a young feller up north in New York” (no name given) that he invented a “gas vaporizer” to replace carburetors. The young inventor claimed that his device would let your car get “ninety miles per gallon.” Since no such device ever hit the market it would seem the claimant was a con artist and was subjected to the Fool Killer’s usual brand of summary “justice.”
*** In Kansas City the roaming vigilante looked into another inventor’s claim that he had invented “an all-new type of engine” that was “sixty percent more efficient” than the engines currently in use. This, too, seems to have been a scam and the self-proclaimed inventor was dealt with. Continue reading
Filed under Mythology, Neglected History
NAIA
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: The top seeds – the TENNESSEE WESLEYAN COLLEGE BULLDOGS – clashed with the 6th seeded SAINT THOMAS UNIVERSITY BOBCATS (should be the Tomcats) for the NAIA title. A 1-0 1st Inning edge for the Bulldogs became a 2-0 lead in the 3rd.
By the end of the 6th Inning the Tennessee Wesleyan College advantage had expanded to 6-1. The only other Run scored the rest of the way came from the Bobcats in the 7th Inning as the Bulldogs won the game 6-2. Cole Bellair was the triumphant Pitcher. * THE BULLDOGS ARE CHAMPIONS OF NAIA BASEBALL *
NJCAA DIVISION TWO
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: The last two teams standing in this World Series were the 5th seeded NORTHERN OKLAHOMA COLLEGE AT ENID JETS and the 3 seeds – the MESA COLLEGE THUNDERBIRDS. After 2 scoreless Innings the Thunderbirds went up 2-0 in the 3rd.
The 4th Inning saw the Jets go on top 3-2, and in the 5th Inning a 4-4 deadlock resulted. Northern Oklahoma College at Enid drove in a Run in the top of the 9th and rode it to a 5-4 victory for Pitcher Brandon Hudson. * THE JETS ARE CHAMPIONS OF NJCAA DIVISION TWO BASEBALL *
NCAA DIVISION THREE
DAY ONE, GAME ONE: The UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AT BOSTON BEACONS took the diamond against the WEBSTER UNIVERSITY GORLOKS. Neither team scored in the first 2 Innings, following which the 3rd ended in a 1-1 tie.
The Gorloks grabbed a 3-1 lead in the 4th Inning but by the 7th the Beacons had knotted things up again, this time at 3-3. A UMass-Boston Run in the 8th Inning held up as the Beacons triumphed 4-3 behind the pitching of Bobby Tramondozzi. Continue reading
Filed under College Baseball
COMIN’ AT YA! (1981) – Directed by Ferdinando Baldi, Comin’ At Ya! is often credited with starting the pointless and bizarre 1980s revival of 1950s-style 3D movies. The film stars Tony Anthony, famous to us Spaghetti Western fans for the movie series in which he played a gunslinger called the Stranger. He appeared in others, as well, some reasonably good and others, like Blindman, so bad as to be virtually unwatchable.
Tony’s standout feature is the way he always looks like he’s ready to burst into tears, which always set him apart from the countless tough guys in Italo-Westerns. That feature stands him in good stead in Comin’ At Ya!
Tony Anthony IS Tinsley – I mean H. H. Hart – in Comin’ At Ya!
Anthony stars as gunfighter H.H. Hart. No, not H.H. Holmes, which would be an entirely different type of movie. Hart has, like many a fictional gunman, decided to leave his past behind and settle down with his one true love – a female gambler called Abilene aka the Cajun Queen. Abilene is portrayed by European actress Victoria Abril.
On their wedding day, H.H. and Abilene are separated when the ceremony is crashed by a gang of white-slavers led by brothers Pike and Polk Thompson. Our story inverts the setup of Louis L’Amour’s western The Shadow Riders, in which two brothers who fought on opposite sides of the Civil War set aside their differences to recover female family members from white-slavers headed for Mexico.
In Comin’ At Ya! it’s the villains who are such a pair of brothers. Pike served on the Union side and Polk on the Confederate side. The duo command an enormous gang made up of veterans from both sides of the war in addition to renegade Indians and Mexican pistoleros. They steal the lovely Cajun Queen from her new husband and add her to the rest of their haul of young women to sell into slavery down in 1870s Mexico.
Our main character, Triple H, ain’t havin’ it and sets out to recover his new bride and set free the other unfortunate women seized by the Thompson Gang. Needless to say he’ll also kill every member of the gang as well as some of the snobbish, upper-class Mexican aristos – male and female – who buy the ladies at an elegantly-appointed mansion/ former convent now used for slave auctions.
Even though this is really just a Spaghetti Western, albeit with slightly better production values, releasing a film titled Comin’ At Ya! clearly means you want it to stand or fall purely on its gimmick: 3D. First I’ll address the 3D effects and then examine the movie as a whole. Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies, FRONTIERADO, Spaghetti Westerns
FOR BALLADEER’S BLOG’S LOOK AT OVER TWENTY MORE FIJIAN GODS CLICK HERE
NANG-GAI – Yet another son of Ndengei. Nang-Gai served as the supreme deity’s messenger or emissary. When the sound of the waves crashing on the Rakiraki reefs made so much noise that it was preventing Ndengei from sleeping he sent Nang-Gai to silence it. To this day the surf off Rakiraki is notoriously quiet.
The bats near Rakiraki were also too loud for Nedengei’s liking and the messenger god was sent to coerce them into silence as well. When the birds at Nathilau started making too much noise Nang-Gai was sent to order them to leave the area at night and only visit it during the day.
Once while chasing away yet another hindrance to his father’s comfortable sleep, the god accidentally lost his war-club in the waters off the Fijian island of Naithombothombo. Continue reading
Filed under Mythology
NJCAA DIVISION THREE
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: The 3 seeds – the CUMBERLAND COUNTY COLLEGE DUKES – faced the top seeded ROWAN COLLEGE AT GLOUCESTER COUNTY ROADRUNNERS. The Dukes put the Roadrunners on Upset Alert immediately by grabbing a 6-0 lead in the 1st Inning.
That became a 7-2 advantage by the 3rd Inning and 8-4 to end the 5th. From there each team drove in 3 additional Runs as Cumberland County College won the game by a final tally of 11-7. Michael Miles pitched for 9 Iron Man Innings for the victors. * THE DUKES ARE CHAMPIONS OF NJCAA DIVISION THREE BASEBALL *
NAIA
FIRST SEMIFINAL: This game pitted the 2nd seeded UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & ARTS OF OKLAHOMA DROVERS against the top seeds – the TENNESSEE WESLEYAN COLLEGE BULLDOGS. After a scoreless 1st Inning the Drovers seized a 2-0 lead in the 2nd.
USAO converted that into a 5-0 advantage in the 3rd Inning but by the end of the 5th the Bulldogs had cut that to a 5-2 edge. The Drovers lead shrunk to 8-5 in the 7th Inning but Tennessee Wesleyan College could only muster 1 more Run the rest of the way to give USAO an 8-6 triumph. The winning Pitcher was Rudy Gonzalez. Continue reading
Filed under College Baseball
THE RUINED BRUIN (1961) – Written and directed by THE John K McCarthy, The Ruined Bruin was another one of those late “nudie cuties” which would make modern audiences yawn and wince … But would no doubt REALLY excite Furries!
In the past Balladeer’s Blog has reviewed the closing years of the Nudie Cutie subgenre as it went through its final convulsions in the form of gimmicks, each one more absurd than the last. I’ve reviewed Nude on the Moon, The Naked Witch, Orgy of the Dead, Doctor Sex and others.
The Ruined Bruin features a bear – really a costumed man (Myron Griffin) – who escapes from the Los Angeles Zoo and, for no apparent reason than so this movie could be made, tries to romance assorted gorgeous half-nude ladies.
Despite their name the Nudie Cuties never featured full nudity. Toplessness and some butt-shots were all you got, with strategically and/or improbably placed branches, shrubs or rail fences covering pubic regions. Fans of Peter Sellers will remember the classic sendup of those nudie cuties that he worked into one of his Inspector Clouseau films.
The appeal of these movies is barely understood today, when you can find any visual stimulation you want with just a few clicks on your keyboard but decades ago Nudie Cuties really packed ’em in.
At any rate Buddy the Bear (Griffin) escapes from the zoo and, equipped with his Boris and Natasha-level Russian accent for his voice-over, takes in the sight of plenty of beautiful women. When the first one rejects his advances (and no, I don’t know why a bear is interested in human women any more than I know why cartoon mice characters often woo female cats away from their feline arch-enemies) Buddy tries to transform himself into a human male. Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies, humor
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