Balladeer’s Blog resumes its examination of ancient Greek comedies.
POLEIS – In this post I’m looking at Poleis (Cities), written by Eupolis, one of the Big Three of Ancient Greek Comedy along with Aristophanes and Cratinus. This satirical comedy is dated from approximately 422 B.C. to 419 B.C. Like so many other such comedies it has survived only in fragmentary form.
The title refers to the all-important Chorus in ancient Greek comedies. In this case the chorus consisted of actors costumed to represent some of the city-states which were under the influence of Athens at the time.
As for how people can be “costumed” as cities, picture how it would be done with American cities. The chorus member representing New York might be depicted as the Statue of Liberty, Saint Louis as the Arch, Pittsburgh as a steel worker, Los Angeles as a brain-dead movie star and so on.
Part of the political satire dealt with the love-hate relationship that many subject- states had with Athens. Being the combination Paris/ Tokyo/ New York City of its time, Athens had a lot to offer its allied polities, but a certain air of tension always existed because of what some of those locations felt were Athens’ high-handed ways of dealing with them.
Eupolis depicted the personified subject-states/ allied states as workers with a not altogether beloved “boss,” Athens. Continue reading
A BATTLE BETWEEN AIRSHIPS – Word reaches our Air Pirate Kapitan Mors about French efforts to duplicate his Luftschiff in anticipation of the global conflict that many fear is inevitable. Still considering himself outside international law, Mors determines to nip in the bud any challenge to his aircraft. 
THE WITNESS (1960-1961) – This David Susskind production offered a nice change of pace in a crime drama. It wasn’t a standard police story nor was it a courtroom drama. Instead, it featured a revolving committee of real-life lawyers cross-examining actors (Telly Savalas most frequently) who portrayed real-life criminals, their victims and their accomplices. 
THE EPISODES: 
I love exploring the mythology behind the world’s various belief systems.
If anything history has shown that people – ESPECIALLY the self-congratulatory asses called Democrats – take great delight in loudly and repeatedly condemning people of the past for (GASP) having opinions that differ from their own. It takes no courage and little effort to put on an air of moral superiority toward long-dead human beings. 
The obsessive conformity, status-anxiety and insecurities of Democrats prevent them from questioning their faith and thereby realizing that their own condemnation of figures from long ago is every bit as much of a shallow, meaningless pose as the attitude that may be shown toward them by Democrat Fundamentalists of the future. 
In the middle 1980s/ Way down on Level 31 … 
FILM VAULT LORE: Randy and Richard’s presentation of Ghosts of Hanley House has occupied a very odd niche in Movie Host trivia for quite a long time. Among people who remember The Texas 27 Film Vault this episode is famous as “the one where Psychotronic‘s Michael Weldon seems to have confused T27FV with MST3K.”
BATTLE BRICK ROAD IS NOT TO BE MISSED.
Get ready for Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion like you’ve never seen them before – as technologically and biologically enhanced warriors in a dystopian world that not even Mad Max could survive. 
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