Here at Balladeer’s Blog I’ve enjoyed sharing my examinations of ancient Greek comedies and how they could be viewed through modern eyes. Up next are these tales restructured for opera format, act by act and by number of singers needed.
DJANGO
Language: Spanish
Setting: The Texas-Mexico border in 1867
A two-act opera based on the original Django movie from 1966 starring Franco Nero. Django, a former soldier who served in the Union Army during America’s Civil War has been on a quest for revenge against Major Jackson, the former Confederate Army officer who killed his wife. In the early months of 1867 he finds Jackson and his former Confederate soldiers now turned outright Klansmen along the Texas-Mexico borderlands. Continue reading
Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog has often stated the opinion that America’s career politicians are actually just career white-collar criminals. At no time was that more clear than when the outsider – de facto Third Party President Donald Trump – was a threat to rock the boat of the cesspool of corruption that masquerades as the U.S. government. As a man who was NOT a career politician or “made man” in the political swamp he had to fight both political parties from the start. 
America desperately needs Third Parties. The Democrats are the most divisive, destructive and selfish political party imaginable at the moment and elected Republicans are clueless, impotent frauds. For the umpteenth time in recent years I’ll point out that at present the Democrats need to be called out more because there are people – largely from overseas – who still have the ridiculous notion that the Democrats are somehow “the good guys” when in fact both our major political parties are “the bad guys.” 
Long ago I was, I’m ashamed to say, a member of the increasingly deranged and hate-filled Democrat party before I left it to become an Independent Voter. Anyone mindlessly feeling “My political party, right or wrong” is not worth listening to on any issue. 
HAMMETT (1982) – Directed by Wim Wenders and produced by Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope Studios, Hammett is a criminally neglected valentine to Hard-Boiled Detective Stories and Film Noir. The flick is based on the novel by Joe Gores. 
Booze and coughing fits figure prominently in the movie, as you would expect given a protagonist who was an alcoholic with tuberculosis. For the sake of convenience the story that Hammett just finished before blacking out was one featuring his character the Continental Op (as in an operative for the fictional Continental Detective Agency). 
Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog comes to you from the Biden Crime Family’s corporate fascist kleptocracy, where Democrats try to dictate what the rest of us are allowed to say, wear, post on the internet, etc. Many of their oppressive actions would not be possible without the utter worthlessness of elected Republicans, whose apparent motto continues to be “Screw our constituents! As long as we remain wealthy enough to survive what the Democrats unleash, that’s all that matters!” 
Time for another round of Balladeer’s Blog’s recurring feature Transgress with Me. As I’ve often mentioned in the past, I used to be a Democrat before their increasing intolerance and fascism drove me to leave the party and become an Independent Voter. 
*** RACHEL LEVINE AND LIA THOMAS ARE MEN, NO MATTER HOW MUCH DEMOCRATS (“THE PARTY”) ORDER THE REST OF US TO PRETEND OTHERWISE. 
Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog know that all – or at least most – roads lead to bad movies with me. Since 1976 the movie Track of the Moon Beast has been a cult hit for the Psychotronic-minded and for those people who were lucky enough to catch it at various drive-ins during their heyday. 
Frustratingly, the song was not quite complete and had a few interruptions by dialogue from the film. For decades clearer versions of California Lady were incredibly rare. Mike Wolfer found and has uploaded two versions of the song at his YT Channel (subscribe 
The first was the studio recording of the song (below) and the second was the entire EP from Frank Larrabee. California Lady is at the 10:03 mark and is a much smoother, less worn recording of the song and is MUCH MORE LIKE THE PERFORMANCE IN THE MOVIE. No interruptions in either case, so you can enjoy this cult item the way it was meant to be heard. 
Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog couldn’t help but note what is basically an admission on the part of the Biden Regime that they are unfit and not legit. An admission that they are criminals in the pocket of many overseas entities including the Chinese government. That virtual admission? 
The installed Joe Biden runs a corporate fascist state and virtual kleptocracy. He could not have achieved that without a complicit Democrat Party apparatus including 
THE BANQUETERS – By Aristophanes. This was the very first comedy from the Athenian whose name is synonymous with ancient Greek comedies, especially political satires. The nineteen-year-old presented a landowner from Athens whose two sons were being introduced to his phratry brothers at a banquet dedicated to Herakles. 
Balladeer's Blog 