BALLADEER’S BLOG’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL POSTSEASON RESULTS FROM NOVEMBER 25th

NAIA PLAYOFFS

College of Idaho Coyotes NEW HELMETROUND TWO: GAME ONE – This shootout saw the COLLEGE OF IDAHO COYOTES visit the UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA-WESTERN BULLDOGS. The Coyotes owned the opening Half, leading 28-7 by the break. From there the Bulldogs mounted a rally, pulling to within 35-21 in the 3rd Quarter before College of Idaho held on in the 4th for a 49-42 win. 

Northwestern College Red RaidersROUND TWO: GAME TWO – The defending national champions – the NORTHWESTERN (IA) COLLEGE RED RAIDERS – hosted the DORDT UNIVERSITY DEFENDERS yesterday. The 1st Quarter ended in a 7-0 Red Raiders lead. And then … the defenses dominated so thoroughly that no more points were scored the rest of the way, making 7-0 the final – if flukish – tally. Continue reading

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DECEMBER 2019: LOOKING BACK

FOR PART ONE (2016) OF THIS RETROSPECTIVE FROM INDEPENDENT VOTER SITE BALLADEER’S BLOG CLICK HERE.    

deneen borelli picANOTHER MARTIN LUTHER KING PERSON OF COURAGE EXPRESSES SUPPORT FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP – Deneen Borelli of Black Voices for Trump cited the NPR, Marist and Rasmussen polls which had Trump at 35% approval among black voters, an astronomically high figure compared to the incredibly low approval percentage that garbage like George W. Bush and Mitt Romney had among black voters.

        Another excerpt from that article: “It might shock Democrats that support for President Trump is rising with Black Americans but it shouldn’t. Blacks are more prosperous than ever because of President Trump with record-low unemployment and rising paychecks.”

        democrat republican or awakeAs for why Deneen Borelli called Trump’s rising numbers among voters of color “Democrats’ worst nightmare”, well, even the Democrats themselves admit that they need their usual roughly 90% approval from black voters to win nationwide elections. This is one more way that Trump threatened the status quo of America’s corrupt political parties. Click HERE.

eupolisCOTTABUS PLAYERS – Balladeer’s Blog’s examination of this ancient Greek comedy from the 420s B.C. and its relevance today. Click HERE.

DEMOCRATS DON’T KNOW THE MEANING OF THE WORDS “DEBUNKED” AND “DISCREDITED” – I took a look at how Democrats laughably think that the minute one of their politicians gives their excuses regarding accusations it means that those accusations have been debunked or discredited. Click HERE.

AMERICA’S REJECTED SUPREME COURT NOMINEES – A look at the nominees who were rejected by the Senate, from the 1700s on up through December of 2019. Click HERE

sharyl attkisson smallerCOURAGEOUS JOURNALIST SHARYL ATTKISSON’S LIST OF OVER ONE HUNDRED (as of December 2019) MISTAKES AND LIES IN CORPORATE MEDIA COVERAGE OF PRESIDENT TRUMP – And the list has grown substantially since then. Click HERE

CALLING OUT AMERICA’S DEMOCRATS – They’re NOT liberals and they’re NOT progressives, they’re just partisan Democrat zealots. First an excerpt: “We are long past the time when America’s pompous, pretentious asses called Democrats need to be called out on their ridiculous airs. Let’s dare to blaspheme against the Democrats’ most sacred deities – themselves.” Click HERE

hillary unhingedCONVICTED PEDOPHILE INDICTED FOR FUNNELING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS TO HILLARY CLINTON’S 2016 CAMPAIGN – America’s political establishment is a cesspool. To read the full story on this item just click HERE. Continue reading

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FANTASTIC FOUR VS THE INHUMANS AND GALACTUS

This weekend’s escapist and light-hearted superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at the very first encounters the Fantastic Four had with the Inhumans, the Silver Surfer and Galactus.

ff 44FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #44 (November 1965)

Title: The Gentleman’s Name is Gorgon

Villains: Gorgon, Medusa and Dragon Man

Synopsis: This story picks up after Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) and Invisible Girl (Sue Storm-Richards) get back from their honeymoon following Dr. Doom’s attempt to kill them during their wedding ceremony in Fantastic Four Annual Vol 1 #3. 

While renovating the Fantastic Four’s Baxter Building headquarters, the umpteenth argument breaks out among the team members, including the Thing (Ben Grimm), and so the Human Torch (Johnny Storm, Sue’s brother) angrily leaves for a while. He takes his latest sports car for a drive to cool off.

frightful fourThrough a comic book coincidence, the Human Torch gets caught in the middle of a fight between the super villainess called Medusa and her fellow Inhuman called Gorgon.

Medusa, a member of the Fantastic Four’s enemies the Frightful Four (The Wizard, Sandman, Trapster and Medusa herself) reveals to the Torch that she and Gorgon are both Inhumans and Gorgon has come to make her return to their race’s hidden city called Attilan. Continue reading

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THE PASSION OF SCROOGE (2018) – CHRISTMAS CAROL-A-THON 2023 BEGINS

mascot chair and bottle picIf it’s the Friday after Thanksgiving, then regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog know it’s the day when I kick off my annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon in which I review several versions of A Christmas Carol. I look at movies, television shows, radio shows and books which adapt the Dickens classic. Every year I present new reviews with a few old classics mixed in since newer readers will have missed them.

passion of scrooge 2nd picTHE PASSION OF SCROOGE (2018) – This 62-minute offering which is out on video is one of the opera versions of A Christmas Carol, NOT the x-rated version which is titled The Passions of Carol. I want to avoid any confusion, right off the bat.

This Carol opera was written and composed by Jon Deak, who also stars in the production alongside William Sharp. H. Paul Moon directed. Unlike the opera versions that I’ve reviewed in the past, no one wears period costumes, just dark colored timeless garb.

The 21st Century Consort Orchestra provides the music and though the horseshoe layout for the orchestra and the conductor (Christopher Kendall) is business as usual the execution certainly is not. Continue reading

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TURKEY DAY CLASSIC: TUSKEGEE VS ALABAMA STATE

alabama state hornetsTuskegee Golden TigersNUMBER NINETY-NINE – Yesterday was the 99th Turkey Day Classic, the annual Thanksgiving Day football game between the NCAA Division Two TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY GOLDEN TIGERS and the home standing NCAA Division One ALABAMA STATE HORNETS. Continue reading

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HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2023!

happy t givingHAPPY THANKSGIVING! Enjoy this holiday and the hope for peaceful coexistence represented by the possibly mythic meal that it commemorates. The kind of self-righteous killjoys who bash Thanksgiving are the type of sanctimonious idiots that are fun to laugh at since they have no identity outside of their ephemeral political concerns.

Whether you consider the tale of the first Thanksgiving to be literal or aspirational, enjoy yourselves! Be thankful that you’re not one of those heartless people who try to pollute every happy gathering with divisiveness and turn it into a showcase for the simple-minded, ankle-biting political remarks that those people laughably think are Really Deep. Continue reading

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SUPERSONIC SAUCER (1956)

supersonic saucerSUPERSONIC SAUCER (1956) – In honor of the Thanksgiving holiday Balladeer’s Blog presents a look at another harmless, all-ages sci-fi turkey, this one from England. Supersonic Saucer was produced by our old friends in Great Britain’s Children’s Film Foundation, the same group behind the previously reviewed serial Masters of Venus.   

Believe it or not, Frank Wells, son of H.G. Wells himself, penned the story for this So Bad It’s Good flick. At an English boarding school, a few students whose families are too poor to be able to pay for their travel expenses wind up having to spend the holiday break at the school. They are looked after by the Headmaster and his tween son Rodney (Fella Edmonds), a science nerd who resents having to babysit.

sumacTop-billed actress Marcia Manolescue, an English actress of Asian descent, plays Sumac, one of the students whose family could not pay travel fare home and back. Another such student is Greta (Gillian Harrison) and rounding things out is Adolphus (Andrew Mette-Harrison), the tubby youngest character. 

While killing time over the holiday break our youngsters visit an observatory, where they are allowed to use the telescope for a time. They spot what seems to be a spaceship headed for Earth from Venus, but none of the adults on hand believe them.

mebaWe viewers know the kids are in the right, and the spaceship/ flying saucer is really a Venusian youngster. That alien entity used its race’s ability to morph from Muppet-like form to amoeboid form to flying saucer form fit for interplanetary travel.

The alien visits our lead characters upon arrival on Earth, drawn to them by the telepathic “fix” it got on them when they spotted it through the telescope. Because of the Venusian’s transitionary form that resembles an oversized amoeba the youngsters name the alien “Meba.”

flyingThe goofy looking Venusian resembles a thick, tall worm in a white hijab in its “normal” form but is hilariously rendered as a cartoon flying saucer with eyes for its airborne and spacefaring form. The “special” effect is as laughable as the cartoon spaceships in American movies like Invaders from Mars.
Continue reading

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NOVEMBER 21st ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS

Another roundup from Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog. As always, everyone is welcome here no matter who they vote for.

trump abbottGOVERNOR GREG ABBOTT ENDORSED DONALD TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT. More HERE. And HERE. Per Newsweek, right-wing pass-around Ann Coulter is outraged at Abbott, and it’s always good when Coulter is upset.

TRUMP AND ABBOTT SERVE EARLY THANKSGIVING MEALS TO NATIONAL GUARD AND LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL TRYING TO MAINTAIN ORDER AT JOE BIDEN’S DISASTROUS SOUTHERN BORDER

AT LONG LAST ALL THE JANUARY 6th VIDEO IS RELEASED, NOT JUST THE DEMOCRAT CHERRY-PICKING – CLAIMS OF “INSURRECTION” ARE SHOWN TO BE EVEN MORE RIDICULOUS THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT. More HERE. And HERE. I think people who have lived in countries that underwent REAL insurrections would like to set straight pampered white American Democrats who pretend January 6th was one. Even more HERE.

winding bidenANOTHER LOOK AT JOE BIDEN’S FAILURES AND DISASTERS.

SMALL BUSINESSES SUPPORT TRUMP OVER BIDEN 61% TO 21%. And I will say again that Trump was the greatest president of my lifetime for the working class and the poor. 

DERANGED BIDEN ADMINISTRATION EXPRESSES WORRY THAT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS MIGHT GET “MISGENDERED.” What an unhinged pack of hacks. Continue reading

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THE MOUSE ON THE MAYFLOWER (1968)

Mouse on the MayflowerTHANKSGIVING IS ALMOST HERE! ONE OF THE GREATEST HOLIDAYS OF THE YEAR! In the midst of the travails that inevitably complicate our lives it’s a great time for taking stock of the positives that we can find.  

THE MOUSE ON THE MAYFLOWER (1968) – This is an enjoyable cartoon which could have been much better with just a little more effort. Vintage country western star Tennessee Ernie Ford narrates and supplies the voice of the title character – a Puritan mouse named Willum – who stows away on the Mayflower during its trip from England to America. 

After arriving in the New World and enduring various hardships, the little rodent also gets to participate in the first Thanksgiving celebration with a Native American mouse as they watch their human counterparts mark the event. Continue reading

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METROPOLIS (1927): THE 1984 RE-RELEASE WHICH ATTRACTED A NEW GENERATION OF FANS TO SILENT MOVIES

metropolisMETROPOLIS – Volumes have been written about Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent movie sci-fi masterpiece. I love the film myself but rather than write the 9,899,974th glowing review of the 1927 original I will instead take a look at the 1984 re-issue, produced by Giorgio Moroder, who also did soundtracks for movies like Scarface, Midnight Express, and later Top Gun.

That reissue of Metropolis edited the film down to its essential story elements, giving it an 83 minute run time, compared to the 2-and 1/2-hour length of the original movie. Many critics were disgruntled about this, because let’s face it – film critics are almost never “gruntled.”   

soundtrack for metropolisRather than have the usual classical or similar music play as accompaniment to a silent movie, composer Giorgio Moroder wrote a rock and pop music score to attract a generation of filmgoers who might otherwise have never sat through a silent movie in their lives. Freddie Mercury, Pat Benatar, Adam Ant and Billy Squier were among those performing Moroder’s score.

Pompous film critics, as short-sighted as ever, blasted the entire venture as an affront to Fritz Lang’s original production and otherwise lost their minds over it. In my view, Moroder should be praised for his efforts.

poster for metropolisNot only 1984 audiences but all subsequent generations of viewers which were drawn to silent movies in general thanks to airings of Metropolis (1984) may never have brought the new blood and passion to the early cinematic artform if not for Moroder.

This 1984 project led to neophytes sampling other silent masterpieces like The Phantom of the Opera, Orphans of the Storm, The Mark of Zorro and many others.  Continue reading

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