Balladeer’s Blog’s end of year retrospective continues with this look at May’s best.
BEYOND THE UNIVERSE (1981) – My review of the tenth and final hilariously bad science fiction film from 1980 and 1981 by the Anne Spielberg, Robert Emenegger and Allan Sandler team. Yes, ten films in two years.
This one is set in the year 2081 as the Earth is facing the end and struggles to contact Higher Intelligences in the universe to come to the rescue. Click HERE.
THE REAL DIVIDE IN AMERICA: DEMOCRATS VS THE REST OF US – A piece about how the real divisiveness in America is not black vs white, rich vs poor, gay vs straight, etc. It’s really Democrats vs the rest of us. *** Remember, the people who call others White Supremacists do not speak for all black people, they speak for DEMOCRATS, some of whom happen to be black.
*** People who insist other people must lose their jobs and/or be driven from an entire profession for expressing opinions that supposedly “offend” or “marginalize” entire groups do not speak for those entire groups, they speak only for DEMOCRATS.
*** People who oppose voter i.d. do not represent all people of color, they represent DEMOCRATS.
*** People who pretend to represent educators do not represent all educators, they represent DEMOCRATS in the education field. Democrats file complaints about or otherwise harass anyone who expresses dissenting opinions.
*** People who insist that “some males menstruate” or “some men can become pregnant” (and want everyone who disagrees to be utterly destroyed) do not represent all trans-people. They represent DEMOCRATS, who relate to every issue ONLY in terms of how much hatred and division it can be used to spread. FOR THE WHOLE ITEM CLICK HERE.
ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION – Remarkable Experiences In Another World (1899) HERE, In The Year 10,000 (1890) HERE.
AMERICAN FORCES FIGHTING IN RUSSIA: SEPTEMBER 1918 to JANUARY 1920 – The often forgotten veterans who fought in actions on Russian soil. Click HERE.
FIRST TWENTY BLACK CONDOR STORIES FROM THE 1940s – The Quality Comics superhero in action. Click HERE.
FEW THINGS ARE MORE TRUE THAN ITEMS THAT WERE HYSTERICALLY CALLED “TRUMP LIES”- Click HERE.
WITH THE FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION IN SYRIA (1928) – A memoir from a Legionnaire about the war in Syria during the 1920s. Click HERE.
SEVEN BURIED TREASURES THAT HAVE YET TO BE FOUND – Click HERE.
AMERICAN TELEVISION 1940 – Highlights of U.S. broadcasting in 1940. Click HERE.
FACULTY LOUNGE FASCIST ROUNDUP: MAY 22nd – Click HERE.
MARVEL COMICS IN THE 1940s – When they were called Timely Comics.
All Twenty All Winners Comics issues from the 1940s. Click HERE.
Marvel’s Forgotten 1940s Superheroes – Click HERE. Marvel’s One-Appearance Heroes of the 1940s – Click HERE. Continue reading
FUZZ (1972) – This movie is still marketed as if it’s a vehicle for Burt Reynolds and Raquel Welch but in reality it’s an ensemble movie. And not a very good one. Fuzz is based on the 22nd book – of nearly 60 – in the 87th Precinct series of police novels by Ed McBain aka Evan Hunter. The books were set in the fictional city of Isola, but this movie is set in Boston.
Obviously, the science and public image of law enforcement has gone through many, many changes over the decades. The movie Fuzz and its source novel reflect the stylish cynicism and gritty realism of police stories from the period. 
EIGHT JAMES WOODS MOVIES – My reviews of James Woods films like Videodrome, Salvador, The Hard Way and others. Click 
QUALITY COMICS SUPERHEROES – A look at the 1940s and 1950s superheroes from Quality Comics. Figures like Phantom Lady, Margo the Magician, Uncle Sam, Black Condor, etc. Click 
AGON: ATOMIC DRAGON (1964) – The often forgotten giant Japanese kaiju monster. Click 
ANTIFA SETS FIRE TO OCCUPIED BUILDING – Hate squads are gonna hate squad. Click 
FIRST SEMIFINAL – The VALDOSTA STATE BLAZERS took on the COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES OREDIGGERS in this game. A 10-3 1st Quarter lead for the Blazers turned into a 24-14 advantage by Halftime. Valdosta State made it a 34-14 game to end the 3rd Quarter, then withstood an Orediggers rally in the 4th for a 34-31 victory. 
BR’ER RABBIT’S CHRISTMAS CAROL (1992) – Balladeer’s Blog’s Twelfth Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues! Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, Br’er Bear, Br’er Gator and many other characters created by Joel Chandler Harris are featured in this animated version of the Dickens tale. 
All the characters live in a town in the American South, where a charity stage production of A Christmas Carol is being performed, with the proceeds going to benefit the terribly ill Timmy Mouse. No, not “Br’er Timmy” or anything like that, just Timmy Mouse as our Tiny Tim stand-in. 
SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #147 (August 1975) 
Leeds gives Peter copies of the long line of medical tests that the new Gwen has undergone in the past few days. Somehow the cloning process was accelerated, meaning she was created mere months ago, even though she is an adult as much as the real Gwen was when she was killed. 
If you missed it, Jussie Smollett was found guilty in his trial over the consequences of his hate hoax from a few years back when he and some accomplices faked an attack by alleged “Trump supporters in MAGA hats” in the latest in a long line of such Hate Crime Hoaxes in America. For a list of over 170 more such hoaxes click 
WHITE LIGHTNING (1973) – Some readers have been asking for non-Christmas blog posts, so here we go with a review of this Burt Reynolds movie back before he settled in to lazily being a clownish parody of himself. Back when he was still legitimately a film star who could play things seriously. 
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