Silver John
THE OLD GODS WAKEN (1979) – Another Halloween Month begins here at Balladeer’s Blog with this look at the first novel featuring Manly Wade Wellman’s iconic Pulp Hero Silver John. In 2011 I reviewed all of Wellman’s short stories and vignettes about this figure. The Old Gods Waken was the first of five Silver John novels.
For newcomers to these tales I’ll point out that Silver John aka John the Balladeer was a wandering guitar player in the Appalachian Mountain communities of yore. He would do battle with assorted supernatural menaces from mountain folklore like a combination of Kolchak and Orpheus. John’s silver guitar strings and silver coins were powerful repellants against much of the evils he faced down.
For more details on this neglected fictional hero click HERE or HERE or HERE. If you want an easy comparison the Silver John stories were based on the same type of mountain/ country folklore about music and the supernatural that the song The Devil Went Down To Georgia was based on.
The Old Gods Waken deals with Silver John performing with other musicians at a music festival, then getting drawn into a property line dispute between the Forshay family and two sinister British men calling themselves Brummitt and Hooper Voth. As usual in our hero’s travels there are dark supernatural forces at work behind this boundary dispute – forces ultimately dealing with Pre-Columbian entities and transplanted Druidism.
I enjoy the Silver John short works far more than the novels and this book reflects plenty of reasons why. If The Old Gods Waken is a reader’s first exposure to the wandering balladeer then they might like it much better than I do based on the strength of the character and Manly Wade Wellman’s ear for old mountain dialects. As for me, I’ll explore the reasons why I think this novel embodies all the shortcomings of the (still very good) long form Silver John adventures. Continue reading
WE NEED ALTERNATE PARTIES! Recently Joe Biden, the corrupt establishment hack residing in the White House, actually sealed one of his meaningless promises by saying “I give you my word as a Biden.” Let’s take a look at what Creepy Sleepy Joe’s “word as a Biden” is worth. It will help make Biden getting booed at the Congressional baseball game even funnier.
*** JOE BIDEN HAS BEEN CAUGHT IN COUNTLESS LIES OVER THE YEARS, INCLUDING MANY THAT ARE DELUSIONALLY SELF-AGGRANDIZING. 
*** JOE BIDEN IS A NOTED RACIST (LIKE HIS SON HUNTER) AND IS KNOWN FOR HIS HARSH CRIME LEGISLA-TION WHICH DISPROPORTIONATELY DAMAGED PEOPLE OF COLOR. (And remember Joe’s remarks like “If you don’t vote for me, then you ain’t black.”) 
*** Child labor, which the U.S. Supreme Court kept upholding in yet another of its series of disgraceful sagas. These attacks were noble, but it has to be said that Pearson’s Fool Killer came nowhere close to 
NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) 1. LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE BLUE RAIDERS (defending national champions) ### 2. MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS ### 3. NORTHWESTERN (IA) COLLEGE RED RAIDERS ### 4. INDIANA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY WILDCATS ### 
5. SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE MOUNDBUILDERS ### 6. GRAND VIEW UNIVERSITY VIKINGS (should be the Zebras) ### 7. BAKER UNIVERSITY WILDCATS ### 8. KANSAS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY COYOTES ### 
ROLLER BLADE (1986) – They’re the Cosmic Order of the Roller Blade and they’re female Jedi Knights on roller skates. Well, sort of. Where does one begin when reviewing this film that is so beloved by all of us fans of bad movies? Let’s start with the setting and then tackle the characters as well as Roller Blade’s legendary director Donald G Jackson (R.I.P.). 
“Skate or Die” is the ugly motto of the survivors in this kill or be killed future. That’s because the filmmakers absurdly pretend that traveling via roller skates or skateboards is the only way to move swiftly enough to have a chance of evading the dangerous gangs and mutants. 
MOTHER SPEED (Katina Garner) – The Mother Superior of the Order of the Roller Blade. She is in a wheelchair yet still wears roller skates on her feet since such skates are part of the Order’s sacred garments. Mother Speed, like all the good guys in Roller Blade, speaks in grandiose faux-Shakespearean littered with “thees” and “thous” and “yea, verilies.” ESPECIALLY “yea, verilies.” 
Like the repulsive George W Bush, Joe Biden was “
E. DEMOCRATS AND THEIR MEDIA OUTLETS ARE ONCE AGAIN VICIOUSLY ATTACKING THE “BLACKS FOR TRUMP” ORGANIZATION. Democrats still hate it when voters of color refuse to obey their orders on which candidates that Democrats “allow” them to vote for. (link below) 
NUMBER SIX TAKES A FALL – In the NAIA the BETHEL (TN) WILDCATS played host to the nation’s number 6 team – the REINHARDT UNIVERSITY EAGLES (should be the Rottweilers). In this tale of two Halves the Wildcats were on top 21-0 by the midpoint. In the 2nd Half a furious Reinhardt University rally fell just short as Bethel U won out 34-33. 
HILLSDALE HOME STAND – The storied HILLSDALE COLLEGE CHARGERS took the field against the visiting MISSOURI S&T MINERS. The Miners led the Chargers 10-7 in the opening Quarter and 24-17 at Halftime. The 3rd Quarter ended with Missouri S&T in front 31-24 before Hillsdale College came back in the 4th for a 38-31 victory. 
DOWN GOES NUMBER SEVEN – NCAA Division Two’s 22nd ranked HARDING UNIVERSITY BISON welcomed the number 7 team in the nation – the OUACHITA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY TIGERS. A 14-7 1st Quarter edge for the Bison became a 24-7 advantage by the Half. After the break both teams scored 14 more points as Harding University upset OBU 38-21. 
SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #129 (February 1974) 
Synopsis: In a laboratory hideout are two costumed men, the Jackal and the Punisher, BOTH making their first ever appearances. The Punisher, the now-legendary vigilante who got multiple movies long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe was launched, is blowing apart statues of Spider-Man with high-tech, specially designed rifles and machine-guns paid for by the Jackal. 
Even by the low standards of America’s notoriously corrupt political officials the Joe Biden Crime Family and its Underboss Hunter Biden are sleaze personified. Bribery and influence peddling have become veritable institutions with the Bidens, with the most blatant example being the way bribe money continues to be funneled to Joe Biden via the six-figure sums paid to his Underboss Hunter Biden from “sales of his artwork.” LMAO. Right. 
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