ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: A VOYAGE TO THE WORLD IN THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH (1755)

Voyage to world at Centre of the Earth 2A VOYAGE TO THE WORLD IN THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH (1755) – This intriguing work was published in London anonymously and no author has yet been decisively identified. The novel’s narrator – who remains as anonymous as the book’s author – parties away his inheritance and then ships out for Italy.

Exploring on Mount Vesuvius our hero accidentally falls into what we readers are eventually told is just one of many holes that lead to the interior of the Earth, where another world awaits. A miraculous landing on a haystack saves the narrator’s life but he finds himself unable to move because of the greater gravity of this interior world.

A friendly inhabitant of the inner Earth applies a chemical salve to our protagonist’s body, a salve which allows him to stand up and move about in the higher gravity. A second salve massaged into the narrator’s body renders him capable of understanding and conversing in the language of Inner Earth. Continue reading

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STAGECOACH WEST (1960-1961) STARRING WAYNE ROGERS

STAGECOACH WEST (1960-1961) – This Friday, August 1st will mark the Frontierado Holiday this year, so let me slip in a few more seasonal blog posts along with my usual items. Stagecoach West starred Wayne Rogers as Luke Perry and Shannen Doherty as Brenda Walsh!

Obviously, I’m kidding, but Rogers really did play a stagecoach driver named Luke Perry, a courageous, gunslinging hero who basically rode shotgun for himself, given his skill with firearms. Robert Bray co-starred as the older Simon “Sime” Kane, Luke’s partner in the Timberline Stage, headquartered in Outpost, Wyoming.

Sime’s young son Davey was played by child star Richard Eyer. Davey’s dogs Hannibal and Hannibal II (after the first Hannibal ran away) were also on hand. Thirty-eight 1-hour episodes were produced. 

STANDOUT EPISODES:   

HIGH LONESOME – Stagecoach driver Luke Perry meets his latest load of passengers, among them Simon Kane, a man searching for his runaway wife. His son Davey travels with him and Sime told the boy his mother died to keep the more painful truth from him.

Luke helps protect Sime from another passenger – a gunman hired to kill Simon over secrets from his past. In the end, Luke invites Sime and Davey to get a fresh start working with him on the stageline. James Best played the gunman and Jane Greer played Kane’s long-missing wife.    Continue reading

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MESALANDS COLLEGE: COOL NAMED SPORTS TEAM

Here’s another institution whose teams use a more creative name than Eagles, Tigers, Bulldogs or Wildcats.

MESALANDS COLLEGE Continue reading

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NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS ROUNDUP: JULY TWENTY-EIGHTH

Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog presents another current events roundup. 

NIGHTMARISH CHILD TORTURE AND TRAFFICKING RING OPERATING SINCE 2022 TIED TO BIDEN REGIME’S FAILURE TO SAFEGUARD UNACCOMPANIED CHILDREN. (Remember the 65,000 hotline calls about the suffering of unaccompanied minors at the southern border?) No wonder Biden and his ilk didn’t care about border security. There was too much money to be made via rings like this. WARNING: Intense details, as the ring even let people pay to sexually assault pets, too.  SURENOS GANG INVOLVEMENT?

        That silence you hear is anti-Trump fundamentalists refusing to talk about this. They’re too busy sniveling about privileged white one-percenter and capitalist pig Stephen Colbert getting canceled for losing his network forty million dollars per year. Weird priorities as always, Democrats. 

MATT TAIBBI, ONE OF THE FEW REPORTERS WHO WERE COVERING THE RUSSIAN COLLUSION NONSENSE HONESTLY YEARS AGO, TROUNCES THE WASHINGTON POST FOR ITS EFFORTS TO REWRITE HISTORY.   *** Long time readers may remember how Taibbi’s actual journalism became a regular feature here at Balladeer’s Blog regarding the “Russia, Russia, Russia” nonsense from 2017 to 2019 and beyond. ONE EXAMPLE HERE. ANOTHER ONE – RUSSIAGATE IS WMDs TIMES A MILLIONHERE.  Even more HERE. And more HERE.

POPULIST PRESIDENT TRUMP OVERSEES MASSIVE TRADE DEAL WITH THE EU. More HERE. And HERE. The EU to buy seven hundred fifty billion in U.S. energy and invest another six hundred billion into the U.S.

PRESIDENT TRUMP NOW PLAYING PEACEMAKER BETWEEN CAMBODIA AND THAILAND. More HERE.  

OBAMA SCANDAL CEO ISSA ASAD SENTENCED TO FIVE YEAR PRISON SENTENCE AND HE AND HIS COMPANY MUST PAY ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS IN FINES. This wraps up what seems like scandal number 9,872 from what Democrats pretended was the “scandal-free” Obama years. (I will say again NO presidential administration has ever been scandal-free, so claiming it about Chicago sewage creature Obama was utterly hilarious.)

PRESIDENT TRUMP AND MEDIA DISCUSS HOW BILL CLINTON VISITED JEFF EPSTEIN’S INFAMOUS ISLAND LAIR TWENTY-EIGHT TIMES WHILE TRUMP NEVER VISITED THE ISLAND.

MORE ABOUT HILLARY CLINTON’S ROLE IN THE RUSSIA HOAX IS ABOUT TO DROP.

CHRISTINA MARIE CHAPMAN SENTENCED TO EIGHT YEARS FOR AIDING NORTH KOREAN TECH SPY RING DURING THE BIDEN REGIME. (Very late October of 2020 to 2023) Did Joe “the Big Guy” get his usual ten percent? Continue reading

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SOME OF THE BEST FRONTIERADO SAGAS

The Frontierado Holiday is coming up this Friday, August 1st. The holiday celebrates the myth of the Old West, not the grinding reality. For newbies to Balladeer’s Blog here are some of the best Frontierado Sagas – examinations of assorted gunslingers and wild towns that often get overlooked.

The Vigilante called “X”.

X: THE REAL-LIFE VIGILANTE – John Xavier Beidler was better known as “X” for his distinctive middle initial. I have no idea how a figure this colorful and with such a memorable alias is still so underappreciated.

Beidler first made his name as a vigilante dealing with bandits, claim jumpers and corrupt lawmen during the Gold Rush in Montana. As the years went by, he became a legitimate lawman and a mounted guard for stage coaches. FOR HIS FULL ENTRY CLICK HERE.

DUSTY DELIA HASKETT – She was the first female stagecoach driver for the United States Mail Service. Delia was born in 1861 and built a reputation for herself during her adventurous career driving stagecoaches throughout California.

In later years she became something of a Grand Dame among the Golden State’s Pioneer Women. FOR HER FULL ENTRY CLICK HERE. Continue reading

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THE SECRET OF DORIAN GRAY (1970) ON THE TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT

Before MST3K there was … The Texas 27 Film Vault, which debuted on February 9th, 1985. 

Balladeer’s Blog continues its celebration of this program’s FORTIETH anniversary year.

EPISODE ORIGINALLY BROADCAST: Per fellow fan Silivant the date was Saturday January 24th, 1987 from 10:30pm to 1:00am. Broadcast throughout Texas and Oklahoma.

SERIAL: None this week. The movie, commercials and Film Vault Corps comedy sketches took up the entire running time.

Randy (right) and Richard way down on Level 31 hosting The Texas 27 Film Vault

HOST SEGMENTS/ COMEDY SKETCHES: There is some disagreement among Texas 27 Film Vault fans. One faction argues that this was the episode in which Randy Clower – interested in preserving his youth like the main character in the night’s movie – took the nonexistent chemical Multiquixiphiline (see my exclusive interview with Randy Clower).

That chemical made him much younger, overdoing it to the point of restoring him to childhood. Randy’s real-life son Jaron played the young version of himself in the series of sketches. Once again Tex (Ken Miller) saved the day and Randy was restored to his normal age. Randy himself did not remember if this really was the movie with that storyline in the Host Segments.  

Dorian and his suspiciously Warhol-esque portrait

THE MOVIE: THE SECRET OF DORIAN GRAY (1970) – A terrific idea was blown in this hilariously flawed attempt to adapt Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray to swinging 60s London. Helmut Berger, who was sort of a Nordic Michael York back when this movie was made, stars as our title hero whose portrait begins to reflect all the physical and spiritual wear and tear of Dorian’s hedonistic lifestyle, thus preserving his young, beautiful physical form. Continue reading

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THE AVENGERS VS THE DEFENDERS (1973)

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at Marvel Comics’ very first multi-issue crossover event – the clash between the Avengers and the Defenders. 

AVENGERS Vol 1 #115 (September 1973)

Title: Below Us, the Battle

Avengers Roster: Thor (Donald Blake, MD), Iron Man (Tony Stark), Captain America (Steve Rogers), Scarlet Witch (Wanda), Black Panther (T’Challa), Vision (N/A), Mantis (Mantis Brandt), Swordsman (Jacques Duquesne)

Defenders Roster: Dr. Strange (Stephen Strange, MD), Sub-Mariner (Namor McKenzie), Hulk (Bruce Banner, PhD), Silver Surfer (Norrin Radd), Valkyrie (Barbara Norris) and Hawkeye (Clint Barton) 

Villains: The Troglodytes

Synopsis: The Avengers fly in a Quin-Jet to Garrett Castle in England to check up on their British member the Black Knight (Dane Whitman). He has been out of touch for an alarmingly long time.

NOTE: That’s because the old Avengers foe the Enchantress turned the Black Knight’s body to stone in the pages of the (at the time) secret superteam the Defenders, covered previously HERE.  

Arriving at Garrett Castle the superheroes land their Quin-Jet on the grounds and warily approach the castle. The Avengers find their way blocked by an invisible force-field which surrounds the castle. Continue reading

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JULY TWENTY-FIFTH ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS

Time for another current events roundup from Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog.

THE DEMOCRAT PLOT AGAINST TRUMP GOES DEEPER AND DEEPER.   MORE ABOUT OBAMA’S INVOLVEMENT.   TULSI GABBARD PROVIDES MORE RECEIPTS ABOUT THE CONSPIRACY.   HOW PUTIN’S RUSSIA HELPED HILLARY CLINTON IN THE 2016 ELECTION.   DNI GABBARD PROVIDES PROOF REFUTING OBAMA’S LIES ABOUT THE RUSSIA HOAX AGAINST TRUMP.   More HERE.

NEWLY DECLASSIED DOCUMENTS REVEAL EVEN MORE ABOUT THE FBI COVERUP OF HILLARY CLINTON’S CORRUPTION WHEN SHE WAS SECRETARY OF STATE.

TRUMP OUTMANEUVERS MORE DEMOCRAT JUDICIAL OVERREACH BY NAMING HEROIC ALINA HABBA ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY IN NEW JERSEY. She’s STILL in power, after Democrats made fools of themselves gloating about her supposedly being gone. Hilarious!

VIDEO COMPILATION OF DEMOCRATS SPENDING YEARS LYING TO US THAT JOE BIDEN WAS “SHARP AS A TACK” AND THAT CLAIMS HE WAS UNFIT WERE (YAAWWN) “CONSPIRACY THEORIES”. Continue reading

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NEGLECTED FEMALE GUNSLINGERS OF THE OLD WEST

Frontierado is Friday, August 1st this year! In honor of that upcoming 3-day holiday here is a look at female gunslingers who don’t get as much attention as Calamity Jane, Belle Starr and Annie Oakley.

Queen Kitty

Queen Kitty

QUEEN KITTY – Kitty LeRoy was also known as Kitty the Schemer, Dancing Kitty, the Female Arsenal and much later as Deadwood Kitty. Queen Kitty is the most appropriate nickname in part because of her last name but mostly because she was variously known as “the Queen of the Hoofers”, “the Dancing Queen”, “the Queen of the Barbary Coast” and “the Queen of the Faro Tables”.

Kitty was born in 1850 and by the age of 10 was earning money for her family as a professional dancer and novelty act in her home state of Michigan. By 14 she was performing exclusively at adult venues and had added trick shooting to her repertoire.

Her most famous shooting trick at this time was shooting apples off the heads of volunteers. At age 15 Queen Kitty was performing in New Orleans and married her first husband – the only man in the city brave enough to let Kitty shoot apples off his head while she was riding around him at a full gallop.

LeRoy loved flirting and sleeping around, however, and this led to the breakup of her first marriage within a year. By 1870 Queen Kitty had married a second time, to a man named Donnaly, with whom she had a daughter. The Queen had gravitated more and more to the Faro tables, making a killing as a celebrity dealer.

With Dallas as a home base Kitty and her husband would travel throughout Texas with LeRoy earning money dancing and dealing Faro. Kitty also earned a name for being able to handle any violence that came her way from sore losers and was involved in multiple gunfights and knife fights in dangerous saloons. Continue reading

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THE CLOUDS (C423 B.C.) ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY

The Clouds was written by Aristophanes around 423 BC and next to Lysistrata is the Big A’s most- discussed satire, mostly because of its lampooning of the philosopher Socrates, a contemporary of Aristophanes.

Many modern readers, who have been programmed to sneeringly deconstruct old works of art rather than understand them, love to regard this comedy with hostility. They accuse Aristophanes of being “anti – intellectual” for subjecting Socrates in particular and the Sophist philosophers in general to the same satirical criticism that every other aspect of Athenian society was subjected to in comic plays.

There are many arguments I can use to refute this claim, and  I’ll present them below following my synopsis of the play itself.

To provide just a brief argument right now since you may be curious, let me remind everyone that Shakespeare is famous for the line about killing all the lawyers, but I’ve never met one rational person who thinks that line means Shakespeare was seriously proposing the execution of all lawyers or the elimination of the law and/or the  judiciary system. By the same token I hardly think Aristophanes was railing against every form of education or intellectual inquiry. More on this controversy, including the trial of Socrates, below. 

THE PREMISE

In the ancient Greek democracy Athenian citizens were expected to represent themselves in court in both criminal and civil proceedings.

Since juries are the same no matter what the time period a guilty person who was a good speaker could get acquitted while an innocent person who was an inept speaker could get found guilty.

Conversely, since there were no public prosecutors, citizens could charge their fellow Athenians with crimes and if they were skilled enough at speaking they could railroad an innocent person. Many Athenian citizens who faced a court date would pay some of the “streetcorner” Sophist philosophers to teach them rhetorical skills to make them better prepared for their appearance in court.

The Sophists were often criticized in the same way that we criticize lawyers today, because the Sophists believed in using elaborate rhetorical games to win arguments without regard to any moral or ethical considerations. Our modern words “sophisticated” and “sophistries” (especially appropriate to The Clouds) come from the same root word.   Continue reading

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