Balladeer’s Blog’s usual “waiting for results to something” mode is to watch a comedy marathon. Let’s go for a vintage feel this time with a look at my Top Five Marx Brothers Movies.
5. THE COCOANUTS (1929) – The Plot (As if it mattered) – A hotel manager (Groucho) plots a real estate swindle during the Florida land boom while a jewel theft on the premises attracts unwanted attention from the law. Chico and Harpo sow all manner of confusion while Margaret Dumont and Zeppo are on hand in their familiar and comfortable straight roles.
Comment: Already I can hear the screams from Marx Brothers fans. How DARE I relegate to FIFTH place a movie based on the brothers’ Broadway hit written by THE George S Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind!
Easy. No matter how good the play was The Cocoanuts movie suffers from too many of the typical weaknesses of early talkies. The tinny sound, plus the way the maps, telegrams and newspapers handled by the characters are obviously water-logged to keep the crackling from being picked up on the late 1920s sound equipment.
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And most importantly the inclusion of pointless music and dance numbers in the “hey, we have sound now, so let’s REALLY show it off” spirit of early talkies. The hopelessly dull romantic couple slow things down, too.
I find myself fast-forwarding through this flick more than any other Marx Brothers movie. Even The Big Store. We need a Fan Edit of this flick including ONLY the comedy routines, which I agree are all classics. “Did anyone ever tell you you look like the Prince of Wales?” Continue reading
I’m a former Democrat turned Independent Voter. My grandparents fled a country where riots and other forms of unrest came to mark the electoral process. They legally migrated to the U.S. little dreaming that one day the Democrats would turn this country into the kind they fled. A country where organized violence and vote fraud is threatened and in which businesses and homes must batten down over fear of the Democrat mobs. 
Balladeer’s Blog has covered the many, many vote fraud scandals in recent years and this year Democrat operatives even came forward discussing the most effective techniques for such fraud. Manufacturing votes after the fact has been the Democrat playbook in Pennsylvania more than once. Democrats have also called for riots and other disruptions (links below) if the election doesn’t seem to be going their way. 
Remember, “BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY” has become the fascistic slogan of the Democrats. What kind of totalitarian animals adopt such a slogan? 
Balladeer’s Blog at last resumes its examination of both seasons of The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. For my review of the very first episode of this 1971-1973 series about London by Gaslight detectives from both the Victorian and Edwardian Ages you can simply click 
Episode: THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY (January 29th, 1973) 
Lady Molly was the actual detective in her stories. Polly Burton (Judy Geeson), while a spunky reporter who never lets people belittle her over her gender, was really just the Archie Goodwin/ Dr Watson for the Teahouse Detective aka the Old Man in the Corner. 
Here at Balladeer’s Blog I always love it when the unexpected happens. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has been endorsing the Democrat in every presidential race since 1976, but here in 2020 they just endorsed de facto Third Party President Donald Trump. Their reasons are many, so the link is below for anyone who wants to read their exhaustive list of reasons why Trump is the candidate of the working class and the poor. 
Here are just a few excerpts from the Post-Gazette‘s endorsement:
*** “Under Mr. Trump, our trade relationships have vastly improved and our trade deals have been rewritten. Thanks to him, middle America is on the map again and the Appalachian and hourly worker has some hope.” (NOTE FROM BALLADEER: And that REALLY outrages the callous, comfortable and uncaring one percenters in both parties.)
Then, the Post-Gazette pointed out why it was not endorsing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, including their willingness to surrender civil rights to the fascist mobs calling themselves “woke” as well as Biden’s clearly weak, mentally frail and decrepit condition. 
COMEBACK KIDS – The ARIZONA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY FIRESTORM traveled to face the SOUTHWESTERN ASSEMBLIES OF GOD UNIVERSITY LIONS yesterday. The Lions led 14-7 in the 1st Quarter and 31-14 by Halftime. The Firestorm blazed back from there, going on top 35-31 to end the 3rd Quarter before winning the game 41-37. ACU remains undefeated. 
DEFENDING CHAMPS SURVIVE A SCARE – The 2-time defending National Champions – the MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS – visited the DORDT COLLEGE DEFENDERS. A 14-10 Mustangs edge at the Half became a 35-23 advantage in the 3rd Quarter before Morningside College had to hold on tight against the Defenders in the 4th. The Mustangs improved to 6-0 with a 35-30 victory. DC fell to 5-2. 
TEXAS-OKLAHOMA CLASH – The WAYLAND BAPTIST UNIVERSITY PIONEERS played host to the OKLAHOMA PANHANDLE STATE AGGIES (should be Okies). The Pioneers led 19-17 at the midpoint, the Aggies went out in front 24-22 to end the 3rd Quarter, and Wayland Baptist U bounced back in the 4th to win out 29-24. 
Glenn Greenwald, one of the few remaining fair-minded Democrat voices in the media, resigned from The Intercept, the outlet he co-founded, because he has grown so disgusted with Democrat attempts to censor the explosive revelations about Joe Biden’s involvement in his son Hunter’s international scandals. (A witness and emails have indicated the grifted money is shared among the Bidens, with Joe as “the Big Man/ Big Guy” who gets some of the cut sent up to him like with Mafia “tribute” to their upper echelon.)
Further links below but first some excerpts regarding his resignation. And as you read remember this is how Democrat editors behave at ALL media outlets:
“… as a last-ditch attempt to avoid being censored, I encouraged them to air their disagreements with me by writing their own articles that critique my perspectives and letting readers decide who is right, the way any confident and healthy media outlet would. But modern media outlets do not air dissent; they quash it. So censorship of my article, rather than engagement with it, was the path these Biden-supporting editors chose.” 
THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND (1908) – Written by William Hope Hodgson. This tale is a terrific but often overlooked forerunner of Lovecraftian horror blended with traditional haunted house elements. Throw in material that puts the reader in mind of Madame Blavatsky’s and Aleister Crowley’s horror fiction and it’s a magnificent story for Halloween. 
Balladeer’s Blog’s Month-long celebration of Halloween nears its end for 2020 as I take a look at the most seasonal covers of the 1970s Marvel Comics series Son of Satan. The latest Marvel television show, Helstrom, is a very watered-down and weak version of their horror character Daimon Hellstrom, the son of Satan and a mortal woman. (They didn’t even use both “L’s” in the name Hellstrom for the series title, as if h-e-l-l is too shocking for public use.) 
MARVEL SPOTLIGHT Vol 1 #12 (October 1973) 
While Joe Biden hides in his bunker from the Biden Family Corruption Scandal, Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog notes that yet ANOTHER Native American Tribe has endorsed de facto Third Party President Donald Trump. In the endorsement, Alvin Not Afraid, Jr (the best name imaginable) called attention to President Trump’s policy of letting the tribe assign and grant permits on THEIR OWN mineral rights, unlike so many previous administrations. (link below) 
Meanwhile, Martin Luther King Person of Courage Maurice Davis, the Democrat VP of the Flint City Council announced he is crossing party lines to support President Trump:
CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER REV WILLIAM OWENS also mentioned his support for Trump, praising the president’s policies which have helped communities of color.
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