TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT ANNIVERSARY AND A CALL TO FANS

1a randy and richard

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

*** SADLY, I FORGOT TO NOTE THE FEBRUARY 9th ANNIVERSARY OF THIS SHOW THIS YEAR.

Sunday was the 35th Anniversary of the very first episode of The Texas 27 Film Vault from Saturday, February 9th of 1985. My psychotically obsessive research on the show has yielded a lot of info over the years but I have now worn out every source I could find.

Even the show’s co-host and co-creator Randy Clower has been bled dry of information on the show by me. Over the years other fans of the show – and a special shout-out goes to “the Cap’n” – have provided info here and there that often led me to concrete source material.

Anyway, here are some movies that we have general, varied reason to believe were shown on The Texas 27 Film Vault but I need original broadcast dates, info on comedy sketches or movie ticket give-aways, etc. Episodes aired for 2 and a half hours Saturday nights from 10:30pm to 1:00am in Texas and Oklahoma.

Fiend without a faceFIEND WITHOUT A FACE (1958)

The Film: “Thought Monsters” leech into atomic energy, then extract human brains and spinal columns to use as their corporeal forms. This is a Bad Movie Classic remembered largely because of the scenes where the flying brains, sporting antennae, attack their prey, with their spinal cord “tails” streaming along behind them.     

Serial Episode: No idea, for now.

Reason for believing it was shown: Some of the Flying Brain Creatures are on the 1987 Texas 27 Film Vault poster. Continue reading

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Filed under Bad and weird movies, Forgotten Television, Movie Hosts

COLLEGE BASKETBALL RANKINGS FROM BALLADEER’S BLOG

Per the Glitternight Index:

Tyler College Apaches BIGGERNJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association)   1. TYLER COLLEGE APACHES    ###    2. FLORIDA SOUTHWESTERN STATE BUCCANEERS    ###   3. RANGER COLLEGE RANGERS    ###   4. VINCENNES UNIVERSITY TRAILBLAZERS   ###   5. SOUTH PLAINS COLLEGE TEXANS   ###  

Gulf Coast State Commodores6. GULF COAST STATE COMMODORES    ###    7. CALDWELL TECH COBRAS    ###    8. MOBERLY AREA COLLEGE GREYHOUNDS    ###    9. OTERO COLLEGE RATTLERS    ###    10. EASTERN ARIZONA COLLEGE GILA MONSTERS    ###    Continue reading

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ROBERT CONRAD’S “THE ADVENTURES OF NICK CARTER” (1972): FORGOTTEN TV

Adventures of Nick CarterTHE ADVENTURES OF NICK CARTER (1972) – Rest in peace, Robert Conrad. For decades, rugged sex symbol Robert Conrad embodied the old expression “women want him and men want to BE him.” My sister Debbie was a huge fan of Robert’s incredibly tight pants and frequently-bared chest. 

Thanks to television, home video and the internet, generations of viewers have been treated to Conrad’s memorable portrayals of heroes like old west Secret Service Agent Jim West on Wild, Wild West, real-life World War Two flying ace Greg “Pappy” Boyington on Black Sheep Squadron, secret agent T.R. Sloane on A Man Called Sloane and French trapper Pasquanel on the mini-series Centennial. (“Mawn uh-MEE!”)      

Nick Carter 2A few years after Wild, Wild West went off the air, Conrad starred in this pilot film for a tv series based on old Dime Novel and Pulp hero Nick Carter.

Carter had been around since the 1880s but, presumably to avoid too much resemblance to Wild Wild West, The Adventures of Nick Carter was set in the year 1912 instead. Continue reading

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ROLLING STONE’S MATT TAIBBI: DEMOCRATS ARE DOOMED ELITES AND DUMB CROOKS

Matt TaibbiIndependent voter site Balladeer’s Blog often points out the need for Third Parties. So many of us decided to #WALKAWAY from the increasingly deranged Democrats to become Independent voters. Rolling Stone‘s Matt Taibbi expressed similar disgust with Democrat corruption and dishonesty after last week’s Iowa Caucus debacle.

The link is below but first some excerpts:

The chaos in Iowa “reeked of third-world treachery — from monolithic TV propaganda against the challenger (Bernie Sanders) to rumors of foreign intrusion to, finally, a “botched” vote count that felt as legitimate as a Supreme Soviet election. . . .”

#WalkAwayWorse, though, is the fact that the Democrats have become so politically entrenched that, in this election, they are the reactionaries. Iowa and the “flatulent end of the party’s impeachment gambit” revealed to the world that Democrats are “an incompetent lobby for doomed elites, dumb crooks with nothing left to offer but their exit.”

What happened over the five days after the caucus was a mind-boggling display of fecklessness and ineptitude. Delay after inexplicable delay halted the process, to the point where it began to feel like the caucus had not really taken place.”

No matter what result emerges, it’s likely many individual voters will not trust it. [snip] [T]he overall impression was a clown show performance by a political establishment too bored to worry about the appearance of impartiality.” 
Continue reading

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

THE SEA DEMONS (1916): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION

Amphibious Man

Picture by Doneplay at Deviant Art

THE SEA DEMONS (1916) by Victor Rousseau Emanuel aka H.M. Egbert. Set in contemporary times this story features Lt Donald Paget of the Royal Navy battling sea creatures. World War One is raging but Paget’s scientist friend Masterman warns him about invisible humanoid sea beings who are mutating into air-breathers.

That development means the Sea Demons are looking to conquer the surface world and with their respectable intelligence they just might succeed. Paget dismisses the story as lunacy even after the Sea Demons kill Masterman to prevent him from rallying the surface world against them.

Lt Paget remains skeptical even after he encounters Sea Demons going through the late Masterman’s papers to find out how much he knew about them. Not even Agent Scully would still be doubting the existence of the sea creatures by this point but Donald remains skeptical until he goes back on duty at sea where he and his crew encounter the Sea Demons in action. Continue reading

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COLLEGE BASKETBALL RESULTS FROM FEBRUARY 8th

NAIA

Midamerica Christian University Evangels BESTNUMBERS TWO AND THREE SURVIVE SCARES – The (2) MID-AMERICA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY EVANGELS snuck past the visiting WAYLAND BAPTIST UNIVERSITY PIONEERS (should be the Flying W’s) by a score of 83-81    ###    And the (3) DALTON STATE ROADRUNNERS needed Overtime to defeat their hosts the BETHEL (TN) WILDCATS in a 107-101 shootout.

Tougaloo College BulldogsUPSETS IN THE RANKINGS – The (18) TOUGALOO COLLEGE BULLDOGS took the court against the visiting (13) XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA GOLD RUSH. The Bulldogs had managed a 36-32 advantage by Halftime, then held tight to topple the Gold Rush 64-63   ###   And the LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE BLUE RAIDERS won 80-75 at the (22) SHAWNEE STATE BEARS.

Benedictine College Ravens logoCENTURY CLUB – Teams scoring 100 points or more in Regulation: The BENEDICTINE COLLEGE RAVENS clobbered their guests the MOUNT MERCY UNIVERSITY MUSTANGS 101-65    ###    And the (19) CENTRAL BAPTIST COLLEGE MUSTANGS utterly eviscerated the visiting CROWLEY’S RIDGE COLLEGE PIONEERS 108-58.  Continue reading

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KILLRAVEN TWENTY-EIGHT: LET IT DIE LIKE IT’S THE FOURTH OF JULY

FOR PART ONE OF BALLADEER’S BLOG’S EXAMINATION OF THIS OLD, OLD MARVEL COMICS STORYLINE CLICK HERE  The revisions I would make are scattered throughout the synopsis below.

Killraven in his glory daysKILLRAVEN GRAPHIC NOVEL (1983)

Chapter Four: Let It Die Like It’s the Fourth of July

SYNOPSIS: February, 2020, or 37 years in the future, like it would have been to readers in 1983. Killraven and his Freemen continue their guerilla war against Earth’s alien conquerors.

Their current target, as this four-chapter story comes to a close, is Cape Canaveral. The site has been upgraded with alien tech and serves as both a fortress for the aliens and as a hub of the High Overlord’s Project Regenesis. The High Overlord himself is currently inside the Cape personally overseeing the final stages of this project.

With him is Keeper Saunders, the human quisling who separated Killraven (Jonathan Raven) from his brother Joshua Raven when they were children.     Continue reading

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TWENTY MORE COOL-NAMED NJCAA COLLEGE SPORTS TEAMS

Another Balladeer’s Blog Top Twenty list for 2020. This time it’s 20 more cool-named teams from the NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association). FOR THE FIRST TWENTY NJCAA TEAMS CLICK HERE 

Vance Granville VanguardsVANCE-GRANVILLE COLLEGE VANGUARDS

Location: Henderson, NC

Comment: Kudos to the folks at this institution for showing some creativity with the name of their sports teams! The Vanguards definitely stand out and their logo is very, very eye-catching!

Quinsigamond College WyvernsQUINSIGAMOND COLLEGE WYVERNS

Location: Worcester, MA

Comment: Quinsigamond is a mouthful, no doubt about it, and when you combine that memorable school name with the memorable team name Wyverns you have got the kind of magic that Balladeer’s Blog loves!

Faulkner State Sun ChiefsFAULKNER STATE SUN CHIEFS

Location: Bay Minette, AL 

Comment: With a nickname as cool as Sun Chiefs and with a logo that is as eye-catching as this one I can only hope that this college adds football at some point in the future.

newlogo01.aiCHESAPEAKE COLLEGE SKIPJACKS

Location: Wye Mills, MD

Comment: Don’t call them the Flapjacks. Don’t call them the Blackjacks. They are the Skipjacks, one of the most strikingly unique team names in any division of college sports. The Chesapeake College teams take their name from the sloop-rigged sailboat, not the tuna.  Continue reading

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DEMOCRATS FALL FAR SHORT IN THEIR FRAUDULENT IMPEACHMENT ATTEMPT

Trump and Bill ClintonBalladeer’s Blog remains the only site on the web that equally criticizes both Democrats and Republicans, and I want to remind the uninitiated that SIXTY-SEVEN votes out of the one hundred in the Senate are needed to unseat a president. The Democrats could only conjure up 48 and 47 votes respectively on their two weak and fraudulent articles of impeachment. (Nancy Pelosi should have torn up THOSE when the House passed them!)

I always maintain that neither Bill Clinton NOR Donald Trump deserved to be impeached in the first place, and I know from experience that – just like the anti-Bill Clinton crowd – the anti-Trump crowd will be forever sniveling with impotent outrage that he SHOULD have been found guilty, etc.

trump-and-hillary-map-behind-themIn reality the entire impeachment process has been degraded to the point where it is now meaningless. It’s been reduced to just another tactic in the usual partisan warfare of the Washington DC cesspool. And even worse, in this case it was used to try to undo presidential election results that America’s notoriously corrupt political establishment did not like.

Just like when the Hillary crowd failed to get Electors of the Electoral College to change their votes and put her in office and just like when the Robert Mueller investigation went down in flames, I will repost election night 2016 items. (see below) Because that’s what all this has been about. Trying to overturn the 2016 election: Continue reading

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TWENTY BEST SILVER JOHN STORIES

Mascot FOUR original pics

Balladeer’s Blog

Balladeer’s Blog presents another Top Twenty list for 2020. This time it’s a look at the 20 Best Silver John Stories. If you’re not familiar with this neglected Pulp Hero created by Manly Wade Wellman, Silver John was a wandering musician who battled evil supernatural forces in the Appalachian Mountains of yore. His nickname comes from his pure silver guitar strings and the silver coins he wields in his war against darkness. Think Orpheus meets Kolchak. For more info click HERE

Silver John

Silver John

O, UGLY BIRD! – In this debut Silver John story the heroic balladeer squares off against a vile man named Osmer. That villain dominates an isolated mountain community through his ability to send forth his soul in the form of a giant, hideous bird to prey on any who oppose him. 

THE DESRICK ON YANDRO – Desricks are old mountain cabins dating back to Colonial times. Such cabins were heavily fortified against potential attacks from hostile Native Americans or wild animals. This particular desrick houses a powerful old witch and is guarded by a virtual army of horrific monsters. Silver John must face the Bammat (the last of the woolly mammoths) and the Toller (a deadly winged creature), plus others called the Culverin, the Flat, the Skim and the Behinder.     Continue reading

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