It’s the return of Balladeer’s Blog’s feature Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead. This time around it’s the Violent Femmes with their song Blister in the Sun.
ANCIENT SCI FI: PSI CASSIOPEIA (1854)
PSI CASSIOPEIA, or STAR: A MARVELOUS HISTORY OF WORLDS IN OUTER SPACE (1854) – Written by Dr Charlemagne Ischer Defontenay, a French M.D. and author. Long before J.R.R. Tolkien churned out obsessive amounts of fine detail about his fictional Middle Earth, Defontenay produced this volume of history, poetry and drama from his fictional planets in the star system Psi Cassiopeia.
The narrator of the story is supposedly translating alien documents which he discovered in an artificial meteor that crashed in the Himalayas. The documents were from a planet called (incongruously enough) “Star.”
The system where that planet is located is a three-star system. Ruliel is the large, white star at the center, around which orbit the two lesser stars Altether (green) and Erragror (blue). The planet called Star is orbited by large planetoids/ moons named Tassul, Lessur, Rudar and Elier. Throwing all science to the winds the planet is also orbited by a small red star called Urrias.
Star and its satellites are inhabited except, of course, for Urrias. The translated documents cover a roughly 1,000 year period of events regarding these worlds. The ancient Starian humanoids formed a united world-wide culture which started as an Empire before becoming a socialist planet economically and politically. The documents also claim that their culture boasted beautiful architecture, incredible feats of engineering and awe-inspiring works of art.
At one point a plague swept the globe, reducing the proud Starian civilization to chaos. A Nihilist Cult formed as the plague kept whittling away at the population over the course of years. In the post-apocalyptic ruins the Nihilists formed a fanatical religion devoted to ending all life on Star. The zealots formed armies which exterminated millions of Starians with the intention of taking their own lives when all non-members of their cult had been wiped out. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
ROBERT DE NIRO’S FAVORITE TRUMP LINKS
Robert De Niro, fresh from his gripping portrayal of a moronic anti-Trump fascist who hates the working class and the poor, stopped by to chat with Balladeer’s Blog. Bobby Milk told me he can’t believe people took him seriously. It was sheer Method Acting. He spent time with callous one-percenters and hate-filled celebrities to get the feel of the anti-Trump scumbags and turned in a very convincing performance.
De Niro told me he LOVES President Trump and agrees with me that Trump is the new FDR, the new Harry Truman and the new JFK. Here’s some interesting pro-Trump stories that Bobby recommends:
SHARYL ATTKISSON, the 21st Century Ida Tarbell and one of the few actual journalists left in America, took a break from the hard facts she usually serves up and presented this hilarious look at the recent misdeeds of the FBI (Fuggeda Bout Integrity). She calls it The FBI’s Fractured Fairy Tale and the piece deals with the FBI’s lies, mammoth abuses and violations in their pro-Hillary attack on Trump. Click HERE
DAVID PRENTICE presents a look at President Trump’s successes in foreign affairs and has a good laugh at the expense of “Never Trump” Republican trash and at the expense of the drooling, senile Democrat leadership as well as their fallen, disgraced Hollow Man Barack Obama. Click HERE
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUESTS have finally pried loose even more internal items from the FBI, items linking Bill Clinton’s airport meeting with Obama’s Attorney General Loretta Lynch to plans to whitewash Hillary’s crimes. I despise Nixon as much as anybody but Hillary and Obama’s antics make Watergate look like a parking ticket. Click HERE Continue reading
Filed under humor, LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion, Uncategorized
COLLEGE SOFTBALL CHAMPIONS FOR 2018
Here is one last round of congratulations for the ladies who won the national championship in softball in the nine divisions covered here at Balladeer’s Blog.
NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics)
National Champions – UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND ARTS OF OKLAHOMA DROVERS
Runners-Up – Columbia (MO) Cougars
2017 Champions – Oklahoma City University Stars
NCCAA (National Christian College Athletic Association)
National Champions – CENTRAL BAPTIST COLLEGE MUSTANGS
Runners-Up – Belhaven University Blazers
2017 Champions – Oklahoma Baptist University Bison
USCAA (United States Collegiate Athletic Association)
National Champions – CLEARY UNIVERSITY PROWLING COUGARS
Runners-Up – Saint Mary of the Woods College Pomeroys
2017 Champions – Saint Mary of the Woods College Pomeroys Continue reading
Filed under college sports
HAMMETT (1982)
HAMMETT (1982) – Directed by Wim Wenders and produced by Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope Studios, Hammett is a criminally neglected valentine to Hard-Boiled Detective Stories and Film Noir. The flick is based on the novel by Joe Gores.
The stories about the behind the scenes chaos and conflicts surrounding the production of this movie are legion. Pre-production work began in 1975 and by the time it was released in 1982 multiple cast and story changes had taken place and Coppola himself re-shot more than a third of the film.
In the way that Time After Time presented a whimsical “what if” adventure featuring H.G. Wells having a real time machine, Hammett serves up iconic detective novelist Dashiell Hammett getting caught up in solving a real-life mystery.
The timing is excellent, with the story being set in the late 1920s, after Hammett was no longer working for the Pinkerton Detective Agency but before he became a successful author. The tale begins with our hero – played by Frederic Forrest – typing out one of his penny-a-word Pulp stories for Black Mask Magazine, which was to detective fiction what Weird Tales was to horror and sci-fi.
Booze and coughing fits figure prominently in the movie, as you would expect given a protagonist who was an alcoholic with tuberculosis. For the sake of convenience the story that Hammett just finished before blacking out was one featuring his character the Continental Op (as in an operative for the fictional Continental Detective Agency).
Hammett awakens to find his most recent work being read by Jimmy Ryan (Peter Boyle), his old mentor from his Pinkerton days. Ryan jokes with “Sam” (Samuel Dashiell Hammett was his full name if you’re new to all things Hammett) that the “man with no name” in the story seems to be based on him (Ryan) and the way he operates.
Eventually Jimmy gets to the point: he saved Hammett’s life when our hero was new at detective work, and Ryan is finally calling in the debt that Sam owes him for that. The former colleague thus lures Hammett back into detective work for one last case. Continue reading
Filed under Pulp Heroes
SCREAM FACTORY: BRAIN DEAD (1990)
Scream Factory has announced that on September 11th it will be releasing its edition of the 1990 cult movie Brain Dead, with Bill Pullman and Bill Paxton.
It’s an enjoyable little head-trip of a movie that tries to keep you guessing about what’s really going on. Extras for the release will be announced at a later date.
I’m not sure if even I would want to own this movie but it’s at least nice for a one-time viewing. Once you know what’s really going on subsequent viewings lack any real oomph.
Filed under Bad and weird movies, Halloween Season
PHELIM MCALEER ON THE AMERICAN LEFT’S TOTALITARIANISM
Roughly 12 years ago writer Phelim McAleer moved to the U.S. from Europe and learned that many European assumptions about the country are just plain wrong. That was especially true when it came to the overseas image of America’s political left compared to the ugly reality of what they’ve become in recent decades.
Here’s another figure from the creative community making many of the same observations I’ve often made about how the left has driven away so many of us who used to belong to it. The link is below but first some excerpts:
“One of the first things I learned when I came to America was that American Progressives don’t much believe in progress. In fact they are among the most conservative – even regressive – people I know.”
“As I got to know my new country I discovered that very often leftism debased terms so badly that they meant the opposite of what they should.”
“I wrote a play called FERGUSON which only used actual Grand Jury eyewitness transcripts to tell the story of the shooting of black teenager Michael Brown. It is a technique known as Verbatim Theater.
“Nine members of the cast walked out during rehearsals. Why? Simply because the truth didn’t match the “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” Ferguson lie they’d been sold by the media. The irony was that most of the eyewitnesses who gave evidence to the grand jury were minorities. The actors were not willing to give minorities a voice on stage, because they didn’t much like the truth of what had actually happened in Ferguson.” Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
SIX NEW TEAMS JOIN THE NCCAA
Six new institutions will be joining the NCCAA (National Christian College Athletic Association) for the 2018-2019 season. Here they are in descending order of team name coolness:
ERSKINE COLLEGE
Team Name: FLYING FLEET
Location: Due West, South Carolina
GENEVA COLLEGE
Team Name: GOLDEN TORNADOES
Location: Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania
Filed under college sports, Cool names and cool logos
AVENGERS: THE FINALE OF THE KREE-SKRULL WAR
FOR PART ONE OF THIS LOOK AT THE KREE-SKRULL WAR (1971-1972) CLICK HERE
THE AVENGERS Volume One, Number 97 (May 1972)
AVENGERS ROSTER: THOR (Donald Blake, MD), IRON MAN (Tony Stark), CAPTAIN AMERICA (Steve Rogers), THE SCARLET WITCH (Wanda), GOLIATH (Clint Barton), QUICKSILVER (Pietro), THE VISION (Not Applicable), CAPTAIN MARVEL (Mar-Vell, Kree Captain)
NOTE: CAPTAIN MARVEL IS THE HERO THAT NICK FURY SUMMONED TO FIGHT THANOS IN THE POST-CREDITS SCENE TO AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR.
GODHOOD’S END
Synopsis: We pick up right where we left off: Rick Jones has just been transported back into the Negative Zone, the buffer dimension between the Matter Universe and the Anti-Matter Universe. He is being attacked by Annihilus, the Lord of the Negative Zone, who wants revenge on Rick for the way the Avengers prevented him from invading Earth back in Part One.
As Annihilus flies toward Rick as he floats around in the Negative Zone, Rick finds time slowing down for him. His mind begins to expand and – though he does not yet understand why – he begins to approach omniscience. His mind is filled with images of the perils faced at that very moment by the other Avengers and by the entire Earth:
… On the Skrull homeworld (name unpronounceable by a human tongue), Captain Marvel, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are fighting against an entire army in the palace of Emperor Dorrek IV …
… On the flagship of a Skrull space fleet just outside our solar system Thor, Iron Man, Captain America and the Vision are fighting frantically to prevent that fleet from reaching Earth …
… On Hala, home planet of the Kree Empire, Ronan the Accuser watches his own fleet of spaceships depart for the Earth, intent on preventing the Skrulls from seizing the planet, even if that planet gets obliterated in the cataclysmic battle of starfleets …
… On a small Skrull spaceship hurtling toward Earth, Goliath, no longer possessed of his superpowers, stands unarmed against a squad of Skrull soldiers on a kamikaze mission to wipe out the Earth to prevent it from falling back into the hands of the Kree Empire … Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
COLLEGE BASEBALL CHAMPIONS FOR 2018
One last round of congratulations to the college baseball champions from the nine divisions covered here at Balladeer’s Blog.
NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics)
National Champions – SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY FIRE
Runners-Up – Freed-Hardeman University Lions
2017 Champions – Lewis-Clark State Warriors
NCCAA (National Christian College Athletic Association)
National Champions – CAMPBELLSVILLE UNIVERSITY TIGERS
Runners-Up – Warner University Royals
2017 Champions – Oklahoma Baptist University Bison Continue reading
Filed under College Baseball
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