CAPTAIN MORS THE AIR PIRATE (1908-1911) STORIES THIRTY-ONE TO THIRTY-FIVE

For Balladeer’s Blog’s overview of the entire Kapitan Mors der Luftpirat series click HERE

RIDDLE OF THE SULIOTEN MOUNTAIN – Kapitan Mors and his crew land their air ship on a mountain on a Greek island between Korfu and the Ionian Isles. A Suliot sponge diver sees the Luftschiff land and informs the villainous autocrat who imposes his own iron rule on the locals.

The despot plans to capture Mors and his crew for the enormous reward offered by the tycoons who want to stop our masked hero’s crusade of robbing from the rich in order to give to the poor. The villain’s plot fails, of course, PLUS Kapitan Mors at last perfects his spaceship the Meteor. Continue reading

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ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS: MAY TWENTY-FIRST

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

WE STILL DON’T KNOW WHO WAS UNCONSTITUTIONALLY MAKING DECISIONS WHILE BIDEN WAS USED AS A FIGUREHEAD. There’s a constitutional procedure for presidential disability – Vice President Kamala Harris was next in line. The Democrat coverup was the REAL “threat to democracy”.

NEVER FORGET: DEMOCRATS AND THEIR MEDIA OUTLETS REPEATEDLY LIED ABOUT BIDEN’S UNFITNESS AND CALLED FOOTAGE OF HIS DEMENTED BEHAVIOR “DEEP FAKES.” More HERE.  

MEDIA AND POLITICANS LIED ABOUT BIDEN BEING “SHARP AS A TACK” LIKE THEY LIE ABOUT EVERYTHING PRESIDENT TRUMP SAYS OR DOES.     MARLOW WEIGHS IN

JIM JORDAN ON DEMOCRAT LIES AND PROPAGANDA ABOUT BIDEN.

PRESIDENT TRUMP ONCE AGAIN WARNS CONGRESS: “DON’T F**K WITH MEDICAID.” But Trump-haters are still pretending otherwise.

DHS ARRESTS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SEX OFFENDERS, MURDERERS AND DRUG DEALERS THAT DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR TIM WALZ PROTECTS UNDER MINNESOTA’S “SANCTUARY” POLICIES. I will say again that Democrat sanctuary policies never protect the victims, just the perpetrators.

DEMOCRAT CITY MANAGER OF WORCESTER, MA BLOCKS POLICE COOPERATION WITH DHS AND ICE. At this point Democrats are accomplices to the additional crimes committed by illegal immigrants.

DHS: DEMOCRAT “SANCTUARY” POLITICIANS ARE PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH AMERICAN LIVES. “If it saves even one life” these sanctuary policies should be done away with.

TRUMP’S AGRICULTURE SECRETARY BROOKE ROLLINS DISCUSSES HOW PRESIDENT TRUMP IS RIGHTING THE WRONGS INFLICTED ON AMERICANS BY OTHER NATIONS’ UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES.

TRUMP EFFECT: MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND SET FOR LOWEST GAS PRICES IN OVER TWENTY YEARS.

SENATE PASSES TRUMP’S “NO TAX ON TIPS” BY UNANIMOUS CONSENT. Trump remains the greatest president for the working class and the poor during my lifetime. Continue reading

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PYTINE (423 B.C.) ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY

Welcome to another one of Balladeer’s Blog’s posts about ancient Greek comedies, this one written by Cratinus, who was one of the Big Three of Attic Old Comedy with Aristophanes and Eupolis the other two.

If Pytine was an episode of Friends it would be titled The One Where Cratinus Fires Back At Aristophanes. This play is also known under English language titles like Wine Flask, Flagon, The Bottle, and others along those lines. 

Cratinus, galvanized by the tongue-in-cheek caricature that Aristophanes presented of a drunken, washed-up Cratinus in his previous year’s comedy The Knights, turned that caricature into the premise of his final comedy. 

THE PLAY

From the fragments of Pytine that remain it seems Cratinus had an actor portraying himself (Cratinus) as the booze-soaked Grand Old Man of Attic comedy at the time. I always picture the character as a cross between Dudley Moore in Arthur and Tom Conti in Reuben, Reuben. Anyway, in the play Cratinus is married either to Thalia, the Muse of Comedy or to simply a female personification of Comedy. 

Comedy complains to Cratinus’ friends, who make up the chorus, that she wants to take her husband to court for abandonment. She states that he is neglecting their marital bed because he has been spending too much time sleeping around with Methe, in this comedy a personification of Drunkenness. Continue reading

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JOHN DEREK: HIS SWASHBUCKLER FILMS

Today, actor and director John Derek is remembered mostly because of his wives – Bo Derek, Ursula Andress, Linda Evans and Pati Behrs.

Some film fans remember him for his supporting roles in The Ten Commandments, All the King’s Men, Exodus and Knock on Any Door.

Surprisingly, most people have forgotten that Derek starred in a long list of B-movies, from westerns to war films as well as – for this blog post – a string of swashbuckler movies.

ROGUES OF SHERWOOD FOREST (1950) – John starred as Robin, Earl of Huntington, the son of Robin Hood. When Richard the Lionheart passes away in 1199 A.D. King John (George Macready) returns to his old ways of oppressing and heavily taxing the citizens. He also imports an army of foreign mercenaries faithful only to him, not England.

The villainous king even tries to have Robin, the son of his old enemy, slain during a rigged jousting match. Our hero survives but soon takes to Sherwood Forest to gather many of his father’s former Merry Men around him to rob from the rich and give to the poor. Alan Hale played Little John for the third time in his career, the first in 1922 in the Douglas Fairbanks Robin Hood and again in 1938 in Errol Flynn’s The Adventures of Robin Hood Continue reading

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THE GREAT GARLOO: VINTAGE TOY FROM 1961

The Great Garloo was a two-feet tall remote controlled “monster” toy from Marx. Garloo could be controlled to walk, bend down and pick up things. For adults, boring, but for kids, it must have been the best gift they got that year.

A Son of Garloo followed later. It was smaller and was a wind-up toy. Marx should have cemented Garloo in the public’s consciousness by licensing a kaiju movie or two featuring the figure. The Great Garloo could have stood alongside Godzilla and Gamera.

Below is a vintage television commercial for the Great Garloo. Continue reading

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MAY NINETEENTH ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS

Another current events roundup from Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog.

COURAGEOUS LINDY LI AGAIN SPEAKS OUT ON THE TRAVESTY OF UNFIT AND ILLEGIT JOE BIDEN’S SHAM PRESIDENCY. And if Democrats had their way, Biden would have still been in the White House and they would STILL be lying that Biden is “sharp as a tack.”   Ignore the media sideshows about irrelevancies, THIS should be dominating the headlines and would be if the clueless Republicans knew how to use their media outlets as well as Democrats do.

AMID HUR TAPES REVELATIONS THAT BIDEN WAS TOO UNFIT TO HAVE UNDERSTOOD ANY OF “HIS” LAST-MINUTE PARDONS, CALLS EMERGE TO INVALIDATE THOSE PARDONS. More HERE. In addition to having had a corrupt, addled husk in the Oval Office, we still have no idea who was actually making decisions, including on the atrocious last-minute pardons.

DEMOCRAT OUTLET CNN’S VAN JONES PREDICTS DEMOCRATS WILL PAY FOR COVERING UP JOE BIDEN’S UNFITNESS “FOR A LONG TIME.”  

BIDEN SUBORDINATE LITERALLY SCREAMED AT MEDIA OUTLET NOT TO GO WITH A TRUE STORY REGARDING JOE BIDEN’S UNFITNESS. Again, THIS needs urgent coverage. If not for Donald Trump, the thing called Joe Biden would still be getting paraded out as if he was “president” and the coverup would STILL be going on.

MOODY’S DOWNGRADED THE U.S. UNDER JOE BIDEN AND BARACK OBAMA, TOO. More HERE. But the corporate media only cares if it happens under a certain president who’s only been back in office for four months.

DEMOCRAT JAMES CLYBURN STATES HE STILL BELIEVES JOE BIDEN COULD HAVE SERVED ANOTHER FOUR YEARS. Unreal. Continue reading

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EVERGLADES (1961-1962) FORGOTTEN TELEVISION

EVERGLADES aka Lincoln Vail of the Everglades (1961-1962) – This short-lived syndicated series stood out from other law-enforcement programs of its era by not being set in either a big city or the American West. Constable Lincoln Vail of the Everglades County Patrol policed the Florida Everglades in his airboat, giving this series its signature visual appeal.   

Even here in 2025 the shots of the airboat speeding along through Vail’s turf really catch the eye. In the starring role was Ron Hayes, stuntman and devoted conservationist in real life. The unique situations and challenges of law enforcement in an area like the Everglades have ensured this program’s lasting cult legacy, but sadly the expensive series lasted just 39 half-hour episodes.

Lincoln Vail was part wildlife ranger, part liaison with the Seminole Tribe and part traditional cop. The up-and-coming Burt Reynolds, former Florida State Seminoles football star, appeared in 3 episodes of Everglades.    Continue reading

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MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL (1957) ON THE TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT

In the middle 1980s/ Way down on Level 31 … There was The Texas 27 Film Vault. Balladeer’s Blog continues its salute to the FORTIETH anniversary year of this neglected cult show that debuted on Saturday February 9th, 1985. 

ORIGINAL BROADCAST DATE FOR THIS EPISODE: Supposedly Saturday March 30th, 1985 from 10:30PM to 1:00AM. Broadcast throughout Texas and Oklahoma. 

SERIAL: Prior to showing and mocking the movie Randy Clower and Richard Malmos, the show’s machine-gun wielding “Film Vault Technicians First Class” (EO6) showed an episode of the notoriously campy sci-fi serial The Lost City (1935). That serial featured a super-scientific city lost in the middle of the African jungle plus zombified “giant” African tribesmen, ray-guns, a slinky femme fatale and a tribe of pygmies.

There’s also a Great White Hunter as the hero and a mad scientist whose inventions include a machine that turns black people into white people!

And with typically tasteless Hollywood racism, the “colorization” is considered a REWARD for tribesmen who serve the mad scientist well! All this plus BOTH William Boyds in one serial!

THE TUNNEL WITH THE MINIATURES OF FILM VAULT DOORS.

FILM VAULT LORE: One eye-catching element of The Texas 27 Film Vault was the POV shot and miniatures for the fictional Film Vault that Randy, Richard, Ken “Tex” Miller, Joe Tyler and Laurie Savino worked in.

Randy Clower was kind enough to provide me with the behind-the-scenes photo shown above right. 

THE MOVIE: Monster From Green Hell was one of the many, many “Big Bug” films of the 1950s. Most of those “bugs” on the loose were mutated to giant size by atomic radiation but in this flick it was cosmic radiation instead which was the culprit.

Two scientists at a desert testing lab featuring the WORST “paintings masquerading as scenery outside a window” in film history are launching rockets with various life forms aboard. They do that to test the effects of exposure to cosmic radiation on those life forms. One of their rockets malfunctions and crash-lands in the “Green Hell” portion of Africa after exposing its wasp passenger to cosmic rays for over 40 hours. Continue reading

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SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS (1976) DARKSEID, MANHUNTER AND MORE

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist comic book post from Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at the early stories of a 1970s DC Comics series.

SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS Vol 1 #1 (Jun 1976)

Title: Attend – Or Die

Villain Roster: Captain Cold, Sinestro, Gorilla Grodd, Copperhead, Mirror Master, Star Sapphire II, the Wizard, Manhunter III, Shadow Thief and Captain Boomerang

Comment: “What are we, some kind of Secret Society of Super-Villains?” (Had to be said.)

Synopsis: Captain Cold and Mirror Master pull off a large jewel robbery and while dividing up their loot they get an invitation to join the title “Society” at a place called the Sinister Citadel in San Francisco.

Identical invitations are received by the supervillains called Gorilla Grodd, Copperhead, Sinestro and others. Everyone but Catwoman accepts. When they are all assembled in the aforementioned Citadel they meet the new woman using the Star Sapphire nom de guerre. They also meet their butler, Carstairs.

Suddenly, the Justice League members burst in and attack, but the villains fight and destroy what turn out to be robotic duplicates of the League. The costumed Manhunter III enters the room and tells the villains they passed their initiation by wiping out the robots. He calls himself a representative for their anonymous “host.”

NOTE: Their host is really Darkseid, as will be made clear soon. This third person using the Manhunter alias is one of the “evil” Paul Kirk clones whose organization the Council was thwarted by the lone “good” Paul Kirk clone, who also destroyed all the evil clones. (Paul Kirk was the original Manhunter from DC’s 1940s comic books.) Continue reading

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NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS ROUNDUP: MAY SIXTEENTH

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

SEBASTIAN GORKA OBLITERATES DEMOCRAT MEDIA OUTLET POLITICO’S SHILLING FOR KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA. More HERE.

PRESIDENT TRUMP CREDITED WITH RECLAIMING THE MIDDLE EAST.

DISGRACED FORMER FBI HEAD JAMES COMEY DELETES HIS SOCIAL MEDIA CALL FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP’S ASSASSINATION.

RFK JR. AGAIN CALLS OUT THE BIDEN REGIME’S BORDER DISASTER AS THE BIGGEST FACILITATOR FOR CHILD ABUSE IN U.S. HISTORY.

DERANGED WAR CRIMINAL VLAD PUTIN STILL MAKING EXCUSES FOR NOT SHOWING UP IN PERSON TO PEACE TALKS.

PRODUCER PRICE INDEX DEMONSTRATES THAT CONSUMERS ARE NOT DAMAGED BY TRUMP’S TARIFFS. Continue reading

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