The Pope has vowed not to brush his teeth again until every one of you listens to his favorite singer Gary Glitter performing his old holiday song Another Rock and Roll Christmas.
So here’s one more Yuletide song getting a shoutout from Balladeer’s Blog.
And yes, Gary Glitter’s lip-synching coaches were clearly the same people who used to dub Japanese monster movies into English. He might as well have taken a long drink of water at times during this performance.
But I LOVE the song!
Filed under Uncategorized
SCROOGE & MARLEY (2012) – I am still very ill so here’s a rerun for this latest installment of Balladeer’s Blog’s Christmas Carol-A-Thon for 2017.
Scrooge & Marley is a gay-themed version of the Dickens classic. It’s also a musical, but unfortunately the songs struck me as being as blah as most of Leslie Bricusse’s output in Scrooge (1970).
Previously I’ve examined Ebbie, which is a business-woman themed version of the story, John Grin’s Christmas and Christmas is Comin’ Uptown, which are black-themed versions of the story and even See Hear Presents A Christmas Carol, a sign-language and spoken version aimed at the hearing impaired.
Scrooge & Marley is an openly and deliberately gay adaptation of the Dickens story. It often falls into the trap of using its gay narrative as a gimmick rather than a theme but that risk just goes with the territory when a creative team is locked into following a previously mapped-out storyline.
The film is set in the fairly present day and opens up at Ebenezer Scrooge’s gay nightclub called Screws. I was hoping it would be called Screwed, to be reminiscent of the porno version of A Christmas Carol titled Ebenezer Screwed.
At any rate Scrooge is, as usual, a tight-fisted (as it were) hand at the grindstone and treats his employees horribly. Hell, he even fires them if they tip delivery people out of their own pockets! Continue reading
Filed under A CHRISTMAS CAROL
I’m very, very ill today so here’s just a look at the Best of March here at Balladeer’s Blog.
NUMBER ONE – With the passing of eccentric actor Bill Paxton I wanted to do an appropriately weird movie of his to give him an authentic Balladeer’s Blog sendoff.
The movie I decided on was Paxton’s often forgotten flick TAKING TIGER MOUNTAIN (1983).
The link to that film review is right HERE
NUMBER TWO – SJW’s are among the saddest and most pathetic people alive.
Though they are nothing more than petty informants whose only power comes from the higher authorities they run sniveling to, they laughably consider themselves to be “activists.”
To read SJW’s: LOSERS OR JUST FOOLS? click HERE
NUMBER THREE – In March I reviewed the 1888 novel A MEXICAN MYSTERY.
That work of Ancient Science Fiction was ahead of its time and dealt with a train engine so well-designed it achieved sentience and began attacking, killing and even feeding on human beings to fuel itself.
Long before Skynet, there was “the Engine.” Click HERE
NUMBER FOUR – Just as Balladeer’s Blog features Liberals moving on from that outdated label I also feature Conservatives moving on from THAT outdated label.
Here’s a self-described Conservative fed up with the likes of Karl “Miss Piggy” Rove, Kevin Williamson, George Will, Bill Kristol and the repulsive Bush family. Click HERE
NUMBER FIVE – Superheroes are everywhere these days.
Among Balladeer’s Blog’s most popular posts in recent years have been the ones dealing with neglected superheroes and superheroines.
For a look at the neglected CENTAUR COMICS SUPERHERO PANTHEON click HERE
Filed under opinion, Uncategorized
Christmas Time rolls along with another Christmas Song. This time it’s The Twelve Days of Christmas by Relient K.
Filed under Uncategorized
While “Murky” Mueller and his Funky Bunch of Hillary donors continue to prove what a joke their “investigation” is, Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at more Trump Cards.
But by the way, don’t you love how the new motto of the FBI (Fuggedda Bout Integrity) is “First we COMMIT the crimes, then we INVESTIGATE the crimes, and if you slip us enough incentive sometimes we’ll agree to SOLVE those crimes!”
*** Anyway, our de facto Third Party President Donald Trump nicely overturned another idiotic policy from Michelle Obama by restoring the choice of chocolate milk for children at schools. It’s a small thing but the fact that that hopelessly embittered woman tried keeping chocolate milk from kids is so typical.
Thankfully now we have a sophisticated First Lady like Melania Trump who SPEAKS MORE LANGUAGES THAN BOTH OBAMAS COMBINED.
*** As expected the Supreme Court AGAIN upheld President Trump’s travel restrictions. I only point this out because the hilariously uninformed people who hate Trump have such short attention spans they always celebrate the pointless challenges as if those ungrounded challenges “prove” Trump did something wrong.
*** A Think Progress Op-Ed recently blasted Faux-cahontas aka PRIVILEGED WHITE WOMAN SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN, who deceptively exploited minority set-asides by pretending to be 1-32nd Cherokee. The Tribe Warren claimed descent from REJECTED that claim long ago which is why President Trump delights in calling the repulsive Warren “Pocahontas.”
Deranged Trump-haters always feign outrage over that but conveniently overlook Warren’s offense, which denied academic employment to deserving minority women. Anyway, the Op-Ed is titled I AM A CHEROKEE WOMAN – ELIZABETH WARREN IS NOT, if you’re interested. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
Tradition and folklore hold that Charlemagne was crowned Emperor by the Pope on Christmas, but in real life it apparently did not happen until the following February. Still, Charlemagne’s anointing as Holy Roman Emperor on top of the kingly titles he already held was recounted as a Christmas tale for quite a while.
Most importantly, so much attention is paid to King Arthur – who may not have existed at all – that the real-life Charlemagne gets overlooked. But then reality has no place in the following look at the legends surrounding Charlemagne’s Paladins (Knights).
FOR PART TWO CLICK HERE
THE TWELVE PEERS – This term was the Charlemagne equivalent of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.
If you’ll recall the reason that King Arthur’s table was round was so that nobody could be considered above the others in rank or status. The same reasoning applied with Charlemagne’s designation of his Paladins as Twelve PEERS or equals.
MAUGRIS THE ENCHANTER aka MALAGIGI – This magician was the Frankish equivalent of Merlin from King Arthur lore. Maugris was raised by a Fairy named Oriande and appears in a supporting role in many tales of Charlemagne’s Paladins, often in a mystical disguise.
Maugris was generally depicted as younger than Merlin is depicted, and often used a sword in combat. This Frankish Wizard had an Enchanted Tome in which information he needed could magically appear. Maugris often conjured up winged demons to use as flying mounts to transport him from one location to another.
THE PALADINS
BRADAMANTE – This female Paladin was the sister of Reinold de Montaubon. She wore a suit of all-white armor, making her the original White Knight.
Bradamante, who wielded an enchanted lance that unseated any opponent it touched, rescued her true love, the Saracen warrior Ruggiero from his captivity in a glass dome atop Mount Carena in Northern Africa. Continue reading
Filed under Mythology
Christmas Carol-A-Thon 2017 continues!
This is a filmed presentation of the stage play by San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre and originally aired December 21st, 1981 on the Arts Channel.
The adaptation was by Dennis Powers and Laird Williamson and starred William Patterson as Ebenezer Scrooge. The only real mistake this Carol makes is that it’s one of those versions that reads WAY too much into Scrooge’s relationship with his father, even making up beatings that are never mentioned in the Dickens original. Other than that this production features some very nice touches.
During the Christmas Past segment Young Scrooge (Thomas Harrison) and Belle (Janice Hutchens) are ice-skating under starlit skies while having their breakup scene, which livens up this often tedious bit of business. When the Ghost of Christmas Present (Lawrence Hecht) shows Scrooge the Continue reading
Filed under A CHRISTMAS CAROL
*** NAIA ***
The NAIA Championship Game will be played on 
December 16th, pitting the Defending Champs – the UNIVERSITY OF SAINT FRANCIS (IN) COUGARS against the REINHARDT UNIVERSITY EAGLES (Should be the Rottweilers).
*** CCCAA ***
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – The Defending Champion FULLERTON COLLEGE HORNETS clashed with the COLLEGE OF SAN MATEO BULLDOGS for the CCCAA title. The Hornets led 7-2 in the 1st Quarter but the Bulldogs cut that to a 7-5 edge by Halftime. A 9-5 3rd Quarter Fullerton College advantage in this defensive epic became a 12-9 lead for the College of San Mateo in the 4th. The Hornets mustered that one final Touchdown to come back for a 16-12 victory. * THE HORNETS ARE CHAMPIONS OF THE CCCAA *
*** DIVISION TWO ***
FIRST SEMIFINAL – The 6th seeded UNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA ARGONAUTS – in their very first post-season appearance for their two year old football program – have made history AGAIN! The Argonauts traveled to face the overall 1 seeds – the INDIANA UNIVERSITY IN PENNSYLVANIA CRIMSON HAWKS. West Florida actually shut out the Crimson Hawks in the 1st Half, leading them 17-0 at the break. From there IUP rallied but fell short as the Argonauts won the game 27-17. Continue reading
Filed under college football
Here’s Balladeer’s Blog’s best from February.
NUMBER ONE – Since President’s Day weekend is in February it’s no surprise that the top post that month was my look at PRESIDENTS FROM EISENHOWER TO TRUMP.
I offered quick, light-hearted and critical shots at each one of those presidents. As regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog know, I despise both the Democrats (DemCorp) and the Republicans (RepubCorp) so be ready. CLICK HERE
NUMBER TWO – One of my Ancient Science Fiction items came in second for the month of February, IN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN (1904).
This blog post looked at the series of short stories about Gilland the Zoologist. “If Indiana Jones Was A Zoologist” is a glib description of this collection of tales. The heroic Gilland encounters humanoid amphibians, woolly mammoths, dinosaurs which hatch from preserved eggs and go on a rampage, plus more. CLICK HERE
NUMBER THREE – My review of TRUMBO energized people on all sides of the issues as I examined the cosmic-level hypocrisy of the film.
The political left feels that Blacklisting people and ruining careers is okay when THEY do it, but reprehensible when anyone else does it. CLICK HERE
NUMBER FOUR – From the 1886 story THE MAN IN THE BLACK CLOAK I examined the title figure – a neglected forerunner of Pulp heroes like Judex and the Shadow.
For this forgotten serial from Boys of New York magazine CLICK HERE
NUMBER FIVE – Coming in in fifth place for February was this item about a female research fellow and her courageous examination of viewpoint harassment and discrimination on American college campuses by Faculty Lounge Fascists.
To read that blog post CLICK HERE
Filed under opinion, Uncategorized
As Christmas Season rolls along here’s Big Bad Voodoo Daddy with their rendition of the Snow Miser AND Heat Miser songs.
Filed under opinion
Balladeer's Blog 