WATCH IT BEFORE IT GETS TAKEN DOWN AGAIN!
During past Christmas Carol-A-Thons I’ve reviewed The Energy Carol, a Canadian educational short which adapts the theme of A Christmas Carol to energy conservation.
It was taken down from Youtube years ago but I just noticed it was posted again.
TO WATCH IT, CLICK Continue reading
Filed under A CHRISTMAS CAROL, Bad and weird movies
Obama at his most presidential
Balladeer’s Blog is still the only site on the web that criticizes both Liberals and Conservatives equally. When innocent people get killed by Muslim terrorists Barack Obama’s response is to lecture the nation whose diverse people elected him twice about what disgusting bigots he and his fellow pompous asses consider Americans to be. This weak and pathetic little man even says “ISIL” instead of “ISIS” just to grovel for Muslim fanatics who prefer the acronym “ISIL”.
Obama’s creation of the Islamic State through his premature withdrawal from Iraq and his general “masochism as foreign policy” approach inspired this look at how this worst of all presidents might have handled the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941.
The confused, uncomprehending face of utter incompetence.
For starters Barack “Eddie Haskell” Obama would have claimed the attack was “Fake News” and would have been too busy with golfing, fundraisers and tentative spin doctoring to even address the nation until sometime around January 24th, 1942. And that’s being optimistic.
” My fellow Americans, I speak to you today as a special guest on the Fibber McGee and Molly radio show. I am addressing you this evening about the recent incident in which America’s usual imperial and dictatorial behavior provoked the innocent nation of Japan, home of Shinto, the Religion of Peace, to act in their own defense by conducting a few military exercises in the Hawaiian Islands. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
Balladeer’s Blog continues to shamelessly pander to our superhero-crazed culture with this look at another neglected Holyoke hero.
MISS VICTORY
Secret Identity: Joan Wayne, stenographer
Origin: Believe it or not the Golden Age Miss Victory was never given an origin story explaining how she gained her super-powers. She supposedly trained in the circus when she was younger but that would not explain her paranormal abilities.
All that is known is that in Washington, DC, Foreign Trade Committee stenographer Joan Wayne grew tired of the corruption among politicians and government contractors so she donned a colorful costume and a mask to fight crime – and later, German and Japanese supervillains – as Miss Victory. This costumed figure worked for the FBI. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
Get it right this time or I’ll squeeze your balls like THIS!
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1982) – Balladeer’s Blog’s 2016 edition of my annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues with this EXPANDED look at the great Thea Musgrave’s opera version from Granada Television video in 1982.
Musgrave was British and in my opinion she was one of the few masters of opera from the late 20th Century. The world premier of this most accessible of Thea’s works was on December 16th, 1981 at the Norfolk Center Theater. That Norfolk, VA production was by the Virginia Opera Association.
Later the opera debuted at the Royal Opera House in the U.K. and at the State Opera House in Australia. Continue reading
Filed under A CHRISTMAS CAROL
Okay, I hate to go on record defending George “Jar Jar” Lucas of all people but there is one criticism directed at him that I think is unfair. People often accuse Lucas of jamming in a Jesus parallel with the way Shmee Skywalker gave birth to Anakin without any actual father being involved in the process.
The Christian myth about Jesus’ supposed Virgin Birth is far from the only example of fatherless births in global belief systems. George Lucas was simply keeping Anakin’s story in line with demigod and hero tales from countless other cultures. The concept is not limited to Christian beliefs.
In the tradition of Balladeer’s Blog’s examination of various dead-and-resurrected gods from around the world here is a look at just a few of the mythological entities with births that either downplay the father’s role or omit it entirely.
HUITZILOPOCHTLI
Pantheon: Aztec
Birth: Coatlicue, the mother of this national god of the Aztecs was impregnated by a small bundle of dust or feathers that got caught in her vagina.
Her husband Mixcoatl and their other children didn’t buy that story for a minute and suspected Coatlicue of infidelity. Huitzilopochtli sprang fully-grown from his mother’s womb to protect her.
FOR MORE AZTEC GODS CLICK HERE Continue reading
Filed under Mythology
Balladeer’s Blog
I’m an atheist but I love exploring the mythology behind the world’s various belief systems. American Liberalism has regressed into a faith-based belief system that’s every bit as irrational as any other religion, but since American Liberals – or “Liberal Fundamentalists” – are such pompous, hypocritical and close-minded fools it’s A LOT of fun to describe their myths as sarcastically as possible.
THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY – The American Liberal version of an afterlife. American Liberals strive to live their lives in such a way that people every bit as pretentious and snobbish as they are will sit around in the future sipping wine and pompously expressing approval of the worldview and political opinions that today’s Liberal Fundamentalists held while alive.
This notion of an afterlife is every bit as flawed and fantastic as any other religion’s tales about what happens after human beings die. No one alive today knows how the people of the future will feel about any of us or about our worldview.
If anything history has shown that people – ESPECIALLY the self-congratulatory asses called Liberals – take great delight in loudly and repeatedly condemning people of the past for (GASP) having opinions that differ from their own. It takes no courage and little effort to put on an air of moral superiority toward long-dead human beings.
That being said it’s more likely that American Liberals of the future will look down on even the most self-consciously “progressive” Puritans of today as hopelessly misguided or simply ignorant. Those future Liberal Fundamentalists very well may just sit around sipping wine and reassuring each other that they are morally superior to every Liberal of this era for not having THE EXACT SAME opinions as they do regarding race, gender, etc . Exactly like pompous Liberal Fundamentalists of today do with people of the past.
The obsessive conformity, status-anxiety and insecurities of American Liberals prevent them from questioning their faith and thereby realizing that their own condemnation of figures from long ago is every bit as much of a shallow, meaningless pose as the attitude that may be shown by Liberal Fundamentalists of the future. FOR MY LOOK AT THE DEITIES OF AMERICAN LIBERAL MYTHOLOGY CLICK HERE
OR IF YOU PREFER: Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, opinion
Fezziwig’s Christmas Party
Balladeer’s Blog’s Seventh Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues!
It’s the time of year when I examine countless adaptations of the Dickens classic from television, movies, radio and elsewhere! As always new versions will be sprinkled in with the old standards.
Here is a look at the 1995 home video Read-Along Christmas Carol. This version is just 50 minutes long and is ideal for youngsters learning how to read or for the hearing-impaired to watch.
The video features a series of still drawings AND limited animation from the Dickens classic accompanied by word-balloons of dialogue (like in comic books or comic strips) appearing over the characters’ heads.
This version provides an Continue reading
Filed under A CHRISTMAS CAROL
*** NJCAA ***
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – The GARDEN CITY COLLEGE BRONCBUSTERS did battle with the ARIZONA WESTERN COLLEGE MATADORS for the national title. The 2016 El Toro Bowl saw the Broncbusters grab a 7-0 lead in the 1st Quarter, then take a 19-14 edge into the locker room at the Half. Neither team scored in the 3rd Quarter and the Matadors went up 22-19 in the 4th. Garden City scored a TD with 30 seconds left in the game but muffed the 2-point conversion attempt. Arizona Western failed to score and the Broncbusters won their 1st National Championship 25-22!
*** NAIA ***
FIRST SEMIFINAL – The BAKER UNIVERSITY WILDCATS managed a very dramatic 4th Quarter comeback to advance to the NAIA National Championship Game. The Wildcats hosted the EASTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY MOUNTAINEERS and after a 7-7 1st Quarter tie held a 24-17 advantage at Halftime. The Mountaineers took a 27-24 edge in the 3rd Quarter and extended that to 41-24 in the 4th. From there Baker University scored TWENTY-ONE UNANSWERED POINTS to win this Instant Classic by a score of 45-41! Continue reading
Filed under college football
JEWISH GAUCHOS (1975) – It’s no secret that I love cinematic oddities. For this go-round I’ll examine the movie Jewish Gauchos based on the 1910 novel by Alberto Gerchunoff. The film deals with the musical adventures of a group of Jewish immigrants from Russia working as gauchos (Argentine cowboys) in Argentina in the very early 1900s.
This film plus a few westerns filmed in Israel but set in the American frontier make up the very, very unusual subgenre called Matzoh Westerns (as I’m sure you’ve guessed, those are the Jewish version of the Italian Spaghetti Westerns).
Outside of the bizarre subgenre of amputee kung fu movies from Hong Kong, Matzoh Westerns are my favorite cul de sac in the weirdass movie neighborhood. Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies, FRONTIERADO
As 2016 rapidly comes to a close I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention one of the most moving stories of the year: Kellyanne Conway becoming the first woman to successfully run a Presidential campaign in America. Conway’s work resulted in the election of Donald Trump, so congratulations to Ms Conway for shattering the glass ceiling!
I wish it had been for a Third Party candidate but many people are pushing the notion that Donald “Agent Orange” Trump IS a de facto Third Party candidate given the way his campaign had to fight the one percenters and bloated rich pigs among both the Democrats and the Republicans. The working class vote made the difference.
No matter what side of the political spectrum you’re on it is heart-warming to see such a positive story emerge from such a tense year in politics. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
