Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of this epic myth of the Nyanga people.
PART TWELVE
The semidivine hero Mwindo briskly walked through the land of the dead, making his way to the hut in which the death-god Muisa had hidden his evil father Shemwindo. Mwindo would at last have his revenge on his father for his crimes against him and against their home village of Tubondo, which now lay in ruins back on the surface. Continue reading
Filed under Mythology
Daniel Greenfield
“Our national security strategy, our diplomacy and the premise of societies that are being transformed by Muslim migration is don’t make the Muslims angry. This vision for the West is an abusive relationship in which the free world plays the beaten wife whose dreams and hopes have narrowed down to not “provoking” another violent tantrum from the psychotic monster who has taken over her life.
“Don’t Make the Muslims Angry” has become our highest law. The free world needs an intervention before we give up our rights, our identities and our future to live in this abusive relationship with Islam.”
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES
NAIA – 1. SOUTHERN OREGON UNIVERSITY RAIDERS (Defending Champions) ### 2. GRAND VIEW UNIVERSITY VIKINGS ### 3. MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS ### 4. BAKER UNIVERSITY WILDCATS ### 5. TABOR COLLEGE BLUE JAYS ### Continue reading
Filed under college football
MASTERMIND (also known as Q.E.D.) (1981) – A young, bearded Sam Waterston starred in this incredibly charming series set in 1912 England. Waterston portrayed the title genius, American Ivy League scholar Dr Quentin E Deveril, whose initials were, of course, a cutesy play on the Latin expression “quod erat demonstrandum” (“what was to be demonstrated”), the famous Q.E.D. from academic exercises.
Deveril’s adventures could be best described as a cross between Indiana Jones, Quatermass and Brisco County, Jr. Many of the creative team behind this show went on to do the lauded Sherlock Holmes series starring the great Jeremy Brett, and Deveril’s impatience with lesser minds rivaled that of the great detective. Continue reading
Filed under Forgotten Television
* HEADLINES *
NUMBER THREE TAKES A FALL – In the NCAA Division Three the 13th ranked HARDIN- SIMMONS UNIVERSITY COWBOYS hosted the number 3 team in the nation – the UNIVERSITY OF MARY HARDIN- BAYLOR CRUSADERS. The Cowboys trailed the Crusaders 9-7 at Halftime but came back to win the game 29-26.
TOPPLING NUMBER EIGHT – In the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) the number 20 CAMPBELLSVILLE UNIVERSITY TIGERS took it on the road against the 8th ranked LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE BLUE RAIDERS. This game was a true Instant Classic and in the end the Tigers managed a 26-21 triumph. Continue reading
Filed under college football
HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM BALLADEER’S BLOG! Here’s a look at some of the neglected monsters I’ve covered over the years. These horrific figures deserve as much love as the better known characters like Dracula, Frankenstein, the Crying Woman and many others.
SETHOS
First Appearance: The Squaw Hollow Sensation (1879)
Cryptid Category: Aztec mummy
Lore: Around the year 800 AD an Aztec scholar named Sethos drank the Draught of the Everlasting Covenant and went into a state of suspended animation. In 1879 mining operations uncovered the tomb where he was hidden away.
A scientist of the era mastered the technique of reviving Sethos and successfully restored him to full life. Sethos’ body was hideously mummified but intact except for a gaping hole in his skull in the middle of his forehead from the experiment to revive him. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season
Jack Palance and THE Billie Whitelaw in Dan Curtis’ Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Dan Curtis was well-known for his Dark Shadows television series, the original Night Stalker telefilm and its sequel The Night Strangler. Throw in The Norliss Tapes, Trilogy of Terror and about a dozen more made-for-tv exercises in the macabre.
In keeping with Balladeer’s Blog’s overall theme here’s a look at four of Curtis’ overlooked horror productions, ranging from excellent to laughable.
DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE (1968) – Believe it or not Jack Palance does a decent job as the dual title figure in this made for tv movie which also starred Denholm Elliott, Oskar Homolka and BILLIE WHITELAW, who was introduced in this production.
This rendition of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is top quality for a 1968 television effort and reflects the best elements of Curtis’ then-current Dark Shadows but without the frequent on-air gaffes that plagued that live broadcast.
The story is very nicely adapted with just the right amount of foggy London streets, murders and increasingly obscene behavior from Edward Hyde. One of the best features of this Dan Curtis treasure is the way it retains Robert Louis Stevenson’s oft-neglected point that it was Jekyll behind the horror all along – Hyde was simply the “mask” that gave free reign to the dark urges Jekyll suppressed in his everyday “respectable” life. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season
If you love Gothic Horror be sure to check out my October 1st review of the obscure Gothic novella Isabella of Egypt (1812)
THE MAN WHO LAUGHS
I always commit the literary blasphemy of saying that I don’t consider Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame to be very much of a horror story. I will forever maintain that Hugo’s overlooked novel The Man Who Laughs features all the virtues of Quasimodo’s tale AND presents them all in a superior fashion.
In addition The Man Who Laughs contains many more elements that lend themselves to pure horror than does The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In the past I’ve examined elements of the film adaptations of The Man Who Laughs (including the fact that the physical appearance of Batman’s foe the Joker was inspired by Conrad Veidt’s 1928 portrayal of the title figure.)
Here’s a breakdown of why I prefer TMWL, with Hugo’s tragic monster Gwynplaine to THOND, with his tragic hunchback Quasimodo: Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season
Owensby’s macabre Grim Reaper/ Fool Killer style monster from A Day of Judgment (1981).
What Larry Buchanan was to Texas …
What Bill Rebane was to Wisconsin …
What William Girdler was to Louisville and Andy Milligan was to Staten Island, Earl Owensby was to North Carolina. “The Dixie DeMille” himself is the subject as Halloween Month continues!
Low-budget filmmaker Earl Owensby occupies a unique niche in American movie making. Like Roger Corman before him, Owensby set out to be absolutely certain that his films made a profit and – again like Corman – a lot of his flicks were unpretentious B-Movies. Owensby notoriously never spent more than a million dollars on a film and never accepted a distribution deal that would net his company less than eight million dollars.
Many of Owensby’s movies are entertaining and boast decent production values, but for the sake of this review I will be looking at three of his lesser efforts that I feel fall into the fun-bad category.
WOLFMAN (1979) – With this movie Owensby completed his move from being a budget Joe Don Baker in vigilante movies like Challenge, The Brass Ring and Dark Sunday to being a budget Burt Reynolds in race-car and prison flicks like Death Driver and Seabo to being a regional horror film producer like Bill Rebane.
In a sprawling southern mansion the aged patriarch of the Glasgow family lies on his death-bed. A minister who is really a Satanist (Ed Grady) is in cahoots with some of Glasgow’s sleazy heirs to pass the family curse of lycanthropy on to the eldest Glasgow male – Colin Glasgow (Earl Owensby). You’d think that would happen naturally if you’re a fan of other werewolf films but Owensby plays by his own rules in this southern-fried wolfman movie. Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies, Halloween Season
