October 3, 2015 · 4:42 pm

THE GNOMES OF THE CATSKILLS

Halloween Month continues! Balladeer’s Blog presents another neglected American horror story. “Workin’ the Catskills” takes on all new meaning in this tale. 

THE GNOMES OF THE CATSKILLS 

Grand HotelThe now-closed Grand Hotel stood in the heart of the Catskills Mountains at Highmount, NY. On either Monka Hill behind the hotel or on Slide Mountain facing the hotel across Big Indian Valley (accounts vary) was the location of the mystic camp of the Catskills Gnomes.

Those gnomes were short humanoids with long beards and eyes like pigs. The intelligent creatures were already considered ancient by the time Europeans arrived in the area. Like the legendary town of Brigadoon the camp of the Catskills Gnomes appeared on Earth only periodically. Continue reading →

10 Comments

Filed under Halloween Season

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

October 3, 2015 · 2:04 pm

MWINDO: EPIC MYTH OF AFRICA PART FOUR

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of this epic myth of the Nyanga people.

PART FOUR

Nyanga riverThe evil Chief Shemwindo believed Mwindo was now dead and he rewarded the men who entrapped the child in the drum and tossed him in the river to drown. He gave each one of them a new bride to show his appreciation.

Mwindo’s mother Nyamwindo was inconsolable at the thought that her baby had been slain. Shemwindo warned her to stop being upset or he would kill her, too. Immediately Nyamwindo went from being the favored wife to being the despised wife of the chief’s seven wives. Continue reading →

10 Comments

Filed under Mythology

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

October 2, 2015 · 7:05 pm

THE SKELETAL HORSEMEN

THE SKELETAL HORSEMEN

Skeletons on HorsebackHalloween Month continues! Call this story Gothic Horror if you like or call it American Gothic Horror. It’s been around a very long time in various forms. In the first decade of the 1800’s the area between Goshen, NY and Long Island was being subjected to a periodic reign of terror.

That reign of terror was unleashed once a year in the dead of winter. At the stroke of Midnight on January 22nd skeletal figures with the rags of Colonial- era clothing clinging to their frames would ride the countryside atop skeletal horses and would smash in windows with their swords, drive off horses and cattle or frighten the poor beasts to death and would strike down anyone foolish enough to try to oppose their actions.  

The ghastly raiding would come to a stop at sunrise but the moment the sun went down that night the mayhem would resume until the clock again struck twelve. The horsemen numbered six with the largest of the company riding out in front leading his unliving comrades into action. Continue reading →

14 Comments

Filed under Halloween Season

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

October 2, 2015 · 1:01 am

THE RAPING REFUGEES OF ISLAM

This man (Pat Condell) addresses the sheer insanity of accomodating hundreds of thousands of unchecked “refugees”, most of whom aren’t even Syrian and who forfeited the rights of refugees by refusing to stay in the first safe nation they arrived in. Apparently international law is to be followed ONLY when it works against the free societies of the West.

*** THE MAN WHO MADE THE VIDEO DESERVES ALL THE CREDIT FOR THE CONTENT. HE SAYS IT PERFECTLY. I’M JUST PROVIDING THE EMBED ***  

Continue reading →

48 Comments

Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

October 1, 2015 · 4:55 pm

ASH VS THE EVIL DEAD ARRIVES ON HALLOWEEN

Army of Darkness CthulhuOctober is Halloween Month! And this Halloween brings the extra treat of Bruce Campbell’s character Ash Williams returning to fight even more Deadites in the Starz cable show Ash vs (the) Evil Dead.

The series looks to be in the spirit of the various Army of Darkness comic book series’ that came and went over the years so I will periodically post a few covers until the 31st arrives. Regarding this first cover it’s only appropriate that Ash tangles with Herbert West, Reanimator and even more appropriate that his clash with that graduate of Miskatonic Medical School leads to an encounter with Cthulhu himself! (I’m sure you’ll recall Miskatonic University possessed one of the few surviving copies of the Necronomicon.)  Continue reading →

4 Comments

Filed under Halloween Season

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

October 1, 2015 · 12:01 am

GOTHIC HORROR: ISABELLA OF EGYPT (1812)

Isabella of Egypt Alraune and the GolemHalloween Month begins! In addition to covering all of my usual topics I spend each October sprinkling in neglected horror movies, stories and novels.

Isabella of Egypt is a very obscure 1812 Gothic Horror novella by Ludwig Achim Von Arnim. Under the more evocative title Alraune and the Golem it was to be filmed as a silent movie in 1919 but unfortunately it was never completed or is one of the countless silent films that have not survived to the present day (sources vary). 

The story is set in the 16th Century and features the real-life Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, but in his teen years, right before he assumed the throne first of Spain and later of the H.R. Empire. The novella is not a horror classic per se, but is very eerie and features an odd variety of horrific supernatural figures in Monster Rally fashion.  Continue reading →

185 Comments

Filed under Halloween Season

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 30, 2015 · 7:28 pm

MUSLIM VIOLENCE AWARENESS MONTH ENDS FOR 2015

Islam enforcementYes, Muslim Violence Awareness Month comes and goes each year but Muslim violence goes on and on. It’s no secret that Islam is the most homophobic, misogynistic and otherwise intolerant religion in the world at this particular point in history. It’s no secret but it needs to be pointed out daily and loudly. Islam hates human freedom. Period. And Islam’s Kapos in the “academic” and political world are happy to run interference for Islam. 

Here’s a look at some of the recent acts of violence in the name of the Religion of Rape, Slavery and Hatred:

September 26th – In Bangui, Central African Republic a Muslim mob used automatic weapons to mow down and kill over 21 innocent people.  Continue reading →

12 Comments

Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

September 30, 2015 · 12:02 am

WOMEN WHO FIGHT MUSLIM OPPRESSION

Individually the ladies of this real-life League of Extraordinary Women have all been featured over the years here on Balladeer’s Blog. Each one of them has more courage than all of the make-believe feminists whining about “microaggressions” and “safe spaces” on college campuses across America.

These ladies face REAL danger from REAL oppressors of women.

Wafa Sultan*** WAFA SULTAN is an author and activist against Islamofascism. She writes first-hand about the barbaric and systematically demeaning treatment that women in the Muslim world are subjected to. 

Wafa is one of those courageous individuals who are needed the most at this time – the kind who demand to be heard no matter how dangerous it is for them personally. In 2006 Wafa was the first  woman on the Muslim propoganda channel Al Jazeera. She masterfully demolished the inept reactionary arguments of the Imam she was debating. 
Continue reading →

26 Comments

Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 29, 2015 · 9:13 pm

COLLEGE FOOTBALL RANKINGS FROM BALLADEER’S BLOG

Coffeyville Red Ravens helmetNJCAA – 1. COFFEYVILLE COLLEGE RED RAVENS     ###      2. COPIAH- LINCOLN WOLFPACK     ###      3. BUTLER (KS) GRIZZLIES     ###      4. NORTHWEST MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE RANGERS     ###      5. ROCHESTER TECH YELLOW JACKETS     ###       Continue reading →

29 Comments

Filed under college football

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

September 28, 2015 · 11:15 pm

THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN (1977)

The Dragon Lives Again

THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN (1977) – Category: Brucesploitation with an enjoyably absurd twist   

Even for the bizarre sub-genre of Brucesploitation films this movie is out there! The film starts with the recently – deceased Bruce Lee arriving in the afterlife, where the concubines of the King of the Dead gather around to gawk at the bulge in the pants of the late martials arts superstar. (Just in case you thought NO opening could be more tasteless than the one in The Clones Of Bruce Lee ) In a bit of alleged comic relief the bulge turns out to be caused by a weapon, not Lee’s organ. (Corpse schlong jokes! Who doesn’t love them?)

As head-shaking as that bit is at least it’s coherent, unlike virtually everything else that happens from this point on in the movie. And the time-honored tradition of Brucesploitation films having Continue reading →

12 Comments

Filed under Bad and weird movies

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,