You can insert your own Phantasm joke here.
IF YOU’RE WONDERING HOW LOIS DIED … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Balladeer’s Blog
SOME RANDOM FRIDAY WEIRDNESS
Filed under humor, Superheroes
ANTEIA- ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY
Anteia was written by the comic poet Philyllius. This comic poet’s career seems to have spanned approximately from the 410s BCE to 390 BCE. One of his comedies won 1st prize at a Lenaea festival in the 390s and he won 1st prize at an unknown Dionysia. His fellow comedian Strattis credited him with being the first Attic Old Comic to use real torches on stage.
My favorite random line from Philyllius’ fragments: “The most important element of health is to breathe clean and unsullied air.”
THE PLAY
ANTEIA – This comedy was an example of the sub-genre of Attic Old Comedy called Hetaera Plays. The term hetaera is often lazily translated as “prostitute” but the reality was a bit more complex. I’ve always felt that “kept woman” would be a better way to capture the concept. Hetaerae (plural) did NOT walk the streets and were not just for quickies like the lower-level prostitutes. They had their own luxurious digs with the expenses being footed by whichever wealthy man was enjoying bedroom privileges at the moment. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Greek Comedy
COLLEGE FOOTBALL RANKINGS FROM BALLADEER’S BLOG
Via the Glitternight Index:
NJCAA 1. IOWA WESTERN COLLEGE REIVERS ### 2. EAST MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE LIONS (Defending National Champions) ### 3. BLINN COLLEGE BUCCANEERS ### 4. NORTHEASTERN OKLAHOMA A&M GOLDEN NORSEMEN ### 5. NORTHWEST MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE RANGERS ###
6. GARDEN CITY COLLEGE BRONCBUSTERS ### 7. SNOW COLLEGE BADGERS ### 8. SCOTTSDALE COLLEGE FIGHTING ARTICHOKES (yes, really) ### 9. HUTCHINSON COLLEGE BLUE DRAGONS ### 10. ARIZONA WESTERN COLLEGE MATADORS ### Continue reading
Filed under college football
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN MOVIES: AN INFOGRAPHIC
Brian Thomas, a contributing author over at Enlightened-Digital kindly provided this entertaining look at A Century of AI in films. Thank you, Brian! Have a look:
Filed under opinion
THREE ANCIENT GREEK COMEDIES WITH “PROFESSIONAL ACCUSERS”
Balladeer’s Blog frequently examines ancient Greek comedies written by Aristophanes, Cratinus, Eupolis and others. Recently I was put in mind of the way those comedians often satirized the “professional accusers” in the political and legal forums of ancient Athens.
Demagogues like Cleon and Hyperbolus and others often used “professional accusers” against their political opponents. These figures – called sycophantes by the ancient Athenians – are often termed “informers” in many translations of Greek comedies but I feel the word accuser is more accurate.
Such “professional accusers” would hurl scandalous accusations at their secret patron’s political foes, blackening their name in the public’s eyes and often causing them to face court costs, etc. (In English, sycophant has come to mean groveling toady and flatterer but back then the word carried a different meaning.)
Here are three examples: Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Greek Comedy, humor, opinion
FIJIAN GOD ROKOMAUTU
FOR BALLADEER’S BLOG’S LOOK AT OVER TWENTY MORE GODS OF FIJI CLICK HERE
ROKOMAUTU – A son of the supreme deity Ndengei by his sister. This deity was born from his mother’s elbow as another example of birthing oddities in world mythology. Rokomautu was so headstrong he tried to force even his own parents to worship him.
Rokomautu falls into the mythological category that Balladeer’s Blog’s readers will remember as a Divine Geographer. When Ndengei first created the world the land was featureless, so he sent his son Rokomautu to provide character. The god sculpted the Earth’s various geographic features. Continue reading
Filed under Mythology
COLLEGE FOOTBALL RESULTS FROM SEPTEMBER 15th
HEADLINES
NAIA OVER NCAA DIVISION TWO … YET AGAIN – Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog know that NAIA football teams often upset higher division teams in NCAA Division Two. Yesterday the NAIA’s UNIVERSITY OF SAINT FRANCIS (IL) FIGHTING SAINTS found themselves on the road against D2’s QUINCY UNIVERSITY HAWKS. The Fighting Saints notched an authoritative 41-26 upset win.
D3 OVER D2 – An NCAA Division Three team borrowed a page from the NAIA yesterday by upsetting a D2 team. The 15th ranked UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT OSHKOSH TITANS traveled to face the Division Two team called the LINCOLN (MO) BLUE TIGERS. A 7-7 Halftime tie wound up as a 17-7 victory for the Titans.
NUMBER EIGHT TAKES A FALL – In NCAA Division Two the VALDOSTA STATE BLAZERS visited the number 8 team in the nation – the UNIVERSITY OF WEST ALABAMA TIGERS. The Blazers put the Tigers on Upset Alert by Halftime with a 35-14 lead, then after the break they coasted to a 58-24 triumph.
… AND NUMBER NINE CAME TUMBLING AFTER – Also in D2 the COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES OREDIGGERS welcomed the country’s 9th ranked COLORADO STATE AT PUEBLO THUNDER WOLVES. A 21-14 1st Quarter advantage for the Orediggers remained unchanged at the Half. From there Colorado School of Mines outscored the Thunder Wolves 14-7 to win the game 35-21. Continue reading
Filed under college football
THE PRISONER: THE GIRL WHO WAS DEATH
Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the 1967 science fiction/ existential drama The Prisoner. For Part One, in which I examined the themes and concepts at play in the series click HERE
As much as I love The Prisoner there is no denying that even at a mere 17 episodes the series had a few duds. In my opinion there are three installments that could be eliminated completely because they do not serve the overall premise or don’t serve it well.
Here is the first of those three with my reasons for disliking it PLUS my take on how I feel it could have been changed to fit in more with the series as a whole –
THE GIRL WHO WAS DEATH – Talk about burying the lede! This episode completely glosses over the horrifying revelation that there are children in the Village. That’s right, we learn that there are CHILDREN in the Village!
At best those children would be there as hostages to ensure that their parents cooperate with the sinister Villagekeepers. At worst they would be there as human guinea pigs in perverse child mind-control experiments run by those Villagekeepers. The presence of children in the nightmarish prison city called the Village carries with it ramifications that are in no way pleasant. Continue reading
Filed under Forgotten Television, Prisoner (tv series)
RECENT MOVIES: SOME MICRO-REVIEWS
I have been getting a lot of readers asking me to review some of the more recent releases from major studios. Balladeer’s Blog regulars know that I tend to focus on incredibly obscure items or hilariously bad movies from decades ago.
Since a lot has already been written about the following several films I won’t bother with one of my in-depth looks. These will be more general takes on the movies.
SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY – Thankfully someone FINALLY addressed the elephant in the room of the Star Wars universe: the origin of Han Solo’s last name.
That’s right, in a cinematic setting which features multiple characters sporting the unusual surname Skywalker, Disney decided that the world needed a back-story for the last name “Solo.” Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies
GHOSTWATCH (1992): FILM REVIEW
GHOSTWATCH (1992) – This was a British made for t.v. movie that aired on Halloween Night in 1992. Ghostwatch is a nice – albeit boring – little novelty item for the way it anticipated the paranormal “reality” (LMAO) shows of today.
The telefilm also can’t help but put viewers in mind of the Paranormal Activity series and countless other Found Footage horror movies. Ghostwatch involves much older technology of course but for once, since the make-believe t.v. crew is filming their investigation of a haunted house, it MAKES SENSE for people to be filming everything.
The casting for this production was well-done in that it contains virtually NO recognizable faces. Usually when watching BBC items from back then viewers can’t help but play Spot the Doctor Who/ Sherlock Holmes/ British Murder Mysteries Actor. Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies, Forgotten Television, Halloween Season
