Submissions for the next on-line edition are being accepted through May 13th.
Papers can be submitted under the following areas. (Social Sciences, Humanities, Commerce & Management, Engineering & Technology, Medicine, Cultural Studies, Sciences, Art & Development Studies).
UGC Approved International Journal Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History
Balladeer’s Blog’s Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead strikes again with this tie-in to my ongoing examination of Patrick McGoohan’s science fiction/ existential drama The Prisoner. The video is quintessential 1980s cultural kitsch and was filmed at the Portmeirion Resort for Village authenticity.
Filed under opinion, Prisoner (tv series)
FOR PART ONE OF THIS LOOK AT THE KREE-SKRULL WAR (1971-1972) CLICK HERE
THE AVENGERS Volume One, Number 90 (July 1971)
AVENGERS ROSTER: THE WASP (Janet Van Dyne), THE SCARLET WITCH (Wanda), GOLIATH (Clint Barton), QUICKSILVER (Pietro), THE VISION (Not Applicable), YELLOW JACKET (Hank Pym, PhD), CAPTAIN MARVEL (Mar-Vell, Kree Captain)
NOTE: CAPTAIN MARVEL IS THE HERO THAT NICK FURY SUMMONED TO FIGHT THANOS IN THE POST-CREDITS SCENE TO AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR.
JUDGMENT DAY
Synopsis: We pick up where we left off, at Cape Canaveral, which in Captain Marvel’s own comic book series by Marvel Comics was depicted as an Area 51 type of base. Sentry 459, one of the Kree Empire’s gigantic, kaiju-sized robots scattered throughout the universe, was being studied by Earth scientists at the Cape.
From Hala, the home planet of the Kree Empire, Sentry 459 was remotely reactivated by Ronan the Accuser. In our previous installment Ronan pulled off a coup d’état, seizing control of the Empire from the Supreme Intelligence, the Artificial Intelligence which had been ruling for thousands of years.
Ronan directed the Sentry to kill Captain Marvel and the Avengers & Rick Jones, who were guarding the Kree Captain’s hospital bed at the Cape following the events from last time around. Ronan wants revenge on Captain Marvel for thwarting his previous attempt to overthrow the Supreme Intelligence, back in Captain Marvel # 16 (September 1969).
RONAN
The Avengers battle the Sentry, intent on saving the barely conscious Captain Marvel. This Sentry, which had previously clashed with the Fantastic Four years earlier, out-fights the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and the Vision, who himself was much weakened after draining most of his power to save Mar-Vell’s life last time around. (Those three were the only Avengers on hand at the Cape.)
Sentry 459 grabs the bed-ridden Captain Marvel and announces to him and the other Avengers that he has received new instructions from Ronan the Accuser, who has teleported to Earth via a Kree Omni-Wave Projector. The Sentry is now to simply bring the captive Captain Marvel TO him. The Sentry does, teleporting itself to Ronan’s secret location. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
Readers of Balladeer’s Blog asked for more May the Fourth material, so here’s an “encore presentation” as they used to call reruns, of my 2015 review of The Humanoid. In my view this is the worst of the Italian Star Wars ripoffs.
I know many people consider Star Crash to be the worst of the Italo-Ripoffs but I’ve always gotten more laughs out of The Humanoid.
The many, many ways this movie steals from Star Wars will become clear as we go along. Let’s deal with first things first:
Richard Kiel plays the title figure. His real name is Golob but the Darth Vaderish bad guy arranges for Golob to be the guinea pig for a treatment that transforms ordinary people into powerful “Humanoids”. As a Humanoid Golob loses his beard for some reason but – even more comically – the beard suddenly reappears when he is returned to normal late in the movie.
Golob in his amped-up Humanoid form has super-strength, is invulnerable to harm and can deflect energy blasts that the Rebel Alliance-style good guys shoot at him. The bad guys plan to use a warhead to expose every man, woman and child on Earth to the bio-treatment, thus creating an instant army of billions of super-powered Humanoids like Richard Kiel. (Good luck controlling them since the treatment will reduce them to mindless animals like Golob.)
Corinne Clery portrays Barbara Gibson, the spunky Princess Leia pastiche. Barbara is a prominent scientist of Metropolis, which is what the entire Earth has been renamed now that it is just one big planet-wide city in the far future setting of The Humanoid. Barbara studies a gifted Asian lad who controls the Force uh, I mean some kind of psychic or magical energy field.
Ivan Rassimov plays the main villain Lord Graal, whose entire army dresses exactly like Darth Vader. He does, too, but to stand out from his underlings HIS black helmet and mask have cutouts that let his eyes, mouth and cheeks show. Lord Graal wants to create the aforementioned Humanoid army so he can conquer the entire Milky Way galaxy. He has magical powers like the Asian boy. Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies
May the 4th live long and prosper … or something or other.
With this Star Wars festival rolling around once again, I figured a look at The Micronauts would be appropriate.
The Micronauts was one of those oddly-conceived Marvel Comics titles from the late 70s and early 80s that were about forcing a continuing storyline around an already-existing toy franchise. (Rom: Spaceknight was another example of this ultimate in ass-backward storytelling.)
And a young Joel Schumacher mused “Nipples on black armor, eh? Hmmmmm.”
The above example of Six Degrees of George Lucas or whatever you want to call it was just my odd way of pointing out my reasoning for posting this item on the 4th of May.
The Micronauts (First Issue: January 1979) was mostly a strained imitation of the Star Wars universe but also had a few similarities with Marvel’s ORIGINAL Guardians of the Galaxy. Those Guardians – Vance Astro, Charley-27, Yondu and Martinex – were freedom fighters waging a guerilla war to free 30th Century Earth from the dictatorial rule of its alien conquerors, the lizardlike Badoon race.
The Micronauts was set in the Microverse (now called the Quantum Realm), a sub-atomic universe which was being ruled by the evil, black-armored Baron Karza, one of the most blatant Darth Vader ripoffs this side of Japan’s Swords of the Space Ark movies. Karza could detach his arms and legs and could transform the lower half of his body into that of a black horse (think of Centaurs) for no better reason than the fact that THAT was the gimmick of the Baron Karza toys. Kids could move around the arms and legs or replace his regular body with the horse-like lower body. Oh what fun! (?) Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the science fiction/ existential drama The Prisoner. For Part One, in which I examined the themes and concepts at play in the series click HERE
Episode Title: DANCE OF THE DEAD
In the eternally-open debate about the exact order of the 17 episodes of The Prisoner I unashamedly hold with those who place Dance of the Dead as Episode Two. My main reason is the fact that the Prisoner himself and other characters bluntly state he is new to the Village.
Plus this episode features him betraying so much lack of awareness of the Villagekeepers’ Head Games and their placement of cameras everywhere that to me Dance of the Dead only makes sense coming immediately after the first episode, Arrival.
Mary Morris as this episode’s Number Two is one of the most memorable Number Twos in the rotating series of those Village executives. As we all know Trevor Howard was originally slated for this episode but Morris is a more than welcome change.
The title is perfect for anyone with the Prisoner mindset. So-called “mainstream society”, including its bizarre rituals which so many willingly and mindlessly play along with, truly is a Dance of the Dead. Today Facebook and Twitter and social media in general take the whole concept beyond the point of parody.
To me part of the argument for placing Dance of the Dead as Episode Two comes from the way it embodies the television industry problem called Second Episode Blues in which a strong opening episode is often followed by one that is a bit aimless compared to that debut.
Dance of the Dead‘s storyline – fragmented though it may seem – features a nice selection of elements that show up in various combinations in nearly every subsequent Prisoner episode:
“THIS MAN HAS A FUTURE WITH US” – On the literal level it IS true that a talented former Intelligence Agent like Number Six could be an asset to the conspirators behind the Village.
On the allegorical level, the leadership in even the most conformist and oppressive societies stays on the lookout for capable recruits. It’s often the most efficient way of co-opting individuals whose abilities might otherwise lead them to establish rebellions. The Powers That Be can even dangle the carrot of certain privileges not enjoyed by the rest of the population as an added incentive for talented individuals, enticing them to sell out and come over to the side of the ruling class. Continue reading
Filed under Forgotten Television, Prisoner (tv series)
AMERICAN MIDWEST CONFERENCE – The 5th seeded WILLIAM WOODS UNIVERSITY OWLS faced the 4 seeds – the COLUMBIA (MO) COLLEGE COUGARS. After 3 scoreless Innings the Owls went up 2, 3 and 4-0 in the 4th, 5th and 6th Innings, respectively. From there they added one more run for a 5-0 shutout.
The rest of the day in this Conference Tournament was all chalk: the top seeds – the LYON COLLEGE SCOTS, defeated the 8th seeded CENTRAL BAPTIST COLLEGE MUSTANGS 5-2 … The (2) FREED HARDEMAN UNIVERSITY LIONS mauled the (7) LINDENWOOD UNIVERSITY AT BELLEVILLE LYNX by a score of ELEVEN to ONE … And the (3) MISSOURI BAPTIST UNIVERSITY SPARTANS survived a tight 4-3 clash with the (6) HARRIS-STOWE STATE HORNETS. Continue reading
Filed under College Baseball
Conference Tournaments have begun in the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics). The Golden State Athletic Conference got things started.
GOLDEN STATE ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
DAY TWO RESULTS – The 4 seeds – the HOPE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY ROYALS – bounced back from their Day One loss to TMU to win a pair of games yesterday. In the Royals’ clash with the 3rd seeded VANGUARD UNIVERSITY LIONS neither team scored until Hope International U grabbed a 2-0 lead in the 3rd Inning.
That became a 4-1 advantage in the 4th Inning and a 4-4 tie in the 8th. That 4-4 deadlock held up until the ELEVENTH Inning which ended in a 7-6 Royals victory. Pitcher Jerald Johnston logged the Win. Continue reading
Filed under College Baseball
This edition of Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead incorporates a shoutout to ANOTHER Balladeer’s Blog item – my ongoing examination of Patrick McGoohan’s cult television series The Prisoner.
It’s Seger’s neglected song Feel Like A Number, including the Prisoneresque lyrics “I’m not a number/ Dammit I’m a man”
Filed under opinion, Prisoner (tv series)
Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the science fiction/ existential drama The Prisoner. For Part One, in which I examined the themes and concepts at play in the series click HERE
Episode Title: ARRIVAL
Fans of The Prisoner know that the exact order of the 17 episodes is up in the air since not even Patrick McGoohan, the show’s creator, star and prime creative force, was certain. However, there is no doubt that Arrival is the very first episode of the show (for obvious reasons).
The opening credits sequence is repeated for each episode (except for variations for Living in Harmony and for the very last episode, titled Fallout). That sequence presents our protagonist, the Prisoner (real name never revealed), disgustedly resigning from the Intelligence Service. Back at his home he is gassed into unconsciousness and awakens in an isolated, high-tech and dystopian prison-city that is called the Village.
The program’s nature as a Kafkaesque tale with science fiction trappings is established in this debut episode. The Prisoner is taken aback by the seemingly cheerful and storybook surface nature of the Village and the way that surface is at odds with the underlying air of fear and paranoia.
All inhabitants/ captives of the Village are either former Intelligence Operatives like himself, or scientists or figures from the government or military. And from all around the world, too, not just the West.
In the Cold War attitude of the time the Prisoner is obsessed with finding out “which side” the Villagekeepers are on, but as the series progresses it becomes clear that the Free World vs Communist World paradigm is merely part of the deception being played on the Village’s prisoners. And possibly the world at large, intriguingly enough. Continue reading
Filed under Forgotten Television, Prisoner (tv series)
