Tag Archives: Balladeer’s Blog

NCCAA COLLEGE WORLD SERIES: DAY ONE RESULTS

*** NCCAA ***

Bethesda FlamesDAY ONE, GAME ONE: The day started with this clash between the 3 seeds – the BETHESDA (CA) UNIVERSITY FLAMES and the 7th seeded OAKLAND CITY UNIVERSITY MIGHTY OAKS. After 2 scoreless Innings the Flames grabbed a 2-0 edge in the 3rd. The Mighty Oaks made it a 2-1 game in the 5th Inning but by the end of the 6th Bethesda University held a 6-2 lead. From there the Flames coasted to a 9-4 victory with Pitcher Daniel Arellano getting the win.  

Bluefield Rambling Rams logoDAY ONE, GAME TWO: Up next the 8th seeded BLUEFIELD COLLEGE RAMBLING RAMS played the 4 seeds – the ALICE LLOYD COLLEGE EAGLES. Neither team scored until the 4th Inning, when the Eagles snuck on top 1-0. All that did was make the Rambling Rams angry and they proceeded to put up runs in the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Innings. Daniel Ruiz pitched the entire game for the Rambling Rams in this 7-1 win. Continue reading →

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ADAM ANT: GOTTA BE A SIN

Adam Ant tuxedoBalladeer’s Blog once again focuses on Adam Ant (Stuart Leslie Goddard), the subject of my new “Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead” feature.

Previously I presented looks at the Adam Ant hits Goody Two Shoes and Vive Le Rock plus Adam’s cover of the Doors’ Hello, I Love You. This time around it’s Gotta Be A Sin. The song is terrific and the video – which was made years before the film The Matrix – features multiple versions of  what you could call a blonde prototype for Trinity, sunglasses and all.  

Adam’s performance in the video makes me wonder what he would have been like in a stage version of Cabaret in the Joel Grey role. Or in a very dark musical version of A Clockwork Orange.

Have a look and a listen:

 

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COLLEGE WORLD SERIES TEAMS FINALIZED IN NCAA D2

North Georgia NighthawksUNIVERSITY OF NORTH GEORGIA

Team Name: NIGHTHAWKS

Record: 46-10 

Region: SOUTHEAST

uc-sandiegotritonsUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT SAN DIEGO

Team Name: TRITONS

Record: 40-17

Region: WEST

delta stateDELTA STATE

Team Name: STATESMEN

Record: 44-11

Region: SOUTH

Colorado Mesa University Mavericks logoCOLORADO MESA UNIVERSITY

Team Name: MAVERICKS

Record: 48-10

Region: SOUTH CENTRAL Continue reading →

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MANTIS 5: THE AVENGERS/ DEFENDERS WAR CONTINUES

FOR PART 1 OF BALLADEER’S BLOG’S EXAMINATION OF MARVEL’S SUPERHEROINE MANTIS CLICK HERE  

Mantis Defenders 9THE DEFENDERS Volume 1, Number 9 (October 1973) Divide and Conquer

This worldwide clash between the Avengers and the Defenders was a crossover story covered in multiple issues of each of their separate comic books. Mantis gets to shine once again as the mystery surrounding her deepens. 

DIVIDE AND CONQUER 

The Silver Surfer, fresh from his battle with the Vision and the Scarlet Witch in French Polynesia, arrives back at Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum. He carries with him the fragment of the Evil Eye of Avalon that he outfought the two Avengers for.

The Surfer tells the good Doctor about how the Avengers seem to be opposing the Defenders’ plan to reassemble the Evil Eye in order to free the superhero called the Black Knight from the spell that keeps him trapped in stone form.

Mantis divide and conquerNeither the Avengers nor the Defenders are aware that they are being manipulated by Dormammu – an enemy of Dr Strange and the Defenders – and by Loki, an enemy of Thor and the Avengers. The Avengers think they are preventing the Defenders from enacting revenge against the world over their various grievances, a revenge that the reassembled Evil Eye of Avalon will make unstoppable. 

For their part, the Defenders think that collecting the six scattered fragments of the Evil Eye will restore the Black Knight to normal. Dormammu tricked them into thinking that, but actually that Lord of the Dark Dimension wants the Eye so that he can destroy both superteams AND our universe.    Continue reading →

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NCAA D3 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES TEAMS FOR 2017

Oswego_250x250TOP SEED

OSWEGO STATE

Team Name: LAKERS

Record: 28-8

Boston BeaconsSECOND SEED

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AT BOSTON

Team Name: BEACONS

Record: 33-10

cal lutheran kingsmen logoTHIRD SEED

CALIFORNIA LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY

Team Name: KINGSMEN

Record: 31-10 Continue reading →

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THE COMIC (1985): MOVIE REVIEW

The Comic bigTHE COMIC (1985) – Virtually every film buff today knows the tale of Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Robert Tapert raising money from doctors, grocers and dentists in Michigan to finance their subsequent horror hit The Evil Dead. 

Over in the U.K. Richard Driscoll raised money from Welsh miners and doctors to finance his very odd movie The Comic. Raimi and company went on to lucrative careers in the entertainment industry. Driscoll’s story did not have the same type of fairy-tale ending. Not even with an established figure like John Eyres helping out financially when Richard’s original funds ran out.  

The Comic 2The Comic takes place “in another place and another time” according to one of the female characters. From appearances it’s a near-future police state in which fairly ambiguous laws are enforced by goose-stepping goons who wear their hair in ponytails. This film seems to be reaching for the heights achieved in cult films like Eraserhead and Café Flesh but falls so far short that it’s more like The Jar.

Writer/ director Driscoll also peppers in elements of MacBeth, Hamlet and King Lear but only succeeds in embodying the worst clichés of arthouse cinema. If this had been a latter-day student film or direct to video affair it would not deserve all the insults that reviewers throw its way. But if you’re cheeky enough to dump something like this on the theater-going public you’re just asking for a critical onslaught. Continue reading →

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COLLEGE BASEBALL: LATEST NJCAA DISTRICT CHAMPIONS

Balladeer’s Blog’s coverage of the 2017 college baseball postseason continues with this look at the latest on the NJCAA playoffs.

Century College Wood DucksDISTRICT 3-E – The storied CENTURY COLLEGE WOOD DUCKS took a pair of games to win this District’s title. First off the Wood Ducks battled the RAINY RIVER COLLEGE VOYAGEURS in an elimination game. Century College went up 1-0 in the 1st Inning and from there neither team scored until the Wood Ducks drove in 3 more runs in the 8th. Century won it 4-0.

Next the Wood Ducks took the diamond against the RIVERLAND COLLEGE BLUE DEVILS for all the proverbial marbles. The Blue Devils were held to just 1 run in the 5th Inning, while Century College scored runs in the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 7th for a 5-1 victory. * THE WOOD DUCKS ARE CHAMPIONS OF DISTRICT 3-E *

Tyler College Apaches BIGGERDISTRICT 3-C – The TYLER COLLEGE APACHES once again became District Champs after 2 final victories. The Apaches played their old rivals the EASTFIELD COLLEGE HARVESTERS and led them 2-1 in the 1st Inning. That became a 5-1 advantage in the 2nd and the rout was on. When all was said and done Tyler College bounced the Harvesters to the tune of 9-2.

Then the Apaches squared off against the BROOKHAVEN COLLEGE BEARS. After 2 scoreless Innings Tyler grabbed a 4-0 lead in the 3rd. That was extended to an 8-2 lead in the 4th and 10-2 in the 5th. The Bears were never really in this game as the Apaches doubled-up on them for a 12-6 win. * THE APACHES ARE CHAMPIONS OF DISTRICT 3-C * Continue reading →

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BAPTAE (Circa 415-413 B.C.): ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY

Dr Frank N FurterFor Balladeer’s Blog’s latest post on Ancient Greek Comedy I will examine another fragmentary work by Eupolis, who, along with Aristophanes and Cratinus was one of the Big Three of Attic Old Comedy.

BAPTAE was a comedy satirizing the latest faddish belief system to hit Athens: the cult of the Dorian and Thracian goddess Cotyto. Just like Kabala or transcendental meditation and other systems have enjoyed a brief vogue with entertainers and even some movers and shakers various foreign deities would periodically develop a following in ancient Athens. Eupolis was lampooning the fashionable appeal of one such cult and also ridiculed other elements of Cotyto worship as we will see.

The title Baptae came from the fact that the worshippers of Cotyto would immerse or “baptize” their garments in blue, green or purple dye, an expensive and very ostentatious indulgence for the time period. And yes, Baptae and baptizing are from the same root word, since it originally referred to immersion in any liquid, not just water.

The main element of the Athenian version of the cult of Cotyto was the fact that her devotees were exclusively male and all of them DRESSED AS THE GODDESS as part of their rites of worship. Even today we can Continue reading →

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NCCAA COLLEGE WORLD SERIES TEAMS FINALIZED

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Oklahoma Baptist University Bison BIGTOP SEED

OKLAHOMA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY

Team Name: BISON

Central Region Champions

Emmanuel College Lions logoSECOND SEED

EMMANUEL COLLEGE

Team Name: LIONS

South Region Champions 

Bethesda FlamesTHIRD SEED

BETHESDA (CA) UNIVERSITY

Team Name: FLAMES

West Region Champions

Alice Lloyd College EaglesFOURTH SEED

ALICE LLOYD COLLEGE

Team Name: EAGLES

Mideast Region Champions Continue reading →

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MANTIS 4: THE AVENGERS VS THE DEFENDERS

FOR PART 1 OF BALLADEER’S BLOG’S EXAMINATION OF MARVEL’S SUPERHEROINE MANTIS CLICK HERE 

Mantis betrayalTHE AVENGERS Volume 1, Number 116 (October 1973) Betrayal

Avengers Roster: THOR, IRON MAN, CAPTAIN AMERICA, THE SCARLET WITCH, THE BLACK PANTHER, THE VISION, THE SWORDSMAN and MANTIS, the mysterious  superheroine from Vietnam.  

Defenders Roster: DOCTOR STRANGE (Stephen Strange, MD), SUB-MARINER (Prince Namor), THE HULK (Bruce Banner, PhD), THE SILVER SURFER (Norrin Radd), THE VALKYRIE (Barbara Norris) and the former Avenger, HAWKEYE (Clint Barton). (At the time of this story the Defenders functioned more like the much, much later Justice League Dark at DC, instead of their later street-level focus.)

As part of Mantis’ original run with the Avengers she took part in this milestone clash between those Avengers and the then-secret group called the Defenders. The story was presented in multiple issues of both The Avengers and The Defenders’ separate comic books.

BETRAYAL

Mantis Betrayal 2In the previous installment I examined Avengers #115 in which the team went searching for their long out-of-touch member the Black Knight. At his Garrett Castle headquarters our heroes found the Knight missing and an impenetrable mystic barrier surrounding the castle.

Mantis’ mutant empathic power enabled her to detect that Dr Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts, had erected the barrier for unknown reasons. In 1973 the Avengers had had very limited contact with Dr Strange, who had previously helped them and the Black Knight save the world.    Continue reading →

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