The divisions of college football covered by Balladeer’s Blog kick off their 2016 season on August 25th!
To help satisfy our gridiron hunger between now and then here’s a look at the brand new helmets for the Bethany College Swedes. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Balladeer’s Blog
BETHANY COLLEGE SWEDES: NEW FOOTBALL HELMETS
Filed under college football, Cool Helmets
GEFJUN: NORSE GODDESS
Balladeer’s Blog’s previous looks at neglected deities from the Norse pantheon of gods have been pretty popular, so here’s another one.
GEFJUN – This fertility deity is one of the most misunderstood goddesses from Norse myths and that’s saying something. Gefjun is sometimes referred to as a virgin, but her four sons might disagree with that notion. (Most likely it’s another misunderstanding about how ancient goddesses were often called “virgins” simply because they weren’t married, not because they were celibate.) Those sons were the product of Gefjun mating with Jotuns (Giants).
In the same way that the Korean goddess Halmang was a localized “Mother Earth” for just Jeju Island, Gefjun filled a similar role for Zealand, the largest island in Denmark. By one account Gefjun convinced (or tricked) the Swedish King Gylfi into granting her as much land as she could plow and cultivate for herself. Continue reading
Filed under Mythology
RULE CHANGES FOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL’S 2016 SEASON
Unfortunately “Let Your Pet Play Center Day” has been done away with.
In a bid to keep the game competitive, fair, exciting and protect the players from unnecessary risk, the National Football Foundation and College Football Officiating group have released the 2016 season rule changes. College Football lines suggest that officiating will become a much easier task. The big question would be if these changes would affect the college football lines in all major sportsbooks and we will be finding out very soon.
The rule changes include; Continue reading
Filed under college football
INFINITE HORIZON: NEGLECTED SUPERHERO TEAM
*** *** *** *** *** *** Infinite Horizon #1
With the Suicide Squad movie hitting theaters, I was reminded again of how comic book-crazed Pop Culture has become. In the spirit of my 2015 examination of Australian-made superheroes here’s a brief look at the ORIGINAL SIX members of the Israeli superteam called Infinite Horizon (Adiri Atchelet).
Ofer Zanzuri created the team in 2004. If the response to this post is as great as it was for Australian superheroes I’ll feature the two newer members of Infinite Horizon.
DOCTOR Z’ROA
Secret Identity: Reuben Bachar, MD
Powers: Doctor Z’Roa can stretch and morph his shank limb into a variety of shapes and sizes. Think of him as being a combination of the Marvel Comics hero Mr Fantastic (Reed Richards) and the Marvel Comics villain the Sandman, but with his powers localized in three of his limbs alone. He has elements of DC’s Metamorpho, too.
*** *** *** Doctor Z’Roa
Comment: The good Doctor’s superhero name comes from Z’Roa, referring to the shank limb portion of the sacrificial meal in Jewish rituals. Reuben Bachar is the family man of Infinite Horizon, with a wife and five children. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
COLLEGE FOOTBALL: PRESEASON RANKINGS
The divisions of college football covered here at Balladeer’s Blog kick off their 2016 season on August 25th.
NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) – 1. MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS ### 2. MARIAN UNIVERSITY KNIGHTS (Defending Champions) ### 3. UNIVERSITY OF SAINT FRANCIS (IN) COUGARS ### 4. SOUTHERN OREGON UNIVERSITY RAIDERS ### 5. GRAND VIEW UNIVERSITY VIKINGS ###
6. MONTANA TECH OREDIGGERS ### 7. BAKER UNIVERSITY WILDCATS ### 8. TABOR COLLEGE BLUE JAYS ### 9. REINHARDT UNIVERSITY EAGLES (I still say they should be called the Rottweilers) ### 10. DOANE COLLEGE TIGERS ### Continue reading
Filed under college football
5 REASONS TO HIRE A VIDEO PRODUCER RATHER THAN DOING IT YOURSELF
(Thank you to John Montana for another of his fine articles about independent filmmaking in the 21st Century.)
You have just finished your script! Congratulations!! That is a huge accomplishment and you should be very proud. You would not believe how many “writers” can’t even get that far. But you have. Good for you. Now comes the difficult question that you must ask yourself. Do I make this video by myself? Or do I hire a producer to do it for me?
Well, this is a very important question. Because there are many variables you must consider before you start. Personally, I do it all myself. That’s just how I’m built, I can’t wait to get started. With that being said though, by doing it yourself, there are many mistakes and pitfalls you will make that can be avoided. And by avoiding these traps, you can free up an enormous amount of time and effort to concentrate on the task at hand…which is making your video / movie.
Here are the top 5 reasons why you should consider hiring a Video Producer. Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
NJCAA FOOTBALL’S COOLEST HELMETS
ASA College Avengers
To help us all hang on until the 2016 college football season kicks off Balladeer’s Blog looks at some of the coolest helmets in the NJCAA.
The ASA College Avengers (logo at left) have the coolest helmet logo in the NJCAA, but it fades in a little too much against their purple helmets to be sufficiently visible in pictures.
A white helmet might make it show up better, but at any rate their decal will instead serve as this article’s main pic to open things up with everyone’s favorite purple-flamed Goth android skull logo.
Now with your appetites whetted, dive in and sample the coolest helmets in NJCAA college football:
9. HIGHLAND COLLEGE SCOTTIES
Location: Highland, KS
Comment: As a lifelong dog lover I’m a sucker for Continue reading
Filed under college football, Cool Helmets
LUCKY BILL THORINGTON: GAMBLER/ GUNSLINGER
The Frontierado holiday is this Friday, August 5th! As we all count down to it like little kids excitedly awaiting Santa Claus here’s another look at legends surrounding another neglected figure of the American west. ** Special thanks to Jay Thorington, a descendant of Lucky Bill, for the correct spelling of the last name **
LUCKY BILL – William B. Thorington was the real-life inspiration for Bret Harte’s fictional gambler Jack Hamlin. Lucky Bill was born sometime in the 1820s in New York and after serving in the Mounted Rifles during the Mexican War of 1846-1848 had wandered as far as Michigan when word of the discovery of gold in California hit in 1849.
Thorington traveled west with one of the countless wagon trains, putting his Monte-playing skills and his con artist tricks to good use along the way. By the time the wagon train reached California, Lucky Bill had supposedly acquired a large amount of cash and valuables from his traveling companions. Periodic clashes enroute with the Pawnee and other tribes helped hone Lucky Bill’s gunmanship.
************** Sacramento in 1849, when it was inhabited exclusively by cartoon figures. Later they would move south and establish Toon Town.
Rather than spend his time prospecting for gold Bill settled in to fleece prospectors and other gamblers at the Monte table or with his skill at the Shell Game. Eventually, after winning many pots and losing a few others Lucky Bill settled in Sacramento, already with a trail of dead bodies in his wake courtesy of his Colt Walker pistol. Thorington played his game and his cons out of casinos like Jimmie Lee’s Stinking Tent, Mansion House, The Humboldt, New Orleans West and The Diana. He even spent time working The Empire – run by Andrew Butler – the brother of future Civil War General Benjamin Butler. Continue reading
Filed under FRONTIERADO
MADAME DUMONT: GAMBLER/ GUNSLINGER
Balladeer’s Blog presents another underappreciated Wild West gunslinger since the Frontierado holiday is fast approaching! Friday August 5th will mark the event, the yearly celebration of the myth of the old west, not the grinding reality.
MADAME DUMONT – Decades before Poker Alice and Lottie Deno came along Eleanore “Madame” Dumont made a name for herself as a blackjack-dealing gambler and gunslinger. Much of the Madame’s early life is unknown but she supposedly was born in France around 1830. In 1854, when the record of her activities becomes more concrete, she arrived in Nevada City, CA as the Gold Rush was still at its peak.
By this time the charming and aristocratic Madame Dumont had already acquired a small fortune in gambling winnings after playing cards and slinging lead in mining camps throughout northern California. Eleanore’s cash and her nascent reputation for being able to maintain order with her own guns if necessary made it easy for her to immediately open her casino named Vingt- et-Un (“21”) right on legendary Broad Street itself. Continue reading
Filed under FRONTIERADO
WESTERN-THEMED HORROR FILMS
Frontierado is Friday, August 5th!
For a change of pace I’ll give a brief synopsis of western-flavored horror flicks. In keeping with my blog’s theme of covering out of the way topics I won’t be examining movies that are too well known, like Billy the Kid vs Dracula, Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter or The Terror of Tiny Town. Ditto for more recent movies like Sundown and Billy The Kid In Hell. As for West World and Welcome to Blood City, those are more science fiction than horror, so they aren’t included either.
BLACK NOON (1971) – Roy Thinnes stars as an old west preacher who falls in with a coven of witches in the town of Melas (Salem spelled backwards of course). The witches tempt Thinnes into thinking he’s a prophet and healer, then use his vanity against him and his wife during their dark ritual of the Black Noon, which takes place during a mid-day eclipse.
CURSE OF THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN (1974) – A medical student and his hippy friends try to renovate a dude ranch haunted by the Headless Horseman. No, it’s not the figure from the Washington Irving tale, but an old-west gunslinger who was unjustly hanged, losing his head in the process. The Horseman now roams the dude ranch by night looking for victims to frighten. SPOILER: The Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies, FRONTIERADO
