LIBERTY VS LYNX: GAME TWO – The NEW YORK LIBERTY took the court against the visiting MINNESOTA LYNX, who held a 1-0 advantage in this best of 5 finals series.
The Liberty were all business yesterday, leading Minnesota 31-21 to end the opening Quarter and 49-39 come Halftime. In the 3rd Quarter the Lynx slightly nibbled at New York’s lead, pulling to within 61-53. Continue reading
Filed under WNBA
Balladeer’s Blog
Halloween Month rolls along here at Balladeer’s Blog with a repost of my 2014 review of a Washington Irving tale. Not The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, but Irving’s sci-fi tale that deserves to be associated with Halloween at least as much as Orson Welles’ radio adaptation of War of the Worlds long ago.
Washington Irving giving us his sexiest come-hither stare.
THE MEN OF THE MOON (1809) – Several decades before H.G. Wells would use his fictional invasion from Mars in War of the Worlds as an allegorical condemnation of colonialism the American author Washington Irving beat him to it. In Irving’s work The Men of the Moon a technologically advanced race from the moon conquered the Earth and treated its inhabitants the way that European and Muslim colonialists often treated the indigenous inhabitants of the areas they subjugated.
Irving, with tongue-in-cheek, called his invaders from the moon “Lunatics” and depicted them as green-skinned humanoids with tails and one eye each instead of two. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction, Halloween Season
HEADLINES
DOWN GOES NUMBER FOUR – In the NAIA the CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY PHOENIX hosted the number 4 team in the nation – the BETHEL (TN) WILDCATS. Neither team scored in the opening Quarter, but the score was tied at 7-7 come Halftime. After the break, the Phoenix outscored Bethel University 14-7 for a 21-14 Upset.
INDIE TEAM OVER NCAA – This game saw the independent NEWPORT NEWS APPRENTICE SCHOOL BUILDERS (Shipbuilders) welcoming the D3 MAINE MARITIME ACADEMY MARINERS. The Builders returned the opening kickoff for a Touchdown, then notched a 35-12 1st Quarter lead. The Apprentice School never looked back from there, demolishing the Mariners SEVENTY-TWO to TWENTY-SIX! Continue reading
Filed under college football
This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at several obscure characters from around the world whose horror-tinged natures make them ideal for Halloween Season.
THIS FIRST ENTRY IS FROM BRAZIL. For Brazilian superheroes who aren’t horror-based click HERE.
PENITENTE (Penitent)
Secret Identity: Not revealed as yet.
Debut Year: 2006
Origin: This character had been a professional hitman for organized crime in Brazil for several years. One night he was killed in his sleep on orders of his own bosses, but Heavenly forces offered him a chance at redemption. In exchange for them allowing this figure’s soul to animate his now dead body they would grant him supernatural abilities.
To redeem himself in the eyes of Heaven, the Penitente had to save seventy times seven the number of innocent victims he had killed while alive. As part of this purgative servitude he would also be periodically pitted against dark forces which had escaped from Hell.
Powers: The Penitente pursued his activities in his own dead body, which was now unstoppable, albeit bearing many, many scars. He was immune to much physical pain, and his greater than human strength and uncanny skill with guns and other weapons were crucial to his mission.
Comment: Our hero rose from his grave and masked his decaying, scarred face behind a red cloth like those worn during Brazil’s Procession of the Penitents.
And yes, I know this character’s general origin is, uh, reminiscent of an American creation of the 1990s but at least the Penitente’s power set is more grounded, and his “look” is pretty cool. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season, Superheroes
Last night the first game in the best of five Finals series in the WNBA tipped off.
LYNX VS LIBERTY: GAME ONE – The MINNESOTA LYNX visited the NEW YORK LIBERTY to get the Finals started.
The Liberty grabbed a sizable 32-19 lead in the 1st Quarter, then spent the rest of the game watching it melt away. By Halftime the Lynx had cut New York’s advantage to 44-36 and 68-61 to end the 3rd Quarter. Minnesota forced Overtime with an 84-84 tie. Continue reading
Filed under WNBA
A MAN CALLED SLOANE (1979) – Robert Conrad, often called the ultimate man’s man, was famous for several television series over the decades, especially The Wild Wild West and Black Sheep Squadron. Here is a look at his modern-day spy series from 1979, the last Quinn Martin Production.
Conrad starred as American superspy Thomas Remington Sloane III aka T.R. Sloane, who worked for an espionage outfit called UNIT. (Go ahead and write T.R. Sloane/ Doctor Who fan fiction. Or not.) The evil organization opposed to our hero’s agency was called KARTEL.
Ji-Tu Cumbuka from blaxploitation films played Torque, a brawny mercenary with an artificial arm which could be outfitted with flamethrowers and other weaponry. (Arm? Torque? See what they did there?) Torque started out as a Jaws-like foe of T.R. Sloane but joined UNIT as Sloane’s partner.
Sultry Michelle Carey, daughter of MacDonald Carey and a veteran of many Wild Wild West episodes herself, provided the voice of EFFIE, the supercomputer at UNIT headquarters. Dan O’Herlihy played UNIT’s director.
A Man Called Sloane was fun but not spectacular and it only lasted 12 episodes in addition to a tv movie produced as a pilot for the series. That film wound up not being broadcast until AFTER the show was already canceled. Robert Logan portrayed Sloane in that telefilm but was replaced by Robert Conrad for the show.
THE PILOT MOVIE AND EPISODES: Continue reading
Filed under Forgotten Television
Halloween Month continues as Balladeer’s Blog takes an anticipatory look at Terrifier 3, which hits theaters tomorrow, October 11th. Despite making his first appearance in 2008, Art – the blood-and-gore-soaked supernatural killer of the Terrifier franchise – still gets hailed as a “new” figure because general audiences were unaware of him until 2016.
Regular readers know I’ve long been pushing this ultra-violent series which is a return to the kind of uncompromising horror films from the distant past. Though critics of this latest movie are outraged at Art’s “no limits” approach to victims, let me remind people who feel that way that this grotesque figure has been killing children in his movies since All Hallows’ Eve in 2013.
WARNING: I chose the tamest Terrifier 3 picture I could find to start off this blog post, but this is one of those times when I’m giving a warning that readers who want to avoid excessive gore and intensely disturbing concepts should not click “Continue reading.” Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season, opinion
THE JOKER (1919) – With the Joker sequel reportedly stinking up theaters around the country I figured why not look at the 1919 pulp magazine hero who used that nom de guerre?
Why not, indeed! Here’s another neglected Pulp Hero in the tradition of Balladeer’s Blog’s looks at the Moon Man, Silver John, the Nyctalope, G-8 & His Battle Aces and Northwest Smith. This time it’s the Joker, but not THAT one. Before the comic book villain and even before Conrad Veidt’s turn as Gwynplaine in The Man Who Laughs (1926), came the 1919 Pulp Magazine figure called the Joker.
NOTE: Sometimes people mistakenly think Pulp Magazines were the same as comic books, only earlier. However, the Pulps were TEXT STORIES, not sequential art like comic books. The Pulps did have colorful, striking covers like later comic books would have and sometimes a few illustrations in the stories, but the Pulps were a much higher level of storytelling.
The 1919 Joker was created by Hugh Kahler, who the year before had created the White Rook, another hero/ villain of the Pulps. In some ways the Joker was a rehash of Kahler’s own White Rook crossed with Guy Boothby’s Simon Carne/ Klimo crime figure from 1897. Continue reading
Filed under Pulp Heroes
As Halloween month continues, Balladeer’s Blog does a special look at the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE 1850s, CLICK HERE.
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The previous installments of Fool Killer lore have seen the neglected 1800s folk figure in a variety of roles: Political and cultural vigilante, slayer of lynch mobs, battler of war profiteers, foe of the Ku Klux Klan in the Reconstruction South, bastard son of a supernatural entity, guardian of Melungeon Gold, old west gunslinger, steam-punk policeman and so much more.
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In honor of the Halloween season this post will look at the Fool Killer as a 1980s slasher.
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And I don’t mean the Fool Killer/ Grim Reaper figure from the horror film A Day of Judgment (1981) as seen above right. I mean a true 1980s slasher in the mold of Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and others.
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THE FOOL KILLER – As we all know, Anthony Perkins starred in the eerie 1965 movie The Fool Killer as an amnesiac Civil War veteran who came to believe he was really the legendary title figure. A 1980s slasher version of the Fool Killer could feature a deranged killer who has similarly come to regard himself as the “real” one.
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To avoid having to get into any political or “moral” motive behind this figure’s killing spree I would have made this deranged (and possibly supernatural) Fool Killer be an “outdoorsy” slayer like Jason Voorhees, Madman and many others. He would kill any who dare to trespass in his domain.
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It would be TOO derivative to have a summer camp be this Fool Killer’s territory, so I would instead set his activities along the Fool Killer mountain and hiking trail in New Hampshire. A 1980s slasher franchise set there would have added to the renown and tourist appeal of the place. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season, Mythology
LIBERTY VS ACES: GAME FOUR – The NEW YORK LIBERTY were on the road against the WNBA’s two-time defending national champions – the LAS VEGAS ACES.
A 23-19 1st Quarter edge for the Liberty became 41-38 by Halftime. The Aces pulled even closer to end the 3rd Quarter facing a mere 53-51 deficit, but in the 4th New York exploded for 23 points and a 76-62 victory. The Liberty won the series 3 games to 1. Twenty-two points from Sabrina Ionescu led New York, and her teammate Breanna Stewart logged a Double Double of 19 points and 14 rebounds. Continue reading
Filed under WNBA
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