Tag Archives: Balladeer’s Blog

BALLADEER’S BLOG: COLLEGE FOOTBALL

HEADLINES

TOPPLING NUMBER THREE – In NCAA Division Three the UNIVERSITY OF MARY HARDIN-BAYLOR CRUSADERS visited the division’s 3rd ranked UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT WHITEWATER WARHAWKS. The Crusaders grabbed a quick 21-0 1st Quarter lead and kept up the pressure after the break, ultimately winning by a score of 35-17.

NUMBER EIGHT TAKES A FALL – Staying in D3 for a moment, the 22nd ranked SALISBURY UNIVERSITY SEA GULLS traveled to take on the country’s number 8 JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY BLUE JAYS. The Blue Jays held a 13-10 edge at the Half, but were shut out from there. The Sea Gulls put up 10 points in the 3rd Quarter and 21 in the 4th for a 41-13 smackdown.

KNOCKING OFF NUMBER NINE – Up in the NAIA the 20th ranked SOUTHERN OREGON UNIVERSITY RAIDERS (should be Sea Gulls) hosted the number 9 team in the land – the COLLEGE OF IDAHO COYOTES. By Halftime Southern Oregon was on top 21-6, and after the break they squeezed out a bit more separation from the Yotes for a 45-27 Upset victory. Continue reading

6 Comments

Filed under college football

CAPTAIN BRITAIN: THE HIGHWAYMAN, THE MANIPULATOR AND THE BLACK BARON

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post here on Balladeer’s Blog looks at the further adventures of Marvel’s Captain Britain when he was still published ONLY in the U.K.

cb 37CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #37 (June 22nd, 1977)

Title: … And the Highwayman Came Riding, Riding

Villain: The Highwayman

Synopsis: Having returned to Earth after his adventures in the Otherworld, Captain Britain turns back into Brian Braddock. The next day he goes to the hospital to visit his girlfriend Courtney Ross. She was injured during Captain Britain’s battle with Lord Hawk a few issues back.

Brian, a graduate student in physics at Thames University, heads to see how Courtney is doing alongside his uni friend Jacko Tanner. On their way they come across a Silver Jubilee event for Queen Elizabeth II.

captain britain posingThe event is crashed by a new supervillain called the Highwayman, who rides a high-tech motorcycle which uses laser cannons and other weaponry. The villain also wears a monocle that shoots energy blasts and wields a battle chain.

The Highwayman easily overcomes S.T.R.I.K.E. (the British version of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and its leader Lance Fortune in addition to all other security people. Meanwhile, Brian slips away to become Captain Britain, then starts battling the Highwayman himself with his new weapon the Star Sceptre. Continue reading

18 Comments

Filed under Superheroes

GRIFF (1973-1974) FORGOTTEN TELEVISION

griffGRIFF (1973-1974) – The one and only Lorne Greene starred as Wade “Griff” Griffin, a former police captain who becomes a private investigator. Ben Murphy played Mike Murdoch, who was McCormick to Greene’s Hardcastle.

The Pittsburgh Press called Griff a “disaster” in their review’s headline, but the body of their review really just criticized the show as a routine, formulaic detective program that offered nothing new. I guess the headline was a 1973 forerunner of the clickbait concept.

tv griffTo me and presumably any other trivia buffs Griff is must-see tv. The guest stars and behind the scenes figures were a virtual Who’s Who of American television’s past and present. Before I get to that, let’s look at the fate of the program’s TWO pilot movies.   

MAN ON THE OUTSIDE – This first pilot for Griff was not aired until 1975, the year AFTER the cancellation of the show it was launching. In my opinion this was a big mistake because this 2-hour telefilm excellently established Wade Griffin’s character. The thirty-year police veteran quit to personally look into his son’s murder and his grandson’s abduction. Continue reading

18 Comments

Filed under Forgotten Television

WNBA RESULTS FROM BALLADEER’S BLOG

With the WNBA regular season ending tomorrow night, here are some of the latest results. The playoffs begin on Sunday.

CENTURY CLUB CLASSIC – The INDIANA FEVER (20-19) hosted the DALLAS WINGS (9-30).

Dallas led 34-26 to end the 1st Quarter, but the Fever cut that lead to just 59-57 by Halftime. In the 3rd Quarter Indiana went on top of the Wings 84-83, and the 4th saw each team add 26 points as the Fever won the game 110-109. Caitlin Clark led the victors with her THIRTY-FIVE points and 8 assists. 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA DREAMING – Up next the ATLANTA DREAM (14-25) took it on the road against the WASHINGTON MYSTICS (13-26).

At the Half, the Dream were on top of Washington 39-32. The 3rd Quarter ended with the Mystics trailing by just 54-53. The 4th ended in a 70-70 tie, and in Overtime Atlanta managed a 76-73 triumph. Tina Charles led the way for the Dream with her Double Double of 20 points and 10 rebounds. Continue reading

8 Comments

Filed under WNBA

ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: THE GERM GROWERS (1892)

germ-growersTHE GERM GROWERS (1892) – Robert Potter wrote this work of “ancient” or vintage science fiction dealing with biological warfare and alien abductions.

The two main characters are two Welsh men named Robert Easterley and Jack Wilbraham. In 1892 Easterley witnesses a stranger being abducted by aliens and carried off in their spacecraft. The extraterrestrial vessel is invisible but does cast a shadow on the ground as it flies past Robert Easterley, convincing him of the reality of what he witnessed.

Anticipating UFO conspiracy kooks by several decades Easterley and his friend Wilbraham speculate that old stories about humans being abducted by “little people” and other supernatural figures may really be accounts of abductions by aliens. Not long afterward the area suffers multiple deaths from a mysterious disease. Continue reading

10 Comments

Filed under Ancient Science Fiction

AGATHA ALL ALONG: SOON TO BE FORGOTTEN TELEVISION?

It looks like it will be tomorrow at the earliest that I make my full blog post about the latest attempt on the life of de facto Third Party President Donald Trump. So here’s a much lighter topic.

kathryn hahn winking as agathaAGATHA ALL ALONG SCREWS UP BIG-TIME – Hey, I enjoyed the song Agatha All Along from WandaVision back in 2021 as much as anybody, and I was initially curious about what Kathryn Hahn would do as the star of an Agatha Harkness spinoff show. (For Agatha and the Scarlet Witch fighting Necrodamus click HERE.)

Then came the multiple title changes for the upcoming series as Disney went from Diary of Darkness, Coven of Chaos, House of Harkness and Darkhold Diaries before finally settling on the obvious choice. House of Harkness as a title made me hope that it would be an anthology series with Hahn acting in-character as Agatha camping it up like an old-time Movie Hostess. (Think Vampira, Moona Lisa, Elvira, Stella from Saturday Night Dead, etc.) 

agatha all alongI could see it being used for pilot stories about Marvel’s many horror characters like the Simon Garth Zombie, Ghost Rider, Morbius the Living Vampire, Satana the Devil’s Daughter, the Living Mummy, the vampire Lilith and many more. You know, testing the waters to see if each character proved popular enough for their own series or movie. When the Werewolf by Night project was announced it got my hopes up even more that it might indeed feature Kathryn Hahn as Agatha doing an intro and outro.

Unfortunately, Disney is making Agatha All Along a traditional sequel to WandaVision. AND THEY’VE ALREADY BLOWN WHAT WAS INTENDED AS THE SHOW’S BIG REVEAL! Don’t read any further if you want to watch the series and are among the few people who didn’t catch the way Disney’s promo staff gave away the program’s big surprise before they could try covering it back up.

***NEWS – SEPT 19th- Not only did they already blow the big surprise on IMDb, but it was blown last night by crediting the character I mention below BY NAME IN THE CLOSED CAPTIONS! And that’s WHILE they’re making a big deal of a magic spell not letting Agatha hear clues to who he is. Hilarious! Continue reading

6 Comments

Filed under Forgotten Television

BALLADEER’S BLOG COLLEGE FOOTBALL: SEPTEMBER 15th

HEADLINES

WISCONSIN TEAMS TAKE DOWN DIVISION TWO – The NCAA Division Three UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT WHITEWATER WARHAWKS visited Division Two’s ROOSEVELT UNIVERSITY LAKERS and logged a 24-14 victory    ###    And the D3 UW-LACROSSE EAGLES toppled their guests, D2’s NORTHERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY WILDCATS 35-21.

Keiser SeahawksKEISER WAS WISER THAN DIVISION TWO – Up in the NAIA the KEISER UNIVERSITY SEAHAWKS traveled to face the NCAA Division 2 NEWBERRY COLLEGE WOLVES. This hard-fought affair ended with the Seahawks defeating the Wolves 42-33 for their 2nd victory in a row over a D2 team. Continue reading

20 Comments

Filed under college football

MICRONAUTS: THE SWORD IN THE STAR

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at one of the further adventures of the Micronauts. (My final Micronauts post.)

mic 29MICRONAUTS Vol 1 #29 (May 1981)

Title: To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

Villain: Nightmare

NOTE: This issue picks up roughly three days after the end of the previous story, which saw Baron Karza’s second fall from power. In the process the planet Spartak was rendered uninhabitable, the Micronaut Biotron was slain, as was Queen Esmer of Kaliklak and Micronaut Arcturus Rann was left in a coma

Synopsis: Colonel Nick Fury delivers the eulogy for the hundreds of dead S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents and hundreds of dead Microverse warriors who perished in the battle at Fantasy World

mic funeralAcroyear’s wife, Cilicia, condemns her husband for using the Worldmind against Karza, thus causing so much damage to Spartak that it is now uninhabitable. Even now, the survivors must be leaving the planet to find another home elsewhere in the Microverse/ Quantum Realm. Cilicia quits the Micronauts in disgust.

Doc Samson, Hulk’s sometime ally and sometime enemy, tells the Micronauts that he can try to bring Commander Rann out of his coma the same way he brought Glenn Talbot out of his coma long ago in Hulk #200.

He will shrink them down to nearly sub-atomic levels and inject them into Rann’s brain so they can restore contact between his brain’s right and left hemispheres. Marionette, Bug and Acroyear enter Arcturus’ brain, while the roboid Microtron guards Rann’s unconscious body. Continue reading

6 Comments

Filed under Superheroes

ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: A MODERN DAEDALUS (1887)

A Modern DaedalusA MODERN DAEDALUS (1887) – By Tom Greer. No, the title’s not referring to James Joyce’s character Stephen Dedalus (sic) but this tale IS about Ireland. The main character is a young man named Jack O’Halloran, a recent college graduate who returns to his native Ireland.

Jack has dreamed about flying since he was a child and now he uses his genius to create a winged apparatus that can be worn by a single person to take to the skies. Our modern Daedalus flies around at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour with his new invention. Jack is thrilled but complications arise when he shares the news with his father.

Old Man O’Halloran wants to use his son’s winged apparatus to wage aerial warfare against the hated British and thereby win independence for Ireland. Our protagonist doesn’t want his invention used for such a blood-soaked purpose and in the ensuing argument his father throws him out of the house. Continue reading

8 Comments

Filed under Ancient Science Fiction

BALLADEER’S BLOG: WNBA RESULTS

With just over a week left in the WNBA’s regular season, here’s a look at recent results:

EXTRA SESSION – The INDIANA FEVER (19-17) took the court against the visiting ATLANTA DREAM (12-24).

Atlanta was leading 48-44 at Halftime, but from there the Fever forced Overtime with a 90-90 deadlock to end Regulation. In the extra session Indiana defeated the Fever by a final score of 104-100. Aliyah Boston led Indiana with her Double Double of THIRTY points and 13 rebounds, while Caitlin Clark notched her own Double Double of 26 points and 12 assists.

NO ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK – The league leading NEW YORK LIBERTY (30-6) invaded the lair of the DALLAS WINGS (9-27) in this game.

A 28-18 1st Quarter lead for the Liberty became 58-43 by the midpoint. After the break, New York kept the Wings at arm’s length while they glided to a Century Club victory of 105-91. (To qualify for the Century Club 100 points or more must be scored in 4 Qtrs, not OT.) Twenty-seven points from Breanna Stewart led the way for the Liberty, while her teammate Sabrina Ionescu got a Double Double of 14 points and 11 assists. Continue reading

16 Comments

Filed under WNBA