Tag Archives: Balladeer’s Blog

QUENTIN DURWARD (1971) FORGOTTEN TELEVISION

quentin durwardQUENTIN DURWARD (1971) – This French-German television series ran for 13 half-hour episodes in Germany but just 7 52-minute episodes during its initial French run.

The story is based on Sir Walter Scott’s swashbuckling novel from 1823 and the action is set during the late 1460s in Scotland and France. 

amadeus augustAmadeus August stars as Quentin Durward, a fighting young Scotsman who is the sole surviving male from his Scottish clan after a brutal clan war wiped out the rest of his family. At present he is being sheltered in a monastery where the monks have told him the only way to stop the enemy clansmen from killing him to blot out his entire bloodline is to become a monk under a vow of celibacy.

The dashing and daring Quentin is reluctant, but the decision is taken out of his hands when the enemy clan raids the monastery in search of him. Quentin manages to escape and after shaking off all pursuit reaches the English Channel. 
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TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF JAMES MASSEY (1714) PART TWO

cover of trav james masseyTRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF JAMES MASSEY (1714) – This is Part Two of Balladeer’s Blog’s look at Simon Tyssot de Patot’s work of ancient science fiction about his creation James Massey. We will pick up where we left off last time – our main character Dr. Massey and his travel mate La Foret had just been taken in by the first living human beings they encountered on the lost island.

A few days later, while our heroes were still in the very early stages of learning the language spoken in the city, James and his friend got caught up in a ritual they barely understood. Early one morning, every family in the city made their way across the major bridge with each head of household carrying their largest rooster.

For a sophomoric laugh I’ll mention that one of the lines in the book is literally “Our opposite neighbor expos’d his cock against ours; and the others did the same thing, it being a general cock-match between the people on both sides of the canal.” 

masc graveyard smallerI’ll spare all of us any details of the actual cockfights. When the fighting was over, the family whose cock lost the fight welcomed the winner’s family over to their home. The winner’s family brought along all of the food they had prepared for this eventful day, and the two families feasted and drank together the rest of the day.

The following day the holiday celebrations continued, this time with the eldest son from each family on both sides of the canal taking part in Grease Pole competitions for the prize poultry at the top of said poles. Rather than a ham or turkey, the prize in this case was one of the oversized eagles indigenous to the uncharted island.

NOTE: In Part One of my review it was established that birds, like all the other animals on the island, were much larger than they were in the outside world. For instance, a beaver the size of a bear and a 25 foot long serpent were encountered. Goats were as large as horses and were used as mounts and beasts of burden. Continue reading

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GINA CARANO: ROLES SHE WOULD BE GREAT IN

gina leaningGina Carano has proven how impressive she can be in action roles, and that got me thinking about various roles I’d like to see her in.

queen of the black coast smallerBELIT, THE QUEEN OF THE BLACK COAST – For people who aren’t fans of Robert E. Howard I’ll mention that the female pirate captain was the great love in the life of Conan the Barbarian. Queen of the Black Coast (1934) is one of the greatest Conan stories ever, but it’s a challenge casting a woman who could plausibly bring Belit (pronounced bay-LEET) to life. Enter Gina Carano, who would seem perfectly natural swinging her sword, kicking butt and barking out orders to her crew. Continue reading

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VILLA VYBES VINYL: PERPETUATING THE SOUNDS OF VINYL RECORDS IN ALL GENRES

z bear groovingZ-Bear, her husband and their children are a family in Hawaii who deejay the terrific YT channel Villa Vybes Vinyl. Z-Bear and her hubby are professionals and periodically let their kids take center stage for some of the DJ chores. It adds considerably to the charm of this eclectic channel.

z bear hubbyNo matter how good digital is, many people still thrill to the sound of a needle pressing down on an actual vinyl record and the slight whispering and popping before the music begins to play. Z-Bear and company don’t waste the time of listeners/ viewers with DJ patter, they just let their audience see them going through all the vinyl DJ activities!

z bear familyThe VVV folks lovingly select, clean and otherwise care for the musical artifacts they proceed to play. They have an incredible setup with multiple turntables and other equipment that many will envy. Multiple camera angles are provided, plus Z-Bear and her family change up those angles over time.
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BALLADEER’S BLOG’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL RESULTS FROM FEBRUARY 3rd

NJCAA

south plains college texansCLOSE CALL FOR NUMBER ONE – The number 1 team in the nation – the SOUTH PLAINS COLLEGE TEXANS – visited the 11th ranked ODESSA COLLEGE WRANGLERS.

At Halftime the Wranglers were on top 32-27, but the Texans came out of the locker room primed for a comeback. Odessa rallied but fell just short as SPC held on by their fingertips for a 67-66 win. Jabori McGhee’s 21 points led the Texans.

Walters State SenatorsCENTURY CLUB – The (25) WALTERS STATE SENATORS won by a final score of 109-81 at the DYERSBURG STATE EAGLES   ###   Meanwhile, the WAUBONSEE COLLEGE CHIEFS routed the visiting WILBUR WRIGHT COLLEGE RAMS 111-76   ###   And the CASPER COLLEGE THUNDERBIRDS downed their guests the EASTERN WYOMING COLLEGE LANCERS by a final score of 101-90.  Continue reading

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FLASH VS HIS ROGUES GALLERY

This weekend’s light-hearted and escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at the 1960s and 1970s Flash stories in which several of his recurring villains would team up against him.

fl 155FLASH Vol 1 #155 (September 1965)

Title: The Gauntlet of Supervillains

Villain Roster: Captain Cold, the Top, Mirror Master, Heat Wave, Pied Piper, Captain Boomerang and Gorilla Grodd

Synopsis: Gorilla Grodd (the mysterious villain referred to on the cover) engineers prison breakouts for the six other Flash foes mentioned above. Grodd uses the other villains to wear down the Flash and erode his powers, hoping to then kill the hero himself.

NOTE: The semi-annual team up of Flash villains soon becomes referred to as his Rogues Gallery Convention and/ or “Convention of Flash Villains.” For a time the event was almost as frequent as the annual Justice Society/ Justice League get-togethers.  Continue reading

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAMES JOYCE (2024 EDITION)

jamesjoyceHAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JAMES JOYCE! His works got me hooked in my teens when I really related to his character Stephen Dedalus as he rejected his religion and indulged what I call his “young and pretentious side” in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916). I wore out my copy of Joyce’s novel Ulysses (1922) and continue to mark Bloom’s Day to this very day.

Over the years Finnegans Wake (1939) replaced Ulysses as my favorite Joyce novel and I’m fonder than many people are of his play Exiles (1918). Continue reading

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SCARFOLK: LIKE “MY MILWAUKEE” CROSSED WITH “LOCAL 58 TV”

discovering scarfolkIf you enjoy serious analog horror like Magical World of Ania or more tongue in cheek analog horror like My Milwaukee, then Richard Littler’s Scarfolk is definitely for you. If you enjoy the eeriness of those old Public Service Messages from 1970s Canada or Great Britain that are so beloved on the internet then you’ll probably hate yourself if you still haven’t gotten into Scarfolk.   

Part haunted town, part 70s dystopia, Scarfolk refers to Littler’s fictional British town which is by turns nightmarish and hilarious. There are even undertones of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy type of humor in the town’s faux “reference material” and “artifacts”.

dr j swift eatingAround 2012 Richard Littler began mocking up some fake 1970s public health posters and government pamphlets for schools and general consumption. He presented them with an enjoyably twisted slant that perfectly captured the vaguely menacing, often insulting approach of such material. 

Littler took to posting them on his Facebook account, where positive feedback encouraged him to start a blog devoted to his dark-humored artifacts of the nonexistent town of Scarfolk, “a town in North West England which is just west of northern England” as the author describes it.
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TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF JAMES MASSEY (1714) ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION

voyages and adventuresTRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF JAMES MASSEY (1714) – By Simon Tyssot de Patot. Supposedly written in 1710 but not published until 1714, this novel dealt with the travels of the title character to exotic lands.

James Massey is a physician who becomes inspired by the tales told by the Wandering Jew (presented as a real person in this tale) when he comes to town. The encounter fills Massey’s head with a desire to travel in hopes of seeing some of the wonders that the Wandering Jew has seen multiple times during his endless travels.

From that meeting with a mythic figure, Dr. Massey’s adventures constitute a science fiction odyssey. He signs on as a Ship’s Surgeon under Captain Le Sage, and their vessel with a 52-man crew set sail on May 21st, 1643.  Off Finisterre their ship began taking on water, prompting an evacuation in longboats before it sank. Continue reading

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SHIRLEY TEMPLE’S STORYBOOK (1958-1961)

st storybookSHIRLEY TEMPLE’S STORYBOOK (1958-1961) – This time around, Balladeer’s Blog’s recurring feature Forgotten Television takes a look at this overlooked children’s series hosted by an adult Shirley Temple. Like Shelley Duvall’s 1980s series Faerytale Theatre this earlier program managed to attract some big names and soon-to-be-big names for its cast.

With Shirley hosting, this series ran 41 episodes, some fitting a half-hour slot with commercials and some fitting an hour-long slot with commercials. Similarly, some were black & white, others in color. Temple owned the series and released a few episodes here and there on video over the decades.

shirleyShirley Temple’s Storybook was one of Shirley’s A.J.A. (After John Agar) ventures, in fact it debuted 8 years after their divorce. The program aired from January 12th, 1958 to July 16th, 1961.

SEASON ONE HIGHLIGHTS  

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST – We all know this story, so I’ll jump to the cast – Charlton Heston as the Beast, Claire Bloom as Beauty, June Lockhart and Barbara Baxley as her sisters, and E.G. Marshall as a merchant.  Continue reading

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