Tag Archives: blogging

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE SIGNERS FROM NEW JERSEY

The 4th of July is nearly upon us, so here is yet another seasonal blog post. This one looks at the five men from New Jersey out of the fifty-six men total who signed America’s Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. 

abraham clarkABRAHAM CLARK – Abraham’s two sons Aaron and Thomas were captured during the war and may have perished while captives of the British. Accounts vary and some sources even claim he had three sons die in the war. 

JOHN WITHERSPOON – His son James was killed in the Battle of Germantown, his home was burned by the British and Princeton University, where Witherspoon was president, was vandalized by the Brits as well. Continue reading

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Filed under Neglected History, Revolutionary War

MARVEL PUBLICATIONS: JANUARY 1972

This weekend’s escapist, lighthearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at all the Marvel Comics publications for January of 1972, excluding reprints.

sm 104SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #104 (January 1972)

Title: The Beauty and the Brute

Villains: Kraven the Hunter and Gog

Synopsis: This issue picks up from the previous issue’s cliffhanger ending – Spider-Man is sinking in quicksand in the hidden Antarctic realm called the Savage Land.

NOTE: Introduced in X-Men #10, the Savage Land was a “lost world” in Antarctica. Geothermal heat kept the place a tropical rainforest year-round, and the Savage Land was home to countless species of dinosaurs, primitive humans and monstrous creatures. The U.N. looked after the Savage Land to preserve it.

        Vibranium was plentiful in the Savage Land and it was depicted there even before its presence was mentioned in Wakanda.

gogBack to the story, Spider-Man is saved from the quicksand by the timely arrival of Ka-Zar, the blonde Tarzan-like hero of the Savage Land, and his sabretooth tiger companion Zabu. Soon, Spider-Man, Ka-Zar and Zabu are attacked by Kraven the Hunter and his enormous creature Gog. Continue reading

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A HONEYMOON IN SPACE (1900) ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION

honeymoon in spaceA HONEYMOON IN SPACE (1900) – Written by George Chetwyn Griffith- Jones under the pseudonym George Griffith. Jones had worked as a sailor, a journalist and a teacher before writing a series of novels covering a broad range of topics.    

This story details the adventures of Lord Redgrave and his American wife Zaidie. Redgrave has created the Astronef, a “space yacht” powered by the fictional R-Force, a means of harnessing gravity and deploying its energy in whatever way was desired.

The maiden voyage of the Astronef causes a global sensation and inspires peace between various nations on the verge of war. (no squid-gina necessary) Next, Lord Redgrave decides to take his blushing bride on a honeymoon spent exploring our solar system. Continue reading

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THE MAN FROM PAINTED POST (1917) DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS ACTION COMEDY

man from painted postTHE MAN FROM PAINTED POST (1917) – Here is another Douglas Fairbanks movie from the years before he became the film world’s premier swashbuckler. Unlike the pure comedy of Fairbanks’ The Mystery of the Leaping Fish, which I reviewed last week, The Man from Painted Post was an action comedy set in the old west.

Doug starred as Fancy Jim Sherwood, a Charles Siringo-style old west private detective whose agency has been hired to investigate and shut down a Wyoming rustling empire run by outlaw chief Bull Madden (Frank Campeau). Fancy Jim sets about his task by showing up in the crime-ridden region undercover in the guise of a clumsy, citified twit from back east.

That allows Fairbanks to show off his athleticism AND talent for comedy through slapstick fakery to make his eastern Dude character seem hilariously inept at roping, riding and shooting. Fancy Jim Sherwood’s masquerade succeeds in making Bull Madden and his gang dismiss him as a non-threatening wimp.
Continue reading

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Filed under FRONTIERADO, opinion

AMERICAN REVOLUTION: NEGLECTED MILITARY ACTIONS IN LATE 1781

The 4th of July holiday is rapidly approaching, so here is another seasonal post from Balladeer’s Blog. In other blog posts I’ve examined the post-Yorktown battles in 1781 and 1782 in detail, but this item will deal with smaller, neglected clashes.

continental soldiersOCTOBER 24th – Near Sandy Hook, NJ American rebel Captain Adam Hyler leads an unknown number of men in a clash with an unknown number of British Loyalists. Hyler takes 6 prisoners during the action.

OCTOBER 28th – Vince’s Fort, SC, manned by 80 American rebels under Captain Joseph Vince, was attacked by Colonel Hezekiah Williams’ British Loyalist forces in the area. The Americans successfully drove off the attackers with minimal casualties.  

OCTOBER 30th – At West Canada Creek, NY, the site of a larger battle in September, American Colonel Marinus Willett led 400 New York militiamen and over 60 Oneida Indians allied with the U.S. Willett’s forces clashed with 750 of Major John Ross’ Tory troops and Native Americans who sided with the British. Colonel Willett’s men were victorious, and Tory officer Walter Butler, one of the most blood-soaked Loyalists during the war, was among those killed.

gowens fortNOVEMBER 1st-6th – At Gowen’s Fort, SC, Roebuck’s Battalion and civilian non-combatants were attacked and besieged by a combined force of British Loyalists and Chickamauga Indian allies of the British. On November 6th, the Americans surrendered after the Loyalist Captain William Bates guaranteed their safety.

        However, after the fort’s gate was opened, Bates ordered all those inside – including women and children – to be killed. Details are hard to nail down from this action and no estimates of American and Loyalist numbers are available. Mrs. Abner Thomson, scalped and left for dead, was one of the few survivors. Continue reading

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THE PURPLE DEATH (1895) – ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION

Purple DeathTHE PURPLE DEATH (1895) – Written by William Livingston Alden. Presented in the first person this story is narrated by a British gentleman staying in Italy. He becomes friendly with his neighbor, a German M.D. and bacteriologist named Dr Schmidt.

Subsequent conversations reveal that Schmidt is a good old-fashioned mad scientist who has some very odd sympathies. The German doctor sides with Anarchists (among the biggest bogey-men of the 1890s) and his only objection to the occasional assassinations that Anarchists commit is how impractical those crimes are. Continue reading

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DC’s LEGION OF SUPERHEROES

This weekend’s escapist, lighthearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog will take a look at the 30th Century Legion of Superheroes. DC fans are still saying I don’t cover enough DC characters, so here we go.

slsh 203LEGION OF SUPERHEROES (Superboy starring the …) Vol 1 #203 (August 1974)

Title: Massacre by Remote Control

Legion Roster: Sun Boy, Phantom Girl, Invisible Kid, Superboy, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Mon-El, Brainiac 5, Dream Girl, Karate Kid and Element Lad

Villain: Validus

Synopsis: Mon-El, the current leader of the Legion, is outraged that Invisible Kid has been letting his relationship with a woman from the invisible dimension – Myla – interfere with his obligations to the team.

dream girl dreamsEventually, Dream Girl has a dream foretelling an imminent attack by Validus – the huge, mindless monster who is strong enough to take on entire teams of Legionnaires at once. Because Validus is usually harmless unless controlled psychically by its fellow Fatal Five member Tharok, the Legion makes sure that the cyborg Tharok is still safely incarcerated at Space Prison Complex X33.

Not only is the villain still in custody, but he has been undergoing repairs to some of the cybernetic devices in his brain, meaning he cannot be mentally controlling Validus at all.

sun boyWhen Validus ultimately attacks Legion headquarters in future Metropolis, he is routing the heroes while withstanding all their counterattacks. Invisible Kid at first seems to have abandoned his post to dally with Myla but it turns out he actually solved the problem at hand.

In the Legion trophy room, the Kid has deduced that components of Tharok’s brain that are on display (These are the good guys, right?) have activated themselves and THEY have summoned Validus to attack them. Continue reading

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FIVE TOMORROWS (1970)

Five TomorrowsFIVE TOMORROWS – On February 5th 1970, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. hosted an NET Playhouse presentation of five short films which presented grim visions of the future. Vonnegut was interviewed and offered comments on the international shorts from the high flux beam reactor in Brookhaven (NY) National Laboratories’ center for advanced experimental research.

As NET itself described the 90-minute production, the theme was “the shape of our daily lives should the present trend toward conformity, violence and mindless motion continue unabated.” The films:

L’urlo (The Scream) – This 1966 Italian short – later remade in 2019 – was directed by Camillo Bazzoni. In L’urlo a man of the future struggled to maintain his identity in a super-state which demanded total suppression of the individual. Emotions were forbidden, but a defiant young man (Francesco Barilli) tried to express his love only to wind up a fugitive. Continue reading

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BALLADEER’S BLOG HAS TURNED THIRTEEN YEARS OLD!

Mascot and guitar

Balladeer’s Blog

THANK YOU once again to all of you readers for making Balladeer’s Blog so enjoyable to write. As I always say, the unusual and controversial items I sometimes churn out here mean that readers have to be open-minded and very secure in their own beliefs not to just take offense and leave.

Here are some of my most popular blog posts from the past 12 months.

kong islandBAD MOVIES: There was Kong Island (1968), Invasion from Inner Earth (1974), Raiders of Atlantis (1983), Murdercycle (1999), 365 Days (2020), Films with William Shatner’s Wife, Jungle Jim Movies, An American Hippie in Israel (1972), Kommissar X Movies, Andromeda Nebula (1967), The Keep (1983), Hitler – Dead or Alive (1942), My Top H.G. Lewis Movies,  

A MERCILESS EXAMINATION OF THE 2022 MIDTERM ELECTION RESULTS: One of my most read items of the past 12 months HERE.

mars revealed picANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: I reviewed The Artificial Mother (1894), A.D. 2000 (1890), The Sickle of Fire (1896), The Warstock (1898), Bellona’s Husband (1887), Mars Revealed (1880), The Emperor of the Air (1910), The Captivity of the Professor (1901), End of an Epoch (1901).

MORE FOOL KILLER LORE FROM OVER A CENTURY AGO: April 1913, May 1913, July 1913 

blazing saddlesCOMEDIES: MODERN PARODY HALL OF FAME: The full breakdown HERE.

POLITICAL CARTOONS, MEMES AND NEWS ROUNDUPS: HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.   

PONY EXPRESS RIDERS: Pony Bob, The Man Called Boston, Irish Tommy  

THE PEOPLE VS JOE BIDEN: HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE.     

CONAN THE BARBARIAN: Queen of the Black Coast and Amra, and Curse of the Conjurer 

buckskin paintingNEGLECTED GUNSLINGERS: Dutch Henry, and Buckskin Frank 

MEXICO’S MST3K: I reviewed it HERE. There’s also Dark Jungle Theater HERE.

CASIMIR PULASKI: REVOLUTIONARY WAR HERO: I took a look at his career HERE Continue reading

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MARCH 1776: NEGLECTED REVOLUTIONARY WAR MILITARY ACTION

With the 4th of July holiday fast approaching, Balladeer’s Blog offers readers another seasonal post regarding overlooked military actions, this time from March of 1776.

american rebel soldiersMARCH 1st – British troops led by Major John Maitland landed and took Cockspur Island at the mouth of the Savannah River in Georgia. The Redcoats clashed with American Militiamen and drove them off. Both sides were left with wounded men following the exchange of gunfire, but no fatalities are known.

MARCH 2nd and 3rd – The Battle of the Rice Boats, aka the Battle of Yamacraw Bluff, took place along the Savannah River and the border between Georgia and South Carolina. Six hundred men of America’s 1st Georgia Regiment under Colonel Lachlan McIntosh coordinated actions with 500 members of the South Carolina militia.

        american rebelsFour British warships, along with multiple smaller vessels, launched a joint land and sea effort to seize American rice ships in the area in order to feed the British forces. Over 300 British infantrymen took part in commandeering the rice boats by surprise overnight.

        Morning of March 3rd saw the American forces position their four artillery pieces at Yamacraw Bluff and open fire on the British vessels. Land forces of both nations fought it out in a battle that lasted over 4 hours. Continue reading

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