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ADDITIONAL NAIA COLLEGE BASKETBALL CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS CROWNED

MontanaTech_150pxFRONTIER CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – The 2 seeds – the MONTANA TECH OREDIGGERS – clashed with the top seeded CARROLL COLLEGE FIGHTING SAINTS in the title tilt.

The Fighting Saints were on top 32-29 at Halftime, and the Orediggers were chasing them most of the 2nd Half, as well. With 2 seconds left to play, Montana Tech’s Drew Huse hit a 3-point shot to give his team a 62-61 victory. Sindou Diallo’s 18 points led the winners in scoring. * THE OREDIGGERS ARE CHAMPIONS OF THE FRONTIER CONFERENCE * Continue reading

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THE BRAIN (1962) BAD MOVIE REVIEW

brainTHE BRAIN (1962) – Freddie Francis directed this black & white film, which was the third movie adaptation of Curt Siodmak’s science fiction novel Donovan’s Brain. The characters’ names were changed and the sci fi elements were mixed with detective story elements this time around.

Max Holt, a callous, bloated rich pig of the George Soros/ Koch Family type, is one of the passengers on an airplane which crashes near the laboratory of Dr Peter Corrie (Peter van Eyck). That reclusive doctor and his colleague Dr Frank Shears (played by Bernard Lee himself) have been conducting experiments to see how long they can keep monkey brains alive once removing them from their host body.

masc graveyard smallerCorrie and Shears discover that Max Holt is the only one of the airplane passengers still clinging to life, but just barely, and has no hope of survival. Corrie browbeats Shears into helping him get Holt’s body back to their lab, where they remove his brain to see how long they can keep it alive in one of their fish aquarium containers filled with life-preserving fluids and equipment. Continue reading

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NAIA COLLEGE BASKETBALL CONFERENCE TOURNAMENTS

CALIFORNIA PACIFIC CONFERENCE

calmaritimekeelhaulersDAY ONE, GAME ONE – The CPC tournament tipped off with the 4th seeded CAL MARITIME ACADEMY KEELHAULERS taking on the 5 seeds – the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT MERCED GOLDEN BOBCATS.

The Keelhaulers were trailing UC-Merced by a mere 37-36 at Halftime. After the break CMA outscored the Golden Bobcats 43-35 for a 79-72 victory. Amil Fields led the game’s winners with 24 points. Continue reading

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CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON: 1970s CLASSICS 9 – CAP QUITS AND THE ALIEN LUCIFER RETURNS

For Part One of this series click HERE.

ca f 176CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON Vol 1 #176 (August 1974)

Title: Captain America No More

Villain: Steve Rogers’ drama queen tendency to quit being Captain America every so many years. This was already the SECOND time he had pulled this.

Synopsis: Captain America, still reeling from the monumental revelation about the leader of the now-defeated Secret Empire, has been contemplating whether or not his disillusionment is strong enough to drive him to quit being Captain America.

Avengers 125NOTE: In spite of my joke above, I do recognize that THIS time that Cap quit let the Marvel Comics writers explore competing nationwide feelings of the time period. I would argue that this time also should have been the last time this gimmick was pulled. Everybody always knows that Steve Rogers will go back to being Captain America no matter how many times he quits.

While weighing his decision, he motorcycled from Washington DC to New York City, where he and his fellow Avengers fought alongside Captain Marvel and Drax the Destroyer in the first Thanos War (1973-1974). He was also still with the Avengers when they faced the supervillains Klaw and Solarr.

This issue picks up late that same night, after the Avengers’ official farewell dinner for the Black Panther, who was temporarily leaving the team to devote all his attention to Killmonger’s uprising in Wakanda. Cap stands on the rooftop of Avengers Mansion, still engaged in soul-searching. Continue reading

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PAUL AERMONT AMONG THE PLANETS (1873) – ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION

venus-landscapeA NARRATIVE OF THE TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF PAUL AERMONT AMONG THE PLANETS (1873) – I shortened the title when naming this blog post. Paul Aermont was the pseudonym of an unknown author, so full credit cannot be officially given.  

Paul Aermont, an American descendant of fallen French aristocrats, is living in Albany, NY with his parents. After running off to sea years earlier Paul has sown some wild oats and now seems willing to settle down. In his travels he has learned how to be a pharmacist but while pursuing this stable profession by day the still-adventurous young man spends his free time experimenting with gases and balloons.  

In the early 1820s Aermont discovers a fictional gas which enables his aeronautical balloon & cart vehicle to escape the Earth’s gravitational field and explore our solar system. Like other vintage science fiction that Balladeer’s Blog has reviewed this story presents space travel being possible without breathing equipment. Once in space Paul is rendered inert and is unaware of the “space currents” (sic) blowing him toward Jupiter.   Continue reading

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JIREL OF JOIRY: STORY SIX

Balladeer’s Blog concludes its examination of the stories of pulp heroine Jirel of Joiry, the Medieval French woman-warrior created by female author C.L. Moore in 1934. For the first story click HERE.

jirel in armorHELLSGARDE (1939) – Sadly, this is the last of C.L. Moore’s Jirel of Joiry adventures, but the character gets to go out on a high note. The handsome but treacherous Guy of Garlot ambushes twenty of Jirel’s soldiers and imprisons them in the dungeons of Castle Garlot.

Guy demands ransom, so Jirel meets with him to negotiate since Castle Garlot is impregnable to assault and sieges as it sits atop a high, steep mountain with underground springs supplying it with endless water. The only payment Guy will accept to free Jirel’s men unharmed is the treasure from the remote and damned castle of Hellsgarde. Continue reading

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2022 COLLEGE BASKETBALL POSTSEASON IS UNDERWAY

Yesterday the 2022 postseason of college basketball tipped off in the divisions covered here at Balladeer’s Blog. The Frontier Conference Tournament started things off.

Montana state northern lightsDAY ONE: GAME ONE – The 4 seeds – the MONTANA STATE-NORTHERN LIGHTS – took on the 5th seeded ROCKY MOUNTAIN COLLEGE BATTLIN’ BEARS.

By Halftime the Lights held a 37-32 advantage. After the break they put up another 37 points to the 35 scored by the Battlin’ Bears for a 74-67 victory. Mascio McCadney led Montana State-Northern with 18 points. Continue reading

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A SHOGGOTH ON THE ROOF (2000)

mockumentary shoggoth on the roofA SHOGGOTH ON THE ROOF (2000) – This comedic short film is a 19 1/2-minute mock documentary from the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. It was a very early effort to mimic the Found Footage approach of the previous year’s Blair Witch Project and centered around a fictional musical parody of Fiddler on the Roof using Shoggoth monsters plus other characters and situations from H.P. Lovecraft’s horror tales.

shoggoth setThe tongue in cheek story began with found film footage of what appeared to be stage rehearsals for the nonexistent musical A Shoggoth on the Roof. A tape of that footage was received by members of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, who then set out to investigate its bona fides while filming their own efforts in mock documentary style.

As the short movie rolls along, it becomes clear that something horrific happened to shut down the Other Gods Theater’s 1979 attempt at staging the musical before it could even debut. Finding the survivors of that ill-fated production proves difficult and getting them to talk proves even harder. Continue reading

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COOL-NAMED COLLEGE SPORTS TEAM: COLUMBIA-GREENE COLLEGE

For some random fun, here’s another college with cool-named sports teams and a cool logo.

columbia greene twins logoCollege: COLUMBIA-GREENE COLLEGE

Team Name: TWINS

Location: Hudson, NY Continue reading

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CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON: 1970s CLASSICS 8 – FINAL BATTLES WITH THE SECRET EMPIRE AND MOONSTONE

For Part One of this series click HERE

ca f 174CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON Vol 1 #174 (June 1974)

Title: It’s Always Darkest …

Villains: The Secret Empire

Synopsis: This story picks up right where the previous issue left off. The disguised Captain America and the Falcon, posing as drifting, mutant-hating goons for hire have been recruited into the Secret Empire. That villainous organization has been plotting to take over the United States and has also been hunting down and capturing mutants in furtherance of that goal.

The Empire’s operative Number 13 is escorting the disguised Cap and Falc via elevator into their secret headquarters far beneath the New Mexico desert. (Where the group has been lurking ever since their first battles with the Hulk in the 1960s.)

As our undercover heroes are led by Number 13 throughout the high-tech and armament-loaded lair, Captain America reflects to himself how this whole convoluted saga began with the public campaign against him by the Viper and his crooked colleagues on Madison Avenue. Continue reading

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