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MEDA: A TALE OF THE FUTURE (1891) – ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION

medaMEDA: A TALE OF THE FUTURE (1891) – This sci-fi tale of the year 5575 AD was first written in 1888 but read mostly among the social circle of the author. Its first official publication came in 1891.

Artist Kenneth Folingsby is flung forward in time to the year 5575, when he can tell that the pull of gravity has lessened substantially. Following a canal, he comes across the ruins of Edinburgh and sees what people of future Scotland – who call themselves Scotonians – look like. This is another of those 1800s novels which absurdly assume that less than 4,000 years will be enough time to bring on enormous evolutionary changes to the human body.

To be fair, though, Meda: A Tale of the Future does use mutation following a planetary disaster to justify the rapid physiological changes. 

The Scotonians have stubby bodies with large heads shaped like hot air balloons and are no taller than four feet. The people themselves are practically lighter than air, with some needing weighted down with lead or stones to prevent them from floating off into the upper atmosphere. Continue reading

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CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON: 1970s CLASSICS 7 – MOONSTONE, BANSHEE AND THE X-MEN

For Part One of this series click HERE.

ca f 171CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON Vol 1 #171 (March 1974)

Title: Bust-Out!

Villains: Stone-Face and Moonstone

NOTE: This is the first story with the Falcon using his new wings in action.

Synopsis: We pick up right where we left off last time. The country is heatedly divided regarding the jailed Captain America’s guilt or innocence on the murder charge. We readers know that Cap was framed by Moonstone and Quentin Harderman (a former colleague of the supervillain the Viper) as the capstone of their smear campaign against our hero.

falcon and redwingA gang of armed men have blasted their way into Captain America’s jail cell, claiming to be on his side and offering to help him escape. Cap is torn, apprehensive that people will conclude he’s guilty if he escapes but fearful that if he stays nobody will be able to prove his innocence.

Our hero ultimately decides to stay in his cell to let the legal process play out. It is then that the supposedly “pro-Cap” armed men reveal that they are really part of Harderman’s organization and tell him he has no choice: come with them or they’ll kill him. Continue reading

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JIREL OF JOIRY: STORY FOUR

Balladeer’s Blog continues 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 of joiry on horsebackTHE DARK LAND (1936) – In her tower bedroom at Castle Joiry, Jirel lies in bed, mortally wounded while leading her men at the Battlefield of Sorrow. A pike wound in her side has grown infected and the weak, delirious warrior woman is surrounded by her chambermaids, all of them weeping over their lady’s condition.

Father Gervase, whom we met back in the first Joiry story, arrives to cleanse Jirel of her sins as part of her Last Rites. He and the chambermaids are shocked to see that Jirel of Joiry’s body has disappeared from her death bed.

The priest and the maids are overcome with fear that the mistress of Castle Joiry may have been taken away body and soul by Satan. Father Gervase whispers his suspicion that Jirel had too often dabbled in forbidden things and defied too many unearthly powers during her lifetime and had finally paid the price. Continue reading

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MOTHER JONES WITH A NEWS ROUNDUP

canadian truckersIndependent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog presents another item from Mary Harris Jones, better known as “Mother” Jones. This pioneering lady stays in touch with Balladeer’s Blog despite having passed away long ago. Now THAT’S dedication.

mother-jonesMOTHER JONES: Thank you, Balladeer. I want to jump in with some of the latest dispatches from the Biden Regime’s war on the rest of us, a war they wage alongside complicit Republican office-holders like Cocaine Mitch McConnell.

BIDEN FAMILY CALLED OUT AS A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE AS DEFINED BY THE RICO ACT. They’re not called the Biden Crime Family for nothing!

FASCIST BIDEN REGIME CAUGHT USING THEIR POLITICIZED DOJ TO INTERCEPT MAIL SENT BY CONSTITUENTS TO THEIR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES. Gestapo tactics like this are to be expected from a regime that falsely labels critics as “domestic terrorists” and protesters as “insurrectionists” despite none of the January 6th political prisoners having been charged with insurrection MORE THAN ONE YEAR LATER.

UNDER BIDEN CONSUMER PRICES HIT FOUR-DECADE HIGH. Bidenflation is part of his regime’s war on the working class and the poor. More HERE.

LAWSUIT FORCES THE DEMOCRATS OF A MA SCHOOL DISTRICT TO STOP RACIALLY SEGREGATING STUDENTS

biden bloodREUTERS LINKS BIDEN REGIME TO PIPELINE OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHILD LABOR IN THE U.S. No wonder Biden keeps our southern border wide open.

CHINA USES THE REPULSIVE GEORGE W BUSH TO PROMOTE THE 2022 “GENOCIDE OLYMPICS.”

DEMOCRAT TULSI GABBARD COURAGEOUSLY STATES THAT IF THE “POWER ELITE” CONTINUE WITH THEIR CENSORSHIP AND PROPAGANDA “WE WILL HAVE A DICTATORSHIP“. Continue reading

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Filed under humor, LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

CHROME AND HOT LEATHER (1971)

chrome-and-hot-leatherCHROME AND HOT LEATHER (1971) THE Marvin Gaye made his big-screen debut in this relentlessly absurd example of the bad biker films of the 1960s and 1970s.

When a Green Beret’s fiancee (played by THE Cheryl Ladd) is killed he and some of his service buddies pose as bikers to track down the motorcycle gang responsible for her death.

Words cannot describe how enjoyably awful this movie is from start to finish. Continue reading

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THE AFTERMAN (1985) – SCI-FI/ HORROR

aftermanTHE AFTERMAN (1985) – Balladeer’s Blog’s Weirdness at the End of the World category of movies returns with this bizarre little honey. The Afterman also marks the return of my sub-category “Those Darn Belgians.” Yes, just like Rabid Grannies this flick was created in Belgium.

Written and directed by Rob Van Eyck, The Afterman is in color but features no dialogue outside of periodic screams and groans. You might think that qualifies this roughly 90 minute movie as an Arthouse Film, and many people do. I would instead call it a sleazy and exploitative blend of The People Who Own the Dark, Finis Homini and Quest for Fire.

afterman posterThe story opens up in the year 2011. For twenty years our lead character, called simply the Man, has been living in a high-tech bomb shelter. The shelter was stocked with plenty of aerosol spray-food from “futuristic” 1991, when the nukes fell. Elaborate security cameras and leftover news reels have been almost the only diversions the Man has had for two decades, aside from drawing sketches.

The “almost” leads us to my need to let readers with more conventional tastes know that this is ANOTHER of those weirdass movies that would likely gross you out physically and prove morally repugnant. I’m never sure if these warnings make people avoid reviews like this or drive people TO read them, but here we go – DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU WANT TO AVOID DISTURBING DETAILS. Continue reading

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USCAA COLLEGE BASKETBALL RANKINGS FROM BALLADEER’S BLOG

university of saint thomas tx celtsUSCAA (United States Collegiate Athletic Association) DIVISION ONE – 1. UNIVERSITY OF SAINT THOMAS (TX) CELTS    ###     2. PAUL QUINN COLLEGE TIGERS (should be the Farmers)    ###     3. CLINTON COLLEGE GOLDEN BEARS    ###     4. BRYANT & STRATTON COLLEGE AT ALBANY BOBCATS    ###     

Florida National University Conquistadors5. FLORIDA NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CONQUISTADORS    ###     6. OAKWOOD UNIVERSITY AMBASSADORS (Defending National Champions)    ###     7. MANOR COLLEGE BLUE JAYS    ###     8. UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS CRUSADERS    ###     

. Continue reading

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CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON: 1970s CLASSICS 6 – PHOENIX, THE TUMBLER AND MOONSTONE

For Part One of this series click HERE.

ca f 168CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON Vol 1 #168 (December 1973)

Title: And A Phoenix Shall Arise

Villain: Phoenix (The son of the original Baron Zemo) FIRST APPEARANCE

Synopsis: We pick up an unknown number of weeks or months after the end of the Yellow Claw storyline. In the intervening time period Captain America was in action with the Avengers saving the universe from Dormammu and Loki alongside the Defenders. 

Captain America and the Falcon are out on their nightly patrol looking for crime. At length they pause on a rooftop to discuss how much guilt that Steve (Cap) still feels about the way that the long-lost Peggy Carter is still adjusting to the years she lost in the mental hospital.

And, sadly, has been relying on Cap more and more to cope with the modern world since he went through a similar experience when the Avengers found him frozen in suspended animation years ago. Worst of all is the way that Peggy thinks that she and Steve/ Cap are still an item even though in the years that she was gone he and Sharon Carter, Peggy’s much younger sister, have fallen in love.

NOTE: Over the decades, as the World War Two era was left further and further behind, Marvel retconned it so that Sharon was really Peggy’s niece, then grand-niece, etc instead of her younger sister.

Without warning, Steve and Sam (Falcon) are attacked by a new supervillain calling himself the Phoenix and using a high-tech rifle that shoots deadly energy rays. Phoenix taunts Cap that he has a grievance to settle with him, puzzling our hero, who doesn’t recognize him. Continue reading

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THE SUPERMAN MUSICAL FROM 1975

supe musicalIT’S A BIRD … IT’S A PLANE … IT’S SUPERMAN! (1975) – It’s the bomb that asks the musical question “How many Lembecks can you handle?” Even the most die-hard Superman fans would have a hard time forcing themselves to watch all of this made for tv movie version of the 1966 stage musical.

The needlessly awkward title is a viewer’s first hint that this cringe-inducing production will fail to live up to its potential. The second hint comes in the form of the distractingly cheap illustrated backdrops in every scene. Even Donny and Marie would have nixed those sets.

superman musical tv adDespite music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Lee Adams and script by David Newman & Robert Benton this Superman musical was Broadway’s biggest flop in history as of the 1960s. It’s no great shakes in its televised form, either.

An early song, titled We Need Him, is actually pretty catchy and had me hoping for something halfway decent. Unfortunately most of the other songs are weak at best and annoying at worst. You’ve Got Possibilities and Ooh, Do You Love You are the only other standouts.  

Some of the comedy bits are reminiscent of the intentional camp of the 1960s Batman tv series, except for very seldom being actually funny. Only a few of the jokes land, but the failings of the songs and comedy bits are not the fault of the cast members, who try very hard and who have proven themselves in many other productions.  Continue reading

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAMES JOYCE!

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. I wore out my copy of Joyce’s novel Ulysses and continue to mark Bloom’s Day to this very day.

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

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