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NSAC FINAL FOUR SET AND NCAA D2 ELITE EIGHT

NSAC

FINAL FOUR: FIRST BERTH – The NEWPORT NEWS APPRENTICE SCHOOL BUILDERS (Shipbuilders) took the court against the MID-ATLANTIC CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY MUSTANGS. Come Halftime the Builders were on top 34-26. From there, NNAS managed more separation from the Mustangs as they won the game 70-58. Jahlil Hope and Devon Brown led the Builders with 14 points each.

FINAL FOUR: SECOND BERTH – Next, the URBE UNIVERSITY TIGERS played the SOUTHEAST CHRISTIAN COLLEGE EAGLES (should be Angels). The Tigers were out in front of Southeast Christian College at the Half by a score of 37-27. After the break, URBE University kept the Eagles at arm’s length for a 75-55 triumph. Luis Carias led the way for the Tigers with 20 points.  Continue reading

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TARANTULA GHOUL (1957-1958) B-MOVIE HOSTESS

TARANTULA GHOUL – Actress Suzanne Waldron’s performance on stage in Macbeth captured the attention of the bosses at Portland, Oregon’s KPTV. They hired her to host House of Horror, their late-night B-Movie show, in a similar style to Vampira down in Los Angeles.

Waldron adopted the character Tarantula Ghoul, whose look was patterned after cartoonist Charles Addams’ Morticia in order to stand out from Vampira. Suzanne often emerged from a coffin in her hostess persona.

Tarantula Ghoul took Portland and vicinity by storm and could have been a phenomenon if not for the way KPTV made the idiotic decision to air House of Horror in the bizarre timeslot of Wednesday nights at 10:30pm (sometimes 10pm).

Most of the classic Bad Movie shows aired on Friday or Saturday nights, which were ideal for audiences to stay up late watching the movie and the host’s antics. Trapped in the mire of a late-night middle of the week timeslot, the brilliant Tarantula Ghoul’s show sadly lasted from just October 9th, 1957 to November 26th, 1958.

Still, during her brief run hosting House of Horror, the talented Suzanne Waldron managed several cultural milestones amid her schtick.

*** A TV Star Parade article about her stated “Tarantula Ghoul pokes morbid fun at everything within range of Portland’s KPTV” and referred to her “witty but acid tongue.” The article described her as a cross between “the Charles Addams woman and a road company Tallulah Bankhead.” Continue reading

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HBCU TITLE GAME, D3 SEMIFINALS AND MORE

HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – It was an all-CIAA title tilt as the VIRGINIA STATE TROJANS did battle with the BLUEFIELD STATE BIG BLUES. Bluefield State dominated the opening Half and led 36-28 going into the locker room. From there the Trojans roared back, ultimately winning the game 69-66. Jacob Cooper led Virginia State with 29 points. 

NCAA DIVISION THREE

FIRST SEMIFINAL – The UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON EAGLES played the TRINITY (CT) COLLEGE BANTAMS in this game. The favored Bantams were on top 37-26 at the Half, but after the break UMW made their move. In the end the Eagles triumphed over Trinity 64-61 led by 21 points from Kye Robinson. Continue reading

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FOR APRIL FOOL’S DAY: SIX MEMORABLE FOOL KILLER TALES FROM AMERICAN FOLKLORE

Balladeer’s Blog marks April Fool’s Day with this look at some classic Fool Killer folklore from the 1800s onward.

AN ORIGIN FOR THE FOOL KILLER – In the 1830s a Devil mated with assorted women of East Tennessee’s “Hill Portughee (Portuguese)” and one of them bore him a son. The son grew up to drive that Devil out of the Tennessee hills after tricking his infernal father into forging an iron staff that he used as a weapon against him.

               That son then became the Fool Killer, using his iron staff/ walking stick/ club to prey on outsiders “foolish” enough to come looking for the hidden gold of the Melungeons in the eldritch Tennessee woodlands. He also battled federal agents trying to stop the Melungeons from printing their own gold coins.

OPPOSING THE KU KLUX KLAN – In the Spring and Summer of 1870 the Fool Killer battled the KKK, whose violence in a few North Carolina counties had grown so extreme that the governor declared Martial Law. The folk figure opposed Klan influence in North Carolina politics as well as their brutal acts of maiming and killing people who opposed them.  Continue reading

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BAD MOVIE REVIEW: ZERO TO SIXTY (1978) WITH DARREN MCGAVIN AND JOAN COLLINS

ZERO TO SIXTY (1978) – Want to see Darren McGavin of all people bare his butt for the camera in two separate scenes? Want to see Darren McGavin getting his bare butt spanked by the Hudson Brothers in one of those scenes? Want to see Darren McGavin in sex scenes with Joan Collins at her smoking hot best?

Usually, you’d have me at the words “Want to see Darren McGavin” because I’m a huge fan of the guy. And not just as Carl Kolchak in The Night Stalker but most of his big-screen work and small-screen work from the 1950s onward. Well, I finally met a Darren McGavin movie I wasn’t ready for.

Zero to Sixty was produced by McGavin’s wife Kathie Browne and directed by Psychotronic Hall of Famer Don Weis. As I watched Darren in screwball car chases and in scenes full of “comedy” that wouldn’t have made the cut in one of Burt Reynolds’ Cannonball Run movies I was having trouble getting my head around what I was seeing.

During a scene in which McGavin pretends to be wetting himself I think I began babbling “But … but … that’s Darren McGavin.” Believe it or not, Denise Nickerson – Violet Beauregard from Willy Wonka – playing an underaged Car Repossession Agent helped bring things into focus for me.      Continue reading

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FORGOTTEN TELEVISION: ADVENTURES OF THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL (1955-1956)

THE ADVENTURES OF THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL (1955-1956) – British television series based on Baroness Emma Orczy’s 1903 play and 1905 novel (and series) about Sir Percy Blakeney (Marius Goring), who puts on a foppish and dim-witted air to disguise the fact that he is secretly the Scarlet Pimpernel.

As that figure, he and his network of agents covertly organize the escape from France of aristocrats and others condemned to die on the guillotine under the Reign of Terror in the 1790s. Chauvelin (Stanley Van Beers), one of the most rabid operatives of the Revolutionary mad dogs terrorizing France, works to prevent the Scarlet Pimpernel and his eponymous League from rescuing his targets.   

Strangely, the series omitted Sir Percy’s beautiful and brilliant wife Marguerite, a former French actress whose daring matched his own. Instead, the show used a different female ally for the Pimpernel – Countess la Valliere (Lucie Mannheim).

Some of the novel’s League of the Scarlet Pimpernel were supporting characters, including Second Doctor Who star Patrick Troughton as Sir Andrew Ffoulkes and Anthony Newland as Lord Hastings. The series ran for 18 half-hour installments.  

THE EPISODES: Continue reading

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JESUS: A PASSION PLAY FOR AMERICANS (1969)

teuber as JesusJESUS: A PASSION PLAY FOR AMERICANS (1969) – For Easter Week here’s a look at an experimental take on the story of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, all accompanied by music.

BEFORE the concept album Jesus Christ Superstar became a stage production and before Godspell came this rock, improv jazz and blues version of the Passion of the Christ.

Peter Ivers composed the curtain-to-curtain music, while director Timothy S. Mayer wrote the dialogue and lyrics, adapted from the King James Bible version of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Continue reading

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NCAA D-3 FINAL FOUR SET, PLUS HBCU SEMIFINALS

NCAA DIVISION THREE

FINAL FOUR: FIRST BERTH – The CHRISTOPHER NEWPORT UNIVERSITY CAPTAINS played the UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS (TX) CELTS. The defenses ruled at first and come Halftime the score was knotted up at a mere 22-22. After the break, CNU managed enough separation to upset the Celts by a score of 63-59. Toa Hollenbeck led the Captains with his 25 points.

FINAL FOUR: SECOND BERTH – Up next, the TRINITY (CT) COLLEGE BANTAMS did battle with the TUFTS UNIVERSITY JUMBOS. The Bantams held a tight 29-27 edge at the Half. From there competition remained intense but Trinity College downed the Jumbos 69-66. Sixteen points from Henry Vetter led the way for the Bantams.    Continue reading

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THE ORPHIC ARGONAUTICA: PART TWO

FOR PART ONE OF THE ORPHIC ARGONAUTICA , ITS TIES TO ORPHISM AND ITS DIFFERENCES TO THE MAINSTREAM MYTH OF THE ARGONAUTS CLICK HERE

### After the Argonauts had feasted, they proceeded to the Argo and tried pulling it to the sea for launching. It was snagged on dry seaweed and refused to go further, so the Argonauts began losing their resolve. Remember, this is an Orpheus-centric version of the Quest for the Golden Fleece, so this wimpy loss of resolve was just an excuse for another Orphic lesson.

Even Jason felt helpless and looked to Orpheus for help. Orpheus played music and sang lyrics invoking another parable from the Derveni Papyrus (300s B.C.) and other Orphic material.

The song reminded each Argonaut of their noble bloodlines and recalled how years earlier Orpheus’s songs had bestowed movement on the pines and oaks from the mountains and had them walk near the coastline to re-root themselves.

Recently, those trees had been cut down by Argos and his workers to build the great ship the Argo. Orpheus’ song further reminds the trees whose wood now makes up the ship that they are as bound to obey him now as they were when they were whole.

The Argo itself proceeds to free itself from the dry seaweed and move into the water. Our heroes board the vessel, but Jason has come to doubt his leadership abilities and nominates Herakles to be the new captain of the Argonauts. Continue reading

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THE BUTCHER (1975) – EERIE’S GUN-WIELDING VIGILANTE PRIEST

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at one of Warren Publishing’s most neglected 1970s characters from Eerie magazine – the disfigured, gun-wielding vigilante priest called the Butcher.

EERIE #62 (Jan 1975)

Title: Forgive Us Our Trespasses 

Hero: The Butcher

Villains: The New Orleans Mafia 

NOTE: Along with Eerie‘s recurring characters the Spook (a big, black zombie in the 1840s American South who slaughters slave owners, evil Voodoo practitioners and their zombie armies) and Coffin (an undead and disfigured gunslinger in the late 1800s West who suffers under an Indian curse), I consider the Butcher to have tragically wasted potential.   

     Written by Bill DuBay and drawn by iconic artist Richard Corben, the Butcher combined Marvel’s the Punisher with its horror characters and paperback novel antiheroes like the Executioner and the Destroyer.

Synopsis: In June of 1932, New Orleans Mafia Don Carlo Gambino (no relation to the real-life New York Mafia boss of the same name) is on his deathbed. He has an unnamed priest brought to him to hear his last Confession. Continue reading

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