Tag Archives: blogging

March 25, 2021 · 9:32 pm

FIVE NATURAL DISASTERS THAT STRUCK AMERICA (1811-1937)

masc graveyard smallerBalladeer’s Blog takes a look at some devastating natural disasters that hit the United States so long ago that some of them have been nearly forgotten. 

HIGH MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKES IN THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES

Dates: December 16th, 1811 … January 23rd, 1812 and February 7th, 1812

Location: Sparsely inhabited sections of Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio

The Events: In New Madrid, MO, residents were literally shaken from their beds by the earthquake at roughly 2:00AM on December 16th. Virtually none of them had ever experienced an earthquake before, but had heard Shawnee legends about one of their gods “stamping their feet hard enough to rend the ground asunder.”

A million-square mile area shook intensely on that day as well as January 23rd and February 7th, 1812. Cincinnati, OH, Louisville, KY and Saint Louis, MO reported falling chimneys and shattered windows. Across multiple states the ground rose and fell, with sinks and ridges forming and trees ripped in two. Continue reading →

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March 24, 2021 · 4:31 pm

NAIA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT DAY TWO

Loyola WolfpackDAY TWO: GAME ONE – The (11) LOYOLA UNIVERSITY (LA) WOLFPACK served up another big-time Upset against the (6) MARIAN UNIVERSITY KNIGHTS.

The Wolfpack utterly humiliated the Knights with smothering defense in the opening Half, leading them 36-19 at the midpoint. From there Marian University could not dig itself out of the hole it was in, and their furious rally attempt was stopped short by Loyola. The final score was Wolfpack 69  Knights 62. Zach Wrightsil led the victors with 19 points. Continue reading →

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March 23, 2021 · 2:58 am

THE CRYBABY KILLER (1958) – TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT

Cry Baby Killer

In the middle 1980s/ Way down on Level 31 …

Before MST3K there was … The Texas 27 Film Vault!

EPISODE ORIGINALLY BROADCAST: Saturday June 15th, 1985 from 10:30pm to 1:00am.

SERIAL: Before showing and mocking The Crybaby Killer our members of the Film Vault Corps (“the few, the proud, the sarcastic”) showed and mocked an episode of the Mascot Serial The Phantom Empire (1935). 

Phantom EmpireIn that classically campy serial Gene Autry played a singing cowboy who saves the world from an advanced underground civilization that comes complete with killer robots who wear cowboy hats.

FILM VAULT LORE: The movie ticket give-away this week was for Prizzi’s Honor.

THE MOVIE: Continue reading →

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March 21, 2021 · 5:18 pm

NAIA COLLEGE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT DAY ONE RESULTS

Bethel Pilots newDAY ONE: GAME ONE – The (16) BETHEL (IN) PILOTS (Riverboat Pilots) provided the shock of the day in their game against the (1) INDIANA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY WILDCATS.

The Wildcats were on top 44-39 at Halftime but the Pilots came out of the locker room ready for a comeback. Bethel University outscored their opponents 44-33 in the 2nd Half, thus managing an 83-77 Upset of the top seeds. TreVion Hughes was the leading scorer for the Pilots with his 29 points. 

Jamestown JimmiesDAY ONE: GAME TWO – This game pitted the (13) UNIVERSITY OF JAMESTOWN JIMMIES against the (4) FAULKNER UNIVERSITY EAGLES (should be the Furies).

The Jimmies put Faulkner University on Upset Alert by the Half with a 38-33 advantage. After the break the University of Jamestown proceeded to match the Eagles score for score, with each team notching 50 points. The final tally was Jimmies 88  Faulkner U 83. Mason Walters and Marc Kjos each had 26 points for Jamestown with Walters getting a Double-Double by also grabbing 12 rebounds. Continue reading →

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March 20, 2021 · 12:31 am

X-MEN: THE NEW TEAM’S FIRST TWENTY STORIES

With superheroes continuing to dominate pop culture right now, here’s a look at the first twenty stories of the “All New, All Different” X-Men beginning in 1975. I have a soft spot for superhero stories because reading them as a kid served as a gateway to two of my adult passions – mythology and opera.

new x-men 1GIANT-SIZE X-MEN Vol 1 #1 (May 1975)

Title: Deadly Genesis

Villain: Krakoa

NOTE: This was the very FIRST appearance of the new team of X-Men who replaced the original, blander team launched in 1963. That team’s original series had been canceled and reduced to reprints (reruns).

Synopsis: The story opened with a series of vignettes featuring Professor X traveling the world rounding up a new batch of mutants detected by his invention Cerebro. Three of them had prior history in the Marvel Universe:

*** WOLVERINE (real name unknown at the time), who had fought the Hulk and the Wendigo in Canada. Wolverine willingly joined the X-Men and angrily resigned from Canada’s Department H, which had been sending him on missions up to that point. This would have repercussions down the road.

*** BANSHEE (Sean Cassidy), a sometime foe and sometime ally of the original team of X-Men. This Irishman had also fought Captain America and the Falcon.

*** SUNFIRE (Shiro Yoshida), a Japanese mutant who had fought the original X-Men as well as Sub-Mariner, Iron Man and Captain America.

The rest of the mutants Xavier rounded up were new:

*** STORM (Ororo Munroe), from Africa, where her weather-controlling powers had made her revered as a goddess by an isolated tribe.

*** NIGHTCRAWLER (Kurt Wagner), a German circus performer whose monstrous appearance made him the target of a mutant-hating mob from which Professor X saved him.

*** COLOSSUS (Piotr Rasputin), a Russian teenager working on a Collective Farm in the Soviet Union.

*** THUNDERBIRD (John Proudstar), a Native American mutant from a reservation in the American Southwest.

Once they were all assembled at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, the professor introduced them to Cyclops (Scott Summers), the leader of the original X-Men, who briefed them. He had led the original team – Iceman, Angel, Marvel Girl, Polaris and Havok (Beast was joining the Avengers at this point) to investigate a new mutant detected by Cerebro on a Pacific Ocean island called Krakoa. The original team vanished and only Cyclops escaped in their aircraft, but with no memory of what happened there. Continue reading →

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March 18, 2021 · 7:26 pm

NAIA COLLEGE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT RESULTS

ALEXANDRIA REGION

Talladega College Tornadoes NEWBRACKET A: GAME ONE – The 2 seeds – the TALLADEGA COLLEGE TORNADOES – did battle with the 3rd seeded LSU-ALEXANDRIA GENERALS.

The Tornadoes were clinging to a slender 30-27 edge at Halftime, then got more and more separation from the Generals after the break. Talladega College went on to win the game by a final score of 77-68. Both Darryl Baker and Amir Yusuf contributed 16 points, with Yusuf notching a Double-Double by also grabbing 19 rebounds. Continue reading →

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March 13, 2021 · 3:36 pm

THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN (1957)

Girl in the Kremlin

THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN (1957) – The tagline for this Golden Turkey should have been “STALIN’S BACK AND GABOR’S GOT HIM!” The world of Bad Movies is pretty thoroughly littered with hilariously lame films proceeding from the premise that Adolf Hitler survived his supposed death and plotted a Fourth Reich.

The Girl in the Kremlin gives equal time to Hitler’s equally insane but even more murderous contemporary Joseph Stalin.

Zsa Zsa Gabor – yes, Zsa Zsa Gabor – co-stars as TWINS in this movie which features Patty Duke Show regular William Schallert, so you can insert your own “Identical Zsa Zsas” song and joke here. (“They walk alike, they talk alike, they even get their heads shaved alike”)

Bald Zsa Zsa Gabor

And feel free to choose your preferred caption to the photo at right. Either: a) ONE … MILLION … RUBLES or b) Zsa Zsa Gabor IS Mrs Kojak, this fall on the CW! 

Adding to the joyously tasteless atmosphere of this flick is the fact that the guy playing Stalin is named Maurice MANSON! The Marilyn Manson and shock-rocker Hitler “Where Are They Now” Stalin jokes pretty much write themselves.

THE STORY: The Girl in the Kremlin begins in March of 1953, when in real life the subhuman piece of filth Joseph Stalin died. In this movie we see Stalin have a plastic surgeon transform a hapless stooge into a lookalike of the mad Soviet Dictator. (They Saved Stalin’s Face!)

Girl in the Kremlin 2

The lookalike is killed and presented for burial while Stalin – who passed the time during the surgery indulging his famous fetish for watching a woman suffer a forced head-shaving – undergoes plastic surgery of his own to disguise his features. The murderous scumbag then flees Russia with – we are told – HALF THE MONEY IN THE SOVIET TREASURY plus a few aides including Nurse Grisenko, one of the twins portrayed by Zsa Zsa Gabor herself.

Continue reading →

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March 12, 2021 · 1:01 pm

CHANNEL AWESOME SCANDAL: ASK BALLADEER

procrastitara

ProcrastiTara

Sometimes it feels like I’m about the only person on the internet who has not weighed in on the whole Channel Awesome/ Change the Channel controversy from a few years back. More and more of you readers have been asking me how I feel about the whole thing, since videos and articles addressing the situation continue to be released, so here we go.

I don’t know enough about it or about the various side issues. I would say ProcrastiTara has one of the clearest looks at the scandal and the “Not So Awesome” document with its list of complaints and accusations. For her video about this topic click HERE.   

For a shorter and more skeptical take from a different source click HERE. For what it’s worth that second video got a comment from Lindsay Ellis, one of the figures in the story (her remark is still in that video’s comment section). She said Continue reading →

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March 11, 2021 · 6:37 pm

JOE BIDEN HAS EVEN MORE KIDS IN CAGES PLUS OTHER SCANDALS

cuomo's blood soaked emmyIndependent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog presents another look at – among other things – the scandals and screwups of Joe Biden, the career criminal and senile demagogue who was installed in the White House.

BIDEN’S KIDS IN CAGES: BIDEN HAS FAR MORE KIDS IN CAGES THAN TRUMP EVER DID, PLUS BIDEN IS REOPENING A FACILITY CLOSED BY TRUMP TO CONFINE THE RECORD-SETTING OVERFLOW. But, as we all know, Democrats never really cared about Kids in Cages. They just used them as a political stick to attack Trump with.

INELIGIBLE DEMOCRATS OF HOLLYWOOD LINE-JUMP OVER WORKING CLASS AND THE ELDERLY TO GET THEIR COVID VACCINATION. Democrat hatred of the working class, the poor and the elderly rages unabated.

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION CALLOUSLY BUT GLEEFULLY CALLS THE COVID EPIDEMIC “THE BEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED” FOR DEMOCRATS. “Democrats uber alles” I guess. 

#WALKAWAY – ENTIRE STAFF OF THE NEVADA DEMOCRAT PARTY QUITS OVER THE PARTY’S FANATICAL TURN.

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION “CONCERNED” ABOUT THE TERRORISM BEING COMMITTED BY GROUP THEY JUST TOOK OFF THE LIST OF TERRORIST GROUPS. Typical Biden ineptitude. 

EMMY-WINNING GENOCIDE: ANDREW CUOMO CALLED OUT FOR THE “DEATH TRAPS” HE RAN FOR THE CRITICALLY DISABLED. A courageous whistle-blower speaks out.

NEW DISCOVERY IN THE ONGOING VOTE FRAUD SCANDAL IN WISCONSIN. 2020 was clearly at least as dirty as the 1876 and 2000 elections.

LEGITIMACY OF 404,000 BALLOTS CALLED INTO QUESTION AS GEORGIA VOTE FRAUD SCANDALS CONTINUE. Continue reading →

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March 10, 2021 · 6:50 pm

THE NEW HUMANS (1909) – ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION

UgandaTHE NEW HUMANS (1909) – Written by B Vallance. No other name has come to light for the author of this thought-provoking work. Explorer Montgomery Merrick is roaming around the wilds of 1909 Uganda when he falls down a mountainside and into a concealed valley.

Merrick’s injuries are such that he does not expect to survive but he wakes up on an operating table in fine condition. Looking down at him are amoeboid humans who don barrel-shaped exo-skeletons whenever they need to keep their forms stable, as in during the surgery they were performing on Merrick.  

One of the beings speaks English and introduces himself to the recovering patient as the Chief Adaptor, who takes credit for “repairing” our hero. Merrick gradually becomes aware that his ultimate fate is still being debated by his odd saviors. Continue reading →

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