ASK BALLADEER: Who is your favorite Attic Old Comedian outside of Aristophanes?
ANSWER: Enough people have asked this now that I’ll post this in the spirit of an FAQ. Outside of Aristophanes, of course, we have only fragments to go by, but I would go with Eupolis. His comedies like Demoi, Marikas, Baptae, Autolycus and Taxiarchoi have been covered here at Balladeer’s Blog. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Greek Comedy
Privileged white one percenter and Democrat career criminal Nancy Pelosi once again demonstrated her political party’s typical hypocrisy on the issue of illegal immigration and border enforcement. The link is below.
Courageous activist and strong female role model Laura Loomer led a group of illegal immigrants over the fence at Pelosi’s obscenely wasteful mansion and grounds at her home.
Loomer, a heroine to an entire generation of empowered young women, then read aloud from a list of the dead and raped victims of illegal immigrant violence until Nancy Pelosi sicced police on the crowd.
The fence to Nancy’s tasteless, disgustingly gawdy mansion is what Pelosi calls “immoral” when used as a boundary at America’s unsecured southern border. Nancy once told a group of illegal immigrants that she “wished she could take them all home with her.” Obviously that was a lie, even though Pelosi’s ill-gotten wealth would certainly permit her to house thousands of them at her otherwise useless mansion. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
Per the Glitternight index:
NCAA Division Two – 1. NORTHWEST MISSOURI STATE BEARCATS ### 2. BELLARMINE UNIVERSITY KNIGHTS ### 3. INDIANA UNIVERSITY IN PENNSYLVANIA CRIMSON HAWKS ### 4. SAINT EDWARD’S (TX) RATTLERS ### 5. ASHLAND UNIVERSITY EAGLES ###
6. NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY SHARKS ### 7. MOREHOUSE COLLEGE MAROON TIGERS ### 8. UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA AT AIKEN PACERS ### 9. WEST LIBERTY STATE HILLTOPPERS ### 10. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT SAN DIEGO TRITONS ### Continue reading
Filed under College Basketball
Crypt TV is a YT channel featuring original horror film shorts with a variety of deadly monsters. Many of the monsters are featured in ongoing stories that are like ARG’s but with much better special effects. This particular video features the first appearance of a violent creature whose ongoing appearances hint at plenty of unsavory, sinister secrets as well as serial killings in a small town. It’s titled The Wedding Hand, as a play on a Wedding Band. NOT FOR THE EASILY FRIGHTENED! Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season
February 16th to 17th is when the 2019 Boston Sci-Fi Marathon will happen.
More info is below, but first a list of this year’s eleven movies:
SOURCE CODE (2011)
SUNSHINE (2007)
DR CYCLOPS (1940)
DESTINATION MOON (1950)
INNERSPACE (1987) Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies, opinion
January is an appropriate month for this latest post about Puck magazine (1871-1918). Here at Balladeer’s Blog I’ve long made clear my fascination with that political humor magazine. Puck political cartoons – especially from the covers – are still much sought-after and I own a few myself.
The magazine was a German language publication targeted at new arrivals from Europe and the cartoons stood out early on. There is no language barrier to satirical political cartoons, so even Americans who spoke no German could follow the editorial drift of those humorous illustrations. In 1877 Puck began publishing both English AND German language editions.
Here’s a cartoon from its pro-Theodore Roosevelt heyday depicting the wildly different opinions of the bombastic, “rock the boat of political corruption” Teddy Roosevelt. President Trump is a lot like T.R. and his cousin F.D.R. – hated by corrupt career politicians but loved by the working class and the poor.
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion, Puck Magazine
For this world which can’t get enough superhero action it’s the very first superhero team in history: the Justice Society of America. FOR PART ONE CLICK HERE
I will review the original issue and then detail how I would “script-doctor” the story for modern audiences.
ALL STAR COMICS #14 (December 1942)
Title: FOOD FOR STARVING PATRIOTS
Heroes: WONDER WOMAN (Original), DOCTOR MIDNITE, HAWKMAN (Original), THE SPECTRE, SANDMAN, THE ATOM (Original), DOCTOR FATE, STARMAN, JOHNNY THUNDER
Villains: ASSORTED NAZI MILITARY LEADERS
Synopsis: The Allied Nations recruit the Justice Society of America to deal with another crisis. In this case the problem of hunger, malnutrition and even starvation among many conquered populations in the countries occupied by the Axis Powers.
In the days that follow, the JSA members smuggle food into the occupied nations AND help out underground rebel groups combating the Nazis. They also facilitate several escapes from POW camps and jails for political prisoners.
How I Would Revise It: Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
Balladeer’s Blog’s shoutout to the Stray Cats last weekend prompted some emails asking for similar music. Before running with any more Stray Cats songs I figured I’d first do this quasi-Stray Cats sounding song from Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and his ad hoc band the Honeydrippers in the 1980s.
Filed under opinion
Balladeer’s Blog previously examined my picks for The Top Seven Robert Ludlum Novels. Here’s a look at the novel that would have been in 8th place if I had done his Top Eight. FOR THE TOP SEVEN CLICK HERE
8. THE PARSIFAL MOSAIC (1982)
TIME PERIOD: Early 1980s
Chronologically, this novel was the last Ludlum work that I really enjoyed. I found the Bourne sequels silly and most of his other subsequent works to just be tiresome rehashings of the stories he had written from 1971 to 1982.
As it is, The Parsifal Mosaic itself reuses plenty of elements from other, better Ludlum books but has just enough new touches for it to be a worthwhile read.
HERO: American Michael Havelock, a Czech-born Intelligence Officer. Havelock’s father was retaliated against by the Nazis in the Lidice reprisal killings, just like Stefan Varak’s character in The Chancellor Manuscript. Also like Varak, Michael Havelock was just a little boy when the Lidice slaughter occurred and he spent weeks on the run in the nearby forests scavenging food and killing Nazi soldiers when he could.
And like Varak, Havelock’s father was targeted because he did covert work for the Allies, so when little Michael was brought in from the cold he was placed with well-to-do British and American families to complete his schooling all the way up through college.
The now-adult Havelock saw the clear similarities between Nazi and Soviet totalitarianism and in order to oppose the Communists he gravitated to Intelligence work. Michael’s mentor and fellow Czech-American (more on him shortly) had brought him into the State Department, just like Robert Winthrop had brought Brandon Scofield into the State Department in The Matarese Circle.
Also like Scofield, Havelock transferred to Ludlum’s fictional Consular Operations, the State Department’s covert arm. From The Matarese Circle we readers know that “Cons Op” as it’s called specializes in defections and in running escape routes from the Iron Curtain countries.
A very high-level defector with a secret agenda outside the typical Cold War machinations will loom large in the unfolding plot.
VILLAIN: An elusive figure or organization code-named PARSIFAL from Wagner’s opera about the Knight named Parsifal (Percival to the English). Parsifal’s conspiracy at first seems limited to fairly minor yet perplexing espionage activities but when all put together the title mosaic reveals a pattern that may trigger a three-way, all-out nuclear war pitting the United States, China and the Soviet Union against each other. Continue reading
Filed under opinion, Pulp Heroes
With Democrats (Motto: Illegal Immigrants: Right or Wrong!) in Congress and in Hollywood saying “As long as illegal immigration never harms US personally, we’re all for it” it’s time for another Democrat Atrocity Roundup.
RED CROSS COMPARES THE U.S. – MEXICO BORDER TO A WAR ZONE – Apparently the white collar criminals of the Washington D.C. Swamp are going to wait until Mexican Drug Cartel gunmen are trading shots inside the Alamo itself before they deign to acknowledge the druglord no-man’s land in the American Southwest.
Our STILL unsecured southern border remains a sieve for all illegal comers, even diseased and criminal ones. The Democrats do not care about our friends and loved ones who have been killed, wounded or forced to move as the Cartels slither over from the Narco-State of Mexico.
Nor do they care about all the additional crimes committed by repeat deportees who simply re-cross the border. Democrats consider all illegal immigrants to be voters for their political party, either with or without amnesty. AND the party’s big money donors want the flood of illegals to continue so that wages fall, padding their own financial bottom lines.
Two of the biggest lies Democrats tell about illegal immigration: a) “Illegal immigrants do the jobs Americans won’t do.” No, they do the jobs that pompous snobs and one percenters won’t do. Americans would be quite willing to do those jobs.
And b) Back in the 1990s Democrats claimed NAFTA and similar deals that shaft American workers would provide so many jobs in Mexico that the flood of illegals would stop because those people would find work in Mexico instead of slipping across the border. And needless to say, Democrats said it in their usual condescending, clueless jackass manner. Just like they do EVERY TIME THEY’RE WRONG.
DEMOCRAT JERRY BROWN, GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA LIKE HIS FATHER BEFORE HIM, PARDONED HUNDREDS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AS HE LEFT OFFICE. Brown did that so that the poor, delicate little darlings – who had committed multiple ADDITIONAL crimes – would not have to be turned over to the Immigration authorities.
They are now among us and the Democrats do NOT care which of us may die or be raped or otherwise victimized by these repeat offenders. The ONLY thing Democrats care about is assisting illegal immigration. It benefits THEM so to hell with the rest of us, Democrats figure.
And Brown’s successor, Democrat Gavin Newsome, AS HIS FIRST ACT, moved to expand free health benefits to ILLEGALS.
CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATS ADMIT THEY HAVE NO IDEA IF OR HOW MANY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS VOTED THERE – That’s why Democrats LOVE “motor voter” registration, so that illegal immigrants can vote for their candidates. For the disgusting details click HERE Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
