Balladeer’s Blog’s year-end retrospective continues with the Best of February.
Randy (right) and Richard way down on Level 31 hosting The Texas 27 Film Vault.
TEXAS TWENTY-SEVEN FILM VAULT: 33rd ANNIVERSARY – February 9th is the anniversary date for the first episode of this Pre-MST3K version of MST3K.
Join Randy and Richard for their looks at old schlock classics and vintage Republic Serials.
This time around I celebrated the show’s history PLUS included an appeal to any more Texas 27 Film Vault fans out there. Click HERE
BLACK PANTHER: PANTHER’S RAGE OVERVIEW – From the 1970s comes this 13-part Black Panther saga by Don McGregor featuring the Black Panther’s attempts to preserve his kingdom during the blood-soaked uprising led by the callous and cruel Erik Killmonger.
If the overrated and over-praised Alan Moore had written this story it would have been a movie or mini-series by now. Panther’s Rage has action, philosophy and other adult topics as well as a quest through Wakanda’s hidden realms: The Land of the Chilling Mist, the Domain of the White Gorillas, Serpent Valley and the Forest of Thorns. Click HERE
1912: BATTLE OF THE THREE PRESIDENTS – Readers loved this look at the Presidential Election of 1912 in which incumbent William Howard Taft faced Woodrow Wilson AND former President Theodore Roosevelt, who was running on the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party Ticket.
For Balladeer’s Blog’s take on that historical contest click HERE
FLASHMAN ON THE MARCH – The very popular series of reviews of my Top Five Harry Flashman Novels by George MacDonald Fraser wrapped up with this item at Number Five.
Flashman’s involvement in the 1868 Abyssinian Campaign features all-out action, death traps, sword-play, gun-play, historical intrigue and plenty of bedroom antics. Click HERE
VICE PRESIDENTS: JOKES ABOUT THESE ULTIMATE SECOND BANANAS – Many readers felt this examination of Vice Presidents was even funnier and more irreverent than my Presidential Pros and Cons blog posts.
You can decide for yourself by clicking HERE
PRESIDENTIAL LOSERS: PROS AND CONS – If you’ve enjoyed my humorous looks at America’s past presidents and vice-presidents you should certainly enjoy this item.
Quick takes on the prominent losers in presidential races, from Hillary Clinton on back. Featuring facts, insights and insults on each of them. Click HERE
DEMOCRAT ATROCITY ROUNDUP: FEBRUARY 28th – What more need be said? Click HERE
DEMOCRATS: WILL THEY EVER GROW UP? – Sure, Republicans are bad, too, but Democrats are snobbish fools who actually seem to think they’re the country’s official “intellectuals” and are THE moral models for everyone else. Just like religious nuts of years ago. Click HERE
Balladeer’s Blog’s Christmas Carol-A-Thon 2018 continues with a look at this animated sequel to All Dogs Go To Heaven. 
ALL-STAR COMICS #5 (June 1941) 
THE TOP FIVE FLASHMAN NOVELS – Little did I know how wild the reaction would be to my reviews of what I consider to be the top five novels featuring George MacDonald Fraser’s infamous antihero Harry Paget Flashman. 
CRATES: ANCIENT GREEK COMEDIES – Balladeer’s Blog took another look at the fragmentary remains of the works of yet another ancient Greek comedian. 
ORION: THE ELVIS PRESLEY HOAX/ PUT-ON – Many readers felt this weird topic featured me at my myth-dissecting best. 
REHASHING PRESIDENT TRUMP’S INCREDIBLE 2017 – De facto Third Party President Donald Trump showed the working class and the poor that at long last an American office-holder actually cared about them for the first time in decades. 
TRANSGRESS WITH ME, JANUARY 13th – One of the earliest installments of what has become one of Balladeer’s Blog’s most controversial and hotly-debated recurring items. 
ROBERT LUDLUM’S THE CHANCELLOR MANUSCRIPT – Balladeer’s Blog reviews Robert Bourne Identity Ludlum’s 1977 espionage novel that seems even more timely and possible here in 2018. 
EBBIE (1995) Balladeer’s Blog’s Ninth Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon rolls along with this 1995 telefilm starring soap opera queen Susan Lucci. The eternally-sexy Lucci plays Elizabeth “Ebbie” Scrooge, our regulation “grasping and covetous” business magnate who runs the Dobson’s department store empire. This version of A Christmas Carol is kind of cute and it tries hard. 
FIRST SEMIFINAL – The MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS were hosting the defending National Champions – the UNIVERSITY OF SAINT FRANCIS COUGARS. Just as much as the Mustangs were fighting USF they were also fighting their history of playoff chokes in recent years. 
SECOND SEMIFINAL – In this game the BENEDICTINE COLLEGE RAVENS traveled to take on the KANSAS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY COYOTES. Not only did this clash end in an Upset but it was an odd tale of two halves. By the break the Coyotes had come back from being down 13-0 in the opening Quarter to trailing the Ravens by a much tighter score of 20-14. 
HODADEION PART 9 – BATTLE WITH A WHIRLWIND – At what is now called Niagara Falls, the demigod Hodadeion stood facing an enormous Dagwanoenyent. Those beings were the ancient whirlwinds so often fought by Iroquois deities. 
VICTORY BOWL – Last night’s 2018 edition of the post-season Bowl Game in the NCCAA pitted the OLIVET NAZARENE UNIVERSITY TIGERS against the OTTAWA (AZ) UNIVERSITY SPIRIT. The Spirit made it to the Victory Bowl in just their first-ever year of intercollegiate football! 
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – Last night the Defending National Champions – the EAST MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE LIONS – took on the 2016 Champions – the GARDEN CITY COLLEGE BRONCBUSTERS – for the 2018 title. Defense was the name of the game, with the Lions on top just 3-0 in the 1st Quarter and 10-0 at Halftime. 
