After yesterday’s arrival and meet’n’greet today is the “March” part of the #WALKAWAY MARCH ON WASHINGTON. All of the members of #WALKAWAY decided to do just that from the ever-increasing insanity of the Democrats. I became an Independent voter long ago.
For the #WALKAWAY YouTube channel click HERE
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
Balladeer’s Blog’s month-long celebration of Halloween hurtles toward its finale next Wednesday night. This time around I’ll examine the tale of Sean na Sagart aka John of the Priests, who should have been the lead character in several horror films by this point.
Sean was born John Mullowney around 1690 AD in Derrew, Ireland. By his teens he was living beyond his means, often drinking and carousing. He financed his hard-partying lifestyle through multiple crimes, with various accounts claiming he was a masked Highwayman or a burglar or even a rustler and horse-thief.
It IS certain he was arrested for stealing horses and was sentenced to death by hanging in Castlebar, Ireland. Recognizing what an amoral creature was before them, the authorities offered Sean a very dirty job in exchange for escaping death on the gallows – becoming a Priest Hunter/ Killer.
The Penal Act of 1709 had decreed that Catholic Priests plus higher and lower clergymen must take the Oath of Abjuration and recognize Great Britain’s Protestant Queen Anne as the supreme religious authority in England AND Ireland. Refusing to do so merited summary execution.
Thus began the career and dark legend of Sean na Sagart. Sean spent roughly the next 17 years hunting, capturing and killing renegade Catholic Priests, Bishops, and Cardinals.
Since Catholic schools were forbidden, outlaw Hedge School Teachers were also fair game. Sean’s bounty varied according to the rank of his clergy member victims. If he ever backed out of this career as a Priest Hunter it was back to the gallows for him.
WHY A HORROR STORY? For multiple reasons in a variety of storytelling approaches. First, if played strictly true-to-life it would make for a very ironic twist on the horror subgenre of Witchfinder General flicks, which always featured crazed, sadistic clergymen hunting and torturing confessions out of “witches.” And Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season, Neglected History
Halloween is celebrated all month long here at Balladeer’s Blog. Here’s my review of this Jean Rollin film. For even more reviews of horror films with a nudity theme click HERE
And for my look at three more Jean Rollin movies click HERE and HERE
The Nude Vampire
5. THE NUDE VAMPIRE (1970) – France’s Jean Rollin is one of those love-them-or-hate-them directors. The snooty French often bashed his films for their devotion to style over all else. Don’t believe reviews which claim that his movies have no comprehensible storylines.
Personally I find him more straightforward than Lynch or Jodorowsky. At any rate the central figure of this arthouse Euro-horror is indeed a beautiful female vampire in skimpy outfits and less. Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies, Halloween Season
Balladeer’s Blog’s month-long celebration of Halloween skedaddles along! Here’s a look at my favorite horror tales of the neglected American writer Irvin S Cobb.
THE GALLOWSMITH (1918) – A traveling hangman really loves his work and has executed countless figures with no care regarding their guilt or innocence. If the court condemned them, he does his job.
An evil gunslinger called the Lone-Hand Kid has been condemned to death for a killing he didn’t actually commit. He berates the Gallowsmith so thoroughly while being hanged that our title character screws up, killing the Kid slowly and painfully instead of with one clean, neck-breaking drop.
As he dies the Kid curses the hangman, bringing on a ghastly finale. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season
Halloween Month at Balladeer’s Blog continues with this look at the Grim Ghost, a Pre-Spawn horror figure from the VERY short-lived Atlas/ Seaboard Comics. FOR MANY MORE ATLAS/SEABOARD HEROES CLICK HERE
THE GRIM GHOST
Secret Identity: Matthew Dunsinane, Highwayman
Origin: In 1740s America, Matthew Dunsinane was the masked Highway Robber known only as the Grim Ghost. He successfully preyed upon the Carriage Trade for years. In 1743 the Grim Ghost robbed Lord and Lady Braddock in their coach.
Lady Sarah Braddock, beautiful but evil, pretended to be interested in a tumble with the daring outlaw who had committed the robbery. Our red-blooded hero fell into her trap, was unmasked, tried and hanged.
In Hell, Satan informed the Grim Ghost that in the 20th Century he was facing a rebellious demon called Brimstone, who wanted to overthrow him and rule Hell in his place. That diabolical figure was endowing various evil-doers with powers to survive their ordained deaths, depriving Satan of their souls, thus weakening him in power and prestige.
Satan offered to release the Grim Ghost from Hell periodically to subdue those renegade evil-doers and send them to Hell for damnation.
God would not interfere with Dunsinane’s mission since Brimstone was defying Fate. Satan endowed the Grim Ghost with powers of his own to battle Brimstone’s legions on Earth.
First Appearance: The Grim Ghost #1 (January, 1975). His final appearance came in July of that same year.
Powers: The Grim Ghost was given a flying, coal-black horse by Satan as well as ghostly powers of intangibility plus a brace of supernatural pistols. Those pistols fired shots that could burn and blast their way through solid objects plus dispatch Brimstone’s minions to their rightful place in Hell.
Comment: Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season, Superheroes
Halloween Month continues with the most frightening documentary since the morbidly obese Michael Moore’s film titled Why Can’t I Find A Training Bra That Fits Me?
THE CREEPY LINE (2018) (AVAILABLE ON I-TUNES) – This is a terrific and highly-detailed look at the abuses involved in selective censorship on Social Media and other internet sites. The techno-fascists at Facebook, Google, Twitter and similar 21st Century Robber Baron domains are finally getting the kind of scrutiny that those privileged (and partisan) one percenters deserve.
The willingness of those corporate fascists to cooperate with totalitarian regimes and totalitarian political parties has become a danger to freedom of expression all around the world. Letting privileged white billionaires dictate acceptable language and ideas on the internet is like a real-life version of countless works of dystopian fiction.
“I’M DEAD INSIDE.”
This situation also brings to mind Robert Ludlum’s espionage novel The Prometheus Deception in which Zuckerbergian techno-fascists are more than happy to help oppressive governments impose a global dictatorship. Such thoughts remain in the back of your mind the entire time you watch this riveting documentary.
Silicon Valley’s fondness for suppressing speech and undermining free elections makes this long-overdue expose very VERY relevant as social media sites are now often refusing even PAID ADVERTISEMENTS of candidates disliked by the one percenters in charge.
Data Harvesting and the way those same Robber Baron fiefdoms in Silicon Valley violate the privacy of users and then sell their most intimate information is explored as well. Overall The Creepy Line is as explosive and relevant as Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle was back in its day. Think of this documentary as a similar work updated for the internet age.
The Jungle caused such an uproar that it led to the Pure Food and Drug Act as well as the Meat Inspection Act. Hopefully The Creepy Line will lead to similar policing of the flagrant abuses of Silicon Valley’s “Masters of the Universe.”
FOR MORE ABOUT THE CREEPY LINE CLICK HERE
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
Halloween Month plactan jremm!
Zxxtng klitmo junb Jack Parsons gwytrty sdo.
Bih gneq zyzy Babalon Working. Qlett sdo zxxtng twa kwa sdo! Sruohu gzevvro kna lu gzevvro sdo feswaq ts o pa Marjorie Cameron.
Ghui laktim laktoma Jan-Mar 3112 YOLD. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season
Halloween Month continues here at Balladeer’s Blog with another seasonal song. This time it’s Marilyn Manson’s cover of Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics.
Filed under Halloween Season
HEADLINES
TOPPLING NUMBER FOUR – Yesterday the NAIA’s CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY PHOENIX hosted the number 4 team in the nation – the LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE BLUE RAIDERS. The Phoenix put the Blue Raiders on Upset Alert with a 10-7 Halftime lead that became 17-13 to end the 3rd Quarter. In the end Cumberland U made it a happy Senior Day by holding on for a 24-21 triumph.
MARATHON GAME OF THE DAY – Down in NCAA Division Three came Saturday’s longest game. The WESTERN CONNECTICUT STATE COLONIALS faced the visiting BRIDGEWATER STATE BEARS and, though trailing 21-14 at the break, came back to force Overtime with a 28-28 tie. The 1st OT ended in a 34-34 deadlock, neither team scored in the 2nd and the 3rd ended at 42-42. In the FOURTH OVERTIME the Colonials won it 50-48.
NUMBER SIX GETS DEEP-SIXED – Back in the NAIA the MIDAMERICA NAZARENE UNIVERSITY PIONEERS took it on the road against the country’s 6th ranked EVANGEL UNIVERSITY CRUSADERS. The Pioneers were chasing the Crusaders 19-13 at the Half but in the 4th Quarter they outscored EU 20-7 for a stunning 33-26 Upset victory. Continue reading
Filed under college football
Balladeer’s Blog’s month-long celebration of Halloween continues! There are plenty of Marvel Comics authorities who could give you the story of the in-depth evolution of horror comics in the 1970s, from the relaxing of the Comics Code around 1970 onward. I’ll spare all of us a trip down that particular alley and cut to the chase. Marvel Comics is THE comic book publishing house in pop culture right now with nearly every movie that ever gets made being based on a superhero figure from The House of Ideas.
The 1970s saw Stan Lee and company churn out countless horror comics to cash in on the new flexibility in four-color storytelling. Some were long-lasting successes, like Tomb of Dracula, and others weren’t, like The Frankenstein Monster. When Marvel ventured outside established works by Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley and others they actually produced some very intriguing characters who had more potential than many actual horror films from the 70s. Excluding the overworked Drac and Frank here are five of Marvel’s most intriguing horror figures from that experimental decade.
1. SATANA THE DEVIL’S DAUGHTER
Comment: How has this character NOT been the subject of multiple movies by this point? You’d think that Marvel would have learned long ago not to let its strong female horror figures lie unused. For decades Stan and friends let their character Rachel Van Helsing, the young blonde descendant of a long line of vampire slayers go unexploited only to watch potential millions of dollars fly away as Buffymania took hold in the 90s.
Satana Hellstrom was the half-sister of Damian Hellstrom, Marvel’s Son of Satan character. Like Damian she was the offspring of Satan and a mortal woman. Unlike Damian, who went goody-goody to spite his infernal father, Satana was a loyal Daddy’s Girl who was happy to try to spread her father’s ways in the human world.
When she wasn’t battling her half-brother or serving as the Earthly object of worship for a Satanic Cult or facing down covens of demons conspiring to overthrow her father’s rule of Hell Satana was a very successful succubus, and it’s easy to see why.
Even the more “adult” black and white horror comics of the 1970s couldn’t show what a succubus REALLY does, so Satana set about harvesting souls by simply kissing her victims, despite occassional dialogue panels indicating that something a little more … involved … might be going on. Mortal souls would emerge as black butterflies from the mouths of the dead, shriveled bodies of Satana’s prey and our sultry protagonist would then crush those butterflies between her fingers, proud to send another soul to her father’s domain.
A cinematic Satana could be given full-blown horror treatment and be a female franchise-spawner to compete with Freddy Krueger and the like. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season, Superheroes
