The New South Athletic Conference has finalized arrangements to add football for the 2025-2026 season. Seven of the conference’s twelve teams are on board for NSAC football.
Institution: ATLANTIS UNIVERSITY
Team Name: ATLANTEANS
Location: MIAMI, FL
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Filed under college football, Cool names and cool logos
Halloween Month is flying by! Here’s another seasonal post.
A BLACK MASS (1966) – This short horror/ mythological play was written by LeRoi Jones aka Amiri Baraka and has nothing to do with Satanism. The writer played on words, meaning “black” as in his skin color, not as in the Satanic masses enacted by larping geeks trying to be edgy. (Longtime readers may remember my contempt for the fools who call themselves Satanists.)
Whenever I review works by film director Jean Rollin I always point out that his creations run the gamut from brilliant to So Bad They’re Good. In the same spirit, I’m pointing out that Jones/ Baraka’s writings have been called racist, antisemitic, misogynistic ravings as well as artistic expositions on black thinking and culture.
In A Black Mass Baraka fused elements of the Frankenstein story and zombie lore with the Nation of Islam’s myth about the black mad scientist/ evil magician Yakub. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season
Halloween Month rolls along here at Balladeer’s Blog! In the past, I’ve examined decades-old Mexican horror films that have a certain quaint B-Movie charm to them. Here are some of those So Bad They’re Good flicks I didn’t get the chance to review before now.
THE RESURRECTED MONSTER (1953) – Directed and co-written by the trailblazing Chano Urueta, this film is regarded as Mexico’s first sci-fi/ horror blend. A plastic surgeon named Dr. Hermann Ling (Jose Maria Linares-Rivas) has been driven mad by a lifetime of scorn over his grotesque, misshapen (yet hilarious) appearance. He has spent years working in isolation at a remote castle.
A beautiful (of course) female reporter named Nora, played by starlet Miroslava, is sent to obtain a story about the famed surgeon’s life and methods. The mad doctor falls in love with Nora and is devastated when she flees his castle after getting her story.
Our villain reanimates a handsome corpse and transplants an obedient brain into it. Hey, it’s the movies! Mad scientists are automatically masters of ALL disciplines! Ling has his hybrid creation bring Nora back to him, but it, too, has fallen for Nora and kills the doctor, and is in turn slain by Nora’s editor (Gherasimos). Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies, Halloween Season
LIBERTY VS LYNX: GAME FIVE – The NEW YORK LIBERTY hosted the MINNESOTA LYNX as this series went the full five games.
Minnesota was out in front 19-10 in the opening Quarter and 34-27 by Halftime. The Liberty made its move in the 3rd Quarter, which ended with them up 47-44. The Lynx forced Overtime with a 60-60 tie to end Regulation. Continue reading
Filed under WNBA
HEADLINES
KNOCKING OFF NUMBER ONE – In NCAA Division Two, the 11th ranked OUACHITA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY TIGERS played host to the nation’s number 1 team – the HARDING UNIVERSITY BISON. A 7-7 1st Quarter tie became a 13-10 Halftime edge for the Bison. After the break, the Tigers scored the only points of the 2nd Half to win the game 17-13.
DOWN GOES NUMBER SIX – In NCAA Division Three, the 16th ranked UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT OSHKOSH TITANS took the field against the visiting number 6 WISCONSIN-PLATTEVILLE PIONEERS. The Pioneers were on top 10-3 by the break, but the 3rd Quarter ended in a 17-10 Titans lead. The 4th saw UW-Oshkosh triumph 24-17.
NUMBER SEVEN TAKES A FALL – Back up in D2, the CALIFORNIA (PA) VULCANS welcomed the number 7 team in the land – the SLIPPERY ROCK UNIVERSITY ROCK. The Vulcans led 7-0 in the opening Quarter and 17-7 at the Half. From there Cal (PA) shut out the Rock while adding 11 more points for a 28-7 Upset win. Continue reading
Filed under college football
LYNX VS LIBERTY: GAME FOUR – In this 4th game of the best of 5 series, the MINNESOTA LYNX welcomed the NEW YORK LIBERTY.
The Lynx were fighting to stave off elimination as the 1st Quarter ended in a 23-23 tie and the arrival of Halftime saw Minnesota clinging to a mere 46-45 edge over the Liberty. Continue reading
Filed under WNBA
This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at DC’s character Man-Bat.
DETECTIVE COMICS Vol 1 #400 (June 1970)
Title: Challenge of the Man-Bat
Villains: The Blackout Gang
Synopsis: Kirk Langstrom, a Gotham City zoologist, makes his first appearance in this issue. Langstrom was using genetic components from bats to try restoring hearing to the deaf, but the formula instead wound up transforming him into a human-sized bat creature.
The anguished Langstrom realizes he must go into seclusion until he can devise a cure for his condition. That night he happens by as Batman interrupts the Blackout Gang’s attempt to rob a Gotham museum.
Man-Bat helps Batman defeat and capture the gang and reveals to the curious hero that he is not wearing a costume before departing, leaving the caped crusader stunned. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season, Superheroes
LIBERTY VS LYNX: GAME THREE – The NEW YORK LIBERTY visited the MINNESOTA LYNX as this best of five series stood at 1 game apiece.
The 1st Quarter ended with Minnesota up 28-18 and Halftime found the Liberty within 43-35. To close out the 3rd Quarter, New York still trailed the Lynx but had made it a one-point game – 62-61. Continue reading
Filed under WNBA
Balladeer’s Blog’s month-long celebration of Halloween continues with this look at Canadian werewolf lore.
THE WERWOLVES (1898) – Written by Honore Beaugrand, this story features fairly unique werewolf lore. The tale is not structured in a traditional way but instead expands upon accounts of lycanthropy in campfire tales as if they really, truly happened.
A modern comparison might be with those far-fetched tales of the supernatural from supermarket tabloids or online Creepypastas. The pretense of reality adds to the fun.
Set in the very early 1700s The Werwolves treats readers to a pack of Iroquois lycanthropes rampaging around Quebec and elsewhere in Canada. These werewolves are much more intelligent and gregarious than many other such monsters.
They operate in a pack to steal away victims and even dance around a fire in their wolfmen forms howling and chanting before devouring their victims.
These Canadian variations also look much different than readers might expect: they have the heads of wolves and the tails of wolves but the rest of their bodies remain human after their nocturnal transformation. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season
Halloween Month continues with this look at the three silent movie versions of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
FRANKENSTEIN (1910) – This first ever cinematic depiction of the classic horror story was produced by Edison Studios, as in Thomas Edison. Luckily Frankenstein has survived, and existing copies run from 11 minutes to 16 minutes.
The movie opens on a scene with a painted backdrop and with Victor Frankenstein (Augustus Phillips) parting with his fiancee Elizabeth (Mary Fuller) and his father as he goes off to attend college.
Edison Studios efforts were known for their slipshod, seat of their pants nature, and Frankenstein serves up my all-time favorite back-to-back dialogue boards. “Frankenstein leaves for college.” followed by “Two years later Frankenstein has discovered the mystery of life.” (… And Frankenstein Created Cram School)
We get the exaggerated pantomime acting typical of such early silent films as Victor is excited at the thought of employing “the mystery of life” to create what he claims to Elizabeth will be the most perfect being ever. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season
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