Tag Archives: Ed Wozniak

February 18, 2012 · 3:07 pm

FORGOTTEN TELEVISION: SHADOW THEATER (1990-1991)

 Shadow Theater was a terrific series hosted by Robert “Freddy Krueger” Englund. Everyone over the age of 30 remembers a time when you couldn’t just go to the internet to get your fix of info and footage from fringe and/ or obscure horror films. This program was a nice once-a- week documentary look at movies for the Psychotronic- minded.

An additional plus about the show was the way it treated viewers to behind-the- scenes facts and rare interviews with some of horror’s most daring filmmakers without having to attend a fan convention. (It’s a joke! Lighten up!)

Robert Englund displayed the same macabre charm he would employ when hosting the Horror Movie Hall of Fame ceremonies later in the decade. He didn’t copy his patented Freddy routine, but rather Continue reading →

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February 15, 2012 · 10:09 pm

END OF THE WORLD MYTH: THE BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF RED DEATH

 If you actually believe that we never landed on the moon and that the 9-11 attacks were staged by the U.S. government then you probably also believe that the world will end this coming December 21st. Balladeer’s Blog has been examining some of the previous end of the world scares in history.

November 13th, 1900 – This date was the predicted end of the world according to the Brothers and Sisters of Red Death. This group was a very odd religious cult that Continue reading →

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February 10, 2012 · 1:47 am

ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY: PYTINE (423 BCE)

Cratinus as we all like to remember him

 Welcome to Balladeer’s Blog’s seventh post on ancient Greek comedies. If Pytine was an episode of Friends it would be titled The One Where Cratinus Fires Back At Aristophanes. This play is also known under English language titles like Wine Flask, Flagon, The Bottle, and others along those lines.

Cratinus, seen at left posing for the Attic Old Disco soundtrack album for Saturday Night Fever (Travolta stole all his moves from Cratinus, by the way) and galvanized by the tongue-in- cheek caricature that Aristophanes presented of a drunken, washed- up Cratinus in his previous year’s comedy The Knights, turned that caricature into the premise of his final comedy.

THE PLAY

From the fragments of Pytine that remain it seems Cratinus had an actor portraying himself (Cratinus) as the booze-soaked Grand Old Man of Attic comedy at the time. I always picture the character as a cross between Dudley Moore in Arthur and Tom Conti in Reuben, Reuben. Anyway, in the play Cratinus is Continue reading →

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February 9, 2012 · 11:10 pm

USCAA AND NCCAA COLLEGE BASKETBALL RANKINGS

 I’ve been getting some emails inquiring why I wasn’t covering USCAA and NCCAA basketball rankings yet this season. I was going to cover their tournaments, of course, but in the meantime I’m thrilled that enough people out there had an interest in the USCAA and NCCAA to let me know they missed me mentioning them! I’ll make a point out of listing the NCCAA and the two USCAA divisions from now on in my weekly posts about the polls.

By the way, people who followed my USCAA basketball tournament coverage last year may be interested to know it is now called Mountain Madness instead of Madness in the Mountains. Thank GOD! Anyway, for this week, the Rochester College Warriors are the number 1 team in the USCAA-1 poll. And here’s a look at the complete polls for both divisions of the USCAA (United States Collegiate Athletic Association):

USCAA-1 1. RC Warriors … 2. Ave Maria University Gyrenes … 3. Southern Virginia University Knights … 4. Belleville Lynx … 5. Newport News Builders … 6. Oakwood Ambassadors (love that name) … 7. UMFK Bengals … 8. Continue reading →

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February 7, 2012 · 11:30 pm

COLLEGE BASKETBALL RANKINGS: WEEK OF FEBRUARY 6TH

 The South Plains College Texans (logo at left, featuring Terrible Tex) retained their top spot in the NJCAA-1 poll, but the NAIA-1 poll has a new number 1 team. Following the Shorter Hawks’ stunning upset loss to the Point University Skyhawks on Friday the Robert Morris (IL) Eagles moved up a notch to take over the top spot.

Now for a closer look at the new poll results:

NAIA-1 – 1. Robert Morris (IL) Eagles … 2. Shorter Hawks … 3. Oklahoma Baptist University Bison … 4. Southern Polytechnic Running Hornets

NAIA-2 – 1. Northwood (FL) Seahawks … 2. Oregon Tech Hustlin’ Owls … 3. Davenport Panthers … 4. Dordt College Defenders (up from 5 last week)

NCAA Division 3 – 1. Hope Flying Dutchmen (up from 2) … 2. Continue reading →

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February 1, 2012 · 1:53 am

LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES AND ARISTOPHANES

Welcome back to Balladeer’s Blog, the Open City in an America that is becoming so divided by shrill, hysterical partisanship that it reminds me of pre-Civil War Spain in the 1930’s. But I’m Continue reading →

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January 23, 2012 · 11:36 pm

COLLEGE BASKETBALL POLLS FOR JANUARY 23RD

 The latest polls are out for the NAIA’s two divisions and for NCAA Division 3. Tomorrow the new D2 and NJCAA polls will be released. The Oregon Tech Hustlin’ Owls are the new number 1 team in the NAIA-2 poll after the previous number 1, the Northwood (FL) Seahawks, fell to the unranked Embry Riddle Aeronautical University Eagles on the 19th.

NAIA-1 – 1. Shorter Hawks (18-0!) Continue reading →

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