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BALLADEER’S BLOG’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL POSTSEASON RESULTS FROM NOVEMBER 25th

NAIA PLAYOFFS

College of Idaho Coyotes NEW HELMETROUND TWO: GAME ONE – This shootout saw the COLLEGE OF IDAHO COYOTES visit the UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA-WESTERN BULLDOGS. The Coyotes owned the opening Half, leading 28-7 by the break. From there the Bulldogs mounted a rally, pulling to within 35-21 in the 3rd Quarter before College of Idaho held on in the 4th for a 49-42 win. 

Northwestern College Red RaidersROUND TWO: GAME TWO – The defending national champions – the NORTHWESTERN (IA) COLLEGE RED RAIDERS – hosted the DORDT UNIVERSITY DEFENDERS yesterday. The 1st Quarter ended in a 7-0 Red Raiders lead. And then … the defenses dominated so thoroughly that no more points were scored the rest of the way, making 7-0 the final – if flukish – tally. Continue reading

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FANTASTIC FOUR VS THE INHUMANS AND GALACTUS

This weekend’s escapist and light-hearted superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at the very first encounters the Fantastic Four had with the Inhumans, the Silver Surfer and Galactus.

ff 44FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #44 (November 1965)

Title: The Gentleman’s Name is Gorgon

Villains: Gorgon, Medusa and Dragon Man

Synopsis: This story picks up after Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) and Invisible Girl (Sue Storm-Richards) get back from their honeymoon following Dr. Doom’s attempt to kill them during their wedding ceremony in Fantastic Four Annual Vol 1 #3. 

While renovating the Fantastic Four’s Baxter Building headquarters, the umpteenth argument breaks out among the team members, including the Thing (Ben Grimm), and so the Human Torch (Johnny Storm, Sue’s brother) angrily leaves for a while. He takes his latest sports car for a drive to cool off.

frightful fourThrough a comic book coincidence, the Human Torch gets caught in the middle of a fight between the super villainess called Medusa and her fellow Inhuman called Gorgon.

Medusa, a member of the Fantastic Four’s enemies the Frightful Four (The Wizard, Sandman, Trapster and Medusa herself) reveals to the Torch that she and Gorgon are both Inhumans and Gorgon has come to make her return to their race’s hidden city called Attilan. Continue reading

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THE PASSION OF SCROOGE (2018) – CHRISTMAS CAROL-A-THON 2023 BEGINS

mascot chair and bottle picIf it’s the Friday after Thanksgiving, then regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog know it’s the day when I kick off my annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon in which I review several versions of A Christmas Carol. I look at movies, television shows, radio shows and books which adapt the Dickens classic. Every year I present new reviews with a few old classics mixed in since newer readers will have missed them.

passion of scrooge 2nd picTHE PASSION OF SCROOGE (2018) – This 62-minute offering which is out on video is one of the opera versions of A Christmas Carol, NOT the x-rated version which is titled The Passions of Carol. I want to avoid any confusion, right off the bat.

This Carol opera was written and composed by Jon Deak, who also stars in the production alongside William Sharp. H. Paul Moon directed. Unlike the opera versions that I’ve reviewed in the past, no one wears period costumes, just dark colored timeless garb.

The 21st Century Consort Orchestra provides the music and though the horseshoe layout for the orchestra and the conductor (Christopher Kendall) is business as usual the execution certainly is not. Continue reading

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TURKEY DAY CLASSIC: TUSKEGEE VS ALABAMA STATE

alabama state hornetsTuskegee Golden TigersNUMBER NINETY-NINE – Yesterday was the 99th Turkey Day Classic, the annual Thanksgiving Day football game between the NCAA Division Two TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY GOLDEN TIGERS and the home standing NCAA Division One ALABAMA STATE HORNETS. Continue reading

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HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2023!

happy t givingHAPPY THANKSGIVING! Enjoy this holiday and the hope for peaceful coexistence represented by the possibly mythic meal that it commemorates. The kind of self-righteous killjoys who bash Thanksgiving are the type of sanctimonious idiots that are fun to laugh at since they have no identity outside of their ephemeral political concerns.

Whether you consider the tale of the first Thanksgiving to be literal or aspirational, enjoy yourselves! Be thankful that you’re not one of those heartless people who try to pollute every happy gathering with divisiveness and turn it into a showcase for the simple-minded, ankle-biting political remarks that those people laughably think are Really Deep. Continue reading

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SUPERSONIC SAUCER (1956)

supersonic saucerSUPERSONIC SAUCER (1956) – In honor of the Thanksgiving holiday Balladeer’s Blog presents a look at another harmless, all-ages sci-fi turkey, this one from England. Supersonic Saucer was produced by our old friends in Great Britain’s Children’s Film Foundation, the same group behind the previously reviewed serial Masters of Venus.   

Believe it or not, Frank Wells, son of H.G. Wells himself, penned the story for this So Bad It’s Good flick. At an English boarding school, a few students whose families are too poor to be able to pay for their travel expenses wind up having to spend the holiday break at the school. They are looked after by the Headmaster and his tween son Rodney (Fella Edmonds), a science nerd who resents having to babysit.

sumacTop-billed actress Marcia Manolescue, an English actress of Asian descent, plays Sumac, one of the students whose family could not pay travel fare home and back. Another such student is Greta (Gillian Harrison) and rounding things out is Adolphus (Andrew Mette-Harrison), the tubby youngest character. 

While killing time over the holiday break our youngsters visit an observatory, where they are allowed to use the telescope for a time. They spot what seems to be a spaceship headed for Earth from Venus, but none of the adults on hand believe them.

mebaWe viewers know the kids are in the right, and the spaceship/ flying saucer is really a Venusian youngster. That alien entity used its race’s ability to morph from Muppet-like form to amoeboid form to flying saucer form fit for interplanetary travel.

The alien visits our lead characters upon arrival on Earth, drawn to them by the telepathic “fix” it got on them when they spotted it through the telescope. Because of the Venusian’s transitionary form that resembles an oversized amoeba the youngsters name the alien “Meba.”

flyingThe goofy looking Venusian resembles a thick, tall worm in a white hijab in its “normal” form but is hilariously rendered as a cartoon flying saucer with eyes for its airborne and spacefaring form. The “special” effect is as laughable as the cartoon spaceships in American movies like Invaders from Mars.
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THE MOUSE ON THE MAYFLOWER (1968)

Mouse on the MayflowerTHANKSGIVING IS ALMOST HERE! ONE OF THE GREATEST HOLIDAYS OF THE YEAR! In the midst of the travails that inevitably complicate our lives it’s a great time for taking stock of the positives that we can find.  

THE MOUSE ON THE MAYFLOWER (1968) – This is an enjoyable cartoon which could have been much better with just a little more effort. Vintage country western star Tennessee Ernie Ford narrates and supplies the voice of the title character – a Puritan mouse named Willum – who stows away on the Mayflower during its trip from England to America. 

After arriving in the New World and enduring various hardships, the little rodent also gets to participate in the first Thanksgiving celebration with a Native American mouse as they watch their human counterparts mark the event. Continue reading

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METROPOLIS (1927): THE 1984 RE-RELEASE WHICH ATTRACTED A NEW GENERATION OF FANS TO SILENT MOVIES

metropolisMETROPOLIS – Volumes have been written about Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent movie sci-fi masterpiece. I love the film myself but rather than write the 9,899,974th glowing review of the 1927 original I will instead take a look at the 1984 re-issue, produced by Giorgio Moroder, who also did soundtracks for movies like Scarface, Midnight Express, and later Top Gun.

That reissue of Metropolis edited the film down to its essential story elements, giving it an 83 minute run time, compared to the 2-and 1/2-hour length of the original movie. Many critics were disgruntled about this, because let’s face it – film critics are almost never “gruntled.”   

soundtrack for metropolisRather than have the usual classical or similar music play as accompaniment to a silent movie, composer Giorgio Moroder wrote a rock and pop music score to attract a generation of filmgoers who might otherwise have never sat through a silent movie in their lives. Freddie Mercury, Pat Benatar, Adam Ant and Billy Squier were among those performing Moroder’s score.

Pompous film critics, as short-sighted as ever, blasted the entire venture as an affront to Fritz Lang’s original production and otherwise lost their minds over it. In my view, Moroder should be praised for his efforts.

poster for metropolisNot only 1984 audiences but all subsequent generations of viewers which were drawn to silent movies in general thanks to airings of Metropolis (1984) may never have brought the new blood and passion to the early cinematic artform if not for Moroder.

This 1984 project led to neophytes sampling other silent masterpieces like The Phantom of the Opera, Orphans of the Storm, The Mark of Zorro and many others.  Continue reading

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COLLEGE FOOTBALL POSTSEASON RESULTS FROM NOVEMBER 18th

NAIA PLAYOFFS

Dickinson State Blue Hawks helmet NEWROUND ONE: GAME ONE – The DICKINSON STATE BLUE HAWKS took it on the road against the MONTANA TECH OREDIGGERS. This tightest game of the day was knotted up at 21-21 come Halftime. In the 3rd Quarter the Blue Hawks went up 28-21 and in the 4th each team added another Touchdown as Dickinson State beat the Orediggers 35-28.  

dordt unversity defendersROUND ONE: GAME TWO – This game pitted the DORDT UNIVERSITY DEFENDERS against the visiting OTTAWA UNIVERSITY BRAVES. Though the 1st Quarter ended in a 7-7 tie, the Defenders shut out the Braves the rest of the way. All the while, Dordt University added 14 points before the break and 14 more in the 2nd Half for a 35-7 beatdown. Continue reading

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JUSTICE SOCIETY: 1978 STORIES

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog resumes looking at the Justice Society’s revived series in the 1970s

asc 70ALL STAR COMICS Vol 1 #70 (February 1978)

Title: A Parting of the Ways

Justice Society Roster: Wildcat, Star-Spangled Kid and the 2nd Huntress (Helena Wayne)

Villains: Strike Force

Synopsis: With most of the Justice Society leaving the team after the events of the previous issue, only Wildcat and the Star Spangled Kid are on hand to deal with a crime wave launched in Gotham by the new villains called the Strike Force.

wildcatThose villains are helmeted criminals known by numbers instead of names and led by the mysterious Number 1. Strike Force has over a score of members, and they wield high-tech weaponry and equipment.

Wildcat and the Kid are captured when they try stopping the villains from robbing a bank.

The Huntress, daughter of Earth-Two’s Bruce Wayne and the late Selena Kyle, saves the two heroes and joins the Justice Society. Continue reading

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