NJCAA DIVISION ONE
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – The last two teams standing in NJCAA Division One baseball were the CENTRAL ARIZONA COLLEGE VAQUEROS and the COWLEY COLLEGE TIGERS.
The 1st Inning ended with the Vaqueros on top 2-1 and that became a 3-2 edge in the 2nd. The 3rd Inning saw Central Arizona College squeeze out a little breathing room as they made it a 4-2 game. Continue reading
Filed under College Baseball
June 7th is National VCR Day! Balladeer’s Blog marks the occasion with some very brief takes on old VHS movies that I’ll probably never find the time to write full-length reviews about.
THE DEADLY SPAWN (1983) – This film is also known as The Alien’s Deadly Spawn. If you’re into less appreciated splatter flicks this is the movie for you! Diminutive creatures (ignore the poster) from outer space terrorize a neighborhood while literally chewing their way through anything in their way, including human bodies. The gore effects are graphic but not extreme, the acting ranges from awful to average and the creature designs may be cheap but the overall package makes this a cult classic. And watch out for that final stinger!
TRIUMPH OF THE CHAMPIONS OF JUSTICE (1974) – Another movie in the Campeones Justicieros series from Mexico. Blue Demon, Superzan and the White Phantom are back in action, aided by Elsa Cardenas as Venus. In their usual way, these wrestlers/ pulp heroes/ superheroes are clashing with their foe Black Hand and a group of evil midgets from another planet (or dimension, it’s hard to tell sometimes). And did I mention that for most of the run time the midgets are INVISIBLE while kidnapping Earth women? Lucha Libre the way it was meant to be – hard-hitting, Dutch-angled and barely coherent! Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies
THE PLANET JUGGLER (1908) – Written by J. George Frederick. An early space opera set in an undesignated future year. Absurdly enough, Esperanto has become the global language in a reflection of the high hopes held by Esperanto speakers at the time this book was written.
An alien from the planet Canopus broadcasts a message to the entire Earth, in Esperanto of course. The extraterrestrial demands 500 million tons of gold or else it will send the Earth hurtling into the sun.
The Planet Juggler claims to have monitored Earth people for a decade, thus accounting for their fluency in Esperanto, but world leaders are skeptical that it’s all a hoax perpetrated by someone on our own planet. To disabuse Earthlings of that notion, the alien entity shuts down all of the electricity in and around New York.
Later, to convince any remaining doubters, the Canopian throws the Earth out of its orbit just enough to make their point. World leaders surrender and claim to be mining enough gold to meet the demanded 500 million tons. Secretly, the scientist Elverson and a network of other brilliant minds desperately struggle to devise a solution to this crisis.
Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
NJCAA DIVISION THREE
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – In a battle of Cinderellas, the 6 seeds – the HERKIMER COLLEGE GENERALS – took on the 5th seeded EASTFIELD COLLEGE HARVESTERS.
By the 3rd Inning the Generals were on top 3-0 but the Harvesters made it a 3-2 game in the 4th Inning before tying things up 3-3 in the 5th. From there Herkimer College clamped down defensively as their bats went white-hot. Continue reading
Filed under College Baseball
For Part One of these Iron Man 1970s classics click HERE.
IRON MAN Vol 1 #75 (June 1975)
Title: Slave to the Power Imperious
Villains: Modok, the Mad Thinker, the Yellow Claw and the Black Lama
Synopsis: This issue picks up right where the previous one left off. Modok, with his squat body and enlarged head resting atop the kaiju-sized mechanical body that he wore to fight the Hulk months earlier, has burst into the Mad Thinker’s subterranean headquarters in the forests of Michigan.
Per the Black Lama’s ongoing War of the Supervillains, Modok plans to kill his first opponent the Mad Thinker (at right) then take on the war’s frontrunner – the Yellow Claw. Modok tosses aside the defeated and unconscious Iron Man, whom the Mad Thinker had used as a pawn against Modok and A.I.M. last time around.
Before Modok can finish off the Thinker, the latter unleashes one of his kaiju-sized androids, the green, faceless kind that are powerful enough to battle the Fantastic Four (the Mad Thinker’s usual foes). While the fight between that Android Warrior and Modok goes on, Iron Man regains consciousness, then realizes that the damage to the Mad Thinker’s laboratory has destroyed the equipment with which the villain was controlling his armor. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
The major holiday Frontierado is just over two months away, so as a followup to last week’s look at the first Pony Express riders Balladeer’s Blog explores the one-man stand and death of 14-year-old Expressman Billy Tate.
BILLY TATE – Born in 1846, Billy Tate traveled west with his family in 1857 as part of the Baker-Fancher Wagon Train from Arkansas. In September of that year, Billy’s family were among the pioneers slaughtered at the Mountain Meadows Massacre in Utah. The massacre was perpetrated by Mormons disguised as Native Americans.
Billy and possibly other child survivors (accounts vary) were taken in by Mormon farmers and worked on their farms. By some accounts Billy’s original last name was Miller but it was changed to Tate to match the family who took him in.
In 1859 the government ruled that any child survivors of the Mountain Meadows Massacre should be returned to relatives back in Arkansas. Billy, not wanting to be sent back east, ran away, ultimately signing on as a bullwhacker with the parent company of the Pony Express in December of that year. By the April 3rd 1860 launch of the Express Billy Tate was serving as a rider. Continue reading
Filed under FRONTIERADO, Neglected History
Balladeer’s Blog’s previous looks at Seven Ancient Greek Comedies with Themes That Are Still Relevant , Four More Ancient Greek Comedies and Five More Ancient Greek Comedies … went over pretty well, so here are two more.
BAPTAE – Written by Eupolis, one of the Big Three of ancient Greek comedians. Aristophanes and Cratinus were the other two. This comedy satirized the latest “hot new cult” to hit Athens – worship of the Dorian and Thracian goddess Cotyto.
Practitioners would immerse, or “baptize” their garments in water containing exotic dyes, hence the term Baptae to describe them. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Greek Comedy
HAVE A RESPECTFUL MEMORIAL DAY! Balladeer’s Blog once again takes a look at a currently neglected conflict and some of the military personnel who served in it. Last year I examined the American troops who served on Russian soil from 1918-1920, this year I look at some of the Congressional Medal of Honor recipients from the Relief Expedition during the Boxer Massacres in China (1900).
CALVIN P. TITUS
Branch of Service: Army
Rank: Standard Bearer/ Musician
Citation: “For gallant and daring conduct in the presence of his colonel and other officers and enlisted men of his regiment on 14 August 1900, while serving with Company E, 14th Infantry, at Peking, China. Musician Titus was first to scale the wall of the city.” He raised the American Flag from the top of that wall. (Pictured above.) NOTE: Titus previously served in the Philippine War (1899-1902) and subsequently in the Mexican Expedition (1916-1917) and Occupied Germany after World War One.
PETER STEWART
Branch of Service: Marine Corps
Rank: Gunnery Sergeant
Citation: “For extraordinary heroism while serving with the Marine Guard, Captain Newt Hall’s Marine Detachment, 1st Regiment (Marines), U.S.S. Newark in action with the relief expedition of the Allied forces in China during the battles of 13, 20, 21, and 22 June 1900. Throughout this period and in the presence of the enemy, Stewart distinguished himself by meritorious conduct.” Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History
With Memorial Day coming up tomorrow Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at some servicemembers who died in assorted neglected Cold War clashes.
APRIL 8th, 1950 – A U.S. Navy Privateer Electronic Intelligence aircraft was shot down by Soviet Union fighter planes over the Baltic Sea. All 10 crew members were either killed or captured by the Soviets with no further information ever becoming available.
NOVEMBER 6th, 1951 – A U.S. Navy Neptune patrol aircraft was fired upon by Soviet fighters off the coast of Siberia. The plane disappeared along with all 10 crew members.
JUNE 13th, 1952 – A U.S. Air Force Superfortress on a reconnaissance mission was reportedly attacked by Soviet fighters over the Sea of Japan and disappeared without a trace along with all 12 crew members.
OCTOBER 7th, 1952 – Another U.S. Air Force Superfortress encountered Soviet fighters off the coast of Japan and was presumed to have been shot down with 8 crewmen losing their lives.
NOVEMBER 29th, 1952 – A U.S. cargo plane was shot down over northeast China. Two crewmen died in the crash and were buried near the craft. The surviving pair – John Downey and Richard Fectau – were captured and imprisoned. Fectau was not returned to the U.S. until 1971 and Downey in 1973.
JANUARY 18th, 1953 – A U.S. Navy Neptune plane was shot down by Chinese anti-aircraft guns over the Formosa Strait off Swatow, China. It ditched, with 2 crew members presumed captured by the Chinese and 5 presumed dead. A U.S. Coast Guard “flying boat” crashed during the search for the downed crew, leaving 4 more men dead. Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History
For Part One of these Iron Man 1970s classics click HERE.
IRON MAN Vol 1 #73 (March 1975)
Title: Turnabout: A Most Foul Play
Villains: The Crimson Dynamo and Kuon Set
Synopsis: This issue picks up a week or so after the end of our previous story. Tony Stark is back in Manila at the Stark International Regional Headquarters in the Philippines. He is conferring with Pepper Potts-Hogan and her husband Happy, his Executive Assistant and his Security Chief respectively. Pepper has been informed that Tony is really Iron Man, so now both she and Happy know the secret.
Amid this relaxed setting Tony discusses Stark International’s new food processing plant in Manila, part of Tony’s ongoing reorganization of his company to leave his days as a weapons manufacturer behind him.
The married couple ask their boss about his recent trip to San Diego, and Tony tells them about his battle with Whiplash, the Melter and the Man-Bull as part of the Black Lama’s (at right) unfolding War of the Supervillains. Our hero also mentions returning to Stark International’s Headquarters on Long Island for a few days and his eyewitness account of seeing the Man-Thing in action.
NOTE: That refers to Tony Stark’s guest appearance as himself – NOT Iron Man – in Giant-Size Man-Thing #2.
Next, Tony shows Pepper for the first time how he dons his Iron Man armor which he carries around with him in segments in his briefcase. In a comic book coincidence, shortly after Tony becomes Iron Man an explosion rocks his Manila buildings.
Iron Man flies to the boiler room and manages to bring things under control before an even more destructive explosion can occur. Leaving Pepper and Happy to deal with the aftermath of this industrial accident, our hero tells them he is flying off to Vietnam to investigate Roxie Gilbert’s disappearance a few installments back. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
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