Balladeer’s Blog presents one last round of congratulations for the 2022 college basketball champions in all ten of the divisions covered here.
NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics)
National Champions – LOYOLA UNIVERSITY (LA) WOLFPACK
Runners-Up – Talladega College Tornadoes
Previous National Champions – Shawnee State Bears Continue reading
Filed under College Basketball
For Part One of these Iron Man 1970s classics click HERE.
IRON MAN Vol 1 #62 (September 1973)
Title: Whiplash Returns
Villain: Whiplash
Synopsis: We open a few weeks after the end of our previous installment. Tony Stark and Pepper Potts-Hogan have been at the Cincinnati Regional Headquarters of Stark International as part of Tony’s ongoing reorganization of Stark Industries’ projects and mission statement now that he has refused to do any more munition work.
Pepper, still working as Stark’s Executive Assistant, is trying to cope with her husband Harold “Happy” Hogan’s decision that he is through with their marriage since she refuses to leave her career and become a housewife.
Elsewhere in Cincinnati we see Iron Man’s old foe Whiplash, returning after his first clash with Iron Man back in Tales of Suspense #97-99 (January 1968-March 1968). Whiplash is in his secret laboratory in costume, using his high-tech metal whip which can even pierce Iron Man’s armor.
Whiplash is practicing by whipping to pieces steel statues of Iron Man while indulging in a Villain Rant about how he and our armored superhero got separated by chance after their previous battle on the cruise-ship sized seaborne HQ of the Maggia. (Marvel Comics’ fictional version of the Mafia.)
The villain also reflects on the improvements he has since made to his costume’s tech, making it capable of absorbing the energy from Iron Man’s repulsor rays and unleash it back on our hero with the next lash of his whip. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
THE SECRET OF THE LOCH (1934) – So America gave the world King Kong in 1933, eh? Well, the Empire strikes back! Milton Rosmer directed this neglected British film that was co-written by THE Charles Bennett and edited by THE David Lean. The Loch Ness Monster is featured and is found to be responsible for multiple mysterious deaths around the Loch, though only one on-screen instance of the monster devouring a human occurs in the movie.
Seymour Hicks stars as Professor Heggie and seems to think he’s still performing in Silent Movies, given his hilarious overacting. Heggie believes in the existence of the Loch Ness Monster but seems even less credible than modern-day people who claim to have spotted the beastie.
Frederick Peisley costars as London newspaper reporter Jimmy Anderson, who tries to get a story about the Loch Ness Monster. Australia’s Nancy O’Neil portrays Angela Heggie, the professor’s granddaughter with whom Jimmy forges a romance.
Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies
ACCOUNT OF AN EXPEDITION TO THE INTERIOR OF NEW HOLLAND (1837) – Written by multiple parties, with Lady Mary Fox, Richard Whateley and Lord Holland the likeliest authors. “New Holland” was an old name for Australia. In 1860 the novel was reissued under the title preface The Southlanders.
The story centers around an expedition that travels hundreds of miles into the interior of Australia, where the off-course explorers find a fictional chain of lakes and rivers with a Lost Civilization founded by English Dissenters during the Protestant Reformation.
This Lost Civilization is called Southland by its mixed-race inhabitants. The major language is English as it was in the 1500s when Southland was established, so some words and expressions differ from the English spoken by our expedition members. Otherwise, they can communicate with each other just fine.
Southland boasts a population of roughly four million and is divided into eleven distinct regions which, though under one overall parliamentary government, enjoy a large amount of internal sovereignty. Some regions are republics and others live under a hereditary monarchy. In several of the republics, however, their chief executive figure is still called a king despite being elected.
The citizens are nearly all mixed-race now after three centuries of intermarrying among the white population and the aborigines. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
Balladeer’s Blog’s previous look at Seven Ancient Greek Comedies with Themes That Are Still Relevant and Five More Ancient Greek Comedies … went over pretty well, so here are four more.
TAXIARCHOI – Written by Eupolis, who – along with Aristophanes and Cratinus – was one of the Big Three of Attic Old Comedy. The premise serves as a pointed reminder of the inherent ugliness in all taxation – that the power to impose and collect taxes is, ultimately, backed up by the use of force.
In Taxiarchoi the god Dionysus was depicted joining the title military unit in a presumed tax collecting expedition. The ancient Athenians valued freedom of expression so highly that even ridicule of their gods was permitted within the “anything goes” comedies performed in the Theater of Dionysus.
Because of that, Dionysus was depicted as he usually was in the comedies – fey, cowardly, soft and lazy. In other words COMPLETELY unfit for military life. Adding to the comic potential was the fact that he was serving under General Phormios, a hard-ass in the R. Lee Ermey tradition. Click HERE. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Greek Comedy
Here is my recap of the National Championship Game in the last of the divisions of college basketball covered here at Balladeer’s Blog.
NJCAA DIVISION ONE
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – The last two teams standing in this tournament were the Cinderella 10 seeds – the NORTHWEST FLORIDA STATE RAIDERS – and the top seeded SALT LAKE CITY COLLEGE BRUINS.
The Bruins were trying to make it all the way through the 2021-2022 season and post-season with only one loss on their record. The Raiders were closing in on their third national title. Continue reading
Filed under College Basketball
For Part One of these Iron Man 1970s classics click HERE.
IRON MAN Vol 1 #59 (June 1973)
Title: A Madness in Motown
Villain: Firebrand
Synopsis: This issue opens up with Tony Stark in his office at Stark International’s Long Island headquarters. He’s on a phone call from the psychiatrist treating Marianne Rodgers at Milford Sanitarium in Connecticut.
NOTE: Marianne is Tony’s ex-fiance whose psychic powers have recently begun driving her crazy with grotesque images.
The doctor informs Stark about how serious Marianne’s condition is, and that she has even taken to ranting about him, her former fiance. After getting off the phone, Tony ponders the situation and blames himself for Marianne’s condition. He even takes to trashing his office. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
SCIENCE FICTION THEATRE (1955-1957) – In Balladeer’s Blog’s Forgotten Television category here’s a look at Science Fiction Theatre, which was a syndicated series that lasted from 1955-1957. The program did 39 episodes in each of its two seasons, however, so there are 78 episodes in its history. Season One was in color, Season Two was in black & white.
Truman Bradley hosted Science Fiction Theatre and would open each program with a scientific presentation that often cited incorrect science or was outrightly faked to get the results the showrunners desired.
Unlike The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits, this half-hour show didn’t produce as many classic episodes which became cultural reference points to this very day. That can be a positive factor if you’re in the mood for sci fi tales that don’t require as much concentration as those other two programs. Continue reading
Filed under Forgotten Television
NCAA DIVISION TWO
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – The NORTHWEST MISSOURI STATE BEARCATS battled the AUGUSTA UNIVERSITY JAGUARS for the D2 title.
The Bearcats – going for their third national championship in a row – led the Jaguars 39-28 at Halftime, then kept them at arm’s length the rest of the game. Northwest Missouri State won by a final score of 67-58 led by THIRTY-ONE points from Trevor Hudgins. * THE BEARCATS ARE CHAMPIONS OF NCAA DIVISION TWO *
NJCAA DIVISION ONE
WORKIN’ OVERTIME – In this game from the NJCAA National Tournament the HUTCHINSON COLLEGE BLUE DRAGONS went up against the CONNORS STATE COWBOYS.
The Cowboys were on top 46-39 by the Half, but from there the Blue Dragons forced Overtime with a 90-90 tie to end Regulation. In the extra session Hutchinson College prevailed 101-98. Angelo Stuart of the Blue Dragons led his team with THIRTY points. Continue reading
Filed under College Basketball
Here at Balladeer’s Blog I’ve enjoyed sharing my examinations of ancient Greek comedies and how they could be viewed through modern eyes. Up next are these tales restructured for opera format, act by act and by number of singers needed.
DJANGO
Language: Spanish
Setting: The Texas-Mexico border in 1867
A two-act opera based on the original Django movie from 1966 starring Franco Nero. Django, a former soldier who served in the Union Army during America’s Civil War has been on a quest for revenge against Major Jackson, the former Confederate Army officer who killed his wife. In the early months of 1867 he finds Jackson and his former Confederate soldiers now turned outright Klansmen along the Texas-Mexico borderlands. Continue reading
Filed under opinion
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