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NCAA2 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME PLUS NJCAA TOURNAMENT ACTION

NCAA DIVISION TWO

northwest missouri state bearcats newNATIONAL 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

hutch coll blue dragonsWORKIN’ 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 →

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OPERATIC APPROACHES TO WELL-KNOWN STORIES

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.

franco nero djangoDJANGO

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 →

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THE CHRISTMAS KID (1967) – AN EASTER WESTERN (?)

Christmas Kid

Jeffrey Hunter as The Christmas Kid

I always think of this bizarrely themed Spaghetti Western as The Gospel According to Sam Colt or Paul’s Letter to Smith & Wesson. Our title gunslinger is played by Jeffrey “Captain Pike on Star Trek” Hunter. As Jesus in the movie King of Kings, Hunter’s youthful appearance brought on ridicule from wags who called the film I Was a Teenage Jesus.  

Once again Jeffrey plays a character who is born in a manger at Christmas and gets visited by three wise (well … no) men. The Christmas Kid‘s half-assed Jesus parallels continue from there in sporadic fashion. The little babe – called Christmas Joe at first – grows up to be a philosophical boy who practices pacifism. 

Christmas Kid 2When our hero’s home hamlet of Jaspen, Arizona becomes a Boom Town after copper is discovered, the place turns into a proverbial web of sin and vale of tears. Michael Culligan (Louis Hayward), the greedy town boss, builds an empire for himself out of crime and greed as the copper rush continues.     

This being a western, the day comes when Christmas Joe must strap on a gun and pin on a badge for a three-year mission – I mean term in office – to fight the forces of evil in Arizona Territory. Now called the Christmas Kid our hero spreads the Good News of Gunplay as he blows away various bad men who leave him with no other choice.  Continue reading →

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IRON MAN: 1970s CLASSICS 3 – THE MANDARIN AND UNICORN

For Part One of these Iron Man 1970s classics click HERE.

im 57IRON MAN Vol 1 #57 (April 1973)

Title: The Mandarin Strikes Back

Villain: The Mandarin

NOTE: This is the REAL Mandarin, Iron Man’s archenemy since 1964, NOT the comic-relief figure used in movies like Iron Man 3 and in the recent Shang-Chi movie. The Mandarin is sort of a hybrid of Doctor Doom, Fu Manchu and Chiang Kai-shek. As his nom de guerre would suggest, he wanted to return China to its glory days under the old imperial dynasties. He opposed the Communist Chinese and had carved out a little territory of his own on the mainland, as opposed to the island of Formosa used by the Taiwan government.

This villain’s powers came from his ten power rings which he took from a crashed Makluan spaceship. Each ring has specific powers. He uses other elements of reverse-engineered Makluan technology in his schemes for world conquest.

mandarin picSynopsis: We pick up an unknown number of days or weeks after our previous installment. Tony Stark returns to Stark International’s Long Island headquarters only to learn that while he and the other Avengers were occupied with taking on Magneto (Avengers 110 & 111) the workers at Stark International re-organized under a whole new union. (It’s a comic book. Ignore the real-world problems with that happening so quickly and just go with it.)

That new union, headed by the mysterious and reclusive Gene Khan (really the Mandarin himself) has convinced the workers to go on strike until Tony Stark agrees to return his company to handling national defense contracts. Gene Khan has convinced labor that the real reason that Tony ended Stark’s Defense Department contracts was so he could share technology with Soviet Russia and Communist China. Continue reading →

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THE STOLEN PLANET (1906) – ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION

Stolen PlanetTHE STOLEN PLANET (1906) – Written by John Mastin. Jervis Meredith, a wealthy young British man and his equally wealthy friend Fraser Burnley are so brilliant they invent anti-gravity. Next the young tycoons have a spaceship built so they  can use their anti-gravity device to tour outer space.

The battleship-sized craft is named The Regina and combines propellers with Meredith and Burnley’s anti-gravity invention. The friends set off with a ten-man crew and – oddly enough – they are so paranoid about people stealing their secrets they have rigged an elaborate bugging system throughout the Regina so they can know what the crew members talk about.

mascot chair and bottle picThe explorers make the eccentric decision to explore the region around Sirius first, rather than our own solar system. Enroute the Regina accidentally pulls an uncharted planet out of its orbit (?) and causes it to collide with another uncharted planet. This collision causes a new sun to be born. (Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog will remember that this was apparently a big idea for a time since a lot of these old stories feature suns forming from colliding planets.)

Eventually our heroes decide to explore some planets on their way to the star Sirius. On the first planet they visit the explorers find enormous ruins obviously built by a gigantic race that is now extinct. The structures were beautiful from what can be made out and are made of materials unknown on Earth. Continue reading →

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CAPTAIN AMERICA CHAPTER LINKS

Somewhat belatedly, here are links to each installment of Balladeer’s Blog’s look at 1970s classics for Captain America and the Falcon.

ca f 156ONE: This four-part story dealt with Cap and Falc taking on the revived 1950s substitutes for Cap and Bucky. The worldviews of two Captain Americas from different decades came into conflict. Click HERE.

TWO: A three-part tale pitting our heroes against the Viper and the supervillain team called Crime Wave. Plus Captain America gains Spider-Man level strength. (That higher strength level lasted from 1973-1978.) Click HERE.

THREE: These three issues saw Captain America and the Falcon go up against the new supervillain Solarr as well as Captain America’s old foe Doctor Faustus. All this and the return of Peggy Carter! Click HERE. Continue reading →

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NJCAA2 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME PLUS NCAA2 FINAL FOUR

NCAA DIVISION TWO

northwest missouri state bearcats newFIRST SEMIFINAL – The NORTHWEST MISSOURI STATE BEARCATS fought it out with the BLACK HILLS STATE YELLOW JACKETS in this game.

Suffocating defense from the Bearcats was the story of the game as Northwest Missouri State led 36-26 at Halftime. From there the Bearcats kept Black Hills State at arm’s length to win by a final score of 70-57. Luke Waters led the victors with 17 points while his teammate Wes Dreamer notched a Double-Double of 11 points and 12 rebounds. Continue reading →

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VORTEX (1982) MOVIE REVIEW

vortexVORTEX (1982) – Written and directed by Beth B and Scott B, this independent sci-fi detective film starred cult figure Lydia Lunch and actor James Russo. This is one of those movies made with so little money – some of it from the National Endowment for the Arts – that it can’t really be held to the same standards as mainstream releases of its time.

Vortex, a murder mystery involving corporate and governmental corruption, is a fun relic of the days when indy filmmakers did not have access to the kind of technology that such mavericks do today. Here in 2022 it’s possible to buy hand-held equipment that would automatically make one’s movie project look better than many 1980s efforts. However, that does not make today’s filmmakers any more talented than those who came before them.

To be kind, Vortex was one of those films in which the ideas being presented and the bold images being shown on screen were the true point. Solid acting and expensive special effects were only occasionally part of the equation. Continue reading →

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NEGLECTED EPIC: YI THE DIVINE ARCHER

 I.WHAT’S UP WITH YI?  – Yi the Divine Archer from Chinese mythology deserves to be remembered in one breath with some of the other great heroes and monster slayers from belief systems around the world. Most people are only familiar with his feat of shooting down multiple suns that appeared in the sky one day, but this article will provide a light- hearted look at all of his fantastic adventures.  Continue reading →

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NJCAA2 ELITE EIGHT ACTION PLUS NCAA2 SCORES

NJCAA DIVISION TWO

sullivan county college generalsFINAL FOUR: FIRST BERTH – In this game the 3 seeds – the SULLIVAN COUNTY COLLEGE GENERALS – took on the 6th seeded CECIL COLLEGE SEAHAWKS.

The Seahawks put a scare into the Generals with their 44-39 Halftime lead. After the break, Sullivan County College outscored Cecil College 51-35 to win the game 90-79. Jalen Reneau tossed in 21 points to lead the Generals in scoring.  Continue reading →

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