NAIA 1. MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS ### 2. KANSAS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY COYOTES ### 3. GRAND VIEW UNIVERSITY VIKINGS ### 4. LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE BLUE RAIDERS ### 5. UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS PATRIOTS ###
6. NORTHWESTERN (IA) COLLEGE RED RAIDERS ### 7. MARIAN UNIVERSITY KNIGHTS ### 8. COLLEGE OF IDAHO COYOTES ### 9. KEISER UNIVERSITY SEAHAWKS ### 10. EVANGEL UNIVERSITY CRUSADERS ### Continue reading
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Balladeer’s Blog’s month-long celebration of Halloween continues with this look at Canadian werewolf lore.
THE WERWOLVES (sic) (1898) – Written by Honore Beaugrand, this story features fairly unique werewolf lore. The tale is not structured in a traditional way but instead expands upon accounts of lycanthropy in campfire tales as if they really, truly happened.
A modern comparison might be with those far-fetched tales of the supernatural from supermarket tabloids or online Creepypastas. The pretense of reality adds to the fun.
Set in the very early 1700s The Werwolves treats readers to a pack of Iroquois lycanthropes rampaging around Quebec and elsewhere in Canada. These werewolves are much more intelligent and gregarious than many other such monsters.
They operate in a pack to steal away victims and even dance around a fire in their wolfmen forms howling and chanting before devouring their victims.
These Canadian variations also look much different than readers might expect: they have the heads of wolves and the tails of wolves but the rest of their bodies remain human after their nocturnal transformation. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season
FOR PART ONE OF BALLADEER’S BLOG’S EXAMINATION OF THIS OLD, OLD MARVEL COMICS STORYLINE CLICK HERE The revisions I would make are scattered throughout the synopsis below.
AMAZING ADVENTURES Vol 2 #29 (March 1975)
Title: The Hell Destroyers
Synopsis: April, 44 years in the future. We pick up where we left off last time around, deep in the heart of Death-Birth, a combined fortress and breeding farm run by Earth’s alien conquerors. Killraven, leader of a group of Freemen fighting the aliens and their human quislings, stands alongside three of his followers: Hawk (Native American), Old Skull (the big, bald, brawny one) and Volcana Ash (a woman genetically engineered into a mutate capable of generating and shooting fire).
The four of them have taken a moment to relish the reunion of Adam 3031 with his very pregnant “breeding partner” Eve 3031. The couple infuriated Earth’s conquerors by falling in love despite their degrading status as livestock for the extraterrestrials, who eat human flesh.
Facing all of them from across the futuristic operating room stand two human quislings, the main villains of this 4-part story. (This is Part 3) Atalon is the sadistic man who serves as the administrator of Death-Birth. He is hideous but has an obsession with cleanliness, especially regarding his white uniform. (Obviously a reference to Dr Mengele from the Nazi death camps.)
The other quisling is known only as the Sacrificer, clad in green and gold. Like Atalon he is ugly but his ugliness is amplified by his metal cybernetic jaw with jagged steel teeth. His amputated right arm has been outfitted with assorted cybernetic blades which can be used as weapons or as surgical tools in the perverse “operations” he performs.
Eve 3031 has now been saved from the fate of having the Sacrificer carve her unborn baby out of her womb to serve as the piece de resistance in another of the feasts of human flesh which he prepares for the aliens (Zetans in my revisions, Martians in the original comic book).
Our heroes know that more of Atalon’s shock troops, called Death Breeders, will be arriving at any moment so they decide to vacate the area. They are still intent on freeing the thousands of Adams and Eves imprisoned in Death-Birth and then destroying the fortress itself. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
Halloween Month continues here at Balladeer’s Blog, this time with the definitive horror/ sci-fi/ monster franchise in cinema. 2019 is the 40th anniversary of the original movie Alien and earlier this year six authorized (not fan-made) short films were released to mark the occasion.
Bill Paxton’s son is in two of them, but just his voice on the radio in one.
The six films range from okay to excellent but they ALL capture the feel of the creepy Alien universe far better than most of the sequels. To get you in the mood here is Alien: Harvest. The others are titled Alone, Containment, Ore, Species and Night Shift. Check out Harvest below then check out the others HERE
Filed under Halloween Season
Halloween Month moved another notch today. Balladeer’s Blog continues its month-long celebration with a look at another neglected gem of horror fiction.
LA VILLE-VAMPIRE (City of Vampires) 1867 – Written by the accomplished and prolific Paul Feval, it’s Village of Vampires, or City of Vampires or, if you prefer, Vampire City (Wham, bam, thank you ma’am! Va- va- va- Vampire CIT-EEE! … Had to be said.)
Paul Feval’s heroine in this story is the young Ann Ward, who went on to be Ann Radcliffe, pioneer of Gothic Horror through such works as The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Italian. Ann’s friends Cornelia de Witt and Ned Barton depart for the continent with their new acquaintance Otto Goetzi.
Goetzi turns out to be a vampire who lures Cornelia and Ned deeper and deeper into a trap. Back in England, Ann Ward deduces all this from odd letters that she receives from her friends and from horrific premonitions which come to her in nightmares.
Ann and a much older family servant called Grey Jack cross the English Channel to come to the rescue of Ann’s friends. Soon the trail leads to Belgrade and then to a dismal city called Selene by outsiders but known as the Sepulchre to its inhabitants, all of whom are vampires. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season
HEADLINES
THAT WAS NUMBER FIIIIVE – In the NAIA the 16th ranked EVANGEL UNIVERSITY CRUSADERS welcomed the number 5 team in the nation – the BENEDICTINE COLLEGE RAVENS. After a slow start the Crusaders made their move, overtaking the Ravens and Upsetting them by a final tally of 35-21.
DOWN GOES NUMBER SIX – Over in NCAA Division Two the UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA AT KEARNEY LOPERS took the field against the visiting 6th ranked NORTHWEST MISSOURI STATE BEARCATS. A 14-0 1st Quarter lead for the Lopers was unchanged at Halftime. The 3rd Quarter ended with UNK on top 21-14 and the 4th with a 24-17 triumph for the Lopers.
KNOCKING OFF NUMBER SEVEN – Meanwhile, down in NCAA Division Three the BIRMINGHAM SOUTHERN COLLEGE PANTHERS played host to the country’s number 7 team – the BERRY UNIVERSITY VIKINGS. The Panthers put the Vikings on Upset Alert with a 21-6 lead at the Half, then coasted to a 28-15 victory. Continue reading
Filed under college football
Balladeer’s Blog’s 31 Days of Halloween continues with this neglected horror hero.
THE COFFIN (2000) – Written by Phil Hester and drawn by Mike Huddleston, The Coffin was originally a four-part serial before being collected into graphic novel format. I’ll provide details below but right up front let me point out that the horrific but intriguing premise is that the Coffin is a dead scientist whose soul is trapped within a polymer techno-suit of his own creation.
Dr Ashar Ahmad, the brilliant scientist in question, is employed by Heller Technologies, whose eponymous owner is a vile and amoral tycoon. Heller himself is a figure straight out of a horror film.
He’s incredibly old and his withered, wrinkled body is still functioning only because of all of the legal and illegal organ transplants he has had. His body is a battleground of scars from all that surgery. Obviously immortality is what our power-mad plutocrat longs for.
And so Heller Technologies recruited Dr Ahmad to devise strong, lightweight polymers for medical purposes. To that end Ashar has developed polymers that can be used to form an artificial membrane that is perfectly impermeable and incredibly durable.
Extensions of that technology result in masses of polymers – literally thousands of layers – some of them only a few molecules thick. Dr Ahmad has managed to make it so that these polymers react to electronic pulses like the kind from a human brain to its body’s muscles, making the polymer “skin” or membrane expand or contract in response to those electronic pulses. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season, Superheroes
NUMBER FOURTEEN ROLLS – The number 14 team in the nation – the DICKINSON STATE BLUE HAWKS – took it on the road against the DAKOTA STATE TROJANS. The 1st Half ended with the Blue Hawks on top by a mere 14-9 but after the break Dickinson State made their move. In the end the Blue Hawks won out 31-14.
BOBCAT STADIUM BLOWOUT – Last night the FROSTBURG STATE BOBCATS welcomed the UNIVERSITY OF CHARLESTON GOLDEN EAGLES. The Bobcats were less than gracious hosts, leading the Golden Eagles 28-0 by Halftime on their way to a 42-7 demolition of their opponents.
ROAD WARRIORS – The POINT UNIVERSITY SKYHAWKS won a 35-10 affair at the CINCINNATI CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY EAGLES ### Meanwhile the VALLEY CITY STATE VIKINGS smacked around their hosts the PRESENTATION COLLEGE SAINTS 35-7 ### And the WALDORF COLLEGE WARRIORS utterly annihilated the MAYVILLE STATE COMETS to the tune of SIXTY-THREE to NOTHING. Continue reading
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Balladeer’s Blog’s month-long celebration of Halloween continues.
THE GHOST GARDEN (1918) – Written by female author Amelie Rives. This story starts out in Colonial Virginia. Melany Horsemanden was almost legendary for her beauty but also for her mean-spirited nature and casual cruelty.
She had an elaborate dream-mansion constructed for herself and named it Her Wish. True love comes Melany’s way but her selfish and outrightly villainous nature drives away the only man who truly loved her, not just her wealth and beauty.
Horsemanden dies young and her ghost haunts the mansion for years. Eventually Evan Radford, a wealthy northern man, shows up and is so intrigued by the history of the deserted mansion Her Wish that he explores the grounds. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season
MAD MAX (1979) – Balladeer’s Blog’s “Weirdness at the End of the World” takes a look at one of the best movies in the best franchise in the crowded Post-Apocalypse sub-genre.
I recently re-watched this 1979 gem in the full 93 minute Aussie “language” version. Using the sub-titles to make sure I missed nothing from the heavy accents, I was struck once again by how part of the post-apocalyptic atmosphere is filled in via the full text of what the Main Force Patrol radio operators are saying AND by the news reports. Outside of those brief touches Mad Max perfectly embodies the cinematic principle of “show don’t tell.”
In a dying world after a limited nuclear war over oil between world powers, Mad Max is set in a few Australian towns which escaped destruction presumably because they were safely away from strategic sites targeted by missiles. Supplies are tight and citizens are warned not to abuse their food rationing privileges.
Law and order have become very tenuous concepts amid this spreading societal collapse. There is no evidence of anyone except local authorities being in charge, including their law enforcement arm, the Main Force Patrol (MFP) which includes Max Rockatansky, brought to life by Mel Gibson.
Though in real life this sense of no larger government having control may have been a function of the film’s low budget, I find it adds nicely to the uncertain atmosphere. In just a few years the American telefilm The Day After would come close to presenting that same air of confusion about the new state of affairs following a catastrophic war.
Who’s in charge? And who – if anyone – won? Like the opening song One of the Living in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome would later remind us, a very old saying pointed out that following a nuclear war the living would envy the dead.
Getting back to the Main Force Patrol, their “uniform” is the all-black outfit with thigh holsters for their shotguns that became Mad Max’s signature look. Their bronze badges are why the lawless element derisively refers to them as “the bronze.” Continue reading
Filed under Spaghetti Westerns
