Well, instead of Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead, this time it’s Give Them A Shoutout Even Though They’re Dead. Get your Michael Hutchence fix with the INXS song Mystify.
Tag Archives: glitternight.com
COLLEGE BASKETBALL: BALLADEER’S BLOG’S RANKINGS
NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) DIVISION TWO – 1. INDIANA UNIVERSITY-EAST RED WOLVES ### 2. CORNERSTONE UNIVERSITY GOLDEN EAGLES ### 3. SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE MOUNDBUILDERS ### 4. COLLEGE OF IDAHO COYOTES ### 5. INDIANA TECH WARRIORS ###
6. BETHEL (IN) COLLEGE PILOTS ### 7. NORTHWESTERN (IA) COLLEGE RED RAIDERS ### 8. INDIANA UNIVERSITY SOUTHEAST GRENADIERS ### 9. SAINT THOMAS UNIVERSITY (FL) BOBCATS ### 10. SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY FIRE ### Continue reading
Filed under College Basketball
THE THAMES VALLEY CATASTROPHE (1884): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION
THE THAMES VALLEY CATASTROPHE (1884) – Written by Grant Allen. The story is presented in the form of a memoir about the destruction of London as seen from “the futuristic” 20th Century.
“Back” in 1884 a Londoner familiar with lava eruptions and flows that happened in the American West in the past tries – in what would become a trope of later disaster movies – to warn the authorities that danger lurks. Needless to say his warnings go unheeded and lava erupts in the Thames Valley. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
FEVER LAKE (1997): THIS TURKEY IS NOT WHAT IT SEEMS
FEVER LAKE (1997) – I like to think of this hilariously lame horror film as Twin Peaks 90210. I sometimes toy with I Was A Teenage Shining but that mock title only applies to isolated parts of Fever Lake. Overall, I think the creative team was trying for an imitation Twin Peaks vibe, especially given the time period in which it was made.
This little honey was released theatrically in Europe during 1996 but direct-to-video here in the U.S. during 1997. The credits even refer to much of the movie being shot in the town of Twin Lakes so for all I know that name might have provided spontaneous inspiration for the director or in the way of rewrites.
I’ll elaborate on that point in a bit, but for right now I’ll point out the enjoyable kitsch-casting that elevates this turkey slightly above other such dismal efforts. Corey Haim, one-half of the Haim-Feldman Colony Creature, stars as college student Albert. Saved By The Bell‘s Mario Lopez co-stars as college student Steve.
Yes, this is one of those flicks in which NONE of the top dozen or so stars play a character with a last name, except for good old Bo Hopkins the sheriff, who gets no FIRST name. Yet very, very minor characters get full names like “Bud Martin” and “Harry Kemp.” All my fellow lovers of Bad Movies have been there before.
Fever Lake serves up the usual assortment of horny students – all of whom seem fresh from Beverly Hills 90210 – staying at a creepy lakeside house provided by Corey Haim. The filmmakers actually seem to think we viewers won’t immediately realize that he’s the little boy who witnessed the murders in that house during the pre-credits flashback scene. Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies
CRATES: ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY
Balladeer’s Blog takes another look at the surviving fragments of an ancient Greek comedian, in this case Crates.
CRATES – Crates’ career spanned from approximately the 450s B.C. to the 430s B.C. We have fragments from nine or ten comedies from an unknown total output. From other sources we know that comedies as stage productions began sometime around 500 B.C. or earlier so Crates came fairly early to the artform.
Crates was credited with being the first Athenian comic poet (the comedies were written in verse and included songs) to introduce drunken characters, still a comic staple over 2,400 years later. Aristotle himself credited Crates as being the first to abandon the “glorified comic monologues” approach of the oldest comedies and introducing fleshed-out plots and storylines.
Be that as it may, there is still a great deal of academic arguing over whether or not Crates’ work simply reflected the influence of Epicharmus, who may well have been the TRUE innovator.
Crates was supposedly an actor before he began writing comedies (But I’m sure he really wanted to direct. – rimshot – ) and his brother was Epilycus, one of the Epic Poets. Eusebius’ Chronicles stated that Crates was a well-known comedian by 451 B.C. and Demetrius Lacon in his work On Poetry indicates that Crates may have acted in some of Aeschylus’ tragedies before switching genres.
KNOWN WORKS
NEIGHBORS – We do not have even a hypothetical year for this work, unfortunately. Since titles sometimes referred to the all-important Chorus of a Greek comedy there is speculation that the chorus members were “Neighbors” of some sort (Duh!) but nothing is known about the plot.
Athenaeus argued that Crates’ use of a drunken character in this comedy PRE-DATED Epicharmus’ use of stage drunks, so apparently even back in ancient times this was being debated.
The closest thing to an intact joke from the fragments of Neighbors is a lecherous reference to the delectable young males and females on hand serving whatever feast was being celebrated in the comedy. For today you could insert a Harvey Weinstein or Kevin Spacey type of joke, I guess.
The next closest thing to an intact joke is a possibly wry reference to ” playing at pessoi” which could refer both to pebbles used in a board game and pebbles used to wipe one’s bottom after defecation. Since the ancient Greek comedies are LOADED with scat jokes it’s possible that a very grotesque mix-up occurred.
Other fragments from this comedy are virtually useless: “I do not possess a lampstand.” (I want a T-Shirt that says that, dammit!) … “You must be quiet and not make a sound.” … “And had an aroma like sweetest myrrh.” … “If you’re smart, boy” … “A pig through roses” … “You led astray” … and “Scooping out a trough.” Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Greek Comedy
VAN HALEN: DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY
Balladeer’s Blog’s recurring segment Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead strikes again! This time it’s Van Halen with their hit Dance The Night Away.
Filed under opinion
MAN-MONSTER: ATLAS COMICS HERO
Balladeer’s Blog’s recent look at the short-lived comic book company Atlas-Seaboard was a big hit. As a follow-up here’s a look at an Atlas figure I did not cover in the main article, which can be found HERE
MAN-MONSTER
Secret Identity: Paul Sanders, Olympic Swimming Gold Medalist
Origin: Hedonistic Paul Sanders lives the life of a playboy from his endorsement deals and his resented oil baron father’s vast fortune. After a flirty/ bickering battle of the sexes-style interview with two female reporters from Women’s Lib Magazine Paul boards a motorboat for one of his father’s offshore oil wells.
To show off for the still-watching ladies Paul leaps overboard to swim the rest of the way to the oil drilling platform. As fate would have it, the oil drilling had just churned up some rare, mutated bacteria from the ocean floor. Sanders winds up covered by the bacteria, which causes changes to his body.
Paul barely escapes the bacteria and makes it back to shore, where he transforms into a red-scaled amphibious monster. After a brief rampage he becomes human again and the female reporters take him home.
From then on in times of danger the transformation comes over Paul again and he finds himself battling various forces of evil.
First Appearance: Tales of Evil #3 (July, 1975). His final appearance came in September of that same year.
Powers: Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
COLLEGE BASKETBALL RANKINGS FROM BALLADEER’S BLOG
NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) – 1. LSU-SHREVEPORT PILOTS (Riverboat Pilots) ### 2. GEORGETOWN (KY) COLLEGE TIGERS ### 3. WILLIAM PENN UNIVERSITY STATESMEN ### 4. LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE BLUE RAIDERS ### 5. MID-AMERICA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY EVANGELS ###
6. HOPE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY ROYALS ### 7. OKLAHOMA CITY UNIVERSITY STARS ### 8. LSU-ALEXANDRIA GENERALS ### 9. DALTON STATE ROADRUNNERS ### 10. UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND ARTS OF OKLAHOMA DROVERS ### Continue reading
Filed under College Basketball
ORION: THE ELVIS PRESLEY HOAX/ PUT-ON/ TEASE
It’s Battle of New Orleans Day AND Elvis Presley’s birthday! In the past I’ve posted my review of Change of Habit, the Elvis movie with him as a doctor, Mary Tyler Moore as a nun and Ed Asner as a cop. I’ve also posted about the musical in which Elvis IS Andrew Jackson – Rock ‘N’ Roll vs the Redcoats. (With an Ann-Margret drag queen as pirate Jean Lafitte. )
This time around I’ll dredge up the often-neglected Orion business from decades ago. It was a fun bit of nonsense that only the most far-gone Elvis Conspiracy Theorists take seriously. As always I consider conspiracy theories, put-ons, hoaxes and ARG’s to be modern variations of myth and folklore.
Yes, Elvis died in 1977. That’s not the point. The point is the way the whole Orion/ Jimmy Ellis/ Elvis Conspiracy rabbit hole deserves to be studied forever because of the way fiction and reality seemingly influenced each other to the point where they became almost inseparable.
I WANT EL SANTO AND I WANT HIM NOW!
If you’re new to these events get ready for the Elvis Presley equivalent of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio broadcast. And let me make it clear I’m not accusing anyone of anything. I have no idea what anyone’s motives were regarding any aspect of the following.
I’ll present the tale in the style of the fictional Carl Kolchak – as “items” in a list:
ITEM: Elvis Presley died in August of 1977, yet in the years that followed an ever-increasing body of folklore and myth would develop regarding the late rock star supposedly faking his own death. His motives varied according to the theory.
ITEM: For a time Elvis sightings seemed to outnumber sightings of Bigfoot, UFOs and the Loch Ness Monster combined.
ITEM: The novel Orion was published. Conspiracy lovers often cite either 1977, 1978 or 1979 as the year of publication, so you can see how deep some of the rabbit holes run.
ITEM: Orion featured a very Elvis-like young man from the American south who becomes a sensation as a rock singer. In the end the character Orion is so weary of the stresses of stardom that he fakes his own death to get away from it all.
ITEM: Claims are made that enigmatic power players managed to get the novel removed from bookstores. The claims are sometimes accompanied by insinuations that this was done because the book might have struck too close to reality with its “fake death” ending.
ITEM: A masked singer – who looks like a standard Elvis impersonator except for the mask – appears and calls himself Orion. He begins releasing albums and performing in public. This Orion’s first album, tantalizingly titled Reborn, is released in 1978. Continue reading
Filed under Mythology, Neglected History, opinion
MY COUSIN’S AIRSHIP (1902): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION
MY COUSIN’S AIRSHIP, A TALE OF 1950 (1902) – Written by W.F. Alexander. Though written in 1902 this story is set in a fictional 1950 which has seen incredible scientific advances.
The action begins in England, where our narrator lives with his true love Margaret. His cousin Stephen Rankin – a former rival for Margaret’s affections – is a nasty mean-spirited mad scientist figure.
Stephen has invented a new type of aerocar which can travel 45 miles per hour, which we readers are told makes it the fastest aircraft of 1950. (!) As a peace-making gesture the inventor invites our narrator along for a joyride in the airship. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
