NUMBER THREE GETS KNOCKED OFF – The unranked BLINN COLLEGE BUCCANEERS traveled to face the number 3 team in the nation – the TYLER COLLEGE APACHES. A 14-14 tie at Halftime became a 29-24 edge for the Buccaneers to end the 3rd Quarter. From there Blinn College toppled the Apaches by a final score of 50-35.
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COLLEGE FOOTBALL: NJCAA RESULTS
Filed under college football
THE MAGICIAN (1908): HALLOWEEN READING
THE MAGICIAN – During Halloween Season a few years back Balladeer’s Blog reviewed the 1926 silent movie adaptation of The Magician. This time around I’ll review the original Somerset Maugham novel from 1908. It’s no secret at this late date that the malevolent sorceror of the title, Oliver Haddo, was based on the real-life Aleister Crowley. In fact, Crowley would accuse Maugham of plagiarism when he reviewed The Magician under the name Oliver Haddo, his fictional counterpart.
At any rate the 1926 film is an under-appreciated classic of the Silent Era and the novel is of an even higher quality. In Paris – where Maugham first met Crowley in real life – Dr Arthur Burdon, a prominent young British surgeon, has come to visit his fiancee, artist Margaret Dauncey.
Burdon also visits his elderly former mentor, Dr Porhoet, who has turned from medicine to the study of Magick and the occult arts. It is through Porhoet that Dr Burdon and Margaret – plus Margaret’s friend Susie Boyd – first encounter the elegant yet repellant Oliver Haddo. The cadre of friends make the mistake of ridiculing the boastful Haddo’s claims of being a sorceror in the young 20th Century. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season
PONTYPOOL (2008): A ZOMBIE FILM THAT’S UNIQUE
Pontypool
Balladeer’s Blog’s month-long celebration of Halloween continues! If you’re like me you’re bored with all of the zombie and pseudo-zombie films and tv shows that seem to come out every few months. Pontypool is at least a zombie film that defies the formula.
PONTYPOOL (2008) – Pontypool is based on the novel by Tony Burgess and is set in a small town in Ontario. The best way to describe this original and thought-provoking movie would be by saying “If PBS decided to do a zombie film I think it would go something like this …”
The movie stars Stephen McHattie who portrays Grant Mazzy, a former shock jock from America. He’s currently languishing on a small station in the backwoods of Canada after his provocative antics got him fired one too many times from radio stations in the States.
He tries to liven up his boring gig on local radio by suggesting some unorthodox public behavior to his listeners and is as surprised as his female producer Sydney Briar (Lisa Houle) when people around the area begin taking him up on the suggestion. As reports continue to come into the tiny radio station it soon becomes apparent that the population isn’t just extremely receptive to suggestion, many of them have become living zombies with a desire to kill anyone not similarly stricken. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season
COLLEGE FOOTBALL RESULTS FROM OCTOBER 1st
*** HEADLINES ***
NUMBER TWO FALLS – The 6th ranked UNIVERSITY OF NORTH ALABAMA LIONS hosted the number 2 team in the nation – the UNIVERSITY OF WEST GEORGIA WOLVES. This was a game for the ages which had football fans across the nation on the edge of their seats. In the end the Lions prevailed over the Wolves, eking out a 24-23 victory.
TOPPLING NUMBER FOUR – Meanwhile the unranked TIFFIN UNIVERSITY DRAGONS did battle with their guests – the number 4 ASHLAND UNIVERSITY EAGLES. This was another hard-fought affair that provided 4 Quarters of gridiron gold. The Dragons managed to drag down the Eagles by a final tally of 35-32. Continue reading
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KILLCROP THE CHANGELING (1828)
Halloween month continues at Balladeer’s Blog with this look at a Gothic horror tale that doesn’t get the attention it deserves.
KILLCROP THE CHANGELING (1828) – By Richard Thompson. Gothic horror stories always earn extra points from me if they spotlight a supernatural menace that is NOT a vampire or a ghost. This tale features a goblin child who changes places with a human child.
Killcrop the Changeling features the nearly forgotten version of goblin lore, which presented them as supernatural humanoid vermin who mystically inhabit old, uninhabited buildings. In this case the London building in question used to belong to an undertaker who also sold equipment for infants. The establishment was called Both Ends in reference to this cradle and grave specialization, NOT because it was a gay bar. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season
HALLOWEEN MONTH BEGINS:THE SONGS OF MALDOROR CANTO II (1868)
Maldoror and his Smile, by Lord Orlando
HALLOWEEN MONTH IS HERE! As always here at Balladeer’s Blog I will spend the month sprinkling in obscure or forgotten horror stories, movies, and so on. All of that will be in addition to the usual topics I cover here. We’ll start today with something YOU the readers requested – a handy guide to my examination of the surreal horrors found in The Songs of Maldoror. For the First Canto click HERE
SECOND CANTO
Second Canto, Stanza 1: This was simply an address to the reader from the author, Isidore Ducasse, the self-styled Count de Lautreamont, before resuming the horrific adventures of the supernatural being Maldoror. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season, Maldoror
GODS OF BELLONA AND RENNELL ISLANDS: POLYNESIAN MYTHS
In the style of Balladeer’s Blog’s separate examinations of Hawaiian and Samoan myths as a subset of Polynesian Mythology comes this look at the deities worshipped on the Polynesian outliers Bellona Island and Rennell Island. Despite its much smaller size Bellona had a larger population for much of their history.
NGE’OBIONGO – The goddess of the stone ovens used by the people of Rennell and Bellona. The ovens were shown such reverence that it was forbidden to eat near them or to scatter firewood or even to speak in raised voices in their vicinity. Nge’obiongo would punish anyone who violated those taboos, just as she punished women who were bad or lazy cooks or who prepared meals without first properly cleaning their hands.
Undercooking the food would also invite this deity’s wrath. On rare occassions some of the prepared food would be left in the ovens as an offering to Nge’obiongo.
MAHUIKE – The earthquake god of Bellona and Rennell Islands (henceforth Bel-Ren). Like his counterparts in Hawaii and Samoa, Mahuike lived far underground and caused earthquakes by pushing at the earth with both of his arms.
Once, after a particularly destructive earthquake, the god Tehu’aingabenga fought Mahuike for injuring his worshippers and broke off one of the earthquake god’s arms. After that the quakes caused by Mahuike were never as severe. (In Hawaiian versions it is Maui who breaks the earthquake god’s arm off and in Samoan versions it is Ti’i Ti’i who does it. Bel-Ren myths do feature the figure Mautikitiki but he is less prominent than Tehu’aingabenga.)
Filed under Mythology
IS MARINA JOYCE REALLY POPPY?
Poppy
I’ve been sitting here eating my soup with the two oddly-garbed thugs who look like the mascots of college sports teams watching over me and I just had this epiphany: What if Marina Joyce and Poppy are one and the same? What if her “mother” is really one of her make-believe handlers and the two ARG’s – Poppy and Marina Joyce – are going to tie together? IF the Marina Joyce business really is just an ARG in the first place, that is.
Whatever! I just wanted to weigh in on this since conspiracy kooks were going nuts over this b.s. These online conspiracy deals are fun up to a point, I guess, but at least this one (or these two) doesn’t (or don’t) feature Slenderman … yet. It’s interesting to wonder what Aleister Crowley might have done with internet memes. Continue reading
NJCAA FOOTBALL RESULTS
Readers of Balladeer’s Blog have indicated that they are preferring this new setup in which I cover just the 4 year colleges on Sundays and then do these 2 year colleges during the week.
NUMBER SIX TAKES A FALL – The COPIAH-LINCOLN COLLEGE WOLFPACK played host to the 6th ranked JONES COUNTY COLLEGE BOBCATS and improved to 2-2 with the win. The Wolfpack trailed the Bobcats 7-0 in the 1st Quarter but had managed a 10-9 edge by Halftime. Jones County went back up 15-13 by the end of the 3rd Quarter but Copiah-Lincoln came back in the 4th to win it 27-22.
AND NUMBER SEVEN COMES TUMBLING AFTER – Meanwhile the GEORGIA MILITARY COLLEGE BULLDOGS visited the number 7 team in the nation – the COLLEGE OF DUPAGE CHAPARRALS. By the end of the opening Quarter the Bulldogs led the Chaparrals 10-7, a score which was unchanged at the break. An action-packed 2nd Half saw Georgia Military College complete the upset by a final count of 24-12. Continue reading
Filed under college football
CAPTAIN GARDINER OF THE INTERNATIONAL POLICE (1916): VINTAGE SCIENCE FICTION
CAPTAIN GARDINER OF THE INTERNATIONAL POLICE (1916) – Robert Allen Dodd wrote this story one hundred years ago under the name Robert Allen. Narration informs us that the story is set 60 years after the conclusion of the then-raging World War. Since we know it ended in 1918 we can look forward to visiting the “far-off future” of 1978.
A multi-national entity called the International Federation is one of the major world powers along with the Chinese-Japanese Alliance and the Muslim Confederation. The International Police have been the Federation’s military and intelligence service but after decades of peace there is emerging pressure to disband the I.P. Amid the ongoing political and bureaucratic wrangling over that prospect our hero Captain Gardiner and his colleague Major Wilkie undertake a dangerous mission. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
