Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at my top horror movies of the past fifty years. It is NOT a list of my all-time favorite horror films, just the ones that fall within the round number of fifty years.
If the selected movie spawned a franchise I rank the franchise’s top five flicks by titles only. As always, these are just my opinion. We all have our favorites and none of us are right or wrong.
MY LIST: Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season, opinion
With Dune 2 out there now, here are TWO items as a salute of sorts to the Frank Herbert classic. The first book in the series was serialized beginning in 1963, then released as a novel in 1965.
DUNE: THE OPERA – Previously I wrote about how Philip Wylie’s science fiction novel Gladiator could be done as an opera. Then I looked at how an opera version of the 1966 Spaghetti Western Django could be done and then an opera based on the novel Venus in Furs. If you’re not familiar with the story told in Dune it is set over 20,000 years in the future, when humanity has colonized many Earth-like planets.
LANGUAGE: Spanish. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that most of my fellow English-speakers find English-language operas to be silly. The prosaic nature of the forced rhymes in a language we are well-versed in does seem to rob opera of its mystique and its grandeur.
SINGERS: Two Baritones, two Bass-Baritones, two Sopranos, one Mezzo-Soprano, four Tenors, a contralto and a Bass.
ACTS: FOUR ACTS
STORY: My fellow Dune geeks may get annoyed with this change, but remember, adaptations for staged performances have to be made very tight. I would start out at the Arrakeen Great Hall as the family and court members of House Atreides have just arrived on Arrakis/ Dune, the desert planet. All the scenes that the book covered while the Atreides family were preparing to depart their home on Caladan would instead play out shortly after their arrival on their new planetary fiefdom. Continue reading
Filed under opinion
USA SOUTH CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – The last two teams standing in this tournament were the MARY BALDWIN UNIVERSITY FIGHTING SQUIRRELS and the GREENSBORO COLLEGE PRIDE. By Halftime the Fighting Squirrels held a slight 30-28 edge. After the break Mary Baldwin University left their opponents further and further behind on their way to a 72-62 triumph. Luke Ogle led the Squirrels with 15 points. Continue reading
Filed under College Basketball
This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at the 1950s characters of Marvel Comics – then known as Atlas Comics.
LEOPARD GIRL
Secret Identity: Gwen (no last name ever given)
First Appearance: Jungle Tales Vol 1 #1 (October 1954)
Origin: Gwen supernaturally bonded with a pack of jungle leopards as a little girl.
Powers: Leopard Girl employed her supernatural “cry of the leopards” to use a small army of leopards to help her fight the forces of evil in Africa. She could interact with the Dark Continent’s ghosts, who saw her as an ally.
This heroine also had greater than human strength, agility and speed. Her senses were heightened as were her healing abilities.
Comment: In her secret identity as “Gwen”, Leopard Girl worked with research scientist Dr. Hans Kreitzer. Her fellow assistant was named Peter, whom she once carried with one arm while swinging through the jungle.
In time, Gwen became a cook for Sandra Danning and her husband. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
JUNGLE JIM (1948) – Decades before Raiders of the Lost Ark, “Jungle Jim” Bradley, mercenary jungle guide and adventurer, was fighting Nazis, Communist Spies and other menaces while finding lost cities & ancient artifacts, all while romancing lovely ladies. Throw in the occasional dinosaur, giant spider or huge, man-eating eel and enjoy!
A modern Jungle Jim franchise could combine the best elements of Indiana Jones, Crocodile Dundee and Allan Quatermain. The Rock is too old now, but years ago his love of filming in jungles would have made him ideal for the role.
Jungle Jim, a former comic strip character, was featured in a 1937 serial, a series of movies in the 1940s and 1950s, plus a television series in that latter decade. Former Tarzan Johnny Weissmuller played Jungle Jim in everything but the 1937 serial.
At any rate, 1948’s Jungle Jim was Weissmuller’s first appearance as the character. Fifteen more movies and 26 television episodes would follow in all their fun, outdated, absurd and So Bad They’re Good glory.
THE STORY: Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies
The divisions of college basketball covered by Balladeer’s Blog tipped off their postseason conference tournaments last night.
NORTH STAR ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION
ROUND ONE: GAME ONE – The MAYVILLE STATE COMETS took the court against the VALLEY CITY STATE VIKINGS. By Halftime the Comets held a 39-32 advantage over their opponents. After the break, Mayville State got more and more separation from the Vikings for an 82-68 victory. Jamison Kramer led the Comets with 18 points while teammate Darren Jones logged a Double Double of 10 points and 13 rebounds. Continue reading
Filed under College Basketball
FURIOUS (1984) – It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a classically bad movie here at Balladeer’s Blog. To remedy that here’s a look at the wildly out there film Furious, one of the most joyously weird action/ fantasy movies ever made. It’s like the most incoherent dream that anyone ever described to you.
Furious starred the (at the time) up and coming Rhee Brothers, Simon and Phillip, who never quite became martial arts superstars but certainly carved out their own special niche in action films. Unfortunately, this flick is undeservedly obscure. As of this writing there are only four user reviews at IMDb. Therefore, for the first time since Musical Mutiny I’m going to present a step-by-step breakdown. Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies
GEORGE ADAMSKI (April 17th, 1891 – February 26th, 1965) occupied a special place in the history of cults. In 1936 he claimed to represent the Royal Order of Tibet and preached “its teachings” in California (where else).
In the 1940s Adamski became interested in UFO reports and readjusted his Royal Order of Tibet teachings a bit. He then insisted he was in touch with Space Brothers whose philosophy he was revealing to the public. (Imagine if L. Ron Hubbard and this guy had joined forces!)
The readjustments started after George Adamski published Pioneers of Space in 1949, a general look at the infant Flying Saucer phenomenon, and in 1952 he claimed to be in telepathic contact with a being from Venus. Claims of additional contacts followed, including hieroglyphic writings from the Venusian.
Working with Leslie Desmond, Adamski published Flying Saucers Have Landed in 1953. He became a famous lecturer on UFOs and extraterrestrials and established his new following of suckers disciples. Continue reading
Every Presidents Day, Democrat media outlets release their hilariously biased lists ranking the presidents – lists compiled by Democrats who call themselves “historians.” (LMAO) Remember, the past decades have seen Democrats drive most non-Democrats from the “educational” profession.
Democrats like to pretend those prejudiced historians’ opinions carry more weight than the opinions of other people as part of their overall philosophy that everyone must bow to so-called “experts.” Remember, Democrats idiotically think someone has to be a biologist to define what a woman is as another example of their “Only experts who subscribe to The Party’s talking points should be listened to” approach.
I’m presenting my own ranking of the presidents in this blog post, but obviously people are free to disregard it as readily as they disregard all other such lists. These lists are fun conversationally, but none of them – including mine – have any relevance in the real world.
FIRST, I AM DOING WHAT ANY SUCH LIST COMPILER SHOULD DO IF THEY ARE SUPPOSEDLY TRYING TO BE AS OBJECTIVE AS POSSIBLE: I am omitting the most recent presidents because of the way emotion (and hysteria in some cases) can color perceptions of them. Presidential rankings lists which go all the way up to the present year are used simply as partisan political propaganda, not as true assessments.
Here is my ranking of U.S. presidents: Continue reading
Filed under opinion
It’s Presidents Day, so here are some sarcastic takes on the more recent presidents, with both political parties shown the irreverence they deserve.
DWIGHT EISENHOWER
Character Type: Well-meaning but befuddled sitcom grandfather.
Military Service: World War One and World War Two
Motto: “FOOORE!” (Remember, the traditional cry as you’re teeing off in golf? Oh, never mind!)
Nickname: Uncle Milty
Pro: Knew enough to distrust Richard Nixon long before it became the national pastime.
Con: Was the first president to pronounce nuclear as “nucular”.
JOHN F KENNEDY
Character Type: Rich playboy who disdained both Liberals and Conservatives and played by his own rules.
Military Service: World War Two
Motto: “Thank God for television!”
Nickname: FDR
Pro: The man was shrewd enough to distrust both liberals and conservatives equally. I can’t praise that attitude highly enough given our present circumstances.
Con: I can’t find out what happened to this guy. Anybody hear anything? Continue reading
Filed under humor, Neglected History, opinion, Presidential Rap Sheets
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