Balladeer’s Blog’s end of the year retrospective continues with September’s best:
JOE MAGARAC: NEGLECTED AMERICAN FOLKTALE – What Paul Bunyan was to lumberjacks, what John Henry was to railroad men and what Pecos Bill was to cowboys, Joe Magarac was to workers in Steel Mills.
Balladeer’s Blog examined Steel Man folktales and legends from both before AND after Joe Magarac’s rise to fame among Polish-American steel workers in Pennsylvania. CLICK HERE
THREE LABOR DAY MOVIES – In honor of Labor Day Weekend I reviewed three films that are very appropriate for that holiday.
That trio of movies:
Matewan (1987), Eight Men Out (1988) and The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal (1979). To read the reviews CLICK HERE
APOLLO MISSIONS TWELVE THROUGH SEVENTEEN – Since the lion’s share of the attention always goes to the Apollo 11 moon landing I decided nothing could be more Balladeer’s Blog-ish than to cover the subsequent moon missions instead.
For a concise breakdown on those six missions just CLICK HERE
THREE BOOKS FROM THE GREAT DON SURBER – The one and only Don Surber churned out three of the most riveting and refreshingly offbeat political chronicles of recent years.
For Don’s books Trump the Press, Trump the Establishment and Fake News Follies of 2017 you can simply CLICK RIGHT HERE
RECENT MOVIES: SOME REVIEWS – Instead of the old Golden Turkeys or obscure foreign films that I usually review I gave in to reader requests and posted my takes on assorted recent big-name releases.
For my reviews of Solo: A Star Wars Story, Alien: Covenant, The Last Jedi, Trumbo and Ocean’s 8, as well as micro-reviews of Justice League and Avengers: Infinity War CLICK HERE
BABES FOR TRUMP INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT – Beauty and brains and a daring, iconoclastic nature!
Those words perfectly describe the strong women and positive role models who participated in this account.
CLICK HERE
LINKAPALOOZA: SEPTEMBER 17th – I linked to multiple news items that tended to get overlooked. Click HERE
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1982) – Burbank Films of Australia produced this mediocre at best animated version of the Dickens classic. Previously I reviewed the 1969 Australian cartoon version and if you were to go strictly by this 1982 rendition of A Christmas Carol you would think that Australian animation technology had not progressed one bit since 1969.
BLACKADDER’S CHRISTMAS CAROL – My Ninth Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues here at Balladeer’s Blog! Long-time readers know what a big fan I am of Rowan Atkinson’s work – especially his Blackadder programs. Hell, I’m even an enormous fan of his more serious work in Full Throttle. And I never tire of telling anyone who will listen that I think he’d make a perfect Dikaiopolis in Aristophanes’ comedy The Acharnians. 
BOONE MAY: NEGLECTED GUNSLINGER – The three-day Frontierado Holiday Weekend kicked off with this look at the underrated gunslinger Daniel Boone May, better known as just Boone May. 
SJW’s: LOSERS OR JUST FOOLS – SJW’s are the modern-day equivalent of those primly disapproving religious nuts who spent their lives trying to impose their own uptight notions of right and wrong on other people. Except SJW’s are even more annoying. 
LOST MOONA LISA FOOTAGE SURFACED – Balladeer’s Blog’s love of the old Movie Host Shows of the past has been well-established. Moona Lisa (Lisa Clark) has been featured here since 2011. 
#WALKAWAY MOVEMENT CONTINUES – This item examined the continuing #WALKAWAY Movement, the exodus of so many of us former Democrats from the party because of Democrats’ increasing fascism, intolerance and snobbery toward the working class. To read this item CLICK 
NEIL BREEN’S LATEST FILM: TWISTED PAIR (2018) – The Breenius behind movies like Double Down, I Am Here …. (sic) Now, Fateful Findings and Pass Thru struck again with this sci-fi/ social commentary oddity title Twisted Pair. 
DYSTOPIA NATION: THE NEW COLONIALISM – This controversial blog post was another in my Dystopia Nation series. 
SHARK GOD OF FIJI: NDAKUWANG-GA – Balladeer’s Blog’s look at the Gods of Fiji was incredibly popular. 
JOHN BRENNAN: CIA FILTH … PLUS MORE – John Brennan, The Man From S.C.U.M. himself, headlined this look at the ongoing offenses of America’s forever-slimy CIA and NSA. 
THE PRISONER: LIVING IN HARMONY – Balladeer’s Blog’s episode by episode look at this 1967 Patrick McGoohan sci-fi/ existential drama raised a lot of interest. 
ROBERT MUELLER: GANGSTER BOSS – Accused rapist and accused suborner of perjury Robert Mueller, the modern-day Martin Dies and Joe McCarthy, was the topic of this blog post. 
FLASHMAN ITEM: SO HOW WOULD I HAVE HANDLED HIS CIVIL WAR ADVENTURES? – The love for George MacDonald Fraser’s antihero Harry Paget Flashman kept pouring in all summer long. 
ANTIFA IS REALLY KLAN-TIFA – A look at the cowardly masked fascists of Antifa, who are really KLAN-tifa, no matter what they pretend their name is short for. 
DEMOCRATS LOVE CORPORATE FASCISM – The new motto of the Democrats seems to be “Vote all you want – we’ll use our corporate fascist allies to force you to comply with our every bizarre notion.” 
A CAROL CHRISTMAS (2003) – Here’s another entry in Balladeer’s Blog’s Ninth Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon. This version is one of the many that tries mining laughs out of setting the Dickens classic in the modern age. These adaptations have varying degrees of success and on a scale of 1 to 10 I would give this effort a 6.5. 
MAVERICK (1994): MOVIE REVIEW – Frontierado was fast approaching when I posted this review of the 1994 film version of the James Garner television series Maverick. 
#WALKAWAY MOVEMENT: DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE FROM THE DEMOCRAT PARTY – Gay man Brandon Straka became a dissident hero as he launched the #WALKAWAY movement. Straka provided organization to the ’til now random exodus from the increasingly fascistic and intolerant Democrat Party. (I myself went Independent years ago.) 
TUILAKEMBA: FIJIAN DEMIGOD – Balladeer’s Blog’s examination of the saga of Fiji’s heroic demigod Tuilakemba was a hit. I covered not just the original myths but the way Tuilakemba’s tale evolved over the centuries. 
ASK BALLADEER: WHY DID I LEAVE SICILY OUT OF MY EXAMINATION OF THE ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY THE BIRDS? – Many readers were curious why I left out the usual academic speculation about the invasion of Sicily in my look at Aristophanes’ comedy The Birds. 
FLASHMAN: THE LOST ADVENTURES – I took advantage of the heavy interest in the reviews of my Top Five Harry Flashman Novels to go into total fanboy mode. 
THE CLONES (1973): MOVIE REVIEW – Balladeer’s Blog reviewed this neglected science fiction suspense movie. 
CLIVE BARKER’S THE SCARLET GOSPELS (2015) – What Ridley Scott did to his Alien saga with Covenant, Clive Barker did to his Hellraiser series with his novel The Scarlet Gospels. 
THREE NEGLECTED GUNSLINGERS – Cash Hollister, Zip Wyatt and Black Ike don’t get as much love as names like Wild Bill Hickok, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid but they had eventful lives nonetheless. 
A DIVA’S CHRISTMAS CAROL (2000) – Balladeer’s Blog’s Ninth Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues with a look at this Vanessa Williams venture. Due to the nature of this adaptation of the Dickens classic it is often categorized as one of the “African-American versions.” Among other such Carols I have reviewed are Christmas is Comin’ Uptown with Gregory Hines and John Grin’s Christmas starring Robert Guillaume. 
GODS OF FIJI – Balladeer’s Blog’s examinations of neglected pantheons of deities from around the world are always a hit. 
MOTHER JONES: RECOMMENDED TRUMP LINKS – Balladeer’s Blog once again posted a roundup of links to the most thought-provoking articles about President Donald Trump. 
HAMMETT (1982) – I reviewed this 1982 Wim Wenders film that was produced by Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope Studios. Frederic Forrest (Chef from Apocalypse Now) plays real-life mystery writer Dashiell Hammett as he gets caught up in a real-life mystery. 
PHELIM MCALEER ON THE AMERICAN LEFT’S TOTALITARIANISM – Like me and so many others, Phelim McAleer used to consider himself part of the political left but was driven away by the left’s growing fondness of censorship, blacklisting, totalitarianism and their support of ONLY reactionary Muslims, not Muslims who seek reform in their faith to bring it into the 21st Century. 
HELLRAISER: ORIGINS TRAILER – My love of Clive Barker’s horror novel The Hellbound Heart and the subsequent Hellraiser film series is well known. 
SNOPES CONFIRMS BARACK OBAMA’S ADMINISTRATION TURNED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHILDREN AT THE BORDER OVER TO HUMAN TRAFFICKERS – Just one of the many, MANY scandals of Obama’s presidency ignored by the Democrats in the media. 
SILAS TALBOT: REVOLUTIONARY WAR HERO – Balladeer’s Blog took a look at the Revolutionary War career of Silas Talbot. 
TRUMP-HATERS: ARE THEY INSANE OR ONLY PRETENDING TO BE? – A look at the slobbering, psychopathic behavior of those bizarre people who devote their every waking moment to drooling hatred of de facto Third Party President Donald Trump. 
THE INDEPENDENCE DAY SPEECH THAT NEVER WAS – This item examined a much-discussed speech during the deliberations over the Declaration of Independence. 
BR’ER RABBIT’S CHRISTMAS CAROL (1992) – Balladeer’s Blog’s Ninth Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues! Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, Br’er Bear, Br’er Gator and many other characters created by Joel Chandler Harris are featured in this animated version of the Dickens tale. 
All the characters live in a town in the American South, where a charity stage production of A Christmas Carol is being performed, with the proceeds going to benefit the terribly ill Timmy Mouse. No, not “Br’er Timmy” or anything like that, just Timmy Mouse as our Tiny Tim stand-in. 
ANNI CYRUS, IRANIAN-BORN CRITIC OF SHARIA LAW – Another member of the real-life League of Extraordinary Women, Anni Cyrus was in the news again, this time for her 2018 Anti-Sharia Law Tour. 
THE JET BENNY SHOW – Balladeer’s Blog’s reviews of bad and weird movies are still very popular. 
NON-DILLINGER: QUICK TAKES ON OTHER GANGSTERS OF HIS ERA – In keeping with Balladeer’s Blog’s tradition of examining topics which slip through the cultural cracks this blog post looked at some of the 1930s gangsters overshadowed by John Dillinger’s legend. 
THE RATINGS GAME – I reviewed this overlooked comedy from 1984. 
JOURNALIST SHARYL ATTKISSON’S COURAGEOUS EXPOSURE OF OBAMA’S COUNTLESS SCANDALS AND CRIMES – Strong female role model and 21st Century Ida Tarbell, Sharyl Attkisson refused to be intimidated by the Obama Administration’s thugs. 
JIMMY KIMMEL: THE BALLADEER’S BLOG INTERVIEW – Relentlessly unfunny waste of biomass Jimmy Kimmel is a truly disgusting human being. 
Balladeer's Blog 