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Now in our eleventh calendar year!
PCR #532 (Vol. 11, No. 23). This edition is for the week of May 31--June 6, 2010.

MOVIE REVIEW
Still up: Summer Movie Preview
"Splice"
RETRORAMA
Forgotten Horrors: Island of Terror  by ED Tucker
THE AUDIO PHILES
More May Albums!  by Terence Nuzum
FANGRRL
Summer 2010 Book Preview  by Lisa Scherer
THE ASIAN APERTURE
John Woo’s "Hard Boiled" (1992)  by Jason Fetters
SPORTS TALK
I’m Back!!!! .... Super Bowl In The Meadowlands? .... Officially Blind .... Favre Watch .... Can’t Keep Big Ben In The Pants .... Storm Season .... Cleveland, Say Goodbye! .... by Chris Munger
MIKE'S RANT
R.i.p. Little Man .... Movie Notes .... Passing On .... .... .... .... .... .... Mike's Record Shelf  by Mike Smith
Sports Talk


I’m Back!!!!
Crazed Fanboy Slimming Down?

The other night, I worked with Nolan, and he informed me that Crazed Fanboy is thinking about trimming the writer content to what people read the most on the site, I.e. Paul Bearer, Creature Feature, film reviews, etc… But I do have to respectfully disagree with you on this Nole! I understand that Fanboy Corporate doesn’t want writers that talk about the pot they smoked in the bathroom at school, and how the lunch lady shorted the pepperoni, or how that writer got into squabble cuz someone be mackin their chick. I get that, but a constant new plethora of writers that express their opinions has been one of the great things about this website, fansite, kingdom, what have you. Please don’t trim the site down when it holds the constant possibility of expanding. I never knew I was even a mediocre writer until Nolan asked me to write about sports, and Nolan you’ll run across new prospects all the time. Yeah they might not last long, or be consistant, but I believe the time they share here, the writer will never forget, and neither will the fans.

Now, back to sports!!!!!

Super Bowl In The Meadowlands?
So the NFL owners decided that the Super Bowl will be played in East Rutherford, New Jersey in 2013 in the middle of February, beating Tampa and Miami. Yeah great idea guys! I know when I pay $10,000 for a Super Bowl ticket I’d love to be sitting in 10 degree weather!!!! This was a complete screw job. The NFL rule is that Super Bowls cannot be played in cold weather areas unless that city’s stadium is a dome, or at least a retractable roof. The stadium that New York built to house the Giants and the Jets does not have one. That means the Super Bowl will most likely be played in 10 degree weather, with wind and most likely snow. I know that we want to see a cold weather championship game just like the old days in football, but imagine if your team doesn’t normally win in cold weather games, makes it to the Conference Championship game and beats a northern team in cold weather finally, then they go to New York to win the Super Bowl and ooops!, WIDE RIGHT! The wind blew the winning field goal! You would be pissed, especially if your team was involved. And by that time, the Buccaneers should be a formidable opponent for any NFL team. Tampa got screwed out of the event, just another screw job by the NFL for Tampa, you would think this city is the ugly stepchild in the league. Everyone say thanks…NFL!

Officially Blind
Last weeks’ series with the Boston Red Sox, was well, more of a show than a series of baseball games. Joe Maddon got tossed out of the game after he went to the defense of one his batters that was just tossed out too. Carl Crawford (the batter) had enough of the home plate umpire calling a bad game, especially only when it hurts the Rays. The Umpire kept calling strikes as balls, balls as strikes. Even the TV broadcaster called the umpire on it. It was clearly obvious that the umpire wasn’t watching the game, or needs coke-bottle glasses. I can understand a mistake by a sporting event official, but over and over again? This guy shouldn’t even be refereeing a little league game! At any rate, CC had enough and approached the umpire to talk to him, then the umpire got into CC’s face and starting yelling at Carl, just before an explosion, Joe Maddon ran out and before he could even say anything, the umpire started yelling the Joe, then tossed both CC and Joe Maddon out. Needless to say the Rays lost, and got swept by the Red Sox. They went on to play the White Sox and banged them around a bit. This past Tuesday night Joe Maddon was thrown out again, because Carlos Pena called a timeout before the pitch, the pitcher didn’t see it and threw the ball, the umpire called a strike when there should’ve been a timeout. This infuriated Joe Maddon so much that he went on a rant, yelling at the plate umpire, getting tossed, then made his way to the 3rd Base Umpire and blew into his ass too. It seems that since the Red Sox series, Joe Maddon has made it his personal mission to take on these slouch umpires, and somebody has to do it. It’s to often seen these sporting officials screw up badly, and it’s obvious to everyone watching that they screwed up, and there’s no consequences for screwing up. The NFL just says “Oh, well you just won’t be refereeing the Super Bowl” when an NFL ref screws up, but when the Super Bowl is being held in New York in the middle of February, I’d be screwing up left and right! At any rate, it’s just not fair to the fans, players, coaches, and everyone involved when the official is too inept to enforce the rules of the game, fairly for both sides. Maybe if every official I see in a sporting event was younger than 50 then maybe I wouldn’t be talking about this, right?

When I wrote the section above, it was before Tiger’s pitcher Gallarraga was robbed of a perfect game. Now it’s time, more than ever, to railroad these umps some more.


Jon Gruden said it best during his Super Bowl victory with the Bucs. “Are you out of your mind?….Are you out of your frikin skull????” He said that after the officials in that game handed the Raiders an unearned touchdown. That’s exactly what I said when MLB umpire Jim Joyce botched a history making play, by calling a runner safe on first base when it was obvious to the rest of the world that he was out. Gallarraga lost his perfect game on this call, the last play of the game, and robbing this kid that just came out of the minor league of a career milestone, not to mention re-writing history. Gallaraga was interviewed after the game, and said “Everyone makes mistakes.”, but that’s a classy approach to the situation. I would’ve probably exploded on that umpire after that disgrace of a call, then demanded he be fired immediately for his inability to do his job. This is ridiculous, and it’s getting even more ridiculous. Is it just me or does the MLB have a shortage of umpires and officials that can actually see the game? The official in this game was caught on replay not even looking at the 1st base when he called him safe, and that’s just down right disgraceful. Then he could’ve said to the other officials that he didn’t get a good look at the play and another official may have said “I saw it, it looked to me like he was out!” But no. There was no conversation, no debate, that’s the call and that’s it. The only person that could change it didn’t even try. Then after the game the umpire called into radio show that was slamming him, and cried his eyes out. He even admitted he screwed up. Is there anymore evidence that instant replay is needed in baseball. The opponents of instant replay say it takes away the human error element of the game. I think the human error element just took itself out of the game.

Favre Watch
Brett Favre IS coming back. He hasn’t announced it yet, but I can assure everyone that he will. Last week he had ankle surgery that he wouldn’t have needed if he wasn’t going play football. But he is, and he had the surgery. I’m a Brett Favre fan just like the next guy, but this year could be ugly for him. What would be his 20th year in the league, it really seems that he just cant let go. Last year was his greatest season in his career statistically, and he and the Minnesota Vikings came one game shy of a Super Bowl. But this year is different. He’s really pushing this thing. I mean he could have a great season and make it to NFC Championship game again, if his running back, Adrian Peterson, can hold on to the frikin football! I hope it works out for him, but I just don’t see it happening.

Can’t Keep Big Ben In The Pants
Pittsburgh Steelers Quarterback, and two time Super Bowl Champion quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, a.k.a. Big Ben was suspended for 6 games because of his recent actions that I’m sure you’ve heard about. But he showed up for practice this week just to keep the rust off I guess. Ben is one bad decision away from being shipped out of Pittsburgh, and another suspension. He’s tainted goods right now. The Steelers have noticed that, and they’re starting the moving-on process. They’ve started giving Dennis Dixon most of the reps in practice. You’ve may have heard of Dixon, and if you didn’t, he almost led Oregon University to the National Championship when he was in college, but he blew his knee out that season. The Steelers have faith in him apparently, now that Ben will miss the first 6 games of the season because he can’t keep in it his pants. Dixon will answer questions on the Steelers future, and what they can do with Ben. If Dixon plays well, and shows long-term potential, Ben will be sent packing. The Steelers also have Byron Leftwich, yes Byron Leftwich. The guy who couldn’t complete a single pass in his one year in Tampa. If Byron gets the nod, that’ll go nowhere fast. Dixon has to be the answer for the Steelers, if they want to have any kind of a good season.

Storm Season
No not that Storm Season. The Tampa Bay Storm just defeated their fiercest rival in the league, the Orlando Predators by staving off a comeback late in the 4th quarter. Storm Head Coach Tim Marcum (who I interviewed a number of times while he was getting naked in the locker room) celebrated his 200th Career Win as a head coach in the Arena Football League after the win. Congratulations to him and his family, Marcum has done great things in the AFL, not to mention making the Tampa Bay Storm the most storied franchise in Arena League history. 5 rings and 200 victories is nothing to sneeze at, no matter what sport your in.

Cleveland, Say Goodbye!
The greatest sports icon in Cleveland history, LeBron James, is leaving the Cavaliers Basketball Team this year, by announcing his free agency this week. If I was in charge of the Cavaliers, I would give this guy the world, whatever he asks for, whenever he asks for it. But that’s just me. Now LeBron will move on, and win a bunch of rings with a franchise that'll spend the money to put a supporting cast around him. The Cavaliers held the best record in the NBA for the past two years thanks to LeBron, what kind record do you think they'll have next year?





"Sports Talk" is ©2010 by Christopher Munger.   All graphics this page, except where otherwise noted, are creations of Nolan B. Canova.  All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2010 by Nolan B. Canova.