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PCR Archives 2002
PCR Archives 2001
PCR Archives 2000
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Nolan's Pop Culture Review, 2002!

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La Floridiana
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Established A.D. 2000, March 19.  Now in our third calendar year!
   Number 120 (Vol. 3, No. 28). This edition is for the week of July 8--14, 2002.
Slender issue of PCR this week...
Ted Williams on ice? Cryonics feasibility
Comics into movies

It's merely how it cycles around sometimes---sometimes all the cherries line up in a row and sometimes they don't. After a great run of action-packed issues, the PCR quiets down a little this week with fewer columns...BUT...it's all still good stuff. After you figure in vacations, moving, work-related stress and burn-out, and just the way the month schedules out, it's amazing we can remain as consistent as we do, but we do. If every once in a while it gets a little lonely in here, well...that's just the law of averages for you.

Ted Williams on ice?
As of this writing, Wednesday morning, 7-10-02, the late, great Ted Williams' body is being fought over for the most bizarre of opportunities: his son wants to cryonically suspend his body (freeze him) for reawakening some time in the future.

The baseball legend died last Friday at the age of 83. His family was shocked that his son wanted to have him frozen. His daughter remarked that her half-brother has something up his sleeve: that he figures the DNA of Ted Williams could be a sought-after commodity, not one he wants to pass up, evidently. The daughter said that Ted, however, would never want his body used for such a thing and had, in fact, left wishes to be cremated.

Cryonic suspension (formerly known as "cryogenics", tho I never found out why they changed the name), involves switching a deceased person's bodily fluids with what amounts to antifreeze, and suspending them in a vat of liquid nitrogen at near-zero temperatures with the end goal of arresting decay so that the deceased can be resurrected in the distant future when the cure for what killed them is found. The chief setback to the process and why organized science is, to say the least, skeptical? The very process of freezing creates its own irreversible damage, usually when frozen moisture in the body ruptures the very cell walls that make it up. So the cure for the freezing would have to be discovered before the cure for the terminal illness. Although much progress has been made, it is far from a sure-bet kind of thing, and to date, only a relatively small number of people have ponied up the $100,000--200,000 (designed to be assigned from their life insurance policies) for the process.

EVEN IF IT WORKED, how many more years could Ted Williams realistically have restored since he was already an old man? I suspect his daughter is right: that this has nothing to do with Ted's health but in his marketable DNA. This morning a judge is supposed to rule on this. I'll be posting an update on the outcome of the hearing right here sometime tonight.

Oh, and for the record? For any of you still wondering: NO, WALT DISNEY WAS NOT FROZEN IN 1966--that's one of those tenacious urban legends that take on a life of their own.

UPDATE: 7-11-02. The court gave the Ted Williams estate until Monday to file a copy of his Will.

The Big Business of Fantasy
Not meaning to steal fellow columnist's Drew Reiber's thunder, but his piece in "Wake Up and Smell the Comics" this week starts with a real head-turner I have to bring up now: that "Star Wars: Episode II--Attack of the Clones" has been closed for business at most theaters around here, while "Spider-Man" is just now starting to pull out! I bring this up because of a dangerous prediction I made almost a year ago on a local public access program: that "Spider-Man" was going to be the surprise hit of Summer 2002, possibly even eclipsing "Clones"! Whether I was right, or by how much, is debatable depending on a variety of criteria, but the fact is that our favorite web-slinger made a BIG splash. (Read more about this and WHAT'S NEXT in the current comics-to-movies Hollywood trend in this issue's Wake Up and Smell the Comics!)


La Floridiana This week's issue
La Floridiana by William Moriaty
Another Florida film review:
"BEWARE"---2001.
Full movie review.
"Beware" is a fun slasher flick in the tradition of "A Nightmare on Elm Street", the "Evil Dead" and the "Halloween" series. It starts out in a wooded thicket along the Flagler coast of Florida.... ........................Click here for more.

Matt's Rail This week's issue
Matt's Rail by Matt Drinnenberg
NEW YORK, NEW YORK. Monday morning at 7:00am, I begin my flight to New York City, where I will begin my new career as a Merchandiser for Tommy....
NEW JOB. It's been a whopping 8 1/2 months since I was last employed and I must confess, quite frankly.....IT'S BEEN FUN! ...............................................Click here for more.

Wake Up and Smell the Comics This week's issue
Wake Up and Smell the Comics #20 by Drew Reiber
This week, Spider-Man is finally leaving my local AMC theatre. Not only did it out last Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, but it even beat the prequel/sequel in box office revenue. Added to both these revelations, Spider-Man was even released around nearly two weeks previous to Star Wars and its assumed forthcoming onslaught. If that wasn’t enough, the opening of Men in Black 2 (now finally acknowledging the comic it was adapted from) has now broken the previous record for early July weekends at the box office. Not only have the performances of these comic-to-films prove positive for Sony and their franchises, but these events also push the overall attitude toward comic material even further into the green.... ..........................................Click here for more.

Mike's Rant This week's issue
Mike's Rant by Michael A. Smith WOO HOO. Congrats, Matt, on finally returning to the ranks of the employed....... MOVING ON. Sad to have to report on the passing of three men who achieved the highest levels of their chosen careers........ ........................................................Click here for more.


Letters to the EditorWe welcome your feedback.
Nolan,
I have a comment regarding MJ.  No, not THAT M.J. (Spidey's chick). I mean Michael Jackson, relatively reclusive billionaire pop idol come racial attack victim.

I suppose you've heard about Jackson's claim that "the music industry is anti-black....well, it seems he has chosen The Righteous Reverend Al "Tawana Brawley" Sharpton as his lawyer of choice.

"When you fight for me, you're fighting for all black people, dead and alive," Jackson said.

Jackson also targeted Sony Music entertainment chief Tommy Mottola, calling him a racist and "devilish". EGAD! Just how stupid is Michael Jackson anyway? He is not only one o' the wealthiest and quite possibly most successful musicians in "HISTORY" and the world, his music videos sold by the billions worldwide (Anyone remember "THRILLER"? Of course you do!) M.J. is treading on "DANGEROUS" ground.

He is also extremely successful as a crossover artist. Why didn't he do this when he was just getting into the business? It would have been a tiny bit more understandable in the 1960s when he entered showbiz. Although having said that, the arts...including music, has been known through "HISTORY" to be not only tolerant of differences amongst the humans, be they black, white, brown and all colors in between, but the industry is famous for making great waves towards racial equality.

Michael is "Bad" alright.....as in "BAD" taste! He is positively "OFF THE WALL" with his comments to the press and I suspect Al "The Mouth" Sharpton is telling him what to say. I realize that entertainers do things to keep their names in the news, but this is insanity! He is "OFF THE WALL" with this stunt. I'm not the hugest Michael Jackson fan, but I have major respect for his talent. Just imagine Mr. Jackson doing ANY other occupation....

From someplace deep in Middle Earth,
Steve Beasley
Auckland, New Zealand


To send an email to Letters to the Editor write to: Crazedfanboy1@aol.com.  Any emails sent to this address will be assumed intended for publication unless you specifically instruct me not to. I can and do respond privately, if that is your preference. Frequently, it's both ways.---Nolan


"Mike's Rant" is ©2002 by Michael A. Smith    "Matt's Rail" is ©2002 by Matt Drinnenberg    "La Floridiana" is ©2002 by William Moriaty    "Wake Up and Smell the Comics" is ©2002 by Drew Reiber     Add'l thanks to Steve Beasley for his input in "Letters"       All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2002 by Nolan B. Canova

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