CURRENT STUFF La Floridiana Movie Review The Enlightenment Mike's Rant Matt's Rail (Links listed above indicate "final edition" status.) CONTRIBUTOR'S Homepages Michael A. Smith's The Omnipresent M. Smith homepage and Email                     Matt Drinnenberg's The Masters of Horror Terence Nuzum's Viddywell Productions William Moriaty's T.R.E.E., Inc.

Established A.D. 2000, March 19.  Now in our third calendar year!    Number 104 (Vol. 3, No. 12). This edition is for the week of March 18--24, 2002.

PCR's 2-year anniversary!
Never would've predicted it...

The "official" historical launch date of Nolan's Pop Culture Review was March 19, 2000, making us two years old this week. (I think I actually put something on the web earlier, like before the 17th, but deleted several pages worth of false starts. My AOL ledgers showed the 19th as the day that stuck.) It's the third "calendar" year in the fact that we overlapped 2000, 2001, and 2002. Funny how numbers play with your head like that. And now, here we are. What a weird trip it's been.

The Academy Awards
Mike Smith reminded me that the awards are closing in, I think they're this Sunday the 24th, and we still haven't gotten around to chosing our best bets yet! I'll take responsibility for the oversight, but if you have any predictions to make, send 'em in in a hurry! To recap the nominees, please see the movie review page in PCR #100. That's actually a summation of Mike's ealier predictions, with the final tally included. Mike will likely be sending in his list by Thursday. If I can find two seconds between now and then to think about it, I'll post mine, too.

Potpourri
The FOX Celebrity Boxing special we talked about last issue is being repeated Thursday night (3-21). Sick isn't it?
I caught the premiere episode of "Andy Richter Controls the Universe" on FOX Tuesday night. Think: poor man's Drew Carey, but with an added narration track. Without the clever writing or the surreal poignancy of its creatively closest kin, I'm forced to conclude Andy should've stayed Conan O'Brien's sidekick.

Wrestlemania
OK, don't jump all over my case if I don't get this right. I have NEVER been a big fan of professional wrestling, but I loosely follow Hulk Hogan's career, cuz he's a Tampa boy. His mom lives only a half-mile from me. That said, for some reason---I don't know why--I got caught up in this Hulk Hogan/The Rock thing recently.
I was channel-surfing last week and HAPPENED on one of those cable channel freak shows (TBS?) that feature these guys screaming at each other and "performing" a wrestling match. I was attracted to one "scene" where The Rock was being challenged by Hulk Hogan via this loud-mouth big shot named Vince McMahon. Even I knew this was some kinda big deal.
According to my wrestling fan friends--none of whom I could convince to write a piece about this--Hulk's been performing as a "bad guy" for quite a while in a rival organization, but he's also involved in some lawsuit skirmish. He is getting older, but his contract still has a while to go.
After the pay-per-view "match" last Sunday, one fan commented it looked like Hogan was "passing the torch" to The Rock (Hulk lost the bout). But then after another freak show---Monday?---apparently Hogan and the Rock are partners now, and are going to "tag-team" or some such thing.
Well, that's about all I know and it ain't much. The fact I got even THIS much out of it is amazing. If you have any comments about this arena, you're welcome to send 'em in.

   Legion Studios has posted the interview they did with me and I encourage any and all of you to check it out! I had a great time doing it and think it came out very well. They will likely be featured on my public access show sometime in May.
   The lost interview of Dr. Paul Bearer by ED Tucker is here! You may remember Jacksonville-based Creature Feature fan ED from last fall when he wrote us about some Bearer-related items, not the least of which was this "lost" interview, conducted at the Necronomicon in 1991. ED's piece, along with a cool "Monster Memories" tome, appear in the Scary Monsters Magazine that's out now or due to be out soon. He has retained copyrights, however, and sent me a copy of the interview for posting! I am extremely excited about this and, of course, very honored. The "Monster Memories" piece will likely be posted next week.
   Please check out the newly updated Crazed Fanboy homepage. Besides "The Lost Interview", Will Moriaty and I have started a new section called SCHLOCKARAMA. Schlockarama will examine the tackiest movies known to man by way of commentary and review. After you get the feel of what we're doing, you may want to send in something yourself, which of course is always welcome!