| Archives of Nolan's Pop Culture Review | ||
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 LA FLORIDIANA Will and Karen's Cabbage Key and Key West Kraziness, Part Three by William Moriaty | ||
THIS WEEK'S MOVIE REVIEW "Beyond The Sea" by Mike Smith | ||
ODDSERVATIONS Romper Room Memories, 1973....Will Eisner Is Gone...."Sellevision"....While They Suffer, Let's At Least Make Sure We Feel Good by Andy Lalino | ||
BLACK DOG One Angry Young Man by Joshua Montgomery | ||
THE OGRE 2004 To Me by Clayton Smith | ||
SPLASH PAGE Hell Didn't Freeze, Well, Maybe Not Yet....Some Comments Regarding The Year's End by Brandon Jones | ||
MATT'S RAIL Happy New Year....I Am The Champion....Winter Fest by Matt Drinnenberg | ||
MIKE'S RANT Congrats....25 More....Passing On by Mike Smith | ||
LETTERS | ||
Established A.D. 2000, March 19. Now in our sixth calendar year!
Number 250 (Vol. 6, No. 1). This edition is for the week of January 3--9, 2005.
Despite the fact several PCR writers wrote in to say they'd be late, looks like we're having a more fully action-packed issue now that most are now in!
A little too much left-over Christmas cheer me thinks! Hangovers and fireworks from New Year's still ringin' in their heads!
I also discovered a short column from Clayton "The Ogre" Smith too late to make it into 2004 (well, thanks, Clay), and a vitriolic rant from Joshua "Black Dog" Montgomery too...er...bitter...to make it into the year-end issue, so I'm posting them now (enjoy, ha ha).
OK, OK, it's hard to be too hard on the regular "staff" since they're such a stalwart bunch, but I'm just making apologies for what must've seemed like a checkerboard appearance to the contributors' nav bar at left earlier in the week! Hopefully, by Friday, the more plumper...and more filled-in...PCR will be before you.
Crazed Fanboy® is now my registered trademark This morning, Wednesday, January 5, the death count came in at over 155,000. This is staggering. The news stations have been good about posting phone numbers and websites to contact to learn how to help out. Many celebrities have pledged millions of dollars (everyone from Sandra Bullock to Bill Gates). Florida's resources were tapped pretty dry over the span of four hurricanes, but Florida's Governor Jeb Bush, seen as an expert in natural disasters now (that would be almost funny if it weren't so NOT funny), was drafted to personally inspect the disaster areas. Joining him were Colin Powell who said he'd "never seen anything like this." I dare no one living has!
This continues to dwarf any other news at the moment, and justifiably so.
Nolan Radio Meets 970 WFLA...sort of Shayna and her husband used to live in South Tampa and she'd frequently stop by my 7-Eleven (groan) to pick up coffee and cigarettes on the way in to the station (Clear Channel on Gandy Blvd). About a year or so ago, she and husband Matthew moved to Apollo Beach and I rarely saw her again (she also had a baby girl in the intervening months), BUT we stayed in email contact. Around Christmas '04 she wrote to me about doing a brunch after one of her morning shows. I couldn't say yes fast enough and we marked the calendar for January 3rd. I walked to the station (yes, it's that close to my house), met up with Shayna and got a little tour of the facility (Jack Harris and Tedd Webb were already gone for the day, so I'll hopefully catch them another time). Shayna and I went to The Egg Platter (Gandy again) and had a wonderful catch-up chat. And to top it off she sprung for the check too (an unexpected, but welcome treat for a poor boy from the south end!). She is such a cutie-patootie with a wonderful personality and I had to share this with you. The picture of us was snapped by the cashier.
Lasers and Airplanes Several times over the last week's time reports came in dealing with the phenomenon of laser beams being aimed at the cockpits of commercial airliners flying overhead. Fortunately, all flights landed safely and no pilots were injured. Terrorism was the first thing on many investigators' minds, despite the fact the beams seemed to come from residential areas. Deeper investigations ruled this out as it now appeared to be teenagers' pranks!
Are lasers that are capable of blinding pilots, bringing down 747s, etc., so easy to get now that kids can get them and do things like this?
Other Side Cinema first film in California will be
shooting at the end of January. The film is the short super
hero comedy "Hooligan's Valley" which shows tribute to the
classic Drive-in B Movies of the late 50s and 60s.
In creating "Hooligan's Valley" writer, Vito Trabucco,
wanted to get permission to use the classic song "Twist Fever"
from the Arch Hall Jr. movie "Wild Guitar." (1962) The
problem for me as a producer is where to begin for a
movie that is over 40 years old.
After a three month search and going through a who's
who list of Fairway Films members I finally got a hold of
Arch Hall Jr. and scheduled a New Year's Day meeting with Arch
in Las Vegas. The meeting was more of a reunion as I
coordinated the meeting with Las Vegas local Ray Dennis
Steckler. Which marked the first time the two had met since
the shooting of "Wild Guitar."
Many interesting stories were told including where Arch
knocked out Steckler's back teeth in the on screen fight they
had at the end of "Wild Guitar." In addition, talks have
begun for future projects involving Arch, Steckler, and Other
Side Cinema.
Other Side Cinema would like to thank Tom Weaver and
Michael Gingold of Fangoria, Elizabeth Snyder and Alan O'Day
for all their help in making this possible.
"Hooligan's Valley" is set to shoot in late January and
then will play film festivals through out the country. Please
visit www.othersidecinema.com for more information.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Plus...
The first issue of the New Year is usually kind of short. I'm used to taking my proverbial breather after a kick-ass year-end issue.
This is indeed a red letter day in the offices of Crazed Fanboy. For the past several years, I've been putting a little "TM" next to my name/logo maybe about half the time or so just to, you know, stake out my ground on behalf of the website and my fledgling video distribution business. That's valid and it means I'm claiming the mark "Crazed Fanboy" as my trademark in a public forum. But starting a couple years ago I got a little more serious and decided to register it fully with the government. The final stages of that process were completed earlier this week. All it really means is I have the legal right to change the claim "TM" to an actual registration-type "R" with a circle around it. That means "registered trademark". I don't think I'm required to display it, but it certainly justifies the expense! So....I'm a brand name now. I believe anyone using the name in any literature is urged to include the "R"---or else!
Tsunami Death Count Tops 155,000
Is this sad or what? In the year-end issue of PCR, 2004, I remarked on the growing death count of one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history, that of the tsunami that ungulfed several thousand square miles of Southeast Asia, India and Sri Lanka. I revised the figure from 40,000 (which it was last Wednesday morning) to 60,000 (when PCR went "live" at noon), to 114,000 when I put the issue "to bed" Friday, New Year's Eve.
Nolan Radio met 970 WFLA Radio Tuesday morning when I responded to a personal invite from news anchor Shayna Lance to have brunch! (Blush, blush.)
Beauty and the Beast: Yours truly with adorable WFLA Radio news anchor Shayna Lance.
What kind of universe are we in when Buck Rogers-type headlines proclaim "Lasers Aimed at Airpanes Threaten to Blind Pilots"!
Other Side Cinema Producers Meet With
Arch Hall, Jr., Ray Dennis Steckler by Mark Terry
Vito Trabucco and I started the group back in
2002 with our now cult feature "B-Movie: The Shooting of
Farmhouse Massacre" a mockumentary poking fun at how poor the
B Horror movie market is today. Since that time the group as
evolved adding members such as producers, Shelby McIntyre,
Lenny Lenox, and editor, Travis Stoffs.
CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE
From left: Ray Dennis Steckler, Vito Trabucco, Mark Terry, Arch Hall, Jr. 
L-to-R: Ray Dennis Steckler and Arch Hall, Jr. 
I've been so wrapped up in problems left over from last year, that until I read this week's Oddservations and Mike's Rant, I had no idea we had lost comics luminaries Will Eisner and Kelly Freas! Both in their 80s when they died, these are two of the most influential comics/sci-fi/fantasy artists in history and I did not want to let this week's issue go by without a personal acknowlegement from me. Eisner's "The Spirit" quite simply re-wrote the rules for the sequential graphic artform we know today as comics, and Freas' sci-fi book and magazine covers set a unique style for the genre. Eisner's "Spirit" enjoyed a re-birth during the '70s thanks to Warren Publishing, and are sought-after collectibles today. Corey Castellano and I actually met Kelly Freas at the 1993 Famous Monsters Convention. I heard later Freas suffered terribly from arthritis, but attempted to keep up with his painting anyway. While his MAD Magazine contributions are usually cited as among his most memorable contributions, and with good reason, my all-time favorite Freas book cover is for "Martian, Go Home". For more on these gentlemen, please see this issue's Oddservations and Mike's Rant.
