| Archives of Nolan's Pop Culture Review | ||
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 THIS WEEK'S MOVIE REVIEW "King of the Corner" by Mike Smith | ||
ODDSERVATIONS "Live 8" -- What A Sad, Sorry, Rotten Joke by Andy Lalino | ||
CREATURE'S CORNER NolanCon by John Lewis | ||
MATT'S RAIL London Bombings .... Masters of Horror Update by Matt Drinnenberg | ||
MIKE'S RANT Cowards....Did You Say Eddie?...Blondie!!!..Passing On....The Juice Is Still Loose....Jaws: The Story, Part 24 by Mike Smith | ||
LETTERS | ||
Established A.D. 2000, March 19. Now in our sixth calendar year!
Number 276 (Vol. 6, No. 27). This edition is for the week of July 4--July 10, 2005.
Thank you all very much for the recent outpouring of consolation and moral support regarding the cancellation of NolanCon. A sampling of all your letters, plus a few "regular"-type letters, can be found in this week's Lettercol.
This will be the last issue of PCR where I devote any more time and energy to the discussion of NolanCon's cancellation. What's done is done, but I knew there'd be a few loose ends that (deservedly) needed attention. Most of it is described in the Lettercol, but a few things I'll go into right here.
Free Room and (Message) Board Nevertheless, the message board, which had been soundly ignored by a few of these folks since the beginning, now bore a Biblical weight all ascribed to one post. Speculation: because the poster was identified as a friend of mine, the grave fear was his thoughts reflected what I was saying in private. No, people, his thoughts are his own, but he said what he felt. It took days to even begin to undo the damage, as these same behind-the-scenes folks browbeat me as if I said it. Advice: except for spam, the message board is not censored, nor is it ever likely to be, that defeats the point. It can be irritating to read, but if you believe everything that's said on there, and you have no intention of responding on the message board itself, then for chrissake please stay away from it.
The Guest List The Credibility Hit ICON's Tribute to Crazed Fanboy To say I'm honored by this would be an understatement and I've written Chris personally to say this. All I can say is "thank you" and it makes the events of the last few weeks a little easier to take.
Behind-the-scenes note: Chris tells me the Crazed Fanboy Flash animation that currently opens the ICON Film Studios website is very similar to the NolanCon TV commercial Chris produced a few weeks ago! (Minus the film fest talk, etc.) So, this may be your only chance to see what that would've looked like.
"Land of the Dead" Drop-off "Fantastic Four" Opens This Week
Aftermath
The final thoughts on NolanCon 2005
"Aftermath". How many times have I used that headline now? But it still fits.
More than one event coordinator called or wrote in a huff because of unclarified wording in last week's headline section implying I might be referring to them when I spoke of "everyone wants free room and board and free tables" or words to that effect. This was aggravated by a lone message board poster who conveyed the idea that everyone connected to the Con was freeloading off me. Who I was referring to (by "room and board") were a few guests who had sent inquiries in only the last few weeks, all assuming lots of free stuff, that's all. "Convention protocol" regarding enticing special guests with free tables and hotel rooms is the standard, I knew that, I made a couple of those deals myself! Whatever deals I made with the event coordinators is nobody's business.
ED Tucker covers this in this week's Lettercol, please read it. I have nothing but the highest admiration for Misters Steckler and Rebane and I regret I'll not be able to meet them. I hope to meet Brian Ramsey someday. I have no qualms with ED's version of the guest list story, with the exception of references to Conrad Brooks and Debbie Rochon. We just feel differently about them. Looks like Tampa's fans are just different from Jacksonville fans.
To the event coordinators: I understand and appreciate fully the credibility hit we took during this episode, no need to continue to remind me, I've been dealing with the guilt and humiliation as best I can. While we're wiping up our bloody noses over this affair, try to remember I'm the one who was responsible for everything and I have to live with it.
Chris Woods of ICON Film Studios has honored me in a unique way on his website: A Flash animation on the default homepage featuring me, which then automatically takes you to their main site's homepage. On that homepage is another Flash animation which rotates my tribute with a couple other features. if you click on "A Tribute To Crazed Fanboy", it will take you to Part One of a Two-Parter where Chris writes about me and this website.
A telephone update from one Drew Reiber alerted me to the fact that George A. Romero's "Land of the Dead" has experienced one of the worst box-office drop-offs in history after only two weeks: about 75%. I believe this is strictly domestic and is not counting foreign sales. Of course this is a bad omen for those hoping for more "Dead" things from the good Mister Romero, but Drew hinted he's got the whole skinny on the affair in his next "Chiller Cinema" installment! Check back for that. Andy Lalino has just posted an extremely positive and thoughtful review of Land of the Dead on the message board, followed immediately by Drew Reiber's response and further discussion. Those are very interesting and highly-recommended pieces for any and all "Dead" fans!
And I'll be there. I haven't heard this much fan trepidation over a comics-to-movies film since Hulk. Is is deserved? We'll see.
