| Archives of Nolan's Pop Culture Review | ||
        | ||
 THIS WEEK'S MOVIE REVIEWS "Stealth" by Mike Smith | ||
"The Devil's Rejects" by Nolan B. Canova | ||
ODDSERVATIONS Beam Him Up: The Passing of James "Scotty" Doohan....Summer of Horror - The Best Since the '80s? by Andy Lalino | ||
CREATURE'S CORNER Lightning...."The Devil's Rejects" by John Lewis | ||
MIKE'S RANT Feeling Better?....Movie Notes....Passing On....Jaws: The Story, Part 27 by Mike Smith | ||
LETTERS | ||
Established A.D. 2000, March 19. Now in our sixth calendar year!
Number 279 (Vol. 6, No. 30). This edition is for the week of July 25--31, 2005.
As you recall, this is partly what caused the previous Space Shuttle, Columbia, to crash and burn upon re-entry back in 2003: dislodged pieces of foam insulation crashing into the wing and taking precious heat tiles along with it. However, the early word is the pieces of debris seen in the NASA footage is not foam insulation but plastic window covers that are supposed to come off after lift-off; it's just nobody paid attention to them before.
• VINNIE AND I CONTINUE THIS DISCUSSION IN THIS WEEK'S LETTERCOL Troops Returning From Iraq? Fine by me, I'm not complaining, I just wonder who finally showed Dubya his approval ratings dip is now in a race for China with Americans' belief in the war. Whoever it was, thank you, Dumsfeld and Dubya may finally be getting serious about finalizing Iraqi "independence" and ending our Vietnam-like involvement.
Pond Drain in Aruba Bodies, The Exhibition That day is here. The Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa (referred to as MOSI, pronounced "MO-zee") is hosting "Bodies, The Exhibition" from August 20, 2005 through January 2006.
The exhibition contains...er...artworks...comprised entirely of actual human corpses, donated to the cause, that have been "rubberized" though a process that replaces bodily fluids with silicone. There are partial skeletons, cross-sections of torsos, half-brains, full-scale people with no skin....it's just thrilling.
It's not all light entertainment like that, there is an educational side: cross-sections of diseased lungs shown next to healthy lungs, for example, to more graphically illustrate the ravages of smoking.
For more information, log onto their website at http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com.
Deadguy, of you're out there.....LET'S GO!
The Devil's Rejects Like most extreme movies, critics either love it or hate it. It depends what you go in with, I guess. If you want to know what we're talking about by what we miss from '70s horror movies, check out this film, it's quite educational.
Discovery
The Space Shuttle Discovery made a triumphant return to space yesterday (Tues., July 26) with a picture-perfect lift-off at 10:39am. Amid the joy and praise were rumblings that pieces were still coming off the spacecraft or the booster during lift-off. These can clearly be seen in the footage of lift-off (and there was a lot of footage---more cameras were used to track the orbiter than ever before) and this is currently being analyzed by mission experts.
I am extremely confident we're back on the right track, and as a life-long space fan, I am very happy to see this mission going so well, debris notwithstanding. Our work in space is crucially important, because it is there our hope for a better future lies (forgive the cliché), most notably a return to the moon and a trip to Mars, both of which I hope to see in my lifetime.
Well, not all of them, but Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld just announced some troops may be returning home starting in 2006. Now, this is on the heels of the Administration's continued insistence that we set no timeline for withdrawl, that to announce a withdrawl will only "embolden" the enemy, and further, that we might be looking at another decade or more in Iraq.
This just in and it's not much, but I thought I'd share it. Just as I was about to ask whatever happened to missing teenager Natalee Holloway over in Aruba, seems the authorities over there have taken a deep interest in a pond near the hotel where she vanished. Such an interest that they're draining it. They're not saying why, but I'm wondering if one of the punks who last saw her alive finally gave up some pertinent info.
I can't believe it's finally here! Mike "Deadguy" Scott and I used to talk about this show years ago when it was still traveling around Europe. We wondered if and when it would ever come to America---hell, whether it would be allowed to come to America!
Last night (Tuesday of this week), Terence Nuzum, Drew Reiber and I went to see my favorite movie of the summer, so far: "The Devil's Rejects". Please see my review this issue, and Andy's write-up of same in this week's Oddservations. It's not surprising Andy's jonesing over this, it's right up his alley. I was more surprised about my own reaction.
Happy Birthday wishes go out to Phillip Smith the baseball hero son of PCR's own Mike Smith. Phillip turned 21 years old, Tuesday, July 26th. Many Happy Returns!
