| Archives of Nolan's Pop Culture Review | ||
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 THIS WEEK'S MOVIE REVIEW "Jarhead" by Mike Smith | ||
COUCH POTATO CONFESSIONS Peeping Tom....Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds by Vinnie Blesi | ||
MATT'S RAIL Halloween Prophesy Fulfilled....Al Lopez by Matt Drinnenberg | ||
MIKE'S RANT My Bad....The Challenge....Brownie....Al Lopez Field....Everything But....You Want What?...Ape News....Musical Notes....Good Movie/Bad Movie....Jaws: The Story, Part 40 by Mike Smith | ||
LETTERS | ||
Established A.D. 2000, March 19. Now in our sixth calendar year!
Number 293 (Vol. 6, No. 44). This edition is for the week of October 31--November 6, 2005.
Breather Thanks again to all the writers and all the visitors that made last week's Halloween Issue, Part 2 one of the most-hit and most successfully put together we ever had. I am already predicting it will be at or near the #1 spot in my year-end round up of favorite PCRs.
Congratulations to everyone for a job well done.
SAD PASSINGS Lopez hit .261 with 51 homers and 652 RBIs during a 19-year career in which he was one of baseball's most durable catchers and set the record for most games caught in the major leagues at 1,918. The record was later broken by Bob Boone, then Carlton Fisk.
Lopez was best known for being the only AL manager to lead teams that finished ahead of the New York Yankees between 1949-64. He helped the Indians to the 1954 pennant and, until last week, was the last manager to lead the White Sox to the World Series — their 1959 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Lopez was the oldest living Hall of Fame member, said Jeff Idelson, spokesman for the Hall. With Lopez's death, former New York Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto, 88, becomes the oldest living member of the Hall.
Please see this week's Matt's Rail and Mike's Rant or more on Al Lopez.
SKITCH HENDERSON After World War II Henderson toured as Frank Sinatra's musical director which eventually landed him in the New York area and to "The Lucky Stike" radio show, "The Philco Hour" with Crosby and eventually to Steve Allen's "Tonight Show" in 1954.
A 1975 skirmish with the IRS didn't diminish his stature as a music legend to his fans.
Even in his late 80s, Henderson maintained a tireless work schedule as music director for the New York Pops (which he founded in 1963), where he regularly served as conductor.
Another great one from a classic age is gone.
Hopefully, all of you had a great and safe Halloween. As you can see, our normal colors are back after the last two weeks of traditional "Halloween theme" PCRs.
Like it has been with any landmark issue of PCR, the week after it comes out, everyone's still too spent to put out much, so this issue we're kind of taking it easy. I didn't expect the writer turn-out to be as big as last week's, but hey, what's here is all good stuff.
While I expected the always-popular ED Tucker to garner his well-deserved praise for his ScreamFest '05 review, I was surprised at how much feedback I got on my Evolution vs Creation article, entitled "Evolution Takes Another Hit". The Drow went uncharacteristically out of his way to document "The Sandman" comic book series, and Terence Nuzum went full-bore over Frank Zappa in The Audio Philes. La Floridiana, Mike's Rant, Matt's Rail, and Couch Potato Confessions all seemed supernaturally inspired! I have posted a few of the letters we received in this week's LetterCol.
AL LOPEZ
I almost never write about sports, but I make an exception today. On a local level, this brought many a tear to a sports fans eyes as Tampa resident and basball legend Al Lopez died Sunday at 97. From the time I was a child, Al Lopez Field was where Tampa Stadium was located (more or less) and had something to do with professional baseball (see how much I know). It doesn't take a sports fan to know this man was a legend. The following sports trivia was culled from internet sources to mark the occasion.
Bandleader for the Tonight Show before Doc Severinson, Skitch Henderson died Tuesday at 87. "I could sketch out a score in different keys, a new way each time," Henderson said earlier this year. That quicksilver ability earned him the nickname "the sketch kid," which mentor Bing Crosby urged him to adapt to "Skitch." It stuck. (Henderson was born in England as Lyle Russell Cedric Henderson.)
