Now in our fourth calendar year| LA FLORIDIANA "The Ghostly Sea Captain and His Cat", also "Clyde Butcher Update", and "For the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird Enthusiast" by Will Moriaty | |||
| THIS WEEK'S MOVIE REVIEW "American Wedding" by Mike Smith | |||
| ASHLEY'S HOLLYWOOD "Forbidden Tango" by Ashley Lauren | |||
| THE ENLIGHTENMENT '60s Music, Current Movies, Books, and Comics by Terence Nuzum | |||
| CREATURE'S CORNER "Hollywood, Horrorwood".....Comics by John Lewis | |||
| SPLASH PAGE Bronko Brings 80 Grand...It's all Fun Till Someone Loses An Eye....Attention Drunks....One Shots by Brandon Jones | |||
| MATT'S RAIL "Baby Superman" by Matt Drinnenberg | |||
| MIKE'S RANT You Say It's Your Birthday....Jesus Christ and King Kong....When Teddy Said He Didn't Like His Heady....You Should Be Dancing by Mike Smith | |||
| Archives of Nolan's Pop Culture Review | |||
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BRONKO BRINGS 80 GRAND !!! First I want to cover professional grading of cards, which is similar to the grading of comics (see PCR #). I don’t approve of the grading of cards and the ridiculous mark-up high grades receive. For example, a card listing near-mint at $10 will be over $25 for a graded mint and near $100 for a gem mint. The biggest problem with graded cards is the incredible inconsistencies. I recently examined two identical cards (both were graded PSA 9) and one card was significantly inferior with sub-par alignment. Anyway, the point is that the process is incredibly fallible.
Collectors tend to be intense pack rats, often collecting various things and I’m no different. Besides more passion for comics is more love of sports; hence, I collect sports cards - especially football cards. I’ve never done a feature or provided updates regarding the industry, but recently there was a transaction worth mentioning.
Comics will always have Action #1 and baseball cards collectors have the Honus Wagner T206. Now, the football card Mount Everest is a 1935 Chicle Nagurski - Bronko. Yes, Bronko brought $80,000 at a grade of 96, which is considered mint.
IT’S ALL FUN AND GAMES UNTIL SOMEONE LOSES AN EYE! I received a couple of e-mails asking if I saw Fox’s show about the “101 Things Removed from a Human Body” - yes, I did.
Yes, all the expected items were well represented: knife, spear, lumber, piece of metal, and even the javelin to the neck. Fancy computer graphics and photos from the accidents accompanied the victim’s stories, which varied from being impaled on a metal fence to removing an anchor from a retired police chief’s head. There were x-rays showing items ingested and the “rectal foreign body” segment enlightened me. I also learned that fetal infetus is really, really gross - especially thirty years later. Trust me, if you saw the promotional pictures of the guy with the “pregnant belly” you understand.
My personal favorite was the fisherman who landed a swordfish on a small pole. The unhappy fish thrashed and thrashed then leaped towards the boat landing into the eye-socket of one of the men. My Mother used to always say: “It’s all fun and games until…” - you know the rest.
So does Fox, expect a sequel.
ATTENTION DRUNK, CRAZED MORONS: I GUESS IT'S OKAY TO RACE ONTO THE FIELD AND BEAT SOMEONE UP. That is the message that Judge Leo Holt sent when he gave William Ligue Jr. probation for his attack on Kansas City Royal Coach Tom Gamboa.
I guess that’ll teach him -- clean-up, get your life in order and go enjoy a game.
Stuff I learned this week - Breast implants filled with brake fluid are not a good idea. See this to understand.
- Hating a movie shouldn’t get you cursed - Vincent Gallo and Rogert Ebert. Ebert recently revealed he has cancer and Gallo has come forward claiming that he placed a curse on the famous movie critic. Talk about bad karma. It seems the $10 million project “The Brown Bunny” was panned by Ebert and Gallo took offense. Hey Vince, this is not a great way to drum up word of mouth for your picture -- look for “The Brown Bunny” in a video store near you. ONE SHOTS Last week I commented about the sequel “Alien vs. Predator”, well Hollywood has trumped that plan. Opening this week is “Freddy versus Jason”, but plans for a sequel may already be in the works with “Army of Darkness” hero Ash, planned by Bruce Campbell, engaging the slasher duo.
The Smoking Gun goes to Court TV August 20, 8pm. I can’t wait. From their site:
“Smoking Gun TV features a collection of stories reflecting the site's rich pageant of mug shots, backstage riders, reality TV miscreants, and celebrity scandals. And, of course, examinations of hapless criminals like Coolerhead and the teenage steak thief.”
Farewell to Gregory Hines and Herb Brooks. I was no huge Hines fan and I’m not going to try to convince you that “Running Scared” was a great movie. Gregory Hines’ death may mark the end of true tap dancers and the world lost a truly nice guy.
Herb Brooks, was the coach of the 1980 U.S. Hockey team that upset the U.S.S.R. in what is called: “The Miracle on Ice.” This is arguably the greatest moment in U.S. sports and I still remember watching that championship game. Before we decided to include professionals in the Olympics (e.g. The Dream Team). The U.S. amateurs faced nearly a professional team from Soviet Union - our “enemy” at the time. It was truly a fantastic patriotic moment. Herb will be missed, but remembered always.
Lastly, Verizon can go to hell! I had already boycotted the company after problems with my bill years ago. Now, Verizon has made my work environment a nightmare. We have a large account with Verizon, approximately twenty phones, and spend about $1,200 a month. Due to corporate decisions we are switching plans and gave Verizon a thirty-day notice. They shut off the phones.
Real professional behavior, don’t you think? By the way, I’m in the healthcare field we impact thousands of lives daily. One thing is certain, no more of many will make its way back to Verizon.
"What I would like for the world to see is a criminal-justice system that responds with intelligence, with compassion, with understanding, with reason and not with a knee-jerk reaction to reap vengeance, retribution and punishment,'' Holt said at the time.
Gamboa lost some of his hearing from the beating by Ligue and his 16-year-old son. The boy received probation also, but is now in a boot camp for violating the court order. The sentence was 30 months probation, parenting classes, community service, a substance abuse program and a curfew - of course, the request to ban Ligue from baseball games during his probation was denied.
"Splash Page" is ©2003 by Brandon Jones. Webpage design and all graphics herein (except where otherwise noted) are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2003 by Nolan B. Canova.