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Now in our tenth calendar year!
PCR #459 (Vol. 10, No. 2) This edition is for the week of January 5--11, 2009.
Matt's Rail

MOVIE REVIEW
"Gran Torino"  by Mike Smith
LA FLORIDIANA
2008 Was A Year to Forget, But--December was a Month to Remember!  by Will Moriaty
RETRORAMA
Welcome 2009 and 1969 Revisited!  by ED Tucker
GROWING UP FANBOY
WPIX Channel 11  by Chris Woods
MATT'S RAIL
Today It's Your Birthday .... Christmas Bounty .... Football Playoffs ....  by Matt Drinnenberg
MIKE'S RANT
Enough Already I Beg You .... I Said Enough! .... Stop It! Stop It! .... If You Can't Beat 'em .... Passing On .... The Best Of 2008 .... And The Winner Is .... .... My Favorite Films, Part 2...  by Mike Smith
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Today it's your Birthday
Well, okay...yesterday was my birthday. But as I posted on facebook, it was a day riddled with countless listenings to Birthday by the Beatles. This wasn't planned. Like every fun endeavor on the fly it just kind of happened that way.

Truly a fun rocking tune, that can even lift the spirits of a crotchety new 48 year old dude like me. Especially if you hear a 60+ dude like Paul McCartney jamming to it during his concert in Red Square, which I highly recommend to everyone, by the way.

Birthday Hollers to my Blade and Hat Brethren. Rock on, Bro's. Also a big shout out to the PCR Rockers.

Christmas Bounty
I missed getting back to this column for a couple very important weeks. I've said a couple times things have been nuts for me. Sometimes you just run out of time.

At any rate, I hit the DVD bounty by receiving Iron Man, Dark Knight, I am Legend and Hancock. Loving that. Also got a year subscription to Netflix for the BDay gift. I guess I'm an easy buy for. A couple dvds and I'm good to go. lol.

The most suprisingly incredible gift I received came from Mr.Smith, you sent me an autographed 8X10 of the Jaws artwork by Roger Kastel. And the Jaws collection grows.

Football Playoffs
Wish I'd gotten my predictions in here last week as I pretty much nailed it. Now that I'm trumping my sports forcasting excellence I'll hang myself out there for real with the following:

Ravens at Titans: While the Ravens have the best Defense in the league, they showed last week they can be worn down. The Titans D isn't the Ravens, but they arent the Lions either. On offense, you gotta give the advantage to the Titans whose running back corp is sensationally strong. Rookie QB for Baltimore. Seasoned QB for Tennessee.

Pick: Tennessee Titans

Cardinals at Panthers: This is an easy one. No way in this world or the next I see Arizona's Cardinals winning this game. Would love to see it as I'm a big time Kurt Warner fan. But the Panther D, and the running game is stronger than the Cards. The wideouts for Arizona are incredibly gifted, so that gives then a chance to pull this off, but Carolina has master of the universe Steve Smith, who always gets open and catches the ball.

Pick: Carolina Panthers

Eagles at Giants: This and the next game are the hardest to call. If it was played in ideal conditions I'd have to give this to the Eagles based on the way they've come together and Donavan McNabbs rediscovery of his Pro Bowl skills. But it's going to be frigidly cold with wicked wind blasts. I'm thinking this will lead to ball control all day which, due to nagging injuries in that area for the Eagles, favors the Giants. Hard call, but.....

Pick: Giants

Chargers at Steelers: Another tough game. Steelers are hard to beat. Their QB, Rothlesberger, had a bad concussion last week that actually swelled his head to his helmet didnt fit. That's not good news. Add to that he's been beaten the death all year by opposing D's, and it's a recipe for disaster, but do you pick against the Steelers at home in the playoffs?! The Chargers sucked all year. Well, until about 5 weeks ago when they realized they play professional football, not JV. Their QB, Philip Rivers, has been a stud. And while super stud Running Back Ladanian Thomlinson is injured, his backup Darren Sproles has been outplaying him by a wide margin anyway. Can't beleive I'm picking this way, but all signals tell me its just the way it is. Thusly.....

Pick: Chargers


Till next time, take care and God bless

Matthew

"Matt's Rail" is ©2009 by Matthew Drinnenberg. The Matt's Rail banner is a creation of Matt Drinnenberg. Webpage design and all graphics herein, unless otherwise noted, are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2009 by Nolan B. Canova.