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Now in our tenth calendar year!
PCR #461 (Vol. 10, No. 4) This edition is for the week of January 19--25, 2009.

MOVIE REVIEW
"The 81st Academy Award Nominations"  by Mike Smith
RETRORAMA
Holy Senior Sidekicks Batman! An Afternoon with Johnny Duncan  by ED Tucker
THE ENLIGHTENMENT
Edgar Allan Poe in Film by Terence Nuzum
MUSIC EMPORIUM
Barenaked Ladies: Snacktime by Bobby Tyler
SPORTS TALK
Walk The Plank…. .... Welcome To Tampa! .... Top 10 Things We Know About Wrestling .... Super Bowl Pick .... .... .... .... by Chris Munger
MATT'S RAIL
Cue Beethoven's ‘ode To Joy’ .... Back On Track, Both Me And Kurt .... New Top Ten Challenge .... by Matt Drinnenberg
MIKE'S RANT
Oscar Notes .... Good Awards .... Bad Awards .... Pres 1, Pope 0 .... .... .... .... .... My Favorite Films, Part 2...  by Mike Smith
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Sports Talk

Walk The Plank….
It’s about time. Timing was a little off, but that was apparently due to the Glazer family talking to the players about the coaches. After the shocking dismissal of head coach Jon Gruden and GM Bruce Allen, there were reports that Gruden will most likely coach the Jets (they hired Rex Ryan for that position the other day), and then rumors started to fly around that Gruden would take the Notre Dame coaching job currently held by Charlie Weis. Notre Dame said they have no intention of bringing in Gruden. So what does Gruden do now? Well, he’ll get about $15 Million over the next two years if he doesn’t take another NFL job. If I was him I would sit on my ass for two years. This firing was surprising because Bucs fans never thought the Glazers would fire Gruden, after the 4-12 year, then the 5-11 year, it was apparent that he IS the coach and always will be. The Buccaneers suddenly picked up that fever that NFL owners are having, picking guys out of nowhere to become head coaches, and it’s working. Bucs’ new head coach, Raheem Morris interviewed for several other team’s head coaching positions, then I guess the Glazers decided that if he was going to coach anywhere, it was going to be in Tampa. The Bucs fans are the winners in all of this, they finally got rid of an era that has caused embarrassment, disgrace, mediocrity, and always and empty feeling at the end of the season. Allen was probably fired as a result of a dip in ticket sales (and that just doesn’t happen here). Plus, Allen was courted into the organization by Gruden when Rich McKay was ran out of town. No matter what anyone says while expressing their hate for Gruden, he was a good coach, he did give this city it’s 1 NFL Championship, he did bring the team this far under the salary cap, but his and Allen’s mistake was not spending that freed-up money and staying cheap, sticking to the same, way over complicated playbook, and treating players like they play on a high school JV team. He will find a job somewhere if he doesn’t want to sit around and make 15 mil, but in the meantime, I like Coach Morris. I also like new GM Dominik. But hey, we all loved Gruden after that one Super Bowl too.

Welcome To Tampa!
Now we know that the Arizona Cardinals will take on the Pittsburgh Steelers in Tampa for Super Bowl 43, where the Cardinals are 7 point underdogs. Some say the Cards have no chance, forgetting that they stopped Matt Ryan and the Falcons, Jake “The Fake” Delhomme and the Panthers’ defense (in Carolina) and sent the Eagles crying back to Philly (again). Do Not count these guys out. The Cardinals are coached by Ken Whizenhut, who was close to being named the head coach of the Steelers while he was an assistant coach there before he took the job in Arizona. If anyone knows the Steelers’ play calling it’s The Whiz. In this years’ Super Bowl, the NFC team will be wearing their home jerseys (Cardinals) and the AFC team will wear their aways (Steelers) as the conferences alternate from year to year. For those who read Sports Talk and don’t live in Tampa, I gotta tell you the NFL hooked this one up. Ray Jay Stadium looks awesome with the Super Bowl logos on it, the NFL Experience is something you should, well, experience, but it has caused a traffic nightmare on Dale Mabry Highway! But this the biggest single-day sporting event in the world so drink it in Tampa! It's been a long 9 years since the last one!

Top 10 Things We Know About Wrestling
1. Nice guys always finish last.
2. Those are probably fake.
3. Sting will never wrestle in the WWE
4. Spur of the moment “briefcase” matches do for wrestling what computers did for the world.
5. The Tampa Bay area is a wrestling factory.
6. TNA is coming up
7. Heavyweight Championship matches on network TV always end in DQ
8. We miss Brock Lesnar!
9. Vince screwed Brett
10. Without Vinnie Mac, the WWE would unravel.

Super Bowl Pick
I’ll go ahead and give out my Super Bowl XXIII pick this week.


Pittsburgh Steelers 20 Arizona Cardinals 17
Could there be another shocker this year? I think Arizona is good and ready to take on the Steelers, and if anyone knows what the Steelers are going to do, it’s The Whiz. The Cardinals have had a great year, even though they won a really bad NFC West division, and I did say not to count these guys out, but Pittsburgh looks too overwhelming. Plus the last time Pittsburgh played in the Super Bowl, they played another NFC flavor of the year, the Seahawks, and won.








"Sports Talk" is ©2009 by Christopher Munger.   All graphics this page, except where otherwise noted, are creations of Nolan B. Canova.  All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2009 by Nolan B. Canova.