Suspense Magazine's Blog Site

Anxiety at the highest level!

Christmas is coming on Saturday already and I don’t think that I watched one holiday movie yet.  At least I have some of them on DVD and know that TNT or TBS will be running some of the favorites between now and Christmas, made me wonder which ones are the best.  I will admit that I’m not a big “older” movie person.  I’ve really only watched movies from the 70′s until now, so Jimmy Stewart and Bing Crosby were not big actors to me.  That said, here are my favorite holiday movies and will watch them all this year sometime.

5.  Peanuts Christmas

4.  Frosty The Snowman – (not the John Goodman one)

3.  Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

2.  A Year without a Santa Clause – this is the one with the heat and cold miser!!

1.  A Christmas Story – my wife hates this one, but it is a classic even if you know all the words.

Do you have some that I’m missing?  I would love to hear them.

Christmas is right around the corner and it makes me think about me favorite Christmas gifts as a kid.  Here are my all time Top 5 gifts from, well way back when:

5.  Atari 2600 video game system – this was the start of the downfall in kids today.  Those little blocks that could shoot basketball had me staying inside for days.

4.  Rockem, Sockem Robots – I know that they brought them back out, but nothing beats the original.  My hands still hurt from hitting playing over and over again.

3.  Stop Thief Game - The ultimate mystery game.  I recently found an original copy of this game and play it with my kids.

2.  Hand held NFL Football Game -  no graphics, just dashes.  Do you remember this one?  I freaked when they upgraded the game and you could pass your dash to your dash player.  Would play this for hours and hours!  I think you can still find the original one.

1.  Vibrating NFL Football Game – I think that every boy had this game.  I got the version with the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers.  You would set up your teams, turn it on and the vibration would run your players.  Most of the time your guy would run around in circles.  But this was the ultimate game!

What gifts do you remember receiving that had you so excited on Christmas Morning?  Interested in hearing them.

John Raab

CEO / Publisher

Suspense Magazine

I can hear it already, we are a writing / author magazine so why in the world are you talking about College Football.  Well because sports is very suspenseful, isn’t it?  Also, a lot of people compete in College Football Bowl Contests and have no idea how to win.  Well here is every bowl game winner so you can take home some much needed cash!

New Mexico Bowl:  BYU

Humanitarian Bowl:  Fresno State

New Orleans Bowl:  Troy

St. Petersburg Bowl:  Louisville

Las Vegas Bowl:  Boise State

Poinsettia Bowl:  San Diego State

Hawaii Bowl:  Hawaii

Little Caesars Bowl:  Toledo

Independence Bowl:  Air Force

Champs Sports Bowl:  NC State

Insight Bowl:  Missouri

Military Bowl:  Maryland

Texas Bowl:  Baylor

Alamo Bowl:  Oklahoma State

Armed Forces Bowl:  SMU

New Era Pinstripe Bowl:  Kansas State

Music City Bowl:  North Carolina

Holiday Bowl:  Nebraska

Meineke Car Care Bowl:  Clemson

Sun Bowl:  Notre Dame

Liberty Bowl:  Georgia

Chick-Fil-A Bowl:  South Carolina

TicketCity Bowl:  Texas Tech

Outback Bowl:  Penn State

Capital One Bowl:  Alabama

Gator Bowl:  Michigan

Rose Bowl:  Wisconsin

Fiesta Bowl:  Oklahoma

Orange Bowl:  Stanford

Sugar Bowl:  Ohio State

GoDaddy.com Bowl:  Miami (oh)

Cotton Bowl:  LSU

Compass Bowl:  Pittsburgh

Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl:  Nevada

BCS National Championship Game:  Oregon

There you have it, all the winners of this years bowl games.  Have fun watching your favorite team this holiday season with your family and friends.

John Raab

I don’t know about you, but I love lists.  I love to see lists on the best movies, music, foods, books, authors, really anything that can be put in a list I like to see it and argue about it.  So I’ve decided that I will use my power of the blog to put out my own Top 10 Lists of anything other than books and authors, since we did that in the magazine.  This will be my Top 10 Best Movies of 2010.  I watch a lot of movies, whether at the movie theater, DVD or on Netflix.  I’m one of those people that don’t always think the book is better than the movie, sometimes the movie is just as good.  So, anyway nothing like starting some great discussion than putting out a list.  Please let me know if you agree, disagree and give me your Top 10.   I will start with #10 and work my way to #1.

#10 – The Crazies

#9 – The Town

#8 – Legion

#7 – Prince of Persia – The Sands of Time

#6 -  Iron Man 2

#5 – Clash of the Titans (2010)

#4 – Shutter Island

#3 – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

#2 – Alice in Wonderland (2010)

#1 – Inception

Let the debating begin!  Again let me see your Top 10 List, so maybe I discover some new movies.  I’m very curious to see “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” and “The Tourist”.  I think this year was one of the worst years we had in the movie industry.  I wasn’t really excited to see any summer blockbuster like I have been in the past.  Hopefully 2011 will be better.