Month: June 2011 (Page 2 of 2)

The PopCulteer
June 17, 2011

Thoroughly Enjoyable Show

The Charleston Light Opera Guild’s contribution to FestivALL is their production of the Broadway musical, “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” Based on the 1967 movie, this play is a fun little romp through the Roaring ’20s, complete with flappers, white slavers, and New York high society.

The play begins as Millie Dillmount (Elizabeth Falstreau) arrives in the big city, ready to make it big. Along the way, she devises a plan to marry her boss, meets a gaggle of showgirls, and moves into the Hotel Priscilla. The hotel is run by Mrs. Meers (Linda Barbara Reynolds), who is actually a criminal on the lam, posing as a Chinese woman. I won’t spoil the details of the plot beyond this. This is a fun show with memorable tunes and some wonderful performances.

Elizabeth Falstreau is perfect as the wide-eyed ingenue, Millie. Chris Williams does a great job as her guy pal, Jimmy Smith. Linda Barbara Reynolds steals the show as Mrs. Meers with her memorable song, “They Don’t Know.” Shefica A. Heyliger is great as Muzzy Van Hossmere, who comes off here as sort of a combination of Queen Latifah, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Josephine Baker.

The show also sports a large and talented ensemble who fill out so many roles they make the cast seem three times bigger than it is.

Don’t just take my word for it. Check out the thoroughly modern YouTube clip below.

Follow the jump for our big MEGO MEET photo essay!

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At the top of the post you will find Radio Free Charleston number 132, “Ren and Stimpy Shirt.” This special pre-FestivALL episode includes music from Wiley Sonic, The Voodoo Katz, and The Poor Taters, plus belly dancing from Jennifer Brooke Swanson, and animation by yours truly.

Host segments were shot on a sunny Sunday morning on Charleston’s historic East End in front of Glen Brogan’s brand new mural on the side of the Bluegrass Kitchen. We’ve been fans of Glen’s for some time, even wearing one of his shirts back on episode 95 and it’s a kick to see his wonderful art in such a large format outdoors in front of God and everybody. Continue reading

This week’s Monday Morning Art is an artistic detour that I took while working on my submission for this year’s East End Main Street Streetworks Brick project.  On Friday, in the PopCulteer, I’ll let you see my final design.  For now, take a look at this shot of the intersection of Washington and Elizabeith Streets.  I applied the “Stark Charleston” filter selectively to parts of the original photo, and came up with a cool “ghost town” effect. You’ll probably see me beat this horse way past the point where it’s dead.

Click to see it bigger, and come back to PopCult for RFC 132, featuring Wiley Sonic, The VooDoo Katz and The Poor Taters, plus a FestivAll 2009 flashback, by Tuesday morning.

Tonight’s video features The IONs undetaking a rehearsal of the song ‘No Further Thought of Fame,’ from the musical ‘SAINT STEPHEN’S DREAM: A Space Opera‘ by Douglas Imbrogno. This is one of the more intriguing offerings during FestivAll this year, and you can see this clip again in RFC 133, which will be the first of our special FestivAll episodes, in about a week.

FestivALL Charleston and WestVirginiaVille.com will present “SAINT STEPHEN’S DREAM: A Space Opera.” At 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., THUR-FRI-SAT, June 23-24-25 and 3 p.m. SUN June 26 at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Building, 520 Kanawha Blvd. W., Charleston, W.Va.

Tickets are $12 and seating is very limited, so early purchase is recommended. Includes admission to After Hours Cabaret, 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. (Admission to the After Hours Cabaret without a ticket is $5 at the door.)

Purchase tickets at Taylor Books, 226 Capitol St., Charleston, W.Va; at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 520 Kanawha Blvd. W.; and at Clay Center Box Office or call 304-561-3570 to purchase for pick-up later.

The PopCulteer
June 10, 2011

Day Trip To See Dead Animals

A couple of weeks ago your PopCulteer made his way North, to a magical land called “Wheeling.” There we found a civic center-sized outdoor sporting equipment store called Cabela’s. What makes Cabela’s so interesting is not only the wide assortment camping, fishing and hunting tools and accessories, for which I have no use, but they also feature, spread throughout the store, ridiculous quantities of taxidermied animals.

Here’s a quick photo essay that may entice you to visit. Before entering you are greetied by the epic scupture seen above.  You may recognize it from a previous Monday Morning Art.  The squeamish among you may find the idea of marching around hundreds of dead, stufed animals to be distasteful, but actually it’s pretty cool.  With the name plates at the base of each animal, it was like walking through a giant set of 1960s Aurora wildlife model kits. And there is a huge outdoorsy superstore in there, too.  If, like me, you have no use for “the outdoors,” be advised that they also have action figures and fudge. Continue reading

This week we kick things off with a digitally-assaulted photograph of the big ole dead elephant, as seen at Cabella’s in Wheeling.  Look for a big taxidermy photo essay later this week in PopCult. Click to see it bigger.

In honor of MEGO Meet, taking place next weekend in Wheeling at Kruger St. Toy and Train Museum, we are bringing you a creation of Hoserlu,  “Star Trek: The MEGO Picture.”  We’ll have more details on MEGO Meet later in the week here in PopCult. For now, have fun with toys.This is probably not safe for work. Be sure to watch for The Beatles cameo.

After the jump, check out the sequel! In it, watch for a cameo by Zintar of The Zeroids!

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The PopCulteer
June 3, 2011

Wiley Sonic show

If you watched Radio Free Charleston 131, then you know that the big rock show in town this week is at The Empty Glass Saturday night. Wiley Sonic, Mother Nang and Tofujitsu (profiled by Nick Harrah in the Gazette this week) kick off the night at 9:30 PM, and it’s all for a mere seven bucks.

There were some mistaken notes circulating that had the show happening Friday, but it’s Saturday. Go check it out. Watch RFC 131 for a taste of all three bands, then just try to resist. You won’t be able.

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