Rudy Panucci On Pop Culture

Month: May 2013 (Page 2 of 2)

Monday Morning Art: Harryhausen Tribute

I grew up with an older brother who’d become obsessed with animation thanks, in large part, to the work of Ray Harryhausen, the stop-motion animation master who passed away last week at the age of 92. Harryhausen’s influence extended to me, and last week I decided to pay tribute to the man by doing something I hadn’t done much in recent years.

I decided to try a detailed pencil sketch of one of his creations. I had to run around the house to find a good pencil, and I just sketched this on printer paper on a clipboard while staring intently at the computer monitor.

Here’s the scene from the movie that inspired this sketch…

It came out okay. I’m still not happy with part of it, but it’s not bad for my first actual pencil sketch in ages. I scanned it and tried to do a digital painting over it, but they didn’t really improve on the sketch. You can see a couple of tries at painting it after the jump, and you can click all the images to enlarge them. This humble little sketch of The Cyclops from “The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad” is my tribute to Ray Harryhausen, who inspired so many artists, animators and dreamers.

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Sunday Evening Video: Kate Bush Cartoon

Kate Bush

From her 2012 album, “50 Words For Snow,” comes this video, directed by Kate Bush herself.  This is considered animation, but it’s really shadow-puppetry, a sort of animation technique that first appeared in film during the silent era, but actually pre-dates film by centuries. “Eider Falls at Lake Tahoe” tells the story of al onld woman reuniting with her lost dog.

Deron Sodaro, Molly Gene, A Bad Week For Heroes and Stuff To Do

The PopCulteer
May 10, 2013

Lots of cool things happening in the PopCult universe this weekend, so let us get started, shall we?

Deron Sodaro Benefit

A few months ago Charleston’s bassist extraordinaire, Deron Sodaro, took ill with a ruptured appendix. Happily, Deron’s recovered nicely, but his wallet hasn’t. A Benefit to help him with his medical expenses will be held Friday Night at The Boulevard Tavern, starting at 6 PM. Ten bucks gets you in the door to see Spencer Elliott, Karen and Mike, Hillbilly Carnival, Comparsa, The VooDoo Katz, Mother Nang, C2J2 and The Git Down Crew. Deron will be playing with Mother Nang and The VooDoo Katz, and may very well jam with some of the other perfomers.

It’s going to be a great night to help out one of the nicest guys and best musicians in town. Youse guys should go.

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The Man Who Was A Turtle

The PopCult Bookshelf 

Shell Shocked
My life with the Turtles, Flo & Eddie, and Frank Zappa, etc.

by Howard Kaylan with Jeff Tamarkin
Foreword by Penn Jillette
Backbeat Books
ISBN: 978-1-61780-846-3
$24.99

Shell Shocked is an amazing autobiography. Howard Kaylan has had an incredible, almost “Zelig” like career, with almost fifty years in show business in one form or another. From being a teen pop sensation as the lead vocalist for The Turtles, to backing up musicians such as Frank Zappa, Marc Bolan, Alice Cooper, John Lennon, and Bruce Springsteen, to writing comedy, co-hosting a hit radio show, creating music for classic cartoons or writing science fiction, Kaylan has done it all. There’s a lot more to Shell Shocked than the story of the song, “Happy Together.”

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The PopCult Toybox

The Genius of Tom Daniel

The icon, The Red Baron

Tom Daniel’s is not a household name, yet he may be the most prolific funny car designer of the 1960’s and 70’s. He didn’t get the publicity that George Barris got, but he’s responsible for many iconic Hot Wheels and model kits such as The Red Baron (immortalized in “Toy Story”), The Paddy Wagon, Rommel’s Rod, S’cool Bus, the Tiajuana Taxi and dozens of others. Tom Daniel was a key part of many car-lover’s childhoods.

Credited to George Barris, The Munster Koach is pure Tom Daniel

One of his most recognized designs is often credited to George Barris (another funny car master most famous for hammering the Lincoln Futura into the classic TV Batmobile). Barris, facing a deadline crunch, brought Daniel in to design a car for a new TV show and since his studio built the car, George Barris gets the credit for The Munster Koach, even though it was a Tom Daniel design.

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Monday Morning Art: Poca Smokestacks

Today’s art is a digital painting based on an impressive view of the John Amos Power Plant, as seen from the parking lot of the Dollar General in Poca.  There’s probably some deep environmental message in this image, or it just might look cool. Click it to see it bigger.

Free Comic Book Day 2013

It’s still going on, as we speak. Locally, you can head out to Lost Legion Games and Comics on D Street in South Charleston, like we did earlier today. They have a full allotment of cool stuff. Not only can you choose among the mainstream stuff like The Walking Dead and DC and Marvel, but you can also find great stuff like Gilbert Hernandez’s “Marble Season”, the KaBoom sampler with Adventure Time and Regular Show and 2000 AD. Freebies are limited to 2 per visitor until 5:30, then it’s a virtual free-for-all! It’s a beautiful day. Force yourself to leave the house and run by Lost Legion for some free goodies. You only have a few hours left.

A nice crowd showed up early to check out the store.

Great freebies for all ages at Lost Legion.

My Gateway Drug To The Beatles

The PopCulteer
May 3, 2013

We’re covering quite a few topics this week, from the latest RFC, to a reminder about “A Delicate Balance,” to a confession of a Beatle freak to a rundown of weekend events. Let us dive in and wallow, shall we?

RFC 184

Radio Free Charleston 184 dropped Monday, and it’s a great show, with the RFC debuts of The Carpenter Ants and Time and Distance, plus other great stuff. Watch it right now!

Now read the production notes.

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Alan Moore In The DC Universe

The PopCult Bookshelf 

The cover to the Softcover edition

DC Universe by Alan Moore
Written by Alan Moore, Drawn by Various
DC Comics
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3340-2-
$24.99

This book has a problematic title. It’s basically a collection of everything Alan Moore wrote for DC that wasn’t Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta, The Killing Joke or Watchmen. As such, it’s hard to determine just exactly which DC Universe this book takes place in. Some of it dates back to “Earth 1” from the days before the Crisis On Infinite Earths. Some of it takes place in the “New DC Universe,” which was wiped out a couple of years ago and replaced by the “New 52” DC Universe and some of the stories were published by Wildstorm, which used to be a separate company before DC bought them. A better title for this book would be “Random Superhero Stories By Alan Moore.”

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