Month: January 2014 (Page 2 of 4)

There is a benefit concert this Saturday at The Alban Arts Center in St. Albans to aid service workers affected by the Freedom Industries chemical spill of two weeks ago. Funds will be administered by United Way, and there will be music and art. The above spot promoting the show is by RFC contributor Jake Fertig, who is among the artists participating. Admission is ten dollars for most, five dollars for kids (this is an all-ages show) and negotiable if you are an affected service worker.

Musical acts include Diablo Blues Band, Mike Pushkin, Brandi Good and the Seventh Son, Arise in Me, No Pretty Pictures and quite possibly some surprise last-minute additions. In addition to Jake, artists include Rebecca Anne Recco, Heidi Richardson Evans, Shelly Baker and more.

Details are in the flyer below, or check the Facebook page for the event. There are other benefits this weekend, and we’ll bring you details on those shows and other weekend events here in PopCult.

Regular Show is one of the highest rated programs on Cartoon Network. The adventures of two slackers, a blue jay and a raccoon who have a series of bombastic, cosmic and inexplicable adventures while working in a park, have struck a chord with a wide range of Cartoon Network viewers, appealing to kids, some of their parents, and quite a few members of the “key” demographic who probably enjoy the show while under the influence of some recreational substance.

Since 2012, JazWares has released a line of Regular Show toys which has met with quite a bit of success, but which is also facing an uncertain future. We’ll tell you more about that in a moment but first, let’s look at some of the toys.

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Gee. See if you can guess what inspired this week’s art.  It’s a digital geometrical abstract. Click to enlarge.

Back at the height of Bealtemania (which kicked into high gear fifty years ago this week when the Beatles reached number one in America) the Fab Four were everywhere…even on Saturday Morning Cartoons.

The cartoons themselves are delightfully awful, with the highly recognizable voice over artist Paul Frees (Boris Badanov among countless other vocies) providing the voices of both John Lennon and Paul McCartney, while British comedian Lance Percival did Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

The animation is sub-par. The plots are minimal. Yet these cartoons have charm of their own, largely due to the fact that each episode includes classic Beatles songs animated into what were basically prototypical music videos.

This vintage April 2007 episode of Radio Free Charleston features a road trip to Parkersburg, West Virginia. Shot at a “Songpull” event at John Radcliff’s house, this episode marked three appearances in a row by Rad, and also featured music from Don Baker, Deron Baker and Josh Buskirk, plus there’s a special rendition of the RFC theme song by John Radcliff and Jerry Fugate.

You can read the original production notes here.

The PopCulteer
January 17, 2014

Two weeks ago I dropped Suddenlink cable and switched to Direct TV. I have promised to periodically update my readers because so many have considered doing the same.

Two weeks in, and I am still a happy camper. I retained Suddenlink for my internet service, and I’m still happy with that service (despite two brief outages and a huge mass of confusion over billing). At this point I am clearly still in the honeymoon phase with Direct TV. I’m going to try not to be evangelical about it here, but I have discovered lots of fun things and this week I will share my observations with you.

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The PopCult Bookshelf

Batman: The TV Stories
Written by Bill Finger, Gardner Fox, John Broome and others
Drawn by Dick Sprang, Sheldon Moldoff, Carmen Infantino and others
Introduction by Michael Uslan
DC Comics
ISBN 978-1-4012-4495-8
Price: $14.99

Beneath a gorgeous cover by Amanda Conner, Batman: The TV Stories collects a variety of Golden and Silver Age Batman stories which inspired the 1960’s television show. This is not the “Dark Knight.” These are stories of a more innocent, light hearted and fun Dynamic Duo.

In his introduction, Michael Uslan questions his own choice as the writer of the introduction to this volume. A sworn enemy of the campy 1960’s TV show, Uslan has been the executive producer of the Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan Batman movies (he doesn’t mention the Joel Schumacher ones for some reason). However, he does address this matter and writes about how he has come to reconcile the idea of having different versions of Batman in the media. He also gives great background information on the stories in this slim but entertaining volume.

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This week, our tenth RFC MINI SHOW presents the funky progressive jazz stylings of the Bob Thompson Unit. We recorded these Charleston Stalwarts last month at The Boulevard Tavern for our Christmas show, and we had some video left over to bring you now.

You will hear Bob Thompson, Ryan Kennedy, Doug Payne, John Inghram and Tim Courts breathe life into “The Magic of Your Heart.” The performance (and the introduction) are in black and white, for no particular reason other than we think it looks cool.

It’s also possible that using black and white for the host segments was done to cover up the fact that our host, Rudy Panucci, was unable to dye his beard due to the water emergency. However, before we can say anything for certain further testing is neccessary. Until we have more data, we must remind you that a strict “DO NOT NOTICE” order is in effect.

A full-length episode of Radio Free Charleston will be winging your way in a week.

Your PopCulteer is somewhat distracted by a crushing deadline and waiting for the okay to flush the water in his house, so today we’re bringing you this look at how toys were made in the 1950s. Take a tour of Mattel, in their pre-Barbie days…

Believe it or not, this week’s Monday Morning Art has nothing to do with last week’s chemical spill.  This is a digital extrapolation of a colored-marker sketch I did in a thirty-five-year-old sketchbook of mine that I uncovered while moving stuff around last week. It’s a super-hero-y type guy lifting a heavy metal thingy which unveils some glowing red, possibly radioactive, material. I have no way of recalling what the hell I was thinking when I drew it. Click to enlarge and feel free to speculate.