Rudy Panucci On Pop Culture

Month: June 2014 (Page 1 of 5)

Sunday Evening Video: The Stranglers

StranglersGiantsOne of my favoriate bands, The Stranglers, hardly ever tour in America any more. That’s not good because more than thirty-five years in, and over twenty-four years since the exit of their original frontman, Hugh Cornwell, The Stranglers are as vital and creative as ever.

Still anchored by J.J. Burnel’s epic basslines and David Greenwood’s keyboards, the band is producing progressive punk-influenced rock and roll that can blow most of today’s rock bands off the stage. Drummer Jet Black, now 75, still plays at least part of each UK show, but doesn’t travel due to health issues. Baz Warne has been handling guitar duites since 2000, and lead vocals since 2006.

This concert was recorded April 7, at L’Olympia,Paris, and shows the band running through classic songs as well as more recent fare from their more recent albums, “Suite XVI” and “Giants.” It’s some pretty meaty stuff.

RFC Flashback: FestivALL 2011

logo-festivall-150x150Back in 2011 we bought you eight episodes of Radio Free Charleston devoted to FestivALL. We did this all in twelve days. The episodes ranged from seventeen to thirty-three minutes long, with a total running time of two hours and fifty minutes. You can watch all eight of these shows, each one crammed full of God-knows-what, right there at the top of this post. Or you could be out enjoying FestivALL 2014. I will leave the choice in your hands.

Photos From a Busy Week

Image2The PopCulteer
June 27, 2014

It’s the big week of FestivALL and that means that your PopCulteer is almost too pooped to PopCult. Rather than write a long weekend preview for all of the ten million things happening in town at the same time this weekend, today you’re gonna get a bunch of photos.

You will see images like the one at right from last Tuesday’s IWA East Coast show, “Pondo’s Birthday Bash 2,” then we’ll take you to the Wednesay evening art auction for the East End Main Street Public Art Initiative (my piece sold this year-YAY) and then we’re going to look at the “Pop Goes The Weasel” exhibit at Apartment Earth, which debuted during ArtWalk Thursday night.

You can still see this cool show at Apartment Earth Saturday and Sunday, while FestivALL is having their art fair on Capitol Street and their antique fair on Hale street. Stop in between for a chance to buy some art by the likes of Glen Brogan, Mark Wolfe, Rob Cleland, Eric Pardue, Jake Fertig, Amanda Jane Miller and tons of other cool folk…oh, and me too.

We’re running late today, so Unleash the photos…

IWA East Coast: Pondo’s Birthday Bash 2

IWA EC's Man of Every Year, Mad Man Pondo

IWA EC’s Man of Every Year, Mad Man Pondo

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The RFC MINI SHOW presents FestivALL ART PARADE 2014

Image9This week we bring you the 2014 FestivALL Art Parade as our RFC MINI SHOW. With many of Charleston’s most creative persons marching in front of the city’s coolest bookstore/coffeehouse/art gallery, Taylor Books, the Art Parade signals the beginning of FestivALL.

You will hear Bill Kimmons introduce Peter Marshall, The Charleston Light Opera Guild, Camp Curtain Call, Jude Binder, Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School, The Chemical Valley Roller Girls, Kanawha Players, QiET and more.

This is the fifth year for the FestivALL Charleston Art Parade, and it was cool to see it return to its original route in time for FestivALL’s tenth year. Next week a full-length episode of Radio Free Charleston will bring you more sights and sounds from FestivALL.

Stuff To Do Wednesday and Thursday

Detail from "Trax Tryptich" at "Pop Goes The Weasel" at Apartment Earth

Detail from “Trax Tryptich” at “Pop Goes The Weasel” at Apartment Earth

We are in the middle of a huge week o’ stuff happening here in Charleston, but tonight and tomorrow night, there’s some cool things in which you can zero on.

Tonight it’s the Streetworks Art Auction at the former Kyle Furniture Showroom on Hansford Street. Twenty five bucks gets you in the door to cram your face with food and guzzle booze while bidding on the original art that will someday adorn a series of metal frames with revolving panels on the East End of Charleston. You can find full details in last Friday’s PopCulteer and see my finished piece in Monday Monring Art.

Tomorrow evening I will be part of the “Pop Goes The Weasel” art exhibit at Apartment Earth, located in the alley between Hale and Capitol Streets. This really cool exhibit, curated by Nik Botkin, is an invitational art show with the theme of pop culture from the last several decades spanning from cartoons to movies to music and everything in between. Featured artists will include not only local talent, but also creatives from as far away as New Jersey, Chicago and more.You can also read about it and see my works, which will be for sale, in Monday Morning Art.

Wednesday night, Jackknife Stilleto, an all-girl punk trio from New York will be performing cover-free at The Empty Glass, starting at 10 PM. Sample their music in this video and go see them and buy merch and stuff. It’s really cool that The Empty Glass is treating us to a diverse assortment of touring bands, mixed in with the cool local stuff that they bring us on a regular basis.

Thursday night is also ArtWalk in Downtown Charleston. The FestivALL edition of ArtWalk is always special. Your PopCulteer will be anchored at Apartment Earth for the duration, so you should get out and see it for yourself, since there won’t be a photo essay for ArtWalk this month. It starts at 5 PM and runs all over the Downtown area.

The PopCult Toybox: Mark’s Eye View of Marx

0001Last Friday, your PopCulteer embarked on quite the wonderful road trip. In a one day round trip, yours truly, Melanie Larch, Lee Harrah and Mark Wolfe all piled into Mark’s SUV for a sojourn up North, to the land of toys. We didn’t have to go all the way to the North Pole. The Kruger Street Toy and Train Museum in Wheeling was playing host to The Marx Toy Convention, and we decided to hit and run the show (where I got to introduce the entourage to Terri Coop, of Circle X Ranch, Marxman Creations and and The Marx Toy Company) before heading twelve miles away to The Marx Toy Museum in Moundsville.

Welcome to Kruger Street

Welcome to Kruger Street

This was Mark’s first trip to either place. Since I’ve already treated my readers to my photo essays on both museums (HERE, HERE and HERE), this week the PopCult Toybox will bring you Mark’s photos, with a few captions by me. Mark was like a kid in a candy store. I can’t recall hearing “I want that” and “I need this” so many times. I did help broker a deal where Mark left Wheeling with a Cape Canaveral playset from the Space Era.

Except for the photo at the top of this post of Lee and Mark under the Marx Toy Museum sign, all the photos in this essay are by Mark Wolfe, artist extraordinaire, and the proprietor of Mark Wolfe Design, your source for all your graphics, advertising and web design needs. The captions are still by your PopCulteer, but we’ll try and keep those to a minimum.

On with the photos…

We'll start off with the Johnny Apollo Space Crawler. These are nearly impossible to find with the canopy intact, and Mark took plenty of pictures of it.

We’ll start off with the Johnny Apollo Space Crawler. These are nearly impossible to find with the canopy intact, and Mark took plenty of pictures of it.

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Monday Morning Art You Can Buy

Sunny Day In The Park

This week you have a couple of chances to actually purchase my artwork in the real world. Last Friday I told you all about the creation of the piece I did this year for the East End Main Street Public Art Initiative. That’s the finished product up at the top of this post. It’s my tribute to Heinz Edelmann with a touch of Georges Seurat tossed in. You can read all about it HERE, and you can bid on it Wednesday Evening at the FestivALL Streetworks Art Auction. Details are HERE. If you choose to pre-register, I’d rather you don’t enter my name in the artist code box. I don’t wish to participate in that.

Below you see three pieces that you can see again Thursday at Apartment Earth as part of the “Pop Goes The Weasel” exhibit. This really cool exhibit, curated by Nik Botkin, is an invitational art show with the theme of pop culture from the last several decades spanning from cartoons to movies to music and everything in between. Featured artists will include not only local talent, but also creatives from as far away as New Jersey, Chicago and more. I was honored to be asked to be part of this show. 

My fellow artists include Adam Carlson, Jason Queen, Matthew Hays, Stuart Mohr, Elizabeth Turner, Rob Cleland, Mark Wolfe, Nik Botkin, Jason Kiley, Dre McCleod, RK Arceneaux, Dale Morton, Frank Browning, Shea Black, Blake Wheeler, Drew O’Neill, Chase Henderson, David Stephenson, Ian Bode, Jeff Pierson, Anthony Young, Bo Ballard, Josh Martin, Preston Shomo, Washboard Dave, Bri Allen, Jake Fertig, Christopher Vincent, casshole, Todd Frazer, Eric Pardue and Scott McMillian.

The pieces you see below include another tribute to Heinz Edelmann (the designer of “Yellow Submarine,” in case I hadn’t mentioned it in the blog a bunch already), a Warholesque tryptich of “The Trax,” a piece inspired by a song by Three Bodies, and “Kitty Wigged,” a portrait of our own local Pop Art Star, Kitty Killton, wearing a blonde wig.

weird sky 0007

tryptich 002

kitty 001009

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