Month: June 2020 (Page 2 of 4)

Richard Anuszkiewicz, a pioneering practitioner of Op Art in the United States before that perception-altering style was even given a name in the 1960s, died on May 19 at his home in Englewood, N.J. He was 89. Anyone’s who’s seen my geometric abstract works has seen the undeniable influence that Anuszkiewicz has had on my work. His pioneering work that combined mathematics with color composition into a sublime style that was both complex and simple, enigmatic and solvable. When I began making art primarily in a digital medium, I found that I could emulate his style, and use it to springboard into new areas of expression. For the month of June, Monday Morning Art will feature new works by me, inspired by the work of Richard Anuszkiewicz.

Today’s piece is called Trio. It’s a digital piece that was made from the mandala I created that you saw in our first week of this Op Art month. I changed and multiplied it, and set the three new mandalas at an angle against a background of warped lines. As usual with these pieces, my goal is to disorient and make the viewer question their visual clues to reality.

You can click  the image to see a bigger version.

Meanwhile, Monday on The AIR, we have a special marathon of Harrah’s Hard & Heavy from 7 AM to 3 PM. These eight episodes of Lee Harrah’s Heavy Metal Hoedown give you a glimpse into what makes Lee tick, musically. You can hear HH&H every Friday night at Midnight. At 3 PM on Prognosis, Herman Linte shows us how Prog-rock fared in the time of punk, and that’s followed by a classic Prognosis and an evening of Psychedelic Shack and Radio Free Charleston.

You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on this embedded radio player…

Later today in PopCult we’ll have day nine of our guide to VirtuALL FestivALL, with updates on today’s events, a video throwback and more of our Monday Morning Art Exhibit.

From now until the end of June we will post at least once a day with details on what you can experience at home during this pandemic year for Charleston’s annual festival of all arts. For 2020, FestivALL is when The Internet Becomes A Work Of Art. Every day we will bring you up to date on this year’s VirtuALL FestivALL, plus we will flash back to some of our video coverage from previous years, and I will dig into the archives for one post in the Monday Morning Art Exhibit, collecting some of my favorite pieces from the nearly fifteen years that I’ve been posting my original work here in PopCult.

Today’s big event is an Authors’ Roundtable at 3 PM on FestivALL’s YouTube Channel.This event aims to showcase regional authors and provide an opportunity for community members to learn more about the authors, their works, their processes and inspiration. This roundtable discussion is curated and led by WV Poet Laureate Marc Harshman (seen right).

The audience will also have the opportunity to ask questions with the panel. This roundtable features four poets: James Harms; Mary Moore; Elizabeth Savage; and Cameron Barnett.

The roundtable will be live on YouTube Sunday June 21 with audience Q&A at the end of the program. A recording of the event will be made available and be housed on FestivALL’s YouTube channel for the duration of the 15 days of FestivALL.

Other FestivALL events for today include being able to vote on The Artbus, check out the Art-for-ALL Kids’ Juried Art Exhibition look into the “Faces of First Responders” Tribute Mural and teens can participate in Life: Unedited. FestivALL is off to a strong VirtuALL start.  You can also participate in the CAMC “Run For Your Life” virtual run/walk. The Virtual Art Fair will open on June 14th on the FestivALL website – check it regularly for the gallery and links to shop your favorite WV artisans this summer.

The FestivALL Flashback

2011 was the year where I had the insane idea of cover the holy hell out of FestivALL, and trying to present it in an almost daily form as episodes of Radio Free Charleston.  Today  we’ll wrap up 2011 with three episodes of the show that feature music by Douglas Imbrogno, Sasha Collette, Holy Cow, The Boatmen, Miss Behavin’, Joseph Hale, T.J. King and The Kingfish Five, Kathleen Coffee, The Velvet Nomads, WATT 4, Christopher Nelson and Albert Perrone.

We also have theatrical performances, dance, art, film. You’ll see everything from St. Stephen’s Dream: A Space Opera to wrestling to Jenna Swanson sword-dancing to the first Art Piers being painted to the Art Parade and loads more. I look back at these shows and marvel at how I was able to shoot, edit and post more than three hours of FestivALL videos in less than twelve days. I have no idea how I had that much energy while working full-time as a caregiver for my uncle.

The Monday Morning Art Exhibit

For this entry in our artistic look back, we go to August, 2010 for a piece inspired by FestivALL. This digital painting that revisits FestivAll, from June, 2010.  Specifically, this is a shot of the crowd dancing to The VooDoo Katz at the Live On The Levee show where we recorded the band for Radio Free Charleston. I decided to go a little Fauvist on the image. I really like this piece, but had mixed feelings about including it here because it is a bittersweet reminder of things we can’t have this year.

However, I chose it as a reminder that, if we aren’t idiots about rushing to reopen, we will be able to have nice things again.

Click the image to see it bigger.

Tomorrow we’ll have a new Monday Morning Art, plus our continuing guide to VirtuALL FestivALL.

From now until the end of June we will post at least once a day with details on what you can experience at home during this pandemic year for Charleston’s annual festival of all arts. For 2020, FestivALL is when The Internet Becomes A Work Of Art. Every day we will bring you up to date on this year’s VirtuALL FestivALL, plus we will flash back to some of our video coverage from previous years, and I will dig into the archives for one post in the Monday Morning Art Exhibit, collecting some of my favorite pieces from the nearly fifteen years that I’ve been posting my original work here in PopCult.

Saturday we have two big events. At Noon, there is the Virtual Smoke on the Water Chili Cookoff. I will be honest with you, I’m not a big fan of chili. I’m in the mood for a bowl about once every seven or twelve years, and even then, only in the dead of winter.

I think it takes a peculiar mindset to subject yourself to painfully-spiced cold-weather food on what are usually among the hottest days of summer, but if you are into that sort of epicurian masochism, then this is the event for you. It’s not my place to judge.

The Virtual Smoke On The Water authorities will have four bands providing music via the FestivALL YouTube channel, and have figured out some way to give out cash prizes.

Like I said, aside from the music this is all outside my realm of understanding, but if it interests you, you can find details on how to get involved HERE.

Of more universal appeal is a Mountain Stage Special Broadcast; FestivALL Favorites.This is a specially curated two-hour episode of Mountain Stage with Larry Groce, featuring favorite performances from FestivALL’s past. Performances from: Wood Brothers, Todd Snider, Lucius, and more. If you’re interest, this special will be aired statewide on WVPB radio networks.

Other FestivALL events for today include your last chance to take in The Alban Arts Center’s Eugene O’Neill Project, which I told you about a week ago last Friday.  You can also participate in the CAMC “Run For Your Life” virtual run/walk. The Show Your Pride window display contest is already underway, and you can vote HERE. Ice cream and the arts is also underway, and details for this coloring contest for kids can be found HERE.  The Virtual Art Fair will open on June 14th on the FestivALL website – check it regularly for the gallery and links to shop your favorite WV artisans this summer.

You can also vote on The Artbus, check out the Art-for-ALL Kids’ Juried Art Exhibition look into the “Faces of First Responders” Tribute Mural and teens can participate in Life: Unedited. FestivALL is off to a strong VirtuALL start!

The FestivALL Flashback

2011 was the year where I had the insane idea of cover the holy hell out of FestivALL, and trying to present it in an almost daily form as episodes of Radio Free Charleston.  Today we’re bringing you one of these shows that takes music recorded at the Derick Kirk Memorial Concert and combines it with dance recorded all over town during FestivALL. Our music performed live at Capitol Roasters is provided by the Velvet Nomads, Comparsa, and The Voodoo Katz.

The Monday Morning Art Exhibit

This piece is from November, 2013, and is a digital painting I call “Searching.”  The model for the triple-stacked silhouette you see is none other than my imaginary daughter, Kitty Killton, in a pose I snapped at an edition of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-art School the prior spring. I wanted to draw a contrast between Kitty’s pose and one of my geometrical abstract backgrounds.

Click to see the image larger.

Check PopCult tomorrow for more updates on VirtuALL FestivALL, plus our Flashback Videos and Monday Morning Art Exhibit.

The PopCulteer
June 19, 2020

From now until the end of June we will post at least once a day with details on what you can experience at home during this pandemic year for Charleston’s annual festival of all arts. For 2020, FestivALL is when The Internet Becomes A Work Of Art. Every day we will bring you up to date on this year’s VirtuALL FestivALL, plus we will flash back to some of our video coverage from previous years, and I will dig into the archives for one post in the Monday Morning Art Exhibit, collecting some of my favorite pieces from the nearly fifteen years that I’ve been posting my original work here in PopCult.

The big event Friday is an online ballet class at 3 PM. Come take a free online ballet class with professional ballet dancer who is also a West Virginia native – Alicia Mae Holloway, dancer with Dance Theater of Harlem! Details are HERE, registration is required.

Other FestivALL events for today include another chance to take in The Alban Arts Center’s Eugene O’Neill Project, which I told you about last Friday.  You can also participate in the CAMC “Run For Your Life” virtual run/walk. The Show Your Pride window display contest is already underway, and you can vote HERE. Ice cream and the arts is also underway, and details for this coloring contest for kids can be found HERE.  The Virtual Art Fair will open on June 14th on the FestivALL website – check it regularly for the gallery and links to shop your favorite WV artisans this summer.

You can also vote on The Artbus, check out the Art-for-ALL Kids’ Juried Art Exhibition look into the “Faces of First Responders” Tribute Mural and teens can participate in Life: Unedited. FestivALL is off to a strong VirtuALL start!

The FestivALL Flashback

2011 was the year where I had the insane idea of cover the holy hell out of FestivALL, and trying to present it in an almost daily form as episodes of Radio Free Charleston. Today we bring you two more of these shows that feature music from The Kingfish Five, Joseph Hale, 600 lbs of SIn and Uncle Eddy and Robyn, Sierra Ferrell, Don Baker, John Radcliff and John Lilly. There are also scenes from The East End Main Street Streetworks Art Auction, Sunday Funday at The Clay Center and Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art Show.

The Monday Morning Art Exhibit

Our pick today is actually four pieces that ran during the month of June, 2018. Each Monday that month I posted a digital piece that was inspired by a recent trip to New York City. We were there on an unusually bright and sunny day with a dominant blue sky, which gave me the name, “Blue City.” for these cityscapes done in a variety of styles.

You can click on this compilation of the four pieces to see a much bigger version.

Friday On The AIR

We’re going to offer up our fourth edition of MIRRORBALL and a summer mixtape episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat Friday afternoon on The AIR. You can hear these shows on The AIR website, or just click on this embedded radio player…

At 2 PM we present an AIR Music Special, the fourth edition of MIRRORBALL, hosted by Mel Larch. June is Pride Month and this week Mel celebrate the role of LGBTQ artists in the phenomenon of disco music. You’ll hear music from Sylvester, Alicia Bridges, Dan Hartman, and more.

You can tune in at 2 PM and hear our latest MIRRORBALL. Later today, it will go up in the Podcast section of The AIR website, so you can listen on demand. Let us know what you think. MIRRORBALL will also be replayed Saturday at 5 PM, Sunday at 11 PM and Tuesday at 1 PM. We’ll probably sneak in a few more airings during the week.

At 3 PM, Sydney Fileen treats us to a special “New Wave Hits” episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat. Sydney promises almost two solid hours of pure New Wave goodness with minimal interruptions, as you can see in this playlist…

BEC 059

The dB’s “A Spy In The House of Love”
Re-Flex “The Politics of Dancing”
B-Movie “Nowhere Girl”
Pretenders “Back On The Chain Gang”
The Cars “Shake It Up”
Talk Talk “It’s My Life”
Kissing The Pink “One Step”
Neneh Cherry “Buffalo Stance”
Billy Idol “Dancing With Myself”
The Go Gos “We Got The Beat”
Talking Heads “Once In A Lifetime”
The Fall “Totally Wired”
Siouxsie and The Banshees “Cities In Dust”
XTC “Millions”
The Smiths “This Charming Man”
The Jesus and Mary Chain “Surfin’ USA (Summer Mix)”
Kate Bush “Babooshka”
The Cure “Pictures of You”
The Sugarcubes “Motorcrash”
Depeche Mode “Just Can’t Get Enough”
New Order “Blue Monday 88”
Peter Schilling “Major Tom”
The Clash “Should I Stay Or Should I Go”
Blondie “Atomic”
The Dickies “Poodle Party”
Echo and the Bunnymen “Lips Like Sugar”
The The “This Is The Day”
Grace Jones “Pull Up To The Bumper”
Gary Numan “We Are Glass”
OMD “Electricity”

Sydney’s Big Electric Cat is produced at Haversham Recording Institute in London, and can be heard every Friday at 3 PM, with replays Saturday afternoon, Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM and Thursday at Noon, exclusively on The AIR. You can also hear select episodes of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat as part of the overnight Haversham Recording Institute marathon that starts every Monday at 11 PM.

And that is it for this week’s PopCulteer. Check back every day as we go into VirtuALL FestivALL mode all weekend, replacing our regular features with posts loaded with art and video.

From now until the end of June we will post at least once a day with details on what you can experience at home during this pandemic year for Charleston’s annual festival of all arts. For 2020, FestivALL is when The Internet Becomes A Work Of Art. Every day we will bring you up to date on this year’s VirtuALL FestivALL, plus we will flash back to some of our video coverage from previous years, and I will dig into the archives for one post in the Monday Morning Art Exhibit, collecting some of my favorite pieces from the nearly fifteen years that I’ve been posting my original work here in PopCult.

The big event Wednesday is a talk with Conor Knighton, a Charleston area native, author and reporter with CBS Sunday Morning. Kanawha County Public Library will present a Zoom chat with Knighton at 6 PM. Details are HERE.

Other FestivALL events for today include an Organ recital from First Presby at Noon. You have another chance to take in The Alban Arts Center’s Eugene O’Neill Project, which I told you about Friday.  You can also participate in the CAMC “Run For Your Life” virtual run/walk. The Show Your Pride window display contest is already underway, and you can vote HERE. Ice cream and the arts is also underway, and details for this coloring contest for kids can be found HERE.  The Virtual Art Fair will open on June 14th on the FestivALL website – check it regularly for the gallery and links to shop your favorite WV artisans this summer.

You can also vote on The Artbus, check out the Art-for-ALL Kids’ Juried Art Exhibition look into the “Faces of First Responders” Tribute Mural and teens can participate in Life: Unedited. FestivALL is off to a strong VirtuALL start!

The FestivALL Flashback

2011 was the year where I had the insane idea of cover the holy hell out of FestivALL, and trying to present it in an almost daily form as episodes of Radio Free Charleston. Below you will find the first two installments, featuring The Art Parade, music by Todd Burge, Andy Park, The Boatmen, Bare Bones and WATT 4, plus snippets of Thoroughly Modern Millie and St. Stephens Dream: A Space Opera. You heard some of the music from these shows on this week’s RFC (which will run on The AIR again Thursday at 3 PM). Now you can see the whole show, spread out over the next few days.

The Monday Morning Art Exhibit

Today we go to July, 2016, for a self-explanatory digital piece called “Psychedelic Dancing Girl.”

Click the image to see a larger version, if you want.

Wednesday afternoon The AIR brings you a brand-new episode of Curtain Call.  You can tune in at the website, or on this embedded radio player…

At 2 PM, your humble blogger replays an episode of Beatles Blast devoted to the late Neil Innes and The Rutles. We plan to have a new episode, our first after The Lost Beatles Project, next week. Beatles Blast can be heard every Wednesday at 2 PM, with replays Thursday at 10 PM, Friday at noon, Saturday at 4 PM, and Tuesdays at 9 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Sundays at 2 PM, all through the summer, The AIR will bring you four hours of The Lost Beatles Project, collecting outtakes, studio chatter and alternate versions of tunes by The Fab Four.

3 PM sees a new edition of Mel Larch’s Curtain Call with a great mix of new and old examples of the best of musical theater. You’ll hear songs from some recent off-Broadway shows, as well as a few standards and deep cuts from the vast musical theater songbook.

Check out the playlist:

Curtain Call 088

“Red” from Broadway Bounty Hunter
“I’ll Save The Girl” from Superhero
“All I Need Is The Girl” from Gypsy (London 1973)
“Female Role Models” from The Untold Story Of Ursela The Sea Witch
“Just Another Day In Hollywood” from Chaplin: The Musical
“Back In Town” from Miss Saigon
“One Night Only (Disco Version)” from Dreamgirls
“The Ladies Singing Their Song” from Baby
“Pulled Back Down” from Anthems For The In-Between
“You Can’t Get To Heaven” from The Life concept LP
“Do You Want To Go To Heaven” from Big River
“Chrysantheum Tea” from Pacific Overtures

Curtain Call can be heard on The AIR Wednesday at 3 PM, with replays Thursday at 8 AM and 9 PM, Friday at 10 AM and Saturday at 6 PM. An all-night marathon of Curtain Call episodes can be heard Wednesday nights, beginning at Midnight, and an additional marathon can be heard Sunday evenings from 6 PM to midnight.

From now until the end of June we will post at least once a day with details on what you can experience at home during this pandemic year for Charleston’s annual festival of all arts. For 2020, FestivALL is when The Internet Becomes A Work Of Art. Every day we will bring you up to date on this year’s VirtuALL FestivALL, plus we will flash back to some of our video coverage from previous years, and I will dig into the archives for one post in the Monday Morning Art Exhibit, collecting some of my favorite pieces from the nearly fifteen years that I’ve been posting my original work here in PopCult.

The big event Wednesday is the virtual edition of Three Things. FestivALL’s live monthly speaker series showcases three guests who will share insight into their personal story of where they started, what they love, and where they are going.  This time it’s a totally virtual Three Things tied in with FestivALL’s VirtuALL programming. At 7 PM, Season 5, Episode 2 is going online and will feature musician and host of Mountain Stage, and West Virginian of the Year, Larry Groce, Tony Award winning actor Michael Cerveris, and 2-time Grammy award winning musician Kathy Mattea! These three creative trailblazers will share stories revealing a side not often seen by the public.

Three Things Season 5, Episode 2 will premiere on the FestivALL YouTube channel on Wednesday, June 17th at 7PM.

Other FestivALL events for today include an Organ recital from First Presby at Noon. You can still take inThe Alban Arts Center’s Eugene O’Neill Project, which I told you about Friday.  You can also participate in the CAMC “Run For Your Life” virtual run/walk. The Show Your Pride window display contest is already underway, and you can vote HERE. Ice cream and the arts is also underway, and details for this coloring contest for kids can be found HERE.  The Virtual Art Fair will open on June 14th on the FestivALL website – check it regularly for the gallery and links to shop your favorite WV artisans this summer.

You can also vote on The Artbus, check out the Art-for-ALL Kids’ Juried Art Exhibition look into the “Faces of First Responders” Tribute Mural and teens can participate in Life: Unedited. FestivALL is off to a strong VirtuALL start!

The FestivALL Flashback

Today we wrap up our coverage of FestivALL 2010 with three RFC videos. The first has music from Comparsa, Evan Mack, Melanie Larch, T. J. King and Miss Behavin’. You’ll also see Scott Elkins’ entry in the FestivAll Silent Film competition and a montage of the FestivAll Catfish. The second has music from The Velvet Nomads, Actual Rhinocerous and Comparsa, plus snippets from Patrick Fetlon’s one-man play, “Waiting For Jennifer” and scenes from ArtWalk, and The Capitol Street Art Fair, featuring dancer, Jude Binder. Ourfinal 2010 video includes music from Option 22, Brian Diller, Bare Bones and The Velvet Gypsies, plus footage of Musical Easels with Adrian DeQuiros, and Jude Binder and Kitty Killton.

RFC 105 "FestivAll 2010 part four" from Rudy Panucci on Vimeo.

RFC 106 "FestivAll 2010 part five" from Rudy Panucci on Vimeo.

RFC 107 "FestivAll 2010 part six" from Rudy Panucci on Vimeo.

The Monday Morning Art Exhibit

Today we go back to May, 2017, for a digital Impasto take on one of the Lions outside the awesomeness that is The Art Institute of Chicago. This might have been the last piece of Monday Morning Art that I created prior to having cataract surgery.

From now until the end of June we will post at least once a day with details on what you can experience at home during this pandemic year for Charleston’s annual festival of all arts. For 2020, FestivALL is when The Internet Becomes A Work Of Art. Every day we will bring you up to date on this year’s VirtuALL FestivALL, plus we will flash back to some of our video coverage from previous years, and I will dig into the archives for one post in the Monday Morning Art Exhibit, collecting some of my favorite pieces from the nearly fifteen years that I’ve been posting my original work here in PopCult.

On this third day you’ll want to tune in to The AIR for almost three hours of music from FestivALL, recorded in 2012 and 2011 (in that order, for some reason). You can jump over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay on this page, and listen to this exquisite little embedded radio player…

Tune into this week’s Radio Free Charleston at 10 AM and 10 PM Tuesday for a full show of music recorded locally, featuring the area’s finest musicians like Bob Thompson, Todd Burge, Andy Park, The Voodoo Katz, The Velvet Nomads, Comparsa and many more. A full lists of the artists on this episode can be found at the bottom of this post.

Other new FestivALL events for today include an Organ recital from First Presby at Noon, and a ballet class with The School of Charleston Ballet at 4 PM.

You can still take inThe Alban Arts Center’s Eugene O’Neill Project, which I told you about Friday.  You can also participate in the CAMC “Run For Your Life” virtual run/walk. The Show Your Pride window display contest is already underway, and you can vote HERE. Ice cream and the arts is also underway, and details for this coloring contest for kids can be found HERE.  The Virtual Art Fair will open on June 14th on the FestivALL website – check it regularly for the gallery and links to shop your favorite WV artisans this summer.

You can also vote on The Artbus, check out the Art-for-ALL Kids’ Juried Art Exhibition look into the “Faces of First Responders” Tribute Mural and teens can participate in Life: Unedited. FestivALL is off to a strong VirtuALL start!

The FestivALL Flashback

Today we’re bringing you the second and third parts of Radio Free Charleston‘s coverage of FestivALL from 2010.  In the first video you will find music from Brian and Nathan Diller, Evan Mack, Captain Crash and The Beauty Queen, Comparsa, and Alasha Al-Qudwah blended with art and animation from Joe Bolyard, Diane Martens, Leisha Angel, Kerry Bingham, and Frank and Rudy Panucci.

In the second video you can expect music by The VooDoo Katz, Miss Behavin’, Mark Scarpelli, The Sweet Adelines and more, plus art from ArtWalk and The Capitol Street Art Fair.

RFC 103 "FestivAll 2010 Part Two" from Rudy Panucci on Vimeo.

RFC 104 "FestivAll 2010 part Three" from Rudy Panucci on Vimeo.

The Monday Morning Art Exhibit

Above you see a digital piece from June, 2009. “SpewTube2” was a variant of a piece I’d run earlier as Monday Morning Art, and was some kind of commentary on the then-new idea of a website where people upload their own videos. As we allknow, nothing ever came of the concept. This second version had a different color scheme and was repositioned in a way that almost made it distinct from the first version.

Click the image to see a larger version, if you want.

And here, as promised, is the list of artists as they appear on today’s three-hour Radio Free Charleston FestivALL special…

RFC V5 20

hour one
Mel Larch “Siren Song of The Catfish”
Red Audio
Andy Park, Jamie Adkins, Rebecca Parl
Emily Burdette
Red Audio
Paul Calicoat
The Bob Thompson Unit
The Boatmen
Amanda Jane, Duane Swanson, Alasha Al Qudwah
Richie Collins Three-O
Todd, Sophie and Will Burge
Duo Divertido
Bob Shank and Sam Morgan
Katzendrummers
Bare Bones
The Leon Waters Blues Band

hour two
The Boatmen
Andy Park
WATT 4
Bare Bones
St. Stephen’s Dream: A Space Opera
T.J. King and the Kingfish Five
Joseph Hale
600 lbs of Sin
Uncle Eddy and Robyn
Sierra Ferrell
Don Baker
John Radcliff
John Lilly
The Velvet Nomads
Comparsa

hour three
The Voodoo Katz
St. Stephen’s Dream: A Space Opera
Sasha Collette and the Magnolias
Holy Cow
The Boatmen
Miss Behavin’
T.J. KIng and The KIngfish Five
Kathleen Coffee
The Velvet Nomads
WATT 4

Radio Free Charleston can be heard Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM, with replays Thursday at 2 PM, Friday at 9 AM and 7 PM, Saturday at 11 AM and Midnight, Sunday at 1 PM and the next Monday at 8 PM, exclusively on The AIR.

From now until the end of June we will post at least once a day with details on what you can experience at home during this pandemic year for Charleston’s annual festival of all arts. For 2020, FestivALL is when The Internet Becomes A Work Of Art. Every day we will bring you up to date on this year’s VirtuALL FestivALL, plus we will flash back to some of our video coverage from previous years, and I will dig into the archives for one post in the Monday Morning Art Exhibit, collecting some of my favorite pieces from the nearly fifteen years that I’ve been posting my original work here in PopCult.

On this second day you’ll want to check out The Bleu Bunny Public Art Dance Party, which you can get a taste of above. At 3 PM you can check out an original dance film from Jadco (Details HERE) and at 7 PM Larry Groce and Danny Boyd will give a creator’s talk on the creation of Paradise Park, The Musical (Details HERE).

You can still take inThe Alban Arts Center’s Eugene O’Neill Project, which I told you about Friday.  You can also participate in the CAMC “Run For Your Life” virtual run/walk. The Show Your Pride window display contest is already underway, and you can vote HERE. Ice cream and the arts is also underway, and details for this coloring contest for kids can be found HERE.  The Virtual Art Fair will open on June 14th on the FestivALL website – check it regularly for the gallery and links to shop your favorite WV artisans this summer.

You can also vote on The Artbus, check out the Art-for-ALL Kids’ Juried Art Exhibition look into the “Faces of First Responders” Tribute Mural and teens can participate in Life: Unedited. FestivALL is off to a strong VirtuALL start!

The FestivALL Flashback

Today we’re bringing you the first part of Radio Free Charleston’s coverage of FestivALL from 2010. We’ll bring you the remaining parts in the coming days. In this video you will hear music by Smoke and Mirrors, The Spurgie Hankins Band, The Nanker Phelge, The Kanawha Kordsmen and The Bob Thompson Unit, and you’ll see and hear FestivAll events like the Buswater art exhibit, The Art Parade, The shows at LiveMix Studio, music from Haddad Riverfront Park and The East End Main Street Streetworks Art Auction.

RFC 102 "FestivAll 2010 Pt. One" from Rudy Panucci on Vimeo.

The Monday Morning Art Exhibit

Today’s art is from August, 2008, and I’ll just quote my description from the original post, “Today’s art is a digitally-assaulted photograph of the sky. It was shot through the Bob Evans sign in South Charleston, and you can see a tiny airplane in the middle of the picture. I played with the aspect ratio and colorized parts of the photo to lessen the boringness of the original picture. Hope I succeeded. It’s a study in color composition and looking up.”

Click the image to see a larger version, if you want.

Richard Anuszkiewicz, a pioneering practitioner of Op Art in the United States before that perception-altering style was even given a name in the 1960s, died on May 19 at his home in Englewood, N.J. He was 89. Anyone’s who’s seen my geometric abstract works has seen the undeniable influence that Anuszkiewicz has had on my work. His pioneering work that combined mathematics with color composition into a sublime style that was both complex and simple, enigmatic and solvable. When I began making art primarily in a digital medium, I found that I could emulate his style, and use it to springboard into new areas of expression. For the month of June, Monday Morning Art will feature new works by me, inspired by the work of Richard Anuszkiewicz.

Today’s piece is called “Layers,” and it’s a purely digital creation that basically just takes one pattern that’s been warped a bit and lays it over another set of static lines. I like the depth and disorientation this may cause.

You can click  the image to see a bigger version.

Meanwhile, Monday on The AIR, we have a special marathon of Curtain Call from 7 AM to 3 PM. These eight episodes of Mel Larch’s weekly salute to the best of musical theater focus on legends like Hal Prince, Jerry Herman, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and the marathon concludes with the recent three-part salute to Stephen Sondheim. Curtain Call can be heard weekly every Wednesday at 3 PM, with replays throughout the week, and even a couple of marathons.

Later today we’ll have day two of our guide to VirtuALL FestivALL, with updates on today’s events, a video throwback and more of our Monday Morning Art Exhibit.

You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on this embedded radio player…