Rudy Panucci On Pop Culture

A Gratifying Week and Teen-aged Dope Slaves

Snappy Dresser at age 6The PopCulteer
April 23, 2010

Life Is Good

I gotta admit, I’ve had a great week. Sandy Well’s “Innerview” profile of me ran Monday, and the response has been universally positive (Well, almost. In an amusingly predictable move, my ex-wife de-friended me on Facebook because of the interview.).  I also posted a new episode of Radio Free Charleston, of which I am very proud, and our next several episodes are shaping up nicely. That includes our big 100th episode, which is going to be jam-packed with top-flight musical guests and special features. I hope our new readers like what they’ve seen so far.

And the point of all this is that I am, indeed, one of the luckiest people on the face of the planet. I have a wonderful woman in my life, loving family, a colorful and loyal group of friends, and I get to have ridiculous amounts of fun almost as a profession. Plus, for some inexplicable reason, a number of people seem to enjoy reading about my exploits here in PopCult.

Gazette Photo by Chip Ellis

Gazette Photo by Chip Ellis

Life is good, and I’m grateful for every bit of it. I just wanted to take a moment to say thanks to everyone who’s helped make things this way.

Thanks, folks. I’ll do my best to live up to it.

Weekend Coolness

This is the last weekend for The Charleston Stage Company production of “Flaming Guns Of The Purple Sage.”  This incredible play can be seen Friday and Saturday at 7:30 PM at the WVSU Capitol Center Theater. Read my review here.

Friday night at 10 PM, punk rapscallions, Grinder Pump, will be opening for RFC faves, WATT 4 at The Blue Parrot. I think the cover is five bucks. Mel and I will be there.

Up at LiveMix Studio, Spurgie Hankins Band, with Nelson Ramirez will entertain into the wee hours with their sophisticated rock music. LiveMix is on the fifth floor of 1033 Quarrier Street, and five dollars gets you in the door.

Saturday night, RFC 12-string-slinging guest, Josh Buskirk will be playing, cover-free, at Taylor Books from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM. Chances are the RFC crew will be on hand.

Later that night, Yarn, with RFC guest Jonathan Glen Wood will be at The Empty Glass, with an eight-dollar cover charge.

The PopCult Week In Photos

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A left-over image from last week’s ArtWalk photo essay. The guys with Meat Hair were shown by Marshhouse at The Good News Mountaineer Garage. You can see them now at Bluegrass Kitchen.

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Harrah rocked the Sound Factory Wednesday night. They were followed by the great band, Shortthrow. Then some other bands played.

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At the Porkchop DVD release party at The Empty Glass, director Eamon Hardiman holds an empty pitcher.

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Thursday night, the Gypsy Nomads turned in an amazing set at The Empty Glass, and you’ll see the results on RFC 101.

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Also Thursday night, we recorded the astonishing Hellblinki Sextet, Val, Andrew and JonPaul for RFC 100.

Cool Comic Of The Week

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“Teen-aged Dope Slaves and Reform School Girls” is a fun collection of preachy exploitation morality comics, restored and collected by Greg Theakston’s Pure Imagination Publishing. The stories were originally published in the 1940s and 1950s.  Greg has just reissued this collection, which was first published over twenty years ago by Eclipse Comics.

These stories are all in the “Reefer Madness” cautionary-tale mode. Foolish teens or young women get involved in drugs or crime, and pay the price. Included in this collection is work by the legendary team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (Captain America and many others) as well as work by Louis Zansky and Frank Edgington.

luckyThe standout story the epic, “Lucky Fights It Through,” drawn by Harvey Kurtzman, the creator of Mad Magazine. It’s bizarre enough that, way back in the 40s, Kurtzman drew a story about a cowboy with Syphillis, but the strangeness ante is upped considerably when you discover that this story incorporates a hit song of the day, “That Ignorant, Ignorant Cowboy.”

This collection is lurid scare tactics at their funniest. You can order this book from your local bookseller, using the ISBN number ( 978-1-56685-059-9) or order it from Amazon.

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Next Week

More of the usual. Videos, Art, comics, music talk. It’s what you’ve come to know and love.

1 Comment

  1. Elvis Capone

    What’s with the picture of Billy Mumy up there? He’s a LOST IN SPACE guy.

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