Rudy Panucci On Pop Culture

Production Notes For RFC 19

After many delays and shifted gears, Episode Nineteen of Radio Free Charleston is online now!

This episode features the web debut of The Ghosts Of Now, vintage psychedelia from Go Van Gogh, a Pentagram Flowerbox cartoon and more, all hosted by yours truly, at Coonskin park.

Where to start the story of the production of this  much delayed, and some would say “cursed” episode of RFC?  How about we start with the mistakes?

Both of them are mine.  The animated logo for The Ghosts of Now that I created Sunday morning left out “The.”  That’s not a huge mistake.  More embarrassing is that, not once, but twice, I refer to Go Van Gogh’s song as “Stripes And Stains.”  It’s actually called “Stripes With Stains,” something I knew pretty well since I played this song on my old radio show seventeen years ago.  Bad me.  I deserve to be beset by giant bugs.

The Ghosts Of Now arose from the ashes of Stone Ka Tet.  They’re starting anew with a hard-rocking determination that will take them far in a hurry.  We brought them into LiveMix Studio just last Saturday night, and they tore through three buttocks-kicking tunes.  “Death Burn” is featured on this episode, and we’ll be bringing you their other two hard-rock gems in the coming weeks.

Lee Harrah, David Clendenin, Roadblock, and Eric Seckman are going to be going places, and we’re lucky to have their web debut here on Radio Free Charleston.

Go Van Gogh were one of the top bands that I played on the old radio version of RFC.  A talented crew with amazing vocals and songwriting, these guys should have been huge stars.  Amazingly enough, they turned down a multi-million-dollar recording contract to do charity work, feeding orphans in Lithuania.  A few months ago I lucked into a mother-lode of terrific Go Van Gogh video, and this is the second offering from that batch of GoVanly Goodness that we’ve featured on the show (“Shut Up, I Love You” was in episode 14).

The camera-person for this video is currently unknown.  At first we thought it might have been shot by RFC Big Shot Brian Young, but that’s not possible because he’s on-screen positioning microphones during the video.  It’s not out of the question that I may have shot this, but I don’t remember if I did.  If the person who did shoot this video would come forward, we’ll give you a credit in a future episode.

Now, since this was just a one-camera shoot, and the music reminded me of classic acid movies like “Freakout,” I digitally-assaulted the video to make it a little more groovy-looking, man.

Also in this edition of your favorite bit of local internet-based weirdness, we have  a commercial parody courtesy of {Edit HERE: This clip has been excised from the show, burned, taken out to the backyard, and buried. I may have peed on it first. It was created by a truly awful person who did very bad things}

Of course, we also have a new installment of that devil cartoon.  This is the first part of “Bad Tofu.”  Satan eats bad tofu, and dreams that he killed, and possibly ate, the cat that keeps sitting on his car.  Part two will be in the next episode of RFC, but you can get a sneak peek at it during the end credits.  As usual, this cartoon is the product of Third Mind Incarnation.The end credit “music” is by me, though. Please try hard not to be offended by my tuneless sythesizer and Ebow noodling.

The host segments were shot by the lovely Melanie Larch Monday morning at Coonskin Park.  We got up early and took advantage of the morning light.  If you look close, you can see Mel’s hair blowing in front of the camera in several shots.  Mel can be seen in less than two weeks performing the role of “Mercedes” in the West Virginia Symphony Production of “Carmen.” You can check out her blog about her operatic adventures here.

This episode is called “Ian Rotten Shirt.”  Ian is a hardcore wrestling legend and the owner of IWA Mid-South.  I bought the shirt from Mickie Knuckles at an IWA show in South Charleston.

I’m also wearing my Dad’s Stetson Fedora that he bought the week I was born.  It matched the shirt.  Also in this episode I seem to be afflicted with “Clinton Thumb.”  Don’t know where that came from.  We managed to shoot the host segments at 9 AM Monday, and deliver the finished show to stately Gazz Manor at 10 AM Tuesday, so I’m getting this whole “turn the show around in a day” thing down pretty durned good.

That’s pretty much the story of the show. Well, except for Bob Dobbs and the way Jesse Ventura gets his head bitten off by a vicious bunny rabbit, but you can always watch the show for that stuff.  it’s pretty self-explanatory.

8 Comments

  1. Longtime Listener

    Awesome Show! Glad to see you back in fighting form. I was getting worried since you hadn’t posted a new episode for a few weeks. The Ghosts kicked ass, and it’s always good to see the Go Vans. Satan burying the cat cracked me up for some reason.

    I too and a little lad who likes hops and yeast, so I really identified with that.

    Good to have RFC back. Nice hat. Hope that wrestling guy gets better.

  2. Stephen Beckner

    Great show, as always!
    The intrepid videographer at the WVSC Go Van Gogh bit was the beautiful Melissa Beezley (now Johnson), staunch GVG supporter back in the day, treasured friend always!

  3. Mexican Romeo

    Whoa! Back in top form. The Ghosts of Now sound incredible. Go Van Gogh is always a wonderful flashback. PF is getting weirder and weirder. The host segments even looked great.

    Too bad about your Clinton Thumb. Remember, if you suck it, it’ll never heal.

  4. Fred Martin

    THE GODSEND FOR THE UNCONVENTIONALLY-HOURED WORKING STIFF HAS RETURNED!!!!

    I was getting worried after three weeks without my RFC fix. I was scared you\’d given up the ghost, but I guess you were just giving up the Ghosts of Now.

    Whose music kicked my butt!

    Ditto for Go Van Gogh! And the Beer Commercial!

    You gotta start doing these shows more often. The long wait is making all us fans stumble around aimlessly like addicts looking for their video crack!

  5. Mountain Woman Phd.

    It is so good to see you back with a new show. Like your other commentator, I was starting to get worried. If you ever stop doing the show I think we’d have to band together and form a support group to handle our withdrawel.

    The music was high-energy this go-around, and I liked it a lot. It’s great the way you manage to have such a contrast and bring us so much diversity from show to show.

    Please don’t take so long to make the next episode. You gave us quite a scare.

  6. Rudy Panucci

    Yet another mistake. Truly this was the cursed episode of RFC. All I can say is that I was dumbstruck at how lame my end credit music was, and in my confusion I muffed the credits. ‘Twill not happen again.

    Again, a thousand apologies to yonder Master Baitor.

  7. Elvis Capone

    I thought THIRD EYE animation was done by Timothy Williams, and Timothy Williams is all about the Devil. The Nappy-headed ToFu cartoon confused me.

  8. Da Watcher

    Now THIS is what Radio Free is all about! Who cares who does what on Pentragram Flowerbox? It’s all good. This cracked me way the hell up. And Hops and Yeast nearly made me leak my damn bladder. The music kicked ass this time too. Way livelier than the NPR stuff you were playing in the last show.

    More cool crap like this, that’s what we want, more cool crap!

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