Randomosity

The PopCulteer
January 31, 2014

No big essay this week for the PopCulteer. Instead we bring you a bunch of short items.

CM Punk Gone From WWE?

Former WWE Heavyweight Champion CM Punk  reportedly walked out on the company due to his disappointment with the direction of the wrestling promotion’s storylines heading into Wrestlemania, their biggest show of the year. According to reports, he walked out of last Monday’s episode of RAW after telling WWE’s owner, Vince McMahon that he was “going home.”

The immediate question everyone has is, “how real is this?” Is it true? Did he really walk out of a huge Wrestlemania payday? Is this a cover-up for him taking time off to recuperate from an injury? Or is this part of an elaborate storyline…a “work” in wrestle-speak?

Right now, we don’t know, but this sort of thing is one of the reasons Punk is one of the best, and usually the most interesting, personality in the wrestling biz. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of him.

The Way Way Way Back Machine

Dreamworks Animation’s updating of the Sherman and Peabody segment of the classic Bullwinkle cartoon by Jay Ward hits theaters in one week. Suicide hotlines are bracing for it.

Rather than stick with what was a cute and funny short cartoon, the producers have made arbitrary changes and redesigned the characters for 3D computer animation. Mr. Peabody is now the adopted father of Sherman, instead of being his pet. That’s pretty much all you need to know.

Metropolis is coming

A full restored version of Fritz Lang’s classic film, “Metropolis” is coming to the The Electric Sky Theater at The Clay Center on February 7 and 8 at 7 PM. You do not want to miss this big screen presentation of one of the most influential films ever made. We will bring you more details on this exciting screening next week.

The RFC Flashback

Tomorrow the RFC Flashback will bring you episode 59, a show from 2009 that was devoted to the Contemporary Youth Arts Company production of “Lincoln,” an opera by Dan Kehde and Mark Scarpelli. You can see a new production of this great show right now. Check this post for details, and look at the poster below.

JoeLanta

It’s the big GI Joe convention to which I will be returning in March. I’m working on some plans now that will allow me to post updates and video from the trip while I’m in Atlanta. Why am I telling you this? Probably so I can plug the JoeLanta website again and run this cool graphic.

We’re going to cut the PopCulteer a little short this week. Next week will see a new full-length episode of Radio Free Charleston, along with a special book review and all our regular features. Your PopCulteer is hard at work on another secret project right now, but if the schedule permits, we’ll try to get a weekend “Stuff To Do” post up later today.