PopCult

We are running this cool short film as an encore for the third or fourth time because we’re busy having fun at Wonderfest. We run this every five years or so because it’s so damned cool. 

One weekend after Memorial Day, I’ve always felt that one of the best ways to honor our fallen veterans is to do everything possible to avoid sending even more young people to their deaths. Our video tonight is an anti-war cartoon from the National Film Board of Canada that uses stop-motion animation and GI Joes to send an anti-war message. From 1966, Toys is a classic by animator Grant Munro that takes a dark look into the war toys often given to children at Christmas time. Starting off as harmless objects, the toys quickly take on the gestures of real soldiers, mimicking the actions and penalties of a real war. This critical commentary on war and glamorized violence creates a real and frightening battle.

Now, to be honest, it’s not really the anti-war message or loose connection to Memorial Day that earned this film a spot in PopCult.  It’s the beautiful, pristine footage of so many terrific vintage toys. Of course, my ulterior motive in presenting this film is that it’s really, really cool to see GI Joe animated so well, and I’m not talking about AI Slop. This is real, hand-made Stop-Motion animation.

I’m a long-time GI Joe collector (even though I concentrate on the Adventure Team era rather than the military stuff), and this is just really cool to watch. There are toys being used and abused in this film that would be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars today. In addition to seeing almost the full range of GI Joe product available in Canada in 1966, we also get to see some other cool toy planes and tanks, and even some vintage Barbie and Ken dolls.

I mean, you could see this as an anti-war film, or you could see it as a cautionary tale about giving children bad LSD. Etither way, just look at those cool toys!

This week we go back to August, 2013 for Radio Free Charleston 189, “NASA Shirt,” which took the show in a slightly new direction. This week we had music from three bands making their RFC debuts, plus we had a new tune from a returning favorite and some cool promo clips and weird stuff. Our musical guests were Motion Theatre, Zeroking and Snakebox, plus The Diablo Blues Band.  You can read the original production notes for this show HERE.

It was with this episode of Radio Free Charleston, back in 2013, that I began to panic. I was rapidly approaching episode 200. I planned to do something really special,. but I wanted some time to prepare for it, and also to recover to a major life change as my uncle, for whom I’d been toiling as a caregiver for the previous eight years, had just rung up the curtain and joined the choir invisible, and I was enjoying life as a non-caregiver for the first time since the mid-1990s. I started doing longer shows, beginning with this one, but did them less frequently.

In between those shows I came up with the idea of producing The RFC MINI SHOW, which would focus on one musical artist with just a couple of songs. The plan was to record three songs by a band or singer, and save two for The RFC MINI SHOW, while using the other for the main RFC program.

Yes, my idea to reduce my workload involved creating a second program that ran almost weekly. I never claimed to be immune to having illogical ideas.

This time around with our chronological presentation of Radio Free Charleston, I am going to stick with the original video show until we catch it up to date roughly eight months from now. At that point we will pick up with the first episode of The RFC MINI SHOW and run those in order for about a year and a half. After that, I’m still undecided what I’ll run this space.

The PopCulteer
May 29, 2026

We have some radio notes for you today as we wing our way to WonderFest in Louisville, our radio station brings you classic Disco and Crimson New Wave on The AIR. This afternoon we serve up a classic MIRRORBALL and a colorful NEW Sydney’s Big Electric Cat! The AIR is PopCult‘s sister radio station. You can hear these shows on The AIR website, or just click on the embedded player found elsewhere on this page.

MIRRORBALL

Friday at 2 PM on The AIR, Mel Larch revisits the iconic New York City Disco, Studio 54.  We bring you an encore of her 54th episode which is notable because, not only does it present the classic album, “A Night At Studio 54,” Mel’s introduction  was recorded AT Studio 54. You  can read the full details HERE.

You can hear MIRRORBALL every Friday at 2 PM, with replays most weeks  Monday at 9 AM and Tuesday at 1 PM and a four-hour mini-marathon of classic episodes Friday nights at 8 PM.

Sydney’s Big Electric Cat Goes RED

Also on The AIR  at 3 PM (EDT), Sydney Fileen graces us with special mixtape-style new episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat. This week Sydney takes a suggestion of her engineer, Nigel Pye (also the host of Psychedelic Shack), and devotes her entire two hour program to New Wave songs with the word “Red” in the title.

And she doesn’t really seem to excited by the idea.

However, the song and band lineup is incredible, just check out the playlist…

BEC 138

Split Enz “I See Red”
The Fixx “Red Skies”
Platinum Blonde “Red Light”
The Clash “Red Angel Dragnet”
Kate Bush “The Red Shoes”
Elvis Costello “Turning The Town Red”
Blondie “Contact In Red Square”
Spizzenergi “Red & Black”
Tattoo Host “Red Pictures”
OMD “Red Frame White Light”
The Boomtown Rats “Another Piece of Red”
Siouxsie & The Banshees “Red Over White”
Wall of Voodoo “Red Light”
Philip Jap “Red Dogs”
Seer “Red Fox”
Talking Heads “Red On Black”
Altered Images “Red Startles the Sky”
The Replacements “Red Red Wine”
Nena “99 Red Balloons”
The Incredible Fred Banana Combo “Little Red Wing”
Alphaville “Red Rose”
Legendary Pink Dots “Red Castles”
Sham 69 “Red London”
DEVO “Red Eye Express”
Midnight Oil “Redneck Wonderland”
The Groundhogs “Cherry Red”
Echo & The Bunnymen “Flaming Red”
XTC “Red”
Heaven 17 “Red”
The Waitresses “Redland”
Trees “Red Car”
INXS “Red Red Sun”
China Crisis “Red Letter Day”

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,  Monday at 7 AM, Tuesday at 8 PM, Wednesday at Noon and Thursday at 10 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Classic episodes can be heard as part of the overnight Haversham Recording Institute marathon Tuesday mornings at 1 AM. .

That’s it for this week’s PopCulteer, check back for all our regular features, with fresh content, every day.

With your humble blogger headed out of town to go to WonderFest in Louisville, we’ve got a truncated assortment of cool STUFF TO DO, mostly in Charleston, to tell you about, noted as briefly as possible.

FestivALL wraps up this weekend. We have graphics for a few events below.  You can find the whole schedule HERE.

Again, I’m just scratching the surface here. Please don’t think this is all we have to offer.

As always, you should remember that THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE LIST OF EVENTS.  It’s just a starting point, so don’t expect anything comprehensive, and if you feel strongly about me leaving anything out, feel free to mention it in the comments.  Also, if you have a show that you’d like to plug in the future, even if your promotional graphic uses cruddy AI slop art, contact me via Social Media at Facebook, BlueSky , Spoutible, Instagram or Twitter.  I dont charge for this, so you might as well send me something if you have an event to promote.

We are very happy to remind you that Cristen Michael has created an interactive calendar that is way more comprehensive than this list of STUFF TO DO, and you can find it HERE. Just click on the day and the event and you’ll be whisked away to a page with more details about loads of area events.

Most weekends you can find live music at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and Friday and Saturday shows start at 7:30 PM.  Many Sunday afternoons at 2 PM they also have live music. This weekend they have music from Terri Binion on Friday and Minor Swing on Saturday.

You can find live music in and around town every night of the week. You just have to know where to look.  Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Among the notable music venues in town are The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe, Live at The Shop in Dunbar, Louie’s, at Mardi Gras Casino & Resort, In Huntington, there’s local institution, The Loud (formerly The V Club),  The Wandering Wind Meadery is on Charleston’s West Side, Plus there’s music in Charleston at The Blue Parrot, Sam’s Uptown Cafe and Fife Street Brewing.

You might also find cool musical events at Folklore Music Exchange in Charleston.

To hear music in an alcohol-free enviroment, see what’s happening at Pumzi’s, on Charleston’s West Side. Friday at 7:30 PM it’s a night of Charleston legends as Spurgy Hankins and The Carpenter Ants take the stage.

For cutting-edge independent art films, downstairs from Taylor Books you’ll find the Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF. Each week they program several amazing movies in their intimate viewing room that you aren’t likely to see anywhere else.

Please remember that viral illnesses are still a going concern and many people who have very good reasons are still wearing masks, and many of us, understandably, are still nervous about being in crowds, masked or not. Be kind and understanding  while you’re out. And if you’re at an outdoor event, please remember that it’s awfully inconsiderate to smoke or vape around people who become ill when exposed to that stuff. If somebody asks you to refrain, please respect their weishes and don’t be a jerk about it.

Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Here we go, roughly in order, it’s graphics for local events happening over the next several days that I was able to scrounge up online…

Continue reading

At 2 PM (EDT) Beatles Blast brings you an hour of the infamous Star Club recordings from December, 1962 (although when they first surfaced, the folks releasing them said they were from April of that year for legal reasons).

These are notoriously low-fidelity recordings, of historical interest only to the most devout fans of the Fab Four. Luckily, that’s our core audience. Tune in for curiosity’s sake only.

Beatles Blast can be heard every Wednesday at 2 PM, with replays Thursday at 11 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday afternoon. A two-hour mini-marathon of classic episodes runs every Monday evening, starting at 11 PM.

At 3 PM (EDT) on Curtain Call, Mel Larch  delivers her annual Tony Awards nomination special. Every May Mel Larch brings her listeners a special episode of Curtain Call devoted to the Tony Award Nominees for Best Musical. This year it’s a rather mediocre crop of nominees, and we had to put the show together despite there being a dearth of cast recordings.  Still, we manage to let you sample each of the four nominees for Best Musical and the three nominees for Best Revival of a musical.

It’s a little hard to take the Tony Awards seriously after they failed to nominate BOOP! The Musical last year.  This year the nominated musicals are not particularly impressive.  Two of them seem like overlong SNL sketches.

This year’s nominees for Best Musical are…Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), Titanique, Schmigadoon and The Lost Boys: A New Musical.  

Following the songs from the nominees for Best Musical, we get a taste of the three nominees for Best Revival of a Musical.

The 2026 Tony Awards will be broadcast on CBS and streamed on Pluto TV and Paramount + on Sunday, June, 7.

Curtain Call can be heard on The AIR Wednesday at 3 PM, with replays Thursday at 8 AM, Friday at 10 AM, Saturday at 8 PM and Monday at 9 AM. A two-hour mini-marathon of classic episodes can be heard Monday evening starting at 9 PM, and an all-night marathon of Curtain Call episodes can be heard Wednesday nights, beginning at Midnight.

Tuesday is always a great day to tune into The AIR  and today we prove it with a new episode of Radio Free Charleston AND a new edition of The Swing Shift, too!  Both of these shows were recorded very late Monday/Early Tuesday because the leaf blower fairy decided to grace my neighborhood with its presence. To listen to The AIR, you simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay here, and  listen to the cool embedded player found elsewhere on this page.  

You can hear Radio Free Charleston Tuesdays at 10 AM and 10 PM, with boatloads of replays throughout the week.

 This week we open with a full hour of the best local aind independent music that we can get our grubby little fingers on, and then we present the sixth episode of Radio Free Charleston Voume Four from just over a decade ago.

But back to that first hour…we open with brand-new music from Option 22.  These are the folks who created CultureFest and the Riff Raff Artist’s Collective in Princeton, West Virginia, making that area a hotbed of creativity in the state. I first recorded them for the video incarnation of RFC back during FestivALL in 2009, and it’s wonderful to have new music from these elcectic artists. The song you hear this week is the first of a trilogy of new releases.You’ll hear the second installment next week, and you can follow the link in the playlist below to learn more about this new work.

Our first hour is also packed with new music fom William Matheny, Squeeze, GRPPLNG, The Heavy Hitters and The Claypool Lennon Delirium, plus we have more local favorites and a tribute to Frank Zappa’s vocal/guitar sideman, Ike Willis, who passed away last week. Ike used to perform regularly at The Empty Glass and he was much loved by music fans in the area.

Our second and third hours bring you one of the early episodes of RFC Volume Four that hasn’t been recycled yet. It’s a nice way to keep the local music from a decade ago in circulation, while giving your humble blogger time to get ready for WonderFest this weekend.

Check out this playlist, with links to the artist’s page, in the first hour…

RFC V5 270

hour one
Option 22 “Calling In Awakenings”
William Matheny “Mercy Journeys”
Tunesmiths “Love Makes Me Feel This Way”
The Moon My Twin “Martyr”
Chvrches “Such Great Heights”
Squeeze “Hell on Earth”
GRPPLNG “Hellbound”
The Heavy Hitters “Voicemail (Classroom Concert)”
The Claypool Lennon Delirium “The Golden Egg of Empathy”
The MFB “Funky Bunz”
Frank Zappa with Ike Willis “Stairway To Heaven”
Jim Lange “Roger Zero G”

hour two
John Radcliff “Muse”
Todd Burge “Longer”
The Nanker Phelge “I’m Coming Home”
Kevin Scarbrough “Divorce”
The Company Stores “Rollin’ In”
Hellblinki “Row”
Bud Carroll “I’m No Stranger”
Mark Bates and the Vacancies “Spiral Down”
Astromoth “Paranoia Swing, Swing”
John Lancaster “Water Under A Burning Bridge”
Stone Ka Tet “Patton’s Blues”
Science of the Mind “Kaoss”
Stark Raven “Every Time You Say Goodbye”
John Palumbo “Walk On The Wild Side”
Scarlet Hill “Where is Your Heart Tonight”

hour three
Under Surveillance “More Than Words”
Sheldon Vance “Strength To Let It Go”
The Laser Beams “Everybody Knows”
QiET “The Indie Song”
John Palumbo “Dancing Back To Motown”
Dave Roberts “Dreaming In Drift”
From The Future “Cool Taco”
Neil Zaza “Take On Me”
Stephanie Deskins “When You Come Around”
Decomposing in Paris “He Loves Me”
Ouralias “Too Gone”
Jordan Andrew Jefferson “Borderline”
Jordan Andrew Jefferson “Goodbye Hello Goodnight”

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Wednesday at 9 AM,  Thursday at 2 PM, Friday at 9 AM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight, Sunday at 8 PM and  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Now you can also hear a different classic episode of RFC every weekday at 5 PM, and we bring you a marathon all night long Saturday night/Sunday morning.

I’m also going to  embed a low-fi, mono version of this show right in this post, right here so you can listen on demand.

After RFC, stick around for encores of last week’s episodes of  MIRRORBALL at 1 PM and Curtain Call at 2 PM.

At 3 PM get ready for a new edition of The Swing Shift. This episode is loaded with Swing, some of it found in unlikely places. Check out the playlist…

The Swing Shift 181

Lou Rawls “You’re The One”
Oliver Nelson “Hoe-Down”
Basilic Swing “Hora Nicusor”
Rod Stewart & Jools Holland “Good Rockin’ Tonight”
Benny Carter “Gin & Jive”
The Boswell Sisters “Was That the Human Thing To Do”
Joe Newman “Corner Pocket”
Tyler Pedersen “Been There Before”
The Sazerac Swingers “We Put The Jazz Back In Jazz”
Squirrel Nut Zippers “Where The Wild hings Go”
Paul Carrack “How Long”
The Dutch Swing College Band “Baby Won’t You Please Come Home”
June Christy “Stompin’ At The Savoy”
Nat King Cole “Hit That Jive Jack”
Claude Bolling Big Band “Ballet Of The Flyin’ Saucers”
The Mills Brothers “It Don’t Mean A Thing”

 You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 AM, Thursday at 9 AM,  Friday at 10 AM and 8 PM and Saturday afternoon, only on The AIR . You can also hear all-night marathons, seven hours each, starting at Midnight Thursdays and Sundays.

This week’s art is a color study for a probable future painting based on several quick photos I grabbed while crossing the Silver Memorial Bridge a couple of weeks ago (as a passenger–I’m not some kind of madman, y’know). No Mothmen were seen in the area, so we felt pretty confident as we zoomed over the Mighty Ohio River.

This was done, very quickly, on a small piece of illustration board with acrylics. If it seems like I’ve been on a sky-painting kick lately, that’s probably because I’ve been on a sky-painting kick lately.

If you want to see this image larger, click HERE.

Meanwhile, over in radioland, Monday beginning at 2 PM on The AIR,  we bring you a new episode of Psychedelic Shack, and then at 3 PM we do the same with Herman Linte’s weekly showcase of the Progressive Rock of the past half-century, Prognosis.  You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on the embedded radio player elsewhere on this page.

At 2 PM, Nigel Pye brings us an hour of mind-expanding psychedelica, with a few epic-length tunes thrown into the mix. Check out the playlist…

Psychedelic Shack 111

Julian Cope “The Way Luv Is”
Fleetwood Mac “Albatross”
Pink Floyd “Atom Heart Mother”
The Merseys “Sorrow”
Sandy Denny “It Suits Me Well”
The Claypool Lennnon Delirium “It’s A Wrap”

Psychedelic Shack can be heard every Monday at 2 PM, with replays Tuesday at 9 AM, Wednesday at 10 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday at 9 AM.

At 3 PM, Herman Linte brings you a two-hour mixtape of David Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy, the albums, Low, Heroes and Lodger. He didn’t offer up a playlist, but he said that it’s vital that you listen to the entire program in a dark room,  preferably while smoking and drinking Absinthe.

You can hear Prognosis on The AIR Monday at 3 PM, with replays Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM, Thursday at Noon, and Saturday at 10 AM.

Tonight at 8 PM, tune in for a classic edition of The Comedy Vault. That’s followed by two-hour blocks of Curtain Call and Beatles Blast at 9 PM and 11 PM, and then an overnight assortment of our Haversham Recording Institute programs at 1 AM.

Next weekend is the weekend after Memorial Day, and that means that it’s time for WonderFest USA in Louisville. Mr. and Mrs PopCulteer are planning to attend for the third year in a row, and to get ready we’re going to re-share some videos from previous years. It’ll be fun to check out (and photograph) all the cool model kit builds, and it’ll be cool to see William Stout and Greg Nicotero again and we also have a book or two we want to buy from Anthony Taylor, just like last year.

We had talked about skipping this year’s show because they hadn’t announced that Greg Nicotero was going to be there yet, but before they did, I decided that I really wanted to go so I could talk to the folks at the various model companies about the upcoming repros of Monster Scenes and Prehistoric Scenes model kits, and check out some garage kits that are compatible with those series.

And then the day after Mel made our hotel reservations, it was announced that Nicotero was going to be there anyway, so…win-win for us! Of course I’ll be taking plenty of photos of the model contest and other cool stuff to share with you here in PopCult.

You can read  more about this year’s show HERE, and check out our videos above and below.

This week we go back to late July, 2013, for an edition of Radio Free Charleston that was intended to promote that year’s ShockaCon, which happened two months later. Radio Free Charleston 188, “NU-TRA Shirt,” welcomed back two old friends to the show, but also showcased them in two venues which hadn’t been on our show before. We also had the first of a new batch of Frank Panucci’s compilations of public domain footage. The main thrust of this episode was to raise awareness of ShockaCon, which was coming up in less than two months for its second-go round.

Among the bands who performed at ShockaCon that year were our musical guests, The Nanker Phelge and HarraH. We recorded The Nanker Phelge at the still-being-built performance space at Dunbar Lanes. We got a cool punk vibe capturing the band in a venue that was far from renovated, and it’s a real shame that Dunbar Lanes didn’t get a fair chance to continue, since the completed venue was such a great place to catch live music. We recorded HARRAH at the ECMC “Kick Cancer For Kids” benefit show at the Eagles Club on Charleston’s West Side.

And you might as well get used to see our dear friend, the late Lee Harrah, in this feature. He was all over the show at this time, in front of and behind the camera.

You can find the full production notes for this episode HERE.

The PopCulteer
May 22, 2026

The PopCult Comix Bookshelf

Nerd Inferno: The Essential Evan Dorkin
by Evan Dorkin
Dark Horse Books
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1506753058
$34.99

I have been a fan of cartoonist/writer, Evan Dorkin, for nearly forty years, which is amazing, considering that he doesn’t have the decency to be older than I am. Even more amazing…and something I consider a huge failing on my part, is that I have only mentioned him three times before this in the twenty-plus years of PopCult.

I mean, he checks off all the boxes: He’s a terrific cartoonist with a cult following; He brilliantly lampoons nerd culture; He’s written for Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and Crayon Shin-Chan: On top of all that, when Adult Swim produced a pilot for a series based on his Eltingville Club stories, he got The Aquabats to do the opening and closting themes.

Now, I get the chance to make up for lost time by telling you about this fairly comprehensive collection of his solo works. Nerd Inferno: The Essential Evan Dorkin collects just about every bit of creator-owned work that he’s produced over the last four decades.

It’s almost 650 pages of biting satire, brilliant cartooning, snark, adventure, more snark, hilarity and a touch more snark.

In this thick collection you get nearly every issue of Milk and Cheese (Gone Bad), Dork and The Eltingville Club, along with several stray comic strips done for other magazines over the years.

These mature-readers comics mine the rich pop culture landfill for gut-busting takes on everything from Ska to Punk to Comic Book Stores, Sitcoms, Action Movies and anything else that has happened in the last sixty years or so.

In addition to the adventures of Milk and Cheese, we also get to read about the extremely nerdy adventures of The Eltingville Club, and sitcom antics of The Murder Family plus the arcane wisdom of The Invisible College of Secret Knowledge. Plus there are hundreds of one-page gag strips and other gems.

This is all done with top-flight cartooning and a skill for riffing on pop culture that rivals the best of the MST3K crew.

This book is filled with hilarious takes on things like the surprising fates of Goofy Grape and The Cruchberry Beast, and side references to how Del Shannon almost became a Traveling Wilbury. This is a book that will evoke howls of recognition with its rich tapestry of all things nerdy, along with some very dark humor, biting satire and pure silliness.

Let me quote the publisher’s blurb:

Collecting the Milk and Cheese, Eltingville Club, and Dork by Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz award-winning comics creator Evan Dorkin. Collected for the first time in an affordable omnibus edition.

The entire Eltingville Club saga. Every Milk and Cheese comic. All the fun strips, gag panels and stories from Dork.

The entire shebang is now available in one big-ass Omnibus edition, a staggering display of satire, silliness, and stupidity featuring all the Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz award-winning humor comics by semi-esteemed and somewhat-beloved cartoonist Evan Dorkin. It’s going to sell out and you will cry if you don’t get a copy, so get to it, kids (This message was approved by Evan’s therapist).

Nerd Inferno is an epic collection of Dorkin’s best solo works, and it belongs in every home, even those where the people inside won’t read it. It’s really thick and heavy and has many uses beyond simply containing hysterical comic strips.

I also need to mention the contributions of Sarah Dyer, Dorkin’s wife, colorist and sometime collaborator, and also a great cartoonist in her own right. Hopefully we get an omnibus of her work soon.

You can find Nerd Inferno: The Essential Evan Dorkin at particularly hip comic book stores and booksellers, or you can have any bookseller order it, using the ISBN code…or take the lazy way out and get it from Amazon, who don’t even have the humanity to have a discount on it as I write this.

That is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back every day for fresh content and all our regular features.