Month: May 2010 (Page 1 of 2)

Today’s artisitic boot to the week is yet another “Stark Charleston” piece.  Seems I went out and shot way too many photos to turn into stark black-and-white animation, so the animated short I created for RFC 100 turned out to just be the first of many segments in what promises to be a unique feature-length movie that nobody will ever want to watch.  Click the image above to see it bigger.

You can see the first installment of “Stark Charleston,” with music by David Synn, in RFC 100 (click the image at right, it’ll take you there).  Segment two, with music by my own pretentious self, will feature the fella you see into today’s art.

In honor of our Veterans on this Memorial Day, we present a collection of tributes created using GI Joes and stop-motion animation. Above you see The Battle Of The Bulge. After the jump you’ll see even more.

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The PopCulteer
May 28, 2010

“Courting Disaster”

The World Premiere of “Courting Disaster,” which you can see this weekend at the Kanawha Players Theater, is a fanatastic show, a hilarious legal farce with a talented cast, clever writing  and very catchy music.

The fact that I’ve been in a very happy relationship with one of the actors for a couple of decades, and I produced a promotional spot for the show might compromise my objectivity, so don’t take my word for it. Kate White of The Charleston Gazette loved the show, and Rick Justice of The Charleston Daily Mail got a real kick out of it.

Bill Lynch did a nice write-up for The Gazette and Billy Wolfe covered the show for the Daily Mail.

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Above you see the epic milestone 100th episode of Radio Free Charleston, “M.C. Escher Shirt.” I wanted to give you guys a normal show, but still a special one. I think we did a pretty good job. It’s our longest show, packed with great music, animation and short films, but we didn’t resort to using Zombies, toupees or any other gimmicks.

Our musical guests are The Hellblinki Sextet, The Nanker Phelge, Eva Elution and Jeff Ellis. The animation this time is by me, with music by David Synn. We’ve got a trailer for the new Kitty Killton short, plus promo clips for two upcoming Kanawha Players shows. RFC Big Shot Frank Panucci is represented by a batch of new interstitials, including the touching “Stuffed Potatoes” spot.

Our host segments were shot at Top O’ Rock, the architectural masterpiece built by Henry Eldon. I want to thank The Elden Family, Jon Cavendish and Realcorp Inc. and Thomas W. Sayre of KVLive.net for making this location available to us. It is a fantastic work of art. You can definitely see the angels in the architecture.

Speaking of angels, my sidekick showgirl for our big C-Note show is Chelsea Cook, also known as Kitty Killton, also known as Celeste The Zombie Supermodel and also known as “The Kid,” my imaginary daughter. It’s always a kick to work with Chelsea and I’ll come up with any excuse imaginable to get her on camera with me. Continue reading

“Stark Charleston,” my animated short. created for yhr 100th episode of Radio Free Charleston, has a new name.  It is now called “Stark Charleston number one.”  I have so much material that I have decided to produce a feature-length abstract travelogue film, with instrumental music by some of the area’s best musicians.  Sounds like big money, right?  You can see the beginning Tuesday, when RFC 100 hits.  Until then, here’s a piece that didn’t make it into the film….yet.  Click it to see it bigger.

Look for the full show Tuesday.

The PopCulteer
May 21, 2010

Slacking Off This Week

Okay, I’ll level with you. I am buried under work, mainly on RFC 100. I was able to make a cursory run at ArtWalk Thursday evening, but I had to rush through, since we were shooting host segments for our big milestone episode later that night.

So the only thing you’re getting in The PopCulteer this week is a photo essay on ArtWalk, with little in the way of comments.  At the very end of the column, you’ll see some more preview images from Radio Free Charleston 100, which will go live next week.

The image at right is some of Bob Rosier’s work, as seen at Visions Day Spa.

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I am still buried under work on “Stark Charleston,” the animated short that will be featured in Radio Free Charleston’s 100th episode (coming next week!), so today’s art is simply one of the Stark Charleston photos, digitally-assaulted and presented in color.

I drove all over Charleston Saturday morning, taking over 550 pictures. About a third of them were of churches, which all blurred together. That’s why I can’t tell you which church this is. I’m just not a church person. I think they look cool, but they all pretty much blend into one big place for me. If you can identify this church, feel free to leave a comment. And click the image to see a bigger version.

When I was a kid, I was crazy about animation. I’m not just talking about Saturday morning cartoons or classic Warner Brothers shorts, I loved everything animated–commercials, broadcast network IDs, industrial films–anything with a cartoon hook had me. I was three or four years old when NBC showed a prime-time compilation of independently-animated shorts.  That was an epiphany for me.

The cartoon you see above is “Moonbird,” by John and Faith Hubley. This was part of that NBC special, and it would be over forty years before I would get a chance to see this again.  The soundtrack is an actual recording of their children playing, around which they then created the animation. “Moonbird” won the OSCAR for best animated short in 1959, but there was no place for it to be seen until a few years later.

After the jump, you’ll get to read more about my life-long quest for animation and you’ll get to see the rest of the first edition of the PopCult Animation Festival, a collection of cool animated shorts from around the world.  It’ll be a weekly feature here in PopCult this Summer. Continue reading

The PopCulteer
May 14, 2010

The Loss Of A Legend

Aside from the legendary Lena Horne, we lost another giant talent last week. Frank Frazetta, the world’s most renown fantasy artist, passed away Monday after a stroke.

The Frazetta family had recntly been involved in a messy dispute over the physical possession of his art, but thankfully that was all resolved a couple of months ago.

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