Rudy Panucci On Pop Culture

Month: April 2013 (Page 2 of 3)

Sunday Evening Video: All This And World War Two

Proof that they don’t make drugs like they used to in the 1970s, “All This And World War Two” is one of the most messed-up movie ideas to ever make it to the big screen. Someobody came up with the bright idea to combine all-star re-recordings of classic Beatles songs with…get ready…stock footage of old movies about World War II.

This was not a comedy sketch. It really happened.

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A Busy Weekend, And Some ArtWalk Photos, Too

The PopCulteer
April 19, 2013

Once again this weekend the Charleston area has an embarassment of riches, with concerts, plays, art events and all kinds of other neat stuff going on all over town. Your PopCulteer is a little under the weather, besiged by evil pollen, so we’re going to run down some of the highlights and then present yet another truncated ArtWalk photo essay before we retreat once more into our Benadryl-fueled haze.

Dr Sketchy’s

Sunday, Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School returns to Kanawha Players Theater at 7 PM with a special Battlestar Galactica themed evening of live drawing and photography. The models this month include your PopCulteer’s imaginary daughter, Kitty Killton and Leo Tuxedo, with other surprise models to be sprung on us as the evening progresses. Admission is $8 in advance or $10 at the door. This is a 21 and up BYOB event.

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A Beatles Mystery

The PopCult Bookshelf 

The Beatle Who Vanished
by Jim Berkenstadt
Rock and Roll Detective Publishing
TSBN 978-0-9856677-0-2
$19.99

The Beatles are the most documented rock band in history. Thousands of books have been written about almost every aspect of the band-their music, the people, the mystique, and anybody even peripherally involved in the universe of The Beatles. It’s rare to find a new book that has anything approaching new material.

Yet, with The Beatle Who Vanished, Jim Berkenstadt has pulled back the veil on the one figure who has never had his story fully explored, Jimmie Nicol, who for 13 days at the height of Beatlemania, was a full-fledged member of The Fab Four.

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Chillers 2 Photo Essay

Chillers 2, cover art by Bill Richardson

Wednesday night saw the retun of Daniel Boyd and his Chillers crew as they showed up at Lost Legion Games and Comics to sign the hot-off-the-presses graphic novel, “Chillers Volume Two.”

A great time was had by all.

The PopCult camera was there to capture the action. The plan is to review the book next week in The PopCult Bookshelf.

The graphic novel will retail for $12.99 and will be available at comic book stores, as well as some local bookstores, including Charleston’s Taylor Books.

It can also be ordered from Transfuzion Publising, Amazon.com and other national outlets. Regional bookstores can order through West Virginia Book Company (888-982-7472). 

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The PopCult Toybox

Tiny Bubbles With Tiny Figures Inside

This week we’re going to look at Zerboz, a cool “blind-box” toy that’s tiny, cheap, and pretty easy to find.

These are basically just one-inch-tall figures, with paint detail, sold randomly-packed in tiny plastic bubbles.

The Hulk from Zerboz Avengers series

I first noticed these last year, when they were called “Heroics.” I would imagine the name change was due to the difficulty in trademarking such a generic word. When I first found these neat little toys they only had one series of Marvel Comics figures in stores. A few weeks later I bought a bunch of them in Pennsylvania at the store called “Five Below.” When I opened them, I discovered a Batman figure in one bubble. I’d bought a DC Comics version without even noticing it.

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Monday Morning Art: Blaster

The other day I found a 30-year-old sketchbook filled with ideas and designs for comic strips that I never got around to pursuing. One of the concepts had many names. It was the adventures of a gang of anarchists who went around blowing up and burning down stuff in a way that would likely have been very amusing to a young, like-minded person growing up in the Reagan era. At diffferent times, the group was named “Urban Assault Team,” “Uranus Liberation Front” and finally, a name swiped from “The Young Ones,” “Bastard Squad.”

It was a phase that I mostly grew out of. Today’s art is a digital painting over a scan of a sketch of one of the characters, Blaster. Click to enlarge. PopCulteer Note: This post was published at 12:01 AM on April 15, and is not in any way a commentary on the tragic events that took place later that day. 

Ladybeard, Trace Around Your Heart, Buckwild Gone and Chillers Returns

The PopCulteer
April 12, 2013

Appalachian Film Festival

If you watched Radio Free Charleston 183 (and if not, why haven’t you?) you saw two trailers for films that will be screened tonight at the Historic Keith-Albee Theater in Huntington during the 2013 Appalachian Film Festival.

Ladybeard” is an Apartment 2B Production, directed by David Smith. This film will be seen April 12 at 9 PM at the Appalachian Film Festival. It’s a great little unconventional romantic comedy with a terrific cast that features several members of The Wayward Girls School of Burlesque, along with a cameo by your PopCulteer.

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A week without reading

The PopCult Bookshelf 

This week the PopCult Bookshelf is bare. Your PopCulteer didn’t have any time to read any books, or even comics during the last week, as special projects, production of RFC 183 and Tricon took up all of our spare time.

However, we do have several cool books lined up for future installments, such as biographies of Howard Kaylan and “The Beatle Who Vanished.” We’ll also be diving back into a pile of comics and graphic novels.

If you are a publisher or author, and would like to submit a book for review here in PopCult, just drop an email to me at rudypan@suddenlink.net. Our focus is on Pop Culture-related topics, or local interest, but I’m open to just about anything. Previous book reviews in PopCult have boosted sales on the books featured by almost dozens.

We promise to be back to normal next week. It’s not like the school board cut our funding or anything.

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