Month: September 2013 (Page 2 of 5)

The PopCult Bookshelf
 

Today’s PopCult Bookshelf is not a review. It’s a plug for a very cool book I haven’t gotten my hands on yet. The legendary Black Diamond, Theron Denson, has released his autobiography, and he will be performing at The Empty Glass Friday night, where he will sing and sign copies of his book, “Black Diamond: The Real Illusion,” written with Scott Allen Nollen.

Black Diamond will be at The Glass with his band, comprised of top Nashville musicians at 10 PM. Tickets are ten dollars and are available in advance. Check out this interview from the Definitely Loud Podcast…

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Thursday night at The World Famous Empty Glass, a group of world-class musicans, Wham Bam Bowie Band! come together to pay tribute to the music of David Bowie. The show kicks off at 9:30 PM and tickets are available in advance for ten dollars, or are twelve bucks at the door.

Check out an interview with members of the band from The Definitely Loud Podcast…

Lead singer Mark Casson, also of The Cheeksters, is a huge Bowie fan. While living in Nashville Casson decided to do a one-off Bowie tribute show at a local club for fun; it was a massive success, with people immediately requesting a repeat performance. After relocating to Asheville, North Carolina, Casson assembled a band to scratch his Bowie itch.

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Starting Thursday night, the Contemporary Youth Arts Company takes on Thornton Wilder’s classic play, Our Town. This Pulitzer-winning play about life in the village of Grover’s Corners has become a staple of American theater, and is read in classrooms to this day.

Our Town has also been a major influence on the work of our local master playwright and the director of this production, Dan Kehde. His own work, “Good Night, Grover’s Corners” is a prime example of this.

Describing this play is a bit of a challenge. So many people know it by heart. I will simply strongly urge you to see what, I’m certain, will be a thoughtful production, with an excellent cast. The date, time and ticket information is in the graphic above.

Our Town will feature Nik Tidquist, Mariah Plante, Michael Tighe, Matthew Connelly, Beth Chambers, Siercia O’Brien, Patrick Felton, Maddy Ranson, Caitlin Moore, Kat Johnson, Leon Alexander, Austin Lowe, Neil Gandee, Lisa Gandee, Angel Gandee, Lauren Mallory, Olivia King, and Bob Bird as the residents of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire.

Thursday night Madman Productions presents an all-ages evening of hard rock at Dunbar Lanes with Cleans Vs. Screams. Kicking off at 6 PM, the show will shovel ten heavy bands on stage, headlined by Darling Waste and Bring Down The Sky from Cleveland, Ohio.  Also appreaing will be eight local acts, including HarraH, Hillbilly Deathride, Elysium and more.  Tickets are eight dollars in advance, or ten bucks at the door. This looks to be a great night of music at one of the areas most exciting new venues.

Above you see a photograph of the upcoming Hot Toys Retro TV Batman and Robin (and a little of their Batmobile). These ultra-realistic 1/6 scale action figures will retail for a few hundred bucks, and you can read more about them here at The Joe Report.

The reason we’re just running this photo and link in The PopCult Toybox this week is two-fold. First, a near computer disaster knocked PopCult off its schedule and we’re playing catch-up. Second, next week we will present our review of the first wave of six-inch TV Batman toys from Mattel.

This week’s little burst of art is an impressionistic digital painting inspired by the damned spider web I walk through every morning on my front porch. Do not walk into this one. You will break your computer screen.  Click to enlarge.

Will Smith and family were shocked!

Our Sunday Evening Video is a PopCult Instant Video which features over five minutes of select highlights from the just concluded ShockaCon 2013.   Tightly packed into this five-and-a-half minute clip you will see monsters, zombies and the horror of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man dancing in a lewd and lascivious manner.

Also in this clip you’ll hear music from HarraH, The Renfields and The Big Bad and catch quick glimpses of Danny Hicks, Eugene Clark, Daniel Boyd, Rob “RJ” Haddy, Eamon Hardiman, Pig Girl, Jeremy Ambler and other cast members from “The Walking Dead,” cast members from Kanawha Players upcoming production of “Night of the Living Dead,” Eliska Hahn, WV Ghostbusters, “Gene Simmons” of KISS, The Wayward Girls School of Burlesque and a flash mob of the dancing undead.

Many thanks to Mike and Rose Winland for putting on ShockaCon and bringing a load of fun to Charleston. More footage from ShockaCon, including complete performances by all the featured bands, will be spread across two special Halloween episodes of Radio Free Charleston, which can be seen here beginning October 21st.

See what’s in store for you on the final day of ShockaCon below the jump!

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Way more cool ShockaCon stuff can be found after the jump!

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Combined into one show for the first time, it’s the 2008 Radio Free Charleston Horror Theater Halloween Specials! In honor of ShockaCon, Charleston’s big, scary Horror and Science Fiction convention (going on now, see all the other posts around this one), we’re going back to a classic pair of Halloween episodes of RFC.

Episodes 54 and 55 of Radio Free Charleston were an ambitious attempt at recreating the cheesy horror movie-host vibe, only with short films and music videos instead of actual movies. Hostt segments were shot at the late, lamented LiveMix Studio. This remastered version combines them both into one 37-minute show. The sequel episode from the following April Fool’s Day will be posted soon.

Part one of RADIO FREE CHARLESTON HORROR THEATER features music from Doctor Senator and The Hellblinki Sextet, plus a short film about Jack The Ripper, vintage animation from Wladislaw Starewicz, excerpts from a film by Spike Nesmith, and loads and loads of extra-creepy-coolness.

Part Two of RADIO FREE CHARLESTON HORROR THEATER continues our tribute to old-time-TV horror movie hosts. We’ve got music videos from Under The Radar and Go Van Gogh, a short ghost film by Rich Allen, scary-freaky animation from Wladislaw Starewicz, plus a studio full of Zombies.

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