Rudy Panucci On Pop Culture

Month: December 2013 (Page 1 of 6)

Happy New Year from Popcult!

2013 has come to a close, and we look forward to the new year. We also want to take a quick look back. This year I decided to really beef up the content on this blog. The other former Gazz blogs were posting less frequently. The rest of the Charleston Gazette had moved sort of behind a paywall, and I had more topics that I wanted to cover on a regular basis.

I already had three regularly-scheduled posts each week, Monday Morning Art, Sunday Evening Video and Friday’s PopCulteer psuedo-column, but I decided to add The PopCult Toybox every Tuesday and The PopCult Bookshelf every Thursday. Well, almost every Tuesday and Thursday.

In the summer I decided that Saturday would be a good spot for the RFC Flashback, as I remaster and repost the missing episodes of the show that were taken offline when MySpace committed suicide last June. That left Wednesday as the only “blank” day,” and it’s easy to find good stuff to put there.

In fact, this post is the 365th PopCult post of 2013. I have managed to average one post a day this year (although I just barely made it, and a lot of that had to do with last week’s Christmas Treats stunt). My goal for 2014 is to do even more.

Radio Free Charleston will continue, with the RFC MINI SHOW filling the gaps between full-length episodes. We will soon be launching RadioFreeCharleston.com, which will act as a clearing house that will join this blog to the RFC Facebook page and the RFC Archives, which are currently under construction.

We will also continue to bring you news, essays and photos along with our book and toy reviews, art and silly video asides. We also hope you remember that you can leave comments here at PopCult. It’s pretty easy. You don’t have to do it through Facebook now, and we do value your input. Plus it makes us feel like we’re not producing this blog in a vacuum.

We do wish the happiest new year for all our readers. Just wait until you see what we have planned for 2014.

The PopCult Toybox: Year One

imagesWe wrap up our first year of The Popcult Toybox with a quick look into our second year. We will continue to bring you news, reviews, video and nostalgic looks back at toys almost every Tuesday. The aim is not only to appeal to collectors, but also to rekindle some of the love of toys that may still be buried deep in the souls of the non-collectors, and to help alert parents to cool upcoming toys for kids.

In the coming year you can expect more coverage of action figures, fashion dolls, toy museums, coy conventions and automobiles both big and small.  In February will we process the overload of information from the International Toy Fair in new York. In March we’re heading back to JoeLanta. We have lots more planned, so just keep reading PopCult.  And feel free to use the comments to let us know what you’d like to see us cover here in the Toybox.

Sunday Evening Video: Radio Cult

1470086_10151731198732396_1781150663_nWhen we attended JoeLanta last year, we met the band, Radio Cult, who rocked the Marriott Conference room with a set of 1980’s covers, some of which you’ve seen here in PopCult (most recently as our ninth Christmas Treat). Recently the band created a really cool video for their original song, “Get Out Of This Town,” from their CD, “Never Enough.”  They also released a new cover CD called “Radio Cult vs. MechaRadio Cult.”  You can purchase the new CDs as well as their others from their website.

We hope to catch them again when we return to JoeLanta in March 2014, but until then, check out the video. It’s got ninjas and cool stuff in it.  You’ll be hearing much more about JoeLanta as it approaches.

RFC Flashback: Episode 37

01rfc37montageThis week we are going back to March 2008 for “Fantastic Four Shirt,” episode 37 of Radio Free Charleston. This is a very special episode because it features two acts who were alumni of the original RFC radio program, but were just making their first appearance on the video version of the show. Lady D is, of course, Doris Fields,a legend of the West Virginia music scene. Blue Million was also an RFC radio vet–Their front-man, Alan Griffith, appeared performing solo on one memorable night, backing up me and The Stunning Janice as we butchered Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone.”

Also on the this episode is an installment of “The Android Family,” and part four of Frank Panucci’s series of enlightening animation, this episode is called “Porky Bang.” Host segments were shot at LiveMix Studio’s Quarrier Street home.

You can read the production notes here.

Christmas Treats Unwrapped

Image1The PopCulteer
December 27, 2013

So you may have noticed that your Popculteer has indulged in a bit of holiday slacking this week. While I’ve maintained Popcult’s new promise of at least one post per day, I’ve done it by posting videos.

I guess the fact that ten of those were videos I made and uploaded on Monday, specifically for PopCult, means that maybe I haven’t got this whole “slacking off” thing down pat yet.

Well today we’re going to revisit our Monday video stunt, and tell you what’s in most of the Christmas Treat Packages. We’ll leave the last one a bit of a mystery for technical reasons–I can only fit nine videos into one post.

Continue reading

The PopCult Bookshelf: Time Enough At Last

images (68)PopCult is going ALL-VIDEO one more time as sort of a holiday hangover bit of slacking. Instead of a book review this week, we bring you “Time Enough At Last,” a classic episode of The Twilight Zone that is all about one meek little fellow and his life-long love of books. This includes an amazing performance by Burgess Meredith, and one of the great twist-endings of all time.  Unwind after Christmas with the adventures of Henry Bemis.

Naughty Christmas Video

photo (2)Marium Bria, a shining light of the local music scene, has released a Christmas music video. We’re hoping that 2014 is the year we finally have Marium on Radio Free Charleston. In the meantime, enjoy a “Naughty Christmas.” Recorded at Digiso.

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