Month: March 2014 (Page 2 of 6)

This is it! A collection of musical montages that attempt to capture the spirit of the 2014 edition of JoeLanta/The Great Atlanta Toy Convention, the huge GI Joe/toy show that we were honored to be a guest of from March 14 and 16. We’ve tried to compress more than two days of fun, toys and excitement into a concentrated 38 minute package. This extended report looks at E.J.’s “Swapapalooza,” the Parachute Drop, custom figures and diormas, some of the panels, the guests (including freshly-announced inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame, Scott Hall), the dealers rooms, the car show and more. You’ll also be treated to a full song by Radio Cult, the official band of JoeLanta.

The introductory segments were ad-libbed at the last minute, and as such aren’t 100% accurate. After surveying the vast scope of footage captured in Atlanta, it was decided that the panels and tour videos would be edited and posted first, rather than after this report (which took five days to edit). A complete guide to our other JoeLanta videos can be found as our Sunday Evening Videos this week.

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Apologies for the short notice, but TONIGHT Mobile Death Camp, a Toledo, Ohio band featuring Todd Evans, formerly of GWAR hits the stage at The Blue Parrot for the benefit of the Playing It Forward Youth Music Group.  In support are local giants, HarraH and StychNtyme.

The show kicks off at 8 PM. Note that this show actually begins at a civilized hour and will conclude by 11 PM. The cover charge is only five bucks, but you’ll want to bring extra money to snag some Mobile Death Camp merchandise. This is your chance to support a great cause and hear some choice metal music on a weeknight and still make it home in time to get some sleep before you go to work in the morning!

This week’s art is a digital painting based on a photo I took at JoeLanta of Mike Gardner’s incredible “Zombie Horde at Yellow Creek” diorama, based on “The Walking Dead.”  You will see much more of Mike’s diorama in our JoeLanta recap video and a special photo essay, both of which will be posted here in PopCult.  The plan is for the recap video to be posted later today.

You can see today’s art bigger by clicking on it. Check PopCult later today and throughout the week as we wrap up our coverage of JoeLanta.

As you know, if you’ve been reading PopCult lately, I have been posting a ton of videos from JoeLanta, the amazing toy convention devoted largely to GI Joe that I went to last week in Atlanta. Sometime Monday I will post a long recap with lots of footage of the show, but until then, this post will collect the videos I’ve posted so far.

First up, musical visits to two collections of cool stuff. Check out Tim Merritt’s Mint-in-box collection, and Bryan Tatum’s gigantic warehouse-sized collection…

Panels and more after the jump!

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From April, 2009, comes “Earth To Eros Shirt,” a show named after John Lancaster’s old band. We never managed to get E2E on the show, but we have had John on a few times. Our host segments were shot at The Convenience Store on Summer’s Street, which is still going strong, almost five years later.  This show contains our comedy interview with the store’s owner, Scott Shapiro, which illustrates why I hardly ever do interviews on Radio Free Charleston.

Music from Go Van Gogh and A Place Of Solace highlight this episode. We also featured a trailer for the movie “The Bride and Grooms” and the phenomenal young Bradley Wilkerson Sings! Actually, a deal to record The West Virginia Symphony Orchestra fell through at the last minute, so I did the first-ever “rerun” of a segment and reused the animated video “Requiem For Pepperland” that I created–in just a couple of days–for a then-twenty-year-old demo by Go Van Gogh.

Our other musical guest, A Place of Solace, finally appeared fifty episodes after I wore one of their shirts on the show. It all comes around.  It is great to see Bradley Wilkerson at his peak and in his prime. This is how he should be remembered, not his eventual decline and sad end.

Full production notes can be found here.

photo by Chip Ellis

Your PopCulteer is still nose deep in Joelanta video and photo editing, but I did take some time out tonight to catch Kanawha Players’ production of William Mastrosimone’s searing play “Extremities.”

This is an intense emotional drama which uses the framework of rape and revenge to examine the human qualities of justice, mercy, and forgiveness. At its heart is a chilling role reversal as an attempted rapist finds himself beaten, tortured, and imprisoned by his intended victim.

This production is briskly paced and powerful, with focused direction by the team of Sheila Kerr and Ginger Basham. Penny Maple is outstanding as Marjorie, the victim turned inquisitor. Gary Lanham turns in a challenging performance, portraying Raoul, the villain turned victim in the piece. The cast is rounded out by Carrie Kirk and Michelle Goins as Marjorie’s conflicted and confused roommates.

“Extremities” is an intense drama with lots of adult language and situations. This is a great production that presents the difficult material in a daring and well thought out manner. The show can be seen at Kanawha Players Theater on March 22, 28, and 29 at 8 PM and Sunday, March 23rd at 2:00 PM. For more information, visit Kanawha Players website.

Bryan Tatum’s Harpoon Gun, limited edition diorama piece

The final stop our our Thursday JoeLanta Commander’s Package Tour last Thursday was a visit to Bryan Tatum’s house. Bryan lives down a long, winding, long single-lane dirt road. It’s the last place you’d expect to find a massive toy collection (or a tour bus like the one we rode to get there, for that matter), but that’s exactly what Bryan has.

How big is Bryan’s toy collection? He built a 5,000 square foot warehouse in which to store it. And it’s getting full.

The scary thing is that Bryan’s collection is not unlike mine in terms of taste, but the scope in incomparable. If I had one of something, he has five. If I have three, he has ten. After seeing Bryan’s collection I will never feel like I have too much stuff ever again. Amid the scattered diorama pieces and rare Adventure Team vehicles and playsets you will find just about every cool action figure released in the last twenty-five years. I’m going to have to let the video speak for itself. Just remember that the video only scratches the surface. The collection is much bigger than it looks here.

Bryan also created the incredibly cool Harpoon gun that went along with the Nautilus Gunner figure that was made for JoeLanta this year. So he’s got a huge toy collection and loads of diorama-making talent.

And he keeps his fridge stocked with Mexican Coca-Cola, too. I’m voting for him for President next time.

The PopCulteer
March 21, 2014

Don’t panic. I’m not taking a breather from PopCult. I’m resting for a moment while another video from JoeLanta is rendering. It’s a bit strange to unwind from editing what is essentially vacation videos by writing my regular Friday column, but I’m okay with strange. Normally I would be posting photos from ArtWalk here, but I have been so buried in video editing that I skipped ArtWalk last night.  The plan is to visit the galleries early next week and present a photo essay in this space next Friday.

I still haven’t quite come down from the high of JoeLanta. The trip was a blast. The people were fantastic. The experiences were priceless as I mingled with toy collectors, professional wrestlers, artists, writers, musicans and folks from Adult Swim. Rather than write a long recap here, I will be doling out videos fresh out of the computer.  The plan is to collect all of these short videos into one long comprehensive package that nobody will watch because they’ve already seen all the good parts.

However I will be peeling myself away from the computer tonight to go see “Extremities” at Kanawha Players Theater. Details are here…

I wouldn’t want to miss this show, and you shouldn’t either.

Other stuff going on tonight includes: Blue Million playing for free at Bruno’s at 9 PM;  Tribe of the Elk and EOP LIVE at the Boulevard Tavern at 10 PM; John “PD” Bird, The Super Heroes and Taste of Charleston Live at The Blue Parrot at 10 PM; and Matt Woods with Josh Morgningstar, Jeremy “Wood”Roberts and Smith and Company Live at the Empty Glass at 10 PM.

Tomorrow afternoon, it’s An Afternoon Of Austin Susman Productions Hosted By Daniel Calwell. Details are here…

Music Saturday includes Sasha Collette, cover-free at Bluegrass Kitchen at 7 PM and John Lilly at Taylor Books at 7:30 PM.

The Empty Glass presents a Freakshow…

That’s it for this short PopCulteer. Look for all our regular features and tons and tons and tons more coverage of JoeLanta.

Last Thursday, after we toured Senoia, the city where they filmed The Walking Dead “Woodbury” scenes, we stopped by to check out the incredible collection of Tim Meritt, a Georgia-based GI Joe collector who specializes in collecting mint-condition boxed items and ultra-rare pieces. Needless to say, this visit required a drool bucket as everyone on the tour saw at least one (or a dozen) items that they’d never seen in person before–and a few things that they didn’t know existed.

Many thanks to Tim and Tammy for welcoming our motely crew into their lovely home…and then back out to the second house that they built to house Tim’s collection.This was an incredible experience, like walking through a reference book of rare toys. The tour group left in a daze, but it didn’t prepare us for what was next on the trip.

Marx Toys 12″ action figure experts, Scott Stewart and Tom Heaton are joined by Rudy Panucci and Buddy Finethy to discuss Johnny West, Stony Smith and the Marx family of 1/6 scale figures.Marx produced action figures that, like GI Joe, were 1/6 scale, with adult figures standing nearly a foot tall. Unlike GI Joe, Marx figures had molded-on clothes (except for accessory pieces) and were mostly manufactured in Glen Dale, West Virginia. This makes finding rare variants and oddball short-run figures much easier since there were so many that made it out of the factory.

Scott is the man behind Stewart’s Best of The West, an ever-expanding website that compiles information on Marx action figures.  Tom is the author of several books on Marx figures and is the keeper of The Vintage Toy Room.  Both sites also offer items for sale. Recorded March 16 2014 at JoeLanta with some editing due to technical glitches with the camera.