Rudy Panucci On Pop Culture

Month: April 2014 (Page 1 of 5)

Messing With Telemarketers

or “My Daddy-in-law makes salmon!”

salmon-atlanticIf you’ve read PopCult for any length of time you know that I have a serious dislike for, and an unusual tendency to attract, telemarketers. I get at least a couple of calls a day. I get so many illegal, unsolicited telemarketing calls that I’ve worn out a couple of air horns on them.

In truth, the phone companies love these telemarketers. If it weren’t for them, the vast majority of people who pay fifteen bucks a month for Caller ID would dump that service and save their money. Phone companies will never do anything to stop annoying robocalls or illegal telemarketers. Cell phone service providers actually charge you for getting these calls.

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The PopCult Toybox: Even More Updates

1actioneliteNo sooner do we update you on Captain Action and MEGO-style action figures when a load of news breaks on both subjects. So let’s update you again.

Captain Action Enterprises announced a new partnership with Go Hero, Executive Replicas and Phicen Ltd to release a line of what will likely be very expensive, 1/6 scale action figures based on Captain Action. “Captain Action Elite” is the name of the new line. What’s most striking about this announcement is the lack of details. There’s no word on price, though most observers expect each figure in the line to be in the $100 to $200 range.

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This is really cool, but the price isn’t

One upcoming figure from Go Hero, Executive Replicas and Phicen, an ultra-detailed depiction of “Rocketman” from the movie serials, is set to retail for $320.

At that price, collectors might opt for vintage figures instead. We are still waiting for some kind of announcements about price, though, so they may have some surprises up their sleeves.

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RFC MINI SHOW with Jody Herndon

Jody 01Jody Herndon is a very talented singer/songwriter, and he’s also one of the driving forces behind Voices of Appalachia and New Appalachian Radio. We caught up with Jody at a special evening of local music hosted by Little Nomad at The Empty Glass. Coincidentally, you can catch Jody again this Wednesday at The Empty Glass at another showcase hosted by Little Nomad, which really ought to become a regular thing.

You will see Little Nomad and the other artists we recorded that night on future installments of Radio Free Charleston and The RFC MINI SHOW, and Little Nomad will also be hosting the Monday Night Open Mic at The Empty Glass on May 12.

Getting back to Jody, he’s written some striking tunes and we happily bring two of them to you this week in the MINI SHOW. Lifting a bit from his bio page, “Jody started writing songs when he was fourteen years old and quickly learned that he had a passion for words. When he went to college he encountered a song writer that changed him forever: Mike Morningstar. Mike’s honesty and eloquence about the beauty of West Virginia, and even more so, the beauty of West Virginians has kept Jody in these mountains singing about life from a Mountaineer’s perspective.”

Check back with PopCult because sometime in the coming weeks we will bring you more information on New Appalachian Radio and Voices of Appalachia. For now, you can check them out at the provided links.

Monday Morning Art: More Paco

Paco face 011

This week we are going back to the latest session of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School for another look at Burlesque master, Paco Fish. This is another quickie digital painting done specifically for PopCult. In the next few weeks I will be revisiting this session again when I actually have time to sit down and do some more involved artwork. Until then, click this to enlarge, and come back later Monday morning for the new RFC MINI SHOW starring Jody Herndon.

Sunday Evening Video: The Terra Firma Ensemble

As promised, today we present the entire Kanawha Forum performance from April 9, 2014, by The Terra Firma Ensemble. We have brought you two-thirds of this performance on Radio Free Charleston and the RFC MINI SHOW, but this video collects the entire concert, in order, complete with the entrance and applause.

The Terra Firma Ensemble was recorded at The Kanawha Forum at Kanawha United Presbyterian Church on Quarrier Street. The Terra Firma Ensemble is Jim Lange, David Porter, J. Scott Milam, Lisa Peery, John Inghram and Ryan Kennedy. The Kanawha Forum is a series of Wednesday concerts that offer up free half-hour lunch performances at the church, which are followed by a paid gourmet meal, which is optional.

At this particular edition of The Kanawha Forum, The Terra Firma Ensemble performed three pieces: “Innocente,” by Ralph Towner and Gary Burton; “Invocation,” by Robert Fripp and the world premiere of “Brambles and Briers,” a piece composed by Jim Lange. In this video wel bring you the entire program from The Terra Firma Ensemble’s Kanawha Forum peformance, with all three pieces presented in order.

It was an honor to be present for the world premiere of Jim’s piece, and it is also our honor to bring you the entire concert as our Sunday Evening Video

Music To Do Saturday

We are just going to hit a few of the many musical highlights in and around Charleston this evening. As usual, there’s way the heck too much happening at the same time. We really need cloning machines.

10269508_286642261498067_9124557894982444150_nBeggar’s Clan brings their extremely cool music to the 13th Lane Taproom at Dunbar Lanes, where you will also find a “Dude Lookalike Contest,” celebrating “The Big Lebowski.” The show kicks off at 9 PM and it’s only five bucks to get in.

The amazing Bluegrass band, The Poor Taters, will appear at The Boulevard Tavern at 10 PM, also with a five-dollar cover. This is a band that has to be heard to be believed, and is a lot of fun.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. You really need to get out and SUPPORT THE LOCAL SCENCE! We have an abundance of incredible musicians in this town. Now we need to provide them with the audience they deserve.

Art To Do Saturday

Tintypes at BGK

Tintypes at BGK

We have two really cool art events happening tonight in Charleston. Clement Photography will set up at Bluegrass Kitchen to take tintype photos, and The Art Store will have their last opening in South Hills before they make the move downtown to Hale Street.

On the road from their base in Portland, Oregon, Clement Photography is in town and tonight they bring their tintype studio to Bluegrass Kitchen in Charleston! They will be making one of a kind portraits from 5-11pm.  4×5 tintypes are 40$ which includes a digital scan and the original metal plate that will last for generations. This is a very cool thing to have, and the price is very low for a tintype photo.  After you get your portrait made, stick around and have dinner. It’s BGK. You know it’s good.

The last waltz on the hill for The Art Store

The last waltz on the hill for The Art Store

The Art Store is celebrating its last opening event at their South Hills gallery with a selection of works by their represented artists,  titled “Going,” opening Saturday, April 26th from 5:30PM to 7:30PM. The event will celebrate TheArt Store’s time on Bridge Road with a trip down memory lane. This will include visuals from throughout their history in South Hills as well as highlight some elements of the future gallery space on Hale Street in downtown Charleston.

The show focuses on art pieces from the classic Art Store artists, many of whom have been with The Art Store for more than 30 years. The featured artists include Ellie Schaul, Helen Chilton, Stephen Smigocki, Maggie Starcher, Caryl Toth, Harold Edwards, George Snyder, Jennifer Snyder, Katherine Cox, Jan Griffin, Allen Jonas, Caroline Jennings, Nancy Berlin, Susan Poffenbarger, Katherine Kadish, Barbara Marsh Wilson, Diane White, Grace Martin Taylor, Henry Isaacs, Jason Berger, June Kilgore, Helma Groot, Jim Gibson, Susan Petryszak, David Stern, Ed Kellogg, Selina Trieff, Steven Barbash, David Riffle, Sue Wood, Chris Dutch & Robin Hammer. The exhibition will continue until the gallery moves in May. The Art Store will hold their first opening at their new location, which will also be their first Art Walk, on June 26th and they will participate in this years’ FestiVALL on June 28th and 29th, all at 233 Hale Street.

 

Stuff To Do: Movie Premiere Tonight

10174975_10152056686218657_5781791650271568545_nLast weekend, RFC contributing animator, Jake Fertig, and his pals from Rival Cards and Games in Kanawha City decided to make a movie. So they did. Shot over a few hours last weekend, “The Krusaders of Kanawha Valley” will have its red carpet WORLD PREMIERE tonight at 10 PM at Rival Cards and Games, 5206 1/2 MacCorkle Ave S.E., in Kanawha City.

As they say on the event page, “It is the premier of a feature film we made in a few hours over a couple of days with a camera. It is really funny and you should come. It is about knights looking for nazi dragons that steal peanut butter. Dates and times may vario. Stay tuned.”

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RFC Flashback: Episode 76

Radio Free Charleston’s 76th episode, “Peace Sign Shirt,” was the last episode of the show hosted on the Charleston Gazette servers, and it features two long songs by Option 22 and Suburban Graffiti, punctuated by a Plant Ro Duction Mini Movie, and a couple of important announcements.

The remastering of this show involved me going in and doing some major post-production surgury on the Suburban Graffiti song. Don’t get me wrong–the song is great, but my recording of it left a lot to be desired.I was just learning to use the Zoom H4 at this point and ran the lines in to the recorder too hot, leaving us with a shrill, yet muddy sound. I went back in and through the wonders of digital filters and compression made the song more listenable, but it still doesn’t quite do the group justice.

Option 22 fared better, since we had a great recording to begin with.

After this episode of RFC, we began posting the show directly to MySpace, which turned out to be a disaster when they unceremoniously dumped all their video uploads, which is why we now find ourselves remastering and re-uploading the older episodes of the show to YouTube.

You can find the original production notes HERE.

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