Month: October 2014 (Page 3 of 5)

Noah and Terri Coop

The toy collecting world lost one of the good guys over the weekend. Noah Coop, known as Marxman to fans of Johnny West and the Marx action figures, succumbed to injuries suffered almost five years ago in a freak accident.

I never got to meet Noah in person. He and his wife Terri were mainstays at JohnnyCon, part of the Marx Toy Convention held each year in Wheeling, but the first year I attended in 2009, Noah stayed home to work on new projects. So I just met his wife, Terri.

Those new projects were new head sculpts and reissues of older Marx products, giving us new Marx style action figures for the first time in over thirty years. Terri and I hit it right off and Noah and I became fast friends via e-mail after the convention. We continued trading emails after his accident, and his spirit never wavered. Continue reading

Our first post-milestone show features music from WATT4 and Super Heavy Duty, plus animation from Third Mind Incarnation and a short film by Frank Panucci. With this episode, Radio Free Charleston reverts back to its original format, with a shorter running time and more frequent shows. The plan is to alternate weeks between full episodes of Radio Free Charleston, and episodes of The RFC MINI SHOW.

We shot our host segments at Riverside High School, after driving around looking for some nice fall foliage, and not finding that enough had turned yet, so we called an audible and shot in Quincy.

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So I wanted to plug this upcoming Sunday’s edition of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, but since it hasn’t happened yet, I don’t have anything from it to use as a preview. Luckily, the theme is Jack the Ripper (it’s Halloween season, you know) and I happen to have some Victorian murder mystery imagery handy.

So this week we kick off your artsyness with a digital painting based on a footage I shot back in 2008 to promote the then-upcoming Contemporary Youth Arts Company world premiere of Dan Kehde and Mark Scarpelli’s opera, Jack The Ripper. In this image you see local theater God, Ryan Hardiman, as Jack, and as Mary Kelly, Jack’s final victim, my then-fiancee, now wife, Melanie Larch. This was blown up from a low-res frame grab and was pretty much completely painted over by me, digitally.

CSI Whitechapel: Jack the Ripper Themed Life Drawing will happen Sunday, October 19 at 7 PM at Uncork and Create, on Quarrier Street across from The Quarrier Diner. Ten dollars gets you in the door to draw the models of Dr. Sketchy’s as they recreate the crime scenes that launched a million theories. It’s twenty-one and over and folks can bring their own bottles and art supplies. .

Let’s say you have an iconic movie, but almost 500 people want to remake it. The only logical thing to do is to dice the film up into tiny little segments and let every filmmaker tackle one of these itty, bitty pieces, most of which are only about fifteen seconds long. Then you put them all together into one big remake and post it on YouTube. That’s what Lucasfilm did with The Empire Strikes Back.

You can see the entire movie in HD right at the top of this post, introduced by the newly-transgendered Empress Palpatine. Of special note to PopCult readers and fans of Radio Free Charleston are two sequences done by my brother, RFC Big Shot and animator, Frank Panucci. If you’re the instant gratification type, after the jump you can see his two segments posted separately.

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For the next few weeks, instead of remastering some of our “missing” episodes of Radio Free Charleston, we’re going to get into the spirit of the season and re-present our classic Halloween shows.

This week we’ll look at the Halloween specials from our first three years. You will see classic RFC performances by Clownhole, Whistlepunk, half the Pistol Whippers, Lil’ Guy from South Park Enteprises, Big Money, Go Van Gogh, Under The Radar, and more, plus all sorts of scary animation and guest appearances. Next week we’ll bring you even more RFC Halloween Madness, including what many people consider our finest show.

2006

Our first two-parter, now combined into one show. See Rudy Panucci get killed and resurrected as a ghost.

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The PopCulteer
October 10, 2014

We have some cool stuff to tell you about this week, some of it happy, some of it bittersweet.

The Frank

The Frank is a music video. But it’s not your average music video. Available on DVD with plenty of extras to justify the cost, The Frank comes from the folks behind Mystery Science Theater 3000, and it’s perfect viewing for any Halloween party.

There’s a cool short film that sets up what is essentially an updated take on “The Monster Mash.” This was written by Trace Beaulieu and Frank Coniff (Dr. Forester and TV’s Frank, from MST3K) and David “Gruber” Allen. Other MST3K alumni in small roles include Mary Jo Pehl, Bill Corbett, J. Elvis Weinstein and the voice of Joel Hodgeson.

Obviously this is a must-have item for fans of Mystery Science Theater. It’s also family-friendly, but not in a sickeningly sweet way. The TVTV puppets are on hand for added comedic support, and the whole music video runs about ten minutes. Continue reading

The PopCult Bookshelf

Your Popculteer is facing down some demon deadlines this week and has not had time to read much, so in this week’s PopCult Bookshelf we’re just going to recommend a Kickstarter campaign for new work by Steve Ditko, the legendary creator of Spider-man, Dr. Strange, Hawk and Dove, Shade the Changing Man and The Question, among many others.

The new book, in collaboration with Robin Snyder, is “#2oww1.” This brand-new title features the return of The Outline, The Gray Negotiator, The !? and more. Hopefully, by next week we’ll be able to bring you a fresh review.

Just in case you came here looking for The RFC MINI SHOW or our music video of the Charleston Rod Run Doo Wop Car Show, here they are again…

Read more about our show with the Velvet Brothers HERE.

Read more about the car clip, and take a look at a photo essay on the subject HERE.

There is a lot happening in Charleston’s Comedy scene over the next couple of weeks. We’ll catch you up to date today and help you plan how to spend your comedy dollars.

Thursday night, October 9, The Empty Glass welcomes national touring comedians Brian Barganier and Jerry Morgan, with support from local CELEBRITY, Andy Frampton. The night will be hosted by Patrick Felton. 

Bargainier is the founder of the Original Black Jews of Japan comedy troupe. He’s been tearing up the comedy scenes in New York City and all along the east coast. The Connecticut native’s style runs comfortably on the edge of conventional and alternative comedy. He is described mostly as what can be called “planned carelessness,” Although he is seen as being morbid or crude sometimes,Brian always manages to pull a 180 and find the humor in topics that sometimes seem untouchable. In 2012 he released his first cd “Grilled Cheese and Orgies” and recently released his first full length album: “Kinda Ready to Die” Continue reading

Over the last few weeks the stories started circulating. It’s that time of year when all the toy retailers and a few dubious toy experts put out press releases touting which toys are the ones that “all the kids” will want this Christmas.

These lists are all bogus. Some of them are no more than lists of toys that the toymakers pay the listmakers to include on their lists. Others are lists of what the retailers hope will be hot toys because they’ve over-ordered them.

None of these lists are the result of serious market research to determine what kids want. Lists like these are a component of the marketing campaign for the toy companies. That the same toys show up on different lists is just proof of how much money the toy company budgeted for promotion. At least Lego has the decency to promote a different construction set with each retailer.

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