Month: December 2014 (Page 3 of 5)

In a special performance run at the West Virginia Culture Center at The State Capitol Complex, The Charleston Light Opera Guild presents a holiday treat for the entire family, Miracle on 34th Street: The Musical. This is a delightul musical version of the beloved holiday classic, presented live on stage.

See what happens when the world dares to regain some of its childhood innocence. Macy’s department store hires the perfect Santa, then has to deal with the fallout when it turns out that the man they hired for the job, one Kris Kringle, actually believes he is Santa Claus. The true spirit of Christmas comes to life as Mr. Kringle makes a convincing case and brings the real meaning of the holiday to the hearts of everyone and proves that miracles DO happen.

Performances are scheduled for December 19, 20, 26 and 27, 2014 at 7:00 PM and December 21 and 28, 2014 at 2:00 PM in the Culture Center Theater at the West Virginia State Capitol Complex

Your host, at the time of the original RFC broadcasts

This week Radio Free Charleston on New Appalachian Radio offers up an hour of great local and regional music, and then dives deep back into the archives to bring you an hour of reconstructed Radio Free Charleston as broadcast over the air on WVNS Radio in the spring of 1990. It gets a little crazy. You’ll hear your PopCulteer play drums while, in another song, RFC Big Shot (and ace drummer), Brian Young, sings and plays guitar.

Update: You can listen to this show now in the Voices of Appalachia archive HERE.

I used parts of two shows so that new listeners of RFCv3 can get an idea of what the original Radio Free Charleston program was like. It was basically a free-format show with a heavy mix of alternative rock and local music, and it aired live at 2 AM late Saturday night/Sunday morning.

You can listen to Radio Free Charleston’s new audio incarnation streaming at 10 AM and 10 PM on Tuesdays (and again at midnight Thursday and 2 AM Saturday night) at New Appalachian Radio, part of Voices of Appalachia. If you miss it, check our the archives for previously-aired shows.

This week, our first hour playlist is as follows:

Ann Magnuson
“This Nothing Life”
Geronimo
“F.M.”
Red Audio
“Girl From Outer Space”
Super Heavy Duty
“On My Own”

Science of the Mind
“Toxic Waste”
A Place of Solace
“Prayers”
WATT 4
“Bad Situation”
John Lancaster
“A Burning Farewell To Us All”

Continue reading

Total Meltown at DigiSo

This week’s RFC MINI SHOW brings you two great songs performed by Total Meltdown. Total Meltdown is a band that uses traditional mountain instruments to interpret modern songs in a progressive instrumental style all their own.

The band consists of Jeremy Davis, Paul Payne, Jamie Bailey, Kevin Swafford and Parrish French. They’ve been on the RFC radar for months, and we finally got the chance to capture them when they went in for a recording session at WVSU EDC/ DigiSo.

Thanks to Eric Meadows and Voices of Appalachia, we were able to swoop in and grab a couple of tunes to bring our Radio Free Charleston audience. This is the first “studio” version of The RFC MINI SHOW, and I’m pretty happy with the way it came out. I might have used my “Digital Interference” filter too much when editing the performance, but that’s what you do with new toys.

In this episode of The MINI SHOW, you’ll hear Total Meltdown with their versions of “Pictures of You,” by the Cure, and “Sweet Child of Mine,” by Guns and Roses.

Extra note: This episode is numbered “forty-five” on screen, but is, in fact, the forty-fourth episode of The RFC MINI SHOW. It’s been nearly a year since we mis-numbered an episode of the MINI SHOW, so we were due.

This week our art is a double-shot of new takes on old Monday Morning Art pieces. Above you see a new version of my psychedelic take on The Union Building, done up in digital oils a bit more Gothic this time.

Below you find a radically new take on a piece I rejected before. Click ’em both to see larger versions, and check back with PopCult later today for The RFC MINI SHOW starring Total Meltdown.

Above you see the film, “A Kitten For Hitler,” a short holiday film written on a dare by the late director Ken Russell. In a 2007 interview Russell explained how the film came about: “Ten years ago, Melvyn Bragg and I had a heated discussion on the pros and cons of film censorship. Broadly speaking, Melvyn was against it, while I, much to his surprise, was absolutely for it. He then dared me to write a script that I thought should be banned. I accepted the challenge and a month or so later sent him a short subject entitled A Kitten for Hitler. ‘Ken,’ he said, ‘if ever you make this film and it is shown, you will be lynched’.”

The result is a low-budget, self-indulgent sophomoric work of genius. Deliberately as offensive as possible, this short film tells the tale of a young Jewish boy who thinks that Hitler wouldn’t be such a bad man, if only he’d gotten a good Christmas present. You will groan loudly as the story unfolds and whether or not you make it to the end is dependent on how tolerant you are of work that is awful on purpose. You will either laugh yourself silly or be deeply, deeply offended.

Melanie Larch fronts The Diablo Blues Band

This week on the RFC Flashback, you will see the much-anticipated (at the time) 2009 Christmas episode of Radio Free Charleston. Being a Christmas show, there was only one thing we could call this edition of RFC–”Terry Funk Shirt.” This extra-long episode is packed with music from Molly Means, Joseph Hale, Todd Burge, and Melanie Larch with The Diablo Blues Band. There’s also some classic animation from the British studio Halas and Batchelor, plus a news flash about a visit from Saint Sputnik.

Coincidentally, Joseph and Todd’s songs were recorded at The Boulevard Tavern. We returned to the Tavern for Last year’s Christmas show, with two festive songs from The Bob Thompson Unit. You can see RFC 194 below. The show also has a great holiday tune from Frenchy and the Punk and animation from Jake Fertig.

The PopCult Bookshelf

PopCult Note: As promised in last week’s PopCult Gift Guide, this week in the PopCult Bookshelf we once again turn the reigns over to Mrs. PopCult, Melanie Larch, who will guest review the second volume of Wolfgang Parker’s “Crime Cats” book series. Tomorrow’s PopCulteer will feature a follow-up to our coverage of the recent “Batfauxbile” controversy, then we should be back to whatever passes for normal next week, just in time for the holidays.

The Dusenbury Curse (Crime Cats, Volume 2)
Written and Illustrated by Wolfgang Parker
ISBN-13: 978-0692318065
$6.99

When a mysterious Phantom, a strange hooded figure, and a 100 year old curse connected to an abandoned amusement park come face to face with ordinary boy with the ability to hear cats talk, the result is “The Dusenbury Curse.” This is the second book in the “Crime Cats” series by Columbus, OH based artist and musician, Wolfgang Parker and it’s a thoroughly engrossing mystery.

“The Dusenbury Curse” brings us back to the real life Columbus neighborhood of Clintonville, where Jonas Shurman (the aforementioned boy who can hear cats talk) and his feline partners CatBob and Neil Higgins must come to the aid of their friend and neighbor, Orville Dusenbury. Financial straits have forced him to sell the land on which the abandoned amusement park sits, both of which have been in his family for several generations.

The potential sale raises the ire of the ‘White Phantom’, a mysterious presence which has tormented the Dusenburys for years–and now it’s out to exact revenge on Orville. Matters are complicated further by the vengeful Phantom’s feline minions and the hooded figure who follows Jonas, CatBob and Neil as they race to solve the mystery surrounding the title curse and save their friend. Continue reading

Up there, that’s “Dread Crew of Oddwood Shirt,” episode 205 of Radio Free Charleston. This week we have a great show with music from Chad Foss and Sean Sydnor, The Big Bad and Travis Egnor, plus a new Prelinger compilation from Frank Panucci, but first we lead off with a couple of cool vintage toy commercials. Read more about it HERE.

Remember to tune into New Appalachian Radio, streaming at Voices of Appalachia, for this week’s audio version of Radio Free Charleston. It replays Thursday at Midnight and early Sunday morning at 2 AM. Read the playlist HERE.

Below you see a prmotional clip for “A Christmas Carol.” It opens Friday at The Alban Arts Center. Read more about it HERE.

The PopCult Toybox

The Return of Tim Mee Toys

Tim Mee Toys is a brand name that a lot of folks may remember from their childhood. They made tons of cool plastic toys like Green Army Men, dinosaurs, Cowboys and space toys. They were owned by Processed Plastics, who de-emphasized the Tim Mee Toys name sometime around 1980. A few years ago their parent company, hammered by cheap competition from Chinese toy companies, declared bankruptcy and was liquidated.

But that was not the end of Tim Mee Toys. They were purchased out of liquidation by J. Lloyd International, and in recent years have been reborn. They’ve restored and refurbished their old molds and tooling, and are producing some of the coolest toys from decades past, all under the much-missed Tim Mee Toys banner. They’re also producing these toys in bold new colors along with the old favorites. What’s more impressive is that they’re doing this in the USA. Instead of shipping the molds overseas, Tim Mee Toys is once again selling Made in America Army Men, dinosaurs and other cool toys. Continue reading

“Let us honor Christmas in our hearts, and try to keep it all the year.” 

John Johnson stars as Charles Dickens in The Alban Arts Center production of “A Christmas Carol, opening Friday.  A large, talented cast brings the Dickens classic to life in a stage play that incorporates the author himself as the narrator of the tale of Ebeneezer Scrooge and his fateful Christmas Even visitations. John Halstead Portrays Scrooge.

The show runs December 12, 13, 14, 19, 20 and 21, with the Friday and Saturday shows at 8 PM and the Sunday matinees at 2 PM. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for children and seniors. You can purchase tickets in advance and learn more about this production at The Alban Arts Center website.

We just shot this promo clip Monday night and it looks like this will be an incredible production.

The PopCult Toybox will be posted Wednesday afternoon this week.