Month: December 2014 (Page 4 of 5)

Slate Dump

It’s week five of the audio version of Radio Free Charleston on New Appalachian Radio. You can listen to this week’s show streaming Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM, Thursday at midnight and early Sunday morning at 2 AM. Our archived shows can be found HERE.

This week the theme of our second hour is the music of Slate Dump, as peformed by his friends. Slate Dump is a one-man band and songwriter who originally hailed from Southern West Virginia. He also kicks off the show this week.

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

Our playlist:

Slate Dump “Co-Dependent Shuffle”
Mark Beckner “Ain’t It Hard”
Kenneth Brian Band with Lillie Mae Rische “Last Call”
Southern Culture On The Skids “King of the Mountain”

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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.

Host segments were shot in the Lee Street Parking Building at The Charleston Town Center…for no reason.

Chad Foss and Sean Sydnor

I was digging around in my archives looking for cool stuff to feature on the new audio version of Radio Free Charleston on New Appalachian Radio and I found footage that I shot in March, 2011 of Chad Foss and Sean Sydnor. I’ve used material that we recorded that night on Radio Free Charleston before, and earlier this year we used more on an episode of The RFC MINI SHOW, but there was one great song that hadn’t seen the light of day yet, so now we bring you Chad Foss and Sean Sydnor with a cover of “Where I’m Going” by Down. Continue reading

We kick off this week of Popcult with a digital painting of a non-existent vinyl record album, which came on non-existent red vinyl. There’s really not much more to say than that. Click to enlarge. A new episode of Radio Free Charleston will appear in PopCult later Monday morning.

The Brian Setzer Orchestra, the Big Band outfit led by the former leader of 1980’s Rockabilly revivalists, The Stray Cats, are currently on tour doing their annual Christmas show. Saturday night they were in Charlotte, North Carolina, and one of my Facebook friends was posting enthusiastically about how great the show was.

So my question is, why the hell hasn’t anyone tried to book The Brian Setzer Orchestra into The Clay Center? Since that hasn’t happened yet, tonight’s video is The BSO live in Tokyo, from back in 2001. See, Clay Center! See how cool this would be?

So make it happen, already.

We are wrapping up the 2014 PopCult Gift Guide (not really, we’re going to do one more post on last-minute ideas next week) with some of the weirdest gift ideas out there this year.

These are gifts to get for your loved one about whom you worry, sometimes. Or, if you want to make someone worry about you, just give them one of these really, really cool, but really, really inappropriate Christmas gifts. Links are provided for the best online price I could find.

The Walking Dead: The Governor’s Victim Cookie Jar
Entertainment Earth

Need somewhere to keep your rations safe from walkers and/or other survivors? The Walking Dead The Governor’s Victim Cookie Jar could be just what you’re looking for! With a chilling design based on The Governor’s fish tanks in the smash hit AMC TV show, this officially licensed and branded metal cookie jar is a must have for any The Walking Dead fan or collector. Measures approximately 8 1/2-inces tall x 6-inch diameter. Ages 14 and up!

BIGFOOT RESEARCH KIT
Archie McPhee

You could search for Bigfoot by just randomly walking around in the forest screaming “Bigfoot” at the top of your lungs or you could use science! Our Bigfoot Research Kit contains items that easily double (maybe triple!) your chances of finding Bigfoot. Probably the most helpful advice is in the included informational booklet. It lets you in on the secret that Bigfoot is an introvert, so he’s cool if you’re mellow, but don’t come on all harsh and huggy. So, how do you approach Bigfoot? You have to buy this kit to find out! Comes in a 7″ x 5″ x 1-1/2″ decorated cardboard box that contains stickers, a membership card, evidence flags, the previously mentioned informational booklet, field journal, a magnifier and scat bags. This will make your inner 10-year-old, or an actual 10-year-old, very happy.

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Above it’s our first Radio Free Charleston Christmas show, episode eleven from 2006, with music from Clownhole and Melanie Larch and lots of animation and weird stuff, hosted from the original location of The Purple Moon.

Below it’s Christmas 2012, hosted from the Marx Toy Museum in Moundsville, with music from The Charleston Gay Mens Chorale, the cast of MARY, Prank Monkey and the duo of Pepper Fandango and Lee Harrah. There’s also animation and a holiday message from Razor Sharp Studios.

We’re going to bring you more of our Radio Free Charleston holiday classics every Saturday in September, and you should check out the audio version of Radio Free Charleston the week of Christmas for two hours of local holiday music.

The PopCulteer
December 5, 2014

It’s hard to believe that this is the ninth annual PopCult Gift Guide, but it is and now I feel old. As in previous years, I will devote one entire entry to local products, merchants, restaurants and causes. This is it. I hope it helps you get some ideas.

First up we have some opportunities for you to partonize local artists at special events. Today and tomorrow at UUC we have the 12th annual River Arts Show and Sale. This evening from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM and tomorrow from 10:00 am to 4:00 PM you can find an instant Holiday Gift Boutique in a setting with wonderful ambiance and atmosphere featuring over 25 Artisans and great live music throughout. Admission is $2, and that includes one Raffle Ticket for a chance to win work by selected artists. Friday evening hosts a wine and hors d’oeuvres for an artists reception and the official CD release by singer songwriter (and RFC guest), Dina Hornbaker.

Saturday’s open fair features a gourmet lunch.Childcare will be offered for children under 7 on Friday from 6:30-8:30pm and on Saturday afternoon, 2:30-4:00pm. At this sale you will find Gift Certificates for local business and Music CD’s by local artists. Plus there will plenty of art, jewelry and more so you can spread good will and support our local economy.

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Sayre and Wolfe, Klinging on

So last summer some of my good friends got to do something really, really cool. They got to go to Ticonderoga, New York to appear in an episode of Star Trek New Voyages, a fan-made series that chronicles the fifth year of The Starship Enterprise’s five-year mission.

You may recall that The Original Series only ran for three seasons, so there’s plenty of territory left to explore.To learn more about Star Trek New Voyages, visit their website, and maybe hit that donate button to keep the project alive. This is a fan-made production, so the producers aren’t allowed to make a penny on the show.

In the episode, “Mind Sifter,” which you see at the top of this post, you will see Clay Sayre, Robert Withrow and Mark Wolfe, along with the make-up wizardry of Dale Morton, all on screen interacting with Kirk, Spock, Bones and the crew. This was a dream come true for these life-long Star Trek fanatics. PopCult is happy to be the first local blog to bring you this great episode, which was just released online four days ago.

Sayre as Kor, Wolfe as a Klingon guard, in the background

I’m good friends with Mark Wolfe and Dale Morton, and met Clay Sayre at JoeLanta last March. It’s a real kick that they got to live our their childhood dreams and be part of this project. Mark told me about it last June, a week before he was set to travel to the set. He’d joined me on a road trip to Moundsville with Melanie Larch and Lee Harrah. We had a lot of fun that day, but you could tell that Mark was chomping at the bit to be on Star Trek the next week.

In the above episode, Clay is the Klingon, Kor, while Mark is one of the Klingon guards. Robert Withrow returns as Admiral Withrow, a role he’s played before on the show. It’s almost like finding a never-before-seen episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. The producers perfectly recreate the sets, lighting, pacing and mood of the original show.

It’s cool to get to see your friends become involved in something this special.

Mark Wolfe (right) and another Klingon shove Kirk in your face

The PopCult Bookshelf

We’re going to look back at some of the books we’ve reviewed this year that would make great gifts, but we’re kicking off with a recommendation for two books, one of which was guest-reviewed by Mrs. PopCult, Melanie Larch, and one of which will also be reviewed by Mel next week:

Crime Cats by Wolfgang Parker
Vol 1 Missing
ISBN-13: 978-0615984698
Vol. 2 The Dusenbury Curse
ISBN-13: 978-0692318065

Our first pick is a pair of novels aimed at readers aged 8-12  about Crime-fighting cats in Columbus. Written by musician and artist, Wolfgang Parker, these books chronicle the adventures of young Jonas Shurmann and his feline partners, CatBob, and Neil Higgins as they solve mysteries in the Clintonville area of Ohio’s Capitol City.

These books are loads of fun and you can read Mel’s review of The Dusenbury Curse next week in The PopCult Bookshelf. A portion of the profits from every new or digital sale of Crime Cats will go to the Crime Cats Relief Fund: a private charity that issues grants to help with medical care expenses for South Clintonville’s community cats.

Popeye: The Classic Newspaper Comics by Bobby London
Volume One: ISBN-13: 978-1613778746
Volume Two: ISBN-13: 978-1631401299

Bobby London is a legendary Underground Cartoonist who’s famous for his work for The National Lampoon and Playboy Magazine, as well as being one of the infamous “Air Pirates” who were sued by Disney in the 1970s. In 1986 he was hired to take over the Popeye daily comic strip, and it was a match made in heaven.

London turned out to be the perfect choice whose writing and drawing style perfectly fit the character. London managed a perfect synthesis of Popeye’s three previous comic strip artists–E. C. Segar, Bud Sagendorff, and Bela Zaboly. He managed this while still retaining his own unique style. Six year into his run, after continued friction with King Features Syndicate, he was fired in the middle of a hilarious storyline where someone eavesdropping on Olive Oyl thinks that she’s planning an abortion.

These two volumes collect London’s entire run on the strip, including several weeks that were never published after he was fired. It’s a bit ironic that we’re just now getting to see about six week’s worth of strips that were “aborted” when he was fired. They wrap up the whole controversial storyline.

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Above you see this week’s new episode of The RFC MINI SHOW starring Raymond Wallace. Read more about it HERE.