Month: May 2015 (Page 3 of 4)

The PopCult Bookshelf

VHS: Video Cover Art 1980s to Early 1990s
by Thomas “The Dude Designs” Hodge
Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
ISBN9780764348679
$34.99

A couple of months ago I wrote about a Roku channel called Bizarre TV. Fans of that channel, and B-movies everywhere, will love VHS: Video Cover Art 1980s to Early 1990s. This is an art book, but it’s got quite a twist. This book is a celebration of VHS packaging from the 1980s that was designed to pitch cheesy movies to movie rental store patrons. This is “lowbrow” even by Lowbrow Art standards.

Who could forget this classic?

Thomas Hodge has collected a treasure trove of lurid, sleazy, exploitive and in some cases misleading examples of VHS wrap-around cover art. This is like a trip back in time to a really cheesy art gallery…and it’s great!

He is based in the UK, which adds some extra charm as the movies have the 1980s British ratings codes on them. This is also a little disorienting, in a pleasant way, because a few of the movies were released with different titles in the US.

Linda Blair in a tropical women’s prison? How did this not win an OSCAR?

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The PopCult Toybox

A new game was released today, and the press release cracked us up so much here at PopCult that we decided to just run it as is…

Ideas Never Implemented (INI), LLC today announced the launch of its newest card game Never Have I Ever® – The Game of Poor Life Decisions™. The game, which uncovers the “dirt” on friends, family, and co-workers, can now be purchased for $25.00 MSRP on Amazon.com and in Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Spencer Gifts, and select specialty toy and gift stores across the U.S.

“When I created Never Have I Ever, I envisioned it as a way for people to get to know each other on another level and uncover stories they wouldn’t have otherwise,” said INI CEO & Founder Jay Vohra. “I am eager for the game to spice up parties and help foster new friendships across the country.”

Never Have I Ever takes the traditional party game to the next level by providing hundreds of prompts designed to relive life’s funny, embarrassing, and awkward moments. In addition to inspiring players with unique scenarios to help uncover those hidden stories, the game introduces a competitive element to up the ante, called “the wall of shame.”

Intended for 4 to 12 players from ages 17 and up, Never Have I Ever’s instructions are simple. Each player is dealt 10 Play Cards and a pile of Rule Cards sits on the table. The person starting the game picks a Rule Card from the pile, reads the directions aloud, and all the players do what the Rule Card says. If you are not guilty of the Play Card, you discard it. If you are guilty of the Play Card, you get to keep it. The first person to have 10 Play Cards in front of them wins. The only rule? No judgment.

To get in on the fun, pick up a Never Have I Ever set at your nearest in-store location or download a free printable version at www.neverhaveievergame.com. The game’s probing prompts are also available as a free app in the App Store on iTunes, the Google Play store and Amazon.com. You can connect with Never Have I Ever on Facebook at facebook.com/NHIEgame, on Twitter at twitter.com/NHIEgame, or on YouTube at the Never Have I Ever Game channel.

That sounds cool, and we know lots of people who have spent their entire lives practicing for this game. Actually it sounds like a fun cross between Scruples and Cards Against Humanity, so it might well be worth checking out.

A PopCult Toybox note: This Saturday we are going to run a detailed review of the 50th Anniversary Johnny West, complete with details on how you can order one for yourself. If all goes according to plan, we’ll also have pictures from a BIG-TIME GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER!

The bugs are worked out and you can hear this week’s streaming Radio Free Charleston on New Appalachian Radio tonight at 10 PM and in our usual repeats Thursday and Saturday at midnight. In addition, since we missed this morning’s broadcast, you can hear this show, for one week only, Wednesday at noon.

This week we bring you an hour of great local music from a variety of incredible regional bands, and our second-hour theme this week will catch us up on songs from recent editions of The RFC MINI SHOW.

Most weeks, you can listen to Radio Free Charleston’s streaming radio incarnation at 10 AM and 10 PM on Tuesdays (and again at midnight Thursday) at New Appalachian Radio, part of Voices of Appalachia. If you miss it, check our the archives for previously-aired shows. You can also listen to Radio Free Charleston Saturday at Midnight. Saturday, RFC airs for six hours, starting at midnight.

As you probably know, The RFC MINI SHOW is our companion program to the video incarnation of RFC. Instead of bringing you a whole bunch of different acts and mixing them up with short films, animation and weird stuff, we just focus on one band and bring you about ten minutes worth of music. Back in March we put together a whole show of tunes from the MINI SHOW, and this week we’re going to play catch up and bring you music from all the shows we’ve done since that one.

Kicking the show off, though, we have brand new music from Time And Distance.

Time And Distance “Live A Lie”
Westerberg High “Walking With A Ghost”
Hellblinki “Rust”
Charlie West All Stars “Frankenstein”

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Due to an unexpected glitch, we are having trouble bringing you the newest episode of Radio Free Charleston on New Appalachian Radio this week at 10 AM. We will work hard to try and get the bugs worked out in time for it to run in the normal 10 PM replay slot tonight, right after Empty Glass Records Presents. In the meantime for this morning’s show, we’re going to revisit the third episode of the show, from last November. This was the first show where we expanded to two-hours, and offered up a theme for our second hour.

This week you can tune in to Radio Free Charleston at New Appalachia Radio and hear the show stream at 10 AM. Or, you can listen to this show now in the Voices of Appalachia archive HERE.

You can listen to New Appalchia Radio HERE and look for our archived shows HERE.

The theme in the second hour of episode three was “Live at The Empty Glass,” which should indicate that this show aired before Empty Glass Records Presents was a program on the schedule each week.  All of the music in our second hour was recorded live at the legendary East End music venue. Much of it was provided by our friends at Empty Glass Records, but some of it was dredged up from the RFC Archives.

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Since we don’t know how long we’ll be able to post today with limited power at The Gazette, we’re combining both of our usual Monday posts into one. Up above you see Pepper Fandango dancing to the music of HoboClay.com, as interpreted in digital paint by yours truly. Click to enlarge.

Below you will find The RFC MINI SHOW starring HoboClay.com, with guest dancing by Pepper Fandango and Kitty Killton.

Recorded the day before Valentine’s Day last February, this edition of The RFC MINI SHOW may not be safe for work, but it sure is easy on the eyes. HoboClay.com performs two songs: One, a cover of “You Can Leave Your Hat On,” the other an original song, “Drink To Your Breasts.”

Joining HoboClay.com for these performances are Pepper Fandango and Kitty Killton of Wayward BurlyQ. Pepper dances solo for “Hat,” while the two bring the second song to life with a spirited dance duet.

These are burlesque performances, so steer clear if you’re easily offended. There is no nudity, but there’s lots of damn-near nudity, so proceed at your own risk.

HoboClay.com will be opening for Spurgie Hankins Band every Tuesday at The Empty Glass. Pepper and Kitty of Wayward BurlyQ (formerly The Wayward Girls School of Burlesque) will perform new routines Wednesday night at The Empty Glass as part of The Vagabong Variety show Live at the Empty Glass along with big-time MTV comedian Brian Bargainier and music from GypsyRythm. Five bucks gets you in the door for a show that starts at 9 PM at The Empty Glass.

Burlesque is an art form. It doesn’t get the respect that it deserves because some people just can’t manage to see beyond the stripping-nekkid aspect of it, and miss the finer nuances of acting, story-telling, dance, costuming and performance art. Tonight we’re going to bring you a classic clip of Betty Page (above) so you can see a true legend in action.

Below we’re going to show you one of our own clips from last year, with “Boylesque” dancer, Leo Tuxedo of Wayward BurlyQ, showing how Burlesque can be a form of political commentary. Both of these clips should be safe-ish for work, but maybe you’d better watch them at home, just to be sure.

This is all to get you ready for tomorrow’s RFC MINI SHOW starring HoboClay.com, with support from Pepper and Kitty of Wayward BurlyQ. It’s art, I tell you, ART!

This week in the RFC Flashback, we re-re-present one of our most acclaimed episodes, our second “Show Without Words,” RFC 57, “Grumpy Shirt.”

We’ve had lots of requests to bring you this episode again. It’s loaded with great instrumental music, silent film, and tons of animation, and folks really love it. Maybe I need to keep my mouth shut more often.

Here we go, from January 2009, with music from Elemental Devices (AKA James Vernon Brown), Chuck Biel’s Punk Jazz and The Scrap Iron Pickers, plus a short film by Drew The Dramatic Fool and more. You can read the production notes here.

The PopCulteer
May 8, 2015

Hey, you know that underground explosion in Charleston Thursday evening? Well, it seemed to have knocked the Gazette’s blogs askew on treadle, so I didn’t even bother writing a PopCulteer last night.

I wasn’t forsaking you. Reports were that the power wouldn’t be restored until the weekend, so putting together a “Stuff To Do” seemed pointless. I wasn’t happy with the thought that my streak of consecutive days posting to PopCult would be interrupted at 627, but as I awoke on Friday morning, the news is that power should be restored to the Charleston Newspapers Building by noon.

And I don’t have a PopCulteer written. And I have stuff to do this morning. So, you’re getting a short column filled with videos and pictures. At least the streak continues. Enjoy!

The RFC MINI SHOW starring Tape Age.

Read about it HERE.

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The PopCult Bookshelf

In a bit of a departure, this week in the PopCult Bookshelf we are going to look at two new tracts from the pen of Jack T. Chick.

Chick, if you don’t know, produces those little horizontal black and white comics that you tend to find laying out for free in strange places. These tracts are pure propaganda gold. I do not use “propaganda” in a negative way here. These books present Chick’s religious worldview and agenda in a persuasive and well-crafted manner. There are people who are reached by these little comic books.

You can’t deny the goofy charm

Now, unfortunately, Mr. Chick’s worldview is pretty narrowly-defined. He is an end-timer and Zionist who strictly believes in the King James version of the Bible, and he also believes that Catholics are the army of Satan, who employ rock music, Mormonism, television, Islam, Christian Rock, Dungeons and Dragons, Harry Potter, Halloween, and pretty much pop culture as a whole in a grand conspiracy to prevent souls from getting into Heaven.

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The PopCult Toybox

Random Toy Notes

Mars Attacks Kickstarter

Yesterday afternoon at 1:00PM EST, The Topps Company launched the all–new trading card series, Mars Attacks: Occupation on Kickstarter. After just 7 hours, the funding goal of $50,000 was achieved and several stretch goals have already been met, including a new subset featuring the long-awaited return of the 1980’s card series Dinosaurs Attack!, in a crossover with the dastardly Martians.

On Kickstarter, fans and collectors can pledge at a variety of levels to pre-order boxes, complete sets, bundles of items or even unique rewards such as the opportunity to have their likeness appear in the series! Add-on items include: “hot packs” guaranteed to contain sought-after super-rare “hit” cards; chase cards and parallel variants; plus collector binders and more! Stretch goals will add new cards, bonus items and special features.

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