Rudy Panucci On Pop Culture

Month: June 2015 (Page 1 of 4)

Dive Into The RFC Archives with The Tune Smiths and Go Van Gogh on New Appalachian Radio

RFCv3 #33

Opening Track: Big Money “Face The Flood”

Our theme for this week’s Radio Free Charleston streaming show on New Appalachian Radio is the first part of our summertime raid on the RFC Vault. Just last week I discovered a treasure trove of vintage, circa 1989/90 cassette tapes of local music that was submitted to the original Radio Free Charleston radio show. Some of it was played. Some of it wasn’t. This week our second hour will bring you five songs by The Tune Smiths, Mark Beckner’s side project while he was in Go Van Gogh. To balance out our second hour, we’re going to hear a very, very late-night set by Go Van Gogh, sloppily recorded live, at The Legendary Charleston Playhouse.

You can listen to Radio Free Charleston’s  fun and exciting 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 The Witching Hour!

For the next few weeks our second hour will be filled with vintage local crunchiness, but until we get there, check out this great new local stuff…

Sasha Colette “You Had Me”
Groove Heavy “Don’t Stop Believin'”
Total Meltdown “Pictures of You”
The Brothersisters “Can’t Be Lost”

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Monday Morning Art: Dolly Does Jessica

Img_4698Your PopCulteer had a great time last night as Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School presented a session with Dolly Dagger paying tribute to Jessica Rabbit.

The next Dr. Sketchy session happens Tuesday at Spoiler Warning Games and Comics in Danville, West Virginia. Starting at 7:30 PM you can see Susie Sketchman show off her Super Hero Pride. This event is 18+ and you need to bring your own art supplies. 21+ BYOB. $10 at the door.

All art mediums are accepted as long as they don’t disturb anyone else. Artists of any skill level from the novice to the pro are invited to come create in this relaxed environment.

We have two digital paintings from last night. At the top of this post you see a digitally-assaulted Pop Art piece. Below it’s a digital oil. Click to enlarge.

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Sunday Evening Videos: FestivALL 2010

RFC 102 "FestivAll 2010 Pt. One" from Rudy Panucci on Vimeo.

Radio Free Charleston has covered FestivAll in-depth since 2007, but our first really ambitious attempt at wall-to-wall coverage was our six-episode voyage into Cinéma vérité coverage of FestivAll 2010.  Today, on the last day of FestivALL 2015, we’re going to re-present, in one handy post, all six of our FestivAll 2010 shows. Above you see RFC 102, with The Nanker Phelge, Spurgie Hankins Band, The Kanawha Kordsmen and Bob Thompson.After the jump, you’ll find the remaining five episodes (for a total of over two hours of RFC at FestivAll) with music from Brian Diller, The VooDoo Katz, Comparsa, The Velvet Gypsies, Miss Behavin’, Option 22, Alasha Al-Qudwah, Mark Scarpelli, The Sweet Adelines, Actual Rhinocerous, Bare Bones, T.J. King and many more.  You’ll also see lots of the art, parades, theater and film that permeated the city.

 

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The Marx Toy Convention Was A Hit!

The man of the hour, Johnny West

The man of the hour, Johnny West

The PopCult Toybox

One week ago your PopCulteer was enjoying one of the best toy convention experiences of his life. Today we bring you photo and video to show you the highlights of The Marx Toy Convention (including “JohnnyCon”) from Wheeling and Moundsville.

First, Scott Stewart walks us through the “50 Years of Johnny West” exhibit at Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum in Wheeling, West Virginia. Learn about fifty years of one of the country’s most memorable action figures, Johnny West, and The Best of the West toy line. Recorded June 20, 2015

Scott has a special page devoted to Johnny West’s 50th Anniversary up at his site, and it’s well worth checking out. His exhibit will be on display at the Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum until the end of the year.

photo by Mykol Blackwell

In honor of the 50th Anniversary of Marx Toy Company’s famous action figure, Johnny West, a new, Limted Edition Johnny West figure was made. This 2015 version of America’s Moveable Cowboy sported brand-new colors and was sanctioned by the current rights holders, making it an official celebratory figure, created from the original molds. Distribution was handled by James Wozniak of Classic Recasts.

Las Vegas artist, Suzanne Hackett-Morgan, came up with the idea of revisiting a previous collaborative project of hers, a photographic journey that followed a vintage Johnny West around the country, which he travelled via the Post Office. “Johnny Hits The Road” has been on exhibit at The Marx Toy Museum in Moundsville since 2004.

For “Vacation Time,” rather than mailing one Johnny West figure around the country, Suzanne had collectors take their new 50th Anniversary Johnny West figures to their local landmarks, and compiled their photos into the slideshow you see here. The pictures are amusing, touching and most of all, fun. We invite you to join in on Johnny West’s 50th birthday celebration.

“Vacation Time” made its debut at The Marx Toy Museum on June 20, 2015.

Now it’s time for more photos of the wonders of the 2015 Marx Toy Convention. A special note: I have to apologize to James Wozniak, who had a fantastic display of great Marx repro toys for sale. Every time I walked by his table I started buying stuff and forgot to take pictures. However, I did get some good photos of everything else…

The starting point, the first cabinet of the "Johnny West at 50" exhibit at Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum

The starting point: the first part of the “Johnny West at 50” exhibit at Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum

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FestivALL ArtWalk in Photos (with one video)

Img_4659The PopCulteer
June 26, 2015

Last night the rain held off and a wonderful FestivALL ArtWalk happened in Downtown Charleston. Today is all about images from that, even though your humble PopCulteer only made it to about half the galleries. We even have a surprise video performance that I stumbled onto.

Unlike past ArtWalks, I actually remembered to take pictures of the people at ArtWalk, so we’ll kick things off with “The People of ArtWalk”, then we’ll poke around in a few galleries. Captions will be dropped in where I have something to say.

This week your PopCulteer simply has too much stuff to do, so this week we’re not going to have time to put together “Stuff To Do.” Check the calendar page at The Charleston Gazette and if you’re on Facebook, scoot over to Charleston Together for tips on what’s going down this weekend.

Before we jump into the photo essay, check out this bonus PopCult Instant Video of Kevin Scarbrough street performing in front of Modern By Design with a cover of The Squirrel Nut Zippers’ classic, “Hell.”

People of ArtWalk

Hale Street, in front of Alt Art Gallery

Hale Street, in front of Alt Art Gallery

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Johnny Shar’s Big Dipper in Moundsville

 

Last weekend your PopCulteer and his patient wife made the trek Northward to Wheeling and Moundsville to attend The Marx Toy Convention. You will see photos and video from that trip on Saturday. However, while in Moundsville we took the time to stop at Johnny Shar’s Big Dipper Ice Cream Parlour.

This place is in a restored buidling just across the street from both the Moundsville Indian Mound and the West Virginia State Penitentiary. And it is an ice cream shop, but it’s also a mini-museum, chock-full-o carnival weirdness. We didn’t even make it upstairs, where there’s even more wild carnival artifacts, but I still got enough photos to bump the book review this week and bring you the sights of Johnny Shar’s Big Dipper.

The description from the Marshall County tourism website says, “Come and enjoy a captivated reflection of “Days Gone By!” A historic building brought back to life in the form of a tastefully decorated ice cream shop featuring 32 flavors of Hershey’s Ice Cream. In addition, the structure uniquely displays a vast array of vintage circus carnival memorabilia.”

Johnny Shar’s Big Dipper is located at 805 10th Street, Moundsville WV 26041. You can call them at (304) 281 – 7481 or (304) 621 – 0522. They’re open all year ’round and their hours are Noon to 10 PM Monday through Saturday, and 1 PM to 8 PM Sunday.

Please enjoy our little photographic tour…

The view from the Mound parking lot

The ice cream counter

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Marx Coverage Preview

The PopCult Toybox

Johnny West's fiftieth is the subject of an exhibit at Kruger Street Toy and Train Museum and also our video this weekend, starring the exhibit's curator, Scott Stewart

Johnny West’s fiftieth is the subject of an exhibit at Kruger Street Toy and Train Museum and also our video this weekend, starring the exhibit’s curator, Scott Stewart

So here’s the deal: Your PopCulteer has some great photos and video from last weekend’s Marx Toy Convention in Wheeling. However, he returned to a pile of work and other things that need to be caught up before the pictures and video can be edited.

So today you’ll just get a taste–five photos from the show. Tomorrow, instead of The PopCult Bookshelf, you’ll get a photo essay about a cool ice cream parlour/carnival museum in Moundsville. Friday we’ll look at ArtWalk.

Finally, Saturday will bring our coverage of The Marx Toy Convention with tons of photos and a very special video. That’s the plan. Keep your fingers crossed that we pull it off.

Kruger Street is a pretty awesome place, even when there isn't a show going on

Kruger Street is a pretty awesome place, even when there isn’t a show going on

Just part of the Johnny West exhibit at Kruger Street

Just part of the Johnny West exhibit at Kruger Street

Saturday, the Marx show moved to an after-hours event at The Marx Toy Museum in Moundsville, where we saw this one-of-a-kind prototype figure with flocked hair

Saturday, the Marx show moved to an after-hours event at The Marx Toy Museum in Moundsville, where we saw this one-of-a-kind prototype figure with flocked hair

Friday evening, a group of friends gathered 'round a firepit to drink to the memory of Noah Coop. It was a very touching moment.

Friday evening, a group of friends gathered ’round a firepit to drink to the memory of Noah Coop. It was a very touching moment.

ANN TONIGHT!

11423656_10153440856956060_309758790995566207_nTonight is the night for Ann Magnuson’s show at The Walker Theater at The Clay Center.

“An Evening of SuRURALism™” promises to be a tour-de-force of highbrow/lowbrow intermingling with music, art, dancing, video and more from the coolest person from Charleston, Ann Magnuson.

From the Facebook event page:

Ann workshops a new live show celebrating her West Virginia roots, surrealistic dreams, and big city escapades. Coining a new term, SurRURALism ™, Ann combines the surrealistic with the homespun in a sophisticated nightclub setting where a helluva lot of moonshine spills into Moon River (along with something that smells a lot like licorice.) Songs, stories, and shenanigans accompanied by pianist Tom Judson.

“Imagine Eydie Gormé meets Salvador Dali meets Hasil Adkins” says Ann. “We plan to reimagine Charleston’s retro supper clubs like The Press Club and The Army/Navy Club – nightspots from the Mad Men era when the state was ‘dry’ and you had to go to a private club to get a cocktail served with your steak. (Of course, I always ordered a Shirley Temple.) This time we’re serving up a blend of story, song, satire and homegrown weirdness in a tribute to the place I shall always call Home. “

In addition to the musical live performance, there will be a sneak peak screening of the pilot for Ann’s new web series, Ann Magnuson’s Dream Puppet Theater. Ann provides all the voices while filmmaker Jonathon Stearns animates her dreams using the otherworldly ‘outsider art’ dolls Grandma Magnuson made (out of pipe cleaners, old stockings, sequins and crochet) while living in Morgantown during the Fifties and Sixties.

Expect a surreal and hilarious journey into the depths of the human psyche, Mountaineer style!

Like I’m not going to run this photo every chance I get.

I’m exceedingly proud to have been asked to contribute some of my art to this show, but I’m even happier to just have the chance to see another of Ann’s cool shows. It’s been six years since “Back Home Again (Dreaming Of Charleston)” and this town needed a new Ann fix.

The show kicks off at 8 PM tonight at the Walker Theater at The Clay Center. Tickets are twenty-five bucks, which is a bargain! I hope to see you there!

The Amazing Delores Kicks Out The Jams On Radio Free Charleston on New Appalachian Radio

NAR log 014RFCv3 #32

Opening cut: Doktor Steamly “A Lab Near Arkham”

This week’s show opener is a new track from Doktor Steamly, a side project by Jack Deskins of The Big Bad that mixes Electronica with Horror movie music. We have more from Doktor Steamly coming up in future shows.

Each Week 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.

amazingdeloresThis week the theme of our second hour is the music of The Amazing Delores. Delores was an enigmatic force of nature, a unique Mountain State psychobilly princess with a voice that could drive demons back to hell. We will tell you all about Delores in our second hour and share tons of her music.

Hour One Playllist:

The BrotherSisters “Damn The Torpedoes”
Sasha Colette “Victory”
Total Meltodwn “Wish You Were Here”
Booji Boy With DEVO “The Words Get Stuck In My Throat”

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The RFC MINI SHOW with The Suede Brothers

Image5The Suede Brothers are a Rust Belt Rock trio out of beautiful Cleveland, Ohio. The Forest City three spread the good word across the Midwest and to the American South. To promote their appearance as part of Mission Coalition in September, 2011, we featured the band and their “Coos Bay Boogie” video on episode 144 of Radio Free Charlesston, but we didn’t do much with the Mission Coalition footage we had…until now.

This week’s RFC MINI SHOW digs into the vault to bring the brother’s performance from that night back to life. Just what you need to beat the summer heat.

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