Month: July 2015 (Page 2 of 4)

The PopCult Toybox

After a seven-year break, Diamond Select Toys has announced that they are re-launching their Marvel Comics resin statue line. The Marvel Premier Collection, a line of high-end statues that completed its original run in 2008, will return in early 2016, and will spotlight the many stars of the Marvel Universe through regular releases.

Additionally, DST’s Femme Fatales line of PVC statues will introduce an all-new series, focusing on Marvel’s many powerful female characters, with a male-focused PVC statue line to follow.

Both the Marvel Premier Collection and the Marvel Femme Fatales lines will operate under the auspices of DST’s new Art Director, Clayburn Moore. The original sculptor of the Marvel Premier Collection when it began in 2004, Moore himself will handle lead sculpting duties on the revived line, and will oversee development on the Femme Fatales series, working with some of the top sculptors in the industry. Moore is a legend in the toy-sculpting world, and under his direction this line should look incredible.

The Wolverine statue, seen from above

The first Premier Collection piece, recently on display at Comic-Con International in San Diego, will feature Wolverine, stalking through a snowy landscape in his classic brown costume; he will be followed by a statue of the classic Thor, and then Gamora, of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Femme Fatales line will start off with modern heroines such as Captain Marvel, Spider-Gwen and the new Thor, all in a 9-inch scale. They will eventually be joined by a companion line of male Marvel characters, including the Hulk and Spider-Man.

“It feels good to be getting back to Marvel statues again,” said Diamond Select Toys President Chuck Terceira. “They were a big part of our line-up for several years, and while we’ve revisited that world occasionally with our Spider-Man movie product, I’m excited for us to be diving back into the more expansive comic universe. With so many different areas of the MU being explored in new and exciting ways on the print side, I see a lot of opportunities to do the same thing in 3D!”

Pre-ordering is open now at comic shops and specialty stores.

It’s not streaming at the moment. We are still working out technical bugs and trying to get everything sorted out for a big Voices of Appalachia relaunch, but right now it’s like playing Whack-A-Mole. So we hope to be up and running again very soon.

In the meantime, you can still enjoy our archives. Might we suggest episode 21, where we roared out of March like a lion, with an hour of hard rock and heavy metal? You can listen to it HERE, right now!

Or perhaps you’d prefer our Headache Show, episode 30, where we mix local greats like Mother Nang, Sheldon Vance, J Marinelli and InFormation with regional greats like DEVO and GWAR. You can listen to it HERE.

We thank you for being patient. When we finally get this worked out, you’ll hear more Radio Free Charleston than ever!

(If you can’t see the show above, follow THIS LINK to see it)

The first-ever repeat guest on The RFC MINI SHOW, Farnsworth has recently added bassist extraordinaire, Aaron Fisher to their line-up. Aaron joins Chris Vance and Jason Reese in a performance captured July 18, 2015 at The Empty Glass.

When I first started The RFC MINI SHOW back in 2013 as a way to post fresh music in the weeks when we didn’t do a full episode of Radio Free Charleston, my goal was to do fifty shows without repeating a single guest. We managed to hold out until episode 63. We chose a band that has a solid sound and keeps evolving musically. No doubt about it, Farnsworth Rocks!

Recording engineering was by Jason “Roadblock” Robinson, while the audio mix was by yours truly. Our three-camera shoot employed Lee Harrah, Melanie Larch,  and Rudy Panucci. Jamie Skeen was on hand with two additional camera angles that will probably show up in a future episode of Radio Free Charleston. Our host segment was shot in front of the as-yet-uncompleted bridge to Coonskin Park in Mink Shoals.

Today’s art is one of the pieces that was included in Ann Magnuson’s show, SurRURALism, last month. It’s a photo, taken from a moving car, of one of the coal processing facilities around Marmet. They looked sort of like robots to me. I ran it through some filters and did some digital surgery to it. Click to see it bigger.

Check PopCult later Monday morning for The RFC MINI SHOW starring Farnsworth!

Tonight it’s a nifty half-hour compilation of brief clips from Saturday Morning Cartoons and Commercials of the 1960s and 70s.  Just think of it as the TV equivalent of sucking down a bag of sugar, all at once.

This is pretty much the quintessential PopCult post.

If you’re old enough to get every reference in PopCult, you’ll enjoy the heck out of this rapid-fire array of clips. If you’re too young, this is a sample of what you were missing. Kids today have an almost endless supply of high-quality animated programs available on demand. Back then we had to wait until the one weekend morning when we were able to tune into cartoons–many of which were delightfully unwatchable dreck. And we liked it!

RFC 108 "To The Batmobile Shirt" from Rudy Panucci on Vimeo.

This week we go back just a little less than five years ago for episode 108 of Radio Free Charleston, “To The Batmobile Shirt.” Note that this shirt depicts the Batmobile that George Barris created for the Batman TV show, and not some cheesy knockoff that might be failing to meet its reserve on eBay right now.

Aside from our title shirt, this is one of our strongest shows, with great live music, a killer animated music video and two really cool short films. It’s also one of our last shows before we switched to HD Widescreen.

The music on this show is by InFormation, Volt 9000 and The AK40 Sexuals.  We also have short films from K.D. Lett and Scott Elkins. This was our first show after producing six episodes devoted to FestivALL. You can read the production notes HERE. You can see the latest collaboration between Volt 9000 and Frank Panucci in episode 209.

The PopCulteer
July 17, 2015

After a week of chaotic computer craziness, all is back to normal at sprawling PopCult Manor.  This week, we have a little essay and some items for you along with highlights of Stuff To Do this weekend and some news on upcoming Radio Free Charleston stuff.  But first, we’ll kick it off with some wordiness.

Reunion Time Blues

We are smack dab in the middle of summer and it’s high school reunion season.  This year, for the first time in a long time, I enjoyed a pleasant, blissful ignorance of my own high school reunion, which apparently took place a week or two ago.  I am one of those people who will never attend a high school reunion.

People ask me why.  Was high school such a horrible time for me that I never want to revisit those years?

My answer is an emphatic yes.  High school was the worst time of my life.  Worse than the cancellation of the Radio Free Charleston radio show, worse than the breakup of my first marriage, worse than the years spent as an end-of-life caregiver for my parents and uncle…high school was worse for me than that, and it lasted three years…but it felt like thirty.

I have some good friends from high school and to be honest, thanks to Facebook I’m probably more social with people with whom I attended high school now than I was when I was actually attending high school.  But the point is, high school was a hellish time for me and the thought of revisiting it is a nightmare scenario to me.

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The PopCult Bookshelf

Your PopCulteer is neck-deep in computer repair and production of the upcoming audio and video episodes of Radio Free Charleston today, and we barely had time to compose a PopCult post for today. However, we are in the home stretch for Danny Boyd’s fundraising campaign for SALT, his follow-up to CARBON, the eco-thriller/sci-fi graphic novel that we told you about last year. We didn’t want to let that pass without a last-minute reminder.

Danny Boyd is an old friend, and he has started an IndieGoGo campaign to finish work on SALT, his sequel to last year’s graphic novel, CARBON. This book will, like CARBON, combine elements of science fiction, fantasy, political commentary and adventure to create a cautionary tale about the cavalier attitudes that Mountain State politicians have toward the environment. There are less than three days left to contribute to this campaign.

There are some great rewards with this campaign. If you want a pre-publication copy of the graphic novel, it’s only twenty-five bucks. Higher levels include other rewards like copies of CARBON, Danny’s films that he made for Troma, a “thank you” in print, Boyd’s Documentary on DVD about salt production in the Kanawha Valley, tickets to a Landau Eugene Murphy show, a chance to be a character in the book and if you kick in two grand, Danny will come to you, personally to speak, do a book signing, and screen his movies,  In case you forgot, you still have time to help make this happen.

And you can thank me for refraining from making all the “salt” puns that I thought of while writing this. Except for the headline, that is.

The PopCult Toybox

Train lovers have model railroads, car fans have Dinky Toys, and now architecture fanatics have Ittyblox. Often described as “SimCity in real life,” the 1/1000 scale miniatures of Ittyblox allow everyone in the world to compose their own miniature city using houses, offices, hotels, street blocks, waterways, parks and much more.

A tiny cityscape

Just as fascinating as the highly detailed miniatures themselves is their production process: the buildings are produced on an on-demand basis using a 3D printing partner (Shapeways) which produces and ships the buildings all over the world.

Just snap your buildings into their base and you’re set

Once you get your custom buildings or other features, they can be assembled and rearranged in their own modular bases. This is the perfect desktop toy for any office worker, and it’s also educational for kids and can foster an appreciation of architecture.

Because a large production volume is not required, many unique buildings have been added to the Ittyblox collection.

This allows everyone to not only use famous architectural landmarks such as the Flatiron building in New York but also more anonymous buildings like general office towers from Chicago or historical monuments from London.

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New Appalachian Radio at Voices of Appalachia is still working out some lingering computer bugs, so it’s looking doubtful that this week’s episode of Radio Free Charleston will make it on the air this morning. If things get straightened out by this evening, we will post the playlist here and give you plenty of time to get ready to listen.

In the meantime, you can get your Radio Free Charleston audio fix by listening to our archives. Once we get back up and running you are in for a real treat, as we’ve uncovered more rare archival recordings and added tons of great new music from local and regional artists.