Month: September 2015 (Page 3 of 5)

The PopCulteer
September 18, 2015

It’s a special week with not much time to write. ShockaCon happens all weekend long and PopCult and Radio Free Charleston will be there to cover it. So, first up this week we’re bringing you the STUFF TO DO podcast that runs down everything else going on in town.

You can listen to it right on this widget [Click Here] and then we’re going to hit some bullet points before posting some show flyers.

I am disgusted by the demolition of Top O Rock. It’s heart-breaking and IT ABSOLUTELY DID NOT HAVE TO HAPPEN! Somebody wanted that building gone, and as soon as Henry Eldon passed away, every decision that was made was chosen to make the destruction of this architectural masterpiece a foregone conclusion.

I have to ask: If the folks who bought it in 2011 didn’t have enough money to restore or even preserve it, how did they have enough money to buy up all the very expensive adjoining properties? This is a tragedy and an embarrassment to the whole city. I hope that no permits are ever issued to develop that land.

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Today The ShockaCon Horror Show wraps up for 2015 with a wild free-for-all hard sell for ShockaCon as Evil Lee Harrah is joined by a caffinated Rudy Panucci. The two go wild running down the schedule for all three days of ShockaCon tossing in hilarious and irrelevant asides along the way.

You can listen to The ShockaCon Horror Show right on this here widget [Click to listen] or at Voices Of Appalachia.

A Late Note: We just got word that Bai Ling has cancelled at the last minute. Imagine that, Bai Ling bailing at the last minute. Anyway, just ignore the stuff that Lee and Rudy say about her. She ain’t coming.

Another Late Note: Rose Siggins, from American Horror Story, has also cancelled, but it’s due to a serious illness so we won’t get snarky about her. In her place, Mat Fraser, another star from AHS will step in. In addition to Mat’s role on American Horror Story, he’s also a burlesque performer who can be seen in the documentary, Exposed.

ShockaCon 4 happens September, 18, 19 and 20 at The Beni Kedem Shrine Center on Quarrier Street in Charleston (between The Charleston Civic Center and The Fifth Quarter). This year’s guests include Bai Ling, Ari Lehman (the first “Jason”), plus TV stars from American Horror Story, The Walking Dead and Mountain Monsters. There will also be vendors, musicians, magicians, cosplayers and even burlesque.

Until September 17, every weeknight by 9 PM,  PopCult and at Voices of Appalachia will present The ShockaCon Horror Show, presenting archival material from previous editions of Charleston’s premiere Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy convention. It all starts tomorrow right here in Charleston. Check out the schedule below, and click on it if you want to see a bigger version.

Tonight The ShockaCon Horror Show takes a walk on the wild side with two Walkers from The Walking Dead. Moses J. Mobley, one of Michonne’s Pets, and Jeremy Ambler, the Mountain State’s own walker, talk about Zombie School and answer questions about what it’s like being on the most successful show on television.

You can listen to The ShockaCon Horror Show right on this here widget [Click to listen] or at Voices Of Appalachia.

ShockaCon 4 happens September, 18, 19 and 20 at The Beni Kedem Shrine Center on Quarrier Street in Charleston (between The Charleston Civic Center and The Fifth Quarter). This year’s guests include Bai Ling, Ari Lehman (the first “Jason”), plus TV stars from American Horror Story, The Walking Dead and Mountain Monsters. There will also be vendors, musicians, magicians, cosplayers and even burlesque.

Until September 17, every weeknight by 9 PM,  PopCult and at Voices of Appalachia will present The ShockaCon Horror Show, presenting archival material from previous editions of Charleston’s premiere Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy convention.  Tomorrow The ShockaCon Horror Show wraps up for this year with a special preview of ShockaCon 2015. This episode is so good that we’re going to post it at 1 AM Thursday, so that you can listen to it all day long to get in the mood for ShockaCon.

The PopCult Toybox

The LEGO Dimensions Portal

We first told you about LEGO Dimensions back in April. If you recall, this innovative toy will let you build LEGO action figures, and then thrust them into a videogame. This new cross-platform videogame-action figure-building toy hybrid is poised to be the biggest hit of the Christmas season, and part of the reason for that can be seen in this trailer…

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, TT Games and The LEGO Group just released this new trailer for the upcoming LEGO Dimensions, and it confirms the voice talent for the upcoming game, a roster packed with familiar names and voices. Among those lending their voice to the title are Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd from Back to the Future; Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Alison Brie and Charlie Day from The LEGO Movie; Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, and Michelle Gomez from Doctor Who; and many more.

And yes, Doctor Who will be included in the game…every version of Doctor Who, all of his generations.

When a mysterious and powerful vortex suddenly appears in various LEGO worlds, different characters from DC Comics, The Lord of the Rings and The LEGO Movie are swept away. To save their friends, LEGO Batman, LEGO Gandalf and LEGO Wyldstyle journey to locations beyond their wildest imaginations, and they soon realize that Lord Vortech is summoning villains from across different LEGO worlds to help him gain control. As his power grows, worlds mix, unexpected characters meet and all boundaries are broken. Our heroes must travel through space and time to rescue their friends before the vortexes destroy all of LEGO humanity.

A fraction of the cast

LEGO Dimensions, the upcoming entertainment experience that merges physical brick building with interactive console gameplay, will include gameplay from “The Simpsons,” “Doctor Who,” Ghostbusters, Portal, Jurassic World, Midway Arcade, LEGO Chima and “Scooby-Doo!” These fan-favorite worlds, many of which have never before been in a LEGO video game, will converge with DC Comics, The Lord of the Rings, The LEGO Movie, The Wizard of Oz, LEGO Ninjago and Back to the Future worlds in one thrilling adventure playable with the LEGO Dimensions Starter Pack.

LEGO Dimensions will be available for the Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii U on September 27, 2015.

Tonight The ShockaCon Horror Show gets funny and weird. We bring you snippets from the stand up comedy that was featured last year in the late-night sessions, and then we bring you an audio collage of interviews and weirdness from the 2013 edition of ShockaCon, with Rudy Panucci, Danny Boyd, Jeremy Ambler, RJ Haddy, Eliska Hahn, Ghostbusters, WV Division, Dalek Gan and more. We wind up with The Big Bad, who you can hear at ShockaCon and also at the AfterShock Party at The Blue Parrot.

You can listen to The ShockaCon Horror Show right on this here widget [Click to listen] or at Voices Of Appalachia.

ShockaCon 4 happens September, 18, 19 and 20 at The Beni Kedem Shrine Center on Quarrier Street in Charleston (between The Charleston Civic Center and The Fifth Quarter). This year’s guests include Bai Ling, Ari Lehman (the first “Jason”), plus TV stars from American Horror Story, The Walking Dead and Mountain Monsters. There will also be vendors, musicians, magicians, cosplayers and even burlesque.

Until September 17, every weeknight by 9 PM,  PopCult and at Voices of Appalachia will present The ShockaCon Horror Show, presenting archival material from previous editions of Charleston’s premiere Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy convention.  Tomorrow night, meet some Walkers from The Walking Dead.

Tonight The ShockaCon Horror Show travels through time as Evil Lee Harrah hosts a visit to the panel devoted to everyone’s favorite rouge time-traveller from Gallifrey, Dr. Who. There’s nearly an hour of a panel all about Dr. Who featuring Ronn Smith, Rose Winland and more folks, many of whom are involved in Doctor. Who: The Classic Series Regnerated, a fan-made project that will tell new tales of the fourth Doctor. At the end, we bring you a bonus song by ShockaCon 2015 performers, The Renfields.

You can listen to The ShockaCon Horror Show right on this here widget [Click to listen] or at Voices Of Appalachia.

ShockaCon 4 happens September, 18, 19 and 20 at The Beni Kedem Shrine Center on Quarrier Street in Charleston (between The Charleston Civic Center and The Fifth Quarter). This year’s guests include Bai Ling, Ari Lehman (the first “Jason”), plus TV stars from American Horror Story, The Walking Dead and Mountain Monsters. There will also be vendors, musicians, magicians, cosplayers and even burlesque.

Until September 17, every weeknight by 9 PM,  PopCult and at Voices of Appalachia will present The ShockaCon Horror Show, presenting archival material from previous editions of Charleston’s premiere Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy convention. Tomorrow night we bring you comedy and random insanity from the floor of the convention.

Sheldon at The Cartref

West Virginia’s Punk Troubador, Sheldon Vance, makes his second appearance on The RFC MINI SHOW, this time performing at two locations, The Empty Glass and The Cartref. You’ll hear his songs, “Strength To Let It Go,” “Turn It Back Around” and “Play On.”

This is the first RFC MINI SHOW to feature a performer captured in two different venues, and I think the transition is a lot of fun. Sheldon is preparing to tour Philly and New York later this month, and in honor of the trip he’s recorded a NEW EP, “Northbound,” and he’s selling it to raise funds to help cover travel. It’s got 4 new tracks of Raw, Energetic, Sing-a-long Appalachian Acoustic Punk! You can snag a download for just three bucks HERE.

Sheldon will host the AfterShock Party at The Blue Parrot, following ShockaCon on September 18 and 18, 2015.Both nights will be filled with amazing Horror Punk bands from all over the country–all blasting frighteningly loud music starting at 10 PM each night.

Not really, but since today’s model, Pepper Fandango, is one of the stars of this Sunday’s edition of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School (along with Luna L’Enfant) and the theme is “Trampfire Tales,” I figured it would make as good a title as any for this digital painting I did of Pepper. Youse can click to see it bigger.

On September 20 at 6 PM at the WVSU EDC building (AKA DigiSo) Pepper and Luna will pose for the artists and photographers who will bring their own bottles, pay the admission (a mere ten bucks) and generously tip the models for their efforts. The theme this month is Reading, but they’re calling the evening “Trampfire Tales,” so I’m sticking with my title, even though it’s my least favorite Sinatra song.

We never really know exactly what the models have planned for us, but I’m betting “sexy librarian” is not outside the realm of possibility. All types of artists are welcome just bring your own art supplies. 18+. Byob 21+.

The coolest part is that there’s plenty of time after the closing bell of ShockaCon to grab a quick bite to eat and then head to Kanawha Boulevard (not far from Patrick Street) to unwind with an evening of art.

Just so you don’t forget that ShockaCon kicks off this coming Friday, tonight we’re bringing you a couple of videos to show how much fun this even is. Up above you see the Costume Parade. This year the costume parade happens again. It’ll start in front of The Beni Kedem Shrine Center at noon, Saturday, and proceed into The Charleston Town Center Mall. If you want to be in the parade, come in costume and be there fifteen miuutes early.

Below you see the Wayward Girls performing PG-rated Halloween-themed burelesque. There will be all kinds of cool stuff happening at ShockaCon, and every night this week, wrapping up Thursday, you can hear more details on The ShockaCon Horror Show podcast, right here in PopCult.

ShockaCon 4 happens next week, so in this week’s RFC Flashback we’re going back two years, to episodes 191 and 192, when we managed to wring two full Halloween episodes of the show out of the event. Our two-parter from 2013 features music from Harrah, Foz Rotten, The Big Bad, The Renfields and more, plus tons of other great stuff and even me interviewing people, which I usually hate to do. That’s part one up above and part two down below. Be warned that you will bear witness to the twerking Stay-Puft Marshmallow man.

If you want to learn more about ShockaCon, just scroll down the page, ya lazy bum. I’ve been writing about it every day.