Month: February 2016 (Page 4 of 6)

Your PopCulteer is in New York covering Toy Fair, so this week we’re going to recycle a Sunday Evening Videos post from eight years ago. Admit it…if I hadn’t told you, you wouldn’t have noticed.

One of my favorite new wave bands of the early 80s, Split Enz eventually evolved into Crowded House and started having hit songs. Before that, lead by brothers Tim and Neil Finn, Split Enz scored a few minor hits in America, but they were one of the coolest “weird” bands of the era. Here’s one of their coolest weird songs, “Dirty Creatures.”

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/d-k3QDTWrSg" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

You’ll find more tunes by Split Enz On the other side of the jump. Continue reading

This is the nineteenth episode of Radio Free Charleston, “Ian Rotten Shirt,” from May 2007, with music from Go Van Gogh and The Ghosts Of Now, plus a Pentagram Flowerbox cartoon, which has been restored to its original place in the show.

This show marks the RFC debut of Lee Harrah, who is still a frequent guest and a valued production team member in addition to being my co-star in Word Association with Lee and Rudy, which can be heard Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays on Appalachian Independent Radio.

You can also hear shows from the Empty Glass produced by, and in one instance co-hosted by Jason “Roadblock” Robinson on The AIR. That’s Roadblock playing bass in The Ghosts of Now with Lee on vocals. Check out AIR here…

The Mystery camera person who shot the original footage of Go Van Gogh turned out to be none other than Melissa Beezley (now Melissa Beezely Johnson) who has been a friend of RFC since the radio days.

You can read the original production notes here.

And don’t be surprised if bonus posts from The International Toy Fair in New York start turning up here in PopCult tonight or tomorrow.

Tonight on Word Association with Lee and Rudy on Appalachian Independent Radio the pop culture discussion takes a decidely comic turn.

And by that, we mean comic books. That’s at 8 PM Friday night. You can tune in at the AIR website or listen right here:

Tonight, the topic (which, if you didn’t know, is kept secret from Lee until he hears it) is “The Incredible Hulk.” If you know Lee Harrah, you know this show is going to be a trip! Word Association with Lee and Rudy can be heard Friday nights at 8PM, with replays Satruday at 1:30 PM and Sunday at 9 PM.

The PopCulteer
February 12, 2016

I don’t often write about very personal things here in PopCult, but I’ve had some people lately ask me about my health. You see, I’ve dropped a bit of weight lately and I want to explain.

It’s nothing serious. I’m not sick. I didn’t have gastic surgery or anything. Last November I went to my new doctor after not gettng a check-up for way too long. I’d been tiring easily and often felt fatigued. My new doctor is very thorough and ordered several tests. My results all came back great, except for one. That was the test where I got on the scales.

I knew I was overweight. That’s not exactly a state secret. However, I’d forgotten something about myself: I carry excess weight very well. I don’t usually look like I weigh as much as I do. I was fifty pounds heavier than I thought I was. I apparently had been for many years. My guess is that acting as my late uncle’s caregiver, and the high-stress, low activity life that came along with that, caused me to slowly gain back almost all the weight I’d lost in 2005.

In 2005 I discovered I had Type 2 Diabetes, and started eating healthy and dropped a lot of weight. I felt better than I had in my adult life, and had way more energy.

A much-heavier Rudy wearing a T-Shirt featuring an obscure candy bar

So I already knew what I had to do. Basically I had to start eating like an adult again. It wasn’t actually that diffficult an adjustment to make. Since November 11, I have not eaten anything fried. I cut out most sweets and greatly reduced the amount of bread I eat. I started eating more veggies, with spinach and broccoli being mainstays. If I need a chocolate fix, I eat a single Hershey’s Kiss, instead of an entire candy bar or a stack of Oreos.

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What do you think happens when you take the author of The PopCult Blog and give him a radio program where he has free reign to play whatever he wants? If you guessed “all hell breaks loose,” you’d be right. Welcome to Radio Free Charleston International.

Tune in tonight at Midnight, with replays Friday at 10 PM, Saturday morning at 11 AM and late Saturday night  at 3 AM to hear this week’s show on Appalachian Independent Radio. Or just listen to this virtual radio right here…

[Parental Advisory: Radio Free Charleston International is not censored, and occasionally contains language which may not be suitable for children. That’s particularly true this week]

As your host and instigator explains in this episode, if you want to find out more about the artists and music played on Radio Free Charleston International…GOOGLE IT! Here’s this week’s playlist…

Oingo Boingo  “Helpless”

Weezer  “Do You Wanna Get High?”
Dubioza Kolektiv  “Pirate Bay Song”
Jane Wiedlin  “World On Fire”
Adam Ant  “Cool Zombie”
Moron Police  “Who’s That Chicken”

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This week hasn’t been entirely about getting ready for Toy Fair. Most of yesterday was spent editing a music video for the band, HARRAH. “Blood Moon” is the first single from the forthcoming Empty Glass Records Release “HARRAH” by the band HARRAH.

Directed by Rudy Panucci, incorporating clips from the movie “Messiah of Evil,” directed by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, which served as the inspiration for the song, written by Kenneth Booth. You may remember a very rough version of this video using an older demo of the song and different performance footage on last year’s RFC Halloween Show. This is the new and vastly-improved version.

HARRAH is Kenneth Booth, Sheryl Lovell, Eric Seckman and Mr. Lee Harrah, my co-star on Word Association with Lee and Rudy, which can be heard Friday nights, with repeats Saturday and Sunday, on Appalachian Independent Radio.

“Blood Moon” was indeed inspired by the cult horror classic “Messiah of Evil,” and the video combines footage of the band performing over the course of many years, with clips from the movie, which is a bizarre 1973 cinematic mindgame. You can watch the whole movie HERE. It was a blast to put this video together and you can catch HARRAH with Sheldon Vance and Gypsy Rhythm next Friday, February 19, at the Blue Parrot.

It all starts this weekend. Your PopCulteer will be in New York City with an all-star crew to bring you the sights and sounds and news on all the cool new toys coming your way in 2016 (and beyond). We are going to attempt to update PopCult with posts from the scene starting as early as Saturday night, but we don’t know how overwhelming the experience will turn out to be, and we might have to wait until we get back.

Last year was our first trip to The International Toy Fair in New York, after 20 years of reporting on the Toy Industry. We only made it up for the final two days, but we had a blast. This year we will be able to immerse ourselves in the entire Toy Fair experience. You can expect to see loads of photos, video and stories about all this rampant coolness over the next several weeks.

Now that we know what we’re doing, we plan to have a more organized attack, and gather a ridiculous amount of news. So stay tuned to PopCult for all the details on Toy Fair 2016.

Lest ye worry that PopCult will go untended while we bask in the glory of Toy Fair, rest assured, all of our regular features will be here. Your PopCulteer sacrificed his weekend and skipped watching The Super Bowl to prepare two weeks worth of Videos, Flashbacks, Art, Playlists and more. Relax. We’ve got you covered.

Week two of Mel Larch’s travel show on Appalachian Independent Radio, On The Road With Mel, addresses several topics. Mel shares some tips about booking hotels online. She also talks about a handy and secure way to carry your valuables and  the show winds up with a quick rundown of cool day trips that you can take, starting from Charleston, West Virginia. You can listen to it via this handy-dandy little embedded radio player.

You can hear On The Road With Mel, filled with tons of travel tips, advice and cool ideas for places to visit, every Wednesday afternoon at 1 PM on Appalchian Independent Radio. In case you miss it, the show replays Saturday afternoon at 1 Pm and Sunday night at 9:30 PM. All times are Eastern Standard Time.

RFCv4002 Playlist

It’s week two of Radio Free Charleston at Appalachian Indpendent Radio! You can tune in for two hours of the best local and regional music every Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM right here on this little play widget.

This week we kick it off with an early listen of a song that will be available on iTunes starting February 12. Special thanks to Travis Stephens and Kenneth Brian for the sneak preview.

You can catch replays of Radio Free Charleston Saturday morning at 9 AM (kicking off five hours of programming produced by your PopCulteer) and late Saturday night at 1 AM.

Kenneth Brian Band “Goodbye, West Virginia”

HarraH “Blood Moon”
The Big Bad  “See You In The Shadows”
Tofujitsu  “Winged Cyclops”
Doctor Curmudgeon
Spencer Elliott  “Battle of Wonderland”

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This week’s art is a digital abstract painting that went from being an expression of winter blahs to depicting the struggle between hot and cold. I’m not sure how it did that. I was busy painting and didn’t notice. Click to enlarge.

The Radio Free Charleston video programs will be taking a two-week hiatus so that your PopCulteer can prepare for his trip to the International Toy Fair in New York. In the meantime, you can get your local music fix with the Radio Free Charleston radio show at Appalachian Independent Radio on Tuesdays at 10 AM and 10 PM, and don’t miss Radio Free Charleston International Thursdays at midnight. Both shows replay throughout the weekend.