Rudy Panucci On Pop Culture

Month: April 2016 (Page 2 of 4)

Your Weekend AIRadio Highlights

radio 02It’s Friday afternoon and time to go on about the fine weekend programming on Appalachian Independent Radio, “The AIR,” Charleston’s finest source of intelligent, high-quality, uncensored radio programming. You can listen at the AIRadio website, or tune in on this neat little virtual radio set…

Tonight at 8 PM on Word Association with Lee and Rudy the duo spend half an hour talking about the classic 1980s British Comedy show, The Young Ones. The two talk about their personal memories of the show and Rudy talks about all of the cool and obscure work that the creators and cast of the show did after The Young Ones wrapped up production. We even talk about Bottom, which I told you about last Sunday here in PopCult.

At 9 PM it’s  Laugh Appalachia with Lee Hale, followed at 9:30 with an encore presentation of Word Association where Lee and Rudy talk about The Marx Brothers. 10 PM sees a replay of this week’s brand-new Radio Free Charleston International, loaded with tons of cool progressive music which you can read about HERE.

sta morn airadioSaturday morning check back here for a replay of all of the cool shows I produce each week, winding up at 2 PM with an encore of this week’s edition of The Booster Pack, Starting Saturday at 9 AM, you can stay at home and listen to AIRadio for six straight hours to hear a marathon of cool programming.

The line up kicks off at 9 AM with local music on Radio Free Charleston, progressive rock on Radio Free Charleston International, the secrets of planning our next trip to Chicago on On The Road with Mel, The Young Ones on Word Association with Lee and Rudy and Creepypasta on  The Booster Pack.

You can listen to the entire General Substances/RFC line-up starting Saturday mornings at 9 AM on AIRadio. This is your best six-hour excuse to sit motionless and listen to the internet all morning on Saturday.

So, I Have Myasthenia Gravis…

… and I’m actually really happy about that. Let me explain.

The PopCulteer
April 22, 2016

PC 4 23 001In 2005, several months before I began writing PopCult, my eyes suddenly crossed. It scared the hell out of me and for three months I wore an eyepatch while my doctors tried to figure out what had caused it to happen. This was when I was acting as a caregiver for my mother after she suffered a massive stroke in 1997 that left her bedridden. While taking care of her, I fell into a common trap for caregivers, I failed to take care of myself.

I was not paying attention to what I ate and my weight ballooned. It was discovered that I was diabetic. The trouble with my eyes was believed to be a case of diabetic neuropathy. I went on a strict diet and dropped 90 pounds in six months. My Opthamologist, Dr. Muhib Tarakji, performed a procedure where botox was injected into the muscles that pulled my eyes inward,weakening them so that my eyes uncrossed and everything cleared up. In fact, this particular procedure was completed about two weeks before I began writing this blog. I’d alluded to it before in PopCult, but I never went into great detail.

Generally I like to keep PopCult postive, light-hearted and on-topic, but since what’s been happening with me has had some affect on PopCult and Radio Free Charleston I thought I’d get way more personal than I usually do in this space. One reason I’ve fallen behind in posting videos of late is that I’ve had to make time for doctor’s appointments and testing. I’m hoping to get back on track and start being insanely prolific again next week, but it might take a bit longer. I’ll get to that in a moment.

Continue reading

Prog-Rock Dominates RFC International

RFCI 010

RFCI logo 4 21Thursday at midnight, with replays Friday at 10 PM and Saturday morning at 11, tune in for an all-new edition of Radio Free Charleston International, as we bring you a two-hour mix of wild progressive music that no other radio station would dare to program.

Tune in to the AIRadio website, or listen to the show on this handy little radio-player widget…

It’s a prog-rock spectacular on Radio Free Charleston International this week as epic, long-form songs with pretentious lyrics and empty virtuosity–also known as THE BEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD take over for two hours of musical bombast, the type rock critics love to hate.

The playlist…

Tubes  “White Punks on Dope”

Nektar  “Burn Out My Eyes”
Dream Theater  “The Gift of Music”
Robert Fripp  “Breathless”

Tame Impala  “Let It Happen”
Floyd Acapella  “Us And Them”
Emerson Lake and Palmer  “Pirates”

Continue reading

Go To Chicago With Creepypasta Today On AIRadio

wed shows 4 20 02The magical moments continue on Appalachian Independent Radio today with a brand-new edition of The Booster Pack, and a brand new edition of On The Road with Mel. You can listen in to original, entertaining, and informative radio programs as well as the best of independent music at the AIRadio website, or on this nifty little radio-player widget…

At 10 AM, with a replay at 3 PM, tune in to The Booster Pack as Chase Henderson and Terry Bartley spend an hour talking about creepy phenomena on the interwebs, like Creepypasta and Five Nights at Freddy’s. Each week Gorillafoot Productions explores the worlds of modern nerd/cool culture on AIRadio.The show replays Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening.

At 1 PM, On The Road with Mel presents a special show, “Goin’ Back To Chicago,” as Mel is joined by her husband, your PopCulteer, to discuss, in-depth, the process of planning and procuring tickets and hotel rooms for an upcoming trip to Chicago to see a performance of the brand new play by Pulitzer and Tony Award winning playwright, Tracy Letts, at Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

In this show, we go over the ways you can order train tickets from Amtrak, book a hotel room at a Hilton property, and purchase your tickets to a play online, weeks in advance.  This is to give you and idea of how proper planning can ensure that you have a great time on your trips. On The Road with Mel can be heard Wednesday and Saturday at 1 PM and Sunday night at 9:30.  The previously-announced show about roadside attractions will be delayed to a future date.

New Music From Hybrid Soul, Larry Groce, Chuck Biel and TriElement Highlights Radio Free Charleston

RFCv4009

RFC logo 4 19 02Radio Free Charleston is back in business this week with tons of brand-new music, and plenty of gems from deep in our local music archives.

New additions this week include fresh tracks from Larry Groce, TriElement, Chuck Biel and Hybrid Soul, who open our show.

You can listen to Radio Free Charleston at Appalachian Independent Radio! Tune in for two hours of the best local and regional music every Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM at the link above or right here on this little player widget.

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. All of our General Substances programs at AIRadio will be new this week, so tune in to the hottest radio station on the web!

Our playlist:

Hybrid Soul  “Hate On Me”

Chuck Biel  “The Other Side”
TriElement  “Mind Frenzy”
Mark Wolfe  “Gypsy Rant”
Punk Jazz  “Eminence”

Continue reading

Monday Morning Art: Here There Be Giants

monsters

Those would be giant buildings I’m talking about here. This week’s art is a digital painting of the Chicago skyline, based on memory and a low-res cellphone picture taken in August, 2014, when I traveled to the Windy City to get married. Chicago is on my mind because, in less than a month, I’ll be going back for my first non-working trip of the year (not that the working trips aren’t a load of fun). Dont worry. I’ll write enough PopCult and produce enough radio to keep you folks entertained while I’m gone. Click to enlarge.

Sunday Evening Video: Bottom

ad_151844088-e1416055157473An interesting phenomenon in this post-internet world is the way that something can be hugely popular in the United Kingdom, yet still remain undeservedly obscure here in the United States.

Case in point: While American audiences fell in love with the British import comedy series, The Young Ones in the 1980s, when MTV begain airing edited episodes of the series, not many people realize that there was a pseudo-sequel series, starring Ade Edmonson (who played the punk med student, Vyvyan Basterd in The Young Ones) and the late Rik Mayall (who played the poser-poet, Rick).

In Bottom, Mayall played Richard Rich, and Edmonson played Edward Elizabeth Hitler, but basically it was just Rick and Vyvyan twenty years later, forced to live together in squalor because nobody else could stand to be around them. The series ran for three seasons on the BBC, then spawned five very successful live tours of the UK throughout the 90s and beyond. There was even a movie, Guest House Paradiso, that sort of adapted the characters into grungy hoteliers.

MV5BMTc2ODQyNzk3N15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTE4MTAwMQ@@._V1_UY268_CR9,0,182,268_AL_Aside from a brief run on BBC America more than a decade ago, squeezed in between feature-length commercial breaks, the series never had much exposure in America. The entire series is available on DVD from Amazon, but the movie never made it across the pond and the DVDs of the live shows have never had an official US release.

However, at least one of those live shows has turned up on YouTube, and we bring it to you today. If you like anarchy and comic violence, you are in for a treat. Bottom is what would have happened if The Sex Pistols had been inspired by The Three Stooges instead of The Ramones. This is a hilarious show, loaded with strong language and inappropriate behavior. Don’t watch it at work.

RFC Flashback: Episode Fifty-Six

RFC 56 "DEVObama Shirt" from RFC Archives on Myspace.

montageEpisode 56 of Radio Free Charleston, “DEVOBAMA Shirt” is back online for your enjoyment. This episode features searing hot rock from Dog Soldier, a really cool music video from The Button Flies, encore animation from Frank Panucci, and a trailer for the film “The Bride & The Grooms,” which was written and directed by Charleston native, Butch Maier. Harmonica Master, Ko, shows up in the end credits.

The namesake shirt for this show was a commemorative shirt for a concert in Akron to raise money for the guy that big business didn’t want in as much as the other guy. It had a DEVO Energy Dome in the logo. This was November, 2008, a simpler time when politics was somehow less dangerous and idiotic than it is now.

sta morn airadioStarting Saturday at 9 AM, you can stay at home and listen to AIRadio for six straight hours to hear a marathon of cool programming. Tune in to the AIRadio website, or listen to the show on this handy little radio-player widget…

The line up kicks off at 9 AM with Radio Free Charleston (the radio version, not the video one you see above), Radio Free Charleston International, On The Road with Mel, Word Association with Lee and Rudy and The Booster Pack.

You can listen to the entire General Substances/RFC line-up starting Saturday mornings at 9 AM on AIRadio. This is your best six-hour excuse to sit motionless and listen to the internet all morning on Saturday.

Seven Years Is No Big Deal

seven 001The PopCulteer
April 15, 2016

Seven years ago this week (or last week, depending on how you count it) The PopCulteer began as a regular Friday feature of The PopCult Blog. Our first column was an essay about how horrible the West Virginia Legislature was because they ended their session by killing a health bill that would have required calorie information to be listed on menus at restaurants. They did so after being openly and admittedly bribed with donuts and biscuits.

At the time, I couldn’t imagine that we would ever have a worse bunch of criminal idiots running this state into the ground. Now I have to laugh at my naiveté.

Anyway, to mark this seventh anniversary…I got nuthin’.  Zip, nada, nil, zero, not a thing.

You see, your PopCulteer has been tending to his health this week, and the news has been great, but the tests have been time-consuming.  Add to that the ever-looming stack of video still waiting to be edited from JoeLanta and Toy Fair, a flat tire that needed replacing and a weekend family gathering, and something had to give. So you’re getting a short PopCulteer.

Sorry, but it’s not like you’re paying for this.

AIRadio Tonight

radio 03You guys know the drill. This is the part of The PopCulteer where I plug all the fine programming on Appalachian Independent Radio, “The AIR,” Charleston’s finest source of intelligent, high-quality, uncensored radio programming. You can listen at the AIRadio website, or tune in on this neat little radio widget…

Tonight at 8 PM Word Association with Lee and Rudy replays our bonus show from last week as we talk about Marx Toys and The Marx Toy Museum in Moundsville. Tomorrow the Marx Toy Museum (which sadly, is closing at the end of June) will host a free Community Day featuring a “history of Marx” program and toy demonstrations of Marx playthings at the start of every hour.

At 9 PM it’s a new episode of Laugh Appalachia with Lee Hale, followed at 9:30 with an encore presentation of Word Association where Lee and Rudy talk about Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. You can listen to both episodes of Word Association, then head out to see Lee Harrah’s band, HARRAH, perform with Zeroking tonight at The Blue Parrot (see the flyer below).

10 PM sees a replay of this week’s brand-new Radio Free Charleston International, loaded with tons of new and weird music which you can read about HERE.

Continue reading

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2024 PopCult

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑