Month: April 2016 (Page 4 of 4)

Well, it seems we have a new look here at PopCult. It’s fallout from last year’s merger of the Charleston Gazette and Daily Mail, and to be honest, after having pretty much the same layout for the past almost-eleven years, it’s nice to have a change. Over the next few days we’ll look into changing that header photo to better reflect the content of PopCult, and we’ll be trying out our roomier layout with wider video and graphics.

Our archives will look funny now, with the layout all wonked-out, and it appears we’ve lost the ability to caption sidebar photos, but moving forward we’ll make this blog look cooler than ever. Monday Morning Art and Radio Free Charleston will be bigger than ever!

In the meantime,just keep looking at the Hypno Wheel and everything will be fine.

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Radio Free Charleston returns with yet another two-hour slab of grade-A local and regional music, including brand-new music, and gems from deep in our archives.You can listen to Radio Free Charleston at Appalachian Independent Radio!

Tune in for 120 minutes of the best local and regional music on the web or air every Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM at the link above or right here on this little player widget.

We kick off the show with a tune by Trielement, a band you can hear live from The Empty Glass this coming Sunday night on AIRadio, and we wrap up the show with a lullaby from Garagecow Ensemble.

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 progames at AIRadio will be new this week, so tune in to the hottest radio station on the web!

The Playlist

Trielement  “Lemonade”

Possum Kingdom Ramblers “Land of the Lost”
Uncle Eddie and Robin “All Naked Women”
Stephen Beckner “Olive or Twist”
Pepper Fandango “Bad Scene”

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This week, with Spring trying to break through, I found myself wondering what kind of paintings might have ensued had Vincent Van Gogh ever made it to the Arctic Tundra. This digital painting was as close as I could get. click to enlarge.

The PopCult Toybox

Jeff Joslin and Joey Tutor host a panel that looks at the history of cllecting Big Jim action figures and as a bonus, they make an exciting announcement about the future of Big Jim and his return to the world of toys.This was one of the most newsworthy panels at JoeLanta and The Great Atlanta Toy Convention.

Joslin has secured the trademark to Big Jim and is planning to revive this legendary toy line as a 12″ action figure. In this panel Jeff and Joey cover the history of Big Jim, talk about how, unknown to most US collectors the line continued in Europe ten years longer than it did in the United States with loads of great spy and space toys, and discuss their plans to revive the action figure line.

Big Jim was Mattel’s answer to GI Joe, but with a couple of twists: Originally, he was pitched to kids as an athlete, not a soldier or adventurer; he was also only 9.5 inches tall, which made him incompatible with the then-dominant 12″ action figure size.

After a couple of years, Big Jim started having more of an adventure theme to his accessories and playsets, with his “Rescue Rig” being one of the most impressive toys of the 1970s. In the mid-70s, in response to the success of MEGO’s “World’s Greatest Superheroes” line, Big Jim was reintroduced as “Big Jim’s P.A.C.K.” with more of a superhero/sci fi/spy vibe. By the late 70s Big Jim was discontinued in the United States, but the line kept going in Europe, and collectors over there were treated to some of the coolest, most-imaginative toys in the line, before Mattel finally pulled the plpug worldwide in the 1980s.

It’s really cool to see Big Jim finally get some recognition, and also a long-overdue welcome to the 1/6 scale world. Late-breaking news is that the Big Jim revival may not be able to happen due to developing trademark concerns. Keep up with the latest happenings in the world of Big Jim at the new Facebook page.

You may think it odd that we’re bringing you a Christmas-themed edition of Radio Free Charleston in April, but this December, 2012, episode of RFC features host segments shot at The Marx Toy Museum, which we learned earlier this week will be closing their doors for good on June 30, so we wanted to give you another look at one of the coolest places in West Virginia.

This show features music from the Charleston Gay Mens Chorale, a duet from Lee Harrah and Pepper Fandango, a special “double trio” from the cast of “MARY: A Rock Opera,” and Prank Monkey. Also in this episode, we have the Ghost of Animation Past, a holiday message from Razor Sharp Studios and Burt Flemming, and a quick musical tour of The Marx Toy Museum in Moundsville, WV.

Enjoy the show and maybe make some time to go visit the museum before they close. You’ll remember it for the rest of your life.

The first thing you need to know is that you can tune in to all the AIRadio programming right in this handy widget…

You can expect loads of fantastic programming tonight on Appalachian Independent Radio. Kicking things off at 8 PM it’s a brand-new episode of Word Association with Lee and Rudy. This week the boys discuss the early days of cable television, when the Superstations arose and major cable networks had to share time on the same satellite transponders. You may even hear Rudy sing the original BET jingle while Lee Harrah explains how he discovered hockey.

Then at 9 PM it’s the first episode of Laugh Appalachia with Lee Hale. This is a new 30-minute comedy talk show with a convenient twist. I’ll let Lee tell you about it, ” We are creating a show that will be for adults, about adult-ish things, but you’ll be able to listen to the show over your speakers at work if you so please, without the risk of a coworker overhearing the foul language or content that can cause issues.  We’ll be watching the f-bombs, among countless other words, so you don’t have to worry about a boss or client walking in and being judgy.  Instead, you’ll be able to thoroughly enjoy this show, and even share it with your friends and coworkers.” Laugh Appalachia will run Fridays at 9 AM and 9 PM on AIRadio.

Stick around, because at 9:30 PM we will present a special replay of the episo0de of Word Association with Lee and Rudy that looks at the late, lamented Lemmy. This has been one of our most-requested shows to replay because of Lee Harrah’s personal story about hanging out with the legendary punk/metal god.

At 10 PM you can listen to a replay of this week’s Radio Free Charleston International. Also remember that you can listen to the entire General Substances/RFC line-up starting Saturday mornings at 9 AM. Starting this week you can also hear a replay of Booster Pack at 2 PM, giving you a six-hour excuse to sit motionless and listen to the internet all morning on Saturday.

The PopCulteer
April 1, 2016

One of my favorite attractions in West Virginia will be closing on June 30.  The Marx Toy Museum in Moundsville, West Virginia, which opens today after their winter hiatus, will close its doors for good at the end of June.

For fifteen years, the storefront on 2nd Street in Moundsville that houses the Marx toy collection of Francis Turner has thrilled and delighted visitors from all around the globe.

Unfortunately, there have not been enough of those visitors to sustain operations at their current facility.  The sad fact is that we are talking about a toy company that went out of business more than three decades ago.  Kids who grew up playing with those toys are an aging population whose nostalgia can’t draw them to the museum often enough to keep it going.

Francis Turner, the Marx Toy Museum Curator

Sadly, millennials have no connection to the Marx Toys brand and therefore are not attracted to what is one of the coolest museums in northern West Virginia.

Francis Turner started collecting Marx toys many years ago and devised the museum as way to share his collection with the public. A few years later, one of the sons of Louis Marx visited and aided Turner in attaining 501(c)3 non-profit status. A board of directors was chosen and goals for the growth of the museum and its financial support were drawn up.

The board has been meeting repeatedly over the winter and came to the sad conclusion that the best way to continue their mission to preserve the history and cultural significance of the Louis Marx toy company required closing the physical museum which, due to ever-increasing costs, had become a financial burden.

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