Rudy Panucci On Pop Culture
Another weekend approacheth and your PopCulteer is back in town and ready to plug away. Onced again, we present a graphic look at the weekend’s highlights. Remember, if you’re one of those people who always say that there’s nothing to do in this town, you probably need a good smacking.
Thursday
It’s yet another Wednesday with exhilerating and informative new programs on The AIR .
At 10 AM, with a replay at 7 PM, The Booster Pack tells you everything you wanted to know about conventions, but were afraid to ask. At 1 PM, On The Road With Mel explains her history of traveling and why she’s hosting her show. Listen in right here on this sweet and saucy embedded player…
This week, On The Road With Mel tells you about herself, Mel Larch. Mel gives you her history as a traveller all her life, from childhood to adulthood. You’ll find out where she’s been (so far) and hear some great travel stories, some hilarious and some touching, that led her to begin hosting her own travel series.
You can catch On The Road With Mel, The Air’s weekly travel show, every Wednesday at 1 PM, with replays Saturday and Sunday.
On The Booster Pack this week, Terry Bartley and Chase Henderson treat us to an in-depth primer all about pop culture conventions. They discuss the high points and low points of attending conventions and take on some of the more serious pitfalls that conventions-goers face. The duo discusses gaming conventions, comic book conventions and other gatherings of like-minded fans of “outsider” genre (most of which are completely mainstream now).
The Booster Pack can be heard Wednesdays at 10 AM and 7 PM, with replays on Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening.
Reaction to last week’s presentation of a vintage 1990 episode of RFC was so positive that this week Radio Free Charleston and Radio Free Charleston International team up to transport you back more than 26 years to our four-hour local extravaganza. It was early in January, 1990, right after RFC had been the subject of a profile in the Charleston Gazette written by Michael Lipton that I decided to devote all four hours of the show that was then broadcast on 96.1 FM, to local artists. Truth be told, the show actually ran almost five hours. Station management wasn’t listening to my show (nobody at the station ever did) so I could run long and have the DJ that followed me make up the time.
Part one runs on The AIR at 10 AM and 10 PM Tuesday. You can listen on the website, or just hit “play” on this cool little radio-player time machine…
You will hear me cracking jokes and making remarks about the piece Michal wrote. A lot of folks thought that I was genuinely angry, when in fact I was thrilled with the press and was just milking it for laughs. So please, do not think that I was really upset with Michael Lipton. He’s always been great to me and I’ve always respected him. I was just only joking, really!
On RFC and RFC International this week, with a minimum amount of interruptions, we’re going to recreate that episode. I will leave in some commercials, and I might change the running order or leave out a few songs, but otherwise this is what the people heard between 2 AM and 6 AM on January 7, 1990. These recordings are taken from an off-air recording of the original broadcast, so there may be some loss of sound quality.
This is a remastered recording of the Radio Free Charleston local extravaganza that was originally broadcast January 7, 1990. Please realize that all the advertisements, phone numbers, addresses and topical references have all expired. I left a few of them simply to amuse and entertain you.
This week’s show is just part one of our twenty-six-year-old rerun. Come back Thursday at midnight for part two on Radio Free Charleston International!
Today’s playlist:
Stark Raven “Into The Fire”
They Might Be Giants “Birdhouse of your Soul”
(This is considered local enough because they’ve been on Mountain Stage)
Brian Diller “Mr. Auctioneer”
Brian Diller and the Ride “Waking Up”
Brian Diller and the Ride “Shoe Fits”
Three Bodies “The Drive”
Three Bodies “My Friend”
Three Bodies “Title Still Unknown”
This week I dug back into the files for a self-portrait I did about seven years ago when I was heavier and hairier. I scribbled this out in charcoal while looking up at a mirror, then scanned it into the computer and refined it a bit. Here it is for your perusal. Click to enlarge.
Today, for our 1,001st consecutive day with a post here in PopCult, we’re going to celebrate Swing Music! for NO REASON, other than I like it. In the above video, you get to see a BBC documentary about the history of Swing Music. It’s filled with tons of useful information, and you should probably take notes because there’s going to be a test on it later.
At 4 PM on The AIR, it’s a special rebroadcast of the two-part Radio Free Charleston International Swing Music Special. That’s FOUR HOURS of hot swing music from the last 80 years, all jammed together in one big, jitterbuggy mess. You can try to relax and listen, but you know you’ll be up and dancing and sweaty in no time.
You can listen to The AIR at their website, or on this nifty little virtual RCA radio…
In these four hours you can expect an exciting and totally non-chronological presentation of the most jumpin’ music you’ll ever hear. Expect eveything from Benny Goodman to Brian Setzer, Ella Fitzgerald to The Squirrel Nut Zippers, Glenn Miller to Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and more. I’m going to bring you music from Louis Prima, Royal Crown Revue, Erskine Hawkins, Kid Creole and The Coconuts, Cherry Poppin’ Daddies…I could go on all day.
We’ll even bring you Swing turns from artists like The Clash, Emerson Lake and Palmer, David Lee Roth, Eartha Kitt, Tom Jones, and Oingo Boingo. You will hear old favorites and brand new stuff that’ll blow your socks off!
You can see the playlist for the first two hours HERE and the second two hours HERE. Reaction to these two shows has been so enthusiastic that your PopCulteer will start hosting a weekly one-hour Swing show beginning in July on The AIR.
This week as we mark 1000 consecutive days with a post here in PopCult, we are going to go back three years to bring you Radio Free Charleston 184, “Sherlock Shirt.” This show was shot all over the city of Charleston and featured the RFC debuts of both The Carpenter Ants and Time and Distance. Plus we had a song from the late Joseph Hale (in a music video by Murfmeef) and a preview of the Alban Arts Center production of Edward Albee’s “A Delicate Balance” as well as then-brand new animation from Frank Panucci.
It’s amazing how thngs have changed since this time, just three short years ago. The Carpenter Ants have been to Russia and Back. Time and Distance traveled to Britain and Europe. We lost Joseph. I took PopCult daily and RFC returned to its radio roots (though the video show will be back soon).
Oh, and your PopCulteer got married and was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis. It just goes to show, time flies when you’re having fun. Original production notes are HERE.
It’s Friday afternoon and that means it’s time to tell you about the fine weekend programming on The AIR, Charleston’s niftiest source of spellbinding and magical original 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, Rudy Panucci lobs Lee Harrah a softball and the two spend 30 minutes discussing M*A*S*H, the books, the movie and the television show. You will hear the two talk about such greats as Robert Altman, Larry Gelbart, Alan Alda, Gary Burghoff, Jamie Farr and more. Lee is a huge fan of the television show and the movie, and Rudy remembers watching the TV show growing up, so this is a half-hour of genuine affection and hero-worship for an iconic property.
At 9 PM we might just get a new episode of Laugh Appalachia with Lee Hale. At 9:30 listen to an encore presentation of last week’s Word Association where Lee and Rudy spend thirty minutes .talking about “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. 10 PM sees a replay of this week’s brand-new Radio Free Charleston International, which is part two of our incredible ultra-mixtape of the best Swing Music of all time. You can read the whole playlist HERE. Sunday afternoon at 4 PM you can hear both parts of Radio Free Charleston International’s two-part Swing Music epic. That’s FOUR HOURS of hot Swing to get your blood pumping.
The PopCulteer
May 13, 2016
Tomorrow marks a little personal milestone for me with this blog. Back in August, 2013, following the death of my uncle for whom I was serving as caregiver and medical power of attorney, I decided that I would try to post at least one item in PopCult every day for as long as possible. Tomorrow will mark 1000 consecutive days with at least one PopCult post every day. Even with my output somewhat diminished by some recent medical issues, I will easily make it to the 1000 days posting mark. In fact the truth is, PopCult is already written through next Thursday. I don’t normally write PopCult this far in advance but I will be hopping a train tonight for my first non-working trip of the year. I’ll tell you about it when I get back.
I didn’t really have any mandate to do this. It was just something I wanted to see if I could do. I’ve seen many blogs come and go and I’ve watched as they’ve started out strong and then petered out going days, then weeks, then years without an update. Finally you go to see what’s new and find out the most recent post was from 2011.
I didn’t want that to happen with PopCult because to be honest, I really have a lot of fun writing this blog. Lately, with all the new programs I’m producing for The AIR, it’s been a really handy place to drop in my playlists, show descriptions, and that nifty little embedded player.
However, I do want to get back into the thick of things with the PopCult Toybox and the PopCult Bookshelf very soon. That’s more a case of me not having enough time to edit Toy Fair video or read many books or comics, than not having time to write. That will change soon.
Thursday 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 the second of two entire shows dedicated to SWING MUSIC!
Tune in to the AIRadio website, or listen to the show on this handy little radio-player widget…
Just like last week’s show, you can expect an exciting and totally non-chronological presentation of the most jumpin’ music you’ll ever hear. Expect eveything from Benny Goodman to Brian Setzer, Lionel Hampton to The Squirrel Nut Zippers, GCab Calloway to The Atomic Fireballs and more. I get to bring you music from Louis Prima, Royal Crown Revue, Erskine Hawkins, Fletcher Henderson, Cherry Poppin’ Daddies…I could go on all day.
You will hear old favorites and brand new stuff that’ll blow your socks off! Our background music this week is “Let’s Dance” by Benny Goodman and “St. Louis Blues” by The Dorsey Brothers.
I had an absolute blast putting these two special Swing-themed episodes of RFC International together and I think you’ll get a jolt out of how much fun this music can be. It all kicks off at midnight, Thursday, with a replay Friday at 10 PM and Saturday at 11 AM, on The AIR. All times listed are Eastern Daylight Time. This Sunday at 4 PM you can tune in for a special encore presentation of both of our Swing specials, back-to-back, giving you four solid hours of hot Swing music.
Special Thanks once again to Mitch O’Connell for this week’s art.
Raymond Scott “Powerhouse”
Royal Crown Revue “Zip Gun Bop”
Cab Calloway “Minnie The Moocher”
Lionel Hampton “Hamp’s Boogie”
Gene Krupa “Drumboogie”
Joe Jackson’s Jumpin’ Jive “Jack You Dead”
As usual, there are tons of cool things to do in and around Charleston this weekend. Take a gander at this quick graphic round-up.
Thursday
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