Month: May 2016 (Page 4 of 5)

It’s yet another Wednesday with exciting new programs on The AIR .  At 10 AM, with a replay at 7 PM, The Booster Pack takes on Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.  At 1 PM, On The Road With Mel tells you everything you wanted to know about luggage but were afraid to ask. Listen in right here on this swell embedded player…

This week, On The Road With Mel presents a detailed primer on how to pick out the luggage you use while traveling.  Mel Larch runs the gamut, telling you about everything from brown bagging it to acquiring a high tech polycarbonate eight wheeled rolling hardcase.  If you’re in the market for a new set of luggage, you need to listen to this show first.

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 discuss in-depth the recent underachiving superhero epic Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice and why neither of them chose to see it. It’s an entertaining hour as the boys dissect the grim and gritty DC cinematic universe and their distaste for the work of BVS director, Zack Snyder.  The Booster Pack can be heard Wednesdays at 10 AM and 7 PM, with replays on Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening.

RFCv4011

It’s a throwback show this week on Radio Free Charleston on The AIR, as we time travel 26 years into the past to bring you a (mostly) unedited aircheck of an actual original Radio Free Charleston over-the-air broadcast from March, 1990.

You can hear it Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM (EDT) at the AIRadio website or right here in this cool widgetry-type doohicky…

I have posted large chunks of this broadcast in the past, but until now I was forced to cut out all of the non-local content due to having a limited internet broadcast license. Now, with The AIR, we can bring you almost half of an original RFC show. The reason we can’t bring you the entire show is two-fold. First, the original show was four hours long. Our current show is two hours. Second, recent changes in the radio licensing rules will not allow us to play an entire album by one artist, so we still can’t bring you the feature album (you will hear it mentioned, though, and it was a good one).

What you will get to hear is a little more than half of the original show. I have excised the non-entertaining commercials, and a couple of songs for time, but you will get the original Radio Free Charleston experience, complete with live guests in the studio (after 2 AM) and live call-ins, plus our spur-of-the-moment requests and a mix of alternative and punk music with the then-best of the local music scene. You will hear what it was like listening to RFC back in 1990, really late on a Saturday night, starting at 2 AM and running a bit past 4 AM. You will notice that the host runs out of steam a bit as the show progresses. This was all done live on the air.

In the studio we have Gary Price, Tommy Medvick and John Radcliff, of The Swivels. This is pretty bittersweet, since Gary and Tommy are no longer with us, but it is wonderful to hear them at their peak of goofiness, having fun and cutting up with me playing the role of the exasperated host. This was also the show where we rebroadcast the song that we’d recorded live over the phone from Key West the previous Thursday. Kris Cormany and Brian Young called into the station from a pay phone and serenaded us with the song “Broken Vase” live at 11:35 PM. On this show we replayed the tune and had a phone call from Brian to tell us what all happened that night after we went off the air.

This show also featured the debut of new RFC jingles by my buddy, Bridget, who you may know now as Bridget Lancaster, the newly-minted co-host of America’s Test Kitchen on PBS. Bridget came into the radio studio one night and sang several jingles and we goofed around and did some improv on a bunch of little comedy bits that you will hear sprinkled thoughout the broadcast.

For this week, RFC volume 4 is suspending our all-local format so we can bring you a taste of the excitement of RFC volume 1. This was the show that marked the most fun period of my life…until now, when I get to recreate this feeling with Radio Free Charleston and Radio Free Charleston International and bring my old radio shows into the internet age to share with my PopCult audience.

Radio Free Charleston airs Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM with replays on Saturday. Stay tuned because more replays and exciting new programs are coming soon to The AIR.

The playlist…

Rudy Panucci  “The WVNS Disclaimer”
Charleston Playhouse Quartet  “Radio Free Charleston Theme”
John Lennon “Cold Turkey”

Three Bodies  “Broken Vase”
Lost Luggage  “Anything You Like”
Beckner, Price and Panucci  “Got Drunk, Got Married, Got Screwed”
Electronic Moog Orchestra  “Cantina Band (from Star Wars)”

Continue reading

This week we’re going back to the Twirly Whirly Burly-Q  show at the Empty Glass a couple of weeks back for an impressionistic look at Hazel Honeysuckle. It’s fun painting pictures of beautiful women, even when you do it badly. Click to enlarge.

We didn’t do a Radio Free Charleston April Fool’s show this year (in fact, we’re in the middle of a four-month hiatus from the RFC video show due to my diagnosis of myasthenia gravis, but you can still tune in for our radio program at AIRadio), but five years ago, BOY did we do a dozzy of one. Presented again for your amusement, here is our April Fool’s show from 2011, which at the time was our most expensive production. My proudest achievment from this show is that, five years later, there are still prominent figures in the Charleston music scene who do not get the jokes. Original fake production notes are HERE

.

This week we go back almost exactly five years to an episode of Radio Free Charleston featuring host segments shot at The East End Yard Sale (which coincidentally is happening today) and music from the then-current Charleston Light Opera Guild show (and that’s a reminder that you can go see “Spamalot” at the Charleston Civic Center Little Theater starting this weekend). This edition of the show does indeed feature a song from The Charleston Light Opera Guild, a jazz tune from C2J2, animation from Frank Panucci, and a couple of surprises.

Our first musical number this week was “Toledo Surprise,” from the Charleston Light Opera Guild peoduction of The Drowsy Chaperone. We were invited to bring our cameras in to a dress rehearsal of the show and had a ton of fun recording this tune. Our animation this time was “Changes,” the 47th piece of DEVO Energy Dome animation by Frank Panucci that we’ve featured on RFC. Rounding out the show this week was C2J2, a jazz quartet consisting of four veteran maestros, Chris Mickel, Jamie Skeen, Chris Hudson and Josh Cannon.

You can read the full production notes HERE.

And if you’re reading this Saturday morning, and not out hitting up your local comic shop for Free Comic Book Day, don’t forget that you can listen to the current week’s RFC radio programs on The AIR, right on this nifty little widget…

It’s Friday afternoon and time to warn you in advance about the fine weekend programming on Appalachian Independent Radio, “The AIR,” Charleston’s finest source of mutated and inspiring 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, we bring you an emotional tribute to Roddy Piper.  The wrestling icon and action hero passed away last year and Lee Harrah’s band, HARRAH, has recorded a tribute song, “Pay The Piper.”

While editing the music video for “Pay The Piper,” Rudy surprised Lee by suddenly starting to record Word Association and making Roddy Piper the topic.  You will get to hear Lee Harrah in the throes of hero worship as he talks about how the man inspired him and what their interaction was like when they met face to face.  This is an extremely memorable episode of Word Association.

And speaking of the “Pay The Piper” video, here it is for your viewing enjoyment

HARRAH "Pay The Piper" from Rudy Panucci on Vimeo.

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 Word Association where Lee and Rudy spend thirty minutes discuss the classic British comedy, The Young Ones. 10 PM sees a replay of this week’s brand-new Radio Free Charleston International, which is part one of our incredible ultra-mixtape of the best Swing Music of all time.  You can read the whole playlist HERE.

Continue reading

The PopCulteer
May 6, 2016

Saturday May 7 is the fifteenth annual Free Comic Book Day. This is the day once a year (usually the Saturday of a big comic book movie opening weekend) when comic book stores provide free comic books for the masses. Usually you get to pick at least a couple of comics from the huge assortment, and some comic shops don’t even require you to buy anything else.

These are special comics prepared by all of the major and many of the minor publishers, designed to attract and entice new readers and lapsed readers into the awesome comic book store environment. Most stores turn it into a big day long party, with special events, attractions, cosplayers, and deals on other comic books.

This year, your PopCulteer and his wife plan to hit the road and take in Free Comic Book Day out of town, first at Hillbilly Toy Chest, 878 East Main Street in Milton, WV and then, at the Superhero Creamery at their two locations: 15th Street in Ashland, KY and the Hobby Lobby Plaza in Russell, KY.

We plan to enjoy taking a road trip, gathering our free comics, and otherwise enjoying the maddening crowd.

We hear that Books A Million is also participating in Free Comic Book Day, which I think may be the first time a major chain has played a part in what is usually an independent store event. If there’s time, we might pop by their Huntington Mall location to see how they’re handling it the great comic book giveaway.

Continue reading

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 first 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…

A little-known fact about your PopCulteer (and RFC host) is that I love Swing Music. I love the old stuff, the new stuff and everything that swings in between. I was raised on Sinatra and got hit with the Swing bug once again early in my college years when Joe Jackson releasd his Jumpin’ Jive album. I was tickled to death when the Swing Revival hit about twenty years ago and I was able to share new Swing music with my father before he passed away.

This week and next 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! Our background music this week is “Stardust” by Artie Shaw.

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 Appalachian Independent Radio. All times listed are Eastern Daylight Time.

Special Thanks once again to Mitch O’Connell for this week’s art.

Tune in to hear the first of our two shows that ACTUALLY MEAN A THING!

Our playlist…

Joe Jackson  “It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Aint Got That Swing”

Glen Gray  “Casa Loma Stomp”
Louis Prima  “Buona Sera”
Jools Holland & Kt Tunstall “Night & Day”
Royal Crown Revue  “The Rise And Fall Of The Great Mondello”
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy  “Hey Now, Hey Now”

Continue reading

Despite the sudden infestation of political ralies disrupting traffic all over town today, there’s still cool stuff to do all weekend long, including music, Mother’s Day parties and even Pythonesque theatrical extravaganzas. Just take a gander at this week’s collection of show graphics…

Thursday

Continue reading

Today’s programming on Appalachian Independent Radio is brought to you by the letter “A.” On The Road With Mel welcomes a special guest and looks back at a recent trip to Atlanta.  The Booster Pack tells you everything you need to know about anime.

At 1 PM, On The Road with Mel is invaded by Word Association With Lee and Rudy this week.  By way of explanation, Lee Harrah, the co-star of AI Radio’s Word Association With Lee and Rudy joined Mel Larch and her husband, Rudy Panucci, the author of the PopCult blog and the other star of Word Association With Lee and Rudy, on a trip to Atlanta, Georgia to attend Joelanta and the Great Atlanta Toy Convention and to visit shooting locations for the hit AMC series, The Walking Dead.

In this episode of On The Road With Mel, Lee and Rudy have a roundtable discussion with Mel to discuss how much fun they had on this trip. Luigi even tags along to make sure they don’t go on too long.

You can hear a new episode of On The Road With Mel every Wednesday at 1 PM on AIRadio, with replays Saturday at 1 PM and Sunday night at 9:30 PM.

Today on a new episode of The Booster Pack, Chase Henderson and Terry Bartley are joined by Susie Sketchman to talk about the history and different genres within anime.

Japanese animation has been a huge influence on pop culture in America since it went from being a cult item in the 1960’s and 70’s to being a major cultural phenomenon when Pokemon exploded twenty years ago.  Chase, Terry, and Susie talk about anime from the perspective of people who grew up with it their whole lives.

Debuting at 10 AM, with a replay at its new time of 7 PM, you can tune in to The Booster Pack. Each week Gorillafoot Productions explores the worlds of modern nerd/cool culture on AIRadio.The show replays Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening.