Month: June 2016 (Page 3 of 4)

Former WWE Champion, Mark Henry, turns 45 today, and to commemorate this, we’re bringing you what your PopCulteer considers to be one of the greatest moments in the history of television. In 1999, Mark henry was employing his “Sexual Chocolate” gimmick in the then WWF, and was attempting to romance all the women on the roster. He wound up with nearly-octonagarian wrestling legend, Mae Young, who then claimed that he had gotten her pregnant.

In February, 2000, Mae Young went into labor during an episode of Monday Night RAW, and had to deliver the baby backstage. The ambulance attendant was played by then-WWF writer, Tommy Blancha, who would go on to co-create Metalocalypse, and when the baby was finally born, it was nothing more than a hand.

Sixteen years later I still crack up when I think about this supreme act of absurd non-sequitry that left millions of fans worldwide asking, “What the hell did I just see?” Making this spectacular act even more Dada was the fact that the entire storyline was rarely ever mentioned again. However, after almost everybody had forgotten about the whole handbaby saga, in June, 2012, as part of the 1000th episode of RAW, the following bit happened…

Happy Birthday, Mark Henry. In this writer’s mind, your handbaby will rank up there with the Moon Landing and the Assassination of JFK as one of the most memorable moments in the history of television.

This week we’re flashing back to something that isn’t really Radio Free Charlston. In advance of FestivAll next week, we bring you a two-part report from Radio Free Charleston Big Shot, Melanie Larch. This was our first video of Charleston becoming a work of art and you’ll find our memories compacted into a nice, neat little ten-minute video package. We had a blast at FestivAll that year, and I had a blast not being the video guy (except for a few shots). Mel even composed and performed an original tune in honor of the FestivALL Catfish.

Who knew that I would eventually go on to produce several hours of FestivAll videos over the next few years? It all happens again next weekend, so run out and make sure that you have your special FestivAll lederhosen and space helemts ready!

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The PopCulteer
June 10, 2016

Your PopCulteer has been a travelin’ fool for the last week, and is a bit too physically drained to write much this week. Luckily for you, those travels included a trip to Wonderfest USA, the annual gathering of master model-builders held in Louisville last weekend, so today you’re going to get a taste of the model-building competition and a quick glimpse of the dealer’s rooms.

These photos will be presented without captions, but next Wednesday you can expect to see way the heck more pictures from Wonderfest, and I promise that I will take the time to tell you what you’re looking at.

Our first image, seen above, is a model of Man-Thing, Marvel Comics’ swamp monster. The last image is your PopCulteer with artist extraordinaire, William Stout. In between, it’s all eye candy. Enjoy!

The Models

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It’s another weekend jam-packed with all sorts of artistic and musical diversions. We’re casting the net wider than usual this week, so sit back and take a gander at this graphic representation of the cool stuff that you can do this weekend in and around the Charleston area.

Thursday

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Many of the programs on The AIR this week will still be in rerun mode while we gear up for a ton of surprises on our plucky little internet radio station starting July 1.  Today at 10 AM and 7 PM, The Booster Pack tells you all about Harry Potter.  At 1 PM, On The Road With Mel is our encore of a show filled with intimate and personal details about choosing the proper luggage for your trip.

You can listen in at The AIR’s website or on this neato keen little embedded radio player

Our bonus to our listeners for filling today’s programming schedule with repeats is that, following The Booster Pack at 11 AM, we will replay the episode of That Conversation where Patrick Felton talks with The Booster Pack’s own Chase Henderson. That’s followed by a special episode of Acoustic Air featuring Aaron Fisher and Ghost Fleet. Following On The Road with Mel, you will be treated to another mini-marathon of That Conversation.

Beginning July 1, a revolution will happen on The AIR as a bevy, a bushel, and a veritable onslaught of brand new programs begin running to bring you an alternative to the staid and boring radio to which you are accustomed. Keep listening. You know you can’t live without The AIR!

Each week you can listen to Radio Free Charleston on The AIR. Just tune in for 120 minutes of the best local and regional music every Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM at the link or right up there on that little player embedded at the top of this post.This week we are still in rerun mode so that your PopCulteer can head North for his niece’s high school graduation. But we’re bringing you a killer show from just a few weeks ago, plus we have a special bonus for you.

Radio Free Charleston’s 10 AM morning airing will be followed immediately by a rebroadcast of the episode of Patrick Felton’s That Conversation where he talks to yours truly, the host of RFC, Rudy Panucci. If you are one of our listeners who tunes in to the 10 PM replay of RFC, tonight only the regular Empty Glass programming will be bumped for a special encore episode of On The Road with Mel, with Rudy guesting, at 8 PM, and that’s followed by a quick blast of homegrown Ska madness by 69 Fingers, and then another replay of Rudy’s appearance on That Conversation, starting around 8:33 PM.

We will be jumbling things up and playing all sorts of mindgames on The AIR as we approach our big relaunch on July 1, so you should probably just tune in and leave it parked there to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Our Playlist…

The Laser Beams  “The Ballad of Patrick Morrissey”

Under Surveillance  “Modern World”
Strawfyssh  “Netted Fish”
Trielement  “Accidental Chaos”
Hybrid Soul Project “Stay”
Cherry Poppin’ Daddies  “Ain’t That A Kick In the Head”

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Today’s art is a digital painting based on the iconic photo by Neil Leifer of Muhammed Ali standing, victorious, over a vanquished Sonny Listen after the knockout punch that ended their second fight in 1965.  Rather than simply running the photo through a filter, this digital painting was drawn and painted from scratch, using the photo as its inspiration.

We lost Ali Friday night, and it was no surprise. He had been fighting the effects of Parkinson’s Syndrome–and handling it with grace and dignity–for well over thirty years. Once his diagnosis became public, he dedicated his efforts to raising awareness of Parkinson’s and raising funds for research and treatment centers.

This was after he rose to fame as one of the greatest boxers of all time, a man who fought for his convictions to not participate in the war in Vietnam, a civil rights icon and a hero to millions. The cruelty of this disease that eventually robbed the greatest talker of the 20th century of his voice is something our culture has been mourning since in the mid-1980s. I grew up watching Ali fight, and talk, and it’s hard to convey to people who were not around then how important it was to the evolution of this nation to have a black man who millions of white kids considered to be a hero.

I was one of those white kids, and I had to do something to pay tribute to one of my heroes. Click the image to enlarge.

Tonight, we’re going to drop some video non-sequitors on you, just for the fun of it. First up, Andy Warhol appearing on WWE Television…

Next, John and Yoko on the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon, with spam floating across the image…

More weirdness below the jump…

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I can’t believe that I had the energy to do THREE HOURS of FestivAll coverage in 2011, but the proof is up there in that playlist video. It’s a special compilation of all eight FestivALL 2011 episodes of Radio Free Charleston. Pop some popcorn, turn off you phones and maybe keep a unrinal near the computer as you spend three hours of you life staring at your monitor so you can relive FestivALL 2011! We are just a few short weeks away from FestivAll 2016.

The PopCulteer
June 03, 2016

June marks the annual  “MG Awareness Month,” a nationwide movement created by the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America, Inc. (MGFA) to raise awareness of the often misunderstood and under-diagnosed disease, Myasthenia Gravis (MG). MG strikes people of all ages, races, and genders and, while treatments are available to improve muscle strength, there is no known cure.

As I wrote a few weeks ago I was diagnosed with MG in April. I am extraordinarily lucky because my case was rather a mild one. I’d managed to do a pretty good job of hiding the virtual paralysis of my left hand for more than six years, and I am responding well to treatment. I have regained some of my hand functions and I’m progressing at a decent pace.

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